The Yin and Yang of Dog……..

Oh, it's been too long!  My fingers are rusty and wondering where the last 7 months have gone.  It's been a flurry or I should say furry!

Oldest kid is on sabbatical from Alaskan Pacific University and driving around the lower 48.  She brought her trusty side kick, Lizzy.   They landed in the driveway a couple weeks ago and this small house became home base.  

More dinners, more hikes, more fires and more fun.  Then the reality of another dog, a chocolate brown dog, the exact color of my espresso paper floor and dark rugs, a dog who enjoys being in the kitchen at all times, and a sighted dog too.  Lizzy is the exact opposite of Kirby in every way.  Here is an up date on living with two very different dogs.

Kirby is almost like having a stuffed dog, except he eats and poops….. a lot!  He holds the floor down, isn’t very interested in kitchen stuff, unless I open a can sardines or fry a bit of bacon, then he magically appears from thin air, very stealth. You can set your watch by his eating habits;  6:30 am, short walk, check on the chickens, in the back door and eat breakfast immediately.  Lick bowl clean and retire to the landing or studio until lunch, exactly 1:30 pm.  Eat, walk around the backyard, and back to napping.

  He wakes up at 3 pm for our coffee break, a cookie, an outside toot, check on chickens again. Returning to the studio and naps until 6 pm …… I have found him standing with his head against the studio door if I’m running late washing down the tables and wheel, covering pots; he has a schedule!  Eats dinner, hangs out at the kitchen table and heads to the upstairs landing until 10 pm.  Pre-bedtime walk, quickly, a cookie and back to sleep.  The next day it begins again.  Don’t move the furniture and don’t change the schedule.  He is like clockwork!  I depend on him to let me know what time it is and its been like this the last seven years.  We are comfortable.  He has entered the Koala years and sleeps 22 hours a day.  

Enter Lizzy on November 22, just before Thanksgiving.  Lizzy is 10 years old, a sighted, engaged, real dog with toys and leashes and special dog food and many beds and needs.  She is stubborn and not happy that our little half acre is not the free range mountains of Alaska.  I am having flash backs to me as a young pup with my dogs visiting my Mom and Dad and now I “get it”.   We are still adjusting to occasional doggie rectum rockets, in the house.  This is shocking because Kirby has never ever in the 7 years he has been here had one accident in the house.  He eats everything, his gut must be made out of kryptonite.  Lizzy not so much….. and no popcorn, EVER!   Lesson learned on that mistake.  Kirby ate half the bowl with nutritional yeast and thought it was great!  Slept like a baby.  Lizzy got the hot zoomies! It was a sight to behold, actually a sound to behold.  She zoomed out the back door into the darkness, no leash.  Panic!!! Grabbed the flashlight and found her in the middle of perennial beds butt trumpeting.  She looked relived and the carpets were saved this time!  Not so much last night or a couple weeks ago.  

Lizzy is dark chocolate, like 70% cacao.  I can’t see her, she is the same color as the floor.  I made meatloaf a couple weeks ago.  The best meatloaf ever!  Put a slice on a dish and took it to Butch, standing by the wood stove in the kitchen.  I came around the corner and went down face first, meatloaf flying, plate flying.  I can recall Butch’s face as I was headed down, his first words:  I was here this time and your head was a half inch from hitting the stone hearth, you are so lucky.  I belly flopped hard, my shoulder and knees are still bruised but healing. While bouncing off the stone floor I felt 4 paws running over me and leaving skid marks on the back of my head while Lizzy dove for the meatloaf and plate.  I couldn’t even find crumbs to wipe up and thankfully the plate didn’t break. We are working on Lizzy laying on a white rug in the kitchen area or a light up color.   I can see her and she can see everything, like flying meatloaf.  

Rachael is off to a conference in Canada for a week and I am here with two Yin and Yang dogs.  Kirby loves the leash as it gives him security.  If I unclip his leash on walk, he stands frozen in place; I am his eyes. Getting the leashes out for a walk and Lizzy looks like I’m going to beat her.  Head down, tail down, dejected, not happy but will tolerate it as she wants to go out.  We get to the sidewalk and Kirby is pulling and excited and Lizzy puts the brakes on.  Kirby is new to this as we walk pretty fast and we’re just not going fast enough so in blind dog frustration he spins and can moonwalk right out of his collar.  Lizzy is not phased and stubbornly digs in.   I run for untethered Kirby on the tree lawn and now Lizzy is gleefully sprinting away.  Free at last, free at last!!  Two days of that and decided it was time for the dog park! 

Kirby figured out pretty quick he was safe and happy to be off the leash. 

Lizzy:  “What fresh Hell is this?”

Kirby met 3 feral children and everybody had so much fun!  Except Lizzy who seemed to know these were “those cousins” that show up at Christmas once a year.  

I don’t know Kirby’s history but he must have been around kids, feral kids.  He heard them and got kind of excited; tail wagging, engaged.  The kids asked if he was friendly, yup.  Explained he was blind so he couldn’t see them.  They were unphased and adjusted.  No ball throwing but lots of pets and yelling.  If he ran toward the building they all ran in front of the building to stop him from banging his head.  It was 42 degrees with a stiff wind and these kids had no coats and didn’t seem to mind the cold.  I asked them where their dog was, and what were they doing in the dog park?  Bobby Ray explained; our dog Sam is a biter so he has to stay over there in the vicious dog area.  I didn’t even know there was a vicious dog area.  Sure enough there was their Mom with a white boxer sort of dog who was charging the fence, teeth barred.  YIKES!  

We ended our dog park visit, Lizzy seemed relived.  Kirby wants to know when were going back. 

First week here Rachael wanted to rearrange the furniture and put the sofa in the back room in front of the TV.  You cannot move furniture when you have a blind dog.  But the porch is working just fine :) 

Hello……it’s me

I was wondering if after all these years you’d like to meet

Hello…… can you hear me?

(Apologies to Adele) 

 

Definitely Can Live Without!

 Who knew the list would be uploaded in record time?  Since Monday the fur has been flying and the only reason I'm pounding away at my desk this morning, rain.  Sweet wonderful rain, we needed it! 

This is not a Beatrix Potter post.....

When we returned from Colorado and I started weeding and popping seeds in the raised beds in the way back garden I noticed a garter snake.  I don't see very many around here so I thought great!  Came in for lunch and went back out to find a bigger garter snake french kissing a toad but the toad became dinner within a few minutes, OUCH! 

Of course I uploaded the entire video to Instagram while still standing in the garden.  As I loaded the video another skinny garter snake slithered over my boots.  Eeeeck!  I have never seen this many snakes here before.  But no worries they eat stuff like grasshoppers and locusts and other garden pests but I wish they'd leave my toads alone!  I kept weeding and emptied my bucket of weeds on the compost pile and saw this! 

Betina, look at this!  Whadd'ya think?  

Ethel does it taste like chicken?  Dunno, let's ask Elinor

and off they toddled, leaving the snake alone.  The snake exited using a chipmunk hole 

The girls never returned. 

 I declared: We shall live in peace this year of 2022!  

Had the rhode island red chickens been here, otherwise lovingly referred to as the idiots, 

this snake would have been lunch!   

And so we live in peace with the snakes but while cleaning out the flower beds around the pond I found a skin and a smaller snake in the iris bed.  This is so many more snakes than we have ever had here at happy acres.  Not sure why because we had a pretty hard winter.  I am sure they will be in the basement soon and that will end the 2022 détente. 

Tuesday night I strolled to the back 40 putting the ladies to bed and close the coop for the night.  Head count, 3 happy chickens perched and murmuring to each other.  I say goodnight ladies, and they always coo back as I drop the door, putting put a brick in front. 

Walked around the back to pick up the food and water for the night, unlocked the door, reached in and recoiled in terror!  A masked trash panda was siting on his backside propped up agains the chickenwire fence shoveling in arm loads of pellets!  He was as shocked too and couldn't get his grimy little paws under his chonky butt and gatored in the dirty for a few a seconds, then whizzed past me on a tear and up the post to the compost pile.  He turned and looked at me like I was the intruder.  Oh ya buddy game on because I am coming for you!  I like my chickens alive and I like my one or two eggs a day.  He'd eaten enough chicken chow he should be laying a couple eggs by dawn! 

Closed the coop, grabbed the food and water and began plotting!  Find the trap and now what to use as bait?  They love corn and watermelon but not in season yet.  Hmmmm peanut butter on an apple! 

The very next night I loaded the trap with a smelly apple and put it next to the coop.  Went out at 10:00 pm and two beady eyes stared back at me ..... from inside the trap!  YES!  Gotcha and I happy danced off to get the wheel barrow.  Put a tarp in the back of the van and tossed a towel over the trap to calm the snarling, teeth barring, raging coon into silence.  Tossed him in the wheel barrow and rolled him to the van.  Tossed him on the tarp, towel still intact and Millers relocation service was back on the road.

