Germs and Cleaning.

I think it’s safe to come out… I hope.  After being off and on for nearly a month, I thought I’d whipped the problem.  Grandma passed away, and I went to the funeral.

Aaaand, promptly got sick again.

Yay…

Finally crawling out of the whole sneeze, blow nose, cough violently, repeat nonsense… For now.  I am, in fact, spraying hands, and anything that doesn’t move, with a little anti-germy spray I carry in my purse.  At the rate I’d been going, I was tempted to put an extra-large can of Lysol, but it wouldn’t fit…

AT THE MOMENT, the creeping crud seems to be away.  I am now in the “okay, healthy, now I need to get a flu shot, hopefully preventing further interruptions to my doings.”

I will be getting this maybe the end of the week, or the start of next, depending on when Husband and I get our respective derrieres in to get them, (or arms. Whatever.).  He and I like to go together, moral support, I guess.

It’s really odd, the place we get them is a store, but the room is kinda creepy, it’s a little closed off space, no windows, painted totally white, with this odd little yellow-orange floral chair.  A small desk by it, with the shots, and a wheeled stool for the pharmacist.  (I say pharmacist, as we go to a local store to get them.  I’ve no idea if the gal has any other letters after her name...) Anyway, it is a room that really could almost double for some of those interrogation rooms in spy movies.  But, it works, so I try not to think about it… Too much.

And as you’ve no doubt noticed, I haven’t blogged.  I needed to make a place for my computer.  And now, I have!  I have a nice desk now, in my now somewhat-in-progress-but-it-is-finally-usable-and-I-can-see-the-floor-again craft room.  When Grandma died, she had a desk in her room.  I remember it from when she lived in her old house.  I’d thought it was nice, but that was about it.  Well, no one in the family wanted it.  I had a desk in my craft room, but it was sort of rough, and it was… Um.  I’d had it since college, and it was starting to come apart in spots, and it was just not working well for me.  So I asked for the desk, and the family was more or less like, Oh, THANK G*D, TAKE IT!!!

Shall we say, cleaning out my Grandmother’s things was a bit of a challenge?  Finding homes for things was even more so!  Between being a hoarder, and a child of the Depression, we were finding crap scraps and bits that we really couldn’t fathom why were kept.  Anyone want every rubber band from all the things she ever had a rubber band on?  Some were quite brittle, she’d had them so long, some even broken, and tied back again.  She had tiny bits of paper with, I am assuming, pictures or notes she wanted.  But I don’t think I am exaggerating when I say that she had hundreds of them in the desk.  We were trying to make sure she hadn’t put unpaid bills, or conversely, money in, as well, so it was a long task.  But finally, it was cleaned out, and I brought it home.  Or more accurately, Husband brought it home, and we dug out a space for it in the craft room.

That’s when I took a good long look at my craft room.

Oh... Dear...

I wasn’t seeing much difference there, than I was at Grandma’s!  Yoiks!!  And so, swallowing hard, I decided that was not what I wanted to see when I came into this room.  I have pack rat tendencies, but I can dump things when I want to.

And boy, after that, did I want to!

So, after getting healthy enough to do something, I started “digging out”.  I separated into basic piles.

1.  Want to keep, will use soon, put away.
2.  Don’t want, but still usable, donate.
3.  What the @#$% is this?  Either trash, or recycle for use in some other project.
4.  Junk, no value, just dump.

I was surprised that I had a bit more of #4 than I expected, but quite a bit was #2.  (About 4 or 5 big bags worth so far.)  After one meltdown, Husband realized I was ready to get his backhoe out and start cleaning the room.  Basically bashing the wall down and scraping everything out…  He decided to get involved.

I had tried desperately to clean as I went, but because of the way I had set up the room, I was just managing to make a batch of x, put it in a pile, which would allow me to get behind and clean out stuff, which would mean I would have to separate, and this made a new pile, or three.

This lead to my having no space, and lots of little bits and pieces.  Basically, from a large geologically layered mess, to a series of small explosions. (Or, less charitably, random cow pies. Take your pick.)  After Husband strong-armed the table, and helped me move a few boxes, and finally get boxes up on my shelves, I found the floor, and the boxes, (now LABELLED, so I have a clue what I have up there), I have room to separate and put things away.  He also recommended putting cones of yarn that I use up on a shelf, rather than on a spinning rack, which did not do much but take lots of space on the floor, as well as blocking my bookshelves.

I am getting the thought that I will clean the closet, and a couple other ‘junk’ spaces this way, as well.  After I get this monster down to size.  I am still working on it, but now it’s more little stuff that I need to sort out, not this monster pile ‘o stuff.

I was a bit amazed how many projects I had started, then put in my craft room. Not in Area 51, but just on my table.  That meant I had a table full of stuff, and didn’t have use of the table.  Now I have all the Un Finished Objects in boxes, and in Area 51.  If I didn’t want to do them, or in a couple cases, wondered what it was that I was making (only 2, but gah?  What IS that thing???) I undid the project, rewound the yarn, and put it away.  I now have at least 5 to 8 more points of  R factor insulation on one side of my room.

