1 down, 55 to go

Next 3-day weekend is Labor Day, and if I'm not mistaken there are 8 6-day work weeks between now and then. Day one of six of week one of eight is done.

My weekend was great. I had joked that I intended to spend three days in a lawnchair with a drink in my hand, and that's pretty much what I did, though I did also give the garden a serious going-over (my never-ending fight with chickweed), pulled weeds out of the flowerbeds, sorted another three bags of discards out of my closet and th'Mr & I both played with the newest toy: a pressure washer. This morning he sent me a pic of the newly delivered siding (picture-phones are so cool), this afternoon he picked up scaffolding, and tomorrow his buddy JE comes in for a week to help re-side the house.

Trying to decide if I need to make a grocery store run tonight. I'm pretty comfortable, on the floor with my feet up on the couch...

We're back on forties

Thursday afternoon the Powers That Be decided that for now we're working forty-hour weeks. I was unprepared, so had to go back to the apartment for stuff - my laundry, for one thing - before heading home. I do love three-day weekends.

Friday we cleaned a little, we grocery shopped, and I cooked chicken to go into a pot pie. Saturday we went to a little book fair at the Morgan county HS, bought & sold books (they had a dollar table, and I dropped ten real easily) and had a pretty nice time - Brosies were there, as were Hughes', Dicks, and others we see only at these events; Sunday is today, and we spent time together while finishing up preparing for the week ahead.

Next weekend is the Sturgis book fair, but we may go to Muncie instead. th'Mr's dad is sick with something called pre-leukemia and Sis is worn out with worrying over him. Our turn.

Tonight we had a surprise visitor; a HS teacher from Carter county wanted to talk to th'Mr about how to get started writing. Was interesting, though I wandered off to knit after a few minutes. Was funny the little dog had gone off, barking at the back door; th'Mr and I thought it was over some noise I'd made in the kitchen, and I said something along the line of, "STFU Grrrl, there's nobody out there," when came the answer, "oh, but there is."

'K, it's now time for me to take my nine o'clock Sunday sleepy pill - so I don't wake up at two ayem and stay awake till the alarm goes off at four.

first full fall weekend

Today is ...Sunday? Yeah. Yesterday was the cousin's wedding, up on his old homeplace, outdoors, like ours was. Just last week while cleaning out the old entertainment center th'Mr found the tape of our wedding and we watched it. It's just been six years ago (my, how much thinner we both were). The cousin who got married yesterday was at ours, in the video. I just had a thought: let's one day take that tape up to the homeplace and let cousin & new bride P watch it. Or invite them here (maybe better, since it's VHS and many people don't have that). I'm babbling. Drink coffee now.

Dad (th'Mr Sr) and brother T with wife L & sons was down for the festivities; Dad was here when I got home Friday night but headed back to Indiana from the wedding, so we have the house to ourselves for the rest of the weekend. I see the dr on Monday, so still have two days of weekend left.

Tuesday I'll move into my apartment. It's very small, only two rooms - one of which is the kitchen (new linoleum, full size stove, refrigerator, adequate cupboards) and the other is the "other" room (new carpet, new paint, ceiling fan/light combo, two windows). The bathroom is very small and the shower is just a tiny cube, but hopefully the water heater is large. I'll be renting month to month, at least at first. $400 to move in. $250/mo rent, trash pick-up included but the rest of the utilities are mine - gas (water heater) electric (window a/c & baseboard heat) and water. No furniture. So far my packing includes two sleeping bags, a coffee pot and my craft lamp. And Dad's old microwave; he brought it down for us. (He also bought us a mower, but that's another story).

Losing track of what I wanted to write. Get another cuppa coffee now.

Friday I was back on temporary in the precip again. The powers-that-be decided one foreman's crew would go into the blue box to pull cable, and the other crew (that would be the one I'm on) would go to the FGD side. Normally I don't say a lot. Not to say I don't talk --quite the opposite is true-- but normally I don't argue or bitch a lot about what they want out of us. It's work, work by definition is something they have to pay you to do, therefore it isn't always pleasant. I shut up and do my work. This is different. When my referral says "outage" and someone else's referral says "FGD" then me going to FGD to work is like double-booking. Double-jobbing, to be exact. As if... suppose Pritchard has this little job downtown, in an office building, say, pulling belden cable (nice, easy job), wearing tennis shoes and baseball caps instead of steel toe boots and hard hats, a climate-controlled job instead of a powerhouse. Suppose they come to us one morning and say, "You'll be working on the office building job this weekend, on overtime. They've fallen behind." Oh sure, it's tempting, but it's plain wrong. And it's no different from sending us to the FGD side. FGD, if I haven't already said so, stands for Fossil-Gas Desulphurization. It's what they call "the scrubbers," which is basically the catalytic converter that will knock most of the sulphur dioxide our of the plant's emissions.

So anyway, Friday again I had the easy job of first checking my entire work area (the precipitator) to be sure nothing had tripped (plenty had), resetting tripped breakers, turning on the air conditioners, making sure all the welder six- and eight-packs were running, then sitting in the break trailer waiting to be notified in case anything went wrong. After the boilermakers quit for the day I went around & shut down all the air handler units.

This is not what I had in mind when I raised hell about not going to FGD. What I wanted was for them to stick to the original plan and put one journeyman (not necessarily me) and a foreman in the precip every Friday, in rotation, while the rest of us went into the blue box to pull cable. I'd had it the Friday before, now it was someone else's turn. The one whose turn it was didn't "get" it and was happy to go work on the FGD side (sigh) ...some people you can't teach. Enough about work. Now it's the weekend.

Dad, as predicted, was horrified when he saw the grass and went to Lowe's and bought us a lawnmower. Never mind that neither th'Mr nor I was particularly worried about it, that in fact we were charmed by the fact we've got praying mantis walking around



on the windows, never mind that in a month they'll be slashing the price on new mowers by probably a third, never mind that in a month I'll be able to afford one (at the price they are now, even)... he bought us a mower. And th'Mr mowed. It's as much about the exercise as the grass; if he mows ten minutes a couple times a day he'll have more exercise than if he doesn't.

Shorty with catnip and tall grass:

The new mower, at rest:

plan rebuttal

Wow, what a lot of plans I had for last weekend.

So here's what happened. When I got to the tub (remember I'd drawn myself a bath) all the water had leaked out. I guess there's another thing to add to the to-do list: put a new drain/stopper on the old bathtub. It'd be more efficient to just replace the whole bath/shower stall, but I'm still holding out for the day we win the lottery and build a whole new house further back in the woods. This one needs a lot of work. It was built in 1923.

So, no bath, at least not right away, which of course threw everything else off schedule. Th'Mr phoned about his monitor --our place in town doesn't work on them at all, so there was no point dropping his off on the way to Lexington. Phoned his drrr and they told him to come in Sep 4 for a CAT scan, so the reasons for the Lexington trip were down to "pick up desk, go to liquor store." Not that we don't have a liquor store in town, but the big one in Lex is so much ...bigger.

We blew off the trip into the city.

C&S arrived earlier than expected, and the little neurotic pitbull greeted them and their dogs. A flurry of activity later she was on her way to the doggydrrr/kennel for the weekend. C&S were in town for the Fiddler's Convention, so C didn't go to the Sparky & Rhonda Rucker concert with th'Mr, nor did S go to knitnight with me. Instead we all went off in three different directions...

I got to knitnight and was the only one there for an hour, till N&T (mother&daughter) showed up. I really enjoy those two. I guess I'm about halfway between them in age and for some reason they both seem to really like me. Th'Mr says it's because I'm just likeable, but I find that hard to swallow. I don't see a lot to like in me...

shakes herself

So anyway, no grocery run, no dinner cooked, no desk picked up nor built, no old desk moved out, no wall painted (and that green doesn't look all that bad)... but th'Mr got his CD, I had my knitnight, C&S had their Fiddler's Convention, and it was a good weekend.

the list

Looking over the old blog I realized a list may help.

