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A View From the Field |
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May, 2012 May 31 Ooh! I can see! Now should I go on a reading jag or embroider or bead or...
I knitted until I couldn't see anymore and I got to be around 10:00. I slept well for a change, with about 3 wakeups. When I was up the first time, the gibbous moon was shining so brightly in the front windows and leaving a wide glitter path on the harbor. So pretty! I was up around 7:00 but that seemed too early, so I went back to bed and I got up around 9:00. Grayson didn't seem to want to be brushed, so I knitted for a long time and I only have three more rows of this color left to knit.
I wasn't planning to do much of anything, but then about 2:15, the optician called to say my glasses were ready, so I changed my clothes - I had dropped something on my tee, of course - and off I went. I left about 2:30 and got back about 4:30. And I can see much better. I tested it by reading part of the newspaper, and I had no trouble at all. Then I tried it on the crossword I was having such a problem with when they called, and I can see that too. I won't say they're perfect, but they're so much better I'm not complaining. It's so nice to be able to see! I don't like the frame very well, but it was the best one they had.
I also indulged myself in a pair of yellow glasses to wear over my glasses. The yellow is supposed to decrease glare for night driving and I've also heard they're good for driving in the snow. So we'll see. These aren't the el-cheapos that are sold by some of the junk shops; they were expensive for that sort of thing, but I'm hoping they'll be helpful.
It was really nice to drive home wearing my sunglasses. It was a beautifully clear, sunny day, at least here. When I was down in Calumet, I could see clouds on the south and east horizons, but they never got here. The high temperature was only 52º for most of the day, although it's gone up to 54º now. There was a little north wind, but not a lot. It was a lovely day and a nice day to be driving. Everything is so green!
Grayson didn't want to be brushed this morning, but he slept on the rug all the time I was knitting. Jasmine is wandering around downstairs now, although she still hasn't gotten up to the north end yet. When she sees Grayson, she twines around him to try to get him to like her, and he keeps going after her, not hard, but still, enough to make her go away. She was clearly waiting for breakfast this morning, and I think she ate some of that, and when I fed him this evening, she waited in the dining area until we all left, then I think she went into the kitchen and probably ate. I'm afraid he tends to be greedy about food, but given his background, it makes sense. I hope he'll get over that eventually. There's enough for everybody.
So that's about all I have to report, and I'm tired again. I think I will go up to the north end and knit some more. I'm on a knit row, so it will go fast. Now it's a cool, clear night in the field and May is over with.
May 30 I didn't make it to bed until about 11:00 last night. I went up to the north end early enough, but I knitted a row before I took my bath. I slept all right, I thought, and I got up around 8:45, but I'm tired now. Not that I did anything. Grayson got his brushing and I knitted most of three rows.
I didn't do a lot, but I got the catalogs off the floor that I threw there quite a while ago. I was tired of having to be very careful when I stepped on them so that I wouldn't slip. I was so late getting to the studio that it was nearly 3:00 when I finished my surfing.
The weather was pretty but cold. It has finally gotten to 50º, but it was in the upper 40s all day. There wasn't any wind. It was cloudy in the morning, but it soon cleared up and after about 1:00 it was clear and sunny. I do love to see those blue skies and blue waters! It's been a bit cool lately, but I've noticed that the southern lower peninsula has been horribly hot, even though it cooled down a bit today. Given a choice, I'll take cold.
Grayson was wired for most of the day. I don't know why, except that he's slept a lot lately and the barometer was high. He finally calmed down late this afternoon. When I got to the kitchen, Jasmine was sitting on her scratching pad, and I'm afraid the tables have been turned. Instead of Grayson wooing Jasmine, now it's Jasmine wooing Grayson to stop treating her like a sex object and be her friend. I think she'd also like to get some of that canned food he's scarfing down, but we'll just have to work that out. Anyway, she spent most of the day on the first floor, which is easing my mind a lot. She looks a little thin and very sad, but she's all right. There is plenty of dry food for her to eat, so if she'll calm down, she'll be all right. They'll just have to find their own dynamic. I can mediate a bit, but it's really up to them.
I took a Tylenol 3 last night because my hand was so sore, and by morning only the tip of my middle finger hurt. Now most of the pain is gone, but the joints are still swollen. I can't believe two pills caused that much difference, but it's possible. Yesterday the pill caused me a little stomach discomfort, but today I took it when I took the potassium, in the middle of breakfast, and I didn't have any problems with it. The doctor said the meds might even cause some of the bumps on my joints to decrease, and I certainly hope so. Mostly, I would like not to have any more flare-ups. Unless you have the gout, you can't imagine how painful it is. Except for the beef, I've never been able to pin down what else causes flare-ups, so it will be nice to eat what I want without having too worry about my hands and feet.
My only problem today was that somehow I got a zit under the nose pad on my glasses, and that has bothered me since I got up. I guess I'm going to have to pay a little more attention to my face. In the winter it tends to get dry, but from now on, parts of it are going to need attention, and I'll just have to put glop on the dry parts. It really was easier when I was really oily and all I needed to do was take a bath every day and wash my face in the morning. Now I'm in transition, and it's hard to decide what to do. I don't need to wash my hair every day. Two days isn't quite enough, but three push it a bit. I hate it when the hair on top of my head splits because it's oily. Even though I wear jeans and tees most of the time, I am still a bit concerned about how I look. Now if only I could find a good hair cutter, but I've seen so many terrible haircuts around these parts that I'm afraid to let anybody put scissors to my hair. So it's long and scraggly and frizzy and most of the time it looks terrible.
So that was my day, and I'm tired enough that I think I will go up to the north end and knit a bit and try to get to bed early. I'm wrestling with the current story, so I think I'll just let it sit for a while. It's a clear evening in the field with a light breeze and a very cool temperature for the end of May.
May 29 I was late getting to bed last night. I wrote for a while - and I'm probably going to have to delete a lot of what I wrote - and when I got up to the north end I knitted a bit. So it was 10:45 when I turned out the light. I was up several times, and I finally got up for good around 8:30. Grayson got brushed and I knitted a couple of rows. Even though I knit fairly fast when it's just plain knitting, it takes a while to knit 560 stitches. It didn't help that I'm paying for the little steak I had for dinner last night - all the joints in my right fingers were sore, and they still are. Oh well. It was a pretty good steak.
I finally got to the post office today. On my way, I ran into Jack and i think he may be over at the end of the week to measure the screen doors and see what stuff he needs to rescreen them. He may be able to figure out what's wrong with the kick panel at the base of my dishwasher, which fell off sometime last year, and then Jasmine pulled out al the insulation. We got to talking and I only moved because Gary the UPS guy came down the road with a package for me, which he gave me right there - neat. There was more stuff at the post office, of course. My box was pretty full.
My gout meds finally came, and when I read the information, I had to call the doctor, because it said something about kidney disease. It turns out that my small problem isn't what they mean, so I took the first pill, but I suppose it will take a few days before I can tell if it's going to work. It's the smallest pill I've ever seen - about half the size of an Imodium. It's the same stuff they've always used for gout, but it's a new formulation which is supposed to have fewer side effects. We'll see what happens.
Now my right bunion is sore, too, but that could be because Grayson put one of his claws into it this morning. His teeth and claws are very small, but boy, are they sharp! It was like sticking a needle into my foot. It wasn't on purpose, but when he gets to playing, he sometimes gets overexcited, and the claws come out. I screeched loud enough that he knew he had done something wrong, and that settled him down. He really wants to be good, and I give him a lot of credit for that. He slept on my lap while I did my surfing.
I didn't think we were going to see Jasmine today, but when I turned to get up to get my dinner, there she was on the scratching pad. I even took an alternate route into the kitchen, but on the way back, I had to pass by her. She got up to go under something, but she went right in front of me. I think she's settling down. Now all she has to do is come to terms with Grayson and we'll be OK. She still doesn't look or act happy, but she's doing better. Poor Jasmine. What a sad little kitty she is.
The weather was OK, i guess. The temperature got up to 61º several times, but there was a strong wind from the north all day, with gusts that got up to 29 mph. It was clear and lovely when I got up, but clouds kept coming in and it was partly to mostly cloudy for most of the day.
At least the wind blew the bugs away. When I stopped to talk to Jack along the road, the bugs were swarming, but I don't think anything bit me. Not all those bugs were black flies, either, and I don't know what some of them were. Late May and June are not the nicest times to be around here, even though the woods and the flowers are beautiful. It's not paradise, quite.
So that was another day, and I I'll probably read what I wrote last night before I go up to the north end. Today is bath day, and then I'll be off to bed. It's a cloudy, breezy night in the field.
May 28 - Memorial Day I forgot to check the rain yesterday. Evidently, it rained almost all the time I was at church, and we had about a quarter inch for the day. We really need the rain.
I got to bed around 10:00, and a little before 1:00 I woke up to a really great light show. We had almost continuous lightning for at least half an hour. The storm actually passed north of us, over the lake, but it was near enough that I could hear thunder. I couldn't determine how far away it was because there was so much lightning I couldn't attach any particular bolts to any peal of thunder. it was fun. There was almost half an inch of rain between midnight and 2:00 am, and we needed that. It was a riled up night altogether, and for a while around 4:00 the lake was singing alto, although that died down, too. Grayson slept with me for a good part of the night, and he is learning to accommodate to my turning over.
I got up around 8:30 and I knitted for a long time. I finished the aqua and started the first color of the border, which is a light turquoise. I'm glad to be done with the aqua. I like the color, but I was getting really tired of the pattern, especially when the repeats got up to 18 stitches each. Now I have 20 stitches in each repeat, but from now on, every row is different, and that will make it more fun. Grayson didn't want to be brushed, but he slept on the rug while i knitted.
I didn't do anything worth mentioning. Sigh. I wanted to start the next episode in the story, but I waited too long, so after the talking stopped, I wrote a few words. This episode has to be completely rewritten. As I noted on the cover page, most of the original story is just crazy, but most of the back story has changed since I wrote it. I just have a cast of characters and I know what happens, but I will have to wing it from there. We'll see what happens. It's been a while since I tried to write fiction from scratch on the computer.
Around noon (I almost wrote "this morning", but I didn't get to the studio until 11:45), something happened to my internet connection and for a while I wasn't even getting dial-up speed. So I called PastyNet and they fixed it. I suspect Jon of doing something to the mesh unit that screwed me up. He sometimes does things like that. It's been fine ever since. The only trouble was that around the same time, the Live Ships page went down. There was at least one ship off the harbor using his foghorn, and I would love to know which one it was.
The weather was crazy all day. Every so often it would get really dark, then the sun would come out, and off and on we had pea-soup fog. Then it would go away, which it has just now. and it's partly cloudy. The temperature went up and down, too, and it briefly hit 66º around 2:00, then it dropped a bit, and after 3:00, it plummeted to the low 50s and it is now 48º. It was a day where, if you were outside, you'd better be wearing layers. There was some north wind, which gave us 28 mph gusts while it was warm, but that has died down, too. Needless to say, the humidity was nearly 100% for most of the day. I stayed in.
Grayson was lounging on my lap in the middle of the afternoon when we heard scratching, and there was Jasmine on the scratching pad. She stayed there for a long time and even napped a bit before she got up and walked a few feet toward us and mewed quietly. Grayson went out, and they walked into the conversation pit together. I don't know what they did there, but a while later she was back on the scratching pad, but when I had to get up to pee, she was gone again. So slowly but surely she's rejoining us on the main floor. I knew all we needed to do was be patient. I still think it will eventually work out all right, but it's going to take lots of time.
Evidently there is a large wildfire in the eastern UP, around Taquamanon. We noticed that it smelled smoky yesterday. They have been getting thunderstorms, which may or may help, depending upon how much rain they get and how bad the lightning is. I'm really sorry to hear about that. It isn't in the state parks, evidently, but close enough that they had to close them. I love that area, and it's a shame there are fires there. It's been a dry spring in the UP.
So it was another lost day, and soon I'll be off to the north end. It's a partly cloudy, cool and very humid evening in the field.
May 27 - Pentecost i didn't make it into bed until 11:00 last night, unfortunately. I slept fairly well, with a couple of wakeups, but the last one was around 5:00 and I didn't really sleep after that. I did not want to get up when the alarm went off, but I did. I did some of my surfing before I got dressed and got an early start to church. It was raining and I was afraid it would be slow, but it wasn't. I didn't run across one car in my direction until I got into Calumet, so I was early, which is better than being late.
The service was nice, and it was amazing that we got everything into it in about an hour and a quarter. This was confirmation Sunday, and there was one cute girl who was confirmed at our church. She did very well, and we could almost hear her, which was more than the boy who was confirmed last year. Then there was communion and all the rest of it. Some of us remembered to wear red today, so it was cheerful. I was glad the weather was cool, since just about the only things I have that are red are for cool weather. I like red, but I have to be in just the right mood to wear it.
