That one week where nothing happened

 It feels like nothing happened last week.  Like life was on hold.  Things happened, but they weren't interesting things.  I dusted and oiled the furniture.  I cleaned a small section of carpet where a pet had an accident.  I did some laundry.  Yawn!!!!!!

I didn't sew, knit, crochet or needlepoint a single stitch.  I didn't have time.  I had chores to do.  

Chores-schmores!  You've heard me say this before.  My house is clean enough to be healthy and dirty enough to be happy and chores almost always rate less than sewing...which explains why every so often, I have to stop everything else to do chores.  

This hibiscus bloomed.  I think it will be the last one this year.  The cooler weather has made big changes in the garden and the fall and winter flowers are getting prepared.  But, the most cold sensitive plants have started to fall back.  The picture on the left is how it looked, but the picture on the right is how I first saw it.  That's the kitchen window.  The new clear glass should be in this week or next.  And, I am ready.  That window is my main view of the garden.

I saw this succulent blooming on my walk last week.  I've watched it change from a tight bud on a long stem to this.  It's lovely.  

Speaking of my walks every day, Savannah had her 6th birthday over the weekend.  I don't personally know Savannah, but we all know she had a big day!  This is a professional sign company and I think that was a very good business idea and wish I'd thought of it.

Sad came by for some mail last week and I loved her shirt so much I asked if I could take a picture.  She is such a funny kid.  

Working on the house and early voting

 We're slowly putting things back in place after the new siding.  We're not in any hurry tho, just enjoying the new view.  Every couple days, one of us sees something new that we hadn't noticed before.  Lots of things won't go back where they came from, and I'm having to make that hard decision of whether to find a new place or pack them away.  They next door neighbors were out of town since all this started and got back this week and got a surprise when they looked into our back yard and saw the change.  

I got the drapes finished and hung.  They very much block out light a lot of sound.  I'm very glad we did this instead of another window treatment.  The room is being painted blue and I think these are going to work great!  Just like they worked with the red for all these years.  Because when you find a good thing, stick with it, right?  You'll see a line near the bottom.  That's the old hem fold line.  They've been hanging here a long time and I couldn't get that line to iron out, so I did a blue decorative stitch over it and you can't even tell it was there.  

I needed them to meet in the center, but they're too heavy to hang without the third rod hook.  When we hung them last week, these tabs were right along the edge and it left a half inch gap all the way down, so I moved the tabs over a half inch on both panels so they could overlap when they're closed.    

A couple times a year, the city does big and bulky brush, where we can trim our trees and put the cuttings on the curb and the city will pick them up without all the special bundling and tying they make us do the rest of the year.  The neighborhood chainsaws were a-roaring all weekend and we got in the act and cleaned up the back yard.  We have ash trees back there and they tend to grow long branches that eventually get heavy and point down.  I think we're both a little sore today from that.  Saturday night, there was another neighborhood jazz concert.  We love those and Rob reached out to all the neighbors we know and a couple of other couples ended up joining us there. 

In front of us on one side was this dog.  And, on the other side was a toddler.  It was truly like watching a show.  The dog just wanted to play.  The baby just wanted to escape and crawl up the hill.  Lots of people brought their dogs.  Rob said we should have brought ours...NOT!  Bella would have cowered and Mable would have tried to sing with the band.  We heard rumor that the base player is George Strait's base player.  Don't know if it's true, but these are just small bands being put together on the fly.  The other night, the singer didn't know everyone's name to intro the band.  But, they played like they'd been together forever.  

Yesterday, I baked and cooked.  I tried Naan again.  It just isn't coming out right.  One of the guys I work for is Indian.  I'm thinking I need to ask for help.  I also baked chocolate chip cookies.  MMMmmmmm.  I talked to my doctor last week and she wanted to know how we're coping.  Not sure why she didn't ask these questions when I was in her office a couple weeks ago, but she went through what sounded like a checklist of my mental health.  About the only bad habit I've picked up in lockdown is baking and eating what I bake.  Not sure whether that's a good thing or not, but she didn't sound too judge-y.  My cholesterol is okay and as far as she knows, I haven't gained any weight.  She doesn't know about the weight I lost pre lockdown and gained back post.

My orchid is having a baby!  I'm very excited but I was surprised Sydney would get so excited when she found out.  She dropped by last week for some mail and wanted to see it and tell me all about what to do.  Orchids are something that draws us together.  She is quite the enthusiast, so when I got one to live after it had bloomed, it gave us something to talk about.  It gives her something to be the expert on.  That feels like how it should be as she matures.  She gets to teach me some things kind of like I taught her...except she's more patient with me...oops!

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Okay, so I didn't completely stick to my voting plan.  I had planned to vote on day three of early voting, but didn't realize that early voting didn't start until Tuesday, so when we went to vote on Wednesday, it was only day two.  The line was LONG.  But, it was socially distanced and moved pretty quickly.  Everyone wore a mask.  We were back in the car about an hour and 20 minutes after we got there.  I wish it was that easy for everyone else.  

I proudly observed the diversity in the line.  Couples and single, young and much older than I would have thought could stand in line that long.  Parents who had to bring their children.  Four racial groups.  And, everyone was in a good mood.  I'm sure that later in the day, when it got really hot, moods changed.  

I'm really over the whirlwind that is the news cycle and have stopped paying much attention.  One day, it's a Biden landslide, the next day, it's trumps path to victory.  I can't be jerked around emotionally like that, so I'm sticking to the "I voted" comments on my twitter feed.  Everybody is excited to vote.  Everybody is sharing their stories that are often like mine.  

Who else would love to see trump on a plane to Venezuela on 11/05?

A friend shared this tiny trump sticker.  She's sticking them all over the neighborhood.  I'm so glad I live in a blue bubble, even if it is in a traditionally red state. 

I just keep reminding myself...We Shall Overcome.  And, we better!

Everybody have a great week.  Lane

Dorian Gray

 The house is almost done.  Thank goodness!  Today, they install the gutters and then next, we wait for the door that has a manufacturers defect and the replacement glass for the kitchen window and the screens that were delivered damaged.  Wow, that sounds like a lot went wrong, but really, the house came out great, and these are just the hiccups that happen in any project.  

And at night, with the new porch lights installed, it looks phenomenal!

It really is like a new house on the outside.  Still a lot to do.  Floors, flowerbeds, kitchen, and just before I retire, a roof.  Long term goals...look at me thinking like a real adult.

I spent the weekend remaking the bedroom drapes.  Pictures soon.  I hope.  First they've GOT to be ironed.

I found a baby for this quilt...yay!!  I was making this quilt for someone and that didn't work out, and it was nearly finished and a friend said he had a friend that needed a quilt.  And, I said, I have a quilt.  He loves it and I'm just waiting for them to pick it up.  Confessions.  I accidentally machine quilted this quilt with hand quilting thread.  Everybody says you can't do that because the wax builds up on the eye of the needle.  While I won't intentionally do this again and in no way recommend it, it worked this time.  

I mentioned a couple weeks ago that I wanted to do another thread painting of a leaf.  These are examples of the leaf I have in mind.  The painting might include more than one leaf, maybe three...or maybe it will just be a plan...nah, how often do I think of something that I don't really do?  

And, a cute cat pick.  They were laying in the bedroom all cuddled up.  They're loving the new windows and I find them sitting in front of them, looking out.  The other day, I swear I heard the black one singing a song he called "Come closer little squirrel".  

I guess none of us could see through the old windows and doors.  

This is a cluster of lemon blossoms that is way off season.  Here, my trees blossom in the spring and the fruit is ripe in December.  I have a friend in FL and his blooms in the fall and makes fruit in the spring.  Maybe that's what this tree is pretending to do, but it's a good size tree and there's only this one clump of flowers.  

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Early voting starts today in Texas.  Wednesday is day 3 of early voting and as planned, I have scheduled it as a day off in case lines are long.  We have our sample ballot and our valid form of ID, and we are going to do our civic duty and pleasure of casting our vote.  We'll be voting to make lying wrong again, to make decency a good thing again, and make the U.S. a place where all are welcome and the most in need are taken care of.  A beacon to the world instead of an embarrassment.  I want to be proud to be an American again.

Everybody have a great week!  Lane

Gold to Grey

 Today, they come to paint the house.  The guys that did the siding and windows did a really nice job.  Rob was here with them til the end.  Then, the painters came and pressure washed the house, and there are 18 gallons of paint in the back yard.  And, I'm ready for this project to be over, although I must say it was very distracting on Thursday, when there were no workmen milling about.  I kept looking out the window for them.  

Rob did end up doing all the caulking on the inside and the painter did the caulking on the outside after receiving very clear instructions about how it was to be done.  It's so nice to be able to see outside through all those windows but we're also still dealing with keeping others from seeing in.  This weekend, I made blackout curtains for the bedroom.  We used to have heavy roman shades that blacked out the room with lightweight curtains for decoration, mostly.  We're not hanging the roman shades back on the new doors, so we needed something heavier.  The two large ones that hang over the door are done...except after they were done, I realized they're too wide for the space and taking off the extra size would also take off some of the weight (they weigh a ton).  We're having trouble deciding where to place the curtain rod holders to hold the extra weight.  This is a picture of the disassembled curtain with the new blackout lining on top.  I'm marking the bottom hem line to cut it.  The whole process ended up being pretty easy, but handling the weight was like steering a king size quilt across the sewing surface.  

I also promised pictures of the studio.  It still looks cluttered, but you know what?  It always looks cluttered.  It always will look cluttered.  My mind is cluttered and this is the space where I execute whatever my mind creates.  A half dozen things at a time.  

That's it from here, kids.  There just isn't much going on except putting stuff back on the walls.  I'll leave you with a puppy pic.  She's in the chair where Mable sleeps and has pulled the quilt down over herself and is settling in for the night.  It didn't last.  She ended up where she always sleeps now; across my legs.    

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Well, isn't this a fine kettle of fish.  Inevitability has caught up with us all.  Some will learn from this.  Some will not.  It doesn't change my voting plans.  I hope the president recovers.  I'd like to hope that he will change his messaging after this, but that's a dream too far for even me to dream.  

If you haven't heard about it, gay men have taken over the hashtag #proudboys on twitter.  It seems to have been George Takei's idea.  They're showing what pride actually looks like.  Who knows, you might even find a picture of me and Rob out there, being proud boys.  

Lane