The painter took Christmas off. We had a colorless (gray) Christmas morning.
Jake waiting to open his Christmas present. Sasha is giving him kitty Mad Dogs.
The moon through a veil of clouds.
Tristan embroidered this amazing tiny portrait for Spunk for Laurie.
Tristan’s beautiful Bearded Dragon, Donny, made an appearance for Christmas.
All eyes on Loki: Gwendolyn, Loki, Sasha, Glenda.
Loki
Jake? What are you doing in a cat post? “Saying Merry Dogmas to everyone!”
The painter started off well at dawn, but then it rained a washed her colors away by sunrise.
Hubble? Where did you come from? “Lane’s phone stupid Paparazzo!”
Spunk, Sasha, Gwendolyn, Marble, Sasha again.
Selfie in Glenda’s eye.
Marble, Glenda, Gwendolyn, Gwendolyn, Marble
Spunk in the background
Silver
Glenda and Spunk
Color tonight
Sunset
Socratis at Oannes has been posting songs about cars. I keep commenting: “I had that car! Oh, I had that car, too. You are not going to believe this, but I had one of those cars, also!” From Oannes I was inspired to put together a spreadsheet of all the cars that have been in the family, and I had driven since I got my driver’s license at age 15. We still have some of the old cars that were bought new. The stats break down as follows: 33 cars over 48 years. 25 Model years from 1955 to 2017. 14 different carmakers. 26 different models in 10 different colors with green, yellow, brown, and red the predominant four colors. We’ve had more Mazdas than other cars with six. Volkswagon came in second with five. We still have two Mazdas, a Volkswagon, a Ford pickup, and a Datsun 280ZX on the property.
I was also inspired to write and record a Car Song about some of the cars that stood out over the years. I played the bass lines on my 5-string, multi-scale bass. I played my black Strat I built a few years ago for the rhythm guitar, and I played my 7-string, multi-scale guitar for the guitar solo (the song is above, lyrics at the end of the post).
Marble Sinking
Sunrise
Car Song
By Timothy Price
This is a story about a few of the many cars that graced my life
My dad, he was a Rambler man
1964 classic I learned to drive
Three on the tree with no air
Bench seats without belts
The ’55 Cadillac was a tank with tits
Big silver bumper boobs oh they couldn’t be missed
Slushbox tranny liked to bump and grind
Lumbered down the road in style
1960 Rambler in Pepto Bismol pink
Nearly cost me my life and limbs
A boy driving a pink car in 1975
Was worthy of a beating, so the other boys thought
[Chorus]
Thirty-three cars have graced my life
Over two score and 8 years
From green to pink to yellow to blue
Red sports cars are the final two
’66 American in canary yellow
The cubic inches under the hood wouldn’t do
I cut and bent to retrofit a power plant
I lost traction, tickets, I paid for my sins
’65 Corvair. Yep that’s the one
It was “Unsafe At Any Speed”
That car was fun to drive I never rolled it though
Not to say I didn’t try.
The Volkswagen Thing was a Thing of wonder
As I wandered from here to yonder
Weirdly shaped, like a Jerrycan on wheels
It did nothing for my sex appeal
[Bridge]
Cadillac, Chevrolet, Rambler, and Ford
Volkswagens, Honda, Triumph, were never bored
International, AMC, Renault, and a Datsun
Dodge, Kia, and best of all is always Mazda
Eldorado, Americans, a Classic, and a Bus
Travelalls, beetles, and a Triumph GT6 Plus
A Sun Bug, Pickups, Hornet, and a Le Car
Taurus, Rio Cinco, N600, and a Corvair
Granada, Dart, ZX, Five, RX, and a Thing
323, Speed 3, my Miata is really mean
[Guitar Solo]
’79 Renault Le Car was one of my
All-time favorite cars
Smooth ride, canvas-covered sunroof
That got Swiss-cheesed in a hailstorm
The RX-8 was as exotic as I got
A Wankel whining under the hood
Demanded high revs lots of speed
Suicide door, it seated four
My MX-5 is beautiful to drive
Small, responsive, quick, and sassy
A hot profile and racing stripe
It’s total fun and fantasy
On her blue gessoed canvas
She brushes swaths of red
Splashes on the yellow
Orange from the mix
A lavender wash hosts
White stripes of clouds from trails
Her colors silhouetting trees
Geese and cranes flying free
Got that Flamingo Feeling!
