Sunday, August 15, 2021

obsession, experiments, & fortuity

 dad says i inherited serial obsession from him. we become tunnel-fixated on a something for a while... then drop it like a hot stone. he was obsessed with my tiny trailer, bought stairs, bought a portable toilet... then said your mother and i have decided we won't stay in the trailer. i sold the tiny trailer for a good price. now am obsessed with the following to fill the space where was tiny trailer: vintage travel trailer, vintage mobile home, vintage motorhome, shipping container house, camper, rv, train caboose, sea train house, tiny home, tiny house, agghrghrghghhh!!!! my fingers can hardly move -- i hope it's from overdoing it in the yard & at school, not from too much feverish online searching for trailervintagemobilehomemotorhomecampercaboose.... argghhhh!!!

i was cleaning up the property one last time before school starts & happily spotted, near the antique wagon james brought home, bees & butterflies & other little flitting creatures cavorting & sipping at the volunteer mini-meadow that has popped up in that yard area. oh my gosh! we haven't lifted a finger to plant anything (it dies or the animals eat it, i'm not consistent enough with gardening). what a wonderful surprise that was! so i photoed all the volunteers in the yard, but only have been able to identify one, mountain aster. yay! and dad said, via duo video call, that he thinks in the backyard is a gigantic chokecherry. oh, that would be stupendous! yesterday at the thrift store w/cousin mary fafa, who visited from the valley, i got some cheap books, one entitled flowers of the southwest mountains... the chokecherry was worshipped by navaho peoples. you can make medicines from it. you can make jams & jellies with it!

i hope that gigantic bush indeed is a chokecherry...

btw, did you know that spinach, banana, & grapes make a delicious shake? throw in leftover cold tea or milk for different flavor notes... lately when fruits & veggies start to perish, i throw them in a bag in the freezer. everything goes in: carrots, cucumber, dad's maraglia grapes. then they all go in the ninja blender. some experiments have had to go right into the arroyo (nasty!), but others? so delicious! so happy not to waste food.

 well, james, on the way back from a southland gig, again went to the swap meet w/o me down in the city, but that's ok. when it gets down to it, i don't want to be broiling in the smoggy sun of the city. everything a person needs is right here in this house full of mountain breezes & soft sounds & cool floor & sleeping pets.  just don't need one more thing. but do i want more? heck, yes. it's an illness. i blame society, to quote repo man.




mary frances, my youngest cousin, is a kind & saintly
sprite of a professional woman whose progressive heart leans
toward pope francis & john waters (the pope of trash, you know).
the adorable girls, callie, bebe, maryfafa


as i left bakersfield, dad walked to get the mail dressed
as karl kolchak of the old night stalker tv show. but i
think it just was an accident of wardrobe. (sometimes he
rides a tiny bicycle to accomplish this task.)



Saturday, August 07, 2021

money money money money money

 i have some, so i am lucky. why such disparity in this human world? can't look at that, no. and no, i'm not rich in money, not compared to some of james's friends or people i've known or certainly not compared to the wealthy of the world... but wealthy in other ways, yes yes yes, i get to be. ("that man is the richest whose pleasures are the cheapest.")

today i got some real scratch (for me) bc today, finally sold the little trailer! yaaay! the guy who bought it, "cesar millan not the dog whisperer," was sweet, a character, a businessman, sincere-seeming... accompanied by a snowy-headed mexican pastor of noble visage named edgar perez.  before they pulled away, edgar asked if we all could pray, so we bowed our heads & he did so, & they drove off leaving me with a huge (for me) wad of bills & eyes filled with tears.

lately has brought many financial opportunities where i get to be a good person. i couldn't be luckier lately, really. it was a funny idea, to send a champagne cake to texas, so we enjoyed the challenge of preparing & mailing one to cousin tushi for her bd (it is her absolute favorite cake), then got to listen by phone as she opened it, gasped, & yelled "holy sh*t!!" - such a funny & wonderful moment! lllllllllllllllll 

the cat just jumped on the keyboard! i will leave it.

angie & i drove out to ventura for cousin loree's 50th bd & had a huge meal at limon & sal, a gorgeous restaurant housed in a grand old downtown ventura corner bank, owned by loree's gentlemanly, high-rolling  friend carlos. afterward,  thrift shopping w/angie & loree, many nice gifts. last night, a reservation for cousin bebe & her wife callie at the hollywood historic hotel, a grand place where james & i have stayed. they'll be visiting from texas so that young bebe can "show callie cali."

there's all this incubated niceness... then awareness of the inequality of the human world comes swelling up and swallows it all.

 i don't want to write any more, so i'll just post some pix.

i sold it for "obo"! whee!

our beautiful little town. today was fiesta days,  
a street fair this yr due to covid...

very fond memories here for so many. :) omg, pistachio
used to be pistachio cashew!!! where's the time machine?!?