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November, 2010

November 30

Wow, the end of another month. At least today was a little less stressful.

I got to bed about 10:45 again last night, and I slept rather well. I guess my turkey was finally catching up with me, though, and I emitted the most amazing amount of gas during the night. It's a wonder I wasn't floating around on the ceiling. I got up around 9:45, although I was just dozing earlier, and Buster was sitting on the bed staring at me. I petted him and did a little light exercising.

I did my surfing and I thought I was setting off to my PT on time - and when I got there, I discovered my appointment was at 1:00, not 2:00. Egad! My mind - my mind! Fortunately, my PTA didn't have an appointment at 2:00, so she took me and showed me a few new exercises. I guess I'm going to take over most lf my shoulder exercises now, although they showed me a couple more of those, too. So that worked out all right in the end. The rest of my appointments are at 2:00, so I'm safe.

I had just made it home when the tire store called to say that the tire was in, but I decided to just wait until Thursday to get it. The spare seems to be holding up all right, and I'd like a day off.

It was easy driving today. With the exception of a little slush along the edges of the road on the covered road, everything was just wet, and when I came home, parts were even nearly dry. While they were predicting rain, it didn't, and in fact there were a few rays of sunshine about the time I got to Laurium and again when I got back to Lake Medora. 

I stopped for gas, and I must say that the price is certainly volatile these days. It had gone up 3¢ a gallon since yesterday, at least at some places. I had coupons, though, which helped a lot. 

The weather was blah again. The temperature was in the lower 40s for most of the time, although it was dropping a bit in Laurium before I left. It rained hard overnight, and most of our snow is gone, although it didn't do a lot for the higher elevations. As far as I know, there wasn't much, if any, rain after sunrise today. There wasn't much wind at all until lately. Now the temperature has dropped to 33º and the wind has switched to the northwest and is rising. It's supposed to snow tonight.

When I got home, I didn't do much until the talking was over, then I read for a while, and I'll read a bit more. It's a dark, cool night in the field.

November 29

Well, another day, another problem. Not exactly, but it was frustrating.

I got to be about 10:45 last night and I slept rather well. That's all the double-double JDs for a while, though. I find my mouth gets much drier when I've had too much to drink.

I got up around 9:45, so I had enough sleep. I did my exercises, and my shoulders were sore when I was done. As soon as I got to the studio, I called the tire store and the glass company. The glass company had to call me back, and since I forgot (as usual) to check the answering machine when I got home, I will have to call them back tomorrow. The tire store said come, so I did.

The spare seems to be just fine, and the roads were nearly clear, except for slush on the covered road. However, about the time I got to the tire store, which is in Hancock, the rear window windshield wiper stopped. That has happened several times lately, but this time I couldn't get it unstuck, so I had to come home without it. I like to know what's happening behind me. And then I discovered that the tire store didn't have another tire like mine, and they won't be getting them in until late tomorrow. So I essentially wasted a 90 mile trip. Grr.

The window wiper was dead all the way home, until I pulled into the garage, when I tried it again and it worked. Well, maybe I can wait a bit before I get that fixed. I once had that happen to my front windshield wipers, and that's not fun at all.

The weather was weird. It was 39º all night long, and it got up to 42º during the day. The wind was from the south-southwest, and it has now risen into the 15-30 mph range. There was even a little wan sunshine for part of the day. We lost a lot of snow, but there had been a whole lot more down around Calumet than we had.

So tomorrow I will call the glass company and go to my PT, and I will need to get gas. I have been using the 4WD enough that my mileage has gone down a lot. I think I will probably wait until Thursday to get the tire replaced, but I'll call them when I'm done with PT.

I had the cell phone with me on Sunday, so if the nice man hadn't helped me, I could have called for help. Upon thinking about it, I will be carrying it from now on. Service is spotty up here, but where I stopped the car, about a quarter mile from Gratiot Lake Road, I was getting something, and I think it works pretty well from there south. The way things are, I just never know when I might need to call somebody. So I will be carrying my cell phone and my planner all the time. Sigh. 

It also occurred to me that it was good that I decided not to go to PT on Friday. The blowout would have happened then, and I wouldn't have had my cell phone with me, and it was ugly out there. So I dodged that bullet.

Now I will read a little more and then I will try to get another good night's sleep. It's so warm outside that I can't tell if the heat is working right, but I don't think it is in the bathroom. We'll see - we're in for cooler temps and snow after Wednesday, so that should be a good test.

Now it's a partly to mostly cloudy, warmish, windy night in the field and there's rain on the way.

November 28

Well, the saga continues.

I got to bed about 10:45 last night, and I slept relatively good, although I had another weird dream early this morning, in which my mother was crying, which she seldom did. 

I got up at 7:30 and did my exercises and ate my breakfast before I got dressed, and I got so interested in my surfing that I was a bit late. So I left the house and started down to church.

Someplace south of Delaware, when I was behind a guy who wasn't going fast enough, all of a sudden I started hearing a very alarming noise coming from somewhere under the car. I slowed down, then I speeded up again, and right before Gratiot Lake Road, the noise got so loud that I stopped and got out to check things over. 

Well.

I had apparently had a blowout on the left rear tire, and by the time I stopped, it was totally off the rim and nearly in pieces. So what to do? There is no way in the world I can hassle those huge tires and rims around. For some reason, I had decided to take the big purse with my cellphone in it, and wonder of wonders, I had service. However, before I could call anybody, a truck came by in the other direction, and I flagged him down. 

It was a nice older man, and after dithering a bit, he decided he could change my tire for me. Then we had to locate the wrench and the rods and the jack - which are very neatly stowed away in places you'd never think - and he put on my spare, which, frankly, doesn't look like one of my rims at all. But he did it, and it wasn't flat, and when I asked him who he was, he said he is the brother of my plumber! Egad! Small world! 

He was on his way hunting, and I really appreciate more than I can say that he would stop and help. A number of other cars and trucks passed us while he was working, and nobody even slowed down, even though I had my flashers on.

By that time it was after 10:15, so there was no way I could possibly get to church, so I came home, got undressed, and sat and did nothing at all for the rest of the day. Geez.

The problem with both these things is that it's not simple. Very likely, the window will mean getting a whole new sash, not just replacing the glass, and since I did it, I will have to pay for it. And when you lose a tire on a 4WD vehicle, you have to get four. You can't just replace one. So I am really getting hammered, and all my charities are among the things that are likely to suffer. This has been a bad year.

Anyway, it was really cold this morning, down in the lower 20s, and since I wasn't dressed for outdoors, I was frozen, especially my hands, by the time Gordy went on his way and I started home. It was sort of sunny, too, and the temperature rose rapidly, up to 39º, where it stayed for most of the afternoon, although it was mostly cloudy. The wind was from the southwest, and at intervals it was gusty into the mid 20s.

The only person who was happy that I was home and sitting at the computer was Buster, who spent most of the day on my lap, very happily. I'm not sure he feels too good again, although he did eat most of the turkey I left on my plate. He's not eating quite as much as he was earlier in the week, and Jasmine is worried about him again.

So that was my not-very-good day, and I'm on my second JD again, after which I will totter up to the north end. Tomorrow, instead of staying here, I will have to go down to Hancock and get new tires, after I call the glass company. Not what I wanted to do, for sure!

Now it's a breezy, cloudy night in the field, but it's not very cold outside.

November 27

My goodness, what a day this turned out to be!

I got to bed around 11:00 last night, and the wind and the lake put me right to sleep. I got up around 9:00, petted the cat, and knitted on the black sweater for a while before I did my exercises. So I was late getting to the studio. The wind died down overnight, although the lake was still singing.

I did the usual stuff, but sometime around 2:00, the sun started to come out, and I decided this was a good day to put down the shutters. The snow had gotten all the way to the back wall of the porch (more about that later), and I didn't want that to happen again. I took my cane, because it had gotten warm and the stuff on the deck was mostly ice, but except that I had to exchange two of the locks (I try to get them in the order they were numbered by the people who installed the shutters) I didn't have any trouble with the shutters. I seem to recall having used WD40 on the slide locks last spring, and they worked great. I did have to hack away a little ice that had gotten into the bottom of one runner, but that wasn't bad.

Then all hell broke loose. I decided, while I had my jacket on, to to out on the porch and get the snow off the cushions, so they wouldn't get sopping wet. Well. I did that, but when I went to go inside, I realized that I had forgotten to unlock the door.

I was locked out on the porch. I had my sweats on, so I didn't have my key, and there was no way I could get in except by breaking a window. Sigh. I think I am going to secrete a key on the porch, just in case this ever happens again.

