Chats with Charley II

Late Monday Morning Chat Over Coffee

2010-01-26T05:49:00.000-08:00

Dashed out of my house the minute the plow had been down the country road. The day was planned. There were errands to run and a friend to meet. And no time to blog. But I did have a wonderful chatty time with my friend, Dianne, over Chinese buffet and down the aisles of Hobby Lobby, JoAnn fabrics, and Sam's Club.

But meanwhile the belated Monday Morning news. Lapping into Tuesday I suppose.

Last week's snow storm: Really a bit of a bust. Hit the west slopes or what is termed here in the highlands as the up slope. We did get some snow but minimal compared with last year and the two before.

This week's storm watch: This looks more serious. They are already targeting the east slopes (or down slope) where I live and talking about significant snow accumulations. As the snow pack in the mountains is essential to recharge our aquifers and very necessary for the health of the forest to abate forest fire potentials I have decided to be in favor of this storm on a guarded level. Still would like much of it to go to the drought ridden south of us. But no worries until late Wednesday.

Trip to Santa Fe: I had applied to be able to see a public document (actually my documents - the original application for building permit) and they called last week to tell me they were available for me to view. Could they mail the one page I asked for. No, no said they. So I drove down arranging to meet a friend from south of there for lunch. And upon arriving at the building to see my PUBLIC documents they would not mail was told they had mailed them the 21st. They are probably in the mail box on the road which I will check this morning.

But it was good to get out and stretch my city legs as it were and have a delightful time giggling with a friend. I also got yarn for a new cable knit sweater project, canvas for more paintings, 40 pounds of kitty litter for the purr kids and a lining material and a pattern to use this delightful brocade I have had for ages and make a lovely evening jacket. This should inspire me to get back to sewing this spring. (Sewing room is currently too chilly.)

This blog, Chats with Charley II, is my least visited of blogs and I have been considering taking it inactive and just moving Monday Morning Chat over Coffee (my one consistent blog I do here) to Sidetracked Charley which is more popular. And I may begin double posting there to prepare for that transition. I set this blog up for my Y!360 friends and as a place to archive some important blogs in my past. And now with most of my Yahoo Sisters on Facebook it seems Chats is really more just for me. My but how times do change.

Any strong opinions out there?

Monday Morning Chat Over Coffee - Catch up with status

2010-01-18T05:03:00.000-08:00

Magique and Mardi on a Runabout

The snow is melting off and the exposed ground has become rather powdery. A sign that we could use more moisture, but for the moment the dogs really love the almost spring like days. The big plus being that I take them for longer walks. Beginning tomorrow we have four days of rain and snow mix. Rain during the days which are scheduled to be in the 40's F. and snow at nights.

I had my trial date with the suit from the contractor from hell scheduled for this coming Wednesday but the court clerk messed up the judge's calendar and it had to be put off until March 19th. Driving weather to Raton (1 1/2 drive through a mountain pass and across a windswept plain) would not have been good. I did really want this over two year ordeal out of my life, but as we are all prepared for trial I essentially get a two month recess from the stress. Two months when I really, really need to paint and get ready for the summer art season.

The weather has also made me want to start on spring cleaning. My plan this year is to do it in stages - room at a time - instead of breaking my back in an attempt to do it all in a day or two. But then snow this week may kill this thorough cleaning urge. It does require in my mind the opening of windows and the airing of throw rugs, etc.

Monday Morning Chat Over Coffee - Internet Irritation

2010-01-11T05:52:00.000-08:00

I got so irritated with the Internet yesterday I signed off my computer! Everyone on Facebook was playing those silly little games. Yesterday it was pillow slams or something. I hate seeing my wall cluttered up with all that. Okay, I am a bit compulsive on my "blog" pages. And then all the comments on my blog about China on Travels with Charley careened off into me slamming teachers. NOT. And in spite of my expressed wish to not discuss the court case for the entire weekend everyone else seemed to want to. This obsession seemed to manifest itself in chats on FB or Yahoo messenger. Before I turned off the computer at mid day I had four chat windows open.

And people accusing me of ignoring them. And not heeding brb or brwy. I could not get off the computer fast enough. Nor did I get back on until this morning. And I am flying cloaked. My sister just called me to check that I was alive. Yes, I am alive but just acutely aware of the communication issues inherent with Mercury in Retrograde. Even Yahoo IM doesn't seem to understand my need to fly under the radar and keeps shutting down. When I bring it back up it of course wants me visible to the world.

Just a bit of notice to my friends. I am going to be flying low for a few days. I am not available for chats or am I welcoming those stupid things posted on my FB wall or those e-mails that have to be sent to 30 friends in 30 seconds. Nothing personal. My interests are just elsewhere at the moment.

Monday Morning Chat Over Coffee - Winter Depression

2010-01-04T06:08:00.000-08:00

I am depressed. The holidays can do that for you except in this particular instance I think the holidays have actually helped prevent me from being more depressed. Good times were had with friends and that helped lift my gloomy mood. The year just ended was a bummer for more than just me. I have cautious hopes for 2010 but January can be a real downer so I am working on a game plan to help.

This list of ten words that have been missing from my life lately came about on my gift of a totally private blog where I can journal privately and rant and rave. It seemed rather too good to not share.

Light. Sunshine where possible but actually turning on some of those low energy bulbs and making it not so dark before dawn.
Warmth. Turn a heater or two on now and then to bring up the temperature. Especially in the bedroom and the mornings on the computer. I have cut my kilowatt per day usage over last winter by 1/3rd and that has made only 7 cents savings.
De-clutter. I have been living in this little circle of light surrounded by mess and covered over with blankets. No room to move. All cornered in literally and emotionally.
Positive plan for January and the year ahead. This would be a good time to really explore subject matter in paintings. I have the canvas and the paints and just need to buy stretcher bars though I have quite a lot at the moment. So I need to entertain myself cheaply but still have projects to do. Creative de-cluttering would be another thing to put on the schedule.
Finances. Allow myself to "waste" on a special little gift to self from time to time. Come up with aggressive self-promotion plan to increase sales and earnings in my studio. Delete the word budget as it is very depressing.
Escape. Plan day trip out of valley and away from everything by myself (dependent upon weather and workability of vehicle).
Exercise. Some bit of it daily and three days a week longer workout. Get Yoga back at least once a week. Endorphins is a good why to improve ones mood.
Diet. Don't want to quit that though I realize it does cause stress. But being overweight is not helping mood either. So will continue to strive to lose weight but not beat myself up over not losing fast enough.
Think positive. Affirmations all around have worked in past. Reinstate this practice.
Play. Whether it is games on the computer or non-sense in the studio or a lunch out with friends

This list can be added to but if it gets too long it can be depressing in and of itself.And some of the things on it may not apply to you. But to begin the year in a positive fashion I encourage you to use this as a basis of your own list.

Do you suffer from winter or holiday depressions? What works for you?

Optimism - Word Thursday

2009-12-31T04:38:00.000-08:00

My father used to say, "If you can keep your head while all others around you are losing theirs you clearly don't understand the situation." He was the optimist? He used to optimistically get us into situations that triggered Mom's we-are-not-going-to-make-it gene. Us kids, caught in the back seat as the car ran dangerously close to out of gas miles from civilization, or trailing behind in a force march out of our favorite fishing hole with the temperatures soaring to above 100, or in our bedrooms listening to fights over money were just literally along for the ride.

I have learned to whistle in the dark but firmly believe the light at the end of the tunnel has a good chance of being a freight train. I keep waiting for my ship to come in while debating to swim out after it. But in my heart of hearts I am afraid of sharks. And I have read about the Lusitania and the Titanic.

Optimism comes from the Latin word optimus, meaning "best," which describes how an optimistic person is always looking for the best in any situation and expecting good things to happen. Optimism is the tendency to believe, expect or hope that things will turn out well. Even if something bad happens, like the loss of a job, an optimist sees the silver lining.

I can be very optimistic from time to time. And I believe in the power of positive thinking though I know that did not work for the builders and passengers of the Titanic. I always hope on New Year's eve that the year ahead will be better than the last. But since Christmas Eve 2001 it has been one long struggle after another to avoid that train in the tunnel. I have fought to get the doctors to believe something was seriously wrong, I fought for worker's compensation and then Social Security Disability, and bankruptcy so I could keep my home and not the debts incurred while not working - just living from day to day. Then the contractor from hell. I am frankly rather tired of fighting.

But I read my yearly horoscope this morning to try and find some reason to believe the dot on the horizon might be my ship coming in and not a swarm of locus. My trials over the last eight years seem to all be about the now non-planet of Pluto.

Gemini is one of the few Sun signs that doesn't have an animal symbol, but this may be the year that all of that changes. In the past few years, with Pluto opposing your sign, you've been a little like a monkey, swinging from branch to branch trying desperately to keep one step ahead of the predators and keep yourself fed. With Pluto now moved on into Capricorn, a lot of the major partnership issues you've faced will be lightening up. You'll still retain the swing, but this year you're going to feel a lot more like a hummingbird: still mobile, still getting things done, but in a much more elegant manner.

Your renowned intellect has been strained the last couple of years, as it's been forced to find solutions to the many issues you've been dealt. In 2010, you'll finally be gaining some traction on your biggest challenges, and solutions will flow to you with ease.

And my career and financial path seems to be upward mobile for the first half of the year. So dare I hope as I wave goodbye to 2009 that 2010 will be a better year? Or is that being overly optimistic? Foolhardy even?

Where do you fall on this time-space continuum?

Monday Morning Chat - Not Where I Thought I Would Be

2009-12-28T06:14:00.000-08:00

The clock is ticking down to the final days, hours and minutes of 2009. I am always of a reflective mood this time of the year. And it occurs to me that this year I had really thought I would be further along than I am. I wanted to have the lawsuit from the contractor-from-hell over and done (it has been more than two years now), and I wanted to be showing some in impressive income from my studio. But I think the economy got in the way on that last.

On the upside I survived 2009 financially. Just barely at times but I am still able to pay bills. I completed my Chapter 13 early which helped this fall. And I started a small pet and house sitting business which has added some extra income which I think will build. And I have had steady sales of art. The past year also included two Best of Show awards giving me a total of three within the last two years. Validation that I am on the correct tract with my art. And further validation was found in those clients which have purchased a second and third piece.

But I really wanted the mechanic's lien over with. My legal aid attorneys offered a settlement where no money changes hands but he has not snatched it up. There is a telephone hearing this morning on discovery. Hopefully the judge will just cut through all the crap and issue a summary judgment. Keep your fingers crossed. This lien has so handicapped me financially. And made it so I do not want to do any enhancement of my house even where there is only sweat equity involved.

I am still, however, developing plans for 2010. One cannot continue to live without hope and plans. Now if just those things I have no control over like the economy and the legal system and the weather will cooperate it could be a very rosy new year.

How was 2009 for you and do you have plans and hopes for 2010?

May All the Blessings of the Season be Yours

2009-12-25T05:43:00.000-08:00

And may Santa have brought you all you wished for even if you were not on the best of behavior this year. I know I wasn't. And will 2010 be exceptionally wonderful for all of us.

Monday Morning Chat Over Coffee - Happy Yule to You

2009-12-21T04:21:00.000-08:00

Let There Be Light

I must admit the increasingly dark days were really getting to me this year. Maybe because with my dependency upon passive solar for warmth it also seemed increasingly cold in my house even with the wood burning stove. I successfully battled my desire to turn on the heat (ergo up the electric bills) but found myself wanting to just snuggle down in my easy chair and remain there all day despite the warmth of the wood stove. Is this response to less sunlight each day some genetic memory? Are we closer to hibernating bears than we want to admit?

Knowing that today was Winter Solstice or Yule I got up in a brighter frame of mind (even facing the shortest day of the year.) I rekindled my fire, lit the candles, and turned on the juice to the Yule tree. Let there be light. Tomorrow there will be more sunlight even though it is scheduled to be concealed in my neck of the woods behind increasing clouds bringing rain and then snow in the late afternoon. Even the possibility of snow is less depressing knowing that the days will be getting increasingly longer.

MMCOC usually includes updates on my life in general. No news on the settlement with the contractor. It has been 11 days since my attorneys made the offer for him to drop it. Since we were dropping the counter suit if he did I expected him to jump at the chance but then nothing he has done in this whole miserable affair has been expected.

After the incident of the dogs barking in the night covered in Sidetracked Charley I located all my security measures and repositioned them for more easy access. I have obviously gotten lazy with my stalker going silent for so long. Evidently the reason for the dogs barking was the arrival of vacationers at the house across the street. They really are a great alarm system.

I will be spending Christmas Day at my friend Jessica's house. She is a jeweler and we are going to spend time in her studio folding metal. I think I will spend part of today making a chain from some silver wire I bought months ago. Creation is a good way to celebrate Yule.

How is your winter going? Do the short days and long night depress you?

Word Thursday - Predestined

2009-12-17T05:54:00.000-08:00

Do you believe that the future is set? Maybe just a little bit if not totally. My mother, at one time in her life, was a firm believer in predestination - established or prearranged unalterably; "his place in history was foreordained"; "a sense of predestinate inevitability about it"; "it seemed predestined since the beginning of the world."

A rather fatalistic view I must admit. I fight that view of my future. Or my past. And yet I don't sit comfortably in a world shaped totally by free will. I dabble with belief in karma - the total effect of a person's actions and conduct during the successive phases of the person's existence, regarded as determining the person's destiny.

It is that "determining the person's destiny" which makes it a bit different than predestination. It allows for some free choice in response to a set of circumstances and ergo some control over our ultimate fate. When I laid on the snow following the ski accident I have this clear memory of looking down on my body and knowing I had to go back and that it would hurt like hell.

For four hours I did not know my name and there are to this day some eight years later this Christmas Eve whole blocks of time I have no memory of and yet I have never wavered in my belief that it was "ordained" to happen. And the free will part was what I did with it.

Do you believe things happen for a reason? I must admit I don't at times. I charge ahead as if I have total control of my life. And yet there are times (usually when I sit quietly and meditate) that I know things are as they should be. Some consciousness in the universe is just waiting for me to see the paths available for me to take. And depending upon my path there will be other choices. Other people to meet that I have the feeling I have met before. Are there, like in StarTrek, alternate time lines developed because of other paths taken?

Monday Morning Chat - Where has the time gone?

2009-12-14T05:29:00.000-08:00

The holiday market wrapped up after Thanksgiving and time, with no clear direction, seemed to stretch ahead uncluttered with must do's. I think I am programmed by years of education which always provided this wonderful two to three week vacation at the end of the year. Real life is seldom like that these days even when you don't do Christmas. Well, there is the tree. That I do. But it is essentially done. Though I will collect new ornaments for it through the after Christmas sales.

My sister is working the holidays so she won't be up. But I have pet sitting gigs and am taking care of a house with guests coming and going there to orchestrate. And there is the 6th Anniversary of Artspace Gallery in Angel Fire to cater. Fortunately I am not part of the party set in Angel Fire so my festive requirements will end there. I have decided to forgo a holiday open house at the studio and concentrate on a spring opening instead.

But there are the end dregs of the lawsuit (keep your fingers crossed as the contractor from hell has not accepted his lawyer's engineered out yet) and research for my lobby efforts in Santa Fe in January to change the Mechanic Lien laws in New Mexico. And January is when selection for most of the shows in 2010 will happen and I need new images - ergo new paintings. And going to the gallery website for the url for the link alerted me to the fact my images are passe there which means they are likely in need of updating on my own website.

Is December just too busy for you too? Would you like to run and hide?

There Is a Happy Ending Ahead

2009-12-09T17:05:00.000-08:00

With the ground covered with snow and the temperatures heading toward -5F tonight I had to put that lovely butterfly at the beginning of this blog. Things are looking up. I got a call from my legal aid attorney and it looks like the opposing side is going to dismiss their case and release the lien on my house. Looks like it is going to be a Happy New Year after all. But a busy one.

Our state legislature holds its session in January and I am going to dive into the lobbying effort to change the laws governing mechanics liens and the licensing of contractors in this state. I have a few names of influential members of each house and I am beginning there and with the licensed lobbyists. So lots of research time on the internet looking up all the where and wherefores.

And a Facebook friend suggested a group on that site to gather experiences of others in New Mexico caught on the horns of this horrid state of affairs. And I would also like to hear from those in other states that think their state has it right when it comes to dealing with building contractors and mechanics liens. All constructive input appreciated.

Monday Morning Chat - Snow Coming?

2009-12-07T04:59:00.000-08:00

The above image was taken last year around Christmas. That snow storm engendered fear in the hearts of the residents of my area because of the two previous winters when we broke all records; including one snow that over three days accumulated over 6 feet. Last year this was our deepest snow but we all were suffering from PTSD and every flake struck us numb.

Thus far this winter has been mild. In fact the ski areas have had difficulty making snow up until the last week. This Friday the Angel Fire Resort is suppose to open their season. All the retailers in town are nervous. So very much of our revenue depends upon tourist dollars and that means skiers. Though frankly they don't spend that much off the slopes. Skiing has become so expensive and the economy so sucks they are inclined to ski and then head for the condo to cook dinner. The non-skiers in the parties do, however, feel they have a right to spend as much shopping as the others spend skiing so there is that possibility of a Merry Christmas for shops.

