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A View From the Field |
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November, 2017 November 30 Geez, November is over! Where did that go?
I was late last night - about 1:30 - but I just didn't want to move, probably because I had to wash my hair. And it wasn't particularly hard, either. I can't reach the back of my head very easily, so that's always a problem, but my bottom half was behaving itself, which helped.
I slept well, and I got up around 10:00. I knitted four more rows and now I have only nine more to do before I start the edging. That was about all I did, though. After I finished my surfing, I didn't have much time before i had to leave for choir.
Choir was good, although they decided not to sing the song I love. Bible Study was good, too, all about reformers in other parts of Europe and he persecution they endured in the 16th century. We had some good discussions. I got home at about 10:00.
The weather was all right. It was dark and cloudy. The high temperature was 41º, but that was early this morning and it's been going down very slowly ever since. The wind peaked around 3:00, with 37 mph gusts and it's been decreasing ever since, although it's still breezy. The humidity was mostly under 70%, but that didn't help me get up from my chair after Bible Study. Nancy did, though.
The guys slept. They both got some quality time on my lap, and of course, they were around when I got home.
So it was a quiet day, the kind I like, and now it's a cool, cloudy night in the field.
November 29 I got to bed about 11:30 last night and for the most part I slept very well. I was abruptly awakened at 8:00 by a phone call that turned out to be from the ATT person who was going to check out the trees on the wires, but I didn't answer it. I keep wishing I had kept one of the caller ID gizmos I had on my phones on Champine, but oh, well. I did not want to get up, but I decided I'd better. If I'd gone back to sleep, it would have been at least 10:00 and possibly later before I woke up again. So I got up and knitted two rows.
i had time to do some of my surfing, but then I was almost late leaving because I had to spend more time in the powder room than I thought. I drove rather fast, but I made it to the dealership on time. That didn't take much time at all, since all they did was change the oil and check the usual stuff. They also put a couple of screws into the joints in my side-view mirrors, and as long as I don't run into anything too hard, I think that problem is solved.
Anyway, I was only there for a little more than half an hour, and that was too early to eat again, so I didn't go to Bambu. I got home around 2:30 and I had half a turkey sandwich and the rest of my Coke from Sunday, which held me over until the talking was done. That was a big chunk out of my day, though, so I didn't do anything else.
The weather was actually not as nice as yesterday. It was partly cloudy overnight, and I could see some stars, but not as many as I thought I might. However, I was awake around 5:00, and while I couldn't see much in the north, when I got back in bed, I looked out, and there was Orion, big as life, hanging high over the Mountain Lodge! It was so pretty! Toward the north, there must have been some clouds, because while I could see two stars fairly close together, I couldn't see Aldebaran or most of Taurus. But oh, that Orion! I almost didn't want to go back to sleep.
It wasn't that clear for the rest of the day. There was sunshine, but there was a high layer of clouds that muted it somewhat and turned the sky white. Yesterday, on the way home, I could see the gibbous moon in the east. Today I couldn't see that. The high temperature was only 36º, and that didn't happen until 7:00 PM. While I was out, it was around 33º. There wasn't any wind for most of the day, but around 5:00 PM, it shifted to the south and picked up. Lately we've had gusts as high as 31 mph, but whatever, I haven't heard much. What the weather will be tomorrow depends upon who you believe. It's likely to be a bit breezy, but there shouldn't be any precip. The humidity was fairly low, under 60%, which I appreciate.
The guys slept, I think. Grayson glommed onto me when I got home and slept on my lap all during the talking and he only moved because I had to pee and make my dinner. I haven't seen Louie since I got home. I expect he's up in the bathroom.
So that was my day, and now the car is taken care of, hopefully, until next spring. I'm sorry I didn't get to eat at Bambu one more time, and I had thoughts about stopping at the hardware store and getting a new snow shovel to replace the one I ran over last spring, but I had to stop and get gas - I had 55¢ a gallon in discounts I had to use, and besides, I needed some - and i had to pee too badly. So I came home and one of these days, I'll have to get the shovel. It's shaped just like the old coal shovel I still have (I think), but it's plastic and much lighter.
Now it's a sort of warmish, cloudy (I think) night in the field, and I have to wash my hair. It gets old after a while.
November 28 I didn't get to bed until 1:30 last night, for various reasons. I had some trouble getting to sleep, but once I did, I slept well. I got up around 9:00. I wanted to knit, which I did, and I had told the tire people i would be there in the early afternoon.
Well, it wasn't quite as early as I hoped, but I did get there about 2:30, and by 3:00 my tire problem was fixed. It seems like there was some corrosion on the rim which had broken the seal. So they cleaned up the rim and resealed it, and it should be all right. I'll be watching it. I'm glad it wasn't anything worse. I got home a bit before 4:00.
After dinner, I did the bulletin and I just sent it out. It seems to take less time every week, unless there are some unusual things.
It was a fairly good day to be out and around, although it was very windy, and since the wind was from the northwest, there were a number of places where I almost got pushed into oncoming traffic. I'd really rather not drive in those conditions, but otherwise it was clear and dry and sunny in Hancock. By the time I got home, it was sunny here, too, but the sun went down at about 5:00, so I didn't have time to enjoy it very much. The highest wind gusts were this morning, at 44 mph, but they were over 35 mph all day. Now the wind has shifted around to the north, but it's still blowing. It was warm; the high temperature was 48º, before and after noon. It wasn't quite as warm in Hancock, but close. I guess it's supposed to be colder tomorrow - not surprising with the wind from the north - but still sunny. I hope so. It was nice to see that light, even though it was shining in my eyes for most of my trip down. The humidity got down to under 40% for a while, which was nice for my aches and pains.
I think the guys slept. They both wanted lap time, and Grayson got some while I was doing my surfing, although Louie went away before I could move to let him jump up.
So it was a quiet sort of day, and even though I didn't get to do what I would rather have done, and now it's a clear (I think) cool night in the field. There ought to be stars tonight!
November 27 I probably didn't get to bed until around 11:30 last night - I didn't check - but I slept very well. I was awake around 9:00 but I dozed until 10:00 before I got up. So I guess it was the wine. Too bad. It was a nice Merlot and I enjoyed it. So either I'll have to stop drinking red wine or drink a whole lot less of it at one sitting. Too bad.
I knitted, and I finished chart D! Yea!! Now I have 16 rows of horseshoes to do and then I can start the edging. I ordered the yarn for my next project, which is another large one. Cyber Monday, you know. This one is going to be a very pale blue Shetland square.
I didn't do much else except make appointments. This is going to be car week. I will get the tire looked at (and hopefully fixed) tomorrow, and get the oil changed on Wednesday. The weather looks to be reasonably good for the next couple of days, so I decided to take advantage. The tire has been making me crazy and the car has been telling me it wants its oil changed.
I had put my turkey breast in the oven (set the probe, set the temperature, push start - almost too easy) when Debbie called. By the time we finished talking, the turkey was overdone and cold. if I'd taken it out right away, I'm sure it would have been all right. Well, it will make good sandwiches, which was mostly what I wanted from it, and it tasted pretty good to me. I like turkey.
I have to bitch and moan about one thing, though. I have several friends who are around 60 years old, and for some reason, every time I talk to them they are complaining loudly and stridently about something, usually something that they either can't do anything about or that is old business or that doesn't matter. I guess I appreciate that they think they can unload on me, but it's getting old. What I really want to say to them is, nobody is going to want to be around you if all you do is complain. I'm sure I do sometimes, too, but I try not to be loud and strident about it. The Congress is all assholes, some men are scumbags, some relatives (and some kids) are ungrateful wretches and it would be nice to see some sunshine, but there isn't anything much we can do about any of those things, so stop obsessing about it. Please.
The weather today was OK, I guess. The temperature has risen to 39º, but it's been windy for most of the afternoon, and now we are having 44 mph gusts. This is from the south, so we've already had two power glitches, neither long enough to cause the generator to come on. The humidity was around 70% and it was dark and cloudy.
