Just a quick update.

The outpouring of love and support I got both on here and on Facebook, as well as at church in regards to my last post has been truly encouraging. A big thank you to everyone who is stepping forward and helping out.

As an update. I have been on anti-depressants, as a treatment for fibromyalgia, for about a week and a half. Kevin has noticed a big difference in my ability to do things and said he's heard less comments about pain and stiffness. I'm still dealing with a lot. And seems like I'm dealing with more cramps. Particularly in my feet and knees. But overall I do think I'm fairing a bit better.

Over the holiday weekend Kevin and I worked in the front yard and got most of the berry bramble chopped down. We have a mountain of bramble in the middle of the yard now. There is still much yard-work that needs to be done, but that was a huge part of it all. I felt very accomplished because I worked along side Kevin for much of the time!

On an almost completely different topic, the following link takes you to a video from AccuWeather that debunks global warming (in California wildfires.) and actually shows that we're in a trend of cooling for the next couple decades. I know I've changed this blog to be about illness and faith, but this is one topic that still seems relevant to me here since weather greatly effects my symptoms. Winter months are often rough for me. And if this does play out, as Farmers Almanac also claims, it'll mean that I need to plan ahead better for the foreseeable future as to how to stay warm, and what I need to do to manage pain.

I think that's about it. I am looking at the info about global cooling and more snowy winters here in the PNW as a cautionary warning but not something I'll be really alarmed about. I have hope that this new diagnosis and new treatment will help me cope better this winter than in the last couple winters. Even still, I think I may need to invest in an electric blanket this winter! ;0)

Maddie has hyperthyroidism.

Our poor cat Maddie has had a rough week. The last several months she's been loosing weight and sleeping more even with still eating and drinking and using the litter-box fine.

Friday she vomited white liquid and I knew something really wasn't right. Kevin bought a box of canned food from Costco and we've been feeding her that, which seems to agree with her stomach better. She did OK during the weekend but on Monday couldn't keep anything down, and her breath and puke smelled really bad.

Monday was very stressful for both Maddie and I because while she was sick the power and internet were out, and the first time she puked she got it all over herself so I had to give her a bath in the sink, in a dark bathroom. The picture is of her all toweled up after her bath. You can tell she's unhappy, but trusting I'm doing right by her. The second time she puked, she was using her whole body so hard to do it that she choked on it and stopped breathing for a few seconds. I had to grab her and massage her to breathe, it was like the force knocked the wind out of her. I think that's what freaked me out the most and told me this wasn't normal cat regurgitation of hair-balls, but that she was sick and needed the vet.

Monday started out bad for me, with the internet going down, followed an hour or so later with the power going out too. I still don't know why these things happened, but the internet was down most of the day, and the power was out for several hours. We have VOIP for our home phone, so with both being down (heck even when it's just one or the other) I wasn't able to use the home phone. I tried several times to text and call Kevin, but his phone was off so I was growing more frustrated not knowing why I hadn't heard back from him. I finally got so upset after her second round of major puking that I called his number at work to speak to him. He was surprised as he didn't know his phone was off, and agreed that Maddie needed to see the vet. So I immediately called and took her in an hour later.

I took her to the vet and we had several tests of lab work done to find out what's going on. So far the diagnosis is that she has hyperthyroidism. She had a fever while we were there, and was badly dehydrated, so she's on antibiotics now, and was given a large injection of fluids. It seemed they doubled her weight when we were done there! She's perked up some with the fluids and antibiotics, but still needs to be put on medications for her hyperthyroidism. We're trying to figure out how we can pay for her now extra expenses as she'll need these meds for the rest of her life.

She knows I'm taking care of her too. Normally she's pretty aloof, but lately has been following my every move. Mostly hoping I'll keep giving her more food, which she hasn't run out of, but feeling how she does she's concerned that she always have enough. She's currently eating a whole can all by herself everyday! As well as having all the kibble and water she wants available to her.

She's a good cat, and we don't want to give up on her. We want to give her the best life possible, as much as we can. She may be a grouchy girl, but she's ours, we love her, and she's very intelligent, and we respect that about her. We're hoping with these medications that she'll continue to improve and will have more time with us, she deserves that. She's our little girl, and we've had her all of our 9 years of marriage.

Siggy is being trying as he's not getting as much attention as he's used to. So he's doing many naughty things. We have our printer on the very top of the entertainment center so that it's out of the way, and while I was printing an invoice the other day I heard this loud clashing sound. I ran out of the office to the living-room to see what the heck happened and found Siggy on the top of the entertainment center about 6 feet above the ground, trying to steal the printer paper! After getting my picture I had to climb up and pull him down as he wasn't listening about getting down. I was very frustrated. Today he's been a bit better behaved. But I think that's just because we've been letting him in the bedroom while we sleep again, so he doesn't feel so neglected. But we can't do that all the time either. I hope that as she perks back up they will get back to playing together more again and that his behavior will improve.

Right now she's in her bed grooming herself and purring. She seems really content, and that makes me so happy. Since going to the vet she hasn't puked at all, which I know both her and I are very thankful for. Now that she's doing a bit better I need to get the steam cleaner out and clean all the spots in the carpet from Friday and Monday. I'm so thankful I have my own steam cleaner. The only problem for me is actually getting it done. My hips and back are causing me immense pain. And my legs are weak. Stress always adds to my daily arthritis pain & stiffness. Additionally the weather has been changing a lot again, and the barometric shifts really are murder on my joints. Even still I was able to ride my stationary bike for almost 4 miles this week. I think I need to take a break though so this doesn't turn into a major flare. I'm already dealing with a lot of pain while at rest. I have an appointment to see my nurse rheumatologist on the 6th and am trying to tough it out with just Tylenol alone as I've run out of meds before then. I'm using my cane a lot to get around, and really wishing I had already bought a walker as it would be a lot more useful right now. Tomorrow I'm just going to rest. It seems like that's working for Maddie, so maybe I'll have a chance now too.

where am I?

