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A View From the Field |
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October, 2020 October 31 - Reformation Day Well, I was late getting to bed - reading again - and I didn't get enough sleep on purpose, so now I have to rush to go to bed. I didn't do anything but talk to Mary Ann and wash my hair.
The weather was cloudy, cold and windy. The high temperature was 45º and there was a strong wind from the north, in the 20-25 mph range with gusts up to 33 mph, which put the wind chill down in the middle 30s. THe lake was singing. It was dull and gray. Whether it will be cloudy or rain or snow depends upon which forecast you believe, but I think it will be all right and we will have plenty of time to go as slowly as necessary.
Grayson was getting anxious by the time I finally got his dinner, but it's something he likes a lot, and I think he's eaten most of it.
So that's all there is, and it's time to crash. It's a cold, windy fall night in the field.
October 30 I don't know how it happens, but I start reading and time just passes. It's one reason I stopped reading books, before I had trouble with my eyes. Unfortunately, once I was out of the habit, I've found it very hard to get back into it again - and I still have trouble with my eyes. I guess I don't know anybody my age who doesn't.
Anyway, I was late. I slept well and got up late and I didn't do much.
The weather was nondescript, although we did have a little sunshine this afternoon. It was cloudy at sunset, though. The high temperature was 53º and there was very little wind. It's still very humid, which I knew without looking at the weather. Ouch.
Grayson slept beside me for most of the afternoon. He tried once or twice to get on my lap, but I had to move. He really lit into his canned food, so I guess he feels OK.
Since I have a Schwan's order coming, I ate the last of my salmon tonight. For my first meal, I had jalapeno cheese sourdough toast with cheese spread - a nice combination. That sourdough bread is so good, although it is moist enough it's hard to toast properly. The other loaf I got last week is three cheese semolina and it's really good, too. It seems clear that Pat's is having a hard time getting artisanal breads. Since there is only one kind of mass produced bread I eat at all - and not very much of that - it's a problem. The sourdough is from a local baker who also makes pretty good scones, although I do wish he's make fewer chocolate chip ones and more lemon-poppy seed and vanilla cardamom. The cranberry orange are pretty good, too...
So that was my day and now it's a cold, cloudy night in the field again.
October 29 Oh, I diddled around far too long and had an accident and then I just sat, so I was stupidly late getting to bed. I slept, of course, hard enough that I woke up around 8:30 having another accident. Thankfully, I didn't soil the bed, but I had to change my bottoms.
I got up around 10:30, I think. It wasn't nearly enough sleep, but I thought it might help me get to bed earlier tonight. Not as early as I hoped, but I will be going soon. I knitted. The last time I tried to knit I had so much trouble I only did one repeat, so I did the other two today. That got me to the top of one end of the body of the shawl and the next time, I can start working up the center. Today I had no problems at all. I don't know what causes that.
I didn't do much of anything else, although I did finally do my Amazon and Schwan's orders. Oh - the Amazon thing was why I was so late. I was trying to get the order together so I could get what I really need right now. Both orders should come on Wednesday. I sure wish I knew why sometimes Schwan's orders take over a week and other times just a few days. It doesn't make any sense. When I want that stuff, I want it NOW!!
The weather was blah. It was cloudy and dull and the high temperature was only 49º during the day. The wind was mostly from the northeast, but it was under 10 mph. The humidity was very high again.
Grayson tried to sit on me when I had to do something so I had to move him and he spent most of the rest of the afternoon curled up beside my feet on the floor. He liked his canned food.
So that's about all I know and it's a cold, dark, night in the field but it appears to have cleared up.
October 28 Of course I was later than I intended, but not all that late, and i got my 10 hours. I'm now back in my sweats, where I will be until at least April of next year. My jeans are so big they're comfortable now, but the sweats are even more so.
I didn't do anything much. Ron left the mail, and there were a couple of things that may mean I have to make some phone calls tomorrow. Phishing by snail mail? I think I got one.
The weather was cool and very cloudy. The high temperature was 54º and there wasn't any wind. We apparently had some rain - not much - between 9 AM and noon, which was accompanied by fog in the harbor. I saw it because I checked the camera about 9:30 and said, "Oh, look at that!" but then I went back to sleep and it was gone by the time I got up. Anyway, it was extremely humid all day, which my joints were telling me. Not even Tylenol helped very much.
Grayson got to sleep on my lap twice, but he wanted my dinner. Onions smell so good to him, but they are poisonous to cats, so i had to tell him "no!" He was not happy and he stared at my plate all the time I was eating, before he went away with a thump.
I made my "Glorified Pork Chops" for dinner - the first time I've done that in a long time - and they were so good. I have another meal. It's a stupidly easy recipe - brown the chops with onions, add mushroom soup and water and cook on low until the chops are done, then add a couple of cups of cooked rice - but the result is yummy. It's the first time I've cooked anything that took more than 15 minutes in ages. I had to sit down a couple of times, which is one reason I don't do it much. I have more chops, although I froze them, and at least one batch is going to be used fairly soon for chops with Spanish rice. I have the green pepper, so I have to make them in the next week or so. It's not that I feel like cooking - I don't - but that I am SO tired of fish and chicken and chicken and fish! I need some different stuff. For some reason I don't understand, pork is very cheap at Pat's, which is one reason I got so much of it. Pork isn't my favorite meat, but it will do.
