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A View From the Field |
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August, 2013 August 31 I guess i should just be used to getting to bed after midnight, since I seem to do it most of the time, except for Saturdays and Sundays. I was late again last night. because I finished Osara, but i slept well. I got up around 9:30. That wasn't enough sleep, but it means I should be able to get to sleep tonight. I only knitted two rows this morning, and that took an hour, partly because I found myself knitting when I should have been purling on the return row and I had to rip.
Today was washday, and the wash is in the dryer right now, although with the weather, I'm not sure how dry it will actually get. Otherwise, I didn't do a lot. I've been reading Bolin, but I realized I had used the same first name twice in Osara, and in order to fix that, I had to change a couple other first names. In a minor character, changing a name doesn't bother me much, but this one was major, so I had to rotate names. I think it's all right now, although I don't like the new name quite as much...but then, the character who had it has been in the story from the beginning, and it was only lately that I realized what I had done.
The weather was all right. It was partly cloudy, and the temperature got up to 71º briefly. It was extremely humid overnight, but the humidity went down a bit this afternoon. I had to change my bottoms, and when I took a pair out of the laundry room, they felt like they were wet. I hate that. There wasn't much wind, so I have had to open the east window, because it got quite warm in here.
The guys spent the entire day socked out in the window seat. Grayson did come down with me for a while, and he spent some time watching the birds, which are hawking bugs in the lee of the house. He's fascinated by that, just like all my other cats have been.
I filled the pill dispensers down here and I have to do the ones in the bathroom tonight. I'm not sure how i got on a schedule where I do that and the laundry the same day, but it works out all right. It only means I will have to go up to the north end a little earlier tonight.
Now it's a partly cloudy, coolish evening in the field, and they say we're going to have some more thunderstorms tonight and tomorrow. Tonight is OK, but I hope not tomorrow, because I have to shop.
And August is over! Geez!
August 30 So I was late again, but I have clean hair and I was able to enjoy the thunderstorm. It was mostly out over the lake by the time it got here, but evidently it hit pretty hard down the peninsula. After what happened today, I began to realize that part of the reason I love watching thunderstorms so much now (I always liked them) is that I don't have to worry about what they're doing to my computer and networking equipment.
The broadband was down all day, and it was down here for even longer because something happened to my router and I had to power fail that before my connection came back. I was sorry to bother Charlie, and the next time, I will power fail stuff before I call them. Well, maybe not. I was calling to see if the same message I'd been getting all day was still up, and I just happened to get Charlie. It's OK now, though, and I just finished catching up on my email and my surfing. Fortunately, Friday isn't a day when I usually have a lot of links to follow from the emails.
So I got up around 10:00 and knitted and I didn't get to the computer until around noon, when I found that the connection was down. I read for most of the afternoon, but that was nice. I did get the dishwasher loaded, even though I don't have to run it for a couple of days. It's nice not to have the sink full of dirty dishes. Tomorrow I can soak some of the dirty pots and pans. I went to the post office, and I thought about going to the store, but there were a lot of people there and I will be shopping on Sunday, so I didn't stop.
It was a cool, humid day. The high temperature was 71º, and that was early this morning. For most of the day it was under 65º and there was a brisk north to northeast wind, in the 15 mph range, which has now switched around to the east. I think it was partly cloudy all day, but there was a lot of sunshine. I should note that days are down to 13½ hours now. Oh, sigh.
I didn't see much of the guys. I think they were sleeping upstairs. When I came out of the kitchen with my breakfast, however, they were both sitting in the window by the kitty condo, staring outside. There have been a lot of birds hawking insects around the house. They weren't around when a nuthatch started pecking on one of the window frames.
Speaking of hawks, late this afternoon, I caught something flying between the dead tree and the roof of the studio, and when I got it in the binoculars, it appears to be a juvenile sharp-shinned hawk. They are a little bird, the smallest hawk, and they inhabit the woods, so it makes sense. I don't know what he was going after around here. I hope it wasn't any of my little songbirds.
So that's about all I know. it's nice to have my Internet connection back. I don't think I will be up too late tonight, or I hope not. It's a cool, partly cloudy night in the field.
August 29 Oh, it was another late night. I was reading and the music was very nice and time just passed. Sigh. I got up around 10:00 and I knitted four rows on the shawl, and I started a new lace pattern. This one has more openwork than the first one, so it's more fun, but I now have 300 stitches, so it's slow. I like working on a pattern like this one; about the time i get terminally bored with a pattern, there's a new one. And I really love the color.
I was late enough that I didn't do much else. Thursday is a day when there are lots of emails that end up sending me off to web sites, so I didn't finish my surfing until well after the talking started. A lot of that was because right in the middle of the afternoon, there was another outage, so there was an hour or so when I read. Now I will read some more and try to get to bed a bit earlier tonight. I can't go another day without washing my hair.
The weather was yucky. It was extremely humid all day. The temperature got up to 77º, but then it dropped off. Then right before 6:00, a thunderstorm moved in and while there wasn't much thunder or wind, we had 0.4" of rain. There was hardly any wind all day, and it wasn't very comfortable. There was a little sunshine, but mostly it was cloudy. Yuck.
The guys mostly slept, I think. Grayson got agitated when the storm moved through, and he is now lying under the east window, which is open. Oops - he just got up to leave. I have been a little surprised that both guys don't like storms very well, but I guess last year, they were trying to tough it out. Now they come to mama when something happens they don't like. So we're making progress. I guess i"m really mama now.
I got a call from the drain guy this afternoon, and I suppose that soon I'll be getting a bill (shudder!), but so far everything seems to be OK - fingers crossed. He will be back, to check out the sump pump, but that's not critical. Just as long as it's working before winter.
So that was another quiet day. I didn't get enough sleep last night, but that doesn't mean a lot, except that I absolutely have to wash my hair tonight, no matter when. I dug through all the stuff on my desk this afternoon and I found the order for blood work that I had misplaced, so now I can go down to Laurium to get that done. The piles are still high, but maybe a bit more orderly than they were. Someday it would be nice to get the desk cleared off. Ha!
It's a cloudy, calm, very humid night in the field.
August 28 Sorry to anybody who tried to read the journal last night. There was a power outage in parts of Keweenaw (not up here) that brought down the network, and it was still down when I went to bed.
Actually, I got to bed around 10:45, and I slept very well. I am always more comfortable when I can have the covers over me and make my own climate. I got up around 8:30, I think, and I finished the first chart on the ice blue shawl. I did screw it up a bit, but hopefully blocking will disguise the problems. I just made some unjustified assumptions about how the chart ended. So tomorrow I can start chart 2, which is only 46 rows long.
There was a lot of stuff to read today and a lot of stuff I wanted to check out, so it took me most of the afternoon to do my surfing. I did get the dishwasher completely unloaded, so tomorrow I can begin to reload it and clean up some of the dirty pots and pans.
The weather was cool and foggy again. The high temperature was only 71º, and there wasn't any wind. The fog came in and the fog went out, and the skies were probably cloudy all afternoon. The humidity was over 80% all day. It was an unprepossessing day. I ignored it.
So did the guys. Louie got a little pet this morning, but I didn't see much of Grayson. He's around now, but he doesn't want to sit on me.
I managed to almost not have an accident today, and what I did have wasn't very bad. It was my own fault; I sat at the computer for too long. It was much better than it's been lately. I had some lettuce for dinner tonight, and I'll be interested to see what happens tomorrow. I'd hate to give up my salads, especially at this time of year.
So now it's a moist, coolish evening in the field and I need to wash my hair.
