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A View From the Field |
April 2013
April 30 Good grief, a third of the year is gone already!
I spent too long reading and rereading what I'd been writing, which is what I usually do when I draw a blank, and I've come up with a couple of ideas (one of which I can't remember right now). Anyway, it was 1:30 before I got to bed. I slept well, and while I was awake round 8:00, I decided not to get up then. It was nice to be up around 5:30 and find that it was beginning to get light. I think it was around 9:30 when I got up. I did my knitting.
That was about all I did. I have to go back to the hospital tomorrow for my echocardiogram, so I started taking my stool samples today. That is a very yucky procedure, and it would be even if I didn't have diarrhea. I did make sure I got to the bathroom in time not to have an accident, even though I had to boot Louie off my lap.
The weather was so-so. The temperature got up to 63º once the wind went calm. In the middle of the afternoon, the wind got very strong, and for a while we had 40 mph gusts, from the southwest. Now it has gone calm. The sky was covered with those high, featureless clouds that I don't remember the name of. They're almost as high as cirrus clouds, but they make the sky just look white. That gave us some muted sunshine. They kept saying there might be thunderstorms, but when I looked at the radar map, the rain was already way off to our east even at 11:00 this morning, when they updated the forecast. Oh, there was 0.03" of rain between 3:00 and 4:00 AM. I wouldn't know - I was sound asleep at that point. Anyway, there wasn't any more rain and I don't know what the heck they were looking at. Lately Marquette has been relatively accurate, but they sure missed the boat today. There is a little light rain out over the lake now, but I don't know if it will get here.
When I got up this morning, Grayson was curled up in the pillows on the window seat, sound asleep, and Louie was asleep on the rug in the bathroom. There was some coming and going, but by the time I got up, Louie was asleep on the rug again and Grayson was sitting close to me sort of watching. There wasn't any wrestling. Louie wanted to sit on me today, and he did get a pretty good tummy rub. I was listening to the talking when all of a sudden, Grayson came rushing into the studio and jumped up on the desk in a place where he never does and pushed a full box of various sewing supplies onto the floor. What a mess! I was not pleased with him, and it took me a while to pick everything up, find all the pins, and put one of the magnetic pincushions back together. Bad cat! The barometer bottomed out around the time the wind peaked, and it has now risen sharply so maybe that was what got into him.
I wrote a bit this afternoon, although I've forgotten the second of the two episodes I was thinking about, and I just realized that I have to rewrite the one I was working on, because it won't work the way I want it to the way it is. Oh, the joys of writing. Actually, it is a joy to have it all in the computer, where I can cut and paste and erase and rewrite without having to tear out the pages and copy a lot of stuff. I have to take a bath tonight, so we'll see when I finally get to bed. My appointment isn't until 2:00 tomorrow, so I have some time to get up late.
Now it's a cloudy, warmish evening in the field and April is over.
April 29 I started rereading the story and it was 1:00 before I got to bed. I slept so hard it was 6:00 before I got up for the first time, and then I went back to sleep until 9:00, when the guys got rambunctious and I decided to get up in spite of not having enough sleep. I knitted my two rows, and I only have 20 rows left! Of course, they're all over 400 stitches, but still, I can see the end of this project. The last ten rows are particularly interesting, so I'm anxious to get to them.
I didn't do anything else again, except to get everything but a few utensils out of the dishwasher. I have been lax about unloading it this time, and the sink is full. Until I got my new toaster oven, I didn't realize how much I was able to do while the toast was toasting. The oven said it took about 10 minutes to toast two slices of bread, but ever since I got the new one, I have mistrusted everything about that old one, and I think it took even longer. The new oven isn't fast - it takes between 5 and 7 minutes to toast the kind of bread I eat - but it's a lot faster than the old one. Anyway, it used to be that I could work on the dishwasher while I was waiting for my toast to toast, and now everything goes so fast I can't do that.
When I woke up at 6:00, there was pea-soup fog, and it was still there when I got up at 9:00. It began to lift shortly after 10:00, although 'lift' is the wrong word. The 10:17 picture shows a cloud right over the water and blue sky above it. Once the fog lifted, it was a beautiful sunny day, although not very warm. It was in the middle 40s until late this afternoon, when the temperature jumped from 42º to 55º between 6:00 and 7:00, for what reason I don't know. It has fallen back a little since then, but it's still over 50º. The wind was calm for most of the day, and the humidity was near 100%. That isn't good for my knees. It was pretty out, though.
The guys were a bit active this morning, and Louie got to sit on my lap, causing me to have an accident, although not too bad a one. Now that it's warmed up, Grayson has been camping out under the south windows, although I had to laugh at him. He started out in the sunshine, but it soon got too hot for him and he moved over right to the edge of the bookshelf, so he would be as much out of the rays as possible. After he went off, Louie sat there for a while, and then for a while later this afternoon, they were both there. Both of them like to be somewhere near me.
While I was up at the north end changing my underwear, I put the pillows and throws back onto the window seat. Evidently there was some kind of altercation that resulted in two pillows ending up on the floor. I looked to one side, and there was the Yooper bunny on the floor upside down, and when I looked on the high chest where she usually sits, the stuffed kitty was nearly off on the other side. Evidently Grayson has been jumping up on top of the chest and he didn't like all that stuff there. So I got things put back in order. We'll see how long that lasts.
i noticed in passing that the Yooper bunny's mittens and leggings are still being chewed to pieces by the moths. I can only hope that if the moths are chewing on that, they're not chewing on some other things. I actually bought a skein of yarn a number of years ago to make some new leggings for her, and now I see that I'll have to make mittens, too, if I ever get at it. Even all moth-eaten, she's still cute.
I spent most of the afternoon reading and writing on the story. I always put a date where I start writing, and I realized I had left something important out of the middle of what I wrote yesterday, so now the dates go 4/28, 4/29, 4/28, 4/29. What I added was too big not to indicate that I didn't write it yesterday, and I won't be able to give you a good count of what I wrote today. I'm still feeling around about where I'll go next, so I spent the day writing about some housekeeping. And I expect to have to reread both yesterday and today when I start tomorrow, if not tonight. Sometimes it works like that, and it takes time to see where I'm going from where I am. I'm still interested, though, so I'm not ready to abandon the story. And i keep reminding myself that for quite a while I was writing on Osara and Voyages alternately. Osara is done, of course, although I did start a sequel, but Voyages is still open. I don't know what caused this creative burst, but it sure has been fun. Cuts down on production, but it sure is fun.
Now it's a clear, warmish evening in the field, and i will write some more, I hope.
April 28 I didn't get to bed until after 9:30 last night, and even though I slept fairly well, I'm tired. I was having a really weird dream about Debbie when the alarm went off. Once or twice in my career, I've had a dream that led to the germ of a story - Osara is one - and I wish I could get that to happen again. It's usually fun. I did come up with a couple more scenes for the current story, which I wrote today, so now I have the same question I had before - where do we go from here?
I got myself up and out and I would have gotten to church early except that I got behind the first touron of the year going down the covered road. He wouldn't go over 40 mph, he wouldn't pull over, and he actually pulled that abrupt braking maneuver jackasses do when they think somebody is following too closely. I managed to pass him as soon as passing was allowed, and maybe he got the idea when the guy behind me passed him right behind me. Geez! With the weather we've had, I hoped maybe it would be another six weeks before we had tourists.
Anyway, church was good, with a good sermon and communion. It was late getting out, of course, and I was so slow getting out of my pew that I missed Eleanor, who was there for the first time in several weeks. She's been going to the other church.
I got home around 1:00 and by the time I changed my clothes and had a little lunch, it was nearly 2:00 and I was tired. I spent the rest of the afternoon writing - 4,900 words so far - and I need to think of some more fun for my characters. I have 54,000 words so far, but it doesn't feel like it's time to bring it to an end.
The weather was warm again, but it wasn't as pretty as yesterday. The temperature got up to 64º briefly, and it was over 60º for most of the afternoon. There wasn't much wind, and it has now gone almost calm. it has amazed me how fast we've lost snow. Up in the higher elevations, there's still plenty and the banks are still high, but there is even more bare ground in my yard. Of course, it's soggy and muddy and there was one puddle over the road on the way south. We had a lot of those high stratus clouds (altostratus, maybe? I forget) that allow some sunshine but leave everything sort of gray. It was prettier yesterday. I guess we're in for some rain overnight and tomorrow, and later in the week, it's supposed to cool down again and we may get more snow.
I didn't see much of the guys today. Grayson spent most of the afternoon under one or the other of the windows, but I haven't seen much of Louie. He wanted to sit on me when I was eating and he couldn't, so he went away.
So that is all I know. I would like to write some more, but I don't know if I have anything more to write tonight. So maybe I will trudge up to the north end and crash early. It's a cloudy, warm evening in the field.
April 27 I guess it was 11:30 before I got to bed last night, and I slept well. I woke up around 8:45, and when i sat up, I discovered that both cats were in bed with me, asleep on the other side of the body pillow, toward the windows. Amazing. That hasn't happened before, so I only hope it will happen again.
I knitted my two rows. They're getting really long, and it takes a long time even to do the return row. However, I'm halfway through the last repeat, and after that there are only 12 or 14 rows of the upper edging. So I'm finally going to finish this thing!! Then I can go back to the brown one...or maybe I'll start something else. I don't like the brown shawl very well, but it would be useful to wear and I'd like to finish it just to get it over with.
