The Office - Progersh

As LBJ used to say (through his loose upper plate), "Progersh iz bein' maid."

Costantini Chair

Some twenty or twenty-five years ago I rescued the chair from the curb in the student ghetto. About ten or so years ago, when I still had money -- or thought I did -- I had it refinished. 

After years of searching for a fabric identical to the original, we settled on something sortof. And Michelle began.

As luck would have it, her heirloom Swingline staple-gun was out of staples. She purchased some nice-looking 9/16, 9mm staples from Staples, the office supply store. They didn't fit. We ordered some from Office Max. Further research disclosed the staple-gun was broken. I disassembled and perused, but to no avail. 

We acquired a NEW staplegun...the Bostich "Heavy Duty."

The Bostitch 9MMs didn't fit. I returned the gun to Lowe's and came back with an Arrow Heavy Duty Type T50 stapler. It's "action" was too stiff  for her and the 9MMs proved to be too long. I returned the 9MMs to Staples, went back to Lowe's and repurchased the stapler shown above with staples to fit. Michelle began again.

In the Beginning

Fini

Pietro Constantini

Ten years in the making. Let it never be said that The Squidges ever rushed a job.

Sandia Mtns Seasonal Sundial

As the year progresses the sun moves from the north end of the mountains to the south. In winter, I'll have to go to the front to see the sunrise.

At 6:43 a.m. the sun was behind the tree to the left (north) of the telephone pole.

The yard is left to its own devices. There're desert tortoises that swing by for meals of catfood, mango, cantaloupe. The crows bring pecans from somewhere but like the elm in which to shell and dine. Finches nest in the eave above the store-room and in the crotch of the west cottonwood. In years past we've had an orbweaver. 

The background noise

is the swamp (evaporative) cooler.

The Office

It was from this room that we organized the national show of feminist art, one national and one regional show of art-by-architects and what was probably the country's first national show of digital art. 

Prepping

After closing the gallery, Rampant Spliffoes, after-school programs in the arts, commandeered the space. 

Xannibelle, the wonderful seamstress who put gussets in my pants legs and does Phoebe's tapestries, is finishing up the curtains. 

Michelle is considering doing a painting on the sound barrier in the window.

James Merrill

So, she's skimming When Memory Speaks by Jill Ker Conway and picks out James Merrill and starts sending me pictures of pages from his memoir.

Merrill in 1973

Photo unattributed on Wiki

Next, I find Merrill's biography by Langdon Hammer

Langdon Hammer

Photo from Yale University - Unattributed

which leads to an interview with James's nephew, Robin Magowan 

Robin Magowan

Photo from Red Hen Press website - Unattributed

who wrote, among other things, Improbable Journeys. 

Photo from Northwestern University Press website - Unattributed

So, I'm transcribing Marc Fishbones' memoir and he's telling how he opened his shop, The Black Orchid in Stonington, Connecticut in 1997 and how his landlord was the Chief of the Mashantucket Pequot who also own the Foxwood casino. So'I'm looking at Google Maps seeing where these places are and then read in Merrill's Wiki page that Merrill and his partner of three decades, David Jackson, moved to Stonington in 1955. And if it hadn't been for Marc, I'd have let it slide by. But now I know.

Yesterday, when Daniel Chamberlin's latest Void Contemplation Tactics arrived, it contained a plethora of references to Paul Bowles who I'd tracked down through a mention of Mrabet in Patti Smith's M Train. Along with The Sheltering Sky and much else, Paul translated Mrabet's stories.. 

All the above has some relation to Victoria N. Alexander's book  The Biologist's Mistress, in which she elaborates and expands on Lynn Margulis's & Dorian Sagan's theories of symbiogenesis in which chance plays a stronger role than genetic mutation.

Double Rainbow

 

Sunset O'r Whole Foods. After 9 months I get to see a sunset.

Maui & Michele

Much of life in Albert's Turkey revolves around cats.

This time it began when an elderly client of Michelle's had to move; each of the couple took two cats but neither could take Maui. Attempts to find the 19-year-old a home went unfulfilled until finally, after Double El agreed to fund her, One El agreed to house her.

The Cat Diva came out of retirement for four hours to give Maui a full spa treatment including grooming and bath.

One El ------------------------------------------------- The Cat Diva

A trip to The Vet showed good teeth so they laid in a stock of middens-litter and myriad flavors of food. Within a few days Maui settled onto One El's bed and was keeping her company through the night.

Then, yesterday afternoon, she started having seizures. Sunday afternoon is not the best time, but, you know, this is a cat. They ended up at a Vet an hour north in Algodones.

When her blood-work came back it showed the seizures had taken their toll. They still had another sit to do so decided to let her stay overnight at the Vet's where she could be kept comfortable; they'd come back today to bring her home to be euthanized. At 11:30 pm One El told her good night and they returned to Albuq. It was 1:47 a.m. when Michelle (Double El) pulled into the driveway.

This morning Maui was up and eating well and looking around for something to do. Instead of euthanasia, the Michellles (three els when spoken of collectively) are bringing her home to continue the opera. The fat lady ain't sung yet.

As aging Boomers meet their demise, these dramas are happening more frequently. Please consider adopting an older animal. Maui's bill is well over $2,000.00 but her show of appreciation is priceless.