So the current winter storm watch is viewed with very mixed emotions at the moment. I frankly am all in favor of anything less than a foot. We need the moisture and a foot of snow is not difficult to shovel. However, when they toss around things like "one to two feet above 9500 lowering to 7500 overnight" I am filled with dread. And memories of that 100 inches of snow in one month that never seemed to melt and just drifted into ever and ever larger piles. At one point I could have put boards across the piles on each side of my driveway and made a garage.

You couldn't just hire a man with a plow on the front of his pickup to clear your drive. Front end loaders became really in demand and charged $100 to take the snow piles back from your driveway. Shades of being snowed in one winter in Aspen. Only Aspen knows how to handle it and we don't - or didn't. We are used to snow storms that dump and move on allowing warmer temperatures to melt it off before the next one comes. Ski areas have to work at keeping it. I want those sort of winters back.

But sitting here reading the winter storm warnings I can only dread the possible return of the winters from hell. I have wood. I know where my snow shovel is. And the snowshoes (not just a winter sport when the snow gets to 2 feet). And the telephone number of the man with the plow is on the fridge. However, I keep hoping the weather forecasters are again wrong and this storm will take a more southern track. They're having a drought south. They could use and even love two feet of snow. I could cherish 6 inches tops.

Word Thursday - Apology

2009-12-03T04:53:00.000-08:00

I thought I would clear up the matter of the apology but it seems to have only gotten more murky. There seems to be a lot of apologizing going on lately. Tiger Woods in my opinion gave a very honest apology. I frankly believe he even assumed fault that was not his. very gallant thing to do. He offered no excuses - like maybe the breaking out of the back windows by his angry wife with the golf club caused the accident instead of rescuing him.

Gov. Sanford (remember him of the affair heard around the world) did not in my opinion apologize all that well. He merely provided everyone with excuses. All inadequate in the eyes of the law when he stands before his peers on ethic charges.

So I Googled the definition of apology. It is after all Word Thursday: APOLOGY

An acknowledgment expressing regret or asking pardon for a fault or offense.
1. A formal justification or defense.
2. An explanation or excuse: "The consequence of those measures will be the best apology for my conduct" (Daniel Defoe).
An inferior substitute: The sagging cot was a poor apology for a bed.

I was frankly shocked at definintion number 2. That to me is not an apology but an excuse. So I looked up excuse.

accept an excuse for; "Please excuse my dirty hands"
grant exemption or release to; "Please excuse me from this class"
serve as a reason or cause or justification of; "Your need to sleep late does not excuse your late arrival at work"; "Her recent divorce may explain her reluctance to date again"
apologize: defend, explain, clear away, or make excuses for by reasoning; "rationalize the child's seemingly crazy behavior"; "he rationalized his lack of success"
a defense of some offensive behavior or some failure to keep a promise etc.; "he kept finding excuses to stay"; "every day he had a new alibi for ...
ask for permission to be released from an engagement
a note explaining an absence; "he had to get his mother to write an excuse for him"
excuse, overlook, or make allowances for; be lenient with; "excuse someone's behavior"; "She condoned her husband's occasional infidelities"
apology: a poor example; "it was an apology for a meal"; "a poor excuse for an automobile"

That was shocking. It seemed to say apology and excuse were interchangeable. So I googled more definitions for apology and in some instances what I consider an excuse is actually definition 1 and not 2. Is this because of current usage. Is there now now difference between an apology and an excuse? Sad state of affairs.

My father used to always stare us down when in the dock for some misadventure. "I want an apology and not an excuse," he would say. "If I wanted an excuse I would have asked for one." He clearly saw a difference. Do you?

Wish I was on 360 so I could insert a poll at this point.

Tuesday Twitterings

2009-12-01T05:12:00.000-08:00

Tomorrow is the Full Cold Moon. I am trying to remind myself that in 20 days the earth will be blessed with increasingly longer days. The winter solstice tree is almost totally decorated. Yes, some of you think of it as a Christmas tree. I am tweeking things now. Attempting to make it perfect. I bought some new ornaments yesterday when I am in town, and in spite of being exhausted had to put them on. I love the smell of fresh pine in my house. And when you go into the National Forest (about three miles from my house) to get your tree they are definitely fresh.

I have now gone to the gym in Taos four Monday's in a roll. I am trying to get back into the swing of loving to exercise. It is in many ways a mind game. Today's exercise will be going up and down the ladder to rehang paintings I took down for the fair. Then it is clean up the studio and try to make a decision about an "open house" sometime in December. Part of me would love to just crawl into my cave and not talk to anyone till spring.

I also want to spend some quiet time to get back into writing poetry. It has been some months since I have actually posted one of my own on Creative Journey's Poetry Wednesday. The sun will be streaming through the studio windows today (Thursday is snow and a high of 18F - low of zero) so I should enjoy it while I can. I have been so busy preparing for the holiday show and Thanksgiving guests. Knowing I am skipping Christmas entirely gives me a real sense of freedom to just do what I want. My gift to me.

January demands a whole new set of digital images of paintings for entry into various fairs in 2010. And I would love to get the triptych done as one of those images. Now is the time to allow myself space to be highly creative.

Black Friday.

2009-11-27T03:46:00.000-08:00

I hate the holidays. And all through my life this time of year seems to conspire to prove my dislike is correctly placed. They did it again and we are only at the beginning of the season. There is a whole other month to be gotten through.

As a kid I could never quite understand why everyone was trying so very hard to be jolly after you had heard your mother crying half the night. And underneath all the happy was all this tension. Everyone tiptoeing around to avoid a fight when being forced to see people they ordinarily didn't see, and be nice to people they were badmouthing just the week before they got the letter Aunt Louise was expecting everyone for Thanksgiving dinner.

The adults always drunk too much, you had to be nice to your obnoxious cousins, let your aunts with too much make up kiss you, put up with cousin Bruce of the roaming hands, dress in uncomfortable clothes, be grateful for gifts you thought you had long outgrown, worry that you were using proper etiquette at the table and thanked everyone you needed to thank.

And adulthood just makes it all worse. You spend money you shouldn't spend and don't even have, toil all day cooking food you would not ordinarily eat and which will vanish in twenty minutes, tap dance around subjects that come up for demolition year after year, dress up and go places when you want to curl up with a good book and ignore the world. And once again find yourself apologizing for something you said at 3 in the morning when ordinarily you would have been asleep.

And I always end up apologizing for something. Nobody every apologizes to me. It is always me that is expected to say I am sorry even when I am not sure what I did wrong. Well, here it is everyone: the blanket apology. I hate the holidays! I hate them so much. I hated them before Mom died on Thanksgiving Day and I had the ski accident that changed my entire world on Christmas Eve. And I especially hate that I have to pretend I like them. So I AM SORRY for anything I do wrong between now and the middle of January.

All that said I have a refrigerator full of food bought with the money I needed to pay the auto insurance in 12 days. I am up at an absurd time worrying about my sister that left here unable to breathe because of an illness she had not mentioned. And to make matters worse she was angry at me because of something I said about the dogs. (I am NOT responsible for what I say at 3 a.m. It is one of the reasons I stopped going to bars. Some part of my rational brain does not work at that hour. When is everyone going to get that?) And in four hours I have to be bright eyed and bushy tailed and smile at everyone for two days at a Holiday Market. This is real important because I need to earn back the auto insurance money I spent. And tonight I have to attend a reception at the gallery that represents my work.

What I really want to do is jump in bed, assume the prenatal position, and sleep till February. Stress is when you have to say one thing while your mind is screaming another. No wonder the suicide rate is so high this time of year. I am sorry but I wish the grinch had succeeded in stealing Christmas. And I think Black Friday is a perfect name for the day after Thanksgiving but not for any of the reasons the merchants think.

PS: I will be thankful when this is all over. And if I haven't been around to read and comment on your happy holidays or I am thankful post I apologize for that too.

Monday Morning Chat Over Coffee - Guests Coming

2009-11-23T05:51:00.000-08:00

Thanksgiving is this week in case you have not noticed or you live in a country other than the United States. I usually glide past this holiday madly preparing for the Holiday Market this weekend. But last year my sister and I with her husband and the jeep started a new Thanksgiving tradition - the slaughter of helpless conifers.

Our national forests sell tree hunting permits about this time every year. I am going over to pick up ours today at the Carson National Forest headquarters. They are $5 to $15 a tree depending on how big you think you want and can tote back. Debbie and Alan are coming up Thanksgiving day for the the second annual evergreen sacrifice. Hey, it isn't as ungreen as it sounds. It helps thin the forests and lessen the fuel load for fires in the summer months. And it increases areas where grass can grow and elks can graze. Most that partake in this bounty are forest lovers. A lot of thought not only goes into selecting the trees but selecting them where they won't be missed and in fact benefit other trees around them. When forests get to think the trees get sick.

Dianne, my good friend of decades, is also coming up for the extended weekend. She is arriving on Wednesday to help me set up for the fair. And knowing Dianne, clean up for Alan and Debbie. So nice I have not rented the apartment and have it furnished with beds and chairs. It is my guest house at the moment. I will open the connecting doors so all can come and go.

But things remain to be done like clearing off the library table where Debbie sets her laptop while here. And my studio desk where Alan locates his laptop. And there is the kitchen table that serves as a laundry folding area. The folded laundry needs to move as this is the gaming area. Once all the art I am taking to the fair is out of the studio I am setting up a folding table there for the big meals.

I have the fair on Friday and Saturday and so we will likely do the search for the perfect trees on Thanksgiving afternoon while the bird roasts if it ever thaws. Does that 3-4 days in your refrigerator thing work for you? Wednesday it goes on the kitchen counter! Friday evening my tree will be decorated by all. It will be so much fun to get out the boxes of ornaments I lovingly stored last year. And I remember where this year!

What are your plans for this week?

Hopeful Dawn

2009-11-19T04:35:00.000-08:00

Some of my more faithful followers from the Y!360 days know that I have been battling with the contractor that built my studio in part. That struggle has been going on for over two years now. This last week it consumed two of my days because of the necessity to depose one of my witnesses. The good news is that deposition went very well and my attorneys now feel hopeful I will not lose my house. I was asked to give them an idea of my dream settlement.

First thought: Give me a release of lien and get the hell out of my life.

But it got me thinking about all the hell he has put me through. And that led to a review of my life. Eight years ago this Christmas Eve I got the bad end of a ski accident. I suffered three compressed cervical disks and a closed brain trauma. I struggled with the recovery from that for two and a half years and could never get a cent out of the reckless young man that slammed into me. I crashed my mask making business. But I began to paint.

Being unable to work, losing the business income, led to excessive use of credit while I fought for two years to get Social Security disability. The good news is with the help of a wonderful SS Advocate I won that battle. That is when I came up with the plan to build my studio so I could paint, and teach and sell without leaving home. Enter the contractor from hell.

The good news is I have my lovely studio even though I had to finish it myself as those that follow my blogs know. The bad news is the contractor has been trying to foreclose on my house and have it sold to pay his unsubstantiated claims. And to add spice to life there was the stalker from my past.

I was reading the blog of a friend this morning as she talked about her struggles to get free of an abusive husband. It puts you life on hold. You cannot make plans, cannot commit to a new future, cannot feel safe and secure even within your domicile. Legal issues against irrational people can rob you of joy. So what would be the dream settlement for such a crime?

There used to be this cartoon feature in the Sunday paper when I was a kid: Halto's History. He would design his own comic hell for various offenders of his sensibilities. There should be a special place to send those that rob other people of their joy and freedom. Unfortunately all we have is an overburdened and sadly inadequate court system. Even if I win my counter suit against this animal the chances I will collect are slim to none.

But it looks like maybe at last I can at last get him out of my life and move on. But I have seen too many Friday the 13th movies to believe in the death of monsters.

Monday Morning Chat Over Coffee

2009-11-16T04:18:00.000-08:00

I spend a lot of time on Facebook these days but you really cannot sum you life up in small status snippets all the time. Once a blogger always a blogger I suppose, so pour a cup of coffee and let's chat.

Last week was a busy one, and I wish I could say I got everything done I wanted to get done. But I did get four new paintings completed (two still need to be framed) making currently a total of eight new ones for the holiday market a week from this Friday. To check them out go to Creative Journey. One of my other blogs.

I also attended a cooking class at the Taos School of Cooking on how to cook winter squash. That was Thursday and on Saturday I tried out my new skills with a lovely squash based vegetable soup. Yummy. Monday was back to the spa with a friend and trying to get back into the routine of hard exercise. Tuesday a yoga class. Okay, I didn't get a lot of painting done because I was out playing around too much, but the weekend brought snow which was not as much as forecast but it kept me inside my studio.

I wanted to put nose to the grindstone this week but the lawsuit from the contractor-from-hell is preventing that. Today I must go into the Legal Aid office and help them prepare one of my witnesses for his deposition on Tuesday. And Tuesday I have to hang around there to be available should questions arise during the deposition. November 4th was two years since he had filed the lien on my property. Why cannot he just go away?

On the plus side I have been doing some monitoring of temperatures in my studio and house during this cold streak (currently 12 F) with not much sunshine in three days. The wood stove seems to keep everything quite cozy. And the house holds a good temperature even without the fire going. The hit and miss passive solar yesterday kept the studio a workable temperature even without a fire going. My goal is to use as little supplimental electric heat as possible this winter.

Saving kilowatts makes sense not merely in the pocket book (the electric coop bills last winter were awful) but it is the green thing to do. Due to the snows I did have to use my electric dryer on Saturday. Tried to catch a sunny window between storms and got caught. But once in four months is not bad.

What are you doing to save money this winter? And to be more green?

Where did time go?

2009-11-11T03:45:00.000-08:00

Alice went through the looking glass or down the hole following the White Rabbit and met all manner of creatures which wasted her time. She was suppose to be studying as her tutor directed. And I was suppose to be painting more paintings for the Holiday Market, and taking advantage of the wonderful weather to finish my fall chores before winter settles in.

But I followed the White Rabbit down the hole in time and discovered all sorts of diversions upon which to "waste my time." Mother would have said, "You need to focus." My teachers always had that little note on my report cards, "Does not use time wisely." Or "fails to pay attention in class." But I am a self-starter. I just sometimes start on the wrong things at the wrong time. I run with scissors.

I can look back at the last several days and remand myself for not applying my energies correctly. But I can also see that I really needed to run, skip and play. And there is one more day of play ahead of me - tomorrow's cooking class with friends in Taos. But it is also just two weeks before I set up for the Holiday Market and paintings are not done let alone framed. And Friday we are scheduled for a mix of rain and snow. Time to attend to the matters at hand and put my nose to the grindstone. Fortunately, I am good at playing catch up. I had to be since I always lagged behind studying rocks as others hiked ahead.

So do you pick a steady pace, keep to schedule, moderate your activities? Or do you like Alice follow a rabbit down a hole in time to find you are all so late?

My WOW! List

2009-11-04T10:56:00.000-08:00

I like to read my horoscope as sort of an exercise. I am not all that sure I believe in horoscopes. I really only pay attention if they are predictions of doom or cautionary advise. The doom predictions usually get me to stay home but I would not cancel a cruise. Cautionary advise is always good. I absolutely do not believe I am meeting Mr. Right at the grocery store today or any day. But I take seriously Mercury in Retrograde.

My horoscope for today said:

The positive cosmic energy is flowing your way at a rate that would be alarming if it weren't so good. You'll encounter great opportunities to turn big ideas and beautiful dreams into reality, so make a list of what you want this season to bring.

I posted this in Facebook and one of my long time blogging friends said: Wow! So I immediately began work on my WOW! List. Because I do believe in WOW! lists. I have made them or decades and sooner or later, in one fashion or another the things on my lists are achieved. The studio was on my WOW! list from a dozen years ago.

I have lately fallen out of the habit of making lists of anything other than what I have to accomplish. And doing this list today kept me from doing a couple things on today's list of todo's. But I am feeling jazzed about my list. I wrote it down in my journal and will refine it over the next few days.

Do you have a WOW! list? Thinks that would just put you at the top of the world if they happened? I think we all should. Write what you want down. And hold it close to your heart.

This is About Avatars

2009-11-01T13:05:00.000-08:00

Those that knew me from my Y!360 days will recognize Charley, my first serious avatar. We changed avatars a lot in those early blogging days so I had a whole folder for avatars in My Pictures on my computer. I was reminded of this recently on Facebook as Halloween approached. On Y!360 we had a holiday appropriate avatar so I changed to my witchy photo for a couple weeks.

Boy, that was a weird experience. Remember how you felt in high school when you wore something totally out of style per your peers. Made it even worse when you happened to really love that blouse. That is how I felt with my holiday appropriate avatar on all to serious-about-avatars Facebook. Everyone uses their real face! How dumb (and oh, so boring) is that? I still have not adjusted to using my real name there. Though to be totally honest I am far from anonymous on the Internet. The first time I Googled my name I scared myself to death.

