J1907

A View From the Field

July 2019

July 31

Well, there. another year gone. I'm glad that one is over with. Also, I'm sure now that I've lived longer than any of my direct ancestors, which is sort of amazing, when I think about it.

I was late, of course. It's just so hard to take a shower that I don't want to, so I procrastinate. I didn't get up until 1:00 PM, though, and I knitted a row on the shawl, so it was a truncated day.

However, it ended nicely. I met Johanna at Harbor Haus, and not only did we have a lovely dinner - their quality is still as good as ever - we had a good talk, with pictures of our pets and lots of laughing. She had a crazy day today, and she needed to relax. We did, longer than we thought, because they were having trouble with their internet connection and we had to wait for our bills. It was so nice.

The weather was nice, too. The high temperature was only 70º and it wasn't too humid. There wasn't much wind. It was mostly clear and blue. I can take a lot of weather like this.

Both guys got some loving, and Grayson met me with a yawn when I got home. He is a snot. However, he will move out of my way when I walk anyplace and Louie doesn't want to do that, so I either have to try to climb over him or kick him to make him move, which makes him complain. I don't know how he got in that habit, and I wish I could break him of it. He learned how to move so I'll pet him, but evidently the rewards for moving haven't been great enough yet.

So that was my day. It was quite a year, I must say and I'm looking forward to a better one. I had always figured it had been long enough from the first mastectomy that I wouldn't need another one, and it was a disappointment to discover otherwise. Then it was so difficult to heal, and I had so much trouble with the hormone therapy. It was a hard winter, and I couldn't get out much even if I'd wanted to. I hope this year will be a better one. I'm still here, and considering all the things that are wrong with me, according to my blood work, I'm in good shape. I started taking a bigger dose of the thyroid meds today, and I'm hoping that gives me some more energy to try to get things in better order around here. I'm still here, and I'm living in the only place I want to be, and those are good things.

Now it's a cool, clear night in the field and I need to go to bed. I keep remembering, I'm not a year older, I'm just one day older than i was yesterday and one day younger than I will be tomorrow.

July 30

I was a good girl last night: I was in bed before midnight! I slept well. It was cool in the bedroom so I cuddled down under my comforter. I guess it was Louie's night to sleep with me, so he hauled himself up on the bed - it gets harder for him all the time - and walked over me - ouch! - and settled down behind my legs. He got up the first time I did, but I think that's because I threw the body pillow on him.

Anyway, I slept well for most of the night and I think I got up at just about 9:00. I knitted three rows - just about two hours - and the bottom border of the shawl is beginning to take shape. I had toyed with using a smaller needle than was indicated, and I'm sorry I didn't, but it's too late now. I am NOT going to rip out 12 rows and all those cast on stitches. It will be all right.

That got me thinking, so I checked the other patterns I have from the same source, and wow, is there a range of gauges! Some people clearly knit more tightly than others. I always thought I knit to the suggested gauge, and in thicker yarns, I do, but this lace stuff is wild. There are several more patterns from the same source I want to make, including a round one I want to do in the dark purple yarn, and I'm not sure what I'm going to do about gauge. Well, this one is going to take me long enough that I'll have time to think about it. It's going to be pretty, though.

Then I finally - finally! - got Debbie's arm warmer packed up and I went to the post office, where there was a bunch of stuff, including a lot of pills. Most of them I don't need yet, but my new dose of thyroid medication is in, so we'll see if I'll feel any better when I start taking it. I'm still dragging my tail behind me.

Oh, and it finally dawned on me what at least part of my problem with my shoulder is: the surgery. Duh. I should have known better. Not only does the mastectomy mess with a whole bunch of interrelated muscles, I had a second surgery in the same place. I remember having similar problems on the right side, but I was younger then and I didn't have the arthritis problem. I should have been doing my wall-crawling exercise all this time, and I haven't. I tried it this morning, and oh, my, did it hurt. I could only do it two or three times, and I can't get my hand much over my head. I promise, I will try to do it twice a day and increase the reps. I know it will help.

The weather was nice but cool, a welcome relief. It got down to 58º overnight, and the high today was only 69º. There was a brisk north wind, with gusts up to 28 mph. The nice thing is, the dew point has been dropping and it's now down below 50º, so the relative humidity is under 69%, Maybe my towels will dry out, t was clear and sunny. I wish it would stay this way, but it's supposed to warm up over the next few days again. And I'm grateful that I live here - it's been much warmer down in Calumet and Houghton.

Nothing much more to report about the cats. While I was knitting, they were both in the bathroom, lying on their backs, sound asleep. I think it's because there was a little heat there this morning. They both got some loving, and Grayson got to sleep on my lap while I did my surfing, but I couldn't let him sit as much as he wanted, because I had things to do.

So it was a quiet day, as usual, and I'm enjoying my last day before I'm a year older. It's a clear, cool night in the field.

July 29

Late again, but not an inversion, quite. I managed to get my hair washed, and that feels good. I slept well, although I had a hard time getting back to sleep a couple of times. The second time I woke up, the clock was blinking...oh, no.

So I ignored it, and when I finally did get up, I knitted a row on the shawl before I got dressed. By the time I got to the studio and reset the UPS, I guess the people attached to my access point were bouncing off the walls. Good. I didn't hear back from PastyNet when I informed them that the UPS had died, and I wondered if they had processed what it means. Now they have. The person who will be fixing things is out of town now - I got an email from him - but sometime in the not to distant future, I may have TWO UPSs under my desk and maybe we can get things tidied up down there and get the cables unbraided - again.

So I didn't get anything done again, but I was late again.

The weather started out cloudy and extremely humid, but we had a lot of sunshine before it clouded up again at sunset. the high temperature was 76º, and it was quite windy, with gusts from the north as high as 35 mph in the morning. No doubt that's the reason for the power thing. Most of the day was dry enough that I didn't have a lot of trouble with my shoulder, although going up the steps (I had to get some stuff in the breezeway) made it hurt.

The guys slept. When I got up the first time, Grayson was sleeping on his towel at the end of the bathtub. That always tickles me. Buster liked to sleep at the south end of the bathtub, where he could look out the door at me. Grayson let me know quite soon after he came that he didn't like it there - he wanted to sleep at the north end, up against the wall of the shower. He doesn't all the time, but that has been his spot of choice lately. When I got up the second and third times, he was in bed with me and Louie was in that spot. Louie got up and went away when I got up, so Grayson went back, and then Louie decided he wanted to be there - or, I think, he didn't want Grayson there, so we had some tense minutes there. Louie will frequently obey me when i shout at him, so Grayson got to stay in his spot.

So it was another lost day, and now it's a coolish, cloudy night in the field.

July 28

Oh, I pulled an inversion again. I was reading and it was stuff I like so well that I just kept on. So it was getting light when I went to bed and I didn't get up until around 1:30. I knitted two rows on the shawl. It took a while, but the number of stitches is down to around 500, so it wasn't so bad.

However, I was so late that I didn't do anything else. I guess knitting qualifies as doing something.

I had to go up to the north end late this afternoon and when I walked into the bathroom, there was a little doe right behind the house, grazing. I think she saw something move in the house, but she apparently knows that's harmless, so she just moved on. How I wish I could get the deer to eat tansy! I didn't realize the exact markings on a white-tail deer's tail, or at least the top. There is a stripe of red-brown down the center and a stripe of white on either side. Of course, the bottom is white, which is how they got their name. This girl is quite small - I guess she might be last year's fawn - but she looked quite healthy to me. How I love living in the woods!

The weather started out nice - relatively warm and sunny - but around noon the clouds started to move in and the afternoon was dull and gray. For most of the day, there was almost no wind. I guess we're in for some rain, but so far it hasn't happened. The high temperature was 77º The dew point has been in the low 60s, so for most of the afternoon the humidity was tolerable, and I can't tell you how much better that made my shoulder feel. However, now the temperature is dropping and the humidity is going up. I guess we might get some rain overnight or tomorrow. I had to close the south window, because a breeze has sprung up from the southwest, and since it's only about 70º now, and I'm dressed for 80º, it was rather cool.

