worth 20 minutes

bitter? sure she's bitter...

This weekend we had a little sleep over visitor... Be (aka Kramer) came and stayed with us for 3 nights. Marie was less than amused...She went on a partial hunger strike, she refused to eat her crunchies. Only canned food, that's where she drew the line.



Things were lively over here as they are when Be enters the equation. It's generally a non-stop action packed adventure.

Sparky LOVES him. As far as she's concerned, Be can do whatever he wants...

Marie wants to kick his ass. (to put it bluntly) and by the way, "I'm not eating my crunchies!!!"

Since we didn't seem to get the message with the partial hunger strike, she took matters a step further and shredded a roll of toilet paper... The levels one has to stoop to in order to communicate in this household!!!

check this out!! Long story short, or more accurately medium... through any number of coincidences and happenstances we ended up getting to see this fantastic display/parade of the mardi gras indians. Now my understanding of all of this is rudimentary at best... but here goes. In the old days black people were not allowed to participate in the mardi gras celebrations/parades. so they had their own celebrations in other parts of the city. To honor the Indian tribes that protected the run away slaves they began to dress up as indians and developed "tribes" and like the 'krews" of the more traditional mardi gras parades had a hierarchy and structure of their own. any hoo...
They don't have a set route for their parades even today, but on st. Joseph's day (after mardi gras) they all gather and have another parade and celebration in a park. This year the traditional St. Joseph's day gathering aka Super Sunday, was postponed because of rain and it happened to be when we were there. It was amazing:

the scenes you see on their fronts and backs are all beaded. The detail is absolutely amazing. It takes a full year to make these costumes and cost thousands in materials not to mentions the time involved.
these people in blue are from the 9th ward.
the head dresses can weigh 150 pounds



there were bands that marched along with the "indians" and you could just go along as part of the parade if you wanted to, or stand on the side and take pic's. I've never in my life seen anything like this. And as it turns out just got to see it as a matter of luck. It couldn't have been planned. what a dang blast this trip to New Orleans was. The whole thing was like this in the sense that just by luck we'd end up in the middle of one exciting event after the next. I keep thinking, perhaps I'm done having to go there... but you know, maybe not....

New Orleans

I just got back from New Orleans ...again. For some reason I seem to find myself going there again and again this past year. This is the 3rd time. There's something about the feel of the place and how everyone calls me "baby". Ok that does me in. Call me 'baby' and I'm in your power. It's my kryptonite.
This trip there was a parade every day for one reason or another, or no reason at all really. I spilled off the plane and into the pirate parade... the theme was "it takes a pillage"
sorry this is so blurry, but I'm afraid we'd experienced a bit of the local custom of the "go cup" by this time... I got into the pirate parade big time, arrrg matey! ("matey", is almost as good at "baby")We all collected quite a hoard of beads by the end.


Hey, who dat callin me wench??

evidence

i swear I'm not making this up. I was on foot the other day with Sparky (our hero) for a little walk in the river bed. I see something, but can't quite make it out, or believe there's something that big down the way, and as I got closer I was even more amazed! check it out:

This thing is HUGE, and made out of the boxes you get at the post office, turned inside out and spray painted. There's a cockpit and looks like there's going to be a propeller soon. How the heck did the people get it down there, and what is the message here? Perhaps a statement on what a river landing would look like here...(none too pretty).

Dang, I love this place.

summer necklace

Here's my summer necklace.( I made it!) I love blue in the summer, don't you? The shadow at the top of the photo is Bad Marie. She likes to help with these things... It's been a rather soggy summer here so far. Amazing and cool. They claim it's going to get hot next week. However, they've been claiming this for some time now...

get up or outfit.... you be the judge

In my opinion, if you're at the rodeo, it's definitely not a get up. Went to the rodeo the other night. It's a bit corn ball for sure, but dang it, I love seeing people tearing around entirely too fast on the horses. It made me miss roping. However I don't miss the injuries...

employee of the month

Sparky, security chief! On Friday, I was in hell, otherwise known as the DMV.... when I got home I discovered someone attempted to break into my house! Since I've watched hundreds of detective shows on TV, I'm practically and expert on crime, so with my carefully honed deductive reasoning skills I came to the conclusion that once they opened the sliding glass door, Sparky went into action and scared them off! There was some stuff rearranged in the studio, but nothing missing. And all pets alive and accounted for. Now one has to know that there isn't much to steal over here. My stereo could be called a "hi-fi" it's so old, and the TV is WAY old and has a vcr, no dvd player. so that may have something to do with it too. Never the less there's a happy meal in it for our security system!

Here's why I was at the DMV. I got a NEW CAR! well, ok it's used, but NEW!! to me. It's a toyota matrix. After I got it home I realized there were all these "m's" pasted on the car. It stands for matrix, but anyone who knows my deal knows that M's all over my car just won't do. On the back it said "m theory". who knows what the heck that means. I got the car at Beaver toyota. So I was able to just peel the M's off the thing, but now on the back it says "beaver theory"??? I haven't quite decided how I feel about that, but I will tell you for sure, there aren't many cars that say beaver theory out there, so if you see one, chances are it's me.

art is everywhere

In the last few weeks on the usual ride, these sculptures have begun to appear. This was one of the first. I don't know if the picture shows it but there is a purple plastic cup at the top which to my way of thinking is the most clever use of a plastic purple cup known to mankind.

Sparky approves.

As time goes along another appears, and more elements are added to them.

This week the artist has out done his or herself. This beauty appeared out of nowhere. It is a round platform mounted on a ceiling fan, mounted on a rolling office chair. There are streamers (designed to scare the heck out of horses no doubt) hanging down, a tiny mirror, a bell. All made up of junk found, dumped out in the arroyos where we ride. The whole thing spins . Keno the horse thought he'd smell it, and bonked it with his nose. The bell rang, the whole thing began to spin, and the streamers flapped...whoo boy, that was WAY more than he bargained for.

The artists identity is a mystery. I've never seen anyone carrying this junk around, or doing anything resembling sculpting... I hope to somehow make contact with this person. I am thinking right now a message in a found bottle and other articles of junk I've picked up out there. The idea is still in the formulation phase.

Brilliant

OK, I LOVE THIS

FOR ME THE SCREAMING IS THE BEST PART:

New Orleans

I am back from an all too brief trip to New Orleans. The weather was fab, even HOT!!! and of course the food really really good. The big biennial art show was interesting and some of it was quite delightful. Long story short, it was a great trip, I love New Orleans, and I will be going back there for sure.
One of the take home messages was TALK TO STRANGERS! No one passed on the street without greeting one another. At least a "good morning", and if you lingered even a second they would talk as long as you wanted. I found that to be really comforting somehow. I want to take that up as a habit, even in my own town. Here I am talking to a stranger...well actually it's a statue...

Here's Nancy talking to a stranger, well it's a statue too....

Now here's an actual stranger that we did talk to. His name is James May. He is a street musician and a pretty entertaining guy. He told us of his escape from the city, after Katrina, with his stuff in a boat. He left town in a truck with an "eccentric friend, his pit bull and pot bellied pig" wow. He sang us a song, "Do you know what it means, to miss New Orleans" oh yeah.

travel time

I'm getting ready to go on a trip to New Orleans. As is my custom, I'm asking everyone I know for suggested activities and advice. I've got a couple guide books too. So one thing I keep hearing over and over is that "New Orleans is a dangerous city, BE CAREFUL". One of the guide books had two paragraphs devoted to the safety tip of "avoid wearing beads!!" Now I personally think that may be taking things too far, being that I'm a fan of jewelry. Why, I think most events require beads of some sort. So in addition to reading up on the history and sights of New Orleans I thought I'd better brush up on my Robert Pelton Young while I'm at it.
I'm still very interested in people's suggestions. I'm not leaving til early Thurs morning, so if you've got ideas for me send on!!

Happy New Year!

I had the best New Year's day. It was sunny and warm and along with a few pals went to Santo Domingo Pueblo for a special lunch and to watch the ceremonial dances. First of all the red chile was either tied with the best I ever had, or maybe even the best. A bit of a bite to it but no too hot, creamy and over meat. The woman who made it made beans in case we didn't eat chile. Couple that with home made bread from the horno OMG the best ever. There weren't that many visitors there. So we were of about a dozen non-natives watching the dances. You can't take pictures so imagine this: There's a block of about 30 or 40 men surrounding the drummer. They are singing mostly what sounded so me like "ah way, ah way" and the beat of the drum is steady like boom boom boom boom and every now and again there's a pause just long enough to be like a long taking of a breath then again the boom boom boom. There are about 200 people dancing. They have bells around their ankles and shells tied to their clothes. The women have on black dresses and turquoise painted head dresses, they are carrying sprigs of evergreens. The men have rattles. so along with the drumming and singing there is the rhythmic pulsing of the bells, shells and the rattles are shaken every now and again. There was a man who held this banner that was probably on an 8 foot pole. the banner had a picture of corn on it, and was long and skinny, topped with a yellow doo dad and red feathers. He waved it around like a blessing on all of us. The dance was held in the plaza between the two kivas, and the sound echo'd off the adobe houses and reverberated inside of my body. I was so ready for this without knowing it before hand really. It was very moving and felt like just the thing to be doing on the first day of the new year. The dances went on all day. We didn't stay that long, but I feel it still ...

Here are some cattle. it has nothing to do with anything except a preview of the year of the ox

bumper sticker etiquette

On a recent trip to Colorado right after the election I was struck by the lack of bumper stickers. While driving through Colorado Springs, I expected to see McCain Palin big and bold every which where, but no, nothing. really nothing. Later in Boulder I was looking for the Obama stickers everywhere, no, just a few discrete and rather tiny ones at best. Come on people, where's your team spirit??? Here at least two per car, and yard signs in every yard!! We are all about hanging it all out. The sign in the above photo was up the day after the election and it remains to this day, which brings me to the question:

When does one remove the stickers, signs etc once winning the election? I know all too well what to do if you lose, but it's been a long time... I know one doesn't wear white shoes after labor day, same with the straw handbag. But what about the bumper stickers??

I'm thinking maybe after the inauguration? We are having our own inaugural ball here at least amongst my pals. So come on people now, lets show our team spirit! Get out the ball gowns and rhinestones and show your support!

snow day here at rancho de top mano

Since I'm the boss here, I've declared it a snow day. I did this after attempting to go to work this morning, sliding around school buses, sliding into curbs, narrowly missing death and destruction. So hanging around the house seemed like a better thing to do.
I know it doesn't look like a big deal, this bit of snow on the bench, so here's a sunny day comparison for ya.

For some reason this snowfall made the streets particularly slick. In typical fashion, all city and school officials completely ignored the prediction of this storm and so no snow removal/de-icing activities began until far past time to head out to work and the kids were bussed to school only to have to turn around a get home shortly after arriving when they decided to close the school anyway.(now there's a run on sentence for you)...There were wrecks everywhere. anyway, we're safe and sound.
Sparky hates this staying in business....

Here's the festive tree in the snow. Nice to see from inside the warm house.


since my old computer broke and I lost all my photos, (I know, I should have backed up...) and I'm trying to get used to the new puter and new versions of various software, I've been a blog dilettante. So to get back in the saddle, so to speak, I'm going to be careless with the edit. I'm going to post willy nilly. Bear with me. thank you.

3 dog weekend

I had my friend's dog "bob" for the weekend, which if you include "be" aka kramer I had 3 border collies... OMG what a circus. I decided to try and get a picture of the three of them sitting together on a bench. Cute idea... but more difficult than you might imagine to execute. First of all Sparky would NOT get on the bench if one or more of the others was up there first. OK fine.


Kramer being young would not sit still for anything, and was forever trying to get some action started with one or both of the others...


Finally I got one shot of the 3 of them, but of course the light wasn't the best and Kramer was on his way out but you can see a great weekend was had by all.

This is it!

I'm singing to the choir here, but if you didn't get to the early polls, get going, gidiup over there NOW!!
Tonight I'm going to an election party, we are all required to wear blue. I hope it's over early so I can finally get some rest!
Over and out, be careful out there, and again if you didn't already GO VOTE!!!

saving kittens

today characterizes my life lately. I have an agenda, things to do, places to go, people to see, phone calls to return ... I had a ride today on my great steed Keno with my friend Sandra. When we got back to the barn, un-saddled, grain given, we had intentions to get on with the day and the many tasks that take up friday afternoon.... oh no, starving abandoned baby kittens crying out in hunger stopped us in our tracks. The mother either abandoned them or else was killed by coyotes, but the up shot is 4 young unweaned kitties sure to die without intervention. Now I'm all about nature taking it course in theory, but in the real life moment with tiny kittens crying out , forget about it. The rest of the afternoon is long gone taken up by mixing up milk replacer and feeding the little cutsters with a tiny little bottle. OMG After their little bellies were full and they were on their way back to a sleep, the task of getting others involved and taking over is at hand. It was not long until easily undone by cuteness gals came along and we were able to pass on for the moment our responsibility.... until tomorrow morning....

It will be OK

It's a scary time and also a hopeful time. Some of you will recall a mailing from me in 2003 when the Iraq war started and we were all so outraged. The gist was that despite all the hatred and fear, there were millions of acts of love and hope and it was up to us to let our best sides come out no matter what. I think many of us are suffering from outrage fatigue. I am blessed by spending most of my days with people in their 90's. What they tell me over and over is that we've been through bad things before and somehow it all turns out ok. So I say let's choose hope and love and let our best and most creative sides come out now more than ever. Don't forget to vote.Vote for hope and possibility. Vote Obama. Early voting starts here this week!! (on paper ballots!) But of course this is the beginning. We have to stay on our elected officials like stink on poop. Let's get moving on alternative energy, health care for all, and a responsible end to this ridiculous war in Iraq. Meanwhile do what you can to know your neighbors, and participate in making your place in the world better.
OK, I promise I'll get back to less cosmic issues. I've just come back from canvassing the 'hood, so I'm energized and hopeful. I hope it's contagious.

I'm back

I'm wondering if anyone even checks this blog anymore it's been so long. Ok frankly I've been obsessed with politics. Over the edge obsessed. I watched dang near every minute of both conventions. After the klan like "drill baby drill" thing, I was distraught beyond belief. I have been unable to focus on much of anything. And then in the last several days with the end of the world coming and all.... forget about it. I thought it trite to post about how cute Kramer is, or the process of choosing my stucco color. (I settled on "palomino", a buff color, by the way.) Despite telling others to remain positive, I was worried, deeply worried.
But, somehow I'm getting a grip on myself. After all the queen of the secret law of attraction, Oprah, is no doubt working on it. And damnit Jim, I'm an Occupational Therapist with PSYCHIATRIC training. Occupational Therapist, occupy yourself!! So in the hours I've previously been wandering from room to room aimlessly, I'm now filling with repetitive tasks such as sewing books, and doing dishes. I'm putting that anxiety to work for myself. I have volunteered down at the Obama headquarters going door to door getting people registered to vote and for sure out to the polls. I have some ideas to make art about this too. So take heart, I'm now sure it's all going to be ok. I promise I'll go back to the cute Kramer and Sparky posts, and I'll fill you in on my current run in with the law....