Tequila Doesn't Count.

Whenever I walk, I experience random thoughts... some make me laugh, some make me consider further, but always I'm distracted by the walk and forget. Yesterday I decided I needed to take a notebook and pen with me so I could record these random thoughts and maybe use them in my blog. Yeah. Didn't use the notebook. My deepest thought was, "Oo, pretty tree!"

My hematologist thinks I should meditate. You know, clear my mind. Think I do that already! I have no problem with empty thoughts.

My husband asks me, "What are you thinking?" I answer honestly, "Maybe we should get one of those bug vacs" just advertised on t.v.  I have very present thoughts. I watch and react. In those moments I'm not thinking or worrying about even the next second.

Be that as it may, I will still carry the notebook. Maybe I'll remember to use it!

White wine makes me angry. This is a new discovery. Red wine is pleasant now and again. Tequila doesn't count and vodka makes me happy, yet given a choice I will always drink gin. Hmm.

(I don't know why tequila doesn't count, it just doesn't. Ask my dad.)

I showed you all a picture a long time ago of a cactus that I called "Penis Cactus." I'd found it in San Diego. The other day, I found it again! It is just blocks from my house.

Rabid Penis

A Row!

These are the discoveries that I find so funny. Does anyone know the real name of this growth?
I'd be indebted.

Next, a surprising color from an oleander. In my yard I have white, pink and red. The pink and red were a mistake. I was trying to grow all white, but they are a nice change. (I later added a beautiful peach colored oleander). But the other day I found this and it was so delicate I had to share.

Not My Pink, Not My Peach.
New to me and so very pretty.

My mother loved a flower called plumbago. My dad planted it at the entrance to their property and in special places around the house. It is a very lovely blue.

Plumbago

My dad asked me to take the picture below. It is on his property and part of a drive we take each time we have dinner together. Serene and comforting. He built this road. All by himself.

Dad's Road.

Sometimes I come across flowers that have been bleached by the sun. Especially in Sunland where the sun is so intense, the flowers produce unique colors.

Bleached Roses

I went to an art installation today at Barnsdall Park in Los Angeles. It was GREAT. My friend Heather Carson was one of the featured artists. I have some really lousy pictures but I'll share them with you anyhow. I so enjoyed seeing the amazing work of these artists. I must go to museums more often. 

The First Thing I Saw

Approaching Heather's Work

Side Trip, Not Heather's, But Weird Cut Out and Cool

You Can't See It, but the Sea is in the background.

This spoke to me.

oddly, so did this.

A Photograph. Looks like Andrew Wyeth to me.

Sometimes the people are more interesting.

The older child was telling the younger child, "Those are Black Window Spider Eggs under there!"

The Reception.

The Back. I think this was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright.

The Front. I Parked at the bottom of 3 staircases!

One part of three of Heather's Installation. 

Titled: Sunset

View from Barnsdall Park

Sun Through The Clouds.

The rain is crazy falling down. We are in the middle of the 3rd or 4th storm. I forget. I took this picture the other day from my front porch, as the 2nd storm abated.

I thought, "oh, good, we got through this one." The sky in the west cleared as the sun was starting to descend and it started raining all over again. But! The sun was shining from its descent, through the rain. I got these two pictures from my backyard.

Okay, they don't quite match up, but I was using my cell phone. It was a glorious full rainbow!

Gotta love it, but I do remember what the nuns told us... the rainbow means the world will never again be destroyed by flood, "fire next time." Oh, good.

Well, my husband and I have survived this series of storms without damage and in great communion with each other. We have the remnants of the final storm tomorrow coming through and finally some very important appointments to keep (Medical and Laundry-ical.) I went downtown for my meeting Tuesday at LATC on what turned out to be the worst day. After a very lovely, exciting and productive reunion with my colleague and friend I walked back through the streets of downtown L.A. in a torrent of rain, got into my car, turned on the radio and heard that I was in the path of a possible tornado! Just as this news made its way to my brain, FLASH, CRASH, BOOM, the lightning was so bright and the thunder so loud and immediate it actually rattled the windows of my car. Yikes. I drove home very carefully!

I am happy to say we spent the next couple of days holed up and happy. I cooked and read and did some puzzles. He cleared the drain in the kitchen, exercised and read. We watched t.v., Netflix and played our new favorite game, "Bananagrams." I figured out how to transfer all our prescriptions to "Cigna Home Delivery Pharmacy." (My Union is insisting we get our maintenance drugs through the mail now.) All in all, a pleasant, productive week. There is something to be said for having to stay at home once in a while.

It is raining again. I can hear it pattering.

I wish I could brush back this rain off of me.

It doesn't pay to look this good if nobody sees.

Settle back they tell me, the weather's in your eyes.

The mint leaf picked tastes better

with a kiss for compromise.

Give me back my letters

I'm back in Berkeley's Soul.

My hair is where it used to be.

My collar doesn't show.

And I'm all for good time money,

but no gold stops this show.

I wish I could wish,

and there I would be.

Sun through the clouds,

And the sunshine on me.

"Walk this way," you ask me,

"And lie beneath the shade."

The fact remains it's raining,

And that gave it away.

Give me back my letters

I'm back in Berkeley's Soul.

My hair is where it used to be.

My collar doesn't show.

And I'm all for good time money,

but no gold stops this show...

No gold stops this show.

by Philip J. Hilow, sometime in the 1970's.