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A View From the Field |
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October, 2015 October 31 - Reformation Day I won't say "Happy Halloween" because I don't believe in it. This is the day Martin Luther nailed his Ninety-Five Theses to the door of the castle church in Wittenberg, and that's what I celebrate today. Happy Reformation Day!
I was up all night reading, and I didn't get nearly enough sleep, so I didn't do anything today and I'll be going up to the north end very soon. At least I get another hour of sleep tonight!
I had my nice fish tonight, and it was wonderful. It's one of the freshest I've ever had, too. I've heard that really fresh lake fish should have a strong, grassy smell to it, and this certainly did. It was a big piece, but I managed to cook it perfectly. The only disadvantage is that by the time I finished the second half, it was getting cold, and I like my fish really hot. It's cooling down in the studio, unfortunately. I will have to check the door and make sure it's closed tightly, once I can get to it again, and I need to get some of the stuff off the floor. So now I have a nice warm pad in my tummy. Yum.
The weather was miserable. The high temperature was 48º. While there was some wind overnight, there wasn't much today. It rained a bit early, then it started again around 11:00 and never stopped. We've had 0.46" so far, so it wasn't heavy, just persistent. It was dark and dismal. Yuck.
The guys slept. Grayson slept mostly on my lap.
So it was a non-day, and I'm off to try to get back on schedule. It's a dark, wet, nasty night in the field.
October 30 Well, I did it again. I was even later than the night before, and since I slept for a good nine hours, I was so late that I didn't even get to the post office. Well, I'll be out on Monday, so I can go then. I knitted a repeat of the edging, but I was so late that I didn't do anything else.
I did go to chapel and I did my surfing, but that was all. Oh, and I cleaned up after the worst accident I've had in quite a while, but it was my own fault. I waited too long, because I wanted to see the end of the chapel service. Sigh.
The weather was nondescript. The temperature has been about 47º for several hours and there hasn't been much wind. There was a tiny bit of sunshine between 10:30 and noon, but otherwise, it was dark and cloudy all day. Meh.
The guys slept, mostly. They both got some lap time.
So that was a nothing day, and I will try to get to bed a bit earlier tonight. Really. It's a dark, cloudy night in the field, but it's not very cold.
October 29 Oh, I was ridiculously late again last night. I guess most of it was the music, but I hate looking forward to taking a shower. It's not easy, when you're as stiff as I am. Anyway, I didn't get up until 1:30, so I got enough sleep, since I was only up once. I knitted the rest of the repeat I was working on, and that didn't take very long.
I was so late that I didn't do anything except my surfing, because I wanted to leave early and stop at the supermarket. I didn't need much, but I was running out of lettuce and eggs as well as JD. It didn't take me very long, fortunately, because I left later than I meant to, and I had a nice lamb chop for dinner tonight, as well as a lovely piece of fresh fish for tomorrow.
We had a good rehearsal, and I think we're as ready for Sunday as we can be. We got two pieces to sing at church, too, one of which was new to some people - "Behold a Host Arrayed in White." That's from the old hymnal, and it's Swedish or Norwegian. I can't say I'd sung it a lot, but I have sung it before. However, Pastor wants to do it in parts, and the altos and tenors hadn't ever sung it before, but the lead alto is married to one of the tenors, so they'll get it down. We rearranged the furniture again, but Pastor didn't say anything, and two or three people weren't there. I hope they don't try to sing on Sunday, because there have been some changes since they practiced with us. We'll see. It's going to be a nice concert.
The weather was not nice. The wind picked up this morning, and by 11:00 we had 32 mph winds and 41 mph gusts from the north. It rained, too, at least between 6 AM and 1 PM, and again after 8 PM. The high temperature was 45º, but it was close to steady in the low 40s. When I came out of church, it was raining rather hard there, and as I started home, some of the rain was a bit sleety. However, it was spotty, and in some places it wasn't raining at all. Yuck. The wind is dying down now, though, and the barometer is up, so maybe tomorrow will be nicer.
I didn't get home until 9:30 and it was 10:30 before I got the food put away and my dinner cooked. It was a good lamb chop, very tender.
The guys were very sleepy today, at least until I got home tonight. Then Grayson ran out into the breezeway, and I left the door open so Louie went out, too. It's much easier to bring in the groceries when I can leave the door open. Grayson wanted to come in pretty fast, but then when the door opened, he went dashing out...and back in...and back out. Louie sat out in the middle just looking at him like he thought Grayson was crazy. So did I. And Louie didn't seem to want to come in, so I turned out the light and closed the door and went about my business. When I was ready to come into the studio, Grayson wanted in, but I had to coax Louie, for some reason. Not that he was doing anything. Well, they had their night out. There are some new boxes in the breezeway, so they had something to investigate. Grayson wanted lamb, so I gave him a little piece, and after I was done, he came and sat on me and got a nice tummy rub. I guess Louie has taught him that tummy rubs are nice.
So that was my day, and I hope not to be so late tonight, although they're playing Mozart right now, so I can't go until that's done. It's a dark, cold, windy night in the field. The gales of November are starting early.
October 28 Well, I was later than I wanted to be last night, and I didn't get to bed until around 2:00. Then I slept hard until about 7:00, got up and did my thing, and went back to bed until about 12:00. So I got a good 10 hours' sleep anyway. I guess I was really tired. I am again, but it usually takes me a couple of days to get over as much activity as I had yesterday.
When I got up, the clocks were blinking, so we had a power glitch shortly after 9:00, apparently. Oh, sigh. Fortunately, it didn't screw anything up except the clocks.
I tried to knit, and that was a disaster. I did something - I don't know what - at the very edge of the edging, and when I tried to fix it, I dropped a bunch of stuff, and I ended up having to unknit 20 rows to get things back together. It was dark, and I had a hard time seeing the decreases (it's dark yarn), so I kept dropping one of the stitches. Aarrgghh!! Then I knitted back up what I'd ripped plus a few more rows, so it was around 3:30 when I got to the studio. I stopped in the laundry room and started one load of clothes.
I went to chapel, which was communion, and there were a lot of people there. They are having several events on campus this week. The celebrant had a very nice sermon, and it was very short, but pithy. I am still amazed by the number of people who get to the chapel right as the prelude is playing, and even later - when they were saying the confession, the narthex was full. I think they ought to teach their seminarians church etiquette.
So as a result of that, I didn't do anything much. The one load of clothes still needs to be put in the dryer, and I didn't get done the load I wanted, of underwear. I did find one more pair of underpants, so I'm good until tomorrow. And while my dinner was cooking, I unloaded the dishwasher. Will wonders never cease! I am also making a real effort to put every piece of trash in the wastebasket, too. I hope that will continue.
The weather was the kind that makes anybody want to stay in bed with the covers pulled over their head. It started to rain while the weather station was down (between 9:00 and noon) and it rained all afternoon, so we had 0.71" of rain. The temperature was nearly steady in the upper 40s, although the high was 50º. It was very windy overnight, with gusts up to 31 mph (not that I noticed!) but the wind has been dying down all day, and it is now calm. The wind has shifted from the south to the northwest (what there is of it). It was cloudy and dark and foggy down the harbor. A really nasty day. I ignored it.
The guys did, too. Grayson got a lot of lap time, and he had to have a taste of my dinner. Louie tried twice to sit on me, too, but the first time, Grayson was already there, and the second time, I was busy writing this.
So it was a quiet day, and I'm tired again. Tonight I have to wash my hair, so that I'm respectable tomorrow, but I don't have to be up anytime early.
Now it's a cloudy, rainy, cool night in the field.
October 27 So I tried to stay up all night again, but I didn't quite make it. It was ridiculously late when I got to bed, and I didn't sleep very well. I got up before 11:00, but I was moving slow, and I hadn't eaten my breakfast when Mary Ann got here. So we talked while I ate, and then we talked some more, and then I had to change my underwear, and after that, we went downstairs.
it's amazing how much faster things go with two people. We got the cat pans changed and the rest of the cat poo into bags, and then we attacked the freezer. It actually smelled less bad than it had on Sunday. It only took about three bags to get everything out of it, but oh, all that stuff! Home made soup, turkey stock, chicken breasts, flat iron steaks...and a whole bunch of stuff in the basket on the bottom that I don't know what it was. It was interesting that the stuff on the bottom seemed to be still frozen, or mostly frozen, but I wasn't taking any chances. A lot of it should have been thrown out anyway, it was so old.
Then we came upstairs and bagged up all the trash in the kitchen and took that out. She went off with all the trash in her truck, and she said I didn't have to go with her, which I appreciated, since by that time I was exhausted and sore all over.
When she left, I sat down and watched the chapel service, where there was a very good sermon, and I didn't do much for the rest of the afternoon. I'm exhausted, and I don't think I will be up very long tonight. While my dinner was cooking, I finally finished unloading the dishwasher, and I washed the big pan that was in the sink. The rest of the dishes are soaking now, and I really must do dishes tonight. I'm running out of things to eat on and with.
The weather was forgettable, but It appears that either the Weather Underground is down or there is a connection problem, so I have to make do with the NWS site, which is harder to read. The high temperature, 52º, happened briefly around 8:00, but it was around 50º all afternoon and there wasn't any wind to speak of. It was cloudy and dull all day - a good day to do something like we did.
The guys surprised me. I expected Grayson to greet Mary Ann, which he did, but then Louie came up and started rubbing his head on her legs and feet. Of course, she smelled like dog, since she has two, but he seemed to really like her. Strange, the ways of cats. When we started fooling with the trays, Grayson was right there to see that we did it right, and while I was sweeping up the stuff in the bathroom downstairs, he was right at the door watching to see that I did that right, too. I hope he is satisfied that I did a good job for him. He and Louie both got some lap time while I was sitting and resting. I don't know if Grayson is a Christian cat or what, but he likes to go to sleep on my lap while I'm watching chapel. It's probably that he knows I'll be sitting quietly for at least half an hour, but he evidently recognizes the organ.
Now it's a dark, cool night in the field, and I'm tired, but I feel good about having done a good job today.
October 26 Well, maybe it's over now. They say bad things come in threes.
I was in bed by 10:00 and I slept hard. I was only up twice, and I didn't get up until 10:45. Of course, I was awake for about 45 minutes during the night, but still, that's 12 hours' sleep. I felt much better. I knitted, and it looks like it is going to take me an hour to do one repeat of the edging, at least for a while, so that means it's going to take about another month to finish this thing. About now, I'd like for it to be done so I can go on to something else, but I'm not going to drop it now and not finish it.
So that all came out all right, but when I got to the studio, after noon, there were two emails from the bank saying there were some strange charges on one of my credit cards. Oh, no! Not again!! Oh, yes. One of my credit cards has been hacked again, and whoever did it put almost $200 in charges on it. Sigh. So I had to call the bank and assure them that it wasn't me, and their automated response system didn't work right so I had to call twice. After that, I sat quietly and read about general relativity for a while and then I went to chapel, which calmed me down a lot. But by then it was 3:00 and I hadn't done any of my surfing, so everything that I'd planned to do today didn't get done. Sigh.
The weather was cold but nice. The high temperature was about 49º for several hours this afternoon, and there wasn't much wind at all. It was partly cloudy all day. It was rather nice, if you were outside, a jacket was a necessity.
The guys slept, I think. They may have tried to sit on me, but I was busy, so Grayson just got off my lap when I moved to start this thing. Louie tried, but just about the time he did, I decided I should try to find something to eat tonight.
The stuff I ordered last week came in, but I didn't even get to open the package and find out if the print head will fit my printer. That's for another day, probably Wednesday. Mary Ann is coming tomorrow and we must attack the basement. Ugh.
So that was another not-so-great day, and I'm hoping this is the end of it. I called the insurance agent and she didn't call me back. The place I bought the freezer won't do anything for me. The only thing I'm wondering now is how the heck I'm going to get that freezer out of the house. Well, that's a future. For the time being, we have some cleaning to do.
Now it's a partly cloudy (I think) night in the field, and the moon is almost full.
October 25 Oh, I am tired!
With everything I had to do, it was 10:45 before I turned out the light, and I didn't spend much time staring at the floor. I slept, of course, although I was up a few times and I was having some trouble with my hips and shoulders. I got up when the alarm clock went off, at 6:30, but I certainly didn't want to, and I managed to get away at about the right time.
Church was nice. We celebrated Reformation Day today, even though it doesn't take place until next Saturday. Pastor's sermon was about the place of music in the Lutheran church. Unfortunately, we didn't do very well on the second anthem we sang, "Lord, Thee I love with all my heart," the third verse from the old hymnal. Well, he just threw it at us on Thursday, and it's not the easiest thing to sing. I doubt the congregation noticed.
I came home and washed one load of clothes, which needs to be put in the dryer now. Otherwise, I did nothing. I was so sleepy that I almost fell asleep, but I decided to have a quick dinner and go early, which I will do as soon as I finish this.
I talked to Mary Ann, and she will be coming Tuesday afternoon to help me with the freezer. In the meantime, if I get enough sleep tonight, maybe I can get the kitchen cleaned up a bit and do the rest of the wash. Oh, and the cat pans. I stopped at the store on the way home and got lots of orange bags, so I have enough of those, although I think I will be lining them with black trash bags, because they will be heavy.
I realized when I thought about it that the real sad part is that I had a lot of pea and bean soup down there, as well as some other stuff that I cooked and froze. It will all have to go out, as well as all the containers it's in. What a mess! Not that I could have done much if I'd caught it right after it died, except to get a repairman. I guess this has to happen at least once in everybody's life. I talked to several people and most of them had had the same thing happen to them. The real problem, as I see it, is what to do with the freezer itself, which is useless, since it won't be possible to get the smell out of it, and also, whether I can get a new one. Not on my own dime, for sure, so I will be talking to the place I got it from as well as my insurance agent tomorrow. And I have to check on the circuit breaker and probably get an electrician. Gee, and I thought maybe I'd have a nice, quiet week!
The weather was cold but fairly pleasant. The high temperature, 45º, actually happened at 7:00 this morning, and it was under 45º for the rest of the day. The wind peaked at about 9:00, with 33 mph gusts from the north, and it has died down to almost nothing now. It was partly cloudy all day, with lots of sunshine and lots of pretty, puffy clouds, and it cleared up completely by sunset. No wonder it's 39º and dropping now.
The guys were sleepy. Grayson got to sleep on my lap for quite a while this afternoon, until I had to type a bit. I haven't seen much of Louie, but he tends to spend most of his time in the bathroom on my dirty towels. I'm not sure what he'll do when I take them up to soak them, but maybe I can put down a bath rug for him to sleep on. The bathroom is the warmest room in the house, and he likes to be warm.
So that was a quiet day. Even though it's only 8:00, I'm going up to the north end very soon and when I do, I'm going to bed. Maybe tomorrow will be better.
It's a clear, cold night in the field.
October 24 UGH! What a terrible day!
I pulled an all-nighter, and for a different reason. Right before I was going to go up to the north end, I got thinking about the pronunciation of either/neither. I have always pronounced them "EEE-ther" and "NEE-ther" and so have all the Midwesterners I've known. However, at the Ft. Wayne Seminary, at least among the students, the preferred way seems to be "EYE-ther" and "NYE-ther". I don't like that way, and it grates whenever I hear "NYE-ither run into any kind of danger...". So I went off to the Internet to find out about it. The consensus seems to be that both ways are right (which I knew), and I suspect it's a regional thing.
However, among the listings in Google was one that sounded interesting, and when I looked at it, it was "50 mispronunciations you should never use" or something like that. Well. Most of the 50 words also differ by region, but some of them are just pretentious, and I don't agree with them, so I started looking at the comments. Ha. I never did finish reading, because the original blog post was in 2008, I think, and to say it ignited a firestorm is an understatement. There are even some comments as new as the middle of September of this year! I read and read and read until I couldn't see anymore and it was 6:00 in the morning, and I don't think I got beyond 2009, although I did look at some of the latest ones. Half of the comments seem to take the original author seriously, and the other half don't, but the majority were negative. There were some interesting, long comments from actual linguists (which it is apparent the blogger isn't), and they were very instructive. Anyway, it was all so interesting that time passed so fast I lost track of it. Sigh.
I finally did go to bed, and of course I slept. I woke up for the first time around 10:30 and the clocks were blinking. Oh, woe, but oh, well, I thought, the computer will reboot itself. Boy, was I wrong! I didn't get up until around 2:30, and when I finally got to the studio, there was no power. Nothing. No computer, no wireless, nothing. Aarrgghh!! The last thing I wanted was to go downstairs and reset circuit breakers.
Well, eventually, I did go down. I made it down the stairs without too much trouble, actually. Then the fun began. I decided to peek in the freezer before I went into the mechanical room...and my freezer is dead. And so is all the stuff in it. Seriously dead. Like, reeking. Oh, woe! Now I have real problems.
Then it was on to the mechanical room. There is one breaker that is marked "craft room", and it was tripped, so I reset it, and then I noticed that there was another one (nothing but three letters that I can't read) that was tripped. I tried several times to reset it, and it wouldn't reset. Oh, woe!
On my way out of the mechanical room, Grayson walked over toward the back door, and when I followed him, I discovered that the guys have been doing their business on the outdoor (old tires) rug that was in front of the door. Yuck. They have also been going in the bathroom down there, which has the one door in the whole house that won't shut. Yuck.
My next stop was to try to find some patterns that I've been thinking about. I thought they were in some plastic box, and I can visualize them there, but I went through a whole bunch of boxes and couldn't find them, so I don't know where they are. Well, I'll be down there again. I did find some stuff I have been wondering about, but I discovered that all the tin boxes that I had stored stuff like binder clips and safety pins in have rusted. I have no clue how that could have happened, since my basement is very dry. Anyway, Now I have plenty of binder clips and safety pins, as well as some other interesting stuff.
Finally, I wanted to see if I could find my baptismal and confirmation certificates. No luck. My baby book and my mother's confirmation certificate were in a box marked "Sharon's stuff," but no certificates. They might be in the files, but I can't get at those.
So finally, I came back upstairs. I think I was down there about two hours. Getting up the stairs was much harder than going down, especially the last two steps, where the railing ends, but it wasn't as bad as I feared. I did not have to go either way while leaning up against the wall, and that's a good thing.
When I got upstairs, I checked the studio. The computer was running, and the wireless adapters were running, but the screen, the phone and the task light weren't. That means that the breaker that wouldn't reset must be the other circuit in the studio, right? So with some difficulty (I kept having to move all sorts of stuff to get to the plugs), I eventually got everything plugged into the surge suppresser that the computer runs on, and now at least I have most stuff running, The radio isn't, but I will fix that tomorrow when I need it. There are wires running all over the front of the computer desk now. I unplugged everything from the other circuits, including the other surge suppressers, but I was not going back downstairs tonight to see if the breaker would reset. I'm afraid it won't, and I'll need an electrician. Oh, woe!
In the meantime, I fired up a pot of royal rice, so I would have something to eat. At least the kitchen is all right. Just now, I finished filling the pill dispensers at this end.
What a terrible day. I was supposed to wash clothes today, but obviously, that didn't get done. And it's 8:30 and I have to fill the pill dispensers at the north end as well as wash my hair. Ugh! I am tired, and I need to sleep.
I hardly noticed the weather, but it was dark, cloudy, windy and rainy. The weather station was down for several hours (I don't know why it always takes them 3 or 4 hours to come back up after a power glitch), so I don't know how much rain we really had. The high temperature was overnight, 50º. It was about 48º all day, and the wind has been from the north with gusts up to 34 mph. The low is now east of Lake Superior.
The guys mostly slept. When I came into the kitchen, the door to the breezeway was open - evidently I didn't close it securely yesterday, and with the wind so strong and the window open, it blew open. Nobody seemed to want to go out. They did come downstairs with me and they looked with interest into the mechanical room, but they didn't come in. Then Grayson had to show me all the places he's been doing his business. Snot cat. He wanted to sit on me when I got back upstairs, but I've been too busy. Sorry, gray cat. Tomorrow, when I get home from church.
Well, that was my lousy day. I hope Mary Ann will be in church tomorrow and I can beg her to help me with the basement. I don't think I can attempt that by myself. It will take days, and then I have no way to get the bags of garbage upstairs. I can hope.
Now it's a cloudy, windy night in the field, and I'm off to the north end to do my chores up there, too.
What an awful day!
October 23 Well, that was unpleasant. I was minding my own business and reading when we had a power glitch, so I had to wait until the reboot competed and then get everything back the way it was. I hate that. However, I've spent so much money in the past few days on necessities that I just can't think about a UPS right now. Maybe someday...
I was late getting to bed. Mostly it was the music, for a change, although I can't remember now exactly what I wanted to listen to. Whatever, it was nice. And of course, I ate late, too. I went up to the north end around 2:30, and when I got there, I wondered where the cats were, and then I remembered that they were out in the breezeway. Oops! I went back to the hall and when I turned on the light, there they were, sitting by the door, looking sad. Louie had to reach up toward the knob to let me know what he wanted. So I opened the door. Grayson ran right in, but Louie was a bit more suspicious, for some reason, but eventually he came in, too. They let me know they didn't hold it against me, and even Grayson was a little less interested in going out today. It was cold out there - around freezing.
So then I sat and stared at the floor for a while, so it was late. I got up around 11:30, I think, and I finished the first repeat of the edging. I put a bead at the end of the point, and I like the way it looks, so I will continue to do that. It's not a hard pattern, and I'm sure I'll get used to it quickly, but I have 25 more repeats to do, so it will take a while. I think I have enough yarn, but I have my fingers crossed. I would not like to have to rip out everything I've done for the past two or three weeks.
Other than that and filling one orange bag with the trash in the kitchen (I would say there's at least two more to go), I didn't do much. I went to the post office, where there was some mail, including some bills, and a couple of magazines to read, but not the one I was looking for. I've received an email about it, so where it is, I do not know.
The weather was cold and breezy. The temperature got up to 50º briefly, but then after dark, it started to rain and we had wind gusts up to 35 mph from the south - the low is out to our west. It was clear and sunny when I got up, but it soon clouded over. The camera wasn't much help; it hung up around 3:30, and by that time it was quite cloudy.
After their adventure last night, the guys were pretty sleepy today. Nobody got any lap time, although they both asked when I was otherwise engaged. Louie was apparently more upset than he looked. He ate when he came in, and then, right after I turned out the light, it all came back up, so I had to get up and remove that, since some of it was right in front of the bathroom door. And sometime in the last day, Grayson went for his eyes, and he has two scratches on his lower eyelid. He isn't tearing or anything, so I don't think he got the cornea, but I'll watch him. I don't like Grayson going for Louie's eyes, but Louie does really light into Grayson sometimes, so I suppose he will fight back as best he can. And yet sometimes they act like they really like each other. Cats are weird.
So that was a quiet Friday, and now it's a cold, dark, rainy, windy night in the field.
October 22 I think it was around 1:00 when I got to bed. I didn't check. I slept very well, with only two wakeups, and I got up around 10:30. I will probably be up more tonight. I haven't been drinking as much water as I should lately, and since what goes in has to come out, I haven't had to get up as much.
I finished the body of the shawl and started on the edging. This will go fairly fast, because the longest rows are only 29 stitches long. It's slow now, because I don't know the pattern yet, but it's fun to be working on a different pattern for a change. I'm toying with the notion of making one minor change to the edging and putting a single bead at the outside edge of the longest row. I might try it and see how it looks.
Anyway, I knitted for a couple of hours, so there wasn't much time to go a lot, especially since I had an accident, the first one in quite a while. It wasn't too bad, but still. Just to bring me back to reality. I had rice for dinner last night, too, so what brought that on I don't know, unless it was the broccoli. I need to cook some rice, too, but I think perhaps I will try some royal rice or maybe some regular, long-cooking rice. That's for tomorrow.
The weather was interesting. When I went up to the north end, it was really blowing, but it turns out the highest winds were between 9:00 and 11:00 last night, with 31 mph sustained and 41 mph gusts from the north. It was rather noisy up at the north end, between the wind and the lake. The wind began to die down after that, although it was still windy until around noon. The wind brought in the cold, and the high temperature was at midnight. It was in the low 40s all day, and it's now 35º, with no wind at all. It was cloudy all morning, but it began to clear up around 2:00, and when I got home, it was completely clear. The half moon was shining brightly, and all the way home, I could see Capella rising in the northeast. I know Capella is circumpolar this far north, but I guess I'd never seen it on its way up before. It sort of guided me home.
The guys were sleepy all day, and Grayson didn't try to get out when I left, but he ran out when I came home, and I sort of let Louie follow him. They're still out in the breezeway, which I suspect is rather cool, since it's so cold out and the window is still open (guess I can close the window now). I'm sure they will be ready to come in when I go to bed. They are such snots. If the breezeway interests them so much, and nobody is trying to get out the other side, I guess I can let them think they're putting something over on me. I suspect they might not be quite as interested once it gets really cold. It gets down below freezing out there when it's really cold outside.
Choir was good, but we didn't practice the concert music at all. We are singing one piece we know, but we had to learn the parts for another hymn from the old hymnal. It's a beautiful one, though, and it turns out that our backup organist has been a choir director, so she was a big help.
Oh, yes, and the printer crapped out again, so I broke down and ordered a new print head. I certainly hope that solves my problem, because if it doesn't I will have to get a new printer. I wanted to copy some things from the hymnal so that I didn't have to carry that big book, and even though I cleaned the print head thoroughly, it didn't work. I will try it again tomorrow, but I'm afraid it's done for. When I think that I had the old printer for something like 11 years and it never had problems like this, it makes me angry. When eventually I do get a new printer, I'm going to have to try to research a little more thoroughly how reliable it is. I need a printer/scanner/copier, and the only thing that consoles me is that they aren't nearly as expensive as they used to be.
So that was my day, and now it's a cold, clear night in the field, and we might have our first true freeze in Copper Harbor tonight.
October 21 Well, last night I got to bed around midnight and I got up around 9:30, which is more like it. I knitted, and I finished the lace on the body and began the first plain knit row. There are four increases in this row, but the main problem is to drop the 44 markers (40 in one color and 4 in another) that I've been carrying along. I didn't get far, because it took me about 1½ hours to do the two lace rows - there were 40 beads to place - and I was getting hungry.
That was all I did. Sigh. There are so many things I need to do around here that I just sort of ignore all of them. For the first time this week, I didn't quite make it to the bathroom, and it was before I was through with my breakfast, but then, I haven't been eating very much rice lately. It wasn't bad enough to make me have to change my bottoms, but it was a bit messy.
The weather was very autumnal. The high temperature was 58º, at 4:00, and by 6:00, it was 50º. That was because the wind picked up, from the northwest. Now, at 9:00, it's blowing at 28 mph with 36 mph gusts, and the lake is beginning to sing. It was very dark and cloudy all day, and at times, it looked like it might rain, and between 12:00 and 1:00 there was a little bit, but not much. It was a good day to ignore all that, and I did.
Both guys got some lap time today. Grayson wanted to sit on me just now, but I had to tell him no, because I can't type when there is a cat - even a small one - on my lap. Louie got his lap time while I was at chapel.
This evening, I finally got around to ordering my TP, as well as some pills and some cat food that I need. I was most annoyed with Walmart. When I clicked on the icon for the last TP I ordered, they sent me to a page from another seller, at more than twice the cost that I paid last time! I had to search out the lowest price myself. That isn't right. I should complain to them, and I think I will. Anyway, the only thing I didn't get was a kind of cat food the guys liked, but when I finally found it, they wanted about $24 for a 3 lb. bag, and I'm sorry, guys, that is just too expensive for us. So they'll have to make do with the cheaper stuff. Grayson liked that old, stale stuff in the breezeway so much that I may just just start using. It's very cheap, and I don't like it too much, but hey, I have it, and he ate it.
So that was my quiet day, and tonight I must wash my hair. It's a dark, windy night in the field. Very autumnal.
October 20 So after all my sleep, I almost pulled an all-nighter last night. Oh, well. It was 1:00 before I got up, so it's been a rather truncated day. I knitted, and I have only two more rows of lace before I can drop those 44 markers, then after 4 rows of plain, I can start on the edging. I'm ready. Of course, the next row is one with 40 beads in it, so it will be slow going, but at least I'm getting done!
I began to try to get the trash off the counters, but I didn't get very far. Otherwise, I did nothing. I need to make an order for TP and cat food and another one for some pills and batteries, but that might not happen until tomorrow. I hope not to be so late tonight. At least the radio is pretty dismal, so the music won't keep me up.
The weather was cold but not too bad. It was another one of those days when the high temperature was at midnight, and it's been slowly downhill since then. It was about 45º for part of the day, and it's now gone down to 42º. There was enough wind overnight to make the lake sing, but it's been almost calm for most of the day today. The camera hung up at 10:00 this morning (geez - I just rebooted yesterday, at least five times!) and it was 5:00 before I realized it, so I don't have any pictures to prompt me, but I think it was mostly cloudy all day, although it was light clouds and there was a little sunshine. It looked like it was mostly cloudy when it got dark, but I could see the moon for a while before it disappeared behind a cloud bank.
The guys were sleepy, of course. Grayson spent a lot of time on my lap. When I got up for the first time, around 10:00, he thought I was getting up for good and he curled up on the bed and I had to boot him off, but after I did get up, he got on the bed again and when I went to get dressed, he was sound asleep with his head pillowed on the covers, looking like a little angel cat, which he is not. I haven't seen Louie since I got dressed. I think he hangs out upstairs in this weather.
So it was a truncated, mostly useless day, and now it's a dark, cloudy night in the field.
October 19 I was so tired last night that I just didn't want to move, so I stayed up and read until I couldn't focus on the screen anymore. That was around midnight. I crashed into bed and I didn't even finish my prayers before I was asleep. I was only up a couple of times, and I didn't get up until 11:00. Now I'm tired again, but maybe that's not because I need more sleep.
I didn't do much of anything, but tonight I decided I'd better check and see if there were any system updates to do. Well. Microsoft is so hot to have everybody upgrade to Windows 10 that they are making it nearly impossible to do anything else. I had to fiddle and fiddle before I finally was able to download the updates I want to install - none of which have anything to do with Windows 10 - that I am even angrier with MS than I was before. Everything I have heard about Windows 10 leads me to conclude that I do NOT want to install it now, and maybe never. For starters, it seems they are collecting all sorts of information from everybody's systems and it is nearly impossible to turn it all off. Second, and maybe more important, they are not allowing home users to schedule when updates are installed. Well, given my slow Internet connection, that's a non-starter for me. Third, I have heard too many horror tales about updates that trash a system. How you can undo an update that won't let you boot, I don't know. I will wait at least until next year and then we'll see. I'm not sure my version of Office - or FrontPage - will run under Windows 10, and I'm in no position to buy Office Professional again. So I will wait until next year and then we'll see. In the meantime, even though they are issuing important security updates to Windows 7, it's getting harder and harder to get them. I am not pleased. In fact, I am so not pleased that I'm toying with the idea of going over to Linux. I'm not sure that would work, and I'm not sure I'm up to such a steep learning curve anymore. So we'll see. Right now, I'm annoyed. I did finally get my updates done on the desktop, but I still have to do them on the laptop. That's for tomorrow. Shudder.
The weather turned out to be nice. It was cloudy most of the day, except right at sunset it cleared up. When I got to the studio this afternoon, the temperature was 60º already, and the high was 62º, although that didn't last long. It was around 60º for the rest of the day, and it 's still in the upper 50s. There was a little wind overnight, with 31 mph gusts, but except for the early afternoon, there wasn't much today. Nice.
The guys were sleepy, and Grayson still wants to sit on me a lot for some reason.
I went to chapel this afternoon and I was surprised not to hear the organ. I hope that was their choice and not because there is something wrong with the organ. They have an upright piano in the organ loft, and it's adequate, but it sure sounds funny. The Kantor did play a wonderful Bach piece (I assume it was Bach, although it could have been Buxtehude - I have a hard time telling their chorale preludes apart) as a postlude. I hope the organ is up and running tomorrow. I miss it.
So that was my day. Now it's a relatively warm, clear night in the field.
October 18 I am tired. It doesn't seem to have anything to do with the amount of sleep I've had, usually, it's that I had to get up at 6:30. My poor old bod just isn't attuned to that, no matter how much sleep I've had before it.
I had some trouble going to sleep, until I turned over, and after the first time I got up, I started coughing, so I ate a cough drop, and that seemed to solve my problem for the rest of the night, although I was up a couple more times. I did get up at 6:30, and I had a nice breakfast, I read my devotion and my funnies, and I got away just about on time. I would have been earlier, except that I had to curl my hair while sitting on the pot and I missed a whole piece of hair, so I had to do it over again. I haven't had enough rice lately, and the next time I do, I will have to cook some more.
Anyway, church was nice, Matins, and pastor's sermon, on the camel and the eye of the needle, was good and tightly crafted. I think we sang well.
After church, I had to get gas. I wasn't on empty - I only pumped around 15 gallons - but I would have had to stop on Thursday, and I didn't want to do that, since it would have been in the dark. So I got it today.
The tourists seem to be thinning out. I only had to pass two people on the way down and one on the way back, although there were numerous cars parked almost on the road with people taking pictures. The color is definitely past peak, but it's still pretty in spots, especially along the covered road.
The weather was cold but quite sunny. The low temperature here was only 37º, although I heard a report that it was down in the 20s in Hubbell. The high was 44º, but that was late this afternoon. So low 40s. There wasn't much wind until late this afternoon, after it switched around from the north to the southwest. Now there are 20 mph gusts. I would say it was partly cloudy. There were times when it was clear, but for most of the day there were some clouds in the sky.
The guys were mostly sleepy, although they both got some lap time. Grayson got a lot of lap time, and I finally had to tell him to go away, because I wanted to make my dinner. I don't know what his problem is, but he's still very clingy.
I didn't do anything much but read for the afternoon. Around 4:00, I almost fell asleep, I was so tired, and I hope I won't be up late tonight. Now it's a partly clear, cold night in the field.
October 17 When I got up, around 9:30 this morning, there was white stuff in the roof valley between the garage and the breezeway. Sigh.
I nearly zoned out again and it was a bit after 1:00 before I got to bed. I didn't sleep very well. My sinuses were draining and making me cough, and not until I ate a cough drop did it stop and let me sleep. When I was up around 4:00, it was partly clear, at least enough to see Polaris, but it was still mostly cloudy.
I got up around 9:30 and I knitted. There were three beads in this row, but the next four rows should go faster - or as fast as possible with around 450 stitches on the needle. That was all I did. I didn't get enough sleep and I was tired. This is early tonight, and I hope to get to bed early, too - and I will eat a cough drop if I start coughing. I'm fed up with that.
The weather was cold again, maybe even colder than yesterday. The temperature was nearly steady around 38º, although it got to 41º at 7:00 PM. There was a moderate wind around 20 mph from the north all day. It was cloudy and dull. It was a good day to stay in.
The guys thought so, too. Grayson got to sleep on my lap a couple of times. Louie wanted to, but I was annoyed with him and I wouldn't let him come. The first time, he mewed at me while Grayson was already on my lap, and that's a no-no. First come, first dibs.
So that was my quiet and useless day. Tomorrow should have a bit nicer weather, a bit warmer and sunny. Now it's a dark, cold, windy night in the field.
October 16 Gosh, it's the middle of October already.
I got to bed around 1:00, which is pretty good for a Thursday, when I didn't get home until nearly 10:00. I slept fairly well, although I was up coughing, etc., several times. I finally got up around 9:30. I knitted, with some difficulty. I was knitting slowly anyway, and this was the big bead row, with a bead about every 10 stitches. Anyway, I finished the 9th repeat, and now I only have eight rows of pattern plus four plain rows to go, so sometime next week I should start the edging. Whew!
I didn't do much of anything but go to the post office, where there wasn't much mail.
The weather was cold and windy. It was one of those days when the high temperature (42º) happened at midnight. For the rest of the day, it was below 40º. There was a strong north wind that peaked about the time I went to bed, at 30 mph with 39 mph gusts. The lake was singing tenor. When I was up around 4:00, the stars were playing hide and seek behind the clouds and there was a glow in the north, but it was too cloudy to really see anything. It was dark and cloudy all day, and when I pulled out of the garage to go to the post office, a handful of little snowballs (graupel?) landed on my hood. Yack! I guess we're in for another day of this and then it will, hopefully, warm up a little.
The guys, being wise critters, slept. I could have, too.
So that was a nothing day, and now it's a cold, dark night in the field. Snow. Yuck.
October 15 I zoned out last night, and it was ridiculously late when I got to bed. I finally got up around 11:00 because I was coughing, but I didn't get nearly enough sleep. I knitted, for once, and now I have only 10 more rows to go. Yea! Of course, I still have 26 repeats of the edging to do, but even though I've enjoyed this project, it's getting old. The next row is the one with the most beads - 39 - and it will be slow going. The last row was slow, too, because I had to move 40 markers in one direction or another. That's the only nasty part of this pattern, the rest of which was very well-behaved indeed, and it's been nice.
I was late enough that I didn't do a whole lot this afternoon. The chapel service this morning (Matins) was a farewell to a man who has spent his entire career helping Lithuania and Latvia become Christian nations again. They both have a state religion - Lutheranism - and this gentleman was instrumental in teaching them what they needed to know. I'm not in favor of state religions, overall, but I can understand why some countries have them. Anyway, it was very nice, and they sang a psalm and prayed over him, and at the end, he wept. From what little I could see of him, he is probably in his late 80s, and very frail. Evidently is wife is dead, but he had some family members with him. It was very touching.
There was choir tonight, and while only our choir - plus Bettyann and Chari - came, we went through everything. Jan is on vacation, so Pastor had to play, and while he is a good pianist, he can't play some of those things, so we had to make do. I think we did fairly well. One of the ladies wants to try to do the descant on one of our favorite songs, and I volunteered to try to help her. I will have to look hard at that part, because I've been ignoring it. I wish I could get my keyboard running. I only wonder if, when I plug it in (if there is a MIDI port on my computer) the driver will automatically download. If it won't, I'm out of luck. If it will, I only have to find some freebie app to run it. I can hope, and if I can get down into the basement, I will bring it up and see. One key is sprung, but I think possibly I can fix that. Anyway, it was a good, if long, rehearsal. From the way I was singing, I've decided my problem was not that I was singing too much but that I wasn't singing enough. I'm beginning to get my soprano chops back. I hope that can continue.
Driving home was - um - interesting. It was drizzling when I left Laurium, but by the time I left Kearsarge, it was raining rather hard. Fortunately, there wasn't a lot of traffic in either direction. Several cars came in the opposite direction - I still do not understand why people won't dim their headlights! - there weren't any I had to pass. I didn't go fast. Between the wet road and the leaves down, I didn't want to go much over 60 mph. By the time I got to Delaware it had stopped, and in fact, on the covered road, there were places under the trees where the pavement wasn't wet. It was still drizzly, so I took my time.
By the way, while the color is past peak, with the sun low in the west, my trip south was very pretty indeed, so it's not all over yet, although with the wind and rain tonight and over the next few days, it may be at an end.
The weather was nicer than the forecast. The high temperature was 54º, and there was a lot of sunshine, although there was a brief shower while I was knitting. This is the time of year when it's difficult to drive down to Laurium late in the day, because the sun shines in my front window and nothing can block it. Anyway, it was clear or partly cloudy for most of the afternoon. The wind was from the north, and it was around 20 mph all afternoon, and just about the time I got home, there were 34 mph gusts. There were a few places on my drive home when I was a little worried about being blown off the road, which is one reason I went fairly slowly. Anyway, the next couple of days are not expected to be nice at all, and they keep talking about the "S" word, although they can't seem to make up their minds. One time, it's snow, then it's sleet, then it's just rain. So we'll have to see what happens.
The guys slept for most of the day, although Louie got a lot of lap time while I was at chapel. I had to swing my bag and my cane at Grayson to keep him from running out when I left, and when I got home, he jumped over everything - I was wetting my pants, so I couldn't do much - and ran out, and then while I was coming in and trying to get him in, Louie ran out. Now they are both out in the breezeway. I will try to get them in before I go to bed, but they have to understand that if they won't come, they are out for the night. I think they're brighter than that, but we'll see. I can understand Louie: Grayson has been out there several times, but Louie never has, and I'm sure he's curious. When I looked out before I went to the studio, he was under the platform, but he squeezed out when I called him, but he wouldn't come in. You know about curiosity and cats.
So that was my day. Now it's a dark, cold and windy night in the field.
October 14 Well, I spent too much time staring at the floor last night again, so it was midnight before I got to bed. I was up any number of times, too, but since I had fish for dinner, I was getting rid of most of the fluid I've been accumulating for the past few days. My feet were much smaller this morning. I got up around 9:30, and I was late enough that I didn't get time to knit. I did manage to make it to the bathroom, but then I went back to the computer, and when I was getting ready to leave, I had to spend some more time there, so I was actually a few minutes late for my appointment, rather than a few minutes early. Sigh.
My checkup was good, and my teeth are now nice and clean again. They did say that the tooth that has been patched twice should really be crowned, but I put them off. I just can't afford that right now, and what I have is working just fine. Maybe next year? Or maybe not.
I was so early that I didn't stop at Bambu, darn it, and I came right home. Well...sort of right home. As is usual when driving around at that time of day, I ran across any number of people driving very slowly, but once I got around on Cliff Drive, the rest of the trip was pretty good. The peak of the color was actually on Sunday or Monday. The wind yesterday did a number on the trees, as I suspected it would, and while it's still pretty, it's not as pretty as it was Sunday. I'm so glad I was out and around then!
The weather today was pretty nice, actually. It was clear when I was up around 5:30 AM, and when I peered out the east windows, Venus was rising over the garage. It wasn't exceptionally clear, though, so I could only see second and third magnitude stars. After yesterday, anything was nice. The high temperature was 63º, while I was driving home, but it was windy again, from the northwest with gusts up to 24 mph - not like yesterday. It was clear when I went down to Houghton, but it was beginning to cloud up some when I came home. Tomorrow is supposed to be nasty, cold with the chance of rain, and the "S" word is in the forecasts for overnight both tomorrow night and Friday night. Oh, no, not yet!!!
I don't know much about what the guys did, except that I expect they slept. Grayson had some idea of running out into the breezeway when I was ready to leave, but I swung my bag at him and he stayed out of the way. I thought he learned that lesson. Wait till he goes out and it's really cold out there.
So that was my day. I thought about getting takeout from Bambu, but it would have been expensive, and I have to watch things for a while, since I'm running out of important things like TP. So I came home and had warmed up pork chops, which weren't bad, even though they are a bit overcooked. I like that dish - pork chops with Spanish rice.
Now it's a partly cloudy night in the field (I think) and it's time for a bath.
October 13 I thought I went up to the north end at a reasonable hour last night, but evidently I spent too much time staring at the floor, so it was midnight when I got to bed. I think I just felt too tired to move. I slept much better than I had the night before, with only three wakeups, and I had awakened not long after 9:30 when I got a call from the dentist, reminding me of my appointment tomorrow. In my opinion, 9:40 AM is too early to be making calls like that, but oh, well.
So I got up and knitted. I doubt I'll have time to knit tomorrow, because they want me there a while before my 1:00 appointment to do some paperwork. Honestly, Holly is always late, so it wouldn't matter, but I will try anyway.
I actually did something today, amazingly enough. I washed up all the dirty bottoms, and they are ready to be dried. I spent some time working on the print head in the printer, and after soaking it in water (the ink is water based, so duh!) and rinsing it off for quite a while, I think I got most of the ink out of it. I had to fiddle for quite a while before I got it to work, but after I cleaned the contacts in the printer, it seemed to work quite well, or at least well enough for me to print an updated copy of my medical history and copy two pages from various hymnals for concert selections, so I won't have to haul around two hymnals. Now all I have to do is find another folder so I can keep the concert music separate from our regular stuff. Anyway, once I did that, I turned the printer off, in the hope that will keep the ink from leaking all over the print mechanism. We'll see.
