The Path

My neighbor Sara came over late Sunday afternoon and brought me pumpkin scones. She was wearing flip-flops, which she took off at the door and came in to my house barefoot. Between the temperature change and the time change, Monday felt like we went from Fall to Winter overnight, and it was hard to believe Sara was wearing flip-flops just yesterday.

Mary Kay's mom said she thought this was the best Fall color show Boise had in a long time and I felt like I enjoyed another treat along with the unseasonably warm weather. The show is still going on, but the leaves are really falling now and the tree in front of my house is literally raining leaves. At the rate it's going my tree will be bare by the end of the day.


The leaf bags they sell are 3 feet tall and they come in packages of 5. I thought there was no way I would use more than one bag this Fall, now I'm not so sure. I still have my little hand rake, but I think I am going to be missing my full sized rake when I tackle leaves this week.

Even with all my moving around, I still held on to some things I am happy to have today. I still have some of my skiing stuff from before Lauren was born, including long underwear. It's the thick kind of long underwear, two layers with wool on the outside and cotton on the inside, and looks like good pajamas. I saved some heavy sweaters from living in Vegas even though they got too small. Now they are no longer too small, although I saved a wool skirt that I tried to try on and I can't imagine ever being that thin again.

Do you ever see those people dressed as if they are in a time warp? The aging woman dressed head to toe in an outfit from the 1970s and everything looks new and you wonder if she bought a lifetime supply 30 years ago? The price I pay for criticizing women like this is that then I have to look at myself. My very favorite outfit is a pair of leggings and an over-sized men's sweater, right out of the '80s. I am finding myself wanting that outfit again, right down to the boots, although with updated boots, like Sorrels, instead of those slouchy kind we wore in the '80s.

A friend of a friend loaned me The Dhammapada translated by Eknath Easwaran and I started it last night before I went to sleep. This reminds me I should get back to enlightenment, especially since I am now more than halfway thorough, but today my topic is The Path, with a passage (273-276) from the The Dhammapada translated by Eknath Easwaran,

"Of paths the Eightfold is the best; of truths the Nobel Four are best; of mental states, detachment is the best; of human beings the illumined one is best.

This is the path; there is no other that leads to the purification of the mind. Follow this path and conquer Mara. This is the path; there is no other that leads to the purification of the mind. This path will lead to the end of suffering. This is the path I made known after the arrows of sorrow fell away.

All the effort must be made by you; Buddhas only show the way. Follow this path and practice meditation; go beyond the power of Mara."

The Four Noble Truths
1. Life means suffering.
2. The origin of suffering is attachment.
3. The cessation of suffering is attainable.
4. The path to the cessation of suffering.

The Noble Eightfold Path
Wisdom
1. Right View
2. Right Intention
Ethical Conduct
3. Right Speech
4. Right Action
5. Right Livelihood
Mental Development
6. Right Effort
7. Right Mindfulness
8. Right Concentration

Right livelihood seems to be one of my biggest challenges. I think it is interesting that even Buddha tells us, "All the effort must be made by you."

State Competitiveness Report

This is Tia, my neighbor Kurt's dog,



She is a mixed breed and I don't remember of what breeds my neighbor's told me, but she looks like an Australian Shepherd to me. Kurt must have been gone too long last Saturday afternoon, so Tia jumped the fence and went looking for attention. She came running over to me and rolled over at my feet. Tia knows she is not the pack leader. She has great fluffy ears, but she would not point them up for me for a picture.

Saturday night was actually balmy, with a warm humid breeze, but must have been an indicator of cold weather on its way. It rained all day yesterday and today is the day that it gets cold and stays cold. No more high temperatures above 50 degrees and lows are now in the 30s. I finally went out yesterday afternoon and bought those Bearclaw boots for wearing around the house, although last night my feet were really too warm in them.

