Jaci Dawn

Tonight is the beginning of Autumn. It is also the first day of Sukkot, the Jewish Feast of Tabernacles.

I’m very fuzzy on Jewish celebrations. I won’t attempt to explain this one to you except it has a lot to do with harvests and feasting. And to recommend one of my very favorite foreign films ever: Ushpizin. It’s a riot.

I’m depressed about leaving summer behind (summer? what summer?) with green tomatoes on the vine and not nearly enough days of sun (I wore my sweater and SOCKS nearly the entire summer), but after reading about Sukkot a little, I realize that maybe I should be rejoicing.

I won’t tell you any more – you can research it or not, but whatever you do – rent Ushpizin and give it a watch. Maybe it’s just me, but I found it to be one of the funniest movies ever. Heartwarming funny.

Read Full Post »

It was a lovely foggy morning. I stepped out onto the back stoop. Everywhere, the spider webs were heavy laden with dew and stood out against the grass.

One thing I have always loved about September and October has Been the spiders: they are fat and ready to hibernate or lay eggs to over-winter and their webs are especially numerous, strong and beautiful. When we lived in the woods, the orb-weavers stood out but here in town, it’s the grass spiders that stand out.

I did get this very nice shot of a lovely orb weaver today. She wouldn’t cooperate from the top-side, so my photo is from underneath but I *think* she is an Araneus diadematus. She’s striking from beneath as well as from above.

All that to introduce the mess of webs in my yard!

g’nite!

Read Full Post »

I have owned a total of five dogs since I left home at age 17. Only one of two of those dogs were trained to walk on a leash, which is really sad. My first dog was a Dalmatian I called Mandy and she went everywhere with me on a leash. I was 22 and loved walking, But then I met Don and we fell in love and Mandy hated Don. So I had to give her away. I still miss Mandy.

I got Don a dog the first year we were married: a Springer/Brittany/Pointer mix we named Rosie. Rosie refused to learn how to walk on a leash, but she was a great dog in the woods, always running between Don & I, checking up on us. Later, when we had children, she stayed close to the babies. Unfortunately, Rosie was a “runner” and if she could escape, she was gone. Eventually, that bad habit (and several tons of steel) caught up to her and killed her.

Then we got Sadie, our first purebred dog: an English Pointer show dog. I will spare you my thoughts on Sadie’s intelligence because Sadie had no intelligence. She was a true “Latte dog.” And despite the few efforts on my part, Sadie also refused to walk well on a leash. She was Don’s dog and he promised to train her, but that never happened. She was good in the woods, though, and stayed close to people without a tether. Cancer took Sadie from us and I have to admit I cried a lot when we let her go.

Then Murphy. And Murphy is like Rosie on steroids. Don promised to train him, too – and he has: as a bird dog and a woodland dog. Murphy wears a shock collar in the woods, but he knows not to stray too far and he comes when Don calls. When Don Calls – I can’t stress that enough because Murphy basically ignores me. The only work I’ve done with Murphy has been to establish dominance – and he knows to not try to go out doors ahead of me, argue with me in the kitchen or jump on me. Most of the time. Having his little balls cut off help the dominance thing and he’s turned out to be pretty mellow. But he can’t walk on a leash. That’s 85# of male dog dominance UN-leashed.

Now I have my own dog again. Harvey still needs a lot of work, but the one thing I love about him is he is learning to walk on a leash! Can’t take him out in the woods because he runs off, but I can walk around town with him on a leash. He’s like a photo negative of Rosie, Sadie & Murphy: has to be tied up in the woods or on a leash while hiking, but he’s great as an in-town dog.

I do have to yank him back a few times when we first start out, but he quickly settles down. And he’s terrible about walking past a cat: I have to drag him to keep him from pointing and then attacking. But he’s learning.

Today I thought I’d try something new: I put him in the dog carrier & we drove over to the Oregon City Promenade. A few circles before we set out, but he started to settle down quickly. Next time, I will take my camera.

After the promenade, I went to Home Depot. I was very nervous about this part. Would I instantly regret it? Would he sit still when I checked out?

To my relief, Harvey was a gentleman in the store. Granted, he was a little overwhelmed by the noises, lights and people. He passed a little girl within inches and didn’t turn to look at her. She looked a little nervous (wise child!) but Harvey was well-behaved. Someone approached and asked to pet him and Harvey was sweet about that, too. Mostly, he stayed fairly close to me and didn’t pull on the leash at all. The only time I thought we might have a problem was when we turned a corner and there was a black lab with his owner – but I turned Harvey quickly and we went another way.

I am of the opinion and training that a dog on a leash should be on a short leash. The dog is not supposed to pull out ahead of you, but is supposed to walk by your left hip, at the “heel”. I refuse to purchase one of those retractable leashes because it teaches dogs bad manners on leashes – they can roam out as far as they want. I see very few people train their dogs this way – the dogs roam ahead, wander off to the side, and pull.

I’ve never been impressed with Don’s dog’s lack of leash training. It’s infuriating and takes all of the pleasure of walking a dog away. So I have been more than excited to see how Harvey behaves under the leash and at the “heel”. He’s not a perfect gentleman, but he’s learning.

And I foresee further trips to Home Depot in our future, just for the pleasure of being able to go somewhere with a well-behaved dog in public.

Read Full Post »

Some guy flipped me off today. It was really stupid. Of him, not me. I was where I was supposed to be, doing what I was supposed to be doing. The problem was that he wanted to turn left across traffic that had the right of way and instead of waiting for a proper opening, he just turned. And I was in front of him, blocking his way. So he flipped me off.It wasn’t like I could really move any direction but forward given the light was green – for me, not him.

I kept going. So did the two cars behind me. I don’t think the guy who was doing the left turn thing was getting much sympathy – or that his bullying tactic was working for him.

Normally, I don’t tempt fate. Someone wants to be an idiot, I give him plenty of room. But turning across lanes of traffic when it’s obvious that there are cars there really crosses the line. And then flipping the oncoming cars off? Moron.

Reminds me of the time when I was driving down a street in Oregon City that has no stop signs. All the cross streets have stop signs. The woman on the cross street decided to go as I came into the intersection. She had to slam on her brakes because guess what? *I* was there. And she flipped me off.

Hello? *I* did not have the stop sign – she did. And she knew it because she stopped for it and watched the traffic in front of me go by. But apparently, I was at fault for being on the road when she wanted to go.

Go figure.

I’ve made some stupid moves while driving but I never flipped the other driver off when it was clearly MY fault for being inattentive or stupid or whatever excuse I chose to use. I wanted to crawl under the dashboard and turn very red… OOOPS. Near fatal faux pas! Thank you God for letting me live to NEVER do THAT again!

So here is a list of my favorite pet peeves while driving (in no particular order):

People who decide to merge left from the right-hand off ramp where I-205 merges into I-5 Northbound (you know who you are: get into the left-hand merge lane and merge proper, OK? You aren’t supposed to merge from the off-ramp lane that goes to Sherwood).

People who speed up when they see merging traffic.

Merging traffic that expects the people on the freeway to stop or slow down for them.

Changing lanes without using a turn signal.

Stopping and letting cross traffic turn left in front of you when there is oncoming traffic. Who died and made you the crossing guard? And where you gonna go when the guy you just waved through is T-boned?

Driving 5 miles under the speed limit on the freeway. Take a back road if you can’t find the gas pedal. Please.

Leaving a gap of a quarter mile or more between yourself and the car in front of you when traffic is moving slowly. It’s the 2-second rule. If you can’t figure out the 2-second rule, do a car length for every ten miles per hour. It doesn’t add up to a quarter mile at 40 MPH. It’s less than 40 feet.

Tail-gating at any speed but especially in 1) school zones and 2) construction zones. The sign just said traffic fines double. I’m NOT going to pay a double fine just because you’re on my bumper, trying to go faster than the posted speed limit. ESPECIALLY in a school zone.

Driving five miles under the speed limit in the fast lane. Or driving exactly the speed limit in the fast lane. Come on, even the police don’t drive exactly the speed limit in the fast lane. Get over.

Flashing your turn signal to try to get someone driving slower than you to move out of the fast lane, even though 1) they are driving over the speed limit, too, and 2) there’s traffic in the slower lanes and they can’t move over.

Truck drivers going 45 mph who decide to pass other truck drivers going over mountain passes and who just pull over into the fast lane in front of cars going 70. Hello? Anyone look in their rearview/sideview mirrors lately?

Tailgaters in the rain.

Tailgaters in the snow.

People who stop when there is NOT a stop sign. This happens all the time turning off of 99E onto 14th Street in Oregon City. The cross street has a stop sign, but 14th Street traffic has no stop sign. But people stop there all the time and wave traffic.

Anyone who waves traffic across. it’s one thing to stop for yield traffic or merge traffic when it’s slow, but to wave someone across lanes of traffic? And then they get T-boned and you go your merry way?

That’s it for now. I’m sure I can think of more irritating scenarios. And I bet you can add some, too.

Read Full Post »

We had a beautiful and very brief sunset tonight.

I snapped two hurried photos. I turned around and the sunset was gone that quickly: all too brief, all too beautiful, all too fragile.

Like life.

Childhood.

Motherhood years.

You blink and it’s in the past.

But it was beautiful while it passed by.

I like how those sentences build on each other.

Good Night – hope you had a beautiful sunset today, too.

Read Full Post »

I was on my way home tonight from work when I fell in behind a pickup truck pulling a walled trailer. It was a brown trailer with six-foot walls and open on top, a gate in the back that was latched and ratcheted shut, full size wheels & tires. Black plastic bags full of something were stacked in the bed of the trailer and a worn blue tarp was tied loosely over the top of the black plastic. It flapped and fluttered in the current of air caused by driving.

It was the objects in the black plastic that caught my eye: they were very humanoid: head and torso, stacked on top of each other right up to the top of the trailer walls. I got the Heebie Jeebies just following the rig and was quite relieved when I passed it and left it in my dust (so to speak). All I could think of was the Pea Pod People.

I came home and all was well. Took the dog out to play and came back in, started doing dishes.

And I couldhear Katie Couric’s voice in the background: “…Invasion of the Body Snatchers…”

YIKES! First the truck and trailer and now it’s on the news?! Talk about Heebie-Jeebies!

Sadly, the news was really about Kevin McCarthy who starred in the 1956 version of Invasion. He died today. He was 96.

At least, that’s what they’re telling us. I’m not so sure after my commute and the eerir timing of the news break. I feel likerunning out into the street and yelling:

“Can’t you see, everyone?! They’re here already! You’re next!”

‘Cause I’m telling you: that trailer had bodies in black plastic wrapped up tight…

Read Full Post »

In light of the fact that he currently has his head wedged under my chair so I can’t roll it sideways or forward without running over some part of his face, I thought I’d share some Harvey photos from our vacation with you.

Sacked out.

Dead to the world.

Completely, totally dog tired.

Read Full Post »

I just spent the better part of today organizing in my studio in preparation for a long winter of art & inspiration. I still need a storage cabinet for my drawings, but I have the exact measurements written down & will peruse the local thrift stores until I find the right thing. No worries: I know I’ll find it.

Back in August, as we wound up our vacation, my husband noted that I hadn’t picked up a lot of odd sticks and items for use in my studio. First off, we didn’t have that much room, but mostly – and this is what I told him – I had been busy taking photos of things too large to bring home that inspired me. Old cottonwoods with their wrinkled bark and lichens, the rocks, stumps and limbs of trees – these were all going into a special folder to upload onto my desktop on my computer just for Faerie Inspirations.

Every camp site provided me with ample fodder:

How about a rectangle boulder stuck in the roots of an old dead tree? I can picture that as the wall of a faerie house.

I just liked the lines and angles of this. in my mind, the two sticks that are leaning against the stump become wizard’s staffs and the limb is a two-headed dragon. Or something. Just thinking out loud here.

There is just something magical about this old cottonwood on Pike Creek. The fat lips where a branch used to be might be part of the magic, but I think it is the lines: the twists of the trunk and main branches, the orange lichen and the deeply grooved bark.

This was just fun. Don & I would sit out and watch the “howling dog” every night. It was better when there was a breeze – the “dog” seemed to come to life.

Jones’ Crossing offered up this fascinating standing tree. I can’t begin to guess at why the tree was hollow, but a beaver did quite a bit of work on the opening to the hollow. Isn’t that inspiring for a faerie home??

It was at our last camp on Prairie Farm that I found the most inspiration. The above stump was but one idea to come to me – I will just post the photos and let you decide for yourself if there’s inspiration to be had. I’m sure you’ll see a few strange woodland gnomes and elven homes and at least one “dragon”…

Read Full Post »

They grow up too fast. Zephaniah is two and a half now. Where did time go? He talks a mile a minute and I understand about half of it. Today he was a fish running in the water (apparently fish run, they don’t swim). Pretty funny considering he was running back and forth in the living room saying “fish! fish! fish!”

Sigh. And Javan, my little serious-faced boy is suddenly all smiles and laughs and giggles. I think he’s saying words, but they all sound like “ACK!” He points when he says ACK! so there must be some meaning to the word. Or several different meanings. Maybe it’s all in the accent.

And then there’s Eli… Eli opened his eyes and stayed awake the entire time I was visiting today. I love how babies get all cross-eyed trying to look at the person holding them.

I love my boys.

Read Full Post »