Kosher sewing

I have never been one who was closely acquainted with pig's feet, until tonight.   A little scalpel work, some monofilament and I was throwing stitches left and right with my fellow students.

So many things in life that need sutures...lets throw a few stitches into our politics...I am thinking of the lyrics "come together, right now, over me".

But not so fast, you say, think of all the 'dangerous webs we weave'  of bringing pieces together that are better apart, or of staying at our loom, weaving while the world moves by, like the Lady of Shallot, we are lost in the river of our own imaginings of what might be.

How dangerous it is, to be armed with a needle, and thread, and a vision of what should be.

I want to ride my bicycle, I want to ride my bike

This is a local place to build your own bike from pieces of old ones.  I tried here first before buying my new bike, and I still like the idea....

Mechanical objects have their own logic.  Nobody has to tell you something is right or wrong, it either actually works or it doesn't.  And you like the way it works or you don't.

I love the subjective nature of people (as opposed to mechanical objects), getting the pieces of say, the physical exam to flow smoothly is not just a mechanical feat - it turns out, people are different mechanically - light pressure to one is heavy to another - too heavy, too light...and what are you conveying non-verbally and verbally - this is complex machinery, rewarding to make it run relatively smoothly for all those involved.

So I love to ride my bicycle, whether spinning in the gym, or past the saguaros in this desert - for the sheer mechanical 'this is right'-ness...and the passing hills and houses and cacti are surprisingly un-opionated about my conversation or body-language as I ride by, and that suits me fine, since all I think of is the feel of the road and texture of the air.

Ride in Style

This is Vic...he is a pro cyclist who came along on our Tu Nidito Ride for a Child training ride today.  We covered 25 miles in early morning Tucson fresh air.  We took an easy pace, so even I could keep up on my brother's 20-year old mountain bike.  Vic kept me company for part of the ride and gave some good training tips, as did Jimmy-the ride leader (who grew up with and rides with Lance Armstrong) and Jimmy's dad Johnny who kept my training partner Valisa and I company.

Tu Nidito served us bagels and drinks after the ride and gave us a tour of their lovely facilities.  The rooms are painted in bright colors - jungle scenes, or dreamscapes.  Great spaces for kids and teens who need to grieve, laugh, paint or blow-up in the Volcano room! (padded walls, punching bags).  I am even more impressed with Tu Nidito and so glad to being Riding for A Child in El Tour de Tucson.

Here is the website to donate to the child I am riding for "Landin' and other kids at Tu Nidito who are seriously ill or grieving a seriously ill parent or sibling.   http://tunidito.kintera.org/rideforachild/engel

Training wheels

9 miles today, training on my brother's old red mountain bike.  I wanted to post about 20 pictures from the bright-colored farmer's market, the fountains, tile, the old men playing steel guitar.  I could smell the fresh red peppers tied together drying in the sun.  I wandered through the farm-grown melons and tomatoes, the local honey and found green peppers, fresh then torches lit and oila! roasted!

I wandered to a quieter corner, the french bakery - everyone hugged the french woman who baked the pastries and breads, after tasting them, I wanted to hug her too.

The evening is cool, I have a red sweatshirt on and the white lights remind me of the strings of lights above Clarendon street in Oxford, I would sit on the curb eating ice cream, and the arches of light made it taste better, as did the students and profs riding by on bicycles, flying school colors on the scarves around their necks in the autumn air.

Red in the Studio

The cloudscapes today were....beyond description.  The air was cool and I passed people sitting on porches and curbs, kids getting a haircut outside.  It wasn't a study kind of day, it was a day to be in your eyes, not your head.  The perfect day to visit a lovely artist in her studio and see a tree slowly unfurl across the canvas.

That is my cup of tea (or not)

I am a tea fanatic, truth be told, was one before I lived in England.

I wanted to order peppermint tea in Spain on a visit there. My server had no idea what I was talking about. We discussed in both Spanish and English what I wanted and still, no luck. Finally the server said "do you mean peppermint infusion?".

So the source of our misunderstanding was the precise terminology, you see only the drink made from the leaves of the plant camellia sinensis (the tea plant to you and I) is actually tea, everything else is an infusion.

Sheesh, glad we cleared that up.

Through the window

Outside that window it's getting cooler, below 80 at night, in the mid-90's during the day.

I am a fan of looking out of windows, some of my favorites are train, plane, boat and beach house windows.

Ah, the beach, sometimes the desert feels like an underwater landscape -the cactus are corals.

In a sailboat on rough sea, though, I would rather be at the tiller, splashed with sea and rain water. One time when I was little, we were caught on some rough water and I went down and hid in the bow of the boat, and was afraid of the sounds I heard. It was cold and windy and wet on deck, so not a bad idea at that time. Now, I want to know how to sail that boat, I want to know when to run with the wind and when to tack.