The guys slept, of course. They both got some loving, and they got their kibble bowls filled and some canned food, so they're mostly content, although Grayson still thinks he wants some of everything I eat. I don't give him any, because either he just sniffs it or he licks it once or twice and goes away. I don't like wasting even those little morsels, and besides it annoys me.

So that was a very quiet day, and now I need to go to bed. There are some other things i need to do, too, but not tonight. It's a warm, cloudy night in the field.

July 27

Well, it's a good thing I'm not going to church tomorrow, because I'm going to be getting to bed more nearly at my usual time.

I wasn't all that late last night - around 1:00, I think - but I had a hard time getting to sleep. I think it was because it was so humid that everything felt wet and clammy and my feet felt cold. Once I got to sleep, I did well, but I didn't get up until around 10:30. Then I finally got to knit, and I knitted three rows - remember, this is 600 stitches - and then I diddled for a while, so I didn't eat until after 4:00 PM, so even without going to bed very late, I essentially inverted.

I didn't do anything else. The pill dispensers need to be filled, but I think I'll wait the ones at this end until tomorrow. Oddly enough, I'm tired again.

The weather was a bit better today, although it's still humid. It was sunny, and the high temperature was 78º, but for most of the day there was a nice breeze from the north, in the 15 mph range. The humidity was down a lot from yesterday, which made it much more comfortable. There are a few very thin high clouds now, but they should go away soon.

The guys didn't seem to mind my hours. Grayson got some lap time, and Louie got a little loving this morning.

There have been cannons going off every so often since yesterday. I guess this is the Battery D weekend. I'm happy to say they don't seem to bother these cats. Some of my earlier companions were freaked out by the noise. It makes Grayson sort of stop and think, but he doesn't run away and hide or anything. Oddly, Louie seems mostly immune to noises like that or thunder. I'm glad. I don't like to see them suffer.

So that's it, and it's a warm, mostly clear night in the field.

July 26

I was stupidly late last night, so I didn't get up until after noon and I didn't knit. I haven't had nearly enough time to do that lately. I was too late to go to the post office, too. Around the time I was thinking about dinner, Debbie called and we had our usual long conversation.

The weather wasn't very good and my poor old bod is telling me that. It was warm. The high temperature was 80º, several times. There was a very short shower between 1:00 and 2:00, and then between 7:00 and 9:00 PM, we had a nice thunderstorm and about 0.36" of rain. I wasn't watching, since I was talking at the time, and it came rather suddenly, with heavy rain and winds strong enough to blow it almost sideways. Lots of nice thunder, too, but not very close. The temperature has dropped to around 64º, but the humidity is up over 90%, with a bit of west wind. There is another band of storms on its way, too, although it isn't clear yet if it will hit us or go south of us. We need the rain, but it isn't very comfortable tonight.

The guys slept. They got some good canned food this morning, and they both got some loving. Grayson got some lap time, although I had to ask him to go away.

So it was another very quiet day and now it's a very humid, possibly stormy night in the field.

July 25

I'm sorry for no journal last night, but when I remembered it, I was up at the north end and I was too tired to come back down here. I think I'm mostly recovered now.

The Norton tech people managed to get their software installed in my computer without destroying it, but I was worried for a while, when they got into safe mode and started editing the registry. It took them most of the night, but I wasn't going to leave them in my computer without watching them. They didn't sign out until about 4:00 AM and I didn't get to bed until 5:00 AM.

I slept for most of the day, and I didn't do much. I only ate one meal. And then I forgot the journal until I was up at the north end. I think I got to bed around midnight. I slept well,

I woke up around 8:45 and thought that was a pretty good time to get up, but I closed my eyes and the next time I woke up it was 10:30. I couldn't knit, because sometime yesterday - I forget when - I had a conversation with Johanna, and I had an appointment for a massage at 2:00.

So I did my thing and got off to my massage, and I feel much better. My shoulder isn't nearly so sore. I was sure a big part of the problem was that the muscles in my shoulder were so tight that they were making things much worse, and it seems like that was so. i hope it lasts and gets me on the road to less pain.

I don't remember much about the weather yesterday, but it looks like it was nice. The high temperature was 77º and I think it was sunny. Today, it was hot. The high temperature was 83º, there wasn't much wind, and the humidity wasn't good. I have been sweating almost all day, and now the house is almost as open as it ever is - all the back windows as well as the bathroom and the south window in the studio. I hate hot.

The guys were sleepy. They both got some loving. I haven't seen Louie since I got home, but Grayson came and sat on me and he wanted some of my dinner, although when he licked the dish, he decided it wasn't that good. I think I agree with him.

So that's two days, although yesterday was hardly a "day." Now it's a warm, humid and, I think, cloudy night in the field.

July 23

I made it into bed by midnight last night, but I'm going to be later tonight. I slept well.

I started knitting on the new shawl and when I got to the end of the first row, I discovered that I'd goofed again and I had to unknit almost the entire row to get it right. I seem to have dropped a few cast on stitches, too, but not enough that I couldn't fudge. Then I wanted to do the return row just to check myself, and I found that I had, as usual, left out a few yarn-overs. That took close to three hours, and then I got trapped by soiltaire again, so I didn't do anything else.

Well...that's not true. When I read my email, I had gotten a message saying that Norton had tried to debit my credit card and been denied. They've been nattering at me about my subscription for a month or more, but I never saw anything about how much they wanted to charge me...and when I checked the card, I discovered that someone else who does an automatic had charged my card, so that was why there wasn't enough money. Sigh.

So I called Norton, and ended up with a different product - or I think I did. I tried to download it and it seemed to hang, so after a couple of hours, I tried online chat and somebody tried to figure out what had happened. I'm not sure everything he did, but he rebooted my computer twice and left me with no protection and a download that has been going on forever...or I think it's downloading. I finally decided I could do something else while it's working, which is why I'm writing this. I'm afraid I got a piece of bloatware, but it was much cheaper than just renewing my subscription to the old app was. We'll see what's going on in the morning. I'm not going to stay up all night and watch it.

The weather was nice. It was sunny (sorry, they turned off the camera, so we didn't get to see it all) and the high temperature was 71º. There was a north wind in the 15 mph range. It was a bit more humid than yesterday, but not excessively so. Nice.

The guys were mostly sleepy. They both tried to sit on me, but I had to shoo Louie away to type and I just shooed Grayson away so I could write this. i don't like to do that, but they pick the most inconvenient times to want to sit on me.

So that was my day. I hope doing this doesn't screw up my download, but I'll be on the phone tomorrow if it didn't work. Now it's a warmish, clear (I think) night in the field.

July 22

Oh, I was late again last night. I wish I could reliably stop that. I think I was asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow. I'm not exactly sure when I got to bed. I think I got up around 11:00 or so.

I knitted - or I should say, cast on. I think it took me an hour and a half to cast on the 500 or so stitches that were left to do. I was wise enough not to try to start the first row this time - I'll do that tomorrow.

I was thinking about the bulletin and there were a couple of things I had forgotten, so I got right at that - and then there were several emails from Pastor, and I ended up sending out five more revisions! Egad! As I said to a couple of people, it makes up for the past few weeks, when there were no changes to my first try. A member died, and there will be a funeral, and Pastor sent me the information, so I put that together, even though the funeral won't be until August 3. He just died this morning, but that's a long time. I guess it must mean there are family members who have to come from all over for the funeral. I guess the funeral homes in this area are used to things like that.

The weather was cool. I shut all the windows last night, except for the studio, because it was cold in the bedroom. The temperature when I went to bed was about 56º and there was a brisk wind from the north that was blowing right into the bedroom. Brr! The high today was 75º, briefly - no wonder I got hot! - and there was a light wind from the north, around 10 mph or so. It was clear until around 4:00, when the clouds moved in, but I just looked at the satellite imagery and it's just a sort of blob of cloud over the western lake, so eventually it should clear up. The humidity was nice and low today, so I felt much better.

Louie got some loving this morning and Grayson got to sit on my lap for a while, but not as long as he wanted. Finally, late in the day, I filled the kibble bowls, and that made them happy. Grayson was sitting over by the bags, just to let me know he thought it was time to fill things up. He is such a snot.

Today my problem has been mostly my scars, which have been tight and pulling, and I've had several incidences of pokes in them that feel like somebody is driving needles into them. That's particularly interesting, because the place that hurt is a place where I don't have any feeling. Anyway, it's been uncomfortable. It's a weird feeling to feel like I'm wearing a tight bra and know I'm not wearing anything. I hope that will eventually go away.

Now it's a cloudy, sort of warm night in the field and I might - just might - get to bed at a semi-reasonable hour. Maybe.

July 21

My tidy little mind (not my house) just loves it when a month starts on a Monday. All months should start on Mondays.

I got to bed about 10;00 last night. The more I think about it, the more I think my problems on Sunday don't have so much to do with when I go to bed on Saturday night - within reason, of course - but with how much sleep I've had for a day or two beforehand. I didn't sleep very well, actually. I had to turn over onto my left side before I could go to sleep at all, I was up three times, and I had a very vivid dream - which I've forgotten - in the middle of the night. I woke up about two minutes before the alarm went off.

I was on track to get out early, but something happened that I don't remember now that slowed me down and showed me I was klutzy today. However, it wasn't long after 9:00, and since we know the song we sang by heart, we didn't have to practice. Getting there was a trip, though. While I didn't run into any campers, there were a bunch of extremely slow drivers all the way down the covered road. After I passed the last one (and Bill and Mary Ann, it turned out) it was clear until I got almost to Kearsarge.

Church was good. The sermon was based on the story of Martha and Mary and "the one thing needful" and it was good. I do like Pastor's preaching.

I had to stop in the restroom before I left, and that was a trip. I almost couldn't get up, so I was there for a long time. I finally made it. I keep forgetting that I have a hard time standing up if my feet - 0r at least my knees - aren't close together. That helped, but it was still a near thing. I had to get gas, but it wasn't as critical as I thought - I only needed just under 21 gallons. It would have been hard to get home and back to Laurium, though.

Getting home was excruciating. It's the second trip in a row where I got behind (way behind) an extremely slow camper that I had to follow all the way down the covered road. Aarrgghh...

When I got home, I sat down in the bathroom with the idea of finishing the first row of the shawl. Well. First, I discovered that at least 6 stitches had dropped off one of the needles, and I'm still not sure I got all of them back on. Then, when I was within 100 stitches (these things are long) of the end, I was trying to find out if I had the right number of stitches, and I looked back...and discovered that I had screwed up the pattern about 100 stitches from the beginning of the row. One of my little rules is that (usually) if there are two screw-ups in the same row, I rip. This meant ripping out most of the row I had knit and most of the cast-on row. I'm just over 100 stitches from the start. Once I did that, I put it away. I'll work on it tomorrow when, maybe, I will be fresher and I can make fewer goofs. On the good side, the yarn, which is alpaca and silk, is just about as soft as cashmere, and it's great to knit with, except that, of course, there is no stretch in it at ail. I'm hoping my cast on row is a bit looser the next time.

When I got to the computer, I put together the bulletin for next Sunday, because the lady who prints it has to print on Tuesday. I've made two changes to it already. Next Sunday is the congregational picnic, so I can stay nome, but I like to make sure there is a nice bulletin.

The weather was cool, at least here. The high temperature was only 68º. and the humidity was over 60% all day. Of course, it was at least 10º warmer in Laurium, and it was good to get back to the cool. There was a light north wind, under 10 mph. There was a high cloud deck over the Keweenaw for most of the day, but there was some sunshine. I spent some time this afternoon looking at the reflection of the harbor in my monitor (oh, no, I couldn't turn around and look at it directly!). There was enough sunshine that there was a lot of glitter on the water surface, and I could tell when a little gust of wind came through because the sparkles would get faster and closer together. I need to spend some time just staring at the water.

The guys were mostly sleepy. Grayson wanted to sleep on me, but he still wants to knead my front and I can't seem to convince him that it hurts when he sticks his claws through my tee. Louie came up after it got dark, and he was not going to give me a choice of whether he sat on me or not. He did sit for a while, until I had to do some typing.

The bugs are still there. I got badly chewed up on Friday, probably when I got home. I keep hoping that the black flies will go away and the mosquitoes will die down, but so far, that hasn't happened, and i have 8 or 10 new bites that are driving me crazy. I think I must have brought at least one mosquito in with me, because I have bites on my legs underneath my compression hose that couldn't have happened while I was wearing them. Ah, the joys of summer!

So now it's late and I'm tired and I finally had something to eat, so I can go to bed. It's a cloudy (I think) coolish night in the field.

July 20

I went to bed late and got up late. I cast on the new shawl (all 623 stitches) and did part of the first row, but it was hurting my shoulder. Then I played games for the rest of the afternoon, so my meals have been rather smashed together. I'm going to be late tonight, too, because it's shower night. Oh, well. I do these things. I can take a nap when I get home.

I got some more bug bites when I was out in the garage yesterday. So far they look like mosquito bites, but we'll see how they develop.

The weather was nondescript. It was partly cloudy to cloudy for most of the day, but now it seems to be clearing up somewhat. The high temperature so far is 75º, and there was a light breeze mostly from the north. The dew point has been about steady around 60º, so the humidity has been mostly tolerable.

The guys slept. Louie slept at my feet while I was knitting - purring at intervals - and Grayson slept on my lap for quite a while when I got to the computer. He jumped up and went away, like he does, but then after I took my walk, he wanted to sit on me again, but he didn't want to sit. He wanted to tromp all over me and wave his gracious tail in my face, so I chased him away. I haven't been able to make him understand I do not like his tail in my face.

So that's all there is. It's a nice summer evening in the field.

July 19

I guess I got to bed around 12:30 and I slept well except for the last couple of hours. I think that was because I knew I would have to get up. I did get up around 8:30, I think, and I took my time. I had to feed the kitties even though I couldn't eat anything myself.

I had plenty of time to do my morning surfing, and I decided it was time to start the system update that MS has been nattering about for a week or so. Then, just about the time I was going to get ready to leave, I discovered that my land line phone was dead - or rather, it was an open line. And I discovered that the number listed in that YP phone directory wasn't right, so I couldn't even call on my cell phone. So I left it.

I felt good today, for some reason. I felt good enough that I didn't even need to use a wheelchair to get around - at least to the doctor's office. We had a nice visit, and I was very gratified. My weight is about the same as last year or maybe a little less, and all my test results are good, except that I need to take a little more thyroid medication. I didn't start for home until around 2:30, though, because there is a new vaccine for shingles, and I wanted to get it if my insurance would pay for it, so I had to wait until they said yes, it does, except that there is a copay. I signed up to get it, but I don't know when I will, because they are rationing it.

I took some cheese and some OJ with me, so I could eat something. While I was waiting to check in at the doctor's office, I started feeling like the floor was moving up and down a bit. I wasn't exactly dizzy, but clearly my hypoglycemia was kicking in. And after wandering around the clinic, to a restroom and the pharmacy and all, I had them push me back to the other side of the hospital, where my car was parked. I always park over near the emergency entrance, because it's closer to the entrance and right where I have to be for my blood draws.

When I got home, I had something to eat, although not very much, because by that time I wasn't hungry anymore. When I went to get my dinner, after ransacking the freezer, I realized that i hadn't ordered my favorite salmon with my last Schwan's order, so I had to have something else. I am going to have to investigate their auto-reorder service.

Oh, and I had to attack the mail order pharmacy, and as usual I was left frustrated and disgusted. I can't change now, because I'm in the middle of things, but I sure am going to change providers for next year. I've had it with those people. They made some changes to their terrible website since the last time I logged in, and if anything, they made it worse.

