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A View From the Field |
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March, 2011 March 31 Gee, another month is history. Where did that go?
I went up to the north end around 9:00 last night, and I was in bed before 9:30. I went right to sleep and I slept very well until close to 9:00 this morning. I thought I looked tired when I got up yesterday, and I guess that's so. I did all the morning stuff and Buster got a breakfast he likes, but he's eating very well right now. He spent most of the day sleeping either on the desk or on my lap.
I ended up not doing anything again. I waited too long and had one of the worst accidents I've ever had - all over the floor, the doormat and me. Yuck. After I got myself clean and dressed again, I had to do something about the floor and the mat, and when that was done I just vegged for the rest of the day.
I had wondered if the doormat was really necessary, but when I saw how dirty it is, I guess it is doing some good. Because of the road, my garage has a lot of sand on the floor, where it drips off the car, and of course it's right where I walk. The mat was full of sand, so it's doing some good, but for the past year or so I have changed shoes when I come in and go out, so that I don't track all that stuff around. When it warms up, I will have to take the mat out and clean up all of it. I should also sweep out the garage.
The weather was pretty nice. The temperature actually got up to 42º for a while this afternoon, and there was hardly any wind. It was partly cloudy, but there was a lot of sunshine. However, the barometer is dropping, and I could tell, because I have a headache. When my sinuses are clogged, which they still are, any large change in the pressure, up or down, gives me a headache - always has. It's been better since I've lived here, because I've had fewer sinus issues, but of course, I've been battling that all winter.
We had chicken for dinner again, and I actually gave Buster more than he could eat, although he did wolf down a remarkable amount. He really loves that stuff. Well, I like it, too, but not like that.
Jasmine was around all day. She wanted to be where Buster is, but there aren't any throws under the windows right now, so she had no place to sit. She is still worried about Buster.
This evening, I started my new bookmark, and it's going to be pretty. The thread is shades of pale green, mostly bluish green, which are shades I like, and there is very little weaving and some drawn thread work, which I like. I didn't get very far, because I had to count to center the pattern, but it's coming along.
Now it's time to toddle up to the north end. I'll be a little later tonight, because I have to take a bath, but I don't expect to be late. It's a partly cloudy, calm night in the field, but the barometer is dropping...
March 30 Well, there. I got myself clean and into bed by 10:00 last night. I wasn't taking chances - I took a Tylenol 3, and that seemed to eventually take hold and let me sleep. I was up several times, of course. The first time was interesting, since I could hardly walk at all. It got better later. My feet are still sore, but not like they were last night.
There were stars pretty much all night, and after I took a look at my planisphere, I realized that the two bright ones I was seeing around 3:30 are Regulus, setting at that time, and Arcturus high in the west. I have to get my mind around the change of seasons. I'll be seeing Regulus for quite a while and Arcturus for even longer. I wish I had a window or two looking east (that I could easily get to, I mean), because the Big Dipper is balancing on its handle over there. Seems like not long ago, I was seeing Regulus rise through the trees in the northeast. Well, the world turns.
I've been forgetting to mention that since I've been getting up a little earlier, I've noticed the sun in the east a bit more. When I first started that, it was rising over the garage, right into my eyes. Now it is rising behind the glass block window in the shower, and while it does shine in the windows, it's so high in the sky when it gets there that it doesn't shine in my face anymore. It's 46º above the horizon at noon, too (solar noon - nearly 2:00 clock time).
I got up around 8:45. I was awake earlier, but I just didn't feel like getting up. I petted the cat and knitted on the sock and I decided I could forgo my exercises for the day - I did enough exercising yesterday. Since the barometer has been high, my back has felt pretty good.
So I did my surfing and got myself together and off to Carolyn's via the post office, where my next bookmark arrived. That one is going to be fun - the thread is shades of green and there is more drawn thread work than Hardanger. I like drawn thread. Strange that I'm not into Hardanger.
There weren't many of us at Carolyn's, but Phoebe brought a bunch of antique quilts and throws she inherited from her mother, some of which must have been made by her grandmother or great-grandmother. Some of them were well-worn, but all the quilts had just wonderful hand quilting, and at least some of them were partly had pieced. So it was an interesting afternoon.
The weather was nice again. The temperature hung at about 36º from 10:00 on, and there wasn't much wind at all. The skies were partly cloudy, but there was a lot of sunshine and it was nice out.
Buster gave up a hairball this morning (on the bathroom counter, of course) and I think possibly that has made him feel a little better. He was not pleased about me leaving for the afternoon for a second day, but he forgave me when I gave him quite a lot of my chicken. However, he's funny - not only did he want chicken, he wanted to lick the fat off the plate. He just left, but for a while he was sitting on my lap, asleep with his head on my left hand.
Jasmine has been rather happy, I think. She has spent quite a lot of her days sleeping in the sunshine, and she was racing up and down the hallway this morning.
I forgot to close the patio door last night, and it was only 59º in the studio when I got here this morning, so I put up with the heat this afternoon. Please, I use enough gas as it is!
On that topic, the gas man drove by the house today and didn't stop, which is always good. I think he was probably at Ron's, because Ron only has a 500 gallon tank. Hopefully, I won't need another fill-up until June.
So that was my day, and I'm tired again. The stuff from yesterday is still all in the car, and maybe tomorrow I will feel up to getting at least some of it out. No way was I going to do that today, even if I'd had time. At least the perishables are put away.
Now it's a nearly clear, cool night in the field, and we may see a star or two again.
March 29 I was in bed by 10:15, but I couldn't get to sleep for some reason, and it was a rather wakeful night. I did see stars when I was up, including Sirius setting in the southwest, and Auriga in the northwest. Sometime during the night, it partly clouded up, and it was sort of cloudy in the morning. I find it's a lot harder to tell how many clouds there are in the early morning than it is in the evening. Right now, there is a long, sort of fuzzy cloudy across the south windows that is turning the loveliest shade of mauve-rose. It looks clear in the west, so I will have to look for Mercury tonight, although it is getting rather dim.
Anyway, I was up numerous times, and around 8:15 I decided it was time to get up. I petted the cat and finished the cuff of the Tofutsies sock before I did my exercises and got dressed. I did all my morning surfing - including a jigsaw puzzle, although not a difficult one - before I gathered up my stuff to leave for town.
It was 12:30 before I left, and that was a bit later than I wanted, but it turned out all right. I stopped at Mohawk and got cash, then I went on down to the feed store. The price of sunflower seed has gone up some, but not a whole lot, and I got a new feeder, another mesh one. After looking at it, I realized it would be hard to mend the old one, and this one is nicer anyway, and includes a rim around the bottom so the birds can sit on it.
Then it was off to Wal-Mart, where I nearly did myself in, even though I only looked around a little bit, and the only things I got to play with were some pens and a box grater. I think I probably have two of those somewhere around here, but I have no idea where they are, and this one is nicer anyway. We'll see if I use it.
I dithered around about where to get gas, and I finally ended up back in Calumet, which wasn't the right place, but oh, well. Putting more than $70 worth of gas into my car (and that was less than 20 gallons!) is real sticker shock, but then I remember that I was filling up about every three trips to Laurium, and $70 a month is a lot less than $50 every 10 days. The price only varied by about 2¢ a gallon - between $3.68 and $3.70 - so it didn't make that much difference, and I had coupons in Calumet. This does not bode well for our tourist season.
Speaking of that, some people think spring has sprung. Besides the people wearing short-sleeved tees, I saw two ATVs and a couple of motorcycles.
Anyway, I ended up at Pat's, where I laid out a bundle, but when I think that I got boos, laundry products and cat food, it wasn't all that bad, and in fact, it was a lot less than I thought for how full my cart was. I needed help to get it to the car, since I was barely able to move myself by that time. My back, my knees and my feet were horribly sore.
I was surprised by how light the traffic was all over. I think they were all parked at Wal-Mart. It was easy to get around in Hancock. The shortcut route I take now has a couple of bad turns where, during the "season" it's hard to get around the corner. Today there was no problem at all.
Anyway, I got home a little after 5:15, and I had to sit for over an hour before I felt up to unloading the car. Then I discovered that one package of frozen vegetables had gotten left out of the cooler, so that is what I had for dinner - with my rotisserie chicken. I had to beat off the cat while I was eating it, and he got a good helping, about the size of a can of Fancy Feast, which he gobbled right down. After not caring about food for all his life, he's really gotten into it lately, and I think rotisserie chicken is his favorite. I like it too, and this one wasn't overcooked, which they occasionally are.
Most of the stuff is still in the car, since most of it is nonperishable. I had to get laundry products and paper products, and I discovered last week that all my canned tomatoes had basil and garlic in them, so I needed some unadulterated ones. And bread. I looked at meat but didn't get any. They had a nice beef shoulder roast that would have been a good one to try my pot roast recipe on, but that's rather heavy, and I haven't felt like that kind of thing lately. I did get some frozen stuff, but I always do that.
So that was my strenuous day. My feet and ankles are really sore tonight, and I fear that I am growing out of my shoes. I guess I've been wearing the Crocs so much that my feet have continued to spread out. Anyway, I had very sore toes when I got home. We'll see how it is tomorrow.
I just had a sneezing fit, so I guess I'm not totally over the sinus thing. I need to take my pills, which I forgot yesterday, and I will need a bath tonight, the way I was sweating. They were trying to cool it off in Wal-Mart, but at least one of their units sounded like it's on its last legs, and it wasn't doing a very good job.
One reason it was so hot in the stores was the weather. It was sunnier than the forecast would have had me believe - I wore my sunglasses coming and going - and the temperature got up to 36º here, and I think close to 40º in town. There wasn't much wind. It was actually rather nice out. I started out with a jacket over my fleece, but I soon took that off, and I wasn't cold. In fact, on my way from Wal-Mart to the gas station, I had the window open for a while, because the car had gotten so warm inside and I had gotten so warm in the store.
Now it is rather clear and nearly calm, and I am very tired and I have very sore feet. So it's a lovely evening in the field, and I'm off to the north end to crash.
