Tips for how to start appreciating art

Looking at art is like meeting a person, and having a conversation with them, getting to know them. Think of the art as another human being. After all, some person somewhere made it, and put something of themselves into it, and had some reason for making it, some idea they wanted to put out there in the world for others to see/hear/experience. They can’t respond back to you when you meet their art, but you can respond to what they’ve made.

If you don’t know what to say to a stranger, it helps to prepare an interview, come up with a selection of questions to ask when you meet them.

Pay attention to your first impression, as it can guide you in how to proceed. With most people/art, there might be something familiar you can talk about.

Try to think of something similar you may have seen before that you can compare it to. Is there a person or animal in the painting? Do you recognize anything about them? What are they doing? Are they alone or with others? If with others, how are they relating to each other? If a landscape, is it like any place you’ve ever been? Is it daytime, what season? what’s the weather like? Where’s the sun? Any people or buildings in it? And with all art, you can ask yourself how you feel when looking at it. Could you “enter” the painting, such as by a road or path if a landscape, or a door/window if a building?

Some of them are difficult to talk with. They might be totally unfamiliar, strong colors, strange shapes, odd materials that you’re not even sure what they are. Alien. Maybe it’s a canvas with just one color in it. Why did the artist choose that color? What does the color remind you of? Is there a texture or shine to it? Is it balanced from one side to the other?

Or maybe it’s just a very strange thing… with this kind of art, you can start by asking yourself how you feel when looking at it. Do you want to stare at it? Get closer? Touch it? Or stop looking at it and run away? Does it scare you? Make you feel sick? Why? Is it the odd shapes, weird mix of colors? You might find yourself learning as much about yourself as about the art.

After you have more experiences looking at art, you can more readily enter a conversation, back and forth, with the art. What is it saying, and how are you responding? Over time, the more you look at an individual work of art, you will notice new and different aspects of it that seem to appear from nowhere, which makes you feel like there is a real conversation going on.

Garden of the Gods

Pikes Peak

I live in a beautiful part of the country, close to these two well-known wonders. The climate here "suits my clothes" and seems good for my health as well. I wish I had some real friends here but that's starting to change. I'm getting accustomed to the solitude which is leading to feeling more at ease with myself. More artwork is coming from this, slowly but steadily. I'm doing a lot of thinking about, planning new images, getting and working with ideas, making changes to recent works. Finding my way. 

2016 has been a hard year, with mostly external challenges, with one exception: the moving away of my son's family, including my two grandsons whom I've spent almost every Friday with for 3 years. I moved here to be near them, and now that they've gone, it's been a major adjustment. Like pulling a plant out by the roots. I understand why they moved, but still, it's been hard for me. I had feelings of being betrayed, abandoned, deceived. I was angry, hurt, fearful for awhile. 

There might still be some of that, but I've been working with those feelings and lately feel like I'm growing through them, putting new roots down, roots of my own, and am starting to feel more connected to this place as a result: my cozy house, my neighbors, the groups doing work that I care about. It helps to focus on actions that improve conditions for others. I send postcards to my grandboys, gave them an annual pass to their local science museum, so they can get out of the house and learn more about their world. I donate to my local public radio station, art museum, and nonprofits that support public lands. 

That last one is a little selfish, since I value having access to hiking trails where I can get away from the city and be among wild beings (plants and animals). To me that's like food, medicine, energy. To paraphrase John Muir, going out there is like going inside, like getting recharged, refreshed. I need to go to the woods, the rivers, the mountains.

St. Mary's Falls hike with Meetup group

So it's been a couple of years since I've posted here! Two years and one month, exactly. Time to pick it up again:

It seems that I'm more inclined to write after having gone out on a hike. Definitely a pattern to it. Even though I've been hiking quite a bit and not writing, I feel like writing after a good hike. Walking in the woods tends to settle the brain and make coherent thoughts more likely to come about.

Today's hike was led by a longtime local, and the pace was quite brisk for an all-uphill trail in icy/slushy snow. I lagged behind, partly due to being out of shape, partly due to fighting a cold, partly due to still getting adjusted to the altitude, but mostly because I insist on looking around as I go while also watching my step. When almost to the destination (but at the steepest part of the trail), I decided to turn around and let the others continue, letting them know I'd meet them back at the cars. That's when the hike started to be really fun.

