My Kettle Creek bag

[vaneramos]

Mom gave me this backpack some years ago. It's my most prized possession. Even my computer doesn't evoke such sentiment as this canvas bag.

It's a product of Kettle Creek Clothing Company, now defunct, so the bag is irreplaceable. Nylon packs tend to come apart at the seams. My friend, Bob, repaired this one once. But it had earned its scar. The red drawstring broke a few months ago and I replaced it with a blue lace from one of my daughters' discarded garments.

It goes practically everywhere with me, over my shoulder. Sometimes it even suffices to carry all my needs for a weekend visit, though I'm inclined to pack my clothes in other luggage and save the space in here for the usual things: my notebook, fountain pen, whatever novel I'm reading, camera, sketchbook, and—in the front pocket—wallet, keys and Rolaids.

I'm surrounded by metaphors for life: shelves of books, the river where I walk. But this durable bag is most potent and present. It's a red canvas heart enclosing the tools of my creativity and navigation, necessities for buying food and passing through portals. It will probably wear out before I do, some sad day.

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I did the sketch using Prismacolor for the Everday Matters weekly drawing challenge. These pencils are conducive to fine detail, so I'm inclined to be too precise and end up getting frustrated. I want more freedom and spontaneity. I made a couple discarded attempts to draw the bag last week. This one started with a fairly precise contour drawing, but at last I loosened up with the shading. It's been a long time since I did much drawing. I stuffed the bag with a throw pillow so it wouldn't look like an inert splat of protoplasm.

I have stopped writing for Suite101.com. I had written 138 articles for my topic, Living With Nature, since November 1999, and took over the Ecology topic a little more than a year ago. I had taken a sabbatical since November because my ideas were running stale and I needed a chance to refocus. I had intended to publish new articles this week, but came to the conclusion it is no longer the best venue for my nature writing. To replace it, I plan to launch a new journal featuring new articles weekly or twice a month, and embed it in my website, which also requires imminent redesign.

The increased dosage of mirtazapine (60 mg per day) has thrown my sleep cycle out of whack. I overslept for several nights in a row, then last night my body compensated by not wanting to sleep at all. I sat up until 7 a.m. playing with Picasa 2, new free software from Google for handling images. Then I slept until 11. I've had other anomalous symptoms, like waking up from sound sleep with a panic attack. I can't tell whether my mood has improved. Hopefully this weirdness will settle down, otherwise I want to return to the previous dosage (45 mg).