Friday, October 22, 2010

Hoping to start good habits

It really does make a difference when you get 8 hours of sleep.  I'm disciplining myself to turn out the lights whether I'm sleepy or not and at least try to sleep.  I slept so well last night that I woke up before the alarm went off, although I went back to sleep again and waited for it.  I'm still not overflowing with energy but I managed to get a lot done this morning before anyone else woke up including putting a load of clothes out on the line and working on organizing my bedroom a bit.  And the never-ending morning kitchen cleanup.  Since Tom gets in at 3 a.m. and eats supper, I always have the kitchen to clean up first thing.

But one day does not a trend make so I anticipate an uphill battle here because as I said before I haven't consistently had 8 hours sleep a night for over 20 years.  Eight hours is rare for me, in fact.

I did wind down before noon though but at least I lasted that long. I have a doctor's appointment on Tuesday to get my blood pressure meds refilled and I'm sure to get a lecture from the doctor for my weight gain but I'm going to stand firm and tell her that my weight gain is a direct result from trying and failing to diet.  It's not about willpower.  It's about eating an unreasonable amount of food and trying to live on it all the while feeling hungry all the time.  It's taking a lot to get out of the dieting mindset but I will not be swayed on this.  I lost more weight and kept it off by not dieting than I ever did by dieting. I just needed to incorporate exercise into my schedule but with excessive fatigue and joint and muscle pain, that's not the easiest thing to do.  Not that she understands that.  She's never been overweight or had joint pain.

I am making progress on the dragon scarf after ripping back a dozen times because of mis-counting on the chart.  On the same row.  This is what happens when I can't concentrate.  But I am getting there and it's looking good although weaving fair isle is a bit slower since you have to lock every stitch in place.  And the stitches do look a bit wonky with slanting but the dragon is seated nicely in the scarf without any separations or loose stitches.  Not what I would do in all cases and I did consider intarsia if it wasn't for some places that called for a line of background stitches piled on top of each other.  I did that once before and hated it.  I didn't want to do duplicate stitch either just on that one spot.  And it wouldn't work well for houndstooth either, but that is coming along nicely so I don't need to.

I worked on mittens today as well, making progress on them.  I'm up to the top ribbing and just need to finish up the flap and thumb after that.  Then I plan on working on the sweater and poncho.  I would work on the pet bed but it's large enough now that whenever I lay it down one of them plops down on it.  Hard to crochet something when it's being slept on.

And I'm thinking of starting the Red Heart scarves after all.  I'm sure once they're washed they'll feel better.  If I can use the dryer.  Which still isn't working well.  I'm wondering now if it's the sensor instead of the venting.  I used the timed drying thing this morning to get the lint off the clothes before putting them on the line and they were starting to dry after just five minutes.  It may be that I can use the timer and get things dried.  But I want to save the dryer for emergency loads or things that don't dry well on the line or the rack. 

Tomorrow we are going to take the cans to be recycled, get the storm windows up and maybe some plastic on the windows, too.  I wanted to put it on the outside of the windows so I can still use the blinds and shades but I can't find outdoor plastic.  I suppose they would have it at Menard's.  But I'll put the plastic indoors on the back windows since they have good curtains on them and use it on the outside (if I can find any) for the living room, which doesn't have insulated curtains.  Or I could bite the bullet and get insulated ones.  They're about $14 a panel and I only need three.

It was about 55F in the house this morning when I got up.  Not so bad and not bad enough for the furnace but it is time to do something about the windows so I can keep the heat in and the cold out.  I don't like to turn the furnace on until Thanksgiving.  It's like a challenge I have with myself to see if I can last that long.  I usually win but if this is going to be a fast coming and bitter winter like I've heard, then I might have to start sooner.  We're looking at rain and chillier weather this weekend.

I've been spinning a little each day so I'm making slow progress.  The thing about a kick spindle is that it takes longer and the spindle gets fuller quicker but I love it because it's so portable and with my achy back and joints I can sit on the bed and spin.  I'm thinking of getting a new one after the first of the year so I've got two going at once.  One for spinning singles and one for plying.  I've just got to make sure I've got the first installment of our property taxes first.  And I just read in the paper that they're going up this year because property values have gone down.  We just can't win.  Tom better get a bonus this Christmas since they still haven't given him back all his pay.

Well, I must get the clothes off the line before the dew settles.  I love how the nights are coming earlier and earlier. I can't wait until it's dark at 4:30 p.m.

TTFN

No comments: