|
A View From the Field |
|
December 2016 December 31 - New Year's Eve I'm not going to get to bed when I wanted to. I got waylaid by a crafty computer game again. Sigh. And I do need to go to church, Pat's and the gas station tomorrow, so I have to go to bed. The new year can come in without me.
I was in bed shortly after 11:00 last night - later than I wanted to be, but that was all right, since I didn't get up until almost 10:00. It seems like I could just sleep all the time. I knitted, and it only took a bit over an hour to do my two rows, but there are under 500 stitches right now. The edging is weird.
I didn't do anything. While I was knitting, there was a laker off the harbor, and it had the most noxious exhaust fumes I've smelled. It reminded me of when I had to drive through the industrial district of downtown Detroit on a hot day, and in fact, it made me react like that, with some heart palpitations. It stank, too. The report it was giving to the Live Ships map said it was going a bit over 11 knots, but I don't think that was true, since it took several hours to get from here to Eagle harbor. Yuck! Poisoning our pristine air! Anyway, that did not give me a good start on the day. I felt better when I got to the south end, away from the fumes, but I didn't feel like doing anything. So I didn't.
The weather was quite a bit warmer than yesterday. The high temperature was 30º and there was only a little wind. It was snowing lightly when I got up, but it soon stopped and the rest of the afternoon was just dull and gray. When I went to get my dinner, there was a nice little crescent moon hanging over the gap between Brockway and the Mountain Lodge. The camera hung up shortly after 3:00, so we didn't get a look at the rest of the day, but oh, well. I don't think it cleared up until after dark anyway.
The guys slept. Grayson was thwarted again. He did get some lap time, but not nearly as much as he wanted, because I was playing that game and he distracts me. Louie is someplace else, sound asleep. When I woke up for the first time last night, they were both in bed with me, sound asleep. Louie got up, but Grayson didn't until after I went back to sleep. The only problem with that is that they want to sleep right where I do, so even a queen-sized bed isn't big enough for the three of us. And my bedroom isn't big enough for a king-size.
Sometimes I use this journal to look back over the last year. I think I'll wait until tomorrow. It wasn't the best year, for sure, and I want a little more time to think about it.
So that was a nothing day, and now it's a cold, apparently at least partly clear night in the field.
December 30 This is early, but I didn't get enough sleep last night, so I'm planning to go early. We'll see how that works. I didn't go to bed until around 2:45 this morning - more sitting and staring into space, I guess - and of course I slept well, but I woke up around 10:00 and decided to get up. That's not enough sleep.
I knitted, and somehow in the second repeat, I dropped a stitch, and it took me a very long time to get it back together. In fact, after I finished the return row, I had to go back and finish the fix. It looks right now, though, so I'm going to leave it the way it is. I don't know how I do those things, but the yarn is very slippery, and once a stitch is off the needle, it ravels back all too quickly. Since I couldn't tell which stitch I'd dropped, I had to take out about seven and then knit back up about seven rows. It takes time. Grr. I did do my two rows, although I think it took over 2 hours.
I didn't do a lot more. I didn't call Peggy. Things were just not the way I wanted them. So I filled another bag. Now there is only a small amount of stuff on the counter, and everything on the floor. You know, the problem is, it's so handy to just drop some wrapping or a box on the floor when I empty it. I guess what I need is a big hole in the middle of the floor where I can drop things...I still have another bag at least to fill in the kitchen, at least two bags in the hallway (stuff from the bathroom and the laundry) and another bag or two in the powder room and the hall outside it. And then there are all those bags...but at least it will be bags and not just trash all over everything. As you might expect, the counters are all gross. The stove side is horrible from stuff overflowing or splattering, and there is a whole lot of old rice where I missed when I was putting it in some other container. On the sink side, there's a lot of flakes of stuff I don't know what it is, and the result of several bunches of bananas turning to soup. Well, if I can get rid of the trash, I can work on those things.
Oh, yes, and I cooked real rice for dinner. That frozen stuff from Schwan's is all right, but this is real brown Jasmine, and it's so much better! It actually has a flavor. I overcooked it, and it got a bit brown in spots, but it's fine, so I will have the good stuff to eat for a few days. Oh yes, and there is a whole lot less sodium in it.
I didn't go to the post office, but I did get out of my driveway and get up to the paved road to get my Schwan's order. It was a lot better than I expected. The deepest snow in my driveway is right at the garage door, as usual. The rest wasn't bad at all. However, we're in for a clipper system over the next couple of days, so whether I can get out on Sunday is questionable right now. We'll see how it goes.
The weather was the usual, but colder. It snowed lightly off and on all day, although it wasn't snowing when it got dark. The weather station came up around 10:00, and the highest temperature after that was 22º at 11:00, after which it went down to19º. The wind got up to 20 mph from the north, but after noon it dropped off to nothing. It was dark and cold and dreary,
The guys slept. Grayson was thwarted, in that I didn't let him sit on me after breakfast, and he actually couldn't until after I got through putting my frozen stuff away. Then he went to sleep on my lap. I haven't seen Louie since this morning, but he mostly sleeps.
So that was my day, and now it's a dark, cold night in the field, and the snow is coming...the snow is coming...
December 29 Late again. Sigh.
I didn't get to bed until around 2:30 this morning, but my hair is clean and my nails are clipped. I can't tell you how much easier it is to type! I didn't sleep all that well. I was fine on my right side, but when I tried to turn over, it felt like I didn't sleep at all. I guess I did, because it was two hours before I turned over, but I didn't sleep deeply until I was back on my right side again. No wonder sometimes I end up on my back! After a while, all my joints ache.
I got up a little after 10:00, and I knitted my two rows. It took me an hour and a half. It took a couple of repeats to get the hang of the pattern, even though it wasn't particularly hard. The nice thing is that the stitch count is back under 600 stitches, at least for a while. It's OK - when it's blocked, it will stretch out and make the nice scallops.
I didn't do anything until I was making my dinner. I had a nasty accident - the second one of the day - and after I cleaned up from that, I started to try to get the trash off the counter by the sink. I didn't get very far, but it's a beginning. I did uncover my bag of rice, which I want to cook some of tomorrow, and the box of salt, but I haven't found the jar of peppercorns yet. My salt and pepper grinder is getting empty, so I need that. I'm still trying to decide whether to tell Peggy to wait until next week to come. The bags are piling up, but I'm not through yet.
I didn't go to choir practice, because of the weather. We are having a lake effect event, and the NWS was warning that the worst of the snow would be happening right around the time we were traveling, so I chickened out. I think we can still sing on Sunday, because we've practiced the song.
The weather was snowy but not very cold, but I can't give particulars because the weather station was down for most of the night and went down again around 4:00. And my outdoor thermometer isn't working - hasn't been since it got so cold a few weeks ago. I think the temperature was up around 30º or so. The wind started out from the southwest, and if the airport is any indication, it's switching around to the north now. It's strong, but not gusting over 30 mph. The lake effect warning expires around 7:00 tomorrow morning, but it's supposed ot snow all day anyway, and it's going to get much colder - under 20º.
My driveway and the road seem to be in pretty good shape, and they got the blower back on the tractor, but it's iffy. The mounting needs some attention, but we don't know when we'll be able to get it fixed, so they will just have to try to baby it along. At least it works.
The guys slept. They both got some lap time, but not a lot.
So that was my day and now it's tomorrow. It's a cold, windy, snowy night in the field - winter in the Keweenaw.
December 28 I think it was about midnight when I got to bed, but I felt like I didn't sleep very well until early in the morning. It was probably because I had so much sleep the night before. Anyway, I didn't get up until almost 11:30.
I knitted, and this pattern row was really easy, mostly just plain knitting, but even so, with over 600 stitches, it takes a while.
I didn't do very much. I don't feel all that robust, so all I wanted to do was sit. I did get a big bag of stuff together in the powder room, none of it papers or magazines, and i actually got all the trash off the stove side of the counters. That was another bag, although it included a bunch of stuff from the other side. I still have at least another bag to go, but slowly, slowly I'm making some progress. I'm not sure how to get the stuff off the floor, since I don't bend over very well, but I'll figure it out. Of course, the counters under all the stuff are a horrible mess, not to mention the cooktop, but that's a future. At least I'm making progress. I have another bag of stuff to get out of the powder room, not including the 3' pile of magazines on the chair. I know what I want to do in there, but first I have to get all the trash out and the magazines sorted.
Oh, yes, and today was Social Security day, so I immediately went out to pay a bunch of bills, and I finally managed to get my checkbook balanced again. That was a struggle. I kept subtracting one particular figure and getting the wrong result - and this was with a calculator. I finally fixed it, though, and we balance. Not only that, but it seems like I have about $300 more than I thought I did. What happened there, I don't know, but I checked it every which way, and it seems to be true. i suppose part of it is not being able to read my own handwriting and part is fat fingers on the calculator keys. It happens every so often. It's a relief, though. I may actually be able to pay my property taxes by February 15. Only if I'm very careful, though.
And I just finished the bulletin and shipped it off to Pastor and Steve. I must try to get them done earlier.
That is going to be a problem. We are having trouble with the tractor again, and to replace the blower will cost us around $5000 - which neither Ron nor I have. Some people who are coming up in the winter have been generous with us, but that doesn't cover things like new blowers and reworking the tractor to accept it. I'm sure it will work out, but wow! If only we can get through the next couple of months, it should be better. So we'll see.
The weather is wintry again. The high temperature was 28º, and there was a southwest wind that got up to 32 mph gusts around 2:00. It started snowing then, too, and while it let up a bit by dark, it's supposed to continue for the next day or so. The wind has died down, though, so at least it's comfortable in the house. If the forecast turns out to be true, I'm not going out tomorrow, for sure. I might not be able to go anyway, unless they get the blower back on the tractor.
