A Curious Statistical Anomaly

You know what I hate most about migraines?  No one can tell you’re having one.  Well there’s the lack of concentration, the misuse of words (Hyperion’s going to proof this for me), the fact that I can’t seem to keep one thought in my head for more than half-a-minute before it falls out the ear on the other side of my head.  But physically, I look okay.  I can sit here and listen to someone talk to me and when they end their monologue — truthfully, I have no idea what they just said.

We were watching Stargate: Atlantis and when Beckett died (It’s season three so I assume all the world has seen it except for me), I just burst into tears because I liked him.  He was so kind.  Okay, when I have a migraine I cry at commercials also… but the emotional upheaval is pretty rocky.

But since I can’t think straight and I can’t be trusted with sharp objects — I can at least spin.  So, I’m working on my Tour de Fleece challenge of trying to spin that pound of green roving.  I already blew the spinning every day thing because I’ve missed three days now (at Readercon).  I’m not going to get the full pound of roving spun up either but it feels nice to have the wheel out and ready so now that I’m sort of trying to be active and stay out of mischief, I can spin.

By the way, I haven’t read the book on Migraine in Women — I just really, really, liked the cover.   Tonight, there is supposed to be a thunderstorm and rain.  Maybe not, but the migraine is here, so maybe yes.  I hope not, we’ve still got to get that tree cut up and stacked to dry for this winter.  The garden needs to be weeded.  But, I was going to spin some more and I better do that now.

My first skein of yarn so far. As I said in an earlier post, it’s about 329 yards. Haven’t done the w.p.i. yet. But, it looks to me like sock yarn-ish. I ended up doing 3-ply.

Here’s a photo of the spool before plying.

After plying (which I forgot to take a photo of….sigh), I put it up on the niddy-noddy as I took it off the spool.

I started another spool of singles tonight. So far, I’m spinning some every day. I took a look at the one pound ball of top and I’ve hardly made a dent. I really don’t think I’m going to finish it off by the 27th. But as long as I get in the habit of spinning again, it will be a success for me.

I’ve also got to decide if I’ll do the next batch as 3-ply again or do a 2-ply. Decisions, decisions. I’m leaning towards 2-ply right now but I may change my mind and do one more 3-ply for the warm winter socks and then do the rest of the wool in 2-ply for a lace something-or-other later. Hmmmm… what do you think?

Just a few odds and ends (some political ranting so you may want to skip.  If you’re a Republican, you’re not going to be happy.  Come back tomorrow instead.  If you want to object to what I’ve said … don’t.  These are my opinions and it’s my blog.):

• Finished my spool of thread. Plied it as 3-ply using Navaho plying. Turns out to be close to sock or light weight. I’ll figure the wraps per inch later. I ended up with about 329 yards. Just need to get it off the niddy-noddy and wash and skein it. Then start on the next spool.
• I can’t believe that our congress critters actually voted to give the telecoms immunity for performing illegal taps on American citizens at the behest of the Shrub without a warrant. Obama voted for the bill. I’ll still vote for him for Pres because I certainly won’t vote for a Republican. I’m trying to maintain the illusion that somehow someone will stand up for the America that we used to have. You know, the one with the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. Of course our current White House sitter seems to think they are quaint little documents that don’t apply to him or his administration BUT they used to mean something to the people of this country and to the people of the world. Now, we have no honor or standing since we’ve violated most of the treaties we’ve signed, tortured people, hired others to torture people, and spied upon our own citizens just because…well because the W.H. sitter wanted to.
• At least one person in Congress wants to do the right thing. He’s trying to get Congress to impeach the Shrub. Congress can impeach a Pres for having a sex with a consenting adult but we can’t manage to impeach a person who lies to Congress, lies to the American people, violates the Constitution of this Country, ignores the rights and freedoms of the citizenry, and the laws of the land, and gets thousands of American killed in a war that he lied to start. Just where is our honor and integrity — does American even have any left anymore?
• And what do people care about? Not the fact that we’re losing our rights and freedoms and our country is being dismantled around us? No, they paying more attention to the sound bites about religion, patriotism, and safety. I think it was said best that “those who desire to give up freedom in order to gain security will not have, nor do they deserve, either one”.
• Okay, I’m grumpy. I want to live in the country that I grew up in again. I want my Congress critters to do the right things because it is the right thing to do … not because it will get them more pac money or elected next time. If you do the right thing for the right reason and because it is just and needed and for the betterment of all Americans — it will eventually be found that you are a patriot. Wrapping oneself in the flag, as far as I can see is a sure sign that one is NOT a patriot (just look at the current administration — I don’t think based on their statements to the press that they have even read our Constitution or our Bill of Rights).
• As a side note, security theater doesn’t make you safer. It just means that it takes longer to go anywhere or do anything. Entertaining as it may be to watch everyone line up and take off their shoes, it doesn’t make any flight any safer than it was before they made us take off our shoes.
• Did you know that deer will eat onions? I didn’t but one actually came into our garden and dug up our onions and ate them. So, beware there is a deer with really bad breath out there in Maryland somewhere.
• Why do gas prices always go up when there is a holiday when nothing else has changed? Why does gas go up when oil per barrel prices go up but they never go down when they drop?
• Why is the price of American oil the same as for foreign oil.  The pundits keep saying the price of oil is up because of Iran’s threats, or fighting in Nigeria, or whatever.  Is oil in Alaska threatened by Iran or Nigeria?  Why isn’t American pumped oil cheaper?  Oh yeah, because the oil companies have the God given right to make as much money as possible, regardless of how much it hurts America.  Why the hell doesn’t the government claim National Security when our National Security is actually really threatened?  Oh yeah, because the Shrub’s family all make their money off oil.  Silly me.
• Just where is the government funding for actual alternative energy? Why don’t people get rebates that actually would help them add solar panels to their roofs or windmills to their yards? Why do hybrids cost so much more than a gas guzzler?
• Did you know that if everyone took just one bag to the grocery store rather than using a plastic bag it would help save our environment, landfills, and oil? Just one bag not used every week for every person who goes shopping. Amazing how one person CAN make a difference.
• Can you believe that some people believe that Intelligent Design is actually a scientific theory? It’s a religious doctrine folks, not science. It should be taught, if taught at all, in a philosophy class, not in a science classroom. Science is the study of facts, testing what actually happened against what you thought would happen and adjusting. Adjusting facts to fit a belief is not science, it’s wishful thinking. Belief doesn’t have to make sense but science does or things fall apart.  Evolution is a FACT.  It’s observable and measurable.  It’s called a theory because scientists still haven’t worked out enough of the details to warrant changing the name.  “Theory” is a scientific term, with a scientific definition.  Twisting it to match a non-scientific usage doesn’t  change reality.  Evolution is a fact whether you want to call it a Law, Theory, Hypothosis, or Marmoset.
• Life is difficult. Things don’t always work out the way we want them too. It’s not always fair but it is the way it is. They only thing we can do is the best we can each day, living our lives as if this is all we got.  We should be the best person we can because we care about our family, our neighbors, and our fellow human beings and the planet we live on. If there is more (and there may or may not be depending on your beliefs) then living the best life you can, can not hurt your chances for a better afterlife either.

End of rants and odd thoughts. I’ve just had a bad day — I really, really should not listen to news anymore — it only depresses me and makes me think less of my fellow humans. When did the bottom line become the ultimate goal in life. I always thought it was to be the kind of person that other people wouldn’t mind spending time with or knowing.  But then again that’s just me.

Today, I washed the kitchen floor and the bathroom floor.  Yeah, me.  I also cleared off nearly one third of the dining room table.  Got rid of a lot of minor email  tasks that had been building up in my inbox.  Made a loaf of bread (Italian but it didn’t rise quite right so that’s going to need a few more tries before it becomes a keeper recipe or I give up).   I also wrote out the steps (pseudo-code) to programming a display page for a website I’m working on — now I just have to program it (pseudo-code is the way to go on shiny days.)

Then I managed to watch some movies and spin and spin and spin.  We bought one of those family pack DVD movies — you know the really cheap kind in the sale bin.  I watched  Africa Screams, an Abbott and Costello movie, Captain Kidd (Charles Laughton, Randolph Scott, Barbara Britton, and John Carradine), and started Christmas without Snow (Michael Learned, John Houseman, Ramon Bieri, and James Cromwell) — maybe I’ll finish that one tomorrow.

Remember, the spinning is of lace weight.  I’m over spinning it and now believe that I’ll Navajo ply it for 3-ply when I get the first spool filled.  Hopefully that will be at the end of this weekend.  It looks like I might make the goal of spinning every day during the Tour de Fleece but I really doubt that I’ll get the full pound of green spun by the 27th.  But hope springing eternal and all that jazz — I’ll just keep going on it.

