Orchid respite and men at work

The orchid is a nice change from the kitchen,  under siege from early Wednesday.

The crew arrived on the dot of eight and from then on, it was mad skillz, sawing and hammering and drilling and shouting instructions and the kitchen wall wide open likewise the front door and it was "feels like 102°f."

These are the choices of flooring. He assured me they're fine for kitchens,  waterproof and resilient. At this point I like the palest color. I like pale colors in the kitchen, preferably white, like the last kitchen floors I've installed.  As in myself, not a contractor. 

So maybe there's a bright part to this disastrous episode after all. 

Too bad my Spanish is too bad to follow the discussions between the workers.  Or maybe it's just as well.

By 1:30pm the wall was closed outside, sheetrocked inside. These guys work. Literally nonstop, in the heat. The good part is that they were in shade, that being the west facing wall, for most of the day.

This is a roundabout way of getting a new kitchen floor and paint job.

Happy day everyone, the car will probably be home Thursday. Being paid for by Gary on his travels today, taking my card with him. He'll make sure he's happy with it, too.

It is already feeling better to have an unbroken wall. And an unbroken car.

Tuesday turned out to be exciting

I had decided not to go to the knitting group because it was very hot and my surgeon had reminded me to be careful. I was out very little Monday other than crossing a parking lot and chatting a few minutes, but it still knocked me down a bit.

Anyway I figured reading, making cordage, reporting on Textiles and Tea,  would be about it. Then the phone rang. The contractor was planning to start work Wednesday at 8 am. This meant finishing emptying the kitchen. 

So that was the afternoon committed, before Textiles and Tea, see further on.

Some of this entailed climbing up to retrieve porcelain and art pottery pieces from open shelving,just as well I got Hippolyta signed off.

Then Textiles and Tea, a wonderful presentation by Navajo (Dine) shepherd and weaver Nikyle Begay. They spoke on location from the big wool buy event on the Navajo reservation. 

Nikyle's weaving, a saddle blanket, the pompoms being a kind of code between mothers indicating their son or daughter was eligible!

Navajo Churro sheep, showing their range of colors

A saddle cinch, in the belief that horses also like to look good, so they should have beautiful accessories.

 

The horned toad, revered animal, whose patterning is seen in weavings

Wedge weaving, made by imprisoned Navajo, saving precious wool, as an economical weaving style

Here's the background of the wool buy, in  90°plus weather, long lines of trucks stretching back up the mountain, arriving to get their wool sorted and graded and sold.

The buying event had been postponed because of wildfires, Nikyle not having planned to do the interview in the middle of the extremely busy massive wool buy. But they bravely said let's go ahead and you'll see the lines and lines of trucks bringing in Navajo Churro wool.

There's a long terrible history of the US government oppressing the indigenous people, killing their sheep, and burning their homes, to eliminate the Churro in favor of other breeds. But the Dine persisted, hid flocks of Churro in the mountains and ended up reviving the breed. As you see, from the quantities of Churro wool arriving.

Nikyle breeds all the natural colors of the sheep rather than dye them, then shears, processes, spins and weaves their wool. 

They founded the Rainbow Fiber Coop, named for the rainbow of gods in their belief system as much as the orientation meaning of the symbol. But tariffs have bitten into their ability to send wool to Canada for scouring, and they have suspended coop activities for now.  

Nikyle has an IG account where people can buy wool and yarn in small quantities, not the larger amounts processed by mills and scourers.

This was a significant afternoon in the presence of a person with generations of knowledge of the sheep and Dine  history. 

Their umbilical cord was buried, by their shepherd grandmother, in the sheep compound, as a wish that they'd make a life as a shepherd. It's a Dine observance, as a hope of directing the developing baby toward one kind of life or another. It seems to have been effective on Nikyle.

Definitely check on Nikyle Begay for an education in the wool life as well as great Navajo weaving.

Then, before the program was finished, Gary called to say my car was to be ready Wednesday, as well . Everything happening at once. So he was going to get Handsome Son or another neighbor to help retrieve it, depending on who's available.

The cleaners also wanted to come in the next couple of days, but once again I postponed them. They wouldn't be able to get in the kitchen and the living room is packed with kitchen stuff, hard to navigate let alone clean.

Never a dull moment. Again. I did in fact read a bit and make some cordage, though that wasn't as central as I'd expected.

Happy day everyone. Help me breathe!

Good news 1. and 2.

Aside from the continuing miserable heat --humidity this early Monday morning already in the nineties, no walking even at 5am -- the day was pretty successful. 

A friend took me to the surgeon's office, well we got lost, busy chatting,  but I'd allowed for this, and I got officially signed off. 

All's well, the implant is now fused, I can do all the moves, no more hip restrictions.  See them next April on my anniversary.  This is thrilling! While I was there I left an ACLU Know Your Rights card in Spanish in the waiting room. Resistance all the time.

Then the mailman brought my medications to the door as he now does, ever since the theft, and there was also a second parcel. My Irish linen length arrived! 

Good old Burnley and Trowbridge, it's a lovely mid weight, coral and white, wide stripes. So I did the dressmaker's trick to check drape and whether the color works for me.

Chucked it over my shoulder. This is a yard and a half of 58".  Enough for a dress or a skirt and jacket. Lovely hand. That means feel, drape, general presence. 

The stripes are historically accurate to the regency period, so my simple skirt is history bounding. And I may make a Lucy Locket pocket. And an eighteenth century skirt, even more history bounding. Anyway I really like this. 

