The Blackburn Digest

I’ve had an extended & frustrating period of requiring excessively long ‘rest periods’ for every chore accomplished; washing and hanging up the laundry would take all available energy, watering all of the outdoor plants left me exhausted, necessary attempts at taming household clutter meant someone else was cooking dinner. Not surprising, I suppose, as rheumatoid arthritis and fibromyalgia both pack a big fatigue punch, and the air pressure(a big trigger for me) has been dancing a ballet for weeks!

Finally, though,I’ve had a weekend during which I really accomplished something . . . more precisely, more then one “something”! Trimmed my e-mail down from 100+ to 4 by actually reading, responding and/or copying and filing recipes, patterns for miniatures, etc. Accomplished the two-week food shopping with Tom’s help. Gave all the plants a cleanup and hearty drink (still need to feed them!), and even managed to spend a productive period up in my “Tower” workroom! I didn’t create any masterpieces, but it was extremely satisfying to convert three long-stored kits into finished miniatures and solve a visibility problem within my newly remodeled Cabbages & Kings antique shop! I hope this trend lasts a while - I’ve sooo many projects I want to complete!

It is no one’s fault but my own. . . . .when the alarm rings at 5:30 AM, it is really going to hurt!

I spent ten hours at the TCEA convention today; most of them on my feet searching for misplaced awards envelopes, tracking down missing speakers (”His session starts in 25 minutes!!”), magically producing tape, scissors and whatever else was needed, decorating for the evening banquet - - - -the typical activities of a seasoned & unpaid volunteer. I am footsore and weary, but expected that and enjoyed seeing old team-mates. Meant to depart directly after the banquet, but members of the Board urged me to stay for the awards ceremony - “We need the seats to be filled” Well, yeah - been here, done this, valid point - but I should have smelled a conspiracy! Ready to clap enthusiastically for the next award winner, I hear my name announced. Huh?! I now have a “suitable for framing” certificate of The Volunteer Who Never Says NO award! LOL - my fellow Community Educators are a sneaky lot!

*Strange title, right? Well, maybe not quite so strange. . . .Dotsero is, in reality, a small community near the head of Glenwood Canyon in Eagle County, Colorado. Although there is some …. um, conflict….over the origin of the town’s name, recorded history shows that Ferdinand Hayden did, indeed, use this location as “Dot Zero” on his survey maps of Central and Southwest Colorado in the 1870’s. I will leave that argument to more scholarly minds, but adopt it as a fitting “re-start” for my blog. I’ve left the digest blank for mumbletoolongmumble months, and intend to correct that starting now - today is Dot Zero, and (as time allows) I hope to back-fill with a few dates and data which became somewhat lost in the general bustle of life.

My admittance to the GSOLFOT (Green Sock on Left Foot on Tuesday) group has stirred up my creative side again:) Other than organizing some of the perpetual chaos in my workshop area, I haven’t really spent much time in my “Tower” recently; but my new title and a (virtual) office of my very own (#17) has me back at the workbench!

There is only one miniatures shop in San Antonio, and I will not shop there, ever! Since I was fired-up to start creating my new office now/immediately/this very minute, I turned to an alternate possibility for the wallpaper I needed; my local scrapbooking shop! A long-retired room box from my storage closet was pressed into service - by dinner time, the old & discolored wallpaper was stripped, fresh new paper installed and a new carpet measured and installed. A dining table with two wobbly legs and a very dull finish was re-glued and wearing a warm new wood stain, ready to become my workbench. A seriously red-hued mahogany wall cabinet was wearing a fresh coat of pale spring green paint, and I had a large basket full of possible furniture, nick-knacks, throw rugs, fur-kids and craft supplies (all in one-twelfth scale) was waiting for glues and paints to dry. Oh, yes - dragons aplenty were waiting for a shelf, table or a corner to claim also!

Still feeling a bit shaky, but I did manage a few constructive actions today; laundry, more entries in my “flower recipe’ book (miniature flowers), a two week menu & shopping list to occupy us for awhile come tomorrow and a shiny new “official” title, awarded by The Great Oz of GSOLFOT!

As a newly-minted member of the “ancient & honorable” order of GSOLFOT, I’ve been mulling over what title and duties I wanted (should I be so fortunate as to be granted either a title or an office in the virtual -castle). Today, my title request was granted, with an acceptable alteration. I’d held a feeble hope that I could be a Princess (every ‘little’ girl’s dream - LOL!), but there’s no room for more royalty. Fair enough - I am now, officially, Contessa of Useful Bits, Bobs & Specks and Protector of Roof Runners! No, I am not kidding. Yes, I am off my rocker. Having a glorious time, thank you!

On a day when a nasty, lingering cold and other ills had me feeling vastly weak and somewhat transparent, a short note popped up in one of my on-line focus groups; there was an opening available in the limited membership of a group of zany, nutty, fun-loving and extremely talented miniaturists known as GSOLFOT (Green Sock On Left Foot On Tuesdays).

Hardly able to wander from room to room, I pulled my remaining wits together and attempted to write four separate application letters, each laced with the appropriate amount of irreverence, jocularity and basic facts about myself to secure the coveted membership. It worked - I am now a “Sockee”!
makes no sense? Well, we Sockees often do not attempt to:) Have a fun ramble around the website, and you’ll understand even less! LOL!!!

http://www.gsolfot.com

Sometimes, I get the wicked urge to make an appointment with my former podiatrist. To just tell the scheduling clerk something banal like “I’m having trouble with callouses”, and then watch the podiatrist’s face when I unveil my new feet. O.K. - they’re not “new”. They are officially almost 15 months old, but the urge to use them as a “teaching tool” grows ever stronger!

It’s not the podiatrist’s fault. When years of Rheumatoid Arthritis had dislocated my toes and set them all at weird angles that shoes could no longer encase without severe pain, I sought her out. She was the daughter of a trusted physician, newly set up in practice with her surgery-schooled husband. I received sympathy, custom orthotics to ease my stride (which they didn’t) and, eventually, braces attached to both shoes with knee-cuffs to minimise my spectacular falls (which they did). Pain and mobility were still issues, however, so I kept pushing the young pair for a better fix. At my last visit to their office, I was told that the only solution was “drastic surgery” that “shouldn’t be considered until I was older”. That made little sense to me at the time (it was 2004 or 2005); if it was drastic surgery, shouldn’t we do it when I was younger and better able to recover? They wouldn’t answer that, so I didn’t visit them anymore!