I started to sing the old New Hampshire song I learned as a kid in 4-H, "I want to wake up/in the morning/where the purple lilacs grow/where the sun comes a-peeping/into where I'm a-sleeping/and the songbirds say "hello"... since lilacs grow naturally around here, I changed the words a bit to suit the locale. Then I saw a black squirrel and while watching it, a big clump of wet snow landed between my front pack and my shirt, a very wet cold spot! Shook it off and kept going... went alongside a steep slope, and was inspired, by having seen pacific northwest snow donuts, to make my own. Rolled a sticky snowball down the slope, and it gathered more snow as it went, becoming a tall rolling donut as it went. Another one got very large, hit a shrub, broke apart and kept rolling, becoming a dozen or so more donuts! Lots of fun! Then I saw a family further down the trail doing the same thing! Some went all the way down, 100' or so, to a little creek at the bottom.



I thought about how I've been meeting new people here, and wishing to meet someone who'd like to go hiking regularly without having to go with a large group... and thought I'd better narrow down that wish. I want someone who likes to hike but also likes to go slow enough to enjoy the scenery, have a little fun, notice new things, critters, odors, sounds, birds... while also being prepared for the weather and destination. And someone who doesn't dislike meeting dogs on the trail since they seem to be everywhere, and who doesn't grouse about politics along the way... There, that's my wish!

I later learned that where I turned around on the trail was not far from the goal, a waterfall. But it was reportedly a very disappointing falls, almost all covered in snow, barely a trickle. So I didn't miss much!

Morning rain

Seems the forecast for the next few days shows the first half of each day with a much higher chance of precip than the latter halves. Kinda interesting. Maybe plan my daily walk (which I've been missing lately) for watching the sunset...

Flying Time

Not just 2012, but February already! Zoom!

We had a solid week of a hard freeze a couple weeks ago, and fortunately it came after a nice thick blanket of snow (6") covered everything in the garden. Fluffy insulation topped by a thin layer of crust. Perfect protection from the frozen winds out of the Fraser valley in Canada. So after it all melted away and temps went up to the 40's again, the brussels sprouts have been plumping up and the kale looks fine.

Seed Catalog Time! I ordered some Tepary beans out of the southwest, from Native Seeds/Search in Tucson. I chose two kinds: one from a high elevation in Mexico, the other from near the coast. I figured either one might translate into coping with high latitude near a coast like here? An experiment. The garden is south facing and gets quite dry in July/August, so they might do well. Looking forward to the black garbanzos again, they are a fun little plant, very pretty and productive with little tending.

Off to have some apple/blackberry pie for breakfast! Sunny day ahead...

End of February already?

Having another week of "wintery" weather. Nothing like New England, sure, but for here, it's been a cold one. Kale got hit hard and won't be edible this spring. Glad I'm converting the garden to perennial fruits, much less work. I think. I planted a fig tree a couple of weeks ago, defying the odds, and may have lost. Oh well, I'll try again when it really is spring, and once established it'll be able to withstand this kind of chill. Many neighbors have full size trees that produce very well. Love fresh figs!

Work: may have a full time framing position coming up later this spring. Have been invited to apply/interview by the store manager. Okay, benefits, doing what I know, sounds good to me. Only drawback would be driving out of town. I'm spoiled by being able to walk to work at both of my part time jobs I have now. But I'd better grow up sooner or later, and get real with this employment thing!

I miss my grandboy! Had a wonderful visit with him and the family in January. Wish they didn't live on the other side of the continent. I considered the possibility of moving back to the east coast, but with the higher cost of living and my income record, I doubt if I could qualify for another mortgage back there, so I'd be going back to renting, which is pricey too... Gonna just do what I can here and make more trips. Hoping for another one maybe this fall, see the trees turn color (they do here too, but not as intense or with such variety.) By then, the new grandboy-to-come Ahvi will be a few months old, and Efren will be that much older and more amazing.

New Years Eve almost 2011

Been a long time since I've written here. Thought I'd start it up again, see how long it lasts this time. See if anyone reads/responds...

New Year's Eve, almost 2011. In spite of the crappy economy, I feel like personally things will be steady and improving this coming year. I intend (=new year resolution) to do more income producing projects, independent of my two part time jobs. I want to fix up old frames, for people who own them, or else buy and resell them. I want to do French Matting as a custom service. Special things like that. Maybe even do some of my own art and sell that. Little things that I can do on the side, at home, in my spare time, that will bring in a little extra.

