Sunday, July 24, 2011 — Between now and then ...... or then and now

The benefit concert with Mike and Leah went gloriously. As Hans said, "They really swing." I watched one man sitting on the upper level with a smile on his face during the entire evening. I met some lovely people there and was so happy to see Sheila Fetzer sitting next to the Bartleys when I entered the room. Love that girl. I am so grateful to Pattie and Max for all their work and of course to Mike and Leah, the stars. A magical evening.

As the days go by and we're getting closer to August 11, I feel the need to catch up with the loose ends that seem to accumulate. I managed to get fairly behind on these things as I gave my all to the preparations for the garden tour and the online Maiz exhibit. The month of June went by without my wishing my brother Chris a happy birthday. I hope it was good, Chris. And I haven't responded to some of the comments and emails regarding the blog. I love you too, Serena. And Sam, you are a fully credentialed angel. I've been meaning to call you every day to see how you are doing. So sorry to hear you were ill. Iren, I'm vowing to call you today to see if there is anything I can do for you. And so on. You get the idea. I'm behind.

The visit from the Bay Area family who came up for the gig was short but lovely. I made a berry and rhubarb crisp from our yard for breakfast. It was so yummy. What a thrill to go out and pick fruit and then come in and make it into such a good thing. The group took a walk to the river after breakfast and then we took care of some business in town. The day they were leaving I took them for lunch at Herons down in the harbor. Sat outside and watched the boats going by. Gorgeous day and delicious salmon tacos. A week before that I had been there for dinner with the movie night group and we discovered the amazing cat feeding stations along the road in the bushes with a large raccoon holding forth at each of the main, land based bowls of food. Atop the nearby wooden structures were numerous cats and more food as well as water in bowls. I understand the lady responsible for this also has some of these feral cats neutered when she is able. On the way back we stopped for me to pick up the wedding gift I had bought for Ning from Sacred Woods. Everyone loved this place. Marvelous gift wares indoors and wonderful wood, rock and sculpture items outdoors. A magical place worth visiting.

I'm trying to do something to progress with the preparations for the PTA library and classroom each day. I have to admit it's going slowly. Monday Carlos, Francisco and I moved all the library shelving we had been storing in our woodshed and garage since it had been given to PTA by the California Crafts Museum at Fort Mason. Just speaking of it brings back memories of the morning Richard, Duane, Skip and I disassembled them, carried them downstairs and out into the heaviest downpour to put them into the red pickup and place a tarp over them. I can hardly remember a more remarkable "raining cats and dogs storm." Soaked to the bone, we followed that job with a late lunch at Greens. As I recall, tasty food and a good glass of wine somehow made it all better. Now the heavy, metal shelving is organized on the refinished library reading room floor, ready to be installed in its new home after Roberta and Richard develop the final plan for installation.

Pacific Textile Arts needs to send out a newsletter by the third week in August. I'm gathering the materials and info for this and then heading for Echo Lake by the end of the coming week. With two grandchildren soon heading for their new college destinations and Steve and family returning from three years of living in Italy, there is a family magnet calling us to the mountains. I would like to be with them when August 11 arrives. It will be comforting to see friends there and have the children nearby. Elena is taking tennis classes at Tahoe so Kathy and I will spend some time at Alpina Cafe drinking tea and coffee and gazing at our computers. Somehow the newsletter will get done and it's possible a few more blog entries will find their way online before I bring an end to it. Love to all. Stay with me, just a little longer.

Thursday, July 14, 2011 — I'm fine, just busy

Please don't worry. I'm just not finding enough hours in the day. Partly because of commitments and partly because I'm holding fast to my exercise regime of going to Curves at least four or five times weekly and doing my laps at the pool five to six times per. I actually made it to seven last week. Exercise is so amazing. It's not a full scale cure but it really keeps me going. You all know I am happy to live where I live and have wonderful, attentive friends. But there seems to be no cure for that special sadness and loneliness that can suddenly come upon you without warning. That's when endorphins really get you through the day. I've always thought morphine was a miraculous drug when you are in extreme circumstances in a hospital. But endorphins, which I understand are a natural kind of morphine manufactured by the body during exercise, are welcome at any time.

Backing up a bit, I did go to hear David Brewer and Rebecca Malnucky and their joyous (or sometimes not exactly so) Celtic music. I made a salad at Harvest Market and took it to the theater and sat there eating it up on the top row before the performance so that I could be sure I arrived in time for a good seat. Delightful program. Monster players. So, of course I was happy I took the time to do it.

Then back to the Tuesday deadline for curating the online exhibit of our Maiz tapestries. There were moments on Monday when I wasn't sure I was actually going to make it. But, I did! I have been playing phone tag with the editor over several different image files. But I think it looks like it's all going to work out. On Monday I sent her six folders by email with all the narative material and lists. Then, on Tuesday I screwed up my courage and made the final CD with those same six folders plus the folder with the jpg images of the tapestries. Of course, it was the old "third time is the charm" before I had it right with the files all there and in the desired order. Well, that's not actually so bad, is it? I've done worse as I recall. I'm a lousy typist but I suddenly become a perfectionist before I am willing to finally send something like that off.

