Candy Candy Nico Neko

 

 (Bear with me: I'm learning a "new blogger interface" and there are some glitchy things to sort out!

Above, is our new horse Nico. Or is that "Neko"? And as mentioned, her name was "Candy" so now I'm transitioning her my chanting "Candy Candy Nico Neko" to her as I ride... no wonder she looks confused! Everyone at the barn has been so complimentary about how pretty she is (and she is!)  So far, so good. She's had her feet and teeth attended to and I'm contemplating a saddle fitting as she's much broader around then Maggie or Crispin, my two previous mounts. 

The farm where she is temporarily residing is entertaining. They have (in no particular order), chickens, ducks, ferrets, sheep, goats, donkeys, and most entertaining of all, alpacas.

Several of these individuals reside in a stall near Nico/Neko and utter otherwordly space alien sound effects:  a cross between purring, humming and Chinese. They're friendly in an odd way, more like they're observing us to report back to that other planet.

The farm is a bizarre petting zoo. Sue, who is alpha-mare and Dr. Dolittle rolled into one crazy lady multi-tasker, keeps adopting animals from nasty circumstances. That's a good thing! Most of them are very sweet and have made the horses utterly bomb-proof around a menagerie But some of these animals are dodgy four-foot juvenile delinquents- the goats in particular. I have been warned that the goats will consume EVERYTHING including tack (saddles/bridles/straps and general horse-related gear for you non-horse individuals) and horse's tails. (There are several unfortunate equines sporting brutally chewed off stubby tails!) I warned Sue that if my horse's tail goes missing, there'll be goat stew. Never a dull moment!

Thus far the new horse- call her what you will!- is in general a good egg. I hacked her around the farm yesterday, after I had ridden in the outdoor arena and she was great. Didn't spook once, even though a trip around the farm passes not only the aforementioned mammal menagerie, but huge dumpsters, abandoned trucks, functional farm equipment, gargantuan piles of manure and spent bedding, random discarded tires, lawn furniture and general havoc. I'm having fun!

 

 

Storm A 'Comin! And A Goin'!

We are awaiting a Tropical Storm today (with a name that I seem unable to pronounce; maybe that's just as well as if you give things names, they gain power!). High winds, lots of rain (which we need!) and possible trees down, power outages etc etc- which we don't need! Last night we had an unexpected fore-taste of Isaias- sudden thunder, lightening, downpour and excitement out side the bedroom and then quiet. We were able to reopen the windows afterwards. This morning is drizzly but mostly quiet; the quiet before the storm.

And speaking of quite, check out my new piece, above: in this day and age if you're not paying attention or speaking out then you're part of the problem. Thank goddess that people ARE speaking out! And yes, I sewed around all of those little points...

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It is now a full 12 days later... where have we been??!?!

The electricity blinked off for a couple of minutes during the storm and then our Internet went down. I called Frontier (an altogether evil and ineffective company!) and received vague generalities as to "uncertain when Internet would e restored", "widespread problems" blah blah blah. I called and recalled Frontier (did I mention what a vile and totally useless company they are?); I must have phoned them up seven or eight times. Each time I encountered what could have been "humorous" had it not been so infuriating: they insisted that we only had a phone account through Frontier, not Internet- this with me staring at a screen that gave me the number to call to report problems with our FRONTIER Internet. Finally one semi-alert service representative figured that it was because our bills are not bundled and one is listed under Bob and the other is listed under Robert. With that cleared up, I was handed over to yet another representative who finally spewed some weird explanation about a cut wire on our road.highly technical explanation, that!

And I still have their inane and potentially mind-damaging muzak stuck in my head. I implored the last person I spoke to to please, please NOT put me on muzak; he demurred and said he couldn't do that. So I sat, and sat and sat... I finally hung up. (And need I mention that they requested a phone number in order to call us back should we be disconnected? This from the company that we have phone service with, which seems to suggest it's on the computer screen in front of them!??!? And did they call us back?!?!??!!? NO!!!) Have I suggested what a truly awful company Frontier is?!??!?

