j1701

A View From the Field

January. 2017

January 31

So we've made it through January. Sigh.

I got to bed around 10:45 again last night, and I slept very well - I was really tired. I was awake around 7:30, but I didn't feel at all well, so I went back to bed and it was 10:00 before I got up. I felt much better then, but that's not saying much.

I knitted about 12 rows, I think. I finished the fifth repeat and started the sixth, so I'm getting there. The piece is getting quite large, but it's a real treat not to have it getting bigger and bigger with each row.

I embroidered through the talking and I just finished the first cut at the bulletin, and that's about all I did.

I still don't feel very good. I was so sore this morning that I had to take some Tylenol, and that seemed to help some. My shoulders are really bothering me, and my left hip is making it hard to walk. Well, it will all go away eventually, but in the meantime, it's the pits.

It was snowing when I got up this morning, and it snowed lightly off and on all day. It looks like we may have gotten 2" or 3", but not more. The temperature started out around 21º. but it's been 29º for several hours. There was a bit of wind, but not much, from the north, of course. It was dark and cloudy and gray all day.

The guys slept. Nobody came and sat on me. Grayson thought he wanted what I was eating - he really didn't - and when i didn't give him any, he went away. Louie slept. He was asleep on the rug in the bathroom while I was knitting, and he was snoring so loudly it's a wonder he didn't wake himself up. We all snore, of course.

So that was my day, and now it's a cold, dark night in the field, but I don't think it's snowing now.

January 30

I turned out the light at 10:45 last night, and it was a pretty good night. I was up three times, and I got up at 7:00. I didn't really want to, but I knew what would happen if I went back to bed. So I'm really tired now. I knitted, and I think I did 12 rows - quite a lot, but I'll be finishing the fifth repeat tomorrow. I'm getting anxious to start the border, now that I have my long needle.

I did my surfing, and then I actually fell asleep in front of the computer. It was only for a few minutes, but I was definitely out. I think the only reason I woke up was that it was very uncomfortable, and I need to be comfortable when I sleep. After I went to the powder room and started a load of bottoms - my black slacks got all stained with road salt yesterday, so I had to wash - I laid down for a while, but I couldn't sleep then because I was so cold. So I got up and had a cup of hot chocolate, and that warmed me up. I really don't like the taste of dried milk very much, but if I have it, I have milk when I want it, instead of throwing away bottle after bottle that go bad.

I didn't do anything for the rest of the afternoon. I don't feel at all well.

The weather was blah, but cold. The temperature finally rose to 24º around 7:00 PM. It was colder for most of the day. The wind is from the southwest, which means it will be warmer tomorrow, but it was very light for most of the day. There were a few gusts up to 20 mph, but they didn't last long. It was cloudy and dull. Blah.

The guys slept. Grayson got some lap time, but Louie was content to sleep beside me when I went back to bed. It was nice - he's so hot that he warmed me up. While I was in bed, he was on the right side of the pillow and Grayson was on the left. I don't know if they know I don't feel good, but they want to be around me.

So that was a very quiet day. I feel better since I ate something - when I'm not feeling good, I don't get hungry, I just get feeling worse, but food does help. I'm not eating much.

So now it's a dark, cloudy night in the field, and I'm off to the north end.

January 29

Well, I wanted to go to bed early tonight, but MS backup decided to do a complete backup, so I guess I'm stuck until it finishes. Grr.

I made it into bed by 9:45 last night, and I slept quite well. I didn't get up for the first time until 2:00. I woke up around midnight because there was an altercation in the bathroom but I went back to sleep. After that, it was off and on. I tried to turn onto my left side but I couldn't go back to sleep that way, so I had to turn back onto my right side. I was up twice more, the last time at 6:00. I wasn't going to get up then, although it probably would have been better if I had, because I was asleep when the alarm went off, and the woman who announced WGGL had a very grating voice.

So I got up and did my thing, but I didn't get away until around 9:15, so I was later than I wanted to be getting to church. My driveway and our road were in pretty good shape, considering, but US-41 was snow covered all the way to Mohawk, so it was slow going. I got behind a guy towing two snowmobiles, and he was going so slowly that I had to pass him. There was a surprising amount of traffic for that hour of a Sunday. There were the usual people going to Mt. Bohemia to ski - they were all coming back when I was going home - but there was even some traffic going to Copper Harbor, and I don't know what they were doing.

Church was good. We sang well and there was communion, and there were a surprising number of people there, which is a good sign. I just remembered that I forgot to sign a communion card, but oh, well. I'll do that Thursday, if I remember.

I was not moving well. My left hip is sore, as are both shoulders, so I was sort of creeping along.

Then i had to get gas. The price has gone down a tad, I'm glad to say ($2.399), but still, I put about $50 into it. Well, I have to have gas.

The trip home was even slower than the trip down, because it had been snowing lightly all the time and the part of the road they had salted was snow covered, as well as the whole rest of the road. It took me an hour, which is really long, but I wasn't going to go fast and maybe end up wrapped around a tree. When I turned down Woodland Road, Dave was coming toward me on the tractor, so the road will continue to be in good shape. He didn't do my driveway, but it seems to be fine. The only iffy part is right in front of the garage, and that wasn't enough to slow me down.

I had some lunch - the rest of my dinner from last night - and did nothing for the rest of the afternoon. I even dozed a bit, with a cat on my lap. I wanted to write, but I just couldn't. And I really want to go to bed - NOW!! But that nasty backup is still running. I really should look into another backup program, because the one that came with Windows 7 is junk, but oh, well.

The weather was very cold and snowy. The high temperature was only 19º - not pleasant when I was pumping gas! - and there was a rather strong wind from the north or northeast with gusts up to 30 mph. It snowed lightly for most of the day, but not enough to register at the weather station. I doubt there was more than an inch or two of new.

The guys slept, at least when I was around. Grayson slept on me, but evidently my lap isn't the most comfortable place for him, and besides, I keep moving my arms around. He has been sleeping on the desk sometimes, and I had it nice and warm in here this afternoon. I didn't see much of Louie, but he sleeps in weird places anyway.

So that was a quiet, wintry day, and now it's a very cold, snowy night in the field, and I will be off to the north end as soon as I can go.

January 28

I was later than I wanted to be last night. So why should I be surprised? I turned out the light around 11:30 again. I got up about 10:00, and when I looked out the windows, I turned my back to it and knitted about 8 rows, I think.

And that was all I did, besides my surfing. I played various games after I was done with my surfing.

One thing that did happen is that around 5:30 or so I began to feel quite ill - headachy and not well - but when I went out to get my dinner, I drank a lot of water and I felt much better. I have always tried to drink a fair amount of water, because of my kidneys, but today I forgot to fill my mug. Maybe I can remember after this. It made a big difference. I take a diuretic, and I have to remember that.

I'm still not very hungry most of the time, and I seem to have lost another 10 pounds, which concerns me, but on the other hand, I haven't been eating as much as I was before I got sick in November (or whenever I had that sinus thing last fall). I seem to have changed the things I'm eating, too, to smaller portions and less calorific things. Well, when you've survived cancer, you always think about things like that, but mostly I'm OK.

Except for my joints. My left shoulder bothers me most of the time, and my left hip is getting hard to walk on. I'm sure both of those things will go away eventually, but in the meantime, I hurt a lot.

The weather probably didn't help, either. It was cold - the high temperature during the day was 19º - and windy - up to 38 mph gusts from the north - and even though the weather station didn't report it, it snowed off and on - mostly on - all day. when I got up, it looked like it did last week when it was so foggy, but one look out the north windows told me that wasn't fog, it was snow being blown horizontal. The only good thing about that was that the humidity was under 80% all day. It looked to me like we might have gotten an inch or two on the ground, but I don't know what the culverts look like. I'll see tomorrow.

The guys were sleepy. Louie asked once to sit on me, but I was busy and about to get up, so he didn't get to. Grayson got to sleep on my lap two different times. He thought he wanted both my breakfast and my dinner, but I know he doesn't like those things, so he was frustrated.

So that was a quiet day, and now I have to toddle up to the north end and get ready for tomorrow. It's a cold, dark, and possibly snowy night in the field.

January 27

I was late again last night, not unusual for a Thursday, and not as late as the night before. I got up around 10:30, so I should have had enough sleep, but I'm tired again.

i knitted, but only six rows. I would like to do eight, but for some reason, this took me about an hour. While I was knitting PastyNet called to say that someone would be over to check on my receiver, so I got myself up and going.

It was my neighbor Mike, and he not only checked the receiver, he had a UPS for me! So with any kind of luck, the next time we have a power failure, the computer and the NetGear gizmo won't even see it. I have my fingers crossed. He discovered that the reason for my reception problems seems to be that all the screws holding the receiver to the deck had come loose! Well, with the weather we had in December, I guess I'm not very surprised. So my receiver wasn't pointing at the Mountain Lodge and every time the wind shifted, it would point somewhere else, and these things are very sensitive to that. He came back later and fixed it, and things are better now. Not the kind of speed I was getting last year, but at least about 80% of my highest speeds. As long as it holds up, I'm happy. I haven't tried to stream video yet, but I'm sure the speed is high enough for that.

I went to the post office, where there were all the 1099s and some magazines, as well as the knitting needles, and I got a large Schwan's order. I guess I'm going to be eating a lot of fish for the next few weeks, but that's all right. I like fish, and it's good for me. Three times a week instead of two, I think.

The weather was rather nondescript. The temperature finally has gotten up to 34º, but for most of the afternoon it was around 31º. The wind was from the north, and it was rather strong, with gusts as high as 33 mph. It was cloudy and dull all day. Meh.

The guys slept, of course. Grayson finally got some lap time before dinner, but I was up and around too much before then. He liked it when Mike came, because he loves people who will pay attention to him, and Mike has several cats. Louie, of course, hid, and he didn't come out until after I got home with my food. Well, he missed it. Mike would have petted him, too.

