When I came into the warm house after being out in sub-freezing temperatures, the lens on my camera fogged up, giving me the perfect fog effect on Guildenstern laying on my equipment bags. After the lens cleared up, I got a photo of Guildernstern trying to camouflage himself on the bags, but his yellow eyes and white whisker gave him away. Rosencrantz, Guildenstern and Diné rang in the New Year all snuggled up on the bed.
Tristan and David had their annual Solstice party tonight where we all sat around waiting for the end of the world and then reflected on it — it didn’t happen — AGAIN! The end of the world and all that is getting to be a bit of a bore — Firefox, Cat’s yellow kitty, was mad about it, Gia thought she saw it, but was mistaken, and Firefox gave me an appropriate “Blah!” Cat celebrated, Gia consoled the kitty, then she peeked around the corner and gave me a nice smile. After having a lot of fun we all finally had to go on our merry ways until the end of the world comes again.
One my way home tonight, I noticed a car dealer had the emergency flashers blinking on alternating cars on the lot. I suppose it is was supposed to be festive looking, but I was just trying to get by it before it sent other drivers into epileptic seizures. The old uncovered, covered wagon with lights on it is much more creative and festive. The traffic was as thick as molasses tonight, unlike the morning traffic which was surprisingly light when I photographed the hazy mountains. Speaking of molasses, Laurie said she couldn’t find any in Walmart, and when she went to ask the floor clerk, the clerk was deaf, and Laurie didn’t know how to “sign” molasses. I told her I thought that making a rodent face and pointing at her butt might have sufficed to get the idea, but alas, neither mole asses or molasses were to be had. Stretch was in a state of disbelief when he heard they didn’t have mole asses as he thought they would go well in his idea for almond, watermelon cookies — Stretch is quite the gourmet for a cat. While on the subject of cat food, I can understand that flavors like chicken and gourmet beef, seafood, etc. are cat foods that people can stomach buying; but I really think they should make cat food in rodent, bird and reptile flavors, flavors that cats would really go for. The cat food makers could get clever and give the cat food names that people could deal with more easily like Mole Ass Mole, Rotisserie Robin, Mouse Mousse, Rodent Ratatouille, Lizard Linguise and so on. Back to the molasses melodrama, Laurie found some organic molasses on the way home tonight that Stretch is happy with, and the almond, watermelon cookies look cute with the little tails sticking out.
The Children’s Choir sang “Go Tell it on the Mountain” for the prelude this morning. I’m sitting in the back thinking that we are going to get the usual weak children’s voices, with half the kids off key, while the other half are “out of compás”, but when the kids started singing, belting out out the song in parts, on key and in compás, I remembered I was at Central United Methodist Church, where they get the best music out of everyone, regardless of age. All the kids were great, and the soloists sang like they were pros. It was so refreshing to see kids full of life and spirit, making an effort to deliver their performance. All the music was fantastic today. The old hymns were fun, the Chancel Choir performed “For unto us a Cild is born” from Handel’s Messiah, and the Hand Bell Choir performed a piece that was out of this world. They get sounds and music out of those bells that you wouldn’t think possible.
Stretch was shifting around in his box he was curled up in, basking in the sunlight, when the box slid off the edge and wedged itself against the heater. Like a captain who won’t abandon his ship, Stretch stayed in the box and patiently waited for one of us to come over and put his box and him back in place. Laurie when to his rescue while I photographed him going down with his box. After Laurie got the box back in place, Stretch resumed his position, curled up in the sunshine, as if nothing had happened.
I find coffee sludge dried and cracking like clay on the bottom of a dry riverbed to be quite artful. It also reminds of the time when Laurie was going to pre-op and I unintentionally dribbled thick, black coffee that looked like motor oil with a couple hundred thousand miles on it along the floor from the elevator to the first bed in pre-op. The staff at the desk started swarming like ants that had their hill stepped on, while doctors and nurses tiptoed around the line of coffee like it was some type of infectious, black ooze. I really wanted to photograph the whole thing, but I felt I would have been pushing it to get out there and start clicking away — instead I cowered in the corner and tried to look like I was sorry for dribbling sludge on the floor (actually I was really sorry, not for their sakes, but because I didn’t get to drink the coffee). Even though I didn’t get photos, it was really great performance art. Luckily, all that came of it was mad dogs from the Hazmat crew who were brought in to clean up my offensive sludge — I’m not so sure I’ll get off so easily next time.
Leo is one of Tristan’s and David’s cats. Like Guildenstern, he’s a big cat with a tiny meow, has excess personality and always has a lot to say. He was also a good sport about me sticking my wide angel lens in his face, and making him look like a sad kitten, a mad cat, a seal and, his namesake, a lion.
