Friday, May 1, 2009
Monday, February 25, 2008
Adventures
They have been many and varied. I am now on Ravelry. I continue to work at my mind blowingly educational job. [The FBI paid us a visit recently. Can't say more due to confidentiality.] I got a puppy last summer, which explains why the gap since my last post.
I'm working on knitting lace. I'll have pictures to post soon.
There are some things that I want to do. Here is a list:
---Take an agility class with my puppy
---Learn to dye yarn
---Get a sea kayak and learn to do all the skills to travel safely in
the San Juan Islands
---knit a lace shaw
---Learn to crochet Irish lace
---Build a pair of end tables and a coffee table in craftsman or
mission or Stickley style
[I've never built anything in wood before.]
---Tell some stories from my day job....this is a challenge because I can't breech confidentiality
Any time I learn a new skill or start a new project or read about a new era of history, or what ever, it is an adventure for me. New problems or situations at work are adventures. I never expected to live to the age of 18 and was stunned when I turned 21. Everything that happened in my life after that is gravy and adventures.
I'm working on knitting lace. I'll have pictures to post soon.
There are some things that I want to do. Here is a list:
---Take an agility class with my puppy
---Learn to dye yarn
---Get a sea kayak and learn to do all the skills to travel safely in
the San Juan Islands
---knit a lace shaw
---Learn to crochet Irish lace
---Build a pair of end tables and a coffee table in craftsman or
mission or Stickley style
[I've never built anything in wood before.]
---Tell some stories from my day job....this is a challenge because I can't breech confidentiality
Any time I learn a new skill or start a new project or read about a new era of history, or what ever, it is an adventure for me. New problems or situations at work are adventures. I never expected to live to the age of 18 and was stunned when I turned 21. Everything that happened in my life after that is gravy and adventures.
Saturday, June 9, 2007
THE TWILIGHT PEOPLE
They were odd. They were loners. Often, even in the old days, it wasn't always clear where they came from. Sometimes, they were someone's "attic uncle". But, sometimes they were drifters who came one day and stayed the rest of their lives. Often, they had conditions that would be considered, "mental" today, or maybe they weren't very bright. The never seemed to be married or have kids, or if they had families at one time, they didn't seem to any more. If they had parents, they often lived with their elderly mothers. But often they seemed to have no family at all.
In the small town where I grew up they were much more visible than they are in the urban scene I work in today. When everybody knows every one else it is not so hard to spot them. In those days they had homes of a sort, some time shacks or tiny apartment or a single room tacked on to another building. They usually had jobs of some sort.
Earlier in my life, in the small town environment, I knew them because they often did farm work and I lived on a farm. My dad was gregarious and usually knew them and hired them. It was in those days that I learned to look for them and to see them.
I see them still because I know to look for them and I know who they are. You tend to see them around the edges of l situations half hidden in day light, but they tend to come into full view only when the light is dim. They seem to cultivate invisibility. Only in the twilight hours do they ever become completely visible and even then you had to look to see them.
Today, we would describe them as marginal and they often become homeless. There is very little tolerance for them in regular society where they are misfits. I never understood them as a child. I'm not sure I understand them now.
But they are still there, I still see them. I call them the "twilight people".
In the small town where I grew up they were much more visible than they are in the urban scene I work in today. When everybody knows every one else it is not so hard to spot them. In those days they had homes of a sort, some time shacks or tiny apartment or a single room tacked on to another building. They usually had jobs of some sort.
Earlier in my life, in the small town environment, I knew them because they often did farm work and I lived on a farm. My dad was gregarious and usually knew them and hired them. It was in those days that I learned to look for them and to see them.
I see them still because I know to look for them and I know who they are. You tend to see them around the edges of l situations half hidden in day light, but they tend to come into full view only when the light is dim. They seem to cultivate invisibility. Only in the twilight hours do they ever become completely visible and even then you had to look to see them.
Today, we would describe them as marginal and they often become homeless. There is very little tolerance for them in regular society where they are misfits. I never understood them as a child. I'm not sure I understand them now.
But they are still there, I still see them. I call them the "twilight people".
Friday, June 1, 2007
ALIVE
I read the book Alive by Piers Paul Read about the crash of a Uruguayan plan in the high cordillera of the Andes back in the early '70's fairly soon after it happened. After 70 some days trapped in the high mountains, two of the survivors climbed a 3000' peak (starting at 12,000 feet) and walked a total of 10 days in all to find herders using the high pastures in Spring. Of 45 people on the plane 16 survived. It is reasonable to say that none would have survived it they hadn't been able to plan and execute the walk out. How they did that is among the most compelling survival stories I've read. A movie of the same name was released in 1993 starring Ethan Hawke.
30 years later Nando Parrado wrote Miracle in the Andes.
These 2 works of non-fiction have given me massive into insight into the strategy of survival in extreme situations. They have a profound impact on how I have survived my own difficulties and how I approach my work from day to day. A day will come when I will discuss this more. But for now, consider this background.
By the way, Alive and Miracle in the Andes are not for the faint of heart or the weak of stomach. They are both sturdy well written books that tell the important an important story. But the truth of this story is terrifying.
More information is available on the web at VIVEN! and you can follow the links from that site to individual survivors sites and some other very interesting links. Since the 30 th anniversary of story there has been an increasing interest in this story and there are a number of interviews and articles that tell what the survivors are doing now and how they dealt with the trauma and went on with there lives. By the way they have just started Foundacion Viven.