Anyway I have a Turkey all picked out for Thanksgiving, like it or not Facebook. Meanwhile, I decided maybe it was time to do something about having a decent face shot to use. One without a ski cap and a dog. Everytime I win a prize for paintings I am asked for a publicity shot. My sister takes marvelous photos but when she is up I seem to be in front of a camera standing waist deep in a mud puddle we just got the jeep out of.

So I decided today to mount the camera on its tripod and take some photos of myself. I won't be self conscious in front of me right? Anyway this requires the self timer mode on my Nikon D70. I have done it before but how seems to escape me every time I want to do it again. So I go hunting for the manual. Then I have to remember what it is called in the manual. I always think of it as shutter delay but that is a problem that needs solved not a mode you prefer to use.

So I finally got it all together and took almost 70 pictures. There might be one or two I can use after running them through Photoshop and using the artistic blur or something. So stay tuned to Facebook or any of my blogs to see the results in a day or two.

Frankly I really love Charley above or the masked lady I have on Profiles. Why do I have to get real?

Monday Morning Chat - A day late

2009-10-27T04:26:00.000-07:00

Trips out of town always seem to require one more day beyond the one more day you took. And the older I get the harder it is to hit the ground running when I get home. And the longer you were gone the faster you have to run to catch up.

We got 9 inches of snow the night before my return home. It is one of the reasons I stayed an extra day. I wanted them to have the roads cleared before I topped the pass into my valley. And they did. It did look like a winter wonderland but the dogs were sleeping peacefully in the back seat and I did not want to wake them to immortalize the early snow. Besides why encourage it?

Temperatures were already melting it off driveways and country roads. And you could hear the breaking of tree branches from the weight of it. Nature's way of pruning. I had to shovel my walkway to get the car unloaded. In addition to supplies I bought I had New Mexico travertine tile my friend gave me to skirt the wood stove in the rental unit. I tired before unloading the pieces of it I am doing a tea table with. Laundry awaits to be done and hung in the warm temperatures and sun today before the next snow storm hits.

And there are the two boxes of clothes I got from my sister. She was doing some extreme sorting for a garage sale and a move. She buys good quality clothes so taking home castoffs is a joy. One box is old t-shirts to cut and crochet into a rag rug. All this means I have to do some sorting myself to make room. But first today is about catching up here at home and doing the out of house tasks the next two days of more snow might make a bit difficult: grocery store, pet sit client visit, check on house I am sitting, post office to mail painting, restock firewood on porch, unload rest of car.

I think I am looking forward to being snowed in for two days. Sounds restful. Nothing like being out of Dodge to make you appreciate Dodge.

Word Thursday - Aesthete

2009-10-22T05:29:00.000-07:00

My word for today came on my dictionary module on My Yahoo. I like learning new words or renewing my acquaintance with words I once used but have lost touch with. My word for today falls into that latter category. Aesthete is a perfectly good word but it has gone out of favor since the days of President Richard Nixon and his Vice President Spiro Agnew. It became popular at that time to be rude, crude and socially unacceptable. A fine tradition what was revived and honed by G.W.Bush.

The word aesthete began to take on the darker parts of its definition - dilettante, professes to have, and indifference to practical matters. Artists and people that had a sensitivity to beauty were seen to be light in the loafers or of little use. Art itself was devalued. Beauty had value only if it could be mass produced in China and marketed at Wal-Mart.

A funny thing has happened as we have waded through the economic crisis, and as an artist (an aesthete) I have noticed, people seem to be returning to a love of beauty over quantity or just drinking in the beauty at galleries or tops of mountains or owning one small piece of art they truly love. Consumer is becoming a bad word and aesthete is once again taking on its good definitions.

aes⋅thete

–noun

1.	a person who has or professes to have refined sensitivity toward the beauties of art or nature.

2.	a person who affects great love of art, music, poetry, etc., and indifference to practical matters.

Also, esthete.

Origin:
1880–85; < Gk aisthēts one who perceives, equiv. to aisthē- (var. s. of aisthánesthai to perceive) + -tēs n. suffix denoting agent

Synonyms:
1. connoisseur. 2. dilettante.

Monday Morning Chat - Winter Preparations

2009-10-19T05:31:00.000-07:00

Almost two months ago I ordered three cords of firewood from my auto mechanic. He is very successful at fixing cars including mine but he is also one of those go-getters you find up here in the highlands that does other things to supplement his income. Selling firewood is one. And leading wild game hunts is another. Yesterday he called to say he had two cords of my wood. He wanted to deliver them before hunting guide season begins in earnest.

Couldn't have come at a better time. Weather is nice and soon to turn bad. So with some hard work I can get it stacked in my woodshed and under cover and behind locks before the rains come. This is my fall aerobics program. That and putting up/repairing snow fencing. The good news from my labors over the weekend is I seem to at last be hale and hearty. The flu I had this April/May (I truly believe it was H1N1) knocked me for a loop. The good news is I probably have a real good immunity for the coming flu season.

I helped unload the two cords of wood into a huge pile and then my neighbor, who also got firewood, and I went off to have a Chinese dinner. My other task for the weekend (besides the fencing on Saturday) was making myself an under-window bird feeder for the studio.

By removing the screen on the louvered window at bottom I can even feed the birdies without putting on snow boots this winter. And maybe even get some great photographs of my winter visitors if I keep the window clean.

I also collected some downed Ponderosa Pine Cones to make into fire starters but currently they are just too beautiful to burn and are decorating the wood stove while they dry and open up so they will hold more wax.

Needless to say they are very quickly going to have to move off the wood burning stove. The will be rolled in remains of candles melted down and then stored in a metal container for the winter of fires ahead. I do love this time of year even if it is a lot of work. There is a sense of accomplishment and well being with storing up for the winter. I suppose that is a hang over from our hunting and gathering, living in cave days.

How are your cave storage preparations coming?

Friday Foto and Chat

2009-10-16T05:34:00.001-07:00

This is Eci in the sun in my studio. Eci is one of the two cats I got from my friend Kathi before she died. It has not been easy to integrate Eci and Lily into my household. They are Siamese if you please. And I already have one Siamese among my purr kids - The Darkness.

While Lily remains stuck to her upstairs self-imposed restrictions, Eci is now downstairs the majority of the day time. This does still result in fights over the primo sunspot chairs but all in all it is working better than I had hoped in the midst of this battle when I regreted taking them.

I tried an experiment with Lily of not filling her upstairs food bowl in a timely manner and she ventured downstairs to the "public" feeder. I am wondering about totally stopping her own private bowl. I do think Eci does go up there to feed too from time to time. And he sleeps upstairs with Lily.

It is so hard to know what to do with cats. And I got sidetracked with the dog issue there for a while. Any thoughts?

Word Thursday - Getting Out of Dodge?

2009-10-15T04:54:00.000-07:00

This is my version for the week of Word Thursday. Getting out of Dodge is one of my favorite phrases for when it seems necessary for my mental health to leave my little valley. I have been trying to get out of Dodge for two weeks now and things keep coming up like memorial services and pet sitting gigs and legal appointments. I am settling this morning for going over the pass to shop for necessities in Taos, but a longer sojourn seems impossible at this time.

This morning I began to wonder from where came this phrase of mine so I Googled it. And the Urban Dictionary says: "Get the hell out of Dodge" is a reference to Dodge City, Kansas, which was a favorite location for westerns in the early to mid 20th century. Most memorably, the phrase was made famous by the TV show "Gunsmoke," in which villians were often commanded to "get the hell out of Dodge."

The phrase took on its current meaning in the 1960s and 70s when teenagers began to use it in its current form of meaning - just leave and leave soon. For me it means I desperately need a change of scene. And I can even use it to mean get out of myself; stop obsessing over an issue.

A metaphysical friend of mine maintains that there is something to getting out of Dodge that does change the mindset. Going ten miles or crossing a natural barrier such as a river, mountain pass, or geological fault can change the energy. So lacking the time this week to go see my sister and best friend for a few days I will instead content myself by going over the mountains to Taos and roaming the aisles of the grocery store.

The above photo is of Dodge City, Kansas in 1870. And if history is correct there were a lot of reasons in those days for getting out of Dodge which was the destination for many a cattle drive because it was where the trains came. It had a lot of saloons and law enforcement issues.

Sunday Afternoon Chat with friends

2009-10-11T13:23:00.001-07:00

I got up this morning fully intending to write a blog. Was even going to write an Art Sunday one. Then because I was not on the Internet much yesterday I got into catching up with friends and recent events.

Then I needed to paint. It has been two days since I made much progress on the five small paintings I was working on. I am very close to finishing three. Don't like one at all and trying to decide how I am going to rescue it. The studio with the sun streaming through the windows is the warmest room in the house currently. So painting is winning out. Got my laptop open just to keep up with posts of others.

I am currently waiting for the paint to dry. Actually ink. I do my accents on my paintings in ink. Don't like to mess that up and so everything below where the ink is going has to be dry and each color of ink has to dry. This is generally why I work on more than one painting at a time. But only two right now interest me. I admit artists are weird. At least this artist.

And it has been a weird week. But the good news is the fur kids are getting along a lot better and I am so thrilled with that. Under the advice of my dog whisperer and a deep instinct I have decided to curtail all play days with the neighbor's dogs. I think they are just two dominate and unregulated.

Part of me is feeling like it is nap time but I really want to finish these two paintings. Or get them to the point where for a couple of days I can contemplate about them being finished. Monday I want to start on the continuation of the two others. The one I need to rescue will sit there for a while and bother me.

How goes your day? Oh, btw, as concession to Art Sunday I decided to post a Matisse. I actually saw The Red Room in a museum.

Friday Foto and Chat

2009-10-09T04:33:00.000-07:00

This is along the side of the road I walk every morning with my fur kids. I have been watching the Aspens turn gold for a couple weeks now. Weather has been against them being a fantastic display but yesterday the weather provided fog which gave everything a Gainsborough look. I posted several of the pictures I took in a slide show on Creative Journey. But the above picture is one of my favorites of those.

Why photographers like a particular picture they have captured is an age old question. This one does not show the Aspen's true bright gold. Nor does it focus on the biggest stand of Aspens on my road. But it captured the morning. I can vividly remember the smell of the wet grasses and leaves when I look at this photo.

We had experienced heavy rains the night before. The type that at this point in the fall colors can knock all the leaves to the ground but it didn't. The humidity and the temperature combined to create a wonderful fog which was lifting as Magique and Mardi and I walked down our quiet country lane. If you enlarge the photo you can see drops of rain still hanging on the fence wire. The rising sun is just beginning to touch the tops of the taller Aspens.

I belong to a photography group on Facebook - Picture Picks. We are a small group with weekly contests for best photo fitting a theme. Whether I am posting a picture or voting on my favorite pictures taken by others I am asking myself what is a good picture? What makes a fantastic picture? It is a very interesting exercise.

BTW, as I had to have both hands for the camera on this walk, the battling fur kids were free roaming. We made it the entire walk with prolonged stops for picture taking without any fur flying. Banner morning!

Word Thursday - Samhain and Paganism

2009-10-08T04:33:00.001-07:00

As I mentioned in my other blog - Sidetracked Charley - my dreams and thoughts are turning to Halloween or Samhain which is the Wiccan new year.

Samhain is a cross-quarter sabbath; a night when the veil between this world and the next is the thinnest. It is a time to honor those who've died during the old year just leaving, as well as all ancestral spirits.

It has often interested me that regardless of our basic beliefs there are certain nexus in the calendar about which all festivals seem to cluster. One is of course Christmas, a Christian holy day. Chanukah is always close. And the Islamic New Year. But this time of shortened days and long nights was originally a Roman festival. And it is of course connected to the winter solstice which is honored by many pagan beliefs including the Druids.

Note: "Paganism" refers to a range of spiritual paths. These are generally Neopagan religions based on the deities, symbols, practices, seasonal days of celebration and other surviving components of ancient religions, which had been long suppressed. Pagan can also mean anyone that does not believe in your religion. Some believe that in the early Roman Empire, "paganus" came to mean "civilian" as opposed to "military." Christians often called themselves "miles Christi" (Soldiers of Christ). The non-Christians became "pagani" -- non-soldiers or civilians. No denigration would be implied. See the website Religious Tolerance for further discussion.

Halloween, which came from the Celtic culture, and All-Souls, the Catholic holy day, and Samhain, a witches' sabbath, all cluster around October 31st. I find this one particularly significant because there is no astronomical event like the winter solstice to mark this day as special. It is often seen as the dividing line between autumn and winter as well as when the line between the living and the dead is the thinnest.

I find my dreams become particular prophetic at this time. And my thoughts turn naturally to those who are no longer in life with me.

My Day to Whine

2009-10-05T03:57:00.001-07:00

I am going to begin with the positives about the week and the Been There/Done That Sale this weekend. Then I am going to whine so be warned. I don't whine often but when I do I am good at it.

De-cluttering the studio and my life was good all in all. Yes, it created some havoc in my life and the lives of my fur kids but in addition to finding junk I no longer needed I found things I did not know I had or had overlooked for ages even if they were in plain sight like my Ashford spinning wheel. I drug it down from upstairs, oiled it up, looked up the value of it on the internet, priced it and now am not sure I want to sell it.

And I got all my flat files and storage places in my studio clean out. Emptied some storage boxes I had in the far shed and have now filled them with things that did not sell but which I don't want to toss but certainly can be stored in the far shed. And I discovered I can put up some display panels in the studio for special events. I am leaving three up for a couple of weeks with the remaining "under glass" watercolors still on sale. And the studio is big enough to have a couple artist friends with a table or two each for another sale event.

Now the whine. I was talked into doing two days by a friend that was participating and then she just participated just one day but left all her junk for me to deal with. I had to call her three times after the sale was over to come and get it. The idea was not to have more junk than I began with. And I wanted my studio back. I want to paint. So I made a pest of myself until she at last deemed it within her schedule to come haul it off after saying, "if you want any of it I can just leave it?" NOT.

All which leads me to my major whine: Unclean communications. The older I get the more I just want people to be truthful and direct with their communications. And I do not want to be manipulated or taken advantage of or used or made to feel guilty for things which are entirely NOT my fault.

And I really, really want people to live up to their agreements. Death in the family is the only excuse but you need to call me and communicate that excuse. Don't tell me one thing and then assume I have through ESP figured out all your changes of desires and mind set. AND, definitely do not put me in the middle.

As it stands I currently still have some stuff which was supposed to be picked up at closing yesterday. And one person wanted me to handle what another person said they wanted. I refused. They can call each other. I provided the venue only.

The Been There/Done That Sale was definitely a good thing to do all in all. It introduced a lot of people to my studio and my work (even that not on sale) and it did it in a manner where I did not have to spend a bundle to have a reception here. So I may do this again. Maybe bi-annually. Once in the spring and once in the fall. In May it might be nice to introduce new work done over the winter before the summer fairs begin. But I am really clear about who will not be invited again to participate. Life is too short.

Friday Foto and Chat

2009-10-02T03:26:00.001-07:00

This is my calico cat Wee Willow enjoying a morning snooze in my computer chair. So for those that have inquired where I have been the last several days - not here. Life has not gone as planned lately and that means a break up of regular routines. And it also puts me behind on the Been There/Done That Yard sale this weekend. So I have to really hump it today and Willow will reap the benefits by having the chair again for her nap.

I did get over the mountain yesterday but not to do a photographic trip but to run Jan over for her car in Taos and pick up a couple necessities. Took the camera hoping to snap a few pictures of fall colors on the way home but it was so windy they would have all be blurred. And the wind was quite chilly.

Besides yesterday morning's fur kid fight, (which I mentioned on Facebook) seemed to use all my energy. Driving back over the mountain I realized an early return to get things done was not going to happen. Instead there was a nap in my future. The dogs seem to have reached a separate peace with each other which is good. Mardi, my older standard poodle, has some sore muscles. Magique seems ashamed by her misbehavior.

So today things must be done. No other day to push things off on to. Weather should be nice tomorrow and hopefully sales are brisk at the yard sale because I don't want to put all this clutter back.

Been trying to get the news on the devastating earthquakes and tsunamis in Indonesia and Somalia but with my schedule the last two days not easy. But while watching a webcast last evening I caught news about Google's new Wave. Why was I not asked to be one of those testing it out? Sounds cool. Anyone know any thing about it?

Movie Monday?

2009-09-28T04:35:00.000-07:00

A couple of the refugees from the old 360 are trying to get theme days going here. As my frequent readers know I do Poetic Journey on Wednesdays on my blog Creative Journey (hotlinked on this page). Dangerous Meredith and Nicholas V (Intelliblog) are supporters of the Movie Monday, so check out their blogs.

I thought I might join in from time to time but what I have to report on this week is not really a movie but a British television series: The Last Detective.

