Architectural InDigestion

I haven't blogged in a while and despite the endless daily fodder for political commentary, I am very tired and weary of politics and the warnings about the impending end of times.

So I will talk about my ordinary life in Cochiti Lake, and my always astute observations about class and wealth.

Every now and then, someone drops off old magazines at the mail room in the village. I welcome the donations to my bathroom library and scoff them up whenever I see them: The New Yorker, Atlantic Monthly, Time, National Geographic, New Mexico, and this past week, for the first time, several hefty editions of Architectural Digest.

So, as usual, I grabbed five or six of the magazines and took them home to leaf through them.

Now, I can appreciate interesting architecture - maybe not as much as some people - but I have an artistic gene, so I do take notice of form and color and design. I would argue that I have an innate sense of  Feng shui - without resorting to metaphysical explanations - and I appreciate the orderly placement of objects to please the eye and to create a comfortable, calming space.

But there was very little in AD to peak my interest. Architectural Digest seems to be more about over the top opulence than architecture.

The editors must feel obligated to display the most hideous, uncomfortable furniture, irritating patterns, ill-colored decor and useless objects known to man, just because the furnishings, designs and items carry a pretentious, hyphenated Franco-Italo-Espanola name of some "famous" artist, company, or designer I never heard of.

One article touted a wall covering made of concrete and "authentic" banana tree bark. (Like, beware of any designer who uses "unauthentic" banana tree bark in their concrete wall coverings.)

But it was one particular article that made me laugh, mockingly, and made me realize what different worlds we peons live in.

I will quote, emphasis in Bold is mine:

Standing in the soft glow of his perfectly pastel two-story waterfront home in Florida George Lindemann says "I didn't want a white house. I have two young girls whose favorite color is pink and because they live with two dads and two brothers I am always looking for ways to empower them. So I made pink my favorite color too." 

After local architect Ellen T. Shulman completed the 7000 square-foot tropical modern home on one of Miami Beach's Sunset Islands, Lindemann the son of entrepreneur George Lindemann, turned to his neighbor and close friend, Susan Bell Richard, who advises an impressive list of artists and designers, to zero in on the precise shade of pink. "She's a brilliant colorist," he explains, "and she knows the light on the island, having lived here for 30 years." Together they spent two years reviewing exactly 74 samples of pink paint. "We painted swaths of the house with different shades and drove the boat by throughout the day to see how it looked at every hour." The resulting hue is not unlike the sand on Harbor Island in the Bahamas. 

Our entry "Courtyard" - a very fine architectural feature of our 1100 square-foot home.

It took us 5 minutes to pick the perfect shade of sunset
when we had our stucco painted and sealed.
The resulting hue is not unlike the hue before it was painted.
Four-piece outdoor furniture from ALDI's Supermarket
$199.

Royalties (no not Royalty)

Got my $20.98 author royalty check the other day - from the publisher. (That's not a typo). I'm not sure what that represents as there were other outlets on line besides Amazon where my account has me down for a total of 9 sales!

If that is the total of my on-line sales, it comes to approximately $2.33 per book.

I wonder how that will effect next year's taxes.

I figured I'd have sold a few hundred thousand copies by now and that Hollywood would be contacting me for the screenplay and movie rights. Well, I'll give them another year.

The thing is, it's a pretty good read if I do say so myself. One problem is that the cover price is too high - something I had nothing to do with. I know I would hesitate before spending $25 for a memoir by an unknown author. I might not even pay $25 for a great book. 

I'd give rebates if I could, but at $20.98 profit, that ain't going to happen. That's less than the price of a single copy...now that I think of it.

Hey, but if you have 25 bucks buy the book. 

But only if you will ACTUALLY READ IT. I wrote it for a reason...

Living High On Social Security

I don't shop often and almost never at Kohl's Department Store - except when they send me a coupon for $10. They do this with no strings attached, about 3 or 4 times each year. Then I usually go there and browse the clearance rack to find something to spend my ten dollars on.

Recently my 20 year old Swiss Army Victorinox watch stopped running and I had some batteries that I bought last time my watch went dead. I guess either the batteries are no good or the watch is no good. And, well, it could be expensive either way.

