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.

random thoughts – Day 2,394 (Tuesday 10/6) – grandpa ray's birthday

Markie and Grandpa Ray.

On October 6, 1916, in Vaasa Finland, Grandpa Ray was born. As children, he and his sister Sylvia are listed with their parents in passenger lists for multiple crossings to and from America. The family settled in Fitchburg, Massachusetts.

Somewhere along the way he met and married Mummu, who had been born one day before him, half a world away. Grandpa Ray had a big reputation. According to local lore, he once physically picked up and relocated a friend’s car as a prank. In his younger years, he worked as many as three jobs at a time, including working in an apple orchard and driving a taxi. Eventually he established his own business specializing in “rebuilding, aligning, and scraping” machinery, based in Lunenburg, Massachusetts.

Mummu and Grandpa Ray divorced when Mom was six, in a time when it was unusual. When I was a kid and he visited, he would bring donuts, and allegedly, it was me who christened him "Ba Ba Gooie" because the donuts were gooey. Or something.

Yankee kids in Texas.

Eventually, he packed up and moved his business to Fort Worth, Texas, where people called him “Yank,” and he met and married Markie, a redheaded Southern Belle from Oklahoma and for better or worse and to her surprise, she became "Ma Ma Gooie." My family drove to Texas on family vacation when I was eight years old and we all got cowboy boots. Luckily, later visits involved air travel. My brother spent the summers of his junior high and high school years with Grandpa Ray and worked with him in his business (and was forbidden from addressing him as Ba Ba Gooie and had to call him Ray).

When Grandpa Ray bought a new car, he would sometimes drive to Massachusetts to visit us and “break the car in.” Grandpa Ray had some amusing theories. When driving on a curved entrance/exit ramp, he drove in as straight a line as possible because he said turns wore out the tires. The legendary “Ray shortcuts” (which we still joke about) usually resulted in many extra miles and being an hour late despite having left early.

There was always a lot of food at Grandpa Ray’s house. Markie was an amazing cook and full dinners with recipes from Southern Living Magazine graced the table nightly. Sweet potato casserole, roasts, side dishes, Jello salads, breakfast casseroles, and decadent desserts ensured we each gained a solid ten pounds during each visit.

At least once per visit, Grandpa Ray would pull out his vinyl recording of Finlandia by Sibelius, herd us into the living room, and make us listen to the entire album. There would be a visit to Angelo’s BBQ for brisket, Joe T Garcia’s or Casa Bonita for Mexican food, and Spaghetti Warehouse down at the Fort Worth Stockyards.

At the last house he owned, he converted the garage to a pool room with floor to ceiling bookcases filled with books. Pool was played by “Ray Rules” which meant you could forget about winning, because he would move the balls and lift the corner of the table at whim. That house had a pecan tree in the back yard, and one year he sent each of bags stuffed with shelled pecans.

A birthday card from Grandpa Ray.

Grandpa Ray was a talented artist, and every year on our birthdays, there was a birthday card and letter with a beautifully illustrated envelope. He did this for all the relatives – his siblings and their spouses, their kids and grandkids, Mom and us kids. Recipients often relayed feedback received from letter carriers who enjoyed the artwork. A cousin has an archive of many of the envelopes, and I have dozens of the ones sent to me in a box in the spare room. 

I wish I’d known Grandpa Ray better. We exchanged letters throughout my life, but they were about daily life. On his end it was about his roses, opening/closing the pool, harvesting pecans, or big projects he was working on for major companies. On my end it was school grades, ballet, weather, my job. I wish I could sit and talk with him once more to know him better, but he passed away in 2008.

random thoughts – Day 2,393 (Monday 10/5) – mummu's birthday

Mummu, FHS 1934.

On October 5, 1916 my Mummu was born, the youngest of ten children. Her mother was 45 years old and her eldest living sister was 20 years old, married, and had a child of her own when Mummu was born. Three of Mummu’s siblings (John W, Lilja, and John) died in infancy or early childhood. Mummu loved introducing “my nephew John, and he is 13 months older than me.”

She was the only one of the kids in her family to graduate high school (Fitchburg High School, 1934), but that was likely because with the Great Depression underway, there were no jobs for her to leave school for after the eighth grade like her brothers and sisters before her did.

There are stories Mummu told us from her life growing up. All the females slept on one bed and all the males in another. Her brothers shared one pair of shoes to alternate attending school. Her sister Julia, ten years older, once stepped into the pantry and landed feet first in some pies that were cooling on the floor. As a teen, Mummu wrote a winning essay about citizenship and received a gold medal (which I now have, and wonder if,  at the time, groceries might have been more helpful). She said she was a ballroom dancer before she married Grandpa Ray. When they divorced (an uncommon thing to do in the 1940s) she went to work in the yarn factory.

Mummu never drove and got up at 5:00 am Monday through Friday and walked to work for a 6:00 am start. She cleaned one room each weekday after work during the commercial breaks of the soaps. Laundry was done on weekends using the washer in the big, dark, slightly scary basement and hung to dry on the clothes lines on her porch. Ironing was performed on Mondays after work in front of the soaps playing on the giant TV with the loud remote clicker.

Mummu's Arabia of Finland cups and saucers.

Many Saturdays, when we weren’t watching candlepin bowling or horse racing or golf on TV, we walked downtown to shop. On Sundays, her white nursing shoes worn for work were polished (often by me) and the laces washed by hand. She always wore a skirt, blouse, and white ankle socks with the nursing shoes, and I still have the gray and white striped cotton work skirt with a metal zipper she wore for years. 

One summer when I was probably eight or nine, Mummu took me to the factory to see where she worked. It was a vacation week and the shop was closed for machine maintenance. There were wood floors, big machines, and dust motes dancing in the light coming through the windows. She was a union rep, and once took me to a union meeting at the British American Club. With no idea what the room of adults was discussing I was bored out of my mind. That union meeting stands out as the only time I did something with Mummu where I wished I was doing something else.  

Mummu loved knitting, General Hospital, and watching football, basketball, baseball, horse racing, and golf on TV. Her favorite golfer was Lee Trevino. She usually had one sport on the TV and another on the radio and kept up with both games while knitting and holding a conversation. When I worked at a bank downtown after graduating college and Mummu lived downtown in the elderly high rise, we would sometimes have lunch together at her apartment.

Mummu and me, 2001.

Mummu died in 2005 at the age of 88. She is buried in the only piece of land she ever owned – a plot at Forest Hill Cemetery in Fitchburg. I was living in Tennessee at the time, and flew home in time to see her before she passed away. I miss her. I think about her when I make her recipes for carrot cake, poultry stuffing, and meringue cookies and avoid making the complicated recipe for the raspberry truffle layered brownies that I loved. I think about her when I look at the black raw silk dress she bought in 1960 for her brother’s funeral that she later gave me and was one of the first vintage dresses in my collection. It went from a bit too big to fitting well and now no longer fits me. I think about her when I see any of the many sweaters she knit for me, and when I see her green and white coffee cups and saucers from Finland in my buffet. All the time, basically.

Happy birthday Mummu. Miss you.

random thoughts – Day 2,392 (Sunday 10/4) – pieces and parts

Pieces.

Part of Saturday night was spent obsessing over art deco stained glass designs. The whole thing kicked off because of the interesting art deco wood design in the elevator of the office scenes in a drama I’ve been watching. The diagonals and different colors of wood are fascinating, and I paused the show frequently to look at the overall effect to analyze how to design something similar in glass. The next step of the process was looking online for existing windows, transoms, and decorative panels for inspiration. The hard part will be reigning in all the ideas.

After a Sunday morning that included yoga stretching and working on some belly dance moves, there was a stop for groceries and the victorious find of B&M brown bread in a can, which often accompanied our usual Saturday night hot dogs and beans supper when I was a kid. It is not always easy to find. 

The rest of the day was lost somewhere in preparing a late lunch, playing Words with Friends, spacing out on the couch, talking to Kiki, running to various windows to take pictures of the turkeys in the yard, making supper, and washing pots and pans.

