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Saturday, July 9, 2022

What have I done with myself, you ask

One thing I have not done is clean my room. My feet are arguing with an overflowing wastebasket I am too tired to empty. Tomorrow.

That last show was only a week ago. I spent this week finishing the warp with the intent of turning on a new warp this weekend. That happened; my sister came this morning and watched for spools to run dry while I turned and turned and turned. The older I get, the heavier the beam becomes.


Jan's eagle eye on the spools of thread. Though we both thought at least eight spools would run out, only three came up dry.


Here's a funny picture. Both of us use canes. Hers is the tall one.


And there are 125 turns of thread, ready to be tied on to the old warp. I've met several weavers at the three shows, and none had any notion of sectional beaming. They still do what they were taught, measuring off a dozen yards of warp and threading front to back, and essentially spending as much time putting on the warp as weaving it off. That is completely reasonable if you want half a dozen towels, but not if you intend to make a living weaving.

The other time grabber this week, and next week, has been talking to the web designer I hope can help me improve the web site. I told her I wanted to come up pretty often in a web search, and she asked if I was prepared to compete with Walmart. There are other ways, and we'll get into them next week.

And finally, we aren't going to hell in a handbasket. It's worse than that. We seem to have lost all respect each other. For the right of every other person in this country to have a life and enjoy it. Why the hell does anyone think he/she (basically he's) has the right to whip out a gun and indiscriminately fire. Or discriminately, in the case of the young man in Illinois.

My home town is no more immune than yours. Over the holiday weekend, a "celebratory" shot fired across the Portage Lakes killed a young woman sitting in her living room.

Before that, we had what has become the usual police stop for a tail light violation and the unarmed young Black driver went down forever under sixty or seventy bullets. This week at a street party, guns came out and were fired and an old man and a four year old girl died.

The only way I see to stop the insanity of guns is to advocate. Each of us can contribute. Vote. Vote for any candidate who pledges to stop the insanity that is universal gun ownership. You can advocate for sanity by encouraging voter registration, especially young voters. 

Come November, which is not that far away, volunteer to drive voters to the polls. Ask the League of Women Voters what you can do in your county. Advocate in any way you can, and as if your life depended on it.


35 comments:

  1. I the mountains of Crete, everyone (every man) has a gun and every road sign is riddled with bullet holes. At the stroke of midnight on public religious holidays like Easter, the sound of automatic gunfire echoes around and down to the towns and villages on the coast. I have sunbathed beneath the firing-line of a 10 year-old boy being taught how to shoot cans off a wall with a .22 out to sea. The difference is that they know what they are doing. You don't get shot there unless they want you to. In America, the NRA will tell you that people kill people, not guns. I don't believe the bastards.

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  2. Hi
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  3. Our lives may very well depend on the midterms. Fight voter suppression, support ACLU, who are getting significant legal wins, vote!

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  4. Your weaving and knowledge of how to maximize weaving productivity is impressive. You must enjoy meeting other weavers and sharing your knowledge. The gun violence in America has got to stop. Voting is definitely key! The League of Women Voters is outstanding. They too, are doing much good to get the vote out.

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  5. Hari OM
    The first part of the post = bravo and more power to your shuttle arm...
    The second part the post = I hang my head and cry... YAM xx

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  6. I guess what I find frustrating is that really, this is such a no-brainer. I don't understand why everyone doesn't see it.

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  7. Another website your readers might find useful is www.votesaveamerica.com
    I am concerned for the U.S. and also for Canada as everything that happens in your country permeates our country eventually. It feels like the world is going mad.

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  8. Laws are passed and then need to be enforced. That is what has to happen. Laws need to be enforced.

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    Replies
    1. and REinforced again and again until "they" get it.

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  9. I really, really hope that some semblance of sanity can be returned to your country.

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    Replies
    1. And soon, I worry for every blog friend I have there.

