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A View From the Field |
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February, 2017 February 28 Well, I went into zombie mode and I didn't get to bed until nearly 1:00. I slept, of course, although I was up several times. I got up around 9:30. Not enough sleep, but oh, well.
I knitted two rows, but I have 640 stitches on the needle now, so I'm not sure how much longer I'll be able to do that. The rows I'm working on now are easy ones, but it takes me 45 minutes to do one row, and when I get into the middle of the next motif, I doubt I'll be able to do more than one row in an hour or more. It is a lovely thing, though. The border is very open and lacy, which makes it very delicate looking.
I actually did something today. I finally got everything I bought at the supermarket put away. I was going to unload the dishwasher, too, but my back got sore and after I sat down for a while, I forgot about it. Tomorrow. I have decided I won't be going to church tomorrow. The weather is iffy, and so am I. I still have a scratchy throat and a drippy nose and I was coughing this morning, so I think I'll stay home.
I got the bulletins done and out to everyone, so that chore is done for the week. The longer I do it, the easier it seems to be, although I always wonder if I'm missing something.
I've been thinking about Trine 14, and I suppose I'll be writing again soon. I certainly wish I could find a name for Whatsername, but so far, I can't come up with one. I seem to have lost my list of possible names, and that isn't helping. I think it would help my writing if she had a real name, too.
The weather was yucky, frankly. it started out not bad. When I was awake around 3:30, there were some stars in the sky, but by the time I got up, it was snowing rather hard. I guess it started around 6:00, and it snowed off and on all day. The high temperature was 34º, but it dropped off this evening and the wind, which had been fairly light, has been rising, until now it's gusting up to 35 mph from the east. That's good for me and for the culverts, but it's nasty. Earlier this afternoon, Dave came around and cleared out the driveway while Ron was still at the post office. It sure is nice to have another person to plow!
I was up around 6:30 this morning, and I was pleased to see that it's getting light much earlier and it's getting dark much later now. I will have to reset the camera again, because we're not catching both ends of the day, even when it doesn't hang up. The day is just over 11 hours long now. What a relief! The only thing I really hate about winter is the short days.
The guys were sleepy. They both got some lap time, although for various reasons I had to move both of them. I think they are both feeling pretty good right now, although the tractor didn't make them happy.
So that was a very quiet day, and as soon as Brahms is over and I've digested a bit, I will be on my way to another long night of sleep. It's a dark, cold, windy, snowy night in the field. And we're done with February.
February 27 By yesterday, I wasn't feeling too bad, but my bad night Saturday and having to drive 75 miles yesterday set me back where I was. I didn't get to bed until 11:00 or so, but I didn't get up until 10:30, so I got enough sleep, even with the three times I was up. I don't feel good again, and my throat is scratchy again. Oh, sigh. Well, one of these days, I'll either come down with it or it will go away.
I knitted two rows, and while the 40" needle is a bit larger than I like to use, it works much better for all the stitches I have now. Tomorrow, I will be at the middle of the first set of diamonds, which are a pretty easy knit. The middle ones, aren't, but it will be a while before I get to them.
I didn't do anything today. I just sat. Sigh.
The weather was sort of weird. It was cloudy and maybe snowing. The wind died down shortly after midnight, and when I was up around 4:00, it was clear - really, really clear! That didn't last long, as the clouds moved back in, and it was mostly cloudy all day. I just discovered that the camera hung up sometime this morning, so I don't know exactly what the weather was, but it was mostly cloudy and dull. The high temperature was 30º. There wasn't much wind, but we had a couple of hours of snow this afternoon. Sort of blah, although I'm getting tired of snow...
The guys slept, some of it on me. Even Louie sat on me for a while, but I had to move him eventually. They were mostly tired. It's the weather.
I am, too, and my head hurts, so I don't think I'll be too late tonight. I do have to wait until the Beethoven sonata finishes, though. It's a dark, cloudy night in the field (or I think it is).
February 26 i got to bed right about when I wanted to, but I didn't sleep well at all. I hurt, and I had to pee, but I think probably the real problem was that I knew I would have to decide whether to go out this morning or not. I woke up around 6:15 and it was soon clear that I wasn't going back to sleep unless I got up first, so I got up. That should have put me way ahead, but no such luck.
I was beginning to read my funnies when Ron drove up in his truck and shoveled out the area in front of the garage. it had been snowing pretty much all night, but it didn't look like there was much accumulation, and he reported as much. He said the culverts were fine.
The first problem was that while I was talking to him, I was gurgling, and close to the powder room as i was, I didn't quite make it to the pot. So I was going to have to change my panties and clean up myself as well as the floor in the powder room. Oh, dear. I went back to the computer and finished my funnies, but that put me way behind.
I knew what I wanted to wear, but by the time I finished curling my hair and digging out a sweater from the shirtwaist box, it was after 9:00, and since my parka isn't wearable, I had to come down to the coat closet, which is right beside the studio, and get my long coat. That needs washing, too, but it's not as bad. Then i had to struggle into the coat. It's a little smaller through the shoulders than my parka, and since my shoulders don't bend very well, it's difficult to get into.
So I was late getting away and late getting to church, because the road was snow covered all the way to Calumet and I couldn't go fast. There was an amazing amount of traffic heading north, I assume to the ski hill. It was snowing when I left home, but it stopped someplace around Phoenix.
Church was nice, with communion and a good sermon. We stayed afterwards to practice our song for Wednesday. Then I had to get gas. I didn't actually need it yet, but if I go to church Wednesday and Thursday, I wouldn't have enough to get there on Sunday, and besides, I had a 20¢ coupon that expires on Tuesday. Actually, I had a 40¢ coupon, and I didn't need a whole lot, so my gas only cost me around $26. After going up to almost $2,50, it's down again to $2.399, which is nice for those of us who use a lot. Of course, I'll have to get more next week, but oh, well.
The road was only wet until I got to the covered part, so I made better time coming home, and I got back around 1:30, I think. I didn't do much for the rest of the afternoon. I wasn't sleepy, but I didn't feel like doing anything, so I didn't.
The weather was sort of strange. It was cold and it snowed pretty much all night until around 10:00 this morning, evidently. There wasn't much wind until around 2:00 PM today, when it began to rise. The temperature was around 25º overnight, but after about 10:00 it began to rise, and it finally got up to 32º for a couple of hours. At 3:06, the barometer hiccupped down enough to prompt an off-hour report from the weather station, and after that things got interesting. It began to snow and blow and there was no view down the harbor for several hours afterwards. The weather station reports don't say what I saw. It was blowing hard for a while there. The snow let up around 5:00, but the wind is getting stronger all the time - the latest readings have 34 mph gusts from the north. At the same time, it cleared up a bit, and i think the camera caught a sun pillar. I don't know for sure - I had my back to the harbor - but it sure looked like that to me. Sorry, I still don't feel up to setting up the year's camera pages.
The guys were sleepy. Grayson spent a good portion of the afternoon on my lap, although at one point, he had his back to me and his paws nearly (or completely) on the keyboard, which is a no-no, especially when I'm reading a Word document! Louie was around somewhere, and I saw him go down the steps to the basement, and a while later he was eating, but I don't know where he spent the afternoon.
So that was a quiet Sunday. I was glad I went out. Our road was in good shape, and the only thing I didn't do was get my papers out of the box. The long coat doesn't slide on my car seat and I was tired of fighting it, so I just ignored that. That long coat is so warm, but it's huge and bulky. The only thing nice is that since I've lost some weight, it fits better than it did last year. Some one of these days, Mary Ann and I are going to have to try to get the washer hoses replaced, so I can find out for sure that is the reason I don't get any cold water into my washer. I have a bunch of stuff that needs to be washed in cold water, and besides, the water is so hot now that I'm afraid I'm beginning to felt my hand-knit socks. Well, maybe soon.
Now it's a cold, dark, windy night in the field.
February 25 I made it into bed by 11:00 last night, and I slept well, with three wakeups. I got up around 9:30. It was snowing when I went to bed and I think it snowed lightly all night. I got up around 9:30, and I knitted two rows. After what I was doing last week, this is easy knitting, and the next 20 or 30 rows are just as easy. It's nice for a change. I did decide to start using the 40" needle, though, because there are so many stitches and I don't want them to start falling off. I started that, but I'll have to wait until the next time I knit to transfer everything over.
I didn't do much. I still don't feel very good. I started washing a small load of clothes, but I forgot about it, and I'll have to do the second rinse tomorrow. The dishes were all clean this morning, but I didn't get the dishwasher unloaded.
The weather was wintry. It snowed until around 11:00, but I don't think we got more than an inch or two. It was very windy, but the highest winds were at around 9:00 this morning, with 31 mph sustained and 41 mph gusts, from the north. It's still breezy, but the wind is dying down slowly. The temperature was around 20º until 3:00 PM, when it began to rise slowly, and it's 24º now. There were periods when it was very dark and gloomy, and we had a couple of short periods, one between 1:00 and 3:00 PM and another short one around 6:00 when it was sunny. I was pleased and surprised to discover that the sun has crept back into the camera view while it was so cloudy. So spring will come, eventually. The camera hung up shortly after 6:00 PM, for some strange reason, so we didn't get to see sunset. I don't know why it did that, because I had to reboot because of Norton when I got to the studio. Anyway, it's nice to see the sun again.
