More short updates

Christmas Day - Cari is coaching me. "Lean forward...more, more"

8 pounds of wool on my living room floor. Took all day to sort it, soak, and wash twice. Then soak it overnight again. The cats and Sadie loved it's pungent aroma. Wed, 12/30

Cross-stitch of Higgins Lake. My eyesight is getting to poor for counted cross stitch. A friend, we'll call her, JJ, took it home and had it all done, even the background, in less than 3 weeks! It turned out awesome JJ! Thank you. Now I am going to make a pillow to frame it.

My new Eden Pure - arrived yesterday. I plugged it in at 5pm and it has been running non-stop. I have moved it a few times and I am working on dialing down the temperature, using it in conjunction with a fan, and pointing it in various directions.

I am seeing someone new. Our "first date", Christmas Eve, was 1 hour with the dogs and snowboard (him, not me) on the local hill, and several more hours of talking after that. Now we text and talk several times a day, unless he's working. Nothing serious yet, but I am sure enjoying getting to know him. :)

Short update with photos

Oh things are great now. Physically, emotionally, and mentally.

I am caught up on my sleep, my vitamins, my bills, and Christmas is over. I have a new 'tude. Here are some photos, but I am going to be short on my narrative this time. I want to continue my R and R for now.

Still Struggling

The car is good again. The little bumper car was really a trooper in the snow. But I was still thrilled to have my Equinox back. Turned out it was my rear windshield wiper motor draining the battery. For the past year (last winter too), it would get stuck in the middle. I would shut it off in the car, but the motor would still try to pull it back down into the parked position. In the summer it didn't seem to be an issue, but in the winter, it would drain the battery. Motor is replaced so hopefully, it will not happen again.

Work at the college has reached an all time low. Or a "high" actually, high anxiety. I am not comfortable with the situation...understatement. Also, toned down. Besides losing my mind, I am also concerned that the stress will cause a major flare.

On the bright side, I went out to see LC Guy on Wednesday. A short visit, but I was able to feed the sheep and goats. I spent a little time talking to the pygmy goats - adorable. They are not much bigger than my cat, Mister. We evaluated the fleece on his new ewe, it is long and soft, but getting matted on the ends. He wanted to know if I wanted to wait until spring, letting it get longer. We decided to shear her when he does the others this week. It was getting dark and I was not able to take photos this visit. However, I dug out this photo from October of her (I think! lol). It seems much longer now. To her knees, if I remember right. Hard to tell exactly how long it was with her set back on her bum while he held her and I reached through the fence to bury my hands in her fleece.

He had sheared some lambs earlier in the week and had set aside 31.5 lbs of wool for me. One, a young ram, was pure black. I have washed most of the 3.5 lbs of that and it is really different. Some is long, straight and coarse, I used my new combs to play with it. It is about 6" long. The rest of it is soft, tender, and straight. I am wondering how it will spin up. Obviously, I am not very experienced, and a bit tentative. :) I have to work on getting the drum carder repaired so I can card all this fleece. The wool is backing up!

I managed to get to bed early on Friday take a nap on Saturday after work, and then to bed early again on Saturday night. I awoke 7am Sunday, began thinking about going to work the next day and that was it! I finally got up and started cleaning house. I can't believe how much I got done! Six loads of laundry, steam vacuumed the carpet and kitchen (twice). I even had time and energy to get out the jigsaw and attack the counter-top oven enclosure! All before 2pm. Last week, I asked DDG, a friend and loyal reader, to take the oven to the curb for me and he agreed. How exciting to finally be making some progress on this eyesore! I mean the oven, not him! :) When I was done, I had to redo the floor and vacuum and wash the counters!

Oh yeah, I ordered an EdenPure at 8:30am this morning too. Not sure where that impulse buy came from. There is a good argument for sleeping in! But I can return it after 60 days, and it is in 4 installments. So if it doesn't fix my drafty living room situation, I can return it. I promised myself that I wouldn't skimp on the heat this winter. I had a hard time last winter with my fibro pain and I don't want to repeat it. Everyone I know who has one, swears by them - if used properly.

I managed to get outside a little this week and walk. Sadie was going bonkers and I had to get her out and run off some steam. I am thinking I will see if I can rent some of those new snow shoes from X-country Ski Hqtrs and see if I like them. I might walk more in the winter if I do.

Image via Wikipedia

Still no nibbles on Match.com. Could be the time of year, could be I am not being proactive enough. I will re-evaluate after Christmas.

The weekend went by like a blur

Saturday morning the battery was dead again in my car. After the same guy came and charged it, I headed straight to Walmart for a new battery. I never had to buy a new battery, that I can recall, in my Saturn, Horizon, or the Lumina! I had the Saturn 10 years. I know I sound old when I say, "They don't make them like they used to". The guy that jumped my car two days in a row agreed, but he gets $50 a service call. I am glad I have roadside assistance! But, if they put a decent battery in their cars, think of the money they would have saved...No wonder GM is having money trouble.

Then I stopped at the bookstore, and then my friend Erin came in and it turned into a small social gathering. The owner has a new kitten and I spent a lot of time playing with him. She showed me a picture of him in a book and while he was sitting in my lap he kept batting at the kitten's tail in the book! I grabbed my camera and he started batting at the cord on the camera. I was laughing so hard someone else had to take the photo.

I had to lay down for a hour when I got home, but I woke up hungry. The knitting group was meeting at the church to sew, so I threw my pizza and my dog into the car and we cooked the pizza at the church. We hung out until about 9:30 and headed home after a pleasant, if non-productive (sewing-wise) evening.

Today, I did some laundry, sewing, and wrapped Christmas presents. Even packed them in a box and they are about ready to ship to TX! Wow, for me this is major! It will be there before Christmas! Hm, suppose I should not count chickens before they leave the coop, eh?

Busy day

What a busy day today.

My car wouldn't start this morning, so I had to call roadside assistance, LOVE them! I got to work 1.5 hours late, no problem there. But the day flew by. At 11:30 I headed to my weekly teaching gig. Spent a delightful 2.5 hours with my students. This year I have another great group, I know, I say that every year. But this group? Crazy!

Last week, I had them write three short articles of their choice for today's class and they did research to write them! They are prepared to cite their sources. I can't wait to read about superstitions, historical Mongolian warriors, and the game of monopoly. They are a totally different group than the "usual" teens. They are all dorks like me! They had me in such a great mood I reduced their homework by one assignment and made it extra credit instead!

After I let them out, I headed to my hill job to get in a couple hours of work. I took Sadie with me. She has been cooped up in the house for 4 solid days and she ran off some steam in the snow, before I took her into the office. She was still wound up and ran around visiting everyone instead of sticking to me like glue. Everyone was surprised, especially me. I was worried about creating a disturbance, but my boss said she was fine, leave her be.

After that, we drove over to Tractor Supply where I bought all Jordan and Traci's Christmas presents. Just seeing if you were paying attention. Actually, I was out of dog food and the knitting group said TS had some hi-protein dog foods to chose from. Sadie was in smelly nose heaven and once in awhile, a lady would squeeze a sqeaky toy and she would shoot to attention and freeze. I think that lady was messing with her, big time. I found a 40 lb bag of 26% protein food for $10. It was reduced because there was a tear in it and they had taped it up. I could hardly lift it, but we got it home and Sadie ate some from her bowl immediately. She rarely does that. I thought I had a ball of energy before? That's okay, I would rather she gets her energy from protein than carbs and fillers.

As I write this, she is curled up in her chair, sleeping peacefully. Yep, a busy day, for both of us.

I took today's photos through the car windows on the way to work this morning. I haven't been able to take any photos to or from the college since the time change. Not enough light! Today was bitter cold, about 10 degrees, but the wind! It was painfully cold!

A snow day!

We were dumped on overnight. I was hearing thunder this morning. I LOVE thundersnow! It almost guarantees a day off. lol

One minor incident of note. My neighbor's plow guy decided to plow his snow into my driveway.

Despite being told otherwise, the plow guy insisted that "Up North" people are not around in the winter. Apparently, that's why he thought he could move up here this winter, make tons of money plowing, and snowmobile to his heart's content. I took several photos of his work in case it was necessary to play hardball, but he returned and moved it - up against the utility pole and into my neighbor's yard.

Yes, I am rolling my eyes.