I still feel pretty good, although I'm tired now. For once in the past few weeks, my knees aren't bothering me. i don't know what brought that on, because the weather wasn't that good, although the humidity is a bit lower today. Maybe I got enough sleep?

The problem with the NWS station was the phone lines. It came back online right about the same time I got a call from the hospital about my thyroid function. I'm sure they're happy about that in Marquette.

The high temperature after the station came back online was 80º, and it was hotter in Laurium. The humidity is under 75%, and it was lower earlier. There was no wind. It was lovely and clear until noon, when a cloud bank rolled in, and the afternoon was dull and gray. The rain, however, stayed down around the Michigan-Wisconsin border, which was nice.

I think the guys slept. They were a bit discombobulated this morning because I did everything backward, but they got some canned food and they liked that. Grayson got to sit on me a bit, but at one point I had to boot him off my lap because I had to do something. I think Louie spent the day at the north end, as usual.

So that turned out to be a successful day. I guess I'm in pretty good shape for all the things wrong with me. Now it's a warm, cloudy night in the field, but it would surprise me if there's any rain.

July 18

Late, of course. It's such an effort to bathe that I tend to try to put it off as long as possible. I got up around 11:30, I think, and I didn't do any crafts. I timed my solitaire, so it didn't get out of hand.

When I got my purse to put it with my bag for the afternoon, I remembered that a church member had given me a note for someone to put in the prayer list, and I didn't want her to think I'd forgotten. So...just as I was trying to do that, we had a power glitch - and the UPS didn't work again - and I was left trying to make the change and get the bulletin sent out as fast as possible while the computer was trying to reboot...arrgghh!! The length of time it takes to do a cold boot is just terrible, and i had in fact made my change, created the email and sent it out before it thought it was ready. Arrgghh...

There was choir and Bible Study tonight, and we went. They both went well, except that our choir director wasn't there - she was called to work. She has a terrible job. The thing I like about this Bible study is that we have been getting out at a reasonable hour, between 8:15 and 8:30, so I got home at a reasonable hour. It was before the sun set, but of course, the sun isn't setting until nearly 9:45. It's nice.

The weather was, um, variable. It was cloudy when I got up and between 12:30 and 1:30 we had a short, heavy rain shower that dumped 0.08" of rain on us. After that, it cleared up a bit, although we had the power glitch took down the weather station. and it hasn't come back up, so I can't report too accurately on the conditions. I think the high temperature here was about 78º, although it was going up and down all day. It was humid, and it was warmer in Laurium. There wasn't much wind.

The guys slept. They both got some loving and Grayson got to sit on me for a while. He was not pleased when I began to pack up to go away, but hey, it's Thursday. He should be used to that.

Now it's a warmish, cloudy night in the field and tomorrow I have to go to my wellness exam. Ugh.

July 17

I wasn't early, but I was a lot earlier than the night before. I slept well and I got my nine hours.

I wanted to start the new shawl today, but all I did was get my roadmap laid out. When I do one of these things, I always make a sheet of paper where I can make marks at the end of every row so I know where I am. It takes some time, but it saves more than it takes. Then I knitted a while on the Z-sock.

The task of the day was the bulletin, and I was concerned, because the information wasn't in my inbox when I went to bed last night, and I'd had enough trouble with my email that I was afraid it had gotten lost. As it turned out, it didn't get sent until this morning, and it was there when I needed it. It's both this week and next week, so I can get next week's out early. That will be the one for the picnic. Every year the congregations have a joint picnic at a local park, with a church service followed by food (of course - we're Lutherans!). I don't go to it, because the combination of uneven ground, sun and bugs is just too much for me.

The weather was nice. The high temperature was 76º and the humidity was quite low. There was a nice breeze from the south. One reason I sat in the bathroom and knitted is that I had the window open and it is so nice to sit and listen to the wind and the lake and smell the wonderful sound of summer here. The smell starts in the late spring, like cinnamon, and it slowly mixes to sweet grass and it's intoxicating. The day started out clear but by noon the clouds were beginning to form in the west and by 4:00 it was dull and gray. I guess there's supposed to be some rain tonight and maybe some more thunder. Well, hey, this is summer. At least we had today.

The guys did their thing. Louie got some love this morning, including a little tummy rub, and Grayson slept on my lap for a while. While I was making dinner, he came bombing through the kitchen. I heard something, but I don't know what it was and I don't know why he ran. I'll check it out when I go up to the north end.

So it was another nice, quiet day, and now it's a cloudy, fairly warm summer night in the field.

July 16

Well, that was stupid, but shortly after 3:00, they started playing Beethoven's 6th, which is one of my all-time favorites, so of course I had to listen to it. It was getting light when I went to bed. I got up around noon, and I didn't feel like doing anything, so I played solitaire all afternoon. Sigh. Tonight will be a bit earlier, but I need to try to stop doing that.

I was so late that I didn't do anything except fill the kibble bowls with all the good stuff Mary Ann and I brought into the house yesterday.

Oh, by the way, I'm sorry about the camera. I never checked it after the second time the system rebooted, and obviously, it hung. It did not rain all day.

The weather was actually rather nice. The high temperature was 75º, briefly around noon, but it was around 70º all day. There was a north wind in the 10-15 mph range. It's still horribly humid. There was a lot of sunshine. It's very warm in the house, and I keep having hot flashes.

When I got up the second time, after I climbed back into bed, there was Grayson curled up on what would have been the other side of the body pillow. I turned over, and he didn't like that so well, so he left with a thump. He did spend some time on my lap, but it's really too warm for that. Louie got some loving, too.

So it was a very quiet, truncated day, and maybe I can get to bed before morning tonight? It's a cloudy, cool night in the field.

July 15

I was late last night and I'm going to be even later tonight, but that seems to be the way I operate. I got up around 11:00 and i knitted on the black sweater. It was too late to begin the new shawl. I'm still not sure I know which one I want to do, but it's beginning to shake out. I will do the one called Diamonds of Eos in the white yarn (that's the one that starts by casting on 623 stitches) and I think I will probably end up doing the dark purple one in a pattern I just got recently - a round one with Shetland patterns. We'll see. I sure won't start anything new tomorrow - er, later today.

I finally had a conversation with the health department, but I'm not sure I made any kind of impression on them. It's possible to deal with some government agencies and it just isn't with others. I also called the clinic and asked why no blood work had been scheduled for my Wellness visit on Friday, but I haven't heard back from then.

I was about to sit in the powder room when Mary Ann arrived, and she removed the smoke alarm in my bedroom. It went off when I took my bath Saturday, and I can't stand that. Of course, when I was frying my little piece of ham this morning, the one in the hallway went off again, but I can apparently prevent that by using the range hood when I fry something in an open pan. I do feel the need to have one working smoke detector, just for safety, and the one in the hallway is right in front of the door to the laundry room, which is a good place for it. I do not know why, all of a sudden, these things are starting to go off, but maybe they deteriorate with age? I know they're useful, but I've had nothing but trouble with them, back until I was living on Champine, and I wish I could just disable them all.

While she was here, we attacked the breezeway, got everything out of all the boxes and she took them off to the recycling! I needed to do that, because I needed to get the dry cat food into the house. The bowls are just about empty and so were the bags. It's so nice to be able to walk around in the breezeway with ease! There is still stuff in the way, because there wasn't any room for some of what we took out of the boxes, but it's so much better.

It was hot, and around 6:00 PM, the thunderstorms moved in, and that was weird. Twice the UPS shut down the computer and started whistling. I take that to mean it doesn't work right anymore, and I thought it meant we'd had a power glitch, but when I went out to the kitchen, everything was fine there. I guess it must have been some kind of power surge, but whatever, the UPS didn't react properly. And the wi-fi was down for an hour or so after the second glitch. We didn't have any lightning very close by, but from the radar, it looked like it was worse down by the airport. I think I need a new UPS, but I can't afford one, so we'll see what happens. There is a device on my house that feeds wi-fi to this end of the harbor, so it needs to be up all the time, so maybe I can convince PastyNet to give me another one.