I also will continue to transform my front veggie garden (used to be lawn) into a more perennial food producing spot. It's a heckova lot of work doing annuals, especially when summers are so iffy. I will keep a small spot for garlic, and maybe for squash or peppers as those seem to have done well even in crappy summers. Otherwise, more berries and other fruits. Maybe try a fig again but put it out away from the house so it can get more sun.

Cat repellent?

I've been reading up on ways to keep all those stray cats from making gross toxic dump piles in my new garden. Lots of websites list smelly things they might not like.
Mothballs, which are actually as toxic as the poo, so no, I won't use that.
Cayenne pepper, okay, I have some left over from a yellow jacket nest project of about 4 yrs ago.
Lemon juice/peel, they don't grow on the trees up here, this would get kinda pricey, and have to be replaced on a regular basis, and I'm not sure it would work.
Ammonia. ??
Half filled water bottles; this sounds like a fly repellent from the southwest. I doubt if it would work on cats.

Okay so I was in a store, and found lemon scented ammonia, a huge bottle for a buck nineteen. I'm not sure what gives it the lemony scent, but ammonia is organic, breaks down readily into nitrogen which is actually like fertilizer, so how bad can it be? I squirted it around the perimeter of the garden yesterday, and it's been about 24 hrs., and no new piles! Yay! To me it's already a success, compared to two or three piles a day I've had to scoop out recently. I realize that after it rains again (tomorrow?) I'll have to repeat the application, but it's cheap, and only takes a couple minutes to go squirt around the edges out there, so it's definitely something that would be easy to maintain.

Knock on wood!

Traveling Minds

I just read an article in the Bellingham Herald, which quotes Shelley Muzzy: “Every minute feels like it’s really full and long. I’m really present; I’m not waiting to go somewhere or wishing I’m somewhere else. Every second I’m there I’m thinking I’m really lucky.”

This makes me think of how I feel living here, with my nice little house, garden, neighborhood, short walk to the bay, fresh air (except for the penta but that's another story), friendly people, good food... living alone and being able to learn to play guitar, cook up a nice dish, go hiking with friends, etc.

Her quote, though, starts with this: “I feel alive every minute when I’m traveling,” which changes the meaning quite a lot! I wonder how many other 'travel addicts' out there only feel that special way when they're away from home? It's all a mind shift, that feeling. If you live your life like you're on vacation, you can enjoy your life more, instead of spending most of your time waiting for the next trip outta town. Even on vacation you have to deal with clean clothes, or mending a lost button. How about appreciating what you already have, and being nice and friendly to other people on a regular basis, instead of only doing it when you're a guest in a foreign country? It might change the way others treat you too.

I'm all for traveling, and have done a lot of it myself. I think people really miss a lot if they never go somewhere far away. There's a lot to learn by it.

You can also learn how to catch the mindset of being there, when you're at home. It's a good way to truly appreciate your own home. To some people visiting here, this is a foreign country!

When you move to a new town...

You know when you're starting to settle into a new town, when you go to a public event and you see somebody you've met before.

You know you're really starting to settle into it, when you meet someone you've met before and you start up a conversation.

You know you've settled down, when you see someone at a public event, and ignore them so you won't get stuck in a conversation with them.

You know you've Really settled down when you go out of your way to avoid meeting up with someone that you really don't ever want to see again!

Gardening vs. Pregnancy

Today was good. Went hiking with two friends in Stimpson Nature Reserve during the rain, but it's so overgrown there that we hardly got rained on at all. Nice. Got home in mid-afternoon, and a friend had sent me a cd of our high school friend's music, that was fun to listen to.
Then around 4pm the sun came out! So I went outside, got my shovel and gloves, and worked a bit on the garden out front, trimming the overgrown grass away from the sidewalk. An old Chinese woman came by and without cracking a grin, totally poker face, said "It's not Spring yet!" I laughed and we talked for a bit, she gave me advice on getting down and pulling the grass out, I said I liked using my tools, but she's welcome to join in and start pulling if she wanted to!
Having that garden out front is sort of like being pregnant. Everyone thinks it's totally fine to just stop by, pat me on the proverbial belly, and tell me how I should do things. And it is totally fine, 'cause I'm not pregnant. But I remember how that was, and how total strangers would just out with it, blurt out whatever grand advice they held that they couldn't hold back. What's so fun about gardening is that it sure doesn't matter at all. They can say any old thing and it's so easy to either thank them, or humor them (if they're taking themselves a bit seriously) or pull their leg and tease them (if they're taking themselves way too seriously.) Most people who have gardened any time at all know that there's lots of ways to do it right, and what with the weather, seed types and qualities, etc... who knows! Almost anything goes. That's what's so fun about it. As long as you're getting some kind of good results some of the time, then it's a success. Meanwhile, we're all learning from each other, sometimes they really do have good ideas; sometimes they didn't know you can just "let it rot" and not till it in, and that works too. At least I hope so!

