Reading

Entry tags:

wednesday

Looking at the Entity Outside My Window. It's sunny today!

I've been busy all morning doing things like helping Dave cut the bottom off Candy's xmas tree and setting it up. Then I went with her to do meals on wheels and finally did some shopping at G E. They have the best mini oranges right now. I could live on them.

I called the vet and neither doctor was in but the vet we saw yesterday left notes to say that he wants to consult with the other vet before he talks to me. The notes mention possibly doing an xray. My most fearful imagined scenario says that she has cancer in her liver. I hate the idea of having to put another animal to sleep.

Current Mood: busy
Current Location: Cusco, Peru
Current Music: Do You Believer in the Westworld?, Theatre of Hate

Entry tags:

lima

South America Part II: Lima, Peru

The next leg of this tour was Lima, capital of Peru, and named after the pre-Incan civilisation that inhabited the place from 100 to 650CE. A desert and coastal city of some 11 million people, it is understandably the political, financial, and historical centre of the country, but is also notable for its
urban segregation between wealthy barrios and poor suburbs. We ended up at the Hotel Jose Antonio Lima in the Miraflores District, which certainly sits in the former category, bustling with commercial energy and entertainment, whilst also relaxed with plenty of pleasant coastal parklands. Two particular locations in Miraflores are especially worth mentioning. One is the Park Kennedy, named after JFK, which is better known as "Cat Park" after the dozens of collectively-domesticated cats present, and is everything like it sounds. The other is Huaca Pucllana, an extraordinary 1500-year-old adobe pyramid and grounds designed for managing water resources and religious ceremonies. By pure chance, we also stumbled on an exhibition for two great Peruvian artists, Fernando de Szyszlo Valdemor and David Herskovitz, both broadly belonging to the neo-expressionist school. I especially liked the former's representations from "Don Quixote de la Mancha".

Another significant cultural area of Lima is, of course, the "Centro Historico de Lima", a UNESCO World Heritage site and for good reason. Here is a very fine collection of colonial and Republican-era buildings from the Plaza de Armas and surrounds, including the Government Palace, the Cathedral of Lima, the Archbishop’s Palace of Lima, the Municipal Palace and the Palace of the Union. A visit to the "Museo Convento San Francisco y Catacumbas" was absolutely necessary. Dating from the 17th century, it includes the remains of some 70,000 people. There is also the El Convento de Santo Domingo, which has a very impressive old library. Nearby is the "Basílica Catedral de Lima", which houses the tomb of the conquistador Francisco Pizarro, who conquered Peru for the crown of Castille (awkwardly, the church proclaimed the wrong body as Pizarro's until the real one was discovered in 1977). With superior technology, he led an ambush at the the Battle of Cajamarca where less than 200 Spaniards defeated and massacred several thousand Incan imperial guards and thousands of attendants. The military acumen is impressive, utter lust for blood and treasure despicable. Appropriately, the next stop in the journey is Cuzco, the ancient capital of the Incan Empire.

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tuesday

Snow. Yesterday's pic.

Sunset. Today's.

We took Skye to the vet for a follow up appointment early this morning. Now that she's not feeling so great she's easier to catch and load into the carrier. That's one good thing. They did blood work again so they could compare it to two weeks ago and gave her a shot of B12 and more subcutaneous fluids and we brought her home. I'm still waiting to hear back about the results of the blood work to see what the plan is for the future. It's 5:15. I wonder if I'll have to wait till tomorrow to hear?

Storm

The next storm is due in later tonight. The car had to go in for an oil change, which thankfully M and Kim mostly wrangled. M also drove the Gator back from the Cow Corrals where I had been using it.
I really wanted to finish painting the "feet" of the new/used picnic tables. I scraped and sanded off more rust and managed to get everything painted plus the benches changed out on table 1 (I wanted all aluminum benches, but table 1 started out with wooden ones). When that project was done there were leaves to remove from the road. Yes, this is the third time I've removed leaves from the road this year and it is very nice that they are almost all on the ground for the year. . Fortunately that, and the dry weather, made it easy. Unfortunately leaf removal didn't start till 2pm. It was almost 6 before I was done, and getting really dark. The leaves on the last section were a very pale tan, so I could see when they moved.
For some reason I'm tired.

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monday

I Love You. My one art work yesterday. Done while I was painting one of the closet shelves over at Jules' house. That's the color of blue he's painting the room. It goes on lighter and gets darker after it dries. I like it.

