Working from Home

One reason why I like working for my company is that I can earn the right to work at home.  I thought it would be better for my multiple allergies.  I joined the disaster recovery term to learn how and worked one day a month from home.

This is Molly helping me in the new apartment on my disaster recovery day. She was so excited to have me there all day.  For a long time she walked back and forth, rubbing herself against my face. In the afternoon she wanted to play!  So I worked the computer with my right hand and used a wand to to play with her with my left hand.

I was sent to work from home on March 23 for the interim. It has helped my allergies greatly. Between moving away from the old apartment with forced air heat and getting away from all the artificial scent, my postnasal drip has stopped, my asthma is almost gone, and I'm not quite as tired. There was a change in company policy. I shouldn't be going back to the office for a long while, if ever.

My cat Emily loves that I work from home.  After a couple months we were told to come exchange our laptops for our office workstation.  That meant I would  be wearing headphones and using an Internet phone set-up.  Emily was very upset!  I didn't know she enjoyed listening to the phone calls over the speaker phone so much.  She joined any conference call too. She has gotten over that.  Every day she keeps me company sitting on a nearby chair.  

I didn't work for a couple days during the week. She kept trying to get me to go to the computer and start working. She was very happy when I started working the next day. 

One reason I chose this apartment is that it had a second bedroom to use as an office. It was about the only two bedroom apartment I could afford.  I had no idea that a pandemic was coming. I started wearing a mask as soon as the CDC said we should and I've been staying at home.  I've always washed my hands after coming home. So far so good.  I don't understand why so many people in the United States thinks wearing a mask, social distancing, and staying at home is foolish.  I wonder if they were ever taught about the Spanish Flu epidemic from 1918 through 1920.  The Spanish flu in its second wave attacked the healthiest people. They could come down with the symptoms in the morning and be dead by nightfall.  

Once on the radio someone who survived the Spanish flu epidemic was interviewed. He said that that he went to his best friend's house and asked if he could come out and play. His friend's mother told him that he couldn't come out to play and to ask his mother why. His friend had died of the flu. He was one of the 675,000 who died.  How many deaths have we had in this country from COVID-19 so far?

Being Creative Again

I'm finally able to be creative again after moving.  The only thing I can do is knit. My beading stuff is packed away in different spots. I have to attack the study to make it livable before I even think sewing. I don't know exactly where my fabric is.  I was able to find yarn for a vest and for cat foot chair protectors. 

I have hardwood floors in my apartment and I wanted to protect them. I liked the Chair Paws by Nicola Valiji when I first saw them. This is my chance to play with them.

My cats are both tortoiseshell so I decided to use that color theme, as well as gray striped.  I bought DK acrylic yarn on sale.  I took a chance on one color for the light color of the tortoiseshell but it didn't work.  Since Webs sold out of the yarn I bought, I looked elsewhere and found Deramores web site. Today I managed to find what I hope is the right lighter colors for the tortoiseshell and the cat toes.  I hope these are fun to knit.

My other project is the Easy-Knit Vest by Kathy North.  

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The yarn is Fibranatura Inca Colors.

The colors in the photo are pretty much true to life. The blueish color the company calls navy, but it isn't.  I found the buttons at In Sheep's Clothing in Torrington, CT.  I couldn't find a better match if I tried.  The yarn either stacks or makes an argyle pattern. I'm going with the argyle.  

Identifying an Artist

This is one of my favorite prints, I've come to realize. The title is "The Notch from Rte 23C N. Lexington." I know this is in the Catskill Mountains in New York State

I looked at the artist's signature.  It's not very legible but it looks like it could be the same last name as mine. How frustrating!

Moving to a Smaller Place

This past year has been very stressful and it continues. The stresses just changed.  The ultimate was moving from the largest apartment I ever had to one of smallest.  There were smaller places I looked at. It was extremely difficult finding a decent place that I could afford. It was partly because it was the end of the year.  It was also because looking for an apartment moved to the web.  The owners get to pick and choose who to respond to.  It wasn't like it was when I was younger, the first one to see it with the money and decent references gets the place. Many owners required that the rent only be one third of my monthly salary. My salary was never that large.

I wasn't even able to look at many apartments.  One apartment may have a washer set-up but there was no closet in the bedroom.  The only closet was outside the back door in a mudroom.  Another place was in a nearby downtown city.  The living room was rather small. It had a gas heater and there was something wrong with it. The whole place reeked.  The owner who rehabbed the place didn't even know there was something wrong with it. The view from the bedroom was the side of the house next door.

I had trouble figuring out how to move from a larger place to a smaller place. There's a lot of information about down-sizing, but I didn't find it that helpful.  After pondering about what I should have done, I figured out the main idea should have been to move the most important things to the apartment, and store the rest until later. It might be obvious to some people, but I was so stressed and didn't have anyone to talk to. Everyone always has to vent to me.

I like where I am very much. The only problem is that I am allergic to the chemicals used to soften the water. I can't even drink a little of it now. I can buy a home water distiller but I haven't been able to save up the money. Moving was very expensive.

I have discovered that good windows are important.  I was upset when my old apartment  complex replaced the windows. The wood frame ones I had were good.  They had the screens and the storm windows and didn't leak.  The new ones were the new combinations with double-glazed windows and screens. Man, were they leaky!  I had to tape the cracks to keep the wind from blowing through. If they let in cold, they let in heat. My apartment was so much hotter in the summer.  

The windows here are good. It was never cold in here during the winter. My apartment is the coolest I've had during the summer since 1995.  I also have great cross ventilation as well. There are two big trees in front.  I get to hear the breeze blow through tree leaves again.  

The cats seem happy here. They'll be even happier when I've gone through and emptied all the boxes.  The cats have three views.  Since we are on the first floor now, they have a good view of the birds, squirrels, rabbits, and chipmunks.  We don't seem to have skunks and I"m very happy about that. In Latham almost every warm night ended up skunk scented.