So that was another quiet day, and now it's a dark, windy night in the field, but it's not very cold. Yet.

January 26

Ooh! I was going to close up shop and go to bed when I realized that I hadn't done a journal. Oops. I'm tired.

I was late again last night, but nothing like the night before, and I slept well. I got up around 9:30, I think, and I ended up knitting for two hours. The rows I was doing today are ones that take a long time to do, including one that has a decrease every other stitch. However, I finished the fourth repeat, and I only have three more to do, so it's coming along.

Tonight I fixed the mistakes I found in my graph of the edging and I reprinted the border, and it did much better. The printer still isn't right, and when I do several pages in a few days, it gets very confused. I also printed another pattern that is in color, and it came out with streaks. I guess it's because I'm running out of colored ink, and I STILL can't figure out why that is, since I haven't used any since the last time I changed cartridges. I mean, this printer is a real lemon.

I didn't do much else because I had to go to church tonight, and I spent a couple of hours this afternoon catching up on my reading for Bible study. This is a very interesting study, but the book is certainly not light reading! It is called "The Benefits of Weekly Communion" and after it's done, I think we will be having communion every week at both churches. I think that's a good thing, even though it means we won't be having Matins again. The study begins with an overview of church history, and that in itself is very interesting and enlightening. Choir was pretty good, too, even though Kathleen wasn't there (she's out of town). We have several things to sing that we know and like and a couple to practice. so that is coming well. Nancy has taken over choosing what we sing, and she's doing well.

The trip down to church was lovely. The road was clear and almost dry, so we made very good time. Coming home, however, was a different thing. It apparently started snowing just after we went into church at 5:30, so by the time we got out, there was snow on the road and it was a bit slippery. Then I got behind a guy who was driving very erratically (ooh, how I hate that!!) and for most of the trip to the Eagle Harbor Cutoff, he was going 35 mph or slower. Occasionally he would waver a bit or put on his brakes for no reason at all or speed up or slow down, or...Aarrgghh!! And with the snowy road and the darkness, there was no way I could even think about passing him. Very thankfully, he turned at the Eagle Harbor Cutoff, and for a while the road was just wet, but when we got on the covered road, it was snow covered, and around Lake Medora it was drifting. It took me an hour and a quarter to get home, and I didn't stop for more than a couple of minutes to let Mary Ann off. So winter has returned.

It really has. The temperature went down from midnight, and the high during the day was 32º, briefly around 6:00. For most of the day it was 30º or lower. There was a wind, too, around 25 mph, with gusts as high as 38 mph. It was dull and gray all day. The only thing about it that I appreciate is that the humidity was marginally lower, so I wasn't quite as sore as I've been lately. While it did snow off and on after about 6:00, it wasn't enough to register at the weather station. I don't think there was more than half an inch anywhere, but with the temperature so warm, it was a bit slippery.

I don't enjoy driving in that kinc of weather, at least at night, and that on top of not getting enough sleep last night left me very tired when I got home. Dinner helped, but I'm going to bed now.

The guys slept, although Grayson still seems to be feeling very good. I passed them in the great room this afternoon, both curled up in the pink chair, with Grayson's back up against Louie's belly. I can attest to the fact that Louie is a very hot cat, so I imagine Grayson was very comfy.

So that was my day. I was happy that I got to church and I hope to continue to do that, in spite of the weather, which appears to be getting back to normal. Now it's a cold, dark, snowy night in the field.

January 25

I tried to pull an all-nighter last night, but I was too tired. It was ridiculously late when I got to bed, though. I don't intend that to happen tonight. Part of it was that I kept thinking of things I wanted to check out online, and part of it was that I was playing that insidious game, and just as I was thinking about stopping it, a couple of the colored balls - they turned out to be yellow and purple, I think - turned to gray and black, and I couldn't figure out why. I finally figured it out today, but I only played long enough to determine that it's back to normal.

I got up around 11:00 - not nearly enough sleep - and I knitted about 8 rows. I was knitting rather fast, for lace, and that's about all I can do in an hour. I'm still enjoying this project. The yarn is very nice and the pattern has enough changes in it to be challenging.

The only thing I did this afternoon was to pay a bunch of bills. I still don't know where I'm going to get the money for my taxes, but I'll figure that out after the first of the month. After the taxes, things should be a bit better, at least until September.

Ron called, and the tractor has been fixed. He found someone to do the welding, so now we are back in business, and the blower is not being held onto the tractor by a hydraulic jack!

That's good, because we may be in for some more wintry weather. It didn't happen today, though. The temperature was steady at right about 35º, plus or minus a degree, and nothing came down out of the sky. The wind has picked up a bit, into the 10-20 mph range from the north, and I can hear the lake muttering in the background. It was dull and gray all day long, so I ignored it.

So did the guys. Nobody got any lap time today, because they only came around when I was doing something else. I'm sorry, but that happens.

So tonight I am going to try to get to bed early, although I'm not sure I will, because I have a call in to PastyNet about my Internet speed, which has gone completely to pot. This is my third call about it, but nothing seems to be happening. We'll see if they call me back.

Now it's a dark, breezy night in the field and a change in the weather is coming.

January 24

Today is the anniversary of another milestone in my life. Forty-three years ago tonight, I was lying in the hospital, having just had my burst appendix removed and with a raging case of peritonitis. And overnight, I was given an overdose of morphine that almost did me in. For all the things that have happened to me since, I've never been sicker or had more pain than I did that day...and it wasn't from the surgery.

Last night, I was a bit later than I wanted to be, but I zoned out in the bathroom again. I slept fairly well, at least until after about 4:00, but I hurt. It was mostly my left hip, although my left shoulder was sore, too. I got up around 8:00, I think, because I was so sore I couldn't lie in bed any longer.

I knitted for just over an hour, which is a reasonable time. I'm making progress. I think I'm just about half done with the center. Sometimes it takes me longer than other times, but I'm fairly familiar with the pattern now, and while I dropped a couple of yarn-overs that I had to pick up, I didn't have any serious problems.

The task of the day was the bulletin, and I got that done without much trouble, although I've already updated it once, and I may do another one tomorrow, depending. This week is the same at both churches, so it was fairly easy, and Shannon has a good handle on the calendar. All that makes my job a lot easier.

The weather was nearly the same as it's been. It was foggy overnight, but the fog went away by about 4:00 AM, and there wasn't any more today. The high temperature was 37º, but it was 36º for most of the afternoon. There was a bit more wind than there has been, but not a lot. The highest was 13 mph, and that was only for an hour. It was dark and dull and cloudy. Blah.

the guys slept. For various reasons, nobody got any lap time. They only came around when I was doing something else. Otherwise, they slept. Grayson was all jazzed up this morning, and I took the rope off the bathroom door and played with him for quite a while, while Louie sat outside the door and I guess wondered what in the world had come over that gray guy. I don't think Louie really knows how to play at all.

So that was another quiet day, and now it's a cloudy, warmish night in the field. I understand a change in the weather is coming, and I hope so. I'm tired of hurting.

January 23

Today is my parents' 77th wedding anniversary. I always mark it, because without it, I wouldn't be here, and overall, it's been a good life.

I was a bit later than I wanted to be last night, but it was only 10:45 or so when I turned out the light. I slept very well, actually, with only two wakeups, and I got up at 7:30. I knitted enough to make up for what I didn't do yesterday, so I was late getting to the studio. I will have to try to keep it down to an hour or an hour and a half, just so I can have breakfast at a reasonable hour.

Not that I did anything. I got a call from Mary Ann, which touched me, but she was afraid something had happened to me because I wasn't in church yesterday. I updated the software on both computers, but that wasn't much of a chore, because there were only two updates. They were important, though - security updates. I cooked my turkey tonight. I was planning to do it yesterday, but I forgot. It's good, but a bit too salty for my taste. I enjoyed it, though, and I'll enjoy it for the rest of the week. It makes wonderful sandwiches.

While the turkey was cooking and the talking was on, I embroidered, and I made some progress. I stopped in the middle of a small area of over-one, though (on 32 count linen!) and that will have to wait until tomorrow. I want to finish this project, because I hate to have UFOs, but it's not very interesting and I'm not enjoying it very much. So I want to get it over with soon, so I can go on to something more fun.

The weather started out dull and gray but without any fog, but around 1:00 the top of the mountain went away and by 3:30, I was socked in again. It was a little lighter at dusk - I could see the lighthouse - but it was still very foggy. The high temperature was 38º for a couple of hours after noon, but then it went down and it's been 35º for the last few hours. Again, there was almost no wind, and it's been calm since 6:00 PM. The humidity was over 95% all day, and it's 100% now. Oh, my achin' joints!

The guys slept. Grayson got some lap time, but Louie only came around once when Grayson was already on my lap, so he didn't get any. Grayson felt good this morning, attacking the rug I have down for them in the bathroom.

So it was a quiet day, and now it's another warmish, foggy night in the field.

January 22

The best laid plans, and all that.

I got to bed about 9:45 because after I took my bath, I just sat for a while. i went right to sleep, but after I was up for the first time, the rest of the night was restless. The Tylenol only acts for 4 or 5 hours, so after about 3:00, I kept waking up because I hurt and I had to move. I actually woke up around 6:15, but I turned onto my back and dozed off and the alarm woke me up at 7:00. That's apparently my normal wakeup time, but it cuts things a bit fine when I want to get started early for church.

Well, I started. I got all dressed, got everything together and left the garage. I slid some on the east-west part of the driveway, but I made it out onto the road. And I kept sliding sort of sideways, even though I was going very slowly (5-10 mph). When I got to the bottom of the hill, by Lake Lily, and looked up that hill on the south side, I turned the car around - thanking the county all the time - and went home. I was just too timid to try to get up that hill and risk ending up in a snowbank again.

So I stayed home. I changed my clothes and did nothing for the rest of the day. Well - I read, but I also played games. Nothing.