The magical dichroic rectangle bevel.

Then it got more fun again. The scrap glass containers were reviewed again, this time with consideration for the new larger panel in the early drawing process. Triangles, rectangles, and square scraps were pulled out. One of the fun parts of scrap panels is placing the available glass in the template and then drawing the pattern lines around them, instead of drawing the pattern and then searching for glass to fit.

There was also an Internet search for a specific one-inch by four-inch rectangle bevel with a dichroic center. I have one left from a long ago project and I want more to balance it. This is a tricky search. Some were found in larger sizes but not the size needed so the search will continue. It’s all part of the fun.

random thoughts – Day 2,391 (Saturday 10/3) – at the farm

Beautiful day at Hollis Hills Farm.

The day was another gift of a warm temperature, sunshine, and a blue sky, which was perfect for the day’s plans. The first stop was in Ashburnham to visit with friends who had a table at the art center for the citywide yard sale. 

After a while, I headed to Fitchburg on a gorgeous ride along winding country roads flanked by the changing foliage. The destination was a meetup with my sister at Hollis Hills Farm to sit outside, enjoy the weather, and hear the musician who is an acquaintance of hers.

When I arrived, several parking areas were full or nearly full. The picnic area still had plenty of tables available, but over the couple hours we were there, it filled up and lines grew for food and drinks outside and ice cream inside the barn. Mostly country music wafted in the air and I, not a country fan, knew a couple of the songs the singer performed, especially when it was old school Johnny Cash. I knew more songs when it was the recorded music on the singer's break (White Stripes!).

Pumpkins outside the barn shop.

Families chatted, babies occasionally cried, and kids chased chickens. The singer offered up $5 to any kid who caught a chicken and the younglings got busy trying. Meanwhile, I was trying to offer the chickens refuge under our table and cheering on the ones who found safety under a food truck. One highly motivated boy pulled it off, caught a chicken, collected his pay, and then declared to his family he should get a job as a chicken catcher.

Hollis Hills has flowers and fruit for picking if you like to do the farm labor yourself and displayed in bins if you prefer to be a consumer. There is honey, locally raised meat, ice cream, and more in the large barn shop. Outside has plentiful outdoor seating, the chickens running freely, penned goats for hand feeding, and a big green tractor popular for climbing up and sitting on. The musician was set up on a trailer with a beautiful backdrop of rolling hills and local mountains.

Apple cider slushie - yum!

The Farm's kitchen menu is impressively full and varied, with hummus, burgers, wraps, mac and cheese, poutines, pulled pork, chicken, and more. We had both already eaten so we stuck with cold beverages. 

Apple cider slushies beat out water as our beverages of choice. Thick and frosty with a rich apple flavor, it is possibly my new favorite chilled drink. I may need to return to Hollis Hills soon for another one. And maybe some cider donuts as long as I'm out there.

random thoughts – Day 2,390 (Friday 10/2) – like christmas

Hedge looks like Christmas.

Sometimes, an ordinary day can feel like Christmas. The temperature was around 80, which felt like a gift, and I finally got around to taking the kitchen runner outside to hose it off and wash it. This specific project had been on the list since spring and just hadn’t happened, and every time I looked at the runner I was annoyed with myself. Now, if I can get a dresser sanded and painted, and then paint the shed, I’ll be right on schedule. Sort of.

While putzing around in the yard I noticed the smaller of the hedges, which also had the least trimming done this summer, has red berries and looks a bit like Christmas. I didn't notice berries last year. I used a plant ID app to identify the hedge and it is some type of yew. The two larger hedges don’t have berries, but they also got a lot more pruning over the summer which could be a factor. Or. they are different types of bush with similar needles.

Getting started on a panel.

When I bought the house a year ago, I had a plan to make a stained glass piece for the opening between the kitchen and living room. There was a colorful panel hanging in the space when I first looked at the house, and it looked great. Today, I revisited the book of patterns I drafted ages ago, which include pieces I forgot I made because, except for two small pieces and a couple gift pieces, I sold everything I made. Worse, I neglected to get photos of the larger pieces, or if I did, they are not in the binder and are lost somewhere.