The guys slept. Grayson didn't get any lap time, because he only came around when I was doing something else, and he finally went away sadly. He always lets me know how he feels - he jumps down off the counter very slowly and walks off very slowly with his tail dragging. Poor Grayson! Maybe tomorrow? His timing was just bad today.
So tonight I must wash my hair, no matter how late it is, and I have to cut my fingernails, too. They've gotten so long it's hard to type.
Now it's a cold, dark, snowy night in the field.
December 27 I got to bed right about 2:00 this morning. I know, because I had forgotten to set the clock and I had to do it then. I didn't wash my hair. My scalp will be a mess tomorrow, but I was too tired. I slept very well, with the usual wakeups. I was up a bit before 9:00 and decided that wasn't enough sleep, so it was noon before I got up.
I knitted, but it took me a couple of hours. This row went down to 617 stitches, but there were a lot of multiple decreases, and those are slow to do. That ended chart G. Tomorrow I can start on chart H, which has a few more rows. The last chart is I, so I'm making progress. I can begin to see what the edging will look like, too, but there are a lot of strange increases and decreases before I'll be able to see the whole thing.
I didn't do anything much else. I moved a full bag of trash out of the kitchen, and I filled a small bag with papers and magazines from the powder room. I'm supposed to get some trash out of here on Friday, but clearly it's not going to be everything I want to go, unless I feel a lot better tomorrow and Thursday. Sigh.
I just don't feel very robust, so I just sit. Of course, I was so late that I didn't have much time to do anything but sit, but still.
The weather was, um, wintry. The temperature went down all last night, because the wind was from the north. The highest winds were around 3:00 AM, with 32 mph sustained winds and 41 mph gusts. After that, the wind died down some, but it's been in the 15-20 mph range all day, until just now, when it's down to 10 mph. It snowed lightly for most of the day. Speaking of snow, according to the Road Commission, we've had 80.5" for the month and 92.5" for the season, so it's been a snowy December. The high temperature was at midnight, but it was about 22º all day. Of course, it was dark and dreary, so I ignored it.
So did the guys. They both got some lap time, which they liked.
The Weather Underground is almost - but not quite - back to normal. They finally posted a message saying that their user database was "down" and I don't know what that means, except that I couldn't log in. The favorites bar still isn't working, but at least I don't have to try to deal with those horrible ads (and the even more horrible error messages when the pages aren't there or have security problems). I still think they owe me several days on my subscription.
So that was my quiet day, and I'm tired again. It's hard to do anything when you're sleeping all the time.
Now it's a dark, cold, snowy night in the field.
December 26 I think I got to bed around midnight, and I slept well. When I woke up the first time, around 3:00, the clocks were blinking. Oh, darn. How we got through the blizzard without a power failure and then had this happen, I don't know, except that this time the wind was from the south, and I suppose that explains it. So I got up and set the clock and went back to bed. And then when I got up again around 6:00, they were blinking again! Oh <expletive deleted>! That time, I left them blinking and went back to sleep.
I got up a bit before 10:00, feeling much better, and I knitted three rows. I only knitted one row yesterday, and I wanted to get caught up. I guess I shouldn't have, because my wrist and hand have been bothering me all day. Of course, this was a particularly long bunch of rows (657 stitches!), and there won't be quite that many for a while again, but still.
I was going to say I didn't do anything, and I didn't do much, but I did something. I have most of the dirty dishes in the dishwasher, although I still have enough room that I may wait until tomorrow to do them, and I washed the bottoms that I soiled last night and last week. I still have to put them in the dryer, but at least they're all washed.
I'm still having trouble with Weather Underground.
The weather was, well, interesting. Unfortunately, I don't know how high the wind got here, because the weather station was down from midnight to noon. It got up to 41 mph gusts at the airport, but it certainly sounded like it was stronger here. It sounded like it was trying to tear the shingles off the roof of my bedroom. The high temperature was probably this morning, too, but it was 43º at 2:00 PM, and then it began to drop when the wind switched around from south to northwest. It's 30º now (it got down to 28º a couple of hours ago) and the wind is gusting up to 29 mph. I think it's actually higher, but the weather station is sheltered a bit on the northwest side. There was actually a little sunshine this morning (when the camera wasn't uploading because of that junk piece of equipment I have) but after noon it got dark and cloudy and dull. The wind is strong enough and cold enough that I had to turn on the space heater for the first time in several days.
The guys slept, I think. Grayson was thwarted. His timing was awful and he didn't get to sit on me today. I didn't see Louie until I was getting my dinner and I filled the kibble dish.
Debbie called about the time I was going to get some dinner and we had our usual nice long conversation (only 2½ hours this time). It was good to hear from her, even though I had to chew her out about some of the things she's obsessing about. We get along remarkably well and our friendship seems nearly as strong as it ever was, even though we haven't seen each other in years. She is so great.
So that was my day. I had some of my leftovers from yesterday - turkey today - and it was just as good as yesterday. Now it's time to go and wash my hair. The weekend holiday got me all discombobulated, and I can't wait until Wednesday to wash my hair. so it has to be tonight. Then I can go and sleep to the sound of the wind and the waves. It's a dark, cold, windy night in the field.
December 25 - Christmas Day Beside
thy cradle here I stand
This is a choral from Bach's Christmas Oratorio that I've been thinking about lately. The tune is quite simple, but the harmonization is lovely, as are the words.
I was very late again last night, of course. I sat and ate cookies until I couldn't see anymore. I got up around noon. Peggy had invited me to dinner with her family at Mariner, but I was a little late, because I got hung up in the bathroom. Nothing serious, thankfully, it just took a bit longer than I anticipated. Peggy was actually coming after me when I finally started down our road, so I followed her back. She was worried that I had gotten hung up someplace out here. She worries too much.
Dinner was good, and I brought enough home for more dinners. They had both turkey and prime rib, so I was a happy camper. Lydia and her family were there, too, which was nice. Lynnea is turning into the cutest little girl. She's three now and looking very grown up. She has a lovely smile and the most beautiful skin I think I've ever seen.
After they all left, Peg and I had a good conversation. She is one of the few people I feel I can talk politics with, especially these days. And she saw me out to my car, because it was icy.
The weather wasn't the best. It was cold; the high temperature, 28º, is now, but the wind is rising to 28 mph gusts. When I came out of Mariner, it had been misting - rain, of all things! - and it was frozen on my windshield, but I was able to melt it off before I got to our road. It was dark and dreary all day, so it was nice to be in the cheerful restaurant.
The guys slept, of course, but Grayson has wanted to sit on me since I got home. I saw Louie this morning, but not since. No self-respecting cat would do anything but sleep in weather like this anyway.
I got into the computer when I got home. A couple of weird things happened on Friday. First, I got a notice that my LogMeIn account had a failed login attempt from someplace in Poland, then across the top of my Weather Underground page, I began to see a list of "favorites" including, I think, every large city in eastern Europe. Today, not only could I not log in for a very long time, when I tried to change my password, I haven't been able to. My guess, is that somebody was hacked, either me or WU. At this point, I'd say it was WU, because everything else is working all right, but a lot of things at WU aren't. I have some emails into them, and we'll see what they have to say about it. I really want to change my WU password, but so far, I haven't succeeded. I keep getting an "internal server error." This sounds fishy to me. However, at the same time, my PastyNet connection was running extremely slowly - dialup speed - and several times I couldn't get to a cuple of sites I visit. So a bunch of weird things have been going on. I think I'm going to have to drop it all for tonight, though, and hope I can change my WU password tomorrow. And I'll see how my throughput is. I'm sure something is going on with PastyNet, and all I could think of was Charlie and Jon having to hassle their network on Christmas Day. What a shame! Oh, yes and it's the Christmas after Edie's death, too, I think.
So that was my day, and I'm tired enough to go to bed early. It's a cold, windy night in the field.
December 24 - Christmas Eve A blessed Christmas to everyone! I hope you are doing the things you love most with the people you love most.
I was ridiculously late this morning. I guess I needed to unwind, because I just sat when I should have been doing something, preferably washing my hair or sleeping. I did get my hair washed, but late, and when I did get to bed, I slept hard and long.
I got up around noon and I knitted two rows. This was a difficult right-side row, and it increased almost 100 stitches. This will cause the next rows to bow out at the bottom, which will give the shawl a lovely scalloped edge, but wow! That's a lotta stitches!
I only had a snack for breakfast - just enough to buffer my pills, but I had a nice, but early for me, dinner, with a steak and asparagus, although the asparagus was overcooked. It's been so long since I've cooked it that I forgot how I usually do it. Some people may like their veggies mushy and gray, but I don't. Well, maybe I can have some more soon and do it right.
After dinner, I went up to the north end, curled my hair and changed my clothes. I don't remember now why I was a tad late, but I got away shortly after 7:30. It was a good thing. Ron had cleared my driveway beautifully and he also did a pretty good job on the end of the road where I got stuck, but after the warm temps of the past few days, the temperature had dropped dramatically and froze everything. I didn't notice that it was slippery, but I was going very slowly. I had to go slowly on the covered road, too, because I could see that it was icy. After Delaware, though, I think it was clear and nearly dry.
Unfortunately, I got to church just after someone else who parked in my usual parking spot. Fortunately, Stuart and Nancy were right in front of me, and Stuart was kind enough to help me get into church...after Nancy thrust a bag of goodies at me! Oh, they are such nice people!
Church was lovely, and there were lots of people there, including a whole bunch we only see at Christmas and maybe Easter. There were some lovely carols, but I don't think the choir sang very well. Oh, well. Win some and lose some. At the end of the service, we always sing Silent Night by candlelight, and here, we sing the first verse in German before we sing the whole song in English. Sometimes I can sing the German, but I couldn't tonight, and I can't sing the English at all. There are just too many memories.
Pastor's sermon was a good one, about how the birth of Jesus was planned by God from Genesis. There were more songs than usual, so it was 10:30 before we got out.
