|
A View From the Field |
December, 2007
December 31 - New Year's Eve Well, there. 2007 is over.
I was late altogether last night, and it was nearly 2:00 when I got to bed. I did sleep, but I don't feel like I slept enough, and I got up around 11:30. By that time Buster was sitting beside the pillow staring at the back of my head.
I actually accomplished quite a bit today, but I had help. Sandy came over and between us, we got all the little boxes out of the house. I have quite a collection in the garage, and I think I am going to have to take my chances with permits and burn them. After that, we sat and unpacked all the Harmony Kingdom boxes. I have quite a collection, which only shows when they are all sitting on the dining room table. I do love those little things. Some of them are really amusing, and some of them are just beautiful.
It is nice to be able to walk into the office without tripping over something.
We also had another nice conversation. She is a very nice person, and we see a lot of things the same way.
While she was here, Debbie called, and while I was sorry to cut her off, I was even sorrier when she told me she has lost her job. She was selling houses or condos or something, and the builder, who hasn't paid her boss in 4 months, decided to turn the sales over to real estate agents. That was something I really didn't need to hear on the last day of the year, and I'm afraid I will have to read quite a while to get it out of my mind.
The weather was so-so. There was a little sunshine in the early afternoon, but about 4:00 it began snowing lightly, and it still is. The temperature went up to about 26º, and there was hardly any wind at all. They still say there will be snow tomorrow and Wednesday.
Anyway, this is the time when I usually look back over the year, and sum it up.
I guess I am satisfied, even though creatively it wasn't much of a year. I did get rid of the other house, and that without many tears, and I got everything up here, although it is mostly still in boxes. That was the big thing. At least I am not pouring money into an empty house anymore, and I am fully committed to living in the place I really want to be. So that was an accomplishment. Ever so slowly the upstairs is beginning to take shape.
I rescued Jasmine from a place which (I learned today) has 50 to 60 cats in it. She may not trust me very much, but she certainly knows she is in a better place, and she seems content. Buster actually licked her head last night, so I guess he is getting used to her. Then he bit her ears, of course, but that was because she was sitting on his rug.
Health-wise, I passed another milestone, when my oncologist decided I don't need anymore CT scans, which means I have apparently, so far, beaten the lymphoma. I have finally admitted I can count on never being able to walk very much better than I do now, so I will just have to deal with the legs and the back and ask the doctor for a handicap license plate. At least I am here and I'm not sick.
It was an interesting year for weather, what with our green Christmas and New Year's last year and our Holy Week blizzard. The summer was warm and very, very dry, but in September it began to rain again and while the lake is still low, it isn't as low as it was during the summer. Since I was in Detroit packing for all of July, I really feel like I missed summer here. At least this winter started out normally and seems to be continuing that way, although they are predicting another thaw for next weekend.
One of the comics I read every day had a picture of Father Time 2007 dressed in a track suit and running, and I have to say that was about how I felt about the year. I don't know where it went.
Creatively, it was not a good year. I did nothing at all creatively. There is a helix bracelet which has been sitting on my desk since about February, half done. I have gotten back to knitting and I have done some cross stitch, but for the new year, I am going to have to take myself in hand and wean myself away from the computer. It's not only that I want to sell some more jewelry, I feel much better altogether when I am doing something creative. I hope I can get to the sewing machine soon, because I have a lot of mending to do besides the sewing I want to do. Mending isn't creative, but at least it's sitting at the machine.
So that was the year. Overall, it was a positive one, and I am looking forward to a new year not having to worry about the other house. Now I can finish settling in here for good.
My wish for everyone is a safe, healthy, prosperous Happy New Year.
December 30 - New Year's Eve Eve I did it again. I read and knitted until nearly 2:30. Oh, well. I got up around 11:00, but I keep seeing the signs that I didn't have enough sleep, including little dizzy spells. Maybe tonight.
I knitted most of the leg of the sock while I was reading, and it is annoying. This is the one that is blue, green, turquoise, orange and yellow, and the first one had rather wide yellow stripes and I didn't like it. The second one spirals in very tight spirals, and it isn't bad at all. It sure would be nice if both balls of yarn (from the same dye lot, they say) gave similar results. I guess that's what happens when you buy cheap yarn. Anyway, this morning I finished the leg and started the heel.
This afternoon, I undid the grafting on the first sock and repaired it. I'm not sure what I did, but I seem to have missed half a stitch, which left me with a large bump on one side of the toe. Not good for sensitive feet like mine. It's better now.
I also washed two loads of clothes, the critical ones. The jeans took so long to dry that I just put the underwear in the dryer. It will be dry by morning, and I will have jeans and compression hose. I have three more loads to go. I folded the stuff from the last wash, but it is in wash baskets and needs to be put away.
My knees and back are really bothering me. I'm not sure why, but I think the warmer, damper weather we had for a while did a job on all my joints. I took a Tylenol 3 when I went to bed this morning, and It may have helped, but I don't like to start taking that stuff all the time. Codeine might interfere with the head.
While all that was going on, I updated my ledger to, I hope, the end of the year. I don't expect to write any checks tomorrow.
Time passes extremely fast these days, but the time between Thanksgiving and New Year's Day goes faster than the rest of the year, and it always has. I don't know where the month has gone.
The weather was nice, or at least pretty. Around the time I got up, there was some sunshine, which lasted until around 4:00. It wasn't completely clear, but there was some blue sky, and at this time of year any sunshine at all is to be savored. The temperature got up to 27º in the middle of the afternoon, but it started down about 4:00 and it is now 17º and calm.
We are under a lake effect snow watch from tomorrow night through Wednesday morning, so we should be getting some more snow soon.
Sometime between 2:00 and 3:00 this afternoon all the snow on the deck railings suddenly disappeared. I have no idea where it went, or why, because there wasn't any wind and there are no tracks on the deck, but the nice 6" caps are all gone now. Very strange.
So now it is late again, and I don't think I will be reading tonight, but one never knows. It's a calm night in the field, and there might even be a star or two.
December 29 I'm not sure what the problem was last night. I finished the sock and cast on the next one, so I was late getting into bed, but after 45 minutes of thrashing, it was clear that I wasn't going to sleep. I wasn't thinking about anything bad, or anything much at all except that it felt like somebody was sticking needles into my right knee, but sleep would not come. So I got up, got the big binder, and sat in the bathroom for an hour with a couple of very puzzled cats watching me. By 3:30, I was definitely tired enough to sleep, but that meant it was 11:30 this morning before I got up, and I didn't get enough sleep. Geez.
I did get the charity checks written and I did get to the post office, but not in that order. I had just sorted out all the envelopes (how did those people get my new address???) when it was time to go to the post office, so when I got back, with a big pile of new stuff, I got at it and got the checks written and the envelopes sealed and stamped by dinner time. I swung by the post office on the way to dinner. I know nobody will get them before the end of the year, but I wrote them before the end of the year.
It was quite busy in Mariner tonight, busier than I've seen it since summer, which was nice. What was not so nice is the pack of a dozen or more snowmobiles which had parked in such a way as to make it impossible for cars to park right in front of the restaurant. Some people just don't think. The other day, around noon, there was a similar number, but they had parked off to one side and double, so they really didn't take up much room at all.
I was glad I went. They had jambalaya, made the real way, with sausage and chicken as well as shrimp and scallops, and it was just what I needed to make a nice warm pad in my tummy. It was enough for two people, though, so I brought half of it home and I may have it for breakfast tomorrow. I do love things that start out with tomatoes, onions, and green peppers, and end up over rice or pasta. Jambalaya, of course, is over rice. And I had an Irish coffee for dessert, which always gives me a buzz, but oh, is it good!
Maybe, just maybe, I will sleep tonight.
It snowed rather hard, I think, until about 2:00 am, but there were only flurries today. Apparently a couple of people worked on the road, and with the new snow, it is now as smooth and flat as a paved road, much nicer than in the summer. I had to push about a foot away from the garage door, but the new snow shovel I got at the hardware store works as well as any shovel I've ever used, so it was easy to move all the snow except in the far corner, where there is a big chunk of ice. Sometime, if I feel really robust, I will get out my ice chopper and my flat-bottomed spade and chop it up.
I am still sneezing occasionally, and I am still running off at both ends, so I still have whatever it is.
The temperature was up to 30º at midnight, but it dropped off overnight, and it was right around 23º all day. There was a moderate north wind for most of the night, in the 15-25 mph range, which made the lake sing but it has all calmed down now. When I came home from dinner, there were just a few little flakes coming down, but nothing to speak of.
At least I accomplished something today, and I filled another small garbage bag. Maybe tomorrow I can begin to do something about the rest of the mess in the house?
It's a quiet winter night in the field.
December 28 I knitted last night until I could put a marker at 50 rows. That didn't take long, except that everything was late last night, so it was very late by the time I turned out the light. I only had three wake-ups, which was nice, but I finally piled out of bed around 11:30, which effectively shot the day, especially after I knitted down to where I could start the toe of the sock.
I didn't do anything I intended to do, or anything else either, so I don't have much to report, except that it started snowing sometime after 4:30 this afternoon, and it was slowing quite hard.
The temperature stayed right about 26º, and the winds were calm for most of the day.
It was snowing hard enough that I decided to eat in tonight, and I had some more of my beef roast, with the last of the good salad dressing and almost the last of the blue cheese. That is a lovely combination.
So that is all there is, and I just don't have much to say. Time to head north, I guess, and try to get another good night's sleep. It's good weather for that.
