Five Happys

Dave is in NYC the first part of this week and weather may keep him there an extra day. One of the things he wanted to accomplish in the city this week (aside from lots of work and meetings, etc.) was to buy himself a new clarinet. When he's traveling, though, he tends to work from sunup to sundown and then has to do things like socialize with co-workers. That would, of course, leave no time to hit up music stores. However as luck would have it, he found a clarinet place that opened at 6:30 a.m. (only in NYC can you clarinet shop at the crack of dawn, I think) and bought himself a clarinet. The seller apparently repairs/restores clarinets, so he helped Dave chose a Noblet clarinet made in the 60s.  We'll see how that goes. I hope it works out, since returning it sounds like it might be a pain in the ass.

The weather here has been glorious and gloriously awful. We were in the 90s all weekend with high (for us) humidity, which negates all the efforts of our loyal swamp coolers. Last night though, there were some glorious lightning shows (which I got to see only because I decided to make a late-ish BBQ dash on the way home from the studio--when vegetarians are away, carnivores will play) followed by lots and lots of rain. Yay! The rain continued on into the morning, thankfully.

The cats went out in the rain for awhile and wouldn't come in. They huddled under the patio furniture, trying to convince themselves that they really wanted to be out there. After awhile though, they had to admit a sodden defeat and come in.  They both wanted treats and wet food for their bravery and then Saba jumped up on the bed for a cuddle (I noticed she lost her collar somewhere, probably scuffling with Gray Kitty).  Now they're laying in the pools of sunlight--the door is open, the rain long gone.

I'm leaving for the studio in a half an hour or so, but I did want to take a moment to return to my recently abandoned habit of noting five things that made me happy in the last 24 hours:

1. The lightning storm. Living in New Mexico means amazing night-time summer storms, complete with lightning shows that we get to enjoy thanks to our low-slung buildings and big sky.

2. The hummingbirds that come to the feeder just outside the front door. They came out in the rain to suck up sugar water to keep their strength up. I love these brave little guys.

3. Ridiculously fatty BBQ for dinner. I don't know what it is about fatty brisket, but man, that is some fine eating. I ordered a pound for myself and had a couple of big sandwiches on wheat bread with lots of sauce and then ate the rest of it for breakfast (along with half a watermelon). Yum.

4. A new direction for my work, inspired by the recent workshop I took. I've been making busts, and last night I started a new one. I don't know where they're going, but I'm doing something new and building up my skills.

5. The wealth of books I've been given or have collected over the years that have to do with Day of the Dead or calavera-ish things that I can use as references for my new work. I've taken, since the workshop, to keeping a sketchbook of ideas and this, along with my books, offer me a way to develop new work.