Empty Nest Syndrome....

I left for work yesterday morning at 7:30 AM, peeking in the birdie nest to say hi to mom and babies. They were so funny, all four or five of them spilling out of the nest because it was too small. When I came home for lunch 4-1/2 hours later, I peeked into the nest....

and got really sad! Totally empty! I missed their flight, was hoping it would happen on a weekend when I could see it. I'm still scared they might have been raided by a neighborhood cat that's been loitering on our property; we have no cats, only dogs--therefore, any cat hanging around is doing so for nefarious purposes, I'm thinking. The good news is there is NO SIGN of a struggle, there are no feathers laying around. But I would love to see the little ones flying!

This is too symbolic of what I'm going through right now! Youngest one just graduating high school, oldest leaving for the military in 11 days! Waaaaah.
To distract myself, I must knit! I really like having some small projects to work on so I can get a sense of completion every so often--when I work on large projects, the end result of satisfaction is too far away! So, while I work like a mad fiend on my ripple, I will also crank out smaller things. Have never made a sock before, though I have the yarn and plenty of patterns, and very tiny dpn's I inherited from my Gramma. Maybe I should start that--although it may not be the mindless quick-knit that I feel I need at this point. Maybe just another ballband washcloth, with extra pattern repeats to make it bigger.....;-]