Bruneau's Giant Dune

To get to Bruneau Dunes I went south to Mountain Home on the main highway, then cut over west. On the way home I went a different way north along the Snake River and through Nampa, then I turned back east to Boise. All day I was amazed that there was no traffic and no crowds. Bruneau Dunes is a state park with camping and there was hardly anyone there and in another month it will be too hot for Bruneau Dunes.

This is on the way in, outside of Bruneau,


I started out on the 5.9 mile loop on an almost invisible trail that is supposedly marked with markers, but I could barely see from marker to marker. The trail merges with the equestrian trail for a while and I missed a turn and stayed on the equestrian trail and thought I was going the wrong way, so I cut over to try to find the people trail. As soon as I did this a falcon started circling and screaming overhead as if to tell me, you are off the trail! I must have walked by some marsh, because then I got feasted on by mosquitoes.


Then I got to the base of the dune. It should not be Bruneau Dunes, it should be Bruneau One Big Great Giant Dune,




I am supposed to start at the far right edge of the Great Dune and walk along the edge to the top. This seems to start off pretty gentle. You can see in the last picture my steps on my shortcut down. I got maybe 1/5 of the way and said, nevermind, I don't care how great that view is at the top. It was sand! My feet sank in and I had to drag them up and forward and I figured even if I made it to the top, I would never get back.

So, I worked my way back to where I thought the people trail was supposed to be and ended up right in the same spot as I was earlier when I decided I was going the wrong way! With my detours, I figure I hiked 5 miles. When I got back to my car and studied the trail map, I decided that their map is wrong and the the edge of the Great Dune, where I was supposed to start my accent, had moved and was much father to the right than pictured. Seems plausible.

Then I went to take a look at their observatory,


I did not expect an observatory to be so small. Near the observatory were people climbing up much smaller dunes and running down,





Below the observatory is a lake with a boat dock and I met a couple who's son was out fishing. Fishing here really will not be good for another month, but they did catch something. That is the son's dog, who has issues with jumping in the water, which is the reason for the harness. The couple told me that Bruneau's Giant Dune is the largest dune in North America. They also told me that Hell's Canyon is the deepest gorge in North America, even deeper than the Grand Canyon. The largest gorge and the largest sand dune, right here in Idaho. (Although I admit, Idaho shares Hell's Canyon with Oregon.)

It was a perfect weather day. When I started at the visitor's center I asked the girl if she thought it was going to rain. She just shrugged her shoulders and said it didn't look like it now, but who knows what will happen in the next five minutes. That is Idaho. Good thing she doesn't work at Hell's Canyon, with canyons you need to pay attention to impending rain, and flash floods.

I was amazed on the drive home, the farms along the Snake River are so green! Part of it is that I have not seen enough green in the last few months, but it really was a bright green crop, maybe young wheat. I did not take any pictures on the way home, it was the wrong time of day and too bright and I was too tired.

It was a perfect day, although today I am paying the price for a day pack that is missing bug spray.

Happy Memorial Day

Happy Memorial Day from Boise,



About my trip to Bruneau Dunes tomorrow.

Mom, while you are in Spain or Germany do not eat the cucumbers.

Idaho in the News

It is three-quarters clear sky this morning and both cats are all over me. I feel cooped up and I am about to get out of the house and go hike Bruneau Dunes. We'll see if I can still hike 5.9 miles, which is the length of their main loop.

Yesterday Cruiser thought I should get up early, had his breakfast, and then promptly went down for a nap. Thanks, Cruiser. It was one of those days where it looked like it was about to rain all day, which doesn't seem to happen that much here, if it is going to rain it just does.

Since Cruiser got me up early, I went to buy the dirt to finish my vegetable planting.



I over-planted the first planter, but who knows if everything will grow. I did not realize how big the cucumber is supposed to get and it could probably use half of the planter by itself, but maybe by that time the strawberries will be done. I made the bamboo trellis on the second planter for the beans and I have more sticks if I need to make it bigger. Why do they stain those sticks green? My hands were green when I finished. I used fishing line to tie it together and to attach the trellis to the back of the planter. Fishing line is a useful item up there with duct tape. It is wet in the picture because I watered and hosed off the patio. After planting, I mowed the backyard lawn and it finally started to rain just when I finished. The lawn was tall and damp and hell to mow.

A hit play now on off-Broadway is set in Boise and was written by a guy from Moscow, Idaho. It is called "A Bright New Boise" and is about a son and his estranged father, who leads an end-times church. Apparently, no one in New York can pronounce Boise. That is boy-see, not boy-zee, and not b'was. There is no emphasis on the boy or on the see, they are emphasized the same. I still have to think about it when I pronounce it, since I have that persistent Valley Girl with remnants of my parent's Indiana accent.

Today is the Indy 500. Dad used to watch it, since he is from Indianapolis, although I would not really say watch it, it was just on, does anyone really watch the Indy 500? It is super boring until the end. The oldest driver in the field, Davey Hamilton, who is almost as old as me, is from Nampa, Idaho. The sentimental favorite is a woman who burned both her hands in a practice race last week when she crashed. She is still racing today, with both hands bandaged.

I stayed up to watch "The Killing" last night, but they did not repeat last week's episode on Sunday morning like they have since it started, so I missed an episode and I was irritated. I will not be able to stay up and watch next Sunday and will probably have to rent it in order to see the end. This makes me just about done with cable TV. I watched the Kentucky Derby at my neighbors on their nice 32" flat screen TV with an HD antenna and no cable. Boy, have antennas really changed. I would like to have that by the time my cable commitment runs out later this year. I can get rid of cable and join Netflix, since I can't watch the only things I really watch on TV anyway, and get rid of that monster size TV that I've been hauling around from house to house and across the country.

Ah, more blue sky, time to get out and away from the computer and the TV.

Spring Feels Like It Will Last Forever

With the new job I almost forgot to do my homework for the Artist's Way. We met last Thursday and I did my reading on Wednesday night and my homework in my car on my lunch hour on Thursday. It was a great chapter and a great meeting. I thought it was too bad that I read the chapter so late, because the beginning is all about trying to live your life like other people want you to and then not being able to do it and feeling angry, which really spoke to me. We laughed so hard that I cried at our meeting and we came up with so many great country song and book titles that I finally had to write them down. It was sad to think that we are almost done, the next meeting is on the last chapter, Week 12.

The week at work got easier. I know how to do more on my own and by Friday I was busier. I am now in charge of the temperature in the office. When people complain they now complain to me. There are about 14 thermostats and I have a color coded map of what thermostat controls what offices. In one area, the person with the thermostat in their office runs a heater, heating up their office and kicking on the air conditioning in everyone else's office, so they are cold. The explanation of how to program the thermostat unveiled as I worked on the temperature all day on Thursday, causing me a great deal of irritation and leading me to believe that someone likes keeping this as an ongoing, unsolvable problem. They do not know that I like a challenge.

Friday morning I went to work and it was cool and cloudy, but not raining. On my morning break it was raining. On my lunch hour it was sunny and warm and I was hot going to Starbucks in my jacket. On my afternoon break it was pouring. When I left work it was clear again. That is Idaho, but it makes it hard to figure out what to wear to work.

They say it is OK to plant in Boise when there is no more snow on some peak, I can't remember the name. There was still snow on that peak two weeks ago, but people were telling me it is still OK to plant. When it rained last Friday, that peak was all covered with snow again. It is almost June! I decided to plant this weekend anyway.

I bought my vegetables to plant today. I bought snap peas, strawberries, cucumber, green peppers, and jalapenos, mostly because that is what they had. You have to plant too many strawberry plants to get a decent amount of strawberries, but I thought I would try them anyway. I also bought a geranium, which is an annual here. The blueberry in the ground is growing much better than the blueberry in the pot, and since I have a job and I get to stay here, I put the potted blueberry in the ground next to the other one and I am going to use the pot for the geranium. I put the compost on the bottom of my planter (pee-yew!), covered it with some of the ground dirt left from planting the blueberry, then covered that with some potting soil, and ran out of potting soil just as it started to rain again.

While searching for the name of that peak I came upon someone's pictures of Boise taken in May 2007. This is probably what Boise looks like in a normal May, instead of one where spring feels like it will last forever,

http://www.city-data.com/forum/boise-area/116134-boise-both-sides-mountains-trees-more.html

It might clear up enough for me to go on a mini-road trip on Monday. Why is Memorial Day weekend weather always so bad? Everyone plans a barbecue thinking it is the beginning of summer and it is not, it is still spring. As a kid we often went to the beach, where most of the time Memorial Day signals the beginning of June gloom.

In another month it should be super hot here and everyone is looking forward to it, but also saying that then we will all be complaining about the heat. Not me! I love the heat. I might be complaining about having to go to work, though. After having the summer off for the first sixteen years of my life, I never seem to get used to having to work during the summer.

Good grief!

My neighbor's warned me that Joe's uncle would be visiting on Tuesday night and his RV might infringe on my driveway, and here it is Wednesday morning,


Joe's uncle retired from GM at the ripe old age of 49. Whatever you want to say about overpaid executives, at least they are working for their salary.

These are the iris in front of one of the Historical Society buildings,



I remember being impressed by these last year and this year I took much better pictures.

Some humor from Wall Street Journal columnist James Taranto,
"A day after he announced it, Willie Nelson has withdrawn his presidential endorsement of the monotonous libertarian extremist Gary Johnson, RawStory.com reports (apparently quoting Nelson's email verbatim): 'Yesterday, both the Teapot Party and Gary Johnson 2012 sent out press releases announcing the endorsement,' wrote Teapot Party member Steve Bloom Thursday.... 'My position is it too early for me to endorse anyone,' he wrote in an email to Bloom. 'And I think every one should vote their own conscience.' Willie went on: 'I think I will wait and see where he stands on other things. My bad. Sorry. I still think he is a good guy but so Is Dennis [Kucinich] and if he decided to run I would personally vote for him. If it came down to either him or Gary I'm already committed to Dennis. They both have said they support legal pot.' We're glad he cleared that up. But wait. What if it's Newt Gingrich vs. Russ Feingold -- how does Willie vote then? An anxious world holds its breath. An anxious world exhales. An anxious world suddenly feels more mellow. A mellow world scarfs down an entire bag of Doritos. Dude, what was this item about again?"

