Wavy Davy rides into the sunrise

Janus is thirty-firsting, so if I am to blog in the month of the 2-faced god, it must be now.

I did indeed venture to the northlands, & in doing so escaped a grand snowfall--12 inches--that shut off power in the house where I live for 4 days. By the time the electrical flow was restored, the temperature inside the house was 34 degrees. So, it was snowier down in the westnorth of the southeast than it was in the states that border Canada when I was there. Go figure.

I am deep in the throes (& sometimes throws) of re-organization. It is not a new year's resolution so much as a seepage (& sometimes eruption) of the new state of cosmic ordering within me into the reflecting surface world we call reality. So much fun!

We just had another snowfall. It was forecast to be 10 to 15 inches but stopped short of that. Still, it is beautiful & crisp & (for some folk) crazy-making. I happen to love it. What else do I love? Pierre Teilhard du Chardin & Carl Jung, slow dancing with Einstein. Maple truffles with smoked sea salt. Envisioning Narcissus falling in love with his own true self, rather than just his pretty face. My new leopard print storage boxes with black diamonds on their magnetic closure lids. An ongoing Star Trek movie marathon--only one left to go! A powerful, personal worldview.

I say goodbye-hello (perhaps aloha would be a better word) to my uncle Dave, who turned into a different version of himself the day before Christmas & to my second cousin Marvin, who did the same the day after Christmas, & my dad's best friend Phil who is no doubt playing pinochle with my friend Cathy's mother, since they both exited/entered the same day in January's first week. I already had a dream visit from Uncle Dave & look forward to more. We scattered his ashes on his dog's grave--13 fenceposts from the corner of the cemetery & 13 paces out into the pasture.

Blog alternative:

182. Celebrate a friend or relative who no longer inhabits a point in the space-time continuum--or at least not a point that you can reach with your physical senses.

Nomads R Us. Northern climes or bust.

Merry Happy Everyday, y'all.

I am off on a pre-holiday, holiday & post-holiday adventure. Actually, that sentence makes no sense. Is there a day that isn't holly-wholly-holy? Not on my calendar.

I am turning into a nomad for 3 weeks, with only a backpack & a toiletries bag that contains mostly art supplies & notebooks. I shall not let the grass grow under my feet--mostly because I am going to be in northern climes (don't you just love to say "climes") & it's cold & snowy in them thar hills.

So, in case I don't blog again until Janus turns his face toward the new year, may you celebrate the birth of the new you every day.

Blog alternative:

181. Plan a trip to another time zone, another temperature zone, another dimension. Pack light--only what you can carry. This is imaginary, perhaps, so you really can get by without 3 extra pairs of shoes. Perhaps, like Bilbo, you run off for the first adventure of your life without even a pocket handkerchief. Do you want to go to the Victorian Age? Visit Camelot? Enjoy the trip.

Now Fly!

Once there was a girl with wings

Once a book that flew

Poems lighting hearts

Art flowing like a river

& once is now

always now

now is always

Blog alternative:

180. Think of something you have loved doing or loved loving & love it all over again. Now.

November Dance

I can't believe I missed an opportunity to wish you all happy friday the 13th so I shall do so belatedly.

We have had a string of wonderful days. Some of them were rainy--there's a hurricane somewhere, or was--but they were wonderful anyway. Today it's sunny and seventyish. I'm sitting in a coffee shop. Or perhaps I should call it an ice tea shop.

I just finished typing in a little short story (just under a thousand words) that I wrote on 3 placemats. I have a BUNCH of poems to send out, so I hope to be reporting--oh, Cathy! I just saw this cool car that you would love to see drive past, all tailfins & chrome, with its spare tire encased in the same metal as the car & trimmed in chrome--that I've done a nice little marketing binge.

The other thing I've been doing of late is artwork. Dozens of placemats have laid down before me & offered their unblemished surfaces to my pens & pencils. Plus I've gotten out the watercolors & some scraps of paper I bought at a local letterpress. Such fun.

I read a new brain plasticity book: The Brain that Changes Itself by Norman Doidge--a very good read. I find out that multi-tasking is over-rated, as to make actual changes in the brain structure requires actually paying attention to tasks...

As you might recall from my last blog alternative, I invited stories or poems based on my list & was interested to hear from anyone who used every word. Drum roll. Her Chloeness sent me a story the next day that did that very thing--while attending graduate school! I am impressed & humbled & honored & tickled & all sorts of other words that end in ed. Thank you for Death of a Shoe, Chloe m'dear. I appreciate you.

Blog alternative:

179. Dance around outside to celebrate November--but only if the ground isn't icy where November finds you. (I would like to report that no readers were harmed in the writing of this blog. grin.)

Pi, piano, poetry

Heidi's hand,

old piano that came up the Yellowstone River by steamboat

& I shall tell more of the story later

(it involves Indians & horse thievery, etcetera)

I just wanted to see what it felt like to blog twice in a week...

This shall be short. I am thinking of silence & sunlight & fish & the moon & walking & glue & architects & poetry & Persia & mauve & zero & lemonade & blizzards & clean socks & samurai warriors & cats & roses & pink sheets & good wine & sticky notes & guitars & pi & salamanders & string theory & cards & wax & foot lockers & miracles & dynamite & rocket ships & baseball & sweat & music & triangles & nasal spray & seals & calendars & recipes & African violets & the yin yang &

Blog alternative:

177. Make a list of things you didn't even know you were thinking about until you started making the list.

or:

178. Take 3 or 5 or 7 things from my list & put them into a poem or story. (If you use ALL of them, I would very much like to see the poem or story...)

Old Growth Mosaics

6' man attempting to hug big-ass tree

in Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest

I know, I know--I've been missing. One person noticed and was worried that I'd fallen into a hole or had a personality transplant & was now blogging the blues under an assumed name. (Hi Ken!)

That is not the case. I am alive & well & floating an electron's-width above the face of the planet. Life is as fabulous as ever. I wish it was easier to switch the email address that owns a blog, as I am aiming to phase out of earthlink & into gmail, but one of these days I'll figure it out. Or, more accurately, I'll go through the complex dance steps required.

For those of you who are interested, my new email address is laurelwinter@gmail.com but earthlink will continue to work until I stop being a technolazydaisy.

I can't imagine filling you in on all the marvelous things that have happened since (gulp) July 9th, so I shall be selective. I did indeed reach New Jersey & Minnesota & Montana & Minnesota again. My Montana highlight--beside playing a few billion games of cards with my parents--was helping irrigate. No offense, Sister Shelly, but I still prefer irrigating to golf.

I've been busy taking classes again. Google SketchUp 7 rocks! Try it if you've ever wanted a (FREE) 3D modeling program with (FREE) tutorials on YouTube. I'm also taking a mosaic class & learning about hempcrete & getting the scoop (or at least the beginning of the scoop) on intellectual property.

Besides that, there's the usual writing-y & arting-y sorts of thing going on. Just drafted another picture book. The poems are coming lickety-split. A story idea is hovering just below the fingertips. Oh, & my beautiful childrens just celebrated their two-dozenth birthday.

Blog alternative:

175. Ask someone an interesting & uplifting question. A couple examples: whilst leaving the Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest (Holy xylem, Batman! Those trees are big!) I asked a boy on the trail how old he was & then, seconds later, apologized for asking such an inane question. "What's something interesting about you?" I asked (or words to that effect). I found out he likes to build things & is good at climbing. Then his brother joined us & I found out that HE is making a mini-submarine. Much more fun than knowing ages. Also I just got my teeth cleaned (Yay!) & I asked my hygienist what were her favorite things about her kids.

Bonus blog alternative:

176. Give your gums a nice massage. (Wash your hands first!) (Notice I said gums, not gum.)

Fizzy Turquoise Mood

Although some of you have been speculating that I dropped off the face of the earth (perhaps checking out my home planet?) given that I posted not once in June, I do in fact still exist. Yay. Just been busier than usual, with a massive re-organization project.

No artwork today. I'm in a hotel in Virginia on my way to Montana via New Jersey.

Um, you say, have you been reorganizing the map?

Good idea, but no. I was going straight to Montana & then to Minnesota & Ohio on the way back home & then I found out my ex-husband was going to be in Rochester for a week so I rearranged my schedule to hit Minnesota first so I could say hi to him & then my son who just moved to New Jersey needed to get back to Rochester to get his Buick (it wouldn't fit in the UHaul) so I said, heck, New Jersey's practically on the way & I was maybe going to see him on the other end of the trip so why not? This will be a lot more fun. Plus we'll get to stop in Ohio to see my other son, so that will be lots of fun.

The title of this blog is courtesy of a reader who happened across me somehow & bestowed the concept of a fizzy turquoise mood. So, Elsa, wherever you are, thanks for you sparkling word sense. I would also like to honor Tami, another diner at the Boston Beanery, who overheard me asking a server if there was a Barnes & Noble in the mall (I'm looking for an audio book--thought of it on my way out of town, so no time to order it) & not only told me where she thought there might be one, but then looked it up on her I-phone & brought the information over to me. (Saved me a trip, because I called them up & they didn't have it either. Ah, well.) It's pretty cool when you want to fill out a positive comment card on other customers who provide great service at restaurants. My server was good, too.

This will not be the most scintillating blog entry ever, because I am going to go right to sleep. Sweet dreams, y'all.

Blog alternative: (which, Tami & Elsa, if you don't want to read down & figure out what the heck this is all about, it's simply a suggestion of other things to do rather than the writing or reading of blogs, or the watching of tv or such. I think I did the first blog alternative list on April 18th of 2007 or somesuch)
174. Take a round-about trip. Maybe Montana via New Jersey. Once I went to Los Angeles via Ohio, because I was going to a science fiction convention in Madison & was then headed to Los Angeles for an author in the school visit. Told my Ohio son that I was going through Rockford, Illinois to pick up the freeways that would take me south & he said, "Illinois is close to Ohio." "Yep," I said.