Driving home was a bit difficult. It started snowing lightly - so much for Environment Canada saying it would be clear for a few hours around midnight. By the time I got to the covered road, the pavement had a thin coating of new snow, and since I knew what I'd seen going down, I went very slowly. I didn't have any trouble, but I wasn't sure what was under that snow. It didn't help that there werer more people driving around than I would expect to see at that hour of night. I didn't get home until 11:30.
When I opened the goodie bag, most of it was candy, but there was also a jar of balsamic red pepper jelly, a package of cream cheese and two packages of Ritz Crackers. The jelly and cream cheese are in the fridge - it's too late to assault my stomach with that - but I sampled the cookies and they're good. At this time of year I get a real longing for home-made cookies. Nancy makes maraschino cherry cookies - and she is the first person outside my family whom I've ever found who does. They are one of my favorites, but my mother, the cookie baker, didn't like them, so if I wanted any, I had to make them myself, and I don't do that anymore. She puts a Hershey's kiss in the middle, too, and we never thought of that! Yum. I could have eaten the whole bag.
The weather was nondescript until it started snowing. The high temperature was 38º, but it was between 6:00 and 8:00 this morning, and it went down from there, until now it's 23º. It was colder in town. The wind has picked up, too, from the northeast, with gusts up to 33 mph. It was very dark and dreary all day, although it didn't start to snow until after dark. The camera hung up around 11:30 this morning, and I didn't notice until it started to get dark, but we didn't miss anything.
The guys slept. Grayson didn't get much lap time, but I was not going to have another accident. So when I got up to the bathroom to curl my hair tonight, he came in and sat down beside me and said "Meow!" very sadly, then he jumped up on the counter and made me pet him, at least a little, while I was curling. He was not happy with all the unusual activity. I haven't seen Louie since this morning.
So that was my quiet Christmas Eve. I finally got to church on Christmas Eve, and it was worth the effort. So I'll end with my usual verse: Ah, dearest Jesus, Holy Child, Make Thee a bed soft, undefiled Within my heart that it may be A quiet chamber kept for Thee.
It's a dark, cold, snowy, windy night in the field.
December 23 I think I need to crawl in a hole and pull the lid on top of me. After what happened today (more later), when I went to open the journal file just now, it was gone - totally gone! I know it was there when I uploaded it last night, so where did it go??? I copied it back from the website, but wow! That isn't supposed to happen. Sometimes I wish there was a way to save every event, including every keystroke, that happens on this computer. More heart failure I didn't need.
I got to bed around midnight last night, but I didn't sleep very well. I kept waking up all sore in various places. I didn't get up until around 10:30, though, and i felt all right.
I knitted four rows, which took me over two hours, but I finished the chart I was working on and tomorrow I can go on to another one. It's shaping up very nicely, but there are a huge number of stitches. Fortunately, my hands were feeling pretty good.
I only had time to eat and go to the bathroom before I went off to the post office. I had a bit of trouble getting out of the driveway, especially at the corners. It's warm enough that the snow is very slippery. The road is in good shape; Ron has been widening it to prepare for the propane truck, who has to get down to his neighbor's house. So I got my mail and started home. I wanted to stop at the newspaper box, but I misjudged and turned into the part of the road that hadn't been plowed, and the next thing I knew, I was stuck. It was soft enough that I managed to dig myself in up to the axels.
So I settled down to wait until Ron came home. It was a bit chilly, but I had my mail, so I read one of my magazines until he arrived. In the meantime, the paper man came by and gave my my papers - and it turns out one was missing - but he couldn't push me. He's a little guy, and my car is heavy. Ron didn't think he could, either, so he prevailed upon our neighbor Mike, who lives on the other side of US-41. He came in his jeep and after trying to pull me with it, he went and got his wife's big truck, which is heavier than my car, and that pulled me out with no more problems, although both he and Ron dug out around the car, and that helped, too. Geez.
I made it home, although I made Ron come behind me, just in case. The secret seems to be to go very slowly, like less than 10 mph, and be sure I hit the center of the road. Oh, I was so embarrassed! I've lived here fulltime for 10 years now, and never before have I had so much trouble getting stuck. It's not that Ron isn't doing a good job on the road, either, because he does. I don't know what the problem is.
So I didn't do anything much. I did get into the bottom part of the pantry cupboard and get a box of bags and I finally froze the ground beef that's been in the fridge for a while. It looked and smelled fine, so I won't worry about it. I'll just cook my burgers a bit more well-done than I really like them. I did that while I was making my dinner, and I was sore when I was done. I'm just not used to standing so long.
The weather wasn't as nice as it was yesterday, but it wasn't bad. The high temperature actually got up to 39º at 6:00 (after I got home), which is almost unheard of at this time of year, so no wonder the snow was greasy. There was no wind for most of the day, although after 5:00 it picked up a bit, with 24 mph gusts from the west. It was cloudy and dull all day. During the night, it was clear, and at one point, around 4:00, I think, I looked out and there was Orion over in the southwest, so pretty!
The guys were their usual sleepy selves. Grayson didn't get to sit on me after breakfast, because I had to get up right away so I could go to the post office. He was waiting when I finally got home, and as soon as I sat down, he went to sleep on my lap. Louie wanted to sit, too, but I was busy, so he didn't get to do that.
So it was not a good day, but I stopped trying to get unstuck soon enough that I don't think I did my new transmission any harm. This is going to go down as the year of the car for sure. Now I have to go up to the north end and wash my hair so I am clean for tomorrow. It really looks like I will actually get to church on Christmas Eve for once, but I'm not going to count on it until I actually get there.
Now it's a warm, cloudy night in the field and I need to go bury my head under the covers in my bed.
December 22 I'm not quite sure what happened last night. I went up to the north end at a semi-reasonable hour, I thought, but after I washed my hair, it was a ridiculous hour before I went to bed. It was earlier than the night before, but much too late anyway. All I can figure is that I went into zombie mode both before and after I took my bath. So I was late getting up and then I knitted. This part of the edging is fairly easy, but it's long because of the number of stitches.
All that meant was that I didn't have much time to eat and do some surfing before I had to leave for church. And then the cat went to sleep on my lap, so I had a really yucky accident and i was a bit late getting Mary Ann.
We had to leave early, because we went to bible study. I was sorry we hadn't been able to go before, because they were studying things related to Advent. Tonight it was the end times, and how they are prophesied in both the Old and New Testaments. Really interesting. Next year we will be studying a book about Blessings, but I don't know much about it. I want to go as much as I can. It's a good group of around 15 people, which is really nice.
After that was choir, and that was good, too. We sang through the carols the choir will be singing Sunday, which is nice, because I probably won't be able to be there. I'm rethinking that, because I'm not sure one of our sopranos will be there; her brother died unexpectedly today. She says she will be there, but we'll see. And after that, Nancy and I said "What about Christmas Eve?" and Kathleen said, "Oh, didn't we already do that/" Oops. So we did that, too.
Anyway, I didn't get home until around 9:45 and then I had to eat. It's so nice to have something in the fridge to warm up, and I must try to do that more often. My options are rather limited, I guess, since the things I used to do with chicken and pork don't appeal to me very much now. So we'll see.
The weather was remarkable. The high temperature was 38º for a couple of hours this afternoon, and it was mostly clear and sunny all day. I just discovered that the camera hung up around 1:30, so we didn't get to see the nice sunset. Sigh. I didn't check that while I was at the computer. Anyway, the wind is sort of a puzzle. Our wind was from the west and under 10 mph all day, except that there were 28 mph gusts around 5:00 PM. The Weather Service has us under a gale warning, but I even checked Stannard Rock, which usually has the highest winds in the lake, and there is no wind to speak of. I don't know where they're talking about. We're certainly not having a gale.
I was happy to find that not only was our road OK, the covered road was snow covered but not slippery, and from Delaware south, it was clear and nearly dry until we got to Laurium (Calumet and Laurium do an atrociously bad job of clearing their streets). They have had more snow than we have, and they've already cut back the banks along US-41 - rather early! And the piles at the corners are mammoth already.
The guys slept. Grayson wanted to sleep on me, as I mentioned. After I booted him off, he moved to the pink chair, which was in the sun, but when I went back through the great room to get something from the studio, Louie was there and Grayson was nowhere to be seen. They are funny little creatures. Grayson greeted me at the door when I got home, but he showed no desire to get out, thankfully. I haven't seen Louie, so he's probably somewhere up at the north end.
That's where I need to be, too, so I will go as soon as I've posted this. Now it's a warm, clear night in the field and where that gale is, is beyond me.
December 21 - Winter Solstice So after today, the days will (slowly) begin to get longer. It will be a while before we notice the change, but at least it's nice to know.
I got waylaid by a crafty computer game last night and it was a stupid hour before I finally got to bed. I didn't quite pull an all-nighter, but it was close. So it was late when I got up and then I knitted. Even though the knitting went well and fast, there are so many stitches that it took me an hour and a half to do two rows. I finally remembered that this is Wednesday and I needed to get out the bulletins, and I did that. I had done the one for Saturday, but I had to do the one for Sunday. I hope they like it. There's a graphic on the front cover, for the first time since I've done it.
So I only snacked before dinner, enough to take my pills. I didn't do anything else, except that I cooked - barbecued pork chops - and it was good. I have enough for tomorrow, too, and that will be nice.
The weather was dark, dreary - and warm. Not as warm as yesterday, and the high temperature was at midnight, but it was right around 32º all day. It started snowing right after I got up, and it's been doing that - or something - ever since. It's not a heavy snow, and some of it may be sleety, but still, it's snow. The wind peaked around 6:00 this morning, with gusts up to 32 mph from the north, but then the wind stopped, and it's been calm or nearly so ever since. Of course, they have a gale watch out for tomorrow, but it looks like the Weather Underground doesn't think that will happen. It was really dark today, just in honor of the solstice, I guess.
So the guys slept. Louie slept beside my head for the last four hours I was in bed. I think Grayson was in the laundry room again. He kept wanting to sit on me again, and he did get some lap time - and I had an accident - but I was doing other things.
So that was it. I have to wash my hair tonight - it didn't get done very well the last time, and it's gross, but it's time anyway. Then I can go to bed and sleep long and hard. And maybe I can get to choir practice tomorrow. It looks like I might make it to church on Saturday, too, which would be lovely. I can hope.
Now it's a dark, cold, snowy night in the field.
December 20 I'd never know I got 10 hours of sleep last night and I didn't get up until noon. I'm tired, and I want to go to bed. I knitted my two rows, and that's about all I can do with over 400 stitches on the needle.
I didn't do a whole lot. I had an accident, so I finally washed the load of bottoms that's been piling up in the washer. I cracked the toilet seat in the bathroom (I sit down rather hard most of the time, and I've been thinking it might go), so now I have an excuse to get my raised seat with handles, but I will have to wait until next month. In fact, I can't do much of anything until after next Wednesday. The earliest my Social Security comes through is the 22nd, and the latest is the 28th - and this is the latest. It seems it always happens when I need it the most, too. In the meantime, I will patch the seat up with duct tape, just so I don't get pinched again. That hurt.
Tonight I remembered that I was going to work on bulletins, so I got the one for Saturday done and off to people who have to review it. It was easy - half a sheet, and Pastor had given me all the information I needed. Sunday's will be a bit harder.
The weather was execrable. It snowed from about 8:00 AM to 2:00 PM, but what was coming down was so wet I had water on my west windows. The high temperature was 38º, and it was at least 37º all afternoon. While that's nice for my inside temperatures, it's awful for the road, and I hope it doesn't leave everything so slippery I can't go out. It was extremely windy. It was from the west in the morning, but around noon it shifted to the northwest or north, and the gusts have gotten up to 33 mph. It was mostly cloudy and dark, except for a few stray rays late in the afternoon. While tomorrow is technically the shortest day, today is only a single second longer - 8 hours, 26 minutes. It doesn't give one much time to do anything.
The guys slept. Grayson tried to sleep on me as much as he could, but I was doing things, so he has finally gone away. Louie came around, but I was busy when he did. While I was knitting, I heard something crash down, and when I went into the laundry, I discovered that somehow Grayson had managed to push a washbasket full of bedding onto the floor (it had a pair of shorts in the bottom, so you can see how long it's been there). I don't know what he was trying to do when he pushed it off the counter, but it evidently didn't bother him because he didn't show up in the bathroom for quite a while. They are so funny.
So that was my very quiet day, and I am not going to be up much longer. It's a dark, windy night in the field, but it's warm. Too warm.
December 19 I got to bed around 11:30 last night. It will be later tonight. I didn't sleep very well, and it may have been because I wasn't quite warm enough. I got up around 9:45 and I knitted two rows. It was slow, because I was changing to a longer needle, but it took me over an hour. There are lots of stitches now.
I didn't do much but my usual. I got the dishwasher started before I went to bed last night and I started unloading it. I put a bunch of pans in the sink to soak, and I need to get those out, as well as the rest of the stuff out of the dishwasher, but at least I did a bit.
There was choir tonight, and it was a bit chaotic. They changed a bunch of stuff during the two sessions where we couldn't make it, and Kathleen had never gotten the service stuff that Pastor sent out. We will have another session on Thursday and hope we can get everything nailed down. I didn't get home until almost 10:00. The roads were in good shape, for winter, but they were all snow covered, and I couldn't tell how slippery they were, so I went slowly.
The weather overnight was frigid and windy. It was clear, though, and because of that, the temperature went down to -5º around 2:00 AM. The highest wind gusts were around 11:00, at 36 mph. Then, around 1:00 PM, they went calm. In the meantime, the temperature was rising, even though it had clouded up, and it peaked at 26º around 7:00 PM. When I got to the studio, around 11:00, it was 52º in here, and it took me most of the afternoon to get it up 10º. It's warming up nicely now, though, because it's still a reasonable temperature outside. It's supposed to get really warm tomorrow - over freezing - and Wednesday is supposed to be mild, too. Ah, winter in the Keweenaw. We have had 70" of snow so far this month and 82" for the season, or at least Delaware has. I don't think we got nearly that much in November, but looking around me, I'd say we've had that much in December. It packs down and sublimates, you know. The ice is back at our end of the harbor, and my driveway was drifted rather badly. I got out, though, and the culverts were fine.
The guy slept, of course. Grayson slept on me as much as he could. Louie wanted to sleep with me last night, but he was down by my legs and when I started thrashing around, he left. I think it will be better tonight; I had to go up to the north end before I left and it felt quite comfortable there. Not like this morning at all.
I hope I won't be thrashing so much tonight. i think I need to switch comforters, but I didn't get to that today. It would be nice to change the bedding while I'm doing that, but I don't know if I'm up to it. It's all right now, but I need to get the heavier comforter on the bed before our next frigid episode.
So that was my day, and I'm tired. I've had enough sleep lately, but driving in this weather, especially after dark, is stressful and it tires me out. It was clear when we went down to Laurium and Venus was shining brightly in the southwest, but I couldn't tell if it was still clear when I got home. I hope so. It was so nice to see the moonlight and some stars last night!
Now it's a cold, breezy night in the field.
December 18 Talk about a quiet day!
I got to bed around midnight last night, and I slept well until nearly 11:00. I think I was only up a couple of times. I guess I needed that, and it was a good thing I planned not to go to church. I've noticed that I seem to wake up around 7:00, so what's happening when I set the alarm for 6:30 is that I'm disrupting my sleep altogether. I'm not sure I can get out by 9:00 if I get up at 7:00 (remember, I move very slowly) but I think I might have to try it. I get so exhausted on Sundays that it takes me a couple of days to recover.
Anyway, I knitted and I finished the chart I've been working on for a month, and tomorrow I will start the edging. That part of the pattern is crazy, but it's very pretty, so I suppose it will go slowly. It's 38 rows wide, so with any luck I should be done with this thing in a month at the most. Since it ends up with over 600 stitches, I'm not sure I'll be able to do even two rows before my legs go to sleep.
That was all I did. I was so late that I spent most of the afternoon doing my surfing. The ads are getting desperate, but in a week or so it will be all over with. Thankfully. And hopefully.
The weather is frigid. The high temperature for the day was 9º, and now, at 9:00 PM, it's 0º with a southwest wind that is gusting to 22 mph. It's cold around here, too. I may actually have to wear my robe to bed tonight. it snowed lightly all night and all day, but I don't think there was much accumulation. The camera went down sometime, although in looking at the pictures, it doesn't seem to have been much before I noticed it. It was a gray day. Tonight is supposed to be extremely cold, but then it is supposed to warm up for the next few days, and we might even see a few rays of sunshine toward the end of the week, and Christmas weekend looks pretty good, too.
The guys slept. Grayson really wanted to sleep on me, but it was late in the afternoon before he finally could. He went away, and then both guys came back about the time I was going to get up and get my dinner, so Louie didn't get his. He did get some loving this morning, though.
So it was very quiet day and now it's a frigid, snowy night in the field.
December 17 It's a good thing I'm not going to church tomorrow, because I'm already too late, and I haven't filled the pill dispensers at the north end or taken my bath yet.
I got to bed around midnight and I got up around 9:30. I knitted, but it took me a long time. I goofed yesterday and dropped something, and when I thought I fixed it, later I discovered I'd left a stitch hanging, so I had to fix it properly today. It was about 8 rows back, so it took a while to get it right. I was afraid, when I was done, that I had pulled out the surrounding stitches enough that it would never look right, but alpaca is very slippery, and after my 4 rows this morning, it's not very obvious that I did anything. One more reason to use alpaca, which I love anyway.
I didn't do much of anything. I did get the dishwasher completely unloaded, but I never started loading it again. I have to do that tomorrow, because I'm running out of dishes. What actually happened is that I ended up down a rabbit hole at a website I'd never heard of before, and i kept following links until I finally had to call a halt. It's called "Eat this, not that!" and it's all about diet and the composition of food. There's a lot of good information there, if it interests you (which it does me), but there's also a lot of questionable stuff, pages that don't agree with each other, and typos and bad grammar. They have an obsession with belly fat that I don't understand. But I kept following links. Sigh. How to use up a perfectly good afternoon. I did get the pill dispensers at this end filled, and I'm running out of one of my OTC drugs again. Sigh.
The weather was snowy again. The gale warning turned out to be a complete dud. The highest the wind got was 34 mph gusts at 10:00 this morning. I mean, it's windy, but not a gale or anything like it. It did snow more or less hard, all night and all day. I'll be interested to find out what the total snowfall was. I don't think there was a lot, but I didn't get a good look at the driveway before dark. The high temperature was at midnight and it feel all day. It's 10º now and that's supposed to be the high for tomorrow, along with more snow. Oh, the wind was from the east, so it was fairly comfortable in here, and especially at the north end. The wind is shifting north now, so it may be colder tonight, but for today it was fine. The easterly wind blew all the ice down to the other end of the harbor or onto the south shore, so it's clear in front of the house again. That's a relief. When the ice gets solid is when we have the worst drifting in the culverts, and we'd just as soon postpone that as long as possible.
The guys slept. Louie was the one who slept on my lap this afternoon, although I had to shoo him off a couple of times. Grayson didn't come around until later, when I was doing something else, so he didn't get enough lap time today. Louie was asleep on the rug when I went to bed last night, and then he got up on the bed and went down by my legs until I had to get up. I guess my wiggling around to get turned over bothered him. Too bad.
So that was about it. Now it's a very cold, snowy night in the field.
December 16 - Beethoven's Birthday I got to bed around midnight last night, and I slept fairly well, but I got up at 8:30, so I didn't get enough sleep again. I didn't want to go back to bed because I knew if I did it would be near noon before I got up and I wanted to be sure Ron could dig out the driveway. The drift against the garage door was a good 2' deep, and since it's light, fluffy snow, I know I couldn't have gotten through it. I had a hard enough time with my driveway and the road.
So I did my surfing and got to the post office, but I had to ask Ron to bring my mail out to the car, because the people parked there were doing their winter thing. When the lots are snow covered, everybody puts about 5' between their cars, and it would have meant I had to walk quite a way to get into the building, and I don't think I could have done that. When I got home, I completely missed the call from the Schwan's guy, and it ended up I had to go chasing into town after him, but I got my order. Evidently he comes out to me and the other people at the end of the road first, and then he visits the people around town. I was interested to know that I'm by far not the only person who eats Schwan's. It's just so convenient, and it's pretty good food, too, for frozen. This order was almost all meat. I'm getting lazy about cooking again, and having frozen stuff helps.
I also paid a couple of bills and made a couple of phone calls related to the accident, so all that is done. I can't do much more with the bills for the next couple of weeks, when my Social Security comes. I got my tax bill, and it's just about what I thought it would be. It's a good thing it isn't due until February, but we'll see how it goes.
The weather was cold, especially this morning, but warmer than it has been for the past couple of days, and there was hardly any wind. The high temperature was 21º, but that didn't happen until this evening. The only thing about there not being any wind, with the temperatures as low as they've been, is that the harbor is icing over. There is a wide swathe of pancake ice out in front. That's neat, but I wish it wasn't happening. We are under a Winter Weather Advisory from now through Sunday morning and a Gale Warning for late tonight. The wind is getting stronger, but it's from the northeast, which is good for both me and the harbor. Winter has certainly come with a vengeance! Delaware only had an additional 4" of snow yesterday, but that gives us 56" for the month and 21" for the blizzard. Well, we'll just have to cope.
The guys were sleepy, but then I wasn't sitting around as much today. Grayson spent a lot of time on my lap, and Louie sat until I moved so that I could write this. I laughed at Louie this morning. While I was knitting, he was lying in the middle of the bathroom, not on a rug or anything - right under the heat lamps! He knows where it's warmest. And he slept for most of the night on the rug beside my bed. The floors in the bedroom have been nice and warm through this all, and the rug concentrates the heat. I guess Grayson is more used to cooler temperatures, but I wouldn't be surprised to know he sleeps in the laundry room in this weather.
So that was another very quiet day, and now it's a cold night that is likely to get snowy and windy in the field.
December 15 I ended up being ridiculously late again last night, and then I only got about 7 hours' sleep, so I'm awfully tired now. And I have to be up in time to let Ron into the garage tomorrow morning. He got the driveway except for the drift up against the door, which is about 2' high, and the shovel is inside the garage. We never got the keypad programmed, so he can't open the door.
Anyway, I got up around 11:30 and i knitted my four rows. I have only 12 rows left and I can go on to the edging. This is a pretty thing, but the center section, in leaves, is boring, especially when there are nearly 400 stitches on the needle. I also have much too much yarn. It's another case where the original yarn comes in huge skeins, and there is no indication of how much is used for the garment. I'll have a whole skein left over, and probably part of the one I'm using now. At least that means I'll be able to make a nice lavender scarf.
I was so late that after I did my surfing, there wasn't time to do anything else, or not much. I paid a bill and I put in a Schwan's order. That was all.
We decided not to go to choir tonight. We probably could have, but they canceled schools today again, and we weren't sure, with the wind, how the roads would be. I also didn't really want to drive when I had so little sleep and I felt as crappy as I have for the past few days. I think I have a cold or something. I think we'll go Monday.
I got the program for Christmas Day, which will be carols, readings and communion - no sermon - and I do wish I could go, but no way can I go at 9:00 Christmas Eve and still get there at 10:00 on Sunday. I'm just not up to that anymore.
The weather has finally calmed down. It was another noisy night. The wind peaked around 4:00, apparently, at 47 mph (33 mph sustained), from the north, and it's been decreasing ever since. Now it's only 7 mph with 17 mph. The low temperature overnight was 10º, but it went up to about 19º, where it's been for the afternoon. With the wind, the house hasn't warmed up very much, but it should now that the wind is winding down. We had some snow around noon (I didn't notice it) but we also had a bit of sunshine. It's apparently supposed to calm down a lot for the next week. We can stand that. It's been several years since we've had a real blizzard, and quite a while since we've had one in December. I still think it's fun, as long as I can stay inside and watch it. I would not have liked to be outside for the past three days.
The guys were sleepy, of course, although Grayson seems to be full of beans again. He wanted to sleep on me all afternoon, though, even though it's quite warm in the studio. Louie went to sleep on the folded up rug I had had over my feet in the bathroom, although he came down to the great room with us. He hasn't asked to sit.
So that was another quiet, truncated day, and I'll be off to the north end soon - very soon. It's another cold, windy, snowy night in the field. Ah, winter!
December 14 The news was the weather.
I was late last night - around 2:00 AM - but I finally got the studio sort of warm (66º) and I didn't want to face the rest of the house. As I sometimes do when the weather is bad, I turned on the floodlight at the patio door in the great room, and I noticed that the snow was blowing (horizontal, of course) from left to right, instead of right to left as it usually does. That turned out to be very nice for me. When I got to my bedroom, it and the bathroom were actually very comfortable, so I didn't have to bundle up to go to bed.
I woke up around 4:30, I think, and the first thing I noticed was the noise. The wind was battering the house, so I deduced that it had shifted, and I was right. It was enough of a shift that the weather station reported at 4:42 that the wind had shifted to the north, with gusts up to 42 mph! At 6:00, by which time I'd gone back to sleep, we had 52 mph gusts. And of course, it was snowing. No wonder it was noisy!
I don't think I got up until around 11:30, and by that time, it was cold at the north end again. When it's that windy, I can feel a breeze coming from the window seat, and I know it's from around the edges of the windows. If I had any money, I would get somebody to fix that. I bundled up and put down a rug under my feet and I knitted. I'm starting the last repeat of the leaves, and I really want to get it done. It's getting boring. I did my four rows, but it took me a long time, even though I was knitting pretty fast, just because of the number of stitches. Oh, and it was still snowing.
So everything was late today, and I didn't finish my breakfast (?) until 3:00, which meant I didn't do anything else. Oh, I did get the bulletin done, finally. And I just finished eating something else at 1:00 AM tomorrow. I have to wash my hair, so I'll be late again. Sigh. At least I've finally gotten the temperature in the studio up to reasonable number.
Delaware reported 8" of snow yesterday, so it wasn't excessive, but that's 39" since last Wednesday. And there were those temperatures and that wind. At 1:00 tomorrow, the wind was still 32 mph with 45 mph gusts from the north, so it ain't over yet. I could tell it's still snowing hard, because with the moon so bright, I can see what I can't see. The last time the camera saw the mountain was about 11:00 this morning. I do love a good blizzard, but this one has been going on for over 3 days now. The high temperature was 15º, about the time the wind shifted, and it got down to 6º at 9:00 tonight. It's warming up a bit now, though.
The guys were sleepy. I don't know where Louie was, but Grayson was on my lap as much as he could be, even though it wasn't as cold as it was yesterday.
So it was another very quiet day. Now it's a frigid, windy, snowy night in the field, and I must go to bed!
December 13 Of course I was late last night. I don't seem to be able to get to bed early. I was reading, so it was about 12:30 when I turned out the light. It was noisy. The wind was out of the north and it was battering the house. I think it was snowing, too, although that wasn't so obvious. I didn't sleep very well, and I don't think it had to do with the noise, which I should be used to by this time. It was cold in the bedroom, and that may have been the problem. Tonight I will wear my robe, because it's even colder now.
I didn't do anything. When I got to the studio it was 60º, but l had a lot of layers on (go to the bathroom and when I get up, pull up, pull down, pull up, pull up, pull down, pull down. It's a chore). Around 5:00, though, it went down to 59º and I threw in the towel and got out the space heater. It's about 67º now, and I'm much more comfortable. I hate to use it, because it uses a whole lot of electricity, but I don't want to freeze, either.
Obviously, the blizzard is still going on. Delaware had 7" of snow by 10:00 this morning, and I think we had just as much here. The temperature went up and down between 8º and 12º all day. The wind gusted up to 45 mph around 5:00 AM. it hasn't been so strong all day, but it was gusting up to 25 mph or so, and it was varying from the west to the north. The snow was clearly lake effect, because it came in waves, and sometimes i couldn't even see the road from the back of the house. That's still continuing, and I guess it's supposed to be the same tomorrow. We haven't had a real blizzard in a few years, but this sure qualifies. I think it's fun, even though I'm cold.
Ron did the road around noon, but he didn't do my driveway. I felt for him. When it's that cold and that windy, it's excruciating to be out blowing snow around. Maybe he can get out to go to the post office tomorrow, though.
Grayson spent the entire afternoon curled up on my lap. He knows how to stay warm. It was nice for me, too, because I could bury my hands under him and keep them warm. Louie did come up just now, but he didn't want to sit, he wanted to move around, so I had to shoo him off. I don't like being stomped on.
So that's all there is. It was a quiet day. Now it's a frigid, snowy, windy night in the field, and I need to hunker down under the covers and sleep. Ahhh...
December 12 I'm sorry about last night's journal, but I was so tired that I simply forgot that it doesn't upload itself. I'll try to do better tonight.
I was exhausted, but as usual, I was later than I wanted to be. I turned out the light not long after midnight. I zonked out. It was 4:00 before I woke up the first time - very unusual - and when I did, the moon was shining brightly in a partly cloudy sky. It was so pretty, but there were dark clouds on the northwestern horizon and a big puffy cloud in the north. I was only up one more time, and I got up around 11:00. I felt much better, but it was snowing when I got up.
i knitted my four rows, with a half-hour conversation with Mary Ann in between. When she reported on the roads around town and the weather radio report of a blizzard warning, we decided not to try to go to town. I think we were overly cautious, but it was snowing when I went to get my dinner at 8:00, so maybe not. The blizzard warning doesn't go into effect until 4:00 AM, but it continues until 7:00 AM on Thursday, so it could be dire. The NWS usually overreacts, but you never know, particularly in winter.
