|
A View From the Field |
|
March, 2014
March 31 Well, March is almost history. It seems like it went on forever.
i was in bed by 9:30 last night, and I slept so hard that twice I leaked on the way to the bathroom - ick. I didn't get up until around 9:00 this morning, so I should have gotten enough sleep, but I was tired all day. I'll be later tonight, because it's already 10:00, but I don't think I'll be up for very long after I finish this - although that probably means 11:00, given how long it's been taking me to get to bed lately.
Anyway, I knitted, and I'm progressing on the scarf, but it's slow. Other than that, I didn't do anything much.
I don't think I mentioned that I've been trying to put in an online order at Walmart and having no success. Every time I would get to the final page, the one that says "please wait while we..." something, IE would stop working and the order would never complete. I emailed them twice, but their customer service is nonexistent, so I've been experimenting. Either Saturday or yesterday, I mentioned it to Mary Ann and she said she orders that way all the time with no problems, so I thought it over again and this morning, I tried it from my laptop. Well. I now have a nice, big order for cat food that should arrive Friday. I know I run the 64-bit version of IE on the desktop and the 32-bit version on the laptop, and evidently there is something major that is different between the two versions. I believe that every time I got that "APPCRASH" error message, a message was sent to MIcrosoft, so maybe it's something they'll do something about it - maybe, but I'm not waiting for it. I thought I had a link to the 32-bit version on the desktop, but there doesn't seem to be any way to determine which version I'm using, so I don't know. Anyway, that diffused my frustration (and introduced some more). I wanted to order from Walmart because their prices for a lot of the cat food was much cheaper than Amazon's. No one place carries all I want for my guys (another frustration), and some of the prices were the same, so I have been letting my fingers do a lot of walking lately. Remember when the yellow pages used that slogan? Little did they know...Anyway, I should eat a lot less, but the fur faces have to eat.
The weather today was dismal. The low temperature was 34º and the high was 44º. Wow, it's been a long time since a whole day was above freezing! There wasn't much wind until this afternoon, but lately the gusts have risen to 38 mph, from the south. It looks to me, without being able to check it, that it's been drizzling all day and it has recently started raining lightly. It was dark and cloudy. Yuck. Well, slowly the snow will start to melt. Until the dikes break, I'm sure there will be puddles of water all over, including in my driveway.
The guys were full of energy last night and this morning and they slept in between. Louie would like to have slept on me all day, but I shooed him away so I could do something (not that I did). I don't know what all this romping around is about, unless it's that they sense that spring is really going to come. Their coats do; both of them are shedding like mad. The unfortunate thing is that the only brush that really works on their coats is one of those things with the thin metal tines imbedded in a rubber base, and they just do not like that thing. Either it pulls or it scratches, I'm not sure which, but if I want to get them to go away when I'm in the bathroom, I start brushing them with it (I know, I'm a meanie).
So that was a nothing day. I thought I would go to the post office, and I even got dressed, but I just didn't feel like it. So I will either go tomorrow, in the snow, or I will wait until Wednesday. Now it's a dark, damp, warmish night in the field, and I think I will go to bed.
Good bye, March.
March 30 I was in bed before 9:30 last night (see? I can do it!) but I didn't sleep particularly well, and I woke up before 6:00 ahd had to walk, so I got up. That gave me all kinds of time to do my surfing and get dressed and away without trying to rush.
The drive was pretty nice. There was some water on the road and a few patches of ice, since it was only about 28º when I left, but for most of the way between Delaware and Mohawk, I could drive 65, except in the spots where I usually have to slow down. I did come up behind a sheriff's car, but I slowed down when I realized who he was and he turned around and went back in the other direction. It wouldn't surprise me to know they recognize all the cars of residents.
Anyway, I got to church early, which was nice. It was a nice service, although I was disappointedthat they didn't use the old service again (they used it last week), but oh, well. SInce it was a fifth Sunday, we had communion today, too, and I guess Pastor didn't want to use the same communion service two weeks in a row. There were fewer people in church and no Sunday School, because the kids are on spring break and apparently a lot of people left town.
After that, I had to go to Pat's for groceries. Sigh. I thought I only needed a few things, but that turned out not to be the case, so I had one of the bigger bills I've had lately. Now the fridge is packed again. And I have very sore feet. I got home around 1:30, but I just had to sit for a long time before I could get the cr unloaded and pack everything away.
My back is going into spasms again. It's fine when I wake up in the morning, but as soon as I sit or stand, it gets bad again. I hope that will go away, but if it doesn't I'm supposed to see Johanna a week from tomorrow and maybe I cah convince her to give me a few karate chops. In the meantime, it's hard.
The weather was genuinely sprinllke. It was in the 20s overnight, but the high temperature this afternoon is 48º. It's been like that for several hours. That means sloppy, slippery back roads and water on the highways, but hey, spring is coming! There was a brisk southwest wind, with gusts up to 34 mph this morning. It was partly cloudy all day, with those high, featureless clouds that dim the sunlight for most of the day. I guess it's supposed to get nasty tomorrow and Tuesday, but the rest of the week should be all right. I hope to get to choir practice on Thursday.
The guys were not happy to see me leave and very happy to see me come home, but I had to chase them away, because they were very interested in what I brought home. Louie was also very interested in the bags, which were all plastic. I had to be firm with him to stop him from chewing on the hndles. He did get some lap time, but just about the time he fell asleep, I started to gurgle and had to get up. Grayson was more interested in the cheese crackers. In fact, he liked them better than I did. I like the other variety better, but he seemed to think they're just fine. He was even crunching on them. Funny little cat.
So now I am extremely tired and I have extremely sore feet, so I doubt I will be out of bed very long. I've been forgetting to point out that the sun is already over Hunter's Point and moving north at a fast clip. It's also 46.5º up in the sky at solar noon (almost 2:00 local time), so pretty soon it won't be shining in my eyes anymore. Even though it wasn't shining brightly today, it was enough to warm the studio up to 75º. If I can tomorrow, I'm going to have to switch comforters. I think part of my problem last night was that I was hot.
It's a warm, partly sunny evening in the field and spring WILL come!
March 29 March is winding down.
I got to bed around midnight last night. i endured through the Schoenberg (it was just as horrible as I feared, even though the announcer assured us that it was written early in his career) and hearing the Beethoven was worth the wait. It isn't all that long, which makes me wonder (again) why Classical 24 (part of Minnesota Public Radio) never plays it, even though they play other things that are at least as long. Whoever does their programming has some very strange prejudices. Anyway, it was lovely to hear. Beethoven's 6th is very spring-like, and about now in an incredible winter, I need that. After that there were some other nice things, but I finally gave up in the middle of (I think) some Dvorak. Nice stuff, but I was tired.
I got up around 9:00. I would rather have slept more, but I had to walk, so I just got up. Now I'm tired, which is good. Maybe I'll sleep tonight. i knitted. I am bound and determined to finish this scarf and probably more after it, even though it's really hard knitting. It's so pretty, that so far the difficulty is worth it. I never thought knitting plain garter stitch (knit every row) would be hard, but this yarn is the pits.
I was early enough that I finished my surfing, got my taxes together (I hope) wrote the two checks I wanted to write and was off to the post office by about 2:00. I got there while the guys who deliver the mail were still there, and they were nice enough to wait until I bought my priority stamp. Mary Ann was there, too, so we got to chat.
It was nice that the only bill was one I know about, although I was very disappointed that when they filled my propane tanks the other day, almost half was at "market rate," which is about 50% more than I've been paying. There is something wrong with how that stuff is priced. The really nice thing was a totally unexpected check. I will have to reread the explanation, but apparently there is something in the Affordable Care Act that gave me a refund on what I paid for my Medicare supplemental insurance last year - about 75% of a month's payment. I can't say i understand it, but hey, small donations gratefully received. And this one isn't so small. I will try to get it into the mail on Monday (weather permitting) when i return the misfiled mail. What a relief, when I was beginning to wonder how I was going to make it through the month...
The weather was positively spring-like. The skies were clear almost all day (the camera hung up again this morning, but fortunately, I wasn't as late as usual) and the high got to 36º, which is the average for this time of year. There wasn't much wind. The only problem with that is that here was a lot of melting ice around and walking was difficult. I didn't have any problem getting out to the highway, but I can see that a two-wheel drive vehicle might. Ron had cleared the culverts, but he didn't do the whole road. I don't see much melting except on the deck. Anywhere the underlying area is dark is melting away, but the piles haven't gone down much. There are some ferocious icicles around, and while I was knitting this morning, I heard something go "whump!" at least twice - the snow sliding off the roof.
The guys were sleepy but they clearly enjoyed the sunshine. I was looking for something in the studio (a futile task) and i ran across a bag of catnip toys that I bought a while ago. One of them fell out of the bag, so I took it off its card and threw it on the floor. A while later, Grayson was playing with it, and got it all dirty, and then later, I found Louie lying on it. They feel good, and they know that eventually spring will come and mommy will open the windows again.
So that was my quiet day. I stood and talked to Mary Ann until my knees were so sore I could hardly walk, and then when I got home, my back started going into spasms. I had to load the dishwasher, though, while my dinner was cooking, and that seems to have helped. Johanna will help, too, but it will take a while. Now I need to go up to the north end, take my shower, and get into bed early. Not only do I have to go to church, I have to shop. This week I really have to, no matter how I feel, so I hope i'm all right.
Now it's a clear, warmish night in the field (it's 77º in the studio, warm enough to tempt me to open a window) and spring WILL come.
March 28 Well, last night the music wasn't that great, but I was writing, and it was hard going. I would write a few paragraphs, or a conversation, and then I'd have to stop and think a while. So it was very late when I got to bed. I guess I might as well just get used to it.
