The rental agent says she hopes to have the apartment ready for me to move in tomorrow, Friday. According to her Tuesday email, yesterday new carpet was supposed to go in; there were a few more "minor maintenance issues" and the housekeeper hadn't come in and done her thing yet.
My trunk is full of things I don't need every day and my fridge is quite empty. I'm holding on to the hope I won't have to buy groceries till I've moved. This means Ive been eating out (mostly fast food) a lot, and I'm dangerously low on booze.
Been reading on breaks at work, enough so that a co-worker (the one who wants a soy wool hat) asked today if I'd "broke my knitting finger."
Showing posts with label the apartment. Show all posts
Showing posts with label the apartment. Show all posts
14 August 2008
09 June 2008
too hot to knit
It's been a no-knit week. Saturday night during the movie (which was a dud; don't waste your time) I actually pulled out a felted bag I'm working on, but never knit the first stitch. Think I was waiting for the movie to begin. It never did.
I have, however, made progress on the little "Family" cross stitch, and this week I brought along (to my work-week apartment) the material for what will hopefully be my first real quilt. I bought the material sometime last year. The pattern is called Nine Patch Nirvana and it's on a block-of-the-month site. I'll have to look it up at the library, so I can begin cutting my material to size.
Currently on the needles are...
* both socks of the 2nd round of the pentathlon, both of which are now in the heel flap
* the Henley T-shirt, knit top-down and though still up around the armpits somewhere definitely recognizable for what it is
* a bag in Paton's Merino, striped and destined to be felted. Hopefully destined also to be either a shopping or a knitting bag
* the My So-Called Scarf, found in a jacket pocket while cleaning out the closet
* three-tone toe-up sox
* basket-weave dishcloth
* log cabin afghan in wool-ease
* mosaic blanket I was making for Dad (th'Mr'Sr), who now no longer needs one :(
Thoughts of next projects include...
* kitty dreams, felted
* light-weight black sox for th'Mr
* thick-toed sox for myself, to guard against steel-toe-boot bruising
* reading glasses cases
Right now I'm more interested in knocking out all the cross stitch kits I've collected than knitting, since it's so-o-o-o hot-t-t-t. Too hot for a lapful of wool (or cotton, or silk, or bamboo).
There are (probably minor) family problems too, more on that later. The good thing is I won't be spending my days off taking trips to Indiana until these problems resolve themselves.
I have, however, made progress on the little "Family" cross stitch, and this week I brought along (to my work-week apartment) the material for what will hopefully be my first real quilt. I bought the material sometime last year. The pattern is called Nine Patch Nirvana and it's on a block-of-the-month site. I'll have to look it up at the library, so I can begin cutting my material to size.
Currently on the needles are...
* both socks of the 2nd round of the pentathlon, both of which are now in the heel flap
* the Henley T-shirt, knit top-down and though still up around the armpits somewhere definitely recognizable for what it is
* a bag in Paton's Merino, striped and destined to be felted. Hopefully destined also to be either a shopping or a knitting bag
* the My So-Called Scarf, found in a jacket pocket while cleaning out the closet
* three-tone toe-up sox
* basket-weave dishcloth
* log cabin afghan in wool-ease
* mosaic blanket I was making for Dad (th'Mr'Sr), who now no longer needs one :(
Thoughts of next projects include...
* kitty dreams, felted
* light-weight black sox for th'Mr
* thick-toed sox for myself, to guard against steel-toe-boot bruising
* reading glasses cases
Right now I'm more interested in knocking out all the cross stitch kits I've collected than knitting, since it's so-o-o-o hot-t-t-t. Too hot for a lapful of wool (or cotton, or silk, or bamboo).
There are (probably minor) family problems too, more on that later. The good thing is I won't be spending my days off taking trips to Indiana until these problems resolve themselves.
27 March 2008
All those ends go faster in company...
The Fair Isle socks are done. Last night at KCYC I finished the toe on the 2nd one, and tonight at East Tenapa (sp?) Mexican restaurant in Milton WV (a Ravelry meetup) I finished weaving in all the ends, and even knat another inch on my pentathlon gansey sox.
The meetup was cool! I hope I get a chance to do that again. I know next Thursday I'll be on my way home for a three-day weekend, but maybe another time.
On a less happy note, my next door neighbor (at the apartment, not at home), Beth, told me tonight her place is infested with RATS! She said they are big sewer rats, she saw them coming out of the woods, and they ate her couch. I immediately put my alpaca yarn in the freezer (oh, did I mention? Last night at KCYC I bought eight balls of Frog Tree alpaca to make a scarf I saw in one of the magazines --Knitter's, I think-- that has stripes which do a cool, open twist at the ends. I'll find a picture and post it soon.) I should probably put the cotton I bought last week (for a gansey sweater, did I forget to mention that too? Six hanks of a lovely blue and one of deep green (for swatching), and a pattern, and a #6 circular) in the freezer too. Th'Mr strongly suggested I get some DCon, but I can't justify killing rats for being what they are meant to be. He answered, "They're not meant to be roommates..."
The meetup was cool! I hope I get a chance to do that again. I know next Thursday I'll be on my way home for a three-day weekend, but maybe another time.
On a less happy note, my next door neighbor (at the apartment, not at home), Beth, told me tonight her place is infested with RATS! She said they are big sewer rats, she saw them coming out of the woods, and they ate her couch. I immediately put my alpaca yarn in the freezer (oh, did I mention? Last night at KCYC I bought eight balls of Frog Tree alpaca to make a scarf I saw in one of the magazines --Knitter's, I think-- that has stripes which do a cool, open twist at the ends. I'll find a picture and post it soon.) I should probably put the cotton I bought last week (for a gansey sweater, did I forget to mention that too? Six hanks of a lovely blue and one of deep green (for swatching), and a pattern, and a #6 circular) in the freezer too. Th'Mr strongly suggested I get some DCon, but I can't justify killing rats for being what they are meant to be. He answered, "They're not meant to be roommates..."
18 March 2008
wireless!
I have not one, not two, but THREE strong signals to choose from at the apartment! And to think I wasted ten minutes sitting in a hotel parking lot hitch hiking on their signal, needing to pee, when I could have been curled up here with a drink in my hand.
27 January 2008
short short weekend, long long week
Following one more Monday in January I didn't go to work (Dr. Martin Luther King's birthday), I returned Tuesday (after work) to the apartment to find icicles hanging out of the kitchen and bathroom faucets, a solid block of ice in the commode, and the shower hose broken off and lying in the shower stall.
Sigh.
This was not how I'd planned my Tuesday evening. I thought I'd grab a quick shower, then head to the KCYC for a little knitting companionship. Instead I'm off to the hardware store for a shower and a pair of channelocks (since my eleventeen pair are either at work or at home). By the time I got back to the apartment all was thawed and nothing broken, so I guess I got off easy.
Wednesday and Thursday must have been uneventful, as I don't remember them. Thursday night the temp dropped to 8 or lower, and Friday morning I let Astro-the-van warm up longer than normal. Then I drove to work. Arrived totally shivering, the van's heater was blowing only cold air. Thank the gods they keep the break room heater cranked up to eighty, and the 4/10ths mile walk in from the parking lot tends to warm me up too.
Friday evening I carried out tools for any eventuality and took US60 instead of the faster (but more dangerous) interstate, but Astro took me to the apartment without incident. One unexpected bonus came of driving the "back" road: I noticed a trusted chain auto parts store had a new sign up, proclaiming "now open 24 hours." I took down the phone number. No matter where I break down, I'll be able to call that number and find out what store is nearby. Smart, huh?
Saturday morning instead of letting the van warm up (not gonna happen with cold air blowing, anyway, right?) I cranked her up and put her in gear and drove right to work. If I'm going to blow a radiator hose apparently (judging by Friday's performance) it isn't going to happen in under an hour.
A lunchbox with all those tools AND lunch in it is heavy at 6:30AM.
Saturday afternoon --we only work eight hours on Saturdays-- I finally got a clue and checked the radiator for water. And added two and a half gallons. I'm so ashamed. But I am now home, 100 miles from work.
Still blowing cold air. Th'neighbor said he will replace the thermostat today.
Today's my birthday. Forty seven. I woke up at 6:30 (two hours after the alarm goes off during the week) and first thing drew a hot bath, lay in it reading for an hour. My apartment is adequate, but I do wish I had a tub there instead of just a shower stall.
Tomorrow I go back to work.
Sigh.
This was not how I'd planned my Tuesday evening. I thought I'd grab a quick shower, then head to the KCYC for a little knitting companionship. Instead I'm off to the hardware store for a shower and a pair of channelocks (since my eleventeen pair are either at work or at home). By the time I got back to the apartment all was thawed and nothing broken, so I guess I got off easy.
