I'm so happy when I receive a call from our 24 year old daughter saying "do you want to go for a walk?" Walking, talking, enjoying the outdoors. Life is good.

sick ps

I'm so spoiled. My brother had a bicycle accident a week or 2 back, and he's been dealing with the pain of cracked ribs and collar bone, etc, etc. My little sickness is nothing...

sick

Being sick sucks. A mean stomach flu is ravaging our little family right now. I've personally had a long run of being healthy, with no ailments of any kind going back to over 3 1/2 years? Different reasons for this have been my walking regimen, and the fact that I'm not working at a "job". Speaking of "working", if my body could handle it, I always chose to go to work before. I'd rather be miserable there than at home.
One of the most difficult things for me is not being active. Along that line, "I don't know how I found time to go to work before" I retired. Life is good, and I am still amazed when I hear someone say "I don't know what I would do (if I retired)". What!? To each his own.
For now, I sit here and do battle with my stomach pains, looking outside longingly...

roadside green and flat beer

water

Cold ears and nose, and gloves (again), when I walked this morning. I can't help but fantasize about walking in Cebu, with my "morning towel" around my neck, and the warmth seeping into my body. It will be different for sure.
One good thing about being preoccupied with the weather is that my senses are more focused, and my mind wanders less.

eddys under the bridge
sewer cover puddle

"Chi-Hwa-Seon: Painted Fire"

I watched a film about a 19th century Korean painter last night with the title "Chi-Hwa-Seon: Painted Fire". It was awarded the Cannes prize for Direction in 2003. A very good film that captures the life and struggles of an artist and his art, as well as a good time period piece that shows the importance of painters and printers before cameras and film.
The film's occasional cuts to flowers and streams and trees and birds...the painter looking at nature...were wonderful. I thought about my morning walks, and how my appreciation for the simplest tree branches and leaves... has grown. Colors and lines and texture. It's everywhere.

I find myself enjoying these things even when I'm driving sometimes, from my car. I'm careful though, and it becomes a kind of peripheral panorama of the senses.
The Japanese Woodblock Prints show I saw last Friday were from the same time period, and I was able to see originals up close. I was reminded of a show of Van Gogh pen and ink drawings I saw once. You can feel the textures of paper and brush and ink.

I was thinking the other day - I want to do everything! But I can't. What I can do is appreciate and enjoy everything. I can be a "collector", an enjoyer if there is such a word, even if it's only through my eyes and in my mind.

Although we've had a mild winter, I'm enjoying this transition to Spring. Today was my first morning walk without gloves in a long time...very nice. I just enjoyed the fresh air, the sunshine, birds, watching the LRT go by, just being outside. Andie and I hope to get in a morning hike later this week. I hope we do.

Alden Mason, 91

"Art review: Alden Mason, 91, continues to delight and intrigue", "a delightful show... at Foster/White"
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/entertainment/2011624353_aldenmason19.html

From this morning's Seattle Time's "Our Monday" section. I had Alden Mason as a professor when I was at the UW, and along with Jacob Lawrence and other UW instructors, he influenced and inspired many, many artists. I remember a story/lesson he shared once about this wonderful white color he saw in a Cezanne painting when he was in France. He moved up close to the canvas, and the special white he noticed was actually part of the original "sized" canvas, the bare canvas with the white under layer many artists put on their canvases before painting. Mason was telling us that we don't have to cover up the whole canvas. I also remember once when I was having trouble with a back table leg in a still life we were working on, and he basically said to paint it out. Four legs or not, don't worry about it.
I miss painting, and I look forward to putting brush to canvas again some day...

tea party

Danny Westneat, Seattle Times staff columnist
"Parsing the tea-party logic -
I went to one of those tea-party tax protests last week and found it didn't fit the crudest media stereotypes. They were friendly, not a bunch of whack jobs in training for the militia, as they are sometimes portrayed."

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/dannywestneat/2011635002_danny18.html

Westneat ended his column today with the following words:

"The tea party's focus on deficits is right on. But it needs to get real. It needs a Ross Perot-like figure to spell out an honest plan — one that's probably going to have both tax increases and spending cuts (as Bill Clinton pushed through).
Also, drop the red-scare rhetoric. And run as fast as you can from bumper-sticker simpletons like Sarah Palin.
Otherwise, this tea party's stuck in Wonderland."

I think about the Bill Clinton - Rush Limbaugh exchange in recent days, and although I try to avoid "bumper-sticker simpletons like Sarah Palin", Limbaugh, et al...I still find myself bumping into them on the TV news, online and in the newspapers. Whew! This is America, this is freedom...and I still love it.

things Japanese...

I don't believe in a Karmic kind of "next life", but I do think I was a tatami mat maker in a previous life. Or some kind of crafts person in Japan. Contradictions. I have always loved the simple beauty of older Japanese utilitarian objects, and I remember visiting one town on my first trip to Japan just to see it's Folkcraft Musuem.
What I like is the idea that "function" can also be aesthetically pleasing. The joinery of interlocking wooden beams in buildings, propping up a heavy old tree branch by wrapping some jute around the branch and resting it on an old wooden post. Binding the two with twine. Textures of nature.
I also love the woodblock prints from the 18th and 19th centuries. I visited the new exhibit at the Seattle Asian Art Museum today, and I was transported back to Japan in my mind.

