The Unofficial End of Summer

Monday was Labor Day, another unofficial end of summer as surely as the start of school is. Labor Day was also when I was supposed to collage a box or two with some of the many random pieces of paper I brought back from the Grand Spring Adventure. Alas, I worked on the proposal for the slightly more certain that it used to be statistics book I'm supposed to be helping to write. With four publishers expecting proposal packets around October 1 and a working title (Methods and Strategies for Sample-Size Analysis: Fables in Statistical Planning), it's all more real than it's been since I was first asked to get involved with it a bit over two years ago.

I am making progress on the cabin quilt as evidenced below. The cabin piece shown most recently has now been surrounded by two rows of blocks, each six inches square. Since the photo above was taken, I've added a 1.5-inch border of black. I've also pieced enough (I hope) sets of 3.5-inch long random strips that, when pieced together will form the final border. I hope to get that added in the next day or two, after which I'll be awaiting the arrival of a new bolt of black cotton from which will spring the quilt back. I also need to check my batting supply and Joann Fabric coupons, because obtaining batting will be the next chore. Will it be done in time to send it across the pond to Norway for Christmas? What's the expression--"God willin' and the creek don't rise"? Yeah, we'll go with that.

And while I'm waiting? Well, at some point, I'll be felting this large brown thing. I almost didn't post this photo because I look like crap in it, old and drawn. It was the end of a long day, and my hair was still pulled back and sweaty from karate. But back to the large brown thing. It's a jacket, knitted incredibly large to be felted or fulled smaller. The pattern came from something called the Twist Collective; you can see what the finished jacket might (if I'm lucky) look like here.

I also have what I'm calling the "amazing thing" to keep me busy. In my downsizing zeal, I decided to use up all sorts of single skeins or leftover bits of wool yarn. I started knitting bits together, with two different colors of yarn doubled together. Some time ago, I knitted a large wool afghan and felted or fulled it, thinking it might end up large enough for me to fashion it into a sword bag. Well, it didn't, so it now serves as a magic carpet on which my four-foot high stuffed orangutan sits each day. The amazing thing was for the same purpose, to be felted or fulled into something out of which I could craft a sword bag. The only problem is that I've gotten a bit carried away, and I'm betting that this one may end up too big. I'm almost out of yarn to be gotten rid of, so I'll be taking a before picture soon. The after picture will come much later since it's going to take me a while to work in all the loose yarn ends. I decided that rather than have large random places of color, I'd have many more smaller areas, so each color gets used for only a couple of rows at most. And I change colors randomly, one at a time rather than changing both colors at the same time.

And that's where things stand on several fronts. There is other news to report. I've been invited to test for my black belt in Myo Sim kendo in November, but I don't want to jinx anything by talking too much about it. I'm going sailing on Saturday. Younger son is back in the dorm and feeling quite at home there. His room here has been declared a disaster area and off limits for now. Life goes on. I need to write a book review now, after which I'll watch Obama's speech on health care, after which I shall take fountain pen in hand and write a letter the old-fashioned way.

Where Has All the Summer Gone?

Happy New Year! Being the child of teachers, I have always thought more in terms of academic years than calendar ones. The start of the new (school) year means the end of summer, which makes me more than a bit wistful. While I fully accomplished one of my summer goals, getting my yellow belt in Myo Sim karate, I have somewhat failed on the others.

I do have four or five boxes packed with things--mostly clothes--to donate, and older son has done some significant work on the junk room over the garage, but my goal to declutter and downsize a bit remains largely unmet. I tell myself that it may be easier to accomplish this, especially in terms of the garage, when the weather cools off, but that may be just another excuse.

I did do some smashing and shaping of some of the rogue spoons and forks I have laying around, and I actually planned a bit on making a bird out of various and sundry items. I also sorted the masses of paper brought back from the Grand Adventure and purchased boxes on which to create collages of that paper. I tell myself that I shall set aside the upcoming Labor Day as the time in which to complete one or more of these enterprises. If I can manage that, that will take care of that summer goal. If I collage a box, I can even count that toward The Fifty, and consider the remaining summer goal to be at least partially met.