Then, while my dinner was cooking, I got the dishwasher mostly loaded, except for my dinner dishes. It is overloaded again, but somehow I just can't seem to load it when I have a reasonable amount. I will run it tonight, so tomorrow I should have something to eat off of again.
It was a good day to ignore the outdoors. It was cold, cloudy and windy, although there wasn't any rain during the day. It did rain overnight, and the highest wind gusts, 40 mph from the north, were overnight, too. The temperature went below 50º between 5:00 and 6:00 this morning, and it was almost steady at around 48º all day. Not nice. The lake was singing alto, and I could see it coming in at a great rate in the gap. There are a few rocks we call the gull rocks that have been quite a way out of the water for several years and are now just about submerged, and the waves were hitting them and sending up nice fans of spray. I noticed that there weren't very many ships out on the lake, either. I sure wouldn't have wanted to be out there, although the waves weren't that high.
The guys slept, of course, and they were wise to do it.
So that was my quiet day, and now I will be toddling up to the north end and maybe get to bed at a reasonable hour. It's a cold, windy night in the field, but the lake will sing me to sleep.
October 12 I don't know where the time went, but it was midnight before I got to bed. I didn't sleep very well. I was up about every two hours, coughing and with a night sweat. I finally got up around 10:00. I didn't have time to knit, and I did not feel well. I still don't. I'm afraid I'm coming down with something again, or at least it feels like it. Apparently some years the prevailing bugs are things I can fight off and some years they aren't.
Anyway, I made it to my massage, and at least my bod felt better afterwards. I was moving fairly freely when I got home. I didn't do much of anything except make some of my pork chops, but I wasn't hungry enough to eat much, so I'm not quite sure what I'm going to do with them. I have to go to the dentist on Wednesday, and I will undoubtedly stop at Bambu and get some takeout, as well as eat in. So we'll see.
The weather was an interesting mix. It was clear overnight, but then it clouded up after about 3:00, so it was cloudy in the morning, then it cleared up and got quite warm - up to 69º - before it clouded up and began to cool down. The wind was very strong at intervals, up to 28 mph gusts, from the northwest, but in between, it was nearly calm, like it is now. There were a few drops of rain around 6:00, but nothing much. It is supposed to get cold, windy and rainy overnight. We'll see how that goes. We felt lucky that we had at least part of another day of lovely weather. The color is pretty anytime it's light, but it's so much nicer with the sun shining on it.
The guys were mostly sleepy. Grayson got a little lap time, but Louie didn't. Grayson seems to have decided not to go out into the breezeway for the time being.
I still do not feel good at all, so I think I'm going to go to bed soon, after I wash my hair. It's a cloudy night in the field, and it's getting colder all the time.
October 11 I got to bed by 10:30 last night, but I was up several times, so I really didn't want to get up when the alarm went off, and I've been tired all day. I did get up, though, and I was actually almost early starting off for church.
It was just as well, since there were people wandering up and down US-41 at very slow speeds, and at one place just south of Medora, I passed a bunch of people standing in the middle of the road - and this is a US highway! I still haven't figured out these Asian people. They evidently don't have such colorful autumns in Japan and China as we do here, and they come out to see the trees. I really don't understand why they would stand around taking pictures in the middle of the road. They are all associated with Tech, and they must have been here long enough to have some understanding of the rules of the road.
Anyway, I made it to church nice and early, which was good. Today was communion, and we only sang one song, but it was a good service and Pastor's sermon was a good one.
After church, I decided it would be good to get gas, even though my tank was only about half full. I have to go to Houghton on Wednesday and Laurium on Thursday, so I would need gas. The price has gone back up again - it was $2.579 - but I had managed to accrue a nice discount when I shopped last week, so it wasn't bad.
Then I started home. Sigh. First it was the guy going through Calumet at 25 mph, then a while later, it was the guys going up US-41 at 50 mph. I managed to pass them, but then I got behind someone going 45 mph! Aarrgghh! Yes, I was in no hurry, but still. I did manage to pass all of them, and my trip up the covered road was pretty good, although there were still people parked almost in the road and milling around.
Today might not be the absolute height of the color but it's near enough - about 80%, I would say, and it's just beautiful.
It was helped because today was an absolutely beautiful day. It was clear all day, and the temperature topped out at 74º, at least in Copper Harbor. There wasn't a whole lot of wind until lately. The sun is low enough in the sky that we don't get the full effect of the color - it's only 35.5º above the horizon at noon - and there seems to be some haze most of the time, but it's still beautiful. This year seems to be mostly yellow and orange, with only a little red, although when you look in the distance, like across Medora, it looks red. The color is really late this year, but we're so lucky to have such a beautiful day to enjoy it. Tomorrow is supposed to be cloudy and windy, but at least we had today.
It was clear all night, too, although it wasn't particularly good seeing. I could only see the two end stars of the Little Dipper - and Polaris, of course. I was up around 4:30, and when I looked out the east windows, the three belt stars of Orion were between the top of the garage and the top of the window, so pretty! The west is pretty dull these days, at least after Cygnus sets. There aren't any bright stars in the fall constellations, and when it's sort of hazy like it was last night, it's hard to see anything at all. Well, I'm still enjoying being able to see stars again.
The guys were sleepy. They both got some lap time, though, and they finally convinced me it was time to fill the food bowls, so now they're happy again. Nobody tried to get out when I left or when I came home, so maybe he has that out of his system for a while.
This afternoon, I was so sleepy that I didn't do anything, and I'll be off to the north end as soon as I post this. It's a clear night in the field, but it's supposed to cloud up later on. It's still quite warm, though.
October 10 Well, since I didn't do anything, I don't have anything to report. Or not much.
I lost track of time, so it was very late when I got to bed. I got up around 10:30, even though that wasn't enough sleep, and I knitted. Knitting over the lifeline was not exactly easy, but I did it. I doubt I will need to use it, but I would hate to have to rip and not have it.
And that was all I did, except to wind the ball for my next project. I'm not nearly through with the current one, but I want to be able to start right away. The next one uses some gorgeous yarn. It's cobweb weight, thinner than regular lace, and it's silk and camel hair. It's sort of a warm camel color, and it must be as soft as cashmere. The thread is so fine that 1700 yards wound into a cake about 4" square. Now it's not so easy to pet but it's ready to go when I am.
The weather was not as nice as predicted. The high temperature was only 65º, and there was a strong west wind with gusts up to 27 mph for most of the afternoon. It never did clear up, like they said it would. I guess it was clearing at sunset, and there was a nice sunset, but the camera hung up and we didn't see it. I didn't try to take any pictures. I haven't used my camera in so long I'm sure the batteries are dead again.
The guys slept, although they both got some lap time.
And that was all there was. Now it's a warmish, cloudy night in the field and it's time to get ready for tomorrow,
October 9 I spent too much time staring at the floor last night, so it was 1:00 before I got to bed, and then for some reason I had trouble getting to sleep. Too much stimulation, I suppose. Anyway, eventually I did sleep. I was up around 5:00, and the sky was so clear I could see all the stars in the Little Dipper. I wish I could have seen the sky in the south, where Orion was transiting. The summer stars are pretty, and I like them, but the winter stars are something else.
I got up around 10:30, I think, and I knitted my bead row, with some difficulty. I had trouble pulling the yarn through a few of the first beads I did, and I dropped a stitch or two - nothing exceptionally difficult - so it took me a while. Then I had to put in my lifeline. I'm practically sure I have enough yarn to finish, but I didn't want to take chances. Picking up 425 stitches without help would be needlessly hard. It isn't hard to put in a lifeline - you just use a tapestry needle to go through each stitch, but I have been using a lot of marker rings, and of course, I had to miss them. Or I hope I missed all of them. Anyway, that took a while, too.
Then after breakfast I had another accident - this gets old - so I washed some more bottoms, which need to be dried. I went to the post office, where there wasn't much except my fancy pills and some more bills.
The weather was still cold, but there was some sunshine in the morning before it clouded over again in the space of about 15 minutes. The high temperature was 53º, and it was around 50º, plus or minus a couple of degrees, all day. There was a little wind, up to 16 mph or so from the north, until around 6:00, when it died down. It wasn't a bad day at all. I guess we're going to get some real Indian Summer over the weekend, with temps into the 70s on Sunday. That will be nice.
The guys slept, mostly. For a change, Louie sat on me while I went to chapel, but Grayson just got off my lap. Grayson wanted to get out again, but I foiled him by going out to meet the Schwan's guy, and when I came in, I sat my bag of goodies down right in front of him so he couldn't get to the door before I closed it. I think he just wants to get out there because I don't want him to. There are occasionally some mice out there, but he hasn't caught any for a while. Snot.