The weather was spring! Spring! Spring! The temperature here got up to 60º for a while, plus or minus a degree or two - warmer than Houghton - and there were only light west winds. I was tempted to open the door for a while, since it was mostly sunny and it got really warm in the house. In fact, the boiler stopped, and now I'm worried because I don't hear anything from down there. I'll see what the morning brings. There was a high haze in the sky all day, so it wasn't completely sunny, but it didn't interfere with the sunshine very much. I was amazed by how much snow we lost yesterday. There are lots of bare patches in my side and back yards and through the woods. However, those huge piles where they plowed are going to take a while to disappear.
The camera hung up around 9:00 this morning, and I didn't discover it until late this afternoon, so there was one rather dull picture all day long. When there are those high, cirrus clouds in the sky, it doesn't do justice to the scene. It was really prettier than the camera showed.
The guys were energetic this morning, or at least Louie was. He kept running up and down the hallway while I was getting dressed, leaving Grayson looking at him like he was crazy. He didn't get much petting, either, because instead of settling down, he wanted to walk all over my lap and I can't do what I'm doing when he does that. Besides, it hurts, when his pointy little feet stand on me. Grayson spent some time under the south windows, but I think he got hot after a while.
It certainly got hot in here: it's still 79º! After having everything under control all morning, I had an accident in the middle of the afternoon. When I start gurgling, it's too late to get to the bathroom. So I put on a robe and my sweats are in the washer, and I'll put them in the dryer before I take my bath.
I spent most of the afternoon writing, and I wrote 5,300 words or so, even though I spent a lot of time rereading or thinking. I've discovered a wonderful reason to write on the computer rather than longhand. If I remember a phrase I want to look at, I can type it into "find" and locate it, so I don't have to search around to try to find something. It helps with this story, too, because characters are always referring to things that happened back at the beginning. In the long run, I don't think I write any faster, but I don't get the hand cramps I used to, and I can write longer. It's easier to make changes, too, and if I decide there is something I should have said, I can just go back and type it in. I haven't had it happen yet that I had to go back to some point and completely rewrite, but that ought to be easier, too. So I'm finally happy about being able to write on the computer, thanks mostly to writing this thing every night. I only wish I could - or would - take it up to the north end with me, so I could reread parts before I go to bed. Priming the pump, so to speak.
So now it's time to toddle up to the north end and get ready for bed, so I can get up early tomorrow and get to church, although I won't have to worry so much about leaving early. There may be some fog, but there isn't likely to be any snow or ice.
It's a sort of clear evening in the field, and it's spring! It's spring! It's spring! Whee!
April 26 With the journal and all, I think it must have been at least 1:30, if not later, when I got to bed. I was up twice, and I got up around 9:30, I think, because I have to get myself straightened around so I can go to church on Sunday. I knitted three rows, so I'm now back on track again. I usually like to do one right-side and one wrong-side row, If I have time.
I didn't do much else. I'm tired, and my legs were bothering me today - humidity, I think. I did read the last two days' writing and I wrote some, about 3,100 words. I have only a vague idea where I'm going from here, but there is enough filler that needs to be put in that I think I'll be able to figure it out.
The weather was decidedly spring-like, at last! It got down to freezing overnight, but this afternoon, it got up to 51º, and it's been a looonnng time since that last happened. We had 0.04" of rain between 10:00 and noon, and then it began to clear up some, although not completely. The wind was mostly from the southwest, and it was mostly light, except between 1:00 and 3:00 when it got gusty. After 5:00 it got light and even went calm for a while.
Oh, there was another 2" of snow yesterday, which gives us 55" for the month - a new record by a long way - and 312" for the season. There is still 46" on the ground at Delaware. I'm hoping that our precip for the rest of the "season" will be rain.
I looked outside while I was getting my dinner and there was a guy out in our bay in a kayak. He was paddling like he didn't know much about kayaks, so it might be whoever is staying at the house across the bay from me. The surface of the harbor was just about like a mirror then.
The guys were busy this morning, but then they went to sleep. When I got up to make dinner, Grayson was lying on the ugly chair's footstool and Louie was stretched out on the floor right beside him. They both looked quite content and very sleepy, although they did come out into the kitchen with me to make sure I filled their dry food bowls. As usual, there was one kind out in the breezeway, and I just didn't feel like getting it, even though it's one of Grayson's faves. Louie has been trying to chew on grocery bags again, and I wonder if maybe that was a habit he got before he was rescued, just to keep his tummy full. I'm sure I'll never know, but I do know it isn't good for him, and I try to keep the bags out of his reach as best I can. So far, everything has gone through, but I can't count on that.
Now, much as I'd like to try to write some more, I am going up to the north end and go to bed. It's apparently a rather clear night in the field, but with the moon nearly full, that's all we'll be able to see.
Maybe, just maybe, spring has sprung at long last.
April 25 Oops! I wrote about 4,800 words, then I read over what I wrote, because I'm a bit stuck, and I was about to go up to the north end and crash when I realized I hadn't done a journal! Oops!
I wrote 5,400 words last night, then I had to take a bath, so it was 1:00 or later when I finally got to bed. I slept, of course, although for some reason I did have some wakeful time. I was up around 8:30, and that was just too early, so I went back to sleep and got up around 11:00. I only knit one row, and that because I was sitting there anyway.
I didn't get a lot of my surfing done before I left, because Thursday is a day when there is a lot of email to read, with links to follow. I left a little early because Ron had left me a message that I had a package at the post office and I thought I might get to talk to him. However, he had the same reaction to Tuesday that I had and he went to town today, too.
It was so nice to go zipping down the road at my usual pace! However, that made me early, but I got behind a very cautious driver going through Kearsarge, so I poked along behind him, and I wasn't too early.
The new doctor is good, not quite like the old one, but she'll do. We tentatively scheduled the colonoscopy for May 21, but then she threw me a curve: she wants an EKG, an echocardiogram, and stool samples. Gaak. So I stayed and got the EKG and the glop I will have to take for the colonoscopy. I'm not quite sure when I'm going to do the stool thing, but the lab is open all weekend, so I could leave them off on Sunday. The echocardiogram is next Wednesday. Geez.
Anyway, then I had to get gas, which has gone up to $3.80 again, but the deal the station has with Pat's Foods gave me a great discount this time, so that helped. There was no traffic on the way home and I got back about 5:00, a little later than I was planning. I was done with my surfing and thinking about dinner, a while later, when Ron showed up with the package from the Gaslite, which, as I suspected, was my TP. After being oversupplied with TP for some time, now I'm beginning to run low, so I was happy to have it. There are a few things I'm obsessive about having enough of, and TP is one of them.
The weather was beautiful. It apparently snowed almost all night, but I looked out while I was in the bathroom this morning and there was a waterfall coming down the shingles on the garage where the bright sunshine was melting the snow off the roof. It was a neat effect. By that time, it was clear and sunny and quite warm. The temperature eventually got up to 42º for a couple of hours late this afternoon. It's been a while since that's happened. There was some wind, up to 15 mph from the north. It was so nice to see the lovely blue sky, though.
The guys were not happy to have me leave, and they let me know when I got back, but then they did hang around the studio for most of the evening.
Now it's really late and I will undoubtedly stare at the floor for a while when I get up to the north end. It's a clear, cool night in the field, and the full moon is shining very brightly in the south windows.
April 24 I wrote another 4,800 words last night, much to my surprise, so it must have been 1:00 before I got to bed. I slept well. There seems to be something about where I've had the keyboard that has given me a very sore neck and collar bone, and that was somewhat of a problem. I think I know what it was and I moved the keyboard up and out today, so we'll see what happens now. In the meantime, when I twitch, it hurts. In thinking about the story this morning, I realized that I'd defined three characters who never showed up again and didn't need to be there, so this afternoon, I read through the entire story and made the necessary changes as well as some tweaks, like I usually do when I reread something.
This morning, I knitted my two rows, although there was some difficulty because I was trying to pay attention to my knitting and think about the story at the same time. I'm at a point where I need to do some planning ahead in the story, so I don't think I'll be doing much writing tonight - although who knows? I had a really nasty accident this morning, so I need to take a bath so I'm nice and clean for the doctor tomorrow. I'm going to see the doctor, unless we have a blizzard. I'm tired of all this.
Debbie called late this afternoon and we had a nice chat. It was long, too, and It's so nice to know my phone isn't going to die in the middle. She likes her sweatshirt, and she is making progress recovering from her broken arm, although the rehab is hard. It was in a nasty place, right below her elbow, and that's made it hard.
The weather was all right. It was clear overnight, and the almost-full moon was very bright. I was up while it was setting and shining very brightly in the bedroom windows, so pretty. It was still clear this morning and partly cloudy for most of the day, but it has clouded up now, and they are predicting more snow (!) overnight. Geez, enough, already! It was cold overnight, too, as you might expect, with a low of 21º, but it warmed up very fast this morning and it was around 37º all afternoon. There was a moderate north wind, in the 15 mph range.
Poor Grayson. Every time I go near one of the doors or the window to the porch, he looks out longingly. I keep trying to tell him it's cold out and he'd freeze his little tail off, but he just doesn't understand, and the past two years, all of his little life, it was warming up by this time. Louie is more used to being indoors, and while he liked the porch last year, he's all right with staying inside. They were full of energy this morning, and they got their time on mom's lap, although Grayson got more than Louie. I don't know why Grayson has been so loving lately, but it's fine with me.
Now I think I will contemplate the story again before I decide whether to write a bit tonight or just go to bed early. It's a cloudy, warmish (for late winter) night in the field.
April 23 I had two more scenes that I wanted to write last night, so with my bath, it was 1:00 before I got to bed. By the time I turned out the light, I could not see town and even the lighthouse was a little fuzzy, although that could have been the glop in my eyes. I slept fairly well, although I was up several times, no doubt partly because of the lovely piece of fish I had for dinner, but also because I had some very sore joints and muscles in my legs. I didn't think I did that much on Sunday!
I got up around 9:30, and it was still snowing, so I called the doctor's office and bailed. Probably I could have gotten there, but I know it would have been sloppy and slippery. I will see her on Thursday.
It was still snowing when I got up, but it had stopped by the time I got to the studio after knitting my two rows. I've found I can't knit lace and think about my story, which makes sense, since I'm doing a lot of counting while I'm knitting.
I did get to write for a while this afternoon, and I hope I haven't written myself into a corner. I don't have any more scenes plotted out, although I've gotten another idea that I will work on. I know there are one or two stories I started where I did paint myself into a corner I couldn't figure out how to get around. I'm glad to see that, as of a few minutes ago, I'm beginning to see my way around. I will probably not do very much more writing tonight, because I have to mull it over first. I can't tell you how good it feels to have the words pouring out of me and onto the screen once more. This is the first new thing I've written since I finished Osara and got into the middle of the next episode of Voyages, and the first really new idea I've had in years. Oh, it feels good!
The weather was mostly blah. The temperature was nearly steady, at 33º. As I said, the snow stopped around noon, but it was dark and cloudy. The wind picked up for a while this afternoon, with gusts to 30 mph from the north, but it has now dropped to nothing. The whole snow thing turned out to be sort of a dud. The Road Commission is only reporting 4" of new snow overnight, and with the temperature over freezing, I'm sure it was just sloppy and ugly, but it also could have been slippery, and I guess I'm getting really chicken in my old age.
I've been forgetting to report on the snow totals for the season. I wrote to a correspondent about it, and forgot I hadn't put it in a journal. We have now had 308" for the season, officially, as of 4/23, and we have had 51" in April, which is a new record by 10" already, and we still have another week to go. I don't have any data on the temperatures, but I think it has been the coldest April in a very long time. Today, for example, we were just above the average minimum all day long, and I don't think there has been a day or two where we've come close to our average high of 45º. I know people mutter about global warming, but what I've been hearing lately makes me think what the climate change is likely to do for us is give us more anomalous seasons, like this one, with more violent weather events, like the blizzard last weekend. Anyway, it's interesting to watch. While I'm so glad for all the moisture, I really think we've had enough snow for the season, and it can start to warm up anytime now. It will probably be Memorial Day before all the snow is gone anyway.
The guys were very sleepy this morning, but they got rather rambunctious around the time I was getting my dinner, but the barometer had gotten rather high. Grayson has been getting on the kitchen counter again, and I guess I'm going to have to be a bit rough with him to make him stop. I don't know what he wants, except that he has eaten all the dry cat food that he really likes. Having cats around is a continual scuffle between them controlling me and me controlling them. Both guys got their lap time today, and that was good.
So now I will write a bit more before I toddle up to the north end and crash. It's a cool, cloudy evening in the field.
April 22 I was in bed by 9:30 last night, and while I was up several times, I didn't get up for good until about 9:15 this morning, so I should have had enough sleep. I'm tired again, though. When I was up around midnight, as best I can remember, I couldn't see town, so something was going on. Johanna said it started as rain, turned to sleet and then to snow. Ugly.
I thought my massage was at 11:00, so I didn't knit, but it turns out it was at noon, so I had time to do some of my surfing before I went off to get massaged back into shape. I feel much better for it, although as usual, it made me tired. We spent a lot of time talking, too, so I got home late, then I had to read my funnies and pet both cats, so I didn't get to do much with the story before the talking started.
The weather today was blah. The temperature was over freezing all day and it got up to 39º for a while when the sun was out. It soon clouded up, though, and from radar, there is rain, sleet and snow all around us, so I'm sure there will be some left for us. There wasn't a lot of wind. It wasn't bad out while the sun was shining and the temperature was high. It's dropped back to 35º and the wind has gone calm - not a good sign.
The guys were a little more active this morning, and they both wanted to sit on me when I got home. Grayson got the most lap time, but Louie got on me about the time I got ready to read, so I had to boot him off. When I reread what I'm writing, I make changes as I go, so I have to be able to type. Now Grayson is asleep under the east windows, where he can look up and see me. I don't know what gets into his little head, but lately he's wanted to be around me a lot. Not that I mind.
I'm supposed to meet the surgeon tomorrow afternoon to get my colonoscopy scheduled, but if it's as bad as they're predicting, I ain't goin'. I missed their reminder call - and I hardly ever look at the answering machine, so I didn't hear it until after they called. So I'll just have to see how it is tomorrow when I get up. I will take a bath and prepare, but I'd just as soon stay home. It's not like this is critical or anything.
Now it's a very cloudy night in the field, and there is a lot of yucky stuff headed in our direction.
April 21 Ooh, I'm tired. I made it into bed by 10:00, but I didn't sleep very well. I was up any number of times, though, and I finally gave up and got up around 6;45. I did my thing and got away at a good time, since I didn't know how the roads would be.
It turns out that the roads were fine, at least down-bound. Most of the snow that was left had melted off in the sunshine yesterday, so I made good time. Church was nice, although there wasn't communion. Pastor's sermon was a good and very comforting one.
I actually felt pretty good this morning, for not having my usual quota of sleep, and that was a good thing. I shopped. And shopped. And shopped. However, I'd postponed it so long, I needed a lot of things, so it wasn't surprising. I was exhausted by the time I finally started home, so much that I didn't even stop for gas. I figure I'll be down there Tuesday (or I hope so, weather permitting) and I can do it then. I do have enough left for one more trip south.
Of course, when I got home, I had to unload the car and pack things again. That's another chore, especially getting everything from the car to the kitchen. Now the fridge is bulging and I have nice things to eat for quite a while. i wasn't ready to sit down and veg until nearly 3:00.
All night and all the time I wasn't focusing on church, I was thinking about the story, and as soon as I could crash and eat some deli salads, I began writing. I had two scenes that I've been thinking about, and I wrote the transition and got the first done. I keep having the feeling that what I'm writing isn't quite as exciting as what I'm thinking about, but it seems like I've always seen my stories like they were movies, and frequently getting from that to paper (or computer) takes some of the immediacy out of them. I know this is a good story, I'm just not sure how well-written it is. However, it sure is fun to be consumed by a story again. I have one more large scene to do, as well as the transition into it, and I can only hope by that time I will know where it's going next.
The weather was - well - interesting. It was clear for most of the night, although there must have been some high clouds around 4:00 because the moon got dim. It was clear when I got up and it stayed that way until after I got home, with lots of nice sunshine and a need for sunglasses. It actually got down to 10º last night, but the temperature was rising before I started south and by the time I got out of Pat's it had risen to 39º, both here and down in town. It was partly to mostly sunny for most of the afternoon (I just discovered that the camera really hung up earlier this evening - I mean, not even responding) but late in the afternoon, got cloudy. The wind has been rising, from the south, and there are now 30 mph gusts.
The bad news is that there is a possibility of another big storm hitting us on Tuesday - right when I have to go to see the surgeon about my colonoscopy. Well, I don't care about that, but I did want to get gas. Drat. However, it's still iffy, so we'll see. Geez, enough, already!
The guys were their usual selves, I guess. They were very interested when I began bringing in the groceries, especially when the door blew open, but I guess I can still get up those three steps pretty fast and I managed to close it before anybody got out. That was good, because I had the door from the breezeway into the garage open, and heaven knows where that would have led. Grayson spends a certain amount of time staring out the doors to the porch when I'm around. I know how he'd like to be out there, he thinks. I don't think he understands how cold it is outside.
Well, now I've discovered that I will have to reboot to get the camera running again - I keep getting a green screen - and then I think I may just give up and go to bed. I have a massage tomorrow, and I need to consider both how to get the story from where I am now to the next major scene and then where we go from there.
So it's a cloudy, windy night in the field, but it's not too cold, and I'm tired.
April 20 Eek! I'm going to be late!
The snow had stopped by about 2:00 AM, but it was still very windy. The wind and the surf died down slowly over the rest of the night. I was awake around 8:00 and that seemed a bit early, so I went back to sleep and got up around 10:00. I knitted my two rows, with a little difficulty, both in counting and dropping things, but I got it done, and I don't think there are any glaring errors.
I got to the studio so late that I didn't do much of anything. I did my surfing, and after that I wrote for the rest of the afternoon. I wrote 2,400 words yesterday and 3,700 today. I'm going to be late because I was just reading over what I wrote. It's a good stopping point, because I'm in a transition again, and I have to figure out how to go forward to the next scene I know about.
The weather today calmed down almost completely, and after about noon, it was almost completely clear So pretty, but the strong sunshine melted most of the snow on the branches. It was cold, though, in the lower 20s for most of the day, although it got up to 28º at 7:00 before it began to drop back. The wind died down slowly, but it has now gone calm. Oh, but it was a wonderful blizzard!
The kitties were a bit more wakeful today, although they spent a lot of time sleeping in the sunshine. Both of them got lap time, and they weren't wrestling very much, either. When Louie gets on my lap, he stretches out crosswise, with his hind end lapping over one side and his front end lapping over the other. When Grayson sits on me, he curls up with one front leg on either side of my gut, facing me. They both like to sit on me.
