so to speak. When bringing fabric, cutting board, etc. to work on Monday didn't attract hordes of customers, I decided to pull out all the stops. I put my portable sewing machine, the cutout projects, and notions to complete said projects into the car and set up a beachhead on the back table. In days past, the aroma from heating my lunch soup brought people in and if there was something I had to get done that day there'd be a steady stream of them from open to close. These are what's called "desperate measures" I guess. We'll see how it works. Plus I'll get some Secret Sewing done.I sat on the couch the other night listening to an audiobook and finished another chemo hat. I feel bad for some (probably stupid) reason that I'm crocheting more hats than I'm knitting hats. I don't know why and I'm working on getting over it... by making more crocheted hats. Good therapy, don't you think?Now I think I'll go heat up my soup and start a sewing project all at the same time. Maybe that'll bring 'em in.
We had a lovely day yesterday. We found a bison ornament at Taylor Creek, strolled through Sam's and Copps, then went to Prime Quarter for steaks for supper. (does it say "old" that our anniversary activities were shopping and eating? probably, but we enjoyed being together, that's all that counts) We told our waitress that it was our anniversary and she brought cake. Mediocre cake, true, but still... CAKE! and she and another waitress and one of the strolling helper chefs sang us a Happy Anniversary song. It was nice. Today's Photo a Day theme is "looking up" and I took it literally, waited for the barest hint of sunrise, and looked up with the camera. I looked up both East and West and couldn't pick one so here's both. (I am in love with the sky these days--clouds, moon, sunrise & set, stars--I think I need a better camera) Oh, one of Durwood's pals drove by the other day and thought we'd had a grandchild or other happy something because of the "stork" in the yard. Tsk, it's a FLAMINGO, silly, storks are white with long yellow beaks. Totally different birds. Totally. That made me want to get the palm tree out there too but there were no yellow or green light strings at Taylor Creek. I keep thinking of ways to make the palm tree lighter both so I can carry it and so it's not so easy to blow over. I'm thinking I'll jigsaw out the centers of the fronds and triangular spaces in the trunk so that the lights can outline them; it'd lose a lot of weight plus let the wind blow through. If I can find yellow and green lights. Maybe K-Mart... Everybody's got so many holiday lawn doodads, it's crazy. The people across the street have a creche (Jesus, Mary & Joseph for any heathens reading this), Frosty, a tree, and a couple other things. It looks cool at night but it's a lot. Other neighbors have lighted coil trees, a blowup Santa on a motorcycle, a blowup Mickey, and a different Frosty, plus roof-edge lights. It's a lot too. Kinda makes Fifi feel paltry, although I do have another small flamingo DD's friend KS gave me last year when I wasn't going to put Fifi out because I was sad; that'll go out on Friday, but still... (no. flamingos are enough, Barbara. E. Nough. they're random and fun and just exactly right. you can fix up the tree for next year now that you've had an idea, so just chill. CHILL. really.) Aaaand the piledrivers are back at it out on the highway. Sheesh, will they never finish? It's a real confusing snarl of barrels and roundabouts out there. Probably good we don't have snow so they can just keep working, but get done already.
December 5--Paul Signac, Evening Calm, Concarneau, Opus 220. Claire walked along the pebble beach, not seeing the sunlight dancing like diamonds on the choppy water in the bay. She didn't hear the shouts of the children playing or the calls of the parents to come and get packed for home. All she heard was the voice in her head repeating, where's Mason, where can he have gone? Three days since he kissed her goodbye to go visit a winery someplace up in the hills behind the little cottage they'd rented across the street from the town beach. She had been too focused on her writing, too frustrated by characters who weren't doing what she wanted to pay close attention to what he'd said. Had he meant to be away for days? Why wasn't he answering his cellphone? The police were no help. They said that it wasn't against the law for an adult man to "move on." They had eyed her too familiarly, making rude faces and laughing when she'd shouted at them.
That's not good, I mean for her, not good for her. Although I suddenly wonder if there's really a Mason at all. Wouldn't that be an excellent twist? Better write that down. Okay, kiddos, I'm off to do what I mostly always do. I'm thinking of taking my sewing machine to work with me today since I "goofed off" all day yesterday with Durwood and didn't get any presents made... maybe I will. Have a nice day. God, that's lame.