December 27 Last night, I didn't knit and I didn't read, and I made it into bed before midnight. I did sleep, although I was up any number of times during the night. I was awake around 5:15 when Ron went by in the tractor. I got up around 10:30, but I got to knitting on the sock, and it was after noon when I got to the office.
I actually accomplished a little today. I got a lot of the boxes (not all of them, unfortunately) out of the office and gathered together all the pleas for money. I had been going to write my checks today, but by the time I had everything in a box, it was getting dark already. I have to do that tomorrow, as well as go to the post office.
I am going to try to get the dishwasher loaded tonight, so I will be late, but I am out of cat dishes, so that's a good excuse.
The weather...ah, the weather! It snowed for most of the night, if my inability to see the lights of Copper Harbor was any indication. There was a solid 4" of snow on the deck railing this morning, and everyone looking at the webcam saw the branch of the bird feeder tree bowed down over the doorway from the heavy, wet snow. I think we probably got 5" to 6" altogether. The temperature started out around 30º at midnight, and by 11:00 this morning, it was down to 21º. It has slowly recovered to 25º. The wind was in the 25-35 mph range until about 5:00 tonight, and it has slowly died down. It has been from the north, mostly.
Even though my driveway got cleared before the bolt fell off the tractor (it's fixed now), I just decided there was no pressing need for me to go out today, so I didn't.
Buster has a new favorite place for his daily sleep. My down parka is on the floor in the powder room (I really need someplace in the back hall to hang coats), and he has made a very nice little nest in it. I frequently don't know he's there, since the lining is black and so is he. He is very comfortable there. Again tonight he wanted some of my roast beef, but he barfed up the yogurt he ate this morning, so I'm sure I'm not going to give him any beef!
I didn't see much of Jasmine today, although last night she was wandering around meowing and running up and down the hallway. The barometer was low today, so she was mostly asleep, I think.
And that was my quiet day. At least I can walk into the office a bit easier now. It's a quiet wintry night in the field tonight.
December 26 Well, I got engrossed in what I was reading, and it was later than ever when I finally turned out the light. I didn't sleep all that well. I guess I drank too much water or something, because I was up about every two hours. I finally got up for good at around 11:00.
By that time, Buster was off someplace sleeping, so I knitted on the scarf until I finished one repeat of the border. I should have stopped earlier, because I was losing my concentration and I had to do a lot of ripping. The pattern isn't really all that hard, so I can't figure out why I am having such a problem with it. Well...with a 28 row repeat it's not exactly an easy pattern, but still...when I consider all the doilies I've knitted, I should be able to do this pattern.
I didn't feel like I had enough sleep, so I didn't do anything much again. I did cook my standing rib, and that was a good dinner. I had a salad of baby greens with my clear French dressing, crumbled blue cheese and pine nuts, a nice slab of rare beef, and a twice-baked potato. Yum. For dessert, I had the rest of my fresh pineapple. Yum.
Buster thought it smelled good too - it did smell most sentimental while it was cooking - so he sat and stared at the plate for a long time before he admitted he wasn't going to get any. I hate to not give him any, because he loves beef, especially the juice, but his picky stomach just will not tolerate it, and I don't think it's good for him to be barfing all over the place. He does that from hairballs enough already.
Whatever I have, I still have it, and I have not been hungry, although I can eat, at least every so often. Even all the chocolate doesn't smell very good to me. My nose is still runny and so is the other end occasionally. Well, eventually I'll get over it.
The weather was wintry for a change. It started out just cloudy and rather calm this morning, but around 11:30 it started to snow, and it has been snowing more or less hard ever since. There was a good 3" of snow on the deck railing at sunset. The temperature hovered around 30º all day, and there was an east wind in the 10-20 mph range until about 6:00, when it went all calm. The snow is very wet and heavy, of course, and it is weighing down the branches of the evergreens and clinging to the branches of all the trees and it's pretty outside again. When I can get outside again, I will try to take a picture or two.
So that was another quiet day in the field, and I'm off to the north end. I do want to read, but maybe I can cut it off a little earlier tonight.
December 25 - Christmas Day
Beside Thy cradle here I stand, O thou who ever livest, And bring Thee with a willing hand The very gifts Thou givest. Accept me, 'tis my mind and heart, My mind, my soul, my every part, That Thou from me requirest.
I hope everyone had a lovely Christmas celebration with good friends, good food, and lots of laughter. I certainly did.
I didn't make it to church. I woke up for the first time (seven hours without having to get up! Will wonders never cease!) in time, but that wasn't nearly enough sleep. So it was about noon when I finally made it out of bed.
I really do have some unpleasant virus that is affecting both ends of me to some extent. I'm not sick-sick, but I don't feel very robust, and I'm not hungry, which is a sure sign something isn't right. My nose and eyes are runny and so is my other end to some extent. It's traditional. There have been very few Christmases in my life when I wasn't sick with something. This is more annoying than anything else, and I wish it would go away. So I will go and sleep some more - a lot more - and hope it doesn't last long.
I was up for a while last night. I tore out what I had done of the lace scarf and started it again. I knew I shouldn't have done that when it took me six tries to get the first pattern row done, but I did six rows, then I called it a night. Maybe tonight will be better, although I don't expect to be up until 1:00 to work on it.
It was the usual cloudy, dark day, and I think there might have been a few flakes of snow. The temperature went up to 30º and stuck there. There wasn't any wind. Just sort of blah.
I had been invited to join the Kauppis at Mariner, and that was very nice indeed. They were all there except Sherry, who is with her son and daughter-in-law this year, and they are a good bunch. Dinner was great - turkey and all the trimmings (or ham, if you were so inclined, or anything else on the menu - somebody got a pizza as we were leaving) - and so was the company. And Peggy had a goodie basket for me, which was so nice of her. I took her some of the Lake Champlain truffles, so I didn't feel too bad about it.
Don's daughter has two cute little girls, about 7 and 4, I think, who were very good, and we had a lovely time as well as a good meal. So that was nice.
Of course, there is no booze on Christmas Day, so I came home and had my JD and listened to the Christmas music, which is still going on. I appreciate that. Some of the stations I used to listen to in Detroit either had no Christmas music on Christmas Day or they stopped it abruptly at 5:00. Christmas isn't over until midnight, after all. After this is published, I will go up to the north end and lay my achy head on my little pillow for a long winter's nap.
A Merry and Blessed Christmas to everyone.
Ah, dearest Jesus, holy Child, Make Thee a bed, soft, undefiled Within my heart that it may be A quiet chamber kept for Thee.
December 24 - Christmas Eve I read for a while last night, and I had a slightly difficult time getting to sleep. I woke up around 3:30 with a little diarrhea, and as a result, I didn't feel quite up to snuff today. Not sick, just more blah than usual. I got up at a fairly reasonable time this morning, but after I knitted for a while, I didn't do much else.
It snowed for a while last night, and there was maybe an inch, or slightly less, on the ground this morning. There wasn't any more snow today, but the temperature was around 26º, so everything is nicely frozen again, and the snow did cover up the bare spot over the septic tank. The wind was strong last night, from the north, in the 25-40 mph range, and the lake was kicking up quite a fuss. Today was mostly just cloudy and dark again, although late this afternoon, the sun peeked through for a couple of minutes.
I was thinking about going to church tomorrow, but since I really don't feel quite right, I think I will just let the sleep come as it will and see what happens. This service is at 10:00, but I would have to get up at 8:30 or earlier to make it. I have to go upstairs and dig out my good slacks. We'll see what happens.
This is the time of year when the memories come thick and fast and it's better if I'm by myself. The Christmas music isn't quite as much to my taste this year as it was last, but it's nice to listen to anyway, so I will do that until this thing gets copied, then I will trundle up to the north end and probably not read tonight.
Someday, I want to look out the windows right after it gets dark and see the Northern Cross in the west, but it won't happen this year.
All is calm, all is bright (from the nearly full moon above the clouds) in the field tonight.
December 23 - Christmas Eve Eve I had some trouble uploading the journal last night, for reasons I don't understand, and after that I went up to the north end and did the heel of the sock before I took my bath. Then I sat in bed and read for longer than I intended, so it was very late when I finally turned out the light. While I was sitting there, I could hear rain on the deck - yuck!
It was raining hard this morning when I finally got up, too. I knitted for a while, and I had intentions of doing something before Sandy arrived, but I was so late that I was still eating when she came. We had a nice afternoon together. She is a very nice lady. Not that Bill isn't nice, but it's nice to have a girl chat without the men listening in. And that took care of the day.
While we were chatting, the temperature finally dropped into the middle 20s, for the first time in several days. It was nearly 40º all morning, and we have lost a lot of snow, not to mention how sloppy it was.
The wonderful snow we were supposed to get was a real dud. Perhaps places south and west of us got some, but so far we haven't gotten any. They still say we might get some tonight, but it won't be very much. At least the temperature is supposed to stay below freezing for the week! It was a dark and cloudy day, and a good one to spend in good company.
I did get the NOEL banner hung before she left. I'd completely forgotten about it until yesterday. So now I am decorated for Christmas.
And that is all there is, and I think I will go and knit and read again tonight. I hope I have some snow to report tomorrow.
December 22 - Winter Solstice At 1:03 this morning, the sun reached its southernmost point, and it is now starting north. I was still awake, but I forgot about it. So today is the first day of astronomical winter, even though here in the northwoods, meteorological winter started back in November.
I knitted and read for quite a while, but I still got to sleep earlier than the night before. I knitted until I was close enough to the heel that I had to count, and I read another chunk of the story. I do like that story.
I was up around 10:00 this morning, but I finished the leg of the sock and started the heel, so it was late when I got to the south end. That was all right: I didn't do anything anyway.
Tonight I went to Mariner, and there were a fair number of people there, and while I was waiting for my meal, the people who were here for Thanksgiving, the Hintons, came in, so I invited them to join me, and we had a nice long conversation, as well as a yummy dinner, of which I brought home half. Sixteen ounces of sirloin is more than I can eat in one sitting. This one was topped with a mushroom-burgundy sauce, and it was so tender and tasty. Yum!
I was late getting home, of course, and when I came in, there were two kitties sitting in the hallway glaring at me through the door. So far as they're concerned, I'm never supposed to go anywhere, and I'm certainly not supposed to be away for three hours! I didn't try to take any pictures, because there is a lake where the parking lot should be in front of Mariner. The lights will be up for a while, so maybe I'll try again.
It was another yucky day. The temperature was around 36º all day, with a rather brisk (15-25 mph) wind from the south. Apparently there was some rain this morning that I missed, and it rained again while I was in the restaurant. The only saving grace is that there is a winter storm warning out for tomorrow through Monday, and we may get some snow out of it. I'm hoping, as well as for some lower temperatures. This cool damp weather is too hard on my joints.
The wind had died down and there was some fog when I came home tonight, and I keep smelling something that smells like somebody is having trouble with their fireplace.
I sat in the ugly chair and embroidered for a while this afternoon, but not for as long as I'd planned. Stitch by little stitch I am making progress on the angel, but there's a long way to go.
And now I will toddle up to the north end again and knit and read for a while. I can't go without a bath tonight, because I think I will have visitors tomorrow, and I don't want them to see me the way my hair gets when I don't wash it.
It's another warm, quiet night in the field.
December 21 Enough went on yesterday that I knew I wouldn't be able to go right to sleep, so I sat in bed and read and knitted. Unfortunately, instead of stopping at the end of an episode, I went on to the next one, one of my favorites, and I forgot that it starts out with a scene that begins before noon and ends late in the evening, with no neat stopping places...so it was 2:00 when I finally turned out the light.
I woke up for the first time about 8:00 and I was so groggy I could hardly make it to the bathroom, so I went back to sleep, and it was 11:30 before I got up. I really didn't feel like it, but both hips were sore and I had to pee.
It was very noisy during the night. There was a very strong south wind all night long, and it sounded really strange from the north end of the house. We don't often have winds from there, and I'm not used to it. However, it certainly didn't keep me awake.
I knitted some more this morning, and I was so late getting going that I didn't do anything. Bah!
The weather is still bad. We did get a little snow last evening, but none overnight, and the temperature stayed above freezing, at right about 36º. It was cloudy and quite calm all day.
Tonight I tried to take some pictures after dinner, of the community center, but I am just not steady enough anymore to take time exposures. I will try it again tomorrow with the tripod. They did such a nice job of decorating that I think it should be published, although somebody knocked over the snowman they built under the lighted archway. Vandalism in Copper Harbor? I hope not, but it looks that way. Anyway, I will try again.
There weren't many people in Mariner, but Lydia is home, and that was nice, and I got invited to Christmas Day dinner again this year. It is so nice of the Kauppis to include me in their celebration. So I guess I will cook my standing rib on Sunday. I think I have one more double-baked potato left, and so I will have a real feast.
That is about all there is, and I think I will go and read and knit some more. I do love that episode, and I'm only just getting into it.
It's a quiet night in the field tonight, and there are indications that it is the calm before the storm...stay tuned...
December 20 I finished the sock and cast on another one, but I was still in bed before midnight, and I slept good. I was getting sore in the hips when Buster jumped up beside me and said "meow!", which is short for "haven't you been lying there long enough already?"
I knitted for a while with him on my lap. I am working on the second socks of the three crazy ones I made earlier. I figure it's time to get some of those cleaned up before I start anything new. I am really getting tired of socks, but in order to knit much of anything else, I have to dig out some stuff from the basement (I have several ideas), and that will take time and patience.
It was nice to have something good for breakfast, and the task of the day was the Christmas cards, at last. I printed off the letter last night, so all that was left was the addressing, the signing and the stamping. Fortunately, my hands were working well enough this morning that my handwriting was pretty good. It's not like it used to be, but at least I think it was readable. I did have to throw out one card where I messed up my name, and and there were a few addresses where I had to make corrections, but they're gone. Most of them will get to their destinations after Christmas Day, but oh, well. Another task for the basement is to locate the cards and stationery from last year and gather it all together in a place where I can find it early next year. Hah. In fact, hah-hah.
So it was off to the post office. The catalogs have stopped, and now it's just pleas for money, which I will have to attack soon. Of course, there were some bills and cards, too.
The weather was the kind I don't like, again. The temperature was about 34º all day, and a strong (15-30 mph) wind sprang up in the afternoon. Around 3:30, it started snowing, and it was hard enough and wet enough that the NWS station reported precipitation. I think it may be still snowing (or something) now. It was raw and damp and kind of icky outside. My arthritis aches.
Now it's time to toddle up to the north end, with a stop in the kitchen to get the dishwasher ready. I think I will knit and maybe read for a while and try to get another good night's sleep. This weather is good for that.
December 19 I got into bed around 11:30 and it was soon clear that I wasn't going to do any sleeping very soon. My mind was going around in circles about several things that happened during the day. So after half an hour or more, I did what my mother always did: I got up, got my book (this is the 5" binder) and sat in the bathroom and read until I had a headache. That was about 2:00. Then I slept relatively well, although I was up several times and both hips were sore by 9:30 this morning. So I got up.
I really didn't feel too much like going to town today, but the weather forecast for tomorrow wasn't so hot, so I went. I didn't leave until after noon, but that was all right.
I think I got pretty much everything I wanted at Wal-Mart. There were lots of people there, mostly standing around in aisles looking confused, but they had more checkout lanes open than usual, so getting out wasn't as bad as it can be during the rest of the year. It was hot in there, as usual, and I was dripping by the time I left. I know what is apparently a secret about parking there, so I was able to park quite close to the doors, which was good.
And when I got to Econo Foods, someone backed out of the first senior citizen parking space just as I came up, so I got a wonderful place to park there...just as good as the handicap places. I guess there were a lot of people there, too, but again, they had lots of checkout lanes open. I didn't do as much damage to the checkbook as I thought I would, which was nice. They were out of liter bottles of JD, so I got two 1.75 liter bottles. I will decant that into smaller bottles, just because they handle better, but I should be well set for the time being. I found a lovely standing rib roast, which I will have for Christmas, and this year, I promise not to try to cut off my finger. I got OJ and veggie trays and some deli salads, and I haven't yet thought of anything I forgot to get.
It was about 3:30 when I finished gassing up the car (it's down to $3.10), and there was a lot of traffic, but it was moving quite well until I got to the covered road, when I ran across a guy in a little car who evidently believed he was driving on glare ice, which it wasn't. He was polite enough to pull over right before we got to Lake Medora so I could pass him. It wasn't slippery. The road, while snow and ice covered, was well sanded and while I didn't go quite as fast as I do in the summer, I made good time.
I took the camera along, and on the way south, I stopped a couple of times and took some pictures. They look dark, but it was dark. We had enough new snow last night to frost the trees nicely, but a lot of that snow is still there from a week or more ago. I was hoping to take a few more on the way home, but by the time I got north of Mohawk, it was getting dark already. Sunset is at 5:00, but by 4:30 or so, it's getting dark. My headlights were on the whole way home. The evergreens were beautiful, but I would have to have had a video camera to really show them.
It snowed most of the night, I think, but there was only a little bit today, and I think I missed most of it. The temperature here in the harbor was about 27º all day, but as soon as I got away from the lake it went down to about 24º. The wind was in the 25-35 mph all night long, and the lake was kicking up a wonderful fuss while I was sitting and reading, but it died down before dawn and there wasn't any wind at all for most of the day.
When I got home, Buster greeted me like I had been gone for days. I got the car mostly unloaded and somehow found room in the fridge for the stuff I bought. There is stuff in there that needs to be thrown out, but I don't want to do that until I go to the compactor, which I hope to do by Friday. It's getting deep in here.
So anyway, that is done. I didn't get any really good Christmas stationery, but it will just have to do until I can find what I had. I got a new color cartridge for the printer, since I am still having trouble with the blue, which I think means I'm running out of it. How odd, that I run out of blue first...There were some other odds and ends. I needed extra-strength Tylenol, which I take every night and can't sleep without, and Wal-Mart has it cheaper than anybody else ($8 for 500 generic - one place had the same thing for $39!).
Now I feel tired, but I'm not sure if it's for real or just normal, so I may end up reading again tonight. So I have done some of my chores for the week, and it's time to trundle up to the north end. It's a quiet night in the field tonight.
December 18 I did it again last night, although I did knit while I read. As a result, I was so late getting up that I aborted my plan to go to town today.
I paid some bills and went to the post office, and my Christmas present from Arthur and Mary Ann came: three yards of Berber fleece printed with cardinals and snowflakes on black. Now I really have to get to the sewing machine! I know what I want to make out of it; it's only a matter of (ahem!) finding the pattern and the sewing machine and getting started. And out of the remnants, I am going to try to construct a sewn version of my baby cap, which should be warmer than the knitted ones.
I was thinking about cooking, but one look at the kitchen and I changed my plan and tried to get it somewhat cleaned up. It's a little better, and the pots are clean, although I haven't put them away yet. I was able to find parts of the counters again. And I seem to have nearly a full load for the dishwasher.
