Spiders

This is a picture of Dad's ranch in the morning facing east. The building on the right is my temporary home, the studio. The one on the left is the garage with the guest house above. In the middle, and set down from the road, is the main house. My cats are in the studio and I mostly sleep there, all my clothes and bathroom stuff and a much more comfortable bed are in the guest house, and the only kitchen is in the main house. I brought a coffee maker for the studio, to save me one trip back and forth in the morning, but so far I haven't been using it.



Yesterday I cleaned cobwebs and spiders and cleaned the big front windows in the studio. Dad has one of those brush things on a pole, which was easy to use in the guest house, but in the studio I also had to use a ladder. One thing to remember, when on a ladder, do not swipe at the spiders on the ceiling directly above you. They might come spinning down directly onto your head and you will forget everything you learned about ladder safety. Also, when you knock down 7 spiders, and only find 2 to squish, that means there are 5 roaming around free. I did not fall, but today I have several spider bites.

I stretched some more watercolor paper and am missing my own set up. Dad has a lifetime supply of art supplies, but a crappy utility knife, actually three knives where the blade doesn't fit well, and I could not find the cutting mat. Beggars can't be choosers.



We went to dinner at a neighbor's house last night that I have been trying to avoid. Their house is a modern concrete and steel thing with absolutely the worst feng shui you can imagine. There was an earthquake up here a few years ago that sent a crack through the neighbor's property, and their almost finished house, as if the planet was trying to say, please do not build this here! But they finished it anyway, and even added a pool. When moving from the city to the country, what is the point of bringing the city with you? Good dinner, though, and I did not have to cook it.

Yesterday early morning we had thunder and it looked like monsoon season, which isn't supposed to start until August, and last night we watched the fog roll in over the hills as if June gloom had not ended. When you are unemployed it is hard to remember what day it is, but isn't it July?