THOUGHTS! on writing, the dog, spinning

7:45 am

                This has become something of an addiction, writing my Morning Pages. And I have 2 thoughts (besides that one), let’s see if I can get them down before I forget them. First is that I wonder if it is perhaps not an actual good thing, writing my pages every day. As in, ….oh damn the dog wants to go out…..  coat on me, boots on me, diaper off him, bootie on him (get snapped at several times in the process), leash hooked on, latch door, coat off, pee washed off my hands. Now let’s see if I can remember anything before he barks to come back in.

                So it is actually good for me to write MPs? The idea in my small brain is that this becomes my main forum of communication. (and with whom? Effectively nobody). In other words it somewhat satisfies my need to express myself, so I do not care that much if I don’t ever talk to anyone in reality. It is of course a good thing in that it keeps me …..damn damn damn now the dog is barking….. oh, just at the neighbor’s car….. it keeps me emotionally intact I suppose. I don’t feel always frustrated and constrained and sour. It means I have less of a need to talk, which is probably the bad thing. The good thing would probably be to push myself to talk to others, to convey my needs and wants….ha.

                Ok second thought. Let’s see. Oh yes, I wonder (not for the first time) if I should somewhat separate the MP’s and the blog. After all most of this blathering is utterly boring. It has been really funny to see how many times people went to the blog to see the entry about my lendrum that I was asking re whether it might be fake (I think it is just really old) …..dog again…..  coat back on, open door, diaper back on, leash detached, hold his rear up by the diaper to help him up the stairs, leash off, bootie off, latch door… so as I was saying, most of the MPs are inordinately boring, not of interest to anyone but myself (and even then….). so maybe I should add things to the blog that might be interesting. Mostly I am thinking photos. As in, I should have taken a photo of all the brown wool I just spent the last several days spinning up for L. It was quite impressive, really. Turned out well and I really hope she now has enough. I did 2 skeins last week – about 6 oz, yesterday I did 4 more so that is 12 more oz making 18 which is more than a pound! Should be enough for a scarf you’d think! Well, she will finish it in Maine. Which is where she has gone, not to change the subject. Off on her winter wilderness trip and very very excited to be doing it. She’ll be back mid Feb.

                Well what else to blather about? I did not stay at work very late yesterday as I needed to get back to finish the spinning. I also did take Tigger back out with his cart and once again it did not work very well. I even raised it a bit which worked better, but he did not seem at all interested in going anywhere. At least after that he seemed more able to go with it. So now K is changing his schedule so he is home early  3 days a week, only late on 2. Meaning he will do dog duty on those days, but I will still, I suppose, have to be on the others. Well, at least on Tues.

                Ok, time to get going on things so I can get the 9:15 bus. Or maybe even drive in….

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More Class News and Spinning!

6:20 am

                I am really waiting to go into the b-room, but K has just gotten out of his shower and now I must wait for the shaving and toothbrushing to happen, all of which can take quite a long time. I just plain woke up, so I decided I would just plain get up. And I have at least taken my psillium and vitamin pills and gotten the fire started. But I really need to use the bathroom. It is distracting. And I am trying very hard to NOT do anything for Tigger. It is his responsibility. I must not do all that stuff for him. As the dishes are his responsibility and I must not do them.

                What I did all evening was to spin for L. She has been knitting her scarf from the stuff I spun over the weekend, but now she is nearly out and needs more. A lot more. She came over around 7 and started carding it; I helped with that at first. And read some of the Lord of the Ring appendices to her until once some was through 3 passes through and I started spinning. I got one full bobbin, need to fill another and ply, and keep going tonight to finish as she will be leaving early tomorrow for her winter wilderness trip. With HER car, as she did get all the insurance, registration and inspection done yesterday. Very exciting. I must now cancel Mom’s insurance.

                Other big news from yesterday is that, instead of teaching 3 labs for Bio 200, I will be teaching 2 labs and also prepping for 2 other classes. It was because we only have enough students for 11 labs, but we have 4 Instructors who were each scheduled to teach 3 labs. So one of us needed to do just 2 and to prep. It was kind of a process to decide who and to figure out a schedule, so I finally just said someone decide and tell me what I am supposed to do. And that is what got decided. It will have its good and bad aspects. Some weeks will probably be hard, but the good thing is that I will only have 24 of those odious reports to deal with.

                I am also NOT doing anything for Tigger (oh, I said that) but I do have to listen to K deal with him and open and close the door and sigh and grump. Oh well.

                Anyway, I will now have to do a crash course in what those 2 courses will be needing for materials, etc. I have not taken any work home for quite a while and I won’t do that today as I will need to come home early and spin. Well, just found out that K will not be home between work and his class tonight (spring break class) so I will not have to do any kind of fancy supper production. I made rabbit meatballs last night. I would not have gone to such a bother, but the rabbit I had thawed was labeled “old rabbit” on the bag, and I did not have lots of time to let it stew, so I decided I had better grind it up. Which of course is a big production. But there is plenty left over, so I will not bother to cook anything, just have left overs. And spin. Which is not a bad thing, it is just that I will also have to do everything for Tigger which I pretty much had to do yesterday, too, since K did not get home until late. I tried taking him out in his little wheeled cart yesterday, but it did not work very well if you ask me. His feet are not raised high enough. With his bootie on his feet get in the way and he gets all tangled up. He can go backwards but not forwards. Maybe, since I will have to be doing it this afternoon, I will try either attaching the foot rests, or raising the whole thing up. It is somewhat adjustable, and it looks like it just needs an allen wrench.

                Ok, so now I must: do stretches, shower, do buns (and it is REALLY COLD this morning), get breakfast, gather stuff, get dressed. Not exactly in that order. Once Kent leaves (soon I think) I will do stretches.

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Classes Start and Doggie News

7:15 am

                I am taking it very easy this morning. Just going to get there in time for lecture – well, a bit before, but no running in the gym this morning. Partly this is because I want to be there ahead and not screech into lecture just as it is starting with my hair wet etc. Partly it is because last night I went with L to see The Hobbit! It was lots of fun. Kind of late, so I did not get to bed until midnight. Somehow I did wake up at 7 – habit I suppose, so I decided to just get up. I will take either the 8:15 or 8:45 bus. I suppose the earlier might be smarter because it did snow last night so there is a chance the schedules will be a bit off.

                Well here’s some news: Tigger now has a set of wheels. K arrived home last night and announced it. He took Tigger up to Turners to check them out, talk to the people, and surprise surprise he was convinced. Well, usually it takes 2 weeks for them to build a set to your specs, but they had a used one there and it was only $200 as opposed to $350. So that part is good. He then showed me how Tigger will use it, and that part was not so good. It is not exactly easy getting him into it. In fact, K had to put a muzzle on first because Tigger tries to bite and snaps. Getting his legs into the little leg openings is hard. On top of that, it still allows his bum leg to drag, so he still needs a bootie on that foot or he will continue to drag it raw. The whole thing seemed kind of tricky to me. I will try very hard to keep my mouth shut and just go along with it.

                So today it first lecture. After that I assume we will sit around and look over the lab schedules, the lists of students, try to fit everyone in. At some point perhaps it will get decided if we will have 2 Thurs am labs, or 2 Fri pm labs. Which will determine if I will teach Wed Thurs am Thurs pm or Wed Thurs Fri pm. I will just go with whatever happens. I am of course not at all ready for classes to begin. I did spend yesterday really finishing up Rm 108 and it looks wonderful if I do say so myself. I think one of the profs is teaching NeuroBiology there, and I think one of the lab instructors is doing lab prep for her, but neither has been in yet. Well, it is now theirs and not anything I have to worry about. What I do have to worry about it getting my desk cleaned off and getting some things ready, setting up a notebook, getting files ready. Not a huge big deal.

                Before all that of course I need to: do stretches, take a shower, feed buns, clean up a bit from making bread last night. The usual. Ok better get to it.

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Frustration and Dickens

6:45 am

                Well now that everyone is back – our house-mate and her boyfriend arrived around 9:30 last night and K at who knows what ungodly hour – I am wishing I could turn the radio on, not worry that anything I do will bother everyone else. And to top it off my fingers hurt. I have hangnails. Well, not really, really it is that my thumbs are cracked which happens every winter and really hurts. It helps a lot to use some antifungal cream, but that also means that I must wear bandaids all the time which makes it hard to type.

