Evil Abounds

Death visits my home…

and he’s very hard to photograph. His sister, the Devil Bride, also came to call…

striped tights and all. Our neighborhood doesn’t do much trick-or-treating, unfortunately, but the kids got enough to start negotiations.

Their school carnival is Saturday, so they’ll get more then.

Here was the pumpkin before I started stabbing…

Here are the kids’ drawings that were my inspiration…

And here’s what happened…

Tomorrow, I’ll show you the pumpkins I painted at school.

I’ve spent the last few days making a huge effort to get all my work done so I could make art or quilt or something. No such luck. I’m having to do a lot of prep work for the new unit at school and the test and the new essay I’m trying to have them write (am I crazy? Trying to have kids WRITE?! Insane.).

I saw a great movie this last weekend…

It’s called Across the Universe, it’s set in the 60s, it’s kind of a musical, and it’s all Beatles music. There’s some good psychedelic stuff going on, lots of visual stuff. The script falters a few times, but it was a pleasant surprise. And in the spirit of revealing all movie theater bathrooms, here’s another one…

Much less offensive than the pink one, but still weird. Sigh. Happy Halloween, folks. Have a pumpkin seed on me.

Back to Normal

Whatever that means. We are all back to school, back to soccer, back to play practice etc. I say that, but it’s not really normal. There were about 40 kids missing from school yesterday. We don’t think the bad attendance was all kids who lost their homes, but some who were in Mexico and didn’t make it through the border crossing, which had been closed for days. Most of the kids who showed up seemed unaffected…they enjoyed the time off and were wondering when the next vacation was.

The weirdest bit was driving home from school. It was dark on the way in, so I couldn’t see anything, but going home…there was nothing to see. Fires raging all over the county, and my daily commute is completely unsinged. Bizarre. Tree branches were down, signs were uprooted from the wind that caused most of the mess, but I couldn’t see burned ground on my route at all. Of course, the southern route is apparently still closed.

I’ll post pictures of our 18.5-pound pumpkin later today. We only had one pumpkin make it to big, beautiful, and orange in time for Halloween, so I had the kids each draw a face, and then I combined them into one pumpkin. Usually they each get their own pumpkin and they carve some or most of it, but I just couldn’t handle the timing on that this year. Lame. Pictures later.

Violent Art?

I was asked by a very nice woman if she could use an image of one of my quilts on a poster for a movie event in her community. I wrote up an agreement and was looking forward to getting a copy of the poster; my web address would be on the poster. It was all good. I appreciate her looking around for original art to use in this situation. She emailed me the other day, though, saying that other people in the group thought the image was too violent to use.

Hmn. I thought about it. I looked at the quilt again. Rolled the word violent around in my head. Trust me, I do have some quilts with some violent imagery on them…the kids don’t see those…but this one?

You decide.

 

I guess I spend so much time at the doctor with needles and scans and more tests that this is really how it feels…and it’s not the only quilt I’ve made where flesh is cut open to expose interior body parts. Is that violent? It is what it is. I’m disappointed in the decision, but it is their decision to make. So be it. I don’t make art for other people. I make it because it’s pent up inside me and needs to get out. It’s either that, or I start going a bit wacko. More than usual.

Fire news is good…many people being allowed back into homes, although some parts are still burning. This is the smoke to the east of us Friday morning…

 

There was an onshore breeze pushing it all out away from us. Finally, we could go outside without feeling it in our lungs, although you can still smell the smoke. I was a little worried Friday night to see a new smoke plume from out where my school is.

 

It is apparently 50% contained. School starts Monday for me and my munchkins. Here is their current TV setup.

 

We rented 2 movies and that was it. By Wednesday, I turned off the TVs for news too, because it was too hard to have them on all the time. By now, all they have are sad stories and happy stories, not so much news about fires. The kids have been fighting for 2 days now, punctuated by short periods of hanging out and getting along while doing legos or painting. I know it’s been boring being inside all week, but my patience was gone by sometime yesterday. Hopefully we will get back to normal this week and the fires will all be contained and everyone will get home who has a home. We have to be at school early on Monday, probably to discuss how to handle kids and those who are now homeless.

I wish I had been able to make more art…but it’s hard to be in that zone when you’re worried, irritated, anxious, concerned, did I say irritated? Yeah. Three weeks until Thanksgiving break…there is hope.

Safe with Bad Air

We are safe. There are still people threatened by the fire, but many are being allowed to go home to whatever is left. The air is bad, but not as bad as last time. I had to open windows today because the ceiling plasterers came, and I’m really sensitive to the plaster, apparently. Not sure which makes my eyes burn more, but I can definitely feel the bad air in my chest and lungs.

We have a cat missing at the moment. Not sure where she is…she’s done this before…found a secret hiding place that none could locate. It’s been all day, now, and the kids are worried and I’m worried and I wish she would just show herself.

They’re still evacuating areas near my school…not sure when they’ll get control of that.

I’m helping the kids through the Boy Scout and Girl Scout art badges. The boy tried to design on the computer and was fairly successful for his first time.

 

Understand that this is the computer in my office, a small space where I was tracing the next quilt on Wonder Under (because I have 3 to quilt, but I can’t quilt while he uses the computer…chair issues).

 

And meanwhile, the girl was lying on the floor between the back of his chair and my feet. Not crowded at all.

I did finish quilting Birdhead…had to put some flame quilting in there because of the fire.

 

Now I just need to trim it and bind it and photograph it, and it can be officially entered.

I heard a rumor that the new Sedgwick art quilt show notified the accepted artists almost a week ago, while us LOSERS get to sit around and wait until they feel like telling us we suck. All they need to do is post an accepted artists list and free up our work for other shows. I don’t know why I keep entering this show…I never get in. I think it’s because they don’t like nipples. I always wanted to do a quilt for my dad…about 8 feet long and 2 feet high, just boobs. Nothing but. I’m sure that’s politically incorrect, but I personally think we should get over this Sacred Breast attitude that we have. After nursing two kids for a total of 3 1/2 years or so, I have a completely different view of them than I did when I was younger. Plus they’re not in the same place.

This post is degenerating. I may need food.

Waiting and Listening

I’ve turned the TV off. I don’t think we’ll be evacuated. The fire is close, but not really heading this way. I packed up and made a list last night. When I ran errands today, the back of the car had the pillows, blankets, and sleeping bags ready to go. We managed to get all the British Xmas presents mailed today, although apparently they’ve changed the rules and everything has to go airmail…there is no more surface mail. Talk about expensive. And I could’ve waited another month, because they’ll only take 10 days to get there.

This is the sky yesterday evening, when I was trying to find a UPS store that was open to ship my nephew’s birthday gift and a Michael’s for art supplies.

 

This is an interesting picture. The red lines near the middle are cars whizzing by, but the curly lines are fires on the hillside about a mile south. Hard to photograph.

 

They evacuated about a mile south of here last night, but never up here. Knock on wood.

Then here is the sky I woke up to this morning.

 

When the Cedar Fire came through in 2003, I was recently divorced and my dog had just died. My life was kind of a mess, and I hung out a lot with the Sierra Club, because back then, I had time and energy for hiking. I wish I did now. A couple of us painted birdhouses about a week or two after the fire, and here was mine.

 

It keeps falling off the shelf it sits on, so there is a repair on it. I guess I should hang it up somewhere.

The skies are yellowy and hazy, the air is yuck, it’s almost 100 degrees here, but a shortage of electricity (not that I have air conditioning) and all the windows need to be closed because of the air quality. And apparently air quality IN the house is being affected by the boychild. That’s amusing.