I was thinking about taking a nap when I got home, but I was hungry, so I had something to eat and finished my surfing, then after a little Bookworm, I started working on the story, and just now I finished it - almost 74,000 words. Wow! I'm glad that's over. I've set up the first page for part 12, but this is the part that I am going to have to almost completely rewrite, and I didn't want to start that tonight. I think I'll go to bed instead.
The weather was yucky, frankly. I ran into some heavy rain on my way to church, but apparently that was the end of it, but it was cloudy, cool and humid all day. The temperature has just gone up to 60º, but for most of the day it hung right around 50º. plus or minus a few degrees. There wasn't much wind except early in the afternoon, when we had a few 15 mph gusts. It was, and still is, very humid.
There was a baby step forward on the cat scene this afternoon. I was sitting at the computer and I think I had Grayson on my lap when i heard scratching, and when I turned to look, there was Jasmine, scratching on the new scratching pad. Amazing! Grayson went out to see her, and they twined around each other for almost five minutes. Jasmine rubbed against his chin, but I see why she is a bit leery of him. He wanted to grab her neck and he was sniffing at her behind with interest. So even though he's neutered now, he was apparently an intact male long enough to know what to do with an intact female. I think he's a little confused because Jasmine doesn't smell like that. Anyway, after a while he gave up (meowing all the time) and Jasmine sat like Bast and looked at me. I turned back to the computer, and when I looked back, she was gone. If she can prevent Grayson from acting like a Tomcat, I think they can become friends. I hope he'll learn. He clearly wants somebody to play with. Already he has noticed what Jasmine did with the scratching pad, and he tried it, too. Before this, he didn't know what to do with it, but he's a fast learner.
There were some more strange noises this afternoon, too, and now I'm not sure if it's coming from the upstairs. What it sounds like is something trying to get out of a cabinet that has those old-fashioned clip type closures, but I don't have anything like that in this house. Unfortunately, I only hear the noises when I'm sitting here in the studio. I would like to hear them when I'm out in the great room, so I may have to take the laptop and sit at the dining table for a while. First I need to find out where the noise is coming from, and then maybe I can find out what it is. Curiously enough, neither cat seems interested in whatever it is. They both ignore it. So I'm baffled.
Now I'm really tired, so I think I will go and jump into bed and try to sleep long and hard. It's a cool, moist, cloudy night in the field.
May 26 I think it was around 10:00 when I got to bed last night. I was up a number of times, which was annoying, so I didn't sleep very well. The moon was up when I went to bed, but I didn't see Venus, and later on in the night, it got cloudy. I got up around 8;30 and Grayson got a good brushing. He was disgusted when I started to knit, so he got off my lap and went to sleep in the sun while it was shining on the floor, and then he curled up on the rug.
I didn't do anything again. Sigh.
The weather was sort of blah. It was sunny when I got up, but it clouded up and it was cloudy all afternoon. The temperature was steady at around 49º, plus or minus a couple of degrees, and there wasn't very much wind. Blah. It's supposed to rain tomorrow and it looks to be cool enough that I'll be able to wear my red sweater to church in honor of Pentecost.
It was an interesting afternoon, cat-wise. Grayson slept on my lap as long as I let him. Sometime during the afternoon, I started hearing scuffling and banging and I thought maybe Jasmine had a mouse in the loft. Finally, I got the cane and struggled up the stairs. I didn't find anything but dust and dead flies under the furniture, and Jasmine was ensconced on the back cushion of the sofa. Grayson went up with me, and when she saw us and we started talking, she started making a low sound that I'm not sure what it was, either the beginning of a warning yowl or just talk. Anyway, I got back downstairs and a while later there was some more banging. Now I'm afraid to open the door to the upstairs bedrooms. I'm afraid there may be a critter, alive or dead, up there. Grayson has continued to try to sleep on me, until I start to type, when he goes off.
I did do something - I hauled out the binder and wrote 3600 words. It felt good to be writing something, even though there is a lot of transcribing in this story. I have changed enough that there was some work to do. Maybe I can at least do some more of that tomorrow.
So that was my day, and now it's a cool, calm, cloudy night in the field.
May 25 I got discombobulated by the late evenings and it was 10:45 when I got to bed. I slept fairly well, with several wakeups. Most of my problem was due to the wind, which was very noisy. Around 3:30 it shifted direction just enough to make the porch window start to sound like an organ pipe, so I got up to close that and Grayson thought we were getting up and it was time to play. Not. I finally got up around 9:00, I think. I knitted about three rows on the shawl, and brushed the cat. He is not shedding much at all now, so I guess he has his summer coat.
I didn't do a lot. There was one task I finally got done, though. I cleaned the microwave thoroughly. Some time ago, I noticed a line of red along the back bottom crease. I thought I cleaned it, and at the time I thought it was just some tomato sauce that got back there. However, over the past weeks, it's been growing, and I finally realized I had an infestation of red mold in my microwave. Yuck! I don't know how it happened. I never got that in the old one at Champine and this is the first time I've had it here. Anyway, I got out the Clorox Cleanup and the rubber gloves and worked away at it until I think I got rid of all of it. I am going to have to start leaving the door open for a while after I cook something, so that the moisture will dry out. That's the only reason I can think of for such a mess. It's nice to look into the inside of my microwave and see it all nice and white again.
It was windy all night and all day, although it is dying down now. Between 4:00 and 5:00 we had a 38 mph gust, but then the it died down to reasonable levels. The temperature only got up to 63º. The humidity has been falling and the barometer is rising, so it's not bad right now. The forecast is for possible rain all weekend, though. It was partly cloudy almost all day. I hope it clears up a bit, because Venus and the moon are in conjunction for the last time in the evening sky, and I'd like to see it.
Evidently there was a power glitch during the night, but it was selective. The clocks at the north end and the fridge didn't see it, but the microwave and the oven did, and the computer rebooted. The reboot was quite successful, but now I have to recover the Word files I had open. I wish these things would be consistent.
We didn't see Jasmine all day, although she knocked something over this afternoon, which got Grayson up and singing to her. Grayson spent a good part of the afternoon sleeping on my lap. He slept on the rug for a while this morning while I was in the bathroom, and then he got very energetic for a while. He is really beginning to settle down, I think, and he was dreaming for a while on my lap. Now if we can just bring Jasmine around...
So that was a quiet day again, and I'll be off to the north end soon, although they're playing Brahms now and I like that, so we'll see.
One interesting thing has happened to me lately. I have the idea for the start of a new story. It's not totally new, because I've alluded to the situation in some of the other stories, but now I actually have the start of it. I'm letting it sit and develop, but I've been thinking about it when I'm awake at night. I know where it starts, and where it goes from the first scene, but I want to see if I can get some ideas for where it continues before I begin to write it. Then the next question is, do I write it longhand or try to write it on the computer? We'll see where that goes. Anyway, it's so nice to have a new idea to chew on for a while.
I'm making progress on the shawl. I have only eight more rows in the main color before I start the border. Of course, we're talking 504 stitches now, and the first contrast color increases to 560 stitches. I'm beginning to think about my next project, but the next project is to wind a whole lot of yarn into balls, and before I do that, I have to clean off the desk, and ... Nothing is ever simple, is it? If I don't start some more lace right away, I have a sweater and several pairs of socks to work on. But I want to knit lace. I have one more kit, and i found an old pattern for a real Shetland shawl that I'd like to try. And I have one precious book of wonderful patterns I'd like to do. I say the book is precious, because it's out of print and they want something like $50 for a used copy. I know why - it has some of the best lace patterns that I've seen anywhere. So we'll see. There is all the summer yarn I've just bought, too, and I'm thinking about that. It's nicer to knit with cotton and linen yarn in the summertime.
Now it's a partly cloudy night in the field, and it's time to totter up to the north end again.
May 24 I made it into bed by 10:00 last night, and I slept well, I must say. I was up several times, of course, and at least once, I saw Polaris, but it was mostly cloudy. I got up about 8:30 and i knitted a bit more than three rows. There are too many stitches to make much headway vertically. Grayson got brushed, but he slept all the time I was knitting. When I got up to do my exercises, he came too, and he was full of ginger this morning. I don't know why, because it was humid and the barometer was dropping, but he's young and full of energy.
I did nothing except to unload the dishwasher. which I ran last night. Sigh.
The weather was nice, really nice. It was in the middle 50s overnight, with some wind, but it warmed up fast and the temperature went up to 75º. It was in the lower 70s all afternoon. Nice. Windy, but nice. The wind was mostly from the south, and about the time the temperature peaked, the wind began to pick up and get very gusty. We had a gust of about 45 mph around 6:00. I felt it, but it was just one gust. It was partly to mostly cloudy all day. Now there is a big line of heavy rain west of us, that probably will hit during the night, so I may get to see some nighttime lightning. Goodie!
Sometime during the night, I noticed that the lighthouse light is out. I think it was there the night before, and I miss it blinking at me. If it's still out tomorrow, I will call the Coast Guard and make sure they know about it.
Grayson was full of energy after his morning siesta, running around and attacking rugs and bed linen. He is such fun. Sometime later, i heard him singing, and when I looked out into the great room, there was Jasmine going up the stairs. She got up to the second step and jumped up and under her couch. She didn't look at me, although I talked to her. A while after that, Grayson came downstairs. So I don't know exactly what's going on in that department. I'm afraid Jasmine is afraid of me more than she is of Grayson and that's what's keeping her upstairs. At least I've seen her a couple of days, and she looks all right. Grayson does keep trying to coax her downstairs, but she hasn't come down when he sang yet. She is certainly a strange little kitty. Grayson is not a strange kitty. He's just a lot of fun.
So now Tom is cutting my neighbor's grass - he always picks the most unfortunate times - so I guess that means I'll have neighbors for the weekend. They're all right. The kids are beyond the screeching phase and they have been keeping the dog tied up, although it does bark a lot. I think I will go up to the north end and knit the rest of that row, take a bath and go to bed early again.
Now it's a cloudy, windy evening in the field, but it's still fairly warm, and we may have a light and sound show tonight.
May 23 Instead of going up to the north end right away, I stayed and listened to Haydn and played Bejeweled, then I had to take a bath, so it was late when I got to bed. I didn't look, but it has to have been around 11:30. I slept very well. I was only up once, because when I woke up at 8:30. I got up. I didn't want to, but I didn't want to spend the whole day in bed, either. Instead, I spent a long time knitting, and I now have 504 stitches on the needles.
Again, I ended up not doing anything. I was tired and sort of groggy, so I just vegged. Sigh. One of these days, maybe...
The weather was OK. The temperature got up to 69º, and there was a gusty southwest wind, with gusts up to 29 mph. It was mostly cloudy, but it wasn't dark or gloomy. I opened the window to the porch, which Grayson thought was OK, and I have the patio door open a bit now, because it was getting awfully hot in here.
Grayson didn't get brushed this morning. All the time I was knitting, he was asleep on the rug, right near me. At the end, he had his paw over his eyes. Most cats I know do that, and it's so cute. I think it was because the barometer is going down. He got playful later, and I have some more scabs on my hands. The news of the day is, I saw Jasmine. In the middle of the afternoon, I heard Grayson singing in his most beautiful voice, and when I looked up, there was Jasmine at the top of the stairs to the loft. I talked to her, and Grayson sang to her, but she went back under the couch, and pretty soon he came downstairs. He has been singing ever since, hoping maybe he can coax her downstairs and maybe out onto the porch. She looks fine, so she is clearly eating and drinking and pooping normally. She does look sad, though, which I gue1ss I can understand. We just have to have extreme patience with her, and eventually she will come around. Grayson was in the corner by the door to the upstairs bedrooms when Jasmine was by the steps, so I think he did coax her out from under the couch. I feel so sorry for her, because it's all in her fuzzy little head, and there's no way I know to help her solve her problem. I have faith that eventually she will at least come out of the loft, but it's going to be a long haul. I hope Grayson has the patience to wait.
Yesterday afternoon when Grayson got on my lap, all of a sudden I had a very itchy spot on my arm. I don't think he had anything to do with it, but it seems clear I got my first black fly bite right in my own studio. I understand from Amanda that they are out in force. I may have to take evasive measures. Probably the wind today has blown them away for the time being, but they'll be back. Well, i never claimed it was paradise. Pretty close, but not quite.
So that was another nothing day, and I expect to be in bed early tonight. It's a warmish, cloudy and windy night in the field.
May 22 It was 10:30 before I got to bed last night, and I slept very well, although I was up several times, as usual. I was amazed and delighted. Right after I turned out the light, I heard my first owl! In all the time I have lived here and had the windows open, I have never heard an owl before. I don't know what kind it was - I need to see if there are owls on my bird song CDs - but there is no question that was what it was. Hooo-hoo-hoo-hooo-hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo. Owl! Then when I woke up around 4;30 this morning, I heard a loon calling far away. Oooo-eeee-oooo! Oooo-eeee-oooo! Loon! Now all I need to do is see a loon or an owl. I've seen loons before, but I've never seen an owl.
