Monday, January 30, 2017

I'm SO Sick of Thinking about Food. And News.

Not to be confused with being sick of food, but still, it's something I never thought I'd say publicly, but I so am.

The thought of this diet, doing it properly, agitates me. All I needed to do in the last seven days was to pick four to six recipes, make a shopping list, and for us try the 800-or-thereabouts-calories/day for the weekend, but I've felt this underlying fury/indignation/rage towards studying the recipes. It's been like the weeks (and months) before I do my tax returns; I know once I get down to it I'll need a day, two max, and will wonder what all the fuss was about, but for now I'm in the throes of fussing.

I feel like we're cooking all the time, (we do cook more preparing small side dishes to add texture and color to our meals,) washing dishes, (cooking utensils and lots of small containers for above,) and are spending far too much time in the kitchen, (we've often cooked together, but now also checking FB, etc., together. Ben likes it there.)

There's no doubt we're eating better; we are following the "what" part of the diet strictly: protein and lots of veg in every meal, virtually no carbs, and a lot fewer fruits. It's also lead rather naturally to decrease in portions, but still nowhere near 800 calories/day. The recipes state per serving calorie, so I only need to add two or three numbers per day. So short of someone cooking for us from the books, it cannot be made easier.

Ben does try to negotiate the details, because the books do allow for them; their default scheme is 800 calories/day for 8 weeks, but if we want to go slower, say, 1000 calories, stay on course for perhaps 10-12 weeks. Some of their own recipes even include small amounts of carbo! Their after/non-diet recommended calorie is roughly 1600 depending on one's size, lifestyle, etc. But here lies our conundrum. We went to a Japanese website, we did, and calculated the recommended daily calorie intake based on our respective heights; Ben needs a little over 1300 and I, 1100. So compromises don't do us much good, merely, it's just less naughtier than before. I periodically declare to Ben in exasperation he is on parole now, but I do project a whole lot of my own laziness on him.

Anyway, I can't wait to get on track and look back and tell how how silly I have been "back then".
Supper a week ago Friday, one of my "I so don't want to cook" nights. Having healthy side dishes help.

* * * * *

There is no doubt a lot of my anger is in proportion to the news I consume. Early last week I watched vids of the inauguration/CIA speeches, the first press conference, and few online commentary, just trying to stay informed. Then I worked on mixed media and had Al Jazeera, the only 24-hour news channel on my telly, but I like their depth, completely absent from NZ news, in the background. By midweek, I was engrossed, unable to think of much else. Towards the end of the week, I tried to recall how I weaned myself off of news in 2001/02, when there were far less/fewer resources available to me; I can't remember except it happened suddenly one day, after my morbid fascination with W's parlance and penchant for cos-play turned into dread and the world crumbling seemed not as dire as getting away from him. And back then, we honestly believed it wouldn't happen here, unaware NZ's right was already shopping around for campaign/policy consultants in DC.

So American politics matter to me. I hear some folks in the US don't understand why did folks around the world march last weekend. As St Meryl said, bad/daring attitudes/statements from "leaders" normalize/spread. Head Dickheads of places like NZ and Japan deliver gift-wrapped unpopular changes in hopes of some tiny future favors, even a photo op, or at least lack of recrimination. Ideas and policies are just as easily exported as music and fashion, if they benefit those with the power to act on them.

With this many rapid changes, I don't think I can turn away just yet; my desire to stay awake is stronger than my own piece of mind for now. Though easing up is an option.

But life is not all bad; this post is getting too long so I'll post in another what else I've been doing.
Portrait-every-day turned a bit introspective (??) and  German Expressionist this week. LOL.

Thursday, January 19, 2017

2016/17 Part IV

So, what of 2016/17? Well, 2016 was so blah I don't remember long stretches after Mom's exhibition.  (That was pretty special.) I did weave some in the first half, I did a lot of paper stuff in the second, I didn't garden much.

For 2017, the top priority is Ben's diabetes, our diet and health; if my weight comes down as well, great. (I've been thinking what I call "premature" aging, especially the multitudinous forgetting, is connected to my weight.) If not, I'll have to have a separate plan. (Exercising more helps. Just saying.)