So later that morning, I called my riding instructor to just touch base. I mentioned that our Internet was till down. She was horrified and said, "Well, maybe try what my son does when our Internet is acting up. Just shut everything off and unplug the whole system. Let it sit for a few minutes and then re-boot it." I did just that and hey presto! My eighty year old riding instructor did what Frontier couldn't- she got our Internet back up and running!

So here we are, 12 days later and I have over 400 emails to delete in my inbox. Welcome to modern-day America!

Sundries, Heated to a Crisp

That's Bob standing next to a gigantic self-sown squash plant that is swallowing the compost pile. The leaves are like three feet across. We sure hope the squash itself is edible after all the energy expended in the prodigious growth!
I'm not going to post and re-post the pictures from the many days that the thermometer registered well over 90 degrees and frequently topping 100. The last two weeks... ay!!Suffice it to say that a day of mere mid-80 degree weather would feel cool and lovely. Don't expect any original thoughts until such time.

Another angle of that man-eating squash... Sus-Squash! It grows about four feet a day.
So I've been rendered stupid by the heat (and I know I have company!) and this blog posting will reflect that. I could continue to rebuke the current administration at every turn, (and they deserve active rebukes when you consider Federal troops being deployed the West Coast, the continuing surge of  COVID 19, rethuglican members of Congress refusing to extend increased unemployment compensation... the list goes on and on) but might sick up all over the keyboard. I will not even add more as steam will begin to billow from one ear and blood will trickle from the other one. (Although on a happier note, the ringing in my left ear that has persisted for a million years now is suddenly... GONE! Even if this is temporary and it returns, having a few days off is heaven!)
Oh and I bought a horse:

How's that for a non-sequitur?

My good friend Laurie (Hi Laurie!) bought me this inflatable horse last year for my birthday. I blew it up and installed it in my studio and promptly freaked Robin out; dogs can be very conservative! Bob observed that this particular horse is very well-behaved and low maintenance!
More on the actual horse in my next post! I am starting on that string of polo ponies I threatened to buy!

Happy Birthday to Me!

Here I am, shilling for generic beans on my birthday but NOT in violation of any ethics clauses! You always suspected that Ivanka and I had plenty of things in common...
So, yes, it is my 64th birthday and thanks to Climate Change, it's almost impossible to consider doing anything besides hunkering down in the bedroom bunker with the air conditioning at full tilt. And thanks to COVID 19, I wouldn't want to venture out to a plague-infested restaurant anyway. Better to stay put in these times of strife!

Here's our un-retouched proof of the climate crisis: no wonder I'm melting!! Over 100 degrees and it's not even afternoon. I still recall Mommy telling the story of how Daddy tried to take her out to dinner while she/they were "expecting" me. Mommy told of how I was late (I didn't want to come out into this cruel world- I must have known how shoddily artists were treated!) and her ankles were so swollen she couldn't get her nice, strappy sandals on. She was pretty miserable; such a happy memory!
So happy birthday to me! Not all is awful as I've already had many nice wishes for best returns of the day and there's an evil, store bought birthday cake with, yes!, FROSTING!!

 And Bob's creating a magical garden gate for me and I bought a bunch of marked-down plants at a nursery the other day, and I've been to see the ponies recently so I can't complain.

(Yes, my lower leg should be further back but probably no one but me and my riding instructor would notice that!) That's Candy the Quarter Pony. See? I even get pony rides for my birthday. Now onto that cake and ice cream and party hats...

Driveway Moments

As many of you who have visited us (in the past, obviously. We no longer "visit", do we?) know, we have a long and treacherous driveway. Torturous, really.There I am above, attempting to not fall into one of the many( and very deep!) holes that decorated our driveway. As we share the driveway with our neighbors, we often shared thoughts as to how we needed to get together and fix it up.
Bob- and myself in a far more limited capacity- had wheel-barrowed many a stone to try and fill the larger holes but it was beyond our abilities. We had discussed getting a pick-up trucks worth of gravel and filling holes- or more radically- purchasing a dump trucks worth of gravel. (The cost is NOT in the gravel, but in the delivery.) We assumed we'd all get together and spend an afternoon spreading gravel (such fun!!) and split the cost. Our neighbors volunteered to call around for pricing...