Not that I would have had an easy time getting to church. We were totally fogged in all day. If you didn't have all the pictures I do, where I can see the difference in the lighting, you would have thought the camera had stopped working. After dark, when I went to get my dinner, the fog had lifted at so at least I could see the lights of town, but it will probably come back down. The high temperature for the day was 37º and the wind was calm. Well, there was a bit of breeze a couple of times - maximum 4.5 mph. Calm. So I ignored the whole thing.

So did the guys. They mostly slept, but they both got a lot of lap time, although Louie got booted off when he bit me. I was combing him, and I got all the knots out yesterday, so why he was so annoyed, I don't know. Grayson sat and slept and sat again. They know what to do in weather like this!

I am still extremely sore. I took more Tylenol this morning, and it helped a bit for a while, but I don't want to start taking it more than twice a day, because it's hard on the liver and kidneys. So I sit, and I hurt, and I imagine I will have another restless night.

Now it's a warmish, calm, foggy night in the field. With any kind of luck, we'll be over this in a day or so.

January 21

Well, I got to bed around 9:30 last night, I think, but I did not have a good night. It's so humid that I hurt, pretty much all over, but my shoulders and my hips especially. So after the first 3 hours, I mostly dozed and tossed.

When I woke up that first time, the clocks were blinking. What? It was warm and nearly without wind so, what?

I suppose some tree branch that had been full of snow snapped and landed on a power line. So I set the clock in the bedroom, but I didn't do the one in the bathroom until this morning.

The clock in the bathroom is broken: the minute button doesn't work at all, so my current strategy is to wait to reset it until the hour, then pull the plug. So far, it's been working fine, and I'm usually within a minute or two of the actual time - today I think it's right on. It's a pain, but I don't want to lay out any money for a new clock radio unless I have to.

I got up shortly after 7:00, but I knitted for a couple of hours. I did at least 10 rows, but it wouldn't have taken so long if I hadn't screwed up the pattern a couple of times and had to correct it. That is so much easier if there is a plain row between the pattern rows! I'm not quite sure what I did this time, but I lost a stitch somewhere. I think I have it back together, because it looks right, but I'm not going to obsess about it. I hope it's right, but probably nobody will ever see it if it isn't.

That was about all I did. I didn't feel very robust, and I hurt, so I sat and played games. Sigh. I do that every so often, you've no doubt noticed.

The weather was sort of yucky. The high temperature was 37º, and the lowest the humidity got was 89%. There was almost no wind. Yuck!! The dense fog they were predicting didn't happen, at least here, but it was dark and cloudy and hazy all day. My joints were jumping even though I took some Tylenol this morning. I don't like this weather.

The guys don't either. Grayson wanted to sit on me all day, and when he went away, Louie came and sat. The only good thing is that between what I did up at the north end and what I did today, I've finally gotten the knots out of his coat. He was not a happy camper, but I'm sure he will be more comfortable in the long run. He has some long, coarse guard hairs on his back, but his undercoat is fluff, and so soft! The only problem with that is, it needs to be tended to regularly, and he doesn't, and he hasn't sat on me enough lately that I've been able to do much with it either. So I got the last of the knots out, and then he laid on his side and I rubbed his tummy until I had to do some typing. They both love that. Actually, it's not their tummies - it's their rib cages and up under their forelegs. I get really good purrs out of that, and I'm happy, too, because it's been a long time since I've had any cats who would let me touch their undersides.

So that was my quiet day, and now it's a warm, cloudy, foggy night in the field - and it's still warm.

January 20

I got to bed a bit after 11:00 last night, which is good for a choir night, but then, we were early getting home. I slept very well, and I got up a bit after 7:00. I would like to have gone back to bed, but I was stiff and sore.

So I got up and knitted, but I only did six rows, because I screwed up again and it took me a lot of counting and recounting to get it right and I decided not to push it.

Ron came around about the time I was making my breakfast and now my driveway is as nice as the road is, which eases my mind a lot. It was ugly out there last night. And about five minutes after he left, the propane truck came around and filled up my tanks. They weren't really low - about 45% total - but still. Nobody thinks winter is over with, so I'm glad he came while the weather was good.

I didn't do a lot today, but I went to the post office and I got the package that has been at the store for two weeks - and that was my Imodium, which I've found I really need. There wasn't much mail, but that's all right.

While the talking was going on, I ripped out all the work I did on the sampler and did it over again, pulled much less tightly. It still puckers a bit, but it's much better, and I like how it looks much better, too. It's easier to work, because I can see between the threads of the fabric to put my needle. I didn't finish the area, but there's not much more to do.

The weather was warm again, but it got cloudy, and it appears that it may be drizzling or something. The high temperature was 39º, and there was hardly any wind again. Unfortunately for my joints, the humidity was over 80% all day, and over 90% for a good portion. I was so sore this morning that I had to take some Tylenol, and I'm sore again. While it got cloudy around noon, it was mostly bright clouds, so it wasn't too dismal. Well, we all knew the clear blue skies couldn't last.

When I got up the first time, around 2:00, Orion was hanging in the west, so bright and clear, and I could see the Pleiades over in the northwest. That was before moonrise. There is a star in the west around 5:00 that I haven't been able to identify yet. It might be Procyon, although it seems a bit too far north for that, but there aren't a lot of bright stars in that part of the sky, and besides, I'm not sure just how accurate my planisphere is. Sadly, there probably won't be any stars tonight.

The guys slept. Grayson got some lap time a couple of times. Louie wanted some but we have a difference of opinion. He has developed a whole lot of knots on his right flank, back by his tail. I want to get rid of them, but it hurts when I comb them out, and he doesn't like that. He actually managed to bite me this morning. I keep working away at them, though, and I think I have most of them out. I know it hurts, but it would hurt a whole lot more if I left them and let them get really big.

So it was another quiet day, and I'll be going up to the north end early tonight. It's a warmish, moist, cloudy night in the field.

January 19

I was stupidly late last night - after 1:00 - but I zoned out, mostly, I think, because I know what a struggle it can be to shower. It wasn't, but somehow I never learn. And I woke up before 8:00 this morning. Since I didn't know when the drain guy would be here, I got up. I didn't have to, but more about that later.

I knitted about 10 rows and realized that they weren't going to call me and they were going to be late, so I got dressed and ate my breakfast. I was doing my surfing when I heard what sounded like a snowmobile on the road, and by golly, it was - a snowmobile and two guys! One was Trevor, and the other one never identified himself.

They never did find out why the drain wouldn't run, but they saw that it wasn't, and then, after they opened up the line and closed it again, it did. They checked in the basement and it was running out, and they found the vents in the roof (long story - not germane), but it seems like some air got into the pipe somehow and clogged it up. We don't know why. Anyway, my drain is running again. I immediately ran the dishwasher, and as far as I know, there were no problems draining.

So I didn't do much for the rest of the afternoon. I tried to start to get ready to go out at 3:15, but I caught myself.

We made it to bible study and to choir. Bible study was good, and I think I'm going to enjoy it. It's about why we should celebrate communion every week. Choir took about 15 minutes - we practiced a song for Sunday, and that was it, because Kathleen came up sick and couldn't get there.

So we started home before 8:00. I didn't mind, and I don't think Mary Ann did, either. I was home before 9:00, which is nice, because I'm exhausted.

Our road and US-41 are fine. The straight part of my driveway (the part that runs east and west) isn't. It's a mess, and it needs to be ground up and flattened down before it freezes again. I had a hard time getting out and back in again. I like it better when it gets cold and stays cold.

The weather was warm and sunny again. The high temperature was 39º, but only for a while. It was above freezing for several hours. There was almost no wind, and it was a dead calm for several hours. That meant we had fog. After we left, and for a couple of hours afterwards, the harbor was socked in. If you looked at the camera between 4:30 and 6:30, what you couldn't see was not snow - it was fog. It was horribly foggy in Calumet and patchy north of there, both coming and going. It was so humid, it's not surprising that I hurt.

My Internet connection was hurting, too. Something nasty happened to PastyNet today, and there were times when I was only getting dial-up speeds - 28.8kbps. I had hoped it would be better when I got home, but it's not, and I couldn't even listen to the music. I hope they get it fixed by tomorrow.

The guys slept. Grayson got a lot of lap time, but Louie didn't even try. They slept all afternoon in the sun, Louie on the couch and Grayson in the pink chair.

I need to go and do likewise, in my bed. Now it's a clear, warmish night in the field. And I am tired!

January 18

Well, I don't have a running sink drain - or at least it's not running very well. Grr. So the guy has to come back, and my bill will undoubtedly be a big one. Oh, sigh.

I got to bed a bit after 11:00 last night, and I don't remember quite why. I slept well, with the usual wakeups, and I got up around 7:30, I think. I didn't want to, but I knew if I went back to sleep, it would be too late when I got up. So I got up and knitted about 9 rows, and I think everything is on track again, although I lost my concentration a couple of times and had to rip a few stitches. I'm so used to those sanity markers that it's really hard to knit without them, but if I put them in, I'd be moving them on every row, which would slow me down too much. And the needle I decided to use didn't come apart. Thanks for small favors.

I didn't do much of anything except determine that the drain is not running. It's a bit better than it was yesterday, but there is clearly still an obstruction in it somewhere. So I called the drain guy and explained the situation to him, and Trevor will be back tomorrow. He'll have to go down to the basement, but Randy assures me they can deal with that. Sometime I'm going to have to go down there, too, but not yet.

I made more changes to the bulletin. A lady whom I had been friendly with - I didn't like her, but I felt very sorry for her - passed away on Monday, and she was only 58. She had had a hard life, though, and she had kidney and bladder problems, as well as who knew what else. Well, she's in a better place now.

Otherwise, I read a bit and I actually tried to do some stitching on the alphabet sampler that I've been working on forever. When I stopped working on it, I was trying to start an area of pulled thread stitches, and I had a terrible time with it. I think it's all right now, but it's a large area and I don't like the stitch very much, so I didn't get much done. If I can get over that, the next parts will be better. My counts seem to be off, too, but I don't know if the stitching is off or the sanity lines I put in are off. Whatever.

