Watch colors in cold Nineteen in my underwear Package is frozen
Pre-Beaver Moon Rising. I was in a parking lot. There is going to be a 500-year eclipse tonight way past my bedtime.
Hey! Beaver! Yoo-hoo! There’s going to be a Beaver Moon tomorrow night, eleven nineteen twenty-one. And a Beaver eclipse in the wee hours this morning. It’s going to be a hoot!
Oh! Really? A Beaver Moon you say? Is that like when Benny Beaver lifts his tail and shows use his beaver behind? I don’t want to be eclipsed. My hair is too short already. Nineteen? It was cold this morning.
No! You dimwit. The MOON! You know that big shiny thing in the sky? Eclipse is when the moon gets dim, like you. It has nothing to do with clippers! It was cold this morning.
My poem is One Side Sacred The Other Side Profane inspired by Gabriela’s poem Between Sacred and Profane. I based my poem on W. Eugene Smith’s activism against mercury poisoning in Minamata, Japan in the 1970s. He published a book titled Minamata: Life Sacred and Profane in 1972 that brought the issue worldwide attention. I first saw the book when I was a photo student at the University of New Mexico in the early 1980s. I wanted to buy a copy of the book back then, but I couldn’t afford it as a student. Now copies sell for hundreds of dollars, so I still don’t have one. W. Eugene Smith was one of the most important American photojournalists of the 20th Century. I don’t think he ever took a bad photo. His County Doctor series is brilliant. Chisso employees attacked and beat Smith in 1972. Smith lost sight in one eye and never really recovered. He died in 1978 at the tender age of 59. His death was a huge loss to the world of photography.
Dawn
We have cloudy skies tonight. The photos below are from last night before I encountered the zombies and sprites.
Christine’s Tree with the moon in the background. Mia’s Tree under Venus. Christine’s Tree with a bicycle in the background.
The conservancy is let more water into the Rio Grande from upstream. That has brought the water level up in the Clearwater ditch. the black speckles in the sky are crows flying on the crow highway that follows the Rio Grande.
The ducks are happy to be in the clearwater ditch again.
Who would ever think it would be so much trouble to get signs? I started working on getting signs for the office after we got everyone moved in at the beginning of June. We had three different sign makers come out and give us estimates, and after a few backs and forth about letting, cost, etc. they all disappeared. They wouldn’t answer emails or their phones. Nothing. I asked the locksmith I had working on the locks if he knew any reliable sign makers. He suggested the Sign and Image Factory. I called them, sent them mock-ups, and they worked with us to finally get the vinyl letting on the glass and the letters on the curved wall in the foyer shown in the photo above. They did a great job and were reasonably priced.
We also needed a monument sign, but the Sign and Image Factory doesn’t make monument signs. Two of the three sign makers that disappeared were going to do the monument sign, also, but they fell off the face of the earth. We contacted three metal crafters. They were either 1) backed up, 2) would not give me an estimate because they couldn’t get firm prices on the cost of materials, or 3) they were very expensive when and if they could make the sign. The monument sign is large at 44 inches wide by 38 inches high.
We really needed the monument sign. For some reason our building in the center of the plaza is invisible. Contractors, UPS, FedEx, and Amazon drivers, clients, and visitors were all having trouble finding the building for the first time. As far as UPS, FedEx, and Amazon drivers are concerned, every new driver has trouble finding the building. Since we were getting nowhere with the monument sign, I started thinking that maybe I could get a temporary sign made until we could find someone to make a permanent sign.
I started looking online and after checking a few online sign makers, I found BannerBuzz.com. I got on a chat session with one of their agents, and she suggested I order an aluminum sign for the size I wanted, and she directed me to the page on their site where I could custom order an aluminum sign. I put in the dimensions, uploaded the artwork, entered the color codes, selected paint type and UV protection, and gave them instructions for the space at the bottom of the sign for the mounting bracket. The total price came out to $150 with shipping. Wow! That was a far cry from the $1800 to $4000 we got from the locals. I added the sign to the shopping cart, and when I went to check out I got a 20% discount for being a first-time customer. So the sign ended up costing $120, with free shipping.
As it turned out the sign was made in India. They shipped the sign a week after we finalized the proofs. It took four days to reach the FedEx hub in Memphis, TN, and then it sat for almost three weeks in Memphis before customs released it to be delivered to the office. The sign is perfect as you can see from the photos. Since the aluminum is only 1/16 inch thick. I mounted the sign on all-weather plywood that I painted the primer color of the mounting bracket. The sign maker who installed the letters went out and looked closely at the sign. He said he could see it had quality paint and a good UV coating on it. It should last a while in under out intense sunshine.
Goods and services have become very difficult to get in Albuquerque. I am still waiting for a gate I order for the patio in August. I have the hinges and the sprung latch I had to order from an artisan in Canada because I could not find the type of latch I wanted anywhere in the USA. I asked the alarm company that provides security for the office for an estimate on access control. They wouldn’t give me an estimate because they can’t find enough skilled labor. They said possibly in six months. We were locked out of the current access control system, and I had been trying to get Isonas (the system we had on the office downtown) installed since before we moved in. The Isonus people have become unresponsive. I finally found a tech that got into the access control system. I can now program the system, and I got new proximity cards and finally gave all of our staff card access. That only took nine months. Getting things done has become a slow, cumbersome and frustrating process.
Jupiter, Crescent Moon, and Venus in a bent line. Saturn’s between Jupiter and the Moon, but it’s not bright enough to show up in the wide-angle photo.
Moon over the Rio Grande at dusk.
Moon over cranes in the Rio Grande at dusk.
Moon in the Tangle Heart Tree.
Jupiter with moons and stars.
Cranes: What’s the big deal? We could fly up to the moon if we wanted to!
After I “set up us the bomb” over the past two days with 1) my confabulations on free will, evil in the world, weed, euthanasia, and problem-solving through procrastination, among other answers to Eleanor’s questions, and 2) my psycho-delic visualization of T.U.L.I.P., I’m falling back with the time change, and offering straight photos that you can simply enjoy without a lot of thought or assault on your auditory system.
Shey’s tree finally turned yellow. It was holding out for the longest time. Jupiter is a spec of light in the upper right-hand corner of the photo.
Low hanging haze under mostly clear skies provided a nice gradation of colors in the after sunset glow. Venus is shining bright on the left.
Off Center & Not Even 