March: Long Month, Learning and Thoughts

THOUGHTS

1. Mike Rowe’s podcast, The Way I Heard It, is a great source of learning. In relistening to episode 271, an interview with Michael Shellenberger, I thought Shellenberger was stealing my thoughts. He said he drives a 2002 Honda Accord because he loves it, he is cheap, and dumping all that steel and other material to get some modestly better fuel efficiency just isn’t worth it. Amen, brother!! (My car beat his by 6 years, but since the interview was recorded in 2022, I don’t know if he is still driving his Accord.

2. Food for thought from Eric Rhoads (the one in charge of my week of plein air painting in Monterey): “Most of us complain about not having enough time while simultaneously binge-watching entire seasons of shows we don’t even particularly enjoy. The paradox of modern existence is that we have more free time than any humans in history, yet feel more time-starved than ever. Perhaps the answer lies not in having more time, but in living more fully in the time we have — in choosing experiences over possessions, creation over consumption, and presence over distraction.”

3. I thought about all the unique parts of March: the only month with a command—MARCH FO[U]RTH!, Pi Day —3.14, Ides (whatever that means) –March 15, St. Patrick’s Day—March 17, the first day of spring, in some years Easter, and in all years both of my sisters’ birthdays.

LEARNINGS

1. “All frills and no knickers” is the British way of saying “Big hat, no cattle”. How did I learn this? From Sandra Busby’s blog. She is a fantabulous fantastical painter. (Wish I could take lessons from her!)

2. “Cavil” —a verb: to quibble; to argue or find fault over trivial matters.

3. Grated avocado seed in 70% alcohol is a topical pain reliever. . . maybe. My DeQuervain tenosynovitis might be slightly better since using this, but it might have gotten better on its own anyway (Been plaguing me since October) Or, it could only be wishful thinking. A person can adjust to a certain level of steady pain. (I’d rather not, but as a resident of Realville, I can accept this truth.)

Avocado, oil painting, 6×6”, private collection

4. James Clear is a wise man. A friend gave me his book Atomic Habits, and I subscribe to his weekly newsletter. This was in last week’s:

“Take all the energy you spend on… worrying about the future, worrying about what others think, worrying about if you might fail… and channel that energy into one useful action within your control.

5. I read a lot, both fiction and non-fiction. Fiction is a great escape, but I am tired of adultery being normalized, bodies in trunks, and people who do blatantly stupid things (which of course is what makes the stories). I went searching, and for the first time in my life, I found a series of “Christian fiction” books that I really liked. Prolly won’t resonate with you all, but just in case you like that genre (or like me, have always disliked it), the author is Neta Jackson. (For the series to better make sense, start with The Yada Yada Prayer Group—see? you who didn’t abandon this paragraph at the word “adultery” or at the word “Christian” will probably jump ship at “prayer”.)

6. I learned to shorten palm trees on a pencil drawing using Photoshop Jr. The customer requested this—I just work here.

And that’s all, folks.

See you tomorrow as we work through the list of improvements needed on the unusual commissioned oil painting.

P.S. HAPPY BIRTHDAY, KC!

A Day Off in the Life of a Frugal Artist

Yeppers, it is April First, but as unusual as this post is, it is entirely sincere.

Your Central California artist lives a very frugal life. Last Friday I became aware (yet again) that frugality is just automatic, built into my DNA perhaps. Have a look at the stuff that fills my days off and brings me great satisfaction.

Gardening

Trail Guy made the top rack from old mule shoes and the bottom one from the head of a garden rake. Most of these tools are second-hand.

The daffodil bulbs were bought in January, when they were greatly discounted; the bearded iris were a gift from a friend who was thinning hers; the dutch iris was probably a bulb on sale and seems to be the last one standing.

Sewing

Many years ago, I bought a tablecloth to make valances for my kitchen windows. When I washed them last week, they disintegrated. The rest of the tablecloth was in a closet, waiting to be turned into replacements. This time they aren’t very ruffled, because there wasn’t quite enough fabric. (Nobody cares.)

About 15 years ago I stocked up on the jeans that fit me best, which meant they all expired at the same time. I tried iron patches (wouldn’t stick), sewn on patches (ugly, but worked until the pants wore out above and below the patches), and made cut-offs from a few pair. Then I saw a picture on my favorite blog (The Frugal Girl) of several things you can do with old jeans. Since it rained last Saturday, and since my sewing machine* was set up, I made this ridiculous apron! (not finished in this photo).

It isn’t very frugal to use time and electricity to sew something that I don’t need, but I can’t stand waste. (or fraud or abuse, but that isn’t what we are discussing here.)

More Gardening

My broccoli crop was pathetic this year: look at the yield from 5 plants:

After I “harvested” the heads in the colander, I ignored the plants for a few more weeks. When it was time to yank them, I was able to get another small handful. These are good chopped up in scrambled eggs. Yea us, eating fresh vegetables. (I’d rather have ice cream, but not in my scrambled eggs.)

Then I planted the basil that rooted in the kitchen window sill all winter, taken from cuttings off last year’s basil. It’s kind of sorry-looking but as with all my gardening, it is another triumph of hope over experience. I started with 6-7 plants, but some croaked when transplanted.

Others broke when I was putting them in the planting bed, so of course I moved them back to little bottles of water on the window sill.

Those bottles initially contained Trader Joe’s balsamic vinegar. I pried the pouring cork/plugs from them, and they are perfect for this purpose—cute, small mouth, and no lid to keep track of. Good thing I didn’t learn that Trader Joe’s adds sugar to its balsamic vinegar until I had a nice collection of these.

Among my friends, this sort of thing is normal. My closest friends choose to go for walks together, not go out to lunch. We get a kick out of figuring out how to do things, telling one another how we saved money, and sharing extra stuff, whether it is garden plants, fabric, produce, baking, items bought on sale, or ideas.

How are you frugal? Is this normal for you too?

*A Singer Featherweight, made in 1959, a gift from my grandmother. The plastic handle did not go the distance, so Trail Guy replaced it with a chain.

Looking Back at February

Early-ish March isn’t that much different from late February. On an early morning walk, I just wanted to stop time.

This house always grabs my attention, with its quiet simple beauty.

As I walked, I kept smelling something that I couldn’t identify. It was a good smell, and one that I hadn’t noticed before. It was on a route that I only take when my walking partner isn’t with me, chosen because it is shorter than our normal walks. That’s the way I trick myself into going alone.

This is the first time in 26 years that I’ve noticed ceanothus while walking. It is native to this area, and it isn’t very attractive in my book. But I wondered if that was the source of the good smell.

Indeed it was!

With flowering quince and daffodils going gung-ho (that’s a weird word—Chinese origins?**) in my yard, along with mowed weeds that pass for a lawn in spring, I almost felt happy to be alive*.

This one of about nine mailboxes scattered around our extensive yard; they are tool containers so I don’t have to hike a mile for a trowel.
This is flowering quince, not redbud, which is actually pink.

*Fret not. That’s something my dad used to say in his buffoonish way of disseminating wisdom. I was thinking about him a lot in February because that was both his birth and death month.

** Thank you Gnat for sending me that little piece on MentalFloss.com verifying my guess that “gung ho” is Chinese!

Ten New Things Learned in February

Since I learned almost nothing in January, I decided to keep better track in February. I probably learned lots in January, but just didn’t keep track.

  1. There are alternatives to Snopes for checking on “facts” or urban myths. Factcheck.org and That’sNonsense.com. They didn’t seem very easy to use; I couldn’t find anything about microwaved water killing plants. But websites are notoriously difficult to navigate the first time someone tries. This someone, anyway.

2. Duckduckgo is the search engine I use instead of Google, along with Safari, which is the Apple web browser. Now Duckduckgo has a web browser designed for Mac. I tried it. I like it. The whole idea is to not be tracked, and then targeted for ads based on Google’s estimate of your income combined with your interests. (STOP STALKING ME ALREADY!)

3. Clint Black gave a concert in Visalia at the Fox Theater AND I LEARNED ABOUT IT THE NEXT DAY! Yeppers, I would have gone to hear him. Phooey.

4. Amy Grant had open heart surgery?? She is a year younger than me! I saw her at the Visalia Fox Theater about 10 or so years ago.

5. Mike Rowe interviewed Alex Epstein on his podcast, The Way I Heard It, episode 423. I don’t know who this guy is, but he said something that piqued my interest: We didn’t have a perfect and safe planet which we then ruined with fossil fuels; we had a dangerous hostile planet which we made safer and more comfortable with fossil fuels. (I am paraphrasing, since I was pulling weeds while listening, not taking notes.) This is the opposite of the prevalent view of things. He has a couple of books which I am probably not going to wade through, since I only grasped about 1/3 of what he was talking about. Maybe I’ll look up his books on Bookpecker, which summarizes books for lazy people like me.

