Speed Limits and Toes That Point Up

Max and I traded off being Vince's nurse.

"Put on your signal," said Vince.    
"It is on," I told him.
Two minutes go by.
"Put your hands at 10 and 2."
How long did the doctor say he couldn't drive?
Another couple minutes pass.
"You can get closer," he said
"In Minnesota it's one car length per second,"  I corrected.
he mimics me but I think he knows I'm right.
"The speed limit here is 40."
I'm not listening.  I wonder if he could start driving again right now and we just won't tell the doctor.

Two days later.

Although, (other than the back seat driving) I enjoyed being Vin's nurse, I don't mind that today's 5-star cielectomy (official name of Vin's toe surgery)  follow-up marked the end of my chauffeuring era

(plus the end of him tying up my crutches and not putting my ice packs back in the freezer). 

His toe appointment was fun.  I liked being support for a change.  We listened while the surgeon detailed the operation.  Evidently Vince had agreed to an operating room description of the procedure and missed the part where the doc said "since you're an athlete, I'm going to 'cut a notch in the joint and suture it so it will heal pointing up a bit.  It will add about a month to the healing process."  Even though Vince doesn't remember this conversation it's too late now so we're hoping the resulting competitive unfair advantage from having a big toe that points up is big enough to justify the extra month.

Guess what's happening here.

 More later.

I Saved The Staples

When Vince and I went to Ohio for our film MFA interview Max was the bookstore dog at the Galaxy Bookshop in Hardwick

My staples are out which is a huge mental move forward for me.  The only way it could have been worse is if I'd had more knees.  In twenty years when I have to do this again :(, I want to be put asleep.

I'm thinking that the toughest component of my healing process, even with all the physical discomfort, will be the patience part of it.  I've spent most of the last couple days fretting, that after all my stretching, my flexion was getting worse and when we measured it with hand-held calipers rather than my head-held calipers, it had actually gotten better.*  Not as much better as I (the expert and knee owner) thought it should be, but better which is way better than worse. (that's a lot of 'betters'). 

I will admit that I am excited to 'get this show on the road', but just the same I am being very careful and thoughtful with my physical therapy.  Like today. My physical therapist tried to keep a non-judgmental look on her face as I described my plan for using the rowing machine as therapy.  I told her the hardest part about it is that it sits so close to the floor so I was thinking I could have Vin hang a trapeze contraption from the ceiling that I could use to lower myself on the the machine.  All she said was, "why don't we wait until next week," and I was OK with that.

It took me most of the day, but Sunday I figured how to link my blogs together with html code.  I am so much smarter than I thought I was.  It's fun seeing (stats page) that people actually use the new feature to go from one blog to the other like it's a real thing that a person who does that kind of thing did, and not me.

MY DAD

It looked like flying from Mesa, Arizona to Sioux Falls, South Dakota on April 18 was going to be cheap, so one weekday afternoon when all the Minnesota snowbirds were over at Janis J's for no special reason, Dad had her get him a ticket.  She has a printer so she could print it out while he was there too which made it even more of a great idea.  (when something seems to good to be true, it usually is)

Good Life.  Sustainable living.

Water aerobics on St Patrick's Day at Good Life.

A few days later he got to thinking that hanging around 'Good Life' resort for two weeks by himself (since people are starting to leave now), when it might even be warmer in Minnesota, may not have been worth saving the fifty dollars and leaving sooner would be worth any amount of money.  I'd bought my brother Dale a ticket to Mesa last Christmas time.  He didn't go so I had a voucher sitting in a file with all of my other unused airline vouchers.

Aunt Marlene had Janis email Dad, me and her a copy of Dad's itinerary so we would all be on the 'front' page.  I called the airline (Allegiant) but since Janis J. had made the reservation, she would have to make the changes (that's what she gets for being nice).  She gave me a list of the several passwords she may have used so I could get into her account.  One worked and up came a long manifest of tickets purchased and printed that afternoon at her house.

