j1911

A View From the Field

November, 2019

November 30

Goodbye, November.

I inverted last night, so everything was upside down today and I didn't do anything. Until...

I have been reading and I finally got to Trine 14, which is the story I've been working on. You remember a couple of weeks ago, I said I was up all night writing and I wrote almost 5900 words? Well...I finally got down to the end of the file, and those 5900 words are totally missing. I mean, totally. They aren't on my backups, they don't seem to be on the hard drive...nowhere. They might even be on the hard drive, but Word won't open the file type it says it is, and when I try to change the file type, then it says the format is incompatible. I am, to say the least, frustrated.

I'd decided I don't like the weather forecast enough to try to go to church tomorrow - and besides, I feel lousy - and it's a good thing, because it's already later than I should be in bed if I'm going.

The weather today was nondescript. The temperature was just about steady at 30º, and this afternoon there has been a southeast wind with gusts up to 24 mph. Evidently, there is some disagreement if that storm that's down to the southwest will or won't get here, and if it does, it might hit the airport and miss us. At least, that's what the NWS thinks. I don't plan to go out when they say there's a 90% chance of snow in Calumet. On the other hand, the Weather Underground doesn't think it's going to snow at all in either location. Time will tell, but I'll be here looking at the computer.

The guys were just as glad to sleep. Grayson slept on me for a long time, which meant I couldn't do anything but read or play games. I think Louie spent the day under the bed again.

So that was my day. It was fine until I discovered the problem with the file, and now I'm frustrated. I don't remember what I wrote, although, fortunately, I do remember some of what happened. I seem to remember having a hard time with the transition from one scene to the next, so I'll have to figure that out again. Grr...

It's a dark, cold, breezy night in the field. Grr...

November 29

As you could tell from the end of last night's entry, I was late again, and it was even later when I finally got to bed. I got up around 10:30, I think, and I knitted two rows. I'm down to the last few rows of the first repeat. This try at the pattern is coming out much better than the last one. I think it's mostly the smaller needles, but it's so much easier to knit every row that the whole thing looks better. I hate to admit I gave up on something that was too hard for me, but it wasn't coming out right - and I got into a mess - and it just wasn't worth it. I like this pattern, but if I'm going to do something so difficult, I have to like a whole lot better, like the borders on my Shetland square shawls.

I didn't do much else. The Schwan's guy called me before I even ate my breakfast, so now the freezer is packed again, with all kinds of good things. The bag was so heavy I could hardly haul it into the house, though. I'm going to have to ask him to put it in two bags for the winter when I have to carry it from the car.

The road wasn't in bad shape. We didn't get a lot of snow and it's been warm enough that it was more sloppy than anything, but of course, the hill is icy. I can see why the Schwan's guy doesn't want to attempt it during the winter.

The weather was nondescript. It was cloudy and dull. The temperature was 34º for most of the day and there was hardly any wind. We had a snow shower right about the time I was out getting my food, but it didn't last very long.

The guys slept. Grayson was frustrated, but he finally got to sleep on me while the talking was going on. Then Louie yelled from the great room and he had to go see what that was all about. I was glad - I wanted to embroider. Louie has found a new place to sleep - under the bed, with one leg hanging out. I imagine it's warmer under there. It looks funny when all I can see is his one hind leg.

I did get some embroidery done while the talking was finishing, and I've finally finished the top half of the sampler! I don't know when I started it, and I can't remember when I restarted it, but it was a while ago. The bottom half is a bit more interesting - there's backstitch and counted satin stitch and even a few stitches in a pretty rose-red. I have everything set up, but I don't know if I'll get to start it tomorrow.

So it was a quiet day as usual and now it's a cold, dark night in the field.

November 28 - Thanksgiving Day

I hope everybody had a nice Thanksgiving Day, doing what you like best. I guess I did.

However, something nasty seems to have happened in Houghton and I'm not sure I'll be able to post this. We'll see.

I was late getting to bed, of course, but I'm clean, so it was worth the wait. I slept well and when I got up I knitted two rows.

That made me late enough that i started my dinner later than I wanted to, but it turned out that was all right. It turned out that my little turkey breast (2½ lb) cooked in the slow cooker in under two hours, so I had to take it out to cook the veggies. That took less than two hours, too, so now I know I an put the whole thing together at once and have dinner in about the same time as it would have taken in the oven. Since my device is actually mostly a rice cooker, it doesn't have a true "low" setting, but that's OK too - I don't see leaving something in the cooker for eight hours or more anyway.

And boy, was it good! I haven't had that recipe in a good long time - boneless turkey breasts are hard to find around here - and I modified it a bit. The recipe called for half a cup of butter, which I didn't think was necessary, so I cut up the garlic in pieces and I didn't use the herbs, since the Schwan's roast was already seasoned. I added the baby potatoes I got, and they were good, too, although I discovered that red and purple potatoes don't cook at the same rate as Yukon Golds. Anyway, I had a very nice Thanksgiving dinner - so nice that I think I may do it again for Christmas or New Year's. I love turkey, and I need to eat more of it.

Anyway, just as I was thinking about writing this, the radio went away, and when I tried to open the page, my internet connection was gone, too, so I suspect there may have been a power failure between Houghton and Calumet, since that's where all my signals come from. So this may not get posted until tomorrow.

The power here evidently didn't come up until sometime between noon and 1:00 PM, and that was weird, too. Of course, at the north end I can't tell if I'm on generator power or not, so I didn't know until I got to the kitchen. Then when I got to the studio, the PC was powered down. Huh? That doesn't happen. All I can figure is that the power didn't come up cleanly, because when I powered up, it started fine, although it did take a very long time to come back. The gremlins are running wild in the computer room again...And they lost all the changes I made to Trine 13 last night. I've been reading and editing again. I guess I'm going to have to train myself to save before I leave, at least as long as we're having power problems.

The weather was nondescript. It was cloudy all day and the wind has died down. The temperature was around 30º. plus or minus, although since I don't have an internet connection, I can't say for sure.

The guys slept. I had to go out into the breezeway several times this afternoon to get stuff or take stuff out, and Grayson was very interested, but I managed to chase him away. While Ignore him when he does go out, I'm afraid I'll forget he's out there, and it's cold out there. I've done that before. I think Louie spent the whole day in the bathroom.

So that was it. Now it's a cold, dark night in the field and I might - just might - get to bed at a semi-reasonable hour tonight. We'll see about that.

It was a massive power failure and they finally got it fixed around 2:00 AM.

November 27

I was really late again last night, and I didn't get a whole lot of sleep, so I'm tired now. I don't know quite why, but after I was up for the second time, I was uncomfortable and I couldn't get back to sleep, so I got up and knitted.

We had a power glitch while I was knitting, and then, sometime between 11:00 and noon, the power went down. I think it's still down (at 10:00 PM). That has been a problem. Since the wind is from the east or southeast, it's cold in here, although it's warm at the north end, and when I turned on the space heater, every so often the generator would start having a problem, so I haven't used it much. It was a problem while I was making my dinner, too, and in fact, there was a power glitch then, when I guess the generator took a gulp before it settled down. The rice cooker was on warm, I had something in the counter-top oven and I guess something else must have come on. I only think it's still running, because it's purring along quite quietly and my sick computer speaker is humming so loudly I can't hear much else except the radio - and all that noise keeps me from hearing the generator. Thank heaven I have it, though! I have no clue what I would have eaten if I didn't. Oh, yes, and besides the loud ground hum in the speaker, the big ovens are beeping again. They just stopped yesterday morning, after the last power glitch we had. Sheesh.

