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A View From the Field |
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January. 2013 January 31 I thought I might knit a bit when I got up to the north end last night, but I was so tired that I went right to bed. I turned out the light at 9:30 and I only think I finished my prayers before I was out. It was a good night to sleep, with the lake roaring and the wind banging and the snow coming down hard. When I first turned out the light, the snow was so thick that I got that effect from the lighthouse where I can't see the light directly but only where it reflects off the snow. I was up a couple of times, and I got up around 9:00. That should have been enough sleep, but I'm tired again now.
It was a day of accidents. I didn't quite make it to the pot when I got up so I had to sop up pee, and then after breakfast, I didn't make it to the powder room at all, and i had one of the worst accidents I've had in a long time. Before I was done cleaning up, I had to change almost everything I had on except for my bra and my vest. Yuck. I don't know what the problem was. Grayson helped a bit, because he was standing on me and he didn't want to move, but that wasn't the whole story. Yuck.
As a result of all that, I should take a bath tonight, but I don't think I'm going to. I think I'm going to crash again.
I knitted, and I finished the medium brown. Now I have only 5 more rows to go, but they are the really long ones. At least they are nearly all plain knitting, so they should go as fast as possible. Then I have to crochet off the stitches with black to end, and I have a whole lot of ends to work in. This project has gone faster than I thought it would, though. It needs to be blocked in order to see how it looks at all, though. It's all scrudged up in a wad and it will take stretching to see all the interesting patterns and colors. So I guess, like it or not, I'm going to end up opening up the dining room table and blocking there. Everything I have left to block is too big for the counter in the laundry room.
I got most everything but tonight's dishes into the dishwasher and I washed up some more pots and pans. I would like to wash two lids tonight, but I have such a weird load in the dishwasher that I'm not sure I can get them in. Creative loading, I guess, and we'll see.
The weather was frigid, windy and snowy. The temperature went down to 11º overnight and stayed there all day. The wind actually peaked last night, with 42 mph gusts. Today it was in the 20-35 mph range from the northeast, which put the wind chill around -10º for most of the day. It snowed all day, although no liquid showed up in the NWS reports. All I know is that I couldn't see down the harbor all day and it was snowing heavily enough that sometimes I could hardly see the other side of the bay. The lake effect advisory is in effect until 6:00 PM tomorrow.
When I got to the kitchen, around 11:00, there was a fishing hut out on the harbor. My mother always said fishermen are crazy. I don't know how long he was there, but while I was able to watch him, there were times when I couldn't see him because of the snow and blowing snow.
The guys did what any good kitty would do on a day like this - they slept. Louie wanted to sleep on my lap, which I let him do for a while, but he is so huge it's hard for me to do anything when he's there. Grayson was standing on me when I started having my accident, but he went away and didn't come back for the rest of the day. I don't know if they realize what it's like outside, but every so often Grayson will sit and look out at the snow swirling around. I wonder if he's remembering last winter.
So now I think I may read for a little while before I finish putting the stuff in the dishwasher. I think I'm going to forgo the bath and just be dirty and go to bed early again.
It's another frigid, windy, snowy night in the field, and another good one to hunker down under the down comforter and sleep long and hard. And January is over. Geez!
January 30 I went up to the north end fairly early last night, but I knitted for a while, so it was about 11:00 when I got to bed. What a night! I discovered this morning that the reason was that I didn't take my Neurontin last night, but I didn't know that then. I never got deeply asleep, I was up every hour or so, and I kept having night sweats. Curiously, I didn't have twitchy legs or sore feet. However, it was pretty bad.
I got up around 9:00 because I had to walk, and I knitted for quite a while, but I felt lousy. I did want to go to Carolyn's, though, so I got ready for that, with the idea that I would stop at the post office beforehand to see if any more tax stuff. Well. Overnight, the temperature dropped from 30º at midnight to 19º when I started out, and the wind shifted around to the northeast and began to rise. I'm not sure I would have gotten into the Community Center or out if it wasn't for a nice man who showed up right after me. They hadn't plowed the parking places and they had frozen with all those footprints all over them, and by the time I got there, it was snowing.
So I rethought my plans for the afternoon and came home. I was so tottery I didn't trust myself out in the weather. I didn't feel very good anyway and I probably wouldn't have been much fun, but I missed seeing all the other ladies. I think every couple of weeks I should get out and be sociable, if only for my good. Anyway, the other Sharon called me later to ask if I was OK, which I thought was very nice of her.
So I did my surfing and not much else, and I don't expect to be up very late tonight. I finished the beige yarn and started the medium brown, but the number of stitches is starting to multiply, so from now on, it will be slow going. I only have eight or nine more rows to go, but oh, my those rows!
Ron came by around 4:00 and cleared a path to the breezeway door and left my cane. A nice e-friend sent me a lovely new cane, all adjustable. Now I won't be nearly as worried that if I lean on it too hard I'll break it. I think it would be hard to break this one. i can even rotate the hand grip if I don't like it straight. I can't tell you how much I appreciate that. I (almost) can't wait to try it out. The old family cane will stay in the house for use here and for backup. With the weather the way it is, I don't feel at all safe without a cane.
The weather was very wintry. Like I said, the temperature had dropped to 19º by morning, and it's now 15º. The wind was from the northeast in the 25-35 mph, although the last reading had 43 mph gusts. It snowed lightly from around noon, but right around 5:00 the snow got heavy, and it started blowing across the harbor in white-out gusts. It was so dark and cloudy all day that I felt like I really needed a light on, especially this morning, when I was knitting with brown yarn on brown needles. Fortunately, I can feel the stitches pretty well.
The lake is singing loudly, and it's going to be a good time to sleep. And yes, I did take my pills tonight! It makes me so mad when I forget that.
The guys have been extremely sleepy since yesterday, so I didn't see much of them. They still spend a lot of time on that mohair throw in the great room, and they slept for part of the night on the rug in the bathroom, where it's warmer. They're even spending some time close together for warmth, although I don't think Grayson appreciated it when Louie laid down on his hind paw.
Now they're playing Haydn on the radio, so I have to wait until that's over with, but then I think I'll totter up to the north end, maybe knit a bit, and dive under my covers for the night. It's a very cold, very windy, very snowy night in the field.
January 29 I knitted a while when I got to the north end last night, and I got to bed a little after 11:00. I was awake several times, but in between, I slept well. I got up around 9:30, but I knitted some more, so I was late getting dressed.
I finished the white and taupe and started on the beige, but there were still two plain rows before I started the edging. I was slowed down because on the last white row, I tried to count and came up with the wrong total, so I decided to place the markers for the edging pattern right then - every 11 stitches. It turns out It was me and not the knitting that was wrong. But it's hard to count 170 stitches twice correctly, and I didn't. Before dinner tonight i did the first two rows of the edging and half of the third. There aren't that many rows left, but they get so long that it's going to take me quite a while to finish them.
I got the rest of the dishes into the dishwasher and set the pans to soaking, and that was about all I did. I was thinking about working on my ledger, but it was so late when I finished my surfing that it was hardly worth it, so I didn't. So I read a bit and knitted.
The weather was lousy. Just plain lousy. The high temperature was 35º, and there was a little rain early this morning then some more this afternoon. There was some wind early, too, but not much for the rest of the day. It was extremely cloudy and dark. Yuck. The minimum temperature was 32º, by the way, which is 18º above the average low. Something I listened to on the Weather Underground site today suggests that the wild swings in our weather may well be tied to climate change. I wouldn't surprise me, but then why is this all happening all at once? It's strange.
The kitties felt like the weather, and they slept for most of the day. They know what to do in weather like this.
So do I, and for some reason I'm tired tonight. I have to wash my hair tonight, but I don't expect to be up too late. My back stiffened up when I got up this morning, but an hour or two of moving around solved that. Now it's my knees that are bad, and that's the weather. I am still having a problem getting up from a seat, but not nearly as much as I was last week.
So now it's a dark, moist, fairly warm night in the field and it feels like I won't be up long.
January 28 Well, I did it again last night. I read much too long, and it was 1:30 before I finally got to bed. It was snowing rather hard when I went to bed, and it continued to snow until around 9:00 this morning. I don't know what the totals were - Keweenaw County is rather behind in updating the website - but there was enough snow between midnight and 9:00 AM to give us 0.38" of water equivalent, and that's a lot.
Anyway, I got up around 9:30 - not enough sleep - and I knitted for quite a while, although I had to get up a couple of times because I thought I heard the plow. I may have, but nobody came down the driveway. Grayson just does not like that sound. Heaven knows what in his history scared him, but he really doesn't like that noise.
The next few rows on the shawl are mostly plain knitting and very boring, but then I get into the real edging and that's going to be different. I discovered that the actual stitch count on the last row is 691 stitches. It will take me a while to knit that one! The edging is a nice saw-tooth in shades of brown, and it's bound off with a crochet hook in black. Kind of neat. the bind off is the same that I used to use when I made doilies. However, I have about 30 rows to go before I can do that.
When I got up this morning, my back felt good, but it stiffened up some during the day. I finally got the first wave of dishes out of the sink and into the dishwasher, and after I do the same with the rest, I will have to start soaking pots and pans. Oh, it's a real mess out there, but as I get to feeling better I'll be able do do a little more. I also finally filled the dry cat food bowls, and I'm disgusted. I had trouble finding and spent a lot of money on a brand that isn't made anymore because it was their favorite, so now they've decided they don't like it. I don't know if it's stale or something or they just changed their minds, but I have a lot of that stuff and they're going to have to eat it. Now they've decided they like the kinds they didn't before and a new one that I got. Geez. Cats.
When I got to the studio around noon, I discovered that something weird had happened to the camera software, and it looked like it had stopped sometime after it shut down last night. Anyway, there were no pictures this morning. Sorry about that. Also, that pine bough with all the heavy snow on it made the rest of the picture look very dark. The camera tries to even out the lighting, and sometimes it doesn't get it right. It was dark and cloudy but not that dark and cloudy.
