Thursday, April 23, 2015

Back in the Groove

My sleeping is back on track, solidly on nights now.  I'm actually looking around the mobile and starting to slowly make some progress on projects.  Not the throw, though.  2 rows in and I need to rip back yet again.  I was ready to give up, but upon consideration I'm going to keep at it till I end up with an afghan, or the yarn is worn out, whichever comes first.

I'm starting to take interest in things again, music and reading and studying Spanish again, and generally just waking up.  Been a long time coming.  My back even stopped hurting.  I'm taking multiple walks each night on my nights off around the mobile park here.  Just listened to the video on Lloyd's blog (sidebar) of Willie and Merle singing 'It's all going to pot', and was bouncing and smiling along.  Good to see them still enjoying making music.  Lots of their outlaw co-horts are not around anymore to sing a chorus with them.  I felt them there, though.  Johnny, Waylon, et. al.

I had dinner with Sandie and Jim Dixon and Paul (?) on Tuesday night.  It was fun getting to know them.  Well, I think I got kinda wordy and did most of the talking.  Once I wake up now its Katy bar the door, get a drink and get comfortable.  On Monday night Mom and I went out with Favorite Neighbor, her son and daughter-in-law.  They left for parts North on Tuesday morning.  So, the park is officially quiet now.  At least this street.  I ended up putting the trash cans out a day (night?) early, and then figured who cares at this point.  The summer folks are a live and let live group.  Both nights I went out we ended up a Farmer Joe's Grill down on Ray Rd.  Good food, and nice outside seating.  Now that the snowbirds are gone (or leaving...) it is quiet there, as well.

Cats are fine, Mom is fine, all is well.

Thursday, April 16, 2015

NIce time in-between

This is the best time for me as a year-round Arizona resident.  Most of the snowbirds have winged their way out of here.  The park is basically quiet, I can get to the laundry room with no wait at any time and neighbors on both sides have left.  Favorite Neighbor is still here until next week.  The weather is still sweatshirt weather after dark and warms up during the day.  From what I hear.  I'm asleep during daytime hours.  I did hear the wind at times today when I would wake up.  It is a breezy time of year here.  All in all, very nice.

The repairs on Mom's mobile home continue.  I helped her figure out that her gas oven does work.  She was worried that when it didn't flame up immediately that she was flooding the place with gas so turned off the control.  I got down and turned on the oven and the pilot was working, but no gas.  While I was explaining that the issue was the opposite of what she had thought, the thermocouple finally got hot and turned on the gas and she now has a working oven.  Guess I have to give her back the frozen pizza she gave me that she thought she couldn't cook.

My sleep patterns are straightened out to sleeping all day again.  In fact, I've been sleeping almost 12 hours each day on my nights off.  Makes for a boring life, but feels good after all the stress of moving Mom here and getting the mobile liveable.  It is 3:46am here right now, and I'm fully awake with no undue reliance on coffee.  I'll head to bed in a couple of hours and get up around 4pm to start the process of getting ready for work.

I thought I almost had another throw finished in a really pretty yarn that I was given.  However, the pattern I was winging I didn't wing very well, and as I neared the end I realized that I had managed to accidentally decrease over 6" in width.  I was just double crocheting across as it is a bulky, wavy type yarn that is difficult to see what I'm doing, and I'm not good at figuring out how to end and restart the rows.  Really not good at it.  So, I'm starting over again, doing 2 single, 2 double crochet.  I'm making it a bit wider as well since I have more yarn than I realized.  No finished project pictures as I had hoped to show.  I'm not happy with the last 4 rows after starting the neck on the sweater either, which is why I had moved to the 'easier' crochet throw.  I will get both finished.  Sometime.

Wednesday, April 08, 2015

Roll With It, Baby

It has been awhile since I updated the blog.  It has been a busy and physically stressful time around here lately.  I know, it's sad when folks need to read Rod or Croft's blogs to know what I've been up to.  The primary reason is that I just don't bounce as well as I used to.  The chorus 'Roll with it, Baby...' came out of the radio at me while driving to work the other night and I decided I need to stop trying to bounce and start rolling.

Since Croft and Norma have been here we have been out to eat a few times.  These have been covered in Rod and Croft's blogs.  Rod is now back in Kansas with his issues there, and Mom has moved here.  Last night Croft and Norma, Mom, and Favorite Neighbor and I went back to the Organ Stop pizza place since it is probably the last time I will get to spend much time with them before they leave for points north.  It was fun, although the organ music was late getting started because the organist had car issues and got there late.  He made up for it, though.  Mom enjoyed it as I knew she would.

I flew out to Missouri a couple of weeks ago and we loaded up Mom's stuff in a U-Haul and hooked her Kia on a dolly on the back and I drove us back here.  She bought a mobile home here in the park.  Since we got back she has been busy cleaning and unpacking.  Physically, my back is so weak that I can't do much, and I even put it out again this morning putting a shelf into the kitchen cart she gave me.  I really need to get to a gym, the fitness room here at the park really only has treadmills.  Between getting back on nights from her visit, then going out there and driving for 3 days to get here, then spending the rest of the vacation days getting back on nights, I'm not sure if I'm awake or asleep.

That is a quick overview of what has been going on.  I may go into some of it more as I go along.  I just wanted to get this first post out of the way.