Every day here in Bentsen Grove is busy. I often think I would just enjoy a while at home to work on some project of my own without feeling obligated to help someone else or feel that I should be going to some activity in which I want to participate. Everything I do is something that I have volunteered to do for several different reasons, all of which I enjoy doing. So this comment is simply a statement and not a complaint by any means. At the end of the winter season these activities will go away and I will have plenty of time to pursue my own personal activities. I say all of this so that I can write about yesterday. It was similar to most days, but a bit fuller than usual.
I was up and ready for line dancing class from 9:00 to 12:00. There is a class four days a week, some mornings, some afternoon. While I have not been dancing all the dances because my knee has been acting up again, I have been trying to video the dances and eventually create a dance instructional video. So the whole time was busy with one thing or the other. Next was a period of time devoted to a computer workshop period. There are many people here in the park that need help with the use of computers whose needs are being addressed inadequately (at least in my opinion). So this last week I decided that to salve my conscience I had to do something. That something was to offer a workshop, with other volunteers, for individual assistance to people. Lacking a real plan, I simply said that I would be in a room every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday between 12:00 and 1:00. So I had to be ready for the workshop as soon as I was done with dancing. In actuality I was ready about 11:30. That was good because people showed up early, as they should. Other helpers showed up a few minutes early, which is even better. There is no way that I could do it by myself. Even after only three workshops that is evident. It was supposed to last until 1:00. That is written with a #2 pencil on paper and we have a big eraser. So it really lasted till 2:00. We did provide a lot of help for several people. The time would have been alright except for the fact that my quilling class started at 1:00 and I don't want to miss that. I walked home quickly and dropped off my computer, my cameras and my tripod, grabbed my box of quilling supplies and got to class over an hour late. That was still okay because I could stay and work by myself for as long as I wanted after the theoretical class ended. By 5:00 I was getting hungry, it was a long time since breakfast so I quit and went home to a meal that was nearly ready.
The instructor of the quilling class had asked me how he could get a better copy of a picture of a Monarch butterfly that he needed and was there a way to make it a different size. I told him that I would try to scan it with the computer and make something that was good. After eating I worked a while on the picture, which was B&W and came up three different sizes on a single sheet of paper so that his quillers would have a choice of sizes. Plus I went to the WWW and got a couple color pictures of Monarch butterflies so they could have a better idea of the colors for quilling. I took the pictures to his home and he wanted my opinion on some quilling that he is doing. I feel a bit odd about that because I have only been doing quilling for a few months during the last year. It may be that because I do not feel the need for strict patterns that he believes I can "think outside the box." That is a compliment to me I believe. Then on the way home I was walking along the street past a unit here in the park. I heard someone pounding on the window and looked towards it and I see an arm waving me to come over to the house. It was a request to go get Erma and come back and play a game called Pegs and Jokers with the people that lived there. We have been wanting to do just that for a couple months, but have never gotten it done. We accepted and we had a very enjoyable social evening until nearly 10:00.
This was a nearly typical day for me. Any part is not unusual at all. What is unusual is to do it all in a single day. I want to be somewhere in the South to be away from the cold weather. So we have a limited area in which to winter, the southern parts of Florida, California, Arizona, or Texas. It is because of the activities here and days like Friday that make it worth while to be here in Mission Texas.
I have mentioned my taking quilling in this and a time or two before. Quilling or paper filigree is the art of rolling thin strips of paper into different shapes and using the shapes to form designs. Quilling has been around since the Renaissance age. I started doing it in December of 2008. I quit working on it during the summer but got back into it when I returned to Bentsen Grove this season. Mostly I have been working on creating special Christmas Tree ornaments. I take a simple Christmas ball and decorate it by gluing on shaped pieces of paper. I do not have a pattern and simply place the paper where I think it looks good. I have given several as gifts, but I forgot to take pictures of them. These three are not quite complete but at least I have pictures of them. These will be complete before long and I can give them as gifts to someone also.
CHRISTMAS ORNAMENTS DECORATED WITH A QUILLING TECHNIQUE
It will not be to long before it is time to go to bed so maybe I should close this out. If you are in a place that is too cold you should think about coming down here in the Valley where a LOW temperature is freezing or just close to it.
Till later this is Uncle Duck
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