March 28 I read for a while again, and I got to bed around 10:00. I slept better, I must say, although I had the usual wakeups. No real night sweats, though, so apparently I am over that part of whatever ails me. I got up around 8:45. I had bee dozing for a while before that, with Buster staring at me, but it was just so comfortable...
I started knitting on a couple of the socks. I decided I don't like the one color well enough (it was maroon, blue, brown and orange - sort of masculine, and orange and brown are two colors I don't like very well) so I will pull out what I did and go on. Actually, the wool pair I will be knitting on is brown, too - ecru, tan, brown and apricot - but I like that combination better. It's a little late to be working on all-wool socks, so I think I will do one of the Tofutsies pairs first. This one is shades of gray, rose and red-purple.
I did my exercises today, with Buster yowling at me all the time. I guess he was hungry or something.
So was I, and I had a big breakfast, with his help. I had some old bacon in the freezer that I thought I'd better eat. and of course he wanted some, too. It's still edible, but it does taste rather old - I think it's been there for six or seven years. That and the pork sausage have taught me that things with lots of fat in them don't keep too long. Lesson noted.
And that was about all I did. There was lots of reading to do this morning, and I had missed the PastyCam for yesterday, so I had to read all of that, too.
One of my readers apparently was looking back at last year's camera archive and discovered that a picture seemed to be missing. I had a hard time with that, because the link to the picture was actually to a file on my hard drive - which means I could see it just fine! I finally got it straightened out, I think, but please, please if you find a picture missing (particularly the one under Camera 2010 for 10/19/10) let me know. The only way I could check it out for sure is from a computer without my web files on it, and I don't have one of those. I have no clue how that ever happened, since the pictures both before and after it were just fine, with the right links to the right pages. I suppose it has something to do with the problem I'm having with FrontPage, but you'd think if one was wrong, the one after it, at least, would also be wrong. Well, wrong. Oh, I think maybe I know why it happened. Note to self - do the picture files first!
I just discovered that I never completely set up either of the picture pages for 2011, since I haven't posted any camera files and I've only posted one other picture this year. I'm letting down on the job, but really, there hasn't been much to take pictures of. I've saved a bunch of camera shots of birds flying around the feeder, but they aren't that interesting, except to Rose and me. So I will fix that tonight, too. You can't get at the 2011 camera page, because there isn't anything on it yet, but at least it's set up to put something there.
That's about all I did. Buster sat on my lap all day, and I guess at least Jasmine thinks there's something wrong with him. She got really upset when he started yowling this morning.
The weather was pretty nice. It was cold overnight, down to around 10º, then between 9:00 and 10:00 it went from 14º to 30º (when the sun got up, I guess), and it stayed right around 30° all day, with about a 10 mph north wind. It was completely clear this morning, then between about 3:00 and 6:00 this afternoon it clouded up a bit, and then around sunset it cleared up almost completely again. It was nice to see all that sunshine again.
This morning, when I got to the kitchen, there was a scum of ice over this end of the harbor, but the wind pushed it around a bit during the day. It was interesting to watch, because there was a sort of dam across from the fort to the lighthouse. The other side of that, the wind was ruffling the water, but this side of the dam, it was almost completely calm. It's not supposed to get quite as cold tonight, although I suppose it will be cold enough to freeze over again.
So that was my day. Tomorrow almost has to be the day to go to town, like it or not. I'm getting down to the point where I have to get some things I can't get here. We'll see how that goes.
Now I'm going to try to get to bed early again, so I can get up early again. I know, 9:00 isn't early, but I still seem to need nearly 10 hours' sleep, so for me it's early. Now it's an almost clear, cool night in the field, and there should be some stars again.
March 27 I read just a bit before I took my bath, and I was in bed by 10:15. I went right to sleep, but I was up numerous times during the night, and I didn't sleep all that well. I kept waking up all sweaty. I took a throat lozenge when I went to bed, and the scratchy throat is gone, but my nose has been running like a sieve.
Anyway, I fortuitously woke up at just about 7:00, and while I thought about it for a few moments, I said, "Get thee behind me, Satan" and I got up. Mostly I petted Buster, although I cast on the last of the four socks - the one I think I'm going to like best. Now I have to decide on which one to start first.
I didn't exercise, so I had plenty of time to do almost all my morning surfing and get dressed in a reasonable manner. However, at the last minute, there were several things that happened that made me make two trips down to the studio and back, so it was nearly 9:20 when I left the house.
It was a beautiful morning, but cold, and there was lots of sunshine, blue skies and blue waters. It was really nice to put the car in 2WD, set the cruise control and let 'er rip. There was no snow, ice or even water on the roads all the way to Laurium, and I made it in just about 50 minutes. No matter when I start, I seem to get to church at about 10:00, and I sit in my car for five minutes or so listening to the news.
Several people seemed to recognize me, including Fay, who is such a nice person. She works at the medical center, and the last time I was there, she was minding the main desk. So nice.
The not so nice news is that the organ has died. I don't know exactly what the problem is (I didn't talk to Jan), but our service was accompanied partly by piano and partly by the same CDs we had last summer on Mondays. It was nice, and Pastor's sermon was another good one with lots of Gospel. It was so nice to be back in church, and Mary Ann was there, too. Now that the weather seems to be better and the roads are better, I hope to get into the habit of going every week, especially with Easter coming up.
I thought about going shopping, but I have never liked to do that after church, so I didn't. I will have to go this week, because I'm running out of OJ, but I would rather do it all in one trip. I have to stop at the bank and get cash, then I have to go to the feed store, Wal-Mart, and Pat's. It will be a long, tiring trip, but it occurred to me that today is the first time I've been in Laurium since February 17, so that's a good thing.
I will have to get gas, too, probably at Wal-Mart, that seems to have the lowest prices. The BP station in Allouez was advertising $3.70, and their prices are usually the highest. Shudder. Filling my 26 gallon tank at those prices is always a shock, but now that I'm not driving as much, the monthly totals should be a lot less.
Anyway, there was quite a bit of traffic when I started home, and I had to pass a couple of people. I got a chuckle about one of the guys, though. He was behind the lead car (I was fourth, then third), and he passed them on the way to Phoenix and took off like a bat out of hell - right to the Cliff Bar, where he pulled in. And this was before noon. Anyway, after he pulled off, I had a clear road ahead all the way to the harbor.
There is still a lot of snow in the woods, and I saw a couple of groups of snowmobilers taking their machines out of the trailers. I would imagine the trails are about like our rood, but smoother, and that means nearly glare ice. Driving a snowmobile in those conditions could be, um, interesting. I know I sort of slither up and down the road when I'm out.
I got home around 12:35, and after I changed my clothes and had a light lunch, I didn't do a thing for the rest of the afternoon. I still don't feel all that wonderful, and I will be going to bed early, but tonight I have to get the dishwasher ready to run. I got the trash off the counter while I was nuking my dinner, but the dirty dishes are mostly still in the sink.
My nose has been running all day, and I am sort of headachy and tired feeling. I do have something, but so far it isn't serious. Probably I got it at the post office. I keep forgetting to wash my hands thoroughly when I get home and before I eat. You would think that with all the chemo and then the C. diff, I would have learned that lesson, but I keep forgetting.
The weather - oh, the weather. It was cold all day, around 20º, and the winds were from the north and very light. There were some clouds in the sky in the morning, but puffy, fair-weather clouds, and by 2:30 they were all gone. It was a lovely, sunny afternoon, with lots of blue sky and blue water. Somehow, when the ice is still around the edges of the harbor, the water always looks bluer.
It got so hot in here that I have the patio door open a crack. I didn't feel up to the bird feeders. Maybe tomorrow?
So that was my day, and since I got such an early start, I will be early to bed, too. Now it's a lovely clear, cold night in the field.
March 26 I made it into bed by 10:00 last night, but I didn't sleep very well. I kept having night sweats, which usually means something isn't right with my body, and I didn't feel like I slept deeply. I got up around 8:45, and I finished the sock and cast on three (!) others, although I didn't start any of them. I can't decide which to do next, so I suppose I will do some of all of them and see which one looks nicest.
I felt OK this morning, but as the day wore on, I began to get a scratchy throat, and now I don't feel very good at all. I should do dishes tonight, but nothing is in the dishwasher, so I guess I won't do that.
The weather was cold and mostly sunny. The temperature hung at right about 20º all day. There was an east wind with gusts up to 20 mph until around noon, when it died down. It was partly cloudy in the morning, but as the day wore on it began to clear up, and sunset was in a clear sky. The way the sun is moving, it's going to be out of the camera soon.
So I did nothing and I have not much to report. It's a cold, clear night in the field, and I am going to go to bed early again and see how I feel in the morning. I would really like to go to church tomorrow, but we'll see.
March 25 Ah, it's amazing what a little sleep can do for a girl! I was in bed before 9:30 last night, and I slept well. I was up about every 3 hours, but that's normal and it doesn't bother me - gives me a chance to get the kinks out and turn over. When I was up, especially around 12:30, it was very clear outside, and I could see all kinds of stars. Orion was perched on the mountain, although Rigel was behind it, and his belt was horizontal, which everybody has been saying is the sign that spring is coming.
I got up around 9:00, maybe a little later, and I petted the cat, of course, and knitted. I started the toe of the second sock, so that one is almost done. I have four kinds of yarn picked out, and I still haven't decided which one to start next. Maybe two or three of them, just to see what they look like? Decisions...
I thought about going to town today, but I chickened out. I went to the post office instead, where my box was quite full, and to the store, to get enough stuff to eat over the weekend - eggs, milk, and lettuce.
Ever since I decided that it was time to go to town, I have been thinking about rotisserie chicken, but I think I may have to cook something, since it will probably be Monday or Tuesday before I actually go. Although if I go to church on Sunday, I could at least food shop afterward. Hmm...Well, I believe in living loose, so we'll see what happens.
