August 9, 2001

"A Pause In The Flux"

Yesterday was a fun day. I was just filled with a sense of happy amusement at everything. So was Laura, and she played hide and seek with me. In this tiny mobile home, she played hide and seek. And it took me awhile to find her! She crammed her considerable body into her closet. She WAS grateful I finally found her, as she was lying on top of the uncomfortable bumpy vacuum cleaner. I would have thought one had to be midget size to hide in this house. Earlier we made up funny lyrics to songs while en route to the Cost Co. 'Martha and Henry' of 'There's a hole in the bucket, dear Henry, dear Henry'  had quite an adventure. It was so good to just laugh and be free.

I laughed at some horoscopes I read yesterday. They did manage to capture some of our characteristics. Oddly, they inspired me to update the cast page to be more descriptive of Laura, Julia and I. It was time. Maybe I'll redo the other peoples' descriptions as well. But at the MAJOR players are more vivid, now.

In the evening I was lazy and mellow, listening to that Battlefield Band album I bought the other day. And it felt so good to just be lazy. The album, Happy Daze, is really quite good. SOMEday I'll get around to updating the Celtic music page.

But at least the CAST page has been improved.

We sure had a thunder banger last night. I, from a nice, deep sleep, was flipped up into the air by a huge thunder crack. And then all that could be heard was the storm. Fans stopped, and all the other sounds of a house that you never pay attention to stopped. There was just the rain and the thunder. Laura and I moved to the sofa, and for a while the two of us slept on the sofa, with the front door open, so we could enjoy the cool air. The thunder became less and less noisy, and I was re-awakened when the whir of the evaporative unit's big fan started up again.

That makes three times the electricity has gone out this month. It went out again at work the other day, this time in the afternoon. And the customers kept hitting the locked doors like birds who can't tell there's a clear wall, as they couldn't tell anything was different. Fortunately, it went back on much sooner than it did during the first time. I was just re-opening the doors, when the district manager met me at them. TIMING, I say. He's a nice guy, this new manager. I hope he lasts awhile. They come and go, they come and go. Nothing seems to stay the same for long.

Well, a world in flux is just par for everything, I guess. At least, some days there is a pause in the flux. Yesterday was one of those.

 

August 11, 2001

"Just Odd"

I sweat. I sweat and I sweat and the drops of it roll down my face. My hair is always greasy. Two hours after washing it, I feel greasy again.

But at least I have a cool place in which to work. That wasn't so with my job in Tucson. The seamstress job was located within a dry cleaners. Augusts were nearly unbearable, with the hot steam of the irons and steam tables.

A cool workplace is pleasant. Last night, while enjoying that coolness, a customer asked me a strange question. He's a regular, one that usually shows up every night. What prompted his question, I wish I knew.

After he finished paying for his items, he shocked me with ''Are you a Christian?'' As he often buys a 40 oz bottle of 'Bud', I didn't place him with the fundies. My initial reaction was perhaps fearful of appearing too judgmental of those who engage in vices proscribed by fundies. Alcohol isn't on their allowed list. So maybe he was judging me, thus my initial reaction:

My first thoughts, apologies for succumbing to an untrue stereotype, was ''Wow, I must really look dowdy and nerdish. Yeah, I wear long skirts and no makeup, I could look like some strict fundy.'' But, as we all know, Tammy Faye Bakker put that stereotype to the test with enough makeup piled on her for three women.

Well, such were my first thoughts. Not wishing to lie, or express strong opinions, being I was acting as an agent of a public store, I sort of stammered. He then asked if I believed in Jesus. ''What, that fictional character?'', I thought, but of course did not utter. I instead, gave evidence of a gentle negative. He THEN asked if I believed in God. ''Close enough,'', I replied. Not subscribing to any man-made anthropormorphic dieties, what could I say?

He then asked if I was an atheist. Finally, a question which was easy. ''No.'' I was brief. Anyone who prays as often as I do is NOT an atheist. There's SOMEthing out there, which is aware of my petitions. I seem to sense that, anyway. Atheists, of course, will tell me it is all a child's mind game. Maybe they are right. At any rate, my terse answer satisfied him, and he said, ''Good,'', and left.

Now why would the faith, or lack of, of a 'lowly' convenience store clerk interest him? Of course, it may be the standard need of some Christians to convert others, but he seemed merely satisfied that I wasn't an athiest.

Maybe he was trying to solve a mystery. The plastic toilet roll dispenser in the bathroom has acquired a bit of graffiti. ''Jason and Susan 4 ever'' began it. ''Nothing is 4 ever'' answered it. To which someone etched ''God is 4 ever.'' The final statement, ''There is no God'' may have aroused his curiousity as to who could have done it.

Like I've got time, with all my chores, to be scratching messages in the 'john'?

Still, you never know what goes through some people's minds. Anyway, it was just odd.

And the following poem is what I'd REALLY like to say to him.

Go Dig What am I? Answer to some people's questions?   It is enough that you go digging yourself. What mind you what others turn up, under their spade and shovel? The only evidence that matters is that which you find yourself. Go dig. The willing universe is waiting. JAL, 8 - 11 - 01

 

August 14, 2001

"Exciting Times, Here"

<RAMBLE>

Well, that's what you have here, a test. I'm gonna try and see if I have anything to say. Aren't you lucky, folks? But that's just the sort of dedication I have here. Why waste time when I have nothing to say? If you see this, then you'll know I have SOMEthing to say, after all.

Whew! Now, where was I? Sometimes a ramble leads somewhere. Maybe I am just too tired, you know. Just too much floor-ripping, tile pasting excitement going on here.

HUH? You ask? Yup, I did say floor-ripping, tile pasting excitement. The AC unit was leaking. Only we didn't know it. Underneath the thin tiles Laura had laid down over the old carpet, water was seeping. Every day, water was seeping, and finally it started bubbling up through the cracks between the square tiles. What to do? Laura began tearing off those tiles, to find a totally wet carpet.

So OFF went the carpet, in bits and pieces. There's still lots of pieces to go, but the area by the AC unit has been done. NEW tiles are being laid on the bare floor.

And, ah, oh yeah, Laura's son James fixed the AC unit. He tilted it so it wouldn't slant towards our house but to the ground away from it, and drilled a couple of hours in its bottom. Seems to work, as a steady steam of water, from condensation, has been leaking out those holes. AC units, you should know, just plain work overhard in these here HOT desert climes.

So we are gradually acquiring a new floor. I helped with a bit of the tearing, and a bit of the tiling. James helped Laura move the heavy corner cabinet. That's the heaviest of the stuff. So, into this chaos, our friend Danice is visiting again from Kentucky. But she's bringing WORK CLOTHES, she says.

Well, she'll have a unique time, that's for sure. We got exciting times, here.

In other news here, Serena has at last broken her house-bound status. The ramp that James and Richard (a friend of Serena's who lives next door to her) built for her has given Serena a new freedom. She happily shared shopping pictures with us. Hey, you be shut in for SEVEN months, you're gonna find a supermarket pretty darn exciting, you know? Or at least you can imagine. I know you can do that.

Serena, let loose in the supermarket

Like I said, we got all kinds of excitement here. Hope you are having splendid times yourself, without all the ripping and tearing and falling down and breaking bones, and flooding, and . . .

. . . it isn't REALLY necessary to have all those crappy things to appreciate the good, you know? Somebody should tell FATE that. But Fate has her own plans, it seems. May YOUR times be HAPPILY exciting.

There, nuff said.

</RAMBLE>

 

August 16, 2001 - A

"Tile And Error"

The new tile . . .

Julia said something funny the other morning. She called this new project ''Tile and Error''. Most of her puns are bad, but this one was cute, and carries more than a little truth. It's been a bit of 'trial and error' doing this. We are finding many of the adhesive tiles are not sticking. It appears they were laid down too soon, while the floor still had some moisture in it, and the least amount of moisture causes them not to stick.

Also, I didn't know the little staples that were holding the old carpet padding down could be removed. I'd feared they were long staples that attached the floor to a wooden framework below. So some of the tiles I'd put down showed sharp little bumps, where the staples were threatening to poke through. Laura assured me she'd been pulling them out with no harm. Those tiles had to be removed, and the staples taken out. I cautiously took the flat side of a screwdriver and to my relief, found they had only short little ends. We've spoiled a good many tiles by now, and the job is not yet half done!

Tile and Error, indeed!

 

August 16, 2001 - B

"New Mandala"

I was looking at various mandalas on the web, and I saw so many beautiful, inspiring ones. I am impressed with how evocative they can be, and went to sleep last night with images of mandalas floating in my head. In the morning, I had to see what I might create. Today's effort is now the most favorite of my efforts.

I hope I'm inspired to do another soon.

©JAL

 

August 17, 2001

"Manga-tized"

As I've mentioned earlier, I'm not the only one in the Triad who's been inspired to artistic creativity lately. Laura's been quite busy with her cartoons. Our enjoyment of the 'Japanimation' Fushigi Yugi made Laura curious about a cartooning book called 'Manga Mania', which tells how to make the Japanese style cartoon. ''Huge, dazzling eyes'' are a big characteristic of this style. Here's how I look, 'manga-tized'.

Manga-tized

original photo

My own Manga attempt

Do I look like I speak Japanese, yet?

 

August 22, 2001

"Another Mandala"

Pleased, I am, to have made another mandala! This time, I wanted to take the spontaneous approach of the 'doodle' mandalas, and combine it with color. I was fairly pleased with my result.

not bad . . .

But then I got to playing around with it in Picture Publisher. I was surprised how much better I like the altered version.

better . . .

It's gone into my mandala pages, as I am pleased with it. In my web journeys, I've been quite impressed with the immense variety of mandalas out there. Some even make my efforts seem raw and unpolished. But I think my mandalas have an unique strength. They seem to hold up well as an organic whole. Many of those spellbinding creations out there were created from a splinter of a digital photograph, and then arranged kaleidoscope wise. Pretty, but it all goes to the fragmented original. I start with the whole square (or circle), and work each addition as an evolutionary process. That's the joy of creating them, to watch them as they evolve. I never know when I begin, just what the finished product will look like. It becomes the joy of discovery. I hope my viewers find each of them unique in their approach at the moment of creation.

 

August 23, 2001

"Some Call It Art"

Some Call It Art The juxtaposition point isn't where you think it is. It's that fine sense point that needs refining. A surer edge, a crisper clarity, a more balanced symmetry, WE would be balanced, symmetrical, send our parts to the four corners of the earth with such fine evenness. WE would do this, and make of our lives, an art. And thus, through the ages,   ancient wise ones have painted, drawn in sand, and etched in crystal symbolic blue prints for life. Some call it art. JAL, 8 - 22 -01

~ ~~ ~~~ ~~ ~

August 25, 2001 "As Easy As Floating Away" As Easy As Floating Away If I stopped to dream, would I wake up? Would I want to wake up? Still, the dream door is always there, with its myriad reflections of earth. I do not need to die and be reborn. Life calls strong, in dream, or on earth. Dream floats only a little higher than earth. Still, the cushion is nice. Yes, you can always return, to the hard, not-so-hard earth, to the soft, not so soft dream. The door is always open. Find it, the path is as easy as floating - Float in, float back. Rising now, what floating expectations? Escape is always nice. JAL, 8 - 25 -01 in dreams, to escape . . .