The high temperature was 84º and it was while we were out in the breezeway. Everything I had on was as wet as if I'd stepped under the shower. I'm sweating a lot this year. There was some sunshine in the middle of the day, but I could watch the clouds move in, and I also got to watch the rain move down the harbor, which is also neat. We had 0.97" of rain between 7:00 PM and 11:00 PM. It did cool down into the upper 60s, thankfully, but it's horribly humid, so it's still very uncomfortable. The wind was all over the place, but it didn't ever get extremely strong. Now it's from the west in the 15-25 mph range.

The guys were mostly sleepy. Grayson apparently realizes I'm not very happy with him, but it was too hot to sit on my lap anyway. And Louie made a fool of himself when Mary Ann came, rubbing his head on her shoes and legs and generally making a nuisance of himself. She has dogs, and the only thing I can figure is that he lived with dogs and loves the smell. Anyway, it was nice to see him come running to somebody who came in. Of course, Grayson had to get his, too, and when she was getting the smoke alarm down, he was sitting on the nightstand watching everything she did.

So by the time Mary Ann left, I was tired and sore and I just sat. i embroidered for a while, and after the talking was over, I started reading, which is why I'm so late. The Trine stories are a series of mostly novella-length things and they're fun. Mostly pretty good writing, too. Then I had to get something to eat - which didn't go so well - and now I have to go to bed. Soon.

It's a cloudy, humid night in the field, but it hasn't rained for a while.

July 14

I managed to get to bed by 9:15 last night, amazingly enough. I slept fairly well, but I was asleep when the alarm went off. I got up, of course, and I kept moving, so I left right about 9:00.

The ride down to Laurium was excruciating, as it frequently is in the summertime. i had to pass one guy at the end of the covered road who was hitting his brakes - not slowing down, just hitting them - on every curve and hill, and then I had to follow (fourth car back) a camper that was going about 35 mph from Mohawk to Laurium. Aarrgghhh...

So I got to church reasonably early, and I discovered that there had indeed been choir on Thursday - Kathleen had gotten confused - but we probably didn't miss much. Church was good. Pastor's sermon gave me some useful insights into the story of the Good Samaritan. We didn't have quite as many people take communion as we anticipated, but it was a lot. I was having a hard time getting up by the end of the service and I had a terrible time getting into the sacristy to clean up.

Then Pastor and I started talking and we were still talking after 1:00. I got a chuckle when the phone rang and it was his wife, asking where he was and inviting me to lunch. Talk about a sneaky way to get me to leave...It's very kind of them to invite me, but I don't think I can get into their house, and besides, I was tired and I needed to get home.

I was so tired that I didn't visit the restroom before i left, so I overflowed a bit. I sat for a little while in the bathroom, trying to play solitaire, and I kept trying to fall asleep, so finally I got up and crawled into bed. I didn't get into a completely deep sleep, because every time I started, I started to snore and woke myself up. My sinuses were draining today. Man, do I snore loudly!

After I got up, I started reading, and here I am, much too late. I finally had something to eat, and now I have to go to bed. Soon.

The weather was nicer than they were forecasting. The high temperature here was 78º twice, with a dip down to 68º between and there was a light southwest wind. It was well over 80º in Laurium when I left. It started out clear this morning and clouded up as the day went on, but so far we haven't had the thunderstorms they were predicting. We could use the rain and I could use a power glitch, so maybe it will happen overnight. The humidity was rather low - under 60%, so I don't know why I hurt so much.

The guys mostly slept. Oh, the guys...when I got to the studio this morning, my salt shaker was on the floor and so, I discovered, was a half-cup jar of peppercorns. The lid on the jar had broken and there were peppercorns all over the place. Still are, actually, even though I got most of it picked up. Have you ever spilled whole pepper on a hard floor? Ugh! Anyway, somebody had been very busy overnight. Neither of those things were very close to the edge of the counter, so he had to do it deliberately. All I can figure is that something I did or didn't do got somebody upset, so he decided to take it out on me. He didn't get any lap time today.

So that was my quiet Sunday and now i really must go to bed. It's a cloudy night in the field and it might rain...or not.

July 13

I turned out the light at about 11:00 for a change, but I didn't sleep as well as I'd hoped. I'm not sure why. I was up four or five times and it took me a while to go back to sleep. A couple of times, I only dozed. I think I got up around 8:00, which should have been enough sleep, but I felt groggy and headachy when i got up.

However, I did my thing, and I got to church before 11:00 - so did Deanna. It took us 45 minutes. I decided we'd better fill three trays - we are having a group tomorrow - and she had to change all the candles. I got home about 1:00, I think.

The other task of the day was to wash a load of underwear and other white things. I finally ran out of underpants. Since I've been having fewer accidents lately, I haven't been washing small loads as much, so the panties finally gave out. It's in the washer and I will put it in the dryer when I go up to the north end. If I close the door to the laundry, the noise doesn't keep me awake.

The weather turned out quite nice. The highest temperature so far reported is 71º. They only report the actual high (which may be other than the hourly readings) every six hours, and I'm not going to wait two hours to see if it got warmer. There was a nice north breeze, in the 15 mph range with gusts up to 25 mph. The day started out very cloudy, but by the time I started for Laurium it was clearing up and by the time I got home it was quite clear. The humidity got low for a while - the dew point has been between 50º and 55º all day - so the relative humidity has gone up and down with the temperature. Anyway, it was a nice day.

The guys were sleepy, and they both slept on me. Grayson got to sit twice, and Louie came and turned over so I could rub his tummy. The second time Grayson came, I got after him with the comb, and I got an amazing amount of fur out of his back and one side. I will have to remember to work on the other side the next time he sits with it up.

So that was my day, and even though it's early, I'm going up to the north end and try to get to bed at a reasonable hour and get enough sleep for tomorrow. It's a clear, warm, breezy night in the field.

July 12

Well, mostly due to Debbie and our long conversation, I was much later getting to bed than I wanted to be, and I didn't get up until after 11:00. At least I got my 9 hours. I knitted on the black sweater - I was too late to start casting on 623 stitches (I reread the directions, not that 30 stitches matter much).

I was so late that I didn't eat until after the post office was closed, so Debbie's elbow warmer didn't get sent. I was so late that I didn't do anything. The underwear situation is getting dire, but I didn't have time to do that today.

I am going to bed at a semi-reasonable hour tonight, because I have to be at church at 11:00 tomorrow morning

The weather turned out nice. There was a very little bit of rain between 9:00 and 11:00 this morning, but then it began to clear up and the afternoon was nice. The temperature evidently got up to 79º briefly (no wonder I was hot!) and the humidity was in the low 60% range. Now that it's getting dark, the gibbous moon is shining brightly in the south windows. It was breezy this morning, but now the wind is very light, but not quite calm.

The guys slept. Grayson got some lap time and Louie got some loving this morning. They were both startled when the Schwan's guy came, but Louie actually stuck his head out of the cat hole in the basement door to look at him. I don't think he will ever be as gregarious as Grayson is, but I keep seeing little signs that he is getting not quite as timid as he used to be.

So it was a very quiet day and now I'm going to bed. It's a warm, sort of clear evening in the field.

July 11

Oops. I just got off a looong conversation with Debbie, and I almost forgot I have to write. I was going to go to bed early tonight. Hah.

I was late last night, of course, but I got my bath. It was a little harder than the last time, but I still think I'm making progress. I got up late and I knitted on the black sweater. Tonight I'm taking some lace yarn and patterns with me, and I'll decide what pattern to do tomorrow.

I was still at the north end when Mary Ann called, and she mentioned that she had gotten an email from our choir director saying there was no choir tonight. Oh? I guess I remember hearing that, but it was sort of vague. I'm glad we didn't find out about it after we got there.

I had to ask for her help, though. Right after I got up, a smoke alarm started beeping. I thought it was the one in my bedroom, but at any rate, I was going to have to get help to get a new battery into it. She came later in the afternoon, got the ladder and we changed the battery I thought was dead...and something kept beeping. Oh, groan. I was very glad I bought two batteries a couple of weeks ago. It turns out that it was the one that was beeping after the power failure, and all I can figure is that it was an old battery. It was so nice of her to do that! Those things are so noisy, and when they are signaling dead battery, they chirp at random intervals, which would have driven me batty at night.

She also brought me my mail, so technically I don't have to go to the post office tomorrow. I will because I want to send Debbie's thing to her, and I have a bill to pay.

The weather was cool but nice. It's the first time in quite a while when it was clear and blue all day and clear tonight. The high temperature apparently got up to 70º, briefly late in the day, but for most of the time it was in the low 60s. The wind was mostly from the north in the 10-15 mph range. It wasn't very humid, either. Very nice. While I was talking to Debbie, in the dark, I saw some light and when I looked out, there was the half (well, a tad more than half) moon shining in the window and what I think is Jupiter off to its east, very bright and pretty. So there may be some other stars tonight.

The guys were happy to see Mary Ann. Grayson is happy to see anybody, and Louie likes her because she smells like dog. So I can't go away, but they wish other people would come here. Huh. Otherwise, Grayson wanted to sit on me. Louie may have had that idea, but he didn't get a chance.

So it was a quiet day except for all the beeping. The ovens were beeping again. Now it's a clear, cool night in the field and I'm going to bed now.

July 10

So late again. I didn't sleep as well as I might have, and I think it was probably because it was warm at the north end. I got up around 9:30 and I finished the elbow warmer. Woo-hoo!! I think it came out all right. I will try to get it packed up and off to Debbie on Friday.

I want to start a shawl - it's been too long since I've knit lace - but the one I want to make starts out "cast on 651 stitches" and I'm a bit intimidated by that. One reason I want to make it, though, is that it starts at the bottom and decreased to nothing at the top and I haven't made one like that in a long time. The only one i made was the brown one, and that was a bit different. Probably not tomorrow, though. I still have the Z-socks and the black sweater that I can knit on. I'd like to finish the socks, too.

The task of the day was the bulletin, and while I was a bit late, I got it out. it wasn't a big deal, except to pull together all the emails I'd gotten. I did discover that a sentence about modifying the prayer list had somehow gotten dropped over a month ago and I never noticed until today. It's back in now.

The weather was clearer than it's been in quite a while, and it was a nice change...until it wasn't. It started out smoky, according to the picture archive, but around 9:30 it cleared up nicely and it was partly cloudy with a lot of sunshine until around 3:30. i thought it was because the wind shifted north and picked up, but that doesn't seem to be the reason. Anyway, it clouded up after 3:30 and for the next three hours or so it was foggy. Now the fog has gone away, I think. It's hard to tell in the dark. The temperature topped out at 75º, but that was before noon, and it's been around 60º, plus or minus 5º or so, ever since. The wind has been from the north, but it's varied from calm to 25 mph gusts. The humidity has been over 80% all day, which hasn't been very comfortable.

The guys slept, of course. Grayson came to sit on me at least three times, but not for very long. I haven't seen Louie since breakfast.

I tried not taking any Tylenol this morning, and with the exception of a couple of twinges, it seems to have worked, so thankfully, I'm finally getting over my sore joints. We'll see how it is when I take my bath tonight. I can't move my shoulder very much, but it's a little better. The problem today, with the humidity, was that I can't walk. If it's not one thing...

So it was another nice, quiet day. Now it's a cool, probably cloudy night in the field.

July 9

I was a bit later getting to bed, and I didn't sleep so well. Unfortunately, I was upset by some things that are going on around me. I got up around 10:00 and I knitted on the elbow warmer. I don't think I'll finish it tomorrow, but I should be done by Thursday. Cotton yarn is never easy to knit with, but this is nice and soft and I think the thing is coming out all right.

One of the things that was bedeviling me is the fridge. I think I mentioned that I have a leak in the freezer, apparently from the ice maker. There is a thick slab of ice in the bottom of the freezer (it's a side-by-side) and I can't pull out the basket that is at the bottom. Well, yesterday I discovered that it apparently wasn't making ice. Oh, no... So I stirred things up and poked at the ice part of it and went to bed, wondering if I was looking at a very expensive emergency repair. Well, the good news is, it's making ice. I don't know what the problem was yesterday, but that does happen every so often. Usually it's because of ice buildup in one corner of the mechanism, which didn't seem to be the problem, but this has happened before. Anyway, I have ice, and I don't have to put in a panic call to Mary Ann for help in getting the kitchen in shape...at least not yet. I hate it when these things happen that put me into a panic and then turn out not to be a problem at all. I have enough real problems.

The car is another one.

I didn't do anything much, but while the talking was going on, I finally - finally!! - sat down with my cross stitch and embroidered for about three hours. Oh, it felt so good! This is an unusual pattern in that it is all one color except for, I think, one stitch way at the bottom. The reason it isn't terminally boring is that the patterns are extremely intricate and figuring out how to stitch them is a challenge. I hope I can continue to work on it. It's a huge thing on very fine linen, so it will take a very long time to do, but so far it's held my interest.

It was a warm day in the field, but not, thankfully, as warm as it was at the airport. The high temperature was 82º, and the only thing that made it at all tolerable was the nice south breeze, in the 10 to 15 mph range. It is still very smoky, but there was a bit of sunshine for a change, early in the day before the smoke got thick. I think part of the reason it got so smoky is that it's apparently raining up in Manitoba, which is putting out the fires but making more smoke. The humidity was quite tolerable, at least until lately. The forecast is for thunderstorms for the next 24 or 36 hours. We need the rain, but I could do without the noise...and the possible power outages.

Actually, I would like a power outage. My ovens have been beeping at me again, and yesterday when I tried to see if they still worked, none of the controls worked. That was another thing that depressed me. This is a problem I've had for quite a few years, and according to the manual, the first thing to do is turn off the power to the ovens. Well... No way can I reach the plug, which is behind them, and with my problems, no way can i just run downstairs and trip the circuit breaker. In the past, a nice power failure has reset things. I know it's a short circuit someplace in the control, having to do with the humidity, but those oven controls are very expensive. I hardly ever use the big ovens, so what has caused the problem is beyond me. When I went to get my dinner, they had stopped beeping, but I didn't test them to see if they work now. If they don't, it's something else on the list of things that nave to be fixed...some things just don't fit in the countertop oven. Sigh.

The guys didn't do anything interesting. Grayson slept on my lap for a long time, but I think it finally got too hot for him. I haven't seen Louie since this morning, but he would probably sleep on the tile in the bathroom, where it's a bit cooler.

So it was another quiet day and now it's a warm, cloudy night in the field and we may get a nice thunderstorm before morning...or not.

July 8

I was in bed by midnight last night. It will be a bit later tonight. I slept well, except for a while early in the morning because there was a mosquito. I think I dispatched it after I got up, but we'll see tonight. It, or it's fellows, did me some damage, though, and I have several new bites on my arms. Everybody agrees that this is an incredibly buggy summer. Well, it's not paradise yet...

It was a quiet day and I didn't do much. I did the elbow bump on Debbie's elbow warmer and few more rows. I paid the rest of my monthly bills, so I am now poor again. How I'm going to pay those taxes, I do not know. Well..."The Lord has helped me hitherto with his surpassing favor..."

Debbie called just about the time I was planning to get my dinner, but we didn't talk for too long. She is fine and both her sons graduated college this spring and have gotten good jobs, but one of them has moved out of town, which she doesn't like. When I told her about the bugs, she was just as glad she didn't come for the Fourth.

The weather was a bit warmer than lately, which was nice. It's still very smoky, but we have a southwest wind now, and maybe that will blow some of it away. If not, there's rain in the forecast for Wednesday, and that will help, too. The temperature got to 77º between 3:00 and 4:00 PM - no wonder it felt so good - and the humidity got under 50% for a change. It's cooler and more humid now, though, with that breeze. There was a little sunshine peering through the haze, but mostly it was dull and white, like it's been for over a week. One time when I woke up, I saw a hazy crescent moon in the west.

