Dusty Strings

 

So, one of the things that was going to fill my currently lightly-encumbered schedule was my getting back to more regular ukulele practice. This has been slowed down somewhat of late. 

First, my broken thumb incident of last year put the kibosh on any fingering for some time. Once that acute phase was over, I still had my chronic thumb pain (I think it's De Quervain's tenosynovitis, a kind of tendonitis), which made it hard to hold the uke and to change finger positions. I bought a strap to help hold the uke up, hoping that would take some of the pressure off my thumb so I could concentrate just on the fingering. Unfortunately, before I tested the system much, this happened:

Welp, I sliced off a little bit of my left index finger and even shaved some of the nail off with it. That's what I get for using a kitchen knife that was actually, like, sharp, unlike the knapped flint blades that usually pass for cutlery in our house. Anyway, it's healing nicely and all that, but it pretty much puts the ukulele on hold for the time being. And when I do get back, it might be time for a little Django Rhinehardt.

Arraying the waterfowl

 

So, this transition (see last post) could not have come at a better time, actually. My having been home over the past few weeks has made a passel of personal issues a lot easier to deal with and in some cases resolve. I am getting used to this semi-retirement business and of course have a whole new routine going. There are a lot of details still to attend to, but I do love me some paperwork, so that's all good. The days are full with tasks and chores, all to good effect.

I have had more time to focus on my cartooning as well (see Talent Not Guaranteed on the sidebar), working my way up from daily mini-sketches to inked warmups. I'll be taking some more online classes soon, too: Graphic Design for Beginners Short Course at Central Saint Martins College, part of the University of the Arts in London, and Intro to Cartooning at Syn Studio Art School in Montreal. The Drawing and 2D Design classes at Emily Carr helped me find focus in what I really want to do (and what I don't want to do); hopefully these courses will help me kick start a deeper and more consistent art practice. In the meantime, daily habitude is where it's at.

Of course, these also more time of ukulele practice and reading (trying to work my way through The Dawn of Everything right now). In fact, the only downside so far has been the weather - I managed a few early-morning walks, but lately it have been raining from dawn till noon, so constitutionals have been relegated to the afternoon again.

But it's good weather for ducks.

New news

 

So, I was looking through my records and saw that since I first started working (too long ago to mention), about every 6.75 years (on average) I have taken a year or so off to do something besides work a job - go to school, travel, consult, or just be un- or under-employed. You can see the pattern of dips in my Social Security record of income, in fact.

That pattern held steady until I finished grad school in 2003, and for the 19 years working in higher education since then I haven't taken one of these unofficial sabbaticals, but merely moved from one increasingly responsible position to another. (My accidental tenure is whole other story.) Well, that long dry spell is over. I have, for Reasons, left my position at Bellingham Technical College and will be swept along in the wave that is being called the Great Resignation.

Being Interim President was great fun for a few minutes, but taking on that responsibility in the middle of a pandemic and steering a course through several major challenges has certainly been a burden, and laying it down does bring a great sense of relief and a lightening of my load. This decision will also allow me to focus more on some personal issues, a few of which of require immediate attention and others of which will result in some significant transitions down the road. I am considering this a semi-retirement; it's just a little bit ahead of the schedule that has been in my countdown timer for a few years (which might actually play in my favor) but I am open to exploring some low-key possibilities down the road.

In any case, I will be continuing my art cartooning practice, taking care of the house, supporting my hardworking grad student wife, and generally trying to remain a productive member of society and not lapse into total indolence. I have alway held that work was cutting too much into my free time; let's see what good use I can put it to.

I'll leave you with my final piece form 2D Composition and Design as it seems fitting.

Season's Greetings

So, we just had a great dinner on this, the eve of Isaac Newton's Birthday, and we're looking forward to the big holiday tomorrow. This year, since we went to Palm Springs earlier in the season, we have made special plans for the day, to wit:

It's Godzillarama! All Godzilla, all the time!*

Godzilla and Mothra: The Battle for Earth-Two

Godzilla vs King Ghidorah: Game of Thrones

Godzilla vs Destoroyah: The Thrillah in Manila

Godzilla vs Space Godzilla in Space

Rebirth of Mothra 1

Re-Rebirth of Mothra 2

Godzilla against the MechagodzillaMechaGod

Godzilla 2000: A Space Odyssey

Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla: 2 Mecha, 2 Zilla

Godzilla vs Megaguirus, Whoever That Is

Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack starring Larry, Moe, and Curly

Godzilla Final Wars: This is Final Tap

Godzilla Tokyo S.O.S. P.D.Q. A.S.A.P.

Couch, jammies, junk food, and Godzilla all day: nothing says the holidays like it.

*Titles not guaranteed accurate.

PSP 4: Home Again

So, the nature of this trip as a high-quality vacation held up until the end.

