Crafting in September, Part 2

In my heart, I knew it. Sagittarians are notorious procrastinators and we start any number of things while only managing to finish a few of them. So many projects litter the path of my life. But, when I get something started that turns out to be fun, and which I promised to someone, including myself, I jump in and it feels fun again.

So I came home from work and dived back into the curtains. With the side seams stitched, it was time to do the top casing. These are rod pocket curtains. For those unfamiliar with curtain terms, these are the kind that slide over a rod. There is a casing to insert the curtain rod. Sometimes, there is a bit of fabric above the casing for decoration. Sometimes there isn't. I'm making the tops with an inch of fabric at the top to give the curtains some height.

Step 1 is to fold over 1/2 inch to create the seam. That was stitched. I thought a navy blue thread would be the right color to go with the fabric. I have so much thread in so many colors. When I buy fabric, I rarely buy thread in an effort to use up the huge amount I have. The fiance of the guy in my guild who maintains the guild web site is giving away a Washi tape holder. It's just a two tiered wooden box. I am not into the whole Washi tape thing as I know a lot of people are. I saw the holder and immediately thought of all my thread and sewing supplies. Having a place to put the loose things will be excellent. Now to figure out how to get it...

So, I have the raw edge stitched. Then, I wanted to make a casing one inch wide with the one inch header. I pinned two inches which will be folded over and two rows of stitching done to make the casing. Of course, the help had to come investigate or supervise. I'm never quite sure.

Once I convinced her to move, I could fold over the top and pin it. Then, I measured from the seamed edge one inch and pinned that line. That is the top sewing line for the casing. I will be stitching right along the seamed edge, too.

Here's the finished top of the two curtains.

The royal blue thread I have is perfect for these. There will be a slight gather to the curtains but they will overlap just enough to cover the window. The next step, tonight, will be to measure from the bottom of the casing to where the hem will go. I should be able to get them hemmed tonight and one pair will be done. I knew, once I got started, that I would enjoy this and would get the project done quickly. It was just taking that first step.

Beverage: Irish Breakfast Tea

Deb

I Love This Town

I don't think I could live in the city. I value my more than postage stamp lawn, although I have to admit that it's more care than I can do right now. But when I have to go into the city, as I did in July to take the above photo, or last week, this town has a beauty I enjoy. Even though I don't partake of all it has to offer, and it has a lot of free stuff, just knowing I could is good enough for me.

Of course, getting there can be an exercise in supreme patience.

It's 7:05 a.m. and the Eisenhower Expressway going into the city is a parking lot. It's not any better to the left leaving the city. It used to be that going in didn't get "bad" until 7:15. Now, if you have to be somewhere in the city by 8, you best leave at 6:15 to be sure you get there on time. Still, when the skyline comes into view, it's so distinctive.

It doesn't matter that I've moved exactly one and a half football fields from the previous photo and it's 20 minutes later.

We're working in one of Chicago's oldest neighborhood called "Uptown". For many, many years, this was the end of the elevated streetcar line. Wealthy Chicagoans bought up the land and built large homes in the area and it was, if you can believe it, a vacation destination for those living in the city proper. Gradually, the city overtook the area. It's now not the nicest place to be. The grand old houses were torn down and the land used for apartments. Or the homes were converted into apartments which have long ago lost their sheen.

Neighborhoods come and go with the rise and fall of the merchants around them. There is a branch of Harper College here which provides a captive populace for those business owners, mainly restaurants, to eek out a living. Infrastructure improvements, including quirky bike racks, help make getting around the area easier.

One of the biggest projects is to completely redo the elevated line and its attendant station. There is a lot of history contained in the buildings.

The "glory" days of the neighborhood were in the 1920's-1930's when most of these buildings with the terracotta trim were erected. A lot of renovation and demolition has happened in the intervening years. Sometimes things were saved. Most of the time, they were not. The terracotta on this building, which is slated for demolition, will be removed and saved. The building behind the terracotta is not structurally sound anymore. The pigeon will have to find other digs.

In some cases, building owners understood the value of keeping the architectural details.

This is an example. I really like how the owners have maintained the colored terracotta features. It doesn't work for every building, but where it can be saved and preserved, it's beauty enlivens a neighborhood. This is an apartment building from the 1940's.

I finished my job and headed home.

Heading south on Lake Shore Drive gives you another view of the city part of Chicago. The John Hancock building, visible here, is not visible when you're coming in on the Eisenhower. That's the Sears, no Willis Tower you see coming in from the west. The two are too far apart to get into a small photo at these distances.

On a day like this, the best view was the one out my window looking east.

