#98 - The changing tide

So much shifting is occurring.  It's not just the astrological changes happening (yea, Mercury leaves retrograde - always a good thing).  But it's said that once things are moved around, energy shifts, and I can tell you it's true.

 I've been thinking about the phenomena of all that water being pulled out from the bays in Florida by the movement of that hurricane, before it would all rush back in once the trajectory of the hurricane moved on. It's not but similar to the tidal shifts, except it's not the water on the planet, but the storm above and the fierce power of the winds moving it all.

It's pretty overwhelming to see not just the destruction but how massive the destruction was, and over so much of the state.

There's no storm brewing here, but we have begun shifting things around to prepare to empty our kitchen so we can paint and then redo the floors.  Once it's done, it will shift back into the space, just like the great movement of all that water.

Ok, onward ho!

#97 - Re-finishing things

This discipline stuff is hard work.  I really need to figure out how to build it into my "daily routine" which has pretty much gone by the wayside since I no longer jump on the hampster wheel during the work week.

The spouse has been wanting to refinish our kitchen floors for a few years now.  We put them in over 20 years ago, and at the time, I really wanted to put in reclaimed wood, which could have allowed the scratches and nicks to blend in. But, instead we put in brand new hickory, which has been lovely.

This floor really does get the most wear and tear out of anything in the house.  The exceptionally nice floor guy came back again to reconfirm the (slightly higher due to the cost of materials going up) quote, and learned that even though he's about 5 months out on work, he might have an opening in a few weeks.  Lo and behold, we're getting the floors redone in just over 3 weeks. 

I realize that since we'll be doing that, the kitchen itself could use a freshening up on the paint, and we will work that in BEFORE he comes to do the floors.  Lucky for me, I'll be off at an art workshop for most of the time the actual work is being done, so I can avoid the smell and disruption (yes, there will be no kitchen available during this time, and kitties have to be reworked and kept out of the space).

SO, there's lots of planning, rearranging and actual painting to be done.  I see this as another good opportunity to pare down things.

Life will be busy over the next month, as we'll be RE-finishing things.

#96 - Mother Nature at her finest

It's like rubbernecking an accident on the other side of the road.  I can't stop watching the Weather Channel coverage of Hurricane Ian making landfall and decimating a lot of the state of Florida today.  And it just goes on and on and on.  Frightening, but Mother Nature is in charge.

Which of the many choices of devastation would you prefer? Lots of folks here in Earthquake country would prefer that to these hurricanes/tornadoes/floods that go together with a storm like this.  

Now, here, we could indeed have earthquakes (we just did recently and are way too close to the Rodgers Creek fault in our area).  And fires (can you say Tubbs, Nuns, Kincade to name a few?).  And though we haven't had any flooding in our specific neighborhood, our county does experience those.  AND there have also been tornadoes within about 30 miles from us.  But hurricanes?  Nope.  

Stay safe everyone.

#95 - It's a new Autumn year

It's that time again - post autumnal equinox, new moon and new year.  All rolled into a few days (Yup, covering the ones where I've neglected to create any new posts - so much for discipline, right?).

Well, we did sell the first item on Ebay successfully.  Now, there's only about 10,000 more to go.

It seems that there's been a lot going on and not much going on.  I will do my darndest to catalog the impending arrival of Autumn and all things that go along with it.  But not today.  There's too much waiting to be done.

#94 - Art Therapy

It's the morning after returning from a lovely visit with my MOH, who is currently in recovery from shoulder surgery.  Had a wonderful visit keeping her company, and we did lots of shopping therapy (can you say IKEA?) and art therapy.  She pulled out lots of little treasure she had stored around the house, and I'd brought my watercolors.

She's a Pharmacist and a Horse Gal (License2Spell made this one special for her):

Among her many treasures she had two 12" x 12" canvas "paint by coloring inside the lines kit" with a horse head on it, and it included some paints, a small palette and 3 brushes, so I made her grab one and bring it upstairs!  We set up an art space on her dining room table, covered it in plastic, and painted.  She was only able to use her left hand most of the time as her right is being held in place by a massive sling (for another 3 weeks or so?), but it was so wonderful to see her release and not think about her shoulder and just be.  We experimented with many media (how many frosted nail polish bottles did she find dumped in the canyon across the street from her house?  probably about 50 or so - wow!) and had a wonderful time.

