Midlife Memoirs

Quiet?

The neighbors upstairs (often referred to as "the elephants") are moving today. The sad part - the movers are actually quieter than the neighbors!

Moving Along

Sometimes we make decisions to do things in life, other times decisions are made for us - by circumstance or opportunity.

I have noticed a few things recently. It seems that knitting/spinning/weaving are all things that are "open" to me. I have access to tools, training, social networking, and opportunities to grow and learn. It all seems natural.

I also have family who have begun to express interest in the database I have on our family history. This includes cousins who, for one reason or another, know absolutely nothing about our grandparents - even their full names. So I am trying to create something that they can see online. (Mac Family Tree...wonderful product so far.)

While I can't go out and take photos the way I would like to, because of limits on my mobility, I do have a backlog of old photos and negatives to scan.

On the other hand, some doors have been closing, opportunities have gone away. My job in ESL (and some of the frustration) went away at the end of the year. Trying to take French lessons was an experiment that failed, for now, because I was clearly placed in too advanced a class.

There are still lots of little things that need to get done before I can fully focus on all I would like to do, but I do have a path to follow, and life is moving along.

Not As Easy As It Seems

I've been working on the fifty percent business for the past week. Some bits are going better than others.

Oddly enough, sorting down my yarn to a reasonable limit wasn't as hard as I had expected. Although, I now need to find a way to sell it on and recoup some of the costs.

I've also decided to sell off my old DSLR (Canon 20D) and lens combo. I haven't figured out how to dispose of the Selphy 600 photo printer - that may just end up at a charity.

The stumbling block seems to be clothes. It's not that I can't get rid of clothes - that's not really that hard for me to do. The problem is that I have different sets of clothes, including some that would fit me if I lose about 10 pounds - not an unreasonable goal. What do I do with those?

Some of the items I can actually wear now, it's just they don't look as good as they would, others are shorts or jeans that really have to wait (or is that weight?). If I save bits of two separate wardrobes, that's far too many clothes, and definitely defeats the purpose of the exercise. On the other hand, I would end up spending money, later, to replace clothes that I really like.

Right now there are piles of soon to be discarded clothes (the definite ones) in the living room, and boxes of unwanted yarn next to the dining table (all one big room, actually). I try to clean things up a bit each night, so Steve doesn't have to walk through a huge mess. (Small mess, I don't care, but big messes bother him more than me.)

In the end, I know this will all be worth it. There is already a bit of free floor space in my walk-in closet!

Fifty Percent

Steve and I have been looking for a new church in San Francisco, since that is where we now live. One of the recommendations we received was for a group that is more of a monastic movement with a practical application in reaching out to the community. Elements of the group's activities sound intriguing, but as an adjunct to a regular church, not as our main church family.

One of the things they have done in the past is to voluntarily get rid of half their belongings, selling them and giving the money to support a charity. I have been struggling for years with "things". I sometimes feel so burdened by the number things and lack of space to hold them.  (Some people would debate whether or not I have a  lot of things, but when you live in a 2 bedroom apartment, it really is an issue.) So the idea of setting a goal of fifty percent reduction caught my attention, whether for sale or donation.

Last night I prayed and made a list of categories of things to be halved.

Today I start with clothes. After that, I'll tackle art supplies, and then perhaps the hardest category - knitting and yarn.

Back?

Seems I've gotten back in the blogging mood. Wish there was more going on in my life right now, but it seems limited to scanning old family photos and documents, spending time with Steve, knitting, and being lazy. The last being the only big issue.

With looming possibility of surgery, the impetus to clean and organize my room is gaining strength. The one big block to this is the project of scanning - which creates all sorts of mess, despite best efforts.

It's Official

According to the doctor I saw to day, I have "a bum knee". Great medical term, that. It's the result of a fall I had in October. It was clear that something was wrong, as it swelled up considerably when I did it, and took weeks to get to the point of even being able to walk without crutches.

Monday I have a appointment with orthopedics to see if they need to do an MRI and possible surgery.

Meantime, a cane usually gets me a seat on Muni...and I'm not supposed to go on long walks.

Not sure this is ok

I've been wandering around the cyberworld for a bit recently, taking in the sites and seeing what is new. I'm a member of the knitting/crocheting equivalent of Facebook, and was wondering what all the fuss was about Twitter. I tried to use the domain that we have held for many years - pretty much since domains existed - to sent up an account somewhere. Failed as it was already taken. No Problem (well, yes, problem, but I will get over it).

So I did a search for our domain under that service, found the person, followed the URL. Granted the URL has our domain with an added word, but when you go to the website, the banner is just our domain name. There is no use of "consulting", "farms" or any other indicator that it is not us.

Is this kosher? Seems like they are trying to be us, to me, but that they realized that they had been beaten to the punch. If so, they should add the extra word to their banner and not continue as posers. There was at least one other group that wanted our name, we gave them an alternate suggestion and, to my knoweldge, that's what their banner says too.

I'm not in a sharing mood right now, and this feels a bit like identity theft to me. (I'm sure spouse will have other ideas.)

Chuffed

I went to sign up for French lessons today. It's been a number of years since I took formal classes (30 years or so...) and I don't remember as much as I would like to. After going through the website and e-mailing Alliance Française, I was planning on signing up for an accelerated upper beginning class.

I had a chance to speak with the head of courses, nothing more than a casual thank you and a quick mention of some of the work we had done years ago. Imagine my surprise (and delight) when she said that I would be totally bored with the class, and that even intermediate level classes would be too easy. She said I should enroll in the advanced grammar class and a vocabulary course. Needless to say, I'm quite chuffed and excited about getting back to studying French again.

As an added bonus, the courses I am now taking cost about half of the single course I had planned. (-:

Apathy

I have a serious case of "I-don't-care" bad attitude going on.

My job is officially going bye-bye at the end of this week, there are several essays that need reviewing, and frankly...I'm not into it at all. I have been trying to pawn off essays to all the tutors - as many as I can, but they aren't taking them. Technically I'm not on the schedule for another day, but I want to make sure that all the work is done before then, so there isn't anything for me to do.

I know... I'm the coordinator...the one who has the advanced degree in the subject...I should behave better. I've already been at the job 2 quarters more than I really wanted to be, but I didn't want to leave them without someone who knew what was going on and could run the thing. They, of course, had no real reason to try to replace me, since I was doing such a terrific (in their eyes) job.

Well, now that I have confessed my transgressions, time to go make myself work. I do, after all, still get paid for it.

Photography - continued

When I stopped doing photography in the early 80's digital didn't exist. For that matter, computers didn't really exist either - at least not in the form they have today. (Ever coded on a PDP 8E?... 72 characters only, please! Love the dots.)

When my parents died, I bought myself a high-end digital camera - a Canon EOS 20D - with the hopes of getting back into the swing of things. The problem is there wasn't much in the way of subject matter for me. I prefer architectural elements as my subject matter, and while there are are buildings, there aren't the sort of light play and lines that I like.

When we moved up to San Francisco, Steve and I went out and did a couple of "shoots". The long dormant dream started to come back to life. For Christmas this year, we bought each other Canon EOS 50D cameras. I've been out a couple of times on my own with my camera and am pleased with the pics I've gotten.

The only thing that was missing was a proper photo printer. We bought one this week. I set up the Canon Pro 9500 yesterday, printed my first photo, and tears came to my eyes. (Very, very happy tears.)

I'm in the process of creating a new portfolio. It won't be mounted for display, as my last one was, but that doesn't matter.

So, what does one of my photos look like? It looks like this: