Dawn’s Thoughts

January 20, 09

This morning we stayed in so that we could listen to Obama get elected. Listen to is the right word, as we could only get KQED on the computer with audio, and later, occansional still-pictures or video feed. This meant we huddled around the computer to listen. It was rather like listening to a traditional election on radio, a la the 1930’s, and better than modern, because narrator commentary was kept to a minimum. “Now so-and-so has just shaken hands with…” Later on, of course, the narrators rehashed the whole election, but at least I got to listen to the whole thing without having to listen to interpretations of it as well. I liked it.

We did that until a little after 12 noon or so (they were a little late signing in Obama by 4 minutes or so, I think, because they announced the time as 12:04 and Dad said he must be sworn in by noon, which I didn’t know). When we did get video, it was only occasional and often the two didn’t match, so we had a picture of one person waving as they were just getting up to speak on our radio feed. But it worked well anyway.

Then Mom and I went out to the other craft store here, in an actual building and found many craft books we liked, and Mom got 2 of them, a Victorian beading book and a proper Shrink Art book for jewelry that I must try at home. Also, when I get home, I must do the old-fashioned foil art — but I’ve decided that if I print out transperiancies of my colored design on the computer and put foil in back, I won’t have to deal with the painted glass my old book advises. Also, I’ve decided that I can make the “+ shaped” pop top necklaces, if I glue them together, rather than tying them, as that doesn’t work. I can dangle them on a string.

Then we went out to the section we haven’t done — where we ate free fried curds, and then Dad called us — right back there. (Have I mentioned that the General Store sells fresh fried chicken gizzards and livers? We got some the other day. Quite good. And they have good olive loaf, but also pickle, and pepper loaf too). I’ve seen 4 of those cast iron presses today like the one I wanted to buy earlier — and I was lucky I didn’t. One today had the same circle (which I thought was a sprout), but also an original label — it’s a sausage stuffer. That means it would probably kill you to make wine out of it. The cast iron presses with a spout like those in a fountain might be fruit presses, but they look similar to these sausage stuffers as well. I’m glad for the wooden press I have at home because I don’t think anyone would have used it as a sausage press because I don’t think it could be cleaned well enough.

That particular vendor also had wagon wheels and wagon wheel rims (which I was thinking of buying for my hoop-and-stick), and a jug beer bottle for $10.

I could do that jug for $4 — and did, last month. I got to drink the beer out of it too.

Got some knitting and spinning magazines from a vendor lady who also had a stash of yarn in the corner. Dyed it herself with different colored onion skins and Koolaid, which she said will not wash out so long as no sugar is added. It was the finest spun yarn I’ve seen, even at the fair. She did carry a wheel in the RV, but said she didn’t give lessons and could only show me the basics on it. Worth asking about though.

Found some old dusty black purses just like mine — got three of them. One was missing a strap, so the man threw in a free belt with it. We may or may not use the belt — depending on how it fits the purse. Certainly long enough though.

Went to Silly Al’s pizza for a meatlover’s pizza and beer. You had to scout out tables and grab them as people left. Mom staked out one table, but soon enough, a man waved us over because he and another person were leaving. They said we were welcome to the leftover pitcher of beer, but we declined it. The place was packed as usual, though I’ve heard they close in the summer and make enough during snowbird season to keep going. I found the pool tables in back and we played a game for 50 cents. I like the fact that I can somewhat hit which ball I want now, and Mom says here’s a sport that doesn’t hurt her hands, so maybe we’ll have to take up pool.

One of my finds today was a pidgen-English novelty item called a Fart Bag. The instructions said something like:

Place the bag near object

Air balloon inside will swell

Smell of fart will happen

Eating is prohibited.

Well, naturally. They don’t want you to eat the fart bag, but the other way round is neat too…

“No, no, Grandma! Drop the apple. A fart bag was just released under your chair!”

And if you did eat it, I imagine you’d have a hell of a time with the whole “air balloon swelling” thing in your stomach.

Then you’d have doctors prodding at your bouncing belly, wondering just what you meant about the fart bag.

I think I might purchase some as gifts. 25 cents isn’t that bad, each, and might have been for the whole box…It’d make a great gift with the penis pendant, and might even rival the Rat Bastard Root Beer and Spotted Dick I send one year….

Yes. With a little card….”Thinking of you…”

MMmm…Rat Bastard Root Beer…

Then I came as it was getting dark…no dramatic sunsets today, and worked on my foil pictures from the craft store. They must be old, because I can’t get them to carve correctly. I’ve started sketching around the pattern, rather than following the lines.

Watched the new X-Files movies and went to bed.
‘

January 4, 09

Today we haven’t even tried to go out. It’s 10:10 AM and probably 34 degrees out. There was ice on the inside of the windshield when I got up. Dad turned the fan on it and froze Mom completely, up playing with her puzzles.Tried to spot the teddy bear figure in the red rocks with the monocular, but no luck. Despite the sun spotlighting it, and despite the cooridnates of a car and overhang, I only see a fat women lying down when I look at the same thing. I don’t see a teddy bear’s head at all.

Had breakfast in bed because of the cold. Leftover pickled apple, juice from pickled apple jar, french toast and omelette. Very good. Yesterday for dinner we had the last of my canned sauerkraut, with potatoes. That’s good, because not only does it provide me with an opportunity to make more at home, but it means that we can eat the wine and apple sauerkraut Dad found at the international market. This is good because my pickle book has a wine kraut and I’ve been wondering what it tasted like before I make it.

