Volvo the next chapter

 John got on the phone yesterday with the dealership.  So long story short we arrived at the dealership at 7:30 am.  It’s very early, am I right?  They did a computer duomp and found an incident in the log but couldn’t find the actual problem.  

So they did a software update and my 4 year service on my car that has less than 11,000 miles on it.  They said that would fix the problem.  John talked to the service manager and found out when the technicians were available.  So the game plan is for me to drive straight to the dealership if the break issue pops up again.  Since it seems to be an intermittent problem I am betting on John being right that it is either a sensor issue or a broken wire.  Only time will tell.  

I have found out that 59 degrees is too cold on a low spoons day to eat outside.  I finished my chicken before my body said no more food for you. 

I drove the car home after lunch.  I spent the rest of the day solving craft supply issues and knitting.  Of course I did cook a new favorite dinner. A mixed vegetable and duck egg omelette.  Of course I managed to mess up the flip and feed the stove top some of our dinner.  

Happy 2023

 I would like to start out by saying that I have not bought any new crafting supplies this year.  Today would have been a perfect day for on line shopping. I was having  a bad body day because of my stupid flare up.  I am not the biggest fan of arthritis.  I usually shop to make myself feel better.  No shopping was done. 

Instead I napped. Did two 20 minute cleaning sessions. I also found the time to work on three different projects. I did not complete anything. If I have the energy tomorrow, I will warp a loom for a scarf so that I don’t have to figure out where to store the yarn, this might involve more than 1 scarf.  I always have bags of hand made items for children that leave the house every so often.  I just love the Flowing Wells School District Clothing Bank. They find homes for everything that I make. 

Use more stuff up is going to be my motto for the year.  Also as I complete more projects, if I am not in love with the project bag it will be filled with yarn and given to other knitters at our monthly Old Pueblo Knitting Guild meetings.  If you live or visit Southern Arizona, this would be a great reason to join.  

A Strange Week So Far

 This has been a very strange week for me so far. Somethings I will talk about, some things not so much.  Well here goes.  

I was at Whole Foods this week when a lady stopped me in the parking lot and wanted to buy my car right there on the spot. I suggested that she go to the dealership to see what they had. 

She said she did. However she wanted  my make and model which they did not have.

  I kept saying no.  I really have to learn to be ruder. 

She thought it was brand new. I reality my car is about 2 years old. It was bought just before the COVID19. Since it don’t go out much it sits in the garage a lot. It still looks new. I am about to cross the 5,000 mile threshold too.

She told me I could buy a Tesla and I said no, why not buy one for your daughter.  Maybe next time since the are in short supply I should just say I will sell it for some outrageous price like $ 1.5  or $2 million and if they are will to fork over that much cash, no financing, I would think about selling it.  I think I should be able to buy something suitable and add a little money to savings.  

I am finding that my hands are good for about 2 hours a day of crafting. Then they get too tired to move.  So I am rolling with the punches.  I decided to hand off 2 charity knitting projects at the next knitting guild meeting.  I am no longer going to finish a project for the sake of finishing a project.  I must love it or it will be handed off or tinked.  I must use my limited time wisely. 

I have a little more energy so I am very slowly trying to catch up with housework.  Well I am running out of battery and it’s time to plug in and turn in for the night. 

Planning for 2022

 As 2021 comes to a close and we’re getting ready to enter the zillion th year of COVID19 and all of its variants I am beginning to wonder if it would be better for me to leave Facebook and cut down on my other social media.  Instead spend my time reading, walking outside and crafting.  After all if the science is to be believed the Spanish Influenza of 1918  took 3 years to settle down.  I know people traveled a lot less back in 1918. I hope all the traveling people are doing now does not  prolong the current pandemic. 

I have literally no place to go. No travel plans. I have lots of projects, lots of craft supplies, lots of books and  most of all lots of time.   What I don’t want is an email box that is overflowing with junk mail.  Spending time on social media  tends to add to that.  I deleted over 1000 emails today and did not make a dent.  I have to think on this.  I will keep my blog though.  

