Postal Thoughts

Are You Kidding Me??

I ordered a box of Springville’s Hospital books to be shipped to the author’s wife. When the notification of shipment came, it was shipping the books to MY BANK IN THREE RIVERS!! WHAT? HOW? WHY? I didn’t recognize the address so I looked it up on the internet. When I saw it was my bank, I called them to let them know that they’d be getting a package meant for someone they never heard of. Instead of it landing neatly where it belongs, I will have to retrieve it from the bank and then drive it down the hill. I have no idea how this address got onto the order. I’m flummoxed (and a bit irritated at all the automatic stuff that computers do, thinking they are being helpful, if they can be said to “think”.) At least it is going to my bank and not a vacant lot.

Blogging Alone Since 2008

I know no one else in real life who blogs. Through the years, I have made some friends across the continent who blog about as much as I do. None blog about the same things, but all are people I’d probably hang out with if we lived close. They all have much bigger followings than I do, and several have paid ads on their sites which provides income. In spite of having hundreds (or thousands?) of readers, they have been so kind as to comment on my blog, become email friends, and occasionally exchange mail, real mail, the snaily kind.

Check out the postcards I’ve recently received from two friends! On the left is from Elisabeth, of Optimistic Musings of a Pessimist and on the right is from Michelle from MG Doodle Studio. Both are taking a blogging break right now, like I expected to do, but the thoughts keep flowing so I’m still posting.

Writing notes and letters is something I’ve done my entire life. Writing thank you notes was very very difficult as a child; as it morphed into letter writing, it became a habit, one that I have never stopped.

The Kaweah Post Office is no longer operational. For years it was the smallest operating post office in the USA. It held on as long as it could, and now it is just a sad relic.

The more people become accustomed to texting, the more precious a hand written note will become. “No one has ever cherished an email”, read an ad for high end stationery many years ago. (Crane’s Crest—anyone else remember this paper?)

Stamps are going up in price again, maybe as high as $1 each. Sounds frightening, but considering that I can hand a piece of paper to someone and it arrives in the correct place a week or so later, for one lousy dollar, just ONE DOLLAR, it seems rather astonishing.

Unless, of course, your computer tells the sender to take it to your bank instead of to the intended recipient.

REMEMBER

“Contemplate the mangled bodies of your countrymen, and then say, ‘What should be the reward of such sacrifices?’ … If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude than the animating contest of freedom, go from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands, which feed you. May your chains sit lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen!” —Samuel Adams(1777)

Mineral King is Open

And the summer begins …

I didn’t take any of these pictures, which were all taken before I went up the hill, because living in two places comes soon enough without pushing it. Our cabin is a summer dwelling, for good reasons.

Hence, the Early Bird, AKA Trail Guy, took these photos. (You can tell because his camera makes sky spots).

Opening the cabin is a big project, because Trail Guy and the Farmer open several people’s cabins, which requires many tools. The projects abound, the work never ceases, and yet wild horses cannot restrain these two good-hearted, hard-working gentlemen from serving the neighborhood.

Phlox

Two hardy souls marched (or perhaps simply staggered) up to Eagle Lake, BEFORE the Spring Creek Bridge was installed. One of the two generously shared her photos (and reported back that it was COLD.)

Looking down toward the dam that forms Eagle Lake.
Looking upstream toward the ridge that forms the other side of Eagle Lake.

Since this is supposed to be a marketing and advertising “platform” (these words… sigh … what am I supposed to call this? A venue? An avenue? Media?), have another look at my painting of Eagle Lake from a similar viewpoint (I think I was on the dam itself.)

Eagle Lake, 7×14”, oil on wrapped canvas, $200, at the Silver City Store so let me know if you want to buy it and I’ll retrieve it for you next weekend.

Ad over. Remember the fallen on this weekend because it isn’t supposed to be about getting away and fishing and hiking and boating and BBQing. However, because of the brave, we are free to do these things.

Admonition over.

Endeavor to persevere.

And remember, if you comment and it doesn’t appear, your comment will appear after I have returned from the Land of No Electricity or Internet or Phones to release it.

Two More Terminus Dam Questions Answered

After the tour of Terminus Dam, I had questions. Ranger Tim’s answers were posted yesterday. And as is usually the case, questions and answers beget more questions.

Here are my further questions and Ranger Tim’s answers.

