Sidetracked Charley

Mug Rugs   I have been putting off buying more fabric. It is something which my sister and I have done together since the pandemic began. She in Texas and me in New Mexico. Both of us on cell phones and our own favorite on line fabric stores. It all began with masks. And scrub caps for her and the nurses she worked with. We quickly found we were addicted to fabric. And addicted to shopping for fabric together. It was like going on four-wheel trips together. So then we had to come up with more things for me to sew up for her and her friends. Then my friends. Before I knew it Wild Goose Witchery was a business. Pandemic six pocket tote I enjoyed mixing fabrics as much as I enjoy mixing paints on canvas. But nothing was as much fun as our shopping trips. The two of us on our computers with our cell phones sending pictures of fabrics we found back and forth on messenger. She filling her shopping cart at Fabric.com and me filling my cart at My Favorite Quilt Store . Or Amazon. One of ...

  Remember when you used to be able to tell what county a person in New Mexico lived in by the first digit on the license plate. Bernalillo was two. Santa Fe one. They stopped that. Needed all possible six digits to have enough number combinations. And the area code of your telephone number also gave you a location. New Mexico was 505 and Colorado 303. Then Albuquerque and Denver got too big. Albuquerque kept 505 and the rest of our state became 575. West Denver kept 303 but east Denver was assigned 720. Northwest Colorado is now 970and Southeast is 719. Now they are considering another number for Denver.   Then came cell phones. And their promise of being able to keep your number forever. Stopped the need to reprint checks just about the time we stopped using checks. My sister, to prevent me from never getting another cell phone EVER after I lost my flip phone put me on her family plan. She lived in Victoria, Texas so my area code on my cell was 361. Texas is a mess. And the ...

  I have not liked this this time of year since my mother chose Thanksgiving as her exit time. For years my sister and I would get together for Thanksgiving and haunt all the empty state and national parks. On the 15th my sister left this earth. There goes Christmas. Mother was always afraid of ruining Christmas.  On the 16th we had a snow squall. Sounds innocent doesn't it? My experience with squalls had been sailing on the outer banks. And fortunately I sailed with a cautious and experienced sailor. They were things we witnessed from safe harbors. I now they happen on land and you can sink there too. Red River, Enchanted Forest Cross County Ski Area, and the Town of Taos have already applied for federal emergency relief funds. In fact the whole County of Taos. A friend in Questa reported the power just came back on. Do not get rid of your wood burning stove. And since solar panels fly it might be wise to stay connected to the grid. Yes, it was down but it is now back up. Tow...

  When more than two years ago I lost my basic flip phone which I loved and stubbornly clung to I declared I was not getting another cell phone. I had the Motorola flip phone only because I never ever wanted to stop at a phone booth in Espanola. But that is a whole other story. My tech smart sister bought me a Samsung Galaxy 50A smart phone and put me on her AT&T service. I saw it as a leash (and that is a whole other story too). I had argued I was not smart enough for a smart phone and for a while just turned it on when I thought my sister might call me. A practice I had employed for a while with the flip phone. Starker and another story. I never wanted to be that reachable again and did not give the number out to anyone. Really. I began learning its features just because of its ability to take photos which are awesome. And then sharing said photos like women my age share pictures of their grandchildren though with me it was Thicke or my latest painting. But to do any of that ...

Wheeler Sans Snow with the new lens   In consideration of the question - which should go - I decided not photography. It is my window to the world, and a tool I use for painting and marketing and recording. But I could alter my approach to it a bit. I opted for a new lens, 18 x 400mm zoom. It lightened my load. The world with my 300mm It doesn't always have to be all or nothing. Moderation in all things including moderation, says the person with over 20 orchids. That was not entirely my fault. I had 13 and I ordered four baby cattleyas. Somehow I received 10. I gave a couple to a friend. Split one of my old cattleyas and gave one of those away. A Moth orchid is having a keiki. Okay, so I am failing at moderation. Well, except for the camera bag. It is smaller. Yesterday, I spent the day in the studio cleaning up the orchid space so they are not so crowded. Besides I had to find space for the humidifier. Cattleyas like the world more moist. I also adjusted painting supplies. The new...

