stormy weather

It looks like for the moment the worst of the weather is off to our northeast, but it's been an evening of severe storm warnings and tornado watches, and radar shows another batch on its way across the river. Every time I think about taking the dogs out for a little exercise, it starts raining. We're under a severe thunderstorm watch until 11 tonight I think, and there's supposed to be rain tomorrow too.

I had 5 house finches on the safflower feeder this evening (in the rain), but none on the nyjer feeder. I'm going to have to see if the holes at the bottom got wet and clogged up, in which case I'll have to dump it out and clean it.

At noon today I saw the downy using the little sunflower feeder by the puppy pen. It was empty when I came home, though, and I suspect squirrels.

A couple of little birds have figured out how to go into the suet feeder. Yay! I'm so happy! The light hasn't been good enough for me to tell if it's house finches or English sparrows, or something else entirely, but I'm so pleased some of them are starting to figure out how to use it and not be afraid of it.

I'm thinking of trying the hummingbird feeder again. The first time I put it out I optimistically filled it all the way up, and then had to throw it all away. This time I think I'll just put a little bit in.

I was looking at pictures of available rescue GSDs--and NO, I'm NOT thinking of getting another dog; I have neither the room nor the finances, and if I were going to add a third animal it would be a cat. I was just looking. And despite all my protestations to the contrary--"No more long-hairs! Never again!"--my eye is immediately drawn to the long-coats. Maybe, years from now, when I'm looking for my next GSD, I'll be able to find one I like with a nice "plush" coat.

A river runs through it

Or past it...

It rained most of the morning. There was some sun when I first got up, but it got darker and darker, until it was more like 8:30 p.m. than 8:30 a.m., and I had to turn on the light. Then it started to rain. Gently but steadily. Okay--it's been dry and we needed it. (After all that rain we had, I can't believe I'm saying, "it's been dry and we need rain"!) It rained most of the morning.

Then the sun came out. I took the dogs out--it wasn't too wet--but we came in after about half an hour because it was humid and buggy.

Later in the afternoon I was lying on the couch reading. I'd sort of noticed it was getting a little darker, but it suddenly broke through the words that I was hearing rain. So I ran outside to get my knitting and the cushion off the swing. It rained. And then it rained harder. Water ran down the side street. It looks flat, but it must slant slightly to the south, because the water ran fast and steadily, like a river. Then I heard a sound that made me think a car was coming, and I waited, and nothing appeared, and finally I realized I was hearing the rain, which had ratcheted up and was just pounding down. Then it eased up, and 5 minutes later the sun was out. Now it's overcast again.

I've put a couple of chunks of suet in the bottom of the new suet feeder, and a couple of birds have found it, including the downy, which I'm delighted to see back again. None of them have actually gone into the cage part, though--I think partly because they're all very alert and fly away whenever a vehicle drives by. I can see one going in for suet, a vehicle driving by, and the bird panicking and not being able to remember how to get out, so I'm not sure this will work for us. They are interested--they land on the outside of the cage and lean in as far as they can. I'll leave it up for a while and see.

I did a little clicker-training with the dogs this afternoon, since it was obvious we weren't going to get back outside. We worked on closing the kitchen cabinets. Timber pretty much has the idea; we just need to refine it. Taenzer, bless her heart, tries and keeps trying, but today we just got to the point where she was almost but not quite touching it with her nose. I wish I were better at this, I think she'd be more confident and get it sooner. There wasn't quite as much extraneous behavior, less walking around, than last time, so that's a good thing. I'm thinking, she knows how to nose-touch a sticky-note; maybe it would help her if I stuck one on the door.

Snow Dogs!

There's a LOT of snow out there--

--but the dogs are thrilled.

Of course, it's easy for them--they don't have to do the shoveling! I'm running out of places to put the snow!

Some of the vegetation isn't too thrilled either, like this blue spruce. The poor box bush up by the garage is positively buried.

Meanwhile, at good ol' Forgottonia U, the grounds people and the building services people are having a squabble. As you can see, there are two sets of steps with a terrace between in front of the building where I work. The grounds people clear the first set of steps, the building services guy clears the set nearest the building, and neither of them will take responsiblity for the terrace, which means anyone who wants to get in using the main doors gets to wade through the snow--which then turns into slippery ice.