Garden Time

I'm reading a book about earthworms, and it's full of interesting information and entertaining anecdotes. I've been changing over my front lawn into veggie garden space, so it's a timely topic. New seed catalogs have arrived, and I'm planning now for the meals to come. (Breakfast today was roasted butternut squash and cornbread. Yea, I eat what I grow!)

I'm a fan of doing things the easy way if they work, so to change it over, I layered big sheets of cardboard over the lawn, then chunks of old hay bales, then horse manure and dozens of large bags of used coffee grounds from Starbucks. Not all at once, but over a period of many months. Most of it was free, and some was delivered for me. So it was not as much work as it sounds, and besides, it's good exercise.

Every now and then a neighbor will stop by and ask if I'm going to rototill it all in in the spring, and I say no, just going to plant in it, some of it veggies, some a cover crop to build up the soil.

In that earthworm book they mention how a lot of worms need a layer of decomposing leaves/plant material on top of the soil, so mine should be full of worms by next summer. Using a rototiller will kill most of the worms, and even 'double digging' can disturb them enough to interfere with their productivity.

(One other book I like is Ruth Stout's The No Work Garden Book. She's an advocate of very thick mulches and no digging.)

The two aspects of gardening that it helps to remember, is that 1: the health of the soil is everything, and 2: there's a delayed effect of sometimes a whole year. When I put something in/on the ground, it takes awhile for it to get into the system of the soil and then the plant, and show results. As the nutrients increase, the earthworms will reproduce and help the soil in many ways (aeration, fertility, etc.) It may take many years for it all to get into its prime.

Most of the plant lives underground. What you see is a small part of the whole plant, those roots spread far further and wider than the branches on top. And what you see, how green the leaves are, how many fruit and the nutritional content of it all, is a result of what's going on in the earth. Earthworms and all kinds of microbes, fungi, bacteria, and other teeny critters all contribute to the health of the plant, and secondly the health of those who eat the plant.

So in this book, they mention how "conventional" farming using petroleum based fertilizers and pesticides is not truly "conventional", it started relatively recently, in the post WWII era as a result of industry needing another use for their products, namely explosives (=fertilizers, think Oklahoma Federal Bldg. explosion) and nerve agents (=pesticides, very effective killers of living nerves of all kinds.) Marketing sure is effective, isn't it?...

Anyway, I haven't needed to add any worms out there, as there already were some under the lawn, but now they've already been working their way up through the now rotted cardboard, and are frolicking in the old manure and rotting straw, having a grand old time.

And so am I! (okay, I'm easily amused...)

Why I Like Incandescent Light Bulbs (old fashioned kind)

1. no ultraviolet radiation (better for artwork and human skin)
2. 95% efficient source of heat (at the 49th parallel this is a good thing)
3. warm color (illusion of warmth is helpful)
4. no mercury to dispose of (CFL's are Toxic, man!)

Beast of Burden

That's what I should name my wheelbarrow. It's one of those two wheeled triangle shaped plastic jobbies, very stable, holds plenty, easy to work with as long as the load is balanced right over the space between the wheels and the legs. I moved about six bales today, all by myself. I took them in pieces, didn't even Try to move one whole.
Actually I felt like a beast today, pulling that loaded little wagon behind me over the bumpy wet field to the truck. I gave my back a workout, again. I can't believe it was only two days ago I just did this kind of thing, I'm a glutton for punishment I guess. No wonder I feel so wiped out right now. I almost fell asleep on the couch.
I might go back for one more load, maybe Friday. Supposed to be all sunny this week, and it sure was today. Warmed up into the 40's I think. Another frosty night tonight.
I splurged on studded tires yesterday. I'm glad I did, with these icy roads. Even going out in the early morning would be risky without them, with frosty patches in the shade. Now with some chains I'll be going up the mountain all winter, to hike on my snowshoes or x-country skis up there.
After working like I have been lately, it would be like resting to go hiking! I've often felt this way, after having spent many days in a row doing home improvement, it's like being lazy to go hike a few miles or more.
Well, one more load of wet hay for the garden and I can let it just sit all winter and rot. Me too! haha jk.

