j1808

A View From the Field

August, 2018

August 31

So it's the end of August and the effective end of summer. Sheesh! At least we had some summer this year, including today.

I didn't get to bed until about 11:00 last night, but I slept very well and I didn't get up until 10:30. So why am I tired again? Anyway, I knitted, but with some difficulty. I seem to have been distracted by the ruminations started by a dream I can't remember now, or something like that. It took me a long time to do my four repeats, but I did them.

And I went to the post office, where there were bills, of course, but not too much of interest. When I got back, I spent some time in the breezeway breaking down boxes and opening all the boxes I've gotten in the past few days. By the time I got into the house my back was killing me, but it's possible to walk the length of the breezeway without dodging around boxes, and I guess that's a gain.

The weather was unsettled. When I was up around 7:30 AM there were thunderstorms both north and south of us, and we got 0.8" of rain, but they soon went away to the east. Then while I was knitting, there was another, and this time we got 0.63". I knew it rained hard for an hour or so, but I didn't realize it rained that hard. Another band of thunderstorms went through from around 8:00, and while there was a lot of sturm und drang, according to the NWS, we didn't get any more rain. I'm not sure I believe that, but I wasn't paying much attention. All is quiet now, though and those storms have gone away to the east. The high temperature was 70º, but it was evidently a a spike that didn't last long. There was some wind during the storms, all from the southwest. In between, we even had a short period of sunshine!

I think Louie spent most of the day in the basement. He slept with me for a good part of the night, but he doesn't like storms, and when the FedEx guy came to deliver packages, he went away again. Grayson got some lap time, although not as much as he wanted, and he did not go downstairs during the thunder. Maybe he understands that he's safe in here.

So it was another nice, quiet day and now it's a dark, stormy night in the field.

August 30

So I was really late last night and I got up really late today. I have to stop that, but I may be able to break the cycle tonight, since it's only 9:30 or so. I knitted my four repeats, and I have only 16 more plus a corner to do. It may take me another week to finish, because of my schedule next week - Johanna on Monday and the surgeon on Wednesday - but I'm finally - finally!! - getting done with this thing. The new yarn seems to be a pretty good match for the old.

I was late enough that I didn't do much of anything, and besides, I didn't get enough sleep and I'm tired. I did my surfing and petted some cats, and I embroidered a bit while the talking was going on.

I guess it was a nice day outside. With all the windows shut, I couldn't tell. The high temperature was 66º. The humidity was around 60% until the sun went down, which is no doubt why I was far less creaky than I have been for the past couple of days. It was clear and lovely all day. While there is still smoke in the air, it's not nearly as thick as it was a week or two ago, which has made the skies much bluer. I guess we're in for some more thunderstorms for the next couple of days, but next week should be OK. WE just enjoyed all the sunshine.

WE slept for most of the day. When I finally got to bed, Louie settled down on the pillow beside me and almost on my head. Not even that was going to keep me awake. Grayson spent some time in his little nest at the foot of the bed, and he got a lot of lap time today.

There wasn't any choir tonight. Kathleen isn't feeling well. Unfortunately, our member who doesn't do computers or smart phones and our member (fairly new) whose contact information we don't have didn't get notified, so they went anyway. Oops. We'll straighten that out on Sunday when we practice. I don't have the info and Barb was busy. Nancy was working. Oops.

So it was a very quiet, truncated day. Now I have to wait until the Beethoven (Waldstein Sonata) finishes, but then I will be trundling right up to the north end and crashing. It's a cool, clear night in the field.

August 29

Well, I was earlier than the night before, but not as early as I wanted to be. I got up around 9:45 anyway and knitted. I'm getting anxious to be done with this thing. It's gone on too long.

I didn't do a lot with my time. I made some minor changes to the bulletin. The big thing was that Kathleen sent out an email saying there would be no choir tomorrow, and when I tried to text Nancy and Barb, I couldn't. So I called Verizon and an hour later, I discovered that I had changed something that seems totally unrelated that made it impossible to send texts to two people simultaneously. So that solved that problem. Then I attacked the problem of getting my name on caller ID when I call someone. Someone at Verizon told me that was free, but it isn't - it's $3 a month - but I think it's worth it. Too many people won't answer a call that just says "Wireless caller" or something like it. However, after I subscribed to the service I forgot to set up what I want to see. By that time, I'd nearly forgotten what I was trying to do. In the meantime, I got caught in a loop where Apple couldn't verify my password and I had forgotten the answers to the security questions. I was pretty frustrated by that time. So I played Bubble Town through the talking - that involves shooting balloons. I had hoped to do something more productive.

The weather was cold but nicer than yesterday. The high temperature finally got to 60º, but for most of the day it was in the upper 50s. I shut all the windows, darn it. For a while, the humidity was below 50%, which is no doubt why I don't hurt today. It started out cloudy this morning, but it cleared up during the day and sunset was completely clear. While it's been cloudy, the sun has crept back into the camera view and it set over Hunter's Point. Oh, sigh. Pretty soon it will be out of sight to the south again. Sigh. It is supposed to warm up a bit over the next few days, which will be nice. It's too early for fall.

The guys slept. When I went to go to bed, Louie was lying crossways in my bed, right where I wanted to lie and he was not pleased at being moved. Too bad for him. He did get some loving and Grayson got to sit on me for a short time, but I was doing something that annoyed him so he went away. Too bad for him, too. I had a la for most of the afternoon, if he'd wanted to sit on it.

So that was my day. I was late eating, and I do have to wash my hair tonight, choir or no, so I won't be in bed early again. I got up when I did in the hope I could haul myself back onto a better schedule, but no such luck. Now it's a clear, cold night in the field.

August 28

So I got to playing with my new toy again and it was another all-nighter. I don't know how I can get so wrapped up in a simple game of solitaire, but I've done it since I was a kid, and I didn't know Tri Peaks or Pyramid then - and I was playing with a real deck of cards. Having it on the computer and having truly random draws just makes it more addictive.

So I was ridiculously late getting up and I decided to finish the repeat on the shawl that I was working on when I ran out of yarn. I was able to make the join at the inside edge, so I didn't have to splice again, and I only worked on it for half an hour or so. Now I have only about 7 days' worth of knitting to go, provided I can work four repeats a day. I've been working on this thing since February 7, so I will be very, very glad to get it over with.

i was so late that there wasn't any time to do much. In fact, I was still doing my surfing when the talking started, so there were some stories on ATC that I didn't get to hear very well. My hierarchy seems to be eyes first and then ears, so when I'm reading seriously, my ears cut out.

The weather was simply miserable. The temperature plummeted after midnight, and the high for today was only 58º, but it was cooler here. The wind was mostly from the northeast, but it was under 10 mph. It was very dark and dreary and the humidity was over 80% all day, although it didn't rain. Our total for the storms last night was 0.58", although there was evidently more down in southern Houghton County, as well as some tornados reported. Mother Superior is so good to us!

The guys slept. They both slept with me all the time I was in bed. I was annoyed with Louie, because after I got up to pee for the last time, he decided it was time to get petted and he kept digging into the covers to find my hands. Then he was going to do something naughty to make me pay attention to him, so I had to push him out onto the floor. He was back, though, and he slept nicely beside my head until I got up. Grayson ignored us both. He was in his little nest down by the foot of the bed, all curled up.

While the last of the talking was going on, I put together the bulletin for Sunday. It's getting to the point that if there isn't anything unusual going on, I can get it out in half an hour or so. I have two weeks' worth of information from Pastor, and that makes it easy.

So that's all there is, and in a while I'll be off to the north end for a good night's sleep to get caught up. It's a dark, cold, humid night in the field. Fog, anyone?

August 27

Of course I was later than I wanted to be last night, but I was in bed by 11:30. I slept fairly well, although I was up several times. I got up around 8:45 and I noticed how dark it was, but eventually the sun came out, briefly.

I knitted until I ran out of yarn - and I just remembered that the reason the task light is on is that I'm supposed to wind yarn tonight. Oops. I don't want to have to hassle with skeins over my arm, so I guess I won't be as early getting to bed as I'd hoped. Oops.

I didn't do very much, actually. I did get the underwear and tee shirts folded and put away, which is a good thing, although I've already dropped stuff down a couple of formerly clean tee shirts. I really must look into making myself a big bib, since I don't seem to be able to eat without dropping half of my rice on my front.

The weather wasn't the best. The high temperature got up to 82º, a bit higher than they predicted, and it was very humid, which means it was very uncomfortable. There was a bit of wind this morning, with gusts up to 26 mph from the west, but by noon the wind died down, and that added to the discomfort. Around 8:00 PM the thunderstorms moved in, and we had a short power outage, so I don't have any very recent readings. There was a lot of noise, mostly far away, some flashing lights, mostly far away, and a little bit of rain.

It all served to remind me that I didn't put the backup batteries in my new clock radio, so I will have to do that when I go up to the north end. It will give me some practice setting the clock, which I find very counterintuitive. And of course, all the other clocks are now blinking...I don't think the outage was more than half an hour, and between the UPS and the generator, i was good. PastyNet never went down, so I guess they have a UPS at the Mountain Lodge this year.

I guess the guys slept. I didn't see much of them, although during the talking, while I was embroidering for a change, Grayson sat down on the paper bag I have for putting recyclable stuff in, which had gotten under the computer desk, and every so often, he would shift and crinkle the paper, just so I would know he was there. When I turned and looked at him, he blinked a me. I suspect Louie has been in the basement, because thunder bothers him.

Speaking of that, I actually embroidered tonight, and I made a lot of progress. I have finally gotten the lenses for my MagEyes straight (or mostly straight) and I tried the 2x lens. I can see much more clearly with it, although I experience some eyestrain. As you might expect, the more magnification, the harder it is to find the right place to put my cloth, so I find myself trying to accommodate to a distance that isn't quite right, which I can't do, of course. I'll get it figured out. It also means the slight amount that my glasses slip a lot more obvious, so I'm pushing them back up my nose a lot. Anyway, I'm making good progress on the first vase of flowers. It's only clear to me that I don't have enough thread, by at least half. The story of my life...fortunately, this thread doesn't have dye lots, or I think it doesn't, and if it does, it won't matter because of the nature of the piece.

So it was a quiet day, and now it's a dark and stormy night in the field. tomorrow will be cooler.

August 26

I made it into bed by 10:00 last night, and I slept, but I was up a whole bunch of times, which tells me I didn't sleep deeply. I even had one of the recurring dreams, about which I may write someday. Anyway, I got up when the alarm went off and did my thing, but I'm tired and I expect to sleep a long time tonight.

Church was good, and it was nice to come right home afterwards. I had some ideas for the afternoon, but I ended up doing nothing. I didn't take a nap, but I should have.

I did manage to place the order for the sewing pattern I wanted. I logged into the site this morning - it was working fine - and I discovered that the price of the pattern was listed as usual. No sale price or anything. So I fired off a grumpy email and went on my way. Sooo...when I got home, I checked the site again, and lo and behold, the sale was back on! Woo-hoo!! i looked around a bit, just to make sure there wasn't anything else I wanted, and then I placed the order. Several hours later, I got an email announcing that the sale had been extended (no reason given) and an apology from the webmaster. He said there had been a problem. Yeah, tell me about it. Anyway, my pattern should be winging its way to me soon and I got it for a very good price, which was all I wanted.

Otherwise, I didn't do anything except make rice, and I'll be tottering up to the north end as soon as I finish this. I am tired!

The weather wasn't very good. It was cloudy all day, and the high temperature was 77º, with high humidity and no wind. Along about 7:00, I started hearing grumbling from outside, and when I checked radar, there were thunderstorms all around us. Not only didn't they hit here, so far we've only gotten 0.12" of rain, although it's still raining lightly now. It was dark and dreary all day.

The guys slept. Grayson got some lap time both before and after I went away. Right after I ate, he was sitting on my lap when we both heard some things hitting the deck, so he ran over to the door and I looked out. There were some green pinecones on the deck and I just glimpsed a squirrel running down a branch. It makes me angry when they do that; Mary Ann to the contrary, they do not stash them away when they're green. They just clip them off the branches and let them fall on the deck, where they stay. I don't believe I've ever seen a ripe white pine cone. I haven't seen Louie all day, but no doubt when the thunder started, he was downstairs. Even Grayson wasn't very happy. I wish they understood that all that noise isn't coming in here.

So that was a very quiet Sunday, and now it's a sort of warm, rainy, yucky night in the field.

August 25

Oh, I was a bit later last night, but I did turn out the light around 12:30. I had some trouble falling asleep - toes again - but once I did, I did good. I got up about 9:30 and today I did four repeats. I am running out of yarn fast, though. I had hoped to get the new skeins wound today, but that didn't happen, so I will have to try to do it tomorrow when I get home.

I diddled around mostly. I washed the last few things that needed doing and now I have a washbasket full of underwear and tops that need folding. Maybe Monday. Late in the afternoon, I got a reminder email about a great sale on sewing patterns, and I have now spent around four hours trying to buy one pattern. The website is clearly overloaded, and it's extremely frustrating. The last thing was that somehow 8 copies of one pattern got put in my shopping cart, and I don't seem to be able to get rid of them. I'll try a couple more times, and then I'm going to give up. It's a pattern I would really like to have, for a nice tunic and pants, but I've just about given up on trying to buy it today. IF I can get into the website tomorrow, I will be sending them a very nasty email. Frankly, when they saw what was happening, they should have brought the entire site down and rebooted it. But no, they keep trying to get along with it up, and there error messages on just about every page. There are a whole lot of entirely inept people claiming to be IT gurus out there.

Oh, yes and I have gotten on a mailing list from Apple called "Apple News" which is a whole lot meatier than the similar MS list, and i spent quite a while reading articles they referenced. No Royal Family or Hollywood fluff there, and very informative.

The weather was good for ignoring. The high temperature did get to 68º, surprisingly enough, but the humidity was 90% or more all day. The sun tried to shine through for a short while, but it was soon overwhelmed by the fog that has gotten thicker and thicker as the day went on. Right now, I can't see anything beyond my beach. There was no wind. Yuck.

The guys thought so, too, and they slept. Grayson didn't want to sit quietly on me when he had a chance, so he went away. I don't know what his problem was. Louie wanted to sit right when I was filling pill dispensers, so he couldn't.

Oh, yes, I filled the pill dispensers. i did the ones in the bathroom before I got dressed, and I did the ones here before dinner. That seems to be the best way to make sure they get done. I sure do take alot o pills, mostly big capsules. Yuck.

So that was another quiet day, and now I have to go and wash my hair and try to get to bed early. It's a coolish, calm, foggy evening in the field.

August 24

So, by taking myself in hand, I managed to get to bed by 11:30. I slept very well, and I got up a bit before 10:00, which made me feel much better. I only knitted two repeats, though. Tomorrow, I'll do 4 and then I'll be back on track. I do need to wind the new skeins into balls, though, because I'm beginning to run out of yarn. I do hope it matches well enough, but I'm not going to sweat it. I want to block this one, if I can, but it's so diaphanous that any minor differences in shade aren't likely to be very obvious.

I called the Verizon store as soon as I could and had to leave a message, so I called back later and I think I got the manager. It seems like the reason I couldn't text is that texting was blocked. I know it was with my old plan, because I had a bare minimum plan, and the person who set up the new one didn't realize he had to unblock it. So he fixed that and everybody I texted got my messages with no problems.

Then I went to get my mail and I had gotten two letters from Verizon, one of which said texting was blocked, so If I got my mail more frequently, I would have discovered that earlier. The other one said some things that made me try to log into my Verizon account, and I couldn't, no way, no how. So I called them and it seems like they still had my email address as being from Ameritech. They were absorbed into AT&T at least 20 years ago! With the help of a very knowledgeable CSR, everything got set up right, although I had to try logging in at least five times before everything was right. I think it's set up right now, but I will be checking it occasionally, just to be sure. Having texting is certainly helpful; I can use two-factor authentication with no problems at all now. It turns out text messages show up without my being logged into my phone, which is a really neat feature I didn't realize.

So is Facetime! I was listening to the radio and waiting until it was time to eat when all of a sudden, Debbie appeared on my screen! Wow! So we had a nice conversation and we could see each other if we wanted to. That is so neat! I'm not sure I'd want to answer it at 3:00 AM, but during the day, it's great.

After that, I finally found where to delete apps I don't want, and I deleted my beloved solitaire, because it was using so much battery. Then I discovered that so does Facetime, so I may put solitaire back on. I tried to get those games from Microsoft, but it turns out that it's been so long since I tried to log into the Microsoft Store - if I ever did - that I had to change all the authentication information and I won't be able to download anything for a month. Sheesh! In my opinion, you can carry this security thing too far.

I am glad for the texting, though. There are several websites, including the Social Security Administration, that require two-factor authentication that will send their codes via text, so now I'm covered there.

It was a good day to do computer things and ignore the outside. The high temperature was 74º, but it was early in the afternoon, and then it started to rain and the temperature went down. The rain began around 1:00 and we've had 0.08", which is hardly enough to mention, but it's the first rain of any kind we've had in weeks. There was a southwest breeze, but it was under 10 mph. It was enough to make me shut the south windows, which actually face southeast. See what I've learned from my new phone? It was cloudy and dreary all day and by 8:30 PM there was fog over the harbor. It's a good night to sleep all bundled up with a couple of cats.

They slept. Grayson got a little lap time, and Louie got some loving this morning, but otherwise I didn't see much of them. They're happy that mom is home and everything is normal.

1 was going to make rice tonight, but I forgot until it was too late (it takes 45 minutes, minimum) so I had something else for dinner. Sunday I'll do that. While my dinner was cooking, I got the dishwasher almost ready to run, so I'll have some dishes to eat off of tomorrow. I hate to wait so long, but other things intervened. My back is marginally better today, although my knee gave out a couple of times.

Now it's a coolish, foggy, soggy night in the field and maybe I can get to bed a bit earlier than last night.

August 23

So I pulled an all-nighter again. I wish I wouldn't do that, but I got playing with my new toy and totally lost track of the time.

Speaking of that, my new toy has problems. There are times when I can't get out of an app, and I can't text. I determined that tonight at choir, so I will be calling the store tomorrow and I may have to take a fast trip down there. I think I liked it better when the fastest method of communication was the letter.