Anyway, I used several things to try to beat on the door, but I guess the glass in doors is especially strong, because all I did was mess up my hand when I managed to get it caught between the stool and the doorframe. Ouch. I've been icing it, and it feels better, but I'm going to have a huge bruise on the back of my right hand.

For quite a while, I had no idea how I was going to get back into the house.

I finally got the smallest of my wrought iron stacking tables, and while I couldn't break the door with it, after pounding for quite a while, I finally broke the window that opens onto the porch. I had to break out most of the glass to reach the locks, but finally I got the window open. Of course, there was glass all over the floor on both sides.

But that wasn't the end of my problems. Then I had to get into the house through the window. I managed to get my left leg over the sill (it's only  about 18" off the floor), so I was straddling the frame, but then came the problem of getting  my other leg through the window, which isn't all that wide. I think it must have taken fifteen minutes before I finally figured out how to haul my right foot up to the sill, over the frame, and into the house. Wow! It's amazing what I can do when I have to.

By that time, it was about 4:30, and I had been pounding on things for a long time, and I was hot and tired and the adrenalin was still rushing.

The next order of business was to get something to cover the broken window, which opens into the hallway (the one the cats use). First I tried to call the glass company, but not only weren't they open, they don't have an answering machine or an emergency number. Sigh.

So I looked over my cardboard boxes, and I finally decided the best thing I could use was the toilet paper carton. So I emptied it out, flattened it, and duct taped it over the window. I had to tape almost all around to try to keep as much cold air out as possible, but it still isn't very good.

Then I had to clean up the glass in the hallway. It's amazing how much glass there is in a double-paned 24" square window. I haven't done anything about what's out on the porch, and I probably won't until spring.  I also had to clean up the glass from my neat (but unreadable) kitchen clock, which feel off the wall while I was banging on the door.

I'm not sure I got all the glass, but I do think I got most of it, so the kitties won't get glass in their paws. Or I hope not. There was a washbasket full of clothes under the window, so some of the glass dropped in that, too.

By that time, it was nearly 5:00, and not only was I hot and upset, my back was killing me. So I poured myself a double JD and sat down for a while before I got some dinner (I was hungry, too). I'm on my second JD now. I figure I deserve it.

So now I have to get a replacement lower sash for the window in the hallway. Grr. Not what I wanted to have to do at this time of year. Oh, well, these things happen, and at least I'm inside and able to tell you what happened. For a while I wondered if I was going to be stuck out there forever.

My hand feels better, although I'm keeping the ice on it, and it's going to be really ugly for quite some time. Amazingly enough, I only got one little nick from the glass, and while it bled a little, it's healed up already. The table needs some welding, but when Aaron comes home, I will ask him if he can put it back together for me. I will also have to take a hammer to one of the chairs that goes with the bistro table, because I bent two legs trying to use it to break something.

The weather turned out nice. While it was cloudy this morning, around 2:00, the sun tried to come out for a while. The temperature got up to 32º for quite a while, and the wind dropped steadily all day, until now it's nearly calm. What was blowing was from the north. It was actually quite nice out on the deck while I was pulling down the shutters, although the wind sort of went through my jacket.

Now I'm exhausted and not very happy, but I'm in the house and I'm warm but not sweaty and full of turkey and everything else. That was my day, and it wasn't a good one. Sigh.

So it's a partly cloudy, calm night in the field.

November 26

Oh, what a wonderful gale we're having!

I got to bed around 11:00 last night, I think. It was really cold up at the north end, but I was comfy under my down. I was only up twice, and it was good to get back into bed. I really didn't want to get up. Curiously, I was having a strange dream about watching a storm from an apartment that faced a big factory, so the sounds were intruding into my dreams, too. 

Anyway, at 9:30 the Rehab place called to ask if I planned to go, and if so, could I come at 1:00. I said yes, but after I got up and discovered that it was 59º in the bedroom and 63º in the bathroom and it was snowing and blowing at a great rate, I decided to stay here and call the plumber. I decided it would be simply foolish to go out in that in less than an emergency.

I was sore and creaky all day from my exertions, but I did get the first load of stuff out of the sink and the second load - the roaster and a few other odds and ends - in to soak. Otherwise, I did nothing, although I did go down to the basement and change the temperature of the water going to the first floor, under the direction of the plumber. That didn't do much, so he came, checked everything over, and said he thought upping the temperature would eventually solve the problem. We'll see. I'm not so sure.

The weather was wonderful. The temperature was only 10º at midnight, but it rose to 18º at 5:00 am when the wind shifted to the north. The wind was gusting up to 35 mph then, and it just kept rising and rising. It seemed to peak at about 2:00, with sustained winds of just over 40 mph and gusts to 48 mph. That, friends, is a real gale. It died down a bit, but it is rising again now. At least the temperature has risen to 30º, so it isn't quite as dangerous outside. It mostly snowed overnight, but all day long there were bands of LES coming across the harbor one after another.

It is incredibly noisy. The wind bangs against the house and sounds like it is trying to tear off the siding, the lake is roaring in baritone, and there are quite large breakers on my beach. it's a shame that all the sea buoys are gone, because I have to believe there are 20 foot waves out in the lake. The whole thing is moving east, but it will be tomorrow before it starts to die down. Such fun!

I haven't been up to the north end lately to check on the temperature, but I didn't plan to take a bath tonight anyway. Now it's a dark, hairy night in the field, with the wind howling and banging and the lake roaring. It will be a good night to sleep. Zzzzzzzz...

November 25 - Thanksgiving Day

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving, enjoying friends and family and lots of good food.

Well, that turned out all right.

For various reasons, it was 1:00 before I got to bed last night, and I really didn't want to get up at 9:30, but, oh, well. I didn't do my exercises this morning, because I figured I'd be active enough anyway. I did pet the cat for a long time.

I  got to do most of my morning surfing before I sprang into action. The PT is really making a difference! I got the turkey stuffed and into the oven just about when I wanted it to go, even though I had a hard time finding enough good onions. Then I started trying to get the great room cleaned up at least a little bit. I didn't have any trouble with my legs at all. It was my back, and sitting down for a few minutes helped that. I definitely could stand for much longer. Sweeping was hard, but it always is, because of my back.

I had planned everything out, and everything happened just about like I wanted it to. Getting everything onto the table is always hard, but we managed. The turkey was good, although it was probably a bit overcooked. When I started to take out the stuffing, one leg fell off. But better that way than undercooked. The boys seemed to enjoy their meal, although they both eat funny.

Trevor had his Ipod with him, and he immediately discovered the WiFi, and that kept him happy. Before they left, he showed me a video he is working on about texting while driving, which is really cute. He is finally coming out of himself, and he's a nice kid.

They left a bit early because Ron is pet sitting this weekend, and the dog needed to be let out. He is also house sitting several houses. He is so nice.

The stuffing was the way I like it, the potatoes turned out just fine, the squash is delicious, and the peas and mushrooms tasted good for a change. I must get those baby Portobello mushrooms again. They are really wonderful.

The weather was yucky. It got up to 38º in the morning, but after about 12:00 the temperature started to drop and the wind shifted to the west. It rained until about 1:00, and we had ¾" from midnight until 1:00 pm. Really nasty, on top of the snow we had yesterday. Then it snowed a bit, and around 4:00 it almost cleared up, so there was a nice clear sunset. I don't know what it's doing now, if anything, but the wind is blowing out of the west in the 15-30 mph range. Now the temperature here is 18º, and there is snow and freezing fog at the airport. Not nice. 

Particularly not nice because our tractor is still dead. They sold Ron the wrong battery, and he has to take it back and exchange it. So we will hope we don't get dumped on for the next few days.

Buster made a nuisance of himself while I was getting dinner onto the table, but I gave him a nice dish of turkey and gravy, which he ate most of, then he went away for a nap. He was sitting on my lap until a minute ago, and he thinks he wants some of my dessert, of which there isn't any. He really likes ice cream, but this was only a little bit, and it had chocolate in it. He is a little snot. He is still eating very well, so I'm happy about that.

So that was my day, and everything in the kitchen is either put away or soaking, except for the roaster, so I think I will go up to the north end and read a bit before I crash. I don't feel all that exhausted, but my feet are sore, and my back is stiff, so bed will feel good.

It's a cold, windy night in the field, and winter is certainly here.

November 24

I did another GoBack last night, but today when I got the same problem, I finally figured out how to fix it. Something is getting stored in the cookies folder that PurgeIE doesn't know how to handle, so it hangs. If I purge the cookies with IE, it's fine - but then I lose all those things that log me in automatically. So I finally discovered it's possible to export and import cookies, and I've saved the ones I want. I don't know why this suddenly came up, but all my software is so old that it's probably to be expected. I think it's something the Pepsi site is putting out there, and it is so poorly written that anything might happen.

