Ten Truths of Life List

(More weird lines in the sky when no jets have flown overhead)

Lists are a regular tradition at the end of a year. People list things that happened, celebrities who died, accomplishments, goals for the next year, resolutions, words to live by, on and on. . .*

I’ve been thinking about truths of life. Writer Anne Lamott has a famous list, and you can hear her explain them on a very good TED talk. Her list made me think about my own.

Here are some truths that I know and can count on. 

  1. Life is better with a cat.
  2. Almost everything in life is a mix of good and bad—life may be better with a cat, but eventually the cat dies; social media is a sewer, but it is also a place to keep up with your modern (and often puzzling) nieces and nephews.
  3. The two best ways to spend time with friends are working on a project together or taking a walk.
  4. There are no perfect friends; no single person can meet all your needs.
  5. The more stuff you own, the more stuff breaks (and gets lost, dirty, or messed up and wastes your time in maintaining it).
  6. Gardening is war.
  7. “Upgrade” and “update” are euphemisms for “complications”. 
  8. “Educated” and “smart” are not synonyms; knowledge does not equal wisdom, and information does not guarantee discernment. In the same vein, common sense has become quite uncommon. 
  9. My approach to sweets: if it isn’t chocolate (dark), it probably isn’t worth the calories.
  10. Beauty is a need, and it is something that has no danger of an overdose.

Sincerely,

Your List Lady AKA Central California Artist

*A list from the past before I started doing those end of the month Learned Lists (because search engines like links in blog posts): 2016

 

I Always Have Questions

Do other people have questions? Why aren’t other people curious? Is it curiosity or just plain interest? Don’t answer those – just ponder these with me, and if you have answers, let ‘er rip, Tater Chip.

  1. When did people stop giving things and begin “gifting” them?
  2. Why are there so many lines criss-crossing the sky that are not from jets? This is a regular occurrence, one that another friend alerted me to.
  3. Who made up zombies and decided that they were a good subject for movies? (Someone please make it stop)
  4. Where was Tucker the other night and why did that strange black cat let me pick him up and toss him in the workshop? (How do you know in the dark of night if it is your black cat or a strange one? By the voice and the odd behavior, which I dismissed because I was tired and I wanted Tucker to be locked up safely with Pippin and Jackson for the night.)
  5. If The Frankenvirus was made up by scientists messing around in a lab, why don’t we ask those scientists what sort of people they were targeting? If we knew, then we would know who is vulnerable and who to protect! (Yeah, I know, anyone who create such a monster wouldn’t actually care about who the monster injured or killed.)
  6. Why are most dresses for older women sleeveless? Could we get a little coverage here? (And what is “older”?) 
  7. Why are the deciduous large leaf privets and euonymous in my yard losing their leaves? (Not just my yard, but the yards of several friends too)
  8. Why do so many things bloom out of season in my yard? Snowball bush blooming while the leaves are changing, lavender blooming in November, rosemary in November instead of January or February – what does this mean?

Final Question for today: have you seen my show yet? Gallery days and hours below!

Exploring the End of North Fork Drive

Trail Guy, The Farmer, Hiking Buddy and I went on a bit of an adventure. We had all been here are various times in our lives, but never after a fire. The upper end of North Fork Drive had borate (pink fire retardant) sprayed on both sides of the road, the views were much wider than before with so much brush burned out, and it was much more apparent than before how very steep the drop-off is to the river.

After a tail-gate lunch, we headed across the creek and up a dirt road to see how things looked.

This road was widened by bulldozers to create a firebreak. The area definitely burned, but the October rains and the north-facing slopes together have allowed green to begin emerging.

Hey -what is that?

Just a couple of little underground rooms, one with a solid concrete door.

Look – we crossed a bridge to peek into the little rooms – I didn’t notice at the time.

This road is just going up and up and up and up. . . nothing looks different. Let’s go back and take the fork to the right. But what is this white stuff? Ash. A tree on the ground burned and we are looking at the branching pattern left behind.

This was probably covered in a variety of shrubs. I am loving the green here. We headed over to a big flat area, known as Grunigen’s Flat, a former homestead or cattle ranch or commune or something.

Because it all burned, this impressive rock wall shows up.

We followed the wall, which followed the creek. All this chiseled quarried stone, laid without mortar, for what end?

Ugh. Fire. I kept expecting to come to a granite slab with Indian grind-holes. Sure enough, we did, but I didn’t photograph it. I was too absorbed in the sycamores, stone wall, and the green.

The ground was weird like this all over – is this some sort of fire-heave effect?? I don’t think it was a gopher evacuation camp.

The Farmer did a bit of searching and learned that the wall was built in the ’30s by the Civilian Conservation Corps, specifically the Yucca CCC Camp. Not sure what purpose it served other than providing work. If I didn’t have other things going on, I might look it up. But sometimes, a wall is just a wall, and a stone wall this aesthetically pleasing is good enough for this Central California artist for now.

9 Things I Learned in September

 

  1. Crocs: Classic All Terrain Clog or Offroad Sport Clog? I found Offroad on Amazon (not referring to the fake ones I bought in the previous month) and then found All Terrain on the Crocs site. All Terrain (2nd photo) have a better tread, but I haven’t had a chance to try them on a trail yet.(Come on, you stupid fires, and I am taking both pairs if we have to evacuate).
  2. Akimbo means standing with a hand on your hip and your elbow pointed outward. I didn’t know this. (Well, duh, that’s why it is in a Things I Learned Post)
  3. If you are vacuuming your bathroom and start waving the wand around (chasing spiderwebs or something equally adventurous), watch out for the loose end of the toilet paper. Of course, it is good for a laugh…
  4. August has been my least favorite month for most of my adult life; September is threatening to replace it.
  5. September brought a very hands-on lesson about the difference between opinions and facts. During these fires, people express their opinions such as “It isn’t looking good for Mineral King” or “So-and-So Who Supposedly Has An Inside Track said mandatory evacuation is coming soon!” These opinions affected me at first; I should have blown them off as FakeBook noise (even though many were spoken in person). Now I can recognize an opinion and wait for the real information.
  6. The Human Calculator is a guy named Scott Flansburg. Fascinating! I heard him on Mike Rowe’s podcast and learned that all calculations lead back to 9. Maybe not all. . . but get this: pick any 2 numbers, add them up. Add up the digits within the answer, subtract them from the answer, and if the new answer is right, it will be divisible by 9. For example, 44 + 23 (just random numbers)=67. 6+7=13. 67-13=54, which is divisible by 9.
  7. Fire containment is based on the percentage of the perimeter of the fire. I wish I didn’t need to know this.
  8. Did you know that a dial tone on the telephone is F#? You can use it to tune a guitar in an emergency! (Just what constitutes a musical emergency?; yes, guitar strings begin with E, but if you find F#, you can get to E, and finally, no, I don’t play guitar).
  9. This Evergreen Home is a new-to-me blog about simple living. The page called 101 Simple Living Tips is especially good, and has links in it to other sites full of good tips.

An Extraordinarily Good Day

An interviewer once asked me, “What does a good day look like in your life as an artist?” 

(This post is just a bit of reminiscing about life before the fire took over our lives and thoughts.)

Rachelle brought her new lungs and her husband to see us, first time in person since the end of April. I fed them cookies. (They love my cookies so much that I spent $10 mailing some to them in LA. Yes, me, Frugal Queen of the San Joaquin!) Rachelle and I were so happy to see each other that our eyes may have leaked a little bit. Our hubbies were pretty happy to see one another too. 

Then, I finished this painting. (You have seen it on the blog by now).

I was on a roll so I pulled out this canvas.

I thought it was finished, and then I remembered that it needs a wind machine. You have also seen this one after it got scanned.

But wait! There’s more! A former drawing student (from 20+ years ago) emailed with the usual “You probably don’t remember me but. . .” My response was something like, “OF COURSE I DO!!” She came to my studio with her parents, husband, and baby who is too cute for words (yes, this from me, All Babies Look Alike). Out of respect for their privacy, I will just show you this one photo of me with L at my studio. We were both beside ourselves with delight.

To top it off, I sent invoices to 2 customers for recently completed commissions. Sometimes it feels as if I work for fun or for free, then a customer will remind me to send a bill. 

That was an extraordinarily good day.

P.S. I started designing a calendar for 2022, appropriately titled “Places and Things We Love” because. . .

Using pencil, oil paints and murals, I make art you can understand, of PLACES AND THINGS WE LOVE (for prices that won’t scare you).

Sorry Thoughts in a Smoky World

All this time hunkering down inside out of the smoke (while the library is closed) is giving me extra time to think. Mostly I have come up with sorry thoughts. I will see if I can think of something positive to include.

  1. There is a garbage mama bear with 2 cubs living behind Village Market in Three Rivers. It was too dark in the shade of the Valley Oak tree to take any photos of the sorry creatures.
  2. We moved the watering bowl for deer away from the front porch in hopes of retraining them to ignore the planting bed there. Maybe it will be less sorry with less traffic.
  3. I vacuumed my studio against all common sense. With ash everywhere, you may be wondering, “Why bother?” Here is why I bothered: I dropped a box of pencils on the floor under my drawing table and when I emerged from gathering them, I was covered in dust, ash and spiderwebs. “Covered” may be a slight exaggeration, but ick, it was a sorry mess down there.
  4. My sorry pomegranate tree has never produced anything of substance, unless you count the flowers. I used to surround it with fencing and give it regular water; last year the fencing was needed to protect the herb garden, so I told the tree to either live or die, its choice. This year, it has produced about 5 tiny pomegranates. It looks normal but it is really small.
  5. Rather than go to the community meetings about fire (because I despise wearing a face diaper), I have been trying to watch them online. “Trying”, because a sorry speaker on my laptop is blown, the sound system at the Memorial Building is rumbly and mumbly (cannot hear any of the people asking questions), and sometimes the organizers just cannot get the camera or the sound to work. Technology will save us all, eh?
  6. These meetings are on Fakebook, which allows non-members like me to watch only during the meetings. With all the tech troubles, it popped to a screen showing people’s comments on the side. Ugh. People were abrupt, rude, and impulsively spouted their opinions without any thought as to whether or not it was helpful. Our county supervisor made an urgent request at a recent meeting to everyone to STOP believing what you read on social media and just go to the official places for fire information. Amen! 
  7. A very long time ago, we were invited to a friend’s wedding up at the heliport at Ash Mountain. The groom asked me to bring my camera for some candid shots, and when I arrived, he told me that the scheduled photographer wasn’t coming so I was IT. What??? I did my best, and have to say that the photos looked good because there was a fire. Why? I don’t know why there was a fire. Oh, why did the smoke make the photos look good? Because the foggy gray background showed off the colors and the people. (They aren’t married any more, but that has nothing to do with my photography, I promise.) This makes me wonder why I haven’t been looking for things to photograph around my yard. Easy answer: nothing is in bloom at this sorry time of year after a sorry summer. Oh wait, I did find this one.
  8. Does anyone else out there have a tab on their Favorites bar on their computer labeled “Disasters”? That is a sorry sort of label, although it is accurate. (Fires, the plague, local arrests, etc.)
  9. The spokesman for the fire information is from south Georgia. Whenever he mentions the continued survival of the General Sherman tree, I wonder if he is sorry; after all, General Sherman marched into Atlanta and burned the place. He always grins when he says the General is still standing.
  10. Wuksatchi Lodge will never be called that again by several of us who are enjoying Mr. Georgia’s presentations. His earlier pronunciation was “Wuh-kooshi”, but now he is calling it “Wuh-kah-shee”. (Gotta find our fun where we can!) His pronunciations brought much appreciated laughter to the meeting. 
  11. After letting our one remaining tiny lawn go wild all summer in hopes that it would thicken up, either by roots or by seeds, I finally consented to Trail Guy’s request to mow. It is definitely thicker after 2 summers of experimenting with my own peculiar theories of lawn growth. (Tucker likes the grass long.)

That was a positive thought. Okay, stick a fork in me – I’m done.