Anyway, I got to bed as it was getting light and I got up around 2:30, so I didn't have time to do anything. The dish problem is getting acute, but maybe I can do something tomorrow. I did get to choir and Bible Study, and both were good, and I got home around 9:45.

The stellar incident of the day came on the way home. We had rounded the curve out of Phoenix when we saw something large and dark on the road - it was getting dark - so I slowed way down, and when we got closer, three eagles, one adult and two juveniles, flew into the trees! We've seen a lot of other wildlife in the same small area, and I saw at least one eagle overhead on the way down, but these guys were sitting in the middle of the road. I couldn't see anything in particular, but there must have been some road kill. Those are the first confirmed eagles I've seen all summer. Of course, we didn't get a good look at them, but I saw the adult's white head flash as it flew into the trees. It is so neat to live in a place where I can see things like that!

The weather was beautiful, which made me wish I'd been able to enjoy more of it. Tomorrow is supposed to be rainy and humid. The high temperature was officially 80º. although it didn't get that warm here. It wasn't uncomfortable because all day the humidity was under 40%, and besides, there was a strong northwest wind, with gusts up to 32 mph. The humidity has risen lately, although not a lot, and the wind has shifted to the west. It was as clear as it's been lately, although there is still that high haze that turns the sky white, from all the smoke. It's a shame, because this time of year is some of the best stargazing times there are around here. And when we came home tonight, the gibbous moon was in the southeast, so pretty and bright.

As far as I know, the guys slept. When I got up, they were both in bed with me, Grayson at the foot of the bed and Louie beside my legs. I hope eventually he'll learn that the foot of the bed on the other side from Grayson is just as comfy a place to sleep. Grayson got some lap time, but I didn't have a lot of time to make a lap for him.

So that was my truncated day, and tonight my goal is to get to bed before midnight. Wish me luck. I'm not even going to try to do the dishes. While I was making my lunch (or breakfast) I was leaning on the counter and my right knee collapsed. That always hurts, although I was holding on enough that I wasn't in danger of falling. It still hurts, though, so I'm not going to push it.

Now it's a warmish, clear night in the field and it's bedtime.

August 22

Late again, and nothing much happened today. I finally washed the last load of clothes and it is in the dryer now. I just sent out the final (I hope) version of the bulletin. I sent out an earlier one, without the listing for the acolyte for September 2, but then I finally got the schedule from Nancy, so I sent it out again. I still think it's because none of us want to face the idea that a week from next Monday is Labor Day. Where has the summer gone?

I do have a few more things to wash, but this was the load of whites, including two pairs of white pants and almost all my underwear.

I am trying to get the dishwasher ready to run tonight, besides washing my hair, but my back is killing me, so we'll see if I can get ready.

I thought the reason was the weather, but now I wonder. it was much warmer today. the high temperature was 78º, but there was a north wind with gusts up to 26 mph. The humidity was down below 50%, they say, so maybe it was just that I was tired. It was partly cloudy and quite clear at sunset. There is still a lot of smoke in the air, but I could see stars last night.

To add to getting to bed ridiculously late again last night, for the past couple of weeks, when I lie down, my toes have felt cold, even when they're not. I thought the socks would help, but they aren't doing much. My feet have always had to be comfortable or I can't sleep, and to add to that, when they get feeling cold, they get twitchy and then I get nutty. Also, I was thinking of an imaginary conversation (which I frequently do) that had me arguing heatedly with someone, also imaginary. I must try not to do that, because it interferes with settling my mind so I can sleep.

When I woke up the first time and when I got up, both guys were in bed with me. Grayson was down at the foot, in a nice little nest he had made in the folded comforter, and Louie was up beside (or partly on) the pillow. When I finally got up, they stayed where they were. Grayson got some lap time, but he wanted to stomp on me, so he didn't get as much as he thought he wanted.

I only knitted two repeats today. I dropped something in the border again and once I had that sort of back together (it still doesn't look quite right to me) it was getting late. I did inspect the other three sides, especially where I thought there were more stitches than there were, but I didn't find any more dropped stitches. If there are any, I may only find them when I block this thing...if I can block it. It's so huge, I'm not sure I have the room to block it properly. Hmm. I just thought, maybe if I take the center out of the blocking board and put those tiles around the edges I can make room. Hmm. That's the advantage of the blocking board coming in 12" tiles that can be moved around. Hmm...

So that was my day, and now I must stop all this nonsense and load the dishwasher and wash my hair. It's a sort of clear, warm night in the field.

August 21

It was another lost day. I was so late last night that I didn't get up until 11;30, and then I knitted my corner, which is just about 3 repeats.

It took me most of the rest of the afternoon to do my surfing, but late in the day I got at the bulletin. Pastor sent the information out last night, for once, so I wanted to get it done. Well, I discovered that we are all trying to forget that a week from Sunday is the Labor Day weekend - the end of summer. I had to leave a lot of blank spaces in the duty roster, and I have several emails out to the people who should know the answers to my questions. Then, sometime later, the lady who looks after the flowers called to tell me that someone had added to the flowers for this Sunday, so I had to make some changes. If nobody responds to me by tomorrow evening, we'll just have to go to press with blank spaces. I don't think anybody up here wants to admit summer is over.

It sure wasn't obvious today. The high temperature was only 63º, there was a 15 mph or so wind from the north and it was cloudy and humid for most of the day. It was clearing at sunset, and there was a nice half moon shining in the south windows after it got dark. Summer is supposed to return tomorrow, at least for a day or two.

The guys slept. I had to boot Grayson out of bed about the time I got up, because he was about to barf and I do not want him doing that on my down comforter! He gave up a respectable hairball and he seemed much more comfortable afterwards. He got some lap time, and Louie got up on my lap, too, but he wanted to stomp around on my legs and it hurt, so i had to make him leave.

So that was another nice, quiet day and maybe tonight I can get to bed at slightly more reasonable hour. It's a clear, cool night in the field.

August 20

It was a nearly lost day, so I don't have much to report. I was in bed by 10:30 and I didn't get up until 9:30 this morning, which is one reason why it's 1:00 AM and I'm still awake.

I knitted to the end of the third side of the shawl. Tomorrow I will do the corner, and then I have only 36 more repeats plus another corner and I'm done with this thing. It sure is getting boring, and I'm more than ready to go back to the other one I started while I was waiting for the yarn for this one. Unfortunately, I will run out of yarn, but I got another couple of skeins that seem to match fairly well. I still haven't figured out why for some patterns I use far less yarn than specified, and for others, I use far more. This one should have come out right - I'm using the same needles, and even though the yarn is thicker, that shouldn't make any difference. Well, practically everything about that book is wrong, so I'm not surprised that the yarn amount is wrong, too. I wish I'd known when I ordered the original amount - I could easily have added a skein. Sigh.

The weather wasn't very nice. The high temperature was only 69º, and the lowest the humidity got was 81%. It was over 90% for most of the day, and from 10;30 AM to 6:30 PM, we were fogged in. Yuck. It was cloudy overhead, too. My joints were complaining all day.

The guys slept, mostly. Grayson finally got his lap time, and Louie wanted to sit on me, too, but he kept picking my bare skin with his claws until I threw him off. I don't put up with that.

So that was it, and now it's a coolish, humid night in the field and I must go to bed.

August 19

I made it into bed a little before 10:00, and I was really tired, but after the first four hours, I didn't sleep well. I don't know why. And as usual, I was up at about 5:45, and I was just getting back to sleep when the alarm went off. Sigh.

I left just about the time I wanted, but it was a frustrating drive. I was behind 3 other cars going down the covered road, and the lead car was going relatively slowly. After we got to Delaware, the lead car was going 45 - 55 - 60 - 50 - 45 - 55... you get the idea. And the three cars behind him were bunched up so much I couldn't pass. I took Cliff Drive, but at the other end, I was the fourth car behind a camper...I was glad to get to church.

Church was good, except that we should have sung "I Am the Bread of Life" instead of the hymn we sang, because that was the Gospel. There weren't very many people there. Afterwards, we cleaned up, and it was so nice to just come right home. I got back here about 2:00. Again, Copper Harbor was so full of people that getting down US-41 was almost impossible. I was behind a guy who just stopped in the middle of the road because he didn't know where to go to park...I was glad to see all the people, but glad it's over with...

I was so tired and sleepy that I changed my clothes and took a two-hour nap. I'm still tired, but I did feel better when I woke up. I'll be off to the north end soon, and maybe I can sleep better tonight. Besides, that, my knees and my shoulder have been sore all day. I had a real problem standing up in church.

The weather wasn't the best, but I think most of the problem was the smoke, which is still thick overhead. So far it hasn't gotten to the ground, but the sky is hazy from it, and besides, there were clouds today. The high temperature was apparently 77º, and there wasn't any wind. The humidity was high - no doubt that contributed to my sore knees. It was cloudy and gray all day, with not very much sunshine. We might get some rain in the next couple of days, and maybe that will clean up the atmosphere a bit.

The guys felt the weather. When I finally settled down at the computer, he went to sleep on my lap and stayed for a long time. Louie was around, but I didn't see much of him.

So that was a nondescript Sunday and now it's a warm, calm, cloudy night in the field. I'm off to bed.

