Grumpy

7-30 am

                I am feeling really discouraged. Everything seems to be not going especially well. I started to knit up the skein of purple fiber sandwich stuff. First of all, it is way over-plied. And I like the colors ok, but I do not like the way the cut bits of yarn stick out. The cuts are all too blunt. I knit it while watching the most stupid  movie: 50/50 which I had gotten from the library. And the bunnies are not great. Some are off food and I’m trying to do other things besides give them vasoline. Someone on the Angora list suggested oil/molasses/water which is all fine, gets away from the vasoline, but is no easier to administer. In fact it is harder bc it dribbles out and makes a mess. And the derailer on my bike seems to be messed up. It is a hand-grip one. I asked at the Bike Exchange and they made suggestions which I guess I will try. After I finish in the garage with the organizing. And sometime today I must finish the tomato sauce I started and maybe start more since I still have a ton of tomatoes.

                I guess soon I need to feed the buns, eat something, make myself useful in some vague way. Our housemate is packing today. I hope she is able to clean the room when she is done. The new renter arrives either tomorrow or Monday. I really can’t think of anything much nice right now.

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Mostly Garage

7:30 am

                I do not know how I am going to manage to get myself out the door by 7 to bike to work once classes start. That will only be Mon/Wed that I have to be there by 8, ready for class by 8:30. I will try at least sometimes. I did not ride at all yesterday – between the big ride and the late night dancing Tuesday I decided to take a day off. I spent the day instead on the garage. It is coming, but not there yet. And I am sick of doing it. I’m having a harder time these days doing things all on my own. Just feeling lonelier I guess. I could revert to the old technique of putting a story on to listen to. Remember how much fun it was making those cages several years ago as I was listening to Moll Flanders… and all the Dickens I listened to last year. I started to tackle the nails and screws, got them into little drawers that we have had sitting there empty for years. Now I need to organize the tools better. Which probably means buying some more racks and holders. I also need to make a dump/take-it-or-leave-it run so I guess I’ll get out and do those later. And can’t really do the dump on the bike (someday perhaps I will have a bamboo bike trailer and could do that) so I’ll need to drive. Maybe I can arrange to meet a friend briefly in town for tea.

                Another thing that needs doing today is to cook up all the tomatoes. And deal with the cantaloupe. I finally opened the watermelon last night and it is a bit past perfection, the texture is kind of coarse. But I am not so sure my digestion does well with watermelon.

                And then there are bunnies, several of whom still need to be brushed. I think I will try the molasses/oil mixture on a few instead of vasoline. And I will get some papaya enzyme, or rather look for it in the mall while I am out.

                And then there is the lichen fiber sandwich stuff I am spinning. I did a half ounce, I can do another and ply it and see how it looks. I should get myself in gear and do some serious knitting in prep for the winter fairs. I don’t know if I’ll get into the NE fiber fair at the Big E. we’ll see.

                Wow I don’t really have a lot to say. I just was having such a hard time getting going this morning, thought writing might help. I did my stretches, after this I will meditate, then get something together to eat, then do buns, or maybe do buns first since I am out here (in sun room). Then, ugh, I have to get started on something. The other thing I need to get myself doing is to start reading over the lab manual so I can get my head started thinking about the labs. Ugh again. Will I go for a ride today? Maybe. I could of course ride somewhere and end up at the mall. Or I could walk to the mall instead. Many options. Many choices. Many things I do not want to do. I did really enjoy being back at work in terms of seeing everyone and doing lots of chatting, which is mostly what I did on Monday. And then Tuesday I stopped for knitting at lunch which was really nice. I’ll go in tomorrow. Well, I am actually waiting to hear from the prof, so if she arranges a meeting, I guess I’ll even go in today. And all this says nothing whatever about all the things that need doing that I never get to like the huge pile in the kitchen. Well one thing at a time…. Or 3 things at a time and today I should focus on finishing the garage.

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Lots of Biking, Veggies and Trans-Performance

7 am

                Oh man I hurt all over. Not necessarily in a bad way, but still. And here’s why: yesterday (and the day before) I biked both to and from work. Yesterday I biked to on 47 and back over the notch. Both are killers in their own ways. And the day before I went 47 both ways, but I stopped at the farm on the way home to pick up some 500 lbs of vegetables which I carried the 5 miles home in the milk crate on the back of my bike. And then last night I went with friends to Trans-performance at Look Park and we danced the night away to all kinds of goofy music. It was tons of fun but now – I hurt all over! Ok it was not 500 lbs of vegs, but we did have 30 (!) tomatoes plus a cantaloupe and that is heavy! Oh well, I managed, though it did make the bike really unbalanced. I will need to find a way to get new panniers or bring my backpack or something.

                Trans-performance was so much fun. I can’t remember all the groups that were covered – this year’s “theme” was “Bobs” as a way to honor Bob Seligman (?) who is retiring as the director of it. He also does and will continue to do Young At Heart Chorus. The most memorable were: The Cure and Devo both bands I’d never heard of but that were a lot of fun, Vanilla Ice, Bob Marley who did a very odd song about kicking all the whites out which was a little uncomfortable given that I’m not sure there was a single person of color in the audience (well, there must have been – yes there were some, but not a lot), Joni Mitchell, and Led Zepellin who was so great. These local musicians really give it their all. And so we vowed to try to check some of them out when they perform their own music locally.

                As for today. Well I am hoping not to go into work, or anyway to only go in one more day this week. Which day will depend on when the prof can schedule an appointment with the science librarian to review Moodle. The prof looked really fried when I saw her yesterday. She has only barely done anything with Moodle yet.  So if I do not go in today, I will TRY to get a lot of home stuff done. I have a bunch of bunny cleaning up to do. I am going to try coming up with a new system of wool block prevention besides vasoline-ing them. I got a few suggestions from the Angora Rabbit list. I need to see if I can find a source of papaya enzyme pills. I used to get them at the grocery store, but they no longer have them. And someone uses a mix of oil and molasses that I should try. Besides all that, I would like to finish in the garage. I need to figure out how to store the camping gear that is all in the living room, and then…..attempt to organize the tools. Ugh.  And oh just a comment. I finally tried to deal with the pile of rugs that had been all over the house to deal with Tigger’s leaking issue. I scrubbed one small rug (won’t fit in the washer) and left it out to dry. Well it got wet in the rain last night and man it really stinks of dog pee. Yuck. Maybe I will need to take all these to the Laundromat.

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Getting Things Done

7 am

                I had a really hard night again. I could get to sleep but I just kept waking up. Ice cream at 8:30 maybe??? Not a good idea, though it was really fun to have it with G. She had her Band concert last night, which was great, in the Library instead of on the Common bc of the high EEE threat…. It was actually nice in there because it was really loud which made it fun. And so after I drove her back to where she is house-sitting and on the way we had IC. Bad idea. And so many odd dreams.

                Yesterday I just puttsed around the house trying to Get Things Done. I was reasonably successful though it doesn’t really seem that way since there is always so much more. Day before I managed to clear out the back yard enough to mow. That made a big difference in how things look. Yesterday I did a bunch of spinning – nearly done with the well-blended purple lichen stuff – and I did some paperwork computer kinds of things. I should focus a bit on rabbits today – I need to brush a bunch of them. Not actual plucking, just clean them up. I did vasoline several yesterday, but they need to be cleaned up too. I put ads on Craigslist, Ravelry,and I made up some posters to put around. it sure would be nice to sell those three guys, they are very nice rabbits.

                Tonight, it being our anniversary, K and I will bike over to NH to have dinner at the restaurant that he keeps seeing with the balcony that overlooks the bike trail. Then tomorrow we will go for some sort of ride – I suggested some hills, and Sunday we will ride somewhere with his friend which requires minimal hills and not too far. Not sure if I’ll do another ride today. Maybe I just won’t and will focus instead on Getting Things Done. I suppose I ought to call Mom. I suppose that will be my main social contact for the day. Oh, yesterday we started out by going to get pastries. K was in such a rush to get there, but then we were done and it was still half an hour before the bus would come. So I ended up walking/jogging to the next bus stop. That was my exercise for the day.

                I finished knitting the purple square to make a bunny. It was intended for a biking friend’s granddaughter, but have not heard anything from that gang in a long time. Well, I will sew it up and see what happens. I wish I knew if I would be having a booth at the Fiber Fest of NE. I am on the waiting list and said they could contact me quite last minute. Which means they might do just that. I guess I’ll have to be more or less ready just in cases. That is in November. Then in December there is Hartsbrook and the BBBS fair. I guess that is all I’m doing this fall. Not going to do the Apple Harvest, it just hasn’t worked well for me. And the Fiber Twist, which also did not work well, is in the spring now. I tried to sign up for the NH fair, which is in May but they do not make decisions on new booths until Jan. All fine, since we seem to be doing a lot of biking instead. September 21 in the Northampton ride which I can do, since my friend’s wedding is the 22^nd. And then in mid Oct K wants to do a ride in CT from New Haven to South Hadley involving renting a car since the train doesn’t work out (no way to transport the bikes). And soon soon soon classes start and so my time will be sucked up.

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Food Bikes Skeins and Kool Aid

8 am

                Busy day ahead full of just busy things. Like cleaning up the kitchen…putting away class stuff…dealing with this and dealing with that. I reread the email last night from the woman who is starting the consignment shop. It is terribly complicated with all sorts of things that need to be filled out and written up. I mean it is not really so complicated, but there are steps that must be gone through. So I should go through them. And I MUST get started on work stuff. A today is the day to make a big Survival Center/Dump run because I have the car and I will not have it on Thursday when the dump is next open. I also have a whole bag of tomatoes from the share to deal with. I cut up and roasted 2 eggplants which came out very nice, and I roasted 2 whole ones which came out not as nice. The plan is to cut them up and make a salad. We’ll see how that turns out. And I picked up 2 ears of corn last night on my way home from taking G home (we had GoBerry after her community band rehearsal which was very nice) so I can make ratatouille. Which only I like, so I don’t want to make too much.

                I finished our book club book – Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes. I liked it, though the actual ending I found kind of artificial. But it is sticking with me, so that is good. I will think it over and maybe re-read. I also got out a few others by him, so perhaps I will read those, too.

                Oh, and I figured out (duh) that my friend’s wedding is on Sunday September 22 not Saturday, so I actually could sign up for the Northampton bike ride. I will have to find out if there is still room and which ride K signed up for – I think the 40 mile. Yesterday we rode to the farm to pick up our share. We attached milk crates to the back racks, and I rode back with a big watermelon and bag full of carrots/eggplant in mine which was pretty heavy and really put the balance off. I will have to get used to that. It is just that the panniers were getting caught in my wheels.

                I plied 3 skeins of the blended purple stuff and it is really nice. I am liking the fully blended much more than the partially. I have 6 more batts of partially blended stuff that I decided to make into quasi-sandwiches. I layered them with bits of cut up yarn (that I carded a bit to break them up some) and some silk. We’ll see how that turns out. I fixed the old solid wood wheel, so can now put that away. I do need to take the carders apart to clean them out, they are pretty clogged with fiber. Oh, and I tried out a different Kool Ade dye technique. I got really sick of using up all the plastic bags, and having them leak and make a mess. So I tried just putting boiling water with the koolade and roving into a cottage cheese container. By a few hours it was pretty done, and when I left it overnight the dye was completely absorbed. So as long as I get hold of enough containers (don’t need covers) that would work way better for a class like this. The bags are good for the fair – it is outside, they use them just once anyway, they can label with their name and once they are out of the steamer, they just take them away.

                Gotta feed the B’s.

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