I made Dad's new reservation but I couldn't use the voucher because my step-sister Janet had put Dale's Christmas time ticket on her credit card so the voucher was in her name.  To use it Janet would have had to call Allegiant, with an average wait time 28 minutes, and OK the voucher transfer, then Dad would have had to call Allegiant, with an average wait time 28 minutes, and make the reservation over the phone.  TOO MANY COOKS.  We used a credit card so Dad's cheap ticket ended up being 91 dollars more than the one Janis got for him and I still have a voucher in Janet's name.

My dad just got his girlfriend her birthday present.  I can tell you what it was because, even though her birthday isn't for a few weeks, he couldn't wait to give it to her.  A card shuffler.



*In case you are interested......I have another blog.  I call it my knee blog.  It's like a journal and is only about my knees.  I update it almost everyday whether something is newsworthy or not.  I started it because, at the beginning of this whole process, I really wanted to see how my progress, pain and decision making compared with others and I couldn't find a site that had the information I wanted.  It's at the top right of 'Kathy's Big Adventure' under MY BLOG LIST. Anyway....go ahead, stalk me.

Hear Goes Nothing

Max is ready for hunting season.

Had Vince and I been accepted to the Binger Film Lab in Amsterdam I would have had some exciting news but we didn't so I don't.  We knew we were under-qualified the whole time (three weeks) we were filling out the application but thought maybe we'd fulfill some obscure admissions requirement quota for them.  Guess not.  It would have been fun to spend 4 months in Amsterdam rubbing elbows with Spike Lee but what about Max?  We figured he wouldn't have liked flying so we'd have had to take a boat.  And then once in Amsterdam, while he may have enjoyed all the smells, but he wouldn't have enjoyed sitting in an apartment all day just waiting for us to come home.  I want to cry just thinking about it.

Our Christmas cactus has one blossom this year which is one more than it had last year.

Our default location is Vermont (we go north for the winter) where we are attempting to feel productive by doing at least one thing on the house everyday.  Vin's week long cinematography workshop at 'Maine Media'  didn't help our timetable any but whatever.*    We are about 2 task-weeks behind but stay closer to our schedule better than my online Spanish 'A Word A Day' people.  Yesterday's word was zanahoria which means carrot and when they used it in a sentence I'm pretty sure they used it incorrectly...like I would know.

Kitchen lights from Etsy.

Last week Vince installed the lights above the counter which should count for at least a week of projects but I'd never tell him that.  Me? I order things and then figure out where in the neighborhood UPS has dropped them off.   We're going to finish the fireplace as soon as the beam we picked out for the mantle is dry.  The guy at the mill left a message saying it's at 25 and he wants it to be at 10 which doesn't really tell us much since we don't know when it was at any other numbers.


Riding and Dogs:
1.  If I'm really quiet I can get past the two nasty dogs on Center Road without them chasing me.  They've never bitten me or hit my front wheel which surprises me every time.   Today my plan was to try holding my breath until I got even with the 'Save the Lowell Range' sign on their lawn and then sprint.  They'd never know.  Sprawled on the sidewalk with their backs toward me, I sneaked by.  My timing was perfect.  And then I sneezed.

2.  There was no way to tell from the map how many unleashed dogs would be on the new loop I was riding that day.  Near the end of the ride, having outrun a dozen poised and ready-to-pounce mutts, I started to let down my guard.  As I approached the last dirt road crossing, out of the corner of my eye I saw the biggest dog of the day coming up full speed on my left.  He cut right in front of me, just missing my front wheel, and that's when I noticed I'd been chased by a goat.  Swear to God.


Other News.

Aunt Marlene (holding prints from her film camera), Vince, and Uncle Roy at Good Life last Christmas day.

•Dad is already down at 'Good Life' the age qualified/55+ (Vince and I are 55) 'resort community' in Mesa Arizona for the winter.  He told me he got an ipad that's "really more than an ipad" because when the guy in the store talked to it, "it could write what he said in any language".  Sold.

