It’s September, my favorite month of the year. I’ve been in school for so much of my life, either attending or teaching, that for me September means the start of something new, infinite possibilities. Except this September I’m still scrambling to deal with the old while I start the new. We’re still working on Vermillion while I’m trying to rewrite Rocky Start. I’m sorting through boxes of my old life in NJ, trying to figure out what fits into my new life in PA. I’m neither here nor there. But I’m working on it.
What are you working on this week?
I’m in Delphos, Ohio for a three day meeting with a client. There are a lot of cornfields here: I feel like I’m trapped in a Stephen King novel.
If you hear banjos, run. Do not look back.
I need that cool vest that Burt wore. Where can I get one?
Walmart? Goodwill?
I’m working on getting in to the swing of things regarding the kids being back in school (and the oldest started high school this year, so that’s new!), which also means that my work day starts and ends an hour later because I’m driving them to school again.
It is amazing how much more things you get done with an extra hour at home in the evenings, and I’m going to miss it!
I spent the weekend in a little cabin in southern Virginia, quilting with my friends. We were very productive!
https://www.instagram.com/p/Cw2MNBTuQ4R/
The first image is the Tequila Lime quilt I’ve been working on for a while. I finally got all the pieces done, and I spent a good deal of time pulling all the paper out from behind the pieces. Sunday morning I put it together. Now it will go into the pile of things I need to quilt, so don’t expect to see it again for a year or two!
The next several are pieces of Goodnight Star. It doesn’t look like much but this was pretty much half of my time, between cutting, sewing, unsewing, resewing and careful scrutinizing to make sure I hadn’t made additional mistakes.
Finally, I pulled out a package I’d bought at a quilt show – three one-yard cuts of fabric with three different patterns I could choose to construct it. I pondered the patterns (and asked for advice), and then cut and constructed the top in a day. I think it looks pretty good, although I don’t know that I would have chosen these fabrics to go together myself.
I got home Sunday evening to be able to spend Monday with DH. Monday night, he found out that his brother felt sick, positive for Covid Tuesday morning. DH always spends Sunday mornings with his mom and brother, so he’s been exposed. So, now I’m waiting to see what happens.
That Tequila Lime quilt is stunning !
Wow! They’re gorgeous!
Good work! I like the Tequila quilt the most. I hope the exposure was too early to affect DH or you.
I’m so sorry to hear about his Covid exposure. When we caught it last winter, it wasn’t as bad as I had worried.
The Tequila Lime quilt is my favorite so far. Lovely.
The Goodnight Star is going to be lovely. (I like the Tequila Star but there’s something about polka dots.)
I hope the Covid exposure comes to nothing.
It’s a beautiful quilt, Nancy.
Agreed. That quilt looks wonderful.
I hope everyone manages to stay healthy and avoid Covid exposure.
Jenny, good luck sorting all the boxes from your move! I don’t know of anyone who got rid of all excess items before moving…I had good intentions but had so much excess stuff that when I first moved in to a 3 bedroom house with my sweetie (Gary) to follow, he asked “Where will my stuff fit?”
I found him to be the “third time’s the charm” reward for persistence trying to find a good guy.
He danced, he cooked, he would start picking up before cleaning (you bet I joined in on that activity), he had a great sense of humor, was highly intelligent, taught me to use power tools while we re-built a deck at his cabin (in northern CA – 3 miles from Cobb), then lost him to early onset Alzheimer’s in 2016 (brutal disease).
Theresa, i know it’s been 7 years but sorry for your loss.
Thanks. Grief was worst in the first couple of years, but the occasional sneak attack via memory can get to a person at unexpected times or places. A year after my brother Don died I was in a bookstore with a friend and startled her by bursting into tears. I hadn’t been in that bookstore since the last time Don visited when we popped in and out of a few stores. Taf
Wonderful work! I hope your DH and you are able to avoid getting sick.
Nancy H — Friends and family are getting exposed to and sometimes getting COVID at a much higher rate than we’ve had for a year. The strange part is the number of people actually coming down with it after being exposed: a friend her husband spent 10 days with 24 people and 1 came down with COVID towards the end. Two years ago, all 28 would have come down with the disease.