-Barbara Sue
...but as of today Durwood and I have been married for 36 years. Thirty-six years, people, that's amazing. Also a long time. We exchanged cards this morning and will be going out to supper to the Prime Quarter tonight. I borrowed Porter, met my friend Skully and her dog Maggie, and we went walking after a too long hiatus. I don't know what happened to us but we stopped going early in the summer and just never started back up, and I'm determined to get back to the pavement. Porter was surely happy to see me although she did wish we were running instead of walking and she wasn't thrilled to be wearing the bridle that keeps her from pulling my back out of whack but she survived and ran around like a crazy dog once we got back into her backyard. It was a perfectly cool and sunny day for a walk, a great day to get back on the industrial part of the Baird Creek trail. Yesterday it was deader than a doornail at work, I had only one customer and she only returned a broken item to exchange for one that wasn't broken so it didn't even make a blip on the computer. *sigh* I listened to my iPod so long throughout the day that it wouldn't turn on when I wanted to listen on the drive home, and when I plugged it in to recharge the little Apple logo appeared. That never happens unless I turn it off with the switch. I did get all of the rest of the secret sewing cut out so later I can go downstairs and sew like the wind. (yeah, that'll happen, I do hardly anything "like the wind") I stopped at JoAnn Fabrics on my way home to buy a jingle bells wreath that I saw last weekend. It was marked 60% off which put it into my price range. Of course I also found ornaments that I needed to buy, one of them is of an Uncle Sam Santa looming over Mt. Rushmore. That one I had to buy because I looked in the Mt. Rushmore gift shop and the ornaments there were pitiful, cheap looking and lame. They were just as bad at Yellowstone so if anyone finds a bison or elk ornament, let me know. Hmm, maybe I'll lure Durwood out to go to Sam's and then detour over to Taylor Creek, they have unusual ornaments. Yeah, that's a good idea; just let me go and set the hook... Victory! I'll be wrapping this up while he finishes his tomato soup and gets dressed. I'm so persuasive I amaze even myself. Today's Photo a Day theme is "black and white" so I took a picture of our wedding rings this morning and sucked all the color out. Aw. (geez, our hands look old)
December 4--Mexico, Mayan, Double Whistle. "To call worshipers to the ceremony, a priest or an acolyte blew a series of notes on this pipe," the museum guide said. Marjorie was tired of trailing around in museums listening to one overly enthusiastic guide after another. She wanted to live in the culture not observe it preserved in glass cases and dusty galleries. The sun nearly blinded her when she stepped through the museo doors. She blinked to clear her vision and was amazed to recognize features of the ancient Mayans on the faces of the people in the stalls and market. Marjorie turned right when the rest of the group turned left to see if she could find a bit of living culture on her own.
I predict that her adventure is just about to begin. I'm off to find some lunch... pb&j anyone? That sounds about right. It just occurred to me that I'm eating kid food most of the time, Cheerios for breakfast and pb&j for lunch, except I have soup at work. I could have soup, there's some in the fridge. Yeah, I feel like soup. See ya.
--Barbara Sue, the old married lady
Holy moly, it's foggy today. I'm glad I only have to drive across town not across the state like W&AZ. They came to town to go to the Vikings game with DS & DIL1 and are going home today. They live in Minneapolis, the heart of Vikings territory, so I'm sure they were glad to be here, in the heart of Packers territory, to watch the Vikings lose. It kind of balances out because W&AZ went to U of MN for undergrad so they root for the... oh yeah, the Gophers when they play the Badgers of UW-M who, btw, kicked the Nebraska Cornhuskers' butt on Saturday night. Durwood kept hollering the score to me each time Wisconsin made more; he was hollering quite a bit since they won, like, 70 to some piddly number. Evidently the real Nebraska team couldn't make the game. They're usually pretty good, right? If Mom was around I could ask her but, no, she had to go and die last year. Inconsiderate. She was the real football fan (not that you're not, Aunt B, I know you are and Durwood is too, but neither of you put the "fan" in "fanatic" quite like Mom did) who kept me up to date on all the teams even though I didn't care a fig about it. Durwood commented that if I get a grandson who likes it or even worse plays it, I'll turn into a fan. He's probably right since I fell madly in love with Porter when DS & DIL1 got her and shucked a lifelong fear of dogs like a prom dress after midnight. (I love that analogy) Amazingly I'm not afraid of any dogs anymore. Go figure. Which just proves that an old dog can learn new tricks. Today's Photo a Day theme is "something you held" and the only thing I held this morning is my mug of coffee, so that's what you get. I love my coffee first thing in the morning. I only get one cup/mug full a day because I just don't tolerate caffeine that well, but one is better than none. I used to have to drink decaf and that was bearable, barely, but I like the real stuff better so I'm glad I'm back to it after a long hiatus. Last year I changed anti-depressants and couldn't find a time of day to take the pill that wouldn't put me to sleep throughout the day so I tried having just one cup of high-test coffee and, ta-da, I can stay awake and get to have REAL coffee again. Score! I hate to say this, but I'm ready for it to be snowy. It's too hard to feel all Christmas-y when it's green, foggy, and 50 degrees out. Now that Fifi's in the yard, it can snow. Lala's coming up in a couple weeks to see the light show and take the wagon ride at the Botanical Garden with me and it'll be better with snow, not a lot, not hub-deep to a Ferris wheel, but a nice snow cover that makes all the lights twinkle and shine, please.