Now it's getting too late, so I will hurry up and post this and do my Saturday thing. I am planning to go to to church tomorrow and to shop afterwards. For one thing, I've used up all my JD and I'm also running out of a lot of other stuff at last. It's supposed to be yucky in the afternoon, but maybe I can get home before then.
Now it's a clear, calm evening in the field and it looks to be a very pretty night.
April 19 Whoa! I just discovered why I was so late last night: I wrote 4,200 words! I didn't realize it was that much. I had pretty much decided not to take a bath when I had a messy accident, so I had to, and as a result I think it was around 2:30 before I got to bed. I was up twice, and I got up for good around 11:30, so I felt OK today. I did my knitting and I'm now ready to start the second repeat of the last motifs.
I was so late that that was all I did. After I finished my surfing, minus the crosswords, I read everything I'd written for the past couple of days, because I realized when I was mulling things over last night that I needed to make a couple of changes. I finally got that done, and I will be writing some more after I post this.
Just as I was about to have my accident last night, we had a power glitch. The computer saw it and the ovens and the microwave saw it, but the fridge and the clocks at the north end didn't. That's the second time that's happened. Weird. Anyway, I just didn't feel like coming back to the studio to check the computer, and fortunately, everything came up just fine. The camera was fine, and I've gotten into the habit of explicitly saving my work every night before I stop writing, so except that I had to restart everything I normally keep running, the computer was just fine this morning. It was a relief.
The story of the day is the weather. I could tell that the wind was rising, and it kept rising all night long. The lake was roaring and every so often a gust of wind would hit the side of the house with a bang, or I would hear the siding creak. We actually had the highest winds this morning. Between 10:00 and 11:00 we had gusts up to 52 mph, and at 1:00 the sustained winds were 39 mph. That's a genuine gale. It's died back a little since then, but the sustained winds have been in the mid-30s all afternoon, with gusts in the mid to upper 40s. Thankfully, for the sake of my comfort, the wind was from the east all night and is now slowly shifting around to the north, so it was relatively comfortable around here. The temperature actually got up to 32º between 8:00 and 10:00 this morning, but it's been dropping ever since, and it's been 24º for five hours now. And it snowed. And snowed. And snowed. The Road Commission reported 4" for yesterday, and it wouldn't surprise me if we had at least 6" more today. With all the wind, I have some nice drifts in front of my garage and on the patio.
Even before I saw the details, I discovered that the NWS had changed the Winter Storm Warning to a Blizzard Warning sometime before I got up, and it doesn't expire until 1:00 AM tomorrow. I really love blizzards, as I think you know, but really, isn't April 19 a little late for that? It's so much fun to watch the snow flying across the end of the harbor in sheets and the trees all covered with frosting. While it's cold now, a lot of the snow that came down earlier was so wet and heavy that the branch of the tree outside the studio is bent down so that the camera can see it. And the other trees around the house are all bent down with the heavy, wet snow - now frozen - on them.
My wise furry friends hibernated all day, and I didn't see them at all. They know what do do in a blizzard!
So now I will write for a while, hopefully not too long, because I'm tired again, and try to get to bed at a reasonable hour, to hunker down in my nice warm bed and listen to the roaring of the lake and the banging of the wind. It's a wild and hairy night in the field.
They just started playing Strauss's Voices of Spring waltz, and I had to laugh. Voices of spring, indeed: the roaring of the lake and the howling of the wind. Ah, spring in Copper Harbor!
April 18 I wrote around 2,800 words last night, but I think it was late when I got to bed. I don't remember. I slept for nearly five hours, I think, before I got up the first time, and after that it was sort of in and out. I got up close to 10:00, but again, I wasn't paying much attention. I did my knitting and I've just about finished the first repeat of the last section on the shawl. I will be doing the repeat, but now I'm interested in the top border, which is, at the very least, going to be hard to follow on the chart. However, I need to repeat 24 rows first, and it's getting wide. I have 15 repeats on each side of the center now, and before I'm done there will be 16.
And that was all I did. After I finished my surfing, I wrote a bit more, and I'll do some more before I go up to the north end, but I need to take a bath tonight. I used the greasy shampoo the other night, and it was on Monday, so i can't wait until Saturday to do it again. I think I have some dandruff as it is.
I think the camera hung up during the morning again, but this time I caught it sooner. The problem has to be some kind of connection problem, but I'm not quite sure what. My cable has a signal booster, so it should be all right. I've been suspicious of some of those USB ports from the beginning, though.
The "winter storm" was a dud as far as I could tell. It rained all night, but the temperature was over freezing, so at least here, there was no ice. No snow, either. It rained off and on all day, too, a couple of times hard enough that I could see the drops hitting the surface of the harbor. The temperature hung steady around 34º. There was an east wind which was up to 25 mph gusts at times. It was very dark and dull all day.
I just looked at the weather for Detroit, and it was close to 80º there today! For heaven's sake! Well, in spite of the slop we have here, I'm glad I'm not there. It's too early for it to be that warm.
However, the storm for tonight and tomorrow isn't a dud. There is a very large area of snow to our west and it's coming in our direction, so even though the wind is from the east, we're going to get it. It hasn't hit here (at 8:00), but there is freezing rain at the airport. Well, I have things to eat and I have the generator, and I have a nice, warm bed to hunker down in, so I guess I'm prepared for whatever.
The guys were exceptionally sleepy today. They didn't even wrestle much. Louie slept on my lap until I started doing my crosswords, and later on Grayson sat on me for a while, too. Otherwise, they slept.
I'd like to do that, too, but the story is coming along, and I think I should encourage it to come out while I'm in the mood, so I only hope I'll be in bed at a reasonable hour tonight.
Now it's dark and cloudy and windy and the snow is coming...the snow is coming...and this time it will probably get here.
April 17 I think it was around 11:30 when I finally got to bed. I don't seem to be able to go to bed without spending at least half an hour staring at the floor. I slept well, and I got up around 9:00. I knitted my two rows, which went very well for once, and it only took about an hour, even though I have nearly 400 stitches on the needles right now.
Unfortunately, after breakfast, I had an accident, so i had to change everything below the waist, and that took time, but I had time to read my funnies and get Debbie's gift together before it was time to leave for the afternoon. I got the gift sent off and picked up my mail, including the embroidery needles I ordered. Then it was off to Carolyn's.
This is the last meeting for the year, and there were a number of different people there, including one lady who is now living in the little blue house behind Carolyn's. Her name is Cherrie (pronounced with a "sh") and she is a ball of fire, for sure. She weaves and sells rugs, and she had brought some with her to show us. They are beautiful. She has a very nice color sense and I saw several that I like...One was all pale colors and it would go very well in my bedroom, although it gets so dirty in there, I'm sure the rug would be filthy in no time. I like those hand-woven rag rugs. the ones I have are made out of the leftovers from sweat socks, and I love them.
So we had a nice afternoon, with lots of laughter, of course. I'm really sorry I didn't get to more meetings this year, but between my feeling yucky and the weather being yucky, it just didn't work out. The last meeting was the day I went to the dentist.
The weather was just blah. The weather went up and down around 32º and there wasn't much wind. There was a little sunshine off and on, but late in the day it got really dark and drab. The snow is on its way, I think, but it won't get here for a while.
I don't know about the guys. Louie sat on me this morning until I had to get up, and when I got home, Grayson sat on me. Otherwise, I think they slept. Grayson has begun to jump up on the counter under the windows in the kitchen again, and I guess I'm going to have to start dropping him on the floor again until he remembers that's a no-no. Louie can't jump that high, so I don't have to worry so much about him. I know cats like counters, but I don't like having them on the counters where my food is, if I can manage to keep them off.
I ate dinner really late tonight, and now I would like to write a bit more, although it's so late, I don't know whether I should even go back to it. There is a scene I was thinking about last night that I would like to get written down, though.
It's a dark, cloudy night in the field, and the snow is coming...the snow is coming...not to mention the sleet and rain! Yuck!
April 16 Well, i did it last night and seem to be doing it tonight as well. I wrote so long that it was 2:30 before I got to bed. I slept very well, with only one wakeup, and I got up around 9:30. I did my knitting and I had time to do most of my surfing, except for the games, before I left. I need to get Debbie's birthday present packed up and sent off, but I'll have to do that tomorrow.
It was nice to make it to Laurium in 45 minutes. The roads were mostly clear and dry except where the melt water was dripping over them, and there was almost no traffic at all. I got there early enough that I got my blood drawn before I saw the doctor. We had a nice conversation, and i have a referral to an audiologist and an appointment with a surgeon about my colonoscopy for next week. The only problem with such a late appointment was that by the time I got out it was 5:00 and I decided not to shop after all. Of course, I hate to shop, but I am beginning to run out of some things. I have enough OJ, though, and I can get JD and eggs at the store here, so I came home.
Besides, my feet were quite swollen today and they hurt because my shoes were too tight. One of these days, I'm just going to have to break down and get some bigger ones, but I'm waiting to try to get my finances under control a bit. When I got my current shoes, they fit well and were very comfortable, but I've been wearing Crocs for so long that my feet have spread out in all directions even more than they had before. It's depressing. Pretty soon I'll be wearing herring boxes without topses.
The weather was OK. The high temperature here was 37º, although I think it was in the low 40s in town. The sky was partly to mostly cloudy, and there wasn't a lot of wind. I just discovered that the camera hung up around 4:15, for which I'm very sorry, but I just didn't check it when I got home. They are still saying things are going to get ugly starting tomorrow night and going through Friday night. So far, though, they are saying most of it will be snow. I hope so. Mixing snow and rain just makes things all the worse. Woodland Road is a terrible mess already.