Four nights three days at home all in a row seems like an adequate --maybe even a long-- weekend, but when I think of all the things I want to get done it feels shorter and shorter.

While I was away, th'Mr informs me, the vacuum arrived (ordered online, so no more "can't sell you the display model" woes) and the desk is awaiting pickup. Not to mention (but I will) the ball of Paton's Kroy Whitecap I've been waiting for (not really waiting, but if I knit fast and often I'll need it this week) came in this week's ebay mail... Soon as I have some time I'll list what I've bought on ebay lately. I went a little nuts going over his amazon.com wishlist and as usual couldn't keep it a surprise, but I think he's been happy about all the books & music. Maybe a little amazed, even. I'm not a generous person when it comes to spending money...

Oh yeah, a list.

The VA phoned. He's still in bed, so he doesn't know yet, but his doctor --the one he told me this week he really likes-- wants him to call back. The pneumonia or whatever it is he's had since ...May?... still hasn't cleared up and this week she ran a slew of tests. He knows he'll have to go back and will probably argue not to "waste" my weekend with it, but hell, the desk is also in Lexington awaiting pickup. Two birds with one stone. My folks sent him the desk in check-form for his birthday (late May); last weekend we finally got around to buying it.

LIST, the list dammit!

Go to Lexington.

No, wait, that can't be first.

Go to the bank, deposit my check.

No, first, phone the VA doctor and then decide what to do next.
Phone the computer repair place and see if there's any point bringing him the flat-screen monitor which died suddenly yesterday; yes, the same flat-screen that I had to wait seven months for the $90 rebate on.
Go to the bank, on the way hopefully dropping off the monitor.
Double back to the check cashing place, repaying the $200 I borrowed two weeks ago.
Turn around & head to Lexington, pick up the desk, visit the VA doctor, get home before the veterinarian closes at 5PM.
Take the dog to the vet for boarding while C&S are here over the weekend with their two dogs (ours, if you remember, thinks it's her role in life to be the only dog. Unfortunately the pitbull blood means she tries to make this happen with literally her teeth in their throats).
Move th'Mr's old desk, clean a space to put the new desk, and paint the wall behind where the new desk will sit. I'm serious. I'll use the paint I intended for my sewing room. His room really needs paint (observe the sickly green behind my profile photo) and I haven't even started on my room yet, and the paint's here, so there.
Assemble his desk.
Get groceries, prepare for C&S' visit.
Attend the Sparky & Rhonda Rucker concert at 7PM (at least long enough for him to buy a CD) and my knit night, which also begins at 7. They're just a couple blocks apart.

Crap, it's already closing in on noonish (10:30AM) and looks like none of this will get done. I have a bath half-run (waiting for the water heater to do its thing again, which by now it's done), I'm going off in seven different directions on line, and he's still asleep.

still sick

Yesterday in addition to the vitamins (calcium-magnesium-zinc, D-400, and E-400) I normally take, I had three garlic-parsley and three echinacea-167 every 2-3 hours. By afternoon I was feeling fine enough to spend an hour pulling weeds (and marveling that my back wasn't protesting - working for a living is good for the muscles and noticeable after just a couple of weeks) and a few minutes picking berries behind the barn. I also made a pot of chicken soup (good for the soul body) and spent a bit of time on the front porch watching the birds and working on the wolfpups cross stitch.

This morning I woke at three, congested and feeling like shit. Though not as shit as yesterday morning; I've been wavering about going to work or staying home and trying out the new (free) clinic. Don't have a fever, but I run hot & clammy to normal to cold & shivery. My nose runs (pun intended) from stopped up to drippy to sneezing repeatedly. The intense headache comes and goes. The bowels are loose (sorry if that's too much information).

Th'Mr suggested yesterday if I'm not better today I go to the ER, but if the 'clinic is open (surely they're staffed by volunteers, and how much can they do, anyway? X-rays? Prescriptions? Will I end up at the ER anyway?) I'll try them first. "My husband had pneumonia and when I first learned of hypochondria I thought to myself, 'I've got that!'"

In the meanwhile, it's just twenty after five; a good hour before I can call in to work (didn't call yesterday, but two days in a row - I'd better let them know what's going on) and surely at least a couple hours before any clinic, free or otherwise, opens. At 7:30 th'Mr plans to take Moby Dodge to the dealership from whence he came (how do ya like that, a "whence!" Whew!!) to get diagnosticized. The good news on MD is that the place that sold us the rebuilt motor is liable for the main seal leak, and for the labor to replace the motor.

MC & R are coming in for the weekend (they'll be camping, but will stop in to see us), so though I'm too sick for the interminable drive-walk-work-walk-drive I'm well enough to do some spot-cleaning on the house (that would be the same house that would benefit from much much more than mere "spot" cleaning).

June travel, prospects, & projects so far

Got back yesterday from house-/ dog-/ cat-sitting at C & S's place in Ohio. We drove up Thursday afternoon, got home yesterday afternoon after detouring through Charleston & Huntington WV, where I needed to sign the union books. Huntington says Kyger Creek is calling a few at a time and should go "time" two months (or so) from now, and "the Oilcan" in Ashland is due to begin a sixty-day outage Sept. 15th. There are about 110 ahead of me on the books. In Charleston, when I asked, "where's all the work?" they said, "right here, and Clarksburg." Sounds like I may get a call out in the nick of time. Wish me luck.

There's a woman in Kenova who is freecycling "a bag of misc sewing items" in which I'd expressed interest. Somehow we miscommunicated (both of us) and I didn't get the bag on either the trip to Ohio or the return trip, and now she's on a trip herself. I don't know what's in the bag and her sig file indicates our philosophies differ, but I'm having fun participating in our miscommunication, and am looking forward to (maybe, eventually) meeting her and picking up the bag.

While at C & S's, though we have internet access it's just not the same as being home on our own boxes, we spend less time on the computer and more wondering "what to do next." They have some sort of satellite TV and high-definition, and TIVO and a bunch of other stuff I don't know how to use, so we did manage to watch a few decent movies and even an episode of Dead Like Me that hadn't arrived in our netflix queue yet.



I finished the soldiersocks and printed out the band I'm supposed to wrap them in. I'm glad that's done; it took much much longer than I had planned, or expected, and I was heartily sick of the project several times before the end, but the socks are beautiful and I'm proud of them. And it was good practice knitting; I now have a standard sock pattern (my adaptation of the official SFS pattern) to use with fingering weight yarn, and a new favorite "cheap" sock yarn: knitpicks essential solids.

Got quite a bit done on the Oh's and X's cross stitch, and unless the backstitching really transforms what I see so far, I won't be buying any more of their patterns. th'Mr made a valid point:
he: "how much did that cost you?"
me: "not much, I got it out of the clearance bin at Michaels, I think."
he: "then why, if you don't enjoy it, are you finishing it?"
me: "uh..."



I'm finishing it because I'm curious just how much the backstitching will improve it. I'm finishing it because it'll fit with the "decor" or "theme" of what will eventually be my sewing room. I'm finishing it because I'm OCD and have a really hard time not finishing what I start... eventually. But most of all I was working on it over the weekend because after finishing the soldier socks I had no other project with me to work on, and there's nothing like a craft store to be found anywhere near Athens, Ohio.



Wednesday, I think it was, th'Mr & I were out riding around town after RJ's film screening, and finally found the quilting supply store that I'd seen "Grand Opening June 1" fliers for. It wasn't open yet, but the proprietor (proprietess?) invited me in anyway, and I came out the proud owner of a Fiskar's brand 3-piece quilting set - rotary cutter, mat, and transparent ruler.

On the way home from Ohio we stopped in Barboursville to get th'Mr's dad (hereafter to be known as th'Mr.Sr) a birthday present, a digital picture frame. I think it's a great idea and something he (1) doesn't already have (2) may have actually never heard of (3) will enjoy. This is a guy who's pretty hard to buy for.

