random thoughts – Day 2,401 (Tuesday 10/13) – missteps

My yard in the morning 10-13-26.

The sunny weather of Monday was cloudier and gloomier today.  The leaves are still pretty and I love looking out the window at the back of the house and seeing the wooded area beyond the yard. It’s been fun over the past year seeing the seasons change. 

The morning was leisurely and I spent some of it finally making a box of Manischewitz potato pancakes from the pantry. The project took longer than I expected, mostly because I don’t fry foods in vegetable oil very often. 

The batter seemed endless and I stood at the counter eating potato pancakes and applesauce while cooking the rest of it. The pancakes were good, but not as crispy as the glowing description on the box described they would be. I fully accept that it was most likely an operator error/recipe misstep.

Not so crispy potato
pancakes and applesauce.

After the late breakfast/early lunch, I sat down with a roll of silver-backed copper foil, a fid, and a box of small triangles. The tiny triangle foiling project continued with edge wrapping and smoothing. My poor finger tips were feeling abused when I realized the time and that I needed to get myself out the door.

It was dance double-header day with two hours of Denishawn in the afternoon and an hour of belly dance at night in another town, miles away. I failed to properly consider food for the day and headed out with a lone chewy granola bar, a bottle of water, and no food plan for the next 6.5 hours. I ate the granola bar on the drive and arrived at my first class already hungry. Talk about a misstep.

After the first class and barely seven minutes into the drive to the second one, Waze rerouted me without explanation. I have tried to defy the oracle in the past and regretted it, so when the navigation system suddenly wanted me to turn left, I did. I don’t know what mishap Waze was sparing me, but the new route delivered me smack into a traffic jam.

For 20 minutes I sat in a line of traffic, with the only forward movement occurring when a few other vehicles bailed, hooked a left into one of the parking lots on the other side of the street, and headed back the way we had just come. Much of my time spent not moving was spent in front of a Thai restaurant, hungry and closer to home than the destination. It took everything I had to not pull into the restaurant, have a nice Thai dinner, and go home.

Even with the delay, Waze indicated I would still arriving on time (thank goodness for my neurotic big built-in time cushions), so I continued to class. My brain was foggy with hunger and everything felt difficult, even the stuff I know how to do. It was frustrating and much of it (or all of it) was my own fault. There is a definitely a lesson about planning ahead and feeding myself in there and I hope I remember it.

The drive home was dark and wet. With flashing yellow, red, and blue lights all around, a trailer with an oversized load banner on the back and a house on the trailer passed me at one point. The spectacle of trailer, house, and entourage was very festive. 

When I arrived home, ravenous, I headed for the fridge before even taking my coat off, grabbed the bag of deli cheese ends, sat on the couch and devoured a nice thick slab of some tasty unidentified cheese that was definitely not American, Swiss, or provolone. And I started to feel better. Next Tuesday, I will need to have a better food plan. I didn't enjoy the preventable missteps.

random thoughts – Day 2,400 (Monday 10/12) – studio, storage setup

In the studio.

The drive to Worcester was another pretty one. The tree trunks were dark and beautiful from the rain and the leaves were very glamorous, especially the vibrant red ones. A country road with a speed limit of 30 or 40 mph is perfect for admiring the scenery. Unfortunately, the narrow roads with no space to pull over are not conducive to taking photos.

In today’s studio time, I worked on a design I drew ad made with lead came many moons ago. Now, I’m trying it again in copper foil, in two sizes. The morning was spent wrestling glass sheets out of the too small milk crate they have lived in forever, to choose colors to use today. I discovered I have lot of red glass. Much more than  I suspected.

In the studio, four of us worked on own projects and chatted about things like the fun ancestral roots info from genealogy DNA tests, various glass projects, the grinder at the end of the counter that makes a horrible groaning noise when it’s powered off, and holidays like today that are not full-blown holidays and had us all wondering if trash was being picked up or not.

Setting up the new glass storage.

Some of my glass was very agreeable, some, not so much. The pink cut like a dream, the green wasn’t too much trouble, but the purple broke during a simple straight cut.

On the way to the Craft Center, I stopped at the nearby Goodwill and found a wooden crate and a file organizer to hold my glass sheets. This will make it easier to find things. The glass sheets that had been stacking up on the dining room table are now in the crate, but much more is waiting for organizing in the alleged crafts room. Bit by bit, the home crafts room is inching along to usefulness.

random thoughts – Day 2,399 (Sunday 10/11) – furnace and heat

Ready to solder.

After running the furnace for less than a day a week or so ago, I turned it off when the weather got warmer again. Saturday night, I was chilly and turned it on again. Instead of the usual impossible to describe smell associated with a heater running, the house smelled like oil. Very yucky. I turned the heater off again and texted my family member furnace guy.

