Blueberry, Quail, and Interview

Ah, today it was up to 70 degrees and tomorrow will be more of the same. I opened all the windows and the back door and let the cats roam in and out. Even though they got plenty of time outside, both cats were demanding their brushing tonight, Get this Winter coat off of me!

Starting when I owned my first house in Vegas, I planted a tree every year for my daughter and my birthdays. You almost need a pick axe to plant anything in Vegas, but we planted a flowering pear. I planted another one at my house in Simi and it was much easier to plant and grew like a weed. Today is my daughter's birthday and it was a beautiful warm day and Home Depot's garden center was open! I did not want to spend money on a tree, but Home Depot had a bunch of them including a Coral Bark Maple. Oh, when I have my Idaho house I want a Coral Bark Maple in front! Instead I bought a blueberry, a Northblue, and I planted it in the backyard this afternoon.


Early this evening a quail stood on my garage roof and made some noise. Looked (and sounded) like a California quail, what is it doing in Idaho?



Mom got a chance to see the commission in person, the recipient loved it and cried. Hearing this reminded me of why I want to do commission work.

Monday I went to CostCo, got my eyes examined and ordered new glasses. Everything cost about what I expected and I can't remember the last time that happened. New glasses in two weeks. While I was at CostCo, the universe decided to finally crack open for me. I got a call for an interview, which I went to on Wednesday afternoon.

Honestly, I was just thrilled to even get a call. The interview was with Idaho's Vital Statistics. The interview was with three people, was well over an hour long, and ended with some personal conversation, always a good sign. Apparently you have to have somewhat of a morbid sense of humor to work with Vital Statistics, too many ridiculous baby names and long, detailed descriptions of how people died. I like the idea of Vital Statistics because government doesn't mess with them. No ridiculous changes to implement at the legislature's whim, just people dying and being born. I thought I had seen this job posted before, apparently the guy they hired did not make it through his first break. Went out for his break and never came back. I was one of the first interviews, which go on into next week, but I should hear something after next Wednesday.

I'm glad I did not get that job as a coordinator for Food Stamps. Here they are supposed to call it SNAP, that stupid name that Congress mandated a few years ago so that the program would sound like a nutrition program. How much money do you think that cost? Not just to change the name, but debate it in Congress and every state Senate and House? Each state can change the name to something else they want, but they have to change it. After a long, serious debate, California settled on CalFresh. Oh yes, that's much better.

In Idaho some grocers complained that everyone gets their Food Stamps on the first of the month and they get too busy on the first, so they want Food Stamps issuance spread out over a few days. We want your business, but we want it when we want it. That should take a few million to change. Then there are several states that decided there were too many people on Food Stamps, so they need to make them harder to get. Since we have so many people on Food Stamps, lets increase the administrative cost so we can save a few bucks on not giving people food. Large families get so much money that they probably feed the entire neighborhood and some people sell their cards for drugs, but it's just food, for God's sake. Being part of these debates would have made me crazy and I'm glad I missed them.

In my last two interviews they asked me how I define success. Actually the interview before Vital Statistics was with an employment agency, but it felt like an interview. I'm glad I have been working on answering that for myself and I think success to me is everything that I have today, it's just missing an income.

Disclaimer, Geese, and Positive Energy

One of the problems with cell phones is that you don't know when someone hung up on you. You are talking away and realize that there is no one on the other end. How long have I been talking since they hung up? You have no idea. As I was staring at my blank phone asking myself that question, I thought cell phones took all the fun out of hanging up on people. No more satisfying, angry hammering of the receiver down on it's cradle, no more crash and bang of the receiver loudly in the recipient's ear for dramatic effect, no more buzzing dial tone to follow the crash and bang. I can't remember the last time I hung up on someone besides a telemarketer, but I'm glad I got over it before it lost it's drama. Call me old-fashioned.

I originally started this blog to stay in touch with my friends during my move, although it also turned into other things. I like having a record of my spiritual and creative journey, sometimes I include an Idaho travel log or things to do in Boise, and I know that reading it makes my Mom feel like I am not so far away. Sometimes I digress into politics, but I try to keep the focus on me. It is not my intention to reveal anyone else's feelings or secrets.

I wrote yesterday about what was at one point my daughter's stock and I wrote about it partly to reassure my Mom that I have not hit financial disaster and partly because it parallels my recent effort to generate some positive financial energy for myself. I picked some positive images of what abundance and success mean to me and I wondered if I walked around with those if they would come back to me. (Same concept as The Secret.)

I want to publish a few details about that stock, for the record. Dad and I have been struggling about what to do with that stock for 5 years. Last Summer when I stayed at the ranch we talked about it again and agreed to transfer the stock to me to "keep the door open" between my daughter and I. I tried not to define what "keep the door open" meant, but based on what I read, I had no intention to leave it in the stock market. Originally my Dad thought transferring the stock out of a minor's account would require the minor's signature. It turned out that it did not. No one did any forging of signatures. In my last conversation with my Dad, he told me not to think of it as Lauren's money. My conscience is clear. That's enough of that topic.

Katherine Albertson Park does not allow dogs from 3/1 to 6/30 due to nesting season, so yesterday I went to the park to see how the nests were coming and enjoy the absence of dogs.



While I was there, a few of the pairs of geese made an incredible honking racket, but I could not figure out what the fuss was about. It wasn't me, they were carrying on long before they could see me and I wasn't near any nests.




The ducks were sleeping in couples, but I could not see a nest.

The next topic for enlightenment is Love's energy, with a poem by Pierre Tielhard de Chardin,

"Someday, after we have mastered
the winds, the waves, the tides,
and gravity, we shall harness for God
the energies of love.
Then for the second time in the history
of the world, man will have discovered fire."

Since the concept of love is so distorted in the West, varied in other cultures, and non-existent in Buddhism, as a topic I'm changing it to Positive Energy, or maybe Well-directed Positive Energy. Imagine all human positive energy used and well directed for good, that is equivalent to discovering fire. Imagine all the energy that you spend on judgement, revenge, anger, hate, gossip, and drama and applying it to something positive, loving, or compassionate. I'm not sure if Chardin intended this to sound impossible, as mastering the winds and the waves is impossible, and I do not agree with the word "harness", which implies control. I think positive energy is something I can choose to be, something God wants me to be, without a harness.

I Guess God Thinks It Needs Two More Months

Wow, it seems like it was a wasted weekend. I kept thinking I would go for a walk, but it looked like it was about to rain and 5 minutes later, it did. 15 minutes later it would clear up, but who knows if it would just start again? Now I am a bit stir-crazy.

I watched The King's Speech and Inception. The King's Speech was excellent, with excellent performances, although I got preoccupied with placing the film's events in history. When King George VI took the English throne, the English empire included a quarter of the world and by the time he died the English empire was gone. Inception was interesting and I liked it that the level designer was a girl, although this is also completely unrealistic. Maybe this has changed in 10 years, but there are few girl game designers, unless they are working on a Barbie game. I loved the ideas in this movie and it kind of made me miss making games.

I also finished Reading Lolita in Tehran. It was very interesting reading about being in Iran after the Shah, especially now with all of the activity going on in the Middle East. I thought the book was very uneven, there were parts where I had a hard time reading and staying interested, and parts that I enjoyed. I never felt like I got to know the characters, but I liked the first hand account of Iran's fundamentalism. I am amazed that there is anyone left in Iran and I appreciated the author's conflict between staying and fighting for her country and leaving Iran knowing a fight is a futile effort.

Dad sent watercolor brushes for my birthday and I decided to use Mom's birthday check for new glasses. My eyesight is bad enough that only having one pair of glasses makes me nervous and the two things, glasses and brushes, are both necessary for me to keep painting, so they feel like positive things needed for me to keep creating.

If you are home all the time during the Winter in Idaho, your Bearpaws will only last one season. I wore socks with them much of the time, but pee-yew, they really started to smell by March and I threw them out. I don't know if I would have the same problem with the natural sheepskin, much more expensive, Ugg boots, but I don't think I would ever pay an extra $100 to find out.

Mary Jo's commissioned painting arrived in two days, shipped on Thursday, arrived on Saturday. That was pretty fast.

First thing last Thursday, I sold all of the stock Dad transferred to me. He opened an account for Lauren when she was born and bought her stock most years on her birthday. It was supposed to be for her college, but she disconnected from me and my family at 16 and not only didn't claim it, but didn't deserve it. I think I made her use some of it for a school trip when she was 16, but what was left was in a minor's account and she hasn't been a minor for 5 years, so Dad needed to change the account. I asked him to transfer it to me last Summer and that transfer finally went through last Monday. I wanted it out of the stock market, so I sold all of it. This will buy me a few more months here, although I have many different feelings about using that money for myself, but mostly I am disappointed in my daughter's behavior. I thought having the stocks would leave a door open between Lauren and I, but instead it is a perfectly-timed financial relief for me.

A few years ago I was in the middle of a super painful experience that I found out would take a few more weeks to end. At the time, my friend said, I guess God thinks it will take a few more weeks. I still do not know what needed a few more weeks in that situation, but today I think about my financial situation, and receiving the money to allow myself a few more months here, and think, I guess God thinks it will take two more months.

My Birthday

Late yesterday I dropped off the commission at the shippers. They are "Craters and Freighters" and I learned about them at the artist's business workshop last year. They make big shipping crates and their shop was full of them, but I just needed a cardboard one. I sandwiched the painting between foam core and the shippers were to make it a cardboard box, line it with foam, and send it Fed-X today. Today I got nervous about not seeing it ready to go in it's box, so I went by to see it. They made a mistake. Instead of cardboard, they made it a plywood box! I guess the guy started making the plywood box before he realized it was supposed to be cardboard and so he just made it plywood. So, the painting went out today in a 4 inch thick plywood box surrounded by foam. Not only does it look indestructible, it looks precious, like it's worth 10 times as much. I was impressed.

There was room left for another study on the watercolor paper I stretched for the commission, so I did one of Fairfield,


This was worth a study, since the vegetation colors are tough. It looks colorful when you are there, but in the pictures I took it just looks grey. I tried shades of blue grey, maroon grey, ochre grey, but too much work and it just comes out plain grey.

Christelle took me to dinner at 13th Street,


This is the only restaurant that I know, besides the Mongolian Bar-B-Que, and it is in Hyde Park.

Then we went to Goodies down the street,


I had chocolate, Christelle had caramel corn, which is supposed to be great there. Goodies has an ice cream fountain, which was surprisingly busy, and just about any kind of candy or chocolate that you could want. Both Goodies and the 13th Street Grill are super busy in the Summer. The grill opens up all of their front windows so dining is outside and the patio along the side of Goodies is full of people drinking coffee and reading.

Christelle bought me the chocolate and I confessed that I had ice cream for lunch. Mom says that when she used to pick me up from kindergarten I would ask her something like, can I have cookies for lunch? Mom would say no and I would have a tantrum all the way home. Now I'm old and I can have cookies for lunch every day if I want, but I don't, except today for my birthday I had ice cream for lunch and no tantrums.

In between stopping at the shippers and dinner, I went by Twig's Cellar. Someone recommended it as a good art space for a First Thursday event. Turns out the owner is actually named Twig. It's a nice wine bar/restaurant downtown that steps down below the street. I spoke to Twig and she gave me her email so I can send her a link to my site. I told her I wanted to do a Fall series, maybe for September or October. Sometimes it feels weird to be looking that far ahead, but I figure if I keep acting as if I will be here and financially solvent, I will be.

It was a really nice day.

The Wheelbarrow

The morning sun warming up the Virgin and her flowers,


I did not realize that Crocus only open in the sunshine. Today the sun is back from behind storm clouds and I now have purple in addition to yellow,


And see, they really are green leafing buds,


I looked up a wheelbarrow story that I heard, but I could not remember it all, and found it was based on a real person. Here is the real person story,

Blondin's greatest fame came in June of 1859 when he attempted to become the first person to cross a tightrope stretched over a quarter of a mile across the mighty Niagara Falls. He walked across 160 feet above falls several times, each time with a different daring feat - once in a sack, on stilts, on a bicycle, in the dark, and once he even carried a stove and cooked an omelet!

On one occasion though, he asked for the participation of a volunteer.

A large crowd gathered and a buzz of excitement ran along both sides of the river bank. The crowd “Oooohed!” and “Aaaaahed!” as Blondin carefully walked across one dangerous step after another -- blindfolded and pushing a wheelbarrow.

Upon reaching the other side, the crowd's applause was louder than the roar of the falls! Blondin suddenly stopped and addressed his audience: "Do you believe I can carry a person across in this wheelbarrow?" The crowd enthusiastically shouted, "Yes, yes, yes. You are the greatest tightrope walker in the world. You can do anything!"

"Okay," said Blondin, "Get in the wheelbarrow....."

The Blondin story goes that no one did!

(http://www.creativebiblestudy.com/Blondin-story.html)

I heard the story as a faith story. Faith is getting in the wheelbarrow and trusting that a power greater than yourself will get you through to the other side. True faith would be enjoying the view in perfect serenity on the way! I needed the story today and told it to some other people. It's funny what a great analogy the wheelbarrow is and how much easier it is to talk about wheelbarrows than faith. One guy clearly said he wasn't ever getting in the wheelbarrow. One guy said he would check the quality of the wheelbarrow and the tires first, do the tires have grooves that will help them run along the wire? I mostly think I get in and hop out and then get back in again.

