Still not ready for the furnace

No sleep last night...again.  I dozed for a bit but couldn't sustain any sleep.  Certainly not REM sleep.  I finally got up around 7:30 and got busy since I wasn't sleeping and went back down about 11:30 for a nap.  Woke up at 3 p.m. feeling terrible...tired and groggy.  I hate sleeping during the day.

I am getting laundry done but only because I must.  I have a couple of windows to put plastic on but I wore out after two more so I can finish it up tomorrow.  I have to remember to get Tom to change out the filter in the furnace before we use it.  I'm going to need more plastic tomorrow.

I've got most of the winter curtains up.  Two of them got mildewed too badly to use down in the basement.  It's damp down there.  Fortunately the rest are okay.  And I found my winter sheets but they need airing out because they're musty.  I'll hang them on the line tomorrow so they can freshen up a bit.

Still not knitting as much as I would like.  I got a few rows done but that's not nearly enough for a day.  I'll get more done later but I still have laundry to do so that will take up a lot of my time tonight.

Supper is ready so I'm off to eat and then grab the clothes from the dryer and put in another load.  I had to make laundry soap today, too, so my arms are sore from grating Ivory soap.

TTFN

OW!

I'm paying for all the work I did yesterday.  Not to mention sleeping on the single futon mattress instead of both of them.  I was trying to make the room fully convertible from bedroom to living room but it was a miserable night.  I felt every spring and the bars under the mattress.  So the other mattress is back on and if it's not convertible, it's no worse than it was before when it was fully a bedroom.  At least I can convert it to a living room in half an hour instead of hours, as it was before.  I expect to sleep good tonight.  If I can get rid of the pain.  Every muscle and joint is screaming right now but I don't want to take a tramadol just yet.  I'll wait until tonight.

I didn't get much knitting done last night and probably won't get much done tonight but my goal is to stay home more often, limit my trips to town and use the afternoons to knit and clean. And cook.  We are getting into the time when we need the furnace so I've got to cut expenses on the food budget to pay for it.  Plus keep the daytime temps at 60 and the nighttime temps at 50.  Personally, I like the nighttime temps because sleeping is great in a cold house, but there are times when 60 just gets in your bones.  The daytime temps the past few days have been in the high 50s but as I don't have all the winterizing done, I'm not turning the furnace on yet.  And it's not November 1st yet either.

Got pizza casserole in the oven and it's nearly done.  Zach wanted pumpkin pie so I got one.  We don't do that very often at all so I don't mind.  Then it's put the foyer curtains up and crawl into bed.  Professor is getting it warm for me.

TTFN

Using up the available energy

I slept about 14 hours total last night although 3 hours in I woke up and was wide awake for a few hours.  Still, I'm imbued with some energy now so I'm tackling the winterizing I have needed to do for a while.  I tore apart my bedroom and put it back in living room mode although I will keep the bed made up all the time.  It won't take 10 minutes to turn it back into a living room again.  But more importantly, the heating vent is open again and the room can be completely open to the dining room so we can circulate the heat better.  I swear I'm not moving it anymore.  I could be wrong though.

I had to rip out the baby blanket because I made a mistake 6 inches in.  I had knit about 2.5 feet so ripping back that far really hurt.  I felt like crying.  Still, making progress again.  I've got a sweater already knitted up that I think I'll send even if I end up knitting the other sweater.  It's a cardigan so she'll get a lot of use out of it, moreso than a pullover.

Zach got the leaves raked in the front yard so that is done.  I don't think we're going to mow again.  Seems pointless at this stage.  We need to get everything back in the garage this week, too.  If I can find room for everything.

Tomorrow I'll finish putting plastic on the windows because all this moving has worn me out and I still have a ways to go before I'm done.  The living room looks pretty good but the dining room is a disaster because I still have to find a place for everything. Unfortunately supper tonight will be provided by the golden arches.  I just don't have the energy to cook.  Not with about 2 hours more work to get done.  I'll probably just fall into bed tonight without anymore knitting but at least tomorrow I'll have a good start on getting the winterizing finished.  I don't turn the furnace on before November anyway.  Now my bed is away from the window and the outside wall so I should stay warmer at night.  The house hasn't been unbearable at all so I haven't been tempted to turn the heat on yet.  But we're getting there.  Won't be much longer.

