The commission continues

although life happens!

Life happens, even while you are watching out for the potholes! I began the commission for a HUGE wall in downtown Minneapolis before I left for vacation on Lake Superior. Two weeks of glorious weather awaited me, and utter exhaustion!

I had been put on a heart med a few weeks before I made the drive north. It was a low-dose calcium channel blocker. I do not have hypertension, but my numbers can skew toward borderline. I DO have a pretty advanced asymptomatic mitral valve prolapse in my heart. The drug was to lower my BP reliably to ease my heart’s work. Instead, I fell asleep every time I sat down! And napped 2 times per day and slept around 9 hours per night!

Usually, my “UpNorth” time is a productive time of experimentation and planning. Not this time!
Not only was I exhausted, but the machine I brought with me decided it could not stitch.
And the dog had diarrhea for 10 of the 14 days we were at the cottage!

GOOD GRIEF!

The commission is based on the artwork SCATTER. Floral lace forms are stitched, washed, wet-formed and dried over cups.

Before I left for the vacation-that-wasn’t, I made sure I got 10 modules stitched out on the large Ricoma machine. In fact, I started a second set of ten, in greens, when the big machine decided it could not longer stitch! Happily, I have the Brother machine that can stitch reliably, one module at a time. To complete the piece, I will need at least 100 modules!

When I got home from the vacation-that-wasn’t, I got off the drug that was making me so tired! I’ve been off the drug for almost a month and am pretty much back to normal activity levels! HOORAY!

July 26-27

On July 26 I drove a Uhaul van up to Bemidji to retrieve my show, A NEOTECTONIC FUTURE that had finished its run at the Watermark Center. I got home the next day, unloaded, returned the truck and decided to make homemade pizza. I was still so tired…but improving. I laid the sauce and herbs down, chopped the veggies, assembled everything but the cheese. I could not easily lay my hands on a grater…so I grabbed the mandolin, planning to make slices of cheese.

Instead I sliced a hunk off my thumb!

I could not get the bleeding stopped.
I could not get the adhesive tape to stick in the bloody mess!

So, off to urgent care! It’s amazing how fast the doctors will see you when you are covered in blood! They had a hard time stopping the flow of blood as well. There were 2 tiny gesyers that kept pumping out warm puddles. After about 2 hours I got to go home. I composted my thumb-part and cooked the pizza. GEESH!

(The pizza was good. The thumb is healing nicely. I no longer need a bandaid and it no longer throbs.)

SO HERE WE ARE, AUGUST 7

I now have more that 30 modules completed, despite having:
a bad drug reaction
a banged up thumb
and 2 machines that refused to work!
Oh, and I started physical therapy again!