I Love Fall

I love fall. I love that the sky looks crisp, clean, and clear after the muggy haze of August. I love that little nip in the air in the morning that segues into a lovely warm afternoon. I love the smell of drying leaves. I love the beautiful golden glow that appears in late afternoon signalling the beginning of the end of the daylight hours.

I miss the smell of burning leaves, since no one seems to do that anymore. Or maybe it's against city ordinances? I actually don't know since I'm an apartment dweller and don't need to know such things.

I love sitting on the deck in the early evening hours after work and knitting until it's too dark to see properly. I love that a hot cup of coffee feels comforting while sitting there in the rapidly cooling air. I love knowing that soon a frost will come and hopefully help with my allergies. I love knitting mittens with the knowledge that I'll soon be able to wear them.

I love watching the trees gradually fade from their deep lush greens to the varied hues of the season. I love seeing lovely pots of mums all around town, even though I don't have any myself. (Allergic, y'know.)

I love driving home from work in the afternoon with my car window down and the air conditioning turned off, wind whipping my hair into a frenzy. I love waking up in the morning and finding that TillyCat has snuggled up against me under the covers, attempting to steal a bit of my body heat before I get out of bed.

I love that I don't need the air conditioning very often at home, but it's not quite cold enough to turn on the heat yet. I love schlepping around in flannel sleep pants and wool socks on weekend mornings to ward off the chill.

Yup. I love fall.

I Love A Rainy Night

This afternoon when I heard rain on the roof shortly before leaving the office, I couldn't help but smile.  I love gray, rainy days.

I love to be at home during a thunderstorm, curled up in the recliner, knitting in my lap, Tilly TabbyCat beside me, remote control and a hot cup of tea at my side.  I know I'm in the minority on this one; most folks prefer bright sunshine.  Not me.  Give me a good drizzly day any ol' time.  :-)

I should have known it would be rainy this week.  Actually it started a little later than usual, since this is the week of the Virginia Highlands Festival.  It's normally really hot and really rainy during that week each year.

Sorry, visitors and vendors.....I still prefer the rain!

Not the Flu, But Still No Fun

I'd been sick all weekend....fever, chills, body aches, headache, general yuckiness.  I was still too sick to go to work yesterday.  This morning I went in for just a few hours to get one task completed and pick up some work to take home in case a predicted snowstorm actually hits us tonight.

By the time I left the office I felt so crummy that I went by the local urgent care center.  I was running a fever, so they tested me for flu.  It wasn't the flu, thank goodness, but I do have a bad sinus infection.  Antibiotics for me.  *bleah*

I went by the drugstore to pick up my medication, came home, and climbed into the recliner with knitting and watched TiVo all afternoon, catching up on stuff I hadn't felt like watching earlier.  It's raining now.....a lovely dreary steady rain.  Makes me feel all cozy and safe in my little corner of the world.

And so, I'm going to take my medicine, sip some hot soothing tea, and call it a night fairly early this evening.

Here's hoping you're all well and safe on this rainy Tuesday.

It's only TUESDAY??

This has been a long week.  A long, ugly week.  And this is only Tuesday.  *sigh*

Okay, so what's been wrong with this week?

1. Work stuff that I'll refrain from discussing on the internet, since Big Brother may be watching (for those of you who do not understand that reference, please read the excellent book "1984" by George Orwell).
2. Sinus problems that have been dragging on for weeks.
3. Exhaustion caused by items 1 and 2 above.
4. Nothing tastes right; probably caused by item 2 above.
5. I've had a sudden attack of "I hate my hair" syndrome.  Not unusual.  This happens from time to time.
6. I need a snow day.....really, really, REALLY need a snow day.  And the best we're going to get are a few snow showers Thursday.  Phooey.

Now, what's been right with this week?

1. Louise has been in the hospital, but is improving and will hopefully be home very soon.
2. Daddy's improving a little more each day.
3. I finished knitting a scarf for Mom on Sunday.
4. I learned how to crochet one of those Sashay scarves last night from a YouTube video (I've already knitted several, but hadn't learned to crochet one).
5. It's been a gray, rainy day.  I love gray, rainy days.
6. Dessert tonight will be a pear.
7. I'm close to finishing another pair of socks.  I've nearly finished the heel, and the rest of it is just knitting my way up the leg until I run out of yarn.  Good television knitting.