August 27 Oh, the music was nice and I was reading and it was ridiculously late before I got to bed. Sigh. I didn't get enough sleep, but I didn't want to be in bed all day, so I got up around 10:00, and I knitted four rows on the shawl. Now I only have four rows left on the first chart. Good. I'm getting tired of that lace pattern.
I was so late that I didn't do much at all, although I've begun to unload the dishwasher. I remembered that it's been a while since I've updated Norton and done a scan on the laptop, so I've started that. It may determine when I go to bed. I should take a bath tonight, too.
The weather was just like June. There was some fog this morning, and it was very humid. Then the fog went away for a while, and after about 5:00 it came back with a vengeance. The high temperature was 73º, around noon, and it's fallen off since then, so that now it's 60º, which is a mite cool. The humidity was at or near 100% all day, and there was almost no wind at all. Yuck. Just like in June, it was 15º warmer in Houghton.
I didn't see much of the guys today. I think they were sleeping.
Now I have to wait until the laptop updates complete, and then I can go up to the north end, close some more windows, and maybe the door, and go to bed. It's a cool, humid, foggy night in the field. I just lost my Internet connection, so I don't know when this will be uploaded, but I won't go to bed until it is.
August 26 So I took a nice tepid shower and I think I was in bed by 10:30. Mostly I slept well, except that I was up around 1:00 again. When I woke up, there was lightning all over the place, but it was so far away I couldn't hear anything. That is so neat to see. So I dozed for a while, and then I began to hear rumbling, so I closed the windows in the window seat and I had to go halfway through the great room to make sure I'd closed the south window. Again. Tonight I think I will remember it's closed.
After the storm went through, I went back to sleep and I think I was up one more time before I woke up at 10:00 and didn't quite make it to the pot. It had cooled down nicely, but it was still extremely humid.
I knitted four rows on the shawl, and I only have about six left to do on the first lace chart. I have also just about used one ball of yarn, so now I am faced with the dilemma - how to attach the next ball. I'm not sure the method I used on the brown shawl will work on this yarn, because it's superwash and all the little barbs on the hand-washable yarn have been removed. I guess I'll just have to fiddle around and see what works.
I was so late getting to the studio that I didn't do anything. The nice man who gave me blueberries last year did it again - about half a gallon, I think - so of course I had to have blueberry pancakes for breakfast (actually, lunch). Oh, they were good! Our local blueberries are so much better than the ones in the stores! These are juicy and a little tart and so flavorful! Yum!
Then I had another accident, so I had to change everything below the waist again and do a load of wash. That gets so old. I did get the dry cat food bowls filled, which made Grayson happy.
The last Monday church service was tonight, and I'm so sorry it's over. It has been a wonderful series of sermons. There weren't many of us, but we sang good.
The weather was not very nice. The high temperature for the day actually took place at 1:00 AM, and it dropped a bit after that. the actual high was 75º, and it was in the low 70s all day. Unfortunately, the dew point was around 68º all day, which gave us relative humidities in the 80% - 90% range. When I put on my polo shirt this morning, it was damp, like it had just come out of the washer. The skies were partly to mostly cloudy all day.
I didn't see much of the guys. I think they slept all day, which sounded good to me. If you don't like the weather, sleep through it.
Now I should go to bed, but the music is nice, so we'll see. I'm still reading Osara with an eye on the technology. Now it's a cloudy, damp, warmish night in the field and we could have another 1:00 AM thunderstorm.
August 25 Ooh, it's summer in the Keweenaw at last!
I made it into bed a bit before 10:00, but I had a hard time getting to sleep, mostly because the wind was bothering me. Then I was up around 1:00 closing the windows in the window seat and making sure the south window in the studio was closed, since it was thundering. I went right to sleep after that, but when I had to move and walk around 3:30, I had a hard time going back to sleep. I was awake again around 6:00, unfortunately, and I only dozed afterwards, so I didn't get nearly my daily quota of sleep. I think I'll be early tonight.
The low temperature overnight was only 68º, and it was very humid, then right after 8:00, we had another short shower, which left it even more humid. I had a hard time getting dressed. Everything I put on felt like it had just come out of the washer, and I had a horrible time getting my compression hose on.
I managed, though, and I got off to church, although there were a few slow drivers. I was never so glad to have A/C in the car. I was dried out by the time I got to church. it was already over 80º and humid there, though, so it was miserable in church. There was communion and pastor's sermon was another good one, so that made up for it.
I had some thought of stopping at Pat's for a few things I need, but it was so hot and my feet were so sore that I just came right home and took off all my clothes (well, not really, but most of them).
It was miserably hot all day. The temperature has finally gotten up to an official maximum of 89º. with a dew point of 71º, and even though that results in a relative humidity that sounds fairly low, it's not. John Dee is right - dew points over 60º make for miserable conditions, no matter what the temperature. For a while there was some wind, but it's dropped to nothing now. It was cloudy for most of the afternoon, but it's cleared up a lot now, with just a few little lazy clouds drifting slowly south. It just isn't very comfortable. I will take another bath tonight and open up the windows in the window seat and turn on the fan. it's a good thing I like to sleep warm. This may be the night my feet aren't covered up.
The guys don't like the weather very much, either, and they don't like me going away. Both of them got some lap time this afternoon, and they slept for the rest of the time. Having a hot cat on my lap in this weather isn't my favorite thing, but they are so sweet and they seldom stay very long.
i spent most of the afternoon reading, and I will do that a little more before I totter up to the north end and take a nice, tepid shower before I crash. It's a hot, humid, but clear evening in the field.
August 24 Oh, well, I did it again. I read, and the music was nice, and i was very late again. I slept well, and I didn't get up until nearly 11:00. I knitted four rows, but these were easy ones, and it only took me about an hour.
I was so late that I didn't do much of anything except I did get the huge pile of dishes out of the sink and mostly into the dishwasher, except for the two bowls i had to wash by hand. Not that they aren't dishwasher-safe, it's just that they're too big. So I guess I can say I accomplished something.
The weather was summery. The high temperature was (is) 79º, and it's been that temperature for the past three or four hours. There has been a southwest wind in the 10-20 mph range all day. The sky was partly to mostly cloudy, with those high, featureless clouds that are sometimes thick and sometimes thin. It was a hard day to get the temperature right. I closed the south window because I don't like wind blowing directly on me, but then I got hot. The breeze was cool, but I think that's because the wind has been coming mostly off the water again and that cools it down.
The guys were sleepy all day. Louie got a tummy rub for the first time in a long time, but I didn't see much of Grayson. He was asleep on the bed when I got up. It's quiet around here, and that's what they like.
So now I will read for a bit longer before I totter up to the north end to do my Saturday night stuff and try to get to bed early. I got up late, but I didn't get enough sleep last night. Now it's a warm, breezy evening in the field.
August 23 I was late again last night, but not extremely late. I slept well and got up around 10:00, I think. I knitted, but I only got two rows done, because I screwed up the lace pattern and had to rip. Well, that happens, too.
Then I had an accident and had to clean up myself and the laundry room, which was depressing. So I didn't do very much at all. I went to the post office and to the fish market/bakery, and I just got my surfing done before the talking started. I only did two rows on the cobweb shawl, too. I haven't really gotten into that one. That fine yarn isn't easy to work with.
It was, as Alex (at the fish market) said, a perfect summer day. It was clear, the temperature got up to 73º, officially, and there was a nice light breeze from the west. I think it was a little warmer at the fish market than it was out here. The breeze coming in the south window felt a bit cool, but then, it was coming across the entire length of the harbor, and that isn't very warm. Anyway, it was perfect, as far as we were concerned. Now there are a few high clouds. There' s a perfect classic mare's tail off to the south, which tells me the upper atmosphere winds are blowing from a different direction than the ground winds, and that means unsettled weather, although it may not hit us until Sunday. Anyway, it was lovely.
