Nor’easter

Or so they say.....coming Saturday into Sunday......18” of snow.......so they say.
Everyone converging on the grocery store......milk, bread, toilet paper.
Well, I’m good really.......have plenty of almond and coconut milk, have plenty of ingredients to whip up some bread, and I buy toilet paper online and have it delivered 27 rolls at a time, so I’m good there, too.
I may go to the store, just to have some items to make soup with....but that’s about all the preparation I’m going to make.

I did not send the email.  I believe the friendship was better in my head than the flawed, real life version.   Plus I opt for no drama.......and sending it opens that drama door.

We all have moments of feeling lonely, don’t we?  Even, or more so, with people around.
I think getting older definitely has it’s lonely moments. On one hand, getting older is freedom from worrying about how you look, what you’re wearing, other people’s opinions, and other people’s rules.
But your children are grown with their own lives, people you know die, go south for the winter, move away......or grow old in a way that changes everything.
Sometimes I worry that Naya is over bonded with me.....she can’t be too far from me ever, and if I leave for any length of time, when I come back, she is sitting by the back door waiting, no matter how long I’ve been gone.
But on the other hand, she is company, companionship, my 24 hour compadre.  I can’t imagine my life without her.

Every day we walk, even though my right hip is ALIVE with tendonitis from weaving on that old Union Custom upstairs. We walk, I moan and groan, but we walk.  It will be such a treat to walk in nice weather.
The Union needs a make over.  I am considering a couple of things. First I may just flip the treadles around ...attach them at the front of the loom, instead of the back.....which may may treadling easier, without raising your hips....and if that doesn’t work, I may try to convert it to a loom like the Rio Grande walking loom.  Stay tuned for that reveal. Ha!


The OctaDO is lovely, now that I have worked the kinks out........no treadling there either..... just the one bar that you step on......up....down.....period.  I have a narrow, bamboo scarf warp on it, more to acclimate myself to the loom than anything.

Lois is weaving wool silk in vibrant turquoise on her hand dyed bamboo warp on the Baby Wolf, her fave loom.

And I’m weaving towels from my cotton stash on the AVL.......trying to get our towel stock back up to 150.  What a way to get through January.eh?

Every night I brace myself for my trip outside to the hot tub......always worth it, by the way.


I am amazed, every time, at the busy sky overhead.  It’s not just that our lives are full and overscheduled.....our skies are indicative of the crazy world we live in.
If you doubt it, go to www.flightradar24.com.  Omg. You will not believe how many planes there are flying around our earth.....why does  no one ever mention that particular pollution? How can that NOT be a factor?  It truly boggles the mind.
It makes me feel that to find real peace and quiet and serenity in this world, you have to work at it.

I’m on it.

Too late

I should have expected a learning curve with a new loom........but I didn't.

It's been quite the experience.  It's so different from the AVL.  I think, though, that finally, I have it.   Adjustments here, adjustments there.
Ah, Octado.................

Lois is convinced that every thing we do in the studio is a back breaker.  Sometimes it does seem that way.

It's January......settling in to all the work that waits.   Staying home, having a plan, restocking the shelves for summer.   That's my life here in the northeast.
Winter walks in the snow, trying to stay warm while doing them.

If I have an errand to run, I wait until I can combine 2 or 3 errands.........the less I have to venture out, the happier I am.

I will admit that I don't mind winter as much since I'm out walking in it every single day with Naya.   Winter does have a certain peaceful beauty.   I would prefer, though, more snow, and less cold.

 

This is my practice warp on the Octado......kind of looks like Rorschach tests, doesn't it?

Actually, the nurse in me sees an EKG........a troublesome one.

Lois is weaving this lovely......hand dyed warp, and hand dyed weft.    I'm going to make a cloak out of it.

Unfortunately, I am not able to dye much lately....it's so freaking cold.   When I do dye inside, it takes up my whole sewing room......so I am careful about when I do it.

Tonight, sitting in the hot tub, I counted planes going over.

I always think of my old friend when I am  in the hot tub, she loved it so.

The thought occurred to me, that if I saw 7 planes go over, in the 15 minutes that I was in the tub, before the jets automatically shut off, that I would email her.

I would say that I miss our talks, our day trips, our friendship. That it is really unbelievable to me, still, that we have not spoken in almost 18 months, after being friends who messaged/texted/emailed/spoke  every day, for 15 years.

That whatever derailed our friendship, makes me sad, and probably always will.

1 plane............... 2................   

...........3 planes. ..............  4.............    5.

Jets shut off.  Quiet.

I sighed, turned left to get out of the tub, and saw two more planes, their lights 

blinking, skittering across the night sky.

But to be honest, too late.

Staying sane.

It was suddenly cold today.......it's hard to know what to expect.....one day it's 40, and the next day it's 20........everything outside is gray and brown and drab.

Thank God there is color in the studio.

I'm still weaving on a wool warp on the AVL......this one has a wool/silk weft.........I'm not really sure what to call it........a cloak/cape I guess.

I especially love the "cloak pin".

I occasionally think I should keep something that I make, but truth is, I am not a "dress up" kind of girl, and would probably never wear it.

I do love making them though.

I love the towpath trail along the old canal....it's barely 2.5 miles down the road, and you can get a good hour's walk there.  It's quiet, and peaceful.

I took my pulse the other day......it was 60........I guess all this walking is good for me.

Naya approves.....it's one of our three regular walks.

At the end of the day, she's tired, and content, and it makes my heart sing.........she's happy.

Home with a good book, it's warm and cozy, the wind can howl, the snow can fly.........but here we are safe and comfortable, it doesn't get much better.

Is it just me?  Or are you just more satisfied with simple things as you age.......I can't imagine now how I complicated my life when I was younger.  Or why.

I listened to Glenn Close last night, when she won the Golden Globe award for "The Wife".....which is a very interesting, if depressing, story.   She talked about how women need to find their passion, find what is important to them, aside from their roles as nurturers.

I am not sure what I would be doing if I didn't have my weaving studio, it sustains me on a daily basis.   I am grateful to have found what matters to me on a daily basis, and what keeps me going.

I am getting used to my new Octado, after a few speed bumps, it is starting to impress me.  Since I have less looms these days, they have to be looms that I love.

I am also a doodler.
Sometimes. 
I find it very soothing.
Sometimes I don't even know really what it is I'm making, until suddenly it is obvious.

Today I learned something that I did not know........my daughter texted me....asked if I would save her the top to a parmesan cheese container.  And I did.

It fits perfectly on a small canning jar, and since she buys bulk parmesan in a bag, it works 

perfectly as a shaker.

Probably would work for a lot of other things, as well.

And a straw fits right down one of the holes, so you could drink a smoothie out of it.

Who knew?

We really only have today.   There's no tomorrow, and no yesterday, when you are seriously living in today.  I used to worry about next week, next month, about things that I couldn't control in any lifetime.  I had a sign, over my sewing machine, that said, "Stay in the Day".........that was when I was married to my alcoholic, unpredictable, unpleasant, now deceased ex. 
It was the only way I could function, to keep myself firmly anchored in each and every day.   When they say One Day at a Time, in AA and AlAnon, they aren't kidding.
But somehow, "Stay in the Day" resonated with me.
I had to work very hard to make that happen.........it was a struggle.

Now, so many years later, and lessons learned, staying in the day seems so obvious to me........and mostly so natural and easy.  When  I wake up in the morning, I have a tentative plan for my day, and not much beyond it.  It keeps me sane.

Stay in the day, it makes life so much better.