Okay, good outweighs bad, as it usually does.  Sometimes it's just a little difficult to see until you actually make a list.

Maybe it won't be such a bad week after all.  Keep your fingers crossed.

Sinus Headaches Suck....Just Sayin'

About this time last week I awoke with a miserable sinus headache.  Over the course of the next few days it never went away.  It sometimes lessened in intensity, but sometimes it triggered a migraine.  My regular migraine medication (Maxalt) would help the migraine, but the sinus headache remained.

Yesterday it was more intense than it had been previously.  Feeling truly crappy, I dragged myself to the office.  As the day wore on, I felt worse and worse.  Finally, at 3:00 pm I gave up and turned in a sick leave request for the remaining 90 minutes of my workday.

I drove to my neighborhood Walgreen's and purchased over-the-counter sinus medication and nasal spray.  When I got home, I checked in with Mom and Dad, took a dose of the sinus medicine, sprayed my nose, nibbled a few crackers, and went immediately to bed.

I slept for a few hours, then awoke for awhile in the middle of the night.  (Just in case you wondered, there's not much to watch on TV in the middle of the night.)  I finally dozed off again and slept until 5:00 this morning.

I'm feeling a bit better.  The headache has subsided, but I feel a little dragged out this morning.  Several area school systems are on an altered schedule or closed today because of weather conditions.  Oh, how I wish we were on a delay.....I really dread getting out in that cold breeze this morning!

Okay, enough whining.....time to get in the shower and prepare to face the day!

Weird, Weird Weather

Okay, keep in mind that it's January 30 and I live in northeast Tennessee.  When I left for work this morning, I carried a lightweight jacket over my arm.  That's right, in JANUARY I left the apartment WITHOUT A COAT.  It was in the low 60's, and the air had a strange, tropical feel.

The wind was beginning to kick up a bit, and as I looked to the west I saw that cloud cover was beginning to skitter across the moon.  My commute in the morning is mostly west to east (meaning that on a clear day I'm driving into the sun both on my way to work and on my way home in the afternoon).  As I drove to work this morning, I saw scattered clouds in front of me, but in my rear view mirror I saw an ominously heavy mass of dark clouds.

Just as I arrived at work, a light sprinkle of rain began to fall.  I was happy to get inside before heavier rain arrived.

We're under a tornado watch until 1:00 pm today, then the temperatures are supposed to fall drastically with a chance of snow tonight.

So, the moral of the story is:  If you don't like the weather, wait a couple of hours.  It'll change.

My Computer Croaked!

Adios, dear Dell desktop computer.  Okay, first and foremost, this is not a complaint.  It really and truly isn't.  I'd had my Dell desktop for several years (seven or eight, I really can't remember), and it was a replacement for an older Dell desktop.  They both served me well, and my losses when they croaked are nobody's fault but my own.

Losses, you ask?  Being spoiled by years of faithful service, I got lazy about backing up my stuff.  Photos, videos, correspondence.  All gone.  Not once, mind you, but TWICE.  Dumb.  Just plain dumb.

Here's how the latest loss came about.  Last Friday terrible storms rocked my little corner of the world.  The storms were not as severe as those of April 2011, but there was a confirmed F1 tornado in nearby Lee County last Friday.  As a precaution, I had turned off my Dell desktop.  Keep in mind that this computer was rarely turned off.  It ran happily at a desk in the corner of my bedroom, only occasionally being rebooted due to the eccentricities of Microsoft Vista.

On Saturday following the passing of the storms I realized I needed to turn the computer on to pay some bills and e-file my taxes.  I pushed the power button.  Nothing happened.

A brief wave of nausea ran over me.  Oh, man, how long has it been since I saved my photos?  How many episodes of Knitting Daily and movies from Turner Classic Movies had I not yet burned to DVD?

I fiddled a bit with the computer, doing the few techie tricks I know, to no avail.  So now, the computer sits temporarily beside my bed, unplugged and mourned.

I still had my little Acer netbook, so I wasn't completely out of touch with my online world, but I knew that was a temporary solution at best.  I shopped online for a replacement for my beloved Dell and had settled on a Dell laptop that happened to be on sale.  I didn't order it right away, though, because I had to be out of town for a training session for a few days.

On the first day out of town, my coworkers and I dropped in at Staples to look around.  (We don't have a Staples nearby, so we wanted to see if we found any bargains.)  There I found a heckuva deal in a Toshiba laptop.

So here I sit, tapping away at a new personal computer.  Now all I have to do is try to remember all the useful stuff I had bookmarked on my Dell.  I'll hang onto the Dell, of course, and try later to get it up and running long enough to rescue all the items I hadn't backed up, but there's no huge rush on that.  In the meantime, I'm going to enjoy this new toy.


I am a happy woman.  :-)

It Was a Dark and Stormy Night

My little corner of the world is currently under a tornado warning for the next half hour.  We're under a tornado watch until 11:00 pm.  Eeeeek!!

This has been a very unusual season so far.  We don't usually have this sort of weather for at least another month, so everyone in my area is a little on edge.  Last April several areas very nearby were completely devastated by a tornado, and everyone here has very strong memories of that terrible night.

I don't mind thunderstorms....in fact I enjoy them, to tell the truth.  High wind, however, is another matter altogether!  The approaching storm "is capable of producing golfball size hail and destructive straight line winds" according to the National Weather Service.  I've seen golfball size hail.  I have no interest in seeing it again.

According to the local news, the storm is headed our way very shortly, so I'm going to log off now.  I don't like being on the computer during a thunderstorm.  Be safe, friends!!

Heat and Humidity Make Me Tired

Two weeks since my last blog entry....where is this summer GOING??? It's hot and humid in my little corner of the world. A bit miserable, to tell the truth. I've worked in air conditioned offices for so much of my life that I've lost any ability I ever had to withstand temperatures in the 90's. With heat indexes over 100. "I'm melting, I'm melting!"

So, since the last time I checked in with you, what have I been up to? The usual workweek, of course. Frustrating, but necessary because I've become accustomed to regular meals and a roof over my head. But after work is MY time. I've been spending some of my time knitting a retirement gift for a friend (see my knitting blog for more about that...the link is on the right side of this page). My latest Netflix disk was "Black Swan", which I really liked. It was definitely different!

Last Saturday I had lunch with a friend from high school days...such fun! We'd reconnected on Facebook and hadn't seen each other since our 20th high school reunion, which was TWENTY YEARS AGO. I still can't believe it's been 40 years since I graduated from high school. We had a lovely time, catching up on what's been going on in our lives over all those years. She was a bright, vivacious girl in high school, always fun to be around. I'm happy to say that she hasn't changed at all. We promised each other that we wouldn't wait another 20 years to get together again.

After our lunch, I stopped by Hobby Lobby to check out their supply of yarn. I already have plenty of yarn, mind you, but there's no such thing as too much yarn. I was terribly disappointed to find that their yarn stock was down to about half of what it was the last time I was there. I guess not everyone is quite as obsessed as I am about sticks and string! Their depleted stock didn't keep me from spending some money, though. I managed to find some sock yarn and a bit of baby yarn I needed for a toy I wanted to knit for my great-niece, Emmie.

On the way home I stopped by the hospital to visit my 100-year-old great aunt. Happily, she'd just been notified that she was being released to go home. She'd been hospitalized for a couple of days for diverticulitis. Like most of us, she doesn't particularly enjoy hospital stays and was really looking forward to getting home! She's an amazing lady, and I'm always glad to get to spend a little time with her.

And that just about catches you up on the goings on in my little world. Have a great week, everyone!

Where's That Stupid Groundhog??

Today we had a completely unexpected snowfall. When I watched the local newscast this morning, they were predicting a rainy day with highs in the mid-50s.

