incremental progress

the peach log Wesley didn't take

I got my first look at the milled and sanded peach wood for the top of the peach box last Saturday. Wesley was waiting for me in the front of the store when I came around from the other side after opening up. He had two slices that he got from one of the two logs I gave him. He cut thick slices out of both logs and because they were still 'wet' with sap, he put them in front of the heater blower all winter. The ones from one log warped but the two from the other log didn't.

So now they are sanded down flat and smooth on both sides, about 3/8" thick and they are so pretty! I had no idea what the wood would look like, the color or the pattern of the grain, but I am very happy with it and while I had my camera with me, it didn't occur to me to take pictures.

They would be finished but Wesley lost the pattern I gave him for the size so I need to get him another one. I've done the cold work on the box and I'm diddling about whether or not I want to grind the peach inlay down some more since it fits fine now. I have to decide if grinding more off the bottom will actually make it better or just satisfy my tendency to focus on small details, in other words, things only I would notice.

And I still need to decide if I want to make a new sculpture of the peach blossoms for the top. I still haven't done the cold work on the one I have already done because, essentially, I'm not really satisfied with it. The leaves didn't cast completely and the color is too consistent and too dark for my liking. That's also one of those decisions about quality vs being anal.

At this rate it's going to be three years before I get this one finished.

tiny things

More gardening planned for today. Banana trees and bougainvillea first on the list.

I started noticing these tiny flowers and bugs this spring. Mostly these are from the grounds of the shop. All these little flowers and bugs are 1/4” or less in size with one or two exceptions.

 ants inside the squash flower

 scarlet pimpernel

 baby praying mantis

 pink flower

this little spider was closer to 1/2”

 this deer pea vetch flower was 1/8”

 the bug on the pea flower...so tiny!

 the little dayflower was about 5/8”

little lawnflower also about 1/8”

 yellow wood sorrel (?)

 tiny venus' comb flowers in a cluster

1/8” black medic bloom

coral colored flower

flowers and films

I've been taking a lot of pictures of a lot of the same things like the easter lilies 

and the wildflowers with the queen anne's lace and the clasping coneflowers ascendant, 

the larkspur, 

the coming on day lilies. 

The poppies are gone and I'm collecting seeds. I've been working on the grounds over at the shop too. I have two, three really, areas that I am starting to landscape: around the concrete bunker, on the far left side (the west side), and in front under the awning. I'm also eyeing the light and sign poles as starting points...banana trees next to one of the light poles, put up some poultry fencing between the old sign poles and plant the desert willow trumpet vine waiting patiently in a pot, the bougainvillea against the west side of the old dog pen. Once established, these will take no care. I need to do another section around the bunker which already has the pony tail palm, spider lilies, yellow angel trumpet flower, and love in a mist in between. Oh, and a great start on baby blue eyes too.

My newest effort was clearing about 10 feet of stuff along the west side of the building and planting some morning glory bush cuttings on the corner and an angel trumpet farther down and scattered some fall blooming cosmos seeds between them. I've been working mornings while it is in the shade over there. Even so, I sweated buckets today. By the end of the month it will be too hot to work outside no matter what part of the day you try to do it. So, since this is bearing down on me and I still have lots of things I want to get in the ground, that's what I am doing, working on business matters in the afternoon.

Unless I'm going to the movie.

We went to see two movies this week. After our very happy clients left with their piece Tuesday morning, we hopped in the car and went to see The Avenger's Age Of Ultron since we had postponed the birthday movie to this week.

We would have changed our mind and gone to see Ex Machina except it wasn't playing at the theater. We totally enjoyed The Avenger's as we are fans of the genre but decided that when we went in to the city on errands, we would go see the other. So on Thursday, we did.

We were glad we had seen The Avenger's first because this film, Ex Machina, is a good film but it is not exciting in the general Hollywood fashion. It is more cerebral and there are really only three characters, or four, one who doesn't speak and all the scenes are one on one. The trailer makes it seem more flashy and exciting than it is and that's probably to attract people. It's about artificial intelligence, a kind of creepy billionaire genius, and the person he selects to conduct the 'test' to see if his creation passes for real. It's a film that makes you think and it's a bit edgy with full frontal female nudity and there is some build-up to the film's finish. I enjoyed it but don't go see it thinking it's a flashy with lots of action sci-fi film.

eye tests and real glasses

So I went and got my eyes examined Monday and, sigh, I do need glasses to drive. Well, I need glasses so they will let me drive. Exam results were 20/20 in my left eye, 20/50 in my right eye. No sign of glaucoma and the general health of my eyes is good. Basically, my left eye is doing all the seeing while my right eye is giving me clues from my peripheral vision like color and stuff. I considered getting glasses just for distance but as the doc pointed out, it would mean I wouldn't be able to see anything close up while I was driving, like a map (no I don't have Siri telling me where to turn). Since my eyes were dilated, I went back yesterday to pick out frames. I picked 10 pairs to winnow out, choosing heavily from the wire rim selection. I took pictures of each pair as I tried them on but after looking at the pictures after I downloaded them, they all looked pretty much the same.