But today I got lucky. Kohl's had watches on sale. I looked at the Timex models but man have they gone up in price. I found a nice looking off-brand watch that laughably says "Diamond" on the face. The regular price: $19.99. Right in my price range. At the checkout it rang up for the sale price of $12.99. After applying my $10 coupon and state sales tax I paid a whopping $3.18. Probably less than a battery. Hope it lasts at least a year.

And later, at Costco, where we went for lunch (Leon had the $1.49 hot dog and soda combo, I splurged for the $2.49 sausage with pepper and onion on a roll) I saw a watch I didn't buy:

I think mine is prettier.

And then I saw the other watch I didn't buy:

Mine is also stainless steel, but has a faux leather wrist band instead of the pretty expandable. And it has Roman numerals and no pretty dials showing the day and month and whatever. My phone does that.

So the way I figure it, I saved $3,196.48. I wish I could do that every day. I just don't know what I'm going to do with all that extra cash.

All That Glittered Was Gold and Rainbows

When I was in college, long, long, ago, I was standing in line at the cafeteria when a rainbow appeared in the field across the street. 

I mean the rainbow was right there, in the field. You could see it's end touching the ground and it was so near you could almost touch it yourself.

Some of us ran like fools, out of the cafeteria, across the road and into the field. The rainbow retreated a little further away with each stride we took. But it was still so close you could almost touch it. Almost.

Of course we never did catch the rainbow nor did we find a pot of gold in the field where it had touched down.

Twenty years or so ago Leon and I saw some gold rings in a shop - I think it was in Portsmouth, New Hampshire or possibly in Provincetown, Massachusetts - I don't remember where we first saw the rings by this particular artist, George Sawyer, because they were available in both locations. 

We both coveted those rings which are very beautiful being made of layered gold which looks like wood grain. 

The gold-smithing technique, after the art of Japanese sword-making, is called Mokume Gane. Here are a few examples of George Sawyer's work:

Back then the rings went for around $800 each. Which was more than we could afford. We started saving up though, and when we had saved about $1000, we decided to buy an RV instead. Much more fun and practical.

The next time we had saved some money for our rings the price-tag had gone up to around $1,200. But we put all of our savings toward the house we now live in. Much more sensible and practical.

We pretty much gave up the idea of getting gold mokume gane rings after that, but we still used to "visit" our rings whenever we went to Ptown or Portsmouth. 

Each visit, however, saw the price increase to $1,500, then $1,800 to the current $2,500 - $4,000!

Needless to say, these rings are further out of reach now than when we first saw them. 

Kind of like trying to chase a rainbow. And we still have more pressing and practical needs.

(c) FrankDeFrancesco/End of Trail Productions

Labor Day Weekend - Part 3 - Delirium

Just a few more rocks to go and some touch-up spots where there are gaps. We ran out of concrete ( after using 720 POUNDS of the stuff), so stopped and cleaned up the work area, then went out for a late lunch/early dinner at the Chowder Pot with Ed and Jeff.

Those Stones on the Top of the Corner Piece
Are Loose and Don't Belong There

I still have a few ideas...maybe embedding my old cell phone and an antique cassette player...some flatware and a few dishes...putting Mary on a half-shell on the very corner...or a building a grotto reminiscent of Lourdes complete with a fountain of holy water...Right now though, I'm sure delirium has set in and I'm dead tired.

Labor Day Weekend - Part 2 - Stone Wall Progress

This is today's (half-day of work) accomplishment:

Oh, my.

It kind of looks like five different people worked on this - all using their own amateur "technique".

Putting The Labor Back In Labor Day

Stone Wall "Repair".

Yesterday Leon and I removed the loose stones from the wall by the garage. It is a 5 foot high wall that had apparently come down sometime before we bought the house and the home owner just stacked the stones up haphazardly without any mortar. There is a section that didn't fall down and it is still held together with mortar.

The mason wanted $9,000 (that we don't have) to re-do the wall and stairs. I'm sure it would have been beautiful.

This is what I would like it to look like:

But we are amateurs and we work with what we have. The wall that is still in place with mortar is slightly bowed and so we went with it and brought the wall around with a slight bow shape back to the stairway.

This is what we accomplished today, but unfortunately we  only got about two-thirds of the job done. 

We'll be back at it tomorrow morning or Monday morning...not sure my old body can do this two days in row. And the part yet to do means naturally hoisting big rocks to a higher level than we did today.

