Author Archives: MzEllen

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I'm on my way out the door for my Tour de Cure ride.

There have been thunderstorms all night, although it's not raining right now.  In Middleville (where I"m going) there's a 50% chance of thunderstorms during the ride.

It's an hour away from here and I'm stopping for Biggby (quad mocha and chocolate chip scone).  I'm not sure if they'll call the event for weather or not - I hope not, but if weather threatens I don't have weather gear.

  • iPod (for the drive
  • sunglasses
  • tire pump
  • extra tube
  • shot bloks
  • GPS (for the drive)
  • water bottles
  • bike shoes and socks
  • I'm wearing my glasses for the drive so I have my contact case in my bike bag
  • inhaler and epi-pen (I always have one in my "trunk bag")

and away I go

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(I run from Saturday to Friday, but I think I'll change from Frida to Thursday, so that "Fit Friday" will cover all seven days.)

Weight...stayed even.

Weight Watchers:  was within points (but this is my last weight watchers week, since I'm going more low-carb -again- and I can't eat the higher fat and stay within weight watchers points)

Exercise:
General Road Cycling,
06/14/2009 (Sunday), time, 01:56:53, total distance:24.25 mi., calories burned, 1,063

6/16/09 (Tuesday); time 1:58:48; distance, 25,09, calories burned 1080

6/18/09 (Thursday); time 1:25:03; distance, 17.46, calories burned, 773  (I had a flat tire and Tom came to pick me up in Conklin)

Total exercise: 5 hours, 20 minutes and 44 seconds.  Total miles on bike: 66.77.  I have a 40 mile ride tomorrow, which will go on next week.

My triglycerides are up and my gynecologist suggested I try to get some exercise in.

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As I knit, I've been knitting socks, I've been using a variety of patterns.  After browsing patterns (mostly looking at pictures, I can sort out the patterns later) I noticed that they mostly follow the same basic structure.

Cast on 64 (56, 48, 32).  Are all socks multiples of 8?  The vast majority, yes.  ok.

There are only two places that the sock "decreases" - the heel and the toe.  I use the "magic loop" method of sock knitting, so I have the sock in two parts (the top of the foot and the bottom of the foot).  You decrease 1 stitch at both ends of both these parts every other row.

For a while I worried about trying to remember if I had decreased the even rows or the odd rows and then I just decided that (if I had to) I would adjust the pattern so that I also decreased on the odd rows.

EVEN IS EVEN

During the decrease times, I knit even (no increase, no decrease) on the even rows.

Once I established this habit, it became...well, a habit.  I have a row counter, if it's an even row, I knit even.

EVEN IS EVEN

One of the big political flaps of the week was the Letterman/Palin media scuffle.

Other than the "top ten" lists, I'm not a big Letterman fan.  I appreciate the Palin family's protection (even if overly dramatic) of their child.

Matthew 18 may (or may not) apply - Letterman does not claim to be a brother in Christ.  But we are to show the world how repentance and forgiveness works.  If Palin had gone privately to Letterman first, perhaps there would have been a different ending?    Right now, the sincerity of the  apology is being debated; if the confrontation had been private and Letterman had said the same thing, there would be no debate.

Palin made political hay.  While I understand her very public defense of her daughter and would most likely (at the very least have been tempted to) do the same, she still made hay.

Over the last couple of days, Sarah Palin had two roads.  Her "acceptance" of the apology is just as insincere as the apology is made out to be.  Her chiding had no place in the forgiveness by a Christian.

"Of course it's accepted on behalf of young women, like my daughters, who hope men who 'joke' about public displays of sexual exploitation of girls will soon evolve."

In an ideal world, it would have been

"Of course, on behalf of women everywhere, it's accepted."

Period.  Just as "sorry...but..." apologies have a more appropriate ending, so do acceptances.

But that is what is it is.

Just as important:

EVEN IS EVEN

Just as important is the response of Christians.

I've written before about how an apology is a cheap substitute for real repentance.  and "I accept" is a cheap substitute for real forgiveness.

Real forgiveness means restoration and a promise to not hold the offense against the offender again.  Ever.

An opportunity to show the Gospel has been passed up.  If the Palins (including Willow) had agreed to be on Letterman's show and if Willow had held Letterman's hand and said,

"We all do things that are wrong and we all need forgiveness.   I have been forgiven by God and I forgive you."

What would that have told the world?

But no...there is hay to be made.

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We should enjoy the blessing that God gives us - and God has given us much (I'm thinking in the Western mindset in the United States.)

We are privileged here and there is no reason that we should not enjoy the blessing that have been given us - but there are dangers and drawbacks to those blessings.

When we forget that they are blessings, and not entitlements, we become less grateful.
When we lose sight of those who do not have these blessings, we become self-centered.
We we believe the blessings are entitlements, we become selfish.

I was just on my facebook page...