I saw both of the guys. Grayson got to sit on me for a while, and here comes Louie. They are happy campers as long as I'm home and not rustling around too much.

So m I. It's a nice, comfortable existance.

Now it's a coolish (61º) smoky night in the field. I wonder if I'll get to see the moon tonight?

July 7

I was rather surprised last night that i was able to take a more normal bath with only a little pain. There is still a place on the back of my head that I can't reach and I can't get all the way under my right arm, but it wasn't nearly as hard as it was on Wednesday. I think the humidity had something to do with it. I'm hoping.

I turned out the light at 9:45 and I slept fairly well, with the usual wakeups. Then I woke up at 5:30. Oh, that makes me mad when it happens! I can't go back to sleep when I have to pee, and it's hardly worthwhile to get back in bed for only 15 minutes or so of bed time (I wouldn't get back to sleep) so I got up.

That should have meant I had plenty of time, but I diddled around and besides, there were a lot of very slow drivers on the road this morning. I keep forgetting what it's like in the summertime...

So I missed most of the practice, but it didn't matter much because we did a good enough job on our song that Kathleen gave us a thumbs- up. It was nice. The whole service was nice. Pastor chose some of our favorite hymns and there are a lot of summer people here now.

Oh, and the ladies who are supposed to be on Altar Duty next week are going to be out of town, and Deanna is going to be out the next week, which is when we're scheduled, so we switched. That's fine with me - I'm not going anyplace. It's also nice because those ladies don't greet, so we won't have to do that this time. Not that I mind it, except that it means standing for half an hour or more and that's hard for me.

So that all came out well, except that I was so tired after the service that I almost couldn't get off the toilet, even with Stuart's new grab bar. Ugh.

It was ugh, because I had to do some shopping. When I shopped last week, I thought I had two jugs of OJ, but when I looked, I only had one, and I would be running out sometime this week. There were a couple of other things I wanted to get - turned out to be more than I thought, as usual. So I went off to Pat's and did a lot of damage, but now I should be good until the first of August. I try to plan ahead as much as I can, and this month, the church picnic is on the 28th, and I don't go to that, so I won't be going down that weekend.

Then I got gas, and it was around 2:30, I think, when i got home. It was a slow drive, because I got behind someone who was on a nice, quiet Sunday afternoon drive and didn't want to go more than 35 mph on the covered road... There were three cars in front of me and they were all just as frustrated as I was.

I was totally exhausted when I finally got the car unloaded, but I've gotten most of the stuff into the house, except for the OJ and the bananas (I had a strong yen for a banana last week). I went up to the north end and just sat for several hours, as it turned out.

These days, I can't sit for too long, because if I do, my hip gets so sore I have to move. While those raised seats make it easier (not easy) to get off of, they put my hips at an odd angle that makes the right one extremely sore if I sit too long. For one who, for most of her life, has spent an extremely long time sitting in the bathroom, this is difficult and I still haven't come to terms with it.

The weather was blah again, but most of the blah was because of the smoke, which was just as heavy as it was yesterday, and that made it dull and gray all day. I just discovered that the camera hung up, but I don't know quite when, because all the pictures look the same. The high temperature was only 61º and that was between 10:00 and 11:00 this morning. It was in the upper 50s for most of the day and it was very humid - over 80%. The only good thing about that is that it sort of lays the bugs. I brought one mosquito in with me - I finally got it, I think - and I don't think I got any new bites. There was almost no wind. The wind is supposed to be from the south tomorrow, and although it will be light, I'm hoping it will clear things up. One problem with the smoke is that the fires are northwest of us, in Manitoba, and of course, the jet stream blows right from that direction. It was really thick today. So sad.

The guys were difficult today. They both wanted to sit on me and they both wanted to poke holes in me, so we had a difference of opinion and they finally had to go away. Louie's claws are much bigger than Grayson's and they're nearly as sharp, which hurts. And Grayson wants to knead my front when he sits on me, and that hurts, too. Ouch.

So that was another day. Now it's a cool, smoky night in the field.

July 6

I forgot to mention yesterday that I encountered that deer that hangs around our road, close to US-41 on my way home from the post office. Or maybe it wasn't the same deer, because this one was rather large, and some of the ones I've seen are smaller, or I think they are.

I was late, of course, but I think I got to bed around 1:30 or 2:00. I slept well, except for a while between 6:00 and 8:30, and then I went back to sleep and didn't get up until 10:30. For once, I felt like I had enough sleep, and it was nice.

I forgot to take the phone with me, so I got right at the elbow warmer, and I've done the top half. I tried to start the elbow bump, but I screwed it up and had to rip it out, so I decided to wait for another day to do it over. I think it's coming out pretty good. It's very hard to get a consistent tension with cotton yarn, but it seems to look mostly all right.

That was all I did. I felt better today, but not that good.

I spent some time looking out at the nice crop of lupines I have growing on the north side of the house these days. It's curious, because while I think I probably did sow some there, that was in 2001 or 2002, and only in the past two or three years have there been any plants and flowers. I've heard that it's hard to get lupines started, but 15 years? Anyway, it's so nice to see them. Once they get started, I think they are tough, so I expect they'll always be there, the tansy notwithstanding. Not only do I love the beautiful blue flowers, I love their leaves. That's all that's left of the 5 lb of wildflower seeds I sowed back at the beginning, but at least I have them. Well...there used to be some Sweet William, too, but I haven't seen any of that this year.

The weather was blah again. It was mostly cloudy, or it looked like clouds, but in fact it was smoke from some large fires up in Manitoba, on the east side of Lake Winnipeg. The GOES imagery, which I get from the NWS site, shows clearly a swath of smoke right over us. You know, this never used to happen. The high temperature, at least so far, was (or is) 62º, and there has been almost no wind.

The guys slept. They both got some loving - which they wanted - and Grayson got to sit on me for a while. I think they like it when it's cooler, just like I do.

So that's all I have to report. It's a dull, gray, but not very warm, evening in the field and i have to shower. Oh, dear.

July 5

I didn't eat dinner until after the fireworks were over, so of course I was late. i slept well until around 8:00, but after that, my shoulder was so sore I was twitchy. I think I got up around 9:30. I knitted on the elbow warmer, but my shoulder was so sore it was hard.

I was enough back on schedule that I got to go to the post office, where there were a whole lot of bills, including my summer taxes. Shudder. Taxes never go down.

The weather was miserable, frankly. The temperature only got to 66º, but the humidity was over 85% all day, and since it was hot in the house, it meant I was sweating a lot. I am right now. It was mostly cloudy and there was a wind from the north in the 10-15 mph range, and i opened the bathroom window when I was up there, which should help, but I'm very uncomfortable. When I'm sweating, I'm as wet as if I'd just stepped out of the shower and when I'm not sweating, I'm all sticky and icky. I wish it was easier to take a shower, because I would love to, but it's just so hard...

When I finally got to bed, it was extremely foggy, which made for some really interesting effects with the lighthouse light, but there wasn't any fog today.

I didn't see much of the cats. Louie got some petting this morning and Grayson was around, but he found out yesterday that it's too hot to sit on my lap.

So that was another nice, quiet day, and now it's a coolish, cloudy, humid night in the field.

July 4 - Independence Day

Of course I was ridiculously late again. It's so hard and so painful to take a shower that I just try to postpone it as long as possible. I didn't get up until noon and I knitted 16 rows on Debbie's elbow warmer. It seems to be going fairly well, but we'll see as it gets longer. I'm having less trouble with the cotton yarn than I anticipated. It doesn't stretch, but this one is smooth enough that it doesn't adhere to itself very much and it slides back and forth enough that I can knit fairly easily. I think it will turn out all right. i only hope she likes it.

I was so late that I didn't do anything else.

The fireworks were lovely, what I saw of them. I diddled around too long and then I had to visit the bathroom, so I wasn't watching when they started - a couple of minutes early. Then I got all tangled up in my underpants and my sandals and I got very frustrated. Eventually I was able to get into the bedroom in time to see most of it. The only thing was, there was a wisp of fog across the harbor, and when they started setting off the grand finale, there was so much smoke that I couldn't see a lot of what was going on behind it. It was fun anyway.

The weather forecasters got it all wrong. The high temperature got up to 84º sometime between 2:00 and 4:00 PM - much warmer than they said it would - then it dropped off until at 9:00 it was 60º. It was extremely humid - over 80% after the temperature dropped - and there was no wind, which is why all that smoke is hanging over the harbor. The day started out clear, but by 3:00, it had clouded up. There were some strong thunderstorms south of us, but it didn't even rain here, I think.

I think the guys slept. Grayson did sleep on me for a while, but I think it was too warm for him, because he jumped up and went away. I didn't see Louie until after the fireworks were over. I don't think they hid or anything. There weren't any down at this end of the harbor - my neighbors have settled down a lot in the past few years - and the others were far enough away that they weren't bothersome. I'm sure they wondered why I was sitting on the other side of the bed facing the windows, but I do a lot of weird things.

So that was my day and now I've eaten and I'm tired. it's a warmish, cloudy, humid night in the field.

July 3

I was ridiculously late getting to bed, as I knew i would be. I went right to sleep and I slept for about 4 hours, but then I had a hard time getting back to sleep. I think I got up around 11:30.

I started Debbie's elbow warmer, although I cast it on five times before I got it right, so I only knitted 4 rows. It will go fast, and I'm doing the pattern as I go. I don't want it to be just a long tube, because there's an elbow in the way there, so it will have a crook in it. We'll see how it comes out. The yarn is cotton and linen, which means it's very hard to knit, since the yarn doesn't stretch at all, or if it does, it doesn't spring back. We'll see how it comes out. At least the color is nice.

Otherwise, I was so late that I didn't do anything. I was eating my first meal when the talking came on, and I just finished dinner. Tonight I have to wash my hair - and me - so I'll probably be late again. I will have to start clawing myself back onto a reasonable schedule, but not so much until after tomorrow. There's those fireworks...

The weather was just about the same as it has been lately. The high temperature was 70º, but that was overnight, and it only got to 69º during the day. It was yo-yoing all day. There wasn't much wind until lately. It was very humid, although we didn't have any fog today. It started out clear and lovely, but some clouds moved in during the day and I'm not sure it will clear up tonight.

The guys sort of left me alone after I gave them some canned food. Grayson didn't even come to sit on me, and I didn't see Louie at all after that. I guess maybe they've decided things are back to normal again so they don't have to cling to me. Grayson did come when I had my dinner, but he wasn't interested in the juice from my fish and he went away when I finished.

So that was all there was and now it's a coolish, probably cloudy night in the field.

July 2

Well, I completely lost track of time - the music was very nice - so I'm going to be very late tonight.

I wasn't early last night, either, mostly, I think, because I was too tired to move. Then when I finally got to bed, I was so cold - I think that happened last Monday night, too - that it took me a while and a walk to the bathroom before I got to sleep. Once I did, though, I slept well, and this time, I read the clock right. I think it was around 10:30 when I finally got up.

i finally - finally!! - got to knit, and I finished the red socks!! Now it's too warm to wear them, because they're wool. But I will have a lovely new pair of socks to wear next fall when it gets cold. The way I finally made them, I had quite a lot of yarn left over, but I wasn't going to fiddle, since I essentially had to knit them twice.

Oh, and I itch. By the time I got in from the garage last night, I had managed to acquire more than a dozen (14, I think) extremely itchy bug bites. Since they're so new, I can't tell which are mosquitoes and which are black flies, but it doesn't matter much anymore. They will itch for two to three days and then I can go out and get some more. I think it happened partly because the garage door didn't go down again when I left, so all the bugs in the neighborhood flew in before I got home.

There was a mosquito in the bathroom, too, and one in the studio, although they might be the same. I finally managed to bag the one in the studio, and I'll be interested to see if there is still one in the bathroom. Fortunately, they move slow enough that sometimes I can squish them. I think I bring them in in my hair.

The task of the day was to get the bulletin put together, and I managed that by 2:00 PM, and my editor accepted it, so I guess I did a decent job. '

Then after the talking, I started listening to the nice music, reading and playing games, and I completely lost track of time. I love to do that, but I wish it was for a better reason. Now I've finally had something to eat, so as soon as I finish this, I can go to bed, but it's late...and they're playing Sibelius...

The weather was, um, early-summer-like. The fog moved in about 10:30 and didn't leave until after 4:45. The high temperature was 71º, but that was early this morning, and it was in the low 60s for the rest of the day. There was no wind, and of course the humidity was over 80% all day. Above the fog, it was clear. It was clear overnight, too, but I didn't get to see much of it.

Oh, I forgot. I watched the eclipse. The La Silla Observatory in Chile was streaming it live, and this year I have a browser that can handle it, so I got to watch. I wouldn't say they did the best job with their choice of camera shots, but I did get to see the corona and a landscape with that black dot in the sky. And it was fun to hear everybody cheering when totality started. Like it makes any difference, but I'm sure if I'd been there I would have cheered, too. Such a simple thing is so awe-inspiring.

The guys slept, I guess. Grayson got some lap time, but Louie came around when I was doing something else, so he didn't. He walked in front of the screen and over to the open window, kicking things around as he went. He is not the most graceful cat I've ever known. Grayson is, but he will kick something aside just to annoy me. They are so funny.

So that was my day. It's nice to get back to something like normal again. After five consecutive days of having to go to Calumet/Laurium, it was nice for all of us for me to be home all day.

Now it's a cool, clear night in the field and I really need to go to bed! But there's that Sibelius...

July 1

I was a bit later than I intended last night, and I was so tired that I slept well. I woke up at what I thought was 11:30, but when I got into the bathroom, it was only 9:30! I must check the bedroom clock tonight to see if some little feet have been walking on the buttons. It was probably just that I was having a hard time seeing.

That gave me a little more time to do some things, although I didn't knit because I hoped that the information for the funeral had come through overnight and I wanted to get that out as soon as I could. It wasn't a bad job, but Pastor said he would print it and i didn't think he needed to worry about that, so I both emailed and called him to say that I would print it.

To do that, I left a bit earlier than I originally intended, but Mary Ann wasn't going, so it worked out. I'm so used to my slow printer that having a regular office copier available is a real joy. It didn't take any time at all to print 20 copies, even though I started out on the wrong side. Then I had to cut the sheets in half. Even though I'm old and I have a paper cutter of my own, I am terrified of those things, and I always have been, from the time I was a little kid. That huge, heavy sharp knife really intimidates me.

Choir was good, and I think we'll be able to sing our song on Sunday, although we'll practice before church. We sang a bunch of other stuff, of course, but I was home by 9:00.

Then I heated up the cast iron skillet and started pan frying my lamb chop - and the smoke alarm in the hallway went off! Sheesh! That's never happened before! I turned on the range hood, which I should have done anyway, but I couldn't do anything to stop the alarm. Thankfully, it finally stopped on its own, but it sure shook up the troops. And my chop wasn't badly overcooked. I must remember to turn on the hood when I start heating the skillet after this. I guess there was more grease in the pan than I thought. Oh, the chop was pretty good.

The weather was cloudy and dull all day, although it began to clear around the time I got home. The high temperature was 73º, but that was between 5:00 and 6:00 AM, and it cooled off into the 60s after that. There was very little wind. Sort of blah.

The guys are not happy, particularly after I went away for the fifth day in a row, and then when I got home, that awful noise started! Grayson got a lot of lap time, but he just wanted to sit on me all day. Louie just wanted love, and he is still going after Grayson.

So I got a bunch more insect bites tonight, and I itch. Now I can hibernate for the rest of the week. That will make all of us happier. It's a coolish, clear (I think) night in the field. And it's July. Sigh.

Last updated 08/01/19 10:22 PM