Sunday afternoon coffee pot post

At this point, I really should switch to herbal tea. In fact, I have been drinking hot herbal tea in the late afternoon and evening lately. I guess it was all that reading about life in Wales that made me want hot tea. Last night I drank real tea and I was awake until 2:30, but part of that is that I can’t turn my brain off. In the morning, I sleep like the dead. If I am left to sleep on my own schedule, I sleep for 9-10 hours.

The first thing I did was to move over the photos from Jan. 2018, and I remembered why I suddenly loaded so many photos to Flickr again in 2018. I discovered a setting where my photos would automatically save to Flickr, and went crazy with it. In a way, I’m glad. Even though it is making more work for me now, I enjoy seeing the photos again and if that encouraged me to blog more, it is worth it. I’ll get it done before the end of the year. It took me 45 minutes just to do January 2018!

Looking at the photos of my cloth weaving makes me want to return to it. I wore a sewing machine slam out doing the denim blanket, but I also enjoy hand sewing the small squares and as long as I don’t get obsessive over it it is a nice portable project. I took out the panels that I sewed for Sandy’s shirt/trouser blanket and I think that this is a UFO that needs to be finished over Christmas break.

One of the things that kept me awake last night was that I think that I figured out at least one of my foot issues – Leddenhose Disease, a type of plantar fibromatosis. When I was diagnosed with Dupuytren contracture in my hand in 2012, the surgeon asked me at that time had I noticed any nodules in my feet. Apparently the two often happen together. I had a nodule appear on the bottom of my foot below my big toe under my arch about the size of a pea this summer. Now it is the size of a marble, but it is far enough under my arch that it doesn’t hurt when I walk. So my other pain issues may stem from this. Dupuytren contracture runs in my family – both of my parents had it and my sister has it. I had surgery on mine only because I was already having surgery for De Quervain’s tenosynovitis in the same wrist. It didn’t hurt but eventually it would have made my fingers curl up. It looked more ropelike than a round nodule like this one so I didn’t make the connection. I figured that it was some kind of ganglion cyst.

I found some more Futuro arch supports that I like online and they have helped with my nighttime pain a lot. I can wear them with and without shoes, so I don’t have to wear shoes in the house now. Here is a link to the Amazon page. Walgreen’s stopped carrying them, so I had to go with Amazon.

Obviously I will need to see a podiatrist at some point but not now. It can wait.

My artist neighbor across the street just knocked on the door and left a framed collage of his and a bottle of wine on our porch! He is a successful artist with an established art clientele, although his main business is faux finish painting interiors. We talked again about doing an art studio sale together when the pandemic calms down, which is very exciting. He has been very encouraging about my collage work. This gave me quite a lift. I do love my neighbors here.

Update: Just dusted the molding and walls over the closet door and door and transom window in my bedroom. Those places you don’t see the dust collecting until it is choking you. Wow. It was bad. Those are the kind of tasks that I am concentrating on – the places you don’t notice any more.