So that was another quiet day, and it's time to go to bed again. It's a cloudy night in the field, but it's supposed to clear up before morning.
October 8 Well, maybe I can blame the music. Just about the time I was going to hang it up and go to bed, they announced that they would be playing Beethoven's fifth piano concerto. I haven't heard that in a long time, soooo...
It just escalated from there, and then I spent a long time staring at the floor in the bathroom before I washed my hair. It was much too late when I got to bed. I slept very well, though, and I didn't get up until after noon. I knitted, of course, and tomorrow I will do one of the two bead rows. That will take a while, because i want to place a "life line" on the return row, just in case I don't have enough yarn and I have to rip.
Then I goofed and had another accident, so I had to change my bottoms, but I had also dripped coffee on my top, so I had to get dressed all over again. Sigh.
That got me to after the talking started, so I listened and read my funnies, and I never did all my surfing.
I got ready to go off to choir, and as I opened the door, a little gray monster bombed out the door into the breezeway and wouldn't (of course!) come in. I managed to keep him away from the door to the garage long enough to get out, and I went on my way to town, leaving him in the breezeway. There is food out there - he tore a hole in an old bag of food I didn't think they liked - but no water or sanitary facilities.
Choir was good. We had most of the people from the Lake Linden choir with us, and we practiced everything for the concert, although Pastor is still making changes (minor, but still). The chairs had been placed for the concert, and I will be sitting in an easy chair, because it has arms. It isn't easy to get out of, but easier than trying to get up out of a regular folding chair. I may end up sitting a lot, but we'll see.
Of course, since there was so much singing, I was late getting home. It was an interesting trip. My dashboard lights do work, I'm happy to say, so I am still embarrassed. Anyway, it had been raining all day, lightly, and it misted on the way south. Well. There wasn't so much rain on the way home, and it was very spotty, but there was a lot of patchy fog. Curiously, the worst place of all was up by the Mountain Lodge, where it was thick. I guess it must be the golf course. And there is still more traffic than I'm used to. I had to pass two extremely slow drivers (like under 50 mph north of Mohawk), and there was a lot of traffic coming down from Copper Harbor, why I don't know.
I didn't get home until nearly 9:30, I think. I was able to close the garage door from the car, fortunately, so all I had to do was worry about getting in the door, but when I opened it, Grayson went in the other direction, so I could get in without him getting into the garage. He mewed at me, but then he almost decided not to come in. After I climbed up the three steps to the platform, he went in the other direction, but when I opened the door, he came running. Little snot. Now he knows I'm not going to try to get him in when I leave, so maybe he will be a bit less likely to go out when I leave.
The weather was nasty, frankly. Like I said, it rained or misted all day. We had a total of 0.33", but it was in increments of 0.01" or so per hour, so it was a very light rain. The temperature was nearly steady at 50º. There wasn't much wind until lately, when it got to 15 mph with gusts to 26 mph. It was dark and cloudy all day. Yuck. Needless to say, I was very creaky.
Louie slept most of the day, although he did come and sit on me late in the afternoon, for some reason. I guess he doesn't like me to go away either, but he isn't quite as active about it as Grayson is.
So that was a rather truncated day, and I don't expect to be up very much longer. It's a dark, rainy night in the field.
October 7 The text for the chapel service yesterday morning was from the book of Ruth, and I wanted to reread it, so I looked it up when I went up to the north end last night, and then I kept reading into First Samuel, and time just passed, so I was very late getting to bed. At least I had a good excuse.
I got up around 10:00, and I knitted my two rows. These went fast - it only took me about an hour. And that was about the extent of my activity for the day. I messed my sweats again, so I washed a load of bottoms. Tonight Fresh Air had a thing I didn't want to hear, so I turned it off, and I wrote about 1500 words on George.
The weather was cold. Really cold. The high temperature during the day was 50º and there was enough north wind (up to 18 mph) to make the lake sing. It was mostly clear for most of the day, although the camera hung up around 3:00 this afternoon, so we didn't get to see the clouds moving in. I guess it's supposed to rain tonight and tomorrow. Anyway, it was a pretty day, even though it was cold.
The guys slept. Grayson got to sleep on me while I was watching the chapel service. I didn't see much of Louie, so he must have been asleep, too.
And that's all there is. Now it's a cold, cloudy night in the field and the rain is moving in.
October 6 Well, I spent much to much time staring at the floor in the bathroom, and I didn't get to bed until about 12:30. I slept well until around 6:00, when I had a prolonged coughing spell. I finally ended up on my right side again, and then I slept until 9:30 or so. Evidently my infection was more on the right side than the left, so when I lie on my left side, the drainage gets worse. It's a pain, and I wish I could get rid of it. Well, that will come eventually.
I am embarrassed. I went to the dealership, and they discovered that the roller switch that controls the light levels in the dashboard had been turned all the way down. Oops. I don't know how that could happen, since I very rarely go near that part of the dash, but they assured me that it would be all right. I don't think so, since when I pulled into the garage at home, the dashboard lights didn't come on, although the radio light stayed on. Well, we'll see. By turning the headlights to manual, I could get the dashboard lights to come on, so maybe I will be able to see how fast I'm going if I fiddle a bit. And from now on, I will be keeping better track of where that switch is set. I usually keep it all the way on, so how it got turned off is a mystery.
Anyway, since I was in town, I did some shopping - too much, actually, but oh, well. I did get some stuff like laundry soap, and Drano, since my kitchen drain seems to be running slowly again. I also got a "family pack" of my favorite kind of pork chops, but those were really cheap.
When I got home and brought the stuff into the house, Grayson popped out into the breezeway, so I left him, and it was a couple of hours before I let him in. He just likes to check that place out, but I think he knows now that he'll get back in eventually, when I remember. I'm not going to bug him about it. Maybe he'll think twice when it gets cold.
The weather was nice, and it was a nice day for a ride, even though there were a whole lot of tourists who had the same idea and weren't in a hurry. I do not like it when people drive 30 - 35 mph down the covered road and won't pull over. The high temperature here was 60º, after I got home. I think it was warmer in Calumet. There was a bit of wind, up to 18 mph from the north and it made driving home interesting. There have been so few winds this summer that I'm not used to the crosswind we get on a lot of US-41. It was cloudy overnight, but the clouds went away by 10:00 and it was mostly clear and blue after that. The color is about 35-40%, I would say, although it's spotty. This weekend or next week should see the height. The only thing I notice about this time of year is that the sun is so low in the sky - only 37º at noon - that it never seems completely bright in the woods, so it's hard to see the colors in many places.
So that was my day. The guys apparently slept, and even Grayson wasn't at the door when I came home and moved the groceries to the door to the house. He turned up later, as I was bringing things in, and Louie didn't show until I was all done.
Now it's a clear, dark night in the field.
October 5 Today is my father's 103rd birthday. Of course, he died in 1983, but I still remember his birthday.
I got to bed by 10:30 last night, and I went right to sleep, but I didn't sleep very well again. I was up numerous times and I had a coughing fit around 4:00. I think by that time, my sinuses fill up and start draining. I ate a cough drop and that helped, but I was up once more before I got up around 8:30. I think there were some northern lights, but they were behind the trees and then it clouded up.
I knitted the last two rows of repeat #8, the one with a bead about every 10 stitches. Now I have 405 stitches on the needle. It's taking a long time to do two rows, especially the ones with lots of beads. So I have 24 more rows to do before I start the edging. It's going to be a while. For a while I thought I might get this done in less than two months, but now it looks like at least three, but we'll see. I should go fairly fast once I start the edging.
I emptied the wastebaskets in the bathroom and the closet, which were almost overflowing, and I found a few more beads on the floor in the bathroom, left over from when I dumped almost the entire box on the floor when I first started this project. I also found a marker ring I dropped a while back. Those things seem to drop into the black hole and then it belches them back out. I frequently look at the floor around the toilet, but I still keep finding things I've dropped, and some things that dropped and I didn't know it.
The weather was cold and cloudy again. The high temperature was 55º, at noon, and then it dropped back into the low 50s. There was almost no wind. It was mostly cloudy for most of the day. Sort of blah. Tomorrow is at least supposed to be a bit warmer.
The guys were sleepy, but Grayson still wants to sit on me all the time. Louie got a little lap time, but he had messed his behind and it got all over my hand so eventually he had to leave. Somebody, I think Grayson, gave up a hairball in the middle of the kitchen, which of course I walked in this morning. So he may not only be worried, he may not feel very good, although he ought to feel better after that. He was rather feisty this morning, going after Louie and trying to play with his tail. Louie's tail isn't as satisfying as Grayson's is because Louie doesn't wave his around as much as Grayson does his.
So that was another nothing day. I did pay a bunch of bills and I determined that I will have a lean month this month. I discovered that Chase will provide their cardholders with their FICA scores, so I did that, and I got two of my credit reports. The third one, from EquiFax, I couldn't get, because they insisted that I have to make a written (!) request for it. Sheesh! If it needs to be protected that much, how come the other two services will give it to me online? I can't do it, because my printer isn't working right now. I may request it later if I get the printer working.
