Slogging on.

I can't believe it has been so long since I've done a blog post.

This virus/headcold/congestion/bronchitis has been the WORST thing I've had in a while.
It has been a good FOUR weeks, and I am still not really over it.

I slog along, I get stuff done, though I wouldn't brag on any of it.  I haven't even seen much of my sweet baby Dale.  I sure didn't want to give it to her.

 I finally went to the doctor, because the coughing was making my head threaten to explode.
While I was waiting for the doctor to come in, I saw this on the wall.

For a moment, I couldn't take my eye off it.  It spoke to me.
The lake, some trees, a big rock.  
The day my life changed forever.

I guess I should have that picture on my wall, not that I need a reminder.
Somehow though, it took me right back to that day.

I haven't been weaving, giving the "old" hip a break.
But there's so much else I need to do, that I don't even have time to think about it.

I spent one whole day cleaning the porch at the studio.
That's our shipping area, and we really can't do without it.

 I was going for the Martha Stewart look here.  What do you think?

Kidding.

Big things are happening at the studio.
Here's the  new refrigerator that we ordered. (minus the scratch)

And...........drum roll please.

An extension on the porch.  And.........

my brand new Nordic Retreat hot tub.

HEART BE STILL.

Spring has finally arrived in the north country, although never say never.  It could still snow.

Sometimes, you just have to do what you can, and keep the faith that it will get better.

And there's always Dale.

What a gift.

And the times keep on changing.

Ah, yes, I have been absent from here.  I just went to my blog to see when the last time was that I posted.
I was a bit surprised that it had been that long.
March 2015 has not been my most stellar month.
Truth is, I have mostly been on the couch, or slogging around, trying to get the smallest thing done.
First the hip, but honestly that didn't keep me down for long.

But the head cold?  I don't know that "head cold" really covers it.  I was really sick with it for SIX days, before I even had a glimmer of getting better.
And now, it is receding, but still I am miserable.
My rearranged HEAD and fused NECK are not made for coughing jags.  They are truly not made for even an occasional cough here and there.
This viral entity is complete with vicious COUGH.  So therefore, I have been plagued with a headache that rivals my post head injury headache of 4 years ago.
I have to tell you, in addition to stopping me cold, it has also brought back horrible memories, and stirred up lingering fears. 

But I'm trying to move past them.  I really am.

Above is the dish cloth that I have knitted in several different colors.   I knit when sick.


My chicken feeder fix was a total success.   They are not wasting one bit of their food.  I am shocked at how well it works.   Maybe I should patent it.
Kidding.
I have to get myself in the chicken coop to do some serious spring cleaning.  That's at the top of my list.
Speaking of spring, and chickens:

All this feeling like crap, and being slowed down by my body that keeps reminding me I am not a spring chicken.  I know I have talked a lot in the past three years or so, about downsizing, and changing things.  My head injury and surgeries did "reboot" my brain, and made it quite obvious that I could not, and should not, continue on at the pace I had been keeping.

I am seriously changing the studio, and what I do, and I can't believe the change in my attitude.  I keep telling myself that I don't need more, more, more.
That less can be MORE.
Maybe this is the new, rebooted me, after all.



I haven't been weaving on my AVL because of the hip, so I took all these towels off the cloth storage beam to get them hemmed.

I find that I no longer have the drive to do production weaving.  I want to make what I want to make.
And that's it.
Maybe I'm ready to semi-retire.  Maybe I want to do it on my terms.
Maybe.

Plugging along.

Yup, there's a dark cloud over my head, I swear.

While resting my hip, I  came down with a nasty head cold.

If I hash tagged, and I don't, I would say # feeling useless.

But in between resting, I am finishing small knitting projects I have had in progress for too long.


Doing a little catching up on paperwork and such.

Keeping myself busy.

I had one issue troubling me.  My chickie girls were wasting their food.  Every day, there would be piles of feed on the floor, from the hanging feeder.  After a little googling, I discovered that they fling it around, with their feet or their beaks, whichever works best.

I researched different types of feeders, and while I was, an idea popped into my head.

So today, I dragged myself off the couch,  and went to fix it.

First I cut out a square of some leftover plastic fencing I had, big enough to generously cover the top of the feeder.  Then I cut a hole out a bit smaller than the top  of the feeder.
Then I forced it over the top and pushed it down it place.
I trimmed it around the bottom, and waited to see if they would eat out of it.
They did.
I didn't put much food in the feeder, waiting to see how this works.

Spring is around the corner.  This cold will be gone.  My hip will be rested, I hope.

In the meantime, I will do what I can, and in between, try to be more like Roy.

Wearing out.

There's is a steady dripping of water somewhere hitting something hard outside of my living room window.
How do I know?  Because I have listened to it pounding away all day.



Why you say?  Because I have been lounging on my SOFA most of the day, oh, and yesterday, too.

You would think that after my 'too many to count' days of lying on the sofa with headaches/post surgery recovery, etc, that I might be none too happy to be here again.
And you would be right.

About three weeks ago, I had this nasty groin pain.  I had trouble lifting my leg up to get it in the car.
I tolerated it for a bit, then decided to go to my orthopedic doc, to be sure it wasn't my hip.

They xrayed my hip, and said it was fine.  Must be a muscle pull.  Go to Physical Therapy.  Come back in three weeks.  I was quite relieved.

Well, that all sounded good.  But as I now know, it was pie in the sky.  You would think I would know better by now.
Saturday night, I went to pop up off the SOFA, only to find that bearing weight on my left leg felt like stepping on a live electrical wire, that sent a jolt all the way to my groin, and around to my hip.
Mother of God.
I could not walk a step without help.
I don't know what's worse: the pain, or the not knowing what is wrong.

