Mind Boggling Month

How do I reconcile all death and destruction that went on this month with all the good, creative events?  As the beautiful golden leaves of October gave way to the bare branches of November, friends and family gathered together to celebrate the harvest, and to comfort each other in their loss. 

Good news first.  Roger and I are heading up our respective organizations this year, he is Master of the Grange for the third year in a row, and I will be the President of the SJC Textile Guild for 2014.  They won’t be easy terms, we are lucky to have great boards to help us through. 

Roger has been busy this month, first he built a root “closet” in our basement—it has a fan that will come on with a thermostat to keep it cold enough for potatoes, etc.  Then he built a new craft table for me so I could donate my bigger worktable to a new food prep area in the basement.  Then he built a new front end on the outdoor boiler for our radiant heat system.  And he’s brought in a lot of firewood on top of that.

I attended a Micro-Macrame/ cavandoli workshop by a nationally known teacher, Joan Babcock from Santa Fe.  Since the class I’ve finished a pendant and two bracelets.  I hope to have earring to match before too long. 

Check out her work at Joan Babcock's jewelry 

Roger’s birthday fell on the day after Thanksgiving this year.  Two days packed with family and friends and great food.  Our friend Shann returned to the island after ten months bouncing back and forth between Fred Hutchinson and University Hospital.  She made an appearance at the Cask and Schooner and made all of our days.

friends celebrating Roger's 58th birthday

 The major event of this past month, my sister Jeannette and my quick trip to Kansas City for the funeral of our Aunt Ruth was really a celebration. My mom and my aunt Ruth were very close growing up so we felt it was important to represent Mom's side of the family.  Aunt Ruth lived to one day shy of her 97^th birthday and was beloved by her children, nieces, nephews, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.  It was a privilege to be a part of that.  Jeannette and I immersed ourselves in family lore for three days.  

Jones cousins at Aunt Ruth's funeral

Evelyn and Ruth Jones, ages 14 and 18
 

 A weird week of communication blackout overshadowed this county of islands this past month when the cable connecting all of our long distance and most of our internet was severed, supposedly due to an earthquake.  Everyone experienced the outage differently, I could call Orcas Island for instance, but not anyone on a cellphone in Friday Harbor.  Here is an article in the Atlantic Monthly that describes the situation pretty accurately.

Atlantic Monthly article

The news was bad that week.  For one thing, Eric’s beloved lab, Pepper died suddenly on November 5^th.  My father-in-law made a trip to the emergency room,  two of my aunts were in critical condition one in Kansas City and one in L.A. This same week we learned that a friend’s son had died in a head-on collision on Maui,, and a horrible typhoon hit the Philippines, killing perhaps 10,000 people.

It’s hard to discuss quince/apple pie and macramé in the face of all this mortality.  And yet, I feel so blessed, to be surrounded by all this natural beauty, the great people in the Grange and the Textile Guild and my yoga class, all our dear friends, and large, loving family.  It's incongruous.  It boggles the mind.