So that was my day. The pretty trees are holding their leaves pretty well, so I have something nice to look at out the back windows, and at certain times of morning, if there's any sunshine at all, the birch right at the edge of the water just glows like gold. I'm so glad that tree didn't completely die when the main trunk did.
Now it's a cool, cloudy night in the field and I'll be off to bed soon. I do not like Karol Szymanowski.
October 27 I actually got to bed at a reasonable hour last night. But I had fish for dinner, which meant I was up about every two hours all night. I finally got to sleep well and when I woke up, it was 9:30 - a bit later than I'd hoped. However, I moved as fast as I could and I got out of the house when I wanted to, for once without having to change my bottoms.
I was earliy getting to the hospital, so waiting to get my blood draw wasn't a problem, and I was so early for my flu shot that I had a lot of time to wait and knit. Getting the shot took all of five minutes, so I'm now protected against that. I will get my COVID booster on November 9.
Then I was off to Pat's to try to get a few things I forgot last week and some more JD. I didn't get everything - they were just about out of honey - but I got some more bread, which I will freeze, and some more scones, which I will eat. They also had marked down their strip steaks to $10 a pound (!!), but most of them were too big. I got one, which is now in the freezer. I'm going to have to get a Schwan's order, but for the time being, I have some room in the freezer for stuff like steak and bread.
I got home around 4 PM. There was almost no traffic either way, although I had to pass a fellow Copper Harborite (I think I know who) who was driving so weirdly it drove me nuts. I missed the color season down the peninsula, but my maple trees are at their height right now and they're beautiful. Color season is so late this year!
THe weather wasn't bad. The high temperature was 53º and the wind was light from the south. The humidity was high, but I took some Tylenol before I left this morning and my knees were OK until I got home. It started out cloudy, but it cleared up late in the afternoon. I think it's cloudy again now, though.
Grayson was not happy that I left and he was glad to see me when I came home, although he was disappointed not go get any of my dinner.
My blood work was all right. There were no remarkable changes. what is normal still is and what is abnormal still is but not any worse than it was in August.
So now I'm tired and it would be good if I washed my hair, but I might not do that. I might just crash and worry about being clean some other time.
It's a cool, cloudy (I think) night in the field.
October 26 So I fiddled around for too long and got to bed too late and got up too late and the whole thing. It was all right - the only thing I had to do was the bulletin, which I got out late in the afternoon and I haven't heard back about it. I wish I could go on Sunday, because it's Divine Service 3, which is my favorite. I was grateful, too. Sunday is the fifth Sunday and usually that would mean Divine Service 5, which is the one with all the hymns and I have a terrible time shoehorning it onto the one page that's set aside for the service information.
Otherwise, I didn't do much of anything.
The weather was the same. The high temperature was 46º and there was almost no wind. It was cloudy, although there were some nice apricot pictures around sunset. The humidity has been a bit high, but my knees told me that.
Grayson was very clingy again and I don't know why. He didn't get any of my dinner, but I had some yogurt for breakfast (lunch?) and he loves that almost as much as I do. He keeps coming back and mewing around my feet.
So that was a nearly lost day. I have to go to bed, because I have to go to Laurium tomorrow for blood work and my flu shot. It's a cold, dark night in the field.
October 25 What a horrible, depressing day.
I wasn't too late last night, but I didn't sleep well. I kept having hot flashes and I was up any number of times. I finally got up around 10 AM, which should have been enough time. I ate and did a bit of my surfing, and then when I got up to get ready to leave, I had an accident.
So I had to change my bottoms, which made me a bit later than I wanted to be. That turned out all right, because there was just about no traffic all the way to Houghton and I got to the dentist before my appointment - and of course, she was late. I have never, as far as I can remember, had an appointment with a hygienist that wasn't late. There was a nice lady who was also knitting and there was a lot of laughter coming from the offices.
My mistake was that I didn't stop at the rest room before my appointment, but I felt fine.
Everything in my mouth looks good, thankfully. The dentist wants to take a panoramic x-ray of my mouth, which I was able to postpone until next year - it will cost me around $200.
And then...while I was waiting to pay my bill and the receptionist was on the phone, I had an accident. It was just a bit until I got into the restroom and then everything let loose before I could get to the toilet. So my underwear and my jeans were wet and smelly and I used a whole lot of toilet paper. I wasn't able to clean up everything I messed up, unfortunately, so I left that with the receptionist. And I had to drive home with a very wet bottom. I guess I was able to wipe up the hard stuff, because what was left was only wet, but I was a mess when I got home.
Sigh. I knew it was going to happen sometime. So now maybe I'm going to have to start carrying a clean pair of jeans and some underwear everyplace I go? One more episode like this and I will.
The elderly cousin from whom I eventually inherited a lot of my cut crystal and other interesting antiques refused to go anywhere because she was apparently afraid she would have an accident like this, and it disgusted my mother because she didn't understand. Well, mama is in heaven watching now and I'm sure she understands, since she's seen it happen to me.
As you know, I have enough of these things at home, but it's so embarrassing when I have to walk out of a place and two people help me with the doors - and undoubtedly notice my wet pants. Even pee is bad enough, but where I was wet left no question at all what had happened. How humiliating.