I was so late that I didn't do anything but my surfing. And thanks to Phil for pointing out that the journal didn't get uploaded.
The weather today was sort of the calm before the storm. It did snow for most of the night, but around noon we had more than an hour of sunshine or near sunshine. It was nice, but later we a bit more snow and I think it's snowing now. The temperature got up to 30º, and the wind got up to 13 mph, but it was from all over the map. The temperature began to go down after about 2:00, and it's only 22º now. The front that is supposed to do us in is just west of the Keweenaw now and moving toward us.
The guys seemed to know about that, and they mostly slept. They both got some lap time, and Grayson slept on his pile of flannel nighties outside the studio door for most of the day. He knows where to go to be comfy.
So it was a truncated day, and I'm tired again. I was sneezing last night, and I feel sort of like I have a cold, so I will try hard to go to bed at a reasonable hour. Now it's a cloudy, cold night in the field, and the blizzard is coming...the blizzard is coming...
December 11 I turned out the light a bit before 10:00, a little later than I wanted to be, but oh, well. The first thing I noticed was a bright green blinking light over to the northwest. Yea!! The lighthouse is back in operation! I think it's been down for at least three weeks, maybe more, but usually when it breaks, it takes time to get the replacement parts. Oh, it's so nice to see that light at night!
Then I noticed that it was very bright outside. The moon is full on Tuesday, but that's just a formality. For most of us, it's full right now (95%), and it's another supermoon, although not quite as big as last month's. When I was up during the night, I could see it was casting very strong shadows, so I think it was clear. It set in a cloud bank, but later I was up again and I could see stars, so it must have been clear or almost clear all night. No wonder it got so cold.
It was cloudy when I got up, I think. I was up just before 6:00, which always disgusts me, because I need that last half hour's sleep, but I hadn't quite gone back to sleep when the alarm went off. I got up, and I did pretty well, even though I had to make a fast trip to the powder room after breakfast. Then things slowed down a bit, and I went out to the car about 9:05 - and discovered that I'd forgotten to change my shoes! Aarrgghh!! It wouldn't have been so bad if I'd had my black Crocs on, but they are drying out in the laundry room and I had on my sparkly bright blue ones! Not exactly what I wanted to wear with my mostly black outfit! So I had to go back into the house and change to my outdoor Crocs, and instead of being early or on time, I was late. Not late to church, but later than I wanted to be. I missed a choir practice, too.
Driving was, um, interesting. The roads were snow covered all the way to church, and there was a little new snow but not much. The good thing was that there was no traffic, so I could go where I wanted as fast as I wanted.
Missing the choir practice was all right - the song went off very well and Kathleen looked pleased. The tree that they decorated last week is beautiful. It's 22' tall, perfect in shape, the lights are multicolored and there is fat gold garland, as well as lots of multicolored balls, on it. There was communion, which was wonderful. I think after the first of the year, we will be having communion every week, and I think most people will like that. I know I've heard that was one of the criteria the committee had for choosing a pastor. Pastor Lundquist is very much in favor of it, too.
I was having a hard time moving, although for some reason I don't understand, my knees did not lock up when I was standing up to sing. They usually do, and it's a real chore (as well as very painful) to get moving and get back to my seat. My left knee creaked a bit, but not enough to keep me from moving. How that ever happened, I don't know, because I could hardly move when I got up for communion and later.
I had to shop. i really, really did not want to have to do that, but I was running out of bread, eggs, and OJ, mostly things I can't get at Gaslite. I was very moderate. I'm learning not to overbuy things I won't use for a while or don't need at all. I did get a lamb chop and some more ground beef for burgers, but they didn't have any whitefish (not a problem - I have lots in the freezer). Slowly, very slowly, I am learning how to live on a ridiculously small income.
Then I had to get gas. I didn't want to go inside the station to pay, but when I pulled my credit card out of the slot, it never registered, and the only option I had was to pay inside. A nice man helped me get in by holding the door for me, and I put on the attendant to help me down the ramp. Those ramps are extremely steep, and I have a hard time with them even when it's clear and dry, and there was no way I was going to get down it by myself. People around here are so nice! The attendant was so nice, and the bagger who helped me out to my car at Pat's was so nice. I couldn't have picked a better place to get old, at least as long as I'm a bit ambulatory.
Driving home was a real trip. I got behind a guy whose driving I did not like, but I couldn't pass him, so I followed him all the way to the Harbor. It might even have been Cindy, because the car went straight at the blinker. I think I've been behind that car before. We couldn't go even the speed limit. The fastest we could go was 50 mph before Delaware and 40 mph afterwards, mostly slower. It was snowing lightly the whole way, and the roads were so snow covered that I was driving the center rumble strip most of the way. That rumble strip annoys me extremely during the spring, summer and fall, but then winter comes and I'm glad it's there. I think it probably took me a good hour to get home, but I made it.
When I turned into Woodland Drive, it was clear that Ron had been out on the tractor, and the road was lovely (in winter mode). He hadn't done my driveway, and I frowned, but even before I got out of the car, he was there. Not only did he clear the driveway and shovel the snow away from the garage, he unloaded my car for me!! What a wonderful man he is! We talked a bit, too, of course. We've only had about 6" to 8" of snow, so it's hard for him to use the blower, because he picks up too much gravel, but it's much better than it was. And the road was fine. Unfortunately, the snow is just going to keep on coming, but hey, it sure was late.
The weather was typical winter. As I mentioned, the low overnight was 10º, probably because of the clear skies. We were actually lucky; it got down to 0º at the airport, and I think it was about 5º when I got to church. The temperature here rose fairly quickly, and it was around 24º for most of the afternoon. It's rising again. There was no wind. I don't yet know how much snow we got, but a perceptible amount of liquid registered at the weather station. Well, winter is here - with a vengeance. John Dee lives between Mohawk and Ahmeek, and he had about 3 FEET last week. We're lucky. They call us the banana belt.
I didn't see any cats when I got home, but Grayson was around a bit later. Louie went down to the basement when he heard the tractor, and he didn't come up until I was getting ready for lunch. However, they both got a lot of lap time this afternoon. I was just sitting - it was all I could do - so I had a cat on me, mostly trying to sleep with his head on one of my arms. That's not comfortable.
It's particularly not comfortable because I noticed late in the afternoon that my wrists, particularly my right wrist, were very sore and stiff. I guess I must have been clutching the steering wheel while I was driving. That's happened before. It feels better now, I think.
Grayson was playing with one of the cat toys while I was in the powder room before dinner. He feels good. Louie bugged me, because every time I opened the door to the breezeway, he acted like he wanted to go out of it, and he's not allowed to do that. Grayson may change his mind, but every time I come in and he's around, all I have to do is wave my cane at him and he runs away - sometimes he runs away before I wave my cane. I guess he's finally learning his lessons.
So that was my day, and it's later than I wanted to be up. It's a dark, cold, snowy night in the field, and the snow is supposed to keep coming. Ah, winter...But it is pretty.
December 10 I got to bed around midnight and got up around 9:45. I guess that's going to be my usual schedule, although I'd like to go to bed earlier. There are too many things I have to do during the workday, even though I don't work. i didn't sleep very well for some reason. I was quite wakeful in the middle of the night. I guess that's good, because I'm tired now.
I knitted and I knitted in the new ball of yarn. I tried a new way of splicing, and I don't like it. My old way, even though it's harder, looks better. Not that this looks bad, it's just that it doesn't look as good as it could.
I had an interesting thing happen this morning. I put on my other fleece robe, which I haven't been wearing. This one has blue and white snowflakes on a pale blue background (appropriate, huh?). The other one is solid periwinkle blue, but it had gotten really dirty, between my accidents and my tendency to drop my food down my front. When I put it on, I noticed that the right shoulder seemed very stiff and scratchy. I thought, oh, no! Did I manage to melt the fleece? Polyester does melt at a fairly low temperature, but not low enough that either my hot water or my dryer (I always dry it on "delicate") should be hot enough. So when I got up after knitting, I looked at it again and I noticed what looked like drip marks down the sleeve and I got suspicious, so I ran water on it - and before I knew it, I was trying to rinse a huge amount of soap out of it!
All I can think is that I washed it before I realized that I wasn't getting cold water into the washer, and it went through the cycle without ever getting truly wet or truly washed, even though it looked clean. At first, I was just going to run it through the rinse cycle, but then I decided, hey, there is all this soap in here. Why not just wash it over again? So I did, and after I took it out of the dryer, it was so nice and soft and clean!
That held up my washing, of course, so there is one load in the dryer and one load in the washer that needs to be rinsed with fabric softener. That one will be hard, and maybe I won't rinse it until tomorrow, because I want to take my bath early. It's not a big load anyway, and it could easily be dried with the whites.
That was about all I did. I made a Schwan's thing for dinner, and while it was OK, I won't buy it again. It's Mexican, and I think people in Minnesota have a different idea of Mexican than other people. Besides, it's a fussy thing to make. When I want fast food, I want it fast. Too much sodium, too. I'll eat the rest of it, but that's it.
The weather was a repeat of what we've had over the past few days, except that it was colder. We had several snow squalls that lasted an hour or so, and we also had a few rays of sunshine for a bit. The temperature was nearly steady at about 18º and the wind was gusty, up to about 27 mph from the north before it died down and shifted to the west. They are saying that tomorrow afternoon, we should get some system snow, but I'm always suspicious about that. We could get hammered, or we could get nothing.