Heading out to my usual spot where I can back the van in, drop, release and flee the scene in the darkness of night.  It's been a plan that has worked pretty well the last few years.  As I approached my turnoff I noticed a Sheriff sitting in a parking lot watching the light.  Crap!  Nobody and I mean nobody heads down this road unless they're dumping something; bodies, washing machines, trash, trash pandas; all illegal.  It's dark and deserted but has water, lots of water, trees galore, and trash cans.  Raccoon paradise.  I drove down anyway, watching in my review mirror and noticed somebody following and not only that, parked at the end was a park ranger vehicle!  This is not happening!  Plan B, keep driving to the next favorite place.  Slowing down and pulling in a small parking lot sits a large pick up truck, Ford 250 and small white Honda with windows fogged.   Really?  It's Tuesday night get a room I am driving around with a ball of angry terror and followed by the cops!  So I moved to the next place which is no where, I don't have a plan C but keep moving!  Finally I pulled over to gas line installation in a wooded area of an industrial park that has lovely ponds and prayed it was too early to have any security cameras.  I didn't even shut the van off, I ran around back, grabbed the trap, fumbled with the door and he was gone!  Toss the trap in the back of the van and noticed he had relieved himself all over the tarp.  I rode home with the windows open and gagging.  Tossed the tarp on the driveway and would hose it down in the morning.  It was 1:45 am.  Everybody is good, all fingers accounted for and chickens!  Lights out! 

The next morning I got up to hose down the tarp and start gardening when I saw fur up and down the driveway in the front yard!  Horrors!  A bunny nest and my prize hostas strewn over the beds and driveway.  Behind the taxus on the front of the house a public toilet of raccoon pooh.  For the love of all things furry you too are going down tonight!  

Loaded up the apple and peanut butter and nestled the trap around the shredded hostas. I was tired and really wanted this to end quickly.  By 10:30 pm #2 was trapped, loaded and relocated to a different place. 

I was home by 11:15 pm, as this one went very well and he seemed happy to be released.  

I was on a roll and it was early so I loaded the trap again but was out of peanut butter so I switched to sardines.  Phew this should bring in everybody!  Set the trap in the way back again around the chicken coop and checked it in 30 minutes.  #3 was in the trap.  Yes!  grab the wheel barrow, tarp the van and off we went into the darkness by 1:15 am.  Again the Sheriffs SUV sat at the light!  I started making up stories; my husband forgot his lunch, um ya it's a sardine sandwich sir, heard there were shooting stars tonight and thought the park was perfect, couldn't sleep so out for a drive.  Please just sit there and ignore the white van with all the subversive bumperstickers........ GIVE PEAS A CHANCE!  He stayed put but now I decided to head south, driving down back roads, around curves I remembered a favorite fishing spot in the middle of nowhere.  Takes awhile but so worth it as this daunting feeling that, little old me could be pulled over at any moment with a raccoon in a trap. Even with a towel over him so he wasn't visible, except for that little searching paw sticking out, the stench of sardines was enough to make an officer want a second look.  What's under the towel lady? Would I say it?  "Not without a warrant sir."  YUP!  

Finally got to the fishing hole, raced to the back and opened the trap.  Nothing.  You're free, go off and maim things here in this lovely place.  Nothing.  Seriously?  I took the towel off to see what the problem was.  He was facing the wrong direction!  Now I am standing in a dark parking lot trying to cajole a stupid raccoon out of the trap.  I tipped it on end, I shook the living daylights out of it..... I had captured velcro raccoon!  Still facing the wrong way I held it over my head to see if his foot was caught.  I have never had this happen, ever!  I shook and cursed and poked for a good 10 minutes, I was exhausted; Mr Velcro not so much.  I put the trap down and said;  Please just go and he calmly walked out of the trap and into the tall weeds.  Tossed the trap in the van and rolled home in my stench laden van with a cloud of raccoon stink and sardines.  I crawled into bed at 3:42 am,  Mr Potter rolled over and groaned.  Swear, I'll shower in the morning and wash the sheets.  I should have stopped at two but OH NO why would I do that.  

I am now waiting for the ground hogs to show up........ 