Wednesday and Thursday must have been uneventful, as I don't remember them. Thursday night the temp dropped to 8 or lower, and Friday morning I let Astro-the-van warm up longer than normal. Then I drove to work. Arrived totally shivering, the van's heater was blowing only cold air. Thank the gods they keep the break room heater cranked up to eighty, and the 4/10ths mile walk in from the parking lot tends to warm me up too.
Friday evening I carried out tools for any eventuality and took US60 instead of the faster (but more dangerous) interstate, but Astro took me to the apartment without incident. One unexpected bonus came of driving the "back" road: I noticed a trusted chain auto parts store had a new sign up, proclaiming "now open 24 hours." I took down the phone number. No matter where I break down, I'll be able to call that number and find out what store is nearby. Smart, huh?
Saturday morning instead of letting the van warm up (not gonna happen with cold air blowing, anyway, right?) I cranked her up and put her in gear and drove right to work. If I'm going to blow a radiator hose apparently (judging by Friday's performance) it isn't going to happen in under an hour.
A lunchbox with all those tools AND lunch in it is heavy at 6:30AM.
Saturday afternoon --we only work eight hours on Saturdays-- I finally got a clue and checked the radiator for water. And added two and a half gallons. I'm so ashamed. But I am now home, 100 miles from work.
Still blowing cold air. Th'neighbor said he will replace the thermostat today.
Today's my birthday. Forty seven. I woke up at 6:30 (two hours after the alarm goes off during the week) and first thing drew a hot bath, lay in it reading for an hour. My apartment is adequate, but I do wish I had a tub there instead of just a shower stall.
Tomorrow I go back to work.
28 December 2007
Happy Holidays; here's how mine were spent...
Two five-day weekends in a row.
Last Thursday I came home, we left Saturday for Muncie, had a real nice Christmas with all th'Mr's family (Saturday was great traveling weather - temperate, and not much traffic at all; Sunday and Monday were ice cold, windy, snowy; and Tuesday was again great traveling weather), drove home Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday morning I went back to work.
Sometime Wednesday afternoon I realized I'd neglected to bring the apartment keys with me, so Wednesday night I drove home again and Thursday again made the 200-mile round trip to Charleston, but now I'm home again for the weekend.
After work yesterday I went to the apartment to pick up a few things, most notably the Christmas ham AEP had given out. The bird feeders were dead empty, and I keep the birdseed in the freezer (there's no good reason not to: if there are mice it'll keep them out and there's really not another good spot to keep a big bag of seed in that small apartment), or I'd never noticed the power had apparently been out while I was away. Three pounds of bacon and another three of hamburger were completely thawed, and though there were some small chunks of ice cubes left in the big container I dump the ice trays into they were in a big pool of water.
The uncharitable thought that comes to mind is the neighbor (or whoever it was that came in over Thanksgiving weekend and drank cokes, moved the liquor bottles, used a huge glop of electricity and took an unopened bag of Hershey's cherry cordials), on discovering his key no longer unlocks my door, turned off my power for spite (since it was probable I would be gone all weekend). The electric panel is in the "basement" under the apartment, to which the neighbors have access.
Some more charitable (and less paranoid) thoughts are simply there was a power outage, or the freezer malfunctioned, or the breaker controlling the fridge was accidentally shut off for a while.
Last night on the way home I stopped at Target and filled th'Mr's Christmas list --yeah, I know it's late, but why risk duplicating what someone else got him, this is a better way to do it-- and this morning before he got out of bed I wrapped all the loot.
In Muncie we stay at th'MrSr's house and Christmas morning we go to Sis's place for a big breakfast and all the unwrapping. Before noon we were headed back home, and on the way home I started craving Christmas dinner (note above; we had breakfast, not dinner at Sis's), but not even Shoney's was open Tuesday, so today I'm fixing a turkey, stuffing, potatoes, green bean casserole, asparagus and anything else I can find in the cabinets (or send him after). The turkey, an 18-pound Butterball, is now nearly thawed, giblets and neck are simmering and most of the other stuff is ready to go in the oven when it's time.
Th'Mr has taken Astro to get my snowtires balanced, and I'm taking this brief break from kitchen to catch up on this most necessary blogging.
Take care.
Last Thursday I came home, we left Saturday for Muncie, had a real nice Christmas with all th'Mr's family (Saturday was great traveling weather - temperate, and not much traffic at all; Sunday and Monday were ice cold, windy, snowy; and Tuesday was again great traveling weather), drove home Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday morning I went back to work.
Sometime Wednesday afternoon I realized I'd neglected to bring the apartment keys with me, so Wednesday night I drove home again and Thursday again made the 200-mile round trip to Charleston, but now I'm home again for the weekend.
After work yesterday I went to the apartment to pick up a few things, most notably the Christmas ham AEP had given out. The bird feeders were dead empty, and I keep the birdseed in the freezer (there's no good reason not to: if there are mice it'll keep them out and there's really not another good spot to keep a big bag of seed in that small apartment), or I'd never noticed the power had apparently been out while I was away. Three pounds of bacon and another three of hamburger were completely thawed, and though there were some small chunks of ice cubes left in the big container I dump the ice trays into they were in a big pool of water.
The uncharitable thought that comes to mind is the neighbor (or whoever it was that came in over Thanksgiving weekend and drank cokes, moved the liquor bottles, used a huge glop of electricity and took an unopened bag of Hershey's cherry cordials), on discovering his key no longer unlocks my door, turned off my power for spite (since it was probable I would be gone all weekend). The electric panel is in the "basement" under the apartment, to which the neighbors have access.
Some more charitable (and less paranoid) thoughts are simply there was a power outage, or the freezer malfunctioned, or the breaker controlling the fridge was accidentally shut off for a while.
Last night on the way home I stopped at Target and filled th'Mr's Christmas list --yeah, I know it's late, but why risk duplicating what someone else got him, this is a better way to do it-- and this morning before he got out of bed I wrapped all the loot.
In Muncie we stay at th'MrSr's house and Christmas morning we go to Sis's place for a big breakfast and all the unwrapping. Before noon we were headed back home, and on the way home I started craving Christmas dinner (note above; we had breakfast, not dinner at Sis's), but not even Shoney's was open Tuesday, so today I'm fixing a turkey, stuffing, potatoes, green bean casserole, asparagus and anything else I can find in the cabinets (or send him after). The turkey, an 18-pound Butterball, is now nearly thawed, giblets and neck are simmering and most of the other stuff is ready to go in the oven when it's time.
Th'Mr has taken Astro to get my snowtires balanced, and I'm taking this brief break from kitchen to catch up on this most necessary blogging.
Take care.
11 December 2007
Tuesday?
It's been over a week since I was home. Worked M-T-W-Th-F-Sat (th'Mr came up Saturday evening, went shopping with me Sunday, took my laundry to wash Monday and drove back home today.) Looks like I'll be working the same schedule this week, and so far the plan is he'll come pick me up Saturday and bring me back to work Monday morning.
Astro, my old van, is not doing well. On advice from R, my apprentice this month, I unplugged the overdrive from the transmission housing, but that same day the weather warmed up and I can't really tell if that solved the problem or not. My suspicion is it didn't, and what needs to happen is someone (probably me) needs to drain the transmission and clean the filter. I used to do that every 10-15,000 miles on my old Ford, but these days I'd rather spend that time doing something else (knitting, maybe?), and wish someone else would just take over the automechanic position for me.
Or I could win the lottery and buy a nice car. One that doesn't need transmission work yet.
Knitting - I finished the modular for the grandnephew last Friday, after a few frantic emails back'n'forth because I'd lost his measurements. I ended up adding four inches (!) to each sleeve and then improvising gussets into those same sleeves. Photos will have to wait till I get film developed; my computer access here at the Charleston library is limited, and I don't have the digital camera with me anyway.
More knitting - I finished the front of Aranmor and began the back. Can't wait to finish so I can start another, though I haven't yet decided what the next will be. Fulmar? Bavarian Twist?
Astro, my old van, is not doing well. On advice from R, my apprentice this month, I unplugged the overdrive from the transmission housing, but that same day the weather warmed up and I can't really tell if that solved the problem or not. My suspicion is it didn't, and what needs to happen is someone (probably me) needs to drain the transmission and clean the filter. I used to do that every 10-15,000 miles on my old Ford, but these days I'd rather spend that time doing something else (knitting, maybe?), and wish someone else would just take over the automechanic position for me.
Or I could win the lottery and buy a nice car. One that doesn't need transmission work yet.
Knitting - I finished the modular for the grandnephew last Friday, after a few frantic emails back'n'forth because I'd lost his measurements. I ended up adding four inches (!) to each sleeve and then improvising gussets into those same sleeves. Photos will have to wait till I get film developed; my computer access here at the Charleston library is limited, and I don't have the digital camera with me anyway.
More knitting - I finished the front of Aranmor and began the back. Can't wait to finish so I can start another, though I haven't yet decided what the next will be. Fulmar? Bavarian Twist?
