Another night without sleep

I'm having trouble with my computer so I'm not posting a lot.  Some days it takes up to an hour for the computer to resolve an unresponsive script.  It's frustrating but Zach can't find the problem...other than it's 10 years old and can't handle the enormous amount of crap out there in the internet.  Can't replace it yet so I'll just have to make do.

I'm going to the knit out at the library on Saturday although my social phobia is causing my stomach to twist in knots and kept me up all night with anxiety.  I've got to start pushing myself to get out more.  I'm planning on bringing my projects that I've done over the past year:  hats, scarves, baby sweaters, baby blankets and a couple of afghans.  They accept anything that will keep the community warm.  I've got until January to donate.  Now that I know where to put my donations I can be more specific about my knitting. 

I'll have to make do with the yarn I've already got because the overtime has dried up completely for Tom and with no pay raise this year, his pay is lot less than he was making as foreman.  I'm not sure we can make ends meet on his regular pay.  I'll have to start canceling things if it looks like the overtime is gone forever.  Zach has put in another round of applications but so far, even though all the places are hiring, he's heard nothing.  Without references he's limited to fast food.

This doesn't help the stress levels I'm supposed to keep at a minimum.  Seriously, I'm not supposed to get stressed out.  How the hell can I avoid that?  Especially with the hospital visit bill still not showing up yet? 

Well, got laundry to do today if I don't get anything else done.  And probably a nap and some knitting.  And working out a way to incorporate even more frugality into our lives.

Apparently I can be...

...arsed to rewind the backward self-striping skein of sock yarn after all.  It just didn't look good at all as a second sock so I frogged it and rewound it.  Only to find a knot fairly soon into the skein.  I just snipped it and kept winding.  I'll add the two together when I get there.  It won't cause too much discrepancy between the socks.  I hope.  I do hate knots though.

Zach is wanting to learn to crochet so tonight we're going to sit down and get started.  I'm thinking of doing some crochet myself.  A blanket of some kind, to use up the single skeins I have all over the house.  It would be nice to keep my stash down to manageable proportions.  It's not that I've bought all of this yarn.  A lot of those single skeins were given to me by well-meaning people who saw that I did a lot of charitable knitting and wanted to donate what they had stored for 30+ years.  And I can't say no apparently.  I'm thinking some blankets for the animal shelter since color wouldn't be so important there.

I got some plastic on my living room/bedroom window last night.  I'll get two more today.  It's hard work for me so I can't just do it all.  I don't plan on using the furnace yet anyway.  It's still not too bad in here if we dress warmly.  Around 58F right now and I'm getting ready to start a load of clothes so when they go in the dryer it will vent into the house (with an old piece of panty hose on the vent.)  Zach is going to tear out the tile in the foyer so we can put a rug down there this year.  I wasn't thinking too clearly when I had Tom put down some ceramic tiles there.  We can't put a rug down because there's no room and the tiles get so slick when you walk in with wet shoes from the snow, we've had near misses with falls and such.  Especially when carrying groceries in.

Had a bit of sunshine this morning but it's looking gloomy out there again today.  I haven't seen the extended forecast yet.  I hope it warms up a bit so we can mow again and get the weather stripping on the front door.  I thought we had more time for that.  Apparently not.

I'm still working on the sweater coat and the sock.  I've got a couple of baby blankets going that I should finish up.  One is in candy corn colors.  Just a garter stitch patchwork thing but it's pretty nice and soft.  Not sure where these baby blankets will go.  Maybe the food pantry or if I see a charity for donations of blankets for winter.  I'll keep looking.

Time to get up off and get something done though.  It's dark enough for lights in the house but I'm in my super tightwad mode right now so unless I need to read or knit, I'm not turning the lights on.  Off to do laundry.

