The road home Friday 1/13/2006

It’s always great to get off the freeway and see this view. I love that it is immediately country looking.

This road gets flooded when it rains. Probably will be on Saturday.

Bonus - Thursday 1/12/2005

I thought yesterday was going to be a slow photo day. But then an online friend from London said he was going to the pub, and I thought that sounded really good. So I walked a mile or so to the local coffee house. Found I could do 3/4 of the walk on a trail, so that was nice.

I'm now completely frustrated because I can't get the images to load in the order I want them. Tried several times and all I've been able to accomplish is accidently deleting them, etc. Guess I'm being a byte-piggy today.


Dog along the trail. Someon'es best friend. Clearly not mine.

Actually, this is like one of those unfair paparazzi shots. This dog mostly seemed friendly, jumping up a foot off the ground and wagging his tail.


The shot below is from about halfway between my house and the coffeehouse. I live on the other side of this little mountain.




The obligatory sign shot. When you see them, you have to take them, don't you?



This should have been the first shot. They were blowing water through a hydrant down the block. I like the way some of the individual drops catch the light.

Mug shot Thursday 1/12/2006

Yeah, it’s Mary Englebreit. You gotta problem wit’ dat?

It was a gift from my coworkers and it makes me happy. It’s the one place where I know being called Miss Smarty isn’t even slightly a put-down. Probably why I’ve been at this job longer than any other in my life.

DMG's Disks Wednesday 1/11/2006

I didn’t know this when I took the shot, but DMG spilled a soda on her disks the night before and was drying them out. I just liked all the pretty colors.

I, myself, am a USB drive fan.

Medicine Cards Tuesday 1/10/2006

Medicine cards are something like Tarot cards, except they don’t seem as much aimed at divination as at being thought-provoking.

Or maybe it’s just the way I use them. Pull a card and the animal figure and what it represents help you look at your day or a problem from a different perspective. I like that they are animals rather than people holding cups or swords or whatever. Sometimes they are breathtakingly on-the-nose in identifying my hesitations or issues.

I don’t really know what to make of this sort of thing. I use them and enjoy them. There’s something about the element of chance that sparks the divine within us is what I think if I’m pressed to express it.

It’s sort of like writing from a prompt. The word “mushrooms” will give five writers five different stories. The same word on two different days will give one writer two stories.

Images and impressions are always flowing around us, and anything that surprises us into a moment of contemplation in which we capture one of them seems like a positive thing to me.

Angle of Repose Monday 1/9/2006

Goofing around, looking at our home library from a different angle. Playing with shapes, I guess. This is the ball part of a maraca peeking over the edge of a shelf.

Yeah, I stole the title from Wallace Stegner. So sue me. [But from what I hear, Wallace Stegner shouldn't be throwing any stones!]

Gloves of Doom (bonus) Sunday 1/8/2006

I propped them up so they’d dry out. One, however, looks like it has distinctly evil intentions toward the other.

Yes, I was down on my knees and elbows in my back yard. Is that wrong?

Pruning the Roses Sunday 1/8/2006

It’s hard to cut back the roses when they start blooming again after Christmas, but January is the time to do it. Here they are on the table on the back deck. Next to them is a piece of a succulant I broke off and will plant.

Also pruned the apple, peach and apricot trees and cut back the Thompson grape vine. And raked leaves, and cut up branches that had fallen down, and left some of them piled for next week’s trash. And helped D get the Christmas lights off the roof.

This also doubles as exercise for the day. I feel accomplished.

Waiting - Saturday 1/7/2006

The frog is there because a frog looking out your front door is supposed to welcome prosperity. We haven’t won the lottery, but things are moving along pretty fluidly, and that feels like prosperity after having struggled for a long time.

The dog. The dog is a door stop. I bought it from one of the catalogues that came to our house after my mother-in-law passed away and we had her mail directed to our house.

It’s a replica of a type of cast iron door stop that was popular as far back as the 20s or 30s I suppose. My grandfather made these in a foundry in Indiana. My grandma had one at her house until sometimes in the 80s when it was stolen.

