June 12 5:30pm
So many bug freak outs in one hour that it was comical:
- Discover scorpion in fold of painting tarp, shriek
- Surprised by almost stepping on a giant dragonfly while trying to get rid of the scorpion, shriek
- Still messing with the tarp and scorpion, get buzzed by giant wasp-thing that CAUGHT IN MY HAIR for a nanosecond, shriek
- Get rid of scorpion, pick up the palette that a thumb-sized tarantula was crouched under, shriek
- Plus a jumping spider and a dead beetle in the paint box that I foolishly left the lid off yesterday
It surprisingly turned out to be a better-thank usual painting session, so ... dunno.
Right now one of those tarantulas is on the table about a foot away from my foot, just chillin. I'm keeping an eye on it.
* * *
June 13 8:30pm
Today, other than baby goats climbing trees, and walking sticks:
Once I've been eating Lone Star state ["natural"] chicken for the summer I expect to grow huge breasts and thighs (reminded that California has pretty awesomely high standards for chicken farmers)
$30 haircut (nothing compares 2 u Ryan) is $30 haircut
It's getting hotter.
*** Edit: the neighbors have a herd of black pigs that just wandered into the pasture. Pigs!!!
11pm
Navel-gazing alert: I love this place. There is a cacophony of nighttime fauna, a warm breeze, wineries and peach stands and historical landmarks, dance halls, solitude, more fauna... I am having a dreamy time of life, and encourage visitors. Just missing my Matt.
* * *
June 14 10:30pm
This week I've (thankfully) relaxed enough to focus on painting, and I'm pleased with results. There are three new 5' x 3' pieces that I'm excited about, two that I'm okay with, and one that I thought was a throwaway until my Dad's reaction to it via FaceTime, which reminded me that it's not my job to mediate reactions to my work... I just have to do it, and let the reactions happen as may. And I'm thinking (not arrogantly) that there is going to be good reaction to the Texas work. I'm getting my chops back and everything is less constrained, full of movement. And I've got nothing better to do than practice and channel.
Way ahead of schedule and out of paint; I'll get more when I go to Austin to pick up Matt from the airport on Monday (Monday!! Yay).
I'll also take the glass to be recycled in Austin. Another thing to take for granted about living in the Bay Area.
Meantime... I'm not ignorant of what's happening out there, good and crazy and go-make-popcorn. Horrified and hopeful.
Renald drinking from the hose
* * *
June 16 9:30pm
It's a cool 86 degrees now at 9:15 local time... 103 in town this afternoon, high of 96 here at HQ. Keep wondering why I feel so sluggish. Ha.
Chuck came to pick up the trap - apparently the raccoons will kill new baby goats, too, and he's got three brand-new babies in the pen - and invited me to go with him and his daughter to the Peach Festival and Rodeo in Stonewall tomorrow. Need to be down the house at 9am so we have plenty of time to get there for the parade at 10:30. Should be fun. The peaches, I already know, are delicious.
Looking forward to picking Matt up in Austin on Monday and having a few in-person days together. May zip-tie him to something immovable and cancel his return flight. FaceTime makes a huge difference, but...
Other than the five-or-less-minute interaction with Chuck, my day was exciting because I interacted with sales clerks at the HEB and at the consignment store (where I found a good pair of second-hand cowgirl boots). !!!
Time moves differently here, and I am going slowly insane. :-) Kidding.
Addendum: A billion stars in a dark sky void of city light... crickets' call-and-answer... smell of dry grass and cows on the breeze... heaven
* * *
June 17 9pm
"Hop in, darlin'" and away we go via the shortcut to Stonewall for the Peach JAMboree parade, Chuck and his oldest daughter and her husband and I.
We got a good shady spot on Chuck's friend's lawn to watch. Miss Peach JAMboree contestants, volunteer firefighters, antique tractors, floats from local businesses, political representatives, horseback riders...
After, picked up BBQ roasts from the dozen or so big metal cookers that had been going for 18 hours and took it back to Chuck's for a ranch-style lunch with the friends of 30+ years that they bumped into in Stonewall completely randomly.
It was a good day. Interesting, courteous, friendly people. I even played the egg-pusher and offloaded a dozen.
I begged off on going to Fredericksburg for the big annual powwow that celebrates the surviving treaty between a Comanche tribe and the German settlers here. I'll regret it later, maybe, but
S-A-T-U-R-D-A-Y...night!
- Dreamy half-nap on the porch with a hot wind blowing by and the birds calling
- Hosed down the porch to cool the cats
- A limping chicken ("Maybe snake-bit")
- Every single topic that you want to avoid as a liberal Californian guest in Texas coming up in the space of a few hours (new today)
* * *
Happy Father's Day Den Thompkins! You and Cynthia Thompkins are the reason the middle of nowhere feels like home and I'm thankful for it.
Today was productive. And, apparently hotter and as humid in the Bay Area and Lake Tahoe as it was here.
- Hefted 50-lb bags of animal feed, (whew), lugged hose around backyard to water juvenile trees (while looking for arrowheads and listening to S-Town podcast, so good), changed bedsheets
- Swept raccoon poop out of the feed shed, did three loads of laundry, vacuumed
[OMG! If you don't know about central vacuuming, here, you're welcome: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_vacuum_cleaner]
- Watched chickens hunt for bugs on lawn while making butt-print on porch sofa (watching chickens + fewer bugs = better porch butt-printing time for me)
- Possibly passed on a computer virus. F***. I'm sorry. Suggestions for anti-virus for iPad?
Navel gaze: Multiple opportunities for personal growth out here on my own that are sometimes acutely uncomfortable (is that a thing?), and plenty of time for reflection. Feeling grateful for relative maturity and for having a mom who is willing to listen to me try work it out. <3
https://g.co/kgs/zfqVoq
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