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A View From the Field |
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March, 2006
March 30 Well, it's time to do this and finish off the evening.
I actually got up rather early this morning, but I diddled around, apparently, and it was after noon before I started doing anything. First off was the cat pans, which did need changing. Then I collected up the trash - it ended up being 4 bags, and I missed a few things - and a fast trip to the post office to mail a bill and tell Clyde I wouldn't be back today. I dropped off the trash and stopped at the Copper Harbor Mercantile for a sub for tomorrow and a pasty for tonight. Adam drove by as I was coming out, so we drove home together.
That turned into a two hour talk-fest, as it usually does. However, he is going to replace my pond pump with a more reasonable one and take the humungous monster off my hands, which is good.
The news on the basement project is not good - over $50k - and then I got an email from Mac this evening to say he had bought the tractor - $12.5k to be split between the three of us. Oh, this is going to be an expensive year, for sure! I didn't give Adam a definite "yes", but I really don't see what else I can do. To put all that stuff in the basement as it is would be about as useful as selling it all, and there are things in there I want and want to be able to get at. I will think it over and talk to Terry about it, but knowing me, I'll probably do it.
After Adam left, I diddled around a bit more, but the car is pretty much packed, I think. I am taking five file boxes, only one and a half full, and six crates, only one full, with me, and I bet they will all be bulging on the trip back. Neither suitcase was really full, which made it easier to load them, and there isn't much but orange juice, eggs, and a little cheese in the cooler.
Buster is most upset, as you can imagine. He knows very well what moving all that stuff out means, but I don't think he knows yet whether he's going or not...either is pretty bad. I had to evict him from the closet, because he had taken up residence on a pair of jeans I wanted to take with me. He has been running around crying and trying to sit on me any chance he can get.
It doesn't seem like I'm taking much, but for a month I really don't need all that much...oh, I forgot a pair of shorts! I'll stuff them in my tote, if I remember them. Actually, now that I have the nice barrel bag, I probably will use that. I did leave a few summer tops there, and if it's cooler, I have tons of sweatshirt sweaters and turtles. All my dress clothes are there...except for a pair of navy dress pants. I guess I will be using the barrel bag. Good thing I'm writing this. And two pairs of not-quite so casual shoes. Hmm. I'm making a list.
The weather was nothing to write home about. The temperature was in the high 40s for most of the day, and it made it to 50º for a couple of hours, but the wind got up to 20 mph before it dropped back to nothing, and from noon onward, there were little spits of rain for most of the afternoon. However, it wasn't bad with the garage door open, and it's easier to see by outside light than with the dim lights in the garage.
So I guess that's all there is. I doubt there will be a journal tomorrow night, since I will be driving in rain the whole way and it will probably be a slow trip. So don't anybody panic. I also need to purge all the files on the other computer and copy everything from the laptop, like I did last week from here to the laptop, and that takes a while. Keeping three computers in sync isn't exactly easy. Once we are all here, I'll have a wireless network and the problem will be solved, pretty much.
To any new readers, yes, the camera will be on while I'm away, and yes, I will keep up the journal. I couldn't do without my Copper Harbor fix when I'm not here, and I hate to get out of the habit of journaling.
So that's it. I guess I'm almost ready to call it a night, after I copy the files hither and yon, and after another JD. Oh, how I hate to go!
March
29
I didn't sleep very well, because I was having trouble getting my temperatures right, but I made up for it by sleeping long. There were stars all night long, which was nice, although when I got up this morning, there was a little haze down the harbor that never went away all day. Warm air and cold water, you know...
The temperature got up to 48º this afternoon, with light and variable winds, and there was sunshine all day, although there were increasing cirrus clouds, especially toward sunset. It is supposed to be partly clear tonight, so we'll see, then it will cloud up and rain all day Friday, all the way from here to Detroit. Oh, well. At least it will be too warm to be slippery, and the car might get washed off.
Let's see, where am i? The kitchen is clean, and I washed dishes so that there won't be a huge load on Friday. One of the dreariest things I know is to come into a house late and tired and find the dishwasher full of dishes. The blue box of papers is packed, and I have a few things in another blue box, which I will probably add to tomorrow. There are always odds and ends. The CraftStor with the beading supplies is packed up, although I haven't sealed it yet, just in case, and my beading lap desk is taped up to go. The various bags of knitting are ready. I have three other blue boxes and six crates to take, mostly empty, for the stuff I need to bring back. The cage is in the car.
Tomorrow will be crazy. I need to clean out the fridge and get the trash to the compactor, get gas and something to eat, I hope, pack the cooler (oh, yes, the ice packs are in the freezer), and pack the car. The suitcases are the last thing, but I don't think I will be taking a whole lot, mostly jeans and underwear, and a few knit tops. However, the fridge guy may come, although I didn't hear from him, and Adam will be coming in the middle of the afternoon with the quote for the basement.
Having the plumber here is convenient. He sees a lot of Adam, and he never fails me. Every time he's been here, Adam has called either the same day or the next day. Otherwise, I fear they would forget about me and my little job.
I didn't hear from the bank, so that deal is almost definitely off. I suppose, on principal, I should make them give me the loan, but they are such a pain to deal with that I just don't want to bother. I will poke around when I'm in Detroit and see if I can find someone who really wants to loan me money.
Oh, yes, and I went to the ladies' meeting this afternoon, and there was a different and congenial group there. I took the jewelry and they all liked it, and I was knitting on my shrug, and they liked that, too. Shirley even came for a while, and a new lady, the wife of the manager of the fort, was there, and besides she brought eclairs. Yum! She is also into animal rescue, so I mentioned that I might be in the mood for a friend or two for Buster. We'll see where that leads.
Then I came home, unloaded the dishwasher and finished packing the office stuff. And I am tired. And I don't want to go.
I was thinking this evening that in a strange way, I'm sorry to see the snow go. It was really pretty around here. And yet, I certainly hope I make it back before the leaves come out on the trees and the early flowers bloom. I love to see the leafing out. Well, every season has its joys around here, and while fall is still my favorite, I love them all...except maybe bug season. And some year, I'll get to see the snow all go and the creeks run in earnest, and that will be great fun, too. Mac is hot on the trail of a tractor, so that end is under way. And I have another wonderful year to look forward to.
March 28 As it turned out, the plumber didn't call until after 9:00, so I got almost my full complement of sleep. I changed to a cotton nightie last night, and I was much more comfortable. It was rather warm overnight, but it didn't seem to keep me awake very much.
I did watch Saturn follow Castor and Pollux across the sky, and Leo followed them. It was a very clear night. I don't know if tonight will be clear or not - the forecasters don't agree - and there were some clouds at sunset. They did give the camera a picture with some really interesting colors. I confess I missed it in person - I was otherwise engaged.
The temperature just barely got below freezing overnight and it got up to 41º this afternoon. There has been no wind at all to speak of for the last 24 hours...well, longer than that, actually. It was nearly calm all day long.
The plumber put an air vent in the pipes from the sump pump and the toilet, and the water seems to be staying in the toilet bowl much better. I think he still doesn't know why it was doing that. I don't think he knows what is wrong with the heating system, either, but I have two new zone valves, and we'll see if that helps. And I now have no money. Zone valves are expensive, and so are plumbers' hours. However, I think things are in a bit better shape. And I now have registers on the vents from the humidifier, instead of just holes in the floor, which looks much more finished.