About 15F outside this morning. But it's 26 in the chicken coop. The one light bulb that I have keeping the water warm and the chicken's own body warmth must be enough to raise the temp in there by about 10 degrees. I have a thermostat on order. It's supposed to arrive tomorrow for when it gets under 20 in there so the ceramic heater can come on. I have a feeling that we are going to have a cold winter and I want to be prepared.

I got up early (5 am) and cleaned up the kitchen and put the ingredients for white chili in the crockpot. I've been hankering for that for a while.

Planning to walk the town sidewalks again instead of hiking in the woods with Candy this morning.

Rainy goes for her haircut this afternoon. Not the best time for it (cold) but it needs done. At least she has a sweater to wear home afterwards.

Update

About 3 weeks ago I ordered 8 fencing panels, plus some stall mats. It was a big chunk of money. Then I found 6 more panels second hand on Craig's List. More money. Then I found some picnic tables on Craig's List. They are 8 feet long with aluminum tops. A nice size. They are out of a park in Napa. I can see why they were being replaced, some are in really rough shape, while others are fairly nice. I ended up with four usable tables and one that needs new legs. The legs that are still usable are quite rusty where they were in contact with the ground. I've spent several hours knocking rust off table legs (the kind that curl around to also support the bench) spraying them with primer and paint. Trying to get it done before it rains. I've got 3 out of four either done or at least painted with primer.
Then there is saddle foo with Firefly. ( Read more with Pics )

Christmas Bird Count

We had a lovely sunny day again for the annual Christmas Bird Count. Not as many birds as last year, but we did see a kestrel -- And -- a golden eagle twice!!
M recorded the eagle a couple of weeks ago, so I was on the lookout. Yesterday I was up on top of Split Rock with Denise, my farrier. We saw a bird fly by, actually below us because the rock is 4 stories high and up on the canyon wall. My instant though was turkey vulture. We have a lot of them. A fraction of a second later my brain said: nope, wrong wing shape and slightly browner - and it is flapping it's wings. Then a red shouldered hawk attacked it, repeatedly. Hawks don't bother vultures. Today we saw it again and saw it close it's wings as if to dive, another thing vultures never do. Vultures flap a couple of times and then soar. Our group today agreed that it had to be a golden eagle.
I saw a downy woodpecker, which was new for me. We have tons of acorn woodpeckers and some piliated woodpeckers but not downy's at the house. So that was fun. Also the meadowlarks were singing at Split Rock, and I love them. Sadly Duck Lake, which is a vernal pond, had no water in it yet, so no ducks. Last year there were several wood ducks there.

Entry tags:

sunday

Yesterday's quick painting. I had to do something by the the end of the day if I was going to keep up art-a-day so this was it. A Cute Puppy.

I spent most of the day yesterday weaving this little piece of cloth. I wanted to try out joining methods for the pin loom blanket I'm going to make for Rowan. When I was done it seemed the perfect size for Little Me.

Passing time till I hear from Jules. I'm going to help him today paint some more in the middle bedroom next door. We did the walls last time but he's decided he wants to do the ceiling and inside the closet too. I helped do the trim last time but afterwards I was shocked at what a bad job I had done. I don't have the control that I used to have with my right shoulder anymore. Especially when I need to do things up high.

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Media Post

Movies: Wake Up Dead Man, the new Knives Out movie. I liked it quite a bit, but I think that it didn't use a lot of the supporting cast as much as some of the previous films.

Television/Streaming
Farscape:

"Won't Get Fooled Again" - where John is experiencing all sorts of delusions after being captured by a Scarran on the commerce planet. Despite the serious of the ground situation, which we only discover later, there are some funny bits in here, as the characters are not their "regular" selves.

"The Locket" - where Aeryn is technically only gone for one day, but has lived over 150 cycles on a different planet, and Crichton follows her back there. This was a really good episode, had some touching moments without being over the top.

"The Ugly Truth" - where the crew meet with Crais on board Talyn but then the ship shoots at a Plokavian ship, and the whole crew gets interrogated, and we see the different versions of the story everyone tells. Much like the Japanese film Rashomon.

"A Clockwork Nebari" - where some of Chiana's people find her and are determined to take her back to her planet for "cleansing." Meanwhile, the whole crew gets brainwashed, too. The eye thing was a little too much for me; I had to look away.

"Liars, Guns and Money - A Not So Simple Plan" and "With Friends Like These" - two episodes of a three part series, where the crew hatches a plan to rescue Jothee, D'Argo's son.

Buffy:

"Passion" - where Angel is still actively stalking Buffy. And Jenny (Ms. Calendar) dies.

"Killed by Death" - where Buffy goes to the hospital after developing a high fever and ends up rescuing a bunch of sick kids from Death.