December 3--Stefano da Verona, Three Standing Figures. Gilly and 'Nora sat at the bottom of the steps waiting for their cousin Anastasia. "Stacy's always late," said 'Nora picking at the scab on her knee. "Hm?" Gilly said. She put her finger in the book to mark her place. "Oh, yeah, she is." She craned her neck to look to see if Stacy was in the kitchen. "What's taking her so long?" 'Nora shook her head. "You know how Aunt Pen is. Stacy's room has to be House Beautiful perfect before she can come out. I'd be grown, dead, and buried before I'd get outside." Gilly nodded. "You are so right." Finally the three of them walked down to the grade school where 'Nora turned onto the track to run her daily laps. Gilly sat on the only unbroken swing to read while Stacy drew her picture. the only sounds were the rhythmic slaps of 'Nora's feet and the shouts of the baseball game in the field on the other side of the school. The shadows had shifted so that Gilly sat in the shade, and Stacy had moved on to drawing a dandelion puff. Gilly looked around. "Stacy," she said, "where did 'Nora go?" Stacy looked up and dropped her pencil. "I have no idea. She wouldn't run home without us."
No good comes next, I'm just telling you. This one I might even pursue. I need to go make myself clean and feed myself some Cheerios (you knew that was coming, didn't you?) before I go and keep the world safe from SCUBA diving. I've already loaded a cutting mat and bag of fabrics into Beverly so I can cut out projects for Christmas sewing. Watch, now that I've got a bag of things to do it'll be busy which I won't mind one little bit because the deadness of business the last few weeks has gotten to even me who is usually perfectly content to sit there with an earbud stuck in my ear and my fingers busy with yarn. Anyway, I'm outta here. Toodles.
--Barbara Sue
Ta-da! I got Fifi the 9-foot tall flamingo's lights replaced with LEDs and put her out in the yard. It was a nice day, not sunny but not too chilly, so I could work comfortably in the garage in just a hoodie. I have a 12-foot tall palm tree too, but it's way too heavy for me to carry to put it up anymore, plus this house's front yard isn't flat so it's a real trick to getting the tree and flamingo to stay up AND there were no green or yellow LED lights at Target yesterday anyway (only $8/string, I couldn't not buy them). When people ask (as our renter did today) why the flamingo, I tell them that I'm rebelling against traditional Christmas themes. Besides everybody and his brother has Santa or reindeer or Frosty, even gingerbread men. I like to be unique. Nobody else has Fifi; too bad for them. Yesterday I took some kohlrabi leaves over to Henny & Penny. They like leaves; they come out of their roost clucking and kind of purring when you give them yummy leaves. That also gave me an excuse to play with Porter for a while. Since DS & DIL1 have stopped asking us to come over to let her out when they're at work I don't get to play with her much, and I've stopped borrowing her for walks. I need to get back into the habit. I'm sure she misses me, or maybe it's just the treats in my pocket she misses. There was a home Packer game today (I hear that they won) and two lovely Navy F-18s from California flew by nice and slow and LOUD. It said in the paper that they put a "pilot cam" on one of the planes and broadcast it on the jumbotron in the stadium. I told DD about it hoping that they'd broadcast it on the TV too. Don't know if they did. I'm really counting the days (26) until DD & DIL2 come home for the holidays. We don't get to see them often enough, not often enough at all. I saw a young woman in Walmart yesterday who looked kind of like DIL2 and I'm sure I was staring and smiling at her enough that she thought I was some kind of loon, but I'm not, well, not too much. I just wish I could see them more. I miss them. Yes, DD and I talk every Sunday but it's not the same as being able to just spend casual time together. Today's Photo a Day theme is "peace" and the first place I thought of is the new labyrinth up at The Clearing. It's tucked in a circle of trees with old stone walls describing the original homestead's yard. It's a lovely peaceful place.