The trip through the patterns was great inspiration to finally get started on the piece for the house. The tape measure, pencil, ruler, and graph paper came out, along with the boxes of bevels which will be placed and then designed around. Six pieces of graph paper were taped together to make a sheet large enough for a 26-inch by 14-inch panel. Pencil lines began. The boxes of bevels were fetched and some were rough placed to get things going.

English muffle glass!

Beneath the smaller boxes of bevels that were in a bigger box lay the surprise of another box labeled “English Muffle Glass.” In the several recent visits with the bevels, I didn’t realize there was another box below them. The box held sheets of gorgeous, deep colored glass and twice as many sheets of various textures of clear glass. The good day had gotten even better. 

Now I need to get busy drawing the colored elements in the panel design, and decide if it will be done with lead came or copper foil. Let the fun begin!

random thoughts – Day 2,389 (Thursday 10/1) – falling gently

The ferns are changing.

The day was warmer than recent days with a springlike high of 71 degrees and I was on board with it. During an early afternoon walk to fetch the mail, drop off a book at The Little Library, and admire the neighborhood leaves, there was a quick chat about books with a neighbor while at the mailboxes and then we were each on our way.

Day by day, the foliage is turning colors and it’s pretty. The trees are taking on shades of red, orange, and gold. It’s still a gentle transition, but soon, it may look like a riot of color. Even the ferns are getting in on the wardrobe change from summer green to fall yellow. I don’t remember noticing this last year, but it’s possible they were mowed down before the color change.

Along with foliage season, dance season is in full swing with new choreography in the works with the dance bestie/duet partner. The music was chosen quite a while ago, the research was underway, and ideas were percolating. She arrived at my house with an outline for the dance and we got busy reviewing traditional steps found in our initial research. It was fun. It is always fun. 

random thoughts – Day 2,388 (Wednesday) – prepping projects

The scrap bins.

With nothing on the calendar for the morning I was free to make it up as it went along (like many days, because life is good). I decided to browse the containers of scrap glass and cut some pieces for new patterns for the next time I’m in the glass studio.

It had been years since I last looked in the scrap bins. More precisely, the “bins” are two frozen mini éclair containers, one cardboard box, and one rectangle Rubbermaid container that live on the future cutting table in the future craft room at the house. The bins have existed for nearly 20 years since the last time I worked in glass. They contain a variety of colored, patterned, and clear glass. 

While looking for pieces that would have minimal cutting for the patterns, I discovered a trove of scrap already clean-cut in rectangles, triangles, and squares. These were set aside for a project that could be arranged to require no cutting or grinding.

Purple project number one,
cut and ready for grinding.

During the cutting of glass for the second project, there was an abnormal of bloodletting. I don’t usually get cut working with glass, but today was a different story. There were several tiny nicks but the many dots of blood on the pattern paper, the newspaper covering the table, and the glass made it look worse. 

Partly because of the cuts, and partly because it was a good stopping point, it was decided to stop when the pieces were rough cut for the second project. The glass for each was set into a plastic bag, ready for grinding and assembly. And it was good.

random thoughts – Day 2,387 (Tuesday) – dancing double header

Tuesday dance bag.

Tuesday is dance day. For a few years, there was belly dance on Tuesday nights in Hudson. This past summer, when belly dance class was on holiday, there was Denishawn in Fitchburg on Tuesdays in the late afternoon, which has been running for many years without me due to the inconvenience of a job that prevented attending an afternoon class, and then the conflict with the timing of belly dance class.

After a couple months of Tuesday afternoon dancing, beginning three weeks ago, belly dance resumed and the time space continuum caused the two dance forms to overlap. The distance between Fitchburg and Marlboro prevented attending both without missing a chunk of one, the other, or both.

