Some People Think I Want to Retire and Do Fiber Arts Full Time, But Between You & Me…

Working on a multi-colored yarn. I’m not happy with how it feels, coarse & sticky. Garbage in, garbage out. Somehow I thought some of the coarse, sticky fleece I was using would magically feel OK in the yarn.

Fiber arts are just a way to kill time between meals and work. The only things I’m passionate about really are food and work. But one definitely cannot eat all the time, and I hear tell that working all the time is not desirable either – at minimum, I would risk running out of work. So this.

Deck

Partially covered, partially open deck, leading into the new mudroom-to-be, as viewed from my office window. “Bill” the Donald “Wyman” Lilac is at the upper right corner, hopefully adjusting to his transplanting. Site of many future mohair washings to come.

Finger Woes

I sat down to work as usual this morning, and after about a half hour, noticed that the tip of my right ring finger was half-numb and tingly. It bothered me enough that I looked up numb finger on the internet, and I was assured that it was most likely carpal tunnel.

As lunchtime approached, I had thoughts about digging out my carpal tunnel wrist brace, but couldn’t help but notice that finger looked blue between the joints. I don’t think my finger should be blue. Carpal tunnel is about nerves; this looked to be about blood flow.

I had lunch and went out and fed goats, and the cold made my finger even number. When I came in, whereas the rest of my fingers and me were rather red from the cold, this finger was white.

I went down and walked on my treadmill for a half hour. This eliminated all symptoms. But they gradually came back over the course of the afternoon.

I have been wearing a ring on this finger for over 20 years. I obviously took it off at the first sign of trouble this morning; but it wasn’t at all tight.

I also have had this feeling in this fingertip before, now and then, briefly; but it was generally when out feeding goats in the cold; and coming inside was enough to make it go away.

In the past I’ve chalked it up to most likely damaging a blood vessel in my finger from carrying pails of water. The pails that don’t have ergonomic handles, that are just a wire handle, can really dig into your fingers when the pails are full of water. But I haven’t lifted a pail of water all week.

Still, I suppose I COULD have damaged something somehow without realizing it; and it’ll heal within a day or two.

I wish that it were easier to get medical opinions. What if your health insurance provided you with a phone number and a pin number; and you could call the number, provide your pin, and you would be validated and your co-pay charged. Then you could tell a doctor or nurse your long sad story, and they could give you their opinion. And the whole thing would be about 20 minutes long. Wouldn’t that be great?

Screen Porch-to-Be

That will be the new screen porch.

It rained for seven days in a row. Today it’s cold but the sun is shining!

I have been broody. Silly to brood on a negative narrative. I get to make up any narrative I want. I don’t owe anyone anything anymore – those days are over.

Deck

002

Mudroom Window

Nothing Much

002

This was a couple of days ago. The weather’s gotten even drabber since.

Today the team and I logged our 1,004th bug. Having exceeded the thousand threshold, I am no longer able to pull the JIRA data to create my daily report to management. I win a prize!

I think I might actually not work tonight.

Book Corner

The Power of Less by Leo Babuata

Something about this I liked. I liked his straightforward tone. I have the best intentions of putting some ideas into practice, too, honest.

Bag It

I bagged up all of the mohair locks unsold from the Fair – first painstakingly going through each lock, removing debris, rejecting outright any really cruddy pieces. I ended up with 13 4-ounce bags and sold them all outright to a new-ish local yarn shop. I thought I was going to do consignment, but, this works too. Go me! This could be a serious business one day.

It was a little hard to part with. Some of Janet’s is really soft and beautiful.

Book Corner

manage

Manage Your Day-to-Day: Build Your Routine, Find Your Focus, & Sharpen Your Creative Mind by sundry.

This was a really good airport read. I was inspired to look up several of the contributors online and get samples of their full-length books sent to my Kindle. I was also inspired to TOTALLY suppress e-mail notifications at work – not even the little envelope icon appears on my Outlook program anymore. I’ll look at your e-mail when I’m good and ready.