Between us taking classes, and how weird the weather has been I just haven't had as much computer time.

For the longest time we had tons and tons of snow. When we went out on Christmas the snow was up to my knees! In many places a good 2 feet too! Then we got all sorts of rain last week, and a lot of places here flooded. Our single road out was flooded for a few days, and that's one of the many reasons I wasn't on-line much, because Kevin had to use the computer to work from home those days, and trying to get much of anything done on the older computers is a real joke.

We missed several Sunday's of church because the snow was impassable and then the water, we were thankful to make it this Sunday. There is still water over the road, but we can drive through it fine with the truck. Again, we are thankful that we splurged a few years ago and bought me a truck instead of a different kind of vehicle, it has continued to serve us in so many ways only a truck can!

Anyway, classes are OK, but LONG. we'll be glad when they're done. I guess not all classes can be an enjoyable challenge, but at least getting these done will be a good accomplishment. They will be all month, for the ones we're currently signed up for.

I have pictures from the massive snow, and the flooding a week and a half later. I'm not being lazy, I just don't have the time to post. I'll try to, but if I don't, just know it was a LOT of snow, and then a whole LOT of water.

Snohomish is pretty bad as some levees broke and almost all of Snohomish farmland is under water. The fairgrounds have been opened up as a temporary housing option for all the displaced farm animals. I'm thankful I'm up river of any of that! Our town actually faired real well this time.

Not really anything else to mention. I really don't feel into blogging these days. Not much has seemed to make the effort feel worth it.

snow day

Today is Tuesday, here is an update, but I can't think of a title.

I was told that I haven't made a post in a while. Yes, I'm not sure what to write about these days. The comments that made me consider closing my blog had brought tears to my eyes. I cried a lot, and it's been hard to want to write since then. The things I post on here are things I spend lots of time considering, so I do take things personally. I am thoughtful, some commenters are not.

I've also been at a loss of what to write about because mostly I'm just writing about my symptoms. I'm so thankful to be over physical therapy, but I still feel worn out and sleepy a lot. It seems like after therapy I started getting cold after cold and with feeling sick and tired a lot I don't really see much to write about. I've spent a lot of time reading. I finally finished the first Harry Potter book, and am now in the second book. I loved it! I love reading, especially this time of year where the cold just makes me want to stay covered up and with my nose in a good book.

I'm working on my Thanksgiving list. I should post it soon, probably on Thanksgiving. That'll be another post from me soon too.

My family visited last week. It was OK. Dad was sick for the most part, it seemed like he slept a lot. Everyone did lots of chores for me, which was appreciated, but also overwhelming. I'm still waiting for a photo CD from my mom from their time here. I'll probably post some pictures once I get it. While they were here my arthritis wasn't horrible, which was good. I was afraid because I was mostly stuck in bed even up to a day before they came. I was finally over the colds I had, only to catch the cold they had about halfway through there visit. This cold has been the worst of the 4 I've had in the last 2 months. But it seems to be moving fairly quickly. I came down with it Wednesday, and already am feeling a lot different... not quite better yet, but MAYBE in a week or so I'll feel well enough to get back on my injections! I pray so, I feel so much inflammation in my body. The worst being my ability (or lack there of) to move my back. And pain that surprises me when I do try to move.

My mobility has been an issue, even with the help that physical therapy was. I've really found that my mobility is tied so much to my inflamation. When it's worst I can't move hardly at all, when it's better I can move around fairly free, though that's been rare lately.

While they were here we visited a museum and I used a wheelchair there. It was actually rather freeing to have a chair available, I'm glad the museum had that available. It reminded me of the words of an on-line friend of mine. She has A.S. and she told me the best thing she ever did for herself was to buy herself a walker so she could keep moving on her bad days. I'm grateful for my cane, but sometimes I need support on both sides of my body. About half of the rest of the time I was using my cane. There where a couple of times I didn't use my cane and this confused my sister. She didn't quite understand that I don't need it all of the time. And that I try not to use it when I don't need it. I think this is one of the hardest things for people to understand about my arthritis, just because I'm doing good one day doesn't mean I'm better, and just because I'm stuck in bed another doesn't mean I'll always be stuck. It also doesn't mean that I've given up, or given into my disease. Just because I need my cane sometimes, and would truly benefit from a walker doesn't mean I want it, it's just tools for better living. It's not something about attitude, but realizing what I need to do to have the best life possible.

I'm really saddened sometimes by the lack of understanding some people have. I try to be very open about what I deal with, and sometimes it's hard for people to understand that this is not something I'm doing to myself, or allowing to happen to me. There is no cure for it, just some things that help. Believe me, if there was a cure-all for this all of my on-line A.S. friends and I would be talking about it and shouting it from the roof-tops. No one wants a cure for this more than the person dealing with it. False hopes, and advice that (falsely says) there's a cure out there are very discouraging. God alone can deal with this. Medications and exercise CAN ONLY DO SO MUCH! Even if I'm someday blessed with total remission, I would still live with the reality that it could pop up again. Even if I someday get my hip replaced to fix my O.A. that still won't change the R.A. or A.S. it's complicated, and my life is even more complicated since I live with multiple things.

The first day my family was here (actually on our way home from the airport) we went to the mall and they bought us a stationary recumbent bike. It's great. I think it's even nicer than the one I was using in physical therapy. Siggy has already started scratching on it, which makes me mad. He's a good cat for the most part, but everything looks like scratching posts to him. Very frustrating. I've put a towel over the seat to help prevent his scratching, so far so good... I'm just wondering how long that will last.

The weather has been cold, and I'm surprised we haven't had snow yet. Any time we do get moisture it seems to head up from the south, so it's fairly warm.

My dear friend Juliet called me yesterday because I missed church last Sunday and she was wondering how I was doing. I sounded like a grumpy frog on the phone. Stupid cold. I've been half asleep most of the time, and my voice sounds funny. But getting her call was a ray of sunshine. It's so encouraging knowing I have such loving and caring friends. It truly blessed me.

stuck at home again

So the road out of our neighborhood has been closed over since yesterday morning. I just saw a neighbor drive off only to return 10 minutes later.
The county website still shows our drive out closed in several spots, so we are stuck. And all when my parents and sister will be here tomorrow. They may have to stay with someone else for a night, I don't really know. November rains are always crazy.

Kevin worked from home yesterday, and is again today. I prefer it so much more over not knowing when we'll be back together, and being alone. I like being able to give him a decent lunch since he's home too. And the no commute this is nice. Too bad it can't be a regular type thing. Oh well, at least I know he's safe right now. We all are. The waters are 4 miles down the road from us, and we're much higher up where we are. It's the trade off of living at the end of a long country road. It's peaceful and quiet where we live, but every great place has it's trade offs.

Here's hoping the roads dry up soon and that it doesn't cause anyone issues while my family is here to visit.

The road is clear again

The road is clear again, but with the rapid changes in weather I again feel flat on my back! I drove to the next town and got Jack in the box for breakfast. I love their egg nog milkshake! I don't get shakes that often, but I always like that one this time of year (actually I'd go for it any time of year, but it's only available now.)

So I was thinking about yesterday's post and how I've finally been able to catch a breath, but how worn out I am from all of yesterday's stress. I was finally having a little bit of strength again thinking this flare was going to go away, but now I'm back to just wanting to SLEEP! I probably should sleep during the day too because I checked accuweather and it shows the arthritis index going up tonight. I couldn't get restful sleep last night, and I'm guessing I won't tonight either. My hips are really hurting me. So is my back and shoulders.



This morning has been really pretty, I'm so glad I went out. I took some photos that I'm thinking about selling now. They were that good. Now I'm torn if I should post them, well I'll share some, but the best will go to my store. Anyway, I was AMAZED as I drove a couple blocks away (that's all my immediate neighborhood is, a couple blocks.) that I could see Wallace falls! Wallace falls is a couple towns east of us. And while you can see spectacular views of it once you are in Gold Bar, you normally can't see it too well until you get to that town. I continued to see what I could venture so I headed west, away from the falls, towards my town (5 miles away), and the larger one. Even from a few blocks away from down town Sultan I could see the falls! Truly amazing the volume of water! Of course with the camera it just looks like a funny cloud with the rest of the clouds hugging the mountain, but with the naked eye, it was easy to tell it was the falls!

The spot where our road was closed was completely clear again, and there were no other spots with water on the road either. So this was not anywhere near as bad as a couple years ago. There is no visible flooding except for a couple of spots in some farm fields. I even saw brave fishermen trying to make their way down to the river to see if they could fish, though I didn't actually see anyone at the river.

Here's a few photos. To view them larger right click and open in another tab.
Early morning sky, view as I was getting into my truck.



View of Wallace falls a couple blocks from home! The white smudge right in the middle is the falls.



View of a very full, but not flooding Skykomish river as I'm crossing over it heading into town.



View of Wallace falls a couple blocks away from down town Sultan. (Yes, there is nothing but farmland that close to my downtown. I love where I live!) The falls are to the right of the large tree in the middle of the frame.



I'm so thankful that there is no real damage visible in my town. The farms and ranches near me, while very wet are all fine. It was amazing to see how the creek is back down to a creek instead of the river it pretended to be yesterday. There's been a few moments of very light rain today, but nothing that seems like it would encourage any more issues any time soon.

Well, I'm logging off to try and get some rest while I can. Unfortunetly I'm affraid my arthritis is probably going to keep me home for a few more days now. Every joint of my body seems to ache right now. Pain isn't terrible at the moment, but it is there. I think I'll take some Tylenol PM.

Maybe tomorrow will be better

On the main page for KOMO news right now there is a video that says Sultan is OK. She is in standing water. The place the reporter is standing was flooded a couple years ago, but it's not that surprising right there. The reporter says she sees the waters there receding, so maybe I'll be able to make it to church on Sunday after all.

Road flooded!

So I am not going anywhere this weekend. And I'm wondering when I'll get to see Kevin now. He's headed to Salem, OR after work. I was on my way headed out to get him from work and drive on down with him, but now he's renting a car and going by himself. I'm kind of sad about that. Around the house things are fine. I drove to the lower elevations of our community and they looked fine too. However the road out of our community is flooded about 4 miles down the road, and it's the only way out and into town. So I'm stuck. I tried leaving in the car, I was able to drive through 4 patches of water on the road, but thought I needed the truck at the next spot. I went home moved our stuff for the weekend to the truck, only to get to a REALLY flooded patch and see flashing lights ahead. This particular creek, Haystack Creek, runs alongside our road out of our neighborhood & it becomes a very dry trickle in the summer. Currently it is about 40 feet wide, flooding it's banks into the surrounding farmland at the spot where the road is flooded. I waited in the truck as I watched a sheriff put a road closed sign on the road and the trucks in front of me turn around. They drove up to me and told me the sheriff is waiting on the other side to ticket anyone who tried to go through, then they headed on home. I watched the sheriff drive through the water in a tow truck, and water went all the way up and into the doors. I'm not going to risk getting water in my cab or to get a ticket, so I turned around and headed back home. Called Kevin and told him what's going on and from there we decided that I'd be staying home and Kevin would get a car and drive down. At first he thought he'd head to Monroe and stay with some cousins, but I told him, if he could get a car he might as well head down since I wouldn't be spending the night with him anyway. He talked to his parents and now things are set in motion that way.

Blogging all of this is my attempt at taking a deep breath, so I hope things make sense in everything here... I'm thinking about the conversation I had with a neighbor. He was talking about heading into town to get things for the weekend. I asked him if he needed anything and he said no, he'd be OK heading back home. I hope that's true. It was funny too because, and I love true Washingtonians, he said "It's not really rainin' anymore so hopefully we'll be able to 'git out tomorrow." Mind you a Californian would call this rain 'El Nino'! I do agree, it's a lot less than it was during the night. I told him that the weather report I read said the Skykomish isn't going to crest until mid Sunday, he seemed surprised by that. Haystack Creek feeds into the Skykomish. So if our creek is flooded now, it'll have to wait until after the river crests before we really see the road clear up.

The cell phone pictures are pretty bad. But maybe they can give you an idea. In the first one I'm trying to show just how close I dared to get. If you look on the side of the road there is only about 3 feet before the water would start to be on the road as well. Looking ahead, where the van is with the break lights, there is water on the road about 3 feet deep. It's hard to see in the picture because the stream and creek meet right at the base of the trees and hill there where it's dark, but it was deep and I didn't dare get closer.

In the second picture I tried to show how wide the creek got. It's normally about 4-6 feet wide at any given spot, and I'd say it's about 25 feet wide at the moment I took that picture. As I talked with people I saw things move an additional foot or so.





The road looks about the same as it did a couple years ago, I guess I should check the local news to see how things are in town. I wonder what this'll mean for all the school kids as they've closed the roads before school usually lets out. Maybe today was a rain day and they're just home anyway, I don't know... but I don't really hear any kids outside, then again it is rainy.

I'm just now trying to get more information myself about how things are, beyond just what I can find on Accuweather. Since I don't have local TV I can't really just turn on the news and find out... it takes a little longer to load the local news websites. Here is what I've found on Komo news so far.

River levels also are rising rapidly at Index on the Skykomish, where flooding also is expected. Rising river levels in Sultan also have been reported this morning.

Emergency officials said both rivers are peaking faster than initially expected due to heavy rain from a series of "Pineapple Express" storms pushing across the region from off the Pacific.

..

Low-lying areas, small streams and creeks, as well as storm-drainage systems, could see localized flooding due to debris clogs and heavy rainfall.

Well, yeah... I'd say that's why I'm back home. I'm just thankful and grateful that our property is at a higher elevation. I just wish they'd make us a second road to this community so we can head out at times like this. I'll be fine. I've weathered this before. So far there is no interruptions to power, and really there isn't enough wind for me to worry about that. And I have food and water. The cats and I will be safe. It's just kind of a bummer being stuck at home, especially when I was looking forward to finally getting out of the house after a long arthritis flare (which I'm still mostly dealing with).

Additional information is updated here from the University of Washington. I just read that the forecast says my road out will be closed, well, it already is... so I'm wondering how good this link is.

Please pray that Kevin is safe and fine driving alone tonight. I'm sure he'll be OK, but the roads are a bit crazy.

Up all night swollen

Yup, my hands are swollen. I had to ice my hands after cooking dinner tonight. Pretty sad, but hey, that's arthritis. And I can't move my back hardly at all right now. And my neck has been stiff for days. I guess my neck was the first to feel the cool rainy weather that has rolled in. Don't get me wrong. I am completely happy that rainy days are back, I have plenty of arthritic days all summer too, the heat fatigue can be unbearable! During the day I thought I felt pretty good, and I had the mental energy to get some stuff done, but when it came down to it I was back to standing for only about half an hour before my back pain was just feeling like murder.

Hands are still swollen, and my knees are a bit too, I'm guessing my shoulder/back of neck may be as well, but I can't see behind me. LOL! I just feel swollen. Ladies, I think you'd know what I mean, that feeling during that time of the month, well, I feel it elsewhere in my muscles and joints.

I'm not complaining, just giving a progress report... and a prayer request that this storm that's looking to dump on us all week doesn't stick around or bring in another on the 11th. I'm really looking forward to the Arthritis Foundation's fundraiser walk, but I'm guessing most all of us will be suffering if it's weather like it is right now in a little over a week.

Wow, time is flying by quick! It seems like just a couple days ago I started fundraising, and here it is 8 days before the event and I've completely raised my goal twice, almost three times over, and I've been helping Kevin do his fundraising too! He still needs a few more sponsors if you are still thinking of helping.

So because I'm in too much physical discomfort to sleep I decided to see if accuweather agrees that I should be in this much pain... here is what the site showed me for the current arthritis index... yet again proof that my symptoms are so closely tied to the cycles of weather. So my plan now is to take some Tylenol PM to try to sleep, because if I don't get it now, it looks like it'll be even harder Friday night.

Global cooling. Old Farmer's Almanac.

I first heard this on FoxNews today, but poking around I've read more about this... Global cooling theories is something I've been following for a while now. This time Old Farmers Almanac says we are on our way to global cooling.

You can read about it here.

The Old Farmer's Almanac is going further out on a limb than usual this year, not only forecasting a cooler winter, but looking ahead decades to suggest we are in for global cooling, not warming.

Based on the same time-honored, complex calculations it uses to predict weather, the Almanac hits the newsstands on Tuesday saying a study of solar activity and corresponding records on ocean temperatures and climate point to a cooler, not warmer, climate, for perhaps the next half century.

All I know is that Siggy cat has been packing on the pounds and is already working on his thick winter coat. Seems like my cat agrees with this!

There is also a discussion forum thread on the almanac's website.

Yay! Overcast!

After work yesterday Kevin felt bad for me and my sweat dripping face so he took me to Subway to get sandwiches, then we drove up to Deception Falls! Best things ever! Subway was like a refrigerator in the store! I was enjoying that so much I took forever to decide what I was going to have! Then the water falls were amazing. When we drove up we kept seeing clouds rolling down from the mountains towards where we live, and feeling the temperature change the whole way. It was all so beautiful too. Seeing the tiny patches of snow (now really just ice) on the furthest, and highest places was neat to see. The mountain outside our window barely has anything at all on top anymore. I'm pretty sure it'll be all gone by my birthday.

