Wildflower Bouquet

All cut within a mile of my home.

Collections

Check out my new relief wood carving! I am collecting these and this is the first one I have that is stained or painted. I have stayed in an Alpine chalet that could easily be the scene on which this carving is based. I got it at a garage sale this weekend; the lady thought her dad got it when he was stationed in Germany.
My collections have come and gone – ice cream scoops, frogs, stamps, etc. Relief carvings are great to collect; you don’t see them often, so they don’t take over your house. Collecting lighthouses was a nightmare; there are just too many of them! I still have cameos, but I don’t know enough about them to invest much, so I only have inexpensive ones.
Do you collect anything?

Imagine

I think that nations are obsolete. They have served their purpose but it has expired, much like ancient empires and medieval princedoms. The world is too connected now for everyone to be huddled around their own flags in an attempt to operate independently of each other. Today, we are integrated enough to view ourselves as Earthlings, not Americans, Brazilians, Chinese . . . Zimbabweans. If we all put down our flags and stop singing our anthems, maybe we could understand each other and work collaboratively.
I have begun to see things well beyond the span of one lifetime. Existence is cyclical. Two hundred years from now, my views will be archaic and inter-racial romance may consist of beings from Venus dating those from Neptune. I hope so. Change is renewal.
The flag hanging from my front porch is old and tattered. It’s been hanging there forever, looking terrible. I haven’t taken it down yet; I’m putting it off because it won’t be replaced. It’s there because Butch put it there. He was a 2-tour Vietnam veteran; he should have a flag in front of his home. I am a patriot, to be sure, but one of my planet. That said, when that flag comes down, I will fold it and take it to a VFW for proper destruction, for the same reason I will keep a fresh flag on Butch’s grave, because I respect it. More than anything, I respect the Constitution that stands behind it. So, I hope that the USA will be a strong partner when the world finally begins to move forward . . .
We’ll have to overcome our pride, first. I don’t get the claim to pride - and all those folks singing about how they’re proud to be American. Pride is for those who earn it. Our founding fathers should be proud. Our veterans should be proud. Perhaps some legislators have earned pride in this nation. The rest of us? We are LUCKY to be American. We have claim to nothing more than the luck of our birthright.

Detroit Art Scandal

Banksy is an anonymous UK graffiti artist who has painted on urban walls all over the world – from Palestine to Australia. He was in Detroit recently and left his (suspected) mark in at least four urban locations.
One of them was an old Packard plant, which had been empty and decaying for years. It was slated to be demolished. This work could have gone unnoticed. Street art isn’t shown, but discovered, particularly that of anonymous artists. Yet, Banksy has a web site, where he displays his work.
Someone recognized the plant and contacted a local gallery, the 555 Gallery. Of course, they wanted to preserve the work. This could probably have been accomplished with a call to the plant’s owner. Banksy’s work is highly valued; it’s unlikely that anyone would intentionally allow it to be destroyed.
Yet, the 555 Gallery sent staff to the plant, removed the wall, built a frame for it and took it back to their property. It took them two days, they used a forklift and reduced the piece’s value by removing it. Of course, they will find themselves in a courtroom over these actions.
Graffiti gets destroyed; that’s the nature of street art. A lot of Banksy’s works have unwittingly been damaged, destroyed, painted over or cleaned away. Yet, Detroit is the nation’s poster child of economic troubles. Here, even beautiful buildings fall into disrepair and sit neglected for decades. An empty factory draws no attention in Detroit. Only here could someone walk off with a factory wall.

The Anti-Consumer

Sometimes I think I should have been born 100 years ago. It’s tough to balance your ideals with social conveniences. Rampant consumerism drives me crazy. Someday, I would love to try living in a non-capitalist society, where you can barter for goods and services.
The first time I realized how bad it is in our society is when Butch and I had a car accident. We went to the hospital and each had a couple grand in medical bills. My bills and my time off work were covered through my employer. The car was worth about $2K (in 1988) and was totaled. There were witnesses willing to testify that the other party was at fault.
Yet, the guy’s insurance company wouldn’t pay for Butch’s car and bills, which totaled less than $5K. With witnesses and a cop ready to show in court, they HAD to know that we were going to consult a lawyer, yet, no way were they going to pay this measly amount.
We went to a lawyer, who required them to cover my losses, too, including the sick time that I had used. He called our scars “disfigurement” and wrote up a claim for our “pain and suffering.” They settled out of court for about $30K between the two of us. WTF??
I learned a lot from that experience. Of course, the lawyers got their share. The insurers will use our payments as “statistical data” to raise their customers’ premiums. Both industries were fed with the illogical handling of Butch’s claim. They were fed at the expense of The Little Guy. TLG is the only one doing any work in our society; everyone else is feeding off him.
When you pay attention, you see the constant bombardment for The Little Guy to spend, spend, spend. I once bought some Christmas lights and they WOULDN’T PLUG INTO MY EXTENTION CORD. These new light plugs were designed to plug into the new, outdoor extension cords that were colored green, to match the outdoors, I guess. That'll be an extra $19, please.
Electronics is an area where you can easily see this furious consumerism; they are obsolete as soon as you remove them from the bag. How often do we really need a new way to play movies? Beta, VHS, DVD, Blue Ray – it’s all John Wayne, for God’s sake! What else do we truly need our phones to do?
The Little Guy, though, does this to himself. He’s a willing participant in his own financial violation. The novelty/eLust/competition to have more eventually get to him. Camera phones are convenient, so TLG needs to add messaging to his plan, so he can do something with the pictures. Then he decides that he needs to access the web from his phone, too. It just never ends.
I try to be conscious of this push for us to keep spending to support non-essential services or items. I think more legitimate ventures would be generated if we weren't supporting this useless stuff.
Why not play tennis on a court instead of a Wii? Why use a treadmill when I can walk outdoors? The easiest things to avoid are disposable items. I can use plastic containers instead of plastic baggies. I have a permanent coffee filter and use cloths instead of paper towels.
I refuse to become The Little Guy!

State Approval!

I am so excited about a recent development with my class!
It was just approved by the State as continuing education credits toward real estate license renewals! I can hardly believe it. I found the opportunity by accident and just applied as a lark. I never expected to be approved!
I’m checking into what will have to happen for me to offer it online. Web-based Real Estate education seems to have a niche of its own. Because of the reporting requirements to the State, I think I’ll stick with the companies that are specifically adapted to online RE offerings. I’m almost afraid to get an estimate; this can’t be cheap.
I still can't believe it! My little class, that I authored just for the heck of it . . .
There is so much to learn! I have a lot of exciting work ahead.

You Picked The Wrong Girl!

******************************************************************************************************************************************I received a forwarded email today that reminded me of an encounter my grandma had years ago. It was so funny that someone in the family documented it on a t-shirt as a gag gift.
I was a teenager at the time, so my grandma must have been in her mid to late 60’s. She was walking down the street in my hometown and met up with a group of teenaged boys. As they passed her, one of them called her an “old fogey,” which was emblazoned on the front of the t-shirt.
The back of the t-shirt immortalized my dear, sweet granny’s response to those kids: