Homeostasis

  Homeostasis is the "attempt" of a living organism to maintain balance throughout its systems. If you are getting cold, your body shivers to generate heat. If your body detects too much sugar, insulin is released-- too little, your liver makes glucose from glycogen. Get the picture?

Well, I think the universe must be seeking to maintain some level of domestic order overall. Cathy has been cleaning out her storage spaces and painting shelves, and sorting grandchildren's toys, and generally making her house look quite nice and orderly. I suspect that this is in direct reaction to the speed at which I have trashed my house. There is only one-way traffic through the dining/storage room (and Om and I are both small). The living room is filled with tables on and under which I am piling all the hike and trailer-life related objects. The kitchen, as you have seen, has sprouted an extra island in the middle. Although tonight that has been replaced with a large collection of boards and plywood pieces being polyurethaned. Even the bathroom is now filled with stacked tubs of completed food. Tomorrow, I'm going to trash another room, but I do have to clean it up before bed so Omer can sleep!

Between Cathy and me, we are keeping the domestic universe in balance. Even I am beginning to long for tiny bit of order here.

Meanwhile, Cathy and I went for a fast, five-mile road walk today. After all, the goal of this madness is so I can go on a long walk. I need to be somewhat ready to do that. We did not get rained or snowed on, but the sky was definitely looking wintry.

We saw a lot of winterberry, but I liked it here, intermingled with the tones of the oak leaves.

Buttonbush seed pod balls. See Buttonbush flower. I had to go take a closer look because I did not realize they hang down in clusters like that.

And one lone maple leaf, blown from somewhere into my yard. The closest maples are in the cemetery. This leaf came visiting from quite a long way.

In other news: I worked on the volunteer project in the morning. Almost done with that. I'm waiting for the next piece and then I just have to mail some things. I did a little bit with food. I am literally only about two hours away from having the entire food project done, but I had to switch priorities today. I needed to finish cutting quite a few pieces of wood for the trailer, get them sanded, and get the first coat of polyurethane on them. They have to have 3 coats each side, so that is 6 cycles of about 4 hours each. I want them to be ready to go in as soon as the weather improves. They are now all spread out in the kitchen. First coat on side one is done. I should be able to flip them and do the first coat on the other side before I go to bed. Monica is coming tomorrow to help, and we are going to start sewing cushion covers.

I did test out the gaiters and a new pair of wool socks on the walk. The gaiters are now fine. Not sure about the socks. They are very warm. Remember, my feet don't like to be super hot. They were definitely too warm today at 38 degrees with gaiters over the top of everything.

Nothing has changed on the list. Worked or walked pretty much without a break from 8 am, and I still can't cross anything off. I'm SO close on several items, but have to wait for some little piece that depends on someone else. There is good hope for a big one tomorrow though! Still 25 BIG ITEMS to complete- (37 done). 38 small ones to do (32 done). 17 days to go.

See Swingin' in the Rain