Travels With Zoë

I love to drive.  I love the freedom of the open road.  I love the people I can chat with as I stop to take a short break.  I love the changing scenery, the changing colors, the hum of the tires.  Every time I get into the car, I know there are adventures out there, just waiting for me to find.

I am so tired of driving.  Sounds crazy but I have been driving up and down the I-5 corridor every three weeks since August.  I live in northwest Oregon; my mother lives 30 miles east of Los Angeles.  And I have been trying to visit her often since she had a stroke June 1. I spent the first couple months down with her, but needed to come home to revisit my husband.  Family is like that, right?

Just another rest stop

So I have been driving down south, staying a week, and driving north again.  My pup, Zoë, goes with me.  Understand, Zoë really hates the car.  She hates riding, hates my music, and hates the idea of travel.  She gets carsick, poor thang.  So I have to give her Dramanine.  It stops the carsickness, but she does sit in her car pouch, glaring at me for the next 1000 miles.  We do have it down, though.  Rest stop: I get out and remind her I will be back.  I open the moonroof and lock up the car as I hurry to the restroom.  I usually have to hurry because I have put off stopping for a bit too long.  Then I return and Zoë is already ready to gt out, her little paws on the sides of the carpouch.  I buckle her into the leash and we take off.  She sniffs and wanders and visit with others and then pees, returns to the car and we are off!

This last trip south, I realized I was just tired of the whole thing.  I was tired that my mom had a stroke and is bedridden, her level of dementia increasing daily.  I am tired of being away from my fella for week or so at a time, sleeping on my sister's guest bed, trying to live a normal life for the duration.  I am tired of the same nothing landscape on the drive.  I am tired of California politics, voting commercials and, oh hell.  Just tired.  So I decided to pay new attention to the drive and revitalize the trip.

First thing I noticed was this crazy fog just north of Eugene, Oregon.  It was ground cover, but high ground cover.  I had noticed it on my last drive home, but thought it was smoke.  And here it was again.

As usual, Mt. Shasta was stunning.  It can sit right on the freeway, in your face.  My favorite rest stop if at Weed.  Don't know why it is my favorite, but it is.  Perhaps it is the green grass, the nice sidewalks, and a backdrop of Mt. Shasta. 

I love mountains almost as much as I love the ocean and lakes, but not quite.  Actually I love everything bits of nature that helps me see that my little problems are no match for the majesty of nature.

Near Colinga turn-off, there is a large area of hills that have this huge huge really huge fence.  It makes no sense to be there.  Was it a prison?  The fence didn't look like a stronghold.  Was it someone's property that they wanted others to stay out?  It really was out in the middle of nowhere, so that didn't make sense.  Zoë and I talked about this fenced area many times over a bottle of water and came up with nothing. 

The last time I drove, I had cell reception and called Doug to ask him.   He looked it up.  Nothing as sinister or heavy as I thought.  It is a paper recycle center and the fence is to keep the papers from flying out onto the freeway.

Driving home, I always stop by Aunt Ruth's in Bakersfield for a little visit.  Here she is with Zoë.  Aunt Ruth is my dad's twin sister; she is 94.  Zoë likes to stop there because she can get out of the car, wander in the backyard, and maybe Aunt Ruth will have a treat to sneak her.

Leaving Bakersfield heading up to I-5, I always pass orange groves.  They reminded me of the time my sister and I had been lost in the orange grove behind Uncle Lloyd's house in Redlands, California.  Now, we were told to not to wander into the grove, but did we listen?  I must have been maybe four or five years old.  Uncle Lloyd's house was so cool.  Classic Redland's bungalow with stone walls and a big porch.  They had a grand piano in their living room.  So cool.  I would slip under the piano and pretend to be asleep so I could hear the grownup chatter.  we were found, but it was scary to be lost so close to home. 

