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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