short stories, part whatever and more Oct. skies

Steve of Shadows and Light wrote that the parakeets that come to his bird feeder are molting, losing old feathers and growing new ones, as all birds do. It made me think of trees which also ‘molt’, losing old leaves and growing new ones. And then of humans who do not molt though hair and skin cells are constantly shed and replaced. Which got me to thinking about hair and how long an individual hair lives since some women who have never cut their hair from birth have extremely long hair. So I looked it up. A human hair lives and grows on average 2 - 7 years before the resting phase and finally shedding and can reach a maximum length of 3’ - 6’ or about half as long as the person is tall depending on the individual, genetics, breakage, and relative health of the hair. There are exceptions of course as there are in all things, some women have/had hair down to their ankles which must be a nightmare to wash.

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Last Friday was Paisleigh’s 4th birthday and her party was Saturday afternoon. The child has a playground in her backyard. For her 2nd birthday she got a full size trampoline, 3rd birthday a bouncy castle and a play set that consists of a strap anchored between trees with a swing, hoops, ladder, and some other stuff I can’t recall descending from it. This birthday she got a treehouse with two slides (fast and slow), a climbing wall (about 5’ at a slant), and a zip line. At 4 Paisleigh already knows the proper response to any present she opens whether she fully understands what it is or not. She gasps with delight. Unless it’s the third gift of clothes clothes, oh, another shirt though she did like the new jacket that is so heavy it might get cold enough this winter for her wear it a day or two.

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If you’ve been reading me for a while you may remember the dust up with the then new neighbor, the gun nut with his chickens who would shoot at stray and neighbors' dogs who came into his yard chasing his chickens, chickens he made no effort to contain and let go into neighboring yards. One day he shot at the neighbor's dog in its own yard because it had been in his yard and the bullet whizzed by that neighbor. Big confrontation and the chicken man finally put a fence around the property. Well he died of a heart attack about five years ago, the chickens all finally died or were killed by other critters. Last year the widow got more chickens and although the property is still fenced there is a low spot where three or four of them get out under the fence every day and they strut around in the ditch and in other neighbor’s yards and she makes no effort to prevent it. I’ve chased them out of my yard. Second part of this, another neighbor who generally has a big dog or two who are well behaved and stay in their yard, had surgery on his neck that didn’t go as well as hoped and is undergoing PT in Sugar Land during the week so no one is home and the scraggly male big dog and two puppies there currently are roamers. Yesterday they knocked over my neighbor on the east side’s trash can and spread trash around and this morning when that neighbor was mowing his yard the dog trotted down the street with something big and brown in it’s mouth followed by the two puppies. I hollered at my neighbor, what did he have in his mouth? A chicken. Life in the country.

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Another interesting article from Nautilus…an interview with author Kieran Fox, a neuroscientist, of a book about Albert Einstein, I Am A Part Of Infinity, The Spiritual Journey Of Albert Einstein, and worth the read. A few quotes from the interview/book:  

“Reading Kant, I began to suspect everything I was taught,” Einstein said. “I no longer believed in the known God of the Bible, but rather in the mysterious God expressed in nature.”

“Not long after, in his early 20s, while Einstein was putting together the ideas that would revolutionize the physics of space, time, and matter…he kept exploring this other conception of the divine. He read the philosophical reflections of Arthur Schopenhauer, who saw that the radical religious ideas of thinkers…that nature and God are somehow One—mirrored similar notions in the oldest sacred Indian scriptures.” 

“At age 51…he explained his own contact with the divine. “I will call it the cosmic religious sense.”” and nine years later “Life and death flow into one, and there is neither evolution or destiny; only being.” 

“How can this cosmic religious experience be communicated man to man, if it cannot lead to a definite conception of God or to a theology? It seems to me that the most important function of art and of science is to arouse and keep alive this feeling in those who are receptive.” 