It took me a couple of catalogues to finally give myself permission to spend $40 on a dog door stop, but I am SO glad I did. It’s not the one we had, but I love the way it lets me see my Grandma B’s kitchen.

I do have one of the pony doorstops that my Grandpa B made. It holds open the door to my writing studio.

Contrail Friday 1/6/2006

We were walking to the garage, going to a hoot (acoustic music jam, sort of) when I looked up and saw this. Oh…my picture of the day, just waiting for me over the hill!

On our way, we picked up a friend of ours who was just released from prison. He was in because he was drinking before he got on the road, and he crossed the center line on a canyon road and killed a gardener on his way home from work. Desperately injured the other two men in the truck.

I think it was a good thing for him to go. Before he went, he was very much torn up about it. He seemed afraid that his friends wouldn’t want to be his friends anymore. Honestly, it was hard to know how to be supportive sometimes, while acknowleging the gravity of what he’d done.

He wasn’t a drunk. He was a man who enjoyed good food and good wine. His experience is a solemn reminder of our obligation to be in control of ourselves when we get behind the wheel.Now he has paid in the time that the judge said he needed to pay. It was an awful ordeal. I know the night still haunts him, but now he can come back knowing he’s done the time, and we can all begin to move forward.

I think he’s appreciating views like this these days.

To the Library Thursday 1/5/2006

Absolutely HAD to go to the library last night, even though it made me hit the freeway late. I left an audiobook in the trunk of my car when I dropped off before the holidays. Owed $4.45 on a title I didn’t even like. Sigh. But it’s worth it. I get a lot of good out of the library. The audiobooks make my long commute bearable.

Libraries are one of the best elements of our culture and they need to be supported. I still buy books. I think I should buy books because I want to write them, and I want to support other writers. But the library is a wonderful way to get hooked on a writer.

Picked up some new stuff I’d put on hold, including the audiobook of “Blink,” which I started listening to last night. Very interesting. Not too earthshattering so far.

I noticed the light and the lines of this fairly new building as I was walking in and took the time to snap a shot on the way out. Usually I try to edit out the powerlines, but I think they work here.

This Little Piggy Wednesday 1/4/2006

This little piggy and three others hold toothbrushes, etc. on ST’s pink-tiled 1920s bathroom. They provide a cheery greeting on a cold morning!

Back to Work Tuesday 1/3/2006

The main reason it’s not so bad to come back to work is the people I work with.

Like DGM, who taped this note and photo to my computer after I changed offices a few years ago and accidently left the picture behind.

Stormy Day Monday 1/2/2006

The wind blew and the rain rained all day Monday.

I don’t mind so much because rain always makes me feel like hunkering down and writing.

This watering can blew off the wall outside the window where I drank tea and wrote in longhand with the beautiful Waterman pen D gave me for Christmas.

Worn Christmas Light Sunday 1/1/2006

Bonus photo. I like this better than the Home Maintenance photo, but I thought I should put that other one up.

We get a lot of wind around here and over the past few years, the paint has been knocked off some of the big round Christmas lights we hang outside.

I love it that D wants to put up lights outside. I grew up in the country and we didn’t put up outside lights. It’s really lovely to come home at night and find the house all aglow. Oddly comforting. Also gives us a chance to compliment the neighbors and get compliments from them.

Tonight will be the last night we have them on. I’ll miss them, but I appreciate that these sorts of things are best brought out for the season and then tucked away. It’s been a good Christmas and New Years.

I wish everyone could feel as peaceful and contented as I do right now. I’m lucky and I know it today.

Home Maintenance Sunday 1/1/2006

Hmm. We knew this window was troubled. First day of the year. Lots of rain coming down.

D adds some pretty pretty trim to the house.

Cold rain is running down his arm.

Homeowners will perhaps recognize this as the garbage bag cure. It ranks right up there with the duct tape cure. These measures don't fix the problem, really. They just provide--shall we say?--temporary damage control.

I’m being really helpful, snapping a photo, huh?

Dodger awaits the guests New Year's Eve 2005

The house is clean. Most of the food is prepared in advance. The table is set. Dodger’s ready for the guests to arrive.

