http://wjcsdigitalworld.blogspot.com/2012/10/fantastic-image-transfer-video.html
But I don’t have a brayer so I used a rolling pin! It worked fine!)
I was recently looking into a way to give my 235+ journals a good home when I die. The thought of them just being tossed in the trash really bugs me. I found this guy online with a diary library. I contacted him and sent a slide show of some of my journal pages, but I got no response. I delved deeper and wrote to one of the links on his website. The woman I contacted wrote back to say he was in a nursing home. She shared the address with me, and I sent him a card. A couple of weeks later I got a letter from Ray! I couldn’t believe it! The writing was pretty difficult to decipher, but I am a caregiver for an older guy who said “I know how to read stuff written by people with arthritis.” So he broke the code and read the letter for me. Ray’s nursing home is just 4 hours away and he invited me to come down to visit and look through the journals he has, many from famous people. I wrote back to say I’d love to come. The a few days after I sent the letter I got word from his daughter that Ray is in the last days of his life… I can’t believe it. Although I am very grateful for our friendship, however brief, there is a part of me that is angry because I am so sick of death making an appearance in my life. I was so looking forward to meeting him, and now I never will. Not only was I already seeing him as a mentor, but on some level also a father-figure. My father never really appreciated my creative side. He meant well, but he was a scientist and there didn’t seem to be any room in his reality for an artistic point of view. Even though Ray isn’t gone yet, I am already going through the stages of grief. I created this journal page to help me process. I used a technique shared by a friend of Bill’s in this post:
http://wjcsdigitalworld.blogspot.com/2012/10/fantastic-image-transfer-video.html But I don’t have a brayer so I used a rolling pin! It worked fine!)
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There is something deep within me… an instinct that comes along when the holidays are approaching. I feel the need to find a mate, to keep me warm and make my holidays jolly. If I could just get through the holidays, this insanity will pass. It never works out. It always ends in heartbreak. Recently I met a real charmer in the grocery store parking lot as I was giving a homeless man some food. We got into some deep discussions, and I felt good about giving him my number when he asked. He gave me his too. He lives 45 minutes south in Redway, CA., so when I was down there again the other day, I called him. I almost never call guys. Was that a totally desperate thing to do? I left a nice message saying I was in town if he wanted to have coffee. He never called…He seemed so into me, so I don’t understand. Perhaps he was married, who knows? All I know is that it bruised my ego. Only 76 days to go until the holidays pass. Lord help me make it please.
Meanwhile, the yellow jacket sting I got a week ago has started acting weirdly. It itches like nothing I have ever felt before. It wakes me out of a dead sleep with the itchiness. The only thing I have found that works is ice. I know I should take benedryl, but I hate the way it makes me feel groggy for days. And I don’t have insurance, so the doctor is an absolute last resort. I guess I am just an itchy, bitchy, lonely, no boyfriend during the holidays having gal…sigh. I noticed my water bill was a bit higher than usual this month, and when I called about it, I found out that there was a leak somewhere on my property. I got to work sleuthing out the culprit by putting food coloring into the toilet tanks to see if the color leaked into the bowl. All was well with the toilets. I then checked all of the outdoor spigots to be sure they were shut off, and they were. I then had to undertake the very daunting task of crawling under the house to check. I had successfully avoided this task for the entire 5 years that I have lived here, and was so scared that I had to call a friend to be on the phone with me when I bravely crawled through the spider webs and dirt. No leaks to be found under there at all… My handyman is going in for surgery, so I had to call a plumber next. When John the plumber arrived to give an estimate, we started poking around some more to try and figure out where the leak could be. In the process, we ended up disturbing a nest of yellow jackets. They swarmed and attacked, and we both got stung. My arm is still swollen today, but he definitely got the worst of it. He had a rip in his pants, and they all made a “beeline” for it, stinging him thoroughly in his nether regions and causing him to leap and squeal all over the driveway! (If this ever happens to you, there is a bug spray at the hardware store that shoots several feet, and you just aim it at their hive/hole in the ground and keep spraying until it’s gone.) John recommended I get a second opinion, so I called around and Travis showed up. It turns out that he is the grandson of the former owner of my home! His grandpa was a sweet little Irishman named Smokey McNaughton. I never met him, and he passed away 2 years ago, but I heard many stories of his kindness and compassion. It felt really good to be able to gift Travis with his grandpa’s old mailbox, which was knocked down recently. It has a shamrock on it with his grandpa’s name on the side. Anyway, Travis offered the better quote by quite a bit, so he won! The leak was under the pavement, so they had to slice the asphalt with a special drill bit and dig a trench through the yard. They were here all day, but now I have water again after having it turned off for over 24 hours. It truly makes you appreciate the wonders of water when you have to go without for awhile, that’s for sure! |
AuthorHi! I'm Marguerite Bryant, but most folks just call me "M." This blog will be a place to share my musings and inspirational ideas. Categories
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