East With the Sun

The equipment was not calling in. It hadn't been calling in since March 17th. We notified the client that, perhaps, the machine had been unplugged. As it's in Mishawaka, Indiana, it's not a 'quick trip' out to service. If they would check on it, we'd be ever so grateful.

One snafu after another passed and it became obvious a trip was needed to see just what the heck was going on. I went yesterday. Armed with another machine and all the trappings to make it work in case there was something really wrong with the one there, I set out, into the morning sunshine.

I love days like this. Look at that sky. Look at the texture in the clouds. The contrast of light and color and dark is amazing on days like this. It's not a very long trip, around 2 hours and 45 minutes. I listened to The Tannahill Weavers, Live and In Studio; Joshua Bell, The Voice of the Violin; and Old Blind Dogs, World Room. I still haven't cleared all the CD's from the case, nor have I replaced the ones I've listened to with new ones. Eventually, I'll do it, just not right now.

I wound up having to replace the machine, set up the new one, get that running and then I could head for home. When I was heading to Ohio for April's party last month, I drove this way. I wondered, since we knew the machine wasn't working then, if I should stop and take a look. I did not because the client assured me they were investigating. Had I done that, I would have discovered the problem but would have had to come back again anyway to replace the machine. I wouldn't have gotten to drive east into a magnificent morning.

The afternoon was just as beautiful.

I could drive for days in weather like this. It wasn't too hot to be in the car. There was a bit of a breeze that I could have done without, especially going around trucks, but the driving was simple.

Doing this makes me want to plan a car trip. My dad used to do that during the summer. He'd just simply decide we needed to go somewhere and we'd all pile into the car and go somewhere, anywhere, in any direction. We used to do it, too, when Carole was a child. You'd pick a direction and drive, investigating roads whose signs you'd seen when driving back to Iowa for family events.

I don't have the monetary resources to do this spur of the moment kind of travel. It has to be planned and budgeted for. On the one hand, it keeps me honest about my money. This is what I have. This is where it has to go. This is what I have left over for whatever I want to do. That usually doesn't include just hopping in the car and going some place. On the other hand, I think expanding my horizons just a bit would do me a world of good. But I feel a sense of timidity.

When it was a family, you were sharing the experience. If something happened, you were not alone. It's just me and while I could leave a note as to where I've gone, if something happened, who would know? It's an idea to blog about in the future.

In the meantime, I jump at the chance to do these kinds of trips. I like the words Tolkien wrote in The Hobbit; "there and back again". That defines it. This trip is familiar, comfortable. I've watched the seasons change on this drive. Assuming nothing else goes wrong, I have one more ahead, when the project requiring our services ends and I need to retrieve the current machine. That will be summer and perhaps can be done with the windows off. I'm looking forward to that drive.

Beverage:  Lady Gray tea

Deb

Relaxation = Stitching

My computer mouse is not working properly. For an online gamer like myself, this is not a good thing. I use the mouse for 75% of my gaming activities from combat to simple movement. When movement becomes hop stop hop stop, I'm fairly worthless.

It also affects the whole browsing experience. There is something wrong with the front two buttons of the mouse. Clicking on the scroll bar on the right side of the screen will, sometimes, result in being stuck. All I can do is frantically click while the bar goes up and down and hope the thing will release its grip. Or, other times, it won't grab the bar at all. I was clearing photos from my desktop after uploading them to Flickr and the mouse grabbed everything on the desktop and moved it to the trash. After screaming, I carefully removed all the icons and folders one by one and put them back on the desktop.

Monday night was terrible. I couldn't do anything in the game and just simply navigating through some of the news web sites I read was a huge chore. You know how frustration feels when it builds and builds? That's what it was like. I tried everything I could think of, but neither right nor left clicking worked to get into or out of screens. When I felt like crying, I knew I had to turn off the computer and go find something else to do.

Cross-stitch.

I plopped down in the recliner with a mug of tea. I turned on the light and the bulb popped. Why is it that when you are stressed and at the end of that proverbial rope, little things, like light bulbs quitting, happen all the time? It's a 3-way bulb and I don't have any in the house. No matter. I stuck a 60 watt in the lamp and will get a 3-way later.

I sat there and stitched. Pilchard wanted the lap a couple times and then became content to simply sleep next to me. Mija jumped up onto the back of the recliner, sort of near my head, and purred herself to sleep. I concentrated all my frustration into those little "x's". After a couple of hours of stitching, the light yellow and light blue are completely done and I'm on to just yellow.

I know it still doesn't look like much when you don't know what I'm trying to stitch. As I worked, cats within scratching distance, I felt peace return. No, the mouse doesn't work. I spent the weekend performing computer maintenance which did nothing to help the mouse issue. I had to ask my more tech savvy friends for advise before calling the manufacturer. But, Monday night, I just needed to relax. I needed to de-stress. I needed to calm down. That's what cross-stitching did for me.

