We ordered a new air conditioner. It will be delivered on Friday. It was a lot more expensive than fixing the old one, but it should last longer. This will give me peace of mind over the summer. In other news, we are planning two trips to the cabin this summer. The first in May, where after a New York wedding, we will accompany Anne’s sisters to the cabin. They have big plans for a new water heater and spraying for powder post beetles. We’ll hangout up north until our new windows are ready, then return to Saint Louis for their installation. Between the A/C and the new windows their costs will blow our home improvement budget.
Red-Yellow-Black Double Ellipsoid “Twin”, Isa Genzken, 1982
Genzken’s Ellipsoids are hand-painted monumental wooden floor sculptures that touch the floor at only one point. Appearing to hover above the surface, these works express the artist’s lifelong interest in precision engineering. Genzken based the sculptures’ design on geometrical calculations of an ellipse (an elongated circle), for which she enlisted the help of a computer programmer. Her embrace of computer technology is at odds with the Ellipsoids’ handmade qualities. When the works first debuted, critics and other artists compared them to crafted objects like knitting needles, a seemingly gendered interpretation that led the artist to describe them as “weapons.”
Yesterday, Anne’s weekly knitting in public meeting resulted in another 9-1-1 call. No, no one was stabbed. One of the other participants had a seizure. Calling the ambulance is fast becoming a regular occurrence at these geriatric get togethers. While it was not a stroke, the victim was eventually carted off to the ER and will have his antiseizure medication increased.
I remember after 9/11 that knitting needles were temporarily banned as aircraft carry on, but the pacifying properties of their use was deemed to outweigh any risk of them being used as a weapon. That will remain true until the first time someone is actually attacked with these needles. All of Anne’s needles are much smaller than the two six-meter monsters pictured above. That is a good thing, because they would never be allowed onboard as carry-on anyway.
We are bracing for another snow (no-snow) apocalypse tonight. I’m expecting the later but still hoping for the former. Whatever winds may blow, Anne is certainly prepared while sporting one of her newer knitting creations.
Anne and Joanie spent last weekend at Meramac Community College while attending the Midwest Fiber Festival. Both Saturday and Sunday were all day affairs. On Saturday, she took a class on yarn dying, the products of that class are drying in the basement, and on Sunday she studied needlepoint felting and created the pictured landscape work. Naturally, some yarn was purchased too.
I was left to my own devices. Mostly I chilled. I did retrieve our bicycles from the bike shop where we had left them for a start of season tune-up before jetting off to California. This shop offered various levels of maintenance, bronze, silver and platinum. Anne’s bicycle only required some lite bronzing, while mine was given an upgraded silver level. Anne seemed somewhat miffed at this disparity and viewed my bike’s level of maintenance with envy. I just figured that my bicycle had seen more action and consequently needed more work done.