This afternoon, I finally attacked the office. I emptied two blue boxes, which I will take south empty. I keep thinking of things I want or need to bring back, so I will go with empty boxes and crates and come back with full ones. I filled two more storage boxes, and I began packing the Craftstor with beading supplies. I can actually see the top of the desk again, and I can almost see the computer desk. There is still quite a pile around the sewing machine, but I'm not sure I can do much about that.
The temperature in the office got up to 80º again, and with all my rustling round, I got so hot (even though I'm only wearing a tee on top) that I opened one of the east windows...open window for the first time this year! That's pretty early even for Detroit.
Unfortunately, when I opened the window, I inadvertently pushed the upper sash down a bit, so when I closed the window, it wouldn't lock. I ended up having to kneel on the counter in order to get enough purchase to close the window, and I can report that my knees are at least as sore as they were last fall when I had to do the same exercise with the south window. Actually, if I'd known when I opened it that I was going to have to do that, I would just have opened the upper sash and been done with it. However, it did interest Buster, but not excessively, because there was a little cold breeze coming in. It certainly was nice to have the fresh air coming in for a change. I might have opened the great room slider, too, but it was braced shut, and I didn't want to bother.
When I came into the office this morning, there was a flock of little brown birds around the feeder and the deck, and after taking a good look at them with the binoculars, I determined that they are common redpolls, which are not common at all. They are cute little stripey birds, some with pinkish breasts, and a bright ruby-red spot from between their eyes to the tops of their heads. The ones with pink breasts are males. I knew they should be around here, although Peterson says they are "uncommon and irregular", but I'd never seen them before. They winter here and breed up in the arctic, and just as a guess, they are hitting the feeders to stoke up before they start their flight across the lake. They were around most of the day, and I'm afraid they kicked out my regular chickadees and nuthatches. There was also a female goldfinch who is beginning to turn yellow. So the birdies know. Spring is coming.
So now the office is getting a little neater, and I have actually started gathering the stuff to take back with me...which reminds me, I need to fetch in the ice packs and get them frozen. Tomorrow, I will put the cage into the car, and then I can start loading the empty boxes. Darn. I don't want to go. Well, I'll have another couple of nights in the field.
March 27 I think there were lots of stars in the sky last night, but I didn't put on my glasses to check it out. I crashed. I was awake briefly around 8:30, and I was hoping the camera would preserve what I saw - and it did. Now, is there any more serene view in the world than that? I saw a lot of that last summer, but this view has the rime of thick ice around the edges of the harbor...how glorious!
Eventually, I got up, and it was a truly glorious day. The temperature got up to 46º, and the wind was nearly calm all day long. It was a nice day to be outside.
i paid a few bills and ran them, and my change of address, to the post office, and I filled the bird feeders. A nuthatch lit on one feeder right after I filled it, but I was only about a foot away from him, and he flew away without getting anything. However, the chickadees were flying around the tree calling all the time I was working, letting their friends know dinner was ready. I think I saw an almost molted goldfinch a bit earlier, but it flew away before I could think to put the glasses on it.
I did get all the wash done, or I hope I did. There was one sweatshirt that I ended up washing three times, because the spots on it wouldn't come out. I hope they're gone now. I've always had trouble with Eddie Bauer cottons. Greasy spots just won't come out of them. I don't have that problem at all with Lands End, and I don't know what the difference is. I have a lot of Eddie Bauer tops, and it's a good thing, because lately their prices are going up, their sizing and quality are going down, and it's been a long time since I've bought much from them except for Debbie.
It got really warm in the house today, what with the warm temps outside and all the sunshine...in fact, the temperature kept rising, and it is now 80º in the office, for heaven's sake! No wonder I was sweating after I made my dinner!
I had a lot of broccoli left from my veggie trays (not my favorite when raw), so I did my super-simple chicken with broccoli-cheese soup and fresh broccoli. There wasn't as much juice as I remember, but it is a tasty dish and I enjoyed it. The broccoli will all get gray when it's reheated, but that's all right. It still tastes good.
I was going to try to make some sense out of the office, but I never got around to that. Tomorrow, maybe.
Now I must go to bed, because the plumber is going to call me around 8:00 tomorrow and come out in the morning. I hope he can solve my problems, and it will be nice to have registers on the ducts from the humidifier.
It is a beautifully clear, calm, warm night in the field. It's not supposed to start raining until Thursday night, of course, just in time for me to leave, but maybe the rain will wash some of the crud off the car? I don't want to go.
March 26 Well, after I wrote last night's journal, I got to reading a magazine, and it was 2:30 before I got to bed. So today was rather truncated, and I took my time about doing anything. Now the third load of wash is in the dryer, so I am making some progress. I beaded a bit, and I like the new bracelet, my take on a pattern from a book I got.
The weather was glorious again, copious sunshine and calm winds for most of the late afternoon. The temperature got up to around 38º and the winds were under 10 mph all day long. I was heating with solar heat for most of the day.
That turned out to be a good thing. I was starting the third load of clothes when I discovered that I didn't have any hot water, and when I climbed down to the basement, the pressure in the pipes had gone to zero again. So I opened the fill valves, and the boiler immediately came on, and in fifteen minutes or so, I had heat again. I could tell when the pipes got hot. Slowly, I'm getting to know my heating system. So I put in an immediate call to the plumber, who wasn't home.
I had been neglecting to call Debbie, so I thought this was a good time to do it, and thankfully, I found her in good spirits in spite of the soap opera she is living, and we had a nice three-hour conversation on my dime. In the middle of it, the plumber called back, of course, and he is coming Tuesday, I hope, to look things over. I'm afraid he is as puzzled about what is going on as I am. But he installed it, so he should fix it, right? I'm also glad I bought call waiting for this phone - I'd never used it before, and I couldn't remember for sure that I had it, but it sure did help.
In the meantime, it took the usual long time to dry my jeans, and I discovered that I'd apparently managed not to set the wash cycle right for the third load of clothes, so that load is now in the dryer, with the laundry room door shut. I'm not quite sure what I did, but I was distracted with Deb and plumbers and Buster and things like that. The rest of the wash - underwear and towels - is for tomorrow.
I ate "breakfast" late, a nice hamburger with American Spoon Sweet Tomato Relish (yum!), then around normal dinner time, I finished off my veggie tray, so I actually didn't eat dinner (a TV dinner) until after 10:00. I am off my schedule.
However, this week is going to be a wild one, so I guess it's just as well it starts out slowly. Tomorrow I will finish the wash, and I really must do something about the piles of piles in the office. I need to go through the catalogs and magazines (again!) and try to get them into some kind of order, and I need to get the desk cleaned off. I've decided to take some beading stuff with me, since I seem to be in that mood, and I need to empty out a CraftStor to put it in. Overnight, something really emptied out the bird feeders, so I need to fill those tomorrow.
I guess I have my work cut out for me, and it's certainly time to go to bed now. I think it's clear in the field tonight. At least Sirius was shining in the window before I turned on the office lights tonight. And I'm savoring every minute I'm still here.
