September 26, 2004

• The Water Jar (http://www.xanga.com/home.aspx?user=TheWaterJar ) recently posted something rather like an apology for not having a sufficiently exciting life. I think I have done the same, and I see a lot of blogs doing that — if not an outright apology, than a self-deprecating laugh at ourselves, as though the fact that we let strangers read about our lives gives us a responsibility to provide adventures for them to read about.

  
  

  Adventures can go both ways, though. Consider the case of my great-grandfather R.A., a man who led a truly exciting life. One of my favorite of his adventures took place when he was living in China at the end of the 19th century. A couple of extortionists threatened to tell people that he and his housemate were killing babies if he didn’t pay up. When he did not, they actually buried a baby in the back yard, publicly “discovered” it, and incited a riot. R.A. and his friend had to flee for their lives. When the miscreants were caught and charged with their crimes, R.A. came back to insist that they be tried in their native language, for justice’s sake. He died many years later attempting to rescue his servants when the ship they were all on was torpedoed off the coast of Malta.

  
  

  His half brother, an adventurer of a different stripe, died in a gunfight over a poker game.

  
  

  My grandfather, having perhaps received the genetic predisposition toward adventure, merely took a job with the International Labor Office, travelled the world, and died peacefully in his sleep at an advanced age. Less exciting, perhaps, and certainly not as good a story, but no less satisfying.

  
  

  My adventures this weekend consist of finishing The Empress’s chemise except for the hem and nearly finishing the anniversary quilt. A belated birthday dinner for #2 son with such of the extended family as are in the area, a repeat of the DNA cable, and I am satisfied.

  
  

  Here is the back of the quilt. Not that the look is what is so great about the back of a hand-quilted quilt — it is of course the feel, the texture, the way all those little stitches pull the cotton up into myriad tiny puffs and creases. So, if you have a hand-quilted quilt of your own, you can go feel the back of it now and get essentially the same sensation you would get from feeling this one, thus making this a multi-sensory blogging experience.

  
  

  The next step is the binding. I have not yet chosen the fabric for the binding, so it may be a lengthy step, but I still have hopes of finishing in time.

  • 9:01 am
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