The weather was warm. The high temperature got up to 33º this afternoon. That caused some melting and a lot of dripping. There was hardly any wind. It was dark and cloudy all day. i guess we may have some freezing rain (oh, no - that's the one thing I'm scared of) but then it's supposed to get cold and snow again. I hope so.
The guys were not very active today. I guess it's the weather. I wasn't either.
So now it's a warmish, dark night in the field, and maybe - just maybe - I can get to bed a little earlier tonight?
January 27 Another quiet day. Not much to report.
I went up to the north end at a reasonable hour, but I didn't feel sleepy, so I knitted a while before I took my bath and it was 11:30 when I turned out the light. I slept well, with only two wakeups. I woke up at 7:52, by my clock, and there was a gorgeous orange moon setting behind the light house. Oh, it was sooo pretty! It was a short trip, and by the time I got back to bed, the moon had drifted down and to the north so that one edge was right at the lighthouse light.
I went back to sleep, sort of, but I woke up abruptly around 9:30 thinking I heard the tractor. Actually, what I think I did hear was snowmobile engines. I'm glad they're here, because the town needs the business, but I hate those things. They are so noisy and smelly I can't understand how anybody can stand to use one. Ugh.
I ended up knitting for over two hours, because after I finished the center back of the shawl, I wanted to pick up the stitches along the bottom so I can start on that part. It was just a slow thing, in part because somehow I managed to mess up the first row in the other direction and I had to pull the thread through some of the stitches. I don't know how I did that, and I certainly hope I didn't do it on the Faroese shawl. Anyway, I'm ready to start the border, which is done in shades of brown - and ends up with over 600 stitches! Ugh!
That was about all I did. My back was quite stiff today, and my knees were sore, so I did mostly nothing. Last night while I was knitting, I realized that I wasn't happy with how i wound up Trine 13, so after I did my surfing I got right at that, and I think I'm happier about it now. There was also a short passage in Trine 9 that needed something added. Then I started on Trine 14 and I wrote for a while before I gave up and started reading something else.
I just remembered that I wanted to send a complaint email to Knit Picks about another needle. I tried to use the #1 wooden needle I got to replace the one I broke, and I discovered that the cable didn't get pushed all the way into the join and there is a groove that catches the stitches as they go by. I love the points on Knit Picks needles, so I'll continue to buy them, but I have had a whole lot of problems with defective ones. I suppose one has to expect that, because they don't cost a lot, but I find it disappointing. So after I finish this, I will go and complain.
The weather was so-so. I mentioned that I saw the moon. The camera didn't, because its first picture was at 8:03 and by that time the moon was gone. There was a lot of sunshine until around 3:00 this afternoon, when it clouded up. The temperature was around 29º all afternoon, and has now risen a degree or so. The wind was from the west, but there wasn't much for most of the day. Meh.
The guys were active this morning and sleepy this afternoon, as usual. Louie didn't get his pet, because he came just about the time I was starting to type, and I had other things on my mind. Grayson just got a short pet a few minutes ago, but for some reason he doesn't usually stay long. they both love that mohair throw on the floor in the great room and they seem to occupy it alternately, although I think Grayson pulled it there and he sleeps there most of the time.
So that's about all I have to report. I will read a while longer - after I send my email - and maybe get to bed a bit earlier tonight. It's a warmish (for January) cloudy night in the field.
January 26 Quiet day. Not much to report.
I read for too long last night and it was around 1:30 (or later - I don't remember) when I turned out the light. Of course, that was after I had an accident and had to clean up after myself. I just read for too long. I slept well, of course, with only two wakeups. The second one was around 9:00 and I just decided that wasn't enough sleep. I got up around 11:00 or so, I guess. I knitted - I'm down to 69 stitches now, so I can do six or eight rows in the time it used to take me to do two.
I actually did something, but not much. My back was stiff, so I mostly sat. I did get the dishwasher unloaded, and tomorrow I will begin to reload it.
The weather was rather blah. It snowed lightly for most of the night, but it stopped sometime before sunrise, and it was just mostly cloudy and cold all day. The temperature was around 17º all day, although it has now risen a couple of degrees. It was windy overnight, but today the wind was calm for most of the day. There were a few rays of sunshine early this afternoon, but not a lot. Blah.
The kitties were full of energy this morning when I got up, but they slept for the rest of the day. Louie wanted to sleep on me, though, and I kept having to get up and boot him off until he finally gave up. Grayson slept with me for part of the night. I think the reason is that I am trying to get them to eat the last bowl of dry food, which they don't like very well, and he wants something he likes better. He's chubby enough that I don't feel bad about making him eat what I want him to occasionally.
So I've been reading and shortly I will go up to the north end. I'm not going to church tomorrow - it's a lay service - but I do need to wash my hair. I'm reading the last completed part of Trine - part 13, under the new numbering system - but it's a long part, so I'll be some time at it. Then I'll have to decide whether to try - again - to write part 14 or go read something else.
Now it's a cold, quiet night of the full moon tonight, so even if it's cloudy it should be bright. No snow, though.
January 25 I read for too long last night (the story of my life) and it was around midnight when I got to bed. I slept pretty well, with only a couple of wakeups. All night long the moon was shining on snow coming down. I didn't get up until around 10:30, and I knitted. I'm now down to 101 stitches, so the center of the shawl is coming along nicely. I really want to get this done and start on the bottom part. This is boring, but that is going to be interesting - it increases from 339 stitches to over 600 in about 32 rows.
My back was stiff when I got up, probably from lying on my right side too long, and it was sore enough when I got up to get dressed that I had to lie on the bed and do my tummy exercises before I could go on. I was very stiff and sore.
However, I got a call from Ron saying there were packages at the post office and a big one at the store, so I decided that I just had to go out. I made it, although it was hard, and I don't know what I would have done without Horton to put all the stuff in the car for me. I got my JD and eggs, too. My new credit card was in the mail, too, so now all I have to do is go out to all the sites I buy from and change my card number. Ugh.
When I got home, I had to get all that stuff out of the car, and I had to open the big box because besides TP and incontinent pads there was some probiotics I haven't had for several weeks. Then it was up the stairs and moving everything inside. What I discovered is that the exercise loosened up my back a bit and I've felt much better ever since. So maybe tomorrow I'll try to do something about the disaster in the kitchen and the stuff on the floor in the dining area. Sitting still hasn't helped much, so maybe now a little exercise will help. I'd also like to see if I can fix the camera. The way it's tilted is still giving me vertigo.
The weather was rather nice. It was cloudy and snowy this morning, but after noon or so, the skies started to clear a bit, and we actually had some nice sunshine this afternoon. The temperature rose slowly all day and it's now about 20º. The winds were calm until just recently when they picked up from the north. it's going to snow again tonight.
The kitties were rather active this morning when I got up, but they slept for most of the afternoon, and it was actually near dinnertime before anybody came for a pet. The barometer was dropping all day.
So now I will read for a while before I totter up to the north end again, but I hope not as long as I did last night. This episode is one where I made a whole lot of changes over the original, so It will take careful reading. It's a dark, cloudy night in the field, and it's going to snow, but it's not nearly as cold as it was.
January 24 I took a nice, hot shower, which helped my back, and I got to bed around 11:00 last night. I was only up twice, and I got up around 9:00 this morning, I think. My back felt much better when I got up, although after I knitted for over an hour and a half, it was getting stiff again. It was enough better that I was able to walk all the way from the kitchen to the studio without my cane, which hasn't happened in a week. Later on, after I was up several times and I had to go out to the garage to shut the door, it stiffened up again, but it's still much better than yesterday. What a relief! I can get out of a sitting position without feeling like someone has stabbed me in the back.
I didn't do anything with my new-found mobility. Thursday is a day when there are lots of things to read, so it took most of the afternoon to do my surfing.
The weather was a bit calmer than it has been lately. There were some snow showers, but not many, and there wasn't much, if any, wind. There were a few rays of sunshine this morning. The temperature, however, peaked at 7º - not exactly balmy. It's supposed to be warmer tomorrow, but there is another clipper system coming through tonight and tomorrow morning, so we're in for some more snow. According to the road commission, there was 9" of snow yesterday at Delaware, although I don't think we had quite so much here. We did have quite a bit. The juniper is almost completely covered now, with only a couple of sprigs showing through.
Not much to report on the kitty front.
Without the wind, the temperature in the studio got up to 65º today, and it's surprising how warm that feels. I hope that tomorrow I will feel enough better that I can get to the post office and the store. I'm running out of eggs, and I'm sure there are several packages for me there.
Oh, yes. My near disaster. I was looking through my writing files for some reason I don't remember last night, and all I discovered that Trine 9 had been overwritten by the old Trine 9, from before I changed the numbering! Eek! Gack! So after several false starts, I did a restore, this time from the DVR I've been adding to every Sunday night, and whew! I got it back! It was dated November 2, so I have to re-read it, even though I finished reading it the first time not long ago. It's another one of those things that I have absolutely no idea where the file went. I don't think we had any power glitches while I was reading it, or while it was still open, but it had disappeared into thin air, like a few others have. Fortunately, this is an episode I like, and I don't remember making too many changes, but there are probably typos and wording changes, so I have to read it over again. I would really love to know where those things go.
That also told me that now that I'm backing up my files to DVR, they aren't being backed up on the hard drive anymore. It would be really helpful to know those things from the get-go. People have written "missing manual" books for a number of things, including Photoshop, but as far as I know there isn't a "missing manual" for Windows 7, and now nobody will write one, since Windows 8 is out. There are so many things it would be nice to know before one learns them in a disaster. At least I had a backup of some sort, and I was able to get a version of the file back that I probably hadn't changed very much. But where did it go??? Aargh!
So now I will read Trine 9 for a while before I totter up to the north end and lie down on my heat wrap again. I discovered that I had it on "medium" all night last night, and that's a bit warm, so I won't do it again.