18 November 2007
knitting before coffee
Sunday. It's early. Haven't had coffee. Well, the cup is there but still full. It's seven AM; some of the guys have started working. Double time today. Not me. But I'm up, have been reading a little (Sudden Fiction), now poured coffee and thought, "drink this first cup then get in the shower." Thought I'd knit a little, while I drink that first cup, the one before the shower. Picked up the Aran. Row 15, a front-side row. I'm knowing & loving this pattern. First come fifteen stitches in moss stitch. Moss stitch is like seed stitch --alternate knit and purl stitches-- but you change every second row instead of every row. So I've worked it out - on the wrong side rows I follow the leader, on the right side rows I do something new. So I'm on row 15, a right side row. I'm looking at a knit stitch, so my first stitch will be a purl. Remember, this is before coffee, though my first cup sits there, only one sip gone. My first stitch will be purl. Look. I've purled twelve.
13 October 2007
The week in knitting
This week at work I knat on Q's EZ modular jacket. When I say "knitting at work" I mean primarily at break & lunch - rarely do I have the chance to knit other times (while at work). It's hard to carry knitting around on a construction site --not as if I'm carrying a purse (well, a toolbag some of the time, but it's way too subject to getting dirty or shredded in there), though that is what I had in mind when I got cargo pants-- instead I have a block of wood and sometimes whittle a little when I'm in the field and we're having slack time.
Shit, this post was supposed to be about knitting and here I am talking about work.
So, yesterday I finished the hood, kitchenered it together and picked up stitches for one of the sleeves. Expect I'll finish it next week. Pictures will be posted here.
Sis sent a pic of Q and Black Bear, but BB is getting severely hugged and it's hard to see the jacket he's wearing. I'll scan & post it anyway. Hopefully Q will feel the same way about his own jacket.
VJ at work, when I was working on the cuff of th'Mr's red & black sock, asked was I knitting a beer coozie? And suggested I should. Yesterday I told him I'd try that and said since he'd given me the idea the first one --the demo-- would be his. He requested orange & blue (some pro sport team - I forget which) and accordingly I stopped at ACMoore on the way home to pick up a skein of orange Wool Ease.
There's no orange in evidence. Maybe after Hallowe'en it'll be an easier color to find. Of course I browsed the three aisles of yarn at ACM and of course something yummy was on serious sale; I ended up buying all the Moda Dea wool/nylon blend in the color blue Sara F once told me was most flattering on me. No idea what I'm going to do with it or how much yarn the eventual project will take, but it was half price and all one dye lot, so with a vague notion of "hat & mittens? scarf?" I spent my fifteen bucks and now have 625 yards of it.
The ball band says 20 sts 26 rows to 4" on #8 so I'm swatching on #6 (because I knit tight? No, because #6 is what I grabbed on the way out the door to pick up a pizza) and two rows into the swatch it looks like I'm 17 sts to 4". Not sure if this means I should drop down a needle size or I should finish the swatch & wash it. Maybe it means I should google up the Moda Dea website.
Another suggestion I got from work, when I held up Q's jacket which is now, with the hood sewn up, actually looking like a jacket, is that I sew a "union made" and/or my name into everything I make. I think that means they like the jacket.
I also got the suggestion --again-- that if I sew I could make out selling the "do-rags" so many of them wear under their hard hats. Just the other day I saw the pattern & demo I got from CG when he was my foreman (his wife makes them), and now I'm going to make a serious effort this weekend to (1)find the pattern & demo and (2)figure out what I did wrong last time (and (3)try again).
It's getting cold and th'Mr says it's time to exchange our kitchen curtain/cat door for something heavier. Another project for this weekend: find suitable material, pin it into shape, take it to Charleston Wednesday and run it through the sewing machine. Do I need a second sewing machine? Hahahahaha.
Mom keeps asking me what I'm going to do when I get "too old" to do this kind of work. Maybe sewing/knitting is the way out. I think it's too late to do anything with "going to college in order to qualify for a 'better' job." Most college grads --BAs and MAs, I mean-- don't make as much as I do; I know that; Mom knows that. All I really want is to pay off the mortgage, pay off our biggest debts, and do the repairs necessary around the house, then we could live on a fraction of what I'm making now. That's what I want.
Shit, this post was supposed to be about knitting and here I am talking about work.
So, yesterday I finished the hood, kitchenered it together and picked up stitches for one of the sleeves. Expect I'll finish it next week. Pictures will be posted here.