The guys slept. Grayson got to sleep on me, but I was in the middle of something when Louie came by, so he didn't get any lap time.
Now I have to wash my hair. I just have to wash it three times a week. A couple of weeks ago, I missed Monday and it took me two weeks to get my scalp back to normal. Since I don't have to be anyplace until after noon, I'll be able to start my horseshoes tomorrow.
So now it's a dark, cloudy, very windy night in the field.
November 26 I had another bad night. I got to bed late, because I started researching rice cookers again and I began to read all the answered questions about the one I'm looking at. I think I would still like an Instant Pot, but they're pricey, and I can get a combination rice cooker/slow cooker for under $40. It looks like a good deal, but I'll be investigating more before I buy. It's amazing what not having any money can do for you.
Anyway, it was nearly 11:00 when I got to bed, and then I couldn't sleep again. I do not know what has happened, except that for the past two nights, instead of having hard boos, I've been drinking red wine. I didn't think that should make any difference, but now I have my JD again, so we'll see what happens tonight. I also seem to be trying to come down with something. I've been sneezing and coughing at intervals and I don't feel very good. I know I always used to have trouble sleeping when I was about to get a cold, so maybe that's it.
Anyway, I got up about 6:15, because after I was up at 5:00 I never did get back to sleep, so i figured I might as well get up and at it. I did my thing, which seemed to take longer than usual, but I got away around 9:10, which is reasonable, since the roads were clear and dry.
Church was good, but distressing again. The choir did without Nancy and Stuart. Evidently Stuart has been having some kind of health problem that has been leaving him dizzy, and his doctor instructed them that the next time it happened, he was to go straight to the emergency room. Well, after we practiced our song, it happened again, and of course, Nancy had to drive him. Since she works for Portage Health, they had to go there.
Their daughter was our acolyte this morning. She is actually 30 years old, but she is fairly severely mentally challenged (I think that's the PC way to put it). She is a nice girl, but I'd put her mental age as somewhere between 10 and 12 years. Of course, she can't drive. I've had some interaction with her, and I'm afraid I think people have told her there are so many things she can't do that she's too timid to try some things she can do. Maybe I'm just an optimist. She did get through catechism a few years ago, and she helps Nancy around the house quite a bit, but she seems very timid about it. Maybe that's better than having her think she can do things she can't, but still. It could be keeping her from being all she can be. Anyway, someone drove her home after church, because I suspect Nancy and Stuart were still at the hospital.
It was just as well that we sang a hymn, with a nice piano accompaniment that Kathleen had. We had originally been going to do a rather large and, dare I say, bombastic piece, but Pastor nixed it. It was just as well, because without Stuart, who is our bass, and Nancy, who is our alto, it would never have sounded right.
Pastor's sermon was good. He preached on "Surely I am coming soon," since this is the last Sunday of the church year and it's all about end times.
After church, I had to go back upstairs (after I peed) and get the flowers for December, and he was still there. Well, we started talking, and about an hour and a half later, his wife showed up to find out where he was. Heh. They invited me to stay for lunch, but I declined, and then they offered to have their son do the thing with my tire. I wasn't about to turn that down, so we went off to the gas station. I am planning to get that tire fixed or replaced this week.
It was horribly cold, because there was a very strong wind blowing out of the north. Anyway, I gat gas, and when I went inside to pay for it, I discovered that that gas station is no longer owned by the people who own the supermarket and all the gas discounts I'd accrued (40¢ a gallon) couldn't be redeemed there anymore. So unless I use enough gas to have to refill before Thursday, I will lose that. Grr. I complained at the supermarket, and they claimed that they have had signs posted, but obviously there weren't any where I could see them. I was not pleased.
Then it was off to Pat's, and I did quite a bit of damage, but I was running out of a few things and I needed to lay in some more cat food, because the guys have been telling me they want canned food every day. I'm not sure they'll get it, but I did get some more that they really like. I got a fresh, boneless turkey breast, which I will cook tomorrow (gee - a chance to play with the big oven!). I found I missed my turkey on Thursday. I like turkey, and I love having leftovers. This is only about two and a half pounds, but it should make for some yummy sandwiches, after a good dinner. i might even rub it with the combination of herbs I used in the stuffing. We'll see how I feel tomorrow.
Not only did a lovely man help me down the ramp at the gas station, one of my fellow parishioners was checking out when I did and she helped me get all the stuff into the car. People around here are so nice!
By the time I got home, i was completely wiped out and I hurt all over. I got the perishable stuff into the fridge, but the breezeway is down to fridge temperatures now, so it was 9:00 before I could make myself get the rest of it - except for the canned stuff - into the house and put away. Then i had a nice lamb chop, and I do feel better now, although that's when I'm sitting down, and my joints still don't feel right. I hope to get to bed shortly and I hope to sleep very hard and very long. We'll see. If the problem was the wine, it shouldn't happen tonight. Fingers crossed.
The weather wasn't very good. The official temperature did get up to 39º, but it was at 11:00, and when I was out in it, it was around 32º or 33º. It never did get that warm in Calumet. There was a very strong north wind. It peaked here around 2:00, with 32 mph sustained winds and 46 mph gusts, but it was at least that strong down south. It was clear for most of the night, and I saw stars for the first time in quite a while, and it was clear this morning, through the end of church, before the clouds moved back in. It was dark and cloudy all afternoon and when I was coming home, which would have been between 3:00 and 4:00, my headlights came on. I had hoped for better.
I guess the guys slept. They were both following me around when I got home, and Grayson had to oversee all the moving of the groceries. When I sat down to rest, he went to sleep on my lap. Hey, guys, stuff like this happens.
So that was my day, a bit more active than I'd planned. I should know better than to stand and talk for an hour and a half. i haven't been able to do that for 40 years without my knees getting messed up. So now it's a cloudy (I think), windy night in the field, and I'm really, really tired.
November 25 I turned out the light at about 11:30 last night, but I couldn't sleep. It wasn't Neurontin - I took those - and it wasn't Tylenol - I took that, too. It was mostly my feet, which felt cold even when they weren't. I put on my bed socks for a while, but I hurt all over. The socks made me feel like I was all tangled up in the bedding, so I took them off, and then, sometime after 3:00 AM, I finally got to sleep.
I got up around 9:30, which was not nearly enough sleep, but oh, well. I'll make up for it tomorrow night. I knitted four rows and I now have only four rather easy rows to go before I finish this chart and go back to horseshoes. So that makes it 20 rows to finish, and then the edging...
That all took enough time that I didn't do a lot, but I did do something for a change. I folded the underwear and put it away, I put the sweatshirts away in the window seat, and I moved one basket full of tops into the closet. If the basket is there, I will fold some of the tops every day when I go in to get dressed. I did fold some of them, because after i did the rest of it, my back was so sore I had to sit down, even though I was getting queasy. And I found two more tops that have spots on them. Geez.
About feeling queasy. I'm hypoglycemic. Most of the time, it doesn't bother me a lot, even though I sometimes don't eat for 16 hours or more, but if I have to do something even slightly physical on an empty stomach, i get queasy and sick. I know that, but it's worth it to get some of the things done that I know I need to do. Right now, I need to clear out the laundry room so I can change out the washer hoses. Not only do I need to wash my down parka, almost all my polar fleece tops need washing. All of those have to be washed in cold water, and there is almost no cold water getting into my washer these days. I've been working away at the piles, and now I'm down to three or four wash baskets of tops. I moved one of them into the closet today, and maybe in the next couple of days, I can get at the other one, too. I have an incredible amount of clothing, but when I had money, I spent a lot of it on clothes. For the past couple of years, most of them have been in the laundry room, and it's about time I folded it all and put it where it needs to be. Then maybe when I wash, I'll have a reasonable amount to fold and it won't get so bad again. Maybe. This is the second time this has happened to me, although if I remember, the last time wasn't quite as bad.
