Insect conversation

Insect slow call and answer in monotone rhythm across the brackish swamp tonight. It is soothing, this conversation, in spite of the hollow whoosh of traffic. I wish the humans would just sit down and shut up.

Pausing to remember

Franz Kafka

Franz Kafka. It's nearly midnight now but still July 3 and therefore the 130th anniversary of his birth. I feel a kinship with him. And the cockroach. So today is also a good time remember my friends Delicata, Nugget and Ha'penny.

Delicata, Ha'penny, Nugget
L. to R.

That is all.

Rainy Monday

Suitsupply has the right suit for everybody,
even old guys.

On Saturday we managed to get in a bike ride. It was the one, true, though not quite warm sunny day. Including all the noodling, it was about a 25 mile ride which is pretty good for my first ride of the season. Once we crossed the Potomac we jumped on the Mt. Vernon Trail, a multi-use path which follows the river all the way to George Washington's home, though we didn't get that far ourselves.

But we did stop off at the Museum of Natural History on the way home. Oh my god. This museum alone is worth driving across the country for. Outstanding, fabulous and amazing.

And M. Lee's suit was ready yesterday so we picked that up. He looks great. Suitsupply is everything it promises to be but the guy who made it all come together was a fellow named Faouzi. He was wonderful. Fantastic. He knew exactly where the line was for an old guy, modern but appropriate. Photo to follow.

Okay. Gotta go. The Trip Tyrant, M. Lee, is rattling on about how we have to leave in a few minutes.


Note to my future self: 
Hey! Don't be like me. Bring your bike jacket and collapsible water bottle.

Notes and reflections

Five days in DC now. We're staying about 2.5 mi away from the Mall so everyday we get in a good walk going to and from the museums. The first few days it rained but the last two have been clear blue and warm in the sun. Makes all the difference. We've seen a lot of art, good and bad and some masters, including da Vinci and Rembrandt, and today we checked out the exhibit at the old patent building now the Smithsonian American Art Museum. Their portrait gallery was pretty bad but there is some wonderful, and disturbing, art brut. They refer to it as folk art for whatever reason but it's art brut aka outsider art. Anyway, the exhibit kicked our asses. It's huge. We got there at the end of the day and only had enough energy for the first floor.

Also I ran into a dear old friend from Oregon on the Mall today. Talk about a surprise! She and her husband are in DC visiting family. She called my name from across the street. It was phenomenal. We really don't know what's going to happen in a day, do we? So we did coffee. The event got me brooding again that we didn't stop in Kansas City and have coffee with Roy. I want to totally blame M. Lee for that. He makes plans way in advance and mostly alone. He decides destinations, reservations and even where we'll eat along the way. It's mostly all good so I am in the habit of just going along with things. I really hate admitting I'm so passive. It's a pathetic kind of flaw, a convenient weakness, but blaming him only magnifies it so I can't/don't want to do that. Arg.

Day four, "Eat your dinner LIKE THIS."

Columbus Ohio. Went to the Banana Leaf vegetarian Indian restaurant/buffet. Tasty but very strange place. Dinner began with a complete oral tutorial by the owner, six individually served appetizers and a glass of mango juice or mango lassi before we could get our hands on the buffet. We felt like children who had to be good little clean plate-ers with each and every serving before we could have anything else. Anyway, it was a vegetarian joint so, especially after the Limon Denny's, it qualified as a bonafide oasis.

Today, on to New Vrindaban to face down some ghosts and maybe liberate a few. Wish me luck.

Day three, ghosts and hard choices

We both hated Limon, M. Lee even more than I. And I don’t think it was because the place is so small or beat down or because so many of its residents work at the grim prison nearby. There is something else, something very wrong about Limon Colorado then, this evening, we read about the gruesome event that happened there back in 1900 and that feeling of dread and gloom permeating the place made sad and eerie sense.