There is a slight snag in that I’m going to Readercon in Massachusetts from July 17th to the  20th.  The car is going to be too full to bring the wheel so it will be a drop spindle for those days — I’m wondering if I can keep the thread consistent from spinning wheel to spindle.  I might just decide to keep going on the sock yarn I’ve got started on a spindle now so I do the “every day” even though it doesn’t help with the pound of green fiber.

So, tomorrow is another day and I’m beat from all the stuff I did today.  I know it doesn’t look like much in a list but it took just about all my spoons today.  I’m just hoping I don’t pay for it tomorrow.

Twas a busy day.  Well it would have been if I’d managed to stop shiny-thinging all over the place.  Got a lot done, but not all of anything; if you know what I mean.  I’d get started on something and the next thing I’d know I’d be off and onto another something and then off that and so on and so on.  But I can see the top of the dining room table in places.  Some of the floor is now open for cleaning.  The kitchen cupboard are all set for me to scrub them tomorrow.  So, guess I’ll look on today as a set up for housework…I hate housework…just when are those robots going to be ready for this.  Our little roomba is having problems and so I’m stuck with the floors.

On a high note, I managed to spin for about forty-five minutes tonight.  The wooden spool is just about all covered with the thread now.  Remember it’s lace weight spun and I’m planning to do either 2-ply or 3-ply when I’m done with the singles.

I’ve now spun enough that I have to oil/grease the wheel.  So, it was another trip to the basement to find some books on spinning wheel maintenance.  I can’t believe how rusty I’ve gotten.  Of course my main wheel is a Majacraft Rose (no oiling necessary) so using the Schacht is a bit of a re-learning curve.  I found several books that would be useful that I put aside half-read or less.  That’s sort of embarrassing to admit but often with reference books, I look up what I need when I need it and put it aside so I can find it again for the next problem.

This book looked like the one that would give me the info I needed in the quickest manner so I can get on with the Tour de Fleece — the equivalent of changing out my flat or adjusting the gears and getting back in the race.  However, remember the shiny-thing problem.  I spent quite a while going through looking at the pictures and reading headers in several of the books.  I think I’m going to have to slide these books into my reading piles and then review them.  Mostly because it will give some massive background material to build on or make educated guesses from when I run into problems.  So, don’t be surprised if you see a review or two on spinning reference books in this blog at some future time.

Rose: The photo is of Paul’s chocolate rose. We’ve come to really like roses and this was one Paul wanted mostly for the name — it doesn’t have much scent. But the first year we had it, it didn’t really do much. The second year, we dug it up and put it in a fancy garden planter and moved it to the garden area near the herb garden. It now gets the required 6 hours of sun per day and is much happier. Last year it had two blooms. So far, this years we’ve had about six roses on it. This picture shows two of them.

Car: Not much going on. Getting right back into the swing of work. Paul had to take some time today to go check out tires — we’ve had three flats in two months. I think we’re now back on track.

Poison Ivy: The consensus seems to be that pictures B & C are poison ivy. Picture A seems right out of the fray. So, I’ll be particularly careful when around the vines in B & C from now on. Poison ivy is getting better now that we’re on steroids (Prednisone). Hopefully, it will be all gone by the end of the pills — but right now half way through it doesn’t look like it.

Garden matters: It’s been rainy so haven’t been out to do much in the yard. We got the buckets to plant the rest of the tomatoes in. The lettuce is starting to come up. Our blueberry bushes on the deck have given enough berries for blueberry muffins and blueberry pancakes and some for just nibbling. Those are pretty much over. The strawberries are still blooming and making fruit but we can’t seem to beat the critters to it. Guess were not fast enough.

Tour de Fleece: So, far I’ve managed to spin for at least an hour each evening. That’s better than I expected but then that includes the time I’ve spend fussing with the spool and the tension. I’ve now got it so that I feed the thread in and it doesn’t get yanked out of my hand. So, I’m at bit more at peace. I’ll post another photo of progress on Friday.

Reading: Been reading books for review in the August issue of SFRevu and Gumshoe Review. So far, I’ve read Exodus by Julie Bertagna, Written in Blood by Sheila Lowe, and Dead over Heels by Charlaine Harris. I’m about half-way through Underground by Kat Richardson. It’s certainly a good month so far in my reading pile. Except for Exodus by Julie Bertagna, they’re all series that I’ve been following, so it’s a really nice break after getting the issues up on line on the 1st, the holiday buzz, and the car problems, and the migraines.

So, that’s a quick update. I’m hoping to follow through on the spinning and get the rest of the gardening in this week. Along with the contract job and the usual stuff. Life is pretty good today in spite of the headache.

It’s me, the cat.  Just thought I’d add my own 8.5 cents in (due to inflation you know).  Getting the car taken care of was pretty easy this time.  The first time was about a month ago.  I came out on my way to work, got in the car, drove the quarter of a mile down the dirt road, and as soon as I turned out onto the pavement, I could feel something was wrong.  So I pulled into a neighbors driveway (also a quarter mile long, so it’s not like they’re ever going to know I was there) and took a look.  The right rear tire was totally flat.  I guess I couldn’t feel it when bumping along dirt and stones at low speeds.  Anyway, it’s annoying, but it’s been a few years since I had a flat, so I figure it’s about time.  I pull the spare off, replace the tire, and find that the spare is only about half full.  Remember it had been a couple of years?  Well apparently, you need to check your spare tire’s pressure when you check the others.  Doh!  So I get some air at the first gas station (costs $1.50 for freaking air!  What is the world coming too?).  I go to work, head over to the tire place and sit in their waiting room for 3 hours while the car slowly moves through their queue of work.  Again, annoying, but these things happen.   Finally get the car back with the tire patched (and at no cost too!) and I figure that’s that.  The next day, the same tire is flat again.  Back on goes the spare and I sit for three more hours after work.  This time they tell me they can’t fix it and I need a new one.  $80 for a tire.  Holy Moly!  Well, again, it’s been a couple of years since I had to buy one, and apparently the cost of rubber has gone up too.  Anyway, now I’m done.  Brand new tire, and all should be right with the world.

Nope!

Last Thursday, I’m on my way to the doctors (where they’re squeezing me in before the holidays) to get my own poison ivy checked out.  I’m in bumper to bumper traffic when a woman in the next car starts waving at me.  I roll down the window (why do we keep using that phrase?  There’s no handled to roll!  Anyway …) and the lady informs me that my front-right tire is flat.  Grrrrr!  So, after finding a flat space to pull over into and putting the spare back to to play, I’m now twenty minutes late getting the the appointment that they were doing me the favor of squeezing in the first place.  Lucky me, they take me anyway and my poison ivy is on the mend.  Afterward … it’s back to the tire place (visit #3) where it takes 4 hours to get the tire patched.  Grumble grumble, but yeah, that’s got to be the end, right!

Nope!

The very next day, we head off to the 4th of July barbecue.  We have a very nice time, head back to the car, and find the front-left tire is flat.  This is the third different tire now.  Back goes the spare again and we have to hope for the best until today, since it’s a holiday weekend and all that.  So this morning, I e-mail into work that I’m going to be out since I have to sit and wait for the car.  I drive up to the car place, hand over the keys, and get them handed back 15 minutes later.  What?  How can that be?  Looks like my luck finally changed and I was first in line in the queue.  Turns out to have been a rotted valve stem, so the repair was free of charge and I’m out and about, wild and free.  So, being the wild and crazy guy that I am … I go to work.

Where I find out my corporate manager has been replaced (I can’t pronounce the name of the new guy, and he doesn’t speak English very well either).  And my government boss has also changed (can’t pronounce his name either). As you might expect, it went rapidly down hill from there, but as I’d prefer to keep my job, I think the fewer details there, the better.  Besides, I’ve bored you long enough.  But I bet it makes you look forward to Gayle taking back over again.

Well, the Tour de Fleece starts today. I signed up because you set your own goal to achieve between the start and end of the Tour de France (site is in French). So, you have from July 5th to 27th. Sometimes I need a challenge and/or a goal to get me going on things that I want or need to do. So, I contacted Katherine at the website and signed up. Notice the Tour de Fleece logo on the right — that means I’ve declared my goal and I’m going for it.

Goal: Spin a bit every day with the object being to spin up the one pound ball of variegated green roving that I purchased at Maryland Sheep& Wool a few years back. A secondary goal is to get used to my Schacht wheel again. The goal is to spin the entire one pound ball up into two-ply yarn by the end of the Tour de Fleece.

