Keeping on.

I woke up at 3am, with a crystal clear thought that just wrote itself across my brain.

"Chiari decompression surgery, technical definition:  cutting a hole in the back of your skull to make room for your brain, getting it out of your spinal canal.

Reality:   The day your life changed forever.

Sometimes I swear that I don't really know what they did inside my head.  I do know that it will never, ever be the same.
With that thought, and a smasher, I came down and laid on the couch with Roy for the rest of the night.
Sometimes it helps.  I have no idea why.

Yesterday morning woke up with such a minimal headache, I didn't even think about it, until DH asked me.

That's the way my life is.  I never know, from one day to the next, and sometimes from the morning to the afternoon.   One may be wonderful, the other not so much.
I try not to dwell on it, take it as it comes.
I don't really know what else to do.
And I'm not complaining really, because in the last 4 years, it has been so much worse, with days and weeks on end, with no relief.  So I'm o k with this, as long as it isn't constant, I can find my way.

Because there are still so many things I want to do, and so much joy to be had.  I don't want to miss any of it.  I choose to live every single minute of it.  STILL, I am not giving in to this headache, which I sometimes refer to as this "revolting turn of events".

Like a incredibly perfect day kayaking with my good friend and weaving cohort, L.

In her fancy new kayak.
Making me look bad in my dirty old cheapie.   Snort.

Graced with the presence of a big loon, who came closer than any I've ever photographed before.
He made my day.

And then he was gone.

And the sweetness of grandchildren, watching them grow up.
Loving every single step of the way.

Life is good.
That's what I say.

Walk with me

Roy is getting older, and I guess with my recent hip problem, I have been happy to not go for long walks.
He is happy just to take a short walk through Kingsbury.

 Heading out the driveway after dinner.

Right across the road is the cemetery.  The original owners of my house (built in 1790) are buried here.

 Here's a house two doors down, unfortunately it hasn't been taken care of that well.

 I love the old stone in front of it, to tie your horse up to.

And the Baptist church, built about the same time as my house.
They did put all new windows in it a few years back, and did a great job of replacing them with the exact windows.

The parish house, across the way, where Lois and I sometimes lay out big rugs to sew them together.
It's an awesome old building.

The Kingsbury General Store, also has been around for a couple of hundred years.

I love the little park in the center of the hamlet.

 DH is already planning on this one!

I wish I could travel back in time, to see what Kingsbury was like back then.
But I guess I'll just have to imagine.

 The story is that Burgoyne burned everything in his path.   When we built the porch, we found remnants of what looked like another foundation, behind my house.  Maybe that's the one that was burned.

L's brother has the most amazing pumpkins EVER.

Heading home.

My neighbors' house, again, not much ever done here.

My house, and Roy's new yard.

I love the sun on the corn across the road.

 There's no place like home.
That's so true.
I am home here in Kingsbury.

Did I tell you they were BIG????

Back to circles.

So not dumb!

Well, it turned out to be BRILLIANT.

Yes, it did.  And I am soooo happy.  It saved us so much time and  work.

Pulled through and almost ready.

I thought I had another brilliant idea today.  I made a page on my web site, crazyasaloom for used stuff, and I put a whole page of books up.   I figured I could then direct interest from here, and from FB to that page.
But my servor had a glitch, and I couldn't publish the site when I was done.   It's still not working, hours later.

So I'm waiting.
I have to go to Staples and buy some large, heavy, book worthy envelopes anyway.

I am fortunae that this is the only loom that doesn't hurt my neck.  I sit up perfectly straight when I am weaving on it, and my neck stays pretty happy.
Although today, the headache stuck around, so I didn't do much at all, just enough to know I love this pattern, and I really love these colors.

Books, books, books.

I am on a mission, doing something I have sworn I would do 'eventually'.

Yes, I am cleaning out my books.  You think I would have done this before we moved, instead of lugging all of them across town to the studio.   But I didn't, and here they are.
I have fiction, and nonfiction, but I have a ton of weaving and knitting books.
To be honest, I have my favorites, and the rest of them will just sit there unused.
That is just not making any sense to me anymore.
Someone else would make use of them, and that is what should happen.

So I have been putting them on Facebook, on the All Fiber Equipment Page, which is a site you can list fiber related stuff on, to get rid of it.
I am pricing all books at $10 each, to simplify the process, and so far have sold about 30, in two days.
  
I just took a picture of the front of each book.

Unfortunately I have more.
I was wondering if I should post some here, if there would be interest among my blog followers, or if I would just be taking up space?

I also may take some to the Southern Adirondack Fiber Festival, in a basket.  There are lots of knitters and weavers there!!

Next up is clothes.....again.   When I put my summer clothes away, if I haven't worn something this summer, it's going in the donation bin. Period.

Then I have another cupboard, full of magazines, and papers of all kinds.   Things I felt motivated to KEEP.
WHY???
I have decided that to get rid of it all does not mean that you are not invested in life, but instead it means that you are more free to live it.

I have been busy with number 1 daughter, who ruptured her Achilles tendon doing a Tae Kwon Do JUMP.  
It's a very difficult  and long recovery.  I don't envy her, but I know she can do it.

Yesterday L and I put another towel warp on the AVL.  I have been dreaming of this color scheme for a while, but couldn't find the gold 8/2 that I wanted.
Finally, after a few weeks of back order, I got it from the Yarn Barn of Kansas.
We decided to try to "tie it on" the previous warp.  I have never done it with the 16 harness AVL, so I have no idea if it is going to be brilliant, or dumb ass.
We'll find out today!!!

 Ah, the headache. Back again with a vengeance for the last week.  Yesterday was the worst, with me going to BED ( oh the horrors) at 3pm and sleeping until 5pm.  
That is SO NOT ME.
But it did help, took the edge off the headache, although leaving the bulk of it with me.

I am trying, once again, to figure out why.  What is different?  I have had a few really, really good months. 
Maybe I need to get the Oseopathic Manipulative Treatments more often?
Is it the change in weather?
Is it the abundance of ragweed all around outside?
Or, and this is my worst fear, could it be that in my ambitious endeavor to have lots of stuff to take to the fiber festival, the weaving has been excessive and angered my fused C-spine.

I have been weaving on the Schacht looms, on mohair throws, and möbius shawls, and on both those looms, I lean forward from my shoulders, and I think that the neck strain might be the culprit.  I have been doing this the last 3 weeks or so.
On the AVL, I sit up much straighter, and my neck does not bother me as much.
Or is it that just too much weaving at a stretch is not in my future?
Ah, how painful that thought.

But I know that I can't do this headache.   I may be a hobby weaver, after all.

A day in the studio.

I love morning glories.

My next towel warp.   I had to wait for this gold, it was on back order for weeks.

Lois and I were upstairs today, finishing a big rug.
Sydney was guarding the stairs.

Roy was doing quality control of fabric.

With their help, we managed to finish this darling 5' x 7' rug in pastels.

This is baby Helen's new rug.

We finished just in time for lunch, my homemade tomato parmesan soup, using up the last of my garden crop.

I've been nursing a slammer for two days.  It started yesterday morning, when I got the visual aura.   It lasted about 20 minutes, then the headache came.
Today it still dogs me.

Honestly, I have no idea how, in retrospect, I did this for years.
Wow.