Thursday had pool time, of course, but Coco was in an arting mood, so she arted, and we made out usual visit to the Palm Springs Art Museum.

Artist gotta art

Hmmm...

I actually look like I know something about art...

Outdoor sculpture garden, too

Thursday might we attended the premier of the new Star Wars movie - there were no lines and the theater wasn't even full. Go figure. I may say more about it on Thark, but suffice to say I was underwhelmed.

Friday was a perfect last day in Palm Spring - warm sunny, and gorgeous. We took a walk to breakfast, hung out in the pool all day, ate all the food in the fridge, and ended the day with a great happy hour.

Certain readers of this blog will immediately get the crab vs lobster reference here

Overall, another one in the win column. I think Palm Springs might be the holiday tradition from here on in. We'll see.

PSP 3

So, in a few hours we will have been here a week, and we'll have two more days to go. A most excellent trip, if I do say so. After the flurry of activity those first weekend days, Monday and Tuesday were filled mostly with hanging out at the pool, swimming (if you're Coco), walking, reading, and relaxing: totally pleasurable and rejuvenating activities, but perhaps not very generative of photo ops.

Yesterday was to be the coolest and cloudiest day of the trip, so we took the opportunity to jump in the car and make the Palms to Pines drive up the back of Mt. San Jacinto (if you consider the side that the Palms Springs Tramway goes up the front). It is, of course, a curvy road full of switchbacks, and just like it says on the tin, the foliage changes from desert palms to scruffy pines and all of a sudden you're the Pacific Northwest again. Well, not really, but the little town of Idyllwild was really reminiscent of Winthrop, out on the Cascade Loop.

Viewpoint about halfway up.

Snow!

All the critters of California

That was yesterday. Today, I was up before the sun as usual, and I just thought our hotel looked so pretty in the crepuscular light.

PSP 2

So, solo bike rides the last two mornings, another joint walk this morning once Coco gets stirring. This vacation has been swinging, ticking off all the boxes.

First of all, pool time:

Coco says she wants to tell all her troubles to the inflatable flamingo 

Now I need to get JLA trunks to balance things out

There are some things we like to do every time we come down: one of them is the Street Fair at College of the Desert:

This year: metal cactus sculpture, sunglasses, baseball cap, and veggie dogs!

I speak frequently about one the reasons I love Palm Springs: it embodies both a love of old Hollywood and a vibrant contemporary gay community, at the same time and often in the same place. Last night, we went to The Judy Show at the Purple Room, which swirled both of those themes into a fun, bitingly hilarious evening: a drag show capturing late-career Judy Garland and special guests Pearl Bailey and Bette Davis, performed in the Rat-Packiest of venues.

s

We also were in the audience for The Storm Large Holiday Ordeal (no pictures allowed - classy theater), and if you know anything about Storm, you know how well she can navigate that kind of blended pop culture.

We've got some more great weather ahead, and maybe some clouds, but this trip is already off the charts.

PSP 1

So, it must say something about the state of the blogosphere that I haven't posted anything yet this vacation. As sporadic as this site has been over the past few years, I have always used the blog as my electronic postcards on trips, and here I have been in Palm Springs for almost 48 hours and haven't posted a thing. Let's correct that.

First of all, our flight out of Bham was delayed on the tarmac for about an hour for equipment maintenance. Not a real big deal, and the crew was very communicative all the way through, but here's the thing: the delay was caused by indicator light saying a deicing valve would not close; fine, we need to check to see if the valve is malfunctioning or if the indicator is malfunctioning. I get that. But the solution to the problem was to lock the valve in the open position. Which raises the question in my mind that if the plane can function perfectly well with the valve open, why was there even a need to close it in the first place?

But we made it Palm Springs just fine and had our traditional first-stop lunch at Maracas on the strip before checking into the hotel, which is pretty sweet. Restored mid-century modern, nice people, great room, and they even brought and extra table so Coco could grade. (Unfortunately, we're both doing a bit of remote work this trip.)

The rest of Thursday saw provisioning, a nice Asian-fusion dinner a short walk away, and the Thursday night street fair.

Friday started with a long walk through the neighborhoods, and saw lots of swimming and poolside reading action (between work spurts), ending with a so-so dinner at a vegetarian spot in East Palm Springs.

Today I took a nice bike ride up trough the Las Palmas neighborhood, where I fully intend to retire someday. There is something about the desert beauty and the modernist architecture of the homes that really appeals to me: maybe it just seems more clean and orderly to me, but I feel really comfortable with it.

We'll see what the rest of the day holds, but here's some images of the trip so far.

Thursday night street fair

Mural that Coco named "Monkey Punching Something"

Someday...

