Dear Place Of Employment

Because you don't seem to realize it, let me clue you into a little something. An inch is a standardized unit of measure. 

It does not lengthen or shorten depending on which machine you use to cut a part. 

By the same token, a degree is also a standardized unit of measure.  

It does not change depending upon which machine you bend the part on.   

Therefore, if you truly are making your parts to the specifications on the blueprint, it shouldn't matter which machine you make them on, and it should matter even less that you make parts for the same assembly on different machines. 

That means if we put the parts into a brazing jig and one is half an inch longer than the other five, you did something wrong.  That's not "just the way it is”, and it is not because you "mixed machines."  If you do them right, they'll be right. 

No matter which machine you use. 

Perhaps it's you who should be getting your act together. 

Thank you.

That is all. 

That's What I'm Talking About!

Now, that's what I'm talking about!  

After weeks of ice, rain, and dreariness, today was just what I needed.  It was even warm enough after work that I was able to open the French doors and windows and get some fresh air into the house.  I almost --almost -- went to the Lee Tartt Nature preserve after work to walk some trails, but I didn't.  

I came home instead and piddled a bit in the back yard because it was too nice to stay inside.  I even got the ladder out and raked some of the leaves and sticks off of the top of my old chicken coops, then added all of that to my compost pile.  The big one, not the tumbler.  I'll probably hold off on adding stuff to the tumbler until it gets warmer outside.  

It was even warm enough I put all my plants out onto the back porch for some fresh air and sunshine.  It's not supposed to dip below freezing again for at least a week, so I might just leave them all out there.  I'm sure they're about starved for light about now. 

I really need to get someone out to tear all that down and re-build it.  I've been saying for a while that I wanted to turn it all into an open porch type thing, but the trick around here is finding someone who is both trustworthy and affordable.  The ones I can afford can't be trusted, and the ones who can be trusted I can't afford.  And yes, I do know this from experience. 

In other news, I got to work bright and early this morning and noticed one of the sub-brazers wasn't there.  Another brazer told me she had a knot -- and I'm assuming she was talking about a knotted up muscle -- somewhere in her neck or shoulder area that had been hurting her so badly she was literally crying yesterday.  She'd said she might go to the doctor about it, so maybe that's where she was today. 

Anyway, I told the girl I was talking to about how I'd almost gone home myself yesterday, because my back was hurting so badly I thought I was going to throw up.  She mentioned a shoulder and arm that was hurting, and another brazer came over and we all stood there talking about our aches and pains, and sharing stretches and such to try to help ease them. 

Yes, the topic of those Salon Pas type pads did come up.  I've already added them to my shopping list, but I'm telling you, I sure was wishing I had some Saturday night when I was in such pain.  The issue of how to put them onto my own back came up and my one coworker said, "You can bring them up here and [Other Coworker] will put them on for you!''

I guess when you work with people that long, they really do become family.  

The rest of the day passed largely without incident.  Though my back was still spasming, and the arm swinging thing does seem to help, the spasms seemed less intense than they have been, and didn't seem to last as long, so maybe my muscles are toughening up.  That's the whole issue, I think.  Between Christmas break and the ice storm, we'd all became couch potatoes.   Now that we're back at work, we're having to use muscles that had turned to mush during all that time off. 

Another thing I thought of was that it's been so cold in there lately --usually around 64-65 in the mornings -- and with a fan blowing on me all the time to boot, I haven't wanted to drink any water, because I've just been too cold.  I think I've let myself get too dehydrated, so I've been making a concerted effort to drink more water despite it being freezing at my work station.  

By the way, I think I know why Old Supervisor might have gotten fired.  I think he pointed out.  This is just speculation on my part, though.  I know he was salaried, but they're still expected to show up at work on time.  Old Supervisor came in late every single day.  They'd already talked to him once about it, and for the next week, he came in on time.  The week after that, he was back to his old ways -- not coming in until 15-20 minutes after the start of the shift.  As I said, it's just speculation, but it does make sense. 

New Supervisor, who will from this point on be known simply as Supervisor, came over today and asked why the conveyors were we put our finished work are so far away.   They used to be a lot closer until one of the production managers decided we didn't need such long conveyors and took half of them away.  I also saw him measuring how high our rolling tables go and comparing them to how high the conveyors are.  

Maybe he wants to try to move them closer and lower them, and to that I say, good luck. We've been begging them to lower those things ever since they put them up.  Gung Ho (remember him?) even put in a work order, but the man over maintenance said he wasn't going to do it because he didn't consider it that big of a deal.  Tell that to all of us women who have to pick those heavy bins up all day every day. 

But that's their attitude towards safety out there.  They don't care about employee safety.  They just care about giving the appearance of caring about employee safety out there.  If they really cared, a lot of things would be different. 