The guys slept. The barometer is rising, but it's still low, and so were they. Louie has appropriated the pile of flannel nighties outside the door to the studio, so Grayson sleeps on the floor inside. Louie got brushed a bit this morning, which makes him look a whole lot less ratty. I need to do that to Grayson, too, but he was asleep on my lap and I didn't want to bother him.
The big question right now is whether I will get to church tomorrow. I don't feel good, and with the wind, the culverts may be drifted, but I want to go - there's communion and the choir has to practice afterwards - so we'll see. I had a long discussion with Ron about that this afternoon, because there are people here for the weekend who were doubtful about the road, but the forecast isn't detailed or accurate enough to tell how things will be tomorrow. I need to get gas, both because I need it and because I have 20¢ of discounts that will expire on Tuesday, and that's too much to ignore. So we'll see.
Now it's a cold, windy, cloudy night in the field and I'm full of a nice dinner and it's time to totter up to the north end and do my Saturday thing.
February 24 Ugh. I'm afraid I'm fighting the same thing Mary Ann had, the community cold. It would explain why I've had trouble sleeping lately. I checked my temperature, and I'm not running a fever, so that's good, but I have a headache and I can tell that my sinuses are stuffed full, so I don't feel good at all.
I got to bed about midnight last night, and I slept better than I have for several days. I took a sore throat lozenge and that helped my scratchy throat. I got up about 9:00, and I ended up knitting two rows. Of course, it took me a long time, but the knitting was going well and these rows aren't very difficult. They are long, though. There are so many stitches on the needle that I'm thinking I'll have to move them to the 40" needle soon, even though I don't want to. I've already had a couple dozen fall off the needle when I set it down, and that's not nice, with a pattern this complex.
I didn't do a lot more. I got Ron to bring the mail, although it was nothing interesting.
However, while my dinner was cooking, I got the dishwasher nearly loaded. It's really packed, and I only hope I have room for my dinner dishes. I shouldn't wait so long, but I have to soak my dishes before I put them in the dishwasher, and I couldn't because the sink was full of pans. I didn't wash the pans because my back and my knees have been so bad, so all those dishes piled up on the counter until yesterday. I must try to do better. I will wash them tonight, and then I will have something to eat off again!
The weather has turned wintry again, although not as bad as they keep predicting. I guess it did snow some, but not more than a few flakes, and not enough to even coat the bare gravel in the driveway. The temperature went down from midnight and bottomed out around noon at 19º. Now it's up to 24º again. It was breezy. The wind is up to 24 mph with gusts to 30 mph. The lake has been singing all day. It was dark and dreary. I was glad not to go out.
The guys slept. Grayson slept on me, but I haven't seen Louie since this morning. They got tuna for breakfast, which Grayson lit into right away, but Louie turned up his nose at it. Poo on him. They mostly sleep in this weather anyway.
Grayson was a bit upset when the tractor went by, but I was glad to hear it. We got it welded again, and Ron bored some holes in some part to bolt it together. With any kind of luck, that will at least get us through the rest of the season. We don't want to have to buy a new blower - they run around $4000, and we don't have that kind of money. Sigh.
So that was a quiet day, and I do intend to be a bit earlier tonight, but now they are playing the Bizet Symphony, which is a favorite of mine, so I have to wait until it's over with. It's a dark, cloudy and probably snowy night in the field.
February 23 So of course I was late last night, because I had to wash my hair. I was exhausted when I finally got to bed and I slept well. I got up a bit before 11:00 and I knitted about one row. I'm getting to the end of the weird flower motifs, so it's getting easier, but it's also getting longer. I figure I must have over 580 stitches on the needle now, and that just takes a long time to knit. It would if it was plain knitting.
While i was washing up, Mary Ann called to say she wouldn't be going to church tonight - she has what Nancy (who is a nurse) calls the "community cold" although it's really a sinus infection. I was sorry. I enjoy talking to her, but we both agreed it was better for all of us if she stayed home and recovers. I don't think she could have sung anyway, although the discussion in bible class was interesting.
So I was on my own. I called Ron to check on the road, which was good, and I got the lowdown on the Schwan's guy yesterday. Everything looked good, so I went.
It was good. Our road was in pretty good shape, although I wouldn't have wanted to go very fast on the hill, and the rest of the roads, all the way to church, were clear and almost dry.
We had an interesting discussion in bible class, and a short rehearsal, because Kathleen wasn't there. We're gearing up for Lent, and there will be so much singing that we'll be doing a lot of simple things. We didn't practice for very long, and I got home around 9:00, which is early for a church night.
The weather was nondescript, at least here. I understand that Laurium and Calumet had 4" of snow this morning. We didn't get a flake. The temperature here was about steady at 34º, It was quite windy overnight, but today the wind was around 10 mph or less all day. It was cloudy and dull. We have a winter weather advisory out for tomorrow and Saturday, though, and there could be 6" of snow or more, so it's not over yet.
The guys were sleepy, although they both got some loving, and Grayson did get his lap time.
So that was a quiet day and now it's a dark, quiet night in the field.
February 22 I made it into bed midnight, but not much. It was another restless night, and it must have been that I still hurt. I finally got more than an hour and a half of good sleep in the morning, but I didn't get up until 10:30 or 11:00 - I don't remember quite when.
I knitted, and it went better today, so I did a row and a half, although there was another small section at the end of the knit row where I screwed up. The very open pattern between the two rows of zigzags is hard to count, and I keep forgetting where I am. I think it will be easier soon, when I start on the large diamonds, but there is another section of zigzags at the top. Doing one or two sections might not be hard, but there are four, and I just lose concentration every so often. It doesn't help when a cat comes up and demands to be petted, either.
I didn't do to much else. I think I finally got the bulletins correct, but it took a while, partly because I couldn't understand what my proofreaders were telling me was missing.
I got my Schwan's order, but quite late. The substitute driver didn't know that the regular guy doesn't ever come down our road in the winter, so he did - I met him head to head and had to back up to my driveway - and while he was trying to turn around at the 'Y" (where Woodland and Horizon split) he got stuck. I hope he didn't have any trouble getting up the hill!
And late this afternoon, I finally got the pan out of the sink and put my dishes to soak. I might try to load the dishwasher tonight, but I might not, too. I'm almost out of dishes, though, so I really need to wash. I have to wash my hair tonight, too, so we'll see. I can wash dishes during the day tomorrow, I guess.
The weather was very nondescript. It was cloudy and dull all day. It was warm during the night, but between 6:00 and 9:00 this morning, the temperature went down to about 36º, where it stayed all day. There was almost no wind. It's humid, though. I was out for a while, waiting for the Schwan's guy, and it was raw and not very comfortable. I guess we're in for another blast of winter over the next few days, though, so it's not over yet.
The guys slept. They both got a little lap time, and for a while, Grayson wanted to sit on me all the time. Mommy is still doing strange things, and they don't like it.
So that was my day, and now I have to do something. It's a dark, cold night in the field and it might snow - or something.
February 21 Well, it was a quieter day today.
I think it was around 11:00 when I got to bed. I didn't sleep as well as I hoped. I was up several times, mostly because I hurt too much to sleep. I finally did get a solid three hours' worth this morning, and I got up around 10:00.
I knitted, and I got everything fixed pretty well, although there are parts of the row that was wrong that are too loose, and there was another small patch right at the end of the row that was screwed up, too. I did part of the next row, but I found I was losing my concentration, so I didn't push it. It's not that the pattern is so difficult, but I can't use any sanity markers, so I just have to count and hope I get things right. That takes enough concentration that sometimes it's just better if I set it down.
I didn't do much else. I almost fell asleep in the middle of the afternoon, before I remembered that I had to do two bulletins. I did them and shipped them off to my proofreaders, so at least it wasn't an entirely wasted day.
Schwans informed me (shortly after 4:00 - rather short notice!) that my delivery day had been moved to tomorrow, and I needed to place an order, so i got at that. They annoyed me again, because I had gotten an email that two of my favorite products are going to be available again, but when I placed the order, it said that they might not be available yet. They did that a couple of years ago, and I complained about it then, too, and until now, they've been good about not announcing anything until it was available. I complained. That's not fair. When they say something is available, I expect it to be available now. Dummies.
The weather was apparently rather nice. although I didn't go out. The high temperature was 46º for a couple of hours this afternoon. It was breezy overnight, with 32 mph gusts from the northwest around 6:00 AM. Then the winds died down, and it's been calm or nearly so for several hours. It was clear and lovely until around 3:00, when the clouds moved in. What amazing weather! The snow is going more quickly than I would have thought.
The guys slept, and I didn't see much of them. Louie had a couple of coughing fits this morning - hairballs, of course - and I caught him trying to eat plastic bags again. Grayson just slept. I finally brought in the dry food I got for them and filled the bowls, and that made them happy, although I think they might rather have had canned food.
So that was a quiet day. My bottom, where I had to slide across the floor, is still sore, so I will go and put it to bed. It's a warm, cloudy night in the field.