How grown-up of them.

Just--brrrrr

According to the Weather Channel online, it's 11 below zero this morning. According to the thermometer in the kitchen, it's 6 below. That's not as bad as South Dakota (see Kathleen Taylor's blog), but I think there comes a point when cold is just COLD. What's worse is that I have to go out to buy groceries and run a couple of errands. The dogs will want to come, but I think I'm going to leave them home--I think it will be too cold for them to just wait in the car, even though the sun is out.

Pictures from last night:

Taenzer is sitting in front of a pile of snow at the side of the driveway, to show how tall it is.

These are ice-balls, and pieces of ice-balls, that get up between the dogs' pads when they've been out playing. The round shiny thing is a quarter, for scale. I don't think we're going to go out to play today, but once it warms up a bit I'll definitely have to put their boots on until the snow either melts or packs down too hard for them to pick up.

I have a partial antidote to all this: Now that Christmas is over, the garden catalogs are arriving. Thank goodness the garden companies still send out catalogs, because there's very little as wonderful as looking through catalogs in bed just before going to sleep. Browsing online just isn't the same, and besides, you can't put sticky notes on pages when you browse online.

So far I have catalogs from Jung Seeds and Plants, White Flower Farm, Dutch Gardens, and Bluestone Perennials. I've only flipped briefly through them, but at first glance, dahlias seem to be the plant of the year, along with gladiolas. This strikes me as amusing and old-fashioned, since the last time I remember gladiolas as being "in" was in the 1960s--I used to see pages and pages of them in the catalogs my parents received. I think they've been virtually invisible for years. I guess plants, like fashions, go in and out of style.

At any rate, I look forward to dreaming of summer. Maybe this year I should think about adding some plants that bloom later than June! Or maybe I can get a couple of those shrubs I've been thinking about.

But for now I think I'm going to get a cup of cocoa!

SNOW!

I haven't seen any figures, but judging from what I shoveled off the sidewalks and driveway yesterday, I think we must have gotten another 6 inches, on top of what we already had.

I think I'm getting tired of snow. It wasn't so bad last week, when I could sit inside, sip hot drinks, knit, read, watch DVDs, and snuggle with the dogs, but now that I have to go outside and go to work and navigate badly-plowed parking lots to go shopping, I'm not so thrilled.

At least it's a very light, powdery snow, so easier to shovel than if it were 6 inches of heavy, wet snow.

Pictures later, I think. Tuesday I reloaded Windows onto the laptop and yesterday I reloaded the drivers and etc., and then downloaded the various free programs I use off the net and updates to everything. I hope this is going to clear up all the problems I've been having with it! I couldn't get the e-mail to work, but they're going to update stupid Zimbra tonight, so I'll fuss with it tomorrow. But that shouldn't keep me from loading pictures.

Twas the Night Before Christmas

'Twas the night before Christmas
Outside it was raining
Inside the Ts napped
Sad but not complaining.

It is SO wet outside. I suppose it's better than 16" of snow--and it's definitely better than ice in any amount! But really. I think we have enough rain for the time being; we really don't need any more.

Taenzer particularly is unhappy. She's such a physical dog that not getting time to run really gets to her--like any athlete or dancer who's unable to perform. She needs to use her body and it messes her up when she can't.

I managed to download the pictures we took Sunday, but the laptop is working so slowly--I think I'm going to have to transfer them to a flash drive, and then to the desktop, and try to post from here. They didn't exactly turn out the way I'd hoped. There's one where they only look put upon and abused. In the other one, Timber looks like he just found out there's no Santa Claus. Not exactly the effect I was after, though it is pretty funny. Poor boy!

