Mono Monday : : Reflections...

...In a glass table in a waiting room. It's pretty lame but I didn't take any other pictures in a day where I was busy trying to get back to normal.

What the heck has gone wrong here in California?


We reinvented the world from a garage in Silicon Valley and we have apps that can deliver a poke bowl and a boba  to our houses in ten minutes, but a stiff breeze comes along and we're back to cooking over coals  and lighting the cave with torches?
-Steve Lopez, Los Angeles Times

More than ever I find myself repeating my own personal mantra...there's no such thing as 'normal'. After an upheaval such as we had last week it takes some time just trying to figure out what 'normal' is. Today it was Pilates, coffee with friends, discussion ranging from Ellen DeGeneres sitting with George W Bush at a Texas Ranger game, to Maggie's trip to Australia. 

Yesterday Dan took home Bob's generator, which has not worked in years,  and returned it to him today in perfect working order. Bob even started it himself which, according to his wife Gail, has never happened before. We are a diverse and talented group, but someone like Dan, who can fix anything makes things, and won't take any money for doing it, doesn't come along very often. He can also cook, grows fruit trees and keeps bees.

I worked on the designs for a a couple of pillows which will be a housewarming gift.  This seems to be taking a lot of time and even more space. OIlMan was clearly trying to figure out what the heck I had been doing since the last time he looked at it at since he couldn't see any changes. I had to laugh at his efforts to ask me this diplomatically. He wakes up in the middle of the night thinking of energy coefficients and I wake up thinking of quilted designs...

The weather continues to be typically Autumn for this part of the world...cold at night but pleasantly warm by afternoon. Our house is well insulated and doesn't always catch up. It is tempting to turn the heat on during the day and we usually resist, but since we used no electricity for three days last week, we decided to splurge this morning and take the edge off the chill which has settled into the house.

There is something about the quality of the light at this time of year which is very distinctive and which I always forget about until October.  The chill at night is bringing out the color in the leaves and the crush is in full swing. Soon the leaves will turn brown and fall to the ground, and the vines will go into hibernation until what is known around here as 'bud break' in late March or April. There is a more leisurely feeling to life..a pause perhaps before holiday madness sets in....