February 20 This has not been a good day.
I didn't get to bed until a ridiculous hour this morning and I didn't get up until after 1:00 PM. I thought I would knit a bit, and then I discovered that I had completely screwed up the second side of the border. So I picked out the row below the one I was trying to knit - I think it's almost 140 stitches now. The only good thing about it was that since it was a purl row, I was able to knit it from the wrong side. That helped until I got back to the beginning of the row and I didn't have enough stitches. So I put it down. I'll work on that tomorrow.
I was so late that I didn't eat much of a breakfast, but I had a very nice lamb chop tonight, and I got an email from Schwan's saying that two of my very most favorite products of theirs have returned. Chicken Kiev and chicken cordon bleu were discontinued a couple of years ago in a salmonella scare, and I've been hoping ever since that they would come back. Evidently I wasn't alone, so finally - finally! - they've brought them back. Aah!
I was playing a game and listening to the talking - before dinner - when all of a sudden the radio went away and the generator came on. Oh, power failure! And the UPS worked!! Oh, bliss! The computer was unaffected, even though it didn't matter, because the power failure affected the Mountain Lodge.
MY knees were so sore today that I didn't want to move, but I finally decided I'd better, and almost immediately after I did get up, I began to have an accident. My knees didn't want to work, so before I could even get to the kitchen, I had made a real mess, both of me and the floor. I continued down to the bathroom, cleaned myself up, put on new undies, compression hose, socks and shoes and cleaned up at least part of the mess I'd made.
I made and ate my dinner, and while i was finishing, I began to hear a whistle, and then the computer shut down. Huh? After rooting around in the cord sea under my desk, I discovered that the whistle was coming from the UPS. Oh, dear! I fiddled a bit, turned it on and off, and so on, but it kept whistling and shutting down, so with the greatest reluctance and great difficulty, I actually managed to get down on the floor. Oh, it hurt!
Then I discovered a button that said "circuit breaker reset." Oh? So I pushed it, and that seems to have solved the problem with the UPS. However, then I had to figure out how to get the computer to reboot without going into "repair mode."
And I was on the floor, with very sore knees. I figured out the computer thing, but there is only one way I know that I can get up off the floor these days, and it's to somehow get down to the basement stairs (the stairs to the second floor don't work). That's about 60 feet from where I was sitting.
So I took a deep breath and started scooting across the floor on my fanny. I did have the presence of mind to take the cane with me. It was a slow, painful half or three quarters of an hour. My knees hurt, my heels hurt, especially after my shoes fell off, and the bones were coming through my fanny. I was sweating enough that my bare legs kept sticking to the floor, which hurt when I moved. Finally - finally!! - I made it to the basement door, got that open (every time I get into one of these things, I'm grateful that I have extremely long arms), and got sitting at the top of the stairs.
I realized that the white thing I saw at the bottom of the stairs was a fat cat. Louie didn't know what the heck was going on. Grayson sort of followed me all the way down the great room, although he looked pretty puzzled.
The next task was to get standing up. I put on my shoes, and I had to just rest a while before I could figure out a combination of pushing up with one arm and hanging on to the railing with the other before I finally managed to get myself upright and toil up two stairs to the first floor. The last step is a very shallow one, and it always used to annoy me, but now I'm grateful for it, because I can usually get up it without too much trouble.
So I stopped in the kitchen and got an ice cream cone and another JD, and here I am. Very tired and very sore, but here. I didn't have to call 911 to help me get up, like a lady I talked to recently did.
And when I got back here. i discovered that the power had come back on, so I could get my music over the Internet again, as well as upload this and check the weather and anything else I might want to do. It's a relief. I've been disappointed that apparently the Mountain Lodge doesn't have a UPS on their tower anymore, but it doesn't surprise me very much, considering the financial straits it's in.
The weather was sort of blah again. It was windy, with gusts up to 39 mph from the south. The temperature got up to around 41º. It was cloudy, and sometime while I was trying to get to the basement stairs, it began to rain. Yuck.
The guys were sleepy, but everything was so off-schedule today that they were a bit confused. And they had no idea what was going on when I started trying to get to the basement door. Well, even thought they like routine, I think it's good to shake them up occasionally.
So now it's a warm, rainy night in the field and I have very sore knees and a very sore bottom. I'll be off to the north end shortly, and I expect to sleep hard and long.
February 19 It's the middle of the night, I've just finished writing 8600 words and having something to eat, and I need to go to bed. I can hardly remember what happened today - or yesterday, actually.
I got to bed late last night - 10:45 or so - and I didn't sleep very well. At least twice I woke up because I hurt, mostly my left hip, but on the outside. And I woke up again at 6:30. Oh, sigh. I needed that last half hour of sleep, but I had to pee.
So I got up and I did my thing. I was almost early, but I had to get back on the pot twice, so I was a bit later than I wanted to be. Woodland Road was icy, but the rest of the way to town was clear and mostly dry, so I made good time once i got out of our road.
Church was nice - Matins - and I think we sang all right.
Then it was off to Pat's for food. Sigh. I hurt. My knees were really bad today, although my hips were all right. If it's not one joint it's another. By the time I finished making my circuit of the store - most of what I buy is around the perimeter, although today I had to go down a couple fo aisles - I was practically in need of a wheelchair. And I spent more than I have in several months, but then, it's been three weeks since I last shopped.
When I got home, I got the car unloaded, but some of the stuff is still out in the breezeway. I figure it's almost as cold out there as it is in the fridge, and I still, at this hour of the morning, can hardly walk.
So I sat down, almost went to sleep, and around 5:00, I started writing. That gives me about 1000 words an hour, which I guess is pretty good. My seat got sore and I had to pee and when I finally started moving around to get up, I had an accident. Sigh. However, I've read over what I wrote and while it's a bit different from what I was planning, it reads pretty good. What I write frequently turns out like that. It sure does feel good to write.
The weather wasn't as warm as it was yesterday, but it wasn't as windy, either. The high temperature was at midnight, but during the day it was 39º. I think it was warmer in town. There was hardly any wind. It started out clear, got cloudy, cleared up and finally got cloudy again. It's still amazing to have such warm weather in February.
I think the guys slept. At least I didn't see much of them. When I went down the hall to get a robe after my accident, Louie was asleep on the rug in the bathroom. Grayson kept bugging me, either for what I was eating or whatever, but he didn't get any lap time and he didn't get any corned beef, either.
So that was my day, and I need to write a few more words before I crash. I expect tomorrow will be a truncated day. And I think it's a cloudy night in the field, but it's still way above freezing. So weird.
February 18 As usual, I was later than I wanted to be last night. I slept very well, with only two wakeups, and I got up around 9:30. I knitted two rows. These rows were fairly easy, with a lot of plain knitting, but of course, there were a couple of places where i'd missed a yarn-over and I had to fix that. The next rows are harder, but I'm beginning to work on the middle of the border, which is a series of large diamonds with motifs in them. The zig-zag pattern is a variation of the little diamond with the hole in it and it can get confusing.
Today was washday, and the second load is ready to go into the dryer. I lost track and almost tried to dry it without rinsing it in fabric softener, but since it's mostly my underwear, I had to fish everything out of the dryer and rinse it. Sigh.
Otherwise, I didn't do a lot. It sure is nice to have my internet connection back to normal. I still apparently distrust it some, but it seems like the slowdowns I had today were due to the sites, not my connection. Nice.
Late in the day - later than it should have been - the next scenes of Trine 14 came bursting out and I wrote 2800 words before I absolutely had to stop and get some dinner. I still have to wash my hair, for heaven's sake! I would love to just keep writing, but I can't. Maybe tomorrow I won't be too tired when I get home from shopping. I've been mulling all this over for a couple of weeks, and now it needs to come out.
The weather was amazing. We totally wiped out all the temperature records for the day. The high was 50º, fracturing the old record of 33º (but records are only kept for Copper Harbor since 1999, when we got our weather station). The low was 33º, which is also a new record high. It was windy, with gusts that got up to 34 mph from the north. Thankfully, the warmth yesterday and today melted the top of the snow enough that I don't think there was any drifting. It was clear or nearly so until about 4:30, when a cloud bank moved in. I guess it's cloudy now; it was at the last picture. I should have poked my nose outside, but oh, well. It was nice and warm in here, for sure, and the boiler didn't run very much at all.
The guys were sleepy. They love it when it's sunny, and they spent most of the afternoon someplace in the great room, sound asleep. They tend to want to sleep in the same place, and I had to shoo Louie away from the pink chair, where Grayson wanted to sleep, but mostly it was quiet. I don't think anybody got any lap time, though.
So now it's a warm, windy night in the field (hey, 50º is warm for most of the year around here!) and I have to be off to bed right away, darn it. I want to write!
February 17 I don't know where the time went, but I didn't get to bed until almost 1:30. I didn't sleep all that well, either. I kept waking up all sore and creaky. I finally got up around 9:30.
I knitted two rows. The problems I had with the first part of the first row yesterday were either left over from the day before or I was losing my concentration. I only found a couple of yarn-overs that I missed. So I went on and did the purl row. These rows were easier, with more plain knitting, and that helped, too.
I was getting ready to go to the post office - my pills finally came - when I had an accident that was icky enough that I had to replace everything I had on except for my bra and my socks. Ick!! Tomorrow is washday, though, so I didn't have to do any wash today. There were a whole bunch of bills and a whole bunch of magazines, too. I'm getting behind on my reading again.
The internet connection has been flaky again, so I the technician and I traded voice mail messages. Just as I was turning around to go to the post office, he pulled his truck into the driveway. He couldn't turn into the road when he backed up, so I had to inch by him. He said he wasn't going to stay, but he was still here when I got back, and he stayed for almost two hours. I now have some new equipment and something outside has been moved, and things have been fine since he left. Neither of us is quite sure what actually happened, but as long as everything is working right, it doesn't need to bother me. It's a relief. i haven't been able to do my usual stuff since Tuesday or Wednesday, and it was annoying.
The weather was more like the end of March than the end of February. The high temperature got to 40º briefly, around 2:00, but it was in the upper 30s all afternoon. There was almost no wind. It was cloudy last night and mostly cloudy during the morning, but by 2:00, it was clear and beautiful. It's so nice to see the sun again, even though I can't see the computer screen very well. It makes me suspicious that it's so warm so early, but I keep reminding myself that you can't predict one season from another.
The guys were sleepy. Louie got his love-in this morning, although he had to wait longer than he wanted to get it. Grayson got to sleep on my lap, too, and they got some of their favorite canned food for breakfast. Grayson was interested in what Todd was doing, but Todd ignored him and he wasn't a pest.
So that was my quiet day, and I will be gong to bed earlier tonight - promise. I have to wash tomorrow, and it's Saturday, so I have to go to bed early.
Now it's a clear, warm night in the field - how amazing to be saying that in February! And some people don't believe in global warming!
February 16 Oh, last night I just did not want to attack the shower, so it was almost 3:00 before I got to bed. It wasn't all that bad, and the sad thing is, it would have been a lot easier if I'd done it when I wasn't so tired. I had to cut my fingernails before I went to bed, because they were getting in my way, and they cut much better when they're wet. I slept well, of course, and I got up around 12:30.
I wanted to knit, and I did do about three-quarters of a row. It was a purl row, and it was one of the most difficult in the whole pattern. Besides, I had screwed up the repeat a couple of times and forgotten a bunch of yarn-overs, so It took me over an hour to do what little I did.
I'm not quite sure why, but it was 3:00 before I ate. My surfing was disrupted almost completely because something had happened to my connection again and it kept cutting out. It was better when I got home, though, so I hope maybe they have the problem fixed. I only got to read part of the chapter in the book for tonight's bible study, but we made it.
It turned out that I had a whole quarter of a tank of gas, so all we had to do was get down to Calumet and I was able to get filled up at my usual station. Of course, the price of gas has gone up to $2.459. It was about 9¢ cheaper last Sunday, when I should have gotten it. Sigh. That was not a good day overall.
Bible class was good, and we had a good turnout. We had a full complement for choir, too, and we had a good rehearsal, so that was good.
I got home around 9:45, so I'll be late tonight, too, but hopefully not like last night.
The weather was blessedly nondescript. The high temperature was 29º, for most of the afternoon and evening, and there was not much wind, although it's up to 12-19 mph now, but it's from the south, which is good. It was mostly bright cloudy, although there was enough sunshine to make us put down the sunshades in the car on our way south, and Venus was shining brightly in the west when we came out of church. The next two or three days are supposed to be warm and sunny, and we're hoping it melts our drifts a bit. They are still impressive. It's like driving through a roofless tunnel.
The guys were sleepy most of the day and nobody got any lap time, because I didn't have time to make a lap.
So it was more normal day, and I hope not to go back to my old habits again. I will be going to bed very soon. Now it's a clear (I think) cold night in the field. February 15 For some reason, I didn't want to go to bed last night, so it was 1:30 before I finally did. I slept well, with two wakeups, and I got up around 9:30. I don't expect to be so late tonight.
i knitted, but evidently I didn't get enough sleep, because I had problems with both rows. Admittedly, they are hard rows, but still. I don't think I made any obvious mistakes, but I'm not sure I got everything right, either.
I finally decided I had to try to keep up with the kitchen, so I emptied a wastebasket, got all the trash off the counter, and filled the bag with the trash from the north end that has been in the powder room for a week. The bag is so heavy I had a hard time getting it out the door - my back was bothering me today - but it's out there and maybe tomorrow I can get it into the garage. That was all I did, except to make one small change to the bulletin and cook rice.
I spent part of the talking working on the sampler. I'm working on another pulled thread area, and this one is easier and prettier than the last one. I still have some more to do - pulled thread works slowly - but I'm making progress on this thing. I really want to finish it before I go on to something else. That has always been my way of working. Some people have dozens of projects going and they hop from one to another. I've always wanted to finish one project before I go on to another. I didn't completely do that - when I got the materials for the reproduction sampler, I put about a dozen stitches into it, but I don't want this one to get left unfinished. It would be easy to do that, because I don't really like it that well, but I'm so close to the end now that I want to finish.
The weather was variable. The wind blew all night, but not quite as strongly as last evening. I don't think it snowed, but it was snowing when I got up. We didn't have much, though, and now the wind is down to 12 mph from the north. The high temperature, 22º, is now. It was around 20º all day. It was cloudy, but it was bright cloudy. Ron tells me that while yesterday was a trial - they were out on the tractor four times, and again this morning - the road is fine. That's a relief, because we're in for some better weather and warmer temperatures for the next few days, and the blower is broken again. Something is just not right about that thing, and I hope they can figure out what it is.
The guys slept. This afternoon, Grayson slept on the floor in the studio, and Louie slept on the pile of flannel nighties outside the door. Louie got a good loving before I got dressed this morning, and Grayson got his lap time. Besides, they got some good canned food that they both like, so they're pretty happy.
And that was another quiet day, and now it's a cold, cloudy night in the field.
February 14 I don't "celebrate" Valentine's Day. To me, it's just another so-called holiday conjured up by retailers to get people to buy things they don't need. St. Valentine was a very ancient bishop of the church known for his love for his people. How he ever got attached to romantic love is beyond me.
Anyway. I didn't get to bed until after 11:00, but I don't know exactly when. I slept very well, with only a couple of wakeups, and I got up around 9:30. I knitted about three rows, and it's shaping up very nicely. The one stitch i dropped was easy to correct. I didn't get dressed until after noon, and I decided I'd been on short rations lately and I wanted pancakes, so it took me a while to get food. They were a bit dry and overcooked, but they tasted just fine to me. I must do that more often. Of course, now I have even more pots and pans to wash, but oh, well.
I was so late that I didn't do much of anything until Pastor emailed me the information for the bulletin, which I just finished doing. I've gotten into a groove with it, so usually it doesn't take a long time to put together. After next week, though, there will be another one for Wednesday, so that will keep me a bit busier.
Somebody came around while I was knitting and cleaned up the driveway, and somehow they managed to get the garage door open. I must find out how they did that. I didn't think the keypad had ever been programmed, but that is the only way they could have opened it. Now all I have to do is find out what the code is.
The weather was ferocious again. It was warm and rather windy all night, but it didn't start snowing again until around 2:00. in fact, we had some sunshine and blue skies this morning! Then it got nasty. The wind has picked up again, and at 8:00 we had 35 mph sustained winds with 45 mph gusts. I don't know for sure whether it has been snowing since it got dark, but it could be. The wind is from the north. so maybe the culverts won't get filled in again. The high temperature for the day was 37º. around noon, and it began falling off after that. It's 25º now, and on its way down. Somebody went down the road around 7:00 PM and came back a while later, but I don't know whether they actually got out or they were just checking on things. This does get old after a while.
The guys slept. Grayson slept on me until I had to get up to turn on the radio, and he was so comfy! Louie was someplace around, but I don't know where. I had my robe around my legs while I was knitting, and Grayson was under my feet, sleeping on the ends. He knows how to be warm and with mommy.
I had to wash a load of bottoms today - I had an accident, among other things, but all my slacks were dirty. When there is salt on the roads, I get it on my pant legs when I get out of the car. And there was the pair from Sunday. So I also washed a small load of white stuff - some panties, a vest and the sweater I had on on Sunday. That was about the extent of my exertions.
So now it's a cold, windy night in the field and it's time to go to bed again.
February 13 Sorry I didn't write last night, but it had been a long, stressful day.
I was a bit later than I wanted to be getting to bed on Saturday - around 10:30 - so the alarm woke me up Sunday morning. I did my thing, and the weather forecast didn't seem too bad: some wind in the afternoon, but OK. Sorry, Weather Underground, you totally blew it.
The wind had picked up by the time I left, around 9:20 (yes, I was late) but the culverts looked OK, and I didn't even consider turning around. There was some snow overnight and there was some on the road, so I had to go more slowly than usual and I had to pass one guy.
The choir didn't sing; Nancy and Stuart are sick and most of the rest of us hadn't been at practice, so we decided it would be better to not try. The rest of the service was nice, and Pastor had another really good sermon. We are so lucky to have gotten him! And there was communion, of course.
Deanna and I had to clean up, so I didn't leave until around 12:45. It had turned colder and the wind was strong, so I decided not to shop and not to get gas, which was a bad mistake. I didn't have much trouble getting home, although there was some drifting around Lake Medora.
Well. Then I started down Woodland Road. There was a drift at the top of the hill, by Dr. V's driveway, but I got through that with no problem. At the bottom of the hill, in the culverts, it was a whiteout. and the little overhand i had noticed when I left had increased dramatically. It didn't look like there was that much snow on the road, so I started through it...and I stopped. Oh, no! So I tried to back up...and my wheels spun.
So I was trapped. I was pretty sure that Ron would be out on the tractor around 4:00, like he usually is on Sundays, but this was about 1:30. I sat for a while, and I found I couldn't open the driver's side door, so with great difficulty (remember, I don't bend very well), I managed to get into the passenger seat, and then I discovered that that door wouldn't open at all. Well, there was still the back...But when I looked back there, I realized that there is no handle on the inside of the hatchback. So it's not possible to get out that door from the inside. Sigh.
I resigned myself to being snowbound for at least five hours, so I read my newspapers and I think I may have dozed a bit, but the angle of my head on the back of the seat is worse than when I'm lying flat on my back in bed, so I developed a horribly sore stiff neck.
Sometime later, I thought, well, maybe, if I try hard, I can get out on the driver's side. By that time my windshield was covered with snow so heavy that the wipers wouldn't work, but little did I know what was really going on out there. The wind was howling through the end of the harbor and every time I opened the window, I got a face full of snow. At that point, I was fairly comfortable, and I was husbanding my gas, because I only had about 3/8 of a tank. I only turned the engine on when I was really cold.
So by using my cane as a tool, I managed to get the door open enough that I could get out...and the snow was up to the bottom of the door, which is over the running board. Then it was the problem of getting out. My legs aren't strong enough to lift me when they are flexed that much, so I was dependent on my arms.
Eventually, I did manage to get standing up...I won't go into detail about that, but it was hard...and then my left leg (the weak one) broke through the crust and sank into the snow up to my knee. I managed to get it out and back on top of the crust, but then I had to try to get myself turned around and my shoulders out from between the door and the car. Just about when I had managed that, my right leg went through the crust and underneath the running board! All this time, you understand, I had been out in the wind and blowing snow, and I must have looked like a snowwoman.
For a while, I didn't think I was going to get my foot out of the hole without losing my shoe, but I finally did, and then I decided that this just wasn't going to work, so I sat back down and tried to close the door, which wouldn't close completely because there was snow in the way. Sigh. And I discovered that it was warm enough that the snow was wet and I was now wet from top to bottom. My lovely old parka has turned out to not be water resistant at all, and it was wet right through to my arms. My pants were sopping.
Oh, yes, and in the meantime, and continuing, I had been peeing my pants. I didn't stop to pee before I left church, but it wouldn't have mattered. So I was a mess, and while the parka was still fairly warm, even wet, my legs weren't, and every time I started shivering, I had to run the car for 20 minutes or so to warm me up. I have to say, I was miserable.
So I sat and tried to doze and think about my writing - I managed to get a little bit further on Trine 14. Around 4:00, I began to think I heard the tractor, but it was far away and I couldn't be sure at first, but after half an hour or so, I was sure I heard it, so I turned on the engine again, and a while later, there was Ron, peering down into the passenger side window from a drift that was now halfway up my window.
We conversed, and he went home and called Marty and the sheriff and got warm before he came back and began to try to get to me. By this time, it was getting dark and I was getting so cold that I had to keep the car running most of the time. I wasn't as worried, because it looked like I wouldn't have to stay there all night.
I was curious about what was going on in front of me, because the overhang that I saw when I got stuck was still there, and while there was snow under it, there was about a 2' hole that went right through it.
A while later, Marty came with his truck, and he dug me out - a monumental job, since the drifts were halfway up the doors on both sides and beyond that, they were up over his head. I'm not sure he should have been doing that, but I was grateful. He reported that Ron had called the sheriff and they were sending a car.
Once he had me dug out, he attached his tow strap, and one tug and I was free!! I was still on the wrong side of the drifts, of course, but I wasn't stuck anymore. Well...not then. I backed up over the actual culvert, and I tried to back up the hill (the same hill I got stuck on last March!) but I started spinning halfway up. That was good enough. Then all I had to do was wait, stay warm and watch the snow removal.
Marty went away to get his tractor, and a while later, another vehicle came down the road, and in it was a nice lady sheriff deputy. I didn't know we had any ladies, but she said she's new. She was so nice. She checked things out, talked to Ron and Dave (by that time, Dave had come down with his car, which added to the light, and he was available to cut down the banks so Ron could blow) and called off the wrecker, because I was out of the drift.
Oh...that drift. I didn't realize what was happening at the time, but when Marty started clearing off my windshield, I realized that the front end of my car had actually been buried in that drift, and he shoveled a foot of snow off the hood and my windshield. When I saw where I had been and what I had been buried under, I realized that no way could I ever have walked home. There are three high drifts, all about 12' high, with lower areas between them. The one I was buried under is the biggest, but they are all impressive. And most of that happened after I got stuck!
It took them a couple of hours to get the road cleared. Marty came back, and his tractor is bigger and has a bigger blower on it, so he did most of the cleanup work on the road, with Dave to cut down the sides of the drifts. Ron did my driveway - we both said it would be ironic for them to get me to my driveway and then have me get stuck there.
By the time I finally got home, it was 9:45, so I had been stuck in my car for 8 hours. I knew what was happening, but when I got into the house, I was sopping wet from my waist to my knees, with pee. I should have taken a bath, but I was too tired and stressed out, so I'm not socially acceptable right now.
I had something to eat and read my email and relaxed a bit, so it was sometime after midnight when I finally got to bed, I'm not quite sure when. I slept very well, of course.
I know I didn't do all that much, but remember, I never do, and I'm in terrible shape. Getting into the passenger seat and back into the driver's seat was extremely difficult for me, and when I tried to get out of the car, that was very hard, too. I know my heart rate was up close to max, because it was beating in my ears, but I didn't have a heart attack and eventually my heart rate came back down. I was exhausted by the time it was all over, partly from my exertions and partly from stress, I'm sure.
One of the last thoughts I had before I went to sleep is that I'm just going to have to come to terms with the fact that I'm old and I have to be more careful about what I do. Sigh. When I'm sitting down, like I am now, I still feel like a 30-year-old, but several things have happened in the past year to tell me that's not the case anymore. Sigh.
Well, at least I didn't have a car full of groceries. I had water, because I always keep a bottle of water in the car, but I didn't have to worry about food spoiling. I'm only sorry I didn't get gas, because I will have to before I go back to town. And I'm going to put a fleece throw in the car, just in case. I put some newspapers over my lap, and that helped, but I really needed to bundle up while I was sitting there with wet pants.
I didn't get up until 11:30 this morning, and it's been a very quiet day. This is taking some time to write, and I'm late because I didn't want to get up and make dinner, but then I'm going to have another long sleep.
The weather yesterday was just awful. The high temperature was 34º. The wind started rising about the time I left for church, and around 3:00 it was blowing 36 mph sustained with 47 mph gusts from the north. That is one of the worst directions, because it hits the trees on the south side of the harbor, swirls around and drops all the snow on the road. By 8:00, it was down to around 25 mph, and by 4:00 AM, it was almost calm. Today, there wasn't much wind, and what there was came from the west. The high temperature was 44º! Weird, for sure. Yesterday was dull and gray all day, but today there was a bit of sunshine and some blue skies for a while. Tomorrow it's supposed to snow again.
When I finally dragged myself through the breezeway last night, Grayson was sitting inside the door yawning at me. Little snot. Ron on the tractor had chased Louie down into the basement, but he came up when I came in, and he was very cuddly today. So was Grayson, who got some serious lap time this afternoon.
So yesterday was an interesting day, and the next time I get down to the culverts and see snow blowing hard enough to be almost an whiteout, I'm going to back up and go home. Slowly I'll learn. I wanted to get to church badly enough yesterday that I didn't even think about that. See where it got me.
So now it's a warmish, cloudy night in the field, and I'm off to bed. It was a great adventure, but I'd like it not to happen again.
February 12 I'm OK, but it was quite a day. I'll write tomorrow.
February 11 It wasn't 11:00 when I got to bed, but it was close. I went right to sleep, but around 2:00, I was up and I didn't really go back to sleep until after 4:00. I don't know why. I wasn't uncomfortable - nothing hurt and my temperature was all right - and I wasn't thinking about anything, but I just didn't sleep. Strange. i hope it won't happen tonight.
I got up around 9:30 and I knitted about a row and a half. It seems like I'd done most of one row yesterday - more than I thought - but when I got to the end of it, I thought I'd screwed something up, so I unknit it back to the marker before I did it over. When I got to the end, I wasn't sure if the original had been wrong, but it's right now. These beginning rows aren't too hard, mostly knitting or purling, so it's going fast. Pretty soon I'll be in the middle of the bottom zigzag part, and that's almost all decreases and yarn-overs, so it will go more slowly.
