I'll Shiver and Stay Safe, It's Worth It

I'm cold. We're experiencing an early cold snap up here in the Frozen Northlands, and I'm cold. I've got my winter gear out and my autumn jackets put away, I've already started wearing boots to the shop because it's no fun trying to walk on the asphalt without boots if there has been an overnight freeze, and I'm wearing hats indoors because my beautiful bald head is cold. (Frankly, I don't know how guys do it. I've been bald for more than a year and my head gets really cold in the cooler temps.) 

I don't mind being bald,. I look good 
without hair, but it's cold in the winter, 
so I wear hats all the time to stay warm. 

I wouldn't mind moving to a warmer climate, but there really isn't anywhere that we want to go, and the thought of packing, moving, and unpacking makes me sick. So no - I'm staying in the Frozen Northlands.  I think about a warmer climate often during our winters, but I enjoy the other seasons up here so much that I can't imagine living anywhere else. We get the snow in the winter, yes - a lot of it. And we get thunderstorms and the occasional tornado, but generally our weather up here is predictable and can be handled with appropriate outerwear. 

The Cameron Peak fire is threatening Colorado, causing 
evacuations just west of my Alma Mater and throught 
the foothills into Estes Park and Rocky Mountain 
National Park. It's a huge blaze, one of the largest fires 
ever in Colorado. 

It's quite different in the other places I've lived. Both New Mexico and Colorado have their share of serious wildfires, the Cameron Peak fire is hovering close enough that my cousin might have to evacuate her home. She's carefully watching the evacuation orders, and I have no idea what her horses will do if they have to leave them behind. I'm really hoping it doesn't come to that, but evacuation orders have been issued within 20 miles of their home. 

The Cameron Peak fire is the larger one to the north, 
the smaller central fire has already claimed two lives. 
The evacuations are mandated from the western part 
of Fort Collins (on the upper right), down through 
Loveland. My cousin lives in Berthoud - between the 
two L cities of Loveland and Longmont on the east 
side of this map. 

I think I'll stay up here, instead. We have 10,000+ lakes up here, and although there have been serious wildfires in the past, they've all been far north of us and quite a long time ago. The one thing that can cause serious harm for us are the tornadoes, and they are very much a hit or miss thing. You can't fight a twister, just hunker in your safe room and hope for the best. So far (knock on wood) we've been fortunate. I hope that fortune will continue to smile upon us, even if I shiver in the cold. 

So I'll put on my boots and long parka and hat/gloves and head outdoors to the shop in a little while. I guess if an early winter is the least of my problems, I'm a very lucky person. Have an excellent weekend, please be safe and be kind, and please wear your mask. I'll be back on Monday. 

A Celebration of May

It's May! Wow! One of my absolutely favorite months is now here. It started with rain - lots of it. I'm not hearing water now, so maybe it's finished pouring for the time being. I wouldn't mind a few less drops for my day.

The flower associated with May are the darling Lilly of the Valley bells.
I adore these and DH has planted them for me at each house we've lived in.
They are always one of the first blooms in late April/early May, so it's a
very appropriate flower for the month. 

DH and I spent yesterday playing Lord of the Rings Online - each on our computers, almost side-by-side. We actually played together through one particularly nasty incident that had me stagnated. Although we can make a seamless team at times, we usually end up at cross-purposes when we play on-line together in the same instance. Although we accomplished my goal, it was a bit more stumbly than I wanted.

Do you recall that wonderful quotation about how an artist has
a duty to stand tall and reflect the times through art? That
is one side of the coin. The other side is that art will
also reflect the times in which it is created - through media
and subject matter. 

Still and all, it's a lot of fun. Writing has taken a serious back seat, however. I really need to get myself in gear and get my story for SWG written. I think I'll devote Tuesday and Wednesday to that, get it pounded out, and hope that my usual multi-editing doesn't eat up too much time. The quotation that Dawn assigned to me is a pure delight and I don't want to waste such a lovely gift.

In this art piece, the farmer has put his acres up for sale - land that
has been in his family since 1890. This is one form of art reflecting the
times. It illustrates the current reality, yet also makes a protest
statement in its format and the words on the sign. 

My closest cousin's birthday was yesterday, so I sent off effusive Facebook birthday wishes to her. She doesn't do much with the internet, but does do FB. She's my horse person - she has owned and worked with horses for most of her life. She's also my Aspen, Colorado buddy - we grew up together out there and she moved there full-time in her teenage years. I really missed her a lot then; she had been like my little sister - a confidant, a friend, and someone who was always there. Until she wasn't. Having her move away was one of the hardest things for me when I was growing up.

Missy is the sister I never had, but in a way that I always had.
We grew up living across the street from each other, and we were
a constant in each other's lives. She stood up for me at my
wedding, and I returned the favor at hers. We celebrated the
good times and wept at the bad. Isn't that what a sister is
all about? 

Still, we survived years of separation, different families and life goals, and I still count her as the sister that I never had. We're now growing old together/apart and somehow that thought makes the journey into this unknown a bit easier.

Happy Monday to all. Remember to continue spreading kindness, those gentle actions can help more than you think.

Back In the Stone Age I Got Married

Many many years ago, a naive and horribly spoiled young woman fought for her right to join her life with her best friend. Nobody thought it would work out. But as DH and I celebrate our 36th wedding anniversary today I can thumb my nose at all of the nay-sayers. We're still here. We're still together. And we're still very much a couple.

My mother barely believed we would make it to one year, let
alone 36. We're stubborn people and are determined
to push through the bad times to get back to the good. 

I'm a rather introspective, solitary person. I deal well with the public because I've had to, but I don't party, I don't go out to the opera or the various shows, and I don't enjoy family gatherings very much. I prefer to stay home, stay quiet, and deal with people on a one-to-one basis. I'm very grateful that I ended up marrying someone who is like me in that regard. Both of us would rather stay home than go out most times. We're content with each other's company and don't seek out the company of others often.

We haven't changed that much. Out hair has gotten longer, but
DH still has a beard and mustache and I still am trying to lose weight.
Some things never change. 

It's been 36 years ago today that I joined my life to that of my best friend, and even though we've had our ups and downs - lots of them - I can look at the years behind me and I'm very grateful I've had the opportunity to share my life with someone who truly loves me. Another 30+ years, please!

Happy Anniversary to the love of my life. 

In the group of attendees that wedding day - my BFF Sharon, my cousin Miki, and my pseudo-sister Missy. I'm also thinking about all of you while I wander down memory lane today. Have a wonderful Wednesday.

Counting Down - Blessings of 2012

At the end of a year people tend to look back over the past year and into the future, striding ahead into a future filled with hope and the lessons learned from the past. 2012 was a year of accomplishment and turbulence, friends won and lost and through it all, woven with beautiful pictures and words.

2012 was the year things blew up. The MEFAs exploded and became the TOME Awards. Looking back from a safer position on the outside looking in, it was rather like a Nova. It existed brightly, then contracted and then exploded, creating a great light and something new in its place. 2013 will be the first year for the TOME Awards and I hope it will grow into a respected platform for fanfic authors to receive feedback from a large variety of people. The group of people who are heading up the new awards system are extremely capable, very organized, and enthusiastic. I have high hopes for this new award system.

As happens, in any explosion there is fallout. My personal fallout consisted of friends lost, but these were balanced by others gained. When I look back over the year I recall those people who stayed friends with me vs those who left. But as I look at who my friends are at the end of this year, I'm extremely pleased. Yes, I lost some friends I really enjoyed. But I've gained others who are either new friends or who came out of the background to support me. These friends are amazing, awesome and fabulous. I feel extremely lucky as I end 2012 and enter 2013. I've got a great group of friends both in real life and in cyber life. These are friends I can laugh and cry with, bounce ideas off or ask for a quick edit, and phone every now and again. I am so very blessed by friends in my life.

