Bit more updating...

So, about that monster of a female red tailed hawk I picked up last week: if you're wondering where I disappeared to, it's there. Between keeping up with the sewing and Holiday Market stuff, this lady has been demanding every scrap of my attention and energy. I still haven't managed to name her. She's feisty and refuses to tame which is giving me much pause for thought. In this nutty season and through the growing pains of learning entrepreneurship, having something that demands I sit very still, watching and listening and learning, is something of a treasure. I tend to feel guilty when I stop working long enough to go for a run or do some yoga. It's good for me in a million ways, but I spend the whole time worrying about orders waiting to be filled, sketches to be sent, website updates... a hundred million other things that need my time and attention, and instead of coming back relaxed and ready to rock, I cut it short and come back anxious and stressed.

But in handling this bid, there are no other demands on your attention... there can't be. You clear your mind and you focus. There's a total art and science to the first week you spend with a wild-trapped falconry bird, going through the process known as "manning". It's not really a taming per se, but the building of an understanding. Thirty minutes after being trapped out of the wild, she's sitting on the end of your glove and you're eying each other. It's a lot to think about for both of us.

I also fell down a flight of stairs about a month and a half ago, and haven't been able to get a good workout, since. Like a jackass I didn't go see anyone at the time as "sitting in the ER for five hours between SARS and the bubonic plague, then being treated like a drug addict" isn't high on my ranking of favorite pastimes; a couple weeks later when I got around to mentioning it to my own doctor, she told me she thought I'd cracked two vertebrae in my lumbar spine. I may have also have effed up my right hip socket in the bargain. None of that has been super comfy, and so not being able to really get up and move in over six weeks is making me feel like I'm about to jump out of my skin. Dr. says nothing but walking for exercise until we get this back thing sorted out, and there again are not many things that rank lower on my mental list of "a million better things to do, instead".

There's a lot to be done this time of year. The demand for custom gear has exploded, and I'm learning to balance Raw Dog with the other things in life. My partner, my dog, my health, and this little, feathered dragon on the end of my arm are all reasons I wanted to spend my life working from home. It's sometimes a challenge to remember that. It's almost daylight and I'm going to head out in a bit to work my dog, to sweat, and then visit with my hawk... then come back and get some "real" work done ;0)

PS for Deshi and Tetsuya: