A Bunch of Cool Tree Pictures

On Saturday the weather forecast was overcast, partially sunny and it rained all day.  But before the rain started in earnest, Rob and I went hiking on Long Island.

I loved the trees...they were twisty and cool-looking.

This log looks like an animal skull.

More cool stumps.

We found three trees that were all carved up.
Rob read the inscriptions which unfortunately released all the evil spirits, so we had to go find the Good Spirit Tree to vanquish them.

The Good Spirit Tree:

Jessica and Robertson Share Creativity

More Cool Trees.

Spring Things

Today is Friday and it is raining.  Again.
Spring is a bit of a tough time for me every year...I don't really know why, it's just how my cycles go I guess. Everything feels heavy and blah, kind of opposite of how it is supposed to feel.

Sometimes life catches up with me and I feel my circumstance of carrying everything alone to be crushing and overwhelming.  Rob asks what's wrong and I tell him, but it isn't something he can relate to.  He is present which is a wonderful thing, but there isn't really anything he can do. He has never had to worry about taking care of anyone other than himself, not even a pet.  There's nothing wrong with that, but it is a different mentality. I value his presence but it doesn't relieve the crushing weight.

******
I have new neighbors upstairs and on Fridays and weekends they like to BLAST their music so I get all the drums and all the bass.

I can't take it.  The super has talked to them (didn't help) and I wrote to the landlord.  Haven't heard anything back yet so I'm still wound up dreading the next wave of pounding bass.  My building is not the kind of building where people do this.  It is well-managed, a good building- and I really want it to stay that way.  Quality of life and preservation of the environment for everyone. When you live in a good building, you have to be a good tenant to keep the building good.  It's not the Bronx. And I'm paying a lot of rent.

I'm nuts about having a peaceful home environment.  I require sanctuary.
Obviously there is a normal amount of noise around to be expected and that's ok but I don't like my space to be infringed upon, nor would I do that to someone else.

Anyhow it stresses me. I can't seem to unwind from it.
I hate noise.

*****
I can't find my Holbein palette knife and I strongly suspect- no, I KNOW- it is cat-related. Yesterday I looked for a long time in all the places it should have been, and some places it shouldn't.  Nothing.  My palette knife is my painting BFF and I miss it terribly.  I have a backup but it's not the same.

*****
My friend Nancy had heart surgery on April 12th and no one has heard from her.
Neither of her phones are working, no response to email, her husband doesn't pick up. I called the gallery where she shows yesterday and they haven't heard anything but hopefully someone in OK will be able to find out more. In the meantime I tracked down her daughter and niece on Facebook and messaged them, but no response. Nance is elderly and physically very frail so I am worried.

*****
All the trains are broken this morning exceot the 7 and the IRT lines, and it is probably only a matter of time until the 7 breaks.
I left home on time and got to work...there were problems during my commute but I got in before they got even worse.

Notify NYC 

Notification issued 4/21/17 at 9:17 AM. UPDATE: Due to a power outage, there are service changes and delays on the A,B,C,D,E,F, J,N, Q and R trains. The B train remains suspended between Brighton Beach and Beford Park Boulevard in both directions. The M train remains suspended between Chambers Street and Forest Hills in both directions.

Consider alternate routes and allow for additional travel time. For more information, please visit www.mta.info.


Consider alternate routes?
MTA, all the routes are broken! The regular AND alternate ones!

DŌ

This morning Daya, my coworker, and I went on a work field trip to the new cookie dough place in the Village.

There is always a line and we waited.
But it was worth it.

Cookie dough for breakfast is a fine idea.

And then I guess you can go to the pilates place around the corner!

Daya is back to school from spring break tomorrow FINALLY!

Easter

Daya got a visit from the Easter bunny.
She was most excited about her new sandals.

Holographic Grass

I love Easter- it is a nice holiday with good chocolate.

The cats also had a nice day.

We went to see Jackie in the afternoon and Rob joined.
Jackie always hosts such nice holidays- we had an egg hunt for the kids (money eggs) and Daya found the golden (actually it was green) prize money egg.

All in all she made out exceptionally well and she now has more money than me.
Which is not hard to do.

Rob looked good and knew it...here he is doing his supermodel pose.
My supermodel pose is not very good.

Flip: More Cowbell

There is a member of my household who would insist on more cowbell in everything and that member is Pebbles.

So here she is, and yes she is judging you to irrational standards.

Watercolor and inktense. ACEO

You have to see Carey's... it is hilarious.

Tourist Crime Magnets

Yesterday I got on the train after work to go home.
At Times Sq, three 20-something tourists got on- one guy and two girls.

They sat on the bench next to me.
Perhaps they were all excited about being in NYC on Spring Break (which is right now)- they were very hyper and a bit obnoxious, which is ok.
The guy stood up, left the bench, and walked over to the pole near the end of the car.  One of the girls joined him- the one who was sitting farthest away and next to me.

She wanted to swing on the pole and dance and sing with the guy.
She did not want to hold her purse while she did this.
Did she give it to her friend who remained sitting? Nope.
She left it on the bench right next to me, walked away, and proceeded to think she was entertaining the whole train.

!!!!!!!!

She did not notice at all when I picked up her bag.
If it was someone else, they would have been off the train in 2 seconds flat at 49th street.

I held her bag for a minute and stared at her.
Then I stood up and walked over to her, interrupted her dancing, handed her bag and told her "Do not leave your bag!"

Her response? "I was watching it."

Freaking tourist crime magnet.
She is very obviously a tourist = target = not paying attention = target and leaving her stuff lying around = PLEASE STEAL MY PURSE.

My warning had absolutely no effect on her.

Rob said he recently saw the same thing in Starbucks...some girl from Texas left her purse, laptop, and phone on the table while she went to the restroom. He said something to her and she had the same reaction Subway Tourist had.