August 18

I wasn't as early to bed as I wanted to be - now I have two toys to beguile me - but I slept well. For the past couple of nights I've been wearing a pair of light cotton socks to bed, and they seem to keep my toes just warm enough that they don't keep me awake. The only annoying thing is that they tend to fall off when I move around in bed or try to get out. One time, I ended up walking into the bathroom with one sock on and one sock off. Sheesh.

I slept so well that I didn't get up until almost 9:30. Oh-oh. I had to be at church by 11:30! I actually almost made it, but I left the house a bit later than I'd planned, and since this is Art in the Park weekend, Copper Harbor was a zoo even then. I missed hitting the side of a car by about a foot, when he pulled out and crossed the road without, it seems, ever noticing if there was any traffic. That got the adrenalin going, for sure.

Anyway, traffic was mostly going north, so I got to church only a few minutes late and we did our thing. It doesn't ever take very long, at least at this time of year when the paraments don't need changing, and today the candles were OK.

The next stop was Pat's. I was running out of important things, like eggs and bread. It was an annoying trip. They were out of - or aren't carrying anymore - a number of things I want. It's just as well I've decided to eat some different bread for a while, because they didn't have any. I may have to try shopping at Econo Foods again, even though it's down in Houghton. Maybe they have more of what I want.

Anyway, I got home around 2:30. It was almost impossible to get through Copper Harbor, which is a good thing, actually. I got the car unloaded, then I sat down in the powder room, took out my phone, and played solitaire for much too long, before I moved part of the stuff inside. I didn't move most of the rest until dinnertime, which was late because I was playing a game on the big computer. Sigh.

The weather was nice but not exceptionally warm. The high temperature here was 65º. It was warmer in town, but not a lot. There wasn't any wind. It wasn't really clear; there were some high clouds, as well as the ever-present smoke, but there was a lot of sunshine, too.

Grayson got some lap time before and after I went away. He thought he wanted some of my fish, but I know better and he didn't get any. When went through the kitchen, a while after I got home, both guys were laid out on the table, in the sunshine. I guess it's a little cool in here.

So that was my day, and now I must totter up to the north end and get to bed as fast as I can on a Saturday. It's a sort of coolish, cloudy - or smoky - evening in the field.

August 17

Late again, of course, and I got up around 9;30, so I didn't get enough sleep again. I knitted my four repeats with some difficulty. I was having trouble keeping my concentration for some reason. Some of the reason walks on four feet, but that wasn't all of it, and I don't know what it was. I wasn't thinking about anything that should have distracted me. I suppose it was lack of sleep.

So I got to the studio late and I didn't go to the post office, as I intended. Well, tomorrow I won't get to knit at all, because Deanna wants to meet at 11:30. So I will have to go to bed soon and I won't have time to do much except eat and maybe read my devotion and my funnies. That's all right - I do need to do some shopping, finally. I'm running out of eggs and bread.

The weather was cooler than they forecast and cloudy. The MODIS imagery appears to be smoke. It's thick and sort of brownish. The high temperature was 67º, and it happened between 10:00 and 11:00 this morning this morning. It was cooler this afternoon, but there wasn't any wind. I was cold all day because I'm too stubborn to close the windows, when I know in a day or two, I'll have to open them again. It's supposed to be warm on Sunday, but not nearly as warm as they were saying earlier in the week.

The guys were sleepy. This morning, it was Louie behind my knees when I got up. He got some loving in the bathroom and Grayson got to sleep on my lap twice. When I got to the great room, the pile of empty boxes that has been protecting the navy blue chair (my mom's chair) had been pushed over and was all over the floor. I would be more anxious to move those boxes except that I know the chair would get even more shredded than it is if I did.

So that was a very quiet day - nice - and now it's a cool cloudy night in the field.

August 16

When I got to the computer this morning, or really, about noon, the internet was back up, so I uploaded last night's journal then.

I didn't sleep very well. I started out fine, but the first time I woke up, I suddenly realized that it is the 15th of August and I have about a month to scare up $1900 to pay my taxes. I didn't think about it and I wasn't worrying, but it did disturb my rest. Besides, my feet were freezing for some reason, and then they got twitchy. I finally gave up and got up around 9:30, but I didn't get nearly enough sleep. I knitted my four repeats slowly but without any problems.

I had gotten an email from my neighborhood techie saying that my wi-fi receiver had been running at 100% for the past couple of days and would I power fail that part of the equipment. I'd noticed that the lights were blinking like crazy, and I wondered about that, but it got me down into the cable mess. I managed to identify the power cords (there are three of them) and I pulled them, although I had a hard time keeping track of them, and while I was there, I unbraided the cables again. The gremlins have been busy. What it took me quite a while to discover was that in the course of moving and shaking cables, I had managed to pull the power cord out of the CPU. Oops. I didn't realize that at first, and I spent some time checking the power to the screen, which wouldn't work for some reason... Finally I started checking all the cables, and once I put the plug back into the CPU, it came up just fine, thank you. Resetting my receiver seems to have had the desired effect, and it isn't going crazy anymore, even though I'm streaming music. I must remember that, if I see those lights going nuts again. That took some time.

I didn't have time to do very much else because I was running to the bathroom all afternoon. Choir and Bible Study were good, although we sang a hymn at the end of choir that makes me weep, "Savior Again To Thy Dear Name We Raise." It's another funeral hymn. It's a good thing I don' t plan to have a funeral, because anybody who came would be there for hours just singing the hymns closest to my heart.

Bible Study was good, too. Ostensibly, we are studying the book of Jude, about 4 verses a week, but wow, are we ranging over the entire body of Lutheran (or at least Missouri Synod Lutheran) belief! It's great. We were all over the Bible, too, from Genesis to Revelation. I'm sorry I never got to be at Pastor Fundum's Bible studies, but Pastor Lundquist really knows his doctrine and his Bible. Besides, we laugh a lot. I got home a bit after 9:30.

The weather was rather nice. The high temperature here was 74º and there wasn't any wind. It's still humid, but less so than yesterday. It was partly cloudy, but there was a lot of sunshine. When I got home, there was a nice crescent moon shining in the south, so it's clear now. While there is still a lot of smoke in the air, it's less than it was a day or so ago. I discovered from the NOAA map that there are even some fires burning in far northwest Ontario, which isn't that far away. What a pity. I'm sure nobody is even trying to put those out.

The guys were sleepy, of course. When I got up, Grayson was sleeping behind my knees, which makes it really hard to get out of bed without sitting on him. Louie spent part of the night with me, of course. Grayson got some lap time this afternoon, which I had to cut short when I had to visit the powder room. I showed their pictures to Barb, and she commented that not only is Grayson a handsome fellow, he knows it. He certainly does. Louie is more modest.

So it was another quiet day. I got Barb and Nancy into my contacts list, but it took a long time to get the phone to connect up to cell service. We'll see how long it takes to go back to wi-fi. I'm learning more all the time, but I still don't feel completely comfortable with this gizmo. It will come.

Now it's a relatively warm, relatively clear night in the field, and I'm tired.

August 15

This won't get uploaded tonight. There's been a fiber optic cable break, and it will take a while to get repaired. If I'd done this at a reasonable hour, it would have been all right, but I didn't. Oh, well.

I was late last night, too, but it was only around 12:30 when I got to bed. I'm still getting used to my new bathroom clock. The numbers are almost 2" high, so I could probably see them with my eyes closed. They're red and they aren't that bright, so it doesn't interfere with looking out very much, and it isn't bright enough to use as a nightlight. It's just nice to have a working clock in the bathroom again. I guess it's a habit I got from my mother: I like to know what the date and time are. And as I've gotten older, sometimes I wake up in the morning with no idea about either of them. Usually I can figure out what the date is, but frequently, I have no clue what time it is, so a clock is a necessity.

I got up around 10:00, I think, and I knitted slowly. I got my four repeats done, but it took a while, so I was late. The only task for the day was to do the bulletin, and I got that out late in the afternoon. I think it's all right - I hadn't heard anything back when my connection dropped. Of course, my new phone doesn't work, either, because there is no cell service here. I'm late because I played with it until I just about wore down the battery. I'm beginning to see why everyone likes using their finger...

The weather turned cool, but I can't give you very many statistics. I don't think the temperature got over 65º, and it's now 59º at my house. There was hardly any wind all day. It was mostly clear, and when I went to get my dinner, there was a nice crescent moon hanging over the west bluff. This cool is only supposed to last a ay or so and then it will get hot again, unfortunately just in time for church on Sunday. And we could really use a day or two of rain.

The guys slept. When I woke up the last time, they were both in bed with me, and I almost sat on Grayson while getting out of bed. Louie got his loving in the bathroom and Grayson got to sit on me. He thought he wanted some of my dinner - I had chicken - but I don't think he likes it prepared this way, and there wasn't enough for both of us anyway. After looking at the pictures I took with the phone, I have finally defined how to explain how they look. Grayson most often just looks happy. I think he can still remember being an orphan cat on his own and I think he is grateful to have a loving home. Louie, though, often just looks wistful. He is happy here, I know, but not with the whole-hearted delight Grayson has. After all, he was rescued twice: his original owner got him from the Humane Society, and then he died, so poor Louie was orphaned again. When I get iTunes figured out, I'll upload the pictures, and I think you'll see what I mean. I sometimes wonder if they know I'm sick. I do know cats know a whole lot more than some people give them credit for.

So that was my quiet day - it was nice to have one. Now I have to wash my hair and the rest of me. It's a clear (I think) cool night in the field.

August 14

Of course I was late again, but it was only 1:30 when I got to bed. I didn't wash my hair; I was too tired. I got up around 10:00 and I didn't knit, because there wasn't time. Tomorrow.

I made it to my massage, and it was a good one. My shoulders and my lower back were extremely tight, and I felt much better afterwards. i stopped at the post office on the way home, where all of my packages - some of which should have been delivered here - were sitting. I am not pleased. I know it's summer and people are on vacation, but still. I was running around crazy last night looking for the packages that weren't here. Grr. So now I have a new curling iron and a new clock radio for the bathroom. I got batteries for the lovely watch i found in my stash of good jewelry, and now I know why it was there: it loses about five minutes an hour. That's a disappointment and sometime I may try to get it fixed. I don't know where it came from, so I guess it was something my mother got, and if it was free, it might not be possible to fix it. Too bad.

That was all I did. I fiddled with the phone a bit and learned a few more things. Now I think I can bookmark sites in Safari. When I opened Solitaire this morning, Microsoft wanted me to sign into my account! No way, guy. What I'm doing isn't any of your business and I'm not going to give you an opening. I'm a bit disappointed by how fast the battery runs down, and now I understand why people charge their phones every night.

The weather was better than yesterday. The high temperature, 82º, apparently happened between 4;00 AM and 5:00 AM this morning. I wouldn't know; I was sound asleep then. It was cooler during the day, and the high was 75º. It's still very humid, and while there was a nice breeze from the north, it died down by 8:00, and it's calm now. In the middle of the night, I woke up and had a bit of trouble getting back to sleep. In part that was because the wind suddenly picked up out of the northwest and the gusts got up to 30 mph! I thought that was pretty weird, and even more so when today was so much like yesterday. It was a bit less smoky than yesterday, though, so it was more sunny. And after dark, there was a nice little crescent moon setting in the west. The days are getting so short! They're down to 14h 19m already! Oh, it was nice while it lasted.

The guys slept again. When I woke up this morning, they were both in bed with me, Louie up by my head and Grayson down around my knees. I guess that was to make up for yesterday, when it was too hot for any cuddling. And they did. Grayson got some lap time before I left to see Johanna and then again when I got home, and Louie came and sat on me, too. That gave me a chance to get a picture of him, although it isn't good enough to show his two colored eyes. I showed Johanna the picture of Grayson and she thought he is a very nandsome fellow. He thinks so himself. Louie is more modest.

Maybe in the next day or so I can get the pictures moved around where I want them. They make it sound so easy, but I'm suspicious.

So that was my day, and now it's a warm, clear but smoky night in the field.

August 13

Today is my mother's 101st birthday. She died 25 years ago, but I've never forgotten that.

i was late again, but not quite as late as the night before. I slept fairly well, and I got up around 9:30, I think. I got right at the disaster in the knitting, which wasn't as bad as it looked yesterday, and I got it fixed and knitted up the repeats I had to unknit. So I'm back about where I was yesterday morning when I realized I had a problem. I certainly hope that none of the other places where I didn't have enough stitches were because I dropped something, but I think I inspected thoroughly enough that I'd know if I did.

I didn't do anything much else. Johanna called while I was still in the bathroom to postpone our appointment until tomorrow. It was already 80º at about 10:30, and that was just too hot for both of us. We would both have been sweating and sticky and uncomfortable. I was just as glad. I didn't even put on a bra. I am wearing shorts (my second pair of the day) and a camisole. It looks awful, but it's about as comfortable as I can get.

Today, finally, while the talking was going on, I embroidered. I must do that more often. I'm still having fun with this old sampler, even though it's all one color and all cross stitch. Under the rows of alphabets is a row of urns with flowers in them, and they are huge. I'm just working on the first one, and it's not even half done. The next part, though is curious in that it has deer sort of attached to the stems. I don't know what that's about, but it will be something different to do.

I didn't even turn on the phone until after dinner, when I finally got my solitaire games reloaded, so I had to try those. And I got one of those wrong numbers from Detroit that I've had since I had this cell number, but they didn't leave a message. So I got my voice mail set up and now I know how to use that (or I think I do). I also know how to delete the information for calls I don't want to return. All this stuff is very easy, but there is a learning curve. I was afraid that I'd have trouble with iOS, but so far, at least on the phone, I haven't. Most of it is fairly intuitive. My worst trouble is trying to learn Safari, and I don't have that down yet, but I'll get there.

The weather was, as I said, hot, at least Copper Harbor hot. The high temperature was 85º, and the humidity was over 60% - sometimes a lot over - all day. There wasn't much wind, at least officially, although for the past two or three hours there's been a nice breeze coming in the patio doors. Again today, our skies were white from all the smoke and again, the MODIS imagery showed it clearly. I haven't smelled anything much, though. Well - not smoke. When I opened the bathroom window this morning, the first thing I smelled was burned fusil oil from some ship out in the lake. That's enough to turn my stomach when it's empty. Polluting our pristine atmosphere!

I didn't see much of the guys all day, at least after I fed them. It was too hot for lap sitting, I guess. I don't know where they went, although they did turn up when I started dinner.

I discovered that my latest Amazon order was delivered today, and they said it was left at the front door, so now I will have to search for it. It has my new curling iron and my new clock radio, and I'm anxious to get both of them. I finally broke down and ordered a new clock radio for the bathroom. I was tired of the time blinking at me because it can't be set anymore. I bought a Sony because I thought it was a reliable brand, but believe me, I won't do that again. I hope the new one will be better.

So now it's a warm, humid night in the field and I'm off to bed, via the shower.

August 12

I was so late last night, and it was my own fault. I had to wash my hair, and I took my good old time about doing it, as I frequently do. I woke up around 9:00 and I could have gotten up, but I decided not to for a change, and it was after noon before I finally got out of bed.

I knitted, and I was doing fine for a while. But when I got to the fourth repeat, I discovered that all of a sudden, I didn't have enough stitches on the body to attach the edging to. I couldn't figure out what had happened, but I pressed on anyway, and just about the time I finished the repeat, I looked back again...and I had dropped a stitch in the body way back in the middle of the third repeat. Ugh! So I put a holder on the stitches I could see and unknitted something like 20 rows (they're not very long) until I got to the place where the dropped stitch (or stitches, I'm not sure yet) was. I decided to stop right there, or I would have spent the rest of the day, and I hadn't eaten anything yet. Maybe tomorrow I can get things fixed up, but I have a massage tomorrow at noon, so maybe I won't. I hate it when I do something like that, and I think this is the first time I've ever done such a thing. Or I hope so. There are several other places in this shawl where I didn't have enough stitches, but I thought I'd stretched it out enough to know that I didn't drop anything. I'll hope...

I was so late that I didn't do much but my surfing. I played with the phone for a while, and I took a couple of nice pictures of Grayson. I've only just begun to figure out the moving of files between the phone and the PC, though, so there won't be anything tonight. It didn't help that my internet connection was going up and down like a ping-pong ball all the time I was trying to download iTunes (yup, that's how to do it). I'm not terribly impressed by iTunes - it loads extremely slowly. I think it's another case where they tried to make a program do so much that it turned into bloatware.

The weather made me glad I could stay home. The high temperature was only 80º here, but there was no wind until just a while ago, and it's extremely humid. I guess you'd call it clear, but we are in the path of the worst of the smoke from the western wildfires, and it was so bad that it was hazy down the harbor, and I could see the smoke on the MODIS images from this afternoon. Too bad, because the meteors are still supposed to be flying. It's so smoky that we aren't even getting any good sunsets.

The guys slept. Grayson got his lap time, and Louie sat under my feet while I was knitting and unknitting, and he purred. He also got up beside my head when I went to bed last night and purred there, too.

Our worst problem right now is flies. For the past week or so, the house has been full of flies. They look like houseflies, but smaller. They aren't the September flies, which bite, and they aren't the cluster flies which are bigger and come later. I've never had these in my house before and I don't know where they're coming from. They drive all of us nutty. It's particularly annoying when they land on my skin and walk around, or when they buzz around my head when I'm trying to sleep after it gets light. Yack.

So it was a very quiet, truncated day, and I am going to bed early tonight. I'm sure I can sleep, and I want to get up early enough to work on my knitting before I go to see Johanna. Now it's a sort of clear (but smoky) night in the field.

PastyNet has been going up and down all afternoon, I think, so I'm not sure this will get published tonight.

August 11

Oh, sorry. Phil just pointed out that I didn't post last night's entry, so I did, but now I'm writing this one. My mind...

It was mostly that I was late and very tired. I find that driving 100 miles tires me out a lot more than it used to, but I guess that's to be expected, since I'm a lot older than I was when I moved up here.

I got up around 9:00 anyway, and I knitted, of course. This time it went well, and I progress, slowly but surely. For the rest of the day I alternately did my surfing and played with the phone. I am now in a pickle. I downloaded some games, decided I didn't want two of the three...and proceeded to delete the wrong two. Now the app store won't let me download them again, and I don't know why. Well, these things happen with a new toy, and I may have to call the store again. We'll see about that. Anyway, then I got to playing the online game I've been doing and time just passed. It didn't help that I wasn't hungry and I couldn't think of what I might want to eat. I finally had a hamburger, which wasn't it, but it did fill up the hole I didn't know I had.

