More Random Stuff

 Nine days have slipped by since the last post.  I was writing then about just really missing Bob.  That comes in waves.  I will always miss him - that's a given - but there are times that it's almost crippling and all I can do is cocoon for awhile until I can function again.

I'm slowly crawling back.  Adrianne saw a really good buy on a table loom in Thomasville (the next town over, in Georgia).  She doesn't know anything about looms, so we went together to check it out - and she got it.  There's also a really nice yarn shop in Thomasville so we cruised through that as well.

I almost got myself a new yard tool.  I'm pretty good at taking out the underbrush with a swing sickle - but there's a *lot* of underbrush.  There's a brush cutter in the barn - sort of a scary thing, like an overgrown weed whacker, but with a circular saw blade instead of a string.  It hasn't been used in years, so before I do I'll need to take it to the shop to get the motor checked out and buy the right type of fuel.

And I thought the heck with it.  I'm very fond of my battery weed whacker and my battery mower, so I thought I would get myself a battery brush cutter.  No one in town carries them, so as a red-blooded American, I ordered one off of Amazon.
What a cheap (not inexpensive, but cheap) piece of unsafe crap!  Except for the whirling metal blade, it looked and felt like a plastic child's toy.  It had almost no torque at all, so as soon as I tried to cut anything it slowed way down.  But when I wasn't cutting, the blade went dangerously fast, considering the thin plastic shielding around it.  After experimenting for a few minutes I decided that this was a good way of cutting my feet off at the ankles - so I had to dismantle and repack the thing and return it.  Such a disappointment.  Guess I'll get the gas one worked on.

I finally started work on a puppet.  I've been wanting to make one for several months, but couldn't come up with a vision.  The dragon puppet is such a classic - but I didn't want another dragon.  I'm going to try to make a griffin.  I don't have the whole thing planned yet, but I started on the head and I can think of where to go from there as I work on it.  Rather than start from scratch, I thought I'd check with my favorite cosplay designer (Kamui) to see if she had a bird skull pattern.  Yes, she does - and it's in a packet of patterns that I bought a couple of years ago (it's where I got the skull for my dragon) It's good to have a stash.  Bird head is started.

(While I'm posting pictures, here's a less than stellar one of my new poet's shirt.  I really should get a mirror other than having to use the one in the bathroom.  The color is hard to define - it's gray with a pink cast.  Wearing handkerchief linen feels positively luxurious.  And I'm pleased with the bit of fancy work that I did on the sleeves)

Last, but not least, I went to yet another circus - that's three in as two months.  The first was the wholesome family-friendly one.  That's the one where I almost didn't go because I didn't want to go alone - got my friend Joe to agree to meet me there, but then he fell asleep and didn't make it.   Although at first I felt a little out-of-place because a) I think I was the only person there alone, and b) looking around, I think I was the oldest person there - it was mostly families with young kids.   But I soon realized that I was the only person who noticed these things.

So when it came time for the FSU circus, I had not qualms about going alone.  I enjoyed the show, and Faith was happy that I had come and got to see her perform.

So when I saw that the Cirque Paranormal was coming to town, I didn't hesitate to grab a ticket.  It's the opposite of the first, family friendly circus.  In fact, anyone under 18 isn't allowed in without a parent or guardian, and under 13 isn't allowed in at all.  It a cross between a circus and a haunted house, and R rated.  And a blast.

Would I have liked to have someone to go with?  Sure.  But that doesn't seem to be what's happening in my life at the moment, and I'm not letting the circuses pass me by.