No Strings Attached

Posted By Kathleen David on January 26, 2014

Last night we got, officially, another inch and a half of powder snow on top of streets that were just getting passible.

This made this morning’s journey to retrieve Caroline all the more fun.

Caroline had a Girl Scout overnight activity yesterday. Her troop, along with several others, went to a hotel and learned about the business of running a hotel. It was a sleepover with movies and popcorn. She had a grand time. She is using the red sleeping bag that I used for camp and sleepovers at friends houses from about the time I was 7. It is a Sear’s sleeping bag and it still is warm and soft.

One more load of laundry and I have done the laundry for the week. Go me.

I have been reading books on procrastination and have come to the conclusion that I have a serious case of creative procrastination, which I plan to work on this year or however long it takes. One thing I do know is that I try never to be late to be somewhere in fact if I am not there about 5 minutes early, I feel late.

I have also been revisiting some of my puppetry books to see if I can work out how to do something. I have this idea, which need EL wire and is going to take a long time to rig but since Peter started writing X-Factor, that really need to get this idea done.

They are saying rain/snow for the Superbowl. I am hoping for snow there and not here. It will make for an interesting game. Payton has to prove that he can be a good quarterback at under 40 degrees F. The Seahawks are salivating at getting a chance at taking down Payton. I just hope everyone comes out of the game relatively unscathed.

Yes, I have had my coffee for the day.

I don’t think a death watch (a watch that counts down to your demise) is a good idea but that may just be me.

I am glad I haven’t shopped at Michael’s Crafts in a while. There has been another credit card information breach into the database. The sad thing is that is this is becoming more common as the systems used by retail stores become old and easier to hack.

OK going to wrap this up and take care of some things that need to be taken care of and then I plan to be crafty.

I am grateful for times when I get things done for me.

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Posted By Kathleen David on January 24, 2014

Snow days can just make the week feel off. I know that Caroline was home Wednesday but it still doesn’t feel like a Friday yet.

But it is Friday according to the calendar. This weekend Caroline has a Girl Scout function to attend and that is about it.

There is more snow in the forecast for Saturday but the line of where the snow is going to fall. It could miss us entirely.

What has not missed us is the cold. This is hard to cope with. It is cold with a side dish of frozen.

My face has gotten back to normal although part of it hurts when I am outside in the cold.

I just figured out how soon Farpoint is. Wow. I will be displaying Mr. Gold and Rumple, The War Doctor, and probably one or two other things in the Art Show. I know I am doing some costuming panels for the convention. We’ll see if they pick me for anything else.

216 days until Dragon Con, which means I have 214 days to get ready for it. Yes, I am thinking about it now. I don’t know about SDCC this year. I am figuring that I am going to Shoreleave.

We are going to the London Super Comic Con in March so that should be fun. It will be Peter, Caroline and me. Yes, Caroline will be selling drawings. Yes, we will have books and scripts for sale. I might bring a puppet or two. We’ll see.

So the Super Bowl stories are shaping up. And one the characters I didn’t expect to see is the weather. It is being talked about. The wind chill is suppose to be in the danger zone and there is a threat of snow. There has even been some talk about whether they could move it to another venue. Which is absurd but apparently the mechanism exists to do it.

Those who are trying to keep spoiler free for Once Upon a Time, caution there are some photos from yesterday and last night’s shoot that might give away some plot points but it might have been a flash back. So be careful.

Stenciling is making a come back. I am waiting for simple lithographs to return to the crafty area.

Well off to deal with the cold. I tell myself that putting on layers is easier than dealing with the serious heat.

I am grateful for the artisan skills I have learned over the years.

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Posted By Kathleen David on January 22, 2014

And it is a doozy. This time we got, according the local weatherman, 9 inches not including drifts. It is the drifts that are causing the problems because they are big. Well that and the temperature which is rather cold with a wind chill factor of “You have Got to be Kidding Me” (said in best Grover Monster voice).

We have the larder stocked. The cats have food and water. We have electricity and heat. So we are going to hunker down and wait this out.

I did go out and shovel out the steps, a path down the driveway and the sidewalk. I kitty littered the steps and the sidewalk. The blowing snow is making this a little difficult because clean areas are becoming covered again in snow but not as deep as the rest.

The biggest problem is that the street is a sheet of ice with snow on top of it. They are putting down sand but not salt since it is too cold for the salt to do anything. The wind chill is -13 and the temperature is 7. So that is no good for the industrial products that they use. The backup is plain old sand.

I am grateful for warmth and clothing that keeps me warm especially my boots.

This photo is from in front of the steps looking out towards the street. The driveway is snow covered.
(For the VI: This is a picture of the snow in front of the house. There is a car driving by in the background. )

Looking down my street, which is ice covered over with blowing snow. The sand truck had come by 5 minutes before this photo. You can already see the blowing snow covering the sand.

The snow next to the driveway. I love that there is a little shelf of snow over the driveway and the swirls due to the wind

Our front steps before I started shoveling.
We sort of lucked out that the drifts didn’t build up on our property. Some neighbors had some serious drifts up against their houses and garages.

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Posted By Kathleen David on January 20, 2014

So it is the Broncos vs. the Seahawks. I have already seen seven jokes about the fact that the two states that have legalized marijuana use makes it to the Super-bowl.

I predict that most of the “story” that is created before the game itself is going to be old guard vs. new guard. The old(er) quarterback vs. the young untried pup.

We saw 12 years a Slave yesterday since Caroline is off with her sister Gwen this weekend. Wow, that was hard to watch but it was also an amazing film. The acting was top notch across the board. The language was of the time so certain words were uncomfortable as were some of the situations but what happened to Solomon Northup happened to many free blacks in America. He was just lucky enough to get back to freedom.

Today is Martin Luther King Jr. day aka MLK Day. Let’s help see the dream fulfilled and be nice to each other. We all bleed red.

My coffee maker is on the fritz again. Took 5 tries to get a pot of coffee out of it. Might be time to retire it.

Trying to figure out crafty Tuesday for tomorrow. I’ll come up with something.

I found Caroline’s cat sitting outside her door waiting for her to emerge. I had to tell Figgy that she would be home later this morning.

I had to fix a couple of things around the house. I found all the necessary tools and just went around and did a little handyman work. Thanks Dad.

I also finally got all the holiday lights put away this weekend. It was nice to have a day that you could go outside and not freeze or be soaked.

I finished reading a book on procrastination. I guess that is an achievement in itself. That’s two nonfiction books for the year. Onto number three. I am trying to read 52 nonfiction books this year. 52 books in a year is a slow year for me. I looked at what I read and decided to challenge myself to read more nonfiction.

I am grateful for parking places that are real parking places.

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Posted By Kathleen David on January 17, 2014

There comes a time when planning must stop and the actions must start.

Some people are good at planning and executing. Some are only good at planning and others at executing plans.

Then there are those that plan and plan but never execute.

There is an element of procrastination to the last group. They want to work through in their heads everything and make sure that there are no flaws in their plan. In doing so, many end up doing nothing.

Part of it is, I believe, fear of failure. They want to make sure that they won’t fail so they try to figure out each possible outcome.

Now in rocket science, theses things are necessary. Lives are at stake and that kind of planning is needed.

In art less so. I think more people kill their artistic impulses by being concerned about making it just right the first time around. They want to be perfect where art is mostly imperfection and error made into beauty. Yes, I know this is broad strokes. But in my art there are times I can only see the flaws where others can only see the beauty.

We start by teaching kids there is no wrong in art and let them do what they want. As they go further in art classes, they are informed that they are doing it wrong and there is a right way to do things. A number of people just stop making art at that point because they can’t do it the right way. Others stop because they see people who are better at it than they are and figure that they will never be that good. Some continue to work hard to get themselves to a higher level. They make art every day and continue to hone their craft.

And others plan to do art and plot to do other things in their life. But that is all that they do.

There are times I find myself in that mode. I plot and plan in my head. Discard and reform an idea several million times. Of course when I get to the physical part of the creation, things go not the way I planned. Sometimes I have already created a contingency and other times I have to just wing it. Sometimes that winging it brings me to solutions I have never thought of but in desperation I can come up with better ideas sometimes and not at others.

One of my promises to myself this year was to get out of the think and into the do must fast than I have done before.

I am grateful for motivation that is not sheer panic.

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