Visiting Minions

The cats and I have been staying with Mom while a new furnace is delivered and I have been cleaning up the mess. This week I spent a good chunk of each day going home and doing serious time with the vacuum cleaner and cleaning stuff.

The cats have stayed with Mom before but not for quite a while. This time the adjustment was pretty easy because I stayed too, at least that’s the theory. And they’ve made themselves right at home. This evening Ginny was sitting in the front picture window looking primly at the next door dog Betsy, who was barking her doggie head off. Just proof: Cats rule, dogs drool.

Visiting Minions

Happy Mailbox

I’m sending out daily haiku for the annual World Peace Poetry Postcard Festival and had received two cards followed by a pause. Got a fabulous card Saturday and today hit the jackpot with four more!

Today was the first day of post-furnace-blowup-replacement cleanup. I gathered up a lot of cleaning supplies and committed to doing a room or two a day until it’s done enough to move the small (not) furry cats back. I did one room today. I’ll just say it’s a strong argument for no doo-dads!

I had done some cleaning OUT of stuff while the new furnace was being installed and that’s out at the curb for tomorrow’s trash.

Happy Mailbox

Exhausting Week. TGIF!

It’s been an exhausting week apparently. The two cats (and me) hanging out at Mom’s while waiting for new furnace to be installed. Apparently the stresses of trying to get past each and every closed door is overwhelming. I’m counting TGIF as my one good thing for today. Sleep on cats!

I will study and prepare myself and one day, my day will come.

— Abraham Lincoln

Exhausting Week. TGIF!

Gathering encouragement and inspiration

We all need some encouragement and ideas on how to proceed. From when I was in high school, I wanted to make people pause and see small beauty in the every day world. That sort of fit in with the environmental movement of the seventies, but it wasn’t exactly what forestry college was ready for so I spent a lot of time at college taking photos and keeping on.

Recently listened to a six hour or so audio book interview with Paul Simon about his long career and his work and his process – how he ‘follows his ear’ and isn’t too worried about what will be next. He said you need to have a problem to fix and the problem better be interesting so you want to keep working at fixing it. He had one colossal flop – a Broadway musical. He had no experience with that genre going into the project. Some people loved it. Critics hated it. It ran for sixty-eight shows. Then he had to think – what do you do after that?

After The Capeman, Simon’s career was again in an unexpected crisis. However, entering the new millennium, he maintained a respectable reputation, offering critically acclaimed new material and receiving commercial attention. Simon embarked on a North American tour with Bob Dylan in 1999, with each alternating as the headline act with a “middle section” where they performed together, starting on the first of June and ending September 18. The collaboration was generally well-received, with just one critic, Seth Rogovoy from the Berkshire Eagle, questioning the collaboration.

He went on to collaborate with others and kept recording and trying new things. Like working with Herbie Hancock in 2005, reimagining I Do It For Your Love.

And so when people, artists you admire, talk about their work and lives, take a moment and listen. And like Ted Kooser says – throw a lot of horseshoes.

Passing Through from Straw Hat Visuals on Vimeo.

Gathering encouragement and inspiration

What’s happening?

There’s a lot of this going on

because at home, a crew of guys was working furiously to replace this:

with this:

(can I get some extra love for knowing what a plenum (and octopus) is?)

What’s happening?

State of the Cat

I’m calling this “Study in Tans” which is pretty ritzy for a picture of Ginny snoozing on the couch.

State of the Cat

An Unexpected Va-Kay

We are temporarily visiting Mom because of furnace issues. Harry seems to have found the whole thing exhausting. He explores a little and then sprawls on the floor wherever he is. Deirdre is uncharacteristically hiding although I have her out squished between me and the back of the couch. This too shall pass, one way or another.

Oh and of course, even though they both went in their carriers without issues, there was a LOT of singing in the car.

An Unexpected Va-Kay

This and That, Past stuff and a cat

Today, while other stuff was going on (major furnace stuff) I did some tidying and got some stuff done. If I could do that much every day it would be productive. After a few days of below freezing temps, it was 30F and above and felt positively balmy. Which is good when your furnace isn’t doing much. Several times today, I took a break by just sitting on the steps. I was plenty warm enough (thank you Merino) and the sun was bright. Alas there was no seed for the birdies. That had been on my to-do list today but…

When it was all done for the day, I put together a little food and a glass of wine and sat down to watch All Creatures Great and Small. The focus right now seems to be on character development – what in the past made these people who they are today. It was a bit heavy on the feels but it was good to end the day with.

Tomorrow is Monday already and it was a good thing I had gotten a few days ahead of the World Peace Poetry Postcards list because today there was no writing. Maybe I’ll figure out something after this. I had my first card and it wasn’t anything I could play off so I guess it may be time to look through my stash.

While I was watching All Creatures, I was in the room where briefly I did work from home. I found a few odd receipts from holiday presents and other scraps and put them into the trash. Then I found this, and when I opened it up, it was from my training to do that online sales support stuff, notes of changes along the way, the normal retail management stuff and then on to “My Last Working Day at Apple”. Probably about two-thirds of the notebook is used. There were a few pages of fountain pen testing and writing and one not-so-bad ink sketch of a sleeping cat. I mean, one of my co-workers.

Then I got ready to get into bed and was soon joined by Harry. They both seemed to have forgiven me for throwing them into carriers and putting them in the car for a little while today, when I didn’t really know what was going to happen. Mainly I was worried about them getting out somehow, or getting into somewhere where I couldn’t find them. But now they’re both curled up alongside me and we’ll be all right until morning.

This and That, Past stuff and a cat

Using Technology to Communicate and Connect

One of the best things to come out of the pandemic was the embracing of things like Zoom, YouTube, Facebook live etc for communicating. We got to be live with people far away and spread out and sometimes who we might never had had the chance to spend time with. Some community grew up around that. Places like museums and bookshops that embraced online gatherings kept the interest of their followers and gathered new ones. During the early months of covid I had a daily and weekly schedule of these which really helped a lot.

https://www.facebook.com/BillyCollinsPoetry/videos

Cocktails with a Curator

Baumgarten Fine Art Restoration

The Metropolitan Museum

Laura Boswell, Printmaker

Udon Noodle Restaurant

I learned a lot from very knowledgeable folks who generously shared with an unseen audience. I appreciated folks who showed what they did or what they were interested in via video or audio online. I can’t really explain so easily while watching people cook in tiny Japanese or Chinese restaurant kitchens is soothing but I went with it. I learned quite a bit about art conservation and how to restore mostly metal objects. I sat daily with a former poet laureate (and a few hundred other homebound souls) and sipped adult beverages like we were in a salon sharing witty conversation and ignoring the world for a half hour. I received close up guided tours of objects I might never visit or be able to view that closely.

Some of that has mellowed as people have ventured back into the world but I’m still taking advantage of things which come around and this week that included this:

An Anniversary Edition of Braided Creek by Ted Kooser and Jim Harrison, published by Copper Canyon.

It’s been interesting to see the use of technology evolve over these past few years, and to see people grow more comfortable using it and understanding how it can be used and best used. Thanks all!

Using Technology to Communicate and Connect

One Good Thing

Let’s find one good thing every day.
Show or tell us your one good thing.

During the Pandemic, a fellow I am friends with on facebook, Carl Mastandrea, was posting a photo every day with “Let’s find one good thing every day. What’s your one good thing today?” He was interrupted by life and I started posting my own, to encourage myself and others to look around at the little things and see how much beauty there can be. I remember during the early days of COVID, going out each morning and looking around, taking some photos and waiting with anticipation to see what Carl and others would post. Thank you Carl.

If you’re on social media, I encourage you to share little things that catch your eye because we all need a little beauty and focus these days. Your cat’s whiskers, a blooming plant, some clouds, a visit with a friend or family member. Make someone’s heart glad for a moment with what made your heart glad.

One Good Thing