My neighbor is actively looking for a new plow guy.

Sore Snowy Sunday

It's a couch day. I ache all over. I woke up feeling horrible. I am reasonably sure it is fibro pain, but I am also not thinking clearly, so who knows.

My friend, and at one-time roommate, Jennifer came to visit this weekend. I had asked her to come up sometime "before the snow flies" but she missed it by about 2 days. That's okay, after last winter, this has been a late winter, so I am happier for that gift from Ma Nature. Saturday, after I worked, we went to Christmas in the Village. The book fair was not what we expected, but I was pleasantly surprised by the craft fair. I was able to pick up lots of stocking stuffers and even a gift for $20.

Image via Wikipedia

I know how much love, work, and thought go into crafting. I made sure I talked to the artist or crafts-person about their work, acknowledged their work and creativity, and basically tried to show my appreciation for what they were doing, even if I couldn't show them with money. I try to do this at the fiber fairs too. Personally, if I try to turn a hobby I love into a money making venture, I end up hating the hobby. It isn't fun if it "on demand" rather than something you do to relax.

Image via Wikipedia

Backtracking a little to Friday evening. I got a phone call from my cousin in Houston. When she was visiting last summer, we found that we shared a mutual love for Jim Cantore (click here for his bio), the storm tracker for the Weather Channel.

Jim Cantore live in Galveston
Originally uploaded by GalvTravelGirl

She was wound up because our man was in Houston, reporting on their snowfall. She was trying to figure out where he was reporting from, staying, etc. We kidded around about being groupies and getting autographs from him. I promised to watch the Weather Channel for the information and would let her know if I found out. Jennifer and I spent the rest of the evening catching up while viewing the the Weather Channel with the volume turned all the way down. The snow was everywhere! Lots of southern states were getting hammered. Jim was periodically checking the road surface temperature to watch for icing in Houston.

Image via Wikipedia

I love the severe weather stuff. Because of this, I've been told I am an adrenaline junkie for the severe weather. Deadliest Catch, Tornado Road, Storm Stories, Stormchasers (my current fav), When Weather Changed History, and I monitor all the news stations during hurricane season. I want you to know though, I don't like severe weather to occur anywhere NEAR me! My adrenaline rush is limited to the television and internet.

Nuff for now, as I mentioned, I'm sore all over and that includes my fingers - usually my feet and hands are worse then the rest of me.

New Doc, New Hope and Improved Attitude

I worked a very long day today, but I have a new hope and energy.

I had my first visit with my new doctor today. We are going to reduce the amount of medication I am taking. She feels I was over medicated and she cut my dosage in half on one, and cut my frequency from twice a day to once on two. She also wants me to decrease my coffee intake, but I forgive her for that. :)

Hopefully, this will reduce my anxiety and increase my energy. She is going to run the whole gamut of lab tests too. Special attention to sugar and hormones. I have been waking up a few hours after going to bed with (what I thought) low sugar shakes. I get sick, shaky, and cold. It used to be only once in awhile, but now its weekly. I usually eat something - ice cream, or a protein bar or some milk and it will reside.

She wants me to walk more often - 5 times a week. With winter coming, I think this may not happen right away. But at 4:30, I went home and got Sadie and we went for a walk. When we arrived, the sun was setting and I tried to find my camera without success. Missed photo opportunity! Sorry. But on the way back there was a beautiful moon rise. I ran into the office and grabbed the Rebel to snap some photos. Its frustrating being a photographer and not having a camera when beauty is all around you!

But then it was back to work until about 7pm. Then we piled back in the car and I drove back up the Grayling to go to Wendys. A special treat. I shared a little with Sadie, but I ate the whole double! I have been so hungry lately. Like a bear getting ready to hibernate. I was a bit concerned and even weighed myself to keep an eye on it. Guess what? I have lost weight! I love it! I have become the type of person I used to envy. I patted myself on the back, smiled, and enjoyed my day.

Top photo may too sharpened, but I was trying to bring out the limbs in the foreground, and lost the shape of the moon. I was more conservative on the middle photo. The bottom photo I converted to black and white and played with the contrast.

10:30pm and its been a long productive day. *yawn* I better get, good night, gentle readers.