At the same time I was updating my bike ride, a co-worker was giving us an update on another co-worker who has suffered a stroke

The health that I have is a blessing that others may not have. I am grateful to God that I have the means to become more healthy, while others are in hospital beds recovering.

As a co-worker was describing his delightful day on the warm, (relatively) clean beach of Lake Michgan, a missionary we support was telling us that 30 Karamong in a swamp.

The clean water that we enjoy is a blessing that some others in the world do not have.

Some of my friends are golfing, the Sliedricht family is visiting mass graves in Obalanga.

We have land that spreads out to enjoy life; in other countries there is so much death they do not even dig individual graves.

I have the summer off, the Sliedrichts are working with people in poverty.

Just saying.

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Moving my bike cleats back just 1/2" requires a whole different movement to click out (un-attach my shoes from my pedals when I stop so that I don't tip over). Photos of the subsequent bruise can be available upon request.)

Riding with a migraine = bad idea.

If you have a bruise from tipping over with your feet attached to you pedals
AND
you have a migraine
AND
you're a bit sick to your stomach from the headache...

AND
You see lightning ahead

YES...it is okay if you turn around and go back after just 4 miles.

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The plan is to complete a project - start to finish.

Starting with the animal.

Shearing day was yesterday.  I started out with meeting the alpaca a couple of months ago.  His name is "Raffle Tickets" and he's two years old.  He's also never been sheared so he has a lot of baby hair left and some of the fleece is about a foot long.
SDC13911 The "VM" (vegetable matter) that sticks to him is because of the baby hair that is much finer than the adult hair.

I was able to spend a few minutes combing him before shearing to remove a lot of it - there's still a lot to go!

I don't have a good "pre" photo, but here's what I have:DSC00240.

Here's the process:  The shearer has a table that tilts both ways.  Starting with the table top "up and down", lead the animal to the table with his (or her - but I'll use "his" because Raffle Tickets is a male)  body parallel to the table top.  There's a wide belt that goes around his belly and 4 straps that attach to his feet.  Mostly we could get two of the foot straps on while the animal was on the ground.  You flip the table so it's flat and get the other foot straps on, stretching the beast's legs to either end of the table.   They leave the halter on and as long as the animal's head is immobilized, they don't fight and mostly lay very still.  If they think they can move their head, they try to get up.  I was the "head holder" for about 8 shearings.

Once the animal is on the table, the shearer goes to work (the whole table thing sounds like torture, but I've seen sheep being sheared that are not immobilized and it seems much worse because they fight and get nicked with the clippers - they are more likely to get hurt.)

The ranch where I was sorts the fleece into 3 bags (Firsts, seconds, and trash) - based on the consistency of the fleece.  The "first" clipping is from the back and sides - if the animal is a "good" animal, up the neck and sometimes the back legs).  The "second" is the legs and belly.  The "trash" is the shorter stuff from the rest of the neck, legs, etc - whatever didn't get caught in the first two runs).  EVEN THE TRASH IS GOOD.   Our last trip to the ranch, several bags of trash was donated to our classroom - we're using it to learn to spin and we're doing a lot of needle felting with it.  But it's not consistent enough to market.

DSC00241I was a good "head holder".

In order to shear the neck and head, you have to take their harness off and hold them by their ears and pick up their heads (it's important to hold their ears up and out of the way so they don't get nicked with the clippers)  Then you "throw the head" to a person on the other side of the table; as the head comes up, so does the body and you just sort of flip them over...it's a lot smoother than it sounds.

As the shearer gets the other side of the animal, the "head holder" puts the harness back on.

As all of this is going on, the animal also has his "top knot" clipped with scissors, gets any shots from the vet and gets his teeth and hooves checked (and trimmed if needed).

When all this is done, his feet are let loose and the belt is loosely wrapped around him again (just for steering now) and the table is tilted in the other direction.  He gently slides off the table and lands on his feet - all done!
DSC00251

I've started a blogger blog for this project...it's going to be quite a deal! I got 8.4 pounds of fleece so now I start the process of washing, cleaning (VM), combing, carding, spinning and knitting (or weaving)

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I need to make a commitment to blogging - this is silly and it's not like I've given up on life, it's more like I'm just not organized enough to write about it (this time of year...)

Tomorrow is alpaca shearing day!  The young fellow I'm shearing is named "Raffle Tickets".

One of my co-workers in my classroom had a massive stroke over the weekend and is currently in a coma.  There are some hopeful signs, but she needs prayer.

My mom was scheduled for back surgery on the 9th, but had a heart test that had some problems so they canceled the surgery in order to follow up on the heart thing.  The cardiologist cleared her for the surgery, but since it had been postponed, now she's trying to get the original date again.

I rode my bike 50 miles on Saturday.

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wanting a change...looking at new WordPress templates...

Seriously - I want one that I can add my own photos in the header.  The list of "must haves" for the side bar is pretty consistent so I'll just go poking around to see what's out there.