I want to get back into the garden and try to make it nice for once. We're now progressing towards the end of summer, (March/April?) and I'm so looking forward to the cool season even though the task is monumental, again, and come spring it'll get too hot and sunny and hay-fevery and I'll have to give up for a weedy summer, again, but cool season gardening is now on mental calendar. Besides, the hellebore seeds I bought from the Northern hemisphere took a year and a half to germinate but have been ready to go into into the ground. So I'd love a early, cool, and long autumn/winter, and a late, rainy spring, please. If I can clean the house thoroughly and declutter, in small doses, it'll be so good for my mental health but I need Ben's help and... it's a long shot coordinating when we get motivated. (Ruby is threatening to come see me again; she, who was trained as a landscape architect. Her first question when we met was how my garden is doing, which told me, crikey, she reads my blog!!)

I can't go to Japan this Feb because friends are visiting Nelson, among them my philosophy professor from college, whom I last saw, we established, in Dec '81/Jan '82. I love Feb in Japan because it's so cold and sometime it snows and outdoor places aren't crowded. For Japan. This year, if I can manage, I might go in November because it's cool enough, some years, and big art exhibitions happen around then. It'd be nice if Ben and I could travel somewhere together, even just to Wellington, but the November earthquake has put paid to that for now. Either trip will invigorate my making mojo.

Yes, the making. I'm not stopping the mixed media and Letter Journals. These are fun, reasonably challenging but not soul-crushingly, which is why I find them accessible. And collaboration is good. Here are some recent pics:
A rather bright background on my Letter Journal for potentially three others to add on. I tend to cover the entire spread to make a color field for backgrounds, (usually with fewer hues and less saturated pieces,) but leaving gaps or just pasting a few shapes would work, too.
A finished spread; Tess worked on it up to twice, me, up to three times. I discovered one key to working in layers is not to cover completely the previous; I sometimes collage big or too much to obscure them; worse yet, apply colors over the entire spread tidily, leaving no gaps. It's good to unite the hue/value variation, but especially with a dark wash, it obscures/obliterates interest. I'm kicking myself for having ruined one of the nicest spreads that way, after two layers of successful wash.

I am the worst person to commit to something-everyday projects; I consider it a major achievement if I last a week, and some years I don't even remember I forgot. This year, I thought it would be nice if I drew a lot of face/portrait, and I've been trying to do one a night. If I forget, do two the next day, or do seven on the weekend, just because I like looking at them later. Although I forgot on Jan 2, yeah, I have done 21 so far.

By copying, I don't mean "copying" like aspiring artists do carefully, but just having an image in front of me. My efforts include crude line drawings, some colored, some in with outrageous colors, but most often with my non-dominant hand or blind contours. Many don't take five minutes.
I first copied portraits by van Gogh, of course, but also Gauguin's earlier French, Matisse, Modigliani, and Chagall's circus acrobats. Then I really got into German Expressionist woodcuts for a while, (I know I'll go back to them,) but because I want to eventually draw in my own "style", I've done a few of Congressman John Lewis and I intend to do several more until I can get the shape of his head/face right and, oh, his eyes. It doesn't bother me that I don't do it well, but it'd be nice to see some kind of an improvement, or better yet, an ease with which I take on drawing.
I am learning to see better in fits and starts. My greatest discovery is what a superb draftsman Matisse was/is. I sensed it when I tried to copy a couple of his simplest drawings in Brisbane, but I didn't have the vocabulary to express it. He express so much with the slightest twist of a line, and he's been the hardest to copy to get to the essence of the portraits. All very steep learning cliffs.

And weaving. I hope to get back to it, but I'm not pushing it. Meeting Ruby has been a big incentive, but all in good time. As I always say, I would like to surprise myself, to make something that doesn't look like things I've woven before. Bright and multi-colors are still popular at the Suter; I still like monochrome and analogous. Still, it's a undeservedly cushy life. And with that said, my 2017 can start properly.

Wednesday, January 18, 2017

2016/17 Part III - Diabetes in the 14th Year - Long

Ben was diagnosed with diabetes on February 5, 2003. Diabetes is a progressive illness, and I always understood it to mean, "It will get worse." Around the time he's turned 50 it started to mean: what he did and how he ate back in 2003 are, 14 years later, not good enough to keep the numbers down. Plus we have been plenty complacent; my bad I trusted what he said, too; I was tired of nagging after the 10th anniversary.

Long story shorter, his numbers were so that his doc, (my old,) wanted to put Ben on diabetes and cholesterol meds. Ben's the kind of guy who prefers to suffer rather than take pain meds for a splitting headache. (His dentist told Ben he has an unusually high tolerance for pain, and we're fixing problems over two years which already presented problems in 2003 for which we had to run into a dental practice in Elgin, Scotland.) It's hard to get information from this doc, even when we ask gazillion question, so Ben negotiated and got only on cholesterol meds and an reprieve of three months to get tested again, and reassess the diabetes med. (Not to mention the head nurse who gave him the annual diabetes check knew little about diabetes but treated us like idiots.) This was on the first day of his month-long holiday.