I slept fairly well, but I woke up around 10:30 and had to walk, so I got up. It wasn't enough sleep, but oh, well. We'll see about tonight. Evidently the concert this week will have Beethoven's 6th, which is among my favorites, so I guess I'll just have to endure through the Schoenberg (with whom I have no patience at all) and wait. I haven't heard that in so long that I had been toying with the idea of digging through the six boxes of CDs in the basement to see if I could find my recording. So now I have another excuse not to go downstairs.
I knitted before I got dressed, and I'm making modest progress, but it certainly is slow. I was sort of planning to go to the post office today, but I was too late to get everything I needed to send away together, so I didn't. Tomorrow, for sure. Instead, I didn't do anything.
The weather was nice, and I should have gone out. The high temperature was 28º, but that was at midnight, and the high during the day was 27º. There was a little wind for a while, from the northeast, but it too peaked at midnight and it was about 10 mph for most of the day. It has now gone calm. It was clear until about 5:30 this afternoon, when the clouds moved in. The camera hung up at about 7:30 this morning, so we didn't get to see how it was early in the morning. I do not know why the camera will be perfectly all right for weeks then keep hanging up for several days at a time. Grr. Anyway, there was enough sunshine that I now have icicles on the eaves again and there was some melting.
The guys were a bit feisty this morning, but then they settled down and slept for most of the day, as usual. Louie got some lap time, but when he goes to sleep on my lap for a long time, it gets uncomfortable for me so I had to boot him off. I had to take a walk, too. Both guys are really enjoying the sunshine and warmth. So am I, although it got a bit warm in here this afternoon. Hey, at least they have fur coats!
So that was another lost day, and now I will write a bit more and I really should get my tax stuff together, as well as write a couple of checks I want to send. It's a cloudy, warmish (for March) night in the field.
March 27 Last night I was tired enough that I went up to the north end not long after I finished the journal, and I was in bed by 11:00, I think. It took me a few more minutes than usual to get to sleep, but once i got started, I did good, and I got up around 10:00. That should catch me up on my sleep. I knitted, and I'm making OK progress on the scarf, not as fast as I'd like, but OK.
I did a few rows when the talking started, too, but then my accountant called me back, and that was pretty much the end of that. I will try to get the stuff together for her tomorrow. It's all there, I just have to package it up and take it to the post office. I should have done that this afternoon, but I didn't.
When I looked at the PastyCam webcam page, and the picture was completely unlike what I was seeing out the windows, i checked the picture archive and discovered that the camera hung up sometime yesterday afternoon (about 4:30, maybe) so we didn't see sunset last night, sunrise this morning or anything else that happened before 1:30 this afternoon. I'm sorry about that, but it happens occasionally. Usually I check it more often, but it only seems to hang up when I don't. I think it's all right now, though.
Well, it's snowing again. It looks like it snowed for most of the night, and it has certainly been snowing all day, but there hasn't been a lot of accumulation. Part of that is because the flakes were very small and part of it is because it was warm. It got up to 33º for about 3 hours this afternoon. There was almost no wind. It was from the southwest until noon, when it went calm and then switched around to the east. It was a nasty day to be out, and I was glad I wasn't. Of course, it was dark and dreary.
The guys felt it, too, and they slept all day. Louie did sleep on my lap for quite a while until I had to take a walk, but Grayson wasn't so interested in that today. I wish people who think cats are so independent could see these guys, asleep on the floor not three feet from my chair, or on the rug by the side of my bed. Some cats may be independent, but none of mine have been. Even poor little Jasmine: she didn't want me to touch her, but she wanted to be around me.
So that was another quiet day, and I think I will try to be in bed at a reasonable hour again tonight. It's a dark, snowy night in the field, but it's not windy and it's not very cold.
March 26 I fiddled around too long last night, but i got my bath and got to bed, and I slept very well. I got up around 10:30, and i knitted a while. I actually got dressed to go out, but when I got to the studio with my breakfast, I decided I didn't feel good enough to go. So I didn't. I did my surfing backwards, because I wanted to read my funnies before I left, but by that time it was late and it was just too much trouble. I don't have any energy anymore, especially when I haven't had as much sleep as usual for a couple of days. We'll see about tonight.
So I did nothing much.
The weather started out nice and sunny, and the temperature went from 9º to 21º between 9:00 and 11:00. The high was 25º, although it was 23º for most of the day. There wasn't much wind. It started to cloud up around 1:00 and it got cloudier as the day went along. I guess we're in for a nasty day or so, with snow and freezing drizzle - yuck! Well, it's not spring here yet.
I didn't see Grayson until I was ready to get dressed this morning, although Louie was around. Then after I ate, Louie came and sat on me, got a tummy rub and went to sleep until I decided it was really time to take a walk. Grayson came by later and got a little love, too. They are acting like my little barometers again. They can tell when bad weather is coming.
So I'm tired again and I hope the music won't keep me awake, although it's started out with a Beethoven piano sonata with Alfred Brendel, one of my favorites, so I don't know. I need 11 or 12 hours of sleep to get me back to normal again.
Now it's a cloudy night in the field and the snow is coming...the snow is coming...
March 25 Oh, I was reading and the music was sooo nice: Schumann's 4th, which I first learned in Music Appreciation class when I was in high school, Haydn, and two Mozart symphonies, 29 and 36, which are among my favorites. Then when I finally did go up to the north end, I stared at the floor for too long, so it was ridiculously late when I got to bed. i slept well, at least until 9:30, but after I went back to bed, I couldn't get back to sleep for some reason, so I got up around 10:30. I knitted for quite a while, but with that yarn it's slow going, so I got to the studio quite late. And I didn't do anything but my surfing, and I paid a bill. Sigh. Another lost day.
It was another nearly clear, very cold day, too. There was some cloudiness around noon, but sunset was clear. The high temperature during the day was 14º, and there was a 20-25 mph wind from the north. It was mostly a pretty day, with all the sunshine.
The guys were someplace else for most of the day, probably soaking up the sunshine. I've been amused for the past few mornings, anytime from about 6:00 to 10:00, when they may end up bombing up and down the hallway or wrestling on the rug in the bedroom. This morning, they were under the bed, and Grayson has practically pulled onto the floor the king-sized sheet I use as a bedspread. He likes to hide under it and let Louie attack them. So the sunshine and high barometer has made them feel really good. Usually by the time I get up, they're socked out again.
So that was a nothing day. I will read for a while again tonight and hope the music isn't too nice so I can take a bath and get to bed at a reasonable hour. I think the ladies will be at Carolyn's tomorrow, and I would really like to go. Now it's a clear, cold night in the field.
March 24 i didn't turn out the light until 11:00 last night, and I don't know quite why. I went up to the north end before 10:30, and I didn't dawdle, but everything seems to take longer than it used to. Sigh. I slept well. The temperature in the bedroom was right for the heavy comforter, and I was very cozy. I was up several times, and there were stars, but not very bright ones. I got up around 10:00. I just seem to need 11 hours in bed these days, and I might as well get used to it. It cuts down on production, for sure.
I knitted, but unless I do more than knit in the morning, Debbie isn't going to get a birthday present. This yarn just requires that I knit slowly.
I actually did something today. I suddenly realized that it's the end of March and I hadn't gotten my taxes together. The big hang-up was that I had never completed my ledger for 2013, and I needed that to get most of my deductions. When I looked at it, it appeared that I had never done anything after I did this exercise last year, in March. Sigh. So I worked at that all afternoon, and at the end, I was able to fill out the page that has my deductions summarized. I was surprised, because I didn't have any trouble keeping the ledger balanced with my checkbook (which I know is balanced to the bank). Usually I have a terrible time, but today, I seemed to be right on. I did have some trouble with one month of my credit card, but by deleting everything and starting over, I was able to fix it. I don't know what I did wrong. The credit card stuff is always the worst, because I buy so much from Amazon and I have to go back to their site to try to figure out which charge goes with which item. It matters, because I buy almost all my OTC pills from them, and I can declare those. The whole exercise gave me a better picture of why I ended the year in such terrible financial shape, but unfortunately, there isn't anything I can do about it now except go forward and hope things will be better this year. So that took the afternoon.
It was another pretty but cold day. The high temperature has now risen to 21º, but it was in the middle teens for most of the day. It was clear or nearly clear for most of the day. It clouded over around 4:30 but it cleared up again around sunset and it's at least partly cloudy now. There was a brisk northwest wind for most of the afternoon, with gusts up to 33 mph, but it has died down again now. Ron was debating whether to blow out the culverts tonight or wait until morning. Apparently the wind left some pretty deep drifts over the road down there. It was only 64º in the studio when I got here around noon, so I ran the heater for the first time in several days. It felt good. When the wind is blowing like that, even the sun doesn't warm it up very much.
The guys were sleepy and I didn't see much of them today. Both got some lap time, and Louie only got off me because the heater came on. Otherwise, they were somewhere else. When I got up this morning, though, they were both on the rug beside my bed, the first time I've caught Grayson there. He ran away when I stirred, but I saw him. I guess it's too warm for them in bed, but they like it on the rug. Funny little critters, but it seems clear that in their previous lives, sleeping in a nice, soft bed was not something they could do and they don't know how nice it is. I don't move much when I'm asleep, so if they each chose a side of the end of the bed, I wouldn't bother them at all.
So that was all there was. I'm happy to have the worst part of the taxes done, so now all I have to do is get the documents together, call my accountant, and send everything off to her. Maybe I can do that by Wednesday.
Now it's a nearly clear, cold night in the field, and there might be a star or two tonight, too, although it's supposed to be cold.
