Every Sunday is the family ice cream night with my in laws. Several weeks ago Sparky and I were discussing geocaching at Fernwood Botanical Gardens and Nature Preserve when his parents mentioned that they used to go there as a family to hike and enjoy the trails. Then they mentioned that they had carved their initials into a tree and that people were encouraged to do so on this particular tree. We didn't think much about it until we were at Fernwood and passed a tree on which multitudes of people had carved their names. Next to the tree was a plaque that stated that carving into the bark of the tree would leave an indelible mark and more importantly result in the tree becoming susceptible to insects, fungus, and rot thus shortening the life of the tree. This was followed by a stern warning that defacing the trees was prohibited! We looked at each other and thought "Oh no, we have vandals in the family!" We examined the tree but there were no tell-tale initials of the suspected lawbreakers. With a sigh of relief we wandered onward. About an hour later we came upon 2 more trees covered with what would pass as tree tattoos. And there at eye level was the proof. Enduring for the life of the tree, and possibly beyond the life spans of those who carved it were the initials of Sparky's parents professing their love...

Laughter is really good medicine. I spent Saturday afternoon with saintvi finding some geocaches. We enjoyed ourselves. We found caches and were very pleased with ourselves. As we were leaving the area, there was a Halloween Store and I asked if we could stop. Of course we can. The conversation went something like this:

Me: We need to stop to see if they have any severed limbs for Sparky's Halloween costume.
Saintvi: What kind are you looking for?
Me: Any kind, legs, arms, hands. Do you have one?
Saintvi: Not on me.

At this point I was highly tickled. I congratulated her on her quick wit and she admitted that she couldn't pass an opportunity to make a joke or pun. We proceeded into the store and looked around. The clerk with a scimitar embedded in his shoulder and a bloody scalp wound helped us find the non-zombie body parts. It was there that we found the last two arms.

I sent the photo to Sparky to find out if it was what he was looking for. As we were walking away this exchange occurred:

Me: I don't want to buy it until Sparky give me the OK. We can look around while I wait for him to text me back.
Saintvi: Here let me give you a hand (as she hands me the severed limb). There are only 2 left...

She caught me off guard and I laughed out loud. The store clerks and some customers looked our way briefly. Sparky was taking his time responding. Our attention was captured by a large display of hats that included pirate hats to Rasta hats complete with dreadlocks and of course a large selection of animal hats. You should all know that I cannot resist a good critter hat. Seeing a lop eared bunny hat I reached for it.

Me: Oooh! Look hats!
Saintvi: Do you want to try one on?
Me: Yes, here hold my hand.

Realizing what I said, we both had a good chuckle. I might have totally lost it. Maybe I had to wipe tears from my eyes. It is possible that I attracted the attention of most everyone in the store. Maybe while wearing a rabbit hat. I don't care. I had a good time.

I got a response from Sparky indicating he already had his severed bloody limb and at a much better price. (as seen below)

So we departed the store. I ended up buying nothing but saintvi couldn't resist the fuzzy rat... A delightful visit all the way around!!!

It is October already and the days are still warm but the nights are getting colder. We had a frost warning last week but it was spotty forming mainly in the areas that were shaded by the house and in the low spots. October also brings the notice of the annual Student-Faculty Art Show. This year I want to enter a big piece. My choices are the big zinnia that I entered into the Whimsey Show at Fire Arts or a new piece that I'm trying to get finished prior to the submission deadline of November 4th. The new work is about 9 inches long and 6 inches wide. It is pictured below in the greenware state, meaning not fired and not glazed.

I am making this as a gift for my cousin. She saw something like this at a craft show and they wanted gobs of money and I said that I could make one like it. I'm hoping she will get to see it in the art show and will be patient since the show doesn't close until the middle of February! I will post photos after it is glazed...

In the geocaching community there are many who place a high value on being FTF (First To Find). It is an obsession for many. As soon as the notification that a new geocache has been activated they are a scatter of bobby pins and shoes as they depart to find the cache. Some cachers keep statistics on how many FTFs they have accumulated. Others like myself are thrilled to get a first to find but aren't willing to be late for work to try to find a cache, nor rummage around in the dark as one is activated at 10 PM in a snowstorm. This week was a geocaching challenge related to FTF. Instead FTF meaning First To Find it meant Friend To Find. The object was to introduce new people to geocaching. I had invited a coworker to go out at lunch with me to find a cache on campus. It is one that is about 380 feet from the entrance to our building so it wasn't a far walk and it didn't take much time to find it.