The guys slept all day, I think. I saw Louie briefly and Grayson just came around and got petted a bit. He slept on the bed for most of the night. Louie slept in the window seat, and when I got up, he was lying on his tummy with his front legs stretched out full in front of him and his chin on the pillow between them. Nobody, but nobody, can relax quite like a cat.
It appears that my connection problems are just about over, although there was a glitch about the time I had to leave for the post office. Speeds have been good ever since. Poor Charlie and Jon. This has been a pretty awful week for them. There was a picture on the PastyCam page for yesterday, posted earlier today, of Charlie on top of one of those free-standing towers. Having been in the business, I know just how bad those things can be, when everything seems to go wrong all at once, and the simple upgrade that was supposed to be done overnight takes two or three days (or a week!) to complete.
I finally had my kale tonight, braised with shallots, mushrooms and vegetable broth and mixed with brown rice. It tastes a whole lot better than it smelled, for some reason. It was good, but I have tons of it. I also have enough fish for another meal, which isn't so bad, either. It was a good dinner.
So now I will read for a while, hopefully not too long, before I crash. It's a clear, warmish evening in the field.
August 22 I think I was in bed before midnight last night, but I don't remember. I slept well, and I got up at 9:00 because I had to, and I if I'd gone back to bed, heaven knows when I would have gotten up. I only knitted four rows on the shawl, but that took me about an hour.
So after breakfast, I had an accident, and then a while later, I wet my pants. Geez! I'm falling to pieces!
When the talking started, though, instead of playing Solitaire, I decided to start the other shawl. Oh, my. Except to notice that it is lace-weight, I hadn't looked at the yarn very well. Yes, it's lace-weight - cobweb lace. The strands look about the size of size 50 crochet cotton (read, sewing thread). I started it, and I'm about 8 rows into the first chart, but this is going to take a long time. Knitting on that stuff is really, really slow. And the fabric it produces is incredibly wispy. This is one where the pattern will show mostly in the holes. It didn't help that I was having trouble seeing it. I guess I should have figured it out, since there are 880 yards in 50 grams, about twice what there is in my other lace-weight yarns. Well, I've wondered about cobweb yarn since i got my book on Shetland shawls. Now i have two chances to play with it and see how I like it before I go hunting for 3000 yards of the stuff.
By the way, that brought to mind some of the things that discombobulate me about the US staying on the English system of measurement while the rest of the world has gone metric. In yarn, weights are in metric, but we still prefer to read lengths in yards. We use the old system to size knitting needles, but they are keyed to metric diameters. Beads come in 14" to 16" strands, but their sizes are in metric (e.g., 4 mm). My new sewing machine has the stitch length and width in millimeters, which I am having a hard time getting my mind around, since I still think of stitches per inch. Every so often I find another instance. Oh, yes, the Live Ships Map reports ship lengths in meters, but we still talk about 1000-footers. That's a hard one, because my handy-dandy calculator that does so much will convert kilometers to miles or centimeters to inches (one conversion I know), but it doesn't convert meters to feet. Suffice it to say that a 330 meter long laker is loooooong! I calculate it out at 1083 feet! I forget which ship it is. Next time I see it, I'll mention it.
I spent some time on the phone today and now I am going down to Detroit on October 21. I wish it could be earlier, but with all the doctors going someplace else in October, that's the best I could do. It's too late to get anything in September. The whole thing annoys me.
The weather was lovely. There were some clouds early this morning, but they soon went away, and it was clear and blue, blue, blue all day. The high temperature was only 70º (Nice!!), and there was only a light wind out of the north. It was beautiful.
The guys were very sleepy when I got up this morning. Grayson was curled up in the bed and Louie was laid out in on the rug in the bathroom, and they didn't even get up when I went to get breakfast. Later they moved, but they sleep a lot. I had to go out to the breezeway, and both of them were looking out the door at me, just to make sure I wasn't leaving. They are funny little critters.
Well, my internet connection has tanked again, and I only hope I can get this uploaded.
It's a clear, warmish calm evening in the field.
August 21 Last night, it was the nice music and a bath, so it was 1:00 before I got to bed. I slept well, with a couple more wakeups than I've had lately, but I didn't get up until 10:00 or later (I don't remember) so I pretty much got my sleep.
I knitted four rows on the shawl. I have 216 stitches now, so I'm having to cut back on the number of rows. I calculated it out, and when I finish, I will have 544 stitches for the last few rows, so this is another big one. I like the color so much, and the yarn is so soft, that I'm enjoying my knitting.
Then things started to go to pot. I splashed the boiling water for my poached eggs on my hand, leaving me with a nice scald. It hasn't blistered, and it isn't so sore anymore, so I guess it's OK. I ran cold water on it right away, and that helped, until I had to wash my hands. I dropped the pepper grinder on the floor, but fortunately it didn't break. After breakfast, Grayson was almost asleep on my lap when I got a serious cramp, and I had just gotten out the door of the studio when everything let loose. By holding the hem of my shorts, I managed to get to the powder room, but when I let go to get undressed, it all came out onto the floor. Yuck. After i got myself sort of cleaned up and started the washing machine, I had to haul out the mop and pail and clean up the powder room, which was not an easy task. By the time I was through with that, my back was killing me, so I came and sat down.
On top of that, PastyNet has been having serious problems all day. Some of their equipment in Houghton got fried early this morning, and when they thought they had that problem fixed, the replacement equipment failed as well. So while I've had some connectivity since I got to the studio, it's been slow and sporadic. I just got off the phone with Charlie, because somebody has been trying to log into the network using my userid (which they don't know). Things are still not back together there, either, and on top of that, there is somebody trying to log in using my dime.
Geez. Computers.
The weather was nicer than they were predicting. The temperature got up to 82º for a little while, but then it began to drop off, and the afternoon has been rather nice. Part of the reason for that is that there has been a nice north wind, with gusts up to 25 mph. It was cloudy when I got up this morning, and for a while it looked like it might rain, but soon the clouds began to break up and we had a lot of sunshine this afternoon. Now it's clear overhead and to the north, but there is a cloudbank to the south. Fortunately, I think it's headed the other way. I got dressed with the idea that it was going to be hot, and eventually, I had to take off my camisole and put on something a bit more covered up. Nice.
The guys were active this morning, but they slept for the rest of the day. Grayson sat down on my lap after breakfast, like I said, and went to sleep until I had to move him abruptly. Louie wanted to sit on me too, but Grayson was already there. I don't know where Louie was, but Grayson spent most of the afternoon on the desk.
I didn't put on any compression hose when I changed my clothes, and my ankles are enormous. Besides, it feels like I had socks on or something. Oh, well, by tomorrow this week's pair of hose will be dry and I can begin to compress. The hot weather and the glop I've been putting on my legs has made it really difficult to get into the hose.
Now it's a comfortable, nearly calm evening in the field, mostly clear, depending upon where you look. I think I'd better take another bath tonight, and maybe I can get to bed a little earlier?
August 20 I managed to fiddle around long enough that it was after midnight when I got to bed. I slept well; It was warm, but I just covered up less. I like to sleep warm anyway, and it has to be sweltering before i can't stand to have my feet covered up.
I was awake around 7:15, and it was very nice to be able to go back to bed. I finally got up close to 10:00, and I knitted for too long, but I finished the first repeat of the border pattern on the ice blue shawl.