There is still the problem of all the yellow spots, but if I can get the clean stuff out of the way, I can begin to work on that. I know I drop stuff on my front - who doesn't? - but I have to wonder if a lot of this isn't something like mouse pee, because I keep finding spots on things I'm almost certain I never spotted. At any rate, some of my favorite things have spots, so I have to try to save them.
Oh, yes, and while my dinner was cooking, I loaded the dishwasher and it will run overnight. I should have done that last night and I didn't, but now it's ready to go.
The weather was so-so again. It was a lot cooler today than yesterday. The temperature bottomed out at 27º between 2:00 and 4:00 PM, although it has risen a degree or two since. The wind was strong overnight, with 39 mph gusts from the north at 8:00 AM. There wasn't any precip, and the humidity is now down to around 60%, which is no doubt why I don't hurt so much. It was dark and cloudy all day, although the clouds were breaking up at sunset, and when I looked out the south windows around 7:00, there was a nice crescent moon shining in the south. If the forecasts are right, we're in for a week or so of seasonal temps (upper 30s to low 40s) and no precip. I hope so.
The guys slept. They both tried to sleep on me, but they still want to use my right forearm as a pillow, and that is just not comfortable for me. So after they tried for a while, they both went away with a ker-thump on the floor. Sorry, but I am not your pillow. One time when I got back into bed last night, I discovered that Louie was sleeping on the window side of the pillow. He doesn't do that much. I was thrashing around enough, trying to get comfortable, that he finally left. I was sorry about that, but it wasn't a good night.
So that was my quiet day. At least I accomplished something! I think it was the lower humidity.
Now it's a dark, at least partly cloudy night in the field, but there may be a star or two.
November 24 Well, I was stupidly late last night. I read what I wrote, and then I just sat until I couldn't see straight anymore. I didn't get up until almost 1:00 and then I knitted, but only two rows today. Only 24 more to go! Plus the edging, of course. I'm getting there. I was so late that I didn't do anything but my surfing. There were 75 emails in my inbox when I finally got to the studio and all but one of them was an ad. I thought Black Friday was supposed to be an in-store event, and almost all of these people are online stores. I was disgusted. The only ones I paid any attention to at all were the ones that have sales for the entire weekend, and I only kept three of those.
The weather wasn't nice. It was warm - 53º briefly, a new record - but it was dark and breezy and it rained lightly all afternoon. The wind was from the west overnight, but it switched around to the north and it was gusty. We only had 0.15" of rain, although there may be some more overnight. The humidity was reasonable until it started to rain, when it went up to 90%. Every so often it would get really, really dark, even before it started to rain. I'd thought about going out, until I was so late, just to feel the temperature.
The guys slept. Grayson slept on me for a while this afternoon. Louie got some loving today. We've both forgotten about yesterday.
So it was a very quiet day, and now it's a warmish, dark night in the field and I am going to bed at a reasonable hour tonight.
November 23 - Thanksgiving Day I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving Day, with everything you wanted to happen.
I was later than I intended last night, since I had to wash my hair, but i slept fairly well and I got up around 10:00. I decided to knit four rows, which took me two hours, so I'm making progress. The only problem was that Louie expected I would only knit for an hour and he made a nuisance of himself until I finally shouted at him. And he didn't get any loving, but he knew I was annoyed and he didn't ask for any.
I was late enough that I didn't do much except my surfing, although after dinner, I wrote about 2000 words. I've now written everything I was thinking about, so now i have to start deciding where to go from here. As one of the characters said, all the problems seem to be solved. They aren't, of course, but I've been hung up on just this one for so long that now I have to think for a while, so I'll go back to reading. I like where this is going, and I know several things I want to write about, in general, but it will take a while to figure out how to do it. When I was writing longhand and every day, I just pushed on through these things, but I'm not sure I can do that anymore. We'll see. I do like to write. I can lose myself in my story for hours on end and it feels so good.
The weather was sort of warm and sort of windy but boring. The temperature was around 35º all afternoon, although it's up to 39º now. Between 9:00 and 2L00, there was a bit of wind from the north, with gusts up to 25 mph. It was a bit more humid than yesterday - in the low 70s. It was mostly dark and cloudy, although right after I got up, there was a short period with a few rays of sunshine. Boring.
The guys slept most of the day. Grayson got some lap time, but Louie realized he was not in good odor, so he kept away. I had to scoop up the kibble I dropped on the floor, because nobody would eat it that way. Boy, are they picky.
So it was another quiet day, and now it's a fairly warm, cloudy night in the field.
November 22 As you might expect, after all the sleep I had during the day yesterday, I didn't sleep so well last night. I was in bed by 10:30 and I didn't get out of bed until around 8:45 this morning, but except for the last three hours, I didn't sleep deeply and I was up any number of times (I lost count). That was all right; I do feel better today, although I've suddenly started sneezing, so we'll see where that goes.
I didn't do anything today. While I wasn't tired, I don't feel very robust, so I just sat. I did my surfing and played games and listened to the talking and that was it. Oh, I did write about 800 words tonight. I'm still not caught up with the scenes I've been thinking about and I want to try to keep at it. The thing is, I know what the scenes will be, but I need to write the transitions from one to the next, and that takes time. I'll try to keep plugging away at it.
The weather was nondescript. The temperature has been nearly steady around 27º. There was a bit of wind during the night - and the weather station was down from 4:00 to 10:00 anyway - but it has been nearly calm all day. The humidity has been down, too, under 60%, which is no doubt why I'm not quite as creaky today. It was dark and cloudy, especially when I got up, but then, the sun didn't rise until 8:06 this morning. We're down to a day length of 9 hours now and it certainly shows.
When I went out to the kitchen last night, everything that had been on the dining room table was on the floor, including the blocking tiles, the cloth under them, the blocking wires, all the t-pins, and a bunch of other stuff. I don't know when that happened - I don't think I heard anything - but it was a mess. It still is, because I only picked up what I absolutely needed to get into the kitchen, and today my knees were bad. I'm practically certain the culprit was Grayson, although he may have been chased. I don't think anything broke that can't be fixed, although I haven't located everything yet. They were rather subdued. They both got some lap time today, and I managed to comb some small knots out of Louie, which he didn't like. I think he feels a bit better than he has lately, because he was playing with the rope for a bit this morning. I think he feels the humidity as much as I do.
So that was my quiet day, and now it's a long, cold, dark night in the field.
November 21 Wow! What a weird day this has been!
I was very late getting to bed again last night, because, as usual, I just sat when I should have gone up to the north end. So it was 3:00 before I turned out the light. Then, right about 8:00, I got a call from the electric contractor asking if I wanted my generator serviced. Did I want it!! That gave me about an hour to get myself up and ready and eat something.
I did, but I was about to start making toast when we had a power glitch. Fortunately, it wasn't more than 30 seconds - just enough to make me have to reset the clocks. The guy came, and he was here about fifteen minutes. I can see why they like to do this thing. And maybe, just maybe, I've found somebody who will come automatically every year and do it again. With the state of our electric system, I need that generator.
After he left and I had read my funnies, I went back to bed. Mary Ann called, and she didn't argue when I said I didn't think I wanted to go to choir practice tonight. So I went back to sleep, and it was 3:15 PM before I got up. That was interesting, because I had been lying on my left side and Louie parked himself behind my knees, which is right where I have to sit when I roll over to get up. I had to push him out of bed, since he wasn't ready to move, and I had lost my socks under the covers. So all I did today was sleep. I won't be up long tonight, and I will sleep again. I
I knitted, and as a result, i was watching the clock when 4:00 came, so the clock in the bathroom got reset right away. I wish that would happen more often. Now I have 32 more rows, plus the edging, to do, so I'm making good progress on the cape.
