This should be fun

Mercury went retrograde with a lot of drama around here. Two days before, then stretching into the day before, we had a nine-hour power outage. We realized the power outage had (once again–this usually occurs) caused problems with our Internet connection. Tom made a quick dash to our cable provider’s closest storefront before they closed to get a new modem. That worked… until it didn’t.

So the Hall had no cable, and even using 5G on our phones/devices was sketchy. The cable guy came late afternoon Friday, the day Mercury formally went retrograde, and after working outside, putting down new cable (which he said another crew will have to come back to bury in a few days), and installing yet another new modem, things seemed to be okay. He left.

Things were not okay. They are still not okay. Access is sporadic. Often, if I disconnect from Wifi and reconnect, I can get a few minutes of access. I’m being very bold here by trying to create a blog post, especially one that requires both this site and Flickr to work. Fingers crossed!

In our long hallway that leads to our bedrooms and both bathrooms, we used to have quite a lot of art and photos hanging. All that came down and was boxed after the Harvey flood in 2017. Over the long Labor Day weekend, Tom tackled getting that redone. We didn’t even try to make it the way it was. But here are photos to show mission: accomplished. I may attempt better photos of some of the items at a later date.

Just outside our bedroom, we have rehung the cross-stitched (some with beads included) angels that Lynne made for me through the years. They’re so beautiful and a great source of happiness and good memories. At the far end on the top, hangs a print that I thought I’d mislaid forever. It’s called “The Ramparts of God’s House,” painted by John Melhuish Strudwick possibly in 1891. I was drawn to it because of the angels, but one of them looks very much how I envision a character I wrote a long time ago. She’s in the same world as the Neverending Saga, but a different series. If I ever finish the story of this group of characters, I hope to also rewrite her book(s). Here’s the painting.

Finding that print stored with the things from the hallway makes me believe some of the other items I’ve misplaced may still be found.

On the opposite side of the hall outside our bedroom are these two items. The top is an angel plate that my mother gave me during my angel years. And the bottom is a piece I gave to her, though I can’t remember when. The words around the crafted angel that I gave her are “Angel–Another Word for Mother.”

At the opposite end of the hall, between the bathroom and a closet and close to “Lynne’s Room,” are a drawing of my grandparents along with various photos of my grandparents and parents and Tom’s grandparents and parents. I guess we can call that the Ancestors Wall, though some of us are still living!

Across from those, Tom rehung photos of family and friends that were there before the flood. I’ve changed a couple out for different photos, and there may be more of that when I get back to the photo organizing that’s one of several ongoing projects.

At the far end of the photos are fabric art by Tom’s mother, a piece of his father’s woodworking art, and a glass, tile, and mirror mosaic done by a Houston artist (I have another of her works over our fireplace).

Finally, on the section of the wall I can see from the Writing Sanctuary when I’m writing (or blogging, like now), I hung three of my old bottle cap paintings that were never for sale, but done for me.

The top one is titled “Friends: Before And After.” I used Coke caps because of several of the Coke campaigns (It’s the Real Thing, Coke Adds Life, I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing) that evoke friendship. Four of the caps with logos represent our friends who died from complications related to HIV/AIDS, Steve R, Jeff, John, and Tim R. One is solid red to represent all those lost. The caps I painted white are because in the old days, white balloons were released at the funerals and memorial services of many of those lost to AIDS. (I think the last time I released balloons of any kind was with Tim on the first anniversary of Aaron’s death in 2013. I’ve since learned how bad this is for wildlife and the environment, so I don’t release balloons anymore.)

The middle painting, also using Coke bottle caps, is titled “Tom Is the Real Thing.” That needs no explanation, I hope, but in a world I’ve populated with imaginary characters, he’s the reality I’m grateful I chose.

The bottom painting, using ram bottle caps from Shiner Bock, is titled “Aries Friendships Are Built Tough.” If you’ve been part of my life for decades, through all the good and bad things of human experience, including long absences and silence, you know it’s true. (And if you’re reading this and you wonder, one of my super powers is forgiveness; it works both ways.)

If this actually publishes after the many attempts I’ve tried—and the cable guy actually coming while I was composing it to bury the cable, though he’s not the cable guy who can fix our cable–SCORE!