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A View From the Field |
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September, 2006 September 30 My goodness, it's the end of September already! Where did that go?
I think it was going on 11:00 when I got to bed last night, but I was up at 8:30 this morning. Clearly, I'm getting a case of nerves about my trip south. It didn't help much, though. I diddled around for most of the day anyway.
I did get into the CPU and checked all the connections, which seem to be solid. So almost the minute I rebooted, it hung. What is causing that is beyond me. I would say the new CD-ROM drive, but it didn't start hanging until sometime after I installed it. Very weird.
I hope it will behave itself next week, but if it doesn't, I hope you will understand that I'm 600 miles away and busy, and I won't be able to check in every few minutes to see if it's working. I will do my best, but there may be some lapses in the pictures.
Which reminds me, It hung right after the weekly virus scan started. I suppose I should run that tonight, but letting it go for a week probably won't hurt.
I got the wash all put away neatly, and I got almost all the stuff out of the breezeway and put away, and I made piles of stuff I want to take with me to do, so now the only real thing on the "to-do" list is to fix the cat pans and pack the suitcases, the cooler and the car. I might make it yet.
Oh, yes, I spent a good portion of the day backing up my files onto the laptop. I had a terrible time; either Laplink or the desktop kept hanging up and I must have rebooted everything a dozen times or more. However, I certainly am glad I did that all today, because then tomorrow, I will only have to back up the web, which actually isn't so vital, since I can download it from the ISP if necessary.
I also spent some time fooling around and trying to move some of my new games to the laptop, so that I can move them to the desktop on Champine, but none of that worked. For one, I seem to have deleted the confirmation email with the registration keys, and for two others, there are no download files, and moving the installed files doesn't work. I am hassling with the one site about my purchase, and I haven't heard from the other site. Which reminds me, I will have to move the "savethis" email folder and combine it with the one on the laptop and the one on Champine.
The weather was OK. It got into the upper 40s overnight, but it has been right around 54º all day. The wind picked up this afternoon, and is now between 15 and 20 mph out of the north. It was partly to mostly cloudy all day long, although there were a few periods of sunshine. Sunset was pretty nice, but the damn camera was doing its usual thing, so when I went out to take some pictures, by the time I got it working and set properly (no flash), the pretty red clouds were gone. Hopefully, there will be more after I get back home.
I went to Harbor Haus tonight for dinner, and it was a real zoo, I must say. I got my very favorite table, behind the fireplace, and had a lovely meal, half of which I brought home for tomorrow night. A fan of the website who happened to be there (I don't know who it is) treated me to a raspberry cobbler, so I brought half of that home, too. My last meal here for a week will be a good one. And many thanks to whoever you are. You could have introduced yourself so I could have thanked you in person.
While I was eating, we were treated to a weather show. The sun peeked through the clouds and lit up the east bluff, which is turning yellow. Then there was a squall out on the lake, and when it passed by, there was a very beautiful rainbow behind Porter Island, while we could still see the rain to the east of it, and some of what looked like slanting crepuscular rays through the clouds and rain. It was lovely. Then there was an empty freighter, going west, and after that, there were some really interesting clouds so far out over the lake they were almost on the horizon. Mother Superior never disappoints.
So that was my second to the last day. The journal will be early tomorrow, to make sure I can get the last of the files moved and the last of everything packed up to go. I still hope to get away early on Monday, but we'll see. It isn't like the winter, when I have to get online and check the weather all the way south, so after I determine that the camera is working, I can ignore the computer (as if).
And now I will try hard to get to bed early again...I think I will skip the bath tonight, since I'm not going anywhere tomorrow, and that will help. I am in enough of a nervous state that I am not sleeping well. I had a number of remarkable dreams last night, all of which I have mostly forgotten, except that in one, I was fighting the aliens again. I really wonder what that means, but eventually I suppose I'll figure it out. It never ceases to amaze me what comes out of my unconscious mind.
September is over.
September 29 Since I got up at the wholly uncharacteristic time of 9:00 (and could have gotten up at 8:00), I will do this early and maybe get to bed early. I had every intention of going back to sleep at 8:00, but there was a fly in the room and my bones were aching, so after dozing for an hour, with interruptions, I had a coughing fit and decided to forget about sleep. So I'm tired.
I did accomplish some things today. The wash is nearly done - the load I had to re-wash (Eddie Bauer strikes again) is in the dryer and the rags are in the washer. The trash is gone, except that after I went to the post office (had to mail some bills), there is another small bag about half full. I have made sort of a start on getting the office organized and set aside the stuff I want to take with me to do.
That took most of the day, and then Nancy came to visit and get her lap board, and she bought two bracelets. We had a nice visit, and I showed her some of the Fire Mountain catalogs. She is mostly making really interesting and very lovely earrings (for pierced ears, darn it), and she has been paying full retail for her findings. She is planning to sell some of her things, so she needs to get her supplies as cheaply as possible, just like I do. I'm sure they will sell. Everybody who has pierced ears loves earrings, and hers are really nice. That is why I said some time ago that even if we were both doing the same sort of thing, like bead embroidery, I know our stuff would never look anywhere near the same. That's what's fun about crafts.
So I went to dinner late, but there weren't many people in the dining room at Mariner. From the cars it looked like there were a lot in the bar, and the motel seemed to be doing a good business. Peggy was upstairs, but I didn't go up.
The weather...oh yes. The NWS station finally began reporting everything around noon today. This morning, it was reporting wind but not temperature, but since it was steady all day long, that doesn't matter much. It was around 51º all day long, with southwest winds that started calm, peaked around 1:00 and then died back again. The peak wasn't strong - around 15 mph. Now, of course, south is the direction from which that station is most sheltered, so possibly they were stronger than that. It was mostly cloudy all day, with high, smooth clouds and puffy cumulous clouds underneath. What time I had to look at the sky, it was rather interesting. There were a few rays of sunshine, and it was never really dark, but there was no blue sky.
I got the bird feeders out fairly early, and not only were the birds there, the squirrels were back. It just takes them a few days to get used to the new regime. I'm still sorry I can't leave them out when I go. Anyway, the chickadees, nuthatches and blue jays were happy.
The computer woke up just fine, but it hung after 8:30, and again sometime in the afternoon, when I actually forgot it was down while I was doing something else, so there are a few pictures missing, but except for the interesting cloud formations, we didn't miss anything important. Tomorrow I simply must get inside the CPU and check the connections.
So that is all there is. I still have quite a list of things to do, but I'm making some headway. Since I have to be at the dentist so early Tuesday morning, I hope I can get out of here at a reasonable hour on Monday and get there at a reasonable hour in the evening. I know, the best laid plans...but I can hope. I do not want to go.
September 28 The NWS station is still not reporting numbers. I am tempted to call the Waste Management number and as them if they know it isn't working. They may think that because it is sending something, it is sending data. Wrong. So I don't have any real data to report about the temperature and wind.
I suspect it got up to slightly over 50º today, although I wasn't out much, and everybody I saw was wearing a jacket. The wind was mostly from the north, and not very strong. Great weather report.
I got to bed after 2:00 again. The computer glitched a bit, and I don't remember what I did after that, except that I did spend quite a while staring at the floor in the bathroom. I guess that is my way of unwinding and preparing for the night's dreams, but it does waste a lot of time that I could be sleeping. The one good thing is that by the time I do get to bed, I am really tired, so I have been sleeping well lately...and late.
