NotSoThoreau

In other news, we are still trying to get things under control down at the river. We are planning to move there, but there is so much to do first and so many things here to deal with. It’s slow going. I have been spinning a lot these days. I actually have a few sewing projects to work on this weekend. It’s starting to feel a bit like fall, so there’s a real drive now to do some of this before the weather turns bad.

And I still haven’t posted those pictures from Black Sheep yet! I have finished Tour de Fleece for my first year, so I have been spinning almost daily. I’ve been carding a lot of wool too. I am still trying to sort out where to store all the fiber I’ve been going through. It’s been fairly hectic. I’ve had very little desire to can or garden this year. The back yard is a terrible mess. But I am feeling better. I talked with my doctor today and he said that we really are making progress. I feel more like normal. I have gained a lot of weight back, so I need to work on getting that in check. And I feel like it will be fall any day now.

Lon has been enjoying his lessons on wood turning. We have picked up a cheap lathe and are in the process of clearing out a place for him to work. We have been talking for years about setting up a small business. We are not that far off from retirement. At some point, I will not want to deal with supporting the latest version of Windows. I will want something else. So we are trying to sort out a few things that we can make that can be sold. Of course, if we have a lathe, I want spindles! Am looking forward to that part.

I do wish that we could make up our minds about whether or not we are moving to the river. It would be advantageous financially, as we could rent out this house. The trailer at the river is looking better than it has for years, but it is still a rundown double wide. The house is much nicer. We have talked about this for years and are no closer to moving than before. Change is always hard.

I finally got to go again! Normally our Messabout is on the Solstice, and that’s the same time as Black Sheep. My friend Ginger wanted to go, so I rode along. I’ll post most of the pictures over on the Spindlitis blog, since I took a lot of spindle pictures and maybe 50 pictures of sheep and goats.

I bought this:

Jenkins Lark spindle

And this:

Romney cross fleece

Believe me, there was a lot more things that I would have liked to bring home! I also got a new tea mug for Lon, but I’ve forgotten to take a picture of it. I had a good time and I think Ginger did too.

We may yet be moving down to the river. I’d pretty much given up on it, but it looks like things are aligning to make it happen. Financially, we really need to rent this house and pay some things off. We need to move beyond sweating the property taxes every year. And the house will be much easier to rent. So we will see how it goes. We are also planning to finish up the Aqua Home and put it up for sale. That’s another dream that didn’t work out.

Some pictures of the iBook:

It’s been holding a charge and I’ve ordered a hard drive. It is a major task to install a hard drive in this. I’ll have to strip it down completely. But I think I can do that and it looks like it will work as soon as I install the operating system.

My ThinkPad has been good to me, but it really does need some work. This will give me something else to use. I’d like to pick up a copy of Leopard and upgrade both my old Macs. I’ll upgrade the RAM in the iBook too, as soon as I know it’s working again. Old laptops can be very useful. If all else fails, they make good writing machines.

UPDATE:
I installed the hard drive and Tiger. It’s working BUT….it had a date/time issue then wouldn’t boot at all. I did a lot of research and found that there is an issue with the graphics chip in these. So I took out the battery and let it sit all week. Took it into the office today and plugged it into power. It booted up! I’ve read that the case flexes too much on these and causes the solder to break up under that chip. So I will be using this one only on a hard flat surface. Here’s a picture:

I was reading a book about interior decorating, Victorian style. They used a nice lace piece as a window edging. And I happen to have a bunch of crochet doilies and such that are not being used. So I started with this on the kitchen window. I just love it! My plan is to take several of the doilies and make an edging for some of the other windows. We don’t really use curtains here, so these really dress up the window.

And, for your cute kitten picture today, I give you Fanny:

She was sitting on the bed, taking a bath and started to fall asleep. I thought the back leg sticking up in the air was pretty funny.

Oh, and in further news, my lungs are clear again. I’m just about off the steroids and was able to walk up the stairs at the clinic today. I have one more follow up in a month. Now, don’t tell my doctor, but the birds are still in the house. I believe that the major HEPA filters we have going are keeping the air clean. I still can’t really be in the bird room. I don’t want to take that risk. But this is manageable.

This is a picture I worked on, using Skitch.

