V is for...Vexillographer

With St. Patrick’s Day behind us, my granddaughters still proudly wore the tee-shirts I had rigged for them.  I say ‘rigged’ because I am not a craft-oriented person.  I quilt, I make, but the finer point of “Wonder Under” fusible web products eludes me.

 

Green is for the Catholic faith, Orange for the Protestant, and White is for the Peace that binds them.

In trying to save time, I ironed, and glued, and cursed.  The end result were two little girl orange tee-shirts, garishly decorated with leprechaun prints and edged in gold fabric paint.  The girls liked them, okay?

It was the Irish flag, supposed to be the Irish flag in green, white and orange.

A country’s flag is a big deal.  I recently read an article in National Geographic by Jeremy Berlin, in which he discusses the “Flags of the World Today”.  What does a flag really mean?

Berlin wrote, “…a flag may be designed by contest or committee.  The challenge: to distill a nation’s essence—values, beliefs, traditions—into just a few shapes or colors.”

India: green, white, and orange

From Jeremy Berlin, I learned that a vexillographer   must incorporate the five hallowed principles:  distinctiveness, simplicity, no lettering, two or three colors, and only meaningful symbols.

Note:  I have been reading Jeremy Berlin's articles for years, didn't know it.  Here is one on Polar Bears.

My Back Gets Even

I threw my back out last Sunday (Super Bowl day, I think).  I had been writing since we got home from church, and had written most of Saturday.  Whatever.  But on Monday, 3/26, I discovered I could not move without being struck rigid with pain.  I slowly made my way from bed to couch with a heating pad.

What happened?  Scanning my actions of the past few days, the only thing dangerous or stupid I had done was…nothing.  In the past, my back has gotten even when I moved furniture, or did some reconstruction project that my husband had postponed.  (Those were really stupid things, like ripping out the boards under the sink, hanging curtain rods while balancing on the back of the couch.)  But this last excruciating back pain didn’t seem to have a source.

Then I looked at my computer chair.  It was cheap, about $39.00, and had no lumbar support.  I switched out the chairs with a better chair I had in my sewing room, and also tied some Healthy Back ™ support thingy to make it ‘Super Lumbar Supporter Chair’. 

I have also been aware of avoiding stressing out those whiney muscles, and using heat when merited.  I dug out a back support wrap once purchased at a medical supplies store.  It is uncomfortable to put on—involves Velcro and pulling one side to latch onto the other.  Makes me away of my blubbery tummy.  It is helping.

Today I put in a load of laundry, and didn’t freeze up in agony as I did it.  Things are looking up.  I also found some clothes I had been missing since Christmas.

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(What was I thinking?
OMG, this hurts!
Finish the .....sculpture already!  Do you think I can hold this pose forever?  Do you have any Motrim on you?)