All that considered, I guess it hasn't been that bad a summer, except that it has been. I spent much of June and July in something resembling a state of suspended animation, unmotivated. I would start a single game of Spider Solitaire or regular Solitaire to pass the time while something printed and, hours later, still be playing. It did not help that I had little work-for-pay to occupy the time and that the hard disc on Mr. Mac crashed, meaning that the book proposal I should have been working on was unreachable. I know some of the reasons I felt the crappy way I did, and while those reasons still exist and probably will for a while, I'm doing my best to beat the crappy feelings. I haven't played a computer game since July 26, and I've managed to fill in the time with productive endeavors rather than reading blogs or otherwise killing time on the Interwebs. But what might I have accomplished had June and July not been wasted?

Enough idle speculation. Work continues on the cabin quilt I have been documenting. I shall soon finish the 64 6-inch squares I need to put two "borders" around the image as last shown here. I hope any readers aren't offended that I haven't shown you the process of making those squares. It's exactly the same as the process for making the 4-inch squares that I already described, so you aren't missing anything by not seeing it. I'll post another photo when I've added the 6-inch squares. After that, there will be two more borders. One will be a 3-inch strip of black all around. Outside that, I plan to put another 3-inch border made of random strips of the same batiks and hand-dyes that I've used in the squares.

And now I return to the previously scheduled morning, working on the book proposal and awaiting the arrival of FedEx with Snow Leopard for Mr. Mac. Eighty-five days and counting until the 2009 Myo Sim Black Belt Test, but that's fodder for another post.

One Down and Three To Go

Back around Memorial Day, the unofficial start of summer, I put forth some summer goals. There were only four, some of which were more measurable than others. (I used to work in university planning, and we were very big on measurable goals.) The most measurable of this year's goals was to earn my yellow belt in Myo Sim karate. That's about as measurable as you can get; either I would earn it or I wouldn't. Well, I did.

One starts Myo Sim karate as a white belt. After that come yellow, green, two levels of blue, three levels of brown, and then black, of which there are varying degrees. There are defined requirements for each level. For yellow belt, I had to know four kata or basic forms, one tae ryun (a form done with a partner), five self defenses (responses to various grabs), three one steps (responses to a punch), six kicks (three different styles of kick done with either the front or the back leg), three punching combinations, and two partner exercises (putting together punches and kicks against an opponent). Getting a yellow belt means remembering the moves in each part or technique, doing them in the proper stances, and doing them safely. This last part is really important because not doing something safely can mean that you or the person you're working with gets very hurt very fast.

I have tested for two different belts in kendo, but this was my first rank exam in karate. One thing that is different is that the karate exams are judged by every black belt in attendance, and that the judging involves written comments on all the things demonstrated. While this contributes to your nervousness during the test, it's helpful to go over the comments in detail and learn from them. And comments are as apt to be positive as negative. Although many of the comments I got related to things I can and will change, I also got several comments that my kicking has much improved over the last few weeks. I put in a lot of extra time working on my kicking in between the time I was invited to test and the test itself; it was nice to know that the extra time paid off.

Next up is green belt. This one will be harder. There's not necessarily more material to learn, but the bar gets raised a bit. It will no longer be enough to remember and demonstrate the moves and to do them safely. Besides that, I will need to "make the punches look like punches, and the kicks look like kicks." In other words, my technique has to reach a certain level of quality. I won't make green this summer; it might be a stretch to try to make it in the fall. I will get it at some point; it's just hard to say when that might be. In the meantime, I have three other summer goals to work on during the time I'm not working on karate (or kendo), not to mention job, family, and a few other life priorities.

What I Might Do this Summer (Second Time Around)

For some known reason that I don't feel like divulging - okay, it was to avoid doing something else - I just put at least one label on all my previous posts. In doing so, I noticed that I set forth some goals for last summer with a follow-up in the fall as to how I did on them. As the radio announcer reminded me this morning, Memorial Day is the unofficial start of summer, so I might as well try to come up with a list this weekend.