She even indulged me with reading my play, screenplay(s) and remembering who was in that house 45 years ago...

Art therapy is good for the soul.  Try it sometime!

#93 - "And now, back to our show" (or the one where we return from a message from our sponsors).

Ok, that was one long commercial message (or as the universe was saying to me "Wherefore Art thou ART?").

Having returned from a visit with my dear in-laws (and my MIL who is now 93 and still her spunky self in between nebulizer treatments for her asthma), I'm back to it.  Well, at least for a day (I may be off the rails for the next two as I help my MOH convalesce...).  Happy to report when I'm off and away from home, all I want to do it paint watercolors. Trying new techniques, looking at the post-fire scenery around their home (spared just barely last fall), and enjoying that watery stuff that sometimes falls from the sky.  That's right, it wasn't just rain coming down from up there, but THUNDER and LIGHTNING!  Very, very frightening (or exciting, depending on how close you are to it!).

I also had all of them read my screenplay to date.  Nice to hear some feedback albeit very minimal (as the script is very minimal at this juncture).

I am pumped about the upcoming art workshop I'm going to (getting closer by the day), and being back home with my little kittles (not George, though I sure hope he's up for it next weekend).  Had fun with a grand-niece who is too cute for words and let me play dolls and candyland and connect4 and another game that was not too helpful for the gender fluid ("is your card a boy or a girl???).  And seemed sad we were leaving.  Ah to be 5 again, with the world fresh and exciting.

In any event, tomorrow brings our first ebaying item to a close.  Good practice for the rest to come along.  Now, back to the semi-annual refilling of the hot tub.  Tune in again tomorrow.  If you're lucky, there'll be another episode!

#92 - Shake, rattle and roll

It's been an interesting day, capped off by a good earthshaking.  4.4, centered about 3 miles from my house.  We certainly haven't had a sizeable one here in a while.  Hopefully that's the last of this.  It has been quite a while since the ground in the Bay Area has shaken.  I don't want to see this become a trend or anything.

Cats were awol for a bit, but now my earthquake monitor sits next to me.  My friend relayed that she was at Spring Lake and right before the shaking all the birds started making a tremendous howling noise and were all swooping around.  I'm sure it was something to behold.

Luckily, only 2 things fell down in the kitchen, and I'm gearing up for completing another art workshop.  I think I'll be a bit preoccupied and maybe I'll put it off until tomorrow.  Yes, that sounds good.

I'm glad we're not doing a shake and bake as well.  Back to writing for now.

#91 - Dive right in to your oeuvre

Today is the beginning of one art challenge and the end of another.  Both have "worksheets" to help you discover your own journey, what is at the root of your own passion and drive, and what makes you want to keep on creating. 

It's a valuable lesson.  I consider this the start of a journey that will take me on a path for the next month and half of creating without overthinking. I just need to keep diving into the deep end and discovering the beauty of the depths of it all.  Maybe I'll even learn to breathe under water.

So, eyes wide open.  Let's see what happens next.

#90 - You gotta have ART....miles and miles and miles of ART (sung to the tune of "you gotta have heart")

Lots of art is coming my way.  Actually, lots of art is happening right now in my life.  I've been actually writing (see what I'm doing here, but also elsewhere?), and working on creating "my own palette" for watercoloring, and concurrently following no less than 2 different art "workshops"" online.  All while gearing up mentally for the challenge of the 3 day workshop I'll be going to next month.

While visiting with our friends down the Bay way today, I spent loads of time looking at my pal's artistic endeavors, those completed and in process. And my pal has a ton of things in process. Watercolor, acrylics, oils, many partials projects out on the table and in process. Made me feel a bit like a slacker, actually! But in recounting all the things I've been working at lately, I realize the shifts are surely underway.  I AM doing more things, even though it still often feels like I have so many irons in the fire, how can any of them get hot enough to make an impression? Hope I can transcend the "Jack of all trades, master of none" syndrome I feel I'm often living.