I got up around 8:30, I think, and I knitted for a long time. Grayson wasn't so cuddly this morning, but he did get his brushing. He went to sleep on the rug in the bathroom until I was ready to begin to move and then he got very energetic. He likes it when I watch him and laugh at him, and he's learning that when I screech he's done something he shouldn't have. Occasionally he forgets and puts out his claws. They may be small, but they're very sharp. As I get older, my skin is getting thinner and more sensitive.
Any thoughts of doing something ended when my friend Rick called. He is still massively underemployed and besides he was waiting for a doctor's appointment, so we had a nice long conversation. It was good to hear from him. I've been wondering how he's doing. So that took care of the afternoon.
The weather was good for that sort of thing. It was clear when I got up, but shortly it clouded over and it was cloudy and gray for the rest of the day, and between 3;00 and 4:00 we had 0.04" of rain. They claim the temperature got up to 60º around noon, but it soon fell back and after some ups and downs, it is now 48º. There was hardly any wind and it's nearly calm now.
We didn't see Jasmine again. I think she came into the kitchen about the time I went to bed and ate, according to Grayson, but I haven't seen her. I know it's worrisome, but she did the same thing when I first got her and again when Buster died, so we just need to be patient. A couple of weeks ago, I thought she was doing all right, so I don't know what got into her head now. Grayson was his usual loveable self. He was full of energy this morning, and while I was talking to Rick, he got up on the desk and picked out a fuzzy ball he wanted to play with, although it wasn't as much fun as he thought it would be. The blah weather this afternoon affected him, too, although he is much more energetic early in the morning and late in the evening.
I did do a couple of things while I was talking to Rick, and the desk is now sorted out a bit. I have the note cards sorted out, and the ones I am going to pack up to sell are set aside. I had hoped to write notes this afternoon, but I'll just have to do that tomorrow. All of the checks have cleared, so you all know I got them, and I thank you again. You are all so generous.
So that is about all I have to say for myself, and I will be going up to the north end early again. I would love to do some writing, but I know where that will lead, so I won't even start. It's a cloudy, cool, humid evening in the field.
May 21 I got to bed a bit after 9:00 last night, and for the most part I slept well. I was wakeful for a while in the middle of the night, thinking about Jasmine, but I managed to stop that - not that I'm not concerned about her, I just don't need to obsess about it in the middle of the night. I got up around 7:30 and I brushed the cat and knitted a couple of rounds, most of it with a cat on my lap. Grayson was full of energy around 5:30, but not so much when I got up, until I started rustling around to begin to get dressed. I'm sure he was a bit confused because I didn't make any breakfast for myself, but he didn't mind, since I gave him his.
I did some of my morning surfing, but not all of it, before I left for Laurium, at around 10:00. I was happy that my fast didn't seem to cause me any particular problem. I was hungry while I was knitting in the bathroom, but that passed, and I was fine. Of course, the blood draw only took five minutes. I had planned ahead and took a container of OJ, so I was able to avoid the sugar low I could feel coming on about the time I left the hospital.
I had planned to eat at Toni's, but it turns out that they are still closed on Monday, so i ended up at Connie's, which had been recommended to me by an efriend. I had a pasty, of course, and it was OK. The crust was better than PastyNet's but the insides had too much potato and not enough meat, and I think it had carrots instead of rutabaga. However, it tasted good right then, and it was big enough that I couldn't finish it. I came home with that, a cherry turnover and two cookies. I ate the rest of the pasty and the turnover in mid-afternoon and the cookies for dessert tonight - that's what happens when my usual schedule gets disrupted: i eat for the rest of the day. The baked goods were good, and I'll go back when I can't stand not having any. The oatmeal raisin cookie was particularly nice.
I stopped for gas and had to use their restroom or I wouldn't have made it home, but thankfully, nothing exploded. So the probiotics are having some good effects. I got home around 1:00 and I didn't do anything else for the afternoon - that's another effect of having my usual schedule disrupted. It's no wonder cats and I get along so well; I have a lot of cat-like qualities.
The weather was glorious but not very warm. It was only 51º when I left the harbor. It was a little warmer in Laurium, and when I got out of Connie's it was about 55º there. There wasn't a lot of wind - around 14 mph from the north. Eventually, it got up to 57º, but I wasn't out to feel it. It was incredibly clear in the morning, with that blue, blue sky that I love so well. There was some haze later in the day, and now there are a few high cirrus clouds off to the east, but it was mostly clear and lovely. Oh, the lake was soooo blue!
Grayson sat on my lap for a long time while I knitted this morning, and every time I touched him, he purred. He sat on me several times when I got home, too. He also went up into the loft, singing, but I didn't see Jasmine. I'm getting really concerned about her, but I keep remembering that it took her six months after Buster died to begin to come out of her shell. I'd like to see her, though, to be sure she's still alive and not wasting away. I will have to go up into the loft and see what I can see, but that stairway is long and steep.
I took my cane with me today, and I was glad I did. I find that while I'm strong enough when I start out, after walking around for a short while, I get really weak and it's nice to have that third leg to lean on. I would like to get another cane, a snazzy one, so that I can leave the family cane in the bedroom to do my exercises with. I'm sorry I never got the beautiful cloisonné cane the Smithsonian catalog used to have, although that wasn't really meant for seriously supporting anything. I think it would have worked to help me stay upright, and it was so beautiful! But I didn't. Oh, well.
I had a very good trip down and back. There was traffic in the other direction both ways, but i only ran into one guy, on the way back, and I passed him. I stopped in Mohawk on the way home and got the address to send my checks, so I won't have to worry about holding any more that I might get. I am still so amazed that so many of you are so generous. I wondered if that little branch would be open at lunchtime, but of course it is, since that's when most people come, on their lunch hours. Actually, it's only small in square footage - it even has a safe deposit vault. But then, it's the only bank in Keweenaw County, so it would have to be full-service. The women who work there are all so nice and helpful.
The trees are all leafed out, although not completely, and a lot of the maples are reddish-green still. The early blooming trees and bushes are done, although the apples are still in bloom. The lilacs are coming out. They're out in Calumet and Houghton, although they haven't opened yet up here. I love lilacs, and there are a lot of really dark purple ones that are so beautiful. Well, actually, they're all beautiful. I remember when I had a white one on Champine, behind the garage, and how lovely it was when it was in full bloom. Unfortunately, the cedars and the mess my neighbor made when he uprooted them killed the white lilac. I was very disappointed in that. And I will never forget the incredible aroma when the old lilac and the gooseberry bushes were in bloom - lilac smell mixed with the spicy aroma of the gooseberry. Mmmmm....This is the time of year I love to just inhale.
On my way south, a short while south of Frimodig park, I was startled as three eagles rose up off the ground and flew off the road. i think something must have died, since that's the first time I've ever seen eagles on the ground, particularly in the woods like that. And in fact, on the way back, I went by something that filled the car with a very nasty smell, like carrion or poop or something. I had to open the window to clear it out of the car. Anyway, the eagles flew away so fast I only got a glimpse of them, but at least two were adults, although the third one may have been a juvenile. You never know what you might see around here.
So that was my day, and now I'm tired again - which I guess I should be, since it seems to be 9:45 already. I'll be on my way north as soon as I publish this. It's a cool, nearly clear evening in the field, and there may be a star or two.
May 20 So I went up to the north end, took my bath and was in bed by 9:00. I slept very well, with only two wakeups and no tummy problems. I felt fine when I got up this morning. I ate and did most of my surfing and I was off to town a bit earlier than usual.
Not that I needed to leave so early. There were a few cars going north but nobody in my direction until I got to Ahmeek, then they were all going fast, so it wasn't a problem. I got to church early, but I stayed in the car to hear the 10:00 news before I went inside. After I visited the restroom (one of the reasons I get there early), I went up to Pastor's study and met the other two people who were made members of the church and we went over the rite.
The whole service was good. Pastor's sermon was a good one, we sang a couple of my favorite hymns that I can still sing ("Crown Him With Many Crowns" was one), The little ceremony went all right, except that the other people wanted to leave the altar rail before the prayer. We came back and stood there while they prayed. Then we stood to pray all the other prayers before we could sit down. And then, after the end of the service, we had to stand in back and greet everybody. My legs were about falling off, but I shook the hand of everybody there and there were quite a few today. I didn't count them, but I would guess there were over 50. The summer people are starting to arrive, as well as the faithful members of our little church. It is small - my envelope number is 53 this year. But everybody is nice and they are all welcoming. So it was a good morning and now I am an official member of St. Paul's Evangelical Lutheran Church (LCMS). Sigh. I've felt at home there since I've been going, but it was sad to have to cut my ties to Christ the King. Anyway, now I have an official local church home, and that's a nice feeling. You can tell I'm still ambivalent about it, but there was no reason not to move.
There wasn't very much traffic coming home, either. I did get behind a guy at Central, but he was going as fast or faster than I was, particularly on the covered road. I noticed that all the leaves are out, if not very far, and the MODIS picture from yesterday afternoon shows the entire UP, with the exception of a couple open pit mines over by Marquette, is all lovely and green, even in the higher elevations. So spring has sprung. Some of the early blooming trees, like the pin cherry at the entrance to Woodland Road and my juneberries, have dropped their flowers already, so that is progressing, too.
When I got home, I put on my shorts again, although that turned out to be a mistake - more on that later - and had some lunch. I didn't do anything else but play with the computer. My excuse is that I'm trying to get used to my new mouse. It is a bit bigger and shaped differently from what I'm used to, so it's taking some getting used to. I had the same problem with the one that died, which was smaller than I was used to. It will come, and I'm still retraining myself to use that "back" button.
The weather was interesting. It was 70º for most of the night - not what was forecast at all - but around 5:00 it started to drop a little. Then between 8:00 and 9:00 it went from 66º to 55º. I wondered why it felt so chilly when I left the harbor. By the time I got to Laurium, it was 73º. It was very humid and sticky and it was warm in church. There was almost no wind at all. When I left church, it was 74º and it stayed that way until I got to the Mountain Lodge, In Copper Harbor, it was 54º, not exactly tropical. Around 1:00, the thunderstorms moved in, in three waves. We scored two off-hour weather reports. One, at 1:23, was because the first wave of thunderstorms had moved in and the temperature dropped to 50º while the north wind got up to 21 mph with 32 mph gusts. It was also dark and thundery. I saw two really good cloud-to-ground lightning bolts, one to the south and another to the east. I think there was a handful of small hailstones, too. There were two more waves of storms that came through with high winds and thunder, and at 4:11 the temperature had dropped to 44º (a bit too cool for shorts!) and the wind was gusting to 22 mph. Altogether we had 0.51" of rain, the last between 5:00 and 6:00. The temperature has recovered to 55º and the wind is calm. There is a very dark cloud over the mountain, so we may have a little more rain, but I think the thunder is over with. I like thunderstorms, more at night, but even during the day they're so much fun. The thunder was echoing off the hills and it really gets loud.
Curiously enough, Grayson slept through the first, most violent storm. He didn't seem concerned by all the noise and wind. So I guess he knows he's safe and dry and he doesn't need to worry about noise and rain. That's so nice to see. He sat on me for a while and he went looking for Jasmine - I don't know if he found her - and now he's asleep again, with a full belly and a safe, warm spot to sleep. I am really concerned about Jasmine. We haven't seen her for several days. I guess I'm going to have to go up into the loft and see if I can find her. She is being more stubborn than usual, and it worries me.
So that was a quiet day. I was tired and creaky when I got home. It was so humid that my joints felt it. Now the wind has picked up again and it looks like we could have another shower or we are having another shower. It's gotten very foggy in the past five minutes, even with the wind blowing, so it will be fun to see what happens next. The weather is so much fun here.
I'm contemplating going down for my blood test tomorrow and get it over with. I finished eating before 7:00, so I can go as soon as possible tomorrow and maybe eat out afterwards. It won't be early, but they want you to fast for 15 to 18 hours before the test, so it will work out all right. I want to get it over with as soon as possible.
Now it's a foggy, rainy, windy evening in the field and I am on my way to the north end for another good night's sleep.
May 19 Well, that was quite a night. I got to bed around 10:00, and I was so tired I had a hard time saying my prayers, but by the time I was through with that, I had an unsettled tummy, and for most of the rest of the night I had serious diarrhea. After the fourth time I got up, I broke out the Imodium, and that helped, but I was still up several times more. I finally got up around 8:30, I think. I didn't want to, but I had to walk again, so I figured I might as well get up. I knitted and brushed the cat before I got dressed in my shorts and sandals. I have a pair of knit shorts that look like pajamas, but they're very comfortable.
I did my surfing, and along about 1:30, I got so sleepy and blah feeling that I finally gave in and went to bed. I slept for around two hours, and when I got up, I felt enough better that I thought I could iron my pants and blouse for tomorrow. Well, I did it, but I had to sit down for a couple of minutes before I did the last sleeve. I know linen needs to be ironed, but what annoyed me was that all the stitching was puckered, including the tucks on the front of the blouse and the seams on the pants (which are chino). That tells me the thread is probably cotton and it will shrink every time it's washed, so the pieces will need to be ironed. Anyway, even though I didn't do a perfect job, it looks good enough to wear.
That got me thinking, so I went out onto the Internet to see what my favorite clothing sites have, so maybe I could add a piece or two to my summer wardrobe. Well. The colors are horrible, very bright with lots of orange, the styles are mediocre at best and the prices are high enough to raise the hair on my head. I can't see spending $50 for a short-sleeved knit top just because it has a few ruffles. The one style i liked and was a reasonable price, from Land's End, was completely sold out in large and XL. Now, why should a short-sleeved tee be sold out before the season even starts?
I decided to see what LLBean had when all of a sudden my connection went down. It wasn't between me and my client - I don't have problems with that anymore - so I called PastyNet and there was a power failure that affected the entire Keweenaw. So I went off and decided all I wanted for dinner was pasta salad, and when I checked back just now, it was up again. Ah, the joys of summer! In the winter it's ice and snow bringing down the lines and in the summer it's heat blowing up transformers (although I don't know if that was the problem). If Charlie needed me, I'd be glad to help him, but it's really nice not to be bedeviled with those problems.
The weather was hot. We set another temperature record today. The low temperature overnight was 66º, and the high (so far) was 83º. it was mostly sunny and there was a brisk southwest wind for a while, which has now died down a lot. I finally got around to opening up the studio when the temperature in here hit 86º, and there is a nice little breeze coming in the door now. The sky wasn't completely clear. There is that high, whitish haze that means there's a lot of water in the air. I keep hoping this isn't a foretaste of our summer, but I'm beginning to believe it is.
Grayson was delighted by having the porch door open, and he clearly loves the porch. He obviously knows that the screens are there and he seems happy to be safely behind them. Since he was a stray, I'm sure he has a good feel for the dangers of the outdoors, even though he's never been out in the woods like we are here. When I went to bed, he was lying on the porch floor just outside the door to the bedroom, which was out of the sun. It surprises me a little that he isn't more interested in lying in the sun, but evidently he doesn't like to be that hot. I'm sure that will change as he gets older. Again, we didn't see Jasmine. I don't know where she is, although she may still be up in the loft. Poor Jasmine. Grayson wasn't as energetic today, which I suppose is partly the heat and partly that the barometer is pretty low.
Besides being horribly tired, I was horribly sore today, and even my exercises didn't help much. When I was up and walking frequently last night, I had a terrible time getting to the right place in the bathroom and getting up when I was through. It's a little better today, but not much. The barometer is rather low and going down, which doesn't bode well.
Now I need to go up to the north end and wash my hair, and I expect to be in bed very early tonight. I certainly hope to get a better night's sleep. I don't know what happened last night, but it's always hard to tell what brings on things like that. It's been better today.
Now it's a hot, sunny afternoon in the field and I expect to be in bed before sunset.
May 18 Oh, I am tired! But I accomplished my goals for the day.
I didn't make it into bed until after 10:30. I had several things to do on my way north and then I had to take a bath. I slept well, and I woke up around 7:30. I didn't need to get up that early, but I had to pee, so I got up, Grayson was sleepy but he got his brushing and I knitted two rows on the shawl. I have the hang of the pattern now (there are only two pattern rows, but they change ever 16 rows), so it's going faster,
I got away right around 10:00, and there was not one car in my direction until I got south of Mohawk. Nice. I got to the hospital in plenty of time to talk to Fay, who is a member of our church and the receptionist. She is a very nice lady.
The doctor visit went fine. I am going to get some meds for my gout, and it's possible that it may even shrink the thing on my index finger. That would be great. Evidently there is a new formulation that has fewer side effects than the old stuff, so I'll be getting that, and wonder of wonders, they faxed the prescription to my mail order source, so I don't have to do a thing except wait for the stuff to get here and pay for it. This is nice. I do have to have some blood work done, but it is fasting, so I'll have to go back down for that.
I had an hour or more to wait for my mammogram, so I talked to Fay some more then I went up to the X-ray department and knitted a few rows on the sock. I've been knitting that sock since this time last year, and I consider it a good thing that it's not done yet. I haven't been spending a lot of time in waiting rooms. The mammogram didn't take long, although when they called my name, the wrong person stood up, so that was a bit of confusion. I guess Sharon got to be a pretty common name during the baby boom.
Then I was off to see about glasses. I got a new frame, just because I've had this one so long. I guess it's all right. It's bronze instead of gold, but it's very thin, so it isn't too noticeable. They had to call the place I got the last ones to check on how the multifocals were ground, but that was a good thing, too, because they discovered that the material in my sunglasses is much cheaper than what I thought I wanted. The sunglasses are just fine, so I went with the same thing. They should be ready in a week or two, and I'm anxious to see how much difference they make in my seeing. I hope it's a lot, because I have not been seeing very well lately.
The next stop was Pat's, and I laid in enough stuff that I really stuffed the freezer. I got a lovely piece of salmon, which I just finished eating, and a rotisserie chicken, of course. I'm being a bit more careful about what I buy, so the total has come down quite a bit. which is a good thing. I have enough frozen stuff on hand that I won't have to worry about shopping again until I run out of OJ. I'm having dessert of the pineapple chunks I bought. I love fresh pineapple, but I hate to cut them, so the chunks are great for me.
By the time I left Pat's, I was exhausted. When I was halfway through my time at the hospital, I realized I had made a mistake by not bringing my cane. I won't do that again. I made it to my car and the time I spent sitting at the optician's refreshed my legs enough to food shop. I was still gimpy when I got home, and my feet had swelled enough that my shoes were a good size too small, but I put on my Crocs and that helped. Everything except the bread is packed away now, and sometime over the weekend I am going to have to clear out the fridge and get rid of a whole lot of stuff that is much too old. Unfortunately, I have the horrible habit of buying things I think I will use and then not using them, or using part of them and letting the rest sit. I don't know how to break the habit.
The weather was amazing. Here, it was around 50º until 1:00, then it rose quickly to 70º, and it peaked at 73º about the time I got home. I guess that breaks the old record, which is not a good omen. There was quite a bit of wind from the southwest in the morning, and we had some rain (0.23") early in the morning. Down in Calumet, it was 80º when I left, and the car was so hot that I turned on the A/C for a while. I'm always glad to get back to the cool of the harbor. It was very cloudy early, but it cleared up later, although not completely, and there are still a lot of clouds - altus, maybe? - that are masking the sunset.
I opened the windows when I got on the covered drive, never mind the hair in my eyes. It was so wonderful to smell the woods - cedar here, pine there and just sweet woods another place. One of the disadvantages of living in big cities that nobody talks about very much is that they stink. People don't realize how wonderful it is to smell the fresh, pure smells of the forest.
Someplace south of Delaware, I passed a spot where there was almost a river of marsh marigolds about 100' long. It was so pretty. I didn't have the camera, but I couldn't have gotten there anyway, because it was down a steep bank, and i don't do steep banks.
I had just gotten home and opened the window to the porch when the phone rang and it was pastor, to talk to me about Sunday. Evidently it's a big deal, so he wanted me to be aware. We had a nice but rather long conversation, but that was all right, I got to sit and rest.
When I left this morning, Grayson was sitting looking out the door at me, and he wasn't too happy. When I came home, he was looking out the door again and he didn't look too pleased. He did come to get petted, but he hasn't sat on my lap. That's partly because I opened the porch and there's some kind of a parade going on outside. He is so cute when he is on alert and his head is straight up. I don't know about Jasmine. We haven't see her. Poor Jasmine. She's even missing the joy of being on the porch.
Now my legs feel like they might fall off at the ankles and I'm really tired, so I don't think I'll be up very long tonight. It's a warm, partly cloudy night in the field.
May 17 As I recall (and I don't recall too well), I was in bed by about 10:00 last night and it had cleared up enough for me to see Venus.
That's nice, because she is diving toward the sun. and on June 5 she will transit the sun. Since this is the last transit for over 100 years, I am trying to figure out a method to see it. Of course you can't look directly at the sun, but I'm trying to decide if I can see it with a pinhole camera - the easiest thing of all. You stick a pinhole in a piece of cardboard and project the sun onto a white surface. I was thinking about trying to use the 400 mm lens, but I don't know if it will focus far enough away to project. Or I might try to use one side of the binoculars. I really should try these methods before the date to see which one will work best. The last solar eclipse I saw I used a pinhole camera. It projected a nice big image, but the bigger the image the lighter it is, until it gets too dim to see. Of course, the same thing that happened the last transit could very well happen again - it was cloudy. You know that around here when things in the sky are scheduled to happen, more likely than not it will be cloudy and we won't see anything.
Anyway, I slept rather well and I got up around 8:00. i was sort of awake before that, but my head felt like it didn't want to get off the pillow, so I didn't. I did the usual morning routine, and Grayson really wanted to cuddle. Then when I started doing my exercises, he wanted to play. He is very playful, so much so that I don't think he's as old as they thought he is. Anyway, he's fun to watch and he apparently likes it when i laugh at him.
I didn't do a whole lot, but I got the clothes rewashed and mostly hanging to dry. I don't know that it helped very much, but I think they are less wrinkled than they were before. i also have a pair of jeans and a pair of underpants to wash, from another accident. Sigh.
I went to the post office, where I had another couple of checks, for which I thank you. I began to sort out the note cards I printed, so I hope in a couple of days the thank-yous will go out. I'm sorry that more of you don't know the joys of PayPal. It really is much easier. However, if you want to donate, I'll take it any way you want. I even got one $20 bill. That's just fine, and I thank you all. Your donations will be a great help to my continuing to support the website.
The weather was so-so. It started out partly cloudy this morning, but it clouded up by 1:30 and it was dull and drab all afternoon. We had a little bit of rain between 5:00 and 6:00 and the wind is blowing now like something may come up. The temperature got up to 63º in the middle of the afternoon before it dropped back into the upper 50s. There was a gusty southwest wind, with gusts up to 25 mph. My joints told me the barometer was falling and the humidity was rising late in the day.
Actually, I didn't feel bad, considering my exertions of yesterday. My feet are still a bit sore and my knees don't want to work quite right, but otherwise I think I'm OK. I hope I will be tomorrow, too, because I have big plans. I see the doctor, then after lunch I get my mammogram, and I'm going to to to the eye clinic and see if I can get some new glasses. Then I want to do some food shopping. It would be better if I could wait until next week, but I'll run out of OJ. Oh, yeah, and that's Memorial Day weekend, too, isn't it? Better do it tomorrow.
About lunch - the Copper Country takes lunch between 12:00 and 1:00. Period. Everything, and I do mean everything, local shuts down between 12:00 and 1:00. It's amusing to me, since I'm from the big city where nothing ever stops. I suppose they man the Emergency Room, but I wouldn't count on finding a doctor in it. I guess you get used to that after a while, but I haven't yet. I just laugh at it.
Now I will toddle up to the north end and try to get to bed by 10:00. I need to leave here around 10:00 tomorrow morning, so I need to get up early.
It's a cloudy, breezy night in the field and there may be more rain.
May 16 I made it into bed by 10:00 last night and I slept quite well. I was up around 4:45, and I discovered that it is now getting light at that hour. According to the almanac, it's the start of nautical twilight, so I can verify that it was indeed not completely dark anymore. Grayson was up and attem, too, and he was so full of energy he almost kept me from going back to sleep, jumping on the bed and walking over me and rushing around and sliding on the rug. I had pulled out an old piece of soft cotton rope I used to play with DC with, and when we finished playing with it the other day, I stuffed it into a cubby in the nightstand. He found it and pulled it out and chased it under the bed, apparently. Eventually he went off and I got back to sleep. I woke up at 7:30 and I had to pee bad, so I got up. I figured I'd had enough sleep anyway. I sure wish I could do that every day.
So I had plenty of time to knit a couple of rows on the shawl, brush the cat, play with the cat, eat and do most of my surfing before I started off for Houghton. I was a little later than I wanted to be, but it turned out I timed it perfectly. The 9 miles between Calumet and Hancock are a mess, and I had to wait at least 5 minutes in both directions. Going down was confusing, because I got behind what turned out to be one of the trucks from the resurfacing project, and about halfway along the one-lane stretch, he pulled over into the newly resurfaced part and stopped. I thought the one-lane thing was over, so I pulled over, too. Fortunately, the guy behind me was far enough behind that I could pull back to the road, but I felt a bit dumb. Most drivers around here are more courteous than they are further south.
I got my teeth cleaned and nobody found anything bad looking. In fact, my gums were in better shape than they were last year, overall. That's nice. My mother had gum surgery twice and I've been almost obsessive about keeping my teeth and gums in good shape, because I don't want that. Now if I could keep the teeth from cracking off...
Then I took a deep breath and went off to Wal-Mart. I actually had a pretty good experience there today. Most of the shelves were stocked, although I couldn't get all the shampoo I wanted because it was at the bottom of a back shelf. I got Grayson a whole lot of cat food, although I couldn't get all the varieties I wanted. Well, if I can get it unloaded tomorrow, I can pick up the rest on Friday. Wal-Mart's prices are still better than anybody's but Pet Supplies Plus, and there isn't one of those either nearby or on the Internet.