 

The final piece to this specific drive was the changing colors along the freeway in Oregon.  Such glorious reds and yellows among the evergreens.  Hard to take great shots with my cell phone at 75 MPH...

 

That's it until April.  I no longer drive south in the winter through the mountains nor through Sacramento and Tule Fog.  So I will be flying.  Without my travel companion, Zoë.  She misses me when I am gone; I miss her.  But she really really does hate the car (and we both hate those little bows that the she gets at the cleaners!).

peace~~~

Some Thoughts on Veteran's Day

I have a little problem with the military.  Oh I know the importance of the military.  I understand that a strong show of power is important to keep our country safe and secure.  That's not my problem.  And I have a great respect for all the men and women who have been in the military, fighting for my freedom to say what I want and do about anything I want.  I thank you all. 

My dad was a sailor.  He was drafted into the Army and quickly joined the Navy.  He and Mom were married already and she followed him to New Orleans, where he was stationed.  Like many men in the military, he learned skills he could use during peacetime.  For him, it was what became his favorite trade: metal shop skills.  He later became an electrician, but his love of working with metals remained.  He always said if he didn't have to think about supporting his family, he would work in a metal shop.  But alas, he had two daughters and a wife.  Time to bring home the bacon.

Dad and Pat and me, 1952

So, I guess I don't really have a problem with the military.  It is important and I am thankful for all the men and women who have served our country.  No, it's not a problem with the military but it is a problem with war.  Yeah, that's it.  I have a real problem with war.  

In today's paper, a comic strip called Red and Rover had the little boy, Red, hugging his dad, thanking him for what he has done for his country.  And then he continued to hang on and his father told him he could let go.  The little boy said no because he didn't want him to go off to war again.

 

Lorraine Schneider's 1967 flower-power poster, saying, ''war is not healthy for children and other living things," came to mind as I read that comic strip.  I thought about the little boy, then to all the little boys and girls who's fathers or mothers were not home because they were in another country, defending my freedom.  And while I knew that war was not healthy for living things, I had not thought as much about the impact a parent's service had on the children and the family left behind.

So thank you so much for the great sacrifice you  made in my honor, all of you.  Mothers and fathers and children and grandparents and sisters and brothers and neighbors and all of us.  Thank you so very much.

peace~~~

A Porch With a View

I completed my mosaic windows. The grouting was as much work as the piecing :)  Not really, but the grouting took me about three hours, the last hour with help from my instructor.  And then more little work when I got home.  I know I said I wasn't going to do any more mosaic work on the dining room table, but alas *sheepish grin* sand and dirt all over the place.
 

Grouting mine

Doug and I went to the hardware store to pick up the necessary items to hang it from the porch.  We bought square aluminum tubing to cross the top and the bottom of both windows, "L" brackets to reinforce the tubing, and hook-eyes for the chain.  I wanted to buy these cool knobs but they had to be special ordered.  So I will check on Amazon and/or someplace online.  They will be separated by about two inches as they hang, bound together to avoid the banging in the wind, and off to the narrow side of the porch.  I will be able to see a corner of them when I sew.  I always wanted a chained porch swing there also...maybe I can finally find one I want.  That would look cool.

Here is the mosaic class: 

The class on grout-day

 
 




 





Heading back down to my mom's for a week or so.  I did finish all the school clothing for Kaity and a quilt top for a little boy who's family lost everything in a house fire.  The skirt and top for me will have to wait.

peace~~~

A Budding Model

I was finally able to have my grandgirl try on the most recently finished blouse.  Looking good!  The elastic waist and the length turned out well for her.  Of course, she is a goofball :)  She has been modeling what I have made for her since she was a little girl.  She used to be spontaneous and now she is more self-conscious.  She also no longer smiles showing teeth.  She used to stand on the dining room table to model... Now she would crack her head on the 10 foot ceiling!

That's two finished items.  Now to make the dress.  This dress is super easy and very cute.  The front is form-fitting and the back of the bodice shapes a heart (Simplicity 1382).  Before I could put in the zipper, I wanted to make sure the size was right.

