Monday, February 25, 2019

Snow Day!

Today Eugene got about thirteen inches of snow.












It's rare for us to get even an inch, so many services--including the schools and universities--shut down.

















The snowfall started Sunday afternoon, and the weather service was predicting anywhere from four to eight inches accumulation, so we weren't too surprised when we opened the blinds and there was snow everywhere.















I got up early and walked about through the snowstorm taking pictures.  At first we only had maybe eight inches, but the snow kept falling and falling and by noon or so we were up to thirteen.
















In the middle of the morning it was still snowing, and various birds were out.  A large flock of crows landed in the trees across the street.  I thought maybe I'd get a photo like one taken a year or two ago in Portland where there were something like a hundred black crows in the white snowy branches of a tree.  But today's crows weren't as numerous.

































The cats liked the theory of playing in the snow, but the actual practice was something else.  I think mostly it was too deep for them (although I did see Cicero's brother, Spencer, when I first set out)
















Later in the afternoon, Mark and went for a walk.  The snow at our house was wet, and water flowed on the street underneath it.     












Our neighbors across the street were shoveling out their car. 












Our neighbors up the street were building an igloo. 












We passed about four different groups of kids with sleds on as many different slopes.


I thought this mound of snow on a concrete post looked like a helmet or skull....















In addition to the snow day, I was chuffed when I got an early-morning message from an author I've admired since the late eighties, who had written a cool poem using a comment I'd made as the prompt (the comment is the poem's epigraph), and wanted to e-mail me a copy.




Saturday, February 23, 2019

Weekend Update

Oh let's see... I've been good about going to the gym this week, and I've done the usual routine.   For some reason, I didn't feel sore from techno dancing until Monday, so I think I get extra virtue points going to the gym then.

Writing has been going slowly.  Tuesday I managed to sit and write a bit during my writing night.  I'm thinking the cute lounge will work out.   Today (Saturday) has been a file system cleaning day, which means moving draft copies of stories into their one Scrivener files, and moving various automatic backups out of Dropbox space to speed up syncing with my mobile.

Writing has also been frustrating, in that I got two story rejections.  Of the form-letter, "there were many strong stories submitted" variety.   I suppose that I shouldn't be horrifically surprised:  one market I've never managed to get a story into, and the other market had a theme I probably didn't quite hit.   I know that I shouldn't take story rejections personally, but I do.

Wednesday, February 20, 2019

Techno Dancing

Saturday night, the local queer bar was hosting a Techno Dance, and I decided to go.  I'd asked Mark if he was interested, and he wasn't, so I ended up going by myself.  In a last minute effort, I wondered if any of my contacts on FaceBook might be going, but either they didn't see the post in time, or they weren't.  So...after a disco nap, I wandered into the bar alone.

It's located in Rough-and-Tumble Downtown Eugene, near the Library.  This isn't usually much of a problem, although there was an attempted murder in one of the nearby parking structures, and sometimes a few blocks over can be fairly sketchy.  But Saturday the neighborhood was mostly harmless.

The bar itself is somewhere between comfortable and airport lounge.

I was a little worried that the music would be arrhythmic loops of water being poured into an aquarium patched in with random record scratches, but luckily, it wasn't.  I didn't recognize any of the music, other than a brief sample of a Santana song, and I think the DJ's had three or four tracks they would fade various library samples from.  For the most part the music was conducive to dancing, with some brief interlude sections where there might be an odd transition, or suddenly the foundation rhythm would go away and everyone would stop dancing, face the DJ stand, and sway hesitantly while the music re-organized itself.

My own transition went something like "old white guy bobbing his head in time with the music," to "musical background chorus dancer from a Muppet Movie," to "We're not sure if he's doing a Folk Dance, a Zumba Routine, or an Interpretive Dance As If It Were Done By Doctor Stephen Strange--but he's totally into it."

I haven't been dancing for a while, and enjoyed myself immensely.   I had four interactions of note.

The first was with someone in drag.  They had a fun looking long shaggy coat they were dancing in, and at one point we danced a few measures together, before dancing apart.  Later, as I was getting a Coke at the bar, we had the following exchange (which Mark said was banter):  DQ: "You dance really well."  J: "Oh, thanks; it's fun."  DQ:  "Do you f*ck as well as you dance?"  (this had to be repeated as I didn't hear them over the music)  J (brightly):  "Only with my husband."  DQ:  "Oh. Lucky him."

The second was with a twenty-something guy who I first saw wearing a soft backpack, and gave the strong impression of traveling everywhere out of it.  He approached me as I was dancing near the stage and said, "I really like the energy you're bringing to the dance floor.  You seem like you could dance forever."   J:  "Oh thanks.  I'm glad to be dancing."  This somehow evolved into a hug--one hand on my chest and the other arm against the small of my back--which I returned in a Eugene Hippy Kind of way.