New Zealand's diabetes policies changed in the last decade; when he was diagnosed frequent checking of blood-sugar levels by the patient was encouraged, but now they prefer to put folks on medication early, relying on HbA1c, (average blood sugar of three months leading to a test,) which is checked only annually. But as the patient and wife of a patient, that's too chancy so we've been buying test strips ourselves, (may not be so common in NZ,) and also not exactly following the officially recommended diet, but cutting way back on carbohydrate and filling up on veg. Coincidentally Ben won a Fitbit from the Diabetes organization not long ago, and the data/record appearing/kept on his laptop intrigues so much he started exercising. Quite a lot.

The doc had to change his cholesterol meds three times but the side effects were bad, (one night he told me his brain was boiling!) he took himself off. He exercised day and night and we checked blood sugar several times a day. We read more about diabetes, talked about food, cooked healthily and ate well. But in retrospect I think he was a little depressed, caught unawares, (while I thought, he could have been on meds a few years ago,) he thought a lot and didn't do much else.

On the very last day of holiday, he switched to my doc and we made an extra long appointment. Karl prefers to, if possible, solve problems with foods/nutrients and he wanted us to research one of two diets, ketogenic diet or intermittent fasting, both of which burn accumulated fat and lighten the load on the kidney and pancreas, among other organs. The latter is what he recommended me two years ago when I switched to Karl, but I I couldn't do it while cooking for Ben as well. He also gave Ben another cholesterol med, (to which Ben reacted badly, so he took himself off.) But the sane news is, Ben's on a one month parole, to be tested early Feb and we'll go from there.

The last two weeks we've been reading even more, while following the kitogenic Blood Sugar Diet loosely, because I already had the book. (I got it a while ago meaning to go ask Karl if this would work for me, because this I could do with Ben after I convinced him he needed it.) It allows protein and veg except potatoes, some full fat cheese, milk, and yogurt, but very little fruits and no carbohydrate. And we love it because the science makes so much sense to us, and because protein is allowed, Ben got over his initial resistance. And it's not a hard diet to follow; eat less energy so stored fat is used.

Ben's lost 4kg, his body is better-toned, he is motivated, and his numbers have been consistently better than anything in the last, at least, four to six years. Me? I may have lost 500g. Or not. It's like when I reacted to chicken and had nothing but water for seven days and gained 500g, or when we went gluten-free and Ben quickly lost a few kilos while I did not. My gym staff said I was an enigma, but I fill up faster, eat less, and don't get cravings.) I'm looking forward to his Feb numbers.

Karl's very knowledgeable and it's hard to take in everything he says, but I did take notes and got the important bits. It annoys me Ben remembered bits just listening, but it's great he is taking this seriously. Additionally, we got one supplement each, Ben's got new shoes and those sporty sandals, and both of us, Swiss ball cushions. And we're recording everything that goes into our mouths in... prepare to laugh... matching notebooks!
At Saturday lunch at the Suter with JB and Ali, Ben shot his food with his phone, and it dawned on me I could do the same with mine rather than try to memorize and write at home.

No gardening, no big clean up of any room, no long drives, no movies in the cinema, one lunch in town in a whole month of holiday. We didn't even ring JB and Ali in spite of my warning before the holiday started. All life is good; it's good to reassess periodically. And if you're curious, eggs are good again, and salt may not be as bad as previously thought. And caffeine isn't great.

Monday, January 16, 2017

Call Me Sentimental

Two days after I met Ruby and Ken, I went back to Nicola's and sat at the same table and ate the same Ceviche and basked in the glow of the memory. Ben and I had such a good time with JB and Ali on Saturday, even though we never rang them in the month Ben was home, we will probably get together a couple of more times this summer. And the former student I met for morning coffee, she told me it had been six years since they came to our house; her 3-year-old baby with much bijou had turned into a 9-year-old who could monopolize a conversation and go on a "find the picture" hunt by herself at the Suter, while grownups blah-blahed. Big Sister who starts middle school in Feb is a little more pensive, and prefers to address me in Japanese even when I speak to her in English. And I've been spending a lot of time at Volume; Stella and Thomas are a couple who enjoy working together and every time I see them I miss Ben, even though he's busy earning a living not one kilometer away as I ... er.... shoot the breeze and eat ice cream with Stella and Thomas. And Lloyd reminded me to not leave it so long before I visited him again.

