Here I am again, posting late on Sunday night. This week was not good. Bad week, bad!! Seriously, it was just multi-dimensional in the badness that went on during the week. I have to admit that it can’t all be blamed on the calendar, although I do think that 2020 continues to behave in a completely unacceptable batshit manner. Fire tornadoes?! Really! Two hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico at the same time?! There is an asteroid approaching earth? Of course there is! 2020, just stop right now!!
There was almost no reading this week and very little knitting. Why? Just read on, my friends. 🙂
- I am fighting an infection, which is always a situation where I first respond with an “oh, oh” and then with a shortly followed word that won’t be shared here. I went onto antibiotics and off my immunosuppressant drugs: race time!! As my immune system revs up and attacks the infection I am also going into a flare of my disease. SO NOT GOOD!! The plan is that the antibiotics will tip the scales to favor defeating the infection before I’m too sick. Ugh. As I got sicker and sicker from my autoimmune buddies I started sleeping through most of the day.
- We waltzed around with triple digit heat all week. That slight wailing you hear is my crispy garden plants crying in the heat. The louder wailing you hear is me…
- There are horrible wildfires going on in my state and California that are sending smoke my way. A lot of smoke. The sun is a dull red ball in the sky, ash is falling, and things don’t look to improve soon. My distress needle is firmly pegged in the red. My lungs think this isn’t optimal. The smoke is affecting my eyes so I can’t read and I’m staying on oxygen 24/7 while this is going on. I know that this is nothing compared to the people fighting the fires and evacuated from their (possible destroyed) homes. The latest news is that Australia is sending California fire fighting resources, and our governor just activated the National Guard. There is another tough week ahead.
- The nightly news over the last week was also enough to make anyone go back to bed. In the midst of an uncontrolled pandemic that has me trapped in isolation with my adventure-seeking kitten, completely dependent on delivery services, evidence surfaced this last week that the postal service has been sabotaged. No wonder my prescriptions have been wandering around and arriving late and why hasn’t my printer ink come yet!! I’m taking this really personally since now, instead of just messing with the world supply of hydroxychloroquine, a drug that I need to control my Sjogren’s and scleroderma, the agency I need to bring it to my door is also under attack. Instead of knitting I directed energy to writing my congressmen.
- It is the 6th anniversary this week of my scleroderma diagnosis. Normally this date wouldn’t lay me low, but this week I couldn’t walk, breath, eat anything without a negative consequence, and… you get the idea. Sad anniversary, scleroderma.
Whew! The flaming hot hard lump in my leg is much better today and I went back onto my immunosuppressant drugs. This evening, as I type this, my dizziness has faded away and I feel almost peppy walking on legs that don’t hurt. Yay! Hopefully the antibiotics will manage on their own from now on.
Bring it, 2020! I’m ready for you again!
Knitting
I did manage to get some knitting done through the week. I am now working away on the lace outer edge of my Far Away Dreams Shawl. Look!
I’m also still working on The Sharon Show. The third clue dropped Friday but I am doggedly knitting along on Far Away Dreams since I am so close to the end and I should be able to catch up with Sharon later on in the week. I did download the pattern and discovered that this third clue had lace sections. WOOHOO!! I love lace. This MKAL shawl is going to fantastic. The knitting goals for the week are now set: finish Far Away and then Clue 3 of the Sharon Show.
Also, I dug around in the yarn stash to find some yarn to make another Sharon Show. This shawl is fun!
Garden
I can’t really go outside too much, but by wearing a mask I’m managing to make short trips out to water plants and pick up mail. I wanted to buy some more bedding plants for the fall to replace ones that expired in the heat, but the way things are going right now I decided to take down the hanging pots and put them on top of the dead planters in the front yard. What do you think?
Books: don’t make me laugh. Smoke in my eyes and all that…
Have a great week, everyone!!
Read a little, knit a little, and garden like your heart can’t live without it.
Yarn, Books & Roses 
I found that hanging baskets were not a good idea for me, as I almost always completely forgot to water them. So obviously I agree about your taking ’em down.
As for the USPS shit that’s currently going down, you guys are being shown your president (can’t bring myself to capitalize this one) in his true colours. Him AND Mr DeJoy. ‘Nuff said.
The lace knitting looks absolutely great, Marilyn !!! – my compliments.
The USPS issues are just appalling, but I think that attack on the election and related issues is still building. Last night armed people smashed windows and set things on fire in Denver. The narrative is all about the radical left and Antifa (hmm… there is a GOP convention starting tomorrow… could this be related, I ask myself) but I’m wondering who exactly were these people and why did they do this? The last outrageous event like this was actually done by radical right people trying to stir up trouble. I’m pretty sure that Putin is in the background egging on all of this nonsense.
The hanging plants were not getting enough water. I put them in tubs to make sure they got good soaks and they slowly recovered once they were out of the worst of the sun and wind. I love hanging plants, but this wasn’t the year for them.
The best part of my lace knitting is that you can’t see how many times I had to tink back. I blame it on the smoke!
I am venting my rage about your elections on Twitter ! – never in my life thought I’d join ANY social networking thingy. Makes me happy to see the degree of loathing of the ‘president’.
Yes, hanging plants have to be constantly in a gardening person’s thoughts !
Tinking ? – I’m not even good at THAT: I have to frog. Sighh ..
Oh, I excel at frogging!!
Thank goodness you have Hannah to lift your spirits on what has been such a bad week. The shawl looks lovely, of course I love the colours. Take care and I think the flower pot looks great like that.
Thank you! I think I would be struggling more if I didn’t have Hannah to entertain and keep me busy. I’m feeling so much better tonight so I’m hoping that my infected leg behaves itself as I have lots to get done. 🙂 Congrats on your stuff selling so fast in the new shop! 🙂
Thank you. I’ve been busy felting 5 lampshades today. It is exciting to final have my felting mojo back.
I am pleased you managed to write this (and comment on my post 🙂 ) I hope the coming week is better. That second photograph is beautifully arranged by Hannah, and the flower arrangement by you.
Thanks from me and Hannah.
2020 should be taken out to the yard and shot. 2021 better be watching and be ready to fly right.
The shit show that is the post office is not new. It is an organization that has been poorly run for years. The issues are long-standing. All the ways businesses fail are how the post office has been run. My husband retired from the post office last year. In his tenure he watched as the whole place (he worked in multiple offices in multiple capacities) turned into a raging dumpster fire. His happiest days were his first when he knew nothing and his last when he no longer had to go there every day.
There is no doubt that 2020 has overstayed its welcome. I wonder what your husband thinks of the sorting machines being removed? Here in Colorado we have a great universal mail in voting system established so I’m not too worried, but in other states I think it will be a huge problem. I never mail the ballot back as there are a plethora of secure drop boxes to return the ballots with a tracking system that lets me know when the ballot is received and then when it is accepted (they have to check the signature). It’s a great system!!
That sounds like a great voting system. The checks along the way really help to instill confidence.
Without unbiased information he can’t know which sorting machines have been removed. They have been removing machines from the small post offices and replacing them with high speed optical reading machines that are housed in bigger plants for years. The sorted mail is delivered to the local offices along with a small amount of unsorted mail. It is sorted by hand by your letter carrier. Mostly it stuff that the machine couldn’t handle. Then there are the mass mailers that go to every house like ads. It’s all separate until it’s brought together by your letter carrier.
I think the bigger problem we will see with a large vote by mail is most places don’t have a system in place. The local (in our state each town/city) voting equipment isn’t necessarily going to be able to read the ballots so votes will have to be counted by hand. Our town uses large pieces of a slightly stiff paper for all ballots because that is what the machine reads. If it’s not that our town clerk will have to count each vote/ballot by hand. It would take days. Not an ideal system when we already have early voting (we started voting Saturday for our Sept. 1 primary), absentee voting (request the ballot, fill it out and return it by the day before Election Day) which can be done entirely from home and socially distanced voting which is what my husband and I did in the June town election (wear a mask, stay 6 feet away from everyone, only you handle your ballot and place it in the machine and you vote with your own pen).
I am concerned about places that don’t do a good job curating their voter list. When my parents passed away I went to the town clerk to be sure they had been removed from the voter rolls. I am pleased to say she had already done it.
I think we are in for a very long election season. There will be swearing and gnashing of teeth no matter who wins:(
It will be a mess. I do understand that our Secretary of State is being contacted by other states for help with the process. The software tracking portion works really well and there are a lot of safeguards, but there is little time for all of this to be worked out.
I just heard online that the blue mail boxes have all been removed in the California border town where I grew up and that the boxes at the drive through drop had been turned so that you can’t access them from the car. That does seem to be a deliberate act of reducing access to mail services. Crazy days ahead.
Sorry you’ve had medical problems and I hope you keep improving and getting everything leveled out. I agree that’s what’s been done to the post office is terrible.
I’m so sorry you are having such a rough time! I’m glad you have Hannah with you to bring you some cheer, and hope that your regular medications kick back in to help you feel better!
I am much better after three days back on my drugs. Even better, it rained last night and that gave me a nice evening with less smoke in the air. Hannah went crazy in the cool air!
Oh, two good things – so glad to hear it! Yay for you and for Hannah!
I’m so sorry you had such a rough week! This year is getting a bit ridiculous, isn’t it? I wish it would just sort itself out.
2020 absolutely needs to be set in a corner to think about what it has done!
I’m so sorry to hear that you’ve been struggling with your health, forced to dance between immune suppressants and antibiotics. What a slog. The fires and subsequent smoke in Calif are terrible. I’m sorry to hear the smoke is traveling your way. I can’t remember I time when we went day after day with spare the air warnings. I did smile at your sweet kitty pics, and antics. Kittens are so much fun. Your gorgeous purple yarn is stunning. Sending a gentle, virtual hug your way.
It is always a challenge with me balancing the meds and they symptoms. I keep thinking of the blog post that I should write, something like “The Symphony of Pharmacological Wonders”. I think that lots of other people with multiple chronic illnesses must be doing the same balancing act as they thy to keep symptoms in check while maintaining a good quality of life and protecting different organs from damage. The worst part of it is: you can’t tell this is happening when you look at the person. I have a friend with lupus and lung cancer that is just exhausted by her juggling act which is pretty extreme.
The smoke got so bad here we were the 5th worst air in the world at some point last week. I think Denver is always at risk for poor air quality in the heat because of ozone, but when you add in smoke?!! It was one air alert day after another. I’m pretty sure that when the smoke hits your eyes it turns to some type of acid. So glad that things are a little better, but the fires are still burning. IT is going to be a hard fire season,
Hannah is the best little thing ever. She has decided that she want to be held and petted, but she doesn’t mess with the yarn or my knitting. So adorable and just perfect.
I saw that purple on Facebook from my local yarn store and called them up to send some my way. Great decision, huh!! I should have gotten two. 🙂