I thought I heard the tractor, and when I got to the studio, Dave was plowing out my driveway. Ron had done some, but not a lot, and Dave (who just got back from San Diego) finished the job. That made it a sure thing that I could get to church this afternoon.
When I got to the kitchen, I noticed that there were ice fishermen all over this end of the harbor - evidently this was Marty's fishing klatch. Even a couple of the camera pictures caught a few of them. I wonder if they caught anything.
Before I left, I had to change my underwear, which annoyed me no end. Ron called to pick up my taxes, but instead I got him to meet me outside the post office and we traded - my incoming for my outgoing. It was just as well, because when I got there, there were at least two dozen snowmobiles parked, I guess for The Pines, and they had parked in all the spaces in front of the community center that are designated for people going to the post office - 15 minutes only, and one space close to the door which is designated for Postal Service only, in the afternoon. As Ron said, obviously, they can't read, because the signs aren't covered up.
Then it was off to Laurium. The covered road was bad, but they had salted all the way to Lac LaBelle Road, so it was an easy commute, and I made it in nearly summertime speed. We got things ready for tomorrow, but as usual, Deanna had to do most of the hard work. I had less trouble getting up and down the stairs than I'd thought, probably because I took some Tylenol this morning, but it's still awfully hard. Those steps were built before there were standards. and they're very high.
I got home around 4:00, I think. There were two bills in my mail, and a lovely present from one of my readers. I'm so grateful! You're all so good to me.
I filled the pill dispensers at the south end, and I will be off soon to do the same at the north end and wash my hair.
The weather was just plain blah. The temperature during the day was steady at about 25º. The wind went calm around 3:00. It was dark and dull and dreary. Well, better than gale-force winds and two feet of snow!
The guys slept. They were both sort of logy today. Somebody upchucked in the kitchen. They both got some lap time after I got home, which made them happy, but I had to nearly kick Louie to get him out of my way when I went to get my dinner. I don't know why they decide to sleep right in the very middle of the great room, and Louie is not inclined to move, even though there is no way I can get around or over him.
So that was my day. It was so nice to be able to drive most of the way to church at normal highway speeds! The road was wet but not slippery. Of course, my car is a horrible mess.
Now it's a dark, cloudy night in the field, but the wind is still calm and the temperature is still reasonable.
February 10 Of course I was later than I wanted to be getting to bed, but it was before 11:00. That was, in part, because I filled and started the dishwasher before I went to bed. I was running out of dishes, and it always amazes me how much I can get into that dishwasher. When I first started using it, back in 2001, I thought it was rather small, but it turns out that it packs well.
I had trouble getting to sleep, but after a couple of hours I decided it was because I was too warm - I put on my hoodie before I went to bed - and after I corrected that, I slept fairly well. As usual, I got my longest sleep after 5:00 - from about 6:00 until 9:30.
I knitted two and a little more rows on the border. The two rows I completed were straight knitting or purling, and I was working my way over the first real pattern row when I decided I'd better get dressed in case Ron came. I needn't have bothered. He didn't come. I guess I'll have to stop at the post office on my way to town tomorrow, since it looks like I can go.
I was, and still am, very sore. I suppose it has something to do with the humidity and the barometer, but I don't know. I didn't do much as a result. I did embroider a bit during the talking, and I finished the area with the silk pearl. Wow, how I hate that stuff! And there is more to come. Sigh. I've been working away at the design, and I guess I'm actually getting to the end. It finishes as a wide bellpull, but it will be a while, because it is finished with hemstitching, and that takes a long time to do, especially something as big as this thing is. When I started working on it again, I was thinking I don't like it very much, but I unrolled it and when I looked at the finished part, it's rather pretty. Not my favorite, but not all that bad.
The weather was interesting. When I got up, it was snowing and blowing hard. The snow apparently started around 6:00 and it continued to snow hard enough to record in the rain gauge at the weather station until around 2:00. I'll be interested to see how much new snow we got. i think it was a lot. The wind was gusting up to 32 mph from the southwest, which meant there was a whirlwind between the house and the garage. Since it was only 21º at that time, it was pretty cold out there. I felt for Ron - or whoever was plowing. After 2:00, the snow stopped and it began to warm up. It's 30º now. It was dark and dull and dreary, so I ignored it.
So did the guys. While I was knitting, Grayson was under my robe that I had on my lap. When they heard the tractor, Louie beat it to the basement, but Grayson stayed around. I think it was late in the afternoon before Louie finally came back upstairs. Grayson got some lap time a couple of times, but I couldn't let him stay because I had to move. They are rather cheerful because they got canned tuna for breakfast. They both like that, and they've eaten most of it.
So it was another very quiet day and now it's a cold, dark night in the field.
February 9 Well, we didn't get to church tonight - again. This time it's because I can't get out of my garage. There is a 2' drift at the corner of the door where my car is that I could never get through. I suspect that the driveway is impassable, too. So I'm doing this early and I will be going to bed soon.
I was late last night, due, I'm sure, to my reluctance to attack the shower. It turned out not to be all that bad, as it usually isn't, but it's always a chore. I got to bed about 1:20 AM. i didn't fool around; I put on my hoodie and bed socks before I laid down. I slept about the usual - up a couple of times before 4:00 AM and then good. I was up around 5:30, for almost half an hour, and the next time I woke up, it was 10:00. That helped; certainly the fewer times I wake up during the night is more restful.
I only knitted one row, in case Ron had gotten my email (he hadn't) and I managed to do one row of straight knitting in half an hour. That's faster than I thought I could knit. This row started the increases, though, so I have 508 stitches now, and there will be 8 increases on every knit row for the next 75 rows or so. I've been working on this project for a month now, so it's actually going quite quickly.
I didn't do very much else. I still don't feel very robust and my various joints hurt a lot today, so I sat. I embroidered a bit during the talking, but my original plan was to put down the garage door (which I have to do from the garage) and come back and do some more. I didn't. I got embroiled in the computer again, and it was 8:00 before i finally went out and lowered the door. I made up for it by bringing in some canned cat food and some rice for tomorrow. Now that I can get at the entire pantry cupboard again, I want to bring in the cases of canned food that have been out in the breezeway for several months. The guys seem to be learning about the joys of canned food, and I want to encourage them. Even though what I buy isn't the top quality (good, but not the best, probably) it's much better for them than the dry stuff.
I bought a pound of Basmati brown rice a while ago, and I want to try it. I've been eating brown Jasmine, which I really like, but I want to try the Basmati. When I taste the Jasmine, it brings home to me how utterly tasteless that so-called "rice" is that comes frozen or in packages at the supermarket. All rice is not the same, and now that I know that, and I have to eat so much rice, I want to eat the good stuff.
Tonight I must wash dishes. I'm almost out of practically everything, and the dishwasher can only hold so much. I didn't do that last night - or change comforters - because I was so late. I'd like to do the comforter thing tonight, but it depends upon how late I am.
The weather was more of the usual. The high temperature was 19º, just a little while ago. The winds were very strong, with the peak around 11:00 with 40 mph gusts. It snowed off and on for most of the day. It was clearly lake effect - one moment it would be snowing and the next moment, the sun would be peeking out. Speaking of snow, from Sunday through yesterday, we've had 24". We've now had 39" for the month and 210" for the season. IT looks like we'll get to our average (242") with no problem at all. For most of the day, it was dark and cloudy and dull, but when I went to get my dinner, after it was dark, I could see the lights of town with no problems. I guess we're in for another dumping tomorrow morning, but that's the way it goes. About this time in the season, even though it started late, it gets old, and even older for Ron.
The guys were sleepy. Grayson got some lap time, but not as much as he wanted. I didn't see Louie until I brought in the cases of cat food and took up the old dishes, but they were both disappointed that I didn't put down anything new. Tomorrow, guys.
So that was my day. I don't feel good, as usual, and my joints are hurting, so I won't be up any longer than it takes to load and start the dishwasher.
It's a frigid, dark night in the field, but I don't think it's snowing right now...
February 8 I didn't get to bed until around 11:00 last night, and the first part of the night was not good. The second time I woke up after an hour and a half, I decided I must be cold, so I put on my fleece hoodie and my bed socks, and things were better after that, although I was up twice more. I was awake around 7:00 and that didn't seem right, so I went back to bed, and I didn't get up until around 10:30. I think I will have to switch to the heavier comforter tonight.
I knitted and knitted...and knitted. I had to do two setup rows, and then I did the first two rows of the border pattern. With 500 stitches on the needle, it took a while. I started with the 40" needle I just got, but it's much too awkward, so I ended up with a 32" needle. The stitches are compressed, but it's easier to handle. I may eventually have to go back to the longer needle, because I will have 800 stitches when I'm through with the border, but we'll see about that. I don't usually change needles to longer ones until the stitches keep falling off the shorter ones. Now I have a bag with a needle around the edge of it. I was happy to find that I had not forgotten how to purl, and in fact, I was probably purling about as fast as I knit.
Anyway, I was so late getting to the south end that I didn't do much of anything. Ron reported that the wind and the snow did a real number on the road - not surprising - so I may not get to church tomorrow.