We were back on the road by seven this morning. We needed to get an early start as today’s destination was Columbia MO, a 650 mile, 10 hour drive. I-70 goes right though Kansas City.  We also wanted to stop and have coffee with Roy. Even weeks before we left home, M. Lee and I discussed the possibility and decided the only way to do it would be to spend the night in KC. Stopping for an hour just wouldn't be enough and anyway, today’s drive was already too long. It was very disappointing but adding another night on the road just didn’t work with the rest of the schedule. We invited him to join us in DC instead. It would be great fun. We really hope he does. Who knows? Far-fetched perhaps but it could happen. We shall see.

Kansas points of interest:
8000 lb. prairie dog
World’s largest ball of twine
Kansas Barbed Wire Museum
Home of President D.D. Eisenhower

Day Two made better by pancakes and Louie C.K.

We stayed in Salina CO last night, had a veggie burger and fries at Denny's and today, after 537 miles, made it to Limon CO. The drive included a grueling passage over the Continental Divide during the tail end of a spring storm. Vail was closed which infuriated M. Lee. Skiers get crazy when they see fresh snow go to waste. At Grand Junction we left Hwy. 50 for Interstate 70 (sorry Roy) and tonight we're in what's left of Limon watching Louie C.K. after a pancake dinner at (where else?) Denny's. You know you're in a small town when photos of the high school prom court make the front page. Before leaving town we stopped at the thrift store and picked up a secondhand towel. We needed a throwaway.

Day One, the Loneliest Highway

Headed east, looking back. 

When Life magazine named Nevada's Hwy. 50 the "Loneliest Road in America"  back in 1986 its uninitiated urban editors meant it as an insult. They missed it all, the terrestrial beauty, the staggering silence and untamed sky. We took Hwy. 50 east this morning and, having spent a lot of summers past exploring the Great Basin, it was sweet like coming home. It is a place to disappear in. But today was not a time for that. Today was Day One of our cross-country road trip. Our first main stop will be New Vrindaban, West Virginia, two nights. I lived there many years ago. I am going back to reclaim my ghosts.

Spring fling

All afternoon there was a huge quail collective honeymoon party in the Bird Park, couples aglow with conjugal bliss strolling around nibbling seeds, lounging under budding lilacs, enjoying dirt baths and sunshine after a week of schizophrenic spring snows laced with taunting bright moments clouded over by bitter winds the next all to the tune of quail love songs trilled from rooftops and fence posts all around the neighborhood.

Spring in the desert.

Then there's Louie. Lonely Louie. He's here a lot since the hawk got his mate. He tries to mind his own business but every now and then some male suddenly takes an unprovoked run at him and he zig-zags through the couples as fast as he can go trying to escape. Poor Louie. I hope he meets a nice new lady quail soon. Quail mate for life but hey! The little guy deserves a break.

If you're a regular here, you might recognize Dwayne's giant green Indian Willow Tree o' Life in the background of the photo. This year the tree is more fabulous than ever. However Dwayne is not doing so well. Recently his son Tom had to whisk both him and Thera off to an assisted living facility. One day they were at home and the same day .... gone. Tom called me over to help. His dad was threatening to shoot him if he tried moving them so Tom wanted me to act as distraction so he could get the guns out of the house. I tried my best but when Dwayne saw Tome heading for the door with his arms full of weapons he looked at me and said, "You're with him. Traitor. Get out of my house". That was it. They were gone that day.

Tom, his two kids, their dog Roxy and Dwayne's cat Snooky live there now and poor Snooky has been demoted to the status of an outdoor cat. One of the kids has an allergy problem. Tom's been doing a lot of clean up and repairs around the place. He was even thinking about cutting down the willow (which we all love) but Dwayne asked him to spare it. He told me he agreed...for now. We all know what that means. In any case, sounds like Thera probably won't make it out of the care center but, if Dwayne's condition continues to improve, they've arranged for him move to a different residence and Snooky can join him there. Not exactly one of those "happily ever after endings" but it will have to do.

And we're leaving on Sunday for our trip back east. We're driving to DC then NYC then Florida for the summer. I'm packing and fretting and fretting about packing and going. The new, fabulous paper floor is done and the really cool studio is ready so off we go. Crazy, eh?

Sweet Lorraine's magic silver polishing trick

"It really works."
- Lorraine

Mostly I'm posting this (again?) for myself so I will have it. If nothing else, this blog is my file cabinet. But you can use it too. This very excellent, oh so easy, silver polishing trick even cleans the kind of silver jewelry with intricate designs that turn black deep down in the little crevasses and are impossible to reach. Compliments of dear sweet Lorraine. RIP my friend.




Ingredients:
1 tablespoon salt
1 tablespoon baking soda
1 sheet of aluminum foil
1 quart water

Add dry ingredients to 1 quart boiling water.
Submerge foil in water.
Drop silver onto foil.
Tarnish will immediately disappear.
Remove silver from water.
Place on drying cloth.
Allow to dry.
To enhance affect, gently rub silver but it's not necessary.
It will come out of the water shiny as new.*

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If you're thinking about trying this recipe out, I suggest you also check the comment section of this article. There are some interesting pro/con comments on this technique.

Living it up, Vegas style

 Plaza hotel parking lot, Las Vegas.

So tomorrow we go to Vegas. It's been awhile. M. Lee's mom is taking us to see the Cirque du Soleil at the Bellagio. The show is billed as an "aquatic masterpiece of surrealism and theatrical romance". Naturally, I'm conflicted. How can it be otherwise? Las Vegas squanders water at the expense of all surrounding natural life. It's beyond frivolous. It's insane. Too bad it's not a crime. Someday it probably will be. After the water wars. Plus, I don't have clothes for an event like this. But I'll enjoy it, even in jeans. I suppose that makes me a hypocrite. But still I will go. And anyway, how can I turn down my dear mother-in-outlaw? They say the show is really fabulous. A "life changing event". I'm sure the wild mountain lion cubs living 50 miles due north of the stage would agree.

Vegas 2005

Calving season and Paper Floor Update

Mr. Fancy Pants dining on a less fortunate member of the Bird Park

Word is out about the Bird Park. Mr. Fancy Pants must be talking. Lately a new hawk drops by to see what's on the menu nearly everyday. It's calving season and hawks come from all around for all the tasty afterbirth. In about two months they'll be gone though I suspect Mr. Fancy Pants is a local. He was here before the season started.

Bag 'o' floor.
Raw material for our new paper floor,
this and a whole lot of polyurethane.

I took three short videos of him devouring one the quail the other day but none are worth posting. They are all irritatingly shaky which irritates me all the more. Starting at the head, he ate the whole bird. One of the three videos jerks up and away just as he's pulling what looks like an organ out of the body. By the time he was done there was nothing left but feathers. About an hour later a covey of quail grazed through the scene but didn't seem to notice the carnage. However, since then, the quail have, for the most part, stayed away. Better they do for now but I miss them. The little birds still drop but don't stay long either. Without them, the bare trees outside my window look harsh and forlorn.

Emerging studio floor, formerly known as the living room

Inside the house is a different matter. M. Lee is plowing on with Project Paper Floor. It is the indoor fabulous Event of the Season. Currently, I am land locked in my office as he's papering the hallway and front entrance. If I want to get to the kitchen I have to go out the garage and around the house through the crunchy frozen snow, being careful not to walk on the door of the tool shed. Its three-sided shell still lays frozen to the ground across the yard where it was blown during the last wind storm. Redoing every floor in the entire house, including the closets, is a huge undertaking but it's looking great! And I have started dismantling my office, it being the Final Frontier. It is so overwhelming but little by little, right?

Studio done. Now on to the hall and entrance

Chalkboard

This evening M. Lee mentioned that I am like a person writing on a chalkboard with one hand while erasing with the other. How true.

Counting on autopay

I hassled most of the morning sorting out my utility bills. Most are autopay but my records were in the rears. That was bad enough, then there's the Gardnerville trash bill. The city of G'ville doesn't trust autopay. Way too fandangled for them. Customers have to use the most arcane system known to humankind .... memory. Yes. Yes. I have a reminder on my phone but I didn't have cell service in London or Paris so I forgot I even brought the damn thing, the battery died and my reminder along with it.

But before we left, remembering I have a horrible memory, I paid the trash bill in advance. But I forgot that, didn't I? So then I paid it again at the end of June. It's only due every three months but I forgot that too, so then I had credit. But  I didn't realize it. So, this morning, not having an amount to go by, I paid the bill again and added extra for good measure. Then, well then I panicked even further, thought I'd paid the wrong entity, and called the office.

Good ol' Marie answered. She and I have talked many times since the idiots down at city hall nixed autopay. I am now paid up into next year. I hope I remember that. And btw, Marie is always very nice, friendly, helpful...in case any of you retrograde nincompoops are reading this.

So M. Lee sent me this happy little video this morning which I would like to dedicate to Marie.

Another torn page

I posted a new excerpt at my poetry blog, anna sadhorse. I realize calling it an excerpt is pretty vague. Excerpt from what? At this point, it's nothing more than a page torn from the little black notebook I always carry. I hesitate to call it a poem. Maybe it's a bit from the autobiography I plan to write someday.

Five-thousand six hundred and fifty-three

That's how many photos I've taken on this trip so far. 

Honey, you've got a problem.

Well, it's an estimate really because that number

Jesus!

does not include the ones I've deleted.

Get some help. Vous êtes lunatique, ma chérie!

Five thousand is not that many.

Home of forty to fifty-thousand books

There are way more books at the Abbey in the Latin Quarter.

The difference between crows and magpies.

Here at the Bird Park crows jump down out of the air with a ground shaking, window rattling THUD, straighten their feathers, then assess the situation before committing to anything further. Magpies, on the other hand, careen out of the air, hit the ground running, taper off in a sometimes stumbling bounce to a brief pause before dashing off, grabbing a peanut or bit of kibble and flying away.

Predominantly Inattentive

That's me. Predominantly Inattentive. I keep going back to this because the term is a relatively new update to the ADHD thing and fits me like the proverbial missing piece. As for strategies for "afflicted adults"? Wikipedia covers that here.

If I could just call my mind back to attention with a dog whistle fine.... but I'd keeping changing where I keep the whistle and sometimes forget I have it at all. Which isn't to say ADHD-PI is the same as Alzheimers but hey, they're not mutually exclusive. Woo-hoo. On the other hand, maybe I should get a whistle.

Anyway, truth be told, the real reason I did this post today is because I wanted to use this photo again. I took a few years ago at Comma Coffee . The bits of mirror were, at the time, pasted on the wall. However now, in the light of the PI addition, it's really the most accurate photo I have of myself.

Now back to the tasks at hand.

Medium of communication

"Taking this as a warning, the superior man forestalls a violent collapse. If a man were to pile up riches for himself alone, without considering others, he would certainly experience a collapse. For all gathering is followed by dispersion. Therefore the superior man begins to distribute while he is accumulating." I Ching, Hexagram 43

I have been warned. Actually, "advised" is a better word and I am grateful for the nudge. The I Ching is a trusted mentor.

Of course, I understand if you dismiss any online "ancient Chinese oracle" as a mere computer game. When I first found it, I had my own reservations. I've consulted the I Ching for years but via the book and coins. I'm not a  purist. They don't even use coins, preferring instead traditional yarrow stocks but, tempted by convenience, I experimented with the online version and gradually it has become my main, go to, source. After all, binary code is just another medium of communication.

So, the question for which I received  Hexagram 43 (excerpt above) was, "Why is writing so hard for me?"

When Science becomes Art or 25 Ways to Tie a Scarf

I am a great fan of neck scarves but, until today, did not know the Science of the Well-Tied Scarf, then M. Lee sent me this delightful video in which Wendy turns science into art.

25 ways to tie a scarf

For more fashion wizardry check out Wendy's Lookbook and her YouTube site for some and cool hair tutorials.