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A View From the Field |
October, 2014 October 31 - Reformation Day I guess I needed to decompress last night, so it was very late when I got to bed. I slept fairly well, I guess. At least the singing of the lake and the banging of the wind against the house were relaxing. I got a phone call at about 10:45 but I dozed for a while longer before I realized that I needed to get up. I knitted a little more than one row on the shawl. The only problem now is that the rows are so long; the pattern is very easy. I did miss one yarn-over, but that's easy to fix.
I didn't do a whole lot. I had an accident - sigh - but not a seriously yucky one. I went to the post office, where there was a whole lot of mail and small packages. And I embroidered while the talking was on. I finished one alphabet and started another one, so I'm making progress. My soie perlee is on its way, so that won't slow me down very much. I still have a little left. I'm getting to the middle of the sampler, where there are a lot of interesting special stitches, and that's always fun. I seem to have miscounted where the center of he sampler is, but I'm not sure if it was a miscount of either the chart or my fabric or whether I miscounted the space between the parts. It doesn't really matter much. This is how it's going to be, and two threads here and there aren't going to make that much difference.
The stuff for the birth announcement I hope to make for Amanda came, too, and while it's not as nice as the one for a girl-baby was, it's cute, and there isn't a lot of work in it - it's only 4" x 6". I will get at that soon.
When I downsize my magazine subscriptions, one of the ones I guess I need to keep is the one where I found the birth announcement. This isn't the first time I've found the perfect project for some gift I needed to give. In fact, Amanda's wedding chart was in the same magazine. There are others - mostly knitting magazines - where I've subscribed for years and never found anything I would ever consider making, and those will have to go. The beading magazines, too. I like seed beads - small seed beads - and too much of the stuff in the magazines would require me to buy more and different beads. Sorry, but I can't afford that any more, nor can I afford the cost of the subscriptions. I'm sorry to let Smithsonian lapse, but I just never read it anymore. So I accumulate the magazines in the "to be read" pile and every so often they avalanche.
Oh, yes, that was one thing I did - I piled up the avalanche again. I need to get it out of here, but for the time being, it's all out of my way. Lately I've been keeping the "to be read" pile in the powder room, which helps, but there's a pile about a foot high in there of things I haven't gotten around to. I don't spend all my time in the powder room!
The weather was not very good. It stormed all night long, with wind gusts up to 44 mph from the east, but it was dying down by the time I got up. It was mostly cloudy and it was cold - the high temperature was 37º, although it was just about steady all day. There was snow on the garage roof this morning, and not long after I got back from the post office, we had a short snow squall. There was also some sunshine, and according to the weather it's supposed to clear up overnight and get very cold, but then it's supposed to warm up over the weekend.
When I got to the kitchen this morning, the door to the breezeway had blown open, and I discovered later that just because I hear a click doesn't mean it's latched. I will have to be more careful. The cats weren't out there, although it would surprise me if Grayson didn't at least go out to check things out. I didn't see any dead bodies, though, even though I know there are mice out there. They slept for most of the day. Grayson got some lap time, but Louie didn't because he wanted to sit on me when I was busy. I imagine he'll be around later.
So that was a quiet day. The range hood was behaving itself today. I'm still tired. My attention to not clenching my jaw last night paid off, and it wasn't sore today, so that worked. All the snow is gone now. There is a tree partly blocking the road right around the culverts, but we didn't have any power glitches.
If I hadn't had to be out in it, it was a fun storm. I was amused to see that all the ships on the lake (and there are a lot of them) are up very close to the coast of Canada, except for one guy who was sheltering in Bete Gris Bay. I imagine it annoys those guys to have to make such a much longer trip all the way around the north side of the lake, but almost anything is safer than being out in the middle of the lake in weather like that.
So now it's a cold, cloudy night in the field, and we'll see if it clears up later.
October 30 Well, last night the ghost only turned on the light, and there were no sparks in the cooktop, so we're making progress.
I was late again, of course, and I can blame it mostly on the music. There was some Mozart and a lot of Beethoven, including the 3rd piano concerto. Then I had to take a bath, and I must confess I spent considerable time staring at the floor. I had to cut my fingernails, too. Anyway, I slept fairly well, not great. When I woke up for the first time, around 5:00, the light in the range hood was on. Sigh.
I got up late and did my morning thing, although I threw away the bag with the drops for my right eye, and I have only one drop left for the left eye, so I'm making progress. Monday I get fitted for my new glasses. Yay!
I was so late that I didn't do a whole lot of anything today. I didn't get my surfing done until after the talking started. Tonight was choir, of course, and since everybody else gets there so early, I left around 5:45. It was a yucky trip, because it was raining and some of the rain had hard stuff in it, but I made it quite early. It was a good practice. The stuff for Sunday is easy - All Saint's Sunday - so we practiced a bunch of stuff for the next four weeks or so. There aren't many of us, but we're a good group. The hymn we ended with was "Lo, How a Rose" in the Bach arrangement, which is in the new hymnal. We did good, considering that we'd never practiced the parts. However, we were late - it was after 8:30 before I left.
The trip home was something else. It was sleeting or snowing or something in Laurium, but as soon as I got to US-41, I realized that it was snowing rather hard, and the way the wind was blowing, the snow was coming right at me. I found that very disorienting and sometimes it gave me vertigo, so I tried hard to concentrate on the lines in the road. That was hard, too, because there were places where enough snow had fallen that the road was covered. However, a guy passed me (!) and i was able to follow his tire tracks all the way to the Harbor. Add to that, something has happened to my headlights. I think I lost one, or maybe both, of the brights, so I couldn't use them at all, which meant I couldn't see very far ahead, and that meant I had to go quite slowly. So it took me at least 20 minutes more than usual to get home. Besides trying to concentrate on the lines in the road, I kept having to remind myself not to clench my jaw so that I can eat tomorrow. It was a very hairy trip. I've done this before, but not for eight or nine years. I was only grateful that I can see now, because I'm not sure what would have happened last year.
At least I'm going to the car dealer next week and they can check out the headlights. I was very glad to get home, but of course, it was late, and I was hungry as well as having to pee. So I'm going to be late tonight, too.
As you may guess, the weather was horrible. The high temperature was 42º, around 1:00 this afternoon, and so far we've had 0.52" of rain (or something) so far today. The wind has now risen to 27 mph, from the east northeast, and the lake is singing. It was cloudy and dull all day long.
The guys did what they usually do when the weather is bad, so there isn't much to report there.
When I got to the studio when i got home, there had been an avalanche of the magazines I keep there, and they are still all over the floor. I am going to have to figure out some other way to store the ones I (still) want to read. I am also going to downsize drastically. There are too many I just don't seem to ever get to read, so there isn't any reason for me to subscribe. There are maybe four or five that I want to keep, but the rest will go. That will take some time, but I just won't renew most of them as they expire. What I will do about the mess on the floor, I'm not sure.
So that was my day, and I'm tired. That drive home just about did me in. I'm just grateful that I can see as well as I can. It was scary enough as it was. Now it's a cold, dark night in the field with high winds, rain and/or snow and a riled up lake.
October 29 My ghost is back. Shortly after I moved in here, back in 2001 or 2002, right around my daddy's birthday, I started having a problem where the range hood would turn on the light and the fan and the starters in the range top would start to click. I think it happened about the same time for a couple of years, and then it stopped. Well, it's back.
I was very late getting to bed last night. It was mostly the music, although I seem to have an aversion to getting ready for bed. I woke up a bit after 5:00 this morning to hear something I thought at first was heavy rain or maybe wind or the lake, but then I saw the light in the kitchen and realized it was the fan in the range hood. So I toddled down the hall and when I got there, I noticed that three or four (it varied) of the starters for the burners on the cooktop were sparking. I turned off the hood, and I tried turning on the burners that were clicking, but I couldn't make that go away. I had to use the bathroom, and while I was there, the hood turned itself on again - light and fan. So I turned it off again. I had been back in bed for fifteen minutes or so when it went on again. This time I ignored it, and it was still on when I got to the kitchen around noon. At least the cooktop was all right again. Anyway, I was embroidering and listening to the radio just about the time it got dark tonight - early because it was so cloudy - when the hood turned itself on again. Geez! Thus, a ghost.
I presume it has something to do with the humidity, but it's been cool and humid before around here and I didn't have this problem. I have no good explanation for what's going on, except that maybe my daddy is coming back to look around my kitchen and he fools around with the buttons on the range hood, since they're not exactly intuitively obvious. And it only happens in October. My bet is, it will stop by next week. I've had a good chuckle over it, but it is annoying. The fan isn't exceptionally loud, but I'm used to there being no noise at all when I want to go to sleep, so it bothers me.
Otherwise, I didn't do a whole lot today, since I was very late getting up. I did make an appointment to get my U-joint fixed and I talked to the nice lady at the mastectomy supply place and I hope I will be able to get my stuff before January...or at least part of it. Medicare is only allowing for three bras at a time, and I need four, since I only wash every month. My doctor here has to write the prescription, so I called them, and we'll see how that comes out.
Oh, yes, and i finally wrung the last drop out of the bottles for my right eye, so now I'm down to two drops in the left eye, and the way the bottles sound, it won't be very much longer that I have those, either. It has been a pain to do them, but at least I've gotten a little knitting done at night. Everything seems to be OK with my eyes, although I do have the diffraction spikes in my right eye, and I don't know what that will mean for the future. It was a disappointment to have them, but oh, well. Monday I will get fitted for my new glasses and that will help a lot. And even with the diffraction, I can still see so much better at night that I'm content. It only means that if I should ever get a telescope, I might have to use my left eye instead of my right, and I suppose I can do that.
It was not a nice day. The temperature was just about steady right around 40º. The wind was around 20 mph for most of the day, from the north, although it has gone calm recently. It was bright when I got up, but for most of the day, it was very dull and cloudy. There was a little rain before 2:00 AM, but none during the day. I'm sorry to hear that the "S" word is in the forecast for the rest of the week. Well, it's time, I guess.
The guys were sleepy. Louie spent most of the night with me, and Grayson slept on my lap a couple of times today, and he wanted some of my chicken tonight. They were both a bit spooked by the fan, I think. Well, so was I.
So that was another quiet and truncated day. Tonight I have to wash my hair, and I would like to get to bed a bit earlier than last night, so I hope to go up to the north end fairly soon. It's a dark, cold night in the field.
October 28 Well, I diddled and dawdled and it was after midnight before I got to bed, and then I couldn't sleep because I decided to try starting out on my left side. Lesson learned. It's harder to get comfortable on my right side because i have to move over a lot and get the body pillow in the right spot, but at least once I do, I can go right to sleep. I won't try that again. Anyway, once I did get to sleep, I did it well. I was awake around 8:30, but that didn't seem like enough sleep, and the next time I woke up it was about 11:30, I think. So I did my drops - I've run out of one of the ones for my right eye - yay - and knitted almost a row and a half.
I didn't do much else. Well, that's not quite true. I ordered some new covers for the body pillow. I only have one, and not only is it pretty yucky, it has come apart at the seam on top, and I keep catching my fingers in it and tearing it more. Time for some new ones. And - and! - I got the dishwasher unloaded and reloaded and washed up all the dirty pans. I did that because I got five pounds of brown jasmine rice and while I was cooking a double batch, I had some time. Now all I have to do is get the rest of the rice into bags and frozen. It's very good rice, and I enjoyed it tonight. So I guess I did accomplish something.
It was a good day to ignore the outdoors. The temperature was almost steady at 46º. However, it was spitting rain for almost the whole afternoon, even though not much of it registered in the rain gauge. The wind was the story, though. It picked up around noon, and in the middle of the afternoon, we had gusts up to 42 mph; It let up a bit, but now it seems to be blowing again. It was a dark, dismal day, although at one point there was almost a bit of sunshine. It didn't last long. There was some fog this morning. Yuck.
The guys were mostly sleepy, so there's not much to report on them.
So that was my quiet day, and I hope to be a little earlier to bed tonight, although they're playing Brahms' Third in the next hour, so I have to wait for that.
Now it's a dark, dismal, cold and windy night in the field. Quite typical for this time of year.
October 27 Talk about a nothing day!
I was in bed before 10:30 last night and I slept fairly well, with several wakeups. The last one was about 8:00, and I just didn't feel like getting up. Besides, it was dark. I think that was because there were thunderstorms over the lake, and I saw some lightning. So I went back to sleep and it was 10:30 before I got up. I didn't intend for it to be that long. It was still thundering, this time south of the peninsula. We had some rain, but no lightning overhead.
So i knitted for about an hour. It's nice to be able to see what I'm doing when it's not very light out. It continually amazes me how poorly I was seeing and how much I didn't know it.
I had pancakes and sausage for breakfast. I've wanted them for quite a while, but I kept waiting for a day when I would be earlier getting up. It became clear that wasn't going to happen, so I just did them this morning. They were good, although I noticed that my pancake mix tasted a little stale. I guess I'll have to start keeping it in the fridge or the freezer.
And I didn't do anything. I embroidered during the talking, and I finished a kind of neat row on the sampler, which has a traveling vine and satin stitch leaves and the letters of the alphabet are placed where you might find flowers. The next part is queen stitch, which isn't one of my favorites, but it is in shades of blue, so that compensates a bit. I'm enjoying embroidering for a change, although I do notice that since I have to do it with my glasses off, I feel some eyestrain from the astigmatism. Well, next Monday I should get fitted for my new glasses, so in a couple of weeks I should be seeing well from both eyes, close up and far away.
The weather was quite unsettled. There was lightning and thunder for most of the morning and we had 0.27" of rain. However, after that, it partially cleared up - that wasn't supposed to happen - and there was some sunshine for several hours this afternoon. The temperature was just about steady at 45º, and it was quite windy before 3:00. Not now, though.
By the way, when I finally got to the studio, the camera had hung up overnight, so there were no pictures before about 2:00. Sorry. One of these days, I'll have to check all the connections and see if that helps. I also discovered that the camera had gotten dislodged again and it was really off-kilter. I think I've fixed that, at least for the time being. It seems there had been some bouncing around in the studio overnight and the camera wasn't the only thing that had gotten dislodged.
Today the guys were sleepy. I don't know where they were when I got up, but I think Louie was in the basement, which is where he went when he heard the thunder after I got up. I don't know where Grayson was. They both wanted to sit on me, but mostly I guess they slept. Louie got the desk today, and I don't know where Grayson went. Thunder doesn't bother Grayson, but it freaks Louie out, which is too bad. Of all my cats, about half have ignored thunder and the other half have been terrified. I wish I could convince them they're safe in here.
Before I started embroidering, I hauled my big magnet board over to the desk and had to clean it up. I've learned that lesson. From now on, if I'm not going to be using it, it will go into the big portfolio case where I used to keep it when I was traveling. That's something I got from Kelly many, many years ago, before the Gaslite, and even though it was expensive, I'm certainly glad i did. It holds the 12" x 18" magnet board, a plastic project case and my tool case easily and it has handles so I can haul it around if I want to. The magnet board had been sitting beside the ugly chair for so long that it was really grungy, so I had to clean it and everything on it. Lesson learned. That's why I keep a bottle of cleaning spray and paper towels in here.
So that was my nothing day and I hope not to be very late tonight. Curiously, I'm tired again. I guess it will be Wednesday before I do my hair again. That worked OK the last time. Now it's a cold, cloudy night in the field and there won't be any stars again.
October 26 I didn't dawdle, but with all I had to do, it was still closer to 11:00 than 10:00 when I got to bed. I slept well, but every time I got up, instead of going right back to bed, I spent time staring at the sky. I quickly realized that the two stars I'd been seeing below Polaris aren't in Draco, but are, in fact, the end stars of the Little Dipper's bowl. The first time I was up, I could see the Big Dipper's bowl rising in the east, but the second time, it was out of sight overhead. The second time I was up, I looked out the east windows and there was a huge, bright star rising - Jupiter, of course, so big and bright!
I woke up about 6:00 and had to pee. In fact, I woke up because I had both the stolen car dream and the potty dream all mashed together. It's been a long time since I've had either dream, and the stolen car one particularly. Just for the record, I was back in the Detroit area, not up here. That was a mighty weird dream altogether, though, but when I have those things, it upsets me, so I had to calm myself down before I went back to sleep - and then I had to get up at 7:00! Ugh.
So I got up and did my thing and got off just about when I wanted to. Church was, um, interesting. The service was OK - not my favorite setting - and Pastor's sermon was good, and there was communion. However, when we gathered - the choir sat down in front for a change, because we sang the second thing during communion - two of our stalwarts, one a soprano and one a tenor, didn't show up. They are usually very regular attendees, so I hope something serious didn't happen. And the fourth soprano, who is spotty at best, wasn't there either. Eek! That left me and Marcy as the two sopranos. Eek! Fortunately, Bettyann brought Eleanor, and Marcy coaxed her into joining us, so at least we had three sopranos - and one alto, one tenor and one bass. The anthem we sang, which is a good one, really should have about 50 people singing it, but we made a joyful noise. Of course, I was the only one singing the high notes (just Fs) but I seemed to be in pretty good voice this morning. At least I don't think I was flat. The only thing is, the last note, an F, is sung to the word "fear" and I just hate to try to sing relatively high on "e" vowels. I'm afraid it sounds too much like "eek!" And I wasn't quite as rocky on my feet as I was last Sunday, when I had some real fears that I might topple over. So I guess it came out all right, but it was dicey there for a while. We didn't do quite as well on the other one, but oh, well. Being a choir director (and/or pastor) must be very frustrating.
Then I had to get gas. It actually came out pretty well, because gas is down to $3.169 and I had a coupon for 18¢ per gallon off, up to 15 gallons. Gee, imagine getting gas (at least some of it) for less than $3 a gallon! The grocery store where I shop (Pat's) owns the Holiday station in Calumet, and if you buy certain things, you get some cents off on gas. I don't deliberately try to buy the things that have the incentive, but the last time I shopped, one thing it was on was Yoplait yogurt, which I eat a lot of. Hey, small donations gratefully received. I could have used it the day I got the incentive, but I waited, and this time I needed almost a full tank, so it was nice to have. The only thing is, if I use it at the pump, it will only pump 15 gallons and shut off, which is a pain when i need almost 20 gallons, so I had to pay inside the store. Sometimes I just don't feel like the walk, up a very steep ramp and through some very heavy doors. Today I decided it was worth it. I do wonder, though, what the price is at Baraga.
Anyway, then I had to run by the post office to mail a letter and then I could come home. It wasn't long after 1:00 when I got here. I didn't do much at all for the rest of the afternoon. The second load of clothes is in the washer and should be done by now, so that will be done before i go to bed. Otherwise, I just sat. I am tired, and I plan to go to bed early tonight.
The weather was all right, with lots of sunshine, but not as clear and not as warm as yesterday. The high temperature was 46º. The winds were up to 20 mph from the north this morning and they decreased all day, until now it's calm. There were high clouds of various sorts all day, but not a lot of them, so it was quite sunny. I just looked out, and that little crescent moon (10% illuminated now) is over in the southwest, very bright and very pretty, so it hasn't clouded up yet. I guess it's supposed to rain for the next couple of days.
The guys were sleepy, but they both got some lap time today, and in fact, I had to move both of them off my lap at various times. Grayson has been following me around a lot.
So that was my day, and I didn't get nearly enough sleep last night. It will be better tonight. I intend to get to bed early and it's going to be cloudy, so there won't be any peering out the window at the stars. So far, it's a clear, cool night in the field. The clouds come later.
October 25 It was a frustrating day. I was late getting to bed, in part because of Beethoven's Fifth Piano Concerto, which I like a lot. By the time I got to bed, the wind was rising and the lake was singing. I slept fairly well, and I got up around 10:30, although I was awake around 10:00 and I just didn't want to get up, but I had to.
I knitted one whole row on the shawl, which took me under an hour. This part of the pattern is quite easy, mostly plain knitting, so it goes faster.
Today was washday, so I started the first load, of jeans and sweats, before I had breakfast. I made it to the powder room in time, for once, which I appreciated, even though I had to move the cat. I had done the second rinse and I was thinking about going back to the laundry to start the second load when the power went out. It was so windy I wasn't particularly surprised, but then my internet connection went, too, so apparently the outage was widespread. Well, the power was out from about four hours. I sort of fiddled around, because I didn't feel like doing anything much that I could do without it. With the generator on, I couldn't dry the load of clothes, so I didn't do any more wash. I guess I'll finish up tomorrow afternoon. At least this time, I have enough underpants and my smaller compression hose are fitting these days, so it wasn't a total disaster.
I can't give a complete accounting of the weather because the NWS station was down all afternoon, too, and I forgot to look at my weather station. The temperature peaked at around 1:00 this morning, at 63º, but then the wind picked up from the northwest and it cooled down quickly. it has been right around 53º all day. From the data we got, it seems the winds peaked at 38 mph gusts right before the power failure. It might have gone higher, but we'll never know. There were some nice whitecaps on the harbor all day. I was happy to hear that there was very little whistling around the patio door, so evidently I did manage to get it closed tightly. I wiil have to check it again, though, because i heard a little. The wind was from the northwest all day, which is the worst direction for me.
What was so nice was that it was completely clear. There were a few clouds around the time I got up, but they went away quickly, and everything was clear and blue all ay long. The sun is setting so early now, and after next weekend, it will be even earlier when we go off Daylight Savings Time. Anyway, when I finally finished my surfing and got up to get some dinner, I looked out and there, over the Mountain Lodge, was the littlest sliver of silver moon, so pretty! It set just after 8:00, but in the meantime, it was just gorgeous, in the dark blue sky with just a little red and yellow showing above the mountain.
I am still enjoying being able to see. When I was up the first time this morning, about 5:30, Not only could I see Polaris, but Cassiopeia and even Cepheus and Draco's eyes. I guess I was seeing stars down to the third magnitude, which is pretty good for no glasses and not the best seeing. Tonight I will have to see if I can see the two stars at the end of the Little Dipper's bowl, which I should be able to. The west is pretty barren at that hour at this time of year, and i don't have a good view in other directions, but I should be able to see quite a bit. It was nice. And it was certainly nice to see that lovely moon tonight.
The guys were their sleepy selves today, but they slept in different spots. Louie got the place under the south windows, so Grayson slept on the sewing chair. They were a little more active, which leads me to believe that the humidity is quite low. And Louie sat under the window to the porch while I was loading the washer and said "Out!" and just stared at me when I said "No!" Even he would have had a hard time keeping his footing in the wind. They are such sweet guys. They want to be around me all the time. Nobody ever goes off and sleeps someplace else anymore. The farthest they get away is on the couch in the great room, when I'm in the studio.
So that was an interesting day. I got the pill dispensers here reloaded, but I have to do the ones at the north end and take my bath, so I don't guess I'll be very early getting to bed tonight. Oh, well. I guess I can stand it. Now it's a clear, windy night in the field. The wind is banging around the north end and the lake is singing. At least we have our power back, but I will have to reset all the clocks. Sigh.
October 24 I was late again last night, and I think it was mostly because I was writing. I got some more done on Trine 4. The music wasn't bad, either. I got up around 10:00, which means I didn't get enough sleep, so I don't think I'll be as late tonight. I hope not, or I'll never get switched around so that I can get to church on Sunday.
Anyway, I knitted some more, and I finished the two longest rows - 843 stitches. From now on, it decreases by about 100 stitches to the last row. I don't know how that's going to block out, but since I never seem to block anything, it doesn't matter much.
I didn't do much today, although I did have another accident that meant I had to change everything below the waist. Tomorrow is washday, so it didn't matter so much. I went to the post office where there was a whole lot of mail including one thing that may mean I'll have to go back tomorrow. The stuff for Debbie's Christmas present came. I'm making her one of those ruffle scarves in shades of pink for breast cancer awareness. She is more into being a survivor than I am, and besides, pink is her favorite color, so it fits. I hate working on that ruffle yarn, but I'll do it anyway. I got my probiotic, too, and i hope that will help my elimination. I ran out of one of them ten days or so ago, and I'm wondering if that is what has been my problem, or at least part of it. There were a bunch of bills and a bunch of stuff about the insurance, too. My tote bag was full.
It was a so-so day. When I got up, it was very foggy, and it was cloudy and gray all day. It warmed up early in Calumet, to the low 60s, but only late this afternoon did it get relatively warm here, and it is now about 58º. There was a bit of wind around noon, but it has died down almost completely now. It was only partly cloudy at sunset, but I don't know if it will clear up overnight.
The guys were mostly sleepy, and there's nothing to report there.
I have to get the dishwasher ready and wash dishes tonight. I should have done it last night, but I didn't feel like it, and since I have to wash and fill the pill dispensers tomorrow, I want to get the dishes done tonight. They are playing Tchaikovsky's Sixth right now, and I'm not sure I'll stay for the whole last movement. I'm tired.
Now it's a warmish, partly cloudy night in the field.
October 23 So last night it was mostly the music, but I was reading, too, and then I had to take a bath, so it was extremely late - or early this morning - before I got to bed. The music started with Beethoven's 7th, which is just about my most favorite of all the Beethoven symphonies. and just went on from there. I got up around 10:30 because I had to. I knitted, most of a wrong-side row and a couple of repeats of the next right side row. This one has 843 stitches, so I imagine it will take me a couple of days, at least, to do it and the return row.
I was so late getting to the studio that I didn't do much of anything. Tonight was choir, and I left before 6:00, so I got there just about the same time as everybody else did. It was cloudy, rainy and foggy, so there was no possibility of seeing the eclipse. I knew that would happen.
Choir was great. We have a very good group, although it's small. It seems like last week, when Pastor wasn't there (and neither was I), they had a good session and decided to end each session with a hymn. This week it was "Eternal Father, Strong to Save" (you know, the Navy hymn), which we've sung in parts several times, and we actually did better with it than we did on the anthems. I think everybody would have stayed another hour to sing some more. We hope to get some more bodies, but just the eight of us do really well. The other organist, who usually plays at St. John's, was there to hear how the anthem for Sunday (Reformation Sunday) sounded, and she said we sounded really good. Well, at least we make a lot of noise. "Make a joyful noise unto the Lord..." Oh, and "Take my voice and let me sing always only for my KIng." Yes.
I had an interesting trip home. It was cloudy and spitting rain all day long. The temperature got up to 51º, briefly, and we got 0.15" of rain, at least so far. It was a bit foggy here, but on my way home, it was a bit foggy the whole way, and very foggy from Central to Lake Medora. I must say that being able to see helped a lot. I had to pass some poor soul down just north of Mohawk who was creeping along at about 50 mph and driving very tentatively. It wasn't good, but it wasn't that bad. I've driven that route in pea soup when I couldn't see very much. I feel sorry for people like that, but really, they shouldn't be driving at all if it's that terrifying for them. I know, some people probably think that of me, too.
The guys slept. Grayson got a little lap time, but Louie didn't, and in fact, I haven't seen Louie since I got home. They know what to do in weather like this.
Tomorrow is supposed to be better and so is the weekend. I hope so. I was having trouble keeping my balance when we were standing to sing. I am going to have to try putting one foot in front of the other, just so I can try to keep my balance and not weave around. I need to be able to stand up straighter, too. There are some high Fs in the anthem for Sunday, and even though that isn't really high for a true soprano, they need some diaphragm support to come out well. I can't do that if I'm trying to keep my balance.
I suppose I'll be late tonight - I usually am - because I want to write a bit, I think, but we'll see. I'm tired. It's a cool, foggy, rainy, yucky night in the field.
October 22 Before I got to bed last night, I had another accident, so I went through two pairs of sweatpants yesterday. I had a lot of gas and pain, and I dribbled off all last night. It was better today - I guess i was pretty well cleaned out - but I was careful what I ate. No salad for dinner and no cooked veggies, either. We'll see, but I think I can relax a bit tomorrow. I don't know what brought that on, but it wasn't fun.
I was late getting to bed last night, in part because I read for too long and in part because of my problem. I slept well, and I didn't get up until after 10:30. I knitted, but only about a row - half of a return row and part of a pattern row. There are around 850 stitches in one row for the next few rows, and it takes forever to do one row. I never have been a fast knitter, and knitting with that fine yarn takes even longer. Even though I like this pattern, I'll be glad to get done with it. it's taken too long.
I didn't do much of anything, I'm afraid. I read until the talking started. I've been forgetting to mention that I've been embroidering while the talking is on. I'm seeing so much better, even without my glasses, that I've wanted to get back into it again. I'm working on the alphabet sampler that I started a very long time ago, that is done with silk threads on linen. I stopped working on it in part because I couldn't see the threads of the linen and in part because I was doing a section in silk perle, which I hate and is very frustrating to sew with. It's so slippery, the twist comes out, and the thread falls out of the needle, sometimes in parts. However, I persevered and I got it done, if not very well. In the meantime, I realized that I am not going to have enough of that thread to finish the sampler - the designer used a lot of it. So I had to go hunting for a source and order some more. That's frustrating, because I got the materials from the designer and she only included one spool in the kit. I really should email her and point out my problem. Now I've gone on to an alphabet done all in dark blue silk floss, which is easier and nicer to work with. I have always liked to work with silk. Too bad it's so expensive. It will be a couple of weeks before I get the rest of my silk perle, but in the meantime I can work on the rest of the sampler and if I get to any other places that use it, I'll just ignore them for the time being. There is a lot at the bottom, but I have a long way to go before then. This one is fun, because in between all the alphabets are sections of special stitches, which I enjoy doing. I don't think I'm up to working on black 32-count linen yet, and besides, I usually like to finish one piece before I start another one.
It was a beautiful late fall day. The sky was perfectly clear last night and all day today. When I was up around 6:00, I could see a lot of stars, down almost to 3rd magnitude without my glasses. The high temperature was 48º, which is about average. There was a rather brisk southwest wind all day, with gusts up to 20 mph. It was so nice to see the clear blue sky and the lovely blue water!
Grayson slept on my lap for quite a while, and I finally figured out his ploy. Not only is it my lap, for a couple of hours in the early afternoon, the sun is shining right on me and on my lap, so not only does he have a nice soft pillow on my gut, he can soak up the rays, too. When the sun went away, I found him and Louie asleep on the couch, where the sun was then. They know how to be comfy. The only problem I can see is that Louie hasn't gotten any lap time for several days. I will have to try to fix that.
Unfortunately, the sun is supposed to go away tomorrow, and i don't mean the eclipse. Since there is something scheduled that doesn't happen very often, of course it's supposed to be cloudy. Naturally. Well, it's been nice while it lasted, and I guess there should be more sunshine and a bit warmer temps over the weekend. It's hard to believe that next week is the end of October, although it was nice that Social Security day came (for me) so early this month.
Now it's a clear (so far), cool night in the field and I need to wash my hair. Ugh.
October 21 I was writing last night. I think I cleared the block and I got a lot done on Trine 4. It isn't done yet, but I can see my way forward. Integrating the old story into the new one was hard, and I just had to let it percolate until it was ready. That part is done now, and I only have to write the end. However, it was 1:30 or so before I got to bed. Maybe earlier tonight, but maybe not, too.
I got up around 10:30 and I knitted about a row and a half on the shawl. That's coming along, too, but it's slow going. Otherwise, I didn't do much of anything. I had a bad accident, so I cleaned up after that. It's the first accident I've had in several days, but that doesn't matter. It was a nasty one.
The weather was pretty but cold. The high temperature was only 43º. There wasn't any wind. It was mostly clear all day and there was a whole lot of sunshine, which was very welcome, and it was clear at sunset, which is probably why the temperature dipped to 34º at 8:00 before it rebounded a little bit. Oh, stars tonight!
The guys were sleepy, although they both looked longingly out on the porch. Louie actually sat there and said "Out!" to me several times. The concept of indoors and outdoors temperatures is a bit beyond them, and I wasn't going to open the window and show them, even with no wind. Grayson spent a whole lot of time on my lap this afternoon, much of it sound asleep. He is small enough that having them there isn't such a problem. When Louie gets on my lap, it's like having a log there.
So that was my day, and now I have to decide whether to write, read some more or just go to bed. Decisions, decisions...
By the way, Amanda had her baby - a boy - on the 16th and they are home. Well, now I don't have to worry about finding unisex fleece, at least. I must get at that tomorrow.
So it's a clear, cold night in the field and since it's almost new moon, there should be plenty of stars.
October 20 I got to bed sometime between 10:30 and 11:00 last night, although I did look at the clock once around 11:30. I slept well, with the usual wakeups. I was up around 8:30, but that seemed a bit early, and it was after 11:00 when I finally woke up again. So I got something around 11 hours' sleep. It helped.
I knitted, and I have placed some markers halfway through each repeat of the pattern. Since each repeat is now 52 stitches (and goes up to 58), it's a lot easier to count on the return rows with the extra markers and a lot easier to rip back if I've messed up the pattern. The end of this thing is going to take me a while. I'm thinking about what I'm going to do next, of course. I may just work on the sequin cowl, or I may try to put together the pattern I've been thinking about for a long time, for some yarn in fall colors that I want to do in various leaf patterns. I haven't found just the right leaves, though, so I may have to invent the patterns myself. And of course, there are socks and a pair of mittens I never managed to do a couple of years ago...
I didn't do much except try to get my prescriptions sorted out. As has happened before, the doctor's office thinks they did the things right and the mail-order service thinks they did it right and nobody will admit they screwed up. I tend to believe the doctor, myself, but I got quite an argument out of the prescription service (after I got disconnected once). Geez.
The weather wasn't worth bothering with. The temperature was right around 45º all day, and the wind has been rising slowly from the north. The lake has been singing quietly. It was cloudy all day. Meh.
The guys were mostly sleepy, so I have nothing to report there, either. Grayson got some lap time, but Louie didn't because he wanted to sit on me just when I was talking to people on the phone, and I needed both my hands to look at the computer.
So that was my quiet day. I do have to schedule my car repairs and I need to call the people I get my prostheses and bras from, but maybe I can do that when I'm not so late getting up.
Now it's a cloudy, cool night in the field and the lake will sing me to sleep.
October 19 Last night, I went diligently and did what I had to do and I got to bed around 9:30. I slept well, although I had to get up around 6:15 this morning, which I hate when it happens. I went back to bed and I was almost asleep again when the alarm went off. Uff. I did my thing and i even got off to church when I wanted to, so I was early, and that was nice.
I was having trouble with my car key all morning. I dropped it when I got out of the car, and when I went to leave, I couldn't find it. A very nice lady went upstairs to see if she could find it around my pew, which she couldn't, and when we looked in my tote bag, it had fallen down into my choir music folder. I have no idea how it got there. So it was a rather discombobulating morning.
It turned out that the choir did practice Thursday, and because I wasn't there, I flubbed one part, but oh, well. We sang well otherwise. Today was Matins, but we didn't sing the Te Deum, because the choir anthem was a long one and there was lots of other singing. Pastor's sermon was about the "render unto Caesar" text, and I was glad to hear him point out that we are to honor those in authority even when we don't agree with their politics. That needs to be said frequently and loudly.
I came right home after I found my car key, and I didn't do much but read for the rest of the afternoon. My eyes are doing well, although i was not pleased to see some diffraction spikes in my right eye. I hope that will go away.
It was a cold, moist day, which left me with sore joints. The temperature got down to 33º overnight, and it has been rising all day. When I was out, it was in the low 40s here, although it was a little warmer in town, and we had some rain in the middle of the afternoon, which I completely missed. It's now 48º and rising, with very light winds from the southwest. It was a very gray, dull day except for right after sunrise. I captured one of the camera's pictures, which will show that the fall color has finally made it to the lake side of the mountain. I just caught a glimpse of that while I was leaving, but it was pretty.
The guys slept, although they both got some lap time and Grayson thought he wanted some of everything I ate today - he didn't.
So that was a quiet, dull day, and now it's a dark, cloudy night in the field.
October 18 There was more nice music last night, but I got to bed around 1:30 anyway. I slept well. The wind was howling and the lake was singing and that always puts me to sleep. I got up around 10:30 and I knitted the return row and started the next right side row of the shawl.
Otherwise, I didn't do much of anything, I guess. It was a quiet Saturday. Oh, I did do my monthly system updates, which went better than they did last month. That's pretty much a no brainer anyway, except that the system has to reboot, so among other things, I lost any email messages I deleted. Normally, that isn't a problem, but every so often something goes away that I would rather have kept, but just not in my Inbox. I had to haul out the laptop and set it up, too, so now it's back in its spot beside the desktop monitor. Actually, that's probably good, because there are a couple of websites I've been having trouble seeing, and I want to check them on the other computer. How can two computers that are supposed to be running identical software react so differently? Weird.
The weather has calmed down considerably, but it was cold. The temperature today was around 39º all day. After about 9:00, the wind began to die down and it's now under 10 mph although it's still from the northeast. It was cloudy all day, but bright-cloudy mostly. I was just as glad not to have to go out.
The guys were sleepy. They are getting into winter mode, where they don't sleep on the desk very much. Mostly they seem to sleep in the great room either in the box or on the scratching pads that are out there. Louie spent some time on the floor in the studio. Grayson got some lap time, but Louie didn't.
So that's about all I have to report and I hope to get to bed at a reasonable hour tonight. it's a cold, cloudy night in the field.
October 17 Well, the music got me again last night, although I wasn't quite as late as the night before. I was only up once, I think, around 8:30, and I figured another couple of hours would do me. Ha. The phone rang shortly after noon, waking me up, and it was a recorded message saying something like "(mumble mumble mumble) we need to verify some of your information. Please call (some phone number)" and it hung up. I was too groggy to really hear the message and while I tried to remember the phone number, when I called it later, it was clear that I hadn't. It did wake me up, however.
So I did my drops and knitted and I am now working off the new ball of yarn, which should mean no more splices. I sure hope so! I managed to do almost a whole row, almost 800 stitches, but I won't be doing two rows very often from now on. So tomorrow I will be stuck doing a plain purl row, very boring. There are only 20 rows in this chart, plus the bind off, and while the stitch count goes up to 843 stitches, it decreases some after that. Still, that's a lot, and I don't knit fast, especially on pattern rows. Well, I can see the end, anyway.
When I got to the studio, I determined that the phone number I remembered must be wrong, so I called the exchange, and got two people who had not the remotest idea what I was talking about and sent me on a wild goose chase to the insurance company, who didn't know what I was talking about either. So I guess I will just have to wait until they call me again and hope that they don't find me asleep and I can remember the number the next time. I have not been impressed by this insurance exchange, and when they emailed me to ask me to fill out a survey about their service, I let them know. What a bunch of bunglers.
Speaking of bunglers, I went to the post office and got the week's mail, including some of my prescription meds, which caused me to check with the prescription service and it seems of the six scripts they were supposed to renew, they only did three. So on Monday, I will have to call the doctor's office and bitch to them, too. At a point like this, I begin to wonder if anybody can do anything right. I need to make some changes to my telephones, and I'm almost afraid to do it.
We are having another nor'easter. It rained almost all night and all day, although not very heavily. The temperature was nearly steady at 45º, and the wind has been rising all day, with a peak so far of 33 mph and gusts to 42 mph, from the north-northeast. It was dull and gray all day, and the lake has been singing more and more loudly as the afternoon wore on. Whether or not we will have some snow tonight and tomorrow depends upon which forecast you believe. It will be mixed with rain, but it doesn't seem that it will be cold enough for any snow. Ugh. Well, this is mid-October in the Keweenaw. Ugh. I think I prefer a blizzard. My joints have been telling me they don't like it either.
The guys just ignored it and slept all day. I could have done that, too, I think. I did get most of the cat food I ordered last week, so we will eat well for quite a while, I think.
Now it's a dark, windy, rainy night in the field, and I don't think I will be up too late tonight. I don't feel like I got my full quota of sleep last night.
October 16 I managed to forget to upload the journal last night. Sorry about that, and thanks to Charlotte for pointing it out. I hope you're all right, Phil. Anyway, I did that this afternoon, so if you're interested in my day yesterday, it's below.
Last night it was Mozart, Beethoven and Haydn, each in different hours, so I was very late - again. I slept well, except that I was up for almost 45 minutes with cramps and lots of gas. i know spicy food can cause problems, but I didn't know they would cause problems like that. I went back to sleep and got up around 10:00. That wasn't enough sleep, but I can make up for that tonight, if I want to.
I knitted, two and a half rows - 683 stitches. Yikes! I finished the first edging chart and I will start the next chart either tonight or tomorrow. The count goes up over 800 stitches before it decreases slightly as I do the tips of the leaves, but still - that's an awful lot of stitches. One repeat is almost as many stitches as there are in one whole round of a sock. At least there is a lot of plain knitting, so it will go relatively fast. I had to splice once to get to the end of the ball, and I spliced in the second ball, too, so I should be good to go without any more of that. I also had a couple of places where the thread frayed after I knitted with it, so I had to work in some short ends. That will mean working in some ends, but I've done that before. Living in this house is the first time I've had to contend with moths, and I don't like it.
It was a so-so day. The low temperature got down to 37º overnight, and it got up to 48º this afternoon. It was cloudy, but bright-cloudy, so I could see fairly well. When I was finally ready to get dressed, I was interested to see that the harbor was full of thick fog. That lasted for about 4 hours around noon, and then it was just cloudy again. There wasn't any wind. Of course, it was very humid all day, which was not good for my joints, but I was all right.
The guys did what they always do when it's not nice out. Louie got a lot of lap time this afternoon, but Grayson didn't. He seemed always to come around when I had to do something else, like go to the bathroom or type. Late today, their favorite cat food came, so they should be happy again.
I ordered the materials for Debbie's Christmas present, but that's about all I did. I got dressed this morning, but I couldn't get ahold of anybody to find out if there was choir tonight - Pastor is away - so I didn't go. That wasn't all bad; I got to eat dinner at a more reasonable hour than I usually do on Thursdays. And that was about it.
It's a cloudy, cool, humid night in the field, and I hope not to be up for very long.
October 15 For one reason or another, I was late last night, too. However, I discovered that I can knit while I'm waiting between drops, so I got some more done. The row I've been working on has over 600 stitches in it, so it's taking me a long time to do.
I got up around 10:00 this morning and I knitted some more, but I didn't get as far as I'd hoped, because I kept having to splice the thread. I can't just stop or throw away the longer pieces because if I do the color progression won't work out right, so I cope. I think I've found a little easier way to do it, without trying to remove one of the two plies of the yarn. And I had to make about four splices this morning. I don't like doing that, but it happens when you live with moths.
I got away pretty much when I wanted to and I made it to the dentist's office, in part because I took a shorter route up the hill in Houghton. Going around M-26 to the bottom of Sharon Avenue (yup, that's its name!) takes too long. However, then I sat. For some reason they weren't saying, everybody was extremely behind. I expect it of hygienists - every one I've ever known has been late - but everything was late today. So it was after 4:00 when I finally got out, with a clean report, thankfully.
I had sort of planned to go to Walmart, but it was so late that I decided not and I went right to Bambu for a nice, if very early, dinner. Yum. I brought half of my entree home with me and I just finished it. It wasn't as good as fresh, of course, but it was still yummy. I do love that place. So I got home a bit before 6:00.
The weather turned out all right. It was cloudy and under 50º when I left here, but it cleared up about halfway to Houghton and the temperature got up into the upper 50s. Here, 50º was the high, with a northeast wind mostly under 10 mph. It cleared up here, too, but not completely. I can't say for sure because the camera hung up around 3:30 when it was getting a bit cloudy for a while.
I think Grayson was glad to see me come home. When I came out of the kitchen with the rest of my dinner, Louie was sitting with his head under the glass case. All I can figure is that there might be a mouse under there. He looked so funny, but he wouldn't move until I shoved him with my foot. They are not very happy because we ran out of their favorite food, but we should get more tomorrow...or I hope we do. They have two other varieties, so they can just cope.
I have been reading some, but I hope not to be so late tonight. I noticed, while I was driving, that my left eye is getting much better and in fact, I can see just about as well through my glasses with it as I used to. That's not saying a lot, I know, but it means I'm not quite as much of a danger on the road. I do think I massacred a chipmunk on the way home, but it moved so fast that I didn't see it until it was right beside the car. I hope it stopped in time, because I couldn't have. This is a bad time of year for those little critters anyway. They are gathering their winter stores and of course there is always better stuff on the other side of the road. I guess one can't expect more of a critter whose brain is probably the size of a pea.
Now it's a cool, partly cloudy night in the field and one more task is done.
October 14 I don't remember now why I was quite so late getting to bed last night, but I think I was doing something on the computer besides reading. I forget. I slept well, and I actually got up around 8:30. That wasn't enough sleep, but oh, well. I had enough time that I knitted a bit (just a couple of repeats) while I was doing my drops and I got off to Johanna on time - so of course, she was late. it didn't matter much and I felt much better for my massage.
I didn't do anything when I got home. As usual, the massage left me tired. So I read. Oh, I remember. I was writing last night, or at least I was adding in a lot of the old Trine 4 into the new version. I've gone as far as I can for a while, doing that, and now I have to actually have to write some new stuff before I can add the climax. The second take is going to be longer and better than the first, which was my point in rewriting it.
The weather was - meh. It rained all night, with a total of about 0.63" between 9:00 last night and 9:00 this morning. It was dark when I got up, but as the day went along it brightened up quite a bit and there was actually some sunshine. The high temperature only got to 50º, though, and there was a 15 mph wind out of the northeast. It wasn't the nicest day, and it was humid enough that my joints could feel it. Meh.
The guys were sleepy, of course, but they all got some lap time, and Grayson got a lot of lap time, enough that I am a bit suspicious that he doesn't feel very good. Louie got some time, too, and he would have spent the afternoon if I hadn't had to do some typing.
This evening, about the time I was going to get my dinner, Debbie called, but we had only a short conversation because she had a meeting to go to. I guess her legal problems have all been settled, although she is still doing therapy for her arm. She sounded good.
So that was a quiet day, and shortly I will be off to the north end to take a bath. Tomorrow I have to go to Houghton to get my teeth cleaned, and I'm debating where else to go. I do want to eat dinner at Bambu, which means I will have some time between my appointment and dinnertime. We'll see what I do. It's a cool, partly cloudy night in the field.
October 13 Well, happy Columbus Day, if anybody celebrates it. I know I always appreciated the day off when I was working.
I was late getting to bed last night - well, 11:30 isn't that late. I was tired and I wanted to go to bed, but I was too tired to get up and go up to the north end, so I fiddled around for a long time. Sigh. Then, of course, I had to do my eye drops. Once I got to bed, I slept, except that I was up about every two hours - the fish, I'm sure. I got up around 10:00.
I knitted, and what a nightmare that turned into. I'm knitting off the outside layers of the ball of yarn, where the moths were at work, and I had to spit splice four times and weave a thread through another place where the yarn frayed after I knit it. I made a few errors in the pattern, too, that had to be corrected. The repeat on this row is 40 stitches long, and that makes it hard. Anyway, I finally got the two rows done and another splice made for when I start the next time (probably Wednesday). When you spit splice, you cut one of the two plies of yarn on each end, then lay them together and spit on your fingers and roll them together. That part of it isn't hard, but this yarn is so fine that while I was removing the cut plies, I kept fraying off the other ply and having to cut back. And a couple of places, I didn't discover that the yarn had split until I was almost ready to knit with it, so I had to unknit a number of stitches in order to get enough to splice (4" to 6" most of the time). It was a real pain. And I suppose it will be the same for the rest of the ball. I need to use the whole ball in order for the progression of colors to work out right, so I'll just have to cope. Ugh. However, I'm almost done with the first edging chart, so i need to press on.
I got to the studio so late that i didn't do anything much, except that Grayson sat on me so long that I had another accident, this one a bad one that ended up with having to wash everything from the waist down. It's all in the dryer now.
I also tracked down an order I should have gotten and discovered that the reason I didn't get it was that they had screwed up my payment information. So I will be without one of my probiotics for the rest of the week. I get a lot of stuff from this company, and they have been a continual pain. Something is always wrong. I think I have everything right again, so we'll see how it works. If I don't get the next two shipments, I will be canceling the order and just go back to Amazon, where I have to place the order myself. I like this subscription idea when there is an item I need all the time, but it has to be done right.
I also discovered that Terry forgot about Columbus Day when he said my money would be available today, so I will probably be a little late with my long term care insurance payment. I hope that doesn't cause more problems. I was otherwise engaged last week.
Then one of the insurances I signed up for called me because they couldn't verify my address. I have this trouble all the time. Even big data bases like the Postal Service don't recognize Copper Harbor as a place (even though we have our own zipcode) and frequently i am asked to correct my address or override. It's an irritant, but it's one reason I love it here: nobody knows we're here.
The weather was seasonal, I guess you'd say, although I noticed that our average high temperature at this time of year is only 50º. Today it went up to 55º for a couple of hours. There was almost no wind. It was cloudy almost all day, with only a little sunshine here and there.
The guys were rather energetic today, and Louie kept trying to annoy Grayson. I don't know what gets into him. Late this afternoon, when it was getting too dark to see much, there was a crash behind me (I was looking at the computer), but I don't know what crashed. Both Grayson and Louie looked a little guilty, so I don't know what went down. I did move a few things away from the back of the desk, where they would have gone over eventually. Grayson sat on me until I had an accident this morning, and then tonight, he wanted one piece of my chicken, and then he sat on me again. Now he has gone away, though. Heaven knows what's in his little mind.
Now it's a cloudy, coolish night in the field, and I hope not to be up too late.
October 12 I guess I made it into bed by about 10:00 last night, and I slept well, although i couldn't sleep for very long on my left side because my right shoulder was too sore - and it is still sore today. I don't know why.
I got up when the alarm went off, but I was late starting off, because I had to sit in the bathroom for a while after breakfast. It was all right, because there was very little traffic, at least in my direction. I did encounter several cars pulled over sort of on the side of the covered road, even though the trees are way past peak there. I was later getting to church than I like, but i had time to visit the restroom anyway.
There was communion and Pastor's sermon was a good one. I don't know if we sang better than usual, but I got a very nice complement afterward. There were only three sopranos, but since what we sang was in unison, it didn't matter.
I needed to stop at Pat's for a few things (and I ended up getting a few more things, as usual) and I needed to get gas. By the time I got home I was tired and my feet hurt, because I forgot to take my Crocs with me. My knees started out all right this morning, but after the up-and-down at church and walking around Pat's, they were (and still are) very sore, so after I finally got all the stuff into the house, i rested for the rest of the afternoon. I'm tired. I'm not going to be up very much longer tonight.
I got the last piece of whitefish, so I had a very nice dinner tonight. Sometimes I think I'm trying to make up for all the years when I didn't eat much fish, and never at home.
The weather was very nice for a change. The high temperature was 57º, and it hung there all afternoon. There was almost no wind. It was clear and lovely for most of the day, but there were some clouds late in the afternoon. I don't know the details because the camera hung up shortly after noon and I didn't discover it until late this afternoon. At least it was a pretty picture.
The guys were sleepy, and I didn't see much of them. Grayson wanted to sit on me but he wasn't patient enough to wait until I had a lap available, so he only got a little lap time. So did Louie. Grayson was interested when I started going in and out with the groceries, but he mostly stayed away from the door. I know he knows there are mice in the breezeway, but I don't want him to go out there anyway.
I've been forgetting to mention that the MODIS imagery is back online, although the web address has changed a bit (http://coastwatch.glerl.noaa.gov/modis/modis.php?region=s&page=1). It shows that the spine of the Keweenaw is gray, around that is still gold, and right along the shoreline it's still green. Just about what I've seen as I've traveled. I'm glad to have those pictures back. I'm sorry I missed the gold creeping over the UP this year; it's always fun to watch.
So that was my day, and I don't think I'll be up for very long. i was going to do some work on Trine 4, but I don't feel like it, so I'll find something else to read. It's a warmish, clear night in the field.
October 11 Oh, so I was late again last night. The music was nice and I was reading. Then, of course, I had to do drops, and somehow between the studio and the bathroom, I lost an hour. I slept well, of course, with only one wakeup, and I got up around 10:00, I think. I knitted, and the rows are so long it was nearly 1:00 before I got to the studio.
That made me so late, and there was so much email to read, that I didn't do much else. I quite forgot that Monday is Columbus Day - it doesn't mean anything when one isn't working - and everybody is having some sort of sale. Fortunately, most of it is stuff I have no interest in at all. I keep getting the emails, though, because you never know.
The weather was a little better today. The high temperature got up to 51º briefly, and there wasn't a lot of wind. The day started out cloudy, but by sunset it was quite clear and very pretty.
I finally got over to the camera to get it situated right, and while I was there, I tugged on the center pillar of the door, and it moved at least a quarter inch, maybe more. So now I hope there will be no more whistling and no more cold air leaking in. I just had to go over there again to adjust the camera a little more, so now the monitor doesn't reflect in the window. I think I have it pretty much in the right spot now, at least until some furry friends of mine go mousing in that corner. It seems to be pretty straight, too, or I hope so.
The furry friends were mostly sleepy, but they both got some lap time, and as usual, Grayson sat on me after breakfast until I had a slight accident. I hate to turn that off, but he's really messing up my schedule. He came back for a few minutes after dinner, too, but that didn't last long. In between, Louie got some lap time, too, until I had to move him. I think he'd stay for hours if I'd let him.
So that was a very quiet day and I will be off to the north end very soon, so that I can get up and get to church tomorrow. It's a cool, clear night in the field.
October 10 Well, I was late last night. I had to order cat food, which takes time, and the music was nice. I finally had to call a halt and not listen to Schubert's "Trout" Quintet, or I would have been up all night. I slept hard. I was only up once. I got up around 10:00, I think, and I knitted - 565 stitches.
I unpacked the suitcase and put it away, which seemed to make Grayson quite comfortable. I think he understands that if the suitcase is in the closet, I'm not about to go off with it.
This afternoon, I had to call my financial advisor and get some more money to pay my long term care insurance.
Later, I had my conversation with the insurance counselors, and I have signed up for some insurance for next year. I'm very suspicious about it, because it's less than half the price of what I've been getting, and I don't know how easy it is to deal with the company, but in my situation, I had to take the cheapest available policy. I am now also enrolled in Medicare Part D, which I don't like at all, but that's the way it goes. I have to have prescription coverage. I don't understand how it works, but I think I will be able to get my meds from the same place I am getting them now, and in some cases, for less than I've been paying. It all makes me wonder just what I was paying for this year. We'll see how it works out. The only thing is, if I decide I don't like the supplemental policy (or the company that offers it) I will have to take my chances with underwriting, and I have so many pre-existing conditions that I don't know whether anybody would take me. Apparently that part of the ACA doesn't carry over to Medicare Supplemental policies.
I was not impressed by the people I talked to. They both (the counselor and the data entry person) talked too fast and were hard to understand and I didn't get the impression that they knew very much about the policies they were suggesting. However, after I hung up, I got an invitation to rate them, and I did. It won't help me, but it may help some other people. So that is over with, until I start getting things in the mail.
The only thing that's neat about it is that the recording of my conversations is the legal record of my signing up. It's about time people started doing things like that.
And since I will be paying a lot less for my insurance, I really can't do much about complaining that I had to make the change. i still don't think it's fair, and I still believe I had an implicit (if not explicit) agreement from the company I retired from that they would always offer insurance. However, if I had any documentation about that, I'm sure it got lost in all my moves, so I can't prove it. And I still wonder what I've been paying all that money for all this time. I think the new policy has no deductible and covers 100% of everything Medicare doesn't (or that's what I understand) and the policy I have now doesn't. So I'm confused.
Well, I can hope it works out all right.
The weather was not too much different from the past few days. The high temperature was 48º, briefly, but mostly it was around 45º. There was a moderate north breeze (around 15 mph) until lately, when the wind has died down. It was mostly cloudy, with only a little sunshine, but that was nice. I guess it could get quite cold tonight, but how cold depends upon whose forecast you believe.
I've been meaning to mention that i know that the camera is still not aimed right or straight, but I haven't remembered to try to fix it. It will be hard, with my eyes, because I have to be over by the camera and looking at the image on the computer screen across the room, but I'll try. It needs to be moved more toward the right (so that the glare of the monitor doesn't show) and I don't think it's quite straight, either. Sorry about that.
The guys were very sleepy. Grayson got to sit on me a couple of times, but Louie didn't because I had to move just about the times he wanted to sit. When I came into the studio this morning, the bolts of upholstery fabric that are usually behind the door were on the floor, and when I picked them up, there was an itsy-bitsy mouse (about 1" long) dead underneath. Thanks, guys. You've earned your keep again.
So now I'm listening to the symphony concert - Beethoven's 4th Piano Concert and Shostakovich's Fifth Symphony, which is one of the few things of his that I like - and Strauss' Don Juan. I particularly enjoyed the Beethoven, with Mitsuko Uchida, whom I appreciate. Once that's over with, I will toddle up to the north end and sleep some more.
It's a cloudy, cold night in the field.
October 9 I am still wiped out.
I was in bed by 10:30 last night, and I slept well, with only two wakeups, but I woke up around 7:30 and didn't want to get up then, even though I had to pee, so I just dozed until the alarm went off. I got up and out, although I almost didn't make it, because Grayson sat on my lap so long that I had an accident. So now I have two pairs of jeans to wash, and I guess I'd better do that tomorrow.
The doctor says everything looks good, my pressures are fine, and come back in three weeks (it will be a tad more) to get measured for new glasses. The wait will be hard. I am still having some pain, but it's more like something in the corner of my eye, and that may be because of the way they had to keep my eye open, as well as one of the drops is known to cause dryness, and I don't need that.
When I got up this morning, things were hazy enough in my new eye that I was concerned, but it cleared up a whole lot before I left for Calumet, and by the time I came home, I was seeing not too badly. The trip down to choir wasn't fun, but mostly because at this time of year the sun is shining right in my eyes for a good portion of the trip. The trip back tonight was much better than it's been in quite some time. I still have some glare, and I guess I always will unless I get something done about the corneas, but at the same time, it was so much less than it was, and I could discern so much better (I won't say "see" because that's not so good yet) that I had no problem driving in the dark. It was only a matter of keeping my eyes on the white line and away from the headlights coming at me. Michigan has never had a vehicle inspection law, and particularly up here, where so many people do their own maintenance, there are a whole lot of cars either with defective headlights or with headlights that aren't aimed right. And the usual turkeys who don't dim their lights when they meet somebody. I know that's hard - I don't do that occasionally myself - but some of them don't even try.
The weather was cold again, although the wind has died down a lot. The high temperature was only 46º. The wind peaked at 41 mph at 3:00 this morning and it's been dying down ever since. It's still from the north, though. It was cloudy most of the day, but there were a couple of periods of sunshine, too. When I got to Phoenix tonight, I saw something I couldn't figure out, and it turned out to be the just-past-full moon peeking out from behind the clouds. It was so pretty, but it soon clouded over again, so it didn't guide me home.
The guys are still very lovey-dovey, although they slept, as usual. Both of them got some lap time, and I had to push Louie away when I wanted to do something this afternoon. When I left for choir, Grayson was sitting inside the door looking very sad, and they were both very happy to see me when I got home. I did have to shoo them away from the door, or Grayson would probably have gone out again. I've toyed with the idea of letting him, because there is at least one mouse out there right now.
I canceled my massage for tomorrow (or I think I did) because I just want to sleep as long as I can. I am still wiped out, for reasons I don't know. Maybe it's just letdown now that I know I'm over the eye thing. I need to put in a fast order for some cat food tonight, but then I'll be off to the north end to wash my yucky hair and crash. It's a cold, cloudy night in the field and all is well.
October 8 Well, it's over, it was successful, so far, and I'm tired.
We went to bed very early last night, because we were both tired, but I didn't sleep very well. I guess I did sleep because I didn't hear Marcy get up, but I was wakeful and I didn't sleep soundly for very long. We actually got up before 6:00 (their time) this morning, and we were on our way around 8:00. I did not fall down. In fact, I was moving all right, although I was a little groggy.
