Spring – Page 12 – red paper boat

My Swiss Cheese Brain

March 24, 2006October 13, 2015 Shelly

Happy, um, Friday. Or something. It’s clamid here–not exactly cold, but coldish, and grey and drizzley with what I’m pretty sure was a an occasional spittle of sleet. O ick.

Despite–or rather, because of–the cloud cover, we had a nice little sunset last night.

I’d meant to spend the whole day at home, working on scanning, but I woke up at 3am and realized that I’d forgotten to take care of a very important errand. I ended up getting up relatively early, for a day-off, and going into Bloomington. Lemme tell ya’, that was about the last thing I wanted to spend the morning doing. I got my grocery shopping finished, though, so I should stop complaining. Except I’m not gonna, because I still forgot to pick up dish detergent, damnit! I’ve been out for over a month, and I keep forgetting to buy it. I remembered laundry detergent and camera batteries and lighters[1] and hand soap, sure, but not dish detergent. Hrmph. I’ve been substituting laundry detergent, which gets the job done, but it’s not as satisfyingly sudsy. Heck, I even remembered Kleenex and paper towels! And, no, a list wouldn’t be likely to help, because I’d have to actually take the list to the store with me. That’s the problem with lists, dontcha see?

Anyway, I’m back from errand running. Whew. I’m pet sitting for Ms. Lea’s menagerie this weekend, and I’m happy to report that the driveway ‘twixt here and there has been fixed! Yea, verily, ’tis true! She bought a metric buttload of gravel last week. Of course, the first time we have a big spring rain, the Chasm to Bism will inevitably re-open, but for now, it’s all nice and smooth and just darn peachy.

And, also, too, as well, a young adult bobtail cat turned up next door. I suspect some asshat dumped him, because he’s not at all shy. In fact, he’s heart-breakingly friendly. He’s obviously been someone’s pet. AND HE LOOKS JUST LIKE BASIL!!! But without the eeevilness. He even has a bitty Basil-sized nub. Ms. Lea has him locked in the bedroom, and will decide what to do with him when she returns. In the meantime, I get to go play with Basil’s Good Twin.

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[1] Disclaimer: I don’t smoke, but the electricity here has a bad habit of flaking out whenever it’s windy or really rainy. As in, when we’re having typical Spring-in-Indiana weather. When the electricity went out a few weeks ago, I had a hell of a time finding a working lighter so that I could light candles. I won’t mention how many times I’ve been to the store or gas station since then and I’ve forgotten to pick one up, but it was something on a par with how many times I’ve been to the store and forgotten dish detergent. My brain, it’s like a steel sieve, bay-BEE!

Letters to Esther, Photography

Spring?

March 21, 2006October 13, 2015 Shelly

The solstice was yesterday. Forsythia is in bloom, my baby walnut trees have swellings on their branches, the peepers have been peeping, and birds have been returning. So, of course, it snowed last night. Welcome to spring in Indiana.

So, I thought I’d share some photos of crepuscular rays I took last week.

I’ve been working on Letters to Esther. I’ve got nearly everything from the old blog format moved to the new website. Now, I’m in the process of scanning the original letters and adding them to the transcriptions. It’s slow going, because many of the image files need a lot of tweaking to make them legible.

I’m not even bothering to scan the rough drafts of Esther’s replies to Richard, because they’re written on pages from her exercise book, which have seriously degraded. I don’t want to handle them too much, because the paper is brittle and brown. And, because she wrote in pencil, the text is faded. In order to make scans legible, I’d have to do some serious Photoshopping acrobatics. Maybe, at a later date, I’ll scan them, but for now, I’m leaving them be.

Once I get all the currently transcribed letters scanned and images added, I’ll start transcribing new letters. Right now, I’m about half-way finished with scanning the transcribed letters. Just to give an idea of scope, that’s taken me about 50 hours of solid work, not counting time it took to do the original transcriptions.

Tangent Alert!

I’m watching bad daytime court teevee (Judge Alex) while working on the computer. I haven’t been paying close attention, but the defendant–whose off-lead Dalmatian attacked and killed the plaintiff’s on-lead Dachshund puppy–seems to be arguing that she shouldn’t be responsible for the full amount of damages because the plaintiff’s dog isn’t a purebred “Datsun.” I nearly choked on my toast. Lady, if you’re gonna try to mount that sort of defense, you really ought to get the breed name correct. Claiming that the dead puppy didn’t “look” like a purebred “Datsun” does not make you look like any kind of authority on the breed. I’m just sayin’.

Now, I’m debating the merits of digging out my car so that I can drive down to the mailbox to pick up the mail. There ought to be Netflix waiting for me. It would be nice to have something to watch besides daytime teevee, and it would be a good idea to get the car cleaned off, so I’m trying to talk myself into it.

