Did I scare you with that rough painting of a rough cabin on a rough shutter?
These deer weren’t scared.
Let’s soothe your fears with some giant Sequoia trees.
Well, oops, it might have scared you to see them lying sideways. Let’s try it again while they are hanging up to dry.
I’m feeling so proud of this that my head might pop. That’s a scary thought.
Pippin’s not scared. He feels very safe behind the chimney next to the window near my chair. He scared Tucker away from that spot so his selfish little self could have it.
When it was time to mail the cabin drawing to the customer, I packaged it. Trail Guy came out to the studio to offer his delivery services, and I was delighted to not have to interrupt my work with a trip to the Post Office. Yes, I know it is only 3-4 miles away, but in the summers, my work days are limited because I keep going to Mineral King instead of keeping my feet planted in front of the easels. So, I value my work time and appreciate not having to do my own errands.
Trail Guy returned from the Post Office with the receipt and an explanation of why it cost $18 to send a piece of paper to San Diego – had to buy a box, pay for insurance, etc. And “piece of paper” isn’t meant to discount the value of an original pencil drawing, but essentially, to the post office, it was a highly insured piece of paper packaged carefully in an overpriced box.
He turned toward the counter in the painting workshop, picked up a taped-together bundle of cardboard and said, “What is this?”
Ahem. That would be the drawing that I thought he had just mailed.
When I got back up off the floor from laughing, I emailed my customer to tell her to expect a box of cardboard, minus her drawing before actually receiving the drawing.
Later that afternoon, I went to the Post Office with the actual drawing. The clerk retrieved the box from the back, we opened it, inserted the drawing, and she taped it back up. No new packaging, no new payments. It was in time to go out with that day’s mail.
I LOVE THE POST OFFICE IN THREE RIVERS!!
This is the Kaweah Post Office, not the Three Rivers Post Office. The unframed original is available for $200. Interested? Give me a pair of minutes to look for it because I can’t find it right now. What else would you expect from someone who mails empty boxes to customers?
An old insulator that we hoped to install it in a cabinet but we have yet to get a key that fits.
A wise friend of mine often reminds me that “life is much harder than I expected it to be”.
I am inclined to agree with that statement because somehow I assumed that adulthood would smooth out the bumps, either because I’d have money, wisdom, or experience to solve or avoid problems.
Haha. Fall down laughing.
When you have a plumbing incident, you do NOT want to hire the guy whose name is always followed by “bless his heart”. (But “all’s well that ends well”, as Ma Ingalls used to say.)
When you order something online, it is a real nuisance to have it arrive in the wrong color or size. The emails and paperwork tell you what you ordered, but the actual item is clearly wrong. This precipitates phone calls to navigate through tangled phone trees where they lie and tell you that the long wait is “due to an unusually high volume of calls”. There are ALWAYS more calls than can be handled; it is not unusual. So then you go to the website, and it doesn’t work. Sigh.
Upgrades for technical devices provide you with 2 choices: skip them and eventually things won’t work or do them and immediately things won’t work.
When you buy something that has to be assembled, you can assume that there will be typos, parts will be called by the wrong names, little pieces will be missing or won’t work, and then you can go through the same type of maddening exercise as in scenario 2 above..
When you have a key made to a door or perhaps a locked cabinet, just assume it won’t fit and that you will have to have it remade. Recently I am three for three on failed attempts to get keys made right the first time.
In spite of these situations, every once in awhile life hands you a little gift or two.
It was time to buy oil for Fernando (he burns some but what do you expect at 230,000 miles?) and IT WAS ON SALE FOR HALF PRICE!
I only bought 2 quarts. Motor oil, cat food, and printer ink should all be bought in small quantities. This is one of my guiding economic principles in life. You can probably figure out the reasoning behind this decision.
2. And a friend sent me this unexpected gift, because she is thoughtful, generous, full of good humor, and tuned in to what I enjoy.
I like having lots of work; thinking about the next step on multiple projects energizes me. Having many jobs boosts my confidence and calms down all the self-doubt for awhile.
Thinking about rude comments from old art teachers, snobbery in the Art World, or during times when work isn’t selling and jobs aren’t coming my way – these things cause doubt and insecurity in your Central California artist. (“When the dog bites, when the bee stings, when I’m feeling sad. . .”)
Happy customers, helping people learn to draw, sales, commissions – these things build my confidence. (“Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens. . .”)