•I'd always wanted to be able to whistle but never could.  A few weeks ago my jaw shifted a bit and now I whistle a little when I talk so be careful for what you wish.

•I don't know what made me think of this but the day we left Metaline Falls I was outside swallowing the last of my tea and with it the grasshopper that had sneaked into my mug...so when I say there are no bugs here, it's not entirely true.

Enough of trying to make 'nothing' interesting.


* I meant to grab my credit card from the wallet (we share one wallet) before he left but didn't so my week was spent seeing how long I could go in the Vermont countryside with no car and no money.

Metaline Falls, Tyler and Greece

Metaline Falls, Washington.

An hour after we rolled down the driveway we were sitting outside on stone steps looking into Canada with no bugs or humidity feasting on a year old can of organic garbanzo beans transformed into hummus with tahini from somewhere in Idaho on 2 day old bread from Montana.  

They told us the rain stopped the day before we pulled in to Metaline Falls.  Our field was tall and green and there was still snow in the mountains.  Vin's stone walkway hadn't moved...like the stone walkways other people make, he told me...and other than a few flies the house was apparently just as we'd left it*.   Two days later friends Bobbi and Eric from Bozeman popped in to share good meals, movies and bike rides and the next day I left for Greece. 

Our Metaline Falls 15 minute clothes dryer

I am soooo spoiled.

We make it a point to support the local economy.  Shown here is Vince with a slingshot from the local health food/ammo store.

Greece.

Sarah, Linda and me.  Best friends from high school.  When we were 40 we decided that every 10 years we would take a trip together.  When we were 50 we decided we'd better make it every year.  This year we decided to go to Greece.  Partly because of Mamma Mia and partly because Linda's sister Nancy lives there.  While looking into flying from Vermont I noticed that if I flew from Spokane, Washington I could meet up with Sarah and Linda in Denver since that was their first stop after departing from Boise.  Then, we could all fly together Denver/Toronto/Athens.  So.  After paying a little more for a ticket from Spokane, Vin, Max and I drove to Washington a month earlier than we had planned. 

Yada yada....you know how fun it is when you get off a plane and there is someone waiting for you?  My plane landed in Denver.  I had butterflies.  Linda and Sarah would be there and I knew they wouldn't care that they would be making fools of themselves when they saw me.  But I deplaned to a quiet group of airport maintenance workers instead of a couple of ex-cheerleaders screaming and jumping up and down.

'I'll bet they're hiding', I thought, as I scanned the boarding area for a cowboy hat (Linda's trademark).  They weren't there.  My phone rang.  It was Vince.  Sarah had called him.  They'd missed their flight from Boise.  The name on someone's ticket didn't match the name on someone's passport! (insert sinking feeling)  Orbitz told them they would have to buy a new ticket in order to continue.  So what I wondered was, if they did decide to pay $3000 for another ticket, when could they get on another flight?  (more sinking feeling)  Now what?  Are they still going to Greece?  Should I continue east or fly back to Spokane and bag the whole thing?  I was only going because they were going. **  I had a half hour to decide but how could I decide with no information.  I got in line and kept moving forward toward the gate agent until I was standing face to face with her and no one behind me.  The phone rang again.  It was Linda.  She'd been talking to Air Canada and....click (that is, if cell phones made click sounds....) I lost the connection.  I tried to phone her back...'no service available'..."what the..."  That can't be, I was just talking.   Seeing that I had an exit row and an aisle seat, I decided to go to Toronto. 

Toronto.

I had two and a half hours until my Athens flight.  A seemingly luxurious amount to time.  During that time I talked to Linda and Sarah close to a million times.  Soon two and a half hours was 15 minutes.  Still no conclusion.  Deja vu.  In line, I moved toward the gate agent.  I knew I didn't want to go to Greece alone...but they might still go.  And they might not.  I could still fly back to Spokane....the phone rang.  They got re-booked and in TWO DAYS! they would be in Athens through Munich.  TWO DAYS!  I decided to head back to Spokane.  Walking toward the person behind the counter that takes care of things like that, I figured it wouldn't hurt to ask, 

"Can you rebook me on the same flight as my girlfriends?" (paraphrased!) 

and in less than an hour I had a ticket on a flight to Munich where I'd be sitting across from Sarah.  In two days we'd all be getting off a plane together in Athens.

