Thursday, July 30, 2015

This morning I’ll try Pages, again without moving the margins. Within Blogger, I have set the text to "Large" -- but why should I  have to do that? -- and am pleased to see that Blogger has rearranged the margins appropriately.

Archie spent a lot of yesterday morning installing Windows 10 on his superior, game-playing laptop, and offered to do the same for me. After my recent struggles with the Mac, I don’t feel up to learning a new interface just yet. It looks completely different. “Windows 10 for Dummies” will probably hit the stands next week.

“…for Dummies” is far and away the best of the three Mac books I’ve bought, although the “Seniors” one is helpful at answering simple-minded questions. The file structure, for instance, is the way it has been since DOS, subdirectories within directories. Maybe there’s no other way to do it. But it took “Seniors” to tell me so in plain English.

Medical

The branch of Lloyds Pharmacy contained within my local, on-the-way-to-the-hospital branch of Waitrose, didn’t have a pill-cutting tool yesterday. I’ll try the local, Broughton Street pharmacy in a moment. But yesterday I babbled on to the pharmacist about how I was taking Warfarin and my current dose included .5mg and that’s why I needed to cut a pill — the sort of idiot conversation my husband particularly hates. “She doesn’t need to know that.

And she said that Warfarin comes in a .5mg pill, as well as the 5mg, 3mg, and 1mg sizes I’ve already got. So now all I need is a new prescription.

Knitting

I’ve finished the right side of the Jack Russell’s body, all but the last row and assuming I have attached the right legs — “right” in both senses. I’ll have to unpick the last row, because when it said “p2tog, p4 (hold 5 stitches on spare needle for tail)”, I disregarded any possible significance of the brackets and put the next five stitches on hold — which meant breaking the yarn — instead of the five I had just knit. As I think you can see, below.


There’s a similar problem at the end of the row. I now see that “(hold 11 stitches on spare needle for neck)” means the 11 stitches just knit, not 11 more. That’s perhaps easier, because there aren’t 11 more at that point.

There remains a problem. There were 33 stitches at the end of the previous row. I have been over and over the text for the difficult row, and can only see instructions for 31 of them. No, cancel that — I counted again, and there are 33.

I have knit the body without brown spots, since the target dog doesn’t have any. That speeded things up no end. But I’ll include some brown on tail and head.


So my plan for today is to unpick, re-do, and then turn to the Sous Sous for a day or two — finish the back, cast on the front, work out a percentage scheme for the sidebar.

Literature

I am having a Shirley Jackson phase, perhaps not the best choice for one spending a lot of nights alone. remember reading "The Lottery" in the New Yorker when I was 15. I remember where I was (in the car, waiting presumably for my mother) and what the New Jersey weather was like (hot). And my incredulity as I read -- could it really be saying what it seemed to say?

I don't think I've read it again, since that day. Perhaps I had better, to round off the phase. I wish her well-reviewed biography was available in Kindle.

8 comments:

  1. The Lottery - I can remember reading it for the first time too. I was about 20, I was quite shocked at the end. I remembered it again when I read The Hunger Games.

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  2. I just read Paul Theroux on Shirley Jackson yesterday! http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/02/books/review/let-me-tell-you-by-shirley-jackson.html?_r=0
    NYTimes book review

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  3. GrannyPurple2:18 PM

    I heard The Lottery on a New Yorker podcast a few years ago--one of the series where a writer picks a favourite from back issues of the magazine and reads it aloud and then there's a discussion. What a chilling tale. Glad I didn't meet it while young; it would have made for many sleepless nights. Good luck in finding the pill splitter. Mine is currently in use to split tiny pills into crumbs for a cat who is hyperthyroid. Then the challenge is to get the crumb into the cat.

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  4. NSPWIS2:50 PM

    I'm a long time reader - one of those who look forward every morning to your entries - but almost never comment. You may or may not know that warfarin is named that because the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation funded its research and holds the patent. WARF is a well endowed private non-profit that funds "scientific investigation and research at the University of Wisconsin–Madison (my alma mater.) Might knowing that some of the money you pay for the "rat poison" eventually goes toward science and education make you feel a bit better about swallowing the pills? Nancy in Wisconsin

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  5. Hurray for courageous Archie and his generous offer of Windows 10 help. He must be young, not knowing he would be downloading an alternate universe where all things remain the same, yet are different. God help you if he entices you.
    I myself will happily remain stalled in Windows Vista and forever know what roads to take to copy, paste and print😏
    Your Jack Russell already looks interesting. I would lie to request a picture of your Isagers Tokyo shawl - being worn by someone, to see what it looks like being worn.
    Thanks,
    Not an official follower...just an enjoyer!

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  6. Shirley Jackson is having a moment, but I wonder why The Lottery is so widely read in US schools. That dog looks awfully potchky. And lots of dangly bits at the moment--what does Perdita make of it?

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  7. Hi Jean! I used The Lottery when I taught short stories to 14 year olds. They were so shocked! Shirley Jackson knows how to spin a tale!
    I like your dog. I find toy patterns fun because if I just stay true to the instructions, step by step, the results are surprisingly good!
    You should make a little Alan Dart mouse for Miss Perdita. A little catnip will keep her entertained. I think kittens have to wait to experience catnip. It makes them so crazy.

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  8. Anonymous12:48 AM

    Kudos to the pharmacist - I think they should indeed be outgoing to check their patients' prescription list and needs.
    Not at all an idiot conversation!
    Stay resolute!
    LisaRR

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