The weather was miserable, in my opinion. It was mostly sunny, and the high temperature was only 70º, but the humidity was over 75% all day and there was no wind. Yuck. It's so humid now that the outside of the patio door in the great room is steamed up...or I hope it's the outside. I don't have enough light in that room at night to be able to inspect it carefully. I'll look at it tomorrow, and then we'll see. Anyway, it was a yucky day.

I was yucky, too. I had another nasty accident, although it wasn't quite as bad as the last one, and then later on, I wet my pants. Yuck.

The guys slept, of course. Grayson got some lap time, but it was too hot for him. Louie got his loving this morning and I haven't seen much of him since. None of us like this weather.

So that was a quiet day. I'm late, because I don't have to get up tomorrow. I do have to wash my hair - and my bottom, which is nasty - so I'll be late again. It's a sort of clear, warm, humid night in the field.

August 10

I was even later last night; it was 2:00 before I got to bed. I didn't get home from church until around 10:45 and that set me back. I got up around 10:00, I think, and I did my knitting. It's coming well, except that it looks like I'll run out of yarn, so I searched the internet and found a couple of skeins on Amazon, of all places. Not sold by them, but they had it listed. I only hope it will be the same dye lot, but it should be close enough that it won't matter. I hate it when that happens. The yarn hasn't been discontinued, or it doesn't seem so, but none of my usual online sources are carrying it anymore. Too bad, too, because it's one of the nicest lace weight yarns I've used.

So I did some of my surfing and then I set off for Houghton. I am now the proud - and poor - owner of an iPhone SE. I'm just beginning to learn how to use it, but I managed to get it connected to my wifi - with help - and I managed to send and receive my first texts - with Debbie, of course. It's small enough that it's taking me a while to be able to type on it, and I don't think I'll be able to use my thumbs, unfortunately. Maybe tomorrow I can visit the App Store and download some games. I also took my first picture - of my desk - so I know how to do that. I'm still learning how the browser works, but I can get to Google, my website and yourclassical, so I can search, check the webcam and listen to my kind of music. I'm making progress.

The traffic is horrible, and since a lot of it is tourists, it's slow and frustrating. There wasn't any construction going on today. i don't know why that was, unless they just don't bother to work on Fridays. It was the people going 15 mph under the speed limit and sort of diddling around that drove me nutty. I will be glad to stay home most of next week!

I was about to get up and get my dinner when Debbie called and she wanted to vent her frustrations with her job, so we talked for over 2 hours. She is a customer service rep, which is horribly underemployed for her, and she is working for a very poorly run company with a lot of jealousies among the staff. She is looking for a better job and I hope she finds one, or I will fear for her blood pressure. The problem, as it always is, is her age and her sex. Nobody still seems to realize that your brains don't drain out your ear when you're over 50 and a woman. I wish her luck. She has so much more in her than that!

The weather was warm and sunny. Oh my, this is summer! The high temperature here was 79º, but that was around 7:00 PM, so when I got home at 4:30, it was only 72º and it felt so good. The fog moved in around 9:30 and didn't move out until after 11:30, and it was humid all day. There was a bit of north wind - up to 16 mph - for a while, but then it died down and there hasn't been much since around 6:00. Of course, it was warmer in Houghton, and I used the air conditioner most of the way home.

I think the guys slept. Grayson got some lap time both before and after I went away, and while i was talking to Debbie, Louie clawed his way onto my lap and got his, too.

So that was my day. Not very productive, but at least I have my new toy. It's a warm, cloudy and humid night in the field.

August 9

I was late last night and I don't know why, but it was 1:30 before I got to bed. I did have to wash my hair, and that takes time, but still...

I got up around 10:30 and I knitted my four repeats. The last one took a while. I had cats who wanted to be petted or scratched, and I dropped something, which meant I had to unknit six or seven rows to get the last repeat back together. I hate it when that happens, but I have to admit, I'd been sitting there for quite a while.

I was so late that I didn't get to do much else. I got a call that my phone has come in, so I guess I'll be going down to Houghton tomorrow to get it. I hate to make two trips down there (It's about 50 miles one way), but while I'm there maybe I can go to Econo Foods and get some things Pat's isn't carrying anymore. We'll see how it goes. I won't be able to get a Schwan's order, but that's probably all right, except that they had a 20% off coupon for tomorrow, and I will probably need things in two weeks. Oh, well, we can't hit everything just right.

I found an interesting email in my inbox this morning. It knew a password I use on a number of sites I've visited for at least 20 years (things were simpler then) and it accused me of visiting a porn site and watching a porn video. It claimed that it had installed a keylogger on my system and not only recorded all my key strokes, it had turned on my webcam and taken a video of me watching the porn video! Well. The only thing right about that email is the password. I don't even have a webcam that looks at me, and I don't believe Norton would permit a program to be installed on my computer. I am going to send it on to my ISP, but otherwise, I will ignore it, because it is clearly spurious. Oh, yes - they want $1000 in bitcoin to destroy the video. I wonder how many other unsuspecting people they've sent that message to. I get really annoyed by things like that.

The weather was warm and humid. The fog moved in around 6:30 and it didn't leave until after 10:00. Then it got clear and lovely for a while before the next cloud bank came over. The high temperature was 75º here, but by that time I was on my way to Laurium and it was warmer there - over 80º. There wasn't much wind, and the humidity was over 70% for most of the day. Typical August, but not my favorite weather.

The guys slept, as far as I know. Grayson got to sleep on my lap for a long time after I got back from the powder room. When I got home tonight, he came to the door and yawned at me, which is usually a sign that he wasn't quite pleased. Louie is a different sort of cat, and I don't remember that he's ever yawned in my face like that. The longer I live with Louie, the more I appreciate him.

So that was my day, and now it's late again, and I just finished eating, since I didn't get home until 10:45 - Bible Study ran long, and then we talked to Pastor for a while afterwards. Now it's a partly cloudy night in the field, and I'm tired.

August 8

I got up around 8;00 this morning, which surprised me, but I did sleep well. I knitted my four repeats, but it was slower than usual for some reason. Sometimes my fingers move well and sometimes they don't. I think it had something to do with the humidity. I doubt I'll be so early tomorrow.

I didn't do anything else very much for the rest of the day, unfortunately, but I'm in funk mode, which means all I want to do is sit.

While my dinner was cooking, I got the dishwasher mostly loaded. This time, I used plates and not so many bowls, unlike the last time, when I used more bowls. I can't figure it out, because I eat just about the same stuff all the time. I have to finish the loading, and i have to wash my hair, but by tomorrow morning I will have clean dishes and clean hair, unless we have a power failure.

The weather has to have something to do with that, too. The high temperature got up to 78º in the middle of the afternoon, but not for long. The real problem was the rain. There have been "isolated thunderstorms" passing north and south of us all afternoon, and that has driven the humidity up to 93% now. It hasn't done more than drizzled here, but every so often I would hear some grumbling from outside - the house is open - and when I looked at radar, something was passing by again.

The guys were sleepy. Grayson got some lap time, but Louie is someplace asleep. He got some loving this morning, and I suppose he'll get some more tonight. His desire to sit on me is tempered by the difficulty of getting Grayson off my lap and him on it. They got some of their favorite canned food for breakfast today, and Louie sat down and ate half his bowl full, so I think he's all right. They don't like this weather any more than I do.

So it was a quiet day, and it was nice. This is the way I prefer to live. It's a warmish, cloudy and maybe stormy night in the field.

August 7

I made it into bed by about 11:00 last night and I slept well until 9:30 or so. The last three hours weren't really deep sleep, but they passed fast enough that I know I wasn't awake. I knitted my corner and I am now starting the third side of the shawl. Oh, will I be glad to be done with that thing!

I had time to do my surfing and pack my bag before I left for my afternoon. I stopped and voted on my way out of town and got my mail, which included a whole lot of pills

Then I was afraid I would be late at the doctor's, because of all the road repairs. They are resurfacing most of US-41 between Calumet and Mohawk, and it was a mess, but I hit every one-lane road just right, so I got to the hospital about when I planned and got my blood drawn.

My talk with the doctor went well. The kind of cancer I have is not too fast growing, and it is hormone-positive, which means they can shut it down by giving me something to stop estrogen production (not that I have much of that, because I have no ovaries and I'm so old). We talked about the options, and it sounds to me like mastectomy is the best alternative. I know it's serious surgery - I've been through it once - but there is a good chance that if I have it, I won't need any follow-up treatment. There are a few tests they need to do and they need to look at a number of lymph nodes to be sure, but he seemed positive about it. He seems very reluctant to suggest chemo anyway, for which I was glad. His reasons were somewhat different from mine, even though he did say he thought I'd been through enough of that, and I'm old. He pointed out that since I have rebuilt bone marrow (from the stem cell transplant), there is a finite chance that if I got into chemo, my bone marrow might shut down completely - and that's a death sentence, because there's no way to fix it. The only thing is, I won't get to talk to the surgeon until September 5, but I feel enough better about it that I can wait. I'm not looking forward to the surgery, but I know it's necessary and it will even me out, which I've always wished.