Picture of "the old driveway" complete with central raised strip of grass.
Imagine our surprise when I was told by A + K (names hidden to protect the identities!) that they'd contacted a local company and the entire driveway was "being done"; and not just dropping a load of gravel, but leveling and scraping and pounding and packing. We contemplated the cost of such a lavish operation (initially considering maybe $200 each for the gravel) and expressed our concern.
"Not to worry!", exclaimed A + K; they were paying for the whole thing!!!
My goodness! Such good neighbors! I hate to consider what it cost... but they had wanted to (gasp) pave the driveway when they moved in, and I'm sure that was prohibitive. So this was a happy conclusion and they said how appreciative they'd been when Bob snow-blowed and weed-whacked the entire length of the driveway many times. Wow! There are nice people out there!

So one day, enormous equipment got dropped off. I don't know about you but I'm so super excited and thrilled by big equipment. (Like when we went to the gravel pit that time: see blog post from several years back when we made the terrace.) Oh boy! Early morning progress!

Lots of beep-beep-beep back up noises and huge dump trucks and piles and piles of gravel...

Nothing for scale, but these were BIG piles- heaps! Several men with shovels began dancing with a bulldozer type appliance and they spread it all out and then pounded the hell out of it. This took hours. I was in my studio- which is right off the driveway- and it felt like the house might cave in. That would have been an interesting side effect of getting that perfect driveway.

I think this is the thing that made the house shake. It was all very amazing. I couldn't help but wonder where our neighbor's two kids were, though. As a kid I would have been out there watching... better than t.v.! But maybe modern children are different.

Maybe this isn't the most dramatic picture, but it's lovely! Beautiful! No bone-jarring, frame-bending catastrophe to negotiate...  It's a pleasure to sail up and down the driveway now. If only we had somewhere to go; seeing as how the pandemic still rages and we're being stay-at-home conservative.

Patriotic Interlude

I had another theme/story in line for this posting. But then I realized that it's the Fourth of July and extreme times call for us patriotic artists to do our duty. Therefore, I shall rant and wax leftist on this Independence Day.
We forgot to get hotdogs so we will be dining on hot Italian sausages and baba ganoush this holiday. I think mixing things up and exploring the diversity of our American food heritage is a healthy way to celebrate the Fourth. And what more perfect way to wash down all this Internationalism than with (British Imperial) Gin and Tonics?
Oh, and the piece above? This is what The Orange Menace calls "never trump" republicans. And also the occasional (lucky) member of the press corps. Hahahahahaha! Human Scum? I got news for you: all the "human scum" we'll ever need resides in The White House! And very happy to report that this brand-new piece is in an exciting and important on-line exhibit! (*1)
So here we are, with 60+ % of Americans thinking the country is a mess- and a fine mess it is! A death toll over 125,000, Corona Virus, high unemployment (due to the COVID 19 pandemic), a racist xenophobe in the White House... the only bright spot is the rethuglicans cozy with The Orange Menace giving into the hoax and coming down with COVID 19. (Thank you Kimberly Guilfoyle!) And then we have the charming, newly-arrested Ghislaine Maxwell. Where do these people come from? Human Scum to be sure! For some reason (several hundred really big ones) she disgusts me even more that Jeffery Epstein; perhaps because she referred to the young women (girls!!) that she procured for Epstein as "nubiles". Yeeeeeech!! What kind of miscreants are these people? Of course everyone is placing bets on how Ghislaine commits "suicide"...
Oh please! I don't seem to have a single good thing to say; everything seems pretty messed up out there. But have a safe and healthy holiday! Don't attend any suspicious political rallies, especially ones thrown by science-denying, no mask-wearing, non-social distance-keeping thugs who've been sprayed odd colors. I think you know who I mean... Human Scum!!!!

