Through Buffy's Eyes

GOT FIREFIGHTERS’ PHOTOS TO THEM

2012-01-18T10:08:00.001-08:00

I finally had to call by phone the fire station that the firefighter I met on the bridge told me he was with. I had to upload them in groups since the photos were so large even with resizing them for transport. But they are there and hopefully the firefighters will get back to me on how they liked them. I realize that firefighters work weird schedules; three days on and three days off, so this may take a while. Maybe they’ll use a few of them in their publicity. Maybe not, but it sure was fun doing this project. I love photography!

FIST FIGHT AT THE OK CORAL

2012-01-17T11:15:00.001-08:00

As I was packing my painting equipment in my van last Saturday to venture out to my fun-filled day with my plein air group, I heard some commotion and people coming out of my next door neighbor’s apartment. These are the people who helped me pack my old microwave oven into my van so I could bring it to the recycling place.

The mother and son are a bit “on the rough side,” but I try not to over analyze people and give them the benefit of the doubt that they are good people.

They do have big voices to begin with, not really meaning to holler, and we do have an adjoining wall and besides the banging and being able to hear them and their phone ringing, plus all of their bathroom water from every faucet in there that you can hear, I’ve chalked it up to “this is apartment living” – noisy and I grin and bare it.

The daughter, who comes to visit almost every day, however, is another story. She hollers at everything. I tend to think she is either bi-polar or just is so verbally abusive to her mother, it is unbelievable. The way she talks to her mother is disgraceful.

So last Saturday as they were coming out of the apartment; mother, daughter and a lady and a Hispanic man about the same age of the daughter, came out fist fighting. The daughter and the Hispanic man were giving blows to each other like you’d see those young kids in the schoolyard on TV fighting. Shameful. I didn’t want to look too long, for it was very upsetting to me to watch. The daughter kept on yelling so the whole building, I’m sure, heard it…F--- you B-----. Over and over, continually as she kept on swinging. I believe the guy just kept his arms out to keep the daughter away. The mother and the lady were in between to try to break all of this up. They weren’t yelling. The mother just had cataract surgery and if she should have gotten a fist or elbow in her eyes, I’m sure that would have caused some very serious injury. The son was nowhere. I believe he stays away from the sister, because when she comes to visit, I never hear them speaking to one another. So I guess he just stays away from her when she comes to visit so he doesn’t get into it with her. He must know her anger at any little thing. After the fight being broken up the guy and the lady left very calmly like nothing happened walked to their car and drove away. The daughter, still being in a violent mode went into her mother’s apartment and started trashing it. I heard, what sounded like glass breaking several times.

The next day, the mother was laughing with her son in the apartment. I would be so depressed after something like that happening in my life, I’d be as quiet as a mouse.

I’ve thought of reporting this incident to the manager of our complex, but I decided not to. The lady on the other side of their apartment and the people downstairs must have heard it really loud, I’m sure. Hopefully they will report it or maybe someone else in our building. Everybody was home at the time, according to all of the cars that were parked in the lot and being so early in the morning.

This place is something else. And as I keep saying, “I gotta get otta here.”

PHOTOS OF FIREFIGHTERS’ TRAINING

2012-01-17T08:35:00.001-08:00

While scouting out where and what I should paint, a lady from our group saw some firefighters training on the Coloma River nearby under a bridge. She had mentioned I might want some photos of that, so I quickly started investigating. Sure enough, there they were in all of their brightly colored clothing along with their equipment which made some very colorful photos. While atop the bridge shooting from above the men, one of the firefighters came on the bridge tending to a rope which he held from the bridge into the other firefighters below in the river. We started a small conversation and I learned he was a firefighter from the Roseville Fire Department and he was with other firefighters from other fire stations training for large disasters. I told him I’d send him the photos. I’ve been trying to get their e-mail address, but I couldn’t believe that it was nowhere to be found. I guess I’ll have to call their station to get somewhere to send the photos.

MIXED MEDIA

2012-01-17T07:54:00.000-08:00

I made an attempt of this photo and helped it along with changing his checked shirt into a blue one. I just loved the curve of his hat in this one. I started with watercolors and then went into pastels.