At least at Delaware, there was 15" of new snow yesterday, and from what I saw around here, I'm sure we had just as much. Add to that winds that got up to 37 mph gusts from the north and it's not surprising that the drifting was really bad. It was cold, too. The high temperature for the day was 14º, briefly. It was dark and dull. At intervals, we would have a snow squall, but I doubt there was much more accumulation. There were even a couple of rays of sunshine, but they didn't last long.
The guys slept. They both asked for food this morning, so I gave them some canned stuff, which they seemed to appreciate, although it wasn't their favorite. They slept for the rest of the day. Grayson did get a little lap time, but I had to move him because I had to pee. It's hard to do anything on the computer that doesn't use the mouse with a cat on my lap.
While the talking was going on, I embroidered, but I spent most of the time attaching about 10 beads in isolated spots on one part. I dropped the magnetic pin holder that I use, and it took me some time to try to recover the pins that dropped out of it. I don't have all of them yet. I started out with ten flower head pins and 10 with red or white heads and now I have 5 flower pins and 6 of the other kind, mostly white. I have no clue what happened to the rest of them. This pin holder is heart shaped, with a ridge down the center, and while it's cute, it's not very useful. However I got back to the area I was working on yesterday (or was it the day before?), which is done in silk pearl. I hate silk pearl. It's so slippery it won't stay put, and it untwists at the turn of a needle, but it's beautiful when it's done.
Tonight I have to wash my hair and I have to wash dishes, because I'm running out. The dishwasher will be packed, but I lost track.
Tomorrow is supposed to be church, but the way the weather is, it will surprise me if we make it. For one thing, it means Ron will have to dig out my driveway, and with the problems with the road, I'm not sure he'll have time to do that. Oh, winter in the Keweenaw!
Now it's a frigid night in the field and there is supposed to be more snow. Sigh.
February 7 It was another one of those nights when I apparently zoned out, because I didn't get to bed until around 11:00. I slept fairly well, and I got up a bit before 8:30. All night long, when I was up, I could tell that it was snowing, more or less hard. Sigh. At least with the moon waxing, it's not as dark.
I knitted, and I finished the center! I also got the start row on a needle, so I'm good to start setting up for the border tomorrow. I also started a new ball of yarn, and this time I was able to find the center of the ball. I was hoping to do that, because it's just so much easier to pull from the center. So tomorrow I can embark on the border, which is the really interesting part of this piece. It's especially interesting because I will have to be doing alternate rows while I purl. Oh, those purl-two-together-from behind...I don't think it will be all that much harder, though, and anything I can do to keep from having to sew the sides together is good for me. Stay tuned...
I didn't do much, but I got the first draft of the bulletin done and sent out to everybody. I still don't feel good, and while I didn't fall asleep today, I got very sleepy in the middle of the afternoon, and I'm really sleepy now.
The real story was the snow. It snowed all day, and we've had a lot. I will be interested to see what the Road Commission reports tomorrow. I'd say it's 10" to 12", at least, here. The high temperature was 27º, which is nice, but at the same time, the wind was rising to 32 mph gusts from the east. I didn't see it, because I'm sheltered on that side. Now the temperature is supposed to go down and the snow is supposed to continue into tomorrow. Well, it's not over yet.
The guys slept and I didn't see them much, except when I went through the great room. Louie was asleep on the couch and Grayson was in the pink chair. We all feel the weather when it's like this.
So that was my quiet day, and now it's a dark, cold, snowy night in the field.
February 6 I crashed last night. I was in bed by 9:00, and I'm not sure I even finished my prayers before I was asleep. I woke up about an hour and a half later with a very stiff neck, which always happens when I sleep flat on my back. I was up several times more and I got up around 7:30. I should have had enough sleep, but I fell asleep at the desk early in the afternoon - which resulted in an accident. I was thinking about taking a nap, but by the time I was cleaned up, it was too close to the talking, so I didn't. And I won't be as early tonight, because they're playing Beethoven's Seventh, which is about my favorite Beethoven symphony, so I have to hear it.
I knitted about 12 rows, I think, so I'm getting to the end of the center. I'm going to be interested in whether I finish the center or the ball of yarn first. It will be close either way.
That was about all I did. Ron came around late in the morning and cleared out my driveway, which was even messier than it was yesterday, and I doubt I could have gotten out. He looked like a snowman and he didn't stay long, but things look better out there.
It snowed lightly all night and all day. They say we had 10" over the weekend, and I guess that might be right. The high temperature today was 19º, briefly, but the wind was under 10 mph from the east, so it wasn't as bad as it might have been. It was dark and dull and snowy all day, so I ignored it.
The guys slept. Grayson got some lap time - not what he wanted - but Louie came around when I was about to do something else, so he didn't get any.
So that was a quiet day, and now it's a cold, snowy night in the field. I'll be going to bed as soon as the symphony is over.
February 5 Ugh! It was not a very good day.
i got to bed around 9:45 last night, which was pretty good, considering, and I slept well, with only two wakeups. I woke up about 6:30 and had to pee, so I got up, and I should have had plenty of time, but I was moving slowly and I apparently zoned out at the computer, so it turned out that I didn't leave the house until 9:20, which is late even in good conditions.
Then I almost got stuck in the driveway and had to back up and try it a couple of times before I could get through. I finally backed up as far as I could, made sure my wheels were straight, and blasted through. The road wasn't in very good condition, either, because my driveway wasn't the only place where there had been considerable drifting overnight.
The highway was snow covered and slippery all the way to Calumet, so it was a slow ride and I missed the rehearsal I'd asked to have. Sigh. We sang well, though, amazingly enough. It wasn't a difficult song, except for the final verse, and I think I got most of it right. Kathleen thought we did well, so that was good.
Church was good, too. There wasn't communion, but pastor had a very good sermon, and we sang some hymns I like a lot. There was a lady sitting in the pew on the way to the elevator, and I started a conversation with her. She is going to join the church, and she has many of the same Issues I have. Besides, she thinks I have beautiful hair - not! So that was nice.
I got to come straight home, for once. I have gas and I didn't have to shop. I had less trouble getting into the driveway than I had getting out of it, I was pleased to see. I got home around 1:00, but I sat in the powder room and finished reading the January Sky & Telescope. I figured since it's February already, I should at least see what I missed. Most of the good stuff took place while we had clouds anyway.
So I was late changing my clothes. I woke up with a sinus headache this morning, and it hasn't gone away. I'm afraid the cold I thought I had has turned into that sinus thing again. So I hurt, my eyes were watering and my nose running, and I was sleepy all afternoon. Yuck. I read.
The weather was all right. There was a little snow and a lot of wind overnight, but only a few snow showers today. The high temperature was at midnight again - I still haven't figured out why that happens around here - and it was around 18º all day, and colder in Calumet. It was windy. and right around midnight the wind shifted abruptly from southwest to north. There were 35 mph gusts every so often. No wonder there was drifting. The forecast for the next couple of days looks dire, but the end of the week looks pretty good, at least now, so maybe we'll be able to get to church on Thursday, and I'm on Alter duty next week, and maybe I'll be able to get there for that, too.
The guys were sleepy. I didn't see much of Louie. Grayson sat on me several times, but he was annoying me. I was playing a game, and when I do that, he frequently comes and sits on me and puts his paw either on my hand or on the mouse pad so I can't freely move the mouse. Makes it really hard to move the mouse around.
So that was my day, and even though it's early (only 8:00), my head feels so bad, I'm going to go to bed soon and see if I can beat this thing.
Now it's a cold, dark night in the field, but the wind seems to have died down.
February 4 It was 11:00 before I made it into bed again, and I don't quite remember why. Probably I was reading, because my Internet connection was so bad. I was up any number of times, and I think it was because I hurt, because I wasn't cold. I even took off my hoodie in the middle of the night. For a short while in the middle of the night, the clouds parted enough for us to get some moonlight, and that was nice.
I got up around 7:30. I didn't really want to - I was tired all day - but if I'd gone back to bed it would have been 10:30 or 11:00 before I got up, and that would mean I would have a hard time getting to sleep tonight. I'm still having palpitations on and off, although after my connection was fixed, I did take a look at my finances, and it seems like I can pay my taxes by moving some money around and being very careful of my spending for the next month. Fortunately, it's a short one.
Dan came around 2:30 and swapped out my receiver, and things are now back to normal. It's a relief. The connection was going down every 3 or 4 minutes - or less - so I never knew if, when I opened a web page, it would load, load incorrectly, or not load at all. That's frustrating. And besides, I frequently couldn't get the pictures in my emails, which are mostly ads, so I never knew if I should be interested in them or not. Well - not. That almost all requires spending money, and I won't be doing that for some time to come. I might be able to get one raised toilet seat, but I need to think about that. It might be better to get one of those tubular things that fit around the toilet, with arms, and worry about the raised seat later. We'll see. I'm having a hard time getting up from any seat right now.
My left hip was so sore this morning that I could hardly walk, and I couldn't have walked at all without the cane. It got better later in the day, but it's still sore and it's still hardly possible to walk, even across the kitchen, without my cane. I know this will pass - it always does - but in the meantime it's really hard.