Crossing my fingers that you husband and you don’t become sick! Or, if you do, that you have mild cases.
I think getting vaccinated helped many of us have resistance to catching Covid. I hope you all stay healthy, or in the worst case have a mild illness that does not last long. Taf
I love the teal one that looks like squared off targets. That’s some finicky piecing or appique.
I’m in an in between time, too – back home for a week between trips, but it’s too amazingly sunny to waste it working indoors, and too hot after about noon to work outside. So I’ve been doing as much gardening as I can, and then sitting in the shade reading up on how best to research lost rights of way.
Excited about next week’s holiday in Scotland with two old friends. The one whose brother’s just died is able to make it after all, and I’m hoping for days at the seaside or exploring bookshops and galleries – and that the break will help her after an incredibly stressful month or so.
Jane, what do you mean by lost rights of way. Just curious.
So, in English common law there’s a principle: ‘Once a highway, always a highway’. So if a public footpath existed in 1543, it’s still a public footpath, even if it’s not marked on modern maps. All rights of way were supposed to be recorded in the 1950s, but a lot weren’t – especially in rural counties such as Shropshire, where powerful landowners were in charge of the process. There are tens of thousands of miles not on the map, and the government’s planning to put an end to the common law principle in 2031. So volunteers are researching the lost ways so they can apply for each one to be recognized and added to the map. There are footpaths, bridleways and roads to be found, but you have to prove they exist by finding records of them in old maps and legal documents.
That sounds fascinating, Jane.
I’m getting a bit bogged down reading about all the different types of evidence, where to find them and how useful they are. Really, I want to get stuck into looking at C18 enclosure maps on parchment (the colours are amazing) and other jammy stuff like that.
Sounds a bit like Adverse Possession where a landowner can creep in and gain extra land just by using it and then after a while claim it.
I’m finishing up the current Llewellyn book, while also promoting the one coming out Friday, in theory. In reality, apparently they released it a couple of days early, so I’m scrambling a little to promote it. Sigh.
Also too hot to garden, so I’m going to try and get my walk in early, then run some errands before coming back to do more writing.
The air quality this morning was 106, which is bad, so I took a short walk. In a few hours, I meet the ENT. I hope he has a quick and simple solution for the sinus problem. It’s still here, after more than 8 weeks, but much better. Then, tonight is the Harry Potter/Kansas City symphony movie night. I’m looking forward to it. It finally cooled off! It actually felt like fall out there this morning.
I am working on our taxes (we always have to take an extension because DH’s former employer where he gets some annual payment for another year is always late); on updating our will and financial records; on moving sone of my mom’s finances to a company that can file accurate tax forms; on final clean up from the August parties and many house guests; and on a number of day job things.
I’m also working on grieving the death of my friend and working through the sadness that she was willing to put up with a spouse who didn’t care about her work and accomplishments and didn’t even believe her (entirely accurate) reporting about the craziness at our joint employer. I knew their marriage was very difficult at times but wasn’t expecting this complete lack of appreciation for her strengths. I’m very grateful her brothers seem to have loved and valued her; her brother made it clear that her parents preferred her brothers to her. Her early and unnecessary death and sad life will haunt me. I am having dinner Saturday with the last living friend of our group of four.
Debbie, how sad. Mama was not the preferred daughter neither was my aunt. My grandmother came from a family of five girls, no boys in a very French Quebec. Mama was lovely with babies. Adults not so much. May your friend rest in peace.
…French Quebec family.
Missed a word.
My mind supplied it. I had to go back and look to see what you meant. I make a terrible proofreader.
Sheerest happenstance – I sent out my “I Aten’t Ded” email to all the family I know. I do that periodically. My niece, Alicia, replied with, “As an aside, I’ll be in Montreal and Quebec City in a few weeks. I know your mom’s people were from there. Any knowledge you can drop on me?”
I couldn’t, but I told her to contact my brother, her uncle Bill, who among our family is closest to “the historian.” His reply:
Thank you.
Debbie, I’m sorry for your loss. It’s tragic that your friend was unappreciated, and it’s especially wonderful that you and the remaining members of your group can remember her together.