The weather was very conducive to sleeping. It wasn't particularly cold, but all night long the wind was battering the northwest corner of the house. Slowly, though, while I was asleep today, it shifted north, but between 10:00 and noon, it was blowing at 36 mph with 45 mph gusts. It's still windy - 20 - 32 mph - but now it's from the north and it's winding down. The temperature dropped dramatically overnight, and it was around 27º all day. There was a little snow, but not much and there wasn't any accumulation. The lake is still singing, but it's not as noisy around here, since the wind has shifted north, where I'm sheltered.
The guys slept. Grayson slept on me this morning while I did some of my surfing, and Louie slept with me all afternoon. It's the best thing to do in weather like this.
So that was a non-day, and I'm about to go up to the north end and do it some more. It's a cold, dark, windy night in the field.
November 20 Oh, here I go again. I diddled around for quite a while last night, and then I had to put the laundry in the dryer and fill the pill dispensers at the north end (which I forgot on Saturday), so it was very late when I finally got to bed. I got up around 9:30, so I didn't have nearly enough sleep and I just about fell asleep in the middle of the afternoon. I should have taken a nap when I first got sleepy, but I didn't, and when I finally did go up to the north end, it was too late and I wanted to hear the news. So I'm horribly tired tonight, and I have to wash my hair. Sigh.
I knitted, and I folded a whole bunch of sweatshirts. I keep forgetting just how many of those things I have. When I was vacationing here, when I had money, I would buy at least a couple on every trip. Now I'm certainly glad I have them, both because I don't have any money anymore, and because the place where I got most of them went out of business several years ago. They still have to be put away, but I'm whittling down the piles in the laundry room. I made a couple more changes to the bulletin - and Sue found some more - so I think that's done. That was all I did.
The weather was nondescript, the calm before the storm, if the forecast is any good. The temperature has been in the high 30s all day, and it's been rising slowly, so it's now it's 41º. The wind was from the southwest at around 10 to 12 mph all day, but at intervals, it got gusty, with gusts up to 26 mph. Evidently we're in for another wind storm tomorrow, if the NWS is at all accurate, and there may be gusts up to 53 mph, with some snow. One reason I was so late last night is that the PastyCam mentioned that last year on that date, we had a humdinger of a storm, so I had to look back at my journal to check it out, and yes indeed, we did - 41 mph winds with gusts up to 53 mph. The power was behaving itself better last year. It looks like we're in for another one tomorrow, although not like last year or a couple of weeks ago. Ah, the gales of November!
The guys slept, mostly. They both got some lap time. Grayson went away when I twitched, and Louie went away because I wouldn't let him use my right arm as a pillow. That puts my whole right arm to sleep, so I have to move it, and when I did, he went away. Too bad about him. They got something out of a can to eat today. It's not their favorite food, but I was gratified to see that they ate a respectable amount of it. They're pretty picky for a couple of guys who had never had canned food before they came here and didn't like it at first.
And that was my quiet day. Now it's a dark, breezy night in the field, but it's rather warm. Tomorrow will probably be worse.
November 19 Oh, I'm tired! I would like to keep writing, but I can't.
I was late last night, and it was my own fault. I diddled around for far too long before I took my bath, and it was 10:45 when i finally got to bed. I slept well, but not nearly long enough. Besides, I was up around 5:00, and I didn't really get back into a deep sleep. i did have some weird dreams, though.
Anyway, I got up, but I was moving slow all day. I was later leaving than I wanted to be, and the roads were so bad that I almost missed choir practice (we practice before church these days). The problem with the roads was that the temperature went down dramatically yesterday afternoon while there was a good coating of slush, and then there was a little bit of snow overnight, so it was very slippery. I made it, but I had to go very slowly down to Mohawk. The covered road was particularly bad. The Road Commission had been out, but instead of spraying their sand/salt mix over the road, they had dropped it in clumps, which didn't help much, particularly since they hadn't been out too much before I left. It was ugly.
Church started out good, but right at the end of communion, one of our older members had some kind of seizure. Fortunately, we have two RNs and an LPN, and they managed to stabilize things until the EMTs got there, but it sort of messed up the end of the service. We stayed where we were until the EMTs came, and it took them a while, so we were late getting out.
I had been thinking about doing a little shopping - I'm flat out of JD - but after I saw how horrible our parking lot was, I knew Pat's would be worse, and I was really shaky today, so I came home. My JD and the cats' favorite foods will just have to wait.
I got home sometime after 2:00, I think, and I didn't do very much. Everything seemed so boring that I finally started writing, and I wrote about 3,000 words. I would like to keep on, but I'm too tired. It felt good, but of course, what I finally wrote down wasn't nearly as good as what I've been thinking about for over a month. It never is. I should have written it right after I first thought about it, because that was better, but somehow I never got around to it. I lost my round TUIT a long time ago.
The weather today was cold and windy. The temperature was nearly steady around 25º and the wind was from the north with gusts up to 31 mph, although they were closer to 25 mph all afternoon. The temperature and the wind are rising now, though. It was dark and cloudy, with a very few peeks of something bright, and it was raw and nasty. The humidity was a little lower than yesterday, but it was still over 70% for most of the day. My bod was telling me so.
The guys were sleepy. Grayson slept on me for a while, but evidently I was too twitchy, because he went away after a while. I think Louie has been sleeping mostly in the bathroom, because that's the warmest place in the house.
So that was my day, and now it's a cold, dark and windy night in the field.
November 18 Late again, I guess I was too tired and hurting to move. I got up around 10:30 anyway and knitted my two rows.
Today was washday, and I did two loads, one of which has to be dried. That's pretty good for as late as I started. Maybe I can do the last one, the whites, tomorrow. Of course, now I have a bunch of jeans that need to be folded and put away, but that's how I got so much stuff in the laundry room in the first place.
I went to the post office, where there was a lot more mail than I expected. The Christmas catalogs and the Christmas pleas for money are starting. I wish I could donate, but I can't. I look at some of the catalogs, but not all. I have to laugh at what marketing people sometimes think are good Christmas gifts.
Ron sent me off with a package that wasn't for me, so he stopped by to get it and we had a long conversation about a lot of stuff. We don't see much of each other in the summer. We are in similar financial shape, although I do get more money than he does - but then, with my high property taxes and health insurance costs, I need more. More than I get. Evidently everything is in place for the winter road maintenance, although I'm sure there will be some glitches at first. Our tractor is in as good shape as can be, and the meeting last night agreed to go together and try to get a new blower. We'll see how that goes. i filled the south end pill dispensers, and when I get up to the north end, I'll fill those, too. I would rather not have washday and dispenser day at the same time, but it seems like I usually end up that way.
The weather wasn't very good, although it was better than yesterday. The temperature slid down slowly from midnight, and it's now officially 32º, although it's 29º here. That's probably because there is a strong north wind, with gusts up to 29 mph. The humidity has been over 80% all day. That left me with a horribly sore upper body and lower back - not hip, just shoulders and back. It was dark and gloomy all day. It might snow overnight and tomorrow, which may mean i don't go to church. I need to go, and I need to do some shopping, so we'll see what happens.
The guys slept. Grayson slept on me for as long as I'd let him. Louie seems to still be grumpy. He was attacking Grayson and chasing him around this evening while I was making my dinner.
So that was my day. Most of the snow is gone now, but there is a lot of water in the road, and if it snows and freezes, it could be interesting. We'll see about tomorrow. Now it's a cold, dark, windy night in the field.
November 17 i guess it was around 1:30 when I got to bed last night, which isn't bad for a Thursday. I slept well, and I got up around 10:30, I think. I knitted, and it seems like the two rows took me longer than usual, even though they weren't hard.
I was late enough that I didn't do anything much except for my surfing.
