The new stove is here!

My new stove is in place and I've heated up the whole house trying to burn off the preservatives in the oven.  I waited until later in the day but I think midnight would have worked better.  Still, it makes the kitchen look so much better with a stove that isn't rusted with an oven door half hanging off.  Okay I exaggerate...a bit.  Tom has been wanting to replace it for years but up until we lost one of the burners, it still worked.  Plus I hated spending this much money.

I've got a round steak in the fridge (on sale) that I must use up today so I've got potatoes baking in the toaster oven and I'll get Zach's fries started as soon as they're done.  No point in heating up the oven for a smidgen of fries.  I'll get my iron grill pan out for the steaks.  And a salad. 

I didn't get a lot of sleep last night because I wanted to be up and dressed in case they came early today.  As it was there were here just a little after 11, not bad at all.  Tom was still home and able to deal with the guys while I held Professor, who to my amazement, didn't even bark at them.  I'm not sure he even noticed they were in the house because his eyes were on the big truck outside.  But as I told Tom, once they make it in the house, he's not interested in them anymore.  The yard is his domain.  Tom thinks he would challenge them and I guess he's right since Professor has caught Tom trying to quietly sneak in the house after work when my lights were off and went ape-shit on him.

I got a load of clothes done and another waiting for the dryer.  I won't start that until later tonight.  One load a night should catch us up soon enough.  If my energy levels continue to increase, I'll hang them out on the line next week.  I am doing so much better getting things done, although I did take a 3 hour nap today to make up for the sleep I didn't get last night.  I also got the screens up in the kitchen and bathroom.  I've got a window fan in the kitchen blowing the heat out and will put one in the bathroom, blowing out as well. 

The temps didn't get very high today at all...well, compared to what was predicted.  We didn't even break 90.  Last time I looked it was 88, with low humidity.  But the week's forecast shows a lot of temps in the 90s.  This is not June/early July weather up here.  I shudder to think what August will look like.

I've been watching the present season of Knitting Daily and I'm not terribly impressed with it.  It's not that it's not good...it always is...it's just that it's nothing much I'm interested in.  I suppose they have to keep up with all the latest trends and fads but I don't so it's not as interesting for me.  Still, I watch and learn, as always.

I got 4 episodes of Dark Shadows out of the way last night but I'm going to have to go for marathon sessions if I expect to finish it before I have to take it back.  I can't believe you only get it for a week and there are 40 episodes to watch per collection.

I should vacuum again today since they tracked in stuff and the kitchen needs mopping again but I think I'll put that off until tomorrow.  It's not terrible looking and it will be too hot to work outside anyway.  For now, I'm going to go watch another episode or two of DS before I start the steaks.

TTFN

You betcha I'm using the a/c today

Actually I started it last night because Professor wouldn't settle down to sleep.  He was pacing and panting even though I thought it was comfortable in front of the fans so in exchange for sleep, I turned the a/c on and pointed the fan out to the dining room, hoping the rest of the house would benefit from the small a/c I've got in the bedroom/living room.  It worked.  He sprawled on the bed directly in front of the a/c and slept the whole night.  The cat did, too.  And we woke today to a house set at around 80F but dry instead of the 100F heat index that was outside by 11 a.m. today.

And it's worse out there now.

But fortunately by night the temps will be down in the 60s again and I won't need to use the a/c for a few days...I hope.  There are some days predicted at 90F but I'll take it on a day-by-day basis. 

I've got something at the library to pick up and a prescription ready but I don't know if I'll go out tonight or not.  The delivery people are supposed to call between 5 & 8 p.m. to set up a time for tomorrow's delivery of the stove.  I hope they call sooner so I can pick up everything before it closes.  And grab something for supper.  I'm about a half hour away from pulling the stove out and cleaning behind it.  Once I do that, no more cooking.

Too hot to knit although I prefer that to cleaning behind the stove.  Still, I must get busy on it.  I just wish I had a self-cleaning floor and walls so I didn't have to do this, especially on such a hot day.  It's over 80 in the kitchen.

TTFN

Not too bad

I think the temps got as high as 94 today but the heat index was only 90.  Does that make it a wind chill?  It was a pretty brisk breeze going on and by 4:30 I opened up the windows and turned the window fans back in so they were bringing cooler air in.  Earlier the fans blew the hot air out and it was downright pleasant in here.  I did work up a sweat cleaning the dining room and kitchen in preparation for the new stove, but it wasn't terrible.

I still wish I could work for longer periods of time before I have to take a break though.

I didn't watch Dark Shadows last night because I had a lot of stuff on dvr that I had to get through.  I'm nearly up to capacity so I'm going to have to delete some movies I have.  Hard to choose which ones.  I do have some things that no one seems to be watching that I could delete first though.

Still working on the shawl.  I made it wide on  purpose but I may not have enough yarn to make a long enough shawl.  It may end up a lap blanket, which will be fine.  It's lightweight enough for those nice fall evenings.

I need to get back to work on the kitchen and get supper started.  Tomorrow night I'll pick something up from McSnacky's because the stove will be pulled out from the cubby it's in so I can clean behind it.  Tonight I'm trying to get everything done except mopping the floor.  That I'll do tomorrow.

So I should get up and get busy.  I still have a few hours of work to go before I can crawl into bed and knit and hopefully watch Dark Shadows tonight.  I only get it for a week so I need to get busy on it.

TTFN

Bracing

...for the week of 90+ temps.  Thursday is supposed to be around 97 but with the heat index that could be over 100F.  Not looking forward to it.  Plus no way we can afford to keep the a/c running for 5 days, especially in light of what the rest of the summer may look like based on this unseasonably hot June.  We'll keep Zach's room cool since that one is cheap to cool off, let the pets in there and I'll go in there if it gets too bad out here.  Thursday we'll definitely use the a/c but as long as it's in the low 90s I can't really justify using it.  Depending on the heat index, of course.  We don't have a lot of humidity this early in the summer so we should be okay.

I'll mostly do my chores in the evening and just lie around reading and knitting a bit during the day...in front of a fan.  I'll have the window fans facing out to get rid of the warm temps and we should survive it.  But I am worried about what August will look like.

Fortunately the upstairs cools off pretty quickly once the sun goes down so Tom shouldn't be too hot up there, but if he does, I've eliminated some stuff from the bedroom downstairs to make room for some bedding on the floor for him to sleep on.  He won't though.  For two years he worked third shift and slept upstairs when it was broiling out and wouldn't sleep down here on the couch until we bought him an air conditioner for Father's Day.  He was a much happier camper sleeping in the a/c.

I'm off to crawl into bed and watch the fourth collection of Dark Shadows that I just picked up from the library tonight.

TTFN

Heading for another heat wave

There is one less chipmunk in the world, and while I think they are adorably cute, my dog doesn't.  In fact he will go ape-shit in the middle of the night if he even hears one outside the window.  As a result, I'm not crazy about them anymore so when he kills them, I give a moment for the spirit of the animal but I praise the dog to the hilt.  He's quick and much more humane than the cat is.  The cat will play with them until they run off or die from old age.

We're looking at another monstrous heat-wave coming in this week with temps in the high 90s.  I'm not sure the budget will withstand all this extra expenses, but we definitely need the a/c.  I might just leave the a/c on for the three days instead of shutting down at night and waiting for the outside temps to cool down enough to sleep.  Last time it was around 3 a.m. before it dipped below 80. 

And this week I need to do some very indepth cleaning because the new stove will arrive on Friday.  Which means I have to clear a path to the kitchen and clean behind the stove.  Fitting my rotund body behind the stove will be a monumental task as it is.  I really hated to spend the money for it, and it was far more than I had anticipated, even choosing a low end stove, but we really need one as the oven door won't completely close and that's a waste of energy, not to mention it will heat up the already hot house during the summer.  We didn't get bells and whistles but one thing I did insist on was having the knobs on the upper part of the stove instead of the front.  I've bumped the knobs before and accidentally turned the stove on before, in days long past.  This just seems safer and we didn't really spend more as the first place we looked at (within 20 miles of our house) charged delivery and the place in West Bend didn't.  We spent about the same amount of money.

But cleaning when I'm still dealing with debilitating fatigue isn't fun.  I slept a great deal over the weekend, too tired to even try a day trip anywhere.  Something has to give here because I can't go through life like this.

As for knitting, still working on the rectangular shawl in the boucle and some dishcloths.  It's still too hot to pick up the Greek Key afghan for now.  I might pick up the knitting loom this week, too, if I find the time.

Plus lots of reading over the weekend when I wasn't combating mosquitoes again.  I killed another 50 the other night.  I found a puddle in the basement from a rain we had recently and poured ammonia in it and tried to squeegee it out but I couldn't get it all.  Hopefully that will do the trick and we won't get the next generation of mosquitoes again.  I read The Help and loved it.  Then I saw the movie last night and loved it as well.  What blew my mind, though, was a message board where I couldn't believe the number of idiots on there who think that blacks didn't have it as bad as the movie portrayed.  They called it a gross exaggeration of history.  Um...no it's not.  In fact, they had it as bad or worse than was shown, but with racism rampant in the U.S. again, people will believe what they want.

Okay...I'll stop with the politics today.  But it really pissed me off because not that long ago I served in the Navy with a girl, and she was barely over 18, who honestly believed that blacks were inferior, smelly and carried diseases and nothing was going to change her mind about it.

I'm done now.  But I do have to go finish supper.  Having baked macaroni with spaghetti sauce and mozzarella cheese.  I hate using the oven but it's cooled off a bit so it won't be so bad.  I still don't have the screens in the kitchen and bathroom windows and with the frequency of a/c usage this summer, I might not put them in.  I hope July is cooler than June has been.  We really don't have temps this high here in June.

Well, off to get some work done.

TTFN

We're having a heat wave

The trip to Indiana later this week has been called off.  Tom's lead man is in the hospital and likely won't be back in time or if he is, won't be up to managing it all by himself.  Hopefully Tom can find a day off in there somewhere though.

In a way, it's a relief as I wasn't sure how to pay for it all.  We desperately need a new stove and that would have to wait another year if we took the trip down there.

Now I will have to wrap and box up everything and send it down later this week.  Going out in the heat just isn't going to happen so I can wait until the latter part of the week for the temps to go down to just a bit over normal instead of nuclear overload.  I may have to take a sedative to view the electric bill this month.

Last night it got cool around 3 a.m. but Professor never did cool off.  His tongue was really hot and he was panting so hard he was whimpering.  I kept trying to get him to drink water and let him out several times but he wouldn't stay out.  I was going to take a book and my book light out so he could lie in the cool grass but he wanted inside.  Finally around 5 a.m. I got a wet washcloth and kept wiping him down with that and he cooled off enough to stop panting.  I managed to get about 5 hours sleep after that.  Then I woke up to hot air blowing over me from the window fan so I got up, shut all the windows and curtains and turned on the a/c.  I'll run it all night tonight as it's going to be just as hot tomorrow.  I don't want the poor dog to go through that much torment again.

I've been getting some knitting done on the shawl.  Finished up the shopping bag for Steph but had so much cotton yarn left over I'm knitting even more dish cloths.  It's too hot to work on the afghan and I can't think of anything else lightweight to work on.  I could read instead since I've got books from the library.  Or draw or something else.  I'm definitely not moving around much.  I was going to wash and dry a load of clothes tonight around midnight but it's just going to be too hot still so I'll wait until Thursday.  The temps should be down by then.

Now that the sun is going down I'm going to head to the store for milk and a few other things.  No way I was going out while the sun was up and burning.

Hopefully I'll be more energetic on the other side of this heat wave.  I can't believe we're using our a/c and it's only June.  Never used to use it until August because the June temps were so mild. 

No global warming indeed!

TTFN

Does two nights in a row make a trend?

I'm feeling a bit better having slept 8 whole hours the past two nights.  Not uninterrupted but the interruptions were brief and I was able to go back to sleep immediately.  Doesn't mean I'm getting anything done though.  I'm still very tired.  I'm sure it will take more than a few nights of sleep to get me back to feeling like a real person again.

But I have been knitting.  I'm ready to knit the handles for the shopping bag and started a new shawl for me out of the boucle my sister in law gave me...the one with the lovely striping of blacks and grays..  Just a rectangular garter stitch because what else can you do with boucle, really?  But it's going to be big and light for summer and fall evenings.

Still plugging away at the Greek Key afghan, too, but I decided to keep it because I love it so much.  My mother has said she doesn't want anymore afghans anyway.  So the pressure is off on that one.

Hopefully when we get back from Indiana in a couple of weeks, I'll be able to get going on the house and yard.  Right now the stress is keeping me in that state of perpetual anxiety although the attacks have tapered off a bit.  I'm not waking up in the middle of the night gasping for breath anymore.  At least for now.

In the meantime I have things to pack and wrap and organize because we leave on Friday morning...early.  I'm allergic to early but we have to get there in time for the party since my other sister has to leave Saturday morning.  Just as well.  We might be a bit late but we'll get there.

I had to run to the store to get Zach some more antihistimines.  He's allergic to mosquito bites.  So much so that the bites swell up to around 3 inches in diameter.  Or more.  And for some reason we have been invaded by them. I suspect it's the area around the air conditioner in my room.  I tried to poke tissues in all the various holes and openings I could find, but tomorrow I think I might put foil and duct tape over the rest of the window so we don't miss any of the openings.  I killed at least 50 mosquitoes last night and that's not an exaggeration.  I lost count at 40.  Several of them bit me, of course, so I'm trying not to scratch.  I didn't get any anti-itch cream because it doesn't do any good anyway.

Pizza tonight because I just got back from the store but I'll fix something better tomorrow night.  For Father's day we got Tom a new knife and a box of cheesecake because he loves both.

And now I need to crawl into my shorts and tank top that I won't wear outdoors but indoors I need it.  I didn't use the a/c today because we had a good breeze and lots of clouds.  I keep hoping for rain.  I don't want to mow in spite of all the weeds because the grass is crunchy and hasn't grown at all since we last mowed.  All that needs it are the dandelions.

TTFN

Oh, fraptious day, kaloo, kalay!

She's home!  My mother made it home today from the nursing home.  My sisters are having her living room carpet cleaned professionally.  Personally I'd just rent a machine from the store but no one really has the time to do it.  And my younger sister has been there nearly nonstop for Mom so...

I've been battling some horrendous insomnia and all the problems that go along with that.  The dr told me that nearly every health problem I have could be resolved in part if I could get some sleep.  But she didn't offer me anything to accomplish that.  I think she wants me to talk to the rheumatologist about it since she's the expert on fibromyalgia in the area.  Most of the problem is the pain waking me up.  Other problems are not sleeping deeply enough to get the rest I need.  I know that would involve some kind of sleep study which we can't afford so I will have to try and fix this on my own.  There is nothing I can take stronger than what I'm on unless I move onto narcotics and the rheumie won't give me those.  Nor do I want them.  I have known others who suffer from fibromyalgia who have been prescribed narcotics because their pain was so bad but what they had to go through with family members and the insurance companies was almost worse than the pain.  For some reason, people can't see us being in pain so they figure it's not that bad and we should just get over it.  It's frustrating and more than annoying.

I broke down and bought new make up this week.  I don't wear it often so the make up I've got is over 5 years old and not very good.  I got Almay foundation and Cover Girl powder and blush and eye makeup and such.  I love the difference.  I may start wearing it every day because it makes me feel so much better about myself.  It also gives me some color and I don't look so pale all the time.  But boy, howdy!  Make up isn't cheap.  Even the cheap stuff isn't cheap.

Zach had his appointment with the hematologist today and his numbers are much better.  His anemia is just barely anemia.  Only by a tenth of a point.  He still has some inflammation in his digestive tract but only a slight one.  We don't have to go back to see him again.  Just see the family doctor at his next physical.  If he still has insurance by then.

I've been knitting away, watching Dark Shadows and other things on the dvr.  I don't think I'll finish up the afghan though.  I started making a shopping bag to give my sister along with the socks.  I have another afghan I can take down there if I don't finish it.  I make them and then don't know what to do with them.  Plus I think I really like the one I'm working on now and may keep it.  I think Mom would like the ripple pattern I crocheted rather than the one I'm knitting now.

Well, I'm off to bed.  I got brats and beans for Tom's supper.  I'm going to start working on my sleep habits and go to bed now.  Well, go to bed now.  Sleep once the sun goes down.

TTFN

Things feel back to normal, whatever that is

My mother should be coming home from the rehab center within a week.  Her lucidity and muscle strength, now that she's off the steroids, has been increasingly better.  The other day she got a perm and wanted make up to hide the bruises from when she fell.

I haven't called her yet.  She doesn't have a phone at the center so I can only call when my sister or dad is there and the past few days have been a blur for me with errands and such.  I've barely been home.  I will try to call tomorrow.  There's just no knowing when someone will be there or when she'll be available.  I'll just keep trying.

I got the third collection of Dark Shadows from the library yesterday but haven't had a chance to watch it today.  I'm doing laundry, trying to catch up on a mountain of it.  Fortunately it resides in the basement out of sight.  Unfortunately it resides in the basement out of sight...and out of mind.  I keep forgetting until I run out of clothes.

I had to break down and buy new bedding.  The sheets I had before seemed to stretch or something and the center of my bed was a mass of wrinkles, which are hard to sleep on.  And my comforter is just too narrow for my bed.  It's for a full sized bed, but barely covers the top mattress.  I went cheap because I apparently sleep better on the cheap sheets instead of the more expensive kind.  I ended up with stripes because it was the least unattractive option in the cheap section.  The colors are nice though.  Zach is going to take my comforter for his twin bed.  His old comforter is almost as old as he is.

I've been knitting quite a bit on dishcloths and the afghan.  I'm thinking of knitting some headbands when I get done with the last dishcloth.  I've got a pattern I like but the yarn that is called for makes it too small for my head so I plan on using Red Heart yarn because it's a bit bulkier and will almost certainly fit.  Which means I have to dig through my stash to find colors I like.  I'll probably end up finding the cotton yarn when I look for something else.

The past two nights, Professor has slept so well in spite of the neighbor's party out back.  I didn't hear anything but it annoys Professor to no end that the neighbor is even out in his back yard.  J is good at keeping his noise down.  Only occasionally do we even hear his music.  And this with the windows open and his party less than 3 meters from the window.  I'm sure if we turned our tv off we'd hear him but still it's not annoying.

So even though I haven't slept long enough, I was sleeping deeply enough because I didn't keep waking up.  My physical is in a few days so I don't think I'll bother mentioning the insomnia to the dr again.  Every time I do she tells me it's depression and I need to see a psychiatrist and go on anti-depressants which can react with my pain meds, but if I'm under a psychiatrist's care, I can take them.  I'm not sure how that is supposed to help the possibly fatal interaction but there ya go.  Needless to say I'm not going to see a shrink.  Can't afford it, don't have the time to drive that far and anyway, haven't met one I liked yet.

Pychologists are a different story.  I've met a few I liked, but still can't afford them.

Well, the pizza needs to be turned in the toaster oven.  The door nearly fell off the oven the other day and since we can't afford a new stove this year, I'm using the toaster oven more.  We used to use it exclusively when I was cooking smaller meals.  I think I'll get back to doing that.  I could stand to eat less, for sure.

The dryer just quit so I'm off to finish up supper and fold clothes.

TTFN

Things are looking up

Better news about my mother.  The confusion seems to be easing off and it was never total.  Instead it was limited to her surroundings and location, which the dr says will probably go away after she comes home in a week.  She's getting her physical therapy to strengthen her legs and will be able to come  home on time.  Good news indeed.  Unfortunately dialysis will be a part of her life from now on.

Apparently one of her kidneys shut down due to being full of kidney stones.  I was trying to remember a time when my mother ever had any back pain, and there was one time I can remember when she had to take off work for a couple of days and stay in bed, but that was it.  But then, my mother never complained about pain much at all.

I'm making progress on the Greek Key afghan.  Past the learning stage of the color pattern and can now whip through it.  Right now I'm working on plain stockinette stitch without any pattern so I'm making better time.  I've knitted up a few more dishcloths and might do even more if I ever find my cotton yarn.  Still don't know where it is.  I vaguely remember it being in a bag of some kind.  But I've looked in all the bags I can find and no cotton yarn.  I've also looked through all my bins and can't find it either.  It will show up after I get back from Indiana, no doubt.

I slept about 11 hours last night but not deeply so I'm still very tired today.  I could go back to sleep, in fact.  But I won't.  I want to sleep tonight and hopefully sleep better so I can function again.  I've talked to the dr about my insomnia before but she insists it's from depression and won't offer anything since I can't take antidepressants, although she wants me to stop the pain pills and take the anti-depressants.  Not going to happen.  I can manage the depression better than I can incessant pain.  I've done both and the pain wears me out as much as the depression does.  Plus, the pain causes depression.  In fact, I'm having trouble maintaining my pain now because the pain pills don't always do anything for the pain.  Last night I ended up taking 4 pills overnight.  Two at a time because the pain was so bad.  Weather change, maybe, but certainly painful.

Well, off to knit and maybe some laundry.  It's piling up and eventually we're going to need clean clothes so...

TTFN