Monthly Archives: May 2014
Day 2 of the Long Weekend
Clouds and rain. For more than seven minutes. Happiness. And I wrote a lot. And my new recipe for Roasted Tomatoes with Polenta and Spinach from Shutterbean is delicious and easy.
IT IS SO PRETTY I FELT COMPELLED TO POST IT TWICE.
Long Weekends
FROM WORK. A sculpture sort of. Can you tell I don’t work for an insurance company?
Long weekends are the best reason for working (besides the money of course). Regular weekends just give you a hint of the good life in which you can create or veg out or garden or have time for an art/sporting event or sleep late or…. Vacations take a lot of work both at work and planning and checking the tires or downloading the tickets. Sick days, especially if you’re not that sick, carry that tinge of guilt and if you’re really sick, well what a waste of perfectly good time off.
We hung a new piece in our lobby today. Can hardly notice it among the other subdued colors?
But long weekends are the best. Free Time. All the regular weekend stuff can happen and then there is that Extra. Day. Off. Demands no planning, no guilt. Not enough extra time to accomplish anything important so you may as well watch 13 episodes of House of Cards or read an entire Swedish crime novel or cook that thing you’ve kept the recipe for that will require you to drink at least half a bottle of wine during the prep.
I, on the other hand, must write write write for my class—which makes me a UCLA student, nose to the grindstone over a long weekend, but feeling smart and self-righteous and ever so literate. And cooking a new polenta tomato thing and drinking the wine goes nicely with writing.
Happy Long Weekend.
News from the Hood
There’s a new bank one block from me. Really? We need more banks in this world? People needing more money for their work and families is not the same as adding new banks is it? But capitalism tends to confuse those two issues. And besides it is quite an ugly, or at the very least non-descript, bank. Couple blocks along and the roses are out in glorious bloom which lifts one’s spirits after contemplating the number of banks and bankers in the world.
Then a truck sped down Tingley and hit a duck as it crossed the road with its friends. Didn’t even stop to see whether it lived or not. A kindly man coming behind got the dying bird off the street and was trying to figure out if he could catch the driver of the truck but then what could he do. Truck drivers who carelessly kill things and don’t stop are likely as not have a gun tucked in here or there in the cab so a confrontation would not end well.
The lucky ones slept in.
A woman was watering her blue flowers. I can’t remember what they’re called.
Back at my house my cactus is awake.
A Day
In line at Starbucks. No ducks though.
At work by 7am with the grand idea of getting a lot of work done………..good morning meeting……….so far so good. A quick trip to computer-geek-land. From there it was all downhill.
More scenic shots from the Starbucks drive-in.
Nevertheless life is not so bad. I had an iced latte with Walgreen’s bean dip and Fritos for an early dinner: I have my third new laptop from Best Buy (third time’s the something or other?), it’s 6:18pm and in one hour and 42 minutes I can go to bed and read “Norwegian by Night” which is a really really fine book. I’ve read a string of great books lately which I will try to review this weekend.
Back at the Beach
The great great grandchildren of 2012’s duck (not geese right?) photos.
Tingley is just the kind of beach you want when you’re over a certain age, whatever age that is for each of us. No swimming, sunbathing, beer drinking, beach volleyball or making out allowed. Just walkers and cyclists and ducks and me.
Late May and the daytime temperature already in the upper 80s but at 6am one can believe that life is fresh and green…somewhere to the east perhaps. It was a little chilly this morning but the drought is so extreme that even at dawn there is not the slightest hint of damp in the air. I don’t ever remember dew in this part of the world, but sometimes, very early in the day the memory of moisture might tantalize. Not anymore.
Never mind. It was beautiful in its own New Mexico way.
Friends are good.
TODAY 