A week later

Holy moly, what a week.  On Saturday, Jake was super sick.  Then Chan on Sunday, Ben on Monday, Tuesday Matt made it to the stop sign before coming home. Matt, who last threw up in the year 2000, still hurls like a Viking.  It was seriously like an overdone sound effect, if it had been in a movie, people would roll their eyes. So by that point, I was unsure if I dodged the bullet or was next.  To be safe I stopped eating at 2 and switched to water for the rest of the day.

I lost 4 pounds anyway.

So that is what we did all week, took turns being sick and then tiptoeing around while the next person was ill. Loads of quietly working on personal projects, reading and piddling online for everyone and not much else, we did not go anywhere all week. I have never, ever been THAT sick, it was like a pinecone in your gut. And that's enough of that little tale. Oh, other than to say that I had spent a few hours before getting sick looking at Eyvind Earle's artwork and in particular his dragons for Sleeping Beauty back in 1951.  Those were fun for my brain to conjure during fever dreams!

Oh but his work is GORGEOUS.
Here are just a tiny few of his thousands of pieces of work, I would love prints, but there's no way I could settle, I am posting these at random from my collection that scrolls in my screensaver because even with only a couple dozen, there's no clear favorite.  Maybe I could get a projector...

After the Sun Goes Down

Wave of Golden Fire

As Far As I Could See

Ah, so lovely!  The lone trees look like animals, I love the shapes, the mist, the play of light.  The coolness of the turquoise, green, blue and purple with those bright warm orange and reds, beautiful.  I can see how his work could have influenced the artists behind Samurai Jack:

In fact, when I first saw his work in the queue line at Soarin', I thought it might be someone from the team that does Samurai Jack.

In other news, I finished up The Killing.  I liked the ending, not just for how it ended with the viewer able to make their own 'what happened next' to everyone, but that the final scene used the shots from the opening credits (which explains how come her hair did not grow at all).  Moving to Netflix from AMC, they were able to curse freely and it took 2 of the 6 episodes to realize Holden was dropping the F bomb like a 7 year old with a box of snap-pops on July 4th.  It was a MUCH darker season.

I followed that up with Southcliffe, a 4 episode crime drama set in England.  I found it to be disjointed and hard to follow.  I could not tell the characters or time periods apart in some places, in a single episode there were jumps to the main...ish character's childhood, back and forth in the current time frame and recent past. Maybe I am too American and need wavy lines to indicate flashback sequences.  I did not dig into the deeper meaning of it all, the one that other folks are going on about, because I was busy trying to figure out what was going on.  In the 'year later' bit, he returns to the same pub for a room and the woman behind the counter is wearing the exact same shirt and blouse and her hair in unchanged from the previous scene the 'year before'.  I guess it could be a uniform, but no one else behind the counter is wearing one.  It looked a good deal like the top the returning soldier's girlfriend/wife was wearing in another scene, so maybe I am just seeing things.

I got the 5 Stages of Grief thing, the fact that it was about the people left behind, finally figured out that it's not linear, but I think I need more words than anguished expressions.  A LOT more words.

I did, however, really enjoy the closing song, which was Emily Dickinson's poem 'Love Can Do All But Raise the Dead' put to music by T.E. Morris and sung by him at the All Souls Festival at the end of episode 4.  Lovely, lovely, lovely. Here is the song, it's 2 minutes long, go listen. http://vimeo.com/62374372  I don't know why he's not on every station.  If he'd drop 90% of the strings in his tracks, I'd never listen to anyone else.  As is, they are too overpowering in several of his songs.  He's over at Soundcloud.  Here's the poem:

“Love can do all but raise the Dead
I doubt if even that
From such a giant were withheld
Were flesh equivalent

But love is tired and must sleep,
And hungry and must graze
And so abets the shining Fleet
Till it is out of gaze.”

And that's it, our week.  The kids have been double-down doing their school stuff, we are getting ready for a break coming up and no one wants to be dragging the mental stress of unfinished work around with them. Or more like totally forget about it and come home from Disney to weeks of backlog.  I can't believe that is coming up so quickly and this foot is not at all ready to travel.  I can walk, very slowly, a quarter mile at a time on the treadmill, I have maxed out at half a mile before my foot turns green and swells back up.  Sunday will be 3 weeks of this, I am ready to be mobile again and start getting my stamina back.  At this rate, Matt will be pushing me around in a rented wheelchair while I nap and they ride.  :(  What if I drool?

We are all anxious to be out of the house more, so Katy to the rescue with the offer of her house and pool access for a while coming up soon.  I am hoping some time on the mountain and being able to swim each day will speed things along!  If not, I can at least take pictures of the view, which is more than I can say here!  I love this house, but in the summer, it's an ocean of green, the 'view' stops wherever we mowed the farthermost from the window!   Oh, and Katy to the rescue again, she's keeping NiaBee while we travel!  I am SO grateful, I don't think she realizes what peace of mind knowing our puppy will be so well cared for gives me.  I was really scared she'd have to go to a kennel and that she'd be scared and sad.  She LOVES Mars and Katy's kids, so that will be much easier for her little heart.

I have not heard back from Gerri yet about the big dogs and cats and checking up on the house, but that's the last box I need to check for covering the big stuff.  I have our new tent picked out, packing lists made, plans laid out, I have been researching various things about the trip.  We are getting new tires and all the van care done closer to time, but already budgeted and on the calendar.  At least with being laid up, the van is getting a good rest, too!  :)