Journal: Cardinals & Quilts & Collages & Lost Screws

Last week one day when I had a whole lot of work to do, and didn’t want to go to bed until I had it done, I sent a text to Larry, who was still in town:  “Would you very kindly bring me an energy drink when you come home?  One that doesn’t taste like turpentine?”

(I am not a proponent of energy drinks; I’ve only had about three in the entirety of last year.  But I needed one, or so I thought.)

Larry responded, “That turpentine is what wakes you up.”

He brought home something he thought I would really like – a drink that had a whole lot of mango and peach juice in it.

I didn’t like it.

It was fizzy!  I’ll have my juice juicy, thank you very much.  Not fizzy.  Furthermore, ... it tasted like turpentine.  I took a few sips... and resorted to Legends of China tea.

Tuesday, thankfully, the previous day’s winds had calmed – they were only gusting at 35 mph, instead of a steady blow of over 55 mph, with sudden stills and then gusts up to 60.  Winds like that even affect my sturdy Jeep Commander.  As our weatherman says, “It’s a white-knuckles-on-the-steering-wheel day!”

I was recently running a search for something on my computer.  Found what I was looking for in about 10 seconds flat.  Remember those first home computers, 20+ years ago, when hunt and search was slower’n molasses in January?  You could start a search, go fix supper, give the baby a bath read a Bible story to the kids, tuck everyone in bed, and go back to the computer just in time to discover the message, “No results found”, because you’d capitalized something that was not capitalized in the original wording.  And you couldn’t click ‘Advanced Search’ and tell it, ‘words in any order’, either.

I like new technology!  Most of the time.

A friend was telling about setting up her Christmas tree – a real one, this year.  She explained that her cats climb artificial trees, but not real ones.  Those cats are mixed up!

We’ve usually had artificial trees, but one year someone offered us a real tree, if we would go out to their property in the nearby hills and cut it ourselves.

Did you know that when you are out in the hills looking at trees, they look smaller than when they are in your living room?

We had a decent-sized living room – but that tree seemed to take up a large percentage of it.  The kids were delighted.

We set it up... decorated it... had to go buy more lights and decorations... decorated some more... 

Finally satisfied, we perched the star on top, turned on the tree lights, and turned off the room lights. 

“Ooooooooo,” said everyone appreciatively.

That evening we went to church.  When we came home, that enormous tree was tipped over, filling up the entire room.  And on the back of the couch huddled our dinky little calico kitty, more bug-eyed than she’d ever been in her life, with a couple of pine needles stuck to her fur. 

Speaking of Christmas tree stars...  (you can just feel another story gearing up, can’t you?)

Lydia, being born on June 25^th, was a year and a half on Christmas Day, 1992.  A month earlier, while she napped, we set up our Christmas tree, all the older children helping.  We finished the last icicle and bauble just about the time I heard the baby’s crib squeaking, telling me she was waking up.  I went to get her, while someone turned off the room lights and flicked on the Christmas tree lights. 

I told Lydia, “Our Christmas tree is all set up in the living room!  Do you want to see it?”

She smiled and nodded.  I scooped her up… walked down the hall…  “Just look!” I said.

Her eyes were already big, because all the lights were off (and because they were big in the first place).  We walked around the corner, and there was the beautiful tree in all its glory, twinkling away. 

Her small mouth went into a little round circle:  “Ooooo.  Pretty, pretty.”

We all stood silently and looked at our tree admiringly.

And then the star atop the tree lost its moorings, tilted, tipped, and slowly, slowly, tumbled down the side of the tree, to hang upside down near the bottom.

“OH!!!” I cried, “You looked too hard!”

The child’s eyes got bigger than ever, and she turned to stare at me in amazement.  Then the older children laughed, and she realized I was pulling her leg. 

She looked somberly into my face, and said, “Mama.” in an admonishing tone.

The older children howled with laughter.

Ever since, we’ve always told her (whenever it seemed the least bit appropriate), “Don’t look too hard!” 

She remembers that happening – probably because no one ever let her forget it! 

Our tree used to be a hodgepodge of things the children had made.  It wasn’t beautiful to outsiders’ eyes, I don’t suppose, but I loved it.  Sweet little kiddos, carefully making something at school... proudly bringing it home... happily hanging it on the tree... 