Now, to the actual start of my Tour de Fleece. I was off in a cloud of dust. I found the green ball of fiber in the basement basket. Got it out of storage and brought it up stairs. I then had to get the Schacht out. I found that the drive band had come off. I needed to change out the bobbin anyway so I thought that was no problem. Swapped the old bobbin (partially full of angora singles) and put in an empty one, reconnected the drive band and voila — ready to go.

Except, it wouldn’t draw the yarn into the orifice and up to the spool. Okay, I obviously forgot how to do something. Down to the basement to find a book on spinning wheels, found it, but no joy in the how-to department. I want a manual that has the answers to MY questions, which tend to be much more basic than even beginner books. But, aha, I remember I have a Schacht brochure with pictures of wheels ready to spin — found it, but no image showed the drive band or area behind the spool. Now, I’m starting to panic. I know this wheel works — nothing has changed since I last spun on it except the drive band was loosened. So, when in doubt, google. I found the Schact site and their manuals for wheels. Didn’t find the one for my wheel but did find one that had a photo where you could see the drive band and the drive band at the top of the wheel looked like it had one thread around the spool and another around the whorl. Quick change and the thread was being drawn into the orifice and onto the spool.

Okay, finally, now I’m ready to spin. I pulled off about 12 inches and then pulled off a strip, pre-drafted, and started. It took a while to find a rhythm but finally I was actually spinning and it was … well, as you can see my singles are really, really small. I let it double back on itself and I’ve got lace weight in the making here. Might be able to use it for socks if I three or four ply. The intended goal was two ply. But now I’m dreaming of a floaty shawl. Guess I’ll dream along with the singles and decide on ply later.

I’m fine with changing the ply goal because the real goal is to spin a bit every day. As you can see I didn’t get very far and that’s after an hour and a half which includes the panic of searching for the manuals and fixing the drive band, lots of broken thread as I played with tension and it’s still not at a point that makes me happy but I’m getting there.

You know what? In spite of everything, I feel like I really accomplished something tonight. I’m happy with what I did and I’m feeling like I’m beginning to get the hang of this again. I’ll, of course, post off and on during the Tour de Fleece time period and go and check out the Tour de Fleece blog to see how others are doing.

Today was hot — 98 degrees (107 with heat index). Tomorrow is supposed to be hotter. But this evening it was another thunder, lightning, and rain storm. I’m hoping if dries off so we can get some yard work done tomorrow. We were supposed to run errands today but it took 6 hours at the tire place to get a replacement tire and wheel alignment. That blew a day. Paul went alone and I got to stay home and catch up on some of the work I didn’t get done during week because of headaches and missing spoons. Guess what, you can almost see the dining room table again.

But I finished my one of my socks while reading. Did you know if you sit cross-legged and hold the pages open with your big toes, you can read while knitting? Well, you can. So tonight I kitchener stitched the toe and wove in the ends of the sock. I already started the second sock. I really mean to learn to do two socks at once this year but didn’t this time.

The yarn is thicker for warm winter socks. The pattern is my plain vanilla one that’s just from trial and error from making socks using a pattern. I cast on 72 stitches and k2p2 around. Then every 5-6 rows or so I did a cross with the knit stitches. I think if I do this again I’ll stagger the cross and do half off set by 5 rows and see what that looks like. Then a standard heel. I reduced the stitches by a bit when I got to the instep by purling 2 together every other group of purl stitches. Then as I approached the toe area, I did the same again when I hadn’t purled 2 together. Then about an inch from the end I just switched to all knit stitches. All the decreases were at the sides so the toe tappers (rather than every so many stitches for a round toe).

Last night we drove to Virginia for the 1st Friday meeting of WSFA (Washington area Science Fiction Association). Just as we left the driveway and started down the main road, there’s this big field. That’s where we saw these guys…

You can see the ones closest to us. We stopped the car on the edge of the road. I recently got a new camera that’s small enough to carry in my bag and it has a 12x telephoto lens. In the back you can see two other deer that are smaller and in the tall grasses. I love coming up on things like these and we used to always miss them because we didn’t have the camera with us because it was just too big or too awkward to carry. We’d have gotten a better picture, but the battery died in the camera, and in the few seconds it took Paul to fish out the replacement battery he always carries, the deer moved away.

Later on the way home, we saw a fox, two cats, and, I think, a groundhog. We also saw several deer but it was nearly midnight so we didn’t even try for photos we just wanted to get home and sleep.

Getting out to see friends is always nice but getting back home, safe and sound, is even nicer. Hope all of you have a good weekend too.