Now it's a cold, dark night in the field and some more snow is coming. Actually, with the moon nearing full, it's not all that dark, at least before moonset. The moon shining on the air full of snow is an interesting phenomenon. And maybe tonight I'll see the lights of town for the first time in a week.
January 23 Today is my parents' 73rd wedding anniversary. I try to note it every year, because without it, I wouldn't be here.
I didn't take a bath last night. Instead, I loaded up the dishwasher and got to bed around 10:30. I was up several times - my body is beginning to work more like normal again - but I slept well. It seems clear that lying down is the only way my back relaxes completely. I got up around 9:00. I had to, and it seemed to me that I'd had enough sleep. Of course, as soon as I sat up or stood up, my back went back into spasms. It does seem to me, however, that slowly, ever so slowly, things are getting better. I'm not having quite such a problem getting up and that intermediate spot, where my legs are under me and I need to straighten up, isn't quite as sore as it was. I'm not over it yet, but I'm making progress. Maybe by Friday I'll be able to get out and get my mail. I won't feel like I'm making real progress until I don't have to use the cane around the house.
The weather is moderating a bit, too. The temperature had gotten above 0º before midnight, and while it went down to 3º overnight, it went up to 8º for part of the afternoon. It's on its way down again, though, and an hour or so ago, we had northerly gusts of 42 mph. The winter advisory ended at 1:00 PM, but I couldn't see any difference in the view out the windows. It's still snowing. It's still cold. It's still winter. According to the Road Commission, there was another 6" of snow yesterday, which gives us 60½" for the month. That's more like normal. I don't know if we've had that much here, but the juniper in the side yard is almost covered. I hate that thing, and I always like to see it covered with snow.
We had had two power glitches before I went to bed last night, and we had another one around 11:00. There may have been another later, because I just noticed that the camera didn't start until 8:00 this morning for some reason. Everything was OK when I got to the studio, though. Of course, I had a bunch of clocks to set. I am so happy to have my little clock calculator again! I don't know why nobody else ever thought of that combination.
Oh, and that answers one puzzle. I set the dishwasher to start around 2:00 and it didn't, but the power glitch would zap the program. Now I feel better. I was a bit fearful that my dishwasher was acting up. I had to scare up some dishes for the cats, but I started it right away, and everything is clean now, although I didn't try to unload it. I can't tell you what an awful mess this house is.
The kitties were energetic this morning, but they slept for most of the afternoon. Grayson got a couple of pets and Louie got a long belly rub, and he wanted to come back just now, but I'm busy. One or the other of them is spending a lot of time on the mohair throw. I bet the wool on top of the warm floor is really cozy.
So that is about all I have to report. Slowly, ever so slowly, my back is getting better, which is a real relief. Now it's a frigid, snowy night in the field, and I will read a bit before I totter up to the north end. Tonight I must take a bath no matter what or when.
January 22 Well, we just had our second power glitch, just as I was almost through with tonight's entry. Grr. I'm sure I won't remember everything I'd written.
It seems like the vicodin doesn't work any better than Tylenol-3. I had some hope last night, because I was fairly comfortable when I was up, but as soon as I got up this morning and started sitting, my back got all stiff and sore again. So I guess I'll go back to the Tylenol and leave the stronger stuff for another time. Another part of my problem is that I pinched my bad finger between my leg and the toilet seat last night, so now I have a very sore finger, which makes typing harder than it would normally be when my nails need clipping.
I was in bed by 10:30 last night and I got up around 10:30 this morning. I knitted, although it was cold in the bathroom, and that was just about all I did today. I got the dishwasher almost ready to run tonight, and I have to take a bath. Maybe the hot water will help. It doesn't help that it's really cold in here. It was 58º when I got to the studio this afternoon. It's gone up to a balmy 61º, but that's still pretty cold. I have a strong suspicion that the heating system wasn't sized properly for this house, but at this point it would be hard to prove.
We finally made it above 0º F - it's now 1º. For most of the day it was down around -5º, and there were brisk north winds, in the 15-30 mph range. It snowed all day again. The thing is, with it so cold, the flakes are so small that it doesn't look like a lot on the ground. They reported 17" at Delaware between Saturday and yesterday. There's been more south of us, and the winter weather advisory is now on until 1:00 PM tomorrow. About every 12 hours, they push it 12 hours ahead. This could go on for a long time...
The kitties know there's something not right about mom, but they don't know what to do about it. Louie spent a good part of the night sleeping on the rug by the bed, which is a problem, since that's where I want to put my feet when I get up and with the neuropathy in my feet, I have a hard time feeling him. When I woke up, Grayson was sleeping between the pillow and the clock. They were full of energy this morning, running around and wrestling, but when I started getting dressed, they sat and looked at me sadly. They don't know what's wrong but they know something is. Grayson has pulled the mohair throw onto the floor and either he or Louie lies on it a lot. It must be warmer even than the fleece.
I was going to read a bit, but instead I think I'll just finish up the dishwasher and go take my bath and try to get to bed early again. It's a dark, frigid, snowy night in the field.
January 21 Oh, I am in pain, and it doesn't seem to be getting any better. The Tylenol-3 doesn't seem to be doing any good at all. I think I have some vicodin somewhere in the bathroom and I'll be hunting that up tonight. The problem is mainly getting up from a seat, especially my chair in the studio. I think I have the pot under control. Also, standing for any length of time is excruciating. And today I had to go out to the breezeway to shut the garage door and get some TP, and that didn't help either. The heating pad only helps when I'm sitting on it.
I read for too long last night. Then, on my way back to the kitchen with my tray balanced on the cane, it slipped and there are now two broken glasses and some dried soup on the floor in the great room. It's just going to have to stay there until I get my back under control again. The glasses didn't seem to shatter; they just broke into pieces. I'm really sorry, since one was one of my crystal rocks glasses, but those things happen. It wouldn't have happened if the floor was carpeted, but then I would have had a worse mess. At least I can clean this one up with a broom and a mop. Sigh.
I slept well, with only two wakeups. It was midnight when I got to bed, but I didn't get up until after 10:30 this morning. I knitted, and I'm moving so slowly that I didn't get to the studio until after noon. I made a peanut butter and banana sandwich for breakfast, but I wasn't hungry enough to eat all of it.
That was about all I did. There was lots of stuff to read, and the talking had started before I finished my surfing. What a lost day! I did get dressed today, though, and that felt better. For one thing, my sweats are warmer than bare legs. It's cold in here. It was 61º or 62º in the studio all day. The heating pad and my fleece throw helped a lot.
The weather was colder than it's ever been since I've been wintering here. The high for the day was at midnight: 7º. It dropped off after that and went below 0º around 11:00. It finally bottomed out between -4º and -5º and it's been there for the whole afternoon. There was a brisk wind from the north between 20 an 35 mph, which put the wind chill down close to -30º. It snowed off and on - mostly on - all day long.
I really felt for Ron when he came by around 1:00 to clear the driveway. There was quite a drift in front of my garage door, so I was glad he did, but the wind chill was down below -25º when he came. When I tried to close the garage door, sometime later, it wouldn't budge, so I had to go out and use the switch in the garage to get it down. It was really cold!
I had to go out there anyway, because I was running out of TP, but getting down and back up the steps was hard. Tonight I should run the dishwasher, but that is just too much bending, and I can't. The kitties will just have to eat out of whatever dishes I can find for them. I do need to get the stuff out of the dryer, though, since I'm out of underwear. It's late now, and I want to read some more, but maybe I won't be quite as late as I was last night.
it's been a long time since I've had a back flare-up like this one and I don't like it one bit. I have a hard time getting out of chairs anyway, and this has made it almost impossible. I think I may have figured out a way to get out of my desk chair, but we'll see how it works the next time. There is one point, right after I have my legs under me, where it is so excruciating I frequently just have to sit down again.
The kitties know there is something wrong, since they hear all the groaning and crying out, but they don't know quite what. They were off someplace, probably upstairs, today, but I noticed that Grayson had pulled the mohair throw onto the floor with the fleece, so he has a nice cozy place to curl up when he wants to be nearby. i don't know about Louie. He wanted to sit on me just about the time I was trying to get up to get some food tonight and I had to put him down. I was having enough trouble getting up without that.
One of the nice people who lurk here and post on the PastyCam page warned me about the heating pad, and I know that. The newer pad, which I'm using here, has printed instructions both on the cover and on the pad itself, and if a person followed them, they wouldn't use the pad at all - they couldn't. I suppose all those warnings are to prevent lawsuits, but really. Besides, I've slept and sat on heating pads for 70 years and I have yet to get burned. I try to be careful.
Now I will read a bit before I totter up to the north end and collapse. Sitting and lying down are the two places I don't have a lot of pain, so I'm doing a lot of them.
Now it's a frigid, snowy night in the field, and a good one to cuddle under the covers.
January 20 About the time I was writing last night's entry, I could tell that the lake was getting very roiled up, and when I checked the weather, it seems that between 7:00 and 8:00 we had 38 mph sustained winds with 55 mph gusts. When I got to the north end, the lake was roaring baritone and I could hear the gusts banging on the second story, even though they were from the north-northeast. It was a noisy night!
I turned out the light around 9:30 and I had some trouble getting to sleep. I was sleeping on the heating pad, but until I turned over onto my right side, every so often I would get some little spasms at the bottom of that muscle. Eventually I turned over and then it was better, although I was up several times during the night. I took a Tylenol-3 when I got up to the north end and it seemed to work very well. My back was stiff while I was taking my bath but it wasn't sore.
I had decided before I went to bed that I wasn't going to try to go to church this morning. I woke up around 7:30 and decided, nah. Let's not. The next time I woke up was around 9:00 and my back was really bad then so I took another Tylenol-3, and that didn't do anything at all. Maybe I need the booze with it to make it kick in.
