Doors and doorways

Okay, so this first shot isn't a door or doorway, but it's one of my favorite photos I took when I went to Ireland with my mom. Just to kick things off, as it were... the following photos ARE of doors and doorways. I took them in my travels around Scotland, Ireland, and England. Enjoy!

In a long wall - Scotland

Scottish doorway between the worlds

Church - Ireland

Castle side door - Ireland

Doorways into the future - Scotland

Haunted - Tarbert, Scotland

Castle Menzies - Weems, Scotland

Warkworth Castle - England

A back door of Eilean Donan castle - Scotland

Of local adventures and evil meteorologists

My mom was supposed to come up and visit last night. She was going to stay for a few days, during my days off, and enjoy my spring garden. Gardening with her is one of my all time favorite pastimes, and I was looking forward to it.

Except that while I was at work the night before, I checked the weather forecast for this week, and it said that thunderstorms were in store for last night, it was going to rain all day today, and tomorrow looked pretty crappy too.



Not wanting my mother to get stuck in the Philadelphia airport for hours on end due to thunderstorms here, not to mention fly in thunderstorms if they ever did take off, I called and told her the bad news. She agreed that perhaps it was better to postpone the visit for a few weeks.

Needless to say, there were no thunderstorms last night. Today was brilliantly sunny. Why don't weathermen get fired when they're wrong, like the rest of us? We make big plans depending on what they say, but we're just supposed to shrug and say, "Oh well, they do the best they can..."? My mom is going to miss all my spring flowers now. As I type this, they are fading. Damn.

Not wanting today to go to waste, I asked Bear if he would like to join me on a local adventure. This is a regular springtime activity of ours, in which we jump into my pickup truck and toodle around the local neighborhoods, peeking into people's gardens and seeing what they've got growing, seeing if there are any freshly cut tree sections left at the curbside to add to our garden for impromptu seating or (more likely) for squirrels to use as buffet tables, seeing what houses have been built or torn down or improved since we last cruised around. Basically it's just a local joyride where the two of us roll the windows down, laugh a lot, and play loud rock music on the radio.

During today's adventure, we grabbed a couple of Italian heros from a local deli and picnicked in my truck down by the water, on a little spit of land that sticks out facing the dock in our town. While munching and enjoying the brisk ocean breeze, we discovered a large black and white thing sticking up on the shoreline. We didn't recognize it, so we decided to go and find it, using only our knowledge of basic directions and the local towns. Took us about twenty minutes, but we found it! It was a big old smokestack located in a ritzy part of Bellport, just next to an enormous glass greenhouse on South Country Road. We'd never noticed it before, and in fact drove by it once before we found it today. I took a picture of it with my cell phone, hoping to include it in this post, but my cell phone is being ornery and won't send the picture to my email address. Damn.

The other big part of the adventure involved a roadside treasure pile at the end of someone's driveway, from which I scarfed this beauty:






I find it hard to believe that anyone would throw something this beautiful out... until I spent a few hours this afternoon pulling damp horsehair and straw stuffing and several hundred upholstery nails out of it. There are only about a thousand nails left to pull, but I'm going to forge ahead and try to reupholster this puppy myself. Never upholstered anything in my life, but I bet I can do it.

The thing is, my livingroom needs this chair. I think there may actually be ten inches of free space in my livingroom. Space that really, really needs this chair in it. Walking across rooms is highly overrated, in my opinion.

Great Scot

Two new blogs on my blogroll, by one great author:

1. Where There Are No Chickadees

2. Scotland For the Senses

Read them, or I will beat you with a haggis.

The beauty is trying to do me in

Just a few days ago, I wore my old man's overcoat, freshly revamped with steampunk/celtic buttons, donned my top hat, and cozied up to a table at Pub Thistlebright (aka my livingroom) for a puff on my meerschaum pipe. The weather was brisk and cool, rainy, and begged for the reading of a Dickens tale or perhaps some Shakespeare.

And today? Today, when I have to get ready to go to work? Today I walk outside and the heat hits me like a wall. Every bud that was hovering on the threshold of release has completely exploded. The entire garden is a thrumming, pulsing mass of life. Birds are competing for most songs sung in a day. Flowers and trees and shrubs and other vegetation are stretching toward the sky in nearly visible increments.

It should be illegal for anyone to be required to leave their garden for any reason on a day like today. It's criminal, I tell you.

Side note: If anyone out there is a Humphrey Bogart fan, I highly recommend "Dead Reckoning". Watched it last night when I got home and fell completely in love with it. The one-liners are nearly parodies of themselves, and the plot is non-stop action. No slow parts here!

My favorite line: (Bogey, in his best threatening/sardonic tone) "And see that you get it... I'm the kind of guy that likes to get his mail."