I dug out my lighted snow globe, which has a non-Christian interpretation of the Nativity in it. The figures are glass with gold accents, and when the light is on it's pretty, even though it doesn't have enough water in it. I haven't had it lit for a very long time, and it's nice to see. I guess that will be my decorating for this year.
I was thinking about the silver tree, then I considered some of the things I've found on the floor lately and decided it would be safer for the glass ornaments if I didn't use it this year. Same goes for the mini-tree. I have a near-kitten in the house, and she seems to assume anything she can get her paws on is hers and hers to play with. I don't think she can knock the snow globes on the floor.
The weather was the kind I don't like: the temperature got up to about 34º, and strangely enough, it seemed colder than it was when it was in the teens. It was cloudy and dark, and about 4:30 it started snowing rather briskly. It was a good day to stay in.
So that was another quiet day, and I will try not to stay up so late tonight. We'll see.
December 17 I took my bath, then I sat in bed and read for a very long time. I didn't even knit - I just read. I may do the same tonight. That seems to be a good thing to do when I am in my holiday funk.
Anyway, I got to bed so late that the first time I woke up was about 8:30 this morning, and the second time was almost 11:30, I think. So I guess I got enough sleep.
And I didn't do much of anything except get the stuff into the freezer that needed it. I went down to the basement both to put the stuff in the freezer and see if I could find my Christmas stationery, some of my yarn and needles and maybe a yarn swift. I didn't find any of it. That place is such a horrible mess, I may never find any of it. I didn't take the box with the stationery in it downstairs myself, and I have no clue at all what may have come of it. It might be on a shelf behind a bunch of other boxes. I can't get to all the plastic barrels with the yarn and other things in it, so I couldn't find what I wanted. And I forgot about the yarn swift. Bah!
The weather was about the same. The temperature was in the low 20s for most of the day, but it has now risen to 27º. There was a little snow this morning, but later on, there was even some blue sky and sunshine for a while, before it clouded up completely again. There wasn't any wind.
The ice on the harbor is thickening up, I think, and we certainly haven't lost any of our snow cover.
Late in the afternoon, the guy came and put the reflector on the light in the freezer, so now I'm in no danger of breaking the light. We talked about the two rubber things that have fallen off the bottoms of the doors, and we decided not to put them back on. He says he has never seen them fall off before, but they keep falling off my doors. Apparently they are supposed to prevent the magnets on the doors from scraping your feet, but otherwise, he doesn't know what they are for. So I put them back in the drawer. Sometime I will take a picture of them hand hassle GE about them. Dumb design, in my opinion.
Buster has been extremely loving all day long, and I really don't know what his problem is now. All he wants to do is sit on my lap. I see no reason to think he is sick or anything, so what is in his little head now is beyond my understanding.
Jasmine has been her usual busy self. Somewhere she found an old film can that is full of jump rings (I didn't even remember I had it), and it was sitting in front of the empty dry food dishes this morning. I wonder where she found it, and what else she will find to keep her occupied? Cat toys for cats don't seem to interest her at all, but she has come up with several things of mine to play with...not to mention the snake she found last summer. The jump rings were probably interesting because they rattle in the can. I would let her play with them, except that I am afraid the lid will come off and strew rings all over the house and she might eat one. She persists in wanting to lick slick things like the tile and the faucets in the bathroom, and I am not sure what she might do with jump rings, since she also likes to eat things off the floor. She is weird, too.
So that was my quiet day, and I will now go off up to the north end and read a while.
December 16 I read until I finished the leg of the sock, and the story I was reading. I didn't want to start the heel, so I packed everything up and went to sleep. I can't say I slept well; I was up any number of times, and I kept waking up hot. That is usually a sign I am fighting some virus or other. There was also the right knee and the left elbow...the right knee was particularly bad when I was sleeping on my right side. So I slept on my left side until my left hip got sore. I mean, this is a continuing problem.
Anyway, when I got up, around 10:00, it was snowing, and the wind had pushed the ice down into this end of the harbor, since it is really very thin still. I did the heel of the sock, so it was fairly late when I got to the office.
I think I am succumbing to my usual holiday funk. This is something I have had for over 30 years - since my dad died. I am not a social person, so going out and "celebrating" wouldn't do me any good at all. I just have to work through it. Maybe if my family was still alive, it still wouldn't make any difference. It just has to do with remembering the holidays when I was a kid, which it isn't possible to get back.
Anyway, I just do not feel like doing anything. So I didn't.
It snowed off and on all day long, and for most of the day there was a brisk north wind in the 20-35 mph range. The temperature topped out at about 29º at 9:00 this morning, then it fell gradually to 20º and is continuing down. It was cloudy all day. The wind was strong enough that it was raising a breaker on that shoal out in the middle of the harbor, which was interesting to see.
My friend Deb called tonight, and she is beset with the money problems divorced moms frequently have. It was good to hear from her anyway. Her oldest son, who has been a hockey goalkeeper since he was a little kid, was invited to try out for a Junior A hockey team, and he made it...but it would mean he would be away from home for most of his senior year of high school, and there is also the money problem...Dan is a good goalkeeper, and it would be great if he had the chance to really make it.
So that is about all I know, and I think I will go and read and knit some more. It is another wintry night in the field.
December 15 Either I was warm last night or I had too much sleep the night before, because I didn't do very well. It was a very quiet night, and about 4:00 this morning, I looked out to see Orion behind the party tree, setting into the west. It was nice to see a few stars for a change.
It was mostly clear today, too, and quite clear at sunset. There was a young moon high in the sky tonight, and it was nearly calm and quiet.
During the day there was a little wind and a few clouds, but nothing to speak of. And when I got up this morning, this entire end of the harbor was covered with ice, with some snow on top of the ice. Some cracks appeared during the day, from the wind, and I don't think the ice is more than an inch thick, but it's starting to glaze over, the earliest it's done so in several years.
The temperature got down to 5º around midnight last night and rose almost steadily to a high of about 23º around 4:00 pm, but it has now fallen back to 13º and is on its way down. The clear skies mean we lose heat fast.
Of course, it couldn't have been clear like this on Thursday, when I might have seen a meteor!
I didn't do much. I wrote my Christmas letter, but now I have to go search out the stationery, which is in the basement. And I got my ledger updated to date. I have charities to give to and bills to pay over the next couple of weeks and I wanted to see where I stand. It has been an expensive year, but not nearly as expensive as last year was, and not having to keep up the house on Champine is making a real difference already. That is a relief. Of course, I'm still not used to having half the number of bills to pay, but it's nice.
This morning, with the sunshine and relatively high barometer, Jasmine was full of energy. At one point she came bombing down the hallway, saw Buster, put on the brakes, and skidded on the bare floor. Her tail was all puffed out like a bottle-brush and she looked so funny. Buster didn't think so. He just stared at her. But she was dancing around with that bushy tail in spite of him. He is turning into an old stick-in-the-mud. Jasmine actually has a rather small, thin tail, which she drapes neatly over her hind feet when she sleeps, but this morning it was at least three times bigger than normal.
I tried her on the laser pointer a couple of times, and she was mildly interested, but not excessively so. She wanted to eat it (she wants to eat most everything), or pick it up in her paw, and it doesn't work that way. Last night I think she was confused because it was causing reflections on the floor and the wall, and she couldn't quite figure out which was the real thing. If I could get good enough with it to react to what she does, it might work better, but she wasn't enthusiastic about it. Poor kitty never really learned to play, I'm afraid, and now it's probably too late.
There were quite a number of people in Mariner tonight, about equally split between skiers and snowmobilers, it seems. They had only two waiters, and they were running.
I noticed on my way home that they have really done a job decorating the community center and the signs and a few of the trees around it, and it looks very festive. And the Pines has a crèche in lights in front of it. I'm the scroogy one. When I am down in the basement, I may bring up the silver tree, and that will be my decoration again this year. It doesn't look like I will find the sewing machine soon enough to finish the stockings.
So I think I will go and do some more knitting and maybe read a while and try to do better at the sleep thing tonight. It's a quiet, cold night in the field.
December 14 I finished the gauge swatch for my aqua yarn, then I knitted on the sock for a while, so it was late when I got to bed, and I slept and slept. UPS called at 9:00 and I turned over and slept some more, and I didn't get up until 11:30. I am still having the left hip-right ear problem, but it doesn't seem to be keeping me awake very long.
I petted a cat and began to knit some more, and then I discovered that on the first row I had knitted, I had added a yarn-over at the end of a needle, three rows back. So it was time to rip, and by the time I got that fixed and knitted up the yarn I had ripped, it was something like 1:30.
What a lost day! I didn't even eat anything but my orange juice and some nuts. But I had a nice dinner at Mariner tonight, and that made up for it. There were a few more people in there tonight, including some snowmobilers and some who looked more like skiers. So the season is underway.
It was a wild and hairy night last night, with quite a bit of snow and high winds until about 7:00 this morning. Today has been nearly calm, although there were occasional snow showers today, too. The temperature was right around 15º all day and it is dropping off now...it's -5º already at the Houghton airport. It won't get that cold here, because the sky is still full of lake effect clouds, but it will be a cold night.
I might point out that last night was the Geminid meteor shower, so it stands to reason that we would have a blizzard.
My package turned out to be a lovely box filled with fruit and cheese. I have already eaten one of the pears, and it was delicious. Besides, there is that really interesting box. I like gifts like fruit and cheese (and flowers) that go away and can be given over again, and I think at least some people are beginning to realize I have a thing about boxes. This one is a casket shape, covered with leather, and it is really neat.
I was sitting here playing a game and I started to sneeze, so I think I will try hard to get to bed early tonight and hope I am not coming down with a cold.