March 25 I didn't pay much attention to what was going on outside last night, but it was absolutely clear when the sun rose this morning. Unfortunately, we don't have camera shots of that, because when I rebooted last night, I forgot to check to make sure everything was all right, and it wasn't, so we had a black picture until a bit after 10:00 this morning, when I got to the office and discovered what was going on. Some of my icons didn't load, either, which is usually a good sign that something is screwed up, but I didn't notice that either. I guess I was in a hurry to get to bed or something, although I fiddled around long enough that I didn't go early.
Anyway, there was not a cloud in the sky all day, and the house was heated by solar heat. The temperature hung in at 35º, and for most of the day, there was a 10 mph wind out of the northeast. Gorgeous.
The snow is going fast where the sun hits, which doesn't include the hill yet. Elsewhere, it's messy, with muddy ruts and slushy ruts. No 20 mph drives through.
I ended up not doing much. I got the dirty dishes into the dishwasher before the fridge repairman came. And I drove two hooks into the wall on either side of the office door. I wanted them to match, and besides, the one that was on the right side wasn't centered (how I did that, I don't quite know). So now the seasonal banner is hanging and so is the foxglove banner. I think it looks nice. There are a lot of narrow pieces of wall around this house where a bellpull shaped banner might go, which is good, because I have one that is ready to be finished and some others I'd like to do.
Otherwise, I kept thinking of things I wanted to do and not doing them.
The fridge repairman came and inspected the bottom and back of the fridge and discovered that the water line from the pump to the water dispenser has cracked in two. He didn't have a repair kit, so he will have to come back, I hope before I go. It's probably going to cost me a bundle, but I liked that water dispenser, and I want it to work.
Ron came by and was kind enough to take my mail to the post office, so I didn't have to make two trips to town.
Mariner was jumping tonight. One of the sororities at Tech was having some kind of party, and there were a lot of other people eating in the bar, who were going to be kicked out around 9:00. We had a nice dinner, and we said goodbye, just in case I don't have time to stop during the week.
So that was a rather dull day. The siskins are back again. I hope that not feeding them for a month doesn't chase them all away. When I get back, however, I will be putting out the thistle feeders again, so that should be a draw. I've noticed the crows making a great racket and the bluejays sounding their mating calls, so they know. I haven't seen many goldfinches around, so I suppose they are off someplace molting, and when I see them again they will be neon yellow (or at least the males will be).
So I think I will bead a bit, then get another good night's sleep. Tomorrow I have to start the preparations, with the wash.
March 24 It was snowing when I got up this morning, but it stopped by 10:00, although there was a little squall around noon and another around 5:00. In between we had a little sunshine and some clouds. The temperature was 34º all day, and the wind was around 10 mph out of the north.
The snow is going. The road is a slushy mess, with deep ruts, some of which go down to the roadbed. The hill isn't too icy yet, but as I said to Ron, it's too bad we can't go over it with a roto-tiller and break up the ice underneath the snow. Everybody I've talked to seems to think the thaw is here. So do the local road commissions, because they've put the load restrictions on the roads already.
I found that out because I finally schlepped the 10 trash bags to the compactor, and with the kind help of the guy in charge, I got rid of all that. There will be another load next week, but I hope not more than a couple of bags. There are actually two compactors on site, which should take us pretty much through the end of the load restrictions. Good thinking on their part, I thought.
In between I beaded, but my frustrating week continued. I got to within an inch of the end of the twisted herringbone bracelet when I noticed that something seemed wrong a few rows back, and when I ripped back to that spot, I discovered that the thread had gotten cut. That happens occasionally, when a bead has a sharp edge on the hole. So I had to rip back some more in order to get enough thread to end off, and when I tried that, I managed to break a bead even further back. I ended up ripping out everything I'd done today. I've finally gotten a little further than I was, but I'm not going to finish it tonight like I should have. I do like the way it's coming out, but the stitch is hard on my fingers.
Dinner was with Shirley, and we had a good time ranting to each other about things we've been involved with. I was a little late getting there, because I had to change my pants at the last minute when I couldn't quite make it to the bathroom...I'd drunk a 12 ounce pop and a 16 ounce bottled water and thought I could last until I left. I should know better. And I had just put on a clean pair of jeans this morning!
Maybe that is the end of my frustrating week. At any rate, it's the end of the day for me.
March 23 It was a night of strange dreams, and it was a frustrating day. I don't remember the dreams, except that when I woke up from them, I thought "now, that's strange", and went back to sleep. I had just gotten to the office this morning when I got a call from NetBank, saying that the appraisal came out all right (although they low-balled it considerably, which they usually do for a second mortgage), but now they felt the need for a full three months of bank statements instead of just one. Arrgghh!!
That meant that I had to copy the backs of two statements and then fax 15 pages over a regular long-distance line (no toll free this time), and something happened after 9 or 10 pages, and I had to fax the last 6 pages over again. Grrr.
I am coming to the conclusion that NetBank really doesn't want to do this loan, and they are hunting hard for any little thing that might enable them to refuse it. They can't find anything, so they are trying to frustrate me enough to make me withdraw the application. They are doing a good job. What they know about me, they know I will not run up a big balance and pay lots of interest, so they're really not interested. However, it's illegal for them to refuse me out of hand. I might sue. I worked for a well-run, ethical bank long enough to know how the other kind operates.
I did tell them that if the loan isn't closed by next Thursday, they can forget it. I will be interested to see what they do.
That got my blood pressure up and wasted most of the morning, since I had to try three or four times and clean the rollers on the automatic feed before I got the fax to go through.
Then, after I finally got some breakfast and began to settle down a bit, the fridge repairman called to say his car had died and he couldn't come, so how about Saturday? That's not critical, but I really had planned for today. Now I will have to try to keep the kitchen nice and neat for two more days.
So I spent most of the rest of the day beading, and my twisted herringbone bracelet is coming along. It is turning out better than I'd expected, sort of by accident. The copper beads are just a tad bigger than the blue and green ones, so in this stitch, the copper ones end up sticking out more than the blue and green ones, all with a very nice, tight twist, and it looks neat. I still have a couple more inches to go, because the stitch goes slowly and uses lots of thread, but maybe I can finish it tomorrow. After a while, all the yanking on the thread makes my hands sore.
The weather was rather nondescript. There was a little bit of blue sky early, then around 9:30 there was a little snow squall, after which it partly cleared up again. That lasted until about 4:00, when it started snowing again, lightly, and it is still at it. I don't think there was any accumulation at all. The temperature was steady at 31º since last night, and the winds are down in the 10-15 mph range, still from the north.
So that was my quiet day, and it's time to trundle up to the north end again.
March 22 The lullaby of the lake worked like a charm last night, and I slept well, despite having a left arm that was so sore I couldn't lie on it. I have no idea what caused that, but it seems to have worked itself out now. Probably I had been sleeping on that side too much. I did manage to keep the water out of my ears, and it was nice to have my normal (not very good) hearing back again.
It was a cloudy night, and when I woke up this morning it was snowing lightly, and it continued to snow lightly for most of the day. I don't think there was much accumulation - an inch at most, The temperature was between 30º and 35º all day long, and the wind has slowly died down to between 15 and 20 mph, still from the north. So winter isn't over yet.