Thanks
So sorry for your loss, it is difficult at any time, but extra bad when early! Glad to know she had appreciative brothers. Keep existing friends, but also try to make a few more. A good network of friends makes the tough parts of life easier to cope with instead of sitting alone wailing, whining and carrying on…
So true. I’m very lucky to have a wide set of friends…but this loss is still particularly difficult.
I was talking about my early experiences with grief when I mentioned wailing, whining and carrying on, did not intend to sound insulting… Taf
Ah. Thanks
We’re having an actual week of summer here, so ambitions are tempered by the heat. No, I don’t have to vacuum, today. The dirt’s not going anywhere.
Going to research an assistive communication device for my mom, to help her communicate without speaking. Anyone here have some experience with those?
I’m doing the light board for Something Rotten, and it’s tech week. Thankfully this is a fun show to watch a lot of times and most of it’s not hard to do–just one page is difficult 😛
I finished the vest I’ve been working on for over a year, I’m trying to finish a shawl I’ve been doing for months but keep having to pull out for stitch problems. I’m looking forward to starting an overalls pattern I ordered awhile back but they aren’t releasing it until either this week or next week (supposedly today but I haven’t heard anything), grumble grumble.
It’s hot here; after a couple of fall like weeks weather wise, it feels even hotter. I got the lawn mowed this morning as I will be going out of town for my 50th big school class reunion and won’t have a chance to do it until Monday at the earliest. Yesterday I spent slowly (heat!) compost bins I had put in several years go. They were falling apart and need to be replaced. The worst was clearing out the composting materials. I had put (clearly not a good idea, looking back) all the roots etc in there from when I dug up old garden beds and they have not decomposed nearly enough to make it easy to get them out.
I can’t claim to have worked at anything. On the one hand, all work and no play make Gary a dull spear. On the other hand, The only play has been at MS Solitaire. I have a 267 game win record in all five of the common games. No losses. Set on “easy.”
Back in the day, I laughed at a Master Chief for cheating at solitaire. He explained that the purpose of the game was not winning, but wasting time, and that ignoring someone else’s silly rules just made wasting time easier. 🙂
Solitaire on the phone is my go-to when I’m waiting. It’s fairly mindless and fun.
This morning I picked the fruit from my garden – tomatoes, peppers, and raspberries. Sadly, I’d waited a bit too long and some of the tomatoes had rotted on the vine. I then processed the tomatoes by peeling them and turning them into a sauce that will be frozen. I ate the raspberries. 😋
I also have dinner prepped. We’re still working on wrapping the car. Hopefully, we’ll get the both bumpers done this afternoon/evening, but I suspect getting 1 done is a more realistic expectation. We’re also considering wrapping the rocker panel, which is the part under the doors. It’s really long and we don’t have pieces of vinyl long enough to do it. We’d have to use 2 pieces per side and have a seam, which we’ve been avoiding. We are leaving the handles and antenna black, so they could be nice accents. I have a poll going on instagram, but I’m not sure my photo does the difference in the panels justice. Thank you to those at Argh who have already shared an opinion!
https://www.instagram.com/p/Cw1CpGnRt6r/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==
In order to do all this, I took a day off from the day job.
Wow! That looks great! No wrinkles! How did you accomplish that?
Kelly, I agree with Jan, you did a great job wrapping your car! No more effort needed, it looks wonderful as it is now. Taf
The pictures are amazing. I say leave it black.
I was going to suggest the same thing, but then I saw the side view including the frontmost portion of the rocker panel, so as a result, I think that doing those with a seam makes most sense to me. Under the door, black is fine, but I’d like the section that goes up to meet wrapped section to match.
Just my two cents….
It looks amazing, Kelly – I had no idea this was possible. I say leave the rocker panel black.
I vote leave it black. I am so impressed. Trying not to add this to the very long list of things I may never get around to.
Today Working Wednesday is aptly named. At least for me. The washing machine decided not to cooperate and stopped running in the middle of a cycle. I took all the clothes out and brought them upstairs to hand finish a rinse and hang them outside while my husband looked at the manual. He couldn’t find anything that applied in trouble shooting and suggested calling the appliance store. Which I did and got an appointment for Friday. After an hour he went downstairs and threw in some towels in the washer and the machine started to work again. It was over its snit. I’m going to wait until tomorrow to call and cancel just on the off chance it happens again.
