i'm back from a three week road trip. Family visit and weaving workshop. I left the house at maximum artichoke, the mess of a declutter and clean binge. I came home to a clean bedroom and the kitchen is in pretty good shape, but the living room has piles of stuff to toss, recycle, thrift or put away everywhere and I haven't begun on the loft.

I left fall and came home to winter. Patchy snow and cold here. My new-to-me Prius drove a treat.

While at dad's in Mississippi I made many batches of muscadine and scuppernong grape jam. We had a party for his 91st birthday.

The weaving workshop was all silk. Everyone brought a loom warped with one of 11 different types of silk and structure and then we all wove a bit of every one and brought home a sample of each. And I brought home yarn of course. The silks were pretty picked over in the store by the time I went shopping, so I picked up some bamboo yarn and a new reed for my loom.

I also brought home some of dad's homemade wine and a small cooler full of Arkansas Black apples.

wow - 3 wks traveling! I wish I could do that, maybe not 3 wks of it tho. but, I get too tired and then sick. I'd never make it. I'd be holed up in a motel somewhere sick and that'd be an expensive bummer! It's good you got to see your dad and be there for his birthday too.

I was out for 4 hrs yesterday and so sick by the time I got home. that was way too much for me. today I went to my sister's to drop off trash and pick up half of a lemon pie. she's just maybe half a mile to the W of me. she had other goodies for me too. then I stopped home to rest for about 2 hrs and then went back out - to the E of me to W (not even half a mile - not sure it'd a qtr of a mile) to pick up my prescrips and a few other things I needed. Tomorrow (now today), I won't go out at all. Maybe not Friday either. 2x out a wk does me in.

It's been way too cool here for just being November. Visited my friend in the nursing home today. The horse shoer will come tomorrow night and the horses will get their last pedicure of 2017. Then Wed. I'm going to my cousin's for tea. She bakes ;-) I've buckled down on my brick wall great grandfather genealogy and it's going just like it always goes. Nowhere. I took another African violet to the trash today. I don't know what's happening to them. I used to have dozens and all in full bloom. Something has changed around here. I've done some cleaning and sorting, too. And now I have piles that have to be dealt with.

"... cleaning and sorting, too. And now I have piles that have to be dealt with."

I know the feeling of seeing that stuff around me. I have it too. tomorrow i'm going to take a new box or 2 and just put the stuff in them. it'll make less clutter around me for now. in a month or 2, I'll get back to it. for now, I need not to be seeing it. I have a lot more to go thru - but not now.

I have a friend coming by tomorrow (hopefully) to do a few things for me before I have the eye surgery, like connect things to this wifi stuff and replace a few lights bulbs. I don't want to be 'lightless' when I'm half blind anyway!

Then in a week or 2 my nephew will be in the area and will hopefully come do some other things for me. Things high up and down low, heavy to move. places I can't reach these days. and computer stuff - that I just get too frustrated with and no longer want to deal with. my brain doesn't like them anymore.

It's good you visited your friend. I bet he/she was glad to see you. that's a reminder to me to look up 3 of my old friends and see how they're doing. one is my age, one about 10 yrs or so older and 1 who's in her late 40s now. I'd better get on that this next week.

I am sitting here still on shock from last night’s The Blacklist episode.

Do you follow/enjoy this program?

Last night was the “Fall Finale.” At the final (tragic, heartbreaking) scene a song began.

It was Simon & Garfield’s 1964 The Sounds of Silence. It was performed the group “Disturbed.”

I really dislike when new groups re-do iconic songs from the past.

When I hear sound tracts, TV shows, or (God forbid) commercials with mangled new versions of any wonderfully classic song, I grumble and groan.

EXCEPT...

This groups’ rendition of Sounds of Silence was hauntingly beautiful.

No, it wasn’t the true classic, but it was amazing in its own right.

It fit the final tragic, heartbreaking scenes perfectly. Within minutes of the program’s end the song was downloaded into my iPod.

