The Grumps

I'm grumpy. About many things. (And I'm not even talking about the state of the country/planet.) Shall we talk about what and why?

There are multiple possible causes/contributing factors

1. the elevator/stairs (yes, it's been broken for 10 weeks now; no, no update on the repair timeline since May, when they said it should be done before the end of July)
2. hormones
3. allergies
4. aging
5. unknown/combination
   
   

Q. Rage, over totally minor things like the computer being slow, or catching my pocket on a door handle as I walk by it. (Related is the way, way lower tolerance for physical irritants like a hair tickling my face, or the way the itchy spot on my back is flaring up madly.)

A. Hormones. Before I went on hormone therapy, one of the symptoms I noticed was mood swings, and specifically irrational rage. Well, due to supply chain problems with the patches, I went on the gel formulation for a few months, and guess what's back! Grrr. I was able to get the patches again, so starting this week I'm back on that, and hoping it's going to help. Soon. Really soon. Please.

Q. Achy joints (hips, shoulders, neck, lower back [which is not exactly a joint, but it's definitely achy]).

A. Most likely hormones, but possibly also impacted by stairs. I feel like it's been worse the last few weeks, though, which indicates hormones are more likely the cause. My knees absolutely hate the stairs, but they aren't really aching on level ground the way the rest is.

Q. Itchy/watery eyes, runny nose, clearing throat a lot, itchy scalp.

A. Allergies! On July 3, something here either started blooming or hit its peak, because my eyes went crazy, and the rest has been bothering me more and more.

Q. Frequent urination.

A. ???? I swear, tomorrow I'm going to count how often I go, because it feels like 100 times a day.

There are probably more things, but those are the main ones that are making me grumpy AF today. Is anything making you grumpy? Feel free to vent, no need to downplay anything here today. All grumps are valid.

Box Love Continues

Oh, y'all. This cat loves this box with such a passion that I feel guilty for not having given it to him sooner.

To answer some questions:

• I think I got it at Walmart; I'm going to look next time I'm in one and see if they still carry it.
• It came with three scratcher pads in it, so it could start off as more of a scratcher experience and less of a box, if you see what I mean, or you could take out the extra ones to start off with the box-ness.
• I do turn over and eventually replace scratcher pads when they shed enough cardboard bits that they bug me. :)
• I don't have a rotation for cat toys/scratchers/boxes etc., but Newman seems to have his own. He goes through phases where he is all over a thing and then has zero interest in it for weeks. He is a character.

And so cute! And so happy in his box.

Someone on facebook called the paw sticking out his rudder, and it makes sense to me. How else would you steer?

Box Day

No, not Boxing Day: box day. As in, Newman has a new box. 

He has these scratchers, which he sometimes naps on.

But today I pulled out a similar one I had forgotten about, and he's a fan.

He likes it!

What's Up, in a Few Photos

My mother's car had to go in to the shop today (which unfortunately means doing the stairs twice in a day, ugh). It also happened to coincide with the annual tree trimming, and I'm guessing the crew figured no one was in the building, because they had to move both the truck and some large branches so that I could get out.

Yes, we are in tree-trimming season around here, starting last week. Each property in our area takes between one and two days, and given that I'm talking about our property, the one to the right, the one to the left, the two behind us, and the two nearest across the street, it tends to be a couple of weeks of chain saws and wood chippers. Oh joy. Where's the headache medicine?

In (happier) knitting news, I mentioned a while back that I was starting another Valente shawl, but I'm not sure when I last provided proof. I'm more than half done, and last night I decided to lay out the new one with the first one on top of it, for a size comparison (because the second one is slightly thicker yarn, sport instead of fingering)(for both versions, I cast on more stitches than the pattern called for, 107 instead of 92, to make it slightly larger).

I wanted it to be a bit bigger, and it is! I'm happy with it.

Finally, I don't think I'm allowed to post photos without including the prince, who recently has taken to sleeping under the chairs on the lanai. Because the only thing more comfortable than tile is resting your head on metal.

Cats are such weirdos.

The Group Chat, or, Regarding the Elevator Saga

I've been reading a lot of things recently with group chats as part of the story ... okay, fine, it's fan fiction, it's Heated Rivalry fan fiction ... and it's influenced my thinking enough that when I was thinking of which body parts were being bothered by the elevator/stairs situation today, my brain phrased it as "my hips have entered the chat."

It's been my knees complaining the most, ever since the elevator broke seven weeks ago, and the literal hundreds of stairs I have done do not seem to have strengthened the muscles at all. In fact, my right knee has started creaking and clicking ominously, and yesterday when I was getting out of the car, I moved it in a way that had it twanging like a rubber band, very painful. But last night, my hips were complaining too, and that has continued today, even though I haven't done the stairs yet. Sigh.

Another month of this, eh?

West for the Weekend ("Boston" trip, part 3/?)

(Part 2 here.)

I knew from the time I started planning this trip that I wanted to visit one of my friends (Friend 4) at her house in western Mass, because on my last few trips, she had come east to see me instead, and I wanted to see her house! In a very propitious turn of events, though, it turned out that the weekend I was coming was also the Mass Sheep and Wool Festival. Knitters ho! This is our idea of a good time.

So, on Saturday morning, I got myself up and on the road in short order, and listened to my audiobook as I drove. Most of the way was the route I used to take going to college, out Route 2, since I went to UMass Amherst, back in the day. The weather was decent, the views very green, and the drive boring in the best possible way. 

Upon arrival, I got to see her (very cute) house briefly, and say hi to her husband as he was setting off to visit some family, before we took off again. (These are the friends who visited me in February, and we had so much fun.) The drive seemed short as we were catching up, and before long, here we were.

I'd never been to this festival, which is like a much smaller version of Rhinebeck. Which was kind of nice, as it was good and enjoyable and not overwhelming. For some reason, this year was announced as the last, which is sad: it was so good! But I'm sure they had their reasons.

This was at one vendor's booth, and wow.

There were sheep! The first row of buildings had vendors, and then there was the bard with all the sheep.

Beyond that was food, and of course once I saw them taking potatoes and making them into fries, I had to get some, yum.

More booths and more sheep.

More sheep!

Such cute sheep sweaters!

On our way out, there were more sheep, "mowing."

We stopped at a place on the drive back and were amused by these outside it.

...then got closer....

Cowch! Oh, what an awesomely bad pun.

I photographed my haul when we got back to the house.

I especially love the leather project bag. It folds up so nicely, then opens wide...

...and holds a lot!

We got lucky with the rain not starting while we were out; it did start when we were out to dinner, but we only got damp, not drenched. Had a good meal and then relaxed on couches for the rest of the evening.

And that concludes Saturday! More to come, there's a whole week left.