Grain Day

Most of today I did hard physical work, and enjoyed every minute of it.
I put on my work clothes, the dirty ones from last week's trip, and went out to Edwin's place again to get more wet hay bales.
As I was driving out there in my dirty duds, I ate a homemade granola bar or two, and some of the oats and krispies fell onto my zipped jacket front. I looked down thinking I'd pick the crumbs up and eat them, but seeing them there on the fabric that was covered in hay bits from last week's work, I had to laugh, talk about "buy local, eat local"!! oats and hay, looking almost the same, golden brown bits... kinda pretty, but I held back my impulse to nibble at those crumbs, a little too earthy for me.
The bales were hay, not straw, as they're full of seeds, thus the 'grain' thing. A lot of those seeds are already sprouted, as the bales have been sitting in a wet meadow for a long time, so long that some of them we couldn't load up as the strings broke as soon as we tried lifting them. Heavy bales, making the truck's back end sink down and the front sway up, interesting driving on the highway home!
Anyway, my front yard is now totally covered with another layer of thick wet hay. Wonderful stuff. I saw quite a few woolly caterpillars tucked inside them as I broke them up to lay it out in books, paving the property. So now the east half is double thick hay books, and the west half is manure and coffee grounds with hay books too. The only part left in lawn is the 10' strip between the sidewalk and the street. (I'm thinking about how to change that too, as next year's project.)
The other grain of the day was when I was almost done unloading the truck at home, I cracked open a Guinness, 'liquid pork chop' beer, made of grains of some kind, at least it was a dark golden brown, pretty, like the wet bales.
Sitting on my front porch sipping, watching the red sun glowing in the hazy southwest sky, a good day done.

Difficult Neighbor (A Memory)

I'm glad this is all in the past. But I've been thinking a lot about it lately.

I was living at an apartment, an end unit in a row of six. There were six more in the other building on the other side of a grove of olive trees, a swimming pool, and a utility room. There was a new neighbor next door, on the other side of the shared wall from me, some guy who came and went at odd hours. He was a little rough around the edges, but not noisy.
So one Sunday afternoon, the boys (they were about 7 or 8 then) and I were playing around in the living room, laughing and having fun, but I guess being kinda loud. In the midst of our raucousness, a shadow formed over the screen doorway, and a booming voice filled the room: "Keep it Down!"
I was terrified, and I'm sure the boys were too. He went back to his apartment without saying more, and I don't remember if I said anything to him, maybe something like "hey, it's Sunday afternoon" or something like that.
I thought he was pretty scary and out of line, and I called the cops.
When they came I told them our story, and then he went next door to speak to my neighbor. Since the walls were thin, I tried to listen to what they were saying over there. I heard something about a DOC number. DOC. What the heck is that. OH MY GAWD. Department of Corrections. The guy is an ex-con. Jeezus. Now what have I done. Then I got Really Scared.
The cop came back and told me how it went, that the guy is a nurse and works odd shifts and had been trying to sleep. He didn't actually pass along an apology though, but it was an almost one. He said he knew he shouldn't have yelled into my doorway.
After that I vowed to buy a house, to move out of those apartments.
It turned out alright with that guy after that, though. About a week later I met up with him going to the mailbox, and we talked about the incident. Then later on I saw him out in his patio adjacent to mine, and we talked about the strawberry plants he was growing, and then another time he showed me the injured bird he was taking care of. A regular Birdman of Alcatraz right next door!
After moving to the house, I saw him a couple times in the neighborhood, and we were kinda friendly.
I never found out why he had been incarcerated.

Wonderful Molly Batten

After moving thousands of miles away from someone who is over 100 yrs. old, one tends to lose touch. Phone calls don't do it, not when she knows so many many people... without a face attached to the voice, she can't place you. She sounds great, she sounds like she's smiling, happy to hear from you, will chat awhile, but there's something in her voice, acknowledgment is missing. I've missed her, but what can you do. I know she has family and lots of friends back there taking good care of her. I remember lots of times we spent together, most of the stories she told. She was a good storyteller, and had enthusiasm for life I admire. Sometimes she felt down, but she'd let it out (gently) and get over it. She was always polite, good with euphemisms!
There are many articles online about her from the local paper, about her unflagging support of the police department, and how she volunteered in the schools. I remember her telling me about how much she disliked the spoiled kids in the foothills, and truly loved those at the magnet schools on the south side. Mainly she was impressed by manners, being polite, even if not perfectly so. She loved please and thank you. And the stories! about coming to the US on a ship, weeks long journey, being seasick terribly, and the ship's doctor giving her some injections to help her feel better. Well, it worked, but when she got here, she got sick in a different way... the doctor had been giving her heroin! Oh, and the time she had a neighborhood watch meeting at her house, and a lady made a racist comment, and she told the woman to leave!
I wish someone had written her stories down, or better yet, recorded or videotaped her telling them, as she had a wonderful way of expressing herself, along with her delightful Irish accent.
I enjoyed her shortbread and brownies, which she always cooked ahead and stored in foil in her freezer, generously handing over the whole package for my enjoyment later. I'm glad she shared her recipe with me.
When my father died, she sent me a nice card, and had written that my father and her father are looking down on us both and are glad that we're friends. I still have that card in a safe place.
A couple of weeks ago I found an embroidery she made for me for my birthday. It has lots of blues and purples and greens, very pretty. It's framed, and I had it in a box, and put it back in the box.
Yesterday I got a letter from a friend who still lives in the same town, who sent me a clipping from the paper, Molly's obituary. She died at the end of October, a couple of weeks ago, at age 108.
I miss you, Molly. But I'm glad we're friends. Tell my dad I love him.

July 2, 2007

So yesterday's done list was to look back and see what I can do when I'm not out hiking. Usually on Sundays I go hiking with a group, but I've already been three times to where they went, so didn't need to go again, and what with strawberry season winding to a close, thought it best to go get some perfectly ripe ones, not those yellow rocks they sell for $5/quart at Haggen. Okay, they're not all yellow rocks, but enough of them to turn me off. I like em dark red and juicy, like an overripe peach. Run down your chin ripe.
So today I hid from the sun and heat (it's all relative) until about 7 when I went out to try to mow the lawn. Push mower, I'm the engine, mmmmph. Didn't quite finish, quit early to eat more snap peas off the vine. I just didn't have the energy, tomorrow is another day. Besides, hopefully it'll turn brown soon and I can slack off.
I'm proud of myself. Today I went to Costco and spent only about thirty bucks. A first. Of course I bought more than I went there to get (organic coffeebeans), but then I saw Glide floss, and now I have a lifetime supply, and also saw some liquid vitamins, I love liquid vitamins, and thought it would do me some good, so I got them. Yum. So I didn't get new towels, nor a case of snickers bars, not a shed, nor a flat television. I sure can do without all that stuff. Well, I could use a shed, but not the solid plastic job they had. Uuuugggg-ly! Costco, the (hundred) dollar store.

what I did today (July 1, 2007)

took shower
had coffee, read email, news
cooked chocolate malt-o-meal for breakfast
made yogurt
ate blueberries with yogurt for second breakfast
did wash, hung up socks & towels, put shirts in dryer
watered garden, dug up a few new potatoes
put away stuff from gleaning yesterday
repaired garden hoses
loaded bins & shovel into truck
made pizza for lunch
took shirts out of dryer, dumped onto bed
drove out to the county to pick strawberries
picked up manure and old coffee grounds on the way back
dumped and mixed above in pile at corner of garden
ate ripest strawberries with vanilla ice cream
went to fill the truck with gas, stopped at two stores on the way back
picked sugar snap peas
took laundry off clothesline, dumped onto bed
pizza & wine for dinner
cleaned, hulled, sliced & sugared strawberries, put into fridge
cleaned and blanched snap peas, bagged & froze them
changed aquarium water
put yogurt in fridge
folded & put laundry away
read book, ate jalapeno pringles

that's enough. tomorrow I'll mow the lawn.

age, beauty, smiles, wrinkles

I had a little exchange with my haircut lady today. After massaging my neck and upper back after the haircut (??? yea, I thought it was kinda odd too...) she suggested I buy some anti-wrinkle cream from her. Well, that explains the massage right away, trying to make a sale. I said no, I earned these wrinkles, they're smile lines, don't take them away from me! she said if I stay the way I am for thirty years I'll look great then (does that mean that now I look like an 80 year old???) and that's what the cream will do, stop new ones from forming. I said as long as I'm smiling I'll look alright, that anyone who is smiling is beautiful. She had an image in her mind, apparently, of the worsely wrinkled old folks in the world, and disagreed with me, asked if I'd seen some old people? with really deep and plentiful wrinkles? even when smiling, she said she thought they were not beautiful.
I paid for my haircut and did not buy any wrinkle cream.
And I will find another haircutter.