Thursday, July 21, 2011

Well, my last post might have given you the impression I am depressed. I am; the continuing postponement of my surgery makes me feel like it's never going to happen. The nurses telling me the wound looks clean and slowly getting better is old news. I want it healed completely. Now my ever sensitive skin is developing a sensitivity to the adhesive on the wound dressing which results on a nasty rash which also needs to heal. Depression means I hurt more and I either can't sleep or can't pry myself out of bed. Most of my "friends" have forgotten about me save for the ever faithful D who sometimes drops by to bring in the mail and hang laundry. I would be utterly lost without her. Meanwhile I am subject to the tender ministrations of The Imp, who wishes to thoroughly clean my face and neck and chew on my hair if available. I'm trying to discourage this as the cute factor wore off long ago. She sleeps in my armpit if the photo makes it into the post.

When I get up to watch TV in the living room, I'm either spinning forest green merino/silk blend or knitting one of 2 projects: socks (green Opal) or my resurrected pink silk shell. I've finally made it to the armholes on the latter and it would be nice to finish for warm weather. The silk has a lovely drape and I hope it will look as nice as the photo with the pattern. I'm also enthused about another shell pattern for Berroco Seduce, which I bought 2 hanks of on my last blow out US trip. So I ordered a few more to make a summer top out of the gorgeous blend of silk, linen, rayon etc. In a brown/gold and turquoise colourway. While pawing through the boxes of the stash I found such lovely stuff to knit with. I must apply myself.

Friday, July 15, 2011

Trying out posting via iPhone because I'm lazy. I have been very busy getting household chores done (aside from playing Zombie Farm on said iphone). I got the windscreen crack repaired, getting various household tasks fixed (my cutlery drawer has been sitting on the counter because its rails were broken).

I saw my surgeon yesterday and as expected the date for the knee replacement has been put off another month till September 12. I'm not surprised because I know he won't operate with the slightest wound. I am so tired of waiting for the bloody thing to heal and there is nothing I can do about it. It's tiny but still there. Every one says it looks healthy but it just doesn't close.

So I knit, spin, read, watch TV, go out occasionally when I get stir crazy. I don't even wear the brace any more. I'm going to do some solid evidence in the genealogy search by sending off requests to New Haven for my father's birth certificate and my grandfather's death certificate. I've had contact via Ancestry with a Page family descendant, which is kind of cool.

Wednesday, July 06, 2011

No news is good news? Nothing much to report except the wound has not healed so I am still in lying around mode. My surgery has been postponed till Aug. 10 and I am praying for quicker healing. The plastic surgery folks have put me on a silver based cream that supposedly promotes healing and I hope it works and fast.

I've been reading Peter Hamilton's Void series on the Kindle and have started the final volume. I like it but it does seem overly complicated. Too many threads to keep untangled. Sometimes I think authors, especially those sci-fi writers who produce doorstop volumes, forget that readers so not sit down and read their books all in one sitting and might get confused by dozens of characters who disappear for long stretches. My BBBB is Mayflower by Nathaniel Philbrick. Very different story to the one taught when I was in school. Most of my ancestors came to the new world in the Great Migration of Puritans in the 1630's but I have one who came on the Fortune which arrived a year after the Mayflower. It is very ironic that the people who left England because of religious intolerance instituted the same religious intolerance as the rule in their Massachusetts colonies.

I am in the clutches of Masterchef again which is very frustrating because cooking is out of the question at the moment. I am more of a Nigella Lawson cook than a French Laundry type cook, but I'd love to be making soup and bread this winter. But I can't carry anything very easily with the walking frame. Carrying a glass of liquid into the living room is perilous, so standing at the stove is impossible. I can read cookbooks and dream.

A few random thoughts: I am appalled and shocked by the earthquake in Japan but the ones in Christchurch, NZ, touched me more in some ways. I've visited Christchurch and the video of the destruction of the centre of the city were unbelievable. This week I'm full of affection for my Aussie home and don't want to leave but the opinion changes and will continue to change over the next few years. I am loathe to leave my garden. I suffered from a case of dermatitis from a new hand cream a couple of weeks ago; that is, my hands got a painful rash with blisters and I now, weeks later, still have skin peeling off my hands. I have very sensitive skin and any unfamiliar cream or lotion can potentially make me break out in a rash. Knitting or spinning is hard with shredded skin all over my hands. I have also been sharing my house (in addition to the Imp) with ceiling animals. I'm pretty sure I had possums at first but they were gotten rid of. Now it's rats, who are persistent. I have had weeks of listening to rustling in the ceiling despite exterminators' efforts to poison them. They are attracted to my nice warm heating ducts.