Taking Stock

So happy Obama won the presidency, and I’m very impressed with his acceptance speech - I especially liked the inclusivity of it, may we as Americans all pull together to face the future. I was also pleased with the kind concession of John McCain. He helped show that we can all be on “our” side now.

Gore Vidal has written an open letter to Barack Obama. In the last two elections Democratic candidates conceded the election, in one case while votes were still being counted, and in the other, after the election was contested in the Supreme Court. It is generally agreed upon that the 2004 election was stolen.

 

I join with Gore Vidal and the thirty-three signators of this letter to plead with Senator Obama, if there is any reason to contest the election, do not concede!

Sitting here at 4:30 in the morning, looking over the last few entries of my blog, I noticed I’ve received no comments in the longest time. I don’t know if anyone is reading it, but if they do, it’s as though they’ve fallen into a black hole, with no sign they’ve ever been here. If no one is reading it, then it’s my thoughts and words that have fallen into the black hole. Either way, the event horizon makes it impossible to even know that I’m out here, evidently invisible.

Or maybe it’s just 4:44 in the morning, and I should get back to bed and let my overactive brain tell me about it in my dreams.

If You Are Undecided, You’re Not Paying Attention
Seven Posts in Seven Days - Day 3

Cecilia left this comment on my blog:

hi

I just recently discovered your blog & visit daily. I am so undecided about this election…I read what your saying & I totally agree with you, but then I speak to someone on the right & then I agree with them. I am having such a hard time with this election…

I cant seem to find anything to help make up my mind. Can anyone help?

Thanks

Oh Cecilia, bless your heart.  We have only been at this for two years, sweetheart.  There were over 40 debates during the primaries and most recently we have had three Presidential debates and one Vice Presidential debate.  Honey, I trust you can read.  Please do because this is important.  And I am not trying to be mean or dismissive.  It really is that important and you need to read about this stuff and believe me there are piles of stuff out there.

But… if you are not going to read anything else, I hope you’ll chew on this:

If You Are Undecided, You’re Not Paying Attention « Margaret and Helen.

Please read the rest of this wonderful post, and while you’re at it, read more of Margaret and Helen: Best Friends for Sixty Years and Counting. This is one great web site, and will be added to my Personal Favorites.

In the meantime, no matter who you are voting for, get out and vote on Tuesday!

Have you ever seen those amazing photographs of zebras all in a row. When I went to Africa in 2006, I was determined to get a photo like that. This is as close as I came, it isn’t as easy as it might seem, as zebras aren’t really posing for you, and it’s not like you can just walk around them until you get the right angle.

Painting is like that for me, in that I can never get just the image I want, even when I can see it in my mind just fine. I guess life is sort of like that too, you have a picture of the kind of life you want to live, but don’t always quite hit the target.

Fortunately for me, I am happy with this picture of zebras, I can find something to like about nearly everthing I paint these days, and although my life may not be exactly and always what I envision, it’s sure a great life, and I couldn’t be more satisfied.

Rounding out the day, I took my new canvas paper and brushes out to the patio and gave them a try - painting the mountain that was in my view. There was a beautiful blue sky, not a cloud to be seen as is usual in Tucson. But I wanted to paint clouds and sunset, so I made them up. I also could only see the top part of the mountain, and none of the other nearby mountains, so I made them up too. Never did get to the foreground, otherwise I’d have had to be creative with it also.

The colors I was using turned out different when I looked at them inside in artifical light. The light is so bright outside that it really affects how things look. I’ve always thought our light in Tucson must be much the same as that in the south of France, and and am beginning to appreciate the impressionists’ for their efforts to handle and replicate the light they saw.

Winding up the day, I went to the computer club at the Foothills, then later my sister stopped over, so it was a good day - I got out, got some things done that needed doing, refreshed my soul by painting, got some social time in, and heartwarming conversation with my sister.

I just finished reading all the entries and comments in my blog, and have to say, I think I did a good job - it was all so interesting (to me).

There isn’t much of importance to say today - there very seldom is, but re-reading my blog helped me to realize it doesn’t matter. So, let me catch up on a few things.

