Contemplations of a Closet Curmudgeon

Melting brown eyes and
Whipping tail greet my return
Though he never barks.
My neighbor's dog makes up for
Not having one of my own.

Building evacuated due to a leaking propane tank in the warehouse. Headaches ensue. Film at eleven.

EDIT: I went back in as soon as we were given an "all clear" as we had to bang out payroll a day early this week and it was after 10 AM and I still had batches to forward to HQ in Glendale. (Linda and I were among the few hoping the place wouldn't be closed down for the day all day because 400+ union employees not getting their paychecks on time would not have been pretty and I wouldn't blame them.)  In fact, I was one of the first back in the door and the only one with the presence of mind to use the doormat to wedge the front door open and go open the loading dock doors in the warehouse to ventilate the place. (Can you believe that the windows in the offices that have them don't open?) The place was still pretty fumy, despite the assurances of  the person blockhead in charge of our physical plant that it smelled fine (he doesn't have to work over here!) and I half hoped I'd throw up on my keyboard just to prove a point. My front-desk spot is only about 20 feet from the front door and I did get up and go outside a few times during the first hour  until I was at the point I couldn't tell whether my headache was from my lingering cold or propane fumes.

Came home from work Friday with a headache that wouldn't quit. Woke up Saturday feeling stuffy headed and logy, so I decided not to go to Investiture (a shame, judging from some of the photos posted to FB as it looked like a nice event). Instead, I pressed endless strips of silk that had been torn up into equal batches and previously dyed, then began hem stitching edges on the parts meant to go into sleeves. Each strip is 60" long. 60" x 8 = 480 inches of hem stitch, resulting in my left index finger feeling somewhat hamburgerized, particularly for the portion done while viewing La Princesse de Montpessier On Demand with subtitles. Also caught Voyage of the Dawn Treader (cute, but not as good as the first Narnia film) and part of an eye gougingly sappy Ingrid Bergman thing called The Inn of the Sixth Happiness.

Rainy out anyway, so just as well that I stayed in. Much tea has been consumed.

Today's antics involved whopping up a tamale pot's worth of green dye: Jacquard Acid Dye "Teal" and and "Gold Ochre" blended and tested on paper towel swatches until it started to look right, then on a swatch of the light green taffeta when I was close to sure of what I was going to get. The dyed hitoe just came out of the dryer and the color is what I wanted and should really pop under the other layers all is said and done.

Four hem-stitched false sleeve edges have been layered and sewn together and two of the other four needed for the second sleeve are done at this point. I should be able to finish tonight and maybe even tack them into the sleeves of the outermost uchigi. False collar layers next, then the front edges and hems. I would like to get that done by the end of the Thanksgiving break if possible.

EDIT: Sleevy bits are attached to the uchigi and look good. My hands hurt though. The uchigi is a heavy, almost spongy silk herringbone and the false edges are a tightly woven silk broadcloth so getting a needle through multiple layers was a push.

In the meantime, I'm going through TTV withdrawal. Comcast put Vietnamese programming on the channel where I was catching NHK's English language feed. Supposedly it will be coming back in December on another channel (got this through my taiko sensei, whose Japanese wife called to complain). In the meantime, I am struggling with periodic visits to TV Japan further up the dial. None of their programming is in English or subtitled, except for the occasional commercial. While I can generally tell the difference between proper names and other words, I'm lucky if I can pick up one word in ten, which makes watching the news pretty much a waste of time. I did catch a bit of a Taiga drama called "Gou," which had lovely costumes and I was able to piece out that it was set during the early Edo period (a search on the title bears this out). 

Instead of brush strokes
I write my poor intentions
With needle and thread.
My forebears copied the sutras,
I must take another way.

Prompted by an explanation I had to give a friend who offered to help me sew for Twelfth Night if it came down to crunch time. I must sew every stitch and I must do it by hand. If it was important enough to me to hand sew everything I make before Their Majesties ambushed me, how much more so for the clothing I am to wear on the occasion I join the Order of the Laurel? Thanks, but nobody gets to help with this bit.

Never was there shade
As restful and gentle as
That you lent in summer.
Though autumn winds tear your robes
It will be springtime again.

It's not yet midnight
As I climb the stairs humming
Snatches of Handel.
A night of opera and
My head is full of eighth notes.

(Actually, that should be sixteenth notes, but I didn't like what I had to do to get the syllables to flow.)

.....for a moment to squee.

Current confirmed out-of-towners (with Asian personae) coming to Twelfth Night include Ii Saburo Katsumori & Abe Akirakeiko, the Ishiyamas, Ishida no Kentarou Mitsumasa, Li Guang Ming and Wu Lixian.

Holy crap!

Despite a little rain on Friday evening, Mists Cynagua War turned out to be a fun event. Not a lot of folks - including those who had invited me to eat with them - ended up camping, however, Dafydd and Bridget have a four year old and a thirteen month old and motelling it was much smarter for them. So we did Appleby's instead.

Bobby, the four year old, has been hearing about "Makiwara" since his dad decided he wanted to do Japanese, and apparently thought the word sounds fun. He was shy for about five minutes and then I was his New Bestest Friend for the rest of the event. Dafydd's new garb came out well, including geta. He posted some pics of it over on the Tousando. Of course, he had to change into 14th c. European kit to go fight because his Japanese stuff isn't done yet, so I had to tease him about it.

Pallidus and Raj were also there in their shiny armor. I confessed to Pallidus later in the evening that the sight of that shiny, beautiful, correct, stepped-out-of-a-picture-scroll armor just made my heart go pitter pat - and I promptly FB-friended Clan Makita (their mon is four drill bits!) when I got home so I can help them and their friends get the bits that go under their armor together.

Brought along the drums - honestly, I mostly played the small Chinese one while seated in front of my tent. But mostly it was a hanging out and socializing sort of event. Court was lengthy - Their Highnesses of the Mists gave out a lot of stuff so they wouldn't have very much business for their imminent step-down next week. And Their Majesties made two peers: a Pelican and a Laurel, a couple from the Reno area for whom this event was more logistically feasible.

Bugged out reasonably early on Sunday, as soon as my canvas was dry enough to tear down and pack, then headed over to hrj's housewarming. Her place is modern, airy and spacious and the yard is huge. Much gardening is planned. Her cousins described a production they'd just seen in SF, so hrj and I are going to the opera Wednesday night to see Handel's Xerxes, because it sounded intriguing.

Surrounded by books,
I delight in the world of
Words and ideas.
The more I read, though, the more
I find I have more questions.

I had to set The Essential Shinran aside for a bit. I should probably read more on general concepts of Buddhism before taking that one on. However, I'm about a third into Eric Rath's Food and Fantasy and I'm completely fascinated by his descriptions of ceremonial Japanese meals and how certain foods are purely decorative or symbolic and served without being meant to be eaten.

I'm headed off to Mists Cynagua War shortly so I will not be able to post tomorrow's tanka until Sunday. That is, assuming I remember to write one. I've been informed the "Clan Makita" boys (Pallidus, Raj & Dafydd) are attending and Dafydd has already threatened to ply me with sake and chili. NOAA currently says a 30% chance of showers...

I sit waiting for
Some inspiration beneath
A skylight gone dark.
There is no romance in a
grocery cart, or laundry.