Monday, November 22, 2010 — Yet another newsletter!

Pacific Textile Arts newsletter #52 just hit the road. The main theme for this issue is that we need all our generous supporters to send in their pledge money right away if they haven't already done so because we will soon be receiving bills for our construction project. We started writing these quarterly communiques several years before we were able to buy our headquarters on Alger Street in Fort Bragg. They now provide a pretty accurate record of our activities since we first formed as an outgrowth of the old Pacific Basin School of Textile Arts in Berkeley. In the coming months they'll be available for display in our new, soon to be constructed library space. It's been a wild and sometimes scary adventure into dealing with the processes necessary for working with the planning commission, planning department, building department, the fire department and school district. Each of these offices has actually been extremely helpful in trying to assist us in expediting our project. They certainly have helped and educated me from beginning to end. And even though it temporarily seemed like a show stopper to receive an edict for sprinkler systems in both of our soon to be established buildings five days after we had received our building permits, we forged ahead and the construction of the foundation areas and the U shaped rock driveway is well under way. We owe a great deal to our contractor, Fort Bragg Electric for correcting errors made in our plot map and other "little details." And of course it's raining cats and dogs and it's soon to be Thanksgiving, so nothing is going to happen too rapidly until next week. But just seeing that earth moving equipment and heavy compacting roller out there doing what they do, is very exciting. It's always so tempting to say I'm sorry Skip isn't here to see this come to fruition, but then I remember all my informants who are telling me that he sees everything now. OK. Good.

I received an early morning phone call from Rodrick Owen in England today. He was ready to get specific about some dates for next year's Kumihimo Festival at the end of October 2011. We set dates and he told me that he reads my blog each day that I post an entry. And yes, he did read the one I deleted last week. And yes, he did think I had perhaps crossed the line and was probably better off deleting it. Guess I'll have to be a bit swifter next time that happens. Maybe it won't happen. One occasionally learns from one's mistakes.

I'm gathering my courage for hosting the first Thanksgiving celebrations since Skip died. I just have to keep reminding myself that we had a great seventeen years up here on the north coast that he loved so much and that there is a new and as yet undiscovered life in store for me in the years to come. Absorbing the fact that I am really on my own is still the hardest thing for me to cope with. I drive up Sherwood Road and fully expect to pass the red pickup around the next bend. I think of things that I would ordinarily have conferred with him over and suddenly realize that those decisions must now come from me on my own. Mike has really been helping me come to grips with the UC retirement office and their slightly confusing letters. Loving friends like the wonderful organizers at MLPA, who wrote to me and asked me to pick out a tree to plant in our garden in memory of Skip lift my spirits beyond belief. I am so moved by this gift. I spent hours visiting Hortus Botanicus and sitting by Robert's lovely pond with its waterfall. The tree I picked will go near the beautiful gingko Marilynn Thorpe gave me. Again, it's the same old roller coaster since the days at Sutter Medical Center. One minute all signs seem to present a future that's worth looking forward to and the next minute you're dealing with a wrenching reminder of what's happened. I can only imagine that it must be getting to be a bore hearing this litany of up and down. Please know that your emails, notes, phone calls, trees and flowers like the greenish yellow lillies with the salmon centers Sheila O'Hara brought the other day are what bring smiles and tears of thanks to my face. I am so grateful for every comforting hug, reassurance and the general spirit boosting my friends and family give me. It's hard to imagine what it might be like to not receive this kind of help in facing such a new reality.