journal

A View From the Field

March 5

It's been 24 hours or so when I just did not feel like doing anything, so I just sat. Too long last night and too long today, so I'm late again. Oh, yes, and in the middle of the night I had a horrible accident and had to try to clean up the floor in the bathroom. I did as good a job as I could, but now it really needs to be mopped. I'm not sure how I'm going to do that.

I was sitting in the bathroom when I got a call from the nephrologist's office in Marquette, and amazingly enough, I have an appointment for next Thursday! Wow, what a difference from the one here! I'm not looking forward to that trip, and it doesn't seem quite as vital as it was, but I'll go. I also got a call from the NP's office, saying, "Keep on." That was all I did.

Everything was complressed into a few hours this afternoon, and then before I could have dinner, I had another accident and had to change my bottoms. Sheesh.

It kept me from having a really nice dinner I'd planned. I made rice, because I have a lovely large cabbage and I want more of that cabbage/rice mixture I enjoyed so much. So the rice weht in the fridge (what didn't go on the floor) and I will have it tomorrow, or I hope so.

The weather was pretty nice - and pretty. It was clear or mostly clear all day and there was all that beautiful sunshine. The high temperature was apparently 30º. The weather station was down all morning, but evidently it's OK now. There was a bit of wind from the north, in the 10 to 15 mph range. Oh, all that sunshine and blue sky!

It also let me get a good look at the MODIS imagery and the lack of ice on the lake is remarkable. There is a little bit around the Keweenaw, and the Apostle Islands, but not even very much at the bottom of Keweenaw Bay. Even all that cold weather we were through in February didn't make much of a difference. And it looks like the next couple of weeks are likely to be quite mild, too. What a weird winter we've had. We had 76" of snow in February, which is not far from the maximum of 88", but we haven't had any measurable precip yet in March. How weird.

Grayson made a nuisance of himself. He hasn't figured out the accident thing yet and walking around on dirty floors doesn't bother him as long as I pet him. He wanted some of my lasagna, but his name isn't Garfield and lasagna is not good for little gray kitties.

So that was my quiet, truncated day and now it's a cold, clear night in the field. Maybe I'll see a star tonight, if i ever get to bed.

March 4

I got to bed around 11:30 and that was nice. However, in the middle of the night, I had about an hour where I had to sit in the bathroom after I changed my underwear, so I didn't get as much sleep as it sounds when I got up around 10:30. I didn't diddle around very much, but I hadn't quite finished my tea when the repair guy got here, I think about noon.

He took part numbers for the ovens and the washer and said he would call me tomorrow to tell me whether the parts are still available. The news on the fridge isn't good. He did get it pushed back into the cabinet, but he decided he couldn't pull it out so I could put the tow strap around it. It's so nice to have it back where it belongs! However, in his opinion, the only way to fix the ice problem is to turn the whole thing off and leave the door open until the ice melts. That's unacceptable, since it's the only fridge I have. I did turn up the temperature and I can hope that will soften up the ice enough that maybe - just maybe - I can get it out.

After he left and before I unloaded the Schwan's order, I went through the entire freezer and got rid of a whole bunch of stuff that has been in there for far, far too long, and then I loaded everything up very neatly. The freezer is full, at least for a while, but it is holding a lot more than it did before. I tried chipping away at the ice - the guy got rid of the stuff in the front of the bottom - but it's too thick and too hard.

Evidently the problem is, there is a drain hole at the back of the bottom where the water from the defrost cycle is supposed to drain out and it is apparently clogged. Since it's in the back, where the ice is thickest, it isn't possible to tell what's clogging it. I will keep working away at it.

I didn't do anything else, of course.

The weather was cold but nice. I can't tell exactly what the high temperature was because the weather station has been intermittent, but it was at least 27º and there wasn't much wind. It was cloudy this morning, cleared up around 12:30 and then clouded up again around 4:30. The sunshine was nice.

Grayson behaved himself pretty well, at least while the repair guy was here. He has been bugging me ever since and he is now on the floor between the desk and the door. I don't know what his problem is. I'm hoping that maybe tomorrow I can get his litter tray set up. Since it's going in the bathtub and that's where he's been pooping, I have some cleanup to do before I can get it set up. Then all I have to do is hope he uses it. I tried some new canned food on him and he apparently really liked it, but I haven't found any canned food he doesn't like. The picky one in the house was Louie, although Grayson is picky about his kibble.

So that was my day. It feels good to have the freezer in order, even though it's still full of ice. Now it's a cold, dark night in the field and i need to go to bed.

March 3

I'm going to bed. It was an exhausting day.

I got to bed around midnight, but a couple of hours later, I had an hour when I just ran off at the bottom, so I had to sit and stare at the reflection of the clock. Then my right hip began to hurt, no matter which side i slept on, although I did get quite a bit of sleep. I think I got up around 9:30, although I fiddled around some.

I got my stuff together (memo to self: even the small purse is too heavy. Stuff needs to go in pockets), and I did my surfing. I was all set to leave when...I didn't quite make it to the pot. Oh, sigh. So I changed my bottoms - thankfully, some of the clean jeans that got wet in the laundry room are OK - and I finally got out of here at about 2:00.

There were more people at the hospital than usual, so it was 3:30 when I got out of there, but it was worth it. All my problems have gotten better. I won't say I don't have kidney disease, but the markers were all much, much better - the two that were high came down and the one that was so low went way up. And my potassium is in the normal range (!!!). Wow. I'd really like some explanation for why my kidney function has recovered so much, but I'll take it - I'll take it. It was worth getting poked.