I spoke to two people at BNY Mellon Shareowner Services today and got blazing mad. Their shareowner services are based in the Philippines and there seems to be no concept of service there. I was trying to set up online services, which did not go through and they want me to wait another few weeks so they can mail me a code. Can't do it over the phone, can't talk to anyone in the US. What happened to customer service? I am a shareholder! Customer service went overseas and died.

So, I called my bank, Chase Bank, and talked to their investor services guy about my alternatives and he was really great. I was then informed and calm. Chase Bank has always been good to me and seems to have some big emphasis on customer service and trying to act small and personal.

I wasn't calm enough to call BNY Mellon back today, though, just calm enough to look up that wheelbarrow story, share it with others, and then get back in the wheelbarrow.

Matthew 19:26

Saturday morning it looked like a storm was coming, but it held out long enough for me to go to the Capitol building with Mary Kay. While we were eating lunch, it started to snow. I got home and the sun came out and I thought about going for a walk, but one side of the horizon looked ominous and soon after it started to rain with thunder and big wind. The blazing full moon shining through my bedroom window woke me up on Saturday night long enough to take a look. The sky was misty, which I think made the moon look even bigger. The big wind lasted all through Sunday. It's not the suck-all-the-moisture-out-of-you wind like in Las Vegas and Simi Valley, it's a blustery, stormy wind. Today it is pouring down rain.

The very best company on the list from the goldmine I met at the resume workshop posted a job. It must have just been posted last Friday, because I'm checking it pretty often. I felt a bit encouraged. I wrote the answers for a State job first, I figure that is mostly a waste of time and I would be less motivated to get that done, and then wrote my cover letter and revised my resume for the promising job. This took a good amount of time on Sunday. The Capitol show was over, so I picked up my painting from the Capitol building on Sunday, which felt a bit sad.

This morning I noticed that my neighbor's tree was full of buds ready to sprout and by this afternoon they were really sprouting. I could see green leaves! Oh, Spring, please be here.

It appears that I can do my unemployment benefits hearing via phone. That is scheduled for next Tuesday morning. I have a few things to write out beforehand, but otherwise I am just not going to spend too much time on this.

Funny, I'm not thinking that God or The Universe is doing a very good job of working in my life and today I received a prayer rug in the mail from Saint Matthew's Churches. It says something good is going to happen for me! If I send in my prayer request with the prayer rug, I will receive a blessed Deuteronomy 8:18 Prosperity Cross! Matthew was a tax collector and in Jesus' time, tax collectors (publicans) were a standard type of sinful and despised outcast, so Saint Matthew is the patron of Tax collectors and Accountants. I have been asking for abundance, so this is a bit weird.

Matthew 19:26
But Jesus beheld them, and said unto them, With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible.

Deuteronomy 8:18
But remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms his covenant, which he swore to your ancestors, as it is today.

I'm sending in my prayer, not taking any chances.

The Flicker

Spit spent the morning looking out the front window fascinated by the frolicking wildlife and it felt like Spring,





The bird is a male Red-Shafted Flicker, which is a member of the woodpecker family. (Bird identification by Christelle, who identified it just based on my description.) Christelle was in Hawaii and left the day of the earthquake in Japan.

The only show I really watch right now is Top Chef. I admire the people being spontaneously creative under pressure and I like the judges. It seems to me they are constructive and smart with no element of meanness. The only problem is sometimes in order to catch the show I get stuck watching parts of Real Housewives, which seems to be on all the time from various cities. I do not understand Real Housewives, it seems to portray the absolute most worse in women. If anyone from another country is watching Real Housewives and thinking that is what American women are like, I am embarrassed. I would like to see Bravo make a Real Housewives of Idaho. They can show them home schooling their kids, gathering eggs, cleaning the barn, and being appreciative of their husbands. Their get-togethers would be potlucks with the kids and the husbands. No fake nails, no spike-heeled shoes. Not all Idaho housewives live on farms or home-school their kids, but I have not seen one element of the nasty, self-centered meanness of the Real Housewives in Idaho women.