The Intact Part OfThe Wall Is On The Lower Left

Who Needs a Health Club Membership
When You Can Get A Concrete Workout?

We've Got About Another Foot And A Half To Go

Earning My Keep or Another Chapter in How To Retire On Next To Nothing And Make Do.

I've decided not to write a commentary about the canonization of JPII and John XXIII. Or about the Harvey Milk commemorative Forever stamp. Or about lesbian Navy veterans. Or about UCC clergy suing for marriage equality.

I am finding that I am not up to such commentary. As a life-long under-achiever, I've never been "well-read" or well informed or particularly adept at teasing out political or social subtleties.

So for today I'll stick to frugality. Maybe I should write the book on how to retire on next to nothing. No, I'll do that tomorrow.

When the trellis was new

Today's project was repairing (jury-rigging) for the third time, the garden trellis that has served as our outdoor shower for at least eight years.

A couple of years ago - still looking good

The trellis is made of wood - obviously not pressure treated, but it has stood up to water and weather pretty well. Last spring it was beginning to fall apart at the glued joints and some of the wood was showing signs of rot.

I repaired (jury-rigged) it last spring and figured that it would have lasted through the season. This spring the whole thing fell over in the wind and was in about a dozen pieces.

So today's project was to put it back together - to rebuild it, better, stronger than before...

So I gathered up my tools and any scrap wood that I thought could be used and some wood glue and staples and screws and I put the darn thing back together. I re-glued the spindles and then fastened them with screws and staples, then reinforced the arch with wood pieces on the back. Then reinforced the whole trellis which was so lopsided. And rebuilt the planters on the sides.

It will last through this summer. Granted it doesn't look as good as it did when new, but I priced out some new models, none of which have that kind of Zen Garden look. And I was blown away by the prices.

Finished Project

Ours cost about $39 in 2006 - I think it came from Ocean State Job Lot. Eight years later, Home Depot and other retailers have trellises for $160 to over $500. OSJL doesn't have them anymore.

So we don't need to go out and spend anything and I earned my keep for the day.

I had to find some old photos and came across this one.

Wasn't just the trellis that looked better in 2006 

Exchanging Valentines in the Age of Frugality

Leon mentioned that he was at the pharmacy and had planned to buy me a Valentine but by the time he picked up some other items it slipped his mind.  So much for romance!

I told him I'd been at the pharmacy the other day and had actually picked out a card but there were ten people at the checkout and, well, I am not a patient person.  Given that the card was priced at $4.99, the decision to put it back on the rack was easy.  So much for romance!

The interesting thing, as I told Leon, was that I had found a card suitable for two men and whether that was the intent or not, it worked for me.

We decided to go back to the pharmacy and do our usual temporary shopping routine, only with photos: we would pick out and exchange Valentines right there, take some photos of the event, return the cards to the rack, walk out and put the $10 we just saved toward a dinner out.

Now, as I said, this is not a new tactic for us.

I started this kind of "shopping" years ago when we would go to KMart or other big box store.  I would put things into the shopping cart - a nice jersey with a breast pocket, two new folding beach chairs, a waffle maker, some new bath towels, whatever.

We would continue walking around the store shopping.

Then I'd say something like, "I really don't care for the color of that jersey and for that price I can do better.  I'll wait till it goes on sale." Then we'd walk back to the Mens Dept. and put the jersey back on the rack.

And then I would get to thinking and comment, "Gee, we already have some perfectly good beach chairs, do we really need to spend $45 on two more?  We'd walk over and put them back.  Then I'd make some excuse for the waffle iron and the bath towels and they'd go back on the shelf too.

We'd walk out of KMart without buying anything and go out for pizza.  It was a perfectly good shopping trip and very satisfying.  And I think I enjoyed the pizza so much more as a result.

Now we've never done this with greeting cards, but it makes perfect sense.  After all, what do you do with a card once you open it and read it?  Put it on the credenza for a few days?  Toss it in a drawer?  Throw it away? This way, we have a nice photo and a lasting sentiment.

OK, here's the card I chose for Leon:

And here's the card he chose for me:

This one was also a contender in the M4M category, a bit more sentimental and meaningful; probably the one I like best:

And we're looking forward to dinner out tomorrow evening.  Nothing fancy mind you, we only saved ten bucks.

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY HONEY!