From Here

I am about to go into my third Wisconsin winter - my landing here happening in the first of October, 2009. I have wonderful windows and my apartment is placed in such a way that the elements don't bother me much inside. Mostly I can look at them. In the summer it's quite nice -- I rarely have to close my windows and turn on the


air conditioner, and when the granddaughters call or post on Facebook how hot is is, I wonder where I am. I manage to get the shadows from large trees and often a breeze, so I feel quite insulated.

From here, I stay in touch with some of my artsy friends from Florida via Facebook, and I get very lonely for that sort of involvement. Just as my daughter knows how to drag me out of the house when I have isolated myself too much, my friends in Florida knew how to pry me out of my cocoon when I was there. Of course, it was much easier then - I could jump in my car and go, whereas here I am dependent on a bus system that shuts down at 6PM. It is on my list of "to do" things to get another car, but finances being what they are, it's nothing that is going to happen very soon. Still, the savings jar is getting its share of attention, but here comes the holiday season and I have gifts to buy and extra food to prepare for the activities finishing out the year.

I suppose I should start thinking more permanently about this place -- it's just that my life is so different here. Comparisons are inevitable. While on a museum walk with Jinger and GGrand Xavier many months ago, I learned that there is a place where I can actually take art lessons for a reasonable fee...but I have lost the details and couldn't get there anyway. Somehow Jinger knows about the void I feel -- she's given me a great set of watercolors that come with instructions, and I intend to make good use of them (perhaps illustrating my next book?) but I am looking for an easel or at least I need to locate that stand I have that will hold the work at an angle so I can see and paint at the same time. I know I have more adjustments to make, and it isn't just stubbornness. Some are just too darn hard at this point.

As it is, while things are shaping up nicely in this apartment, I don't have all my art on the wall yet (I am still determining where some of it will go) and I am still fine-tuning. Still, I have a comfortable home, and it is just the maintenance that I have to keep up with. Aubrey is just OCD enough to have helped get things started, and I am just OCD enough to fill in where she missed and do the upkeep. But I defer, as usual, to Miss Liberty, as this is her home that I am allowed to live in, and her mark is everywhere.

With such grumpy inspiration, work on Future Past Tense Poems continues... I don't know when I will be satisfied with it, or if it will ever be complete. More to come .....