Got up early this morning and cleaned house. Then went to the bi-annual (should that be semi-annual? It's twice a year, not every other year) trash-off. There were so few of us there that we wound up each going out individually and picking up alone. (In the past, I had someone else working with me - either a student, or kids from the Youth Group, or someone I knew from church). It's lonely and quite blah picking up trash for two and a half hours when you are alone. It would be a real punishment for someone. (Locally, it is used for people sentenced to "community service" but most people actually choose to be fined over doing community service). Ironically, all of the people out this morning were doing it on a solely volunteer basis, and we were all among the people most anti-litter in the town. (But I guess you have to be anti-litter to give up a Saturday morning to pick it up.)

One good thing was, we all got prizes - there were actually more prizes than people. I got a couple of $5 gift certificates to a local steakhouse - there's no expiration on them so I'm thinking of saving them 'til my parents are down here for Thanksgiving and then taking them out to dinner there. I also got a very nice carving knife and meat-fork set (I didn't have one, and although I will use it rarely, it is still nice to have) that was donated by the local hardware/dry goods shop. And I got a bag with the trash-off day logo on it.

Then I came home and showered. Spent most of the afternoon knitting up another one of those umbilical-cord baby hats from the SnB book. The campus nurse is expecting and it's getting close to her due date - I'm considering running out tomorrow and picking up a couple of books (Frog and Toad or Harry the Dirty Dog or something like that - I like to give copies of books I liked as a child to expectant parents) to give with the hat, and I might give it this week when I go in for my allergy shot (She isn't due until November, but you never know how soon babies come sometime).

Flipping through the book, I noticed the "Big Sack Sweater" again. I keep going back and looking at it - I have some Woolease chunky in a nice mulberry color in my stash that I think would make a nice one of these. I don't quite have the energy to start another big project yet, but this might be the next sweater instead of Samus. I don't know.

I found myself kind of sad and at loose ends around 4 pm or so today - I think I've been "go! go! go!" for so long that when I relax, I get sort of verklempt. I kept telling myself that I was just tired; I don't totally believe it yet.

For me, the worst time of the week is that timespan from about 2-4 pm until dark on weekends - I feel like I should be doing something "useful." Once it gets dark I feel like I have justification to put on my pajamas and turn on the television. (Somehow, watching tv during the day feels decadent to me; probably too many years of my mother urging me to "go out and play, it's nice out" [even though that more often involved a book than television])

Picking away at the various ongoing projects now. I have a seed stitch scarf out of some Lion Suede - if I didn't love the colors so much I'd chunk it, it's really not a pleasant-feeling yarn to work with.

What I really want to do is start another pair of selfpatterning yarn socks. I've broken down over the months and bought some of the Opal Rainforest (the Owl, the Fish and the Chameleon) and I also have tons of older selfpatterning yarns kicking around. But I have my mom's socks to finish, and the I-will-finish-them-but-I-don't-love-them purple Maxi Ringel socks.

I do think I'm tired. Usually when I'm at loose ends and not feeling tremendous enthusiasm for anything, that means I'm overtired and what I really probably should do is get into bed with some kind of a jolly book (Wodehouse, or my big Folio Press book of "short humorous stories," or something like that) and read until I feel like going to sleep.

I broke down and turned the heat on this afternoon. It's turned very low - like 64 or 65 degrees. But it was colder than that in the house, and although I didn't feel cold, I noticed that my upper back and neck muscles were all contracted (and they were when I woke up this morning, so it wasn't just muscle strain from bend-stoop-retrieve tiny piece of Sonic drink cup-put in trash bag-repeat n+1 times from this morning). That's a sign that I've been too cold. I don't feel cold easily but I do get muscle aches if I have let myself get too cold. And it's supposed to dip into the 40s tonight so I figured I better have it on and set, just in case it gets cold in here.