The GPS led her to this sun dial. Since we knew the cache was magnetic she had to find a place on the stone and marble sundial that would hold a magnet. She looked low...

She looked high...

She even felt around and disturbed some cobwebs...

Once she found the cache she was puzzled. "This is it?" It took a moment for her to figure how to open the cache and then she thought it was empty. I showed her the log and she signed it with the date and the abbreviation of her geocaching name - Drop The Donut.

Here she is victorious and quite pleased to pose with her first ever geocache. I don't know if she will want to continue to geocache but I think she enjoyed the adventure!

As a post script to the adventure, I earned a badge. I had thought that it would be a "souvenir" that automatically appears on your geocaching page. After searching my statistics page and not locating it I contacted geocaching HQ. They were very nice and let me know that the badge is HTML code that I have to insert on my page and that it will be sent to me at the end of FTF week which is tomorrow. So if you are a geocacher there is still time to earn the badge by taking a muggle caching and capturing it on film!

I apologize ahead of time for being oblique.

There are moments when life comes into sharp focus and you see everything. Every detail is sharp and clean. It becomes the moment when you slide that first pair of glasses over your ears and onto the bridge of your nose and really see that there are cracks between the bricks and that trees have individual leaves... It can be thrilling or terrifying to see the truth. I am waffling between abject terror and eager curiosity. There are days when it would be much easier on the nerves, psyche, or soul to take off the glasses. Life rarely lets you erase images from your mind's eye. I know that the harder you try the more deeply imprinted they become. I have become weary in feigning ignorance. It would be cathartic to be honest and let people know that I see and I remember and that I will hold them accountable. To confront the nemesis and in that fantasy battle be able to deflect the poison arrows and acid steams of vitriolic words is just that, make-believe. In this grownup existence we are expected and often not given a choice to act with restraint and civility. But just once I'd like to have super powers and vanquish my foes with a foot on their helpless throats as they plead for mercy. Just once. As I was writing this I was keeping an eye on my smart phone which promptly chimed the arrival of a text message. Checking the phone led me to the evil Face Book where there was a big post about Karma being tough as nails and not to mess with her. Yes, "Vengeance is mine says the Lord" and I do believe it. It is none the less gratifying to have Karma give someone a swift kick in the pants as you watch from a short distance away!

So I've got a little of that off my chest, so to speak.

I was trying to make this coccolith - a undescribed dimorphic heterococcolithophore found in the Western Mediterranean in the very fertile Alboran Sea (one of my favorite places for coccoliths).

Of course I failed to print it out so I was trying to copy it based on what my smartphone was showing me - a tiny 2" x 2" image in gray scale that I was staring at in dim lighting. At the time I thought, "Wow, that was so much easier than going through the hassle of printing the images". After it was bisque fired and glazed I decided to print out the electron micrograph image. Imagine my chagrin to see that my orb bore little to no resemblance to the photo! Of course the glaze job was perfect. The color came out vibrant. It didn't crack or run or have any defects at all.

Wheels gravel grind
The rocks scrape
Scree and skitter
Trek bike tires
Spin and speed
Searching slopes
Tearing turf
Diving downhill
Breathless breakneck
Bouncing and bruising
Exhilaration ending
Bottom of the trail

I've never been a risk taker. I color in the lines. The above poem is meant to be read in one breath leaving you exhausted and out of breath - kind of the same experience as careening down the side of a mountain on a bicycle. There was a xangan, now MIA, know as Judyrutrider who was a downhill mountain biker. It was a sport she loved. Even though she had taken some spills, she was always anxious to get back on the bike. We had a technician at work who had ridden Mountain bikes as a college student competitor before turning professional. She currently coaches and rides for fun. She left our employment and I'm sure she has more time to chase the wind down whatever hills she can find in southern Michigan. The one trait that seems to run through every mountain biker is that need for the adrenaline rush. They all want that heart stopping thrill. I however live my life trying to avoid all "life flashing before my eyes" moments. I think I might be in the minority...

This is another piece that emerged from the kiln recently. I was trying to redo a pollen orb that I had done about 8 years ago. That other one was glazed in red and came out brown, a rather dull and boring brown. So trying to make things a little livelier I chose to glaze this one in Oribe. Usually the Oribe come out a nice translucent sea foam green color. There are folks that would kill for Oribe to turn mauve, which is what the glaze did this time. This happens most often when a red glaze is nearby. The hot glaze gives off some vapors containing the molecules of color and they glob onto the glaze of nearby pieces causing a rosy "blush" to appear on the lucky pieces. It is kind of a sneeze effect where the germs of one piece infect another.

