The Quintarian Project

in which our plucky heroine begins a new 100 day challenge...

not a stitch book this time, but rather a set of 5 of the pyramid pouches that I've been so very charmed with recently, inspired by the World of The Five Gods novels and novellas, written by Lois McMaster Bujold. Once again I will be limiting myself to using materials I have on hand, various fabric scraps and other crafty bits, maybe some beads or charms, certainly buttons, and whatever techniques feel like they will add meaning...

~ well begun ~

I'm starting with the Mother of Summer. Her color is green, obviously, and I didn't have much in the way of green scraps. I could have used some forest green as the backing, but since in the book, that is a color of mourning, I went in the other direction. To me the scattered patches evoke a sunny field of wildflowers; the backing fabric is from a much loved and worn out bandana from OCF years ago, and the squares combine floral cotton bits leftover from sewing masks in 2020, some tiny fragments of the tie-dye shirt my friend Aeolus made, and silk from a sample book. 

I'll be working at least 15 minutes each day until August 3rd. The timeline allows me twenty days to complete each one; if I finish before then, maybe creating a container to hold them.

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"I think that... when I die, I can breathe back the breath that made me live. I can give back to the world all that I didn't do. All that I might have been and couldn't be. All the choices I didn't make. All the things I lost and spent and wasted. I can give them back to the world. To the lives that haven't been lived yet. That will be my gift back to the world that gave me the life I did live, the love I loved, the breath I breathed.”

~ Ursula LeGuin
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Today I made good progress on my idea to get access to the Kaiser dental clinic, which is close enough to Acorn Cottage that I can walk, or ride my bike. First, I went there to find out if they were accepting new patients, and if they took folks who were on OHP. Yes to those, but I have the wrong dental plan, as they only accept Kaiser Dental, and they do not accept people paying out of pocket either.

So, I decided to ride my bike to the Office of Aging and Disability to talk to them about changing my dental plan. That was a pretty long ride, but I figured it was better than the two buses I would have needed. I was able to talk to someone there, but their office only gets folks signed up for Medicare or Medicaid or both, and doesn't handle anything past that point, as that is the bailiwick of  "HealthShareOregon", a different organization entirely. So I called them...

That office was shut down for the day for some kind of employee training? or some such, so I took a look at their website, which then referred me to calling my medical plan instead. Which I did, and talked to Moira, who was very personable and wanted to help. But unfortunately the medical plan is not able to change any of the other two plans that are part of my OHP access. At this point it was just about 5pm, so tomorrow morning bright and early I will be calling the HealthShare office, to beg ask if I can change just my dental plan. I am sure it would be more acceptable were I to change to all Kaiser, but I have been using Providence for my medical care for years, since before I had OHP, and the office of my primary care doctor is about two miles away, so an easy bike ride. My goal is to have my various care teams be easier for me to access ie closer to home, so I am not dependent on cadgeing rides or taking multiple buses to get there. We shall see what ensues tomorrow...

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April SMART goals (x=extra)

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	tiny angora print	computer zone lamp	persimmon prunings
2	5th God bag	blog template	forsythia prunings
3	scroll calligraphy	grey turtleneck collar	yard waste bin
4	Pelican scroll	indigo bunny art	recycle bin
5	grey rose brooch	taxes done	front plum pruning
6	pyramid pouch	redone bag ties	x
7	x	x	x
8	x	x	x
9	x	x	x

today's gratitudes -
1. I am brave and mighty, tackling the dread bureaucracy on the phone and in person.
2. I made a tasty salad for dinner, and used up some of the veggies before they needed to be sent to the compost bin
3. I didn't let the rain keep me from going out and riding my bike.

Time of Isolation - Day 1390

Friday fragments

in which our plucky heroine ends the afternoon with a bang...

I was in the workroom when a Very Loud Noise had me peeking through the living room curtains towards the front porch... The narrow planter had collapsed, its internal bracing had rotted away over the years since 2016 (seen newly built here) The collapsed planter spewed potting soil across the porch floor, though fortunately? the summer plants were done and therefore no harm done in that respect.

It lasted 6 years... not bad for something built of salvaged discarded lumber and old cedar fence boards. The 2x2 bits internal braces were not pressure treated, and are now basically mulch.I am not sure if the planter ca n be refurbished for yet another go round. That will require some thought, as woodbutchery is far from my strong suit; clearing away the potting soil, (and moving that to a garden bed in the backyard) will give me plenty of time to think...

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the wedding ring project:

The wedding rings are completed. One wouldn't expect such comparatively small projects would be so very complex to fabricate, but they were... and well worth the effort. Learning to fit and solder the shaped bezels to a curved surface, and adding the tiny decorative bits one at a time was quite nerve wracking, but I, and the engaged couple, are all quite pleased with the final results. I am thinking of some future complex metalwork later this autumn...

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I've put up four small jars of pub-style* pickled onions, and they are now residing in the pantry for the next several months to mellow. I am hopeful that my experiment with the top bulbs of my walking onions will be a pleasing success, some for me, and some to share with friends as holiday gifts.