One of the many things that has impressed me about winter weather around here is the narrow range of temperatures. Unless there is a definite cooling or warming trend, the temperature doesn't vary much over the course of 24 hours. Down in the interior, it definitely does. Our great big heat sink tends to even out the temperature variations around here. I think it is keeping things a tad warmer, too. On the other hand, in the summer, it keeps us cool, although there is usually more variation between day and night...thankfully, sometimes! Even if it gets quite warm on a summer afternoon, as soon as the sun begins to set, the lake takes over and very rarely do we not have a cool night. If we didn't I'd have to consider air conditioning, for sure!
I didn't do a lot today. I unloaded the dishwasher and began to reload it and I washed the pots and pans that were in the sink, but that's about it. Tomorrow I must get that stuff put away before noon and wipe down the stove, because a ,man is coming to look at the fridge. I can't remember if I mentioned my problem with the water dispenser, but it isn't working, and when I called the repair people, the person I talked to suggested that I get down on my hands and knees and peer under the fridge to see if there was a problem there. I thought about it for a while, but even if I did that, I probably couldn't see a problem, because I have a hard time seeing when my head is upside down. So I called back, and the person I talked to this time was much more amenable to coming out, and he is coming sometime tomorrow afternoon. I hope it can be fixed. I got used to having that water dispenser and I miss it.
For the rest of it, I read a while and beaded a while. I finished another bracelet. This one is just copper and silver, and it is a stitch that works up really fast, although I couldn't get the tension I wanted. However, I do recall when I was working on a thin peyote tube that I can't get tight tension on that either. So they are a little sloppy, but they do seem to hold their shape, and the result was pretty good. The bracelets Shirley brought back from Mexico had a closure something like mine, except they had just used a wad of seed beads instead of a large bead. I decided to try that, and it came out OK, but I need to try to figure out a way to make a ball that is less of a jumble. So I'll have to try that again. I like it, because I don't have any copper or silver beads that go with the seed beads, so it would be better to use them for the closure. So I guess I accomplished something. Now I have gone back to the one I abandoned for the copper/silver one. This one is taking much longer to do, but it looks like it will come out all right.
When the sun set it was still snowing, and they are saying it could snow lightly all night, so it will be a dark night in the field tonight.
March 21 Happy Bach's birthday to everyone. Johann Sebastian Bach, that is.
I just woke up from reading the latest bead catalog (only 600 pages) and realized that the lake is kicking up a real fuss again. The morning was rather quiet, with temperatures around 25º and winds around 15mph, but as the afternoon wore on, the temperature rose to slightly above freezing, and the wind has risen into the 30-40 mph range (the NWS calls this "breezy"), so now the lake is howling and every so often there is that "thunk!" when a rogue wave hits the rocks.
IT turned out to be a rather lost day, except to write some checks and go to the post office. There was enough reading material there to keep me happy for the rest of the day, including the bead catalog I have been waiting for, with the cheap stuff (glass and plated metal) in it. it's enough to drive me crazy.
Other than the wind, the weather was rather cloudy for most of the day. There was a ray of sunshine around 5:00, but not much else of note.
I was making a not-very-good breakfast when I sat down for a minute, and when I looked out the window, the eagle was flying south to north across the harbor. I don't know where they have been all winter, but they certainly have been active lately. I think it was today (the days sort of run together) that there was an actual flock of nuthatches in the feeder tree. It is very interesting to see what happens when a crow comes close and begins calling: there was a squirrel in the big feeder and a nuthatch on a branch, and they both just froze in place when the crow (or raven? I can't tell) called, and they didn't move until they were sure it had flown away. I guess crows will eat anything, including squirrel or bird, if they can catch it.
I decided I wanted my ziti anyway, even though the only pasta I have around is macaroni, and it turned out pretty good, I must say. The only difference is that I can eat the ziti with a fork, whereas I ate the macaroni with a spoon. So now I have a washboiler of pasta with tomato sauce and Italian sausage to keep me happy for the rest of the week. And a messed up kitchen again.
After fooling around with my ears last night and getting both of them plugged up, I am beginning to think perhaps part of my problem is with plugged Eustachian tubes...at least this morning yawning widely and burping seemed to clear things up. I am going to stop fooling around and just try to keep the water out of them and hope this mess clears up. I do not like not being able to hear!
I want to hear the lake when it is howling, and I will certainly be doing that tonight. It is sounding like a rather hairy night in the field all of a sudden.
March 20 Well, so far there hasn't been any negative feedback to last night's diatribe. I thank everyone for their positive comments.
I just learned that there won't be a sewing circle on Wednesday, because Carolyn is still recovering from her flu, so it will be May before I see the ladies again, I guess.
I read for a while, but it was too late to do any writing, so I went to bed. The skies were clear for most of the night, and the fading moon cast long shadows when it finally rose after midnight. However, it was cloudy this morning, and for most of the day. Late in the afternoon, some sun started to show through the clouds, and I preserved the Equinox Sunset. The temperature was around 25º for much of the day, and the wind has been slowly decreasing, finally. It certainly blew hard for a long time! It's between 10 and 15 mph now, and while I can still hear the lake, it has calmed down considerably, and the harbor was nearly calm, as you can see from the sunset pictures.
I can hear again. About two weeks ago, I accidentally got water in my right ear while washing my hair, and I couldn't get rid of it, but for quite a while, I could sort of jiggle my ear and still hear. Last night, I decided some action was indicated, so I used my earwax removal kit...except that everything I poured into my ear stuck, and I couldn't get it out and I couldn't hear at all out of that ear for most of the night. On top of that, I managed to get water in my left ear, too! So by morning, I was desperate. I learned the hard way, some time ago, not to manipulate my ears too much, but this was an unusual situation, so I cut a piece of my jewelry wire (fortunately, I didn't have to use the sterling silver or gold filled wire!), and poked away...and now I can hear again! I will be applying the earwax removal stuff again tonight, because there is still something in there, but it is a real relief to have my ears opened. I really don't hear that well anymore, but it's usually better than that!
I played with beads for most of the day, and now I have a couple more interesting little bits of stuff. One is a spiral, which I like a lot, but it takes a lot of beads and al long time, so I stopped and started on my other idea. I mentioned I'd tried something the other night that didn't work, but I had another idea using the same stitch, and this one is coming out well enough that I'll finish it. It is a tube, copper with little silver dots in it, and it will make a nice bracelet. It's rather soft, because I just can't get any tension on the beads, but it does look nice.
Now I'm considering whether to write a bit or just bag it and go to bed. I may take some knitting up to the north end, so that I have something to do while my earwax is being removed. Hmm, that sounds good to me.
For dinner, I was going to have ziti with Italian sausage until I discovered that I don't have any ziti. Poo. So I will have to make other plans. I took a bunch of stuff to the downstairs freezer and I noticed a package of pork chops, so maybe I will do that tomorrow.
I need to begin to straighten out the office (I simply can not keep this place neat, no matter how hard I try!) and gather a few things to take back to Detroit with me. My, but I don't want to go!
I don't know if I mentioned that I brought the seasonal banners with me when I came back after Christmas. I like them so well that I decided I want them where I will be most of the time. The winter banner had been hanging, so today, after 1:20 (when the sun crossed the equator), I took it down and hung the spring banner. These are white-on-white, mostly, with cheater hardanger (no cutting) for the letters. There is a little scrollwork between each letter, and one letter in each banner has an appropriate flower in it. Winter's flower is a blue carnation in the "E", and spring's is a purple pansy in the "G". I made them while I was in chemo the first time, and I really like them, so it is nice to have them where I can see them. They displaced the summer floral bellpull (the one with the foxgloves), and I need to put up a hook for that on the other side of the office door.
