Scares and Squares is the Rosetown Ramblers annual fly-in. While I enjoy the dancing, it usually falls on my birthday weekend, and I don’t love that. However! this year they moved the weekend of dance to the second Saturday weekend, which was great!
Aside from really fun dancing, I volunteered for check-in on Saturday morning. Ted was running the 50/50 raffle and setting up ticket packs. I don’t remember the exact breakdown, but for the raffle, your dollar gets you 10 tickets, and five dollars gets you an even bigger number. So, to save time, Ted pulls out 10 tickets, separates the keep-this-coupon ticket from the drawing tickets, tears each drawing ticket, and then stacks the whole thing in a neat pile that is held together with a rubber band. That way, when someone hands over a dollar it’s very easy to hand them their half of the tickets, and drop the entry tickets in the bucket.
As we were both sitting at the same table, I also helped set up ticket packs. While we worked, we discussed the differences between the different colored rolls of tickets (they very much varied in quality!) and techniques for quicker packaging. As I observed to Matt, it was not unlike temping, where there is a boring task, but that task can be broken down into steps and those steps improved. Plus, Ted is fun to talk to.
At the Saturday evening dance, Ted came over to show me yet another satisfying part of the process: getting to the end of a ticket roll.
When I am in the office, I sit next to the lost and found. Today I noticed that someone had lost a sticker.
It is, of course, Alfredo Linguini and Remy the rat, stars of Ratatouille and Carmy Berzatto and the bear, stars of the Bear, the series that has most of the country saying, “Yes, chef!”
This took me the entire summer, and I’m not sure why, as the finished sampler fits in a 6-inch hoop. Maybe I need the motivation of more colors? Maybe all this blackwork was just straight stitches in different ways, and I got bored? Not sure.
I’m pleased with the results, though. And that floral lace looks really pretty. I’ve learned to make the sample stiches surrounding the main picture the last thing I do, so I’ve had adequate practice. Even then I pulled out many stitches where I didn’t get the needle in just the right place.
The bonus item was quite fun and stitched up quickly. They make a fun combo.
Back views!
I think the back side of this looks a little creepier than the front. The house looks disheveled from this side.
And the back of this one had a thread stuck to it. I was too lazy to collect the scissors and cut it off before I took the picture.
Here’s the final result of this piece, last referenced in this post.
I’m quite pleased with the result. And I will be taking it into work to catch the drips from my tea and water vessels, as I will be sharing a desk on the one day a week I’m in the office.
This view shows that it ended up rather thick, but I think that works well. I used part of an old shirt of Matt’s for backing, and I like how bright the blue was.
The upside of using Bankie as the filling is that this item has very good energy.
Headed to my first day of work, I noted that our poor trees at the station are getting an upgrade.
You can see the problem. They look a little wan.
Mostly, I think because people carve into them, as this blurry photo is attempting to show. But also because they have very little space around them that isn’t brick or a paver.
I’m not sure if the trees themselves will survive the work, but we shall see what comes of it.
On this last day of summer, here are a list of my 2024 songs of summer. These are songs that I heard a lot on commercial radio. My affection for them varies.
Themes: sad men (Noah Kahan influence). Trending country (see also: Noah Kahan influence)
“Wondering Why” Red Clay Strays
Hitting both themes, “Wondering Why” included a nice arpeggio throughout. There is some good writing with these lyrics: She comes from silver spoon, golden rule, private school, never miss Sunday church / And I come from blue-collar, low-dollar, out here where concrete meets old red dirt
“I Remember Everything” Zach Bryan and Kacey Musgraves
A duet in the mold of “Leather and Lace” where one person takes a verse, and then the other one does. This also fits both categories. I like the chorus especially. Some good writing here: You’re like concrete feet in the summer heat / It burns like hell when two souls meet.
Also, an 88 Ford is not a very old truck, in my mind.
“Austin” Dasha
A great jilted/breakup/I’m-better-off song. Unlike the video, the radio version doesn’t overly linger on the physical attributes of Ms. Dasha.
Nice line: In 40 years you’ll still be here, drunk, washed up in Austin.
I guess “Austin” would fall into the category of sad men a woman doesn’t have to deal with anymore.
“Save Me” Jelly Roll and Lainey Wilson
This is a very sad man song. It also is the song that really gets stuck in my head.
Chorus: I’m a lost cause Baby, don’t waste your time on me I’m so damaged beyond repair Life has shattered my hopes and my dreams
“Beautiful Things” Benson Boon
In the category of songs I probably would have liked more had they not been played ad nauseum on the majority of stations I flip through is Benson Boon, with his worry about god taking away/losing “you” aka the “girl my parents love” that god “sent my way.”
Benson Boon is Pacific-Northwest born, according to many radio promos. Monroe, Washington, apparently. He’s currently 22, which is crazy.
“A Bar Song (Tipsy)” Shaboozie
This was also a song that played a lot that I grew tired of. It’s fairly plodding and weary, which fits the lyrics, but rankles when repeated.
Songs by women I liked that don’t fall into the country bucket, but do concern men.
“Please please please” Sabrina Carpenter
The chorus has a great dip into the low region that I’ve just discovered has a radio edit. Heartbreak is one thing/ My ego’s another/ I beg you don’t embarrass me/ Little sucker ahhh…
“abcdefu” Gayle
This is a very delicious breakup song and I always enjoy when people find something fun to do with the alphabet, musically. It’s quite the list of things to forget. (And yet another song I discovered is quite different in it’s original, non-radio state.)
It also is from 2022, so I’m not sure why the algorithms that program radio airplay played it so much this summer.
A song I did not like that was played a million times “Whisky” by Hozier
And for the second summer in a row, this song was a song of summer:
I guess the tortured poets didn’t produce any breezy summer hits.