I quilted until the early morning hours Tuesday night, and got a little more done on my customer’s Christmas quilt.  As it got later (or earlier, depending on your point of view), the basement grew colder.  I opened the patio door in the walkout basement to get some wood for the wood-burning stove – and there was a little opossum having a feast on the sunflower seed the birds had spilled from the bird feeder hanging from the deck above, one story up.

He stared at me, debating with himself whether or not I posed a serious threat.  He munched on a few more sunflower seeds, and then waddled away, tail a-twirl.

I’m having a bit of trouble with ‘shadowing’ on this quilt – that is, threads and darker colors of seam allowances showing up in the white areas.  I’m redoubling my efforts at clipping any ravelings and removing any threads, but sometimes as I roll the quilt forward, dark threads find their way behind the white patches, and I don’t see it until I’ve quilted it.  😕  When I’ve had this happen on my own quilts, I have sometimes weaseled a teeny weeny little snag-remover hook into the fabric – sometimes from the back, sometimes from a seam – and tugged the errant thread out.

There’s one called a Snag Nab-It, and this one like mine is called a Knit Picker.

Also, because I’m using green thread on the back, it sometimes shows on top in the white areas.  I’ll try to touch it up with my white fabric paint (it always stays soft).  I’m just glad I couldn’t use the darker green thread that matched better, as it kept breaking when I tried winding my bobbin.  That would have shown up even worse. 

Here’s Tiger, totally unconcerned about impending Christmas deadlines.

Kitties really are copycats.  Teensy got into my recliner early in the afternoon, and spent several hours sleeping on the fleece blanket there.  Every now and then, Tiger stopped and took a looong look at this State of Affairs.

Teensy had not been out of the chair more than five minutes when tubby ol’ Tiger, with difficulty, scrambled up into the chair and made himself comfortable.

That smug look is aimed at Teensy.

Late Wednesday morning, it was sunshining, bright and blue.  An hour later, I glanced out the window, and it was snowing so hard I couldn’t see across the yard!  There was already half an inch on the back deck.  It was snowing big fat flakes, and the wind had picked up so much they were coming down sideways.

Made me feel all Christmasy.  I love snow.  The wood-burning stove was crackling away, making my quilting studio nice and warm.  A female downy woodpecker – maybe the mate of the male downy at the top of this letter? – was at the suet feeder.  The downies are such cute little birds.  Then along came the cardinals, and I stopped quilting and rushed for my camera.

My brother dropped by, needing me to look something up on my computer for him. 

“What are you doing out in a blizzard?!” I greeted him, letting him in the door.  He could just as easily have called, after all.

He laughed, “I’m having fun!”  He gestured toward his Jeep Wrangler.  We’re related.

And just like clockwork, here came Teensy, all covered with snow, meowing, and I knew exactly what he was saying, too:  “Hey!!!  Sit down!  I need to warm and dry my cold, damp paws up on your lap!”

By the time I went to pick up the grandchildren at 2:30 p.m. (school got out early that day), the sun was shining again. 

I remarked to some friends the other day, “I’m getting worried I won’t get everything done that I need to do before Christmas!”  I recited a list of things I needed to do, and then added, “Well, I’ll just keep doing the most important things first... and family does come first, and I do love them an awful lot.” ----- and one of the ladies to whom I was griping and whining asked me if I was bipolar!!!

Now, I ask, Do I look bipolar to you?!!!  Huh huh huh huh huh?!!!!!! 

I love Christmas.  It’s always a big flurry and a rush, around here... but I make it so, with everything I think I need to do.

Wednesday just before church, as I was quilting away, the little tension screw fell out of my bobbin case.  I looked around a bit... didn’t find it... and then it was time to go to church. 

Here are a couple of the blocks I got done before the screw went AWOL:

Larry didn’t get home from work in time to come to church with me.  After the service, since he was just leaving the nearby Walkers’ shop, he met me at Cubby’s and filled the Jeep for me.  It was cold, cold, cold, and very windy.

When we got home, we had a late supper of chicken tortilla soup with 12-grain bread, and apple pie for dessert. 

Supper done, Larry went out to the garage and rummaged up a large, round magnet and a long, bendable wand (Hester used to call those things ‘goose-neckteries’) with tube-shaped magnets on either end.  The smaller end also has a laser light.

We hunted and searched, and then we searched and hunted.  We used all three magnets, and I reached under the bureau bottom that makes up the middle of my quilting frame with the magnetic wand.  We used flashlights large and small. 

Larry then thought he could surely come up with a usable screw in his stash of screws (which outdoes some ladies’ stashes of fabrics).  But just as we often find with our fabrics, he could find nothing suitable. 