  I was warned about Windows 10 and its horrid treatment of photos. I fought to keep Windows 7 to the very end. I even spent money to repair that computer, bought a Windows 8.1 at the very end, and re-installed that program three times after Microsoft turned on my computer and erased it. I finally gave up but avoided a couple of its Microsoft pirate programs known to be really bad at vanishing photos. Helped for a little while. Now I am perched at the brink of deleting all photos from my Windows 10 computer and put them on an external hard drive. So I thought I would make a last ditch effort to organize the mess Microsoft has created and put at least my best where I can find them before exporting. Besides for the purposes of blogs I like having some photos on the desktop for use - if I can find them. Warning: Organizing photos into folders is not easy and Windows 10 wants to have its own say about where it puts them. Or what it allows you to delete. Or what it lets you share. And W...

From the Top of Spyglass Hill Went looking for signs of winter this morning. Drove past the base of the ski resort and no sign of any snow making activity. It was 28 this morning but do not know when it reached that temp. The NOAA forecast for the next seven days shows no snow. And for the fun of it I clicked on Wunderkind's November projection. None there either. I had a property and pets to check on at the top of Spyglass Hill. From experience I knew there was a nice view of the ridge of the Sangre de Cristos. If you look carefully there are a couple tiny white spots on the tallest peak. This is south facing and the days have been cloudless and in the 50's. Today is forecast for 58 f and tomorrow 61! Seemed a good day for a drive so I headed down the road to the Coyote Creek and Black Lake. Yes, there is a Black Lake. It is what is left of a huge peat bottom lake mostly rich meadow now. The Black Lake The first thing I noticed as a resident of the area is that the cattle are ...

Charley's Hideaway   I need to take new photographs. March 2021 was when I wasn't ready to open, but Russell, the handyman laying my floor, said you need to get listed in order to have bookings by Christmas. He has his own vacation rental so I decided to believe him. I ran into him yesterday and he asked how it was going. First I rented the week after I listed. In the midst of things I do not often stop and ask myself those sort of questions. To be utterly honest I figured I did not have to be wildly popular as a vrbo. For one I am five miles from the ski area so in my mind I had written off Ski Season when most other vacation rentals make all their money. Summer and Autumn will be mine. And that was fully booked. I will shut done during winter. Ha! Absolutely no open dates in December. Up to yesterday half of November was open and I had this list of improvements I was going to make. Had purchased materials and had them staged in my entry hall. I was wondering about ski racks ...

  Spectacular dawn yesterday. And a busy day. Hoses rolled up, rain barrels emptied. Doggie pond drained. And my Etsy page stocked and opened: Wild Goose Witchery . New venture and lots more to learn. And I will admit to rushing it. I wanted to get it begun. Rather like setting up a booth before the fair opens. You can always fuss with it later. At least I hope you can. And there is the question of what I want to sell on the site. Input welcome. And then I reopened my Twitter account @JBellBinford. And that is very funny. I had an account @JBinfordBell and @BinfordBellStudio but Twitter was being very obtuse about providing me with a new password for either. So having reached my total frustration level I decided to begin again and sign in with my Google account. My Google account is JBinfordBell but somehow it did JBellBinford. I find Twitter rather obtuse itself. Not conducive to long esoteric chats but then FB with its habit of tossing me in jail for the wrong word per its bots i...

Reach for the Sky   Griped enough. So have we all. But nobody but us is listening. Nobody human at home at Facebook. It is all bots. I have been typecast because of a false accusation and watched like a hawk. Every detention is longer even if I have avoided speaking badly about hornets for weeks. I certainly cannot run businesses like this. Last solitary confinement I lost a sale. So today I reactivated my Twitter account   and I began the laborious activity of setting up an Etsy account for Wild Goose Witchery. I have seven items for sale now and want to get another three photographed and entered so I can open my shop tomorrow. Christmas is coming and because of supply chain problems I may be able to sell my work. I sent three jpgs off to a printer so I will have more photographs on canvas for sale in my studio and also for when Enchanted Circle Brewery, which shows my giclee prints, reopens before Thanksgiving. Still debating just exactly how to handle my fine art. Webs...