So, what is my interest? Well, this is a classic in survival literature and has many lessons for tactics for survival both physical and psychological. These young men were a team and because of that they had some survivors. This is a very good model for how a team forms and reforms to deal with the changing challenges they have faced.
It was a fascinating discovery to me to find that my internal model for how to do crisis work is based on reading Alive many years ago.
30 years later Nando Parrado wrote Miracle in the Andes.
These 2 works of non-fiction have given me massive into insight into the strategy of survival in extreme situations. They have a profound impact on how I have survived my own difficulties and how I approach my work from day to day. A day will come when I will discuss this more. But for now, consider this background.
By the way, Alive and Miracle in the Andes are not for the faint of heart or the weak of stomach. They are both sturdy well written books that tell the important an important story. But the truth of this story is terrifying.
More information is available on the web at VIVEN! and you can follow the links from that site to individual survivors sites and some other very interesting links. Since the 30 th anniversary of story there has been an increasing interest in this story and there are a number of interviews and articles that tell what the survivors are doing now and how they dealt with the trauma and went on with there lives. By the way they have just started Foundacion Viven.
So, what is my interest? Well, this is a classic in survival literature and has many lessons for tactics for survival both physical and psychological. These young men were a team and because of that they had some survivors. This is a very good model for how a team forms and reforms to deal with the changing challenges they have faced.
It was a fascinating discovery to me to find that my internal model for how to do crisis work is based on reading Alive many years ago.
Thursday, May 24, 2007
Traveler
Traveler is one of a kind.
I waited for a year to get him. I knew exactly what kind of dog I wanted.
He had a small umbilical hernia and every night when he was a puppy I'd roll him over and gently press any stuffings that pooched out back in. The vet said that this would keep it from getting bigger. When he had surgery to neuter him the vet fixed his hernia. That was before he was one year old. But for years after he would roll over every night to have his tummy rubbed. He would make a ritual out of any thing.
Soon after I got him, I learned that I was afraid to have a dog of my own. I don't know why I was so anxious, perhaps some of those childhood experiences left more of a mark than I had thought. So I was afraid to take him anywhere. We spent hours and days just roaming around. To meet and greet at grocery stores, to visit my friend that had had a stroke and was in rehab, for a look see at some new place to walk.
As I got over my anxiety, I began to find out that I had never learned to play. I really tried but I just couldn't get the hang of it. I could run and romp some and Traveler liked that. But beside that all I knew how to do was take him with me. For a time I felt like I was letting him down. Newf's are great water dogs and cart dogs and he had come from a line of dogs that had won many tracking titles. He could have done any of those things and entered competition. But I did not know how to do any of those things and I didn't know how to find out.
It took a while to find out that he really wasn't very choosy about what we did. Just as long as we did it together. Then I began to figure out he really liked to meet new people. His specialties were kids, old people, disabled people and drunks.
I waited for a year to get him. I knew exactly what kind of dog I wanted.
He had a small umbilical hernia and every night when he was a puppy I'd roll him over and gently press any stuffings that pooched out back in. The vet said that this would keep it from getting bigger. When he had surgery to neuter him the vet fixed his hernia. That was before he was one year old. But for years after he would roll over every night to have his tummy rubbed. He would make a ritual out of any thing.
Soon after I got him, I learned that I was afraid to have a dog of my own. I don't know why I was so anxious, perhaps some of those childhood experiences left more of a mark than I had thought. So I was afraid to take him anywhere. We spent hours and days just roaming around. To meet and greet at grocery stores, to visit my friend that had had a stroke and was in rehab, for a look see at some new place to walk.
As I got over my anxiety, I began to find out that I had never learned to play. I really tried but I just couldn't get the hang of it. I could run and romp some and Traveler liked that. But beside that all I knew how to do was take him with me. For a time I felt like I was letting him down. Newf's are great water dogs and cart dogs and he had come from a line of dogs that had won many tracking titles. He could have done any of those things and entered competition. But I did not know how to do any of those things and I didn't know how to find out.
It took a while to find out that he really wasn't very choosy about what we did. Just as long as we did it together. Then I began to figure out he really liked to meet new people. His specialties were kids, old people, disabled people and drunks.
TRAVELER Tongue roll is perfect!
This dog is a legend in his time. Oh no, he is not some fancy show winner or some famous rescue dog. He is just my dog. He is aging and since dogs have relatively short lives, his will soon be over. But it is not his passing that I want to remember, it is the cheerful whole hearted sweetness of his whole life that is worth commenting on. There are many stories I could tell. But the best of them are long and fall short in telling you who he is.
So, I will just post this picture, taken on his twelfth birthday, which is some months ago now. When I looked at this picture later I could hardly believe it. Tongue rolling has always been one of his specialties and here he is still doing it yet again.
Sunday, May 13, 2007
The Pirate and the Loot --new yarn part 2
Yellow Bear stole 3 skeins of my new yarn before I was able to set up and photograph it. He, then, very willingly posed with it for me. This yarn smelled good. Certainly, this is no excuse for piracy, but after all, he is a dog
The yarns are from Fearless Fibers. The colorways are spring breeze and antique rose. By this time the sun had gone and pictures of these exquisite colors will have to wait for another day.
The spring breeze is a very green more so than it looks on my monitor. It has fantastic and very subtle gradations of color.
The antique rose looks more pastel pink in this picture than it really is. It is a truly fine muted pink that tends to the orange but does not go so far as to make it a coral color. Both yarns are lace weight.
Needless to say, Yellow Bear graciously agreed to pose with the second 4 skeins of yarn even though, he had not had a chance to steal it. I think think he likes having his picture taken.
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