The guys were themselves, and I don't have much to report because I was gone. Grayson did sleep with me again. I'm sorry he doesn't want Louie to sleep with us. There's plenty of room and Louie was sleeping at the foot of the bed, whereas Grayson sleeps up beside me, so they wouldn't even be trying to get into the same space. Maybe someday. It's nice to feel a warm back up against me when I wake up.
So I am writing, although I think I will stop for tonight. They are playing Mozart, but it should end shortly and I think I will go to bed. I'm not sure how good this story is, although it seems to read all right. I wrote 3,000 words last night and 2,400 tonight, so I guess I'm going all right. One reason I used to like to write longhand is that I could sit and look at the page, or page back and reread what I just wrote. I'm learning to do that on the computer, but in either case, it slows production. I guess, though, that when I'm into it, my production is about the same as most writers. I finished a couple of scenes I had been thinking about for a long time, and now I have to get from there to the next scenes I know about, which are quite far in the future. In that respect, it's probably better if I don't have the time to mull over what I'm going to write, so it can just flow and go wherever it wants. In the past, some places a story went really surprised me. I do find it nice to know that at least sometimes I can still produce some fiction.
Now it's a dark, probably cloudy night in the field, and the snow is coming...the snow is coming...
April 15 I took the binder with me when I went up to the north end and I read for a while, so it was around 10:45 when I got to sleep. I slept pretty well, although I'm still getting up fairly frequently. I was awake around 8:00 but that seemed too early - my head hurt - so I went back to sleep, with some interesting dreams, and I got up around 9:30. I knitted my two rows, so I was a bit late getting to the studio.
And I didn't do anything. It seems like it took me a long time to read my email and do my daily surfing, and then I started writing on a story that I conceived just a short time ago and have been thinking about a lot. I had started it, but I hadn't gotten very far. I didn't get very far today, either, but I did put some words on the screen. As I've said before, it's a matter of writing the parts between the major scenes, and that sometimes isn't easy. I've been thinking about some of the problems my heroine will have that I hadn't considered before, too, so I don't know how long I'll be at this. It felt good to write something other than this journal.
It snowed (or something) all night long, frequently hard enough that I couldn't see the lights of town. We had 1.11" of precipitation, which is a lot. Since the snow was wet and heavy, we probably didn't get more than 4", though, and since it got quite warm today, most of it melted. The temperature was over freezing the whole time, and it got up to 43º briefly this afternoon. The wind was from the south all night, and the gusts got up to 28 mph or so. Then it switched around, and we had 31 mph gusts from the north late this afternoon...and now it's gone calm. Weird weather, for sure. During the day, there were some dark clouds and there was also some nice sunshine.
When I got to the kitchen and to the studio, it became clear that we had had a power glitch overnight. It didn't affect the clocks in the north end - or I don't think it did - but it messed up the microwave and it caused the computer to reboot. At least this time the camera came up properly, so we got pictures of the tree branch all covered with snow hanging over the window. I was surprised. It must have happened while I was totally zonked out.
The guys were sleepy. Grayson was in bed with me when I woke up, and he was sleepy, so he kept out of Louie's way. Louie seems to go after Grayson more than vice versa, but Louie is the guy who always has the holes in his head. He has another scrape under his chin. He gets pretty rough, and Grayson has to defend himself. Today was Louie's day to sleep on my lap, but Grayson slept under the south windows for quite a while this afternoon.
One of these days, if the snow will melt from the deck, I have to get the bird feeders out. The little birds are having a hard time finding seeds to eat. The blue jays are beginning to screech, so they think spring is coming. And I forgot to mention that yesterday afternoon, I heard a small flock of geese out in front, probably our resident flock. I bet they were surprised. I hope they can find enough to eat. Geese can be pests, but they're fun to watch, too.
I was making my dinner when Sandi called. It was so nice to hear from her - she is such a nice person! We talked for a long time, and I am happy to say that the new batteries in my cordless phone work just fine, which is a real relief. I like that phone system, and I would not like to have to replace it. All is well with her and Bill, and they are thinking they might be able to come up in May for a few weeks. I hope so. I know how frustrating it is to have such a nice place to go and not be able to get there.
Oh, yes, and Carolyn called earlier to invite me specially to her house on Wednesday. I plan to go. I was so sorry not to be able to go the last time. I guess this is going to be the last meeting, and I think I was only at one other one this winter, what with the weather and my syndrome and the dentist.
Now I need to go up to the north end and take a bath so I'm clean for the doctor tomorrow. I had an almost accident today that left me rather messy, but I'd want to take a bath for him anyway. NO writing tonight.
It's a warmish, cloudy night in the field.
April 14 Well, since I didn't have to get up this morning, I read for too long - off the end of Voyages - and then I had to fill the pill dispensers and take a bath. I didn't do the dishes. I'll do that tonight, since the dishwasher is just about ready to go. I slept well and I got up around 9:30. I did my knitting, and I fiddled with the dishwasher and I had a small accident, and that was all I did. I spent the afternoon reading one of the very old gems I discovered when I started reading through my old stories. The writing is horrible, but the story itself is very interesting. It's not good enough to transcribe, but it's fun to reread it every so often. It's one of the side paths I took on the way to Trine.
Ron came around late this afternoon and cleaned out what was left of yesterday's snow, but there is more coming in our direction. I hope there won't be any more drifting.
I was finishing up my knitting when I looked out and lo and behold, it was snowing. That wasn't supposed to happen this morning, but oh, well. It only lasted five or ten minutes, I think, but it snowed rather hard for a while. The temperature got up to 36º and it was above freezing all day. There was only light wind. We lost a lot of the snow we got the other night, but it's already snowing at Houghton, so it's coming our way.
The kitties were sleepy all day. Grayson spent a lot of time on the desk and he got petted, too. I'm a bit suspicious. I hope he's not sick. Louie got some petting, too, but he kept coming to see me when either I was about to get up or I didn't have a lap.
When i read out of one of the three-ring binders, I pull out the drawer in the middle of the desk and anchor it with the handle of the drawer to one side to make an easel, and Louie is just too big to have on my lap when I'm trying to read that way. He did get some petting and a good tummy rub.
Now I don't feel good again, so I think I'm going to go up to the north end as soon as I upload this. I have another binder, the one with the vampire stories, which I think I will take with me, but I don't think I'll be up very long. And no, they will never be transcribed as long as I'm around. I found my take on vampires is a little different and sexier than I want to ever have in hard copy. It's fun to read them, though.
Now it's a very dark, cloudy night in the field, but rather warm, and the snow is coming...the snow is coming...
Will spring EVER come?
April 13 I didn't get to bed quite as early as I'd planned, but it was before 10:30. I slept very well, with the usual wakeups. Twice, when I was sleeping on my right side, I woke up to find Grayson behind me with his back up against mine. I think he sensed that I didn't feel good. He didn't like it when I turned over, but later on he came back. Sweetie.
I got up around 8:30 and knitted my two rows. Today was washday, and the last load should be dry by now. I had hoped to do something about the washbaskets full of clean clothes that are lying around, but I didn't feel all that good, so I didn't. I did get the dishwasher pretty nearly ready to run tonight.
The weather was yucky to blah. It was still snowing lightly this morning, but by 1:00 it had pretty much stopped and the afternoon was just gray and dull. The temperature was right around 28º all day, and the wind was around 15 mph. It has now swung around to the north. Blah.
The guys were pretty blah, too, although Grayson did spend quite a bit of time sitting on my lap. I think he knows I don't feel very good and it worries him. Louie got his pet, too, but not as much as Grayson did.
I am disappointed that it is going to be cloudy tonight, since there was a CME that should hit us tonight and there are likely to be northern lights. Well, that's the way things are on the shores of Lake Superior, particularly in the winter - and it's still winter here. Since we're moving toward solar max, there will be other occasions to watch God's light and color show. I remember last solar max and how wonderful that was, and I also remember wondering at the time if I'd still be around to see another one. So far, it looks like it.
Now I have to get the dishwasher ready to run, fill the pill dispensers, and take a bath. All the usual junk. I still don't feel very good. I had an accident this morning, but it does seem like my gut is getting back into shape, which is a good thing, but I have a headache. Even if I get to bed at a reasonable hour tonight, I'm glad not to have to get up early tomorrow.
Now it's a dark, cloudy, dull evening in the field, but I don't think it's snowing.
April 12 Yuck, what a day.
Instead of going to bed like I said, I stayed up and read and it was 1:30 before I turned out the light - no bath. I slept very well, of course. However, the second time I got up, around 7:00, I had a nice little attack of the crud. Nothing came up, but by the time I finally got back to bed, I was nearly prepped for a colonoscopy and I felt really bad. Fortunately, the cramps went away fairly fast and I went back to sleep. I didn't get up until 11:30. I still don't feel good.
I knitted my two rows before I got dressed, so I was very late getting to the studio. I actually did something - I began to load the dishwasher, which will have to run tomorrow night. I realized sometime last night that I won't be going to church on Sunday. Pastor is in Ohio, so it's a lay service, and I don't like those. It will mean I will have to shop on Tuesday after I see the doctor, which means I'll be late getting home, but I don't think I can wait another week.