Today, furnace guy came over to check the thing out, did some things, tuned up the furnace and made the smell go away. He also disappeared the annoying on and off clicking sound feature that I thought was a standard feature of an elder furnace but was actually a loose wire. And the best news was that nothing major was wrong and I may have a year or two (or more) to save up for a new furnace. Jackpot!

While the furnace was being looked at, I was cutting glass pieces for new small projects while I contemplate the colors for the larger project. The flux delivered, along with another order of small precut pieces. Some of the new small bordering on tiny triangles were wrapped in foil and burnished. They are so small they needed narrower foil and luckily I had some.

A small side table was recommissioned and set up with the soldering iron, spool of solder, flux, and other needed tools. The two small heart pieces that were foiled last week in the studio were soldered. My foil application, burnishing, and soldering skills are all improving, but still need work. Cutting is still tricky because each type of glass (and color) has its own personality under the cutter and it seems like a large measure of luck is involved. 

random thoughts – Day 2,398 (Saturday 10/10) – oopsie

Sorting it out.

A few days ago, I ordered some one-inch precut iridescent glass pieces in diamond, triangle, square, and hexagon shapes. They were one of the discounted items in the behemoth online retailer’s special sale days and were scheduled to deliver today. I was excited to see them in my mailbox, because I have ideas for usage on the drawing table, but as soon as I slid the padded packet out, I knew something was wrong. The package was way too noisy and sounded like a big oopsie. I did not love the sound of broken glass I was sure I was hearing.

Back in the house, I sliced my way into the parcel because the “Tear along perforation” instruction on the padded waterproof envelopes has never worked. The item was wrapped securely in a plastic bag and when the plastic box emerged, fears were confirmed when a lot of iridescent glass slivers and glitter-like glass powder remained in the bag. Larger bits of glass protruded from the molded plastic box which was missing a piece of itself at one end. Clearly some of the pieces had broken.

Damned damages.

To assess the extent of the damage, I slipped into inventory mode and went through the box, sorting the shapes. There were supposed to be 100 pieces, but there was more than that with the additional broken bits. Shapes were sorted and lined up on cardboard. The hexagons, which were the largest shape with the fewest in the collection, suffered the greatest loss as a percentage. Two of the ten hexagons were broken and one was badly chipped. Several of the 30 diamonds were broken. The squares and triangles (30 of each) also had a couple badly chipped and broken pieces.

Instead of diving into the project with the new glass bits, customer service was contacted. Options for a refund or replacement were presented. I really want the pieces for a project, especially the hexagons, so replacement was chosen. Instructions for where to deliver the product for return were provided and I taped the hole in the box to spare whoever has to open it next, taped closed the bag the box was in just in case the box has another failure, and set it all in the padded mailer.

At the return center, the clerk was about to remove the outer packaging but I cautioned against it due to the broken glass bits. We laughed over sending back broken glass and commented on how it is probably needed to damage it out. The return is now done and by Tuesday I should have the hopefully not broken replacement order. There will be plenty of other things to do in the meantime.

random thoughts – Day 2,397 (Friday 10/9) – doctors, contractors, and artsyness

Provisions.

It was an action-packed Friday. It kicked off with a drive to Dracut for my annual checkup with my doctor of 10 years who I like, so I haven’t been motivated to start all over with another provider closer to home. There was bloodwork, which was great because I didn’t feel like I fasted and sacrificed coffee for nothing.

Before leaving the Lowell area, I stopped at Market Basket to stock up on Greek spanikopita spinach pinwheels and stuffed grape leaves that don't seem to be available closer to home. The bakery discount rack was disappointing, but the deli discount area delivered with American cheese ends. 

Being close to noontime, and being hungry from the lack of breakfast, I grabbed a steak sandwich with cheese from the grab and go hot foods, which was devoured in the car before leaving the parking lot. I'm not too proud for a car picnic.

Progress!

When I arrived back at home, the contractors were busy at work on the siding and I parked on my lawn. During the afternoon, once again, several people stopped by to chat with the contractor and my address felt popular. Nobody ever stops by for me. 

The house across the street is very popular, but usually with ambulances, including today. The FedEx driver arrived across the street while the ambulance was in the driveway and I wondered if there was a protocol for such an occurrence. The delivery was made. Eventually, the ambulance left.

I don’t know when the contractor and his guy started working, but they were cranking until 5:00 and despite the interruptions, finished the back of the house and one of the short sides. The color looks great, and the feedback from the passersby confirms my choice. The contractor was a little skeptical about the color and when he relayed the praise, I looked at him and said “I told you!”. 