When we got to the falls there were only a couple other vehicles. We finished our sandwiches, and then we had the place all to ourselves! That always appeals to the introvert in me. To be able to enjoy such beauty without distractions.

The last time we were at the falls was when Gavin and Tracy were visiting. So about 11 months ago. Since then it looks like the falls and river have changed a lot. The volume of water greatly increased. We were noticing that all the places Gavin was playing now had water rapidly flowing over it. The falls seemed to split into two paths, that last year were only one. And the increase of volume meant that if you stood on the bridge long enough you'd get soaked. So I did that. It was just the two of us in the park so I got to stand there as long as I wanted! The noise, and splashes, it was all so amazing and powerful. Truly God's glorious handiwork!

I stayed near the falls until I was shivering wet, then we headed back down the mountain. On our way home we stopped by the salmon hatchery and watched the adult salmon as they jumped in the holding pond to get the bugs hovering over the water for their dinner. Again we had the place to ourselves. It was all such a wonderful, relaxing evening.

I went to bed not using a blanket, it still felt too hot. But over night I found I pulled the blanket up from the floor and got covered. Yay! It finally got cool enough at night! It's 9 in the morning and the house fans powered down finally saying that it's cooled enough. Some may find overcast depressing, but to me it's perfect. I don't sweat just by existing, I can breath without issue, my muscles don't cramp, and my feet don't swell. There is enough light out to keep happy, feel healthy, but not so much that I instantly burn, or feel like my eyes are going to fall out. Yes, I LOVE overcast! I love weather in the 50's-60's maybe low 70's. I love being able to feel like a light misty rain could fall on me. Yes, I am a North Westerner through and through!

One of the weather reports I was reading was reflecting on our freakish weather and saying we were having a tour of other states, that we "started with Anchorage, and moved on to the south-east." (when the heat was so humid.) And I've got to say it did kind of feel like that. I'd throw in Vegas too though, on saturday it was that dry hot wind that made you want to find the ghost that was following you with the invisibly hairdryer and make it all stop. I don't like dry heat either. I just don't like heat. I know summer is just starting so I hope we don't have too many more days that extreme.

Now maybe I can feel comfortable enough to get some housework done today. That would be nice. I didn't bring the camera to the falls. With seeing how much the course changed and such I wished I had. But I have a feeling that wasn't our only trip to the falls this summer. It's only a 35 minute drive up to the falls, so all that really stops us is the cost of gas to climb the mountains.

This & That

I haven't been in Bloglandia for a while because Mica and I and a couple other friends had a yard-sale at her place. It has been so much work going through so much trying to come up with stuff to get rid of. The time with friends was so completely worth any reason to get together, but the sale itself was a total flop. Way too much work, and lots of disappointment, but hey, you live and learn. We both had some furniture, and none of it sold! I remember that when I lived in CA that would have been the first thing to go!

I've already spent all my earnings. I made barely anything. Basically I gave Kevin a dinner and movie date. He wanted to see "Get Smart" which wasn't as dumb as I thought it would be, but I could have done without the few gay jokes in it. Actually I probably would have really liked it otherwise. Well, maybe. Anyway, so we caught a matinee of that after church not something we'd normally do on the Lord's day, but because we wanted to be someplace with air conditioning for a while. Then we stopped into the brand new Little Caesar's and got a pizza to have for dinner. So, between the $15 for movie tickets and the 6.50 for pizza and extra sauce, the earnings are all gone. Poof! Yup, I barely made anything. I think most of the truck-full of stuff is back in the truck, ready to go to the Goodwill. The thing I really made money off of was a plate of cookies I baked. I think most of my profits was more bake sale than yard sale, oh well. I really think the heat is one of the reasons it did so poorly! Especially on saturday. I think it was the first time ever that I saw a saturday sale be worst then the friday sale. We literally saw people driving by with windows rolled up to keep the AC in, look from the car and drive off. I mean really, how can you tell if something you want is there or not by looking from the car? I know I do that sometimes, but that's mostly towards the end of the day when the money and energy is running out, not all day long. This was all day. I don't blame them, I wouldn't want to get out unless I saw diamonds for 50 cents or something, but for us sitting in the heat getting burned in more than one way, it was just disappointing. The yard sale really stunk! Aside from the heat being so overwhelming, I got a sunburn on my right shoulder and cheeks, and I've had a headache on and off from exhaustion. Slurring and crabby.

This record heat wave is killing us! I didn't sleep well at all last night, and I'd be amazed if Kevin really got restful sleep either. And it's been a humid heat, so three showers yesterday didn't feel like enough! Man alive, I feel like explaining my blogging hiatus is nothing but complaining. I think we're going to, for medical reasons, not buy groceries this month, live off of spaghetti and mac and cheese, and buy an AC for the bedroom, at least in this misery I can always hope. I really hate summer, I hate how tired it makes me, how my body swells up because no matter how much I drink water it's not enough, how the tired makes the headaches and the lack of coordination, and the nothing getting accomplished. Lucky husband, he gets to go to a job with AC, my work continues to wait for me here in this oven. I do not like heat. I feel oppressed too when I can't escape it like this. Is there a climate somewhere that only feels like fall to spring and no summer? I'm sure there is, but their winters last too long. Speaking of too long, another thing I don't like about summer is the few hours of darkness each day! I feel like I'm being held in a constant state of awake. I looked up the latest hours of darkness... well, what I found was that sunset to sunrise is about 8 hours right now. And really it's less than that, because dawn and dusk are still light out. Oh well. No place has perfect weather all the time. I just wish I had an air conditioner. I can't stand this. It would help if we had a cross breeze, but it's either been packing in humidity into the house, or blowing in hotter air, so opening up doesn't help! Plus when we put the window fans in they suck in so many flies! We don't have holes in the screens, they're being pulled in because of the fans. They're all the little fruit flies and such, nothing big, but enough that I have to keep checking my glass to make sure nothing has flown into it. I'm hanging my bug zapper inside on my pot rack, this all feels so white trash. ;-(

I don't want to complain, I just can't feel like I can exist, I'm having the hardest time getting anything done, maybe I'll just sit and melt on the couch reading a book. We did have some thunder last night, that was supposed to cool things down, but the sun is out and it's hot all over again. The heat is so oppressing to me. I'm seriously considering pulling a Margot Tenenbaum (From the movie the Royal Tenenbaum's) and living in the bathtub, yeah, that's it, I'll live in the bathtub with my books and a radio.

