caracolina

I drove myself to work, John packed up the rental car, voted, and headed back out to Santa Barbara. Sigh. The election processes provided a lot of distraction throughout the day, though. I can’t vote since I’m not a citizen so I’ve tried to stay away from that whole circus, especially in the last weeks, but that proved pretty much impossible. However, today’s excitement, the build-up to the moment when the final result was announced was amazing. I was on the phone with John on and off throughout the evening and we both felt at once stunned and elated, even a little teary, about Obama’s victory.

Sadly, McCain’s surrender speech was the best speech I have heard from him yet. In terms of eloquence and grace he overshadowed Obama’s speech to some extent. McCain’s a good man, he tried hard and I felt for him. But now the race and the election are finally over, it is time to sweep all that stuff to the side and watch the next president of the US of A go to work.

Go Obama!

Today was Rob’s big day. The opening day of the Tonopah Farmers Market. Featuring not only Tonopah Rob’s all-natural vegetables but also a number of vendors selling natural foods and other healthy things such as eco-friendly cleaning materials. Rob had posted an ad and there was at least one write-up in a local paper so we were swamped from the get-go. I had a hard time packing the CSA shares, the veggies were flying off the shelves and trays and customers were trying to help themselves out of the boxes. The situation was slightly overwhelming at times with long lines for the vegetables and sad faces when realization hit that items were sold out. Overall, though, an exciting as well as exhausting day.

Finally! John came back home today from Santa Barbara! Weird how it takes a day to get used to having another person around. But I’m so happy he’s back, even though it is only for a few days (he’s scheduled to leave after voting next Tuesday.

Today was India’s festival of lights, Diwali and also the start of the new year for parts of India, including Gujarat, home state of most of our Indian friends. Last Diwalis we have visited Sonal’s store to wish her a happy Diwali and New Year and watch/help Rinku draw a rangoli on the pavement in front of the store. This year Rinku didn’t have time, so no rangoli. Sad! I didn’t feel like going out so I just picked up a new diya (oil lamp) with the head of Ganapati (a.k.a. Lord Ganesha) and headed home. I filled my diya with a wick and wax and lit it and a few more candles in celebration.

I left Elaine’s house a couple hours after breakfast and made it home in the early afternoon. At some point I got really tired and even had to resort to chewing gum to stay focused, so I swung by Dutch Brothers for a latte before I got home. I carried my wheel, bag, and new treasures upstairs, took photos, then decided I wanted to finish my basket right away because I was afraid that it would just be forgotten if I didn’t do it now. Seeing it was already almost done it really didn’t take very long after giving the edge a good soaking. Of course I didn’t bother to take photos after it was finished.

Kind of sad to come home to an empty place. It would have been nice to be able to share the whole experience with John in person, instead of over the phone. Sorry Murphy, you don’t count quite as much…

Elaine and I loaded the spinning gear into the van with Rick’s help and took off to Amado right after an early breakfast. The festival was at the Amado Territorial Inn, which has guest rooms as well as a restaurant. About 10 years ago as it turned out, John, my mother, and I had dinner here while exploring the area. Today, we arrived 8.30 AM as the vendors were setting up their booths in front of the inn. When I signed up for my classes I didn’t know that the vendors would only be there until 5 PM. Since I only had 15 minutes break between the classes I ended up not having enough time to shop! However, I made up for that by winning a huge basket with yarns, stitch markers, scissors with fob, and even a book. I’m still amazed!

The classes were great, the first one was lace spinning with Jill Holbrook. With the help of fellow-student Alexis I managed to change the gear on my wheel to a higher ratio and spun my finest yarn yet, although it is still underspun in some areas. More practice is needed and I’m looking forward to it! During the afternoon class with Joyce Jaden I wove my first basket since childhood (girl scouts, woot!). In between classes I ran around and took some hasty photos of some of the critters, sheep of various breeds and alpacas. They even had shearing demonstrations! I think everyone had a great time at the Festival, the only bummer was that it was so short! I believe it went so well, though, that next year’s festival might be a 2-day affair. I’m definitely looking forward to it. Thanks, Southwest Fiber Arts Guild!

I’m going to attend two workshops at the Southwest Fiber Festival tomorrow, so I drove down to Tucson to spend the night at Elaine Ross’s house. Elaine is the president of the Arizona Federation of Weavers and Spinners Guilds and graciously invited me to stay the weekend at her beautiful home so I could drive down to the festival in Amado with her. I am the Federation “webmaster” which mostly means I tend to the forum and update the occasional person and link on the site. I am actually still planning to give the site a well deserved face list but, admittedly, really like spending the few off hours I have these days spinning and weaving.

I left work around 2 PM, picked up a sandwich and coffee and hit the 101 at 2.30, managing to avoid heavy traffic. I chose to go through Florence on the 79 rather than take I-10 and arrived at Elaine and Rick’s shortly after 5. I hadn’t met them in person before but we had a really good time.

I finally got started on the yarn I was going to make for my sister. I dyed this roving ages ago (i.e. at Yarn School Spring 08) and it was about time! Turns out, Murphy really enjoyed the colorful playground I created for her on the living room floor. She usually saves this level of wild abandon for catnip, so this was really cute. I’ll wash the yarn when it is spun, of course, hopefully it won’t create problems for Stephanie (she’s allergic).

No photo today, somehow we rarely take photos on the day we fly home and our vacation comes to an abrupt halt. There is something to be said about driving because the transition is so much smoother. However, without flying we wouldn’t have been able to explore upper Michigan, so it goes.

After a pre-sunrise breakfast we left Crawfordsville for Turkey Run State Park and found us there much too early for our canoe ride. To pass time we opted for a drive through a bunch of the covered bridges for which this area is so famous for. We managed to find about 5 before circling back to our canoe rental place. Getting the canoe was way too easy. I am not quite sure what I expected, but I thought they’d give us a quick lesson, but no. Another couple who rented two kayaks gave us a few pointers and helped us push off at the entry point and that was it. We were on our own. As our canoe floated towards the first bridge both of us were in a state of euphoria: this was easy! But soon after trouble started -we ran aground. It took us a few minutes to get moving again, trying to jump up off the canoe bench and pushing off with the paddles simultaneously. After a few river bends we got the hang of it, although we had come to the realization that we were not on a Disneyland ride and if we got stuck there wouldn’t be some costumed cast member setting the boat back on its tracks. I began to feel more comfortable soon, but then I was sitting in front and actually knew were we were going. John had to give up control for some extent and it was making him nervous. He kept shouting directions but occasionally forgot that in a canoe you have to paddle right to go left and vice versa and so I had to reverse his directions sometimes but not at all times and it was confusing. In the end we covered 11.5 miles of creek, had lots of fun and only two really close calls – one time we ran on top of a tree, with the bow of the canoe stuck “uphill” out of the water between branches, the other time we almost got pushed sideways into a tree and could feel the water pressure push the canoe towards the tipping point, but each time we managed to get out of the potentially dangerous situation quickly. Another couple in a canoe that passed us halfway down ended up in the water so we did pretty well for complete newbs. We’ll definitely try canoeing again, but will keep the camera in a water-proof bag and wear swim shorts and water shoes. And we’ll practice how to get in and out of the canoe so we can take breaks.

Once we were done with the canoe ride we had to wait awhile for the rental company to come and collect us and the gear. Afterwards we drove to Rockville to check out the Covered Bridges Festival and have a bite to eat. We indulged in a variety of fried foods then headed to the car to start our trek back to Chicago.