Yesterday was a day off my job so I woke up early (for me) and went to the pool first thing. It was good.
Since then I have been writing. That went well.
I am working on a collage for a particular poem I’m writing. Later today I am going to have fun taking pictures of shoes. Then I’m going to print them so I can cut them out to add to the collage.
I’m also working on my blog. I enabled comments. I want to have an RSS feed and a subscription button but Blogger doesn’t do those anymore so I have to find a third party.
I’ve started budgeting hard in preparation for buying a house next year.
Will need a trip to Staples for printing & the grocery store because we need a few things for the chili supper Liz has planned for us.
Today is also a day off from my job so I think I might need a sandwich and a nap before leaving the house.
Oh, and a plan is in the works for a trip to the Dali museum which is about 20 minutes from home on September 21st to experience the current installment. Yay!
All is well so far.
I’ve just started a new job after nearly fifteen years out of paid employment, and it’s using muscles I’d forgotten I had.
Good luck!
Hope it goes well, Emily.
Good luck with your new job! After a lot of muscle work, a long soak in an almost hot tub (very warm water) helps. Use a lot of body lotion to keep your skin in good shape. The other thing that helps is drinking enough liquid for the next few days to flush your muscles clear of the substances that cause soreness. I mostly had jobs that featured built in exercise which beats sitting around all day! Taf
Congrats! In case you’ve got a standing job, support knee socks cannot be beat. Actually, they’re a good idea for a sitting job, too.
Today I returned to the gym after most of 4 weeks (we were traveling). Stretching my muscles and joints felt SO good.
At home, I walked the 9+/- acres that had been treated to remove bittersweet and similar non-native invasive plants. The work was done while I was away; it was done very well.
BEST OF ALL: A friend told me she’s starting this year’s version of her writing critique class tomorrow and I signed up on the spot! This is amazing and wild and scary and wonderful. Now I have to write.
I’m slowly recovering from the respiratory affliction, to the extent that I can manage a couple of hours work a day if I take lots of rests, so I’m back into the new kids’ novel, second draft, trying to work out exactly what I need to keep and what to throw out. I really like this stage of things. Also prepping some talks and workshops for the end of the year.
And cancelling school visits for the next couple of weeks because although the brutal throat pain has gone (thank you, steroids), I still can’t talk. This is Day 6 of complete silence and I’m finding it very isolating. My friends and neighbours are great, but I don’t want to infect them, and interpretive dance only goes so far in communicating. Right now I’m trying to see this as a bump in the road rather than a terminal disaster. My voice WILL come back eventually.
The good thing about this enforced rest is that it has allowed me to dive down some interesting rabbit holes in online articles, with links to other interesting links.
Plus the reading, of course. SO much reading!
I have to stop speed reading. I was trying to figure out if a raspberry affliction was like hives or just eating too many raspberries or even a really horrible rash. Then I reread your comment and discovered it was a respiratory affliction. Get well soon.
Jessie, I’m sure a raspberry affliction would be SO much more palatable! Can I swap please?
May I interrupt this working Wednesday to announce that some of Embassy London’s funky sneakers are on sale for for about half price ?
I won’t have another four-day weekend till Thanksgiving, so I made the most of this one. Did a tiny bit of yardkeeping and a TON of writer bizness. Also some personal bizness, like the online drivers-license renewal.
Today I have to tell someone I can’t do a review for them because they don’t post negative reviews and this one would be that. Alas.
Have nothing to ‘show’ for all my work except I’ve launched my first wide release (F/M but fairly queer romance Lost & Found). It was a learning experience, for sure.
A day of cleaning and thinking about Board of Election business. It’s amazing how much mental time and energy that board takes. And it’s true: all politics is local.
I’m on vacation in Yellowstone, but coincidentally this was the day of my vacation that required some work. Of course, I could do it all on my iPhone while sitting and waiting for my favorite geysers to erupt, so it wasn’t all bad.
I just love this place. Too bad I have to leave tomorrow!