The alpaca sweater guy

This morning at the coffee shop I stopped at the table of a complete stranger to compliment him on his sweater. It was cream colored with a design in brown of stylized llama-type animals. He thanked me and said the animals in the design were alpacas, and that it was made from alpaca wool (hair?). His in-laws had brought it back from Peru.

I hope he loves it. The tensile strength of alpaca hair is 300% more than sheep wool, it will never pill or ball or wear thin. There are 3.5 million alpaca in Peru and the shades of hair naturally come in 22 colors, but it is easily dyed. There are numerous websites selling sweaters and garments--and they look quite reasonable to me, considering their beautify and wear-worthiness. The image and this information is from Hallet Handknits of California.

Chicken, Alaska and Lakeside, Ohio have wireless

Want to know if the coffee shop will have a wireless connection so you can check your e-mail with your latte? Check this site for free wi-fi by state. Here's Ohio. I noticed the link when checking my site meter. I see lots of libraries NOT listed.

And although this sounds obvious--check before you go. Chicken Outpost, but don't hold me to this. I don't know how old the listing is and there is no link on the site.

Swaddled waddle

A young woman I see from time to time was at the next table. Usually she wears a skirt and sweater--don't know where she works. But this week--maybe the holiday--she was wearing jeans. Oh my. It made my eyes hurt.

New Year's Day

Neither Panera's nor Caribou were open early today, so I watched the sun come up at the Lane Ave. Starbucks using my new x-mas gift card from my son. The reason we can see a sunrise here is the university farm on the west side of the OSU campus. the city has grown up around it. I hope it always stays--it helps cleanse the air and the human spirit.