No more dripping

I woke up about 1 a.m. trying to think of some tool to make a small hole in the ceiling to drain that puddle. I figured I needed an auger. The electric drill is too dangerous with water involved. Wondered if I had my father's brace and bits to go with it. When I got up about 7 a.m., I went out to the shed to check on that, but I guess those were some of the things my brother took when we were dividing our parent's stuff. Then I thought of a corkscrew! But did I have the right type? Yes, there was one that should work, so I set up the step ladder and made that little hole - easier to fix than if a larger section of plaster fell, right? The little stream ran for about ten minutes and then tapered off to a drip. It was a little after noon when I realized that I hadn't heard a drip for a while. I certainly feel better about that situation now. Why didn't I think to do that earlier? And the roofer said he'd be out Monday afternoon to cover the bare spots, and also that it won't be long before he gets to my job.

Now - do I want to finish that last row and bind off that shawl - about 700 stitches per row? Or do I want to get in bed and read? I think I'll finish the shawl tomorrow and read tonight.

What a lovely day -

to sit at home and knit! Actually it did start out nice, but then went downhill. By 9 am they were giving tornado warnings for a large area around me, and it got quite dark and thundered and lightninged, but then brightened up again in a couple of hours and got dark again later. The tornados that did touch down were quite a distance from me. Alyssa works at a children's daycare center, and she said they were paying close attention to the weather news.

A couple of hours ago, I was sitting in my 'knitting nest' when I saw something drop onto my sweater. It looked like bird-doo! I looked up and saw that the ceiling was dripping! I'll be getting a new roof because of the damage Hurricane Ike did last fall. I called the roofer last week to see if I was getting close to the top of his list, and to tell him that I have started getting brown spots at the edge of my living room ceiling (most of the shingle loss is over the front porch). He said he'd come and cover it, but he hasn't showed up yet. I called and told his wife about the dripping. I'll need to call him in the morning. This spot on the ceiling is new today and is six or eight feet from the other brown spots.

I have a plastic dishpan on the couch, the waste basket from the laundry closet behind the couch, and a trash bag over the back of the couch to direct any drips there into one of them. Most of the drips are going into the dishpan.

ENT

I went to an ear, nose and throat specialist today. Dr Williams' office had set this up. I have gotten hearing back in that right ear (the left was not affected by the shingles). Dr Rowland said that since I got to Dr Williams quickly when the shingles broke out, and since she got me on the antiviral and steroid medications right away, I should have no permanent damage to my ear. They did a hearing test with me sitting in a soundproof room pushing a button when I heard a tone. The right ear was about ten percent weaker than the left - I think that is not all because of the shingles. They will retest in a few weeks.

Actually, I think I'm doing pretty well with the shingles, although there seems to be both breaking out and healing going on at this time. I did not have any pain for a few days, but about 2 o'clock this morning, I had to take a pain pill. C'est la vie!

Knitting

Yesterday I finished the gold shawl I posted about last week. Today I worked on the other two that I started the same day - one at home, and one at the doctor's office. I want to finish at least one of them before I start anything else.

Yardwork

Yesterday I did two approximately one-hour stints of mowing, with lunch and knitting in between. The exercise is probaby the reason I slept very well last night - but why was I sleepy today?

Dogwood Winter

That's what someone called the little cold spell we're having now. My dogwood is not looking very good. It lost several branches to the ice storm in January.

But the dandelions under it are doing quite well. Actually, I like dandelions.

Remember my lilac that I thought I was going to lose? It looked like it had split in half and lain down to die.

This is what it looks like now! it'[s beautiful!

But these Lidoderm patches for my shingles are not! They do help to keep my hands off the stuff, though. And also keep it from itching, I guess. The 'blisters' on my tongue and the inside of my right cheek have pretty well healed, so it's mainly the lesions on the outside. I think I'm getting a little hearing back in that right ear, as well, so I guess the eardrops are working.

When I saw Dr Winkler yesterday, he prescribed a fungicidal mouthwash in addition to the things Dr Williams had prescribed on Friday. It's one you 'swish and swallow' so it hits the esophagus as well as the mouth. It's fruit flavored - UGH! If I need to get it refilled, I'll need to ask if it comes in mint or citrus instead.

My bloodwork looked good, so I've started round number five of the Velcade treatments.

Chicken Pox and Shingles

During one of my wakeful periods last night, I found myself reaching up to scratch my shingles. I thought, "Stop it, Adele, you're not that little girl who can't keep her hands off her chicken pox." Fortunately I have only three scars from that - one on my forehead, one on my left eyelid and one on my lower back. I think chicken pox is one of the things my older sister Pauline brought home from school in first grade. She shared it with me and our little brother Jim. Wasn't that generous of her?