I heard that Utah is considering an alternative currency to the US dollar. It turns out this is being considered in 15 states, Utah, Tennessee, Virginia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia, Montana, Missouri, Colorado, Indiana, Iowa, New Hampshire, Washington, Vermont and Oklahoma. 15 states without faith in the US dollar? Interesting.

Compared to the problems of the people of Japan, my problems seem like quality problems today. I watched something today about why the Japanese people behave so well during a crisis. Their culture is based on obligation and honor. In Japan, if you do not meet your obligation, as in a Samurai's obligation to his lord, then you bring not only dishonor to yourself, but to your ancestors, your family, and your future family. This seems to me to be a good motivation to be humble and less selfish.

If you are feeling a strong full moon, there is a reason. From CNN:

If the moon looks a little bit bigger and brighter this weekend, there's a reason for that. It is.

Saturday's full moon will be a super "perigee moon" -- the biggest in almost 20 years. This celestial event is far rarer than the famed blue moon, which happens once about every two-and-a-half years.

"The last full moon so big and close to Earth occurred in March of 1993," said Geoff Chester with the U.S. Naval Observatory in Washington. "I'd say it's worth a look."

http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/03/18/nasa.moon/index.html?hpt=C2

When they say that kind of stuff about the planets or the moon, I always look back to see what I was doing the last time the phenomenon occurred, if I was alive. In March of 1993 I was painting murals in Nevada and my life was a few months away from getting much better.

I have been feeling adrift since Tuesday and today I am feeling a bit better. I think watching the Flicker and the squirrels play with Spit helped. It was a "stop and smell the roses" moment. Mary Kay and I are going to the watercolor show tomorrow, which is the last day of the show, and then to lunch. Christelle is taking me to dinner on Thursday for my birthday. Mom sent a check for my birthday and I was going to go buy an interview outfit or a new pair of glasses, but I may just go get a massage instead. Just the idea of a massage makes me feel more relaxed.

Late Snow

It was much warmer on Tuesday, so I put the Virgin back outside in the yard and bought her some Primrose that are supposed to do well in late Winter. Wednesday was raining and gloomy and I wasn't feeling at all motivated. I took a nap and when I woke up it was hammering down snow,



Spring is back today and the sun is out. I think you have to like change to live in Idaho.

Here are the birds in dogwood that I finished earlier in the week,


Birds are super easy to paint, but they have to be right. A few right stokes and you are done, one wrong one and you are out. The dogwood was in the way, so the two birds on the left are not quite right, but I am really happy with the two on the right. I'm not sure about the treatment of the dogwood, but it was an experiment.

I am feeling more motivated today, probably because the sun is out and I finished my letter back to Dave, but motivated to do what?

Happy Saint Patrick's Day and Happy Birthday to my brother, John!

Commission

There was a break in the rain long enough to go for a walk this afternoon, although it was blustery. I walked across the street and intended to walk around the graveyard. At one end of the graveyard is a park, so I walked across thorough the park, and then there was no sidewalk along the street, so I had to walk back through the graveyard. When walking in Boise near any grass, be sure to watch where you are walking, geese poop is everywhere. I honked at a bunch of geese as I walked, but they just looked at me like I was a dope.

Dave sent me a letter, which I received yesterday right before the reject email from the ClickBank HR manager. They decided to hire someone internally. Today I received another reject email from ClickBank that was more of a form letter and not from the HR manager, so at least I made an impression and my efforts earned me a personal email. I was at a loss, so I just started to write Dave back.

I finished the commission over the weekend. Last week I really enjoyed it and then I put in the background and started to agonize. I swear that I spend half of my time on any portrait on the last 5% of the painting. I usually paint in the background sooner, but I wanted to finish the outside edge of the hair first. This was a tough one and by Friday night I was in such doubt and agony that I had to call Mom. I took a picture and sent it to her on Saturday and she helped get me out of my misery. Mom has lots of experience as a painting adviser, and she is my market. It is not my favorite, but it is done, and I think the kid looks terrific.



Yesterday I started anther painting and I finished it today. I am not sure what the next income-generating move is and when I don't know I just paint, and after agonizing over the last portrait, I just wanted to paint something lose and different and not blue.

Some guy went missing off of Hwy 20 on March 2, which made some of my friends think of me and my intense feeling telling me to turn around during my drive to Ketchum. I was driving East on Hwy 20 towards Fairfield, and the missing guy was last seen leaving Carey going West on Hwy 20 towards Fairfield, although we were three weeks apart. They've found no evidence of the guy, no guy, no car.

It is difficult for me to comprehend the devastation in Japan, it just doesn't seem real to me, but the struggles of the people there make my problems seem trivial. I need to correct/add to my previous post, it is the Earth's figure axis that moved,

The Earth's figure axis is not the same as its north-south axis in space, which it spins around once every day at a speed of about 1,000 mph (1,604 kph). The figure axis is the axis around which the Earth's mass is balanced and the north-south axis by about 33 feet (10 meters).

"This shift in the position of the figure axis will cause the Earth to wobble a bit differently as it rotates, but will not cause a shift of the Earth's axis in space - only external forces like the gravitational attraction of the sun, moon, and planets can do that," Gross said.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/03/13/scitech/main20042590.shtml

I'm not sure that the idea of the earth wobbling differently really makes me feel any better. I guess this would be a good time for some enlightenment and the next topic is appropriate.

The next topic is Suffering, with a saying of Paramahansa Yogananda from Sayings of Paramahansa Yogananda,

Man has falsely identified himself with the pseudo-soul or ego. When he transfers his sense of identity to his true being, the immortal Soul, he discovers that all pain is unreal. He no longer can even imagine the state of suffering.

This means letting go of all of your attachments and all of your self-importance, all of those things outside yourself. Once you are your true being only, you will not feel suffering. I don't know, maybe this isn't such a good topic. Many Japanese have just had all of their attachments ripped from them, and I am sure they are truly suffering and I do not think this passage will help much. From the pictures I've seen, the Japanese do not appear to need any advice from me or Wisdom of the Ages. They seem to be a serene bunch, no hysterics, no looting, no crowding in line, and some of them are carrying someone else on their back.

The We Art Women show accepted two out of the three paintings that I entered for their benefit show on April 14. I went ahead and entered even though I was not sure where I would be on April 14th, part of my acting as if everything is just going to work out.

Hazel at the Capitol

Here is Hazel on display at the Idaho Capitol building,



At first I was irritated that they hung her on the back of the panel so people have to walk around to see her, until I saw her from across the room. The Capitol building is recently refurbished. All the white marble is awesome. I was told that some of it is faux marble, but I could not find anything that looked faux, it all looked real to me.




Last Monday when I was hosting the show, the floor below was full of high school choirs. March is music month. The Idaho legislature passed their version of Wisconsin's collective bargaining limits a week ago and there was protesting in the beginning, but by last week at least the music teachers were back at work directing some nervous and excited students.

Idaho Senate Bill 1108, which restricts collective bargaining and ends continuing contracts for teachers, passed 48-22 with nine Republicans and all 13 Democrats voting no.

Read more: http://www.idahostatesman.com/2011/03/13/1564159/what-happened-last-week-whats.html#ixzz1GUZhsOQM

No reason for the no voters to leave the state, since the Senate would still have a quorum.

The FBI also arrested a fugitive mobster that had been hiding in Idaho as a rancher for 17 years. Now that sounds like Idaho. He was in Marsing, which is less than an hour West of Boise near the border with Oregon.

Yesterday the sun was out all day and it wasn't warm enough to open a window, but I did anyway. Last night there was a spontaneous downpour and big wind, but today the sun is out again and it may get up to 60 degrees! The Idaho weatherman predicts rain every day for the next week, but he has for the last week and it did not happen much.

Crocus are Here

Thursday evening it stopped raining and the horizon cleared up enough for a fiery sunset and a rainbow,


And Friday two crocus bloomed,


Crocus plants make funny little leaf sprays and it looks like I will get two rounds of blooms, since half of the plants are already sprays and half are just coming up.

This week looks like a week of mostly rain, but at least the temperatures are above freezing. For the last week, I have been terrorized by the temperature warning light in my car again. The light goes on when it is 37 degrees or lower and it makes a big deal when it goes on, flashes on the dashboard and on the GPS big screen. The temperature moved above and below 37 degrees, so the light goes off, then flashes on, then goes off, then flashes on. I liked it better when it just stayed on, but I am really looking forward to it just staying off.

I optimistically took the flannel sheets off my bed and replaced them with regular sheets. I loved my flannel sheets in November, but now I am sick of them. Wearing flannel pajamas in between flannel sheets is like wearing Velcro, no tossing and turning allowed.

First I was glad I was not in Egypt, then that I was not anywhere in the Middle East, now I'm glad I am not in Japan. I watched pictures of the devastation from the earthquake and the tsunami, but they seemed to be the same ones over and over, making me think the media is not showing me anything current or anything of the real devastation. I do not trust anyone to tell me the truth about the reality of the danger in Japan's nuclear power plants. I've always been against nuclear power. If we cannot create power without creating waste that will be a danger to the planet forever, then we should just do without power.