"I Only Have Eyes for You" - where two tortured souls are haunting the Sunnydale campus. You really can tell the time period here, because Buffy hates the young male student for killing the female teacher when their "relationship" ended, while conveniently ignoring the fact that the woman was a predator.

"Go Fish" - where the swim team starts growing into freaky amphibious creatures.

And by this point, I am so very tired of all the ableist digs Angel keeps making toward Spike in his wheelchair. I know he's supposed to be a dick, to EVERYONE, pretty much, but come on, man, not cool.

Reading:
Finished Daisy Jones & The Six and loved it. Want to check out the series to see how it holds up.

For book club, we read All Systems Red by Martha Wells, the first Murderbot Diaries book. I enjoyed it, and Murderbot is an interesting and sometimes very relatable character. I want to check out the next book in the series.

Current Mood: tired
Current Location: Lima
Current Music: Hawkwind, Space Ritual

Entry tags:

santiago,
socialism

South America Part I: Santiago de Chile

Kate R and I have boarded the big silver bird to travel to South America and Antarctica, the first stop being Santiago de Chile. The flight was twelve hours, and due to the peculiarities of time zones, we arrived two hours before we left. Our stay was in the CBD, NH Collection Plaza, quite upmarket with nice features and next to the World Trade Centre. The afternoon arrival provided the opportunity for a walk through the local "Parque de las Esculturas", then a hike up the famous Cerro San Cristóbal parkland to catch the sunset and return - a round trip of about five hours. It was sufficiently impressive that we returned the following day and took the ascent via teleferico (with the oversized statue of Mary that looks over the city) and descended by funicular to viist the nearby "Casa Museo La Chascona", home of the Nobel Prize winning poet, politician, and diplomat, Pablo Neruda, a person who was certainly not without significant flaws as well as greateness.

This would be the start of en epic walking trip through Santiago that would be measured at 45km for the day (yes really), which would include a visit to the beautiful Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, the Catedral Metropolitana with it's overwhelming baroque features, past the ridiculous over-sized flag at the Palacio de La Moneda, then to the Museo de la Solidaridad Salvador Allende and, on return, to the remarkable collection in the El Museo Chileno de Arte Precolombino and the "Horizonte Antártico" exhibit at La Biblioteca del Congreso Nacional. El Museo de la Memoria y los Derechos Humanos, which was high on the agenda, was unfortunately closed for renovations.

Whilst far from the most visually spectacular part of the trip, the Salvador Allende museum was definitely the most emotionally significant location for me. The Allende events were utterly critical in the formation of my own political opinions when I became aware of them in my early teens. Helped by the film, "Missing", I became a voracious reader of the history. For those who don't know, the summary is that a socialist president was elected supported by a left-wing alliance and implemented a programme of nationalisation of resource industries, land redistribution, significant health and education welfare improvements, and the remarkable economic and logistics computer system, Project Cybersyn. Allende was dedicated to the idea that socialism could be achieved through parliamentary democracy; but ultimately the military disagreed (unsurprisingly supported by the United States) disagreed. A coup and the installation of the Pinochet regime resulted in years of torture and deaths of thousands of democratic activists. The Allende events is tragic and utopian, providing insights on the nature of the capitalist State, and has a lasting impact on history.

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saturday later

When I got back from shopping I found that my own personal sloth puppet had arrived in the mail. The other, first one is going to Dave's little nephew next week. Andy and Rainy weren't sure about it. Rainy is still shy and distrustful of it. She very much keeps her eye on it, comes close and touches noses with it and then runs away. Andy touched it with his mouth like he wanted to grab at it, then dipped down like he wanted to play with it, but then he just ended up barking a lot at it. She (it's a she) needs a name. I haven't been this pleased with anything in a long time. She's sitting on my lap right now. A little photo session with her:

Helios lens. I only have one christmas decoration. This tree. Which I love because it's so easy to get out and put away. On the right is a stack of placemats and cloth napkins (I liked the look of them in the picture), with my binoculars that I use to spy on the neighbor's horses and to check to see if the mail has arrived.

I wondered what they would do if I posed both puppets on Andy. Andy's a good boy and decided to "stay" for me. Rainy doesn't want to get too near. I think it's amazing that they recognize it as a possible real animal because it has a face even though it doesn't smell like an animal at all.

Me with Little Me.

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saturday

I finally used up the last of my ball of sari silk thread. I was able to make 13 bookmarks in all with it. I had a pajama day yesterday. Only went outside in my bathrobe and long coat a couple times to take care of the chickens. Maybe I needed a full day at home alone. The one thing I did that was social was call Kenyon and get caught up with what's he's been doing.