Ron emailed me, finally. He had sent me a message through Facebook, and they sent me an email about it (after a hiatus of about 3 months, all of a sudden they are emailing me again. Geez!), but in order to read it, i think I would have to download some software from them, and I simply will not do that. I can't tell you how suspicious I am of Facebook and all the other "social media" sites. All they want is your personal information so they can sell it, and I will try to the best of my ability to not get caught up in that. Anyway, there was a meeting of the winter residents tonight at the Community Center, but the weather was so nasty and I was feeling so yucky that I didn't go. When I called him, he said it was mostly to get everyone on the same page, and he knows what I need.
The weather was nasty. The temperature was fairly moderate - the high was 37º, but when I got up it was raining, and then it snowed, and then it sleeted, and from 11:00 AM to 9:00 PM, we had 0.77" of precip. Ron said it was slippery, too. It was windy overnight, with gusts up to 36 mph from the southwest. I'm surprised we didn't have another power failure. Of course it was dark and dismal all day long. Yuck. Now it's quiet and there isn't any precip, but there may be more, and the temperature is going down. Yuck.
The guys slept. Grayson got to sleep on me for a long time and when I had to go up to the north end to take care of an accident, Louie was sound asleep on the sweatshirt I'd been wearing to bed. He'd moved the second time I had to go up there, and I don't know where. They got some canned stuff they love for breakfast this morning, and they want more, but too bad.
I was very achy and creaky today, especially in my back, and I'm really tired now. I ate late, though, so it will be a while before I get to bed. The music isn't compelling, though, so maybe I can go soon. It's a dark, cold and maybe rainy or snowy night in the field. Yuck.
November 16 Well. I got to bed before midnight last night, bath and all. So see, I can do it when I put my mind to it. Actually, I was too tired to read much and the music wasn't that compelling, so I had no excuses not to go to bed. I slept well and I got up around 10:30.
According to Mary Ann, the power outage lasted until around 1:30 AM. The only thing that surprised me was that the lighthouse was out, too. I thought it had its own power source, but I guess not. No problem, though, because all the ships were on the north side of the lake because of the wind. Oh, and she got pictures of the Alder pulling up the buoy this afternoon. I was surprised that it was still here, since usually they pull it in early October. It's gone now.
I knitted, of course. That put me too late to do what I wanted to do this afternoon - write - because I left for choir practice before 4:30.
The roads were not as good as we hoped, and I actually slid out on the covered road. It wasn't too bad a skid, although I think it shook Mary Ann up a bit, and we took it much easier after that until we got to Phoenix. After that, it was mostly wet with just a little slush and we were almost as early as we ever are.
Choir was good, although we're singing a whole lot more music than we'll have time to perform. There is so much good Christmas music and so little time to sing it. Bible Study was good, too. It was about the later part of Luther's life and the upheavals that followed his death. I got home around 10:00.
The weather has turned cold. It was extremely windy overnight, with gusts as high as 37 mph, and the temperature went down slowly until 9:00 pm. it was around 26º or 27º all day, but the wind went down to nothing, so it wasn't so bad to be outside. It was even colder in town, and there might have been a little freezing drizzle or snow, though, which made the roads nasty. It was dark and cloudy all day, and we are beginning to feel the lack of sunshine already - on top of our cloudy summer, now this. I think this week might be a bit better, though. Not a lot, but a bit.
The guys slept. Louie is still grumpy. Grayson slept on my lap for a long time until I had to type something. They got some of their almost-favorite kibble today, so they were happy.
And that's all there was. Now it's a dark, cold, cloudy night in the field.
November 15 So I was even later last night - or this morning. I didn't get up until noon, and I knitted, which means I didn't do anything else. Sigh.
The weather started out warmish but yucky and it has now turned cold and yucky. It apparently started raining around 6:00 and it's been raining lightly ever since - about 0.42" so far. It was also very foggy. Needless to say, with the humidity up around 90%, I hurt. The temperature stayed relatively steady around 40º all day, but in the last couple of hours, it's dropped off a couple of degrees officially, and down to 33º by my thermometer. The reason is that the wind has picked up, until now it's blowing at 27 mph with gusts to 38 mph, from the northeast. The lake is singing loudly.
I was making my dinner when the lights dimmed and bounced several times and then went out, so I'm now on generator power again. I was more thankful than even usual to have that generator, because while my meat was done, i was in the process of putting my veggie/rice mixture into the microwave when the power went out, and I'm not quite sure how I would have heated it up - in a frying pan, I guess. Anyway, it's so good to have that thing. I have to wash my hair tonight. Of course, I could do it tomorrow, but I hate to take baths during the day. I've done it at night my whole adult life, and it just doesn't feel right not to do it then.
The guys were sleepy, but Louie was restless. He has a tummy ache, which means he's been barfing a lot and he's been very grumpy as well as very vocal. Of course he takes out his grump on Grayson, but then he wanders around vocalizing. Grayson got to sleep on me quite a bit today, but he wanted to sleep with his head on my left arm, which isn't very comfortable.
Now
I really have to go to bed, via the shower. It's a dark, rainy (or possibly
snowy) night in the field. Ah, winter! November 14 Reading again. I hope I can be a bit earlier tonight. I didn't sleep very well, for some reason. I had a hard time getting to sleep, partly, I think, because Louie was in bed with me, and I woke up around 9:30 AM, I think, and I just dozed. When I was up around 5:00, there were some wan stars in the sky. It had clouded up when I got up, around 10:30, I think. I knitted , and at the end of my two rows, I had to splice in a new ball of yarn. The last pattern is half done. Of course, there are horseshoes after that, and the edging (or "lace" as they call it), but I'm making progress.
I didn't do anything except my surfing and the bulletin. I got that out late this afternoon, and I haven't heard from anybody about it. I think I got everything right, except that I forgot to check to see if there were any flowers for Sunday, so if there were, somebody may be annoyed. I'll check on Thursday, but that's too late for the bulletin.
The weather was nondescript again. The temperature went up to 40º and stayed there all afternoon. The wind was from the west, but it was under 10 mph. The humidity has been around 80%, which is why I'm so creaky again. It was dark and dismal and there was probably a little fog down the harbor, or maybe it was drizzle. Yuck.
The guys slept. Grayson slept on me for a while, but I'm not a very good pillow, because I move. Louie was sleeping someplace else. He wanted to sit on me, but it was while I was busy and he couldn't.
So it was another very quiet day, just the way I like them, even though I don't have anything to report. Now it's a dark, cloudy but warmish (for November) night in the field.
November 13 Well, time just passed and I was reading so I was late last night. I slept well, and I was only up once, I think. I was annoyed by a call around 9:30 this morning that I just discovered was from the electricians. Oh, darn! But they didn't leave a message and I forgot about it. So i guess I will call them back tomorrow and hope they can get here. Shoot.
I didn't get up until 11:30 and I knitted. I'm coming to the end of the second ball of yarn and I'm almost halfway through the last pattern, so I'm making progress. Slow, but progress.
That was about all I did, although while my dinner was cooking tonight, I got the dishwasher almost ready to run. I didn't do that last night because I was so late, but now I'm out of bowls, so I have to run it tonight. I haven't decided yet whether to wash my hair or not. I should, but I'll be late, and I'm tired, so we'll see.
The weather was nondescript. The temperature varied from 30º to 36º and it was almost steady all afternoon. There was hardly any wind. It was humid - over 85% all day, which is no doubt why I hurt. It was dull and gray and yucky. Blah.
The guys thought so, too, and they slept.
So I'm still reading, although it's a different story tonight. Maybe I can stop and get the dishwasher primed, but we'll see. It's a dark, cold, humid night in the field and I'm tired.
November 12 Another quiet day.
I got to bed not long after 9:30, as I wanted to, and I slept well, except that I was up at 5:30 and I never did get back to sleep, so I got up at around 6:15. So I started out early, but then I got sidetracked and I was almost late.
The roads were ugly. The temperature varied from 31º to 34º, and there was a layer of snow or ice or something on the road, so it was probably slippery and I couldn't go very fast. I did make it to church at around 10:00, but I had hoped to be earlier, since we had to practice our song.