I'm still trying to decide whether to go to church tomorrow. I don't like to leave Nancy as the only one in the second part of the three-part round, there's communion, I won't be going next week (Sunday School Program - YUCK!!!!) and I need to shop for food and get gas. I guess I'll just have to see how it looks tomorrow. When I looked at the Pasty cams this afternoon, it looked dire. It looked like there was at least a foot of new snow at the airport that hadn't been cleared, and it was just as bad in Houghton. Besides, I am so depressed, I just want to hide my head under the covers and not come out. So we'll see. It's not so bad here. We may have had 6" or 8" (it's hard to tell with the wind), but Ron hasn't felt it was necessary to plow yet, so it's OK. And besides, a delivery truck (either UPS or FedEx) came after dark last night and left my pills, so the road is still passable, and It's worse than the paved roads. We'll see.
The guys slept. Grayson slept on my lap for a long time this afternoon, although he was disgusted that I got up right after I ate and went into the powder room, where I read for quite a while. I was determined that I wasn't going to have another accident, and I didn't. Louie was around, and I heard him complaining about something, but he didn't ask to sit on me. When I got up the first time last night, they were both in bed with me, which made turning over hard, but they didn't move.
So that was another quiet day, and I'll be off to the north end shortly. It's a dark, cold, snowy night in the field.
December 9 I guess it was about 12:30 when I got to bed. I went up to the north end at a reasonable hour, but I went into zombie mode. I feel like I want to shut the door and go into hibernation and not come out until April, and I was thinking about that. I slept well, with only two wakeups, and I think I got up a bit before 10:00.
I knitted, of course, and before I stopped, I had to splice in a new ball of yarn. I know I have a way to go, but I am beginning to think I won't need to use all three balls of yarn. This annoys me, but it seems to happen fairly often. The thing about this one is that the yarn that was called for comes in a humungous hank, and nobody ever says how much yarn may be left. It's the same problem I had with the Russian shawl, where I have enough yarn left over to make a scarf. Well, that's all right. If I ever decide to use it, I can make a nice scarf out of the leftovers.
That was all I did. I still don't feel good, so I just sat - long enough to have a nasty accident, again. Well, tomorrow is washday, so I can wash my sweats.
The weather was just about like it's been for the past days except cooler. The high temperature was 26º, and that was at midnight. It's been going down very slowly ever since and now it's 20º. The wind finally went calm at 10:00, but it was up in the 20 mph range for most of the day. There were several snow squalls, but they were coming about every 2 hours for most of the day. It was dark and dreary. There was only 4" of new at Delaware yesterday, and I don't think there was that much today, but we won't find that out until Monday or Tuesday. They canceled the lake effect warning for Keweenaw County, but it's still up for Houghton. That's all right by me, although it may make it hard to get to church.\[
The guys slept. Grayson got some lap time, but Louie didn't. When I went into the laundry room this morning to get some clean clothes, I looked up and there was Grayson nestled down in a pile of towels, looking very comfy and very pleased with himself. He sort of glared at me, like he expected me to shoo him away, but I didn't. That's fine with me, if he wants to sleep there. They got fish for breakfast, which they both like. Now i have a new variety of canned food that they really like.
So that was my quiet day. The rest of my pills came today, after dark, including the one I'd run out of. Maybe that, as well as the rice I ate for dinner, will help my elimination, but I don't have much hope. Now it's a dark, cloudy, possibly snowy night in the field, and the temperature is going down...and down...and down...
December 8 I got to bed about 12:30 this morning, with clean hair, and I slept well. Evidently the wind shifted around then, to the north, and it warmed up in the house.
I stepped on a cat during the night, hard enough to make him cry out. I think it was Louie, but I couldn't see him - that's why I stepped on him - so I don't know for sure. He sat down right where I usually put my feet when getting into and out of bed, and he ought to know that by now, so I don't feel so bad. I had bare feet, too, so it wasn't like shoes or anything. He clawed me on the foot, which hurt for a while, but I don't think he got too deep. I haven't looked at it.
I got up around 9:30 and knitted, and I'm making progress. That was about all I did except clean up after an accident. I was up at the north end when Mary Ann called, and between us we decided the weather was just too iffy, so we didn't try to go to church. I guess I would have gone if it had just been me, but I was glad not to.
The weather was not good. We have about 3" or 4" of snow on the ground now. I can't report in detail because the weather station went down sometime yesterday and didn't come back up until 11:00 this morning. The high temperature was 32º at noon, and that was the high for the day. The wind has been from the north all day, and the highest gusts were 39 mph, so this snow event is still going on. It was a typical lake effect day, with snow and blowing snow one minute and sunshine the next. They got 8" of snow at Delaware yesterday, and I suppose they had as much today, but we didn't. The temperature has been going down slowly since noon, and I guess it's supposed to get really cold tomorrow and Saturday - north wind, you know.
With the wind that strong, driving would have been iffy at best. I think I would have tried it if it had been light out, but driving in the dark in the snow is not my favorite pastime, so I was glad Mary Ann decided we shouldn't go. Pastor understood; he couldn't get up that hill between Lake Linden and Laurium last night and had to go way around through Hancock to get home. Welcome to the Keweenaw, Pastor!
The guys mostly slept today. They both wanted lap time and they didn't get much. They know what to do in weather like this. They both slept with me last night. Grayson started out behind my knees, but when I had to turn over, he moved off into one corner of the end of the bed, where he could nestle down in the other quilt. I don't know where Louie went after I stepped on him - he ran away. They were still in bed when I got up this morning. Ah, to be a cat!
So that was a quiet day, and since I've already eaten dinner, I can go to bed any time. I still don't feel good, so it would be nice if I could go soon. We'll see how that works. It's a dark, cold, snowy, windy night in the field. Ah, winter in Keweenaw!
December 7 This is Pearl Harbor Day. I know most people have forgotten about it - it was 75 years ago, after all, and a lot more bad things have happened since - but it shaped the first six or seven years of my life - maybe most of my childhood - and it means something to me. I was only a bit over 4 months old when it happened, but it certainly affected my parents! So I always remember. I don't bear anybody any ill-will or anything, but I remember.
I fiddled around longer than I should have last night, so it was 1:00 before I got to bed. I slept very well, and I got up around 9:30. I knitted and I finished the third repeat of the leaves. Onward! I recalculated, and I actually only have around 340 stitches, but it still takes a while to do a row.
I didn't do very much today, but I did get the bulletin out early (around 4:00), and that gave me a little time to make a correction Pastor pointed out. Oh, yes, and I finally got the month's system updates installed on both systems. That meant updating Norton on the laptop, too, because I haven't used it lately. It was probably a good thing that I had to reboot, because the camera never came up this morning, so there were no pictures of when the snow started, darn it.
When I was up around 7:30, the wind was blowing fairly hard (23-27 mph from the west), but there was no snow. When I got up at 9:30, the snow had started, and it looked like we'd already had about an inch It snowed and blew all day and when I was out in the garage looking for the package that was delivered after dark (!) it looked like it was 2-3". But it's still snowing and the predictions are dire. I don't think we'll get to church tomorrow, although I'll wait and see how things are and how Mary Ann feels about it. The temperature was between 24º and 27º. The combination means it's cold in here. I need to get to the patio door and see if I can lock it down, but I didn't get to that today.
The Road Commission finally got around to updating the snow statistics, and they report that in November, we had about 12". Now that's up at Delaware. We didn't have anything like that here. And there's been 10" through the 5th. That puts us a bit ahead of last year, but we'll see how it plays out. Our big month last winter was January. Well, I don't think we can complain. We had a very long, warm fall, and pretty much everybody is happy with that.
The guys slept. Grayson wanted to sleep on me all day, because I'm warm, and he did get quite a bit of lap time, but not as much as he wanted. Louie wanted some, too, but he didn't get any, and he was sitting on his scratching pad when I went to get some dinner.
So it was a quiet day. The snow has finally come. Sigh. Now it's a cold, windy, snowy night in the field. it will be a couple of days before we can see the mountain again.
December 6 I got to bed about 12:30 last night, and I don't remember why. I slept very well, with the usual wakeups. The first time I was up, I had Louie up by my head on the left and Grayson behind my knees on the right. Grayson left, though, because he knows that when I get up I turn over and he was right where the body pillow goes. He could sleep up by my head or down by my feet, but no, that's not where he wants to be.
I got up around 9:30 and I knitted. I'm getting to the point where I will have to cut back to 2 rows. I'm going to finish the third repeat of the leaves tomorrow, I have almost 370 stitches, and that takes a long time to knit, even when the pattern is easy and I know it. The second row tomorrow is the one where I have to move the markers, too, and that slows me down. However, I'm making progress.
Then I didn't do anything else. Sigh. I made it to the bathroom without overflowing anywhere, and that was nice. I still don't feel good, although it appears I may be getting my appetite back, unfortunately. However, I decided to have a big salad tonight and that meant I couldn't eat all my rice, so my innards are still not right.
The weather was interesting, in a negative way. The high temperature was 41º from 8:00 AM to 1:00 PM before it fell off a bit. There was a bit of rain between 1:00 AM and 2:00 AM, and it was quite windy, with gusts up to 33 mph from the south, between 5:00 AM and 3:00 PM. Then in the next hour we had more rain (or I think it was rain) and the wind shifted to the west. For a while the wind dropped to almost nothing, but it's beginning to pick up again. There are dire warnings for lake effect snow for tomorrow through Friday, but we'll see how that goes. Sigh. I guess winter is finally here. I'm not sure we'll get to church on Thursday, but we'll just have to see how it goes.
The guys slept, mostly, but Grayson has been full of beans all day today. I don't know what got into him. He did get a lot of lap time, but I haven't seen Louie.
So that was a nothing day, and my head hurts again. I need to wait until the Mozart finishes, but then I think I'm going to try to go to bed early. I still don't feel good. Now it's a dark, cool night in the field and the snow is coming...the snow is coming...