It's a cold, quiet night in the field tonight, and it's very wintry outside.
December 13 I think I caught up on my sleep, since I was in bed nearly 12 hours, but I didn't really want to get up, and I was rather logy all day. So I didn't do very much
I got to the post office and almost everything that I ordered came over the past two days. Of course. Now I have lots of nice knitting needles, enough Christmas cards for the next four years, and more good things to eat, as well as the middle- and end-of-month bills and lots of pleas for money.
I did finally get the lamp and one star lamp uncrated and the lights screwed in. I did get the right lamp for the star lamp. I like them all, although I was a bit disappointed to see that the star lamp has plastic panes. Whatever, it will be pretty.
The weather started out quite innocuous, with temperatures around 25º and no wind to speak of, but with a blizzard warning out. Yeah, right. The sky is falling. Well, the sky is falling. I don't know if you could call it a blizzard, but about 4:00 it started snowing hard, and the wind switched around to the north and is now blowing in the 35-45 mph range. I guess that's a blizzard, huh? Sorry we can't see it. For some reason, the temperature went up to 31º right after it started snowing, but it has now fallen back to 23º and it will no doubt fall through the night. I can hear the lake responding to the wind, although I don't hear the wind too much from the south end of the house.
So that was my day, and I will now go and jump into bed again, and listen to the song of the lake. It's a wintry night in the field tonight.
December 12 Instead of going to bed like a good girl, I finished the first sock and cast on the second one, so it was very late when I did get to bed. I slept, however. The wind and the lake were kicking up a fuss for most of the night, although the wind died down around 7:00. At 9:45 I got a call from UPS, and I decided I'd better get up.
So it was off to Calumet to get my car serviced. That turned out mostly good, but expensive. Even though they hadn't been able to find a code in the computer the last time I complained about the "service 4WD" message, this time they did, probably because I suggested that the real problem wasn't with the 4WD itself but with the switches behind the dashboard. Yup, I was right. The switch itself wasn't expensive, but of course the labor was, since that is a labor-intensive task.
I also asked them to replace the windshield wipers, and would you believe, they changed the windshield ones but didn't change the one on the back window? Sometimes I wonder about people...
Anyway, they washed the car, which it needed, even though it was dirty again by the time I got back home, and they are nice people and they do check everything that is supposed to be checked. So the car is now set for the winter.
I then stopped at the hardware store and got a nice snow shovel and some lights for my new lamps (which I now must unpack). I also picked up a really neat little flashlight that has 8 LEDs in it, and a red laser pointer in the middle. Those LEDs are really bright! So is the pointer, so I must be sure it never gets shined in anybody's eyes, or into the sky when an airplane is flying over... That was my toy of the day.
It snowed all the way to Calumet around noon, and there was a little coating of snow on the roads. The county just plows the covered roads and sands it, which is quite a good method of clearing, especially when the temperature is in the low 20s or below. From Delaware south, they unfortunately salt, but I noticed they are also sanding. I certainly didn't have any indication that the road was slippery.
I didn't take the camera along, and I was sorry, even though I was late leaving to go south and it was really too dark when I came back. Most of the covered road is deciduous trees, and every branch that was even vaguely horizontal had 6" of snow on it, and in lots of places the snow had lapped over and was hanging down. I don't know quite how snow hangs together like that, but it certainly was pretty. Like I say, I was too late in leaving to stop along the way going south, and by 4:00 it was beginning to get too dark to take decent pictures. I should have tried, though.
There was more traffic than usual, I must say, which did cause me a few problems. Everybody has his own idea of what a safe speed is in this kind of weather, and apparently mine is higher than a lot of other people's. I figure I can push it until I begin to feel the rear wheels slipping then back down, but apparently a lot of people are too timid to do that. I didn't feel any slippage at all in any direction, by the way. Anyway, I had to pass a couple of excessively timid drivers. I don't like to judge them, because I don't know the condition of their tires, but geez...
The temperature was around 22º or so, and there wasn't much wind during the day. So after missing a day, we've started on our next days of snow every day.
I thought surely I would be late enough that my package would be at the Gaslite, but I stopped there, and I was wrong. They hadn't seen Gary. I did...he was going toward Copper Harbor as I was going toward home, having apparently been out at my neighbor's who lives at the end of US-41. So Ron had to pick it up anyway, and he chose a very bad place to try to turn around in the driveway and got stuck, and had to pull himself out with the tractor. Good old tractor! He had even cleared my driveway to try to avoid that, but he chose a very strange place to try to turn around.
He also had to do the road a couple of times, because a big truck from the lumber company delivered a load of shingles and really tore up the road. I didn't think you could lay shingles in this weather, but maybe the newer ones are OK. They were pouring cement the first couple of weeks of November, and they are working like demons to get the house closed up. I don't know that this weather isn't just as bad to shingle a house as the middle of summer. I wouldn't want to be up on a roof in some of the winds we have had lately!
So that was my day. Buster was asleep on the task chair when I got home, and he seemed glad to see me, even though I had only been gone about 4 hours.
Ron said that all the time he was clearing the driveway, Jasmine was sitting in the window watching him. I suppose she figured it was safe enough because he was fully occupied. How nice to have neighbors who entertain my little people!
And now I think I will toddle up to the north end and knit a while - not long - and try to get a little more sleep tonight. It is a quiet, cloudy and nearly calm night tonight, and that might make for another good sleep.
December 11 I got to bed before 11:00, and I slept fairly well, despite the right hip-left ear problem. At 9:00 UPS called, and I turned over for another 90 minutes. So I guess I did all right.
I worked on the sock, but I sort of fiddled around. At one point, I thought I had knitted too many rows in the foot, so I tore out about 6 rows, before I discovered that the marker was set at 50 rows, not 60 rows. So I didn't make much progress. I would like to finish this one so I can cast on the other one before I take the car for its grease and oil. I was sitting and knitting with a cat on my lap and thinking how bored I am getting with knitting.
I did some picking up and putting away in the kitchen, then I made my turkey stock. It turned out pretty good, I think, but I still have to get rid of everything that was left over, and after I cool it to let the grease settle to the top, I have to dig out some containers to store it in. There are a lot of big bones in a turkey.
While that was going on, I finally switched over to the ugly chair and did some embroidery. That felt good, except that I discovered that I had screwed up the bottom of the last two colors I used, so I had to rip out three lengths of thread and redo them. Sometimes I can see and count better than other times. I am not done redoing what I ripped out, but maybe I will stitch a little longer before I go to bed tonight.
Ron brought the packages, and now I have enough good candy to last a long time. Yum.
Buster was sitting on my lap while I did some surfing, and Jasmine was in the great room all day, although she wasn't as frolicsome today as she was yesterday. The barometer, no doubt.
It clouded up right after sunset last night, and it was cloudy all day today, although I didn't see any snowflakes. Around 2:00 the wind suddenly picked up, into the 20-35 mph range from the north. The temperature got up to 29º around noon, but it has been dropping slowly through the 20s ever since. There is some slushy ice in this end of the harbor, but the wind keeps blowing it around. I have some nice ice castles on my beach.
Except for the wind, it wasn't bad outside, and we stayed below freezing, so the road and the snow haven't done anything much but settle. The guys building the house out on the lake are really tearing up the road, and Ron and I think they should put a little effort and money into keeping it in shape. Apparently some of them don't have 4-wheel drive vehicles and they are having a hard time getting up the hill.
So that was my day, and I think I will embroider a bit more, at least to put back what I tore out. It is going to be a noisy night tonight, so maybe I will sleep better.
December 10 I got to bed around 11:00, or maybe a little earlier, and I just slept and slept and slept. I got a phone call at 10:00 (and I can't remember what it was about), and I went back to sleep. Buster was getting concerned when I finally woke up around noon! Wow!
The big news of the day happened around 5:00 this morning. Buster came in and sat down on his rug, and Jasmine came and sat down beside him, and I petted Jasmine for quite a while. It was hard, because she was almost out of reach and I didn't want to fall off my seat. But I petted with my fingers and sort of scratched her neck, and she seemed quite happy for some time. So I guess I can only pet her in the dark? She did come up and sniff my hand sometime in the past few days, but it was because I showed her the back of my hand instead of the palm. Palms grab. Backs don't. We are making progress. Maybe it's by millimeters, but we are making progress.
She was very full of energy for most of the day today, although I think she is sleeping now. She was running up and down the hall and back and forth through the great room for quite a while. She still doesn't trust me when I stare at her or walk toward her, but occasionally she will stand her ground, and then I am very careful not to make any gestures she might think are aggressive. I know the place she came from wasn't all that bad, and the woman who fostered her is a good-hearted person who loves cats, so what quirks of her little mind caused her to get the way she is, are quite beyond me.
Otherwise, I was so late that I didn't do much. I went to the post office to mail a couple of bills, and that was about it. I worked on the riverbed sock, and I am a bit more than halfway down the foot. I think I will do the other one right away, so maybe I can be sure the gauge is the same on both.
The weather was about as good as it's been for weeks. There may have been a snow flurry this morning, but I didn't see it. It was mostly cloudy until about 3:45, when the sky cleared up until sunset. It was so nice to see blue sky and blue water! The temperature was about 20º all day, and there was hardly any wind at all. Nice. With the wind dying down, there is now some slush around the shoreline in front of the house. I was interested to see, on the Eagle Harbor cam, that the lake is now frozen over some way from shore down there. I don't know why it's different here. Anyway, it's coming. Pretty soon we will have seen the last of the blue water until spring.