This morning I was a bit cold in my sweatshirt when I dropped off my painting for the IWS show, by the time I left work it was windy and hot, and by the time I got home it was windy and hot with dark cloud cover and I was grateful I do not live in tornado country. Now it is pouring rain.

Last night I was really tired, so I took my Artists Way homework to bed and waited for it to get dark enough to sleep. At 10 pm there was still a bit of light left, but I fell asleep anyway. I am a morning person and I used to like to be up before 6 am and asleep before 10, but I never really adjusted to the time change here. Now I usually up until 11 pm and have a really hard time getting up at 6 am for work. (Although I did not have any trouble getting up at 6 am on the weekend.) The longest day of the year is still a month away, by the end of June it should be light until 11!

Only two more days of work and then a three day weekend and then a four day work week, yay! I am somewhat entertained at work by fixing some floorplans in Visio as a side project. At least it feels somewhat artistic. My boss sent me an email about problems with a thermostat that I was supposed to deal with this afternoon, only problem is that she sent it to my home email, so I did not know about it until I got home. Good grief!

Dogwood

There is nothing California has that can compare to the Dogwood here. These pictures do not do it justice,







The hummingbirds just arrived in Southern Idaho. They are late and those that know are blaming the late spring. The late spring is also being blamed for disease that killed a large number of roses. I remember last year they were very late and many died, and this year it happened again.

My neighbors went away for the weekend and I fed their cats and they paid me a welcome $20. They did not have to pay me, but I appreciated that they did. Cookster is missing a few teeth and takes longer to eat, so I pay attention to Pierre while Cookster finishes. After my neighbors got home on Sunday afternoon, Pierre was standing on the top of my fence and I tried to shoo him away. He just looked at me like, hey, I thought we were friends?

Most Sunday mornings I like to walk over to Jacksons and buy a newspaper. Even in Idaho, the newspaper is a liberal rag and I refuse to pay for a subscription. Last Sunday I was standing in line with my paper and the young guy behind me says, you know that paper is really biased? I said, I know, I really just by it for the ads and the coupons. He seemed satisfied with that.

It is a good thing that no one at work appears to be a good receiver, as in mind reader. I was alright by the afternoon, but I had a hard time this morning. I need an hour off to deliver my painting for the IWS show and I had a hard time getting it, and then I had a hard time understanding how my boss wanted to work out the time off as flex time. I got the time off, but it got really complicate and I am now convinced that my communication skills are much better than I thought. I learned from the pregnant girl that the person that they hired instead of me only lasted a week. She did not have enough computer skills and they let her go. It was really close and a tough choice? Hmm.

After work I picked up my painting for the IWS show from the framer. No more spending money on framing for a while, but the painting really does look awesome. I had to hang it on the wall, so I could admire it for a day.

Poppies and Yardwork

I spent half of the day working in the yard and my attitude is much better.

I went out for coffee this morning and these were on my way,



They are red poppies, but not like California poppies, they are huge.

These are Sarah's raspberries trying to spread into my side yard. I can't imagine that these will get berries, they do not get enough sun, but it shows you how invasive raspberry plants can be. I only remember the blackberry bushes in Michigan, but I used to walk through the ravine across the street when my family vacationed there and they were just growing wild everywhere.


This is my ammo box ready for dirt and plants,


I was trying to figure out how to brace the lid to hold it open and then I realized I could just take it off. I set the lid under the planter to elevate the planter off of the cement. Then I was trying to think of what to line the bottom with and I saw these hanging basket liners that I was going to buy, but then I realized I have plenty of grass cuttings. The liners look like grass anyway, so I put grass cuttings in the bottom a few weeks ago and now they are nice and dry.

Next goes the compost. I've been putting food scraps in an empty Folgers coffee container, which soon became so nasty I had to put it outside. Every once in a while I mixied in some leaves and some grass cuttings. Now that it has been warm my compost is doing well fermenting in the sun, but it smells! I am waiting to spread the compost until I am ready to add dirt and plant. I can't add the dirt without plants, Spit will see it as a giant catbox, which she might even with the plants.

It took me half of the day to mow both yards and do the edging. I have not done any edging this year, so that was quite a job and I was dreaming about a power edger.

No one has gardeners here, so everyone does their yard work on the weekend or after work. This makes for a quieter week, although everyone here seems to have a chain saw that they need to use on the weekend. I watched a neighbor trim a small tree last weekend with his chain saw, which was just dumb, and I watched another one cut down a tree with a chain saw this afternoon. This afternoon's job was worthy of a chain saw, except either the chain saw was crap or the guy couldn't operate it, because it kept starting and stopping.