I haven’t done a post in a long time about how I’m working digitally so I’ll add a couple more notes. I’m using two programs for personal finance. Balance is a check register. I’ve tried a lot of the more complicated programs like Mint, Pageonce, and Adaptu. I like just having this simple register for a running total. I also use Wally. Wally tracks daily spending based on category. You can scan receipts and it can also tag geo locations. It has one of the best interfaces I’ve seen in an app. I’m not budgeting just tracking. Evernote is where I’m keeping my digital stuff. I also have files in Dropbox and Ubuntu One. (The later is less useful since I stopped using Ubuntu. I use Crunch Bang Linux on the laptop now.). I am going to scan more things into Evernote. I especially need medical receipts for tax purposes. I picked up an Evernote Moleskine with three free months of Evernote Premium. I’ll probably keep paying for premium when I use that up. I also did Remember the Milk Premium. I’m not sure why I disliked it in the past but it seems like a good match for me now. I think it’s the iPhone app. I’ve been using Life Balance but the iPhone app just isn’t as good as the old Palm program was. I use the iPhone calendar app, saved to my Google Calendar for appointments.

If you’ve read my blog for any length of time, you’ll know that I enjoy messing around with organizational systems. Putting this together has been fun.

So the latest is that I’m doing much better on the meds. I saw my doctor yesterday and he is going to taper me off the steroids. The real test will be to see how I do once I’m off them. I’ll go in for another chest x-ray in 3 weeks. I am actually able to work on the house now and am finally getting things cleaned up. If my chest x-ray looks good, it will mean that the air filters are doing a good enough job that we don’t have to get rid of the birds, as long as Lon doesn’t come down with this. We are still trying to get air filters for the garage and bird room.

I picked up an ebook called “Paperless Home Management”. It’s fantastic! She uses Gmail, Evernote, and Remember the Milk to track everything in her life. I set up the system on my phone yesterday. I was trying to use the FlyLady routines to clean the house, when I got sick. It’s so nice to have them set up and actually be able to DO them. I also want to clean up the yard and get some sort of garden going. I used an app called Skitch, that saves stuff in Evernote. I took pictures of the front yard this morning and made notes of what I’d like to change. It really helps to look at this from a detached viewpoint.

Other than that, nothing really new. We still have a ton of work to do down at the river. I just wish we could be done with it. If it were up to me, I’d move out of this area all together. But it’s not my call. I at least want to make the house more comfortable. I’ve spent too long putting that on hold, figuring that we’d move to the river. I’m tired of waiting for something that doesn’t seem to happen. I want to work on where I live now.

I did not have to go in for the bronchoscopy, which makes me beyond happy. The bad news is that I do have bird fancier’s lung. We managed to find an Austin Air air purifier on craigslist. It makes a huge difference, so much that I was feeling almost normal yesterday. They are expensive units new and the filters cost around $200. It’s possible that having them will let us keep the birds. We are looking into purchasing another unit and I think we will also need one for the cockatoos in the garage. Since they finished with the testing, they have me back on steroids. They have helped every time I’ve had them, so I really feel like I may start to recover from this.

My experience with the refurb phone has not ended well. I went to call the pharmacy today and renew Lon’s prescriptions. When I went to key in the prescription number, I couldn’t get the “1” to work. After multiple tries, it would work but would put a space in front of it. I made two calls and just wasn’t able to get it to work. That’s not a good sign. Intermittent problems are hard to troubleshoot. So they are sending me a new 4S, and I will return the refurb. If I’m going to be in a contract for 2 years, the phone had better work. And I got to listen to Lon be the big snarly dog on the phone, when they wanted me to pay them $99 up front and wait to get my $50 refunded. They’ll put that charge on next months’ bill instead.

Quinn is having more trouble, which I won’t go into here. It’s all of his own making. He refuses to talk to Lon, which upsets Lon of course. If you are going to have an attitude and insist on doing things your own way, then you need to accept that you are responsible for the results. I’ve always valued my freedom and I prefer to stay away from cops and lawyers. Quinn doesn’t seem to value his freedom enough to change his behavior. I hope he grows in wisdom.

So this is my iPhone 3GS, in an Otterbox Defender case:

It’s been a good phone. I like iOS. It works well for me. I could easily use this phone for another year. My concern is that it took a dip into the river and over time, that is supposed to lead to corrosion. It’s been working well, but I’m concerned about it failing.