While the talking was going on, I embroidered, and that was frustrating. I discovered that the motif I thought I was over half done with was screwed up royally and I had to rip the whole thing out and do it over. Fortunately, it's not very big, so I did it, one even smaller one, and I started the top of the last motif in the upper half of the sampler. I have some of the border to do before I can start the lower half, but I'm making good progress, even though it sometimes seems I'm unstitching more than I stitch.

I can't talk too much about the weather in detail, because the weather station doesn't have power. It snowed and blew all day, although there wasn't as much snow as they were predicting. The hour before the power went down, the wind was from the east at 30 mph with gusts of 48 mph, and I don't think it's died down very much. From the amount of stuff on the windows, I think the temperature has been right around freezing all day.

The guys slept, I think. Grayson got to sleep on me for a while, but not as long as he wanted, and twice Louie came by and hollered at me, why I don't know. It was sort of noisy outside and maybe that was his problem.

So that was another very quiet day, although there was more activity than lately, and now it's a dark, cold, snowy, windy night in the field. I hope tomorrow will be better.

November 26

I was a little earlier last night, so I got up at a more reasonable time this morning and I got to knit a couple of rows on the shawl, but I was having a hard time seeing, so it was difficult. I have a condition that causes dry eyes, and when I've been asleep for a long time, the tears start to get like jelly and they smear all over my corneas and things get hazy. It happens during the day, too - it's happening now, because I've been reading for quite a while. I try to work around it as much as I can, but when I can see very clearly it always shocks me a little.

I didn't do much of anything else. I did my surfing and while the talking was ending, I embroidered for a while, but I didn't finish the little motif I've been working on.

The weather was sort of a preliminary to tonight and tomorrow. We had several snow showers, but nothing too serious and it was warm enough that most of what came down had melted by sunset. The high temperature was 36º. The wind has been from the east or southeast and it began to rise around 4:00 PM. Now it's gusting up to 35 mph. The snow is down around Ontonagon, but it's on its way. The forecast is an interesting one. Down by the airport, they are just under a Winter Storm Warning, but Keweenaw County is under a Blizzard Warning, so we're the ones who are going to get hammered this time. Oh, it's snowing at the airport now, but lightly. Well, it's a good night to hunker down. I think blizzards are fun, as long as I don't have to try to travel in them (which I've done in the past).

The guys did hunker down and they slept, as usual. I had left a set of sweats on the floor in the closet (if i leave them on the floor, when I put them on, they're all nice and warm) and when I went in after breakfast, there was Louie all curled up on them. I guess they smell like me, even though they're clean.

So there it is, another very quiet day. IT's nice. Now it's going to be a hairy, snowy, windy night in the field. Ah, winter!

November 25

I inverted again last night - I was reading, and I like those stories - but I got up around noon anyway and I didn't knit. That was mostly because I looked at the weather forecast and decided that I'd better go to the post office and get some stuff at the store today. I might not be able to get there tomorrow or Wednesday. Fortunately, I had enough money in my checking account to get some JD, and the garlic I forgot when I shopped at Pat's. I was surprised that there was still some stuff on the road, and the hill looked icy, although I didn't have any trouble getting up it. Most of the rest of the snow has melted.

So except for that, I did nothing except the bulletin for next Sunday - twice. When I'm closing some of the windows i have open on the PC, sometimes I click on the wrong "X" and then I say "NO" instead of "YES" - and I have to do the whole thing over. I didn't do quite such a good job the second time, but my proofreaders were on the ball this time, so it came out all right. Ole' Fast Fingers strikes again.

It was sort of an in and out day. There was some sunshine, but the next thing I knew, it was dark and dull and might be drizzling. The high temperature was 45º (how come more of that snow hadn't melted?) and there wasn't much wind. There was some rain before noon, and the humidity was high.

We are under a Winter Storm Watch, mostly for Wednesday and all the weather services seem to agree that we're going to get hammered. In fact, it seems so sure that they called off the Thanksgiving Eve church service. It was supposed to be at St. John's, which means that a lot of people would be driving, or if it was bad, nobody would come. That hasn't happened in a while, and It's the first time they've cancelled Thanksgiving Eve since I've been going there. Dire weather is a fact of life in these parts.

The guys were sleepy. Grayson was frustrated because I got up right after I ate breakfast and went away, but he got his lap time later. Louie slept someplace, either in the great room or at the north end. I've had a number of cats and I've had old cats, but I don't think I've ever had a cat that sleeps as much as he does.

So it was another very quiet day and now it's a dark night in the field - and the snow is coming - the snow is coming!

November 24

I was a little earlier last night but not much, and I slept for a very long time, so I only got one meal today and I didn't do anything except knit two rows and do my surfing.

The weather was pretty good. The high temperature was 43º. There was some wind this morning, from the northwest with gusts up to 30 mph, but it died down almost completely after noon. There was a lot of sunshine early in the day, although some clouds were moving in by late afternoon. Afternoon isn't very late anymore. Our days are down to under 9 hours now and it's sad.

The guys mostly slept, as usual.

So, nothing. It's a dark night in the field.

November 23

So I inverted again last night. I was reading and I enjoy those stories so much I just kept on until I could hardly see. I didn't get a lot of sleep and the day was skewed enough that I won't be going to church tomorrow, even though the weather might be all right.

I knitted four rows, and I now have enough done that I can tell that my choice of needle size was good. The holes aren't nearly as big and sloppy as they were on my first try. I have no idea how big this thing will be or how much yarn it will take - I know I have enough - but it's turning into a comfortable knit. My tension has been a bit tight, which makes it hard to do some of the stitches, but it's not bad and I think as I go along I'll be able to loosen it up. I love the yarn and I like the color, even though I keep forgetting how hard it is to knit lace in a dark color yarn.

That was all I did, except for my surfing. I was too late.

The weather was sort of nondescript again. The clear skies didn't last all night, but it cleared up again around sunset for a little while. The high temperature was 38º and mostly there wasn't much wind. It is humid, though, and I knew that even before I checked the weather readings.

The guys slept. Grayson got to sleep on me, and he was happy, because I noticed that the kibble bowls were empty and I filled them before dinner. So they will have something to eat. They've learned not to bug me even if the bowls are empty, because it only makes me cranky, but they like to graze and I don't like to keep them from that.

So it was a lost day, for sure, and now I need to go to bed, if I can stop reading. It's a cool, dark night in the field.

November 22

I was really late last night, and I don't remember why, but I think it had something to do with reading. I slept well and when I got up, i knitted four rows on the shawl. It may not end up looking like the pictures in the pattern, but it's going to be fine. That, plus all the other stuff, meant I was too late to go to the post office, because I was too hungry to go out before I ate something.

I was too late to do anything much else, too, although I embroidered through the talking. I finished the big circle and one small motif that started on the tier above and I started on one of the small motifs in the lower right hand corner of the pages I'm working on. It won't be much longer before I can start work on the bottom half.

The weather was sort of the calm after the storm. It was colder than it's been in a while, with a high temperature that did finally get up to 33º briefly. The wind was very light and all over the map. It was mostly cloudy until around sunset, when it seemed to clear up. I don't know if that will hold for long, but it was nice to see something other than clouds for a change.

The guys slept. Louie got his loving this morning and Grayson slept on me until my arms were so sore that I had to make him move. I am not his pillow, although he keeps forgetting that.

And that's all there is. It's a clear (I think), cold night in the field.

November 21

i was very late last night - I don't remember why - but it was so nice to sleep in a relatively warm room! I did have a couple of night sweats, but since I still seem to be sick, I wasn't surprise.

i knitted, but only two rows. I should have done more, because I played games for even longer than it took me to do those two rows. Oh, well.

I didn't do anything except my surfing. I don't feel good. My local NPR station has been broadcasting the impeachment hearings, and they evidently let out early today, so it was nice to hear what I expect. Once the cat got off my lap, I embroidered, and I only have about half a flower to do to complete this circle. This one has some serious mistakes in it, and looking at the picture as best I can - it's not very big - I think the errors may be with the chart and not the original. It's bad enough that I toyed with the idea of reworking the chart, but it would have taken too much effort, so I'm following the original chart. I should finish this circle tomorrow, if I embroider, and then I can go on to the several smaller designs. I'm almost finished with the top half! Amazing.

I was doing my embroidery and listening to the radio when we had about a 30 second power glitch. Most everything seems all right, although getting the PC back where it was took a while, but the ovens are beeping again. it wasn't long enough for the generator to come on.

The weather wasn't good. In fact, it was so bad that Kathleen canceled choir - not that I would have gone anyway. Here, the high temperature was 37º and the rain - I think it was mostly rain - stopped around 1:00 PM, but we got almost half an inch. In Calumet, it was colder and most of what came down was apparently wet, sloppy snow. in fact, it's still snowing, even though it's light enough that it isn't registering in the rain gauge and it's a whole lot colder there, so that sloppy stuff will be freezing. Ugh. Our story is wind. It's from the north, mostly around 29 mph with gusts as high as 44 mph and the lake is roaring. Good to hunker down.

The cats did. I tried to give Louie some loving this morning. Unfortunately, I think what has happened is that his legs aren't strong enough anymore for him to jump up on anything, so he stays on the floor. He sleeps on the rug my bed instead of next to my head and he doesn't even try to get up onto the counter in the studio, even though there are enough things to jump on that he doesn't have to get the whole way up. It's sad, but he is so huge and he has to be going on 12 years old now. So I will have to try to remember when he comes up to me in the bathroom. Grayson slept on me until Louie started sounding off and he went away to find out what the trouble was. He couldn't come back because I started to embroider. I don't know about all cats, but I'm sure both of mine love me.

So that was my day and now I must go and lay my hurting little head on my little pillow. It's a cold, dark, windy night in the field.

November 20

I have a tale to tell. It was cold in the bedroom again last night - around 65º - and even though I went to bed in my sweats - all I took off were my compression hose and my shoes - I didn't sleep well. The first time I woke up with a ferocious night sweat. One thing about it being so dry in the house is that my clothes dry out fast. Anyway, that only happened once, although I was up several times and I had a hard time getting to sleep every time.

When I got up, I knitted, and I did four rows. Knitting every row makes it go much, much faster. I think if I was using a light colored yarn, I'd probably try to do the wrong side rows in purl, because then the part of the pattern made by the decreases would be visible, but this is dark purple, so it doesn't matter much. Besides, Shetland shawls are almost always worked in garter stitch. At any rate, while I like the pattern, I don't like it enough to struggle with all those purl rows. This one is actually a stole, so there won't be any borders all the way around. Mercifully.

Anyway, I was knitting and thinking that I was going to have to call the heating company, and thinking I really, really didn't want to do that, when I remembered that the thermostats have batteries. Now, with hot water heat, I don't need set-back thermostats, and in fact, they don't work, but nobody bothered to tell me that when I was building the house. So I have these boat anchors with batteries. It's been a long time since I changed the batteries, and I wondered if maybe that was the problem, even though the low battery indicator wasn't showing on any of them. However, I couldn't remember which size batteries and how many were in them, so i took the thermostat in the bedroom off the wall to check it. I had a hard time getting it back onto the bracket for some reason, but eventually I did and I went on my way and put four AA batteries in my bag to take with me when I go to bed.

I had two accidents today, because I haven't been eating enough rice. When I went up to the north end for the second time, I noticed it seemed warm - very warm - in the bedroom, and when I checked the temperature, it was 77º! Louie was lying on the bedside rug and he looked unbelievably comfy. I immediately turned the thermostat down to where i want it to be, and it looks like I may have solved my problem in the bedroom, at least. I expect to sleep very well tonight, thank you very much.

I reseated the thermostat in the bathroom, but I don't know if that's the same problem, and I need to do that to the one in the studio, too, just to be safe. What I don't understand is how the one in the bedroom could come unplugged, since I haven't touched it for a long time, when I had to lower the temperature this fall. It was working fine until sometime over last weekend, I think. How could that happen? If I had any money, I'd have them replace all the electronic thermostats with old-fashioned ones, which work the way they're set.

So at least it seems like I won't have to call the heating company, which is a relief. I may have to call them sometime, because the heat in the bathroom isn't what it should be. If fiddling with the thermostat doesn't fix it, I will call them, but not until I've paid off my current bill.

The task of the day was the bulletins for Sunday and Wednesday and I got them out. I missed a few things, so they went out twice, but I think they're right now. Pastor and Sue have different things they look at, so it's good that both of them are proofreading for me, because between them they usually find most of the mistakes.

The weather was nondescript again. The high temperature was 42º and there wasn't any wind. However, we are under a winter weather advisory for all day tomorrow, and it's been precipitating since 8:00 PM. I don't know what, but with the temperature as it is, it's probably rain. Yuck. They did scale it back, because originally it was supposed to go through Friday morning. Yuck.

The guys slept. Grayson slept on me as much as I'd let him. I think Louie was in the bathroom until it began to get warm in the bedroom, but he sleeps most of the time anyway, except when he's eating or eliminating.

So that was my day and I'm looking forward to my good sleep tonight. I'm late, but with all the accidents and the load of clothes I washed today, I'm behind. Now it's a cold, dark night in the field and something is coming down out of the sky.

November 19

I wasn't too late last night, and I went to bed with a fleece jacket over my nightie and my bed socks, so I wasn't cold, or I didn't think I was, but I didn't sleep very well - or maybe I did. Time passed, but I had some dreams and I was up several times. There isn't any heat in my bedroom, and I'm afraid I'm going to have to call the heating company, even though I didn't want to do that until after I paid off my bills. We'll see how it is tonight, but it was only 64º this morning, and that's too cold. The floor is cold, too.