It was a pretty day, even if I don't know what the temperature was. There were lots of puffy white clouds and quite a bit of sunshine, which made it nice.
When I did get to the office, I immediately called the dentist, and I have an appointment for 8:30 Tuesday morning...eek! I'm not quite sure how I will handle that, but maybe it will impel me to get an early start Monday, so i can get a few hours' sleep? However, that was all there was, unless somebody cancels out when they get called tomorrow. I can hope, but I probably won't get that lucky.
Most of my day was full of people. A reader of the site and some friends decided to come and see me, even though I didn't reply to his second email. They seemed like nice people, but you know, I think curiosity can get out of hand. Then my two packages of beads came -via two different carriers - and then there was Ron. In the meantime, I don't remember doing much, except that I am washing, and I did rustle around the kitchen a bit. I unloaded and began reloading the dishwasher, and I got rid of the trash and the pop bottles. It's not pristine, but it's better. I also tried to make some sense in the office, but that's hard, what with all the bead stuff lying around.
The second load of wash is in the dryer and the third load is in the washer, and I have one or two more loads to do, or maybe three, depending upon whether I do the towels and the rags. Tomorrow.
I put away the beads I had poured out yesterday, because it's clear I won't have any time to do much with that. I do have the fabric all ready to work on, whenever I get back to it.
I got the bird feeders out around noon, and I'm glad to say that some of my little birds and the blue jays found them. I can do without the squirrels and chipmunks, I guess, but I do like my little birds. it's a shame they will have to stay inside when I leave, but I don't want to risk encouraging the coons, and maybe destroying another couple of feeders.
The computer was weird today. It was hung when I checked it at about 7:00, but it seemed OK. Maybe something happened after 1:30, and if I rebooted it, the camera didn't come up right so for about 3 hours we had black screens. I rebooted again and it seems OK now. I really must get into the CPU and check all the connectors. Maybe tomorrow.
I must also note that sometime over the summer I seem to have lost a couple of forks from my "good" stainless set, and now I seem to have lost a cobalt double old fashioned glass. It's weird. Clearly, there is a black hole in this house, too. All I can hope is that eventually it spits everything back out. In the meantime, I am totally puzzled. Where do those things go?
So that was my day, and I am tired. I hope I can get the next load of wash into the dryer before I crash, maybe just a bit earlier tonight?
September 27 I can't tell you much about the weather, because the NWS station went down at 8:00 this morning, and while it is now communicating with the world again, it isn't saying anything...saying, "I'm here", but not transmitting any readings.
I do know it was around 50º all day, and it wasn't too windy, although the lake is kicking up nicely. I think the wind is probably out of the north-ish. But all that is a guess.
I think it's a plague. Not only have I been having computer troubles, at least four or five of the webcams I visit every day have been down intermittently for a week or so. I have a correspondent who has a camera on the northeast shore of Lake Superior, in Canada, and in the last big thunderstorms we had, he apparently sustained a direct hit, which fried one of his cameras and the com cards in his computer. I think he has an arrangement to have the camera replaced, but the computer components are his responsibility, and a costly one. It's been a strange September.
I got to bed only marginally earlier last night, because my computer balked and I had to reboot - only once this time - in order to get the journal uploaded. I slept good, but I was awake around 6:30, so I padded down to the office, and the computer was just fine, thank you. What do you bet that if I hadn't checked it, it would have hung up? It did hang twice this morning and once in the afternoon, but I was using it at the time and I think you would have to have looked carefully at the times on the webcam pictures to tell it was down.
Oh, yes, and after I did the computer thing last night, I went back to work on the brooch anyway, and started fooling around with template plastic and things like that. I had to do that over again this morning, because I made the template (to use as stiffening) too big, but I persevered and finished it after dinner, including the pin back. It came out pretty well, I think, for a second effort.
I have poured out a couple of kinds of amethyst-colored beads and I am beginning to think about what to do with them. I wanted to use copper with them, but I think now that gold will look better. I actually bought a little of two shades of purple cloth when I was at Wal-Mart, but neither of them goes with the beads, and besides, the dark background makes the beads look too dark. Probably a light orchid would work best (which I don't have and didn't see), but I guess I will work on the same off-white I used for the last brooch. I still hate the thought of cutting a big enough piece of fabric to use in the 4" hoop, but my 3" hoops are buried in the basement. Maybe I will try cutting a big enough piece so that I can use part of the leftovers for the backing. I backed the last one with felt again, but I don't really like that too well. Ultra-suede would be best, but that is buried in the basement, too. I guess I'll just use what I have and see what comes out of it.
It was a bright-cloudy day, which was good for using a needle, but it was a bit chilly when I went to the post office.
Oh, yes, and there is a glitch in my schedule. I was eating my dinner tonight when I discovered that I have chipped another tooth. This is the last molar on the left side (opposite of the crown I had done last spring). So now I will have to try to get to the dentist on Tuesday and probably make another fast trip back to Detroit before the end of October...not to mention the cost of another crown. Drat. When you get old, things, including your teeth, just start falling apart.
So tomorrow, besides starting on my to-do list, I will have to call the dentist and hope I can get to see him right away, since Wednesday and Thursday are pretty well packed already.
And that is all I know. It's bedtime.
September 26 The wind went away, and so did the clouds for a while last night. There was even a little sunshine right after sunrise this morning, and of course the camera was down again. It seems to hang up when nothing is going on. It did the same thing this afternoon while I was away. Really weird.
Unfortunately, it was 2:00 before I got to bed last night. I had another one of those nights where I had to reboot twice before I could get the journal to upload. This seems to go in cycles. For a while everything will be OK, then it goes south again. Isn't computing fun?
Anyway, I did sleep well, and I got up around 10:30, which I don't think was enough sleep, but I'll try to do better tonight. There were stars every time I got up, and rather bright ones, too, but no light shows. The lake was quiet enough that I could hear the bell buoy, and there was no wind to speak of.
When I got to the office, of course the computer had hung, and I got some weird stuff - like half of the GoBack screen - before I finally got it to boot right.
I had expected to hear from Nancy about lunch today, but she didn't call until 11:30, and lunch was at 12:30, but that was all right. I had time to remove the screens from the breezeway windows, and the only reason I was very late was that Julie didn't realize what party I was talking about. That's all right, too. I know a lot of people's first names and not their last names.
I met another very nice lady, although she had communicated to me by email, apparently. I'm sorry if I forget these things. I tend to remember only those people who talk to me a lot. Barb, your name is in my address book, so I guess you did email me. Anyway, I'm learning that a lot more people than I thought read this thing, and considering who some of them are, I guess I'm going to have to be careful what I say about who. That's all right. I've started a private journal, not online, for when I really have to vent about someone who may be reading this thing. However, I will continue to voice my opinions occasionally for all the world to read. That's what blogging is all about, and those of you who think my stuff is bad should read some of the others out there.
Anyway, with five ladies of a certain age, we had a very long lunch, but then Harbor Haus should be used to things like that when I'm with other people (not that I did a lot of talking). And two of the ladies are leaving for the winter over the next few days, so this will be the last time we'll all be together until next year.