I was standing by the fabric looking tired or something when a guy in a shirt and tie came and asked me if he could help me find something. Well - yeah, I guess so. I've been thinking for some time that I should get a cotton thermal blanket. It will make the bed warmer in the winter and I won't have to struggle with the comforter in the summer. I looked around as best I could and I couldn't find just blankets, so I told Patrick what I wanted and he went and got one, although he brought an ecru twin size first. I said yes, that was exactly what I wanted, except white and queen size. So he came back with the blanket and it was only $15! That's about a quarter of what I've seen them for at one place online. So I came home happily with my blanket. Now the only task is to get it on the bed - not tonight, I don't think. I got a few toys, not many, and some more double-faced tape. By the time I got out of there, after waiting behind a woman who had over $600 in garden stuff, I could hardly walk and I was so hot I didn't put on my jacket. I hope I didn't mess up my back again, but by that time I didn't care.
The nice thing was that on my way to Wal-Mart, I checked Bambu and found they start serving dinner at 3:00. Hooray!! So I toddled back there and had a very nice dinner, of which I brought half home. My capacity seems to have gone way down lately, which is not a bad thing. There was almost nobody in the place, but that makes sense at 3:30 on a Wednesday. I hope they're doing well. Their food is so much better than the Bistro.
I got home just before 6;00. Grayson was waiting for me and he seems glad to have me home. I didn't bring in any of the cat food or the litter. That will just have to wait until tomorrow. I did bring in my blanket and my toys, as well as the toothbrushes and the hair clips.
The day started out partly cloudy, but it soon cleared up and it was completely clear until around the time I got home. The temperature got to 53º here, late in the day, and I don't think it was much warmer in Houghton. There was a little wind there, but not much here and it is now completely calm. It's a lovely evening.
Grayson was about ready for his morning siesta when I left, and he was not happy to see me go. He was happy to see me when I came home, especially since I fed him. I bought a bag of mixed toys, mostly balls, including some with bells in them, and he seems sort of interested in the two I gave him. I also got a new scratching pad, but I haven't put that out yet. He wants to scratch on the furniture and that's a no-no. He's been coming and lying down on my lap about every five minutes. Again, I haven't seen Jasmine. I hope she's all right. Grayson was just looking up into the loft, so I think he wonders where she is, too.
Over the past few days, the three bushes down by the top of the cliff (there is about a 6' cliff above my beach) have come into bloom and they are so pretty. You can see parts of two of them in the camera, especially one I think is a chokecherry. I remember when I bought the property my mom and I inspected it - most of it had been hacked down - and we wondered what it was. It never occurred to me that it was a cherry, and I almost cut it down again. But then, I'd never see it in bloom. I know it blocks some of the view of the beach, but right now it's a mass of white blossoms and it's so pretty. Look at one of the early morning pictures when it's clear and you'll see what I mean.
Now it's a partly cloudy evening in the field, and I'm off to the north end to rest my feet.
May 15 Everything was late yesterday, so it was 11:00 before I got to bed. I slept better than I have for a few nights, and I think it was because it was a little cooler in the bedroom. I had a hard time getting to sleep, though, because all of a sudden I started having a nasty pain in my right knee. I don't know what it is - that knee has been pretty good until now. Anyway, I kept getting a stabbing pain in it every minute or less, and I finally had to turn over onto my right side to get to sleep at all. I was up a couple of times during the night, and I finally got up around 9:00. Grayson got petted twice during the night, so he didn't come for his brushing, but he doesn't really need it every day. He did come to play, and I knitted four rows on the shawl. That means I'm now at the next increase row, and when I get done, I'll have 448 stitches on the needle. It takes a long time to knit around that many stitches, and the pattern rows go even more slowly. I'm getting to the point where I won't be able to do an entire round at one sitting. I have 32 more rows of this pattern to go - with periodic increases - and then I can attach the first contrast color and start the border. This is a fun knit.
Otherwise I did not much of anything, as usual. I was late getting to the studio, and I just sat. Sigh.
The weather was variable. It was cloudy all night and at sunrise, then it cleared up for a while before it got cloudy for the middle of the day. Around 4:30 it started to clear up again and it's now nice and clear. The temperature was variable, too. It was around 60º until around noon, when it started to fall off, and it was in the 40s all afternoon. I had to shut the porch window, because it was windy, too. the wind started out the day from the southwest, but around noon it shifted around to the north and picked up, and at one point we had gusts of 33 mph. It's fallen back a bit lately, but it's strong enough to cause the lake to sing and the waves to break on the rocks across from the gap.
So that was another lost day, and I'll be going up to the north end shortly to take my bath and get to bed early. I have a dentist appointment tomorrow and I'll have to leave before noon to get there, because they are tearing up US-41 from Calumet south and I don't know what kind of delays I'll have. It's been an age since I've been down to Houghton. I need to go to Wal-Mart for cat stuff, and I should go to Office Max to get some file boxes. If I'm late enough at that, I'll have dinner at the Chinese place, Bambu. We'll see how much of that I get done. It all depends upon my legs.
Now it's a clear, cool and windy night in the field.
May 14 So I was in bed a bit after 9:30 last night, but I didn't sleep particularly well. Every time i woke up to walk, I had a problem getting back to sleep. I finally fell into a deep sleep around 6:00, I think, and it was a bit after 9:30 this morning when I got up. Grayson got his brushing and played with the string and the rug, and I knitted a bit over 2 rows on the shawl, then I did my exercises, so it was noon when I finally got to the studio. Monday is one of the days that I have a lot of things to read, so it was late when I was finished with my surfing, and I didn't do anything much else.
I did just about avoid an accident, and I took the old black sweater to the powder room so I will have something to keep me occupied when I'm there. On Food and Cooking is there, too, but I seem to have lost interest in it, at least for the time being. It's too detailed for straight reading. The black sweater is the one I made a couple of years ago and it was too small, so I tore it all out and started it over. I'm a little over halfway down the yoke and there are a lot of stitches on the needles already. However, it's something I can pick up and lay down without too much trouble, so it's good for the bathroom.
The weather was much cooler than yesterday. The high temperatures were really overnight, and during the day it never got more than about 61º, and that was about an hour ago. It was windy overnight, too, with gusts up to 28 mph from the northwest. Then the wind shifted around to the north and started to die down, and lately it's been calm. It was clear and lovely for most of the day, but around 5:00 it started to cloud up and it looks like another cloudy night. There might be a rain shower, but it doesn't look too likely.
Grayson was around all day, and he felt really good this morning, playing with everything. He managed to lose one of my hair clips. If nothing else, he's going to teach me to keep things like that in drawers. He was running full-tilt up and down the hallway, although i was happy that he didn't jump on my gut while I was exercising. He did almost push the bedside rug under the bed. All my cats have loved to hit the rugs at a full gallop and slide. He is having a hard time deciding whether he likes the porch or the window seat better. There is more air on the porch, but the window seat has a better view of the parades going by outside the north end of the house. We didn't see Jasmine at all again, and I don't know where she is. By the way that Grayson was acting, I don't think she's in the loft, although that may just be because he's given up. He is such a nice cat.
My new mouse came this afternoon, and of course I immediately installed it, and I like it a lot. It's quite large, so it will take me a while to find the right place to put my hand, but it immediately got my vote of approval when I discovered it has a "back" button! Whee! Now I can give up my trackball. I originally got the trackball because the first summer I was here, I was playing a game (I forget which one) that made me move the mouse laterally a lot, and I went home with tendonitis in my right wrist. I've been using the regular mouse for 10 months now and I see no signs that I might get the tendonitis again. Every mouse is a bit different and it will take me a day or so to get totally used to this one, but I know I'm going to like it. Oh, that "back" button...
So that's about all I know today. It was a really lost one, for sure. I had plans, but I was so late it was too late to do anything much. Maybe I can do better tomorrow. Now it's a partly cloudy night in the field and there may or may not be any stars.
May 13 - Mother's Day Happy Mother's Day to all you mothers out there. I'm not a mother, unless you consider my four-footed friends as my children. I would have been a terrible mother, I'm sure, so it's probably a good thing I never had any children. I always think of my mother on this day, and how I wish she had been able to live long enough to live here with me. But she would have been 95 this August, and that would have made it hard. I'm also not sure she would have wanted to leave her friends in Detroit, although she was the kind of person who could make friends anywhere, and I'm sure she would have been a leading light in Copper Harbor. I take more after my dad, and I don't get into things the way she did. I'm also sure she would have gotten me to church in Laurium a whole lot sooner than I did. I don't think she would have been any more comfortable at the chapel here than I was, and I'm sure she would have goaded me into going to church with her in Laurium. I was thinking about that today, too, because I will be accepted as a member of St. Paul's next Sunday. It would have happened a whole lot sooner if mama had been here. I've always said you eventually get used to the death of your mother, but you never get over it. My mother was my best friend and I still miss her, even though it's been 19 years since she died.
I did what I said I would last night and I was in bed before 9:30. I slept fairly well, not great, and i got up when the alarm went off. I had time to do most of my surfing before I got dressed and left. I am going to have to get away earlier, though. I got behind another touron on the covered road and I was a little later than I like to be getting to church. This was my morning to be bedeviled by big maroon vehicles. There were two on the way south and one coming home. I guess it never occurs to the tourists that people live in Copper Harbor and may be in a hurry to get where they're going. and they may be familiar enough with the road to go fast. Sigh. This will continue until at least the middle of October, so I will just need to adjust and make do.
Church was great, with communion and a very good sermon. After that, I had to get gas before I started home. Gas is a little cheaper than it was earlier in the spring, thankfully. I hope it will go down some more over the summer.
When I got home, I didn't do much of anything, as usual. All the upping and downing in church and then the gas thing left my legs sort of gimpy, so I sat at the computer for the afternoon.
The weather was lovely. The temperature was already 69º when I left for church, so I didn't wear a jacket at all, and neither did most of the other ladies. It was about 72º when I got home, and that was where it stayed for the rest of the day. The humidity was incredibly low - down below 20%, which is why we have a fire warning out. That was good for my arthritis, although the barometer is dropping and I could tell when it got below 30". My knees are very sensitive to that. There was a very strong wind from the northwest all afternoon, with gusts as high as 34 mph. So while I opened the window to the porch, I didn't open the patio doors. The studio is enough of a mess without the wind blowing stuff all over the place. It was so lovely to feel the warm temperatures, though. I hope we have lots of this. I could stand it to be this temperature for the whole summer. It was clear in the morning, but as the day wore on, it clouded up a bit, and there are now a lot of high clouds, so there won't be much of a sunset. It may or may not clear up overnight, depending upon whose forecast you believe, and we may have some rain tomorrow and Tuesday. We need the rain.
Grayson felt great this morning, even though I woke him up before he was ready. He played with the string and he played with the rug and he ate and ate and ate. He was happy to see me when I got home, and he spent the afternoon on his fleece in the great room. We didn't see Jasmine all day again, although from Grayson I get the idea that she was probably up in the loft. Poor Jasmine. i wish she would relax.
On my trips down US-41 and back, I noticed that the leafing out is proceeding. All the flowering trees and bushes are out, and it's so neat to come across a tree in flower sticking out from the green and brown of the rest of the trees. The tamaracks are greening up (they have needles, but they drop them in the fall) and the birches and aspens have leaves coming out. The maples and oaks are a bit later. From the MODIS images, it looks like the shoreline of the Keweenaw is green, but the interior is still brown. That will change soon, I'm sure. I think the leafing out is more related to the sun than to the temperature, although the temperature can affect it quite a bit.
Tonight I had the last of my JD Single Barrel. That is sooo good, I'd almost say it's worth the price. However, the amount I drink, I will wait until someone gives it to me again. I've saved it for Sundays, and it's lasted quite a while. There was a little more than 4 oz, so I am feeling it a bit. I'll miss it. I had the rest of the shrimp scampi for dinner. When I got that the first time, it was so garlicky that I didn't like it, but they've evidently cut back on the garlic and now I like it. I think makers of frozen foods forget that garlic is one of those flavors that intensifies when frozen. I mix it with penne (Schwan's has a microsteam penne that is incredibly easy to cook), and the result is a lovely meal. Of course, I'm addicted to shrimp. So that was nice.
Now I think I will totter up to the north end and get to bed early. I'm tired enough that I think I may be able to sleep better tonight. I will leave the porch window open, even though it howls when it's windy, and that will cool things off a bit more than it has been. It's a warm, cloudy, windy night in the field.
May 12 I think I was in bed by about 10:30, but I don't remember. I slept well for a change, with about three wakeups, and I got up around 9:00. I brushed Grayson, just to keep him used to it, but we're not getting much fur anymore. That's a relief, and I'm sure it is to him, too. I knitted about three rows on the shawl before I got dressed, and I started the first load of wash on my way down the hallway.