COLOMA, CA-THE TOWN THAT STARTED IT ALL

2012-01-16T13:05:00.001-08:00

This weekend I went with my plein air group to paint the first town that brought all of the gold miners to the west. Coloma, CA which is about 8 miles from where I live. I first ventured around the town with my camera to see what I’d like to paint. But before that, of course, I had to take photos of what I thought would be great paintings. And here they are!

HARDWARE COMPUTER POBLEMS

2012-01-11T21:48:00.001-08:00

For about the past month my computer touch pad on my laptop has been very touchy. I should say very sensitive because when I touch it in any way just a little bit too rough, which is regular to me in the past, it makes my page jump to another part of the page.

So I finally called Microsoft, thinking it was related to installing Service Park 2, although the touch pad problem started two weeks after that installation. I was on the phone on hold for 40 minutes for the tech to tell me she checked out my computer, again gaining access and control of my computer to check the internal workings of my computer, which were fine. She told me to contact Gateway.

I went on line to see if I can find out how to fix it myself by other people experiencing the same problem. I found a couple of fix it solutions, but even the Gateway site said to look for an icon near my digital clock, then do the next step, then the next step, then the next step, and so on and so on. Well, since I couldn’t get to even step one, I went on to the next help, which was to replace or install drivers. I looked how to do that, but even that step I couldn’t continue on with. What they said I should be seeing on my screen wasn’t there. Evidently, they said some of these were older instructions I needed which weren’t available. I even tried getting the User’s Guide on-line, like they said in previous instructions to do. That wasn’t available either since they said it was too old of a User’s Manual. However, I did find a site that they had it for sale. It was a Gateway site. This is crazy.

So I’ve put in an e-mail to a Gateway tech who, for no charge, which is my understanding, they will help me. (I hope.) Wish me luck.

MORE INFO ON NEIGHBOR CIRCLING THE DRAIN

2012-01-11T21:28:00.001-08:00

I’ve been seeing my neighbor who just had the quadruple heart surgery walking around, doing his laundry and going to his ex-wife’s apartment. Where else would he go? He has no car. She chauffeurs him around; she’s the one with the car. She takes him food shopping. He has his own man cave living here and her right in the next building. She jumps around like a little trained dog for him.

Yesterday I heard hollering from downstairs outside and I assumed he was arguing with his next door neighbor who is a lady in a wheelchair and has her white trash grandchildren visiting her whenever they like with their little screechy Chihuahua dog. These kids are loud, hollering every word. You know when they are visiting alright.

But I was wrong. It was a locksmith. Evidently, the lady in the wheelchair wanted her locks changed. Evidently, they couldn’t for some reason, so she wanted the door changed along with the lock. Evidently, she doesn’t want those kids to just come and go in and out of her apartment whenever they please for some reason. They must have a key. Are they steeling from her? It doesn’t seem they are abusing her verbally or physically. They were here on Christmas morning. They must have stayed over night because they were out on her patio in pajamas and the little boy (grandson) was playing with his Christmas gift of a remote controlled truck on the greenbelt. The truck one of the bigger ones, not one of those little tiny ones that go around on a track.

You’ve seen me write evidently a lot in this blog. I write it because it is only my assumption.

This place is a zoo. I gotta get otta here.

BTW, I got another low bid on my ranch, but not as low as before. Maybe things are a changin’. Doubt it. The offer was from the girl that offered me that insulting bid before. Still trying to steal away my cute, little ranch.

TWO MORE PHOTOS FROM GRAY LODGE WILDLIFE AREA

2012-01-11T01:22:00.001-08:00

Here are two more photos I thought worthy of the editor and showing you.

GRAY LODGE WILDLIFE AREA

2012-01-09T08:39:00.001-08:00

This weekend I traveled to this wildlife area with my photography group. Although I had never been there before, I pretty much knew what to expect. The birds were too far away to get a decent shot unless you had a really long lens. I managed to get some decent sunset shots and here they are. Just click on each photo to see it full screen and enjoy!

FOR YOU TO SEE BOTH SIDES

2012-01-06T17:20:00.000-08:00

I'm showing both sides of this potholder because I thought the material I cut the applique from was so cute.

ANOTHER SET OF EYES

2012-01-06T16:57:00.000-08:00

Another set of eyes checking out what's going on. My cat, Peaches, says OK. The red eye feature of both my camera and editing system just didn't want to get rid of that eerie look in his eyes. Maybe they don't do cats.

ON A ROLL

2012-01-06T16:53:00.000-08:00

I got on a roll just sewing potholders.

ANOTHER ONE CIRCLING THE DRAIN

2011-12-14T07:35:00.000-08:00

The neighbor of mine, who smoked and chewed tobacco, recently had quadruple bi-pass surgery is now back home. I saw him about a week ago walking around the complex. Two days in a row, in fact. I thought he was walking well and looked fairly well in his face. However, yesterday I heard the roll of a door from a truck outside our apartments. It was a medical truck. It was unloading, which looked to me oxygen and a machine to go along with it. It looked like a very modern, small machine. I didn't watch to see the large oxygen tanks delivered. I don't believe it was an old fashioned type that the one who died below me had. This was really modern looking. Later last night I saw on TV an ad for a small compact oxygen device advertised and realized that this was the model my neighbor had. It looked really similar. I'm thinking this man may have taken a dive for the worse.

I noticed just a few days ago that he has decked out his patio for the Christmas holidays with a big, lit Santa, lights and other Christmas decorations you could think of. I believe his ex-wife, who lives in the next building down, did all of this for him, because now seeing that he is now on oxygen, he is unable to do this himself. I also saw that she did his laundry for him a few days ago because she came from his apartment and went into the laundry room with clothes. Maybe his ex believes this will be his last Christmas, so she has done this for him. There is a contest here for the best decorated patio for the holidays and maybe he'll win. He's got enought stuff out there to decorate a department store window.

If this is truly what is going on with him, he has about three months to live, tops. Like the one downstairs that died of cancer, she too came home from the hospital laughing, people visiting her and her walking around. But she too had the oxygen and declined very quickly and died within three months.

I guess it's just a matter of time to see how this neighbor's life plays out. Just another one down the drain.

I FEEL MY SMARTPHONE IS SMARTER THAN ME

2011-12-06T23:17:00.000-08:00

The first thing I did, and what the instructions tell you to do, is to activate the phone. So I called the 888 number, answered the computer's questions and waited. They said it could take up to 24 hours. So I waited and waited and waited, even after the 24 hours about three hours later. I then went on line to activate. I got up to a certain point and then ran into a brick wall. I then found another 888 number on their web site and told the human I've been trying to get activated for two days with no luck. He said in a very accommodating, nice way, OK, he'd help me.

I turned on my new phone and we began. At first, I thought I was being punked. He told me to go to a certain page of my phone which he guided me to, since I wasn't familiar yet with all of this phone's features. I had played around with the phone's features while waiting for the activation, so I realized that this phone was much more user friendlier than my old phone.

The tech told me to input numbers. There were about 30 to begin with. He then told me to go somewhere else on the phone and read the number that is there now. It was zero before. It came up the number 4. He then asked me to go back to what appeared to be the same page as before and again he asked me to put in some more numbers. Again, maybe 30 or more. He asked me to go back to the previous page. The number there was a 5 and he seemed pretty happy about that. He asked me again to go back and put in more numbers. Another 30 more. After a few minutes of his doing things, the activation was installed with ten minutes and 30 days of service.

While I was on the phone with him I asked him if he could transfer over my left over minutes, 500 of them, to my new phone. He said that since I had no service on my old phone, I would have to buy 30 minutes for $10 so I could activate that phone and then he would be able to move those minutes over to my new phone. So I believed I could do that transfer without having my old phone being active and I had a year to do so. He said no, the phone had to be active. Since I'm getting 1300 minutes from HSN's deal, I doubt I'd use that much time up like before when I got 1200 minutes. But I told him I'd think about it and if I should decide to do so, I'd call him back.

My new phone number isn't any easier to remember than my last phone number, but it sounds better saying it than my old cell phone number, so I may just get this new one. I could not get an easier phone number to remember, as I asked the tech about that too.