As of this week, the Fitchburg dance group (two hours long) starts earlier, leaving me just enough time to get to the Marlboro class (one hour long), barring traffic jams, accidents, etc. And so it was done. The dance bag was packed with suede-soled ballet shoes and volleyball knee pads for the floor work, plus belly dance coin belts, a pouch with zills, and the light rubber soled shoes I wear for belly dance. That worked out, because the floor in Fitchburg was so slippery today I ended up wearing the rubber soled shoes to avoid wiping out and breaking something. As belly dance progresses, there will be veils and skirts needed, increasing the wardrobe packing.

The biggest impediment to connecting the two dance classes, roughly one hour’s drive apart, lies in leaving Fitchburg. Route 2 is across town from the dance site, with traffic lights and heavy volume in the way. With a lifetime connection to Fitchburg, I had anticipated this, so it wasn’t a surprise, just mildly annoying.

Another impediment in the journey is the inconsistent volume of the navigation on the phone. It might be the phone, it might be the app, I don’t know. What I do know is if I turn down the volume while playing chess on Duolingo, when it is turned back up for Waze, most of the time the navigation is at whisper level, at best. This leaves me on high alert the entire drive, radio silenced, ears staining to hear the traffic alerts and navigation, which can change based on traffic conditions.

Despite the navigation challenge, the driving was tolerable and both dance session were great. In the first dance group, we ran through all the warmups, stretching, and center technique, followed by the repertoire of dances. In the belly dance group we did an warmup and some hip technique exercises, followed by working on choreography. We finished up with arm technique exercises and a touch of improvisational movement. I almost wish every day was a double header dance class day, just without  the driving part. At least the scenery was pretty, with the leaves turning red, orange, and yellow along much of the routes. 

random thoughts – Day 2,386 (Monday) – glass and roasting

Crescent moon, foiled and ready for solder.

Mondays weren’t always fun, but with retirement and then stained glass class, that reputation has changed. It’s great spending time in a fully equipped studio with access to the expertise of the instructor. The plan for the day was to do the final grinding and fitting of the glass in the crescent moon which was cut in tones of yellows with greenish-gray that was started last week. The assembly step involves applying copper foil tape to the edges, and applying solder along the foil lines on both sides and the outer edges.

When that was done, there was time to start cutting the glass for one of the patterns I drew last week. It features clear textured and iridescent glass and a diamond shaped bevel. Before leaving for class I had browsed my clear scrap bin and chosen pieces large enough to work for the pattern pieces.  It was quick work with the cutter to score the outlines.

I have a cutter and lots of scrap from past projects just waiting to come out and play so I may hand cut the pieces for several projects and package a kit for each one to bring to the studio. This will let me spend my studio time focused on grinding, foiling, and soldering.

Fall roasting season has begun.

After class and back at home, the crescent moon was hung and attention turned to kicking off fall roasting season. Roma tomatoes, carrots, and onions were sliced and brussels sprouts were halved. Everything was coated in olive oil with salt and pepper and roasted in the oven. The veggies were delicious and served with creamy mushroom risotto and a satisfying way to celebrate a productive day.

random thoughts – Day 2,385 (Sunday) – weather and mystery

View on a wet and windy day.

The weather was wild throughout the overnight stretch from Saturday into Sunday. I was tired and went to bed at the very responsible hour of 10:00 and read for a bit, until I was sufficiently sleepy. There was a brief nap and then I was awake all over again. Still awake (and annoyed) at 1:00 am, with the wind howling and rain slamming from every direction, I did the thing I usually manage to avoid and picked up the phone. Soon, I was deep in a Doomscroll and it was suddenly 2:00. The phone was put down and I tried to sleep, unsuccessfully, and suddenly it was 3:00 and I was really annoyed, but I finally fell asleep.

A bit after 8:00 I woke up tired, but got up anyway. It wasn’t until the coffee grounds and water were in the machine and nothing happened that I was aware the power was out. A text from the power company about the outage and a map on their system indicated 450 people in my chunk of town were out of power. The estimate for repair was 4:00 pm, which felt very far away.

Kudos to National Grid for under promising and over delivering. The power was restored at 9:20 am, coffee was made and consumed, and my world was returned to its axis. The weather was still wretched with a forecast for a full day of it, and it was decided to stay in and enjoy the rainy day.

