When the Going Gets Tough

This is a week that I am happy to say (in the parlance of someone who has spent too much time on the road the last couple days) is in the rear view mirror. I am not sure that after traveling through Lake Havasu, AZ and Las Effing* Vegas, I will ever be cool - as in temperature - again. Of course, I`m otherwise cool; just ask my grandkids.
*Effing: in this case means F-ing or FRUSTRATING. Get your mind out of the gutter. 

It was a safe trip. It was a purposeful and successful trip. It was an effing (see above) HOT trip. More about that toward the end of this post.

But first, let’s talk about one of my favorite (and yours too, I bet) subjects; quilting and sewing and the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. I`m linking up to Angela`s Scrappy Saturday gathering, where lots of us “cool” people are showing off our blue scrap fabric projects.

In July, I got a lot of blue blocks sewn for my Rainbow Scrap projects. In the collage below:

Top: (3) Bookshelf quilt blocks, (16) 6.5” Plus blocks and (16) 4.5” Bowties
Bottom: (2) Geese Migration Blocks, (42) 6.5” Friendship Star blocks and (8) 8.5” strings blocks. I actually had two string blocks from last year, but I did sew 2 more after this picture was taken, so I have ten total, 8 of which were sewn this month.

And then there was a selvage and fabric column, folded back upon itself to fit into a reasonable picture.

And 2 slabs of scraps that will eventually go into the making of kennel quilts.

That, brings my July Blue Blocks total to exactly 90. Whew. And then, I was able to finish my 24 pineapple blocks for the pineapple quilt. Currently they're on the design board in no particular setting. They're just having a Kumbaya moment together before being sashed and sewn together permanently. I hope to work on that in the coming week.

And, naturally, I am waiting anxiously for Angela to announce the color of the month for August. As I recall from the discussions at the beginning of the year, we still have pink, light neutrals (whites, creams, low volumes), orange, and dark neutrals (black, brown, gray) left. I`m down with any of them, but am secretly pulling for one in particular. LOL.

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On Wednesday I flew to Lake Havasu, AZ where my brother Steve lives/lived. We went out to lunch, then he took care of his final business there in town while I read and napped. I do that so well. It is absolutely sweltering this time of the year in Arizona and Nevada. In the evening, he said goodbye to all his friends and we prepped for an early morning departure. Steve drove the U-Haul with a trailer attached. On the trailer was his 1930 Ford that he has been converting to an old-time custom hot rod for the last 10+ years. It’s a labor of love named “Hellion” which was a nickname for our deceased mom Helen. I drove his Toyota truck with camper shell.

Rim and sidewalls ...

We left about 7 am in the morning, and at 9:30 a.m. or so, out in the desert about 9 miles south of Henderson, Nevada (a suburb of Las Effing Vegas), a tire on the trailer blew. Spectacularly. I flashed my lights, our prearranged signal, and we pulled over. He hadn’t even known the tire was gone. But it’s a good thing we didn’t try to keep going; much of what was left of the tire was wrapped around the rear axle and brake line. You can see part of it in the shadow in the lower left of the picture.

Anyway, we called U-Haul, who called a local contracted tire dealer, and they were out to fix the tire lickety-split. If you call TWO HOURS in the heat (ranging from 93-99 degrees over the 2 hours) lickety-split. To be fair, U-Haul had to filter the claim down from a national number to the local dealers to the appropriate contractor, who was in North Las Vegas, a 40 minute drive away. And they did keep in contact by phone every 15 minutes or so to see how we were doing and keep us updated. The guy who came out (Hector, a god in our books who was nicely tipped) had it fixed in 15 minutes and had brought us four icy cold, refreshing bottles of water. Yes, we had water packed along (packed being the operative word) and a bottle each up front in our cabs. But it is hard not to drink a lot when you are sweating buckets.


So, after that there wasn’t even a hint of a problem. We did the speed limit, stopped about 3 times for gas and potty breaks or to grab and split a sandwich. By 8:00 in the evening we were home, with almost an hour of light left to unload the hot rod and Steve’s overnight essentials. On the left is a picture of my view of the truck and trailer with the hot-rod on it, taken through the windshield (sorry if there are smashed bugs on the windshield, hehe).

On Friday we returned the trailer so he could begin unloading the van, and we are more than halfway done - arranging things in our storage sheds, etc - as we go. I`m getting rid of an old antique washstand that I had in one of our guest bedrooms - I think cousin Kim is taking it because our kids didn’t want it. In its place is an antique (forties-era, lovely but not noteworthy) desk that belonged to our grandfather, then our mother in turn. When the desk is properly oiled and ready to begin its new useful life, Grandpa`s old red and white paperweight - the one that started my collection - will return to pride of place on its desk.

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Finally, to end this post in another recap, I promised I would only give periodic updates on my progress on Weight Watchers, and I have chosen the end of the month to do that. As of last Tuesday (which marked my 5th full week on the plan), I have lost 8.6 pounds. Again, my goal is to change my lifestyle by eating healthier and moving more. There is no competition or race involved. So, I consider it a successful July. And a hot one that I don`t wish to repeat!