The weather was amazing again. It was sort of cloudy at sunrise, but it cleared up quickly, except for some light fog, and the afternoon was clear and blue. There were a few clouds at sunset, but that only gave us some lovely pink and mauve clouds that the camera couldn't see. The temperature got up to 42º briefly, at noon, but it was above freezing for most of the afternoon. We haven't lost a whole lot of snow, which shows just how much we had. There was some wind in mid-afternoon, but not a lot and it's now nearly calm again. It's very humid, which my joints had already told me. But oh, those blue, blue skies! Wow!

The guys were sleepy. They both got some lap time, and Grayson got a lot of lap time. When I woke up the first time last night, Louie was in bed with me, and this time he had bedded down on the end by the window, so I could get in and out and roll over without bothering him very much. I wish he'd learn from that. They both like the sunny skies, and they slept in the great room again.

So that was my quiet day. Now it's a clear (I think) warmish night in the field, and I have to wash my hair. Ugh.

January 17

Now I have a running sink drain again. Oh, the joys of the happy householder!

I think I was fairly late last night - like after 11:00, but I don't remember now. I was up a few times, as usual, but it didn't bother my rest very much. I woke up around 7:00, also as usual, but I didn't feel like getting up, so I dozed or slept until around 8:00. I was trying to knit when the drain guys called to say they were coming, so I didn't get to knit much.

I wouldn't have been able to do much anyway, because I was knitting my second row when the end of the left-hand needle came off. Yikes! So I dropped a bunch of stitches, and it took me a while to get everything back to the way I think it should be. I started the third row, but after I got to the place where the stitches dropped and spent some time getting them back together, I stopped. Tomorrow.

The drain guy came with his power snake and he found a couple of places where there were plugs. I'm not sure he did a complete job, but after he ran a whole lot of hot water down the drain, it seemed to be running pretty well. And he told me not to put bones down it. Oh. I thought that was one thing that should go down the disposal. Well, stuff changes. It's nice to be able to use the disposal and the dishwasher again, although I don't think I will do dishes for a few days. Nancy washed everything that was in the sink, so I have clean dishes.

Oh, and when I took out another knitting needle to use, the end of it fell off, too! So after I ate my breakfast - I don't really like cold fried eggs very much - I called the place I got them and complained. So one of these days, I should be getting two new 24" needles and a 40" needle, which I will need for the border. It turned out that I had a $10 credit with them, and since two of the needles are replacements, there is no shipping, so I ended up not having to pay anything! Nice.

I didn't do much else for the rest of the day. I am still stiff and sore from Sunday, so I sat. I did do a first cut at a bulletin, and I've made two sets of corrections to it since, but that's par for the course, and it's a reason I'm doing it on Tuesday now. One of the ladies has volunteered to print and take them to St. John's, and she is an eagle-eyed proofreader, which is a good thing. I've been slacking off lately, and I need her.

The weather was amazing. The high temperature was 37º and there was hardly any wind. It was cloudy in the morning, but it cleared up by noon and the rest of the afternoon was glorious again. There was some haze down by the mountain, but it's quite humid. The only thing is, the drain guy sort of tore up my driveway and I'm not sure whether I'll be able to get out. We'll see.

Ron has ordered a kit for the cable that broke, and he will be installing it as soon as it comes. The county will be around on Thursday, I guess. We are in for at least five or six more days of warm weather before it gets cold again, and then all we can hope is that we get some snow to cover up the ice.

The guys were sleepy, of course. They both got lap time, although not as much as they wanted. Grayson had to come around when the drain guy was there, and he was put out because we ignored him. Louie, of course, was nowhere to be found. They are funny little critters.

So that was my day, and now it's a cool, clear, calm night in the field and Venus was blazing in the west when I went to get my dinner. Oh my, is she bright!

January 16

Well, my lovely day ended badly. On my way up to the north end I had an icky accident. I think my Imodium is at the store, and I guess I'm going to have to go and get it, However, I called the drain people today and nobody came, so I have to wait until I hear from them tomorrow. It's been so warm that I'm afraid the mat is softening up, which is going to make driving on our road difficult. So we'll see.

I got to bed around 10:30 last night, but I was up about every two hours. I got up around 7:00, which I shouldn't have, so I was sleepy all day. I did my knitting, and it's coming along well. I seem to be able to do about six rows an hour, which is pretty good, and as i get even more familiar with the pattern, I think it will go faster, or at least the center will. The border is another story, but I have a way to go before I have to worry about that.

When I got to the studio, I called the drain people, and as is usual with tradesmen around here, he was not thrilled to have to come all the way to Copper Harbor. Hey, people live here, too, and even if I could afford a power snake, I couldn't get under the sink to use it. If I don't hear from them tomorrow, I will call again in the afternoon. It is extremely inconvenient not to be able to use my kitchen sink.

Otherwise, I was so tired and creaky that I didn't do anything. I'm still reveling in my house without orange bags. I have some things to move around and maybe put away, but in the meantime, it's wonderful.

The weather was rather amazing. I don't know whatever happened to the gale, but it certainly didn't hit here. The skies were cloudy at sunrise - or maybe that was mostly fog? - but they cleared up and it was another lovely, blue, sunny day except for a line of clouds right over the tip of the Keweenaw late in the afternoon. The high temperature was 36º for a couple of hours, and there wasn't a lot of wind, although it was sort of from all over. It was nice to sit in the sunshine, even though it makes it hard to see the screen, and all the sunshine meant it got nice and warm in here and the boiler didn't run very much.

The guys slept. They are still recovering from yesterday. Grayson did get a lot of lap time, but I didn't see much of Louie. He'll get his.

My exertions of yesterday left me very stiff and sore, even my hands. I think that's partly because of the warm temps and the high humidity. Somehow, 70% humidity doesn't register as much when the temperature is 10º. So I need to go to bed and unkink.

Now it's a warmish, partly cloudy night in the field.

January 15

It was a beautiful day and a lovely day for me.

I actually got to bed about 9:00 last night, which shows I can do it when I put my mind to it. I slept fairly well, but I was up about every two hours. The diuretics are working again. I was coming to at 7:00 when the alarm went off. I mostly moved efficiently, and I left the house about 9:10. I'd hoped to be earlier, but I realized when I got to the north end that I hadn't filled my envelope, and I had to go and do that as well as the stuff I normally do before I leave.

It took me a couple of back-and-forths to get out of the garage, but the road is in good condition. It's pretty narrow where the high drifts are, but it's passable. US-41 was hard-packed snow almost all the way to Calumet, but it was cold out, so it wasn't slippery. It was really cold this morning anyway.

Church was nice. It was Matins, which I like and pastor's sermon was good. He sort of screwed up the order of things, though, but it wasn't too bad.

Then I went off to Pat's for food. After all the nice people who helped me the last time I was there, only one person was helpful today. I guess it depends. I think I laid in enough stuff so that I can get snowed or iced in if necessary, although right now I have a problem with some of the stuff that should go in the freezer.

The lovely thing that happened to me is that as we were leaving our pews, Nancy came up to me and asked if I had gotten rid of my trash yet, which of course, I hadn't, and she said she and Stuart would be out to help me! Wow! I actually followed them to Woodland Road, but then they followed me to the house, and they plunged right in. I helped as much as I could, but they did most of the work, because after a while my back and my feet were so sore I had to sit. So now I have a much cleaner kitchen, and no orange bags in the house! I can even get to the pantry, although a couple of cans of tomato products have leaked and are now stuck to the shelf. Wow!

Stuart had an adventure trying to get the bags into the compactor, but he did make one load. The rest is in the garage. Oh, it's so nice to be able to walk around in the kitchen, the powder room and the hall and not trip over an orange bag!

Only a few bad things happened. The kitchen sink drain is clogged again. It runs a bit, but not enough so that I can do dishes or run the disposer. I will call the drain guy tomorrow. And the floodlight on the garage has finally burned out, from the door being open so much. I'll miss the light, but there's no point in replacing it until I can reliably close the door. And Stuart noticed that there are a couple of stains in the ceiling of the great room, which is a possible sign of roof leaks. Ugh! I don't want that! I cannot afford a new roof!

But over all, it was a lovely day, and I'm really tired.

The weather was nice, too. It was perfectly clear all day and into the evening. The high temperature was 30º, which isn't bad to be out in. And the Weather Underground has decided that it's not going to rain this week after all. Whew! It will be warm, but no rain, which should preserve our matt. The NWS is still talking about gale warnings, but that seems to be out on the lake, and because the wind is from the southwest, I don't think it will impact us very much. We will have a little wind, but not a lot. However, the weather forecasts have been so changeable and so wrong lately that I'm not taking anything for granted.

Grayson woke up when we got home, and he wandered around and finally started whining when there was no placemat and no canned food dishes down for him, He ended up lying in the middle of the dining room table, and when I sat down at the computer, finally, he immediately got on my lap. Louie was in the basement, but the minute Stuart and Nancy left, he came up. Rat fink. He's a pretty cat, too, and I'd like to show him off, but he's so timid he won't come out.

So that was my very nice day, and now I'm exhausted and I'm going to bed. It's a clear, warmish (for January) night in the field, and Venus was blazing in the west when I went to get my dinner.

January 14

I was late again last night. It was 11:30 before I got to bed, and I was up any number of times - the fish, you know - but I got up at 7:00 anyway. I had to walk, and I just decided to get up. I knitted for two hours. For some reason, it went more slowly today, maybe because I was up so early and I hadn't had enough sleep.

While I was sitting there, I heard the tractor go down the road. Oh, goodie! Later, I talked to Ron and they got the road open between them, although it's been windy all day and there is probably some new drifting.