So as the year end, look over your own friends and tell them that they are important to you. From my longest and dearest friends - Sharon and Seth and my cousin/sister, Missy, to my more recent cyber friends - a long and brilliant list, I am in love with each and every one of you. Thank you for my 2012 and I look forward to walking into and through 2013 with each of you by my side.

Studio Day = Writing Marathon

Although I wanted to get writing work done last night, my poor DH hasn't been seeing a lot of me and we love Face Off and wanted to watch the new show - Hot Set. So I got very little writing done last night. That means that today is a focused day with a break when I go grocery shopping and when I talk to Aearwen late this afternoon. Except for that, I'll be working on my o-fic story, checking out the publisher's submission requirements, and in general, driving myself a little crazy in a good cause.

I have to start by spending an hour at work scanning a book that I need to return to interlibrary loan today. It's a small book, but there is some really valuable research material in it for my NaNo piece. Given how long it has taken me to write a measly 10,000 word story, I'm starting to have serious doubts about my ability to do 50,000 words. But when I look realistically at why I have had problems with the 10,000 words, I feel a bit better. My problem was not coming up with 10,000 words, my problem was editing it down or changing the storyline a bit so that I came in at that level or lower. I could very easily have doubled the word count on this tale. Because of that, maybe NaNo will work. Or not. Maybe. Anyway, it's not stopping my research.

I'll be talking with my cousin on Friday night and hope that she can help me remember store names and locations for some of the places I need as mental touchstones in my NaNo story. We both grew up in the same area and hung out at the same places, plus she lived there full-time for several years and visits it far more frequently than I do. I hope that she has some memories of specifics. I'll get a map together so that I at least have some street names, etc. She has her own writing project in the works also, a novel circling around the history of her parents - really quite fascinating. We should have plenty to talk about :-) Have a productive day today and spare a thought for me slaving away over my computer keyboard - LOL.

Plans and Foci

It's good when plans come to fruition. I've finished most of the POV revisions on my larger story and, reading through it several times already, I like what I'm writing here. It's clear, it's working for the characters, etc. I still have work to do on this - no doubt. But it's always nice to be happy with a work in progress.



My cousin Missy (Mother of the Bride) at her daughter Danielle's wedding last year.

My cousin from CA phoned me last night. This was the cousin that I drove down to Nebraska in May to meet with. It's been so much fun to connect again and bring each other up-to-date with our lives. She just spent a bit more than two weeks in France, Switzerland and Germany touring through with her husband and had lots of fun things to tell me. We've decided that if we ever both take a trip together, she can go and listen to whatever musical concerts she wants, and she'll just find me in whatever museum when she'l through with the ear candy. It would be a lot of fun! It was SO much fun to talk with her.



Missy has several horses. She's always been horse crazy and an excellent rider.

Tomorrow my DH and I are hoping to go over to my friend Cindy's house and fix her wall. This is my friend whose husband suddenly died a bit more than a month ago. She had a bathroom pipe leak that her DH had resolved by cutting away the wallboard from the pipes in the hallway. Unfortunately he died before he was able to repair what he had to pull down. So she asked for our help. DH has decided how he wants to tackle the job and he has the measurements and photos that I took and printed for him. So we're hoping to go over there early on Sunday and get this fixed. I'm crossing my fingers that we can get this done. We're running out of Sundays. Ren Fest starts on the 18th of August and from that point on, we'll be at the Festival each Sunday until the end of September. It's crazy to look at the summer from the perspective of June and realize that in many ways it is almost over already! EEEEEKKKKKKK!!!

Back In the Saddle

So, after being chased by thunderstorms across Nebraska, I arrived back home around 3pm yesterday afternoon and soon sat down at my computer to try and catch up with my f-list and lj friends. I had a wonderful time with my cousin and her daughter and son-in-law, we went all over Lincoln which I had remembered as a very nice city and which confirmed my college memories. I ate far too much and will be watching what I eat carefully over the next week or two to get back to reality. Of course, my birthday will interrupt the good thoughts of weight loss, but most of this should be gone in a few short days. We traveled to a lot of different places, but one of the nicest was to the Joslyn Museum in nearby Omaha. They were hosting a special exhibit called "To Live Forever - Egyptian Treasures from the Brooklyn Museum". The building all of this was housed in was a wonder of Art Deco - classic and stunning. Everywhere I turned were the details that make Art Deco one of my favorite art styles.