Professor really didn't like me rearranging everything but he wouldn't leave the room.  He kept getting in the way, with his tail between his legs.  Now he's curled up on the bed on his blanket so he's in a much better mood.  The tail is up and wagging.

Now off to finish up some more before we head out to McSnacky's.  I'm so tired.

TTFN

Back to normal...darn it

I'm back to the fatigue and pain and not getting anything done.  Last night I couldn't sleep until nearly 6 a.m. because of the pain.  Finally it went down to a dull roar and my mind woke up and brought up every stressful thing I could think of.  The phone woke me up at noon so I'm lacking in enough sleep.  And I haven't had much sleep at all the past several days, which means I'm not getting anything done.  I'm trying to just keep up with what I accomplished earlier but it's hard to do that.

I am knitting even if I'm not the fastest knitter around.  I broke down and bought a baby doll today because I haven't seen a real baby in years and have no idea what size they are so now when I knit baby clothes I can judge better.  Plus if I take pictures it will look better than something lying flat on the dining table.

Good news!  JoAnn's is coming to Beaver Dam.  I don't shop at Hobby Lobby because of their anti-gay and anti-women agendas and the local yarn stores are just too expensive for me so this is good news.  Plus they have crafts there so I can get stuff for my art supplies and such.  I don't know when they'll be open but I hope it's soon.  Not that I have any money to spend there either.

Tonight is just grilled cheese and tomato soup because shopping took it all out of me.  I forgot to go to the library though so I'll have to do that tomorrow.  Darn it.  We've been doing well not driving so much.  I usually have to gas up every 10 days or so but it's been over a week and I haven't used half a tank yet.  Glad about that!

Well, time to go lie down for a bit.  I can make the grilled cheese later.  I'm just so tired of being tired.

TTFN

We had a few days of summer

but tomorrow the temps will be back in the fall range.  Mid 40s during the day and 20s at night.  I still don't have the plastic on the windows yet but tomorrow I must get that done.  Not to mention the rest of the winterizing.  Won't be long before I have to turn the furnace on.

I'm making progress on the baby blanket.  I had knitted a few inches but thought the blanket felt a bit stiff in spite of the soft yarn so I frogged it and began again with a size 8 needle...one size up.  It definitely feels better.  Has a nice drape to it now.  It will be a crib blanket rather than one to wrap the baby in but still needs to be softer.  I haven't started the sweater yet.  Not in a hurry right now as I'll make it a six month size.  I never make newborn sizes because people always get gifts for that size anyway.  I plan for later down the road.

Came back from Beaver Dam today after paying the bills, visiting my miniscule checking account at the credit union and shopping and traffic was backed up at E and A with a really bad accident.  The car was in a ditch with the entire passenger side completely caved in.  I didn't see what other vehicle was involved but there were no ambulances on the scene but we got there a while after the accident.  It's a bad intersection because there are people who don't seem to remember or realize that the cross traffic doesn't stop in spite of the signs.  Several years ago a woman pulled out in front of us and Tom had to stand on the brakes in order to avoid hitting her.  She shook her finger at us and then kept driving.  We blew a brake line and had to get the car repaired.  Just a few weeks ago a van hit a semi at that intersection.  I believe the van driver was on his cell phone at the time.

Been watching Hex on BBCA.  I missed it first time around but this time I am watching with great enthusiasm.  It's a great show.  The British do horror shows much better, I think.  I've got Merlin on dvr, too, but Zach wants to watch it with me and since he's been too busy lately...it's piling up.  We'll have to do a marathon.  Both men are loving the dvr boxes.  Tom initially said he didn't want one but he is enjoying the upper science channels a lot.  And Zach gets to watch all his cartoons now.  None of which were on the lower channels. 

Hopefully with the weather getting colder, trips to town will be less frequent and more knitting will be happening here.  I've got tons of projects going that I need to finish.  I have a stash of yarn that is overflowing all my bins and drawers.  I must knit it up! 

But for now, supper is demanding my attention.  Baked ziti and salad.  And a quick clean up and then to bed for knitting and watching the British mysteries I have accumulated on dvr.

TTFN

Frustrating

I was making such progress and then two nights of insomnia and I can't function again.  I have maintained the house so far but I'm so tired in spite of a long nap.  Naps never, ever refresh me.  If anything they make me more tired and I mess up my sleep rhythms so badly I'm in a cycle for weeks, but I couldn't stay awake any longer.