Same thing with quality.  They were out there complaining about our leak rate going up here lately, but they don't want to hear that it's because we've gotten a lot of oily and greasy parts.  That would require that they actually solve a problem, and Lord knows that's the last thing they want to do.  Heh, before the ice storm Old Supervisor actually came out and asked me if I'd noticed it was harder to get the rod to melt with it being so cold outside. 

You'd be proud of me, I was good.  I didn't mention that our brazing rod melts at 1425° degrees Fahrenheit, so I don't think it being 65° in the plant instead of 95° would make a hill of beans difference.  I just said no, and pointed out the oil all over the header that turns into a sticky brown gunk when it dries, but they aren't going to do anything about that, because that would require them to fix something over in Tubing.  And that would take effort and it's so much easier just to scream at the brazers.

How long until I can retire?  

Re-Thinking Things

Ok, you know I’ve been having issues with my back here lately. I’d been blaming my recliner, but after thinking about it more, I’m not so sure. I’ve had that recliner for 8 years, and the back issues for just a few weeks. Now I’m thinking it’s just from going back to work after having so much time off between Christmas and the ice storm.  Today at work,  that idea just seemed to get reinforced as every time I picked up my brazing rod I got shooting spasms across my back.   All day long, I was in such pain, I almost packed it in and went home early.  But I didn't. 

Until the end of the shift, that is.  I was walking down the aisle towards the employee exit when I discovered quite by accident that if I swing my left arm back and forth vigorously like you do when you're power walking, it seems to help.  

Even after I got home, when I felt my back cramping up, I stood up and swung my arm and the cramps stopped!  Woo Hoo!  I'll have to remember that for the next time around.  My coworkers might look at me weirdly, but whatever works.  Hopefully, my muscles will toughen back up soon and the cramps will stop.  

Another thing I'm re-thinking is leaving my piano up against the wall like this. 

I'd turned it around so I'd have room to put up the Christmas tree, and decided to leave it.  It does make the living room feel bigger, but there is a downside.  Since I spend so much of my life at work, I tend to do a lot of multitasking while I'm at home, including practicing my piano while watching TV.  

I know, I know, not ideal but that's how it goes. 

However, with the piano facing the wall and my back to the TV, I find I'm not practicing nearly as much as I need to.  Well, I've never practiced as much as I need to, but now I'm practicing even less.  Maybe turning the piano around will rectify that. 

And finally, in knitting news, I cast on another headband.

I'm just going to make this one 2 x 2 rib for about 4 or so inches.  Very simple. Very easy.  The reason I did this is because I didn't have much yarn left, so I thought I would knit until I ran out, but I don't think I'll get 4" out of it.  The good news is, I found another whole skein of this color -- Country Blue, by the way-- in the cabinet, so no worries about running out.  

Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go practice that there piano so I can go to bed.  

Short Post

This is going to be short today, because whatever I'd done to my back a week or so ago, I did again yesterday.  It was spasming so badly last night, I don't think I got a wink of sleep.  I've been sitting on the heating pad all day today, and it's doing a bit better, but if this keeps up, I might just have to go to the doctor and get it checked out.  

I'm already looking at new recliners with better back support, and they've got some out there that are surprisingly inexpensive.  Or I might just move the armchair from the other room into the living room and buy a footstool for it, then get new furniture when we start getting overtime again.  

The plan all along was to get rid of Rylea's love seat once she went to that great beyond and buy a recliner for Cody, but then he met Brennan and all that changed.  I had to hang on to the love seat so she'd have a place to sit.  Now that I've got some debts paid off and a little money put by, I can start thinking about getting new chairs.  

On the other hand, now that we're back at work -- hopefully without any more ice storms -- I'll be doing more standing than sitting, so it wasn't matter anyway.  And I need to start walking more as well.  Maybe this'll be the spur I need to get myself moving. 

Well, despite my back woes, I managed to finish a hat this afternoon while re-watching season 1 of The Chosen.   I want to watch all three before the new season comes out.  It'll be in theaters next month, then released onto the app sometime in March.  

The yarn is Red Heart Supersaver in Delft Blue, I think.  I lost the band long ago, so I'm not really sure on that. 

Yesterday, I whipped out another headband, using the Chinese Waitress cast on, and I think it turned out much better. 

I think this'll be the pattern I settle on for knitting these kinds of headbands.  The store bought ones look like they were knit with bulky weight, and I'm using worsted, but other than that, it looks pretty close.  This yarn is also Red Heart and the color is Pink Rose. 

And finally, I don't think I'd make a very good pioneer woman, because I've let my fire go out three times today.  I managed to get it revived, but still...I think it's because yesterday I let the house get too hot.  By the time I went to bed, it was so warm in here I was sweating.  

We didn't get any more rain, but we didn't get any sunshine either.  Maybe that's why I've been feeling blue these last couple of weeks.  I need me some sunshine!!

Maybe tomorrow...

Sunshine

"After ice all last week, and rain all this week, I'm ready for some sunshine!"  

So I said to my coworker this morning.  Alas, we've got one more day of rain before the sun comes out, and that day will be tomorrow.  Fortunately, I don't have anything I need to do, other than watch TV and knit.

Do you want to know how much it's rained this week?  This is a 20 qt stock pot that I put out Monday evening before the rain started.  

Full disclosure, about 2" of that is from the last of the ice that I took out of the blue bucket that had cracked, but that's still a lot of rainfall.  

My yard is a sodden mess, made worse by those moles or gophers or whatever they are that's digging it all up.  Days like this, I really miss my Rylea.  She'd have dug those things up and killed them by now. 

OK, moving right along...

You're never going to believe what happened at work today.  I was just a working way, when Crank Pot walked over to the brazer who works next to me and told her she'd made her a pie.  Sometime later, I told that brazer that ever since then, I've been sorely tempted to walk up behind Crank Pot and bark, "Why you ain't made me no pie?"  You know, the same way she did me about the hats.  

I didn't, though.  I said I was going to be a better person than that, but boy I sure wanted to.  I told the brazer, "It isn't even about the pie.  It's the principle of the thing."  Then she told me the reason Crank Pot had made her a pie was because back a few weeks ago, Crank Pot had been sick so Brazer made her a cream cheese pie.  Only Crank Pot had barked and griped that Brazer hadn't done it right.  She was going to make her the same pie and show her how it's supposed to be done.

Like I said, she's very extra.  Can't even be grateful that someone tried to do something nice to her.  But the long and the short of it is, I don't feel bad anymore about sneaking headbands to my friends and not making her any. 

Speaking of headbands, I got another one made last night when I was avoiding blogging.  

OK, I wasn't so much as avoiding blogging, as catching up on my Chicago shows (Med, Fire, PD) and just didn't get around to it.  Sometimes it's OK to take a break.  I thought the new seasons of my shows started this week.  Turns out, they'd started last week, so I'm a week behind.  I'll get caught up this weekend.  Oh, and before I forget, Newheart is up on Prime!  

"Hi, I'm Larry, and this is my brother Darryl, and my other brother Darryl."  

I think the headband turned out pretty good, but the next one I make I'll go back to the Chinese Waitress cast on.  I'd used a cable cast on for this one.  It's easier, but I think CW would look better with the reverse stockinette rows.   I'm also going to go down a needle size.  I did this one on an eight, and it feels loose to me.   But people have different sized heads, not to mention the wigs, weaves, and other big hair dos it'll need to fit around. 

And finally, I finished reading Once Upon A Wardrobe.  It was a good book that could have been a great book -- but wasn't.  

The book is basically a biography of C.S. Lewis, as told by Megs Devonshire to her younger brother George.  George had been born with a heart defect and wasn't expected to live very long.  Somehow, he'd gotten a hold of a copy of The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe, and has asked Megs to contact Mr. Lewis and find out where the story had come from.  

She meet Jack and his brother Warnie and slowly learns the story of how Narnia came to be, then each day, she goes home and tells George what story Jack had told her that day.  Each story they start off in the same way, by saying, "Once upon a wardrobe, not very long ago and not very far away..."  

It's a unique way to tell a biography.

The only problem I have with this book is that it is told in first person from Megs' point of view.  But that's not the problem.  It switches to third person when she's telling George the stories about Jack's youth, but that makes sense since it is Megs that is telling the story.  However, every so often during the course of the book, when telling Megs and George's story, the POV suddenly switches from first to third person.  It's very jarring, and in my case, at least, it dragged me out of the story.  If you're an avid reader, you know exactly what that means. 

If it hadn't been for that, this would have been one of those books that grabs you and doesn't let you go.  Even so, it was a good book, and worth reading. 

Now that it's done, I'm back to The Bard.  Next up:  Two Gentlemen From Verona. 

I guess that's it for tonight.  If you'll excuse me, I've got laundry to fold.  

Yes, I really do fold my laundry.  Don't envy me my exciting life. 

Little Things

A week ago, we were encased in ice.  Today, we're under water.  

OK, not really, but we've already gotten 2" of rain, and are expecting more.  I hate that some people are getting flooded, but we desperately needed the rain.  We are still under drought conditions after all.  It was raining so hard this morning, the cat wouldn't even go outside.  I opened the door for her, and she looked at me like I'd lost my mind.  

Speaking of rain, something has messed up the buzzer at work.  Not sure what that has to do with the rain, but I needed a good segue.  Except maybe the rain messed up the buzzer, but I doubt that.  Anyway, when the beginning of shift buzzer went off, instead of one long buzz, it broke up into four short buzzes.  I turned around and said, "I don't know if I should go to work or to the shelter!"  Meaning the tornado shelter.  

You had to be there. 

OK, moving right along, a couple of weeks ago, I ordered some new hand brooms to clean out my fireplace with, and after being delayed by ice, they finally arrived late last night. I heard the truck come, but I'd already gone to bed and said to myself, "They'll be there in the morning." And they were.  

 I figured these would do a better job sweeping up ash than my Swiffer duster thingy.   I tried them out as soon as I got home from work this evening, and they worked really well.  More importantly, they didn't hold the ash like the Swiffer did, so that's less mess on my floors. 

It's the little things...

Not much else to report today, knitting wise.  I'm working on another charity hat, and am about to cast on another headband and play with a few patterns.  Other than that...

Oh, yeah!  New Supervisor came over today and told Group Leader Shark to tell Scrap Man to pick up the brazers' scrap, and if Scrap Witch has anything to say about, to refer her to him.  So that's good.  

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go cast on a headband and watch a documentary on The Battle of Agincourt.  

Laters...

Drama Of A Different Kind

So, there I was at work, just a working away when my coworker asked, "Becky, have you seen [Supervisor]?"

"He was here this morning,"  I replied.  Thinking more about it, I said, "I saw him at their 9:00 meeting that they do, but haven't seen him since."  

That's when she told me he'd walked out.  As in quit.  What????  I have no idea what had happened, but I know he's gone.  As an aside, Greedy Bess said that they'd called Supervisor and Cuz up to the front office, and only Cuz came back so that means they fired him, but I wouldn't put too much stock in anything Greedy Bess says.  You remember, of the "What if you don't have any minutes on your phone?" fame...

Nobody seems to know why he quit, but honestly, he was in over his head out there.  He'd told me at his previous job he'd been a supervisor of supervisors, whatever that means.  But from conversations I'd had with him, it seemed to me all he did was sit and do paperwork all day.  Vacations schedules, payrolls, that sort of thing.  Any time we needed him for anything, he acted like he couldn't make a decision.  He'd usually tell us to go get with Group Leader Shark about whatever it was we needed.  

The part that's really funny about it is I had just called Cuz over and asked him what we were supposed to do with our scrap.  For those of you who have a memory like mine, several weeks ago, The Scrap Witch had told Scrap Man not to pick up any scrap from the sub brazers because we shouldn't have any.  Except that we do.  Supervisor had told me that we -- meaning the brazers -- were supposed to walk over to tubing and figure out who had run that order and get her to write a scrap ticket, which will likely involve a 10 minute long argument because they aren't going to want to deal with their own scrap over there.  I'd asked Supervisor if he was serious, and he kind of shrugged and said, "Don't worry about it.  I'll figure something out."  Only he didn't.  

Cuz told me to just put the scrap into a bin, and I said, "Yeah, but what are we supposed to do with it then if Scrap Man isn't allowed to pick it up and take it out?  We need some clarity on this."  He said he'd talk to The Scrap Witch and get things straightened out.  But Scrap Man still didn't pick up our scrap today, so I don't know what's going on with it.  OK, the funny part is, when we were having this conversation, I hadn't known that Supervisor was gone.  

After I finished talking to Cuz and had gone back to work, Crank Pot came up behind me and told me her sister had seen her Calorimetry and really liked it.  I was already mentally gearing up to give her my No, I am not knitting your sister one speech, but she surprised me and said, "She wants to know how you made it.  Did you use two needles or what?"  I was almost snarky, but managed to contain myself and said, "Let me give you the website to the pattern" instead.  I wrote it down, and then spent the rest of the day wondering why she pitched such a fit over the hats if her sister knits.  Just get one from her!  But it isn't about the hats.  It's about someone getting something that she doesn't get.  

Anyway, once she'd gone back to her side of the plant, one of the other brazers -- the one who'd gotten the very first Calorimetry the day I brought all that stuff in a year ago -- told me that Crank Pot had come over that day and demanded that she give her that headband.  Didn't ask.  Demanded.  

Who does she think she is?  I'm just glad I'm done with all that.  

Except that I'm sneaky.  I asked one of my coworkers if I could take a photo of her headband so I could try to work out the pattern and knit some.  She was happy to oblige, and as you can see, my memory was wayyy off.  

 None of the ones I knit look like that.  But now that I've got a photo, I can reverse engineer it and make something similar, if not exactly like it.  Headbands are so fun to make, because they're quick and easy, and you can experiment with so many different patterns.          

In piano news, I've gotten back to trying to work through my lessons.  This one came up in my sight reading exercise book, only I was confused about how to play those base clef notes. 

This morning before I left for work, I posted on Facebook asking my piano gurus what I was supposed to do.  Wouldn't you know it -- I got different answers from different people. The funny thing is, all the ones I know have a musical background gave me the same answer, so that's the one I went with.  One of them even explained why, but of course, it has to be a real piano for it to work.  So, now I've got to try to find a piano to borrow for about 10 minutes.  

Won't be tonight, though.  I'm not doing anything else tonight. 

Back To Work

They say all good things must come to an end, and this little unplanned winter break did that this morning.  Yep, it was back to work for me.  The good news, once I got off my own street, the roads were mostly clear.  There were a few spots on Riverdale Road that were kind of sketchy, but not impassable.  

As usual, they'd called in someone to clear the parking lot, leaving great piles of dirty ice all along the edges. 

 The good news is, whoever did it "accidentally" ripped up two more of the speed bumps.  Hey, a few more ice storms and we may be rid of the things.  The better news is, Supervisor wasn't there.  He lives in Oxford, and they say the roads are still pretty bad up there.  I ran into town after work, and there was still plenty of ice in the ditches and ponds, and even on the river, but had no problems driving anywhere. 

My stalker must have really missed me this last week, because he came out four times to leer at me.  As if that weren't enough, he was over in the sub-brazing department before I even got there.  There was only one person that was even there that early, but there was my Stalker, waiting for me.  Sigh...the most frustrating part about it is, I could put a stop to the harassment, but it would cost me my job.  Not him.  Not the one doing the harassing, but me, the one trying to defend herself.  

Eh, I don't want to talk about that right now.  Maybe one day, I'll do a whole post on all my stalkers.  Yes, I have multiple, and they're all pathetic losers and creepy weirdos.  

Anyway, after work, I went to Walmart and picked up a few things just to tide me over until Friday -- mainly milk and bananas, oh, and deer corn.  I'm still pretty well stocked up on everything else. After I got home, I went and pulled the makeshift greenhouse off of my little bluebonnets and checked to see if they survived.  

They look OK for now, but we'll have to see. 

I took the plastic and used it to cover the last little bit of my firewood.  Well, the wood that is still up close to the house, that is.  I've got plenty back under the shed.

As if being encased in ice for a week isn't enough, we're expecting heavy rains all the rest of this week, and are under a flash flood warning.   It's always something, isn't it?  Heh, a few years ago, I'd posted a video of a typical spring storm on FB, and one of my friends asked me why I didn't move somewhere else.  Where are you going to move that doesn't have weather?  I was kind of glad when she unfriended me -- but that's another story for another day.    

Unfortunately, the bucket I use to collect rain water for my potted plants -- particularly my Venus Fly Trap -- didn't survive the deep freeze. 

 For now, I put my biggest stock pot out until I can buy another one.  I'm thinking I might splurge on a regular heavy duty rain barrel instead of these cheap buckets from Walmart.  

You know what?  I had a lot of stuff I was going to talk about, but right now, I'm too tired to even think of it, much less type it out.  I was too tired to even build a fire, so I splurged and bumped the heater up just a bit.  Now, I think I'm going to go take a hot shower and get myself something to eat.

Oh, did you know Amazon Prime has music channels?  And I mean the ones that show old videos, kind of like MTV and CMT used to do?  I'd seen them in the listings, but thought they were like Pandora or something in that they just played the music.  Nope.  Full on videos. 

Just like back in the day...

Another One

I'm just about addicted to knitting these little headbands.  Yep, I whipped out another one today, after making a bit of a  tweak to this pattern. Can you see what it is?

OK, I know the photo isn't the best, so I'll tell you.  I used seed stitch instead of the K1P1 rib on the rows between the reverse stockinette.  I kind of like the way it turned out, and look at this!  It's fully reversable!

In fact, I think if I knit any more of these, I'll work them from the knit side.  Also, I'm going to go down a needle size.  I knit this one on size 8, and it feels just a bit loose.  I'll go down to a size 7, which is what I knit the ribbing on hats with anyway.  That'll make it a bit more snug.  

In other news, I've always been fascinated with icicles.  I don't know what it is about them, but I love seeing them.   These have formed on my shed from the ice melting then re-freezing.  

I guess that's it for today.  When you've been housebound for a week, not much happens that's worth talking about.  I'm telling you, though, I'm not sure what has been going on with my back, but it's sure been hurting.  It feels like severe muscle spasms, and it's just in this one little spot.  I think it has something to do with my scoliosis.  

I was diagnosed when I was 12, but the doctor back then said mine was so mild, I didn't really need to do any sort of corrective therapy -- like wearing a brace -- or having surgery.  If I didn't tell anyone, they'd never know.  But he did say it could cause my troubles as I get older, and since all my worst back pain always seems to happen in the same spot, I'm thinking that's what it is.  I have stretches that help, but I've gotten kind of lax about doing them lately.  I need to get more consistent with them. 

The only thing that has helped is sitting with a heating pad on it.   It seems to have calmed down a bit today, so I'm hoping the troubles have passed.  

I haven't needed to take any Tylenol all day, so maybe....