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More October skies, 7th - 12th.

short stories part whatever, more bloomey things

I subscribe to a newsletter called Nautilus. You have to pay to play to get access to all the articles in every daily email but they always include one free article and they are fascinating. Most recently I read one titled How Life Works by Philip Ball. It’s talking about genes and gave forth this interesting tidbit, that we are not complex forms because we have an abundance of genes, in fact we have barely half of the amount in a banana, but because of the way our genes are regulated. We are half of a banana, I found that amusing for some reason.  Other essays I’ve read via Nautilus recently: Never Underestimate The Intelligence Of Trees by Brandon Keim and How To Quiet Your Brain Chatter by Liz Greene. I have several more still in my inbox I want to read. The one about trees was really no surprise because I’ve held the belief that trees are sentient beings with all the attributes of sentience since my early 20s. In fact I believe all life is sentient. How can it not be and survive?

When my brother was here the topic of ear worms came up. He said that the way to combat one driving you crazy is to mentally replace it with a vigorous marching tune. So I tried it this morning, tired of the short refrain from a song I can’t remember the last time I heard it and had been hanging around for a couple of days (and why does my brain pick these off the wall refrains?), and it worked. Of course now I have this Philip Souza type marching melody bouncing around but not as often and infinitely better because it has no words! And later in the day even it was gone.

We’ve been have really nice weather this last week; cool nights and mornings, low humidity, blue sky days, lows in the 60s, highs in the low 80s. That’s changing this week as highs will get into the 90s and lows in the 70s while the hill country will be broiling. Summer is creeping in.

This is the Chinese tallow tree in the little backyard directly across from the back door on the east side of the property inside the fence and shades the yard and house from the hot summer morning sun. It drops its leaves in the fall and if we get an early cold snap they turn yellow, red, and orange. Even without a cold snap they get speckled with all colors just not all at once. The leaves I drew last fall were from this tree. It’s old, average lifespan 30 - 50 years, and I imagine it’s close to 50, but can live up to 100 in optimal conditions. I love this old tree that gives us shade and color and shelter for birds and squirrels.

You might remember that I got a letter from a Frank Hofer, an account manager with a reputable Investment Bank in Canada offering me half of $9+M for submitting me as the heir to Alan Abbott’s estate who died with no kin to claim said estate. Well, it turns out that Frank is a piker because I got another letter from Noah Mark Esq., an attorney and notary public, also in Canada contacting me about an unclaimed “permanent life insurance policy” held by his client the LATE JEFFER ABBOTT, a real estate investor, who was also a cancer victim and died about four years ago with no heirs coming forth and had a “Life Insurance Policy” savings monetary deposit of $49,375,735.47 (gotta love the 47¢, makes it more authentic don’t you think?) which he will happily split 50/50 with me for submitting me as the heir. Oh and time is of the essence since the money will have to be turned over to the state after being unclaimed for four years. Boy, am I glad I didn’t jump on that first offer. Now I can go for the big money.

A week later and my eye feels almost normal. The graininess and gooey feeling is gone, mostly I’m just aware of it. It feels like there is a bit of a glare on the outside edge but now I’m thinking that’s just because I’m getting more light in compared to the other eye. And I swear, my eye is a different color. I’d been in the habit of using my glasses to watch tv so things were better in focus but now of course my glasses are useless. I was watching tv Saturday night and I suddenly became aware of how sharp, in focus, it was and while I need cheaters to read a book or look at my phone (computer screen is fine) where before I didn’t, my mid range vision is excellent and I’m not really sure how far that extends. Pretty far seems like. 

A few more blooming things: in this picture byzantine gladiolus, day lilies, society garlic;

spiderwort, one of my favorite day lilies, carolina wild petunia which I dug up out of an easement in my old city neighborhood and which has spread all over the little backyard.

local use of language

Roderick commented on my colloquial use of the verb 'to fix' as in 'I fixed pancakes' in a previous post, as if there was something wrong with the pancakes that needed repairing. I replied that there was indeed something wrong with the pancakes as they weren't pancakes yet. I use another colloquial form of the verb as in 'fixing to' do something which has been commented on many times during my life but here's two examples:

