Ears and more ears

When I went to bed last night I still hadn't decided on swimming today or not. But, this morning I woke up at 4:30. Plenty of time to get to the pool which was a far more attractive option than moving all of the suits and stuff off the bathtub hanging bar so I could shower. So I grabbed all my stuff and went swimming.

I spent a lot of time testing and retesting the various keeping-ear-dry options so I didn't get as much of a swim as usual but it was good nonetheless. Cap - goggles over, goggles under, music earbuds - marshmallow, tree, swim and then all of that with the headband.

NONE of that worked. Seriously, none of it. The best option really is the one I've always used - no cap/band - just the special swim earbuds. I did (doctor's suggestion) use a wadded up tissue to wick the surface water out after my swim. I'm just hoping that once this infection clears, all will be fine again. Amazon, here's your stuff back.

More condo cam issues. We really don't want to permanently mount them anywhere until we get the report from the security consultant in a few weeks. But the temporary attachments are now failing regularly. Two of them fell down yesterday evening and again last night. I keep having to go down there with more tape. It's getting comical.

Once I ditched all the ear trials, I could concentrate on my swim thoughts this morning and so designed a new shirt to make out of those sheets. It has pleats in the back and wrist banded sleeves. I may get started on it today.

In between packing up stuff for Amazon and fixing the web cams and figuring out how/where to stash all this kitty kibble. There's a full day for you in retirement land.

Stick 'em up

colesdragon saved the day! He suggested Sugru for sticking the webcams up. I had not even thought about that. It's the perfect way to mount the one cam that has to be stuck to glass. I dug into my Sugru stash and even found black like the cam! Right now I have it also taped while the Sugru cures but YEAH!! Thank you, colesdragon.

And then I remembered 3M 300LSE adhesive. A while back, I ordered to motion sensing lights for the kitchen. They came with screw mounts and this 3M 300LSE adhesive. I used the latter to stick them to the wall. 10 minutes after I got the first one mounted, I realized I had mounted it too high so I went to pull it off. That's when I learned the power of 3M 300LSE. If I stuck it on my butt and then stuck my butt on the ceiling, I'd hang there forever. (hehehehe now you have a great visual - can't unsee it can you - hehehehe)

So I ordered a small sheet of it from Amazon just in case. And that case was today. The second cam has to stick to partially porous tile. 3M 300LSE was perfect for that job.

All is done. I'll remove the holding tape tomorrow.

And LJ for the win... again!!

So, Susan... What do you like to do? How does it make you feel?

Quite possibly, I picked the wrong list but as a slave to my commitments...

I like to sew and knit and watch TV and listen to books and watch baseball.

Sewing involves listening to podcasts just because that's how it's set up. So I find myself going back to sew something when there is a new podcast ready to listen to. But mostly I sew things. I keep supplies for big and small projects so when the sew hits, I can just fire up the machine and have at it. I like the process almost better than the project. And I like keeping it all organized. It makes me feel productive which is a biggie with me.

I like to knit. Mostly I knit to give my hands something to do while I watch TV. For the past 25 years, I've pretty much knitted things that I've donated - blankets, bears, toys. This made me feel both productive and like I was giving back. A good feeling. Lately, I've been knitting for me. This kind of knitting requires that I pay attention. I can still have the TV on but paying attention to both the TV and the knitting is tricky. I enjoy both the process and the product. I will eventually go back to charity knitting but for now, I'm liking the more complicated version.

I enjoy TV. I watch nearly all of it via TiVo which I've had for nearly 2 decades now. It enhances my enjoyment of the process. At one point - pre-TiVo - I had 5 VCRs on 2 TV's. Keeping up with all those tapes and tapings was a major headache. I don't do appointment TV. Even baseball games are recorded. I generally start watching about 30 minutes in so I can fast forward through the commercials and other bits I don't like.

I do find it very annoying to see something or hear something IRL that I didn't quite catch and not be able to rewind and see it or hear it again.

I used to read voraciously. A couple of books a week. These days, not so much but I do always have an audio book in process. I can count on probably one hand, the number of times in my life since I was 5, that I went to sleep without reading or listening to a book in bed before I drifted off. I read mostly novels. Mostly contemporary novels with some kind of murder and mayhem. No cozy mysteries or romance.

And baseball. I love the rhythm of baseball. The quiet of it. The surprise of it. The every day of it. And I have for a very long time. My Grandpa taught me to love it and my mother took up where he left off. Interestingly, no one else in my family is at all interested.

My tweets

• Wed, 12:36: I love this place https://t.co/xDe1JAu4Le https://t.co/oZwXWC5WJj
• Wed, 19:33: Little Miss Muffet... https://t.co/n9O0kOH7dp https://t.co/XRfz2naAGr

So Susan, How the hell could you forget swimming?

I cannot believe I answered the question of "What do you like to do? How does it make you feel?" without mentioning swimming.

I love swimming simply because of how it makes me feel.

First of all there's the way the water feels. Clean and fresh and not dusty or sweaty. And then there's the floating. As an over sized elderly woman who has never been even close to graceful or athletic in any way, there is nothing more wonderful than floating in water. You are, in an instant, as graceful and weightless as any size 0 dancer.

Swimming makes me feel accomplished and competent. I'm not the fast swimmer nor do I have the best technique but I can swim long and far and I do every day. I swim first thing in the morning and it makes the whole rest of the day good. I can sit on my ass and do nothing all damn day long and it's fine because I will have already swam a mile.

I think I like swimming best of all.