It was a good thing I brought my screens along, because it was after 3:30 before I started for Calumet, and the glass company is only open until 5:00. I don't know what it is about me going to the glass company, but it seems every time I do it rains. It wasn't raining in Copper Harbor, but it drizzled or rained all the way down, and there were a few cars of people who seemed sure they were driving on glare ice.
Actually, I think they were mostly tourists who were enjoying the covered road. The maples are almost completely turned, and the birches are beginning to turn, between Copper Harbor and Lac Labelle Road, and it is really beautiful. The maples are very red and orange this year, and some of them looked even rosy red, although the true colors weren't easy to see because it was so dark. South of Delaware, the color is more spotty. I'm not sure whether that is because of the variety of trees, or because of the local microclimate, but several people have mentioned that the turning isn't so uniform this year. Even in the clouds and drizzle, it was beautiful, and the woods seemed almost lit from within.
So I got my window sash and left off the two screens. The thing I don't understand about the screens is, if the coons could tear a bunch of 1" round holes in them, how come they couldn't just rip big holes? I mean, coons are smart, and there was food in the breezeway. However, they didn't, which was a relief, because I don't need to clean up something like that.
The temperature was around 50º overnight, and it got - briefly - up to about 60º this afternoon. The wind was light from the southwest. It didn't start to rain in earnest until after I got home, but it hasn't amounted to much, just enough to dampen things and mess up the windows. I guess it's supposed to continue like that overnight. It was dark and dreary all day long. While we were eating, some clouds went by out over the lake that had little ripples parallel to the wind direction. It almost looked like a corrugated road (I was thinking about that, because the road to Hughes Farm looks - and feels - like that). I love to look at the clouds.
So that was my day. I started on the brooch before lunch, and when I got home, I attacked it with vigor and finished the beading. It came out all right. Tomorrow I will do the finishing, and I really will try to take some pictures. I don't know if these things are very good, but they're fun to do. After all the years I've worked mostly on a grid, doing something entirely freehand is sort of liberating, and so far I haven't been either too repetitive or representational. I'm constrained by the beads, of course, but the next one will probably be purple, and I think those beads are different mixtures. It's sort of fun to pour out a bunch of mixed beads on my board and think, well, what can I make with these? Some cool stuff, as it turns out. They are not good beads, but I regard these pieces as practice pieces, before I get to the really good, and expensive, beads. And both of the things I've made are small, which means they go fast. One of these days I'm going to try a 3" x 3" square...and that's a box top. The box project may get off the ground yet.
Now Buster is complaining that I won't go to bed and I won't let him sit on me, so I guess it's time to call it another day. I have started making a list of things I need to do before next Monday, but I haven't done anything yet. As my long-time readers know, that's how I am about going south. The only nice thing is, this time there isn't very much cleaning that needs to be done.
Oh, that reminds me. I had an infestation of gnats last night...not that I noticed it then. Only this morning, the bathroom counter under the nightlight was covered with teensy bugs, mostly dead. And some had even managed to crawl inside the lens of the nightlight, which is permanently attached (it's an LED). Evidently, there is a gnat-sized opening around the edges of the lens, but I'm afraid to try to take it off for fear I will break it. Sometimes those things just snap in, and sometimes they are glued in. There were also a few gnats in my drinking glass. Gack. Fortunately, I think I saw it before I drank any water. I don't think I imbibed any gnats overnight.
In the first place, I don't know where they came from. I do have the bedroom window open, and the bugs are small enough to get through the screen, but then why haven't they come in before? And why now? Very strange. And yucky.
So that's about it, and Buster is right. It's time to go.
September 25 Well! It was a wild and hairy night, and a wild and hairy day, too. The wind rose all night long, and between 4:00 and 7:00 we had ¼" of rain, and then...whoa! The wind shifted to the north and rose to almost gale force. For most of the day, until about 5:00 this afternoon, we had north-northwest winds in the mid-20 mph range, with gusts as high as 42 mph. The harbor was a mass of whitecaps, and the sky was full of fast-moving cumulous clouds. It was so windy that I didn't put out the bird feeders at all.
It is calming down a bit now, but the wind is still around 16 mph, but it was a fun day.
I do think I sleep better when the wind and the waves are howling, and I did good. I had a couple of weird dreams, but that didn't keep me from going back to sleep. Fighting the aliens again, I think, or something similar.
I made it out of bed at a reasonable hour this morning, but I ended up not doing much except getting a bead order together (which took all day, between the catalogs and the internet). I have started working on the next bead embroidered brooch, but I haven't gotten very far.
I have a bad habit, which started a long time ago, of being very stingy with my cloth when I embroider something that will be cut out. I hate to waste all those pieces I have to cut off, so I make the working piece as small as possible. That means, in this case, that I have a 3" x 3" piece of cloth, and since I am trying techniques, I am working this piece in a hoop - a 2½" hoop. It works fine, except when I have to end off a thread, so I guess I will be taking it out of the hoop a lot when I knot off the ends. And maybe the next time I will remember what I thought I knew - that a 2½" hoop isn't easy to work in. Oh, well. It isn't like it's $70 a yard linen or anything - it's just a piece of plain cotton with a piece of felt behind it. But I am stingy about certain things, like fabric and thread. Strange.
The computer hung up again last night, even though it was just fine when I left it. I wish I knew what was going on with it. Anyway, this time, we all missed a very nice early morning. Maybe tomorrow?
So that was another quiet day, and it is time to trundle up to the north end and see if I can do as well as last night when it's all quiet and calm.
September 24 There was a light show going on outside last night, but unfortunately it was too cloudy to really see it. I woke up around 2:30 and noticed that the northern half of the sky looked very bright, like dawn was breaking or something. So I got on my glasses and took a look when I went into the bathroom. There was definitely something going on out there, up almost 40º into the sky, but what I could see of it looked like just a bright white glow with no structure to it. The clouds were coming in fast enough that I really couldn't see much. It was about the same at 4:30, but even more frustrating, because there were just a few clouds in front of the glow. By 6:30 it was beginning to get light enough that anything up there was washed out. So the good old sun surprised us again.
Otherwise, I did sleep well last night. The wind was in the 20-30 mph range from the northeast, and I could hear both it and the lake. The lake was singing loudly, and it put me right to sleep.
When I got up, the sky was beginning to clear and the wind and waves were beginning to die down. The wind shifted around to the north, and then to the northwest, and by this evening the lake was almost calm again. It was a partly cloudy day, with pretty clouds in the sky. The temperature stayed right around 50º all day long.
The computer hung up again last night, so there were no pictures until I got to the office this morning. This is beginning to annoy me.
I ended up just playing around for most of the day, although not with games. Every so often I fiddle around with a list of something I'm keeping, and this was the day.
Eventually, I put out the bird feeders, but it didn't look like very many critters came to eat, and when it got dark, I brought them in again. Darn coons. The little birds like to eat first think in the morning, and I'm not available then.
I ate at Harbor Haus again, and it was surprisingly busy for a Sunday in late September. I guess there are a lot of people up here for the color or something.
So that was another quiet day in the field, and it's quiet outside tonight, too. So I will trundle off to the north end and see if I can get caught up on my sleep tonight?
September 23 Happy first day of autumn. I forgot to change the banner today. Tomorrow.