Pets, Photography

Ides of March Photoblogging

March 15, 2006November 15, 2015 Shelly

Sunset

Miss Harriet Brown knows that real ladies cross their legs.

Crankypantsing, Pets

Over It

March 14, 2006November 15, 2015 Shelly

Okay, that little taste of spring was quite nice, but I’ve suddenly reached my limit. You see, I found a wee baby tick last night. There is no creature on God’s green earth that is more loathsome than the tick. Ticks are repulsive, disgusting vectors of disease and they have no business bringing themselves within a country mile of me. I want a restraining order.

So, I broke out the Frontline and have place an order for a Preventic collar. Just the one. And, wow, did that ever feel weird. I’m used to stocking up by ordering 4-6 tick collars at a time. There’s no need to do that now, though, since I’m down to one nekkid dog. A tick collar will last Harriet a full three months, instead of the usual 30 days for the Chowy dog.

Crankypantsing, Photography

Aftermath

March 11, 2006October 13, 2015 Shelly

I went for a walk this afternoon, to survey the state of the driveway, and also because it was a gorgeous day for a walk.

The main areas of damage are definitely the result of SBC laying cable down the center of the drive. They moved it a year or two ago, but the old cable is now completely exposed in several places, because the earth has washed away where the trench was cut. What a spectacularly stupid thing to do. There is no way to repair the damage, short of digging out the entire driveway and starting over from scratch, because the earth in that trench will always be softer than the earth around it. It’s the path of least resistance for flowing water, which means it gets washed out during heavy rain.

A rut that is a lake

Yes, those are goddamn CINDER BLOCKS IN ALL CAPS.

I also took some prettier photos.

A dead tree along the fence behind my house. I decreased the saturation, then increased the reds and yellows. I also fiddled with the contrast and darkness.

Beheaded trees along gas easement

Tree along fence behind my house

Machined piece of stone found in driveway.

My neighbor’s house, at the top of the hill. I took these photos from ground level at the bottom of her driveway. The photos turned out kind of creepy, I think.

Crankypantsing

In Like a Lion

March 10, 2006December 23, 2015 Shelly

So, what do you do when you come home and you can’t get online because the phone isn’t working? Then, the electricity goes out? You blog old school.

Yesterday was all kinds of eventful. It rained and rained and rained all day (more than 5″, according to Jack next door). While walking to my car after work, it was pouring so hard that I got soaked to the skin. Yuck. One of my coworkers, who lives near me, had gotten a call from her husband, telling her that Hwy 46 was closed west of my turn-off, due to flooding. There were also several bad wrecks. (One was by the Belgian horse farm, for those playing along at home. That’s a treacherous section of road that floods frequently.)

I opted to take the back way, by turning off at Sale St. in Ellettsville. That way, I’d avoid Ratliff, which was completely under water. Most of the rest of the back roads are up high, more or less following ridgelines, so they were in pretty good shape. I had to go through a few spots of standing water (the worst was in front of the Ellettsville grade school and on Hardscrabble Rd, right before Hwy 43), but nothing bad until I got to Spencer itself. Hoo-boy! I’d guess that there was about a foot of water on Morgan St. (Hwy 46).

Once I got through town, the highway was fine until I got to Patricksburg Rd. Which was, indeed, closed. I could tell, from the highway, that there’d been flash flooding, but that most of the water had receded. There was just one section of the road that was under running water, but it was only a couple of inches deep, and not running very fast. I decided to risk it, and went around the barrier, to the mental accompaniment of Judas Priest’s Breakin’ the Law. There was debris everywhere, and it was slow going, but I didn’t have any trouble. Fish Creek was a little scary, because it was up to the bottom of the bridge, but it was passable. Whew!

I hate driving in any kind of rain, so I was relieved to be finished with that whole ordeal. I was looking forward to checking my email, then watching Survivor. My phone was out, though, so I couldn’t get online. Then, half-way through Survivor, the electricity went out. Hrmph. I stumbled around, looking for a working lighter, then lit a bunch of candles. I figured the electricity would come back on soon (it frequently flickers off when there are high winds, but comes back on quickly). An hour and several pages of writing later, the electricity was still off, so I gave up and went to bed.

What a craptacular day! Its only saving grace was that the peepers returned last night. The wind kept me awake most of the night, but whenever there was a lull, I could hear the peepers peep-peep-peeping their little hearts out. Spring is here, with a vengeance.

And, I do mean vengeance. I didn’t wake up to parts of my neighbor’s barn in my yard this time, but several pieces of sheet metal sheathing were ripped from his construction trailer, ending up against my fence. They made a wicked noise last night when they were hurtling about. He spent a good portion of the morning reattaching them and fixing the damage. Other than that, the only real damage here was to the driveway. I walked next door last night, to call SBC about my dead phone line, and the condition of the driveway was unbelievable. I’ll have to go take pictures of it later today, because it’s pretty spectacular.