I had so much fun hanging out with the Mica and her family for a few days, but next time I think we'll have to come up with another reason to get together. We're actually planning a camping trip, that should be MUCH better.

Well, I think I need to get more ice water in me. My Ball-Park Franks feet are swelling twice the size and it's starting to hurt. And my arthritis is pretty inflamed. For that reason I really do need to cool down somehow. I hope everyone else is surviving summer much better than me! And that's my update, maybe I shouldn't have bothered.

I hate heat!

So accuweather tried to warn us that it was going to get hot, quick. With how often the weather reports are wrong I don't always believe them, but wow. We went from being in the comfortable 50's-60's to now being in the 90's to just around 100! I HATE SUMMER! I hate sweating and feeling like I can't move. I want an AC very badly. I'd jump in the river (if my hips worked well.) except that the amount of such rapid snow melt has made the river very full and fast, it's kind of scary actually.

Heat sucks. Oh, and I just bought tomato starts, and my mom got me some when we were in California. I was going to plant them today, but they've already wilted. I'm still going to plant them tonight and hope they perk back up, I have seen that with veg starts before. Here's hoping.

I know I've been on kind of a creative lull lately. I hate that too. I started making a paper doll, but the legs still don't look right. After I get her looking nice I'll post her.

I have several aprons I need to make for family and swaps, so once I get the table cleared and the sewing machine set up again I'll be back to sewing. And a swap partner also wants to commission me to make the Beatrix Potter bag for her with pink fabric, so I'm tracking that down now too.

The weather is supposed to cool back down around monday, I can't hardly wait. I don't have any way to cool off (aside from just getting into the shower with the heat off.) so I really want that to be true.

I guess that's it for now. Nothing much. I'm still trying to get things taken care of since arriving home, dishes, unpacking, sending swaps and such... a housewife's work is never done.

Trying to stay cool. Oh, and I do still plan to post pictures from the trip. I'm having some issues with that, but hope to get it resolved soon.

Dreaming about arthritis!?

I woke up from a dream where I was at church and people were surprised I was there, I was rubbing my sore arthritic hands in my dream only to wake up needing to do that and saying 'Arthritis Sucks' out loud. I've been a twitchy, crampy, painful, blob of jelly today. I think I'm just going to take a muscle relaxant and try to get some real sleep as I obviously didn't get any rest last night. We're supposed to get several inches of snow today, my body agrees. Oh, and I had to check what the arthritis pain index was for today since I feel so miserable and here is what they say...



Boo, hiss, I want a refund... or a new drug, or sleep...

4 inches of snow

I'm still battling a cold so I'm not going outside and taking pictures this time, even though I really want to... ;-(
We've got 4 inches of snow over yesterday and last night. Yesterday started with freezing rain so I'm hearing all the neighbors slip around on the road outside. I'm just glad Kevin is using the truck again. We're supposed to have another 4 inches or so tonight too. They say a total of 8.5 inches accumulation between now and Tuesday night, but I doubt that. The sun in the middle of the day has done a lot of melting, though I am pleased this is the most snow we've got this year. Maybe in a few days I'll have even more wonderful snow photos.
We just got the propane tank refilled so we have plenty of gas to stay warm, as well as the space heaters, all our cozy blankets and clothes... We'll just stay cozy and enjoy it through the window.
One of my favorite things about when it snows is seeing how the snow covers the skylight. Here is a photo from my camera phone.

not happy

This is the way the last two days and the next 5 days are predicted for the arthritis index. I was a useless zombie woman today! I swear my cat thinks I sleep as much as a cat does. Any time I head towards the bedroom he hops on the bed wanting to cuddle... well, I suppose I could just be spoiling Siggy...

Ache mine gootness! (think Shirley Temple in Heidi, (the wooden shoes...)

So I opened my trusty RSS/Atom feed reader to see how many blog posts I need to get caught up on, since between feeling crummy last week and not having internet over the weekend.

I HAVE OVER 700 unread blog posts!

Now, to manage, I'll be reading from people I know first, and then other blogs after that, and I'll probably toss all news items since there is no way to keep up with those.

Most of the time having a feed reader is a blessing, but right now it seems like a daunting task.

In other news, I've sold three cards! YAY! I can finally say I've sold something on Etsy! The cards will send out in the morning!

Our internet was off for the weekend as we were switching over to a new, local, better, faster, cheaper service. We are both giddy with how wonderful this new one is. I can't believe how fast pages are loading, and upload speeds finally rock too! So hopefully I'll be a lot better about getting pictures up in a timely manner on my blog.

We had more snow on Sunday, but it didn't last. It basically gave a light dusting as we were leaving for church, and when were were back it was all melted. I feel like I keep teasing about snow pictures, but really, I feel teased by snow. I want snow... if my muscles are going to ache and cramp, and cause me to be stiff and limp, I want to at least enjoy the view from my couch! ;-) It's still not even technically winter yet, so I'm sure more is yet to come.

Well, how's that for a random post!?
Now off to bed go I because I had no idea whatsoever that it was already after 2 am!