One, when I was 20 I spent a year at the Chicago Art Institute and one of the classes I took was ceramics. The first day of class the instructor gave a tour of the ceramics facility and we passed an area where the slip molds were and there was one of these molds perched precariously on the edge of the counter and the edge of a stool. I pointed this out to the instructor. Now you have to understand that at 20 I had never left Texas to live anywhere else, born and raised in Houston which at this point in time was not the 4^th largest city in the nation and it was well before the city population exploded in the late 70s and 80s from people moving in from out of state and my Texas twang was strong. So back to my calling the instructor's attention to the slip mold, “That thangs fixin' to fall,” I said as I pointed at the slip mold. He didn't seem concerned about the mold but it stopped him in his tracks, looking at me he demanded, “Where are you from?”.

Two, I've written about being a river guide and on one private trip with my friend and fellow guide John whose daughter and her boyfriend/husband (? I forget which) from New York state had come down to visit and John had arranged this trip for them down Boquillas Canyon on the Rio Grande in Big Bend. The daughter's BF/H had prepared a list of things he wanted to experience while in Texas, one of which was Texas barbecue and two others were the use of certain slang. It's a 12 hour drive to Big Bend from Houston and it was dark by the time we got to the campground/little store where we would pick up our shuttle driver so we just laid out our sleeping bags on the ground to get some sleep before we got up early for put in on the river. At some point during the night I woke to feverish whispering and flashlights, John's daughter and the BF/H were sitting up freaking out over something. What's wrong I asked. Something is rooting around over there, over there being very close to where we were all sleeping. It was a small group of juvenile javelinas that the owner of the campground would throw feed out for. 

image via the internet

Anyway, I was a little annoyed that I had been woken because the next day was going to be a lot of work so I clapped my hands loudly a couple of times and yelled at the javelinas to 'git!'. Ding, slang #1. Later in the trip I used 'fixin' to' do whatever it was and the BF/H joyfully ticked that one off his list as well. Glad to oblige.

short stories, part whatever

The neighborhood roaming peacock was somewhere behind us or the Wicked Bitch of the West's property. I thought I heard it screaming when I was closing up the other night but didn't see it. Marc had gone out the next morning and saw it strutting through the WBotW's lot but by the time I got outside it was almost to the street, too far away to get a good picture as it crossed the street and into a neighbor's yard so forgive the terrible picture on max magnification. It lives four streets over I think but is not contained. Mostly it shows up at the other end of the street. Another neighbor halfway down the street has a peacock caged and the roamer often comes to visit.

The little calico cat that has been hanging around here for weeks finally let me pet her Friday morning. I'd been putting water out for her not knowing if she lived nearby but she's been here every day for several weeks, pretty much stays under the house. She's unafraid of the dog. I finally put some food out Friday evening and she ate it right up so now I'm feeding her.

Barn swallows built a nest on the light fixture a couple of doors down from SHARE. It's full of babies and the parents did not like me taking their picture.

Last night I absentmindedly brushed my right foot over my left big toe and brushed the remaining excruciatingly slowly diminishing scab off. Hooray! I was sick of looking at it, didn't think it was ever going to come off. Seventy eight days, 2 1/2 months, from the day the toenail was removed to the day the remaining scab came off. New nail growing in, redness is slowly diminishing. And ignore my dirty foot.

My neighbors, third property to the left, keep bees. They brought me two half pints of honey on Saturday, said it was the least they could do since it's my flowers the bees are visiting. How cool is that! I get to eat honey made from my flowers!

short stories # whatever

Well, for good or ill the next two molds are in the kiln. Now to reassemble the mold for the box itself and add glass. I had planned to use billets (solid slabs of glass) instead of frit (crushed glass) to fill that one for a couple of reasons...I don't have enough of any one color in frit that I would want to use and I do have billets in two colors to choose from. Were the mold all in one piece it would have been no problem. It may still be no problem. We'll see.

