Scissors

Scissors

I felt like I needed to start writing, I knew the only way to do it is to start writing about random subjects. It is hard because my mind never truly settles down and everything I could think about always falls in-line with the things I have always written. When my friend told me about the challenge of writing about scissors, I wanted to do it, but scissors is such a small object to create an entire story about.Still, I felt I could since I am constantly using a scissors for something. Later she corrected me and said I do not necessarily have to talk about scissors, just a creative outlet, something that involves the use of a scissors. Somehow that seems more complicated than just talking about scissors.You see, I have a lot of scissors; big scissors, huge scissors, small scissors, wide scissors, skinny scissors. I have round scissors, flat scissors, plastic scissors, pointy scissors, even wooden scissors. Recently I found my old Leather-man Wave, and come to find out, the scissors in it are just as sharp as all my other sharp scissors; tiny, small but handy.At first I wanted to talk about my grandma's love for scissors. She had a lot of scissors. She had a specific one for everything. Paper had a different scissors than fabrics, she even had different scissors for different sewing string and colors. But of all the scissors, her favorite was Fiskars. She had three of those stainless steel with an orange handle, which are now mine and sadly enough, right now they are sitting in a storage unit in New York City and I am over three thousand miles away.Even more than crocheting, or knitting was the love my grandma Meme had for cooking. She hardly ever used knives in her kitchen, only scissors, even to cut carrots, fish or meat. Although I am an adult now, I still enjoy the memories of her cutting green onion, celery and all sorts of greens into her big pot of soup.I was wishing when I start writing, my first things will be about my work, my job, or even my history, and not scissors, but the more I think about it the more I realize I could compress a story of my creative use of a scissors. If I had to talk about my work, there will be so much to talk about, as I am a jack of all trades (though the master of none). Currently I work construction, a job that gets you on the road, even across the country if you are good, but we hardly use scissors. Though it is used once in a while in construction, pocket knife is always faster at the job site. My jobs are usually temporary, as my passion is in art, from painting and carving, to making cards, even cooking in my kitchen is a work of art.Although I have a tote that is almost full of scissors, I only use three, as all the other scissors have some kind of a problem. The problems range from loose handle to dull blade, some I know will never work again, still I save it. It is just hard to throw out a scissors, isn’t it?The three I use now are Kitchen Aid scissors, two black and one green. Just like my grandma Meme I try to designate my scissors. The newest one came in a set with ten knives in a holder, and that is my sharpest scissors, only four years old and I still use it every day, trying to keep it as a “kitchen only scissors.” The second one is the other black scissors, five years older than my now-kitchen scissors. I designate that for my arts and crafts.The third is the green scissors and it is where I will start my story.

Green scissors

My green kitchen Aid scissors is now designated for the garden. Although I have no idea when or how it became mine, it is the older of the three and my first actually sharp scissors. Before the green scissors I would always go digging for decent scissors in my pile of scissors, most times I will try several at once before settling for one that will do a decent job.You see, I struggle from Akathisia, a condition I’m still thinking about today if it is a plus, or minus. Because of that, things get moved around frequently; things like scissors, slippers, remote, pens, will be missing for days, sometimes weeks before I find it again doing the same thing I was doing that lead to me losing it.I really put the green scissors to work summer of 2020, at the height of the lockdown.I live in what we called a survival shack.We moved in there with a plan to save money and study. Soon COVID is everywhere, the stories are no longer safe, everything started shutting down, the food is also no longer to be trusted. Stores were running out of supplies so I constructed a garden. Since I am a builder we went out looking for scrap wood to recycle. The first of the garden was a planter box built from wooden pallets, It was perfect, as the survival shack has no shed, garage or working place. The box was intended for herbs.. At the start of the virus we went shopping pandemic style, buying things like 40 pound Jasmine rice, 10 pounds different dried beans and peas, and various dried goods. Since the survival shack is really small, we are limited on storage, yet it seems we might need to bunker in for months. Fresh herbs I taught will always brighten things up.The box wasn’t too big for the space, 32inch by 24 inch deep and 10 inches wide, and I made two almost matching boxes using up two pallets found on the side of the road.Since we only have a Camry, the size of what we can haul is always questionable and limited. We realized that pallets fit okay in the car and if you do it right, you can put 2 regular pallets in a Camry, and that is without squeezing yourself out of comfort.We decided to drive around the neighborhood, and to my surprise, pallets are everywhere. Soon I had built around the original two boxes. The first plants were the herb sprouting in the kitchen, green onions and garlic. The soil was from a farm store, 2 organic bags full, which fit perfectly in the two boxes I made first.Along with the soil we also bought some young plants and seeds. The plant went in the box right away while some seed was prepped in a wet towel and placed in jars.Although the garden wasn’t the first place the scissors were used that year, Pak Choy was the first that felt the sharp blades of the green scissors in the garden.Unlike my grandma Meme, I like the feel of a chef knife, heavy, steel, a metal that has been sharpened and treated and sharpened again. I like the sound a good knife makes as it cuts through everything.At the start of the garden every plant was colorful, vibrant and full of life. The size of the finished garden was 9ft by 5ft. What to plant is critical and important, every space was used with different plants every few inches apart.We had cilantro, Italian Presley, oregano, different peppers, cucumber, carrot, radish, different tomatoes, ginger, just to name a few. This year the garden is so much smaller. I have onion, garlic and ginger that made it through the cold and many cloudy summer days of last year. Now the onion and basil have flowers. I have never seen an onion or basil grow to the extent of having seed, but am sure it is going to be a parting gift for whoever moves in here. The new garden is an upgrade and a downgrade from last year, too.Upgrade because I built a new garden with better wood and material, with a very rich soil. I also raised it up so when the plant grows it will give shade to whoever moves in. The downgrade is because the garden got smaller, but it is still a good size and will be full of good greens when they move in.If you ever grow Pak Choy, you will understand how hard it is to cut the first leaf, especially if it is your first time growing it. The plant was beautiful, huge purple leaves. I wanted to let it grow like a flower, but I have to eat. I also wanted to taste it, so my first meal with it was special. I cut 4 big leaves from the bottom of the plant and took it inside, (I still don’t have that heavy chef knife of my dreams, but for now my Kitchen Aid chef knife does a great job.)I like to make music, especially while I am cooking with the knife as my drumstick, chopping to the music. Depending on what am cooking or what I’m singing, I could cut a vegetable in chunks or I could smooth it up like a blender. I cut the Pak Choy up in three different songs, the first leaf went with some plantains I steamed, I had cut the leaf so it mixed in well with the plantains. The second was cut a little chunky and mixed in with the bowl of salad, the third was just ripped with my hand and put in the pot of soup. The last piece I ripped down the middle and shared with my friend, tasting Pak Choy for the first time.I started building a new garden with the plan to build something for all my neighbors, but a situation happened and we have to move. I still built five raised beds and hope the next guys can take care of it. For now, everyday I go out back. I always have to trim something, from the small bush of spearmint to the tomato or kale I planted. The sugar snap peas always need my scissors. The Pak Choy definitely also enjoyed the ends of my scissors.

'B' for before

My second scissors are black scissors. It is for my art and crafts, I will call it 'B' for before. I bought B because I liked the green one, which I will go ahead and call G, for good. When G started with me, it was the kitchen scissors. Soon I have a replacement that promoted the green guy to become the art and crafts pair, just like now B got promoted to art and crafts scissors while the green was promoted to go outside.The first art project I used B on was building a box house for my friend's kitty cat Fefe. Fefe reminds me of my grandma cat Fluffy. Fefe has too much energy and could jump as high as 15ft straight up. Come to think of it, she was just like me, never stops moving. Fefe likes hiding in boxes, so one day I decided to build her a big house with tunnels. The house was built with cardboard and moving boxes. I use B to cut the boxes up and then taped them together. I even cut out windows in the tunnel and Fefe loved it. We hardly ever saw her after that, however, you will feel her playful paw if you walk close to her house. Sometimes you will think there is more than one cat in there, with her house shaking like a storm is in it. Sometimes  it felt like Fefe was in a great battle with a beast you can’t hear or see, you only know because your cat is acting his part. Fefe was always so fun and playful, ready to jump.During those days with Fefe I could not consider myself artistic, because artists are the renowned writers, sculptors, painter people, etc. Even today my eyes are set on art school because I know there is so much to learn. Although money and time haven’t allowed me to go to school yet, I have learned a lot these last few years. Writing this is an example. My canvas size gets bigger each time I start a new painting, and my handmade greeting cards are growing, I even bought a sewing machine so that way I could learn to use it. Soon I will be a dad, and I want my kids to be artistic in every way. I can’t believe I still don’t know how to knit or crochet, and that is something I also want to learn.

B really got used more than ever starting in 2020. I decided for the second time ever to make greeting cards. The plan was to make 20 before my birthday in May, and I was on target. I started finishing at least a card a day, but soon life got busy and everything was put away. So far I made 17 cards, and gave 3 away. I have plans and ideas to make more, maybe after the move.Like I said earlier, I have Akathisia, I just can’t stop moving around. It is helpful when you are creative, that way you're not wasting time with all that moving around. Everywhere your legs take you, you should have something in the making, or a good sight to see.Currently B is missing. I have been trying to remember where I might have used it last, since I have projects everywhere. It has definitely been missing before I started writing this scissors story. I'm not worried because I will find it soon. (Hopefully.)When you are in a small place things get missing easier somehow, especially when you are packed.

'N' for newest

My kitchen scissors, which I will call N for newest, is what I have been using for art and crafts, since B is missing in action. It is hard to misplace N because it has a station with a spot just for it.Just the other day I sent a thank you card to two different people that did a good job. They helped me out. It is nice when someone could put a smile on your face with their actions.I felt my card was little compared to the kindness they showed, but am also sure they smiled when they opened my card, “It is always the little things.”I picked out two of my favorite cards to send to a friend back in New York City and in New Jersey, also to say thank you for the kindness he showed a long time ago.Before I send or give each card away I always personalize it.A few weeks ago we went shopping for supplies to make cards, colored papers, glue, tape, ribbon, etc. I know it’s time to donate all those old scissors and do like my grandma did, and get quality. I think I will start with a nice quality scissors, and then a heavy pan.Anyway, it’s been nice writing about my three scissors.Be rest assured that I will be using N this week to personalize the two cards I will be sending over 3000 miles away.If I had more time I could have told you about some big scissors I have in the same storage unit in New York City. Those scissors are at least 24 inch long and weigh at least ten pounds, if you ask me.

Now, those scissors had a history older than my grandpa. I never used it before, I just enjoy looking at it. Scissors themselves are a work of art.If you read this far, thank you. I am sure you can see that I’m still learning to write English,  even more than I am learning to speak it.Although I would like to share my art, the colors are too much and you will need time to comprehend them. Instead I added pictures of the garden. The okra plant from last year was my favorite.

Shy Shadows