I didn't do anything much else but my surfing, but I did finally get the dishwasher unloaded and I started reloading it.
It was hot, or at least hot for Copper Harbor. The high temperature was 85º, although when it got that warm there was a nice north breeze out here that cooled it down a bit. Then the wind shifted to the southwest and it warmed up, although there is a nice breeze coming in the patio door and the south window. It was fairly humid all day, too. The sky was partly cloudy, but most of it was that high haze we have so much of. I'd really like to see a totally clear sky again, although with the full moon tonight it wouldn't matter too much.
I didn't see much of the guys today. Every time I got up, Grayson had to go with me, just in case I got it into my head to leave, but I didn't see Louie at all. I think he was in the window seat.
Tonight I have to take a bath. I would anyway, but I have to wash my hair. I'm looking forward to standing in the door to the porch with nothing on and letting the warm breeze dry me off. Ah, the sensual pleasures of living where nobody can see me...
I think I will read a while longer, though. I'm reading Osara with an eye to updating the technology, and I've already found several places have to make changes. Wait till I start talking about having a conference where half the attendees are holographic projections...Maybe I can write about a few things we don't have yet.
It's a hot, breezy evening in the field.
August 19 I almost neglected to mention that 30 years ago today, my mother came home from work and found my dad in his chair, with a martini beside him, dead. He had been in failing health, but we didn't know it was that bad. it was a sad time. I miss him, and I've always been sorry that I never got to know him better.
I managed not to get to bed until 11:30 last night, and while I slept well, I was up a number of times. The last one was around 7:30, and that was too early to get up, so I went back to sleep. Well...the next time I woke up was 9:45. Eek!
I rushed to get dressed and eat, and I did have time to read my morning devotion, but then I got stuck in the powder room, so I was late getting to Johanna's. That's not a problem, mostly. She keeps Copper Harbor time, just like I do. I feel much better for my massage. My back has been bothering me, and she took care of that.
She is beginning to bulge, and she had some incredible pictures of the baby, including one of his head and arm that look more like a regular photograph. I wonder how they do that.
So between getting up and out in record time and getting a massage, I was wiped out this afternoon and I didn't do anything much.
Church was nice, even though there weren't many people there. On my way home, I had to slow down when a deer ran across the road. Now that the days are getting so short, I will have to remember to be more careful. As we left the community center, the almost-full moon was rising in the southeast, so pretty.
In my mail was a card saying that I can't see the eye doctor when I wanted to, so now I'm not sure what I'm going to do or when (or if) I'm going to Detroit. I will have to get on the phone tomorrow and see what I can set up. Geez, that trip is getting harder and harder to orchestrate.
The weather was warm, but not quite as warm as they thought. The high was 77º, but for most of the afternoon it was in the low 70s. It is getting more humid, though. The wind was light, mostly from the north. I guess we have another day of hot weather before it cools down a bit - or I hope it does. I don't like this.
The guys both got some lap time, and Grayson tried his best to keep me from going away. Poor Grayson. He'll never understand.
The moon is just about full tonight, and the days are down to 14 hours - we've lost about 2 hours since June. I hate to see that. Now it's a nearly calm, warm, moonlit night in the field.
August 18 I made it into bed by 10:00 last night, and I slept better than I thought I might, since it was quite warm in the bedroom. I had a couple of interesting dreams, including a potty dream that was kind of weird. I was asleep when the alarm went off, and I didn't want to get up, but I did. However, I lost track of the time while I was doing my morning surfing, and it was just lucky that I knew what I was going to wear and it was easy to get into.
There was a whole lot of traffic on US-41 this morning. I could understand the ones going north, because Art in the Park was yesterday and today, and parking is so horrible, it paid to get there early. However, in my direction, I picked up a caravan going out of Allouez, with at least seven cars and a couple of RVs, and of course, the guy in front was going very slowly. I made it to church when I wanted to anyway.
The parking lot was sealed last week, and it is now all nice and flat. There are now two handicap parking places, but there aren't stripes around them, so somebody pulled in so close to the second one that nobody, unless they were driving a Morris Minor, could have gotten into it. I mentioned it to Pastor, and if I see Steve (the congregation president), I'll mention it to him, too. Or maybe Mary, who seems to keep things going around there. Even Christian people are sometimes so thoughtless!
Church was good, and Pastor's sermon was a good one, but since there was no communion, we got out earlier than usual. I was happy to go right home. My legs were really wobbly this morning.
Most of my trip home was good, but I got behind some guy on the covered road who obviously doesn't drive it very much, and that was no fun.
By the time we got to the Harbor, things were jumping and there was not a parking place in sight. One problem I noticed was that a guy towing a camper had parallel parked across about six spots outside the community center. While I know some very nice people who have campers, there are obviously a lot of real clods (well, I'd use the a-word, but this is a family site) out there. He could have parked in the driveway to the trash compactor and not been too much further away, and then at least half a dozen other people could have parked, too. Grr. I didn't stop. My legs wouldn't have held up, and besides, I had to pee. I've only been to Art in the Park once, and based on that experience, I've been afraid to go back. I would probably find something I absolutely had to have and break the bank. Better I not go.
We are finally getting some summer, and I'm not sure I like it very well. The high temperature was 80º, and even though it wasn't humid, it felt hot. It was breezy while it was hot, but as the temperature has fallen, the breeze had died down. I guess you'd say it was partly cloudy, but for most of the afternoon, it was cloudy enough that there wasn't much sun showing.
I didn't do much of anything. I read a little, and I made a small change to Special Forces, and that was about it.
The guys didn't do much either. When I left, Louie was back in the window seat, and he was still there until recently. Grayson slept on the desk, and he got a nice pet. Louie came by just a while ago and he got a little pet, too. This kind of weather is only good for sleeping, anyway.
I agree, but I promised Charlie I'd do a speed test at 10:30, so I'll be up for a while. I guess I'll read some more. I'm going through Osara again, as I wrote last night.
Now it's a warm, sort of cloudy night in the field,
August 17 Last night, the excuse was the nice music. I got to bed around 12:30, and I slept very well. I was awake around 8:30, and even though I was tired, I decided to get up, so that I could get to sleep tonight. I'm really tired now.
I knitted for a long time on the ice blue shawl, and I'm going to have to make sure I stop earlier after this. I calculated it out, and the last rows have 544 stitches, so this one isn't going to be that much smaller than the brown one. It's an interesting pattern, though, so I don't mind the knitting. I'm still doing the shoulder, so there aren't so many stitches in a row yet. Faroese shawls have shaping on the shoulders so that they lie flat and drape nicely, so I'm increasing 8 stitches on each right side row. After this chart, it will be only four stitches per row. The patterns have both knit and purl stitches in them, so the return rows are not plain purling and I have to pay attention. That makes it more interesting.
I didn't do a lot to day, because I was late getting to the studio, and when I did, my Internet connection was gone. After enduring it for a while, I called PastyNet, and when I can get someone to do it, I'm going to get a new receiver and a new router, but in the meantime, I worked with Charlie to try to get connected. There are some strange things going on here that he doesn't understand. The last time I checked, everything was OK, and I was getting passable speed, but that has been going south after 8:00, so I'll see what happens then.
I got the trash off the counters and got the dishwasher almost ready to run. I read through the last part of Special Forces, and as I suspected, I deleted most of what I wrote the other night and brought it to an end. I'm happier with it now, but we'll see the next time i read it.
