Busy with....

Coughing.

For the most part.

We've had three weeks of real winter weather here. Each week began with snow, sometimes causing extremely slick conditions. Then after a few days the temperatures would warm up leading to rain which melts the snow. Rinse and repeat. Unfortunately I also came down with a cold, so I have not built a snowman despite the best intentions.

I have ridden Zoomie most days. It's not as bad as I feared it would be, but its no picnic either. To be honest, riding a skinny-slick-tire bike on hard-packed slippery snow is safer (for me) than trying to walk on it in my sneakers. I go slowly, maybe not even going out of first gear, and everything is usually fine. I fell twice the other day. The first was completely my fault. I thought I'd pause for a photo oportunity, and instead of braking slowly on the rear wheel, I accidently pulled the front wheel brake. Bam! Down I went. Very fast, pretty minor. Nothing hurt. My handlebars turned backwards, but other than that, I got my picture.

Pretty worthless, huh? I wonder if that's my breath.

Some better pictures:

My (old) bus.

I fell again on the snow on the way to Walmart. With all the snow, this last time being deep enough to threaten my ankles, I wanted to check for snow boots again at Goodwill. I found some.

My feet are finally warm!

The second fall was bad. I joked to my sister that instead of falling on my butt, I actually did something more like busted it. I was just sore up until after my afternoon run, but when I got home it was hurting more. Not really my butt, but my hip. The thick part of my leg where a sewing measurement would be for hips, not high where my hipbone is, either. So I count that as busting my butt. Jamie shoved an ice pack down my pants for swelling. The day after, I also had a sore shoulder and the right side of the middle of my back ached. I'm not sure if that is all from the one fall, but I felt beat. Today I got car rides from Jamie and co-workers even though the sun finally came out. 

On the way home from Walmart via bike path (not used often enough by me, perhaps):

Because I've been sick, my hobby pursuits are suffering also. I barely had a plan put together for our Saturday Pathfinder game, but I managed to get through it without any complaints. The players killed my bad guy as planned, but they are infected with a deadly virus needing a cure, which is of course why they will go where I want them to. I'm too new at Dungeon Mastering to let them mess up my plot.

The Jamiejacket has seen very little work, although I've tried. Jamie of course was disappointed. But, not only did the sun show itself, but I finally had a better day in a string of bad ones (up til midnight coughing uncontrollably after a whole day of that and sore abs? not fun when you tried to go to sleep at 8). I managed to screw up a simple piece-together when my head was a bit muffled. That's when I have a pattern piece that's huge, but only small scraps of material to use. They get pieced together to make the larger piece needed. Well, I neglected the seam allowance on two sections. I had to make do with very close seams for that section, and hopefully I can make it up with extra fabric where the sleeves connect.

Today I managed to mostly finish the entire back section piecing, and most of the cutting for the other pieces. Still need some lining. Jamie is letting me add parts of the maroon jacket to make up for only one jacket-worth of flannel to act as lining. With all those pockets, there isn't enough flannel to make up the difference. Still, with the freedom to add in the red, I think the jacket will look great.

Still on the mend, that's all for now. I need my sleep. Goodnight everyone!