20 Years

 A lot has happened in the past 20 years.  And you were there to experience it all with me.  I'm pretty sure I didn't catch all the lessons the first time around.  But I did learn a lot.  Like when it's sunny you should go outside.

And that fireplaces aren't really a great place for a fire, but they are useful for lots of other things.  Don't dwell on the negative side of what life throws you, turn your fireplace into a candelabra....or a cat playground.

Never be too busy to stop and smell the flowers.  Or pet the cat.  Laziness is a  fine art and we should all hone this skill.  There will always be wood to chop and water to carry.

Be comfortable wherever you are.  Because you are always in your own skin.  So like who you are.  Taking naps amid chaos is also a great skill; you can be the life of the party even when you are sleeping.

Don't let physical limitations stop you.  Who cares if the couch is suddenly farther away than it used to be?  The dogs still fear you and the human slave will help you magically levitate to wherever you want to go.  Because you always took great care of her and she wanted to do the same for you.

Quilts are products of love and were meant to be used.  No matter whether you sleep on them or under them, no one can hurt you.  They are magic.

Friends and family are what it's all about.  Treat them how you want to be treated.  A lot will happen in your lifetime, no matter how long it is.  Thank you for every moment.  You made the journey this far very bearable.  It certainly hasn't been boring.  You are missed.

Backlog List

So I have this list.  I've been working through it all my life it seems.  The magical 'to do' list.  I spent four years adding to it and rarely removing anything from it, even 'sleep'.  And then, in April, freedom.  It was daunting.  Where to start.  How to prioritize a list that long?  I started outside.  And never looked back.  I played with the dogs at the rocky beach in Seward.

I played in the yard with the cat.  I even rescued him when he fell in.  I played in the garden.  Lots of experimenting this year. 

And I petted this cat.  She owns my soul.  I listen when she yells at me.  I went to work a lot and traveled a lot.  And I rode my bike and paddled my boat and ran on some trails.  Autumn arrived.  My pace picked up.  I built a kayak.  My sister got married.  I got a cold.  Two weeks later I got well.....for one day.  Two weeks later I feel mostly better again.  Sunday the snow came.  And I started to pick up speed on my list.  Today we have 5 minutes less daylight than yesterday.  Which brings us down to less than 7 1/2 or so hours a day.  I'm still picking up speed on that list.  Organizing my photos is down near the bottom, right above ordering Christmas cards.  See, I found some logic.  The timeline may be a little blurry, but there are a ton of pictures and stories to share.  So you'll get them as they come.  Because Bearcat says so.  She also says to check out Tundra Home Companion if you want to read about village visits. 

Punkin Carvin

Tis the season...for fun and scary pumpkin carving.  I spent Sunday afternoon hunting for the perfect pumpkins to take to a carving party down the street.  These are the end results of the two I worked on.  The one on the left is an 'acquired' pumpkin.  It was cooler than one that I brought and could not be left uncarved.

Let's focus on the cute one, shall we?  CV has some of the photos and I wish she would send them to me so I could show you that this cat also has a tail.  That was our own invention.  Actually it was a modification to someone drawing on the back side and it being turned into a tail instead of something more crude. 

Originally CV started on the cat.  We used a stencil (first time ever for me) and cut the ears out of the bottom so it would sit flat.  Then she gutted it.  The seeds are still sitting in my fridge, about to become cleaned and toasted tonight.  Yum!

While she worked on the cat, I tackled the gnarly one.  I got behind because I changed my mind on the design at least three times.  I finally settled on a modified stencil design. 

Meanwhile, other people finished before we were barely started.  I think they did some preplanning.  Cheaters.  They did have the disadvantage of not knowing there would be judging and prizes until after they were done.  They still won. 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch....I'm only cutting out two eyes, what is taking me so long??

The freehand ones won all the top awards.  So much for stencils.  The other, slightly more ghoulish part of my weekend was Sunday morning at the park.  Tatonka tried out a new discipline and did really well.  So now we are going to train for finding dead people. 

Boat Building Love

 

 

Because my autumn travel schedule wasn't busy enough, I decided to take advantage of an opportunity to travel to beautiful Port Townsend, WA......

 

 

 

 ....to build a kayak!!  I have wanted to do this for...a while (more than a decade) and got on a waitlist a few months ago.  When I got there I didn't even remember which boat kit I bought.  Yep, real impressive.  Turns out this stack of pieces was mine.

 

I even managed to get (almost) all the tools on the list before the class.  Not that I will remember how to use any of them by the time I see them again. 

The first two pieces are together!!  Gorilla tape is my new favorite...tool?  Not sure that really meets the classic definition of the term....

Here are the next two pieces attached and the next one staged for installation. 

Inspection time...how does it look?  (It looks fine to me, but it turns out I don't have as good of an eye for it as someone who has done this before.  duh.)  These boat builders are amazing.  I'm used to male species being ...uh, less refined?  Not these guys.  They kept fussing over stuff I couldn't even see.  Like pieces that were off less than 1/16th of an inch.   