What I hope to get out of this next week is a clearer focus on why I am creating and get in touch with the part of my artistic psyche to help move things forward. 

Art, I got.  Focus, I need.

#89 - Just chill out

Cool, overcast and 62 degrees at 8:30 am.  Two spins around and we have cooled down significantly.  Thank you Mother Nature!

With a day of cooler weather and the overcast threatening to stick around, it's likely a gardening day today.  I thought once I got off the hampster wheel, I'd be spending oh so much more time out there.  But this year, with our long trip and several short ones this summer, it's truly been a lot of fallowness out there.  And somehow I'm not trying very hard to hang out and scrape the dirt under my fingernails.

I think I'll get back to it.  A fall garden is just about to come into focus.

But for now, I think it's ok to chill out a bit longer.

#88 - Zippity do dah - still tethered to technology

Well, what a treasure trove the computer box that was stored has yielded.  Spelunking into that vault has brought back memories, some of which I don't even remember.  In addition to old ports and lots of cables (at least five Cat-5 internet cables of varying sizes), I've got 3 vintage mac mice, several connectors of one kind or another, our old Airport Extreme base station, an old iSight webcam (unfortunately missing the firewire connector cables), tons of software on disks and CD's, and a Zip drive.  

I plugged it in and connected it to my new computer, but it was unreadable.  I went and connected it up to the old computer and boom - it loaded!  I thought I had an old Zip disk somewhere and once I found that and loaded it up, it was like spelunking even deeper into a memory cave.  Lots of files (probably saved from about 6 computers ago at least), including PTA and elemenetary school grants, etc.  Hoping to find some old emails or writing from the original Vault goddess, but no dice.

After venturing down that path, I then went down an internet rabbit hole wondering if any of this old technology was worth the price of admission. What do you know?  People not only list this but sell it as well. I stumbled on an ebay auction for the same Zip drive that I have, and it just sold yesterday for almost $60.  

Guess I know what my next steps are.  Will see if any of it makes it out the door collecting greenbacks.

#87 - Does a day really make a difference?

I'm getting lazy now - I've missed another posting day in the midst of this "heatwave."  Yesterday felt outright balmy at 102 degrees.  It's almost noon and it's a slow rise to the heat, currently 93 degrees.  It says it'll be 104 today.  Time will tell.

I'm feeling hopeful about all this cleaning, clearing, purging, etc.  Something so long in the making.  Guess that "retirement grind" is helping provide the actual time to do so. I'm enjoying the quiet atmosphere, just wish there were more "cooling stations" inside the house.

It was funny to relive all those years of boxes of schoolwork of my child.  This is the back to school time of year.  After so many years of it, both pre-school, regular school and college with my children, it's but a distant memory.  Personally for myself, I have no distinct recollection of any of that except for perhaps college.  Funny, for someone who, as I was reminded yesterday by a dear friend, has a great memory, I really don't have those "retain those memories" skills that some people do, remembering loads of people, places, things in their childhood.  Perhaps it's suppression on my part, or my brain isn't the type that retains those memories over the long term. 

Let me get to work on "unboxing" this tech vault of a storage container I pulled out a few days ago.  We'll see if there's anything of interest worth posting about.

#86 - How hot can it get?

I've never been so happy to have it be 84 degrees outside.  Well, it IS 8 pm and yes, it actually WAS 117 degrees earlier.  At least it was in Novato when we drove home from the air conditioning of SF.  

Well, it wasn't actually the usual air conditioning that SF offers us. Yes, we decided today was the day to finally walk across the Golden Gate Bridge.  We knew it HAD to be cooler than here, and we were correct.  

Got our steps in, even though it was 90 degrees near the visitor center when we parked and headed out.  

We got lucky though, as the natural air conditioning kicked in just after the 2nd tower.  I'm not sure why but it was breezy and felt like it was 70 degrees.  So wonderful!!!  Such a relief.