Today was washday and fill-the-pill-dispensers day. I thought I had decoupled them, but they both happened at the same time again. I think I probably haven't washed for 5 weeks, which got me back on the old schedule. I've filled the pill dispensers at the south end, but not at the north end yet. The wash is done. That's one nice thing about getting up so early, but I only had two loads. I washed during the month enough that it wasn't so bad. And, if I can keep from having accidents, I use a whole lot less clothes in the winter. So that's done.

Like I said, they got the road open. I got Ron to bring my Schwan's order anyway. I don't know what was going on, but a different guy delivered it, and he was really early, which was great. So now I have lots of veggies, which was about all I got. They were having sale, so I will be trying some things I haven't before.

The weather was actually not bad. The high temperature got to 26º briefly, and it was around 25º for most of the afternoon. It was windy, with gusts up to 31 mph at 2:00 PM. The wind is dying down a bit now. I'm sure there is some drifting in the culverts. It was partly cloudy almost all day, and there was quite a bit of nice sunshine. The only thing that worries me is that they are predicting temps in the upper 30s this week, with the possibility of rain! We hope not. That does a nasty number on the road. Well, we'll see.

Anyway, I am thinking I will try to go to church tomorrow. If the culverts look bad, I'll come home, but I would really like to go, and I would like to do some shopping afterwards. I'm not sure where I'll put the bread, but I'm getting low, and there are some other things I should lay in, just in case. So I hope.

The guys were sleepy. Grayson got a lot of lap time - not as much as he wanted - but Louie only came around when I was doing something else, so he didn't. He sleeps at my feet when I'm knitting, so he gets some loving.

So that was a dull but productive day, and I have enough to do tonight that I will be going up to the north end very shortly. It's a partly cloudy, breezy night in the field, but it's not very cold...for January.

January 13

i didn't realize today is Friday the 13th until somebody emailed me. Well, I'm not superstitious, but it was an interesting day.

I got to bed about 11:00 last night, and I got up around 9:00 this morning. I was sitting and knitting when Ron called to tell me that the culverts were impassable. Then, after I got to the studio, I got an email (and later a phone call) saying that my Schwan's delivery had been postponed from today till tomorrow, so I gather that things were just as bad down the peninsula as they were here.

I didn't do much of anything again after I did my knitting. Ron came late in the day and gave me my mail, which was nice, but it was almost all bills or, at this time of year, the tax stuff. Very boring. The drifts in the culverts are around 8' high, and while Dave was able to cut one swath through it, they don't want to stress the blower too much, since it's still in dire need of repairs. We are going to try to get the county in to widen the road, because I'm due for a propane delivery. I'm not in bad shape yet, but I need that delivery.

The weather calmed down overnight. It turned out that the peak of the wind was at 7:00 last night, and while it was rather windy overnight, it went steadily down and it was almost calm all day. It was cold; the high temperature was only 12º. It was mostly cloudy all day, with only the littlest rays of sunshine, There was a little bit of snow this morning, but not much and it didn't last long. According to the Weather Underground, we're in for a fairly quiet, but warm, week - our January thaw, I guess - so maybe things will get better.

The guys slept. Grayson got some lap time, but Louie didn't. When Ron came, I had the door open for a few moments, and Grayson hopped out, but Ron shooed him and he ran back in. The snot. Well, if he got out, he'd just have to stay until I got ready to let him in, and it's cold out there.

I just remembered I forgot to close the garage door, but that's too bad. it will just have to stay open overnight. Strangely enough, my driveway is in good shape. It's just the low spot at the end of the harbor that's bad.

So that was my day, and I'm going to try to get to bed earlier tonight. It seems clear that I won't be going to church on Sunday, because I won't be able to get through the culverts. Too bad, too, because it's supposed to be a fairly nice day and I should do some shopping. Oh, well.

Now it's a frigid, but quiet, night in the field.

January 12

I didn't get to bed until 1:00 this morning. I was reading, and time just passed. Sigh. I got up around 10:00, I think, although it may have been earlier. I was knitting when I heard the tractor, and I went down to the studio as fast as I could (I've been keeping the garage door opener there) and opened the door, and Dave did a lovely job on my driveway.

Then the sun came out, and for most of the afternoon, I had a great hope that we might get to church tonight. Then, around 3:45, the sun went away, and in a few minutes, the wind was howling and the snow was coming, and there was no way I was going out in that. Mary Ann agreed, so we didn't go. It was ugly. Ron said he cleared things out around 6:00, and when he got back to his car, there was already 2' drifts in the culverts. So far the highest wind gusts have been 48 mph, and that may be the worst, but one never knows around here.

In the meantime, I knitted quite a few rows, but the repeat is 32 rows, so I haven't completed the first one yet. It's going to be a pretty thing, but it will have to be blocked aggressively, or it won't look right. Well, that's for the future. I have a lot of stitches to go before then.

I knitted long enough that I didn't have time to do much else besides my surfing.

The rest of the weather was frigid. In spite of several hours of sunshine, the high temperature was only 17º. The wind started out from the west, but it didn't begin to blow hard until it switched around to the north. Curiously, the 4:00 weather forecast didn't have the wind speed in it, but I know it started to blow really hard between 3:30 and 3:45, because I called Mary Ann at 4:00 and it had been going on for a while before then. I don't think there was a lot of snow, but with that and the wind, we had white-out conditions for a while.

The moon is full tonight, and it's been wonderful to walk around at night, because it's been so light. It's actually lighter when there are clouds, because the moon lights the clouds and the clouds light everything else. However, I'd rather see the moon.

The guys slept. They slept on the couch for most of the afternoon, because that was where the sun was shining. Grayson got lap time, but Louie didn't even ask, for some reason.

So that was my day. I'm so sorry we couldn't go to church, but I guess I'm glad we didn't go when it was nice and then have to come home through what's going on now. It's ugly out there. So it's a frigid gale in the field tonight.

January 11

I think I got to bed around 10:30, but I was up a lot and it was so noisy for most of the night that I had a hard time getting back to sleep. It was cold, too, because the wind was from the north, but I buried my head under my covers and eventually I got to sleep.

I got up at 7:00, even though I don't like to get up in the dark. I turned on the lights, including the heat lamps, and knitted for quite a while. I'm sure I will be bored to tears by the time I've done 250 rows, but right now it's an interesting new project.

When I woke up for the first time, around 12:30, the clock in the bathroom was blinking. I'd had a partial power failure. I'm not sure why that happens, but if the glitch is short enough, only the east side of the house fails - the west side is fine. Of course, that meant that the NetGear thingie didn't come back up, so there were no pictures until I got to the studio, It wasn't very inspiring then - white nothing with flakes.

The real problem was that something had happened to the power down the peninsula and PastyNet had lost their main email server, so I had no email. It was after 4:00 before the emails started coming in and for several hours, there were only one or two every five minutes, I suppose to prevent overloading the connections. I have everything now, but for most of the day, there wasn't anything, which felt really weird.

The worse problem was that for some reason not known to me, when the computer rebooted after the power failure, I lost almost all the emails I got yesterday, including some I hadn't seen. Well, most of that stuff is either ads or ephemera, but still. I don't like to see things like that happen on my system.

I didn't do very much after I did my surfing, but that was all right, too.

Oh, my, the weather! The highest wind was around 11:00, I think, with gusts up to 48 mph, or at least that's what the weather station reported. They claim that the wind was a bit lower for the rest of the night, but believe me, what I was hearing between midnight and 2:30 or 3:00 AM was not lower! The wind was slamming into the north side of the house and the snowflakes hitting the siding sounded like BBs. It was snowing, too, although not as hard as it did this morning. The snow didn't stop until around 3:45 this afternoon, and we really got slammed. And tonight, when I went to get my dinner (a bit late) the full moon was shining on the snow! The high temperature for the day was 19º overnight; during the day, the high was 17º. The wind is still fairly strong, with gusts up to 30 mph, and it's from the north again. They are saying that we may have another gale tomorrow (well, there goes church - I'm not going out in the dark in the snow when the wind is gale force!!). It's still snowing, although when I was talking to Ron, I saw several snowmobiles come down the mountain. It's been a long time since I've seen the mountain.

The Road Commission only reported 7" from yesterday through this morning, but I really think we got more here. I talked to Ron this evening, and he says Copper Harbor (the town) is a mess, what with all the snow and all the drifting, and the Road Commission may not get it cleared out until next week! I'll probably talk to Mary Ann tomorrow, but I don't think we're going anywhere. My driveway is impassable anyway, and Ron and Dave have been busy trying to keep the roads open, so they haven't gotten here yet. So I'll hibernate. The only situation I'm watching is that I'm running out of bread, but I'll try to make do and hope I can get to town next week.

So that was an interesting day. Now it's a very cold, windy night in the field and the snow keeps on coming...and coming...and coming...

January 10

Oops. I was about to go up to the north end when I realized I hadn't written yet. I guess it was because I did the bulletin tonight, so I had been typing. Wrong typing.

I got to bed just a bit after 10:00 last night, and I slept much better than the night before. I was only up twice, so I had gotten a good amount of sleep when I got up at 7:30. I knitted on the new shawl, and I do like that yarn. The only thing is, because of the way the pattern is, I can't put in any sanity markers, so all I can do is count and hope I don't miss anything and screw the whole thing up. It's going to be an interesting project. There is pattern on both sides, which is fun.

I didn't do much besides the bulletin. I finished the heel on the sock - with difficulty; I had to rip out a bunch of rows to get it right - so that project is on track.

The weather was snowy. It started snowing around 11:00, I think, and it snowed fairly hard for the rest of the day. The snow was wet and heavy, because the high temperature was 33º for most of the afternoon. It was a bit breezy earlier in the day, but between 7:00 PM and 8:00 PM the wind rose from 20 mph and 27 mph gusts to 32 mph and 41 mph gusts from the north. Evidently there wasn't a wind report at 9:00, which is odd. Anyway, it's hairy out there right now.