Sis sent a pic of Q and Black Bear, but BB is getting severely hugged and it's hard to see the jacket he's wearing. I'll scan & post it anyway. Hopefully Q will feel the same way about his own jacket.
VJ at work, when I was working on the cuff of th'Mr's red & black sock, asked was I knitting a beer coozie? And suggested I should. Yesterday I told him I'd try that and said since he'd given me the idea the first one --the demo-- would be his. He requested orange & blue (some pro sport team - I forget which) and accordingly I stopped at ACMoore on the way home to pick up a skein of orange Wool Ease.
There's no orange in evidence. Maybe after Hallowe'en it'll be an easier color to find. Of course I browsed the three aisles of yarn at ACM and of course something yummy was on serious sale; I ended up buying all the Moda Dea wool/nylon blend in the color blue Sara F once told me was most flattering on me. No idea what I'm going to do with it or how much yarn the eventual project will take, but it was half price and all one dye lot, so with a vague notion of "hat & mittens? scarf?" I spent my fifteen bucks and now have 625 yards of it.
The ball band says 20 sts 26 rows to 4" on #8 so I'm swatching on #6 (because I knit tight? No, because #6 is what I grabbed on the way out the door to pick up a pizza) and two rows into the swatch it looks like I'm 17 sts to 4". Not sure if this means I should drop down a needle size or I should finish the swatch & wash it. Maybe it means I should google up the Moda Dea website.
Another suggestion I got from work, when I held up Q's jacket which is now, with the hood sewn up, actually looking like a jacket, is that I sew a "union made" and/or my name into everything I make. I think that means they like the jacket.
I also got the suggestion --again-- that if I sew I could make out selling the "do-rags" so many of them wear under their hard hats. Just the other day I saw the pattern & demo I got from CG when he was my foreman (his wife makes them), and now I'm going to make a serious effort this weekend to (1)find the pattern & demo and (2)figure out what I did wrong last time (and (3)try again).
It's getting cold and th'Mr says it's time to exchange our kitchen curtain/cat door for something heavier. Another project for this weekend: find suitable material, pin it into shape, take it to Charleston Wednesday and run it through the sewing machine. Do I need a second sewing machine? Hahahahaha.
Mom keeps asking me what I'm going to do when I get "too old" to do this kind of work. Maybe sewing/knitting is the way out. I think it's too late to do anything with "going to college in order to qualify for a 'better' job." Most college grads --BAs and MAs, I mean-- don't make as much as I do; I know that; Mom knows that. All I really want is to pay off the mortgage, pay off our biggest debts, and do the repairs necessary around the house, then we could live on a fraction of what I'm making now. That's what I want.
08 October 2007
Chaffin
The "Chaffin thing," as we call it, was Saturday. After the lunch & award speech there's a book reading/signing/sale over at the bookstore and after that we followed the award recipient (initials E.R.) to his cabin in the next county and sat around talking, drinking, listening to music. It was a nice day. At first neither th'Mr nor I was sure I'd go to any of it, since my weekends are more precious when I'm working, but I did go (to all of it) and we had a good time. Not a wasted day (unless you count that in an alcohol-related way).
Today I'm off work for another doctor appointment this afternoon. Then there's one next Tuesday, then hopefully I'm done with that for a while.
My apartment - I moved in last Tuesday. Tuesday night I still had no hot water but Wednesday when I got in from work there was plenty. It's very small, but big enough. The carpet in the room-that-is-not-the-kitchen-or-bath (which I'm calling the Other Room) is brand new. Tuesday night I went grocery shopping (wine, potatoes, onions, eggs, juice, butter, shampoo) and Wednesday I browsed through JoAnn fabric till I found a light flannel on sale, that I bought four yards of to make curtains. Thursday I cut & pinned curtains. Tomorrow among other things I'll take my sewing machine back with me.
Today I'm off work for another doctor appointment this afternoon. Then there's one next Tuesday, then hopefully I'm done with that for a while.
My apartment - I moved in last Tuesday. Tuesday night I still had no hot water but Wednesday when I got in from work there was plenty. It's very small, but big enough. The carpet in the room-that-is-not-the-kitchen-or-bath (which I'm calling the Other Room) is brand new. Tuesday night I went grocery shopping (wine, potatoes, onions, eggs, juice, butter, shampoo) and Wednesday I browsed through JoAnn fabric till I found a light flannel on sale, that I bought four yards of to make curtains. Thursday I cut & pinned curtains. Tomorrow among other things I'll take my sewing machine back with me.
30 September 2007
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:
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:
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