Today is Mom's birthday, and I'd planned to go visit her and Dad this afternoon. Imagine my surprise when I opened my apartment door to leave and found that it was flurrying! I called Mom to see if they needed me to bring anything from town as I came down, and she told me the ground was already white there. (They live about 10 minutes from me!)

Moments later the snow began in earnest, large wet flakes that accumulated quickly. Halfway to Mom and Dad's I seriously considered turning around and going back home.

The snow fell fast and furious. There were probably a couple of inches of heavy, wet snow on the ground by the time it stopped. Luckily, it soon melted off the roadway surfaces, so my drive home was safe. When I left their house, though, it was spitting very fine snow again.

Weird. A snow that measurable hardly ever sneaks past the local forecasters that handily!

Makes me glad to be back home, safe and sound, snug in my apartment with the icky weather locked outside.

Sunshine at Last

The sun in shining in my little corner of the world today. It's still cool, but beautiful. Or so they tell me....the view in my office, unfortunately, never changes. No windows, you see. My view always consists of painted cinderblock walls and fluorescent lighting. *sigh*

Of course, on a beautiful day like today, maybe that's a good thing. I have LOTS to do and can't afford to be distracted! My lunch break (which I'm using a few moments of to post this blog entry) is a very welcome break from the grind. Some folks choose to go out for lunch to soak up a few rays of sunlight. I say that a 30-minute break just whets my appetite for sun and I'm better off to stay inside!

Speaking of breaks....mine's nearly over, so I'd better get back to the grindstone. *grumble, grumble*

Grateful I'm in the South

I'm a Southern gal, born and raised. As a matter of fact, I've lived all my life (except a brief stint of less than 2 months I lived in Michigan) within a 50-mile radius of the location I'm sitting in while typing this. I've always been happy to be a Southern gal and have never felt a particular need to drift any farther north, or south for that matter. I guess since I'm a resident of northeast Tennessee I'm technically a mid-Atlantic gal, but I feel more Southern than that. *LOL*

As I look at the Weather Channel today, I'm especially grateful to be in my beloved South. Boy, are they ever getting HAMMERED up there! Blizzard warnings, white-outs, TWO FEET of snow expected in Chicago. Ohhhhhh, I do feel sorry for them. Truly. I feel even worse for the locations expecting accumulations of ice.

As so here I sit, feeling almost guilty for the fact that I was able to drive home from work without wearing so much as a jacket. I know that our winter isn't finished here. In fact, we often get large snows in February and March. But I'm so glad that this particular storm has seen fit to leave us alone.

Good luck, my Northern friends!! I'm thinking about you!

January's Almost Gone

January has been a strange month in my neck of the woods. Since we returned to work after the holidays on January 3, the college has closed for snow two full days, closed early two days, and opened on a snow schedule (2 hours late) FIVE days. And we had a holiday in there, too. That means we've had an altered schedule on ten days....out of twenty days. HALF OF THEM. Sheeeeeeeeeeeesh.

Don't get me wrong, I can enjoy a paid day off from work as much as anyone, better than most. But January's a really busy month in my office, and all that time off has really wreaked havoc. February, therefore, is going to be a bear as well.

I was really tired last night and expected to have a good night's sleep. It started out well, but I woke up about 2:00 am and was awake for an hour or so. I don't rest well when I sleep in a "split shift" like that, so I'm tired this morning. I should be up and at it and well into my household routine by now, but I'm not. That's okay. It'll wait for me. :-)

I think I'll plan my day before I start. So much time in the kitchen. So much time knitting. So much time in the dining room. So much time knitting. So much time dusting. so much time knitting. See a pattern developing here? *LOL*

You see, for the past couple of weeks, I've just not been in a knitting mood. You'd think with all the "snow time" I'd have been knitting up a storm, but I just haven't been doing it. This morning, though, I feel the need to feel wool in my hands, so I'm going to make that part of today's plan.

It's going to be really nice out today....sunny and 50 degrees. But I have too much housework to catch up on to let myself go out and play. Tomorrow. I'll go out in the sunshine tomorrow.