Inside upside down is pretty too.  You can see some of the wires, but it doesn't look like a dental experiment.

...unlike the outside.  See the push pins?  I don't even know what he was adjusting.  But I'm sure my boat will paddle better because of this attention to detail.....

Starting to look like a boat!  The workshop is open to the public while you build your boat.  My work station was closest to the throughway.  I tried not to talk to people.  Mostly because I didn't really think I could answer their questions.  Except I was pretty sure my boat would not be striped in the end.  It just looked like a zebra for a short time.

Turns out some of the random pieces in the stack are not actual boat pieces, they are forms that keep things in place while the epoxy dries. 

Just like in SAR training, I attract wildlife....

When the bottom is pretty solid you use it and the forms to build the deck.  More zebra tape and wires.

More than one set of hands works better.  This is the trickiest part (I think), it's right behind where I will eventually be sitting and there are a lot of pieces that have to come together just so.  It wasn't working very well, not the fault of the kit, more like the fault of the first time boat builder.

Aha! It worked. I glued all the seams and it set up over night. 

Then the deck comes back off.  There's a lot of that.  Looking like you are moving forward only to come in the next day and go the other way.  Here the inside seams of the deck have had fiberglass tape applied.  That was a little scary. 

Easy peasy.  Looks totally professional.  Maybe I missed my calling in life....

And the deck is off again.  Very reasonably, fiberglass cloth does not lay very flat over sharp edges.  So you get to fill them in.  For some odd reason, my epoxy was darker than everyone elses, every time. 

Fiberglass on the entire inside of the deck.....

....and laying the cloth to do the same for the hull.  A little intimidating, but not if you don't realize it's suppossed to be hard.  I love being clueless.

See, no problem!! 

Looks almost like a boat, no?  See that guy back there walking by my boat?  Yeah, he was the bearer of all the (daunting) details left to finish the boat.  Turns out we were only about half way through the instruction manual at the end of a week long class.  The top and bottom are fiberglassed on the inside and they are epoxied together on the outside.

My boat went to hang out in Eastern WA for the winter (thanks Mom).  In true Mo tradition, I visited the boat show room at the end of the class, something most people do - in addition to actually paddling a couple models - before they pick a kit or build a boat. 

Sunny Seward Surprise

It's been raining here for weeks.  Every day.  The creek in the back yard is flooding.  I haven't seen the sun since I don't know when....oh, wait, that's a song about being in prison.  Luckily I am stubborn and my desire to paddle my kayak is strong.  And luckily my boat was in Seward.  We hit the road after an early alarm on Sunday morning.  I decided the big dog was healed up enough to come along and play in the water, so we loaded up the beasts.  Niwt rented a big banana so he could actually paddle at the same time as me. 

The sunshine was waiting for us only a few miles down the road.  Good thing I packed for rain so I had a hat.  We found some sunscreen stashed in the bottom of a bag and a couple pair of sunglasses hiding in the truck.  I think I would have happily endured the misery of a sunburn if it meant this much dryness.  The pups had a great time swimming and we got off the water just as the wind was picking up.  Overall a perfect day and a great reminder to always take the weather with you.

Master Mo

Done!  A big thank you to everyone who helped me along the way.  It's a big list and I'm afraid my brain is too tired to remember the million steps that went into this success. 

No No Bad Dog Strikes Again

 

Sings of a winter progressing fabulously: windburned cheeks, new handknit hat from local yarn, broken nose....wait, what? There is, of course, a story there.

Scene setting: I have four days left to finish writing my Discussion.  I used my only paid leave for Monday and Tuesday.  It's a good thing too.  Because that is when the specialist clinic is open.  Sweet Percy dog broke my nose this morning (March 11th) and I spent the whole morning in the walk in clinic.  I got up nice and early and took the dogs for a walk in the park.  Percy decided at the last second on one of many throws that she wanted to play tug of war instead of fetch.  She has perfected the art of last second moves, that's why she doesn't sleep in the bedroom with the 20 year old cat anymore, a-whole-nother story.  I may have woken some of the neighbors with some sailor swearing upon contact of her head and my nose.  You know how on tv they always ask patients if they heard anything snap?  I used to think that was funny, like it was a silly question......  I was conveniently surrounded by instant ice pack material, so I chilled my face and finished the walk, assuming it was just another big dog head incident that made my eyes water.  When I got home and it started to warm up in the shower I changed my mind.

The rest of the story: I did my dog demo with Tatonka for a group of nordic ski patrolers and came home.  This was all after surgery from my encouter with Percy's head.  I got the tape off and confirmation that all was well on the 21st.  On the 22nd I had scheduled to finish Tonka's avalanche recert that I started earlier in the season.  Tonka was getting a belly rub while I was getting ready and he stretched out his leg....and.....his paw made the gentlest contact with my nose....  We finished his recert work and I had surgery again the next day.