I watched a show on the History Channel called Brad Meltzer's Decoded about the Georgia Guidestones. The History Channel seems to be getting pretty far away from history and Brad Meltzer doesn't seem to ever decode anything, but they showed an interesting map of the United States after the earthquakes/axis shift in 2012,



And I found another one on-line,


Whether or not you believe in any of the 2012 stuff, a few months ago the Earth's axis shifted enough that airports has to revise their flight plans and the earthquake in Japan caused another shift. Japan moved eight feet and the Earth's axis moved four inches,

http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/asiapcf/03/12/japan.earthquake.tsunami.earth/index.html?hpt=T1

Anyway, based on the new map it looks like I can look forward to living on some Idaho coastal property.

My thoughts and prayers go out to the people in Japan and I think I will stop complaining about my quality problems for a while.

The Talker

On Sunday the sun was mostly out, although it was still a bit cold, and Spring felt almost here so I was fighting a strong desire to do Spring cleaning. I figured it could wait until next weekend after the time changes. Since it went from Fall to Winter overnight when the time changed last November, I figured it should go from Winter to Spring overnight this weekend. Then Monday morning, right before I was to leave to host the IWS show at the Capitol building, it started to snow. This feels like some kind of new rule, Shelly has to go out, it starts to snow.

Hosting the IWS show was fun. I hosted with Joyce, who has been an IWS member for a long time and I convinced her to join me in picking our own Best of Show. This show was not judged and there are no awards, but the last time I had to host a show the Best of Show was so bad that the woman I hosted with that time and I picked our own. Joyce knew about all of the other artists and gave me some background, and she was also pretty articulate about why she liked what she liked, and expected me to do the same.

Then I went back to the resume writing workshop to have the instructor look at my new resume, and it was a different instructor. She was from Bosnia and hard to understand and could not manage The Talker. You know The Talker, there is one in every meeting and every class, the guy who poses questions that are really designed to tell everyone all about what he knows on the topic and he will not shut up. He monopolizes the whole meeting until you wonder why the instructor is even there. In this class there were 3 Talkers, although one quickly fell asleep, and the other appeared to have only been encouraged by the first Talker's success. Managing The Talker, so he does not take over your meeting or your class, is a skill. This week's instructor didn't have it and I wanted to shout, "if your resume is so great, why are you here!?" I could see why the guy didn't have a job. I left early.

Tuesday morning (as it started to snow) I went to the technical branch of one of the employment agencies I went to last week. The girl I met with seemed awfully young. I don't know how productive that meeting will be, but she gave me the names of a few companies that they do not represent.

The next door neighbor's grey cat is named Pierre and my neighbors just noticed last weekend that he is infatuated with Spit. He is either sitting in the neighbor's kitchen window or on the trash can outside my dining room window looking for her. The feeling appears to be mutual and Spit often runs to the dinning room window looking for Pierre. I was glad to see my neighbors, I have not seen much of them in the last two months. Everyone in Boise seems to hide indoors from Christmas to February and doesn't come out until the Crocus do.

This morning I put on a suit, printed out another copy of my resume and my cover letter that I sent to them last week, and went over to ClickBank to try to hand it to a person. There was a guy working on the receptionist's computer and I told him I was dropping off a resume, but that I was hoping to also talk to someone in Human Resources. I was a bit persistent and he sent a message to the HR Director and she came down to meet me! I had to talk to her there in the lobby, but I handed her my resume and she remembered me! I had a few questions planned and a few comments I wanted to make about my experience and she seemed to be interested. I have her name from their website, so I will send a thank you for her time, otherwise that is my very best effort.

The girl that I sat next to at the good resume workshop was some kind of great companies in Boise goldmine. Every one that she suggested has a reputation as a great employer and is some kind of software developer. They all have really silly names that you would never attribute to a software company and the best name, and the company with the very best reputation as an employer, is Ballihoo. Ballihoo did not have an appropriate opening, and I was told they are almost impossible to get into, but I emailed resumes to the others today. I like my new technique of emailing a resume and then going over to drop off a printed one and trying to talk to someone. This seemed to work when I gave the employer a bit of time to look at resumes they received, including mine, so I will give these a few days. I still like ClickBank the best.

The commission painting is at the point where I really want to work on it and it is getting close to done.

Break Out!