I also made myself a limit.  I have only 2 to three projects out at a time, (one for travel, like socks, and one or two for home), so I won’t have all the big mounds of stuff squirreled away here and there.  And looking at the 3 shelves of projects, I am to start NO new projects until I finish some of those.  (Only exception is for presents, such as baby blankets for family… However, since I have so far found at least 3 unfinished ones, that shouldn’t be a huge problem, either. Sigh…)

I have a bunch of unfinished teddy bears that I have stored for some time.  A gal said she would take them on a missions trip, then backed out when I called to confirm how many she wanted.  So I ended up with a batch of bears and no takers.  I have recently checked with a friend, that knows a motorcycle charity group, and they were thrilled to take them.  Sooooo, now I will have a “get the bears finished” session, and I will have yet MORE room, plus, some little kids will have new bears for Christmas.  Yaaaay!

Thusly, I think I have mostly caught you up with my last couple weeks.  Oh, and I cleaned out the garden, as we are going to have our first frost, so says the weather folks.  Most of the garden had been cleaned out, but I had carrots and beets left.  The carrots were fine, the beets… Uh, well, it’s a very good thing I was going to use them for natural dyes, let’s just leave it at that. Ew…

Not going to promise anything, at this point, but being on the healthy list again, having a real spot to use the computer again, and having cut down a lot on volunteer ‘stuff’, so I have some “me” time, you might even see blogs again, in less than blue moon increments! (Cross fingers!)

And with the computer where I can access it easily again, maybe you will see me stalking visiting your blogs, again, too!  And maybe even commenting! Will wonders never cease...

SECOND post of the new year... eep!

So much for getting off to a good start with my blog.  Hmph.

I have been doing "stuff" for which I can blog, though.  I have been working on a "selfish" project, I am making simple garter stitch squares for a blanket, with the fancy name of "100 Square Afghan".

I have 21 random squares so far, that's why they sort of clash at the moment.  I just grab whatever scrap skein that is close and start working on it.  I also am using a rather unique set of needles...

 Yes, they are chopsticks.  Take a pencil sharpener, point the end a bit more, a little sandpaper for any rough spots, a dab of nail polish on the tips for making it a bit smoother, and a rubber band finial, ta da!  (And for any knitters out there, they are very close to a US #8.)  And very nice to knit with.  I am going to make a few more.  In fact I have some that I've made up but not used yet, that are more of an oval, I want to see how they do...

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In other news, Schrodinger is fitting in.  This is her, finding a favorite bird watching spot...

Why does she have a collar on, you ask?  Well, two reasons.  We are training her to be on lead when we take her outside.  With no front toenails, she is not armed.  And she has surprisingly taken to it pretty well.  I think it's from being raised around dogs her whole life, she doesn't know it's not a 'cat' thing...  :)  She loves going outside to visit Rudee.  She, however, hates Buzz with a passion... Odd little thing, which can make outdoor trips eventful, if nothing else.

And the second thing?  Well, we have to put a leash on her IN the house sometimes, because:

She tried to eat the blinds. I tried repairing them, she then ate the repair tape off the blinds... While eating more of the blind!  (She is more chewing and tearing them up, I haven't seen her actually dine on the blinds, but I don't want to take chances, we are keeping her away from them, and eventually getting some vertical blinds.  We suspect she just wants to see out.)  This has led to my Husband's nickname for her, Miss Chevious...  Except for when she was a bit gassy, she was then dubbed Hellstinky.  Husband is nothing, if not creative!  I even nicknamed her Dingus, when she acts up.  She seems to take this is stride, putting up with humans like us seems to not bother her too much.  I am pleased with how my Husband has been with her.  He always said he isn't much of an animal person.  

Don't you believe it...

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I won an award for volunteer of the year from the Sheriff's Office.  It was a ceremony in front of a large group of deputies and volunteers, and I had to stand up front while my doings were pronounced. I had this suave, casual, "panicked deer in headlights" look going on, I am sure.  I was pleased to be recognized, but I have trouble in front of groups.  At least I didn't have to speak! (Except thank you!!)

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And I have been working on cleaning out my craft room.  It has become a storage room for just anything, so I have been really ruthless about sorting and throwing things out, (2 large bags of paper and trash, so far).  I sorted all my spinning wool, which was a good thing, I had some that was, uh, not so good, and I had to toss it, along with some anti-moth doings for the stuff in with it...  You know you are a spinner, when you have to check if you have enough room in your freezer - because of wool!  Husband has become somewhat inured to this, I ask him to get a bag of peppers, or some such out of the freezer, he just looks at it oddly, and gets the aforementioned item.  

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I am also planning on building a trailer.  Mostly to see if I can.  Husband has said he will stay out of it, unless I specifically ask, or do not have the technical skill to do something.   Or if I have something built wrong to the point of being dangerous.  I figure that works.  Right now I am in the 'cost and weight analysis' part.  I want to make a vardo/gypsy style wagon that will be small enough for me to use with my tiny truck or jeep.  It will be more for summer stuff that I go to, but who knows, if I get a wild hair to go be alone with my thoughts, it could do that, too.  I will probably have it more "modern" than a lot of vardos, it will have fan vents, and solar chargers (the plan anyway), and will be able to be extra "dry" storage for things in the winter, if I do it right...  We shall see what happens.  So far, it's been doable, but I haven't been out to see what is available in real life, it might just frighten me to death!  

And, I am looking at the veggie p*rn for this year's garden, getting things set up for some chicks later in the season, going to meetings for the Neighborhood Watch, among other things, and generally just staying busy!  

With any luck, I will have at least a couple more blogs this month, one a month is much less than I want to do!  Oh, and messymimi, thank you for the lovely card!