Winding Up the Week

 What a busy week it was this past week! I finished two crochet projects. The throw I was working on for someone's birthday. The throw is made with I Love This Yarn from Hobby Lobby with a size I hook. The pattern is one from a book of 61 different squares for a sampler. I just picked one and made it bigger. I've used that book for several items I've made by simply picking one of the squares.

I also made this little thing at the left. It came out so lovely that I want to do another one. It is a dress for Sarah's Barbie doll. I think next one will be white and a long version. I also have a pattern for a Victorian travel outfit that I'd like to try.

I have to tell you, this is tedious. Yarn is much easier to crochet once you know how. Although, I learned to crochet on thread, it has been years and it was more like the stuff you make wash cloths out of. I don't recommend you start with this particular kind of thread.

The variegated thread is size #10 and the needle is 1.7 mm. Yes, that is very small.  The thread is just a bit bigger than quilting thread, which is slightly larger than sewing thread. The needle... I think a pen head about the same as size as that hook. I took my time and finished it over the course of a couple of weeks. I was so thrilled with it, despite the numerous errors I made and which I can immediately find. You could too, but not in a photo. Still it is for play and not a showcase.

I started a new project last night while watching t.v. with Mike. It will be another throw, made with Red Heart Yarn in with several colors. It is an interesting pattern I found online and wanted to try. They made a baby blanket with it but mine will be larger at least as large at the one pictured above. This new throw is going to also be heavier.

Red Heart yarn is a bit scratchy and I don't like it. They do have a huge variety of colors but it is really not a cozy up yarn. I don't mean it is impossible to have next to you but there are now other yarns much more cozy against the skin. Most are competitively priced, are far softer. When my batch is of this rougher Red Heart is gone, I probably won't buy anymore of it. I did recently find a Red Heart yarn that is softer than their most common yarn so if I can find the colors I want, I may try that. I bought one super sized skein in white to try.

I also made a personal blog challenge 30 Shorts in 30 Days. I'm done three so far and this is shaping up to be fun. I even made a button to put up when I'm done.  I'm also working on my anthology story for the writing group.

I'm trying to get my ceiling replaced. I've got mortar joints that need repair and I'm waiting on final estimates for both jobs. In fact, I got the last one for the mortar joints today. So, I hope by the end of the month those will be done. Mike and I have to tear out the ceiling next week in preparation for the new one.

I will be going to Arkansas the last week of this month to pick Sarah up and bring her home before school starts. I've missed her but I dread having to get up at 6:30 every morning. Time is just moving so quickly. She'll be 9 in less than two months.

I'm going to get done with this post now and go work on the new crochet project. This coming week, I'm hoping to organize some things and become a bit more productive. I want a schedule back in place before Sarah gets back. It will keep up both on track.

I posted my 3rd short story of the month called The Fourth. I hope you've all had a great 4th of July.

Results from the Facebook Fast

Courtesy of Pixabay.com

My Facebook Fast ended yesterday and I'm rather sad. I liked being off Facebook. It did wonders for me to be able to ignore it and I found myself with far less wasted time. I complain about being nonproductive and I knew that Facebook was a huge part of the problem.

Let me be very clear here. This is my problem. If you can sit in front of facebook for hours on end and feel useful, good for you. If you don't spend but a few hours a month on it, that's wonderful. I view it as a problem. I'm an information addict and it is easy for someone like me to get sucked into "info dumps". That's a place where there is unlimited data with a varying levels of value. The problem is you have to sort it. That takes time, wasted time.

While I did cut down dramatically - from 51 hrs in May to 24 hrs in June - that is still too much time wasted on Facebook. Twenty-four hours spent on anything that doesn't profit me mentally, emotionally, spiritually, or financially, is a waste.

So, with that in mind, I still have to do something. I downloaded the Block Site from the Chrome store in mid-June to aid me in avoiding Facebook and it did help. I was able to override it when I needed to go in for group items or to check on my family. I will continue to use Block Site to control my access and time on Facebook. Even with it, there were a few days I spent far more on FB than was necessary. One day I spent 7 hrs. No one paid me either.

I noted that the worse I felt, the more I was apt to go to Facebook and I didn't feel better when I got off. When I was busy with crochet, reading, writing, working in the yard, or the house I had no desire to even bother with Facebook. But, once on Facebook, I immediately lost track of time and was sucked into the vortex of sludge in the stream. Yes, sludge. I needed a shower after my swim most of the time.

When I realized the draws, I started paying more attention and evaluating what I was seeing, rather than just reading what friends and family posted. There is a lot of garbage that I'm feeding my brain. In general, I tend to read scientific, historical, educational, crochet, or craft items most but on Facebook nothing is arranged in any order and you have only two choices, Top Stories or Most Recent. So one is forced to swim through all the other debris to reach the items that most interest you.