I finally narrowed it down to two pairs and then to the final one and ordered my glasses. I'm getting the progressive lenses but decided against the transition lenses. I'll just get me a pair of prescription sunglasses later. They have a lot of frames for $20 so it will just basically be the cost of the lenses. In the meantime, I hope my big sunglasses will fit over my new prescription glasses though I don't really wear sunglass very often, mostly just when I am driving or am at the beach.

These are the frames I chose.

They should be ready next week.

birthday week

Last Thursday was my birthday, my 65^th. I usually take the day off as a personal day but since I took the day off the previous Monday to hang with my brother and sister and I was planning to take last Friday off to go to Brookwood with my sister and some other ladies, I had to be available for questioning while Marc did the sandblasting on the cabin in the mountains panel. Which we finished.

Brookwood is a residential facility for the mentally challenged. It's a beautiful place and the residents live in group homes with a house mother. They refer to their residents as citizens and strive to give them dignity and worth. Brookwood is supported by donations and by the work of the residents. Their main business is a wholesale nursery. They have large greenhouses where they propagate and raise the plants for sale, a ceramics shop and a concrete shop where they make things to sell in the gift shop and in the retail greenhouse and grounds. 

They also have a very nice restaurant and being appointed to work in the restaurant is a high honor to them. 

They also have, since I was there several years ago on a garden club field trip, a new very nice art gallery. 

It's a very classy place overall and I bought a red hibiscus, a gardenia, a bougainvillea, and my sister bought me a beautiful pot of maidenhair for my birthday which would have cost twice as much at any of the nursery's in the city.

I spent most of Saturday and Sunday working out in the yard though I didn't get anything major accomplished. I mixed up a wheelbarrow full of compost and potting soil and repotted my desert rose which was busting out of it's second pot and got the maidenhair in a bigger pot, collected the gone by poppy seed heads and pulled out the dead plants, dug out the grass and weeds out of another section of the old vegetable garden and planted some tall orange cosmos that bloom in the fall, and got an armload of ferns planted along the shady side of the house. Doesn't seem like much for two days worth of work.

Late afternoon yesterday, my daughter and son-in-law and the three grandgirls (the grandboy was at work) came out to visit. Jade had made me a birthday cake and they had candles and a princess kit with a tiara and a wand and earrings and a banner which was meant for someone much smaller and younger than me but I donned it all anyway.

 

The other thing I did connected with my birthday this year was apply for Medicare so for the first time in my life, I have health insurance and an affordable supplement.

Well, my eye appointment is in a couple of hours so I guess I'll find out if I need glasses other than the drugstore magnifiers I use to read.

fear and rage in America

People don't seem to understand the difference between being poor and being oppressed. You can be poor without being oppressed. I have been poor at times in my life but I have never been oppressed and it was easy for me as a white person to find employment (although not as easy as if I were a man) in order to better my circumstances.

Poor means you don't have enough money to pay all your bills and buy food. Poor means the quality of food that you can afford to buy is poor. Poor means you may not own a car and definitely don't own a house. Poor means you work for a pittance and have to have two or three jobs just to make ends meet. Poor means you wear hand me down clothes that you get at the thrift store. Poor means you can't go to the doctor when you get sick and just forget about the dentist. Poor means that you go to schools with no resources. Poor means having to drop out of school so you can get a job to help support your family.