There was another installment of the seasonal game “find the rest of the sweaters” when I prepared to dress and couldn’t find the one I wanted to combat the chill in my other game of “don't turn on the furnace.” The targeted sweater was finally located with a bunch more, and the final analysis is that I have many more sweaters than I need. Maybe. Life is uncertain and I can’t see the future, so it would be risky (foolhardy, even) to discard the nice office sweaters or the dressy sweaters just because they weren’t used last winter. 

Maybe I’ll finally create a social life in my new city and have a variety of places to go and things to do. Maybe I’ll be 20 years old again and be crowned the queen of some remote country due to an unknown lineage like in a Hallmark movie. Anything is possible, right?

In the weirdness of the weather and the power outage and the sweater agonizing/organizing, it was 11:00 am when I realized Kiki hadn't been seen since Saturday night when she got her treats before I went to bed. I walked around the house, calling her name and looking in all the rooms. She was in none of her known places. I finally found her blending in with the shadows in the darkest corner under the bed, which I had already checked. It felt a little like our first few weeks together in Lowell when she hid inside the box spring for weeks on end.

And suddenly, she appeared.

Once, I laid on the floor and stretched my arm under the bed to hand feed Kiki some treats. She stayed under the bed until nearly 9:00 pm, when she finally emerged, acting like nothing was different and she hadn’t been MIA all day. She wanted her cheeks rubbed and let me pet her from head to tail. 

It seems to be a continuation of Kiki mixing things up since a month or so ago when she stopped sleeping on top of the bed and with me at night, as suddenly as she started.

random thoughts – Day 2,384 (Saturday) – books, fabric, toad

New used books!

There were several things on the calendar for today and the threat of heavy rain and wind from the Nor’ Easter altered most of them. The situation is the same for events planned for Sunday, one of which was a belly dance show now postponed to January.

Today’s Octoberfest in downtown Gardner was modified and the bands were moved inside to the brew pub. The Chair Luge race component was moved to next Saturday. That was okay because it eliminated the street closures which made it easier to get to the library book sale. Not that I need more books, but that didn't stop me and of course I went.

Being indoor shopping for books was a great way to spend part of a cloudy, drizzly, windy morning. I stuck to the non-fiction section of the room packed with books. Unlike the fiction half of the room, the non-fiction books were grouped and labeled by major category, so it was less overwhelming. Plus, I had made a list of a couple topics I needed.

Cool skirt fabric, future dance stuff.

For the pittance of $8, I got some good ones including The City and the River (a history of Fitchburg), and books on gardening, stained glass, writing, and quilt blocks. Stained glass, gardening and quilt blocks were on my list, the rest were bonus books. The quilt block book will be helpful with stained glass designs, which is how I started out with them decades ago, with books borrowed from the library.

On the way home from the book sale, despite my best intention to be strong and avoid The Salvation Army Thrift Store, the car propelled itself into a left turn into the parking lot. It was the darndest thing, but it worked out, because I found a skirt in a really cool red, purple and black iridescent fabric. There is enough material to transform it into a belly dance belt and dance bra cover.

Itty bitty toad.

A trip was taken to the back yard to fetch the pot of lavender. When I picked it up, something on the edge of the pot moved. At first, I thought it was a leaf, but it turned out to be the cutest, tiniest little gray and lichen green toad, barely the size of a quarter. 

It sat on the edge of the pot long enough for me to run into the house for my phone, and come back out to take pictures. My little model was camera shy and kept turning its back to my phone's lens. After a couple pics it jumped off the pot edge onto the ground where it blended in with the landscape. 

The wind was crazy all day, and it rained intermittently, but it wasn’t the storm I expected. Facebook posts from friends in other towns reported downed trees, power outages, and flooded streets and I was saddened for them and glad that wasn’t the story in my immediate area.

