Round Robin: Tangles of Branches

This week's Round Robin Challenge: Branches doesn't really need explaining, does it? Let's get on with the pictures!

An intricate tangle of branches stands out against bands of color in the late afternoon sky.

I think these are olive trees, but the shapes and angles remind me of bonsais, 

or trees in Japanese paintings.

Branches melt into indistinct blobs against orange clouds.

Branches illuminated by a streetlamp at sunset.

Karen

Now let's see what the other Robins branched out with!

Linking List
as of Saturday, 1/28/12, 12:20 AM MST

Karen - Posted!
Outpost Mâvarin
http://outmavarin.blogspot.com

Freda - Posted!
Day One
http://fredamans.blogspot.com

Jama - Posted!
Sweet Memories
http://mummyjam.blogspot.com

Kara **Welcome!**
notes from the tiny napping house
http://notesfromthetinynappinghouse.blogspot.com/

Mary Tomaselli - Posted!
Mary Tomaselli's Photos
http://marytomaselli.blogspot.com

Tina - Posted!
Tina´s PicStory
http://tinaspicstory.blogspot.com/

Round Robin Challenge: House Is a Museum

The Round Robin Photo Challenges topic this week is "Home," a word I have a rather different perspective on at the moment. Normally I go on about Casa Blocher, the Museum of the Weird, and I did indeed take some pictures of our household oddities for you, . But if you read my previous entry, it won't surprise you to learn I have a more serious theme in mind as well.



Let's start with our house. Come on in!



Casa Blocher is nothing if not a house full of collections: dolls, toys, scripts, video, games, tikis, midcentury modern decor, Disney stuff and so on. Some of it is fairly straightforward....



...while other things are a bit more unusual. This vintage shelving unit has a number of items from the 1950s and 1960s on it, plus some Southwestern Indian art items. These aren't so unusual in this part of the country, but I don't suppose too many of you have seen a pottery storyteller figure or a mudhead kachina.

Our house is more than a little messy at the moment, but we're working on it, off and on. We cleared out about 40 boxes of stuff in 2010 and donated it, and are in the process of sorting through a bunch of stuff that got caught outside in the rain a few months ago. (Long story.) John's been working 7-day weeks and I'm working two jobs right now in addition to dealing with various arrangements for my friend Jan. Ah, Jan. That's the other part of what I want to show you.

For fifteen years, Jan lived with her friend Patti in a house of the south side of Tucson. That changed in 2010 and 2011, with Jan home only briefly in between hospital visits and long stints in a nursing facility called Devon Gables. Meanwhile, Patti was diagnosed with dementia, declared incompetent, and sent to another facility. The house has been standing empty. Well, not exactly empty. There were two cats still in there, being fed by a neighbor, plus most of Patti's earthly possessions, plus Jan's, overflowing into a large, very full shed in the back yard. With Jan in the hospital, suffering from a serious lung infection, liver failure, breast cancer and who knows what else, it very recently became clear that Jan was never going to be able to be discharged from Devon Gables, gather up her stuff and move into an apartment. So on Tuesday, a bunch of us from church went out to the house and retrieved Jan's things, with the help of two movers and a rented truck. Unfortunately, I forgot to bring my camera along. Here's where Jan's lifetime of possessions ended up:



I've already lost the keys to the padlock, or I would open the door and give you a peek inside.
That's a 10' x 20' space, and it's very full. It's stuffed with Jan's furniture, books, papers, sheet music, lots and lots of knitting and crafts, a dulcimer and who knows what else.



But a storage space is not a home. It merely contains things that used to mean home.



Yet more of her things are stuffed in the trunk of my car right now, having been accidentally left behind when the movers and I (driving the U-Haul) drove away. Ila rescued these things and here they are, waiting for me to either find the storage space key or have the lock cut off.

Jan was moved to a hospice yesterday, and her parents have cleared Jan's day-to-day possessions out of Devon Gables. Jan's walker in in my office at church now, just in case, by some miracle, she's ever well enough to use it again. Jan never considered Devon Gables home; she pretty much hated the place, but for the past year and a half it's the closest thing she's had to a home. The hospital is certainly not a home, nor the hospice. It sounds mawkish or maudlin or something, but those of us who love Jan now wonder if she will soon be heading to her true home, the one you get to when you die.

Now let's see the other Robins' Home pictures, preferably more cheerful than mine!

Karen

Linking List
as of 7:11 PM MST
Saturday, January 14th, 2012

Karen - Posted!
Outpost Mâvarin
http://outmavarin.blogspot.com

Jama - Posted!
Sweet Memories
http://mummyjam.blogspot.com

Sherrie - Posted!
Food for Thought
http://100sweets.blogspot.com/

Mary Tomaselli - Posted!
Mary Tomaselli's Photography
http://marytomaselli.blogspot.com

Gattina - Posted!
Keyhole Pictures
http://gattina-keyholepictures.blogspot.com/

Two Lonely Cats

Sorry I haven't been online much lately. This is the time of year when I do a little consulting work at a second church, plus I've been dealing with a close friend's major health crisis. Jan is in Tucson Medical Center with a serious lung infection and kidney failure, and has nearly died three times that I know about. I was the hospital's only contact person until this past Friday night, when I managed to get the names of Jan's parents in New Mexico and pass the info on to the nurses. Jan is seriously confused when she is conscious at all, absolutely miserable and restrained for her own protection. This is someone I was taking to church, out Christmas shopping and to restaurants just a month ago! 