I'm cat sitting two sets of cats over the holiday. Last night when I arrived at one house, I discovered a pane had been broken out of one of the basement windows. The glass was all outside, so I don't think anyone had tried to break in, but I had to dash home and get some cardboard to put over it--luckily, I had a couple of boxes that dog food had been shipped in, so it was heavy-weight and I doubled it, and tacked it into place with some nails I found. Then I counted heads, and to my relief, all three of the cats were still inside (no doubt they found it entirely too wet to go out!). At the other place, the 2nd cat came out for the first time. He had to know I was there--I was singing Christmas carols as I got their food ready--but still when he saw me his eyes got all huge and he leaped back with this "OMG! A STRANGER!" expression on his face. It was pretty funny. Today, with the help of some judiciously-tossed treats, he came up and took a treat from right beside me. I didn't try to touch him--maybe tomorrow.

I have to stop by the office tomorrow and print out the last pattern for the 2009 Calendar Scarf. I was going to today while I was out taking care of cats and running errands, but I forgot my keys and didn't feel like going back after them. It turns out the scarf takes about 1200 yards of fingering weigh yarn, so I'm going to rummage through the stash and see if I have anything as breathtaking as that lovely cashmere yarn I did the 2008 scarf with. Probably not, but I didn't know I had the cashmere until I went looking.

Merry Christmas, everyone!

calendar scarf bump

So here I am on Day 17 of the 2008 calendar scarf, and I'm stuck. I'm one of those people who much prefers to work off a chart--a line of k2 yo sl1 k2 psso yo etc. makes me go cross-eyed, and when it's a LONG line and I don't have a picture to compare my work to, it's just awful. I lose my place and get terribly confused. Worse, this is a real knitted lace pattern--I think that's the right term; there's knitted lace and lace knitting, and in one you alternate pattern rows with plain rows and in the other each row is a pattern row. This is every row is a pattern row.

So I ripped it out twice last night and having struggled through 10 rows, it looks like I'm going to have to rip it out again.

Grrr.

It also looks like I'm going to have to get professional help with the laptop--it was running so slowly that I decided to run the antivirus program again, and once again it's taking more than 24 hours, which is ridiculous. After surgery on both the laptop and Timber, I really don't have any spare money, but I miss being able to post pictures!

Predictions around here, btw, were for a terrible blizzard, with 6-12 inches of snow and howling winds. So far we've had rain. Lots of rain. Now they're predicting thunder. In December.

Okaaaaaay....

Wanna Knit!

It's been raining here. Lots of rain. Lots and lots of rain. It stopped yesterday, thank goodness, but the sump pump has been working about 24 hours--not constantly, but it kicks on every 4 or 5 or 10 minutes. And the wind picked up. Yesterday was a pretty nasty day. Today the sun is out, a pleasant sight, but it's still windy. Brrr. Poor little trick-or-treaters!

I didn't sleep well last night. I hate those nights where you wake up at 2 and don't get back to sleep until 5 or 5:30. Even if you don't have to get up for work, you still feel worn out the next day. Or at least I do. I've been up an hour and I'm already thinking of a nap.

My plans for today include putting plastic over the south living room window--even though I've got the storm windows down it's still pretty drafty in here. Also to buy groceries, which I didn't do yesterday. Also to graft the toe of my 2nd Elegant Sock, which is about a quarter-inch shorter than the first one because I wasn't sure I was going to have enough yarn to finish it. It turns out I do--I could even make the toe longer if I wanted to, but it's fine. I've tried it on, and it's fine. Then I'm going to sew buttons on my cardigan--I caved and bought some at Walmart. Then I'm going to work on my nephew's sweater. I might be able to finish the first sleeve today, yay! I wish I could put up a picture. Maybe my laptop will come back next week (she said hopefully).

Yesterday, among other things, I looked at some of the yarn I have stashed. I have some beautiful stuff, and I wish I could knit faster so I could use more of it! I have some really lucious hand-painted sock yarn that I am dying to use, including 3 kits with beads; tons of beautiful laceweight for making little scarves and things with; and even some sweater-weight yarns including a beautiful sport-weight heathery brown organic wool from a Midwest flock that a friend gave me as a gift, some Cash Iroha, and a chunky-weight alpaca blend. a lot of indie dyers are having sales and I had been thinking about seeing if I could spare the cash to treat myself to a skein, just for the sake of having a soft squooshy package of yarn come in the mail, but after wallowing in the stash yesterday I decided not to. One of the creepy things about getting older is that I really do find myself thinking I have more yarn than I'll ever be able to knit. Now where's the fun in that??