Anyway, it was a very slow, painful day. I'm even using my cane to walk around the house. Bending over and sitting down or getting up is excruciating. I spent most of the day sitting on the heating pad in the studio, but it doesn't seem to have made much difference yet. I know it will go away eventually, but in the meantime, it gets old really fast. It's a good thing I have so much to eat upstairs, because no way could I get down to the freezer now. I need to go out to the breezeway and get some TP, but not today.
I don't doubt that part of the problem was that it was so cold around here. It was only 61º in the studio when I got here. Of course, it was only 5º outside then. It finally got up to 7º, but it's dropped off again. The wind was still strong this morning, but it's dropped off to under 10 mph now. I do love to hear the roaring of the lake! It snowed more or less hard all night long and most of the day, too. We did have a ray or two of sunshine, which would be followed five minutes later by heavy snow...lake effect, even though the advisory had ended. i think several inches of snow probably fell, but with the wind and the very low temperatures it's hard to say. Now, this is what the Keweenaw should be like in January! And it looks to continue for the next three or four days.
Of course, the snowmobilers won't be very happy, because it's too cold. I'm sorry, but if you want snow and you want snow in Keweenaw, you should be prepared for cold, too. If you're too wimpy to ride in sub-10º temperatures, go someplace else. This is how it is here. Just put on a few more layers of clothes.
The guys were very sleepy again today, for which I don't blame them. That's about all this weather is good for. Louie did come and sit on me this evening until I had to get up to pee and get my dinner, but I didn't see much of Grayson after this morning.
So now I will read a bit more before I totter up to the north end and go to bed. I never got dressed today, so it will be easy. It's a frigid, snowy night in the field.
January 19 I read for quite a while last night, and then I looked at a catalog (a small one) so it was around 11:00 when I got to bed. I made a mistake then - I should have slept on the heating pad, but I decided not to, and I'm sorry. I was up around 1;00 and the lake was quite riled up, and I could hear the wind hitting the upstairs. By the time I got up for good, that was all over with. I got up around 10:00, I think, and I knitted four rows. Now I have just over 200 stitches on the needles.
Today was wash day and it's also the day to fill the pill dispensers. I had so many accidents that there weren't any jeans to wash, so I only had two loads, and the second one is drying now. I've filled the pill dispensers in the studio, and I was very careful to make sure the lids were tightly shut. Sometime last week, I discovered Louie trying to crunch a neurontin, which I'm sure wouldn't be good for him, and then earlier yesterday I discovered white dust on the floor that must have been from the gout med. When I went to take my pills last night, that cell was empty. So what seems to have happened is that the lids were never snapped completely shut and one day's worth of pills dropped out. That annoys me - those little purple pills I take are about $1 a piece and I hate to lose any (so of course, I dropped the bottle on the floor while I was filling the dispensers!). I also don't like Louie's habit of eating things off the floor. He has a real like for plastic grocery bags, which I'm sure isn't good for him.
Anyway, my back was so bad today that I had a hard time doing anything, and while I'll prepare, I'm not at all sure I'm going to church tomorrow.
When I looked at my email today, three subscription orders from Amazon had bounced because of the credit card. I suspect I'll be getting a lot of those for a while until I can get the new credit card and get it into all the sites I normally buy from. Oh, that is such a pain! It's even a worse pain than having to tell the credit card company there's been a fraud. I do most of my shopping online and most of the places where I do business save my credit card number. I have some hope that they will be able to track down this incident, because whoever did it had to put in their real shipping address in order to get the items sent to them and Radio Shack will have a record of that. It does indicate that they aren't properly authorizing their credit card transactions, though, unless somebody figured out a way to get those three little numbers on the back of the card. Maybe they ought to hash those numbers with the zip code on the shipping address as part of the authorization. It's hard for the good guys to keep even with the nasties.
The weather was snowy. It snowed on and off all day today. For most of the day the temperature hovered around 26º, plus or minus a degree, although now it's gone up to 30º. There wasn't much wind, either. Now it's begun to rise and shifted around to the north. They say it's going to get really cold tonight and won't get over 10º tomorrow, with snow. Considering the state of my back, unless it miraculously recovers, I think I'll stay home tomorrow.
Unfortunately, that means I won't get to church for two weeks. Pastor is going to Washington for that Pro-Life stuff, and there will be a lay service next Sunday. I don't go to those. It usually embarrasses me for the people doing it.
The kitties were very sleepy all day. I went to the bathroom at the north end this afternoon for a change, and Grayson appeared, yawning widely. He followed me back to the studio, got up on my lap, curled up with his forefeet on my left arm, and went peacefully to sleep. What an angel cat he can be! I haven't seen Louie at all since breakfast. I suspect they must be sleeping upstairs during the day. There are some nice soft places to curl up, and it is certainly warmer up there.
Speaking of that, I finally turned on the ceiling fans in the great room. They do help bring the heat down toward the floor. Although it warmed up enough today that it's pretty comfortable all over the house. That's good. I was beginning to wonder if I had a bad zone valve in the studio - and I might - but I really, really don't want to have to go downstairs right now.
Last night I had something from Schwan's I wanted to try (meh) so tonight I had my marinated salmon, which I like a lot. The freezer is full, and I still have a little chicken left, so even if I can't get out much, I have some good things to eat.
Tonight I will definitely sleep on the heating pad and hope that helps my back, although typically it takes a week or two for it to recover when I get these things. My suspicion is that I start sitting funny in my chair at the computer and reaching for the mouse and if I do that long enough, and it's cold enough (which it sure was) it messes up that one muscle in my back, which messes up the rest of my back. Actually, that plus all the humidity we've been having has pretty messed up my whole bod. I hurt. I hurt all over.
So now, since it's early, I will read for a little while then I'll trundle up to the north end and take my bath and get to bed early, which isn't a bad thing ever. It's a dark, snowy night in the field, but it's not very cold out yet.
January 18 I was getting ready to go up to the north end when I remembered there was a bill I wanted to pay, so I got onto my online bank. When I do that, I always check my credit card transactions, just because I've been burned a couple of times. Well, make that three times. I discovered a pending charge for almost $200 from Radio Shack. Now, I haven't bought anything from Radio Shack in at least ten years, and I've never bought anything from them online. Oh, dear.
So I called, and in the course of talking to the fraud department, I found out that it wasn't just the one pending transaction. There were two others, and the total came to almost $600! Eek! So they canceled the pending transaction, they will credit the two that had already posted, and my credit card is canceled. I would dearly love to know what the back story is, but of course, I'll never find out. My new card will come sometime next week, but in the meantime, I can't really use the old one. Probably that's a good thing; it will keep me from buying anything.
Anyway, that upset me enough that when I went north, I was beginning to get a stress headache. So I sat and knitted a while until I felt like I was calmed down. I got to bed around 11:00. When the lights were out, I could see the moon shining fitfully through the clouds, and that sort of discombobulated me for a moment, since my frame of reference had gotten disrupted, but eventually I figured it out, about the time the clouds got thick again. I slept well enough that I nearly wet the bed a couple of times. I got up around 9:30, I think. I knitted some more. I still have more than 200 stitches on the needles, even though I'm working them off at the rate of four per row, but the center back of the shawl is coming along. Knit three together, knit three in the next stitch...snore...
I went to the post office, where there was a lot of stuff but not much that I really wanted. I called to see if Peggy was available, but it seems that the snowmobilers have arrived in droves, and they were overwhelmed. She was cooking. I'm glad to hear it. It's about time, and since this is a long weekend, I sure am glad we have snow.
We have snow. The temperature was around 10º all night, and then it rose to 19º late in the afternoon, where it still is. The wind died down completely and it has been calm for quite a while, but we had snow showers all day long. Geez, tomorrow I'm going to have to work on the camera. Having the horizon slaunchwise is a bit unnerving to me. Anyway, it was a cold, snowy day.
The weather did its number on my poor old joints, and besides, either yesterday or overnight I must have gotten cold, because that pesky muscle in my back is acting up again. I suppose I should sleep with the heating pad tonight. I hate to do that; getting into and out of bed is always a pain when I have that thing wrapped around me. But on the other hand, it does work. We'll see.
The guys were pretty sleepy today. Louie got a good time on my lap this morning and Grayson sat until I had to get up to get my dinner. Louie has been bugging Grayson, which worries me. Louie is a lot bigger than Grayson and I don't think Grayson like wrestling all that much. Well, I'll watch them, and they mostly do it while I'm looking.
So now I'm sleepy again. I think I may read for a little while longer before I totter up to the north end and try to get to sleep early. Fortunately, I don't have any more bills to pay.
It's a dark, snowy, cold night in the field.
January 17 I read too long again, so it was 1:00 before I turned out the light. I slept well, except that I was up every two hours, at least until 7:00, and then I slept until 11:00. So it was a truncated day, and I didn't do anything I intended to do. I did finally remember where I put the papers I was looking for, so that was good. Otherwise, I even missed the first 20 minutes of ATC because I was on the computer putting together a Schwan's order.
I knitted a bit this morning, and now the Icelandic shawl is getting just as boring as the Faroese shawl. I have to finish the upper part before I can go on to the lower border, and it's all the same berry stitch all the way to the top...knit three together, knit three stitches into the next stitch and repeat until you're bored out of your tree. I guess I like the challenge of the Shetland shawl better.
Speaking of that, I had just awakened when I got a nice phone call from the other Sharon. She was at the other side of the room yesterday, and I didn't know if she'd even seen the stoles, but she had seen the Shetland stole, and she wanted to tell me how much she admired it. That was so nice of her. I admire what she does, too. She is a quilter, and I've really admired her work. I like her taste in colors, and she is absolutely precise in her piecing. I haven't done a lot of that, but I've done enough to know how hard it is. One thing I like about the ladies, especially the ones who were there yesterday, is that we can all admire each other's work without trying to compete. We each do our own thing, very well indeed in most cases, and we don't need to try to outdo anybody else.
It was another good day to hibernate. The temperature has finally risen to 11º, but for most of the day it was right around 8º - I think it's the first time we've had single digit temps during the day for several years. The wind was from the north in the 25-32 mph range, so the wind chill was very much below zero. Brr. At intervals all day there would be a lake effect snow squall, although I don't think there was much accumulation. Brr. It was cold in here, too. I had my fleece blanket over my shoulders for most of the afternoon.
Grayson and Louie were cold, too, I think, and both of them spent some time sitting on me. When I went to get my dinner, Louie was on one of the scratching pads and Grayson was curled up on the piece of fleece he had pulled onto the floor. They weren't very active at all. I don't know about Louie, but I think Grayson was happy to be inside in the warmth, such as it is.
So that was another quiet day. Tomorrow I must try to do the things I didn't do today, and I should go to the post office. I should try to get to bed at reasonable hour, too, but we'll see about that. I'm reading through the Trine stories, and I'm fairly satisfied with what I'm reading - much better than the originals, at least so far. I've been trying to put titles on them, and I'm terrible about titles. I need to go back and divide the longer ones into chapters, but that's for another time. They're good enough for me to stay up too late, anyway.
Now it's another dark, windy, frigid night in the field, and a good one for diving under the covers and sleeping hard and long...oh, yes, after they stop playing Beethoven's "Les Adieux" piano sonata...
January 16 I read for much too long last night, and then I had to take a bath, so it was 1:00 before I got to bed. Of course I slept well, with the usual wakeups. At one point (I don't remember which) I looked out and I couldn't see the lights of Copper Harbor, so we had some snow overnight - not a lot, but some. I got up around 10:00 and I finished the row I started knitting last night and did the return row. I wanted to see what this pattern looks like, since the picture seemed to indicate it's lacy. Well, it's just a normal Trinity (or maybe Bramble - it has a bunch of names) stitch, but that's all right. It's a bit lacy and on such small needles, it has a nice bumpy texture.
I got to do some of my surfing, but I had an accident, so I had to change my underwear. I blame it on Grayson. He was sitting on my lap when I had an urge, and he didn't want to move. I also managed to knock over the tripod the camera sits on, because I wanted to get something out of the cupboard near it. I couldn't because the stuff behind the ugly chair has shifted and i couldn't get the doors open completely. I got the camera sort of settled, but it isn't quite straight, and I didn't have time to fool with it very much. I will work on it tomorrow and see if maybe I can at least get it vertical again. It was quite a shock when I looked at the software and found myself looking at an upside-down picture of the ceiling! I don't like the mounting of that camera at all, but that's the only thing I don't like. Anyway, finally I gathered together the things I wanted to take with me and set off for Carolyn's for the first ladies' meeting.
There weren't a lot of us there, but I met one of Carolyn's daughters, who is very nice and has the same square jaw and lovely white hair as her mom. Carol and Connie both have new puppies. Carol's some kind of bird dog - I didn't hear what she said - and Connie has a standard poodle. Yeah! I have no use for the small poodles. Like all small dogs they are hyper and yappy. But I knew a standard poodle when I lived in Grosse Pointe, and she was a very lovely dog, despite having had a difficult beginning. She was also very smart and very beautiful. This one is still a small puppy, but I'm sure Connie and Bill will be able to train her into a wonderful pet.
I got to show off the two lace stoles, and they were properly admired. Connie had another adorable sweater for her grandson, but mostly there was just talk. I like those ladies, and it was a good gathering.
The weather was good for that kind of gathering. We had a high temperature of 30º between 10:00 and noon, and then it started to plummet, and now it's 16º on its way down. There was a very strong wind from the north all day, with sustained winds up to 32 mph and gusts to 40 mph. When I got up, at 10:00, it was so dark, it looked like sunrise, and it was mostly dark and cloudy all day. It was a good day to be indoors, watching the wind blow the snow across the yard.
The guys were sleepy this morning, and when I got home, Louie was in the box in the great room and Grayson had pulled the end of my navy soft fleece onto the floor and he was curled up in it. Jasmine did that, although she preferred the mohair afghan. So would he, probably, but it's under the fleece. He looked very comfortable. While the talking was going on, he intended to go from the east counter onto my lap, but somehow he missed his step and ended up on the floor. I don't know how that happened, and he was clearly quite embarrassed about it. When I went out to get my dinner, he jumped on the counter, and when I looked around, I understood why: all the dry food dishes were empty, and he was trying to tell me something. So I had to fill the dishes before I got my dinner. Oh, they have their ways...
I don't feel like I got enough sleep last night, and I'm tired, although the cold weather does that to me, even when I'm not out in it very long. So I hope I won't be up very long tonight. It's a dark, windy night in the field, and there will be more snow. It's winter at last!
January 15 Whatever my sleep problem was, I seem to be over it. Last night, I started reading and it was midnight before I got to bed, which may have had something to do with it. I was up several times, but I had no problem going back to sleep. I woke up around 9:00 and I needed to walk, so I got up. I knitted for a very long time, but I'm now beginning the top center of the Icelandic shawl. I've only done two rows on it, so I'm not quite sure how it's going to look yet.
I knitted for so long I didn't do anything I wanted to do, except to unload the dishwasher. It was a kind of klutzy morning, and I even dropped an egg on the floor - I think that's the first time I've done that in 40 years or more, if ever. Yuck. So now I have an odd egg, but that means I can have French toast sometime.
I unpinned the Shetland scarf and I mended the raspberry stole. I don't feel like I did a really good job on the stole, but I admit it's almost impossible to find where I mended it, so I guess it's all right. What happened was that there was a near-break in the yarn (because of moths) that I didn't notice while I was knitting, and when I stretched it, the strand broke. i have been trying to be a whole lot more careful not to leave my yarn lying around where the moths will get at it, so maybe I can avoid those problems in the future.
The weather was cold, although it did get up to 21º for a while this afternoon. There was a wind from the west in the 10-20 mph range, which means it was frigid in the studio. For most of the time I was doing my surfing, I had a nice warm cat on my lap that I could bury my fingers in. The sky was alternately very cloudy and very clear. It cleared up while I was knitting this morning, but then about 1:00, it clouded up rather abruptly and we had a nice little snow squall. After about 3:00 or so, it cleared up again, and it was pristine at sunset. When I went to get dinner, there was a nice crescent moon shining in the upper windows of the great room. According to the Road Commission, Delaware had 16" of snow over the weekend and another 12" yesterday. We didn't get that much here, but we got enough that Ron had to break out the tractor for the first time this winter.
The guys weren't very active today. Grayson slept on the rug all the time I was knitting, except when the tractor went by. He had never heard that sound before and it disturbed him. Then he came back, went back to sleep and even put his paw over his eyes to keep out the light. Louie came in and saw him asleep and went away quietly - i thought that was rather nice of him. While I was surfing, Louie came and went to sleep on my lap, and he put his paw over his eyes, too. That may be partly to keep their noses warm - it was only 62º here when I got here this morning. Now they are getting a little more active.
I forgot to mention that I heard Grayson growl for the first time yesterday morning. He was asleep in the bathroom when he heard some noise I didn't and he jumped up, growled, and ran off. I don't know what it was, because he was back pretty quick. Just now, Louie jumped up on the sewing machine chair, where Grayson was sitting, and somebody, I think Louie, made a noise that sounded like a sneeze, but I think it was him spitting. Or maybe not, because I've heard him make that noise when Grayson was nowhere to be found. Part of their problem is that they just can't get on the same schedule. One wants to sleep when the other one wants to play, and the result of that is frequently a wrestling match that is a bit more serious than pure play. I keep reminding myself that Buster and DC did that, too, for most of the time they were together. It seems to be a boy thing.
So now it's a cold, clear night in the field. I need to wash my hair tonight, but I also need to get a few things together to mail tomorrow, so I'll be here a while. January is half over, and i don't know where it went.
January 14 I'm happy to say i slept last night. Not extraordinarily well, and I was up any number of times, but in between, I slept. I think I was in bed by 9:30 and I got up around 9:30 this morning, so I don't feel too bad today.
I knitted for quite a while this morning, so I was late getting to the studio and I didn't do much. I will have to finish loading the dishwasher tonight. I did take the raspberry stole off the blocking board and I blocked the Shetland stole, although I'm not very happy with how I did it. I was suspicious of the edging on that one, and it turns out I was right. However, the center is lovely, and even though I didn't block it out as much as I could have, the pattern shows clearly and it's very nice. The only problem is that not all the diamond shapes in the borders came out the same size, even though they have the same number of stitches. I'm sure nobody but me and Mrs. Sutherland (the pattern is attributed to her) will ever notice. Since the border came out so yucky, though, I'm glad I didn't use any more expensive yarn. It's alpaca and it's nice and soft, but it's pale gray. I will try to take some pictures one of these days. If I feel very energetic, I might try to reblock it to fix the edging, although I'm not sure how well it will work. I meant to bring the raspberry stole down here to fix the hole in it, but I forgot it. By the time I finished my blocking, my legs were so sore I had to sit down, so I didn't go back to get it, and then it got dark. Tomorrow.
My feet are still very sore, as are my lower legs, so I did a lot of sitting today. That was all right.
It snowed all night and it snowed all day. There is now at least 7" of snow on the railing by the front door, where it's sheltered from the northwest winds we've been having. It snowed hard all afternoon. The high temperature was 19º and it's now gone down to 13º, so not only is it snowy, it's cold, and the snow is very light and fluffy. There was some wind overnight, but it's been nearly calm all day, so I could sit and watch the pretty flakes come straight down. I like snow.
The guys were rather rambunctious, especially this afternoon, when they were thundering up and down the stairway for quite a while. The barometer is quite high, so maybe that explains it. I don't really know what they were doing, because I've had the door almost closed all day, to keep what heat there is in and the cold in the great room out. Maybe they were just trying to keep warm.
So now I think I will read a bit before I try to get to bed early again. It's good weather for long winter's naps. It's a frigid, snowy night in the field.