The weather was all right, but it was just about the same as it's been for the past week or two. It was cloudy and the high temperature was 47º. The wind is still from the east, but it's been mostly under 10 mph all day. What has me confused is the forecasts I was hearing from the radio station, which said, snow tonight, temperatures in the upper teens and 3" of snow tomorrow night. I checked the NWS website and the Weather Underground and I do not know where the station got those forecasts. Maybe that's going to happen in northern Minnesota, but it sure isn't here. Sheesh. Winter is coming fast enough, already!
Grayson barfed all over the hallway, leaving red stuff behind. There was a hairball in it, so I guess that was the reason. He was very happy to have me back home and I think he was a bit embarrassed about the mess he made. Hey, I do that all the time. He almost tried to go out when I went to get my potatoes, but I poked my cane at him and he stayed away from the door. He will be happier tomorrow.
So that was my sad day and now it's a dark, cloudy night in the field.
October 24 Well, maybe things are getting a little more normal - whatever that is. I got to bed around midnight, although I had another accident first. I had some trouble falling asleep. I got up around 10 AM, i think, and I knitted. I even got two meals, although not very far apart.
Debbie called twice before I called her back. The first time, I was at the north end and the connection was so bad i couldn't even get caller ID. The second time, I was in the powder room. So I called her back to prevent her from panicking and calling in the troops. We didn't have too long a conversation - only 86 minutes - but we both caught each other up on our activities and that was nice.
The weather was about the same as it's been for the past week. The high temperature was 49º, but that was early. The wind has shifted around to the east and is in the 15-25 mph range. It was mostly cloudy. The lake is still singing.
Grayson is still not sure I'm OK. He slept under my feet while I knitted and he slept on my lap for quite a while when i was talking to Debbie. He got some of his favorite canned food - how come Pat's had it and Chewy doesn't? - and he got a few pieces of my steak, just the amount he wanted.
So now I have to go and take a bath and !!cut my fingernails!! before they drive me crazy. When I think I used to wear them long and polished...Now I want them as short as possible. It makes a few things more difficult, but I can type and use the phone much easier, so about every three weeks, they get so long they annoy me and i have to chop them off. My hands aren't pretty anymore anyway, so that doesn't matter.
Now it's a cold, windy night in the field.
October 23 Well, what an awful night. I was very late getting to bed. I was embroidering and it was going so well, I just didn't want to stop, so I have more than half of the third rose done. And I had a third accident on my way to the north end. Sigh.
About two hours after I finally got to bed, I woke up with extreme abdominal cramps. So I sat and ran off at the bottom for almost two hours, I think, before they finally subsided. I didn't have much nausea, thankfully, although I did fetch the barf bucket.
Well, about two hours after I got back to bed, I was up again with the same symptoms, although it didn't last as long. By that time it was light. I was up one more time, just to pee, but I'm almost cleaned out enough to have a colonoscopy and I feel lousy. I didn't get up until 3 PM.
I think I now know what the problem is, since I had the same problem several months ago. I read somewhere that people with gut problems are often very sensitive to very spicy things. The first time, it was enchiladas, and last night, I had Szechwan lo mein. Not very much, but it was very spicy. So I guess the spicy things are off my menu from now on, darn it. I don't eat a lot of it, but I do enjoy it. Or did.
The weather was about the same. The high temperature was 49 and the wind was from the north in the 15 mph range with some gusts up to 23 mph. It was mostly cloudy and dull. We had a very little rain overnight. I could tell, because I could hear the drops on the outside window sills.
Grayson, bless his fuzzy little head, curled up on my clothes while I was sitting in the bathroom and he has gotten on my lap twice since I've been in the office. He knows when I'm sick and it worries him.
So that was my sorry excuse for a day. Debbie called late in the afternoon, but I didn't answer because by that time, I really needed to get up and feed us. Grayson has a full tummy now and so do I, of not spicy stuff.
So I was going to take a bath tonight, but I think I will postpone that until tomorrow so I'm clean for the dentist. It's a cold, cloudy night in the field and maybe I won't be so late.
October 22 I don't have much to report. I was a bit later than I wanted to be, and it took me over an hour to get to sleep because my feet felt cold even if they felt warm when i felt them with my hand. The joys of neuropathy. Anyway, I finally put on my socks and turned over and then i slept well for the rest of the night.
I knitted, and I was working more quickly than usual, for some reason, which showed itself as I made several errors, some of which show. For some reason, I had a hard time with the join to the body of the shawl today. Sigh.
I also managed to have two accidents, the second one rather yucky. And after that, I didn't feel like cooking so I ate something that will probably cause me to have more problems tomorrow.
I did embroider for quite a while, although the second accident interrupted that. I am finishing up the second rose in this little picture. I think one of the reasons I love doing cross stitch so much is that it's so much like developing an old piece of film. You work a bunch of stitches that look like nothing and then you begin to add more and all of a sudden you have...a rose or some other picture. It's almost magic.
The weather was cold and cloudy again. The high temperature was 48º, but that was between 6 and 7 AM and it was cooler for most of the day. There was a bit of north wind that never got over 12 mph.
I've been meaning to mention that the morning sun has been lighting the birch tree down by the shore, which is now all gold, and it almost glows. The color was over on the way south yesterday, but my trees are still lovely. It's a very yellow year, but the way the trees are turning, my oaks are very nice shades of red. The color was really late this year, but I was reading my old journals from 2001 on these days, and that was about the same. I did that because there was a huge CME on October 21, 2001 that produced remarkable auroras as south as the Carolinas and i was wondering if I saw them. Yup, and it was remarkable, even though I didn't watch for long. That was a particularly strong solar cycle anyway and I saw things i probably never will again. The trees on the north were low enough then that I could see quite low in the north, but I remember even seeing awesome displays right overhead. Maybe again before I pass? I hope so.
Grayson has been remarkably talkative again and he still thinks he is running the show around here. He is so funny. No matter what I'm doing, and no matter what he's doing, if I do it too long for his taste, he has to tell me about it. He slept on my lap for over half an hour, too. Of course, that caused me to have the first accident...
So that was my quiet day and now it's a cold, dark night in the field and I can go to bed now, even though I'd like to stay up and either embroider or read.,,
October 21 Of course I was late and I got up late, but I decided that today had to be the day. So I moved as fast as I could and I made it to town by about 3 PM. I did a lot of damage at Pat's, but I got almost all of what I wanted and I laid in a lot of meat. I am so tired of fish and chicken that I decided I am going to eat something else...pork chops twice, lamb chop and a small steak. Not on consecutive days, or my bunions will hurt, but sometime in the next week. I'm also going to have pancakes and sausage for breakfast one day.
I was surprised that they had more cat food than Chewy seems to have, so Grayson will have a few different things to eat. They don't seem to be able to get Ecce Panis bread and they didn't have the kind of honey I like, but I have quite a lot of that. I guess I spent so much money because the price of food has gone up. Sigh.
Then I was off to the gas station, where I discovered for sure that my gas gauge has gone haywire. I'm not sure if there's anything they can do about that that won't cost me an arm and a leg, but I'll have to ask. It was reading a quarter full, but it only took under 14 gallons (it's a 26 gallon tank). It was all right, and I got 45¢ a gallon in discounts because i shop at Pat's. I have to go to Houghton on Monday and Laurium on Wednesday, so I will need to fill up again before my trip to Marquette on Nov. 1. And then maybe I can crawl back into my hole...
The weather has turned cold. It went from 60º to 40º awfully fast. The high temperature was only 45º and there was a strong north wind, in the middle teens, with gusts as high as 30 mph. That put the wind chill down in the middle 30s and I'm not ready for that. It was mostly cloudy and on the way home, I got spritzed with rain. I don't think it rained here, but it did between Phoenix and the Mountain Lodge.
Grayson was not pleased that I left him for most of the afternoon and he let me know it. He also ran out into the breezeway, but there isn't anything interesting there anymore, so he ran back in before I came in with the food. Besides, it was cold out there.
Well, now I have food I want to eat for at least a couple of weeks.
Now it's a cold, cloudy, windy night in the field and I do need to go to bed. I have to go back on a human schedule for a couple of weeks.
October 20 Well, I didn't and I didn't go to town today, either. I read for too long and then I had an accident and had to clean up and settle down after that and by that time it was late. So I was late getting up, although I didn't do anything before I got dressed. After that I realized it was too late. I might have been trying to drive home at twilight or later.
So I washed the load of bottoms I have been collecting in the washer and they are now in the dryer. I did a few things in the kitchen. I had another accident, not too bad. There was another change to the bulletin. So it wasn't a total washout.
We had a power glitch that must have been at almost exactly noon, which meant the blinking clock was correct but a minute fast, so I had to cycle around to get it to stop blinking. My clock-radio in the bathroom, which is quite new, doesn't blink, but every time there is a glitch it gains a minute. However, it has a rocker switch that goes both up and down so it's much easier to set. I'll be doing that again in a couple of weeks.
The weather has turned cold. The high temperature, 50º was between 7 and 8 AM and it's been about 47º all day. The wind has been wavering between northeast and east, in the 15 mph range with gusts up to 23 mph. It was cloudy and dull.
Grayson got to sit on me a couple of times, which he likes. I guess it's because it's cooled off and I'm warm. he has been acting oddly again, but I think he may just be trying to determine to what extent I will let him run the household. If I give a little, he will try to nudge me to do more.
So that was my day and now it's a cool, dark night in the field. This time I am going to bed, I think. I felt like I had it more under control today.
October 19 Oh, I was so late getting to bed and so late getting up! Then I fiddled around, but I finally got my hair washed. The bulletin information came in, so I just got that out. And I'm going back to bed. Really, this time.
The weather was nice again. It was partly cloudy, with lots of sunshine. The high temperature was apparently 70º, although the weather station was down for several hours around noon. The wind was light and mostly from the north, although it has now shifted around to southwest. The bottom is about to drop off, though, and tomorrow the high temperature isn't supposed to get out of the 40s. Ah, well. It's October, and I guess we've had our Indian summer.
Grayson was a pill. He spent the whole afternoon whining at me until I finally made it to the kitchen to give him his canned food. Then he went away. Sheesh.
So that's all there was and it's a partly to mostly cloudy night in the field.
October 18 Well, the best laid plans and all that. I was in bed fairly early with the idea that I would take my bath this morning, but I didn't because I was hungry. So I would take it tonight. Huh.
