Dan's Ramblings/What's In My Pocket?

Dan here, from the fire pit Tuesday evening, the sun has set, and Carol has gone to bed. The evening is dead calm, a very pleasant end to a beautiful day. It was a busy day. Walked about 6 miles, did my watering chores and went for a ride on the trike. Went and found some apples, carrots, beets, corn, some string beans and some beans for baking. Also picked up some filet mignon for supper, overall a good day. 

I don’t know who is coming to visit, she’ll probably just fly over. 

As you might have figured I made a couple minor changes to the current quilt project. I added some borders to the sashing strip to make it wider and pop a little more. The changes increased my border width to 4-1/2” finished. This gave me the opportunity to go from a 3” finished V-block as the cornerstones, to 4-1/2” finished. Again, I thought it gave it a little more pop. The green is holding up ok for now, but it is definitely the limiting factor in this design. I have no idea what I’ll turn to when I run out of the green but I’m sure I’ll find something. For now I will keep blindly plugging along.

Some of you know I carry a lot of “stuff” in my pockets. Well, one pocket actually. Right front to be precise. There are four rocks, an Eisenhower silver dollar, a Canadian two dollar coin, a Kennedy half, a Franklin half with a bullet hole in it and last but not least, a Washington “gold” dollar, along with any spendable change and a nail clipper.

The larger of the dark pieces of hematite was purchased at a gem shop in Portland, Me, I believe, in the winter of 1990. Carol, I and the girls went to the Christmas Concert with the Portland Symphony Orchestra. It went into my pocket with my change. The outing was more or less thought of as a last all together outing of this sort for all of us as Vanessa was to graduate high school in the spring. The smaller hematite came from a rock collection of my neighbors as I cleaned out his garage after it became mine. I gave the rest of the polished rocks to my granddaughter.

The kind of plain but nice and flat stone came from Florida. I picked it up as Carol, her Mother and Father and myself sat outside a restaurant waiting to be called in for our seats. It turned out to be the last time all four of us ever were together in that type of situation before Carol’s father died. In the pocket with the change, to think about every time I change my pants.

The last of the stones was picked up on a motorcycle trip to Downeast Maine. Machiasport, to be precise, at Jasper Beach. It was a rather unique beach, I could sit and listen by the hour as the waves washed small pebbles up onto the beach and then they would roll back down the sides of the pebble dunes. Really cool sound and beautifully polished stones as they washed up and rolled back into the ocean, over and over again. I liked this one for the color variation and it’s smooth flat feel. It turned out that was the only time I was to ever see Jasper Beach in all it’s glory, as a storm this past June washed a good deal of it away. Into the pocket to reflect on when I change my pants or reach into my pocket for change.

The coins arrived in the pocket rather willy nilly, the Canadian coin I just thought looked cool, it was almost mint when I put in my pocket, it is almost totally smooth now. The Franklin half with the hole fell into the cool category as well and I am pretty sure my neighbor put the hole there. 

The Kennedy half I felt belonged in my pocket along with the Washington dollar, just because.

The Eisenhower dollar is the only one I remember putting in my pocket with a memory.

After we bought the neighbor’s property, soon to be Quilt Inn Rangeley Retreat Center, I was leveling out the back yards to blend them together a little better esthetically. As I was spreading some of the sand from the neighbors, leveling out some holes on the Quilt Shop property, Carol said, “ what is the round thing?” I picked it up and it was a 1972 Eisenhower dollar in perfect condition. Like the rest of the coins it is smooth now, but then again it has been bouncing around in my pocket since 2002. I have another copy of the same coin in excellent condition if I want to see what it is supposed to look like. I have several more of the Kennedy halves and the Washington dollars as well. 

The nail clipper even has a story. I always carried one on my key ring. This one actually. It was a real pain to use because there were a lot of keys on the ring as well. I was on the job as a plumber and the camp owner’s caretaker was watching me struggle trying to use it. Now Stubb, the caretaker, was a true old time Mainer, he looked me in the eye and said “why in hell are you trying to use it on your key ring? Just carry it loose with your change.” My come back was “what if I loose it?” his return and I’ll always remember it, “then you”ll buy another, they’re cheap.” Still have the same nail clipper though. May well have led to today’s mantra of we ain’t broke yet. No big reason for carrying any of the pocket treasures, but they give me pleasure, so in my mind, no reason not to.

My fire is about out now, so it must be time to stop rambling at you folks and head up to the studio and keep sewing along. Hope I didn’t bore you too bad. Have a good rest of your week, I’ll yak at you on Sunday evening if all goes as planned.

Till then, remember, where ever you go, there you are, if I’m supposed to meet you there and you get there first, draw a blue line where we planned to meet. If I get there first, I’ll rub it out.