Tuesday, January 21, 2014

Jeez Louise, It's Cold Out There

I popped out to top up the birdbath an hour ago and almost froze my tinkie off (I should really put on pants to do that).  I love that the clouds have fled, the sky is a pale blue, and the sun's shining like it really means it, but holy bejeebers it's cold out there.  I will still go out, of course.  I have a few tanks to take for service, I need to cash my paycheck (oh, I love my paycheck, I've gotten a dollar more every week so far this year, woohoo!), Durwood has an Rx that needs picking up, and I see he's made me a grocery list to fill at the same time.  (what would he do without me?  I'm the intrepid one around here, no cold keeps me housebound, it has to be my stubborn Germanic genes.)  When I flipped the shade up this morning it looked like a winter calendar page out the window so I snapped a shot.  How come everything's so much farther away and smaller in the camera?  Why doesn't it ever look like it does to my eyes?  Can anyone 'splain me that?

After I go out and freeze my hoohoos off I want to go downstairs and put the Chaos quilt-back together so I can take it, the top, the batting, and my box of bent safety pins to work with me so I can use the big open floor area in back to lay it out, spray baste it, and pin baste it this week.  (I should have some of those floor installers' knee pads or wrestlers' pads or something to keep my knees from paining me, hmm, wonder if Play It Again Sports has those for cheap)  I'm determined to finish that quilt because I haven't finished the 2012 Block of the Month one, haven't even finished the top.  I need to have a Finished Object in my quilt column and soon, since I plan to undertake a quilt top project when DD's home for a visit next month (or maybe the month after) and having three UnFinished sewing Objects would be just wrong.  Not that I don't have at least that many yarn-y UFOs lurking down there but I think three big fabric UFOs would set a dangerous precedent.  I'm "making" myself finish glove #2 (I've got about an inch of thumb left to knit plus close the holes between the fingers and weave in the tails) before I cast on another project so I am working to develop better finish-itis in the new year.  *nods firmly*

This is not to say that my plan to stop (or greatly curtail) eating snacks and other fatty (cheesy, sugary, yummy) things hasn't run off the rails in the three weeks of 2014 because those plans have already crashed and burned, but I need to wrestle control of some part of my life.  Don't I?  (say yes)  There's fewer repercussions from having more fabric UFOs than optimum than stuffing my face until I need to buy all new clothes and can't go snowshoeing or walking or playing with LC (when she's a little more active and less like a jelly bean) so I'm going to be putting in effort both ways and hope for the best.  Also (a tiny bit) smaller hips (or maybe just maintain what I'm currently hauling around) AND a finished quilt would be an awesome way to end January.  (Pay no attention to the woman behind the screen, "self-delusion" seems to be her middle name and "own worst enemy" is her confirmation name.)  Gah.  Moving on.

January 21--Alfred Stieglitz, Waldo Frank.  You could smell the desperation on him from across the room.  He sat on the painted wooden chair in his brown herringbone wool suit, white shirt, and tie tapping the toe of his right shoe and smoothing a folded newspaper on his lap.  There was just the one job open and he didn't have much of a chance.  Desperation never got anyone a job.

Now's the time for braving the cold and getting back here to play with fabric in the basement.  Adios, muchachos.
--Barbara

1 comment:

Aunt B said...

OK -- you nearly froze your tinkie because you didn't have ANY pants on??? I somehow doubt that. Beautiful picture out your window though. The snow looks good from way down here on the Cape Fear!