Yesterday I was making real headway on my crocheted blanket project. When I woke up at 2:30 p.m., sitting in my easy chair, feet up, crochet hook in hand, blanket warmly draped across my lap and legs, I realized that I had been asleep for nearly two hours. An afternoon nap was not the plan. After a fitful night I try to stay awake the whole day through, the next day. Whatever made me think that I could indulge in the totally relaxing activity of crocheting, cozy and warm beneath the ever lengthening blanket, and stay awake. I am no worse for it either. I slept soundly through the night last night.
A lovely sunny day out there today, with a real nip in the air. We went out to the Rideau Camp this afternoon, leaving as soon as Attila had changed out of his work clothes and into his bush clothes. I was ready to leave when he arrived home, with a packed dinner of hummus and pita bread, and grapes and muffins for snacks.
Attila emptied the compost toilet buckets into the the dedicated compost bin, covering it well with fresh straw and the wire mesh that prevents animals from digging it up. I scooped water out of the full-to-the-brim water barrel that sits below the end of the eves trough installed on Winnie. It, and the screen that covers it, were stored in Winnie, along with the empty compost toilet buckets. We brought the unused peat moss home to winter in the garage. And that was all that was left to accomplish at the Rideau Camp. Just in time too, as tomorrow night the temperature is predicted to dip to -12C, a good hard freeze, making dumping buckets and water barrels far too difficult. The Camp now sits as it will until April, when the snow has melted and warmer weather returns.
By the time we completed our tasks the evening had waned and the stars had come out. Not an artificial light in sight, no other sound than a cackle of geese overhead, the air crisp and tangy with the scent dead wet leaves and earth, how beautiful it was. I admit to a little pang of longing, as I took in the season’s final look at the trees and the sky, a farewell breath of the cold clean air, then bundled into the car, and we drove away.
Attila found my winter boots last night, sitting where I had left them under the captain’s chair in the basement. I looked there myself last week and could not see them, I could swear they were not there. But I know they were, if Attila says so, and wonder at my ability not to see things, even if I want to. I have always been this way.
My dental issues have improved a bit, but I have distance to travel in that department. I am still on a soft food diet, which I hate, due to its limitations, straining an already highly restricted diet. Patience, and time, is required. This too shall pass.
Well there it is, another day lived to the fullest. Thank you universe.
Worldly Distractions
Weather
8°C
Date: 2:00 PM EST Wednesday 8 November 2017
Condition: Mostly Cloudy
Pressure: 102.4 kPa
Tendency: Falling
Temperature: 7.8°C
Dew point: -1.3°C
Humidity: 52%
Wind: SSW 26 km/h
Visibility: 24 km
Quote
“Yesterday I was a dog. Today I’m a dog. Tomorrow I’ll probably still be a dog. Sigh! There’s so little hope for advancement.”
Charles M. Schulz
1922 – 2000
Woof! 🙂
Our forecast is for -10C tomorrow night. Since last night’s cold our maple trees have been raining leaves, so I think they will all be naked by the end of the week. Quite the late leaf fall for our area.
We almost didn’t make it online, today. Today, DH and I mostly cut the cord on our cable utilites. We moved from Bell to Execulink and will be streaming or otherwise using internet based phone, cable and internet from now on.
The change will be netting us a good profit, going from a bill of $266 per month to $115. And meanwhile we’ve paired our services down to only the items we really use, versus pre-selected channels we never used from Bell. It feels good to have sleek services.
Teri, It is quite late for the trees to release them, usually the branches are all bare by Hallowe’en night. At the Rideau Camp the only trees retaining their leaves were the oaks. It was too dark to see the individual leaves, we could only see their silhouette against the sky, but we imagined the leaves were no longer green, but brown, due to their rustling in the in wind.
That must feel great, all that savings on digital utilities! Our Internet based phone is Magic Jack, which is still working and costs about $40 US a year (Canadian price varies by exchage rate). The biggest issue with it is, if the Internet goes down, there is no phone service, but other than that it works very well. I used to have Execulink service when we lived in the little city, and the service was good. It is a very big undertaking to change service providers! There is a much cheaper service available here, but I hesitate to switch because there are so many steps, over a period of a week or more, I just don’t have the gumption right now to go without internet service for any length of time while the switch takes place. Right now our only services are the Internet account, Magic jack, and two pay-as-you-go old flip cell phones. This works for us, other than everyone else in our families are using smart phones and texting, so we are completely out of their loops, a bit isolating, but we like to live within our means and smart phones aren’t within our means.
Here, DH is the only one with a cell phone. It’s a work phone for when he works overtime, usually 8-10 days a month, so we don’t pay for it. DH’s brother and SIL text some and DH answers them, without much skill. Mostly, we email or talk through messaging services at Facebook or Instagram (for me).
We’ve maintained a landline for me, but now it is VOIP. I don’t use the phone much but it would be an unaccustomed hassle to carry a cell all over the house with me. As it is, we have a connected base station phone with 2 cordless satellite phones. There’s one in the living room, one in the office and one downstairs. DH’s phones at work (just a few miles from our house) are VOIP and he almost never loses them. We also basically never lose our cable (“big” city living), so I’m not really worried about losing the phone, plus we would still have DH’s cell in emergency.
Changing everything over was quite daunting, exhausting. There was little documentation on how to do it and Execulink doesn’t have a serviceman to help. If DH hadn’t been experienced with this from work I don’t know if we would have been able to muddle our way through.
Teri, your setup sounds similar to ours, but our house is to small that one actual telephone is within easy distance from anyplace in the house, as are the cell phones. The switch between service providers is a little bit more than I want to tackle, it sounds awful!