(*1) https://sites.google.com/…/artistsreacttothepandemicge…/home
A wonderful show full of the work of amazing artist activists! Can only imagine what The Orange Menace thinks of artists like us!

Red 'n Shiny: Part 2

Hey! there's our truck! Also shiny and red... but not so new as that spiffy lawn mower. This is the BAD part of the story. (Although the truck is shinier than usual because Bob carefully hand washed it before our trip.)
Bob needed to go to Vermont to install two sculptures; one at the North Bennington Outdoor Sculpture Show (or NBOSS google it) and another at the Bennington Museum. Despite COVID 19 throwing monkey wrenches into travel plans (like not being able to stay at the motel we typically stay at due to our hailing from a "restricted" part of Connecticut), we decided to go up for the day. Just an efficient whirlwind tour up Route 7, drop the sculptures, maybe eat some lunch and motor home. There are people we like to spend time with in Vermont and other attractions we like to visit (like MassMoca) but many are closed and humans are socially distancing. So it was going to be a no-frills sculpture install.
I drove us up as Bob is The Maestro and I wanted him relaxed and fresh for moving his sculptures. The truck ran like a top and deposited us in front of the North Bennington railroad station, where Bob's entry into last year's show was placed. Bob dismantled his (old) sculpture, unloaded his new sculpture and was going to move the truck across the street... when it wouldn't start. No noise, no nuthin'- just silence. While attempting to maintain a semblance of rationality (and inside screaming, "HOLY FUCKING SHIT!!! How can this be happening?!?!?!"), Bob called AAA and tried to read off a 15 digit number and explain what was up with our truck while a huge freight train rumbled past (great timing! Lots of railway crossing clanging and that long lonesome wail of the train's whistle). I meanwhile jiggled some wires and Hey presto! The truck turned over and we drove it across the street to the new location for Bob's new sculpture. (*2)
At this point, we were still awaiting AAA. Bob had the sculpture to install and our friend Andy (another sculptor from Connecticut, also in the show) arrived and between him and Joe (the curator of the show and a big fan of Bob's) they made quick work of setting up Bob's piece. I bought lunch somehow hoping that refueling us would magically cure the truck, or at least temporarily lift our flagging spirits.
AAA arrived and pronounced our starter a non-starter but managed to pop the clutch and get the truck started after Andy and Bob pushed the truck with the AAA guy driving (*1). The AAA man helpfully told us, "Don't turn it off. Just keep it running." I'm thinking, "Let's just get in the truck and fucking drive home..." but Bob had yet to load the old sculpture and install the one at the museum. I for one was not having a good day.
But we did eat lunch and Andy and Joe graciously suggested that THEY would take Bob's sculpture to the Museum and install it (apparently that show was on a hill in a field behind the museum. There was no way we were going to drive up there, risk stalling the truck and have to call AAA to some outlandish hillside pasture location). So good friends to the rescue! Three cheers for fellow sculptors!
I told Bob that I'd drive home, thinking that my nerves were so bloody frayed that at least driving would focus me and maybe I wouldn't completely melt down.
Long story short is that we made it. We didn't stop for anything (luckily, we needed neither gas nor a bathroom break) but I didn't breathe easy until we turned into our driveway. The truck is now at the garage for repairs. Guess what? The truck started on the first try this morning so it's probably not the starter, but a wire or connection. Hahahahaaha!
And if you're squeamish, skip the picture below, because it's not just lawn mowers and trucks that are red and shiny. How about my festering flesh?

Yuck! I look like the village leper but I guess it serves me right for "playing" in the poison ivy. You know me: live dangerously. (It actually looks worse than it feels.)


(*1) I myself became expert at doing this when I drove Triumphs and MGs all those years ago. This is one of the many beauties of standard shift vehicles.
(*2) The further irony here is that Bob had taken the ruck to be serviced the day before. He had had an oil change and an "all points check". Battery good, truck seemed fine and ready to go, so this wasn't some kind-of-expected "oh we should have maintained it better" episode.