Today it's OA and then I want to go shopping at walmart - get more clear plastic to put up around the chicken coop run. The run is where I feed them and I'm finding that the snow is blowing in a lot. I think we are going to have a bad winter with lots of snow this year. That's my prediction.

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friday

Can't See Yet.

Entry tags:

(morning writing, 354, cats, f&f)

This week in review

Monday night delivered cookies to Dad, bringing Carrie Dog with us, and we had a nice short visit. He has too many things beeping that he cannot hear, and will not replace filters in his fridge, and Christine is concerned about all the cables squeezed in between fridge and wall. Do not unplug your hearing aid charger to see if it stops the beeping you cannot hear, Dad.

Again noting to self, promise me you will regularly wear any hearing aid you need.

The car with new tires and repairs was rear-ended on Tuesday when we were taking cookies to my sister. We are both fine and healthy. Good thing we didn't bring Carrie, Christine noted, as the waiting by the road stretched on and on. Sister came, and we sat in her car during much of the waiting and had a good visit. Most humorous was the Highway Patrol listening to us respond to "what happened", then, "Let me interrupt, you were rear ended, right". Me: "Oh, you wanted the short story."

Our insurance company encouraged us to file directly with the at fault party's insurance. Nope. I believe Christine underscored that it would be more efficient for them if we did that, but not us. We take the car to dealership today. I suppose it's a gamble because the repairs may be more expensive there and that could tip to totaling it? But they will have parts.

Once a long time ago, Christine's first motorcycle was knocked over in San Francisco, breaking the mirror and scratching the paint. Her insurance was going after the at fault party with a vengeance, so the vintage paint repair and original mirror replacement cost totaled the bike-- and she ended up with a much fancier, powerful bike afterwards. (Can't remember what replaced the Honda.) I assume you only get a win like that once.

Wednesday i had my hair done, advised that it was time to reverse all the accumulated highlights and add back my natural color. Because i like the pink she has been using, i think she added way more pink than she had been, but that makes up for the "cool medium brown." Apparently my hair now has more dimensionality. I could not really explain why i get it done, but the pink is fun. I do wait about four months between visits.

Bruno has come out on his own in the morning and sometimes later in the day, racing out of the room and in the evening making like a bolt for under the couch. He knows in the morning that he's got the place to himself. I think he races just in case Marlowe is waiting to ambush him around the corner. We've had some success sedating her with the gabapentin but i can't bear to keep her that way. She is a feisty miss. I'll leave her food alone today, work a half day with Bruno, then this afternoon Bruno will sleep. Tomorrow i'll sedate Marlowe so it will be easier to have Bruno out during the day sharing space.

Entry tags:

wednesday

Yesterday's art a day: Snow Doodle.

I'm into weaving with a new pin loom I got that makes 2" by 12" strips. Bookmarks I guess. I have some really unique yarn that is made from silk sari cloth - that's the colorful yarn in the pic. But you can't use it as a weft (the yarn that you pass through the warp - it's too "sticky" and uneven) so I need a more normal yarn for that - the gray yarn in the pic. I also ordered 3 more new little pin looms. A 4 x 4, 2 x 4, and 2 x 2. So my reveries are into thinking about ideas of how I can combine those 3 shapes in designs for blankets or cloth.

There were sirens of fire trucks earlier and just now I saw an ambulance go by. Somebody's not having a good day. The snow is falling in small flakes, drifting, not gusting. But you can see slight air currents because it doesn't fall straight down - the flakes individual pathways are criss crossing as they all move in a general easterly direction. There is something wonderful about having a window where you can just watch the snow fall.

Entry tags:

wednesday

Windows.

It's getting warmer and we're having a very wet kind of snow, with lots of slush on the ground. I found out that the thermostat that controls the heat in the chicken coop (makes the heat come on at 20F and go off again when it reaches 25F) was not working. So I ordered a new thermostat. It'll be here next week.

Dave and I are leaving soon to do some errands in town and possibly have lunch at the Chinese buffet. Later...

Entry tags:

reading

November reading

Two books I bought on whims didn't turn out to be gems, but it was good to try new authors, I guess.

Allegro, Ariel Dorfman

This is billed as a mystery about Johann Sebastian Bach's death that is solved by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. It is actually a hellaciously overwrought, needlessly wordy, and tedious meditation on art and how suffering affects art. There is no mystery, just page after page of absurdly intricate prose. I assume Dorfman was paid by the word. I gave it one star on Goodreads because there's a playlist at the end. That's the best part of the book.