The snow didn't move in until sometime after 1:30 AM, but it has snowed more or less hard ever since, and they have extended the winter storm warning until 11:00 AM tomorrow. It has been so windy that it's hard to say how much has fallen, although I have some nice drifts in front of the garage and the breezeway and I understand the driveway is drifted, too. The temperature was nearly constant at around 28º. and the wind was gusting up to as much as 33 mph from the east. Of course it was dark and cloudy all day. And this is the middle of April!
The guys were sleepy all day. In fact, while I was knitting this morning, Grayson settled down beside me, between the toilet and the wall, and Louie turned over onto his back. put his paws over his eyes, and zonked out. They have been asleep for most of the day.
Tonight I am definitely not going to be up very long. I don't feel good, and only sleep will get me over it. I took some Imodium and that seems to have settled my gut, but I am definitely not up to par, so I won't fight it. It's a dark, snowy, windy night in the field.
April 11 I think I was in bed around 10:30 last night, and I slept well, with not very many wakeups. I got up around 8:30, which should have been enough sleep, but I'm tired again now and my sinuses are full.
I knitted my two rows, with a little difficulty. I dropped something at the end of the right side row and it took me some manipulation to get it back together right. This is not a difficult pattern, exactly. My worst problem is moving all the markers (31 at last count) back and forth so that I can do the "knit-two-togethers" right. Yesterday, I thought I was doing it right, but then I realized that on the row after the one I worked today, I needed to have them in a different place, so I had to move them all again. Sigh...And it's not that the pattern put the marks in the wrong place, exactly. It's just that the way the repeats work, there is no good place to put them. I guess they assumed no one would use markers for every repeat, but I can't tell you how many times having them has saved me from messing up the pattern. I knit the pattern on the right side, then I count the number of stitches in each repeat on the return row. So far, that's worked out pretty well.
That was about all I did except to go to the post office, where there were some packages and Ron had picked up my package from the store but not left it off, so I got that, too. And he agreed that he will take me to the hospital whenever I schedule my colonoscopy. Yep, it's time for that. I'll talk to the doctor about it Tuesday. Oh, yes, I had a really nasty accident, so I had to clean up after that. I washed all my dirty fleece and then I washed all the dirty stuff from my accidents. I will do the monthly wash on Saturday, but I thought I might as well be just that much further ahead.
It was a cold, windy day. The temperature has finally risen to 34º but for most of the day it was around 31º and quite windy, with southeast winds gusting up to 30 mph. It was dark and cloudy all day. The winter storm warning has started, and radar shows that the snow is on its way, but it isn't here yet. That was the reason I went to the post office today. I didn't think I was going to want to go out tomorrow. They are saying as much as 5" of snow overnight and 3" more tomorrow. Well, we'll see. I know some of that cloud of snow is light blue, which means it's rather heavy. Well, we can hunker down and wait it out. It will be a good night to sleep.
The guys were full of ginger this morning, but they conked out pretty fast. Grayson did come and sit on me for quite a while after I got home. I don't know why, but he has been quite loving lately. Maybe he's seen that Louie sits on me and gets petted a lot, which he did this morning while I was surfing. They can read the weather pretty good.
My radio station was screwed up again, so I wrote them a complaint. This time, they repeated the program that is supposed to come on at 3:00, at least until 4:30. I don't know what their problem is, but service has been pretty lousy lately. One problem may be that the programming is being controlled from Duluth, which is on Central Time, but it's only been the last week or so that they've been having problems. Or maybe they just have a new engineer...
I've been reading a bit, but I think I will go up to the north end early tonight. I should take a bath, but I have the suspicion I'm going to just abort that and crash. I don't feel all that good. Whatever I have been fighting, i still am, and it leaves me feeling pretty lousy.
It's a dark, windy night in the field, and the snow is coming...the snow is coming...I can see it.
April 10 I read too long last night and I had to wash my hair, so it was late when I got to bed. I slept well, of course, but not nearly long enough, because I got up around 8:30. I'm really tired now. I knitted, and I'm going to have to watch my times a bit more now. There are so many stitches that it takes me an hour and a half to do two rows. It didn't help that I'm having to move all the markers over one stitch on all the wrong side rows. I've been doing that every so often throughout the whole piece, but when there are 30 markers, like there are now, it takes a while. And I'm nearly ready to place two more - 15 repeats on each side of the center.
I seem to have a real talent for starting a project with the wrong ball of yarn. The first ball was a real mess, as I've written as I went along. The ball I added in a few days ago is much nicer, although it does get thick and thin in spots. That may be nice for garments, but it's not nice for lace. Well, I shouldn't be surprised: I didn't pay very much for it.
I didn't have much time to do anything before I was off to my massage. I feel much better for it, and Johanna and I talked and talked and talked. She had a lot to talk about, of course, with her dad's death and all, and besides she had a terrible time getting back here. They canceled her flight from Chicago Monday night because of the fog, and yesterday, she had to fly to Green Bay and drive home, although she did meet a couple of nice people. And they lost one of her bags - the one with all her essentials in it, including her dad's papers. I guess it finally got to Houghton, but she couldn't get anybody to bring it here, so after she left me, she had to drive down to the airport (which is about halfway between Calumet and Hancock) to get it, because she's leaving tomorrow for a retreat where she'll give some people massages and after that she's off to Detroit. Wow! She had a lot more energy than I ever did! Anyway, we parted company around 3:00. It sure was good to see her again, though, and she seems to be doing all right. I had to give her my usual thought: you never get over something like that, but you do get used to it in time. Time heals the raw edge of grief and you manage to carry on. It's good that she's so busy.
It turned out to be a nicer day than they forecasted. The temperature was around 35º all afternoon, and it was clear until around 5:30, when the clouds moved in. There wasn't much wind, so it was nice out. We are under a winter storm watch from tomorrow night through Friday night, though, so it's not over yet. I don't know why so many people think this has been a long winter. It's about normal for the Copper Country. Last year, when it got warm so early, was the anomaly.
The guys were their sleepy selves. Today it was Grayson's turn to sit on me two or three times. Louie didn't try very hard. I think the changing weather is affecting them.
I didn't do anything much when I got home - I didn't have much time to do anything but finish my surfing. I don't think I'll be up very long tonight. I really am tired. Seven and a half hours of sleep just is not enough! So now it's a cloudy, calm night in the field, and the snow is coming! The snow is coming! And the sky may fall, too...
April 9 I have to say today was better than yesterday. I got to bed around 10:45, and I slept fairly well, I guess. At least I was only up twice. I got up around 9:30 and knitted my two rows, with some difficulty because it was dark. Finally, I had to get up to chase Louie, who seemed about to eat a wad of Scotch tape, and while I was up, I turned on the lights. That made it better.
I don't know that I had any plans for the day. I did have an accident, but not a terribly bad one, and all that needs to be washed is a pair of underpants. That will happen Saturday. I spent most of the afternoon trying to get the Windows update to work on the laptop. I finally found an article online that worked, so everything is now updated and I'm using Internet Explorer 10. That meant I had to update PurgeIE, too, so that is done. There were a few other tweaks, and a few things don't look like they did in IE9, but I understand IE10 is more secure. Anyway, now I am all up to date again. As an old software support person, I believe firmly in keeping my software up to date, although I also believe in initiating the updates myself. I am deeply suspicious of these "automatic update" services, although I suppose they are good for people with no computer expertise.
It was a more or less nondescript day, weather-wise. While I was knitting, all of a sudden there was something coming down that sounded like rain or sleet, and then it turned to snow, and then it quit, all in about five minutes. Weird. That wasn't supposed to happen today. It was about 34º overnight, then it dropped down to 31º for a while, and it's been around 32º for most of the afternoon. It was cloudy and dark for most of the day. There was a moderate wind from the north. Blah.
The guys were blah, too. They mostly slept. Louie got to sleep on my lap for a while this afternoon until I had to type something. Grayson has been around but he hasn't sat on me.
When I woke up in the middle of the night, my throat was sore, but I took a sore throat lozenge and it was gone by morning, although I felt for sure like I was coming down with a cold when I woke up. I think it's more of the Shari Syndrome. I haven't felt like I have a cold, but I have felt pretty blah, so I will hope to get to bed early tonight. I'm counting on seeing Johanna tomorrow unless I hear from her. She got screwed up on her flights again and had to lay over in Chicago overnight, fly in to Green Bay and drive home. Ugh. That's one more reason why I have no desire to ever fly in a commercial airplane again. These days it's just like taking the bus, except the service is worse. I guess she did find a couple other people to share the cost of the rental car and the driving with, though.
So now it's a dull, dark, not very cold night in the field. Maybe spring will come some month.
April 8 Ugh. This was a day when nothing went the way I wanted it to.
I read for a long time last night, and I didn't get to bed until around 11:30. I slept well, for a change, with no night sweats, and it was refreshing. However, the rheumatologist's office called me at 8:30 to say they had faxed my blood work to Aspirus, and then she said, "but I wouldn't go today". Oh? I tried to go back to sleep, but I couldn't, so I got up, with the idea that I could do my knitting and still get out at the time I wanted. I did knit, and that was one of the few things that went right.
It apparently started snowing sometime after 4:00 this morning, and it was ugly by the time I got up. So I called Aspirus - before breakfast! - and the person at the other end, who knows me by name and probably by voice by this time, agreed that it would be a bad idea to try to get to Laurium today. She said that the woman who used to go to our church, who works there, had said it was terrible when she came in this morning. So, OK. I won't go. My appointment is now for late next Tuesday afternoon. The only thing was, I was planning to shop for food today. I guess I can get what I really need at the store here and shop on Sunday.