My kind of vacation

5.9 for 59: a Geek's Tour of The City of Subdued Excitement

I haven't done this in some years, but I took the day off for my birthday and had a solo walkabout. Coco had to work and was gone for the bulk of the day, the weather was cooperating, and I need the exercise, so off I went to clock 5.9 miles to commemorate the end of my 59th year.

(Of course, the 5.9 was arbitrarily selected for its symmetry in the title; I actually traveled a bit further than that.)

I started by deadheading to the other side of town by bus. BTW, the bus fare in Bellingham is one dollar, but there are no transfers - a buck each time you get on.

Coco wanted selfies, so here I am at the start of the walk, entering the Railroad Trail, one of the many urban and interurban trails in the Bellingham area.

When I exited the trail and got back in the neighborhood, I was going to stop for a bite here at Homeskillet, but alas it was closed on Mondays. Still fun to look at!

(Obligatory Christopher Walken pun.)

My next stop was to be Cosmic Comics, one of the two comics shops in Belligham...

...but they were closed as well - apparently, they had a fire about a week ago that I hadn't heard about.

Undaunted, I continued my journey, stopping briefly at Arlis's Restaurant for a cup of coffee and an excellent corn muffin.

Can you answer the trivia question on Arlis's wall? I could. (Answer below.)

Finally, a planned stop that was actually open: Henderson Books. This place is off the hook: imagine the entire stock of Powell's crammed into a space one-third the size. I'll be doing a separate post on my prior adventure here but suffice it to say it's amazing.

Today, I just picked this up. After the Misadventure of the Three-Week Tuba Player (also the subject of a separate post), I felt I needed some formal education.

I took a little detour to Dark Tower Games; it also wasn't open yet, but I hadn't planned on going in. It's a pretty solid game store; I just wish it had more grown-up gamers hanging out.

Finders Keepers is a few doors down from Dark Tower - it's an eclectic - or confused - shop that doesn't seem to know whether it wants to be a mainstream toy store a  geeky game store, or, it seems, a comics shop.

This was my main destination: the Comics Place, the other comics shop in town. They recently moved from  a typically sketchy comic shop storefront to a wonderful space in bank building, of all places. Look at all those straights exiting the lobby door that the shop shares with the offices.

I mean seriously, this is like the Daily Planet building or something.  It's a warm, clean, open, carpeted store and I hope they do well there.

I did my best to contribute to the cause: a couple of Batman anthologies, happy birthday from me to me.

I left downtown via the South Bay Trail, which runs on a hillside along Bellingham Bay , with constant glimpses of the water...

 ...and some great views when there's a clearing. In the center of this picture is a small white tower set against the green trees - that's on campus, and the building that can be seen just to the left of it is where my office is.

The trail connects to Boulevard Park, which is connected to Fairhaven Village by a pair of over-the-water boardwalks. I hit 5.9 miles just before I reached the village green.

All in all, a pretty sweet day, and a nice chance to reflect in what it means to be entering my sixtieth year. More on that later, as well.

Oh, and Elmo Lincoln was the first screen Tarzan.

Don't get all hung up about it

So, the moving-in process is still going on, but I can say that we have the closets arranged and most of our clothes are where they will stay for the duration. Both Coco and I purged a lot of stuff in the transition, and we're storing things a little differently than we used by re-purposing some of the of our furniture, and I'd guess that we are folding more clothes and hanging fewer. As a result, we have wound up with a few clothes hangers left over.

There were three white mini-hangers, for delicate stuff...

and four white heavy-duty hangers, for pants or jackets...

...and six fancy white plastic skirt hangers with clips...

...and 17 standard white pastic hangers...
 

...adn another 26 black ones...

...and a whole pile of them in various colors.

There were five suit hangers, both wooden and plastic...

..and six of those fancy wooden pants hangers...

...and three of those crappy clear plastic  kind...

...and this doohickey for neckties.

So the question is: WTF?  Did we actually have a bunch of extra hangers that we didn't notice? Did the hangers reproduce in response to the stress of moving? Or did we really shift over 100 garments, either getting rid of them or storing them differently? And if that last circumstance is the case, how did we wind up with so many extra clothes? And why were we hanging them all up in the first place?

Of course, this whole affair also raises the question of what to do with these. I wouldn't imagine that we'll need more than ten percent of this surplus, and that leaves a lot of hangers to dispose over. I'm not sure even Value Village could absorb this donation - we might have to drive around tossing bundles into Goodwill and St. Vincent de Paul as well. I am half-tempted to throw them in a barrel with all our outdated pharmaceuticals, set it on fire, and electrocute it, hoping to create a new polymer-based life form, but even if that worked, it would probably get loose and eat Fairhaven, and we all know where that would lead.

In the meantime, if y'all need any hangers, let me know, and I can hook you up. First one's free.