heading up to casting temperature

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The reason I didn't get any work done on the stick mold Wednesday is because I had my follow-up appointment after the ablation for the flutter. I've been keeping track of the instances of irregular heartbeat (the afib) over the past 5 weeks like I did the preceding months only these were just little flips that would happen for a short time or off and on all day but they gradually lessened and then skipped a day and then skipped a couple of days until the last week when I didn't notice anything at all. I had maybe 3 or 4 episodes during that time of what I consider afib but they were less severe, lasting for a shorter period of time. The doctor looked over my list, said we may have to do the afib ablation since the medication was controlling it but not preventing it altogether but let's see how it is in another 3 months, what's happening is not life threatening and I'm protected from stroke as long as I continue on the holy fucking cow this shit is expensive eliquis. With my Medicare and supplemental policy's online pharmacy it's costing me about $85 a month. If I had no insurance at all and had to buy it over the counter it would cost over $400 a month and I wouldn't be taking it. It's still pricey at $85 a month and did you hear that that horrible man in the White House has appointed Alex Azar, ex-president of Eli Lily who tripled the price of insulin, as the new HHS secretary who has voiced his opposition to lowering drug prices to oversee...lowering drug prices. Anyway if the doctor hadn't suggested waiting, I would have. The condition is so much improved and I feel so much better and even if this is as good as it gets on the medication, I'm good with that. It's going to have to get as bad as it was pre-ablation for the flutter for me to consent to the afib ablation.

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Last week I was contacted via email from my website by a gallery which does the four major art fairs including SOFA (Sculptural Objects and Functional Art) which we did for 3 years back before the great recession with another art gallery. She praised our work, wanted to showcase  it, they've received awards and pride themselves on their relationships with their artists, etc. and please reply back and she would have her partner and show producer get back with me with more information. So I looked at their website. They list 70 painters, 12 multimedia artists, there are a couple of other categories, and sculpture with 10 artists only two of which seem to work with glass. I responded but I told her the truth, that I would like more information but that I wasn't very prolific, that the work was time consuming, small, all one of a kind, and pricey and that I wasn't in a position to incur any costs beyond shipping my work out. Some of the galleries that do those art fairs want their participating artists to help bear the cost of doing the fair as well as getting a percentage of the sale of the artist's work and I figured I would just head that off at the pass if that's what they had in mind by 'more information'. We'll see if they contact me again, so far, not.

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My iMac is old, probably 10 years at least and it's got some foibles, mainly, the upper left hand corner gets really really hot which sometimes makes it slow but which has also fogged up a portion of the screen in that corner. I have to put it to sleep regularly so it will cool off. It's been a problem for at least a year but it used to happen only now and then. Now it happens every time it's on and active. And a month or so ago my fancy little bluetooth swipe up/down/sideways mouse stopped moving the cursor and last week or so it started doing something else weird mainly on the FB site. After FB loaded the screen would go white. I could refresh a couple of times to get it visible again but sometimes I just had to put it to sleep and wait til it cooled off. Then it happened to my blog. OK, this is bad. Not the blue screen of death...yet, but can't be good. The last time my computer died I lost everything on it, all my pictures, some apps, documents, etc. because I didn't have an external hard drive for backup. I still don't or didn't. Monday I asked Marc to research external hard drives, he went out on an errand and came back with one so now, at least, if I get the blue screen of death I won't lose anything because it's all backed up. Yay! I do need a new computer, have needed one for a while but what with the heart thing and getting the truck repaired and getting the new gutters up, now is not a good time. Hopefully this one will last a couple of more months.

it's doesn't really show up so you'll just have to take my word for it

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You might remember last February the Texas Land Office started accepting applications for their homeowner reimbursement program for repairs from the damage caused by hurricane Harvey for those who spent their own money (not FEMA or other insurance money) and I spent two solid weeks filling out the application and running down all the supporting documents and invoices for money spent and money received from FEMA and finally got it filed, all nearly 90 pages of it. Finally, the first week of May they called me to come in and resubmit the 5 'proofs'...ID, income, ownership, residency, monies received from FEMA (because the TLO got a new computer program) completing phase 1. Phase 2 was to be re-submitting all the invoices for work done and materials bought and documents proving that those invoices had actually been paid. Apparently while waiting to be called in for phase 2 they changed the protocol and last week I got a call to set an appointment to re-submit only those invoices for work done outside the main structure...yard clean up, fence repair, out buildings repaired, off site storage and housing, etc. Since I didn't have any of that done he boosted me straight to phase 3 which is having an inspector come out and make sure the work was really done (because we faked all those invoices and bank and credit card statements?). So Thursday night I got a call from the 'risk' inspector for an appointment next week for him to come out and check the grounds and house for lead contamination and yesterday another call to schedule the damage inspector who is coming today! The guy that called for phase 2 told me they were looking to start dispersing funds by the end of this month so maybe all this effort hasn't been in vain.