I have an excuse. I had an awful night last night. Around 3:00, I woke up with abdominal cramps and a very queasy stomach, and it was 4:30 before things settled down enough for me to go back to bed. I even had to use the barf bucket a bit, but there wasn't anything in my stomach at that point. What brought that on, I do not know, unless I have developed my mother's inability to eat corn and melon at the same meal.
Anyway, I didn't get up until 11:00, and I only did then because I was getting twitchy. I didn't feel very robust today, although I had no more stomach problems and a dose of Imodium fixed the other end. I'm just sort of blah. So I fiddled around, looking at bead catalogs and sample cards, and did nothing in particular.
I did eat at Mariner tonight, and it was respectably busy for late September. There seems to be some sort of gathering of motorcyclers in town, and there was a group of nine at the next table who were a bit noisier than I could have wished, but they were happy.
The weather...oh, yes. It rained intermittently all night and all day, and it was foggy and dank and dismal. The temperature wasn't bad - it's been right around 55º for the past 24 hours. The wind was in the 10-20 mph range for most of the day, but around 5:00 it began rising and is now 20-30 mph and is slowly moving from the east around toward the north. The lake has been setting up a howl which has now risen to quite a volume, and the waves seem to be in the 6-foot range. Since the wind is supposed to stay rather strong through the night, they may go higher.
This is our equinoctial storm, right on schedule. I don't know what exactly it is, but more years than not there has been a nice blow right at the equinox. This one won't be quite so strong as the one last weekend, but I can hear the wind and the lake, and it will be a good night to sleep.
The camera never started up this morning, for some reason. Evidently the reboot I did last night, while it enabled me to upload the journal, didn't work for the camera. Besides, while I had a cursor and I could move it, neither the buttons nor the keyboard were working (they were when I left last night...) so I had to fool around with that for a while. I guess that sometime next week I am going to have to open up the cpu and check all the connectors to make sure they are well plugged-in. I would hate to have this keep happening while I am in Detroit. I'm not sure Ron would feel comfortable babysitting the computer as well as the cat.
So that is all I know, and the lake is calling me up to the north end for a nice, deep sleep. Let's hope so.
September 22 Well, I didn't get to bed very early last night after all. The journal just would not upload until I cycled the wireless receiver, so I finally jumped into bed around 11:30. When I woke up, around 3:00, I was so stiff and sore that I was up and down for over an hour, until whatever brain chemical it is kicked in again. Weather, I think.
I finally got up around 11:00, but I didn't do much. I kept looking at beads, and I finally set up the fabric for an oval brooch, but I decided not to try to start it until I am a little brighter.
The weather wasn't very nice. We had a little rain between 10:00 and noon, then it started again about 4:00 and so far we have had over ¾", and it is still raining. In fact it was so yucky that I ate in tonight... The temperature isn't bad, though. It got into the upper 50s, and there was only a moderate wind from the southeast.
However, this damp, coolish weather is not good for the creaky joints. I am having particular trouble with my hands and wrists. I finally dug out my Hand-Eze fingerless gloves, and that did help some, although not with my fingers. They have a lycra band around the wrist and nylon palms, and besides compressing your hands and wrists, they keep them warm. I have to wear them with the seams out, or they leave deep groves in my hands, but they do seem to help.
I decided to eat in tonight, partly because of the weather, but partly because I have been out so much this week. I needed to lay in some steaks for the freezer, but they didn't have much in the way of strip or rib-eye steaks, so I got a package of what they call "Charcoal steaks". They are from some part of the chuck. Well, I think they call them Charcoal steaks because they expect them to be so over-cooked and black and full of lighter fluid that you couldn't tell what they taste like. They aren't particularly tough for that cut of meat, but they don't have very much flavor, either.
However, I also had three ears of white corn (well, pale yellow) that I got at Hughes Farm, and that was wonderful. I suppose it would have been better if I'd eaten it Tuesday, but it sure tasted good to me.
Just a note, I got an email from one of my neighbors, who had checked with the Coast Guard about the lighthouse. Apparently the light they are using now is going to be permanent. They claim it is just as bright from far away as the old one was, but mostly, they can't get parts for the old one and this one is lower voltage. They think that it switches automatically to battery (or generator) backup when we have a power outage, but it certainly didn't the last time the power went out. If that happens during the next power outage, I may have to call the Coast Guard station myself...
Oh, yes, the critter saga continues. This morning, the thistle socks were on the ground under the tree, empty. And when I went through the breezeway to the garage, there are now several rather large holes in both screens on the windows, which I have had open...speaking of which, I must go and close them. That is where I keep the birdseed, and there are some bread products out there right now, too. So I have some very persistent, hungry critters around here. When I go down to Calumet to get my window sash (next week?), I will have to take those screens and get them fixed.
On the topic of critters, Ron tells me the Copper Harbor school bus had an encounter with a deer down around Central yesterday on the way to school. Totaled the deer, and sort of messed up the bus, but nobody in the bus was hurt. Apparently the only question on the bus was whether it was a buck. Ron went down later and said that there were still deer parts scattered all over the place. Yuck. And I wonder what they're using for a bus?
Except for a grouse that flew into the trees yesterday and a lone goose on the road this afternoon, I haven't seen any critters at all lately.
So that was a quiet day, and I think another good night's sleep is in order. This drippy, dreary weather is good for that.
Two last notes. I just discovered that the camera hung up at 2:13 this afternoon, and never captured a new picture before it went off at 9:30. Sorry about that. You didn't miss much.
I just went out to close the breezeway windows, and when I pulled down the left-hand one, there were little tooth marks all along the outside upper edge of the lower sash, and little chips of wood scattered around. Now, why in the world a mouse would do that, I just do not know! I may have to let Buster out into the breezeway yet. It has to have been done in the past week, because Mark closed it when he washed the window, and it wasn't there when I opened it again. Very strange.
So the critter wars continue.
September 21 Wow, my quiet social life has exploded!
What with the journal and having to wind down and take a bath, it was 3:00 before I got to bed this morning. I didn't get up till 11:00, but that wasn't nearly long enough. It will be an early night tonight, for sure.
When I got up this morning and finished my morning surfing, I immediately got at the brooch, or whatever it is, but with various interruptions, it was 4:00 before I finished the edging. I decided then that I didn't have time to make a chain for it, so I sewed a pin back on it. I have a sort of dark turquoise blue sweater, so I pinned it in the middle of the front, and that was what I wore to the CHIA dinner tonight. I had a terrible time with the edging, because my hands kept cramping up, and they are both really sore tonight. If it isn't too dark tomorrow, I will try to take a picture. Several people said they thought it was nice, so I guess it turned out pretty well for a first effort.
There is a resurgence of interest in the CHIA dinner, and there were quite a few people there. It has been a good year for the Harbor, all things considered, even though there were 8 or so deaths of prominent people since last year. I knew about 6 of them. All the community special events were successful. The Hunter's Point Preserve has been a great success already, and there are more improvements planned (which won't make me happy, but it will give more access). So it was a nice evening altogether, even though I don't like the Mountain Lodge's food as well as either Harbor Haus's or Mariner's.
The Sestoks were there, and we will no doubt be hooking up soon so that Nancy can get her lap desk.