I read for a while when I got to the north end, and it was 12:30 when I got to bed. I didn't get up until around 9:30, and I petted the cat and knitted a while before I did my exercises, then I dawdled over my surfing, so I didn't get everything done that I'd hoped to - but when do I? I hate to clean anyway, and it has nothing to do with my physical condition.

However, the kitchen is clean except for the floor. It hardly looks like my kitchen at all. I even soaked the filters on the range hood - which really needed it - and scrubbed the sink. Since the turkey will be in the sink tomorrow, I want it to be clean. I have a lot to do tomorrow, but it will probably be dark enough that if I don't get everything done, nobody will notice. Ron and Trevor know I'm a terrible housekeeper already. At least I keep my kitchen clean.

I did have one disaster. The butter dish slid onto the floor and the bottom of it broke, so now I am down to two and a half pressed glass butter dishes. I managed to save most of the nearly new stick of butter, although it's a mess. Yes, I do eat things off the floor. I don't serve them to guests, but I eat them. It's my stomach.

The weather was blah. The temperature rose steadily all day and it is now 35º. The wind was from the south all day, and it was quite light until about 2:00, when it began to rise, and it is now in the 15-30 mph range. The big blob of rain/snow/sleet that has been moving toward us all day is now at least at Houghton, and the radar seems to indicate that it's here, too, although I haven't looked outside to see if it is doing anything.

It sounds like we could be in for it over the next couple of days. First there is the system snow overnight tonight, and there is the possibility of heavy lake effect snows on Friday - I may never get another PT appointment!

So that was my day. The cat has been sleeping on my lap all evening. He is eating amazingly well these days - three cans of Fancy Feast a day! I'm encouraging him. He is so skinny! His teeth still bother him, but at least he is eating again!

Now it's time to totter up to the north end and crash. Tomorrow will be a busy day.

November 23

It's been a rather disturbing 24 hours.

I really got into it last night. I had been having trouble with PurgeIE, the program I use to purge all the garbage Internet Explorer leaves out on my disk, including all the tracking cookies. It's a lot easier to use than trying to get rid of that stuff through IE, and you can protect certain files, like cookies that keep passwords and logon information. Anyway, I hadn't been able to look at my cookies for most of the evening. I even reinstalled the program and that did nothing.

So I decided to do a GoBack. Then I discovered that the last time I had a problem and had to stop GoBack and restart it, it never got listed in the program files, so I had to go find it on disk.  I still don't know how to get it back into the program list, but I did manage to put a shortcut on the desktop.

Anyway, by the time I did the GoBack and recovered my inbox and the story I'd been reading, it was late. So it was midnight before I got to bed.

For some reason I had it in my head that my PT appointment today was at 2:00, so I slept until 9:30, knitted (on the black sweater) and petted the cat before I did a few exercises. I was eating my breakfast when the PT place called to say my appointment was at 11:00 and I had missed it. Oops. Well, so I missed it. I was embarrassed, but my head has been elsewhere lately.

I was pretty upbeat because I reached one of my PT goals today. One of my exercises is to lie on my back and raise both arms over my head while holding the cane. My goal was to hit my hands on the footboard of the bed. Today I did that, not just once, but several times. I still can't put up my hair or wash my neck, but I'm making progress.

It would have been nice if I'd been able to stay home, because the weather wasn't very good, but I had planned to shop today, so eventually, I started off. It had been snowing lightly most of the night, and the roads all the way to Calumet were ugly. I got behind a sand truck going from Allouez to Kearsarge, and he was spreading so much sand on the hill that it was more like a sand dune. It was a long trip, and for most of it I was in AUTO 4WD. 

I did good at Pat's. I got a turkey - about 13 lbs - and the rest of the stuff I wanted. The green veggie is going to be baby peas with baby portabella mushrooms. The guys probably won't eat them, but I will. As an aside, I discovered a bag of baby lima beans. I love lima beans, and I haven't had any in a long time. I love those bags, because I can cook just as much as I want. Goodie!  My total bill was quite reasonable, because there was no wine and no booze in it. 

I got home about 4:00. I was just as glad I didn't have any PT before I shopped, because I wasn't tired or sweaty, even though I had to retrace my steps to get the mushrooms, and I had to go all around the store to get what I wanted. And I got everything in and put away without being too tired. 

The weather was winter. The temperature dropped all night, and here it was about 25º all day. It was colder in Calumet, around 20º when I was there. There was a strong north wind in the 25-35 mph range all day. And it snowed lightly for most of the night and off and on all day, but not enough to register at the NWS station. 

I didn't take the camera on my trip, and I was really sorry. The snow was apparently sticky, and every branch and twig of every tree between the Mountain Lodge and Mohawk was frosted with snow. It was so beautiful, especially along the covered road and up on the cliffs. It would really take video to show it properly, but I wish I had been able to take the still shots. Oh, well, Win some and lose some. My head has been rather foggy lately anyway.

I have just started having the same problem with PurgeIE that I had yesterday, so I will have to fiddle again tonight. 

And now it's late and I really would prefer to go to bed. It's a dark, cloudy night in the field, but I don't think it's snowing just yet.

November 22

I was in bed by 10:00 last night, and I slept better, although I was up several times. As usual, I woke up around 7:15 and got up, so I got to do my exercises and pet the cat before I got dressed.

I left around 9:40, and now I know I have to leave earlier when I'm going to Houghton. Besides, it was a rough trip. Someplace between the blinker and the Mountain Lodge, I saw a deer cross the road, and I forgot that where there's one there's probably more than one, so I clipped a deer. The deer looked all right, but she was running around and glaring at me as I drove off. It seems there was no damage to the car, either, but it shook me up. I have no desire to injure Bambi...or Faline. 

Anyway, the road was completely clear of snow, and I made relatively good time until I got to the bridge, which was going up. I was already nearly late, and that bridge moves awfully slowly. I didn't see what went under it, but it took a few minutes before it went down again, and for a while I was afraid they were having trouble with it again. 

It didn't matter  much, since the dentist was late, too, but I got to talk knitting with a very nice lady, and I am now the possessor of a lovely new gold crown that fits perfectly and feels great. It was more expensive than the ones I got in Detroit, but frankly, this dentist spent a lot more time preparing it and fitting it, and it wasn't nearly as expensive as two trips to Detroit would have been. So I seem to have a new dentist, and I made an appointment for a prophylaxis in April, and I gave them the Detroit guy's phone number so they can get my records.  So that turned out all right.

Then I went off to Wal-Mart, where I did the usual damage. I needed a couple of things, but I ended up with a new piece of some kind of fleece that has a nap and is the softest stuff I've ever felt. It's navy blue. The pink piece was even softer and had more nap, but it was 6-year-old pink, and that's not quite my style.

I also acquired a new non-stick sauté pan, with a glass lid. When I thought about it, I decided that the one I used last night needed to be replaced. It's at least 40 years old, with the old original non-stick coating that hasn't been non-stick in years, and I probably paid less than $10 for it then, since it was one of those things I got on a supermarket special. I won't throw it away, but I'll only use it for certain stuff, not stir-fries.

My feet were sore and I was very tired when I finally got out of Wal-Mart, but I needed to stop for gas. Driving in AUTO 4WD uses a lot more gas, and besides, in the winter, I like to keep my tank more than half full. Well. Gas at Wal-Mart and a couple other places in Houghton is $2.90, even though it's still $2.98 where I've been getting it. That's almost worth the 20 miles more I would have to drive to get it.

Then it was onward to home. My trip down was just fine, with the roads wet but nothing more, and no precip. Evidently, while I was in Houghton, there was some kind of precip event from Calumet north. All the trees were frosted, and I wished I'd had the camera, because it was really pretty. The roads were still fine - they dumped enough salt and sand on them Friday and yesterday that they were clear and wet. Not that everybody thought that, and I had to pass a couple of people going under the speed limit. I didn't go my usual speed, and I slowed down on the curves, but I did go the speed limit or more. 

I got to the Harbor shortly after 2:00 and I stopped at the post office  to get a huge bunch of mail, mostly catalogs and pleas for money. There were a couple of bills, too, that I had been looking for. 

The weather was yucky. It was above freezing when I went south, but the temperature had dropped a bit when I came back. It never got below 35º here, but it was colder up in the higher elevations. There wasn't much wind during the day, but it's rising now, into the 10-20 mph range, mostly from the east, and I can hear the lake singing. It was raw and nasty when I was pumping gas. It's apparently been raining or snowing or something since about 4:00, although I didn't notice it before it got dark, which I guess means it's rain. It's been snowing at the airport. Winter is upon us.