The evening’s entertainment was baking an apple crisp with apples from Mom while the rain alternated between slamming against the house and falling gently. The hardest part of the baking was the fact that orange concentrate is no longer made by the major producers and is hard to find. I ended up researching how to make my own by boiling down orange juice. It wasn’t difficult, but it also wasn’t as thick as real concentrate and the apple crisp filling came out wetter than usual. It’s fortunate that that was the worst thing to happen in my day.

random thoughts – Day 2,383 (Friday) – shopping and pizza

The stream at the end of the street.

The weather forecast is for some crazy wind and rain so preparations were made. Luckily, not much needed to be done. The potted plants, solar lanterns, and small yard bird figurine things were all taken inside. The flower boxes near the front stairs were brough to the back landing under the carport. It took just a few minutes.

There was a trip to Aldi for the regular grocery shopping of the items I know cost less than Hannaford which is basically everything except Ben and Jerry ice cream (2/$7 at Hannaford, $4.85 at Aldi). It seemed to be annoying customer night. 

One guy stood at his cart which was stopped in the middle of the aisle, with two kids around eight and nine years old hanging off it and horsing around. Three of us stood there waiting for him to move the cart so we could pass. He finally did, and out loud to all of us said, “it’s a daughter thing.” Dude, how about you be the adult, not blame your kids for your obliviousness, and move the cart? Just a thought.

There was a couple shopping for pasta dinner things who absolutely reeked of pot. I smelled it before I reached them and it lingered in my nose after I had moved on. Right about the time I shook the smell, I found myself with them again in another aisle. It reminded me of the time a skunk sprayed near the house and the cloud hung in the air for several days. Usually I enjoy taking my time shopping in Aldi, but tonight I couldn’t get out of there fast enough.

The ride home featured a sky tinged in pink over the tree tops that blocked most of the view that I was sure was or would soon be spectacular. I love trees, but there are drawbacks. I paused to enjoy the pink sky reflected in the stream at the end of the street. 

Friday night pizza party.

Back in the house it was pizza party of one night, with the just bought $5.99 refrigerated four cheese pizza from Aldi. I added mushroom and onion slices and more mozzarella cheese before it went into the oven. I usually get six or seven meals out of it at one or two slices each, so it’s well worth the price. I love the comfort of knowing there are individual slices wrapped in foil in the freezer for those times when hunger hits suddenly or I just don’t feel like thinking about food.

random thoughts – Day 2,382 (Thursday) – glassy eyed

Look at that glass!

It was another day of quiet contentment. Another coat of Mod Podge was added to the photos on canvas project. When I got chilly I washed some dishes by hand and the hot soapy water felt sensuous and comforting and took the icy chill out of my hands.

Trips were made to the outside world to deposit a check and buy provisions including greeting cards, storage containers, and books for $1.50 each at Dollar Tree, and a few food basics at Hannaford because Ben and Jerry ice cream was on sale there.

The most energy was invested in frequently pausing the show I’ve been streaming on Prime (The Almighty Johnsons). One of the settings in the show is a bar with some cool stained glass windows over which I am starry-eyed and swooning, and I’ve been trying to get photos of said windows so I can design something similar (and smaller). Because it's a character a driven-show and not an architectural showcase, it’s rare for a scene to feature a window without people, and countless photos have been taken in the hope of getting one with minimal people. I think I got it enough to be able to sketch and plan. The stopping of shows to photograph cool glass windows and doors has been an ongoing situation. The Korean dramas have some stunners, along with beautifully decorated refrigerators. 

Another window!

The next step after all the glass sketching and planning is to start tracing onto glass and cutting, but there is a logistics concern. There is wall to wall Berber carpeting through most of the house, which, no matter how much care is exercised, is sure to capture glass bits (known from the experience of my own cut up feet). and I’m afraid Kiki will pick them up in her paws before I can get them all picked up with the vacuum. I haven’t sewed since June and am still finding pins embedded in the living room carpet (as recently as this morning) despite weekly vacuuming. 

The only floors without carpeting are the two bathrooms, the kitchen, and the laundry area. The kitchen has good natural lighting with the skylight, but I don’t think cutting glass on a kitchen counter is a wise idea, with food prep and all.