*using malt vinegar spiced with coriander, mustardseed, and peppercorns

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I seem to have fallen into a pattern of napping in the afternoon, as a counterbalance to sleeping less at night, I guess... the interesting thing is that my napping dreams are short vignettes, both interesting and benign adventures, rather reminiscent of the animated series I enjoy, that are also only about 10 or 15 minutes long. I wish I could remember the various dreams I had this afternoon, beginning with my driving a little square auto like a cross between The Phantom Tollbooth, and a PT Cruiser.

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September SMART goals (x=extra)

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	7 tiny sunflowers	6 pants for Beth	yard waste bin
2	poppy pod vase	4 box fans clean	recycle bin
3	grey canvas hat	heraldry painted	yard waste bin
4	4 jars pickled onions	M skirt waistband	recycle bin
5	wedding rings	-	yard waste bin
6	x	x	recycle bin
7	x	x	x
8	x	x	x
9	x	x	x
10	x	x	x
11	x	x	x
12	x	x	x
13	x	x	x
14	x	x	x
15	x	x	x

today's gratitudes -
1. being able to go to the dentist! for so many years dental care was beyond my resources, with the expected results. Much pain and dollars later I am finally back at maintenance level care. My visit today confirmed that the self care protocols I am doing at home are enough to keep my mouth healthy and in good condition.
2. the kindness of strangers! After my dental visit on Wednesday I took P out to lunch at XLB, where we enjoyed the eponymous soup dumplings and other delights... I somehow managed to forget my phone was sitting on the table. Fortunately we had only gone a few steps away when two folks noticed it and called out to us asking if it was ours/mine. Whew!! it would have been a very bad thing to lose!!
3. my life allows me to take naps when needed.

Time of Isolation - Day 946

Thursday thoughts

in which our plucky heroine enjoys a small satisfaction...

time in the tinyworld:

I think my next area of focus for the tinyworld will be a few more garden things... my small friends need some garden tools, like a trowel (perhaps), definitely a watering can, or even a garden trug with a trowel, a garden fork, maybe a wee ball of twine? And I want to make up have started on the new plant kits, which means also making some new planter pots. The trowel could be made from tealight foil and a fancy toothpick, and when I next make more planter pots, they will have metal washers glued in the base for extra weight to guard against tipping over.

As seen above, I've started on the tiny euphorbia kit. I had no idea how very challenging it would be, but I expect from the progress so far that it will look truly splendid when completed. Each flower cluster has over 60 blossoms, each of which start as a 1/8" green paper circle, then has a center dot painted, is formed to a dished shape, and finally glued in place. The prepared armatures needed a way to be held in place while the glue dries, and since there is no scrap styrofoam lying about Acorn Cottage, instead, I figured out that a coil of corrugated cardboard, held together with masking tape and wedged into a tealight holder would stand duty allowing the flowers to safely dry between gluing sessions.  The partially finished flower cluster (in somewhat fuzzy focus) is about a half inch long altogether; the finished kit has five blossom clusters and an additional five foliage spikes... The Euphorbia wulfenii currently blooming in my front yard are rather larger than that...

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My visit today to the endodontist was both good and disappointing... because finding a good practitioner is always a plus, and disappointing because the TL:DR of his advice was "if it was my tooth, I would have it extracted"... He was very thorough about going over the various options as far as root canal surgery, and after yet additional specific xrays, pointed out the very odd things going on with my CrankyTooth TM... So far it has been deemed peculiar by four different types of dental specialists.

I am trying to mull over the best way to balance all the effort I have made so far to save CrankyTooth, with my desire to not have an ongoing infection, and my concern, which was independently brought up by Dr Y, that a root canal might both not solve the problem and might discover that the tooth is irreparably internally cracked.

In thinking about what is my dental care goal... I want to have teeth that basically just need maintenance care, not continuing to have infection which is a great risk for other health dangers, and also not do things that will require further surgeries in the future when I will have even less ability to heal and less financial resources, and when our society as a whole may be significantly more austere than it currently is.

I felt like Dr Y was being really honest with me, after thoroughly going over all the options his practice could offer in either a total root canal, or a partial "exploratory" root canal, when he said that his recommendation, if it were his own tooth, would be extraction. (If he weren't honest, he would have no reason to have said that, but rather would have just encouraged me to have the procedures done at his office, even though they would likely fail).

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March SMART goals (x=extra)

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	tiny tulips	more compost liners	yard waste bin
2	tiny crocus	mended gloves	recycle bin
3	yet moar tiny books	more apple pruning	books to LFL
4	little ladle	tiny bucket handle	recycle bin
5	tiny aprons	acquired 2021 tax forms	-
6	chore jacket	clock movement replaced	-
7	x	x	-
8	x	x	-
9	x	x	x
10	x	x	x
11	x	x	x
12	x	x	x
13	x	x	x
14	x	x	x
15	x	x	x

today's gratitude - having found not one but now two GOOD dental practitioners

Time of Isolation - Day 746