Click on the thumbnail above for a large view of this painting.
I finished a new painting about a week ago. From a scene in a small town on the North side of Lake Chapala in Jalisco, I've been thinking about working from a small photo of this subject for some time. This was an old Mexican and his old dog, selling something from a table by the side of the highway. The multiple electric meters on the pole repeat a theme I usually try to include in my Mexican scenes, of flaky infrastructure (especially electrical).

I'm pretty happy with the way this turned out. Took about three days, somewhere around 15-25 hours I guess.

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Mona knows how to start the day, and Christmas day was no exception. Ginger (on the left) and Silkie stand guard while Mona reads something of substance. This is the only place Ginger is relaxed around me and willing to let me pet her.

We were invited to dinner at ranch neighbors Jim And Sande, and Sande had decorated her house to a high level of seasonal cheer, with her large collection of Christmas artifacts. We brought along a few contributions to dinner, but Sande had an abundance of wonderful holiday foods that left us all groaning from overindulgence on the way home and for a while afterward. Sande's generosity extended into the next day, as she sent us home with goodies for later.


Mona helps Sande out in the kitchen, while an lively winter scene animates a countertop.


Sande, Mona, and Clark warm up for the main event.


Hungry visitors forage outside in the cold while we feast in Sande and Jim's warm home.

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We drove up to the ranch yesterday, on Christmas eve during what appeared to be a break in the weather. The roads were scary for the first fifty miles or so, with lots of patches of glaze ice and only one lane on the interstate more or less clear.

After crossing the Wyoming border, the pavement was mostly clear, but there was continuous blowing snow across all the roadway. According to the forecast before we left, the wind chill out there was about -20. A bleak scene.



Mona prepared a nice dinner as the light faded outside, and we spent the evening watching bits and pieces of Christmas TV programming. Tonight (Christmas) we're going to dinner at a friends house about a half-hour from here.

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I am so tired of being lied to, and fending off legions of shills for our tired plutocracy trying to cheat, swindle, manipulate, and generally lower my quality of life while maniacly enriching themselves and their masters at my expense.

The last few days watching HR3590 being eviscerated while the few advocates I thought we had finally elected to represent our interests stood by like spineless half-wit dolts has been discouraging beyond words. At least my words...as he has done before, Keith Olberman has given voice to an outrage that so many of us feel but are powerless to express...

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

I thought we had at last sent a few people to Washington who might suppress the tide of rapacious charlatans who have been picking clean our middle class carcasses for so long. I also thought we in the U.S. had some big advantages over Mexico, where corruption is said to be so rampant. Now, though, it seems that we here are afflicted by a form of corruption made all the more repulsive by efforts to color it as something else.

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Last night we went to a fundraiser for the Center for Justice, Peace and the Environment. It was a potluck and silent auction, and was probably more fun than that sounds. It seems that our local craft breweries donate to virtually any non-profit or fundraising activity which always contributes to a more festive atmosphere.



This young guitar player donated his time and provided a very pleasant background for the evening. Much of his work was intricate and fairly intense - I felt a little bad that folks weren't just sitting quietly in rapt attention. We talked a bit about his touring days in Illinois and surrounding states, before he and his wife relocated here. They have day jobs at the Whole Foods store, but clearly his heart is in his music.


While the past few days have been extremely (sub-zero lows) cold, they have been pretty much snow-free. That changed overnight with about six inches at daybreak followed by gently falling snow all day. Forecast is for another extremely cold week to come.



This crappy weather led me once again this morning to have a look online at other geographic areas to live (like southern Oregon). I also have been thinking that since there no longer seem to be many sound investments available in the realm of fraudulent securities, ponzi schemes and swindles that permeate the financial markets, perhaps real property will offer some sort of financial security in the future. The debasement of U.S. currency leaves a guy who doesn't want to mess with gold or silver few options for hard assets, and if the era of cheap abundant petroleum is drawing to a close, I would like to live in an area with a long growing season and decent agricultural land around my home. Off-grid power and a moderate climate would be nice.

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Not a whole lot to report here. Pat is in Veracruz, after spending two weeks in Oaxaca mostly working on his Spanish at a school there. He seemed to like the home-stay with a single mom who prepared a nice breakfast and afternoon comida for him every day. Tomorrow he heads for Puebla for the last two days, then home Friday. I'm roasting a turkey a day late - spending thursday at a potluck with the folks at the local Shambhala Buddhist Center.



Variety of events this evening...gallery opening reception, transgender potluck, and lecture on nutritional labeling at the library. Fort Collins has a surprisingly large Transgender community, and they were kind enought to host an event that included 'friends and family', which I guess includes me.


Albert D. J. Cashier, Civil War veteran born Jennie Irene Hodgers

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I was reviewing some discussion of the economy today, and I ran across a link to an hour-long video of Elizabeth Warren lecturing in early 2007 at Cal Berkeley. Her topic was the decline and precariousness of the middle class in the U.S.



Ms. Warren is a scholar of bankruptcy law, one of the country's most astute observers of the economics of the middle class, a Harvard Law professor, and in service at this time monitoring some of the hare-brained schemes of our Treasury and Federal Reserve for Congress.

The take-away from this video - a generation ago, there was a single wage earner in the typical Mom/Dad/two-kid household. Today, there are two wage earners, and yet after all the fixed costs (housing, health insurance, child care, transportation) of maintaining a middle-class life, they have substantially LESS from their combined earnings than did the 30-years ago single-earner household.

This kind of thing is the eventual source of big social and political trouble. Especially when coupled with the growing perception that legislators and the executive branch are in cahoots with the big Wall Street and corporate interests, at the expense of main-street types.

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Mona makes a point with her fork...

The past weekend was brightened by a visit from Mona, who had to come down from Wyoming to do a few errands and was further motivated by a big dance recital I found at the University. She had mentioned before how much she thought she would enjoy this sort of thing, and I was happy to find a gift for her recent birthday.

As I suspected, I ended up squirming some of the time, and making pointless value judgments about the choice of some of these kids to spend fifty to a hundred thousand of Mom and Dad's hard earned dollars obtaining an education that culminated in feigning snowflakes or other forms of pretentious flitting about in avant-garde dance garb or classic tutus. Ah well, I am equally critical of all of the arts these days, including my own painting efforts. And as Mona pointed out those students no doubt have hedged their career bets with accounting and electrical engineering credentials. Sorry Mona - I enjoyed your enjoyment of it and should'a kept my opinions to myself.

We went the next morning to a Shambhala Buddhist Center event that ended with a potluck, for which I baked a nice big banana bread that proved to be well received. And following that event we stopped by the university again for some acting recitals a couple of seniors were delivering to their peers, mentors, and whoever stopped by. Some nice pieces, but wow, what a lot of potty-mouth. I've noticed before that they often choose for their minor productions those pieces with the most shocking and offensive language, and often harsh violence. I'm guessing that this is supposed to demonstrate their sophistication and newly adult status, but it really just reveals to me that they haven't any real message to convey - so far.



Last night, we stayed up (too late) and watched a mesmerizing and very impressive documentary (Unmistaken Child) on the search for a reincanate Rinpoche (Buddhist Precious One) by the devoted disciple of the recently deceased Lama Konchog, a world-renowned Tibetan master. Worth watching even if you have no interest in Buddhist doctrine or practices, for the awesome scenery and exquisite filmmaking.

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I couldn't resist. If you love dogs, how could you not smile. You could say she is being exploited, but she sure looks happy to me...

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Today is November 2nd, All Saints Day - in Mexico Dia de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead. We invite the spirits of those loved ones who have departed to revisit us, so we can enjoy each others company and they can find comfort in some of the familiar things from their time near us.

We keep this little altar for Aunt Alice up on the wall in our kitchen all the time. Today though, I put a cookie there and made some tea for her favored cup, and lit a candle for her.



I also put the little shrine for Lucky Dog out in the kitchen with a treat for her.

I wish I had the makings of a shrine for my mom and dad - Kool and Camel cigarettes, some scotch and jug wine...I have books for mom, and for Dad I have some work momentos, and photos for them both. I think I'll just light a candle for them both by favorite photos for this year.

One is supposed to also have marigolds (the scent is said to attract their spirits close) but in this harsh climate no Marigolds are to be found.

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Last night we went to the Greyrock co-housing for their annual Halloween chili cook-off. Wow, around twenty pots of vegetarian and meat chilis, and lots of nice sides. I made a double batch of cornbread to take. It was fun.


Pat is leaning in from the right side.



We went to a men's group coffee social in Loveland today, and as we were leaving Pat noticed a museum across the street was having a show with altars, inspired by the Dia de los Muertos of Mexico (November 2, all saints day).

It was a great show, and as luck would have it the artist was there and we attended a lecture which she illustrated with many slides from Guanajuato, San Miguel de Allende, and Oaxaca. Just the thing to prime Pat for his trip to Oaxaca at the end of next week!

After the lecture, we had a look around the rest of the museum, which includes local history exhibits. There was a big section that illustrated the local sugar beet agricultural and refining industies, and we can only surmise from the scene below (click to enlarge) that the lab of the refinery may have been staffed by transgender folks.

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I started a new painting four days ago, which is finally about done today. The photo above is more or less how it will end up - usually for a couple of days I notice small details that need to be tweaked a bit.

This one was a real chore - as usual I felt that the risk of having to toss the whole effort was high until about half way through. I liked the subject, and have been thinking about tackling this subject I photographed in 2005 in Merida, Yucatan for several years. I especially like the uniquely Mexican touches like the upper left window (to an interior room) with the little shrine shared with a big old fire extinguisher.

Below are a couple of stage photos - these are thumbnails so if you are interested you may click to see larger.

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What a difference a week makes...it's the week before Halloween, and already there is that "WTF are we doing in Siberia?" effect. Really - what WERE we thinking when we moved here from a place were there are palm trees and your geraniums aren't turned into unrecognizable mush when the first hard freeze hits in mid-October?

Ah well, the question now is: where to go next? I do think we want to consider turning some of our electron assets into tillable dirt, where the climate allows at least subsistence farming (as in a kitchen garden and henhouse) pretty much year-round. Whether this might be in Mexico or some part of the US that has the elusive combination of civilized climate and affordability (and a socio-economic-political environment that isn't too scary) is hard to say at the moment.

I do worry that the US economy (and as a result the above-mentioned s-e-p environment) is teetering on a precipice over a vast canyon of previously unimaginable hazard. Perhaps people have always worried thus, but I can't help but believe that any reasonable empirical analysis justifies alarm.

I find myself struggling to stay positive and not obsess over little things gone wrong now that there is not daily job routine for a while, but overall it is the preferred arrangement for the time being. The Mdog is aging so fast, I want to spend time with her, and it seems there is no end to the necessary or elective activities that fill most days. The biggest challenge is just to make the most of life day-to-day until we figure out where we are supposed to go from here.

It won't be someplace where you need a snow shovel or a windshield ice scraper.

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Went out to the Greyrock co-housing place today to visit and help out a bit with one of their three annual 'work-days'. This being fall there was a lot of landscape and garden cleanup, among other things.

One of the residents showed us her winter garden, which kind of surprised me, given the harshness of the climate from about now until March. Withe severl mini-greenhouses or coldframes, she is going for quite a variety of produce.


The winter garden is based on Square Foot Gardening and Winter Havest (by Elliot Coleman).









At the end of the day the teen residents prepared a nice spaghetti dinner for the folks who worked on the chores, and we were invited to join them. We are trying to let people there know that we are interested in joining the community, and they are fun to associate with no matter what opportunity might exist some day to live there.

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Since the early onset of winter, I've been really resisting the idea of staying here in this house (and Fort Collins), even going so far as to try and figure out the logistics of a return to the Bay Area to live and work. An old boss was at Dolby Labs - a great corporate HQ facility South of Market, and they recently had a network manager position posted that I might have been able to finagle a shot at.

Well, the position is gone, and yesterday I found out my colleague had been axed in a cost-cutting round. Reality check...


Rough sketch for the hotel lobby painting. 16X20.

I spent this morning cleaning the kitchen well, and preparing to get started on a new painting of a Merida (Yucatan, Mexico) hotel lobby from an old photo in my painting idea folder. This is the ideal time of the year to paint here, as the light in the side of the kitchen I use for art is fantastic. This activity has me off the negative loop of escape from here for a while, helped by the return of some semblance of fall. At least for a while...

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Do you check for new Post Secret messages every Sunday? I have a permanent link on the right side of the blog page here.

Frank, who created the Post Secret phenomena, is on a book tour, so he missed this week...but he has a new video on the site.

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Operation Hey Mackey! - Whole Foods, Oakland from Jamie LeJeune on Vimeo.

Here's a video of a protest at the Oakland Whole Foods, drawing attention to the publicly stated opinions on the subject of heath care/insurance reform by Whole Foods CEO John Mackey.

I miss the Bay Area.

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You'd never know the country is basically insolvent, with NASA spending around $80,000,000 to crash space junk into the moon so they can gawk at the debris it throws up. Maybe there will be traces of water - won't that be useful to know?

Too bad we can't assure safe water for folks on earth due to lack of funds...

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The gate to the front walk at the California house

I was looking for a picture of my mom to send to my brother for his birthday tonight, and ended up spending a long time going through three boxes of old photos in the basement. I didn't find the picture I was looking for, but I had a wrenching review of my entire adult life - spanning about 35 years. The experience made stronger the sense that I am stuck in a low point here in Colorado, feeling like the best times have passed and the current situation offers few opportunities and is hard to alter.

I look at the little studio apartment I used to live in, when I had so few posessions, and my photo business down stairs, then the airport and my lifelong dream of flying airplanes playing out. My entry into and success with information technology. Three careers that gave me entry into things that truly interested me and were rewarding, although of course challenging in various ways.

I just don't see anything else on the horizon here. While we live in a cute town, I will never relate to the geography or the climate, and while people generally are pleasant and kind, there is something about the social and political environment that I don't grasp.



Part of this malais is seeing all the pictures of the Mommadog in her youth back in California, while now, here, I see her aging so rapidly as she reaches her fourteenth year this month. Then there were all the people who have grown old or died, or drifted away...always a melancholoy experience when photos rekindle memories of times when they were part of life. Here, there are many acquaintances, but no friends. Family at the ranch has been a bright ray of light, but it's like dynamic life was left behind when I got stuck on the wrong side of the mountains in a fly-over state.



I raked leaves today, and went out in the pre-dawn darkness this morning to disconnect a hose from a spigot, as the temperature fell below freezing for the first time (I learned the hard way a forgotten hose will burst a pipe somehow if left connected). I've given up on my efforts to preserve the tender plants outside, as the months of frigid gray lifelessness approach, and the perpetual green of California garden photos doesn't make this prospect any more welcome.


The view from the back porch in California.

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We went to dinner at the Greyrock co-housing community house last night. We're interested in seeing if we might really be a part of that community, and if there might be an opportunity to buy in there if a vacancy comes along. They have a great community garden and chicken-raising, and share a meal several times a week for those who are interested.

If nothing else, it is a pleasant opportunity to have a social experience.

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The circular firing squad of American business strategy continues..."Gee, the economy sucks. Let's collectively lay off a quarter-million more employees every month...then they and those who fear being dumped in the next batch will all be terrified to spend a nickel on any of our goods and services. That should exedite a recovery!"

Oh well, I guess all the payroll savings can be used to maintain lavish executive compensation - such genius must be rewarded.

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We went to the Sustainable Living Fair north of Old Town Saturday, and spent about five hours looking around and chatting with various exhibitors. It was a beautiful day here on the Front Range of the Rockies.


A 50X130 foot lot, suitable for perhaps a 1200sf house.

On our way back out of the pasture area where the event was staged, we passed by a vacant lot with a realtor's sign, in an old small neighborhood called Alta Vista. We played our usual guessing game about what the price might be - I guessed around $40K and Pat guessed a little higher.

The lot was interesting because at the rear, there was a nice unobstructed Western view of the foothills and landscape with no development in sight.

I didn't think much more about it until the next morning when I searched online and found the property with the listed price of only $25K. Hmmm... As I rode the the gym Sunday morning and while working out, I thought about the possibilities of building on this small lot. We really never see anything we like here in the housing stock to provide a good alternative to where we are, and have concluded that we will need to build or move to another state where there is an architectural style more in line with our preferences (like the pueblo style 'adobe' houses of New Mexico, and maybe a better climate as well). But if we were to build here, and make it a place where we could easily leave it behind for the winter (unlike this place, which offers some challenges), that might work out well.

There are some new developments and interesting home construction going in North of Old Town, but the prices are quite high, and there is something cold and hard-edged about these contrived projects.


A few new homes in the Old Town North project.

The lot is in an area just a mile and a half or so from the center of Old Town that provides housing for a lot of poor and ethnic (mostly Latino) folks, and some gentrifying urban pioneers. We would be among the latter group if we built there. As I told our realtor, we would rather have poor Mexican neighbors around us than the folks where we are now who planted McCain/Palin signs on their lawns last fall.


The back (West) of the lot looking inward.

The Alta Vista neighborhood was once known as the Spanish Colony, and was home to migrant and immigrant labor from Mexico. There are a number of old adobe structures there, some about a hundred years old. The neighborhood has a Mexican village feel, and Spanish is heard more often than English as you walk around the narrow streets
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An old tienda or perhaps a laundry, in the nearby Buckingham neighborhood.

At this point, we are just looking onto the various issues surrounding the lot purchase, and design and construction possibilities and costs. Hard to say where this might lead, or what the chances are for anything happening up there beyond considering the opportunity.

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