Church was good, and we sang pretty well. Pastor had another good sermon.
I had more or less planned to do some shopping today, because I'm running out of JD, but when I thought about it, that and cat food were about all I needed, so I decided not to stop. I did have to get gas, though, and I did that as well as a stop at the post office to mail a bill. I think I got home around 1:30.
I changed my clothes, ate the rest of my beans and rice and didn't do anything for the rest of the afternoon. I do intend to wash dishes tonight, but I still have to get the dishwasher loaded. So it was a quiet day.
The weather was cloudy, gloomy and nondescript. The temperature has been steady at about 34º and there has been almost no wind. It's been quite humid all day, but there was no or almost no precip. Blah.
The guys slept. They both wanted to sleep on me, but I had to make them go away so I could do something besides sit. I'm surprised by Louie. All of a sudden, he wants to sit on me as much as Grayson does. It's probably the temperature. In the summertime, it's too warm on my lap, but now we can keep each other warm. The only problem is, he's so heavy, he makes my legs twitchy.
So that was a very quiet day, and now I have to go fiddle with the dishes. It's a cloudy, not very cold night in the field.
November 11 - Veterans' Day I guess I got to bed shortly after midnight. I have been having a little problem getting to sleep - 15 minutes to half an hour rather than 10 minutes or less - but once I got to sleep, I did well. I was up twice, and I got up around 9:30, I think. I knitted my two rows, which took longer than usual for some reason. The pattern row was really very easy. Maybe it was the return row - I had to move all the markers. Anyway, I'm making progress.
I did something. I have neglected my ledger all year, and I've been wondering why my finances have gotten into such dire straits, and besides, I need to do it so I'm ready after the new year, when the tax stuff comes in. It will be much better to only have a couple of months to go rather than a whole year. Well, I guess I see what the problems are. I had a whole lot of car repairs this year, for one thing. I spend a hair-raising amount of money on meds, and that didn't even include the last ones I got yesterday.
The other thing, and I've been aware of it for some time, is that I spend an amazing amount on food and other stuff one gets at a grocery store. I'm not quite sure what to do about that, but I have to try to get the number down. I know Schwan's is expensive, but I've been willing to pay because of the advantages of having things packaged in single servings. I wish I had a better idea of why I spend so much at Pat's. I have been saving my receipts, and i guess I'll have to start going through them carefully to see where I might cut back. Not JD, I hope, and not cat food, but the rest of the stuff? i hope so. The things that used to break my budget - books, needlework and records - are things I've nearly stopped buying, unfortunately, but that's good. Anyway, it's always a bit of a downer when I begin to look at exactly where the money goes. I have had some very generous donors this year, too, and that has helped a lot. It enabled me to pay my internet bills and keep the site up and running - and safe.
That took the afternoon, but I'm up-to-date as of tonight now.
The weather was worth ignoring. It was windy overnight, with gusts up to 26 mph, and it snowed all night, too. Today, it's been calm, with steady temps around 30º and almost no snow. It was dark and dismal all day.
The guys slept. Grayson slept on me until I got ready to do something, and Louie slept wherever he usually does. It was a good day for that.
So it was a very quiet day, but I accomplished something. Now it's a dark, warmish (for winter) night in the field and I'll soon be off to the north end to wash my hair.
November 10 Heh. I almost pulled an all-nighter last night. It was mostly because I was reading, but also because I was creaky and I didn't want to get up. So eventually, I had my second accident of the day and I went to bed. I didn't get up until after noon, of course. I knitted my two rows. The pattern row was another slow one, but the next two will be faster.
I didn't do much. I went to the post office, where my pills and my soap were waiting. And that was about it.
The weather has gotten a lot better. We even had a few peeks of sunshine today. The temperature has now risen to 28º, but the wind is rising again. For most of the day, it was nearly calm, but now we are having 27 mph gusts, from the southwest. It was mostly cloudy. We didn't get a lot of snow here - I'd say 3" at most - so the only trouble is that US-41 is rather slippery. Farther south, they had nearly a foot. However, they are expecting some more overnight, although not more than 4" anywhere. So it's now winter in the Keweenaw. Sigh.
The guys were sleepy. Grayson slept on me when he could, but that wasn't much. Sometimes I sit at the computer longer than other times.
So that was a very quiet day, and since I didn't get enough sleep last night, I hope to be a little earlier tonight. It's a cold, breezy night in the field, and the snow is still coming.
November 9 Well, I was late last night, but not nearly as late as I have been lately. The lake was singing when I got to bed, and it was snowing hard enough that I couldn't see town at all and sometimes I couldn't see the lighthouse, so I slept. i was awakened by a couple of spam phone calls this morning at 9:30 and 10:00, but I ignored them and I didn't get up until around 10:30. I knitted, another slow row. I guess the next six or eight rows will be slow, then the pattern repeats and the first half goes faster.
I didn't do anything again. Mary Ann called, and we decided between us that we are just too chicken to go out in this weather. She said the roads are very slippery where they've been plowed, and besides, with temperatures under 20º and wind gusts up to 40 mph, it was just too nasty. I was disappointed not to be able to go; we're studying Martin Luther and the Reformation, and I didn't want to miss a week, but oh, well.
Like I said, it was not a nice day. The official temperature all day was right around 20º, plus or minus a degree, but here, I don't think it got over 15º. The winds were blowing at about 30 mph from the north, with gusts up to 44 mph. There wasn't enough snow to register in the rain gauge, but it looks to me like we've had two or three inches of stuff, and it's drifting pretty badly. I sure am glad I went out yesterday and battened things down!
Speaking of snow, I finally checked the official Keweenaw County snow data, and according to them, we had 13.5" in October (the last five days or so) and we've had 11.5" through yesterday morning this month, including 9" from the 7th through the 8th! Of course, we didn't get nearly that much down here in the Harbor, but Delaware is at a higher elevation, as well as being in the interior (well, as interior as it gets around here), so they had more. And the NWS was reporting as much as 11.5" at Allouez overnight through 8:30 this morning. That, as much as anything else, was what convinced me to stay home today. I know they do a great job of clearing the roads, at least in Keweenaw County, but I don't feel up to contending with that, especially at night, and most of the driving I do will be at night for the next three months. I'm getting very chicken in my old age.
So I did nothing and the guys slept. Grayson got to sleep on me for quite a while today. And I notice that neither of them is shedding very much (well - for them). They are making fur to insulate themselves now. I wish I could do that.
I wonder about the winter, though, because NOAA has said we are officially in an La Nina again, and typically that means warmer and dryer here. It sure hasn't been that so far, but things may change. I hope so. Their map didn't say anything about northern Minnesota and the UP, but then, there aren't enough of us to warrant much of their attention. It would be nice if we didn't have a horrible winter, to ease our new fulltime residents into it slowly. Only it would be good if it wasn't too mild a winter, to make them think that was normal.
I guess I'd hoped it would hold off for a while, but this is pretty normal for this time of year, and I'm only glad I'm not a ship out in the lake, trying to make one or two last runs before the locks close. Bad as it is around here, it must be really awful out there - if anybody is out there. Probably they're all hunkering down in some safe place. I just checked, and they're all hugging the north shore, up in Canada. There isn't anybody out in the middle of the lake or down on the south side. This is Edmund Fitzgerald weather, and any sane captain would stay away from the south shore.
So that's all there is. It's a frigid, windy, snowy night in the field and the lake will sing me to sleep again.
November 8 I don't remember exactly when I got to bed last night, but it was around 1:00 or so, I think. I learned something: I am going to be cold this winter. I have been wearing my fleece jacket to bed for several nights now, but I woke up the first time and I was sweaty, so I thought maybe I could take it off. Hah! I didn't really sleep until I got up a couple of hours later and put it on again, and then I was fine. I was awake around 8:30, but that seemed too early, so I went back to bed and slept another couple of hours.