I've been thinking about Osara again, since I don't seem to be getting anywhere on Bolin, and I'm starting to read again. It has to do with updating the technology. I started that story in 1980, after all, when smartphones and stuff like that were even beyond the ken of science fiction writers. I'm trying to be more forward thinking now, and I want to make sure I have everything as up-to-date as I can. I have some ideas, but we'll see how it goes.
The weather was glorious. The temperature got up to 79º for a while this afternoon and it felt so good! There was some wind, too, with gusts up to 22 mph from the north, but it didn't last long. The skies were nearly clear, but the haze has started to coagulate into high, wispy clouds, so it wasn't completely clear. It was mostly sunny, though, and the temperature was lovely.
The guys were their usual sleepy selves, although they got into it this morning. Fortunately, Grayson can jump up on counters or the dresser and Louie can't, so when Grayson doesn't want to wrestle, or Louie gets too rough, Grayson can get away from him. They slept this afternoon. Louie got some pet time, but Grayson didn't want any.
I guess I will read until around 8:30, when Charlie wants me to do a speed test, and then I will go up to the north end and get ready for tomorrow. I'm tired, so I want to get to bed early, if I can.
Now it's a partly cloudy, warm, lovely evening in the field. It's so nice to have a little summer!
August 16 Well, I was earlier last night, but I was still late. I slept very well, and I got up around 10:00. I knitted too long again - with two phone calls - but I'm making progress on the ice blue shawl. It's going to be a pretty thing, and it's heavy enough to be useful, although it's not as heavy as the brown one. I took the other ones down to the studio this morning, and I'll be taking them back tonight. I didn't have time to start one of them today.
About all I did was go to the post office. Ron and I are still waiting on the tractor and truck situation. That's an annoyance I didn't need right about now.
The weather today is what we should have been having all summer. The high temperature got up to 70º and there was only a light north wind. It was clear, but there is that high haze in the sky that makes it not completely blue and kept me from seeing stars last night.
The guys were their usual sleepy selves, although Grayson did try to keep me from going out and he sat on my lap for a couple of minutes after dinner. Now he is sitting in the east window, which is open, watching the parade going by outside. The way his head and ears are, there must be something out there. I didn't see much of Louie after I got dressed. I think he spent most of the day in the window seat again.
So that was my day. I still have Special Forces open, but I haven't decided exactly what to do about the stuff I last wrote, except that it has to go. I'm starting to read Bolin again. When I get into one of these things, if I don't know how to continue, I keep rereading until I either get bored or decide where to go next.
My legs seem to be holding their own but not getting better, but that frequently happens with these things. They don't look good, and they still itch, but they look a lot better than they did a week ago. When I got the prescription for the ointment, I wondered why they gave me so much, but now I know. I've gone through two tubes of it so far, and I'm not done using it. I seem to be beset by intractable ailments.
The way I feel tonight, I hope to be in bed a lot earlier. In the meantime, it's a warmish, breezy evening in the field.
August 15 I was up for half the night again last night. I read for a while and wrote a bit (and I'll probably be deleting most of what I wrote). Most of the problem was that my internet connection went south just as I was trying to do the system update on the laptop. I finally called PastyNet and found out that they were upgrading equipment yesterday, and that I should power fail my equipment. I did that, and it helped marginally, but I was still getting abysmal download speeds. Something clearly happened between when I did the update on the desktop and when I did it on the laptop. I finally got the update done and uploaded the journal, but it took forever. Thankfully, it was better today, but I wouldn't call it good. Then I just didn't go to bed. That would have been all right, but I got up around 9:00, so I didn't have nearly enough sleep.
i knitted on the ice blue shawl, and I solved the problems I had with the pattern, although I didn't do it the way the designer would have (I emailed her). I've started on the first regular chart, and this is another one where I'm having to use a chart to keep track of the rows, since there are borders, a pattern down the center back and four different patterns in between. Fortunately, the border and center pattern are the kind of thing I can probably keep track of by sight, but I created a chart and I'll put my little marks on it. I sure do like that yarn and the color. So soft and so blue! It even has a little thread running through it that has a glitter to it. Yum.
That was about all I did. I was so late getting to the studio, and there's so much email to read on Thursdays, that I hadn't finished when the talking came on. Now that I'm into the shawl, I will try not to knit for quite so long after this.
The weather was so good I was sorry I didn't get out in it. The high temperature was 72º (aah! My temperature!) and there was a light wind from the north except for a little while around noon, when it got up to about 20 mph. The skies were clear but hazy. There is a nice half moon shining in the south windows right now.
The guys were a little discombobulated by my odd hours, but they slept most of the day anyway. I glanced in the bedroom late this afternoon, and Louie was in the window seat, lying fully stretched out sort of half on his back with his tail and hind legs hanging out. Nobody, but nobody can relax like a cat. He would be a large cat even if he wasn't so fat. Grayson got a short pet and slept on the desk for most of the afternoon. He is enjoying the open window now, but I think I will have to shut it before we go to bed.
Now I am going to reread what I've been writing lately and probably delete a lot of it, but I won't be up long. I should wash my hair tonight, but I might not do that. I might just crash. It's a clear, calm night in the field.
August 14 I read for a while last night, although I didn't do any more writing, and then I took my bath, so I was rather late getting to bed. I slept quite well. My legs didn't start to itch until around 8:30, and I got up at 9:30 more because my ear and my hips were sore than because I itched. My legs do look better, but it's going to be a long haul. I'll be happy when they stop itching.
I cast on the ice blue shawl this morning, and It's interesting enough that I think I'll just continue to work on it. The yarn is very soft, even though it's sock weight, and I like the color. The model for the pattern was done in dark blue, actually I think a variegated yarn, and it's a lot easier to see the stitch patterns in the lighter yarn. I want to start one of the other shawls, too, but I didn't have time this afternoon.
Besides, I don't feel all that robust. I think fighting the infection in my legs is taking a toll on all of me. Maybe I can crash a bit earlier tonight and get a little more sleep. I was cold all afternoon, even though it got into the middle 70s in the studio, and that isn't usual for me. So I put on my sweat jacket and hunkered down. i had planned to go to the post office, but I didn't.
The weather was nice, or I think it was. There were some clouds this morning, but they soon went away, and it was clear and blue. The temperature got up to around 67º and for part of the afternoon there was enough of a breeze that there were some whitecaps on the harbor.
The guys slept, as usual, although they both got some lap time. I've been leaving the shower door ajar after I take my bath, to try to cut down on the mildew, and it always makes me laugh in the morning. One or both of them has to go into the shower and even jump up on the seat. I think Grayson even dozed there for a bit this morning. Of course, they don't want anything to do with it when it's wet, and in fact, just my opening the door when I'm going to take my bath makes them run away. I'm sure Grayson, at least, was outside in the rain before he was rescued, but he's not going to get himself wet if he can avoid it.
I am not going to get to bed early, I'm afraid. I am trying to update the system on the laptop, and even though the download went fast on the desktop, it's taking forever on the laptop and I'm using all my bandwidth. I hope I can get this uploaded!
A couple of people responded very generously to my little plea for money last night, and I thank them very much. I wish I didn't have to ask, but that's not the way my finances are. My readers are a great bunch of people, and I like all of you I've met in person. Thank you.
Now I will try the upload. It's a clear, coolish night in the field, and the almost-half moon has disappeared behind the white pine, but it's up there. I saw it before sunset.
August 13 Today is my mother's 96th birthday. She was not quite 76 when she died. I still miss her.
I'm not quite sure what I did last night, but I was late getting to bed. I slept well until around 7:00, and then I got itchy, so I was up around 9:00. That wasn't enough sleep, but oh, well.