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  10. Terrible to read about all that violence that happens by the "right" to own a gun.
    In Germany it is extremely difficult to get a weapon (thought we also had a few cases when sons opened the safe and took out their father's gun and fired at teachers and pupils - but very seldom).
    I am glad that laws are so stern and rigid here (of course in dark ways you can find a gun - but that is not as easy as you own one).

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  11. November IS only four months away. Get out and vote. Vote against the guns, vote against the NRA, vote Blue! We have an occasional shooting here in Australia too, just two days ago, or maybe yesterday, a man shot a nine year old girl, then drove his stolen car two blocks away and torched it. In Sydney. My mind is saying WHY? WHY?
    I didn't know there was any other way to warp a loom than the method you use.

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  12. This business of weaving is a mystery to me! What's not a mystery, however, is that everyone needs to vote so that fanatical Republicans are resoundly rejected. If that doesn't happen the country is doomed.

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  13. I hope this election will make a difference.

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  14. I hope the mid terms send a harsh message to the GOP and their NRA benefactors.

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  15. I am hopeful but not expectant.

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  16. I like the gun laws in Japan (and yes I realize Abe has just been shot, but that's an aberration) where, among the many other requirements, you need to take a written exam. That would eliminate half of the U.S. Someone told me yesterday that Japan had had only 7 guns deaths in all of last year.

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  17. I don;t know how the founding fathers and their muskets got converted into AK47s and young men taking potshots at everything. And more guns than residents in the whole of the USA. We've had an advisory from our government not to visit you due to uncontrolled outbreaks of gunfire.
    Our PM made a speech saying USian women can come and get free accommodation and abortions here.
    Which is all good.
    But seriously? Something has to happen before all you women are wearing long dresses and veils and uneducated.
    And there's a lot of talk in global media about a civil war breaking out?
    XO
    WWW

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  18. I am enraged and saddened by what's happening and the spin that the GOP puts on it. So much deadly (literally) misinformation.

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  19. It's hard to recognize what we've become.

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  20. Gun violence has become so common place that it's not even news anymore. It's horrifying and awful. Here in the US, I've given up hope of all but hoping they will outlaw weapons of war which should not be in our homes.
    On the plus side, I love your towels. I will be ordering some once I am back from my trip ~ I love items that are well made and last and last......

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  21. Our life does depend on it.

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  22. I'm trying to be optimistic, but it's not easy.

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  23. That 4th of July shooting was not that far away from us. Yes vote. Gun violence appears to be growing as the number of guns owned in this country grows too. More guns is not an answer to gun violence. We have other big problems too. I believe there are too many of us that don't trust the rule of law. We need trust to be reestablished.

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  24. please add link for my blog on your blog
    https://pets876.blogspot.com/

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  25. The constant stream of random shootings and massacres is shocking. The US constitution may include the right to bear arms, but it doesn't include the right to murder people, which is what some people seem to think.

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  26. Voting seems to be our only hope.

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  27. I fear the only way out of this mess is waiting for the gun nuts to die and the next generation and the next, seeing what universal gun ownership has done to this country, will turn the guns in, pass laws with bite. The 'wild west' wasn't even nearly this bad. It's just insane that people can't connect the rise of guns with the rise of gun violence. I've always said, people who pack a pistol want to use their gun and they take the least excuse.

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  28. It is insanity.
    It prompts a smile..a weaver wanting a website.. but it is the way to go

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  29. Life seems to be held so cheaply these days sad to say.

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  30. As if your life depended on it, because it actually does! I am so digusted by all the violence and gun nut people it makes me want to scream from the rooftops. Yes vote, volunteer keep talking about the need to do something. The problem is the gun nuts are over the edge I fear and the $$$ behind the NRA is huge. Sounds like you've been super busy with the weaving and need a vacay. Nice your sister helps you watch the spools.
    Sandy's Space

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  31. As a Brit I don't understand the US gun laws. All I know is that something has to change. So sad to read about the deaths. Just tragic.

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  32. I really do hope people come out and vote this November. There are a lot more people out there that want common sense gun laws and are pro-choice but they don't think that their vote matters. You are right we need to advocate and get them to vote.

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