Rain!

It's raining.  In March.  In Wisconsin.  It started just after I got home from sweating my guts out at the Y and it's still raining.  The sun was shining when I drove up the street this afternoon and it looked like shallow rivers were running down each side of the street.  I am so glad that I live toward the top of the hill and not at the bottom.  It's very odd to hear raindrops pecking on the window, let me tell you.  They've got a flood watch going in part of the county until early tomorrow morning but not here and not anywhere I need to be.  I think.


I saw the ground today too.  Look at how much snow has melted below the retaining wall on the renters' side of the backyard.  This is south-facing so it always warms up first.  Some of last summer's straw bales are showing in the garden but there's no danger that the patio will emerge anytime soon because the house shades it until the planet tips back toward the sun more.


Today's toss is a box of old phones, coaxial cable, and an old clock radio or two.  I cleared all of it out of random totes that got filled when DD and I cleared out Durwood's studio at the assisted living home in August (seven months ago tomorrow) and now that I just use my cellphone I don't need a half-dozen cordless and corded phones, their bases, and cables for TVs that I don't have.  I'll let Goodwill sort them out.  One of the slimline phones (remember those?) is harvest gold and is a dial phone rather than pushbutton.  How retro!







I googled how to clean plastic dolls and found a YouTube video that says to use Mr. Clean Magic Eraser and alcohol.  I tried it and it worked pretty well.  It would have worked a lot better, I think, if the dolls hadn't been in a box in the basement for 25 years between the last time they got played with and today but they're not too bad.  I think LC and OJ will be happy to have "new" babies to play with.







 


I made the executive decision to finish the brioche cowl tonight.  I had to look up Elizabeth Zimmerman's Sewn Bind-Off so I'll do that tomorrow at CS's brioche class and I also looked up a brioche hat pattern, free of course, to try next.  I've got yarn left so I should probably knit it up and I've got part of another skein of the color yarn (different color naturally) if I run out of this one.  I'll put it into the donate pile.

14 March--Tropical Obsession. 

Gray skies hung over the island. No wind stirred the palm fronds or blew away the sticky humidity. Everything was a struggle in the still air; tempers were frayed. Emilia fretted so much at the center of a swarm of mosquitoes that Maria doused her with insect repellent and wordlessly carried her across the road, shoved the now crying toddler into the babysitter’s arms, and left her there. Sharon sat on one of the patio chairs before realizing it was wet from the rain and burst into tears when Diego laughed at her. Jack closed himself in his office and moodily checked his emails and tracked his investments online while waiting for someone, anyone, to bring him coffee. Nola made herself a cup of tea with an herbal teabag she found in the kitchen and stood sipping it as she watched the little tendrils of humidity rise in the first shafts of sunlight that peeped through the clouds. Manning woke with a smile on his face and whistled while he shaved.

Well, even though I was sore, sweaty, and out of breath after my session with the trainer this afternoon I stopped at the desk and bought 10 more sessions.  I'll meet with her next Thursday and then be away the following 2 Thursdays and then meet every 2 weeks after that.  She looks like such a nice girl but she's good at what she does.  The things she asks me to do are deceptively simple looking but, man, do my muscles complain afterward.  I've already had my bedtime Tylenol snack.  Maybe I'll be able to raise my arms over my head tomorrow.
--Barbara