The weather was cold again. The temperature for most of the day was around 19º, but there wasn't much wind and there was quite a lot of sunshine until just lately. It wasn't bad at all when I was out.
On my way back from the post office, I stopped the car by the front door and walked -with difficulty - down under the tree and retrieved the deck feeder and the square feeder, which ended up on the ground yesterday. Unfortunately, whoever pulled it down (with its branch hook) also trashed it. Darn. Both I and the chickadees liked that feeder. I guess when I go to the feed store next week, I will have to see if maybe I can get another like it. Otherwise, I will have to use the pretty one, or try to repair the mesh feeder that the bears broke a couple of years ago. Hmm. I hadn't thought about that, but it might work. I will have to dig into the pile and try to find it. Anyway, I was not pleased that my favorite feeder was broken, especially since there was really no reason to do it. I heard, at the post office, that the raccoons are out and about in town, so maybe that was who it was.
So that was my day, and I intend to try this early-to-bed thing again tonight. I am tired again, but not like I was last night. When I woke up around midnight, I felt like I had had too much to drink, which isn't true - I'd only had half a bottle of white wine, which usually doesn't bother me at all. So I put my head back on my pillow, and that solved my problem.
Now it's turning into a cold, cloudy night in the field, and there may be snow.
March 24 Well, the best laid plans and all that. I found, when I got up to the north end, that I was really tired and headachy, so I went to bed, and I turned out the light around 9:30. And then I couldn't sleep. I tossed and turned and dozed. Around 12:30, I had an accident, which means the floor really needs mopping now. Then I continued to doze until around 4:00, probably, when I think I finally got to sleep. I woke up around 9:00, and Buster wanted me to get up, and I thought, well, with such an early start, maybe I can get to town.
Huh.
I did my morning stuff, and when I ate my breakfast, I discovered I wasn't very hungry. No more accidents, but I did most of my surfing and went to the powder room for one more trip before I left - and I realized I felt really lousy. So why was I pushing it, anyway? I have only one egg, but I should really go to the post office tomorrow and I can get eggs and milk then..
So I did nothing for the rest of the day. I still feel headachy and not very good, even though I have drunk enough fluids to know it's not dehydration. I don't know what the problem is now, except for lack of sleep.
It wasn't the best day to go anyway, although I'm sure the roads were fine. When I was doing my exercises, I realized that it was snowing lightly down the harbor, and several times during the day there were a few flurries here, too. The temperature hung right around 19º all day, and there was wind in the 10-15 mph range from the north or northeast - which put the wind chills down in the single digits. It was more cloudy than sunny in the morning, but it has cleared up quite nicely now. The sun set way to the north of the top of Brockway in a clear sky.
I am pleased to report that the temperature in here has finally gotten more reasonable. It was OK in the north end when I got there last night - not warm, but OK. It was a little chilly in here when I got here this morning, but it is 74º now, because of all the sunshine. I hope it's warmed up some more at the north end, too. It occurred to me, when I saw what was going on yesterday, that probably I didn't have any hot water about then, either. At least that was just fine when I took my bath. So we've weathered that crisis.
Now I am tired and feeling bad enough that I will be going up to the north end early again and hope I can arrange things so that I sleep a little better tonight.
Now it's a clear, lovely, but very cold night in the field. Those who think spring has sprung don't live here.
March 23 What an interesting day.
I read too long last night - through the end of the last completed part of the blue binder - and it was 1:00 before I got to bed. I slept pretty well. When I was awake - briefly - around 8:00, I looked down the harbor and it was snowing. So no trip to town today, and I went back to bed. When I finally got up, around 10:00, I noticed that not only was it cold, the floor in the bathroom was icy. Oh, dear, what now?
However, I ignored it and did the morning stuff. When I got to the studio, it was only 62º in here, and I thought that was rather weird, but I ignored that, too. Buster wanted my breakfast as well as his, and he was evidently cold, too, because he spent most of the day sitting on me. Partly for that reason, I had two little accidents, and my pants are a mess. Yuck.
Anyway, around 2:00. since it hadn't gotten any warmer in here, I decided I'd better go downstairs and check it out. My intention was to do cat pans, but when I got downstairs, it was only 60º in the basement (the thermostat is set to 70º) and when I went into the mechanical room, there was water all over the floor and it was dripping out of the main pipe into the boiler at a great rate. Oh, woe! So I went right upstairs and called the plumber, and since I wanted to be around when he finally got here, I didn't do anything else.
He finally came, and he not only had to replace the pipes from the main pump into the boiler, he had to replace both controls that are in that area, since they had gotten full of water. That is the second time I've had to replace the controls. You'd think they might make them waterproof. So now I am a lot poorer, but I think the heat is beginning to come up. The one thing I don't like about this kind of heat (hot water under the floors) is that it can take time to warm up when it's cold.
Needless to say, I didn't do anything else much.
The weather was cold and windy. The temperature outside was between 20º and 25º all day, and the wind was mostly from the east in the 20-35 mph range. It was cloudy in the morning, and the snow stopped around 10:00, but around 1:00 it began to clear up, and there was a lot of sunshine this afternoon. Heaven knows how cold it would have been in here if there had been no sunshine.
So now I'm tired, and I really must try to go to town tomorrow, so since I don't have much to read here, I plan to go up to the north end early and try to get to bed early, too.
It's really wonderful to watch the weather. We had so much warm weather before the beginning of spring, and now it's supposed to stay cold for at least the next week or more - I mean, winter cold. We only had maybe half an inch of snow early this morning, not like they got in mid-Michigan, unfortunately. I'm still waiting for the big blizzard. In the meantime, we'll cope.
Now it's an almost clear, cold, evening in the field, and the lake is singing loudly.
March 22 Well, the best laid plans and all that. I read for too long last night, and as a result, it was 1:00 before I got to bed. I slept well, but I was wakeful around 7:00 and I only dozed between 9:00 and 10:00 this morning. So I got up late, and I did the morning stuff, and it was 11:30 before I got to the studio.
Then I discovered that I had lost my internet connectivity again, so I called and had a nice conversation with Jon. We fiddled around for a long time, but we couldn't get my computer talking to the client again, and then I had to take a fast trip to the bathroom, and when I came back, it was working. He did eventually call back, and now I know how to get into the client to check the status - and I know that if I can't talk to it from here, it's a problem with the wiring. So we will just have to wait until the next time it happens. Then I had another little accident (I waited too long), and I had to change my clothes.
By the time all that was taken care of, it was nearly 1:00 and I hadn't done my surfing, so I called off the trip to town today. It's too bad, too - the weather is iffy for the next couple of days, and the sale ends tomorrow, not that there was much I wanted that was on sale.
So I did nothing for the rest of the afternoon. As I've said before, those accidents leave me depressed, but really, by that time it was too late to do what I wanted to do in town. It would have been late when I got back.
The weather was blah. The temperature went down from 32º at midnight to 26º at 11:00 this morning, where it stayed all day. There has been a 15-25 mph wind from the east since last night, and the lake is singing nicely. There has been no precip, and there was no sun. Blah. Even last night, the clouds were so thick it wasn't very light. Blah.
So that is about all I know, and I'm tired, but I want to read for a while, and I hope I will be a little earlier to bed tonight. We'll see.
March 21 - J. S. Bach's Birthday I read for quite a while last night, and it was after midnight sometime when I got to bed - I don't remember quite when. I wasn't ready to get up when Buster started digging at the covers, but oh, well. When I looked outside, it was pea-soup fog. It was letting up by the time I was done with my exercises, but it was 2:00 this afternoon before we could really see the mountain. No wonder I was creaky. My right shoulder aches, although it didn't interfere with my exercises, and it seems like I may be getting a bit closer to being able to wash my neck.
Again I didn't do much of anything. I discovered that Buster had barfed on the inside of one of my fleece jackets and on the sleeve of another, so I washed those, then I found he had barfed all over a clean towel and a pillowcase. I put those in the washer, but I forgot to close the lid, so when, just now, I went down to put them in the dryer, I had to start the wash cycle. What a good reason to get all the clothes folded and put away. Another chore. Sometimes I'm good about that, but other times, not so much. This is a not so much time.
Tomorrow, I have decided it's time to go to town. Ugh. I need to visit the feed store and Wal-Mart, and I might as well shop while I'm in the area, although I think I will do that at Pat's. We are finally running out of most of the cat food I brought back from Detroit, and Wal-Mart is the cheapest place to get that, if they have what I want. I am getting to the bottom of the birdseed, too, and after I filled the feeders today, I think I only have one more pail full of sunflower seed. Another chore I dislike.
The weather was, as I said, foggy and very, very humid (like over 96% all day). The temperature hovered around 35º, and there was a bit of north wind, but nothing much. It was cloudy as well as foggy, except for a short time a while before sunset. No stars tonight, and no moon, either. I was just looking at the camera archive (I had to move the start time back another 15 minutes - yeah!), and there were raindrops on the window the first picture of the morning. I thought I heard some rain last night, too. Ugh. I'd rather have snow anytime.
So that's about all I have to report. Buster wanted some of my chicken with bourbon sauce tonight, and he ate all of it. I don't know if bourbon sauce is good for him, although I doubt there is much alcohol left in it, but he thought it was good. He wanted my breakfast, too, and he sat on me for quite a while. He would have sat more this morning, except that I had to make my usual fast trip to the bathroom (no accidents, though), and he sat for a while after dinner until I started moving around. Jasmine was sitting on her mohair afghan again, and running away every time I walked by. I guess she'll never learn that I won't bother her.
Now it's a dark, cloudy night in the field, and I will read some more before I totter up to the north end.
March 20 - Spring Equinox So now it's spring - it was official at 7:21 EDT this evening. Ha! You sure wouldn't know it to look out the windows into the field.
I seem to have forgotten when I got to bed last night, but it was late - very late. I read for quite a while, then I had to get the dishwasher ready, and when I got up to the north end, I remembered that it was time to fill the pill dispensers. And I showered. I slept well, with only a couple of wakeups.
