Renovating is a bit like holding your breath. Life as we know it is suspended during a renovation project. The flow of the house is altered, temporary compensations must be made, and when the project is done, a new normal has to be established. There is a state of flux until the last lick of paint is brushed, the last nail is hammered, the last tile is laid. Attila started the the new kitchen floor project a week ago Friday, and is still hard at it. He is slowed down by moving furniture, appliances, fitting baseboard and trim, repairing holes in the floor before tiling, and keeping the kitchen functional to a degree for the duration of the job. After the floor is laid I will need to clean it and apply three coats of commercial floor finish, and that will take an entire day of moving appliances, and waiting for each application to dry before the next is applied. We have one more weekend of disruption to navigate.
The floor finish was not in stock within a hundred miles of our house. I requested that the Home Depot near here order it, and they did. It is supposed to arrive at the store this week, which means a trip to the city will be in order. We keep a “to do” list for our visits to the city, and try to accomplish a lot when we are there. The list is a little longer right now because Tank has been out of commission until we can get it in to the garage to address some issues, hopefully minor issues.
I finished the edging on my crocheted blanket. When I held it up though, it did not drape nicely, but curled. I will be looking at this blanket for perhaps the rest of my life, and that curl would be something to annoy me every time I used the blanket, or even looked at it. So, I ripped out the entire border and will start again. I am using one hook size larger this time, and will monitor the drape as I go along. I am sure I can create a nice drape for this blanket, and I will rework it until I do.
I don’t get out of the house much these days. My only forays, in the last month or so, have been to buy food, and another trip to buy more yarn for a second blanket, as the yarn was on sale at Walmart. This is the time of year, when the season for visiting the Rideau Camp is over, that being housebound becomes an issue to be dealt with. I really have nowhere to go, and no people to see, and to compound the issue, I like spending my time in my own space, doing whatever I like. But really, if I ignore the issue it will bloom into cabin fever, which I would like to avoid.
I look for events of interest online, in our local area, but find very little to participate in that doesn’t involve shopping (bazaars, concerts etc.), or spending more money than we have for entertainment, or spending time in the midst of cliques that make us both feel like the-morning-after-a-one-night-stand. We keep trying though, you never know when you will find a pocket of people you can connect with. It happened online, so in theory it could happen in face-to-face.
Our local community, although quite superficially friendly and pleasant, making it a truly nice place to live, offers little opportunity to connect with others at a meaningful-to-us level. Attila and I are like icebergs in this social milieu, what people see is only a small bit at the lightest tip. We always receive friendly, positive feedback about our nice white little tip. Like icebergs, what lies beneath is not seen, and if suspected is considered unknown, and therefore frightening.
And here is a little day-in-the-life detail. I parted my hair on the other side this morning, while brushing it out after I got out of the shower. When I looked in the mirror I saw a bald patch in the part! Oh no! Having always been someone who loses a lot of hair on a daily basis, I thought it had finally caught up with me, and that now my hair is thinning in my old age. But wait! Further inspection, with my glasses on, revealed a brand new streak of white hair, which, when viewed from a distance, and without one’s much needed spectacles, looks like a bald spot. Well, I guess that is better than an actual bald spot. And besides, maybe in a few years the rest of the hair will be white and the illusion of balding will be mediated. I guess every day is a good day when you aren’t going bald.
I can always manufacture something to be grateful for. I am a very self-sufficient woman.
Oh yes, and when I got up this morning there was snow all over the place, and more coming down. It has almost all melted away now. Another thing to be grateful for!
Worldly Distractions
Weather
0°C
Date: 12:00 PM EST Sunday 19 November 2017
Condition: Cloudy
Pressure: 100.1 kPa
Tendency: Rising
Temperature: 0.3°C
Dew point: -3.5°C
Humidity: 76%
Wind: W 20 km/h
Visibility: 24 km
Quote
“Gratitude is the memory of the heart.”
Italian Proverb
Snow on the ground and snow on your head! What a winter wonderland!
I have that faux bald looking spot too, but it’s only the white. Now my hair is almost all white, except for underneath in the back in parts. I love all white hair! I would never want to color it over!
I have had to rip back edgings on blankets myself many times. It has to be just right to keep it… I find that if I use a chain stitch around the first row of the edging (i.e. sc, chain 3, skip 3, sc, ch3, skip 3… ets) then when you go back you can put your stitches of choice right into those chains of 3 (or however many you choose, it could be 2 or 4), and it lies much more flat that way.
Bex, lol, yes a generous sprinkling of white here at Mist Cottage. I have no plans to colour my hair when it goes whie, or gray, or whatever colour it decides to morph into.
Thanks for the edging tips. I am trying it out with a first row of slip stitch on the top and bottom, and a single crochet along the sides. The slip stitch doesn’t work well along the sides of the suzette stitch, it is so bumpy, so I am trying a single crochet for the first row along the sides of the blanket.
Who says you don’t have a sense of humor? I beg to differ! You definitely had me grinning with the title of this post!
I don’t often get out in the middle of the week, unless DH and I go to the movies on Tuesday when they have the low prices. Otherwise, going out tends to be tied to shopping on the weekends, and actually I tend to be good with that.
I hear you about the hair. My hair tends to be thick but I do have an area near my part where there now seems to be less hair. Hopefully, the area fills in thick again later.
As someone whose fine, straight hair continues to thin to the point of creative hairstyling, I can tell you that your title contains more truth than I wish it did. At least where mine has gone white, there is less scalp contrast, so no coloring for me, either.
Teri, I had to think, when was the last time I went to a movie! I think it was two years ago, maybe three years.
Some people retain a thick head of hair for their whole lives, you might just be one of them!
Wendy, this growing old thing can get challenging! It is a journey of mystery. I do find gray or white hair very pretty, I always did. For me, the real beauty of a person is in their eyes.