Two Lists

Ten things I'm tired of:

1. Temperatures below 30 degrees
2. Wind chill
3. Snow
4. Ice
5. Sleet
6. My car being encrusted with salt
7. Bundling up every time I go outside
8. Watching the Weather Channel
9. Crowds at the grocery store buying milk and bread
10. Stiff joints from cold weather

Ten things I'm grateful for:

1. An employer that closes when the roads are dangerous
2. A car that will start in cold weather
3. Knowledge of how to knit warm scarves, hats and mittens
4. A large yarn stash
5. A well-stocked pantry
6. An endless supply of movies to watch, thanks to Netflix
7. A warm, cozy apartment
8. Flannel jammies
9. Apartment management that does their best to keep the parking lots and sidewalks safe
10. The internet

Sick O' Winter

If you've had any doubt whatsoever, here's my official statement: I'm sick of winter. I'm sick of bitter cold mornings (5 degrees here right now). I'm sick of snow. Yes, me. The one who's always been so excited about snow days. Sick. Of. Snow. I told Daddy the other day that I'd give a $20 bill to see a crocus pushing up out of the ground.

*SIGH*

Oh well. Nothing we can do about the weather but bundle up, pay the big heating bills, and wait for Spring.

Now, it's been a long time since I've blogged, so let's catch up a bit.

Mom's aneurysm surgery on December 20 went just beautifully, thank goodness! They were able to perform the surgery through her femoral arteries, so there were only two small incisions. She was uncomfortable after surgery, but only because she was having some hip joint pain from being on the operating table. They kept her in ICU overnight as a precaution, but released her from the hospital the next morning without even putting her in a regular room. We had her home by 10:00 am!

She had her follow-up exam this past Wednesday, and her surgeon is very pleased with her progress. Everything looks just great!

Our Christmas was quiet, but very nice. We were expecting bad weather (so what else is new?), so I stayed at Mom and Dad's on Christmas Eve. We had a lovely holiday; I made my way back home on Christmas afternoon, and the weather turned ugly very soon after.

I went back to work on Monday (January 3), and the week was VERY difficult. Lots and lots to do, many deadlines to meet, and not much time to do it! Another round of winter weather moved in Friday, and we actually closed at 1:00 that afternoon. After a quick stop at Kroger for provisions, I hurried home and watched it snow. Yesterday afternoon, the sun began popping out from time to time. It would snow awhile, then the sun would come out, then it would snow awhile longer. Strange weather day!

This morning, it's bitterly cold, but the sun is shining. Since there's another winter storm scheduled to move in late tonight, I'm going to go down to visit Mom and Dad while this afternoon.

Yup. Definitely sick o' winter.

An Unusual Week

It's been a strange week....I was expecting it to be a very busy week, but I certainly wasn't expecting the kind of weather we had! The college was closed for snow on Monday and Tuesday, then we went in on a snow schedule Wednesday. On Wednesday night we got snow followed by freezing rain, so the college was closed again on Thursday.

Because I'm scheduled to be out of the office Monday and Tuesday next week for Mom's surgery, I waited for the temperature to warm up a bit Thursday morning, then made my way to the office. It was a fairly terrifying commute, to tell the truth. Even though traffic was moving on the interstate, there was ice everywhere! I saw one accident on the way to the office; it appeared that a young lady had lost control on a bridge and swapped ends, hitting the concrete barrier. The state police had just arrived when I came by, and the young lady appeared shaken but not injured, thank goodness.

When I arrived at the office the parking lots and sidewalks hadn't been cleared, so it was a treacherous walk from the car to the building. Luckily I made it without falling (my greatest fear!), and I had a very productive afternoon. I can always get a lot more done when the phone isn't ringing and no one's dropping in with questions.

Yesterday we were open again on a snow schedule. There was still some ice on the streets, but it was much better than Thursday. I woke up with a migraine yesterday morning and was grateful that I had a couple of extra hours for the migraine medication to kick in before I had to go to the office. To be honest I wouldn't have gone to the office if I hadn't been scheduled to be off so much next week. But there was still lots to do, so away I went. Luckily, the meds dulled the headache and I was able to get through the day fairly easily. It was a really busy day, though, and I was very tired when I got home.