I don't have anything to compare this with. I have very little experience with the ocean so I don't know if it ever looks this blue green. The boats are inside the break waters so that area does not have waves. It was so incredibly placid and still. The big boat is The Tall Ship Windy which can be rented out for private parties.

Even when I curse my luck of having to drive in on a hot summer day when traffic ceases to move at 7:10 in the morning, they are the images that make me happy to live here.

Beverage:  Dr Pepper

Deb

Crafting in September, part 1

Back in July, all full of excitement and energy, I purchased a bunch of cloth which is destined to be curtains for various windows in Carole's house.

Minus the Hawkeye fabric, there are four hunks here waiting to be turned into curtains. It was going to be a fun and easy project to do. One set one day and move on to the next one. Then August arrived and my energy left.

The past weekend was perfect. The highs were in the mid 70's with clear blue skies. After sitting on the deck for a half hour, I felt more energy than I've felt in at least 6 weeks and I grabbed the top fabric off the pile. I had, over Labor Day weekend, moved the pile from the office to the living room table. That was a major step towards getting these done. The "out of sight, out of mind" idea is very much a part of my life here. If I hadn't moved them, it would be October 20th with my leaving 3 days away and I'd not have them even started.

So, I grabbed the top fabric, the one with the Death Star on it. I unfolded it across the table.

You know, that would make a great tablecloth. Years and years ago, I remember a tutorial on turning a piece of plain cotton into a water resistant table cloth for picnics. It wouldn't be water proof, just stain resistant of the temporarily wipe off junior's mashed bananas-type of fabric. But these are going to be curtains. 

The windows are of sufficient width that a piece 44 inches wide can be cut in half and I'll have plenty of overlap to cover the window. 

So, I cut it in half.

Step 2 is to negotiate which section of fabric I can have and which section Mija can lie on.

When that was done, I started measuring for the side seams.

I measured a half inch and pinned. Then, I folded over again for a half inch, total seam.

On the other side, I just folded in the selvage edge and pinned. Since it's a finished edge I don't need to fold it twice to keep it from unraveling.

That's as far as I got yesterday. I moved the sewing machine from the office to the living room. It's just a matter of stitching the seams and the sides are done. Then I can move on to pinning the top for the casing and hemming the bottom. It may seem like not much but this fatigue can best me even when I think I feel great. Once I get one done, I know I'll feel energized to do more, maybe make a couple in one day.

While I was pinning, I heard a noise behind me. I got up to refresh the hot water in my mug and someone was on the top of the cat tree.

This is a first. She's never gotten up there on her own. They both just wanted to be near me.

Beverage:  Dr Pepper

Deb

Missing

You think you have it under control. Everything's moving along just fine. But, when you're dealing with a chronic disease, you're really at the mercy of your body.

I've been reminded by several friends that I have not posted anything in over a month. I have started a half dozen posts but something would come up, I'd get side tracked, and the post would languish, only to be deleted because I didn't like how it sounded.

I was busy at work at the end of July and the first part of August. It's only recently that things have slowed down. I've taken exactly 2 phone calls today. We kind of don't mind because things ratchet up here in a couple of weeks. Once I got caught up, I realized it was the first time since February that I didn't have a pile of things to my left. My daily work gets done and we have even been dismissed early because we were all sitting around surfing the web. Again, this is temporary, but it's a lull we'll take because we know what's coming.

I had a doctor's visit in mid-August. It was the required visit to see how my RA is doing. It's been a summer of aches. I realized, as I sat talking to Dr. Francis, that there probably hadn't been more than a couple of handfuls of days since I fell May 1st, where I wasn't in some kind of pain. Now, I use the word "pain" because that's the clinical definition. For me, it's been more of an ache here or there. My left wrist hurts. The next day, it's my right shoulder. The next day it's the middle finger of my right hand. (When fingers hurt, it's always THAT finger. "So, tell me where it hurts." Really? You really want me to tell you?) It's sometimes the same place two days in a row, but not usually. And it's not a stabbing pain. It's an ache. Most of the time, it's easy to ignore. Oh I know it's there, but it doesn't impact my ability to get my work done. It does, however, affect my quality of life.

I found, when reliving the summer of 2014, that I had slowed down. I no longer walk. I don't always have pain in my feet or hips, but I lack any sort of energy to put on the shoes when I come home and go for my 6 block walk. I sit which turns into a nap which means I can't fall asleep until 1 and then I'm wide awake between 2-3. Dr. Francis listened to all of this and asked, "Have I ordered a Vectra scan for you? Hmmmm, I have not. We need that."