Flooding

I just wanted to calm everyone's fears. I'm doing fine and I don't see any flooding near my house. However last night was lonely as Kevin had to stay with family in the next town over. The road up to our place was flooded over and even though he was in the truck he couldn't drive through it. That's the bummer of living at the end of a country road without any other route. Yesterday he only worked at the craft store as his regular job had closed the office for the day. All the storm sewers were backed up yesterday and the roads were not drivable, he was able to get to work today though. Please pray that the rains slow down so he can come home tonight. It's been both clear and rainy at times today so it's at least lightening up, but I still fear the roads might be a mess.

I think the roads have improved some it seems like the neighbor across the street left for work today.

All this so soon after having had snow on the weekend has really made my RA painful. I'm taking lots of naps. I think I need to take another one now.

I just wanted to update everyone to let you know that we're all safe. Most of the major flooding seems to be at the lower elevations, and in the south western part of the state.

It's snowing!

Update: 4:40 PM Dec. 2.
So I won't be able to get more pictures after all unless it snows more tonight and is actually nice tomorrow, but I'm not holding my breath, it's supposed to stay rainy now. Since it rained for the last half of the day the snow is getting all washed away, it's a slushy mess outside, not picture worthy.

Start of original post 1:23 AM


I'm going to take pictures and post them! I promise. Today was the first snow this winter!
Lots of snow too! Not as bad as last years big snow, but it might get there. It's been snowing all day and all night. AND is still going!
I guess this is midnight blogging so I should say the start was Saturday morning, Dec. 1st.
Here are a few pictures so far... none of them are really great. I'll take more later.

We brought the cats outside. Siggy loved it, Maddie hated it. We held Siggy while letting him put his feet in the snow... isn't his paw prints in the snow adorable!?





Siggy was sad that we only let him out for a few minutes, and only while holding him. He's been running from window to window, and it's so cute watching his head move as he picks a snowflake and follows it's path down.

Who said you can't get something for nothing?

So in the last couple weeks I have both got a free BBQ and washer. The BBQ needs a little work, but we know how to do it and with what it needs the parts are much cheaper then buying a new one. It's nothing fancy, just a BBQ, hopefully it'll be fixed in time for my birthday. Home Depot gift cards?

The washer we picked up today is almost identical to the one we have. We haven't set it up yet, probably over the weekend. Here's hoping it actually is better then what we have and meets out need. The listing I found it from said they were remodeling so they had to get rid of them. The place was tiny so I envisioned that they enlarged a room or closest and had to go for apartment style machines instead of side by side. Who knows, my mind wanders.

Anyway, so I'm pooped. It's been so hot lately. Just around 100 for the last couple days. The house is just starting to cool off. It was 101 outside today, now it's gone down to the low 70's as the sun is setting. The news said we should get some light rain and thunder. I really hope so! I love that kind of weather. I don't think I've ever really feared thunder and lightning. It was one of my favorite things in CO. I miss the evenings in the summer in CO when natures AC would take over, the moisture would come and the temp would drop. It's never as dramatic here or when I lived in CA.

Well, I should log off and try to come up with another no heat meal for dinner.
Sorry this isn't a particularly thrilling post. Just wanted to let everyone know that we're hoping this other washer will be better.

Snow! - Photo blogpost.

Be sure to at least scroll to the bottom of the post to see the photos. Now, to ramble on about my thoughts while the power and internet was out...

Last night is snowed a foot! Currently the snow has melted back to about 6 inches, & that was what the weather reports originally said that we'd have for accumulation! The sun came out and is making quick work of melting the snow! In places that are always in the shade there is still 9 inches of snow though.

(I started by writing this by hand. The post time is of when I wrote all this, but right now it's a day later and the internet and power are back so I'm typing it up.)

My hand is cramping up because I'm writing this by hand instead of typing, it's one of those things I have to do now that I deal with R.A., but with the snow branches broke and the power went out, plus before that the snow iced up the internet satalite receiver so I wouldn't be able to upload anything anyway. As I was going to bed I heard branches snapping and I had hoped the power wouldn't go out, but when I woke up and it was out I wasn't surprised in the least.

Again we are grateful that while we were in CA buying the 4 wheel truck that it then seemed excessive we now are really putting it to use. There is no way with all this snow that Kevin could drive to work safely in his little Volvo. I just wish he hadn't told me he drove under two trees that had fallen in order to get to work! It's no wonder that so many people stayed home today! Our neighborhood looks like it's Saturday with so many people walking on the street and all the yard work thats being done and so on.

Fortunately with the power out things are so quite (except the mechanical sounds from the neighbors who have generators.)
So I'm able to be more reflective & hear myslef think. Unfortunately it means stuff in the fridge will probably spoil. I'm grateful for my deep-freeze box that my in-laws gave me for Christmas a few years ago. We keep all our meats and such in it and it can go for days without power and still stay frozen so I know the expensive things won't spoil quickly.

I wrote all that by hand and only now am putting it in here with the power back. I also thought about how I need a laptop again! Writting by hand is killing me! I even scribbled that I promise when I do get a new one I will do the drain cycles to keep the battery working well. Yes, I'm that desperate to not write by hand anymore. Typing is so much easier on these arthritic hands.

I was inspired by the bright sky and cool weather and was actually able to walk all the way around the block! No pains or anything, it was really refreshing! I brought my camera with me because I wanted more photos than just the same ones from around the house that looked like the last time we had snow. I got some great shots of the mountains around us and some nice ones of the snow in our neighbors places. Even one of a snowman a neighbor kid made. Now on to the photos!

First here are some videos...
The first two are of the hail we had a couple weeks before. The reports kept saying snow, but we'd get hail. They were the size of peas.
Hail

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Another clip of the hail

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Here is a view from the end of the block after all the snow fell, I took this while on my walk.
A view from my walk in the snow

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Kevin made a post too, be sure to check it out.