Fleeting Beauty: Japanese Woodblock Prints
April 1–July 4, 2010
SAAM Tateuchi Galleries



"This exhibition brings together prints from the most renowned ukiyo-e artists of the 18th and 19th centuries—including Harunobu, Utamaro, Eishi and Hiroshige—along with Hokusai’s most beloved prints, Great Wave off Kanagawa and Red Fuji. These Japanese woodblock prints demonstrate an evocative play between delicate ink lines and rich blocks of color in portraits of beautiful women and kabuki actors, jewel-like landscapes of famous places, and more."
ps - I googled the bottom 2 images, but they are representative of the exhibit.

this morning

soccer ball, beaten and left for deadduck and bridge reflectionsky blossoms

"at 91, she's aging happily"

from Jerry Large's column in today's Seattle Times:
"Eileen Allen likes herself. That is a huge thing, and if you knew her you'd like her, too. She's 91 and she told me, "This time of my life..."http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/jerrylarge/2011609159_jdl15.html

the "dump"

I'm going to hurt my arm patting myself on the back like this, but I'm so proud of myself. I just returned from my first "dump" trip with our little trailer. I was worried about my "backing up" skills, so I drove to a local church parking lot first, and practiced. I moved from a D driver to a C driver with my practice session, and I did ok when I got there. Now I can speed up my "purging" and thinning out of our STUFF. I felt really restricted and limited for awhile there with the loss of our old pickup, but now "I'm back in the saddle again", and it feels good. I'm thinking about bringing in a real estate agent soon, and maybe putting up the "For Sale" sign in a week or so. Progress.


Andrea called and suggested she come over for a walk just when I was going to leave for the dump. It ended up being perfect because a), I didn't skip my walk like I planned, AND b), going a little later to the dump meant less traffic and cars. I didn't have to back into a slot between two other vehicles.
Life's little victories. The pine tree photo is from our walk.

yikes!

That's our condo, or rather, the base of our condo building behind the small building at the front of the photo. I saw these photos this morning when I opened a Cebu forum I follow. It was titled "Osmena (blvd) fire", and I recognized it right away. I thought to myself "oh oh..." In the second photo you can see Club Ultima at the back center right, and the Crown Regency Hotel on the far right. Ultima Residences is shrouded in smoke behind the small building. A later post said the fire was an establishment in the small building. Whew!

nostalgia

I just returned from a Saturday morning breakfast with a group of former co-workers. It was nice. I go every year or two, and it was fun sharing old memories and catching up on who went where, who's doing what, etc. Good ol' nostalgia. Although I was extremely happy when I walked out of that Bakery door for the last time (I have never returned), I had the good fortune to have worked with some good, fun people. And it's gratifying to touch base every once in awhile.

"Can you take the heat?"

Some people say "but it's hot" when I talk about moving to the Philippines. "Can you take the heat?" I usually answer "I can't take the cold (here)."
There was frost on the windshield this morning when we left to take Inday into work. And the temperature when I went for my walk later was still in the 30s. My nose was red, and my fingertips felt like little Popsicles by the time I got home.
I think it's much easier adapting to the warmth than it is to the cold, and the last time we were in Cebu, my body was just plain happy. And some of the best snorkeling in the world is a Jeepney ride away, and...
I did get a few nice shots this morning though, cold fingers and all. The currents were creating some beautiful swirling patterns under the bridge, and two ducks were passing through the morning sunlight reflection.

There was a series of corny and fun Japanese movies made in the 70s called Tora-san..."Japan's most beloved loser". I often made the bus trek downtown and out to a Japanese theatre in the Columbia City area then to see the latest Tora-san mis-adventures. Just now, when I was checking my Queue on Netflix, I saw where they finally acquired copies, and my first video is in the mail! I'm excited. In a way, it's embarrassing, but Tora-san was one of the many reasons I decided to go to Japan.

Neo,keeping an eye on me while I checked my email this morning...


I'm not a "techie". I'm more of a techie wannabe. I love this stuff, and I get excited about things like the new iPad, etc.
But I often get frustrated and feel like a Neanderthal when I'm dealing with things like this morning, when I tried to download a Rebate form online that required a "pdf" whatever. My PC would not let me, and/or my huge intellect couldn't figure out how to get my Adobe whatever going.
So I went to our 13 year old and the Mac, and he punched in the address and up popped the printable rebate form. Voila! So simple! Andrea tells me, with my new found interest in photography, I should make the switch to a Mac someday.

Sagwa couldn't care less...

from my walk this morning

overgrown tractor
No Parking, but sitting's ok...
stone, metal, glass, moss and everything in between...

"A captivating view on Japanese life and culture"

The Seattle Asian Art Museum's current exhibit of Japanese woodblock prints from the 18th and 19th centuries.


http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/thearts/2011510004_woodblocks05.html

I'll be going several times probably, woodcuts being one of my favorite mediums...

Olympic's Hoh River beach...

Andrea is a super hiking partner!

"Apple vs. Amazon: an e-gadget death match"

"Black letters on white paper-like backgrounds will always play a major role in our culture, writes Froma (columnist Froma) Harrop, talking about the looming Amazon Kindle vs. Apple iPad battle of e-readers."

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/opinion/2011503658_harrop02.html

One of the reporters on NBC news last night laid out all of his "gadgets" when he was talking about the above battle, and his conclusion about the new iPad was:
"I don't need one, but I WANT one!"

Olympic peninsula and ocean beaches

Andie and I had a super hiking/road trip on Thursday. I uploaded some super photos yesterday, and I will post some here later this morning. We do have a beautiful state, we do...