I made several phone calls and got some of my medical issues addressed and I called Mary Ann. She called back around 10 PM and we talked until my phone died - I can't use the cordless phone with it in the cradle. We haven't talked in a long time. That meant I didn't get any dinner until just now and I had a yucky accident and I am NOT going to do anything else but this and go to bed. Period. I'm also not going to town tomorrow. That will have to wait until Wednesday.
The weather was lovely. The high temperature was only 63º, but there wasn't much wind - from the south - and it was clear and blue all day and the nearly full moon is shining brightly over the harbor now. Oh, and when I was up before dawn this morning, there was the most beautiful glitter path on the harbor, with the bright moon hanging over the harbor. I wish we had more clear weather like this, especially when the moon is new. Sigh.
Grayson is still very lovey. He got to lick my bowl of Greek yogurt and he wants more. While I was talking to Mary Ann, he kept coming in and whining. I don't know why, but he has the sweetest voice when he isn't yelling.
So that was my day and now i'm really tired. It's a clear, cool night in the field.
October 17 I didn't get to bed quite as early as I wanted, of course, but it was before 1 AM. I slept pretty well. I was awake at 10 AM and that didn't feel quite right, so it was after 11 AM before I got up. I knitted and then I played, so I didn't do much else. I filled the north end pill dispensers last night and I just finished filling the south end ones.
The weather was cool and windy but clear. The high temperature was 57º and for most of the day there was a strong north wind, with gusts up to 38 mph, although that was early in the morning. The wind has died down now. It has been clear all day, but the camera hung up overnight, so we didn't get to see most of it. I must remember to unplug it and plug it back in when it hangs up even if it seems to be responding. And it looks like I may have to reboot to get a clean driver. What a pain.
Grayson was very lovey again today. He slept between my feet while I was knitting and he spent a long time on my lap, until i had to go pee. He wanted some of my dinner, but he didn't get any, of course.
So that was another very quiet day and now it's a clear, cool night in the field and it's late again. Sigh.
October 16 So I inverted last night and there wasn't time to do anything today.
The weather was cool. The high temperature was only 54º and there was a brisk north wind with gusts that got up to 36 mph when we had a sprits of rain between 2 and 3 PM. Otherwise it was a mix of clouds and sun. The camera hung up early this morning, so we didn't get to see it. It was partly to mostly cloudy at sunset and I didn't see the moon, although it may be too high to see in the windows.
Grayson whined at me all the time I was in the bathroom and he even danced for me a little bit. I don't know that I've ever seen him do that before, although he has been running down the hallway lately. He got to sit on me in the bathroom and again just now. I guess he feels pretty good.
So that's all there is and now I have to decide whether to take a bath tonight or tomorrow and fill the pill dispensers. It's a cool, windy night in the field.
October 15 Well, I wasn't quite as late last night, but I didn't sleep as well, either. I don't know why. I knitted, but that was about all I did.
The weather has turned cool. The high temperature was only 59º and for most of the day there was a brisk northwest wind, with gusts as high as 28 mph. It was cloudy in the morning, but after about 2 PM, it cleared up a bit and there was some sunshine. After dark, there was a nice gibbous moon shining in the south windows. I think it's up over the house now.
I took my time about getting dressed and Grayson was getting annoyed with me before I finally fed him. Of course, he wanted some of what I had, too, but he didn't get any.
So it was another quiet, lost day and now it's a partly cloudy, cool night in the field.
October 14 Pretty much ditto yesterday.
There was some sunshine today, as well as a brisk northwest wind, with gusts up to 31 mph. The high temperature was 65º, but it was in the morning and it cooled down to around 60º in the afternoon. i reset the ends of the camera pictures again - by an hour, which may be too much - but before I turned out the lights, there was a half moon shining in the windows for a little while, before it went away.
Grayson was his usual self.
So now it's a cool, probably cloudy night in the field and I must go to bed.
October 13 So I read entirely too long, made one of the worst messes ever and was extremely late getting to bed. Sigh.
I did something I haven't had to do in a while - I washed a load of tees. Almost all my dark-colored tees were dirty - or at least well-used - so they are now waiting to go in the dryer. i have lots of stuff to put away and, of course, another load of bottoms to do, but at least I'll have my tees. Today I'm wearing one I almost forgot about. It's heavy and ribbed, and it sort of expands and contracts, so it doesn't look quite as big as some of the other tops. It has kind of a v-neck, so it's not quite as warm, too. The only problem is, it's a dull gray-blue that doesn't go with jeans very well. Well, I'm picky about my colors. Always have been.
The weather was cool and cloudy. There was a teensy bit of rain between 1 and 2 PM, but otherwise, it was just ridiculously humid again. The high temperature was 61º and there was almost no wind. It was cloudy and dull.
Grayson didn't do anything of note.
So now it's a cool, cloudy night in the field.
October 12 I was earlier last night, but not early. I was reading. This morning, I knitted, and I turned the corner. Now I only have 42 more repeats to do and I'll be done with this thing, thankfully! I learned a few things about knitting shawls, but I'm not sure it was worth it. The next one will be in a light color.
I didn't do a lot more, but the bulletin information came in early so I got that right out. It was so easy, I'm not sure I didn't forget something, but maybe my proofreaders will catch anything I missed.