In order to clear that spot out, I moved the storage boxes to behind the sofa. I really don't want to take that stuff downstairs, just in case I ever get a loan or a quote and finish the basement. There is still too much stuff around the great room, but it does look at tad better than it did.
So now I think I will go and clean out my ears and get a good night's sleep. The weather is calming down in the field.
March 19 When I turned out the light last night, I looked out the windows and there was Orion balancing on his left leg (Rigel) over the mountain. Rigel was hidden again, but the rest if him was visible. Taurus should have been there, too, but from inside the screens, with my eyes not completely adjusted, I couldn't be sure I saw it. I think I saw Aldebaran and the Hyades, but I closed my eyes and went to sleep. The moon rose late, but it was bright and really lit up the snow. It is way in the south now, so I can see the shadow of the house the way I would have seen it if there had been any sunshine in January.
It was a pristine, clear day, too, with hardly a cloud in the sky. The temperature actually got up to 34º late in the day, and the wind is still blowing hard - 24-32 mph for most of the day. The sunshine heated up the house remarkably: it was 75º in here around 5:00, and I was hot. However, I'll take all the free heat I can get.
I spent most of the day embroidering and finished the first of the two little roses. It turned out nicely, I think. I started on the second rose, but my left index finger started to get sore from poking the needle into it. Even though it's a blunt-pointed needle, it does poke my finger, and in the past, I've had it wear a groove almost through my skin. I decided to give it a rest, and I read through what I had written on my book back in February (and discovered that I had written all the dates "05"!). It's too late now to start writing, but I'm thinking about it.
It's not that I've given up on the beading. I fiddled around with an idea last night that didn't work, so I decided to give it a rest for a while. I'll get back at it.
About the time I got hot, I decided to cool off by filling the bird feeders. That did help, but the exertion made me hotter. And another feeder has bitten the dust, at least temporarily. The little white feeder had a movable bottom on it, so that it could be used for regular seed or thistle seed, and when I took it down to day, the bottom was missing. I suppose it is under the tree somewhere, but with the snow, I can't see it. So that is part of the second feeder I'll be looking for when the snow is gone. I lost the chain for one of the platform feeders in a gale last fall, and the weeds were too high then to find it. I'm sorry to lose the little feeder. The birds seem to like it. Oh, well. One of the squirrels must have gotten creative over the past few days.
I was embroidering when I got a curious phone call this afternoon. Evidently some out-of-town friends of one of the quilting ladies had been reading through my journals for the past couple of months, and misconstrued and misinterpreted some things I said about the sewing group. Oh, dear.
One of the pitfalls of blogging (I hate that word, but that is what this is - a blog) is that people do seem to misread and misconstrue what I write. This isn't the first time. Anyway, the lady was very upset, to the detriment of her blood pressure, and I'm not sure I managed to get her calmed down. Why in the world she would ever think I was referring to her, I do not know. And I don't know why, because I said someone had good color sense, that would imply that no one else did. That isn't what I said, and it certainly isn't what I meant. She also took umbrage that I said there is one lady in the group I don't care for too much.
Now, look here. This is my website, maintained by and paid for by me, and this is a free country and a free internet. I have every right to write anything I want to write. And yet, any time I say anything the slightest bit negative about anything (except the Detroit metro area), I get chewed out, either by email or in person. This is not paradise. There are people in it: some are friends, bless them; some we like who don't like us; some we don't like who like us; with some the dislike is mutual; and some are just there. Nobody likes everyone they meet. Some people irritate us extremely. I see no reason not to say so when that happens to me. It's not like I named names. I didn't and I won't.
I refuse to apologize for anything I write here, except for factual errors. To those who talked to the lady today (and anybody else who fits the mold) I have some advice. First, be sure you understand what you are reading. Do not read into my words meanings that aren't there. If you don't like what I write, tell me. I have an email address, but don't expect me to be sympathetic. I have a right to my opinions just like you do. Don't go around spreading gossip about things you have misconstrued. And finally, if you don't like what I write, stop reading the journal. Nobody is making you read it. If you are sniffing around for juicy tidbits of gossip or opinions I write that you can turn into gossip, shame on you.
I do not often write negative things, but I see no reason to keep my opinions to myself, especially on these pages. Nobody likes everybody they meet, and everyone makes those opinions known somewhere. Some women tell their husbands. Some tell a best friend. I occasionally tell the journal. I am not a negative person, and I like or at least tolerate most of the people I know, and yet some people seem to think I should not write anything but good things and nice things and sweet things. Baloney. This is the real world, people. If you don't like it, don't read it. If you do continue to read it, and you don't like what you read, tell me, and don't spread gossip about it.
I'm not sure there will be a sewing circle this week, because Carolyn has the flu, but I will be interesting to see what happens if there is. I'm not sure how many people in it read this thing, and whether they misunderstood what I said, too. If they got it second or third hand, heaven knows what they might think.
Anyway, all this is not going to change my writing habits very much, and I can only hope that it doesn't get so blown out of proportion that it interferes with my interactions with people in town. And that's a view from the field.
March 18 I was up too late last night, too, but I did sleep well for most of the night. I woke up around 8:00, decided that was too early, and sort of slept after that, during which I made a pretty comprehensive list of the stuff I will be moving from the other house. I wonder if we can get it ready to ship by the end of April? That's a lot of stuff.
Anyhow, when I did get up, around 10:00, the sky was clear and the lake was roaring away, and the day was another gorgeous one. Where all the clouds and flurries they were talking about went, I don't know, but I'm not going to complain. The temperature wasn't all that warm - in the mid 20s for most of the day, although it now has risen to 30º - and the wind was in the 20-30 mph range, with a few gusts to 35 mph, from the north. However, it was another day of glorious sunshine. Around mid-afternoon there were a few puffy white clouds, but they didn't amount to much, and sunset was perfectly clear. When I came home from dinner, Sirius was shining brightly in the south.
The NWS is only willing to concede us "partly cloudy" tonight and "partly sunny" for tomorrow, but Environment Canada says clear all day and all night, and they are usually more accurate on cloud cover. So it looks like another beautiful day. I guess we're beginning to make up for the cloudy mid-winter months.
I took advantage of the sunshine to sit in it and bead, and I finished another bracelet. Peyote stitch really does go faster than other stitches, even when it's odd-count and has that weird turn in it. I will take a picture. I'm calling this one the "Copper Harbor Winter" bracelet, because it has blue for the lake and sky, green for the trees and silver for the snow, all framed in copper. It came out rather well, I think, although the side with the easy turn is a bit wavy. Those copper beads just are not very uniform, and I am not going to spend hours with a caliper trying to sort them by size! I finished it just before I went to dinner.
However, I did take some time off, first to have the slow breakfast, for the first time in ages - it tasted very good, thank you - and then to attack the breezeway. All the stuff that is supposed to be stored in the house is now in the house, and the wine, boos, pop and water, flavored and not, is all stacked fairly neatly along the back wall. I did miss one bag full of empty pop bottle containers, but that's minor. What a relief! It is nice to be able to walk from the garage to the house without fearing I will fall over something in the dark. The sun shining in the windows is warming it up a bit out there, but not a lot, I don't think. It was still cold enough that my olive oil had congealed and the juice bottles sweated when I brought them in. I knew how handy that place is for storage, but until it got cold, I didn't realize how handy it is to have an auxiliary fridge out there. I could use the porch, too, but I'm less certain about critters there.
While I was beading, Buster apparently went to sleep on the couch in the great room, which was in the sun, and suddenly I heard a very sorrowful "mroow!" from out there. I called him, and he came running, which he frequently does, and he was ready to be petted. He didn't seem to have anything wrong, so all I can figure is that he had a nightmare. I know cats dream, and I know sometimes they move their legs and tails like the dreams aren't very pleasant, but I don't recall seeing a cat awake abruptly from a nightmare very often. DC did once, when he was asleep in the ugly chair, and it was apparently so bad he never slept there again. Poor little Buster. At least he has his mama to make over him. I haven't had mine in a long time.
That strong north wind means the lake has been roaring all day long, and there were whitecaps of varying sizes on the harbor all day, too, as well as breakers on my beach. The floating ice is all down right at the end of the harbor, and with the wave action, it was roiling and churning like a bowl full of pudding. At one point, this end of the harbor was full of little tiny whitecaps, just barely showing on the surface. I don't recall seeing just that configuration before. Of course the harbor was Superior blue all day long...so blue, and so beautiful!
So that was my day. I hope to get to bed a tad earlier tonight, but the beads are still out, and I have a bunch of different stitches I want to try with them. However, nothing is started, so I may be safe.
It's going to be a clear night in the field tonight, with moonshine and starshine and the lake singing its lullaby in the background. What a place! How I love it here!
March 17 I stayed up far too late last night, playing with my beads, but I got up at a more or less reasonable time this morning, so I am tired. I think it was cloudy for most of the night, so there were no moonset pictures today.
While it started out cloudy, the clouds parted by noon, and it was another really beautiful afternoon, although the temperature was around 22º for most of the day, and there was a brisk north wind. Toward sunset, the temperature was slowly rising, and so was the wind. Now, while the NWS station is reporting 17-25 mph winds out of the north-northeast, from the fuss the lake is kicking up, I would say that's an understatement. The lake is roaring nicely, and every now and then I can hear a loud whack! as a rogue wave hits the rocks.
The shoreline out here is mostly rocky, with only an occasional small, pebbly beach. Most of the houses are 12 or more feet above the water level, which is probably just as well when the waves are as strong as they sound tonight.
I played with beads for most of the day, too, but I put aside the red thing I was working on last night. It was beginning to make my hands hurt. The thread has to go through each bead four or five times, and I frequently have to resort to a pair of pliers to pull the needle through the last time. So I got out the copper beads, as well as the blue, green and silver beads, and I am now making a bracelet using the central part of Clyde's bandolier. Last year I made myself a bracelet using my interpretation of the entire thing, but it is too wide in size 11/0 beads, but just the center part is a nice width, about the same as the rest of my bracelets. It's coming out nice, and peyote stitch goes much faster than square stitch.
Dinner was with Shirley, and that was nice. I had fried fish, which was good, but I had to take some Rolaids when I got home. I simply cannot eat fried anything. I never could, actually, and now that I have a gallstone, it's even worse. However, antacids do still work. It tasted good for a change, so on rare occasions, I just have to splurge.
The sunshine is eroding the snow, even with the low temperatures, and the dunes are slowly going away. According to the weather forecasts, we're not done with the snow yet, but it sounds like they are just predicting the possibility of lake effect flurries, and it won't amount to much. Of course, I have had a change of perspective since Monday.
When I was living in Pennsylvania, back in the dark ages, we would occasionally get one of these things, and the town I lived in was just helpless. If there was less than 6" of snow, they didn't think it was enough to plow, and if there was more than that, they didn't know what to do with it. There were a couple of times I can remember when the drifting on one side of a hill between me and my job was about 20' high, right across the main road, and it took two days for them to get one lane opened, and a week to clear the road completely. Now, I know that was an extreme case, but I also know it would never take that long in Keweenaw. Yoopers are prepared for that kind of snow, and they know what to do with it.
So winter is still with us, regardless of the calendar, and it's time to crawl into bed and listen to the lullaby of the angry lake.
March 16 I finished the bangle last night, and it came out rather well, I think. It's pale pink and pearl, which is definitely summer stuff, and it's rather pretty. I will take a picture sometime. I managed to sew it together nearly invisibly, so it really does look like a bangle, and the size 11/0 beads makes it not too thick or chunky. However, it kept me up rather late.
It turned out to be another beautiful night, full of moonlight, and the camera came thorough again, with more moonset pictures. I still love that sight.
It was a beautiful morning, too, although there were a few more clouds than yesterday. It didn't interfere much with the sunshine. The temperature here was around 25º all day, with a 10 mph wind from the north or northeast.
I got up before I wanted to because I really had to go to Houghton today, and I got off around noon, I think. I kept running across people wandering down US-41 like they were in a fog, which was a bit frustrating. The covered road is still pretty bad, although the snow is melting in the sunshine. Where the trees are thicker, the road is still covered with packed snow, but the sun is melting it in spots, leaving chunks of ice and slush and water. I don't think anybody is going their usual 55 (in the 45 mph zone, of course), but the 35 or less that the guy in front of me was going was really slower than necessary in most spots.
From the Mountain Lodge all the way to Calumet, the drifts and snow piles are amazing. It looks like the drift at the Lake Medora public access was close to six feet deep. The Road Commission must have had fun clearing that, but they have done a commendable job, and the banks are cut back to the edge of the shoulders in most places. From Mohawk south, where there are houses along the roadside, the snow piles are 12 or more feet high in places, but down there the snow is all black and ugly.
I was interested to see that Cliff Drive is closed. The last time I was down to town, it had been plowed, but this time they just put up barricades at each end. There were a few tracks around the barricade and down the road, but it's not a trip I would have wanted to take. I usually use Cliff Drive in the summer, but mostly to avoid the tourists who go through Mohawk. At this time of year, it isn't a bottleneck.
From Delaware south, US-41 was clear and dry, so that part of the trip went fast. There weren't very many people in either Wal=Mart or Econo, which was good. I just did what I had to in Wal-Mart - prescription, birdseed, more storage boxes and two spools of thread - so I wasn't very tired when I got out. I had eaten right before I left home, so I didn't stop to eat in Houghton. I got a minimum of stuff at Econo, and picked up the eggs I left there the last time. Then I got gas and came home. I got back before 4:00.
When the sun is shining, like it was today, it is such a satisfying view to come down the road into town and look over the harbor. Today it was almost navy blue, with some little waves between Hunter Point and Porter Island, and a rim of bright white ice all around. There is a bit of floating ice in the harbor which keeps getting pushed around depending on the wind. Yesterday I think it was all down at our end, but today it must have been at the west end.
So that was a fast and successful trip. I even got back in time to enjoy the late afternoon sunshine, although the sun set in some clouds and there wasn't much of a sunset.
I started a new bracelet in a different stitch, and except that I messed up the pattern and had to cut out three or four rows - it isn't a stitch that can be unraveled very easily - I have made some progress. This one is garnet beads with a matte black pattern in it, and while it is completely different from the "Copper Harbor" bracelets, it's rather pretty. I have been enchanted by those silver-lined garnet beads from the time I got them: they are really pretty. There isn't very much contrast between the two beads, but you can see the pattern, so it will be a bit more understated than it sounds.
However, it's after midnight again, and I am reverting to my old habits. I get working on something and I just don't want to quit.
I guess that's what happened today, so I will now trundle up to the north end and see if there's a moon again tonight. They keep saying not, but we'll see.
March 15 It was a beautiful, clear night, although the almost-full moon was so bright I couldn't see many stars. The moon on the breast of the new-fallen snow Gave the luster of midday to objects below. And it sure did. It was beautiful, and on toward morning, it was shining right in the bedroom windows on us. I was asleep when it set, but the camera wasn't, and here is the spring moonset. I know there are pictures of this almost every spring and fall since I've been here, but I still think it's one of the nicest views the camera catches.
It was a perfectly gorgeous day, too, with hardly a cloud in the sky, strong, bright sunlight, and a strong northwest wind raising nice whitecaps on the blue, blue, blue harbor. That's always beautiful, too, but the contrasts are especially nice when the harbor is rimmed with ice. It certainly is now! The temperature got into the upper 20s, but the wind was in the 20-30 mph range for most of the day.
On toward sunset, there were some clouds forming in the west, and there wasn't much of a sunset, but the night is supposed to be mostly clear, so there is a chance we may see the moon set again tomorrow morning. It's full today, so I certainly hope so.
The appraiser finally got here at about 11:50, and she is doing a really detailed appraisal. I want a copy of that thing. She even wanted the house plans. However, that took a while, so I was late for church, but it turned out that I was the only person there, so I had my own private church service again, and afterwards, Bonnie and I spent a couple of hours just talking about our religious and other experiences. I had already decided that I wasn't going to try to go to town today, so that was all right.
Buster didn't think so, but he never thinks so when I am gone even for a few minutes. Then I got to working on my beading, and the bracelet is getting finished. This one is for me, so it has to be rather long, and even longer because I've decided to make it a bangle - no closure - so it has to fit over my hand. It's turning out all right, but those pale pink beads are a real trial. When the light gets bad, I can't see them on the off-white bead mat, and I ended up having to use the magnifier. I did discover that I can see a whole lot better early in the day, no surprise.
Otherwise, I tried to soak up as many rays as I could. The clear skies are supposed to last through early morning tomorrow, then it will cloud up again and there may be a little more snow.
I got my first look at the drifts, and they are impressive. The entire low part of the road, between the harbor and Lake Lily, drifted over about 3' deep, and I can easily imagine it being five or more feet deep if nobody had been clearing the road. It really is pretty, though, so clean and white and smooth.
John Dee said last night that this is one of the biggest blizzards in the seven years he's lived here, and I can believe it. While I guess the official total for Keweenaw is 18" at Mohawk, Delaware reported 22", but they always get hit harder. And we didn't get the worst of it. South of Houghton, a couple of places reported 32"! That's a lot of snow in 24 hours. I know records were broken at Marquette, and I'm sure they were here, too. I'm so glad I was here to see it! It sure was fun, even though it was a lot of work.
So that is the view from the field tonight, and I'm looking at another early night.
March 14 The final crowning glory of our blizzard was the 8 hour power failure that began at midnight and finally ended just before 8 am. I went to bed fairly early, but the noise that the power going down makes woke me up briefly. Otherwise, I was snug in my bed mostly, and the temperature only got down to 60º in the house, although as usual, it took a very long time to warm up.
The power failure zapped the broadband (which it always does), so there weren't any pictures until I reset everything, and those big, heavily laden pine boughs were still blocking the view until I got tired of them late this afternoon.
Actually, we were all gratified that the power came on when it did, since the county didn't begin plowing the roads until 4:00 am, and normally that would mean it would take another 8 hours to find and fix the break. It must have been an easy, obvious one. And, I must add, UPPCO is going for an 8% rate increase in Michigan, and the last thing they want is for irate customers to be writing the Public Utilities Commission. I may anyway - their rates are atrocious. However, that's another story.
Anyway, the snow finally stopped not long before sunrise, and by the time I got up it was just blowing. The snow was all gone off the office windows - I think the wind sublimed it overnight - but the view was still mostly of snow-covered pine boughs. The drifting was amazing enough that I took a few pictures. The first two are of the big drift in front of the office. You will notice that it drifted halfway up the window of the great room, and the other one was halfway up the deck railing. Amazing. And the wind was still blowing. I'm wondering what a bit of snow fencing on the deck might do.
The third picture, which is a really bad one, was taken through the back windows of the great room, at the garage. I just wanted to document the height of that drift. It turns out, it was a ridge, too, and on the other side of it, up against the garage door, it was only about 12" high. Then it got up higher than the first panel of the door! And you can see where it is at the breezeway.
The final official total at Mohawk was 18", and Ron took his tape measure along when he went to fetch his car. He measured a 36" drift down at Lake Lily, and Mac says it was probably 40" in the driveway at the top of the hill, where Ron's car was parked. On the flat, it seems we got about 18", too. To compound the problems, there was a tree down, about halfway up the final grade of the hill, but between them, Ron and Mac have managed to get that out of the way.
Evidently between them, Mac and Ron spent the entire day clearing the road. I waited till 3:30 before I called Ron, just to make sure everything was on track, which it was, and around 4:00 Mac came with the tractor. I went out and moved some of the snow away from the garage door and smoothed down the drift so that he could attack it with both ends of the tractor (there is a scoop in front, as well as the blower on the back). It wasn't easy, because he was blowing stones out of the driveway for much of the time, but I can now get out of my house.
It was quite a blizzard. On the one hand, I wish it had happened in January, when the snow would have been a lot lighter and easier to move, but on the other hand, this may be the last blast of the winter, which is good, if true. We now know we need a little bigger, little more powerful tractor, for starters. And we have an even better idea of where the drifting will be and where we will want snow fencing next year. I do wish I could figure out how to counteract the drifts in front of the garage, but I really don't know where they come from, unless it's that the wind flowing over the roof just drops its load on the other side. Parts of my driveway didn't have more than 4" on it, and there aren't more than a couple of inches on the roof.
They have been predicting lake effect snow for all day and through tomorrow noon, but we haven't seen a flake yet. I don't know where that went, since the wind is out of the northwest, and we should get it if anybody does. The temperature has been very slowly rising through the upper 20s.
So that was fun. Now it can go away, please.
I spent most of the day embroidering, although I did throw a ton of empty boxes down the basement stairs, and I dusted and swept the great room, not thoroughly, but I think I got up most of the dead flies. There were at least as many as there were when I swept before I left in December. It was hard, because my back was bothering me. Now tomorrow, I have only the orange bags to move. There are two still open, to catch the last of the stuff, and I'm not sure whether I'll get the ones full of catalogs out of here before the appraiser comes, but oh, well.
When Mac came, I went out and moved some snow, and it was a good time to be outside. The wind was strong, but in the courtyard between the house in the garage, it was really quite pleasant. After he left, the wind started making the platform feeder swing so wildly that I was afraid it might hit the window. It is attached to the branch that was blocking the camera, so I captured it and brought it in, then I knocked the snow off the branch and all over me, of course, but now not only is the camera view unobstructed, I can see my view again.