6. An online friend sent me a recipe to make ranch dressing from scratch. It is very convincing and a nice treat from my usual balsamic vinegar with olive oil.

7. A guy in Canada traded his way from a red paper clip up to a house in 2006. Weird, fun, and here is the link to the article about it. From paper clip to house. (It’s a short article). He has a blog called One Red Paperclip, has written a book by the same title, gave a TED talk, and there is even a cafe called the Paperclip Cottage Cafe in the town where he got the house. Isn’t it weird is that I am hearing of it for the first time almost 20 years later? Now I will check the local library to see if the book is available.

8. I actually CAN draw faces smaller than eggs; sometimes I can capture a likeness, but it is more likely I will be drawing people cousins by accident. (And I learned that I don’t charge enough.) The drawing has been removed from this post because it is meant to be a surprise.

9. Dawn, the excellent blue dish soap, added a terrible fragrance. We kept smelling something perfumey and unpleasant, traced it to the Dawn, and then I looked online and learned that many of their customers are unhappy but they have no plans to return to “Classic Coke”. (Remember that marketing fiasco?) They will be sending me a coupon to try another variety of Dawn. Meanwhile, we will use bargain dishsoap from the local hardware store. (The memory of that horrid smell is haunting me; maybe I’ll buy Dawn again, and maybe I won’t.)

Ugh. What will we do with the nasty-smelling dishsoap in this bottle?

10. Do you like “waste, fraud, abuse, and corruption”? I’m not sure anyone does. Unfortunately, the current campaign against such things is wiping away some local jobs. Instead of using a surgical method, there is a broad sweeping arm brushing them off the map in what feels like callous and careless decisions, without regard to whether or not the jobs are wasteful, fraudulent, or an abusive and corrupt use of our tax dollars. I sure wish it was being done with more precision and care. Meanwhile, there is a rumor that the local job loss is due to the administration of our local national park not getting the budget turned in on time. I certainly hope that more will be revealed.

The most learning took place in the shortest month. . . go figure.

P.S. I also learned about Publishers Clearing House from Mike Rowe’s podcast. Fascinating story about something I have never understood.

NEWS FLASH! CLINT BLACK IS COMING TO TULARE ON JUNE 28!

February Fotos (or Phebruary Photos?)

If you live in California or other moderate climates, you can wait until January to plant daffodils. The added bonus is that the bulbs will be on sale. This daff with the narcissus might be from last year. I may even have waited until February to plant all those daffs this year.( If they don’t bloom, I hope I remember to not wait so long next year.)

I found a recipe for streak free glass cleaner on a favorite blog, Everyday Cheapskate. Couldn’t wait to try it on my studio windows; it rained the next day so I didn’t get to fully appreciate the streak freeness—you know, how windows always look their worst when the sun shines directly on them.

Trail Guy feeds the birds daily. These birds are abundant, but I forget their names. I prefer wildflowers to wildbirds. (I know “wildbird” isn’t a single word, but it looks better with “wildflower”.)

Thus we conclude another peek into life in my favorite month of February in Three Rivers.

Walking in the Dark

Photo taken in Clovis by Jane Sorenson. (Used without permission)

One morning when I shuffled carefully down the driveway by flashlight in the dark toward my neighbor waiting with her flashlight, I asked her, “Tell me again: why do we do this?”

She said, “They say it’s supposed to be good for us.”

I asked, “Are ‘they’ the same people who told us margarine was better than butter? Or coffee was good, then bad, then good? Or wine was bad, then good, and now bad again?”

We chose to go the shorter steepest route, because we find it easier when we can’t see how steep it is.

We turn around at the gate which leads to this place because we are cold, it is dark, and my neighbor has to get to work.

As the light increases each day in February, we start dreading the time change. When we were kids, it changed to Daylight Saving in April, and then it changed back to Standard Time in October. Some time in early adulthood years, the changes got moved to March and November, so that Daylight Saving is a now longer stretch than Standard. So “Standard” is more accurately “Nonstandard”, or “Irregular”.

Like with most big issues, we Americans are evenly divided on which time schedule is best. In general, urbanites prefer more light in the evening, and rural folks prefer (and often NEED) more light in the morning. Almost everyone agrees that jerking our internal clocks around is annoying at best, and dangerous at worst. (The dummies think they are somehow tricking Father Time into providing more hours of daylight.)