Dave came around late in the afternoon and cleared my driveway again, and it looked like we'd had 3" or 4" of snow today. I suppose he decided to clear it before it got too much. I appreciate it.

The guys slept, of course. The only time Louie came around was when Grayson was asleep on my lap, so then both of them went away. Grayson has been around, but not on me.

So that was my day, and now it's a wild and hairy night in the field and the wind and the waves will sing me to sleep.

January 9

Another quiet one. I got to bed around 10:00 and I went right to sleep, but I was up at least five times - sometimes I had to do stuff, but at least twice it was because I hurt. I got up around 8:00, but I doubt I actually got more than 8 hours' sleep. It would be nice if I could only get up once a night, but that seems to be the exception, so I cope.

I finished the lavender shawl, with some difficulty. I lost track of where I was and I dropped things and had to recover, but finally it was done and the ends got darned in. Now it needs to be blocked. I suppose I should do that, but we'll see. I have a couple of other things I should block, too.

This afternoon, I cast on the Shetland shawl and knitted two rows. This is lovely, soft yarn, even though it isn't all alpaca, in off-white. I'm anxious to begin the pattern. This one has a center square, a border that increases out from the center, and an edging. Since there are 250 rows by 125 stitches for the center, it's going to be a while before I'm ready for the border. And the fun part is that the pattern is on both sides, but it's garter stitch. When I get to the border, I will have to work the pattern in purl stitches, which will be challenging, but I am not going to work it in four parts and sew them together! Yuck! It will be fun to work on something different for a change.

Then I worked part of the heel of the sock that is supposed to be the waiting room project, except that I haven't been in any waiting rooms lately, and I'd like to have these socks. I'm having some problem with the yarns tangling, so I didn't get as far as I wanted to, but it's coming along. I've had this yarn for several years, and when I got it, I thought it was mostly black, until I had my eyes done and realized that the base color is very dark navy blue. It has stripes of tweedy blue and pink, blue and yellow and blue and white, with narrow bands of black and gray - sort of weird, except that it's mostly so dark it's OK. The yarn has aloe and jojoba oil in it, so it's nice on my hands as I work, and it would be nice to wear if I wasn't wearing compression stockings. Socks are a good project to work on while the talking is going on, except that it's still getting dark very early, so I have to sit under the task lamp to see what I'm doing. If I can finish the heel, then I can knit happily away on the leg until I've used half the ball, and that is something I can do mostly by feel.

I was surfing around this afternoon when all of a sudden I got to a page where a voice told me Microsoft had discovered a virus on my computer and I needed to call a telephone number to fix it, and that if I closed the window, they would freeze my computer. Egad! Well, that has all the earmarks of a scam to me, so I used task manager to close the windows and immediately purged my IE files and did a virus scan. Everything seems to be all right, but that is a scary thing, and I can see how some users could get roped into all sorts of nasty situations. It came up because one of the comics sites I visit every day has changed their format and they now don't display all of any comic that is presented vertically, so I was trying to find other places to see the four that don't display. I guess I will just have to hope they have heard my complaints, although I have not gotten any response yet. Oh, the joys of the Internet!

The weather was the usual. I thought maybe we were in for a bit of a respite from the snow, but when I got up the first time in the night, around midnight, I think, all I could see was white (from the moon above the clouds and snow). Sigh. It snowed a bit today, too, but altogether I don't think there was more than a couple of inches. The high temperature was 19º, and while there were wind gusts up to 31 mph at 8:00 AM, after that the wind died down to nothing, where it still is. It was dark and dreary and there were some snow showers, with big flakes, because it's warmer now. I don't know exactly how the Road commission decides what a "day" is, because they reported 12" of snow on Friday, whereas I would have said Saturday, but from Thursday through yesterday, they reported 18" at Delaware. I would not be at all surprised if we got more here. We're up to 30" this month, officially, and 136" for the season. Pretty much on target, I'd say.

The guys slept. Both of them got some lap time, although I had to boot them both off my lap for various reasons.

So that was my day, and now it's a cold, dark night in the field, and it may snow some more tonight, but it probably will tonight and tomorrow. There's a system approaching from the southwest. Ah, winter!

January 8

It was a quiet day.

I finally got to bed around 11:30 or so and evidently I was more tired than I thought, because I was only up once before I got up at 8:30 (or I think it was - maybe 8:00?). It was still snowing rather hard when I went to sleep, but by the time I got up the first time, it had stopped, and I don't think there were more than one or two flakes today. Thankfully.

I worked half the edging on the shawl, but it took me a couple of hours. I haven't crocheted in quite a while, so it's a bit awkward, and besides, I'm working stitches off a knitting needle, which is always awkward. It looks pretty good, though, as far as I can tell, and I don't think I've missed any chains, which used to be my worst mistake when I was making doilies.

I didn't do much else. I got the dishwasher almost unloaded. Dave, who is the other person who is wintering out here, came around in the tractor after noon and did a great job on the driveway, so I went out to talk to him, and made sure he got the place I back into when I come out of the garage. I do a "Y" almost into the house so I can turn around and drive out head first, and keeping that space clear is sometimes hard. I washed a load of bottoms - my elimination problem hasn't gone away. And that was about it.

When I saw how much snow we'd gotten, and particularly how much there was up against my garage, I was glad I had decided not to try to go out today. We got dumped on again. We'd had 118" through Thursday - or Delaware had - and I expect there was at least another foot since. The juniper I hate has only a teensy sprig showing above the drifts. And the steps from the deck down to the landing have at least 3' on them. No wonder I hibernate.

The weather warmed up a bit today. The high temperature was 19º. It was quite windy overnight, with gusts up to 36 mph, but that was at midnight, and the wind died down slowly after that. It has now shifted around to the southwest, but it's only about 10 mph. The only thing that's a concern is that this end of the harbor has finally iced over (with those temperatures, it would be more amazing if it hadn't) so we will be getting more drifting in the culverts. Around noon, we actually had an hour or so of partly cloudy skies and a little sunshine. It wasn't enough to warm things up, but it was very welcome, as were the little patches of blue sky.

The guys were mostly sleepy. They both got some lap time. Grayson came several times, and Louie was on my lap when Dave came, but that was a motor, which meant a car, which meant a person, and he ran away. Poor Louie. He is so timid, at least with humans. He tries to make up for it with Grayson, who is more patient with him than I am.

So that was my day, and I'll be off to the north end shortly. It's a dark, cloudy, breezy night in the field, but it's not quite as cold as it has been lately.

January 7

Well, after the day it was, I decided I'm not going to try to go to church tomorrow, and it's a good thing, because I'm late.

i got to bed by 10:00 again last night, and I had about two hours of not-so-good sleep in the middle of the night. I don't know why that is, and it annoys me, which may be part of the problem. It seems like after I get up for the first time and turn over onto my left side, I sort of toss around for a while before I get up again - and then I'm OK. My left shoulder is sore, and I have to lie on it in just the right way, but that can't be the whole problem. And yet, after 3:00 or 4:00, I can sleep just fine on it. Weird.

Anyway, I got up around 7:30 and finished the knitting part of the shawl. I did a bit of the crochet bind-off, but that's going to take a while, so I left it. I don't expect I'll get it done tomorrow, either.

And that was all I did. I don't feel very robust, so I just sat and played games. I don't suppose I should take Saturday off, because I have no reason to, but I seem to do it more often than not.

The reason I'm not going to church tomorrow is the weather. The snow is supposed to stop sometime tonight, but it snowed hard all night long and all day. It was hard enough that a couple of times when I got up before it was light, I could just barely see the lighthouse, and that is a bright light. The high temperature for the day was 14º, briefly, and for most of the afternoon it was around 11º. The wind was light overnight and it went calm around 9:00 AM, but by 10:00 AM it was blowing from the north at 24 mph with 32 mph gusts. The highest so far was at 7:00, 28 mph sustained with 41 mph gusts. That puts the wind chill down around -10º, so I can understand why Ron didn't want to come out with the tractor.

It's hard to tell how much snow we had, but it was a lot, if the condition of my deck is any indicator, and I'm just not brave enough to try to make it to the road and then have to wonder what conditions will be on US-41. If past years are any indication, the Road Commission takes it easy on Sundays, and they may not get the plows out until sometime after 10:00. I don't feel like fighting unplowed roads.

The guys were mostly sleepy. They both asked for lap time, but I was busy, so they didn't get any. They should have been happy, because they got a can of one of their favorites this morning. Or at least it's Grayson's favorite, but Louie will eat it, too. It's fish, and I guess they are proper Keweenaw cats, because they like it.

So that was nothing. It's still snowing, or it was when it got dark. It's a frigid, windy, snowy night in the field.

January 6 - The Epiphany of Our Lord

So i didn't wash my hair, and I was in bed by 10:00. I went right to sleep, but I woke up after midnight, and I was wakeful for several hours. I'm not quite sure why, other than that my joints were sore and I was thinking about Arthur.

I actually got up around 7:30, I think. I knitted, and those two rows took me 2 hours. They weren't hard, but double decreases make the knitting slow and there were a lot of them in that row. So now I have two rows of knitting and a row of crochet before I'm done. I'm gathering the stuff I need to start the Shetland shawl. The tail end of any project is always hard, especially when I've been working on it for several months. I started this one in the middle of September, but I stopped it in October when I got the beads for the beaded shawl and I didn't pick it up again until the middle of November, but it's still been going on for a long time.

The only other thing I did today was to finish my DDC course. I didn't get all the test questions right, but I got the important ones right and I passed. So that chore is done. They made the mistake of asking me my opinion of the course, and I really let them have it, not that it will do any good. But I felt they should know. I think their server went down in the middle of the afternoon, too, because I had to refresh the page, which threw me back a way. If I'd known that yesterday when I couldn't access a page I really wanted to see, I would be happier. Anyway, it's over and the points shouldn't get on my record.

