RELIVING OUR BALLOON RIDE AT REDROCK, N.M.

Jim has repeating blogs from our 892 day circumnavigation of the U.S.  Don’t know if that number is correct or just close. But we were visiting New Mexico in May of 2012 and like many of our adventures, we happened upon a balloon launch and ended up, as Fergie would say, “getting high”. 800 feet high. Of course, he also says, “I’m drinkin and drinkin’ and thinkin’ of drinkin.” He invited us into their small circle and made us members. I finally got to see the two balloon blogs today and remember the fun of that time. So, go look if you are inclined.

With Google taking over WordPress, they’ve tweaked our blog and I can blog but I can’t see what Jim is blogging even though we share the same page. They’ve quit supporting our editing program. I dislike google’s intrusive business model and I avoid anything Google if I can. But, they bought WordPress and they own my other Blog, Blogspot.

My handy helpers worked all day yesterday and tore apart my guest outbuilding because it had gotten some black mold that came through when the siding got damp and soil accumulated against the wood. Then I got the news, that not only mold, but termites had invaded. They had to cut into the sheet rock and use Terminex which is stinky stuff. Hopefully the smell will be gone soon when they return to finish the job on Saturday.

One good thing, I was forced to face some of my infamous collections. Being a collectiholic is incurable, but space is now more crowded than ever and I am tossing things I’ve saved for years. I ran across my rejection slips from when I was freelancing in the 1980s. I figured I’d have to wallpaper the bathroom with them, but luckily that didn’t happen.

I ran across a Lefthander magazine, that I put in the rack because my daughter Kristanne is a south-paw.

I found, in Virginia’s neat handwriting, a luscious recipe for gingerbread using fresh ginger. I have tons of stuff to find a home for, but it is fun to look. I’m hoping to find space to take my artwork seriously because, I never made it to the outbuilding to create. I just stored stuff for “some day.”

Here are pictures of the treated building.

The Terminex kills the termites. The bleach solution kills the mold, which had to be scraped in some places off the cement floor.

Drawers under the bed in the guest room had to have the bottom removed. Termites like to eat the easy stuff. Sunlight and lack of moisture should put an end to them.

The breeze-way between the buildings is full of shelving. It is NOT going back in because it is time to downsize collections. I took magazines to the library today, old magazines and they were glad to get them. People love them I was told, just like I did.

I guess I’m looking at my past and my future at the same time. That is a direct quote.

THE JUNK DRAWER.

Everyone admits to having a junk drawer. A place to store something of a temporary nature, or something you don’t want to toss, but what good is it to keep? It ends up in the junk drawer. I have too many junk drawers.

My daughter-in-law came for the weekend since “the guys” meaning my sons, and old high school friends have this big mega bash every year over super bowl weekend. They play poker, drink a lot of beer, golf on Sunday morning…well you get the picture. So Laurie and I poked around my junk drawers for stuff for a project she is working on. The picture was taken after we reduced the quantity of junk in the drawers by half.

It was really nice because I cleaned out a large bag of crochet yarn that I’ll never use.  I took out most of my button collection;  It filled three large cigar boxes. Ribbons and badges from Community Club events will hopefully find a home in the local museum. Much of it represented past volunteer activities and some travel items like the museum patches above. Whoever heard of such obscure museums as the National Skating Museum?  The Cartoon Art Museum. I’ve been to an Eye Glass museum, a Bait Museum, a Knife Museum, a Funeral Museum, Bead Museums…   On the road with Jim, I (we)  visited every museum that came to our attention, no matter the subject or size. I wonder sometimes,  how many I’ve visited?

Among the buttons were whirley-gigs  I made when two young nieces and a nephew came to visit for a week one summer. I also taught them to play Hide The Button.

My mother visited Pope John Paul II when he visited San Francisco so many years ago. I have her holy cards, relics and a purported piece of the crucifixion cross; a metal from every California Mission she visited and more. My intention was to make a collage with her things. I’m  inspired anew.

I couldn’t hold in two hands the number of metal pins I saved with messages such as:  Our Owner’s Gay, from Chatom Vineyards. Elect Jeffrey’s for Sheriff; Warning: I go from 0 to Bitch in 3.5 seonds; USA Olympics, 2002; Chocolate Makes the World Go Round. TV4UBYU and so on. Useless.  Junk. For the Junk drawer.

Laurie and I enjoyed the process. I got my fix of “fur” for a couple of days. Koko sat on my lap for a bit while we watched three episodes of Home Fires on DVD. We cooked and ate well, too. Idiotically, I didn’t take a picture of Laurie, just Koko and Bix.

CRAFTSMANSHIP

Our good fortune to move about the country and graze through places you’ve never heard of  puts us in direct contact with some amazing craftsmanship. The ceiling decoration above is from Nottoway Plantation.

Exquisite beading turns these squaw belts into museum pieces. Western Heritage Museum, Colorado.

A stained glass window from Thomas Edison’s house.

I noticed hese bathroom sinks in a restaurant in Las Palomas, Mexico.

A floor tile from a church in St. Martinsville, LA.

A headstone from the West Point Cemetery, NY.

A door pull from the Louisiana State Capitol Building.

A table decoration from Nottoway Plantation.

Home baked goods on sale from the Independence Hall Quilters Show, Arnold, CA.  A show that is coming up this month the weekend of the 22nd, 23rd, and 24th at Kautz Vineyard.

People do look at you a bit strangely when you take pictures of some obviously common objects like doorknobs and floor tiles. If someone notices I just mumble, “blogger”… and kind of quietly go about my business. The truth is, I don’t do it for the blog, I do it because I see beauty in almost every raindrop and I hope that collecting pictures of them, besides giving me pleasure, honors craftsman who make beautiful the everyday object.