I didn't do very much today. I worked in the ends on the shawl, so it is really done now, except to be blocked. It's going to be a really large thing, but that's all right, it will only make it more useful. I still don't like the color, but oh, well. Then i knitted on my waiting room sock for a while, but tonight I will take three projects up to the north end with me. I can't decide which one to work on, so I may start a couple of them and see what turns me on. I would like to get back to lace-weight wool, but the one with sock yarn interests me. For one thing, it's pale, icy blue, and it's a Faroese shawl made from the top down, with the edges and the center done in what amounts to an Aran cable pattern. In between are some nice lace patterns, so it has a little bit of everything. Only the other one I would like to start is with lace weight wool and I love to work with that. Decisions...
I had an accident this morning, the first one in quite a while. I'm not sure what brought that on. It happened so quickly there was no way I could have made it to the bathroom. Sigh.
When I got up, I thought my legs looked some better, although it looks like the infection may still be spreading. At least the original spots were just red and not purple. So maybe I'm making progress. They still get itchy enough to keep me awake, so I have a way to go.
Environment Canada really blew the forecast for last night. They said it would be clear, and it was cloudy all night. So, as usual when something is supposed to happen in the sky, we didn't get to see the meteors. They're still around, and it may be clearer tonight, but last night and this morning were the peak. It was cloudy and cold when I got up, and the sun didn't come out until around 12:30. It was partly cloudy all afternoon, and it looks like it's cloudy again, because I can't see the moon. The high temperature was only 57º, and the wind was around 10 mph from the north. That's too cold for August.
The guys were both asleep in the bathroom when I got up this morning, but they woke up and stirred around until after I ate, then they spent the rest of the day asleep. Grayson did come and sit on me for quite a while this afternoon, but I was paying strict attention to him, which he likes.
I had to reboot the computer to get rid of some adware this evening, which took some time from my reading of Special Forces. When I'm writing, I always start by reading what I wrote last, just do the new stuff will flow. I've just written a little bit, and I think I won't do any more, since I have to take a bath tonight.
I was going to talk about donations tonight, but i guess I'll postpone that again. What with the septic problems and some things that have come up with our snow removal equipment, my finances are looking pretty dire.
So it's a dark, and I think cloudy, night in the field.
August 12 I'm not sure what I did for an hour and a half last night, but it was 11:15 before I got to bed. i slept well, except between about 3:00 and 6:00 when I had itchy legs. After that was over, I slept until 9:00, when I got up.
I've finished the brown shawl!! I still have to darn in the ends, but it's done. It's a huge thing, and it really doesn't need much blocking, although I will block it just to smooth it out. I still don't like the color very well, but I think it will be about the most useful shawl. It's big enough to cover my forearms, which is the part of me that gets cold. These piddly little shawls that only cover the shoulders aren't my favorite.
I still haven't decided what to do next, but I think I will take the Trellis Leaves pattern and yarn up to the north end with me tonight--if I can figure out which yarn to use. One ball is darker than the other, and I have to try to remember which one I wanted to use for the leaves. This one is on #3 needles, which I like better than the #7s.
I was late getting to the office and I didn't do much. My legs are still stiff and sore from yesterday.
The weather was cold. Between 11:00 and 2:00 it got very cloudy and cold, but it didn't rain. The high temperature was actually at midnight, and it was 61º until about 11:00, when it dropped off to 53º and the rest of the day was in the 50s. There was a north wind that got up to 15 mph sometimes. It cleared up beautifully after 2:00 and there is a crescent moon hanging over the mountain. Unfortunately, it seems to be a little bit south of the camera view.
The guys were sleepy most of the day. Grayson slept on the desk, and Louie spent the afternoon over by the patio door in the studio, where the sun was shining on him. Grayson didn't want me to go away tonight, and he laid down in the middle of the bathroom and wouldn't move, to try to keep me from leaving. He was around when I came back, too, just to make sure it was me, and then he went back to sleep.
When I got home, I started writing on Special Forces again. I mentioned that I was not pleased with the ending, so I have added a lot and I'm going on from there. It will be longer than I originally thought, but it might not end so abruptly. They still have places to go and things to do. We'll see where it all leads.
Now it's getting late and I want to see how hard it is to upload this. I've been having trouble with my Internet connection all evening, and it doesn't all seem to be the problem Charlie talked about a couple of weeks ago.
It's a cold, pretty clear night in the field, and there might be stars and a meteor or two.
August 11 I turned out the light around 9:45 last night and I slept well until around 4:00, with one wakeup. Then my legs started to bother me and I never did get into a deep sleep again. I don't recall a bout of cellulitis when my legs have been so itchy. Of course, about the time I had to get up, the itchiness stopped and I could have gone back to sleep. Actually, I got up 15 minutes before the alarm went off, because I had to. I'm really tired now.
i made it to church, and it was good, with a good sermon and communion.
Then I had to go to Pat's to shop. Oh, sigh. I knew I wasn't up to it, but i had to, because I was running out of OJ. Of course, I got a lot of other stuff. While I was there, a lady came up to me and said, "Are you Sharon? I look at your website every day." I always like to hear from people who like my site, even though I sometimes wonder why they do. Anyway, when I was going through the checkout line, she came up to me again and offered to help me unload my cart. I was so grateful to her! By that time I was exhausted and I had very sore feet, so she helped a whole lot. Thanks, Margie!
Then I had to go and get gas. I was a bit annoyed, because the station that is associated with Pat's had their gas at 10¢ a gallon more than several other stations, but on the other hand, I got $4.50 off from Pat's, so I think it came out all right. The car wasn't completely empty, and that helped.
When I started for home, something happened for the first time this year: when I came to the end of Cliff Drive, I had to wait while a line of seven slow cars passed before I could pull out. Oh, sigh! Some of them turned off at Eagle Harbor - the art show was this weekend - and one turned off at Lac LaBelle, but I was second behind a guy who was going very slowly as we started down the covered rood. Fortunately, there is a section right at the beginning where passing is allowed, and when I saw how slowly the guy was going, I passed him. I got behind another guy who didn't know the road well, but he was going a tolerable speed. He had two dirt bikes on the back of his car, and he turned in at the Keweenaw Adventure Company. There were a lot of people walking around in town, I noticed.
So I made it home, and my feet were so so sore I had to change my clothes before I could unload the car. My feet still hurt. I managed to get everything unloaded and packed away, but my legs are still so sore I can hardly walk. I bought a piece of fish, but I also got some wrap sandwiches and pasta salads, so I had some of that for lunch and some for dinner.
The weather was nice. It wasn't completely clear; there was a nice selection of clouds from cirrus to fair-weather cumulous, but there was a lot of sunshine. The temperature got up to 69º for a while. There was a north wind, but it wasn't too strong. I like weather like this.
The guys weren't around when I left for church and they didn't appear until I had most of the groceries in the house. Then Grayson jumped onto the chair in the kitchen just as I sat down on it and he almost got squished. He should know better. I didn't see much of Louie. One time he came up beside me and said "mew," but he didn't try to jump on me. They don't like it when I go away.
I spent the late afternoon reading, and I finished putting chapter breaks into Special Forces. I do like that story, although I don't like the end of it. Well, I can work on that. So now I'm back to Bolin, and I still don't know what I'm going to do with it.
I am very tired, so even though it's fairly early, I think I am going to go and crash. It's a partly cloudy, coolish evening in the field.
August 10 I turned out the light around 10:45 last night, but I didn't sleep very well. The fish I had for dinner was working, and I was up about every hour and a half all night. My legs were itchy, but not quite as bad as the night before. I got up around 9:00, although I only dozed for nearly an hour before. I knitted, and I now have only four repeats of the edging pattern to go. Yea! I'm almost done! This has been really boring. I must really decide what to do next.