I think I got up around 10:30. i knitted, but I only got the cast on row done, because I completely reworked the pattern. Much to my annoyance, the way it was written, the edging would not have fit evenly onto the center. So I had to do a lot of calculating and writing. Maybe tomorrow I will get a row or two done and I'll see how it goes. This is a Shetland pattern, and they are supposed to fit together without fudging, or at least the two I've already done did. When I run across something like this, I always think the designer was just too lazy to do the arithmetic. Since I'm using a different yarn and needle size, I was already doing it different, so a few minutes with a calculator wasn't hard.

I didn't do much but my surfing. I was thinking about going to the bathroom when Debbie called, and we had a nice long conversation that caused me to wet my pants, but while we were talking, I got some embroidery done. I can't play Bookworm while I'm talking, but I can cross stitch.

I have a runny nose and as stuffy head again, and a while ago, I had a sneezing fit, so I'm not well yet. Maybe I can get to bed at a reasonable hour for a change, but we'll see how that goes.

Oh, yes, and I got the phases of the moon and the equinoxes and solstices into my calendar for next year. About a month ago, the Naval Observatory shut down for five or six months - why I do not know - so I've been looking for alternate sources for the astronomical data. It's out on the internet, but it's not as easy to find.

The weather was hardly worth talking about. The temperature was nearly steady, with a high of 40º and there was no wind. IT was cloudy and dark and gloomy.

I Think the guys slept, but I don't know where Louie went. Grayson slept on me for a long time. They don't like the cold bedroom, either.

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

November 18

Boy, I'm forgetting this a lot lately.

I was late last night - not an inversion, but late - but I went to bed clean. I didn't sleep very well, although it seems like I slept more than I thought, because time passed. It's cold in my bedroom and I don't know why, and that was probably part of it, but my left ear was so sore I couldn't sleep much on it - why, I do not know - and I had a small but sore cramp in the top of my left calf as well as cold feet. So it was a rather uncomfortable night.

I started knitting when I got up, and I ended up ripping out everything I'd done. I dropped some things in one repeat, and the more I tried to recover, the more I dropped, until I was way back at about row eight or so, and it was just too difficult to continue. I will cast on again tomorrow, but I haven't decide how to proceed. My feeling is to knit the wrong-side rows, which will be much easier, and I might try using a smaller needle, now that I have 24" size 2s. I haven't decided all that yet. I think I would like this thing if I can finish it. One problem is that the gauge the pattern quotes is impossible - it would take a 1.5mm needle to get that - so I have to decide how I want to do it. We'll see.

I was late enough from that that I didn't do anything but my surfing. I didn't do my pork chops because I was so late. As soon as I finish this, I will be going to bed, so I should get up earlier tomorrow, and I will make them then.

The weather was nondescript, for sure. There was a very little precip early in the morning, but mostly it was just dark and cloudy. The temperature was nearly steady at 39º until recently, and there wasn't much wind, wavering back and forth from the north to the west. It was very humid, but I could have told that without looking at the weather report.

The guys slept. Louie apparently spent most of the day in the bathroom, which is marginally warmer than the bedroom. Grayson spent most of the afternoon on me, until I finally had to twitch.

I did embroider a bit, although I had to rip out some of that, too. I guess I wasn't able to pay attention very much today.

So now it's a dark, cloudy night in the field and I am going to bed. Now.

November 17

I didn't get to bed as early as I thought last night. I think I had been asleep with my eyes open - or sort of open - and when I came to, I felt horrible. However, after I took my evening pills, they bounced in my tummy and i decided I'd better eat something - not much - so I did that, and when I went up to the north end I started dribbling off, and I had to wait till that stopped, so it was late when I finally got to bed. Not as late as lately, but late.

I was late Friday night - or Saturday morning - because I was writing, and when I looked at it, I wrote almost 5900 words, so it's no wonder it took most of the night. What I've found is that writing on the computer is easier and it's easier to make changes, but it isn't much faster than it would be if I was writing longhand. And my hand doesn't get sore, or at least not as sore as it used to. I doubt I could write that much in one sitting anymore.

Anyway, I got a good night's sleep last night, so I feel a bit better today, but not a lot. I knitted and I now have only four rows left in the first pattern repeat. It will get even easier as I do more and eventually I hope to be able to do more than two rows in an hour and a half.

I fiddled around, though, so my eating is still off-schedule. I finally got my lamb chop tonight, and it was good. Tomorrow the plan is to make my barbecued pork chops. We'll see. I absolutely have to wash my hair tonight, no matter how tired i am and how late it is.

The weather has been yucky. Yesterday, it was just cloudy and windy. The temperature got up to 39º and the wind was from the southwest with gusts up to 36 mph. Today wasn't as nice. Something - I don't know what - came down for most of the day. I suspect it was drizzle, because the temperature was about steady at 35º all day and the wind had died down. It was very humid. There was some snow in Calumet, right at the time I would have been getting there if I'd gone to church, so I was sort of glad I didn't try. It doesn't look like much of the snow has melted, though.

The guys were sleepy both days. Grayson got his lap time and Louie got some loving.

So that was a lost weekend, for sure. Now it's a cool, cloudy, humid night in the field. Yuck.

November 16

I did it again and I'm going to bed - no dinner, no bath, no nothing. I will write tomorrow.

November 15

So I inverted last night, and I was later than I ever have been before. I got up around 3:00 and I had just gotten to the kitchen when the Schwan's guy came with my order. I was surprised, but he decided to try to make it in spite of the snow. There are only two or three inches down on the road, so I guess he thought he could get here. I hope he didn't have any trouble with the hill.

I was so late I didn't do anything but my surfing, and I didn't read all those ad emails i get every day.

The weather was nondescript. The temperature was 30º at 8:00 AM, and it has slid slowly down all day, until now it's 11º. The wind was from the north, and it was gusting up to 33 mph this morning, but it has died down, too, and it has switched around to the southwest, which means it should be much warmer tomorrow. There were a couple of peeks of sunshine today and a little blue sky, and apparently it's almost clear now.

The guys slept, mostly. They were happy when I got up, because all their bowls were nearly empty, and now they're all full. Grayson got to sleep on me for a while, but I have one website that I have to enter my userid and password on every time I want to log in (what a pain!) and I was rubbing up against him too much, so he left. I haven't seen Louie since this morning, but that's normal. The Schwan's guy bends him out of shape.

So that was my day and now maybe I can go to bed at a semi-reasonable hour? We'll see. It's a very cold, possibly clear night in the field.

November 14

I was late last night, for no real reason, and I got up before I really wanted to. It was a quiet day. I got to knit two rows and I made a couple of business phone calls. Mary Ann called, but we didn't get to talk for very long because she had another call. That was it.

The weather was so-so, I guess. The temperature got up to 36º at 9:00 PM (!), although it's dropped back a bit now. The big story was the wind. It was calm or nearly so this morning, but starting about 7:00 PM, it switched to the northwest and north, and for a while there were gusts up to 45 mph and sustained winds of 30 mph. It's beginning to calm down now. Since the wind was from the north, I didn't notice it very much down at the south end of the house. It was cloudy and dull all day.

Louie got some loving this morning and Grayson got to sit on me for a while this afternoon, but I had to do some typing, so he had to go away.

That was all there was. It's a cloudy, windy but not very cold night in the field.

November 13

I don't remember exactly when I got to bed last night, but I think it was probably around 1:30. At any rate, I didn't get up until after 11:00. I had something to eat and looked at some of my email and read my funnies. Then I wrote three checks for outstanding bills and tried to figure out how I was going to buy food, so it was after 2:00 when I finally left.

I stopped at the post office and there was a ton of mail, including three packages, one of which - pills - I didn't expect so soon. The road is still snow covered down to Lac LaBelle Road, but it had stopped snowing by the time I started out. The further south I got, the better it was, and they had salted to just north of Mohawk, so it wasn't nearly as hairy a drive as yesterday.

I shopped and I did a lot of damage, but I didn't get very many discretionary items. I am planning on slow-cooking my turkey roll for Thanksgiving, and I have a recipe that will work really well, but it needs carrots, celery and garlic - which I forgot - and I intend to throw in some potatoes. It will be yummy, and since the recipe is for boneless turkey breasts (which I can't get here), it's been a very long time since I've had it.

Speaking of potatoes, they didn't have the kind I like in small bags, but I found something I've never seen before - baby potatoes, including one bag that had three or four different colors. I think those will be a whole lot of fun to put in my recipe. I recently looked at potatoes, and I knew they have good vitamins in them, but I also discovered that they have fiber. Anything that has fiber is something I want to eat! I'm looking forward to that concoction.

I also got a couple of big pork chops. I eat mostly stuff from Schwan's, and I mostly eat chicken and fish, but I get tired of the same thing all the time, so I need something different. I will slow-cook them with grandma's barbecue sauce, and that turned out lovely the last time I did it. This time, I will have some nice potatoes to go with it. I was going to do that tomorrow, and I may, but I also got a lamb chop, so I have a decision to make.

I got some lettuce and romaine, too, for the first time in a while. I may still be sick - I think I am - but my appetite has been recovering, and a salad is a good way to fill up my stomach with not too many calories.

Thanks to some very nice people I got into and out of Pat's with not too much trouble, but I had to get gas. There is a gas station close to Pat's, but I looked at it, and they hadn't cleaned their pump areas very well, so I went down to the one where I get a discount. My first 15 gallons was only about $2.25 a gallon, but of course I needed over 20 gallons. Gas prices are down to about $2.60, though.

My trouble was getting back into the car, but I made it and my left foot only slipped a little bit. I had had a hard time getting my right foot up on the running board at Pat's, but just the little sitting made that easier. However, with all that, it was after 4:00 when I started home.

I was not pleased that my local NPR station was live streaming the hearings, but they got it straightened out by 5:00. I think it was around 5:30 when I got home. There wasn't any traffic, but when the road is snow covered and the oncoming cars' headlights show ice, I moderate my speed.

Then I had to get everything out of the car and onto the platform and I was just about done in by the time I did, and besides, I had wet my pants, so once I got into the house, I went up to the north end with my coat still on and sat. I discovered that it's easier for me to get out of my parka if I'm sitting down, which I will remember for the future. It has to do with the limited motion I have in both shoulders. I sat for quite a while - until I wore down the battery on the phone - before I changed bottoms, and I still had a horrible time moving even a couple of bags and the JD into the house, so I came down to the studio and sat there for a very long time.

I think I'm over it now, or at least I could get up to make some dinner. In spite of all the nice things I have to eat, I just was not hungry, so I had a TV dinner. It was nice to wash it down with JD, though. I can do just fine without it, but I miss it. I don't drink because I like the effects, which I don't, I drink because I like the taste. Yum.

So that was my day. I have no plans to go anywhere for the rest of the week, except up to the end of the road to get my Schwan's order on Friday. My fridge is full, or it will be, and my car is full of gas, so I can go back into hibernation for at least three, probably four, weeks. I would love to get to church, but I'm not going to make any promises, and I still feel pretty lousy. So I will stay home.

The temperature has risen dramatically in the past couple of hours, to 30º. and it's been a couple of weeks since we've been so warm. For most of the day it was down around 20º or so, and there was a little wind. It snowed between 8:00 AM and 1:00 PM, but it had stopped by the time I left. The wind was from the southwest and not very strong, so that's one reason it's warmed up, although in the past few hours, it's shifted around to the west.

When I started moving the groceries to the platform, Grayson was inside looking at me, but eventually he went away, I threw my coat on the floor in the bathroom, and the next thing I knew, he was asleep on it, and then Louie came in and he sat down on it, too, with his feet on Grayson's back. I guess it's because it's down filled and it smells like me. When I went to get a few things into the house, it took me so long to walk over the door frame (yes, I almost couldn't climb a half-inch by that time) he bolted out the door. Well, it's been a while since he's done that, so I ignored him. i think I sat about three hours before I went back to the kitchen, and by that time, he was more than ready to come in, but then the little bugger decided he wanted some of my dinner! Sheesh. He didn't get any, so he went away. Louie has taken up his winter location on one of the scratching pads in the great room, and it didn't seem to bother him at all that Grayson was nowhere to be found.

So there it was. It was a more active day than I've had in quite a while. I don't feel quite as bad as I did yesterday, but I don't feel good. While I don't think I could do Pat's again right now, my legs feel better, so I should be able to get to bed. I should wash my hair, but I don't think I'm going to do that. I am not going out tomorrow. Twice in one week is plenty. Now it's a cloudy night in the field, but it's warmer than it's been in over a week.

November 12

Well, I was walking down the hallway last night when I had a nasty accident and I had to take a partial bath before I could go to bed. That's so discouraging. So I wasn't as early as I'd planned. I woke up around 9:15 and had to pee, so I couldn't get back to sleep and I got up.

I don't remember exactly what held me up, except for struggling into my parka, but I was too late to stop at the post office. Then, when I got to the hospital, there were no parking places so I had to make my own right at the back of the lot.

They don't clear their parking lot very well, so I was having a horrible time walking when a nice lady who was waiting in front of the clinic asked if I needed help. Just having her arm to lean on the other side was about all I needed to get inside, but then I decided I'd better take the offer of a wheelchair. I still hate to do that, because I am ambulatory, mostly, but it works better sometimes, especially when I'm almost late.

Of course, the PA was late, too. And when the nurse took my temperature, it was high enough (99.8º) that we decided it couldn't be all the clothes I was wearing and all my exertions, so I didn't get my flu shot. It was a good explanation for why I feel so cruddy and headachy. So I'm still sick - or maybe sick again, I can't tell.

The PA is a very nice person and we had a good conversation - much better than five minutes with a doctor who isn't much interested. They want to see me in three months. Hopefully, I'll be over whatever I have by that time.

Oh, yes, when I checked in, the receptionist asked to see my Medicare card - why I do not know. She said it was because they want a copy every year - why I don't know; it never changes - but I've been there at least three or four times already this year and nobody ever asked for it before. Anyway, when I reached in my pocket for my wallet - my wallet wasn't there! I immediately knew what happened: when I dropped my pants in the powder room, everything in my right pocket fell out, but I forgot to check my left pocket, too. So I knew my wallet was on the floor in the powder room - which it was - but that meant I couldn't go shopping or get gas, because I didn't have any money or credit cards or anything. So I came home, and it was probably just as well, since I don't feel good and my knees are bad today. I do have to go tomorrow, though, because I've run out of OJ and I'm getting low on a bunch of other things. I haven't had any JD since last Friday.