The weather was cool, damp and windy. It started raining about 2 AM and didn't stop until noon, although I think there were sprinkles all day. The high temperature was only 60º and the wind was from the northeast with gusts up to 31 mph. It's been a while since the lake was singing to us, but it has been all day.
Grayson didn't do anything amazing, except that he slept on my lap for a while. He has been rather vocal today, and I don't know why. He's another cat like my first cat: he has a high, melodious voice and he can sing very sweetly - or he can yell.
So that's all there was and now it's a cool, moist, windy night in the field.
October 11 Oh, I did it again. I was reading and time just passed. Then I got up late and played games and time passed some more. I finally got my bath, but that's all I did.
The camera got scrambled, so I can't even report much on the weather. I think it was mostly clear for a time this afternoon and when I finally got to the office, the thick crescent moon was shining in the south. That's why I haven't seen Venus - it's in Sagittarius, which is behind the tree. The high temperature was 66º. There was a strong wind that started out from the southwest, went calm, picked up from the north and now has been calm for three hours. I don't know what that forebodes.
After a while, Grayson started shouting at me. Usually he sort of whines, but today he was shouting. I guess it was because he's eaten all his canned food and all his favorite kibble, So he got something he likes out of a can and he will just have to eat the other stuff. I put all the stuff that had fallen out of the bowls into another bowl, and he can eat that, too. I think the kibble gets stale rather quickly, though, and that's one reason he doesn't like it so well. Well, too bad.
So that was my day and now I can try to get my sleep schedule straightened around again. It's a mostly clear, warmish night in the field.
October 10 Another late night and nothing day.
Debbie called, but we only talked for an hour. She wanted to know if i was surprised when Mike called, which of course, I was.
The weather was moist and mostly cloudy again. The high temperature was 69º and there was a strong south to southwest wind, with gusts up to 30 mph. It rained between 7 and 8 am, and it was cloudy and humid all day. It's hot in here because it wasn't warm enough to open a window with the wind.
Grayson got booted off my lap because he kept rolling over onto the space bar and scrolling my emails down to the bottom. I think he was happy, because even though it was late, he got some of his favorite flavor today.
And that's all there is. I'm still reading, but maybe not so late tonight? I should probably go up to the north end and do it there. It's a sort of warmish, cloudy, humid night in the field.
October 9 I was too tired to move last night so after I cleaned up from my second nasty accident, I almost inverted. I got up late and sat some more, so I didn't do anything.
The weather was nice. It was partly to mostly cloudy and there was some southwest wind, but the temperature got up to 73º. I opened a couple of windows.
Grayson finally used his clean litter tray and he peed in it. i wish he wouldn't do that, because it's impossible to get the wet clay out of it. Well, I'll do the best I can. Otherwise, he was quite patient with me, although he was very excited to get his canned food.
So now as soon as the Beethoven ends, I will totter up to the north end and I might even take a bath tonight. Maybe. I might also just go to bed. We'll see.
It's a warmish (for October) cloudy night in the field and there may be thunder before morning.
October 8 Well, I was so tired i just didn't want to move, so I was very late getting to bed and fairly late getting up, but it didn't matter much. I didn't do anything before I got my breakfast.
The guys got here around 2 PM and they worked. Most of the bags are in the garage and they even got all of the bags of kitty litter out of the basement! The pans are still full and there is still apparently a whole lot of stuff over by the door to the outside, but at least we're that far ahead. They had no problem getting the shelving unit upstairs and outside - I guess it wasn't as big as I remembered, and I know it isn't too heavy, because I used to be able to carry them around by myself. I haven't put anything on it yet, but it's right where I wanted it, outside the door, so I will be able to use it as a outside fridge when it gets cold. They took the nasty cat pan outside and cleaned it up while I cleaned most of the bathtub and put the other tray in it. Grayson hasn't used it yet, but I know he knows he has clean litter now.
And then we spent another couple of hours talking. It's a problem I have with all my friends. I guess if I saw them more often, we wouldn't talk so long, but maybe we would. i know when Mary Ann and I were going down to Laurium to choir, we always had plenty to talk about.
Anyway the guys are leaving tomorrow, but they are hoping to get back over the winter. They want to see the snow, if we have any this year. However, Mike is helping to take care of his mother and of course that comes first. So we'll see. It's so nice to be retired and we all love it. I was surprised, because they are so friendly, but they really enjoyed being quarantined last year, just like I did. It was so nice not to have to worry about making excuses. No wonder I like them so well. We have a whole lot in common.
Anyway, i didn't do anything else. I got the trash all together mostly before they got here, so I now have empty bags in the wastebaskets that I can fill up and almost all the trash and the recyclables are in the garage. I forgot the bag in the bathroom, but it isn't completely filled yet anyway.
The weather was sort of yucky. It was cloudy and very humid - again - and the high temperature was 67º. Before the guys left, it was beginning to get very foggy, It did rain. Between 3 AM and 7 AM we had 0.33". It didn't bother any of us, except for the humidity.
Grayson was a pretty happy cat. The guys both love cats and they paid a lot of attention to him. I filled all his kibble bowls. That was funny. We had the basement door completely open, which means it was up against sthe kibble bowls, and he decided he wanted a few pieces, so he went through the cat hole and ate. It looked so funny. He also wanted some of my dinner - such as it was - but he didn't get any of that.