Snowy Chicken!

It's actively snowing outside and just starting to stick. I wonder how much accumulation we'll get?


Here are some photos from the snow fall so far...


I love how you can see the action of the snow if you look at the dark part under the tank. You can’t really see that it’s actively snowing from other parts of the picture.





This is of the snow on top of the skylight, and why it seemed to get so dark in the house.





This is the snow collecting towards the street. Notice the driveway is getting covered now too, considering the snow isn’t letting down anytime soon I think it’ll be another time to shovel snow or be frozen in. Notice too that the snowfall is blocking our view of the mountains. We have visibility for only about one block right now.





This next one shows just how much it is that we live in the country now! I don’t know if it was confused or just looking to get warm but a chicken came into our backyard. I asked the neighbor who it belonged to and kind of walked it towards that direction. I don’t know if it got out or was let out. I do know that they let their birds out a lot. I’ve seen them in our front yard, but not in the back, and not while snowing. The only reason it’s not snow covered where the chicken is is because this is under the trees in the backyard and it always takes longer there. The snow has to get around the branches.





So there are my photos from right now. The snow is still coming down like crazy! And we’re supposed to have three days of this, so maybe a snowman will later be built.

All this white stuff.

I want feeling back in my toes... they have been cold for far too long.

I miss seeing more colors other then white and brown outside.

It rained a little bit this morning, I wish it had thawed things out more. There is still snow everywhere.

It doesn't seem quite so pretty anymore.

The cold is making me insane.

At least the rain was rain and not snow for a fifth time!

SNOW and ICE!

::Updated 3/7/07 - see link at bottom of post for update.::



First off a friend of mine e-mailed and said she missed reading my blog... I didn't think it's really been that long, but I guess it has...

So here is a photo blog of all the snow we have! It snowed up to a foot on our property, started tuesday night and stopped wednesday night. Everything seems just as snowy as if it just stopped snowing, though it's pretty now that the sun is out and shining on it. And that's deceptive because it's warmed up from 16 degrees to 34 degrees and now it's getting colder again! Yeah, it's cold.

Fortunately we haven't really had much wind so the power lines still work. I was worried that if the wind did come with all the trees so heavy with snow and frozen that we'd have the power go out. But it's just super cold. Kevin ran back inside to add long johns before he left for work. It was kinda funny seeing him wear three layers of pants, but it really is that cold! We are safe and warm. So far there is no interruption in power. While our heat, hot water, and stove are gas we still need power to have the heat flow, if the power goes out we could get cold quick. Knowing this has made us think that the next major home upgrade is to get a wood stove built into the living room. We were without power/heat back in November when we had a big windstorm and we were worried we'd be heating with candles again.

I thought it was kinda funny when I heard on the news that a bunch of roads they deiced the night the snow fell are icy anyway because we had so much snow that it just washed away the deicer and they had to go and re-plow/de-ice the roads. And clear roads? Ha! I live in a private community at the end of a country road, no one bothers to de-ice our road!

I know my friends and family in Colorado are sick of snow. Another friend of mine sent a funny image! regarding their snow, and I thought I'd post it here too.




I have been taking pictures with rulers in the snow. I’ve kept one in the backyard and one in the front. The side of the house won the deepest with a full foot there. The front tended to be the least with about 8 inches and the backyard has been about 10 inches, but that all continues to shrink as it compacts and melts or turns to ice. The ruler I had in the backyard shattered when I pulled it out... Silly me not remembering how brittle cold and ice makes things!

Kevin did get home in record time last night and even got a little grocery shopping done on his way home, which fortunately included a snow shovel and driveway salt. Amazingly when he went to buy the shovel they said they just got them in after having sold out and not having any since the snow we had for Thanksgiving. We didn’t shovel then and had an icy driveway for days.

To tell you how fluffy and powdery this snow is. I took two huge handfuls of snow and with minimal loss had compacted it in my hands down to about the size of a small ice cube! Speaking of ice, the neighbor kids have all basically insured that the ice will remain on our roads for a good long time... They’ve been driving around on it with their ATV’s and riding on the back with rope and an inner-tube. They seem to be keeping it safe, though I know what I just described sounds pretty dangerous. I think they had the most fun when they first got started because the snow being disturbed for the first time kept spraying into their faces! Now it’s all compacted into ice on the roads and I’m sure they’ll be back out sliding on the streets today too.
The heater has been going non stop, it seems to keep the house pretty warm too. I had no idea it was 16 out until I looked at my thermometer!

We are supposed to have arctic air freezing wind (though there isn’t much breeze right now.) and the roads are predicted to be extremely icy coming home. Wednesday night Kevin’s 40 minute commute took almost 4 hours as he drove home in the snowfall.

At one point Kevin’s car, sitting in the driveway, was almost covered with snow and the photos in this post are after some of the snow had started to fall off. Needless to say if we didn’t have my 4X4 pick-up I really doubt Kevin could have left for work!

The frustrating thing right now with all the wet and cold weather we’ve had is that the rain gutter is falling off the front of the house! As soon as we can get at it again we need to try and figure out how to repair it. There is too much snow on the roof right now to really do anything just yet. This particularly bugs me since this is a newish house (6 years old) and just recently (when we bought it) was inspected, and everything looked great. It just shows how wicked the weather has been in such a short period of time.

The snow is very pretty! Everything is so bright and clean and white! I’ve been taking lots of pictures! Of course the schools are all closed and lots of kids are out playing in the snow!

Probably the most frustrating thing about the snow falling while at home is that both internet and TV become useless as they are both by satellite and the weather knocks out the reception. The other night when the snow was falling it was odd not really having anyway to get news except for radio.

Just thought I’d let you all know that we’re safe and warm. Enjoy the pictures!








That's my indoor outdoor thermometor saying it was 16 degrees outside!









And here are a few more I missed posting that I've posted more recently.
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