Speaking of guys hard to buy for, Fathers' Day is coming up, what, this weekend? I'm going to get busy knitting ties of sock yarn. Wish me speed.



And with that, I'll close this blog entry (almost neglecting to mention that we finally had rain, both while we were away and last night, and my nasturtiums are blooming!) and go cast on a tie.

Oh, my. I was all prepared to <shriek> here, when I did my usual <arrow up, enter> in order to access wvdial to go online and post this, and instead of wvdial my previous command had apparently been HALT... so after rebooting I expected this whole post to be gone but NO, Firefox is absofuckinlutely amazing. Yes, it's still here. Now to add some pix...

Memorial Day Week

Yesterday RJ the Calif. filmmaker came in for a few days; he's doing a pre-screening of American Threnody at the library tonight. th'Mr barbecue'd ribs, and his cousin FB came over, and our other Calif. film maker friend CF drove down "just for the ribs," and drove back home afterwards. That's a five-six hour round trip... Tomorrow we're heading up to CF's to house/dogsit for him while he and wife go to Chattanooga for the weekend. I invited RJ to come over this morning and I'd "fix breakfast," and so I had to go to the store and get a pound of sausage this morning. That gave me an excuse to get out, since I'd also ordered a birthday cake & needed to pick it up. It's hidden in plain sight in the fridge, th'Mr will never see it.

Yesterday I started "landscaping" the pet sematery by putting some of the good horse pasture dirt on Boo's and Cuz' graves; what was left went on Amos' but I need to get another barrowful to finish up Amos and cover Tick & Wolf. A lot of the millionbells flowers have bloomed and dried. I don't know if the seed is encased in the dry flower petals or if it grows out of the green part the petals fall from; at any rate I picked off about a million of the dry ones and put them on Boo's grave. I laid them in a big square along the outside (on the inside, if that makes sense) of the dirt surface. I'm writing this here because if I don't, I'll forget what I planted and where. This way I'll be able to look it up. Also, alongside the garage in the north-side planter, in the section nearest the house, I put five plums along the front edge, and this morning I put grapes behind them. That's not a permanent place but rather a baby bed, just to see if that stuff will grow from fruit. The grapes are fat purple ones, the plums are dark blue-purple ones.

I finished one soldier sock and am in the gussett decreases in the other. I thought I'd unvented an easier way to kitchener, but it doesn't look as good as the conventional way so I'll pick that out and redo it. Yesterday I spent some time on the "mystery cross stitch" which I've lost the picture to. There's a sewing machine and quilting stuff innit; I can sort of see what the picture will look like. The pattern book is for two cross stitches; "Rocking Chair Quilt" and "Country Closet Quilt" from X's & Oh's. Two things that make me think I won't be buying any more of their designs is there's going to be a fuck of a lot of backstitching to finish these, and the designer seems incredibly fond of half-stitches, which irritate the hell out of me. But they'll be nice pieces --either as wall hangings or throw pillows-- for my sewing room, whenever I get around to transforming the stoveroom into that.

company

A&J from Oak Ridge came in Monday and stayed with us Tue & Wed nights. That was fun. Monday night I baked fish & steamed asparagus, Tuesday I made a big breakfast with biscuits, sausage gravy, & scrambled cheese-eggs, Tuesday night we went out to La Finca, my favorite Mexican restaurant (and the only one within 50 miles, unless you count Taco Bell - and I don't). The seven cats present enjoyed the extra attention and Grrrl was good.

Roadie spent the time in the barn; when we have company he's the invisible cat. Cuz is still at the drrr. I've been to visit her today and yesterday; she looks a lot better. Her blood potassium is back in the normal range; glucose and BUN are almost there. All three had been off the chart.

Today I finished picking up gusset stitches on the soldier socks. It took so long because our resident ghost had once again hidden my reading glasses, and th'Mr's are too strong for me. The glasses turned up this morning in a purse I'd already checked four times in the past few days.

Last night it finally rained, a nice gently garden rain. th'Mr had been threatening to fill a trash can with water and drive it to the garden. It's cooled off considerably with the rain.