Oppressed means that once you reach middle school, police are stopping you on your way to school to search your backpack. Oppressed means that if you drive through certain neighborhoods, you get pulled over by police. Oppressed means that when the police stop you for no good reason whatsoever, they start being physically abusive so that when you try to protect yourself, they arrest you for resisting arrest and once in police custody they beat the shit out of you. Oppressed means that when you stand up for your rights, the police arrest you. Oppressed means that the police bust into your house on a raid, throw a flash bang into your son's crib burning him severely, terrorize the occupants before finally figuring out that they are at the wrong house and they get away scott-free from all the damage, pain, and medical expenses they caused. Oppressed is being homeless and being shot dead in the back by police. Oppressed is the police arresting you over and over for blown out of proportion offenses or no offense at all in order to create a rap sheet that prevents you from gainful employment. Oppressed is the police not responding to your calls for help or if they do, someone gets killed. Oppressed is having your 14 year old daughter walk to the mailbox to fetch the mail and have police stop and throw her to the ground and arrest her for prostitution. Oppressed is waiting at the bus stop on your way to work and being arrested for prostitution. Oppressed is all the opportunities never even offered to you not because you are not qualified but because your skin is the wrong color or your name sounds black. Oppressed is being called a thug for burning cars and breaking shop windows if you are black but just a college boy letting off steam if you are white. Oppressed is being sent to jail for the same crime that a white person gets away with. Oppressed is being singled out by the police for abuse. Oppressed is the city abandoning any repairs or improvements in your neighborhood. Oppressed is having a peaceful demonstration and the police show up in riot gear with tear gas and batons and start abusing and arresting people. Oppressed is six cops beating you in the head and kicking you as you lay helpless on the ground. Oppressed is having no hope and no future and nothing to lose. Oppressed is being demonized by the press which never shows the good you do. Oppressed is being unarmed and murdered by the police and having them go free to do it again. Oppressed is people being in fear of you or thinking you are a 'taker' just because of the color of your skin.  Oppressed is being judged without anyone taking the trouble to find out what your story is.

These people in Baltimore and Ferguson and LA way before that and in many other communities in this country, they aren't just poor. They are poor and oppressed. That's been their past and is their future. You don't have to condone violence to understand it. But you do have to understand it to fix it.  

And you have to understand that these people are not in this situation from lack of will or effort or because they are lazy or ignorant or because they want to be criminals. These people are in this situation because they were born into it and have been systematically prevented from rising above it.

You can't pull yourself up by your own bootstraps if you don't have any boots and sometimes the rage and frustration at the injustice erupts.

And still, the oppressed will do this.

siblings, burned things, and eye tests

My brother was here. He came in for a high school reunion. He and I attended a small private school, well, I did through 7th grade after which I begged my parents to let me go to public school like my sister but he went all the way through. St. John's is a small school attached to the Episcopal church we went to. About 60 kids per grade. The social atmosphere was not a good fit for me which was the main problem. I didn't know where I fit and it was giving me an ulcer. Turned out that was something inherent instead of just something I hadn't found yet but I did learn to deal with it better. Also mandatory Wednesday morning church services.

We don't see John very often. He lives up in the Pacific Northwest and has for longer than he lived in Texas which he left after high school for college and then further and then further and then further and then a little closer until he landed up there and stuck. I guess the last time he was here was when he still had part ownership in a small plane and he flew it here and gave us all rides. The last time I was visited them was I guess when mother died. Been a while.

Anyway, my (younger) brother arrived Friday evening and he stayed with our (eldest, for him) sister (I'm the middle child). Marc and I went there for dinner Friday. Saturday I worked at the antique store and that night he drove in to the city for the party. I declined to accompany them into the city for an IKEA excursion on Sunday but after they got back I went over and hung out while he did a few fix-it things for her. A fierce storm blew through with lightning and thunder right on top of us and the street flooded. It lasted about an hour but dumped 4" of rain on my sister's house. 

Monday we went on an excursion to Bastrop, a small town in the hill country with a lively historic downtown with shops and places to eat. It was a nice day and it gave us something to do while we spent time together though being Monday, many of the shops were closed.

Bastrop Forest that burned in 2011 when Texas caught on fire during a severe drought.

A huge field that was solid yellow with flowers.

On our way we stopped in La Grange for gas and when we got back on the highway there was a giant plume of black smoke not very far ahead. Turned out to be a car on fire but we couldn't tell that from where we were. We were about 20 cars back maybe with a gas tanker pulled over onto the shoulder just ahead of us. It held us up for about half an hour as we watched emergency vehicles converge on the scene...police, sheriff, fire department, ambulance.

He headed back home today so I went to get my driver's license renewed which of course I have let go til just about the last minute. It expires on May 1^st and this year they won't let me do it on-line. New picture and new eye test required I guess. Also they had to adjust my weight since the last time I renewed it I still weighed a scrawny 106. And of course new fingerprints in case I turn up in a ditch somewhere with no identification.

And for the first time in my life, I failed the eye exam. I'm not surprised though. My right eye is definitely worse than my left eye and as I recall, I squeaked by last time I had to take it. I rattled those first two segments of numbers right off but that third one was totally blurry. I made an attempt and think I got some of them right but there were some I didn't have a clue. She was real nice about it, gave me as much time as I wanted but in the end, I was just guessing and told her so.

So now I have to go get an eye exam and either a pair of glasses or a note from the doctor saying I'm good to go.