Now that my phone was activated, I then called the HSN's 800 number to get my 1300 minutes. After answering another robot's questions, I hung up and waited and waited. They also said it could take up to 24 hours to get my minutes. It took about 12 hours, because at about 3:00 AM I heard a new ringing from my new cell phone and I jumped up from bed and saw my 1300 minutes were added with about 13 months of service.

So far, I'm really happy with this really great user friendly phone. I've made a call and went on line, which after waiting several minutes said I was disconnected, but it took my minutes. I'll be writing down all of these can't get through messages and reporting them to Tracfone and ask for them back. I had to do this many times with my old cell phone and they gave me back 30 minutes at a time.

Since the instructions to this new phone is in a book which, of course, doesn't cover everything you want to do with this phone, I looked on line for the complete instructions of every feature. I started reading them and then had to do some other things for the day, but saved them to my favorites so I can get back to them ASAP. Evidently, you have to set up an e-mail account, which even with the directions, I didn't understand. There were some other things that I tried doing according to their instructions, but I either didn't understand them or what they said should be on the phone at the time, you do what they said, wasn't there. Figures. I may have to call that 800 number to talk to a real person so they can guide me through the features I couldn't figure out.

Maybe with a fresh day ahead of me, I'll understand more. I believe I'll get this phone set up and use it without any problems when I'll need it for my birding/photography trip near Oroville next month.

Getting a phone set up and understanding how to use it isn't that easy. With any electronics, for that matter. Getting to know my new camera, before going with a group and being able to use it quickly, on the spot, at a location, doesn't come easy. So if you're planning on getting any type of electronics, it will take quite a while to set up and using it for a while to feel comfortable using it.

THE SMARTPHONE HAS ARRIVED!

2011-12-03T08:03:00.000-08:00

My new smartphone arrived yesterday evening. I heard heavy footsteps and a banging around on my front door patio and really didn't think it was the smartphone arriving because it came so late at night, about 6:00. The delivery guy must have had a lot of packages because of the holiday. Luckily, with a little thought I said to myself, I'd better go out and make sure it wasn't my phone, but maybe a squirrel, which I've heard before. Sure enough, in it's plain cardbox, it was here.

I quickly opened it up and it looked really nice. It still has a smaller screen than the other smartphones, but yet larger than the older model I had. It is still tiny enough to fit into my purse slot that accommodated my smaller phone well. I wanted to start charging it up last night, but thought it would keep me up from going to bed, since it had to charge for five hours. It is charging now as I type. It seems easy enough to get it activated, get my 1300 minutes, and start playing around with it. I still have hundreds of minutes left over from my previous phone and they say you can move them over to this new phone. We'll see. One step at a time.

SMOKEY’S COMPLETED OIL PAINTING

2011-12-02T17:01:00.001-08:00

This is a photo of Smokey, the horse that recently died and belonged to a neighbor of mine. I’m still waiting for it to dry a bit more to make sure it will survive a trip through the postal service. Maybe when it’s dried completely, I’ll scan it into my computer and show it to you again, since this photo makes it look really weird and worse than it really is. It’s kind of cute, for my first oil painting of a horse. I hope she thinks so. I did send her a photo of it while I was still working on it, but I’ve revised it somewhat in the meantime. At the time I sent her the first painting in progress, she did say, “Yep, that’s Smokey.” That was before he died. How sad.

GETTING BACK TO STITCHING

2011-12-02T10:22:00.001-08:00

Please click on this photo to see the cute pattern. My neighbor plays the piano, sort of, but enough you can tell what song she is playing, so I thought this would be very appropriate material to sew something for her as a gift.

It’s funny how you can forget how to do things such as threading my sewing machine. I’m trying some simple potholders to get my rhythm back stitching. Just threading, automatic needle threading and how to set type of stitch length, pressure foot setting was like I didn’t now my machine at all. I had to read every page of my instruction booklet.

Frustration started setting in when I tried to make a simple, flat potholder from a video on the internet. The girl in the demo video left out an important part; how to stack and arrange the cotton batting and the cover material. I thought I could wing it, but sewed the layers in the wrong order and had to tear out all of the stitches and start all over again. This time I pinned the layers around the sides first to make sure when I turned it inside out, the material will end up outside and the batting, which is especially made for heated surfaces, was in the inside and in the correct order. It came out fairly well, for something homemade. It actually looks kind of cute. I’ve also made a hot pad to go along with it with a little less thermal batting inside. Cute duo. Think I’ll give it to my neighbor next door and her son for Christmas.

