elainegrey: Inspired by Grypping/gripping beast styles from Nordic cultures (Default)
Sunday, January 24th, 2021 07:09 am
Sister and i had a talk: she's in a good place for being in a bad place.

I'm carrying a tray of seedlings outside every day so they can bask in real daylight as opposed to the weak little LED lights and window light inside. So far a few extended stays out in frosty temperatures hasn't harmed them. Maybe i'll put on the green house cover and see how well they can go.

The vaccine stuff is maddening. Chatham county has 20,000 eligible under current guidelines, 15,000 registered and has received 1500 doses. Not only has there been the headache of the assumption that there's a unique email address per person (county was clear, our health provider not so much), but apparently the doses for the next week are sent to providers on Thursdays. Which explains some things about why i was able to click through and go through the survey on Mom's behalf on Friday to find no available appointments -- but earlier the site blocked access to the survey. Calendar marked to poke at the website frequently on Thursday night. Meanwhile the NYTimes reports only 40% of North Carolina's doses have been distributed. (I guess they're holding back the second doses?) Florida has better distribution rates, although if it turns out no one is able to get a second dose, well, then we know.

I'll try and get some photos of the steps up on github soon. It's not done: we are waiting for the stone for the vertical surfaces to be delivered and for carpenters to be available. I love how the light stone brightens the porch though. I suppose once the railing is back up it will shade the porch a little, but right now i revel in the brightness.

I've started my first reworking of a commercial sweater. I have a hand-me-down white pull over where the sleeves are so very very long. Stretched out, i guess. I have long arms and am not used to sleeves so in the way. I finally picked at the cuffs, started to unravel them and then decided to go for it. Turns out cuff first is a bad plan. Once i checked out some instructions on line, i was able to carefully remove the excess and have crocheted a lovely detail. Now for the other side. I wonder if i might take a nice cardigan with moth holes and perhaps rework the body of the sweater, from the arms down, keeping the current neck and yolk but then transitioning to some lacy extent. Already ahs moth holes so if it's not really suitable for the world -- as has been much of my crochet attempts so far -- who cares? And maybe it will get me back to doing yarn work in front of our evening video watching.
elainegrey: Inspired by Grypping/gripping beast styles from Nordic cultures (Default)
Wednesday, January 20th, 2021 07:02 pm
Feeling exhausted from so many feelings.

I talked to my sister about getting between Christine and her sister. I got some support even though we agreed i made a mistake. ruminate )

I arrived at my folks to find Bourne Ultimatum playing even louder than usual (turns out the movie has quite the dynamic range, so if Mom was going to hear the dialogue, all the shooting was painfully loud). Dad was a bundle of nerves before driving to Goldsboro for his vaccine. We did a little zoom training, he ate lunch - biting his cheek several times, and then off he went.

Mom wanted ... to continue watching Bourne Ultimatum??!! Well, OK then. After that she wanted to watch "the government" so we watched the reivew of the troops, the laying of the wreath at Arlington and the motorcade back, and parts of "Parade Across America," which had me tearing up frequently. Somewhere in there, she actually asked me to take her to the bathroom, a huge thing as i usually get treated like a guest and mom hides her bodily needs. Was it because she thought Dad had gone to Florida and not just for an afternoon errand? Is it the dementia removing a little more inhibition? I still celebrate. And then there was the amusing moment when Mom got us moving with some urgency, and after some struggles at communication, i realized she was asking for her glass of wine. Like a cat with a finely tuned internal clock: bam, 4 pm, need glass of wine. Dad came home, all well.

Christine connected with her sister, and there were some miscommunications cleared up.

My sister called twice to explain she wasn't coming over to exercise Mom. Something was wrong -- i felt an edge at her voice that i've heard when she's had to deal with dead or dying chickens or dogs or cats -- but "all was OK." I assumed there was something like toilets backed up. I was wrong. Later my sister let me know about some of the elephants in her room, that i hadn't observed myself. I'm so sad that she's got this to deal with, and i'm glad i can be near if she needs me. Stupid pandemic. more rumination )