Confidence is a good thing, but one must take care not to let it grow into arrogance. That might be why I often slip into self-deprecating humor here on the blog. I’ve heard it said that arrogance is a sneer and confidence is a smile, but haven’t heard what sort of facial expression comes with insecurity.
The painting of the ranch in rural Southern California is now in the hands of a happy customer. Join me in a smile or even a big laugh when you read the name of the place!
Bucksnort
And let’s smile some more at the beauty in the desert.
I am struggling to find a good title for this piece. “Beauty in them thar hills” probably isn’t the best one, but that’s what is rumbling around in my brain.
Tucker, before the grass got really tall. (You should see it now!)
Dang, a card game – when a certain friend comes to our cabin, she forces us to play games. She taught it well, but without practice, I’ve already forgotten how. It might have been fun. Being with her is the fun part.
Yahtzee research – while she was there, I got curious. How many times does one need to roll to get a Yahtzee? We did it with 3 rolls per attempt, like in the game. Several times it happened in just the first three attempts; one time it took 63 turns. The average was about 17-20 tries, and the game of Yahtzee only provides 13 turns (maybe it is 15). We also tried it with rolling as many times as necessary. This was entirely random, and I have forgotten the results, although the number 94 seems relevant.
Borgi – a neighbor had a weird little dog. I said, “What is that? A cross between a Border Collie and Corgi?” She said, “Yes, it is a Borgi.” WHAT? In spite of my cat preference, I guessed this. (Gold Star for me.)
Transplanting grass – Our one remaining lawn is sparse and spotty. I have been transplanting clumps of grass from the back side of the house where the lawn was wrecked 21 years ago in the remodel of this place. I have requested that Trail Guy not mow in case these clumps will produce seeds, or perhaps spread by root growth. The cats are loving the tall grass. Will Miracle-Gro help? More will be revealed.
I need a reason to paint – When work ceased to come in, I lost interest in producing. This is mostly due to an aversion to excess stuff, whether paintings, drawings, or one-function kitchen items. I like painting, but not when it just builds up my inventory without hope of showing or selling.
“My choices are not a commentary on yours.” I read this somewhere, and it seemed appropriate after I talked about all the things I like to make from scratch. It might have made some of my readers feel inadequate. No reason for this, because my choices are NOT a commentary on your choices. Really. Just be you, and I’ll be me. It will work out just fine.
“Prone” means face down; “supine” means flat on one’s back. I didn’t know this until a lengthy conversation with a doctor friend who went into way more detail than I could comprehend – hence, I came away with 2 new vocabulary words instead of whatever else he was saying.
1996 Honda Accords are no longer the most stolen year and model of car – Fernando is safe! (Safer. Besides, can the bad guys drive a stick shift??)
Stand up paddle boarding is FUN! There is nothing athletic about me, and I have zero interest in sports of any kind. Stand up paddle boarding is a way to motate on a lake in a quiet manner. I probably won’t pursue this in any large way (as in buy the equipment), but it was quite thrilling to realize that this is a sport that I can do.
Upper-middle-aged non-athletic chubby chick, zig-zagging her way across Hume Lake and NOT FALLING IN THE WATER!
I agree with this sheep about today’s blog commenting behavior.
Thank you for reading and commenting today. If you tried to comment and got an error message, just know it isn’t you. It is the blog’s fault. Remember the recent post “Wonky & Weird”? That’s what I’m talking about!
If you tried to comment and nothing happened or you got an error message, maybe your comment will eventually appear in one of my “back office” files of Pending, Spam, or Trash. When I see it, I will approve it (unless it is redundant because another one of your comments finally made it through.)
My elephant and I aren’t that happy with the blog’s performance, but we realize it is temporary.
This is my elephant. It has nothing to do with anything today (or yesterday’s post either).
When I began blogging 12 years ago, I had no idea what it was about but boy oh boy, it was fun.
Maybe blogging was new then, or maybe I was behind the times (a common occurrence in my life). I began looking for other blogs to read, and hoped that one day mine would have as many followers and commenters as The Yarn Harlot, The Pioneer Woman, lively discussions like Stuff Christians Like or maybe a community of regular commenters like the Entreleadership blog when Chris LoCurto was the writer plus the host of the Entreleadership podcast.
Instead, I have a small (microscopic in the blogging world) readership. Whenever it seemed to be growing, something broke and then I lost my subscribers.
My subscribers don’t seem to understand that they can go to my website and click on the Blog button to find the blog if the subscription stops working.
Many of my real life friends don’t read my blog; many of my customers don’t know I have one, if they even know what a blog is.