I expected to go to bed early, but couldn't settle down. It was after midnight before I could get to sleep, so I'm a bit draggy today. I've got to get up and at it, though. Lots of things to do today.

Mom received her surgical schedule yesterday; she has to be at the hospital at 5:15 a.m. Monday. Even though I'm sorry she'll have to get up so early, I'm glad it's scheduled early that morning so she won't have to be waiting a long time. She's still remarkably calm about it all, just anxious to get it over and done with.

Well, I'd better get up from here and get some things done. Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!

Snow Day!

As I expected might happen, they closed the college today for snow. At the left, you'll see a screen capture I grabbed from a VDOT camera over on I-81, just a couple of miles from my home. It looks unusually nasty, and I'm very grateful that I don't have to be out there today!

As I'm writing this, it's pouring snow outside. Large fluffy flakes, and LOTS of them! The local forecast is a total storm accumulation of 3" to 6", and I think it's going to make it.

So, I intend to spend the day inside, all warm and cozy, watching movies and knitting, checking in occasionally on the internet to see how the storm is progressing.

Sure looks Christmassy out there!

Snowy Sunday

A rain/snow mix that's been falling all morning just switched to snow. The weather forecast had said it would switch to snow this afternoon, so it looks like things are progressing more swiftly than they'd anticipated. It's shaping up to be a good day to be in the recliner with some knitting.

First, though, I need to finish up wrapping Christmas gifts. It will be a good day for that, wrapping while watching it snow outside. I think I'll put a paper log in the fireplace to really get me in the gift-wrapping mood.

Even though I'm not particularly happy about the prospect of a snow day tomorrow (lots to do before holiday break), I have to admit that I still enjoy watching it snow. It makes me feel snug as a bug in a rug to be in comfy sweats, sipping steaming coffee, and turning wool into warm scarves and mittens.

Okay, time to get up and gather up wrapping paper and such. Have a lovely, restful Sunday afternoon, everyone!

Snow Watch

A quick entry while taking a break from Saturday morning household chores. There's plenty to do, believe me. It was a fairly rough week at work, so I didn't get much of anything accomplished in the evenings.

Monday was a snow day, and we were on a snow schedule Tuesday, so I spent the rest of the week feverishly trying to catch up. Things aren't looking too great weather-wise this weekend, so Monday may be another snow day! *YIKES*

I normally LOVE snow days, but I have a lot to get done before the college closes for the holiday season. Also, I want to have everything locked down a little earlier than usual because of Mom's scheduled surgery.

Oh well....I'll get it done. I always do.

I woke up unusually early for a Saturday (just before 5:00 am), so I spent some time online and watched a bit of television while waiting for it to get late enough that my neighbors wouldn't slaughter me for doing laundry. *L* I'll get a few more things done, then go visit with Mom and Dad a bit this afternoon. My normal day to visit them is Sunday, but it's supposed to start snowing tomorrow morning. They're predicting 2 to 6 inches here, so I plan to stay in and watch it snow tomorrow!

Well, laundry awaits, so I'd better get up and at it. Have a great weekend, everyone!

Winter. Bah, Humbug!

It's not even Christmas and I'm already tired of winter! This morning when I left home for the office it was ten degrees outside. TEN. That's the kind of weather that makes you want to get into cozy sweats and crawl into the recliner with an afghan and a mug of steaming coffee and knit the day away!

But, alas, off to the office I went to face a hectic day. There've been more than one of those this week. But at least tomorrow's Friday, right?

Mom finally got the call Tuesday telling her that her surgery is scheduled for December 20. We'll all be very relieved when that's done and over with! She's actually quite calm about it all, just anxious to get it behind her.

My cold is still with me, but improving gradually. I've been battling a headache for a couple of days now that I think is just part of the cold. Sure is getting tiresome, that's for sure. In fact, I think I'll take a dose of Alka Seltzer Cold medicine, get into my flannel jammies, and hit the hay.

This day has been long enough already. *sigh*