A Curious Statistical Anomaly

I’ve been rushing to finish up the second sock that I’ve been knitting. Well, actually I want to finish up a number of projects that have just a bit left to go  because I want to start several new ones. So, I thought I’ll finish this sock then the sweater, then the next three things and then start the new stuff.

But on the very last row of the after-thought heel as I was turning it inside out to do the 3-needle bindoff — I dropped a stitch. It’s a stripped sock on number 2 needles and the stripe at the end was black… I’m sure you know where I’m going. At the moment, I’m unknitting down to where the stitch ran but it keeps running so I think I’m going to end up at the start of the heel again.

My grandmother had a saying for times like these — “the faster I go the behinder I get.” That’s how I feel right now. This whole day has been like that. Maybe knitting is sort of a metaphor for life. You run along great and then unlike real life you get an opportunity for do-overs. Well, I suppose you get opportunities for do-overs in real life too but they’re much more painful than with knitting. I can unravel knitting and just start over but with life there’s all the other connections with events and people and those can’t be just unraveled as if they never were to start from scratch again.

Yarn might be a bit kinked from being unraveled but basically it’s very forgiving — people, well, not so much. So, I guess I’m lucky that it’s only the stocking’s heel that’s giving me problems. So, I guess I’ve now talked myself into a better state of mind about the bungled heel and the dropped stitch. This is just another of knitting’s do-overs.

The past three weeks have been one big blur. I find that stress for me almost immediately translates into a need for comfort food and sleep. While my insomnia is still a problem, about every three days or so I sleep nearly the clock round. On the other hand, work doesn’t go away just because you’re worried about something. The zines still need to be kept on track. Books entered into the databases. Books sent to the reviewers. Reviews proofed. Reviews sent back to reviewers for revisions. Books read. Reviews and other materials written. Then there’s the added problem that some slimball spammer has forged the identity of one of our domains and is blanketing the world with spam seemingly from us. We’ve checked with the tech support gurus and found we’re not sending the spam out, our servers have not been hacked, our email addresses haven’t been compromised, because so far the complaints from receivers of this spam have not even been in our email database. The worst thing is that we can’t do anything about it except suffer the consequences. Until the spammer moves on to trash another victim’s reputation, we can only suffer and cringe and do our best to continue to protect our databases and accounts. Adding to the frustration is knowing that we did protect our readers and subscribers and our software but that doesn’t stop anyone from pretending to be you… So, if you’ve gotten any of this spammer’s spam, we’re sorry and we truly do feel your pain because it’s nothing to the pain we feel. I just don’t understand the mindset of people who would do this. If they believe they must forge headers to get in under the spam filters, then they have to know they are doing wrong. They must all have faulty morality circuits in their heads and/or hearts. Anyway, in my muddle headed-way I’m trying to cope with getting the next issues of Gumshoe Review, SFRevu, and TechRevu ready to go. Did I mention we’re in the midst of moving to a new host? We are, in fact, one of the zines was locked today, and no work can be done online until the DNS transfer is complete. Hopefully, this will allow me to catch up on the reading part of my job which has fallen a bit behind this month as I occasionally realize that quite a bit of time has past and I haven’t turned the page yet. I think stress also steals time — I’m thinking of putting together a study on that and seeing if I can get funding. However, I’ve been informed that an N of 1 is not sufficient for a good study. Don’t see why not since I notice there’s a lot of funded studies out there with Ns as low as 6 (particulary in medical studies). I think that’s why getting access to the actual research reports is so difficult in many cases (but that’s a long post for another day when I have more concrete time in my days).

Anyway, I’m curious about how others deal with stress — other than to run screaming in the other direction if there is a directional component to stress.

Today was a work day — of sorts. I entered books into the database and tried to catch up on email. Drooled over the new Kindle DX and its special features — sigh. Then it was housework, clearing up, doing the wash, pulling old books off the reviewer lists, and finally getting a chance to read some from my pile of books. Mostly a clean up loose ends kind of day in a nutshell.

We’ve been watching Primeval. So far we’ve seen Season One, disks 1 and 2. We’re doing it through Netflix so we’ll get the rest of the season over time. The cast seems to be coming together and the shows are getting a bit better. The best special effect is the anomaly, but the creatures have improved over the two disks so far. Practice making perfect, I guess. So, we’ll finish out the season because it does show a lot of promise.

I hate this — I’ve things to do and all that jazz and I think I’m coming down with a cold. Sore throat and a headache that won’t quit today. I read the same page at least 8 times and the only reason I caught myself was I kept starting to write a note and found I already had one written.

Now that makes for a wasted day. Finally I gave up and watched 50 First Dates — figured if my memory was going down the tubes I might as well watch a movie where someone had a worse memory than I did. I love the scene with the little penguin waiting on the road and she drives right over him…. Can’t imagine what the video would say while she was pregnant — can you?

I knit on my sock a bit today; just a few rows. Ended up pulling it out three times yesterday until I ended up with the right feel to it. It was just way too big the first time. If fit okay but didn’t look right and then I realize I had it on over my thick socks. So, ripped out about 4 inches and decreased and knit it back up. Then looked at it and it had this weird bump after the toe increased and before I decreased. So, out it came again — this time down into the toe increases stopping at the increase that gave me 64 stitches. I knew I’d done it wrong by not going all the way back but I thought I could live with it and I couldn’t. So, now I’m working on getting it up to the heel again. Then I have to decide if I want a short row heel, and after-thought heel, or an upside down heel. I’m thinking after-thought now but I’ve got about 2 inches to go to make up my mind.

Anyway, hoping to get back in step with some sort of schedule soon — yeah, real soon now. Doesn’t that sound like the check is in the mail talk? I’m sick of rain already but we’ve got a few more days of it to go.

Well, today was a beautiful day.  Since we got most of our shopping and errands done yesterday, we were free to work on home projects.  So once I caught up on email and entered the books it was out to the yard to clean up.  We managed in half-hour bouts to get most of the leaves off the ground by the side of the house and along the retaining wall of the side yard.  We pulled a lot of weeds too.

We also managed to pull a lot of poison ivy plants from an area about eight feet by ten feet.  Before we did that, I had to pull on my elbow length gardening gloves.  After that bit of weeding it was into the house change, shower with Burt’s Bees Farmer’s Friend Poison Ivy Bar Soap.   I had three or four rounds of poison ivy last year and I’m hoping to keep on top of it this year — not get it and manage to clear more of our land from the vile stuff.  It’s been moving closer and closer to the cleared area of the side yard, orchard, and house.  We need to get it back from where we spend our time.

We managed to get quite a bit done before I was to sore and tired.  Hubby tries to keep me down to half-hour work limits so I don’t overdue.  I’m always let’s just do this one more bit and then the next day I can’t get out of bed or move.  So, he’s right.  I’ve been doing much better but the short periods of hard labor and then resting are much easier to take.  Even though he tends to do more.

Today it was in the 90’s and so far we managed not to turn on the air conditioning.  We did turn on the fans in the living room though to mix the air.  It was great.  But now it’s thundering out and I think I hear the pitter-pat of rain on the windows.  So we may not get to finish the side yard tomorrow if the leaves are all wet.

I’m beginning to think most of my life is work — 24/7. Good thing it’s fun. Today, I entered books into the database. Packed stuff for reviewers to be mailed out later. Then answered email. Forwarded nice comments to some of the reviewers. Did the Wii for 33 minutes and read.

I finished 39 Clues: Book 3 by Peter Lerangis for a May review in SFRevu. Also finished The Haunting of Derek Stone: Bayou Dogs by Tony Abbott (May review in SFRevu) and The Trail of the Wild Rose: An English Garden Mystery by Anthony Eglin (May review-Gumshoe Review). Just started The Language of Bees by Laurie King (May review in Gumshoe Review).

I cleaned up the house a bit (I hate house cleaning and want a wife to do it for me). I made a small dent in the paper blizzard on my office table (I’m currently working in the dining room).

For fun and because it has to be done, I went out and raked the yard. I managed to rake up three enormous piles. When hubby got home he moved the piles onto a tarp and took them out into the woods and dumped the leaves to compost. The problem is it still looks like I didn’t do anything much at all. However, we’re gaining on it. I’ve still got a lot of clearing to do before planting time comes around.

Today, I feel like I’m gaining on it a bit.