I was awake around 7:00, but I think that was only about 6 hours' sleep, so I went back to sleep and I didn't get up until 10:00. I didn't really want to get up then, but I had to. I petted the cat, finished the gusset on one sock and put the other on double pointed needles so I can stash it away until next fall.
Buster was very hungry, which was good, but I had a fast breakfast this morning and that doesn't appeal to him.
I did nothing. The weather was very humid, and I felt it in every joint, so I sat and played with the computer, and in the late afternoon, I started reading.
The weather wasn't good. Sometime in the early afternoon, I looked out and thought the NWS had been very wrong again, in their prediction of snow, but along about 4:00, it began, and as far as I know, it's still going on. There was a strong south wind, in the 20-35 mph range, and the temperature was around 35º all day, so the snow was mostly very wet and heavy and soggy. There were some nice big flakes, and the trees started out looking like they had been sugared, and now they have a heavy coat of frosting on them, which is weighing down the branches. Weather radar says that the precip is mixed, but from my vantage point, it looked like it was all snow here. It was nice to watch, but it wouldn't have been much fun to be out in. It's the kind of snow that leaves you just as sopping wet as if you'd been in a rainstorm.
When it was so cold in here, I had brought in the mohair (and other things) afghan I knitted a couple of years ago and could never decide whether to fringe or not. It was a nice warm thing around my shoulders. I took it out and put it in a pile with some other stuff, and a certain multicolored kitty of mine picked and pulled enough of it onto the floor so she could curl up in it, and that was where she spent most of the afternoon, although every time I walked by she ran away. She is hard to get to know because she mostly stays out of my way, but she certainly knows what she wants. There are several places she sleeps, and every time I smooth out the blankets, she scrudges them up into a wad so she can lean comfortably on them. It interests me that when Buster is all right, which he clearly is right now, she wants to be not too far from me - as long as I don't know she's there. How I wish I could scratch her jowls and brush her coat!
So that was a very quiet day. The barometer is way down, which not only affected my joints, it has affected my sinuses as well, and I have a headache. Maybe I won't be quite as late tonight, but I'm not counting on it, since I'm getting toward the end of this episode.
Now it's a dark, snowy, windy night in the field, and it will feel to good to hunker down under my comforter.
March 19 Well, I did it again. I read too long, and then when I put the story away, I looked at my Schwan's catalog, so it was after 2:00 when I got to bed. Of course, I slept well, although Buster wanted me to get up around 8:00. No way, Bub. I didn't want to get up when I did, around 10:00, but I had to. I petted him and knitted a while.
I've made several strange mistakes in that second sock - I don't know why - but so far it's nothing that anybody will see. It's coming along. I have about 12 rows left in the gusset. In the meantime, I'm thinking about what socks to knit next. It's getting toward spring, so I begin to think about cotton and cotton blends. I have Tofutsies and I think some Sockotta, and several colors of the real summer stuff. Hmm. I would like to do the lace socks, if I can find a pattern I like, even though they're wool, and I have another colorway of the stuff I'm knitting on now that I would like to see how it looks. I may just put the toe of the heavy sock on some double points and stash it away until fall. No way am I going to need those socks now.
I always like to have at least one pair of socks on needles, including a pair that are easy to knit, just for things like Carolyn's and doctor's waiting rooms. Socks are small and easy to carry and they keep my hands busy while I'm waiting. I have been thinking about hats, too, and I almost got some yarn for some today, then I chickened out. I would really like a black and red hat to wear with my parka, which is a beautiful cherry red, and a navy blue one with some other colors in it to wear with my heavy fleece and my long down-lined coat, which I haven't worn in some time. It's navy blue with a brown plaid lining, so navy with tan and beige would be good. Curiously enough, Lion Brand Wool-Ease, which I love, doesn't come in tan and beige. Strange, eh?
Anyway, it was a quiet day. Buster is feeling pretty good. He ate and ate his breakfast, and he wanted my breakfast and my dinner, and he spent quite a while on my lap after breakfast and after dinner. So he seems to be coming down to the south end again, thank goodness, at least for a while.
About 11:00 last night, I discovered that I had lost my Internet connectivity. I thought that was strange, but it was late and I didn't really need it then However, it was down when I finally got to the studio this morning, so I called PastyNet. I think I got Charlie at his birthday luncheon, although he didn't say and I didn't know it then. They did something (I don't know what) and it finally came back up. It was evidently a problem with my client, but as Mike warned me, the way it's set up means I can't get into it. Anyway, it's been fine all day, you just missed the early morning camera shots.
While I was talking to Charlie, I was trying to eat my breakfast before it got cold, feed the cat, and get to the powder room in a hurry. I almost made it. I messed the toilet but not my clothes. What a pain that is!
The weather was - eh. The temperature got to 34º briefly, but for most of the afternoon it was right around or slightly below freezing. There was no wind to speak of. The sky was partly cloudy this afternoon, but it clouded up more than they predicted, so there were no planets and no rising moon this evening. I think I might be able to see the moon later on, but it's supposed to be so cloudy tomorrow that we won't get to see it set. Darn. This is the time of year when we sometimes shoot the moon, and it's a bit closer to us than usual right now. Darn. Oh well. Weather happens. The good news is that we have just over 12 hours of daylight now.
I spent the later part of the afternoon working on my 2011 ledger and spiffing up the 2010 one. It was a costly year - the gall bladder and two dental crowns, not to mention a humungous plumbing bill in the spring. I also discovered that I screwed up the subtraction in my checkbook this January, so I had to fix that. Unfortunately, I've gotten into the habit of scrawling the amounts in my checkbook, too, and that doesn't help. I still have that strange discrepancy between my balance and the bank's balance, but I will have to wait until I do some filing before I can begin to research that. And I need to get my tax information together first. Have you ever noticed that there are so many tasks that end up where you have to do several things beforehand? It's frustrating.
I keep hoping that one of these years I can get myself together and try to keep my financial stuff in order monthly, but it never seems to happen. I hate to file more than I hate to do most other things (filing, cat pans and mopping floors are in the same category in my world). This year has been a particularly bad one. it's been a long time since I haven't set up the ledger until March, and I haven't done a thing about my 2011 file folders, either. Well, I'll never run out of things I should do, especially since I usually end up opting to do the things I want to do instead. I have never been particularly well-disciplined. That's why it's surprised me a bit that so far I've managed to keep at the exercising, at least fairly well.
So that was a quiet day, and now it's a quiet, cloudy night in the field.
March 18 i read too long last night, again, but it's a story I like. About the time I was ready to leave for the north end, I realized that it was very warm in here, and when I checked the thermostat I discovered that I had set it at 80º. There's no excuse for the temperature only being 74º, but at any rate it was too warm, so I reset it, and it's been all right all day and a lot more comfortable for me, although it's not warm enough for the cat.
Anyway, I decided I might sleep better if I showered, so I did, and it was around 1:30 before I got to bed. Needless to say, I slept well. However, around 9:00 Buster started to holler at me, then he came and sat down beside the pillow, and I had to walk anyway, so I got up. I petted him, then I finished the heel on the sock and started the gusset, and I did all my exercises, so I was late getting dressed.
Right after breakfast, I had a serious and nasty accident, which always puts me in a bad mood. So I threw everything in the washer and got dressed again. Yuck. I simply must get into the habit of going to the bathroom right after I finish eating, no matter what else I'm doing at the moment.
By the time I got myself together again it was late, so I didn't do anything else. This evening after the talking stopped, I started reading again, and I will do some more before I totter up to the north end.
The weather was good for hibernating. The temperature had fallen steadily from midnight and it was steady at 23º all afternoon. There was a moderate north wind. And it snowed off and on all day. The forecast said "ice pellets", but it was real snow, some of it fairly large flakes. It's supposed to warm up again tomorrow, but it was just a warning that spring isn't here yet, in spite of the calendar. It was dark and gloomy for most of the day.
This afternoon, I got a moderate order from Schwan's with some stuff in it that I've never had before, and it was pretty good. I got a couple of shrimp things, which were on sale, and I sampled one of them. I had been afraid that they had to be cooked on the stove, but there were microwave instructions, and the shrimp come in a bag, so in about 10 minutes I had dinner ready. I like that. I love shrimp anyway, and the sauce on these was pretty good.
So that was a quiet day, and maybe I can get myself together a little better tomorrow and do some more financial work. Here it is the middle of March and I haven't even set up my ledger for the year yet! Now it's another dark, cold night in the field, and there won't be any stars.
March 17 Well, I'm sitting here with Buster on my lap, for the first time in ages, and I think I will do this early, and then read a while.
Last night wasn't a good night. I had a hard time going to sleep and I was up several times, then around 5:00 or so, Buster came out and sat down on the bed and wanted to be petted. I don't entirely trust him since he did a number on the bed a week or so ago, so I couldn't go back to sleep, partly because I wanted to see what his rear end was doing, and partly because he would not sit still. Finally I got up again, and when I went back to bed, I shooed him away and he went back into the bathroom. That was around 6:00,and I slept until about 9:00. However, I didn't get enough sleep, and I'm tired.
I petted him when I got up and knitted a bit, although I forgot to take the sock I wanted to knit up to the north end. Then I did a rather truncated bunch of exercises.
The task of the day was to get the 2010 ledger up to date, and I did manage to do that, although it was a struggle, and I discovered that I had made a mistake in subtraction (and i always use a calculator!) back in November, so I had to redo not only December but the three months of this year, too. Yech. Anyway, that is done, and I think I have everything updated pretty well.
Well, that isn't true. Sometime around the middle of the year something happened that I can't track down, and I went from about $13 more than the bank to almost $17 less than the bank. I don't like that situation, but I am going to have to dig out the entire year's printed statements and go over every one with a fine-tooth comb to find out what happened. I'm not looking forward to that, even more than I hate to get my taxes together. Now I can do the taxes, and I think I have enough to call my accountant. And yes, even though it's expensive, I still have to use an accountant, because she is still dealing with the 2000-2002 debacle, and I don't have any idea how to deal with things like capital losses that are carried over, as well as a lot of other things.