I've been practicing knitting continental (carrying the yarn in my left hand), and I am getting better at it. I can't do anything but knit, though--like, no yarn overs, no decreases, definitely no cables!--because I just really can't get proper control of my tension. I'm always having to stop and readjust the yarn. So for now it's a good way to use a different set of muscles while I keep knitting, as long as I'm doing plain stocking stitch.

P.S. - unless you love onions, don't eat Lean Cuisine Breakfast Paninis for breakfast. In fact, I'm not sure I'd eat one any time of day. My stomach is not happy with me; neither are my tastebuds.

Rainy Thursday

Very. Rainy.

As in Pouring.

At least it's not 3 feet of snow, like Colorado.

I was going to go meet my sister tomorrow, and we were going to just hang out and do sister things--show each other our knitting, go to a yarn store (or two), go to Barnes & Noble. But she e-mailed me today to say she couldn't make it. I'm really disappointed. I was really looking forward to it. Also to getting out and driving!

Ah well. We'll set it up for another time, I hope.


I guess I'll do what I usually do when I take a Friday off--pay bills, run errands, buy groceries. It's supposed to rain tomorrow, so I'll find a movie to put in the player and work on my nephew's sweater. I'm sort of stuck on the first sleeve--I've ripped it out 3 times so far, which I guess is what happens when you're making it up as you go. If you don't like it--rip it out and try it again.


Oh yeah, I got an e-mail from the guy fixing my computer to say they ordered the part last Tuesday and just heard today from the vendor saying it was unavailable, so they've ordered from another vendor. *sigh*

I took the dogs out (individually) last night after dinner to work on their walking, and decided that I'm going to have to train them to sit at the top of the front porch steps and wait for me to get down to the bottom before they go. They get so excited, and the leash isn't quite long enough, and my knees are giving me such problems that one of them is going to just drag me down the steps if I don't teach them to wait.

Meanwhile, I found that if I ask Timber to do things--sit, come to heel, down--he pays more attention to me and does a better job of walking politely beside me. Taenzer does fine with a click or a "yes!" and a treat every few steps, and we're doing pretty well--we made it two driveways down last night! But Timber really needs more help to focus, I guess.

I'm not a very good clicker trainer, but I like trying to find a way to communicate what I want with rewards. Letting the dog hit the end of the leash is negative reinforcement, I'm afraid, and for P+ trainers it doesn't mollify matters much that I'm using a rolled leather collar and not a choke or prong collar. STill, my neighbors and friends think I'm looney not to use more traditional training methods, so I'd really like to make this work this way, if I can.


Sheesh, it's raining so hard it sounds like someone's pouring a giant bucket of water over the house!

Another gorgeous weekend

Well, at least today was gorgeous. They're predicting a possibility of rain for tomorrow.

My laptop is off getting its power jack replaced. I'm hopeful I'll get it back next week, so I can start putting pictures on the blog again. The sky was so, so, so blue today. Deep, sunny blue, with gold leaves shining against it--just beautiful. I went out to buy a few groceries and get my hair cut, but mostly I was out with the dogs.

In part because they didn't get out for three days last week. It rained all night Thursday and all day Friday--we got 2 and a half inches, according to my rain gauge.

Before that, I was sick. At least, I think I was sick. It was very strange. Tuesday night I didn't get any sleep because I. Hurt. All. Over. Like having a fever, except I didn't have a fever, just joint and muscle pain. I got up and went to work Wednesday, figuring that I felt terrible because I hurt all over and hadn't gotten any sleep, but about 11 I announced that I felt terrible and everyone in the office said, more or less in chorus, "GO HOME." So I did, took some aspirin, and went to bed. It was a pretty day out, and I took the dogs out for about half an hour in the afternoon, but just felt too bad to sit out with them and went back to bed.

By Thursday afternoon I felt so much better I felt guilty about being home, and I went back to work Friday. I have no idea what it was, whether it was flu or maybe some kind of reaction to all the unaccustomed physical work of taking apart the compost pile, but I was sure miserable for about 24 hours.

