Yesterday was Productive, What About Today?

9 am

                I ran again this morning, but again it was kind of a half-run since I again picked up stuff along the way.  And I keep kind of waiting for K to suggest going to black sheep, but he has gone out to split wood so I don’t know if he will.

                Yesterday was fairly productive. We went to the dump and goodwill and got rid of some things, that alone is very productive. I actually got rid of the marionette puppets that have been kicking around forever. And the copper lenses – may be for cameras, I don’t know, that have also been kicking around. I gave them to goodwill and I hope they can figure out the best way to make some money off of them. I finished my first rug from this warp. It is brown/yellow/blue and I think looks pretty good. I hung out and took in two loads of laundry, and even put them away using the excellent technique of dumping them out on the bed so that I MUST put them away before I can go to sleep.

                Today there are two (!) KO performances. One is the usual 4 pm one-woman play, then at 8 there is the story swap. Somehow I will need to get the tickets from A. So around 2:40 I will need to bike up to get a ticket so I don’t miss out as I did last week. I’m feeling like I have been having way too many treats lately, so I may skip the GoBerry and just bike home until the play starts at 4.

                Oh I also managed to file a bunch of stuff and even organize the files a bit. Very very productive. Now maybe I will have no excuse to not deal with the paperwork things that still need to be dealt with. I have several bunnies that need cleaning up and perhaps I will do that now. Really right now I am feeling that groggy tired feeling. Didn’t sleep well last night perhaps bc of the popcorn I ate at the movie. Not  a good idea. Next time I should stick with Metamucit wafers!

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Not Much

7:15 am

In spite of being pretty good about doing my stretches and running, my hips have been feeling really bad. I guess it’s what comes of sitting and spinning so much. K said something (to tigger, of course) last night about going to Misty Bottom, so maybe we’ll do that today. The trouble with tigger as he now is, we can’t go on very long hikes. Even walking into town is too much for him. And I need to do more walking. I was tempted yesterday (before I ran) to walk into the mall, just for the fun of it. But I “ran” (said in quotes since I ran one way, then the rest of the way I ran and walked picking up trash) instead. And then sat spinning for hours. I finished Juliet Naked and then didn’t sleep well last night I think because it was roiling around in my head. Even though I finished in the afternoon, and then we did some things, including  going to …… Applebees ………… wooo hoooo for half price appetizers. Big deal. It was my idea, I am a sucker for “deals” but I will say that they were basically gross and super high fat of course and besides that, I felt like we had suddenly, 2 miles from home, entered Middle America. I have not seen so many huge vehicles, well, since the fair. But at least there they have a reason as in they need to carry sheep or hay around. What in the world do you need to carry to Applebees? After that we went to Staples so I could print out G’s photos for the Gma (they did not come out that good but I think she’ll like them) and then to the grocery store. Big excitement. It was nice, however, to have taken care of supper so early. I managed to clean up Ella from her recent pluck while listening to more of Little Dorritt.

                I have not gotten very far, like not even started on things like the kitchen pile. I think today what I should do is just file papers. That would be a very good start. Oh and maybe pay the obvious bills. I have one more 2 ounce bit of the fawn angora to spin, so I think I will finish that to give it all closure. Then I will need to measure out some grey and some white to start in on. I want to get a bunch ready for the next fairs, even though they will not be until fall – Apple Harvest in late September, then Hartsbrook and finally the winter BBBS crafts fair. It’s just that I don’t know how the fall will be at work and I don’t know how much time I will have for spinning.

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Lots of links

8:30 am

                While writing this, I am letting the computer put the next 9 chapters of Little Dorritt  on the mp3. I listen to it while feeding buns and while running which I did this morning. And picked up trash while I did it. That huge mass of plastic in the ocean will only grow as the plastic on the side of the road gets washed into the Fort River, thence to the Connecticut and finally out to sea. So I can do my very small part by gathering the junk up from East Hadley rd while I run. And while I listen to my Librivox Little Dorritt. Except that unfortunately I do not like this reader nearly as much as the last one (for Martin Chuzzlewit). I have looked up other Dickens books she has read and will try them next. For now I will deal with this reader. It is good to actually hear all of the book. I listened to a bbc adaptation and it was very confusing. It left out a lot since it was just dialogue for the most part and not much was explained.

                Managed to print out the poster (I biked to staples) and then distribute it yesterday afternoon. I hope it helps. There are still a few places it could go – North and South libraries, and to the farm share room. I meant for G to take one there today, but she left it behind. Since K gets home early perhaps I can drive it over (and get cook farm ice cream… one of the main things that kept me going yesterday afternoon was knowing that I was going to stop for GoBerry).