That was the task of the day, and I didn't do anything else. The second load is in the dryer and the last load is finished and ready for drying. I will have to stay up until I can put the last load in the dryer. I was very happy to see that my ironing board fits very nicely between the dryer and the wall, so it will always be close at hand. I folded and put away the last load from the last time I washed, and I found several items that had grease spots on them that didn't come out the last time. I have several things that seem to attract drips down my front like a magnet, and Eddie Bauer cotton has always been very hard to get the grease out of. So I spotted them well and rewashed them. I hope they're all right now. A couple of my favorite sweatshirt sweaters were in that load.
The weather was lovely but a bit cooler than yesterday. it was partly cloudy in the morning, but it soon cleared up. the temperature never went below 48º last night and the high so far was 56º. There was a brisk north wind - in the 15 mph range. It was so nice to see the sun again, although it's 80º in the studio.
Grayson felt good again, although I woke him up when I got up. He played with the string and he played with the rug and he batted one of my hair clips onto the floor and played with that. While I was folding clothes, he jumped up on the box beside the window onto the porch and asked - very sweetly - if he could go out. I didn't know if he'd found that when the window was open, but I should have known better. He's a pretty smart cat, and he wants to know about all the nooks and crannies in the house. I had to tell him no. At that time it was only about 52º outside, and I didn't want all that cold air inside. He'll get his. Just wait. He also serenaded Jasmine again, and he went up into the loft, but evidently whatever she said or did to him, he came bombing down the stairs pretty fast. He is interested in everything I do and everyplace I go in the house, which is fun. I keep trying to be hopeful about Jasmine, but I also remember that it took her at least six months after Buster died to start coming around. Grayson and I will just have to be patient.
I have been watching him eat, and evidently he will eat as much as I give him. I suppose it has something to do with his time outdoors, when, if he didn't eat everything he got, he didn't get any more. I am going to try to keep him down to 9 or 10 ounces of canned food a day and watch him. I don't want a fat cat if i can avoid it. I got a look in one of his ears today, and there is definitely something there. I managed to get a little of it out with a Q-Tip, but he doesn't like me fiddling with his ears and it was hard. I guess one of these days I'll have to haul him off to the vet, and I'm not looking forward to it. But his ears clearly bother him, independent of the itchy neck, so I'll have to do something about it.
While I was sitting in the laundry, I looked at the things I wanted to iron, and I think the only thing to do for them is to rewash them and hang them to dry. They have been folded in that wash basket for so long that they are terribly wrinkled. Well, at least I won't have to iron for a while, but I'll have to wash that load tomorrow and see what I can do. A couple of the shirts were supposed to be wrinkle resistant - hah!
I keep thinking about wearing a skirt to church. I kept a bunch of dresses. But there are some problems. I'm sure the elastic in the waistbands of all my pantyhose is shot, and I'm not sure I have any shoes that are good for wearing with a skirt. Sometime I must go upstairs and check all that stuff out.
Most ladies wear pants to church and most of them aren't dressed up anywhere near what we would have worn to Christ the King. Probably most of them don't own any clothes like that. Dressing is so casual in the Copper Country that you can immediately tell visitors by their power suits and high heels. Only a couple of men ever wear suit jackets, even when they're ushering or deaconing. The ladies don't wear jeans, but some of the men do, and I don't suppose they have anything else to wear. In the last monthly newsletter I got from Christ the King, Pastor Boelter was talking about dressing properly for church, but things are a lot more formal down in Grosse Pointe. Well, we'll see about that.
I didn't feel very good today for some reason, even though I felt I got enough sleep. Part of it may be the pollen, The pollen count is really high, and no doubt that is affecting me. If there's anything else, I can't pinpoint it. So I didn't do any of the other things I should have done today. Sigh.
This morning when I got to the studio, I looked out and two male mergansers, in their breeding plumage, were floating out in front of the house. I really need to get the bird feeders filled and outside again. But that involves hauling two 5 gallon pails plus the big feeders in from the breezeway, and I just haven't felt like it. Maybe this week. I love to watch the birds, and I'm sure Grayson would, too - or maybe he'd be more interested in the squirrels. I know even Buster when he was sick was interested in the birds when they pecked around near the house. Well, we'll see. I have a number of things I need to do, and I just haven't felt good enough to attack them. Sigh.
Next week will be a busy one anyway. I have a dentist's appointment on Wednesday, and while I'm down in Houghton, I need to go to Wal-Mart for cat food and litter, and I should go to Office Max and get some more file boxes. If I can manage to do that, there's the Chinese restaurant, and I can always go for that. Then on Friday, I see the doctor and get my mammogram. While I'm in Calumet, I plan to see the optometrist and get some new glasses - finally! - and I will probably food shop. In between, there will probably be an ad committee meeting. Sigh. Some weeks are just more full than others and I'm not used to having so much to do anymore. Well, it will work out somehow.
So as soon as i can get the last load of stuff into the dryer and take my bath, I will be off to bed, hopefully early. I feel tired enough that I wonder if I really got enough sleep last night. And tomorrow, I will probably be up just at the wrong time in my circadian cycle, so it will be a wash, too. SIgh. Now it's a lovely, clear evening in the field.
May 11 I got the desktop updated with no problem, but I had all kinds of trouble with the laptop. It all started when the battery died before the updates were done - I keep forgetting to check the battery before I start those things. So it was 11:00 before I got to bed, and I did not have a good night. I was up several times and wakeful in between. It wasn't until after 4:30 that I slept very well at all. I woke up at 7:50 and had to go fast into the bathroom, so I just stayed up. I didn't get enough sleep, and I felt it all day. The only good thing about being awake was that there were some pretty nice stars for a while.
I did two rows on the shawl and brushed the cat and did my exercises (you can assume I'm exercising almost every day, even if I don't mention it). I did most of my surfing before I grabbed the checks and took off for Mohawk. It was a nice day for a ride, even though I hate to go that far (at least 25 miles) just for one thing. So everybody's checks should have cleared by Monday. On the way home, I stopped at the store and got eggs and boos. I may have to figure out a way to stop getting my boos there, though. They've raised their prices again and I think I can now get my JD at Pat's for $6 cheaper. When it was only $3, I could justify it. I'm not sure I can now.
So I got home before 1:00 and finished my surfing. I really didn't feel like doing very much. However, it was so warm that I finally went out and raised the shutters over the porch, and for a while I had both patio doors open as well as the window onto the porch. When the Schwan's guy came, I had to try to stuff all the stuff into the freezer up here. Sometime in the afternoon, whatever happened to my knee a couple of weeks ago happened again and for a while I couldn't bend it and almost couldn't stand on it. That was after I was out on the deck.
The weather was wonderful. It was already in the middle 60s when i got to the studio, and for the first time this year, I went out with only a knit shirt on, and no jacket. By the time I got back from Mohawk, it was 71º, and it got up to 72º with light breezes at 4:00. There were some clouds in the sky, but at that time, it was still pretty sunny. It was wonderful to have the doors open. Then between 4:00 and 5:00 the temperature dropped to 56º as the wind shifted around to the north at around 15 mph. I closed the doors, and later I had to close the window, too. It recovered a bit but it's now fallen to 55º. The problem, and my problem with my knee, seems to be that the humidity rose from about 32% to 62% in the course of an hour and the dew point is still rising. It also clouded up. Now it's not a very nice evening in the field.
Grayson felt wonderful this morning and he was into everything, playing with the string, a rope I found in the bedroom and all the rugs. He got his brushing, but he went away when I started to knit. When I opened up the house this afternoon, he was really excited, and then he started singing. I think Jasmine was up in the loft, and she really wanted to come downstairs when I opened up the house, but she just wouldn't because he was there. I don't think he found out about the open window to the porch, but that's all right, because I have some cleaning to do out there. Grayson was really interested when I went out onto the deck to pull up the shutters, but he shows no interest in going outside. I think he'll like the porch, but he'll have to get used to the idea that he can smell the fresh air and not be in any danger. Poor Jasmine. I know she would like to have gone out onto the porch, but she just won't. Poor Jasmine. Late this afternoon, when the weather changed, Grayson slept for quite a while on my lap. Fortunately, he got up before I had to move him, because I was getting hungry.
When I had the doors open, all of a sudden I started smelling the nasty smell of burned fuel oil, and when I looked at the Live Ships Map, there were two ships right off the harbor, and at least one of them was really smelly. I really like that thing. Now when I smell them or hear them, I can look and find out who it is.
Now I think I will go up to the north end and hope to get a better night's sleep tonight. It may be all right. The window was open long enough to cool down the house, and I think that was part of my problem. What the rest of it was, I do not know. Eventually it will be summer and i'll be able to sleep again, but for the time being, it's hard. Now it's a cloudy, windy night in the field, and there may be some rain.
May 10 I got to bed around 10:30 last night, and for the most part I slept fairly well. I was up several times, but that's normal. I got up around 8:00 and Grayson got his brushing and I knitted a couple of rows. I now have 396 stitches on the needle, and it takes a long time to knit even a plain knitted row. I was a bit doubtful about the increase row, but it looks all right.
That was about it. One of the people who sent money wrote to ask me about it, and I truly apologize - I didn't realize how long I'd been holding those checks. I was going to go down to the bank today, but I had a nasty and really yucky accident, so I was too late. I will go tomorrow, promise. It annoys me when people hold my checks, and I'm embarrassed by how long I've held yours. It's too far to go for just one or two, but now I have several and it's just sloth that has kept me from taking care of things.
The weather turned out to be very nice. There were a couple of clouds this morning, but they soon went away and it was clear for the rest of the day. The temperature only got up to 54º briefly, and it was around 50º. plus or minus a couple of degrees, all day. The lake made a real difference - it got up to 68º at the airport. For most of the day there was no wind, except between 1:00 and 4:00, when it got up to 20 mph from the north - and then it went calm again. I don't know what that was all about. It wasn't quite as humid today, either. With all the sun, it's now 81º in the office and I took off my top. I didn't see any reason to open the door, because there wasn't any wind anyway.
Grayson got his brushing this morning and he was full of ginger. He played with his string and he played with the rug and anything else he could find. I did screech at him when he wanted to play with my glasses. There are limits. I also don't take too kindly when he wants to play with my hands and feet. He has very small teeth and claws, compared to Buster's, but they are very white and sharp and it hurts when he catches me. I've found that the tea tree oil I got from Johanna takes the soreness out of the scratches, but still. I always did have sensitive skin, and since the SCT and I've gotten older, it's even more sensitive than it used to be. Then he got into his nest outside the door of the studio and was very comfortable all afternoon, except that he has to get up when I do, to see what I'm doing. There are two mirrors he can get to, one in the bedroom and one in the powder room, and he spends a certain amount of time staring at his reflection. I don't know if he recognizes that that kitty is him or he wishes it would come out where he could play with it. We didn't see Jasmine all day again, and Grayson was calling for her. Poor Jasmine. Poor Grayson. He'd like a friend to play with. Poor Jasmine. She'd be so much happier if she'd only accept him.
I was at the computer while the talking was going on when I saw a movement outside out of the corner of my eye and when I looked out, I saw a black blob. I stood up to see it better and it raised its head and it was a deer, grazing on the new grass beside the garage. I guess it figured I wasn't a threat and it went back to its dinner. There is some nice green grass back there right now, since the weeds haven't grown up yet.
This morning when I finally got to the kitchen, there was a fishing boat out at our end of the harbor with two guys in it. I wonder if they caught anything?
I think there will be stars tonight. I should take a bath tonight, and I'm really tired again, so I think I will go up to the north end early. Or maybe not - I just remembered that there are Microsoft updates that need to be applied to both computers, so I guess I'll do that first. Now it's a clear, relatively warm evening in the field.
May 9 Well, I read anyway, but not for very long, and I was in bed by 11:45. I didn't sleep well again. I was up several times, including a couple of times with a great need to go to the bathroom. I think I was warm, and for a while my legs were twitchy. I finally slept after 4:30, and I think I finally got up around 9:00, although I'm not sure about that. The combination clock/radio/phone I keep by my bed has rather large buttons on top of it that aren't locked out, so anything pushing them will change the time. It's a terrible design. My little furry friend has gotten into the habit of jumping up on the bedside table and walking on the unit, and he apparently hit the hour and minute buttons several times, so what I thought was 10:20 was more like 9:10. Or I think so. I'll have to start checking the time in the bathroom more often. Next week I have a couple of appointments and it would never do to be late.
Anyway, I knitted a couple of rows on the shawl and I got most of my surfing done before I was off to the post office and Carolyn's. This was the last meeting at Carolyn's, and there weren't many people there, but it was a nice group. The ladies with husbands got to talking about their trials with their spouses - they are all engineers, and they all have their foibles. We had a lot of laughs. I got three more rows of the shawl done, but then I got to the increase row, and there is clearly something I don't understand about the pattern - or maybe the pattern is wrong - so I had to stop. I'll figure it out in the morning.
Carolyn is a gardener, and her early bulbs are all out, including some of the most beautiful early tulips I've ever seen. They're bright red and apparently related to the old early red ones, except that these have curly, spiky edges on all the petals. They are wonderful. She has some nice daffodils, too, including some miniatures. I never thought I would like miniature daffodils, but in the right setting - hers are behind a thick row of primroses - they are a wonderful spot of color. I was not walking too well after sitting all afternoon, so the other Sharon had to lend her arm. This is getting very discouraging. But it was certainly nice to see the spring flowers.
My neighbor to the south a long time ago threw a bunch of extra daffodil bulbs across the road from their driveway, and they took hold and every year there are a few more of them. They're out, and it's so nice to see that little patch of bright yellow amid the brown and green. The juneberries are beginning to come out, as well as some of the early cherries, so it's beginning to get pretty around here.
The weather was absolutely clear all day, and it was beautiful. The temperature was only in the middle 40s for most of the day, although it spiked up to 52º around 6:00. There was hardly any wind. The humidity was still high - my joints told me that - but it was a nice day to get out of doors for a change.
We didn't see Jasmine all day, and Grayson was calling to her. I don't know where she was. A number of days ago I took two fleece throws and a towel out of the laundry room with the idea of putting them under the east windows, but they never got further than the barrel across from the front door. Grayson discovered them a few days ago and that is where he's been spending his down time during the day. He has made himself a nice little nest there and he looks very comfortable. So if I do put the throws where they belong, I'll have to put some more there for him. He can watch me and he can look down the great room in case Jasmine appears. A few days after he came to me, I decided to try him on a toy DC and Buster loved, and so does he. After all the fancy toys you can get, this is perfectly simple. I took a 26" sneaker lace and tied a large knot in one end, burying the aglet, and I tied the other end to the little stand I have in the bathroom. Boy, is that the toy of choice! We love it. I can move it around and he can go after it around the legs of the stand and bite on it and dance or lie down and play with it. His other toy of choice lately has been one of the bath rugs. He attacks it with tooth and claw and lights into it like he wants to tear it apart. I think he is a happy cat.
While I was in Carolyn's garden we saw a butterfly. So spring is coming!
There was another check at the post office. I am really grateful for the support you've all shown me. Believe me, what you've done will help me a lot.
Now it's a clear, nearly calm night in the field, and I don't think I'll be up very long tonight.
May 8 Instead of going to bed like I said I would, I got the binder out and found out where i was when I stopped writing, then I started reading, and it was 1:00 before I got to bed. The next episode is really lame, but I have a way to go before i get there. I slept well, as you might imagine, but when I woke up at 8:00 I got up anyway. So I didn't do anything much today and I'm really tired now.
Grayson got his brushing and I knitted a couple of rounds on the shawl. That was about it.
When I went to bed and all night long it was so foggy I couldn't even see the lighthouse light. Of course, the humidity was 100%. The fog finally lifted around 1:00, but it was a gray, dull day. The temperature only got up to about 45º and there wasn't any wind. It was a bad day for the joints and a good day to veg.
We didn't see Jasmine at all, so I guess she was hiding her head in the basement. Grayson was around all day and he found a new place to sleep, near me where he can keep an eye on me. I think I've finally overcome the shedding. I only got a small wad of fur out of him this morning and his coat looks much better and much thinner. I will keep on brushing him so he stays used to it. Besides, he likes it, so we have a little love-in in the mornings. He did cough up something I didn't see, so he's still eating fur.
The mouse that came with the desktop finally bit the dust today. The scroll wheel finally stopped working altogether. That sure was a piece of junk. I want to call Gateway about it, but I wasted time trying to get logged in so I could email them, and that never did work. So maybe I'll call tomorrow. It seems to me that a mouse should last more then 9 months! I've had several mice over the course of my interaction with PCs, and all of them lasted longer than that. I sent for a snazzy Microsoft one, because the one I'm using now is really for the laptop. I'm just grateful I had a backup. Anyway, that took some time and a reboot to move some USB devices around. I'm still not sure there isn't a problem with my USB ports, but since I moved the camera, that hasn't been a problem.
Tonight i finally cooked my multi-colored quinoa, and I like that stuff. I had salmon with it, and it was a good dinner. When I put it in bags to freeze, I weighed it instead of measuring it, and I think I'll have better sized portions, but I don't get a lot out of a pound of quinoa. I had a problem and didn't do kale with it because the weather was making my back hurt.
So now I'm going to try to get to bed early again - no reading tonight, or at least not much. I have to wash my hair, so it won't be super early, but maybe before midnight! It's a cloudy, moist and cool evening in the field.
May 7 I was in bed by 9:15 again last night. I slept better, I think, although I was up several times. I got up around 8:00. Grayson got his brushing and I knitted a couple of rows on the shawl. with 336 stitches on the needle, it takes a while to go around. I've found it very helpful to have the markers every quarter. At least I know I'm making progress.
It was another nothing day. I just don't feel very good, and I don't feel like doing anything I should be doing. So I didn't.
The weather was not very nice. The temperature was around 45º all night and all day, and after 6:00, the humidity was over 90%. There was no rain, but there was a lot of fog, including those neat clouds that slink along the surface of the water. Just in the past 15 minutes, we've gotten completely socked in again. There wasn't any wind to speak of. This is typical spring weather in the Keweenaw, and everybody is creaky.
Grayson got his brushing, and I think we really have gotten most of his shedding taken care of. He still sheds, but it's at a more normal rate now - one small handful, instead of two large handfuls. If I was a spinner and I'd saved it all, I would probably have enough lace weight yarn for a nice gray scarf. I don't spin, and I think making yarn out of your pet's fur is sort of creepy, like embroidering with your own hair. In the middle of the morning, he got very excited, and there was Jasmine on the loft railing, looking down at him. He keeps trying, and I have to believe one day she'll break down. Three times today he went to sleep on my lap for a while. He is also doing a few things I don't like, like scratching on the furniture, and when i yell at him, he looks at me like, "Oh, is there a problem?" The weather affected him, too, and while he was playful, he wasn't as wired as he has been when it's nicer out.
So that was another wasted day, and I'll be going to bed early again. I don't know what I'm fighting, but I seem to need a whole lot of sleep. I haven't had any night sweats for the past couple of days, so maybe I'm winning the war. I figure, get all the sleep I need and maybe I can fight it off, whatever it is.
Now it's a cool, foggy night in the field and it will be a good one to sleep.
May 6 I was in bed by 9:15 last night, but it didn't do any good. I didn't sleep very well. I was up several times and I had a hard time getting the temperature right. As usual, I was up around 6:00, but i was not going to get up at that time. I finally got up at 7:00 when the alarm went off. Grayson came for his morning brushing and love-in, and we are definitely getting less fur out of him now. I'm glad to see that. I was beginning to wonder when he would stop shedding. Now I know.
I got off to church early and there was nobody, and I do mean nobody, on the road all the way to Laurium. Pastor had a good sermon this morning, based on the "I am the vine" passage. He told me he had received the letter of transfer from Christ the King, so I will be officially inducted, with two other people, on May 20. They sang "I Know That My Redeemer Lives", and of course, I can't sing that, so I sat and thought it and wept. I don't want a funeral, and the only down side to that is that they won't get to sing all the hymns I can't sing because they make me weep.
There was no traffic coming home, either, so I got home by 12:30. The only problem is, I seem to have lost my house keys. I know I put them in my purse and I checked at some point, I think when I got out of the car (or maybe when I got in?), but now they are gone. I searched the car and didn't find them, but they have to be around here someplace. I will continue to look. The problem is not with the house, but the key to my post office box. Peggy Kauppi has the other one, but I doubt she'll ever be able to find it.
I had just sat down in the powder room when Trevor called and asked if he could take some of my garbage to the compactor. Hah! So he came and did that, and he also brought my ironing board up from the basement and took out the two bags of kitty litter that were down there. I ended up going downstairs myself, and despite the problems I was having walking, I had much less trouble with the stairs than I'd expected. So my exercises are paying off already. I wanted to get some penne out of the freezer for my dinner, and when I checked the cat pans, it's clear that I have to do something about them real soon. Yuck.
That was all I did. Around 4:00 I got so sleepy that I went up to the north end and got in bed. I didn't sleep, but I must have dozed, because it was 5;15 when I got up. I had some ideas of what I might do today, but nothing got done.
I have had this trouble with sleeping in the spring and the fall for at least 40 years, so I should be used to it by now, but every year it happens and it annoys me. It must have something to do with getting my temperature in bed aligned with the temperature in the bedroom when it begins to warm up. I think the barometer and the humidity have something to do with it, too.
The weather was blah again. the temperature spiked to 55º around 11;00, but for most of the afternoon, it was right around 50º. There was no wind until just now, and it was cloudy all day. About the time I got to church, it began to spit rain, and I think it did for the rest of the afternoon. It didn't rain hard, but with the drops of rain and the windshield washers, I managed to get the bug off the window. How come, when the bugs come out, at least one always hits right in the middle of your line of sight? Another of life's little mysteries.
When I got to the studio this morning, I discovered that the camera had hung up sometime yesterday afternoon, probably around the time I was fiddling with the USB cluster because I was having trouble with the mouse. I think it's all right now, but it does seem there is something wrong with my main USB hubs. Grr.
Grayson was his usual loving self. He even came to look at Trevor (who is allergic to cats) and he was around me all the time I was here. When I laid down on the bed, he had to jump up to see if I was all right, and he sat in the window seat all the time I was asleep. When I was in the studio, he was in the ugly chair. We didn't see Jasmine today, but from the amount of serenading Grayson was doing, I think maybe she was upstairs. I have to believe Grayson started life with a loving family, and even his time outdoors didn't sour him on people. He loves people and other cats. Buster started life out like that, too, but something happened while I was at work that scarred him for life and he was never as open and trusting again. One of my tasks is to see that no such thing ever happens to Grayson. He is such a sweetie! Now if I can figure out what his problem with his ears is, we'll be good to go. It might be mites, although they said he didn't have them when he was at the vet's, it might be nerves, and it might be an allergy. I guess he'll have to go to the vet one of these days to see what the problem is. He has scratched almost all the fur off his neck, which makes him look really strange.
I'm still tired, so I think I will toddle up to the north end and maybe knit a row or two before I go to bed. I guess I should probably go back to staying up late and writing, but I hate having such short days when I do that. I can free-wheel, but the rest of the world doesn't, and when I have to interact with it, I have to be on its schedule. Sometime this week, I'll have to go down to Mohawk to the bank, and then I may have to go on down to Calumet and get gas. Wednesday is the last meeting at Carolyn's, and now that the wedding gift is done, the next task is to get the angels mounted and off to Margaret to be finished.
Now that I have the ironing board upstairs, I can iron stuff more easily. I have one of those ironing pads, and that's good for embroidery, but I tried to iron a pair of pants on it yesterday and I nearly went bonkers. It just doesn't work. I wouldn't even try a blouse. I have a washbasket full of pants and shirts that need to be ironed, so I will be trying to get to that fairly soon, since most of it is summer stuff. I can't stand to iron very long, but I'm hoping the rolling stool I got for the kitchen will help. I do need a new cover for the ironing board, and I have one around here somewhere, if I can find it. A nice corner tear got into the cover during the move, so it's time for a new one. And there are a few other things on my short list. One at a time, one at a time.
So now it's a cloudy evening in the field and it's time to go to bed.
May 5 I slept a bit better last night, but not really well until after 3:00, when the open window finally cooled down the bedroom. I was in bed by 9:30 and I got up around 9:15, so again, I should have gotten enough sleep, but I was sleepy all day.
I brushed the cat, and it seems like we're getting to the end of the spring shedding. Not that I'm not still getting a ton of fur out of him, it's just not two tons anymore. He likes to be brushed. Then I knitted a few rows on the shawl, and I now have 336 stitches and I've made a little change to the pattern. Not much, just a couple more yarn-overs, but I think I'll like it better. I thought 200 stitches took a long time go get around, but it's nothing like 336, and just wait until I have 616! That's the trouble with knitting round things.
Again I didn't do anything. I thought maybe I'd gotten through my last cold, but I think I'm still fighting it. Thus the long sleeps and the blahs. So I did nothing. Well, except to clean up after myself. I had another accident, so I had to wash my sweats and do some cleaning up. I have been trying to wean myself off the probiotics, but I think I will just have to go back on them. Trouble is, they're expensive when I'm taking 7 of them, and I hate taking all those pills. Besides, I had some indication that a lot of them were going right through. But I've been having more trouble with my elimination since I've been cutting down, so I think it's time to go back on all of them. Darn.
The weather was so-so. The temperature for most of the day was in the middle 40s, although just lately it has risen to 51º. Around noon there was a little wind, but it died down pretty soon to under 10 mph from the south or east. It was mostly cloudy all day, with an occasional beam of sunshine.
I knew when I got up this morning that there was no chance of going to the wedding. I have been very creaky all day, even though I did most of my exercises, and I have had a bit of a problem getting off the toilet a couple of times. So I sat here and thought good thoughts. I like Amanda and Aaron and I wish them the best.
