odds and ends

We have three wifi connections in our house via two different routers. I generally prefer to use the oldest as it's the fastest even though one of the new ones is supposedly 5G so you'd think that when I wake up my computer (it disconnects from the wifi when asleep) it would reconnect to one of those in the house. And you would be wrong. Often it connects to my sister's wifi across the street (I have her password from back when we were staying with her right after the Harvey flood), skipping our two routers in between my desktop and my sister's house. And that one is very slow.

I get notifications on my tablet. The two were Amber alerts and Severe Weather alerts. I finally turned off the Amber alerts because they always came in the middle of the night but I still get the Severe Weather alerts though at some point they segued into...

So is it going to start hailing stolen children?

Learned Wednesday that the birth of my first great grandchild has been moved up from October 13 to this Sunday if the doctor, who is concerned about her feet and sugar levels, can get an appointment.

Across the road that the west end of my street ends at is a railroad track, a corn/cotton field and then a county road that parallels that road and then the highway. Yesterday evening set fire to four big piles of trees in that field that must have been cleared from somewhere nearby. They were flaming up when we drove by on the way to yoga but never really caught as they were still there coming back and smoldering smokily. When I set out to walk Minnie it was hazy and smelly from the smoke that was drifting into our end of the neighborhood. Thursday morning it was even worse so I guess they smoldered all night.

Another mostly sleepless night Thursday night but boy did I have some weird dreams in the hour or two of sleep I got before I had to get up to get ready for my day at SHARE, part of which involved people milling around my house while someone, the maid/cook was fixing breakfast that these people had been invited for. When we were called to eat, a big table had been set and another table was laid out with a big spread of different food buffet style. I fixed my plate (can't say what it all was except for scrambled eggs, some bread kind of thing, and everything else was sort of fluffy sweet stuff) and decided my place at the table was too crowded so I stood/sat? off to the side and my mouth started watering for real while I was asleep and I woke enough to to know that while I was swallowing all that saliva in my dream, I was swallowing it for real. There was another one that involved some kind of animal, a dog that turned into a tortoise kind of thing later and a swimming pool and feeding it some weird snowflake shaped crustacean like things.

Also last Wednesday, I filled in the rest of the background color even adding a little more, if it's going to turn out darker then I might as well go with it but I don't think it will really be that dark, and then started back filling for the clear layer but ran out of time.

Finally got over to the studio this morning and filled in the last of the clear and then the final white layer and now it's ready to go in the kiln.

I'm sure everyone is breathing a sigh of relief that they don't have to listen to me moan about it, at least til it's fired and I see how it came out. The gallery in Dallas has already contacted me about having these two pieces for the Botanical show in February.

Another sign of the end of summer and the somewhat cooler weather, the Philippine lilies are starting to bloom. They can get to be a good sized shrub though this one is a volunteer I put in a pot and the single stem has shot up at least three feet. I have a white version too but it's not blooming yet.

sleepwaking

Two nights of sleeplessness have left me feeling thick headed and listless. I have laid around all morning in a semi-doze sometimes reading, sometimes just sitting with my eyes closed and occasionally wandering around outdoors. It's 2 in the afternoon and I haven't even gotten properly dressed yet, still wearing my lounge-around-the-house clothes.

I finally became animated enough to fix some fish tacos for a late lunch from the left over fried catfish from yesterday's lunch from Freddie's. Freddie's is our favorite lunch spot here in Wharton when we have failed to provide enough groceries here at the house, a common occurrence. Freddie's is a little quickie mart with a steam table. His cook is an older black lady who we have tried to recruit to our own kitchen many times. She just laughs.

It's been softly overcast today which I'm sure has contributed to my lethargy. We've had a steady breeze for the last several weeks and it continues today causing the wind chimes to give us a near constant gentle serenade. Even though earlier this week the temperatures have been reminding us that summer is near, today has been pleasant so the doors and windows remain open.

Needless to say, all things have gone undone today.

work and other minor inconveniences

I’m composing this on the new computer.  It didn’t have to go back to the store after all.  Once we got back in the city and Marc had access to all his computer cables and other magic stuff, he got it to rights.  The new keyboard is so small, doesn’t have the extra little number pad on the right and the key buttons are nearly flush.  The new mouse is very cool also.  You can click anywhere on it and you can stroke it to make it scroll up and down or sideways as well.  I still haven’t transferred any of my stuff.  I’ll get to that in the coming days.

I’m also composing this at 1 o’clock in the morning.  I was very tired, ready for bed until my head hit the pillow.  Even now, my eyes are tired but I know that I still won’t be able to sleep.  It didn’t help that the snoring from the other occupant of the bed started up RIGHT AWAY!  How does he go to sleep so damn fast?!  I laid there for about two hours and finally got up to have a cup of tea.  Maybe that’ll help.