A QUARTET I'D LOVE TO HAVE

2011-11-26T09:01:00.001-08:00

While I was in the shopping mood for myself, I also checked out HSN's Singer Futura Quartet sewing machine, which, of course, was sold out. It's an all in one machine that sews, serges, and the feature which I was in awe about...embroidering by computer. It's a computerized machine and you can get thousands of embroidery patterns on line as well as with what comes with the machine. I've even gone on line to see how hard it was to operate. I found some videos and it was a little difficult for me to understand, but thought once I had it at home, the instructions would come together easier. There is also a number to call if you had any questions on operating it. I love those 800 numbers for help.

I checked around if anybody else had this particular machine for sale and compared prices, but HSN was the best price...still. I did call a sewing machine supplier who, evidently was the only ones who had this machine, but they wanted $200 more for it, a Black Friday special, with a box full of threads and a variety of backing papers, but they wouldn't price match with HSN's price of $1,000. Oh well, it was a good try, and so I pulled my Singer, non computerized, but a really great machine, in new condition out of its box in my closet.

Since my painting of Smokey is finally completed, I rearanged the corner of my living room now into instead of an art studio, a sewing den. It took me a while to see again the inventory of stash (materials) sort them up according to colors and designs, and all of my accessories. It was a lot of fun doing that, but it did take a couple of hours for the transformation.

There is a new quilting shop that just opened up near my house that I can actually walk to, however, I couldn't lug my machine that far if I took any classes there.

I haven't been there yet, but on line they say they offer classes, sell material and accessories.

I made a sampler quilt one time, along with some really cute potholders and they came out reasonably well for a first try, but one of the inside borders on the sampler drooped a little when it was all finished and hung, and that really bothered me. I wondered where I went wrong, even with all of the great books I had read to go about quilting as well as I could on my own.

I found out that all of their classes were filled, so maybe I'll just meander down there and take a look around and get some prices of things.

A CHRISTMAS GIFT...FOR ME

2011-11-26T08:44:00.001-08:00

As I was watching the HSN shopping channel, I came across the new LG smartphone again. Since my service expired a couple months ago, I figured I'd better get it, since it was a really good price and I had been waiting for LG and TracPhone to get a more user friendly phone. The last LG phone I purchased from HSN was a really good starter phone with camera, web, e-mail, texting features and then some and it did a pretty good job at those things. It had a small screen and it was kind of hard to remember how to get to certain features.

This new smartphone, however, has all of those features plus a new 2G camera and, get this, voice actuated text messaging. This means no more typing a text message. The new phone also has a MP3 player. Too bad it doesn't have a voice actuated GPS. Although, I know somebody who has a voice actuated GPS on their phone and it uses land lines to get a direction and a lot of times it doesn't work that well. Either the phone doesn't understand what she said, or the land line isn't working. My GPS uses satellites, and you do have to type in your destination, but it works really well practically all the time.

The new phone's service time will be good for one year, so that will cover my most traveled times, Spring through Winter and if my home should happen to sell down south, it will be greatly needed then for when I'm moving.

It amazes me at how long it took, or should I say, didn't take, for me to order. My call was answered almost immediately. The order lady had all of my information from my last order, which I believe was from my last cell phone. In about fifteen seconds the transaction was completed.

However, I did try to order on line. That was another story. It was the last airing on TV and I had been on the fence as to if I should order now or wait until after the new years and hope they have this phone again, and maybe ten dollars less. They had this phone on TV in June and people bought it at, I believe, $129.00 with no car charger, skins or 1300 minutes. They only got 1000 minutes.

So here I wait again for my new toy. Tic toc, tic toc...Maybe some day an invention will be made where it will come right through the phone lines as you order it. Now that would be really great technology.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING DAY, TURKEYS!

2011-11-24T07:44:00.001-08:00

BLOG, BLOG, BLOG, BLOG, BLOG

2011-11-23T07:58:00.001-08:00

Since I’ve been blogging on this site for nearly four years, I decided to go back in time and read all of my blogs. This is not an easy task. It seems I read for hours and only got back to April, 2011.