I knitted, and I should have turned on the lights, because it was so dark. I did my two rows, but the pattern row was a very difficult one - yarn-overs about every other stitch - so I couldn't do more.
I actually did something today. Along about 4:00 it became obvious that the people I expected to come today weren't going to, so I went out onto the deck and shoved the geranium over to the door. Getting out the door was extremely difficult. It's almost impossible to move the door open, although it closes easily. Weird. Then I pulled down the shutters over the screened porch. I always hate to do that, because it makes it so dark in the hallway and the kitchen, but it seems clear that it's going to start snowing soon, so I thought that while it was still not too bad, I would do it today. I also managed to get the screen on the patio door over to the fixed side, which doesn't look nice but it will make it easier to get outside. I was almost able to take it off completely, but it would have meant some fiddling, and it was cold out there. So now the shutters are down and the geranium is inside, so I've battened down the hatches for the winter ahead. I don't know whether the geranium will live, although it doesn't look as bad as I feared. We'll see.
It was cold out there, and there were some little snowballs coming down - I think they call it graupel - and I was happy to get back inside. The temperature actually got up to 34º, but that was at 6:00 AM, and it was a steady 31º all afternoon. It was breezy, with a north wind up to 24 mph gusts, until about 3:00, when the wind died down. In the past hour or so, though, the wind has picked up and there has been 0.02" of water, so it's snowing. And the humidity, which was down around 60% - 65% has now gone up to 89%. Oh, my aches! So the snow is coming.
I guess, actually, that this is pretty normal. When I was commuting, I always left around Veteran's Day, which is this weekend, and at least twice I left in blizzards, and one year I aborted because of the weather. Oh, sigh. I hoped it wouldn't start so early. And I doubt that we'll want to go to Bible Study tomorrow, because this event is expected to last until Friday morning.
THe guys slept, of course, although they were both very interested when I went outside and Louie watched at the door until I came back in. They are always so interested when I do anything non-standard. And they seem to know better than to get too close to the door, although one blast from that cold wind would probably have discouraged them anyway. Grayson slept on my lap for a long time this afternoon.
So winter is upon us, and it's cold and nasty, even if we don't get a lot of snow. Now it's a dark, cold, snowy (probably) night in the field, and I have to wash my hair again. Sigh.
November 7 Oh, well, as usual when I had to wash my hair, I was ridiculously late. I slept fairly well and I got up at 10:00 when the phone rang. Why do people (including spam callers) assume that everybody will be awake and answering their telephones at 10:00? I was partly awake anyway, because I had to pee, and besides there was a gray cat in the exact center of the bed, which made it rather difficult for me to move around. And would he move? Of course not.
I bit the bullet and weighed myself today, for the first time in a couple of months, and I'm happy to say I'm holding my own. I was afraid I'd gained a few pounds a month or so ago, but I haven't. That's a relief. I won't lose any more unless I get sick again this winter, but at least so far I haven't gained any back. So the things I'd grown back into still fit, which is nice.
I knitted two rows and did my surfing, and that was about all. Choir practice was tonight, at 7:00, so we went, and it was a really good practice despite that our bass was missing. We're getting into the Advent and Christmas music now and there are a lot of lovely things. I got home around 9:00, in time to hear Beethoven's Fifth.
The deer, as well as other critters, are on the move. We almost ran into one deer on the way down and four on the way back. Evidently the rut is beginning, so the does are on the move, and we actually saw one young buck. And a fox and who knows what else we missed. That's the trouble with driving around after dark around here, and the sun sets before 5:30 now.
The weather wasn't very nice. The temperature was almost steady around 30º. It was quite windy overnight, with gusts up to 31 mph. During the day, it was variable. It would die down for a few hours then pick up again. It was quite humid, around 60%. We are under a winter storm warning for tomorrow afternoon through Friday morning - so I guess I won't be going to Bible Study on Thursday after all. Anyway, it was cold and cloudy and raw.
The guys mostly slept, of course. Grayson got some lap time, but Louie only got his loving in the morning.
So that was another quiet and rather truncated day, and I think - I just think - I might get to bed at a reasonable hour tonight after all!
November 6 Well, clock time didn't make any difference last night; I was late. It was 1:30 before I got to bed, but that was mostly because I was reading. I slept well, although, oddly enough, I woke up not long after I got to sleep, having had a bad dream that I remembered. That didn't bother me for long, though, and I was only up one time during the night. i got up around 9:30, but mostly because the phone rang.
The mail-order pharmacy where I get my prescriptions has been driving me crazy again, and I got two calls from them this morning, both of which should have been email messages. So I spent a long time on the phone with somebody who, finally, seemed to know something and know what she didn't know. I have no hope that this is the end of it. I think I am going to have to talk to the broker who has helped me and see what I might do to change suppliers. I've had it with those people.
Otherwise, I didn't do much. I got the dishes in the sink into the dishwasher - not enough to run it yet - and started filling it up again, and I made rice, finally. I embroidered during the talking.
The weather was more wintry than fallish, except that there wasn't any precip. The temperature varied between 30º and 34º. It was very windy for most of the day, although the wind has died down now. The gusts got up to 30 mph from the north. I know when I went to bed last night, there were breakers on my beach, and since my beach is closer to the house now, they sounded very close. The lake was singing all night and most of the day. There wasn't much wind for a while, but now it's beginning to wind up again. It was cloudy for most of the day, but with a few peeks of sunshine around noon. It's hard to say how long that lasted, because the camera hung up again.
Hopefully, there will be some system updates this next week and they will have fixed that. It's the same problem we used to have; the newest programmers are tasked with making updates to old systems, and those systems are so complicated that they screw things up because they don't know what they're doing. I understand the problem, but I have no patience with it. Maintaining current systems is just as important, if not more, than building new ones. But management rarely, if ever, understands that.
The guys were sleepy. Grayson got to sleep on me for quite a while, until I had to go to the powder room. Both guys felt good this morning, probably because the barometer is rising. Louie and I played with the rope toy for a while before I got dressed, and he doesn't play as much as Grayson does. I'm glad to see that in both of them.
So that was another quiet day, and now I have to wash my hair, because there is choir tomorrow. It's a cold, cloudy night in the field.
November 5 Ah! Clock time is finally back to my body time. My body never goes on Daylight Savings Time, which means that particularly Sundays are excruciating. I was able to get ready for bed at a leisurely pace last night, and I was awake a bit before the alarm went off this morning. The only sad thing is that now the days are so short that I will be going around in the dark most of the time for the next four months.
I got myself out when I wanted to go and I got to church nice and early. We practiced our song before church, which is a good thing. Church was good, and as usual, Pastor's sermon was a good one. We were celebrating All Saints' Day, even though it was last Wednesday. There were some good hymns.
After church, I got to talking to Pastor's wife, Shay, and then Pastor, so it was about 2:00 before I got home. I didn't do anything for the rest of the afternoon, but that's typical for a Sunday.
The weather was not very nice. It rained until about 3:00 AM, and then again from 7:00 to 11:00 this morning, and then the wind started to rise as it shifted to the north, with gusts up to 39 mph. It was dark and dreary all day and very humid. The high temperature was at midnight and it was 41º for most of the day. Not nice.
The guys slept. Grayson slept on me for quite a while and after he went away, Louie came up and got a nice tummy rub. They don't like this weather either.
So that was it. Now it's a dark, windy night in the field and I can go to bed at a reasonable hour.
November 4 Oh, I was late again last night; I just didn't seem to want to move. I slept well, of course, with only a couple of wakeups, and I got up around 10:30. It was so dark out that it wasn't hard to sleep after sunrise.
I knitted three rows. I didn't have anything much to do, so I decided to see if I could pick up the pace a bit. We'll see how that goes. I have so far to go that I would very much like to do as much as I can each day that I knit. I found my hands were getting sore before I was through, but that may be mostly the weather.