My bunions - I did go to a podiatrist, just last week, and came home with a splint to wear and instructions for exercises to do. Along with the hope that I can get a pair of boxy-toed shoes through Medicare. All of this may help me to get back to my former level of activity. The idea of walking off my weight and enjoying the good feeling that comes with a good long walk is very motivating. The idea of ordering special shoes which will have room enough for my wide, deformed feet, is a relief. I never know when I buy a pair of shoes if they will be comfortable in the long run. So often they aren’t.

Went grocery shopping this morning - bought my usual set of groceries, so now I’m good for another week and a half, maybe. What really got me out, though was a decision to go to Michael’s and get some painting supplies.

Last week I had a class in acrylics. I’ve never used them before, but did once paint in oils. I like the acrylics - I like that they stay where you put them, and I like that you can paint over things to make changes. So I decided to get some canvas boards and brushes to really do some work with them. We’ll have one more class this week in acrylics, then I’ll try something on my own. Probably some of the mountains right around here.

I still enjoy watercolor, and am not going to give that up. Had my last Boot Camp in watercolor painting class yesterday, and was very pleased with how I handled our last assignment, using all the brush strokes we had learned in the class.

Things are beginning to come alive here, as more snowbirds are returning for the winter. My next door neighbors arrived yesterday. Computer Club will be more viable now, and we’ve got lots more people at Art Guild the last couple of meetings.

This article is from Sitting with the Dogs. I hope you’ll read it in it’s entirety, and if you can, help out these dogs and their benefactors.

A Place in Heaven
I’m sitting with two dogs (Mackey and Shadow) for about four days. Their people are off on a well-deserved getaway and for good reason.

About three weeks ago, while walking their own dogs, they came across two obviously stray and probably abandoned dogs who simply adopted them on the spot. These two people, with all their heart and love of dogs worked to find the owners and when that failed have been caring for them while trying to find a home for the two dogs.

Read more

In the nine years since I moved to Arizona, I haven’t missed the change in seasons, expecially winter. This doesn’t mean I don’t appreciate them, for I do, and view pictures like this with nostalgia, but not yearning. For fall in the midwest is indeed breathtakingly beautiful. I have to again thank my niece Kathleen for this reminder of the majestic time of year that brings such color.

While much of the country knows four seasons to a year, we in Tucson experience six. They are not as obviously different seasons, depending on how you look at it, you might say we have two - either hot and cool or wet and dry but the way they are mixed up creates six seasons altogether. And their appearance on the scene is not so easily foretold by the calendar and the phases of the sun and moon, but rather by the humidity and temperature. It’s easy enough to look out the window and say “it’s raining” or “the sun is shining”, or to venture outside and say “it’s so hot” or “it’s gotten cooler”. But this is not a sure indication of what season it is. Many of our plants bloom in the spring, just like other places, but some bloom whenever it rains. We have green landscapes, and green-brown landscapes. We have dust and sometimes smoke, certain insects show up and disappear at regular times. In the desert, the seasons are quiet and unobtrusive, except for reminders such as torrential rains and flash floods, and the unbelievable beauty of a desert in bloom.

My mother loved yellow roses. She had them at my father’s memorial service, and we had them for hers.

My friend, Nancy, grows roses in Tucson, Arizona. This is one of them. I’m sure she works hard to keep them alive and so beautiful, but she loves roses and she loves growing them, and makes it seem effortless.

I have a friend in Illinois who also loves roses, and who grows them. She doesn’t seem to love growing them however. To her, growing roses in Illinois is a struggle, as she fights against the weather, the disease, and all the things that make growing roses difficult. She looks back to the paradise of California, where all you needed to do was put a stick in the ground, and it bloomed.

There are other differences between my friends in Arizona and Illinois. Both have had difficult lives. Both continue to have problems and bad luck in their day to day living. But they seem to approach living much as they approach growing roses. For Nancy, life seems to be a joy, for my friend in Illinois it seems to be a struggle.

I try to follow Nancy’s example, it is so much easier.