First quarter of the year done, and I thought I'd do a review. It always seems to me that I don't do much - when Rob calls and asks what I've been up to, my answer is always "not much" because I can't think of anything off the top of my head.
Hence, the blog. It helps me keep track of my life. So I thought I'd do a quarterly report.
The big thing was finishing the stream project. I spend a lot of time down there (that will probably become less as the heat/humidity/bug time comes). I still feel a sense of wonder and even awe that somehow this belongs to me. Sometimes I just walk, and wander around and into the woods and say hi to the frog and lizards. Often I'll read.
This book was "The House on the Cerulean Sea" and I had an epiphany at one point. There was a shy boy who liked to write, but he had his desk and typewriter in the closet because it was small and he wasn't ready to be big. And I thought about the time after one of our moves (I think I was in third grade) where it was one move too many, and Mom found me always sitting in the closet. She made me come out for meals - and she would make me come out to go to bed, but I'd move back in and sleep in the closet. It didn't last long - I emerged after 3-4 days when I felt ready to cope.
The epiphany was that I'm doing that now. I'm living in the closet; it's a *very* large closet, but it's separated and isolated and not too many people know where it is and even fewer ever come out here.
Speaking of books - 17 books so far. And all over the place. I think it's easier to say that I don't read Westerns, murder mysteries, or romance than to try to identify what I do read, which is everything else. I have attended two meetings of the local library book club; I like that there is something going on that's a 3 minute drive away rather than the usual 45+. The books are chosen by the library system. But I don't know if I can keep it up - all of the books are about social agendas and oppressed people. That's a little heavy for summer reading.
I've also been to two meetings of the Silent Book Club, and while it is the 45 minute drive, it's just so weirdly charming that I'm going to keep it up.
In general, I'm getting out more, socially, on a regular basis. Once a month after my chiropractor appointment I go visit Gill. Once a month there's lunch with a museum group. The monthly library book club, and the monthly silent book club. But I'm much more relaxed about it than I was in 2023, when I was "putting myself out there", or 2024 when my mood was "screw it, I'll be a hermit." 2023 had the goal of if I put myself out there, I will meet people and make friends and then have someone to sometimes have lunch with, or coffee, or go for a walk, or talk about projects or even collaborate on something - well, that was a flop. Didn't happen. Reached out, no one reached back. Got stood up (some 4-6 times). Hence the "screw it" attitude of 2024.
Now - no expectations. I go the the lunch, or the book club, and have an hour or so of socializing, and that's it. It's enough; I don't expect anything more. And I can skip any of them if I don't feel like going, with no one to particularly notice or care (except for the visit with Gill because she will have baked scones for me)
Other things this quarter - two root canals and a crown. Such fun.
Some months ago I made a handkerchief linen poet's shirt that I really loved - almost. It was supposed to be loose and flowing - it turned out to be a tent. I had done a boatload of handwork on it (it was a early 19th century pattern). The fabric is luscious. The color so subtle - called shadow gray, with a pink cast. But - I never wore it, because tent. So, with a sigh, I cut it apart and redid a few hours of hand work and now I can wear it, and I have.
I have also tackled a couple of light summer skirts that I haven't worn for a couple of years because the elastic waistbands had stretched out and replacing those is a royal pain in the butt and a lot more work than it seems it should be. I have a couple more in the pipeline but their turn might be next year.
One almost failed experiment. I read something about "allspice dram." Basically a liquor where you soak allspice berries in rum for a couple of weeks, then mix in sugar syrup. It's used in tiki drinks (whatever that is), but can also be sipped as a liqueur, which I find appealing (I love spiced rum). But it turned out to be *really* heavy on the allspice, and for me totally unsippable. But a dribble in tea or hot apple juice or milk is good, so at least I didn't waste the rum.
We had an ice storm, which was so pretty, but I had a hard time getting the ice off of the bridge. And as long as I was dealing with that, I cleared a heavy load of dirt, sand, and trees roots that I had been neglecting.
I finally cut down a couple of dead trees in front of the house. I got a new roof put on (and cleared a neglected upper road so that the shingle truck could get in). I went to see a live theatre musical (Young Frankenstein). I went to the Royal Hanneford circus. I was annoyed that a comb that I ordered wasn't what I wanted (the wood had a polyurethane coating) but I took the time to take care of that. I recovered the sunshade to an outdoor lounge.
I finished my 828 mile virtual walk around Iceland, and am now 100 miles into my virtual walk the length of England (so only 984 miles to go). I also did the Tree-to-Tree ropes course again.
I power washed the front deck, but alas, spring came and the leaves, pollen, and oak tassels are falling faster than I can sweep them up so the actual staining/sealing will have to wait a bit.
I did the Tree-to-Tree ropes course.
All that led up to my 3-day cocooning where I didn't do a damned thing.
So that's the quarter - summed up, it's not bad.
It's now April 5. I've done a couple more things. The weirdest was to make a couple of bear blankets. Not blankets with bear designs, but blankets for a bear. Lavern (one of the museum bears) apparently likes to cover up when she goes to sleep - she grabs tree limbs, or the packing paper from Amazon (which they give to her) and drags it over herself. Shelby gave her some pieces of burlap, which she liked, but got some of the unraveled strands wrapped around her foot. So I sewed them up to keep them from raveling. (Another museum sewing project was to sew some webbing around a metal frame to make a stretcher to carry a panther after he had been knocked out. I can't take credit for that - it was Shelby's idea, and she did most of it, but her hands got tired.)
Jeff is back in town for work, so Thursday I was able to meet him for dinner. But that made for a long day. First, I worked - and the weather is getting hot and sticky again. I came home, and, as always, went to check on the chickens, only to find that my hen Rock had died. I have no idea; I try to understand that just up and dying is something that chickens do. But I had to give her a funeral, then as a precaution clean and disinfect the coop. Then shower and go to dinner. I was tired. But that's all right - so was Jeff, and we've been friends long enough that it's OK just to sit and veg together.
The next day - Friday is normally my day of rest - I drove across town to go watch Wicked with a friend. Mostly John is a FB friend - we "met" when he had posted about really liking Halloween. I feel a little sorry for him - he's a sweet guy, but lonely. He's very obviously autistic (Asperger's), which makes it hard to make friends. And he really wanted someone to watch Wicked with him, so I did. He even got out witch hats and capes for us to wear while we watched.
So today I'm resting (sort of).
Lunchtime.
No comments:
Post a Comment