#54 - Where we return to art

Today has been a productive day.  Oh, not by vault spelunking means.  No, I mean but getting things done means.

I was frustrated about the calendar refill I got.  We've been using the same monthly "at a glance" calendar for about 15 years.  It's gotten more expensive and harder to find but usually it's got some nice decorative border to it, and I change it up each year.  Well, this year, I couldn't find a decorative border, just a plain, sort of vanilla version.  I've been thinking lately about ordering another one, but since I am still on funemployment and trying to curb spending, I decided to go ahead and pull out my stash of origami paper and add my own decorative elements, using a different paper for each month.

Clip, clip here.  Glue, glue there and "Voila!"  Art therapy at home and it didn't cost a thing.

I also took it upon myself to do the remove rust from your old garden pruners challenge. 

Voila.  I now have 4 newly cleaned and no longer rusted garden pruners to contine renovating the back yard.

Good on me today.

#53 - Getting back to the new normal

Well, it's been 2 weeks since a flood of fire swept through our not so little town.

Schools are finally opening or planning to open this week.  The call to action for tourists to return is sounding mightily through the land.  Most neighborhoods have opened, some just to let resident go sift through the toxic rubble to search for a treasured object that may have been spared.

I'm trying to get back into the daily routine of my daily task list.  And we are putting pictures back up on the walls.

Don't get me wrong - it's not really over yet.  There are still fire burning even though they are almost 100% contained.  The temperature is rising;  supposed to be 90 degrees here today.  And tomorrow, there are supposed to be gusty winds, so it seems hard to take a really deep breath yet.

Maybe tomorrow there will be another attempted vault dive.  Let's hope so.

Stay tuned.

#52 -Turning the corner?

The sky this morning speaks volumes:

Not much smoke, and I can see the clouds.

Off to an interview and then, back to the past - going into the vault again!

#51 - There are no words

The vault is filled with things. 

They are just things.  Oh, sure, there's history there, some of it is irreplaceable, but the vault is filled with things that are merely things.

We've just spent a week in my town living through a devastating firestorm, which didn't discriminate against anyone's demographic status, religion, or politics. So many have lost homes, businesses, and lives. Families and animals have been separated. Some people have been evacuated from their homes for a week now.  We've been out and back along with our kitty cat, but we are lucky.  We have our home and the vault.  The air quality is exceptionally unhealthy.  This is the new normal these days.

But I am so proud of the resiliency of our community, the power of everyone coming together.

I am hopeful that the fires will soon be out and I can back to spelunking in the vault.