IT was not a happy trip. It snowed off and on both ways, quite heavily on the way down. That was weird: when I passed the M26 intersection, the sun was shining, and by the time I got to where Cliff Drive branches off, about a mile further south, it was snowing so hard I couldn't see very well. That's lake effect for you. The road was snow covered all the way to Calumet and it was a bit slick, although it was so cold it wasn't too bad. I know I had to pass a slow guy and I slithered a bit. The high temperature here was 22º, and there was enough snow to register for several hours in the afternoon. It only got to 17º in Calumet. The one good thing was that the wind has shifted around to the south and it's very light or calm, so the wind chills aren't sub-zero anymore. There were a few peeks of sunshine in between the snow bands, but mostly it was dark and gray. I guess it's supposed to be partly cloudy tonight, but so far I haven't seen a moon.

I enjoy the parts of the month when the moon is between first quarter and last quarter, because most of the time, even when it's cloudy, it's light, and I can see the cats better. Grayson wanted to sleep on me all day, and he got to when I got home, at least for a while, but I wanted to embroider and I can't do that with him on my lap. He thought he wanted some of my dinner, too, but I know better. I haven't seen Louie, but he hangs out at the north end.

So that was my day. I'm annoyed that I have to go back to Calumet tomorrow, but maybe I'll feel better and maybe the weather will be a bit better. This time, I'll be sure I know I have my wallet. Makes me a bit envious of those places in the far east where you can do everything through your phone. I had my phone.

Now it's a cold night in the field, but I don't know whether it's cloudy or not.

November 11

Another lost day. I don't remember quite why I was late last night, but I was. I slept well, with only one wakeup. I knitted two rows on the shawl and I now have enough of the first repeat to see that I misunderstood what the pattern was supposed to be. It's not looking too bad.

That was all I did except to embroider for a while. Debbie called, and it sounds like they are having more snow than we are, although the higher elevations have had a lot more than we have - 20" at Delaware so far this month.

It snowed all day, and sometimes it looked like it was snowing hard, but except between 4:00 and 6:00 PM, it didn't register at the weather station. It was cold. The high temperature was 22º and the wind was from the north between 15 and 25 mph with gusts as high as 36 mph, which has put the wind chill down around 5º, It was dark and dull all day.

The temperature in the studio was 62º when I got here with my breakfast, so the first thing I did was break out the space heater. It's quite warm now, but I know it will be cold again in the morning. I think possibly it has something to do with all the stuff on the floor. Not enough of the floor is clear to heat the air.

The guys slept, although Grayson was being bad all day. He did get to sleep on me for a good part of the afternoon, but then he was doing things he shouldn't, including pushing my cane onto the floor, which startled me into wetting my pants. Then he thought he wanted some of my dinner, which he did not, so he didn't get any. I've thought he wasn't feeling so good for the past couple of days, so I guess he's gotten over whatever his problem was. Probably it was a hairball.

Tomorrow I have to go to Calumet, unless we're having a blizzard. I have an appointment at the clinic and I have to shop. I'm not looking forward to it. I do not feel good and I have no energy at all, so all I want to do is sit and read or embroider or knit.

So now it's a cold, dark, snowy night in the field and I'm off to bed.

November 10

I didn't get my hair washed in time to go to bed early enough to get up at 6:00 AM, so I didn't go until late and I didn't get up until around 11:30. I was just as glad I didn't go. I have felt lousy all day, with a sinus headache and a drippy nose. I knitted two rows with not too much trouble, so I hope I'm getting the hang of it, but they took me an hour and a half, so it's slow going. I've now done half of the first repeat - there are nine or ten, I think. I hope to build up some speed as I go along. Usually I do. I didn't do anything else except read.

The weather was cold and windy. The temperature dropped from 34º at midnight down to 21º before it bounced back a degree or two, and the wind has been from the north in the 15-20 mph range with gusts up to 30º. That puts the wind chill down well below 10º. There were a few snow flurries all afternoon, but most of them didn't register in the rain gauge until recently. It still makes me chuckle when I can't see town and nothing is coming down here.

The guys slept, of course. I haven't seen Louie, but Grayson spent most of the afternoon asleep on my lap.

So it was quiet again. Now it's a very cold, windy, snowy night in the field. There is a Brahms motet playing, and when that ends, I will go to bed. Really.

November 9

Well, I blew my schedule last night, so it was 11:30 before I got up. I only knitted two rows, but those purl rows are still bothering me. That made me late enough that I couldn't write my checks and get to the post office before it closed, so I stayed home and did nothing. I'm still dragging my tail behind me.

The weather wasn't very good. The high temperature was 35º and there was a north wind around 15 mph. It snowed a little early this morning and it's been doing it again, but the dire prediction of freezing drizzle didn't happen, I think. It was dark and dismal.

So the guys slept. Grayson slept on me for most of the afternoon. I don't know where Louie was, but he came through the great room around the time it got dark and hollered at us for a bit.

Speaking of dark, days are just about 9½ hours long now, and the sun sets around 5:30. Of course, it's getting dark for a good hour before then and it takes an hour or more to lighten up in the morning. It would be better if it weren't cloudy, but still, the days are very short. And it's clear that nobody around here will be looking at the transit of Mercury on Monday.

I haven't decided whether or not to go to church tomorrow, but I'm inclined not. I will go up to the north end early and see if I can get to bed, but if I was going to get enough sleep, I'd be in bed already. Six o'clock comes awfully early.

It's a dark, cloudy, cold and snowy night in the field.

November 8

I came pretty close to my target last night, but I won't do as well tonight, I'm afraid. I got up around 9:30 and I knitted four rows. The knitting went much better today, so even though I haven't gotten even half of the first repeat done, I'm beginning to get into it. Then I sort of fiddled around until it was getting too late to go out, and while I was eating my breakfast, I got a couple of emails that ended up with spending over an hour on the phone - in three or four calls - with the clinic. Sheesh.

It's another one of those things where the nurse says they sent the prescription to the online service and the online service says they never got it. That service is completely out of control and probably won't ever get any better. I believe the nurse. Oh, yes, and then they called me about my appointment with the nurse practitioner, because they had some kind of mistake there, too and could I come in three days earlier? Sure, if I make it at all. It's on January 6, and who knows what the weather will be? I'm just as glad to have it as soon as possible - that's a long time anyway.

By that time, I couldn't get to the post office before it closed, and my main reason for going was to send some payments, which I didn't get written, and get my packages, which means I had to be there while it was open. Tomorrow. I need JD, too.

While the talking was going on, I embroidered. I'm starting to work on a large circle with lots of solid areas, so it's taking a while to show much progress.

The weather was nondescript, for a change, and while there was apparently some snow overnight, I don't think there was any today. The high temperature was only 27º, but for a change there was almost no wind. It's still cloudy and dark.

The guys slept. When I finally got back to the studio after cleaning up - I was waiting for a phone call that never happened - Grayson came and went to sleep on my lap for quite a while. I think Louie is someplace up at the north end, but I haven't seen him.

So one more very quiet day. I don't feel very good again. I have a headache now. It's a dark, cloudy, cold night in the field.

November 7

Missed my target again, but I'm getting better. Maybe tonight. I slept well, with only two wakeups, and i got up around 9:45, I think.

I seem to be doing a lot of ripping lately. I knitted four rows, but I had a terrible time with the last one. This pattern has lace on both sides, but it's on a plain knitting ground, so the even rows are purled. I should be able to do those, after doing the borders on my two Shetland shawls, but it's hard. I think part of it is working close to the provisional cast on, which I do over another needle and which makes it stiff. It's also certainly getting used to a new pattern, even though this one is pretty easy. I've done a lot of ripping.

I've been ripping the cross stitch, too. A few days ago, I got a section about 1" x 2" done and realized I had placed it one stitch over from where it should be. Since it's a spot sampler, it shouldn't make that much difference, but if I'd left it, I would have run into other parts of the pattern, so I ripped. I did the same thing tonight, but before I'd done very much. I get used to checking and rechecking and re-rechecking. I'm making progress. I finished the lower half of a strange little motif that started in the first row of pages. It has four birds, but it also has some really odd stuff I don't know what it is. There were a couple of very small things and now I'm ready to start the next huge circle. This one is about 75 stitches in diameter, with lots of flowers, but the center is almost solid stitching. Fortunately, I have another skein of thread and I should get my new thread in a few days. This thing still interests me.

The weather was cold and windy - 30º and 20 mph winds from the north - and it dribbled snow all day, although until recently, there wasn't enough to register in the rain gauge. It was dark and dismal.

The guys slept. Louie got a good loving this morning and Grayson slept on my lap all the time i was doing my surfing. They know what this weather is good for.

So there. Another quiet day is over and it's a cold, dark and probably snowy night in the field.

November 6

I didn't manage to make the schedule I've set for myself, but I did get to bed at a semi-reasonable hour. I slept all right - I've done better - and I got up around 9:30.

I immediately started the new shawl and I got it cast on, but I only managed to do two rows. I don't know why; it's not that hard, but I was having counting trouble this morning, and I ended up working at it for over two hours, so I didn't eat my first meal before noon anyway. Maybe tomorrow will be better.

The information for the bulletin came in after I went up to the north end last night, so as soon as I finished my surfing, I got right at that. It was an easy one. Oh, how I'd like to get to church on Sunday! It's my favorite order of service and I've been away too long. It depends upon the weather and if I can get to bed early enough, so we'll see.

There was choir tonight, but the weather forecasts were dire enough that I decided to stay home. Maybe I was right; it's been snowing down there, but lightly enough that it didn't register in the rain gauges. We had a few flakes here, too, but nothing much.

The problem has been the wind and the temperature. The high temperature here was 30º, but the wind has been from the northwest to north with gusts up to 36 mph, which puts the wind chill well under 20º Like I said last night, it's winter here, snow or no. It was dull and gray almost all day, with the exception of a very short ray of sunshine this morning and some crepuscular rays late in the afternoon. Not very inspiring weather at all.

The guys reacted to it by sleeping. Grayson got to sleep on me for quite a while, until I had to type. I haven't seen Louie, but it's a lot warmer up in the north end. Grayson wanted my lasagna tonight, but Garfield notwithstanding, lasagna isn't good for cats. I'm not sure about tomatoes, but my understanding is that onions and garlic are toxic.

So there went another very quiet day, just the way I like them, and tonight I might almost make it into bed by midnight. It's a dark, cold and probably snowy night in the field.

November 5

Oops, almost forgot. Tonight I might get to bed at a semi-reasonable hour! I certainly didn't last night, but my hair is clean and that's nice.

I had been thinking about that shawl I started, and the more I looked at it, the less I liked it, so this morning, I ripped it all out. I have several other patterns I want to do, and I think I will do this yarn in a rectangular Shetland style shawl. It's too wide to be a stole - it's 38" x 70" if I get the right gauge, although the gauge they quote is so weird, I doubt I will. It's one of those things that starts out "cast on 219 stitches..." so I will do it tomorrow.

I think possibly my problem with the round one is that the yarn is wrong for the pattern, and at some point I may try it again with a bit thicker yarn and see how it goes. When I looked at what I'd knit, it was really ugly and I didn't see any reason to keep working on something I disliked so much. Thicker yarn won't solve that problem, but it may help.

I had some thought of possibly going down to town today and doing some shopping, but I was brushing my teeth when I looked in the mirror and it was snowing, and snowing rather hard, so I decided not. I didn't get enough sleep and I didn't feel good anyway. So about the time I started for the kitchen, the sun came out! Geez. Well, that's lake effect. It seems like it's been snowing quite a lot down in Calumet anyway, so I'm glad I decided to stay home. Probably will tomorrow, too, because they are under a Winter Weather Advisory until tomorrow afternoon and I don't want to get involved with that. Well, I told Nancy it was weather permitting...

It's snowed a bit here, too, but not 2" - 4" like they're predicting for Calumet. In fact, I was talking to Debbie, and I looked out and I couldn't see town, so we got ours. Not much, if any, stuck, though.

The high temperature during the day was 30º. It was warmer overnight - up to 36º or so - but today it was just about steady. There was a strong northwest wind with gusts up to 33 mph. Except for that one ray of sunshine, it was cloudy and dark.

They've already had a little over 6" of snow up at Delaware, and they reported about an inch last month, so no, we did not get through October with no snow. Delaware is up in the "higher elevations," although not as high as Calumet, so they get more snow than we do down in the tropics. That great big heat sink out there usually keeps us cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter. Of course, when it does slam us, it's usually really bad, but most of the time, we get off a bit lighter than further down the peninsula.

The guys slept. Louie got some loving and Grayson got to sleep on me for a while, although I had some typing to do, so he probably didn't get all he wanted.

So it was a quiet day, and now it's a dark, cold and probably snowy night in the field. It may be autumn where you are, but it's winter in the Keweenaw.

November 4

Reading again and fooling around, but every time I started to get up to brush my teeth, I started dribbling off again. So I was late. I wasn't in bed for very long, but I think I slept for almost six consecutive hours - almost unheard of.

So I got up and knitted. I had a few more glitches, and I moved the work from a 32" needle and magic loop to a 24" needle. It's a bit tight, but I think it will be easier to keep things under control that way. It was either 24" or 40" and I hate those long needles. So far it looks like when I've screwed something up, I've been able to recover. It would be better if I didn't screw up.

That was all I did, except to call the clinic. My primary care physician is leaving or gone and I do need someone. It turns out it will be a nurse practitioner, at least for the next year. That's one problem with health care up here I hadn't thought about. I've met her, and she's good, so maybe it will be a while before I get into a mess again. Oh, and the oncologist is gone and there is only a physician's assistant now. That's all right - all I need is somebody to check in with and refill my prescriptions, at least so far. I've heard a lot lately about the problems with rural health care, and now I'm getting to see it first hand. Of course, they can always send me to Wausau, but that's a long drive from here. We'll see how it all works out. It isn't going to get me to move.

I was knitting when we heard some strange noises and they refilled my propane tanks. That's good. I doubt they were as empty as the company thought, but it's time for my fall fill. I've been wondering when they were going to do it. So that was one phone call I didn't have to make.