It was during the drive home that we saw it read 115, and then 2 minutes later, in the Novato Narrows, it was 117.  When we got home (after a delicious lunch at Burma Superstar - yum!), it had cooled down to 102.  Tomorrow we get a break before another big 100+ degree day sets in.

Climate change - it's not for sissies.  I hope those without access to cooling made it through today.

Brutal.  That's all you can say about it.

#85 - Talking the talk then walking the walk

 Ok, I missed a day.  Damn.  I really didn't intend to do that. I did have a good excuse, though.

After so many years of feeling burdened by all the "stuff", I've been focused on one thing.  Getting through it, with the cycle of review/purge/organize. We've been unearthing vaults stored in one of the closets, and it's been a really good exercise.  We have been able to see things from the early existence of our youngest, and decided mostly to have a laugh, or feel a heartstring being pulled, and then recycling all that paper.  Oh, well, not all of it.  We've held on to some things, and plan to send (either physically or virtually) to our youngest, or put in the scrapbook I created years ago. We've managed to find ourselves with 3 very large storage containers that are now completely empty, and two other boxes that were cardboard and recycled.  I feel lighter already.

The next vault to explore is one of computer oriented stuff that was placed inside another large plastic storage container. I believe we'll find some choice objects from the '90's harbored inside this one.  Can't wait to spelunk in it.

One other very important thing taking up time yesterday was the download and set-up of the free trial of scriptwriting software and my own crude beginning transfer of ideas and writing utilizing this auto-formatting application.  This is truly the beginning of walking the walk for me.  I have 60 days to explore before I have to purchase (which I'm sure I'll do).

Ok, off to beat today's 103 degree forecasted temperature.  Best go for a walk before it's stifling hot out.

#84 - You say tomato, I say tomahto

Tomatoes.  The penultimate taste of summer.  I was going to say "the penultimate summer fruit" but let's not get into that discussion right now.  One of the best things about moving to out of the city and to the Northern Bay Area is the warmth in the summer, and the ability to grow tomotoes.  The heat is really awesome for all summer produce, but particularly tomatoes.

I normally purchase starts from a wonderful community garden sale every spring.  This year, I picked a Black Krim and a Paul Robeson.  I've grown Black Krim's before, but they have never been as huge as they are this year.  I had no idea they would look so similar to the Paul Robeson's.

Which is which?

Only our tastes will tell.

Next year, I'll have to choose a bit more wisely.

#83 - Theatre, theater. Wherefore art thou, theatre?

Every time I think I've moved away from the Theatre, it keeps creeping back in.

I agreed to be part of a committee to assist in submitting my feedback for play selection for a theatre's next season.  Ok, so I'm not sure why this particular pull has come along, but I've decided to follow that yellow brick road and see where it takes me.

Of course, I'm also attempting to get back to my own scripting/storytelling.  Let's see how that goes.  I've been talking up a good talk about "getting an updated computer and set up so I can start to birth these projects I've longed for."  Well, no more excuses, right?

 I've actually gone back through several of the short stories I've written to see if any of them would make for a good short play.  Or short screenplay. Or perhaps I just need to keep W R I T I N G.  Maybe even for the T H E A T R E.

#82 - The great migration

Having spent a good part of yesterday transferring files over the network (yeah, not the most efficient way to do things, I know), I have uncovered a true Vault.  It's actually REALLY sealed, and I'm thinking about unsealing it.  This isn't the kind of thing I can just take a crowbar, or a pick axe or even a lockpic to open.  It's the original Vault Goddess' electronic vault.

I can see that the outside plastic has acquired a green patina (I didn't know that artificial materials would age so nicely, did you?).

I've gotten a quote for the unsealing and copying to another drive so I can determine what is useful.  See, I don't even have a power cord anymore, or I could attempt to unearth it myself. 

It's kind of like approaching a mystery box or bag you'd buy from the store for $5. Who knows what treasures it hold.

Really, all I'm hoping for are photos and writings.  All the rest is electronic flotsam and jetsom and probably not even readable in this technological day and age.

Will update when opened.