So now I can go back to things as normal. I won't be early tonight because I'm listening to Sibelius' Second, which is one of my all-time faves, but it doesn't matter tonight. Now it's a coolish, very humid, foggy night in the field.
October 7 I was much later than I wanted to be last night, but I got my hair washed, and then I couldn't sleep because my feet were cold. I finally put on my socks, and I didn't get up until around 11 AM, but I still didn't get enough sleep, so I'm tired now
That didn't give me much time to do a lot besides get dressed, eat a little cheese and crackers and do a bit of my surfing before I was off for Harbor Haus.
We had a lovely dinner and a lovely time. They are such nice guys! The management finally had to ask us to leave, after we'd been there for four hours, but they're going to come tomorrow and help me get the trash out to the garage, so we'll get to talk again. And after all, it's at least six years since we've seen each other.
One of the things that was in my inbox this morning was the email I asked for from the contractor. Unfortunately, I didn't get to reply to him before I left, but tonight I sent him the documents I have about my repair project and I hope we can go on from there. I need to get going on this - finally.
THe weather was nice. The high temperature was 69º and there wasn't any wind. It's still humid, though. It was clear until around 4:30, when a cloudbank started coming in from the south and it was mostly cloudy at sunset, which made for at least one really weird picture.
I don't know what Grayson did with himself, but when I got home, I had a package I wanted to open in the breezeway and when i looked in the door, he was sitting about three feet away, upright, with his feet together and his head tilted down a bit, so he looked like he was looking over the top of his glasses, and he did not look happy. He just came by, said "meow?" got a pet and went off again. Oh, they have their ways...
So that was my nice day and now I AM going to bed. It's a calm, cloudy night in the field.
October 6 Of course I was rather late last night, but I got my nine hours and I didn't do anything much except for the bulletin, which went out late this afternoon.
And a while after that, I got a phone call from an old friend that I worked with. He and his partner are here for a few days. I admit, I was surprised. I know they love it here, but I'd decided they'd never get back. So I will have dinner tomorrow and we will talk each other's ears off. He thinks it's been about five years, but I think it's been longer than that. How nice! They are both nice people and I enjoy seeing them.
The weather was nice, but it's still extremely humid. The high temperature was 69º and there wasn't much wind. The dew point has been nearly steady in the upper 50s, so it's yucky around here. There were a few clouds this morning, but it was clear at sunset.
Grayson didn't do anything unusual.
So now I have to totter up to the north end soon and wash my hair so I look as good as possible for the guys. It's a clear, coolish night in the field.
October 5 Today is my father's 109th birth anniversary. I wish I had been able to get to know him better.
I was stupidly late last night - or this morning - although I didn't quite invert. I had my second accident of the day while I was on my way to the north end and I did have to stay in the bathroom for quite a while before things settled down, but then I was too tired to get up.
I think I probably got almost my 9 hours, but I've been tired and headachy all day and then I had another one about the time I went into the kitchen to start dinner. Sigh. So I am going to assiduously eat my rice for the next few days, and I think I may avoid the salads, too. I love lettuce salads, but they work exactly against what the rice and beans and potatoes are trying to do. I need to get things back under control. I hate having to pay so much attention to my gut.
The weather wasn't bad. it was clear and blue all day, although there was a big cloud mass southwest of us that began to encroach on the south for a while. It was clear at sunset, though. Venus is someplace over in the west, but I haven't managed to see it yet. The high temperature was 66º and there was no wind. It is still extremey humid, though, and there may be some more fog overnight. My knees ere a bit better today, though.
Grayson sat on me for a while and got petted and he wanted my fish for dinner, but there wasn't enough for him. He has the cutest begging face, but I know what he's doing.
The bulletin information came through a bit earlier than sometimes, but I'm not going to try to do it tonight. I'm going to bed. I did my solitaire challenges this morning, and I'm wearing my nightie, so all I have to do is take off my (dirty) socks and I can crash.
It's a clear, cool night in the field.
October 4 I went up to the north end early - around 10 PM - but I read for a couple of hours before I gave it up and went to bed. I was up for a bit around 8 AM, because something occurred to me that I wanted to look up, but then I went back to bed and didn't get up until 11 AM. So much for early to bed...
I knitted and played games, so I was late eating and very late finishing my surfing, and then I started embroidering. I really did lose track of time, but I finished a rose and most of the leaves around it. But because I wanted to do that, I ended up having an icky accident. It was too late to get dressed again, so I'm sitting here in my nightie and robe. All I have to do is take off my socks and brush my teeth and I can go to bed. That's a good thing, because I'm going to be late tonight.
The fog had just about gone away by 4 AM - it's the first time in a couple of days I could see lighthouse light. I guess it''s going to be foggy again tonight. At least my joints think so. The high temperature today was 62º. The wind has settled down from the north, but it's under 10 mph. The clouds didn't go away until around 5:30 PM - much later than the forecasts - but it was clear at sunset. It's still very humid.
Grayson was his usual self. He seems to be over his diarrhea and he's eating well, except that he would rather have canned food all the time. Too bad about that. He isn't drinking or peeing quite as much as he had been and I don't know what that means.
So it was another quiet day. I finally paid most of my monthly bills tonight. It was so nice to see that hefty balance in the checking account, but that's why it's there, isn't it?
Now it's a cool, clear (I think) night in the field and once the Beethoven is over, I can go to bed.
October 3 I went up to the north end fairly early last night, but then I started reading and I fooled around with the headphones, because there was a Dvorak symphony I don't believe I've ever heard before. The headphones worked fine when I finally figured out which way to put them on and how to turn up the sound. But the foam around the edges of the earpieces is long gone and for some reason the left one hit my ear in a bad place and it hurt. I listened anyway.
I also read for a long time and fooled around some. I discovered that when both computers have pretty much the same stuff on them, it can be difficult to tell which computer I'm talking to. I will have to bear that in mind. There seems to be a bit of a lag when I'm typing, and when i replied to an email I got, it meant I did a lot of backspacing and retyping. I don't know why, but every so often the connection seems to go away for a moment and at least once, I had to initiate it all over again. When I realize that the signal is going from the laptop, through the router extender to the router, out into the internet, back into the router and to the desktop, then takes the whole reverse path, I guess it makes some sense. It's nice to have the connection, though. When I forget to write this thing, I don't have to totter back to the other end of the house.
I don't think RemotePC works as well as LogMein, but LogMeIn is about 10 times more expensive, too. That still makes me mad. LogMeIn is a mature product - I started using it close to 25 years ago - and only greed can excuse their jacking up the price so much. It was free when I started using it and until five or six years ago it was about a quarter of what they ask for it now. I keep hoping that one day cybertechnology won't be the wild west anymore, but I'll never live to see it.
I didn't do anything except take a bath today.
The weather was part of it. I mentioned last night that the fog moved in before dark and it got worse overnight and never went away. The high temperature today was only around 60º. It actually was 62º overnight and slid down to 59º very slowly before it recovered. There was no wind and the humidity was at or very near 100%. No wonder I hurt. The camera went down last night - sorry, I guess I probably new that and I didn't check - but it didn't matter. There was nothing to see but a wall of gray anyway.
Grayson mostly slept, although he got petted twice. He was getting a bit antsy before I finally took my bath. Speaking of ants, a couple of people have suggested either buying bowls with a moat or just putting a pan with water in it around his dish. That's a good idea, except that I can't do it. I have to drop his bowl onto the floor from around 8" or higher because I can't bend down that far, so there is no way I could get a pan full of water onto the floor. I guess we'll just have to cope until it gets cold and the ants go away. I will put down a new set of ant traps and hope that helps. I'm getting tired of bugs...
So that's all there is. Maybe I can do something tomorrow. Now it's a cool, damp, very foggy night in the field.
October 2 Late again. I went up to the north end at a reasonable hour, but then i read for far too long before I finally went to bed. Sigh.
I didn't do much today, although there is a load of underwear in the washer that needs to be put in the dryer and maybe - just maybe - I will take a bath tonight. It's been really hot in the house and I've been having hot flashes all afternoon, which means I've been sweating a lot. We'll see what happens. I finished the story I was reading and now I'm reading the Voyages episode I like most. And the music is nice.
That's the one thing about the laptop - the speakers are terrible, I mean really terrible, and my headphones are so old that the foam pads have broken down. I need to check whether there is a way to attach my bluetooth headphones to the computer, because the sound from the iFrogz is great. Then I can sit in the bathroom all day if I want to - or I have to.
The weather wasn't very good. The high temperature was 71º and there wasn't any wind, but the lowest the humidity got was 87% and around 6 PM the fog moved in. The humidity is now 100%. Ugh. Needless to say, it was cloudy all day, although it wasn't particularly dark and there wasn't any rain.
Grayson is still confused by how I've started feeding him. I put down half of his food and once he eats that, I put down the other half. That usually means half at breakfast (which may be in the middle of the afternoon) and half at dinner. He was very clingy today and he spent quite a while on my lap. Ever since I've had him,he's had a few white hairs in the middle of his forehead, a little below his ears, Lately, the spot has gotten bigger, almost like he's turning gray. I got a couple of pictures of that tonight. One of these days, I'll have to move another batch of pictures from the phone to the computer.
So that was my day. I have to get the wash into the dryer and it would be nice to go to bed clean, but we'll see how that works. Now it's a coolish, extremely humid, foggy night in the field.
October 1 So I was late again. I think it was the games, but I don't quite remember. Maybe tonight I can do better, but I want to get up to the north end and read for a while, so we'll see. I knitted, but I didn't do much of anything else.
The NWS station finally came up at 2 PM . so we missed a lot of data, not that there was much to report. After then, the high temperature was 75º and there wasn't any wind. It started out with some high wispy clouds which got thicker as the day went on. So now stars tonight. Radar seems to think it's raining now, but if so, none of it is hitting the ground, although it's very humid (90%). Most of the rain seems to be northeast of us, over the lake. That may all change, and the weekend is supposed to be unsettled and possibly rainy. we'll see.
Grayson was himself. He hasn't quite figured out the new regime of food yet. I've been putting down half of it and waiting untl he eats that before I give him the rest. That may discourage the ants. We'll see about that, too.
So now it's October and days are getting short. It will get worse before it gets better. Tonight, it's a dark, cloudy night in the field.
Last updated 11/01/21 07:56 PM Copyright S. I. Smith, 2000-2021
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