Otherwise, I didn't do anything. I had to kick the camera again to get it to update, but this time I didn't have to reboot. I may have to move that cable to a place where I can reach it easily. This time it went down and back up by itself at some point, but it would be easier if I could force it down. The big computers I worked on let you do that, and I don't know why Microsoft doesn't.
The weather was dull and dreary. the high temperature, which is where we are now, is 40º and the winds were under 10 mph all day. When I got up, there was probably an inch of snow on the garage roof, but before I finished knitting it had all melted. I knew it was snowing, because I could see it when I was up in the night. Ugh.
The guys slept. Grayson slept on me as long as I'd let him, and then he laid down in the doorway and slept there, in a most unhelpful place. I don't know where Louie usually goes, because I didn't see much of him.
So tonight we go off DST. Thankfully. The only thing is, by the time we do every fall, the days are so short (9h 49m) that the only thing is, while it's lighter in the morning, the sun sets at 5:30 PM, so already it's dark most of the time. We are still losing daylight at a rate of about 3 minutes a day, but that will slow down soon, since we have only about another hour to lose before Christmas. As everybody said, this is the good time change, and we get an additional hour of sleep tomorrow morning. As for me, I never go on DST, so now things will be back the way my body thinks they should be, and that will be nice. Maybe I won't be quite as tired on Sundays, as long as I get to bed early enough tonight.
So now it's a dark, cool and probably rainy night in the field and I need to go do.
November 3 I actually wasn't all that late for a Thursday. I got to bed about 1:30. I was tired, and I slept well, with two wakeups, and I got up around 9:30. What that means is that I'm tired again now, but that's all right. I'll be able to go to bed after the Beethoven.
I knitted and did my surfing, and while I was in the powder room I got a message that the garage door people wouldn't get here today. I guess I'm not surprised. The guy who called sounded very frustrated, so they had some unexpected problems and I can live with that. Now that it looks like my door will close, at least now, I'm not so hot to get them here.
I went to the post office, and when I came back, I started trying to get the boxes that came yesterday unpacked. I didn't finish, because I got very tired and very sore. Maybe I can work on it tomorrow. I have enough TP and enough rice to last the winter, which is all I wanted. Now I have to unpack all the boxes and get the stuff out of the way, but I'll do that. Maybe Mary Ann will help me get the cardboard out. I have a lot of it. I got my Schwan's order and packed that away, so the freezer is bulging again, but I'll eat for the next month. And there weren't any bills!
The weather was not nice. The temperature was about steady at 37º, and the dew point was steady at 26º, which means the humidity was 73%. There was a lot of wind overnight, with gusts up to 32 mph from the north, but it died down by noon and it's been nearly calm all afternoon. It was dark and dreary. I hurt, especially when I started trying to work in the breezeway.
The guys slept. They both got some loving, but i finally had to move Grayson off my lap so I could do something other than play solitaire. They don't like this weather either. They did get some good food this morning, which they appreciate.
So it was a nice, quiet day, and now it's a quiet, dark, cloudy, cold night in the field. Winter is just about here.
November 2 - All Souls' Day I was late getting to bed, of course, but not as late as a couple of nights lately. I got up about 10:45, I think, and I knitted. I was knitting pretty fast, actually, but with 521 stitches in each row, it just takes time.
I didn't do a lot, of course. I never do. However, after the second power glitch caused a two-hour power outage, I got to thinking about the generator again, so I called the people that had been recommended to me, and they will be here next Wednesday, hopefully, to service it. While it still sounds all right, I could smell the exhaust today and there were a couple of hiccups, so I know it needs maintenance. Then I got thinking about the garage door. I think I mentioned that for the past few weeks, the remote controls haven't been working, and of course it's been several years since it would close with the clicker when the temperature was under 40º or over 60º. So I called the garage door people. The nice man I talked to diagnosed my problem with the remotes, but they will be out, probably tomorrow, to check everything out.
When I went out to go to choir practice, I found out what the problem with the remotes was. Evidently there is a button below the big one that locks the unit so that the remotes won't work, and I must have hit that one by accident. Talk about dumb (and I don't mean me). So after pushing buttons several times, I managed to fix that problem, and I think it calls for some duct tape over those buttons so it doesn't happen again. The problems with it not closing may well be a sensor, so they will have to fix that, and all the weatherstripping has been chewed to pieces by age and various snow removal equipment.
I went to choir practice and Bible Study alone, because Mary Ann was tied up with a project. Choir was good, except that Kathleen had finally run some of the things we want to sing by Pastor, and he nixed two of them, especially one we had been working on since last summer. It's a favorite of one of our choir members, and she was extremely disappointed. However, there appear to be some theological problems with the wording, and since it's still under copyright, we can't very well just change it. It's too bad, too, because we like the song and we've worked hard on it. Ah, well.
Bible study was good. The unit tonight was about Martin Luther's early life after he entered the monastery, but we got into some good side discussions. Every time we talk about the Reformation, we end up talking about the Roman Catholic beliefs and practices that caused it, and that always leads to a discussion of how our beliefs differ from theirs today. It was good.
However, it was long, and i didn't get home until almost 10:15, and since I'm listening to Schubert now, it will be a late night tonight, too.
The weather was yucky, frankly, more down the peninsula than here. it apparently rained mostly for several hours last night, and we got 0.43". The temperature was nearly steady around 40º all day. and while there wasn't much wind, now it's on the rise again, with 27 mph gusts at midnight. It was dark and dull all day, but when I got home, the moon was making it quite light outside. On my way home, I ran into two rather nasty snow squalls, one around Kearsarge and the other around Delaware. It wasn't, and isn't, as far as I know, precipitating here. The humidity was high all day. Not nice, especially for joints.
The guys were sleepy. Grayson slept on me for a long time, so sweet, but when I got home and started making my dinner, he got under my feet and I almost stepped on him. One of these days I'm going to either kill him or myself. Louie slept, although he had to tell me he was glad to see me when I got home.
So that was my day, and I think I will be off to the north end soon. It's a dark, cloudy night in the field, but the nearly full moon above the clouds is making it not quite as dark as it might have been.
November 1 - All Saints' Day So here it is a new month. Sigh
I got to bed about 10:30 last night, and I didn't get up until 10:30 this morning, so I felt much better today. I knitted, of course, but the last 70 rows or so are going to go very slowly. I guess if I got up very early I could do four rows, but then I'm afraid I would end up with sore hands, and with winter coming on, I'll probably have enough trouble anyway. So it will be a slow go. And then, of course, I have to do the lace on the bottom. Christmas, maybe.
I didn't do much else today. I sort of jumped around. I had to make a bunch of changes to the bulletin, which took time. Tonight I tried to order the pills I'm running out of, and as a result I spent an hour on the phone with two different customer service reps, one of which gave me a bunch of wrong information. I am so frustrated with Silverscript/Caremark that I am thinking about seeing if I can find another mail-order pharmacy to use. I certainly wouldn't recommend them to anybody else for Medicare Part D. I think every time I've placed an order, I've ended up on the phone with them, sometimes, like tonight, more than once.
The weather station finally came up about 2:00 this afternoon, finally!! The high temperature for the day was 39º, and I have no reason to think it was any higher before the station was reporting. The humidity was actually quite low, and there wasn't any wind. What didn't get reported is that we had another quarter inch or so of snow overnight. It wasn't as cloudy overnight and today as it has been. I was surprised by that last night, when it was actually quite light out, because the moon is almost full. Today we actually had some sunshine, although the skies were never completely clear. It was nice to have to squint to see the computer screen.
The guys slept, of course. Grayson slept on me for a good part of the afternoon, although I had to keep moving him when I needed to use the keyboard. They are so happy when I just stay home.
So that was a quiet day, and now it's a cold, cloudy night in the field.
Last updated 12/01/17 09:46 PM
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