It’s upgrade time and I decided to go ahead and get a new phone. I have a theory that you should stay on the low end when upgrading Apple products. There’s no advantage to being on the bleeding edge. Apple products tend to work well for years beyond their supposed obsolescence. I have a custom cable that allows me to connect my iPhone to the Bose player. I would have needed a new cable to work with an iPhone 5. And, even with a discount, it would have cost me $199 to go with an iPhone5. What I wanted was an iPhone 4S. It’s close to the specs on the iPhone 5, yet uses the old 30 cable. It would give me retina display, a faster phone that works on the 4G network and a better camera. I waited and managed to find the 4S in a refurb. It saved me money and so far, it seems to work fine.

Here’s the new phone:

I know, you’ve seen a million of these white iPhones. Still, it’s new to me. I have another Otterbox Defender case on the way for the new phone. I’ve played a bit with Siri, but doubt I’ll use it much. Best of all, my old phone works for everything except calls and text messaging as long as I’m at home and on wifi. It will be my backup phone. AT&T charges $150 to replace an iphone, if you have their insurance. I’ve dropped the insurance since they went with that policy.

I’m scheduled for the bronchoscopy on Wednesday. I still haven’t heard the results on all the blood tests yet. I really do not want to have even a routine surgery like the bronchoscopy, but it doesn’t look like I have any options. This is so difficult to deal with. I am feeling stronger, as long as I don’t try and do anything. I went to the grocery store yesterday and used one of those electric carts. It turned out to be a good idea, as I wound up coughing a lot. And I’m sure I scared a few people with my driving! After we had the groceries put away, I was so tired that I crashed out in the bedroom. I didn’t have lunch or dinner. I’m better today, but am trying not to tackle too much. I have corned beef in the crock pot and did a couple of loads of laundry. I really hope I get some resolution on this soon. They won’t try to treat it until they know what it is. Meanwhile, I’m really limited in what I can do.

Lon is usually in good humor, which helps because I can really vary. We’ve both been pretty depressed this week. He had a tow truck come out and try to pull out one of the boats at the river. We’ve tried working on this one several times. They were able to move it a bit, but the strap around the front of the boat pulled through. The wood is really rotten. We will likely need to pay a diver again, to try and re-rig it, then pay the tow truck driver to come back out. It gets expensive.

Then there are property taxes. This is always a struggle and we never know how we are going to come up with them. I have to finish my taxes and try to get back money from Oregon, which will help pay the property taxes. Lon shut off Quinn’s phone. He has not been returning his calls. We’ve continued to pay for his cell phone and the only reason we do that is to be able to stay in contact with him. So he is going to need to get and pay for his own phone. I did go ahead and update my phone today. I like my iphone 3GS, but it’s getting slow and I’d like to tap into 4G network. I found a refurb at a decent price.

Then there’s my health. The lung specialist is waiting for blood test results but he thinks I have Bird Fancier’s disease. It’s an allergy to the dust off the bird feathers and the droppings. We will have to move the parrots out of the house to keep them and Lon will have to help minimize any dust from the birds. That means working on the shed to insulate it and sound proof it a bit. It takes time and money, but we have to clear the allergens out of the house for me to get well. If the blood test confirms the diagnosis, I’ll go back on steriods and I’ve felt good every time I’ve had those. If the blood test isn’t conclusive, I could be looking at a bronoscopy. I really do not want to have that. I promised Lon, before we got involved, that I would take care of his birds. Now, I’m in a situation where I put my health at risk just to be around them. I am really sad about it.

I still am not really up to doing much over the weekend. I spend a lot of time in the bedroom, which does get me away from the parrots. I just do not have the energy to do much and I start coughing when I try and do too much. I have been eating better this week, and have felt a bit better. I think, if we can get the bird room cleaned out this weekend, that I might get some of my energy back.

We do have lots of little yellow daffodils in the front yard, with other spring blooms getting close. The weather will start to warm up soon. And maybe some of the other depressing things will resolve themselves. It’s just the way it goes.

I’m set to go to a lung specialist next week. I’m ready for this because I am so tired of coughing and being stuck at home. Any effort sets me to coughing. Lon got it moved up a couple of days because he’s still worried about me.