March 23 I made it into bed by 9:30 last night, but I didn't sleep very well. I think I was hot. It should be better tonight, because it's going to be cold out and the wind is from the north, but if it stays this warm up there, I'll have to switch comforters, and I really should change the sheet if I do that. Ugh. With my back the way it is, making beds is nearly impossible.
Anyway, of course I had fallen asleep when the alarm went off, but I got up and did my thing. I was doing well, and I thought I'd get away when I wanted to, but it took me almost 20 minutes to go from putting on my shoes to starting the car. One of the problems with my physical condition is that everything takes a lot longer to do than it used to and that I think it will.
It was a slow drive, too, but I expected that. There was a lot of dry pavement, but there were also a lot of places where the sun hadn't melted the ice. I don't think it was too slippery, but i wasn't going to take any chances, especially on some of the tighter curves. I did get to church about the time I meant to, though, so that was nice.
It was a good service. There was communion, which I haven't taken in a very long time, so that was good. There were a lot of people in church, so it took a while.
I had thought about stopping at Pat's for a few things, but my feet hurt, so I decided to just come home. The two most important things - lettuce and JD - are things I can get at the store here. I have been wearing my full-length down-lined coat, because it's so cold, and since it's so bulky, I've been leaving it in the basement, so I had to go downstairs and get it, and they had a reception before the service and there were cookies (and other stuff) so I had a couple. Every so often, I get the yen for a home-made cookie. Then I had to struggle into my coat, and while I did, there were two babies that needed changing after the service, so I got to talk to their mothers a bit. The younger one, who is "our" baby (he was baptized in our church) was clearly hungry, and it interests me that I can recognize the hungry cry, even though I've never had a baby. It must be something instinctive. That was Sawyer's problem yesterday, too.
I got home around 1:15, and when I went into the powder room to change my shoes, Louie came and told me how happy he was to have me home. I changed my clothes, had lunch (the first ham sandwich I've had in many, many years) and generally did nothing for the rest of the afternoon. I didn't feel like doing anything - in fact, I had to try a bunch of things before I settled on reading. I don't know what my problem was.
It was a pretty day, but cold. The high temperature wa 17º and the highest winds were 15 mph, at about the same time in the middle of the afternoon. It was almost completely clear all day, and there was another pretty sunset tonight. It is staying light late enough that I think I might be able to start going to choir practice again. I hope so.
I have to say that the snowbanks are awesome. Most of them are at least 7' high and go up from there. However, I think we have as much, if not more, snow here in the harbor as they do anyplace else. Getting out of my driveway and going through the culverts is very interesting. The past two times I've gone, I've hit my right-side rear-view mirror on the snow in the culverts, which is the side they didn't cut down. And with the wind, there are overhangs that look like they might fall down as soon as it gets warm.
The guys were not happy when I left and they were very happy when I came home. After he tried unsuccessfully to get a bit of my lunch, Grayson went to sleep under the south window, where it was sunny, and he stayed there until well after the sun went away. Then he sat down on a chair in the great room where it was still sunny. And Louie curled up on one of the footstools - another first of the year. They are both shedding, in spite of the cold. I still think it must have something to do with the amount of light. It was nice and warm around here, though, because of all the sunshine. I think it's cooler at the north end, or at least it was this morning.
So that was my day. I'm sorry I didn't get to Pat's, but my feet were so sore I had to get home and get my shoes off. It will be better when I don't have to wear wool socks with those shoes, but it will be a while before then. My feet seem somewhat swollen today, so that's probably the problem.
Now it's a clear, cold night in the field, and I don't think I'll be up too long. Maybe it will be cool enough up there that I can sleep tonight.
March 22 I'm writing this a bit early tonight, because I hope to get to bed early. I managed to make it by 11:00 last night, but I didn't sleep very well. I think it was in part because I got up so late yesterday morning.
This morning, I got up around 9:00, even though I didn't want to. I ate and did part of my surfing and gathered up the stuff I wanted to give Johanna, and I thought I was doing well, until I got in the car and discovered it was 11:00 already. I had my usual problems getting out of the garage. There was a foot-high drift in front of the door, but it was sunny enough to give me enough shadows so that I could see where I was going when I backed out, but it still took me three or four back-and-forths to get turned around.
And then, to top it all off, I was going up the hill on the other side of the culverts when i ran into (almost literally) Ron going down. He had had to take the tractor out because there was a 6' drift where the high drifts are, and neither Trevor nor he could get to work. In attempting to back up to go around him, I ended up in a snowbank and had to fool around to get myself out of it and far enough down the hill that I could make it up to the top. So I was late getting to see Johanna.
She is fine, and the baby is cute and big, and I got a good massage. I can't feel the results yet, but after i take a nice hot bath and sleep for a while, I'm sure I'll feel better. It felt so good to have her hands on me again. Since she can adjust her schedule and Scot has rather strange hours, they have managed to work things out so that she hasn't had to have the baby with her in the massage room yet. Scot is a nurse and I think he works mostly afternoons. The only problem is, when she starts on me, it takes a long time, so she was running behind this afternoon, due mostly to me. And I thought I started to get ready quite early enough. HUh.
It was a very cold but mostly sunny day. The high temperature was actually at midnight, but it only got down to about 8º for most of the morning, and then it has gotten up to 14º. It was quite windy overnight, with gusts up to 35 mph from the north, but after noon the wind died down to almost nothing, even though there was a wind skier out in front for a while. It was cloudy this morning, and I guess you would say partly cloudy this afternoon, although there were times, like now, when it was almost completely clear. IT got warm in the studio, but I'm not complaining. I'll take all the free heat I can get.
The guys were not happy when I went off this morning, but they settled down when I came back and slept in the studio all afternoon. Louie got some lap time, even though I had to boot him off when I wanted to type.
So that was a quiet day. It's good to be seeing Johanna again. I hope I can get back in good enough shape that i can try to do something about the trash. I warned Trevor that I'll be needing his help in the spring, but he shouldn't worry about it, since I have a lot to do. I can't express how horrible the kitchen is, and I'm not even thinking about the cat pans. Ugh. Phew. Well, with my back the way it has been, no way could I do anything about any of it.
Now it's a clear, cold evening in the field, and there might be a star or two tonight.
March 21 It certainly is not spring in the Keweenaw! It's snowing again, and when that stops, it's supposed to get frigid again. Oh, it will come eventually.
I wrote for a while last night, but it was heavy going, so I went up to the north end around 11:00. I'm not quite sure what i did except stare at the floor, but it was midnight before I turned out the light. I slept well. I was awake around 9:00, but I decided that wasn't enough sleep, so I went back to bed and it was 11:00 when I got up. I knitted, and I'm making slow progress. I've been carrying the scarf around with me, but I haven't knitted on it in the afternoon yet. I'm going to have to get going if I'm going to have it ready by Debbie's birthday. It should be easy knitting, but the thread and having to fiddle with the sequins makes it slow going. It frustrates me when such beautiful yarn is so horrible to knit. Sigh.
I didn't do much, because it was after 1:00 when I got to the studio, but I did get the dishwasher almost ready to run tonight. After I put my dinner dishes in, it's a go. One of these days I have to do something about the trash in the kitchen, too, but even loading the dishwasher made my back so sore I had to sit down.
The weather was variable. It was clear overnight and this morning, but by 11:30 it had started to cloud up. It didn't start to snow until after 5:00, so it was just a dull, cloudy - and warm - afternoon. The high temperature was 37º, at 4:00, and then it began to drop off. There was hardly any wind all day. It's snowing hard enough now that I can't see anything out the windows. Sigh.
The guys must have known that it was going to be a bad day, because they slept for most of the day. Grayson got some lap time, but Louie didn't, because he came around when I was doing something else.
The something else was to pay a bill that is actually due tomorrow - I think it should be against the law for bills to be due on weekends - and when I did, I discovered that my checkbook was 1¢ off. So I went back and found where I hadn't subtracted right - and then i was 1¢ off in the other direction! It took me a while to find where I had accrued a penny of interest, so I had some work to do with a calculator. A couple of years ago, I got so far off that I finally had to push the reset button and take the bank's balance. I hate to do that. I like to know where the error was and fix it, but in that case, it had happened over a year before, and I lost interest about the time I couldn't see the statements online anymore. So that took up a good part of the afternoon.
Now I will write a bit more, I think, or maybe i will read, and try to get to bed even earlier tonight. I have a massage scheduled for tomorrow morning - yay! - and I need to actually get up around 9:00. So now it's a dark, snowy night in the field, but it's not windy, so far, and it's not too cold, so far.
March 20 - Spring Equinox Well, it isn't spring in the Keweenaw yet, but at least we can dream.
So the music was nice and I was reading, and it was late before I got to bed, but I'm clean. I slept well and I didn't get up until after noon. I knitted, and I had some problems with the yarn - again - so I was late getting to the studio. Well, maybe tonight, although I will probably write a bit.
I was so late that I didn't do anything, and besides, I had another accident. Not a bad one, but still. It gets old. I forgot to bring the scarf from the kitchen to the studio, so I didn't knit any more. Oh, well.
It may have been still snowing when I went to bed, but the skies were clearing the first time I was up, and I could see the shadow of the house on the snow. The road commission says we got 6" over the past two days. Today got clearer as the day went on, and it is now completely clear except for way off in the west. The temperature only got down to 25º overnight and it hung right around 32º all day. The wind was from the north, and it decreased all day long, until now it's almost calm. the warm temperatures and the sunshine made it get very warm in the studio - up to 76º. That's fine when I'm cold because I'm hungry, but it's a bit warm to be wearing a sweatshirt. Oh, I won't complain. i remember when it was 45º in here. I did open the blinds in the bedroom this morning. It may be a little cooler there, but I still have the heavy comforter on the bed, and I love to look out when I'm lying in bed.