It turned out to be a lovely day. Those who predicted it would rain were completely wrong, but those who predicted it would be completely clear were wrong, too. There was a mixture of sun and clouds, and it got into the upper 50s this afternoon. There was a little wind around noon, but it died away, and it was quite comfortable without a jacket this evening. There did seem to be some stars when we left the Lodge, and the Sestoks and their guest were going up on Brockway to see what they could see. I came home.
I finally got to talk to Rich Jamsen (he owns the lighthouse boat) about the lighthouse, but he doesn't know what the problem is either. He suspects that when the Coast Guard found that it wasn't rotating properly, they just gave up on it because they can't get parts. I'm of two minds about it. The present light is a measly little thing, but then I doubt many boats out in the big lake really need to navigate by the lighthouses anymore. On the one hand, I miss the big light, but on the other hand, the smaller one is sort of behind the trees and doesn't shine in my eyes so much, and in a few years the trees will hide it completely. But the big like was comforting.
So that was my rather truncated day, and maybe I can sort of catch up on my sleep tonight.
September 20 Well, this turned out to be a long day.
The wind blew and the lake howled all night long, but when I looked up, there were some stars out. It was a bit cool in the bedroom with the window open, since the wind was out of the north, but I could cuddle under the covers and make my own temperature. I got up around 9:00 for a change, and it was just as well, since I got a phone call shortly thereafter, but I didn't get to the office very early, because this was the day to refill the pill dispensers.
When I got up, the sun was peeking over the garage, a lot lower and a lot further south than the last time I was up at that hour. There was blue sky and there were also a lot of puffy clouds, some of which looked like lake effect clouds to me, but there was no rain, and as it turned out, there was a lot of sunshine all day long. The wind was still in the 20-30 mph range, and for quite a while today there were whitecaps on the harbor. It was a pretty day. The temperature was nearly steady in the low 50s, but it didn't really feel too cold out.
The tasks of the day were to get the car unloaded and take the trash to the dumpster, and I did accomplish both. The stuff from the car is all still in the breezeway, but the trash is all gone for a change. Of course, when I went to the post office, I had to start a new bag, but I expected that.
I got the furniture moved back where it belongs, and Mike, Gary and Karen came to see the house, and we had dinner again at Harbor Haus, and shut the place down again, then we went back to their cabin, which is quite nice. Mike brought me home a while later, but we got to talking and so now it's late. We don't see enough of each other, and he is doing the same sort of job I did for the last 15 years I worked. It was a very nice evening.
I did work on my beading for a while, and I have decided to put a beaded chain on it and wear it as a necklace. However, first I have to get it put together, and that is taking more time than I expected. I am also going to have to dip into another tube of beads to get enough of one color to go all the way around. I would like to finish it to wear tomorrow night to the CHIA dinner, but I'm not sure I will, especially now that it's so late.
So that was a lovely fall day, and it's tomorrow already.
September 19 I didn't get to bed very early last night, but when I did, I did sleep. Along about 4:00 the wind started to rise, and the lake started singing loudly, which always helps. There was a shower between 5:00 and 6:00, and after that the lake was really loud. I couldn't hear the wind much, because it was out of the north, but it was rising into the 25-35 mph range. The window was open just enough that it kept the bedroom nice and cool, and oh, I didn't want to get up!
I didn't get up until 9:30, which meant I was going to get a late start at any rate, and when I got to the office, that was obvious. The computer was hung, and when I got that fixed, the broadband was down. Something apparently broke loose between 7:15 and 7:30, and it took several hours to fix it. In the meantime, I almost didn't have a computer. Between the hangs, the blue screens, the black screens, and other odd happenings, I was beginning to wonder just what was going on. I especially wondered when I fired up the laptop just to see the weather, and that hung, too! I was beginning to feel snakebit.
Eventually, sometime after noon, everything settled down, the broadband came up, and I left. It wasn't a very nice day. The temperature hung right around 50º here, but it was in the middle 40s inland and further south, and while the wind wasn't much of a factor, it kept spitting rain, and there was quite a shower between the Eagle Harbor cutoff and Cliff drive.
However, it is really beautiful, especially along the covered road. The maples are mostly turned, and they are very red and orange this year, and on a dull gray day like today, they looked like they were on fire. The oaks and birches are mostly still green, or yellow-green, but oh, those maples!
I think I made it to Wal-Mart by 1:30 or so, after a stop at Hughes farm. I have tomatoes, mixed salad greens, lots of beets, corn, Yukon Gold potatoes and onions. It's cool enough in the breezeway now that the potatoes and onions should be safe, and I've been wanting to freeze some more beets. They didn't have any Delicata squash yet. The lady, I think the owner, said she opened one a week or so ago and they weren't ripe yet. So I will probably miss out this year, darn it. By the time I get back from Detroit, I wouldn't be surprised if they are all gone. I will have to make a trip down there as soon as I get back, just in case.
I did the rounds at Wal-Mart, and after I left the craft area, I was nearly sure they didn't have any more of the nice shelves I had gotten, but then I found them on the way to the checkout. So I have two more, which should help keep the breezeway as neat as possible. It just occurred to me that I got pin backs, and I don't have them in the house. I hope they are still in the car.
For some reason, they had only the checkouts at the far end of the building open when I checked out, so it was a long walk, and when I went to put on my coat, I discovered that I had buried my prescription and not paid for it, so I had to go around and through another checkout again. My mind...
It was nasty in Houghton, about 45º, drizzling, and windy. Yuck. However, I went on to Econo and stocked up on stuff. Some, like veggie trays, is for the next two weeks, and some, like meat and frozen dinners, is for when I get back. I really needed to lay in some steaks, but I'm not too sure about the ones I got. However, I was casting around the meat counter, and what did I discover but beef short ribs, the real thing! I don't often see them anywhere, and in my opinion, they are one of the most flavorful cuts of beef of all. They are usually pretty fatty, of course, but these are about as lean as they get. Oh, I will feast, after Harbor Haus closes. Otherwise, I seemed mostly to get things to drink. I had run out of most pop except for coke, so I decided it was time to lay in some other things, plus my usual premium pop and fruit-flavored water. And paper goods, and...well, you get the idea. However, by shopping once a month or less, I actually spend less at the grocery than if I went every week or two, so I guess it evens out.
I was totally wiped out by the time I left Econo, and besides, I came up with a very sore left wrist. Left hand is carry - right hand is fetch - and I was having an awful time even lifting a ¾ gallon of orange juice. The kitty litter was nearly impossible. I'm sure it was the weather. My wrist is still sore. Then when I went to get gas, I discovered that their pumps were all closed, darn it. They still have the lowest price around here - $2.50 a gallon. I ended up at the BP in Allouez, where it was $2.54. I hear it's a lot less downstate, but any little bit helps. It does make me bitter that it dropped precipitously right after Labor Day, even though there wasn't any change in the demand.
Then it was home, and I got behind a jerk who was in no hurry to get down the covered road and wouldn't turn off. My right leg was cramping, as it often does after I've been walking a lot, and I wanted to get home! Somehow, I have the feeling that my seat isn't going back as far as it should. Maybe it's hung up on the folded down back seat. I will have to raise it and see if I can get my seat to go back further. I thought I used to have more leg room.
