snow day

in which our plucky heroine, watching the drifting flakes, is reduced to writing haiku...

white dusts gritty wind
snow powders all directions...
glad to be indoors!

Between yesterday and today girl managed to get various perishable preparations dealt with before the snow really arrived... things like an extra half gallon of milk, some fresh greens and fruit, putting the candles and matches out ready to hand, picking up the prescriptions, and swapping the old library books for a new one.

The extra long bus ride to the other end of the city seemed less than intelligent, with the necessity of standing around in the unsheltered wind at 19F for a half hour waiting for the connecting bus. Even with enough layers of wool and fleece that our plucky heroine looked more like a matroyshka doll than ordinarily, the wind is so strong that it ran right through the multiple layers. (shall remember that, and a future coat will include a windblocking layer not just for the torso, but for the arms as well. My SCA kit does a fairly good job at keeping the core warm, multiple layers of wool worked for our ancestors and still work for us. My AnTirian hat (part mongol/part viking) has two layers of dense melton cloth wool, and is bordered with fur, so it really keeps my head warm, particularly if I wear a kerchief tied peasant style underneath. My mittens, naalbound by my dear friend Ariadne, are a good quarter inch or more thick, and dense enough to block the wind, while stiff enough to require removal if anything more dextrous than carrying a bag is needed. Withal, I rescheduled my Sellwood housecleaning job to next week, and headed home...

:::

While often Facebook is more a time sink, today girl found an article posted there that was chockablock full of wise and clever thought. One of the sayings that has been the most painful for me since starting my cancer journey is the phrase "new normal". I liked the old normal just fine... and having all my hardearned progress at building a good life swept away in the fire of illness has been a challenge. When I read "A New Normal: Ten Things I've Learned About Trauma", was almost reduced to tears by words that got right to the heart of what is also true for me...

:::

Look out the front window and see that the snow has changed from powdered sugar to larger feathers of white, and 'tis time to get back to the workroom, and make forward progress on the other assorted self-employment tasks of Roman rivets, and setting the new enamel, and re-sketching the coronet bids...If I get all that done, my reward shall be to also make small progress on the sewing projects, starting with some new pairs of warm wintertime leggings! Girl is a lot more cheerful today, like a Daruma, can push me down but cannot keep me down!!

neverending bootstrapping

...in which our plucky heroine reminds herself that three steps forward two steps back is still net progress...

The backwash from my cancer journey is like escaping from a riptide, taking a much longer route than simply returning to the beach of my former life... haven't much felt like posting, since either girl is really busy working, or is too squashed flat to feel like sharing, fortunately more of the former than the latter.

late night maneki-nekos - may they beckon prosperity for all who see this

The good being that bit by bit there seems to be fragments of work coming my way, as girl assiduously follows up on the various signs and queries, in the interest of maintaining and increasing forward momentum. The hard part is dealing with the bureaucratic paperwork for the assistance I still need, for while I am returning to my workaday life, am still not back to full-speed/full-time, and in truth will likely never be able to return to fulltime housekeeping work, which is why girl is following up on all queries about metalwork/enameling and other parts of my skillset.

Today I had my third go-round with the mysterious people in the locked DHS facility, that has taken the place of the former face to face encounters with caseworkers. Anyone that says public assistance is a walk in the park easy peasy has never actually dealt with the situation. I long for and work every day towards not needed EBT (food stamps) though they have been a life saver during my return to health. But until I am back to earning enough for all the limited necessities* of life, every sixmonth I fill out a thick booklet of information and documentation of my status, and send that in along with copies of my taxes and accounting. Every six months, which means that there are copies of my records on file there, already.

But this time, despite my handing all that in of my current information in a timely fashion, and despite the copies already on file, the mystery person phoned to say that they were this time not satisfied and wanted a second copy of every page of my tax forms, which I took the half day off to get copied and bring into the local office to be faxed to the closed facility. Then a few days later, I get another phone call that that information was not enough, and they wanted fresh copies of all my account book pages from the last twelve months, (despite already having those on file from the last time) So I again took a halfday off to copy out all of these and hand carry them to the local office to be faxed to the closed facility. At this point I was reduced to tears once I got safely home from the bus ride.

Today, when my EBT benefit should be accessible, my card reads empty; I call the phone number of the locked facilty to be told that the mystery person assigned to deal with my forms is not in the office, and that there is no way to know when they will finish with the new paperwork and release my pittance. Fortunately, I am frugal, know cooking skills, and careful in how I shop. But this makes me sooo angry. Girl has been working since she was fifteen years old and paying taxes since she was fifteen years old, and is almost sixty and will be working and paying taxes till they take me out feet first. I am not trying to do anything shady. I have repeatedly provided copies of the same gorram documentation...

* shelter and utilities, food, transportation & clothing

~ ~ ~≈:::≈~ ~ ~

but lest my beloved readers be left with the same bitter taste, girl offers instead two very different and cheering musical delights, that lift my spirits and strengthen my resolve:

found on Terry Windling's Myth and Moor, this Monday

unexpectedly found on FB

try try again

in which our plucky heroine is making progress bit by bit on the pair of Roman brooches...

The actual size is about 1 1/2" across, bone disc beads are 6mm, and I have some 8mm discs on order for the centers

When my initial attempt at the radial ferns? feathers? proved less than ideal (wigglecut not giving an appropriate look) I decided to try simple engraved lines... The technique is not one I have experimented with before, and is right on the border of what my tiny hands and wrists can handle; I shall never be anywhere close to the exquisite work that my colleague Bill Dawson can do, but the effect here is similar to the look of the original artifact.