I didn't do a lot today, as usual. I partly unloaded the dishwasher, and that was about all. I spent part of the afternoon reading. I'm into Special Forces again. I really like that story, although I'm not completely pleased with the ending. I'm dividing it into chapters now. Besides that, I'm still in the phase where I make a few changes every time I read through it. I wrote a little on Bolin last night, but I'm having a hard time going forward with it. I know what I'd like to do, but I'm not sure I can write it. So I read instead.
The weather was nice but cool again. The high temperature was 68º, for a while this afternoon, but for most of the day it was in the lower 60s. There was a brisk north wind, in the 15 mph range. It was clear and sunny all day, although the sky has that haze in it. I didn't go out, and with that north wind, I kept the window in the studio closed.
The guys were quite rambunctious this morning , but they've slept for most of the afternoon. Grayson came and sat on me for a while, but I was editing the story while he was here, so he went away. He likes my undivided attention, and he doesn't usually stay long.
I have been forgetting to report that we've had a para-skier out on our end of the harbor for the past few days. It's been a good time to do that - the wind has been good. I think he is one of the people staying at my neighbor to the south. Those people have always done riskier things than I would. The guy is wearing a wet suit, although the last time I saw him, he had clearly exhausted himself and he didn't seem to know it. It looks like fun, but that water is still pretty darn cold.
So now I will read just a bit more before I totter up to the north end and get to bed early. It's a clear, cool, sunny evening in the field.
August 9 So last night I was in bed by 10;15 and I went right to sleep, for about five hours, although I did come to enough to turn over. Then I had several hours of not very good sleep. My legs were so horribly itchy that I couldn't sleep. I don't recall having a case of cellulitis before that was so itchy, but this one certainly is. Finally, it died down and I slept again. I got up around 9:00, so I should have had enough sleep anyway. My only aftereffect is that I've been having a hard time seeing all day. My eyes just do not want to focus. Oh, well.
I didn't do a lot today. I knitted this morning, and I have only seven or eight repeats left to do, but I had a few problems, including dropping something on the stitch where I have to knit 11 together (well you don't do it that way, but this isn't the knitting blog). My worst problem now is that I am using a 40" needle and it gets in my way, but I can't put on a smaller one without moving all those stitches I haven't worked off yet. I may try using a double point and see if that helps.
The dishwasher is almost ready to go tonight, except for the dinner dishes.
The weather was cool and windy. The temperature only got up to 64º, and that was only a little while ago. In the late morning and early afternoon, it was very windy, with gusts up to 33 mph from the north. While it was windy, it was also cloudy, but around 1:30 the clouds began to go away and it's quite clear now.
It was clear last night, at least when I went to bed, and when I went up to the north end, Venus was twinkling low in the northwest. I could sort of see stars later on, too, but not very clearly.
The guys were happy that I got up earlier this morning, but they soon went to sleep. Both of them got to sit on me an get petted, though.
Now it's a cool, clear night in the field and I don't think I will be up very late tonight.
August 8 Oh, I was late again last night. I finished reading First and I just didn't seem to want to go to bed. It was partly the music, which was nice last night. Oh, well.
I got up around 10:30, and I knitted. I am now about 80% done with the edging. I will be very glad to get done with this thing. I'm still trying to decide what to work on next.
I actually did something today. The cat bowls needed filling, so I did that, and I got the trash out of the kitchen and the dishwasher filled, although I won't run it until tomorrow. It looks a lot better around there last night. I also got some stuff out of the fridge that had died and I washed some bowls and pans. My back hurt when I was done.
When I got up this morning, it was clear, but it immediately got cloudy and humid. It was cool, too. The temperature finally got up to 66º, by 6:00 PM, but it was in the low 60s all day. there was a little breeze from the north. It finally began to clear up around 3:30, and it is nearly clear now.
The guys were active early, and again when I finally got dressed. Louie bothered me all the time I was knitting, but I think that's because he was hungry. This afternoon, Grayson sat on my lap for a long time and even almost went to sleep there. I think that was because he wanted the dishes filled, too. I don't imagine he understands that I had intended to fill them anyway.
So now I'm back to rereading Bolin, in the hope that I'll see how to continue it. Maybe I can get to bed a bit earlier tonight. I should probably take a bath, but I probably won't. My shins still look horrible and itch horribly, but eventually that will pass.
Now it's a nearly clear, calm and cool evening in the field.
August 7 I got to bed around 1:00 AM, after taking a bath, and I got up around 10:00. I slept well, even though the guys were rather rambunctious around 7:00. Somehow, they know that they don't bother me when I'm asleep. Smart kitties.
I didn't do a lot today, again. I had to go to the post office to return some stuff, and I stopped at the store for eggs and milk. I will have to shop on Sunday, but in the meantime, I was running out of eggs and my milk was sour. That was about it.
The weather started out very dark and cloudy this morning, but around 1:30 it began to clear up (from south to north, weirdly enough) and the afternoon was glorious Not very warm, but beautiful. The high temperature was 64º, so it's still cool, and there was about a 15 mph wind from the north for most of the day. The wind has now dropped to nothing, which it usually does around sunset in the summer. This is my favorite time of day, when it's calm and quiet and lovely in the field.
The kitties were rambunctious early in the day, but they soon went back to sleep. Late in the afternoon, I found Louie sleeping in the sun over by the patio door in the studio. They do like to be close by me.
I have been forgetting to mention that I am fighting another bout of cellulitis. You can't imagine how ugly my shins look, the left one particularly, with a huge patch of purple surrounded by bright red. It is not only sore, but itchy. I am using my ointment, and I'm sure I will eventually get over it, but right now it's difficult. Scratching only makes it hurt more, and sometimes it's very painful. Ugh.
I have also been fighting a couple of really bad zits on my forehead. Yes, at age 72, I still have zits. My skin is still very oily, especially in the summer, and I got into some bad habits over the winter that I haven't gotten out of. My scalp is still very oily, too, especially on top and around the edges, which means that the ends of my hair are always dry. I had expected to be over the oil by this age, but I don't mind it so much because it means I don't have very many wrinkles yet. Only I've been fighting the oil for 60 years, and it's old.
So that was another quiet day. Now it's a cool, clear night in the field and there should be stars tonight.
August 6 Oh, I did it again. I still don't know why I don't seem to want to go to bed, even though I'm tired. I finished Erlon, and that was one reason. When I get to the climax of a story, I just want to keep reading. Anyway, I was very late, and I got up around 10:30, so I didn't get nearly enough sleep, so I didn't do anything today.
It wasn't a very nice day, actually. The temperature got to 66º, barely, and it was extremely humid, so humid that we had fog for most of the afternoon. This will certainly go down as the foggy summer. There wasn't any wind, and it was cloudy and blah all day. Blah.
The guys did what they usually do when the weather is like that - they slept. I should have, too. Grayson is sitting under the east windows right now, but he and Louie slept under the south windows for most of the afternoon.
And that is all I have to report. It's a dull, cool, humid night in the field. Yuck.
August 5 I read for a while last night, and it was 10:45 before I turned out the light. I slept well enough that I had a hard time getting to the bathroom, but there were no potty dreams, curiously enough. I had several other, very interesting dreams, though, none of enough significance that I can remember them. I got up around 10:00, I think, and I knitted for a while. It certainly is a long way around the bottom of that shawl!
That was about all I did. I went to the post office, where there were some packages but only one bill, and i went to church tonight. There weren't a lot of people there, and I think most of them were from church, but it was nice.