I need to knit as my daughter had her baby the other day and I'm trying to get the blanket and sweater done.  I'm using a Lion Brand pound of something or other that is soft and pink and a joy to work with.  I've got the Bernat baby sport for the sweater, which is in a magazine I've got.  I got the blanket pattern off the internet and it's lacy and cabled.  So, as I'm not a fast knitter, taking longer than I would like.  Especially when I can't knit because of the fatigue.

Seriously, the fatigue is debilitating and worse than the pain for me.

So I guess I'd better get supper going and let Zach clean up the kitchen afterward.  It's trash day and he's got to clean out an area of the basement as well.  I really, really hate feeling like this all the time.

TTFN

I just keep pushing

I scrubbed the bathroom and did a bunch of laundry yesterday.  Scrubbing all those places you don't get with a general cleaning...just took it all out of me.  I still need to steam the walls to get rid of the mold.  The plaster is ancient and absorbs mold and mildew like a sponge.  But that will have to wait another month or two when I get ready to paint in there.

I still have more laundry to do but I can slow down on it to a load every other day.  Today is for the dining room.  On Monday the cable guy will come to install two new dvr boxes.  It's only $10 a month extra and I feel so bad that I'm the only one who gets the upper channels so I'm sharing. We're still saving on the new deal we got with our cable bundle so it's still less than what we were paying.  Plus, as I intend to do more cooking from scratch and am trying to do more frugal shopping, I think we can manage an extra $10 a month.

I think I'll put off the kitchen until next week because with Tom home all weekend, it's impossible to get a lot of work done in our tiny house.  Which is why I have to get the dining room done today.

I haven't knitted in a few days but I've just been too tired.  I do miss it though.  Hopefully this weekend I'll get busy and finish up a few projects and make more progress on others.  I'm going to take the weekend and rest for next week.

I've got tons of things on the dvr to watch that I haven't been able to get to this week because I've been falling into bed around 11 p.m. and just vegging out until Tom gets home and I can go to sleep.  Tonight I will most likely fall asleep before he gets home since he'll be late because of all the paperwork.  I'm so glad he doesn't have to work Saturdays for now but he's putting in as much time during the week in order to do his paperwork.

Well, I must get breakfast...or lunch.  I just woke up around 1 p.m.  And then off to get tons of work done.

TTFN

Got to keep the momentum going

Believe it or not, I've been busy the past few days, working on getting Zach's room cleaned up and organized.  What people don't realize about OCD is that not everyone who has it is a clean freak.  Many are just the opposite and not out of laziness or just because they like to live in clutter but because the clutter is essential to them.  I've been working with him to change some of the behavior and have offered to monitor it for him, for when it gets out of control.  So it has taken a while to sort and organize.  Plus we had to move out furniture in order to re-arrange because the room is tiny.  You can't move anything without taking something out.  Fortunately we only had to move a very light cabinet.  The desk is extremely heavy and no way could we get it out of there.

So today we'll focus on the fine tuning, getting flat spaces cleared and the closet cleaned out and organized.  I took the door off a while back because it's behind the door into the room and you can't open it up very well because you're stuck between the wall, the closet door and the door to the room.  Which makes it very difficult.  And dark.  No light in the closet.  So I'll put up a curtain to close it off, which will be so much easier to use.

Then we vacuum and are done and I can move on to the rest of the house.  We're on a roll of tearing the house apart and organizing it all, getting rid of clutter and the stuff we've accumulated over the years that we don't need out or don't need at all.  I can't do this in the spring...only the fall.

I haven't been knitting much lately.  Partly because I'm so tired at night that I just fall into bed, but also because I've been doing crossword puzzles to exercise my brain.  And it seems to be working!  I'm able to recall things better and concentrate on reading with more clarity. 

But I have done some work on the socks, if only a round or two.  I do need to finish them up and get busy on Zach's socks because the weather is turning cold again.  Plus I need to do a mountain of laundry, put plastic on the windows and get the rest of the winterizing done.  Maybe then I'll be able to sit down with my many projects and get busy knitting.

In the meantime, I'm whittling away at the house and actually functioning once again.  It's a good feeling to accomplish things on a daily basis again.

TTFN

Don't ever hit the floor running

I finally had a day with energy to burn and my sciatica flared up so much I couldn't walk without dragging my leg and leaning heavily on my cane.  And the pain!  I doubled up on tramadol as the dr said I could but it didn't really put a dent in it.  And didn't sleep much that night or the next one so the next couple of days I was worthless.  I didn't even knit because I was so tired.