Here is a look at the building facade. My cousin is at the far left, but I'll have other pics later in the week. There is a similar frieze on the right side of the entry steps. The marble is Georgia Pink marble, warm and welcoming. It is fronted by a sculpture garden which continues into a more childlike sculpture garden on the north side. Admission is incredibly inexpensive and they have a cafe that served some of the best food I've had in a museum for a long time. I'm going to focus on the art deco features of the museum for this post.

The tile fountain is a feature of the main floor central court. It is surrounded by brass lighting fixtures in rippled and cutout brass.

The stained glass windows were in the Founders Room, a gentle rest room with chairs, couches and desks, a large fireplace, and these stunning windows.

Throughout the galleries were these art deco grates. This particular one hid a cast iron heating unit. Just beautiful.

Busy Busy

Such a busy day today, and tomorrow I leave to see my cousin, so this will be my last post until after my trip. Today I have to get my tire looked at, bring lunch and conversation to my friend's widow, do grocery and miscellaneous shopping, do laundry (already have one load in the washer at 4:30 am - OY!), pack - yeah, that would be a good idea, :D - clean out the car, and I can't forget my afternoon chat with Aearwen - I look forward to it every week.

I would like to get some writing done today, but I'm not sure where I can shoehole that in, and I would like to get some art in, maybe I can work on a possible digital piece instead of a watercolor. But then again, maybe not.

In other words, today I am like a whirlwind - skipping around the area, touching down here and there, and eventually returning to the cloud that birthed it, ready for the next call. I wish all of my f-list friends a wonderful remainder of the week.

Pottermore Has Me In Its Spell

As usual, I get involved in things. Although I am still revising my own B2ME items so that I can post them at my archives, and still doing beta work for Lai, I am also trying to brew potions and cast spells in Pottermore. I am reading through the seven Harry Potter novels on my NookColor right now, and am reading the two remaining books in my "dialect can carry a story" recommendations. In other words, I'm busy (good).

I was sorted into Ravenclaw.  I'm actually rather pleased by that.  

I think what I like most about the silly games on Pottermore is that they are silly, therefore not life-threatening, not leaving bodies in my wake, and requiring a bit of skill and practice. I suppose it's just as well that my laptop computer's graphics card can't keep up with the graphics or else I'd play it at work too. As it is, I play it at home and that's bad enough. Oh well, I know this will be temporary and that my mind is just giving me a small break while I continue thinking about plot development, characterizations, and historical frameworks.

The pic of Diagon Alley is larger than I would usually post, but it's such a great scene.  

A week from now I'll be on the highway driving down to Lincoln, NE to meet my cousin for a quick visit. I'm starting to get excited, and I'm trying really hard to avoid unreasonable expectations. We last met face-to-face when her daughter was still quite young, probably no more than ten years old. Her daughter has graduated from college and got married last summer. My cousin and I grew up across the street from each other. She was my little sister, my friend and companion in escapades, and we were together almost every day for years and years. It seems so strange that it has been so long. So I'm really looking forward to having her close to me for two days and three nights. It'll be like a dream come true in so many ways.

Paddling Madly Against the Stream

I'm swimming madly against the stream here. I am keeping up with my B2ME writing and having fun with the stories, but I haven't posted them to any of my archives yet because time just hasn't been there. My monthly challenge fic is undergoing final editing and I'll toss that to them early next week, maybe even tomorrow if I'm really lucky. And I'm keeping up at work (barely) with getting the new items processed.

But, I desperately need some sleep. I have that nasty cold that I was fighting a month or so ago perched next to me again, ready to pounce. It rather reminds me of vultures swimming in the air above me. I am exhausted and worn down right now for a variety of reasons, and of course this weekend starts Daylight Saving Time again, so I'll get an hour less sleep tomorrow.

People-wise, though, things are looking good. DH faxed off the letter re jury duty yesterday, so that's off our backs for the time being, and he's happy he has an appt with his ENT Doctor in a bit more than a week because he really needed one. And things seem to be working out to join my cousin for a few days in Lincoln NE in early May. I'm really looking forward to seeing her again - it's been WAY too long. So, as I said, I'm paddling to keep where I am in the stream. Hopefully things will fall into place during the next week.

Overwhelmed? Me?

So I'm progressing on B2ME month, but last year when short fics were easy for me, this year my muse is screaming at me to write more in-depth stories. I'm not unhappy, my story of Maglor from yesterday (The Power of Song) was yummy and I'm very happy with it. I'm fighting with the other story from yesterday, and ready to tackle today's that must use the elements of Maglor interacting with Galileo and heliocentrism. I also need to use a Cove, the technique of carving, and the hobbit, Pippin. Oy! But first I have to finish the story I have in the works of Feanor - Savior of Middle Earth. A bit controversial, but after thinking about it all day, I think I determined a good angle from which to approach it.

This bingo is exhausting me much more than last year's bingo did. Because of the way that this is structured, every day can have up to eight prompts because I chose eight bingo cards. I also have to have made a significant start to each challenge within 48 hours. It's only March 3rd and I don't want to fall behind this early in the month. So I'm really pushing myself. I think, in the main, that this is actually a good thing though. But getting the computer time to work on these is the hardest part since I actually work for a living - LOL. Like I said....OY!

My cousin Emailed me yesterday, proposing that we meet later this spring when she flies out to visit her daughter in a nearby state. It's a solid eight hour drive away, but that's not too bad, so we're working on dates now. It would be a delight to see her and catch up again. It's been years since we've had a chance to catch up since we live half a nation apart from each other. I don't know how long her daughter will be in Nebraska, so I'm going to try very hard to make this happen. I wish each of you a wonderful and creative weekend. I'll be working on writing and photoshop and maybe I'll treat myself to a book or mag at Barnes & Noble.

The Holocaust on a Personal Level

My cousin was as close as a younger sister while we were growing up. Her parents lived across the street from me, and my older cousin David, and my younger one, Missy, and I, played together constantly. She was the sister that I never had and we were close until she moved to Aspen, Colorado in her teens. Between then and now we both married, both moved (far away from each other) and she had two incredible children. My parents passed away several years ago, and her Dad had died while we were both quite young. But her mother passed away in 2008 and Missy found a treasure-trove when cleaning out her Mom's condominum.

Apparently my Tante Vera saved documents. Hundreds of letters, cards and notes dealing with Uncle Edwin's career and their history over the war years and post-WWII. She had letters exchanged between my own mother and herself in the mid-1940's, and she had documents from others that revolved around her family. The surprising thing was who these documents were from. As my cousin sorted through the papers, she kept finding more and more surprises - documents and notes dealing directly with World War II because my uncle was a part of the legal team representing the US at the Nuremburg Trials. Letters from Albert Einstein who my uncle had assisted while he was in college. Documents regarding the assasination plot to kill Adolf Hitler. The papers were amazing.

Last week, my cousin returned to Denver and presented a selection of those papers and photographs to Denver University's Penrose Library and Center for Judaic Studies. You can find out more particulars here, and here or check out the slideshow here (the baby is my cousin, David). All I can say about all of this is, "I'm really proud of you, Cuz. You stuck with it, sorted through all of these papers, and you deserve the accolades that will come your way for your generous gift." I also hope that her future can be assured through these papers. We all deserve to have an assured future in our old age, and we are not getting any younger.

And on the creative end - I did the first fire of my charms last night and this morning. It turns out that I have 49 charms made. We'll see how many I actually end up completing. There is still a lot of work that needs to be done on these and I'm looking forward to each step :-) Live a creative day with sunshine and smiles in your heart. That joy will transmit to others and make the world a nicer place for a day.