Then I was minding my own business when I had an accident. So I took off all my clothes and washed the towels I was soaking, and then I washed the several bottoms, underpants and a tee that had gotten messed up. Those need to go into the dryer, but it takes a long time to dry towels.
In the meantime, I had finished my surfing and I got a message that there were Windows updates to download. Before I did that, I was trying to play Text Twist and it started hanging up, so I rebooted the system. I'm glad Windows 7 doesn't need to be rebooted too often, because it takes a long time, even with as fast a processor as I have. Then i started the Windows update, only to find that it wanted to reboot, too...and then there were optional updates, and they needed a reboot, so I ended up rebooting four times, I think. Geez!
At the same time, I began to try to do the update on the laptop, and every time I did, I got an error. Evidently the updates for laptops aren't ready yet. Or something.
Then I turned on the radio at 4:00 to listen to ATC, and there was music. Huh? Well, they have that problem occasionally. So I tried to listen to it on the Marquette station, the Michigan State station (on the computer) and the U of Michigan station, and all three of them were fundraising. Gaak! Even when I was contributing, I hated listening to fundraising, and besides, the way they do it, they cut out at least 40% of the programming. Well, eventually, around 5:00, the local station got ATC back, so I got to hear most of it anyway. I missed about half an hour out of the middle, but I guess I can handle that.
So I sat quietly and played games until dinnertime. It has not been a good day.
It was not very good weather, either. The snow stopped around 12:30, but I'm sure it was sloppy and slippery, because the temperature was between 32º and 34º all day. There was some wind this morning, with gusts up to 20 mph from the south, but it died down and now it's calm. As the lady at Aspirus said, if we don't get some respite from the snow soon, we'll all go crazy. I was afraid all along that if it started so late, it was going to continue late.
The guys were really sluggish today. They didn't even wrestle this morning. Louie slept on my lap until I had to get up to go to the bathroom, and even Grayson sat on me for a while. This afternoon, they spent some time hiding at the patio door watching something outside - I don't know what. Most of the snow is gone, so one of these days I'm going to have to buckle down and put out the bird feeders. The guys will thank me. I filled the dry food bowls late today, and there is one I couldn't fill. I know which one it is, but the stuff is out in the breezeway, I think, and I need to get some more into the house. Grayson is so good. He will eat all the little morsels I drop on the floor.
So that was a frustrating day. I still don't feel very good, even with my sleep, so I hope to be in bed early tonight. I don't have that much left to read on part three of Voyages. I'm tired again anyway, so clearly I'm not over whatever ails me. Now it's a dark, cloudy, calm night in the field.
April 7 The camera has hung up twice in the past two days, so I'm sorry to say we didn't get a full picture of what the weather did. Sorry about that.
I was in bed by 8:45 last night, and again I didn't sleep very well. I was up about every two hours, and my shoulders and hips hurt. I've decided it's because I'm suffering from the "Shari Syndrome" - my own peculiar virus, which overcomes me once or twice a winter: runny nose, stuffed sinuses, sometimes a headache, indigestion, not very hungry, worse diarrhea than usual, frequent trips to the bathroom at night, sore muscles and joints, trouble sleeping, and night sweats. I think tomorrow is the first time I will be going to the doctor when I actually have it, so we'll talk about that. I finally gave in and took a couple of Imodium this morning, and that seems to be settling my gut somewhat, but I don't feel very good. It's not serious, and none of the symptoms are very severe, but the whole thing isn't very comfortable.
However, I got up at 7:00 and got off to church a bit earlier than I usually do. It didn't snow after about 4:00 AM, but the roads were sloppy and slippery, and it was a slow trip. Church was good. Pastor's sermon was good, although he tried to get too much into it. We are going to get some new members. The Wisconsin Synod church that was in Calumet closed - not enough members - and I think most of them are going to come to us. There isn't a lot of difference between the Wisconsin Synod and the LCMS - I don't know what they are - so there is no problem accepting them.
The sweatshirts and tees we ordered came in this week. One of our members is a graphic artist, and he designed a really neat logo with the Beatitudes in the form of a cross, and he has put it on sweatshirts, tees and tote bags. I ordered a lot, including Debbie's birthday present, but my purple hoodie got messed up in the printing process, so I still have that coming. They turned out really nice, and I'm only sorry I didn't get a purple tote. Maybe there will be another bunch of orders. I didn't get any tees, either, and I'd like a couple.
Coming home was easier than going. I had toyed with doing some shopping, but I was sore and shaky enough that I decided to wait until tomorrow. That could be a nasty trip, though, since it's supposed to snow again. Well, I want to talk to the doctor, so I will just have to start early and take it easy, and I do need to shop.
The weather today was so-so. It snowed until at least 3:00 AM, and we got a couple of inches here. There was more in Calumet. It was sunny when I left the Harbor, but then it clouded up and it was cloudy in Calumet. By the time I got home, it was cloudy here, too, although it cleared up later, then it got cloudy again, and now it's partly cloudy, but the sun is shining in from the west. The temperature was right around 32º for most of the morning, but a while ago it got up to 37º. It was breezy this morning, but now the wind has dropped to nothing. I think most of the snow melted. Blah.
The guys felt like that, too. They were sort of active when I was getting ready for church, but they slept for most of the afternoon. When I came in with the sweatshirts in a plastic bag, Louie had to try to eat it, even though I tried to hide it, and I had to throw something at him. I don't know what his thing with plastic grocery bags is, but he just loves to eat them.
I think I will read a bit more before I trundle up to the north end and crash again. The only way to get over my thing is to sleep a lot, and I hope I will be able to sleep a bit more tonight. Now it's a partly cloudy, calm night in the field.
April 6 I made it into bed by 9:45 last night, but I didn't sleep very well for some reason. I was up a lot and I hurt. The first few times I was up, there were stars: Jupiter setting in the northwest and Capella shining over the cedar. I had a hard time seeing Polaris, though, and after a while, it clouded up.
I got up around 9:30 and I didn't quite make it to the toilet. It's been a long time since I've had an accident at wakeup time. Then this afternoon, after having been quite comfortable for a long time, I had another accident, this one serious. I don't know what brought that on. The fish would cause me to have to get up in the night, but I've eaten that same menu any number of times without a problem. I hope it isn't the chocolate, but even if it is, I'm not going to stop eating it.
Anyway, I knitted my two rows and now I am officially working on Chart 3. I will do the pattern twice before I do the upper edge, but I'm beginning to get near the end. I finally brought in the canned cat food I've been forgetting to get, so the guys will have something other than potluck tomorrow. I couldn't give them any today, because it was too cold. It nearly froze my hands.
When I got up this morning, it was just cloudy, but evidently I just missed a snow squall, and it continued to snow off and on all day. This morning there were very strong winds, with gusts up to 34 mph from the south. The wind has died down during the day, but I understand it is supposed to snow a lot overnight. Well, I'll just have to assess the situation tomorrow morning. If I can make it to church, getting home shouldn't be such a problem, since it's supposed to clear up. The temperature got up to 33º for a couple of hours this afternoon, but it has dropped back to 32º now. It was dark and cloudy all day.
The guys were very rambunctious this morning, but they have slept ever since. Today it was Louie going after Grayson. I think they switch off. They both sat on me for a while, but I was doing other things.
Now I think I will have to avoid reading tonight. I need to get the dishwasher ready to run and I really need a bath tonight, whether or not I make it to church tomorrow. And I need to go to bed early just in case. I'm tired, which indicates to me that I didn't sleep very well last night. Now it's a dark, snowy night in the field and winter isn't over yet.
April 5 I read much too long last night, until I couldn't see anymore, and then when I got to bed, I was asleep before I finished my prayers again. This has to stop. Maybe tonight. I slept quite well until around 7:00, and after that, I didn't feel like I was sleeping much at all, but it was after 9:00 when I got up. Not nearly enough sleep!
I knitted my two rows. I've now sort of started the third chart, although the row I do next is really part of the second chart. I think I got the new ball of yarn started, although I couldn't attach it the way I wanted to. I don't know how I did the first break. I don't think it will be noticed, but I wasn't too happy with it. Oh, well. Each one of these shawls has been a learning experience of one sort or another.
I put my towels to soak. I keep forgetting how long I've been using them, but they were getting quite yellow from the color of the water, and my hand towel was pretty grimy. I will hope I don't have another accident for a few days, because I like to soak the towels for four or five days before I wash them. I still say that if I'd had any idea how yellow my water is, I would have gotten ivory towels rather than white, but I have the white ones and I wash them so infrequently that they are all in good shape. When I think how diligent I was about washing every week and washing towels and sheets every two weeks when I was working, it makes me a little sad. Of course, that was a long time ago when I was young and robust.
I went to the post office and stopped at the store, and that was all. I keep forgetting I need to get some canned cat food in from the breezeway. I don't want to put it down when it's cold, so I can't do it in the morning. Tomorrow, for sure. I'm running out of the backup stuff.
Evidently there was some kind of a denial-of-service attack that zapped all of PastyNet's mail servers, so I didn't get very much mail - not very many spam messages - and even late this afternoon I was still getting stuff from overnight. What a pain for them and for us users. I had to go out to their site to read my daily devotions this morning. I'll hope it's over with now and everything will be all right again tomorrow. I was wondering what the problem was last night, because I didn't get any of the messages I expect. i think I have everything I was looking for today, although some of them have come in at odd times.