This is the 10th day of work on this. I might be half-way done. The yellow that I've started will be the most used color on this design. It's to be a rainy weekend upcoming. We desperately need rain. It's so very dry. Rainy weekends are perfect for afternoons spent stitching. Expect more blocks of color next week.

Beverage: Lady Gray tea

Deb

Easter Breakfast I Ought to Do Again

Weekend breakfasts tend to be oatmeal or the hot cereal Carole and David gave me for my birthday. I eat dry cereal during the week. It's just faster and more filling. If I would organize the oatmeal the night before, I could have oatmeal, but that lends itself to more leisurely eating than I have the time for during the week.

Weekends, I like to get inventive with breakfast. I have time and desire. Saturday, I had hot cereal but Sunday, being Easter, perhaps put me in the mood for something more. I thought about pancakes. I really wanted chocolate chip pancakes, but the search for a recipe didn't yield anything. I stumbled upon something I hadn't made in years, a puff pancake.

It is, essentially, crepe batter poured into a cast iron skillet and the whole thing baked in the oven for about 20-25 minutes. The batter puffs up, hence the name, before deflating to a skillet-size dense pancake. This recipe has instructions to make applesauce with it. I had the applesauce in the cupboard so I just made the pancake part. It's a bit sweeter than another recipe I have.

Once the pancake was baking, I decided I needed muffins. I haven't felt like baking much because it's been painful to stir batter, with the twisting motion of my wrists. But, one of the benefits of medication is the reduction of the pain. So, I got out the strawberries I bought for this occasion and made fresh strawberry muffins. They are so good.

The recipe doesn't make more than a dozen, even with my history of having more batter than prepared muffin cups. As the strawberries have to sit in sugar to make syrup, I just got them going and had breakfast. The pancake was sliced into quarters, covered with warmed applesauce and I ate up the very last of the bacon I had fried up a few weeks back. Add tea and milk to take my pill and the whole thing was ready in 30 minutes.

There was extra pancake which I brought to work for lunch. The muffins aren't going to make it into Wednesday, I'm afraid. This munchieness side effect of Prednisone has me trying to avoid the kitchen. "Oh look, a muffin!" my brain hollers as I come in for more tea. As good as homemade muffins are, it's not calorie conscious if you eat half the batch in one day.

Beverage:  Huckleberry tea

Deb

Hello There

I've been scattering handfuls of peanuts on the deck again. I start by the back door and just scatter them across the deck. Then, I put some on the railing and leave a group by the office window. I am getting squirrels to visit. I have no idea if it's the same two but one, yesterday, provided quite a few antics.

Pilchard knows there will be a squirrel to watch. She's taken to sitting by the back door. If I were to open that door and ask if she would like to come out onto the deck with me, she will run back into the house. I'm not upset by that. There are ample places about the house to lie in the sunshine and, eventually, the windows will be opened for fresh air. (Yes, I still have my snow shovel upstairs. I'm not moving it until Mother's Day. I'm superstitious.)

A month ago, I moved a small plant stand I got from my mother into the office and tucked it under one of the windows. It's the perfect height. Covered with a towel, the cats can sit and look out or sleep while being next to me. Often when I'm playing World of Warcraft, Pilchard is asleep in the chair to my right, but Mija would have to sleep on the rug. She didn't really like that. With this set up, she's asleep to my left and Pilchard is asleep to my right and all is right with the world. It's also the perfect place to look at squirrels.

I piled a bunch of peanuts right at the end of the deck rail, right outside the window. This little guy knew right where to go to get them. He would snatch a peanut and run away. Then he realized Mija couldn't get to him and he took to eating the peanuts where you see. Eventually, he depleted the pile.

It was very interesting to watch. He looked kind of mangy at first, but then I realized he is shedding his winter coat and will look really scruffy for a couple of weeks.

He got kind of used to me aiming the camera out the window at him. I'm intrigued by how smart he seems to be. It took him about 3 peanuts to realize Mija couldn't get him so he would take his time to remove the rest and then sat there and ate one. That's a taunt if ever there was one. He took off, at first, when I pointed the camera at him. But, he realized, about the same time as he realized Mija couldn't get him, that I couldn't get him so he took his time.

My friend, Patt, had a squirrel she fed on the way to her office. They are vermin. They will give outdoor cats fleas. They can be highly destructive to new plants or electrical wires or insulation in your attic should one get inside, but they sure are darned cute. I don't think the girls would know what to do with one, other than chase it, if they caught it.

At noon, a couple hours after he had cleared the deck of peanuts, he was back, just to bask in the sunshine.

 

I'll wait a couple days before spreading out more peanuts. 

Beverage:  Huckleberry tea

Deb