A little errand running today, which earned me this self-indulgence. Decadent, maybe, but at least that’s a reusable straw and the cup is recyclable.
I was thinking about my Wednesday post and remembered I’d saved this on my phone. Still makes me laugh every time.
I’m writing again. Makes me feel like SUPERMAN!
(Except not in a display box. Though Rhonda has said, when she’s in the hallway and passing the sanctuary with its gate to keep out dogs, how she feels like she’s at one of those historical landmarks where stanchions block visitors from some rooms. 🤣)
Life’s been a little nutty since the first week of the month. Tom traveled (so he could be with his family for special events!) and then upon his return, he worked from home and quarantined (for caution’s sake, as we know several people who tested positive for Covid, some after travel, some not), and I mattress surfed thanks to friends and family. Then Tuesday, after he got his second negative test, he got to go in to work, and I got to come home.
I may be a bit of an overpacker. That’s like a bin of groceries, a bin of cold foods, five or six bags, my purse, my pillows, and my laptop table, and it doesn’t show the oversized fan I took along for the night noise that helps me sleep.
It’s good to be home with husband and dogs again, and back in the sanctuary to work. Meanwhile, I’m feeling grateful the new Covid vaccinations are available. Half of the people at the Hall are vaccinated, and the other half have appointments to be. Flu shots, too. =) I don’t believe in the integrity of some state politics, but I still believe in science and medicine. And art of all kinds. And that there are vastly more good people than bad people. And good dogs. I definitely believe in good dogs.
“Rome,” so named because Debby’s granddaughter Rome once painted a zebra for her.
Mid-July, I posted a coloring page I did using an iron-on transfer of a zebra I’d saved from the early 1990s. I wasn’t sure if I’d ever used it, but then later, I found a photo of the shirt I’d painted with the zebra and two other carousel animals for Lynne. I showed it to her in comments to that post, and though she didn’t remember it, and I’d forgotten doing it, it does provide proof that the transfers were used, and I likely saved them with thoughts of doing something with them later. When I found them again, coloring seemed like the natural solution.
Here’s the shirt I painted for Lynne. Judging by the dates on the album it was in, it was probably a birthday gift.
Last week when I was doing a lot of coloring during some lengthy phone conversations, I took out the other two carousel animals and colored them. I needed the focus and calm that coloring provides. My book of coloring pages now has Rome’s two friends.
“Pat Dye,” carousel tiger. Pat Dye served with my father in the military and was later a football coach at Auburn University, home of the Auburn Tigers and alma mater of at least five family members. (And biggest football rival of my alma mater, the University of Alabama, where Dye was an assistant coach under the legendary head coach Paul “Bear” Bryant for nine seasons.)
“Duchess,” carousel horse. She got her name from a Palamino horse belonging to one of the characters in the Neverending Saga.
ETA: I texted with my former sister-in-law Terri earlier today to wish her a happy birthday. She’s one of the most dedicated Auburn football fans I know, so in honor of the occasion, “War Eagle!” to Terri.
“War Eagle” is not an Auburn mascot, though the school does have an eagle that flies over the games. “War Eagle” is described as Auburn’s battle cry. “The phrase has a long history and deep significance among the Auburn Family … who use it to greet and identify with each other all over the world,” according to Auburn’s website.
I’m a proud participant in and proponent of coloring as therapy. In a variety of waiting rooms, cars, classrooms, parks, hotel rooms, beach houses, mountain cabins, and homes, spanning decades of friendships, passages, and events both happy and sad, coloring has brought me peace of mind.
Today, I’ve been thinking of happy family celebrations while I colored.
Photo previously posted here was of a version of Cindy Ruskin’s painting I’m Nobody, oil on canvas. You can check out more of her work on that link to her Instagram account.
More from me:
Back on June 7, I posted this photo with the intention of coming back to both those books when I felt less scattered and could create a post about them. Later in June, in a Mood: Monday post, I shared a painting of a pinecone and talked at length about Maggie Smith’s memoir. But I’m not sure I ever explained why I had all the Post-it Flags in the book of Emily Dickinson’s poetry.
Acts of Light is a beautiful book filled with paintings and drawings by Nancy Ekholm Burkert to accompany some of the eighty Dickinson poems within it. It’s possible my friends Christine and John gave me this book as a balm for being the first ones to tell me that much of Dickinson’s poetry can be sung to the tune of “Yellow Rose of Texas.” I whimpered to them that from that moment on, I could only sing, “I heard a fly buzz when I died/ the stillness in the room” as if it were “There’s a yellow rose in Texas, that I am gonna see.” I love yellow roses and have nothing against this wonderful old Texas standard, but it’s a little upbeat for the poem. =)
Disregarding all that, I decided that at some point, I’m going to print the pen and ink drawings and color them, and those are the pages I’ve marked. I’m not sure I can ever share them online because of copyright issues, so they’ll be only for my own enjoyment. But after finishing Apple TV’s “Dickinson,” I began to wonder about art that might have been inspired by her poetry, and that’s why I found and chose the first painting on this post.
I have a few books with Dickinson’s best-known, studied, or taught poems, but I’m delighted to have received this collection (derived from a three-volume set shown in the TV show) that contains 1,775 poems and fragments. I finally have one source I can keep at hand to read favorites as well as poems I’ve never seen before. I’m sure like many writers and artists before me, I’ll get lots of inspiration.
Lynne was a Jimmy Buffett fan long before I was, and I got to know a lot of his music through her. No regrets. He was one of the good ones and will be missed.
I’ll share my Instagram post here, since I don’t have much of a crossover audience.
He’s somewhere on the ocean now, the place he oughta be, with one hand on the starboard rail, he’s waving back at me.–Jimmy Buffett, “The Captain and the Kid”
I thought I’d share a few of those photos. I know how many of you have lost your own best companions. It’s a sad group to be part of, but the endings can never be as powerful as the time we get to share with our beloved dogs, cats, and other animal friends.
Back on June 7, I posted this photo with the intention of coming back to both those books when I felt less scattered and could create a post about them. Later in June, in a Mood: Monday post, I shared a painting of a pinecone and talked at length about Maggie Smith’s memoir. But I’m not sure I ever explained why I had all the Post-it Flags in the book of Emily Dickinson’s poetry.
