On Time to Update:

Well, since I was here last.

We’ve been canning and we are still doing so.

My father and step-mom came for a visit. We had a good few days of talking while visiting and getting things done.

They have been making the rounds of visiting kids, grandkids, and great-grandkids. And I learned from Dad that other family members have also been doing contact juggling too. (I think, as a family, we think a like, don‘t you?)

I am knitting at every stolen minute I can. The kids are coming to visit this coming weekend and I what to give them some more baby gifts.

I have found that the contact juggling has been a good opposite-knitting exercise. When I knit for too long my back and neck get tight, but now with doing the contact juggling it loosens my back and neck right up. And my hands and arms are getting stronger too.

I have been noticing that autumn is starting to creep in. Some leaves are starting to change and the air itself is changing.

I think of pumpkins and colored leaves, the smell of pencils being sharpened and new books.

Favorite things are coming, like autumn and new babies, knitting and playing, cooking and snuggling down in readiness for winter.

On Surprise, Surprise:

First surprise was Lady Long is able to walk again. Not well, but she is up and about. Well not that I’m letting her because she is still convalescing, but she can walk and that is very good news.

Second surprise was Mountain Man took me out to order a new gas range. I haven’t baked all summer because the oven on the gas range died back in the spring. And lets face it, it is just too hot to bake in the wood cook stove if you don’t have to. It should be here by the end of next month if not before. (Oh and I ordered it in black, that is why I have to wait. Only white in stock of the one I wanted.)

Third surprise was the canner blew a gasket. We all jumped when it went. Steam and corn all over the place. One of the jars broke and the corn clogged the spout.

No one was hurt, thank the powers that be. We did get to use the new canner. Good thing we got it before the old one blew. We were out of safety plugs. And would have had to quit canning until replacement parts could be gotten. A lot of lost food crops.

Oh and no surprise, I bought a few more balls to practice with. And I have tamed a new trick. Now to perfect it.

So surprise, all is good, though still hectic around here.

On No Rest for the Weary:

Lady Long the dashund dog is lame at the moment. She hurt her knee and started limping and that lead to her putting her back out.

So now she is literally dragging her butt. They have her in steroids and bed rest.

I’m not complaining, she has been a very good dog for almost thirteen years. I love her and would do most anything for her and do.

But, it is really cutting into my time. I don’t have time to think these days.

She seems to be getting slowly better. I am very grateful for that.

And the veggies need canning, and the house needs cleaning, and the laundry needs washing, and I have to be the dogs hind legs so she can go out and do her business, and I have to get exercise…

Busy and missing my friends here.

And I need a long, good nights sleep.

On New Skills:

I’ve been so proud of myself lately. I’ve been learning a group of new skills with my Contact Juggling.

The best of these is catching dropped or bumped things before they hit the floor.

I use to be a ‘jump back and let it crash’ person. And felt good if the mess didn’t actually get on me. Goody for me, at least I’m clean, while I clean up the mess.

Well, I am now at the point where I don’t have to think before I act. My hands fly out and objects are snatched from the air. Not that I catch every drop, but I am getting so much better it.

So, the other day I was cutting up veggies for canning. Glass jars aplenty round about. I’m flitting here and there doing five things at once, as usual.

And my knife falls off the cutting board.

Yes, you guessed it. I caught the knife point down with my hand. The heal of my hand had the knife sticking out of it.

I’m on the mend. And I’ve learned a valuable lesson.

Think, concentrate, and watch what you are doing. All skills are not appropriate for all situations.

On A Balance:

I could say, ‘I should have done this years ago.’ but I won’t. I feel that if it was time than it would have happened that way. And apparently I had other things to learn first.

I am happy I found it now. Who knew that contact juggling would help me in so many ways? I do know that now I am more balanced in so many ways.

I’ve learned to balance things on me, so now I’m more steady on my feet.

I’ve learned more patience as I practice, therefore I’m have become more patient.

I schedule things better to get my practice time in, and my day runs smoother.

I have a better ability to concentrate, so now I can work more efficiently.

My fun quotient has grown, so I don’t fret and worry as much.

Now that I’m doing so much finger exercises, the finger that was put back on after an accident has more feeling then it has for a long time. Over 25 years.

I needed more basic funny and joy in my life. Daily I had many happy moments in my life, but I wasn’t joyful from the inside out.

I was content, but not calm. I had no greater goals in life, only project completion.

I didn’t know it, but I had misplaced my silly side, now I can clown around again. My life felt full, but it was just crowded.

Learning to balance balls on my body, arms and fingers has set me straight.

I have struck balance in my life with this Contact Juggling and I can’t tell you haw much it means to find it again after so long.

I hope with all my heart that you have, or can soon find, your own balance too.

On Bad Fushigi:

I have been doing Contact Juggling regularly for two months now. And I just have to say before anyone else falls pray to the commercials Don’t Go Out and Buy One Of These Fushigi Balls. The commercial is false advertising.

There is no magic ball that can make you a Contact Juggler overnight. There is no ball that floats in air. These are tricks that take a long time to learn.

If you don’t believe me you can read the fine print on their advertising. Oh no, they just say that the people doing the tricks are professionals. And don’t explain their lies.

Well, you can just go to Contact Juggling .Org to check things out in their forum section listed under ‘Community’ on the left column.

Yes, you can do some tricks from the start, but you don’t have to buy an inferior made ball like the Fushigi ball to do this. There are more then enough free tutorials on the web to teach you these tricks and more using everything from an orange to a glitter ball.

And it takes many month, and for some tricks years, to perfect them. Much more time to be good enough to have a number of tricks to perform.

The Fushigi ball is not a good quality product from those that have bought one and the tutorial video is lacking. Many people are going to free web sites and YouTube to learn what the Fushigi video doesn’t teach, so why bother. For the same twenty dollars you can get the real thing, a clear acrylic ball, at a better quality.

And added to the lies are those who believe them and then turn around and mock the jugglers, who have taken years of their lives to learn this trade, and do not give them their do.

Jobs have been lost do to the Fushigi false advertising. Jugglers get paid by their skill and this commercials lies about a magic floating ball and the ease at which it is learned, this has hurt contact juggling to the core.

If you are thinking about buying one for yourself or someone else, please do your homework first and get a good product and backing from an organization that cares.

On Another Friday the Thirteenth:

I just don’t get it. They really aren’t different from any other day of the year. I’ve watch them for some time now and nothing ever happens to make me see them any differently.

Oh, I wanted to believe. A magical configuration of stars, numbers, and the time space continuum. The missing socks don’t reappear, keys aren’t any easier to find. Nor do things go bad any more often.

I could use the excitement. A special day of interesting happenings.

So now, Do you believe in Friday the Thirteenth?

Tell me why, I really want to know. I was fun back when I believed. Maybe I can believe once again.