Life Goes On

The last three and a half weeks have been bizarre.  I was sick, then I was better; I had a great time with Finn for two days. Then I was sick again and didn't to go the second day of the Symposium; then I was well and finished my first Pillar and we went to see a play about Frances Hodgkins and Ben bought me a book of Hodgkins' letters, (great read but a heavy book.) Then we were sick again. I missed out on helping hang an exhibition at the Refinery and a lunch with Esmae, (who now lives in Nelson!)

I was so tired of being sick by last week, I wove a bit on Wednesday, a bit more than what my left arm was telling me was a good amount, and by the time I went to bed that night my lower back was in trouble. Last Thursday and Friday I was stuck in bed; I could walk or stay standing with a good measure of discomfort, but getting up/down and sitting was agonizing. It wasn't the acute back pain I have had twice in my life, but a dull, posture/motion-specific one. Lordy. Just as I thought I was coming to terms with living and weaving with wonky arms. And just as quickly as it came, by Friday night I was 95% fine, except I didn't know what/when I can resume life, so I stayed low.

Came yesterday, the weather was lovely, and I was revving to go; I hoped to do some housework, weed a little and weave a little. It turned out I was too slow with housework and I ran out of time to weed, but thought I should do one of the W's, not both, so if I hurt again I'll know what caused it. So I wove 100 picks, vacuumed the whole basement, wove another 100 picks, and had a long hot shower. At that rate, I estimated, I could almost finish Pillar II today, but better take it easy and give it two days.

(Oh, I got Trojan'ed in the morning while looking up a Japanese Olympic athlete; first time it happened to me and second time at Chez Nakagawa. Luckily, about all I've stored on the laptop these last few months have been drafts for Pillars I didn't much like, as I and II are safely stored on the loom computer. We noticed the Trojan right away so the damage was minimal, though I've been going all over changing passwords, just in case. By 10PM, Ben had it all fixed but customizations were lost. Not dire, but did you know a slight difference is much harder to detect than a big difference? I feel somethings have changed on my laptop, but I can't tell exactly what.)

In the middle of the night I woken up by hot pin-pricks on my lower back. Damn. I was so annoyed I just went back to sleep. This morning, I'm back to OTC pain killers and gel, but it's after 11AM and I'm nowhere nearly in pain as I was earlier. For today, I had in mind developing the Self Portrait/collaborative book idea. By fate, Polskie Wrzeciona (not her name; means Polish Spindles, I think,) shared a link to this picture, and the cogs started moving: if I plan to the Self Portrait on RH, I can weave it concurrently with the Pillars, and this suits the exhibition title, "Beginnings" as well, though I may need to develop a totally separate Self Portrait for the Friends(hip) piece. Worth looking into.

Because I've spent so much time in bed, I've watched all eight episodes of Craft in America and have started the second+ round with Ben. They are very well made, as you might expect from PBS, but I am surprised how I enjoy episodes about makers who didn't go to art school, (that used to be my Big Hangup;) and discussions on communities and teaching, (I'm not good at the former and am uninterested in the latter.) Cally asked me a while ago which part I like the most: the makers I most admire, besides Randy, are Mr Simmonds the blacksmith and Charles M. Carrillo primarily because of their emphasis on helping others in their field. The episode I enjoyed the most was VI: Messages; I agree with Cally that compared to others, VIII: Threads didn't bring as many new things to me. The discipline I would like to take up, if I had a better body, is blacksmithing; I've always loved iron work and the junction of craft and architecture I find irresistible. So on the back-of-the-back-burner goes another item: "architectural cloth".

And did you know a couple of volcanoes are getting active in New Zealand today? Here in Nelson, we might get thunder and lightening today, something we don't see too many of here, so I'm holding my breath in anticipation. Life is never boring, is it?

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Frances Hodgkins
The Play 
The male actor is John, our mate Tim's little brother, of whom we had heard of for six years but finally got to see!

This ongoing, mostly-mild cold keeps playing this song in my head.