1. What is a “stilling basin”?

Stilling Basins Behind Dams — USACE Design and Function

A stilling basin is a critical energy-dissipating structure located downstream of a dam’s spillway or outlet. Its purpose is to absorb and dissipate the kinetic energy of high-velocity water discharging from the dam, thereby protecting the spillway, outlet works, and downstream channel from erosion and undermining Association of State Dam Safety. – At Terminus Dam / Lake Kaweah it’s the area behind the dam that looks like a big pond. Its shallow, full of birds and wildlife, and slows the water before it heads downstream and gets split into the St. Johns and Kaweah Rivers.

The “pond” down there must be a stilling basin.

2. Those red bootprints—are they also for photographic accuracy?

Yes, the footprints are for photographic accuracy. An employee would stand in the boot prints and hold a camera to their chest at breast height so that every picture each year would be facing the same direction and be at a similar height. Very similar to how Giant Sequoias are measured – an employee would stand at their base and measure the circumference at breast height with a measuring device.

THANK YOU, RANGER TIM!

One more thing: he said the hydroelectric plant is operated by Eagle Creek. Here is a link to their website: Eagle Creek Renewable Energy.

Answers to the Terminus Dam Questions

Ranger Tim replied to the questions I asked after our dam tour. You can see that blog post here: Terminus Dam and Lake Kaweah.

Lake Kaweah, pencil, 9×12, $300, unframed

Great Questions!

Thank you, Ranger Tim!

  1. In big storm years the Lake has jumped 50 vertical feet in 24 hours so it can fill very quickly but they can also drain it very quickly if they open the gates all the way. 
  1. The radioactive symbol on the tower is leftover from the cold war era when the dam/tower were being constructed in the late 1950s. When the tower was completed in 1962 it was an official bomb shelter. We can’t find any records of who would have been invited, how many people it could hold, or how long they could stay. Its no longer used as a functioning bomb shelter but they thought the sign was historic, so it’s been left on the building. 
  1. The tower is the control center for releasing water out of the reservoir. It goes all the way to the bottom of the lake where there are 3 – 36” pipes that feed into a 12’9” pipe that runs through the dam to outlet near the stilling basin behind the dam. There are valves or “gates” on each of the pipes that a dam operator can open or close as needed to release or store water.
  1. The wooden platform on the dam was specifically built to be an osprey nest.
  1. Yes, just south of the tower there is another pipe that carries water to generate hydroelectricity. The power plant is operated by Eagle Creek Hydropower. 
  1. The footprints in the concrete are survey landmarks and are throughout the spillway complex. Each year someone goes out and stands in the impressions and takes a picture. The engineers can then use the pictures to see if the landscape has moved over time. Or, if there was an earthquake they would be able to look for changes in the area.
This was my view for about 15 minutes while waiting at a construction stop by the lake yesterday.

We love the pencil drawing! That is down at the outlet where the water comes out of the 12’9” pipe and flows into the stilling basin.

Thank you, Ranger Tim!

Release, pencil, matted and framed to approximately 14×17”, $400

After I got the answers from Ranger Tim, I had more questions. I’ll put those in a blog post tomorrow.

Random Unrelated Thoughts On Three Topics

My ducks may be in a row but my thoughts are random.

Consolation Prize

In talking with a friend recently, the connectedness of knowing people wherever I go came up. I told her that it was a consolation prize for living in the same county where I grew up.

Reunion Thoughts

As I was talking with one of those people that I encountered from my past (Redwood High School), she mentioned that she never goes to class reunions because the people she is friends with are already in her life, and the rest are not, which is fine with her. I’ve often thought the same things, but I go to reunions anyway because I feel guilty if I don’t. Some people come from a very long distance hoping to reconnect with old acquaintances, and I can’t be bothered to drive 35 miles? So I bother. I did request of the reunion committee that we not have loud music so that we can have conversations at the upcoming 50th (a year away).

I don’t think spouses belong at reunions unless they went to the same school and graduated near the same year. In general, people go to reunions to reunite with old friends, not to get to know spouses. Besides, Trail Guy would probably rather have a root canal.

Lots of women go all out to look good at reunions: hair gets reblonded or ungrayed, and straightened or curled, depending on the current trends; make-up is caked on, and many wear black, thinking it makes them look thinner, when in reality it makes them look haggard.

I like the idea of being with people my age, so I can see if I am deteriorating at an appropriate rate.

