You may remember that Rob and I visited my oldest friend a couple months ago. She'd moved away and moved back. She was in poor health but was trying to get on track to a healthier life.
She passed away. We don't know from what. Her son went on vacation and when he came back, he found her. I spent Wednesday with he and his wife, making arrangements. I spent Thursday with them going through paperwork. Please, please, please make sure someone knows where to find your passcodes into your phone and computer. That's where your important information is stored and it's hell getting access to anything without them. And, write a will, even if it's just on the back of a napkin.
Death is so weird. I'm not a very emotional person, I guess. I'll cry at the end of the movie when the hero dies, but less likely to shed tears in other situations where most people cry. That's when I go full on action mode. 'I sometimes find the emotional responses of others perplexing', I say in my Sheldon Cooper voice. It's okay tho, because I've never seen an emotional situation that wasn't bettered by someone offering a glass of water or a bite to eat or an 'I'm on it' or a 'that's already taken care of.'
Danna was born 4 days after me. We used to celebrate our birthdays together and that's what I told Rob I wanted to do this year. But, I'll try to open a bottle of wine and drink a toast to her this week.
My birthday was Saturday. As an introvert, I needed to spend it resting, so Rob and I went out and ran some errands, had a nice lunch and a nicer dinner and I spent the rest of the day cutting and sewing. When we stopped for lunch, it was next door to a Nothing Bundt Cake store (only sells bundt cakes) and I said we should get me a cake. After a very unhealthy lunch, we forgot, so yesterday, I baked myself an orange bundt cake. And, it was soooooo good. Definitely a recipe that I'll be writing down.
Yesterday, we covered the greenhouses because we're going to have another hard freeze. The bad news is that the trees have already started to bud. This is what happened a few years ago when the trees were damaged so badly. My consolation is that they were starting to bud a couple weeks ago when we had our last hard freeze and it didn't seem to affect them. Temps this week should only be as low as they were a couple weeks ago. Fingers are crossed.
Okay, so quilt progress. I got the first block pieced. This was a test block. Better make sure everything was going to go together before I cut 42 of them. Other than the fact that the horizontal wedge should have been on the bottom of the block, not the top, I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. This was supposed to be a bottom corner, but it's a top. I guess there's no reason I can't start at the top.
I'm hoping that as I continue to piece sections together, I can start to do it with less pins. As it is now, I pin for an hour, using every pin I own, then I sew for 5 minutes. And, repeat. Boring. But, highly effective. This is my progress for the weekend. I ran out of green and yellow joining squares and need to cut more, but there are enough background pieces cut for 12 blocks. That's the first two rows.
I suspect I will be pinning during some meetings this week.
When I started drawing and considering borders, I realized I needed more fabric, so we took a trip to our local JoAnn's. And, found out that it's closing. They no longer accept coupons and all sales are final. The cashier that we always talk to didn't tell us when, but he told us goodbye and thanks for always being pleasant, in case we don't see him again. That's sad. JoAnn's has been part of my life as much as my usual grocery store has been. It was a very big part of my quilting adventure. There will still be a store in town, but it won't be conveniently located. If I really needed something, I could go there, but it would be easier to go to a local quilt shop for most of my quilting needs.
We continue to watch our government being dismantled. Surprisingly, I haven't seen any commentary on what laying off 2M people would do to the economy, but since unemployment is generally paid by the states, that feels like it's only going to shift the burden to the states, which are not prepared. But, it does free up money for musk to steal before it moves to mother russia.
And, unfortunately, that is as plausible a scenario as any other right now.
It's the not knowing that's making me nuts. And, now, the justice dept has been so totally corrupted that they're making deals on prosecution for crime if people support trump's agenda. Which means all of us that don't support the agenda will soon be criminals.
Screw dat!
I hope that you're hearing about a boycott on 02/28. The plan is for everyone to not spend money that day. Not a dime. I don't know what it will accomplish, other than to say we are here and we don't approve. But, it's something. Something I can do to say this ain't right. So, set a reminder to buy whatever you need on the 27th. Or save it til the 1st.
Any act of resistance is worthwhile.
In the meantime, have a great week! I'll be learning about probate. Fun times.
Lane
