Quick Holidays:
January:
17 Judgment Day & Thomas Crapper Day
18 Jazz Day & Winnie the Pooh Day
19 Artist as Outlaw Day & Popcorn Day & Champagne Day
20 Hat Day & Buttercrunch Day
21 Hugging Dat & Hot and Spicy Food International Day
22 Celebration of Life Day
23 Compliment Day & Rhubarb Pie Day
It’s been a nice quiet week. Initial recollections are just about being cozy inside. We had the nice big storm Monday and cleared the driveway Tuesday. The wood-stove is great to promote a comfy feeling. We’ve been eating soups and stews a lot- and home made bread. (January is Soup month) Yes, just quiet country life. 
Kat took the new snow as an opportunity to make some pictures of her as Snow White, lying in the snow with her apple. Apparently it was necessary to scatter fake blood on the snow because it’s an anime tradition that if someone’s been harmed, they always have a drop of blood coming out of their mouths- even if they were poisoned or suffocated! Still, cute.
The well seems to have recovered- not sure what was up with that except for demand exceeded supply for a while. Star has been going out and measuring it almost daily (except when the cap freezes down).
I did go out and gave blood on Thursday- it’s been the first time in a long time that my hematocrit was high enough. Considering that I got there around five and didn’t leave until eight, and most of that was waiting to find out if I would be accepted, I’m sure glad I was let in this time. In truth, I’ve missed several opportunities to give because the last few times I tried I couldn’t, and putting in hours waiting to be turned away is just so discouraging it was easy to be “too busy” to try.
Friday we had our big adventure of the week. Willow had noticed a weasel in the back yard and we had been talking about how to protect the chickens when Kat looked out and saw a chicken being dragged along by the weasel. This created a flurry of activity not all of which was as efficient as we’d like.
When we cleaned out the second floor hall attic, we brought Ælfwine’s gun rack and hung it in the back hall near all his old reloading supplies, and we’ve been putting all the guns and ammo and stuff back there as we find it. Sadly, we do not know enough about the weapons, so we’ve decided that we really should join the Pinnacle Mountain Fish and Game and learn what we need to about them- and also sell off anything we don’t want. I’ve been somewhat hesitant to do that because the firearms were Ælfwine’s thing, and most of them were bought from friends when they were broker than we were and needed money, but also we stored some firearms for people, so I’m still somewhat unsure which are actually ours. The long and the short of it of course, is that while I’d like to have a reasonable supply of firearms for just such situations as this one, we should probably sell off any we aren’t going to use because they’ll probably lose value because we’re not properly caring for them.
Anyway, it took us at least fifteen or twenty minutes to find the .22 and the right ammo for it. (Whose brilliant idea is it to store them separately anyway? How useful is any tool needed for emergencies if it can’t be useful quickly?) Luckily Willow managed to spook the thing (who was rather unwilling to relinquish his kill anyway), then find the right one, and once she had it, she popped him off in one shot. (Afterwards she walked over and shot him again to make sure- we don’t want them to suffer- just die.) But when I cleaned it, there were no holes anywhere except the head, so it was a good shot. I took pictures of her with the gun- check it out on my Flikr page http://flickr.com/photos/22256634@N08/
or the LJ version of the letter.Then Kat and Willow went out to Manchester to get the fabric for the next run of Green Shirts. (The Stormgard army is growing again.) We tried the internet- it’s hard to believe, but we at least can’t find Forest Green Trigger anywhere on the web. We thought we had- but when we tried to order it, they were out. So back up to Manchester to get the $10 a yard fabric we’d rejected as too expensive. Sheesh! I miss the fabric district. Probably they have it there, but it never reaches the internet.I watched the Lonesome Dove thing on TV even though I hadn’t watched the earlier Lonesome Dove series- it looked interesting, and I guess I’ve been watching more TV lately. So I took the original out from Netflix and watched that. It was a little confusing for me because it took me far too long to figure out that the new one advertised as “the final chapter of Lonesome Dove” was actually a prequel. I enjoyed both the original and the new one. I am fairly sure I’m watching too much TV lately. But maybe that’s over. I’m told that in another year there will be no non-digital TVs, so our TVs will only be useful for monitors for our videos (as long as those machines last). IT seems unlikely to me that there could actually be a law that makes the technology in most homes totally obsolete that would force everyone to replace them with new stuff they can’t afford. A few years ago I heard Bush had wanted to make all cars over the age of was it five or ten years old not legal- so that the economy would be pumped up by the people all being forced to buy cars. You can’t force people to buy stuff they can’t afford- the number of people without health insurance proves that. Actually, I guess Massachusetts proves that you CAN force it. I’m not sure it’s a great idea, of course.
What else did I watch? The Fog. Both the original Jamie Lee Curtis one and the recent remake. I kind of expected it would be a case of “we can do the effects much cooler these days” and they certainly did a lot of that- but they also tightened up some plot holes too (and the effect of ubiquitous cell phones had a huge effect on expectations of how people deal with crises). On the other hand, Adrienne Barbeau had a much sexier voice as the one woman radio station owner than Selma Blair. I do enjoy the discussions in the special bits about how the film-makers make their decisions, and I agreed with their logic about why the ghosts would come back- “why would they want a gold cross? what would ghosts do with one?” I kept waiting for someone to offer the ghosts to build a leprosy clinic or sanitarium on the stolen land- but they didn’t. Guess they don’t think like me. (who does?)
I also watched The Fountain again. Actually, this time I WATCHED it- and it made more sense. I tend to “watch” TV by having it on in the same room where I’m working, so something as “artistic” as that doesn’t make much sense. Hugh Jackman played not only a modern doctor, but a conquistador and some sort of shaman all of whom were fighting for the life of their loved one in parallel stories- but the way they were cut together was kind of confusing if you weren’t giving it your whole attention. I did like the final moment when he realizes that the fact that someday he’s going to die too IS the happy ending.
I brought home the classic Charles Laughton Hunchback of Notre Dame. I hoped that the kids would watch it, but they weren’t interested. I watched it again though, and each time enjoy the performances more. Watched Flightplan which is, I understand, a modern variant of Hitchcock’s The Lady Vanishes, which I also enjoyed, although it sure looks dated these days. I expect Flightplan will as well before too long. I was a bit put off by the huge spaces that seemed to be available in the plane. High ceilings in a plane? I don’t THINK so. But I could be wrong.
I enjoyed the 1634 The Ram Rebellion (a Christmas gift) so much I went out and picked up a copy of 1634 The Gallileo Affair. As I mentioned last week, Mark loaned me the first two books, 1632 and 1633. The basic thing is that a chunk of the modern world is transported to 1632 and the folks there start interacting with that world. It’s fun to explore the interactions- for example, the discovery that perhaps people don’t want the kinds of social lives Americans assume are to be desired, the idea that brightly colored (coal-tar derived) dyed clothing would be a big money maker. I am betting that most of the side plots resulted from Flint’s keeping finding out cool things about the period as he researched each book. If only SCAers would do that. I suppose they don’t get paid to…
Olaf dropped by briefly- his gift shop didn’t make it and he was dropping off the stuff that hadn’t sold. He’s planning on going back down to Georgia to drive a cab while he pays of the debts he accumulated, then he’ll come back and do jeweling again. Darn- it was a nice shop! The economy stinks. Well, I’ve got my second batch of handmaidens back.
Saturday we went down to Steve and Vicki’s for a Taylor gathering. It was very much like the St. Steven’s Day’s (day after Christmas) that we’d done for years- except that it was Vicki’s birthday instead. (In theory we got pictures of everyone- but not all of them came out well.)
Leif was there- he goes to college is in San Francisco, but it’s still break. It’s hard to see that since he’s so bright and articulate, and he’s younger than Star. Star is NOT articulate. Still, he is writing hours a day- I found out that he falls asleep during the afternoon so much because he keeps getting up and spending hours writing in the middle of the night when the computer is available. Maybe I should do that. I’m really trying to get the book done.
I’ve also been playing with art practice- this time I’ve been copying daVinci (last time I did a bunch it was Holbein)
I found a book on WOWIO of DaVinci sketches. I have told you about getting free books there haven’t I? I’ve been getting art and knitting, and recipe books, as well as philosophy, and medical stuff. Great fun! The trick of course is to remember to burn them to disk so they don’t use up memory in your computer. http://www.wowio.com/index.asp
Well, back to work. I’ve probably forgotten something interesting we did this week, but who knows?
It’s quite a relief to have the Primary over.
Tchipakkan
When I examine myself and my methods of thought, I come to the conclusion that the gift of fantasy has meant more to me than my talent for absorbing positive knowledge. Albert Einstein
Tchipakkan 