A couple of writer friends came up for dinner and stayed over night. T introduced me to my writer’s life in Los Angeles many years ago by accepting my invitation to go on a writer’s date. We wrote together in a couple of coffee houses, and she introduced me to a workshop, and most of my current friendships and creative relationships have stemmed from that.

T & M are wonderful creative people. Conversation ranged far and wide. They brought the main dish, we provided sides and dessert. After dinner D played a couple of songs. Then we read a scene from the play M is working on. Then I read from my novel rewrite and they had some startling and helpful feedback.

We didn’t make it till midnight or the champagne, but we’ll have a chance to get to the bubbly later this year.

They stayed over and we had breakfast and more conversation in the morning.

I can think of little better than spending the end and beginning of a year with good friends and/or family. Feeling lucky today.

Thanked my mom

For sending me some bits and pieces of writing I did when I was a little kid. Kind of confirms that this writing thing is going to be a part of my life no matter whether I sell much or not.

I wrote a little newspaper called “Weekend Report” once that chronicled the goings on around our house on a particularly eventful weekend when I was nine. What should have been the top story, but was about half way down, was about my big brother J coming back from “Nom,” but being in a “housepital” for an eye infection.

This is an illustration from the back page.

See more progress on: thank people

Geranium in Bloom Friday 12/30/2005

I’ve lived in Southern California for almost half my life now, and I’m still amazed that flowers continue to bloom through December. We had a couple of cold weeks earlier this year, down below freezing, but this guy by by front door kept on growing anyway.

This plant is from a cutting I took from a geranium down in Laguna Beach on the day of L’s memorial. Plants from cuttings are probably my favorites.

Fixing the Toilet Thursday 12/29/2005

Truly, many things happened other than toilet-fixing on this day. I took a photo of a row of shiney palm trees that I thought was going to be my photo of the day. But it ended up feeling like this was what it was all about.

The tank in the guest bathroom has been running for something like a week. We’d just turned off the water tap behind it and ignored it for a while. But friends are coming to stay the night for New Year’s Eve, so we thought we’d better get to it. So glad we didn’t wait for Saturday morning to start this.

This is an essential difference between the much-heralded D and I. He likes to wait until the minute before the last minute. I like to get my chores done first so they don’t bother me. Outstanding chores seem to have no emotional or psychological effect on D whatsoever. I might like to try this philosophy out sometime, but the mere thought of the consequences makes me shiver.

He did most of the work on this because it had lots of complicated little parts, and it’s a somewhat confined space, and I’m really really lousey at sitting around waiting to be asked to hand some one the pliers. So I tidied the rest of the house and stayed in earshot so I could help when I was really needed. To double check the assembly, to hold them steady while he tightened the bolts that secure the tank to the base. We replaced all the working parts instead of just trying to figure out which little gizmo was messing up. The works are probably as old as the house, which was built in 1989. Not so long ago in terms of houses, but pretty long for little plastic and metal parts that are constantly emmersed in water.

He got the whole thing back together and was hooking up the tap to the tank, when the worn out metal tube sprung a leak. Long story short, we had to turn off the water to the whole house. And drive 10 miles into town for a replacement part. Which the nice man told D didn’t need a washer. Just teflon tape.

My new plan is that we always buy a washer whether we need it or not. The twenty-seven cents is much cheaper than the gas to drive into town and back for the washer the nice man said we didn’t need.

I have a nice place to store unused washers, in baby food jars neatly arranged inside an old library cardfile. (Gee that sounds obsessively neat, and you’d be amazed at the mess that the house gets into. But I digress.)

D drove back to town to get the washer (another 20 miles round-trip) while I tried to keep being productive, but then I found the Medicine Cards (a divination set) that I’d thought I’d lost maybe forever, and did a centering spread and found out that… Well, anyway, I was very helpful when he got back, running in and out of the house repeatedly to turn on and off the water from the main supply. The washer did the trick, but then there were little leaks from other places.

Every half hour or so he’d go in and tighten something a little more. You have to be careful because you can crack the porcelain tank. The instructions say that you should only hand-tighten the various washered connections from the bottom of the tank, but there’s no way that this is effective in creating the kind of seal you need. I think you have to use wrenches, but they won’t tell you that because they don’t want you to call them when you bust the tank into seventeen pieces because you got a little over-zealous.

When in town in the midst of this, we took ourselves out for a very nice sushi lunch, congratulating ourselves that we’d saved a lot more than the cost of lunch by not calling a plumber. True. Lunch and the parts were probably half what a plumber would have charged. Of course, we could have saved the price of the lunch, but what kind of incentive is that, I ask you?

Oh good grief. Did I just write 707 words on fixing the toilet? Yes, I did. I checked it on Word.

Well, anyway, here’s a nice picture of the rejuvenated tank, which I added sunset hues and a poster effect to with Photoshop. Isn’t that romantic?

The three tenets of folding

1. You need a clean, clear space big enough to spread out whatever you’re folding. The top of the washer or dryer should work, given that you’ve actually put away the stuff you folded last week.

2. The item you are working with will tell you how it wants to be folded. T-shirts don’t like to have their sleeves crumpled. Washcloths like to show off their woven-in stripes. Napkins will sit prouder on the shelf if they get to show their patterns on the neatly folded edge.

2a. Sometimes, no matter what the folded item tells you, you have to listen to the drawer or shelf instead. Kind of like rock, paper, scissors: the drawer beats the cloth. It has to fit the space you have for it. Don’t feel bad. This will be a learning experience for both you and the item.

3. Patience, Little Grasshopper. Always patience. There is a zen moment waiting inside each item to be folded. Your mind will rest quieter knowing that everything is happy in its proper place. Or, if not exactly happy, at least experiencing spritual growth within adaptation.

Syriana at the Cineplex - Wed. 12/28/2005

We went to see Syriana this morning, first show of the day at 10:25. I always feel that I’ve gotten away with something wonderful when I see a movie in the morning. I still have the rest of the day to be productive, and to think about what the movie has to say, if it’s that sort of film. Which this one is.

Wow. If you’d have told me 5 years ago that George Clooney would one day be one of my heroes, I would have said he had a looong way to go. Seemed like just another playboy back then. But the man is using his money and clout to put out amazing films like this one and Good Night and Good Luck, and I am on his side, you betcha.

Syriana manages to make you see things from many different perspectives without becoming didactic. It’s very complex and that may seem a bit overwhelming at the outset. But I realized that there were many very Shakesperian-style themes at work in it, and that I needed to just trust that it would all come together and make sense in the same way a newcomer to Shakespeare has to let the language flow over her. Sure enough, the characters were distinct and the stories all followed through in interesting and engaging progressions.

An intellectually exciting film!

I didn’t plan this ahead, but there I was in the theater with my camera in my bag, and I can prove it…

I Squat for Freedom - Tuesday 12/27/2005

Stayed home all day. Cleaned my studio, which I tore up looking for a couple of things recently: framed photographs and a certain old journal with writings about Iceland for an essay I’m working on. D and I also cleaned up the house, which got a bit out of hand with all the unwrapping of gifties on Christmas Day, and playing with them the day after.

We went out for a hike around four o’clock. D has a digital camera too, now. His first in years and years. He took some amazing shots of light on the mountains yesterday. Our hike took a while since we both kept stopping for pix.

I had walked ahead and was squatting on the trail when I took this. He reciprocated by taking my photo. Squatting… It’s something one probably shouldn’t allow oneself to be photographed doing. It comes off as vaguely scatalogical at best.

But you know, maybe I should be proud of my ability and opportunity to squat when I want to. Could my grandmother have squatted with impunity?

I squat for women around the world who are not allowed to squat for reasons of oppressive propriety!

Or, um, for reasons of personal dignity.

The photo D shot:

D Checks Out the Sky 12/26/2005

We had reservations to camp at Carpinteria Beach State Park this week, but it was rainy and windy today. I think both of us were kind of holding back on saying that we didn’t really want to go, but once we talked about it, I felt truly excited about staying home.

It was a beautiful day off and on, with the clouds playing around the mountain tops across the valley.

Lucas Loves Scratches 12/25/2005

What a sweetheart. I love my birds. But I miss dogs. This is D’s cousin’s dog, Lucas. He watched us forlornly from outside the sliding glass doors while we feasted on Cornish game hens with papaya salsa.

He deserved a good long scratch, and I gave it to him.

Christmas Day 2005

Starts at home with a cup of tea.

I broke the lovely bone china poinsettia tea cup that I recieved from a White Elephant style gift exchange with the women of the acoustic music club last year. It was so thin you could see light through it. Of course it couldn’t survive my clumsy one-handed attempt to put the cap on the spray olive oil can. Sigh.

So this is my nice fall-back tea cup, with the sweet porcelain spoon my mother sent me for Christmas. These were meant for each other, no?

We open gifts from others before we drive down to spend the day with D’s family. Then open gifts from each other when we get home. A whole day of giftage.

D gave me a Waterman pen, with notes about it being a magic pen that will help me get the words out of my heart and onto the paper. This gesture of support and faith is particularly potent after this year’s struggles and self-doubt. I cried a little. The good tears. I’m a very lucky person.

The Tree Saturday 12/24/2005

I love having a tree in the house. We were very lucky with this one. We’ve had it since the week after Thanksgiving, and it’s still drinking water and not all dried out.

My family heritage includes Irish, English, and a tiny bit of Native American, but my maiden name was German and there is German ancestry on both sides of my family tree. My great-grandfather came here at the end of the 19th century.

I have a pickle ornament on my tannenbaum. As I understand it, it harkens back to pre-Christian days when pre-Germans worshiped nature and gave thanks by carrying food and candles to evergreens growing in the forests. (It’s widely credited to Martin Luther, but it’s true that Christianity has always been good at incorporating the symbols of the religions it replaces.)

Anyway, I perhaps romantically like to believe that my deep reverence for the natural world and appreciation of its beauty are rooted in my background. In Germany there are paths through fields and woods where visitors are welcome to partcipate in volksmarches (hikes).

We’ll contribute the trunk to a campfire this spring when we go camping with our friends.

Afternoon at the Bookstore Friday 12/23/2005

We spent a couple of hours at Barnes and Noble. Most people were shopping a bit frantically, so there were plenty of chairs to be had.

I’ve been reading Julie and Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment kitchen, which my friend G sent me…because of this blog. Pretty good return on my investment of time here, I’d say. It’s about a woman named Julie who set out to cook all the recipes in Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking in one year. I enjoy cooking when I have a little time, and this piqued my interest in trying some new dishes. Luckily, I came to my senses and didn’t get a Julia Child book. Just too difficult.

But I did have a lovely afternoon of sipping a pumpkin spice latte and looking through books. I took the foreground home, found another book to give as a gift, and D found one on various guitar styles that he brought home. We decided these were gifts for each other.

I highly recommend this sort of gift giving. Spending time hanging out and shopping together and stumbling onto something special you didn’t know about is fun, and we also have the gift of the memory of the day spent together. It might be a nice thing to give a friend or relative you don’t spend enough time with. A gift card and a shopping date.

Boy on the Plane Thursday 12/22/2005

There was a lot of bright light coming through the windows on the plane from Indy to Las Vegas.

The little boy in the seat in front of mine pushed the shade up a little and was studying the way his hand glowed red as the light passed through it.

He was a good little boy, maybe four years old. I’d watched his older brother cry and cry at the airport while we waited for our flight. His brother was about six or seven. He seemed to be deeply sad and frightened. He cried quietly.

“What if we don’t get a seat?” he asked.

His mother told him that they would be sure to get seats. They’d be allowed to pre-board because the little brother was so little. The older one seemed to be afraid that he wasn’t going to get on with them, that the little brother and mother would go on without him. Even though she’d just said they’d all board together, she saw this too, and reassured him that he’d get to go on at the same time. She was really good with him, but also betrayed a moment of looking near to tears as he tucked his head under her chin and cried silently.

How sad for him. How puzzling for his little brother who, afer all, probably won’t find it puzzling at all. It will just be the only way he’s ever known his brother to be.

Chickens at Tractor Supply Thursday 12/22/2005

Mom went to Tractor Supply for something and was thrilled with the toy display there. We stopped by on our way to the airport. They had all kinds of John Deere stuff, from toddler-mobiles to farmer hats. Wonderful stuffed animals, and little plastic farm animals, a great toy wooden barn and a plastic Pony Wash, complete with ponies.

It reminded me of reading a children’s picture book written by a friend from a writing retreat. I exclaimed that it was great to see a book about urban kids, because I didn’t remember seeing those as a kid. She looked at me kind of funny, and gently commented that there have always been urban children’s books, it’s just that my school would have ordered the rural ones because we’d relate to them.

Oh yeah. Duh. Get a little perspective, will you?

View from B's Front Door Wednesday 12/21/2005

Beautiful. Up until a couple of days before this, though, B and her husband, J, were parking their cars at the bottom of the lane and walking up. Too much snow. A neighbor came over with his CAT and plowed it out for them in anticipation of their boys coming home from college for the holidays.

It was hard choosing a photo to post. Took several nice shots around their 3 acres. They have an 80-foot barn, a couple of sheds, a pond.

B&J stood up with us at our wedding. Although we live a couple of thousand miles apart, they are still part of the family we chose.

I love visiting home, but I could do without the revival of my recurring homesickness.

Downtown Columbia City Tuesday 12/20/2005

Mom and I walked around downtown CC before meeting up with my sister for dinner. We found 3 or 4 little shops open and poked around in them.

Each of Indiana’s county seats has a wonderful courthouse. This one really anchors the town of about 8,000 people. My sister’s house is just a few blocks away.The building on the right used to house Flox’s Department Store. I remember going in there to shop for school clothes and shoes. You walked down a sloped hallway to get to the area where the shoes were sold. Now it’s an office building.

I can’t help but find it sad that most real commerce has moved to the outskirts of town. I used to come here with Mom on Saturdays when I was a kid and we’d split up for an hour or two before meeting at the ice cream fountain at the back of the hardware store, or for Coney dogs at The Nook. The Nook and Murphey’s jewelry store are the only two businesses that are still there from when I was little, I think. I liked to hang out at Garden Gifts and pick out a magazine to buy.

I know things are meant to change. This little downtown has actually survived the arrival of Walmart as well as can be expected. I wish the downtown well. I hope that the influx of people ends up meaning that they will one day want to walk the courthouse and have a couple more restaurant choices, and it will revive a bit as a gathering place.

Don't get me wrong. They hold a lovely Christmas event on the courthouse lawn every year, with local people forming tableaux and narrators telling the Christmas story. And the annual Old Settler's Days fair is held downtown, with entertainment all around the courthouse and in the blocked off streets. There's still a lot going on here. Just not so much the daily commerce that small towns used to enjoy and are beginning to see again, here and there.

It's so cold! Monday 12/19/2005

Mom and I walked down to the creek and back today. Stopped to take photos of the barn and fields until our fingers were painfully cold.

Love the color of these cornstalks in the snow.

It was 6 degrees when we got up this morning, 19 when we came back into the house after the walk, but Mom pointed out that the thermostat is in the sun. The wind was not strong, but added to the chilling effect.

My cheeks! Now I know what Jefferson feels like at Mount Rushmore.

See more progress on: Take a photo every day

Barn in Decay Monday 12/19/2005

This barn. I remember being in here as a kid. The neighbor girl’s dad nailed the tails of squirrels he’d shot to on of the beams. There were old horse stalls along one side and some abandoned equipment in the main area… Things I couldn’t quite identify that probably had to do with separating the wheat from the chaff or something similar.

I went in here a few years ago, before the roof gave way and walked around on the decaying floor boards. In the summer, vines climb in and out of the gaps in the walls.

My mom’s been photographing and drawing and painting this place for years. I want to see all her work on this place gathered together. It seems a very artful and fascinating project that she’s done because of the beauty in the old wood.

See more progress on: Take a photo every day

Clementines Sunday 12/18/2005

On Mom’s table, before everyone else arrived. I took lots of shots today, but I like these colors.