In reviewing my blog, I must say, some of them were silly, some were interesting and, of course, the ones with the photos were my favorites. Although the photos I post on this site come out less in quality than what is actually in my Photoshop, I can’t complain.

I can see the errors in spelling, typing, grammar and sentence structure, even though what my readers see is about the fourth time edited before I push that Publish button.

My ritual for writing is basically what I learned in my Creative Writing class in college.

Sit in front of the computer and just write anything that comes into your mind. Don’t even think about a particular subject, if you don’t have one. Just type. Don’t go back to correct spelling, sentence structure or anything else;
Go back and revise your thoughts, organization and sentence structure;
Use the spell checker;
Read the final copy and revise anything you may see again and spell check again;
Push the Publish button.

While I was undergoing all of my computer changes, some of my blogs got a bit mixed up. Some of the photos got enlarged and, of course, that made my photos look blurred. I was very unhappy about that. I guess I could revise them back to their original size, but that just seemed too much work. Since I use different editors, some of the size of my fonts are different.

There was an add on my blog at one time, not too long ago, that you could make a book out of your blog. Come to find out, this would cost me hundreds of dollars because they go by the amount of pages you have on your blog. I’ve thought of trying to print out all of my pages. Can you do that? I haven’t tried it, but I’m sure that would even be quite expensive, with all of the ink cartridges I’d have to purchase, the paper, and at least have it bound spirally. Is it worth it? I don’t know.

So if you, my readers, see any of these faux paus, just ignore them. They just slipped between the cracks of my keyboard. I didn’t just fall off the turnip truck.

APARTMENT NEWSLETTER

2011-11-21T07:43:00.001-08:00

When I went down to the laundry room yesterday to do my laundry, surprisingly, there were two people already there. Since I had to schlep my two laundry baskets into my car and drive down there and schlep my two laundry baskets into the laundry room, I decided to wait, since one elderly lady was only there watching the Nascar races and the other lady had clothes in the washers and the dryers, which were on their way out.

While waiting watching Nascar, the race was stopped because of rain, but the little old lady was determined to wait it out for a half an hour, and since she was there before me, I sat there bored. No more computer, no magazines, just books, which I wasn't about to delve into. She asked me if I wanted to watch something else, but I declined, since she was there before me and she had control over the remote, which she had clutched in her hand like it was cemented to it. I would have watched some of the channels I don't get on my basic cable channels, like the cooking, history or arts channels.

So the little old lady watching the Nascar was full of talk. In fact, she couldn't stop talking. She talked about everything. Her family, the Nascar racers, her new headset she purchased to watch TV because one of her neighbors was sensitive to noise. She just kept going and going, like the Energizer bunny. Through all of her jibber jabber, I found out some very interesting gossip in the apartment complex.

The disgusting next door neighbor who used to smoke and hack up flem and spitting out chewing tobacco, just had quadruple heart surgery. Gee, I wonder why! I also found out that the other lady doing her laundry, who I thought was the girlfriend of the disgusting neighbor of mine, is actually her ex-husband who lives in a separate apartment; the one next door and downstairs from mine. How convenient. I saw her doing men's shirts in her laundry. I guess he's got the best of both worlds. Not having to live with his ex, but she gets to do everything for him...still. She did mention something about kids she had. I just thought to myself, how could she even get near a smoking, tobacco spitting person let alone have kids with him?

I believe he was in the military in his younger years because he always has the American flag stuck into a few of his large, potted plants on his patio. These planters are so large in those huge plastic containers, which are so heavy with all that dirt plus large plants. Evidently, he didn't know about no more than five plants on the patios. Luckily, he's on the first floor, so the plants are on his concrete patio.

He is also a neat freak. He sweeps all of the downstairs walkways and stairs. Everything in its place and every place has a thing in it, especially in these small apartments.

His ex-wife was in the washing machines before me and as she took all of her things out of the washers she took a paper towel and cleaned all over the outside of the washers and inside too. Boy, she probably was and still is living in a military fashion when I saw that. Once in a while I'll hear him come back from his ex's apartment swearing f--- this or f---- that. I guess he even gets to fight with her and leave to his own abode. How convenient is that? He's got the best of both worlds.