Almost Over

It would seem our week of winter is almost over.  Even though it only got up to 35° today, stuff is rapidly melting.  I took a walk around the yard this afternoon and broke the ice off of my little home made greenhouse. 

I'm thinking by Monday afternoon, I can peel the plastic back and let little plants have some fresh air and sunlight.  

By the way, my friend Marcy told me that what I'm looking for is called a Cold Frame.  I knew exactly what I wanted, I just didn't know the name of it.  I've got plenty of that clear plastic, so I'm thinking if I can get ahold of some wood, I can build one.  If all else fails, they have them on Amazon.  The smallest are around $70 ish, but that would be enough for me to start some seeds in.  

Have I ever mentioned that I'm persistent?  Yep, I've already bought four more packets of bluebonnet seeds.  

Plus, my nephew and his bride were handing out packets of sunflower seeds at their wedding last August.  I picked up a couple of those, because I thought if I got a dozen, I'd look greedy.  I'm going to plant them and see if I can get them to grow.  

But I digress.  As I was saying earlier, stuff is starting to melt.  This bucket is where I collect rain water for my plants, and it was frozen solid.  

It has finally started melting a bit around the edges.  This afternoon, it got warm enough I was able to put my two little potted mums outside for some direct sunlight. 
 

After Monday, it's supposed to warm up into the 60s, so I can put them back out onto the front porch for a while.  

In knitting news, I finished another headband, this one in seed stitch. 

I don't think I'm going to do that again.  It looks nice, but it was a pain in the butt to knit.  I'll have to come up with something more fun if I'm going to keep doing these. 

And finally, I'm sure you will all be pleased to know that this morning, shortly before noon, after multiple buckets of water and copious amounts of plunging, I finally got that toilet in the hall bathroom unclogged.  

It's the little things....

That's All Folks

Well, that's it.  They called work tomorrow, and told us not to come back until Monday.  The MHP and Sherriff's department are requesting people to stay home if at all possible, because the roads are still pretty bad in spots.  It's supposed to be even worse tomorrow, because the temps got up into the 40s today and all that sleet started to melt.  Once it dips back below freezing tonight, it'll all turn into ice.  

I'll tell you one thing, I'm about sick and tired of water.  What with the sleet pack melting, water has been dripping from my roof all day long.  My firewood is so wet, I've been bringing a few pieces in at a time and lining them up on top of my wood stove to dry out. 

This carries the added benefit of humidifying the house just a bit.  It gets so dry during these cold spells. 

My next round of fun started yesterday, when I decided to run a load of laundry.  Wouldn't you know it, the only pipes in my entire house that froze were -- you guessed it -- the ones going into the laundry room.  And yes, they were wrapped.  Sigh....They'd thawed out by around 3:30 ish this afternoon, so I was able to wash my clothes, and wonder of wonders, none of them burst.  The pipes, not the clothes.  As much as I've eaten this week, my clothes might burst yet. 

The problem came when I decided to take advantage of those frozen water lines and clean the debris filter which is down at the bottom of the front panel.  

I pulled the filter out, washed it well, then attempted to put it back into place, only I couldn't figure out where that second O-ring gasket was supposed to go.  I looked and looked, and couldn't find anywhere that it would seem to fit.  I finally just put it around the filter and shoved it back into place.   I started a load -- once the pipes had thawed, that is -- but the filter was leaking.  I stopped the washer, pulled the filter back out, dumping water all over my laundry room floor in the process because I couldn't get the cap off of the emergency drain line, and re-seated it.  

It did a lot better, but still leaked a tad.  So, I just shoved a towel under it and let the laundry finish.  While it was running, I looked up a video on YouTube to try to see where that second gasket goes, thinking that was the reason it was leaking.  I found one where a guy was having the same problem as I was.  No matter how much he tightened his filter, it still leaked.   After much trial and error, he'd discovered that you have to line up a mark on the filter with a mark on the housing before you shove it into place and start tightening it up.  That's what worked for him. I still didn't see where that second gasket goes, though. 

I said to myself, "I'm going to have to try that once this load finishes," and settled in to watch a few episodes of The X-Files in the meantime.  About halfway through, that's when it hit me.  That second gasket wasn't a gasket at all.  It was one of my black hair bands.  

I give up.  I just give up. 

By the way, I re-did the filter the way the video showed, and it worked just fine.  No leaks whatsoever. 

As if that weren't enough, while all that was going on, I managed to clog up the toilet in the hall bathroom.  I'm not sure how, because I've been careful not to flush any wet wipes.  I've plunged, and snaked, and plunged some more and can't shift that clog for anything.   I keep pouring water down the bowl, hoping it will eventually break down whatever is clogging it up.  

That toilet has acted up ever since I moved into this house, and I probably just need to on and get it replaced.  

I'll add it to the list, but I tell you one thing, my Dad was right.  Home ownership is for the birds. 