The guys were sleepy, too. I didn't see much of Louie today, but Grayson was hanging around, and he sat on me twice. When I got up they were both asleep on the rug in the bathroom, so this must be a peaceful phase.
So that was my quiet day. I must say, for all the sunshine and relatively warm temps, we haven't lost much snow. All it has done is made for icicles in front of the east windows of the studio, which always happens. I'm not sure the insulation in the ceiling is quite right, but part of it has to be the sun shining on the black roof. I picked that roof deliberately, so that when we do get sunshine in the winter, the boiler doesn't run so much, and I think that's worked.
Now it's a clear, relatively warm evening in the field.
March 19 Oh, I did it again. The music was nice and I was reading, and time just slipped by. Then I had an accident, so it was ridiculously late before I got to bed. I had a little trouble getting to sleep, too, strangely enough. I guess I was too tired. I got up after noon and I knitted a bit so it was 1:30 before I got to the studio. That meant that I didn't do anything much, although I did bring in some cat food cans and I did a few things with the sink - not much, because the dishwasher still has clean dishes in it.
I did call Johanna, and I will see her Saturday morning. So i can't stay up all night anymore. I really need that. One reason I haven't been doing much is that my back is killing me. It was all I could do to fill the dry cat food bowls today. Johanna will help, I'm sure.
It's snowing again. It snowed all night and all day, although there hasn't been more than a couple of inches of accumulation. The temperature was nearly steady at 30º, which means that the snow is rather mushy. There wasn't much wind all day, but now it is rising to about 18 mph, and it has switched around from the east to the north. It was a good day to have my back to the window.
The guys thought so, too. Louie got some lap time, but Grayson didn't, and both of them slept most of the day. Louie was funny. When I went to the powder room after I ate, he came in and jumped up on the chair I have in there and went to sleep, which turned out to be on top of my hymnal and my old choir folder. I can't believe he was very comfortable, but it didn't keep him awake. I thought Grayson liked cheese crackers, but it turns out he likes any kind of crackers. He was eating Triscuits this afternoon. Well, there's no accounting for the tastes of some cats.
So that was a quiet day, and I hope to be going up to the north end relatively early. Needless to say, I didn't get a shower last night, so I have to do that tonight. It's a dark, snowy night in the field, but it isn't very cold.
March 18 I started up to the north end around 11:00 last night, but on my way, I stuffed the scarf into a bag and then I had an accident. When I looked at the scarf, I realized that the last 7 or 8 stitches had fallen off the needle and I wanted to be sure that was fixed before I left it. While fixing mistakes isn't as hard as it was with the lace pattern, it isn't any fun, so it was 11:45 before I turned out the light. That was two accidents in one day, by the way. Sometimes it just gets away from me.
I slept very well, and i got up around 11:00, so I got my sleep. I knitted on the scarf and it is going much faster than the lace pattern did. It's also going faster because I can finally hold my yarn the way I used to before the gout got bad, and that means my hand motions are much shorter. Still, it's going to take a while. In order to make a good infinity scarf, it has to be at least 60" long, which is lots of rows. My plan, if I can execute it, is to knit up the whole ball of yarn, however long that turns out to be. If the scarf turns out too long, she can just wrap it around her neck three times. I may make it into a Mobius, just to make it a bit different. we;ll see. It will be a while before I'm ready to knit the ends together.
I didn't do anything today, because I got to the studio so late and I left the scarf in the kitchen. So it was a lost day.
The weather was blah. It was dark and cloudy, and the high temperature was 27º. The wind was from the south, but it was very light. It started snowing at the airport around noon, but the snow didn't get here until around 3:00, and so far it's been very light. I guess it's supposed to keep snowing until at least Thursday morning.
The guys got some lap time today, but otherwise they slept.
So it was another nothing day. I need to take a bath tonight; I've had too many accidents and my hair is yucky again.
Now it's a cloudy, snowy night in the field, but it isn't windy and it isn't particularly cold.
March 17 St. Patrick's Day is one of those made-up days that I ingnore. Well, maybe if you're Irish, it gives you a sense of ethnicity, but my background is more than 75% German, and a small part is Scotch-Irish, or Orangeman. So to me it's only an excuse to go out and get smashed, and I don't do that. I wonder if people who drink green beer have green pee the next day? It's just food coloring, after all. Or maybe it's blue? Ramblings...
i didn't make it into bed until a bit after 11:00 last night, but I made up for it by not getting up until 11:00 this morning. That should catch me up on my sleep.
I knitted my two rows on the shawl, but then I cast on a scarf in the sequin yarn, and I've been carrying it around with me all day. I did some work on it while the talking was going on. Two things - Debbie's birthday is in about a month, and yesterday Mary was wearing an infinity scarf with sequins in it (it also went with her maroon sweater just wonderfully). So I got to thinking. I am doing my scarf in garter stitch, which is good, because it has to be at least 72" long to be a useable infinity scarf even for Debbie. Mary's scarf also had a small area that had been sewn together on the long edge, so that it's easier to wrap around one's neck and pull through, which is another way people are wearing scarves these days.
The new scarf thing interests me. I have a drawer full of beautiful silk scarves that I collected while I was working, but every time scarves come back into style, they're worn in a slightly different way. Most of mine are big squares, and I tied them into bandanas and tucked them into the neck of a shirt. I wore the long ones mostly tied into big floppy bows. I don't wear either of those styles anymore, but an infinity scarf or a long, narrow scarf tied in the new way might work with a turtleneck. I saw a lady wearing a lovely scarf that filled in the neck of a rather high v-neck sweater. She had doubled it and pulled the ends through the bend, and it was very attractive. I notice that silk has evidently become so expensive that nobody is wearing silk scarves anymore.
Yes, even though my normal attire is either sweats or jeans, I am still interested in fashion. Most of it I don't like, but every so often something will take my fancy. Only the last time I saw any tops I wanted, two of them came to $70 with a 30% discount, and I just can't see paying that much for two summer tops, one of which was a tee. Is anybody else shocked by the last jump in the price of clothing? If the government kept up with the real amount of inflation, I'd be doing fine, but the Social Security System would be in even worse trouble than it is.
Part of my interest in fashion is something I inherited from my mother, who always had to look just so (she hated jeans), and part of it no doubt is that for most of my working career, I made most of my own clothes. I still have half a dozen tailored suits that I made for work, even though I've grown out of them. I put so much work into them that I couldn't bear to give them away. One of them, the last one I made, my mother measured the hem for me when she could hardly hold the pins anymore, but she insisted. There's also a charmeuse blouse that matches the suit material. Oh, have I mentioned that I'm a fiber junkie, and that includes sewing fabrics?
I should really try to get started sewing again. For one basic thing, my nightgowns are falling to pieces, and my flannel nightgowns are in tatters. But I haven't been able to get any slacks that fit me - I don't think I've written about my abortive tries to get some black dress pants - so the only alternative is to make my own. Unfortunately, that would mean some time in the basement unpacking all the boxes marked "fabric" to see what I have, and then I would have to cut out, and then...but first I have to get all the catalogs out of the studio, so I have a place to sit at the sewing machine and do some pressing. Oh, it never ends. Almost anything I want to do means three or four (or more) steps before I can actually do what I want. I get tired just thinking about it.
Anyway, by the time I started the sequin scarf and got dressed it was very late, so I didn't have much time to do anything but my surfing. I keep reminding myself that I really do have to do my taxes, so I don't get them to Nancy at the last minute. Ugh. That means doing the full year's ledger (I think I only got through March) and I just hate that. The documents are all in a folder, but I can't send them to her without the stuff I can only get out of my ledger. Ugh.
It was a dull, gray day, but the high temperature was 24º. There was a lot of wind from the southwest, with gusts up to 36 mph, and for a couple of hours, we had some snow. I don't think much of it accumulated, but it was snow. We are under a winter weather watch for tomorrow night and Wednesday. Oh, it's not over yet! The only good thing is that it's not likely to be too cold. Just as long as I can stay warm, it doesn't bother me.
The guys got some lap time today, but otherwise, I didn't see much of them. I had the heater on, so Louie only came in when it was off and he went away when it came back on. They were a bit rambunctious while I was getting dressed, for reasons I don't know.
So now it's a dark, possibly snowy night in the field, and I will try to get to bed at a reasonable hour again, but I don't know. I want to either read or write for a while, and we both know where that leads...
March 16 I made it into bed by 9:30 last night, but it took me a while to get to sleep - I coughed until I turned over - and I was up any number of times. That may have been my own fault, because I decided not to wear my compression hose yesterday. It felt good, but my feet were very swollen before I went to bed. Anyway, the worst part was that I woke up about 6:00 and had to pee. I held out as long as I could, but I was up way before the alarm went off. That gave me plenty of time to eat and do my surfing before I got dressed.
Driving down US-41 wasn't the easiest, at least until I got to Phoenix. There was snow on the road and the ice pack was mostly there, too. So it was a slow drive. I did get to Laurium about when I wanted to, even though there were enough glitches before I left that I didn't get away nearly as early as I wanted to.
Church was wonderful, even though there wasn't communion. Pastor's sermon was about Nicodemus, and it was good. It was so good to be there! Now it it will only stay light late enough that I can get to choir, I'll be happy. Oh, yes, and if we have any more blizzards, let them not be on Saturday or Sunday!