There was a break in the rain early last night and I let the cats outside. Cruiser managed to chase a few big falling leaves before it started raining again and both cats raced back in the house. Even though it has not been that cold yet, the cats like to lay with me on the couch and we all keep each other warm. Once there and warm, none of us want to get up, which is not conducive to getting anything done.

Today I am trying to paint all day after an unproductive weekend. I am feeling a bit off balance, like I am not sure what to do next, but I am also feeling hopeful. Hopeful and off balance is a weird combination.

Dad sent an article about the dire state of California which mentions two reports on State competitiveness,

The Tenth Annual State Competitiveness Report by the Beacon Hill Institute
http://www.beaconhill.org/CompetitivenessHomePage.html and
The 2011 State Business Tax Climate Index
http://www.taxfoundation.org/files/bp60.pdf

Idaho ranks 18th on both index. I am curious why more businesses are moving to Utah than Idaho and this is due to the business tax climate, which is ranked lowest of all the surrounding states, Wyoming 3rd, Nevada 4th, Montana 6th, Utah 9th, Washington 11th, Oregon 14th, and Colorado 15th. I disagree with some of the reasoning for lower scores for Idaho on the State Competitiveness Report, but Idaho also ranks behind all of the same states on this report, although not by much, Wyoming 4th, Nevada 16th, Montana 17th, Utah 7th, Washington 14th, Oregon 15th, and Colorado 2nd. Idaho ranks lower in the Technology category because it's institutions do not accept enough money from the National Institutes of Health (federal grants for research) and I am not sure if this is really a bad thing. I also find it hard to believe that a relocating company would not have some serious human resources issues in Wyoming. Anyway, this is material for another paper.

The sun is out and I am really liking the time change.

First Friday

First Friday in Eagle was fun. I spent an hour at the gallery and met two photographers and then Mary Kay showed up with her mom, Shirley. There was some deal where we could enter a raffle for some concert tickets if we went around and got stamps from 5 First Friday participants, so Mary Kay and her mom and I went around and got our stamps. Everyone had live music and fire pits and free food and it was a pretty big crowd. Most places we just went in and got our stamp, but we walked around the other gallery in Eagle, which appeared to be much higher end than the one I'm in. Mary Kay was getting cranky with hunger, so we finally stopped at one place so she could eat. We sat outside around a word burning fire pit on a really warm evening for November in Idaho and I met a lonely Democrat here from Lancaster via Pepperdine University. He said during election season he gets tons of calls, because there is only a small pool of people the Democrats can call. I did not get a chance to ask him why he moved to Idaho.

One of the photographers I met also went to the artist's business workshop. She moved here from Montana, I think, but lived for several years in Santa Barbara. She's been here for 15 years and owns a 110 year old farmhouse. She has a separate inside studio and a big lot with large old trees for outdoor photography. The other photographer is from San Francisco has only been in Boise for a year. He photographs kids and families with his wife, but still goes back to San Francisco to photograph weddings if the pay is good enough. He said times are tough and he told me some of the creative ways he is trying to bring up business, like donating a photo shoot for the silent auction that was held that night at the gallery.

I did some research before I chose Boise, including looking up towns with art communities. Nowhere did anyone mention Boise and now that I am here, not only do I find that Boise supports the arts and that there are many avenues to see and display art, but half of the people I meet are artists and some of them are even supporting themselves.

I showed Mary Kay and her mom my work in the gallery, but it quickly got too crowded to try to sell my work to anyone or even talk, so I think I will go again in December. Downtown Eagle is small and quaint and I would love to see it dressed up for Christmas. Mary Kay was not impressed with the gallery owner, either, and could not get past her blue underwear that showed through her cream colored dress. I said, I think she is wearing a matching blue bra and Mary Kay said, does that make it OK? I love Mary Kay and really liked her mom, who is pretty spry for being in her 80s and she still skis.