The dress rehearsal for the Messiah was tonight and it sounded wonderful with the orchestra and soloists. Tomorrow night’s performance is sold out, but there still might be tickets available for Sunday afternoon’s performance. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern thought Laurie’s new black velvety dress was a great color and texture and had to be involved in the photo shoot.
First of all, if you didn’t make it to the performance of “A Winter’s Journey” by Quintessence Choral Artists of the Southwest tonight, they are performing tomorrow, December 2nd at 3:00 pm at St. John’s United Methodist Church, 2626 Arizona NE. The concert was fantastic and the “Jingle Bells/Hallelujah Chorus” medley is not to be missed.
On the way home from helping Tristan get ready for Goth Night, Laurie are I were wondering how we fit so much into the day. Laurie made two chocolate, chocolate chip angel food cakes first thing this morning, then we did a photo shoot of her outfit before she ran off to choir practice for the Messiah. I hung the photo backdrop from the ceiling, extending the width by 3 feet and allowing me to take down the stands. Then I gathered up parts from different water filters and put together a new water filter to replace the one that broke from a hard freeze a few weeks so I could run drip systems when the hoses thawed out. I cleaned out vines and scraggly growth from what we call the “north house” garden, worked on the bathroom remodel, went to the post office and Lowe’s, and herded cats. After Laurie got home from the rehearsal, she cut up the cakes and I bagged the pieces so we could freeze them, then we got ready to go into town. We did another photo shoot of Laurie’s outfit, and went to pick up Tristan. Tristan had to try on some new clothes we ordered that came in yesterday before we headed to the photo show. We finally got to the ANMPAS show, but we missed Susan (one of her entries is the triptych on the left side of the B&W photo below). We went to the concert after the photo show, which was great, as I already mentioned, then we went by Target so Laurie and Tristan could get some clothes and makeup. I was one of a couple dozen men pushing shopping carts behind their women in the clothing and makeup isles — all of us men looked rather bored and longingly glanced toward the tool department. Three hats, exercise tights, a pair of shoes, various shades of lipstick and an eye shadow kit later, we headed to Tristan’s to help her get ready for Goth Night. Tristan had sworn off make after the years she performed Flamenco with Laurie and I, but makeup is a necessary part of Goth Night along with high heeled footwear and corsets.
In the first photo, Rosencrantz was playing on the backdrop, jumping around and attacking the folds. Meanwhile, Guildenstern was hanging out on the couch with Cthulhu — both of them look like they could use corsets. The third photo in the series is of Susan’s triptych of the demolition of the houses on our property. The rest of the photos include Tristan and Cat getting ready for Goth Night, and then both of them all made up, dressed in proper Goth black, corseted, high heeled, and ready to have a great time.
Laurie got a whole new set of really cute clothes. I had been pestering her to let me do a photo shoot of her in her new clothes, but we had colds, and with Messiah practice and all the other stuff we have going on, time for a fashion shoot wasn’t available. We finally decided to set up the back-drop and flashes and do a fashion shoot of whatever Laurie’s wearing right before we leave each morning. That way she doesn’t get worn out changing clothes and posing over and over again for one fashion shoot, and we’ll get all the different fashionable combinations she can put together. As you can see in the first photo, Rosencrantz loves getting in on photo shoots.
This was also “Car Crash Monday!” There were two crashes on I-25 on the way in this morning that had traffic all backed up. But that wasn’t enough for people who where hungover from excess of turkey, Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals — there was another, apparently major, crash on the way home that had two lanes on I-25 closed at Paseo Del Norte. Fortunately, the “nanny state” electronic billboards NMDOT has been installing on the freeways warned us about the two lanes closed ahead of us on I-25 in time for me to exit at Jefferson and drive over to Alameda, which had almost zero traffic because all the rush hour traffic was still backed up on I-25.
These trees on the north side of Castetter Hall at UNM are nicely shaped and cast wonderful shadows under the night lights. Rosencrantz and Mama Manx were snuggled together on the couch, but the minute I pointed the camera at them, they looked up at me. The clouds were beautiful on the Sandias this morning. Laurie had an appointment at school, so we didn’t have time to make a short detour to the open space across from the Balloon Museum and get a better view of the Sandias without so many buildings and power poles.
Out of our six cats I got four of them to pose for me tonight. Puck, who is usually a great poser, made me chase him all over the house and catio before he decided to go into “light switch Viper” mode and attacked Laurie before he let me get a few shots of him. Between the cooler weather and the daily waterboarding, Stretch is looking so much better. I read Tintin in French to Stretch while giving him his fluids a couple of times this while Laurie was getting ready. I think my French on top of the waterboarding was double torture for poor stretch as he growled even louder as I read to him. Diné and Mama Manx headed for the hills when they saw the flashes. I usually don’t use a flash, but now that it gets dark so early, I’ve pulled out the flash. Beaker, our Gold Cap Conure, didn’t seem to be at all bothered by the flash.
Off Center & Not Even 