in the time alloted over the weekend there were a couple of brief exploratory drawings and the [re]discovery of the Guano Valley paintings, reminding me that maybe I was painting closer to the truth of that place in 2003 than more recent attempts; all downhill since?
Monday the week, after the obligatory stroll along the water to air out the Inkies, kicked into gear with post office, Big O to air up the ’45 and Safeway while meanwhile my order
from Sandmarc, a 58mm lens for the iPhone, arrived allowing for less distortionate views of
vehicles as well as
landscapes [iPhone above, iPhone with lens below]…then there was Tuesday with Cindy rattling around cleaning, two trips to Pedrotti’s before the shower head was replaced and after an abbreviated lunch auditioning what may be a suitable medical massage person a mere two
blocks away before, to relieve L from the pain of cooking, we went to the Taphouse for somewhat overwrought burgers* where Greg and Kathryn walked in on us so ended up closing
the place…small town, not that late but fortuitous intersection and Wednesday was uneventful
though we did see some sun, late…Thanksgivng Thursday there was none; back to
“Sandy weather”**, o-cast and still until the winds blew chill, waiting outside One House to pick up half of what turned out to be a briny turkey, salty broth and sweet potatoes so candied
the little pumpkin pies were rendered superfluous. Linda made cranberry sauce and exquisitely roasted potatoes all of which we ate until satiation set in around three, then after a [long] pause finished off with salads and, for me anyway, a small glass of Sardinian red.
Later the news dropped that Ron Davis, an influential California painter I’d met briefly around his first show [Lanyon Gallery, 1963 [?]] and followed over the years [Nick Wilder showed him in LA and our friend Jon Fernandez built his Gehry-designed Point Dume studio] passed away north of Taos on the 19th…another one gone. Speaking of Point Dume reason
I was remembering Carl Street before Bryan was born, taping KSAN’s live after hours broadcasts from the Record Plant in Sausalito when bands would come through town, just leaving the tape running when I’d go down to bed, and came up one morning to find
“Dog on the Run”*** running until the tape ran out…the cassette’s probably around here somewhere, all weird as I was never that big a follower of Tom Petty but he keeps turning up, maybe the outro to “One Battle” put me in mind of it…anyway,
day after Thanksgiving stayed low and damp, ten degrees below “normal”, and first off the dryer died; hard to find anything that would fit and though eventually we did there went whatever time might’ve gone for the studio…and Saturday, “Sandy” still, became somewhat
subsumed with the car collection’s shelf-adding project until learning after lunch that tomorrow’s dinner and overnight guests expect to be here shortly after their breakfast in Orinda, leading to a maddish dash clearing out the guest room, making the bed and other tasks originally slated for Sunday after yet another run to the market, um…
*Seems like all First Street’s food purveyors prefer over-elaborate to simple excellence…
**So called because the late Sandra Shannonhouse warned us there’d be days like these and would flee over to her family’s Santa Rosa farm when they threatened to settle in.
***A gentler, more extended and less jangly version than what turns up on the internet these days.