Tomorrow I have to go to town to get my car fixed, I hope. I will also do some food shopping, because I'm running out of lettuce and it would be nice to have something fresh for dinner as well. I sure hope they can fix the car.
Now it's a cold, cloudy night in the field.
October 4 I made it into bed by 10:00 last night, but it wasn't a very good night. It took me half an hour to get to sleep and I was up several times. Besides that, I had an unpleasant dream. I have been retired for 19 years now, and I still have dreams about working, most of them unpleasant. Maybe you can see some reasons why I retired when I did. Fortunately, that doesn't happen very often anymore, but it's annoying when it does.
So I got up at 6:30 and I did some of my surfing. I was five minutes or so late in getting away, but I still got to church by 10:00, or just about. Church turned out good. Pastor had programmed a whole bunch of our favorite hymns, and several people mentioned that the choir sounded very good. It didn't hurt that Bettyann and Chari from the other church sang with us. They're practicing with us for the concert, so somebody (I think Marcy) convinced them to sing with us, too, since they were both there. I think Chari would have anyway, because she only comes to services here when she is, but Bettyann was there, too, so she sang. We sounded good, and the thing we were supposed to memorize went off much better than we anticipated. It's a really cool song that is only in the organist's hymnal, and since not everybody has one of those (it costs $65), we had to try to memorize. Somehow, we all did.
Then I was off to get gas, which seems to have settled down at $2.499, so I was a little later getting home than usual. I had a tamale for lunch, and it was so good that I had some more for dinner. I don't know if they are really authentic tamales (from Schwan's) but they're tasty.
Otherwise, I didn't do anything except read for the afternoon, and I think I will be early to bed again tonight. I'm not coughing so much, but I still don't feel very good.
The weather was cold. Period. It was mostly cloudy overnight, although Ron reported to Facebook that there were some northern lights, blocked by the clouds and washed out by the moonlight. The moon is at last quarter, though, so it will be easier to see from now on. It was mostly cloudy all day, too. The high temperature for the day was 53º, but there was almost no wind. It wasn't very nice to be out, and I put on my heavy fleece jacket when I pumped gas.
The guys slept, and Grayson mostly slept on me, although every time I coughed, he got up and went away for a while. All I can figure is that he remembers that last year about this time, I went away twice and stayed away overnight and every time I leave the house, he thinks I'm not coming back. Poor little Grayson. I wish I could tell him not to worry; I'm not going away this year. Louie just slept, and I didn't see much of him.
So that was a quiet day, and I feel the need to sleep. It's a cold, cloudy night in the field.
October 3 This is a little early tonight, and I hope I can get to bed at a reasonable hour. I did last night, for a non-church night. I was in bed by 11:30. I slept well, although I kept waking up with night sweats. When I'm not quite well, having a full bladder causes me to have night sweats. I know it's weird, but that's the way it's happened for my whole adult life.
Anyway, I got up around 9:30 and I knitted. I have only 26 rows left to do before I start the edging, but of course, they are the longest rows and it's taking me a long time to knit one row. The next time I knit, probably Monday, I will finish the eighth repeat, out of 9½. It's a pretty thing, and it will go nicely over my black pants and ivory blouse. Now I hope I can get to church on Christmas Eve so I can wear the outfit, which I've been planning for a month or two.
Anyway, I didn't do much today. I don't feel all that good, frankly, so I didn't do anything except wash a couple pairs of jeans that had gotten messed up.
The weather was good for hibernating, actually. It clouded up overnight, and until just about now, it's been dark and dismal. The high temperature during the day was a wonderful 50º, and there a wind from the southeast (I know, weird) with gusts up to 21 mph. I didn't go out, and I didn't want to. Not nice. Now, around 7:00, the sun is trying to peek through, but it's having a hard time of it.
The guys thought so, too. They slept. Grayson spent most of his day asleep on my lap. I hated to bother him - he is such an angel cat when he's asleep - but occasionally I had to cough or get up and go pee or make dinner. Louie got quite a bit of time on my lap, too, and this time, he left of his own accord. I don't know what it is with Grayson and my lap, but it doesn't bother me most of the time. He is small enough, and he sleeps curled up, so that he doesn't bother me a lot. I don't think I could type with him on my lap, but using the mouse isn't hard.
So that was my quiet day. Now it's a cloudy, cold evening in the field.
October 2 I managed to get to bed by 1:00 last night, which is amazing for a Thursday. I slept well. I think I finally got up around 9:30, and I knitted. That shawl is getting big, but it will be nice. I like the beads.
I ended up not doing anything again, and I'm not quite sure why. I didn't have an accident, but I guess I spent some time reading, since I have newspapers and several magazines and catalogs from last week that I just remembered I had. I went to the post office, where there wasn't much except for a bill or two and the 2016 Medicare book, which, by the way, is essentially useless. Even if I could find what I'm looking for in it, either it doesn't answer my questions or what it says is so garbled I can't figure out what it means. Typical government.
The weather was cold but pretty again. The high temperature was only 54º. There wasn't much wind, but what there was came from the southeast, which is unusual. There were a few little clouds occasionally, but mostly it was clear and blue. When I was out, I found it quite comfortable in a fleece jacket.
The guys slept, of course. Grayson was sleeping with me when I got up, and he just stayed there until I began rustling around in the kitchen. Louie was in the bathroom. Grayson got some lap time on a couple of occasions, but Louie hasn't been here yet.
I finally got call from the gas company, and unfortunately when I called back, I got a person who had all the right formulas but didn't know much, so we couldn't interact. Anyway, at least they did get my budget payment down to a semi-reasonable amount, which is a relief. I can use that $100 for something else, for sure. Like paying my taxes.
So it was another quiet day, and I hope to get to bed relatively early again. It's a clear, cold night in the field.
October 1 Well, I was earlier than the night before, but that's not saying much. I had to wash my hair and that took some time. I woke up around 10:30, but I decided that was just not enough sleep, so I went back to bed, after I set the clock. We had a power glitch around 10:00, for some reason not known to me. When I woke up again, it was 1:30 and Grayson was asleep beside my head. I guess he wondered if I was sick or something. No, not really. Tired, but not sick.
I was so late that I didn't do anything, especially after I had to change all my bottoms, except set al the clocks and get the computer back to what I usually have running. When it was time to leave for choir, Grayson was asleep on my lap. He knows when it's Thursday. It's weird that after only two times since he's lived with me did I stay away overnight, he thinks every time I leave that I'm not coming back. Well, I did this time.
It was a long rehearsal, because we are going through all the songs for the concert. Cheri and Bettyann from the other church were with us, and that was nice, but Stuart is still sick, so we were down to two men. Anyway, I got home before 9:30 anyway, with difficulty.
For the past week or so, the lights in the car have been screwed up again. At least this year maybe I can get to the dealership and get them to fix it. Driving home was interesting, because of course, with no lights on the dashboard (except for the turn signals, the brights indicator and the cruise light) I don't know exactly how fast I'm going. I set the cruise control where I thought it should be, and I passed one street light (they have to be on the left side of the street) that showed me I had set it just about right. Shows what 55 years of driving will do for you. I have no clue how fast I was going on the covered road, but it isn't so important there anyway, because I can't go that fast.
I was surprised how much traffic there was while I was driving home. I had to pass one guy who was driving weirdly, and there were a whole lot of cars coming south from Copper Harbor, although, thankfully, none on the covered road. The guy I passed and one other were behind me, and one of them seemed like he was going to try to pass me, but he never caught up to me. I can't tell you how nice it is still to be able to see. I still have some glare, but then, I always have had that, because most of it comes from the problem with my corneas. I learned a long time ago how to watch the line on the side of the road when another car is passing me coming toward me, and while that doesn't work quite as well on the windy roads in Keweenaw, it helps a lot. It helps to be able to see the side of the road when I do that! I think I have my mojo back, and I won't be so timid when the roads aren't clear and dry.
The weather was cold. The low temperature overnight was 40º (well - 39.9º precisely), and it only got up to 53º during the afternoon. There wasn't much wind, and it was clear and blue all day. All the way home, when I'm driving northeast, I could see Capella rising in the northeast.
Other than this morning, the guys slept. Louie seems to be a whole lot more laid back about me leaving than Grayson is. Grayson has always tried to make people think he is a really laid back, cool cat, but he clearly has separation anxieties. Louie, on the other hand, is very timid about other people, but it doesn't bother him very much when I go away.
Oh, I haven't said anything about the color. It's coming, but it's clearly going to be late this year. John Dee and Amanda both think maybe the weekend of the 10th and 11th, but if it is, it has a way to go. The hills on the other side of Lake Medora are beginning to look red, but along the covered road, there is still a long way to go. I only hope that if the color is late, the winter will be, too.
So now it's a clear, cold night in the field. And it's October. Sigh.
Last updated 11/01/15 09:27 PM |