Spit and Cruiser do not like the mower, even though it is just a push mower, but they hung out in the yard while I did the edging. I was working in the nice warm sun and both cats lounged in either the sun or the cool grass where I have not edged yet and I felt like, this is what I missed, this is why I am here in Idaho. I missed working in the yard in my bare feet and getting my hands dirty and seeing my cats so content. So, with that, I felt better and not caught up in my feelings about the job.

I finished just in time for it to start raining.

TGIF!

Thank God it's Friday! Wow, I have not said that in a long time. The week got easier and I was not so tired at work as the week progressed, but I still have no energy when I get home. I received the reject email from Parks and Recreation and it made a depressing end to a long week.

I went on a tour to meet everyone at my new work on Tuesday afternoon. I felt bad going on my tour while I was dreaming about the Parks and Rec job. Everyone seems happy and everyone likes their job. There seems to be very little gossip and the atmosphere is pretty nice and comfortable. At least that is different. I am in a cubicle, but most people have individual offices and almost everyone has a window. There are atriums in the middle of the building, so it is easy to take a break and sit outside and get some sun. The one month new girl was promoted from the front desk and the week old new girl was an internal transfer and I am lucky to have this job as a stranger off the street.

I came home to the reject letter from the City of Boise, I was not chosen to do a traffic box.

Tuesday night I went to a workshop after work on the legal side of being an artist. It was a bit tough to get myself there by 5:30, but it was only an hour and a half. I learned that the My Free Copyright that I have on my blog is absolutely useless and that as soon as I post artwork on Facebook I loose my rights to the work. I can submit a portfolio of work under one copyright (and one fee) to copyright.gov, rather than having to copyright each piece. Even if I do this, it is expensive to defend. My donation of artwork to a charity auction is not deductible, and neither is your purchase of my artwork at a charity auction. The lawyer/presenter did not like China much, they appear to have entire cities dedicated to copying artwork, mass producing it, and selling it all over the world. Some useful links:

http://www.copyright.gov/
http://fairuse.stanford.edu/Copyright_and_Fair_Use_Overview/
http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/investigate/vc_majorthefts/arttheft

The presenter talked about a scam I already know about, which is when someone sends an email or calls saying something like their dying mother really wants one of your paintings before she dies and they will give you a cashiers check and you ship the painting. There is you giving them cash in there somewhere, but I can't remember how. The cashier's check is a really good fake, but no good, and you are out the painting and the shipping cost. I remember Dad talking about that scam last summer. I can see how any artist would be so happy to be finally selling something that they would get easily caught in a scam.

Cruiser and Spit started out looking at me in the morning like, What are you doing up so early? Where are you going? But by this morning, Cruiser was walking around on the bed and looking at me like I need to get up 5 minutes before the alarm went off. Spit licked her dinner plate so clean on Monday night that she scooted the plate across the floor. Both cats are now pretty well adjusted to me being gone all day and an evening in the backyard searching for worms in the too-tall-already grass seems to replace the evening brushing, or at least neither cat is whining for it.

Last night I went to bed with the window open and the frogs were so loud that I thought about closing the window, but then I fell asleep.

I think I will just update my resume with my new job on the state jobs website and then take a break for a while. I've had my fill of rejection for now.

First Day of Work

I am home from my first day of work since June 24, 2010 and I am tired, cranky, and my eyes hurt. My neighbor, Kurt, came back Saturday from truck driving for at least a month straight, and he has been weed-whacking his overgrown yard since I got home.

I did not get a good night's sleep and I was tired all day. I can see why they hesitated to hire me for this job, I am going to be super bored within the week. It is in the fiscal department and I am pretty much matching invoices in one system to account numbers in another system and either approving them or researching numbers that do not match. Today I just got set up on the computer systems and sorted letters and put them in envelopes all day. I met the girl who got the job a month ago, who is Basque, and a girl that has been there a week that is very pregnant. I heard I am there to replace the lead, who is retiring in September, and fill in for the pregnant girl when she goes out on maternity leave at the same time. Right now I am hoping and praying for that city job so I won't be there.

The thing that set me off is that today is the beginning of the two week pay period and I will not get paid for this pay period until June 10. That is an outrageous lag time and really screws me up financially for the next two months. My rent will have to be late. I also have to pay in to retirement right away, even though I am now temporary. I guess government jobs are screwed up everywhere.

At least my commute is only 5 minutes and 3 miles. It may have been longer this morning because it was snowing. Snowing!? I remember when I came here on my road trip I came into Boise and there was snow on the mountains on May 23rd, and I said, hey, I do not want to live someplace with snow in May! People told me there had been an unusual snow all the way down into the city that morning. This is either the 2nd year of unusual snow in May or it's not that unusual. The sun came out in the afternoon and the snow was really low on the mountains, but most of it is already gone. Kurt must have been really determined to whack his lawn, because not only was it a foot tall, it was cold and wet from two days of rain and snow.

Cruiser and Spit were at the door for their late lunch when I got home. Spit is now looking a bit resentful, but that may be because she hasn't received her brushing yet.

Funny to think that one week from today it will be one year since I arrived in Boise on my road trip.

Baby Geese and Ducks!