The weather was blah again. The high temperature during the day was 29º. and there was a light north wind. It was cloudy all night and when I got up this morning, but it cleared up for a while. It was lovely when I was out. Around 5:00 it started to cloud up, and it's all cloudy now. I can see the line of snow approaching from the southwest, but it will be a while before it gets here.
The guys were sleepy again today and I didn't see much of them. Louie sat on my lap for a while, but I was late enough getting to the studio that I had to boot him off. They were at each other today again. I don't know why some days they are friends and some days they aren't.
I am so tired that I think I am just going to crash as soon as I have this uploaded. I need to get back on track for Sunday. The weather forecast doesn't sound too good, but I will try to get to church if I can, because Pastor is going on vacation and I won't go next week. However, if we have the 3"- 5" of wet sloppy snow they are predicting for overnight tomorrow, I may not be able to go. Oh, it's not over yet!
Now it's a cloudy, calm night in the field.
April 4 Well, I read too long again last night. I'm reading one of my very favorite parts of Voyages, and i just kept reading until I couldn't focus on the screen. I was so tired that I didn't even finish my prayers before I was asleep, and I slept quite well. I got up around 9:00 and I knitted my two rows.
I started loading the dishwasher, and that was about all I did. Thursday is a day when there are lots of things to read, so I did that.
While the talking was going on this afternoon, I knitted four more rows, and I'm getting close to being done with chart two. I started a new ball of yarn. The yarn I'm using is not good yarn, which is a shame, given the amount of time I'm putting into it. it isn't spun evenly; in some places the binding thread was pulled too tight and that makes the yarn kink, and in other places the unspun yarn gets big and fuzzy. In some places, the whole thing is almost as thin as lace weight yarn and in other places it's nearly as thick as sock yarn. I guess I shouldn't be surprised, given the price, but still. It is kind of pretty stuff, shading from very pale blue to almost navy, with a bright blue and a gray blue in between in a long change. Unfortunately, right at the end of the first ball, there was a knot and the yarn beyond it didn't match that before it, and the whole thing didn't match the beginning of the second ball. I moved things around a bit, but I'm afraid it's going to be obvious if anybody looks closely. Oh, well, it's been a kind of fun thing to knit, and it is blue.
The weather was blah. The high temperature, 40º, was between 6:00 and 9:00 this morning, and it dropped off slightly all day, until now it's 35º. The wind was around 15 mph from the north. It was cloudy for almost all day, although it has cleared up a bit and the sun is now setting over Porter Island. With the temperature that warm, we've lost some more snow, and while there are still drifts on the deck, there is a lot of bare wood, too. I guess there is supposed to be a little snow over the next couple of days, but not a lot.
Speaking of snow, there was 6" at Delaware on Sunday, so the total for the season so far stands at 257". That's a very respectable number, considering how the season started. It's the first year since 2008-2009 that we've had over 200", and while we haven't reached that total yet (282.5"), the season isn't over yet. It's only a pity it started so late and my friends in the tourist business had such a miserable holiday season.
The guys were very sleepy today, and they didn't even wrestle very much. Louie did get to sleep on my lap for quite a while.
Now I'm tired again, but I am going to read some more. It's a mostly cloudy, fairly warm evening in the field and I missed a nice sunset because I can't walk fast enough.
April 3 I got to bed around 10:45 last night and I slept quite well. I was awake around 7:00 and that was too early, but the next time I woke up was 9:00. I knitted, and that took long enough that I didn't have a lot of time to spare before I had to leave. It was harder because I had to run to the bathroom at least three times. Sigh.
It was clear and dry again and I made good time, which was a good thing, since I ended up leaving a bit later than I'd intended. When I got to the dentist's office, there was a guy in front of me who parked where I wanted to, but I was able to get another pretty good parking place. I was a bit shaky today.
Well, I did not need a crown. Thank heaven for small favors. The piece that fell off my tooth was small enough and there was no decay or anything, so instead, he patched everything up. I haven't looked at it yet, but it feels just about like the original tooth did. It was really nice not to be looking like $1000 or so in dental bills. Not that it was cheap, but it was a whole lot less expensive than I'd been fearing. Whew!
That took enough less time that I reassessed my plans and went to lunch right away. It was good, as usual, but I brought at least half of it home with me and had it for dinner. Bambu has really good food. Then I decided not to to to Wal-Mart. The only thing I could think of that I wanted was hair clips and maybe some cat food, and if past experience is any indication, I would probably have spent close to $100, which I shouldn't. I was over on the Hancock side and starting up the hill when I remembered I wanted to get some cheap gas, but by that time I didn't want to circle around again, so I stopped in Calumet. I've been running up and down the peninsula enough that if I hadn't stopped, I would have been a little concerned about making it to church on Sunday.
I got behind a slow driver on my way home - somebody from Copper Harbor, but I don't know for sure who - and I got home around 4:00.
It was a beautiful day for a drive, sunny and not too cold. The temperature here only got up to 32º, but it was at least 36º in Houghton, and all that sunshine made it seem warmer. The wind died down to almost nothing. It was still sunny when I got home, but the clouds soon started to move in and it's mostly cloudy now, and there could be some rain or snow overnight, before it clears up again. Oh, it's not over yet...
The guys weren't happy that I left them. Grayson made up to me and sat on my lap and got petted after dinner, and just now Louie came up out of the basement and let me pat his head. He gets madder than Grayson does when I go away. Grayson is always just glad I came home. Louie is going to punish me for going away.
I am tired. I find that lately driving that drive, even just down to Calumet, tires me a lot. Of course, I did drive 100 miles today, which isn't insignificant. At least there wasn't much traffic. I don't complain about the long distances, because I knew all that when I settled here. At least I can usually combine church with shopping. I see my doctor on Monday, and I will probably do something else along with that, but I'm not sure quite what. It's a little soon to get my blood tests, so I'll just have to see what I can do, I may food shop a little. There are a few things I forgot the last time I shopped.
So that was my day, and I think I will forgo the reading tonight and just crash. It's a cool, calm, cloudy night in the field.
April 2 It seems rather weird that it's only the beginning of April and Easter is over already. Well, that's the problem with a lunar calendar.
i think it was around 11:00 or so when I got to bed last night. I slept well. I think it was nearly clear all night. At least I was awake around 3:00 and Jupiter was setting beyond my neighbor's roof and I could see Polaris. I woke up around 8:00 and that seemed early so I slept for another hour before I got up. I knitted my two rows before I got dressed.
I had an accident, so I had to clean up after that, but I didn't do much of anything else. There was a lot of stuff to read today. I did move the camera back to almost where it belongs. When I moved it so that the wall didn't show, I moved it too far yesterday, so today I moved it back to almost where I want it. At least we can see the lighthouse at night now. After I post this, I will reset the start and end times again. The days are getting long fast now, at almost 3½ minutes a day, and we're almost up to 13 hours of daylight.
The weather was quite nice. it was cold, around 25º, which is our normal minimum at this time of year, and there was a 20 mph or so wind out of the north, but while it had clouded up at sunrise, around 10:00 it began to clear and the afternoon was sunny and clear. I noticed in passing that the sun set in the gap between Porter Island and Lighthouse point.
When I got up this morning, Louie was asleep on the end of the bed. Yea! Some time ago, Grayson kept attacking him when he slept there, and ever since, Louie has been sleeping on the rug beside the bed and frequently getting in my way when I get up. I was so happy to see him there! And they were rather nice to each other this morning, amazingly enough. Louie slept on my lap for a long time after I cleaned up after my accident and Grayson slept on the desk, mostly in the sun. While I was getting dinner, they were bombing up and down the stairs to the loft. They both love that, because they can stamp their feet and make lots of noise that way.
So that is all I know. I read for most of the afternoon again, and I might read a bit more, but I ate dinner very late tonight, so I should go and take my bath and go to bed at a reasonable hour. I get prepped for my dental crown tomorrow afternoon, so I have to be presentable. I'm not looking forward to that, but at least I will get a good dinner at Bambu out of it. I will probably go to Wal-Mart, too, although there isn't much I need there.
Now it's a clear night in the field and the wind is dying down.
April 1 I've always thought April Fool's Day was stupid, so I don't acknowledge it much.
I crashed last night. I was in bed before 9:00 and I slept very well, with the usual wakeups. I got up around 8:00, I think, and I knitted my two rows.
And that was about all I did. I'm still tired. I jumped on the Lake Champlain Chocolates sale, so I will be supplied with the best chocolate for a whole long time, since I haven't started on what I bought before Easter yet. I think that for a while it will be safe in the breezeway. Last year I ordered some in the summer, but not only was the shipping extremely expensive, it's such pure chocolate that when it's warm, it almost melts and it gets pretty gooey. So I'll pig out before the warm weather (if any) comes.
The weather was interesting. It was very windy overnight, with gusts up to 42 mph around 6:00 this morning. The temperature got down to 18º between 9:00 and 11:00 this morning, then it started to rise and the wind started to slow slowly. Now it's 28º and the gusts are only 23 mph. It was a nice blow, though. It was cloudy this morning, and when I looked out the windows there was something coming down over the mountain, although I only guess that it was light snow. Around 2:00 it started to clear up, and we're having a nice sunset. The sun is over the end of Hunter's Point now, so it is fleeing north at a great rate.
The guys were their usual sleepy selves. Louie slept on my lap, with a smile on his face, for a very long time. Grayson ended up not sitting on me, because I had to get up, I think.
Now I will read for a while longer and try to get to bed early tonight. They are playing Mozart, though, so I won't go very soon. It's a nearly clear night in the field, neither very cold nor very windy. Last updated 05/01/13 08:58 PM |