One of my frustrations is that when Amazon debits my credit card, they don't include the order number they are charging, so I have to go their history files and sometimes intuit what those charges are. I do that, because I buy a lot of my non-prescription drugs from them, and I take those off my income taxes. Not that there will be a problem with medical expenses for last year - the gall bladder thing, and two dental crowns, several ultrasounds, as well as a lot of the physical therapy, will be adequate. I'm hoping I can declare the mileage to get down to Laurium, too (I think I can). With all the things that happened last year, I put 2900 miles on the car just going down there. I hate taxes. If I had all the money in the world, I would have a staff who would take care of all that stuff. Dream on.
The weather was good for doing that sort of thing. It was very dark and gloomy all day. The temperature got up to 44º. There was a little wind during the night, but for most of the day there wasn't much. It was very humid, and my joints were telling me so.
When I came down to the kitchen this morning, I looked out and there was a large flock of mergansers, with the males in their breeding plumage. They were swimming around the mini-bergs in the harbor and diving for their breakfast. Wow, they're early. So spring is going to come. I didn't see them later, so I wonder if they only stayed the night and they took off for the north shore a bit later on.
So that was my day. Buster ate well, and he is still sitting on me and purring, so maybe we're over whatever the problem was. He came down here because I had stuffed chicken breasts for dinner, and I guess he finally realized the only way he was going to get any was if he came here. He ate very well - I discovered some more of one of his favorite flavors - and he got some chicken and juice from Chicken Kiev. I liked it, too. Yum. Now, if only I had some fish for tomorrow...hmm. I think I can still order from Schwan's.
So that was my day. Not a very interesting one, but at least I did something that really needed to be done. Now it's a very cloudy, night in the field, and a while ago there were raindrops on the patio door. The birdbath has reappeared, and the junipers at the north end are sticking out a lot more. Sigh. It wasn't a very interesting winter.
March 16 Well, I read for too long last night, and it was about 12:15 when I got to bed. It was clear out, and the gibbous moon was shining in on me for the later half of the night. I got up around 9:00. I would like to have gone back to sleep, but I decided I'd better not.
So I did all the usual morning things. Buster is feeling better: he ran down the hall in front of me and complained until he got his breakfast, and he ate it. I got to do most of my surfing before it was time to go off to Carolyn's via the post office. There was a misfile, and it looked like something important. There wasn't anything for me except four catalogs. Probably all the envelopes came today.
The group at Carolyn's was a nice one, and we had a lot of laughs, as usual.
I thought that when Clyde stopped being postmaster, I was off the hook on feeding Shadow, but when I left Carolyn's he came running down the road toward me, and of course I had to give him some cookies. I've gotten spoiled. Both Eos and Duce are very gentle when they take a treat, but Shadow almost got some of my fingers a couple of times. I think he's getting a little deaf, and I had to remind him rather loudly that he should be gentle. Phoebe had Carly with her, and even though there weren't any treats anywhere in anything I had, she was trying to mooch something off of me. I guess I have an invisible mark on me now.
The weather was warm again. It was clear all night and just a few clouds this morning, but by 1:00, the clouds began to thicken, and it was cloudy at sunset again. The temperature hovered around 40º all night and for most of the morning before it dropped off a bit to 36º or so. The wind was from the north, and it was around 20 mph for most of the afternoon, although it has now gone calm.
I forgot to mention that Monday night, I swapped comforters, and I also turned the lighter weight one end for end (after cutting off the tags, of course), although I can't say it made a lot of difference. Maybe I'm not so hot when I wake up in the night. That's been better anyway, since it was an artifact of my cold, which seems to be getting better, slowly.
When I got home tonight, I finished the bookmark. I'm not very happy with it, but it's done. Then I picked up the sampler and did L-O. I have only two more letters on the second line. Now I think I will read for a while (hopefully not as long, but since I'm on a long episode, I don't think so), and tonight I think I will forgo the bath. Every so often I succumb and just jump into bed.
So it's a cloudy, and maybe rainy, night in the field.
March 15 I got to bed around 10:30 last night, but I was up any number of times. I woke up at 8:30, and for some reason, I decided I didn't want to get up, so it was 10:30 before I finally rolled out of bed. Buster got his pet, I knitted, and I did my exercises.
Unfortunately, Buster is off his feed again. I think he has another hairball. He barfed a little bit this morning and didn't get anything up, and he didn't even come to the kitchen to see what breakfast was. Poor Bub.
I did nothing much. I did work on the latest bookmark a little today. I am trying to do the weaving and filling, and I don't like the way it's coming out, but it's a really ungainly pattern, and from what little I can see of the picture, whoever did the model didn't do any better than I did. I'm starting the second filled area. The truth is, while I love to do counted satin stitch, I don't really like the weaving and filling very well. However, these designs, at least so far, are mostly the stuff I like, so I'll endure. I sort of collect bookmarks anyway, so these will add to my collection.
The weather was warm. It started out quite sunny in the morning, but as the afternoon wore on, it got more and more cloudy, and they are saying there may be a little rain this evening before it clears up after midnight. The temperature got up to 47º for a while, and there was a rather strong west wind - in the 15-30 mph range - for a while.
I had to open the door to cool it off in here, and I went out to fill the bird feeders. The two hanging feeders, that the little birds use, were empty. Curiously enough, the cedar feeder is still full, although somebody had eaten a lot of the sunflower seed from the mixture on the deck.
After I filled the feeders, I was looking out, and there was a little brown stripy bird on the square feeder that I think was a pine siskin. They are cute little guys. I'm fairly certain that was what it was, even though I couldn't see the yellow on the wings. Either it was a female, or it was hiding its yellow, or it doesn't have that coloring in the winter.
So now it is too cloudy for there to be either a sunset or any planets, so I will read a while and try to get to bed nice and early again. It's a warmish, cloudy night in the field.
March 14 Last night was a little more reasonable. I got to bed around 11:15, and I got up around 9:30, I think. I was up any number of times, and I had some weird dreams, but I think I got enough sleep. At least, I felt OK today. Not that I did anything about it.
I did the usual morning stuff, although the barometer is falling again, and my shoulders and knees were telling me so. I decided I wanted poached eggs today, so while my water was coming to a boil, I unloaded the dishwasher. Not only did I have a nice breakfast, I have an empty dishwasher to put stuff in, which should keep the kitchen a little bit better.
I had to go to the post office, for a couple of reasons. Pastor Boelter's mother (he is the pastor of my church in Grosse Pointe, and he has been very good to me) passed away on Friday, and I wanted to send him a note, as well as a memorial to the church, so I did that. While he is quite a bit younger than I am, his mother was about the same age as mine, we are both only children, and we are both unmarried, so we have many things in common. He is one of the people I miss now that I'm here.
Anyway, the other reason I wanted to go to the post office was to see it. They did a very nice job of setting the boxes into the wall along the corridor in the community center, and there is a window inside the visitor center, as well as a small work area for Ron. It was very nicely done, especially for such a fast job. They even moved the drop box and the sign. And even though parking was a problem today, because the assessment Board of Review was meeting, it is much easier to get into, and there is lots more room to stand and talk to everyone who comes by. I met Mary Ann, Phoebe and Carolyn while I was there, and I had a nice chat with Mary Ann.
Then I met Ron as he was coming out of the building after closing up, and again at the store, and we had to talk, as well as both of us talking to Stacie. All three of us have back problems and exercises we should be doing. On the way down Woodland Road, I met Amanda and Duce, and had to say hello, as well as giving Duce a few doggie treats. Now that I don't have to feed the post office dog, I have to find some other canine friends to spoil. I have Eos, and now Duce, and we'll see who else I can find.
So it was nearly 3:45 when I got home, then I had to look at the mail - bills, mostly. So I didn't do much else this afternoon.
I am still mostly on standard time, although I ate dinner around 6:00 EDT. The rest of my routine is still an hour behind. I don't know if it will ever catch up. This is one reason I've never been a good traveler. Even changing the time by an hour messes up my system completely. It's much better now that I am retired and I don't have to be anyplace at 8:00 am.
My sun pillar picture made the Pasty Cam today, and I discovered several people who follow this thing that I didn't know about. I thank you. I was also asked to explain the Girdle of Venus, which I did in a very long post there. I hope to get my rising and retiring changed around so that as we get more clear skies I can see that in the morning.
The weather was warm. It got down to 10º overnight, but it got up to 39º for a while this afternoon. There was hardly any wind at all. It was mostly clear for most of the day, but there were a few clouds in the sky, mostly high cirrus type, and there was a dark cloud on the western horizon at sunset. There are too many clouds to see Jupiter and Mercury.
So that was another quiet day in the field, and I will read a bit before I go up to the north end to bathe again. My hair doesn't need it, but my bottom does. It's a sort of clear, cool and calm night in the field.
March 13 Well, that was a night. I went to bed about 9:30 (EDT), and although I was up several times, including at about 7:30, I didn't get up until 10:30. And now I'm tired again, even though I didn't do anything. I guess I do have some kind of upper respiratory thingie, or I wouldn't need that much sleep!
So I got up and petted the cat and knitted and skipped the exercises. I had a bad accident right after breakfast, so I washed my sweats, but otherwise I didn't do anything.
The weather was cooler than it has been, but it was nice. The temperature this afternoon got to 28º, and there was a light wind from the east. It was cloudy this morning, but it began to clear up around noon, and after about 3:00 it was mostly to totally sunny.
It got very warm in here again, so I opened the door a bit, and I could hear the birdies twittering in the tree. Jasmine was in her element.
I had a steak for dinner, of which I could only eat half, and Buster finally came down to the studio for a few minutes. He wanted steak, but of course, he can't have any. He didn't even want ice cream. He wanted steak. I think he finally went away again, but maybe I can start to convince him I won't chase him away if he comes down here.