I spent big bucks and got this:  an automatic chicken door.  I have been getting up at the butt crack of dawn to let chickens out for years.  Have left art opening to close the door before the nocturnal creatures started their nightly jaunts. It gave me a reason to jump out of bed in the morning and I loved it!  I have done this for years and most times it was a great excuse to leave the party.   I never once missed putting the girls to bed and this is my second flock.  This closes at dusk, has a little flashing blue light to alert the chickens lock down will begin shortly.  It also automatically opens at the crack of dawn.  I still have a dog that wakes me up but the urgency is gone!  I walk out to 3 pairs of eyes excitedly watching me walk across the lawn with feed and water accompanied by the dancing dog. 

So it's been kind of a game changer.  I stood out there for three days making sure it worked the way it was promised to work.  What I don't like, there is no magic beam to stop the door from closing; it's not toddler proof.  I may walk out to a decapitated chicken someday but for right now it's awesome!

I wish to be left to my illusions of what goes on in the garden. 

But in reality it's an eat or be eaten kind of world and face it baby bunnies are the McNuggets of the garden world.  They reproduce at an alarming rate but I don't want to see the massacre.  I just don't and yet as I walked out the back door this morning the hundred baby preying mantis had hatched and they were a reminder the détente will end sooner than hoped. 

So today I am staying in the kitchen and doing other fun things.  Only the radishes were harmed.

fermenting has begun! 

WHAT CAN I LIVE WITH AND WITHOUT IN 2022.......

We are 5 months into the dumpster fire of  2022.  I have passed my bone density test and getting better everyday, especially now that Spring is here.  Where to begin....... there has been cross country trip to Colorado for a mega graduation and back in record speed.  On that long, straight-through drive of 26 hours; I take the 10 pm to 6 am shift, there is quite a bit of peering into the darkness looking for ...... WHAT?  I don't know but a lot stuff shakes out of the darkness; thin white lines, glowing red tail lights.  Where the hell are we going this year?  I wish I could say there was a great white light and the answers appeared on the back door of an 18 wheeler headed east at 3 a.m. but honestly who knew there were so many truckers out looking for Jesus or a truck wash because scribbled in dirt it states; "WASH ME" or "Honk if you love Jesus". 

I started compiling a list of what I will choose to live with and without in this year of 2022 and maybe ever after.  

1.  I will not leave my little plot of land in the month May...... EVER!   

1a. I cannot live without green and growing things, preferably a garden.

I wait all winter for gardens and green and Spring flowers.  You know that new Spring green that appears in a sliver of time when everything is waking up.  The halo on the tops of trees in the early morning sun and you just know something BIG is starting.  It is like sticking your finger in electrical outlet.  April was a roller coaster and the weather kind of sucked, so May is big pay off month. When April showers turn into ice and snow, we bide our time waiting for May.  May is all outside time!   May sets the gardener up for the rest of the year and it's a breathless time.  The weather broke on May 2nd.  Tiny little plants were slammed in the ground at head spinning rate.  Sprinkled seeds randomly, shoved bulbs, corms and root cuttings in the ground, divided what turned out to be an 80 pound rooted hosta into 4 giant plants (almost killing myself), raked leaves, filled the compost pile to a groaning level and said the gardeners prayer; GROW DAMMIT!  Do your best, buck up and I will be back but I know not when.  I am sorry.  Prayed there would be rain, no frost, the squirrels would meet the hawks, the deer would stay in the woods having their Bambi moment and the gardens would grow. We backed out of the driveway on May 4th; dirt still under my fingernails, exhausted, and packed. 

hosta madness......

all the starts waiting to go in the ground....

beds prepped and compost spread........

Leeks and shallots....... thank you Nancy FG!! 

3 types of kale, onion seeds and marigolds.... 

and dug up the next day by evil tree rats!  

all beds netted but still one more thing argh! 

they dug up the transplanted strawberries too...

also netted! 

The morning of May 3rd, chickens were wrangled and hustled off to  Flannel Dog Farm chicken camp.  It was that or the freezer.  When I didn't get hold of the head dog at FDF I went right to the dark side and started looking for my killing cone but alas sanity prevailed and contact was made!  I excel at heading to the dark side when under time constraints and madness. 

 The chickens and the flock mistress thank you Flannel Dog Farm  from the bottom of our coop 💖🐔

2. I cannot live without chickens. 

My long list was checked off and we headed to Columbus.......Are we there yet? 

3.  Can't live without a dog.  That is all....... 

4. I cannot live without coffee.  

This is right up there with green growing things and fluffy feathered things that deposit eggs.  While I slammed plants in the ground I had the epiphany, coffee shops have been closing by 7 or 9 pm.   I knew I would be driving the nightshift, what to do?  From the garden, while on my knees, I ordered this!  Jeff Bezos sucks but sometimes Amazon is amazing, it was here that afternoon and I used my amazon points so it was FREE (well sort of but I am working the system) !  

Ok it's magical to make hot water while driving down a dark a road at 2 am.  This thing fits in my cup holder and tells me when it's ready!  It does not prevent me from pouring boiling water over myself so pull over and make coffee, walk the dog and look at the stars over Missouri or Kansas.  I also brought the french press for breakfast and packed snacks! 

and Starbucks instant coffee, who knew!? 

Break time for Kirby too!  

5. I can live without the spiffy little kettle but it was very nice :) 

6.  I cannot live without family fun and this was a blast to see everybody.  (but not in May!) 

Congratulations Abby!!!  Just WOW! 

7.  We cannot live without making new friends.

It was another Miller whirlwind trip but the observations were real.

Colorado is on fire and is in a drought.  Every single body of water we hiked or passed by was down, significantly.  Where there were large bodies of water and even yacht clubs, boats lay abandoned on dry land.  Even in the mountains we thought the snow run off would fill the reservoirs but they were down, very far down and it's May!  We saw more fire damage and heard reports of major fires in New Mexico with Colorado not far behind.  

8. Cannot live without WATER! 

We crossed into Kansas and it was so bleak.  Over grazing, so much irrigation, so much brown.  it is estimated the Ogallala aquifer will be 70% depleted in 48 years and yet building new homes and businesses is fierce.  Mono-crops and cows for miles.  Nice to see windmills too but you cannot drive across this country and think everything is fine. 

Just outside Limon, CO.  we hit our first dust storm.  It clogged our air filter on the van.  I pulled over and banged it on the pavement while the tumble weeds rolled past. Even in the car it felt like we had steel wool in our eyes.  We kept driving to get out of it, my god we didn't even see roadkill.  Just as evening fell half way across Kansas we hit a hail storm of grasshoppers or locusts.   

9. I can live without giant grasshoppers and murder hornets.

I will never get those bug guts out of my fenders or grill.  I kept saying; holy crap, this is MAY!   I texted the kids:  Stay tuned for more pestilence and plague updates on the drive home!  But alas they had flown to San Diego for a friends wedding and were living their best lives...... 

Hello Ohio.....

Hello Lake Erie......

10.  I cannot live without a sense of humor 😂

I will be updating the list as 2022 plods on, in dust bowl and tumble weed fashion. 

Rage against the machine.........

 

Does it feel like the wheels are coming off?  Mine came off a couple weeks ago and I have no spare in the trunk.   Burning brighter then the beat of Putin's war drums is the collective light of the world coming together to fight this megalomanic.   As I have watched spineless politicians in this country bow and kiss the ring of a defeated president golfing at his dacha in Florida; there is a shining light in Volodymyr Zelensky, president of Ukraine.   The US sent a message asking him to evacuate Kyiv, his response is one we want to hear, the world needed to hear: "I need ammunition, a not a ride!"  We have seen him in combat fatigues having coffee in a bunker with his troops.  The Russian Federation has a GDP of $1.7 million, about the same size as Texas ($1.6 million).  And now knowing that little tidbit, how do you feel about Texas?  So why are the bullets still flying after 5 days?  And the asshole in Belarus needs to go to a time out in his bunker too!  This blogger stands with the people of Ukraine and the hope for peace!

So in the midst of waring worlds, escalating prices from war and inflation, chip shortages, masks vs no masks; a few more observations have to come light as I tried valiantly to fill a final order in the studio.  One of those orders you think is going to be a cake walk, done in a couple weeks and delivered.  You would already be spending the money on that automatic chicken coop door so you don't need to drag yourself to backyard each morning at 0-dark-thirty to let the girls out.  

Reality?  BaHaaaaa! 

We met mid December, they ordered 6 lights and explained I would not start the order until January with a delivery date of March 1st or the end of Feb.  No problem.  The order was for 6 carved porcelain lights for an awards program by a Woman's Center at a community college.  (things for me never go well at this particular community college)  Then on January 7th they emailed and wanted to double the order; 12 carved, wired and labeled lights, argh.   Plenty of time...... until I threw myself down a flight of steps January 21st and became a disabled potter doing 2 hours of PT each and everyday except Sunday.

I had made lamps back in the day and paid a guy to wire them.  He died.  Started looking for parts and a new guy who might be able to wire these and I lost days.  Went to my local electrical supply store to see if they had any insights.  The guy behind the counter was great.  Pulled all the parts, showed me how to wire them and then I asked how much is this going to cost per lamp?  Around $15 without the bulb. Again queue the BaHaaaa! NO!  Called another place: National Artcraft an hour down the road.  

They had a Christmas Tree Kit!  Remember those?  My Mom had one or two or three and I am a hater but I only need the wiring!  Kits are $8 and included the bulb and they didn't know anybody who could wire them.  What happened to old retired guys who putter in the garage and basement?  Oh ya, that would be us now! 

So I ordered a dozen, drove an hour down and an hour back and picked them up.  Followed the diagram, easy peasy, easier than wiring my kiln or the kitchen.  The kit came with a tubular edison bulb, 40 watts and heated the porcelain hot enough to fry an egg or burn your hand and start a fire.  First word my brain bubble shouted: LIABILITY; you just took the top layer of skin off your hand. Crap!  Then some of the lights needed a 1 1/2" pipe nipple and the kit came with a 1" pipe nipple.  Key the crying in the studio and my knee hurts.  

Off to the electrical place, nothing.  Off to all the big box stores, nothing.  I had the illusion I would just drive to a store and pick up parts. Drove home and looked on Amazon, everything.  Needed a few rubber washers, nobody has those in stock!  I remember, before Covid and Amazon, walking into a hardware store and pulling out drawers of washers, nuts, bolts etc and an old guy who knew where every single washer was in the store and handed it to you and it was a couple cents.  C'mon I am not that old!  Brick and mortar stores have nothing!  I needed a blade cutter for my Fiskars paper cutter.  I alway got it at the local art supply store, nope Amazon!  I am now very suspect that Jeff Bezos introduced Covid and supply chain issues.  He needed a bigger yacht. So much rage against the machine!  So back to National Artcraft, turned in the light bulbs and picked up felt bottoms for the lamp bases. 

Now the plaques that need to go on the front of the lamps.  Back to my local hardware store, which I love.  They have strips of brass in a corner of their basement, the basement!  My knee doesn't bend to get down the steps so I did them on my butt and the old guy waited at the bottom.  It's thin, flexible and can be cut easily.  Decided to pick up clear sticky backed labels (Staples still has those) to go over the brass.  Stood back and looked hard, well don't those just look like crap.  They looked great on paper and in my head.  Execution, awful!  Laid in bed going over and over all the possibilities while I iced my knee after physical therapy or tried to fall asleep.  I live in the same town as the label giant, Avery Dennison.  They make gold sticky backed paper.  Perfect.  Out of stock!  Everywhere except some little hobby store in Dearborn Michigan.  They could ship (7-10 days) for $10 plus the cost of the labels ....... $30.  NO!  for 3 sheets of gold paper.  

Found an upscale paper store an hour away that had one pack of gold backed sticky paper for $8, not Avery but would work with a laser printer.  I'll be right there.  It worked.  Back to the big box store to figure out which light bulbs would work best.  The first bulbs I bought looked awful so back to the returns and try CF tubular bulbs, $40.  I bought them as I just didn't care anymore.  

I thought I would order boxes, plain cardboard boxes.  We have three cardboard box manufacturers in Cleveland.  I called all three.  Nope we don't make them anymore, you have to order them and you can't pick them up, we can ship them to you in a couple weeks.  I have now ordered from Amazon so much and expect things to show up on my doorstep the same day or the next day this was completely unacceptable.  However three years ago this would have been completely acceptable.  So I am origami wrapping these and they are going in a brown kraft bag.  They are being delivered on Tuesday morning as I have an MRI scheduled today.  Stay tuned for that update; being drop kicked into the medical profession one more time.  

I lieu of all this madness and current physical challenges I have decided to close the studio.  This has been a true wallop upside the head as I really cannot walk or stand and it has been over 30 days of rigorous PT, laser treatments and Dr visits, I am sucked dry and frustrated.  My family is off for birthday festivities in AZ. mid March and it has become very apparent I cannot make the trip, physically.  Decided its best to heal up and we will get together in May for a graduation.  I go out to the studio and just wander around.  I listen to audio books and don't even know what I listened too.  I'm not quite ready to sell off all my equipment but it's gonna be awhile.  Can one re-invent a 40 year old business?  And honestly does the world need pottery as it falls apart?  Planting stuff makes a lot more sense than making stuff.  

For now I go forth to PT because.......... 

and tomorrow I will post my rage against the medical machine ........