Day Three

It's day three of being iced in, and I'm starting to understand why people used to get cabin fever.  I mean, I was thinking about it just today, and if I didn't have internet and TV and thousands of books available to me, I might just be going stir crazy my own self.   Funny, Laurence Brown mentioned Laura Ingalls Wilder's book The Long Winter on his YouTube Channel Lost In The Pond today, and even though I've read the book several times, I simply couldn't imagine living through that.  

I mean, it's not likely I'd be wanting to go anywhere anyway, but knowing I couldn't if I wanted to makes it a completely different ball game.  Fortunately, I haven't lost power or heat, well, not during the day.  The power did go out for about 4 hours last night, but it was from around 1:00 AM to around 4 AM, and I was sleeping anyway.  

Entergy didn't give the reason why; they just said the cause was under investigation.  If I were to hazard a guess, though, I'd say someone decided to get cute and slid on a patch of ice and ran into a light pole.  But that's just speculation on my part.  

Anyway, I found the old TV show Northern Exposure is up on Prime now, so I've been watching that, along with Heartland and The X-Files, and I whipped out another headband while doing so. 

And I used that term loosely.  The older I get, the faster my hands get tired and sore, so I'm hardly whipping anything out these days.  I'd say the total knitting time for a headband like this is about two hours, but I have to stop and take frequent breaks for my hands to rest.  This is done in Red Heart Supersaver in Pink Rose colorway.  

I know you're probably tired of hearing about how cold it's been here, but it's my blog and I'm a weather geek, so weather is what you're going to get.  This morning when I woke up, it was colder here than in Fairbanks, Alaska where my sister lives. 

That didn't last long once the sun came up. 

It warmed up to 35°, and stuff began to melt pretty quickly.   I ventured out and took this photo of icicles forming on the shed's eaves as the runoff re-froze.  

My road is still pretty icy, and with the slight melt and re-freeze, it'll probably be slicker'n snot in the morning. 

 I was debating on whether to call in to work tomorrow, but turns out it's all moot anyway, as they've cancelled work for one more day.  At this point, I wouldn't be surprised if they just said don't come back until Monday.  Especially since we're looking at the possibility of more freezing rain tonight and tomorrow.  We're all hoping it doesn't get this far South, but weather is weather, which means you never know what it's going to do. 

The good news is, by this time next week, we'll be back up into the 60s.  That's winter in the south for you. 

In other news, look who showed up at the corn pile this morning.  

I see the does and fawns all the time, but seldom see bucks, so this was a treat.  Funny thing, I don't know the hunting laws in MS, but in Texas it wouldn't be legal to harvest this buck, because Texas law says the rack has to be a certain width at its widest point - I think it's 13" -- and they always say a quick way to tell is if the rack extends beyond the buck's ears.  I'm no expert, but it seems to me you'd want to cull the bucks with the inferior racks from your herd.  All the ones around here are spikes, and end up with ugly, skinny racks. If it were up to me, I'd want to get those genes out of my herd.  Not that it matters anyway, as I don't even have a hunting license any more.  I hadn't been hunting in so long, I didn't even renew it this year. 

Speaking of hunting, this thing has been trying her best to catch a bird.  

I've been scattering extra seed on the ground for them during this cold spell, and Evil has tried so hard to catch one.  Then she gets mad at me because I open the door and scare the birds away before she can get one. 

Oh, she's not cold.  The fires of Hell which burn in her soul keep her plenty warm enough. 

A Finished Object

Here we have it.  I finished the hat I've been working on, and once again, the photo is weird.  

I think it might be the sparkles that's throwing the camera off, but I don't really know.  I don't get it, because the photo I took of the skein the other day turned out well.  I think I have enough yarn to do a headband like the ones I've been figuring out, but I think I'm going to set this aside for now and work on my charity hats for a bit. 

The plant already announced they'll be shut down tomorrow again, so I'll have plenty of knitting time.   The temperature only got up to 25° today, so nothing has melted.  This is what my road looks like, 

and that isn't snow.  It's solid ice from the sleet and freezing rain that fell yesterday.  It's not going to get any better before tomorrow, as the temps are predicted to get down into the single digits tonight.   But they're saying upper 30s tomorrow afternoon, so it might start melting a bit.  I know some trucks have been going in and out, but I wouldn't trust my little car on that ice. 

Before I went to bed last night, I got my fireplace shovel and cleared a path on my back porch so I'd have a place to stomp the sleet off my shoes before coming into the house. 

Turns out I needn't have bothered because the sleet in my back yard froze solid over night.  I walked out to scatter some bird seed shortly after noon, and it was so hard I didn't even leave footprints.  

While I was outside, I tried to check on my little bluebonnet seedling, but couldn't see through the plastic.  

