04 December 2012

rainy warm December nights

 This is nice. I just lost a document on my laptop because I still don't understand Win7 enough to have kept that from happening when the computer went into an automatic shutdown to install updates, something else that shouldn't have happened.

  And now there's Win8. On the desktop we still use XP. So we're dinosaurs. We've lived long enough to earn the title.

  So, trying to recreate where I was...

  Here I sit: laptop on, book started, crochet square within a couple rows of complete, bottle of nail polish. I want to do it all at once. Multitasking --the ability, which creates the obligation to-- is what causes my stress. There's a new gadget out this year, called Dragon, I think, which enables talk-to-text. Very handy. I think th'Mr should definitely have one, and all the rest of us should too. It would add one more thing to my multitasking, a constant narration. For now I just talk to the cats, and the spiders, birds, and anyone else I think may listen.

  I guess laptop comes first, though it's warm on my lap and the fact I have the fire going for Bob is no help. I look forward to the day I feel cold again. First I need to capture my thoughts, before they fly away.

  A couple months ago I joined a group making squares (rectangles, really, but "square" is easier on tongue and keyboard both) to be joined into 49"x 63" blankets for the homeless. This past month I haven't made squares, not since just a couple days past the last meeting. Instead I've been occupied with a pair of socks for the grandnef, which stalled - I then started a new pair, which are now past the halfway mark, a scarf for the bil (nearly done, just need to seam up the pockets), a blanket for th'Mr --which will look like just a bunch of nubbly scarves till I seam them all together-- and a bunch of kitchy kitchen stuff. Sometimes my hands just want to work in cotton for a while. There's also the fact I actually TOLD one of the guys at the local tire place I was going to make warm hats for them this winter, because they always look like they're freezing! I have the yarn for that project, anyway. And then there's the shawl, nearly finished, that I haven't picked up since the Tabby ate the needles. No matter that the niece (the grandnef's ma) sent me a new set pronto, by the time it arrived I was deep into sock yarn. Also there's the box labeled "Easy - Fun - Quick" containing a latch hook rug I started in 2008. I've moved it onto my bedside table to help induce guilt. It's just another project that's over 75% done...

  So today I began a square for the rectangle group. We have a name, but damn if I can remember what it is right now. The yarn I'm using came today. It's acrylic, which is probably the best choice for this sort project. I bought it from someone on Ravelry, she couldn't find the skein and substituted something else for my money, and now that she found it, sent it to me free of charge. I love Ravelry. Marketplaces like this --I recently bought stuff from Zazzle, another newbie-- and paypal are a couple things that make the internet really revolutionary. Yes, I'm one of the people who has longed for "simpler times," but the internet in all its connectivity, especially small businesses and social media, makes up for the rest of the modern world confusion. IMO.

  The laptop's touchpad is giving me hell, but I need to master it for the time when I switch to tablet. Which will not be for a couple years, I'm sure, though they're advertised in every 3rd commmercial this year, it seems. I unplugged the mouse just to get used to the touchpad. I can be part dinosaur, but there are skills I intend to have.

  The book I just started, well, let me begin with the one I finished last night. All through it I kept thinking, "this sounds so familiar!" and even googled the author to see if there have been any plagiarism allegations either against him or someone else aping his work. And then I realized I'd read the SEQUEL to this book just a couple of months ago. That's a whole new deja vu.

  Then tonight I started Margot Adler's Drawing Down the Moon, and before I got even through the preface to the new edition found phrases I wanted to post as my facebook status.

  Now I've got all that off my mind I can finish that 'tangle, paint my nails metallic blue, and finish reading the preface.

 

1 comment:

Saku said...

Wow - that's a lot of projects! I've a few on the go including an afghan I started over a year ago, finished a few more rows this summer and still it sits. It seemed like such a good idea at the time.

I'm no help with the computer, sorry. I think there is a way to have the automatic updates give you a warning, but I'm not certain.

Enjoy your book!