I have to admit to a little disappointment in the color of the glaze. The kiln tech was practically bursting with pride at managing to get this effect in her firing. Several experienced potters were oohing and aahing over the color. I was looking at it going "meh" when the instructor came rushing over to ask what glaze combination I'd used to get that color... Everyone kept telling me how wonderful it was. So I'm going to accept that I'm my own worst critic and just say "gesundheit"!

When saintvi's sister was visiting they invited me to join them for a Wine and Canvas event. Even though I haven't hung up the last 4 paintings I've done, I said yes. The painting we were doing had a title like "Autumn Evening" or maybe it was "Autumn Beauty". Anyway it had nice colors so I figured why not? Below it a photo of the instructor's painting we were trying to reproduce.

It is always intimidating to start with a blank canvas. I was doubly troubled since saintvi and company were running late and the painting was about to commence.

I don't have any photos prior to this one. The painting utilized lots of different paint colors and required some intricate and somewhat confusing mixing of colors. It was also at this point that saintvi and her entourage arrived.  I was trying to get them caught up and also listen to the new instructions...

Then it got really crazy. The paper plate we used as a palate was fast becoming crowded with different mixtures of color. Some people at this point resorted to mixing color on the paper table cover!

The color for the horizon line didn't make much sense at the time but it was all about layering and "scrubbing" the canvas with a dry brush.

The color for the forest and the path was so very difficult. We all had trouble. It involved blue and purple and orange and yellow. If you did it right it came out as a slate grey. Mine looked a little too green but was much better than some folks!

The next step was to put in the little trees that were in the background. The instructor kept urging everyone to be "loose" and let the trees flow.

I didn't get any photos between the previous one and the final signed canvas. It involved turning the painting upside down and putting in the branches and trunk of the tree. To keep the branches from being too thick you had to have a light touch. I am pleased with my branches. Putting the leaves on required some more mixing of colors - again not an easy task! The actual leaves weren't difficult except for remembering when to switch colors and then of course running out of the color before you got all the leaves painted!

Below is saintvi's sister Donna's painting. She had never done one before and this was a tough painting. I think she did a really good job!

This one is saintvi's daughter Joyouswind's painting. I really like the way her path turned out - especially the leaves lining the sides.

Here is a group shot with us holding up our paintings. Saintvi had grabbed hers before I could get a photo. She had the best leaves of the 4 of us...

I was so glad that I got to meet her sister - and to do another painting. This one is going upstairs into the computer room!

Sometimes life can be a real drag. You know what I mean - when stress at work and home build and it seems that everyday is gray, damp and cold. I have deployed my not so secret weapon. No it isn't chocolate. I am dragging out every happy thought I can find. To help those of you who may find yourselves in a similar situation I have a list to share:

* Finally finding your favorite flavor of Propel water beverage on sale.
* Scoring your favorite flavor of Propel water beverage on sale at 88¢ each (regularly $1.15).
* Being able to have the store get you 2 cases of 12 plus grabbing the 11 on the shelf of that peach flavored Propel!
* Getting 4 pieces back from the kiln and none of them were broken.
* "Sticking it to the man" by using a store card to get extra virgin olive oil reg. $19.99 for a 1L bottle for $2.99 each.
* Having a stranger tell you "you are wonderful" just because you gave her a coupon for $2.00 that you weren't going to use.
* Your son gives you a hug just because.
* When you find that perfect Christmas gift and it is the last one and it is on clearance and now it is yours!
* A coworker tells you that you are the only one they can count on.
* Your husband says something that totally cracks you up but you can't tell anyone because it is an inside joke.
* You make a backup meal that turns out better than the one you were planning.
* Being 15 minutes late and getting the prime parking spot anyway!
* Hauling out the winter coat and finding a $5.00 bill in the pocket.
* Signing up for Trivia Night and discovering you have the best team possible!
* Doing laundry and that missing sock resurfaces.
* Talking with some old friends that you haven't seen in over 10 years and feeling like you saw them just yesterday.
* You are pretty sure you forgot something and remember it before it is too late.
* Get the results of your blood work and see improvement over last year.
* Take a bite of that first apple of the fall and feel sunshine in your heart.
* Get a gift of fresh caught fish or venison jerky.

So the thing is that we are all in charge of our own happiness. No one else can make us happy or make us mad for that matter. We have the choice to react to life's speed bumps either as a victim or a survivor. A victim dwells on the negative past and expends all their energy trying to re-write history. The survivor acknowledges the events and realizes that there is no way to change what has happened but there is a choice to move forward. I'm moving forward!