On reading a book

Shoot -- I was going to tell you the disturbing story about quilt history, and I know I won't have time before I have to leave for spin class. I started it, but I'll have to finish it another day. 

I have no idea what is happening these days. I spend time in Studio B, but I don't seem to have much to show for it. Why is that? 

Part of the reason is I was doing paperwork in the morning, and I only completed some of what I wanted to do as I was late to start. I had to shovel the driveway and was late getting out to walk the girls and a boy, so I was an hour late. But some e-mails got sent, the last lists were recreated, and I should finish it all this morning. 

Speaking of shoveling the driveway, yes -- we got snow. January 7th, our first "significant" snow of the year. That is in quotation marks because while the ground is covered, there isn't much. It didn't take long to shovel the driveway, and by the end of the day, everything was nice and dry. 

EXCEPT for a few neighbors on my street who refuse to shovel their driveways. I think I will start taking note of the house numbers and reporting them. Seriously? This gets dangerous when it turns to ice, and someone is going to fall and hurt themselves. It drives me crazy --- it's a bit of snow --- it wasn't even heavy! Get your butt out there with a shovel and shovel! 

Little Bear thoroughly enjoyed his walk in the snow. I thought he would get cold and hold up his paws, but he ran through the snow like a trooper and was quite happy! I could barely keep up with him. 

Keep up with me!!!!

Then he and Murphy spent time guarding the neighborhood in their front window perch. I can just see people laughing when they walk by and see them. 

The guard dogs

And as I was reading last night, I had company. He is so darn cute, but even though I like him fluffy, I think he will need grooming soon!

Hey there!!!

Here are three more quilt tops that I picked up from Diane. The other bags are still in the middle of the floor, and I must get them unpacked and put the quilt tops away. 

Three more quilts for community projects

And there's one more quilt back as well. 

One more quilt backing

I think I need to get this paperwork off my plate so my mind can be clear to focus on other stuff. There's an entire basket of paperwork sitting on the floor that I need to deal with. Sigh.............. That paperwork is stifling my sewing time! Let's make ONE MORE PUSH today to clear it, and then things will be better!

I have some classes to prep for the weekend, and I'd better get myself organized to do that. One of them is an in-person class at The Hobby Horse - machine quilting, so that will take a little bit of different prep. 

I managed to get my log cabin blocks completed. 

My quilt blocks

I know -- they have a few extra bits than a normal log cabin - that's the way they are supposed to be. Now I have to sew them together, and that's the last you'll see of these blocks until they are sewn into the quilt. 

It's interesting about reading a book. Some people are voracious readers, and others wouldn't dream of reading. When I was a kid, I was a voracious reader and didn't live near a library, so that was a challenge. I grew up with a  love of reading, but I don't think I read many books when I was a young adult. I was working out of the house full-time, going to the gym, and gosh knows what else I did since I wasn't a quilter then. 

I used to read a lot of magazines, I guess. And I did a lot of puzzles. 

Years ago, DH asked me why I didn't read more books, and well, that got me back into reading books, but I tell you, it took a while. After reading short articles in magazines, reading and following a plot took me some time. My brain wasn't trained to read something long. 

Yes --- we need to train our brains to retain all that information, follow plot lines, character development and all that other fun stuff. The short stuff you find in an article - let's face it --- magazine articles are FLUFF. There's usually nothing solid in them, and they take just a few minutes to read (for most of the stuff). 

Our minds today are in even worse shape as we go for instant gratification. A 30-second video clip on social media. Scrolling through a few pictures and read hashtags. Your brain becomes wired to deal with those very short stories, and it's hard to focus on anything that takes time, like reading a book!

I'm sure someone has done a study on this, but I think I can safely say that the attention span of many people today is short. That brings about a level of impatience and frustration that is a challenge for people to cope with. 

I LOVE to read, and I'm good with any media format - ebooks, audiobooks, or a physical book. I love reading fiction and nonfiction, and I'm trying to expand the genres that I read. I only used to read horror and murder mysteries. Why? I've no idea. The idea of reading a narrative was boring. But I branched out, and now, I don't read horror any longer, but I still read murder mysteries - well, the who dunit books. But I also enjoy fiction, historical fiction, thrillers, narrative, and probably a few more. 

I think it's a great idea to expand that reading range as it makes your brain think a bit differently when you break out of the cookie-cutter mold that is murder or thriller. 

Reading requires patience and, sometimes, lots of it! I'm good with that. I enjoy sitting down for an hour or two or grabbing five minutes and reading. It's like entering another world, and I wouldn't trade the ability to read for the world. It is truly a privilege to be able to read a book -- how many people do NOT know how to read, period! 

However, there are people out there that don't like to read. GASP!! How can that be? It's such a calm, relaxing thing to do. And there are others who would believe that reading is a "waste of time" as you have nothing to show for it when you're done. I don't buy that argument at all. Reading and doing puzzles are all cognitive things that keep our brain learning and hopefully keep all those brain cells in top working order! Yep -- even for the makers of the world -- I think reading is important. 

I read, on average, one book a week. I'd love to read more, but I don't know that I would enjoy it as much. I read because I enjoy it, I don't read or listen to books to entertain me, while I do something else. I want to savor the moment and enjoy the book and the process of reading. Sitting down, with only a book to entertain me, is -- well, that's a privilege I earned, and I have the luxury of time to do so. I'm not giving it up!

Speaking of puzzles, we attempted more of the EXIT Game last night. Yep -- "we" solved another puzzle. Since we got the first one with no problem, we moved to the second one. After several attempts, we were certain we had the correct three numbers that make up the three-digit code, but it kept coming up as being incorrect. DH was in charge of the decoder, and I asked him if he tried another combination of the three numbers. "Yes," was his response.  

When I looked at the clues (which killed me to do so), I saw that, indeed, we had the three correct digits, but they were in the wrong order. ARE YOU KIDDING ME? I asked if he tried another combination. I have no idea what he was doing, but we didn't need to look at the clue. And then we had a "discussion" about the logic. He sees black and white; I see grey! GRRRRRR! I'll look at the decoder next time FIRST before we look at the clue. 

He continued on to solve the next one by himself, and I went to read my book! 

On that note, I'm out of here - off to spin class. 

Have a great day!!!

Ciao!!!