The lake was still roaring away when I got back, and the wind was still in the 25-35 mph range, but it has now switched a bit to the north-northeast. The temperature stayed right below 50º all day long, here at least, and after I got here, there was another rain shower, although it spitted rain all the way home. I'm really glad we are having a little blow like this. The other night Gary was mentioning that he had never seen the lake kick up at all. I hope he's enjoying it. It is cool to see a solid line of breakers between Hunter's Point and Porter Island. Between the island and Lighthouse Point, where the channel is, there is usually a break in the white, but the way it comes in, we have breakers down at our end of the harbor. And oh, that wonderful roar! It's not like a real gale, but it's beautiful music to sleep by.
The computer had behaved itself all day, and I sat and listened to the news and features before I unloaded the car, so it was 9:00 before I ate, and it is going to be late when I get to bed, but oh, well.
Buster was very glad to see me, and he sat on my lap, and in fact, went to sleep on it, while I was listening to the radio. He was pretty sleepy today. He got a mouse early this morning, of which he ate only the head, darn him. If he is going to eat them, I wish he'd eat the whole thing. My mother's mom cat taught all her kids to only eat the heads, of both mice and birds, but Buster seems to have learned it on his own. Too bad.
After the closet got cleaned out, I put the cat bed I had brought from Detroit in the far corner under the clothes tree, and it didn't take him more than a day or two to find it. I knew he would like it, because he likes to curl up in small places, and the floor in the closet is usually warm. I'll bet that turns out to be his favorite winter hideout.
The bird feeders didn't ever get put out today, unfortunately. It was too yucky and too windy this morning, and besides, I didn't have time, what with the fooling around with the computers. I'm sorry for the little birds. The goldfinches have begun to return, so this winter I will leave the thistle feeders out. But with the raccoons, I will have to bring them in every night, and that is a pain.
So that is all I know, and it's time for bed.
September 18 It was a good night to sleep, and I did very well, thank you, in spite of being up at 3,4,5,6, and 8. I was awakened just before 10:00 by a bank wanting to know if I had really written that big check to Mark on Saturday. But it was time to get up anyway.
When I was up, I was rather surprised to see that it was clear all night long. There were stars and a little, weak moon that rose very late. Around 5:00 there might have been a glow on the horizon to the north, but I couldn't be sure. The temperature overnight started out around 60º and dropped to 50º early in the morning.
The morning was beautifully clear, too, but along about noon the clouds started to pile up, and there were some rather dramatic pictures from the camera in the afternoon, with black clouds hanging over the harbor, but it didn't rain. In fact, every time they update the weather forecast, there is less rain in it. That will be good for Mike and Gary and Karen, but we need rain!
The temperature got up to 60º, but there wasn't much wind and it wasn't uncomfortable outside.
I had a terrible time with the computer all day long. I am beginning to fear I have a hardware problem, but I can't imagine what it might be. It kept hanging up, and at least twice, I couldn't get a good reload the first time. I got blue screens and black screens and all sorts of nasty things. It's been OK for a while, although the disk just went crazy for about five minutes. Well, we'll see what happens.
I did pay a couple of bills and I went to the post office. It is now on winter hours, and it closes at 3:00. The problem is, the mail comes at the same time it did when the office was open till 4:00, so all the mail doesn't get out before the window closes. That leaves me with a choice: I can either check for packages and not get all the first-class mail, or I can go late and get the first-class mail and not the packages. It isn't Clyde's fault - he just does what they tell him, and they are trying to save money by not having him officially there so long in the off-season. However, it is annoying for those of us who live here.
Then I came back and finished the beading on the brooch - with a cat on my lap. Buster was very clingy all day long, I guess to make up for my absence last evening. I think the brooch came out pretty good for a first effort. I have begun to finish it, but I didn't get very far. I have to stitch all around it with beads, and it will take a while, and the spacing of the stitches is still a problem. I would like to get it done.
Adam called to say he would rather wait until after I get back from Detroit to come and finish up, and that's fine. They are building a house on the big lake, and he will be clearing the site this fall, so he will be around and maybe he can spare me a few minutes.
And Cindy called to ask if I want to go to the Copper Harbor Improvement Association dinner on Thursday. My goodness, all my social events are happening all at once!
I was finishing my dinner after dark when I heard some strange noises on the deck, so I went over to the door and turned on the light, and there in the corner of the deck was a little, fat raccoon. I chased him away, but when I moved around, two more appeared - a big one hanging on the branch with the tube feeder and another little one around the small feeder. They scuttled up the tree when I went out, and I brought in all the feeders. Drat. All three coons are very, very fat and healthy looking, and I suspect they may have been eating my birdseed for a while now. It is a real pain to bring in all the feeders every night and put them out in the morning, but on the other hand, I don't want to feed raccoons any more than I want to feed bears, so I guess I will.
The trouble is, coons are so darn cute! These guys are really fat, like I said, and they have very nice thick coats. The one on the deck had a big ruff around his neck, and he almost looked like a furry bowling ball on legs when he ran off. I think I have mom coon and two youngsters. The one in the tube feeder was really big, and it was funny to see her hanging by her front paws from the branch like it was a trapeze. The camera did take a picture of the light on the deck, but it didn't catch any coons, I'm sorry to say. And at the time, I was far more interested in getting them to go away than in documenting them.
After I turned out the light, I heard thumping around for a while, and I think that was mom and the other kid jumping down from the tree and going after the other little guy (little being relative).
So that was the excitement of the day, and it's time for bed. I have targeted tomorrow to go to town, and with my schedule and the state of the orange juice, I'd better be sure I do. So I will try to get this uploaded and hope the computer behaves itself tonight and tomorrow.
September 17 I made it into bed before I collapsed, and I got a couple of hours' sleep before the thunder started and the rains came and stayed for two hours. I was wakeful after the rain stopped, and then there was another thundershower, much smaller, between 4:00 and 6:00. After that, I finally settled down and got a few more hours in. So it was a dark and stormy night in the field last night.
It was foggy this morning and hazy and cloudy for most of the day. There was only a ray or two of sunshine all day long, and it was very humid. The temperature, which was around 65º for most of the night, climbed to 75º for a while this afternoon before it plunged to 60º and then recovered a bit. I don't know why it cooled off, although it did look pretty dark out over the lake for a while.
Since I was late, I didn't do much, and I was wrestling with a balky computer for most of the day. It started out with very slow internet access, then it hung up three or four times. So if there was a picture missing or a long time between pictures, that was the reason. I hope it's OK now, but I will reboot it before I go to bed, and hope it's OK in the morning.
However, this evening, I had a delightful dinner with some friends from Detroit, whom I haven't seen in a couple of years. I worked with Mike for a long time, and I really enjoy seeing him, his friend Gary and Gary's sister Karen. We closed down Harbor Haus again, like we always do. I was so glad to see them. I had decided they'd never make it up here this year either, and it was so nice that they did. They won't be here long, just the week, but they love the place, and they can hike, so they'll have a great time. I hope to see them again.
So that was a pleasant evening, and Buster was very happy to see me.
When I went to shut the sliding door, I noticed that the platform feeder was on the deck, all dumped out, and something scrambled down the tree, leaving the little feeder swinging. The big wooden feeder was completely empty, not even a shuck. Hmmm...This morning when I got to the office, the bottom of the hummingbird feeder was on the deck, and all but one of the bee guards had been chewed out. The feeder on the deck had been moved a couple of feet, and it was almost empty, too. So I guess I have a critter. I don't think it's a bear. A bear would have crunched everything, and would probably have torn the thistle socks to pieces. I suspect this is a raccoon. So I guess I will have to begin to bring the feeders in at night again, darn it. Half of the hanger for the platform feeder is missing. I hope I will find it on the ground tomorrow, so that I can hang it back up. There was a pine branch on the deck, too, but I don't know where that came from. I know the critters are hungry, but I wish they'd go someplace else.
