Snow overnight and into the day required shoveling the front steps and the driveway. Neighbors blew away the snow on the boulevard sidewalk and leading up to the front steps. Helpful folks on both sides of us.
Still looking through the photo archives. Remembering…
While we were busy with sorting, cleaning, discarding miscellanea, and moving furniture, the Scampers wore themselves out with trying to help. Thus morning, afternoon, and evening naps on the loveseat, where they were out of the traffic patterns.
My SETI computer is dismantled and living in a box, scattered parts. I hope to have the small computer table up (Al’s now got my desk in his room, his computer desk out in the workshop building and repurposed.) At the end of this process, many boxes of odds-and-ends will land in the local landfill. Also, the to-be-shred stacks multiply. More boxes needed.
the SETI search
for signs of alien life pending…
late fall housecleaning
Copyright © 2018-11-05, by Liz Bennefeld.
Leaves in the Back Yard
And across the street, there was a squirrel.
A quiet day at home. We are moving desks from the house to the office area in the wood-working shop in the back yard. Dirty, dusty work and lots of fun carrying furniture in sections across the icy patch in front of the shop.
We could use another layer of snow to cover up the leaves and grass more thoroughly. That said, the high temperature, today, was 27°F, and there was a bitter wind. Fortunately, the workshop in the back yard serves somewhat as a windbreak.
The leaves are gone from the cotoneasters’ branches. The willow tree is slowly shedding its leaves across our yard and its own. The foggy conditions have laid down a thin layer of ice on the roads and sidewalks that disappears by the end of the day. The day before yesterday, I used the old exercise bike in the gazebo, pedaling five miles. As I am having some problems with breathing, I am next going to do an Internet search for breathing exercises and how not to overdo them.
My birthday week was fun. I am going to try to catch up on my sleep, now, and then finish writing those last four poems for the November poem-a-day activity. Toughest part of that has turned out to be settling on a prompt to use for each day. I may end up having to use my own ideas.
Not the best of weather, to look at it, but I was able to go out with the Scampers and camera without putting on a jacket.
Relaxing supper with some of Al’s folks who live here in town and across the river from us. This looks to be the last temperate day before we sink below freezing, again.
A little while ago, I heard loud crow calls. Nobody ever showed up, far as I could see, and so he sat all alone near the top of the cottonwood. I wonder where the rest of the crows have gathered (without telling him where they were going).
I have not gotten caught up on my poem-a-day challenge. Not certain if I should add my weekly Ronovan Writes Haiku to the count or not. My favorite poem for the month, so far, is about leaves:
Transient Art
sunshine and shadow
blown together by cold winds
darkness and light
Copyright © 2018-11-10, by Liz Bennefeld.
Related to exercises for a six-week photography workshop led by Andy Ilachinski (Sept.-Oct. 2018)
Almost to the end of the photography workshop, and I am still going through the archives, back to front. I don’t really want to go to sleep, yet, but I must.
The day was busy. I spent the morning backing up photo files, books, and documents directories to an external hard drive, which I dropped off at the bank and brought back the previous back-up stored in the safe deposit box. Backed up my four computers, which took many hours. The smallest computer won’t talk to my 2T ext-HD, let alone the 4T, and so I have to copy the files to a flash drive, and then onto the backup HD. I have over 15 years of photo archives, most in jpg and pspimage formats.
Having gotten through the 50th Class Reunion for our college graduating class, I treated myself to a short (but suitable for winter) haircut. I’d let it grow out for the reunion; I think it was about an inch and a half long. It’s now half an inch in length, and I have scheduled my next haircut for the middle of December. Stopped at the local Barnes and Noble on the way home to buy a gift card to cover Nook Book purchases for the next month. I also bought the latest in Mercedes Lackey’s Elemental Masters series: The Bartered Brides; and The Book of Magic, edited by Gardner Dozois. Started Lackey’s book over supper, while the other of us went out to find a Subway Sandwich.
In the midst of that, there was a business meeting and election, consuming two and a half hours, at the marksmanship center. It was good to be at a meeting, again, after such a long bout of hypersensitivity to fragrances. I notice that I still am a bit hyperactive and having trouble sleeping. Oh, yeah? You think so?
Saturday, we will be doing some grocery shopping. I am to be eating more fish, rather than red meat, and so I plan to find more salmon fillets on sale at one of the stores. Last week, I bought enough for the both of us and baked them with mustard across the top, along with coarse ground peppercorns. I promised my doctor that I would boost some of my vitamin levels, and I refuse, for the moment, to take supplements because of fillers, dyes, preservatives and such because of my allergic reactions to them. Speaking of which, I think I was supposed to have scheduled a doctor’s appointment and labs for the end of December, and I have not, but only the Diabetes Educator. Who is a riot!
I suppose I should have saved this for my Weekend Coffee Share activity. But perhaps I will fall asleep, now, and sleep through tomorrow and the weekend. ??? Naw! Not!
Wishing you the best of weekends!
Elizabeth
Enjoying the photography workshop, but so much to learn in too short a time. The weather turned wet, and we now are expecting snow: up to six inches. I have felt well enough to go out with my camera when I take the Scampers into the back yard. Wearing moccasins, now, rather than going out barefoot, and a flannel-lined denim jacket. Having a waterproof camera is a good thing. Having one that does not break when I drop it? Essential!
I still am struggling with the aftereffects of what I suspect was Latex exposure from the balloons during the reunion weekend. Trouble sleeping…trouble staying awake. Over the weekend and these first few days of the new week, however, I have at least gotten some things done around the house. Blood sugar is coming down, and blood oxygen level is coming back up.
I keep losing photo files. That is frustrating.
Going to try, now, to get back to sleep.
G’nite!