As for The Blacklist episode, it left me shocked and crying. A fellow fan was calling me as the final credits rolled.

I’m getting ready to leave for more cardio and pulmonary testing in Grand Forks. I suppose I should listen to some happy, upbeat music on the way there. The Rocky Horror sound tract should do the trick!

22°, winds at 14 mph, wild turkeys are feeding under the front tree, and I need a hair cut.

I don't watch Blacklist, but a friend sent me a link of a pair ice skating team who did a routine to Disturbed's version of Sounds of Silence. It was really beautiful.

What plans for Thanksgiving week? My usual group of friends are out of town, so I have no dinner plans and at the moment that makes me very happy. I have a kit to upgrade my floor loom and then startitis on several projects, so I could very happily set up a crockpot for dinner and weave all day.

I also want to continue with declutter, organize and cleaning projects. My kitchen needs an overhaul. Go through every cupboard and decide what I really need and where to put it. Same with the pantry. That will be ongoing through the end of the year.

I got rid of 99% of my Christmas stuff. I don't decorate any more and I wanted that closet for other things. If I really need something Christmasy I can buy it at the dollar store.

About 15 years ago I did a major purge. As time passed and my life requirements changed I had to buy a lot of those same things over again. Now I will put them in a box in the basement. Yes. A lot of crap for the auction company to clear out. But if I want it while I'm here I will be able to go down there and get it. My interests change, my priorities change. I once spent all my free time sewing. Then I didn't . then I did again. Now I don't. But I will keep all my sewing stuff. A whole room of it. I have given away a thousand books. Sometimes I wish I still had some of them. So many things I've bought over time that I don't use now but who knows? I might again. It doesn't cost anything to keep them. I don't do anything to the same degree now that I did 20 years ago.

The kitchen. Yes. I want to paint but apparently not badly enough because I still haven't done it. And I want to go through the cabinets. I look at it and think, Not today!

Hi guys...

I’m trying to clear out my sewing room. We will be doing the remodel/addition this spring - or we will find a new house - or this one will succum to a terrible natural disaster.

No matter which route we take, things have to be packed up and protected from the construction mess.

It’s been easier to let go of things I’m no longer interested in, or will never have space for, or won’t live long enough to finish.

I have a tall flimsy cabinet filled with scrapbooking papers, etc. my goal is to get it purged and out of the house.

Then my writing desk can leave the living room and move to the sewing room, thus freeing up room for the Christmas tree!

Every task I attempt means demands I do seven other steps to get it finished.

I do have a large cardboard box filled to overflowing from today’s decluttering.

Every task I attempt means demands I do seven other steps to get it finished.

I know the feeling. nothing gets done quickly like it did when I was younger... everything seems like a major project. It's frustrating and tires me. sometimes just thinking of it all is tiring!

As of today, my surgery has been rescheduled for the 14the of Dec, so I have to go thru all of the pre-surgery meds and prep again. and the stress - restocking since I won't be able to drive for 3 days or so (if all goes right). I want enough of everything for 5 days to be sure. that includes pre-cooked food in the freezer and fridge! don't want to be trying to 'fix' food during that time.

My nephew is visiting down the road and is hopefully coming over to do lots of things for me, like hook up wifi, set up a shelving unit I bought (it's still sitting outside 'cause it's too heavy for me to move). hang up 2 curtains, teach me to use my cell phone and use roku, move some furniture and boxes around, replace burned out light bulbs (lots of those). maybe replace the 'over the sink' fixture (that I bought last spring). see if he can fix my disposal... etc. maybe even take the dog to the vet, since she won't get into the car for me. She looooves him! If he can stay another week, I'll have lots more for him to do!

I will be glad when the surgery is finally over. Then in a few months I can get new glasses. I'm also planning to order a new monitor this week - a 27" one. I think my eyeballs will be so happy! Mine is probably 10 yrs old and a 19" and I think it is dying. or it's just a lot like me - it so often doesn't want to 'wake up'!

I use large type on it and a larger viewing area will be awesome! great for music videos too.