(1) The last shall be first, eh? My final goal for last summer was to try to get the house a bit more kempt, as in the opposite of unkempt. Didn't make it and may never, but I might as well try again. One of the topics on my list of possible posts is how our big trip has really left me with the urge to downsize a bit around here. After living for two months in the same one pair of jeans and three pairs of cargo pants, and feeling as if I could have done with less, do I really need the dozen or more pairs of pants in my closet that I haven't worn in over a year? Or the suits I got back when I had a job that demanded my presence in an office or at meetings looking quite professional? I certainly don't need all of them. So my first goal is to follow through with this. I've got a pile of clothes to be donated going in the closet, after which there's lots more to tackle. Some people have junk drawers. I have one, plus the upstairs of the garage. You get the idea.

(2) Make at least one something out of the found objects and pieces of paper I brought back from the trip. Hopefully, I'll make more than one, but one is a good place to start. Perhaps I'll start with the spoons. There may be a strange cosmic cause, but I found a spoon or part of a spoon on the street in almost every major city we were in. It got to be something of a joke. "Find another spoon, Mom?" Or maybe I'll start with the flat eyeglass frame since I have several ideas about what I could do with that.

(3) Get my yellow belt in Myo Sim karate. I started going to karate classes in December, figuring that it could only help my kendo, which it has. I'm now at the point, though, where I've been taught everything I need to know for my yellow belt. Lots of things need work, but assuming I can put that work in, it would be nice to have the belt to show for it. My kicks probably need the most work, and I could be a lot more comfortable with falls. I would also like to be able to do the self-defenses without taking so long to think of what the next move is.

(4) And the first shall be last, in the vein of (1) above. I think my first goal last summer was to knock more items off The Fifty. Since I still have a few to go, I'll add that to the list for this summer, too. I got a start on the second Harry Potter book in Spanish, so perhaps I'll finish that. And perhaps I could do the collage item on The Fifty with some of my trip paraphernalia. Since I'll soon be halfway through the decade of my fifties, I'd better get that list done so I can rest up for The Sixty.

Okay, that's four items, the same as I had last summer. Some will be easier to do than others, and some will be more fun. They will at least keep me from getting bored. And if I go work on one of them now, I can keep avoiding that other thing I don't want to do.

Fall-ing Down

Yeah, it's fall now, which means I should probably offer an update on how I did with the summer goals that Debi tagged me to do back in June. Let's see ...

(1) Knock some items off "The 50." Well, other than getting a blog set up about that (a blog on which I have yet to fully detail the items I've finished), I didn't do squat on the list. I'll try to do better this fall.

(2) Figure out the tabletop loom I bought last summer. Hey! I did something on this one. I took a week-long weaving class (more like weaving bootcamp) at Stony Mountain Fibers, and learned what I need to know. (When I'm on the right computer, I'll actually post some photos.) Unfortunately, one thing I learned is that my loom is missing all the heddles. However, in the small six-degrees-of-separation world in which we live, it turned out that a friend had gotten extra heddles when she bought her loom, so she passed them on to me. As a result, a project for the winter is to get them installed on my loom and then figure out if I need to order some more.

(3) Try to learn the rest of the skill forms I need to know for a black belt in Myo Sim kendo. I managed to learn a couple of them, and have a couple still to learn. That's okay, though, since there's at least a year and probably two before I'd be ready to test.

(4) Battle the clutter and disarray that is my house. Yeah, right! I did get things a bit cleaner when younger son returned to the dorm, but it's basically the same cluttered hovel it was in June around here. In fact, having admitted that, I should probably finish this post and go vacuum. The vacuum cleaner has been sitting in the foyer since the time I vacuumed the dog and cat hair out of the bedroom (upstairs) and off the stairs; I think that was about three weeks ago. I have been trying to will one of the resident men to vacuum the main floor, but shall concede defeat and do it myself. Yeah, they win this round.

Finally in terms of updates from the summer, my new hero successfully finished her summer of basic training at the Air Force Academy, and has started classes. It's still not an easy existence, but she's hanging in there. And she's still my hero for doing so.