December 5 I got to bed around midnight last night, and I slept pretty well. I got up about 9:00 and knitted.
I don't feel quite as depressed as I was yesterday, but that was a particularly bad day for some reason. I'm still at the stage where I want to sleep all the time, not when I can't sleep, so I guess it's not that bad. Not good, but not bad.
In fact, I nearly fell asleep around 2:00 this afternoon - with a gray cat on my lap - and then I waited too long to go to the bathroom, so I made a real mess. When I cleaned up from that and started a load of bottoms in the washer, I laid down and ended sleeping for around an hour, until Mary Ann called to tell me she wanted to go to choir tonight. It was just as well, because it was 4:00 and I needed to be up.
The roads weren't as bad as I'd feared, so we opened up the church. It was a good rehearsal. Kathleen was a bit late, but we practiced parts on some of the songs before she got there and then we began to get straightened around what we will be singing. Our song for Sunday is a neat one, and I think it's her own arrangement of "Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silent." She is an excellent musician.
So I got home around 9:30. I hope to go again on Thursday, partly to practice, and partly because we have a bible study starting up before choir. We'll see. The snow is beginning, so our getting there is iffy.
The weather today was all over the map. It snowed overnight, then between 6:00 and 11:00 we had a heavy rain shower - followed by half an hour or so of nearly clear skies and sunshine, before the clouds closed in again. Weird. The high temperature was 37º and it was very humid. There was almost no wind. Oh, that little peek of sunshine was lovely, just what I needed!
The guys thought so, too. Grayson slept on my lap until I had to move, and when I got in bed for my nap, Louie curled up behind my knees. When I got up, he immediately moved and curled up where I'd been sleeping. Smartypants.
So that was a quiet day, but I got what I needed and I do feel better tonight. The people in choir are lovely, and Mary Ann is always positive.
When we were driving down, the crescent moon was shining in the south and Venus was high in the west, so the clouds weren't too heavy. I could still see the moon when I turned in the driveway, but it was behind the clouds, so it's a cloudy, cold night in the field. The serious snows haven't started yet, though, so that's a plus.
December 4 Much to my surprise, I turned out the light at 9:30 last night. I wanted to do that, but usually what I want differs from what I do. I didn't sleep all that well, though. I was up several times, and when the alarm went off, I did not want to get up. But I did, and I was doing well until I stood up in the studio - and yuck. I didn't realize just how yuck until I got home, but yuck. So I had to change my undies and one compression stocking and I had to clean myself up, so instead of being early or on time, I was late. Sigh.
Church was good. Pastor's sermon was good and we sang well. They decorated the church today, and they had a potluck before - of course; Lutherans always want to eat! - and they invited me to stay, but I didn't. I came home and I didn't do anything for the rest of the afternoon. I still don't feel good, so I just went into zombie mode, and I only ate "dinner" around 10:30. Sigh.
The weather was blah. The temperature was nearly steady at 34º and there was almost no wind. Around 1:00 it started snowing lightly and it continued all afternoon. I think it's still snowing. It was dark and dull and uninspiring. Blah.
The guys slept, of course. They both got some lap time, but evidently I wasn't doing the right things, because they didn't stay long.
So it was a nothing day, and now it's a relatively warm, snowy night in the field. Blah.
December 3 I was later than I wanted to be last night, but I still got to bed before midnight. I got up around 8:15 (!) and I knitted, although my eyes were very gluey and I had some trouble seeing. No trouble knitting, although four rows took an hour an a half.
I did nothing. In the early afternoon, I almost fell asleep, and I felt like that all day.
The weather was not inspiring. It was dark and dull and dreary. The temperature was steady around 35º until just an hour or so, when it started down. There was no wind at all after noon. Blah. I guess there may be some snow tomorrow, but with any kind of luck, it won't start until I get home. There may be some snow over the next week or so, but the temperatures are apparently going to be fairly high, and the snow is going to be very light, so we're good. The tractor is home, too, so if there is anything serious, Ron can handle it.
The guys slept. Grayson spent a long time on my lap, although he left when I started to cough. I don't know why he does that. Louie just ignores coughs and blowing and twitching, but at the slightest sign of that, Grayson leaves. He seemed to be losing some fur, so I tried combing him, but it's clear that he's making fur now, because I didn't get anything much out of him. When I pet him, some comes off, but nothing like it will be in the spring. Louie sheds all the time, too, and more than Grayson does, but they are putting on their winter coats now - a whole lot later than usual, which I hope is a good sign.
So that was my quiet day and it's another dark night in the field, but there is no wind and it's not very cold.
December 2 So I was late last night, but not nearly as late as the night before. I slept well, even though I had a cat behind my knees for part of the night. He left when I turned over and he couldn't cuddle anymore. I got up around 11:00, I think, and I knitted. One reason this project is going so well is that the pattern I'm doing now is essentially the same one that was most of the maroon beaded shawl that I did last year, expanded a bit, so my fingers are used to it. As it gets bigger, it will go slower, of course, but for the next 50 rows or so I'll be doing something I'm familiar with. The edging is another story, but it will be a while before I get to that. I am glad I wasn't planning to wear it for Christmas.
Otherwise, I was late enough that I didn't do much. I went to the post office, where the tax bills had not come, darn it, and I got a Schwan's order. I broke down and ordered some rice from them, because I can't seem to make my own lately. It's called fried rice, and it's OK, but at least I'll be getting my rice.
The weather was blah. It was very dark and dreary. but the last snow stopped around 3:00 this morning. The temperature was nearly steady around 35º, plus or minus a degree or so, and the wind was from the north between 15 and 25 mph, slower later. All the snow I went through last night was gone from the roads today, so there was no problem driving or walking. Blah.
The guys reacted by sleeping. Grayson got some lap time, but Louie hasn't yet. I don't know how he decides where he wants to sleep in my bed. I wish he would just stay up beside my pillow, but sometimes he wants to be someplace else.
Oh, yes. The camera hung up at about 8:00 this morning, and it was 4:00 before I got it restarted. I had to stop some stuff that uses Explorer, which is a frequent problem I have. I'm not sure whether it's the camera driver software or something else, but clearly there's a data leak someplace. It's annoying, but there's not much I can do about it.
And I talked to Johanna this afternoon. She and her family are moving down to southeastern Michigan, at least for the winter. Scott has gotten a job down there that will pay him a lot more than he can get here, and he as some serious bills from his baseball injury (he was at a minor league baseball game several years ago when a foul ball hit him in the mouth and caused all sorts of damage that is only now finally getting fixed). I'm so sorry she's going, but she'll be back in the spring, and then we'll see what happens. This is a common problem around here, and a lot of younger people have to leave for that reason. She is having some health problems of her own, but hopefully those will be taken care of over the winter. It was good to talk to her, and I'm sorry to see her go, but I understand. She is so sweet!
So it was a quiet day, and now it's a dark, cloudy night in the field, but at least the weather seems to have settled down for a day or so.
December 1 It blows my mind to write that! Where did the year go??
I was ridiculously late last night. After fooling around for too long, I got up in the bathroom and began plotting out Trine 14 from where I left it off a couple of years ago. I am depressed enough to feel I want to write. Now to find the time to do it...
Anyway, I did get my bath. I slept fairly well, with the usual wakeups. I got up around noon, I think, and that was because I got two phone calls within 15 minutes of each other. It turns out one was from Johanna, but I forgot to look at the answering machine until just now. Evidently she is leaving for at least the winter, so I need to talk to her.
The phone woke me up, of course, so I decided I might as well get up, I knitted, and I completed the second repeat of the leaf pattern, so I'm making progress. The past two days, I've been knitting pretty fast, which is a good thing.
Tonight was choir, and it had been snowing and/or raining all day, so I left around 5:30. It took me almost an hour to get to Laurium. I went slowly, because I wasn't sure how slippery the road might be. The temperature was somewhere between 29º and 34º (by my car) all the way, and in spots the road was partly snow covered, so I was cautious. The worst part, actually, was the parking lot.
Barbara and Ted were there already, and so was Pastor. Barbara has taken over as our librarian, and she had a lot of filing to do, so they came early. Choir was good, especially after Kathleen got there. We began working on our Christmas music. I have to laugh. In the choirs i sang in downstate, we would have started that in the middle of October, but of course, things have been sort of mixed up at church. It was a long rehearsal.
We didn't leave until 9:00 and it had been snowing from about Central north, and the road was partly to mostly snow covered, so it was a slow ride home. Somebody had been down the covered road before me, which helped, but I road the rumble strip most of the way anyway. At least at this time of year, I can cut the curves, which helps. I am extremely careful about using my brakes when the road may be slippery, especially on curves. I got home around 10:00, and then I had to make something to eat.
Well, it's hard to complain. This is the first of December, and only about a week ago, we had our first snow of any kind. The Road Commission hasn't updated the snow report, and if they don't by Monday, I may have to call and ask them why. I know up at Delaware, they had at least a couple of inches last week, and there should be more up there now. We haven't had much, and when I came home, while there was snow in spots on our road, it was mostly just wet. The snow is wet enough that every twig and branch is covered, and I was sorry it was dark when I was out driving around, because it must be beautiful. I don't care how hard it is to get around in the snow, it's still beautiful to look at.
The weather wasn't nice. It was extremely dark and dreary, and there was some snow this morning as well as this evening. The high temperature was actually at midnight, and it was steady around 34º all day. It's gone down some now, but not much. It was windy, with north winds around 22 mph and gusts as high as 31 mph. The snow was light enough that it didn't register in the rain gauge, but i doubt we had an inch all day.
The guys slept. I didn't see anything of either of them, except in passing. Grayson welcomed me home and got some petting, but Louie just slept.
So that was my rather truncated day, and I'm going to try not to be so late tonight. I need to begin writing, but I"m not sure when I'll have time for that.
Now it's a dark, cold, snowy night in the field, and it's December. Sigh.
Last updated 01/01/17 08:39 PM |