An odd day...

It is an odd day, indeed, when one:

a) Buys a new toilet seat because one's dinner guest from the night before has split the original toilet seat in two while turning around to get toilet paper from the roll

b) Buys a new bathroom faucet part, to later discover that one has bought a "cold" instead of a "hot" part, and it doesn't turn the right way. Back to the drawing board!

c) Goes to the store wearing one's old, ratty 38-C bra with the goal in mind of buying new bras, only to find that not only do the 38-C bras in the store NOT FIT, the 38-D bras DO NOT FIT, nor do the 40-C bras fit. What the FECK?!?!?!? I walked out of WalMart with three 40-D bras in my bag, and more than three question marks over my head. I still can't explain this. I'm not even sure I want to.

I did it!

The first part of the Big Day involved taking an oral exam of a random 60 out of a possible 120 questions. Thanks to Bear's unwavering study help, I aced that test - 100%!

Then I took a break, had a cup of joe, and it was on with the headsets and out onto the radio floor. Aside from the pressure of a member of management (whom I usually only see passing in the halls) sitting behind me with a clipboard on his lap, taking notes on my every action and word, there was also the added bonus of everyone else in the ops room knowing I was getting my check ride, so I could feel the invisible eyes and ears tuned in my direction from all sides.

The check ride consists of four hours of observation, one hour each spent at different ops stations in the room - whichever are busiest and have the most traffic. I lucked out, in that it was a fairly slow day and even the busiest position in the room wasn't slammed. Traffic was pretty regular, pretty ordinary, and I only had a few instances on the North Atlantic side of the room where the static was so bad I had to switch pilots around to different frequencies to find one that I could copy them on. But since that highlighted my ability to handle a difficulty, I was glad it happened.

At the end of the check ride, I was taken into the office and debriefed, told the things I did well at, the things that could have used improvement, and in the end was told I passed the check ride. I got a hearty handshake from the guy who did the check ride, from the training supervisor, and from the other student in my class.

On the way home, I picked up a steak, some potatoes, and some fresh corn on the cob. Bear and I enjoyed a romantic candle-lit dinner in celebration of the day.

Tomorrow I go in for a 4-12 shift, and I'm told that I will be meeting with the head of the company for a pep talk, and then out on the ops floor I go.

Onward and upward!

Tomorrow's the big day...

Tomorrow I take my final exam and my "check ride". After which I will be knighted and upon me bestowed the honored title of Radio Operator, and after which I will be able to take on overtime hours and get paid a whole day's wages for working four extra hours. Huzzah!

Working these 4-12 shifts is knocking me out lately... I can't relax enough to get into doing projects earlier in the day, because the prospect of having to get ready for work at 2:30 puts a damper on things. Then, when I get home at midnight, I feel the day is wasted if I go straight to bed, so I stay up late trying to watch a movie or read a book (haven't succeeded yet) and then end up sleeping until after 10am the next day.

It's a vicious circle that leads to not much productivity in the home arena and a very tired me in the work arena. I hope to get back to day shifts soon... although, after Monday's check ride who knows what schedule I'll be working! Best not to think about it, just concentrate on getting through it all.

I did put on a burst of energy yesterday and run out to a little local nursery, where I grabbed a few lavender plants and put them in my flower garden, surrounding the three small lavender plants which (barely) made it through this past winter. My plan is to group them together for support, and hopefully have a hardy bunch that will perfume my patio this coming summer and weather next winter with flying colors.

One of the coolest short movies ever!

Another visit with Mr. Culpeper

Nicholas Culpeper (1616-1654)

In the section of Culpeper's Complete Herbal titled "Living Creatures", we find the following:

Millipedes (so called from the multitude of their feet, though it cannot be supposed they have a thousand) sows, hog-lice, wood-lice, being bruised and mixed with wine, they provoke urine, help the yellow jaundice; outwardly being boiled in oil, help pains in the ears, a drop being put into them.

The flesh of vipers being eaten, clear the sight, help the vices of the nerves, resist poison exceedingly, neither is there any better remedy under the sun for their bitings than the head of the viper that bit you, bruised and applied to the place, and the flesh eaten, you need not eat above a dram at a time, and make it up as you shall be taught in troches of vipers. Neither any comparable to the stinging of bees and wasps, etc. than the same that sting you, bruised and applied to the place.

Land Scorpions cure their own stingings by the same means; the ashes of them (being burnt) potently provokes urine, and breaks the stone.

Earth-worms are an admirable remedy for cut nerves being applied to the place; they provoke urine; see the oil of them, only let me not forget one notable thing quoted by Mizaldus, which is, That the powder of them put into an hollow tooth, makes it drop out.

To draw a tooth without pain, fill an earthen crucible full of Emmets, Ants, or Pismires, eggs and all, and when you have burned them, keep the ashes, with which if you touch a tooth it will fall out.

Eels, being put into wine or beer, and suffered to die in it, he that drinks it will never endure that sort of liquor again.

Oysters applied alive to a pestilential swelling, draw the venom to them.

Crab-fish, burnt to ashes, and a dram of it taken every morning helps the bitings of mad dogs, and all other venomous beasts.

Swallows, being eaten, clear the sight, the ashes of them (being burnt) eaten, preserves from drunkenness, helps sore throats being applied to them, and inflammations.

Grass-hoppers, being eaten, ease the cholic, and pains in the bladder.

Hedge Sparrows, being kept in salt, or dried and eaten raw, are an admirable remedy for the stone.

Young Pigeons being eaten, help pains in the reins, and the disease called Tenesmus.

Eostre 2009

Awake, thou wintry earth -
Fling off thy sadness!
Fair vernal flowers, laugh forth
Your ancient gladness!
~Thomas Blackburn, "An Easter Hymn"

You may notice a dearth of pink and purple eggs in this year's collection. This may or may not be due to the unclear coloring preparation instructions on the packaging. You know, the ones that said "USE ONLY WATER WITH THE PINK TABLET".

First of all, since the dawn of man I have been using PAAS egg coloring kits, which always use white vinegar to dissolve the tablets. ALL of the tablets. None of this sissy water crap - white vinegar is part of the ritual of Eostre, the smell of it, the way it's done, period.

But this year? All the PAAS kits were gone, and the only thing left on the shelf were stupid Disney coloring kits, complete with stickers picturing insipid Disney prostitots from whatever lame television show they're pumping out to the brainless masses these days.

So I put vinegar in with the pink tablet. And got little pink chunks floating around in clear liquid. Damn you, Disney!

Anyway, most people hide eggs this time of year, but we've upgraded. We're now hiding keetums. Can you find the keetum?

Am pretty stoked about my daffodils this year. My daffodils ROCK. Thank you very much.

Aerial view of the "pink is so last year" egg collection.

Remember that old saying, "Her eyes were too big for her stomach"? Well, there's a new saying out. It goes something like this: "Her eyes were too big for her ass-space."


And just to keep you up to date, here is a photo of the view from my side yard now that the neighbors pulled down their crappy stockade fence. Note how the semi-modern silver vehicle does not quite camouflage the disgusting non-functional 1970's camper with the mysterious oversized stuffed pink animal in the window...

I am praying for good weather more than ever now, so that nothing prevents the installation guys from coming and putting up the new fence AS SOON AS POSSIBLE.

When the divinatory arts imitate art involving the divine.... um, what?

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): At a Buddhist sanctuary in Khun Han, Thailand, monks have used a million beer bottles and soft drink bottles to build their temple. Bottle caps have come in handy, too, serving as the raw material for numerous mosaics portraying the Buddha. Your assignment, Sagittarius, is to draw inspiration from these geniuses. How could you take some profane elements of your life and turn them into a hotbed of sacred inspiration?

***

Above is Brezny's recent horoscope for my sign.

Oddly enough, I just completed my very first piece of "steampunk art". The plan here is to create enough steampunk home decor to open a store on the Etsy website and make a little moo-la-la.


I just thought it was kinda funny that I beat old Brezny to the punch... except of course I'm using sacred elements to create a hotbed of profane inspiration, but that's just par for the course. Nothing new under the sun, as they say...

Purgatorial

There's something fascinating about truly ugly people depicted in artistic form, isn't there? It's impossible to stop looking.

That being said, I'm in the doldrums lately at work. I was told I would be "checking out" this week, and now it looks like I've been assigned another trainer for another two weeks. Not to be uncharitable, I appreciate anyone's willingness to sit with me and help me out (trainers only get one dollar an hour extra, and they give up their solitude, their regular routine, etc.). It's just getting wearing on my nerves to have someone looking over my shoulder critically every second of every workday. I know that's what training is about, but I started training in November and this is April. My nerves are wearing thin.

And besides, I don't think I'm doing so badly, yet I'm still not checking out. Something feels "off", as if there's another reason behind the delay. I'm not an idiot, I aced all the classroom tests, and my radio evaluations have been good so far. It just feels purgatorial to have the elusive check-out dangled in front of me and then moved back every time I get close. I wonder if anyone else has felt this way.

The daffodils and hyacinths are blooming now, and yet it's still uncharacteristically cold for April here... hoping Spring springs soon. My soul needs it.

Just because I love you

Hey, here's a choice tidbit for you who adore music - it's a website chock full of free online radio stations! They have a little of everything, no matter what you're into. As for me, I'm all about the big band stuff, and I'm totally digging the early radio programming they play, some with the original Glenn Miller band on site! Annnnnnyway, the website is at www.audiorealm.com - check it out!

I awoke this morning to glorious sunshine and warm, albeit windy, weather. I rolled out of bed, careful not to wake the still sleeping Bear, grabbed "The Diamond Age" and a glass of cranberry juice with fresh lime squeezed in for good measure, and headed out to the gardens to get in some reading in the sun.

A little while later, I heard the screen door screeeee open and someone knocked on the cottage door. I walked over and peered around the corner to see who it was - it was the neighbor lady, from the house that always pumps their basement water into our side yard. As it was Sunday morning, I immediately had a foreboding that bad news was on the way. Nobody ever knocks on your door on a Sunday morning for anything good, usually.

However, this time I was pleasantly surprised. The lady informed me that she was having the nasty, rotted, falling-down stockade fence between our properties removed and a brand new one installed. She was concerned that the installation guys would be cutting "the ivory" (at this point in the conversation she indicated the ivy that is currently overgrowing the border between our properties) and thought I might be upset about it.

It was all I could do not to jump up and down and hoot and holler HOORAY. I assured her that the installation guys could cut all the "ivory" they wanted, I had no issue with it. First of all, it will grow back within 45 minutes or so, and secondly I will be so happy not to have to look through that crappity fencing at their ugly property and their nasty old camper anymore, it's more than worth it.

Not long after that pleasant bit of news, the tenants showed up with a plate full of fresh-from-the-oven strawberry muffins. I had TWO of them for breakfast! So there.

Worked a 4-12 shift tonight, was busy as hell. Am hoping to "check out" next week, keep yer paws crossed peeps. I'm off tomorrow and the next day - sad to say, it's supposed to rain. Ah, well, guess I'll get to read some more of "The Diamond Age" in any case!

Cheerio!

A note to my dear old blog friends

Hello Dear Readers:

Thanks to some much-needed assistance from Bear, I've revamped the look of my site a bit. Added a header, etc. But it's still me, still the same crazy Marcheline, just attempting to brighten my virtual world a little since the real one is so out of control lately.

I've also edited my blogroll. Decided to drop the celebrity sites, because it's really just so much wasted time reading about people who have more money than they know what to do with for doing absolutely nothing of value. I added some interesting stuff, too - browse around and see what you like.

Cheers,
M

Deflating dirigibles

It just occurred to me that I am - we are - living in one of "those times" that I have only ever read about in books. Things are falling apart, society isn't working any more. The comfortable world that has always been there, where reason and logic make things work and if you do the right thing, there's a happy ending in store for you. It's going down like the Hindenburg.

I was woken from sleep this morning by a phone call from one of my tenants, saying he just got laid off. My husband has been out of work for a long time, searching and sending resumes every single day. I am unable to pay all the bills on time with my salary alone, and have had to resort to putting off bills and taking late fee charges in stride in order to try to keep up.

In trying to find another way to secure income, I have started gathering supplies to make home-made art to sell, but that costs money too, and the credit card is the only way I am able to acquire what I need to make the pieces I've got planned. I am not sure that this is wise, but I don't see any other way.

I try not to watch the news - every time I walk past the break room at work, CNN is spouting the names of large corporations that have just declared bankruptcy, CEO's that have just been arrested for embezzlement, and unemployment rates - not to mention the dying stock market.

Every time I drive around my neighborhood, another business is boarded up. Entire blocks are going out of business. Stores that had "grand opening - coming soon" signs up for months have vanished without ever opening their doors. It may be my imagination, but even the food at the grocery store seems to be going bad instead of being purchased. The "discount family section", where they package up meats that are nearing their expiration date and sell them for a lower price, is getting larger and larger... and the meat on offer is getting less and less appetizing.

When everything that used to work doesn't work any more, it makes you start to wonder what you would actually do to save your life, your home, your way of life. When the rules become invalid, what options are left? Are we headed for anarchy? I know that reports of home invasions are on the rise... how far down is this ship going? Are we going to have to bar our doors and windows and fight for scraps in the streets?

Personally, if we lose the house, we will have no option but to move down south and live with my mother and her husband. While I am fortunate to have such an option - I know many people have no such buffer zone - the thought of losing this place that we have put so much love, blood, sweat, and tears into nearly kills me. While I know that I would physically be alive and well cared for, I don't want to think what it would do to my soul.

I am going to fight as hard as I can to make this work. There has to be a way.

But what?

One of the best (and shortest) movies I've ever seen

(Why yes, come to think of it, it does have a steampunk vibe. Thank you for asking!)