3.14 = Pi (the outside of a circle is always a little more than 3-times its width across)
And 3.14 is the birthday of HouseMate. HM would usually have a pie party today, but poor weather precluded pandemic party options. (Incoming cold front, bringing snow tomorrow.)
Sad, she said she was going to ignore her birthday this year.
The girlettes wanted to give her a card, however, so I rushed to water-color one this Sunday morning.
Between losing an hour to the time-change and having to go in to work (unusually), I only had 40 minutes.
I'm trying to slow down and be deliberate, but in art-making, I tend to deliberate too much and overwork the paint. Having to hurry forced me to paint with a looser hand.
I love the result here--especially Penny Cooper(far left), and most especially her legs & feet:
Jayne, holding the sign, ^ is HM's girlette, and that's Ivy to the far right.
Robustness at Work
The store is closed on Sundays, but twice a year workers go in on a Sunday to change-over seasonal clothes.
After a week of end-of-season sales, whatever clothes are left are sent to to baling, and new (used) clothes are put out.
I'd never helped with the changeover before, but we're short workers, so I said I'd come in.
OMG, it was ridiculously inefficient! It also turned out to be a great example of how much wriggle room there can be in a robust system.
At first I was tearing my hair:
The new clothes hung on racks in NO order whatsoever. A Women's-small tank top hung next to a Men's-2X motorcycle jacket, and so forth. (Clothing is stubbornly gendered to the extreme.)
One of my coworkers was taking and hanging one item of clothing at a time.
At that rate, we were going to be there till midnight.
As is often the case at the store, though, the system allowed for personal innovation.
As soon as there was an empty rack, I said,
"Let's sort the clothes onto this rack by size".
No one objected, so a couple of us sorted the clothes, and the others hung them by the handsful.
Success!
[I feel there should be some connection between Pi and robustness (at work or otherwise), but I don't know what it would be... Any ideas?]
I don't know about the work angle, but a robust Pi (pie) could be one with generous filling amount, or something warming and savoury, like a steak and onions pie.
ReplyDeleteOr, for the work angle, a robust Pi could be the circle of workers all pulling together to get the job done?
Oh, that’s genius, River—thanks for the Pi interpretation—especially like the circle of workers 😀
DeleteP.S. Penny's legs and feet did come out very well and overall, the painting is fabulous.
ReplyDeleteThank you! I want to try more loosening up in painting
DeleteBeautiful watercolor, esp. the shadows.
ReplyDeleteRobustness and pi(e): it helps to assemble ingredients before beginning and to divide the pie fairly.