Dad was trying to tell me a story about Hazel, but could not remember her name, and got stuck on Walnut. Apparently Dad tries to remember Hazel's name by remembering that it is a nut, but starts with Walnut and can't get past Walnut. Let's see, Walnut, Peanut, no her name's not Pea, Almond, Cashew... I don't know about you, but I think it would take me a long time to get to Hazelnut, but then if you were to do a word association, what would you match with Hazel? Anyway, when I was at the framer she asked what to name the framing order and I said Hazel and I told her Dad's nut story. There is another woman waiting at the framer and when I'm done she tells a story about how her and her husband remember their niece's, or maybe it's a nephew's, name. They remember it's a Christmas tree and then have the same problem. They have to go through all the trees before they get to the right one. Pine, Spruce, Douglas, no, it's Noble! I can see why you would need some help remembering a kid's name is Noble.

I spent the first half of the day on Friday applying for jobs again. I applied for some part time jobs at St. Luke's Hospital and used the girl I met at the workshop's name as a referral. The City of Boise had several openings, part time at the library, a full time City Clerk, and a part time media/graphics assistant. At this point, any of these is fine with me.

After a busy week, the house is a mess and I cooked and cleaned and did laundry all day. Lani sent award winning Garlic Dill pickles and I was tempted to go out and buy corned beef and rye bread, but I've been eating them with grilled cheese and they are still excellent. The temperature is supposed to drop 20 degrees and Boise is back to being really cold by Monday, so I am now making pot roast. Next week I am going to make another attempt at baking bread, so far mine is mediocre at best. I don't stick with it because I can't stand wasting all that flour, but this winter I just want to master one bread recipe.

I am very excited about my extra hour tonight, this morning it did not even start getting light until after 8. I hope Cruiser gets the time change and doesn't try to get me up earlier tomorrow.

Workshop

I got lost on the way to the workshop this morning, I went to the Capitol Building instead of City Hall. The lobby of the Capitol Building was awesome, all marble with offices in ivory and dark wood. I was 15 minutes late, which means I did not pay attention to where I parked and it took me 1/2 an hour to find my car and cost me an extra hour of parking by a few minutes.

This morning was an hour on pricing, insurance, overhead, and that kind of stuff. I learned about CERF, Craft Emergency Relief Fund, and the Studio Protector (the artist's guide to emergencies, http://www.studioprotector.org/) Then I waited around for my 10 minute consultation. While I waited I talked to another guy there about websites and another one about crating and shipping. The girl I met yesterday was there waiting, too. She works part time at St. Luke's and the job comes with health insurance. She just got another woman a job there and will look in to getting me one.

At my consultation I explained what I wanted to do and showed some samples and asked how I could get to my market. He had some good suggestions, but his best suggestion was to include a set of cards with each commission piece, with the painting on the card. They would not cost much and make the customer feel like they are getting more, plus they have something to show off to their friends that can't come over and see the painting, plus I get more advertising directed at my market. It was a brilliant idea and I think I might try a sample printing with the piece I did for Marsha (the boy sleeping among red sheets) and send them to her.

I forgot that yesterday the speaker talked about artist's Mad Syndrome, and I really related. I don't think Mad stands for anything, as in MAD, but it is when artists thinking about what they should create fly all over the place, as in I think I will do a watercolor of a cat, no a dog, no a horse, no maybe I will do it in oils, oh look at that solar print, that's NICE, I should try solar prints, I will sign up for a class, oh look at those great new watercolor colors, I think I will try that new purple, oh wait look at that blue, maybe I should work smaller, no bigger, look at that plant, it needs watering, while I'm at it I think I will have a peanut butter sandwich, now what should I work on again? I do that all the time!

After the workshop and finding my car, I went home and ate, priced my stuff for the Eagle gallery and drove it over so it will be there for First Friday. She has too much stuff and a bad printing of my flier. I will bring her a better flier tomorrow, but I hope she sells some artwork because right now it is too crowded and work is hard to see. She made me nervous, a gallery owner should be able to print a nice flier and display art so it will sell. I think she might have her own version of Mad Syndrome.

Then I went to Fast Frame and got the bigger painting of Hazel framed. I learned about reverse bevel mats, which I had never heard of before. This is when they bevel the mat to the inside, so no white edge shows. This was hard to do in the old days, but now the computer cuts the mat and it is as easy as a regular bevel. Now there are 4 kinds of glass you can chose and 4 kinds of Plexiglas, regular, UV protected, non-glare, and museum. Choosing framing always takes me a long time and now it is even worse! The framer was really patient. I picked out mat and frame for another piece, although I did not order it yet, so at least next time I will know what I want.

Now I am super tired.

Dad asked if I could look for some information about companies leaving California, since we heard about a few just before I left but then did not hear anther word about it. Here are two links:

http://nevadanewsandviews.com/2010/08/25/companies-fleeing-california-for-utah-over-confiscatory-tax-rate/
http://www.independentamerican.org/2010/04/22/companies-leaving-californiasome-to-nevada/

This list is from the first site:
Abraxis Health, Adobe Systems, Inc. Alza Corp., American AVK, American Racing, Apple Computer Audix Corporation, Apria Healthcare Group, Assurant Inc., Barefoot Motors Bazz Houston Co., Beckman Coulter, Bild Industries Inc., Bill Miller Engineering, Ltd. BMC Select , BPI Labs, Buck Knives, CalPortland Cement California Casualty Group, CalStar Products Inc., Checks To-Go, Chivaroli & Associates CoreSite, A Carlyle Company, Creel Printing , Dassault Falcon DaVita Inc. , Denny’s Corp., Digital Domain, Ditech DuPont Fabros Technology, ebay, Inc., EDMO Distributors, Inc. Edwards Lifesciences, Electronic Arts, Inc., EMRISE Corp., Facebook FallLine Corporation, Fidelity National Financial, First American Corp., Fluor Corp. Foxconn Electronics, Fuel System Solutions, Gregg Industries, Hewlett-Packard Hilton Hotels Corp., Hino Motor Manufacturing USA, Intel Corporation, Intuit of Mountain View J.C. Penney , Kimmie Candy Co., Klaussner Home Furnishings, Knight Protective Industries Kulicke & Soffa Industries Inc., LCF Enterprises, Lennox Hearth Products Inc., Lyn-Tron, Inc. Mariah Power, Maxwell America, Miasolé, MotorVac Technologies Nissan North America, Northrop Grumman, One2Believe, Patmont Motor Werks, Inc. Paragon Relocation Resources, Pixel Magic, Plastic Model Engineering, Inc. Precor, Premier Inc., Pro Cal of South Gate, Race Track Chaplaincy of Amer., Red Truck Fire & Safety Co. SAIC, Scale Computing, Schott Solar Inc., SimpleTech Smiley Industries, Solaicx, SolarWorld, Special Devices Inc. StarKist , Stasis Engineering, Stata Corp., Tapmatic Teledesic, Telmar Network Technology Inc., Terremark, Terumo Cardiovascular Systems Toyota, True Games Interactive Inc., TTM Technologies, Understand.com, USAA Insurance, Yahoo.

The second site gives more details, but was posted last April.

That is a long list, although only a few went to Idaho.

From Red State to Redder State

Boy 'o boy am I glad I am not in California anymore. Jerry Brown is Governor of California, again?!

The results for Idaho, from the Idaho Statesman:

"The GOP retained all statewide constitutional offices — and easily. The narrowest majority went to Gov. Butch Otter, who won a five-way race with 59.2 percent of the vote. Four years ago, Otter won an open governor’s race with a 52.7 percent majority. State schools superintendent Tom Luna re-elected with 60.5 percent of the vote, up from 51.3 percent in an open race in 2006.

The GOP again holds all four spots in the Idaho congressional delegation. In the marquee race of the night, state Rep. Raul Labrador ousted 1st Congressional District incumbent Walt Minnick with surprising ease, and a margin of more than 24,000 votes.

Two years ago, Minnick won a squeaker and couldn’t claim victory until midmorning Wednesday. This year, with half of Ada County’s precincts still uncounted, Minnick campaign manager John Foster offered up a 2 a.m. concession tweet on Twitter. Talk about the changing world of politics.

The top-of-the-ticket Republicans seemed to pick up steam in the final days of the election. In our final Idaho Newspapers poll, conducted Oct. 20-22, the Labrador-Minnick race was too close to call, Otter was up 22 percentage points, and Luna led by 16 percentage points. All three outperformed the poll, particularly Labrador. I suspect that says more about the political tide that lifted Republicans locally and nationally.

It’s a rout of the magnitude of 1994 — when Idaho Republicans benefited from huge voter turnout and midterm disillusionment with President Clinton. While 1994 was a turning point of sorts — Republicans reclaimed the 1st Congressional District, added 11 legislative seats and, after a 24-year hiatus, took back the governor’s office — November 2010 reinforced the GOP’s hammerlock in Idaho."

Read more: http://voices.idahostatesman.com/2010/11/03/krichert/idaho_politics_gop_democrats_its_deju_vu_all_over_again#ixzz14Gz4DZxf

The State schools superintendent race was probably the biggest deal, since school budget cuts were tough this year and there will be more. Interesting that Labrador is a Puerto Rico-born immigration lawyer, who was only elected to the Idaho legislature 4 years ago and stepped in to the US Senate race 11 months ago when someone else dropped out. He made a name for himself in 2009 when he successfully defeated Gov. Butch Otter's plan to raise fuel taxes for roads.

I spent a wonderful, inspiring day at the art/business workshop. Not only an interesting and knowledgeable speaker, but Starbucks coffee and lunchboxes provided by Honeybaked Ham. The workshop was called "No Trivial Pursuit: The Business of Being an Artist" and given by Bruce Baker. Bruce Baker has been making and selling jewelry since the 1960s and he shared more information than I could absorb. He was interesting and funny enough to keep me awake and sitting in an uncomfortable chair in over-air conditioning for almost 8 hours.

Topics today were very much geared towards selling at art fairs, and I am not sure this is the marketing avenue for me, but I still learned things I can apply. Topics were Merchandising and Booth Design, Digital Images and Jury Process, Trends and Product Development, and Dynamic Sales Techniques. I knew nothing about booth design before today. I know something about photographing my work, mostly from John, but I learned about how to present these when applying to be in a show/fair. (I also learned there is a big market for photography of art for art fairs.) I learned the most about trends and was really pleased that my ideas about commissioned portraits of children is right on trend. I suck at sales, so anything I can learn about sales will help me. Overall it was an energizing, inspiring day.

I met two other artists, both sculpture artists. One I met after the workshop while running errands on the way home and I thought, OK, I've now sat next to this woman all day and then run in to her again, I better give her my card just in case she is a messenger for me from the Universe. I did not talk to her much at the workshop because when the speaker wasn't talking, I looked for somewhere to get warm.

Tomorrow I get to sit with the speaker and show him what I have and ask him for marketing ideas for my commission work.

I can't believe it is November already.

This week the weather is unseasonably warm again, as it was most of October, and I feel like I am getting spoiled. Next week we are supposed to return to normal and cold. Some of the trees with early Fall color are almost bare and now we have the later turners, which seem to be more multi-colored, and the ones that just turn yellow brown and fall off, like my street tree. I am ready with my Fall leaf bags, which I bought with my coupon from the City of Boise and came out to less than $1 a bag.

My mum is on it's last legs, so I pruned off the dead flowers and moved it to the backyard, but now my porch is bare. The cold is making me feel like the holidays are here and between that and the bare porch I am ready to put up the Christmas lights. I would normally do this Thanksgiving weekend, which is more than 3 weeks away.

Tomorrow is the business-side of being an artist workshop at the Boise Public Library. It starts at 9 am. I can't remember that last time I had to start anything at 9 am. Not only is it free, the first day includes lunch. It goes to 4:30 pm and this sounds like a long day for someone who has been on their own schedule for more than 4 months. Regardless, I am looking forward to it.