I expect that in spite of widespread discontent and the adverse consequences of a twice-yearly time change, the People in Charge will do nothing. Politicians are so concerned with retaining votes that they are paralyzed when decisions are a 50/50 proposal, with the unintended consequence of everyone being unhappy. In addition to the elected officials, it is often the bureaucrats who end up interfering in our lives.

I expect to be walking in the dark for the rest of my life.

“You’ll never understand bureaucracies until you understand that for bureaucrats, procedure is everything and outcomes are nothing.” —Thomas Sowell

Anne Lamott Makes Me Laugh

Have you heard of her? Read any of her books? She writes both fiction and non-fiction and is an odd combination of being very politically liberal and outspoken about her Christian faith. Her thoughts are oh so relatable, shocking, irreverent, vulnerable, infuriating, and at times, highly entertaining.

The books she might be most known for are Bird by Bird, about the writing process and Operating Instructions, about raising her son alone.

Here are three things that I have copied down from her writing to contemplate and muse over on today’s blog post.

“Everyone is screwed up, broken, clingy and scared.” The older I get, the more I see this is true. Those tailgaters? Yep. Politicians? Yep. Your neighbors with the glaring lights and barking dogs? Yep. The cranky salesperson at a big box store? Yep. Me? Hey, let’s not get personal here, okay?

“Try not to compare your insides to other people’s outsides. It will only make you worse than you already are.” Comparison is a terrible way to live. Just stop it.

“…deteriorating faster than you can lower your standards.” This may apply to many aspects of my life. Let’s not talk about the state of my old car, the cleanliness of my house, the number of weeds in my yard, the unsorted piles in my studio.

*Clutter is the physical manifestation of unmade decisions fueled by procrastination. -Christina Scalise

She also has a list called “Twelve Truths I Learned From Life and Writing”, which is one of my favorite Ted talks of all. I used to listen to those while painting and drawing, but now I seem to be continually trying to catch up on all the excellent podcasts I subscribe to.

About those Twelve Truths: she is oh so very wrong about chocolate with 75% cacao.

When Not Making Art…

What is editing? You mean you get paid to just sit around and read??

… I’m either tending to the logistics and administrative duties of a microscopic art business* or I am editing. IF I am actually working, that is.

Yes but it isn’t the same as reading for escape or to learn. Instead, you read with multiple purposes. An editor’s job is to make sure the reader can flow through the book without tripping over the words.

The reading is something like this:

  • Why do I keep going back to that paragraph? It might have too many words, but for some reason I am not sure of the author’s intent. Maybe it would be clearer like [try a different way of phrasing].
  • Wait, wasn’t that guy’s name Jim in the last chapter? Then who is Jack? Better do a Jim/Jack check throughout.
  • Oh-oh, the author is using the tab key instead of indention for new paragraphs; better make sure all those tabs/extra spaces/extra returns get removed throughout.
  • Eighteen? I thought she was twenty. Where did it mention her age? Better make a note to find all those references and verify the timeline.
  • Why does this character start every sentence with “So”? This might need a bit of modification. Not too much, because that is how he talks, but if he gets too boring, we might lose our reader’s attention.
  • Oops, those paragraphs are ragged right rather than justified; better “select all” and choose “justified” so the entire manuscript is consistent. While I’m at it, better make sure hyphenation is turned off or some words will go wonky.
  • Hmmm, sometimes that word is spelled with a hyphen and sometimes as a compound word. Seek and replace the wrong version.
  • What am I supposed to do with this list of bullets beneath the heading? Or the bullets beneath the bullets? Wait, is that a subheading that needs to be indented? Does this need to be a new section, or do those words need to be non-bold? If I am confused as to the main topic, the reader might just skip this section.
  • Semi colon alert! Better watch more carefully.
  • What is the point of this paragraph? Can it be deleted?

Meanwhile, I am keeping up with the storyline, making sure that it is moving along at a good clip. A problem with editing is that I get caught up in the story and forget to think all those multi-layered thoughts as I am reading.

Sometimes the day goes quickly, so quickly that when I head home, I am surprised that it is dusk. I would be surprised that the cats were put away for the night if Trail Guy didn’t stick his head in the studio to let me know.

“. . . Of making many books, there is no end, and much study wearies the body.” —Ecclesiastes 12:12b

*The business is microscopic, not the actual art.