I'm pretty sure everything else in that planter is toast.  We'll see in the spring if any of it comes back.  If it doesn't, I might try something different this time around. I do want to keep the lemon balm and the rosemary, but I doubt I'll re-plant the lemon thyme.  I don't know if I was doing something wrong, but I never got anything usable from it.  

Then I walked out and checked on my other bluebonnet seedlings.  The entire thing is covered in sleet, 

but it looks to be clear underneath.  I peeked under there as well as I could, and what plants I saw don't appear to have been damaged by the freeze, so maybe my bluebonnets survived as well. 

The only other thing I did was to finish that book I'd picked back up yesterday, Conflicted.   The story itself wasn't that bad.  The biggest problem is that the author is trying write a seven book series, but she doesn't have enough story for seven novels. So much of the book is empty filler and repetitious rambling that she added to stretch the story out. If she'd left it a trilogy or even a shorter series, it would have been much better. 

Next up, I think I'll finally get around to re-reading the Wool series by Hugh Howey.  I already know it's good.  

Sleet Day #1

Today has a good day to sit inside and knit.  I'd started to cast on another Calorimetry, but changed my mind, and cast on a hat instead.  

I wish I could get a decent photo of this yarn.  I've tried with both my phone and my regular camera, but it just isn't showing up right.  It's much more hot pink than this photo shows, with little sparkles running through it. 

Anyway, I'm thinking I'm going to make this hat for my sister in law Paula for next Christmas.  I might go back and get another skein and knit a matching cowl and maybe even some fingerless mitts.  They won't be Fetching, though.  Just simple ones.  I think she'll like that. 

While I was doing all that knitting, I've been re-watching the old HBO series John Adams on Brennan's Max account.  I'd forgotten how good it was -- up to a point.  After his term as President, his life -- and thus the show -- got a lot more dull.  I'm also picking up where I left off watching Heartland and The X-Files.  

So, the sleet started around 3:30 yesterday, and it sleeted all day long until about 4:30 this afternoon.  There was already a pretty good coating on my back porch by the time I got up, 

and it only got worse as the day went on. 

There's a pretty good layer of ice on the roads, too, and the county EMA is urging people not to get out if they don't have to.  

Now the temp is dropping like a hot rock, so it's not likely to get any better any time soon.  The good news is, ADP has cancelled work tomorrow, so I have another snow day to look forward to.  Except that it's a sleet day, because we rarely get actual snow here.  Just that sleety mess and freezing rain.   I wouldn't be at all surprised if they cancelled Wednesday, too, since it's not supposed to get above freezing again until sometime Wednesday afternoon. 

The more good news is that there doesn't seem to be any ice accumulation on the power lines, so there's very little risk of losing electricity.  Even so, I trudged out a couple of times today and brought more firewood up close to the house.  That little wood heater has done well keeping my house warm.  So much so, my central heat hasn't come on all day.  

While I was all bundled up, I scattered some birdseed on the ground, and this goofball wanted to sit outside and watch the birds. 

Don't worry, her evil will keep her warm.  It's so cold, she won't even stay out more than 10-15 minutes, then she's coming back in...only to want to go back out the minute she gets inside.  Silly cat.  

Times like this I miss having a DSLR with a really good zoom lens, because I had a tree full of cardinals.  

I took this one with my phone, but it doesn't quite do it justice.  

And finally, I finished the book I was reading, Chosen.  It was OK, but not great.  As I said before, it was like reading the store brand version of The Hunger Games.  I might read more in the series, but only if they put them on sale really cheap.  

Now, I'm finishing another book I'd started a couple of years ago, Conflicted, by M.J. Kaestli.  It's the second book in a seven book series, and I doubt I'll read them all -- unless they put them on sale really cheap.  It's not a bad book, but it's not a great book.  

That I put it down 75% of the way through because I just couldn't make myself read any more ought to tell you something.  If it were a trilogy instead of a seven book series, maybe I'd finish, but I can't imagine reading five more of these.  I think that's why I quit reading it in the first place.  

Now, if you'll excuse me, I think some hot chocolate will hit the spot right nicely along about now. 

Take Two

 I made a few adjustments to the pattern and whipped out the second headband, and I like this one much better.  

I went with an 80 stitch cast on this time, and I think it fits much better.  I also added another reverse stockinette round to each of those sections, which made the whole thing about 4" wide.   Here we see Charlotte modeling it, but be aware, Charlotte is much smaller than the average adult human head. 

When I tried it on my own head, it fit like it should. 

They don't take long at all to whip out, so I should be able to make them for the coworkers I still knit for.  

That's about all for today.  Not much else has gone on except for me watching this winter storm approach.  The freezing rain and sleet started about 3:30, and we got a little bit of snow, but so far, it's not much.  We're supposed to get more through the night and into tomorrow.  

I took the precaution of sprinkling some salt on my back porch, so hopefully I won't fall and break my neck going to get more firewood in the morning.  

Now I need to add salt to my shopping list.