I thought he was on vacation because I saw his newsletter and calendar in front of his front door on the ground days after it was delivered. I knew he wouldn't have any such disorder around his apartment, so that's why I thought he was on vacation. Who knew he was away and hopefully will come back and not to be on a permanent vacation, if you know what I mean, although I feel sorry for his ex because now she'll have to be his nursemaid.

While waiting for my laundry to finish, another lady came in to see how many people were in line waiting for the washers and dryers. She looked like she was drunk. Her long, grey hair wasn't combed, maybe in days, from the looks of it. Her clothes hung from her, very wrinkled and at first, I thought she was a homeless person seeking refuge. Her eyes and the linings of her lids were bright pink in color. Maybe she had an illness. When she spoke, she spoke slurred, but she did talk very coherent, so maybe she had some illness. It's very sad sometimes seeing some of these unkempt, ill, old people. Now that I've lived in the places two and a half years, I'm getting to know how these places operate. They let people die in these apartments, even though everybody hears them dying. I also found out from the talkative lady that hospices are places you can go and die and are free. So the one downstairs from me who died could have saved everybody in these apartments a lot of grief and went to die somewhere else for free, but chose to let everybody hear her dying breath.

Everybody has their ills and complaints, and many about other neighbors. If I was the manager here, I'd have a lot of stories to write a book.

WELCOME TO MY SITE, RUSSIANS!

2011-11-15T21:36:00.001-08:00

Lately I’ve been tracking our neighbors from the west…Russians. I hope you find my site interesting and you make some comments. I believe you can read and write English, which, however, is my only language with a spattering of Spanish and Italian.

I wonder if you find my life interesting and different from yours, although nowadays the whole world of every one seems to be one.

So enjoy and I’ll try to write more about my living experiences that may surprise you, or maybe not.

So enjoy!

TIME TO THINK

2011-11-14T08:31:00.001-08:00

Last time I went down below to do some serious shopping, I stopped at Michael’s to see what products they carried to do polymer clay projects. Surprisingly, they had quite a few, so I walked out with not only clay, but the tools to sculpture it and tools and a piece of wood for carving, also another project I want to test the waters with. I had done a lot of research on both crafts through books at the library, enough so, to pursue with what I could do.

In one book, there was a painting/sculpture. It was clay on canvas which was hung to look like a three dimensional picture. It was painted with acrylics. It gained much interest with me. That was something very different, looked great, and I could see something I could make and hang in my home which would draw interest from anybody viewing it. However, no instructions on how the artist went about securing the clay to the canvas in order for it to adhere to the canvas as it was hung. I did read though there are special glues to glue clay sculptures together which maybe is what she used. First, though, I have to get a photo which I believe would suit that form of craft.

Since the semi-cold weather has set in, I’m thinking of the crafts I can do. Going through my photos I took the previous seasons and making them into a more than a one dimensional craft, photography, into a more than one dimensional craft, sculpture, sewing, painting with some textures, i.e., acrylics with thickening medium or oils, thickly applied. Although some of the photos I’ve taken do look at least two dimensional, if you look at the photo long enough, because of the way I took it and edited it.

So what I’m saying is, in the Spring,Summer, Fall I shoot; in the Winter, I paint, sculpt, sew or anything else which inspires me through my photos and what I think would make that particular photo even more spectacular than it is.

A SAD E-MAIL

2011-11-12T12:25:00.001-08:00

A few days ago, my friend from Southern California sent me an e-mail that her horse, Smokey, died. He was 30 years old and she made sure she gave him the last part of his life a good one.

This was the horse that I blogged that I am in the process of an oil painting on Ampersand board and just had a few more revisions and finishing touches before completion. I was planning on sending her the completed painting for the holidays. I asked her if it would be too sad for her, that I wouldn’t. She said no, that I should send it to her.

This lady’s home looks like an art gallery. She even has a little corner devoted to all of my art gifts I made throughout the years and displays them with pride. I must say, they do look really cute; from photos of her and her show dog Buddy, the clay turtle I made in sculpture class and a couple other things.

So I have to get back on that project so it will be dry enough to send through the mails by Christmas.