                Today I would like to spin spin spin the rest of the angora. And listen to the rest of Juliet Naked. I wonder if it has been made into a movie. It seems destined to, as so many of his other novels have, if it is not already. I’ll look it up. Since it looks like it won’t be too hot today, the other thing I really need to do is give the cages a quick clean. Just clean out the deposits of droppings that accumulate in corners, and detach the ones that hang from the bottom of the wire. And I should vasoline some who seem to need it. And pluck the two I mentioned before. Every now and then I will hear a sneeze from the vicinity, but I can never see who is doing it. If it is Dinah, I don’t much mind as she is also very grumpy and aggressive, so it would probably be best not to keep her.

                Before I get to start in on the spinning I will need to do some basic housekeeping – dishes, laundry. Seems like yesterday I didn’t get started until really late because of stuff I was doing, but except for the bread I started, I can’t really think what it was. Take out compost? Oh, I know, I made a fruit salad which was lovely, except that it took forever to cut up the watermelon and get the seeds out. These melons from the farm are delicious, but they are very  very seedy. And here’s something funny – I grilled some yesterday. I grilled some chicken, and the eggplant and a zucchini, and I even grilled some flat bread. It all came out quite good. Then I decided to try the watermelon. It was odd. Sweet, hot, a little charred.

                I found an on-line source for adhesive foil which I think I will order so I can make reflectors to direct more heat to the solar dye pan. It gets hot, but certainly not at a simmer heat. More like 120 rather than 200 which is what I would like. Cloudy today (rain??????) so nothing will heat up at all. Next week I will really focus on getting everything ready for the class. I think I will call E since I have his gift card that I can give him, and I will ask about the roving he said he has. If it is ok, I could buy it from him to add to what I have for class. I probably have plenty, but I don’t want to run out and I can always use it later.

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Poster Photos

7:15 am

                I spent the evening last night taking photos of the very nice girl from across the street as she pretended to do various fiber stuff, then I managed to put it all together into a poster.

             

 I hope to send it out via email and post it around town but first I want to hear from her parents to be sure they are ok with all of it. I am nervous but a bit excited about these classes. I actually would wish for an ideal of about 4 kids for each, just for the first time. 3 would be too few, especially in case someone couldn’t make it one day, 6 would be do-able, but 8 would be hard without a helper and I haven’t yet found one, mainly because if I only have a few kids I won’t need one. I’ll try calling LSSE again today. Finally heard from S re a fiber meeting. Her summers are crazy, trouble is that once fall starts I’ll be crazy. So I’ll try to arrange something for August. I do feel like summer is zooming by. I have next week, then the classes for 2 weeks, then another week and then bang it is time to start thinking about work. Of course I won’t have gotten done a ton of the stuff I wanted to. Well I ought to think about the stuff I have done. I did a bunch of spinning yesterday, I’m tackling the bag of fawn angora. Still 5 ounces to go. Then I’ll mix together some grey, and I really need to spin up some white since that is usually quite popular. I started in on listening to Juliet Naked by Nick Hornsby which I am really enjoying. I finished Turn of the Screw which was utterly weird and I am sorry but HJ was either an utterly repressed (Victorian homosexual after all) man, or had his tongue in his cheek all the while he was writing it. I suppose it could be a little of both. The thing reeks of sexual innuendo. And is creepy, not because of the supernatural aspects, but in terms of the implied sexual abuse and its impacts. Which I’m sure was at least as common in those uptight Victorian days as it is today.

                It s overcast again today, but I don’t know if we’ll get any rain. It sure did try to hard to get there yesterday, but to no avail. There is a lovely and very red cardinal sitting on the very peak of the roof singing. Forecast today is for partly cloudy (I just checked) but no rain. I will spin. And I think I will warp some things (sticks, cardboard pieces, tp rolls) for the class. And finally fix that wheel that I may need. And maybe contact A about my great idea – to bring a sheep to the first day of class. K is off that day, so he could bring it over and bring it back. Don’t know if that is allowed by UMass. It is educational after all…

                I also think I will look over my huge ToDo list from the beginning of the summer and think about what of those items I can still get to. Of course I have added to it – all the fabric I need to deal with in the basement. And now….rugs to weave. What I really need to get back to thinking about is stuff on my pile in the kitchen, finances stuff, all like that. Stuff I love to think about and deal with. And if it would ever rain and be lousy outside I could sit and enter checks and reconcile and all that. I do need to call the Insurance to see if my check for business insurance ever arrived, or if it actually did get lost/misplaced in which case I need to send another. Rabbits are in reasonably good shape, Bathsheba needs a pluck. I’m glad she was in full coat for the photo I took yesterday, so many of the others look ratty having just been plucked/cleaned up. Dylan probably needs it too. Geneviève brought home a lovely melon and watermelon yesterday, I think I will make fruit salad for bfast. I need to make more yogurt. The last half gallon of milk went bad, I need to get some and start the yogurt right away.

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