But I did manage to finish up the black and white rectangular shawl last night.  It's not very good.  You'd think knitting just a garter stitch shawl would be easy but this yarn is like velcro and can't be ripped back so any mistakes either stay there or I just cut the yarn until I can fix it.  I had dropped a stitch so I just went in and used a crochet hook to "tie" it in place.  If you look for it you can find it but you do have to look for it.  And then I bound off the end too tight and it's a good 3 inches narrower than the beginning.  I'll just keep it for myself, I guess.  From now on, just dishcloth  shawls.

I managed to work on my socks, too, but mostly ripping back because I had made a mistake and there was a very loose stitch way back that looked horrible.  I should work on my Greek Key afghan sometime this weekend, too, since it feels good on my lap while I'm knitting.

I have lots dvr'd so I should get busy knitting again now that I got some sleep last night and feel almost normal again.  Well, normal for me, which is still very tired but not immobilized by it.

So off to fix supper or just grab a bite and get busy knitting.

TTFN

Hit the ground running

...this morning.  I got next to no sleep on Sunday night and didn't nap much so I ended up going to bed at 10 p.m. and slept through to 7:30 a.m.  I did get up once to let Professor out but went right back to sleep afterward.  So I got up this morning and tackled the kitchen, straightened up my bedroom and did some reading.  I plan on scrubbing down the stove, mopping the kitchen floor and doing more laundry.  Plus I need to absolutely start cooking from scratch again and utilizing my tightwadding skills like I used to.  Fall motivates me more than any other season.

My mother wore her shawl to church on Sunday and had to fight to keep it.  Several women asked her about it and wanted to know where she got it so she asked me to knit up some more so she can sell them fore me.  I told her I would but for her to keep the money.  I really can't get my money back out of them and she could use the extra money anyway, living on a fixed income and having dialysis 3 times a week.  Besides, they're just garter stitch or dishcloth shawls so it's mindless knitting and I have tons of yarn that will work for those shawls.

I intend to start Zach's sweater this week.  It's a hooded sweater with a front pocket I found in one of my magazines.  The one I was knitting last year I didn't have a real pattern for and got stuck on the neckline so I'll just use the yarn that is still intact and add some other yarn I've got around the house as well.  I'll get back to mine, too.  It's a snowflake fair isle pattern and complicated but fun.

Plus the socks I"m knitting.  I ripped the mittens as the pattern wasn't working out well.  The pattern expected me to knit intarsia in the round with no explanation of how to do that.  I tried knitting it flat but I didn't like the pattern in the long run so I'll just use the yarn for more socks.  I can knit Zach's socks using one band of white and Tom's with two bands of white.  Mine are plain.  This way I can tell them apart.

I'm in my winter socks now as the temps have been in the mid 50s or lower and nighttime temps in the low 30s.  It's going to warm up a smidgen with temps in the high 50s and nighttime temps in the 40s but it's still time to winter up.  We wore coats last night to the store although it was roasting inside the store, even with our coats off.  We were sweating when we left.

Well, I need to get back to work while I still have the motivation and energy to do it.  I plan on lots of knitting this afternoon.

TTFN

Brrrr!

Temps have plunged here, especially at night.  We had freezing temps last night and more are predicted tonight.  I have been winterizing, although I'm far from done.  Still, the storm windows are all on and we close the thermal curtains as soon as it starts getting dark, which is earlier and earlier.  I love this time of year.

I have plastic to put on the windows but Zach's room will take precedence over the weekend.  We are tackling his room to organize and put his bed on an inside wall.  His room gets so cold in the winter that we got him a space heater just to take the edge off. 

Tom is up north this weekend to spend time with his brother at his cabin in the woods.  They get along so well and he really deserves this time away.  Work is especially stressful these past few years.  He took my camera and my phone.  I just hope he brings them back.  He's good at that usually but each trip he forgets something.  I just hope it's not any of my stuff this time.

I've been winding yarn today.  I dyed the Welsh top with coffee but the color isn't what I had imagined.  It's like an ecru color instead of the darker color I wanted.  I just couldn't get it darker though.  I think the top doesn't hold dye very well.  At least I didn't felt it.  So I'm winding hanks into balls so I can ply it.  Mostly, though, I've been untangling.  For some reason they got all tangled up in the closet.  The last two hanks were relatively tangle-free, which is good, but my spinning was pretty bad and I've had to splice the yarn a lot.  Next time I'll spin a thicker single.

