Is Wednesday really a day…

…when one can get over a hump? Time will tell.

The “Be Positive” coloring and writing journal that Lynne gave me–May of 22?–that I use for coloring and speculating about what I’m writing or should be writing and the inspirations and challenges involved. Today, after I wrote next to the page I’d colored, I closed the book and laughed at that name…be positive. Gotta say what I wrote today in the journal is maybe one of the least positive things I think/feel. The words I almost never say out loud because they would likely be misunderstood or else prompt advice or guidance that I’m not looking for. That’s not my Aries resistance to being directed or told what to do. It’s only that this Aries knows herself–myself–too well to pretend I’m looking for answers from outside when the answers within have been hard won.

On the other hand, the drawing I colored is pretty and untroubled.

Plus I have written today, and every bit of writing nourishes the Muse who in turn nourishes my creative drive.

While writing, I listened to really good music all the way around, meaning of course, music I like/enjoy/admire/feel.

Kicked off with Brighter: A Duncan Sheik Collection from Duncan Sheik, and great liner notes from James Hunter (from Rolling Stone magazine). Certain parts of Hunter’s notes resonate with me, and the music is good to listen to, write to, think to.

Tom and I were on a road trip many years ago when we stopped somewhere and bought a bunch of CDs so we could hear music we didn’t know, and that’s when we got Shinedown’s The Sound of Madness. I used to hear it a lot because I uploaded it to my iTunes library, but after my main iTunes computer stopped working early in the pandemic, the only songs that will play on my iTunes are ones I’ve actually purchased from Apple. We still need to either get that Mac fixed or figure out what we can grab from its backup drive. That task has been “on the list” since the world reopened in 2021.

Finally, The Best of Simon & Garfunkel. No explanation needed, right? WAY BACK when I was given my first record player, a Simon & Garfunkel album was one of the first three I received, probably for a birthday. They never get old, and their song “The Boxer” still does battle with Bruce Springsteen’s “Thunder Road” as my favorite song of all time. There’s a nod to the duo in the first novel in the Neverending Saga.


Shared before but always happy to show Becky’s First Record Player. There were times it felt like the only thing teenage Becky could count on. In the current novel in progress, a character has just received her first record player and a collection of 45s. Lucky little nine-year-old. I was a few years older when I got mine.

Happy Caturday!


I don’t have cats, but in solidarity with those who do, I thought I’d dedicate part of today’s post to cats. Mainly because Debby gave me this cool Haunted Cat Tarot deck for Christmas. Any particular card you’d like to see?

When I took her to an appointment earlier in the week, I took this coloring book with me.

I’d already torn a page out of it at some point, and I decided to color that one. But I wasn’t sure how to color it, so I looked up various wild cats and found this one to inspire me.

Here’s how it turned out.

What I do have is dogs. The other day, after a frantic round of digging, which she isn’t supposed to do, Delta apparently found somebody’s last marble.

It’s all cleaned up and put with the other marbles now.


Meanwhile, Anime had dental surgery yesterday morning, and she’s had a miserable two days. She started drinking water again sometime around noon today, and this evening, she took some meatballs (canned dog food rolled around her regular meds and her pain med). She’s finally stopped dripping blood from her mouth and is overall a lot more comfortable tonight. Through it all, she’s been very sweet and stoic, so clearly it wasn’t her last marble Delta found.


The tree has been stripped and all the ornaments and decorations have been put away.

Except we have to find the bin that has the box that my vintage Holt Howard angel goes in. Meanwhile, I posed her with an appropriate old Southern novel that I haven’t read in decades and probably should read again.

Sometimes when I get really busy, I forget to eat. When tonight’s light meal of a BLT, half an apple, and some potato chips seemed ridiculously good, it occurred to me that I’d only eaten yogurt with the water and coffee I drank today. It was a good sandwich, though.

Intentions

The second week of August, I recorded some intentions in my “Inspire” Journal and posted them here.

A couple of weeks ago, I remembered and decided to revisit those. First off, I stared at the list and wondered, What is TC craft? What is TC song? What was I talking about? I don’t write songs. I have characters who write songs, but… Then I realized. Something happens with one of those songwriter characters in Topanga Canyon in the third or fourth book of the Neverending Saga. “TC” unlocked!

To update:

1. I did finish this craft piece based on the novel and gave it to Lynne when she was here in September. I think it’s hanging in her house.
2. I haven’t written the song, because I haven’t written in that character’s voice in a while. I’ll get to it maybe in the seventh book, or when the time is right.
3. The MagPo box is restored. More about that in a minute.
4. I’m not using the inspiration journal (different from the “Inspire” journal) to plot the seventh book because I’m using a big yellow sketch book Lynne gave me that I’ve been using since… 2019? to tape photos and jot thoughts and ideas for the series. Currently, it’s staying next to me when I write.
5. Schedule physical (routine annual exam). Completed in December.
6. Schedule fall vaccines. Done and received in September.