The sun rose this morning and lit up the trees against a dark gray sky, but that was it for the sun today. It is raining and back to temperatures in the 60s. I think these are lilacs and they are all over town in shades of purple and pink,


I tried to go to see art at the Linen Building again this morning, and again there was nothing there. It is is listed in the Weekly every week, but is supposed to be the 3rd Sunday of the month, isn't this the 3rd Sunday of the month? I give up. As a reward for my effort, I noticed baby geese in Ann Morrison Park on my way home, so I pulled in to Katherine Albertson Park across the street to check. Once I go in to Ann Morrison Park in my car, I have to go all the way through the park to get out, and Katherine Albertson Park is less crowded with no dogs allowed through June. There were baby geese and ducks everywhere!

These have to be just hatched, there were two groups here, a couple with five chicks and what looked like dad taking one chick for a stroll while mom sat on the rest of the eggs. I thought that it was funny that even baby geese have feet that are too big for their body.




Then I came around the corner to a sea of geese with chicks that look like teenagers,



The sea of baby geese proceeded across the park supervised by a few grownups and then spilled in to an opening in the thicket and disappeared. The lunchtime stroll must have been over and it was time for the teenagers to have a nap.

Then it started to rain really hard and I came up on the duck family,





Even the tiny little ones move super fast. Trying to get pictures in the pouring rain while standing under a tree and pulling the camera out from under my jacket was a challenge, but of all baby animals, I think baby geese are the cutest. I am amazed this is less than a mile from my house and because of the rain, I was almost the only person there.

Cruiser and Spit have been enjoying breakfast and lunch every day for almost a year. They can't wait for dinner, and I have been feeding them lunch instead because I can't stand to hear them whine about it. They are back to breakfast and dinner tomorrow and they are not going to be happy.

Here Comes the Sun!

It has been close to or above 80 degrees since Wednesday. Either the heat or the job starting on Monday has inspired an incredible laziness in me. I kept thinking I should take advantage of my last few days of not working, but I seem to want to take advantage by not doing much of anything.

My neighbor's backyard tree was a big puff ball of white flowers a few weeks ago, but last weekend all the petals started to drop and it looked like it was snowing again, and today the flowers are all gone. Two days of warm weather also did in the tulips, the few that are left are just wilted.

This morning it felt like summer in Michigan, it was hot, but with the clouds and humidity of a coming thunderstorm. It did not finally rain until early evening, but thunderstorms are due to continue for a few days and the temperature drops 20 degrees tomorrow. The thunderclouds are spectacular to see and it would have been a good day to go to Bruneau Dunes, but I was afraid of coming back in the thunderstorm.

I drive by the trees with these flowers every day and I finally got out at the right time of day and took pictures,



After taking pictures for a few minutes, my eyes started to water like crazy and they did not stop until I left, so whatever kind of tree this is, it either has toxic fumes or I am allergic to it.

Last Thursday was my AA bithday. I am 7 years sober. On Tuesday May 11th 2004, I walked in to my third meeting of Alcoholics Anonymous and was warmly greeted by someone that changed my life. I had been drinking that entire day, but that night I chose the next day, May 12th to be my sobriety date, and I have not had a drink since. My sobriety has been hard and there are many times that I said, I did not get sober for this! Every year my birthday message has been that you can stay sober through anything, through letting go of houses, people that you love, credit, half of your possessions, shopping, TV, and even going to a job that you hate for more than five years. I got better and better, but the outside of my life just kept getting worse. This year I thought I was going to have the same message (add moving to a place you thought would be good for your spirit, being unemployed for almost a year, spending all of your retirement, and maybe having to move back home with your parent) and I was a bit pissed off about it, until I got that job. Besides being relieved at having a job, I was pleased to finally get to say how great my life is today. This has been the best year of my life.

My brother John says that you better like yourself, because that is the only person with whom you have to spend your entire life. It was so great to move and change my life into something that I wanted and take myself with me, rather than thinking that a different environment would make me different. I've done that lots of times and it didn't work.

Anyway, it is so much easier to see how my experience can benefit others when I am not wondering how I will pay my rent next month and thinking that moving to Idaho was a crazy, irresponsible idea.

In honor of my birthday, I have video and lyrics. I've been listening to Richie Havens since Wednesday, and these are my two favorites. Richie Havens' version of "Here Comes the Sun" is one of the best covers ever done, and I think it is better than the Beatles' version. I could not find decent video for "Follow", so I just have the lyrics, which are awesome.



"Follow" by Richie Havens
Words by Jerry Merrick

Let the river rock you like a cradle
Climb to the treetops, child, if you’re able
Let your hands tie a knot across the table.
Come and touch the things you cannot feel.
And close your fingertips and fly where I can’t hold you
Let the sun-rain fall and let the dewy clouds enfold you
And maybe you can sing to me the words I just told you,
If all the things you feel ain’t what they seem.
And don’t mind me 'cos I ain't nothin' but a dream.