There’s an old apple tree in the back yard, that used to be productive. It hadn’t been pruned in years and was covered with big suckers. I wanted to cut it back this spring but it just didn’t happen. We drove by a neighbor’s place and there was a guy pruning some big old apple trees. Lon stopped and asked if he’d be willing to prune our tree. So, today during perfect weather, he cut back the apple and cut down the old prune tree (which really was dead). I’ll spray the tree with dormant oil this fall and maybe we’ll have a decent crop next year. Lon has a real talent for making connections like this. And, the guy is an urban farmer, which means we can have truly local food this year, even if I don’t get a garden in.

I have been a reluctant fan of Rand Paul. I’m not fond of his father, although I respect anyone with real convictions. I couldn’t be happier about the filibuster last night. The Press is not doing its job with this administration. I can remember them going on and on about evil George Bush. When the current administration can’t manage to say that they do not have the right to kill American citizens on American soil without due process, there is a big problem. I’m glad that Ron Wyden joined in. I’ve respected his opinions although I don’t agree with his politics. I’ve spent the last four years dealing with state bureaucrats and you have got to put limits on what they can do. It doesn’t matter which party is in power. Put a stop to it and remind them that we pay their salaries.

One of the discussions Lon and I used to have, back when we were just friends, had to do about why good people die young. He was upset that Kate died at such a young age, when he knows other people that have never done anything worthwhile in their lives that live to an old age. It’s probably a common thing to think about, when you lose someone.

My latest diagnosis is walking pneumonia. After all this time, I have no energy and still crash out early on the weekends. I’ve come to believe that Jeffrey had problems with his lungs before he came down with pneumonia. He had tularemia as a kid and was spray poisoned with paraquat when we lived in California. But really, my thought is this: if it is taking me this long to recover from a milder version of pneumonia, then Jeffrey would not have been able to recover from his, even if I’d gotten him into the doctor earlier. He would have hated being stuck at the house this much and not being outside. He would have hated not being able to do all those physical things he was used to doing. It’s been difficult for me and very frustrating, because there are things I want to do and need to do. Most weekends, I haven’t been able to do them.

I don’t know about Kate, but I suspect that just maybe, she would not have been able to deal with a long, slow recovery either. We do not want to see a loved one die, after all, and we like to think that we can come back from anything. In Jeffrey’s case, I think he would have preferred a quick death to a long slow recovery from pneumonia. I’m just glad I wasn’t sicker, because this long, slow recovery is truly frustrating.

I’ve been posting over on the spindlitis site and didn’t know it had been this long. So, still recovering, still slow. I’ll have another chest x-ray next week and will see my regular doctor on the 18th. I think my lungs are clearing up. I coughed pretty badly last night, but less today. And I’ll get to catch up on sleep over the weekend which helps. I’ve been taking the Green Pastures cod liver oil/royal butter blend, which should help. I still smoke mullein a bit and use the inhaler. Any real exertion gets me coughing and I have to rest a bit. Looks like I’ll be spending another weekend at home.

I was finally able to cook up something at lunch that I wanted to make for dinner all week. We have a new Grocery Outlet store nearby. I bought a bunch of peppers, bells and the small colored mild peppers. I have some cooked up chicken thighs and lots of bacon. So today, I chopped up the peppers, garlic, onion and chicken, fried some bacon and added some Roma tomatoes. Lon isn’t a big fan of peppers but he liked this. I like to cook that way, but it’s too time consuming when you are sick.

We’ve had nice weather so far. I enjoy sun in February. I’m sure the rains will set in soon. I’m still not sure what to do about a garden this year. We continue to talk about moving down to the river and financially, we really need to do that. I’d like to find a way to sell the house. Every year, it’s a major struggle to pay the property taxes on the two places and keep them out of foreclosure. We just can’t afford two places. And, at this point, I’d like to move out of the area completely. We’ll see how it goes.

I am just beat today. It’s my second day without antibiotics, so clearly they made a big difference in how good I feel. I do have a doctor’s appointment today. I really have to remind myself that I must take it easy. When you finally start to feel like normal, it’s easy to overdo.

It is so very nice to have a sink that drains, a working icemaker on the fridge and clean dishes. It really is sad when one looks forward to doing housework again!