The weather was considerably better than it has been lately. It snowed, but not a lot until after it got dark. The high temperature was 12º, but the wind has died down into the 10-20 mph range, still mostly from the north. It was dark and dreary, but not quite as dark as the past two days. I guess we're in for another day or day and a half of this stuff.

I didn't go to church. For one thing, without having washed my hair, I'm not presentable. For another thing, when I looked at the webcam page, it was apparent that it was snowing a whole lot harder down the peninsula. There isn't a camera in Calumet anymore, unfortunately, and the airport is several miles away, but it was snowing hard there. So I hibernated.

The guys did, too. Grayson finally got to sleep on my lap while the talking was going on, so he was happy. I haven't seen Louie for a while. I suppose he's asleep up at the north end. It's warmer up there these days.

Now it's a frigid, dark night in the field, although I could tell last night that the moon is up there someplace. And it's still snowing.

January 5

I was later than I wanted to be last night - it was more toward 10:45. I think the problem was that I didn't start my dinner until after the talking was over at 8:00, and I cooked (fish) so it took me a while, and I don't like to go to bed right after I eat. I slept fairly well, but I was up a lot. As a result, I didn't get up until around 9:30. I was up just before 7:00, and I decided that was too early.

I started on the last chart and I knitted my two rows in an hour and a quarter or so. These are pretty easy rows, so in two or three more days, I'll be done. So I spent the latter part of the afternoon preparing the charts for the next project, a Shetland Shawl. I say preparing the charts, because the charts in the book I took them from are so small I would have a hard time seeing them, and there was no chart for the edging. So I had to scan and enlarge the charts that were there, and then I had to chart the edging. I don't know why they didn't chart it for the book, because it's pretty straightforward, but oh, well. This one will be exiting to do. Since it's a Shetland shawl, it's all knitting and the pattern is done on both sides. It will be challenging, because I'm not going to do the border in four pieces and sew it together, which will mean I'll be purling every other row - with all the pattern stitches. I think I'm up to it. It's a really pretty thing, and it uses a rather expensive yarn I've been very curious about (got it on sale). One thing I like about it is that it comes in balls and I didn't have to wind it myself. It will probably be next week sometime before I start it, because the weather looks like I'll be able to get to church on Sunday, whicn means no knitting.

For the rest of the day, after I finished my surfing, I did the long session of my DDC. This one was all about specific strategies for various problems one might encounter while driving, and I have to admit I learned something. The suggested way to handle skidding in a car with ABS is to lean on the brakes and try to steer. I'm not sure I buy that. The one time I tried that - after everything else failed - I ended up in a ditch, and steering didn't work at all. But at least now I know what to try first. The rest of it was stuff I've done for years and years, but then, I expected that. They did have some specific things to say about 4WD and SUVs, mostly that while 4WD will help you go, it won't stop you any better than any other car as heavy as yours - and SUVs are heavy. Duh. I keep having to remind myself why I'm doing this. There are four more units to go, but none of the others are that long, so sometime next week I should finish, with several days to spare before my due date.

Oh, yeah, and I had to make some minor changes to both bulletins. I am really going to have to try to start doing them on Tuesday, so I don't push Steve so much. I'm afraid we're wasting a lot of paper with things that are rather minor.

Late this afternoon, Ron came with my mail, and the bill I was looking for (which is due on Sunday) wasn't in it, so I paid it without the bill. There was a large bill in an envelope from my reader who does those things - thank you, whoever you are! - but no Christmas card from cousin Arthur. I will have to call them and see if something has happened. We don't communicate very often, although I think about them a lot.

Tonight I started my dinner (rice) about 5:00, so I was able to cook something and eat before the talking was over, and that will work out much better. I'll get this normal-hours thing down eventually. I like it. It gives me much more time to do things during the daylight hours, and I don't go to bed so overtired. That means I can do a few things I'd stopped doing for a while, and that's good, too. Things like WaterPik-ing and saying all my prayers, the Creed and the Lord's Prayer. Those last two, which I do lying flat on my back, seem to relax me and send me off to sleep just as well as being exhausted, so I must continue. Lying on my back seems to help that problem, too.

The weather was forgettable again. It was frigid. The high temperature was only 12º, but the wind has died down into the 15-25 mph range with no gusting, so the wind chill only got down to around -10º. It snowed lightly almost all day; I could see town, but I couldn't see the mountain. It was dark and dreary. Forgettable.

The guys mostly slept, although they both tried hard to sit on me while I was doing my DDC, so I had to shoo them away. Grayson did get some lap time before dinner, but Louie went away sad. He also coughed up a rather substantial hairball, so I hope he feels better. At least when I went through the kitchen a while after he did it, he was eating. Louie is always a bit dingy, because it's such an effort for him to bend enough to wash, but he tries as much as he can, and his fur comes out so easily it's surprising he doesn't have more hairballs than he does. Or I think it was Louie. I'm not going to dissect a hairball to see what color fur is in it.

So that was my day, and I think I'm going to wash my hair again tonight. For one thing, it will begin to get my scalp back in shape. It's going to snow all day tomorrow, so there's very little chance I'll get to go to church, but I don't think I want to wait until Saturday to wash my hair again. We'll see. I'm tired already, so I'll see how I feel when I get up to the north end.

Now it's a frigid, breezy, snowy night in the field.

January 4

Well, I was a bit late last night. It was 10:30 before I turned out the light, but that was doing well. I didn't dawdle very much before or after I took my bath. I had a rather wakeful night, though, so it was 9:00, I think, before I got up.

I finished chart H, and tomorrow I will start on the final 7 rows - six rows of knitting and a row of crochet. It took me a long time, because on the very last repeat, I lost my concentration and totally screwed up the pattern, so I had to fix it before I could go on. It didn't help that while I was trying to do that, a white cat was demanding my attention, to the extent of even putting a claw or two into my leg! I let him know I was not pleased with that. His claws aren't as sharp as Grayson's but they do just fine on my bare flesh.

The task of the day was bulletins, and it was a good thing, because I was late and I wouldn't have been able to do much else anyway. They got done and shipped off before the talking started. There are two, because there's a service on Friday, which is Epiphany. I wish I could go, but no.

Ron came around about the time the talking started and cleared out my driveway. Evidently he or Dave, or maybe both, had been out twice today clearing the road. We've had a lot of snow. Not that I'm going anywhere. I've decided to hibernate at least until Sunday, and maybe later than that, depending.

We've had a lot of snow, but I don't know for sure how much. It was hard to tell, because it was so windy, but Mary Ann said there was at least 8" in town where it wasn't drifting. They have two dogs that have to be walked. It was cold. The temperature went down from midnight, and the high during the day was 15º. And it was windy. The highest sustained winds were 34 mph and the gusts were up to 45 mph. It's died down marginally now, but it's still windy. The only thing that saved me is that the wind has been from the north, where I'm sheltered. I could tell, the first time I was up last night that the wind had shifted. When I went to bed, it was from the northwest, and my bedroom was being battered. Needless to say, the wind chill was well below 0º all day, with the minimum around 10:00 at -9.5º. I was glad to be inside, and I really felt for Ron. It's still snowing, and blowing, and the temperature is headed down toward 0º. Ah, the joys of winter in the Keweenaw! Needless to say, Mary Ann and I agreed that we weren't going anywhere for the next couple of days.

The guys did their thing. Grayson got some lap time, but when Louie came around and got up on the counter, I was doing something important, so I had to shoo him away. Grayson felt amazingly good last night. He has taken a small piece of tissue and turned it into his favorite plaything, and he was dancing all around the bathroom last night with it. Louie just sat and stared at him. I don't think Louie ever really learned to play, and besides, he's too big and fat to move like that.

So it was another quiet day, and now it's a dark, frigid, snowy, windy night in the field. It's time to hunker down under the covers and sleep long and hard.

January 3

I was just a tad later - about 15 minutes - last night, and while I was up several times, I got up around 7:30 again. The pattern row I knitted had over 600 stitches in it - a big increase - so it took me an hour and a half. I still don't like getting up before sunrise.

The task I decided to do today (of the many I have in my list) was to work on my ledgers. I was good through July, so it wasn't such a daunting task, and I didn't have any problems balancing, thanks to all the trouble I had a week or so ago with my checkbook. I set up the 2017 ledger, too, so that's ready to go, and I finally, after all these years, discovered how to automatically transfer a number from one sheet to another. I guess if I had a manual I would have figured that out, but I don't. It took a couple of tries, but I got it, and some of the things I'd like to do, even with the snowfall totals, will be much easier now. I started my spreadsheet journey with Lotus 1-2-3, which was a whole lot easier to use, although it didn't have the bells and whistles Excel does. The trouble Microsoft has had from the beginning is that they want to be able to do everything, so not only do they produce bloatware, they produce programs that you need a semester-long college course to learn how to use. Access is the same way. I doubt I'll ever learn to use that properly, and it's a pain.

Anyway, besides that, I took the first session of my Defensive Driver Course, and while I had to take the quiz twice (there was one answer that I got wrong because I totally disagree with the "right" answer), I went on. They know everybody is taking it because they have to, so they make you go through the questions until you get them all right. It's cheating, but oh, well. And no, I didn't learn anything except that I don't agree with the National Safety Council.

So that was my afternoon. I had a lovely piece of whitefish for dinner and my tummy is all happy.

The weather was forgettable again. It was dark and dreary and warm - up to 34º - and it snowed off and on all day. We are under a lake effect warning for the next three days, so it sounds like we won't be going anywhere. So far, the only signs are that the temperature is down to 28º and the wind is starting to gust up to 28 mph from the northwest, but it's supposed to get cold and windy overnight, with lots of snow.

The guys slept mostly. Grayson did get some lap time today, and he also got some canned food he thought was OK - he likes Fancy Feast better. Louie got a bit of loving this morning, but the one time he came around the studio, Grayson was asleep on my lap. First guy has dibs.

So that was my day. I'll be later tonight, because I zoned out during the talking and I have to wash my hair tonight, just in case I get to go to choir tomorrow. However, I'll go do it as soon as I post this, so maybe I won't be too late.

