Utility Pole

Today the last line got removed and the power company removed 2 of the old utility poles. Doesn't take much to pull those suckers out. Just grab it with the robotic arm, wiggle it some, and then lift. Then 2 guys shoveled dirt into the hole.

I was shooting video and photographs of the process out of an upstairs window.

A 3rd man started walking across the yard towards the house and was looking right at me.

Oh god, why is he coming this way? I was still in my pajamas.

He yelled up, "Hello!"

"Hey," I yelled back.

"Did we do something wrong?"

"No!"

"Because we saw the camera..."

"It's just interesting," I yelled.

"Oh. Thank you," he yelled, not really understanding I don't think but reassured.

"Thank you," I yelled. Heat was pouring in from outside and the sun felt like it was just starting to burn the backs of my hands, so I closed the window and pulled the curtains shut.

I peeked out a few minutes later and they were driving away.

15 years ago on TTaT: #28, ahead of schedule

We Should All Be Millionaires

7. We Should All Be Millionaires: A Woman’s Guide to Earning More, Building Wealth, and Gaining Economic Power by Rachel Rodgers
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

If you're sick of financial advice that tells you to just stop drinking lattes (I don't drink coffee at all, yo), this book is for you. Rodgers encourages us all to expand to build wealth rather than to contract and scrimp forever.

She acknowledges systemic inequalities but also shows it's possible and vital to overcome them.

Learn more about Million Dollar Decisions, setting Boundaries, Pricing, and Systems.

If you provide any kind of service, I highly recommend this for strategies to quickly level up your income. If you sell products, there's still a lot of useful info, but the path to millionaire is less clear.

Everyone will benefit from reading up on valuing your time and setting boundaries. (E.g., your kids aren't entitled to your attention 24/7. Rodgers, mother of 4, shares a personal example of setting boundaries with her kids.)

13 years ago on TTaT: Just put your lips together and blow

Dismayed

Yesterday I went out for a walk and a lone power company guy was on the street. He was friendly and said hello so I asked him when the power lines were going to get strung on the temporary utility poles.

He said they'd be back today barring weather issues. Thunderstorms were forecast but completely missed us. We didn't even get any rain. The storms may well have hit elsewhere causing outages, but either way, the power company isn't here today.

He did say he knows they are holding up the road work so they're trying to get it done. They will likely be here on Saturday and Monday.

We're 2 months in and my sleep is wrecked, y'all. Insomnia plus loud early, often pre-7 AM work is a terrible combination.

The road crew guys were here to pick up their roller today, banging around early, and also made a gravel pathway to the container that is a TEMPORARY shed. What a fucking waste of time and contribution to noise I did not need. That took them an hour and a half to accomplish!

I heard that the neighbor across the street spoke with the head of the contractors working on the road and temp bridge. If it's who I think it is, this old guy just breezes in once or twice a week, looks around, takes a few photos and leaves. I never get the sense there is a foreman of any kind directing their work.

Anyway, apparently contractor boss thinks the project is going well and that they will be done in OCTOBER.

Mind you, they started this process a couple months early and the permissions from residents whose yards they have overtaken/destroyed parts of run out mid-September. So,  "going well"? Eff you, guy.

I've been watching them work and it's pretty clear there's no single person in charge or directing their efforts. There's a bunch of work they've repeated many times. Not a model of efficiency.

Now I know I don't have a background in construction work. But I did work in film for years doing physical labor, and in charge of crews, where urgency was prized. I prized efficiency because it made things faster and took less effort. Also days were 12 hours long minimum.

I'm just saying if they had a plan that wasn't seat-of-the-pants every day, they could get a lot more done in the 8 or less hours (including lunch) they are here.

I just want them to finish, sooner rather than 4 months later.

My ability to focus is shot from fatigue and noise 5 or 6 days a week which makes it very difficult to work from home.

As you may tell from this rant, I feel at my wit's end with months more to endure. sigh.

10 years ago on TTaT: Blood Rites

Neighborly

When the CDC and FDA announced that the Pfizer BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine was approved for 12-15 year olds, I immediately thought of my neighbors because I felt sure that one of their kids fell in that age range. I really only know them to say hi to but I figured I'd mention it the next time I was outside the same time one of the parents was.

Yesterday I was out for a walk and taking photographs when the dad drove by and waved on his way home. Aha, this might be my chance, I thought.

As I headed uphill, I didn't see him but he'd set up the auto-return on their basketball hoop for his kids. It's this large net that angles up and away from the hoop that funnels the ball down a chute even if you miss and then shoots it out to you like someone passing a ball. The kids were taking turns shooting, each with their own basketball.

On the way downhill, I ran through what I would say if the dad was outside. As I got closer to their house, I saw him join the rotation with his kids, shooting baskets. I decided to speak right after he shot to make the least interruption.

He took a shot but the ball hit the rim and actually bounced outside of the netting and started to roll downhill behind the hoop. He took a step towards it but his son ran after it. Perfect, I thought. His daughter stepped up to take the next shot.

"Hey," I said.

"Hey," the dad said with a friendly smile, turning around to face me.