December 2--Stefano da Verona, Three Standing Figures. Gillian always had a book in her hand. Her mother was sure that she would grow stooped like an old woman but Gilly was tall and strong. Eleanora ran everywhere. No mater where she was or how she was dressed 'Nora ran. "Ladies don't run," Mother said, but 'Nora didn't care to be a lady she just wanted to run.
And that was that last night. I was good and tired when I got to bed. It felt great to scribble just a few words and then snuggle with Durwood and fall asleep. Now it's just getting dark and Fifi's lights just turned on (they're on a timer) so the whole neighborhood can bask in her tall pinkness. Next weekend we may just put up the tree. It's not traditional either. Are you surprised? I didn't think so.
--Barbara Sue
I was moving Beverly, my car, so that Durwood could leave to meet friends for breakfast and a morning of chat, that's what I was doing. And I'm telling and showing you that because "8 o'clock" is the Photo a Day theme for today and I don't want to wait until 8 o'clock tonight to take the picture. I'm so glad that Tanya posted about doing Photo a Day way back in May or June. I've really enjoyed taking a daily photo or digging back into my archives for the perfect shot. (huh, look at that, I have archives, I must be cool... or a hoarder... nah, cool) It has helped me to really look at my surroundings every day. It has renewed my appreciation for small things like raindrops in the birdbath, clouds, sunRISES (I always appreciated sunsets), "our" Cooper's Hawk that landed on the fence yesterday, and ol' Durwood. Poor man, he gets to be my morning photo subject too often for his taste, I'm sure, but he's a good sport, that Durwood. I need to get a move on with this, hop (okay, ease) onto the exer-cycle, pedal a few miles, shower, and... and do stuff. We had kohlrabi for a veg last night and we saved the leaves so I can take them over to Henny & Penny. "The ladies" like leaves and we like their eggs. Maybe I'll stop by the pet food store for a squeaky ball for Porter. I can't go with treats for the grand-chickens without one for the grand-dog too, that would be mean. I want to strip the sheets so I can be laundering them this afternoon when I'm downstairs doing secret sewing (teeheehee) and I want to see about getting a new cellphone battery at Radio Shack or maybe Walmart. God, I hate going to Walmart on the weekend. It's so crowded any old day and now that it's getting to be Christmas AND there's a home Packer game tomorrow, it'll be a zoo. And not a zoo in the happy sense of the word either. A battery'll probably cost almost as much as the phone did but I'd really rather not have to transfer all my numbers, etc. so I'll look into it. The phone's not holding a charge like it used to. But then who is? Certainly not me.
December 1--Alfred Sisley, The Road from Versailles to Louveciennes. The storm chased her all the way home. Riva felt it like a creature growling and pushing the air before it. She heard the far-off roll of thunder and the nearing hiss of falling rain, and lifted her skirts and ran to stay ahead of it. For its part, the storm seemed to delight in pelting her ankles with grit and gravel, and sending leaves to skitter alongside her before the gusty wind. The trees along the road flung themselves in a frenzy, shaking their branches and flinging twigs to patter down in the dry grass. She ran faster letting the wind push her along, happy to see the golden porch light wink at her through the shifting shadows.
Now you and I both know that poor Riva isn't going to make it to the light dry and unmolested, right? Right. Can you say "foreshadowing"? Can you say "over-active imagination"? Fun, isn't it. I'm off to pedal my ass... to nowhere.
--Barbara
so to speak. When bringing fabric, cutting board, etc. to work on Monday didn't attract hordes of customers, I decided to pull out all the stops. I put my portable sewing machine, the cutout projects, and notions to complete said projects into the car and set up a beachhead on the back table. In days past, the aroma from heating my lunch soup brought people in and if there was something I had to get done that day there'd be a steady stream of them from open to close. These are what's called "desperate measures" I guess. We'll see how it works. Plus I'll get some Secret Sewing done.