I was going to call Schwan's about the bones in my salmon (again!) but I've lost them, so there wasn't much use in that. I don't know why they have such quality problems with one of their most expensive items.

The weather was nicer than they said it would be. The temperature was about 43º all day with not much wind until late, when there were gusts as high as 32 mph. It was clear or nearly clear until around 3:30, when some clouds loomed up in the west and it got cloudy and dull. The humidity was rather low until around 7:00 PM, when it started to rain, and we've had 0.07" so far. Better than snow, although there is snow in the forecast, depending upon whose forecast you believe. I was planning to shop for food tomorrow and go to choir on Wednesday, but we'll see what happens with all that.

The guys slept. Grayson got to sleep on me a lot and he wanted some of my dinner - didn't get any.

So it was another very quiet day, but except for a bit of leakage when I had a sneezing fit, I managed to keep my elimination under control, which was a relief. Now it's a cloudy, rainy (I guess) night in the field.

November 3

i think I was reading last night, and I wanted to finish the story. I wasn't as late as sometimes, but I wasn't early, either. I slept well, with only two wakeups. Sometime I hope to get back to church.

I knitted and I made some progress. I mentioned that there seemed to be some big holes at one side of the magic loop and when I looked at them, I discovered that I'd dropped a stitch right at the end of a row. I was NOT going to rip again, so I fudged it. There are now a couple of new ends to work in, but I think it looks all right. Since it's not more than 3" from the center, I doubt anybody will ever notice if it isn't right. All that took quite a while, so I was very late eating and I didn't do anything else.

The weather was cold and dark. The temperature was about steady at 36º and there wasn't much wind. It wasn't quite as humid as it was yesterday and my joints were thankful. It was very cloudy and dull, and now that we're off DST, the sun sets around 5:30. Days are under 10 hours long. There is still an hour and a half to go, so the slide will be slowing down from now on, but they're still getting shorter at over 3 minutes a day. There was a bit of snow on the ground and in the valleys of the roof when I got up this morning. Sigh.

The guys slept. They got some loving and Grayson got to sit on me for a while.

So there goes another very slow, quiet day and I'm tired again.

I would say it's a dark, cloudy night in the field, and it may be, but a couple of hours ago, I looked out the south windows and there was the fat crescent moon shining at me.

November 2

I still don't have my hours under control, although I was a bit earlier last night. I had an on and off night, for some reason. It was a night when I couldn't get to sleep on my right side but I could on the left, at least for the first part of the night.

I got up around 10:30 and I got right at the new shawl. After trying to un-knit some more and making a mess of it - I simply could not see what I was doing - I finally gave up and ripped the whole thing out and started over. I got back to where I was when I realized I'd dropped something, and this time I didn't, although there is one place where the yarn-overs got much too big. Sometime I may try to even them out a bit. I've been using the magic loop, which is part of the reason for the big holes, so I hunted up a couple of very small circular needles and I'll try those. They're metal needles, though, and I find it hard to knit lace on metal. We'll see how it goes.

That took a very long time, actually, and I was so late that I only had one real meal today, plus a snack. I like to eat something with my evening pills so they don't upset my tummy.

I won't be going to church tomorrow. It's already too late to get to bed. No way can I get up and go out with five or six hours' sleep. Even with the time change, I need more sleep than that.

The weather today was unpleasant and wintry. When I got up, there was snow on the garage roof and even some on the ground, and when I checked the camera page - which I do every morning on my phone, just to make sure it's working - there was a cloud down the harbor. Not very long after that, there was hard stuff hitting the windowsills and then large flakes of real snow started coming down. Ugh. None of it stuck and the stuff on the roof melted, but there were several times later in the day when there were more clouds. One of them apparently dropped some snow right on town - i couldn't see the mountain, but I could see Hunter's Point and Porter's island. It was dull and gray for most of the day. I just discovered that the NWS doesn't have any data for most of today, which is weird, since I was seeing good readings all day long. The high temperature was probably around 38º, and there was a strong north wind, with gusts up to 33 mph.

The guys slept, of course. Louie slept beside me all the time I was knitting, and he was purring most of the time. I like hearing that. However, he still has it in for Grayson, and Grayson has a few new puncture marks on his back. Louie never learned how to fight, I think, so he tries to bite Grayson's back. Grayson got to sleep on me for quite a while until I had to make a fast dash for the powder room (I made it).

This weather has left me hurting nearly all over and another reason I won't be going out tomorrow is that I am having a terrible time getting out of chairs again. There are even places, like my hands and feet, that don't usually hurt that do now.

So it was a very quiet, truncated day and now it's a cold, dark, windy night in the field and there are snowflakes around...

November 1

Oh my, how I hate to write that. It's hard to believe this year is almost over.

I was earlier last night than I have been, although it was later than I wanted. I keep hoping I can get my hours under control, but it seems very hard. Anyway, I had a hard time getting to sleep, but I think it was because the Neurontin hadn't kicked in. My feet were twitchy and they felt cold, even though when I felt them with my hand, they were very warm. After I got up the first time, though, I was fine and I slept well for the rest of the night.

I tried to knit, and I thought I was making good progress, but I looked back at what I knitted yesterday and discovered that I had dropped a stitch. There is a "knit three together" that I've been having a hard time with, and I missed one stitch, which raveled and now i have a mess. So I started trying to un-knit and that turned into more than I bargained for, so I finally left it.

It made me late enough that I went off to the post office before I ate, and then the Schwan's guy came before I'd finished my tea...and I had just sat down to reorganize the freezer to try to fit in everything I bought when I had an urge and I had an accident - not a bad one - before I could get to the bathroom. Geez. Anyway, eventually I got everything packed into the freezer. I had ordered a bunch of stuff that comes in boxes I can't take it out of, so I had some work to do. I got everything in, finally. There have been so many times lately when I wasn't hungry until late and then I wanted something fast that I got some TV dinner type things.

Then I made rice, but I've been having a problem with it beginning to go bad before I ate it, so I made less than before. I know it will work better, even though I have to try to remember to make more when I run out. I still take a lot of probiotics and psyllium, but the only thing that seems to keep my gut under control is rice. It gets pretty boring, and I don't eat it every day, but I'm always sorry when I don't. That was the trouble today, I'm sure. I had burritos for dinner last night.

The weather is cloudy and cold. They were predicting possible rain and snow, but we didn't have any of that here. The temperature finally got up to 40º briefly; it was in the upper 30s for most of the day. There wasn't much wind, although what there was came from the southwest, which is undoubtedly why it was a bit warmer. I was wondering why I was so sore all over today, and now I see the reason - the humidity was over 85% all day. Oh, I hurt!

The guys slept, of course. Grayson got some lap time, although I had to move him when I had to do some typing. Louie was asleep in the bathroom this morning and Grayson came in and started trying to nip at his elbows, and then after it got dark, I heard snarling and howling behind me and Louie was trying to go after Grayson. I had to put a stop to all of it. I wish they liked each other better.

So now it's a bit late and it's a cold, cloudy night in the field. I'm off to the north end soon. And it's November.

Sigh.

Last updated 12/01/19 11:23 PM