I've been learning the difference between introvert vs shy; I was surprised some years ago when an Internet friend called me outright an introvert when, at least online, I thought I was a try-hard life of the party. According to what I've found online, I am (or have become?) an introvert, although by no means shy. Put me in front of a hundred people and ask me to talk about something I know and no problem, but before and after, give me a few days to get rid of the words out of my head.

And so we return to the tenuous relationship between anxiety/depression and withdrawal. Weaving is slow and I need all the time. Mixed media is fiddly and I need space. I have an extremely needy garden. I don't have a lot of money to spend eating out. I spend long hours in my PJ/work clothes. I read. I was the only kid for 7 years and I've learned to entertain myself early on and I like it. I'm fat and in summer I sweat and I'm embarrassed. And I am a homebody. And, you know, I don't drive so in Nelson I have to coordinate my act with Ben and/or walk 18 minutes to the hourly bus. But I think the worst part is I spend so much time questioning, "Why did I say that?" or "Why couldn't I have been kinder?" or "Why couldn't I have thought before I spoke?" or "Why did I talk so much?" So it's easier not to create these opportunities.

"They" say people, especially those with depression, should not isolate them/ourselves. I think interactions are meant to (re)position ourselves in our environment, locating our position on the map and (re)confirming where North is. I know some people don't need maps because they can organize the environment to suit them. I know some people who don't care where they are on the map or which direction they are facing. Some, like me, worry so much about the size, color and style of buildings, angles and width and right-of-way of/on roads, and even though north is clearly signposted, we cannot proceed because we worry about walking with the wrong footwear or with too big/small steps. So I'd rather sit in the middle of a white sheet of paper and concentrate on what's inside me rather than outside.

I know it's all about balance and I thought going into town as little as I can get away with was suited me very well, but now I'm not really sure. I do love good company, and adore learning. So the wondering/wandering continues.
Stella and Thomas' bikes outside their Volume bookshop.

No plans to leave home for the whole week! Grin.

Sunday, January 15, 2017

2016/17 Part II

Due to strange-headedness, vertigo, bad sitting arrangements and world news addiction, I've done no gardening this spring and summer; (in places the weeds were thigh-high but the summer wind and dryness killed some of the surface stuff last week,) no weaving, but some van Gogh reading and mixed media. I'm enjoying mixed media because they are immediate, but have started to struggle, too, because I've developed "intent" in some cases, and like weaving, I see much technical weakness that hinders my expression. I love building from scratch, especially collages with my painted paper, so I'm not coveting products, but the work takes more time. Like the way weavers used to talk on each other's blogs and offline, (perhaps some of you still do?) I so enjoy the frequent communication in group, both technical and mundane.
Oh, the "not weaving" part. The multi-colored cashmere warp was straight-forward and painless, until I eventually got to wash them. OMG! Even though this time I made sure I used only 100% and not the silk/cashmere mix, and even though this product's shinkage differ depending on the color, there is no denying this is bad. After some time in purgatory, (both me and them,) the weaver's need for income won over integrity, and Husband was asked to deliver them to the Suter. And I tried not to think about them and I wasn't going to show them to you here.

In July, when the temporary Suter was closing and the whole lot moving to their old/new home, I went to say a temporary "bye" to Andrea, who said in the kindest, mildest way of joking, (I think, but didn't ask,) if I were still in a guild I'd be outski pronto. While I had hoped, to be honest, the color combos and softness/weight/hand still had some appeal to non-weavers. So I withdrew them.

I wasn't disappointed. I don't mind anything Andrea says; I often ask for her critique. It wasn't a sudden loss of confidence; I'm used my technical weaknesses. The feeling, which wasn't strong or at the forefront but perhaps always there, was, how many years/warps do I have to weave to get better, and/or have I passed my prime, didn't know it, and henceforth I'm going to weave rubbish only. Is/was my efforts worthwhile? I didn't think any of this, but the feeling gestated on its on.

I didn't make a conscious decision to stop weaving; I only threw myself into mixed media. I haven't even washed the five pieces I wove between April and July and I have a long-awaited warp for two commission pieces on the loom. Every week we Skyped Mom asked me if I'm giving up weaving and the honest answer was, I didn't know. And I was fine with that. And for a time I totally lost interest in textiles.

But then I met people and went to arty places and life looked like a little while ago and twice since August I saw textile-y dreams and the Suter sold two pieces in one month, so my thinking is heading back towards weaving. Plus, the next couple of months is going to be hot and my basement is cool. But I'll never apologize for the time and energy I spent on mixed media, and I'll never stop, even if it doesn't contribute to any un/subconscious design skills.

Saturday, January 14, 2017

2016/17 Part I

I keep having to edit this post as I never seem to be able to finish it. But today, if you have not heard, it appears Randy Darwall has passed away. (He's my weaving hero, non-weavers, and famous.)  I say, "it appears" because I've only seen it only on FB, no MA newspaper, for e.g., and I don't recognize organizational names/acronyms, so I'm hoping against hopes it's a hoax. Details I can find are that it was after a short struggle with cancer and there will be a memorial in spring. Dianne kindly rang me this morning to alert me. It's probably true, you know. He had cancer some years ago.  (Even the year he was born is in dispute. Oh, please let this be a hoax.)

I had planned for months to do something for my tenth anniversary of meeting Randy and Brian this past October 1; write them an old-fashioned letter, a special post, or a group post here, (you know, you post also and then we all link to each other,) but being on head meds and not weaving wasn't condusive to looking back on my last ten years so I deferred. I don't know if anything is forthcoming in the near future, but we shall see. Joie de vivre is what I took home from his workshop, so I try to have some of that in my weaving and my life.

And then, hey, happy new year! If 2016 was an especially weird year for you, here is to a new start. When the world looks a little bleak to you, let's look at our cones, our equipment, and our creations to recall what lovely thing we do.

My memory is getting worse and I can't recall things I've done, names, words in general, (not that I'm less talkative,) but let me give this a go.

Just after midnight on the day I posted the second last post, I experienced the biggest and longest earthquake in my life. Yup, I'm from Japan and I've been in a few, but it was scary. Earthquakes are scarier when they happen when dark and/or when you're stationary. I was reading in bed, Ben was asleep, and I asked Ben if it was his legs, (he has that shaky leg thing,) and he was immediately alert and said, "No, this is a big one." (Although later he said it wasn't the biggest he's been in, but the longest.) It was a strange, clockwise rolling motion, rather than horizontal or vertical shaking I'm used to. To make things worse, our neighborhood lost power, so no phone, no internet, just Ben's cell.

Long story short, damage to Nelson was minimum, but the whale-watch capital of NZ, Kaikoura, and State Highway 1 to/from there was worst hit, as well as many towns south of Blenhiem and our capital Wellington. The road connecting Picton and the ferry to Kaikoura is still not passable, and there is an alternative route inland. From memory, there were in fact two shakes, somewhere around Kaikoura/Seddon and somewhere closer to Wellington, which explains the circular rolling motion. But, yikes.

I spent the week that followed reorganizing our emergency pack first packed in 2011 and occasionally updated but never thoroughly, and spent a fortune at three pharmacies. We were going to move on to reorganizing emergency food/water/TP bit, started pre-Millenium crash and then used up one by one, but I got sick of thinking of disasters we haven't done it. Maybe soon.

After the quake I quipped on FB perhaps I should get a smartphone so I can get on to the Internet without Wifi, and Warwick, a bestest guy and Ben's colleague, gave me one. Like that. He has two sons and the three menfolks love technology but not the Mrs so one sat in a drawer. I resisted, but I know how grateful for even the small amount of info Ben got off the Internet that night, and a quake could happen when he's not home, so I adopted it. I can ring someone, I can sure ring folks by mistake, and sometimes I can even answer calls without immediately hanging up. (Warwick said he's going to teach me to drive next, but that's never gonna happen, mate!)

Usually with anybody's phone, the camera is the first thing I figure out and it was the same with this one.
Then Ruby came to town and she made a lovely picture talking to Nelson personality Mike Ward, and I suddenly forgot how to take pictures and kept aiming and pushing the power button!! The screen went black and I waited forever to see the picture. What's the deal with that?? There's been a little too much of forgetting things I used to not pay any attention to of late. Early onset?? Of course the next day it was again a no brainer and I took shots of our carpet and my feet just to see it wasn't the phone's fault. Yikes.