Some summer highlights: Various work projects; The Dark Knight, though I only saw it once; four quilts (a Quilts of Summer II post will come once they've been formally presented); a short trip here and there (sailing on the Chesapeake Bay; Gettysburg, some details of which can be found here; a pig roast thrown by Mark Warner); lots of kendo; a bit of planning for the Vietnam adventure; and probably not enough sleep. And now, to the vacuum!

What I Might Do this Summer

Debi tagged me with the meme that Becky tagged her with, that of listing goals for the upcoming summer. The number of goals does not seem to be specified, but both Debi and Becky listed four. A list-maker at heart (this year, my daily list is written on the back of the previous day’s entry from the Zen Page-a-Day calendar), I may not be able to keep it to four, but I’ll try.

Goals for the Summer (and possibly beyond):

(1) Knock some more items off “The 50.” (I really need to blog on this topic at length one day, or maybe even set up a blog with each entry devoted to a different item.) The basic idea is that on my 49th birthday, as I was entering my 50th year, I made a list of 50 things to try to do in that year. Said year got extended into a two-year celebration centered around my 50th birthday, and then extended again. After some swapping of items on the list for things I did on my recent trip to New Mexico (another blog post I need to write), I have 13 items left to do. I figure I should probably try to finish by my 55th birthday because at some point after that I’ll want to start on a list of 60 things to do to commemorate my 60th year.

(2) Get out the tabletop loom I got at the Y’Art Sale last year and figure out how to set it up and use it. The one-morning-a-year Y’Art Sale is sponsored by our local Second Street Gallery as a fundraiser and features all manner of artsy and craftsy supplies, samples, whatever. I couldn’t justify the floor loom they had because unless we were to totally clean out the upstairs of our garage I have no place to put it, but I did get the tabletop loom. One of my elementary classrooms had a floor loom, and I used to love using it until the day the teacher banned me from it. See, we could start weaving after we’d finished our work, and since I was always the first one to finish, I always got the loom first. After a while of this, I got banned in the interest of fairness even though I was not the one who said that you could go weave when you were done with your work. I didn't make the rules; I just took advantage of them. And no, this was not the start of my disillusionment with the public education system (another blog post I should write!) but it certainly didn’t help.

(3) Try to learn the four or five skill forms I still need to learn for a black belt in Myo Sim kendo. Black belt tests are held once a year, usually in late summer, so learning them this summer would make for a good start to a year (one year minimum; it could easily be more) of intense practice to get all the various forms to the appropriate level of speed, intensity, and accuracy. Let’s see. I still need to be taught three ways to take a sword away from someone who is attacking me (in case the eight I ‘ve already been taught aren’t enough) and one (out of six) tea party, a two-person form involving an attack from close quarters. Tea parties are a bit humbling because they’re typically done with metal-bladed swords, making the possibility of doing harm to one’s partner or self very real. They also involve some pretty rough leg switches, as in going from kneeling on the left knee with the right leg out in front of you, bent at the knee, to the exact opposite position, kneeling on the right knee with the left leg out in front of you, a switch to be done as fast as possible, without lifting one’s head any higher than absolutely necessary. Oh, yeah, you’re also drawing and swinging that metal-bladed sword at another person as you do this. In other words, the more practice, the better. I also need to work more on some partner exercises, which are two-person forms you create with a partner.

(4) Finally, in the interest of harmony at home and my own sanity, I should probably include the continuation of my ongoing battle with the clutter and disarray of living with three adult or nearly so males who don’t really care where things get put down or what gets left where. Part of the battle is modeling good behavior to them without at the same time enabling their tendency to avoid cleaning up after themselves and letting me do it. Having recently gotten a new refrigerator and a new, slightly larger dining room table, I’m currently concentrating my efforts on the kitchen and dining room. I may not make it past those this summer, but just getting those two rooms done would be a good start.

See—I managed to stop at four! I could add all sorts of things like lose a few pounds, but those are better suited to New Year’s resolutions than summer goals. Besides, if I manage to accomplish even part of the above, I’ll probably lose a little weight in the process.

In the interest of sharing the fun, I’d love to see if Rich’s and Annie’s summer goals bear any resemblance to Debi’s. I’d hate to think of the family all pulling in different directions. And it might be interesting to see what Debi's friend Kara has planned now that she's back from her trip.