short stories 15

Pecans

Perhaps I was a bit hasty in my assessment of the end of the pecan harvest. They aren't raining down but they are falling fairly steadily. I picked up a good gallon's worth between yesterday evening and today mid-morning. We have a slight breeze this morning and the trees' leaves were steadily drifting down as I was out there. So far I have shelled 4.3 pounds of nuts. That's the post shelling weight. This is my evening activity and also on Saturdays while I work at the antique store.

Spider

One morning last week, Marc called me out to see a spider web that was being lit up by the morning sun. Usually, spiders weave their webs in the evening and take them down during the morning. Apparently not the shield spiders as this little lady was busy spinning her web. She was putting it up right in one of my paths and so during the day as I went back and forth, I made a conscious effort to avoid crashing through it. I had some idea about taking another picture later in the day. Early afternoon, distracted by something, I crashed right through it.

Chandelier

before

I finally started cleaning the Dresden porcelain chandelier, a massive chore so I try to do a little every day. (and by that I mean I worked on it last Thursday and not a day since.) It will take an entire giant box of cotton swabs...or two. I don't know if you can tell how really dusty/dirty this thing is.

after

Trees

These two beauties are on my main artery between my house and the Square downtown. These are the two biggest specimens of these I have ever seen. The raintree is gorgeous and mine is puny in comparison but I'm glad this one is not in my yard because I swear every seed in every pod sprouts if it hits the ground. I'm already pulling up raintrees everywhere in the yard all year long. And this confederate rose is enormous! That's a carport underneath it on the left. It must never freeze back, being in a protected spot and they must never cut it back.

Work

I have so many things on my to-do list that I can't seem to pick any one thing. I need to work on the flower beds and plant stuff and start on the raised beds for next spring's garden. I want to work outside but it is still just so hot out there in the sun that I quickly abandon any attempt. I need to organize waxes and start making molds and casting stuff for the annual open house the first weekend in December (and it's probably already too late for that) and the show at the gallery in Florida next spring. And, I have two small proposals to write for commission work besides actually getting in the shop and finishing the commission we have.  

Sunset

Last night's sunset after a beautiful cloudless day.

short stories 12

bucket of poison ivy

Yesterday was tree maintenance day. And by that I mean I pulled up the sprouted trees that could be pulled up, I dug up the ones that would not be pulled up, and I pruned below ground level the ones that would not even be dug up. Several hundred pecans, hackberrys, raintrees, yews, oaks, tallows. While I was at it I pulled up all the sprouted poison ivy as well though I had to wear a glove for that.

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she was not cooperating for her photo shoot (or I hadn't had my coffee yet)

Big Mama with her posse

This morning I noticed that Big Mama was out of the pond and then later I saw she was back in it. I have yet to see her go up the ramp but I'm really glad that she has figured that out as we are still gone to the city three days of the week and I was worried about her getting out while we are gone. The ground is hard as a rock since it hasn't rained lately so I don't guess she's having much luck digging a hole for eggs. Not that I think they would hatch even if she did get a deep enough hole dug. Even though they will stay fertile for a number of years after mating, it's been over six years since we provided her with a male. She runs them all off after a while.