The mocking bird sings each different song
Each song has wings - they won’t stay long.
Do those who hear think he's doing wrong?
While the church bell tolls its one-note song
And the school bell is tinkling to the throng.
Come here where your ears cannot hear.
And close your eyes, child, and listen to what I’ll tell you
Follow in the darkest night the sounds that may impel you
And the song that I am singing may disturb or serve to quell you
If all the sounds you hear ain’t what they seem,
Then don’t mind me ‘cos I ain’t nothin’ but a dream.

The rising smell of fresh-cut grass,
Smothered cities choke and yell with fuming gas;
I hold some grapes up to the sun
And their flavour breaks upon my tongue.
With eager tongues we taste our strife
And fill our lungs with seas of life.
Come taste and smell the waters of our time.
And close your lips, child, so softly I might kiss you,
Let your flower perfume out and let the winds caress you.
As I walk on through the garden, I am hoping I don’t miss you
If all the things you taste ain’t what they seem,
Then don’t mind me ‘cos I ain’t nothin’ but a dream.

The sun and moon both are right,
And we’ll see them soon through days of night
But now silver leaves on mirrors bring delight.
And the colours of your eyes are fiery bright,
While darkness blinds the skies with all its light.
Come see where your eyes cannot see.
And close your eyes, child, and look at what I’ll show you;
Let your mind go reeling out and let the breezes blow you,
Then maybe, when we meet, suddenly I will know you.
If all the things you see ain't what they seem,
Then don’t mind me ‘cos I ain’t nothin’ but a dream .
And you can follow; And you can follow; follow…

Got a Job!

DDS, State of Idaho Disability Determination Service, called and offered me a job starting Monday! I go in tomorrow to do paperwork! I must admit that during the job offer call I was struggling with my interview tomorrow and the possibility of my dream job, but I went with the bird in the hand. I will worry about how to handle a new job offer when it happens.

What a relief! Now I am going to take my IWS painting entry to the framer and then I am going to have some fun before I do my interview homework.

Yay!

Another Interview!

Interviewing for a administrative job for City of Boise Parks and Recreation on Thursday. This would be an awesome job and would pay almost twice as much as the jobs I interviewed for DDS and Medicaid. I am pretty excited about this one.

(When Cruiser is jealous of the computer, he sprawls across the desk, knocking everything off, and lays his paw on my mouse hand, but Spit plays a circle game. She walks across the desk in front of the monitor, careful not to step on the keyboard, then down to one side of my chair, behind my back, onto one end of the desk, and then across the desk in front of the monitor again. Round and round. I try to head her off at the pass by leaning against the back of the chair, but then she just switches direction. She is playing the circle game now.)

When I decided to change careers in 2004, I was originally going to get my Master's degree in psychology, but then I looked at the jobs available and I did not like them. So, I tried a different tack and looked for a job I thought I would like and what education it required. The job I thought I would like was Community Services Director for the City of Simi Valley and it required a Master's degree in Public Administration, which is why I now have one. This job I'm interviewing for on Thursday is a step towards a job just like that Community Services Director job, and why I got that silly degree in the first place.

This afternoon I met a girl for coffee that I met at that Business Side of Being an Artist workshop last Fall. It was a sunny, warm afternoon with puffy white clouds and being able to sit outside and drink coffee in the afternoon was just wonderful.

Then I came home and mowed the backyard grass again. Once it gets a bit warm, grass grows really fast here in Idaho. In only a week it was almost too tall to mow already.

I added some of my old computer art to my website yesterday, in the hopes of getting some work making computer art again. It looks really outdated and putting it together made me a bit depressed, like I was reliving the painful end of an old career, but I put it up anyway. There is some work I could not find and some work I have, but not in a useable format. I do not have any of the 3D programs anymore, and it is more likely that I can get 2D work, like storyboards, so I figure I will do some more of those, but not today.

Tomorrow I am doing research for my interview.

Happy Mother's Day!

This was hanging on a banner in the Egyptian Theater (sorry, I could only find it as an image),


The piece is by Anthony Doerr, who's short fiction has won three O. Henry Prizes, among other awards, and he was the official State of Idaho Writer-in-Residence for three years ending June 2010. He lives right here in Boise.

Happy Mother's Day!

Friday was gloomy, so I did not go to the botanical garden. I went to the Eagle gallery, but I did not stay long. Some watercolor artist came up to me when I first got there and tried to give me a flier for her commission work of children. She was pushy and I was annoyed. Maybe I was annoyed because I thought that was what I should be doing. I watched Dwight Williams do watercolor demos and talked to him for a while, it cracks me up how much he tells stories like Dad.

It started to rain a warm Spring rain on my way home from the gallery, but it stopped early and I let the cats out after dark. I think when I watch them pounce across the yard they are trying to catch worms. Spit did finally grab one up with her paw, look at it, and then try to shake it off. The cats loved to catch lizards at the Simi house, I figure worms are the next best thing.

Now that it is warmer the world's loudest frogs are out. You would think they are giants and right outside the door by the sound of them. Too bad they are not in my yard, Spit would love a pet frog.

Yesterday I set up the Wacom tablet. (That is a drawing tablet that you plug in to your computer and draw on the computer using a pen, rather than a mouse.) I have not used it in years and when I installed it on my last computer, the computer crashed, so I was stalling on attaching it to my new one. I downloaded the latest drivers on-line before I attached the tablet and it works just great, no crashing.