I felt I should get gas. I had just over half a tank, but the way things are, I would be stretching it if I didn't. Driving in 4WD uses a lot more gas than 2WD does. I was shocked to see that the price of gas has gone up to $3.76 around here! I think the last time I got it, it was about $3.50. Fortunately, I bought enough of the right stuff at Pat's that I had a 35¢ per gallon discount, which was really nice. And I didn't need that much - only about 12½ gallons. Still, it makes me angry when the price goes up as much as it has in the last six weeks. Yup, it's been six weeks since I last got to church. I hope that's the end of the colds and the snow.
I took it easy coming home, so it was almost 1:30 when I got here. I had some lunch (I need lunch when I eat breakfast at 7:00) and spent the rest of the afternoon doing not much. I did decide, last night, that it would be a good idea to end Bolin where I was and start a sequel, so I did that this afternoon. Bolin clocks in at about 105,000 words, which is about enough for a novel. If I decide not to make it two stories, I can always put it back together. It will be a whole lot easier than things like Osara, which ended up being almost 400,000 words and has been very difficult to even attempt to split into pieces. Now I can write Bolin 2 or read Bolin. depending on how I feel.
Tonight, I feel like going to bed.
It was a pretty but frigid day. The temperature got down to -7º here and -19º at the airport. Curiously, it was about the same temperature (0º) when I got to Laurium at 10:00, but then, while it only got up to 14º here, it got to 19º down there. Strange. Mostly it's cooler here in the summer and warmer in the winter, but of course, the lake is still mostly frozen. Anyway, it was a beautifully clear day with light winds, so even when it was cold, it wasn't too bad being outside, as long as you were dressed for it. i felt like the Michelin woman, but I was warm. I've been forgetting to point out that the sun is setting right over the top of Brockway, from my vantage. Next week it will be in the first hollow to the right, and astronomical spring will be here. It will be a while before spring comes to the Keweenaw.
The guys were mostly sleepy, but they both got lap time, twice, and they both stayed until I suggested they leave. I think both of them are beginning to shed, which is a little bit early, given the temperatures. I wonder if shedding in animals is triggered by the longer days instead of temperatures. They aren't losing handfuls yet, but it's definitely more than they were losing a month or so ago. Interesting.
So that was a quiet day. I was so glad to be able to get back to church, and i will hope I can continue to go regularly. I was glad to get the story separated, too. Now I can forge ahead on the sequel. It was another beautiful, frigid day, but the sunshine made it quite comfortable, although it wasn't when I got up this morning. Thanks for all the free heat.
Oh, I forgot to mention that we shot the moon this morning. in fact, I took a picture at 7:10, before the time the camera normally wakes up, just to be sure I caught it. Both pictures are nice, but the one at the normal time, 7:25, is better, because it was beginning to get light and the moon was hanging right over Brockway. It did tell me for certain that this year I absolutely must wash the window in front of the camera. I don't know where all that crud comes from, but it doesn't do the pictures any good at all.
Now it's a clear, frigid evening in the field, and I am not going to be up very long. Really.
March 15 Ooh, the Ides of March!
I'm still on standard time. Sigh. I turned off the radio last night, because the concert was going to be all Stravinsky and Debussy (and somebody I don't recognize) and I don't like Stravinsky and I can take Debussy or leave him. It didn't make any difference. Instead of writing very much, i went back in the story to check on something and ended up reading and reading and reading until I couldn't see. I'm still reading, but maybe that's a good thing. I want to go to church tomorrow, so I will have to be in bed early.
So I got up at about 11:00 and I knitted. The next color seems to be pale gray, so now I'm anxious to see what comes after that. I actually did a little more than two rows, because while I was moving markers, I forgot to REmove two of them and I wanted to get them out of the way.
Today was washday, but I was so late getting to the studio and I was so interested in my surfing and my reading that the last load is still in the washer. It will get into the dryer when I go up to the north end, but I don't like to be that late. I didn't have quite three loads, but I wanted to wash them in three pieces, and that takes longer.
The weather was cold and partly cloudy. There was a couple of inches of snow overnight, and the high temperature was at midnight. It was around 10º all day. It was rather windy overnight, but most of today the winds have been nearly calm. We had some clouds, but right now, about half an hour before sunset, it's completely clear. That means it will be cold tonight, but oh, well. I need to go to church.
The fur faces were mostly sleepy today. but they both got lap time, and Grayson got it twice. Louie wanted it twice, too, but at the time, after dinner, I was filling the pill dispensers, so he didn't get it. They are both such affectionate fellows.
So now I have to go up to the north end, getting the wash into the dryer on my way, fill the pill dispensers at the north end, take a bath and try to get into bed at a reasonable hour. I must try to remember to check the clock in the bedroom. Grayson was walking around on it this morning and I think he stepped on the minute button. Talk about bad design...At least I feel tired, so maybe I can sleep tonight. I sure hope so. I"d hate to miss another week of church.
Now it's a clear, frigid evening in the field and it's time for bed.
March 14 Oh, of course I didn't go to bed last night. I was writing, and the music was nice, so I just kept on to the end of the episode, about 3800 words. I did wash dishes. I think it may be earlier tonight. I'm at a place where I have to decide whether to wrap everything up or just continue writing, and besides, I'm at a lull between episodes even if I keep on. Those are dull to write (probably dull to read, too) and I need to have a clearer way through it.
Anyway, I wrote until I couldn't see anymore. I slept well, although I was up twice, and I got up around 11:00. I knitted my two rows. The color is changing, but I don't know what to yet. I ate my breakfast and had to move Grayson because I had to make a fast trip to the powder room. I took an interesting catalog with me, and when I got back to the studio, I realized it was after 2:30 and if I was going to the post office, I'd better go. So I did that, and there was a lot of interesting mail (a lot of junk, too), and then I had to go and meet the Schwan's guy at the end of the road, and he was late, so I didn't get to do my surfing until the talking was going on. Sometimes I have a hard time reading my funnies and listening to the radio at the same time, but it didn't bother me so much tonight. And that was all I did.
It was a cloudy, dull day. I just discovered that the temperature went up to 42º at 6;00 this morning, but then it dropped off, and it was right around 30º to 32º until 6:00 PM, when it started down. About the time I went to the post office (2:30 or 3:00) a very light drizzle began, and by 5:00 or a little later it started to snow lightly. I think it's still snowing. There was a little north wind, which has now settled down to 15-25 mph from the northeast. It's still winter, folks.
The guys knew that. They slept all day, but they slept mostly in the studio. Grayson got some lap time twice, but Louie didn't even come to ask. When I was cleaning up the floor in here yesterday, I found a catnip mouse and another small catnip toy mixed in with the other stuff. I wiped them off and threw them over by the doorway, and later in the evening, I rolled over the toy. The mouse seems to be gone. They don't ever play with those things when I'm around, but by the way they move around the house, I know they play with them during the night. When they can't get a moving one, they'll play with what there is.
So that was my quiet day. My freezer is full of good things again, and it's a dark, cloudy, snowy night in the field.
March 13 I was late again last night, and I guess it was mostly the music: Beethoven's fifth, and a lot of other good things. I finally had to call a halt in the middle of a Mozart symphony. I slept well, with only one wakeup, and I got up around 10:00. I knitted, and the yarn is still blue, but it looks like it may be beginning to turn some other color. I'll be interested to see what. By the amount of yarn I've used so far, i can tell I should be able to make a much larger shawl than the pattern calls for, and I may just try that. It will mean figuring out a whole lot more edge stitches, but I'd hate to have half a ball of yarn left, and besides, the stated size of the shawl seems rather small to me. We'll see. I have over 30 rows left to do before I have to decide.
I actually did something today, but only because I had to. I had a box with some herb tea in it in the studio, and I decided I wanted some for breakfast, but when I pulled out the box, a basket slid off, and I discovered to my dismay that I hadn't zipped shut a bag of snacks. Oops. So there was stuff all over the floor that would undoubtedly draw mice. I took that as a sign that it was time to sweep up the area around my chair. Now it's pretty nice right around here. I found a few more needles that I dropped so long ago, and I swept up some more shards of glass from the broken one. There didn't seem to be many beads, but I haven't been beading very much. There were tissues and waste paper and the cups that chocolates come in and stuff like that, as well as some stuff that had fallen on the floor and gotten lost. While I had the colds, I was filling a grocery bag with used tissues, and i got rid of that - it was bulging anyway. So it's a bit better than it was. I threw out all the pleas for money I got before the end of the year, and incidentally found another tax receipt. I wish I could get rid of some of the old catalogs that are clogging things up, but that's a future. Anyway, a lot more of the floor is free of stuff now, so maybe that will help with the heat.
I had to turn on the heater this morning, but I wasn't surprised. It got down to -2º overnight, and it was only 60º when I got to the studio. That's a little cooler than is quite comfortable for me, especially with the amount of clothes I have on right now. The temperature outside rose continuously until around 4:00, when it got up to 31º, where it has been ever since. There was a little wind in the middle of the afternoon, but that has died down. It was dark and cloudy all day. The forecast snow (or whatever) never materialized.
PastyNet replaced a router (or tried to) yesterday, and it was a disaster. By the time I went to bed last night, the broadband was flat down, and it was still down this morning and until about 3:00 this afternoon. That meant, among other things, that the camera pictures didn't get posted. It also meant that I had to wait to do my surfing or even read most of my email. I don't know if they just put in the old router, but things are now back to what they were earlier yesterday and for the past few days - not exactly good, but at least I have a connection and it mostly stays up. I was able to put in a Schwan's order. Every so often it will go out to lunch, but usually not for long. Tsk. Oh, I know quite enough about disastrous upgrades. i feel for them, even though they have tried to do several things lately that haven't worked.