Now it's a dark, cold night in the field (although there was a hazy moon in the sky when I went to get my dinner) and the wind and snow are rising.

January 2

Well, I'm starting out the new year by finding out how it feels to be on a normal schedule for a change. So far, so good, and I'm tired enough that I think I'll do it again.

I got to bed right about 10:00 last night (or I thought so at the time; now I don't remember). I slept well, although I was up several times. I got up at 7:30! Wow, before sunrise! I felt all right, though so it seemed to follow. I knitted, of course, and I only have about 10 more (long!!) rows go go on this project.

The other thing is, I actually did some things today. Maybe not what I really should have been doing, but I did something, and that's amazing. It helps when I finish my surfing before noon.

There were two main tasks I wanted to get done today: get the software up to date and set up my planner for the year. I get out my colored markers and mark all the national holidays (as well as some of the religious ones), all the phases of the moon, the equinoxes and solstices and the beginning and end of DST, and the day my Social Security comes. In order to do the phases of the moon, I had to print out some stuff from the Naval Observatory, so after the planners were all in order, I did the rest of that - the times of sunrise and sunset, moonrise and moonset, and the end of twilight (three). In the meantime, I gathered up the past three years of planner inserts and put them away in a storage binder, finally. They had been sitting in a basket, but now that's done. Then I looked through the rest of that basket and threw out a whole lot of little notes to myself that either didn't apply anymore or that I couldn't read or remember why or what they were for. There were a lot of little scraps of paper with mysterious numbers on them that I have no idea what they were, so It seemed dumb to keep them. While I was doing that, I was doing system updates and Norton updates on the laptop.

Oh, by the way, when I looked at this computer this morning, the Norton scan of last night found an actual virus and it couldn't delete it. Eek!! By carefully inspecting the file it pointed to, I deduced that it was an email message, so I closed Live Mail, clicked "rescan" and it went away. It turns out it was already flagged as junk, and i usually delete those without opening them, so I would have gotten rid of it anyway, but still. It was a Trojan, and it could have done some serious damage if I'd opened it. Between them, Live Mail and Norton kept me safe.

Then i finally signed up for my Better Driving course. A while after my accident, I received a letter from the DMV saying that if I passed a Better Driving course, the points I earned with the ticket would not be added to my record or reported to my insurance company. I couldn't sign up before, because it costs a bit over $50, and I couldn't put it on my credit card. So today I did. It's not easy to sign up, because there are a bunch of places I could take the course online, but I finally picked one. The thing that annoys me is that they all say it will cost $34.95, but what only one site said is that the state wants another $17 to record the results when you pass. That's deceptive advertising, in my book. However, that site didn't have the course I wanted, so I signed up for another one. I looked at the introduction, and the site I picked did not have a "pre-test" like the other one did, so I'm ready to start the real stuff when I have a free half-hour. It's a six part course that is supposed to take about 4 hours, so it's not onerous. Just from looking at the session synopses, I'm pretty sure I won't learn anything, but hey, if it keeps my insurance from going up, I can spare the time. My problem wasn't lack of knowledge, my problem was lack of control over my foot, and it took a couple of lessons that I think now I may have learned.

Late this afternoon, Ron came around and cleared out the driveway pretty well, although he didn't do the best job around the garage, even though I opened the door. When I went out to close it, I brought in the box of incontinent pads I've had in the back of the car for over a week and unpacked it. I buy those things by the case these days.

The weather was forgettable. The temperature got up to 33º, around 5:00, and it snowed on and off after about 10:00. The wind started out from the east and shifted toward the south, but it was under 10 mph. It was dark and dull and dreary.

The guys slept. Grayson was thwarted because I wasn't available when he wanted to sit on me. He did get some lap time, but not as much as he wanted. Louie got some, too, but I had to boot him off because I had to do some typing.

So it's been a busy day, and I won't be up very long tonight, I don't think. It would be nice if I could stay on this kind of schedule for the year, but we'll see how long that lasts. Now it's a dark, snowy night in the field, but it's not very cold.

January 1, 2017 - New Year's Day

Happy New Year!!

I actually made it into bed by a few minutes after 9:30. I didn't dawdle around like I usually do. However, It was soon clear that it was going to be a bad night, which is one reason this is so early. I was dozing at midnight when I heard popping, but when I sat up, I didn't see anything, so I laid back down again. About five minutes later, I heard more popping, so I sat up and enjoyed a very nice, about 5-minute fireworks display. They had one of the combination things like they end the Fourth of July display with, which is always really pretty, and some other individual rockets, too. They don't go off quite as nicely as they do in the summer, but it certainly was pretty.

I didn't sleep well. I was up any number of times, and I had the feeling that I never did get into a deep sleep. I had set the alarm for 7:00, since that seems more like when I usually wake up, but this morning, I woke up about 6:10, and after lying there for a few minutes, I decided I might as well get up. I was minding the clock, too, so I got back to the north end at a reasonable hour, and I'd planned what I was going to wear, so I was right on schedule until I went to get into the car - and realized I hadn't changed my shoes! Oh, aarrgghh!! If I was only going to church, it wouldn't have mattered much, but I had to go to Pat's and get gas as well, so I needed my outdoor shoes. So I had to trundle back into the house - I was not moving well; my back has been bothering me all day - and changed shoes, so instead of being early, I was late, and of course the road was bad, all the way down to Phoenix (which is where US-41 and M-26 merge). After that, it was only wet, but that's a problem, too, because I was behind a couple of other cars - there were an amazing number of cars on the road for an early New Year's morning - and they were sending up enough spray that I kept having to clean my windshield.

Church was good, although the choir screwed up, and Pastor's sermon was a very good one. I don't know about everyone in the congregation, but the people I've talked to really like him, and so do I. He's entirely different from Pastor Fundum, and that's probably a good thing. He had a couple of interesting pieces in the little monthly bulletin that were very good, too. His family is still down in Wisconsin, but they came up during the week, so they were all there today, which was nice. I'm only sorry they didn't get to take communion.

So after church, I trundled off to Pat's. A nice man saw me making hard going of getting into the store (even though I parked in the first handicap spot) and helped me close enough that I could grab a cart somebody had left outside. I was very moderate again, but today I had to get some cat food, so my total was a bit higher than the last time. From Pat's it's produce (lettuce and bananas today), OJ, JD, and some fresh meat. They had whitefish!! I will feast on Tuesday! Tomorrow, too, because I got a lamb chop. Oh, yum! Oh, yes, and eggs. I eat a lot of eggs. Then a nice young man pushed my cart out to my car, and while we were trying to figure out how I was going to hang onto him, a lady came up and said, "Come on, I know all about this!" and helped me, not only to my car, but into my car! Her husband had a stroke, so she knows all about problems like mine. Bless the lovely people who live around here! I couldn't have picked a better place to retire.

The ride home was slow, because the road was still snow-covered from Phoenix north, but the very slow guy two cars in front of me pulled over right before Central and let the two of us pass, and then the guy in front of me turned at Gratiot Lake Road, so I led the way to Copper Harbor. That was weird, because I think the guy I passed was behind me, and his idea and my idea of where the bad parts of the road were, were entirely different, so first he would be right behind me, and then he'd disappear. I don't know where he went; he was gone when I turned at the blinker. I got home around 2:30, I think, although I didn't notice.

I brought my lunch into the house, but I didn't bring the rest of the stuff in until just a while ago. I changed clothes and ate and just sat until I got twitchy - that happens when I've been exercising my legs and then I sit - and then I brought everything in, although it was hard. The guys were very interested in what I put on the cat food pile. I got some more of one of their favorite dry foods, but it was too cold to put in a dish. I hope Grayson doesn't take things into his own paws before I get up tomorrow. Louie was more interested in the bag the cans came in, which dropped on the floor.

Lunch was dinner, so I don't need to do anything more before I go to bed. I am tired. Very tired. I probably won't be up very much longer tonight. The new year started out with the atomic clock coming up 40 minutes fast this morning. It only resets itself between midnight and about 8:00 AM, and depending upon the sunspots and things, it can add or delete bits. That happens because of the hills between me and Denver, where the signal comes from. It makes me wonder if there are auroras, although it's too cloudy to see them.

It was very cloudy and dull, unlike what Environment Canada was predicting. The high temperature was 30º, although it was around noon when I wasn't here. It was in the upper 20s for most of the day. There was a north wind around 15 mph until recently, when it died down a lot. When it got light this morning, it was snowing lightly, and there was new snow all the way to Laurium. It had pretty much stopped when I came home, although there was some wet on the windshield where it melted. A most unprepossessing day for the first day of a new year.

I think the guys slept. Grayson kept wanting to sit on me, but whatever it was that he wanted me to do, I wasn't doing it, so he kept going away and coming back. Besides, I was twitchy, and I get even more twitchy when there is a cat on my thighs. I didn't see Louie until I began to bring in the groceries and he discovered the plastic bags.

So that was my day. I think I'll just ignore last year. It was the Year of the Car, and I can do without rehashing it. I got my wish from last year that I didn't have a heating system disaster, although there are strange noises coming from the mechanical room, so it's not spring yet. Thankfully, the terrible problem I was having with my right hip has gone away (they always do, eventually). The Joint of the Season seems to be my left shoulder, probably from the accident with my arm, but I have faith that that will go away, too. I must try to keep it moving, so it doesn't completely freeze; right now it doesn't move very well. Other than my joints, my health was good, which is nice. As best I can remember, the summer was cool and wet, but don't quote me. It wasn't warm enough to open up the house, which is always a disappointment. My finances are in shambles, but I have A Plan. Maybe it's not a good plan, but it's A Plan, which is more than I can say about last year. Maybe the car will last through the year. I'm still living where I want to be and I still love it.

So that's about all there is. It's a cold, dark night in the field.

Last updated 02/01/17 08:25 PM