He was a bit perplexed, and he told me so, because right after I ate, I put on my jacket and went out on the deck to look for Mercury. Actually, I looked out the great room door and saw it, but I wanted to see if I could see it any better. No. I could see it with my binoculars, but it was in the haze over the mountain most of the time. Anyway, I've seen it again. It's pretty bright. Not as bright as Jupiter, but clearly not a star. It is quite clear out there tonight, but the quarter moon is high in the sky, so it washes out most of the stars, except for Sirius.
There was also an occultation, but I missed that, if I could have seen it at all. It was right around 8:00 and I didn't recheck the writeup until it was too late. I'm not sure I could have seen it anyway, because the star that went behind the moon isn't that bright.
While I was getting dinner, I happened to look outside and there is the most enormous ridge of snow across my front yard. It is even with the top of the waterfall all the way across. I was amazed - I knew the birdbath had finally gotten covered, but sometime in the past couple of weeks, the wind has given me a huge berm right in front of the house.
So that was my day, and now I'm going up to the north end and go to bed again. I have been skipping the bath every other night, but that has given me a sore bottom, so I will take one tonight again and try to keep myself comfortable.
Now it's a cool, clear night in the field and the stars are out.
March 12 Oh, well, I did it again. I started reading the fantasy story, which isn't very long, and I just kept right on reading, then I had to take a bath, so it was around 1:00 when I got to bed. I slept well, but along about 9:00, I had to pee, and even though I tried to ignore it, Buster came in and started staring at me, so finally I got up. Sigh. I petted him and knitted a bit and did my exercises
And that was it. Everything on the computer and at the desk bored me, and the cold humidity did a number on my joints, so I just sat and diddled. I was tired enough that my eyes weren't focusing well enough to read magazines. And I wasn't very hungry. i had a biscuit for breakfast - evidently the first one I had was the only one with no cheese - a light snack in the middle of the afternoon, and a very small dinner of some of the tetrazzini I put in the freezer. I don't feel very good, and it's not dehydration this time. Just now I have started sneezing. I think it will be an early night tonight, even without DST.
Buster came and ate a whole big can of food. I am going to have to get more cat food soon. I still have quite a bit, but he has stopped liking most of it, and I am running out of the kinds he likes now. He is so skinny, I want to make sure he gets enough to eat when he's hungry. Strange little kitty.
The weather was not good. It was snowing when I got up, and it snowed lightly but steadily until around 3:00. It was coming down in a way that told me it was wet and heavy, but there wasn't much accumulation. The only neat thing is that all the trees look like they have a sugar coating on them - not the fluffy stuff they had earlier - and this, while it's not very thick, doesn't go away very easily. It's kind of neat. I can see why the Eskimos have so many words for snow. Some snow is tiny flakes that are powdery, some snow is large, fluffy flakes, and some snow is small flakes that are more like sugar. And that's just what I've seen this year.
The temperature varied between about 31º and 34º all day. The wind started out from the south and has now swung around to the east-northeast. It was in the 15-20 mph range overnight, then it died down to under 10 mph, and it is now around 20 mph again. It was very humid, and I didn't need the NWS to tell me that. I ache.
So now I will totter around and reset some of the clocks - and hope the atomic clock gets its signal. I hate DST. I HATE DST.
Under the circumstances, I don't think there is any possibility I can make it to church tomorrow, between the time change and the weather. It is supposed to snow overnight and tomorrow morning, too. The only hopeful sign is that the Clear Sky Chart seems to show it clearing up a while before sunset tomorrow evening, so maybe, just maybe, I'll be able to look for Mercury tomorrow night. I guess the northern lights are all over. I sure am glad I saw them.
So that was a zero day, and I'm going up to the north end early tonight, and maybe get to bed early, too. It's a dark night in the field.
March 11 I was really tired last night, so I was in bed before 11:00. It was a clear night and the crescent moon was shining on my face when I fell asleep. I woke up around 1:00 to walk, and when I looked out the bathroom window, I realized that the north horizon was light - very light! Whee! My first northern lights of solar cycle 24!
It was interesting, like those things always are. The light wasn't very far up in the sky, mostly around 20º, I think, but it had a distinct yellow cast to it, especially down as close to the horizon as I could see. It was brighter over toward the north-northeast, too. After I thought I saw a spear going up toward zenith, I got my glasses on, and I was able to watch several spears, including a bright one right next to my neighbor's house. I didn't watch it for long - it was night, after all, and I was tired - but it was certainly worth watching. Goodie! Maybe I'll get to see solar max, although it's going so slowly and it's predicted to be very low activity. It was a lot easier to see things close to the horizon with no leaves on the trees.
it's too bad that we have such cloudy skies in the winter. It's frustrating, in a way, too, because very frequently when we're socked in down here on the south shore of the big lake, the north shore is almost completely clear. Oh, well. I like it here.
I got up around 9:30, I think, although I was awake around 8:00 and Buster thought I should get up then. Well - no. I still have my upper respiratory thing and I still don't feel very good, so I dozed for a while longer.
I was going to start the toe-up sock last night, when I realized that I couldn't remember exactly how I started the first one, so I worked on the second #2 sock and petted the cat before I did my exercises.
It was a beautiful morning. There were a few clouds in the far west while I was doing my exercises, but there was all kinds of blue sky. It stayed clear until mid-afternoon, before the clouds started to move in. The temperature got up to 35º for a while this afternoon, with no wind. It was very humid - my hands and knees were telling me that - but it was pretty nice outside, at least while the skies were blue.
I wish I'd remembered to look for Mercury last night, because I won't be able to see it for the next few days when it's close to Jupiter. Oh, well, I saw him once, and I'll see him again sometime.
I finally got the pail full of seed and filled the bird feeders. The chickadees started calling when I opened the door, and when I went in after hanging the feeders out, they were twittering - that's thanks, I think. And the level in the tube feeder went down almost an inch before sunset. I know the chickadees were hawking bugs out against the windows earlier in the day, so I'm glad I finally fed them.
I didn't go out to get the feeder that is on the ground. I have another one, and I can do that later. I dumped out all the mixed seed and left the pail out on the deck. It was absolutely full of meal moths - yuck! I am getting low on seed, so I will have to go to the feed store one of these days, and I will be mentioning that to them. That is the first seed I've gotten from them that has had moths in it. I think what's left in the breezeway has been so cold that the moths are dead, but we'll see. If I can leave the pails where it's cold, I hope I can kill the bugs.
I got the toe of the sock done, and unfortunately, it doesn't start anywhere near where the first one did in the stripe sequence, but that's how the first ones were. The other sock is into the plain part now, so I can work on either one, depending on how I feel.
I am still not totally well. I made shrimp lo mein tonight, and I could only eat half of it, whereas usually I can eat the whole thing. And I don't feel very good, although I felt better after I drank some water. I think perhaps I've gotten a bit dehydrated again. My nose is still running. I think I may try to go to bed early tonight and see if that helps, although I can only stay in bed for about 10 hours before I get too stiff to stay.
Now it's dark and cloudy again, and they are predicting snow mixed with rain - yuck - overnight, and snow tomorrow. Yuck. So no more clear nights for a while. We have to grab what we can, particularly at this time of year.
So it's a dark, cloudy night in the field, and more snow is on the way.
March 10 Well, as usual, I didn't get to bed nearly as early as I planned. Sigh. After I uploaded this, I remembered I had a couple of bills to pay, so I did that, and by the time I was through, Beethoven's 8th was beginning, so I opened the episode I was working on, and typed, and when the symphony was over, I was in the middle of something, sooo...
I guess I made it into bed by 12:30 or so. I did sleep well, but I woke up around 9:30, and Buster was so vocal I finally got up. Geez, what a pain he's turning into, nearly as bad as when he was a kitten. So I petted him and did a little over half of the ribbing on the second sock. Then I did a full, or even maybe more than full, set of exercises before I got dressed. In the middle of that, he started hollering again, but I hollered back and he stopped.
That was about all I did for most of the day. While I was getting my dinner, I fussed around the kitchen for a bit and now all the dirty dishes are in the dishwasher and there are new clean pots and some soaking. It's a little easier to get around out there now.
Buster thought he wanted some of my dinner (chicken Kiev), but he won't come to the studio, so he didn't get any. I suppose he will get up on the counter and lick the pan.
The weather was beautiful. It was partly cloudy when I got up, but later it cleared up, or almost did, and there was sunshine and blue skies and blue waters all afternoon. The temperature got up to 33º for a while, with a fairly light north wind that pushed some of the ice back into our end of the harbor. That's not the kind of ice you'd want to try to walk on!
I noticed several things about the sunshine. The sun is now peaking at 38º above the horizon at noon, and that means it isn't shining in my eyes in the south windows. Of course, it is shining on everything in the afternoon, which makes it hard to use the computer, since it shines right on the monitor. It is also setting right in that notch below the top of Brockway. We now have just over 11½ hours of daylight, which is really nice, at least when it's sunny.
So that was another quiet day, but I did get a few things done in the kitchen. Now it's a clear, dark night in the field and maybe I can get to bed early tonight. Maybe.
March 9 Ash Wednesday Well, I read two shorter stories on the computer and when I got to the north end I finished reading another, and I had to take a shower, so it was after midnight when I got to bed. I slept really well, for a change. I woke up around 10:00, and Buster came and yelled at me, so I got up.
I petted him, and I finished the sock and cast on the other one, although I didn't start the ribbing. By that time it was so late that I didn't do my exercises.
I wanted a fast breakfast, so I went downstairs (rather easily, actually) and got some of the sausage, egg and cheese biscuits that I got from Schwans. Going upstairs was harder. When I took the sandwich apart to nuke it, I discovered that there was no cheese! I need to go downstairs and get the rest of the package, so I will have the serial numbers when I call Schwans. So I got out the block of nice sharp cheddar from Jilbert's, and put enough on the thing that I ended up having to eat it with a fork. Pretty good, though, much better than that pasty American stuff they use. I must make a grilled cheese sandwich with it.