January 13 I have to believe that my problem sleeping is because I'm fighting some bug. It was another nasty night. I must have been up six or seven times, and each time, I woke up because I was having a night sweat. I must have slept some, but not more than a couple of hours at a time. Since I turned out the light a bit after 9:00 last night, by 7:00 I should have had enough sleep, if I'd slept. The only consolation was that all night long I couldn't see the lights of town at all. It's snowing!!
I got myself up and out, not quite as early as I wanted, but not especially late, either. I keep forgetting how long it takes to gather my stuff and put on my coat in this weather. it was a slow slog into town. We had had an inch or two of snow in the Harbor, but there was a lot more even up at the Mountain Lodge and points south, and it snowed all the way to Laurium. I was glad I went. There was communion and a celebration of the Baptism of Our Lord and i was nice.
Then I was off to Pat's for groceries. Ugh. I got almost everything I needed, except what they were out of, but it was a big order. I had to go all around the whole store and my feet were killing me by the time I started home.
That was quite a ride. It was snowing even harder than it had been on the way down, and the Road Commission hadn't done any plowing to speak of, especially from Delaware north. Every time a car passed on the other side, it threw up a wake that caused a white-out, and there was one place on the covered road where the trees were sparse where there was about 200 feet of white-out. It wasn't very easy to see where the road was anyway. I don't think it was very slippery, which was the only good thing. I didn't get home until 2:00.
Then, of course, after I changed my clothes, I had to unload all the bags and stuff it all into the fridge. I didn't finish that until 3:00, and by that time I was exhausted and I had (and still have) very sore legs and feet. What a chore! Oh, yes, and before I could get into the back of the truck, I had to sweep off all the packed snow that had formed there. No way anybody could have seen my tail lights or my license plate or even my cyclops. I know how to drive in snow and I've done a lot of it, but I can't say I enjoy it.
So for the rest of the afternoon I did nothing at all except have a late lunch (pasta salads, of course) and pet a couple of cats.
The weather, besides being snowy, was cold. The temperature here was around 19º all day long, and it was colder in Calumet - 14º when I got there and 16º when I left. There was a wind from the north that was around 10 mph. All the snow is lake effect, which means that the humidity is very high, and my poor old bod was telling me that all day, too.
The kitties were very glad to see me come home, finally, and they were quite interested in all the unloading and packing away. During the afternoon, first Grayson and then Louie sat on me and got petted and purred. They like having mommy home, and I'm not sure if they still understand that I will get up early and go away for a while on Sunday.
Besides my legs and feet, my hands have been very sore all day, and not from the gout, although I had twinges of that, too. And on the way home, I got a cramp in my left hand. I like to keep both hands on the steering wheel, especially in weather like this, and it was hard when every time I clenched my fist, it cramped up. I certainly hope I can sleep better tonight. This is getting really old.
Anyway, the big news is that we have snow. I was amused when I got to Delaware, coming north, to see that all the tire tracks turned down toward Lac LaBelle - toward Mt. Bohemia. John Dee and the snowmobilers aren't the only ones who have been champing at the bit for snow. There weren't any snowmobilers here when I came through, but there were bunch parked outside the White House restaurant in Mohawk when I went by coming home. According to John, this is likely to continue for at least a couple of weeks. Oh, would that be good! Our businesses are really hurting. The week between Christmas and New Year is usually a big one around here, and of course, there was no snow - so no business. They won't be able to make up for that, but with any kind of luck, they'll do well for the rest of the season.
Besides, most of us who live here by choice do so because we love snow, and it's dreary and depressing when there isn't any. I can't express how beautiful my drive was today, with the light, fluffy snow on every twig and branch and all over the evergreens. Let it snow!!
Now it's a dark, snowy night in the field, and I don't think I will be up for very long. Maybe I'm tired enough to sleep tonight.
January 12 Ugh. It was another one of those nights. I turned out the light around 9:30, but I just could not sleep. I was up four or more times between then and 2:00, before I finally was able to get to sleep, and I was up a couple more times after that. I just do not know why those things happen. I wasn't particularly uncomfortable, although my right knee was very sore when I got up. I just couldn't sleep. Bah. I finally did get some sleep, though, and I got up around 9:30. Not enough, but some. I certainly hope I can do better tonight!
I knitted several rows on the shawl. I finished the light gray and started with the white again. Now there are several rows of white, followed by a few rows of taupe, then white, and so forth, before it turns to all white and a sort of Trinity stitch until the top. Then, of course, I have to pick up from the bottom and go in the other direction. It's an interesting shawl.
That was almost all I did today. I didn't feel very good and my knees are sore (as well as my finger and my wrists) so I spent the afternoon reading some of the catalogs I got yesterday. My knee does feel a bit better now, and I suspect I have been having a gout attack. Well, they said that would happen, and if it's in my left knee, it should probably be in my right knee, too. This is the first time my finger has been sore in a long time, though.
The weather was unsettled. It was 42º when I got up this morning and quite windy. Then the wind started to rise and the temperature started to drop. The peak winds here were 38 mph around 1:00 PM. The temperature continued to drop, and it is now 26º. The wind shifted around and it is now out of the north. Starting around 5:00 it began to snow lightly. Since most of our snow on the ground was gone, the new is welcome, although when I checked, around 6:00, there wasn't much new.
The guys were pretty sleepy today. Louie would have slept on my lap all day if I'd let him. He seems to need much more hands-on than Grayson does, although when I scratch Grayson's head, he likes it and he purrs.
Now I think I will go up to the north end early and try to get to bed early. I need to prepare as though I was going to church tomorrow, and I do need to go. I need to shop for food and I may need to stop for gas, too. Not to mention that I need to be in church. However, we'll see how things look in the morning. Now, it's a snowy, windy and cold night in the field, and we're finally - finally!! - getting a bit more snow.
January 11 I got to bed about 10:15 last night. Evidently, shortly after I went to sleep, we had a power failure, because when I woke up around 2:00, the clock was blinking and had been for 2½ hours. I didn't bother to check if I was on generator power, but I think I was, because the first report from the NWS station was at 2:51. The last report, at 10:00, had wind gusts at 38 mph, and since they were from the south, it stands to reason that something came down. When I went to bed, the lighthouse was off, too, although when I got up it was back on. I didn't think the lighthouse was powered by line power, and I've seen it on when we had power failures before, so I'm not sure what was going on. Anyway, I enjoy seeing that blinking light at night.
I went right to sleep, but after i got up, I had some trouble going back to sleep on my right side. I've had that problem lately, but there are also times when I can only go to sleep on my right side, so I haven't figured it out yet. When I was up, I could hear it raining, and we had a total of 0.15" overnight. Oh, if only that had been snow!
I got up around 9:30, and I actually knitted four rows before I got dressed. Good thing, too, because I didn't touch the knitting for the rest of the day. My task of the day was to go to the post office, and there were a huge number of catalogs as well as a lot of other stuff and my order that includes the solution that is supposed to set the color in my tote bag. We'll see about that. IT has to be used in a washer, unfortunately, but I will be trying it soon. Either it will set the color or I'll have a funny colored tote bag and I'll have to wash out the washer.
The weather today was just blah. The temperature was almost steady around 39º, and after noon the wind died down to nothing. It was dark and cloudy all day, and a couple of times it got so dark I thought it might rain some more, although it didn't.
The weather forecast for the weekend is dire, especially since I have to go to church and shop afterwards. We will have high winds tomorrow morning, followed by a winter weather advisory until Monday. Well, I've driven in blizzards before. I knew I should have shopped last Sunday when it was nice, but oh. well. Now I really have to. I'm running out of OJ and JD and other stuff that I want to eat, so Sunday is the day. Well, if it's blizzarding, I guess I won't go, but still.
The guys were sort of sleepy today. Louie got a real love-in this morning. He sat down on me, and I started rubbing his tummy and he was so happy he purred and purred until he went to sleep. i guess I didn't know he likes to have his tummy rubbed, at least sometimes. Grayson is more iffy about that. Grayson came later and he got some love, too, but most of the day they were off someplace sleeping. Oddly enough, my order from Nancy's notions had a small package of cat treats in it, and I gave some to Grayson and he thought they were wonderful. I don't like to give them too many of those things, because they're empty calories, and that's the last thing they need, but oh, boy did he like them! I must try them on Louie, but it will be hard. I'm not quite sure why Nancy's Notions would have cat treats, but oh, well. Another way to make a penny, I suppose.
My knees were still very sore today, so I didn't do anything much except look at my mail. The first tax things have begun to arrive. My fingers were sore, too. So now I think I will totter up to the north end and maybe knit a row or two more before I sleep. It's a dark, cloudy night in the field, but the weather hasn't begun to act up yet.
January 10 i finished the medium gray before I went up to the north end last night, so I'm making good progress on the shawl. I got to bed around 9:30, maybe? I don't remember, but it was fairly early. I had some trouble getting to sleep because I was thinking about something, but once I started I did good.
I got up around 9:00 (that's why I think I was in bed early last night) and I knitted the first two rows of pale gray on the shawl. It was sunny this morning and the guys were full of beans.
After doing my surfing and thinking about it, I decided the task of the day was to finish winding balls of yarn. I did it, finishing around 9:00 tonight, and I sure am glad. Even with the electric winder, that is not a fun job. While I was winding all that denim colored yarn, though, I had a brainstorm and I know what I want to do with it. It will be a twin set, and it will have lace - and beads! I still have to work out the details, but I have an idea. So while I wound the last 28 balls of worsted-weight cotton/linen (really pretty colors), I cast on a big swatch of denim yarn. The ball band gives the gauge - "before machine washing and drying." Eek! Of course, if it has beads, I won't machine wash or dry it, but my plan is to do that before I put on the beads. So I have to know what the gauge will be after machine washing and drying. I do not need to do all that work - it works on #4 needles, which means lots of stitches, especially in my size - and discover I made the whole thing too small! I have a bunch of other yarn to make summer tops out of, but this one feels more interesting to me, at least right now. Knitting and bead embroidery - now, I can go for that! Then I packed up the winder and the swift and the end of the desk is nearly bare again for a while.
