Retirement?

Toby lounged on my footstool and my shins.

"What/s on your mind?" I asked him.

"This retirement can get boring!

It sends my brain cells soaring."

"While yours were taking flight

my mind was in a state of fight."

"What were you fighting?" he asked.

"Those black squiggles that took me to task."

"You used the past tense," he said.

"All praises, they've left my head--

though my brain is still recoiling,

it's at a simmer instead of boiling."

"what will cool you and give direction?"

he asked with sudden attention.

"I think a sketch a day

will keep the shrink away."

2023-12-5_Fritter_B'fast_in_Art_Class - Sketch I

"Toby, I see you're suddenly alert.

What does your brain-waving now assert?"

It's begone! retirement blahs, and frailty.

I've shape-shifted to Toby-Wan Kenobi!

2023-12-6 Toby-Wan Kenobi - Sketch II

***

Indian Valley Public Library. Doorway to children's section.

***

T’Day Counting Down

JM:

Good morning, Toby!

It’s almost Thanksgiving Day

What thanks do you have?

Toby:

Those cans of cat food

Make a blissful retirement 

What about your thanks?

JM:

Hmmmm, where do I start?

Family, friends, food, and shelter 

Are atop my list

Toby:

Let me see…oh yes

Fish, chicken, turkey, liver

Also mice and rats

JM:

Arrgh, oh dear, oh dear

I forgot your hunting days

At the Bolding farm…

Toby:

…I ran wild with dogs

While you and society

Dealt with worldly cracks

JM:

Ah, those worldly days

Now you are a retiree

Do I hear purring?

Toby:

I am thankful for

rescues atop that farm tree

two times, happily 

JM:

Me too, my old friend

for the wintertime kindness

those arborists gave

Toby:

Kindness wins the day

loner me or social you

feels its warm blessings

JM & Toby:

Thank you!

***

***

Five Cents Worth

Toby:

Jumpy and crabby...

What is the matter with you?

Are you unhappy?

JM:

I search through my brain

My quest for calm is in vain

Black squiggles haunt me

Toby:

What happened to you?

Have you lost your brain somewhere?

Tell me about it

JM:

Big mess for four weeks

Apartment renovating 

On and on and on...

Toby:

Hmmm, interesting

You are upset by messes

Do you have a goal?

JM:

Normal is the goal

But still I can't find normal

Normal! Where are you?

Boohoo

Toby:

Normal that you chase

Is a wash machine setting

My advice is: Stop!

That will be 5¢

***

Do you see what I see?
Yup!
Let's put 

behind us and do Halloween!
I'm in.

***

Goddess of Chaos

goddess of chaos

you think you have come to stay

time to think again 

your whirlwind i'll meet

to order your disorder

get ready to leave!

***

Toby: I'm fed and housed, now what?

JM: Renovation. 

Toby: What's that?

JM: Our whole apartment building is being renovated. Renewed. Roofed. Painted. Carpeted. New kitchens. New windows. Fire sprinkler system. Lots. New. New. New.

Toby: So that's why you piled everything you own into the middle of our space?

JM: Yup.

Toby: Is that why all the noise?

JM: Yup.

Toby: You know the barn was lots more peaceful, don't you?

JM: Yup.

Toby: I thought this was a senior living place. You're moving stuff around like a stevedore!

JM: An old stevedore. Be strong, Toby! We'll get through this together.

Toby: I'm going back under the bed.

***

Maybe if I enter something for the Art Part, Toby will come back out from under the bed. Aidan recently shared this beautiful piece from his orchestra at CCM...

Janacek, "The Cunning Little Vixen" Suite

Thank you, Aidan!

________

Don't forget to visit Paula and for her latest installments on Paula Borchardt - Visual Storyteller as she celebrates a year of her Perpetual Journal.

________

Susie continues her watercolors...

Thank you, Susie.

***

Summer has said goodbye. This was the first real day of fall to be experienced here in PA. Special. And, special to experience it with Valerie, Elijah, Wendy, John, and, of course the denizens of the farm, the farm itself.
What's not to love.

***

 Toby: I'm starting to get used to indoors again.

JM: Does it remind you of our long ago condo life?

Toby: Not much. 

JM: What's different?

Toby: A lot. 

JM: Tell me...

Toby: No screened patio! No cat tree! for starters. Then, there's the problem with bugs.

JM: What?!!!!! We don't have bugs!!!!

Toby: That's my point. No big, fat, juicy cockroaches. 

JM: Ugh! And those were all contaminated with bug killers from condo maintenance.

Toby: Now it's my turn to say, Ugh.

JM: I'm almost afraid to ask, but...What else is on your mind?

Toby: Last night you didn't let me sleep on the bed! What's going on?

JM: Hmmm. You pestering me to wake up and feed you. 

Toby: Food's so exciting! And you're asleep waaaaaaay past dawn.

JM: I can't change that since I can't sleep until the wee hours of the night. 

Toby: Well, I miss you.

JM: Awwww. I miss you too. But I don't want to be crabby from being waked up way too early. Let's take a nap on the couch. You can nap on my chest like the condo days.

Toby: I'm all in. Naptime! Now!

***

In our time of extremes, it feels steadying to know the moon continues to wax and wane. The clouds of the last week mostly cleared and tonight's waxing, 97% full moon was visible again...

***

Toby Moves In

 

Well, well, Toby. What made you finally decide to leave the barn and move into our apartment? All the cans of food you can eat? Warmth? Cushy bed? Scratching pallets? No chickens eating your food? 

Stop! Stop! You had me at cans of food.

***

Keoni and I stopped by Aidan's Fifth Grade Elementary School to get a photo of the sign on the school's street-side...

...and discovered beneath, scores of Kindness Rocks made by the children...

...Keoni found this especially endearing rock...

Little hands
Big heart.

***

 iCloud problems are muddying our timelines. We'll return soon.

World Humanitarian Day

JM: Did you know that yesterday was World Humanitarian Day? 

Toby: Nope. What's that?

JM: I'm not quite sure. It just said that on a calendar that I saw.

Toby: Maybe it's a reminder to be good to other people.

JM: Sounds like a good plan to me. It reminds me of children at the Mexican border. Toby, here are some of the stories they told and illustrated with Doctors Without Borders. Let's look at it together in The Art Part today...

From Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors without Borders)

Thank you, Pajaritos.

Thank you, Medecins

______

Susie didn't let us down. She sent us another one of her paintings...

________

Architecture came from Wendy. We have pictures from her visit last week to Frank Lloyd Wright's Falling Water. She stopped there on her drive back home from Cincinnati where she'd transported Aidan for his Junior year...

________

Walking the halls here at Dock often takes me by a certain doorway to an apartment in the assisted living section of our senior's homes. It is always adorned with interesting, often seasonal or holiday-related embellishments. They are never the same. This time it was outstanding...

________

Over time, Wendy's kitchen has seen refrigerators come and go but somehow the magnetically attached memorabilia and art always found a new home...

_______

Our artist friend Paula Borchardt has something to say about how she finds her topics for every week of her Substack blog. Go to Paula Borchardt - Visual Storyteller and find out, plus this past week's art. All 21 weeks (!!!) of her publications are there, too, if you need to catch up or want a close-up look at her and Carl's part of The Arizona-Sonora Desert.

***

Toby: Thank you. That was a good week for art! 

JM: You're welcome.

Toby: I have to go catch up with my to-do list.

***

Checkout 2023/08/06-08/12 The Week That Was for additional photos about Aidan's departure back to his Junior year at CCM and additional photos of Family, Friends and Followers. On the right column "Home". (We are having a technical problem putting into Electric Attic. Hope to solve soon.)

***

h-u-m-a-n-i-t-a-r-i-a-n...a person promoting human welfare and social reform

                                            --Merriam-Webster

***

Flibberty Jib Bum, Bippity Bop

Toby, let's get right to the point and visit The Art Part:

What a great treat that Keoni and Aidan were both at the farm at the same time! Amidst our happy visiting, was a pause for a mini-concert...

Bach Cello Suite 6, Gavotte II...

________

Susie continues painting and shared her latest from this past week...

________

Visit Paula's pincushion cactus flowers, now part of her yard journal art on her  Paula Borchardt - Visual Storyteller Substack blog. Learn how she counts so many, many blossoms. And, sign up for her blog to arrive in your inbox each week.

________

Keoni sent his campsite sweet Renaissance tableau.

 

***

JM: Toby, now that you're relaxed from visiting the arts, it's a good time to tell you that I made an appointment for you at the veterinarian.

Toby: Arrrrggghhh. 

JM: What's the matter? Do you have a hairball?

Toby: No. Why do I have to go to the veterinarian?

JM: Because it's time for your annual visit. 

Toby: What are they going to do to me this time?

JM: Oh, immunizations for rabies and such. Check for worms, too.

Toby: I thought that de-wormer you bought online that Wendy keeps smearing between my shoulder blades got rid of the worms!

JM: It's because a test will show if the stuff is working to keep you worm-free.

Toby: Do you have worms?

JM: Yes. They're not quite the same as yours. Mine are ear worms. Do you want to hear one of my ear worms? I've had it for 60 years... Ear Worm *

*Complements of "Word Jazz" --Ken Nordine

Toby: Stop, stop!!! Go get Wendy to rub that de-wormer between your shoulder blades!!!

***

Family and Friends and Followers, we've begun a new addition compiled from last week's photos. We'll be adding to it each week, god willin' and the crick don't rise.

2023/07/30 - -8/07 The Week that Was

It's on the right under Electric Attic. 

***

***

I Need an Appointment

 

Thank you, for the rope

you brought up the tree, Toby.

Rappelling was fun.

***

The laptop crisis is over with a honey of a new machine. The loading of an external hard drive became suspenseful getting the drive's pictures and documents files to show up in their new accommodations. Thanks to John, all is now in place.

That was completed on Monday. Catch up is in progress. Our family and friends have been busy sharing their art to lift our spirits and render our world a better place. 

Our friend Paula has steadily posted on her Substack site: Paula Borchardt - Visual Storyteller. We also have her June Tucson Yard Journal to post here...

The Tucson rainy season began with a downpour that brought out...

... 1/4 inch, Red Velvet Mites, that Paula captured so nicely living it up in her and Carl's yard.

And, Carl got this one of another desert denizen who is happy with the rains, too...

...this Gila Monster is also happy with their yard.

________

In New Mexico, Valerie continues her color-filled art explorations...

***

________

...and in Missouri, Susie, both on her own and in her watercolor painting class, turns out multiple renderings...

***

the apple is ripe

many hands brought it to me

with thanks I eat it

***

Plastic

"Toby, did you know I am a tool-using primate?"

"No. Why are you telling me this?

"Because...

"It's a good thing

I'm a tool-using primate

so I can use box cutters

to slice into a plastic bubble

containing 13 screws

which I had to buy

in order to get to

the one screw I need

after which I

then lose the bubble 

and the rest of the 12 screws

in household miasma

eventually to live forever

in the tectonic strata

of Earth's plastic age."

"Ouch! Darn, box-cutter. I cut my finger."

Toby: "I'm glad I'm a felis catus."

***

“Toby, now that our staycation is over, we can go back to being retired.”

“When you are retired, is it okay to look at someone else working?”

“Sure, it’s not catching.”

“Then, show me a couple of Aidan’s window-washing videos, please.”

“…and he does power-washing, too…

“…

“…and Aidan made a website and some placards to hang on doorknobs…”

“Go, Aidan!!!”

“Now that we’ve checked on Aidan’s growing business, can we go to the art part?”

“Sure!”

***

The Art Part--

I’m mixed up on what is where and how until we have the new laptop in a week and a half or two. So, we’ll play catch up when that happens. 

Nevertheless! Art marches on!

There is a wonderful new post on Paula’s Visual Storyteller that you won’t want to miss, plus another new post will appear tomorrow.

————

Keoni made a new music video putting together a video he made July 4th with music composed 400 years ago…  William Byrd 400 Years Later. 

The amazing outdoor James Turrell sculpture is on Rice University campus close to where Keoni lives. While he and a friend were walking the dog they took shelter there during a sudden rainstorm. 

***

Spread kindness--

you'll never run out.

              --JM 6/13/23

***

Sky Rockets in Flight

 

.

Sky rockets in flight 

Everyone, let’s get it right

Afternoon Delight!

***

There’s so much to do

Here is me and there is you

We’ll make Justice true

¡Sí, podemos!

Power to the people!!!

***

Toby: I think I’m having an out of body experience—did we become holograms?

JM: No, we’re line drawings. 

***

Lucky Number

Toby, I sure like our staycation. 

Yeah, me too. Lotsa naps. Oh yes! and starting our own Rock-Skipping Society. Definitely big. 

It’s gonna be hard to pick up where we left off since DD Day happened yesterday. 

What in the world is DD Day?

Dead Drive Day. Hard drive is kaput. 

Wow. Now what?

Looks like we buy a new laptop. Wendy and John will help us find the stuff we need. 

Wait, wait! What about all your pictures? and poems? and stuff?

All good. Saved on external hard drives. 

Oh, thank goodness. For a minute there I thought we’d gone Poof! pixels skyrocketed into a heavenly light show. 

Hah! the hard drive sure did. We’ll have to wait until we get the new device to ramp up our July 4th return from this staycation.

Good! and don’t forget, I’m an Art Part fan. 

Let’s hope we get the new laptop in time. If not, we’ll continue to do what we can with our iPad pal.

I’m gonna skip some more rocks—forget about DD Day and come with me. 

***

How many skips did you get?

How many did you get, Toby?

Wow, how’d you do that!?!

It’s my lucky number. 

***

Staycation

It grows late yet I don't want to put this beautiful Pennsylvania late spring day to rest without taking a bit of time to let you know of my deep happiness that family from out west will be here on Friday for a visit. That will end years since a visit was possible. In the spring of 2020, my plans (like so many people's) ended for an extended trip I was to make to see them and many friends in several states. Now they will be here. 

And, following those couple of family weeks, Toby and I will be working a couple more weeks on some blog changes that are sparking our interest. We look forward to sharing them with you. Keoni is back in Houston, and Aidan's window-washing business is taking off. He sent this...

Before we close, I want to go to...

The Art Part...

In Tucson, Paula has been steadily adding to her  Paula Borchardt - Visual Storyteller Substack blog as well as her YouTube Channel. Besides enjoying her art and story-telling, she tells us in her latest posts how she makes art with pencils, paper, ink, and watercolors. Read it and you'll catch her inspiration, too. She also shares with us her beautiful, tiny, work-in-progress ZigZag book...

One of my favorite Tucson spring happenings is the chance to see tiny, fluffball, Gambel's quail chicks scurrying along. Paula has been seeing new hatchlings in her yard and sent this...

***

It's time now to close this for today. Toby and I will leave you with this...

***

Seen on a wall in our favorite ice cream store...

Be kind.

Spread happiness.

Love with all your heart.

***

OAM

"Toby, I did not realize May is Older Americans Month!"

"That's us!!!" He sat up and said, "OAM."

"OAM...hmmm...sounds like meditation."

"How did we miss it for 19 days?"

"I don't know. But, here we are. May 2023, has a theme. It's called 'Aging Unbound'."

"What does that mean?"

"Time to rip old-age stereotypes."

"Tell me about that. Society isn't my strong suit."

"OK, let's see...I guess a story about my toenail might explain that better...

I asked my doctor about a toenail that started growing funny and that I worried some toe fungus was causing it. The doc didn't even examine it. He said, Oh, you'll have to get used to that. Toe fungus is an old-age thing. Later on, at an annual check-up, a different doctor actually examined it. She showed me a way to trim it to get it back to normal growth and assured me that it wasn't a fungus. It was from some small injury in the past. 

...and pretty soon, my toenail grew back to normal."

"Did you get mad?"

"Yeah, kinda."

"Well, let's OAM together...we'll both feel better..."

After a little while went by Toby asked, "Do you feel better?"

"Yup!"

"Please, let's go to the..."

"ART PART"

(He's really gotten into this!)

Paula completed her Tucson Yard Journal for November for us to see...

Check out how Paula made her November Yard Art Journal page...

You can see more of these processes for her art at her YouTube Channel.

And, don't forget new entries are on Paula's Substack Blog: Paula Borchardt - Visual Storyteller

________

In Missouri, Susie tried out acrylics...

________

In Utah, Kingston has been turning out lots of art...

My Fave.

Then, he made an art wall with his and Grandma Valerie's art.

At school, he and his classmates played their ukulele band for visiting family. Grandma and Grandpa Love were visiting from New Mexico and sent this...

Kingston is top row, second from left. 

***