Both fur faces got lap time today, and Louie not only got a tummy rub, he got to sleep on my lap for a while before I had to do something. Grayson is a little more annoying, though. He is fine as long as I sit pretty nearly still, but the minute I move around at all, he's gone. On the other hand, Louie will stay until I boot him off. Grayson got two sits, though. I think there are some birds starting to rustle around outside, probably because it's warmer, and that interests Grayson. I must try to get the counter under the east windows cleared off some, so he can look out in comfort.
So that was a quiet day, and I think I may write some more tonight. I wrote 4600 words last night before I finally gave up, and I'm at a transitional point again. The trouble I'm having keeping my right and left hands in sync tells me, though, that I should probably just give up and go to bed. After the Mozart, of course.
It's a rather warm, cloudy night in the field.
March 12 Oops. Journal.
I was late again last night, because I listened to the nice music too long and then I had to take a shower. I was very concerned, because I almost ran out of hot water, even though my bath wasn't any longer than usual. Oh, sigh, I thought. So I went to sleep and I was only up once during the night, which was nice. It will probably be more tonight, because I drank more fluids today.
I didn't get up until around 11:30, and I knitted. This project is turning out to be more interesting than I thought it would be, because the yarn is turning out to be much more interesting. When I bought it and started the project, I thought it was just lavender and green, but after starting out lavender, the first green band went from yellow-green to blue-green, and then there was a wide band of lavender, followed by a band that is almost yellow, which turned into a band of almost aqua-blue. Since I'm pulling the yarn from the middle of the ball, I have no idea what will come next. I think it's time for more lavender, but who knows? Makes it fun to do all those repeats of the same pattern. I'm getting into the repeats where I'm not quite sure what happens at the edges, so I have to fiddle around and sometimes rip a bit. What also interests me is that I've knitted a lot, and yet the ball doesn't seem to be much smaller. I wonder how big a shawl I could knit with 895 yards? I may try it and see. All I have to do is make sure I have enough yarn left for the edging and the stitch count comes out evenly divisible by 4 or so.
I was very relieved when I washed my face and worked around the kitchen to find that I seem to have hot water, so what happened last night is beyond me, unless the zone valve got stuck shut or something. I know that after I took my bath, I could hear the pipes knocking as something called for heat, so maybe that was it. I so didn't want to call the plumber! I may still, but so far, so good. I have what they call a "hot water maker" which runs off the heating system and is supposed to give 6 gallons of hot water a minute. I love it. I was also relieved when the generator started up at the right time for its weekly self-test. It does turn over several times before it starts, but that may be because the battery is getting old. But at least I have a generator again.
The only thing I did today was get the dishwasher loaded. As soon as i put tonight's dishes in it, I can run it. I was actually beginning to run out of dishes. The last time I washed, I had a lot of plates, but this time, everything apparently went into bowls or on little plates, so I was running low and the dishwasher is bulging.
I did get to write a bit. Last night when I was mulling over where to go next, I had a couple of ideas that I'm working on now. This story is getting long and I still have a way to go to wind it up properly, but oh, well. My stories seem to be either very long or too short. Most of the short ones are part of Trine, and they're also the oldest and most poorly written, so sometime maybe I will be moved to rewrite them and add to them.
The weather was frigid. It didn't get below zero overnight (will tonight) and it was beautifully sunny, but the hgh temperature of 12º was at midnight and during the day it only got up to 7º. Tonight it's supposed to go down to about -10º. It's not spring yet, folks. Of course, tomorrow, it's supposed to go up into the upper 30s, so at least we won't have weeks of this stuff. At least it was a pretty day to look at. all blue and white. We had an broadband outage this afternoon, so you didn't get to see all of it, but believe me, the only thing that changed was the angle of the shadows on the deck. The sun has caused some of the snow near the house to sublime, so there is some bare wood showing, at least down by the doors from the great room. Oh, spring will come some year.
Louie got some lap time today, but Grayson didn't want any. Lately he's been walking back and forth in front of the computer screen, so I don't know exactly what his problem is. And after a couple of days of togetherness, today he and Louie were not friends again. I don't know what causes them to do that, except that it was a lovely day and the barometer was high.
So that was another quiet day, and now I will write a little more. It's a bitterly cold, clear night in the field.
March 11 Well, I backslid last night. Are you surprised? The music was nice, and while I mostly played games and listened, I kept nipping back to the story and writing a few more paragraphs. I think I had 3800 words before I was through. Finally, I just had to give it up, even though I turned off the radio in the middle of something I like, because it was 1:00 and I was getting hot because I was so tired. I was having trouble seeing, too.
I slept well, thank you, and I got up around 10:30, I think. I knitted, while watching a mostly white cat sleep on his back. Oh, he was soooo comfortable! And he had smile on his face, too.
Otherwise I did nothing except clean up after the first accident I've had in several days - my fault, this time. Well, not true. This was Patch Tuesday, and since I got a message that the updates were ready to download, I did that on both computers. I've been trying to get everything set up the way I like to have it ever since, because of course I have to reboot to install the updates, and that shuts down everything I keep running. I think I have it all now. I hope I didn't need any of those deleted emails, because they're all gone now. It was probably a good thing anyway, because the driver for the camera had been acting up for a day or so. Most, but not all, of Windows 7 is solid. The webcam driver is one piece that's not. The dishes should be washed tonight, but they're not going to get done, because they're not in the dishwasher. I have been writing, of course.
The weather was sort of middlin'. The high temperature was 39º, but that was at 2:00 AM, and it dropped off from there. It was between 30º and 32º until about 6:00 when it started to drop again, and it's now 21º on its way through the bottom of the thermometer. There was not much wind until about 7:00, and now it's between 20 and 30 mph from the northeast. The forecast is dire. The low tonight (or probably tomorrow morning, the way these things go) will be zero and there may be snow. It's snowing at the airport now. Back into the deep freeze we go. It was cloudy this morning, nearly clear between 3:00 and 6:00 this afternoon, and then it got cloudy - ominously so - again.
I can't remember if Louie got some lap time, but Grayson did, and he was very happy about it. He sleeps with his chin pillowed on my gut, and he was one of the reasons for my accident. I hate to move him when he's asleep on my lap.
So that was another slow day, and I must go up to the north end now and take a bath. It's a cloudy, windy night in the field and there may be a snowflake or two.
March 10 So I was in bed by 9:30 last night and I got up about 9:00 this morning. I feel much better than I did last night - in fact, I felt much better the first time I was up, at midnight. I still can't say I feel good, but I'm not sick, and my temperature was normal this morning. Heaven knows what that was all about, but I'm glad it's over with. I've had those sleepless nights go on for several nights, when I was coming down with something. I was up so early (for me) that I think i will be going to bed at a more reasonable hour tonight. Not at 9:30, though.
I didn't do anything with my extra time. I knitted, of course, and I was finished with my surfing by 1:30. Like i say, I don't feel all that great. I did read through the story and I wrote a few words. I stopped in the middle of a speech, though, because I thought it would be easier to start again, and darned if I can remember what the next words were supposed to be. Sigh. I'd say it was my aging brain, except that it seems to me that I'd always have these lapse when I was writing everything longhand, and I'd sit and stare at the pages forever before I decided to give it up and move on. I may do that with this one, too, like I did with the last one I had.
The weather was amazingly springlike. The temperature got up to 48º and it's still warm, and it was sunny for most of the afternoon. There was quite a wind for a while, with gusts up to 38 mph, but that has died down now. The results of the temperature and the wind were that there was water all over the windows, and it got hot in the studio, at least up to 76º - and I'm wearing sweats. Oh, I was sweating, all right! I noticed that it's cooler at the north end, which is good. I won't have to worry about changing comforters tonight. I won't have to worry about that at all, because on Wednesday, the high is predicted to be about 10º. We always get these little teasers in the spring. I was thinking about opening the blinds in the bedroom, because I do like to look out, but now I don't think so. I think I'll wait.
The guys were sleepy, as usual. I think they enjoyed the heat more than I did.
So that was another quiet day, and maybe if I can get another 12 hours of sleep tonight, I'll feel even better tomorrow. I hope so. That was ugly yesterday.
Now it's a clear, warm night in the field, My goodness, how strange it feels to write "warm!"
March 9 Oh my goodness, what a horrible night! I got to bed too late to go to church, but it was much earlier than I've been going lately, so I wasn't surprised that I had a hard time falling asleep. However, around 3:00, I realized that not only was I not sleeping, I ached all over and I was cold - and that was under the same covers I had slept fine under the night before. So around 4:00, I put on my bed socks, in the hope that having warm feet would warm up the rest of me. It did, and I was finally able to fall into a deep sleep, but I was up about every hour and a half to pee. And I hurt all over.
I finally got up around 10:45 (EDT) and I felt so bad I took my temperature. It was 99.3º,which isn't alarming, but it is a couple of degrees higher than it should be when I first wake up. So evidently I either have something, i'm coming down with something, or I'm fighting something. Who knows what? Anyway, I feel horrible, and as soon as I have this thing published, I will be off to the north end. Promise.
I knitted, and I have only two more rows to do on the first repeat of the pattern I made, so that is coming along. After I did my surfing, I read what I'd written the past two nights, and I added a few words, although I'm not going to do any more. While I was not sleeping last night, I came up with some ideas for how to go forward, but like those things usually are, I have to write the parts in between the scenes I thought about. I have almost 89,000 words, so it's getting to be a respectable novel.
The weather was warm. The high temperature was 37º. It was cloudy, but mostly it was bright. There wasn't a lot of wind, but what there was came from the southwest until about 4:00, when it switched around to the north. It was a sort of blah day. I almost wished I had stuck my nose outside to smell and feel what temperatures above freezing feel like, but just about the only place I could do that was from the garage and i didn't feel like going out there.