When my kids were growing up, they usually caught the childhood diseases from the Jordan girls next door, who got them from their cousins in south Phila. Since her kids already had the disease, their mother babysat my kids even though they were sick, so I didn't miss much work. I've written about Marie before (3/17/07) as one of the angels in my life.

I have more shingles breaking out on my cheek, above my ear, and into my hair, and Alyssa said yesterday that there is some in my ear. There's also some swelling which is most evident in my lower lip.

Shingles

Although I'm waiting for the roofer to let me know when he will start putting new ones on my roof, that's not the kind I'm most concerned about today.

Early Tuesday morning, I started having pain in my mouth. It seemed to come from one tooth, so I figured it needed to be pulled. By Tuesday evening, I even took some Tylenol - I rarely take anything for pain. Wednesday morning I called the oral surgeon who had extracted two teeth for me two years ago. With the medications I'm on, especially the Coumadin, it's not a simple thing. I made an appointment for him to examine the tooth next Wednesday afternoon. He also needs lab reports and medication lists from the cancer group. I continued taking Tylenol. This morning, before I even got out of bed, I realized that I have sores in my mouth. About ten o'clock I discovered that I also had sores on my lip and chin. Mouth sores is one of the things they always ask about at the cancer center because a lot of cancer medications cause them. I called Dr Winkler's office and described my problem to one of my favorite nurses. She talked to a nurse/practitioner and called back to say that since there were sores on the outside, they probably were not from the chemo. They needed to be looked at, but there would be no one there this afternoon to do it.

So I called Morgan-Haugh Clinic to see if I could get an appointment with my family doctor. After about ten minutes on hold, I decided to go to the clinic and settle for the Doctor on Duty if I couldn't see Dr Pat. When I got there I said, "I guess I'm here for the Doctor on Duty, but I 'd really rather see Dr Elliot-Williams." The receptionist checked the schedule and asked if I could come back at 1pm (it was about 11:30 then). I went to Big Lots - they didn't have what I went for, but that didn't keep me from buying anything (I really did need those batteries.) and then back to the clinic.

Anyway, as you've already concluded, I have shingles in my mouth. She prescribed several things, including a pain medication and some drops for my right ear which seems to be stopped up and not hearing anything as of this morning.

After I got home, I called the oral surgeon and cancelled that appointment next week. The pain I've had the last few days probably has nothing to do with my teeth, but only with the shingles. On Monday I'll find out if I will still get the Velcade, etc while I have shingles.

Startitis

Monday, I had a bad case of 'startitis' and started three 'Pie Are Square' shawls. The one above was already on the needles. For it I'm using an unmarked one-pound skein of sport-weight acrylic (I did the old clorine bleach test) I found in my stash recently. I'm using three different lace patterns in it. Since it is sport-weight and I'm using a size 7 needle, it's going to take me a while, but I think it will be beautiful.

This is the first one I started Monday. It is worsted-weight cotton and I'm using a size 10.5 needle. I'm just doing a simple 'net' stitch.

Here's the second one - cotton flake yarn - size 11 needle - garter stitch.

And number three - cotton with a touch of polyester - looks like terrycloth - size 10.5 needle - garter stitch.

These three yarns are all from an auction I went to 20 years ago. I paid a nickel a ball for 496 balls of cotton and cotton-blend yarns, so the yarn for each shawl cost me about a quarter. Each shawl will have a simple lace edging, the pattern for which is burned into my brain, at the bottom. I like Elizabeth Zimmerman's Pie Are Square shawl because it hangs on one's shoulders so nicely without slipping. Once you learn the method of making it, you can plug in different stitch patterns and make each shawl unique.

There is also a 'random' shawl on the needles in shades of yellow and brown. I just haven't felt like working on it for a few days.



And I have finally finished working the revised Praying Hands chart and uploaded the chart and pictures of my samples to the Shawlministry Yahoo Group. A few weeks ago, someone else posted a link to her Praying Hands shawl - picture of the shawl and pattern written out in words. I prefer to work from charts, so I printed out her pattern and made a chart in Excel. When I worked it up, I was not satisfied with it, and neither was someone else. When someone mentioned that it looked like the cross-stitch chart she had, I figured that adding a row after every three rows would probably make it better for knitting - stockinette stitches are not square. So I modified the chart and worked it again. I still wasn't satisfied with it, and thought I might work on it some more. This morning, I pinned my two samples to the back of the couch to photograph them, and realized that I needed to wait about half an hour for the sun to stop streaming in the window. I sat down across the room to knit. When I looked at the samples from that distance (7 or 8 fee), they looked pretty good; I've just been viewing them from too close. The samples are roughly 14 inches square, so they'll be good doll blankets for Lexi and Rose.