I was smug.  “I told you so!”

“Yes, but I tried!” he protested. 

Yesirree... when I am in dire need of something, he always tries his best to help me. 

A friend recently asked if I knitted or crocheted.  I don’t knit.  I did once crochet.  I was staying with my brother and sister-in-law, and it was raining outside... and all my indoor things to do were at home... so Janice showed me how to make a shell stitch... and a granny square.  I made a big enough square for a pillow top – in the colors of the early 70s:  orange and dark lime green and cream.

And then the sun came out, and it’s been shining ever since.

Thursday, I went to Country Traditions in Fremont, where they sell HandiQuilter machines, to get a new screw (for the bobbin case – the one in my head was not replaceable). 

I checked into getting a spare bobbin case.  It was $80.00.  😯😧😬😨😲

So I got one screw ($3.45) and five bobbins ($15.00).  I left the bobbin case in the store.

I tried out and drooled over a variety of quilting machines... and then came home.  I was half starved half to death by then, so I fixed supper:  orange roughy, broccoli, and pears.  With chocolate fudge brownie frozen yogurt for dessert.  Then I set about attempting to make up for lost time at the quilting machine. 

It was 7:30 p.m. when I began quilting, and I quilted until 2:30 a.m.  That’s 7 hours of quilting.  Not bad, after such a late start.  My stitches looked nearly perfect, too.  Maybe a good part of the problem with tension was because the screw was worn and loose, and not holding the little tension arm down as it should’ve?

It was only 20° that night, with a wind chill of 13°.  Better believe, I kept the wood-burning stove burning!  Larry cuts the logs a little shorter than he used to, so I have an easier time lugging them in and pitching them into the stove.

Friday, I put together a collage of our grandchildren.  I’ve ordered the reprints – 5x7s to tuck into our Christmas cards; 8x10s for close family members. 

A friend, upon seeing this, asked, “Have you considered an 11x14 for next year?  That should hold you for a while until you need a poster.”  haha

Maybe I should hand out magnifying glasses, and tell them to keep the glasses handy for years to come?

As I labeled some of the pictures from our Colorado trip recently, I pulled up Google maps to learn the names of rivers... mountain ranges... canyons... towns...  I like Google maps.  I like Google Satellite.  I like Street View.  I like the ‘See Inside’ function that works in various businesses in some of the big cities.  I once discovered that the Google camera (evidently affixed to the top of someone’s head) had traipsed through a large, very old, but very elaborate, hotel smack-dab in the center of Moscow.  When I can’t travel via Jeep (or smokin’ hot pickup truck, heh), I travel via Google camera. 

Every now and then their ‘splice’ function goes awry and makes some hapless pedestrian look like he’s going down a manhole in central Manhattan or suchlike.  Sometimes, pedestrians are simply beside themselves.  Literally. 

A couple of years ago, I was traveling down a street in town, when, up ahead, I spotted the Google camera van.  I caught up with it, stayed in the next lane for several blocks.

Sooo... for the next couple of months, I checked the Street View on that road periodically.  And finally, it updated ---- and there I was, popping along in my red Jeep Commander.  I was famous. 

My brother-in-law John H., upon being shown the picture, shook his head in disappointment and asked, “Couldn’t you have at least opened the sunroof, poked your head out, and waved?!” 

Saturday afternoon, I got some pictures from friends in the south who have snow in their yards.  A lady on the Mississippi coast had snow for the first time ever.  One person sent videos of their little granddaughter skipping about in their front yard while fat snowflakes swirled down.  Her head was thrown back and her mouth was open – and then she cried in great delight, with her tongue still out, “Ah CAW wuh!”  (I caught one!)

Larry got home from work Saturday afternoon after one of the longest weeks he’s ever put in.  The Palfinger tech came out from Omaha and reset the boom on the new truck, so at least it will swing forms where it’s supposed to.  However, the wiring isn’t right between the controls and the battery.  The wires are too small to carry the correct charge, so the controls will not multi-function as they are supposed to do without turning the entire control off.  It must then be turned back on again... and only two functions – at that – can be run at a time.  This slows everything down considerably, and is totally unacceptable. 

The techs are planning to fix it.  Larry could do it himself, and will if they don’t get a move on... but they are the ones who should do it.  That truck and boom is a high-dollar piece of equipment, after all.  Customers expect better service than this.  When it’s finally right, it’s going to be a very nice truck and boom indeed.  When it’s finally right.

When Larry got home, he chatted with the neighbor man for a bit, as they’re going to be gone this week.  Larry will care for the goats and chickens, and we get to keep the eggs.

Next, he ate lunch, then went to Teddy’s and hauled a swather and some bales of hay to someone over by Genoa.  Teddy traded everything for pigs – a big one and a few little ones they’ll raise and then butcher.

After that, Larry went to change the oil in the Jeep, and to fix the plug end on Lydia’s Rowenta iron.  He got stalled out watching children’s videos with Jonathan on one knee, Ian on the other.  Ian was so pleased, he kept forgetting about the video, turning around backwards to grin at Grandpa.

Someone we know recently remarked that Christmas is a sad time for her, because loved ones have died around Christmas time.

We, too, have had many family members (my mother, Larry’s father, grandmothers, aunts, uncles) and friends pass away at Christmas time.  BUT! – we’ve also had new babies born at Christmas time ... friends and family getting married at Christmas time...

Our blessings far outweigh our griefs.  But even if it’s the other way around, I refuse to let it be so ----- that is, I will count the blessings.  I will let the Lord take care of the griefs.  We will be with our believing loved ones, one of these days.

And the important thing is that Christmas time is when we remember the birth of the Lord Jesus, and no amount of earthly sorrow can take away the wonder of that.

I’ve uploaded photos from November 25^th, as we were traveling in Colorado:

From Salida to Gunnison

Blue Mesa Reservoir

From Blue Mesa to Norwood

From Norwood to Dove Creek

From Dove Creek to Cortez

Some photos are a little blurry on account of the bad roads.  A whole lot of my photography is ‘Drive-By Shooting’, heh.  I delete a lot... but I save a few that are less than stellar if they’re the only shots I have of a certain scene.  My photos are more for memories than for anything else. 

Andrew and Hester, along with Andrew’s younger brother, spent last week exploring New York City.  This morning I was listening to the news on the radio – and my hair stood up on end.  A pipe bomb had gone off at the big Port Authority Bus Terminal near Times Square in New York City that morning.

The only one hurt very badly was the Bangladeshi bomber, who suffered shrapnel wounds.  He’d been trying to be a suicide bomber.  Two or three others reported ringing ears.

I wrote and told Hester about this, ending with, “Glad you’re home safe and sound!”

I took three of Larry’s best suits to the cleaners today.  Kindly don’t let me forget to pick them up again Wednesday afternoon!

I planned to go to Wal-Mart, too, but the wind was blowing at 45 mph, so I changed my mind.  It’s not much fun trying to wrestle bags of stuff out of the cart and into the Jeep, while trying to keep the door from blowing open too far, or the hatch from coming down on my head.  If we run out of milk, “let us drink cream!”  Or something like that.

Someone remarked after reading my to-do list, “I’ll bet you don’t have to do calisthenics, do you?”

Well, but I do!  I do calisthenics, each day.  Probably not enough, but I do them.  Don’t wanna get all stiff as a poker!

One time when Hester was little, I said I was ‘stiff as a porch pillar’.  Some time later, she announced to all and sundry, “Mama is stiff as a pillar of the community!”

Babies are such wonderful tonics.  Victoria came visiting this afternoon.  Baby Carolyn woke up when she came... smiled and smiled at me ------ but her big brown eyes weren’t even blinking, and I knew she was on the way back to The Land of Nod.  Victoria laid her on my bed, and she slept until it was time to go.  She woke up... smiled some more... and then they headed for home.  Carrie is just past three months.

The wind is still blowing at 45 mph, and though it’s 40°, the wind chill is only 29°.

I ordered stuff from Wal-Mart, paid some bills – and then it suddenly occurred to me that I had forgotten to start the supper I promised Larry:  spaghetti and meatballs.

So now it’s all on the stove and in the oven.  I’ll add the spaghetti to the meatballs and Ragu when the meatballs are done.  I don’t like mushy spaghetti... so I cook them separately.

And just like that, there goes his vehicle up the hill to the neighbors’ house to care for the goats and the chickens.

Supper should be done right about the time he comes in the door.

*       *       *       *       *

P.S.:  Larry brought home one egg.  One.  It was still warm, from having been sat on by the chicken.  Something about a warm egg makes me feel sorta like we’ve absconded with the chicken’s offspring.  

,,,>^..^<,,,        Sarah Lynn         ,,,>^..^<,,,