Just before the phone, Ben's iPod broke so he got a new one, then fixed his old one, so I inherited his tiny job. We got three of Adele's CDs from those spend-money-accumulate-points programs, so I asked him to load those. He even gave me a very nice headphone for Christmas, (a dark red version of his,) but I've been busy with the phone and... my head is too wide for the headphone!! So I'm placing the headphone around our biggest cushion hoping it'll stretch a little. At this old age, we've come to like matching things, which we so despised when we were first married. (You know, Japanese honeymooners? We were so not them.)

Andrea left the Suter after, I think, 15 years, which means she should have loads of time for me, but I haven't bothered her yet. She's savoring her gardening and serious cooking time and she so deserves them. Stella left the bookshop which was a double-whammy at the time but she and husband now has their own shop, the loveliest new space in Nelson called Volume. If in Nelson, you must visit it. Stella and Thomas are not only nice, but they know as much about books and authors. And you're allowed to buy coffee at any of the three places within 30 seconds of Volume and bring it in. OK, so I brought in ice cream, but then I'm special, yes?

To be continued.

Thursday, January 12, 2017

Ruby (and Ken and Mary)

Heyho, it's been a while. I'll hope to post about this summer so far soon, but I want to tell you what I did yesterday; I met Vermont, USA, weaver Ruby Leslie. And her husband Ken and his colleague Mary; Ken and Mary teach art at Johnson State College, soon to be renamed Northern Vermont University, and they've brought a group of students to New Zealand for an Art and Culture tour. Ken's a painter and a book artist; Mary teaches where art meets law; I would have loved to pick her brains on cultural appropriation. They had one day in Nelson so I tagged along as on a walking tour of Nelson's art-related places of interest.

When Ruby contacted me, I had to think carefully as a few galleries have closed and a couple have opened; many artists studios in town have either closed or moved out of the center of town; and most crucially, I haven't been into town often enough to keep up with the latest. But between my memory and recommendations from the Suter, we managed: the Suter, a new jewelry studio, farmer's market, Nelson icon Mike Ward's jewelry studio, Craig Potton Gallery, lunch at Nicola's Cantina (Mexican), Jens Hansen (Jens who made TLOTR rings has passed but the studio/shop is open), Flame Daisy (glass blowing), South Street Gallery (Nelson pottery), Parker Gallery (contemporary art, newest gallery in the old sheepskin shop), Red Gallery and Refinery Art Space. I wished I had a pedometer.

Mary asked for a New Zealand green stone carver to visit, but sadly nobody is carving in town, even though there are plenty working with gold, silver and other precious material. Even outside of town, Lloyd and Stella, (she now has her own bookshop) and I only think of three, one being Japanese. Though we have a few contemporary jewelry artists who make nice things, their work has a more universal look that doesn't necessarily appeal to visitors.

I went to the Refinery for the first time since they rang artists to pick up work from the shop; that was also the last time I saw Lloyd. The gallery, still called the Refinery, is now operated by Lloyd's Arts Council, under contract with the city council. It no longer has a shop, but is showing some edgy works as well as community art. I promised Lloyd I'll come help hang the textile art exhibition this year.

I noticed a strange behavior on my part that tells me I probably should hang around humans a little more; I kept using the wrong words. Most noticeable was I knew the ring maker's name, Jens Hansen, and yet I kept calling the shop, "Jensen". A few other words I misused consistently, like I do when I'm tired but I wasn't. It could be part of aging, but it felt more as if I'm out of practice talking to living human beings other than Ben, at long stretches. (Mistaking "cultural appropriation" with "cultural acquisition" happens all the time, though.)

It was the hottest day so far. I was naughty because I knew they were tired and I should excuse myself, but they were such wonderful people and the conversation delightful I dragged them around from one spot to the next in the sun and the heat. It was lovely to be with university people again, too; brought back memories of my Dad. Ruby and Ken are such wonderful parents, I almost wanted them to adopt me.

Tomorrow I'm having coffee with a former polytechnic student; Saturday we're having lunch with JB and Ali. Later this month my Philosophy professor from Minnesota is coming to visit. (I think we last saw each other at the end of the Fall term, 1981!) This summer is putting a real damper on my reputation as a recluse.
Ruby and Meg, after walking around in the heat all day. I took nice pictures of Ruby speaking with Mike Ward on my new phone-with-a-camera, (more on this in another post,) but was I meant to save the after shooting?? I can't find them. Bummer, it would have been a nice souvenir. I forgot to shoot her Frieda socks, too.

PS. If you ever meet Ruby, you must ask her how she got started weaving. It almost didn't happen!

PPS. They are from Vermont! Guess whom we talked about? Although we probably talked more about Mr. Elect. Pffffft....