I also located the yarn for the raspberry stole, so I can patch that hole, maybe tomorrow. This place is a horrible mess, but most of the time I can find what I'm looking for. I just have this need to have lots of stuff and have it all around me. I don't know why, but I've been that way since I was a little kid. My bedroom door always got shut when we had company.
It was a nice day, I guess. I thought about going out, but I didn't. It was sunny and clear until around 3:00, when the clouds began to move in. The temperature got up to 39º and there was a rather brisk south wind, with gusts that are now up to 32 mph. The barometer has taken a dive, too.
The barometer was high this morning, so the guys felt good and they spent a lot of time wrestling. Then this afternoon, they slept. Louie wanted to oust Grayson from the ugly chair, but I wouldn't let him, so he laid down right in the doorway, and at one point, he was sound asleep with his hind legs pointing left and his front legs pointing right, belly up. Even when I was young and agile, I don't think I'd have wanted to sleep like that, but he seemed quite comfortable. In fact, he was so zonked out that Grayson came over and stared at him for quite a while before he woke up. While I was surfing, Louie came and sat on me and got a belly rub, and this time he seemed to think it was just fine. All I have to do is figure out what they want when they want it.
Now I think I will totter up to the north end and go to bed early again. The trouble is, the earlier I get up, the earlier I get tired and the earlier I want to go to bed. I still need a minimum of 10 hours' sleep no matter what. I'm not sure what combination of weather caused it, but my knees were excruciating today, especially the right one, which hasn't bothered me in quite a while. No clue why.
It's a dark, cloudy, windy night in the field and there is mixed snow/rain and snow southwest of us. Maybe we'll get some white stuff. I hope so.
January 9 Oh, another day.
I knitted a bit before i took my bath, and I was in bed by around 11:00, I think. I slept fairly well, although I had a sort of wakeful period in the middle of the night. I got up around 10:30 and knitted a bit more before I got dressed.
I didn't do a thing. I was late getting to the studio, so mostly I did my daily surfing. Then I pulled out the shawl again and by the time I stopped to get some dinner, I had finished the medium gray and I'm ready to start the light gray. I had a few glitches, including a couple I don't really understand, but I think I got things back together so it will look all right. This one is going a bit faster than the Faroese shawl, but of course, I started with only 339 stitches. I was looking at the border, though, and that ends up with over 600 stitches, so I have some looong rows to look forward to right at the end.
It was snowing when I got up, and I was hopeful, but it didn't last long and it went away quickly. It was extremely windy all day. The highest gust were around 48 mph between 12:00 and 1:00 (also the highest sustained winds, 35 mph) and the winds have been dying down a bit ever since. The temperature during the day was between 32º and 34º - much too warm for January! Contrary to the forecasts, it was only partly sunny all day. We're supposed to be in for another two or three days of warm temps before it cools off again. Oh, sigh.
The guys felt good this morning, but they slept for most of the afternoon. While I was making my breakfast this morning (or rather, noon) Grayson was looking out the great room patio door at the wind and the snow and smiling at me. I think he's a happy cat that he has a nice warm home instead of being out in the weather. Louie, I think, is just grateful to have a home. He had a home for long enough that I don't imagine he remembers being a stray, but then his dad died and when I got him, I don't think he knew what was going to become of him. Anyway, I think I have to pretty happy cats. I don't know how well they like each other, but other than that, they think this is a pretty good place to be.
Now I think maybe I will read a bit before I totter up to the north end. I'd like to get the next couple of rows done on the shawl - pale gray - and then the rest of the body is in white with a few rows of taupe. It's a dark, windy, but not very cold night in the field.
January 8 I knitted a couple of rows on the Icelandic shawl before I went to bed last night, and I turned out the light about 10:45. i had a hard time getting to sleep, for some reason, but once I did, wow, did I sleep. The first time I got up was around 4:30. I was up at 8:30, too, but that seemed too early, so the next time I woke up was 11:00. I guess I got my sleep. I knitted another couple of rows and finished the dark gray. I knitted a few stitches in medium gray just to see how it looks - nice - before I got dressed.
I had an accident, so I had to wash, and my task for the day was to get at least one stole blocked. I worked on the raspberry one, and when I had it all pinned out, I discovered that I had missed a place where the yarn got eaten, so there is a big hole in one spot. I think I can repair it, but it made me mad. Then Amanda came, and my hair is now neatly trimmed off evenly in back. she didn't cut it any shorter than she had to, so it's still very long - long enough that sometimes I lean back on it, but at least it's not all scraggly and dry on the ends anymore.
It was another partly sunny day, and the temperature was nearly steady around 36º. It was windy overnight, but it was nearly calm all day long today. Now the wind is beginning to rise again, and we are under a wind advisory for tomorrow. It might snow, too but it's supposed to rain around the end of the week, so if that happens, most of our snow will go.
The guys felt good, because the barometer was high until around noon, when it began to fall off. While I was putting the blocking wires into the shawl, Louie came up and said "Meow!" at the top of his lungs, which is pretty darn loud. I don't know what his problem was. He went away when Amanda came, of course, but Grayson was very interested in her, and he even got her to scratch him a bit, although she doesn't like cats very well. Then he came and went to sleep on my lap until I had to get up and get my dinner. Louie sat on me for a while, too. Grayson liked other people, but I think he likes me best, and so does Louie.
So that was another quiet day, and I think I will go up to the north end early and knit some more. Tonight I have to wash my hair. Now it's a dark, cloudy night in the field and it might snow. Hope so.
January 7 Well, the holidays are over. No more two devotions a day until Ash Wednesday.
I knitted a couple of rows before I went to bed last night, and I turned out the light around 10:30. I slept very well, although I was up about four times. I got up around 9:30, and I knitted a lot, so I was late getting dressed.
I wanted to do the three taupe rows, because the pattern is an interesting and different one, and then there were four plain rows of reverse stockinette stitch. And I wanted to start this because the other shawl is too boring...Hah. However, that's over now, and I'm working with dark gray on a pattern with some counting in it. One reason I wanted to do the Icelandic shawl is that it's in colors, if you call three shades of gray, four shades of brown, black and white, colors. Besides that, there are some interesting patterns in it that I haven't found in any other shawls. The taupe rows are one, and the center top is another. Besides all that, it starts someplace not too far from the middle and works in both directions. The gray is on the way from the bottom up, and then I pick up from the beginning and work down to the lower edge in shades of brown, with just the bound-off edge in black. The directions and the charts are terrible, but I think I can make it work.
When I got the yarn, which was rather expensive, I wasn't sure I liked it, because it's going to be a bit scratchy, but even as much as I've worked (16 rows of 339 stitches), it's wonderfully easy yarn to work in. It's fingering weight, not lace weight, but that's all right. It will be a warm shawl, not a summer shawl. I like the pattern, so I'll persist.
The Faroese shawl is in shades of brown, which isn't my favorite, and there are rows and rows that are one of two repeats, and that gets pretty boring after a while. I'll finish it, but not for a while, probably. Besides, it's a warm shawl, too, and I really prefer the lacey ones.
The other thing I did today was to get a bunch of stuff out of the car and bring in all the rest of the canned cat food and a lot of dry food. Grayson gave me hope, because when I filled a bowl with the low-calorie dry food, he sat down and ate some, but with all the other choices available, I don't know how much they'll eat. So I'm running out of canned food. I was afraid that would happen when the UPS guy won't come to the house, but I'll have to order some more in about three weeks. Even having to pick it up at the store is better than having to go to Calumet or Houghton, and it's cheaper, too. So anyway, the food is in the house and the bowls are full, so that chore is done.
The weather was most unlike January. The temperature got up to 40º briefly, and the wind picked up from the west around noon, with gusts up to 29 mph. It was 39º for most of the afternoon. It was also clear and sunny for most of the day, although a few high clouds came through a couple of times. Where's our snow? Oh, no, not another season like last year!!
The guys were rather active today. It must have been the sunshine. Louie got his loving, but Grayson didn't come to see me. He did sleep in the bathroom while I was knitting and he got petted a bit. He is evidently the guy who's been sleeping in the ugly chair, because Louie chased him out of it a little while ago.
I knitted while the talking was going on and I finished the second dark gray row just a while ago. I'll be interested to see how much of this I can do before my hands give out. They're already sore. It does narrow down quickly, so that will be nice. Tonight I have to run the dishwasher.
Now it's a partly cloudy, windy night in the field, and maybe I can get to bed fairly early again.
January 6 - The Epiphany of Our Lord I made it into bed shortly after 9:00 last night, but I had some trouble getting to sleep and I was up several times again. I was finishing a very vivid dream when the alarm went off, but I got up and did my thing.
Driving was slow. The road was ugly and it took me about 45 minutes to get to Mohawk, so I didn't get to church quite as early as I like (in clear, dry weather, it takes me about 50 minutes to get to Laurium). I did have time to visit the bathroom, though. It was a nice service, although I don't like setting two as well as I like settings one and three. Pastor's sermon was a good one.
I had toyed with the idea of shopping today, but I didn't feel very robust, and I have enough OJ to last until next week. Then I'll have to shop whether I feel like it or not. So I came right home, and I spent the rest of the afternoon reading.
Part of my problem is that last night my left knee was bothering me - I'm finally having the gout attack they promised I would. My index finger is sore, too. So I guess I'm not taking sugar pills after all. My knee is still sore and I only hope that will go away. I've been having a problem getting up from a sitting position, although part of that is that for some reason I feel like I can't get up and I've begun to believe it. It's not as hard as I want to believe. I'm hoping to get over this as soon as possible.
The temperature went down from 28º at midnight to 19º now, although it was colder than that when I was in Laurium. There was some wind overnight and this morning, but now it's nearly calm again. It was cloudy all day - one ray of sunshine - but if there was any snow, there wasn't much. Another blah day. I guess it's supposed to be warmer tomorrow, but no snow. Oh, how we need snow!
