Ten Thoughts for Tuesday

In no particular order:

1.  I've had two "good" days in a row.  By "good" I mean, I've been able to move fairly freely with minimal pain, and only minimal stiffness.  When I get a good day, I realize just how bad the other days have been.  There doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason as to why some days are better than others.  I guess that's the nature of RA?  I'm still learning about this disease.

2. I've been working on a tough 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle, since manipulating the pieces doesn't hurt as much as my knitting needles do.  I  do love jigsaw puzzles and it's been quite a while since I did one.  My porch is an ideal place due to the great light.

3. I made some terrific potato salad -- even though I didn't do anything differently than I usually do, it came out better than usual. It almost tasted like my mother's!

4.  I read a great young adult novel called Keeping the Castle, by Patrice Kindl.  Think Georgette Heyer mixed with Jane Austen and you'll have a delightful frothy romantic farce.  I looked for some other books by the author at my public library today, but they don't have anything by her.

5.  Speaking of book reviews,  I haven't been posting many here. I've been doing all my book reviews over at Goodreads.com.  You can find me there under dswgr6, or you can click on the books read link on the left.

6.  The weather has been perfect for the past few days --  even when it hit 90° over the weekend, there was always a breeze, and very little humidity.  Yesterday and today were a bit cooler, and still no humidity.  If summer were like this all the time, I'd be a happy camper!

7.  I really miss knitting!  I have so many projects I want to work on, and my almost finished sock sits on the coffee table mocking me.  The dr says go ahead and knit, but I've had the worst time trying to manipulate the needles.  My right hand is most affected, and the thumb and middle fingers are the most affected fingers.  Makes it hard to hold the needles.

8.  I've been sucked into a period of nostalgia.  For the past week or 2 I've been watching old episodes of The Waltons and Little House on the Prairie at night.  I have no idea why these are so appealing, but I'm wallowing in them.  The Waltons holds up much better than Little House as far as story lines.  They were well-written, simple stories that age well.

9.  While I love fireworks when I purposely go to watch a show, I definitely do not like the fireworks that have been shot off almost every evening since Friday around the neighborhood.  They are sometimes Roman candles or ground fountains, and there are lots of firecrackers being shot off.  Aside from the real risk of fire since the woods are dry (and we live in a wooded area), the blasts are really annoying.  And they set the neighborhood dogs barking too.

10.  My mission of decluttering the house isn't terribly successful - at least not yet.  Partly it's because of my lack of energy and movement, but it's also the fact that I just don't have a place to put the things that I want to keep!  I seem to move things from point A to point B and never make any headway.  I think I'd love to have one of the TV organizers on hand.  I did discard 2 large black trash bags filled with junk, and I did give away several books.  I also have a box of books that I will donate to the church flea market, but that's not till August.  I want the stuff out of my house now!  Anybody have any ideas for what to do with books that are too good to throw out, but aren't really ones most people want?