Traditional advertising gimmicks serve as hooks to pull you into things that look interesting. Recently, I found an article of historical photos that I saw months ago. I have now seen it four times under different headlines to make it look like a new post. Also, videos are a problem if they aren't on YouTube. You may want to see one video but are pulled onto a site which has three videos playing in the sidebar that you can't turn off and you can't find the mute button on. These are time sinks and bandwidth devourers that take forever to view.

One of the problems is that if you have a very diverse group of "friends" you're going to get a lot of junk. We don't all share the same politics, religion, and fashion sense. This is the major flaw that I see in Facebook. There is no way to control your content unless you eliminate people from your contacts. You get the good with the bad, the ugly with the beautiful. I've been unfollowing people in the last week. I like the people I have on my list and I don't want to penalize them for their opinions but I also don't agree with some of it. There is only the follow button that gives you any control at all.

Courtesy Pixabay.com

I started comparing my time on Facebook with G+ during my fast. I'm on G+ drastically less than Facebook. The 51 hrs in May on Facebook .... 5 hrs on G+. For June -  FB = 24 hrs: G+ = 5 hrs. Huge difference.  Why? What was different?

1. I don't have a lot of family on G+ but that isn't much of a factor because I'm rarely conversing with them on Facebook anyway. I do read their posts but not a whole lot.
2. I actually have more connections on G+ than Facebook. This is due to the way people connect to you. But they don't seem to post as much "stuff" so I'm not wasting time shuffling through it.
3. Facebook is a random stream of stuff with no organization, no way to organize posts, no way to find a post once it is months old. G+ is organized by interest, communities, and circles. You still have to sort, but they have a tag system, too. If I want to post something about crochet, I have a label for that. If I want to visit the communities I'm in, I select Communities. I can create labels, collections, and everything is sorted under them. Finding things takes way less time and there is less chance of getting sucked into useless items. 
4. There is more focused, educational, and well-written content and less Buzz Feed, and fewer post with the endless redirect links to the content. There are also fewer links to sites with huge quantities of advertisements and bandwidth sucking content. There is some of that but far less than Facebook.

The reason for these could be because FB has more people. I don't care. I'm never going to talk to a million people, let alone 4 million or billion or whatever the last census said. I'm sorry to say, and if you get offended you can unfriend me from Facebook, but it appears that the level of education is at the upper end for G+. I'm linked to things like Neuroscience,  Health, History Channel, Scientific American, Time, TED, PBS, NPR, Nature, and Bible Gateway. That's the kind of stuff I like to read.

Facebook caters to millennials and teenagers, ergo, the content is geared to that: clothes, jewelry, loudmouthed videographers, every pet known to man, children, and food. There's more but to avoid becoming even more offensive, I'll stop there. Yes, there is some of that on G+ but quality far exceeds quanity there.

The net result is that it takes far less time to go through my G+ stream and read the items of interest, targeted to me,  than it does to wade through the stream on Facebook and sort out the debris. Facebook's idea of "target" is to put ads up they think will suck you in.

Yes, I'm arrogant. But I appreciate structure and order and I like feeding my brain amazing stuff.

Overall, I've learned a lot about myself through this 30 day Facebook Fast. It was important. It matters what I feed my mind and soul. I'm not happy being controlled by social media. I intend to retain my independence and to guard my brain against the effects of the sludge. If I fail to do this, it is no one's fault but mine.

I can choose to fill up on cute cats, funny dogs, adorable babies, and insulting articles from both sides of the political and religious fences. I'm sick of it all. Alternately, I can read good books, make beautiful crochet items, make repairs to my house, write stories, mow the grass,  watch movies with Mike, or just sit on the patio. I've decided for me, that is far better than swimming in cesspools.

Day 28: Facebook Flop? Sort of........

Although I've flubbed my 30 day Facebook Fast,(I know I have two days left) I have cut down on the amount of time I've been spending on it. I'm going to have to continue to battle I suspect. I'm using a site blocker in Chrome now. I'm fairly faithful to myself but at times I've  had to turn it off so I can go in and that is annoying because I don't want to. Honestly, I'm about ready to just chuck the whole thing. Let me explain.

I don't subscribe to newspapers. I do not have cable television or local television. I do not wish, desire, or covet either of these things. I had them for years. I suffered from severe depression and worry. I still battle those diseases. When I dropped those, I found life was not filled with a million negative images and words. I have not missed them.

Facebook, in my opinion, is worse. Particularly since it gives the impression that the whole world is insane. I don't particularly believe that but it looks that way on the inside. And the insanity is highly contagious. And keeping up with the news is worse than depressing. I'm not surprised that some folks go off the rails and start doing horrible things. A steady died of having the mess out there shoved down your throat all day, every day is unhealthy. The problem with this country... don't get me started.

