Music, Mervin, Mystery, and Phew!

 Music of the day is "Creep" by Radiohead, because my favorite a capella group (VoicePlay) just did a cover of it.  I can't do a link yet because so far it's just a sneak preview for patreons - but there are a lot of other covers out there.  I've always rather liked this song - the style is somewhere between rock and soft jazz, and the lyrics are very relatable.  Back story - guy sees girl, guy wants to talk to girl, guy doesn't think he's good enough to talk to girl.  Hence the refrain "But I'm a creep, I'm a weirdo.  What the hell am I doing here?  I don't belong here.  I wish I was special."

And who hasn't felt like that?  That part I'm familiar with.  But there was a line I hadn't noticed before, and once again found myself unexpectedly triggered:

I want you to notice

When I'm not around

Because I used to have that - someone to notice if I was running late, or not in the house.  These days I have the snug app for that.  Somehow, it's not the same.

Anyway - the griffin puppet (Mervin) is coming along a lot more slowly than I would like, considering that the Infinity Con is next Saturday, which gives me four working days to finish it.  Part of the problem is that I sort of lost momentum in general, partly the change in weather.  Even though I have AC (also in the cottage), when the weather is brutal (is 108 heat index brutal?  Yes, it is) I sort of feel like I'm hiding from some large smothering beast who is huffing through any cracks, and waiting to catch me in an oppressive embrace if I open a door.  I feel trapped inside, and a bit stressed.  And I'm making this puppet out of felted wool, which seemed Like A Good Idea At The Time.

But I yanked my bootstraps, and went walking out to the cottage in abovesaid 108 soggy humid degrees.  But as I passed by the barn, I smelled That Smell.  The smell of death and decay.  And heard the buzzing of hundreds of flies.

Dozens of acres of woods surround me - and the damned possum had to go die in the barn.   And I couldn't just go into denial and ignore it, because in this heat (and with those flies) by another day it was going to be a pile of maggoty ooze.  So I dealt with it.

This is not, however, one of those cases where I piteously thought "this didn't use to be my job."  Because Bob actually had a weak stomach when it came to such things - couldn't be anywhere near a stench.  So such nastiness has always been my job (he would at least thank me for doing it - now it is a thankless task)

But I finally got to the cottage, to one again confront a mystery.  This is a whisk broom, lying on the floor. 

That is not where I keep it.  It's kept leaning against the side of the storage shelf, about four feet away (because "put a nail to hang it on" has been on the things-to-do list for a few years now).  Three days in a row I came in to find it here instead (I forgot to go check today - too tired after working at the museum).  This time, it was joined by a couple of pieces of foam core board which are kept about four feet away in the other direction.

I know I have mice in the cottage, but this is a bit of a job for a mouse.  And why would they drag the broom to the same spot each day?  I have some sort of strange poltergeist.

Despite these weirdnesses, work on Mervin actually went well yesterday.  As mentioned above, I was too tired after my museum morning (although as one of my co-volunteers noted - it wasn't that bad today - 92 degrees, 101 heat index - both about 7 degrees cooler than the past two days, and that does make a difference).  I do have some hands stitching to do on him this evening.   Hopefully tomorrow will go well and I can finally post some progress pictures.