So that is about all I know, and I will try to get back onto a human schedule again. I have an appointment on Wednesday afternoon to get my car greased and oiled, so I won't be able to get up at noon then! I completed my Christmas shopping today, and I am waiting for the Christmas cards to arrive. So I will go and knit a while and try to get into bed at a reasonable hour again.
I have had indications that I have a little upper respiratory thing, which has been bothering my ears again. I hope that a long night's sleep will help that a bit. For one thing, I don't like to sneeze in Buster's ears. It bothers him. For another, I don't like feeling like the world is spinning around when I lie down, or that I might topple over when I get up. Maybe I can get over it.
And that is all I know. It's a quiet night in the field, and there might even be a star or two.
December 9 I'm tired. All I can conclude is that there is too much caffeine in three cups of decaf, unless the last one has Irish whiskey in it. I will have to remember that.
Anyway, I didn't sleep at all well. Part of it was the right hip-left ear thing, but that shouldn't have bothered me if I was going to sleep well. And at one point I woke up very abruptly from a confused and nasty dream. Not a good night at all.
I got up around 10:00, and after I petted a cat (not long enough according to him), I started redoing the bind off of the socks I couldn't get on. They are all right now. I don't like the way a sewn bind off looks, but nobody will see it inside my pants anyway. After I got one done, I remembered that I had to fill the pill dispenser today, so it was rather late by the time I started for the south end.
There wasn't much wind, but it was cold in here all day. I have finally gotten the temperature in the office up to 70º by bumping up the thermostat and closing the door, but I was chilly all day...probably because I was tired.
Besides binding off the socks, I finally got all the cat food put away, and I washed a load of fleece, several tops and the throw I had used on the table. It got sort of glopped up when I knocked over a bottle of lemonade on it. So I guess I did something.
Otherwise, I knitted and read a magazine until it got to dark to see. From 4:30 until 6:00 these days, I can't do anything much unless I turn on a light. So you may see the task light on sometimes. Sunset is around 5:00 these days, and we have only about 8½ hours of daylight, such as it is. With the sun so low, it's more like 7½ hours of useable daylight, if the cloud cover is light, and less if it's heavy.
However, today, tomorrow and Tuesday are the earliest sunsets, while the sunrises continue to get later and stay late longer around the end of the year. We're getting down to the turning point.
The weather was about the same. The temperature was around 17º, but the wind has died down to almost nothing. What there was was from the west, more or less. That meant the snow was coming mostly straight down, and a lot of it was in big lazy flakes dancing around. Pretty to watch. I don't think we got much accumulation.
So I guess that is about all I have to report, and I am going to bed early tonight and hope to catch up on my missing sleep.
December 8 I knitted the toe of the rainbow sock, and finished it off, and then I discovered that it ended up bigger than the first one. Oh, well. I will wear the big on on my big foot, I guess. The whole project didn't come out the way I wanted it to anyway.
Then I picked up the Riverbed sock - the one that is two shades of blue and terra cotta - and knitted that one down to where the heel starts.
As a result, it was sort of late when I got to bed, but I did sleep well. It was windy and the lake was singing softly, and it was the right temperature in the bedroom, and those are the things that usually mean a good night's sleep for me.
I woke up around 10:30 this morning with Buster having just settled down beside me, and he wasn't too pleased when I got up, although he sat on my lap and purred for a long time. I'm afraid he still thinks we are about to embark on that long, horrible car ride, and he is doing everything in his power to talk me out of it. Doesn't take much. We're not going anywhere, and even I'm not going anywhere further than Houghton for quite a while.
Poor little Buster. I think he understands a lot more of what I say to him than some people would believe, but he just can't get the concept that things have changed and he doesn't have to worry about some things anymore. Or he understands what I am saying and doesn't believe me. Anyway, he is being extraordinarily clingy lately, which has its good and bad sides.
Even though there is more to do in the kitchen, I decided I am bored with that, and so I got at the catalogs this afternoon. I have two grocery bags as full as is safe to give to one of the ladies in town who likes catalogs, and I have an orange bag full of stuff to throw out. I thought it would be simply mean to give Mary Ann six copies of the same catalogs, some of them dating back to the middle of October. Then it would be her orange bags, and that isn't fair. I still have to go through the two baskets under the desk, but I think most of those that I don't want to keep will get thrown out.
The trouble is, I buy from most of those stores, eventually, so I don't want to get off their catalog lists. I still find it a lot better and faster to look at a catalog than to try to look at a whole website. But so many of those stores send out too many catalogs. I think I have been getting one catalog from LLBean, Eddie Bauer, Pottery Barn and Williams Sonoma a week for the past month. The front cover of each catalog is different, but the insides are identical. It seems to me, they could trust us to be mature enough not to throw away the first one. It would save them a lot of money and all of us a lot of trees.
And of course, the first week of January, it will start all over again. I've also gotten on a few catalog lists I would just as soon not be on, like those women's clothing catalogs who think that extra-large is size 16. And it seems like there are several I would like to still be on who have dropped me because I only looked and didn't buy.
I didn't feel quite so bad about it when I was recycling, but recycling around here is such a pain, if you can do it at all, that I haven't even tried. I'm not sure whether magazine stock can be recycled anyway.
So that occupied me between my daily surfing and the time it got dark.
I did go out to dinner, and I did get to eat - fish, for the first time in a while - but there was a frat party. Peggy said there would only be 40 of them, but they at least sounded like twice that many. That is an interesting fraternity. Apparently the dress code for parties is a black suit and tie. A few of the guys didn't seem to have jackets, and there were some interesting colored shirts, but it was really nice to see all those young men so nicely dressed. As for their dates...the color of choice at least with this group was black, and very bare, and a bunch of the girls walked from the motel to the restaurant with no jackets on...and it was about 18º out! I know you get used to the cold when you live up here, but wow! There was one silver dress and three or four deep red ones, but those were the only colors...and one black and white plaid. The girls were nearly as noisy and the boys. But they were enjoying themselves, and they looked rather curiously at me as I walked out, but that's OK. They seem to have a lot more fun than we did when I was that age.
The weather was pretty much the same. The temperature was steady at about 17º all day, with a rather brisk (20-30 mph) wind from the north. There were a few snow showers, nothing major, although it did coat the road lightly.
There were a few snowmobilers in the restaurant tonight. I suppose there were more in the afternoon. John Dee mentioned that some of his friends were caught short by the early snow and cold, and I think very likely that is a general problem. We have had such late starts to the winter for the past few years that I suppose most people just gave up the thought of going much of anywhere until after Christmas. Surprise! Shows you should never give up on Mother Nature.
So that is about all I know, and I think I will go up to the north end early tonight and even try to get to bed a bit earlier. I don't feel like I got quite enough sleep last night.
And it's another cold, snowy night in the field.
December 7 - Pearl Harbor Day As the years pass, we hear less and less about Pearl Harbor Day and the US's entry into World War !!, and that's too bad. But as my generation and the baby boomers get older, and our parents pass, fewer and fewer will remember it. I remember it because the consequences influenced (some might say warped) my entire young life. I was only about 4 months old at the time, but my dad went into the navy in 1943, and the more I think about it, I believe he came back with traumatic stress syndrome. He held it all in, but it definitely warped the entire rest of his life.
I went up the hall early last night, and I sat and knitted for a long time, until I was within about 10 rows of the toe of the sock. I had a cat on my lap for most of the time. For some reason, Buster has been extraordinarily clingy for the past couple of days. I don't see any signs that he is sick, so something else must be going on. I don't know if he still thinks we are going south, or what. So I try to pet him as much as I can. Cats remember more than we'd like to believe, especially the bad things, and their memories play a big part in how they behave.
Anyway, then I had to catch up on my Advent devotions, so it was around midnight when I turned out the light. I did sleep well, I must say.
There was a call from UPS this morning, but that didn't bother me much, and I got up around 10:30. By that time Buster was ready for his morning nap, and he was rather cranky at being disturbed, but he sat on my lap some more, while I started the toe of the sock. I will probably finish it tonight.
That meant that I was late getting to the office, and instead of getting breakfast right away, I just had my orange juice. That meant I went to the post office having not eaten anything. When I got back, I gnawed on a turkey wing just for something to eat.
Dinner was dinner for a change, though, so that made up for it.
There were some snowmobiles around Mariner when I went to the post office, and even a few tonight, but there weren't a lot of people there. I guess there is another party tomorrow, but I should be able to get something to eat anyway.
I was too early to get my package at the Gaslite, but Ron picked it up for me and delivered it. It was my Christmas stolen, most of which I will put in the freezer for the holidays.
The weather was back to normal today. When I got up, the wind was blowing the snow horizontal. The wind was from the north-northwest, and the lake effect showers were coming in one after another. The wind was in the 15-30 mph range all day. The temperature got up to 24º early in the day, but around noon it dropped off to 18º and stayed there for the rest of the afternoon.
The wind was doing a job on the culverts, but Mac went through this evening, and it isn't bad now. Some of the places it drifts are interesting, to say the least. But now we know pretty much where it will drift with which winds. There are several bad spots, but other than my driveway, the only one that impacts me is the Lake Lily culverts. That area is right at the end of the harbor and at lake level, so the snow wants to blow in and over into Lake Lily, but it hits the tag alder and drops right around and on the road. Since that is between almost all of us and US-41, keeping it open is a primary task. It will be worse when the harbor freezes and the snow has bent down the bushes on the lake side, but the glacier is starting to grow already.
We picked up several inches of snow today, and there is more forecast for the weekend. I am happy to report that all the junipers are buried, and the last time I looked, my birdbath, which is in one of the garden beds, was almost buried, too. Pretty soon and I won't see it until spring.