So I took a couple of days to catch up on laundry, hair cut, food shopping and all that exciting stuff. Mostly just going through a kind of decompression period. About midweek I began giving my attention to the needs of Pacific Textile Arts. We had our board meeting on Monday night this week and people showed up in various degrees of health and wholeness. It seems to be some kind of a seasonal thing for post replacement parts operations or recuperation from catastrophic falls. Anyway, I suddenly felt I might be the one in the best shape out of those in the room. The others are definitely all seeming to be on the mend though, thankfully.

Two friends offered to help me paint Tuesday. Beta and Sandra finished the touch-up painting in the small library reading room. While they did that I got back to work on the next section of floor of the big classroom. Feels good to go forward with that again. Not that I love doing it, I just feel that much closer to completion with each coat of finish. Imagine how caught up with my circumstances I might become if I didn't have all these things to distract me and carry me forward.

Another wonderful distraction coming up is the benefit program Mike and Leah are going to do at the Mendocino Hotel on Monday night, July 18th. I really appreciate Pattie De Mateo doing this as a Mendocino Stories benefit for Pacific Textile Arts. We just received a $15,000. bid for reroofing the old house at PTA. It's down to bare wood so we'll have to face that as soon as possible. We also need to paint the new buildings before we can get our final inspection. Can't afford to have Victor's Painting to do it with that roof taking priority. So we're going to work on it ourselves as best we can in September.

When I returned from my swim last night I baked two apple cake/torts with brown rice flour. I had the Soroptimist brown bag lunch gang coming here for lunch today. I also took berries from my yard and added them to rhubarb and strawberries I received in my box from the Noyo Food Forest to make a fruit crisp, also with rice flour and granola. I have so many friends and acquaintances who can't eat wheat anymore, it's getting to seem more important to offer the alternatives. I think I'd better take the leftovers to friends quickly and get them out of the house. Too dangerous to be here alone with them. Bobbie behaved himself beautifully with the lunch crowd. He went from person to person, begging for attention. I have of course warned everyone that he has sometimes been a "nipper" but it often gets out of my hands as people respond to his obvious love of being a smooch. So I sit there and hold my breath while he follows his bliss. He is a dear one and such great company for me and for Latte. I guess he is just meant to be my mechanism for accepting whatever surprise is around the corner while keeping me on my toes.

Sunday, July 3, 2011 — Fort Bragg Salmon Barbecue a smoking scene

Most of this week has been taken up by working on the online exhibit of our Maiz tapestries I am curating for the ATA website. I have to mail a CD with all the files on Tuesday at the latest. Chris Laffer takes it from there and was very gracious to tell me I could wait until Tuesday to send it. I had been gathering the material earlier of course, but involvement in the Art Center garden tour took most of my energy prior to this week.

So, of course there were surprises when I began to work in earnest. Some resolutions wrong. Some sizing not done at all. Most people made a valliant effort to give it to me "right." And I really appreciate that. Some people were inadvertently not on the email list. And so goes my long list of excuses. And, so the reason for dropping all other earlier planned activities until this is done an out the door. It will get there, Chris.

Through this time I am managing to make time for Curves and my swim. And yesterday I made good on a commitment to help my fellow Soroptimists with the garlic bread line at the annual Fort Bragg Salmon Barbecue. All in all, it only meant taking two and a half hours away from the tapestry files and certainly didn't involve a long drive. I would also love to be helping Alison Glassey with her exciting event to connect volunteers and others involved in the activities of the Mendocino County Museum. I am devoted to that cause and there are people who will be there who I've been eager to meet in person. But alas, it is over that windy drive hill to Willits. I just can't do it and make good on the Maiz tapestry exhibition. It saddens me when you have to make these kinds of choices and prioritizing.

I do derive a certain kind of energy from participating in the barbecue bread line. It is always so chalk full of amusing scenes and events. This year sported a host of logistical and convenience features that were new to me since I missed participating in last year's event. Bright yellow shirts worn by "officials" made it easy to go for help with almost any need. Sun shading gazebos were placed over each food stage except the actual cooking of the salmon, corn and garlic bread. Many new tables at these stations and quite a few new picnic tables completed the refurbished look of the event. The musicians still stood on top of a high semi-truck bed and filled the air with their foot stomping sound. As I write about this, "Oak and Thorn" on the radio is featuring a phone call with David Brewer, who is scheduled to play Scottish pipe tunes in Mendocino this evening at the Matheson Performing Arts Center. A very different genre than the truck top but both do their job of nourishing the senses. Celtic musicians are always warmly welcomed on our coast. I might just try to break away and go to hear Rebecca Lomnicky and David Brewer playing their lovely traditional Celtic music. This is a benefit for KZYX that truly deserves our support. I'm sure you can hear me talking myself into it. Which means I'd better get back to the digital work soon. There aren't enough hours in some days.

I had wanted to share my thoughts about a book Sachiyo gave me. It's called "Healthy at 100." It is written by John Robbins of ice cream family fame. One of the most special and informing books I've ever read. I thank Sachiyo with practically every page I turn. It makes such fantastic sense and resonates with every conviction I hold but may not have always acted upon. I'll get back to the subject soon but the files call. One last reference to this book — This morning's chapter begins with a quote that captures the essence of the volume — "Life is not measured by the number of breaths you take, but by the moments that take your breath away."