I made it a size larger than usual...so I didn't want it to be too large.  I basted the side seams to the bodice and basted the waist band.  I also basted the back seam on the skirt.  I didn't want to have to take out multiple seams.  So I brought it to her house in two pieces and pinned the skirt to the top while she had it on.  Too large?  NO!  I have to make the bodice side seams smaller than usual and lengthen the waste band by an inch and let out the skirt a bit.  Thank goodness I didn't make it a size smaller!  :)  

While I had it all together, I pinned up the hem for length.  Her school (junior high!  My little grandgirl is starting junior high!) has a dress code that skirts must be no shorter than finger-tips.  So we measured the tips.

I don't usually take pictures of Kaity in her clothes until they are completed but these pictures turned out so well I thought I'd give a sneak peek.  I will complete this dress tomorrow and cut out the last top.  Onward!

peace~~~

Cuts on My Fingers and Shards in My Toes, Oh My

Added the sun and sunbeams

I have been working diligently on my mosaic windows.  I had planned to sew more, quilt more, and when possible, spend time on the mosaic project.  But there the windows where on the dining room table, just mocking me, teasing me, calling to me to find a good piece of glass.  Guess I needed a diversion and these two windows were the perfect answer. 

I started working on this project in the dining room, on the dining room table.  I did not think this through very well.  This meant that I could not cut out the two sewing projects for my grandgirl because the table was half-full.  And this meant I could not sandwich the final unfinished quilt top.  All I could do is work on the mosaic.  Good planning!  Another problem of using the dining room table is that little tiny pieces of glass shards went sneaking around the table top, the floor, the chair.  I tried to contain then, but they are sneaky.  And of course I didn't think to Swiffer the floor often...so I ended up wearing bandaids on the bottom of my feet, Kleenex wrapped around my fingers, and hoping the dog and cats missed the shards.  Then I got smart and used the Swiffer every half hour or so.  Only took me four days to figure that out ;)

Screwed up the orange and
added the beads to the hills

 The first glass I bought for the background wasn't appealing to me, so I had to go back to the glass store to buy new.  While waiting to head out, I decided to add the sun and the sunbeams.  I liked how they turned out, except the one orange on the left.  It needed to be wider.  So I removed that piece and added more orange.  And then I realized that the one piece of orange glass on the right was just too solid.  This was mosaic, not stained glass.  So I decided to take that big hunk out and snip it in two for a good grout line.  So then for the life of me I could NOT get the piece back together right.  What happened to the time/space contingency??  So I broke it up more...still okay...and realized it was not too small with lots of smaller pieces and OH NO!  I was out of orange!  So I bits and pieced it together and I really am not happy with it.  But I kept going...added some beads along the hilltops and some little flower beads in the meadows. 

And then it became time to fill in the background.  I really liked the green--more sheer with a tiny bit of texture to it.  It filled in behind the flowers quite nicely, with bricks of glass making it a wall of grass.

Background looking good

 I wanted to finish this project by Monday so I could get started on the dress for my grandgirl.  I had promised...  So I would work for a few hours, take a break, work for a few more.  It was late evening before I was finished.  Just in time to sit an watch a short program with Doug before time for upstairs.  I will grout it on Saturday, let it dry and figure out how to install it out on the porch so the sun can shine through it and I can see it while I sew.

I like the general look of the piece with a few exceptions.  I am not happy with the sunbeams in general.  But I do like the flowers and the hills and meadow.  I like that it generally turned out as I pictured it.  I like the color combos, the texture of the beads and the glass.  I especially like my big daisy and the little yellow daisy beside it :) 

Finished, to be grouted Saturday

Next mosaic project: back to tiles.  Maybe give the concrete birdbath a pretty top.  But I will definitely make it outside rather than on the dining room table!

peace~~~