While all this has been going on, the Pima County Fiduciary Office has been badgering us to get Jan's belongings out of the home she lived in for 15 years, so they can sell the house. It belonged to Jan's housemate, who has been declared incompetent with dementia. Sale of the house will help to pay for the housemate's care. So yesterday, I rounded up some volunteers, rented a U-Haul truck and went out to the house to clear out Jan's bedroom and storage shed, and move it all into a $150 a month storage space which I'm hoping the family will ultimately pay for. It took eight hours and the hiring of professional movers to help, but we got it done, except for one important detail....

Sweet Pea has similar coloring to this cat, but shorter hair.

I wish I’d gotten a photo of at least Sweet Pea, but I’ll try to rectify that later. You see, Jan had two cats left behind in the house, being fed by a neighbor against the day Jan could move out of the nursing facility into an apartment. That's not going to happen now. Even if she does survive this crisis, Jan won't be able to live on her own, let alone care for two cats. We need to find a home for both cats, or two homes for one cat each. 

Here are the details, as written up by another friend of Jan’s:

Sweet Pea is a youngish tortie cat, black and amber/orange, with a distinctive black splash down her nose.  She lives up to her name.  She needs an immediate new home.

Flash (temporary name I gave yesterday), her gold offspring, also needs placement but hasn’t had much chance to socialize with humans, and hides when approached.

The situation:  Sweet Pea’s owner has multiple medical problems and has not lived at home for well over a year.  She hoped to find a new location, but her condition is worsening.  Her house-mate, the home’s owner, was caring for the cats until she was institutionalized several months ago with dementia.  Neighbors have been feeding the cats and changing the litter box.  The fiduciary is planning to sell the house.

Friends of the cats’ owner closed out the house as best we could yesterday (a protracted ordeal), and I brought Sweet Pea to my house.  Flash is still hiding in the only house he/she has ever known.

The present:  As of last night, Sweet Pea is living in my screened nook, safe but a bit chilly.  She is bewildered but likes the food and being petted.  Luci, the most temperamental of my three (already one over my limit) is scandalized, a state which she shows vigorously.

If I can’t find a placement or at least temporary fostering, Sweet Pea will probably go to The Hermitage late today or tomorrow.  Ditto for Flash, when he can be lured into a cat carrier.

I am hoping we can avoid shelter placement at least for Sweet Pea.  Let me know if you can help or have ideas.

What I can guess about the cats, and a promise:  Probable ages are 2 to 3 years for Sweet Pea, and 1 year for Flash.  Immunizations are probably overdue.  I don’t know if Sweet Pea has now been spayed, and for certain Flash (of whichever gender, but probably male) will need to be neutered.  The promise:  If someone can foster one or both cats, I will ask our good friends at Spay and Neuter Solutions to refer for neutering, and I will make a donation to them at least equal to their costs.  I am willing to negotiate re the additional vaccinations.  Sweet Pea seems to respond well to other cats.

Help!  I really can’t take on another cat, especially since I have to have a house-sitter all summer, when I am in Guatemala.

And thank you.

Ila

***

As of tonight, “Flash” is still out at the house, being fed and watered by a neighbor. I’m trying to arrange for someone to go out and retrieve her (I’m horribly allergic, and still have multiple rashes a day after being in that house), but that’s not the biggest problem. What we really need is someone to take in one or both of the cats. Is that someone you? If so please message me (mavarin on Tumblr and AIM, mavarin2 on gmail). Thanks!

Karen

Round Robin: Remembrance of Things Past (Part 2 of 2)

As previously mentioned, this week's Round Robin Photo Challenge topic is The Times They Are a-Changin'. Several days ago there was a big change at Casa Blocher that marked the end of an era, maybe even the end of several eras. For years, John has been nagging me to donate our 1984 Dodge Ram van and our 1984 Chrysler New Yorker and get them hauled away. This week we actually did it.



The New Yorker was my mom's car originally, and the only talking car I've ever had. "Your fuel supply is low." This was cutting edge technology once. I thought it was kind of cool, but eventually John disabled it.

It became my car after I drove my mom in it from Florida to Tucson and after she gave up driving. It became John's car after Mom got me a 1997 Saturn in 2001. It became an unused eyesore in the driveway when it started losing power on John's long commute circa 2004, and he replaced it with an Alero.




The major hold-up in the car donation process was that I hadn't been able to find the title to the New Yorker, despite many hours of searching through likely and unlikely boxes. Just before Christmas I went down to the MVD with the VIN and the license plate number to get a new title, but they said it had been so long since the car was registered that the title had been purged from their records. I was advised to get it towed to Motor Vehicles for inspection so they could issue a new title. Like THAT was going to happen.

