A Bit of Whimsy, More Socializing, and Other Odds and Ends

 Sometimes I start my mornings swathed in golden silk.

Which sounds better than going out to feed the chickens and getting a facefull of spider webs.  I do wish they could build just a little bit higher.

My wendigo puppet has changed directions.  I've been putzing at this one for a year or so now - starting with making the deer skull head.  But it wasn't clicking for me.  Wendigos are so "been there, done that."  It would have to be skeletal, likely corpsed (I love that for Halloween prop builders, the word "corpse" can be a verb).  Nothing that I haven't done.
Then I heard about Leszys - from Slavic folklore - who are guardians of the forest, often depicted with a deer skull head.  But they look like they grew - very tree like.  Figuring out how to do that will be the challenge. 

 So I've been working on the head while thinking how to do everything else.  It's made of EVA foam, but I wanted a tree bark texture.  Taking what I learned from making Rocky, I covered it in crumpled Amazon packing paper (which might be my new favorite medium).  I even twisted antlers that look like vines out of it.  So far, I'm happy.  And I love being in the cottage working again.

Now that I'm thinking in terms of Slavic mythology, I seem to have company in the cottage.  I have rubber floor mats around my workbench - the type with crenellations around the edges.  I happened to look down - and saw that something was looking back.

I'm not quite sure how a googly eye got there- but I like to think of it as a curious domovoy (Slavic household spirit) keeping an eye on me.

Most of my evening have only the cats to interact with - so my mind was frying a little bit one night when I realized that I was simultaneously having an online chat about puppets with one person, another chat with John, texting with Gill, and playing online Scrabble with a fourth person.

I also socialized in Real Life today.  A month ago I posted that I met two other women at a cafe for spinning last month.  We enjoyed it enough that we did it again today (with another person), and have scheduled it for next month.  That was my idea - if you saw "let's do this again sometime" it just never happens.  Say "how about October 11" and it goes on calendars.  It is just simply nice - to sit there with spinning or knitting, a cup of coffee, and talking.  I've been wanting that - and after all my postings about "reaching out" and hearing only crickets, it finally worked.

I went to Michael's afterwards, and did pretty well.  I was there about twenty minutes before the sadness set in; I just really miss going there with Bob and looking at things together.  The first time I went I didn't last long at all before I had to get out to go to the car and cry.  No tears this time - just a deeper resigned sadness.  This is how things are.

I've been feeling very disoriented recently - because of the weather.  It's fall; I feel it in my bones.  The days are shorter - I'm putting up the chickens a little earlier each week.  The light is at a different angle.  The sky (when it's not raining) is that incredible clear blue.  Halloween (and Christmas stuff) is out in stores.  Pumpkin spice is showing up everywhere)

The heat index today was 107.  It was still 102 at 9:00 p.m.  That's a tremendous disconnect.

I feel like I'm just waiting, and sort of want to curl up and turn off until I can go outside without gasping for breath.  And I did that for one afternoon after my morning shift at the museum.  Normally on those days I come home, grab a shower and lunch, and then crash for a bit (because after working in this heat, I'm knackered).  Then I get up and tackle something from the eternally updated "things to do" list: replace windshield wipers, clean chicken coop, pay some bills, whatever.  But a couple of days ago, I just got tired of all the self-discipline.  All I wanted to do was go to bed and read and nap.  So I did.  The dishes from the day before stayed in the sink, the litter boxes remained unscooped, nothing swept or vacuumed, the list untouched.

The dangerous part - it didn't matter.  The cats and squirrel got fed and the chickens put up; those were the only non-negotiables.   Otherwise, there was no one to notice or care.   That's a trap I've been careful to avoid all these years; otherwise it's too simple to slip into staying up to the small hours, bed rotting, eating while standing over the sink, and just letting everything go.  I've actually been very good about self-discipline - keeping regular hours, eating real meals, not letting the laundry go.  Pretending that it makes a difference, if only to myself.

OK - it's almost 10:30 (and I just checked - the heat index is down to 95 - ridiculous) and, with the idea of keeping regular hours so I'll be alert enough to work on the Leszy tomorrow (and maybe put on those new windshield wipers)