I'm not up for yarn-related work right now, what with the allergy season, the fibers are not good with swollen, irritated eyes. 

So I think I'll make string. Cordage, to be posh. Since the temp Tuesday is forecast high 90s, knitting group had to wait, so this is home work.

I've damped a supply of daylily fiber, and that will work. It doesn't release the tiny fragments you get from wool, even super wash, when you knit, which drive my nasal tissues and eyes nuts.  

Socks 'n gloves for the ministry will need to wait. And definitely spinning and weaving in wool. Maybe a bit of cotton weaving might happen. And there's embroidery, still a page to go, on the fabric book.

I won't run out of projects.

Meanwhile Monday there was a power outage at the food store Handsome Son works in and they were rapidly covering cases to keep food cool. The generator only runs the lights and registers. The actual food not so much.

Here's what the hibiscus leaves behind when the blossoms drop

Such sculpture. Discarded every day.

And today's bouquet 

Happy day everyone, do what you can do just now. If it's sleeping, do that. It knits up the ravell'd sleave of care. One way or another, you're knitting. 

In fact the sleave refers to tangled woven silk threads, but who's counting.

Hot rainy weather, reminders and badminton

Early morning, after rain overnight I think, the foliage is showing how they handle steaming hot and wet weather.

It's not comfortable for humans, high humidity with heavy rain adding to it, but the plants are in touch with their wild ancestors, and mosses are showing up.

The curry leaf plant at the foot of the Japanese maple is as happy as I've ever seen it. The lavender appears to be calming down having been hit by a car, had its roots torn out of the ground, then been moved several times. It's sitting there in the corner planning on a quiet rest of the summer.

I had a thrilling email from a blogista who tried her hand at cordage and made a very creditable length.  It's so good to know someone tried and liked a new, to her, skill that she'd seen here. My work here is done!

However my reminder work will never be done. I don't use post it notes, because I know I won't notice them. I do visuals. 

If my pill bottle is there, full mug of water, when I wake, it means take early morning pill. Then move mug over, so I remember that means post breakfast pills, then after them, put it empty next to evening pill bottle. After that pill, refill and put next to morning pills to continue the cycle.

Likewise keys, all keys in the little basket near where I put on shoes in the hallway. Even my neighbors know at this point where to find them!

And so on. I put appointments in my phone and mostly remember to check them. The phone is always on me. I literally don't move without it. Either in a deep pocket or a phone purse. An old person living alone owes it to everyone to do her bit for personal safety. 

My wallet is always in my bag hanging in a designated spot, to avoid finding myself out and about without my vital documents.

It's not that my memory's poor so much as I'm always thinking about other people's doings,  or what I'm reading, or what I'm making, or what I'm planning to cook, a lot of things more interesting than where's my stuff. 

Currently after reading an extract from Ed Yong  An Immense World,

I'm totally engrossed in thinking about the senses and how animals and we literally see the world so differently. So it's very likely I'd forget other things that aren't as gripping.

Gary stopped in to visit and talk about his dog and his new GPS tracker for when Billie makes off as she has a couple of times. He knows she makes appearances in this blog sometimes and likes it. I told him about Olga and he sends his condolences. 

He knows about losing a beloved friend. He went a year after his last dog before he was ready for Billie and now she's very important, without replacing her predecessor. She's a different breed, small like Bennie, but different, her own personality. 

And we talked sports, golf is not surprisingly too slow and uneventful for a man who loves basketball and motorcycles. He tells me we've got a pickleball court marked out on the tennis courts but games haven't started yet. No, I don't plan on it.

Sports are nearly as exciting to me as scraping carrots. Except I was a sharp badminton player. The real game, indoor, competitive, with great rackets. 

Handsome Partner introduced me to it, and it rewards strategy and good eye hand coordination. Also small stature and foot speed. Not brute strength and endurance.  Some world class players have been Asian, especially Indonesian. Small, powerful, speedy.

You have to be fit though. You don't let your heels down much, always on the balls of your feet ready for all directions. A good player doesn't get out of breath. Their opponents do though.

Happy day everyone, stay alert, you never know what might be coming at you around here.

Freecycle rules

Early morning on the deck 

And home to check Freecycle. The tray went fast and here's the happy ending

Everybody's happy now.

And the orchid is going on and on

Today's bouquet is humble next to the high end fancy orchid

This morning's early walk was shortened because of stratospheric humidity, but back home I followed it with a free weight video from April and mom Aiko. This one 

Then I found I'd slept when I thought I was reading. Off to shower and the doorbell rang a couple of times. Then I heard Gary calling you okay? Liz? Liz? And when I was dressed, I found neighbors from both sides just checking!

But first, here's how I stop myself from getting into the shower with hearing aids in.

Leave the charger case on the stairs. The aids are imperceptible in use, so I need a reminder. I can't go upstairs without noticing the case, then I remember to put the #$#_$ hearing aids in the little slots.

Turns out we all three neighbors called the auto body shop this week. That guy must be feeling a bit under siege. But we all got the waiting-for-parts answer.

And both neighbors wanted to know about the contractor for the house. Gary wants to be there. The other neighbor is off on Tuesday for a month in India. Never a dull moment. Rapid plans about his plant care are now set up.

I have rides for my final surgeon appointment Monday and knitting group Tuesday. Then contractor comes Wednesday. Misfits Thursday. It's all go. These are the golden years, rocking on the porch?

But I did get a bit of drawing in 

Happy day everyone. Don't just do something, sit there! Never mind self improvement, we're all just fine already sez 

Ted and Big Ursy