Week in Review 2021 – 10/29

Just one of numerous trees felled by Tuesday night’s storm. This one is on our street about 0.1 miles north of us.

Now What?

What do you do when in the aftermath of a bomb cyclone? Now there is a question I wouldn’t have known to even pose a week ago. I first read about bomb cyclones when hearing about the weather in the northwest section of the United States. Bottom line it results in high winds and heavy rain. On Tuesday night the wind howled, the rain poured, the power and internet were severed where we live.

Our community has an active harbor, mostly populated by lobster boats, but quite a few sailboats as well. This one hopped the harbor and parked on land during the storm.

It took 48 hours before our small town of under 7,000 people was reconnected. We are one of the extremely fortunate, since we have a generator that kicks in as soon as the power goes off. We are also fortunate, other than some cleanup in the yard our home wasn’t damaged. However, this storm has made me acutely aware of how very dependent I am on the internet. If we didn’t have a backup power resource, I would find handwork to do. Instead, I am spending time in the studio piecing Celestial Celebration or in my study, penning my post for when the internet returns.

Image of three ships, each a different primary color, in full sail across a dark ocean with sunset sky.
Three Ships – Little did I know when I selected this to bring to the South Shore Art Center for their winter sail, how prescient I was.

Time to Pivot

Image of five overlapping starfish strewn across the sand.
Starfish
One of four small pieces I am bringing to the South Shore Art Center for their winter small works sale.

How ironic that at the start of the pandemic pivoting meant going from in person events to virtual events. There is nothing like being cut off from the virtual world, to discover just how dependent I have become on it to feel connected to others. Here I am, fortunate to come through the bomb cyclone unscathed, in a home with a generator, and unscheduled time to work in the studio, but I can’t concentrate. C’est la vie, n’est pas? 

Celestial Celebration – I used my emotional downtime to seam rows 4 – 7 together.

How do you push through your self made emotional hurdles?

I am linking up with Nina Marie’s Off the Wall Fridays.

By Gwyned Trefethen

I am an artist who uses fabric, thread and miscellany to create designs gifted to me by my imagination.

6 comments

    1. Could one of those diversions be painting about diversions? I am an avid audiobook reader. I listen to books the way many artists have music playing in the background. Unfortunately, I blew through the only download book in a few hours and couldn’t access any more because the internet was down. The very first thing I did when the internet was restored this morning was to download the next two books in my queue. 🙂

  1. I was in the first bomb storm on the west coast but luckily we did not lose power. I just motored on in my studio refusing to venture out in the driving rain. I don’t get many roadblocks but sometimes I need a break and will spend an afternoon giving myself a mani/pedi and bing watch my favourite show with wine of course. I also am an avid audio book listener as I don’t have time to sit and read a book; the absurdity!

    1. I am grateful you survived the west coast bomb cyclone unscathed. When you must hunker down nothing beats listening to a good audiobook while hunkered down in your studio. Although a self administered mani/pedi definitely has potential.

  2. Hi Gwyned, I’m glad that you were relatively unaffected by the bomb cyclone. I’ve never heard of those but they must happen near the ocean, right? Since I’m pretty land bound around here, we only get the very odd tornado and earthquake but generally with no loss of life. When I’m stuck, it usually means that I’m over tired. I tend to listen to lots of audiobooks (thank goodness for our library!) and play many versions of solitaire on my phone. That’s when I know that I need rest. Usually after a couple of evenings of that, I’m ready to tackle what ever is next. I love hand stitching and have lots of projects to distract me if I’m not ready for the next art quilt. Take care!

    1. I hadn’t heard of a bomb cyclone either until one made news several days before we were hit with one. Yes, I live one mile away from the Atlantic Ocean. Other than the speed of the wind, I believe what distinguishes the bomb cyclone from a hurricane or tropical storm is the sudden and dramatic drop in pressure.Our town had winds close to 100 mph. Aren’t audiobooks great? I am avid listener/reader. I get mine through Libby, an app offered by my library.I’ve also been known to play computer games. Major understatement there. My guess is that we turn to audiobooks and gaming for similar reasons. They get us out of our head of anxiety, self doubt and flagellation. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.

Comments are closed.