Even though olive oil sits on cafe' tables in Greece like ketchup sits on tables here and the food is fresh and simple, I found Greece too hot and busy for me to really enjoy.  Dah?  It waaaas July.  

(neither did I like that it sounded as if people were always yelling at each other when they spoke or that 'no' meant 'yes').

    

But there were some good parts...  

• upgrading to first class (+$12) on ferries to a couple of islands (Naxos and Santorini)*** and playing rummy based on childhood memories.

• seeing the Parthenon and the Acropolis from a bicycle (a 3 hour bike tour with a guide that was leading us places that had to be off limits to bicycles and would have taken 2 days to walk).

• watching fishermen come in off their boats and cook octopus over wood fires.
• hiking on ancient stone paved trails on Naxos.

• communicating with smiles, waves and hugs while I helped an local 80 year old woman wring out and hang her laundry because her arm hurt

• being with Linda, Sarah and Sarah's sister Ruth

Sorry, no pictures from Greece on this post.  Can you believe I didn't even bring a camera? 

*When the plumber came to winterize the Metaline Falls house last October he did everything on Vince's list (and follow-up email) except #2.

2. put glycol in the concrete floor radiant heating system.  

I don't want to spend much time on this one but what it means is that the system froze, the pipes IN THE CONCRETE FLOOR burst and how do you find and fix leaks IN A CONCRETE FLOOR?

**Tyler tornado. 

The day before I left for Greece my brother Dale called to tell me they'd had a couple of storms back home in Tyler, Minnesota.  He said they were OK but one of the silos blew over.  Plus the hog house was gone.  So was a hay shed.  He said the silo landed on one of the tractors which was good because it could have landed on the pick-up and he was sitting in the pick-up.  He said he tried to get from the pick-up to the house (where my sister-in-law Brenda was in the basement wondering where Dale was) a couple of times but every time he opened the pick-up door to run to the house a hunk of metal roofing went flying through the air.  So tragic.  Even though I would have been of no help whatsoever, I felt like I should be going there instead of going to Greece. 

The hog house used to be somewhere around here.

Tractor with silo on it

Tractor and silo parts

This is not a sculpture garden.   It's the hog house roof having almost made it over to Uncle Mik and Aunt Leona's farm.

Another 'not a sculpture garden' view

***You know when you see pictures of Greece (a huge clump of brilliant white buildings covering an almost vertical mountain and sitting above ocean?), it's usually Santorini and it really does look like that.

Where Are We Today?

Two or three times a week, I get 'Your Daily Spanish Word' in my inbox.  Yesterday my word was avergonzado.  It means 'ashamed' and reminded of how ashamed I am at feeling sorry for myself after my recent little knee surgery.  Even though it's just for a week, having to 'lay low' (which mostly means 'don't ride your bike') is driving me crazy.  You'd think with all this extra time I could be doing things that I never have time for when I don't have to lay low but I can't because I'm fixated on what I can't do instead of what I can.  It's not like I ride my bike all day, it's more like an hour or two, but the thing is, it makes everything else I do during the day so much better.  Sort of like butter.  You know how fresh sweet corn or warm homemade bread is pretty good all by itself?  OK, now add a little butter.

More About The Knee.
During pre-op, half way into the description of needle insertions and injections into the lumbar area, I interrupted my spinal anesthesiologist with an 'I trust you' which he immediately correctly interpreted as 'shut up' and left it at "you won't be able to feel anything below the waist."  I would have to say that was an understatement.  In the recovery room out of the corner of my eye I could see a nurse holding something in the air above her head.  When I focused I saw it was my leg.  

This is what they took out of my knee (the white thing that looks like popcorn, not the nickel)  It's blurry, sorry.

Real Estate For Sale.

I'd always wanted a purple door.  (Plainfield, Massachusetts)

Stairs and wall by Vince, a self-taught stone mason.

3 years is a long time to have a house on the market but 6 months ago we had 2 houses on the market so it could be worse.  Every winter we take the house in Massachusetts off the market and close it up because we don't want a potential buyer seeing all that unmanaged snow then every spring we spend a week opening it back up.  We've been doing it so long now that we just do it without even thinking that the reason we do it is to sell it.  I think subconsciously I don't want to sell it because it's my favorite place to sleep (and shower and ride) making the week we spend there every spring more like a luxury vacation than the drudgery it should feel like.  In a way I hate the thought of selling the house and cutting our last tie to western Mass after twenty-five years of a really good life.

Can you see why this would be my favorite place to sleep?

Washington State May Seem Like A Long Way To Go To Get Away From Deer Flies.
Neither of us play an instrument so when I saw Vin carrying our guitars out to the trailer I knew we weren't taking just the bare necessities and it was going to be a while before we left.
By 7:30 (that's 7:30 pm) we were packed and ready to hit the road.  We made it to Rutland, Vermont, Vin figured about 105 miles.*  The first thing I did when we got to the motel was lock the key in the room. The sign on the motel office door said 'We're Closed. In case of emergency dial 123' but since I was locked out of the room I had nothing to dial 123 on so I found a room with the lights on and knocked.  The door opened momentarily blinding me with a thick gray wall of cigarette smoke.  The guy holding the growling pit bull didn't take his eyes off the TV and the guy at the door just looked waiting for me to speak.  He dialed 123 for me.  I saw his lips move into the receiver but all I could hear was the TV.  30 seconds later the manager was cheerfully opening our door.

The Room.
Across from 'Simply Meat' and between the 'Joy of Nails' and 'Adam and Eve Hair Design', sat our $44 room.  It smelled sort of funny at first but I got used to it.  When I sat on the side of the bed my feet were in the bathroom so I didn't have to touch the carpet with my bare feet and without much effort I could almost reach the decal on the shower door that promised  a Thermasol In-room Steam®' that wasn't really there.

So.  We've started our road trip.  It's good except that we have to have the AC on high continuously for Max even though I'm freezing all the time.


*at that rate it will take us about a month to get to Washington.

Where Are The Eagles?

You don't know how close I came to pulling the plug on 'Kathy's Big Adventure', but how depressing would that have been (for me anyway)? Just cross it of my 'to do' list like it's done?  I couldn't do it.  I think I'm stuck with 'Kathy's Big Adventure' forever.   

Our fourth trip across the country this year landed us in Vermont which is where we are now.  You'd think by now I'd be sick of road trips but I'm not.  Max loves road trips too although how would I know for sure?  

The Black Hills (western South Dakota) starts feeling like 'out West' to me

Max getting up the nerve to go back into Wall, SD

We've gotten good at traveling with a dog (sorry Max, to some people you're a dog).  We know now, after that night on the floor (that's Vince and I on the floor, not Max) of a 40 dollar dog-friendly hotel in Elkhart, Indiana, to request TWO beds in a pet-friendly room that costs more than 50 dollars a night.  We also now know that Max loves tapioca and is afraid of the buffalo statue in downtown Wall, South Dakota.  If Max is panting, even if I'm freezing, the windows have to be open and I have to hold bags on my lap so Max can have the whole back of the car to himself.

Max enjoys the comfort of a LaQuinta Inn (Missoula)

More road trip...

I know if we miss the I-90 Continental Divide exit* outside of Butte (it comes up so fast) there is not another exit for 11 miles (22 miles round trip) and in Montana there can be a hundred miles 'to the next gas station'.

On a road trip, there is the frustration of moving from one partial radio program to another partial radio program and dropping every cell phone call but I savor every mile and always look forward to the destination in both directions.  

