The days are dark and gray. Heavy, thick clouds hang so low that there is little difference between morning, day and evening. Even in the middle of the day it is so dim that I have to turn on the lights inside, although I sit right next to a window.

I wish there was sunlight, at least. There isn’t much else to be happy about, or to look forward to.

I wish there was something to look forward to.

I’ve come out of October’s slump where I had no energy at all. I think I may have the exercise challenge to thank for much of that change.

Now that I have more energy, though, what do I do with it? Indoors I am restless. Outdoors all is mud and gray. I thought of going on another longer hike but there’s only 8 hours of daylight, what would I do with the other 16?

Another long and energetic walk. This time I had the foresight to start my walk in daylight, but it was dark by the time I got home.

The plants in the window in my home office corner are outgrowing their space. I bought them for my large window niche at the tretton37 office, where they would have plenty of room. Now they’re squeezed onto a narrow window ledge. And since my home office is in the same room as our bedroom, we pull down the blinds every night, so the plants can’t be allowed to spread outside their narrow space. I’ve already had to move one to a different window because it grew too large. Others will soon need to follow. If not now, then in the spring, when the nights will be lighter and it will no longer be enough to pull down the blinds until they just touch the tops of the plants.

Not that their disappearance here would make much of a difference. I can barely see them behind the huge monitor that takes up much of my field of view.

The home office still feels like a semi-temporary solution. Or 25% temporary perhaps. OK for another year, but not for 10 years. I’d want to make more adjustments if this were to become permanent.

It’s hard to know how long to plan for. The coronavirus situation will resolve itself one way or another – vaccines are on their way, even if not within touching distance yet. But how much time will I be spending in an office after that?

I took a long and refreshing walk to Tensta and back. I think I need to go hiking soon again, even though it’s so gray outside.

For a very brief moment around 11 o’clock, there was sunshine. By the time I had gotten my camera and put on shoes, it had disappeared, but there was still a thinner patch of clouds and the day felt light.

The brown things are hydrangea flowers. The round thing is a poppy seed pod. And the flowering thing is a flowering quince, confused by the unseasonably warm weather.

When I had come about halfway on the first sock, I ripped up all I’d done and started over. And then I did it again when I had done two thirds of a sock. Today I started on my third try and finally it feels right.

It’s just a pair of socks, how hard can it be! It’s not like I haven’t knitted any before. And it’s not like I don’t have a pattern to follow. But getting the fit right with a new yarn still takes some trial and error.

The first time the ribbing around the calf looked ugly when stretched out.

The second attempt with more stitches looked better but fit worse – it was way too loose around the heel and ankle. (The socks are not for me but my feet are the closest so I try them on my own feet anyway… The difference in width isn’t huge.)

For the third attempt I am using the lower stitch count again, like the first time, but 1×1 ribbing instead of 2×2 – and now I’m happy with both the fit and the looks.

With my previous attempts I kept guessing and trying it on and hesitating. I kept putting the knitting away because it didn’t feel quite right. Now that there is a feel of rightness about the whole thing, progress is fast. Although I started from zero today, after an evening of knitting I’m back where I was yesterday evening.

I ran across a suitable workout video after all. The best thing about it was that it had exercises that I never normally do. I used muscles that I normally don’t exercise much, or perhaps just used them in novel ways, and was surprised at how weak I felt.

The other best thing about it was the host, Raneir Pollard – funny, enthusiastic and heart-warmingly nice.

Another day of running errands by bike – to Sundbyberg and back. The route there is not very inspiring since it mostly runs parallel to large roads, but it’s easy to follow and never crowded. And it’s got some significant hills, which is good from the point of view of working out.

My favourite socks are ready for wear again. One hole and one very thin place are now properly darned. That thin place could have done with a slightly larger mend but as usual I underestimated how much yarn I would need and ran out a bit too early.

Following my tentative workout plan, Wednesday is strength day. I made up another circuit today, similar to Monday’s.

The circuits seem to work pretty well. I am sweaty and completely out of breath by the end of them and slightly sore the next day. The YouTube video I followed last week was too low intensity for my taste. They alternated 30 seconds of exercise with 30 seconds of rest, whereas my own circuit is 45/15. The rest should only be long enough to look at the list of exercises to see what’s up next, and pick up the weights or move into position. I’m not here to rest!

There is probably a YouTube channel with the perfect workout videos for me – 30 to 40 minutes, high intensity, low impact, doable with the weights and equipment I have – but right now I’m not interested in investing the time in finding one.

Photo here.