The Last Detective is an ITV drama starring Peter Davison as Dangerous Davies. The first series aired in 2003 with three more seasons succeeding this. The first consisted of a pilot and three episodes, the second and the third series both consisted of four normal episodes and the fourth series increased the run to five episodes and the duration of each individual episode to ninety minutes as opposed to the previous seventy minute format. As of 2007 this series had seventeen episodes in total. The series follows Detective Constable "Dangerous" Davies who is seen as a joke by his colleagues but is committed to his work. As the series progress, his reputation improves with his colleagues and his estranged wife, Julie. The series is based on the Dangerous Davies series of novels written by Leslie Thomas.

Granada have stated that the fourth series was the last. "The Last Detective: Complete Collection" was released on Region 1 DVD on 20th January 2009 and includes all 17 episodes of the TV show, the movie starring Bernard Cribbins which tells the same story as the TV pilot, and other features including an interview with Peter Davison.

I have become quite a fan of British television especially since opting out of American television which has been aimed more and more toward the lowest common denominator. Since cutting off the cable feed I have joined Netflix and watch even my British favorites on DVD's. Definitely the way to go with no commercials or interruptions for fundraisers or station identifications. You can actually keep track of the plots. There is some great character development on this particular series.

DVD's are also a great way to catch those shows you did not see when they were actually on the air. And you can watch the whole series in a short period of time instead of over years.

Sunday Sumup for Last Sunday in September

2009-09-27T04:40:00.000-07:00

I frankly cannot believe that September is almost gone. Which makes the year 2009 three fourths complete. I won't give you that stupid count down to Christmas. Fall is busy enough here without adding that in.

This week included two "required social events" to promote art in our northeastern section of New Mexico. For the last dozen years I have tried to explain to people I meet without mentioning the word Taos. It and Santa Fe were probably the two most recognized communities in New Mexico. At one time Taos had signs coming into it on major highways that proclaimed: Taos Soul of the Southwest. Well, if that was the case I thought it needed and exorcism and said so. The chamber of commerce there finally discontinued that slogan because of "associations."

It is not easy to present your community in a positive light that is remembered by all that visit. Angel Fire was for so long that upstart skiing resort for Texans. We did not even have a cementary. People that died here got buried "back home." That is changing. People have come and stayed and become committed to the "right" growth for the area. And I like to think I have had a significant impact in the growth and recognition of the art community here.

The regular gallery reception on Friday and the special reception for magazine writers last night have underscored those years of effort. And how far we have come. Angel Fire is now getting recognized for more than just skiing. Which, since I am an artist with a new open studio, is good.

It has otherwise been a quiet week. My sister and her husband did not make it up this week for four wheeling. And I have been delving through things to put into my Been There/Done That Art Garage Sale next weekend. It was a week that raised more questions than it provided answers. Somehow that, or the receptions, or fall has gotten me thinking back on the good old days. Which, of course, always requires a trip to YouTube. Found the following video you may enjoy if you are about my age. All those were the days.

Word Thursday - Private

2009-09-24T04:48:00.001-07:00

The old Y!360 used to have a Word Thursday. I even hosted that weekly event for some months. I found it quite informative as it always sent me searching for a new word or seeking the exact definition for a word I thought I knew and certainly used enough.

Today on Facebook I was suddenly overcome with an intense need for privacy. Yes, I know that Facebook privacy is an oxymoron (I will let you go look that one up). But despite the fact that I post four blogs, have a website for my business, a studio open to the public, and have an active Facebook account I am really a very private person. I don't attend high school reunions or trod the old college campas or go tripping through the Internet looking for old friends. This is now and that was then.

Nor am I on all these social networks for the sake of finding new friends especially. I have met some great new people admittedly but I trust slowly. And I find that my friends are almost as private as I am. Today I made a comment on comment on the FB page of a more public friend of mine and was ambushed by one of her friends. I immediately deleted my comment (not because I am wrong but because I was afraid of catching something - cooties maybe) and dashed back to my settings and cranked everything down to friends only so the friend of a friend could not follow me back to my lair.

So my word today is private.

pri⋅vate

–adjective

1.	belonging to some particular person: private property.

2.	pertaining to or affecting a particular person or a small group of persons; individual; personal: for your private satisfaction.

3.	confined to or intended only for the persons immediately concerned; confidential: a private meeting.

4.	personal and not publicly expressed: one's private feelings.

5.	not holding public office or employment: private citizens.

6.	not of an official or public character: private life.

7.	removed from or out of public view or knowledge; secret: private papers.

8.	not open or accessible to the general public: a private beach.

9.	undertaken individually or personally: private research.

10.	without the presence of others; alone.

11.	solitary; secluded.

12.	preferring privacy; retiring: a very private person.

13.	intimate; most personal: private behavior.

14.	of, having, or receiving special hospital facilities, privileges, and services, esp. a room of one's own and liberal visiting hours: a private room; a private patient.

15.	of lowest military rank.

16.	of, pertaining to, or coming from nongovernmental sources: private funding.

–noun

17.	a soldier of one of the three lowest enlisted ranks.

18.	privates. private parts.

—Idiom

19.	in private, not publicly; secretly: The hearing will be conducted in private.

Origin:
1350–1400; ME < class="ital-inline">prīvātus private, lit., taken away (from public affairs), special use of ptp. of prīvāre to rob. See deprive, -ate ¹

Related forms:

pri⋅vate⋅ly, adverb

pri⋅vate⋅ness, noun

Synonyms:
2. singular, particular, peculiar. 10. sequestered, retired.

Antonyms:
2. general, public.

All I have to add to this is Yes. That's me really.

Because I am an artist I have a public personna but I am inside an intensely private person.

Monday Morning Chat over Coffee - Winter Coming

2009-09-21T05:03:00.001-07:00

September is only two-thirds gone and the weather site says to expect up to two inches of snow tonight. Usually our first measurable snow does not arrive until Halloween. The ski areas do not begin to blow snow traditionally until the 30th of October. It just won't stick any earlier than that, and some years not then. The three cords of wood I have ordered for the wood stove is being delivered the last of October.

So what happened to Indian Summer? You know that delightful time of the year where we all get to finish up our list of to do's before winter. This year we have had rain. Mind you rain is nice but it does not allow you to do those outside tasks that need done before the snow flies. I have re-channeled my energy (after recovering from the either very late summer cold or very early winter cold) into organizing the interior of my living space.

I was tackling the clothing exchange yesterday (summer clothes to top shelves, winter clothes out to be handy, etc) and noticed that I had not quite got the winter stuff stored this spring. Nor had I worn half of my summer stuff this summer. Just has not been warm enough for shorts even mid day. The economy is not going to allow for a winter escape to the beach so some of the summer clothes went into the Thrift Shop bags. I'll deal with new if and when I can afford a cruise.

I was remembering that during the studio construction I was reduced to living in the two upstairs rooms. The sewing room/guest room got put in order at last but my bedroom (in the midst of redecorating when the carpenter fell through the living room ceiling) is still in some havoc. So my task this week is to finally reclaim that space beginning with the clothes and moving to the furniture and boxes shoved in there.

And for the first week in October I am planning a studio sale. Going to drastically mark down all my unframed work and many of my traditional watercolors I did and framed. I need wall space before winter closes me in.

"Give me elbow room," cried Daniel Boone.

So what are your winter tasks? And how long do you think we have before bad weather?

Sunday Sum Up for September 20, 2009

2009-09-20T04:18:00.000-07:00

It seems like longer than a week since I won the Best of Show in the Illusions exhibit. I celebrated by getting sick; no doubt from spending all that time an energy in the 1st National Bank building where the exhibit was held. The weather outside was around 58 but they had the exhibit room chilled with air conditioning to 66. Not very green of them.

Monday my scratching throat became a full on upper chest cold complete with hacking cough. Yesterday I finally felt good enough to run to Taos and purchase some much needed items - like tissues. Fortunately Albertson's was having sales all through the store on canned goods and my favorite pasta (Dreamfields-low carb) and so I stocked up the larder without emptying the bank account.

I had wanted to go to Santa Fe this weekend and take in the huge art expo show but my energy and my available funds said that would not be wise. It is time to be like the ant and horde for winter. Unfortunately I am often more like the grasshopper from that old fable.

While in Taos I got the French Press coffee maker I blogged about. And a supply of Senseo pods for my pod brewer. An interesting thing has happened since the demise of my Mr. Coffee - I seem to be drinking less and enjoying it more. And I have gone back to drinking more green tea in the middle of the day. Albertson's had a sale on my favorite brand of that too.

Needless to say with the cold I have not gotten any painting done or much else. This next week will mean diving into the paintings I had begun but not finished. And I am toying with a "garage sale" of sorts. Thinking of having an open studio event and mark all my old watercolors (on paper and not canvas and under glass) down 50% to free up wall space. Also some unframed mixed media pictures and reduced prices. And those tossed off art supplies I now most likely will not use. Such a sale event could bring in some revenue and free up wall and storage space before winter hits.

Always a question: When will winter hit? In some ways it would seem early. We have gotten more rain and cooler nights earlier than usual but then other signs say it will either be a delayed onset to winter or just a mild one. I am not having the influx of spiders and insects that general procede extended bad weather. Though in all fairness the cats have been enjoying a field day of field mice but in the field.

I expect the Aspen will be in all their glory next weekend. When the clouds lift (they have been on the deck a lot) you can see spots of gold beginning on them thar hills. I hope for good weather so I and my sister can record them in pixels to share.

How has your week been?

Where Have all the Flowers Gone?

2009-09-17T03:54:00.000-07:00

My sister and I got into a conversation recently of the concerts we had gone to as young adults. Most of my concert going was during college and in the years immediately after wards, but I was surprised at how many of the big music makers of my generation I had seen live. Peter, Paul and Mary were merely one of the groups that I had the opportunity to see.

Mary Travers has died so there is no longer a Peter, Paul and Mary. I think the world is a bit lessor today. I know my world seems sadder.

Monday Morning Chat - The Weekend

2009-09-14T04:40:00.001-07:00

This adobe storage shed either is too small to store all inside or the owner has found an ideal solution to more storage space and holding down the roof at the same time. Even the kitchen sink is up there. This has been like my life this last few days - crammed to the roof with stuff.

But I have survived it. Or think I have. This morning I have a sore throat and feel rather punky so I am laying low. I have to open the studio today but don't expect any visitors. And I have three DVD's to watch after my sister and her husband take off this morning.

We had lots of rain this weekend while the Illusions exhibit was up. Probably factored in to the low numbers attending. But as frequent readers of my blog and friends on Facebook know I won best of show and my sister got honorable mention. And yesterday we breakfasted in town and people stopped by our table to congratulate us again. Then we went four wheeling and I took the picture of the innovative storage shed above.

This morning in addition to watching movies I have to do some laundry and re-assemble the kitchen. When you have guests and come and go from one event to the next the kitchen suffers. I had it pretty nicely dressed up earlier this week.

On the continuing issue of coffee makers: I have been using my Senseo maker (sister brought some pods up) and my espresso maker (went to store for espresso grind). I seem to drink less coffee. Later this week I may bounce into Taos to get a French Press.

Book Review - The Appeal

2009-09-12T04:49:00.001-07:00

I and a friend began a group on Facebook called Book Nerds where we discuss books of course. And other things. We have recently begun to post book reviews either in short on the discussion board or linked in from our other sites, so I have decided to begin doing book reviews here on Chats. We had a book Tuesday on the old Y!360 but I cannot get through a book a week unless I do nothing else so it will be an occasional event.

I ready John Grisham's The Appeal a couple of weeks ago, and it lingers in my thoughts. That for me is a mark of a good book. Another test of a good read for me is if I learned something, and I did in this book. Seldom has Grisham disappointed me but I am particularly fond of those books where he returns to his roots in rural Mississippi - even those that are not legal suspense novels. This book is both legal suspense and rural Mississippi and takes on the tort process. Timely topic given that the Republicans want tort reform in the health care bill.

I was on the fence about huge settlements in law suits over whether McDonald's served its coffee too hot or not. But Grisham, in a suspenseful novel, advances the thought that without those huge settlements (which are mere pennies to big companies) we would go from being at the mercy of those with the deepest pockets to pay the most lawyers to having no avenue of redress at all. In other words what the tort reformers want to do is make it impossible for little people to sue big business. But he seems not to be against some reform and without distracting from the story line presents some alternatives.

I recommend this book for anyone that wants a good read. But I also recommend it for anyone that wants a view of all that is wrong and write with the appeal process and election of judges.

Monday Morning Chat Over Coffee????

2009-09-07T04:47:00.000-07:00

I woke up this morning and prepared coffee in my Mr. Coffee maker like the one above only black. Don't you think it is stupid to have a white plastic machine to make brown coffee that stains the best of materials? But I digress. Oh, that's right I am allowed to digress here on Chats.

But back to topic. My Mr. Coffee maker failed. I will admit it has done better than the Black & Decker models. I went through three of them in six months which resulted in a surge strip for the coffee maker as the failures seemed to be of an electronic nature. That was my working theory. Then a friend told me that one of the reasons electronics are cheap at Wal-Mart is they get the factory seconds or reconditioned models often. So I bought my Mr. Coffee from another outlet. I bought the cheaper model because four coffee makers in less than a year is getting right pricey.

And the Mr. Coffee did last about six months I think. So better than Black&Decker but not good. Mother had a peculator that lasted so long the coating on the inside was coming off exposing the brass base metal and making the coffee taste funny. And I previously had a Krupps (gift from my sister) which made espresso and coffee. It lasted almost seven years.

Then I went through a few years with a French press coffee maker. I was living alone and could indulge myself with fresh ground coffee made a couple cups at a time. I loved my French press but I broke it. So here I sit with decisions on coffee makers. I have the Senseo which makes it one cup at a time. Expensive per cup but it might cut down on how much I drink. I can retrieve the Mr. Coffee (a white basic one) from the rental unit temporarily until I have funds in the budget to either buy a new Krupps or go back to a French press.

Frankly, I am leaning toward the latter choice. It is simple, elegant, easy to clean, and has no electronics to fail. I already know how to boil water so no learning curve with the timing/brew/grinding options covered in a bigger manual than my computer came with. I already have the Senseo and an espresso machine.

How do you make your coffee in the morning?

Saturday Sum Up - Table Rules

2009-09-05T04:45:00.000-07:00

This last week seems to be a lot about principles and ethics. It began with the meeting with my legal aid attorney and talking about the number of times my contractor had changed the rules and his estimate. And it seems to be ending on a relatively trivial incident in Facebook.

My family were game players. Dad taught us numerous card games including poker and I remember from a very early age According to Hoyle and the terms table and house rules. The dealer got to call the game, what was wild, what it took to open and the ante amount. Those rules existed until the deck was passed to the next dealer and they in turn got to set the rules.

We carried this practice to the houses of friends and games such as Monopoly. Everyone of my circle seemed to handle Free Parking and fines differently. The Parker Bros rules in the lid of the box were the Book of Hoyle unless the owner of the game called "table" or "house" rules. There often was much discussion as the banker dealt out the money and others set up the chance cards, etc. But once the dice was first rolled the rules remained the same throughout the game. Though I can remember some discussion as to interpretation from time to time.

I believe I have made the mistake in believing that life was or should be like those games. Rules and laws are set and you abide by them or you sit out that game or you wait until you have an opportunity to re-write them. And by re-write I mean per the house or state or federal guidelines on such matters. I have lobbied hard and often on laws I don't believe in but until they are changed I follow them.

As soon as the legal matter is settled with the contractor I am devoting lots of my time to trying to bring the mechanic's lien laws in my state into the 21st century. My quiet mention of the changing the rules mid stream matter on Facebook seems to have resulted in the founder of the group taking her football and going home. That is certainly her option. I consider it a bit childish but that is my opinion.

Dad often told me and my siblings that the world was not fair but I still put a lot of stake in the rules. And like in Pirates of the Caribbean the code may only be guidelines, but they are guidelines only as long as they are considered important. Rules, laws, and codes are important and have been since the time of Hanarobi for the smooth operation of society regardless of the size of that society - from poker table to United Nations.

Friday Foto and story

2009-09-03T19:10:00.000-07:00

There is at the upper altitudes around here a conifer called a Bristle Cone Pine. It is so named the story goes because its cone has bristles. Bristle cone pines almost died out here because it takes a fire to open the cones and reseed these slow going beauties.

On our Rubicon trips Debbie and I have discovered groves of the conifers that seem to be thriving but I had not until today at 11165 feet seen a bristle cone pine cone. This picture could be my Christmas card this year. I feel so graced to finally see a bristle cone on the tree.

Foto Friday and Friday Five

2009-08-29T03:58:00.001-07:00

And I know it is no longer Friday! I actually took this photo on Wednesday to post on Friday and then forgot. It is not a wonderful photo except that it represents one of those isolated moments when three of my pets were unaware of me or the camera. They are out on the studio yard enjoying each other and the delightful weather. The dogs have their new buff and fluff dos. And Willow, the calico, looks like she is chatting with them about the vole hunt this season.

To tie in with this Kwika brought over the Friday Five from Multiply to her Under the Cabbages Blog. It was one of my favorite theme days on the old 360. The hostess to the Friday Five vanished from 360 before anyone else practically. Anyway this week's Friday Five is: "If you could have 5 animals where you live and your circumstances would allowed it and you could afford it what five animals would you like to have as a pet?"

As a pet owner all my life I am probably going to be all too practical.

1. Dogs. I love standard poodles and labradoodles. My dogs have to be intelligent and not boring and these two breeds fill the bill but one of the things I like about my pet sitting is I get to have transient relationships with lots of different breeds. All have their pluses.

2. Cats. Clearly cats. I have four at the moment (took the two Siamese of my dying friend). I like only two generally but I have been know to fall madly in love with stray kittens from time to time. As my black cat, the Darkness, is also a Siamese I am currently rather top heavy on this very vocal and opinionated breed of domestic cat. Wee Willow in the picture above is my favorite. Shhh, don't tell the others. Calicos have great personalities. It is hard to not love a Calico. But I have had Persians and a Maine Coon too. Cab I trade two of the Siamese in for one Maine Coon?

3. Fish. Thought various parts of my life I have owned and managed aquariums. Large aquariums. My last was 75 gallons. I currently am aquariumless but given the time would love to have a new tank - Salt water I think. Or just a smaller one with two ciclids. Watching them build sand nests and keep the fry in their mouths is fascinating.

4. Geese. I have had geese before. They are not as easy as one thinks especially when all the dogs in the neighborhood want to kill them. But if I could totally fence my property I would have geese again. I love watching geese communicate with each other. Great group dynamic. And if I could afford to line my seasonal pond with plastic so it would be year round they could swim.

5. Cockatoo. If you don't know me and have not been to my various pages with parrot avatars you probably don't know this about me. I have never owned a cockatoo but almost bought a peach one once. As a kid I had bundges. We called them parakeets here in the us. I like watching birds. I court wild birds. My yard is filled with birds in spite of the cats.

The geese and cockatoo will probably remain wishes because they will definitely out live me. Geese can live to 100. Most parrot breeds are extreme long livers. Some days I worry who will adopt my cats and dogs.

How Many Blogs is Too Many?

2009-08-27T05:39:00.000-07:00

I have always believed in moderation in all things including moderation even though I don't believe I have yet to achieve that. I am a creature of extremes always striving for that balance of Ying and Yang. So my question for the day is how many blogs is too many.

I began this blogging journey earnestly in January of 2007. Then one blog was enough. It was enough until rumors of 360's collapse loomed and also until the presidential campaigns. I strove to for diversity and decided to open a Blogspot account to post my political views. Thus came Travels with Charley. Creative Journey was second. The thought behind CJ was to separate out my paintings and poetry to a dedicated location. This allows me to link to my website for my paintings without turning off a client with my political or personal opinion.

This blog, Chats with Charley II, is a replacement of the now defunct Y360, and dedicated to chattering with friends. So why then Sidetracked Charley? It is for the topics that don't fit in any of the above. Once you begin to separate blogs by topics you have entered a slippery slope. I realized this when browsing the profiles of some of my Blogspot friends I follow. Many of them have at least two and often three or four blogs through Google alone. And just recently a one blog friend opened a second page just for her poetry. Not a bad idea since she would like to some day get it published and she has one link to put in e-mails to publishers.

That started the idea of a Goats Don't Eat Zucchini blog. I write a cooking column for a small local paper. The title comes from a cookbook I was going to put together on living, gardening, and cooking in the mountain west. It was going to contain essays about that along with recipes. Several people have been urging me to self-publish (it was taken by a small publisher at one time but dropped when hard times hit). So wouldn't it make sense to post a blog with that title and put in the essays and recipes to generate interest?

But is this one blog too many?

Tuesday Twitter - Stolen Time

2009-08-25T06:53:00.000-07:00

I have a confession to make: I sometimes seem so busy and driven because I am trying to get ahead of time. My father used to say you cannot literally "save time" because it keeps moving on regardless of what you do. But I do save time in my fashion. I work and work and work until I am ahead of schedule and then I have this precious stolen day to waste. A whole day.

Sometimes it does not work and because things go wrong all I have gained is time to put it right but it worked this week. I am a day ahead to hang the exhibit Thursday at Artspace Gallery. Just printing of title cards is all that remains. And realistically I could do that tomorrow morning.

So what to do with my stolen day? One thing is to continue with the Back to Exercise challenge entered into on Facebook. Day one, yesterday, went well with lots joining in. And I completed my set exercises (we each set our own). Basically I learned I could do it but that it was not as easy as I thought it would be. I have not exercised beyond the morning walk with fur kids since recovering from the flu this spring. My inactivity and tightened up tendons had begun to effect my sleep. Last night I slept like a baby but the scale this morning said I gained a pound.

I bought some nice polished agate beads from a friend on Friday. And I want to see if I can put together a necklace and earrings. Probably with other odds and ends of beads I will be able to do more than one but Christmas approaches all too rapidly and it is nice to get ahead on the gifts. This way I get to keep my favorite.

And there is one painting I could finish today and have a frame for so I could add it to the exhibit. And there is a sketch I have been working on for a 16 x 16 canyon/cliff dwelling painting. But basically today I want to rest and isolate myself from people.

I want to do what I want, when I want, and because I want, and only because I want. Mom used to call me selfish because of such moods. I see it as reward for having worked so hard I can steal away some time just for me.

Saturday - the week thus far

2009-08-22T04:04:00.000-07:00

I am not fond of weeks that seem to be governed by the to do list. But such has been this week. And no there is not an end to it because we have reached the weekend. Today I need to begin making frames. Five frames for sure.

I have reached the flex part of the list. I have done three new paintings. Five would have been nice. Those three need framed plus frames for the two I took out of the gallery to frame with the promise of bringing them back. Those five will be the core of the exhibit for Thursday - to be hung on Wednesday. Then there are five more paintings I will pull out of the studio to go with them. At the moment it all seems doable.

One of the drawbacks to living in a rural community is now Lowe's Home Center. The local hardware/lumberyard is not open on Sunday. Ergo to stay within my schedule I need to know by 2:30 if I will need more wood for the frames. Monday just would not give me adequate time for glue to dry. May hop buy more just to be on safe side.

So I have been busy painting! And busy dealing with allergies - mine and Mardi Gras's. Anyone have a dog with allergies? They try to lick themselves to death I swear. And Mardi is the most noisy licker. In the quiet of the studio while trying to concentrate on painting comes this endless repetitive noise. Reminds me of my brother eating cereal. I swear he could crunch and slurp oatmeal. Mardi and I have been sharing the Benedryl.

Mardi and Magique were buffed and fluffed on Wednesday. They are beautiful and soft and sticker free for about 24 hours. Now I am fanatic about getting every new sticktight out of their soft coats.

I must have astro traveled last night because I woke up with Magique holding me down. She literally stands over me pinning me to the bed. And if I don't wake up she lies down on top of me. Escaping from my todo list? I did give myself a break yesterday afternoon and got with some friends to chat. But it was a scheduled chat that required I return to the list rather like Magique was requiring I return to my body.

If I get done what I need to do today there will be some air to breathe in the next couple days. That will be good. The fall air, even with fall pollens, is nice.

Friday Foto and Story

2009-08-21T03:39:00.000-07:00

If you click on the photo you can enlarge it. This was taken with a 300 mm zoom lens on an evening jaunt around the neighborhood. The Bald Eagle is hunting for prairie dogs in a field less than a mile from my house. That is pretty spectacular in and of itself. But the next day we either saw another a few miles away or this one again.

If you look up habitat for Bald Eagles you will see my area isn't it. They like tidal estuaries or large bodies of water. There are two lakes within flying distance of where I took this picture and one has reported mated pairs of Bald Eagles in residence. Think my friend just wanted a change in diet? Eagle Nest lake that week was having a blue/green algae bloom which is toxic to all manner of things. Perhaps the eagle knew.

But I would like to think a pair has taken up residence at nearby Black Lake and hunts in the meadows and fields around it. That means I will see this majestic bird again.

Monday Morning Chat - Garden Update

2009-08-17T04:24:00.000-07:00

We have had a couple freezing nights and so suddenly the growing season is over. There will, no doubt, be a delightful Indian summer ahead but major progress on growth is basically at a halt. I started my new flower/herb garden late in the growing season so had not expected much. But yesterday when I went out to plant some petite mums I rescued from Wal-Mart's garden section I was surprised.

The columbines I transplanted in July went through some transplant shock but are making a full recovery. And the poppies (plant in lower right of center) which I purchased small for economy sake are almost doubled in size. Not sure they will be large enough to produce blooms next year but maybe a blossom or two. The gold and deep rust red mums add fall color. Hard to kill a mum so I am pretty confident they will make it through winter.

The biggest surprise in my new flower/herb garden is the rosemary. This hanging variety was dying in my studio. And for the first week after its "rescue" location outside (still in hanging pot) I figured I might still lose it. But it surprised me and flourished so I transplanted it. It has gone wild. It is now a creeping rosemary bush and is almost two feet across. Might have to cover it with straw for it to survive the winter. Any thoughts fellow gardeners?

Still have not finished rock garden around pond or the rock edging but progress has been made on latter and I am still thinking out my approach on the former. I want it to include a large white Hansa rose bush to the right of the water feature.

Friday Foto and Story

2009-08-15T04:25:00.001-07:00

Real Estate Offering: Airy homestead style shotgun home with semi-attached mother-in-law apartment and outside plumbing. A handyman's delight. Easy access to Hwy 434 for commute to Taos. Off the grid with great possibilities for wind and solar energy options. Sits on Black Lake meadow once used to film the Montana scenes from Lonesome Dove. The views are to die for.

In the final months of our beloved Y!360 I started posting pictures of real estate offerings in my area. There are quite a few. This area and others in New Mexico were settled by the 1862 Homestead Act. A person willing to build a home and fence the property and do improvements could claim rights to 160 acres of land after 10 years. Here in Black Lake the Trujillo family, land grant excluded from the Taos area, came here and took up the challenge.

After receiving deeds to the property they removed fences and joined them all together into one of the largest ranches in the area at that time. They were the original founders of Black Lake. Descendants still own property in the area although they have sold off small sections for development. My land was once part of the Trujillo Ranch.

It was while taking photographs of my neighborhood that my sister, her husband, and I discovered there is a Bald Eagle (or pair) residing and hunting in this area. We think since Black Lake is not a huge body of water which they generally prefer they are temporary residents during the blue/green algae bloom at nearby Eagle Nest Lake. Some tourists you just have to love!

It's August

2009-08-13T04:03:00.000-07:00

And it is hot! And I am lazy. I am just finding everything so difficult to get excited about. Even blogging lately. I have not updated Travels with Charley for almost two weeks. I find it impossible to find a political topic with any legs to stand on these days. And evidently I am not the only one. A couple of my regular blog buddies are taking breaks. I miss reading their thoughts.

Maybe it is just August. Mother used to call them the dog days of summer. I long I heard that phrase, knew what it meant but not from where it came. Did you know the Greeks were the first to use the term Dog days of summer referring to the Dog Star - Sirius. And they sacrificed a brown dog to appease the rage of Sirius who they felt was responsible for the hot, humid weather this time of year. Sirius no long rises at the same time of the year due to the progression of the equinoxes but we still call them the Dog Days of Summer.

Per Wiki:

The phrase Dog Days or "the dog days of summer", Latin: Caniculae, Caniculares dies, refers to the hottest, most sultry days of summer. In the northern hemisphere they usually fall between early July and early September whilst in the Southern hemisphere they are usually between January and early March. The actual dates vary greatly from region to region, depending on latitude and climate. Dog Days can also define a time period or event that is very hot or stagnant, or marked by dull lack of progress.

I like that part: define a time period or event that is very hot or stagnant, or marked by dull lack of progress. Oh, so true of me this time of year.

PS the mud covered animals in the picture are not dogs but wart hogs.

Saturday Sum Up for the First Week of August

2009-08-08T04:40:00.000-07:00

This has been an interesting week to say the least. First the van stopped running. For those of you that suggest cash for clunkers let me say it gets too good of gas mileage so off for repairs. Got it home on Thursday but I was much poorer. The good news is I did have the money for the mechanic. Lots of months this winter that would have not been true.

Then I heard that my obligation to Chapter 13 Trustee had been completed early. That means I can replenish the money taken out of meager savings to pay for the car repairs. Then I sold a painting and the gallery sold a painting! Then two more dog sitting jobs. Pet sitting is how I am earning my spending money these days. And the business is building which is good. Now to start saving it for a road trip.

We all need to dream and for the last several months the dream has been to just get past this rough patch. Let me say thank you!

I had three paintings accepted into the Illusions exhibit and my sister had two photographs accepted too.

Yesterday, after spending two days on the computer working on my website, I decided to do something physical and rearranged furniture and went on a dust bunny hunt. If you are going to move things to clean then move them around to someplace new. This new arrangement gives me room for the elliptical trainer in the corner. And I can hide my other exercise toys out of sight there too.

My sister is coming up today and we will be doing some more off-roading so I washed all the mud off my camera cases from the last trip. Such fun! Volatile week with its ups and downs but I think it is ending on an up note.

The Ten Second Sound Byte Life

2009-08-05T04:11:00.000-07:00

I confess. I am enjoying my Facebook experience at last. It is rather like popping in at the neighborhood coffee shop and catching up with the crowd; re-establishing your position in the flock. Twitter is more like being a lost bird trying to find a flock then one of an established group. I last logged in on Twitter over a month ago and yet yesterday I was informed I have another follower. Where do they think I am going?

Blogging on the other hand is more a private conversation if only with yourself. It is more on the level of meeting someone at that coffee shop and say , "Hey, let's go someplace quiet so we can talk." But we live increasingly in a ten second sound byte world. So it is easy to see the popularity of an internet platform which encourages that sort of interaction. And yet in that world there are some interesting "long" discussions.

One status message posted by a friend or one photo which seems to become the "table" around which all gather to make a relevant comment or not. Monday I posted something about my broken van and then a comment was made about the earthquake in Mexico and eventually we were all agreeing that maybe there is a connection between quakes and cars because of the disruption of the magnetic fields. Then we were on to money and whether cars know we have the money to get them fixed. Reminded me a bit of happy hour on Friday after a long week of work.

So is Facebook the virtual happy hour? Coffee with your co-workers in an age when more and more of us are self-employed. Working at home. With our neighborhoods more etheral we collect friends not on where they live but common interests. Like a lamentation of swans we find our flock with a series of honks and head bobs, finding safety in numbers even if they are scattered around the world in a virtual flock.

I have made connections with some old friends from the pre-computer days. Judgement is still out on that. Perhaps they were picked at the time just because of the neighborhood where we no longer live.

Monday Morning Chat Over Coffee

2009-08-03T03:57:00.001-07:00

One of the assets of a couple years of blogging is a folder of blog images collected from Google Image search to illustrate various blogs. The one above I found for a Travels with Charley blog about kitchen table economics. The economy, the pundits tell us, is getting better. Not that we can prove that point with the economic situation of must of us sitting around kitchen tables.

Summer in the high country has meant lower utility bills and that has made for a bet more flex in the old budget. But I have also been trying to save up for the winter utility bills and a couple of cords of wood for the wood stove. I cannot believe it is August already.

Then my car began acting up. Have been given a few opinions about what might be causing that. But it also needs a brake job before winter too. Did I mention I have been trying to put some cash away for winter? Do you think cars know that?

There is not a lot of time to sit around kitchen tables in the summer. Besides who wants to be inside when the weather is so nice out. Well, mornings. We have been having a run of afternoon and evening rains here. Which means the grass has been growing. When I first moved into this house over a dozen years ago I didn't mow. Then my ex gave me an old mower of his. That was the beginning of the end. I now have a riding mower and a walk behind mower and a weedwacker. Yesterday, I had the last two out neatening up the studio/fur kid yard. The grass keeps getting thicker and more lush. I blame the mowing.

And I have added trees and raised herb/vegetable beds. And this year a flower garden with herbs thrown in. Flowers all by themselves seem so frivolous. But I seem to be especially in love with this new garden spot. Even got out yesterday and weeded it and fussed with the stones around the edge. Still need more to complete it. And the rock garden around the water feature needs more work. One stone at a time I suppose. It is nice to look at from the stoop with a mid morning cup of java in my hands.

Love's Labors.

Friday Foto and story

2009-07-31T04:20:00.000-07:00

As my mother's first born I was a major disappointment to her. My hair would not curl. I was always fussing with dresses and petticoats. And I never stayed clean. Debbie, my kid sister, did her bit at being an adorable little girl - for a while. Mother would probably blame me for leading her astray. But it was Debbie that drove us into that huge mud hole to the right in this picture.

Dad would be proud. Mom would pretend she didn't know us. Though I am wearing pink. She always wanted me in pink.

My followers on Facebook have probably seen this photo of after we rescued the Rubicon from its muddy imprisonment. It was no average mud puddle. Parts, like just outside the passenger side door recommended as THE way to get out of the Jeep, were three feet deep. It took more than an hour to get the Jeep out. Now the rest of the story.

We had just begun accessing the situation when along came a group of ATV tourists. I say tourist because they were all wearing clean and ironed clothes and riding totally spotless all terrain vehicles. The leader of the pack, in jeans with a crease, seeing out situation drove over to "offer assistance." He was quick to add from 20 feet away (he would not want to get his white shirt dirty) that he doubted he could help at all. Frankly I thought a couple of the ATV's linked by tow strap to the jeep might just do the trick but I could see the fear in his eyes; it would mean getting dirty.

Debbie and I proceeded to see if we could push the jeep back the way we had come - Deb at the wheel and me at the front bumper. Mr. Pressed Jeans offered some Sunday Morning quarterbacking from the private box (he was still sitting on the idling ATV). As we had already tried his suggestions before he arrived we ignored him.

He offered to radio for our rescue. That alone set him off as from-some-other-where because who he thought would be available and where he thought he would tell them to come were major issues. We had already covered that ground before getting out of the jeep. We had cell phone service. And we knew our GPS coordinates. But we were off the map as it were and it would take another jeep (or ATV's) to get to where we were if they could find the path we took. ATV's take another path.

I thanked him nicely for his concern and told him we could manage. And if we could not get the Jeep out we knew which way was home and could walk.

We did get the jeep out and on the way down the mountain headed to the car wash we spotted the pristine white pickup with the ATV trailer parked illegally just outside the National Forest gates where he could avoid a string of mud puddles on the road. We briefly considered taking some of the mud from the jeep and applying it decoratively to all that white. We didn't.

I would like to say my good side won out on that debate, moral upbringing and all, but it was rather more a fear that he was the type to make a federal case out of it and pay for the forensics to match the mud to the puddle and then to us even if we avoided fingerprints.

Song Saturday on Tuesday

2009-07-28T05:49:00.001-07:00

One of my 360 friends who is now on Facebook posted a link to a Youtube video by Celtic Thunder. I apologize for not knowing who they were until today. I am making up for lost time. And thought I would post one of their great harmonies here for all to enjoy.

Monday Morning Chat Over Coffee

2009-07-27T04:43:00.000-07:00

July is a busy time in the highlands. Lots of tourists which also means lots of events various organizations what volunteers for and lots of things to do outside like gardening and mowing. To this mother nature adds the monsoon season which brings us afternoon and evening rains from the clouds created during the heat of the day.

It makes for spectacular sunsets as I posted on my Facebook wall. And if it rains through the night some very spectacular dawns like the one above. Yesterday we got it all - sunrise, sunset and a double rainbow. So I was constantly having to set aside what I was doing to grab the camera and record another awesome moment.

Sunday is my day off and I never plan to do much and yesterday I didn't. I played on the computer posting new blogs with slide shows I created at FlickR with some of the many pictures I took while four-wheeling with my sister this last week. I did manage some minor "putting to rights" about the house. Today I hope to get back to my studio to actually finish those paintings I have begun. And work on some sketches for new ones I have been considering.

How was your weekend?

Wildflowers in July

2009-07-26T05:08:00.000-07:00

Thought rather than bore you with endless photos I would just put these flower into a slide show. If I can remember how I did this the last time.

My sister and I were up off-roading this last week which was notable for the heavy rains every afternoon and evening. Some of the sunflowers look totally drenched but they do seem to be able to recover.

Saturday Sum Up

2009-07-25T03:47:00.001-07:00

On the old Y360 Saturday was typically my day to sum up the week. This one was particularly fun as my sister arrived on Tuesday afternoon with her Jeep Rubicon and we went were people do not often go. One of those places yesterday was a high meadow balanced on the ridge between the Moreno Valley and the Taos Volcanic plateau. As we entered the meadow we saw an elk and then two.

While patiently waiting for them to get closer for a better picture we heard the high pitched bugling of cows and calves and turning saw the ears of a huge herd going around behind us just over a low hill. Soon some appeared in a clearing in the forest on the edge of the meadow. They stopped a waited.

As their numbers increased they began to move off into the shelter of the trees twenty to fifty at a time while still calling to those behind us and out of sight.

I am told that such events in Celtic legend signal a lucky year ahead. Both my sister and I could use such a year after a not-so-great winter of our discontent behind us. And in truth there are some indications that my luck is indeed turning. The opening of the studio and the 3 T's Trail at last is only one mile post of better days ahead. As frequent readers know there was the Best of Show award at the Red River Fine Arts and Wine Festival coupled with good sales. And satisfactory sales at the Artsfest Show.

I just traded a painting for twin beds for the apartment which makes me one step closer to having that outfitted as a vacation rental. Getting really close to having that done. Still looking for a kitchen table and chairs. Won the battle with the electric utility co-op here. Seems I was right about my meter reading wrong. Not that they have gone back and readjusted any past bills, but the last one was more inline with previous years at least.

I am nearing the completion of my four years of debtor's prison - Chapter 13 - with three more payments to make. Then lo and behold they sent me a check for $87 with no explanation. Friends think that signals I am done with my obligation already and paperwork will follow.

The biggest thing of the last week as far as blogland is concerned is my reaching totally FED UP with Profiles. I am only posting links to my other blogs there in the status message. A friend tells me they are still working on improvements. If that is indeed the case I may go back but for now, friends, Blogger is where it is at for me.

Monday Morning Chat Over Coffee

2009-07-20T04:00:00.000-07:00

Some scientist has probably already researched this but I found myself wondering this morning if flocks of birds of a certain species contain a stable membership during a season. Or when flock one meets flock two do they all become confused and fly off with the wrong flock? And do younger members of a flock lag and loose out on the direction everyone is heading? Do big storms forever break up a flock?

If the membership of Y360 was a flock then it certainly has been scattered to the four winds as it were. Some of us came at least temporarily to rest on the wires of Yahoo Profiles because our nests (blogs) were moved there. But more and more it seems we are reforming in other locations to become different flocks all be it smaller. And collecting lone birds from other flocks. Some are flying from flock to flock not knowing quite where they want to settle.

I am here. I love here. More and more I love here. And just yesterday I began to settle into Facebook beyond my previous five second rule. I've let the Twitter flock sail off into the horizon. Given the hacking going on there not sure I even want to return to close the account.

Beyond blogland I have been working on buffing and fluffing the studio and had three women stop in yesterday to see if I was open. Wasn't but did. I have my first student today. Bit nervous about that. I have my expectations and she has hers I am sure. Learned that when I was teaching skiing and dance and various self-actualization workshops.

My sister is coming up tomorrow so as soon as student is out the door time to buff and fluff other areas of the neglected residence. I am anxiously awaiting a delivery of art supplies ordered on line recently. I am going to begin stretching my own canvases again. I say again because I did that while getting my fine arts degree in college. Lately have celebrated that you can buy them pre-stretched these days. But the economy and that I am making my own frames is changing my perspective.

I am beginning to feel comfortable in my new flock here in Blogger. And the 360 strays I joined in Facebook are a happy bunch with a few new birds in that group too. So if I had to answer my opening question I would say flocks are always in a state of flux. What do you think?

Sunday Sum Up for July 19,2009

2009-07-19T04:56:00.000-07:00

I am not going totally away from Profiles. My Y360 archived blogs are there. But from now on (unless significant improvements are made and quickly) I will be posting most of my blogs on Blogger. And using the status message on Profiles for links to my new posts here for my Profile friends

I have been one of the longest supporters of Yahoo but I just cannot keep faith any more. I am tired of my modules having to be constantly re-arranged and not having any control over my site. Sick to death of Ice Blue. You can decorate IM and Twitter. Why not Profiles. But the most irritating thing is, since I was staying there to stay in contact with friends, is that I am not always getting the alerts that messages have been left. And lots of friends are moving.

Against all desires I have wound up more and more on Facebook to stay in touch with friends I had originally made on 360. And quite a few of us are here on Blogger. Google has added some very nice new friendship features like following. Dashboard is now like the old 360 home page.

Don't look for me on Multiply. I do not trust that site and will not even visit you there. Sorry, but they done me wrong.

Hey, it has been a fun journey. And I will check Profiles for messages and post links in status message but it is no longer the first blog platform I tune into every morning. I generally log on to Blogger and catch up with updates on Dashboard.

So Sad! Look for me on Chats with Charley II for the old 360 type blogs.

Word Thursday - Dulcet

2009-07-16T04:16:00.000-07:00

One of the many community based themes I got involved with on Y!360 was Word Thursday. There was a Word Thursday, an Art Sunday, Poetry Wednesday, Movie Monday, Friday Five, Book Tuesday and Song Saturday. It drove you nuts if you tried to participate in all of it.

Several of my 360 friends are here now that 360 is but a memory. Nicholas V is now Intelliblog. He generally has a blog up for many of the days of the week. Dangerous Meredith is the Adventures of Dangerous Meredith here and she has a post for Word Thursday. Bee at Bee's Blog posted for Poetry Wednesday as did I on Creative Journey where I have decided to keep alive Poetry Wednesday in its new Multi-blog form.

I used to be a fanatic about Word Thursday but I am realizing that was in part because I used it as a vehicle to slam GW Bush. And as Nixon said, "we don't have him to kick around any more." Though to be frank his V.P. is still very much a target. But I now have Travels With Charley for my political rants. So to do Word Thursday or no? I think I will.

My friend Lynn who is on Profiles and Blogger did a post this morning about the movie August Rush (now out on DVD and available on Netflix). She posted a video which fits into no particular theme but gave rise to the word Dulcet for me.

dulcet

adjective:

1. Pleasing to the ear; melodious; harmonious.

2. Generally pleasing, soothing, or agreeable.

3. (Archaic) Sweet to the taste.

Quotes:

If you want to catch up with our most famous songster, the nightingale, just visit Minsmere at the end of April, or early May, and stand on the edge of the car park. You'll soon hear the dulcet tones of the poets' favourite bird.

-- Stephen Moss, "Birdwatch", The Guardian, October 23, 2000

Amanda . . . rages at her young 'uns in a voice that may have been full of dulcet notes when she turned the heads of her gentleman callers in her youth, but has now grown hard-edged and ringing, like a cracked bell.

-- Hal Hinson, Washington Post, November 11, 1987

Just as my eyelids started to get heavy and my brain began to relax its hold on wakefulness -- bam! -- the less than dulcet tones of Britain's top breakfast DJ started to emanate from my radio alarm.

-- "Secs in the City", The Guardian, July 30, 2001

Origin:

Dulcet comes from Old French doucet, diminutive of dous, "sweet," from Latin dulcis, "sweet."

Aaah, the dulcet tones of the morning birds here in Black Lake as the sun makes its appearance over the mountain to the east.

Just Chatter

2009-07-14T04:34:00.001-07:00

I opened this particular blog to archive my 360 posts and then discovered that at this time that is not possible on Blogger. I transferred some significant ones about the studio progress which I thought I might need for litigation and a couple others that interested me. But with three other blogs do I really need this one I wonder.

And yet this morning after dedicating Profiles and Creative Journey to to Poetry Wednesday posts I found I just wanted to chatter like I used to do in the early days of Y360 when I just considered it my on line journal. I suppose I could be a nattering nabob on Sidetracked Charley but I seem to get derailed there with more purpose. And my thoughts today are not on anything political. They are on butter keepers and baking English Muffin bread later.

A long time pottery friend of mine makes these delightful ceramic butter keepers: You fill the container on the lid with butter and the bottom with cold water and it keeps your butter fresh and at spreadable temperature with no refrigeration. I spread some this morning on the last of the English Muffin toast and then topped it with slices of avocado. Yum.

Sandy and her husband, the potters, are getting up in age and it amazes me how well they do in setting up for fairs and taking down. I have known them for more than a dozen years and collected pieces of her pottery all that time. This year, out of boredom she says, she has exploded in a plethora of whimsical colors and themes after years of earth tones. My new butter keeper is sunny yellow and I bought a bowl in matching yellow and orange. I love ceramic mixing bowls especially for making bread.

As we broke down Sunday, Sandy gifted me with a platter that matched the bowl. I was so touched I almost cried. She gives me the chipped pieces so I can break them up and put them in a tea table I am planning on making. I want to have my potter friends represented. But the last two such pieces she has given me I cannot see the chips in. I am loathe to break them to pieces just yet. Every fair we are together I wonder if it will be this that is the last. None of us are getting any younger.

The platter and the bowl are in a place of honor for the moment. And I touch the butter keeper when I am in the kitchen even if there is not butter to be spread just then.

Farewell Y360

2009-07-12T05:19:00.000-07:00

Since Wednesday my life has not been about blogging. It has been about getting ready for the big summer fair. It is not a huge fair but my involvement is huge in that I not only am exhibiting but I am on the board of the Arts Council that hosts this fair and I have been a volunteer bee as well. That means I am out of the house early and return late and like last night was too exhausted to even turn on the computer.

Meanwhile Y!360 is closing. Today being its last day. I had supposed when they first announced this I would be busy making sure of connections to all my friends on that failing blog platform. But alas I have been too busy with the "real word" to even check in on page comments there. When I did so today I noticed some Asian chick was still trying to sell me cellphones. I think I have mentioned how much made in China stuff I no longer buy on Travels with Charle y so I don't think I will miss this aspect of the old blog home.

Many of my friends are already on Blogger or Profiles or Faceboo k and so I no longer dread the losing of people that matter. We have already connected. And my two years of blogs are on Profiles. So tomorrow when there is no longer any 360 it will almost be a relief: One less blog platform to keep abreast of. I can take it off my toolbar and out of bookmarks and off plug-ins on my IM window. And as a person that moved much I know once you leave the old neighborhood for the last time you truly start to settle in to the new one.

Only the whole long process of this last move has made me a bit of a ether nomad. I have multiple homes now (none of which are Multiply) and I enjoy each for what they offer that is unique. And that said I wave a fond farewell to 360. It will forever have a place in my heart as my first blog ever.

Chit Chat

2009-07-05T04:26:00.000-07:00

What a week this has been! No trauma. All the big events have been on television and occurring to other people. Frankly I am sick of the whole Michael Jackson coverage and have stopped viewing news because there is no news beyond that. In the grand scheme of things his life is really very unimportant. And exceeded in unimportance only by his death.

Please don't send hate mail. And frankly I felt the same way about Elvis Presley. And now some football star (excuse me former football star) and his girl friend have been killed. There are seldom any former sports stars that do much with their lives after they leave the field. Some feel forced to re-enter the Tour de France way past their prime.

All that above coupled with the closing of Y!360 brings to mind a stanza from a poem or a song I heard long ago - for everything there is a season. All things in nature sprout or are birthed or formed and then they age and degenerate and go back to where they came in altered form.

I have been watching my poppies a lot this summer. They were a riot of buds which seem to take forever to burst open. The flowers, by flower standards, are huge. And they no sooner seem to get out the wrinkles (unlike some flowers they are scrunched up in their buds) then they fade. yesterday I took a picture of five of them - one was just bursting forth and one dropping color and petals. Three in all their glory.

That says so much about the process of life. If there is a fault in our culture greater than any other it is our inability to let go. We do not celebrate life's passages but hold entirely too tightly to the now. We spend billions and put our loved ones through great pain in our futile attempts to cheat death. We want to hold on to our youth forever and spend time and money to reduce wrinkles and delete gray, pop a pill for instant erections like teenage boys. And we elevate hollow heroes to legendary status and artificially try to keep them there. If we cannot do that in life we do it in death. We build pyramids of edited film strips.

We really need to learn to let go. In nature death is as important as birth. Enjoy this moment for it is life. And be prepared to decamp and move on.

Hello to the Colorado Plateau

2009-06-28T05:14:00.000-07:00

The following blog was just the first in a series I did on Y!360 about my beloved Colorado Plateau. I am doing a copy paste of this one here but I think I will not transfer the whole series. It is obviously some place I will re-visit in person or on these pages or posting photos on Friday. I revisit this area in my paintings always and probably forever.

Up a lazy river - or down

The Colorado River across the plateau is not a lazy river except where it is dammed. The Glen Canyon Dam was one of the first built on this majestic waterway. It flooded the awesome Glen Canyon and created Lake Powell which is huge.

My sister and I decided to do a houseboat vacation because the lake was lower than it had been since initially filled and exposed more canyon walls previously underwater. Our trip heralded the temporary suspension of the drought and raised levels on the lake almost three feet. The above picture was taken as we motored out of the marina at Bullfrog. This is the shallow area of the canyon. Water is only about 200 feet deep at this point and walls a lot lower.

This is the view from the back deck of the houseboat on our first night on the lake. If you enlarge this you can see a tiny houseboat in the center of the shore line. It is twice the size of the one we were on. Our first neighbors on our eight day trip. It was not any more crowded than this.

It rained that first night and we could hear the roar of falling water but with absolutely no light except for a flashlight we had not a clue as to where the water was falling. We awoke in the morning to this waterfall just across our tiny cove. It was just a hint of things to come, but fortunately the rain was abated by days of fantastic sun and views.

View from the cliff overlooking our second mooring. We spent 3 days in this wonderful spot in part because of the great hiking trails along the rim.

My sister in typical photo trek regalia. We figure with film and digital camera and lenses and required water and emergency supplies in event of being lost we hiked with about 10 to 15 pounds on a regular basis.

Sunset on the last day of our adventure. Houseboat had to back, refueled, and clean of all our stuff by noon so we moored just one cove over. We thought it would all be easy from there but we still had a night of adventure because of the ever rising water to deal with. More about that in other posts. For more information on our houseboat rental see Lake Powell.

My sister and I are currently plotting our next Thelma and Louise Roadtrip but I think there is another houseboat trip in our future.

NOTE: These are just a few of hundreds of pictures I took and Debbie took more. I can bore you for a very long time.

Goodbye to Y!360

2009-06-28T04:53:00.001-07:00

I think this image which I used on my Monday Morning Chat over Coffee is one that most represents to me Y!360 and its closing days.

It has been more than a week since I even visited and I went back this morning to do more research on the studio progress I wanted to transfer to this blog to be sure that I had it for any court action that will take place. Hopefully that is more doubtful now, but always nice to be prepared. In the process I have discovered other little gems like my first poems posted for the world to read. Below is a blog with a poem I thought was significant about the space for expression blogs provide.

I am obviously in the mood to write lately. I did a 2 1/2 page opus letter to the shyster, a new episode on write around the world, a new political blog on Blogger, a blog here about everything including the kitchen sink and last night wrote two poems for Poetry Wednesday. And I still want to jabber in black and white, on one surface or the other. So if you are bored just click to another blog.

My kingdom for a pen

Pens
Paper
Bound books with pages of paper
Some lined
Some open for all concepts
Empty pages to fill with pens and pencils
Thoughts

Words written with pens
Sketches drawn with pencils
Books in the making
Journals of journeys
Trips through canyons real
And of my mind

New Pens
Sharpened pencils
cold pressed paper
Smooth or textured
I love paper
And pens
And the words they write

(c) Jacqui Binford-Bell 2008

Bear with me here folks. I am sure this mood will pass. And I will go days without a thought in my head but drawing up the detail plans for my tile floor. But it is probably the mindless activities in my life these days - the window cleaning, the screwing down of hardibacker, the removal of blue tape and black plastic - that are allowing me too much time to think.

What Chop Wood/Carry Water type of activities are Zen like to you and clear your mind for new and remarkable thinking?

I don't think everything I posted on Y!360 was earth shattering or even notable but it covered a very significant part of my life. I was realizing a ten year dream by building my studio at long last, fighting a lawsuit by the contractor that I employed to do that, shifting over from making masks to painting and finding my muse in that creative avenue, and rediscovering the joy of writing even if it was just for me (though obviously I did develop my faithful readers).

Everyone on Y!360 is posting farewell blogs. I read a couple when I was there and had to fight back tears. It was a special group, a special place and something magical happened if even for a brief time.

Packing up 360

2009-06-28T04:42:00.000-07:00

This is another of the studio progress blogs I felt I ought to transfer over. One of the happy ones. Not a rant about the abuse of my contractor. That was on December 8, 2007. I copied that one to my Studio Legal file. A file which I am still hoping will not be needed.

Latest news is that the contractor from hell has serious health issues. So serious he had closed down his construction company and sold his property here in Angel Fire (the one with the addition built with my materials). I hope this means he does not have the money or heart to pursue his frivolous legal action against me. June 30th, this Monday, the lawyers and judge are suppose to have a telephone conference on the calendar for the lawsuit. Maybe on that day his attorney will officially announce they are dropping the action. Wouldn't that be nice.

Anyway this is a blog from March 2008 when I was finally getting my studio painted. Just before this - March 3rd I had heard he was going for judgment.

Significant progress was made today. Not so much in volume of work done but in milestones reached. The painting is done (well, except for trim and touch up) and the cement board (Hardibacker) has begun to be laid in preparation for tile.

When I was so upset and frustrated I was trying to follow the directions I picked up with the store and was using the second and/or third color with just a bit of clear glaze and applied with a sea sponge. It was far busier than I wanted and was going to be so labor intensive it would b years before it was done.

I called my friend that has worked as a professional house painter and done wonders with her own house. She suggested I buy more of the clear glaze and add just a little of the second color to it. And I could apply it with a specialty roller. I knew the local paint store did not have these but I remembered my painting techniques book and how they had "funked up" rollers by cutting chunks out of the nap or wrapping a rag around it. I grabbed the scissors and had fun with one of my cheap disposable rollers.

This was so much faster than the sea sponge Karate Kid wax on wax off technique that I was enchanted. It also looks more like an old stucco wall and is not so busy that paintings placed against it get swallowed. This photo also shows the Hardibacker laid down in this section and ready to be screwed into place

.
If you follow the manufacturers directions it requires about 70 screws per 3 x 5 foot cement board. When I have done this before I used a masonry bit and pre-drilled the holes. But a contractor turned me on to Buildex's Rock-on screws that don't require pre-drilling. A bit pricier I suppose given how many I will use but how well this underlayment is down makes a difference in the tile laying and it not cracking. It is also part of the "heat sink" part of the studio. It and the tile will hold the heat from the sun through the windows and reduce heating costs in the winter.

The opening photo is of the wood sills. They are what is covered up with the black plastic and blue tape. My thought is to stain these a red-oak like the connecting door. Another piece of 3" trim goes under them and after the tile is laid a 3 to 4 inch trim around the bottom of the walls. I am thinking of the red oak for both of these. But the trim along the ceiling I am going to leave natural wood. Darker colors toward the floor and lighter colors toward the ceiling. Old cathedral trick.

On My Own Now With Studio

2009-06-11T19:21:00.000-07:00

I think what is marvelous about this whole conflict was I found out what I could do. And I blogged about what I was doing and got the affirmations of all my blog friends. I needed that encouragement. I was out of money, felt cheated by a man that had been a friend, and had a huge mess on my hands.

Progress photos - August 05, 2007

Got the studio completely cleared of all the contractor stuff and then promptly loaded it down with my stuff as this photo shows. It has been utilized as a staging area for work being done on the living room.

After the contractor fell through the ceiling in the living room I decided to take off all the 1970's texture, re-texture and paint the ceiling while the room was already in chaos. And as one thing leads to another it seemed a good time to paint the eastern wall where the door to the studio is. I like the concept of one dramatically differently painted wall to add depth to the room.

So, I am not known for tidy workspaces. But the good news is that I have begun sketching out four new paintings. Still have that October fair looming. This table will ultimately move to the studio but given its state of float, sand, float some more, sand some more not a good place to paint works of art.

This is the connecting French door now stained with Red Oak Mini Wax. And while I was at it I refinished the little step stool and the oak computer desk. computer is still upstairs. See previous discussion of sheet rock dust which you will not on the chair. The trim work on this door was accomplished with my new DeWalt compound Miter saw. I have noted it does not prevent my from totally reversing the cut but I can do that so much faster.

Totally off the subject: the following photograph is of my standard Poodle Mardi Gras. I think she is my supervisor on this job. Every time I look around she is lying somewhere close observing progress. She would like me to mention she doesn't ordinarily wear pink but the groomer put that on her and we have a contest about how long she can keep it on. Magique got rid of hers in two days.

Now I only have to get the studio done and catch the Labradoodle Magique still enough to capture on camera.

Back to the Studio Progress

2009-06-11T18:56:00.000-07:00

On June 29, 2007 I faced an agonizing reappraisal about studio progress and posted the following blog. I would also later discover the contractor was ripping me off by making me pay for materials not used on my job. He was doing his own addition and working another hard dollar contract.

Not an End to Progress

Yesterday was a day of agonizing reappraisal. It began with an outlandish estimate for the exterior stucco on the studio. I knew it was insanely high. I knew I could find a cheaper bid. I even knew I could do cedar instead of stucco. But just figuring all those options made me realize I really did not have enough money to finish it completely and not dip into my prudent reserve.

Since I first committed to this job prices on construction materials have skyrocketed here in the United States. Can you say Iraqi war. Or rising gas prices. Or just profit taking by greedy companies. Who really knows. But it certainly hits the construction industry where it hurts and ergo the new housing starts and remodeling projects such as mine.

Today following the let’s get down to brass tacks talk with my contractor I dove into getting some paintings done for my up coming fair in two weeks. I kept expecting to be upset about calling a halt to the project but found myself actually feeling lighter. I have enough money to finish the interior which I was originally doing myself once the sheet rock and trim is done. What I don’t have enough money to do is the exterior finish and the deck and the hot tub. But I will get temporary steps to the outside entrance and the house weather wrapped to prevent deterioration.

And stopping here gives me time. I did not want to rush to the cheapest conclusion just to finish it. I do not want to compromise. I want what I want. Pausing now (I prefer to see it as pause and not stop) greatly reduces the stress. If I have a good art season I will be able to do at least part of what remains before winter. And I definitely will be able to use my studio for what it was intended.

I find myself grateful that I did not know it would be this expensive because if I had I might not have started it. I am glad I got this far. And most of what remains I can do cheaper myself and save labor costs. It will just take me longer. But then I will have that sense of having really contributed in a way other than monetary on this dream of mine.

So there is relief and a sort of surreal joy. It will be mine to do with what I can afford and in my time. I won’t feel rushed to the conclusion.

Somehow this seems a perfect place to be on this eve of the Full Strawberry Moon. It is a time of culmination of so many things in my life. I know I am on the right path.

Art Sunday but not Art Sunday - July 1, 2007

I look at photos of Picasso in his studio and get tummy aches I am so envious of the space and the openness. I am not Picasso but just maybe I could be with the right studio. Us artists always have a reason we cannot work. But seldom give credit when we produce despite our surroundings.

And so was born the dream of the studio. Yesterday the crew working on instructions as to what I wanted them to finish before leaving the rest to me opened the window in my living room.

To become a door.

The Darkness went immediately in to investigate the new space.

Last night I invited my neighbor Jan over and in this corner beyond the construction tools we set up a table and a couple camp chairs and had tea while watching the lightning surrounding us just outside the windows. It was like being in a magical space ship traveling between universes.

There is a magic time and place but it is often of your own making. I think it was rather artistic of me to design this wonderful addition. Stay tuned for the progress on the finishing touches.

Up a Lazy River or Down

2009-06-11T18:48:00.000-07:00

This photo blog first appeared on Y360 on June 23, 2007

The Colorado River across the plateau is not a lazy river except where it is dammed. The Glen Canyon Dam was one of the first built on this majestic waterway. It flooded the awesome Glen Canyon and created Lake Powell which is huge.

My sister and I decided to do a houseboat vacation because the lake was lower than it had been since initially filled and exposed more canyon walls previously underwater. Our trip heralded the temporary suspension of the drought and raised levels on the lake almost three feet. The above picture was taken as we motored out of the marina at Bullfrog. This is the shallow area of the canyon. Water is only about 200 feet deep at this point and walls a lot lower.

View from the cliff overlooking our second mooring. We spent 3 days in this wonderful spot in part because of the great hiking trails along the rim.

My First Poem Posted on 360

2009-06-10T03:25:00.000-07:00

I had written poetry in my 20's and 30's and then got too busy to be reflective, changed over to prose and free lance writing. Even wrote technical manuals. Then I got involved with blogging on Y!360 and there was a Poetry Wednesday tour.

I joined in at first sharing the poems the poets had written and I had merely loved and cherished. Then one day I decided to put pen to paper (poetry is always written thus for me) and came up with the following poem. Not a great effort or earth shattering but it opened the door for me to again write the poetry of my heart.

Y!360 heralded a lot of firsts for me. I joined and became active blogging at a very trying time of my life. I don't think, like some of my friends I made there, that it necessarily saved my life but it definitely enriched it and opened doors I had not realized were there or that I had shut.

Passing the Ball

Balls of knitting wool
Needles, hooks
Twined into textures
Intricate
Mysterious
Warm

Mother taught me to knit
Crochet, sew, embroider
Sat beside me
Upon the couch
Retrieved my dropped stitches
Corrected
My patterns
With Warmth

Arts shared
Skills taught
Treasures created
Handed down
From Mother to daughter
Intricate patterns
Of Life

I sit now
On the couch
Alone
Knitting memories
To keep me warm
A sweater
To show
I learned

See what
My mother taught me
To do
I knit, Crochet
Cross stitch, crewel
And Sew

Intricate
Patterns
Of lives
Entwined
Knitted together
keeping me warm

J. Binford-Bell October 2007

Monday Morning Chat Over Coffee - Mourning

2009-06-08T04:25:00.000-07:00

Yesterday evening I was ready to shut it all down and walk away. By everything I mean 360, Profiles, Twitter, Blogger and Facebook. Like my friend Sails I had reached sensory overload but not for the technical glitches and learning of new things and trying to keep up temporarily with one blog too many. I was just totally sated with the seemingly random rapid firing of diverse emotions I was getting in comments and status messages. Fortunately the cactus bud began to open and I was diverted with recording the process with my camera.

This morning as I encountered an even more open blossom to photograph I was also confronted with more emotions dripping off the blog pages. And it hit me suddenly. We are all in mourning. Our beloved Y!360 is dying and we really do not know how to cope.

We are going through the five stages of mourning and varying rates and without benefit of support group because here we are talking about technical processes and not Denial and Isolation, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, and Acceptance. I think a lot of us, including me, are pretending acceptance. Judith Viorst in Necessary Losses writes about how we go through mourning even when the loss is something we wanted as in a divorce or graduation from college. To move on and up and out we must release: We must say goodbye to something.

I am bombarded at the moment not only with my own rapid changing of emotions about 360 and the loss of friends, but with the emotions of all my friends. And then there is my ex-husband who is in mourning for his whole body as he goes back and forth between bargaining and anger about the future amputation of his foot and/or lower leg. And I am still going through my stages of grief over the loss of my dear friend, Kathi.

I think it is key to the whole "recovery period" to know that the five stages of mourning are not linear necessarily. It should rather be seen as a giant emotional pinball machine. And we don't always reach acceptance. Sometimes there is a huge TILT and we get stuck somewhere in the process. And we can pick a seemingly superficial issue like the closing of a blog platform to hide from ourselves and the world all the other more serious issues we are dealing with.

For many of us 360 has been our port in a storm. Our life raft during trying times in the "real world" and now we are asked to joyfully swim to an uncertain shore. Please be kind to each other as we go through this. And be kind to yourself.

A pause to reflect

2009-06-04T04:56:00.001-07:00

I feel motivated this morning to pause in the process of merely transferring blogs from Y!360 - my first ever public journal - to reflect upon the whole blog experience.

Y!360 was ever so much more than a blog platform. And that becomes so evident when you sort through in an effort to decide the importance of a particular post. Or the comments on that post. Who made those comments is lost in a lot of cases because they have closed their pages and moved on. Soon all the pages will be closed. I am reminded of college graduation. Once it was over I totally lost track of so many of those people that I had called friends along the path to what I really thought was my sole goal.

Goals are important. As are milestones. But I really think who we shared even a portion of the journey with may be the most important aspect. And here in blogland as in our memories sometimes they become faceless occupiers of a vague space in our memory. Or just the words they said at a time we needed to hear them.

Clouds Illusions and Studio Progress?

2009-06-03T03:52:00.000-07:00

June 2007: The tin finally went on the roof. Went though days of rain with only plastic protecting my tongue and grove ceiling. At this juncture they still have not totally finished. Nor have they taken off the old roofing up to the wall of the second story and replaced it. When that happened all hell broke loose. A contractor fell through my ceiling and made a huge hole in the living room. Everything had to be moved.

They dropped a hammer through another place. There were promises to repair it when the sheet rock was being done but that did not happen.

A lot of discontent began happening between the June 5th progress photo and this juncture. They had delivered to my place twice the amount of tongue and grove needed for the ceiling. Sixty-one 16 foot boards to be exact. And it made me start looking at all the extra materials laying around including foundation forms for another whole addition. I had been told by the contractor that billings would go down because it was all labor mostly. Everything pricey was already suppose to be gotten by me or the contractor. When you combined his bills and what I paid for like earth work, windows and doors, and electrical wiring costs were well over $100 per square foot quoted which was an increase from the $50 per square foot we began with.

And the crew walked off. No work at all was done for over two weeks.

And Yahoo started having issues! If you will note the last sentence I had trouble posting this. And I was squashed into one half of my living room and a bedroom with all my computer stuff. And I was having computer issues.

From Yahoo post of June 21, 2007

It as been a while since I have posted a progress report on the studio. Not that there has not been progress. It just has not been as exciting when the walls went up and the windows went in. But today the crew was here working on the eaves. Also the rock was delivered for the interior.

The delivery truck struck the satellite and knocked it out of whack. Bye bye network connections. Turns out one of my carpenters used to do computer work so he tweaked it back. I needed to chill so I took the camera out to take progress photos and was immediately diverted by the clouds.

But I persevered and walked around to the back to get that slant on the eaves. More clouds.