Then it was off to my other two tasks - gas and food. I got gas at the station that is close to Pat's for convenience's sake, and then it was Pat's. I did a lot of damage, but I was getting low on a lot of food. I have the idea I may have forgotten something that sits on those interior shelves, but I haven't figured it out yet. I was so tired I could hardly make it to my car, but a very nice young man helped me get unloaded and into my car. I didn't get home until around 5:30 and it was after 8:00 before I brought in the frozen stuff. The rest is fine out in the breezeway. I think it's almost as cold out there as it is in the fridge.

I am tired. My right hip and knee are very sore and I'm moving even slower than usual. Besides, the appliance repair guy is coming tomorrow.

I asked Ron to leave my Schwan's order in the breezeway but he brought it inside anyway. I hope it stays cold. Since I may have to unload the freezer anyway, I didn't want to put all that stuff away. The guy who has been wanting to do some work on the PastyNet equipment under the desk called twice after I left. There are a lot of things around here that I thought I might do that I haven't, mostly because of my knees.

the weather was all right. The temperature went down all night, and the high during the day seems to have been 29º, although we missed a few hours. The wind was from the northeast in the 15 mph range. It was very cloudy this morning, began clearing up around 4:00 PM and was getting cloudy again by the time it got dark.

Grayson was somewhere hollering when I was recovering in the powder room. He was asleep in the pink chair - his new favorite place - when I left. He wanted some of my dinner so he got to lick the empty container and then, of course, he went away.

One of the things in the mail was an invoice from the people who dried out the house - over $11,000!!! The insurance better pay that, because i sure can't. I haven't heard from the adjuster. Of course, things are dried out, but the floors are very dirty, some of the baseboards are missing in my closet and there are holes in the ceiling of the closet and the laundry room. There are any number of places where there are rusty drips on the walls. I don't know if those can just be washed or whether it will need painting.

I finally got my load of bottoms washed and dried, so now I have something to wear again. Either I or the repair guy is going to have to clean out the screen on the cold water line. And when he fixes the control, I can begin to attack all the wet - and possibly moldy - clothes in the bags in my bedroom. Oh, this is a mess and it isn't going away very soon.

So now I'm going to bed. When I got home, the laptop said it had installed updates, but then it began to try to download some more, so I don't know what's going on with that.

It's a cloudy, cold night in the field and it was a busy day.

March 2

Well, this was a day that didn't turn out at all how I had planned. I didn't sleep well and I was moving slowly, so I was late getting ready to leave. Then, halfway through the kitchen, I had an accident. It was after 2:30, so I aborted the plan and cleaned myself up. It was probably just as well, because my hips were so sore I was having trouble moving.

I sat in the office too long and when I got up to get my dinner, after the talking was over, I had another accident! Sheesh! Fortunately, I still have a few clean bottoms to wear, but no sweats. So I did my other task of the day. I went out to the breezeway and brought in the laundry soap and left the litter tray on the platform so I can get it when I need it. My order of cat food came today, too, but that's out in the garage and I guess it will stay there for a while.

I brought the soap in and immediately washed the huge load I have in the washer. I have to rinse it again, but I will do that on my way to bed. So I didn't do anything I'd planned today. And I kept dropping things, which always annoys me. I dropped the long reach tool, so I had to use the tongs to pick it up, and then I dropped the tongs, so I had to use the long reach tool to pick them up. this could have gone on for a long time. I dropped a jar of jam, and I discovered that the long reach tool won't hold on glass unless it's very small in diameter. I did manage to pick that up, but it was hard. We always called it dropsy.

The weather was all right. The high temperature was 42º and the wind started out from the southwest and ended up from the northwest, in the 10 - 20 mph range. it was cloudy until around 5:30 PM, when it began to clear up, and it was clear in the last picture. I'm going to have to adjust the start and stop times again.

Grayson did his thing. I have decided to let him pee in the shower, because otherwise he's been peeing on one of the rugs, and that annoys me. I've taken the next step toward getting things situated for him. Now I have to clean up the bathtub and then I can put the tray in it and fill it and we'll be good - or I hope we will. Oh, he's getting me trained.

So that was my day. I got the stuff for the bulletin from Pastor, and I suppose I should try to get them out tonight, because I won't have time tomorrow. I had hoped to get to bed early, but oh, well.

Now it's apparently a clear, fairly warm night in the field and I'd really like to go to bed.

March 1

I was a bit later than I wanted to be last night, but I slept well and I got up around 11:30. I diddled around, of course, and it was late when I ate breakfast, so I finished eating my dinner around midnight.

I didn't do what I was planning. I did call Schwan's and complain about the quality of some of their products, including the "Golden Fruit Blend" that was about 80% strawberries. It's supposed to have equal parts of four fruits, and the amount of the other three was about what I would have expected of one kind. There were some other things.

I was planning to go out to the breezeway and bring in the laundry soap and a litter tray, but when I got up from the pot in the powder room, I must have twisted my left knee and it hurt so bad I could hardly stand on it, so I decided not to do that. I didn't do anything else, either.

The weather was cold, cold, cold. The high temperature finally got to 17º, but that was around 7:00 PM. It was colder for the rest of the day, and the wind was very strong. It was from the north, up to 28 mph with gusts of 43 mph. The heat in the north end is holding up, and tomorrow is supposed to be very warm - up to 40º. That's how I know it's March. It was mostly cloudy, although the clouds began to break up around 3:30 PM and it was nearly clear when it got dark.

Grayson was behaving himself today. He peed on one of the rugs in the bathroom last night, but as far as i know, he hasn't done anything outside the bathtub today. I was hoping to get ready to get his litter tray set up, but I didn't.

So that was another wasted day. Tomorrow I have to go to town. Hopefully, the weather will be better. Now it's a frigid night in the field, although the wind seems to be dying down some and there might be a star or two, along with the moon

And we've made it to March. Woo-hoo!

Last updated 03/06/21 01:50 AM