I was reading when I saw something pass across the reflection out the door, and when I turned around, there was a guy wind skiing. I think he's a friend of Amanda and Aaron's. I'm not sure Amanda was out there, but there were four people wandering around outside Aaron's fish shanty, and Duce. It was a nice day to be out, but I can imagine it got a bit warm in the shanty. I haven't asked them if they've caught any fish this winter, but down the harbor, closer to town, there are all sorts of shacks and shanties and tents, so I guess they at least think they're going to catch something.
The guys were sleepy, but they did get quite a bit of lap time today. I think they know when mom doesn't feel good and it worries them. They were actually licking each other's heads this morning, which is most unusual for Grayson. In the middle of the night, though, they had an altercation. I can imagine Grayson saying, "I was here first!" and Louie saying "But I'm older and bigger!" I don't know if multiple female cats fight as much, but the males sure do. They all want to be top cat. It's the nature of the beast. At least most of the time Grayson and Louie get along rather well. I frequently find them sleeping together. Of course, when it was cold, sleeping cuddled up with another furry guy helped them stay warm, but they do it even in the summertime. It's just that every so often one or the other of them will decide to mix it up. Fortunately, it's not serious, although Louie does go around with little holes in his neck, but then, Grayson's claws are remarkably sharp. This morning, Louie was up on the bathtub surround and Grayson was trying to grab his legs and pull him off, which was sort of fun to watch. Louie was just looking at Grayson. They do keep me laughing.
So now I am going to bed and hope I can sleep tonight. It's a warmish, cloudy night in the field, and I guess spring may come after all.
March 8 Oh, I just don't seem to be able to get to bed early, although tonight might be different. Last night, I had to wait through the modern junk to get to Beethoven's fourth, and then there were things like Schubert, Schumann and Dvorak, as well as a lot of baroque music. Somehow, they play all the good stuff late in the evening.
Then, about the time I was going to leave it and go up to the north end, Old Fast Fingers struck again. For several months, I think, I've been getting email messages that purport to be from WhatsApp messaging service, I guess that's a legitimate service, but it seemed clear that the emails I was getting were toxic. Well. I was looking at the message I got last night when inadvertently I clicked on the "play" box in the email, and what to my wondering eyes should appear but a download that completed in about a second - and then, to compound my problem, I managed to close the list of downloads before I could look at it, and I couldn't remember (if I knew) how to get it back. So, since I was sure I had acquired a piece of malware, I had to run a complete system scan from Norton. Ugh. There are close to 600,000 files (!) on my hard drive and it takes at least an hour to scan them all. I didn't want to leave it, in case there was something I had to do to get rid of the file I downloaded, so I stayed and waited. It turned out that yes, i had downloaded a piece of malware, but it may have been in a .zip file or at least an .exe file, either of which I would have to run to do damage, and Norton deleted it for me. The moral of that story is, be very careful what you click on in any email, and particularly, delete any messages you may get that say they are from WhatsApp without clicking on them. If you do, you will be downloading malware onto your computer, and who knows where that will lead?
So I was very late getting to bed and very late getting up.
I knitted before I got dressed, with two cats sound asleep at my feet. Other than that, I didn't do anything. I didn't get enough sleep, and I have felt rough all day. Maybe I can get more sleep tonight, although I sort of doubt I'm going to church tomorrow. It's just too early to get up on the first day of DST.
Oh, how I hate DST! I never get used to it and it destroys my normal cycle all summer.
It was a pretty, but not very warm day. It was cloudy this morning, but around 2:00 it cleared up and got sunny and beautiful. The high temperature was only 19º (which seems warm after what we've been dealing with), and there wasn't a lot of wind out of the north. I guess it got up to about 15 mph, but that's not bad. We all enjoyed the sunshine, although this is the time of year where it's really hard to read the computer screen in the late afternoon. I will probably try it again tomorrow, but after that, I must really try to knit or embroider or something.
I've been forgetting to mention that the sun is setting in the notches to the south of Brockway. It's getting close to its due west point. Oh, spring is coming. We are supposed to have a thaw for the next couple of days, and that is a hopeful sign, too. Actually, I hate it when it starts to thaw. The snow pack on the roads gets very slippery and driving isn't any fun at all, but it does mean that eventually the snow will go away, maybe even before August.
The guys were their sleepy selves, although they both got some lap time. Grayson is getting difficult when I eat. He doesn't want anything I'm eating yet (except ZingZ) but he wants to know what it is. I can see what's coming. Buster was like that, too, and eventually I had to share all my meals with him. Louie hasn't shown any interest in people food yet, but I'm not counting on that.
So that was another quiet day. I wrote 4800 words last night and 1500 this afternoon, and I'm thinking I will just call an end to it and go take my bath and go to bed. I'm tired enough that I have a headache, and there's only one thing I know to do about that.
Now it's a clear, cold night in the field, at least for the time being. It might snow later. Spring is coming, but it's not here yet.
March 7 As I recall, I was late again last night, and it had something to do with Beethoven's second symphony, although there were some other good things. Tonight, I have to get over the modern junk before I can hear more Beethoven (the fourth). Forgive me if you disagree, but I do not like modern classical music, with very few exceptions. Most of it is horrible.
Anyway, I slept well, but I had to get up long before I wanted to because I had to pee and my shoulders were sore. Since I've pretty much gotten over the hip things, now it's my shoulders and my back. If it's not one thing, it's another. Anyway, I knitted, and I think I may finally (!) have figured out the edge stitches for the next two charts. I will be checking myself, though, because it's not completely obvious. I did draw in the symbols, and I've made a few changes where I didn't do things right. I'll be modifying the charts before I put the pattern away, after I finish it.
I didn't do much besides my surfing and reading. I'm tired from my lack of sleep. Maybe I can get to bed at a more reasonable hour tonight. I'm not looking forward to DST, and my body never really gets used to it. It never has. Even as long ago as when I was working, i dragged myself around all summer. I admire and envy people who aren't much affected by changes in the time, but I always have been, and it's been worse since I've had to sleep so much. For most of the week, I can ignore it, but if I want to go to church, I have to pay attention.
The weather was yucky. It apparently snowed (or something came out of the sky) from midnight onward, and it was dark and dreary. The high temperature was 30º. around noon, but then it fell off again as the wind rose, with gusts up to 33 mph from the north. It's still 21º, although it's supposed to go down to about 9º overnight. It will be colder tomorrow than it was today, but we're not looking at single digits, which is a nice change. North and northeast winds don't affect me too much, so it's been comfortable in here.
The guys thought so, too. When I got up, they were both laid out in the bathroom, and Louie got so much under my feet that I had a problem getting up. Both of them got lap time, and Louie has been trying hard to make up for lost time. He slept on my lap twice until I had to do something and booted him off. Grayson thought my fish smelled interesting, but he didn't want any. I've discovered that the kind of canned cat food they like is the stuff with gravy, except for tuna, so I'll have to start buying accordingly. It's just a waste of money to put down things they don't eat. In fact, I could probably go back to Fancy Feast, since they rarely eat more than that in a day. Oh, they'll get me trained eventually.
So that was another quiet day, and now it's another dark, snowy, windy night in the field.
March 6 Last night I wrote about 4000 words, then I took a bath, so I was late getting to bed, as usual. I was awake around 9:00 and I decided that just wasn't enough sleep, so the next time I woke up was about noon, and then I knitted, so I was really late getting dressed. I ate a weird first meal and i wasn't through with my surfing when the talking came on. It would be better if I could cycle this around to more normal hours, and I'm going to need to when DST starts on Sunday. I'd like to go to church on Sunday, but I'm afraid I'm going to need a week or so to sort of get used to the new time. I never really do, but after a while I can cope.
The temperature was actually above zero all day, and the high was about 31º. There was a rather brisk southwest wind, with gusts up to 32 mph, but from that direction it doesn't bother either the house or the road that much. It was cloudy in the morning, cleared up for a while after noon and then got cloudy again. I guess there may be some snow overnight.
I saw a little more of the fur faces than I have lately and they both got some lap time, although I had to boot Louie off, because I had to get up. I forgot to mention that yesterday morning when I was up early, there was a thing on the bathroom floor: they got another mouse. I'm not clear who the assassin is, although I think it's probably Grayson, since Louie isn't fast enough, but whoever, they're not neat about it, and there is more blood on the bathroom floor now. Well, at least they got it, and they don't feel the need to eat it. Buster and Jasmine thought mice were yummy, but most well-fed housecats I know don't think so. A while ago, I heard a guy who purported to be an expert on cat behavior say that cats aren't good mousers. Well, he's never met any of mine. Not only do my guys catch them, I've never had any evidence that they were missing any who were doing me damage. All the mouse damage I've ever had happened when the cats weren't in that house.
Now I'm reading what I wrote for the past couple fo nights, and then I will write some more. One of my strategies to begin to write again is to leave off in the middle of an idea, so I can easily get into the swing of things again.
Now it's a cloudy, not very cold night in the field and maybe it will snow a bit.
March 5 I only wrote about 2800 words last night. When I was thinking about the story in the morning, I had an idea I wanted to write, but by the time I sat down to begin, I had forgotten it, and I still can't remember what it was. Sometimes the words just tumble out and sometimes they don't. Last night they didn't, even though I was up late. Tonight seems to be sort of an intermediate state. I had to reread the past two days' work and I did write almost all of another episode before the talking started, but I'm not sure I know where to go from there.
So I got to bed late. I slept well, but around 9:00 or so the electrician called me to tell me he had the parts for my generator and he would be here around 11:00 or a little later. I tried to go back to sleep, but I couldn't, so I didn't have nearly enough sleep last night. And of course, he was late. Oh, well.