If you were dressed right, it was really nice out today. It is cold and dry, not cold and damp like it usually is in southeastern Michigan. I need to start wearing my longjohns if I'm going to be out, and I am going to have to wear my mittens over my gloves, but other than that, I was cozy and warm in my parka. I like this weather, and I maintain I would still like it even if I had to help with the snow removal. I have always said I feel better when it's cold, and so far this year that has been true. All I need to do is keep my knees warm, and I'll be fine.
So that is another quiet day in the frozen north, and I'm off to the north end.
December 6 After I did the journal last night, I got to playing Bookworm, and I was really on a roll. I ended up with my fourth highest score, but that meant it was late when I went down the hall, and since I knitted for a while, it was really late when I jumped into bed. Oh, well.
I actually got up about 10:45 this morning, which wasn't enough sleep, and that is making itself clear now. I knitted some more, so it was late when I got to the south end, with a nice sandwich made out of real turkey. That was a good turkey.
I didn't do much. I put a bunch of stuff in the dishwasher, and I will run it tonight, even though I'm not out of cat dishes. It is full, and I had to wash all the stuff that didn't fit or doesn't get washed in it. But that was about all I did.
I did finally remember to print my Advent devotional booklet, and that was frustrating. The printer started by not printing any blues, so I had to clean the cartridges and align them. Then when I printed the second side of the pages, it kept feeding two sheets at once, so I used up a lot of paper. I am getting down to the end of my nice 24 lb. paper, and it annoys me when pages keep getting screwed up. It is all printed now, though, and if I would just get rid of the catalogs, I could get to my long-arm stapler to staple it together. I guess I will just make do with folded pages.
The weather was much quieter than it has been lately. There was some blowing overnight, but by this morning, it had quieted down to almost no wind at all. It is picking up again now. The temperature was about 19º all day. We even had some sunshine late this morning, which was nice. It's nice to know there is still a sun up there. And about 4:00 we had a nice snow shower, so our record is unbroken.
I had some more tetrazzini for dinner, and it tasted pretty good. When I cook something that elaborate, even if I eat it, I have a hard time determining if it tastes all right. That was compounded last night by the runny nose I seem to have developed. It was better tonight, although the nose is still runny, and it seems to be in my ears, giving me an occasional dizzy spell when I move my head too fast. It seems to me I had the same sort of thing last year. I don't feel particularly bad, but my nose runs.
So that was my quiet, truncated day, and I think I will try to get to bed a bit earlier tonight.
December 5 I knitted for a while last night before I went to bed, so it was a bit late, but I slept well, with the lake singing her lullaby in the background. I was up around 5:30 when Ron went by in the tractor.
That tractor has enough light to light up the whole area. It's amazing. I was up briefly again around 8:30, but that seemed too early to get up, so it was around 11:00 when I finally rolled out.
I knitted a while, enough to determine that the foot of the sock is going to be just as blobby as the leg is. It is really amazing how two skeins of yarn, purportedly from the same dye lot, can be so different. Then I finally folded up the underwear and put it away.
So it was late when I got to the south end. I had determined to cook today, but before I cooked, I had to make some order in the kitchen. I ended up fiddling around with the shelves where I keep my casseroles. Those shelves will drive me nuts. In all of them, the top shelf was put less than half-way down, so the top shelf isn't very high, and the bottom shelf is. That seems to mean that I will end up putting the things I use most on the bottom shelves and the less-used stuff on the top shelf, and then I have to bend way down to get what I need.
I did finally figure out an arrangement for the lids of the casseroles, so that they are neat and won't fall all over the place. I have glass lids and plastic storage lids for all my Corning ware, but I really don't use the glass lids too much, since I mostly use the casseroles for storing things I've cooked some other way. But I need the glass lids, just in case, and it has been hard to figure out what to do with them. Now that I have all my plate (or lid) racks here, I used the one that used to hold the dinnerware to hold most of the lids. Much better. Things are less likely to fall out of the cupboard and break. Tomorrow I think I will use the other one for the pot lids.
Anyway, I finally got to the cooking. That first meant determining that the turkey was still OK, which it is, and cutting all the meat off the carcass. I decided to do all the chopping and cutting before I began to assemble my tetrazzini, but that means I have half a dozen bowls to wash, not to mention two big pots and assorted measuring cups. I just put the pots to soak. I got to do most of the chopping while sitting down, and I am just going to have to get a rolling seat for the kitchen, if I plan to do any amount of cooking. My new chopper works OK, but it doesn't really mince garlic, and it was hard to clean the garlic and mushrooms out of it.
Of course, I had to stand to put everything together, and milk-based sauces have to be stirred a lot. I did burn some onto the bottom of the pan, but not badly. The recipe makes too much for a 9x13" pan, but not enough for two, so I am going to have to scout around and see if I can find about a 4 quart flat baking pan of some sort. I haven't checked my biggest glass pan to see what it holds.
So the oven now desperately needs cleaning, and I will have to clean the racks in it again. Tomorrow, while I make stock.
Anyway, when it finally came out of the oven, it tastes just fine, and instead of freezing uncooked, I will freeze part of it in chunks that can be hauled out of the freezer for a single serving. So that is done.
Of course, I got it all over me, which Buster informed me about by licking my hands and my shirt. I have never learned to cook without things going in all directions, including all over me, and I always forget to put on an apron.
The weather was good for that sort of thing. The temperature bottomed out between 8:00 and noon, at 14º, with a wicked north wind in the 20-35 mph range that was blowing the snow into whirlwinds in front of the office. The temperature went up to 21º for a while and it has now dropped back. There were any number of lake effect squalls, and in between a little sunshine and some blue sky. I love to watch those billowy clouds that are all full of snow!
Now I will go up to the north end and knit some more. I put on my fleece robe while I was sitting, and I was nice and cozy, in spite of sitting beside a window. I think the wind is rising again, and it will be a good wintry night to sleep.
December 4 When I went up to the north end, I knitted until I started the heel of the sock before I took my bath and went to bed. It was a good night to sleep, with the lake singing loudly, and I did, until about 10:00 this morning. But then I finished the heel and started the foot of the sock, so it was fairly late when I got to the office.
And that was the beginning of a nearly lost day. At least my morning surfing went fast enough, but then I got to looking at a yarn sale site (that Shetland cobweb yarn was awfully tempting, but how many shawls do I want to knit?), and that was it.
I went to the post office and to the store, where my "couple of packages" turned out to be one very small one, but at least I got some braunschweiger for breakfast.
I realized when I got ready to go out that I hadn't had anything to eat but orange juice, but somehow it didn't seem to matter much. And when I got to the garage, while Ron had cleared the driveway nicely, there were 3' drifts in front of the garage door. I knocked them down enough to get out, but I was contemplating quite a job when I got back, until I ran into the guy who did my gardening last summer and he cleared the front of the garage door, and wouldn't take any money. The sense of community around here is something else.
The weather was a little brighter today than yesterday but otherwise about the same. We had a few small snow showers, but nothing to accumulate. The temperature was about 21º all day, and the wind was from the northeast in the 15-30 mph range. The lake is still kicking up quite a fuss. It was chilly in the wind, but when I was in front of the garage, it was actually rather nice out, crisp and clean and pretty.
When I got back from all that, the electrician had called, and so I called him back and got the bad news. It seems that the generator never had any oil in it, and when they disassembled the motor, the entire inside was scored so badly that it would never work. My options (other than not having a generator) were to replace the motor or get a new generator. When I considered all the bad work that has been done on the old one, I winced and decided to get a new one.
I don't feel comfortable without a generator. We have too many power failures at inconvenient times, and I would hate to have to vacate the premises (if I could catch the cats!) and come back to frozen pipes and a horrible mess.
I will have a chat with the builder, but I'm afraid that the only way to get any compensation would be to hire a lawyer, and I won't do that. It is clear that the person who installed it was totally clueless about what he was doing, and the other people who worked on it were no better.
It is expensive, but maybe this will be the end of my generator problems and I can stop worrying about power failures.
Well, I never really worry about anything: sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. However, I do get concerned when the power goes out, the temperature is in the low teens and the wind is gale force. It can get cold mighty fast around here.
So that was my day, and clearly I will be late to bed again tonight. I do want to knit a bit to unwind. The second sock doesn't look at all like the first one. The first one, after one blob at the beginning, turned out to have s-spirals of varying widths all down the sock. The second one, after I got the tension right, is half red/purple and half yellow/green, with some wavers around the edges, and I don't like it at all, but I'm not going to tear out the entire thing again. This is a hand-dyed yarn, and it is a perfect example of what can happen with hand-dyed yarns. You take your chances, and rarely do two socks match. I guess it will be interesting. Now I just want to get it done and go on to something better.
And so I will sit and knit and listen to the song of the lake.
December 3 I went up to the north end late, because I was looking at a catalog, then I sat and knitted for some time with a cat on my lap, so it was late when I got to bed. I was awakened around 9:00 by UPS (again), but when I considered the matter, I turned over and went back to sleep, for so long that Buster came and curled up beside me. So it was another truncated day.
It was a good night to sleep. The lake was singing loudly, and the wind was in the 30-45 mph range, but it was from the northeast, so all I heard were the gusts hitting the second story. With the wind from that direction, the north end doesn't get so cold, so I was comfy to a little warm.
