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So my new podcast goal now that things have settled a bit in my life is to record and release one chapter a week, with the release on Sunday evenings.  So, without further ado, here is Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery, Chapter 26: The Story Club Is Formed.  Enjoy!

Anyone who lives in the St. Louis area knows about the construction on highway 40 (aka I-64) that began earlier this year and will continue for the next four years. It’s a huge project and it needs to be done but man is it an inconvenience for people who live near or commute via the highway. My man and I are lucky, we both work close enough to home that we can get there without the highways but we do live very near the highway. In fact, if you walk one block down our street, it dead-ends at the highway.

So far the construction has been mostly a slight nuisance. A large intersection near our home has been one huge traffic jam for months now and you can’t get on the highway going westbound there anymore. Well, there is a bridge about three blocks from our house that goes over the highway. Until one week ago when they closed it, I drove over it nearly every day. Still not a huge problem, detour around a few more blocks and you can drive under the highway. But this is the weekend that the Boland Bridge is coming down, along with two others. Houses in our neighborhood have been popping up for sale like you wouldn’t believe and tonight the reality of it has hit. You see, they do the major construction in the middle of the night so as to have the smallest impact possible on traffic.

So why am I blogging at 2am? They’ve started taking down the bridge. It’s not deafening or even loud by any means, just irritating. Hopefully the work they do this weekend will be the most heavy duty as they take down the bridge. Hopefully the next six months in which they will be rebuilding it will not interrupt our sleep. But if it does, I have good ear plugs.

Now I’m wide awake though so might as well get some stuff out of the way…

1. Chapter 25 of Anne of Green Gables is now available for downloading. I know these have been sporadic these last few months but life has been chaotic. Now that it is settling a bit I hope to release podcasts once a week.
2. Thank you for all your good, and sometimes funny, suggestions for keeping our brick oven apartment cool in the midst of our heat wave. We successfully survived the worst of it with some big pieces of cardboard, black plastic trash bags, and a window air conditioner moved from the back office (which is not connected to the central air but also is almost never used right now) into the living room. That extra bit of AC plus blocking the light has made a huge difference. It hit 105 here this past week so let’s hope that from here on out we will be heading towards fall weather.
3. I am constantly moved, saddened, and encouraged by reading peoples’ responses to and comments on my post about my ongoing battle with Meniere’s Disease. I’m glad some people found what I had to say helpful and for those who are looking for more help or people to talk to, please read this post I wrote on the many resources and online communities that are available for you to investigate further.
4. For those of you who want to know about my health, it is okay. I’m not having vertigo or symptoms at the same severity as I was prior to the Gentamicin injections. However, my balance is damaged and I am very sensitive to visual and aural stimuli and easily go into sensory overload when in the presence of my triggers. I saw my doctor last week and he thinks that my vestibular system has had enough time to rest and it’s time to give it a jump start to get it working well again. I’m decreasing my meds, both to minimize side effects and build up my tolerance. I’m doing some simple exercises designed for people with bad balance. And I am walking a mile a day. Trying to, anyhow. I’ve been wanting to start getting regular exercise and I’ve been lazy about it but now with doctor’s orders to walk a mile a day I’m more motivated. It’s hard with the weather the way it has been and with our local rec center being $7 a visit until I can establish residency but I’m working on making the walk a part of my routine. The good doc says that walking will help improve my balance, energy, and mood. I wouldn’t mind losing some weight while I’m at it of course! So, slowly, slowly, very slowly, I’m fighting my way back.
5. I’m working 12 hours a week at the library doing cataloging and miscellaneous technical services. I set myself up with a laptop in our meeting room and it is quiet and calm and a good environment for me. Besides the not making much money part, working part time is ideal for me right now and I am grateful that my boss is willing and able to let me continue part time when he now has to find someone else to work my old hours.
6. There was more I was going to write but I can’t remember and I think I may be able to sleep through the jackhammering now if I go lay down.

Sorry for the inelegant post but, dudes, it’s late, I know you’ll understand. Knitting and spinning updates coming very soon.

Hmm, no pictures makes for a boring post. Here, look at the mutts being cute:

Oliver: Come out and play!
Rosie: I need my beauty sleep.

I meant to post before I left but things got crazy so now of course I have all kinds of catching up to do. In any case, Chapter 24 of Anne of Green Gables was released before I left and I plan on recording another chapter soon.

I started the Kauni cardigan and am actually quite a bit farther than this now but here is the most recent picture:

That isn’t a great picture, the flash made the colors look much brighter than they actually are. The real thing is much more muted and gentler on the eyes. I’ll try to get a good picture later today. I started and ripped out a few times before I got the hem how I want it and the color combinations how I want them - just slightly offset. But now I’m just plugging right along.