Very unseasonable fall

I started another project.  This time a sweater coat based on an old leaflet I've had for at least 25 years.  Just a plain cardigan only longer.  My store-bought sweater coat is fast deteriorating and I need a new one.  I practically live in them during the winter.  I plan on digging out Zach's sweater to get back to work on and if I can't find the pattern, start over with another one.  I haven't gotten that far on it so it wouldn't be devastating if I had to.  Still working on socks, as always.  I'm discovering I'm not a huge fan of self-striping yarn after all.  One skein was wound completely backwards from the other one so the patterns are reversed.  I wasn't arsed enough to fix it by rewinding the skein though.

Zach wants to learn how to crochet.  I've had my crochet books and magazines out looking through them because of the massive stash I've got to use up so I have room to actually live in this tiny house and he got interested.  He knows the basics of knitting but it bores him so he thought crochet might interest him more.  His first project is a crochet bag for his hooks.  They're $10 at the store and no way am I paying that much for something he can crochet on his own.  I've got one I made years ago but I have twice as many hooks in it.  Way too many for it to hold.  He can have half my hooks easily and I'll still end up with too many.  I'm still looking for a project for me as well.  I was thinking of an afghan since I can use up a lot of single skeins of yarn.

It's cold now. Unseasonably cold.  I should turn the heat on but I don't have the plastic on the windows and I'm adverse to heating up the outside so I'm just wearing more clothes.  I need to dig out my fingerless mitts so I can knit with warm hands.  But it's not too bad in here.  Yet.  I think it will warm up again before we need to turn on the furnace.  I never keep it warm in here anyway.  I don't think we've had the furnace over 62 in a decade.  I prefer 60 actually, unless it's really wet outside, then I'll kick it up to around 62 or so.  And I love to sleep cold so we keep it around 50 or so at night.  Although I might keep it at 55 now that I have congestive heart failure.  I can't afford to get sick anymore.  Not with a tendency to accumulate fluids in my chest.

We got the storm windows on over the weekend so it is a lot warmer inside.  Once I get the plastic on the windows it will be even warmer. This year I'm putting plastic on the newer windows as well.  They showed some signs of air leakage last year.  Can't hurt.  Maybe $5 a year extra for that.

I'm going to finish up supper and then crawl into bed under my warm covers.  I don't have a blanket on the bed yet but I do have a throw on top of the comforter.  I got a new comforter on sale this summer.  It was $60, nice and heavy, for $26.  Always look in the clearance aisles before buying anything.  Back to being as frugal as I can since the overtime has dried up.  His pay without overtime is a lot less than his pay as a foreman so it's going to be a tight winter.  Just when I could focus on being frugal, after my cardiac rehab was over, the overtime went away so I never had a chance to get ahead.  Now it's going to be a struggle just to stay where we are. 

Baked spaghetti is a pretty economical meal for the guys.  Don't know what I'll have but it will be healthy and not enough to eat.  I haven't lost a pound in a month even eating under 1500 calories as a rule.  Sometimes less but never over.  Sigh. 

Trying to find a normal routine

I keep hoping I'll get organized better, the house cleaned and spend most of the day knitting happily.  Alas, this doesn't seem to be happening.  I had one day of a burst of energy where I cleaned out a closet that was spilling out into the hallway, sorted stuff to take to the thrift store and then burned out at 5:30 p.m. and for at least 3 days following that.  I need to pace myself better.

I am, also, overdoing the physical things, lifting too much and pushing myself beyond my limits.  I still haven't learned to live within those limitations yet.  I would probably do better if I just did a little bit each day instead of trying to do it all at once.

I started a pair of slippers for Tom last night, frogged the crocheted top I was making for myself, found 2 extra pounds of yarn, giving me a total of 3 pounds of purple yarn to make a sweater coat out of.  Now to find the right pattern.  I also frogged the 70s cape.  Didn't love it the way I thought I would.

I worked on the second sock last night in addition to the slipper.  I'm also nearly done with the baby blanket and I'm already planning the next baby pattern.  Not sure if it will be a blanket or not but probably will since it's something easy to knit and light on the shoulders when knitting.  Doesn't weigh me down.

Today, though, we're loading up the car to take stuff to the thrift store.  I have no room in the dining room to move around because of bags and boxes.  Then I can dig out more stuff to take to the thrift store next month.  I might get caught up by next summer if I work steadily like that.