They took me in about 45 minutes early, and everything went about the same as last time, except that the actual operation only took about 10 minutes. I guess this eye wasn't nearly as hard as the first one. I told the doctor about Louie's eyes and he got a chuckle out of it, as has everybody I've told.
So we were a bit early to go to lunch, but we just waited in the parking lot until the restaurant opened. I was having a hard time seeing very much of anything, and I discovered that with one eye behind glasses that were wrong and the other eye all cloudy, my depth perception went to pot and i had a hard time even walking right. It was better after lunch. I also noticed the difference in colors right away.
So we were on our way north a bit before 1:30 (our time). We stopped at the cheese store again and I got a lot of cheese, because the last was so good, including a piece of 5-year-old cheddar. They had some 15-year-old, too, but they wanted $40 a pound for it and I thought that was a bit steep for cheese.
The rest of the trip home was normal, except that I kept dropping bottles of drops and we kept having to search for them. We found them, though. We stopped at Baraga for gas again, and this time it was $3.089, 5¢ cheaper than it was yesterday. I wished I'd had two gas tanks.
We got to Marcy's house around 5:30 and I got to go in - it is faultlessly neat - and use the bathroom before Pastor got home, and then we were off to Harbor Haus. Of course we got there much too early, but they were able to seat us at a table that wasn't a window table but served quite all right. It was good. It was so nice to be able to thank them for all their help. We all enjoyed our dinners, but they particularly enjoyed theirs, I could tell. I brought half of mine home, of course, but then, I always do. I will eat well for a couple of days anyway, since I also have half of my Olive Garden dinner from last night. Yum.
The weather was, frankly, cold. It was 40º in Green Bay this morning, although it was sunny, and it was windy. It was windy all the way home, and it was mostly cloudy over the Keweenaw, so the trip wasn't as pretty as it could have been. Here, the high temperature was 46º, late this afternoon, and the wind was very strong, with gusts up to 40 mph from the north-northwest. Brr.
When we got here, the kitties were both waiting to see who was coming, but we managed to foil Grayson and keep him from going out, by closing all the doors behind us before we opened any others. They are both happy to see me, and Grayson even chirped at me, although he has gone away now.
It's good to be home. I'm not seeing very well out of my left eye yet, and it is still quite dilated, but it's about the way the other one was at the same time. The only thing I can do for it is go to bed and sleep on it. I made such a thing over the adhesive that there wasn't such a problem with it this time. I will be able to drive tomorrow, I'm sure. I discovered, on the way home, that if I look with my right eye through the left lens of my glasses, I can see very well indeed, which is nice to know, but not very helpful. I can't wear my glasses upside down. So the procedure was a success, as far as we know, and I can go back to normal, or I will be able to soon. Using the drops is a pain, but that won't last forever, and in a couple of weeks I should be able to get fitted for some new glasses with a new and more comfortable frame.
So I am tired but in a pretty cheerful frame of mind. Now it's a cold, windy night in the field, and I'm home so I can go to bed - like now - and sleep peacefully to the sound of the wind and the lake. Aaahhhh...
October 7 I actually managed to get to bed shortly after 10:00 last night. I slept well, although I was up several times (fish, you know). Louie wanted to sleep with me, but I was a little too active for him. I woke up when the alarm went off, and I managed to get done everything I needed to do, although doing my drops took a while and I had an accident after breakfast that meant I had to change my bottoms.
Marcy got there a little early, and we got away around 9:30 or a little earlier. She drove. I was not seeing too well this morning, and we thought it would be safer. We ate lunch at a Burger King in L'Anse - the first time in 40 or more years that I've eaten in one of those. It was good. By the way, the price of gas on the Indian reservation was $3.149. It's even down in Calumet, but not like that.
We got to Green Bay not long after 3:00, and we ended up in the same room we were in last time. I'm not too pleased with that, because it has a very low toilet, but evidently I misunderstood what the clerk said the last time, and they apparently don't have any handicap rooms with two beds (!). I'll cope. My knees are doing better than they were. Marcy went shopping and I played with the computer until she got back and I used up all my battery. Then we went to the Olive Garden for dinner, and that was good, too. Now we are sort of sitting around until it's time to go to bed.
The weather in Copper Harbor was not good. It was cloudy and dull and the temperature only got to 48º. Not very nice. Someplace around Crystal Falls it began to clear up and when we got to Green Bay. it was mostly sunny and in the low 60s. It did cool off by the time we went to dinner, but it was nice. I guess tomorrow is supposed to be cooler here and about the same at home.
The guys were not happy to see me go away. In fact, one reason I had an accident was that Grayson was sitting on my lap. They were both wandering around while we were getting ready to go, although Louie spent his time on the other side of the basement door peering through the cat hole. Now they know what it means when the suitcase comes out.
So we are here, and by this time tomorrow, or a little later, I will be home with a new lens in my left eye. I'll be glad to have it all over with. Now It's a cold, cloudy night in the field, and I'm not there.
By the way, if you see any typos in this or any other entries, please excuse them. Between the slow wi-fi connection here and the weirdness of this keyboard, I've been having some problems typing.
October 6 I got to bed around 10:30 last night, I think, and I mostly slept well. I've given up starting on my left side. Usually by the time I have myself and my covers arranged right, my right shoulder is sore enough that i have to turn over anyway, so it's not worth the effort. I got up around 9:00, or maybe a little earlier, I forget. I knitted - over 540 stitches - and I put it away in a bag so the moths won't start chewing on it before I have a chance to knit again. I had to make one splice, and I lost about a yard of pale green, but it won't make a lot of difference, since the color runs are so long.
I think I have everything done except to pack the bag. I would do one thing - like load the dishwasher - and then sit a while to get my back into shape and then do something else. I took a bunch of trash out and put a new bag in the bag holder. I washed up the pans. I unloaded the dishwasher. I packed the computer.
Those who are long-time readers of this thing may remember that a couple of years ago I never got to church on Christmas Eve because I dropped my key someplace in the car and couldn't find it, even though I tried for a long time. Well, today I found it - right where I expected it to be. It had fallen down between the right-hand seat and the console. I had the inside lights on in the car today, and when I peered down toward the back of the seat, there it was! I don't know why I never could find it before, although it was far enough back that I couldn't reach it from the front. So now I have two car keys again, and the door opener still works. Yea! Yea! I remember one time when I thought I had managed to lock the other key in the car (it was actually on the floor in the house) and I didn't know what I was going to do. Now I have a backup key, as well as one to give Marcy tomorrow.
She wants to leave earlier tomorrow, so she will be coming around 9:00. I need to get to bed.
It turned out to be a nicer day than we've had for several days. The high temperature was 54º, and the humidity was down around 55% for a while. That did very good things for my knees. There was a little wind, with gusts up to 21 mph from the west, in the early afternoon, but it has died down now. It was cloudy except for a couple of hours in the middle of the afternoon. It sure was nice to see the sun for a change! It warmed things up in here, too, which was nice.
The guys mostly slept, although they know something is up and they don't like it.
So that was my day. Now I need to go up to the north end, get the stuff into my bag (it's all in the laundry room) and take my bath and try to get to bed at a reasonable hour. I hope I can, although it isn't vital, since I think I will let Marcy drive. I'm just not seeing that well these days, and she does. She's a better driver than I am anyway.
So now it's a cloudy, coolish night in the field and tomorrow I'm off to Green Bay.
October 5 Today is my daddy's 102nd birthday. It's hard to believe he's been gone for 31 years.
I managed to achieve my goal last night, and I was in bed around 9:30. I decided not to even try to start out on my left side, and I went right to sleep. I was up a couple of times, of course, but I slept very well. Only I did not want to get up when the alarm went off! Another hour would have been really nice. Getting gone was difficult. Now that I'm doing drops in both eyes, it takes me about 15 minutes to do the whole set. When I went back up to the north end after breakfast, I had to sit in the bathroom for a while before I brushed my teeth and washed my face, and since I was going out to meet the public, I had to curl my hair. I'm not sure that does much good - the curl comes out pretty fast - but it does smooth it out and make it less frizzy. Then when I got to the powder room, I had to sit some more, so it was almost 9:30 when I left.
Fortunately, there was almost no traffic going in my direction, except for one slow guy on the covered road that I passed where I shouldn't, no doubt scaring the (ahem) out of him. Well, if he's going to go 30 mph and refuse to pull over, I have to do things like that. I wasn't too much later than I wanted to be, except that somebody had pulled into "my" parking place, so my walk to the door was longer than I really liked.
Church was good, and we sang well. The anthem was a simple hymn, but we did it in parts, with a solo (Stu, who has a beautiful tenor voice), and it came out well. The service was Matins, which I like except that it has a lot more standing and sitting than the regular service, and Pastor's sermon was a good one. And there were several really good hymns. We got out early, except that I ended up talking to several people, so it was after noon when I left town.
I didn't run into much traffic until halfway up the covered road, so I got home at about 1:10. That's about as fast as I can make that run.
I didn't do much of anything for the rest of the day. I did manage to gather up all the trash on the counters (or I hope I got all of it) and put it out in the breezeway, and I am going to load and run the dishwasher tonight. I have enough to do tomorrow.
The weather was not very nice again, although it was better than yesterday. I guess I missed the snow yesterday. Mary Ann said it snowed on her when she was out walking her dogs. Yuck. The temperature today was between 41º and 45º all day, and there was some wind from the northwest, although it has mostly died down now. It was cloudy and gray, although there was a peek of color right as it was getting dark. While I was driving, I went through some patches of light drizzle, but nothing harder. Yuck.
The guys slept, although they were agitated this morning. They know what it means when I get up early, especially when I set the alarm. Grayson sat on me a couple of times, and Louie spent most of the day in the box in the great room.
When I went up to the north end last night, I thought the bedroom seemed rather cool and when I tried to check it, I discovered that the batteries in the thermostat were dead. The cool didn't bother me, except that it appears there is some kind of coupling between the bedroom and the bath (which has its own zone) and I couldn't get it warmer than 68º in there, which is a bit cooler than I like it. So today I changed the batteries. They were the originals, which means they've worked for 13 years, and I guess I can't complain about that. I hope that is the problem with the bathroom and I don't have more issues with the heat in there. I need to have my bathroom warm and I didn't really want to get another space heater. Ah, the joys of the happy householder!
Having the bedroom cool doesn't bother me; in fact, I keep it quite cool, because I like to make my own climate under my covers. But if it's cooling down when the temperature is in the 40s, heaven knows how cold it will be when winter comes.
So that was my day, and it's a cold, cloudy night in the field.
October 4 So last night I came close to pulling an all-nighter again. The music was nice and I was reading part 3 of Voyages. which I like, so time just passed. Sigh. I had no trouble getting to sleep, at least on my right side, and while I woke up a couple of times to move, I didn't get up until I got up for good. Not nearly enough sleep, but maybe I can do better tonight.
I knitted, and there was a little glitch. I was doing the return row when I discovered that about a third of the way in, the yarn had begun to fray apart after I knitted it. So I put in a reinforcing thread - unfortunately not the same color - and I'll just have to hope it isn't too noticeable. I'm not submitting it for a prize anyway. I'm getting close to the end of the ball, where the moths were busily at work, so this may happen again, and I will be doing quite a bit of spit splicing, since I want to use the whole ball.
I didn't do very much. I am tired and I'm still creaky - the weather saw to that - so mostly I just sat. I had an accident, so I had to wash some bottoms, and I decided I want to wear my navy fleece jacket and that didn't get washed last spring, so I did that. The jacket is clean and the bottoms need to go into the dryer.
The weather was nasty again. The high temperature for the day was actually at 3:00 this morning, 45º, after which it went down and it was right around 40º for most of the afternoon. There was a strong northwest wind, with gusts up to 33 mph, and it rained off and on all afternoon. Yuck. And not good for the joints, either.
The guys reacted by sleeping, a lot of the time on me. Grayson was on me three separate times, including now, and Louie went to sleep on my lap, too. Grayson is an easier one to handle. Louie is so big he laps over on all sides when he lies on me, and he likes to sleep stretched out. Grayson curls up and uses my gut as a pillow. They are both so sweet, at least to me.
So now it's time to toddle up to the north end and get ready for tomorrow. I need to get the drops for my left eye ready to use and do my usual Saturday night stuff. And get to bed soon. I'm tired. It's a cold, rainy, blustery night in the field - really nasty,
October 3 Well, 11:30 seems to be bedtime lately. I went right to sleep, once I got on my right side, but around 3:00, I was up and I had a hard time for an hour or more before I finally went back to sleep. I was up one more time, around 7:30, and I got up about 10:30.
I knitted, and I am now starting the transitional rows between the body and the edging on the shawl. I know now that I won't have enough yarn in one ball to finish, but I opened the second ball and I'm happy to say that the beginning of that ball is the same color as the end of the current ball, so it won't be such an abrupt transition as I had with the other shawl. I'm getting to the place where the moths began their real decimation, so I will be doing a lot of spit splicing over the next few weeks (don't ask - the term is fairly explicit).
I also got the underwear folded and put away. I usually put my underwear on in the bathroom, and when the panties aren't in the drawer, it makes it difficult. I also decided that I want to be comfortable rather than beautiful, so I will be taking one of my old nightgowns with me on Tuesday, instead of the pretty one Debbie gave me. It's so pretty, but it's so short that I need pajama pants - it just barely (ahem!) covers my butt. I'm much more comfortable with a nightie that's longer.
I returned my phone call of yesterday and got an answering machine, of course (OK - have your answering machine call my answering machine) but I assumed the return call would be fairly soon, so I took the phone with me when I went up to the powder room, which was a good thing. So everything is set for Wednesday, which is good, and I may be lucky enough to get the same admitting nurse I had the last time. She was great.
I wanted to go to the post office to give Ron his monthly payment, and I needed to send some documentation to the mortgage company, which I got together without too much trouble. I got there just as the courier arrived, which was nice timing. The mortgage company would rather I faxed them the documents, but I've never gotten the document feeder to work on my printer, so I mail the documents. I came right back home, though.
The weather was miserable. It rained overnight, 0.62" worth, and it was cold and windy all day. The high temperature did get up to 54º for a couple of hours, but mostly it was in the upper 40s and the wind gusted up to 29 mph from the north. It is very humid, which my joints are telling me. I am sorry to say the dreaded "S" word is in the forecast for the weekend. I doubt we'll see it here in the harbor, but I may see it when I go to church on Sunday. Yuck. It's good weather to sleep.
The guys thought that. Grayson sat on me at least three different times today, and he's been around me all day. I guess he's just so glad to have me around. Louie is, too, but he's not quite as demonstrative.
So it was a quiet day, and I hope to be in bed a little earlier tonight. It's a cold, damp, windy night in the field. Autumn for sure.
October 2 I didn't get to bed until around 11:30 last night, and I didn't sleep very well. For some reason, it was warm in the bedroom, and I kept waking up all sweaty and having a hard time getting back to sleep. I was up at 6:00, and I had just gotten into a deep sleep when the alarm went off (of course). I got up, and while I was moving slow, I managed to get out of the house when I wanted to, even though I had another accident and had to change my bottoms again. I haven't been eating enough rice lately, I guess.
I got to the doctor early, but one of my neighbors was there with her husband and we had a nice chat while I waited. The doctor is very happy - as am I - with the outcome of my first surgery. My right eye has settled down to the extent that they could probably give me a lens for my glasses that would let me see clearly, but I want to wait and see how it goes, since I'm going to want a new frame. Apparently, Medicare (or something) does pay something toward new glasses, which was good news. I will have to pay for new lenses for my sunglasses, but I don't want a new frame for those - why do that, when the old one is so comfortable? So I came back and stopped at the post office, where I had a nice conversation with Ron and Becky.
I didn't get nearly enough sleep last night, so I just sat for the rest of the afternoon. I did finally balance my checkbook and pay a bunch of bills. Then it was off to choir, where we sang a lot of stuff, including something from a book of Bach chorales. Yeah! As I said after we sang, nobody does it like Bach. We were late, so it was 9:15 before I got home. Now I'm really tired. I did notice, though, that even though I'm not seeing my best, and I still have some glare around bright lights (and I always will, because that's the corneas) I can see much better to drive at night already.
The weather was not very interesting. The temperature got up to 63º briefly, but it was sort of choppy all afternoon, up and down between 55º and 60º. There was almost no wind, so little, in fact, that Lake Medora was like a mirror when I went past going down this evening. It was cloudy and dull all day. The roads looked like it might have rained, but I think that was just heavy dew, since it was very humid. Blah.
The guys were sleepy all day. Grayson got some lap time a couple of times and so did Louie. It seems I forgot to mention Louie's eyes. I've known for some time that there is something different about Louie's left eye, since the pupil is always open more than the right one is. However, yesterday when he was sitting in front of me looking up, I suddenly realized that his right eye is pale green and his left eye is bluish-gray. Geez, I have an odd-eyed cat and I never realized it until yesterday! He has pretty eyes, and that just adds to the interest. It also showed me just how much better my visual acuity is already.
So that was my quiet day, and I'm going to bed and sleep tonight. It's a cloudy, not very cool night in the field.
October 1 Well. Now it's October and pretty soon it will be January...Sigh.
I think it was shortly after 11:00 when I got to bed last night and I had a hard night. My shoulder was so sore that I had to lie on it for most of the night and for some reason I had a very sore right foot - so sore that I had a hard time falling to sleep. So I thrashed and twitched for quite some time before finally - finally! - I got to sleep, and then I slept for a very long time, only to wake up when I had a night sweat. I think the two are related. If I get to sleep easily, I don't seem to have those things. Anyway, I was up at around 8:00, and that seemed too early under the circumstances, so I went back to sleep - on my left side, finally - and I woke up when the phone rang at 10:30.
The phone was the optometrist's office, thankfully, and not the "Breast Cancer S" that has been trying to get me to pick up the phone for the past week or so. I have no idea who they are, but I think I can reasonably assume they are a charity (that is not supposed to call me) and ignore them. They will be sorry If I do answer, since I expect to breathe fire at them.
Anyway, I got up and I knitted and now I have done the last two rows of the body of the shawl. There are about 10 rows of transition (very poor transition, I might add) and then I will start on the border. I will be changing some things in the border, since I don't like the way they do most of the double decreases. This is where the stitch count balloons, so one of these days, I'll be having to do only one row a day. I guess it took me about an hour to do two rows.
I didn't do much else. I had a very messy accident and I washed everything from the past two days, and that was about it. The eye clinic called to see how I'm doing, which was nice.
The weather was a bit warmer than yesterday and it was very variable. When I finally got the camera restarted, at 12;30, it was clear and beautiful, and fifteen minutes later, it was cloudy. There were a few more episodes of sunshine, but for most of the afternoon, it was quite cloudy. The high temperature got up to 59º briefly. The wind was rather gusty and mostly from the southwest.
The guys were sleepy, of course. They spent a lot of time this afternoon asleep together on the desk, but then Louie attacked Grayson for no reason I could fathom. Grayson got quite a bit of lap time, both this morning and after dinner tonight. Louie got some love this morning when I got up, but he hasn't come around tonight, at least yet.
I had Spanish rice with pork chops tonight, and I seem to have gotten the cooking temperature right, even though there was some burned on stuff in the pan. I used thicker chops this time. It still annoys me how thin they slice most park chops - probably about ¼". Those are very hard to cook, especially if the dish is supposed to be cooked for a while. Anyway, I used the tomatoes Suzanne left with me, and the whole thing came out so good. Yum! I have enough for tomorrow, too, so I will have a good dinner when I get home from choir. Yum.
So that was a quiet day. Tomorrow I have to go back to the optometrist to get my eye checked, so I need to go up to the north end and wash my hair right away. I will have to get up at a reasonable hour tomorrow morning. My shoulder is still nagging me. I think it has something to do with the humidity. I can report that my tail is slowly getting less sore, which is good. The bruise on my arm is healing, although the ones on my knee don't look much different. I think slowly my body is recovering from the jolt it got when I fell, and that's good. I was moving a bit better today. Oh, it's hell to get old.
Now it's a relatively warm, cloudy night in the field and there might be a little rain tonight. And it's October. SIgh. Last updated 11/01/15 09:27 PM |