This month has been so busy and as usual I don’t feel like I have made nearly the progress I should have.  I’m not ready for January to be over.  I need at least one more week, two would be better.  Getting all those jewels prepared took so long.  But prepared they are now and we are going over to the church tomorrow to start laminating them onto the window.  I hope the weather cooperates since we have to tape the patterns to the outside of the window and there is no overhang.  Of course, rain is predicted for later in the week.  Once that is completed we can finally start working on the Catholic church.  They have been so patient, but like we told them, we were waiting on deposits all summer for these three big jobs and they all came in within two weeks of each other.  Unfortunately, theirs came last.

Because I am so busy, I haven’t had much time to blog and the next several weeks are going to be even worse, so if you have missed me, I’m trying to stay current on my reading but I’m not commenting much.  Later this month, Feb 17 - 22, we are teaching a 6 day workshop in Austin so besides trying to get work done on our jobs, I am having to prepare for the workshop...physically (getting all the stuff together) and mentally (trying to get my mind focused on the teaching part).

The art consultant still has not sent me the pictures of the glass wall in the chapel at the Oklahoma Heart Hospital.  But...I do have pics of the single panel we did for the gas transmission company that we squeezed in in January and which is the reason I am behind on my other work.  The art consultant is a repeat customer though and it pays to make him happy.  This one is 5' x 4' with silver and copper leaf accents.

Here’s a thing I have noticed.  On the old computer when I did a post I set the type at the ‘small’ selection and it looked about 12 point size but on the new computer, it’s really small, more like ‘smallest’ on the old computer.  So on this post, on the new computer, I set the type size to ‘normal’ and it looks about 12 point size but when I look at it on the old computer, it’s much larger, like the ‘normal’ setting.  What’s up with that?  What size does it look like on your screen?

sleepless

Sometimes sleep evades me.  Sometimes I entice it to settle in but somewhere around 2 or 3 or 4 in the morning, I lose my grip on it.  Sometimes it bolts away like a dog that has slipped it’s leash.

Me, wide awake with eyes closed, “Oh the little bastard has run off again.  I wonder what time it is this time.”  I try to intuit the hour by the nature of the silence the way a snake tastes the air with it’s tongue.  

Sometimes it’s sneaky, letting me think that I can fall back under if I just concentrate on it and sometimes I can sweet talk it back after a half hour or so.  

Me, stretching, waking, opening one eye to see if it’s day yet.  Shit!  It’s still dark.  “Sleep, where are you, what are you doing?”

Sleep, hopping back and forth from foot to foot, “I got bored.  Your dreams are boring.”

Me, “My dreams are boring?  And be still, come closer where I can see you better.”

Sleep dances forward a step or two.

Me, patting the edge of the bed, “Sit here and I promise to have an exciting dream for you.”

Sleep, twirling in a little pirouette, “No, you’ll just go off freaking out about the test you have to take and didn’t study for and don’t know where the classroom is.”

Me, thinking Sleep is acting like a petulant child, “Well then, how about the one where the monster is chasing me?”

Sleep, with lip pouting out, “Too scary.”  

Me, getting tired of the game, “Come here sweetie, the bed is so comfy.  Come join me and we’ll go exploring the big house again or maybe we’ll find a new boyfriend.  You’d like that wouldn’t you?”

Sleep creeps a little closer thinking over these options.  The big house is always fun and she hasn’t had a new boyfriend in a while either.  “Well, OK, but only because I’m tired.”

I used to just lay there, tossing and turning thinking that if I’m not sleeping, at least I’m resting.  I don’t do that anymore.  Now I just get up.  I’d like to say that I do something productive during these dark hours of the new day but I don’t.  I gather up my pillows and make a little nest on the futon, if it’s winter I’ll fix a cup of tea, and then I just read until I feel sleep creeping back, apologetic for having run off, trying to get back in my good graces.  I don’t trust it though.  I know that if I get up and move back to the bedroom it will run off again like a bully that snatches the treat away just when you reach for it.  So that’s where Husband finds me in the morning when he gets up to start the coffee, asleep on the couch.

These nights of sleeplessness are offset by the nights when I do sleep.  Those nights I will sleep for 9 hours solid.  The other night I slept for 11 hours.  I always wanted to be one of those people who could get by on 5 hours of sleep a night.  However having my waking hours divided up into two sessions was not exactly what I was thinking of.

I’m not a worrier by nature but sometimes when I am feeling pressured, either from too much work or no work, I will have these bouts of insomnia.  Sometimes I can’t get to sleep because Husband is trying to bring the house down from the very vibrations of the snoring issuing out of his face.  Sometimes I have no idea why I can’t sleep.  But not last night.  Last night I know exactly why I woke up.  It was the 200 or so muscles that were screaming at me every time I moved or even thought about moving.  You see, yesterday I renewed my membership to the gym and went and worked out for the first time in about 6 weeks.

Groan.