More Walk-Thru than Walk-In, Closet

We've survived wall to wall floating nastiness. We have slept, despite the jet-propulsed roar of fans and air-filters. Our whole lives are condensed into half the space it was before and, now that the Asbestos and Lead-Paint abatement crew have left, We have a see-thru style home, minus two of the vanities, and a toilet that was really quite useful.

A couple of things that have been keeping me awake are the random cigarette butts that the abatement crew saw fit to drop around my patio; the, same, lazy and inconsiderate bastards that tramped through the front door and sullied our small uncontaminated area upstairs, rather than use the back door. Especially compared to the marvelous, considerate and hard working,emergency clean up disaster crew, who spent almost ten days here, without messing up a thing. Lest I forget to mention, they obstructed our heater, which I can understand. I don't really want asbestos blowing around the rest of our living quarters. However, don't leave me to discover for myself, at 7pm in the evening, that I have no heat for the night. Don't promise me an update the next day by 5pm and slide silently away, like the worm you are, and leave us to shiver once again.

The City Utilities' insurance adjuster kept congratulating me for being "Reasonable". I'm pretty convinced that he understands the word reasonable to equate with "Stupid". His enlightenment will come in due course. 

My renters' insurance covers everything, except other folks water, shooting in reverse direction up my pipes. My landlord just decreed that he has bills to pay and will not be reducing our rent for the duration.

I detoured to my office this morning to pull the file I needed. Our lease, signed in 2008, clearly speaks to pro-rated reductions in rent, if portions of premises become uninhabitable. I believe the terms stay in effect, even after expiration of such a document.

I know exactly who will answer that for me, once he returns to his office after a few days away. The other clause that will be of interest is one describing the award of legal fees to the winning party in any dispute.

The Shark is sure to smell blood in the water.

The five paintings, behind the sodden cardboard, are original ink stippling on paper. Thousands of hours to create each one. They all have high tide water damage that cannot be redeemed, as far as I know. These are part of a collection we've purchased one at a time over a long time period, from an artist we used to represent, when we had a Gallery.

I Googled a search on him and several articles popped up, not least of which is an interview by a major Newspaper stating that these works were selling for between $5,000 and $12,000 each, five years ago.

I don't usually "Go-Legal" but, in this case, I've been informed that I'm going to be making a claim against a government entity and all sorts of rules apply. Best share whatever compensation we may get with a proven pro at this kind of thing. If he can arrange a hit on my landlord, whilst he's at it, or expose him for the cheap scum he is, all to the good. That would be the best sleeping potion I could wish for.

Lucy's moved to Virginia

Lucy, the humanobile pictured here, is a metal sculpture by French artist Vincent Magni. We've had her for a number of years and had many smiles as she bounced and wobbled all over at the slightest touch.

Most recently, I had brought her home and put her in my front garden, by a tree shaded bench, so that she might keep me company as I sit and read.

Just a short time after manhandling her bottom heavy coils into position, without getting whacked too hard by her spring-loaded,flailing arms, I received a call from a woman who had seen Lucy on eBay.

Joanne and her husband Jim knew exactly what a humanobile was, they had once seen one in Paris and years later were still looking for one of their own. Whatever search criteria they entered from Virginia had brought them to us in California.

It was nice to talk with people who have an appreciation for the same character filled sculpture. The questions and negotiations were more like an adoption process than a sale. I almost asked to make a home inspection to see if Lucy would be O.K. Jim and Joanne fell in love with her and we agreed to crate her up for travel.

She's pictured above strapped onto our trailer to bring her back from our home. Below she gets a last sprucing up.

I sent photos of our crated Lucy to Jim and Joanne. We had a discussion about King Tut  and coffins and solved the problem of how to identify her head for ease of un-crating, without someone imagining there was really a body in the box. I drew a smiley face at the appropriate end of the lid.

We had a book about the artist which I shipped to Virginia by fedex so the expectant parents to be would have something to look at to pass the time. Lucy was the cover girl for the book, which means that the artist chose her as his favorite. We all agreed with his selection.

I received an email from Jim: "Lucy arrived a few minutes ago. She's still jiggling with excitement. Thanks for the secure crating.

As mentioned before, you have full visiting rights anytime you get back to Virginia".

I hope we get to take them up on that offer. They were really lovely people and I'd like to meet them.

Enchanted Hills with Hairy Dog

As promised, here is a photo of the painting commissioned to include the Patrons' fluffy white dog in a voluptuous landscape. I have to admit that it's not as weird as I thought it would be. I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt and guessing it will be a couple's private joke when friends of theirs admire the "Portrait" of the dog.

Les Collines Enchantees - The Enchanted Hills

This is one of The Artistic One's paintings. Mother Nature is evidently voluptuous; the degree is dependent on one's mind set. Some folks see only rolling hills with a rather bold Iris in the foreground.
A new commission recently came in, from a couple who already have some of Hubby's art. They wish to have their own version of The Enchanted Hills but request that it be on a horizontal format and include their Bichon-Frise (a small white fluffy dog with very knowing eyes).....

Season in Conundrum

Season in Conundrum

---------

Art and Poetry by William Noguera

-----

How sweet to lie just once like a painter

Propped at the top of that hill on my elbow

considering the conundrum of breath.

Grasses blow among my limbs

as if wisdom has been withdrawn

for safekeeping into the library of fragments.

I have no purpose except to return back down towards a eucalyptus I love.

Its petals are filled with the terrible weight of careless reversal, grief without consequence.

It burns with such ease

just to stand there below it, dreaming of union,

all trembling and scent and colors of the moment,

is like living inside a flower,

while making a study of winter.

Blue span that leads to a gleaming city,

you cannot be crossed by longing.

------

The image above is entirely made up of hand-stippled pencil dots, or pointillism. Hundreds of hours of work. The poem, to be found on the back of the picture, is also written in pencil. Inmates of San Quentin's Death Row do not have access to more than one writing implement at a time. They look out at a million dollar view of the City of San Francisco across the Bay, spanned by the Bay Bridge, which cannot be crossed by longing alone. The poem is signed by a fingerprint in the Author/Inmate's own blood. An escape, of sorts?

Watercolors

Who can depict windy solitudes unchanged by time?
Who shares gold-complexioned landscapes where Eternal-Summer resides?
Renot's watercolors melt down the ingredients of a flower garden; alternating between forests hot as fire and evening-pale mists veiling long, dappled grasses.