Grayson slept in the bathroom again. Apparently the window made it a bit too cool for him in the bedroom. Since he was outdoors during the winter, I suppose he will like it really warm. All the brushing is doing a good job on his coat, and it is now quite shiny and much thinner. Now, if he'd only stop scratching his neck and let the hair grow there, he'd be a really handsome cat. Well, he is anyway. He still wants to be around me all the time, so he spent some time on my lap and some time in the ugly chair. He was in the ugly chair, asleep, when I got up to go pee, and when I came out into the great room, there was Jasmine in the pink chair! Of course Grayson came out, too, and started talking, and when I came back to the studio, she was gone. Darn little snot! If she'd only relax and give in, she could have a good friend and sleep anywhere she wanted to. Grayson does sing to her, but I think he's beginning to give up on her. She'll be sorry. Anyway, it was good to see her again and know that she's still alive.
I keep forgetting to mention that the birches and aspens are leafing out. Things are beginning to get pale green here in the harbor. Up in the higher elevations, I don't think there's so much yet, but there is a green haze around the birches. It's so nice to see. It's early this year, as I knew it would be. I must check back over the past few years and compare. I know there were several years when I was commuting to Detroit that it was late may or early June before there was any green. And of course, the tansy and spotted knapweed are growing as usual. Sigh.
We were minding our own business today when the pesky squirrel showed up, and this time he got inside the screen, then he got up to the top of it and forgot how to get out. Grayson was enchanted. I went over to the window with something to rap on it, but it took me quite a while to get him out. He didn't want to go down to the bottom because Grayson was there, but I finally chased him down and he ran out the hole he ran in. Grayson would try to go after him if the door was open. I dream about him catching the squirrel by the back of the neck and going crunch...normally I don't like the idea very well, but this squirrel has been driving me crazy.
So that was another nothing day, and I'm going to try to get to bed really early again tonight, so that I can get to church and back tomorrow. St. Paul's should have gotten my letter of transfer, because I got a copy of it, and it made me cry. Only it's not very useful to be a member of a church that's 600 miles away. Besides, as I keep telling myself, a lot of the people I knew have died in the past five years. So it wouldn't be the same anyway. But the important people are still there - Pastor Randy and Bruce and Carol. I miss them.
Now it's a cloudy rather calm evening in the field. We won't get to see the huge moon rise, darn it. This full moon is at perigee, which means it's about as close as it ever gets, so it's bigger than normal. There may be a little clear sky during the night, but then it will be over the house so I won't get to see it then, either. Darn.
May 4 Well, it was another not-so-good night. I guess I'm going to open the east window in the window seat and hope that cools off the bedroom enough so that I can sleep comfortably. I was in bed around 9:15, I think, and I got up around 8:15, which would have been more than enough sleep if I'd slept well, but as it is, I was tired all day.
I knitted for quite a while, then I did my exercises, and my furry friend bounced off my gut at one point. He felt just fine, thank you. I'm making good progress on the shawl, and I started a new ball of yarn today. I've done nearly half the rows, but of course, I haven't done nearly half the stitches. This middle part is sort of boring, with just enough changes to mean I have to pay attention. And that was all I did. Nada.
The weather was blah again. The temperature went down to 34º overnight, then it went up to about 41ºand pretty much stayed constant all day. There wasn't any wind. it was cloudy and dull with only a ray or two of sunshine. The barometer is rising, but my furry friend told me that. I'm only glad I'm here. It was 89º in Grosse Pointe yesterday and in the 70s today - those are summer temps! Here, we were 10º under our normals for the day.
Grayson spent most of the night curled up on the towels at the end of the tub in the bathroom. I guess it might have been a little cool for him in the window seat, or maybe it was more comfortable. He got on my lap when I got up and got a thorough brushing again, although I think if I kept brushing him forever I'd keep getting more fur out. His coat, at least on his back, where the guard hairs are thickest, is beginning to shine. He bounced off my gut while I was exercising, but he wasn't all that wired today, I think because of the weather. He slept for quite a while in the ugly chair and for a while on my lap. Like other cats I have known, he has to get up when I get up from wherever I am, and follow me, just in case I do anything interesting, like put down more food or find a toy. We didn't see Jasmine again. I have no clue where she is now. Grayson calls for her every so often, but I think he is beginning to give up on her. So am I. She is just too touchy. We'll feed her and water her and give her a litter tray, but Grayson and I are bonding quite nicely. It's almost like having only one cat, which makes me sad.
The pesky squirrel climbed the screen again today, and that really interests Grayson. I wish he was a little bigger so i could sic him on the pest. I need to put out the bird feeders. That will interest Grayson, too. And it's time to lift the shutters on the porch, although I have some cleaning to do - Buster's turds and the glass - before I can let him out there.
So that was another nothing day, and I'm tired again. I don't think I'm going to the wedding. This cool, damp weather has left me tottery enough that the idea of crawling around on the rocks just doesn't appeal to me. I'm sorry - I'd like to see how they do it - but I'm just not stable enough on my feet to attempt Hunter's Point.
Now it's another dull, cloudy evening in the field and I'm tired.
May 3 After two wonderful nights of sleep, I had a lousy one. Venus came out for a minute or two right after i went to bed around 10:15, but then it clouded right up. It was warm in the bedroom and i was wakeful and up several times. Finally, around 4:30, I did start to sleep deeply, and then i awoke abruptly around 7:00, I think by a roll of thunder. It was the most interesting thunderstorm I have ever seen: thunder, rain and thick fog. Even if it hadn't been light, it was so foggy it would have been impossible to see much of the lightning. I went back to sleep before it was over and I didn't wake up again until around 9:45. Grayson got a good brushing and I knitted several rows on the shawl.
That was about all I did. While my dinner was cooking tonight, I got rid of a bag of trash and started loading the dishwasher again. Not much to show, but I was late getting to the studio.
The weather was yucky all day. It rained from about 7:00 until 11:00 and we had a total of 1.49" of rain. Now, that's more like it! We really needed it. The high temperature was actually at about 3:00 this morning and it fell all day long, until it got down to around 41º, where it stayed for the afternoon. It was foggy and cloudy all day. A very yucky day, but at least we had some meaningful rain.
I don't know what's gotten into Grayson now. He got well-brushed this morning, then when I sat down at the computer, he got on my lap and went to sleep until I finally had to move him because I had to pee. He came back when the talking started and went to sleep again. When he lies there with his head pillowed on my arm and his eyes closed, he looks like a little angel cat. However, he doesn't like it if I do anything else and he wants to bite me. He'll have to learn that's not acceptable. We didn't see Jasmine today, although Grayson serenaded her a couple of times. Late this afternoon, he got very full of energy, and yes, indeed, the barometer is rising. Mostly he is a very sweet cat, and he loves to look out the windows of the window seat, where there must be a parade going on most of the time. He did try to stand on my gut while I was doing my exercises this morning, but I guess I'm getting the idea across that it hurts when he stands on me with his pointy little feet - well, they aren't exactly little. He has short, sturdy legs and big feet.
I was surprised that I didn't feel worse than I did today, with the barometer low and the humidity high. I was creaky this morning, and my back wasn't good when I was in the kitchen this afternoon, but I was ambulatory and I was able to get off the toilet with not too much trouble. I am tired, but I'll take care of that.
Now it's a cloudy, moist evening in the field and it will be a good one to sleep in.
May 2 I went up to the north end early last night and I knitted a couple of rows on the shawl before i took my bath. I was in bed by 10:20. The first time I woke up was around 4:30, I think. Wow, this is wonderful! I can actually get six or more hours of uninterrupted sleep, for the first time in 40 years! It's great.
I got up around 8:45 and I knitted some more before I did my exercises. That's coming along, too. I was able to do my "bridging" exercise for the first time in several weeks. This is the one where you lie on your back and use your legs to lift your butt off the surface. Until last night, every time I tried to do it, my back went into spasms. I was able to do 10 with not very much pain and no spasms. So I guess my back is healing up. I still can't do much with my left knee, but my shoulders seem to be loosening up a bit. I won't be happy until I can hook my bra in back again.
I didn't plan to do anything much today, and I didn't. I partly unloaded the dishwasher and I went to the post office and the store. There were two more checks, for which I thank everyone. One of the reasons I printed so many note cards yesterday is that I plan to send a note to everyone who mailed me money. Those who have donated online got emails. I hope that's all right.
The weather was wild again. When I got up, it was raining, and it apparently rained from about 7:00 until noon, but we only got 0.18". So it was mostly cloudy all day, with just a few rays of sunshine around 2:00. The temperature got up to 68º and it was humid. I should have opened the door, because it got up to nearly 80º in the studio. It was really sort of an icky day, but I'm glad to see the temperature up.
Grayson was unusually loving today. He sat on my lap for a long time this morning and I brushed two wads of fur out of him. He is still shedding incredibly, and I think it's because he was out of doors when he grew his winter coat. so it grew really thick. Already he is looking thinner, as I get rid of all that fur. He's getting rid of it, too, and I discovered a couple of hairballs in the hallway. Then about the time the talking started, he got up on my lap and went to sleep, except he kept reaching up and hooking his claws in my sweater. Just now, he wanted to be petted before I finished my dinner, so I put it aside and he cuddled again until I started writing. We didn't see Jasmine, but if Grayson's activities are any indication, she was probably up in the loft again. At least she's not down in the basement all the time.
So now I think I will go up to the north end early again and maybe knit a row. The row I'm doing now will give me 280 stitches, so it's taking longer and longer to go around. this time I placed markers every quarter, so I have some idea where I am as I knit around. I have other things to knit, including the sock (and several other socks) and a very beautiful cable sweater that I've had on my "must do" list for a long time, but I seem to be stuck on lace. But then, I got hooked on lace 50 years ago, and I've never gotten over it.
So that was a quiet day, and it's a mostly cloudy, warm evening in the field.
May 1 I think it was around 10:00 when I got to bed last night, but I didn't sleep very well at all, which sometimes happens when I've slept for 12 hours or more the night before. I couldn't get to sleep, and I was hot, and it wasn't a very good night. There weren't even any stars. Blah.
I got up around 8:00 this morning anyway, and I knitted a while. I have a lot of rows to do with this vee pattern in it, so there will be a lot of not-very-interesting knitting to go. There are a few gotchas that will keep things more or less interesting, but it's just a plain openwork pattern until I get to the border, which will be fun. I now have 256 stitches, so going around is slow.
The task of the day was to get the wedding gift ready to go - and I just remembered I never took a picture of it. Drat. It's all packaged up to send now, so I can't do anything about it. I had a hard time getting it centered vertically, and I'm still not sure I did, but I did the best I could. I broke off one of the tabs that held the backing onto the frame and had to fashion a new one out of a paperclip. The clips were just plastic anyway, and I broke it before I realized what I was doing. Oh, well. the replacement worked well, and then i discovered that the clips were all screwed into the frame, which is metal, so by loosening up the screws, I could get everything in place with not much problem, Whew! Am I glad that's done! Now tomorrow I can prevail upon Ron to postmark it and put it in the right box and that's all over.
The weather was fairly warm but cloudy. The temperature got up to 62º around noon, then it fell back to just under 60º for the afternoon. The wind began to pick up from the south around 3:00, and at the last reading, we were having gusts up to 39 mph. It's still cloudy.
After I got the present together, I wanted to print out a card to put in it, so I ended up printing several more sets of my note cards. I haven't put them together yet, but all the printing is done. I'm not really happy with the way the new printer prints some of the pictures on the note cards, but it will have to do.
Then I got into it. I tried to print out some return address labels a while ago, and they didn't come out spaced right, so I spent probably a couple of hours in both Publisher and Word, trying to make them look right. I finally gave up. Grr. I used to be able to print labels just fine on the old printer, and I don't know what the problem is. I don't know whether to attack HP or Microsoft to try to solve my problem. So that was frustrating.
Grayson was frustrated. too, especially after he got up from his afternoon siesta. He wanted attention, and I was busy, so he went bombing around and got into some trouble, especially with me. I finally fed him when I had my dinner, and he has now gone off. He was really full of energy this morning, bombing up and down the hallway at full speed. We didn't see Jasmine today, so I don't know where she is. Somebody is eating some of the dry food, so I hope she's eating.
I had a very nasty accident this morning, which didn't give me a very good start. I ended up having to wash everything from the waist down, and it was really yucky. I have been trying to wean myself off all the probiotics, which are expensive, and I don't know if that's the problem or it's what I've been eating.
So now it's May, Unbelievable. it seems just yesterday it was January. Maybe the temperature will warm up a bit. Originally, i hoped that the bugs would be early, but with the weather we've had for the last month, it doesn't look hopeful. On the other hand, the snow went so early and the runoff was so early, we may not have a serious bug season at all. We can hope for that.
Now I think I will just go up to the north end early, take my bath, and see if I can sleep better tonight. One of these days I would like to do some more writing. One of the things Grayson did was to kick the blue binder onto the floor, where of course I lost my page. I think he's a happy cat. I think he's finally beginning to realize this is his permanent home, and he is young and full of energy. Now I have to teach him the rules of the house. He'll learn.
It's a cloudy, windy night in the field.
last updated 06/01/12 08:56 PM |