The landings
The second to the last of the full moons rising on the day before yesterday’s Frost Moon.
The last full moon of 2021 rising over the Sandias. The December full moon has many names, one of which is the Frost Moon.
Venus in the cottonwood at Village Pizza. Saturn and Jupiter are to the right.
Paint hard at work at dawn
Get your minds out of the gutter. I’m talking about the clouds and the gate I installed today.
The painter was up at dawn working at a furious pace on the well-hung morning clouds and kept it up until after I got to work.
I installed the gate today that I ordered back in August that finally came in last week. The middle photo shows the sprung latch that I had custom-made by an artesian in Canada because I could not find any of the sprung latches in the US of A. They use to be common on garden gates, but there were none to be found. They were probably outlawed for some stupid reason, so we might have a fugitive latch. The gate is well hung if I might say so.
The painter was in a lavender mood tonight as gnarly clouds rolled in at sunset and were well hung hanging over gnarly trees.
With the clouds in the above photo 15 minutes before sunset, I was expecting a very colorful sunset. But the painter fooled me and only gave us a pallet of gray.
At least the orchid came through with some color.
Cracked-up clouds covered the moon at dusk.
I was going to photograph Mars this morning, but low clouds covered the sky, and the wind blew the dribbles of spit from the clouds in my face when I stepped outside. Ominous foretelling of the possibility of another Freaking Friday.
Back in September, I asked the question of our lighting lady if I could get parts for the light fixtures in the ceiling of our new, 15-year-old, office building. The answer was no. Those light fixtures are not made anymore. However, she had retrofit LED fixtures by Litetronics that cost the same as ballasts that replace the fluorescents in the fixtures. She brought two sample lights. One with a sensor and one without a sensor. The retro fixtures are much nicer looking than the fluorescent fixtures, but even when they are set at 25 watts, they are super bright.
The LED lights are fairly easy to install. I gut the fluorescent fixture boxes, slide a hinge rail on one long side between the drop ceiling rails and the gutted fixture box, and a latch rail on the other side. I hang the retro fixture on the hinge rail, plug it into the power, and latch it in place.
I installed the first demo light with a sensor in Ailene’s office because one of her lights had a bad ballast. The sensor lights can be controlled with an app on my phone and a physical controller. After I got the light installed and the controller configured, I showed Ailene how to adjust the light. Later that afternoon I got a text from Ailene asking me to quit messing with her light. I texted back I wasn’t messing with it. We had left the sensor set on auto-sense that adjusts the light according to how much light is coming into the room through the windows. As the sun was setting, the light was changing light levels to compensate for the outside light coming into her office. I’ve installed six of the LED lights with sensors. I’m not getting any more lights with sensors. Managing six of them is a pain.
One of the fluorescent fixtures in the conference room was making a really loud, annoying buzzing sound. The conference room has a 13-foot ceiling and a big conference table under the lights. The issue was how to reach the lights to install the LEDs. The gate I ordered back in August came in on Monday, so I purchased a giant Little Giant ladder that extends to 11.5 feet as a step ladder and 26 feet as an extension ladder. The Little Giant worked out perfectly for replacing the lights in the conference room because it straddled the conference table nicely and was still tall enough for me to reach the lights.
As part of the tenant improvements on the other side of the building, we are replacing all 54 fluorescent fixtures with LED fixtures. Two pallets of fixtures were delivered this afternoon, and I had a fun time moving 27 30 pound boxes from a parking spot into one of our offices. There was a cold wind blowing outside.
Little Giant ladder over the conference table under a gutted light fixture.
Three new LED lights in the conference room.
Two pallets of LED fixtures ready to be moved inside.
All the boxes stacked in our communal office.
Beaker Eyeing me in the light of the setting sun before I covered his cage for the night.
Off Center & Not Even 