So that was my day, and now I will read a bit more and then try to get to bed early again. I don't have to get up before the crack of dawn tomorrow, but I do have to to to my PT, and I'll be leaving early for that. Tomorrow is the day to get the turkey, and I certainly hope I can get it at Pat's. We'll see.

Now it's a dark, dank, cold night in the field.

November 21

I read for a while last night, but I was tired, and I was in bed by 10:00, amazingly enough. I slept OK. I was up several times, and it seemed I had a hard time getting into any deep sleep. It has something to do with knowing I have to get up early, I'm sure.

Well, I did. I got up about 7:20, turned off the alarm, petted the cat, and did my exercises. On these days, I'm reverting to my habits before I got hooked on the computer - I eat breakfast before I wash my face and dress. I don't do that when I'm staying in or leaving later because if I did, I'd never get dressed or take my morning pills. 

Anyway, it was getting warmer than yesterday and it was snowing or raining or something, so I left around 9:15, and it was just as well that I did. There was snow on all the roads, and I got behind a truck spreading sand for a while before he let me pass him down by Medora. I didn't drive at my usual fast pace, but I still got to church at about 10:10. 

Church was nice. This is the last Sunday of the church year - the church year starts with the first Sunday in Advent, which is next week. They are having their Thanksgiving service Wednesday night, and I doubt I will go. I'm a little wary about driving around in the dark and the snow. We'll see. 

Anyway, there was one hymn that we sang that Pastor was singing tenor on one verse. It's really neat when people do that. I've heard that there are some churches where almost everybody sings harmony, but I've never been at one. He took his training at the Fort Wayne seminary, and he was in the traveling choir. I bet it's something to hear when all the seminarians go to church. I was a bit disappointed that I didn't seem to have much volume today.

Getting home was another thing. It had been snowing all the time I was in church, and US-41 was snow covered all the way to the Mountain Lodge. It didn't seem especially slippery, although I did lose it a bit when I turned onto US-41 at Calumet - nothing serious, my rear end just broke loose a bit before I caught it. So I drove slowly (for me), and it took me about a full hour to get home. I put the car in AUTO 4WD, although I doubt it went into 4WD. When I came down the hill to to Copper Harbor, the snow abruptly turned to rain or maybe sleet, and the roads were wet but clear. It was pretty yucky.

So I didn't do much else. I did my surfing, and I read for a while, and except for dinner and putting some things in the dishwasher, that was about it. 

Last night, I checked Schwan's website, and I discovered that my delivery date was today, so I put in a rather large order, including something for dessert on Thursday. That came this afternoon, so I had something new to try tonight. It's another Chinese thing, and it was delicious, but horribly overcooked. I don't know why these things have the directions they do. So I wrote them a review (I think they look at those things), and the next time I buy it, which I will, I'll cook it my own way.

I also need a larger non-stick frying pan. I have one that I've had for 45 years, and it isn't non-stick anymore, but it has a lid that fits tightly, so I use it anyway, and stuff sticks to it. My good non-stick pan isn't quite big enough. I must look at Wal-Mart.

I will be down there tomorrow. I get my crown installed tomorrow morning, so I will stop by Wal-Mart and get a couple of things I need (and probably a few things I don't). The dentist isn't far from Wal-Mart, so it's convenient for me to stop there.

The weather, as I've indicated, was not good. The temperature rose steadily all day, from 28º at midnight to 39º now. It was windy - gusts to 22 mph - from 8:00 this morning until 5:00 this afternoon, from the south. Now it is calm. There was rain or snow or a combination depending where I was. I think it mostly rained here. I went through patches of both going down to Laurium and coming back. Of course, it was cloudy and dark and dismal. Yuck.

I will have to be up early tomorrow, and I will have to leave early, depending on the weather, so it's time to toddle up to the north end now. It's a moist, dark, warmish night in the field.

November 20

I read for a little while when I got to the north end, and it was about 11:00 when I got to bed. I pulled out one of my old, patched flannel gowns, and I turned up the heat, because it was really cold up there when I got there last night. Anyway, I slept, but I was up any number of times, for some reason. Maybe I finally stopped eating stuff with all that sodium in it and I was getting rid of the fluid. Some other stuff, too, but the Imodium seems to have had minimal effect, so I guess I'll just have to live with it. 

Anyway, sometime in the middle of the night, the sound of the wind died down - I think the direction  shifted, although the speed peaked at about 4:00, with 43 mph gusts. The lake was still roaring. The temperature finally began to recover, too, which helped. 

I woke up around 10:00, but it was just so comfy in my nice warm cocoon that I didn't get up until 10:45. I petted the cat and knitted and did my exercises, so it was about noon before I ate my breakfast. I thought I might have French toast, but my milk had gone bad, so I didn't. It will be Wednesday before I have time for a slow breakfast again. 

Anyway, I was so late that I ended up not doing anything, as usual. That has got to stop. There are a lot of things i have to do before Thursday.

The weather was cold. Period. It hit a low of about 22º early this morning, but it only got up to 24º. The temperature has been reported as 24.1º all day, which always makes me suspicious, but I don't have any way to check it. The wind died down by noon, and it is now calm. All morning, there were little light snow squalls, but not more than an inch fell altogether. I was going to go to the post office, but I forgot and didn't dress for it, so I stayed in. I was just as glad. It was dark and dismal all day long.

The moon is full tomorrow, and it was amazingly light all night long, so light that it looked like about 45 minutes before sunrise. I could see what I was doing and where I was walking.

The sun is rising at 8:03 and setting at 5:10 now, so the days are just over 9 hours long - so short! And with the clouds, it is beginning to get dark at 4:00. It's a very dismal time of year, and it will be getting worse before it gets better.

Oh, I know what I did last night: I ordered my pulley. As it turns out, I didn't order the one the intern found for me. When I went to check out with it, it turned out that for a purchase of $11.88, they (not Amazon) were going to charge me $10.85 in shipping and handling. Geez! So I went back and bought the next most expensive one, which is around $16, but has no shipping, or they said it doesn't. That's something I learned a long time ago in my online buying: check the shipping carefully. The lowest quoted price may not be. Anyway, hopefully, I'll get it the week after next.

I also wanted to order a pair of black slacks, now that I am trying to dress up a bit. But it seems Lands End's free shipping offers had all expired - or at least the ones I had were all for October - and they wanted quite a lot to ship. So I decided to make do and wait until I can get them without any shipping charges. Since they sell at stores in Michigan, I have to pay sales tax, and with the shipping, it was just too much. That was why I was so late.

So now it's time to go again, so I can get up early tomorrow and go to church. It's a dark, calm, cold night in the field.

November 19

It's a noisy night in the field.

I read off the end of the story I'd been reading, and I read a little at the north end before I took my bath. It was about 11:30 when I got to bed. I was up the usual number of times during the night, and I started taking some Imodium. I don't know if it's helping yet. Anyway, I got up around 9:15, I think.

I petted the cat and knitted on the second purple sock for a while before I did my exercises and got dressed. I'm a bit disappointed in the sock. The stripe pattern isn't quite as neat as the first one. I've had that trouble before, and I still don't understand how I can take two balls of yarn and instinctively choose the one that looks best for the first sock. I know my gauge is the same on both. Weird. Anyway, I have several purple things I wear in the winter, so the socks will be useful.

I did my surfing. I notice, when I got up, that we had a little more snow overnight - in fact, enough that the NWS station reported precip. So I left right around 1:00, and it was good that I did. Just south of Medora, I encountered a salt truck going my way. I didn't even know the Keweenaw Road Commission used salt, and they don't usually on the back roads, but I guess they have to on the US highways. Anyway, he was going at about 25 mph and I was getting concerned. There is a straight stretch between Medora and Mandan which should have had a dashed middle line and doesn't, and the driver slowed down to 20 mph and pulled over as far as he could to let me pass him. I thought that was very nice of him.

It wasn't slippery, even though there was a little slush on the covered road. Mostly it was just wet, which is messy but tolerable. Cliff Drive was snow covered, though, so for the first time this season, I had to go through Mohawk. Anyway, in spite of all that, I was a bit early for my appointment.

That went well. Corin measured the extension of my arms, and I have actually made quite a bit of progress, even though I haven't reached my goal, which is to wash the back of my neck with my right hand. She was quite delighted with my progress, and she agreed to recommend another month, when we will try to work more on my legs. She also had her intern search the internet and they found me a pulley system on Amazon for about $12 - less than half what it would be at the pharmacy. Which reminds me, I need to go out there and order that. So that turned out well.  I got home about 4:00. If it wasn't for the long drives and the amount of gas I'm using, I would be enjoying this.