After complaining about all the rain and the damp, we’ve had several dry days. Today was beautiful and in the 70’s. So, after catching up on some email, pulling all the old review copies that are at least four months past publication and/or the date we received the book (in the case of books that are older), I finally had organized shelves of review copies. Then there was the wash and the dishes and so on and so on.

Finally, walked down to get the Sunday paper at the mailboxes with my hubby and when we got back we decided to put in some garden time. First up was the porch — I swept and cleaned out the gardening pots. We’ve got three blueberry bushes on the deck — the only place to put them so we actually get blueberries to eat (or at least we get more than the critters do). Then we have a pot of summer savory — a perennial that is still doing well. Then two pots that will eventual hold a tomato and the other a cucumber plant (easier to just get for a salad that way).

Then we cleared and cleaned up the table in front of the sliding glass doors. It will eventually hold a geranium and brighten up my view from the living room. We also cleaned/cleared up the barbecue so we’re ready to go for the summer.

Next we moved down to ground level. We cleared the leaves off the mulch around the peonies and found the lovely tips of the plants coming up out of the ground. All four of the peonies are returning and the two peony trees already have buds. We learned we need to buy some more bricks to finish the outline of this area and we need to add more mulch.

Then we clipped back some of the raspberry plants, tied them up and pulled those that had dipped over and started to make a break for it into areas not authorized by us for their new homes. Looks like the raspberries will do well again this year. Of course whether we get them or the crows and birds do is up for debate at this point. We then moved down to the orchard area to check out a run of daffodils and tulips that line a path through the woods. I’m going to have to separate some of the plants this year and spread them out.

Then as things go, we started to pull up some of the brush, then the kudzo and one bunch led to another and another and an hour later we’d cleared about ten square feet of underbrush and kudzo. Only 4+ acres to go…. and we didn’t even do the herb circle.

Now I can barely move and I know I’ll regret all this work tomorrow or at least my body will. But, then it’s supposed to rain tomorrow so I’m glad we got this done today. I’m getting real excited about gardening this summer.

April started with rain here but we’ve been having rain off and on for days now. Most of the woods are sodden and spongy with wet.

Before April got here with its dampness and rain, March was grey and overcast, and I, I was on the look-out for an April Coffee Cup. I saw many cups that seemed to speak of Spring and sunnier days. There were even lots of cups that seemed to capitalize on Easter with flowers and cute rabbits or carrots or eggs. However, when I finally spied this cup it was over, searching done, this was the bright bit of cheer that would get me through the rain and grey overcasts. So, today is April 3rd and it’s been raining for three days now off and on — this was definitely a good choice. When I bought it I worried about the bobbles on the rim and thought I’d probably dribble all over myself — I do that on a regular bases anyway so not a big problem for me especially since I work at home and can change. But, it’s not a problem, the bobbles don’t leak and I don’t dribble — at least not any more than I usually do when I get engrossed in reading or whatever and somehow miss my mouth.

I’m getting desperate to spend some time in the garden getting it cleaned up and ready. All the rain and the cold/flu I had have put me way behind on getting things set up. Here’s what we’re dealing with:

I’m standing by the tomato buckets which fill one quarter of the herb garden. Behind are the raspberry bushes and the orchard. We managed to get all the old tomato plants pulled up and get the buckets ready for the new plants.

We have been gardening for a couple of years now and have learned a few tricks. We had to move the garden to our tiny bit of lawn because, surrounded by trees, it was the only area with enough sunlight to grow anything. Last year we grew all out tomatoes in buckets. They’re big painting buckets from Lowe’s and Home Depot that we drilled holes in for drainage and pained a deep blue. The reason is that there are lots of critters here abouts and the previous year we planted all the tomatoes in the ground and then had two in buckets and the next day we only had two tomato plants — the ones in the buckets. Last year we planted them all in buckets and managed to keep them all season and had a pretty good harvest too.

In this photo you can see that we started to get the leaves up off the lawn/garden area. We sort of gave up around December and lately, whenever we have the time, it rains. When we’re committed to some appointment and won’t be home, it’s sunny. But to rake we need a couple of dry days and then a dry day to rake. Hopefully this week will see more sunshine but then the saying goes April Showers Bring May Flowers so I have little hope of getting it all done within the next week or two. As long as we get the garden prepared and the vegetable area cleared and turned, I’ll be happy.