One year before a class reunion, my dearest old friend from high school and I swam in the river. Instead of getting all foofed up for the party, we picked green algae out of our hair.

Dual Living

Cabin time is here. This means lots of time in the Land of No Electricity or Internet or Phones (unless one has StarLink, which this one does not).

It might also mean sporadic posts to this blog, rather than consistent 5 a.m. posts, five days a week.

Tucker will miss me.

As I prep for living in two places, not much art is getting made. Instead, I am connecting timers to sprinklers, writing up lists, making schedules, and lining out people to look after the cats and the yard, figuring out which things to leave up the hill, which I might need at home, and if there is a way to not haul too much back and forth.

So, if you comment on the blog and don’t see it appear, it is because I am not in a place where I can “approve” the comments. I’ll get to it when I return to civilization.

In conclusion, if you don’t see a blog post, it is because I didn’t post.

(Thank you, Captain Obvious!)

However, I might start putting together posts showing old paintings or drawings, maybe bloviating on various topics, books I have read, or something else I haven’t thought of yet.

See? I didn’t think I had anything to write about, and look at the length of this post.

Signing off now.

In the Think Tank and Other Work Thoughts

Sort of Working

Having finished the oil painting commission, priced paintings and cards to sell at Silver City, all this while believing that I have finished enough paintings for the entire summer (possibly delusional about that), it was time to consider how to next spend my work time.

I pulled weeds at church (not work), oiled the siding on the front of the studio (sort of work), learned to use the new scanner at a minimal level (work requiring enormous patience), worked on art for the 2027 calendar (the best kind of work), and went to a county supervisor candidate meet-up where I had a conversation that led to a pencil commission (marketing work).

The requested subject, Reimer’s, to be redrawn in pencil, is here in Three Rivers. Iit will take a few photo sessions to find the right light without the parking lot full of scene-blocking cars. The customer has granted permission to show progress on the blog.

Too many generations of reproduction have severely compromised the quality of this drawing.

The original drawing is in a frame somewhere in someone’s home (I hope it isn’t stashed in a storage unit), the printshop that originally printed this on cards is out of business, and the store is under new ownership with some changes. Hence, it is time for a new drawing.

Preparing to Work

In addition, someone who hired me to edit a very long paper/potential book/article/essay something sent me photos of his garden at its peak and requested a collage type oil painting. I’ve only done collages with pencil, but I am willing to try this design approach in oil paint.

A collage in pencil, designed to combine scenes that seem disparate to the viewer unless you are the customer to whom all these places make sense.

After studying the 10 or so photos that he sent, it became apparent that my laptop screen isn’t up for the task—it’s just too small. So, I put them all on a document, turned it black and white (because my printer isn’t really capable of printing in color without cleaning the heads, running test patterns, and then replacing ink that got used up doing those tasks) and printed it out.

Next, I made a list of everything that is important to the customer. (He is very good at communicating—hence, the successful editing project.)

As I tiptoed ahead on this challenging project, I realized that this is my chance to not be stupidly unbusinesslike. Often I get so caught up in a challenge that I don’t charge for all the extra work, and I rarely remember to get a deposit. This time I let the customer know that the job is in the Think Tank and that I was attaching an invoice for $100 nonrefundable deposit for the design work. It will be applied to the painting, size to be determined.

After work I came home and cleaned up the tail and guts of a squirrel that Tucker caught, nibbled on, and left for Jackson and Pippin to finish. It was seriously disgusting, so instead of showing you that, let’s look at a pencil drawing of a completely intact squirrel.

Four Little Victories with Unpleasant Tasks

On an overcast and chilly morning with our final fire of the season in the wood stove, I sat with my laptop and tackled some unpleasant tasks.

  1. A new scanner: I went looking online to see if the one that served me well for 15 years was still available. It is not. A similar one appeared to be available, but it isn’t sold in the U S of A. So, begrudgingly, I went to the Big A and found (settled for?) a flatbed scanner made by a company called Plustek. I’m guessing that Mustek (my last scanner company) morphed into Plustek. Every piece of information available seems to indicate that it is easy to set up and will work with my outdated MacBook Pro.