I've finished the body of my nephew's sweater and started on a sleeve--ripped it out 3 times so far to get the pattern right, but I think I've got it now.

Between my being sick and the rain, I didn't get to work on walking with the dogs for three days. We went out this morning, and the missing days showed. Taenzer got overly excited about working and I had trouble balancing her between being too excited and getting discouraged. I need to think of a way to keep her on a more even keel. She also got a little snatchy about her treats. Normally she takes treats politely, but this morning I was surprised I had skin left on my fingers. As for Timber, we just weren't connecting. I finally stopped trying to get him to walk politely and just tried to get his attention on me. We'd walk a couple of steps, I'd ask him to sit, we'd walk a few steps back, I'd ask him to down, walk another step, ask for a sit-stay--anything to get him to focus on ME. I don't want him to look at me constantly when we're walking, of course, but I would like him to maintain some awareness that I'm on the other end of the leash and check in with me every so often. I accidently dropped the leash and he trotted obliviously off down the sidewalk, but bless his heart, he did turn around and come to me when I called him. He's a GOOD boy.

And oh yes: Taenzer turned six last week. My little fuzzy baby with the gigantic feet has grown up--for a German Shepherd she's hit middle age, and her chin is getting a little frosting. She's got the Valiantdale brains and eagerness to work; she's so sensitive and responsive--sometimes too responsive--she's athletic and sweet and comic, and she still has enormous feet. I prefer the classic German Shepherd coat and personality, and Taenzer doesn't have either, but they say that you get the dog you need, and there's no denying that I need her sweetness and her exuberance and her ability to make me laugh. She's not a classic German Shepherd, but she's her own wonderful self, and I'm very grateful to have her in my life, and I love her.

Relief!

After a week of really nasty, hot, humid weather, we had a storm blow through last night and cool things off. We didn't get quite as much rain as we could have used, but today was beautiful--very low 80s, humidity around 50%, and a very nice breeze. I should have done some painting, but mostly I sat around enjoying the weather while the dogs played outside.


Cute Mr. T story: We came in, and the water bowl in the bathroom was dry, so I filled it for them. Taenzer, as top dog, took over and started to drink. Timber stood looking at her, cocked his head, then trotted out into the living room and started barking. Taenzer charged out to see what he was barking at and take over the alerting duties, and Timber trotted back into the bathroom and got his drink. Smart, sneaky boy!

Also furry. This is the result of a 15-minute session with the shedding rake. Considering how much he hates it, he was very good about it. I think instead of having him shaved I'm going to just get him a bath, blow-dry, and comb-out, and try to get rid of as much undercoat as possible.

The daylilies have started to bloom. This is Hyperion in front of the Asiatic lilies.

Hyperion is one of my favorite daylilies--it's a vintage type, has a slight sweet scent, and is my favorite shade of yellow, sort of lemon-ice--a cool yellow, as opposed to the hot gold of Stella d'Oro. This is a bit too pale

I don't know the name of this daylily. The same nice old gentleman who gave me my blue iris gave me this daylily. It looks a bit pink here, but it's actually sort of lion-tawny with rust brushmarks. Neither is the foliage so blue. I guess I need to get out the camera instructions and see if there isn't some way to reset the colors. It's interesting to see the difference in shape of the flowers of the two different varieties.

Most of my Asiatic lilies this year are cream-colored, but there are a few other colors. I do like this yellow one with spots.

I'm not so fond of this one--it makes me a little queasy, for some reason. I'd like to dig them up and give them away, replace them with something else.

The Casa Blanca lilies haven't opened yet, but this beautiful Oriental did. Of course it promptly melted in the heat, but it was beautiful for a couple of days. That's lavender blooming in front of it.

It's supposed to be cooler this week, so I may take a few days off and see about getting some painting done.

SOAKED!

GAH!

I took the dogs for a leashwalk because it was too wet for them to play in the dog pen--we got an inch and a half of rain last night!

so we're two blocks from home and the skies open up. The dogs kept looking at me over their shoulders like "why are you trying to drown us??" I'm wearing my rain jacket, which turns out not to be very water-proof. My knees won't let me run, so I'm walking as fast as I can and wishing I was wearing roller skates so they could just pull me as fast as they wanted to go!