After that, I went off to Houghton and contracted for a smartphone. I don't have it, because they didn't have one in the store, but I should get it in a few days. I think it will be fun to have a new toy, and shortly i will be able to ditch my AT&T long distance, which is outrageously expensive.

All that took a while, because the guy had to put the order in three times before it took, and I went off to Bambu and had a very good dinner. I got home a bit before 8:00 and called Debbie. We had our usual long conversation (only 110 minutes this time!).

The weather was lovely. It was clear this morning and partly cloudy this afternoon. The temperature got up to 70º while I was gone, and it was around 73º in Houghton. There wasn't much wind. It was pretty humid, but only between 60% and 70%, so it was comfortable. Very nice.

I imagine the cats just slept while I was gone. Grayson sort of wanted to go out into the breezeway when I got home, but I managed to shoo him away. I haven't seen Louie lately. I found a humungous hairball in the hallway this morning, so getting rid of that should make somebody feel better. I think it must be from Louie, because I don't think Grayson's tummy is that big.

So that was my day. I am feeling better about this thing than I did, although it's still a downer. I can stand to put that on hold until I talk to the surgeon and go about my life as normal.

Now it's a clear, coolish night in the field and I'm going to bed.

August 6

I really was too tired to move last night, so it was 1:30 or so before I finally made it into bed - and I think it was 6 hours later that I woke up! That has to be a record. I wasn't through, though, and it was around 10:30 when I got up, feeling much better.

I knitted my four repeats, and tomorrow I will turn the second corner. Whee! I'm really making progress. This second side only took 12 days (including the days when I didn't knit), so I finally know the pattern well enough to go full speed. That's nice, because I'm only halfway done with the edging.

I had one of the nastiest accidents ever right after breakfast, but while I was back in the bathroom, after I cleaned myself up, sort of, I finished the socks I've been knitting for so long! The legs may not be quite as long as I'd like them, but those last four rows or so have made a lot of difference, and I like them. Since even my socks got dirty, I will be wearing them tomorrow. One of the things I like about socks is that they don't need any fancy blocking or anything, and I can wear them the moment I have the yarn ends darned in.

That was all I did, besides my surfing, but I didn't have a lot of time.

The weather turned out completely unlike what they were predicting. the high temperature was 69º, but it apparently happened between 8:00 AM and 9:00 AM, and after that, it got cloudy and cooler, until now, it's 57º. Sheesh. There wasn't much wind, and when I left the bathroom for the second time, around 2:15, the fog had moved in, and it didn't go away until about 9:00 PM. So the humidity was over 80% for most of the day and it's been over 90% for the past two or three hours. Not good for my joints, for sure.

The guys didn't like it, either. They were in the bathroom with me when I got up, and then they went their ways. When I finally got back to the studio, Grayson came and sat on me for a long time, and at one point when I went through the great room, Louie was curled up on top of the kitty condo, which really isn't big enough to hold him, but he likes to sit there when the window is open, even though he had his back to the window.

So it was a nice, quiet day, and I have to take a bath tonight so I will be clean for the doctor. I would have to do it anyway, because of my accident. Oh, that was yucky!

Now it's a cool, cloudy, humid night in the field, and I'm tired again.

August 5

I made it into bed before 10:00 last night, and I slept well, although I was up several times. I woke up just after 6:00 and dozed for about 20 minutes before I realized I really did have to pee and I got up. I guess I will do just about anything to keep that alarm from going off!

I left the house just after 9:00, as usual, but it was a frustrating drive. I got three cars behind a guy on the covered road who was slowing down to 30 mph on every curve, and since he was the third car in front of me and there was some traffic in the other direction, I couldn't pass him until the place where the speed limit goes up to 55 mph - a long, frustrating drive. There were two motorcyclists in front of him, but when they saw me pass three cars, they pulled over - unbelievable! Really nice motorcyclists!

There was another slow guy around Phoenix, and I got around him by taking Cliff Drive. They've done some patching on that road, so it doesn't break an axle every time I drive it. But then there were other slow people from Kearsarge south, so I ended up right behind Mary Ann and Bill when we started toward church. Calumet is finally doing something about School Street, which is our usual route, and it has been closed all summer. It looked like they had gotten to the point of digging out and rebuilding the roadbed, but today they were 6' or so down in a hole, so it seems they must have discovered some more sewers that needed replacing. They were actually working on Sunday!

Church was good, and it was surprisingly cool until right at the end. Pastor doesn't wear his robe in weather like this, and I can't blame him. I didn't have anything to do in town today, for once, so I got home around 1:00.

I didn't do anytning else for the rest of the afternoon. I was tired - not enough sleep - so I just sat and played games.

The weather was part of it. The humidity was horrible, and the high was 82º, with a humidity of over 90% for a good portion of the day. There was a wind from the west for a while, but it died down late in the afternoon. Part of my trouble was that i forgot to open the windows, so it got very hot in here. I finally did, late in the day, and it's better now. Along about 10:30, when I was finally thinking about eating something, I began hearing grumbling from outside, but the thunderstorms passed either north or south of us, and while there was some lightning, it didn't even rain, it just upped the humidity.

The guys don't like this, either. Grayson got a lot of lap time this afternoon, and when I went to get my dinner, I noticed Louie on his way to the basement. I don't think he likes thunder, even when it isn't very close. Probably Grayson doesn't either, but he goes for mama rather than the basement.

So that was a very quiet day, for a Sunday, and I've diddled around too long. It's time to go to bed.

The thunderstorms are off to the east now, and the skies should be clearing, if they aren't already, so it's a clear, warm night in the field.

August 4

Zombie mode again. I guess I'd best get used to it, since I expect it will be happening a lot from now on. It wasn't as late as the night before, I don't think, but I don't remember. I was up any number of times. I think that was because I didn't get my water until dinnertime and I was so dehydrated that I drank a lot of it. That has to go someplace...

I knitted my four repeats, and I only have four more on the second side! So I am making progress! It was slow, though, for some reason, and I couldn't find a comfortable place to sit without my feet going to sleep, but I persisted. And when i went to the powder room after breakfast, I got the second sock to the same place the first one is. The bind-off I chose uses a whole lot of yarn - two rows' worth, at least - so I'm going to see tomorrow if there's another stretchy bind-off that doesn't use so much. Those 4 rows make the legs much more nearly the length I like, amazingly enough, but if I bind off now, I will have some yarn left and I want to use as much as possible. We'll see.

Let's see. I did a couple of things. I had a full load of dirty bottoms to wash, so I did that. I had to go out into the breezeway anyway, because I ran out of incontinent pads, so I finally brought in my bottle of detergent. The load is in the dryer now and I hope it will be done before I get to bed.

I made rice and had a regular dinner tonight, not a Saturday night special. And I did something in the studio that I've been thinking about for a long time. I have a big pile of knitting books beside me on the counter, and when I looked at the bookshelf over my head, I realized that there were a bunch of books that I don't use - that I'll probably never use. So I hauled them down and determined that probably I will never use them because of the way they are. They all are titled a something - "Bible," but they are all so simple as to be useless to anybody who has ever quilted, beaded, or knitted. There were a couple of others not in the series that are just as bad. I should really have sent them back when I got them, which I believe was in the early 2000s, because they are junk.

Anyway, they were taking up space that I could use to store my Barbara Walker stitch books, which are pure gold, so I moved them out. I will begin to fill in the hole soon, maybe tomorrow, and see if there are more I can move. I have a bunch of pattern books that are useful that need to be someplace where it's easier to get to them. Most are shawl patterns, but there are some socks and probably some other stuff, too. One way or another, it will get rid of one pile, and then I can start moving toward the sewing machine. Gee, I really did something in here!

The weather was conducive to such an activity. The high temperature was 74º, but it was cloudy and dull and after noon it began to rain. So far, we've had a quarter inch, most of it in the past two hours. So it has been extremely humid. The wind has been from the southwest, with gusts up to about 20 mph. Not a good day for joints. I think most of the rain has been south of us, though. We need this and more, although I'm sorry it had to happen on a Saturday in August.

The guys were sleepy, like the weather. Louie slept under my feet while I was knitting and Grayson slept on my lap for a long time this afternoon. Louie came by and said "maow!" several times, but Grayson wasn't going to move and he was here first. My lap can only hold one cat at a time.

So it was a nice, quiet day, and now it's time to totter up to the north end and wash my hair. I will be late, because it's already 8:30, but oh, well. It's a cloudy, warm and rainy night in the field.

August 3

I went into zombie mode in the bathroom last night, so it was 1;15 before I got to bed. I slept fairly well, though, and I got up a bit after 9:00. I'm afraid you're going to find me doing that a lot from now on. It's not exactly "mindful meditation" (whatever that is), but it's a way I use to clear out my mind from the annoyances of the day and settle down so once I am in bed, I can go right to sleep. I've done it for more years than I can remember, and it works for me. Sometimes I rehash what went on during the day; I used to do that a lot when I was working. I would go over the unresolved problems from work, which almost always set me up to solve those problems while I slept. Sometimes, I think about something else, like whatever story I'm writing. Sometimes, I just sit there witn a completely blank mind, which is a good way to get prepared to sleep. I did a a bit of both last night.