The weather clouded up overnight, and it was dull and cloudy all day. The temperature got up to 68º, but only for a little while. Mostly it was in the low 60s and humid. The wind was under 10 mph all day. Not very interesting.
The guys were sleepy at different times. Louie was awake and wanted to play or be petted while I was knitting, but I didn't see Grayson until I got to the kitchen. When I got back from the post office, he wanted to be petted, so I had to postpone looking at my mail while he got his love-in. When I came home from church, Grayson was sitting in the open window looking at me and Louie was in the hallway by the door.
So that was another nothing day. Now I think I will read a bit more - I'm reading Erlon - before I go to bed. It's a cloudy, cool and humid night in the field.
August 4 Oh, I fiddled around last night and it was late when I got to bed, so I was very tired when I got up this morning. I was a little perturbed that neither cat came to get breakfast, but oh, well. I checked the screens on the open windows, and Grayson did not get out again.
i got myself off to church, and it was good to go again. Pastor's sermon was a very good one that hit home with me. They are going to try to form a choir at St. Paul's this fall, but I forgot to tell Pastor that I want to try to come. I'll tell him tomorrow. I would love to sing again.
I was thinking about doing some shopping today, but I was so tired and my feet were so swollen that my shoes hurt, so I came home instead. I can get eggs and milk at the store here and I have enough OJ to last until next week. I didn't do much else for the rest of the day. Too tired. And I'm going to go to bed when I finish this. Too tired.
It was a beautiful day, if not very warm. There were a few clouds, but not many, and the high temperature was 66º. There was a 15 mph wind out of the north for most of the afternoon, although it has died down now.
When I was up last night, there were stars, although not very bright ones. The Big Dipper is dipping down to take a bowlful of Lake Superior, but I could see all of it except for the star that connects the bowl to the handle. I could see Polaris and the brightest star in the bowl of the Little Dipper. We haven't had very many clear nights this year, so it was nice to see stars.
I didn't see any cats before I left for church, and when I got home, I only saw Louie sitting in the window seat. I don't know where Grayson was, but i imagine he was upstairs, where it's warmer. Now both of them are here, and Grayson got a pet this afternoon. He is watching the parade out the east window right now and Louie has been sitting on a bag on the floor. I still don't know how Grayson got out the window, unless he pulled the clips with his teeth or his feet. At least he came back.
So it was a quiet day, and I'm off to the north end to crash. It's a clear, coolish evening in the field.
August 3 I read again last night, but I was still in bed before midnight. I slept fairly well, I think. and I got up around 9:00. I didn't want to, because I was having an interesting dream that I wanted to continue, but I had to pee. I knitted four repeats on the shawl edging, so I was late getting to the studio.
Today was washday. The last load is in the washer, ready to go into the dryer. I also finally got half of the clothes put away: all of the fleece and the sweaters that have been sitting in wash baskets forever. I still have two baskets of spring or summer stuff to put away, but I have two free baskets to put today's wash in, and maybe I can get the rest of it put away soon. It gets to the point where all my clothes are in the laundry room rather than in the closet.
The weather was OK. The temperature got up to 64º for a while, and there was a 15 mph wind out of the north. Trouble was, it was cloudy for most of the day. It has finally sort of cleared up, but it's not completely clear and there is that haze in the sky that makes it hard ot see stars.
Well, the news of the day is that Grayson got out again. Somehow, he managed to unlatch the screen in the studio. I don't know if he jumped out or fell out, because it happened when I wasn't here. Sometime during the afternoon, I had been in the laundry room and I went through the kitchen to get back to the studio. As I passed the great room patio door, I just happened to look down, and there was a little gray and white cat sitting on the deck in front of the door, meowing (although I couldn't hear him). I was so startled that it took me a moment to process that it was Grayson. So I opened the door, and while he walked away when I slid back the screen, I called him and he came right in. He has been a bit wired ever since, although he did take a nap. He sat in the open window several times, but I still don't know how he gets the screen unlatched. Louie spent a lot of time looking out the window seat windows while I was putting the clothes away, and now I wonder if he was watching Grayson, although if he walked around the north side of the house, he had a long walk. I guess I'm just going to have to accept that that's going to happen every so often.
I have gotten addicted to Solitaire. Well, I always have been, I guess. I used to play it for hours with a deck of cards when i was young. I never liked the way the Microsoft version played, though, with all those double-clicks and no way to automatically put all possible cards on the pile. So a few weeks ago when Bookworm got boring, I went out to the internet to look for a way to get around those problems. I found a way, but it was so awkward that I started experimenting. What I discovered is that you don't have to do any double-clicks at all or contort your fingers. If you right-click on a card that can be moved to a pile, it goes. If you right-click on the board between the cards, all possible cards are moved to the piles - which can mean winning the game without trying. It makes the game so much easier to play that I've sort of gone nuts on it. I will have to stop, but my Internet connection has been so slow sometimes that I can play a whole game before a page loads. Charlie gave us an explanation - actually, two explanations - and apparently the problems haven't gotten fixed yet. So I play Solitaire while my pages are loading, just like I did when I was on a dial-up connection. I suppose I should add my two cents to the pages with Solitaire Hacks, but I probably won't.
So now It's past time to go to bed so that I can get up in time to go to church tomorrow, and I have to fill the pill dispensers tonight. It's a cool, partly cloudy evening in the field.
August 2 So I was in bed by 10:45 last night and I got up around 10:00 this morning, which should have been enough sleep, but I'm still tired. I had some wakeful time in the middle of the night, which I didn't understand until I found one of my Neurontins on the tray this morning. I need two of those to keep the twitchy legs at bay.
Anyway, besides a little knitting and my surfing, I didn't do anything. I guess I'm still catching up on my sleep.
The weather was nice. It was mostly clear all day, although there are a few clouds in the sky now. The temperature got up to 68º for a while, but it was in the middle 60s for most of the day. There was a brisk wind, with gusts up to 24 mph, from the north. It was nice.
I didn't see much of the guys. I guess they were asleep someplace. Louie did get a tummy rub and he slept on my lap for quite a while.
So that's all I have to report. I'm reading Bolin again, with the idea of doing some writing, but I doubt I'll do any tonight. It's a relatively warm, relatively clear evening in the field.
August 1 Well, I was so late getting to bed last night that I didn't get up until noon, and then I knitted a bit before I got dressed. Mercifully, the septic alarm is off, although I'm not sure if it's because everything is all right or because something is seriously wrong.
I was so late that I didn't do anything but my surfing.
Thank you for all your kind birthday wishes, and to Arthur for the nice card and enclosure. I'm still not reconciled to being so old.
The weather was not too bad. The high temperature was 68º, which is tolerable. The wind was in the 15-20 mph range from the northwest all day, so I ended up closing the porch window. The skies were cloudy this morning, cleared up quite a bit during the afternoon, and are now cloudy again. Not bad.
The kitties didn't do much but sleep.
I am going to try hard not to be up so long tonight. That was ridiculous last night, but I read all of Special Forces. When I'm not reading it, I think there are things I could do better, but when I read it, it hangs together pretty well. I'm not completely happy with the ending, but the rest is pretty good. The night before, I think I had three of the four unfinished stories open at one time, but I think I'm going back to Bolin, or at least I'm going to read through it and see if I can continue on. Not tonight, though.
I have to get the dishwasher ready to run. I was supposed to do that last night and I forgot. And I should take a bath. Then I'm going to sleep. It's a coolish, cloudy night in the field.
Last updated 09/01/13 08:28 PM
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