When he replaced the starter and the muffler, the generator started right up, although it didn't at its usual time, but that may be because it had run so soon before. I think when it self tests, it looks at the charge on the battery and the last time it ran. So we'll see, but I'll have to wait until next Wednesday to tell if it's all right. He showed me the muffler, and it was impressive. The seam where the metal was welded together had split altogether. That was quite an explosion. He still doesn't know why it happened, but he thinks perhaps it was that the starter was failing and in the course of it trying to work, gas got into the muffler and then a spark set it off. It's about as good an explanation as I guess we'll get. So maybe I will have power if line power fails. I hope so.
I didn't do a lot, although I did get some of the trash out of the kitchen. It's still horrible, but at least I can use the counter by the sink. I still have a whole lot to do, but something got done. My back is still bad, so I can't stand up very long, and in order to do much around there, I need to be able to stand.
Late this afternoon, Ron called to say he had gotten the bill for the excavators - much less than we both feared - so he brought me my mail and I gave him a check. I still owe him a lot, but at least I've cleared that part of the bill.
The weather was cold and sunny. The low this morning was -5º and the high was 8º, but there wasn't any wind. It was a very pretty day, and the sunshine warmed it up nicely in here. Late in the afternoon I got cold, but it turned out that was because I was hungry, or at least I needed food.
I didn't have to use the heater so Louie got his belly rub and Grayson just came and sat down on me again. Grayson slept in his box, and Louie kept lying down in the middle of my path to the kitchen and the bathroom. Things are more normal, as far as they're concerned, and they're happy about it.
Tonight I do have to wash my hair, so maybe i won't be too late going up to the north end. I have written most of the next episode that occurred to me, so we'll see how it goes.
Now it's a clear, calm, cold night in the field.
March 4 I wrote about 5000 words last night and got to bed around 1:30. I slept well, although I did cough a bit. I got up around 11:30, so I got my sleep, and I knitted my two rows. I did my surfing, although I just remembered that I was beginning to read my second page of comics when the internet went away. I'll have to do that.
So I read and played games, and it came back about 8:15. Evidently there were some power failures down the peninsula and UPPCO was their usual slow selves at fixing them. I know we're in a remote corner of the world, but their service is terrible. I'm just glad there was power here.
It was a beautiful day, clear an sunny, and the temperature got up to 14º. Gee, a heat wave. It was even better because there was almost no wind, so it actually got warm in here. I think the temperature in the studio got up to 74º this afternoon, and I didn't run the heater all day. Ah, all that free heat!
Louie was so happy. He sat on my lap twice and got a good belly rub. I had to remove him both times because I had to get up, which was too bad, but he was a happy cat. I didn't see Grayson at all. I suppose he decided this was Louie's day.
Now I will write some more before I go up to the north end. I should probably take a bath tonight, but I probably won't. It's a clear (or maybe partly cloudy?), cold night in the field.
March 3 Well, last night I only wrote about 4700 words, which is more reasonable. I was in bed at a more reasonable hour, too, although it was after midnight because I took a bath. I slept well, although I was up several times, and I think it was 11:30 before I got up. I knitted a couple of rows, which made me late, but I got my surfing done in time to begin to read what I wrote yesterday. I've been writing again, and I'll probably do some more before I to go bed tonight. It feels so good to finally be unblocked again.
Otherwise, I didn't do anything that should be done, but oh, well. My excuse is that my back is bothering me. I guess that will do.
It was a pretty day, but cold. It was mostly sunny until around 4:30, when it started to cloud up, and there wasn't much of a sunset tonight. The low temperature this morning was only about -6º, in spite of what the Special Statement said, and it got up to 12º for a while this afternoon. I was just as glad; it was apparently -23º at the airport this morning, and there was a wind for a while. Brr. The wind was up in the 20 mph range for a while here, but it has died down now. It won't get so cold tonight, with the cloud cover, but tomorrow is supposed to be different. Hey, guys, this is March. Shouldn't the temperatures be moderating by now? Brr. With the wind dying down, it will be comfortable in the house, and that's all that matters.
In fact, when I came with my dinner, Grayson was curled up in a box in the great room, and I haven't seen him there in months. Otherwise, I didn't see much of anybody. Grayson had to come and see if I had any cheese, but he didn't want any of my fish. Humph. Louie tried once to come into the studio, but just as he did the heater came on and he ran away.
So it's another quiet day and another bitterly cold night in the field. Brr.
March 2 Oh, my, what a night! I continued writing after i published the journal, and I just kept on...and on...and on until I couldn't see. Before I finally stopped, i had written over 15,000 words, and it was a ridiculous hour of the morning. So I crashed, and I slept, but I didn't get nearly enough sleep. I got up around 12:30, and I knitted even though it was rather cool in the bathroom. After I did my surfing, I read what I wrote - it was better than I thought - and then I started writing again. i am going to have to call a halt to that tonight, because I need to wash my hair and I need to sleep.
It was a pretty day, but I was glad I didn't have to go out in it. The camera shows there was some snow this morning, underneath the clear blue skies, an interesting phenomenon, but eventually that stopped and the sun came out for the rest of the day. The low temperature overnight was -9º and the high for the day was 3º, although it felt and acted colder because for most of the day there was a northwest wind with gusts up to 25 mph. It's rather cool at the north end, especially in the bathroom, unfortunately. I have had the heater on all day in the studio and a while ago I turned the heat lamp on in the bathroom. I hope it helps. It should also help that the wind has died down a bit. We shot the moon in the last picture from the camera. Sometime I'll have to post some of the pictures I've accumulated.
The guys were sleepy and holed up wherever they go. I have found Grayson's favorite food: cheese. I got some new cheese crackers Friday, and ever since, he has been bugging me any time he hears crinkling, and every time I sit down to eat, he has to be there to see if there is any cheese. The cheese crackers have Mexican flavoring (they're nice) and evidently either he can't taste chipotle and chilies or he likes them, too. I think he can't taste them, because he likes plain cheese just as much. I haven't found anything Louie likes as well, but I suppose it's just a matter of time - and having the heater turned off. I was eating some cheese spread yesterday, and Grayson kept putting out his paddy paw with his claws out to try to pull it toward him. That one has port wine in it, and i'm not sure it's good for him, but he didn't care. He wanted cheese.
So that is all I have to report, and I am tired. I still feel like writing, but I'm going to have to try to call a halt to it and totter up to the north end. It's a frigid, clear night in the field.
March 1 Well, as usual I didn't do what I said I was going to do. After the Prokofiev, (I don't like Prokofiev), the music got very nice, including Brahms 3rd, Haydn's 84th and a lot of other nice things. So it was very late when I finally hauled myself up to the north end. I think I set a new record: I slept for nearly 6 hours before I finally woke up. My fluid intake was below normal, and that probably had something to do with it, and my general exhaustion had something to do with it. I shouldn't do that, but the music was so nice... I slept for most of that time on my right side, with the result that my right shoulder is now very sore, and getting up off the toilet is even harder because it hurts when I lean on it. Someplace in this house I have a couple of those things that fit over the toilet seat and raise it up, and I'm going to have to try to find them. I hate to give in, but I hate to get stuck on the pot, too.
Anyway, then I went back to sleep and I didn't get up until 12:30. Then I knitted two rows, but that's 225 stitches, and I either screwed something up or thought I did, so it took a while. I am totally out of sync, and I have to try to get back onto something like a normal schedule. I'm not going to church tomorrow for two reasons. It's supposed to be very, very cold tomorrow morning, and the Copperdog is in town and I'd be leaving right in the middle of it. So maybe I can begin to haul myself back onto a normal schedule. Someday I'd like to see those dogs. Their whole life is to run, and it would be fun to see. I guess I did see some of them on the trail last year, but I'd like to be able to say hello to some of them sometime. While I am a cat person, i do like dogs, or at least most dogs, and they seem to love me. The same pheromones that make me so luscious to black flies and mosquitoes apparently make me interesting to dogs and cats. So they have some good features.
Even though I ate a very small breakfast, I was not very hungry for dinner, so I guess I'll be eating my fish tomorrow. Fortunately, it's usually good for several days after I get it.
The weather was frigid and partly cloudy. The high (8º) was at midnight, and for most of the day it was between 1º and 3º. I might point out that the average high for this time of year is 25º. There was some north wind for most of the day, and it has now swung around to the west, but it has almost died down, too. It was partly cloudy for most of the day, which meant we had a lot of sunshine that warmed it up in here. I did have the heater on, but it has almost made things too warm. It only has settings every 5º (which I knew) and the thermometer isn't very accurate, so one has to adjust it manually. It's down to -5º according to my thermometer, so it's going to be a cold night. With not very strong winds, though, I should be comfortable.
Louie is really feeling not being willing to come into the studio. While I was knitting, he came into the bathroom and laid down with his back up against my foot and went to sleep. Poor Louie. he must be almost 8 years old now, and unless a cat is extremely intelligent, which he isn't, that's too old for them to change their habits. Grayson is apparently a little smarter and a lot more flexible and he hasn't had the same apparent background that Louie had, so the heater doesn't bother him. Our only problem is that he wanted to see what I was eating for dinner and I didn't want him to, so I had to drop him off the desk three times before he gave up.
I didn't do much, of course. After I did my surfing, I started writing (finally!!) and I will do some more after I get this published. I will take a bath tonight. I had two (!) accidents today, and I did some serious sweating yesterday, so I need to be clean.
Now it's a frigid, partly cloudy night in the field and a good one to hunker down under the covers and sleep long and hard. Last updated 04/01/14 09:19 PM
|