Sidetracked Again



Happy Halloween everyone. I bought a pumpkin a few days ago and my intent was to carve it on All Hallows Eve - yesterday. But that did not get done. I was cleaning up the studio before making a mess again with the pumpkin and got sidetracked into preparing two platforms for two new paintings.

I got out of Dodge over last weekend and came back to cold and extremely cold temperatures. It has been nice to be in the livingroom of my house not far from the woodstove. Yesterday the sun came out which warms the studio due to its passive solar design and ultimately the rest of my house. So it was comfortable to work in the studio. And the view was not reminding me of just how cold it was outside.

How cold was it? Well, yesterday morning when I walked the fur kids the recorded temperature was 13F but there was a bitter wind which went right through my old winter coat. That is toast. I figured I might have to buy a new one and was debating Sierra Trading on line or the local thrift store when I remembered the upstairs closet in the sewing room and a North Face ski jacket I was very fond of. Bought it the year I totaled myself in a ski accident. It still fit. And I am clearly not skiing anymore.

Coat problem solved I then tackled business insurance, commission issues, studio mess, laundry, dishes, and misting of orchids. I am told the lack of humidity is why my orchids do not bloom. It is amazing the lengths I can go to avoid cleaning up the studio. Or getting back into a routine after breaking it with travel. I got my confirmation for the holiday market show here in Angel Fire over Thanksgiving weekend and I do have to get back into a routine to produce some smaller paintings for Christmas giving. And then I want to have a December reception at the studio.

When I was living in Washington, DC I used to visit the West Virginia Mountains all the time. We camped on the Blue Ridge not far from Elkins and there was a major train yard there. There had to be over 500 rail cars sitting around on sidetracks in the yard. I read, a year, after we left the area that they were all stolen cars. A band of thieves would uncouple and derail boxcars there, steal the contents, and then they were trying to re-paint and re-sell the cars. That was obviously much slower going so the cars piled up.

Sometimes I feel like Elkins, West Virginia. Or the ghosts pictured above. Off on a siderail waiting for something to happen.

Comments

  1. BekkieannOctober 31, 2009 at 5:29 AM

    Remember, life is what happens when we're busy making other plans. Maybe you are just getting a breather in between 'happenings'. Or for another metaphor, just on the slow uphill climb of the next roller coaster hill. Hang on, girl, there are thrills ahead.

    ReplyDelete
  2. IntelliblogOctober 31, 2009 at 2:58 PM

    LOLLL, your putting off the cleaning of the studio reminded me of my activities when I had an unpleasant task to do (at the time I was writing up my thesis. when I got "stuck" I used to go out and clean the fish pond in the garden - an obviously unpleasant task but better than the dreaded "stuckedness".
    Happy All Hallows, have a good Winter!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

I write for me but I care what my readers think. Please be polite and no scamming.

Popular posts from this blog

Swimming

Image
For much of my college career my fitness workout was swimming on the B squad of the swim team. I remember it as the days before heated pools and women coaches. I also remember being so exhausted and cold I could only lean against the shower wall and throw up. Not exactly warm fuzzy images but I was in awesome shape. Needless to say it did not leave me with a overpowering desire to swim laps. Point of fact for years my swimming became really informal: Swimming to shore after the canoe tipped over, challenging my sister once a summer to across the lake and back, seeing how long I could back float without moving a muscle, and a scuba course. I also played around with other ways of staying fit: aerobics, bicycling, jogging, skiing and dance classes. All of which seem to be bad for the knees, back or feet. After my ski accident my physical therapist steered me back to the pool. Damn if I was going to swim laps! However, aqua fit was just getting rather seriously taken so I took it. It r
Read more

The Pruning the Crown of Thorns

Image
Crown of Thorns Before I am a lover of Euphorbias . They are from the deserts of Southern Africa and Madagascar. They have evolved physical characteristics and forms similar to cacti of North and South America and are often incorrectly referred to as cacti. My big Crown of Thorns was one of my first of a growing collection of these succulents from the spurge family of Euphorbiaceae. I picked it up as a 6 inch plant in a New Iberia nursery when my sister and I were touring the northern gulf coast. I believe that was 15 years ago. I made an attempt at limiting its height a few years back to allow it to devote more energy to the new branches and make it a denser plant. That failed. And the height of the plant continued to challenge the window space and soon the long branches were leaning over and leaning against the window. I googled and found the proper way to prune this treasured plant. Still it was very difficult to cut off the four longer branches. Even with a plan. The f
Read more

Eagle Nest Dam

Image
Tour of Eagle Nest Dam Eagle Nest Dam is the largest privately built dam in the United States. It was begun by the Springer family in 1917 and completed in 1920. It and the reservoir beyond it one was privately owned by the CS Ranch which recently sold it to the state of New Mexico. Eagle Nest Lake is now a state park, but the dam and the waters in the lake are another matter all together. Water is well regulated in New Mexico especially during a drought. The lake is now at 25% of its normal capacity, and the water in the lake are water right lease holds of Raton, Cimarron, and historic ranches in the area like the UU Bar and the CS Ranch. Game and Fish department also get involved because the Cimarron River is an active fishery of the state. Our guide was a state engineer and the Gateway Museum secured permission of the land owners below the dam for us to gain access to the area. Some 100 locals and tourists attended this rare event. I have lived here almost twenty years and th
Read more