Hurrah - On The Road Again! 10-12-21

But I have forgotten what a hassle it is to get online at a new motel.  And "they" want me to put a lock on my phone so that everytime I use it I will have to unlock it.  Things get more complicated every day.  I hope I can figure out a way to just sign in while I am here without having to change my password or unlock something every time.  Groan.   To top it off, this room has no desk or table.  I have my laptop on a little round side table and the mouse on a chair and I am sitting sideways on soft upholstered chair - my neck already hurts.  So, this may be short. 

My cell phone camera did not take all the pictures I thought I took.  When I take them my mind writes a sort of story line and those images are all missing.  Don't know what this one is, but it is soft and sweet!

Instead of going north on I-5 to Santa Nella and taking 152/156 over Pacheco Pass and then having to go south on 101 and 01, I decided to take 198 from Harris Ranch to 101.  It is a slow road, but very little traffic.  Lots of curves, posted speeds down to 20mph, but I did enjoy the scenery. 

Unfortunately, these are all the pictures that came out. 

The only living things I saw were ravens, crows and a few black cows.

Hwy 101 goes through the Salinas Valley where much of the vegetable crops are grown to feed the entire country.  Interesting to see how many more huge wind turbines have gone up in the past two years when I haven't driven this way.  And, unfortunately, also more houses that take up farm land.

By the time I got to Salinas it was dark, so I didn't see anything but headlights and taillights from 101 to Pacific Grove.  I stopped at Il Vecchio, my favorite Italian restaurant, and had pumpkin soup and broccoli and bread - delicious.  I poured the olive oil/balsamic vinegar that came with the bread over the broccoli and will have it for salad tomorrow.  Yum. 

I am at the Rosedale Inn, across the street from Asilomar.  I've never stayed here before, but wanted to stay somewhere familiar since I will spend the week sewing in my room, if I can get a table to put my machine on.  I take the quilts to PIQF tomorrow and pick them up on Sunday, so I have lots of time to just rest, sew, walk, visit Back Porch Fabrics, and see some friends.  KoKo is with a KoKo Keeper in Yorba Linda - Laura Bell has taken care of him before, but not for several years.  She says he is being good.  

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KoKo helping 10-10-21

I have been finishing the quilt I am taking to PIQF and KoKo have been "helping" as usual.  He is just determined to be close and sometimes pushes the limits. 

He likes to sleep on the stack of "soon to be quilted" projects on the sewing table. 

But most of all he wants to be as close to me as he can, including almost under the needle. 

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Still Improving! 10-09-21

It was a busy day and I hardly needed my cane!  Seems like the injection is working - hope it will last for months and months.  My leg/hip/spine still hurt, but not as bad and I can step up on a curb without that stabbing pain.  

We both had our hair cut, the car washed, money from bank, See's for gifts, and, of course, our two walks.  I finished the sleeve on the "Welcome Home" quilt that is going to PIQF, but still have the label to sew on.  Stupid arthritis in my hands keeps me from hand stitching for more than about half an hour, so things go slowly.  

I am struggling with remembering what to take when I travel!  The pandemic seems to have erased my mind in places.  I know I have a list in my laptop somewhere, but wonder if it would still apply since I made it at least a decade ago.  I did get out the daily pill bottles I fill when I travel and have them set out to fill tomorrow.  Since the TIA I now take so many pills that I need an AM and a PM bottle for every day.  How did this happen to me?  I also need to take sewing to do during the days I am up in the Santa Clara area.  And my friend Liz reminded me today that I need warmer clothing for that area since a storm is coming that will close the passes over the Sierra due to snow!  I am not going over, but there may be cold rain from the coast to the mountains.    I do have KoKo's things organized.  I can't imagine what it would be like to pack for a family!  Just for KoKo there is food, treats, bed, Froggy, quilt, poop bags, carrier, paperwork, brush/comb, and...  I hope that is everything. 

I tried again to capture that "parchment curl of California gold...." and Venus, but even bracing the camera against a tree couldn't prevent the camera jiggle.  

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Doctoring 10-07-21

 

This just seems like a lovely sunset picture, but it is a little strange in that it is looking east on Palm Avenue.  Yes, east!  I was confused, however I realized that the sun was reflecting off a huge, tall pile of clouds in the east, shining under the local overcast.  There was very little sunset to the west because the sun was already below the horizon.  I have never noticed this phenomenon before. 

Today I had the third epidural for the sciatica.  It was at the Hoag Surgical Center in Irvine, across the street from the enormous Kaiser facilities - hospital and offices.  The Hoag Center is quite large also and I landed in the wrong place and had to call Dick to come to drive me around the complex to the correct location.  The signs are small (the Irvine Company influence?) and there doesn't seem to be a direct way to get anywhere.  If you ever go, be sure you have the exact address (we didn't) and use your GPS (we did).   The paperwork and the prep of my body took more than a half an hour and I'm sure I signed my name about a dozen times.  It seems they never received the FAX with my Covid test results and I think they ended up calling the doctor's office to check that it was negative.  The procedure only takes about 10 minutes, followed by a 15 minute "recuperation" period.  As instructed I have rested all day, but did have an okay to take KoKo for his evening walk.  I still hurt, but I remember that it took several days the last time for the effects to show up.  Hope they do. I would like to do some exercises, but they said to wait three days for that. 

Tomorrow I will be active again and hope to finish the final touches on my quilt to go to PIQF.  Just have the label to make and some threads to pull in and trim.  I am pleased with how it has turned out and happy that I learned some things along the way.   I will be glad to be able to sew for longer periods of time - standing at the cutting table and the ironing table and sitting with my foot on the pedal!  Soon.

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I am going to have another spinal injection tomorrow morning.  My third epidural for sciatica, which started last year about this time.  It has taken a month to get an appointment and this time it is down in Irvine.  Not good that it is for 8:30am check in - right at the high point of traffic which is always stalled on the 55 Fwy.  But I took the first appointment I could get.   I had to go to my primary doctor for a Covid test (negative) and an EKG.  While waiting for the nurse to set up I noticed this fancy, sparkly thing on the counter with the Q-tips and cotton balls and tongue depressors.  What was that doing in an exam room?  Turns out it is a "room refresher".  I could not smell it, thank the Goddess, but it didn't appear to have an opening for an odor to escape.  Weird.  

There are two new nurses in the office.  I think they are both about 14 years old!  Things have greatly changed in the 30 years I have been going to this office.  The new doctor is Uzma Ahmed and I think she is about 25!  I'm feeling really old (and cranky) these days.

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Halloween - again. 10-04-21

Halloween hasn't meant anything much to me since I was about 10, or maybe 14.  I don't understand the attraction so many seem to have with the "holiday".  Even before the 1st of the month the decorations were going up.  Some houses in my neighborhood will be heavily decorated by the time Halloween finally occurs the end of the month.  Odd. 

This fellow is very tall and I left the car in the image to show that he is actually taller than the palm trees.  Probably about 12 -14 feet!  He appeared about the 27th of September.  But I may not have seen him right away because he does blend in with the trees. 

Here is another giant, again 12 feet or more.  The wind rustles her/his robes which makes for special fright. 

This house is in the cul de sac across the street from us.  

Look  closely around the base of the tree to see silvery skulls and spikes, like cemetery gates, I guess.  

Tonight we had lightning and thunder and RAIN!  Not much, probably not enough to measure, but still refreshing.  Temp is supposed to drop from 90s to 70s for this week.  Feeling a little like autumn.  

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Valerie Goodwin quilt in TCQC 09-27-21

Here is a quilt that I added to TCQC in 2003 and it is very different from what Valerie Goodwin is now creating.   Some viewers think of this as the "olive" quilt, but those are not olives at all.  If you Google Rotational Displacement you get:

– Rotational displacement is how far the object rotates.

Rotational displacement is how far the object rotates. • Units: fractions of a complete revolution; degrees; radians. • 1 complete revolution = 360º = 2π ...

I am definitely not a physicist, but for my mind this does relate to the image on this quilt.  I continue to find it fascinating and like to hang it at the end of the hall to enjoy it often.  Here is the original blog post from 2010.

Valerie Goodwin quilt in TCQC 09-12-10

I first saw this quilt in September 2002 when Valerie Goodwin posted to the Quilt Art list giving her new website where she also showed work by her students. She is an architect and teaches at Florida A&M University's School of Architecture. Valerie was preparing for an exhibit of her work and didn't want to sell this quilt until after the exhibit. But, true to her word, she contacted me when the exhibit was taken down and I was able to buy the quilt. It is very unlike the work she is doing now, but it still "speaks" to me. I have been tempted by her more recent work, but I have yet to add another of her quilts to the TCQC. I was pleased to meet her two years ago when she had a quilt in the Visions Exhibit. See her current work at www.quiltsbyvalerie.com

"Rotational Displacement" Valerie Goodwin 2002 25"W x 46"L

Cotton fabrics, machine pieced, hand appliqued, hand quilted.

There are two pieces of this fabric printed with words - just the kind of detail that draws me in.

This quilt has a plain back and you will notice that the matching sleeve makes it a horizontal quilt, but I have added a black sleeve on one end to hang it vertical. I much prefer it that way. If you want to see it in the artist's orientation - the bottom of the quilt is the grey border with the red inserts. The label is on the original sleeve - the white label on the lower left is the TCQC label.

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