2008-06-28

Too bushed to boogie

Here it is, Saturday night and I'm sitting at my computer -- not that I'm complaining. Many of my friends are at an event near Oshawa, Ontario. With all the thunderstorms this weekend, I'm really glad that I realised, well in advance, that I couldn't afford to go.

I spent most of the day unpacking and sorting books. Fortunately, they are not the type I'd be inclined to sit down and read -- just to see if they're as good as I remember.

Today it was office books -- reference materials, thesauruses (or thesauri; apparently either one is correct because the word came to us through the Latin from the Greek), business guides, style books, etc. There seemed to be so many more of them in my tiny little office on Holmwood. Now that I'm here, I'm wondering what to do with all the space. I know I didn't lose any boxes of these books because I numbered them and brought them to the new house myself. They are all here.

Of course, I don't have all the clutter of other things on the shelves that were wedged in to keep the cats from chewing them. I guess, over the next little while, I will be getting rid of even more clutter than I did in the months before I moved.

I seem to have a great many more bookmarks than I remember, too, but one can never have too many bookmarks.

2008-06-27

Had another job interview ...

At least this one wasn't asking more questions about my health than my qualifications but, even so, I got the distinct impression that he thinks I am too old to learn.

2008-06-20

Amazing Goldsmith

I attended the opening of Quint*Essential's latest show tonight. Their work is truly beautiful!

I came away with a pair of earrings for a friend's birthday next week. Maybe a bit more than I should have spent, but she's worth her weight in gold ... no, make that worth her weight in chocolate! (It's far more valuable to those of us in the know!)

Not that I could possibly be biased about the value of my friends!

2008-06-17

Insomnia

I've been having trouble sleeping -- every second night.

Part of it is that I am a night owl by nature. As soon as the lights are out, my mind starts racing with all the ideas and plans and things to add to the to-do lists. As soon as the lights come on, I'm drowsy again.

And in another twenty minutes the birds will start! Then it will be dawn and I will sleep for a couple of hours, but I'll be restless because there are errands that I need to do -- like groceries and dropping off library books.

I've been exercising every day, trying to tire myself out so that I can sleep, but I guess I'm not exercising my mind sufficiently. I need to work on my novels more.

2008-06-16

Sonnet 27

Phoebus would not find favour in my eyes
Placed beside thee that tak'st my breath away
With thy fair countenance, so truly wise,
That gives thee total power o'er my heart's sway.
If thou were nimble Hermes with the lyre,
I'd love thee less. Thou would'st not me enfold --
Presenting me with flowers I admire,
The dulcet rose, the lys and marigold.
For knights or dukes or titles I've no care.
I'm happiest when we share a peaceful time.
If ought in me could be considered fair,
A tribute 'tis to thee, for I am thine.
Be thou my inspiration and my king.
Accept my heart and all the love I bring.

2008-06-15

Smelting at Vinterheima

Went to D&V's yesterday for another smelting experiment. I thought I was going to be spending my time in the shop, working on my new carving in alabaster, but so few people attended yesterday's event that I was actually able to be part of the team for once -- first as 'charcoal monkey' and then record keeper. It was really exciting to be so close that I could watch everything that was going on and, yet, not be in the way of workers.

Backing up briefly: Two weeks ago I had been at their place in order help with the prep work that had to be done in advance of the smelt. That day, I had mixed the red oxide powder with the stipulated ingredients (as accurately as I could) and water. The red oxide (yes, I was wearing a mask) got into everything. Now, two weeks later, it has only almost disappeared from around my nails -- despite frequent washings performed with great vigour.

The trays with the red oxide compound had been sun dried over the course of the past two weeks and, by the time I arrived on Saturday, had already been broken up and graded into pieces suitable for the smelt.

Shortly after I arrived, the guys got the smelter (which had been built by others on the team two weeks ago, while I was playing with iron oxide) going for the preheating.

The next stage was grading the charcoal. I had volunteered for a dirty job, and that's exactly what I got. There was a wooden stand -- about two feet by three feet -- with a sturdy metal grill set into the top of it. Beneath this grill was a tray that was open at one end. It had a screen for its bottom, and was set into the wooden structure at an angle so that it would be easier to pull out the charcoal that had already fallen through the grill. The screen in the second level allowed the charcoal dust, which wouldn't be much use to us, to fall through into a plastic bin at the bottom. Armed with a mallet, I whacked the charcoal so that it broke into smaller pieces and fell through the grill. This made it an appropriate size for the smelt. What was really weird was that I was going about it all wrong. I hadn't realised that there were correct and incorrect ways to whack charcoal! I was using the same movements that I was taught to use for carving stones, whereas I should have been relaxing the wrists and letting the mallet fall onto the charcoal, aided only a small bit from my arm. I did this for four large bags of charcoal.

Once that was done, our fearless leader asked me to do the record keeping for this smelt. The term 'anal retentive' was bandied about (with many chuckles and guffaws) at this point, but I did it anyway. This activity involved noting the time, elapsed time, and amounts of ore or charcoal being added to the smelter, as well as keeping a running total so that we knew, at a glance, how many kilograms of ore or buckets of charcoal had been used.

They got a very nice bloom (term used for the hunk of iron produced by the smelting process) out of it.

After tidying up the smelting site and putting the tools into the van, we settled down around the cook fire to have a beer. Some of the people went off to try out the glass bead-making oven that had been finished on site that day. My knees were bothering me, however, so I stayed with the beer.

The post-dinner entertainment consisted of holiday snaps from a couple of members of the group who had just returned from a trip to Scotland (including Orkney and Shetland) and Iceland. They were there for the earthquake. There were some great shots of items of historic interest to all of us. They gave us each a stone from Thingvellir.

2008-06-12

Thursday

Headache, pain in the joints.

Failed job interview.

2008-06-11

Sonnet 26

Years ago, in the late 1970's, a friend was showing me slides of a Mediaeval event she'd attended at the University of Toronto. I was enjoying them, in a relaxed fashion, when I suddenly saw a picture of the most handsome man I'd ever seen.

I joined the group and made a lot of friends but, over the next few years, one friend in particular had taken a dislike to this handsome man -- who'd seemed interested in me. She threw a spanner in the works at every opportunity, although I didn't realise it until years later, with the result that we both ended up married to other people.

This is for my first love ... and for what might have been.

You kiss me firstly with your eyes
Persuading me with burning glance
That sweeps my features and implies
The launching of a grand romance.
And then you kiss me with your voice
The warmth of it surrounding me,
Enticing me to make a choice
And choose your clever repartee.
You kiss me lastly with your hand.
Your touch is gentle on my arm.
It tells me that you understand
Me well, and adds much to your charm.
Mayhap you’ll kiss me with your lips
And give me love in nectar’d sips.

2008-06-06

Health is improving

For over twenty years I have had problems with an hiatus hernia and, most of the time, had to sleep propped up in order to avoid stomach pains for half the night.

In the two weeks since I moved into my new house, I am suddenly not having any stomach problems at all. Now, I am sleeping on one pillow.