Panic

Watching the news, they call a mandatory evacuation for Rancho San Diego, the community just south of me. What the heck? Mandatory?! I start calling around, get confirmation that there is an evacuation, start packing clothes and medications and papers. Call mom, mom calls back, says her neighborhood is supposed to get a call (it’s by zip code, apparently, not logic), so she’s coming to me. I’m packing clothes and one of the kids starts yelling, then the other…they just reversed the evacuation order, it was a mistake.

Excuse my heart attack. Deep breaths. Might as well stay packed for a while. Mom helped me make an evacuation list, but understand…I have 3 cats, one on IV fluids, 1 hyper puppy, a toad, and a fish that my daughter is supremely attached to. I have about 40 quilts and god-knows-how-much art, mine and others. Knowing what to take…how much can fit in the car…not much. Two kids…they have to fit in the car.

Here’s the NASA picture of Southern California…

awesome…and not in a good way.

We’re OK! We’re not evacuating! (yet)

School’s Out for Fire

School has now been closed across the county for the whole week. The kids and I made a grocery run, plus picked up some boxes so we could ship the UK Xmas presents, and got some movies, so the kids would stop driving me insane. They can’t go outside because of the air quality…in fact, the short time we were out for errands gave me and the girlchild pretty intense headaches.

We drove down to the video store, which is about 3 or 4 miles north of the Harris fire. It’s split into two parts, some parts possibly called the Mt. Miguel fire…which is this piece.

 

You can see all the RVs that have evacuated here, horse trailers and all. It’s heading sort of southwest, toward Otay Lakes and Chula Vista. The second section of it is in the Jamul area, so it poses a minor threat to this neighborhood. It’s about 5 miles away, but there hasn’t been much wind today, so I think we’re OK.

They are finally able to do water/fire retardant drops today, because the wind has died down in the fire areas down here. I’ve heard from a couple of friends and co-workers who still have houses, although they’re evacuated. Yes, you heard right on the news…a quarter of the population of San Diego County has been evacuated, 513,000 people. Some are going home today; most not.

You’d think I’d be getting a lot of art and quilting done, but I can’t get in the right mind set. I guess that makes sense. Maybe later.

Fire Update

Winds are high, fires are moving, we are safe…250,000 people evacuated in San Diego County. Air quality is horrible, so they finally closed all the schools…and my kids’ schools are closed tomorrow. No word from mine. But then I think my principal was evacuated too. My parents’ Arrowhead cabin is also in danger’s way from another fire.

The Harris fire from my deck…

 

It looks a lot closer than it is. And here’s the wind…

 

It’s hard to concentrate on anything else.

Life Is Boog

I have this shirt that says “Life is good.” Little picture of cat on it. Thrift shop purchase. Me, the big spender. When I’m wearing it and looking in the mirror, my brain reads the reversed text as “Life is boog.” My son tells me that is not correct, that it should be “doog si efil.” Yeah. My brain doesn’t do it right.

San Diego is burning, 8 separate fires. My district is closed, but the school is not in danger. Many of my students were probably evacuated yesterday, as one of the larger fires went through two communities where they live. I was awake at 4 AM, waiting for the phone call to cancel school, which was probably more due to the closure of the highway to high-profile vehicles (buses) than to the fires, although there is word of another smaller fire threatening another community where we have an elementary school.

The Cedar Fire was almost exactly 4 years ago. Back then, they closed all county schools for a week because of the smoke and ask. This morning, the smell of burning is everywhere. I closed the house up to try to keep it out, but it’s supposed to be hot today too, so I probably won’t be able to keep that up.

I’m in no danger. The fire would have to cross a bunch of concrete and asphalt for this part of town to be threatened. Winds are supposed to stay at almost hurricane strength today, gusts reported over 90 mph, so that doesn’t help. I have plenty of work to do, part of it rewriting the entire schedule for this week, because I won’t be able to test the kids on Friday…or Monday, because they never do well with a Monday test. Oh well. Hope all are safe.

On the way to see this movie Saturday night…

 

(The Darjeeling Limited, an amusing movie and very visually pleasing)…I drew this.

 

I wasn’t driving, of course, but the bouncy road did affect the drawing…in kind of a cool way. I may go copy this today. It might make an interesting small quilt.

After the movie, we hung out downtown with a few million other people.

There’s a new Indian restaurant, Royal India, so in the spirit of knowing ALL of the Indian restaurants in San Diego County, I checked it out.

It was actually pretty full of people, considering the hour. Those tables were empty for only a short time. It was a fairly sparse design, very standard food. If I were already downtown, I think I would probably eat at Star of India or Monsoon instead of here, but usually I avoid downtown. Parking is awful and/or expensive. There are many stupid drunk people there. It is amusing for a visit maybe once a year.

More ceiling information…most of my house was originally that cottage cheese acoustic ceiling…

 

which has asbestos in it (I had it tested). A tree branch spiked my roof and into my bathroom ceiling and wall about 6 or so years ago. The insurance company gave me a chunk of money to fix the roof. I (we, still married then) decided that the whole roof would need replacing soon enough, so we patched the roof and used the money to trim the offending tree and to have half the cottage cheese crap removed from the ceilings. It’s been removed from all three bedrooms, my bathroom, and the hallway. The plan was to have the ceilings replastered. Yeah. Can you say divorce?

Here’s my son’s ceiling.

 

I did paint my daughter’s ceiling, but I could never get it properly smooth, despite a ton of spackling and sealant coats…I think there are like 8 coats of paintlike substance on her ceiling. So I decided to wait on finishing the other ceilings until I could afford to fix it. Don’t get excited…I did not win the lottery. I think my dad is slowly going through priority fixes in my house and getting them done. It keeps him busy and he seems to get satisfaction from it. I’m looking forward to it, because it means I can paint. The real problem is that I have to take down all the art on the walls in those spaces. That will take a while.

Of course, I still have cottage cheese in the living room area of the house and in my office. Someday a branch will hit that section, and I’ll replace that.

I think I have to go function normally now…my kids’ school is not closed, so I will have to get them up and fed and to school. The news is still not reporting my district as closed, but I’ll trust my principal to know better. One of the major highways through the county is now closed completely. I think daylight will bring some scary views of my town. I don’t see orange glows on the hills, like I did with the Cedar fire…that was terrifying. I send good thoughts towards those in the way of the fires.

She Peed on Me

Poor cat. Poor me. I pick up Willow to take her to the kitchen for her twice-daily dose of meds and warmed-up mixed kidney diet with trout mixed in (it works…usually) and her every-other-day dose of subcutaneous fluids, and she pees on me. A lot. I just stand there, holding her over the tile floor, figuring it will be easier to clean up in one small area than if I try to walk her to the litter tray. Guess I’m changing clothes. AND cleaning the floor. Fun stuff.

All this was followed by a week of dealing with parents of kids who need all kinds of help, because progress reports just came out and parents are freaking out; finding out that my job may be disappearing in June, if the superintendent manages to remove the middle school and send all those kids back to elementary school; and trying to keep up with everything I’m supposed to be doing.

October is overwhelming. I’m not sure why November isn’t, but it seems better. I was going to take pictures of the students diligently gluing yarn today, all of them little busy bees, working away, but I wouldn’t have been able to post it anyway. I’m scared to get the camera out, because they might turn back into the little psychos they had been all last week. I guess they must like this project. How wacky.

I have no pictures, because all I’ve done artistic is trace 1/4 of a pattern onto Wonder Under. Whoo! That is more than I’ve done all month, so it does feel like progress. I had to go to my monthly quilt meeting, and I needed something to do while socializing (true purpose of meeting), so I grabbed it.

I’m working tonight…lots of schoolwork to catch up on.

Oh, the leaky faucet…I’ve tried budging it, but it’s so stuck that even with WD-40 it’s not moving. DAAD!!! Can’t hear me from here. I should go take pictures of my ceilings, the way they’ve been for 7 years. Maybe 8. Because on Thursday, they will be no more! I know. The suspense will kill you.