You can see on the box that it's a test for disease activity. It's used to find out how much of an auto-immune disease is in a patient's blood. It rates markers on a 1-100 scale. The test takes a week. I was told I'd get a call, but I never did, which is fine. Dr. Francis got the results in less than a week.

My RA marker is 52. That puts me at the low end of "moderate". While I don't feel horrible, the daily ache and the fatigue are also marks of moving up, as it were, into the moderate category, from "mild" RA.

I won't lie and say I have dealt with this wonderfully. I was, and to a degree, still am, depressed by this finding. I tried to tell myself, when the blood was drawn, that it would be a low number and I was doing fine. But my heart was telling me something else. I was not surprised at the higher number, sad, but not surprised.

So, what is the next step? My vitamin D level was low, too, so I have added 5,000 unit pills daily. I could also spend 15 minutes every day that it's sunny, sitting in the sunshine to up my levels. I don't go home and sit on the deck after work. I usually have energy at that point so I use it to try to get things done before I feel drained.

Prednisone was added back in to help control the inflammation of and ease the aches in my joints. I had prednisone left over from March so I'm using that up. I had started with a whole pill and then moved to a half pill before going off. I'm back to a whole pill which is 2 halves.

The big thing is the introduction of what's called a "biologic" into my medications. Over a year ago, I was approved for a drug called Orencia, one of a new breed of biologics which were developed only for RA. You may have seen Humira advertised for RA. It can be but it was developed for Crohn's Disease and helping RA is a side benefit. I wasn't interested in that. I wanted an RA specific drug.

Orencia is also available only as an injected medication. Either I would have to give myself weekly shots or I'd need to go to the lab once a month and have them do it. Personally, the idea of giving myself a shot scares me so Dr. Francis is going to try to get me approved for Xeljanz, which is the only RA biologic available in pill form. It will be another week before I know the status of that request.

What isn't shown above is the sleeping pill I now take. The above batch is the Saturday pills. I take the same amount, minus the green pill, on Sunday. Then green and salmon color pills are removed for the rest of the week. I used to look at these and think, "It's not so bad. I just take the methotrexate. Everything else is a vitamin." But I'm also taking a small white pill, a diuretic, to help heal my leg from falling in May. RA slows the healing process. And the sleeping pill was added because I kept waking up at 2-3 a.m. and taking an hour to fall back asleep. It keeps me asleep all night. My hope is that I'm retraining my body to expect to sleep through the night instead of expecting to be awakened at 2-3 a.m. I don't remember why I was waking up at that hour in the first place which would have caused my body to think it was acceptable to be up.

While this helps, RA leaves many sufferers with chronic fatigue that no amount of sleep can dispel. I think that's what depresses me the most. I just can't seem to feel energized by sleep. I sit down to read and am asleep in 10 minutes. Heaven help me if I have to be on my feet working. I come home exhausted and can easily take a 2 hour nap. This influences what I do, when I do it, what I want to do, what I eat, everything. It magnifies the little things that don't need to be magnified. I can't sweep the house because I'm too tired so everything is dirty now. I can't get the kitchen cleaned because I'm too tired, so I see every little thing that needs to be cleaned. I want to sort stuff. I'm too tired to do it so the piles remain for weeks, for months. I make promises to myself I can't keep, which depresses me. I'm scared for the cost of yet another medication, something rather brand new. Will there be enough or will there not? What about Christmas this year? Carole's birthday? I don't feel like eating so I don't. I eat lunch out way more than I should, which compounds my feeling of financial insecurity. I'm too tired to cook anything that could have leftovers which I could take to work. So I get up late and think, "I'll just get Subway for lunch". I shouldn't be doing that, but, to my only credit, I do make very good food choices when I eat out at lunch. I buy food I like so that I will take lunch but assembling it in the morning can be an exercise in futility when I'm stiff and I got up late.

I'm not posting to ask for pity. Oh heavens, that's the last thing I want. I have no use for that emotion. I'm explaining where I'm at in my life right now. I'm trying to remember gratitude. I do get up easier now than I have in years. I'm not as stiff as I used to be. But the gradual fatigue, over the course of the day, wears me out. The minor daily ache of one body part wears me out. I tell myself to keep moving but the reality is that I don't. I'm not sure, right now, what makes me happy, other than the girls.

So, I apologize for not being here, for not posting. I tried, but it has felt as if the world has closed in this summer. We are approaching my favorite season and with Iowa football and hot cider and pumpkins and apples and crisp fall days can come a resurgence of energy. I will continue to keep on keeping on.

Beverage:  Water

Deb