Speaking of gas, it has gone down to $3.00 again. Weird - and I don't know why the price has been going up and down so much.

The weather was interesting. It was windy this morning, with gusts up to 31 mph from the west southwest, but between about 3:00 and 5:00, the wind dropped to nothing before it picked up from the northwest to north, and now it's blowing at 23 mph with gusts up to 41 mph. They've taken in the buoys, unfortunately, but there are 55 mph gusts at Stannard Rock. The temperature was in the middle 30s all day, above freezing, except for when the wind shifted and it was 39º for a couple of hours. It was mostly cloudy, although there was a ray or two of sunshine while I was driving home, and when I came back to the studio with my dinner, there was a bright, almost full moon riding high in the southeast.

It is really hairy out there now, and I'm glad I'm in here with a little black cat on my lap. He doesn't like the noise, and I have to agree that sometimes when the gusts hit us, it sounds like the wind is trying to take the roof off. Here at the south end, the wind is so noisy I can't hear the lake, but I imagine I will up at the other end. I love blows like this.

So that was my day, and I think I will read a while before I totter up to the north end and fall asleep to the sound of the wind and the waves. 

November 18

I will write this first tonight, then I'll read a while, maybe.

What with getting the dishwasher ready and all, it was 10:45 before I got to bed, but oh, my, did I sleep. I finally got up about 10:15, and I feel much better. However, I did all my exercises and petted the cat and knitted a bit, so I got a late start on the day anyway. Not that I did anything with it. I had some ideas, but it meant working outside, and it was cold out. So I stayed in, and I finished my surfing just about the time the talking started.

When I got up this morning, there was snow. Not very much, but there was about half an inch on the ground and some on the decks. I think it snowed for most of the morning, very lightly. The temperature was 33º at midnight, and it fell slowly and steadily all day, and it is now 25º. The wind was strong overnight, too, with gusts up to 36 mph from the north. That stopped around noon, and now it's calm. So winter has come. It's supposed to be a little warmer tomorrow, but then around midnight we are going to have another blow. 

And that was another nothing day. Now it's a dark, cloudy, cold night in the field.

November 17

It was really late when I finally made it to bed this morning, so it was 11:00 or so before I got up, and Buster was bugging me, wondering if I was ever going to. I knitted two rows on the shawl, petted him, and did my exercises, so I had a rather truncated day, with which I did nothing except begin to get the dishwasher ready to run tonight. I'm tired again, so I won't be nearly as late tonight.

The weather wasn't worth talking about. The temperature dropped from 42º at 5:00 this morning to about 39º, where it stayed until the sun set, and now it is dropping a little more. There was a strong wind, 20 mph and more, but it was from the north, so I didn't notice much except that the lake is singing. It was cloudy and gray and I was glad to stay in. I really must think about the shutters, because it is going to snow even here pretty soon

So that is all I have to report, and it's time to go. It's another cold, dark night in the field.

November 16

Well, here we are again. I've been reading, but my other excuse is Brahms' Fourth. They never play the good stuff at decent hours of the night. Anyway, I got to bed around 12:30 last night, and I got up around 10:00, so I got a good night's sleep, with only two wakeups. I was really tired by the time I got to bed.

So I petted the cat and did my exercises - not a lot, just to limber up - and did my surfing. I left a little earlier than I have lately, so I was able to fly a little slower, and I was a bit earlier.

It was a really good session, and I learned a couple more leg exercises. After that, I had to get gas. It was $3.10 on Sunday, but it had dropped to $3.07 by today, I was glad to see, because I forgot my coupons again. 

My next stop was Ace Hardware. I don't go there often, because I love hardware stores, but I wanted to see if I could get the light for my glass cabinet, and I need a new bumper for the bottom of my cane. I got the bumper, but they didn't have the light. However, I did find out what it is. It's a teensy little thing, but it's quite bright, and I discovered it's a halogen light. Oh. That's the first one of those I've ever had. 

Anyway, they pointed me to Bill's Electric. I think Bill's Electric did the electric work on my garage, but I'd never been there. However, it was full of electric stuff, and we found a light that looks just like my burned out one - at about $7.50 a piece, for a thingie that isn't an inch long! Geez! I haven't tried to install it yet. The guy did give me some good advice about cleaning it before I install it. Evidently if there is any hand oil on the light, it won't last as long. OK, I can do that.

Anyway, that meant I was late starting back, and then I stopped at the store for eggs and talked to Stacie, who has a back problem, so I didn't get home until nearly 5:00. However, I have my lights and I have my bumper.

The weather was blah. The high temperature was 43º, and there was almost no wind at all. It was cloudy and gray, but not as dark as it was over the weekend.

I was surprised by how much snow there was in Calumet and Laurium. I know I saw some on the ground when I looked at the BridgeCam yesterday, but there was a lot of snow around. I left my cane at home, and when I parked at the Fitness Center, I was sorry. They don't clean their parking lot very well, just like the hospital doesn't. However, I got in and out safely. It was cooler there, too, under 40º. It's amazing what a difference 40 miles and no lake nearby can make.

So that was my day, and I'm going to be late again tonight. It's a dark, cloudy night in the field, but it isn't blowing and it isn't raining or snowing.

November 15

So I got about 6 hours' sleep last night, and I'm really tired tonight. I did my exercises and got my massage, but the weather has me quite creaky. 

I read for a while tonight, but I'm not going to push it any further. I did get to hear Beethoven's "Moonlight" and some other nice things, but as soon as I publish this, I'll be going up to the north end.

Last night and this morning, there was something wrong at PastyNet, and  not all the pictures from the camera got uploaded. I didn't call them - I've been doing that too much lately and I figured it would eventually work itself out. So sorry if you got a blank page or an old picture.

There was some rain this morning, I think, although it didn't register at the NWS station. There was water on the patio door in front of the camera at 8:00 this morning. It apparently snowed a couple of inches in Calumet, because when I looked at the BridgeCam, there was snow both at Calumet and the airport. I didn't realize how useful those cameras were until I started going down there a lot.

The weather was raw and cold. It was windy overnight, but the wind died down during the day. It was from the north. The high temperature was 37º for a good portion of the afternoon, but after 3:00 it started dropping slowly. It was cloudy, but not nearly as dreary as it was yesterday.

So that is all I know, and I'm off to the north end. It's a cold, cloudy night in the field, and November is half over already!

November 14

Well, it's the middle of the night again. But I'm not going to read all night tonight. I found a stopping place.

I think it was about midnight when I got to bed last night, and I did sleep well. The only thing about waking up at 7:30 is that I seem to naturally wake up at 6:30, and an hour isn't enough time to get back to a really deep sleep. I think 6:30 (or maybe 6:00) is when I got up for all the years I was working, and my body just naturally comes to about then. You would think that after being retired for 14 years, I'd be over it, but I had those habits for over 30 years, and they don't go away fast. Anyway, I was glad I didn't have to get up at 6:30.

Church was nice, as usual. It drizzled all the way down and back, and there was a little snow along the sides of the road from about the Mountain Lodge to Delaware. 

It didn't snow here today, but it did rain a lot and it was nasty outside, with temperatures that fell steadily from the low 40s to the mid 30s and wind that switched to northerly and started to pick up into the 10-20 mph range. It was a very dark and dismal day.

I spent it finishing the wash and reading (of course). I had to rewash all the sweaters and sweatshirts, so I used a different pretreatment and a different detergent, and we'll see if that helps. 

So now it's late and it's time to crash. It's a dark, cold, windy and dismal night in the field.

November 13

I had to laugh at myself. After reading too late, I found the missing story - which wasn't exactly what i thought it was - and I ended up pulling an all-nighter. If you follow this thing, you know I occasionally do that. And I'm going to be late tonight, too. Ah, well. Sometime I'll crash.

Anyway, as a result, I read and washed today. I started the wash late, and I had a huge amount of stuff, so it isn't all done, but at least my compression hose are clean. For some reason, I've been going through a period where everything I eat gets dropped on my front, and I had five sweatshirt sweaters and a sweatshirt, two of which I had to change out of after breakfast, as well as tees and polos and sweatpants and stuff. Usually, I have fewer dirty things in the winter, but not this time. And I'm afraid I'm going to find I have to rewash some of the sweaters, because Eddie Bauer cotton doesn't release grease at all well. That's for tomorrow, as well as the white stuff.

It was a good day to ignore the outdoors. The temperature actually dropped from near 40º at 11:00 to 35º at 1:00 before it started to rise a bit again. There was a strong and gusty southeast wind all day, in the 15-30 mph range. And it rained...or mostly it rained. When the temperature dropped, I happened to look down the harbor and we were having a snow squall. Some flakes dropped here, too, but they were big and sopping wet and nothing stuck. Yuck. I was very glad I didn't have to go out.