2. My printer is one of those 4-way deals: print, scan, copy, and fax. (Fax?? Who does that any more besides medical offices, which I do my best to avoid?) It works as a scanner in a pinch, except that it only handles 8-1/2 x 11” documents and the lid isn’t removable for thick canvases. It is a good printer, but it uses SO MUCH INK. I always check the box for black & white copies, and somehow, the other ink cartridges run low. It is hard to buy only black, and the blue, red, and yellow cartridges appear to be multiplying in the dark while I wait yet again for another overpriced order of black ink. Rip-off.

3. An online printing company is where I get small amounts of notecards printed. In the last handful of years, suddenly they charge sales tax after I have submitted all my resale permit info. I learned that I have to resubmit the same forms, Every Year, Year After Year After Year. So tiresome. OF COURSE they don’t ever receive the email, which necessitates a “chat” or a phone call, where someone keeps reassuring me that they will look into it. The people are nice, and they are helpful, but WHY IS THIS NECESSARY, OVER AND OVER??

4. Someone asked me what other murals I have painted, and I realized that I don’t have them on my website, other than the page “What my customers are saying” or some such thing. So I spent a couple of long sessions make a new mural page, finding, organizing, and posting the photos. No dates or sizes are included. They don’t all show in full, due to my use of “galleries”, which means a cluster of photos with predetermined shapes and sizes. It was kind of cool to realize that I have that many under my belt.

Instead of all this administrative stuff, I just want to paint. Actually I just want to draw. Sure would be nice to have a secretary, administrative assistant, intern, apprentice, servant, butler, lady’s waiting maid, something.

However, then I’d have to work more to pay that person, and I wouldn’t have enough money to pay for all those ink cartridges or a new scanner.

I’ll leave it alone now.

Bridge Building (With Paint)

Incremental Improvements

Painting #38 of Tulare County’s best bridge (according by your Central California artist) is inching forward into excellence. Can you see the incremental improvements?

We can probably consider it all finished now, EXCEPT FOR THE BRIDGE ITSELF!

Ahem. Excuse me for shouting. It just surprises me that after I put an enormous amount of concentration and effort into the painting that the most important part remains to be detailed.

Maybe it would be fun if I did a series of posts with all the different versions I’ve painted of this bridge.

But first, this one needs to be finished.

Here is a photo taken with my real camera instead of the inferior phone camera; the colors aren’t as strong, but neither is it as pixelated, which doesn’t matter here on the interwebs.

We call this the Oak Grove Bridge; people who don’t know it very well might call it the Kaweah River Bridge or the Mineral King Road Bridge or the East Fork Bridge. Those names sort of work.

Not that bridge

There are folks who, when they see my paintings or drawings of the bridge, say, “I’ve eaten at that restaurant”. They are wrong—the only eatery at the Oak Grove bridge might be the tailgate of one’s pick-em-up truck. The Pumpkin Hollow (“Gateway”) bridge is at the confluence of the East and Middle Forks of the Kaweah River. It isn’t over a deep canyon, just one lane wide, and with a single arch.

See the difference?

Maybe it is time to draw the bridge again in pencil. I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve done that; there are only 2 versions in my computer, because so many drawings didn’t get scanned or reproduced or even photographed in my early days.

Moving Forward on the Two New Paintings

Eagle Lake

Such an ugly start.

Let’s git ‘er dun!

Eagle Lake (a painting formerly known as a dog’s breakfast), 7×14”, oil on wrapped canvas, $200, currently drying, destined for the Silver City Store, unless it sells first from this little spot on the interwebs.

Oak Grove Bridge

The Oak Grove Bridge is a bit more challenging. I started with the attitude of “close enough” and as usual when drawing or painting architectural subjects, I ended up measuring and redoing several things.

The width of each arch needed to be the same, and the top of the bridge was too thick.

So I measured, redrew the arches (yes, with my paintbrush—anyone here have a problem with that?), lowered the top of the bridge, and then planted some manzanita on the lower left. I also started locating various rocks.

You’d think that after painting this forty-eleven* times, I’d have all the rocks and the arch proportions memorized. You’d be wrong in that thinking. I could make it up, but I’d also be wrong.

Such a grand little bridge for our slightly down-at-the-heels Tulare County. There are plans to turn it into a pedestrian-only bridge with a stout replacement safe for driving upstream of this classic one. The county had to do the eminent domain thing to acquire the land, and I have a feeling this will be a long, disruptive, and messy construction project.

Change can be so difficult.

Thus, for now we must enjoy the bridge as it was and as it is, and not think about as it shall be.

*This is actually #38, if I kept count correctly, which is doubtful.