The family got together for a Christmas lunch. We do a little talent show. Very informal, sitting around the living room taking turns singing, playing an instrument, reading a poem, doing a cat’s cradle, telling a story. My sis and I did a jazzy version of Sentimental Journey that we probably should have practiced, but hey, it’s not Carnegie Hall!

See more progress on: Take a photo every day

Green Gables Saturday 12/17/2005

On the way home, we stopped at the country store at Big Lake. This is the cottage my mom’s family rented at the lake for summer vacations. She met my dad, a local boy, when she was staying here. It turned out to be the first place they lived when they got married.

I could have sworn it was a quarter mile walk from the store to the water, but it’s hardly any distance at all. The old store has been replaced, but I remember my wet footprints soaking into the worn grey wooden floorboards inside, and dipping into the cold water of an old fashioned cooler for an Orange Crush.

I’m loving all the pale pastels of winter.

See more progress on: Take a photo every day

Train platform Friday 12/16/2005

Thought I’d better get to this early since I’m going to be in transit most of today!

This was taken at the train station near my house (four miles.) It’s a little pool of light in a dark rural area. We can hear the train whistle from our house, and the coyotes usually answer back.

D dropped me off at 5:10 this morning and I waited in the 32 degree dark. The train came on time at 5:30. Not so bad when you’re bundled up and there’s no wind. It’s 31 in Indianapolis, where I’ll be landing around 11:40 pm local time. It’ll be colder there by then.

Nice gentle ride in, which I take as a good omen for today. I have a four hour layover here at work. Thank goodness my in-box was empty this morning. I guess yesterday was the last-minute panic.

I decided not to bring my laptop with me in spite of the 8+ hours of travel time when I could use it. Just too heavy. I secured a table on the train and wrote notes about my fellow passengers and just had a good time. I do have writing materials and my USB drive with me, but taking a sanctioned break is going to feel good.

My mom & sister will already be in a hotel in Indy when I get there. We’ll stay the night and drive back early in the morning. I’m looking forward to this SO MUCH!

In the Spirit Thursday 12/15/2005

Even the gas station is in the spirit. They decorated the weird little topiary-esque plants. Sweet.

Gassing up for D, because he’ll use the car while I’m gone. Off to snowy Indiana tomorrow afternoon. If I don’t have the patience to upload photos from there, I’ll save ‘em up for my return.

On Pass Avenue Wed. 12/14/2005

It was a beautiful day yesterday when we walked down to the Smoke House restaurant for our Christmas lunch at work. Food and company were very good. It’s an old-Hollywood feeling place with big red booths and lots of dark wood. Decorated for Christmas within an inch of its life.

On the walk back… I dunno, I just wanted a couple of shots. My coworkers were nice enough to wait while I took them. This is outside Warner Brothers Studios.

D's Guitar Tuesday 12/13/2005

The beautiful Martin D45. D’s pride and joy. Sitting on a stand in the living room.

There’s something about the sound of a guitar. Flattens out my brainwaves and heartbeats in a most pleasant way.

When I first met him, he didn’t have a TV. Just a guitar and an aquarium. I was very impressed. His music has brought us a whole world of friends and helped us get into camping with them.

I love to sing, but can’t play. Maybe one day.

M's Tree Enjoys the Videorocker Mon 12/12/2005

You really can’t tell from the photo, but this little Christmas tree my coworker brought in is really cute. We tried putting it against various backgrounds, and this showed the decorations the best…while not showing off our tacky office.

I could have cropped it down, but I think the tree looks expectant and comfortable on this chair.

Excuse me while I anthropomorphize everything in my life.

Materialistic much? Sunday 12/11/2005

Yeah, these are the new boots I bought. Silly, fun, comfy. I think I’ll be comfy in them on my flight to the frozen Midwest later this week.

Also, I was fooling around in this shot with my new camera’s self portrait mode. Portrait of the artist as a consumer.

Shopping - Saturday 12/10/2005

Okay, I admit it. I spent a lot of the day Saturday Christmas shopping. Thought I’d better grab a shot before I forgot. This is in a dressing room. I bought the berry-colored hoodie for myself!

On the way home, I pulled over by the side of Tierra Subida to take this shot of the clouds moving over the mountains.