So now it's too late again, and I have to bathe, because I would like to go to church tomorrow, if possible. It's a dark, rather noisy, and very damp and yucky night in the field.

November 12

Well, I've done it again. It will be a late night.

I think it was about midnight when I got to bed last night, and I did sleep well. It was a little cooler in the bedroom, and the lake was singing in the background. It was clear for most of the night, too, and there were stars. Jupiter was shining in the front windows, although it is setting earlier every night. It is still the brightest thing in the west.

I got up around 10:30 and petted a cat and knitted a while, then I did my exercises, which take close to 40 minutes when I do two sets of all of them. So it was noon before I got to the studio. How to truncate a day.

The weather was blah. It had clouded up by the time the sun rose, and it was a dark and gray day. The wind died down by 4:00 am, and it was quite calm for most of the morning before it picked up from the north in the 10-20 mph range. The temperature varied between 40º and 45º all day. I didn't see any reason to go out.

I didn't do anything, either. I read all day and I have nearly finished all the stories in one binder. The two I have been reading aren't very good, but they are stories of ideas, and I was formulating the backgrounds for everything I've written since. Shortly after I wrote them, I started the things that are now in the blue binder and the white binder, and it's interesting to see how the ideas developed. 

Now It's late and I have to take a bath tonight - my hair looks like somebody upended an oil pot on it - so it will be quite late by the time I get to bed. Besides, they're playing Haydn on the radio...

It's a cool, breezy and cloudy night in the field, and they assure us that the snow is coming...

November 11 - Veteran's Day

My father was a veteran, and I have the greatest respect for everyone who has served in our armed forces. My dad was in the Navy in WWII, in an LST in the middle of the Pacific. Whatever went on there, he would never talk about it.

I read for a while last night, I think, and I looked through all the binders again, and I still can't find the missing story. It was about midnight when I got to bed. I had some trouble sleeping. I think I was warm again, and my leg was sore. I woke up around 8:30, and that wasn't nearly enough sleep, but I had to get up. I did get to pet the cat before I got dressed. I didn't think I needed to do any exercises.

I got to my PT appointment on time, but my PTA was a bit late, and I had to take a fast trip to the bathroom halfway through, so I didn't get my whole hour. I think it was just as well, because my hip was still bothering me. I think it has something to do with the humidity.

So when that was over with, I went off to Pat's and did my monthly shopping. I was looking for something good to eat, and I ended up with another rotisserie chicken, although I didn't have any. In fact, I ate half a sandwich and some pasta salad when I got home - around 2:30 - and I wasn't hungry for dinner. So there. I was really tired and sore when I got out of Pat's, and by the time I finished bringing in all the stuff and putting it away, my leg was really sore. Oh, darn.

The weather turned out lovely. It was 50º when I got to the studio, and it had been just about that all night long. The high for the day was 52º here. There was a gusty wind for most of the day, which started out from the south, and has now switched around to the northwest. It was cloudy this morning, and when I got to Cliff Drive, it looked like there might have been some rain there. When I got out of the Fitness Center, around noon, it had cleared up and there was not a cloud in the sky, which was how it was for the rest of the afternoon. Nice.

There was no traffic, either coming or going, which was nice for me, especially going down, because I had to move fast. I notice that the going price for gas has now risen to $3.10. Why now? That's higher than it was all summer. 

When I got home, I finished my surfing and after the talking was over, I started reading again, but I won't even try to finish the story tonight - it's too long. And I am very tired, which isn't surprising. It's time to go up to the north end and crash.

After the sun set, I looked out the south windows, and there was the crescent moon shining brightly. I think it has probably set by now, but it was so pretty! 

I'm happy to see that Buster ate well today. He is still having trouble with his mouth, but at least he's eating! And he meowed for breakfast. While I was putting the food away, he came into the kitchen and looked at his empty dish, then at me, then he turned and went back to the bathroom. So I gave him another can of food, and when I went back into the kitchen, he had eaten quite a bit of it. He is still spending a lot of his time in the bathroom, but that is the warmest room in the house, and he is so skinny he needs heat.

So that was my day, and now I'm off to crash. It's a clear, lovely night in the field. Unfortunately, that should all end tomorrow.

November 10

Well, I read again last night, but not so long, and I was in bed by 12:45. I didn't get up until 11:00 this morning, so I should have gotten enough sleep, but I don't feel like it. I will have to go to bed earlier tonight, because my PT appointment has been rescheduled for 11:00. My PTA has a sick kid and needs to be there in the afternoon.  So I will have to leave here shortly after 10:00. Ugh. 

Anyway, I stopped reading at a place where I know I have lost a story - a story I think I finished in 1970 or so - that goes before or between the one I was reading last night and the next one. Either I didn't finish it, or it just plain got lost, because I have looked through all the other old binders and I can't find any with that cast of characters. Well, that was a long time ago, so I guess it's not surprising.

Anyway, it was a quiet day. I thought I had a committee meeting this afternoon, but it obviously got rescheduled without them telling me. I went to the post office and stopped at the store to get some lemonade. My grass cutter came in on crutches - evidently he tore some ligaments in his knee doing something he shouldn't have been doing. 

The weather was rather nice again. The temperature got up to 52º for a while. There was a strong south wind in the 18-35 mph range. It was partly sunny, although there were some clouds this afternoon. It cleared up around sunset, which was another rather nice one (am I jaded or what?), and when I went to get dinner, the moon, a little bigger than yesterday, was shining in the windows. I guess this is the end of the really nice weather, though. Tomorrow it may rain, and then the temperature will plummet, and by the weekend, we should be seeing snow. Well, it had to come to an end sometime.

So that is about all I have to report. It's a rather warm, windy night in the field, and there ought to be a star or two.

November 9

My bad. I got to reading from some of the old binders I have upstairs, and it was 2:45 before I finally got to bed. I didn't sleep very well, either. I don't know if I was overstimulated or if it was past the time when I get my deepest sleep, but I didn't do very well. I got up around 9:00, I think, and I'm really tired now.

I didn't do any exercises this morning so I would have enough energy for my PT session, so I got to do most of my morning surfing before I left. And I was able to do a whole hour's worth of exercise at the Fitness Center. I got home about 4:00.

It was a lovely day. The sky was nearly clear, although it was very hazy and humid. The temperature got up to 51º here and a couple of degrees warmer in Laurium. There was a rather brisk south wind, in the 15-25 mph range. It was nice out.

There was almost no traffic at all either coming or going, so that was nice.

Buster seems to be eating again, although he is still having trouble with his mouth. He asked for breakfast, and he ate most of it, so I gave him another can, and he wanted my egg yolk, too. He licks the plate when I have eggs for breakfast. He did spend a lot of time sitting on me, but I think he feels a bit better. Jasmine is frustrated, though. She wants to be with him, but he wants to be with me, and she doesn't. She felt good. She was dancing up and down the hallway this morning, and I caught her sitting in the window seat with very bright eyes. It was a good day to feel good.

So tonight I started reading again, but I'm tired, so I will probably not read very much longer. When I went to get my dinner tonight, the thin crescent moon was shining across Lake Fanny Hooe again, so pretty. Now it's a clear, warmish night in the field, and it's about bedtime.

November 8

I think I was reading last night, and I don't remember exactly when I went to bed, but it wasn't early. There were stars when I was up in the night, but not really bright ones. I got up around 8:45. I didn't want to, but I had to walk. I petted the cat and knitted a while and did my exercises, but it was still quite early when I got to the studio.

And I did nothing, except for the usual. The broadband took a hit this afternoon but it wasn't down for more than 45 minutes. Apparently a server rebooted itself - oops. Stuff happens. It took a while for me to get a good signal back, but it's been fine ever since.

After the talking was over, I started reading, so I'm going to be late tonight, too. 

I was heartened that Buster ate most of his breakfast, and he wanted to lick both my breakfast and dinner plates. I'm sure he still has problems, but at least he's eating, and it didn't seem like he had quite such a problem with his mouth tonight.

I had cannelloni stuffed with chicken and spinach and with a white sauce. It was good, and I have another meal. It's kind of pricey, but that is the kind of frozen food I like - sort of like what you'd get in a restaurant. Yum. Buster thought so, too, although he only ate one of the pieces of chicken I left him. He liked the sauce.

The weather was surprisingly nice. It was mostly sunny, except for a couple of hours this afternoon, and the temperature got up to 51º - unseasonably warm, as they say. There was a brisk south wind, in the 15-25 mph range for most of the day.

