so very excited, so very sleepy...

it's troubling, but a truly golden problem-state!
for the past over-yr i've been searching & holding out for beautiful security screen doors, decorative ones resembling wrought iron work like that surrounding the porch, one big reason i bought this house (it reminded me of new orleans) but no dice. the ones i like are, of course, quite expensive. however, i found two that look decent i might buy in bakersfield tomorrow, then i can add to it by welding wrought iron to the existing screens, as my friend karen recommended (she is craft & project queen, wonderfully inventive, & works at the hardware store here, so she knows how every tool, nut & bolt can be best-used...). i'm also going to pick up a used wrought-iron gate i found on craigslist, quite pretty, during the visit to mom & dad...
james went to his gig & since is still have no working keyboard, i stayed back (have my eye on a yamaha p-45, weight only 25 lbs!!!)... have been piddling around the house, cleaning, playing piano, reading, wasting time bc i'm supposed to be grading papers (that's always when i get most creative finding other tasks to do)... doggy & i also took a long afternoon nap & woke to sun setting on mountains outside; so glorious, so peaceful... am still obsessed w/new orleans, new orleans gnawing at my brain, insistent, haunting, also thinking of lafayette & baton rouge, but mostly i've re-adjusted to the quiet mountain life, its beauty, its lovely clean air, so now i just wish we could just live in both somehow. maybe it can happen.
surfing the net for how to dress up an ugly chain link fence (we have one 3 lots long), i came across this: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/52354414389263420/?lp=true ... then this: https://www.improvisedlife.com/2009/10/20/d-i-y-lace-chain-link-fence/ .... then this, https://www.curbly.com/10347-6-decorated-chain-link-fences?search_id=13501094, which, like all of these, is pretty chichi & white-privileged (the "shabby chic" & -- gag  -- "junkue" movements), but they also promote resourcefulness, so i'll bite.
the ideas! OMG!!!!! i stay away from pinterest & the like, too, usually bc they cause me to go on overload & hyperventilate & get overly-excited, so have to be careful. my solution is to post the sites here & purge my brain of fomenting obsession so i can go to sleep.
the second james walked out the door, i started clearing the house of extra stuff we don't use; we're hoping to go sell at a swap meet on an upcoming weekend, & doesn't that sound swell?!?! which led again to thinking about the ugly fence quandry, & i realized... all the pieces of metal, aluminum, wood frames i piled on our eastern slope to take to the dump... i can make fence art from those.
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh!!!!!
nothing's much more fun than the immersive experience of turning junk into art.
now it's time to ramp it down & rest. to quote james by way of kinky friedman, may the god of your choice bless you.

extra large versus medium-sized

james looking extra-cinematic at his bd show in seal beach

our dear bro-in-law has been in hospital, so please send kindnesses to doug, who is a ball-of-fiery life like my hubby, & who also does not always care most dutifully for his body-temple... (i guess who does?)
when you're extra-large sick, nothing can register due to the sick-suffering. i was that the other day, in the bed just a sore, writhing lump. now i'm merely medium-sized sick, which means i want to read my book & do productive stuff, but my mind won't allow it bc it's still tossing & turning some, dog-paddling instead of drowning in sick.
yesterday james took me on a country drive in air force one & what a nice time that was. i love soaring out 138 east toward the high desert there, a wide & clean valley beneath huge blue skies, popping with color right now. he of unquenchable stomach was hungry, so we stopped in at the neenach cafe, which has turned half-hipster, meaning the decor & staff look big-city hipsters move to the sticks, but the food is laughably gross. at the poppy preserve, there were no poppies, so we parked across the road & hiked to the top (me extremely slowly), joining scores of others on a wide hillside to view the popping poppies, which didn't know they were supposed to blossom at the state park.
last wkend we went to happy wedding of girl (young woman) i've known since she was 3 months old, child of one of my dearest friends. james was moved by & loved the family closeness, the cheerful cumbia & norteno tunes of the band, & stepped in to play & shout a louis jordan song, to delight of large crowd. the song sounded extra-great w/accordion, esp after our recent return from the gumbo music scene of new orleans, & my friend's ex-husband, band leader ruben, warmed up to james. i realized he's been afraid of james all this time since he's only known OF james from his past reputation as a head-buster so was grateful to see ruben glimpse the real james, the guy his best friend, dear departed manuel, appreciated & loved. sweet for me, too, was getting to sit w/the beautiful, friendly wife of someone i used to treat like sh*t, then make amends of sort to the fellow... that &, of course, getting to take a trip w/dear hubby & girl dog to someplace nice, & then next day hang out w/dear donna & her children & grub mexican food at a place we've been visiting for near-30 yrs, waited on by same tall, black-haired, mustachioed man who still calls us "mija"... life's never exactly what i would want were i in Complete Control, but it's pretty danged good, despite. yes, it's quite a bless-ed life i get to have.

mid-city lanes rock'n'bowl watching nathan & zydeco cha-chas

mighty-lunged young brass band on frenchman, new orleans

this morn i got up so, so late, still sick, you know, & toasted a left-over sour-milk pancake & had it with bananas, powdered sugar, some molasses, & community coffee straight from mardi gras world in new orleans, la, eating & reading the most urgently fine book i've read since "moaning at midnight," but this itchy thing from being ill makes me restless & unable to get back regularly to reading, so now i blablablog. the book, "nine lives," was at the louis armstrong airport on our way back to california, so i requested it from the library, & whatta whatta read!! it's so good, it's nearly too much. here's the link, & i urge & plead with you to read it. Nine Lives by Dan Baum

effigy on bourbon st of hero of the lower 9th ward & the world