Photography

Sunrise

March 5, 2006October 13, 2015 Shelly

First, the sunrise:

Next, the morning Belt of Venus:

Because of the configuration of the valley and western ridge, my location is not well suited to viewing the morning Belt of Venus. This is the first time I’ve seen it from my house. Of course, this meant that my camera batteries decided to die at just that very time, so I only got one very bad shot of it. By the time I’d gone inside and found a fresh set, a cloud bank (barely visible along the horizon) had crept up and obscured everything.

One of the things I enjoy about having a dog is that she forces me to get up in the mornings. I could have slept in, but I would’ve missed a lovely sunrise. Instead, I was outside playing with Harriet at the crack of dawn.

There are dozens of small signs that spring is on the way. It started in earnest a few weeks ago, with the return of the geese. I watched another flock fly overhead this morning. The birds’ songs have taken on a less urgent tone, as well. From the increase in numbers of birdsongs, it’s clear that the geese aren’t the only ones who are returning. And then there’s the sun. The days are lengthening, but the change in the sun’s location is probably the most dramatic indication that spring is here. At mid-winter, the sun rises within a dip in the eastern ridge. Now, it’s moved northward, rising over Farmer Brown’s house.

All that, I might’ve missed, if it weren’t for having a dog.

Crankypantsing, Pets, Photography

Procrastination

May 27, 2005September 29, 2015 Shelly

Something is blooming. With a vengeance. When I woke up, my eyes and skin were itching like crazy. What’s odd, though, is that I’m not congested or sneezing. I’m not complaining, mind you. The itchies are a royal pain in the behindermost parts, but nothing either Claritin or Benadryl won’t cure.

What I am complaining about, though, is that I have to mow the grass today. There’s no putting it off any longer. I didn’t do it last weekend, so it’s ridiculously long. I’m procrastinating because I really don’t want to do it. It’s nightmare to mow at the best of times. Letting it get this long makes it ten times worse. The good news is that it’s only in the low 70s today and really breezy. It’s a fairly cloudy, too, so it shouldn’t warm up much more.

Also, this is Day 1 of my six-day mini-vacation. Yay! I don’t go back to work until next Thursday. That means lots and lots of time for arting and, if I can get it sorted, some web design. As soon as I get the damned lawn mown, I can get started on Fun Stuff. Have I mentioned that I’m procrastinating?

And, now for some gratuitous cuteness:

Pandora and Elliott, nappin’ out

Pets, Photography

As Promised Yesterday…

May 26, 2005September 29, 2015 Shelly

Pandora (AKA Mistress Eeevil Kitty)

Pandora is in charge of making sure that my work table is kept clear and that all stray socks, wash cloths, and scraps of paper are deposited by the front door. She’s 16 this month and is still going strong. Every morning, I wake up to her running crazed laps up and down the hallway.

Pandora is the only cat I’ve known who is absolutely fearless. While I was moving the furniture around last weekend, the dogs both hid. Not Pandora! She was constantly underfoot, checking out what I was doing and looking to see if I’d unearthed anything Interesting. I’ve moved around a lot since I got her and have never seen her stressed about being in a new place. As soon as her carrier is opened, she’s out and exploring her new queendom. Every trip to the vet is a new adventure–she schmoozes with everyone and noses around, getting into everything she possibly can.

The Studio

That’s Elliott in the last picture. He’s a mamma’s boy. Whenever I’m working, he sleeps under my feet. When I’m not working, he sleeps under my computer desk. The desk looks like a hunk of junk, but it’s an antique primitive piece. I should take better care of it than I do, but I don’t have the space to store furniture I’m not using. Plus, it’s the perfect size and height for what I need.

And, because we haven’t had a landscape photo in awhile…

Uncategorized

Mowing the “Lawn”

April 23, 2005September 29, 2015 Shelly

I had planned on spending the day arting, but when I got back from my morning grocery run, I was suddenly motivated to (finally!) mow the, um, “lawn.” (That’s a euphemism for a cocktail of Johnson grass and various noxious weeds. Landscaping, much to my neighbors’ dismay, is not high on my list of “Important Things.”) When that sort of urge hits, it doesn’t pay to argue with it.

Altogether, it’s about two acres. Ugh. I have no idea what crack-addled demon spirit possessed me when I decided to make the dog yard 1.5 acres. Would y’all believe that it didn’t occur to me that I’d have to actually *mow* all that grass? Duh. That’s one silly mistake I’ll *never* make again. Or, at least, not until I can afford to employ a tiny herd of tiny cows to mow it for me.

On the bright side, the cut grass smells yummy. There are tons of weeds, including mint and garlic, so it’s kind of like making a ginormous tossed salad.

The grass was so tall that I had to mow it on the highest setting. So, it’s still pretty tall. And not very evenly cut. But it’s done, done, done, and not a minute too soon. It started to storm as I was finishing up.

Spring marches on…