Random topics

I'm not getting too much done recently and what I do get done isn't worth taking pictures.  Let's see...

I bought some backing for the Songbird's Garden quilt and then spent a day crawling around the floor getting it basted.  It is such a job when it can't even be spread completely out and I have to baste in sections.  But the job is now done and after letting the project simmer for a few days I've decided to machine quilt it and this morning jumped into the center square.  So far just some stitch-in-the-ditch quilting as I'm not confident I can do stippling evenly or not.  I will wait to make that decision and hope that the quilt speaks to me.

*****************************

The crawling around the floor convinced me that I needed to go to the acupunturist and see if he has any solutions for a sore hip I've had since April...  Actually I went to an orthopedist two weeks ago and that doctor took X-rays and even an MRI but could find nothing wrong and sent me home with pain killers.  That worked for awhile but I could either go back for more medicine or see if the acupunturist had any better tricks up his sleeve.  Not really...  Sigh...  But the actupuncturist did spend more time talking with me than the doctor did so that was nice.  Bunions are probably the culprit, and the problem was exacerbated by the long airplane rides and the carrying around of my adorable grandson.  I feel old!

***************************

Why oh why, I don't know but I've become engrossed in a small cross stitch kit that I've had in my drawers for years and years and years!  The Aida cloth is yellowing so I know it's been awhile since the kit saw the light of day.  It is very satisfying to sit in my sewing room and count stitches and sew as I listen to audio books.  Has anyone ever read the Thursday Murder Club books?  I've enjoyed both books tremendously!

********************************

I considered jumping over this topic but decided to blog a bit about gun control in Japan.  I'm anti-gun though I know most of my friends in America seem to own them for sport and hunting, and maybe even for protection.  Anyway, a few days after I returned from the States I got a phone call from our local policeman, who lives near us with his family at the police box down the street.  (That alone is very Japanese.)  I think he wanted to talk to me because I am the community crosswalk guard...  Anyway, he was calling to ask about a neighbor who owns a gun.  The call wasn't a surprise because every three years, the policeman (or his predecessor, they are transferred every four or five years) calls to ask about the same neighbor as the neighbor's gun license comes up for renewal every three years.  

So the questions I was asked were things like, how stable is the neighbor?  Do I know how the neighbor uses his gun?  (He used to go hunting pheasants and ducks.)  Have I ever seen him angry?  Have I ever seen him drunk?  Have I ever seen his gun at all?  (no, I haven't).  Did he and his wife have a good relationship?  Have I ever been in his home?  How would I describe the neighbor?  And after maybe 5 minutes of that sort of questioning, we went through the same routine about the neighbor's wife...  I also know that I am not the only neighbor who gets questioned by the policeman and that two or three others have had similar phone conversations.  It is all part of the very strict licensing laws for gun control in Japan...  It is almost funny to call it gun control because there are very few guns in Japan...  maybe 1% of the population?  The same stringency is applied to sword owners and there might be more of them just because I've heard samurai swords are considered heirlooms...  

(From the Internet)

After hearing about the school shooting in Texas, I got to thinking about our local elementary school.  There is a front "gate" that closes but doesn't lock.  There is no back gate at all.  I don't even think the school is locked up when there are people there, though visitors are asked to let someone in the teachers' room know when entering the building.  I have seen a long tool in the corridor called a sasumata, that looks like a cow prod, and I've heard that teachers know how to pin an assailant against the wall with it if the need arises.  

************************

Unfortunately, the crime rate even in Japan, is rising, but at least we don't have to worry about guns.

To end on a happier note.  M-san is hard at work making a new quilt!  This one is called Square Doubled and as I'd bought her a pretty batik jellyroll when I was in the States, we are putting it to good use!