better weather, cold work, and gun nuts

Last Thursday it was overcast and rainy drizzly and cold and other than my sister and I going out for an estate sale in the morning, I got nothing accomplished all day. I know, I know, I've said the same thing about the previous days and then listed everything I did but Thursday I was so cold I spent the entire day on the couch under a blanket under the heat vent with the electric heater on and I didn't warm up til 6:30. Friday was warmer and I did more cold work on the heron box and the snowflake ornaments 

and picked up more pecans, ditto Saturday though we had a Friendsgiving with our little social group on the street in the afternoon...chili and cornbread and a salad and several deserts. It was a pretty day and fairly warm until the sun went down and it got cold again.

Also Saturday my frames/shadow boxes from my brother came so Sunday and Monday I worked on those doing a final sanding and starting to paint them but I ran out of paint so that's on the agenda for today and did more cold work on the heron box. Weirdly enough, when we re-fired it I guess it consolidated more ie more air was compressed out because I lost an 1/8” of height after I reground the bottom flat (though I didn't take that much off the bottom) so I'm having to take an 1/8” off the bottom of the neck of the inlay piece. I also worked more on the line down the front where the flashing was. I'm happier with it, not happiest, but happier.

the white line down the front is where the flashing (raised line where the melted glass oozed through a crack in the mold) was, the white will be finished out but the line where the flashing was will still be visible under certain lighting

new mounting for these tiles from last year, took them out of the expensive stands and attached them on a piece of plywood that replaced the glass from these hobby store frames for hanging on the wall

We've been having some really nice weather, supposed to be in the mid-70˚s all week, sunny, a few rain showers later. My trees are still dropping pecans, I'm picking up about a gallon's worth every day. I've shelled all I'm going to shell I think, 14 pounds, so now I'm just waiting till they stop falling to take them in and sell the rest. The gingko trees still have not turned yellow which surprises me, getting there but still more green than yellow.

So I've pretty much stopped trying to engage certain people, MAGAts and gun nuts and by gun nuts I don't mean all gun owners, just those who don't feel safe without a gun at hand all the time, because what's the point. And to that end I did not directly reply to a new commenter on Steve Reed's blog who commented on one of his recent posts about encountering crazy but essentially harmless people on his walks with his dog. Anyway this woman commented that she lives in Texas and carries precisely because of crazy people and even recounted an episode when she reached for her gun because someone in another car flipped her off. Personally, I don't think a stressed out driver who gives someone the finger and maybe says fuck you because you cut them off or refused to let them in to be worthy of brandishing a weapon but that's just me, especially here in Texas where open carry without a license is permitted and too many people think a gun is the only solution to every annoyance. Because I didn't want his other readers to think that she represented Texas, I simply commented without directing it to her that I too was from Texas and didn't carry or own a gun, that it wasn't crazy people you encounter on the street that worried me but those who go around armed all the time. So even though my comment was several down from hers, she read it and commented again @ me specifically. First she lectured me on the gun laws here (as if I'm ignorant of those facts) and then this...”You had better be afraid of us carrying a gun because we won't be playing with you and stupidity”...belligerence and threats. She made my point for me far better than I could. I'd feel sorry for people who live in so much constant fear that they have to carry a gun all the time if it weren't for the chance that they would just as soon shoot me as walk away if I pissed them off.

And so to end on a more pleasant note, the wrens have been very active the last couple of weeks screeching at the cat and poking around. I was ready to close up the shop last week and there were two wrens in there and they would not be shooed out so I had to wait til later and then the other night there were two in the garage when I closed it up for the night. They also would not be shooed out though they can get out of the garage when it's closed up unlike the shop and I've already found two dead wrens in there that got trapped. And they often come investigate this corner of the house where I sit and look out clinging to the screens, checking out under the eaves, looking for wasp nests I guess being the wasp and bee eaters that they are.

Alright, time to get busy.