Idle Musings on a Wednesday Afternoon, or: How To Avoid Getting Shit Done

What the hell was I thinking.

It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood, and it's shaping up to be a busy week. I should probably point out that I'm also writing a book -- did I mention I'm writing a book? -- and, let's face it, I'm only sharing all of this because posting things on this dumb blog is how I avoid writing this dumb book. Still, I continue to plug away at it, and I'm hoping to cross the 40,000 word mark by end of this week. It's a lift, but there's nothing stopping me, nothing standing in my way but my usual lack of focus, and -- HEY LOOK, A SQUIRREL!!!      

This morning saw me at the Port St Lucie Botanical gardens for tai chi class. A lot of the snowbirds have left for the season now, so the class is a bit smaller and more manageable, and this makes those of us who remain feel special, and clubby, and "insidery." 

Tai chi at the PSL Botanical Gardens

Anyway, I was wearing this necklace I made not too long ago, with this ancient Celtic arrowhead pendant purportedly dating anywhere from 400-200 BC. It was found in Ukraine in 2013. One of the women in class came up to me and asked about it. Turns out she's also into antiquity beads and amulets, and apparently has a fair collection of her own. We both filed this information away, curious about what hard-to-find treasures the other might be hoarding.  

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Tonight I'm moderating a Zoom discussion with the Humanists of the Treasure Coast, a secular organization committed to preventing the religious crazies from taking over the country the separation of church and state. We have regularly scheduled programs on Sunday mornings, with lectures and videos and guest speakers, etc. The Wednesday night Zoom group is "open mic," and the conversation is wide ranging and spirited. 

It's not a Petri dish, it's an orphanage.

Last week we discussed (among other things) why it's suddenly okay to murder IVF zygotes "babies" now that the Alabama legislature has passed a law saying so. They had to, of course, after the state's Supreme Court decided that these cells were children, and a bunch of affluent, white, straight people whose arms ached to hold their own progeny, had to put their plans on hold. Not surpassingly, they raised a stink (and they should have! Those extra leftover IVF babies had already cost a bundle to produce!) And anyway, limits on reproductive freedom are for other people, amiright? 

And all those leftover IVF "babies?" Ah well, it couldn't be helped. Thoughts & prayers. 

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The Port St Lucie Rock & Gem Club, as its name would suggest, is an organization for people obsessed with stones. I stumbled upon it one day as I was out and about I'm not much of a lapidary enthusiast, or at least I haven't been until now. But the club also has classes in bead work, wire wrapping, metal work and other things related to the making of fine bling. 

One of the classes being offered this session that caught my eye is lamp work bead making. This entails melting glass on an intensely hot flame and rolling it into beads on a mandrel. The finished product, in the hands of a skilled glassworker, is beautiful.  I buy a fair number of lamp work beads, and have had opportunity to experiment with making them over the years. I've never mastered it, and most likely won't now, but I'm looking forward to trying again. 

Mine never come out this nice.