Wednesday, October 2, 2013

The Secret of Letting Go of Tension


























Things have been intensely mechanical and technical around here the past few days.  With the belt on my best sewing machine still in transit, and a self-imposed deadline looming, I tried to tune Maya's machine so that it would accept the funky materials I use.  I thought maybe the mysterious extra presser bar/foot would work better because the one that's on the machine has an annoying rocking gait that doesn't do well when it tries to pull stiff material past the feed dogs.  I've never tried the extra presser bar and its non-rocking foot, since the manual described the foot on the machine as "rocking."  In an effort to understand the differences between the two I drew the two bars/feet multiple times.  I did eventually achieve a good stitch with the rocking foot, but it only works on two layers and completely messes up on the four I needed it to stitch.  So I give up and will wait till Friday to work on this project grrrrrrr.

At the bottom right of the page is a woman that I see walking along a highway near here almost every day.  She's always carrying a plastic bag of what looks like groceries.  She isn't dressed like a hiker, doesn't wear sunglasses or a hat or even hiking shoes.  Traffic whizzes by her and she seems unruffled by it.  She holds her head proud and high.  I've seen her up near our road as well as a mile away near a cluster of quick stops. We have no sidewalks and in places there is no verge or even shoulder to the road.  Miserable for walking, but she just carries on.

























Several times a day Jesse comes up to my husband and indicates that he wants to go out.  My husband lets him out and then follows him to the driveway, where Jesse performs a series of rolls and body-tosses.  If Phil tries to leave the scene Jesse meows and walks after him.  He definitely wants a witness.  (This is similar to his mid-nightly request that Phil follow him into the kitchen and watch him eat for a few minutes.)  These are sketches of a few of Jesse's maneuvers.  We believe he is discharging tension and think we should take a lesson from him.  So in that spirit I'm heading out to roll down the lawn and go for a galloping arm-flinging walk in the woods!

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