So that was my nice day, and I hope it's a bit quieter tonight, so that I can get some more sleep.
September 16 Wow, I'm tired! It was late when I got to bed last night, and because I didn't know when - or if - anybody would be coming today, I got up around 9:30, which wasn't my usual quota of sleep even if I hadn't been up 6 times. Then nobody arrived until 12:30. Figures. If I'd just slept on, they would have shown up at 10:00.
Mark and Paula arrived at 12:30. They stayed south of the bridge overnight, and it seems there was a parade this morning before the Tech football game, and they just closed US-41. Oops. However, they got right at it, and left about 5 hours later. I have pristinely clean windows - all of them - and the woodwork around the windows is clean, too. So are the windowsills between the windows and the screens. I also have a new battery in the basement smoke detector. So we'll see if that cures the cheeping, and if Buster will begin to go down to use the trays there. I'm letting the tray at the top of the stairs get really dirty, in the hope of convincing him to go back to the kitty bathroom.
Then Kim arrived, alone. Baby-sitting problems again, so Adam ended up having to sit the kids. That's all right, because the caulk hadn't arrived. Maybe next week. He is having to get it at the place that did my tile, and they are acting up, because he doesn't use them as a sub anymore, and also because when they heard I was still having trouble with my tile, they didn't offer to fix it.
We attacked my closet, and I now have an impeccably clean, neat closet, for the first time in a long time. I have a crate of shoes and a big bag of clothes to take with me for the house sale, and I have a much better idea of what clothes I have - too many by far. That was pretty strenuous work, though, and my legs were sore and rubbery by the time we finished. She did some other things, and I kept remembering things I wanted to do, so by the time Mark and Paula left, I was hungry and thirsty and very, very tired. So this entry is getting done early and then I am going to take a nice, refreshing shower and crash.
The weather was great for what we were doing, although we almost had a rain shower in the middle of things. When I got up this morning, it was very hazy down the harbor and partly sunny, and the temperature was 64º already. It eventually topped out at 73º. There was a good wind from the south, with gusts up to 30 mph for a while, and since it was very humid - still is - it was a good thing we had the wind, although it made working on a ladder on the lake side of the house somewhat interesting. It is now cooling off again, and there may be some rain tonight. It is very sticky.
The camera didn't come up this morning, because the computer hung again. I was playing TextTwist last night. I don't know what it does, but it isn't anything good. What a good reason not to play it. It's addictive anyway, so better I don't unless I know for sure I will be rebooting after I finish. I don't think it was much different earlier, although it is fun to see the sun rise on the mountain.
Mark said that the covered road is very colorful. That's early, but then the color is early around here, too. I think it's the dryness. I will see this week, because I really have to go to town and lay in supplies.
There was hardly anybody in Mariner tonight, which is a shame. I am pigging out on salad bar, because this is the end of it. It's for sure that the dining room is going away next year, and that means no salad bar. I hope it doesn't mean they won't have a full menu in the bar, but I haven't asked Peggy about it.
I saved another sunset picture from the camera. This one was earlier than the one on Thursday, but in the next one, the sun was gone behind the clouds. It gives you an idea how much the sun has moved south in only two days. Besides, it was kind of pretty. It is really moving now, and by next Friday, it will be setting behind the hill right in that notch underneath it tonight. And in less than a month from then, it will be out of the picture on the left (or I think that's the timing). I'm glad I have my new task lamp.
While I was down in the basement, I went through the box marked "open first" and did find a few things to bring upstairs. It wasn't all that vital, but it did have some things in it that I find useful. So I have officially partially unpacked the first box.
So that was my strenuous day, and now I am going to hobble up to the north end, take a nice hot shower, and crash. What a nice thought!
September 15 It's the middle of the month already, and I have no idea where the time went.
I did get to bed rather earlier last night (I won't tonight), but after the first four hours or so, I didn't sleep very well. Part of it was that I had a hard time getting my temperature right, and part of it was who knows? It turned out that I could have left the door open, since the temperature overnight only got down to 60º here, but I didn't know that. The "who knows?" part of it is harder to remedy. My little mind seemed to be going in tight circles.
So I got up middlin' late and diddled around for most of the day. I did remember that my estimated taxes are due today, but I forgot that the post office goes on its winter hours today, so while I mailed my checks and picked up the mail in my box, I couldn't check for packages. Probably there weren't any, because Clyde usually leaves a signature slip in the box when there is a package that isn't picked up.
It was a beautiful day, and I enjoyed it by having the doors open all day long. The temperature got up to 75º, with a moderate breeze from the southwest, and it was really lovely. The only thing that marred it for me is that there are still a lot of people in the campground, and when the wind is from the southwest and it is a bit cool, I get the full thrust of the smell of wood smoke, to which I am somewhat allergic. It gives me a headache and makes me sneeze. It gets into the house whether it's opened up or not, and having it open actually clears out the smell better than trying to keep it closed up.
I fiddled around so much that I didn't make it to the trash compactor, so I still have orange bags lying around. I must try to get them out to the garage tomorrow. I had hoped to prepare a bit for people to come tomorrow, but I didn't really do that, either. Sometimes I just opt out.
I guess I read a couple of magazines, at which I am very much behind, and I made a couple of telephone calls about my address change. I got the forms to officially change my homestead for property tax reasons, so I will have to fill those out over the weekend and send them off in all directions. There are two long forms and two pages of very fine print instructions, to which I need to give my full attention.
I did get the bird feeders refilled this evening, and the camera caught a beautiful picture of my double chin. I was trying to hang the platform feeder, and one of the chains came off, and the camera caught me as I was putting the thing back together. That meant I spilled a lot of seed on the deck, but I have no fear that it will be cleaned up perfectly before the day is done tomorrow. The chickadees were waiting, apparently, and they got very excited and told everybody about it when I came out onto the deck, but they waited until the tube feeder was full and I stood still for a moment before they came to get their dinner. It was almost dark when an altercation broke out between the squirrels. For heaven's sake - there is plenty of seeds for everyone, and more where that came from. But they are greedy little things anyway, and there are a couple who really don't like each other.
There wasn't much of a sunset tonight. There were high, thin clouds all day long, and they gathered up in the west around sunset. so we didn't see the sun go down (behind the Sestok's house, actually). And they are saying that tomorrow will be the end of the warm weather. Weil, it was nice while it lasted, anyway.
So now I must try to get to bed, because I will have to be up and more or less logical fairly early tomorrow. September is half gone. Sigh.
September 14 It took me about 5 tries and two reboots before I got the journal uploaded last night, and as a result I was much too late getting to bed. I did get my 8 hours, but that meant it was 11:00 or more before I got up, and I felt groggy all day long. Sometimes I feel like staying up till that hour, and sometimes I don't. Last night was a don't, but oh, well.
It was a nearly completely lost day. I did cycle out the last of the clean dishes, started refilling the dishwasher, and I began gathering the trash into an orange bag. The task of the day for tomorrow is trash. I don't have a huge amount, but there's enough that it's time to go to the compactor.