Driving east I look forward to being able to get decaf anywhere (even though I don't like not being able to drink it outside because of the bugs).  I look forward to being able to find Willow Run, Poland Spring and really green fields.  I like that when skylines are hazy, it's because of humidity and not a forest fire.  

Hiking in BC relatively just north of Metaline Falls. Photo credit: Ed Shaw 29 year buddy.  This setting is real.  Honest.

I'm finally used to eastern time but have to remember that big birds in the top of a tree probably aren't eagles.

Where does milk come from?

The other day while riding my bike past one of the 1083 Vermont dairy farms (I love that smell) I came face to face with a cow in the middle of the road.  Behind her were about twenty other cows all casually walking and pooping down the road like they owned it.  Figuring this was a good opportunity to say something folksy, I looked around for the human taking up the rear.  There wasn't one.  Instead, behind the contented herd, dancing figure eights to keep the group moving forward, were a couple of dogs. The older one, at least part border collie and using as little energy as possible, efficiently kept her side of the group neat and tight while the younger, of an indeterminate background, nervously nipped at ankles and belligerently head-butted udders.   Up and down as if on a trampoline, he nipped at the hips of cows innocently taking their time.  Show off.  I looked closer. The little guy had three legs. 

Soon the canine team had gracefully maneuvered the group around the corner like a school of fish, down a driveway past a calf wildly trying to shake a 5 gallon pail from his head and into a dilapidated barn. 

This is what it would feel like if animals ruled the world.

Other recent adventures: 

The podiatrist I've been seeing announced that the plantar wart he'd been scraping for a month is gone and the Amazon described 'like new' used book I ordered arrived with half of the book jacket ripped off and even though I'd only paid a dollar fifty, it made me mad.

Rewind to Washington.

From the house our field doesn't look that big.  Then you realize that all those dots in the middle of it are 500 pound hay bales. Chad Grass hayed our Washington field this summer.  Chad Grass.  Isn't that a great name for someone that hays? 

 * (one of my top 10 things in life)   there is a Continental Divide trailhead 50 yards from that exit

Meet Our Movie

Brian (lead male) is bringing his new girlfriend Kathy to meet his family for Christmas dinner in rural Minnesota. Brian's family (age range from 5 to 75) expects him to bring the old familiar girlfriend they love and consider part of the family. When Brian enters with someone new, they don't know how to react. The story resolves when Kathy saves the life of one of the Uncles in a quirky, comedic scene and is welcomed into the family.

Loosely based on a true story, "You're Not Cindy" is an autobiographical comedy/drama of a Christmas when my college boyfriend surprised his family with me and I received a used, non-working clock radio in a shoe box as an impromptu gift from his confused parents weakly faking that they had expected me.

Without boring you with specifics, certain things need to be done before our movie hit the big screen.
1. Write a screenplay.
2. Find professional actors that would act for free
3. Find a location that looked like a Minnesota farmhouse, seated 16 for a Christmas dinner, wouldn't mind 35 strangers making themselves at home and was easily accessible for actors and crew from Canada and the US.*
4. Prepare a couple turkey dinners for 16 including pickled herring and several Jellos with Cool-whip.
5. Choose and wrap Christmas gifts for a big bunch of people in February.
6. Find and inspect hotel rooms for cast and crew.
7. Coordinate catering.
8. Find Christmas outfits for everyone.
9. Find a dog the day before the shoot since that is when we found out that our Canadian dog didn't have a rabies shot.
yada yada yada
Real movies have a lot of other people do this stuff but as usual it was just the two of us.

A series of lucky coincidences led us to the Lovitt Restaurant in Colville, Washington with an exterior that looked exactly like a Minnesota farmhouse if you didn't really know what a Minnesota farmhouse looked like. The Lovitt Restaurant, as you might guess by the name IS a restaurant, so inside it looked like a restaurant which would be fine if we had written a screenplay about a family that was having dinner at a restaurant but they weren't....they we at Aunt Marge and Uncle Joe's farmhouse for Christmas. Spokane cousins, that I only talk to when I need something (mostly kidding), earned a healthy spot in our credits with a collection of Christmas decorations that sang, snowed, kicked, swiveled and blinked. Then, between local secondhand, rent-to-own and furniture stores we managed to find a couch, loveseat and comfy recliner around town. Coffee and end tables, refrigerator, stove, a couple afghans and a TV that we could have on in the background throughout the day (is anyone else familiar with this family gathering phenomenon?)