It eased up about a block from home, but we still got pretty wet, and it is now pouring. If this keeps up, we'll get another inch tonight, easy. And it's supposed to rain for the next ten days.

The sump pump is working like crazy, and my basement is very wet.

And of course, the farmers are starting to get antsy--a friend whose husband farms says he's two weeks behind where he should be.

I expect we'll be praying for rain in a few months, but for now--I think we could use a couple of weeks of sunshine!

Almost April?

Outside

Inside

I'm having great fun with this sock, btw, but it has its problems, since I haven't quite figured out how to make the change in direction smoothly yet, so I get little holes. I try something different every time I make the change, so hopefully I'll get it figured out sometime in the 2nd sock. I haven't tried it on yet, either, and I'm a bit uneasy about how the heel will fit. But I am enjoying it greatly--seems I like doing short rows. *lol*

Oh yes, I'm delighted to report that I can now smell the cold-care tea I bought. It's full of aromatic herbs--peppermint, chamomile, eucalyptus, licorice root--and when I was really sick, I couldn't smell it at all. As far as my nose and tastebuds were concerned, I was drinking faintly sweet hot water. I made myself a cup yesterday, and I could smell it and taste it! (And as you might expect, it's quite good, esp. with a spoonful of honey added.)

C*O*L*D*!*!*!

It is SO COLD. It was 19 below zero this morning (that's -28 for you metric folks), with a windchill of 35 below (-37C).

I don't heat some of the rooms of my house, and it was 39 in one this morning (the one with the front door that I had to let the dogs out of). And the humidity was about 32% when I got up, which is pretty dry--I try to keep it in the 40s. It was 29 when I came home this afternoon. I've got a steam humidifier that I run in the living room, and broke out a big old cool-mist humidifier a friend gave me long ago that I plan to run all night--should be safe enough.

They're predicting an even lower low tonight. Yay. Then it's supposed to go back up to the low 20s, which will feel positively balmy compared to today!

The dogs don't seem too troubled, and I wish I had a set-up where I could just open the back door and let them frolic in the yard while I sat in the kitchen or by the sliding doors in the family room or whatever and watched them. Although I did notice this morning that they both went out and did their business right away--no leisurely sniffing the morning air.

A small miracle happened last night: Timber lay flat on his side with his head on my knee, totally relaxed, and let me comb his ribs. I thought I was dreaming. He's never let me comb around his ribs--too ticklish, I guess--and there he was just as relaxed and trusting as could be. What a sweet boy he is.

Taenzer I think is suffering from lack of exercise. Either that or she's coming down with something--she's just a bit "off" and she had a touch of diarrhea a couple of nights ago. I held her in my lap (sort of--her front half, anyway) and stroked her and sang to her the other night because she seemed so depressed.

I'm still working on the shawl-collared sweater--just finishing the 2nd sleeve. Tomorrow or Saturday I'll either put the collar on or decide I need to reknit the collar--not sure which it will be yet. And this weekend I plan to sew buttons onto the grey jacket with the black trim and to tackle the blue sweater with the steam iron. Yes, I know I said I was going to do that last weekend, but this weekend I'm really going to do it. Really. No, I mean *really*!

I would like to take a moment to mourn the passing of Ricardo Montalban and of Patrick McGoohan. Patrick McGoohan and my father looked a good deal alike. There's a family of McGowans on my father's side of the family and I've always wondered whether there might be a connection there in the far dim past--McGowan/McGoohan-- I never watched Fantasy Island but once or twice, so my favorite Ricardo Montalban role was as Khan in "Wrath of..." My favorite Star Trek movie, too. An elegant, sexy man with a lovely voice, and a heck of an actor.

Monika, I hope your family isn't being affected by the heating gas troubles in Europe.

Sunshine!

Somehow the sun makes everything look better--at least after a winter storm. The sun didn't stay out too long, but I got a few pictures before the clouds came.

Things started falling last night and because it was so cold I drew the drapes and turned the radio on before bed. The radio covered up the noise of things falling so that Taenzer didn't leap up and charge into the living room barking at every sound. So we got a pretty good night's sleep, and didn't lose power, for which I'm profoundly grateful.