The guys were really sleepy today. Somebody - I'm not sure who - spent the afternoon in the ugly chair. Louie got his loving today, although it was hard to do my crosswords with him on my lap. I think Grayson is a little miffed because the dry food bowls are nearly empty again.
Amanda called this afternoon, and I'm going to get my hair trimmed on Tuesday. It never ceases to amaze me that I can get it trimmed off nice and straight and a while later it's all scraggly on the ends again. I won't let her cut it really short or anything, but it needs evening out.
Now it's a dark, cold night in the field and I don't think I'll be very late tonight.
January 5 I got to bed around 11:30 last night, but I had a hard time sleeping. I think it was because it was quite warm in the bedroom and I'm used to it being quite cold, so I can make my own temperature. My neuropathic feet were bothering me, too, as they have been lately - my toes feel cold event though they're not. Of course, if I was able to get to sleep easily, that wouldn't bother me. Anyway, I was up any number of times - partly due to the fish, I'm sure - and once I started to sleep, I didn't want to stop, so it was 10:30 before I got up.
Then I cast on and did the first row of the Icelandic shawl - finally! I discovered an easier way to do the crochet row for a provisional cast on, which helped, but there are 339 stitches and it just takes a whiie. I wasn't sure about the yarn when I got it, but even after having just done two rows, I know I'm going to like it. It's not exceptionally soft, like merino or alpaca, but it is highly twisted and it's going to be very easy to work with.
As a result of all that, I was very late getting to the studio, and I didn't do anything. Period.
The weather was blah, too. The temperature only got up to 32º today, which was good, but most of the ice that was in the harbor last night is gone now. There wasn't any wind to speak of. There was a little sunshine, although the skies weren't completely clear. The sunshine was nice, and the sunset was rather nice, too, although it wasn't nice enough to make me take the time to set up all the 2013 picture pages.
Nothing to report on the kitty front, either.
So now I think I'll read for a few more minutes, then I'll totter up to the north end and get ready for tomorrow. It's a mostly cloudy, rather warm night in the field.
January 4 I made it into bed a little after 11:00 last night, I think, and I slept rather well, except that it took me a while to find the right side to sleep on. I was awake a bit before dawn, and I could see the rays of the moon shining far in the south, so it was partly clear. I forgot to look up when I was in the bathroom. I got up around 9:30, and I knitted two more rows. Just the fewer stitches I have on the needle now is making it go faster.
I didn't do much of anything today. I was going to block one of the stoles, but after I finally got the rest of the blocking boards out of the pile behind the desk, I was too tired. So I was going to cast on the Icelandic shawl, and I couldn't (still can't) find my box of crochet hooks. So I said to heck with it and looked at cross stitch sites until the talking started.
Now I've gathered up what I need to cast on the shawl, and I'll take it up to the north end for tomorrow. I'm getting the hang of the Faroese shawl, but it's pretty boring, even though there are three patterns with different row counts going on at the same time.
The weather was rather nice. The temperature got up to 34º here, even though it didn't get that warm in Houghton. The wind was very strong, with gusts up to 34 mph during the afternoon, but the wind shifted around to the north overnight - I could hear it. It's dying down now. It was extremely windy overnight, and it was banging up against the house all night long, so loud I had a hard time hearing the lake. It was cloudy this morning, but after about 11:00 it cleared up, and it was very clear this afternoon, until around 5:00, when it began to cloud up again. It certainly was nice to see the sun and the blue, blue sky. The sun is still only about 19º above the horizon at solar noon (around 1:00 local time), so it shines right in my eyes. I didn't go out, but I enjoyed the sunshine.
The guys were themselves, and I don't have much to report, except that Louie has taken to jumping on me without any warning, and he ignores me when I yell, so I had to put him down hard a couple of times. I hate to hurt his feelings, but he has to learn.
The Schwan's guy came early today, which was nice, and now I have lots to eat again. I need to shop on Sunday, and then I'll be good for another month. I had orange roughy for dinner tonight, and it was pretty good, even though I broiled it, which isn't among the cooking methods they suggest - why I don't know.
Now it's a fairly warm, partly cloudy night in the field, and I'll be reading a bit more before I toddle up to the north end.
January 3 Oops. I was reading and listening to Bach and i almost forgot I have to do this.
I was late last night, but I did get my hair washed. I slept very well, thank you. I wondered, because I had bean soup for dinner, but I wasn't any more gassy than usual. I did have an accident this morning, but that was mostly my fault and Louie's. Anyway, I got up around 10:00 and I knitted - very fast, as it turned out. I knitted two rows in an hour and ten minutes. This pattern row didn't have any tricky stitches - like centered double decreases - in it.
I had an accident, like I said, so I had to change my bottoms and wash what I took off. I had three tasks for the day. I went to the post office and the store, although I almost didn't. If I hadn't gone today, I would have had to go tomorrow, so I went. I was almost out of JD, and I knew there would be a package at the store, as well as a couple of things at the post office.
There was also an envelope with a $100 bill in it and the stamp, uncanceled, in the wrong corner...which leads me to suspect somebody in Copper Harbor is sending me money. Whoever it is, I really appreciate it, but I really wish I knew who it is, so I could thank them in person. They are very generous. So are all of you.
The next task was to pay some bills that are due in the next week, and to create a Schwan's order. I got all of that done, although it took me until after the talking started to finish. I love banking online, but I have to say, I still prefer printed catalogs. I can go through a catalog in an hour or so (except for that 1000-pager!) but it may take me three or four hours to find what I want at a website...if I can at all. I know I wanted to order some stuff to set the color in a piece of fabric, and I had to hunt through almost an entire website to find it the other day. And no, it didn't make me order anything I hadn't planned on.
The weather was OK. The temperature got up to 25º this evening, although it was a bit cooler for most of the day (it got up to 28º in the middle of the night, but that doesn't count). It was relatively windy all day, and we are under a wind advisory, with gale warnings on the lake, through tomorrow morning. We had gusts up to 32 mph this morning, from the north, but the wind has now shifted to the west, at least temporarily. What was interesting is that it cleared up this afternoon (and we got three shots from MODIS, which doesn't happen very often!) and there was a lot of sunshine for about an hour and a half. It was nice while it lasted.
The guys were sleepy as usual. When I went into the laundry to wash my bottoms, there was another dead shrew there. Buster used to like to bring his into the bathroom, but there are too many places to hide there. The laundry, at least the way it is right now, is better, although a wise critter could run under the washer or dryer. The cats seem to panic the critters, though, and they don't have the patience to outwait them. (Ugh, what a sentence! I hope you know what I mean!) Both guys sat on my lap for a while, although Louie was partly responsible for my accident this morning. Grayson has taken up residence on the sewing chair in the evening, at least now that it's a bit warmer in here. Louie will be lying on the floor someplace, probably right where I would step on him if I didn't nudge him out of the way.
I was going to read a little more, but it's getting late, so I think I will just toddle up to the north end and sleep. It's a dark, windy night in the field.
January 2 Well, I was reading one of my favorite stories, and the music was very nice (a symphony by Schumann and Cesar Franck's symphony, which I haven't heard in some time) and it was very late before I got to bed. I slept well, of course. I was up twice, and I finally got up around 11:30. I didn't knit.
In fact, I didn't do much. I got the dishwasher unloaded, finally, and I began loading it again, and I went downstairs and brought up a bunch of stuff to eat. Of course, I was so late I didn't have much time to do anything more.
It was a sort of blah day, weather-wise. The temperature got up to 24º and the wind was calm for most of the day. Sometime, either yesterday or overnight, we had enough snow that all the tire tracks are gone. It was dull and cloudy. Blah.
The guys were sort of blah, too. I didn't see much of them after I got their breakfast (which they didn't like). I like it that cats can always sleep if there's not anything more interesting going on.
So I might read a little more, and tonight I really do have to wash my hair, no matter when I go up to the north end. It's a dark, cloudy and calm night in the field. Blah.
January 1, 2013 - New Year's Day
Happy New Year!
I was in bed by 10:45 last night, and the first time I woke up was around 5:00 in the morning. Wow, did I sleep! I had a little sort of wakeful time after that, but around 7:30 I went back to sleep and I didn't wake up again until 10:45. So while I can't claim I got 12 hours of sleep, I definitely caught up. My only problem was, my eyes were so slitty I had a hard time seeing what I was doing when I was knitting. It seems like, with the current number of stitches on the needles, It takes me about 45 minutes to do one row - or 1½ hours to do two. That will decrease eventually, but presently, it takes a long time to do a row.
So I was late getting to the studio and I didn't do anything much - I didn't have time. I did finish winding the pale green knitting worsted and I started on the recycled denim yarn (the one I have enough for a twin set), but it was getting dark and I couldn't see what I was doing. That's the only problem with getting up so late - the productive part of the day is so short.
It was another good day to stay inside. The temperature was actually a little warmer today than yesterday, around 20º, but it was still windy, and the wind had shifted around to the northwest, which means it was cold in here. It was dark and cloudy and it snowed lightly off and on all day. We got over an inch of fluffy stuff, but nothing to get too excited about.
The guys were full of energy this morning, probably because wrestling warmed them up. And they were hungry. Then Grayson went off to wherever he goes during the day and Louie spent the day asleep on the floor in the studio.
Even with all the sleep, I don't feel all that good, and today, my mastoid bones ached alternately. That tells me I'm still fighting, and I don't think I'll be up all that long tonight, either. I do have to wash my hair tonight, which probably means I'll be sleeping with the covers over my head.
So now we are in a new year. Tomorrow maybe I can work on my planner and my checkbook and get them set up for the new year. I still can't believe how fast the time goes these days. I still want to cast on the Icelandic shawl. My excuse today was that I need a crochet hook and with Louie on the floor, I would have had to move him to get to the barrels where that stuff is. Hah.
Now I think I will read a bit more before I go up to the north end. It's a cold, snowy night in the field, but the wind has dropped, so maybe it will be warmer around here tomorrow. Last updated 02/01/13 08:34 PM
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