Library Hour Cutbacks

I was off to the library this morning at 9 AM when I remembered they don't open until 11 AM on Mon. through Thurs. and noon on Friday and Sat. With all the California budget woes, I'm amazed we have libraries at all. It just seems wrong to cut something that increases the education of the populace. Libraries don't just have books, but computers for those that can't afford their own, videos, community meetings, unemployment resources, tax forms, and many other things that keep a city working smoothly. I'm sure the staff at libraries fights all the time to keep their branches open.

I've always loved libraries. It was one of the more pleasant things I got to do with my father. Did you know military bases have libraries? In high school I worked at my library. Years later after I had children, I volunteered at the Cal Poly SLO library for a while. If you want your kids to frequent libaries, set a good example by going to libraries.

Dinner and a Sick Cat

Since I'm doing my best to dance each day or at least stretch so I can dance, I just did a round of stretching and footwork. I am very stiff from a weekend of hiking, juggling, altatl dart throwing, and hauling bins, chairs, tables, and food. Basically I was useless today. I did have to run to the post office to mail an Etsy order to a customer. And later we went to the woodworking store and a grocery store. But once I got home I sat at my computer, too stiff and tired to move. I made myself get up and stretch. I should have cleaned the aquarium filter. Ah well. It's after 9 and dinner still isn't ready. I asked my boyfriend if we'd be eating soon and all he said was, "I just made meat." But he didn't get up to cut the meat or get plates or anything. I don't want to offend him by getting my own dinner. I ate some honey roasted peanuts to tide me over. He's tired too. For all I know he fell asleep on the couch.

Our cat has been sick today too. He doesn't want to eat. He just lays about looking lethargic. We may have to go to the vet if he's not perky by morning.

Caption: The fish I made in the crochet contest.

Seek the Light

I just had a very strange and epic dream this morning. I won't tell the whole dream, because it was quite long, but rather the ending.

At the end of the dream, I was wearing brown robes. My hair was long. I was younger and thinner than I am now. I was carrying a stave made of wood. The top had a carved wooden ornament with four lathed spiral finials. The staff was taller than me by about 2 feet. I'll post a photo of a drawing of it. I think inside the ornate top there was a mirror, or a light, or stained glass. As I was holding the staff I was also clutching 3 long sticks of incense.
The world was a crowded place. Many people were meandering around, so I joined the first parade of people that went by. They were shouting out random things to the crowd. They were all dressed in brown too. When no one else was yelling anything I would yell out "Seek the Light."

There was a man marching with us with medium long curly brown hair and kind eyes, so we took to standing somewhat near each other and watching each other. At one point every time I spoke something out loud, he would say the very same thing at the very same time. We both seemed quite amused at this.

Eventually we lost site of each other and the parade meandered away from me and after walking alone a bit I wound up in another parade. It was still light out. I'm still randomly calling out 'Seek the light'. Then I realize the new parade is wandering into a building. Too late I realize they are all funneling into a church service. Knowing that is wrong somehow, I turn to go. In the entryway there are all kinds of rusty statues. One is of Jesus on the cross. That seems really creepy to me, but there was also a sculpture of a bunch of giant forks all welded together at the base. I wondered what that could possibly mean.

As I left the building I soon passed a group of people preaching to the crowd. One man shouted out, "Don't spend money on root canals, spend it on feeding the poor."

I thought what an odd thing to say, for what good is it if you feed the poor only to die of a tooth infection. I could see forgoing pleasure to feed the poor, but you have to take care of your own health first, otherwise you won't live long to help others.

So I walked on. I passed this older man who was standing there in black or dark robes. As I walked up to him my skirt elastic gave out and it fell down. Quite mortified I was trying to pull it back up, though I still had a slip on under it. This man is watching me and says, "What is that you are holding." So I look at the staff and the incense I am clutching.
With the other hand I'm still trying to fix my clothes. At that point I woke up and realized I was trying to pull my blanket back up though I was still covered with the sheet.

Today's Highligts

So much happened at the archery range today I can't cover it all. So I'll just do the highlights.

1. Found part of a dead snake.
2. Saw a gopher nibbling on the end of Ken's bow stave.
3. Hula hooped with a pregnant lady and a 10 year old boy.
4. Missed all but 2 altalt shots.
5. Watched Alex start a primitive fire.
6. Saw a man walking 3 beautiful whippets.
7. Attempted to juggle five balls while filming a video of myself.
8. Saw Alex shatter an atlatl dart which then flew in two directions.
9. Saw Mike's new bow bench and David's new chainmail.
10. Saw Ken building some sort of forge for knives.

I have photos to upload but that's a job for another day.

And The Archery Field Was Overrun

I was right about ready to turn off my computer and crawl into bed when I remember my committment to do this daily journaling. Granted it's almost 1 AM it's close enough.

Today when we got to the archery range, there was a huge archery tournament going on. There were more cars than parking spaces and they were parked all over the grass. The grass is the area our organizer had paid the city a fee to reserve for us for our knitting, juggling,& archery event. She got there around 9 AM to set up and there was just no way we'd be able to use the area and move all those cars. And even if we could get them to leave the grass, there'd be no parking spaces for all the knitters, jugglers and so forth to park from our group.

And the only reason I got my boyfriend to drive me there was so he could do archery. The archery that wasn't going to happen now. Because the club of archers had rented the entire range.

Our leader had driven down the horseshoe shaped narrow road and found us a spot in another part of the park near restrooms. She did the best she could but there was only parallel parking and some of the spinners had to lug their spinning wheels a very far way.

But once we got all settled we managed to have a very good time anyway. We had contests, and a raffle and lots of eating and hooping. I juggled but no one else did. I guess the jugglers took their party elsewhere, maybe to the park in Irvine.

I won some yarn and stitch markers in the raffle.

My friend is going to try to get a refund for the reserved spot we got kicked out of. No way she should have to pay if she couldn't use that spot.

About Dance, Juggling, Atlatls, Knitting and Hooping

My newest project is taking a photo of myself dancing every day. It seemed like a good idea at the time, but I think most of the photos are just going to be me in my backyard, because it's been years since I danced in public anymore, mostly because it's just not that fun to dance when I'm overweight and self-concious.

I'm getting ready for 2 events this weekend. The first is at El Dorado Regional Park. It's a combination of World Juggling Day and World Knit in Public Day. It's at an archery range so I'll take my bow too. If we have to pay $8.00 to park inside the park, I want to get my money's worth.

Then on Sunday is our monthly Paleoplanet bowmaker's gathering. And it's an atlatl competition as well, so I'm going to take my archery stuff, my crating gear and my newly finished darts. I haven't made an atlatl yet but I'm pretty sure someone there will let me borrow one. I just hope I have enough energy to make it through the weekend. I was so tired today I had to lay down and take a nap, and I hate napping because it makes me feel like a little old lady.

I guess we are going to try to be there at 9 AM tomorrow, even though it starts at 10. But we have heavy gear and need a good parking space. We are taking watermelon and snacks too. And my hula hoops. One way or another I'm getting some exercise tomorrow.

Under the Weather

I just realized I hadn't made a post here in a long time. Life got complicated and typing is difficult. I'm seeing a Dr. to find out why my hands hurt all the time. But I won't know for another week what's going on. So I've been trying to lay off the typing.

I've had some sort of 24 hour flu thing, but the good side is I was too sick to be on the Internet, so essentially didn't type for 2 days. I've had tons of sewing, knitting and crocheting projects that I've had to put on hold until I find out what's going on with my hands. The Dr. already ruled out arthritus and carpal tunnel syndrome.