When I read blogs and articles about blogging, marketing, and promotion, I feel like a loser.
When I learn that people I know are reading my blog and realize that I know or have met most of my readers, I feel quite happy. This isn’t some impersonal marketing gig; this is the real me, connecting with the real yous. (Don’t you think we need a plural for “you”? “Y’all” feels phoney, because I am not Southern, and “all y’all” sounds particularly phoney, but it does work.)
Here are a few more thoughts about comments:
Sometimes my readers comment which I REALLY appreciate; otherwise I wonder if I am just making noise and no one cares.
Sometimes my readers email me and then we have a private conversation.
Many of my readers have no idea how to comment.
The comments have to be approved by me before they appear, so sometimes people write a comment twice because they think it didn’t work.
And here are some thoughts about blogging:
My blog has built real life friendships (Hi, Dan!), strengthened other friendships (Hi, Sharon!), made long-distance friendships (Hi, Jennifer and Cheryl!), and provided a way for family to stay current (Hi, Laurie!).
Blogging has helped strengthen my writing skills.
Blogging allows me to publicize things, which is useful as a Facebook avoider.
It keeps me accountable, working steadily, staying focused; all are a little harder when working alone.
My guess is the front orange kitten is Pippin; the gray is probably Georgia (R.I.P.), because Jackson’s face is narrower.
You may have noticed that my blog is looking a little different, a bit wonky and weird. The headline looked broken for awhile, and I am no longer able to put in the tagline of “In which the Central California artists [bloviates endlessly about her art and life]”.
The Thing, the big ShutDown, showed me that my website is inadequate. When drawing lessons were forbidden and my commissioned work was completed, I learned about web design. (Actual design, not coding – no need to be impressed here.) I spent a great deal of time figuring it out on paper, typing it on the computer, and sending it off to my web designer.
Last week he started working on it. So far, the results are wonky and weird. This is due to the nature of the work, not to any ineptness on the part of my web designer.
Eventually, the site will focus on custom work, AKA “commissions”, which is Artspeak for a piece of work done to the customer’s specifications and tastes and desires.
The blog will remain the blog; it might look wonky and weird for awhile, and then either we will adjust to the new look or it will return to normal in appearance.
Meanwhile, thanks for hanging out with me and my elephant.
This is my elephant. It has nothing to do with anything today.
Life is too short for things like drying dishes that will dry themselves. Why do I want to save all that time? So I can do things that don’t make sense to other people but bring me pleasure and satisfaction, things like:
Bake my own bread (What’s wrong with store-bought?)
Make yogurt from scratch (What’s wrong with store-bought?)
Bake cookies every time Trail Guy wants them (What’s wrong with store-bought?)
Bake cookies any time someone asks me to (What’s wrong with store-bought?)
Make hummus from scratch (What’s wrong with store-bought?)
Try to grow food despite the bugs, heat, bad soil, gophers, birds, deer, etc. (the continual triumph of hope over experience keeps me gardening) (What’s wrong with store-bought?)
Garden with friends in their yards (What?? hard physical labor for free? Yeppers.)
Knit my own sweaters and lots of socks
Write real notes and letters
Email instead of text (I do text to people who will otherwise ignore me)
Blog 5 days a week
Refuse to get a microwave or dishwasher or trash compactor
What’s on your list?
Perhaps this post should be titled “What’s wrong with store-bought”? And maybe the real question is “What’s wrong with me?”
As an adult, I made some decisions about things that I no longer had to do because I was now the boss of my life, not traditions or shoulds. It evolved into an ever changing list, one that I thought you might enjoy.
Life is too short to:
dry dishes
iron jeans
wait in line at a restaurant when my food at home is just as good and it is quieter there
wait in a doctor’s office for hours. Instead, ask how far behind he is and go for a walk, do an errand, sit in the car and knit or listen to the radio
read boring books
watch movies about war, violence, adultery, or other difficult topics
wash my car before driving to Mineral King all summer
thoroughly clean the house every week – Instead, I just keep it picked up, stay current with the kitchen and bathroom, hang up clothes and make the bed, vacuum the main places often, and get on with living.
When it was time to mail the cabin drawing to the customer, I packaged it. Trail Guy came out to the studio to offer his delivery services, and I was delighted to not have to interrupt my work with a trip to the Post Office. Yes, I know it is only 3-4 miles away, but in the summers, my work days are limited because I keep going to Mineral King instead of keeping my feet planted in front of the easels. So, I value my work time and appreciate not having to do my own errands.
