19

We could have the coldest night of the year tonight.  The forecasted temperature is 19 degrees.  That is cold!  Tomorrow will be in the low 30's again and windy.  Very windy, but at least it's dry this time and no snow/ice/etc. is expected.

 

I took the car in to Chevy today.  When the previous shop, the ones we refer to as the "crooks" because they were, saw the car last (over 2 years ago) the mechanic said that he saw the beginnings of an oil leak and that it would be a couple of years before it showed up.  Because they did lie about so much, and charged for work not done or done wrong, we weren't too inclined to believe him.  Turns out, he was actually telling me the truth.  There is an oil leak.  But, this is the fun part - the mechanic at the bad place said we were looking at $2,000.00 - $2,500.00 to get it fixed.  Chevy said that it will most likely be around $800.00.  Chevy also said that it doesn't have to be fixed right away, I can probably wait months on it in fact but I might have to add oil to it periodically.  I'm more or less aiming for after the first of the year, it's a two-day job and right now we need all three cars to be running.  Also, with the fact that we do get winter weather we don't want to be stuck with the El Camino having to be driven as it's basically giant sled on ice!

 

I'm no longer feeling that I might be in "pre-sinus infection" mode.  I shouldn't be having allergy symptoms, but that's what it feels like.  Either that, or I might be on the way to a cold.  I bought some saline nasal spray and I'm going to see if that helps.  Because of the surgery I had when I was 16 to rebuild my septum/sinuses/nose, I can't really use any type of spray but I can use the saline but I can't actually spray it in my nose.  I will probably have to spray it on to a q-tip and then moisten the affected areas, but it's worth a try.  No nosebleeds the last couple of days, but I feel like a desert - dried up.  I changed out the filter in the humidifier this afternoon, it was dusty but not really moldy.  The humidifier does seem to help a little bit.

 

The phone repair guy is coming out tomorrow.  So of course the phones are working fine!  Just a hint of the noise we were hearing.  We're still going to have him come out, it seems to keep happening.  Bill will be here this time.  I don't think that the repair guys are at fault, they have fixed things each time they come out.  But something else keeps messing up and I really think that they should just go ahead and replace all the phone lines.  They probably don't want to, buried lines are a little harder and more expensive for them to replace.

 

I frogged out the ruffle row on my turquoise shawl and am going to add a few rows to it.  I put one on it today at lunch, I think it probably needs anywhere from 3 to 5 rows to be as long as I want it to be.  But I'm not sure exactly how many additional rows I'll put on it, I don't want to buy anymore of the specific yarn if I don't have to.  It's pretty but it is not fun to work with.  I think I have enough for at least a couple more rows plus the additional ruffle row.  The ruffle row uses a lot more yarn than a standard row.

 

I don't think I'm going to make any more of the rice bag/warmer bags.  The pattern worked and they turned out ok.  But they are small and not really practical.  I made one using the stitch the pattern called for and the right amount of rice, then I took out over half of the rice because it was just too fat.  I made a smaller one with a smaller/tighter stitch and it worked better and I didn't use nearly as much rice.  They just aren't really as practical as I hoped.  I will eventually get pictures on the craft blog.  If I think about it!

 

Guess that's it for now!