It was cold this morning when I got up.  We had one window still open but I think I'll close it tonight.  It's time to get the storm windows cleaned and on.  I don't want to wait until it's really cold to do that.  Zach is going to mow one last time this week as well.  We haven't had to mow in over 2 months due to the drought conditions we experienced here again this past summer.  I hope the farmers are doing okay.

I've got all my summer stuff put up.  Have to work on Zach's this week so he has room for his winter stuff.  Well, I don't have to work on his stuff but he's got to.  Tom's on his own, too. 

I stopped taking the lasix except as needed but I have needed it this past week somewhat.  It's hard to tell how much water weight I've gained since I'm eating 1200 calories a day and exercising.  I gained 2 pounds last week but my jeans were getting tight around the waist so I took one a day for a few days until they got looser.  Still, I don't understand how I can keep gaining weight on 1200 calories a day.  Since I write down every calorie I eat at the time I eat it, I'm not underreporting.  This has happened to me every time I've tried to lose weight.  I lose initially and then stop losing and start gaining.  I've even gained weight on 900 calories a day.  It's frustrating how my body resists weight loss.  Still I have no choice but to continue.  Although I switched back to vegetarian because I get more volume that way.  And I'm not as hungry all the time.  Although I will eat meat if I'm craving it. 

Well, I should get busy and get some work done.  I've already cleaned the kitchen and my bedroom.  I guess I'll do a load of clothes before Tom needs the shower.

I really just want to crawl back in bed though.  I'm sleepy all the time lately.

More car problems and much knitting.

We had planned to go down to Indiana this weekend, tomorrow in fact, but things are in limbo right now as the car started making some strange grinding noises in the right wheel.  Tom is out there right now looking at it but as it's already mid-afternoon and the clouds are threatening rain, I don't think anything can be done about it today.  If it does need something done to it.  I'm nervous about driving all the way down there...a 10 hour trip...not knowing for sure what the noise was so as far as I'm concerned, the trip is off.  I'm not a risk-taker.  Driving a car with a problem doesn't make the problem less...it makes it more of a problem and more always means more money, too.

I'll have to call my dad and let him know. 

I had stayed up late making a gift for my niece's daughter since her birthday is coming up.  We were going to celebrate all of ours since they're all so close together:  my dad's is the day before mine, my niece's is a week or so before his and my baby sister's in on the last day of the month.  I'll just mail the gifts to them since we probably won't go down now until the spring.  Tom will be doing some training at work and since his vacation days start counting down again very shortly we can't take that many days again just now.  Plus deer hunting is coming up next month.  We don't travel much in the dead of winter because of the weather so it will have to be spring. 

To be honest, this will give me time to get a bit healthier before we make the trip.  I've been feeling a bit "off" the past week.  Some heart palpitations, although not much, and some anxiety.  I'm no longer on the lasix except as needed.  I took a couple this past week because of some shortness of breath.  I'm still not sure how to live with congestive heart failure.  All the information I got during rehab was about the stent.  The insurance doesn't cover treatment for congestive heart failure. 

I've been knitting up a storm.  I just wish I could finish up a project before I start another one.  I got a free Crochet magazine and loved some of the projects in that so I started an overshirt.  My gauge is impossible to get right so I just adjusted the pattern to fit the yarn instead.  I have no problem doing that with crochet.  Just can't do it with knitting for some reason.

I'm also still working on the 70s cape and the baby blanket.  I have to kitchener the toes of the sock and start its mate.  Since we're not going down (unless Tom can pronounce the car wonderfully healed) I also need to start cleaning.  The house hasn't had a good cleaning for over a year at least.  And the past couple of weeks have been bad for me with the fatigue so it's gotten very cluttered.  Time to clean.

I do much better with fall cleaning than spring cleaning anyway.

Also time to put up my Halloween decorations.

Well, I'm going outside to see what Tom has discovered so far.

I've closed the contest for the book.  Susie B has gotten hers but the other entry never came back to my blog to notify me or even just to see the results so as far as I'm concerned the second book is mine. :)