Sidetracked Charley

Self portrait in mirrored ball My Auntie Boo had one in her garden. It was blue. I was fascinated with it. I was also fascinated with Auntie Boo. She really wasn't my aunt, Mother told me way later, but just a dear friend of my mother's we called Auntie. Decades later I would meet my long lost cousin Judy, and she would tell me stories of her Auntie Boo, who really wasn't her aunt. All sources of more knowledgeable information were gone by then so we could never prove our Auntie Boos were one and the same people. But I like to think so. It isn't a far leap to imagine my Aunt Zelma, Judy's step-mom, and my mom and Boo friends. When you are young full names and addresses never occur to you to horde. She lived in a very old house in an old section of Kansas City, and she had this garden she seemed on the edge of losing control of. And in this garden was a blue gazing ball on a pedestal. I was enthralled with how it distorted the world around it. Auntie Boo'...

Photo by J. Binford-Bell We had the most delightful spring weather last week. Of course the calendar says it was still winter. And now that we are at last to the Vernal Equinox and the first day of spring it is snowing. Will snow much of this week.  Had to go to the long term forecast to get to a day of high 50's and all sunshine. The weekend will be wonderful they say. I don't know why I am concerned that the seasons seem so off time. They often are here in the mountains of New Mexico. Not unusual to get a real dumper of a snow storm in April. April 25, 2011 I am just so ready for spring. And rain. I want to hear rain on the roof and watch the grass outside my studio green up as I look. But I have more firewood to burn. I only ordered a cord this last fall because I wanted to work through all the old wood that seems to linger in the far back corner of the woodshed. Looks like I will do that. Then this fall I can begin again with three new cords. I am not the only ...

Winter Forest by J. Binford-Bell  Winter returned this week in measured doses. It shared time with spring. Yesterday it snowed about six inches and melted by afternoon. It did that about five times. Snow then what locals fondly call Mud and Flood. It seemed a good time to do taxes. I hate doing taxes. Even though I pay someone to do them for me I have to prepare the year to take in. I can generally get the that done in under four hours even counting clearing off the library table to have a place to sort the receipts. My disgust with the process last year resulted in a desk top box with very visible folders to sort things into as received. That helped. A couple years before I had developed a spread sheet with all the necessary categories listed. That is also a great help. This year, however, I still hated it. I had an epiphany though. I think what I hate is reviewing the year on a monetary level. I have mastered cash flow but not cash stay. And it always amazes me in hindsig...

When I first bought my house I had all sorts of grand plans to remodel and renovate. Time and money are silent regulators of such plans. For a while I was moving along like gang busters though as is my nature not on a single track. Working in one room seemed to necessitate things with another.  And frankly shit happens. Events - a long time renter moving out - made it necessary to devote time to the attached duplex apartment so it could be rented to provide revenue. And the studio addition did not go as planned time or money wise and I ended up having to devote energies and finances to completing it so it could function as it was attended. Then the economy took a nose dive. Contractor I dismissed sued me for work he did not do. I was in the midst of doing my bedroom when all that happened. Carpet had been ripped up, walls half resurfaced, computer and computer desk shoved into all free space left. Hell, I only slept there I thought as I patched and repainted living room c...