It was a nice day. I never did see any stars, because it was beginning to get light when I got up for the first time. When I got up for good, it was sort of clear, with very high, thin, even clouds over the entire sky, which dimmed the sun somewhat. That lasted pretty much all day long, although it got brighter as the day went on. There was a thick haze on the horizon at sunset, which meant it wasn't pretty, but it was definitely interesting. Notice where the sun is now! It is fleeing south at about 3¼ minutes a day, which I think is about as fast as it ever goes. I do hate to see it go.
I stuck my head out the door when I got up, and it smelled like autumn, and it was a bit chilly to leave the door open at that point, but I had the doors open for most of the afternoon, and it was lovely. The temperature got up to about 70º, with not too much wind, and it was so nice to have the fresh air. I did close the one in the office just now, because the temperature has plunged to 62º, and there is a little breeze. The next couple of days are supposed to be warm before we head into our usual equinoctial yucky weather, and I plan to enjoy it. This is the time of year when we here at the shore get the most variation in temperature between day and night. It was 52º last night, and it is supposed to be about the same tonight. I get spoiled during the times when the temperature is nearly constant, but I won't leave the door open tonight.
Buster seemed glad to have the porch open, except that when I opened the kitchen door, the next thing I knew he was sitting in front of the bedroom door, which was still closed. I sometimes wish I knew what goes on in his fuzzy little head. He was pretty happy today, because he got to sit on my lap as much as he wanted, since I wasn't doing anything much.
So that was a short, quiet day, and I am going to try hard to get to bed at a more or less reasonable hour tonight and catch up on my sleep. With the change of seasons, I need more sleep, as usual, and I didn't get it last night.
September 13 I actually didn't get to bed too late last night, and I wasn't too late getting up this morning. So that was a good thing.
However, Buster was meowing around, and he kept at it, and clearly I wasn't understanding him. A couple of times he got onto the new throw I had put on the counter and made like he was going to do something, then he kept meowing, and finally he peed on the floor by one of the orange bags...well! So I got the small pan from his cage and put it in the back hall. Then I had to try to grab him, which I finally did, after some trouble, and I put him in the tray. He ran away then, but as soon as I went back into the office, he used it, and he used it again tonight.
Apparently his problem has been that he will not go into the basement so long as that smoke detector is cheeping at us. For some reason, the battery in that one only seems to have failed, and even though it is tied into the electrical system, it cheeps intermittently anyway.
What with all the cleanup...I found a couple of more places, including my basket full of the plastic bags I use for my jewelry...I never did make it into the basement today. I have discovered that I have a good supply of 9-volt batteries, so I guess tomorrow is the basement day. I was going to wait for Adam, but my caulking compound hasn't come, and that would be Saturday anyway.
I ended up straightening the office, which had gotten a lot of stuff in the middle of the floor again, and I threw away a lot of catalogs. I have a lot more to go, but I got tired. I got to the sewing machine and mended a pair of underpants whose side seam had come undone, and I found two other pairs that seem to be perfectly all right. I do need to shorten the one pair of jeans, so that I can wear them, but I decided to wait on that until tomorrow.
I looked at a lot of beads, and packed them away in some kind of order, but I didn't work on the brooch at all. That's all right.
I was toying with the idea of going to town tomorrow. The orange juice is getting low, and the cash is getting low, so it's getting to be time to take that trek. We'll see. It's late already, so I may not make it tomorrow.
It is nice to be able to walk across the office without falling over something again. I decided to have a pizza for dinner, but I hit some wrong button and drastically overcooked the first one, so I had to do it again. That's part of the reason I'm so late tonight. While I was waiting for it, I began to get extremely twitchy, and I nearly drove both Buster and me crazy, because I can't find a comfortable place to sit. This happens occasionally, usually after I have been doing a lot of walking and I sit down. What caused it tonight, I don't know.
It was a rather nice day today. It was quite sunny all day, although it looked like there was a high, thin layer of clouds that turned the sky white this afternoon. The temperature only got up to 58º this afternoon, with a northwest wind that was up to 15 mph for a while. It was so warm in the office from the solar heat that I opened the window, and it is still open. I think I will leave it tonight. It is much more comfortable in here when the temperature is lower.
So now it is after midnight again, and I will trundle off to the north end and try to sleep better than I did last night. I still don't trust the black furball.
September 12 I made the mistake of taking a couple of books with me when I went up to the north end, and as a result it was 2:00 or so before I got to bed. I slept hard for about 4 hours, but after that I didn't do so well, and it was 11:00 before I got up again. Oh, well. There wasn't much to see.
I had toyed with the idea of going to town for supplies, but I was far too late for that, so I embroidered. The first effort is coming along. One half is completely done, and I've started the second half. I started by putting a line of bugle beads diagonally across the area (round), and after I did that and put in an outline of the darkest shade of turquoise, I realized that what I had done looked suspiciously like a yin-yang symbol, which was not what I intended at all. So I have been trying hard to do things which wouldn't look like that. Since there are curved lines in the top half, I am using straight lines in the bottom half. It really doesn't look bad for a first effort, and besides, I am using a very limited palette of beads, both in color and shape. They aren't the best of beads, either, and the smallest ones are pretty big. But that was the assignment I gave myself: to use only one tube of beads, with very few accents from another assortment. When I feel proficient enough to start using my expensive bead soup, I will have done several practice pieces, and already I am not quite so thumb-fingered.
Actually, that's the problem: it's taking me a while to figure out just the best way to use my left thumb to nail down the beads or the thread before I stick the needle down to the back. I am still doing a lot of pulling out and re-doing, and fortunately, the thread doesn't fray so much on fabric. But it's coming along, and I'm getting the hang of it. I hope eventually it doesn't take me three or four days to do a 2" brooch.
It wasn't the kind of day to tempt me to do much else. The temperature did barely get over 60º for a while, with not much wind, and it was cloudy for most of the day, although it did almost clear up around sunset. Sunset was OK, but nothing to make me go running outside with the camera. There were some nice orange tints on the horizon right before it got dark.
Speaking of orange, just in the two days since I was last out, the smaller maples and oaks have begun to turn dramatically. There is some red and orange around here, and of course, lots of yellow. I mean, things are changing fast. However, if I recall, this has happened before, then it just stops until the end of September or the first of October. With as dry as this summer has been, who knows what will happen? It was dry last year, too, but then we had rain in September, if I recall correctly without checking the journal. There has been rain south of us, but we haven't gotten very much at all.
I did wash dishes, and I washed one of the throws on the counter in the office, because Buster committed a severe indiscretion twice on it, and he piddled on the floor. I do not know what possessed him to do that, and it concerns me. He is usually such a clean little kitty. I must check the trays tomorrow. It may just be that I have been paying more attention to other things when he wants to sit on me. He did get a good sit tonight, because he was already taking his midday siesta when I got up this morning. We'll see what happens now.
I really do need to go downstairs anyway, because I think that somewhere in my effects I have some pin backs, and in a day or so, I'm going to need one. I'm not sure I will sell this first effort, but I do expect to wear it. And when it's finished, there will be a picture. Now if I can find anything...
So it's time to try to get to bed a little earlier tonight, although it won't be much, since it's 11:30 already. Oh, well. |