I will keep using the site blocker and spend as little time as possible on Facebook.

So, what have I been doing this week?

• I've been finishing the crochet throw I've been working on. The skein of yarn you see on the throw is my last skein.
• Starting a crochet dress for one of Sarah's Barbie dolls. 
• Trying to repair a ceiling. Semi-successful.
• Researched all morning for a drywall contractor to replace said ceiling. 
• Called a dozen this morning and sent emails. No one answered or they didn't want the job. Mike started calling and got three appointments!
• Trying to find someone to do some masonry work. Got three bites.
• Contemplating the tall grass that needs mowing and trying to decide when to cut it. Not today as it rained again. Maybe tomorrow. 
• Watching Bones from the beginning on Netflix. While I crochet, of course.

• Working on River City Writers stuff: 

1. free seminars/workshops 
2. my short story for the anthology 
3. the agendas for meetings
4.  scheduling meeting places
5. creating in polishing my seminar presentation for July. 
6. Oh, On Thursday I took a friend to her doctor's appointment and Mike to his. 

My friend had a procedure that took from about 8:30 until about noon. Mike's appointment was for a final check of his leg. His appointment took just as long as that procedure! The office was bursting with people. We are usually in and out in 30 minutes. So all day at medical facilities but at least it wasn't for ME! The result is I am nearly finished with the throw.

I'm not sure I've been very productive, but I'm sure tired.

Day 26: Ceiling Problems

Day 25: Do You Ever Wish for an Uneventful Day?

Courtesy Pixabay

I know it sounds silly. On those days when nothing is going on, I'm so annoyed because there is just nothing of interest happening. Even this retirement thing is a pain. I've had the devil of a time trying to learn to be retired. You'd think it would be a breeze. It isn't.

So, I was going to repair the ceiling and wall in Sarah's room while she was gone and repaint the room. It was a simple job. Scrape off old paint, patch a few rough spots, sand down drywall mud, paint. Really, as home repairs go for me, this was a piece of cake. After all, I didn't have to reinvent the wheel. 

LIES! LIES! LIES! 

I started scraping the paint. It was old damage from when there was a leak that we were unaware of. It had bowed the drywall and caused the paint to begin to flake, although it never came off the ceiling. No biggie. I scraped off the first chip, maybe the size of a half dollar. 

That. Is. Mold.

I scraped off another flake, larger this time. Oh no. Crumbles of what appeared to be sand fell on my hand. Oh no. That's a hole. I scraped an area about 1 ft x 8 in. The hole you see near the wall is all the way through the ceiling and large enough to put a man's fist through. 

Now, this isn't my first rodeo, folks. If you're read this blog for a more than a decade, you know that home repair for my family is a unique and .... exciting event. I refer you to How to Install a Faucet

This was not going to be a simple project. This was major repair the required a 2x3 ft section of the ceiling to be replaced. Why so large? Because there is mold on the damaged section. I don't know how far under the paint it goes. Because the drywall bowed from the leak and although dry for years, it is still bowed. I won't be able to patch an unlevel surface with a small section of drywall. I have to cut a patch wide enough to fit between the rafters and long enough to eliminate the bowed section... about 3 feet. 

To facilitate this, Mike had to go in the attic to remove the insulation from the area. My insulation is blown in and it will fall all over us when we remove the section of the ceiling. It was about 150 degrees in the attic. My roof is low. Mike is 200 lbs. He was nearly ready to faint in the 15 minutes he was in the attic. 

I've already heard that he should have waited until night to do that. Unfortunately, I have to sleep and I doubt the attic would have cooled below 100F before 3 a.m. He can't go in my attic in the middle of the night without help and someone to supervise in case of emergency. So, we settled on a 15 minute time frame to get in and out. Of course the vents and supports and the low roof served as blocks in his passage. He's a big guy. We elected to remove only enough insulation to allow us to take out some of the damage drywall and then try to move the rest when we take out the ceiling. Fortunately, I learned some things during the process. 

As I stood on the ladder with a light stuck through the hole so he wouldn't waste time searching for the area, I figured out how to repair this with the least amount of trouble and without having to go back into the attic to do it. And it will be perfect. In fact, if the section is longer than I anticipate, It will be no problem, except I'll be the one having to hold the thing up. I'm not sure how that's going to work. 

Mike lay on the couch with a wet cloth wiping himself down and drank 32 oz of water. It took half an  hour for him to recover. We went an got lunch. He did his laundry at my house and before he went home, he stuffed a plastic bag in the hole to keep the heat from coming through. 

I am going to write. Tomorrow, we're going to work on the ceiling and I have lunch with my writer friends. Thank goodness! Thursday, Mike goes back to the orthopedic doctor to see where he stands. (No pun intended.) Friday, I hope we're done with the ceiling. 

I'll think about the next step after that.