The third was someone I thought I recognized... and he was Very Happy, Very Big, Very Tactile, Very Friendly, and Very Distractable.   I'd say this was the most awkward moment of the night, because when I sashayed over to say hi, it turned into something like dancing with a sleep-walking bear who may have mistaken you for a pot of honey.  My hair seemed fascinating for the interval that it held his attention.  After several attempts, I managed to dance away.  One of his friends wiggled her fingers in front of his eyes, and he returned to his happy swaying.

The fourth was a twenty-eightish dancer, dressed all in black.  By this time, I was doing a full-on, dancing from my hands Doctor Strange routine.  The music mix was hitting all the right notes, and it was that time around midnight when the dance floor has a high tide of people surging on it (in fifteen minutes or so there will be a sudden ebb of folks).   We locked eyes, and various lindy and arming steps followed.  It was fun, but we never were able to sustain steps for longer than about four measures, probably because we never figured out who was leading and who was following.  I think we were both trying to lead.

I danced past midnight, and then it was time to go.  I was feeling a little tired after two hour of almost continuous hopping up and down and dance floor had a tired vibe to it. 

When I got home, I realized that I smelled like someone's cologne--and since I didn't want to have my own personal verse of "Things That Make You Go Hmmm," I rinsed it off. 

Wednesday, February 13, 2019

Lounge Writing

Went to the latest incarnation of Eugene's gay bar last night.  The place has a nice little lounge in the back, with a giant unicorn and goat mural.  And big comfy chairs.  The two women having a conversation when I first arrived left shortly after and I spent the next two hours writing in a practically empty room.  The only drawback is that the comfy chairs are just a little too long in the seat, so there's not much lower back support (maybe I can smuggle in a little pillow)... okay, and the little end tables are tres-cute, but not exactly a library desk (they are easy to move and the right height for the chairs, though).

The other drawback is that it's downtown, which means either driving, taking the bus, or walking about 30 minutes to get to it. 

....but, I'm hoping that I can repeat this next week.

Tuesday, February 12, 2019

Various Reports

Went to the gym Monday for the usual regime.   I added a few extra reps to things and for the last set of cable twists I upped the weights a notch.  Already I can feel abs of steel. 

On the writing front, things have been slow.  I did submit a flash piece, and I should know about it in a week or two. 

On the good things in the family front, The Child had a lucky lottery number, and so he's managed to get into an international baccalaureate program for his first year at high school next year.  This should help him get into a law-school track college, which he says he wants to go to.  We're pleased, because he's got good language skills.   Also, he'll be able to walk himself to school next year, which will mean I can untether my work schedule from his school schedule.

Monday, February 11, 2019

Wednesday, February 06, 2019

Post Gym Moon

 Continuing to be virtuous about going to the gym -- so far I've stuck to my Monday, Wednesday, Friday routine.  The new fine-tuning on the routine seems to be working:  my shoulders and back aren't as sore as they had been in the past, and I feel like the force of the weights and cable-pulls is being directed through the center of my arms, which is good. 




Coming home, the sky was clear enough for a crescent moon to shine through, so I rushed home and took a bunch of photos -- the best viewing spot was in the "treehouse" we built for The Child. 

Although it was about 40F out, I was still warm enough from the gym that I didn't feel the cold too much.  I've been trying to use an infinity focus and manual settings for the shutter speed to control for things like lens flare.  This still meant that the camera auto-focused on the trees or power lines some times -- which is a little weird because I thought I had the camera in full manual mode.

I followed the arc of the moon as it descended through the trees.  Cicero jumped up onto the treehouse near the end of the photoshoot.  I tried to take his picture, but since he's a black cat in a dark yard at night, it didn't come out. 

Sunday, February 03, 2019

Smokey and Cicero


Cats turning on their cute in the hopes of speeding up the duration until dinner time.  Usually Cicero will get a little bored and then there's pouncing. 


But then there is grooming.  I haven't quite figured out the whole "I-love-you-I-bite-you-I-pounce-you-I-run-away" relationship between these two.


Saturday, February 02, 2019

Ides of Winter

Happy Ides of Winter.

This is the time of year when Mark insists that the angels that have lived on the mantle since the Winter Solstice must go.  As a way to sweeten the deal, he suggested that we replace them with Lava Lamps. 

I thought that only one of the lamps worked, and that a trip to the hardware store to get a special bulb might be in order.  But when I checked, both lamps worked. 

"It's a Groundhog Day Miracle!" Mark said. 

We've had the angels for at least fifteen years.  Mark and I were at a big box store and I saw these and gasped, because they are so horribly over the top.  And I have an affinity for sculptures of angels playing horns, or singing, or holding lamps or lecterns.   Okay, and I would love a house filled with angels (and gargoyles) holding lights everywhere.   (Also, can you imagine a row of these holding up a coffee table?)

Actually, a house of Lava Lamps would be cool, too (especially in Winter). 

Mark made us wait until the day after Christmas, and the big box store had a Holiday Reduction Sale -- which meant we could get two for the price of one!  (I would have gotten four, but....)