Today I finished another landscape,


I have not felt very motivated to paint and I had to force myself work on this one yesterday until I started to like it.

Yesterday afternoon I went over to Sarah and Joe's to watch the Kentucky Derby. All the women were wearing hats, except me, and Joe was wearing a suit. If I go next year I will have to get a Derby hat. Sarah made Derby food, including a dip with pimentos. I can't remember the last time I saw pimentos, what are pimentos, anyway? She also had mint juleps, but I had iced tea.

This afternoon, Sarah and I went to see the play "Always, Patsy Cline", which was super fun. The show is based on a true story about Cline’s friendship with a fan from Houston named Louise Seger, who befriended the star in a Texas honky-tonk in l961, and continued a correspondence with Cline until her death. It includes only two actresses and two guys that make up the band. One actress plays Patsy Cline and she sang many songs that I know, and a few that I did not. The other actress plays Louise Seger, who in this case was a short, round, loud, Texan single mom. I forgot how young Patsy Cline was when she died.

I was hesitant to plan to go to a play on a Sunday afternoon now that the weather is warming up, but it was raining today until after the play and a good day to be indoors. Boise is not like So Cal where one beautiful day follows another and if you don't go out in it today, it will be nice again tomorrow.

Le Café De Paris, The Boise Egyptian Theater, and Lynne McTaggart

DDS called Wednesday. They are pulling another hiring list next week and my score was expired. They wanted to let me know, so I could update my score before they pulled the list. This felt like a really good sign. I updated my score by taking the test again, but their system still uses my most recent score from a similar position, which was lower than last time. The State of Idaho has four positions with very similar on-line tests and I can retake the test every three months. My score keeps varying and I have no idea what questions I change and get right or wrong or if I do better on one of the versions of the test. I hope at this point the score doesn't matter as long as I get the interview.

Yesterday morning was my interview with Medicaid. This was for the same position title as the one I interviewed for at DDS, although agencies are autonomous here and everyone seems to do something different under the same title. This interview was fairly informal, although I had to do an Excel test after the interview. I am not good at spontaneous tests. I think I did alright, although I thought of a more creative solution after I got home. They will be conducting second interviews and are in a hurry, although I bet they are not in as much of a hurry as me. At least I felt less desperate after getting the call from DDS and I am sure that helped my attitude at the interview.

Last night I met some friends for dinner and then went to see Lynne McTaggart at the Egyptian Theater. We went to dinner at Le Café De Paris, which is a French restaurant, but last night was First Thursday and they had a special menu of Portuguese tapas.


The waitress said they were Argentinian tapas, are they the same or does the waitress not know her geography? Tapas are hors d'oeuvres,

All Tapas $4
Choose 5 for $18
Choose 7 for $25
Choose 10 for $35

Clams Alentejo
linguica sausage, cilantro, peas, wine

Queijo de Portugual
Portuguese cheese

Bifanas
marinated pork tenderloin

Caranguejo e Abacate
crab and avocado croustini, peppercorn aioli

Marinated Olives

Salmão Ahumada
smoked salmon, arugula, pears, capers, tomato dijon-vinaigrette

Camarroes piri piri
sauteed shrimp, black pepper sauce

Alcatra
red wine and garlic marinated beef

Gazpacho

Bolo de Bolacha Maria
Portuguese Cookie Cake

We chose a variety of 10, not including the clams.

The Boise Egyptian theater is super cool inside. It was recently renovated and the inside includes golden statues and Egyptian paintings on the walls. It includes a pipe organ left over from silent movies, although last night this was covered up by the stage. We sat up in the balcony, just because the theater had one and we could.



I thought the evening included a bit too much self promotion and time taken with audience participation, but it was an interesting evening. McTaggart talked a bit about John Nash's game theory, which seemed to me to make a good case against Socialism and I would like to investigate that further.

She gave two examples. One was experiments where a group of people contribute money into a communal "pot". They are generous with their contributions as long as they see that others are contributing, but once they perceive that others are freeloading, their contributions decrease as freeloading increases, until they are not contributing at all. Another example was experiments where one person is offered money and asked to share a portion with a second person. The first person decides what percentage of the money to share, and in experiments around the world, most people decide to share 50%. The conclusions, people are naturally altruistic, but need to perceive fairness.

McTaggart was promoting her latest book, The Bond. Reviews describe her as “a bridge between science and spirituality” and she researches the shortcomings of modern medicine, and quantum physics and it's application to you and the world. She seemed more scientist than hokey New Age spirituality, which people here call "whooo whooo." The idea behind The Bond was that we can create positive energy, which is most powerful as a group, which initiates positive change.

We did an Intention Experiment, where a group holds hands and sends positive energy to someone's injury, which last night was my aching arthritic hip. Afterward, I felt a bit better, and today I feel even better. During the experiment I felt like my body was rocking all over the place and I kept opening my eyes to check to make sure I still had my feet on the ground. We did another experiment where Christelle and I held hands and I sent her a mental image, which she got before we even started the experiment, but she is a good receiver. I will have to watch my thoughts around Christelle. Overall, I thought McTaggert's ideas sounded like Bill Wilson's, although not nearly as well thought out or as purposeful as AA. If there is a spiritual part of McTaggert's work, I did not get it last night, unless she equates the source of positive energy with spirituality.

I got home after 10:30 and walked out of my garage into my backyard filled with the sweet smell of my neighbor's tree, which is now a puffy snowball of flowers.

Today is free admission day at the Idaho Botanical Garden, tonight is the Eagle Gallery's First Friday and one year anniversary, tomorrow Sara and Joe are having a Kentucky Derby party and I'm invited, and Sunday Sara and I are going to see Always, Patsy Cline. I feel busy again.

It is Finally Spring!

Anybody remember that World War I started with an assassination? Am I the only one that wonders why the Obama Administration cannot do anything without a piece that does not make any sense?

It is finally Spring! Everyone says our April was more like February. This is the second year in a row of an unusually long winter. Sunday afternoon was warm and sunny enough for me to sit and read in my backyard in a tank top and get some sun. At our house in Simi, Cruiser used to like to lay in the dirt under a tree on our backyard hill. Here he is trying to recreate the experience with the blueberry bush,



My neighbor Kurt has been home for about three days out of the last two months. He must be truck driving again and taking his dog Tia with him. I decided there is a direct correlation between the absence of Tia and the increased presence of my neighbor's cats.

I have another interview with the state this Thursday. What a relief. This is for the same job as the last one, but with Medicaid. At this point I really don't care what the job is as long as they pay me.

Yesterday it was warm, and by warm I mean around 60 degrees, but with low clouds all day that gave me a headache. A storm blew through late yesterday and it was cooler today, but tomorrow we are into the 70's and get to stay there for a while.

I finished my application to do a mural on a traffic box in downtown Boise and dropped that off this morning. I've been playing some Facebook games and looking at the art. Just in case I can get some work doing computer art again, I am in the process of adding some of my old games work onto my website. When I can get myself to stop playing games, that is. I just can't beat Forty Thieves Solitaire.

Where is John Gault?

On a brighter quality of living note, I used to wake up in my room in the Simi town home that I owned in the Spring and feel like I was waking up in an aviary. It is like that here, except it is still too cold here to open the double paned windows, but I hear all the birds chirping away every morning when I sit outside with the cats on their morning stroll.

This is my neighbor's backyard tree, which is in full bloom,


I do not know what kind of tree this is. I don't think it gets fruit, but last night it smelled awesome. Here is my neighbor's other cat, Cookster, terrorizing Cruiser and Spit from the safe distance of my car,


Friday it got really cold again and Friday morning I woke up to a small patch of snow in my backyard. The Boise River is roaring and people I talk to say they have never seen it so high. It is running fast and the bottom foot of the trees along the bank is under water.

Wow, applying for jobs is super boring and no fun to write about. I took the day off on Friday and went to the movies. My brother Dave reminded me recently that in high school I could have won the Ayn Rand most likely to achieve award, so I went to see Atlas Shrugged in an actual movie theater. A business man financed the film, since none of the studios would touch the subject, and it has a made-for-TV look with some mediocre writing and acting, but I still walked out of the film feeling pretty fired up. I read the book years ago and felt like it predicted a future that was coming true, but after watching the film I realized Rand's future is here.

When I read the book, I wondered about the main female character and the lack of spirituality. The main female character is a man in a woman's clothing and there is no feminine role model in the book. Ayn Rand's writing about sex is pretty warped, too. Makes me wonder about her. Her writing about individualism is ego-centered, and I would not agree with that concept today, but I did wonder if Rand's ideas could easily apply if they were spiritually-centered, which is why I went to see the movie. The movie is only the first third of the book, so after getting fired up seeing the movie, I had to go buy the book so I can read it again.

In the book, all the creators leave. (They are invited to a secret place by John Gault, who is the first to leave.) They are tired of having the life sucked out of them by government regulation and having the fruits of their labors taken away and given to all the non-creators. As an artist, should I create so that all of my work be given away for the greater good or to benefit the less fortunate? Am I not to be trusted to do some of that myself by choice? If I want to sell it so I can afford to live or to feel rewarded for my creation, is that bad and wrong? Does that make me a money grubbing Capitalist? When I remembered that in Atlas Shrugged all the creators leave, it made me think of me leaving for Idaho.

The Feds completed a yearlong sting operation on an Amish farm in Pennsylvania, and announced this week that it has gone to court to stop Rainbow Acres Farm from selling its "contraband" to willing customers in the Washington area. The contraband is unpasteurized milk! Those money grubbing Amish Capitalists! Endangering others in their never-ending quest to make money! The public paid for a year long sting on the Amish over raw milk?! When government pretends that they need to protect the public from the Amish and raw milk, when producing and selling your raw milk to willing consumers is against the law, and when government starts protecting the interests of large corporations (pasteurized milk producers) from small competition, that is Rand's future and we are here.

Where is John Gault?