Though I had thought of what I was going to say, it somehow came out all haltingly. "I was wondering if you had seen…" But at that moment I was seeing what he couldn't behind him because he was giving me his full attention: the ball return shooting out towards him.

I was supremely grateful it didn't hit him in the back. The basketball landed on the grass and rolled towards me.

"Sorry," I said. My inclination was to walk forward and pick it up but with social distancing, I held my ground on the street and let him instead.

I started again, "I was wondering if you had seen the FDA lowered the age on one of the vaccines."

"She already had her first shot," he said.

"Very good," I said with a smile. I wasn't at all surprised but mentioning it had still seemed like the thoughtful thing to do on my part.

"Hopefully it'll be his turn soon."

"Yeah," I nodded. "I just got my second shot."

"I can't wait for this to be over," he said.

I thought he meant the pandemic but then I realized he was looking beyond me to the massive ongoing road work on our street. I let out a low groan, shook my head, and said, "Yeah," in agreement.

Mission accomplished I took a step back to head home and let him return to playing with his kids.

"Have a good one," he said, smiling.

"Have a good one."

10 years ago on TTaT: Life of Art SitRep #67 Cool at a price

Life of Art #584 [Custom Graduation Guest Books, Logo Post-it Notes, Employee Photo ID Badges]

584 weekly updates. That's a lot of weeks. Over 11 years of my journey to create a life of art. Though that journey continues, this will be my last weekly Life of Art post. There may be some stray ones in the future, but for now they are draining too much of my energy that could be better spent on other tasks.

If you want to keep up with what I'm creating (I would love that!), please check out the

Products tab at Rocklawn Arts and sort by Newest to see my latest additions.

You can see new Collections here.

Follow me at Rocklawn Arts on Pinterest to see new pins on curated boards.

Follow me @RocklawnArts on Twitter to see new products and designs as I add them.

And now to this week:

Created three Elegant Class Of 2021 Photo Graduation Guest Books. 

This one has an abstract hand-painted pattern of black curves on white on the back and a white spine with black text:

Elegant Class Of 2021 Photo Graduation Guest Book
by RocklawnArts

This one has an abstract hand-painted pattern of white curves on black on the back and a black spine with white text:

Elegant Class Of 2021 Photo Black White Graduation Guest Book
by RocklawnArts

This one has the same abstract hand-painted pattern of white curves on black on the back and a black spine with white text. The only difference is the year is shown as 202x so people will know it can be customized in the future:

Elegant Class Of 2021 Photo Black White Graduation Guest Book
by RocklawnArts

Created Custom Business Logo Contact Info Large Faded Logo Post-it Notes, Custom Faded Business Logo and Text Post-it Notes, and a Custom Business Logo Contact Info Big Faded Logo Notepad:

Custom Business Logo Contact Info Large Faded Logo Post-it Notes
by RocklawnArts

Custom Faded Business Logo and Text Post-it Notes
by RocklawnArts

Custom Business Logo Contact Info Big Faded Logo Notepad
by RocklawnArts

Also created some light colored Custom Hospital Employee Logo Photo ID Badges:

Custom Hospital Employee Logo Light Blue Photo ID Badge
by RocklawnArts

Custom Hospital Employee Logo Light Green Photo ID Badge
by RocklawnArts

Custom Hospital Employee Logo Pink Photo ID Badge
by RocklawnArts

Custom Employee Photo Light Green White Medical ID Badge
by RocklawnArts

Pinned to boards at Rocklawn Arts on Pinterest.

Shot more photographs I've yet to upload.

How was your week?

Speculation

A couple days ago, I was watching the construction going on out a window, taking photographs and shooting videos when a cop car sped onto the street and told the big dump truck that was only sticking out into the road a few feet to move.

He promptly did, parking on the road which actually took up much more of it, but fortunately didn't impede the next cop car, small firetruck, another cop car, and eventually 2 ambulances that went to the top of the street.

They were there for a long time. I thought no one could be seriously injured because the ambulances didn't blaze out with lights and sirens going.

Today we were speculating about what might have happened. A kitchen fire perhaps, maybe smoke inhalation to deal with or things to be moved outside. Whether Roscoe was okay, either freaked out by the ruckus or wanting to greet all the emergency responders.

I voiced the stray thought that the emergency vehicles wouldn't rush out if someone was already dead.

Horribly that turned out to be the case. It's not like my thought today caused anything to happen, well, ever, or a few days ago, but it still felt awful to have had that thought and been right.

I read his obituary and when I got to the survived by section, and they included Roscoe, their beloved family dog, I burst into tears.

I'm still crying now.

I didn't know him well but he was always nice when I saw him when I was out walking. He'd always say, "Roscoe, look who it is, go say hi to Claire."

Life of Art #583 [What Happened This Week?]

This week looks like it mostly got away from me. I slept even worse than usual 3 nights in a row, so I spent more time taking in information than producing.

Though I did shoot a lot of photographs and video, most of which I've still yet to upload.

Pinned to boards at Rocklawn Arts on Pinterest.

Set up some stuff in the back end for my business.

Made monthly backups. Have you backed up lately?