Pisces Moon Studio

They say that now they’ve got the paint to match, but the power window won’t roll up or down.

Maybe Monday.

This is getting old.
In other news, I’ve finally had at least part of a day to plant butt in seat and begin working on State of Grace. Haven’t got very far yet because I had Dear Husband home all day, plus the painter was here, but hey, I’m happy to have gotten a start!

I did not get my car back today. The body shop called around 2 pm to inform me quite happily that the paint didn’t match! They painted the door white and it should have been pearl white! (Which I told the body shop manager when he did the estimate.) So we are going to have to paint the quarter panel and the back door to blend it in! We’re gonna try for Friday!

I am not happy. It sounds like the door has been painted the wrong color and they are trying to camouflage the mistake instead of repainting it the right color. I have already informed my dear husband that on Friday, or Monday or whenever they tell me that it’s ready, he is coming with me. We will ask them to pull it outside into the sunshine and we will inspect it with a fine-tooth comb. If the paint job is not satisfactory, I won’t accept it. Period.

On Monday, The Elephant’s Child had a birthday. It’s now one year old. Also, I had a birthday a week ago today, but I am considerably more than one year old. Since everyone in my family ( including me) forgot both events, I think that perhaps tomorrow I’ll go buy us both a birthday present. Maybe even cake.

So there.

Today’s title comes from Dorothy Parker, by way of my wonderful friend using the wholly inappropriate moniker “savage.” It also ties in very nicely with Gabrielle’s repeated exhortations to get the work done and damn the consequences.

So — ass to seat, and since I have nothing in a state yet to show, I’ll offer some short bits of catch-up from the past couple of weeks.

• My car’s been in the shop since Monday, the victim of a very low-speed parking lot collision. I wasn’t injured at all; the nice grandmotherly lady was most apologetic; and her insurance company is paying for the repairs and for a rental car. She hit my driver’s door with the front right corner of her bumper at about 2 miles an hour, and the repair estimate including car rental exceeded $1,500.00. I’d hate to think how much damage there would have been at regular speed.

I’m supposed to get my baby back today, which will make me very happy. The tiny little low-down rental sedan is horribly uncomfortable for a six-foot-tall person with middle-aged back and knee problems. Good thing I haven’t needed to do a great deal of driving this week.

Oh, and the radio doesn’t work in the rental. I’ve been music-less all week.

• Three weeks ago we had a new vinyl floor installed in the kitchen. The installers didn’t have any seam sealant with them, so they duct-taped the seam together and promised to return on the following Tuesday to finish the job. After two weeks of walking around duct tape, my husband finally called the flooring company to ask quite politely when we could expect to have the installers return. They were astounded to find out that it had not been completed, explained that those installers “were no longer with the company,” and scheduled a different team of installers to come finish the sealing.

This is not comforting.

The second team showed up yesterday. The head guy got down on his belly to inspect the seam, muttered strong invective under his breath, asked rhetorically if “those guys” even possessed a straightedge, asked me if there were any vinyl left over (there wasn’t), muttered some more, and finally used a kind of filler to seal the gap prior to placing the seam sealant. It looks okay to me, but now I am wondering how well this job is going to hold up. What else did they do wrong that doesn’t show?

• Tomorrow the painter shows up. He’s going to be here for a week or so, repainting all the exterior wood siding and trim. He seems like a nice enough man, but just having a strange someone in and around my house for that length of time is going to drive me nuts.

• All of these things are happening at a time when all I want to do is plant my butt in the studio and work. I have three pieces in a series that are begging to be made, plus a new small piece I’d like to get done for Fine Focus. I know just what I want to do with them and I haven’t been able to get in there and get cracking. I tried fusing one of them in order to speed up the construction process, but (no offense to Melody) it simply didn’t look or feel right. Toss that and go back to the techniques that feel appropriate for what I want to do.

I’ll be glad when all the distractions have run their course and I can apply ass to seat and get stuff done.

Well.

You know, it’s very odd. When I write every day, I can always find things to talk about. But when I let it slide for a couple of weeks, suddenly I’m at a loss for words. Why is that?

I won’t try to catch up on all the things that have happened; I’ll just mention that the sale of artwork at www.relief.Art2Mail.com continues to be a great success. Yesterday we posted ten new pieces and sold them all within 24 hours. We’ve now raised more than $1,000 for disaster relief, and I’m deeply happy.

More artwork up soon.

Listening to the Hurricane Rain

Click on image for larger version (80 KB).

This piece is going to a fine man in the Washington, DC area, with the proceeds going to the Red Cross for disaster relief.

I’ve posted my small matted pieces for sale at www.relief.art2mail.com; more pieces by other Art2Mail artists will be added in the next days.

The need for funds will be ongoing. Even when all the survivors are evacuated from New Orleans, they will still need shelter, food, clothing, and all manner of assistance in starting over.

Thank you for whatever you’re doing to help.

She posed for this portrait on the Friday before the storm. I checked on her yesterday: She and her guardian apparently came through without damage to house or property, but she hasn’t decided to change clothes yet, so I’m posting this picture.

A bit of stability in an otherwise chaotic world.

Gabrielle left a comment this morning on my Tuesday post, saying that she was glad that I was okay and sending good thoughts my way.

I haven’t posted this week because I am at such a loss for words over the magnitude of the ineptness and totally preventable tragedy that is the City of New Orleans. My family and I are well, our house is undamaged, we have power and water and life goes on reasonably normally. We have done what we could for the victims, but it is so inadequate. So inadequate.

This week, I feel guilty for being alive.

I don’t know what else to say.