Looked up dumpster diving on the web and game board templates. Found quite a few, though I’m not sure if they’re usable for what I want, although they can be adjusted and moved about in Power Point and Excel. Something to play with. I suppose today should be a job searching day, since the internet is on. We turned on the Lindbergh audio book right off this morning, and Mom bundled up and went out to fetch firewood from the neighbors, who were leaving and throwing it out.

Mom says if the wind doesn’t come up she will go for a walk. I’ve only just swung my legs over the bed because my feet have fallen asleep. Possibly I’ll do some more knitting, though I did a lot yesterday, and search the web for curse lifting. Of all the books to leave at home, too.

It’s very sunny out and the sky is bright blue. If it wasn’t for the cold, we’d probably be out in the sun at least if not out walking. The other day when we did go walking I found that purple stick plant with the swollen oval stalk, which I think is some form of wild buckwheat. I don’t think you can eat it. The other day we also saw something tohat looked like pickleweed, which is odd because I don’t think there’s salt or salt water here. Also a weed that is green when fresh and dead white (and pretty) after it’s seeded.

There’s a small flock of little birds that land on a bush by the back window, though they only do so in the morning. They fly off if you make a bit of noise, like raising the blinds to have a look at them. I don’t know where they go off. Luckily, there’s not many spiny cactus here, a few beaver tail cactus, but the ground is mainly filled with long catchy stalks of woody plants that catch on your clothes. Dad says I shouldn’t slide down hills here, because of the cactus, but it’s usually the little rocks that cause the most trouble. There’s no chollo cactus or burrs. There are, however, lots of those moqui marbles.

From the walk we took the other day, I’ve decided the moqui marbles must form as the wind or water rounds bits of the hills, because if you get up close by them, you can see the round bits almost ready to drop off at the right pressure, and the empty pockets, where, I suppose, marbles have dropped off already. These here are so soft that they flake off if you touch them, so they’d be no good for actual marbles. Dad found the largest one I’ve seen on our walk the other day, as large as my palm, and we also found one that was shaped like a bear or cat head, with equally-spaced ears, and well-shaped eyes and nose. We took pictures.

The heater’s on again and I’ll stop now to see if I can find some jobs for myself.

From 10 or 11 to 2 PM, roughly, I searched for jobs. Looked a bit in education jobs, but most are higher level than I want, and nearly all require the CBEST test. One didn’t, but required it’s own basic skills test instead. I think I could do most of what it requires.I’ve decided I might sign up to be an aide sub, as I can do that without CBEST, see how I like it, gain skills, have more for my resume and still search for history jobs on the side. I might be able to make some money as well!
Mom and I started a fire outside with the firewood from the neighbors’. It burned faster and hotter than I expected, making it bearable outside, even in the wind. Took a short walk about the camp ground until I got too cold, and went back in again to listen to Lindbergh tape. The man with RP had gone, a shame as I wanted to pick his brain some more. Until Mom got a chair, I sat for awhile on a shorter, just right rock by the fire. Just the right spot for a fireplace seat.
When we were outside, a man trundled by quite regularly with a clattery wagon. I could hear up and down this side of the rocks, but couldn’t see him for brush. Mom said he was walking a full-fledged Christmas tree in a wagon. He did that twice! We drank tea, watching the chipmunks and small birds ping-pong about on the ground, picking up seeds. Returning home from our walk, we discovered that the chipmunks live in the small cracks and hollows in the sandstone wall by our camp. One of them ran up the 45 degree angle rock to his hole and stood there peering at us, then disappeared inside. I guess it must be the squirrels at De Anza College, who took the stairs regularly to get where they wanted. It’s interesting that the chipmunks here act the same as our squirrels at home. They both seem to love scattering each other, running here and there like pin balls. Birds do this, too, but not so much. Birds seem to come at each other from above and dive bomb, while squirrels come at each other from the sides.

The moon was out today at 3 or 4. We plan to leave tomorrow for Laughlin. Quartzite was about as cold as this last time we were there. I’m sure Laughlin will be too, but there’s the river walk there, and casinos to duck into when it gets too cold. Today outside the wind came right through clothes. We planned to stay a week if the wind hadn’t come, although we discovered on our walk that the wider camps outside of our rock bowl have little wind. They have a little on the other side of the rocks. Our camp has become a wind tunnel, on the occasions when the wind comes up. I’m surprised the birds and chipmunks were out. Although I guess even they went in their houses, where I suppose they’ve made nests with broken bits of brush, hair, paper, etc.

That raises a question. If all the chipmunks live in rocks here, how do you forecast cold weather? When they’re up in the trees, you can observe them and note when they’re lining nests, but nothing but a camera could get into these cracks in our wall. And even then there’d be an angry chipmunk to deal with.

Lately, Mom mentioned I should do a cookbook project, so I’m looking up recipes. Very interesting stuff…much of it at home, but some good things on the web. Lots of good Okie cooking recipes.

Also she suggusted I should write a children’s story on Santa Claus, so I guess I should work on that as well.

In other news, we tried the soy coffee recipe in my book last night. Remind me not to try that again. There’s a good why the roasted soy flour needs to be strained. It’s the whole bitter-taste-in-the-throat-flour-choking feeling that I didn’t like. Mom snuck in and flushed hers, but I finished half of mine, much slower than I’d drink coffee, before it followed too. I thought we could use the flour in Mexican hot chocolate, but now I’m not so sure, as it made my throught raw. Next time we should strain it. It smelled great…