Mosaic house number.

The evening was spent in Ashburnham at The Painted Goat art space making a mosaic house number panel. Six of us pawed through scrap glass and arranged bits in a tray with our house numerals. Classic rock blared and the very loud talking instructor delivered instructions in the equivalent of stadium voice. One of the people at my table was singing along with every song, the glue wouldn't come out of the dispenser, and my nerves were fraying.

Despite the noise and the problems with the glue, choosing glass pieces was relaxing until I started to overthink everything, but I finally got to the point of being somewhat satisfied with the bits arranged around my house number. Several people complimented my color choices, especially the yellow, and I basked in the validation because I am sometimes needy like that.

Spreading the grout was a bit tricky. Tomorrow I’ll need to do a bit more cleanup when the grout is set further. I’m afraid the numbers are too small to be seen from the street so I’ll probably need larger numbers on the house for the benefit of delivery drivers and the hopefully never needed emergency services.

random thoughts – Day 2,396 (Thursday 10/8) – siding and glass challenges

Siding install now underway.

The sun burst through the clouds and the contractor arrived to start attaching the siding to the back of the house. There was a lot of noise from sawing and hammering and within a few hours, he singlehandedly had almost half of the back sided. 

Inside, belly dance music competed with the hammering as I unwrapped sheets of glass to see what might work with the glass pattern drawn this week. It was a clear illustration of the changes in the glass industry. 

My supply of old 12” by 12” sheets have prices tags on them ranging from $3.99 to $6.99. New sheets measure 10.5” by 10.5” (or smaller) and cost from $12 to $25 (or more) per sheet. 

Shattered.

A remnant of an old sheet of clear iridescent glass was chosen to be cut into half-inch strips for one of the three lines making up the border of the piece. Eleven strips were scored and made the satisfying snap with the running pliers as the pieces separated. And then it got dicey. No matter what I tried, the next couple strips wouldn’t break off and then the section of the glass shattered in the running pliers. The pieces were definitely not half-inch wide strips. Oops.

Unless I have some old larger glass that will work for the outer border with 12” sections, the size of the new sheets of glass is going to be a problem. The smaller sheets will force a design change to accommodate the smaller lengths. This will be an argument in favor of working on smaller projects going forward.

I was all set to solder the project I wrapped in copper foil on Monday, and that’s when it was discovered I don’t have any flux. There was instant regret over not buying the bottle that was in my hand in the glass shop on Tuesday. At the time, I thought I had a bottle of the stuff, but I discovered today it is flux cleaner, not flux. Big difference. Instead of soldering, I cut more glass pieces from the scrap bins for another small project.

random thoughts – Day 2,395 (Wednesday 10/7) – progress

Delivery!

Every Wednesday, it’s the same thought – “holy crap, it’s Wednesday already!” Today was no different in that regard.    

As I was finishing dressing, fresh and clean from the shower, a loud truck noise outside caught my attention. It was different than the Monday trash truck sounds and the daily oil delivery and parcel delivery trucks that pass through the neighborhood.

It was the long-awaited lumber company flatbed truck, loaded with the materials for my siding job. Unlike the partial order of incorrect color siding delivered in May, this delivery is boxes and boxes of materials, all labeled with the correct color and some unboxed pieces that are definitely the right color. The contractor is due here Thursday morning. Progress, at last.

The morning was spent enjoying the warmth pushed from the furnace that I caved and turned on last night when I saw the temperature was expected to drop to the mid- to low- thirties. It was nice to wake up not freezing. Then time was invested in reprogramming the thermostat a few degrees lower.

After that, it was back to the drawing board. I was plotting and planning a stained glass piece like it’s my job, and maybe in a way, it is my job now. Much of the design sketched on Monday was redrawn and expanded on Tuesday, and was changed even more today. Some straight lines were changed to curves. Lines were extended into the edging element to break up some of the straight runs. Then there was a leap to commitment with black Sharpie lines drawn over the pencil lines. It will be much harder to backtrack now. I may color it with pencils, which I've done on larger pieces in the past.

Next up is glass selection. The funny part is, the design started out specifically for a piece of pink, white, blue opal glass bought on Tuesday along with three sheets of coordinating clear colored glass. Once the drawing was underway, the piece expanded in size and the design grew from one central element to three and now the single sheet of opal glass won’t be enough. I can either go to the glass shop Thursday and get another sheet or two of the same glass, or totally change the glass scheme. We’ll see how it shakes out. 

While drawing the current design, I got an idea for another design and it might become a situation of endless designing and not getting around to executing. So many mysteries still to unfold, but it feels like progress.