                Yesterday was a bit of a wash. I picked L up at 8:45 and she drove me to the bus stop where I ended up waiting a bit in the freezing cold. I got in to work, thus, not too late. I actually managed to get more sorted in the lab room so that it is nearly done which is good. At noon I went to knitting which is something I have been looking forward to more and more. While there I got a text from G asking about the stuff she wanted mailed. Well I had not yet mailed it, thinking I would wait until closer to when she would arrive (which just reminded me I wanted to look up their 1^st day of classes which is Monday, damn). Anyway, obviously I waited too long and she really needs her Chem book and notes. So i really needed to go home and mail those, meaning I had to take the 2:10 bus, but I missed it, so I called L who picked me up. I dropped her back at work and I went and got the books, drove to PO (but I had to go back home bc I forgot my wallet), boxed and mailed them. They will arrive Tues bc of the holiday. Well I did the best I could. There is more stuff she wants, which I will box up and mail today. I feel bad when I fail them in some basic way.

                After all that, it was pretty late and there really wasn’t time to do anything useful –  order food to pick up, dog, start to tidy. Then I drove back out, got L, we picked up our food from the Salvadoran take out place, and ate it here. It was pretty good, though neither of us was that hungry. She left with the car, then I had to do buns (and I had stupidly left the water bottles all outside so I had to thaw them all) and finish the tidying. I just really needed to get the table cleared off for K. I still should scrub the counters and stove before he gets up, but I think I will do stretches first. And throughout it all I am still listening to Dombey and Son which is really depressing and miserable. Captain Cuttle and Walter are the only bright spots (since Walter has come home) but even that has an undertone of worry as anything connected with Florence seems doomed. I wonder what other Dickens is still left and I wonder how miserable they are. It might be fun to listen to Bleak House or Pickwick Papers.

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Dog and Minutes

7:30 am

                I don’t really have time to write, as I must do all the usual, then pick up L at her place, have her drop me to get the bus at 9 so that she can have the car for the day. She called last night and is feeling sick – in the beginning stage of a cold, and is really worried about being sick for her big wilderness trip. So I suggested she really lay low and one way will be to drive to work instead of walking or biking in the freezing cold.

                Recap of yesterday. Let’s see, it was very nice to be home most of the day. Of course I had to do lots of Tigger stuff in terms of feeding, and getting him in and out. I spent a good amount of time working on the fair meeting minutes. A committee member was nice enough to take notes since the secretary stayed home with a very sick dog, but she hadn’t gotten around to typing them up, so I offered. Oh joy. Especially as I really don’t understand them all. Well I am adding plenty of red questions and comments so when I am done I’ll send it to the co-chairs and get their input before I send them to the secretary to send out to everyone. It has to get done really soon because our next meeting is so soon. So I guess I’ll try to finish them today somehow. It is really time consuming and annoying.

                I did manage to wind off the 3 skeins, and started another. Did I do anything else fun? Well I also sorted the pile from the small table and I did not put everything away, but I put them into subpiles to be put away. At least a first step. At 2:15 I walked into town, met a friend for tea, then to the library where I found a wonderful old version of the Hobbit (with Tolkein’s illustrations) for L. And a book for myself that I had requested after hearing it reviewed. Not sure I’ll actually read it as I have Orlando to finish and then Anais Nin to read for Book Club. I met L after her dental appointment (but boy it went really late), drove her to work, came back here to do Tigger duty, feed buns and get the things I needed for class. Drove to MHC, did the class which went well. I actually spent most of the time plucking Cassandra which was badly needed. The students all helped me load the stuff back in the car which was great, and I even unloaded (into the garage) once I got home. Then I did more Tigger duty, and finally crashed. I decided to try not giving T his medicine, but that was a mistake. He was awake and barking/whining at 3 am. I finally got up and gave him his meds, went back to bed and yelled at him to be quiet several times before he finally was and I could sleep. Now of course he is out of it, so I will leave him his bfast though he may not eat it.

                Ok, gotta get going so I can pick up L, she will drop me at the bus stop, and I have tons to do at work!

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