Late in the afternoon the clouds started breaking up a bit, and we had a spectacular sunset. Besides the beautiful color, notice where the sun went down. It's almost at due west now, which it will reach next Monday, and we are now enjoying 11¾ hours of sunlight. I hope we have a sunset on Monday, so I can document that.
I had some thought that I might take the whole load of trash to the compactor tomorrow, but it seems that I will probably be taking a fast trip to Houghton instead. I still have cellulitis, and I have used every last drop of my antibiotic cream, so I called the doctor and they faxed a prescription, which should be there tomorrow. I hate to go too long without using it, because it does seem to be working. I know one of the ways I get the cellulitis, though. I got this one by wearing long johns with tight cuffs that irritated the skin on my left leg. That isn't the only way, but that's certainly one way. I got it just after I got back in January the same way.
I am going to have a busy, busy Wednesday, it seems. So I will get this published and make it another early night.
March 13 Special Weather Statement
I've been hoping to see one of these things this winter, but I sure didn't expect it to be in the middle of March! About 11:00 this morning, they canceled the winter storm warning and replaced it with a blizzard warning.
There was a little snow between 2:30 and 4:30 this morning, enough to just barely cover the roof, and there was only a little coming down when I got up. I did the bathroom first thing, and sort of ran the Swiffer around the floors, thinking that it was such a dull, cloudy day that any dust wouldn't be very obvious anyway.
The weather forecast was ominous, but when the appraiser called to say she was canceling out, while it was snowing, it wasn't snowing hard - here. It was worse in Houghton. However, it just kept coming and coming, and the wind kept rising and rising...At 8:00 pm, the wind was 36 mph out of the north-northeast, with gusts to 50 mph. It peaked (so far) at around 7:00, with sustained winds of 44 mph and gusts to 51 mph! That was when they pulled the plows. The barometer seems to have hit bottom, however, and the snow has slowed down a bit.
The snow is wet and heavy, and it is weighting down the pine branches, and the winds were swirling around the house so much that almost every window in the house is covered with snow. It's particularly bad on the patio door where the camera is, because that is the end of the line for the wind, and it hits the pine tree and swirls around right at the end of the deck - and all over the window. I opened the door a couple of times to see how things were, but I would have had to shovel the drift in front of the door before I could clean the window, and I just decided it was too much effort for something that would get covered up almost right away anyway.
Because the camera view got obscured around 2:00, I decided to take a few pictures with the Nikon, just so you could see how it is outside. The first picture was the only way I could show you how much snow there is on the deck - close to 12", I think. And remember, last night, it was dry and bare. The next two pictures are sort of what you would have seen out the window, if you could have seen out the window, around 6:45 this evening.
With the wind from the northeast, while it's been pretty noisy around here, and the snow was swirling around all over, it hasn't hit the house very hard, and it's been pretty comfortable in here all day long. The lake has been kicking up a real ruckus, and I can imagine it's nearly deafening at Ron's and Mac's houses. The temperature started out at over 35º last night, and it has fallen steadily all day, but it is still around 26º. That's why the snow is so heavy. It's really pretty to see, but I don't know whether it's good for the trees.
Ron tells me they called school in Calumet at 11:00 and sent the kids home, but Trevor didn't make it until an hour after his estimated ETA, so I bet Tom had a real fun trip back to the harbor in the bus.
This isn't the end of it, either. The system snow will be moving off to the northeast, but there is supposed to be plenty of lake effect snow behind it. This is what January is supposed to be all about.
It's
so much fun! It certainly wouldn't be fun to be out in, especially in a car, but
when this happens in Keweenaw, they pull the plows and everybody just shrugs and
goes into hibernation for the duration. As you know, I love big winds anyway,
and I don't mind at all if they are accompanied by big snows. I celebrated by not doing much. I messed up the stove royally when I made my breakfast (oatmeal for the first time in ages) and I cleaned that up, as well as the microwave when both my milk and my maple cream (which isn't cream at all anymore - it's like concrete when it's cold and thick syrup when it's warm) boiled over into it, but I cleaned them both up right away. And I did the powder room, and even scrubbed the calcite ring off the toilet. Otherwise, I did a little knitting, which bored me, and some more embroidery. it was a good day to do nothing.
Just before the window got all obscured, there was a flock of little birds at the feeder, trying to get a last seed or two before they found a safe place to roost. I really feel sorry for them, but I guess they'll cope. When I am out cleaning the window tomorrow, I will have to fill the feeders, too.
I had several nice e-conversations with people who noticed and wondered about the camera pictures.
In order to get tonight's pictures out of the camera, I had to finally unload everything that was in there, so there are some shots of the sky from February 12, February 23, and February 27. Not spectacular, maybe, but there are some nice cloud formations, and some good reds. So now the Gallery is all up to date.
I think it will be a good night to cuddle under the comforter and pull up a warm cat. Tomorrow, maybe I can get the window cleared off, and all the boxes down the basement and all the trash bags into the garage. The appraiser will be coming on Wednesday, I hope, but the snow situation should certainly be under control by then.
It's
a wild and hairy night in the field tonight, for sure! March 12 Last night was entirely too late, so I am going to try to do better tonight. I finally made it into bed at around 2:00, and the moon was shining brightly in my windows, but that didn't keep me awake at all. I only got up around 9:30 because the sun was out, and I wanted to enjoy that.
I did. It got really warm in here, but Buster and I spent most of the morning and midday soaking up the rays. He was sleeping, and I was knitting. I knitted until I started having problems with the pattern again. The thing is, with the fancy yarns I'm using, I can't see the pattern very well, and I'm used to deciding what to do next by sight. So I embroidered for a while, until it got dark. I'm doing leaves now, and they aren't so interesting as flowers, but I'm making progress.
The wind last night was hitting the front windows nearly straight on, and George Hite confirmed what I suspected, that it was a lot stronger than the NWS reported until around 4:00 am, when it dropped back a bit. I think it began to veer more northerly, too, although the reports don't say that. That NWS station isn't very accurate for winds from the southwest to northwest, and that includes the direction as well as the speed.
It was still windy today, but it was coming more out of the northwest, in the 25-35 mph range, until about 5:00, when it stopped. I do love the weather around here. One minute it can be blowing a gale, and five minutes later, it's nearly calm...or vice versa. The temperature got up to about 45º for most of the afternoon, and it was sunny and lovely, although the clouds began to thicken up after about 3:00, and there wasn't a sunset.
The NWS is in "the sky is falling" mode. I saw one forecast that was predicting 12-15" of snow over the next 24 hours, and I know that's bunk. I guess they are so afraid that somebody will get on them if they underestimate that they always grossly overestimate the precipitation. We are going to have a winter storm, and snow is certain, but 5-10" total is a more reasonable estimate. Here in the harbor, it's not likely we'll get that much.
I certainly hope we don't. The appraiser is supposed to come tomorrow, and I really, really want to get that over with.
Ron was out today in the tractor, smoothing down the ruts before the storm, and he was kind enough to do my driveway, too. The part that is perpendicular to the shoreline drifts rather badly, and I had put some rather deep and squiggly ruts in it over the past couple of days. The part that is parallel to the shore is bare, except for right in front of the garage door. So that sets us up for the new snow, which should make it a bit easier to get around, so long as it doesn't drift too badly.
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