Loooong day

[altivo]

So... Put everything else on hold, and showed up on the square in Woodstock as planned, 10:00 am. Met one guild member there and we sat on the courthouse steps spinning to wait for the doors to open so we could get into the gallery at 11:00.

One passerby was a man who said he grew up in Peru. He recognized what we were doing because his mother and grandmother had done it. He wanted to know what we were spinning, and went on to tell us about the special animal they have in Peru that is so good for spinning and weaving: the alpaca. He was very nice and sincere, and it was fun talking with him.

We'd only been there a short time when we heard a horse whinny. There is a carriage ride concession that takes people around the edges of the square in summer, but today's weather was gloomy and chill, so I didn't think they were there. While we hunted for the horse, we heard it again. Fairly realistic, but it had an electronic feel to it as well. We thought it might be a Mustang with one of those novelty horns, but no. There were no Mustangs in sight. Only after the third time did it dawn on me that it was my cell phone, which is rarely turned on and even more rarely gets any calls. By the time I got it out, the call had gone to voice mail. It was a third spinner calling to say she was coming but would be a bit late.

Duh. I completely forgot that I had found a ring tone of a horse whinnying. That was almost three months ago, and this is the first time the phone has actually rung since then. ;p

Did our gallery watching shifts, six hours all told, and with much fun conversation. Then home to make dinner. Now I'm ready for bed, early, but I'm not gonna last much longer.

Comments

[farhoug.livejournal.com]

One reason I don't usually change the ring tone either, I'd be all confused for a while, trying to figure out what's the noise. =)

It's kinda silly too, I wanted for a long while for a phone that can have custom ring tones... and now I'm using it with one that came with it.

[yasha-taur.livejournal.com]

Alpaca wool is wonderful. I bought a bunch of alpaca wool products when I was traveling around down there, as much as I could stuff in my bags. The stuff that I got ranged from some obviously handmade gloves and hats from a indigenous lady selling them at a park rest stop at about 14,500 feet, to very finely made vests and scarves from a couple of stores in town. Mostly I gave the wool stuff away as gifts that year, but the stuff that I kept is still in good shape.

[hrrunka]

Oh dear, the hazards of variable selectable ring-tones. My usual problem is that mine sounds like a hundred others... :)

[altivo.livejournal.com]

This one can have different ring tones for different callers. I tried that for a while but it confused me even more. ;p

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Alpaca is nice all right, and the animals are cute. It's too bad that alpaca breeding is a pyramid scheme right now in this country, but that will collapse eventually. Prices of $10 to $25 thousand for a single animal are absurd when the wool yield during its entire lifespan will only amount to a couple thousand at the very most.

This fellow told us that the wool makes metallic noises when first sheared, and gives off light when you handle it in the dark. That puzzled me until I realized he was referring to static electricity. Alpaca is not oily like raw sheep's wool, and in the dry, high altitudes of Peru it might put on quite a light show, complete with crackling sounds.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

I thought I'd avoid sounding like others all right. It worked, only it sounds so different I didn't even think "telephone" when I heard it. ;p

[goldenstallion.livejournal.com]

Dear Yasha Taur.

You have always been a true gentleman. Glad to see you are still around these goofy places.

Hey. I lived in La Paz, Bolivia, for almost two years and am very familiar about alpaca and llama wool made goods. Have a shawl and a sort of poncho from back then. Oh yea, at 14,000 feet or thereabouts, the highest Capital city on Earth. Hard to breath and do not even try to run. But the woolen thread gear like pants, gloves, hats, ponchos, parkas and so forth are some of the warmest on earth. I read, somewhere, that the hair of the alpaca and llama (close cousins) is about the best there is. Think I remember something about Tibetan yak or Alaskan musk oxen is similarly good.

Anyway hi feeling goofy this morning.

Steedly

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Yasha is too quiet most of the time, actually. We need to hear from him more often. :D

[wolfgrowl.livejournal.com]

I have to carry a cell but I rarely use it. It has the ring tone that came with it. I use it so seldom that when it does ring I always am startled by it. And scared to answer it since it usually isn't a harbinger of good news.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Mine gets a fair amount of use, but it's all text and e-mail.

[cabcat.livejournal.com]

Love the story about the phone *chuckles* But yes I'd be hard put to recognise what my phone sounds like when it goes off.

To see people spinning on the steps of the city courthouse would be a very surreal experience to me :)

[altivo.livejournal.com]

That, of course, was the point. Actually it's no longer the real courthouse. It's a historic building from the 19th century that has been turned into an art center with a restaurant in the cellar, but the physical building has been pretty well preserved as a historic monument.

We have our gallery show in the building this month, so attracting attention to it by spinning on the steps is part of the plan.

[cabcat.livejournal.com]

You could tap dance with your paffers :)

[altivo.livejournal.com]

They don't clip-clop very well, though. Just swooshy and paffy noises. More appropriate for soft shoe routines.

[cabcat.livejournal.com]

*watches you swoosh and paff about* Hmmm yes I see, a classic soft shoe shuffle would be better. Do you have any equine friends who clip clop?

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Loads of 'em, sure.

[cabcat.livejournal.com]

What do you call a line of those dancers? :) A line of equine's clippy clopping to tap music would make an interesting picture, straw boaters of course.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

What do I call 'em? Boring.

You're right, though. Equines à la River Dance, doing Irish step dancing... It has a certain panache. Dancers without feathers need not apply...

[cabcat.livejournal.com]

Oh no anything but Riverdance please anything...

Do horses often wear feathers somewhere?

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Not bird feathers, horse feathers. See the fluffs on this guy's feet:

[cabcat.livejournal.com]

What a fine fellow :D Ahh so those are horse feathers, (learning something all the time) Is there a breed of horse that has them in particular?

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Several breeds are expected to have them. Shires and Clydesdales are noted for their feathers. The Irish Cob or Gypsy Vanner, one of whom you see in that photo, also is expected to have them in abundance. Friesians are also noted for their feathering.

Some other breeds can have them in a few individuals but they aren't a requirement of the breed standard. My Haflingers have them in winter, though not anywhere near as heavily as you see here, and usually lose them in summer.