Finally got the following photo which shows he roof complete but it is not a great photo of the studio because I was subconsciously focusing on the clouds.

Work was called a short time later because of the following thunderhead.

A lot of flash bang but not much rain. Then the new computer monitor arrived. I works but the desktop has been moved for the next month or two upstairs away from the sheet rock and construction dust. It is supposedly wireless ready and I even think I initially ran it that way when I had it an my old computer running during data transfer. But it does not seem to want to recognize the wireless network. I can't even get that little wireless icon to show up.

Guess tomorrow it s call HP tech support. I really love to do that. Or see if my carpenter can figure it out. Or go hat in hand to the computer nerd next door and admit I am not the guru on computers that I am with electricity.

This is the second time I have tried to post this blog. Yahoo keeps eating it. Once more with feeling.

Progress Photos on Studio June 5, 2007

2009-06-02T05:25:00.000-07:00

From Yahoo Post of June 5th, 2007. Things were happening pretty fast at this point.

The Promised Progress Photos

I promised progress photos and here they are.

My calico cat Wee Willow sits in the window sill between the house and the new studio addition. The window will tomorrow be a French door to continue the light and openness from the studio into the living room. This photo shows some of the electrical wiring I have been so busy with. There were wires beneath where Willow sits that had to be moved and rerouted to continue electrical circuits in the living room after this becomes a door.

This is the southern openings awaiting windows. The black is what they call Ice dam that blocks the seepage of water around the windows and blocks the formation of ice in our winter months. Bottom of openings are one foot six inches from the finished floor so the windows do not have to be tempered glass.

Six windows in. The large picture window arrives tomorrow. Doors arrived this afternoon and will also be installed tomorrow. These are fixed panes. The center one will have a lower 1/4 that will open. There are two really high windows on the north side that open for cross ventilation.

View to the East through the newly installed windows. The opening to the left in the photo will be a French door to be installed tomorrow.

Oh, the addition passed the electrical inspection. Framing inspector comes tomorrow.

Two Years Ago almost to the day

2009-06-02T05:14:00.000-07:00

I am trying to get down the record of the studio progress in one chunk here and then I will go to more interesting things like my first ever Poetry Wednesday post, etc. But as the contractor is suing me for money I don't think I owe him it is very important to preserve these records from my Y!360 posts.

Yes, they are all preserved on Profiles now but going through and sorting them out has been great for me. It has been two years since this all began and one forgets a lot, ergo it is nice to have a photographic and blog record of just what I was feeling and doing at this point.

The plan! There is always a plan. Entry for June 4, 2007: The question is whether or not it is the same plan.

When you dream of something for ten years you get to amply develop your plan. I wish I had put every sketch upon a napkin, or in my day planner while waiting for an appointment, or sketch made for benefit of a friend on the back of an envelope into a folder. It certainly would have been an interesting review of how the mind works and a plan metamorphoses. I could scan it all in, set it to music and put it on YouTube to torment everyone else. But I digress. My rants about YouTube later.

By the time I marched with my latest plan to a professional draftsman to have them translated into "contractor speak" to present to the licensing board I figured those plans were done. Ceased to evolve. Then came winter. A horrid winter of much snow and much wind. And on a snowbound day observing the heaps of snow sliding off the pitch room and building barriers first under my windows and then over I got out those set in stone plans and began moving windows and doors. And this was good.

Then my contractor saw my plans. (Just a side note here: Contractors hate draftsmen and architects because they don't build the plans they draw up. i.e. Don't live in the real world as it were.) So the contractor had changes.

Meanwhile the electrical plan has stayed the same. Well, at least until I stood in the structure which is to be my future studio. And imagined where the furniture and art work tables, computer, art, etc would go. We always tell clients to do this. I don't know how many do. Walk across the room - where would you expect a switch for lights to be. Go outside and come inside - where would you reach to illuminate the room and what and how much. All the lights with one switch? Just one so you can tiptoe around and look at the dawn as it begins to illuminate the eastern sky.

As a resident of the high country in winter I can tell you one thing - there is never enough light. As an electrician I know one other thing for sure - if the light isn't there wired in you can't ever turn it on. And lastly retrofits are really pricey.

And this was not what this blog started out to be about. I was going to mention the existing wire I drilled through. Oops. Well, and another oops. I should have had a plan for this blog. But I did. But on the way to the conclusion. . .

Retrofits. OK. It was going to be a really easy task to and another much needed circuit to my kitchen because the new studio butts in part up to one wall of the kitchen. So just drill through, cut out for a remodel box and run the circuit. The drill through killed one of the circuits I do (oops, did) have. But no worries. I have the technology, and a plan. (Another side note: This is why you never get a hard bid price on a remodel. They all want time and materials). So an hour later after patching the oops I was back to the original plan for the day.

So best laid and all that rot about mice and men. Plans should be flexible. But not so flexible they break the budget. You think that custom home is going to cost you X then immediately add 20% for all those changes of plans. Don't be so foolish as to think you won't have them.

Still am on the basic path. Eight of the nine windows will arrive today to be installed. (There is always something dragging.) The doors tomorrow. All electrical finished today. Then we wait for inspectors - electrical and framing. I hate that part. Because the next part is the fun part: sheet rock, flooring, paint and trim, hang fixtures and switch all those previously imaginary switches and illuminate my new castle. Ta Da!

Point of No Return?

2009-06-02T05:04:00.001-07:00

The below blog was posted May 16, 2007 on Yahoo. At this point my contractor assured me that all the expensive materials had been purchased. The ceiling beams were not cheap. I purchased all the windows and doors to keep from paying him overhead and save on the estimated $100 per square foot which included windows and doors.

Point of No Return ?

They put the center beam in place on my studio today. It is a milestone of sorts. So I took this photo when it was resting securely in the slots built for it. Later they got four of the eight side beams in place as another thunderstorm was closing in.

I have always said if food was just food I would be thin. But it is friendship, company, sensual experience, love, remembrance, celebration, and at times even grieving. I think the building of this studio is a lot like food. I figured once I had committed myself to it and designed it I just had to sit back and enjoy the journey, but it has been more like a roller coaster ride. Like one of the top ten in the nation. I love roller coasters but I also hate them in a strange way. At some point in the short 3 to 4 minute ride I always ask myself, "What am I doing here?"

The answer is having fun. You probably have to like being scared to death to understand that answer. Life would have been so simple and easy had I not decided to take this journey to consummate this decade long dream. And every step along the way there is that moment where I ask, "What am I doing here?"

Having fun being scared to death. It is taking money reserved for retirement but then its goal is to be able to provide me with an income in retirement. It will add to my one real asset - my house and make it more salable and easier to borrow money on, etc. I know all the logical financial and business reasons for my decision but all risk comes with some trepidation. Nothing ventured, nothing gained I tell myself.

And out of the ether, through messages sent to me via blog comments and e-mail, even a corrupted joke that Yahoo deleted the picture from and left the caption the message has been keep on keeping on. Leap. Soar. Dream. Be. There are no guarantees in life. Live it while you can.

Today the apex of my dream was put in place. Wow!!! And that is all I have to say on the subject.

Studio Progress - May 12, 2007

2009-06-02T04:52:00.000-07:00

My photo records show the detail on the foundation work which seemed to take forever. After the foundation was dug we got more snow and then melt and mud. The foundation concrete pour was done on April 18th and then more snow. I think I was very frustrated at this point but then in just a few days more progress is made.

Studio Progress May 12, 2007 from Y!360 Blog.

As you can see from the above photo we are "above ground" as it were but not yet topped out. There is no roof yet. If it looks "lacy" it is because of all the windows that will one day soon occupy those spaces.

Working as an electrician I generally see construction projects when the foundations are being laid and we are putting in temporary power and sleeving where main feeds or any in the slap runs. And then we don't return to site until the contractor has his framing inspection and we are boxing and pulling wires for future receptacles and switches and fixtures.

As such this construction project just outside my window has been very informative. They do the walls totally lying down. Even sheath then with composition board before lifting them into place. With my little studio they did the front and back walls and braced them while constructing the front wall on the sub-flooring and lifting it to brace the other two. Then they furred out the wall which abuts to my house to provide better support than tying in to my house. Roof beams are next.

Construction projects are rather like a mambo; slow, quick, quick, slow, quick, slow, slow. This always throws owners because after seeing very fast progress, at last after the incredibly slow foundation, they expect the project is going to speed up and they will be done and moved in before they know it. Generally they have always set some date like the ten year family reunion or Thanksgiving when they just must be in the totally completed and appropriately decorated house. A good contractor generally tries to let them know this probably won't happen and they should plan on Aunt Mabel's place instead for the wedding, etc.

Then when things go back to slow they are really frustrated and just sure someone is dragging their heels. They don't see how much work is going on in the walls or attic or crawl space. They don't understand the labor intensiveness of a few wires in the wall. They really don't get the time it takes to trim out. Or the construction industry's own version of Waiting for Godot, the building, electrical, plumbing inspectors.

But for now things go fast. And one of the goals I know as an insider is just ahead is "weathered in" because this is when us electricians again get access to the site. At that time it will have windows and a roof because electricians hate working in the rain even if we do work in the dark.

I get to do my magic and wire this studio the way I want. And one thing I know from long experience is there is never enough light or enough outlets if you go just by code. You can always not turn a light on but if it isn't there you are out of luck. I will even punch through the common wall into the kitchen and add another badly needed circuit there. And the whole addition will be on the sub-panel that currently handles my well, and septic system. There is a transfer switch and generator in the future that will allow all that and the studio to work when we have power outages here in the high country.

So all that is probably TMI (too much information) and you will probably be bored at other progress points I feel a need to communicate. I am considering writing (and hopefully selling) and article on remodels and/or passive solar design and execution so you are just my trial audience.

March 21, 2007 Studio Ground Breaking

2009-06-01T08:36:00.000-07:00

Continuing my look back at blogs in Y!360 I came upon one of the ones I considered really important for a number of reasons not the least of which is possible evidence on the contractor suit resulting in the building of my Studio.

The contractor, not computer literate, has no idea that the progress on this project was witnessed by thousands as I dutifully posted updates. This was day one. And I hired the backhole to dig the foundation.

Ground Breaking News

Backhoe showed up on time. Among contractors here in the high country that in itself is earth shaking news. But then he was just up on the highway and didn't have far to travel. Even more important my contractor showed up on time to layout the plans.

Well, not actually the plans. Those he left in the pickup with the building permit. But then we are revising the foundation plans.

The backhoe owner also does landscaping so while I had him captive on my property we negotiated some improvements to my driveway. This may be why contractors are always late here. You hire them for one job and while you have them you keep adding on more tasks. As an electrician I see this all the time. We seldom get off site in a timely manner ergo we are late to the next scheduled job.

Spring time is a good time to begin. Most people that have to negotiate construction loans are not ready to begin until June or July. Nobody has worked because of the long hard winter and so they are all hungry. And eager which I suppose explains them showing up on time this morning.

The really good news, since I am a gardener, is the piles of rich, dark top soil the backhoe dug up of the trenches for the footings. I am already planning my new herb and lettuce beds.

It took until the next summer to get those new beds built and my first crop of lettuce and herbs. Construction requires such energy and time even when all you are doing is overseeing the process, but to keep costs down I was doing some of the manual work myself and also hiring subcontractors to avoid paying 15%.

Blogs are not merely journals but records of our path through life.

My First Art Sunday featuring me

2009-05-31T11:42:00.000-07:00

On Y!360 there used to be an Art Sunday tour. I began participating like many of the others with the art of the great masters. As an art history student I found that quite gratifying, but eventually wanted to show my own work. So on an Art Sunday Post in May 2007 I finally did.I find it interesting that my art has changed so much. I think this was also one of the first times I ever did multi-photos in a blog.

Art Sunday - Canyons of My Mind (May 2007 on Y!360): In the past few blogs for Art Sunday I have featured my pen and inks of people and my more colorful work of churches in northern New Mexico and my mind. I have never promised to faithfully copy an existing Spanish mission church. And given the lack of faithful renovation it isn't even something to be strived for. But that is an entirely different blog.

I want to cover my first love to paint - canyons. As I have said previously these are my spiritual centers. And in the painting Awaiting Dawn below I see Egyptian figures facing the dawn.

The colors in this art work came from a complete accident. I was printing out the photograph I had taken of this scenic overlook in Arches National Park Utah and something had gone wrong with the photo ink cartridge making the bottom half of the photo purple and the top yellow. So I used the same color scheme in my painting of this awesome view.

I more closely followed nature's color scheme with this representation of Delicate Arch also at Arches National Park. But a photographer wanting a certain effect had some years before blackened its base by lighting a fire. I chose to make that scar purple rather than black. And to put pink clouds in the sky. Hey, if you are going to leave it just as it is then just print the photograph. This painting, which my sister currently owns, was my first extensive use of India inks in black, sepia and burnt umber as under-painting. It is actually a Chinese technique.

By the time I painted Awakenings above I had totally suspended any adherence to supposed reality. Don't you see figures in clouds? Well, I see them in rock. The initial inspiration is Mesa Arch at Canyonlands National Park in Utah. And because I did not want to frame in the spirit of the painting I just painted the frame too.

This probably gets me mature content with the Yahoo Blog police. But art is for intellectually mature individuals. You bring to a painting your experience and I bring mine. Hopefully we meet in the middle.

Note the opening picture is Flight of Fantasy. I changed my perspective from the photograph to share space with the hawk.

Maybe this week I will post on Creative Journey a group of current paintings to compare with these some two years later. I certainly think I have developed as an artist.

My First Ever Blog

2009-05-31T05:41:00.000-07:00

My first ever blog was February 9th, 2007. I had opened my Y!360 account in August of the previous year at the urging of my cousin, Judie, who is no longer with me on this earth. I did not know how to insert photos, or change titles or put in links but the above photo is from the snow storm I talk about below.

Entry for February 09, 2007

What is it about the new year which makes us all expect wonderful things? As if all the bad from the previous year can be shoved aside with the mere passage of a couple seconds we have designated as the end of one year and the beginning of the next.

January 1 found me still snowed in from the horrendous snow storm that ended 2006. And if found me fighting with my sister. Nothing necessarily new. We always had our clashes of spirit. What can one expect from two strong personalities raised in a highly competitive family. The difference was I had decided not to take it anymore.

I had not even been aware that was my numero uno 2007 resolution. I was not going to take disrespectful behavior from anyone. About time. This year I turn 62. If I am not going to stand up for myself, who is?

And from that beginning a sea change has ensued. It was as if emerging from a long tunnel. That tunnel was entered at Christmas 2001. On Christmas Eve of that year I suffered a serious closed brain trauma (CBT). It alters personality and perceptions and in my instance "knocked me into the right side of my brain." Emerging from the tunnel this January 1st did not mean things were as they once were but I had decided to take total responsibility for who I had become. No apologies, no excuses. What you see is what you get. And if you don't like it get lost.

I frankly love the new me. Oh, so much more creative and comfortable with myself. I can be totally content with just my paints and pets for company.

Not that I am unwilling to share, but on my terms. Not a bad place to be as 2007 gets rolling. It is a little sad my sister does not want to continue the journey with me. But I am sure there are other stops along the way. People will get off and get back on. Doesn't prevent me from enjoying the trip.
My sister and I are no long fighting but I am still very much on the "No apologies, No excuses" bent I expressed here. And the new creative me has gotten a lot more creative. And I now have five blogs. And know how to post pictures in a lot of different ways.

Note: I had imagined when I first set up Chats with Charley II that I was going to archive all my old 360 blogs here. But Google is not set up to take them and the transfer to Profiles went smoothly. I can archive them on Wordpress but have not decided on that.

So for the moment my objective is to go through my blogs before they vanish from 360 and feature a few here. In the more than two years I was on Y!360 I wrote 921 blogs. Not all of them are memorable. It could be an interesting journey just re-reading some of them.

Y360! was my first Blog

2009-05-29T04:54:00.000-07:00

The news from Australia is that Yahoo has finally announced July as the date for closing Y!360. And has now hung a blog on Profiles which is where I am composing this.

The above photo is of a local wildflower. the Mountain Crocus, and one of the first to bloom here. I had to relocate my Flickr account to retrieve this. One of those many accounts I have not had time for of late. Back to being active there. But this foto seemed appropriate to launch a new beginning on Profiles.

As many of you know I have become quite active on Blogger with three blogs there: Sidetracked Charley, Travels with Charley and Creative Journey. And in the very near future I will be opening another - Chats with Charley as a "warehouse" for my old 360 blogs which Yahoo has promised to export and archive and also have available through Profiles.

I will not be moving to Multiply. Nor will I join just so I can comment on your content there. The burned me once and I will not go back. But I will maintain Profiles so you can make comments in Guest Book. And if you are a connection I will see where your updated blog content is and can visit.

The above is a copy of a blog on my Profile. Check it out there too so you can see what is happening. And if you are not currently a connection of mine and want to be leave a comment in my guestbook, or Twitter, or Facebook or one of my Blogger blogs.