A good short-term solution is to keep registering for workshops at the Worcester Craft Center and using the nice tall counters, grinders, and soldering irons. The ideal home situation is to upgrade the lighting in the craft/still a hot mess storage room, and keep the door closed to keep Kiki out and her paws safe. The ideal extension to the ideal situation is removing the carpeting from the craft room and putting down vinyl, which is easier to clean with a damp mop, but would require emptying the very full room. I am not psychologically prepared to deal something of that magnitude just yet.

random thoughts – Day 2,381 (Wednesday) – nesting activity

Ghost shutters.

Fall has arrived in its chilly glory. The house was 55 degrees when I woke up. I am determined to not turn on the furnace yet. Oil cost a small fortune last year and it’s much more expensive this year.  It will be long season of long johns and sweaters and endless cups of fruit tea and bowls of soup.

A few cashmere and lightweight wool sweaters live in the drawer year-round in case there is a summer hike or bonfire to attend, and a couple more that were bought recently, so dressing was easier than it might have been. It was the favorite alpaca sweater for the win.

The contractors returned this morning to do more work on the house. The shutters that were removed yesterday left ghostly images on the house. The new siding will not include shutters.

Parts were painted from the current gray to the color of the siding (Moonlit Moss). There was some hammering and measuring. At 2:00, they disappeared.

Works in process.

While the contractor van blocked my car in the driveway and siding-related activities took place outside the house, nesting activities occurred inside. A decorated dance bra was deconstructed to study the assembly method and cut out the stretched out elastic straps for replacement. More stained glass designs were drafted. Three of the 4 x 4 canvases prepped on Tuesday received photos and the first coat of sealer.

The couch cover used for the summer because it’s cooler than the couch fabric and the southwest style blanket on the couch back that adds color and texture to the room were removed, laundered, and stored in a closet. The crocheted afghan from my aunt which is perfect for cooler weather and adds a a cozy texture was returned to the couch.

The fluffy purple bathrobe that lived in the bottom of the hamper since it got warm last spring, was finally washed and hung on the bathroom door. Summer capris were removed from the closet and replaced with the fall/winter pants. The productive day kind of makes up for some of the unproductive days preceding it.

random thoughts – Day 2,380 (Tuesday) – house stuff

Stuff coming off the house.

It was the usual lounge about on the couch drinking coffee morning, when, at 8:50, a white van pulled into the driveway and I launched myself into the bedroom to change out of pajamas and into jeans and a sweater. Years of quick ballet costume and fashion show changes has sometimes come in handy. The van had backed out and left, but a shiny silver pickup truck was parked out front. The van returned a couple minutes later with the contractor and his colleague, on site to begin the preliminary siding work and I was glad I was dressed.

I stepped outside for a quick touch base. It wasn't long before the old shutters, trim material, and skirting had been removed and stacked in the back yard. Later, while checking on the progress, I saw a bunch of white wood flower bed edging in the crawlspace that will be perfect for the flower bed planned for the side of the house. I asked the guys to pull it out and set it near the shed. I’ll clean it up and maybe paint it, then store it in the shed until spring. There may not be enough time to set a flower bed after the siding is completed, but I’ll be ready next spring. I'm also glad I didn't find any edging when I was shopping for it earlier. 

American chop suey
with provolone.

When I got to thinking about food I decided to make American Chop Suey, one of my favorite dishes going back to childhood. There was extra cooked macaroni left from the macaroni and cheese bake of the other day so one step was already done. After the green pepper and onion were chopped and cooking, I realized the can of diced tomatoes believed to be in the pantry didn’t actually exist, but there was a jar of sauce. Later, I discovered all the sliced American cheese had been used in the mac and cheese and there was none to break up to top the stuff on my plate like I did when I was a kid. The sauce was bit thick and the provolone cheese I used on top wasn’t correct, so it wasn’t exactly like the memory of Mom’s American chop suey, but it still tasted pretty good.

The afternoon included painting several 4-inch by 4-inch canvases black. Two are for a specific project, but it seemed wise to prep some extras while I was at it. I printed one of my favorite Kiki photos and will mount it tomorrow. Another one will feature a photo of Moose and Winston looking adorable.