  The theory about FaceBook detention is we are suppose to meditate on our sins and become better citizens. It was the same course of action my parents believed worked. And it did not. Any time I was sent to my room without supper I just divorced myself one step further away from my family. I came to a more or less complete separation from my brother when Dad locked the two of us in a hotel room in Texas because we were not talking to each other. He had not noticed we had not really talked to each other for close to ten years. In the hotel room, to avoid being sent off to private and military school, we agreed to 25 words. Those worked until our mother's funeral after which I never had to talk to him again. The first few days of this last FB detention I began looking closely at what I truly would miss about FB if kicked off forever. 1) Only about 1/3 of the people on my friend's list. And one of those died this week. 2) Being able to keep up with about only half of those is ess...

  When I worked in what locals call the the real world I dressed for success and spent a fortune at Macy's to do that. Every silk blouse of blazer came with an extra button or two. Some were sewn on an inside seam. Others came in a little envelope manufactured for the purpose. I would put them in a small drawer of a jewelry chest my father made for me. I do not recall ever losing a button and having to search the little bags for the button that went with that shirt or blazer or coat. I still have those buttons, never know when you might need a button, though I doubt I still have any of the clothing items they went with. My wardrobe as an artist and gardener living on 2.5 acres of land in the mountains of New Mexico my wardrobe is quite different. Much of it comes from the local thrift store. I need to go on Saturday because it will no doubt have a wealth of new items donated by the summer residents going back to their "real" homes. Last Saturday I scored a pure wool black...

  Indian Summer always feels like extra time; a pause between summer and winter. Like spring fever it makes me lazy. I want to linger on the deck mostly cleared of deck chairs. I look at the hoses and think I need to get them rolled up and stored. But there is still time. I lie. Every day of sun is borrowed and so much remains to be done. The firewood has not been stacked. Not my job this year, part of the price, but if it does not get staked before winter it is me that has to dig it out from under the snow. I got the electric snow thrower ordered and assembled and sitting in the studio while I decide where to store it. If the wood was stacked it would be in the wood shed on the front row. I need to take care of the list. It is not like I have not been busy. Lots to do. Facebook gave me extra time by throwing me in jail for seven days. But it seemed to announce it was time to clean up my internet schedule. I deleted a lot of unused apps on my smart phone. Went through my photo file...

  I ventured on to social networking after my head injury. I was told to practice what I did not want to lose. It was a short list: writing, painting, and photography. I suffered the CBT while teaching skiing; something I had done for more than ten years. But it was almost immediately clear I had skied my last day. But skiing was just a love I did almost like aerobics. It was exercise for my otherwise sedentary occupations; freelance writing and making Mardi Gras Masks. My injured brain was having issues with the masks. Writing, however, was easy to practice on a computer. And I already had editors willing to assist me to continue writing. It was Y!360 then. For me it was therapy. But I made friends while making progress. And when Y!360 crumbled because of an unstable platform I followed my friends to other platforms. Facebook seemed to be where people I knew went. Sure it was not perfect. You had to keep your posts to 140 characters at first and then to 400. But I compromised by k...

  I am in FaceBook Jail again. To be totally clear I do not belong to the Proud Boys, I did not storm the US Capital with a Confederate flag pole. But one time I typed Damn in a sentence. I am pretty sure since it was in response to my neighbor, the one who mistreats dogs it was her that complained. I assume that got me on some kid of FaceBook Naughty list because that was about the worst of any of my four sins. This time in response to a photo of a huge wasp/hornet next that took up a half of a large window I suggested I would just burn it down. If you have lived with those insects and are allergic to them you know how hard they are to get rid of. One neighbor of mine in NC tried a blow torch and almost burnt his house down. The sin of a century which got me tossed in jail before that was a comment about trading masks. I make masks. I think I was proposing I trade one of mine for one of hers she made. Different style. Absolutely no opportunity to explain myself. But God knows they...

  Must be getting close to primary time because I got a survey call. I love polls if they are the national ones like Gallup. A well constructed political can make you think. My parents were Democrat, in college I was a communist (or so my relatives from the Midwest believed), some of them were right of Atilla the Hun. I have been a registered Democrat since 2016 because I lie in a state with closed primaries. Before the next I will register Republican because I want to help choose who will run against our little Democratic Napoleon. She made the mistake of call arts non-essential and has done nothing to make up for the damage she and Covid did to destroy them. My party choices in New Mexico are Green, Independent, Democrat, and Republican. I know I am none of those. I want an open primary so I do not have to choose who I am voting for until I walk into the booth. Then I would love to also be able to "split the ticket." First question I was asked on this poll last night wa...