I knitted another four repeats of the edging on the shawl, so I'm making progress. and in a couple of days, I will turn the second corner. Then later, when I had an accident (not too bad, but I have to wash my bottoms) I took the socks with me and knitted as far as I could go on the second one. I think the next step is to knit the same number of rows on the first one and see how much yarn I have left. I'm afraid I will still have some left, because it looks like it isn't coming out even, but still, I'll have used more than I would have without all this fiddling around. I think, though, that when I make more socks out of this particular yarn (I have two or three more colorways) I will use the short-row heel, because that uses a lot less yarn and I'll be able to put it into the leg. They'll all have to be done toe-up. Next year.

I was about to leave for the post office when I realized there was a car in my driveway and a guy came to the door but didn't come in. So I opened the garage door and discovered that he had been sent by the mortgage company to check and see if I was really me and I really live here. What?? So when I got home again, I called them and they think they haven't received my declaration of occupancy. They have a post office box in Texas, which I am beginning to believe is a black hole. I sent it after the last glitch I had with those people. I guess I'm going to have to rifle through my papers and see if I can find the first notices they sent me and send them back - I think about five of them will do. When that mortgage company was in Michigan, they were so nice to deal with and I had no problems. Then they moved to Texas - I suspect they were bought out - and I've had nothing but problems with them ever since. I have to stay with them, because I can't afford to redeem the reverse mortgage, even to place it with some other company, but it's a continual annoyance. Grr.

The weather was much nicer than yesterday. It was cloudy until around 10:00 AM and it got cloudy again around 5:00 PM, but in between it was clear and blue. The high temperature was 69º and there was very little wind. The humidity actually got down below 60% for a while. Very nice.

Louie barfed someplace in the bathroom this morning, but he did eat. I don't know where he is now, but I assume he'll show up. Grayson got his lap time, until I had to run to the bathroom. I didn't have ham or chicken today, so he wasn't interested in what I was eating. They seemed to like their breakfast all right, but it's not their favorite. Well, they'll get more of that next week, when I bring in one of the cases I got. They like the stuff with gravy and cheese.

So that was a very quiet day and now it's a cloudy, sort of warm night in the field.

August 2

I don't remember when I got to bed last night. It was either 1:00 or 2:00, but I don't know. i slept fairly well, although I had a bit of a problem getting to sleep again and I was wakeful in the middle of the night, partly because I didn't start out right and my right shoulder was extremely sore, so I had to wait until it went back into shape. It's a good thing I don't move very much when I'm asleep, because I have to be very careful how I position myself.

I knitted again, and I progress. It's slow, but I'm making progress.

When I went to get dressed, I wanted a tee that I had washed, so I hauled all the clean, or supposedly clean, tees into the closet and began folding. When I was through, I had more that need to be rewashed than I had that I can wear right now. Eddie Bauer cotton tees have always been nearly impossible to get grease stains out of. So I have a lot of washing to do over again.

I was in the middle of getting dressed when Debbie called on her lunch hour to suggest the possibility that we could make a conference call out of my doctor's appointment. It was so sweet of her, and it sounds like she is really worried about me, but I think I can probably handle it. I did all the preliminary stuff for my lymphoma without anybody else, and I only took her to the meetings about the stem cell transplant. I told her I'd think about it, but I don't think that's necessary. There are only three questions, and I can usually remember what was said if it's a topic that interests me...frequently better than the people who said it.

So eventually I got something to eat, and then I got back on the phone. I called the clinic and complained that nobody had ever told me about the appointment on Tuesday - I had to find out about it online. Eventually I talked to the manager of the clinic, I think (or somebody who works for her) and a while later, I got a call from the scheduler, all contrite and upset. That was good, because she told me that they want blood work beforehand, which the online site didn't say. i haven't checked it since, but I will tomorrow, to see what they're saying now. I also complained that there were things in my "to do" list that expired on Monday, and they should have rolled off. If I have to teach people what a website should look like, I can do that, too. Grr.

I also called the heating people, just to make sure they haven't forgotten me. The floods apparently swamped them with work, so it will probably be after Labor Day before they get here. That's fine, as long as they don't wait until I need heat. I laid my cancer on them, too, just to make them understand that I'm not just being petulant. I will need comfort around here.

Whew! Then Mary Ann called, because I thought she might have called while I was on the phone with Debbie, and then it was after 3:00. So I did the rest of my surfing and put the phone away for the day. The only thing that saved me is that I have a headset, which saves both my ear and my elbow. In fact, the reason I got the headset is that every time Debbie and I talked, my ear and my elbow got too sore. Now I can talk until the battery in the handset dies, which is a good thing. I should check and make sure i can't plug the headset into the base module, which would let me talk indefinitely. Hee, hee.

Tonight was choir and Bible Study, and both were good. There is going to be quite a large choir for the anniversary service, so I won't be needed. I think they will be ready. After the St. John's people left, we sang the piece for Sunday and the one I fiddled with, as well as "Lamb of God," which I've been singing in my head a lot, even though I don't remember all the words.

I got home about 9:45 and had the rest of my Harbor Haus dinner. It's a bit overcooked when it's reheated, but it's still some of the best food I've ever eaten. Yum. I wish I could afford to eat there more often.

When I checked the camera, I discovered it had hung up shortly after 6:00 PM, and starting and stopping the controlling program and even unplugging it didn't work. It seems to have disappeared from the computer. So I had to reboot, which annoys me. That driver is a piece of junk. Restarting did fix the problem, though, so it's clearly a software problem. It's been several weeks since I rebooted, but I shouldn't have to do that at all. Grr.

The weather turned out nice, finally. The high temperature was only 61º (and they claim it could hit 90º on Saturday!) but the humidity was down until just lately. It cleared up by about 2:30, so it was pretty. It would be nice to have it a bit warmer in August, but as long as it isn't like yesterday, I can cope. Until it gets too hot, of course.

The guys slept. Grayson got some lap time, but Louie got his loving in the bathroom this morning. I don't imagine they were happy when I left, but hey, I do this almost every Thursday.

So that was my day. I hate having to talk so much. I've always hated telephones, and yet I don't know what I'd do without them.

Now it's a clear, cool night in the field and it seems like the unseasonable lows are over for a while. I hope so.

August 1

Geez, I hate to write that. It's time to reset the endpoints of the camera, too.

I wasn't as early as I'd thought getting to bed last night - when am I - and it was 11:40 when I turned out the light. I slept very well, though, and it was 9:40 when I got up. I knitted my four repeats.

I forgot to mention yesterday that I was trying to finish the second summer sock, and when I had the same number of rows as the first one, I discovered that the first ball of yarn was short - and I mean 5 or 6 yards short. So I unraveled the bind off, attached the piece of yarn I'd cut off (I knew that was a mistake after I did it) and sometime - not today, for sure - I am going to get both socks on a single needle (yes, you can), attach things right and work as many more rows as possible before I bind them off, so my socks are as long as possible and I use as much yarn as I can. It will be messy, but I'd hate to have several yards of yarn left when I know the socks aren't as long as I like them.

The rest of the day I did the usual stuff. My surfing took a while, and then I had to pay some bills and move some money around. After that, I got at the bulletin, and I discovered that Pastor had sent out the information for the next two Sundays. The 12th is our sister congregation's 125th anniversary, so that is pretty much set in concrete and he isn't preaching, so he had time to get it settled. I got them both out and made a few corrections.

Oh, I did have a little fun. There is a song we've been practicing in choir that has a verse with a soprano part that is entirely too high for either Barb or me to sing. It has several other parts, and I thought, after hearing Fay sing the second part, that probably the top part could just be erased and the actual melody was in the second part. So today I scanned the two pages into JPEG files, fired up Photoshop Elements for the first time in a very long time and proceeded to erase all those high notes, using a 3-pixel eraser. It took a little time, but in fact, I was right. Then, since I couldn't get both pages into a single PDF file (or I think it won't), I printed the pages, scanned them back in, and created a single file out of them. That took a while longer and spent some of my precious ink, but i shipped it off to Kathleen and I will take a copy with me to choir tomorrow. It actually wasn't an original idea. Barb has been doing something similar, adding verses to the scores of some of the hymns we sing, so that the people who have to sing parts have the music to go with the words. I won't say it was an elegant way of solving the problem, but it works, and we'll be able to sing "When Peace Like a River" with a very lovely piano part. Love that song.

How the weather can change up here! At midnight last night, the temperature was still 71º, and by 11:00 this morning, it was 50º, which is where it stayed, although it did go down to 49º between 4:00 and 6:00 PM. Hey, guys, this is August, for heaven's sake! Besides, it started raining about 4:00 AM and so far, we've had half an inch. So not only was it cold, it was damp - the humidity was around 90% all day. Not my favorite weather at any time of year, and especially not in the middle of summer! Yuck! I guess I didn't notice the forecast yesterday, so the east windows were all open, and the first thing I did this morning was to close them. It's still chilly in here, but maybe it only feels that way because it's so humid.

The guys slept, which was the best thing one could do. They both got some serious lap time, and I guess they were trying to tell me they were happy I was home all day.

So that was my quiet day, and now it's a cold, rainy night in the field. I have to wash my hair again, so I will go and do that and try not to be too late.

Last updated 09/01/18 08:46 PM