I was coming in from the backyard Thursday afternoon and Cruiser raced out the door. I needed to take a shower, so I left Cruiser out and took my shower. When I came back downstairs and looked for him in the backyard, no Cruiser. There was a nice hole dug under the fence to the front yard, though. So I put on my coat and shoes and open the front door to go looking through the neighborhood for Cruiser, and he comes running up the walk all covered with mud before I even have a chance to step outside. I guess he knows where he lives! Poor Cruiser, the actual adventure does not seem to have been as exciting as the reality.

Today it is warmer and raining and Spring feels possible. I stopped by Home Depot and the garden center isn't open yet, but the front of the garden center was full of plants and I checked to see what Idaho gardening has to offer at the end of Winter. Nothing had leaves yet, but they had Quaking Aspen, and fruit trees, like pears and apricots. They had all the berries, raspberry, blackberry, blueberry. A few weeks ago you could buy all the berries bare root, but these were in pots. Then they had forsythia, which blooms early and they don't have in So Cal,


and red twig dogwood, which I think is the plant that shows off those red branches in the snow that I always see around here.


I went for a walk and someone had crocus in their front yard that were already blooming. Boy am I ready for Spring.

In the six months that I've been here, I've seen two people run stop signs and one person run a red light in front of me. I figure Idahoans are an irreverent bunch that will often not stop at a stop sign or a light if there is no reason, but these three were not even looking to see me coming. Everyone does stop for crossing geese, though. Just as often, I've sat stopped in a line of cars as we all wait for the geese to cross the road.

My meeting for Artist's Way was last Thursday night and we were a smaller group that night because two people couldn't make it. I brought my chocolate truffles, but someone else had the same idea and I left with chocolate peanut butter fudge. The guy in front of me at the Starbucks paid for my coffee without telling me and then left. That was pretty nice. After our meeting I thanked Margo for starting this Artists Way group and inviting me. She said they really just get together for me. I don't know if she was just kidding, but that is pretty nice, too. I think I was only here in Boise for just over a month when Margo asked me if I wanted to do the Artist's Way. I think that is a bit amazing, that someone here knows me well enough after a month to know I would be interested and then to ask me. That kind of thing only happens to Idaho Shelly.

Tomorrow I get to drop off Hazel at the Idaho Watercolor Society Capitol show and then I am hosting the show for two hours on Monday. I have not heard back from the guy that gave the resume writing workshop about my new resume, so I am going to go back to the workshop on Monday and see him in person. Then I have an appointment with another employment agency on Tuesday morning. This weekend I am working on that commission.

Orange Leaves and Dad's Snow

Garrick identified the orange bird, it is an Oriole,


Spit is not very nice to her boyfriends,


I keep putting Mr. Boyfriend on the windowsill and Spit keeps dragging him out so she can chew on him some more. I put him away in a drawer. I would throw him away, but he has been good for so much unpredictable fun that who knows what else he might have in store.

Here is the commission study,


I think I will pretend the sweatshirt is white and do nice blue shadows rather than making the shirt blue. And here is the latest Fall leaves,


I met with another employment agency Tuesday morning and I still have their tests to do at home. I spent the rest of the day fixing my resume, boy that takes a long time, and I emailed it to the guy who gave the resume workshop for his review. Once I hear back from him I am going to every site that I posted my resume on and pasting in a new one. I went ahead and did this on the Idaho state job site and then saw that one of the lists I am on is expired. I tried to reapply and it said that I already have an active score. I called the state and they say to send an email. Wonder if I will ever hear back from them.

The employment agency I went to on Tuesday also has a technical jobs office and they gave me the number. I do not think of myself as technical, but the rep at the agency did, so I gave them a call today. Then I sent them my new resume and I should have an appointment with them soon. The rep at the technical office said they have a deal in the works to place jobs with the State. Go figure.

I received an email job list from Boise Idaho Jobs today and there was a job listed for a company that the girl I met at the resume workshop suggested. So, I went ahead and applied for that job using my new resume and much more brief and targeted cover letter. When I talked to the rep at the technical employment agency, she asked where else I had applied and I told her about applying for this job and she said how great they were. That company sounds worth an assertive follow-up, as soon as I figure out what that means.

Dad got snow in Templeton, California,




It would look like here, if it wasn't so green.

Late this afternoon, I made chocolate truffles. I figure if Mark Zuckerberg shows up, I better know how to make them. Don't worry, I'm not going to eat them all, I'm taking them to my Artist's Way friends tomorrow.