September Blog A Day

3. Labor Day: Tell us about your job:

If you’ve stuck around you already know that I spend my days building and repairing stringed instruments.  I’m a “luthier”. Pronounce that however you think best.   

There’s a lot of labor involved. Drudgery too.  I change a lot of strings. I polish frets until my hands ache.  At least once a week I need a band-aid.  Some guitars are just plain dirty. Some musicians are weird.   There’s good stuff too – lots of genuinely appreciative customers. -The ability to set my own schedule, even if that sometimes means not letting myself go to bed until I’m done.

September Blog A Day

2. A quote you live by:

This was very difficult. I’m not the type who pins up inspirational quotes. I settled on a line of narration from Del Stubbs in a woodturning instructional video I sent away for when I was a teen.  It was one of the first times I’d heard someone bridge the gulf between art and traditional craft, and the nature of creative effort. 

He stressed sensitivity.

This was unlike the usual woodworking tutorial videos and it was kind of moving.  By being gentle, he was able to shave the wall thickness of the bowl to the point where it became translucent. – I mean the blade’s edge caressed that wood with genuine love, you understand? Years later I discovered that he was now forging Scandinavian-style carving knives, and I ordered one from him.  He sent it to me with a beautiful little sheath made from folded birch bark.

“It’s not so much being born with a skill – I haven’t seen that.  It’s a passion. It’s a love. It’s commitment that comes from being overwhelmingly involved with something.  Whenever I’ve seen that in a person – intense desire, drive, involvement… I see accomplishment.” 

September Blog A Day

1. Firsts:

-I vividly remember my first day of kindergarten. I didn’t cry. (I’d never been in daycare or preschool, so this was in many ways a real separation).  I recall playing with these amazing cardboard bricks which looked just like the real thing and was dismayed when Mrs. McCallion had us stop for juice time. My building project wasn’t complete.

-The first person I ever knew who died was Mr. Melindike. He was a custodian who would show you the scars on his leg where he’d been shot by the Germans if you asked him nicely.. He still had a bullet inside him. 

-The first time I traveled without parents to another city I was eleven years old. My Dad had been given some baseball tickets for a day that coincided with a golf tournament, so it was decided that I could take my friend Peter on an hour-long train ride.  It seems funny to think that I could go to Toronto with all of ten dollars in my pocket at that age.  I was a responsible kid.

healingheartonthefloor:

September Blog A Day

1. Firsts

2. A quote you live by

3. Labor Day: Tell us about your job.

4. Truthful Tuesday

5. Do you have any framed photos or printed photographs in your home, car or work space? Tell us about them.

6. How do you feel about sports? Did you play sports? Do you have any favorite teams?

7. A story your family always tells about you

8. A photo of something small and silly that brings you joy

9. Sunday 7

10. How do you know when you’re in love?

11. 9/11

12. How would you like to be remembered when you die?

13. What makes you feel safe?

14. FYIIAB (a photo of you giving the finger in a bathroom mirror)

15. First concert. Best concert. Worst concert.

16. Sunday Funday. When do you have the most fun in your life?

17. Do you feel like a member of a community?

18. What are your wishes for your body after you pass? Do you want a funeral, wake, visitation? Burial, cremation, or something else? Does your family know your wishes? Do you have a will?

19. Get nostalgic: what do you miss that reminds you of a happy time in your past?

20. Throwback Thursday

21. What are your favorite smells?

22. Tell us about one of your best friends.

23. What’s your favorite game to play? Do you play cards, board games, or video games?

24. Tell us about your favorite outfit (or post a photo). Describe your style.

25. Are you an introvert or extrovert? A leader, follower, or lone wolf?

26. Write a letter to someone from your past.

27. How have you changed so far in 2018?

28. What gives you hope?

29. That awkward moment when….

30. How was your day?

I’m going to try to keep up with this. They seem like they’d work just as well as prompts for my doodle comics.

The trees up here are shorter and dense, as if they’ve linked arms to form a bulwark against the winter. Great slabs of rock heave upwards. Ancient rock, pink tinged and striated. The remains of 3 billion year old volcanoes. The landscape is corrugated, every depression home to a small lake, evey lake home to an impenetrable island or two.

We crossed the arctic watershed, beyond which all streams flow out into Hudson’s Bay.

It’s one of those days where everything suggests I don’t, in fact, exist.

In the last 24 hours I’ve sent:  2 emails. 2 IMs, a text, and two actual phonecalls, each to a different person and received not a single response.

I can’t tell if I just deal with rude-ass people, or if there’s a programming bug  here in the simulation.