Which I should be getting ready soon.  I have a pound of Shetland wool that needs to be scoured and carded before I can spin it.  And it will take me a while to ply this pound of Welsh top as well.

But...this weekend I need to work on Tom's hunting present.  I found some fingerless mitts he would like but I've never done intarsia in the round so I'm very nervous about it.  I'll go over the instructions pretty well before I start.

Cooking supper and doing laundry right now.  I still can't find my bag of seeds for the herbs.  I have no idea where else to look.  I really need to tear this house apart and get it organized.  It will be an early night, though because we need to get up early and tackle Zach's room tomorrow.

TTFN

Sleep is my friend

The sleep I got last week wasn't restful at all.  I would finally crash around 4-5 a.m. and wake up around 2 p.m. but getting out of bed was hard because I was still so very tired.  I really need to get my sleep better regulated.  I woke up around 3 p.m. yesterday and went back to sleep around 11 p.m.  Professor woke me up around 7 for an outdoor potty trip and again at 9:30 and again at 11 but at least at 11 I felt like getting out of bed for the first time in a long time.  I don't feel rejuvenated but at least I feel like doing things today.  I didn't do much of anything all last week except a load of laundry now and then and a very simple meal each day.

The weather has warmed up a bit with temps in the high 60s and lower 70s so Tom has some of the windows open.  It feels nice to put a sweater on in the mornings even if I take it off in the afternoons.  I noticed the birds hanging around the feeders yesterday so I need to fill them up.  I think I'll put one out front.  I have one in the basement I don't use.  I have noticed some birds hanging around on the roof of the foyer area.  It would be nice to watch the birds from my bed while knitting in the afternoon.

Zach and I are planning a walk this afternoon in the marsh.  There is a trail there that is pretty long so we'll probably only make it through the woods part before we have to turn around this time but we hope to extend our trip each time.  Walking around our neighborhood is not only boring, but hard for me because of the hills.  The marsh is flat.  It's less than a mile away and while I hate to drive that far to walk, it's pointless to try to walk to it in order to walk the marsh trail because it would take us a year to build up my stamina enough to get there.

I finished up Eragon and started Elder over the weekend.  The writing is really not very good but probably better than I could do.  His writing improves over the series as he grows up.  I suppose we shouldn't expect polished writing at age 15 and that he wrote a book that early in his life is still very impressive.  I haven't read the fourth book yet which is why I'm re-reading the series.  It took him a long time to write it all and I've forgotten a lot of the nuances.  I watched the movie again over the weekend, too.

And I finished up Buffy, season 4 and started season 5.  I have a lot of stuff on dvr I need to watch before it loads up too much so I might give Buffy a rest for a while.  I have Wallender to watch but I'm not sure if I'll watch Upstairs, Downstairs.  It really didn't grab me the way the mysteries do.  I might try though.  I'm probably the only British television fan who hasn't jumped on the Downton Abbey series.  I tried to watch it but couldn't get into it.  Maybe some other time it will appeal to me.

In the meantime, I'm knitting hats and scarves for area kids this winter.  The Beaver Dam library has a knit in sometime in the fall and accepts hats, gloves, mittens and scarves for the kids around November.  I've got one hat done although I don't really like it much.  Someone might, though.  And I started the scarf and another hat as well.  Don't know how many mittens I'll get made.  Depends whether I can find a pattern I like.  I have the mitten pattern that is fingerless with a flap but it's an adult pattern and I'm not sure how to make it smaller.  I'm sure there are patterns out there that already are sized for kids.  The hats I'm making are more for junior/senior high age kids so I need some around that age, too.

I did work on socks this weekend as well.  I finished up the first sock and got a little ways on the second one.  Nothing fancy...plain vanilla socks.  Except they're a dark brown.  I'll probably work on the Greek Key afghan tonight as well because I miss it.  Sometimes I have to just work on afghans.  Especially when it's cool at night.

Well, off to get some rugs hung out on the line and maybe start another load.  I'm going to try to get back into my tightwad mode.  We really need to as the utilities will go up once I use the furnace (hopefully not before Thanksgiving but probably before then).  Besides, it's just a good idea to keep our finances under control.  When the economy escalates around 5% each year and you only get a 1% pay raise, eventually you're going to be unable to work it out.

Off for a productive day, I hope.

TTFN