My Body Hates Me

 My body and I have not been in sync for a few days now. I really have been slowing down. I am doing a lot of reading and resting. Which is what my body wants.  My mind on the other hand wants to go and keeping things rolling at a moderate pace. I have about 3 really good hand hours a day, which is not to my liking. The pace of my crafting has slowed way down.  Also not to my liking.  Maybe it’s time to get some outside consultants to weigh in.  

Well it’s time for breakfast and to see what my body and I can negotiate today.  

The End of an Era

 I have just finished emptying the plastic box I used to carry all my supplies for craft sales.  I will no longer be spending months of my time crafting for a solo charity fundraiser or taking part in fund raisers for charity. This is not to say that I am giving up all my charity work, just the shows. The shows take up 100’s of hours of preparation and a few hundred dollars or more in supplies, all to spend a whole day selling the items to make somewhere between a few dollars  to a few thousand for the charity. If asked and I have the time I might make a few items.  All the charity work was supposed to lead to a part time crafting career, but I found people only bought from me at charity events and would even call me to see if I would be willing to sell a high ticket item after the event was over and give all the money to charity.  They would even ask when my next show would be so they could get what they needed.  When I offered to sell it to them they would always say that they would wait for the charity event. This diminishes my work as an artist, to tell me that my work is only good enough for charity events and not to buy at other times.   

So I will be doing art for me. Doing what I love. I do have a very wonderful children’s clothing bank that takes what ever I make and finds a new home for my creations. This gives me greater joy than charity sales events.  I am making 1 child at a time happy and warmer.  

I will still teach knitting, spinning and weaving, because this also brings me joy. I will still be designing new patterns, as I like sharing.   I like to see people learn new things. Again this will be on a limited basis.  

The past 32 years has been hard on my body and soul.  I still have some issues that I am working through. I am tired. I have more issues with my body as I get older that need to be taken care of, I am moving slower than I was 3 decades ago and I don’t like that.  So this is the beginning of the me era until my family needs me.  

The Garage

Today I managed to empty and sort 3 more boxes from the garage. I ran out of steam for box number 4 filled with knitting magazines. Considering that they have been in the garage since we remodeled the bathroom I might not have a use for them. I have a lot for Goodwill that I am hoping will leave the house this week. Instead of looking at the pile going of my goodness, I am instead think of just one box at a time. My goal this weekend was 2 boxes so getting 3 boxes done is fantastic in my humble opinion.

I found a whole whole lot of sewing projects and a sweater pattern that I have been looking for. So my plan going forward, is to get a few boxes done each day in the morning at the peak of my energy level for the day. In the afternoon body permitting I will get some sewing or craft projects done. I am trying to do this without an afternoon caffeine boost so there might just be more napping than crafting in the afternoons.

My my hope is to turn Teri's old bedroom into an electric workshop for John for the holidays. Although I think I will leave building the work bench to John. I really need to save my hand time for knitting, weaving, spinning and sewing.

Crazy Busy

Tonight is the first night in almost 2 weeks that I have not fallen asleep on the couch before it was time to put Eric to bed. I have been busy with spring cleaning. All but on room is clean. Each time I think there is nothing left to clean, I just find more to do. More to recycle or donate to charity, or more to trash, there must be an end in sight, I just can't see it yet.

Eric has settled into going to his program 2 1/2 days a week. Just enough time for Eric to connect with his friends and not enough time to get over tired. For me this is just enough time for a few quick errands or part of a day of cleaning and napping. Eric is just not as springy as he use to be. Recovery time is taking longer.

We we also had a surprise visit from Teri and Tej last weekend. I know that the five of us had a great time. Although I wish we lived closer to them, it is just not possible at this time. I am so lucky to have such a great family.

Just Another Saturday

Under things never to do in December. First I would pick never to try to traverse a Target parking lot at 1 pm on a Saturday. There were loads of people. Almost no parking spaces so people parked where ever they could find a curb even in the fire lanes. So I had to leave the parking lot to get to the Michaels on the other side of the lot. Even then people were parked in the Peter Piper Pizza parking for Target.

I did manage to make a few more gifts but I was short a few pieces. So I decided not to battle the parking lots again, so the extra pieces I needed will be delivered. I love on line shopping. I also found some time to reorganize some things. On the knitting front, I am almost done with the second of 3 chemo caps.

Crafting

Today I finished up the last of my holiday gifts. I have made about 200 pieces this week. Now the next project will be to repair about a dozen of Eric's bibs and make 2 more hand knit chemo caps for a friends brother. He loves the first one that I made.

I have a lot lot more energy now that my hand feels better. I also get about 10 hours back each week. That gives me more time to do everything.

A Rough Week

Eric was sick all last week. He even shared the cold and aftermath with me. Poor John has been trying to keep up with 2 very cranky people. Even with the larger washer, Eric has managed to make 2 pretty full loads of laundry a day. Thank goodness for Eric's aides, they have been doing all the folding. I don't know if my hand is up to that much work yet.

I am really hoping that Eric will be back at program sometime this week. When he is at home sick this much, my world feels a lot smaller. I swear that my world can not get that much smaller or I might just fade into oblivion.

My left hand is a little better. I have been able to use it between 30 minutes and 2 hours on most days. I can say for certain that the arthritis flare up post cold is not helping the recovery process in the least. At least 2 out of the 3 fingers are almost, well at least 50% healed. The ring finger is another story. I am really working to get my left hand fully functional again. It will make my life so much easier and neater. I would really like to know, say before a meal, if my hand will work all the way through the meal.

I am hoping that Eric is not real clingy today. Yes I just noticed that it is 12:40 and it is time for a nap before I start my day with Eric in a few hours. By the way, it is getting easier to type too. Not a lot of mistakes. I can even reach for some of the keys.

My goal for the coming week is to have a better week and get a lot of crafting and cleaning done.

A Slow Recovery and More

My left hand and I are barely on speaking terms. I am doing my physical therapy as prescribed. Progress is much to slow for me. My hand just seems a lot stiffer than I every remember it being.  It seems that no matter what I want to work on in, 30 minutes my hand is done, with a recovery time of about 2 hours.  Even when I am on a roll.  This means that is going to take forever and a day to finish anything I want to create. It is taking about a week to finish a scarf on U.S. size 17 knitting needles.

Right now I am in the middle of deconstruction 4 sweat shirts that will be paired with denim squares and turned into blankets. Yes I will have a number of upcycled things. If I have any left over denim, I will use some flannel to make a few more blankets. The big question seems to be to add binding for a more city look or skip the binding for a more country, shabby chic look. Any thoughts on this? The other odds and ends will be turned into various things for my November 11, 2016 Taglit fund raiser at the Tucson JCC. Since I can not knit as much as I have in the past, there will be a whole lot of things that I have not made before. So come do some holiday shopping and help Eric and his friends have fun. As usual 100% of the sale price will go to Eric's day program.

Now if Eric will just go to sleep before the day starts in a few hours things will be a lot better later today. It is a little after midnight as I write this.

The Good and The Screw Up

Most of the day went well. The granite was installed.  It looks a lot less pink then our sample, so we will have to revisit the back splash.  Most of the cabinet work was finished.  The tile work on the floor as finished.  I spent the day bouncing between a sick Eric, keeping up with the work in the kitchen.  I also emptied the pantry. John and I emptied part of the craft room.  A dozen pair of earrings were made.  Amber came over to help me empty the pantry and part of the bookshelf.  

The one major screw up of the day came when no one asked me where the bathroom sink faucet was. The workman and contractor decided to use the 2 hole  utility sink faucet to drill the holes in the beautiful granite and not the single hole faucet that John and I had spent hours choosing.  

Tomorrow the painting starts at the back of the house.  Eric will be home another day.  I will also need to prep for Thursday.  

More Organized

The bright spot of the day was that by spending only 2 hours cleaning I got 1 room ready for dust and vacuuming and the other room 3/4 of the way done. On the down side the laundry room is back to knee high.  The 4 loads of laundry I did today did not make a difference.  

I have also decided that I need to schedule about 2 hours a day for crafts and fiber play time.