  I had dreamed I had been once again unfairly thrown into the Gulag. Facebook's unfair detention system which allows you no voice to argue your true meaning behind a short sentence without a single cuss word which has been misinterpreted by its analog and adjudicated by its committee of governors. That same group which permitted the preparations for the January 6th insurrection. And which allowed the former guy all that hate and nonsense to spew across its platform for his entire term as or president. So I got up yesterday checked to see if I could find the obtuse declaration of my disgrace I had read in my dream and could not. Not unusual. I have been tossed into solitary confinement before without understanding just exactly why. I had a busy day creating for Fabric Arts by Jacqui . So didn't miss it at all until I wanted to post an image of my new creation. Then I got what I expected BLOCKED. Previous incarcerations have allowed me to find work arounds like Messenger. I coul...

  Do bumblebees and butterflies dream? And of what? During the height of Covid-19 lockdown, or is that depth, I dreamed a lot and because it was so unrelated to my life forgot a lot. Now it would seem I dream little but am unable to forget it. Life intrudes on my desire to escape its realities. And it is sometimes hard to know where the real ends or begins. But then maybe that is always true for artists or the creative. The writers, poets, painters, and dreamers whether they are sleep dreaming or day dreaming. If I went crazy would I know? If I died while sleeping would I know. Would it merely be a seamless migration from one level of being to another? This is not what I got out of bed in the middle of the night to write. I woke up, sort of, to visit the restroom and my cell phone beeped. It has several different sounds and some I ignore because they are just pings which say someone liked a post or comment. And some are more urgent. Vrbo makes sounds which seem to require my a...

  Beware the power of words. Especially the simple words. Because they are not simple. They allow for too much misinterpretation. Fuck was once a euphemism. Then it became the worst of things to say. And not it is believed to be the sign of a creative mind. My father believed it represented an impoverished mentality. One word. Four letters. What did you mean by using that word. I worked as a freelance writer and from time to time still do. I became familiar with the phrase of " what did you mean to say here ," used it seemed to frequently by editors. I learned to ask it of myself. I am also a reader and used that phrase on books I read. So many books and so little time so I learned to speed read. Does not allow time to ask that question often enough. There are authors I speed read for pure enjoyment and admire that they deliver lessons to me. Just been through a binge of J.A. Jance books. Then a pre-purchased Louise Penny book popped up. I do not speed read her. And especiall...

Return of the Yei   For an all too brief summer we had hope. We dared to plan arts events. And as we put in place the preparation for another Angel Fire Studio Tour we became aware it had been two years since we had done any of this. But we soldiered on with hope.  We dared to buy supplies and work on inventory to sell, dusted off the display cabinets and laid in supplies of N95 masks so we could keep ourselves and our customers safe incase the Delta Variant could not be contained within the boundaries of neighboring states. But since residents of those states escape the heat to come to the mountains so could the dreaded Darwin Covid. As it came time to pay the big bucks for brochures and advertising we caved. We could see the handwriting on the wall of the Governor's office. She might be playing nice because she was running for re-election but she considers art and art business non-essential. We cancelled the studio tour but not the studios. We opted to go underground as it w...

Cliff Pueblo The studio is still one of my favorite places in the house but it has not been where I paint. For most of Covid shut down my focus has been on fabric. First with masks to protect my sister and her fellow nurses and then my friends. Then there were scrub caps. Gradually I got back into fabric creations and the  Fabric Arts by Jacqui  page was launched. In the first months of forced isolation and the governor's pronouncement that arts were nonessential I wanted my blankie -- soft and comforting material. Canvas seemed cold. Besides I had just finished a couple of End of Days series of paintings. Cliff Pueblo above was my last. And I began Return of the Yei just before the shit hit the fan as it were. The Yei were  Navajo Gods who returned to the people to save them. Maybe I didn't believe we would be saved, but I stopped work on it until this week. In fact I forgot it was taking up space on my easel. I even forgot how to adjust my easel. Before beginning t...