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