twisted mysteries: More Dye Photos

8:30 am
I meditated first thing this morning; I suppose because I woke up but didn’t want to get out of bed. Well that’s ok; it means I can eat breakfast while I write. Of course I already spent half an hour on the computer looking up stuff about To Kill a Mockingbird in anticipation of our book club meeting tonight. I am very much enjoying reading it. Don’t know if I’ll actually finish by tonight but that is ok.
The only thing I actually got done yesterday was dyeing.

My Big Dyeing Mess

But it was very satisfying. I used the camp stoves, since it was cool and partly cloudy.

I think I’ve got some good deep colors, which is what I was aiming for.

I still must rinse a couple of sets. In fact, I think I’ll crank the stove back up and let one pot steam again, I’m not sure it completely set.

I’m thinking I will bring the batts as is to the Fiber Twist and see if any of them sell. If not, well that’s ok because then I can spin them myself! My friend suggested I spin up a sample to show folks what it would look like spun. I can do that.
It was really nice having her come visit. I messed with the dye and spun, she just sat and chatted. I also spent quite a while talking with K on the phone. His Mom is not doing at all well and it sounds like it’s a matter of months, maybe even weeks. K says she is yellow from the liver not processing bile, and that to me would indicate less time. And she is not really eating. But she is still trying to “get everything done,” driving Gpa crazy with her lists of jobs for him, like cleaning out the garage. Good god, if you are dying (no “e” this time) what does it matter if the garage is clean?????? Are my lists just as bad? I don’t quite imagine I will care if the garage is clean when I am dying, since I do not apparently care now.

Well, I do care, I actually wish like anything that it was all nice and tidy instead of a heap of junk, but I do not want to spend the time cleaning it. Maybe if I had someone I could tell what to do, I would tell them to tidy the garage. Maybe it just makes Gma still feel alive and useful if she can tell Gpa what to do and get it done. Reminds me of when we were leaving Clarksburg for Texas. I had about 2 hours until we had to leave. Enough time to go up in the woods for a nice quiet sit. But instead I spent the time painting the porch railing, which I knew was going to be left ultimately unfinished, but this way it was slightly (2 hours worth) less unfinished. Did that make any difference in the world? No. would I have been better off going up to commune with my beloved woods, probably, but I felt somehow compelled (not by anything outside, just internally compelled, by my own obsessive nature) to get in that last bit of painting. Maybe Gma feels the same way. It is kind of sad.
While supposedly meditating this morning, I instead was thinking about the 350 campaign. And my great idea is that we focus our event on making solar ovens. We could gather the leaders sometime before to all learn how to make them, then on the 10th that would be the focus: come to the common to make a solar oven. We can solicit small donations to help pay for the reflective stuff, we can tell people to bring cardboard boxes, though we can also provide a whole bunch, we can have other tables nearby with other stuff – about the Transition Towns, writing letters, stuff like that. We could try to get some non-sound system folks to provide music – the guy who plays steel drums, the Grannies, one of the numerous college acappella groups? Maybe we could even get someone from the papers to come to our practice session and write it up. Now I am excited. Perhaps I will write up my ideas and send out before our meeting.
What I REALLY should do today is some major tidying. I am in fact probably not due to die in the next few weeks (one never knows, but god willin’ etc) and so I have no great excuse for leaving the house to continue on its descent to chaos.