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the finished Winston panel

We are on the second to last commission that came in last fall and again in January. That's typically how it goes. We get months of work in a relatively short period of time and then we work our way through them. Unfortunately, the ones who come in at the end have to wait the longest. If the timing works out to our best advantage, we get a couple of months respite before it begins all over again. If it begins all over again. That's the rub of being self employed in general but as an artist the uncertainty factor goes way up. You never know exactly what to expect. So either you get used to it and stick with it or you stick with it until you get used to it and eventually you become basically unemployable. Not because you are incapable of doing anything different but because the way people are hired now is so different. I'm sure I would find it very difficult to get hired for anything other than minimum wage somewhere even though I have a lot of excellent skills. Anyway, there are a lot of perks for self employment even with the built in uncertainty that justify our choices in life. Right now, I do have work and we are doing the fabrication for the Leadership Wall, 4 wall mounted portraits with quotes of men the client admires.

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Today I work at the antique store. The economic climate for the businesses on the square has not improved. It doesn't help that Wharton residents don't really support the local shops. Unless it's the Walmart. In an effort to help the owner because the store is not currently supporting itself we have started to close an hour earlier since no one really comes in in the last hour anyway. She talks about closing it altogether sometimes.

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doll by Mimi Kirchner 

By the way, my husband says that if I want to blog about how magnificent he is I have his permission. He asks me almost nightly if he's told me lately how lucky I am to have such a fine fellow like him.  

short stories 11 – the birds

skulls

I found a dead cardinal at the base of the bird bath in the front the other day. It had been a cold night and I couldn't tell why it had died. I picked it up and put it on the brick planter beside the front door, not knowing what I was going to do with it exactly.

Two days later, it was mostly gone. I suppose a possum or some other night creature got it but whatever it was it left me the head, a wing, and three tail feathers. The tail feathers I picked up and put with other feathers I've picked up. The wing, I left but I did nestle the head in a fire ant bed hoping they will strip it for me so I can add the skull to my collection of bird skulls.

Creepy, I know.

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new visitor

I looked out at the bird bath in the front yard the other day and saw a kind of dove I had never seen before. We get mourning doves, inca doves, and white wing doves. This one was gray like a mourning dove but considerably larger, didn't have the wing spots but did have a dark crescent mark around it's neck. The next day there were two of them sitting in the branches of the crepe myrtle that hangs over the bird bath.

http://www.kudzu.com/blogs/hot-off-the-vine/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/1224_turtle-doves620.jpg

Further investigation revealed it to be a Eurasian collared dove. These birds are not native to North America but several small populations have developed from birds that have escaped from captivity. There is one in Florida, one in Texas, and one in California (I think).

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the tea cup feeder

You may remember I mentioned making a couple of tea cup bird feeders the other day and I finally got mine hung outside under the eave outside the window that I face when I am working at the computer.

It took several days for it to be found and so far only one bird has made the discovery. Granted, it's been cold, overcast, and rainy for most the time it's been up. Late yesterday afternoon, I was sitting here when I noticed a male cardinal was perched in the branches of the shrub right next to it giving it the eye.

He'd look all around, then cock his head towards the bird seed, hop a little closer, look around and then turn his beady little eye on it. Eventually he got up the nerve to actually perch on the rod and sample a seed or two. He was a little nervous especially if I was moving around but he seems to be getting used to me. He's been back a half a dozen times today already.

Several days later, he still appears to be the only bird that has discovered the little feeder and my presence makes no difference to him at all.

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flying south

Large and small Vs of geese have been flying over for weeks now. I always hear them before I see them overhead in their often unsymmetrical formations, wobbling and shifting as they go. I read somewhere once that they change point position often, with the lead bird dropping back and another taking it's place.

Last Friday as we were getting ready to head into town, Marc hollered in the door for me to come look quick. I grabbed my camera and he pointed to the empty cotton field across the road. There must have been hundreds of geese on the ground with small flurries of birds taking to the air and then settling down again.

I couldn't get close enough for a good picture as they were on the far side of the field but I could see, when they took flight, that they were white with black wing tips so I guess they were either snow geese or the smaller ross geese.

An hour or so later they were all gone.

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note:  most my pics were taken with the zoom through window and screen or with the zoom at maximum outside which accounts for their poor quality.