I finished the first Embossed Leaves Sock:

I love it, I think it’s the prettiest thing I’ve ever knit. Here’s a closer look:

And the second one is in the works.

In the meantime I’ve been spinning and I’m hooked on it. Here is what I’m spinning now:

I’ll have pics of my first handspun finished and how this roving is going soon.

Vacation was nice. I listened to Harry Potter and loved it. Very well done in every way. Today is back to work and normal life which is nice too. You know it’s a good vacation when you enjoy every bit of it but you’re ready to come home when it’s over.

So the doctor’s visit went well. The flare up of bad vertigo and the fact that I performed horribly on the basic balance tests he did in the office are good indicators that my inner ear was effectively “stunned” by the second treatment. The balance issues will get better as my brain adjusts. He couldn’t test my hearing because the audiologist was out but I can tell that it is fine. So now the question is if the symptoms I’m still having are due to the adjustment of my brain to using the other ear or if the darned thing just isn’t stunned enough. In any case, it is encouraging that the 2nd treatment stunned but didn’t deaden the inner ear and it means that a 3rd treatment would likely be quite effective if I go that route. I see him again a week from today. We’ll test my hearing and if I want it, we’ll do the 3rd Gentamicin treatment then. The last two days have been icky and today has been better. But I still feel like I’m not at a functional place yet so if this keeps up, I’m having the third one.

I finally released a new episode of Anne of Green Gables! Yea! She is so fun to read, I may do another one this afternoon.  EDIT TO ADD: You can always download my new episodes from the podcast page (look for the tab at the top of the website), but for the sake of ease, here is a direct link to Chapter 23 in which “Anne Comes to Grief in an Affair of Honor”.

Check out this post on a book about beautiful libraries that my mom happened upon and sent my way. Just stunning stuff. Too bad my local libraries don’t have the actual book.

Knitting pictures coming as soon as I recharge the batteries. (Does anyone know if rechargable batteries eventually die? Mine don’t seem to be lasting very long.)

Well, I was better, and then I was sick again and now I’m doing a bit better again. It is the most frustrating thing. After calling in sick to work every day last week, my boss decided to put me on a sick leave of absence. It is for the best for everyone, he can hire someone to cover my hours and not worry about being short-staffed if I call in sick, and I can focus on my health without feeling guilty calling in sick all the time and return when I’m healthy. Still, it feels like a setback somehow but I’m trying not to think of it that way.

I see the doctor this afternoon. I don’t think I want another Gentamicin treatment at this point. I had vertigo last week but now I’ve had a few decent days in a row so I want to wait and see if maybe I just need some more time to recover and get my balance back. Today I had lunch at my favorite small, local restaurant with my mom. We’ve been going there forever and we go often so we know the owners rather well. I was talking to John, one of the owners today and he asked how work was so I explained things to him and it turns out that his wife Nancy, the other owner, has had spells of vertigo and some other symptoms. Doctors apparently mentioned Meniere’s but she’s been fine for a while now. He said that the next time we’re in he wants to get my doctor’s name and number. Also recently, my sister’s good friend’s boyfriend found out he may have Meniere’s. I met him briefly at our graduation party and Julia (my sister) mentioned to me recently that she wants my doctor’s info to pass on to him. I also referred a woman who is a friend of someone my dad works with to my doctor. When all these things happen, it makes me think that Meniere’s is either more common than people realize, or maybe it’s just a small world. It makes me so sad to hear of others suffering from it but it is also nice in a way when people already know what it is and I don’t have to explain it to them.

In other news, I officially moved out of my parents’ basement this past weekend and into the apartment with my fella. It was a tiring weekend but it’s such a relief to have all of my things in one place. I’ve been looking forward to this for a while now and it is great to get all of my things organized and really make this place feel homey.

If anyone wants to see the final project I did for my Flash class, you can see it here. I’m quite happy with it and plan on making it available for LV folks to use. Speaking of LibriVox, I’m easing myself back into it and into my podcast, now that I find myself with a bit more time, less stress, and able to read more. I just recorded a chapter of Anne of Green Gables, the first one in two months, and will edit and release it probably later today. As soon as I started recording I realized just how much I have missed it. For LibriVox I’m going to stick to recording for now, I really think all of the coordination burnt me out. I may jump back in eventually but for now I want to make sure it stays fun.

I’ve been doing a lot of knitting but I can’t post it because it’s a surprise gift for someone. I may post a picture just of the fabric at some point, we’ll see. I still need to finish up my Camo sweater and I’ve got some socks on the needles too.

I want to start posting book reviews again, I’ve been listening to a lot lately. But right now I’ve got to head out to the doctor.