It cleared up around sunset, and when I went to get my dinner (my tummy is still on EDT), there was a moon like a thin slice of orange hanging over the hills on the other side of Fanny Hooe. So pretty! I was glad I saw it when I did, because it was gone shortly thereafter.

The sad thing is that our days are down to nearly 9½ hours. The official sunset was at 5:22 this evening, but it slides behind the hills at least 15 minutes earlier. Oh, sigh.

So that was my day, and I'm going to be really late to bed tonight. It's a warmish, breezy and mostly clear night in the field.

November 7

I don't remember quite what I was doing, but it was midnight (EST) before I got to bed. I slept relatively well, although I was up several times. There were some pretty nice stars in the middle of the night. It was nice to have that extra hour to sleep this morning, but I still didn't get enough sleep. I got up around 7:15. That meant I could do all my exercises, which was good. I had a quick breakfast and checked the weather before I was off to church.

One thing that interests me about this church is that they seem to use a different order of service every week. That's probably a good thing - nobody gets complacent and just responds by rote.

Then I had to get gas, and the price has gone up to $3.00 a gallon. Sigh. My three to four trips down the peninsula are expensive, since they are a minimum of 75 miles round trip.

I got home at just about 1:00 and I didn't do much else except my daily surfing. It appears those people who were voting for our ambulance barn have gotten bored with it, and we are steadily dropping in the standings. Darn. We had a good handle on it last month.

Late this afternoon, I read one of the old stories I have in a binder, and it's almost good enough to transcribe, even though I wrote it in 1975. It would need some polishing, but basically it's not bad. that's why I'm so late.

The weather turned out to be nice. It was clear to partly cloudy all day, especially at sunset, and the temperature got up to 48º briefly, before it settled down at around 46º for most of the afternoon. The winds were calm or nearly so all day. 

When I passed Medora on the way to church, it was just like a mirror, and I was sorry I hadn't brought the camera, because the view across the lake was really interesting. Oh, well, I've missed a number of good pictures lately.

Now it's late and I am feeling very tired, so I think I will totter up to the north end and crash. It's a coolish, calm and clear night in the field, and there will be stars.

November 6

When I went up to the north end last night, I read through the other binder I have there. It is a sequel to the white binder, and I've only written about 75 pages. I'd set up a number of situations, but I just lost my train of thought. I haven't gotten it back yet. Anyway, as a result, it was probably midnight or a bit later when I got to bed. I made up for it by not getting up until almost 11:00. 

It was a lovely, clear blue morning. I petted the cat and knitted about one row before I did all my exercises, so it was late when I got dressed.

Buster actually almost asked for his breakfast, and he ate some of it. I haven't checked lately to see how he did. He didn't come into the office to get any of mine, though. I think part of the problem is that the only really warm room in the house is the bathroom, and he is so skinny he needs a lot of heat. He is still having problems with his mouth, though.

I was so late that when the broadband went down, about 2:00, I hadn't finished my surfing. I tried the usual stuff, but I had no transmit/receive lights on my client. So I called it in, to alert Charlie that there was a problem, and I went off to the post office, where there was a huge pile of catalogs and pleas for money, as well as several bills.

When I got back, I called PastyNet again, and it seems that the cutover from solar to wind power on the top of Brockway didn't go well, and the relay there was down. So I looked at some of the catalogs.

Around 6:00 Charlie called me to say that everything was up but he couldn't see me. So I started poking around, and eventually he gave me the userid and password to my client (which I carefully wrote down, I think) and we discovered that some of the data that is supposed to be stored in it had gotten zapped. As soon as we fixed that, it came up, and it's been fine ever since. I just checked the userid, and I can get in when I want to. Hee, hee!

The weather was nice, if breezy. The temperature has gotten up to 48º, although with a southwest wind in the 15-25 mph range, it didn't feel quite as warm as it was. It was clear until about 3:00, when it clouded up. 

I filled the bird feeders when I got back from the post office, and when I went to take down the cedar feeder, there was a cute little squirrel inside the feeder, chowing down. I had to take the feeder off its hook before I could get him (or her) to get out. Evidently they have discovered that they can lift the clear sides with their noses and scoot inside when the seed level gets down. Earlier, I watched a squirrel chase a bunting down the porch, which was strange. I don't think I've ever seen a squirrel chase a bird before. Too bad, too, because I think the buntings eat the little seeds that the birds don't. Anyway, the chickadees were calling when I brought the feeders in, and it didn't take them long to get back after I put them out. All the birds and squirrels are eating as much as they can these days, although I suppose the chickadees are caching seeds in the trees, too. I haven't seen any chipmunks lately, but maybe that's because I haven't bee looking.

While I was on the phone with Charlie, there was a really nice, bloody-red sunset that I wish I could have gotten a picture of, but I figured it was more important to get the broadband up and running, and I didn't want to keep him waiting while I ran out onto the deck. So we missed that one. Sorry.

So that was my day, and I think I will go up to the north end and read a bit and try to get to bed early tonight, even though I get an extra hour of sleep tomorrow. That's nice. I don't think my body ever goes on daylight savings time (which I think is stupid anyway), so now the time will be back on my schedule.

Last night, I could hear the bell buoy again, and I'm wondering when they will haul it out. I think it's usually sometime before the 15th, but I don't remember when they did it last year.

Now it's a cloudy, breezy night in the field and it's time to go.

November 5

I read off the end of the last episode in the blue binder, so it was about 10:45 before I got to bed. I had a little trouble getting to sleep, because I was thinking about my little black kitty, but after I finally did, I slept well.  A very long time ago, I learned several ways to force current events out of my mind when I go to bed, and evidently I can still do it most of the time.

I got up around 10:15, so I got a good night's rest. It didn't hurt that the lake was singing loudly all night long. It was windy, but the wind was from the north, so I didn't hear much of that.

I did a full set of exercises before I got dressed. I was heartened that while Buster didn't come and ask for breakfast, when I put it down, he ate pretty well. He still isn't eating a lot, but at least it's something. And he did fairly well on yesterday's food, at least compared to lately. Tonight, I had some salmon that I got from Schwan's and he wanted that and ate it all. He seems to like teriyaki sauce, too, which gives me a chuckle.

I need to report that Roxie came briefly and got the food she had left here, so that is the end of that episode.

The weather was, well, wintry. I noticed when I got to the bathroom that there was snow in the roof valley between the breezeway and the garage, and there was more on the deck in front of the studio and outside the front door. Not a lot, and it was mostly ice pellets, but still, there was white stuff on the ground. The temperature was around freezing all day, although it has risen a bit. The wind was strong from the northeast, with gusts up to 27 mph. Not very nice. I didn't go out. It was a dismal, cloudy day, but there was a sort of nice sunset tonight that I didn't take a picture of.

I thought I might write a little on the story I had been reading on the computer, but when I looked at it, I didn't have any ideas. So instead I will go up to the north end. I could write on that story, or I could take one of the old binders, which are still in the great room.

Anyway, it's a dark, cold night in the field, and I think I will go up to the north end.

November 4

I guess it was around 11:30 when I got to bed last night, and the lake was singing so nicely that I slept pretty well. I woke up around 8:00 and just decided I was not going to get up, so it was 9:30 before I finally did. I petted the cat, finished the first purple sock and started the second one, then I did a few exercises before I got up. 

I was heartened that Buster was drinking water - and peeing in the sink - and he ate well this morning, although he hasn't eaten much since, I don't think. He is still having some problem with his mouth, so I may end up having to take him to the vet yet.

I got to do some of my surfing before I was off to my PT, where I did good. I am coming along, even though I still can't wash the back of my neck. I am a bit discouraged that I am still not walking very well, but I mentioned that to Wendy, and she will probably pass it by Corin, who is my PT. 

The drive both ways was good: there are very few people on the roads. I did get behind someone on the covered road, but she pulled off, and I think I know who it was. I guess I have a lead foot, but not any more so than a lot of my fellow Copper Harborites. Coming back, there was nobody.

While I was doing my exercises with the pulley, a nurse came in and began to set up for a course in CPR, which I guess everybody at the fitness center has to do every year - and after a short while, I realized she is the organist at St. Paul's. Another very nice person, and she really likes her organ, even though she wasn't trained as an organist.

The weather wasn't nice at all. The temperature dropped off slowly all day, and for most of the afternoon, it was in the upper 30s. There was a strong north wind, in the 25-35 mph range. It may have drizzled a bit here, but when I was going down, between Medora and Delaware, there was a frosting of snow on the ground and on some of the trees. There wasn't much, and a lot of it was gone by the time I came home, but it was snow nonetheless. Oh, it's coming. Anyway, it was cold enough that I dug out my hat. When the temperature is under 40º, it's time for head covering. There was a thick cloud cover all day, and it was dark and dismal.