I knitted ten rows this morning, but other than that, I didn't do much of anything. I didn't get enough sleep last night and I was tired and achy all day.
Ron came with my mail while Dan was still here, and he explained to me what they did to the tractor, and what they will do if the weld breaks again. I think we're good for the rest of the season.
The weather was the usual. It snowed lightly off and on all day, but I don't think there was more than an inch, and since the wind has died down, it wasn't drifting. The high temperature was 24º, which, while cold, is a welcome change from the past couple of days. The wind was from the west or southwest, and it was a bit gusty, but it wasn't strong at all. Nice. Of course, it was cloudy and dark and dull all day, but we expect that.
The cats were sleepy, although whatever ailed Grayson seems to be over now. He was quite playful this morning, and he was delighted when Dan went right up to him and petted him. He spent a lot of time on my lap, but the first time, he wanted to lie on my left arm, which made my shoulder, which is sore anyway, hurt a lot. He came back later and curled up and went to sleep until I moved. Louie got some lap time, too, but he stomps around too much, so he isn't such a good lap cat.
So that was another quiet day, and now it's a cold, dark, snowy night in the field, but it's a bit warmer and the wind isn't bad.
February 3 I must have gone to sleep on the toilet last night, because it was 11:00 before I got to bed. I put on my fleece hoodie jacket and I was much more comfortable, although I had to put on my bed socks for a while early this morning just to warm up my feet. I didn't get up until nearly 10:30, so I should have gotten enough sleep.
I used my fleece robe as a blanket over my lap and around my legs, and Grayson came and laid down between my feet, inside the tent, and went to sleep. It was nice and warm in there. I knitted 12 rows, well into the last repeat, but it took me two hours, so I may not do that much again.
It was another one of those days. I learned that Medicare will not pay for raised toilet seats, so I will have to take care of that myself. I had just settled down to do my surfing when my Internet connection started cutting out. It was weird - sometimes nothing would load, sometimes pictures wouldn't load and sometimes everything was all right. It didn't help my annoyance that the camera went down right about the time of the last picture last night. Finally I called PastyNet and eventually Charlie called me back. He was watching my receiver and I was watching the computer, and he finally decided that it was time to change out the receiver. Since Mike is back in Illinois with his mother, someone will be out tomorrow to do that, and in the meantime, it's very frustrating to try to do anything. I couldn't stream music tonight because it kept cutting out. I'm beginning to believe that the gale that caused the screws to come loose probably banged the unit around enough to damage it, but only today did it finally die altogether. Charlie said there have been large amounts of stuff passing over my connection, and it sure isn't what I've been doing, so it is probably continuous retries. Oh, the joys of electronics!
Ron called or emailed or something to tell me that the blower has been welded and all is well again, so that's good news, since it's supposed to snow again tomorrow night.
The weather was better than forecast. It was windy and cold, but there wasn't any more snow - in spite of the Lake Effect Warning - and we even had some periods of sunshine. The high temperature has finally risen to 24º, although it was in the middle teens for most of the day The wind has abated a bit from the 37 mph gusts we had earlier in the day, but it's still gusting up to 31 mph, still from the north. Despite the periods of sunshine, it was mostly cloudy and dull.
The guys were sleepy. After sleeping under my feet this morning, Grayson slept on my lap as much as I'd let him today. I don't know if he's sick or what, but he wants to be with me. Louie slept with me for part of the night last night, but I haven't seen him today. He's probably laid out in the bathroom, where it's a bit warmer.
So that was another quiet day, and now it's a dark, cold, windy night in the field - again.
February 2 I didn't turn out the light until midnight last night, and it was mostly because I was finally writing. I have had the next scenes of Trine 14 in my head for quite a while, but I haven't been able to conjure up a name for a female character who will be important. I finally named her "Whatsername" and let it go at that. Eventually a good name will come to me, but in the meantime, I wanted to at least start writing down what I had or, knowing me, I would forget it. I got past the first part. Now I have some intermediate stuff to do and then I can start on the next big scene. Even though I write intuitively, not from an outline or anything, and I just let it flow, i need to have a direction. That's why there are three or four other pieces that are just sitting, because I don't know where they're going. I do have a general direction for this one...it's just that dratted woman's name!
I did not sleep well, and I don't know what happened. I started having heart palpitations before I took my shower, and they continued all night and part of the morning. I think they've stopped now, but that is such a strange feeling that it bothers me. I was up any number of times, even though I didn't eat fish. Besides, it was noisy. The wind was gusting from the north as high as 43 mph at the weather station, and several times there were gusts that sounded like they were trying to tear the whole roof off my bedroom. It was cold in there, too, and tonight I may just have to wear my robe to bed. Changing the comforters is such a job that I'd rather not do it, especially because when it gets warmer, the heavy one is too warm. I didn't feel cold, but I probably wasn't at my optimum sleeping temperature. I know some people, including Debbie, who can sleep anywhere, but I've never been able to do that.
I got up at 9:00. I had slept for 3 hours and I needed to pee, so I got up. I immediately noticed the snow flying by the bathroom windows. I put on my robe and buried my feet in a rug and knitted 8 rows. It would have been more, except that I screwed up a repeat and it took me a little while to figure out what I had done. I'm not sure I got it completely right, but it's good enough that nobody will ever notice. I subscribe to the Amish philosophy - there should be at least one mistake in any project, just to prove we're not perfect. I'm sure all my shawls have at least one mistake.
I didn't do anything else. I didn't get to church, either. In spite of the Weather Underground forecast, it snowed all day, and I suspect we got at least six inches. The drifting was extreme, and Ron said it was hard to even try to keep the road open down by the culverts, so I bailed. I might have been able to get out, but I was a bit worried about getting home. So we stayed here. Sigh. I really wanted to hear the discussion of the chapter of the book we read this week. Oh, well. WInter in Keweenaw.
It was winter. The high temperature, 16º, was just an hour ago, and the wind is rising again, with sustained winds of 30 mph and gusts to 40 mph. That means wind chills around -5º. I felt really sorry for Ron, out on that tractor, but my driveway was a mess. I'm sure it will be tomorrow, too. it was dark and dull and for most of the day, it wasn't possible to see anything down the harbor. By the way, the days are beginning to get enough longer that it's noticeable. It's beginning to get light at 7:30 AM, and I'm going to have to change the stop time on the camera soon, because it's not completely dark at 6:35 PM. The days are now 9h 39m long! It's so nice to be on the upward leg.
The guys slept. Grayson has a hairball, and he wanted to sleep on me all day. I had to move him, both to move myself and because he was cramping my legs. I didn't see Louie, but he got his loving last night and this morning, and he slept with me for most of the night until I started thrashing around too much.
So that was my day. I read through what I wrote last night and edited a bit, but I'm not going to do any more tonight. I'm going to bed. I'm really tired. I am a bit hungrier than I've been lately, so maybe I'm getting over whatever it was that I've had, but I still don't feel good, and I hurt all over. My shoulders and my left hip are really bad, to the extent that I even have to use the cane to walk across the kitchen. And it's too cold in the bedroom to exercise. Sigh.
Now it's a dark, windy, snowy night in the field - a good one to hide under the covers and sleep long and hard.
February 1 I don't know exactly what happened last night. I thought I started for the north end shortly after 9:00, but it was 11:00 before I turned out the light. Obviously, I was zoning out. I slept well. I was awake around 7:30, but I went back to bed and I didn't get up until after 10:00. I'm never going to get over whatever it is that I have unless I get lots of sleep.
I knitted about 12 rows, I think, and I'm making good progress. Now that I'm almost through with the center, I'm having less trouble with the pattern. Watch, it will be worse tomorrow.
I didn't have much time to do anything, so I didn't. I embroidered partway through the talking, but I screwed up a skein of thread, and once I had that sort of fixed, I remembered that I didn't do most of my surfing, so I did that. I enjoy my funnies, and I like to read them every day.
I also did two more iterations on the bulletin, which was all right, because I forgot to attach it to the email I sent last night. My mind... Lots of sick people in our church family right now.
The weather was more of the same, but colder. It was 28º at midnight, but the high temperature during the day was 18º, which is what it is now. It snowed lightly off and on all day, but not hard enough to register at the weather station. The wind has been rather strong, except for a couple of hours this afternoon. It got up to 32 mph gusts overnight - the lake was singing loudly - and now it's rising again. All from the north, of course. Curiously, there was even a ray of sunshine around 11:30 this morning, but for most of the day it was the usual dark and dull and gray.
The guys slept. I don't know what's gotten into Grayson; he hasn't sat on me in a couple of days. All he seems to want is what I'm eating, but he doesn't, so I don't give him any and he goes away. Louie slept with me for a good part of the night last night again, but as usual he wanted his part out of the middle and i had to shove him out of the way. He has been getting his loving in the bathroom in the morning, and it's been quite a while since he's even asked to get on my lap. They are strange little beasts.
So that was my quiet day, and I must wash my hair tonight, so this is early and I'll be going up to the north end fairly soon. It's a dark, cold, windy night in the field. Well, it's February, so we are one month further toward spring. Last updated 03/01/17 09:29 PM |