It feels good to know I completed almost all these goals I set for fall.

About the Magnetic Poetry box. It took water during the Harvey flood and subsequently began to rust.

I knew Tom was taking vacation time the week between Christmas and New Year’s and asked if he thought some Rust-Oleum® would help if he had time to work on the box. I explained that I wasn’t looking for perfection. I didn’t care if it was obvious the box had been restored. In fact, imperfections are part of its history. I just wanted the rust to become a thing of the past.

And so it has.

It made me happy enough that I pulled out my Healing Words MagPo kit to create a poem, a reminder to myself that it’s great to set goals; the challenge is in the work. (Sometimes, even if it’s asking the person who’s right for the job.)

Tiny Tuesday!

Post-holiday, as things around Houndstooth Hall begin to get back to normal, it’s time to put away all the Christmas decorations. I’ll start today, but I have no deadline, no pressure.

Usually, at the beginning of the holiday season, one of the first photos I blog is my annual Wallace silver (plated) sleigh bell purchase.


I did get one this year, but I ordered it later than usual, which meant Tom hung the garland later than usual, and I forgot to photograph it before it went up.


It’s always a happy part of our decorations.

This collection began when I received my first sleigh bell from an employer in 1992. The tradition continued through 1995, but I was laid off in ’96. Amy still worked there, and she gave me her sleigh bell that Christmas. Beginning in 1997, I purchased each year’s sleigh bell myself. One year, I decided to find and purchase a previously-owned sleigh bell for 1988, the year Tom and I married.

This year, I found an online seller who had other years’ sleigh bells at a reasonable price. So I treated myself.


Those are the sleigh bells from 1989, 1990, and 1991. This means I now have a sleigh bell from every year we’ve been married, plus one duplicate year from Laura and Jess.

I don’t have any desire to collect back to 1971, the year this series began. Much as I love them, the collection isn’t about the sleigh bells as much as about our years together, our friends and family through the years, and the changes that have shaped our lives. I’ll continue the tradition to celebrate all those things, people, and dogs in future years.

ETA: Just got them off the garland and shot all 36 that were up. This year, some of them are definitely going to need polishing before being returned to storage.

Final ETA: Post-cleaning and polishing all 37. They are so shiny!

Incremental progress…

…is still progress. When it comes to writing, I’ll take it. I have a first chapter draft finally, after several false starts. This has been my accompaniment.


Lou Reed, New York and Walk On The Wild Side, The Best of Lou Reed.


And this two-song “CD Single” of The Rembrandts. The back side might remind you who they are if you were alive in the Nineties and have forgotten.


Yup, the theme song from the TV show “Friends,” or “I’ll Be There For You.” I think I got this to use on a video we made for the place I worked from ’92 to ’96. Memories…

Then I moved on to these.

R.E.M.: Murmur; Out Of Time; Automatic For The People; and Monster.

There’ll be more R.E.M. to come before I continue in the “R” section of my CD binders. None of this music has been really connected to what I’m writing (except that this novel does begin with a sort of who’s who among a group of friends, I guess).

Different time, completely different kind of music. That’s fine. I’m a little partial to “Nightswimming” from Automatic For The People because if I recall correctly, Timothy referenced it in Three Fortunes in One Cookie. THERE’S a blast from the past.

Tiny Tuesday!

Mark, if you come by here, happiest of birthdays to you today. 🎂

Today’s a good day in our family memories.

Our nephew Aaron was born on this date in 1993. It seems impossible he’s been gone eleven years. We can never have enough time with people we love, especially as deeply as he’s loved. I hope everyone who knew him has a wealth of good, funny, happy, sweet, powerful memories to celebrate his time here with us. I think of his parents, brother, sister, and all the aunts, uncles, cousins, and friends who miss him. Today, may they remember the connections to him that bring joy.


Aaron, Penny, Pixie, and Timothy on March 12, 2012.


Since it’s Tiny Tuesday, here’s a photo from last year, though the snowman Aaron and Alex gave me one Christmas is displayed this year, too.

I’ve said it on here before: Aunt Becky is the best job title I ever had.

Mood: Monday

The photo previously posted here is by Romain de Tirtoff, under the pseudonym Erté, Winter, in pen and ink from 1978.

When I searched the Internet for art with “winter” in its title, this image showed up and made me laugh, something I’d have thought impossible twenty-eight years ago. I’ve occasionally alluded to this story here. My friends know it and have heard me speak of it many times, and the story is long, so I’ll put it behind a cut in case anyone would rather dodge it.

Continue reading “Mood: Monday”

Old Texas

I’ve tried in vain to find information online for this utility box mini mural on Bunker Hill Road. It’s an often-used image in Texas art: a longhorn in a field of bluebonnets.

I remember on long road trips when I was a kid that my sister used to sing this song as part of her car songs repertoire. Never dreamed back then we’d both one day live in the Lone Star State.