Sandy's Quilt Top

This has been a bad year for the name Sandy -- first there was the terrible hurricane that hit the east coast of the U.S. and then there was the unspeakable shootings murders at the Sandy Hook Elementary last Friday.

Both events have impacted me personally.  Then again, isn't everyone impacted?  My niece lives in New Jersey and worked in Manhattan when the storm hit.  She had no power or cell service yet was expected to show up for her nursing job so three patients could have their face lifts performed by the doctor she worked for, just two days after the storm.  Huh??  Talk about misplaced priorities. It took weeks to get the mail delivery back to normal and the area around her cleaned up.

This past week's shooting was so difficult to learn about.  How could anyone shoot a room full of 1st graders?  It's like shooting fish in a barrel.  My daughter teaches special ed students in an elementary school 50 miles from my home.  I asked her if their building had any sort of emergency plan for such an event and she said no.  Seems like they better get one together, like yesterday!  In her former district they had underground tunnels they used for their drills, leftover from the Cold War days back in the 1950s.

I don't understand how anyone with any history with mental illness should be able to legally possess a gun.  How could they not be a danger to themselves as well as others?  Thank goodness my hands are too weak to shoot a gun -- I can't imagine being steady enough in an emergency to even get a shot off.  I think I'd pee my pants or faint first.  Or worse, have it used on me instead.

Sometimes when there is so much ugliness and sadness in the world around you, it helps to have a thing of beauty to distract you.  Here is my friend Sandy's wonderful, awesome creation.  She used Marcia Derse fabrics to make herself a quilt to mark her 75th birthday (at least she's having a good year) and I can tell you that no one would ever guess that Sandy is 75.  She inspires me.  And so does Marcia -- I need to get back to cutting and sewing all the fabrics I have bought from Marcia.  It would almost be worth it to be 'on vacation' again so I could get some serious sewing time.