Saturday, August 31, 2024

Labor Day weekend, here already?

 Mutts observes the day

Seems only fair.

Yesterday because of the unexpected free afternoon, I roasted the chicken and the rest of the yellow potatoes. 

Chicken stuffed with fresh sage, thyme and lemon balm. Butter and olive oil, coarse seasalt outside, you see it here after I did the leg test for doneness. That was a fine supper last night.

Now I'm set. Sliced with pasta salad, chicken salad, curried chicken, ending in soup. I made mayo again, just a cup, enough for now.

I've been spinning with the spurtzleur again.


This waiting period may involve quite a bit of production, one way and another. Last evening's audio pod with friends was very helpful and supportive. They didn't quite understand how it's easier for me to go in alone, for the retest of,  better than with company. It's how I roll.  I'm a solitary person in some ways. 

But I did promise them to  recruit Handsome Son to come if we find I need treatment, to the first appointment, to make notes, because I won't be able to listen and think. The hearing aids are a blessing right now! At least I'm catching much more of what's being said. So there's that.

Today's walk yielded evidence of recent wind and rain bringing down white oak foliage 

And a berried plant that might be sumac or not 

And, at the pond a flock of wild ducks swimming in formation, about a dozen, here's the front group 


One of the males gave a few warning quacks and right after this shot, the flock flew away, wheeling around the trees to land further away on the course.

Speaking of production, as  I was before I rudely interrupted myself, here's a couple of the many, some prizewinning, images I created in my early-adopter computer assisted art period, waaaaay back.  

I had to program, using early software, two screens,a keyboard and a stylus, not just click here and there. This was cutting edge stuff then, I think in the mid-eighties. Uphill both ways, you kids. 

Only two printers in the country could print this, one in Colorado, one in California, not available to the likes of me.  So I worked with a camera set into the computer system, and fed in 35mm film for photo processing. The processing staff at the shop were intrigued and baffled by how I made the images, and became fans! Too funny.

Full credit to the two art professors who set up this complex station, Frank Rivera and Rudy name escapes me, and who signed off on letting me work in the computer lab any hours, way beyond those assigned to my class. 

Happy day, everyone! Enjoy whatever displacement activity you get caught up in. Pro tip: everything is displacement activity. Unless you're running for office.




31 comments:

  1. A chicken goes a long way. It does two or three meals for us then is souped.
    I hope you don't have to wait too long for progress to be made.

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    1. A whole chicken beats buying parts, I think. And the Monday after next I get the retest. I think they'll tell me quickly what it shows.

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  2. And how could I forget to mention your early computer art. I started early but never created anything like that in the '80s. Wonderful!

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    1. That was a big adventure which engrossed me as I got over divorce, a great door opening.

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  3. We could not survive without displacement activities. And I love that art of Kamala's blue wave!

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    1. Life can be seen as a displacement activity!

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  4. I think that if they had seen something truly worrisome they would have had you come back very quickly. That's my opinion, anyway.
    I believe you have some pokeweed, there, not sumac. They can be hard to tell apart.
    And of course you were cutting edge in computer art!

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    1. I really like that take, thank you. And yes, pokeweed, I was fumbling for that name, thank you.

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    2. Also thank you for the nice words on the art. It was well received, awards, sales, but my favorite was being invited to offer a piece as a fundraiser for dear jimmy Colavita's memorial. He was a wonderful clay artist and my teacher of one course.

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  5. I'm on three days off and looooving it. Got more popovers in the oven to boot. Have a fun rest of your day!

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    1. You're sounding great these days, definitely well again, full of energy.

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    2. I am myself again aside from, still no full smell. Many things I can smell, some not at all. lungs good though I'm thrilled about that.

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  6. What a techie type you were, and I guess still are. I've stopped learning new tech now, unless it intrigues me or I need to. Young people do not appreciate how difficult matters of tech were back in the earlier days, and devices seldom crash now, and so people don't feel such a need to back up things.

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    1. I think my comment went into spam. Rather than rewrite, I'll search.

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  7. You certainly can make one chook go far. We eat it one day and make sandwiches the next and it’s gone
    Have a great labour day weekend. I hope the weather stays nice for you to enjoy

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    1. It's lovely and cool, windows open weather. When a chicken is feeding one it goes further. This one's a bit bigger than my usual buy, wonderful slices off the breast.

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  8. I watched a spurtzleur tutorial and am fascinated. Want to get me one, and a roving chunk!

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  9. That was cutting edge in the 80s. I've never thought of it before because I am most unobservant, but the oak leaves reminded me of chrysanthemum leaves. But I am probably wrong.

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    1. I can't think what chrysanthemum leaved look like. I'll have to look them up.

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  10. I think that Kamala wave is about to crash on Trump’s shore and swamp him totally. Yippee!

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  11. The Kamala wave is a beauty in more ways than one. I pray it’s enough!

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  12. hard to believe August is done. it's usually the longest month relativity wise as it's also the hottest. but it really flew by this year. we got computers early, mid 80s, went with macs for the art potential. my husband thought I would draw on the computer so I could easily adjust my designs for etched glass changing the dimensions but I never took to it. told him it took me long enough to learn how to draw with a pencil and didn't feel like starting over with a mouse. just didn't give me the same pleasure.

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    1. It was the introduction of the Mac as the industry standard that finished off my wonderful computer adventure. The college had to send the pcs to a state institution when they replaced them with Macs. The Mac programming was lousy, only graphic standard, none of the subtlety of the fine art setup I'd used. But I was ready for physical materials again, too. All good.

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  13. So hard to believe that the summer is drawing to a close. The leaves are turning which is a definite sign. I'm not ready (as I go kicking and screaming all the way into the dreaded winter).

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    1. I find all the seasons fly by so fast I hardly have time to grasp them.

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