The Nakano Thrift Shop, Hiromi Kawakami (translated by Allison Markham Powell)

The premise was alluring--a story centered on three people who work in a thrift shop in a Tokyo suburb. I did enjoy reading a Japanese novel that was about ordinary people. There are no murders, no fantasy elements, no wealthy characters. Nakano is the family name of the owner, and he employs two people, Hitomi and Takeo. His sister, Masayo, is also frequently at the shop (though she has her own business nearby and is an artist). Like a lot of workplace ensemble stories, there's a tendency for the characters to overshare and become overinvolved in each other's lives. Nakano shares details about sex with his girlfriend that I'd be embarrassed to share with a close friend, let alone co-workers I supervise. Hitomi and Takeo attempt to date despite not having anything in common. The dates are deeply awkward, yet somehow they progress to having sex, and later Hitomi decides that she is in love with Takeo. Maybe I was just too tired to appreciate this author's particular brand of quirkiness. I gave it two stars, mostly because the writing didn't make me want to bleach my eyeballs.

The Nickel Boys, Colson Whitehead

I knew this would be an emotionally draining read, but I didn't realize how draining it would be. I read it quickly, over Thanksgiving weekend, because I absolutely did not want to linger on it. Whitehead is a terrific writer, but the brutality made my eyes water and my stomach heave. I will not be watching the movie adaptation.

Current Mood: busy
Current Location: The Rookery

Entry tags:

murdoch

Murdoch Uni and Other End-of-Year Events

Last night I hosted the annual Murdoch University Alumni meeting for Melbourne at the Arts Centre with plenty of excellent and intelligent conversation, as would be expected at such an event (well-catered too, I must add). As part of the formal proceedings, we held a panel discussion on what Murdoch University meant and how it changed us. Our panel, quite remarkably, had graduates from every decade of the university's existence, including a foundation student, Dr. Trevor Hogan, and the remarkable story from Lem Bagout, who came to Australia as a refugee from Sudan; he now teaches physics.

For my own part (representing the 1990s graduates), I made the point that the radical parts of Murdoch's original educational objectives ("the Murdoch ethos") are now accepted and mainstream: encouraging mature-aged students and lifelong learning, allowing for part-time and external studies, encouraging interdisciplinary studies, and alternative entry based on experience. I also made a point of mentioning Bruce Tapper, who died a year ago on the day; not just because he was such a huge influence on my life, but in particular, because he was such a fierce advocate for Murdoch University's progressive education and egalitarian access.

In many ways, my alma mater sometimes stands in stark contrast with my employer, the University of Melbourne. Prestigious and conservative, the UniMelb is recognised as the top university in the country, which is really due to the excellent and well-funded research sector, standing on the shoulders of giants past. At UniMelb in the past fortnight, there have been two social occasions of note: an end-of-year potluck lunch for Research Computing Services (I brought along the Polish duck soup (Czernina), and an end-of-year social event for all of Business Services, this year held on campus at the Ernie Cropley Pavilion, a better location, and superior catering to previous years.

As another example of contrast, last Saturday I attended the Thangka Art Exhibition on Tibetan Cultural Heritage and Contemporary Development hosted by the Australian ReTeng Charity Foundation, associated with the Buddhist ReTeng Monastery in Donvale. I was somewhat surprised and impressed by the sheer number of dignitaries from the Melbourne Chinese community in attendance, and extremely impressed by the artworks on display. There was some juxtaposition of this aesthetic event, and the one attended in the evening, with Carla BL, at a little bar in Fitzroy to see a group of post-punk musicians (including my favourite local coldwave artists, Cold Regards) perform. For reasons of international travel, this is the end of EoY Melbourne activities - next stop, Santiago!

Entry tags:

art a day

monday later

Warm Heart.

(no subject)

The sun is coming up, streaming through the windows and pointing out that I really should do some housework. Sigh. Today is a "horse" day, so I was moving horses, cleaning pens and filling water well before the sun made an appearance. Driving down to Winter Quarters we looked out over the Ukiah valley, full of fluffy white fog, which of course isn't as fluffy or nice once you are in it. All the horses were full of themselves, including Firefly.
I rode Firefly both days this weekend. She was, as usual, very good.
There was a nice group of riders on Sunday who apparently had fun and want to return. We will see if the weather cooperates in January and February!
It has been sunny and dry for a couple of weeks now, I wouldn't mind a bit of rain. Indeed, it looks like we might get some in another week. I hope so. The chart says we are still a tiny bit ahead of seasonal normal, but when we start into this dry weather pattern it sometimes takes over for the rest of the winter. That would be bad as we have only had 20% of our normal rain for the year. On the other hand we have a foot of nice green grass in some places on the Ranch. Some years that would be 1 inch, not 1 foot.