I made it to Shepherd of the Sea by 1:00, and there were only 5 of us, which was a shame. It was a nice service and Bonnie had found a wonderful, very Christ-centered sermon. I am still not completely comfortable with ashes on my forehead (when I was a kid growing up, only the little Catholic kids ever had that, and I guess my prejudices have followed me), but I understand the symbolism. Lent is a time of penitence, after all.
When I got up this morning, there was no snow, and when I checked the weather, the winter weather advisory had been canceled. So that was a dud. However, about 3:00 it started snowing lightly, but enough to register at the NWS station. The temperature got up to 32º but no warmer here. There was essentially no wind. It is very humid, but my knees have been telling me that all afternoon.
When I got home, I finished my surfing and didn't do much else. This evening I read another couple of stories, including the one that I was trying to transcribe and rewrite. I'm not sure where I go from here.
Now it is certainly time to totter up to the north end, even though they are going to be doing a Beethoven symphony a little later. Drat. I'm tired and I don't want to stay up that late. Drat.
Now it is a dark, snowy night in the field and I'm yawning.
March 8 It was another nothing day.
When I got to the north end last night, the first thing I discovered was that the sheet blanket had gotten rolled up inside the sheet in the dryer and it was still damp. So I put it back and put the sheet and the pillowcases on the bed. Getting that body pillow into its case was a real trip, and it still isn't right, although since it's not quite so long, it's a bit more plump, which is nice. Then I had to wait until the sheet blanket dried before I could finish making the bed, and that took longer than I'd thought it would. So I read while it was drying, then I made up the bed, discovering that parts of the comforter were still damp. Then I had to take a bath. I suppose I could have taken my shower while I was waiting for the dryer, but I didn't think about that.
So it was almost midnight before I got to bed, and I did sleep well, until about 10:00 this morning. I petted the cat, whom I had to pull off the bed bodily. He was going toward the body pillow, and I was afraid he would pee on it again. I knitted some and I got the foot done and started the toe of the latest sock.
That was about the extent of my doings today. I still don't feel very good, and my nose is still dripping, so I didn't do much at all except go to the post office. There had been a misfile I had to return, and my box was more full than I'd expected. Mostly pleas for money and catalogs, but there were some bills and some magazines.
There was also a large envelope from one of the charities with a tote bag in it. Well. This is not a charity I have ever supported, and there is no law that says I have to pay for anything sent to me unsolicited, so I will use it and I threw the rest of the stuff away. It has a sort of strange looking American flag on it, and I'm considering what I might put over it to cover it up. I hate it when people send me that stuff, and thankfully, the cost of paper and the economy have meant I don't get much of that stuff as I used to. I use the notepads, and I keep the envelopes from the cards, and the rest of it goes into an orange bag. I support the charities I want to support (within my means, of course) and I send them money on my schedule, not theirs.
So that was my day. Now I will read a bit before I go up to the north end. I have to wash my hair again, because the chapel here is having an Ash Wednesday service tomorrow, and I will probably go. St. Paul's is tomorrow night, and it's in Hubbell, at the other church where Pastor Fundum preaches. Hubbell isn't very far from Hancock, so I will not be going to that.
The weather was blah again. They got the NWS station fixed this morning, so I know that the temperature this afternoon got up to 32º, it was very humid, and there was no wind at all. There were a few rays of sunshine, not much, although it looked fairly clear at sunset. The forecast for the next day and a half is interesting, with snow for sure tomorrow, although not a real dumping. Gee, why don't we have blizzards anymore?
I have had to reset the start and stop times for the camera again. We now have nearly 11½ hours of daylight now, and the days are getting longer at 3¼ minutes a day - about as fast as it ever does.
I guess it's too late to look for Mercury, so I will read a bit and then go do my thing. It's a dark night in the field, and the snows are coming.
March 7 Well, this was a zero day, for sure.
When I went to get into bed last night, I discovered that my covers, including the comforter, and my sheepskin pad were damp - well a little more than damp. At the time, I couldn't smell anything, but I knew what had happened. Since it was nearly 11:00 and I was tired, I just ignored it and went to bed. Sometime during the night, it appears, Buster also got under the covers and peed on the body pillow. I'm not sure what to do about that.
So this morning, after I came out of the bathroom (with a very purry cat on my lap, by the way), I stripped the bed and put the sheepskin in the washer. When that was in the dryer, I washed the comforter, which I'm not sure has ever been washed before, since I don't use it much. The sheepskin dried OK, although it was damp when I put it back on the bed. I'm sure it's dry by now. The comforter took two cycles on low heat before it dried, but it had gotten pretty twisted up. Now the sheets and pillowcases are in the dryer, and after I do this, I will go and put the bed back together. I'd hoped to do that before it got dark, but it took too long to dry everything. I'm not looking forward to that. It's a big bed and it's a pain to make up, but at least everything is clean.
Well, except for the body pillow. The instructions say to dry clean only, but it has been my experience that dry cleaning doesn't get cat pee out of anything - it has to be washed with water. I'm tempted to call the Company Store and ask them. It would take forever to dry it, of course, but I've washed regular pillows before with no problems. We'll see.
I had been letting Buster get under the covers lately, but I guess I'll have to stop that. He did the rest of the stuff because I left the bed opened up yesterday, and I suppose he was cuddled in the covers. I know what he is trying to say to me, but I just didn't feel like doing it today.
In fact, I didn't feel very good at all today. I was so upset about the pee that I had some trouble getting to sleep, and then I had a cat on me for most of the night, although he did spend some time under the covers down by my feet. Whatever upper respiratory thing I have is making me feel not very well.
I don't know much about the weather, since the NWS station is still broken, but it appears that the temperature was in the low 20s all day, with no wind. There was snow off and on, enough to register at the station, but I don't think there was any accumulation.
So that was my nothing day, and after I make my bed and read a bit, I will be off to dreamland. It's a dark, snowy night in the field.
March 6 When I wrote last night, I thought I had solved all the problems with FrontPage. Ha! It took me probably an hour and two uploads before I had it all right, and if anybody finds a broken link or a missing picture, I'd like to know about it. It all has to do with the site being bigger than FrontPage can handle, and it means I have to do a lot of stuff manually. For some reason, it has started keeping picture files in a temporary directory instead of where they belong, and since I haven't uploaded any pictures lately, I'd forgotten about that. It means I have to create the correctly sized pictures myself (including the thumbnail) and move them into the correct folder. Since I didn't do that, and I had to reboot in the middle (I forget quite why, but probably because FrontPage hung), it took me a while to get things back together. Ugh. It had even managed to screw up the navigation on the left hand side of the page, and for some totally unknown reason, it thought it should update the top heading, which, of course, means updating every single file in the web...What a piece of junk!
Then I read for a while, got the dishwasher ready to run, and when I got up to the north end, I read some more. So it was about 11:30 when I got to bed.
It was not a good night. I wasn't sleeping very well anyway, and for the first time in an age, Buster decided he wanted to sleep with me - well, not with me, on me. He got mostly on the body pillow, except that he kept standing on my gut, and he has pointy little feet, which meant that wasn't comfortable at all. When I finally got him to stop that, he kept putting out a claw or two into my arm or my gut or someplace else, and then he kept wiggling around. Sheesh! I finally got up and peed, then I turned over, and that was a little better, but I didn't really begin to sleep well until after he went away - around 5:00, I think. So I didn't get up until 9:30, and that was only because I had to.
It wasn't a very good day, either. I had an accident this morning, and this afternoon I waited too long to pee and went all over myself. The sweats are in the washer now. Besides, I really don't feel all that good. I am not sneezing, but my nose is dripping and my head feels full of cotton.
So I spent the afternoon working on the latest bookmark, and I have everything done except for the cutting and weaving. I also listened to three CDs - Beethoven and Schubert. Some of my favorite stuff that I don't hear on the radio much, if at all.
The weather was so-so again. I think the temperature was in the upper teens again, but I still don't know, because the NWS station still isn't reporting it. There was some sunshine this morning and some snow showers, too. It was bright-cloudy for most of the afternoon, although there was a little sunshine late in the day. It went away before sunset, though, and there was no sunset at all, and no color. Well, things like yesterday never happen very often. There wasn't any wind.
So now it's time to totter up to the north end and try to get a better night's sleep tonight. I just went into the laundry room, and there was Buster perched up on top of a very full washbasket - no wonder that one ended up on the floor last week. As soon as I get the sweats into the dryer, I will go up to the north end and read a bit there.
When I went out to get my dinner, there was a bright spot in the clouds where the crescent moon was hanging over the mountain, but it is too cloudy to see Mercury, of course. So we'll miss this apparition, darn it. Someday I hope to see it again.
Now it's a dark, calm night in the field.
March 5 Whew! I just set up the picture files for 2011, and it's a pain. Fortunately, I only have to do it once a year.
I read last night, and it was about 12:15 when I got to bed. I slept well until about 10:00, when not only was Buster yowling, I had to pee, so I got up. I knitted and petted him and did my exercises. All that seems to take about 2 hours.
I didn't do much of anything today. I guess I was still tired, and late this afternoon, I started sneezing again. I hope I'm not reinfected again, but who knows.
The weather was sort of blah. The temperature seems to have been in the upper teens, but the NWS station still isn't reporting, so I don't know for sure. It was cloudy, and there was some snow, maybe an inch. The wind, which was strong from the northeast last night, making the lake sing me to sleep, died down mostly today, but before It did, it pushed a lot of the ice down into our end of the harbor. Clearly, the ice isn't very thick.
Then, this evening, things started to happen. I got up to get my dinner, and the sun was shining under the clouds, right at the notch between Brockway and the west bluff. And when I got back to the studio, wow! This is what I saw. So I went running out onto the deck without a jacket, and I took a bunch of pictures, of which that one was the best. It's been a long time since we've had a nice sunset around here, and it's even longer since we've had a nice sun pillar. I love those, almost as much as I love sunsets. It didn't last very long, of course, and when I looked again, it was gone, but there was a sled coming down from the top of Brockway. I wonder if they saw what I saw?
In the meantime, I have been doing some wash, and I intend to get the last load done tonight. I have to wash when I run out of compression hose. Otherwise, it looks like I didn't wear much this month, except for underwear.
I wanted to get this done, because of all the maintenance I have to do, and now I will to back to my reading and who knows when I will get to bed. If I feel tomorrow like I do now, I won't be going anywhere. It's a dark, cloudy night in the field, and of course we won't be seeing Mercury.
March 4 Last night, I read off the end of the part of the blue binder that is in the computer, and when I got to the north end, I read a little bit of the episode that isn't finished, so it was 1:00 before I got to bed. I slept very well, thank you. I was up around 8:00, and Buster yowled at me, but I ignored him, and around 10:00 he yowled again, so I guessed I'd better get up. I petted him did some knitting and some exercises, so it was noon before I ate breakfast, and I didn't finish my surfing until right before I went to see Johanna. Part of that was because there was a bunch of stuff I wanted to read on the computer, so I was late doing my regular stuff. I keep getting emails with interesting links in them, that I just want to follow up on.
Johanna was much better, and it was a lovely massage. We found a really hard muscle or tendon or something on the outside of my right armpit, and that may be one thing that is keeping me from getting enough movement in my right shoulder. She said I should massage it every day, so I will be doing that. It is undoubtedly an artifact of my mastectomy, when they took out all the lymph nodes under my arm (I know, they don't do that anymore, but this was 1984), and left a lot of scar tissue, as well as a lot of places where I have no feeling. So I will work on it and see if that helps my mobility.
She had a real story to tell. Eos, her dog (she's some kind of fancy breed, but I can never remember what - looks sort of like a shepherd, but bigger and thinner with a very pretty face and big ears) was out with some friends who were skiing and she stepped onto a broken ceramic toilet beside the trail and sort of shredded the veins and an artery in her lower leg. Between her and her friends, Johanna got a tourniquet on her and took her to the vet, and it took them three hours to repair her leg. It was a wonder she didn't bleed to death, but two of her friends sat with the dog all the way to Hancock with their hands under the tourniquet, pressing on the artery. Eos just got her stitches out yesterday, and she seems just fine now, only a little thin. I have been taking her a few dog biscuits , and now I am her fast friend, except that she thinks I'm holding out on her. She is a very nice, ladylike dog for one so big.
That took up an hour and a half - I get good services for my money - and I stopped at the store to get eggs on my way home and ran into Ron, who says it looks like they may be able to move the post office a week from Sunday. He sounded rather overwhelmed by everything, but I'm sure he will get used to it. He's a lot smarter than the post office clerks I've met, and they know all that stuff. Only right now, it's a lot to assimilate.
The weather was really blah today. I'm not sure what the temperature was, because the NWS station hasn't been reporting it since 8:00 this morning, but I think it got a bit over freezing. There wasn't any wind, and there wasn't any snow or, thankfully, freezing drizzle. Blah.
After I ate breakfast, I took the tray out to the kitchen, and all of a sudden I heard the pounding of little feet in the loft. When I went out and looked up, there was little Jasmine sitting on the railing, sort of twined around the corner post. She sat up and looked at me, and I said. "I see you!" and she wiggled a bit. Obviously, she felt good. Buster must feel better, too, because she isn't staying with him every minute like she was last week. He got something he liked for breakfast today, so he has eaten well for three days now. I usually attribute his bad periods to hairballs, but heaven knows what the problems really are. He is still acting funny, a little senile and a little clumsy occasionally. He still won't come into the studio or sit on my lap here.
So that was another quiet day, and maybe I can get to bed a bit earlier tonight, although I'm not exactly counting on it. It's just too much fun to read forever. Now it's a dark, rather warm night in the field, but there doesn't look to be any precip.
I just had another light fail, so it looks like it's time to do a little light changing. Ugh.
March 3 There was more Mozart last night, and some other things, and I read through the end of part 3 and started part 4 before I went up to the north end, so it was midnight when I got to bed. I slept well. I think the first time I was up was around 6:00. I got up around 10:00, although Buster was yelling at me before then and I had to ignore him. I knitted and petted him and exercised before breakfast.
There was so much stuff to read from my emails that I didn't get my surfing done until around 5:00 this afternoon. I have to say that the deficiencies of my software are beginning to annoy me, and I really do plan to get at least a new desktop this spring. I want to wait until the UPS truck can get directly to the door, because I don't want either Ron or me to have to schlep something like that from town. However, I'm beginning (slowly) to look around at what there is, and it looks like there may be an adequate Gateway for a semi-reasonable price.
The weather was, well, wintry. It snowed off and on - mostly on - all day, and around 11:00 the wind picked up into the 15-30 mph range, so there was a lot of blowing snow as well. It was from the southwest, which is an interesting direction. I think this winter will go down as the windy winter. The temperature rose steadily all day, and it has been 26º for the past couple of hours.
I didn't do anything except the computer stuff.
Buster actually came into the studio when I started cooking my dinner - stuffed chicken breasts from Schwans - but when I put him down so I could go and get it, he ran away, so he didn't get any. What a weird little kitty he has turned into! Well, at least he came, so I can hope he will start coming back. He could have sat on my lap all afternoon.
Now I will read a bit before I go up to the north end. It's a dark, snowy night in the field.
March 2 It was Mozart last night - the Piano Concerto #21, which is one of my favorites. I started reading while it was playing, and I just kept right on going. Then I had to take a shower, so it was 12:30, I think, before I got to bed. I did sleep well. The wind and the lake sang me to sleep.
I got up around 9:30. I would like to have stayed in bed, but I had to pee, so I got up. Buster was very affectionate, so we had a good love-in, and I took off his collar. He has worn that collar since 2001, when I started bringing the cats here for the summer, and I wanted to be sure there was some identification in case they somehow got out of the car. Now he is almost 16 years old, and he's not going much of anywhere except maybe to the vet, so he really didn't need a collar. It was getting rather ratty anyway, and it was messing up the fur around his neck. Every so often it would apparently bother him, because he would scratch it. Now he won't be able to rattle the tag to let me know where he is, but otherwise I think he will be more comfortable.
He is still living mostly in the bathroom. Since the last time I put him out of the studio so I could eat my dinner in peace, he hasn't been back. I guess I hurt his feelings or something. He is a funny little cat.
Jasmine is still someplace around where he is, although she runs when I go into the bathroom most of the time. Usually she runs under the bed, but she rarely gets too far away from him.
This afternoon was the ladies' meeting, and it was nice. Not many of us were there, but it was a good group. I knitted, and I finished the gusset of the sock and got a good way into the foot, so that one is going faster than I thought it would.
The weather was frigid. The wind blew all night long, but it died down in the morning and by noon it was almost calm. It didn't get quite as cold as they predicted, at least here. It was 8º overnight, and it got up to 14º late this afternoon. That's right around the average low for the day, so it was cold, but it wasn't windy enough to be uncomfortable.
I stopped at the post office on my way to Carolyn's, and there was Ron getting briefed by Clyde. Ron is now the new postmaster, and I heard at the meeting that the post office in the community building is close to being done. So that has all turned out well.
This evening, I got to reading again, so it's late now again, and I will shortly be off to the north end. It's a dark, cold night in the field and it looked like it might have been snowing in the last picture from the camera. So it's still winter.
March 1 Gosh, March already! I really should be doing something. It didn't happen today.
After I uploaded the journal last night, there was something on the radio that I wanted to listen to - a Mozart concerto, I think - so I started reading again, and then there was Vivaldi, and then there was Bach - and it was 2:00 before I got to bed. Sigh.
I didn't sleep very well again. I am still having night sweats, and every time I got up to go into the bathroom, I had to boot Buster out from in front of the toilet. I guess the floor is warmer there. Anyway, I finally got up around 10:00, not because I wanted to, but I don't want to get into that syndrome where I am up all night and sleep all day.
I finished the heel of the sock and started the gusset, all with Buster sitting on my lap and Jasmine sleeping on the rug. She sleeps strangely. She just lowers her chin onto the floor in front of her paws and zonks out. it looks really strange.
Anyway, eventually I got up and did some exercises and had some lunch, but I certainly didn't do much of anything else.
I was embroidering, I think, around 2:00 when all of a sudden the wind picked up. After looking at it for a while, I decided I'd better get the feeders in before the temperature dropped off the roof. The feeder on the deck was already gone - it's down under the tree - and I could see the others going the same way. So I put on my jacket and went outside, and I nearly got blown away (and beaned) before I collected all four feeders and got them inside. It wasn't very cold, but boy, what a wind!
What really annoys me is that the NWS station was only reporting about 30 mph gusts at that time. Well, nonsense and bull----. The problem is that the weather station is severely sheltered on the northwest, and that's where the winds were from at that time. A couple of hours later, when they swung around to the north, the gusts were reported as up to 40 mph. Well, that's what they were when I was outside. I am massive enough that a 30 mph gust won't push me around, and believe me, I was getting pushed around. Oh, well, they had to put it someplace, and the waste treatment plant is probably about the best place.
Anyway, it got really windy. It still is, but the wind is from the north now, so I'm not quite so aware of it here in the studio. Northwest winds are the very worst direction for this house, and we were really being battered for a while. The temperature was warm. It got up to 37º at 1:00, when there wasn't any wind. Now it's dropping off, and they are predicting single digits before morning. Now (at 8:00) the temperature is 27º and the wind is a sustained 33 mph, with 41 mph gusts. It was mostly cloudy all day, and it got really dull late in the afternoon. No sunset tonight.
I started the second row of the first alphabet on the sampler, and I am almost done with "K", which is all Algerian eyelets. It's much more fun when every letter is not only a different color but a different style, too. "L" is script, and so on. I don't think I will do any more tonight; my eyes are beginning to go.
I have been tired all day, of course, so I think I will read for a little bit (hopefully, a little bit), then go take a nice bath and try to crash early. Now it's a dark, windy night, and the cold and snow should be with us again by morning. Last updated 04/01/11 08:34 PM
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