The dogs are desperately bored. I'll have to see if I can find some games to play with them. Taenzer's already emptied a buster cube.

I, meanwhile, have been happily knitting away on the 2nd sleeve of my jacket and starting to wonder what to make next. I've got two colors of Noro Cash Iroha left, but they don't contrast sufficiently to make a good sweater together. I'm thinking of spending some of my cat-sitting money on perhaps 5 or 6 balls of Cash Iroha in either silver or a light blue, to contrast with this medium denim-y blue, and making a pullover with a center panel done in the contrast color--maybe bramble stitch bordered with a cable on either side. And maybe a very simple asymetrical short jacket out of the darker blue. I'm not positive I'd have enough of that color, though maybe if I did it with 3/4 sleeves it would work. I've got some black--maybe I could switch it and make the contrast pullover with the darker blue and do the asymetrical jacket with black and the lighter blue. The black could be bands at the hems of the sleeves and body.

I have friends in Iowa who are now being snowed on. I need to e-mail and see how they're doing.

Waiting for the second act

A quiet night, thank goodness. I think we all slept well. Tonight, I don't know--the wind is supposed to pick up as the temperature falls. Tomorrow is supposed to be in the single digits with winds between 20 and 30 mph. I expect that will bring down a lot more wires and tree limbs. I confess I'm scared. There's a lot around here to come down.

Last night we lost power for about 60 seconds. So I got all paranoid (or more paranoid??) and put batteries in the emergency lamp, then moved my little emergency kit into the living room where it will be in easy reach.

I forgot that the radio was out in the van, so I went out to get it. Stepped very carefully over the downed wires. Discovered--and why I was surprised I don't know--that the garage door was coated with a half inch of ice. It took about 10 minutes of kicking and hitting to break it enough so the door could bend and raise. It weighed a ton, too, and I made sure it was going to stay up before I went in, because I didn't want to get trapped in the garage!

It was so much fun kicking and hitting the garage door that I took a hammer out this morning and bashed the ice off the hand rail for the front steps. : D

The dogs were dismayed to find that the yard is exactly the same this morning as it was last night. Taenzer didn't pee until noon. I got out the marrow bones to try to soften the blow. It was a hit with Timber, but not so much with Taenzer. Well--what do I expect? She's a dancer, after all. Dancers and athletes are so body-conscious; they need their exercise.

I watched the Baryshnikov version of The Nutcracker last night. I taped it years and years and years ago, and the picture and sound were both still wonderfully sharp and bright. And the performances are amazing. I taped it for Baryshnikov, but this time through I found myself watching Kirkland. How she managed to be soft and precise, floating and lighttning fast, all at once--it's just amazing. Very beautiful to watch.

And since I've had lots of time to knit, I've finished one sleeve on the jacket and started the 2nd. I must say, doing short rows is FUN! I think I'll still make flap-heels on my socks (for one thing, I think they wear better), but I can see doing more sweaters with set-in sleeves so I can do more short-row sleeve caps.

(I've loaded this picture 6 times. It was taken with the bottom of the sweater at the bottom of the frame, and every time I load it it twists left--I have no idea why or how to fix it!)

I'm going to have to block this thing like crazy. The collar and the front flap both want to curl instead of lying flat

Can you stand any more?

I looked out the back bedroom window and saw that my phone line is now down and lying across the driveway beside the cable-tv line. It seems to still be working, since I'm still connected, but I certainly hope they can manage to get here and do something about it before Monday, which is the earliest the woman I talked to thought they'd be able to make it.

Here they are, draped across the fence, and running across the snow back to the alley

And here they are lying happily across the driveway.

The big pine tree behind the garage.

The lilac at the foot of the driveway.

Front yard

Front yard again (how long do you suppose it will take to pick all this up?)

A pretty view

Doesn't this look like ice cubes? Someone's planning to make the world's largest pitcher of lemonade, maybe? The entire front yard looks like this.

"What happened??"

Did you ever see two sadder dogs? Let's see, I think I've still got a couple of marrow bone pieces in the freezer. Maybe that will cheer them up a little!