I got to the office late, and for some reason I don't understand, I was having a terrible time downloading the pictures from John Dee's journal - it was like they were loading on a dial-up line. I even rebooted and power failed the receiver, and while that helped, it didn't do a lot. Since I had missed one of his entries, and he had lots of pictures, it took me forever to read it. His is the only blog I read, but I enjoy it, so I wanted to read it all. Anyway, it took me forever to do my morning (afternoon?) surfing.
I was just about to go to order the items from the catalog I chose last night when I got a call from cousin Arthur. It was nice to hear from him and know that they are still OK.
While I was talking to him, I discovered that the gift I had chosen to send them, from the Smithsonian catalog, is out of stock. This is the second year in a row that this has happened to me, and I am getting annoyed about it, especially since the item is still on the website and in all their catalogs. Grr. So now I have that problem again. I must think it over.
As a result of all that, I didn't do much else at all. I partially unloaded the dishwasher, but not enough to put anything else in it, and I brought in a crate of canned cat food. The kitties had been eating what I could scrape out of a nearly empty cupboard, so it was time to dip into all the stuff I brought back with me in October. They will be happy.
Buster got to sit on my lap several times today, which mae him happy. Jasmine spent some time under the glass cabinet. I'm not quite sure how she can get under there, or why, but apparently it is warm and cozy, even though she is laying on the bare floor.
The weather was about the same. We had wave after wave of lake effect snow all day long. One minute it would be snowing heavily and the next the sun was almost out. It did come out one time around noon. The temperature was in the middle 20s all day, and while the wind has died down some, it is still in the 20-35 mph range, and still from the northeast, more or less.
Ron had cleared my driveway early this morning, but by the time I got up, there was a couple of inches of new snow on top of it. I think I will be able to get out tomorrow to go to the post office and get my packages.
So that is all there is for today, and it's time to go north again. Maybe Mother Superior will sing me to sleep again.
December 2 I was sitting and knitting when I realized that somehow when I started the second rainbow sock, my tension tightened up and the second leg was about ½" narrower than the first one. Well, that just won't do, so I ripped out over 3" on #1 needles. I have it all knitted back up now, and it's better, but if I hadn't had to do that, I'd be well along on finishing the leg. Drat. I learned long, long ago to just give in and rip, because I would never be satisfied if I didn't (and in this case, I probably couldn't have worn the sock), but I hate to have to do it.
As a result of all that, I was late getting to bed. Even though I wore my cotton nightie, I was warm, and I was uncomfortable. This time it was my left ear and my right bunion, mostly. So I didn't sleep very well until after I was up at 6:40, as Ron went by on the tractor, plowing out the road.
Nobody plowed my driveway, so I am snowed in for a while, because it snowed heavily for most of the night. I have a 3' drift on the front stoop and nearly as much in front of the great room sliding door, and I imagine there is 10" or so in the driveway. There wasn't much wind to push the snow around, so it came almost straight down, and there was quite a bit of it.
The temperature rose through the night and it was 33º for most of the day, which must have made the new snow hard to move. The temperature is dropping now, and a northeast wind has picked up and made the lake sit up and take notice. If I need the lullaby of Mother Superior to sleep well, I will certainly have it tonight.
According to the NWS station (I should begin calling it the ASOS station, because that is what it is, I've discovered), it snowed lightly for most of the day, but so far as I can see, it snowed down at the west end of the harbor, and it didn't snow here. There were a few flakes that I saw, but nothing to register in the rain gauge. Weather is wonderful.
I got up late, then I finished re-knitting what I ripped out of the sock, so I was late and I didn't do much. I finally washed the roasting pan, which has been in the sink for a while, and I washed three loads of clothes. Well, the last one is washing now, and I will leave it all in the dryer when I go to bed. I lost one of the socks I was wearing last week. I hope it is in the load that is washing now, because it is one of my favorite fine-needle socks.
I don't know about Jasmine, but Buster is very happy that it is warmer. He spent part of the day in his little (and I do mean little) box on the floor, and then he moved to the task chair, where he has been sound asleep since I gave him a couple of pieces of ham from my omelet. I have had the temperature cranked up in here, and I suppose I should turn it down, but this is where I spend most of my time, and it is very nice and cozy in here. Since it is right over the boiler, and that room is always very warm, I don't think it is using very much more heat. Or I hope it isn't.
So that was my quiet Sunday, and once the last load is in the dryer, I will crash, I think. A good night's sleep would be nice for a change.
Anyway, the lake is singing and it is supposed to keep on snowing, so it will be a good time to hibernate.
December 1 I should have put my cotton nightie back on last night. By 1:00 am the wind had died to nothing, which meant the heating system took over, and even though it was about 10º outside all night, it was too warm in the bedroom. So I didn't sleep very well. I was up any number of times, and I was wakeful in the middle of the night, so at 9:00 I turned over and slept for another couple of hours.
Buster wasn't happy, but even though he sounded off at breakfast, he didn't like what he was getting. I did pet him, but I worked on the new sock for a while, and he didn't like that, and besides breakfast was late! Meow!
I had a slight accident which resulted in having to change my underwear, so while I was up at the north end, I took the scarf and knitted a few rows. I'm doing it my way - all knitted, like the Shetland shawls were made - but even so, it's coming out looking pretty good, or at least half of the first pattern repeat of the edging looks pretty good. I put in a rush order for some long-pointed metal circular needles last night, because the pair I am using, which have short, blunt points, were never meant to knit lace...in fact, I'm wondering what they were meant for, since it's very hard to get them through the loops. I use them occasionally, because they are straight needles only 8" long, and that is convenient, but I wish I could put those tips through the pencil sharpener.
Anyway, I went to the post office and got a bunch more packages and another 3" pile of catalogs, then I went out to the new house that is finishing up. It is off the end of US-41, on Lake Lily, and it is a Tomahawk Home, which is a modified log house, and it is really nice. It has a very open floor plan, and uses 12" or 14" (or more - I didn't measure) logs for beams, which is really neat. Instead of a fireplace, they got a Finnish stove made of soapstone, which even has a bake oven in it! It is a very pretty thing, and once the house gets warmed up, I think it will do a nice job of heating the central area. They have a lovely view through the trees toward Lake Lily. It really isn't much now, but it will be beautiful in the summer. There are still a lot of things to do. The appliances aren't installed, and most of the decorative lighting isn't installed, but it is coming along, and they are hoping to spend a week or more here around the end of the year.
One of their problems has been that their electrician fell off a ladder and pretty much totaled himself, so it's taking his replacement some time to get up to speed. Reminds me of my floor finisher who was down in Mexico when we wanted to install and finish the flooring.
Some of the Copper Harbor stalwarts came to visit, including some of the ladies who come to the needlework group, and it was nice to see them so early in the winter. I discovered that an elderly lady I knew died in the middle of September, and I didn't know anything about it...and when I got back home, I discovered that the Mining Gazette only keeps a month's worth of stuff online, so at this late date, I have no way to even see her obit. I am embarrassed, but I simply cannot bring myself to begin to watch the obits that carefully. Anyway, her daughter and son-in-law, who used to winter in North Carolina, are now wintering in Copper Harbor and so far are loving it. She is a nice lady, and a nice addition to the ladies' circle.
The only thing I worry about is that Syd and Marty (the owners) were planning to start for Chicago this afternoon, and it really isn't the kind of weather to be traveling. They may dodge a bullet, because the snow is spotty, but some of it could turn to freezing rain, too. That's the trouble with long distance building.
Anyway, they are nice folks, and it was nice to see their lovely house, even unfurnished. I know they will be very happy here.
The weather was calm and quiet most of the night and most of the afternoon, until about 3:30, and then it began to snow with no wind. It is one of those snows that sort of comes down like rain and doesn't look like much (unless you are driving into it), and then you discover 6" has fallen. The wind is beginning to pick up now, but it is gusty and from the south. The temperature was right about 22º for most of the afternoon, although it did rise to 26º before it started falling back.
I tried to go to dinner at Mariner, but when I got there I discovered that the December frat dinners are beginning, so I came back home, and after noshing on pickled herring in sour cream and 3-year-old cheddar cheese with water crackers, I just finished a hamburger, which is OK, too.
I got to read a magazine I've had for several weeks and look at a catalog or two, so that was good. I have a pile of books and magazines I have set aside to read, and maybe eventually I will get to some of them. I can read and knit (except lace), or I can pet a cat and knit, but I can't do all three.
Oh, yes, and I started the wash. I washed a load of jeans (I have been going through them at a great rate), and the rest of the stuff is ready to do tomorrow. This was prompted by running out of jeans and underpants (and bras and compression hose), but when I sorted things out, I discovered that I really have quite a lot of stuff to do. Some of it, like the cotton sweaters and a few tees, will get put away for the winter, but there is a lot of stuff in there that I need.
I forgot to mention that yesterday morning I caved and put on a turtleneck, finally. they are warm and they are perfect for winter, but by March or so I am so tired of them I could scream, so I delayed as long as I could before I started wearing them. It was so cold yesterday, I wasn't going outside without having my neck well protected.
And for some weird reason, FrontPage's automatic spelling check just turned itself off...what a program!
When I was down in Copper Harbor this afternoon, there were snowmobiles in front of Zik's and in front of Mariner, so there were some hardy souls out on their machines today. It isn't often they begin grooming the trails right on December 1.
There was something else that flashed through my mind as I was rereading this, but it's gone now. My mind, my mind...
So that was my day, and it feels like it's time to toddle up to the north end and do my thing. With the warmer temps outside and the wind from the south, it should be warm enough for my cotton nightie tonight, so maybe I will sleep better. This time I can't forgo the bath, but that's all right.
It's another snowy night in the field.
Last updated 08/04/11 08:45 PM |