But the nice man at the service that arranges vehicle donations to charity noticed that the Vehicle Identification Number I read off to him was one digit too long. He took out an extra 9 and the car came right up in the Carfax database. I went back to MVD and $4 later walked out with a new title. Several days after that, the tow truck arrived, this time at no cost to us!




If the New Yorker was a reminder of my mom, the van was a reminder of our year of great adventure in 1986. That may be overstating things, but certainly it was an amazing year for us. The Dodge Ram was integral to those experiences. John finally came into some money from a trust fund, and we were sick of Ohio; so we put everything in storage, bought a van, put a mattress in the back and drove around the country, looking for someplace it wasn't winter. Two months later, John was negotiating over a pay phone to buy our first house, a mile or so outside the Tucson city limits.



Bye-bye, Mom's car. Bye-bye, faithful van. Bye-bye, reminders of times long past. But the driveway looks a lot better without you.

Karen

Linking List
as of Midnight MST
Saturday, December 31, 2011

Karen - Posted!
Outpost Mâvarin
http://outmavarin.blogspot.com


Jama
Sweet Memories
http://mummyjam.blogspot.com


Sherrie
Food for Thought
http://100sweets.blogspot.com/


Terri
Ways I See the World
http://teelgeephotos.blogspot.com/

Round Robin: Remembrance of Things Past (Part 1 of 2)

This week's Round Robin Photo Challenge topic is The Times They Are a-Changin', and I swear I had nothing in mind in proposing it beyond the general notion of clocks and New Year's Eve. But over the past week I've been rather obsessed with my new toy, the iPad, which has nearly replaced my computer already. It occurred to me today that nothing tells the story of time speeding along for us as a society than the acquisition and discarding of computers and other technology. For example:

Our Commodore 64, purchased circa 1985. Now it's a monitor for an outdated VCR.

My iMac and my first laptop, circa 2004, photographed using our first
digital camera, a Mavica. The camera stored the images on floppy disks.

 

My brand new laptop, March 2005.

John's first two iMacs (c. 1999-2005) await recycling, 2011.

The latest and greatest going into 2012, and it's not even a computer. 

My iPad 2 will soon be obsolete; the iPad 3 has been announced. And I don't care.

Two other pieces of outdated equipment left our home this week, leaving behind memories of times long gone. To avoid overloading aging computers with a picture-heavy entry, I'll tell you about that in a second post.

Meanwhile, let's see how other Robins mark the changing times!

Linking List
as of Midnight MST
Saturday, December 31, 2011

Karen - Posted!
Outpost Mâvarin
http://outmavarin.blogspot.com


Jama
Sweet Memories
http://mummyjam.blogspot.com


Sherrie
Food for Thought
http://100sweets.blogspot.com/


Terri
Ways I See the World
http://teelgeephotos.blogspot.com/

Karen

Testing...1...2...3...5?

I got an iPad2 for Christmas. Hooray! Now I need to figure out which apps are actually worth using, and (this is the tricky part) actually learn to use them effectively.

Take this Blogger app I'm currently typing in an example. When I signed in, it took me to the archived Blogger version of the private AOL blog on which Carly and I used to keep notes related to the Round Robin Photo Challenges. It hasn't been used since 2008, but because it was first alphabetically on my list of blogs, this app assumed that was the blog on which I wanted to post. In fact it was rather insistent about this; it took me a not-so-good five minutes to escape to a list of my blogs! And what do I have to hit to accept the completed words the app occasionally suggests? Ah. That worked, sort of.

And I just took my first photo on this thing. Will it show up in this entry? Where? What size will it be? I suspect the iPad will never give me the control over the look of a blog entry that my computer does.

Still, I don't mean to gripe about this marvelous and expensive new toy. I've wanted something like this since the Newton and the first PDAs. Over time I'm sure it will only get more useful until it fools me into thinking it's indispensable. In the meantime I'll read books and Twitter on it (I gave John the choice of getting me an iPad or a Kindle Fire) and play with the Doctor Who Encyclopedia app.

And I firmly believe the learning curve on mastering the iPad operating system is a good and important thing to tackle. Years ago (I've probably mentioned this before) I saw a Scientific American Frontiers show about the aging brain. At least one study showed that learning something new later in life - not just more of the same but something markedly different from existing knowledge - helps to build new synapses and stave off the creation of the lesions that cause Alzheimer's. At least, that's my memory of what they said. I'm going to be 55 years old in March, and I'm already painfully aware that my memory is not what it was when I was younger. Learning to thumb my way around the quirky little QWERTY keypads and navigate the bare bones or nonexistent menus in iPad applications is proving enough of a challenge that it probably qualifies as a new skill. Got to keep my brain working in case anyone has need of it...!

Karen

Tucson Sunset: #413,941,038 in the Series

Sunset over Thimble Peak, December 16th, 2011.

Karen