I finished my surfing when I got home, and I was gong to read on the computer, but I think instead I will go up to the north end and listen to the lake and read there.

Buster finally showed up when I was eating, but he more wanted to sit on my lap than wanted to eat. I finished my pork chops, and I won't do that again. Now I know why my mother stopped using cream of celery soup - yuck.

So now it's a cold, windy night in the field, and it's time to totter up to the north end. 

November 3

Well, between reading, the journal and exercising, it was 12:45 before I got to bed. Not what I wanted, but oh, well. I slept fairly well, and I finally got up around 9:30. I petted the cat a bit, but that was all.

As I came out of the bathroom to do my exercises, there was the most beautiful, bright rainbow arc right outside my windows, ending at the water right in front of the house. It was so pretty! I went to get the camera as fast as I could, but it was going before I could get it, and besides, by that time, there was so much rain on the windows, I couldn't get a good shot anyway. So you'll just have to take my word for it. 

I was late, and I had to leave at noon, so I didn't get much of my surfing done until I got back. I made it to the dentist in time, and he worked on my tooth for a long time. Now I have a temporary cap, which is amazingly comfortable, and I will go back in about three weeks for my permanent crown. I came right home, because the whole left side of my jaw was numb, and I was afraid that I might drool or slur or something. Besides, I forgot the coupon I was going to use at Wal-Mart. I got home right before 4:00. So that is taken care of.

The weather was around 45º, which was nice, but it was dark and windy and there was some rain. That was the cause of my rainbow, and it rained until I was halfway down the covered road. The wind was mostly from the northwest, and it was gusting up to nearly 30 mph. Besides that one ray of sunshine around 10:00, there was very little blue sky around.

I was a bit frustrated on my trip down, because first I left Copper Harbor behind the propane truck, and he wouldn't pull over, then we ran across a guy pulling a U-Haul, and he was going even slower. After that, however, there was almost no traffic at all, and there was none coming home, either. I missed the traffic leaving Houghton, which was nice. When I was entering Houghton, they were backed up at least a block to cross the bridge, why I don't know. The bridge is halfway down. I wonder if it's just stuck there.

When I got home, I did the rest of my surfing and after the talking was over, I read off the end of the story, which isn't finished. I think I see where it's going, but it will take more thought than I wanted to give it tonight. 

I took my knitting to the dentist's office, and while I was waiting for things to set up, I was able to do a few rows on the toe of the purple sock. I have a way to go, but I might finish it tomorrow and start the other one...or maybe the other rose one. I'm not sure about that yet.

I've noticed over the past few days that the flocks of buntings are merging, and they seem to come in groups of at least two dozen now. I have my own little flock of maybe five or six. Evidently they like the little seeds in the deck feeder, so I'm glad I got it. They are cute little birds, about the size of a large sparrow, and kind of round. They are mostly light brown at this time of year, with some white markings, and the undersides of their wings are white, which is what I see when the flocks take off. Beside the chickadees and nuthatches, they look huge. I have plenty of the little birds, and from some of the pictures from the camera, I think I have some goldfinches, too. I know I have a couple of blue jays, and it's funny to see them floundering around trying to get into the feeders that are set up for the little birds. Anyway, they are all hungry, and I suppose that they are trying to stoke up before the real cold comes. I know the squirrels are doing that, and they are getting very chubby.

So that was my day, and now it's time to trudge up to the north end and sleep. It's a dark, breezy night in the field, and I don't think there will be any stars tonight.

November 2

I read for a while last night and got to bed around 11:30. It will be later tonight, but even if I hadn't been reading, there is a Beethoven symphony playing that I want to hear.

Since there wasn't anything pressing today, I slept until 10:00 or so, when I was beginning to get stiff. I petted the cat and knitted and did my exercises, and it was after noon when I finished my breakfast.

The only things I had to do today was to vote and leave a few envelopes at the post office. I managed to do that, and I spent some time looking at one of the catalogs  I only get around Christmastime. It's a men's catalog, but I occasionally find something interesting in them. Not so much this time, although if I was a man, it might have interested me more.

And that was about all I did. I cooked tonight, a recipe with cream of celery soup and pork chops, and while it was OK, I won't make it again. One unfortunate thing I find is leftover from losing my sense of taste last summer is that I have very little ability to taste salt anymore, and that used to be something I was very sensitive to. Some things that I used to think had lots of salt in them taste very bland now. Well, maybe I'll eventually get used to it again.

Oh, yes, I did fill the bird feeders, and the last blow we had caused the rope on the cedar feeder to start to fray. It is three strands of wire covered with plastic, and one of the strands had parted. I must try to replace it before the next blow we have. Fortunately, that feeder is pretty sturdy, because it's dropped on the ground a couple of times before.

The weather was OK, I guess, but not as nice as they were predicting. The temperature got up to around 50º for most of the afternoon, with light west winds, and that was nice, but it was a lot cloudier than they were saying. I guess there may be some rain tonight, but tomorrow is supposed to be nice...and then on Thursday the temperature may not even get to 40º and the precip could be snow. Oh, it's coming!

So that was my quiet day, and now it's late, so as soon as Beethoven is over and I upload this, it will be off to the north end. Tomorrow I get prepped for my crown. It's a dark, cloudy and maybe wet night in the field.

November 1 - All Saint's Day

Today is the day we in the Christian Church remember all the saints - all the believers who have gone to heaven before us. I particularly remember my grandfather, who was a saint here on earth, my mother and my father. I hope both my grandmothers are there, too, but I am less certain about that. I know heaven is supposed to be the place where all tears will be washed away, but I can't help believe there is grieving for those who are not there, and I also believe all our beloved pets will be there with us. Every pet I have known, both mine and my mother's, have had such wonderful personalities that I would hate to be without them, even in heaven.

I didn't exercise last night. I read for a while before I took my bath, and I was in bed shortly after 10:30. I slept well until about 5:00 without turning over, which left me with a very sore shoulder. Then I got to thinking about Buster, so I was wakeful for a while, before I forced myself to stop it. I got up around 9:30, I think. I petted him, and he seemed to be doing a bit better today, and I knitted quite a bit. I placed the 50 row marker on the foot, so I am getting close to the toe.

I didn't get to do as much of my surfing as I expected, because he came and sat on me and I had an accident that meant I had to change everything from the waist down except for my socks. It may not be c. diff, but it sure is nasty.

On the Buster front, while he is still having a hard time and pawing at his mouth on both sides, he did drink a lot and he ate some, but not a whole small can of one of his favorite flavors. I think he may have teeth problems, in which case I will have to take him to the doctor. I will watch him. I won't be able to take him until Friday, so I may as well just watch. At least he is eating something and drinking. He seemed to feel a bit better today, too.

The weather said it was going to be mostly sunny today, but it sure wasn't sunny in Copper Harbor this morning, and about time I left for town, there were a few sprinkles of rain that lasted down to just past Medora and were enough to wet the road under the trees. After that, it began to clear up, and it was mostly sunny in Laurium.

I got my workout, and my PT said she thinks I am making very good progress on the mobility in my shoulders. I'm sure it has something to do with the manipulation she and her PTA are doing on my shoulders, but at least it seems to be working. Walking is beginning to get a little easier, too, and I spent 5 minutes on the Nu-Step without any pain, at least so far. So it's working, and I'm making progress. Not that it's easy, and I will have to continue to exercise for the rest of my life, or I'll end up right back where I was. That's not acceptable, so I guess I will be changing my lifestyle. The fitness center seems to be a good one, with every possible kind of equipment, and all PT patients get a free month there. We'll see where that leads.

My trips both ways were easy, with no traffic at all - the tourist season is over, at least until Christmas - and I got home a bit before 4:00. I finished my surfing during the talking, and I read a little after it was over.

The weather wasn't exactly what they had forecast (when is it?), but we did eventually get our sunshine, and the skies were clear when the sun set, right behind the thistle feeder. The temperature got up to 44º for a couple of hours, but it was about 43º for most of the afternoon. The low this morning was 30º, and there was frost on the grass north of the house when I got up. There was almost no wind at all. Last night, when I was sitting in the bathroom reading, I could hear the bell buoy very loudly. so they haven't taken it away yet. Maybe this weekend? There were stars when I was up around 5:00, and the little moon was shining in the bathroom windows, so where that cloudbank came from  I do not know. It eventually went off toward the east, but with so little wind, it was slow.

So that was my day, and now I'm off to the north end again. I don't have anything on for tomorrow except to vote (you all vote, I hope!), so I can read some more. Now it's a clear, cool night in the field and there will be stars.

Last  updated 08/04/11 08:45 PM