mid-July 2026
Things are changing so, I am a bit off-kilter. I spent much of June cat-sitting—11 days total, six cats; a quick trip home to pick the last of the plums; two blissful days at Stony’s house, reading and feeding fish in the lovely garden.
3 red, 3 black, 3 spotty, 3 w tails; last of the plums, on a plinth; Stony on my lap.
A had a little sick at the end of May, cured by a day trip with e, shopping for cheese, eggs and meat at Valley Ford, feasting on fish and chips on Bodega Bay, Duncan’s Landing and the beach. Later a visit to Santa Rosa to go thrifting for unnecessaries. I got a mini fridge that appears not to work but had just the cord I need for the Panasonic dubbing cassette boom box my neighbor put out on the street. Listening to Comsat Angels and Salem 66 and Terrible Party, almost analog. I’ve been searching for one for centuries, I don’t know what happened to my old tape deck. I lost so much the year Steve died, no real concept of what I would need here in the future. Word for the year was “shed”. Oh dear, did I. I can’t play my LP’s because I gave away two sets of good speakers, both of which I thought, “oh, I have those others”.
I’m booked for the forseeable here, van-lifing in Westy, taking care of Art. He needs a lot of help around the place. Today after I made breakfast of eggs, cheese, shiitakes, wakame and avocado I did spiderweb patrol and swept out the front third of the house, cleaned the fronts of some drawers and buttoned up the kitchen. Behind the wood stove I found another mouserat corpse. We have an abacus to keep count, 11 so far (two voles) that we can remember, usually found near or under my chair. Sometimes the fog gets chilly, even in summer, and I build a fire in the wood stove and do a ritual burn of old papers and tax forms.
I don’t prioritize time to putter in the Roofing House, but I have my painting table pretty well set up, and finished the 100 FEET sign last month. I have a list of half-baked ideas I am gathering and rat-proofing supplies for. I started sketches for the Saline Valley painting on that 4ish x 10ish watercolor block. It gets hot in the van in the afternoons, so the little shotgun shack in the shade is just the place, I’ll be there soon. The other night the sky was streaked with gorgeous pink; photos don’t come close. I have a painting from the Sierra workshop sketchbook that has the right feel, might dig that out later. Thought it might be posted here somewhere in the past, but no. There are lots of paintings that haven’t shown up here, I’d guess.
Centipede, 100 FEET; pink-striped redwood sky; mends in the popup screen mesh.
It’s also great to be able to park Westy in my old space. I can do some quasi-camping. It’s dark and quiet, I sleep good there. While I had the screen open so I could mend the zipper and some little tears, raccoons got in and stole a baguette and spread sticky maple sugar all over the dashboard, floor mat and windshield– I won’t make that mistake again. I did a revamp of all the cupboards so I can critter-proof snacks into the fridge. I found some cans there I need to make my way through. I ate some tomato soup just past the expiration date, found “emergency” evaporated milk marked “best before 2020”. LOL, wasn’t everything.
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