I suffered all night, unable to sleep, unable to find one position that did not cause these incredible spasms.  On Sunday, I couldn't get off the couch without a cane in one hand, and DH on the other.
Finally, by 3pm, I concurred with my #1 daughter and my friend SUE, who had adamantly ordered me to the ER.
So I went.  Getting to the car was a trick, but once there, thankfully they had a wheel chair.

FIVE hours later, I was discharged home, on steroids, with the knowledge that my hip was NOT fine, at all.  It was highly inflamed, with fluid on it, arthritic, and had plenty of cause to be unhappy.

Now I know.  Overuse, the doctor said.
Imagine that.

One thing I have learned as I have gotten OLDER.  You just never know what to expect.
Not that you did when you were younger.  Of course, you didn't know what to expect then either.

One thing is that when you are younger, you are fairly oblivious, one of the perks of being young. The other difference is that when you are OLDER, there are so many more likely scenarios.  Your body changes.

This doesn't work.
This wears out.
This breaks.
This needs work.
And on and on.

I hate to say it, but as soon as the doctor said OVERUSE, I saw my beautiful AVL clearly.
I felt a stabbing pain, but not in my hip this time.
Higher.
Chest height.

Could it be?  There are two treadles, one up, one down, and you have to use them both.
I get going pretty fast, no telling how many times a minute my hips are lifting my legs up then down.
I can't imagine how many times in an hour? two? three?
And how many in a whole day? two?

I can't imagine parting with this loom.
I can't imagine living with this pain for long.

That's what getting older is about.  Changes, Decisions.  Lots of them.

What not.

 Finally,  the laundry area is tastefully contained.

Lois and I proved once again that there's not much we can't do if we set our minds to it.

Although, we did have our doubts for a little while.

I had my computer hook up moved from the living room to the dining room, in preparation for living at the studio.

The Time Warner technician got his part of the job done in jiff time.  But after the drudge of moving all the electronics, we had to try to figure out how to get the computer DESK over there.
It is not a typical rectangular shape, it is 20" on one side, and 40" on the other.  And if that's not difficult enough, one side in regular desk height, and the other is 44" high.

Visualizing it was not easy.

We finally turned it on its side, got it half way through the door, where it had to be turned AGAIN.
Then down the hall, and through one more door, where we had to do the two time flip again.

 But it's all moved.
Just don't tell us it can't be done.

 

Then it was time for a well deserved day off.
I went to see the "peach", because there is nothing to make me smile more.

We went to a great little Italian restaurant  Perreca's in Schenectady.   They make the best pizza crust you will ever eat anywhere.

Dale was a little serious at times.
Every now and then she pointed to the 'boo boo' under her nose.

But she's a trooper.  She didn't remember it for long.

Saturday was another busy day, I had a student, who did marvelously.

 And while she was working I took all the heddles off the Union 36, because they were twisted, 
laid them out on the table, and put them all on again.

Today I am resting, kind of.  DH would say not so much.

I made this lentil salad that is smelling up the fridge with garlic.

Tomorrow, or whenever my next post occurs, I'm going to talk about the perils, and the joys, of getting older.

Work work work

I am on a mission.   Cleaning and downsizing the house we live in, so it can be sold, moving things to the studio, where we will be living, is my full time gig.
This past week I took a table loom, a band loom, a stool, a floor lamp, and 27 plastic containers of stuff.  When I got it all moved there, I put it away, where it belonged.


 I even moved some glass ware to the dining room hutch.

 I finally got my Riviera dinnerware down and washed and put away.

 Today daughter #1 came and helped me clean out the attic.  What a job.

I found these Christmas stockings, that I made some time ago. One is for Dale, and one just in case.

We did take a break, and went down the the Down Town City Tavern for some lunch.
Oh, and we had a BEER, too.

While digging through all the minutiae in the attic, I found these.

 The first one is large, the next three are smaller.  The pictures have been painted on.

Not at all sure what they are, but they appealed to me.

And I have no idea what I will do with them.

But I'm thinking about it.

 And just for fun, here is an old picture of me holding my middle child.
She is now 40 years old. 
O.M.G.

 Where does the time go???

Moving Right Along

February and March are birthday months in our family.

Someone turned TEN.

And someone turned ELEVEN.

Someone else is ONE and ONE HALF years old in March.

And as you know, I am older than dirt.




I have been busy moving stuff to the studio.  My plan is to take 4 large plastic containers from home to the studio every day this month.
I started with books, the heaviest, and the hardest to move.

I put them where they will live.
 I stacked them so they would all fit.

 The doors close, so it looks good.  I love this old cupboard.

 As I am doing this, I am making a large garage sale pile, and I am brutally downsizing.  Getting ready to put this house up for sale, and take permanent residence where my heart has been all along.

In the meantime:



 We just bagged up 20 more bags of mixed colored loopers.  On my web site.

And tomorrow is a trip to the dump,  getting rid of a lot of construction debris.
I can't wait.

March

Today is the last day of February.   I can't say that I will be sorry to see it go.  It has been a tough, cold month.
On the other hand, it is best to look forward, not behind you.  So March is near.  What will it bring??
I perused some of my older blog posts.
Looking for a sign that maybe March wouldn't be so bad.

So here's what I found:

2009  Looking somewhat gray, but not bad.

2010

Nice enough to start building my back porch.

It was one of those March days when the sun shines hot and the wind blows cold: when it is summer in the light, and winter in the shade.

Charles Dickens

 

2011

Try not to get too excited.

2012

Heart be still.....overlooking Lake George with my grands.

2013

Beautiful skies, but still so much snow.  Sigh.


 No winter lasts forever; no spring skips its turn. ~Hal Borland

2014

Words fail me.

O, wind, if winter comes, can spring be far behind? ~Percy Bysshe Shelley

I think it can go either way.