I found 2 cheap frames for two of my studies and I had Fast Frame finish the backs, so I can take these and the matted-but-unframed studies to the gallery for First Friday this week.

Despite the warm weather, I have been feeling out of sorts lately, probably just financial fear about something that hasn't happened yet, but that darn financial fear seems insurmountable sometimes. I did make myself paint this morning, and this afternoon I mowed the lawn for the last time this year. It seems more spidery in my house, maybe the spiders are trying to come in for the Winter, but I also have a sudden influx of ladybugs inside and outside. Spit did not appreciate having one walking on her food bowl. Spit, don't you know that is good luck?

I signed a new contract with Cable One and now have unlimited long distance phone, in addition to all the other things I already had, for less money.

I can't believe it is November already.

Halloween

Yesterday I was a little more constructive than Saturday and I hope to be even better today.

My friend Margo wants to start a workshop following the Artist's Way - A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity by Julia Cameron. I think I remember checking out this book and not thinking much of it, but a chance to get together with a group and talk about creativity and the 12 Steps seems like a good idea. One requirement of the course/workshop is to write every day, so I am already ahead.

I looked into volunteering for Thanksgiving and there are several opportunities in Boise on Wednesday and Thursday during Thanksgiving week at the Rescue Mission and I think I will sign up for Thursday. This seems like a constructive way to deal with my irritation all weekend and remember how good I have it compared to most of the rest of the world.

When I applied for the last State of Idaho job I checked my scores on the other applications and I scored a 95 on an HR job for the Labor Department. That's even higher than I scored on the two Health and Welfare jobs I interviewed for, so it should earn me another interview. This made me feel a bit relieved.

Two trick-or-treaters showed up on Saturday night and I gave them what was left of the one bag of candy I bought, so I had to go out yesterday afternoon and buy more. Last night I got about 5, including two girls not more than two years old. Those little ones in costume are so cute, they always look mystified at the concept of going to doors and getting candy. One came inside the door to get a really good look at my candy bowl, as if there might be some variety, and the other one wanted the candy in her hand so she could put it in her pumpkin bucket herself.

I went next door to give Sara a card for the Eagle gallery's First Friday this week and she gave me a selection of grapes. The woman that she buys eggs from (which I guess I am going to have to go back and find out who that is) gave her many bags of a variety of grapes. She was storing the grapes on the porch, which I guess is not too different from the refrigerator right now. I guess you can only make so much grape juice and jelly, what else do you make with grapes? I now have bunches of 4 kinds of grapes, all different and all sweet.

There are several farmer's markets in Boise and I finally got over to the one downtown last Saturday morning. I just wanted to check it out and it gets smaller by October, but they still had some good stuff. There was a cheesecake booth and I sampled key lime cheesecake, which was just wonderful with almonds in the crust. They also have caramel apple cheesecake for Thanksgiving. There was a booth of jams and preserves, including blackberry/orange and that rhubarb/raspberry again, and a collection of sweet ice cream toppings and of savory glazes for meat. I wanted to take a picture for Lani, but I thought it might be rude and it was also too cold to take my hands out of my pockets. All of the jars in the booth had printed fabric on the tops that kind-of matched what was in the jar, which looked pretty festive. The market also had homemade sausage, elk, and Kobe beef. I didn't buy anything, but I was impressed.

Today I get to go over and sign a new contract with Cable One. I signed up for a $99 package and after I signed up Cable One started sending me promotions for a package with more stuff for $75. So I called them last week and they agreed to change my service, so I get to add unlimited local and long distance phone and save $288 in a year. The sacrifice is a one year commitment instead of two years, which is better for me anyway.

I missed the Scarecrow Stroll at the Idaho Botanical Garden,


maybe next year, but Tuesday I can go see Day of the Dead altars at the Idaho State Historical Museum. There is always something to do here and it's almost always free.