WTF. Isn't this the most basic of basic safety???

Thank goodness Daya knows better.

Dance Stuff

Here are a few pictures from competition. :)

Barclay's basketball performance Saturday.

FLIP: Wasabi

Wasabi is cool.
I like to put a huge glob of it on, say, a tuna roll and die a little bit.
It clears your sinuses and makes you cry.
If it is fresh.

Most of us have never actually had true wasabi.
True wasabi is wasabia japonica.  It is very uncommon even in Japan.
It must be freshly grated and the potency only lasts for about 15 minutes.
It is small and finicky about where it grows.

Cousin Horseradish on the other hand, is larger and grows more quickly and that's what we are actually having with our sushi.

Wasabia japonica is a seriously funky and cool looking root.
And it is a wonderful weird shade of green, which makes it even better.

Here is as little painting of the root.

9x12 pastel on Colourfix

Goodbye Q-Tip

Q-Tip my West Side Highway rat has passed on.

He was really old.

He, with a few hundred other white rats, was dumped on the median on the West Side Highway in Manhattan. A huge rescue effort was organized and many were rescued.  A few ended up in a Broadway play. Q-Tip ended up with me.

He went trick-or-treating with us, he allowed himself to be painted, and in general he was a mellow brick. His brother Munchie tried to annoy him all the time but it didn't work because Q-Tip was too mellow.

Today Daya and I were home (she was not feeling well) and when I checked in the morning, I suspected Q-Tip was dying. What i didn't notice was something odd in his mouth which was not there last night.  I called Branwen and sent her a picture...she doesn't know what it is either but she suspects a ----insert long medical term here----- well, she thinks it could have been a tumor and something ruptured...I don't know.

He was fine last night.

Anyhow, Branwen is working at a vet's office right now and both she and the vet want to have a look...so Q-Tip is taking an overnight trip to Boston tomorrow to contribute to veterinary medical research.

Bye Q-Tip, we loved having you with us.

Hitting Home

On Sunday afternoon a 13 year old girl was struck by the train because she went into the tracks to get her damn cellphone.

It happened in my neighborhood at my station.
She didn't go to Daya's school but some of Daya's friends do go to the same school and knew her.

The train couldn't slow down. People on the platform literally tried to move the train off her. She was still alive but she died in the hospital. It is shocking and traumatic and I'm glad I wasn't there because as it is I can't go in the train station right now without feeling messed up.

Some things in no particular order:

1. Daya has assured me many times she would never do something like that.
I have been telling her since she was little never go down there.  She used to think it wasn't that deep down, I always talked to her about that.
2. That girl's parents are going to be messed up for a long time....
this is a horrific thing. I can't help thinking those thoughts they are thinking.  The ones you don't want to think about but they haunt you. As a parent this is just too horrific and shocking. You don't think your kid is going to do that. Especially growing up here, you think they know better.  Especially because you told them, probably many times. It is not a good way to die.
3. This same thing happened a few years ago- the girl was in the tracks getting her phone and the train started coming into the station- people on the platform were trying to help her up but she was too heavy and the train hit her. Ever since, there have been massive continual public awareness messages to NOT GO IN THE TRACKS for any reason.

The MTA said it has five teams of employees 

who do nothing but retrieve items dropped down onto the tracks 

with a pole-mounted device. 

But even they try not to go down onto the tracks.

I hope we start seeing more posters in the stations and trains specifically aimed at young people to prevent this.  They are there, but perhaps need to be targeted to a young audience.

4. One article states: 

But before hearing the tragic story, some people said they would take the risk.
“I might go for it,” one woman told the station. “I would have to go for it. My phone is like my best friend.”

This is devastating, how can people think like this?
Phones are things. Not friends. They are replaceable.  They have no substance. They do not matter. People matter.

I hope this is a reminder to parents to keep telling your kids that they matter more than a damn phone and DO NOT GO IN THE TRACKS EVER!

Shubert Sunday

My friend Teresa is a cellist in the Bronx Opera. We have been friends for a really long time, and I used to live in her building.

Every year she gives a recital over at the Nicholas Roerich Museum. She's been doing this for many years. I try and go every year. Rob came with me.

The museum was his house, converted into a museum for his AMAZING paintings. (Tempera) It is amazing chamber music in such a beautiful place.

Teresa told a story about the last part of the program- the Piano Trio in Bb major, Op.99.  (The trio was piano, cello, and violin)

One evening she was staying in the Bronx and she woke up at 1am from music blasting outside.  This is completely typical of the Bronx, but what was not typical was that the music being blasted was the Shubert trio.

She went downstairs and found the guy blasting Shubert.  She spoke to him to find out more- and how did he come to be blasting Shubert of all things in the Bronx? His answer: "I just love chamber music!"

Isn't that a great story?

*****
Next door to the Roerich Museum there is another house undergoing some pretty amazing renovation.  This house is right smack at the west end of 107th street and overlooks the water.  The place is MASSIVE.  Whoever is renovating it has put in all new marble on the exterior where the old marble needs to be replaced. Rob had a good time analyzing it. He said it's probably a $30 million renovation job.

Secret Weapon

When Daya is gaming, she has a secret weapon!

Pebbles also tries to be my secret weapon but usually she ends up being my Obvious Hindrance.

Sinddri and Srali

The other day I said to Carey, "Have you played the Elder Scrolls Online?"
She said, "Yes, the beta version."
Me: "Is it good?"
She: "It wasn't bad. It's much more fun if you play with a friend."
Me: "I never played a MMO...I don't get how it works."

Long text thread short, we are now both hanging out in Tamriel together.

She is Srali the Khajiit and I am Sinddri the Wood Elf.

Aren't we adorable?

There are cats all over, too!