I just might be starting to heal. I’m coughing much less. I can do some physical work and not lose my breath. I finished the antibiotics today. I’ll see my doctor on Tuesday.

I’ve become interested in the 1000 Gifts book by Ann Voskamp. Her website is aholyexperience.com. I like her writing and I like the idea of saying “thank you” for all those small moments in your life. I had several moments when I was not kind to Lon, while I was sick. So I am looking for a way to smooth my life back out.

I’m trying to post more frequently, so there may be more odd ball postings like this.

There was a period, when I was at my sickest, that I was desperate to do something to breathe easier. I happened to remember that mullein was used in herbal “cigarettes”, created for asthma sufferers. We managed to buy some mullein and I’ve been smoking it off and on ever since. It seems counter intuitive, to smoke something when you are having lung issues. It really does seem to help, more than the albuterol inhaler that I’ve been using. (Lon of course gives me a bad time about looking like a pot smoker.)

Mullein seems to be a very mild, tasteless smoke. Some posts online have said it’s harsh, but the herb I have doesn’t seem to be. It seems to help with a productive cough and I typically stop coughing after I’ve smoked some of it. I’ve also read posters talk about a “high”. I would not call it a high, but it does seem to give “a feeling of well being” for lack of a better description.

Here’s a quote from the Wikipedia article on common mullein:

Dioscorides first recommended the plant 2000 years ago, against pulmonary diseases,[66] and this has remained one of its primary uses, especially against cough. Leaf decoctions or herbal teas were used for expectoration, consumption, dry cough, bronchitis, sore throat and hemorrhoids. Leaves were also smoked against pulmonary ailments, a tradition that in America was rapidly transmitted to Native American peoples.[27][67] They used the non-indigenous plant to make syrups against croup. The combination of expectorant saponins and emollient mucilage makes the plant particularly effective for cough. All preparations meant to be drunk have to be finely filtered to eliminate the irritating hairs.[48]

Mullein is a very common herb. In fact, we drove to the river after we’d bought this and I noticed a place next to the raised garden bed! This summer, I’m going to start gathering my own. The flowers can be steeped in oil and used for earaches.

I’m not an herbalist or a doctor of course, and I did also see a medical doctor about my condition. However, I really haven’t discussed mullein with my doctors, although I might talk to my regular GP about it. He’s an old school doctor and I don’t think he’d dismiss this out of hand. Anyway, take the knowledge for what you will.

Still trying to get over whatever this stuff is. We’re also trying to get back on track with the Paleo diet. We really didn’t go too far off it over the holidays, but I’m just not in that groove. And I haven’t been eating much and definitely haven’t felt like cooking. I ordered Paleo Comfort Foods, which is a nice cookbook. I’m going to start working my way through it and find some recipes to add to the ones from Well Fed. We did go off the diet tonight as we were both craving Mexican food. I have some tortilla recipes that I haven’t tried yet, but I haven’t yet put together a good pseudo-Mexican meal, Paleo style. I must say that the beans and rice hit the spot.

Quinn is having some unpleasantness in his life right now. I hope he can move past this one and really grow up. He’s got a good heart, but he doesn’t always follow it.

All the kittehs, doggie and birdies are doing fine. And I’ve been spinning and knitting. All I need to make life complete is to stop coughing.

It is not an upper respiratory infection. It seems to be whooping cough. I went to my regular doctor, who was concerned that I continued to have coughing spasms after 8 weeks. I’m now on antibiotics with more codeine cough syrup. (Antibiotics don’t work against viral infections but whooping cough is bacterial.) I also need to go in and have a chest x-ray to rule out any pneumonia. I’ve been sick where I coughed for several months, but this truly is about the sickest I’ve ever been. I would encourage adults to get vaccinated for whooping cough. I can understand why it would be so deadly to young children.

Since I have not been able to do much more than work, the house is a mess. I did take down the Christmas tree. It was still pretty fresh, so I think we’ll go with fresh cut trees from now on. And I tackled cutting Lon’s hair. He’s been after me to cut it. Now, I do not cut hair. I’m bad at it. Jeffrey just let his grow long. I’ve tried to talk Lon into getting a hair cut but he never gets around to it. So I took a stab at it today, until I started to feel sick again. When I left to go back to work, he was starting to hack at it. It could be scary out there!