Trowels and Shovels

This week I picked sea creatures, because it was my grandmother's memorial, and she was a volunteer at the Oregon Coast Aquarium for 25 years. Jellies were one of her favorites.

Business card from the hotel we stayed at. The logo is nice. (Though again, "The Sage: A Concept Hotel" seemed to mean that, conceptually, this hotel is like a lower-end Motel 6.)

This week was better than last, but I still had a rough time sometimes. Going down to New Mexico was nice. Bittersweet, but nice to see family, and it was a pleasant break from work. The memorial itself was nice. I started the week sick, but recovered reasonably quickly. Trying to get caught up with all the things I feel behind on, trying to figure out a plan. The state of the world isn't great!

Goals for the week:

• I did attend my grandparents' memorial
• I called my dad... but his phone was broken
• I packed for my trip
• I did not call my dentist
• I did not finish Camp Damascus, though I did read more of it
• I watered my plants
• I got crickets
• I transferred things into my new notebook
• I did not update my reading page
• I did work on reviewing the book I did read this month
• We visited my mom so that Alex could get the cat routine down
• I did not finish the third part of the snowflake outline

Tracked habits:

• Work - 3/7 - I took Sunday and Wednesday off for the memorial
• Household Maintenance - 3/7
• Physical Activity - 3/7
• Wrote 500/1000+ Words - 0/7
• Wrote on 2nd+ Draft - 0/7
• Meta Work - 4/7
• Personal Writing - 4/7
• Other Creative Things - 2/7
• Reading - 5/7 - Read some of Installment Immortality with Taylor, read Camp Damascus, read some Duma Key with Alex, read a bit of my ebook side-read
• Attention to Media - 6/7 - Sunday I listened to music; Monday and Wednesday we listened to music on the drive; Thursday I don't remember; Friday I caught up on Re: Dracula and we watched some storm chasing and listened to music; Saturday, music again.
• Video Games - 1/7 - Taylor and I played a bit of Final Fantasy XIV, starting part four of Shadowbringers
• Social Interaction - 7/7

Total words written: 0

I had taken last Sunday off from work, originally thinking it might be a travel day. It was not, so before heading over to my mom's house, we decided to take a walk. Alex wasn't feeling well, but we hoped maybe being outside for a while would help. (Alas, it did not.)

We went to Belmar, hoping it would be a fairly easy walk... but it was so hot we had to turn around pretty quickly. Even the packed dirt pathways were hot enough to be uncomfortable for Bella, so instead of making our way around the whole lake, we stuck to the sidewalk up the east side to the boardwalk where the turtles usually hang out. Since Bella was so hot and Alex wasn't feeling well, it's probably good we did a shorter walk. It was still nice to get out for a little while.


Bumblebee!


Mushrooms!

17 more pictures, including insects, one spider, and swallows:

Wish it had been just slightly more in focus, but a nice gold dragonfly! Not a super common color to see.


Honeybee on golden banner.


These turtles appeared to be fighting with each other. What do turtles have to fight about?


A very nice spider!


The cormorant rookery! The babies are all getting pretty big, and are plenty loud about begging for food, haha.


Milkweed with honeybee and bumblebee.


Such a tiny ladybug!


Another bumblebee.

This is the point where we had to turn around and head back the other way.


Flax! (With a wee little wasp of some kind.)


Two families of geese with awkward "teenage" goslings.

We sat for a while in the shaded boardwalk, just to take a break and rehydrate, ha.


It's Bella!


The swallows are nesting!


Taking off after feeding.


A different nest. Little baby birds are basically just mouths, haha.


Adult swallow judging us harshly.


A very brilliantly blue swallow perched under the stairs. And a bonus Bella.


There weren't as many turtles out as there sometimes are, but I was impressed with how high this one had climbed up.

Glad we had a chance to go out and do something before I was gone for a few days.

This week we went down to Santa Fe for a memorial for my grandparents.

My grandmother passed away just after Christmas last year (just shy of 97 years old!) My grandfather passed away 12 years earlier. They wanted their ashes interred together (along with one of their most beloved dogs, Tootsie, ha), so this was the memorial for both of them. My grandfather was a veteran, so they will be interred at the military cemetery in Santa Fe.

-

I took Sunday off of work, as initially I thought we might be leaving then, but it turned out we weren't going to leave until Monday. It was nice to have a day beforehand. Alex, Bella, and I went on a walk, and I packed.

We headed over to my mom's in the mid-afternoon, me to stay the night for ease of travel the next day, and Alex to get a tutorial on the specifics of catsitting Jaspurr.

Alex was really not feeling well, and had been sick since the middle of the previous week (to add to what a terrible week that already was.) I luckily didn't get the full illness experience that he did, though I was very badly congested for about a week.

When we got to her house, my mom answered the door with a big bandage on one of her fingers. She told me that she'd spent a chunk of the afternoon at urgent care, because while she was trying to get some gardening done she cut a chunk out of one of her fingers. Apparently that was how the nurse described it at urgent care: missing a chunk. She'd been unable to stop the bleeding for more than two hours, so finally went to urgent care. :| They did finally got it stopped there, but apparently it took multiple applications of their quick-clotting agent (which evidently hurt like a motherfucker), and said there wasn't really anything left to be stitched, because it was, as mentioned, a missing chunk. Yikes. And much like when she fell: you couldn't tell me about it!?

-

Monday we left a little later than we'd hoped to, just before 10:00. We decided to take 285 for most of the way rather than our usual I-25 route. I-25 just isn't that pleasant to drive, while 285 goes through some very pretty parts of the mountains, and then takes you straight into Santa Fe.

I didn't really take any pictures on the way down, though I probably should have. It really was a very pretty drive for most of the way.


Picture from my cousin: I never even saw this adorable little bat that was hanging out above her door, but he was still the highlight of the day.

Four more pictures, including a really great sign:

On my mom's window before we left: a freshly molted mayfly.

The drive was pleasant and also pleasantly uneventful. We got to Santa Fe in the late afternoon.

The hotel we stayed at called itself a "Concept Hotel," but as far as I could tell the concept was "what if our hotel was actually a low to mid motel?" The room wasn't great, but it also was by far not the worst place I've stayed.

We had dinner at the attached restaurant, where I had an extremely mid burger. (With extremely lackluster green chile, which is criminal in Santa Fe.) Taylor and my mom both ordered tacos, which were probably even more mid. Like... maybe a 5 or 6 out of 10, but again, that's like a Santa Fe 3.

It was nice to see some family I haven't seen in a long time. My cousin's kids especially. They're both late teens/early 20s, and I haven't seen them since they were like... 4 and 7 or something?

Everyone was really sympathetic about Cy.

There was this absolutely fantastic sign posted at the pool:


Highlighting by me. Surely multiple people looked at this sign before it was completed, right? Infectious decease?? Is that what we're calling zombies, now?

Some of the family was going to hang out by the pool for a bit after dinner, but we were pretty tired, so we just headed back to our room to hang out for a bit before going to bed.


This picture was actually from Tuesday, but I feel like it's better to put it here than with the memorial pictures. The donut in a crystal ball was just very funny to me.

I genuinely do wish I'd had a chance to go around more of Santa Fe to take pictures of all the murals and things we passed. There were a lot of amazing ones, but we just didn't ever really have the time and energy to do much besides the planned structured activities.

-

Tuesday was the actual memorial itself. We had a fairly slow morning, which was good, because none of us had slept particularly well. (I also hadn't slept very well or much at all on Sunday night, so I was really feeling it.)

In the early afternoon we carpooled to the cemetery. We had to plan to move pretty quickly, as they only have 20 or 30 minute blocks for everything before they shuffle you out to make way for the next ceremony. Mom, Debby, and Jeff still had to finalize their design for the headstone. They picked the words "Forever Together" and a sandhill crane image.


My grandmother's high school picture, and my grandfather's army portrait.

A gust of wind came through right as the ceremony started and knocked my grandmother's portrait over. Debby laughed afterwards about how she obviously had needed to get the last word in!

Three more memorial pictures:

Portraits, and the containers for their ashes.


The cemetery. Funnily, the family pointed out that their original apartment in Santa Fe is just barely out of sight from here.

After that, we went back to the hotel for a small reception. Just some snack type foods and mingling. Debby read some condolence cards from friends and distant family. Jeff had put together some very thoughtful little cards for everyone, containing a short biography and photo of my grandparents, plus a coin and either a $2 or $5 bill from the year they were born. It was very nice.


The picture included with my card. This is closer to how I remember both of them than their portraits. <3

Nicki, Charles, and their kids went shopping for a while after, but we were again tired, so opted for hotel room and naps.

Later that evening we went out to dinner together (to what Jeff and Kristy kept reminding us was their favorite restaurant, ha.) Very good Mexican food (though the family that owns the restaurant is from El Salvador, we were told.) The food was excellent, and it was nice to chat with everyone a bit more.

Debby is moving almost immediately to Michigan to be near her daughter and her grandkids. I really like my cousin Nicki, and her kids seem to have grown up to be very cool people, and I am a little sad that it might be a very long time before I see them again. I know my mom intends to go visit them all in Michigan, but I don't know when I'll be able to make that trip. Hopefully eventually!

My mom and Jeff really don't get along that well, so I have a feeling we won't be likely to see them again any time soon. My mom even expressed she's not sure she'll see him again ever, which is... a shame to me. Though I also understand.

Bittersweet all around.

-

Wednesday was our travel day back.

I actually almost got some sleep, though I did wake up stupid early.

We started our day by getting everything packed up, and then heading to a sourdough bakery that we'd seen advertised in a tourist-y booklet about food and drink options. We were mostly trading off doing dramatic readings of how pretentious a lot of the fine dining sounded, finding the most expensive things on the menus, and comparing how many establishments tried to claim to be the oldest in the city. But then the bakery sounded genuinely really good, haha.

And it was! We had chile cheese croissants for breakfast and they were delicious. I also got a sourdough baguette to take home. It was very tasty. So if you are ever in Santa Fe and want some tasty bread: Wild Leaven Bakery was quite good.

I did try to take at least a few more pictures on the drive this time, though most are of the expected mediocre quality of "cell phone pics snapped out the window of a car moving at highway speeds."


New Mexico really does have some lovely dramatic landscapes.

Eight pictures from the drive back, including the Rio Grande Gorge:

Terribly unattractive background, but the cholla were blooming a really brilliant pink. Of course none of the attempts to take pictures of them in more attractive settings turned out...

Fairly early in the drive, we took a wrong turn (or more accurately, failed to take a right turn) and wound up on the completely wrong road. We didn't notice for quite a while, until we were suddenly approaching Taos, haha. It was a little out of the way, but it was actually a really beautiful drive, and easy enough to get back to the right road.

And the trip back to the correct highway took us over the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge:


It's pretty dramatic!

We did actually stop to take a better look:


That sure is a gorge!



Shortly after that we passed Earthship Biotecture, which was pretty interesting looking from the road, though I failed to get any pictures. I do not disagree with the general ethos behind them - sustainable, off-the-grid housing, that also looks real cool. However, I am also utterly unsurprised that the main page will sell you the Earthship Founder's book "A Coming of Wizards: A Manual of Human Potential" lol. Now available on kindle!

Luckily we rejoined our correct route juuuuust before the major road work that had taken the highway down to a single lane. I do so love waiting for a good twenty minutes for it to be our turn to follow the pilot car...


Got to sit next to this building where we were waiting, though.

Then, once we were past that, there was another section down to one lane. Tragic. (There'd only been one stretch on the way down!)


But this time there were road goats! They were hanging out between the road and the fence, though they then moseyed slowly to the other side of the fence. I'm fairly sure I saw this same herd on the other side of the road, also right on the shoulder, on the way down.

Finally we were back in Colorado! The San Luis Valley is very pretty. I'd like to actually visit Monte Vista for the crane migration someday.


A single pronghorn.


Yaks!

And that's it.

It was a bittersweet reason to take the trip, but it was also nice to be somewhere else for a few days.

Last Friday was the other concert that we went to go see:


Aesthetic Perfection, doing an old-school set, plus genCAB and Whorticulture opening.

This one was cutting it a little closer to get there, since I wasn't able to leave work at all early, but luckily the class we were closing at work didn't keep me longer than usual, either. I was able to wear most of what I was going to wear to work, and change what little I needed to on the drive there, haha.

We actually wound up being down there earlier than needed, and had to circle like vultures for about fifteen minutes until one of the driving lanes turned into a parking lane at 7:00. As usual we car-bar/pre-gamed for a bit, then headed to the venue.

We weren't late this time, so we got to see our first opener, Whorticulture.



Whorticulture is a local band, and they've hit at least a little bit of success! We last saw them opening for Solar Fake (last year? the year before?). They got to play Dark Force Fest last month, which was pretty cool.

I've been impressed every time I've seen them, and even having only ever seen them live as an opening band, their songs have been memorable enough that I recognize them every time.

I always figure "hey, I should buy a CD!" and then don't have merch money, so this time was going to be the time! ...They do not have CDs at their merch table. I poked around on Bandcamp and discovered that this is because they do not have any albums... just nine singles released over the course of the last six years, haha. So I did buy their various singles, haha.

Their set was great, as they have been every time I've seen them, and even only getting to play four songs.

Three more Whorticulture pics + a music video embed

"Okay, hold on a minute. Time for an on-purpose wardrobe malfunction!"

Watch on YouTube

Here's their song from last year, "Faust," which I quite like. The video is them being dramatically gothy in the Molly Brown House Museum, which is fun, too.

After that was genCAB. They were supposed to open the last time Aesthetic Perfection came, but had to cancel because the singer had Covid.



Unfortunately I found them solidly... meh. They weren't terrible, but I found myself getting a little bored. I couldn't understand more than a handful of words out of each song (just kind of nondescriptly loud and yell-y.) The singer also seemed... shy? Like he didn't want to look at the audience, ha. He's the synth player for Aesthetic Perfection while they're touring, so I feel like he's had a good tutor in stage presence, but... I mean, I'd be petrified and hate being on stage, so. Glad to have gotten to see them, but not someone I'd seek out to see again/look for as a headliner.

Three more of genCAB

Not really a "good" picture, but I liked the dramatic silhouettes.

And then, Aesthetic Perfection!


This is by far the best picture I got for the night, ha.

It was exciting to see him back, since he swore that the last tour would be the last one in the US ever. (He doesn't live in the US anymore, and he's always very open about the business side of being an artist. Basically it's just prohibitively expensive to tour, in a way that doesn't work out as a financial decision. He's said he'd be willing to tour as a supporting act, and I think he did so last year, but I wasn't interested in the artist he was supporting.)
I think the old-school thing was really meant to be just a single special show, and then expanded to a very small tour, and it was exciting for Denver to have a date added. It's very possible that this one is in fact the last tour, so I'm glad we got to go. (Or maybe there'll be another in a year or two!)

I'm actually less a fan of his older stuff than I am his like... middle stuff. I'm a 'Til Death fan, sorry. Even so, his older stuff has grown on me quite a bit.

He opened with "The Great Depression," which was a good starting song. Having the first words of a set be "Hey you motherfucking son of a bitch!" is pretty good, lol.

Got a lot of other faves from A Violent Emotion (and I'll be honest, while I knew most of the other songs, I don't have the albums they're on. I'll have to get them from Alex, as I'm sure he does, ha.) I was glad we got "Pale," which is one of my favorites from that album, as well as "The Siren" and "Living the Wasted Life."

The final encore song was "Spit It Out," which is a great energetic song to end on. I'm pretty sure that was the song he opened with at the first AP show we saw, way back at Castlemans (RIP a great venue.) The energy of the crowd screaming along with "Spit it out scream, spit it out scream!" does make it a great one to hear live.

Could have done without a small cohort of girls who came in about halfway through the set and pretty viciously shoved their way in front of me, but ah well.

Five more pictures

Bought Alex an Aesthetic Perfection shirt (since the last one he tried to get, he wound up with the wrong one and didn't realize until later. The cut of the one he got didn't work for him, so I wound up with it.)
I bought a Whorticulture shirt, since there's not an album to buy, haha. (Forever sad to have missed out on their "Goth as Fuck" shirts, which were styled to look like the "Queer as Folk" logo.)