Stuff I'd never really thought about...
If you want to shoot 'actor A' close-up from the front saying her lines and then 'actor B's' face reacting to 'actor A' when she's talking...it's at least two different set ups/takes....lights, mics, camera...everything. Then if you want to get a shot of 'actor C' overhearing and reacting to 'actor A and B', it's also and other set up/take. And, if actors A, B and C don't do their lines and reactions exactly the same every time, the takes can't be edited together smoothly which means that not all takes are good and you have to keep shooting until you get something good. You get the idea. When i realized that all of the gifts in a gift opening scene have to be wrapped up over and over exactly the same for each take, it was too late to make reservations for Costa Rica and spend the winter on the beach. A dinner table scene is similar. Let's use jello as an example. It gets passed around. Everyone takes some and puts it on their plates. Cut. Now let shoot it the other side. Easy for you to say. Now we need another untouched jello and clean plates.
And this is why we ran out of time.

Film Festival.
The venue (OK...so it was the school cafeteria) was sold out (if you can consider a free event 'sold-out') for our world premier. The standing room only crowd of movie buffs and surprised students looking for dinner, enjoyed the evening of 9 student films and 50 cent cookies that cost me 75.*
The audience laughed everywhere they were supposed to and then some. We held a question and answer session after the films and someone asked if our Christmas dinner scene was a real family dinner and if everyone knew each other. I guess that could be interpreted as a compliment? The event was followed by a party at our Nelson house until 2:30 and included international guests from as far away as Metaline Falls, Washington.


*For the event I bought some sweet breads and then went back and picked out 10 cookies at the Kootenay Coop Bakery.
"Would you like two more cookies?" the cashier asked.
"No thanks, I'm good", I responded.
"OK. That's 7-50".
I handed her a crisp purple 10 dollar bill.
"Thank you. If you would have gotten 2 more it would have been a dozen for 4-75." she said handing me my change.

If you think this post has a lot going on...you should have been at the Lovitt during the shoot.

The first photo is of the Lovitt before we did our magic.

Live and Learn

No one told me that one of the most important steps in shooting documentary was transcribing. Or if someone did, it was when I wasn't listening. It may not sound like a big deal to you but I have to listen to and write down EVERY word with the time...to the nearest one-hundreth of a second...that it was spoken I have about 5 hours of shooting for my 5 minute documentary and my fingers look the times of a garden cultivator. Ironically, accidently forgetting to turn the sound on during a one hour shooting session was a disaster that ended up making my day.

I never paid much attention to Skype until our cell phone bill finally found us up here in Nelson. We knew it wasn't going to be pretty but were still surprised to see that the last two months were 690 dollars. Our favorite call was the 24 dollar casual chat the Vin and I had to each other from one classroom to another (in the same building). Who knew? (don't you hate that saying?)

Canada.
Benjamin Moore paint chip colors are in French. Rainforest dew is vert stuart. Pale avocado is avocat pale.
Yesterday it was pretty cold....1 degree in the Peace.
Remember I told you about the Cocoa-nut lounge? We showed up to another standing-room-only crowd...this time on a Tuesday....groovin' to an electric guitar artist yelling a combination of opera and rock.

Wednesday was classmate Alan's birthday. He turned 25 so the whole class (except Naomi who's only 17 and has a grandmother my age) went out to a karaoke bar where Vin and I belted out 'I've got you Babe' to a crowd that didn't know that Cher had ever been married.

House.
We've had electricity, plumbing and 4-6" (R30-R45) of high density closed cell foam insulation for ages but since they didn't lend themselves to compelling photography or storytelling I've had a hard time working them into my news.

The insulation people? Perfect.
The electric people? Perfect. Two brothers dba Brother's Electric. One of the brothers, Darin, went to college somewhere in Ohio because it had the strongest Ninja 'team' in the country.
The plumber? Apologized after hollering F*** You and hanging up on Vin because he asked when the boiler was going to be installed.

Max loves hiking on larch needles, a silent, western version of New England's fall leaves.

Hair For Sale

Last Friday, I donated my hair. I think that may have even counted as doing something for someone beside myself??
Nelson's 'Locks of Love' festival was on Saturday and they were looking for ponytails that were at least 8" long. I'd been wanting to find a good home for mine and finally found a salon that was hip to the 'walk-in' concept.

"if I just cut off your pony-tail, it's free," she told me.
I wanted a reason to pay her, "Well I need my bangs cut too."
"Bangs are free."
"What else is free?"
"There are mints on the counter."
That's some business model.
I had decided to grow my hair in order to donate it and decided at about 4" that I wouldn't be doing it again. Life is too short. IF I took the time to brush it, it would take half an hour which is a really significant part of my day.....so I just didn't bother. Living in a tent and having a sensitive scalp were good reasons to ignore it. One day I had it washed, combed and braided at 'Chris Cuts' in Metaling Falls. She yanked for about 55 minutes, which wasn't fun for either of us, but I walked out with a braid that lasted over 2 weeks. I tried to schedule another painful braid but Chris wouldn't return my calls.

School.
Guess who finished their screenwriting exam first yesterday? It was close between Rob and me but I edged him out mostly because he wasn't racing and I was closer to the professor's desk. The editing mid-term was today. I got creamed. FInished last by 2 seconds. Guess editing is not my event.

This film program is going to make a man out of me. I just finished my first day of shooting and I feel like I just finished the Hawaii Ironman. The learning curve I was so proud of is leveling out. I'm worried that it may even be upside down. Vince was theoretically my assistant although an observer would have been sure it was the other way around. Thankfully his learning curve is as steep as ever. Anyway. I now have 4 hours of footage ending with a 3 tiered organic polka dotted birthday cake. "I'll find my story in the editing bay" as they say in the business.

I fell asleep during the Film Studies lecture again this week. Front row. Lights on. I fought it as long as I could but in the end my head was bobbing as helplessly as last week.

More.
We got the sweetest little refrigerator today. I'll look better without the protective blue plastic.

Max has diarrhea :(

Waiting for Kathy

"OK. So we're just waiting for Kathy." the instructor said.

I know he wasn't trying to be mean or anything and I doubt anyone even heard him or cared but I felt like I'd just been the last kid picked. When did everyone finish anyway? And how was I supposed to finish now that everyone was maybe staring or pointing? I handed in the test and then he said "Do you want to take a couple minutes and stretch your legs?" How long had everyone been done? I'm in my 50's shouldn't I be smarter and faster than everyone else except Vince?

Vince and I started school a couple weeks ago. We're renting a great little house Nelson, British Columbia Sunday nights through Thursday afternoons.

Joanne is 34. Shannon and Nils are 28 and the other seven are somewhere between that and 18. They're good kids. They offer to help me with new software and I offer them any information they may need on the 70's.

I don't think I'm as smart as I thought I was. These classes are hard. I'm not sure I like it. Actually I'm pretty sure I don't.

I'm not sure what to do. I'm thinking that once we get through editing the Sea World footage and capturing 29.97 fps in DV 720 x 480i (1.33:1) becomes second nature, I'll like it well enough to be inside all day.....when it's 70 degrees and sunny???

Film Studies
Screen-writng
Photoshop
Sound
Final Cut (editing)
Cinematography
Workflow
Directing....they looked interesting and fun on paper to me too....

Meanwhile. I just WALKED to the food co-op for tofu and avocados and tomorrow morning we'll WALK to Oso Negro (coffee) before Cinematography. I think I'm spoiled.

I'll figure it out.

Pictures:
• first day of school
• our Nelson house
• Oso Negro