Improvement

Managed Moves getting us on track. H getting on same page at last.

http://cdend.blogspot.com/2016/09/impressive.html

Disappearing Act

I'm going to blog elsewhere, at Disappearing Act. If we ever get to Russellville Park, I'll return to retirement news and photos here.

Status: ManagedMoves will downsize us. Huge accomplishment. Saves Harriet's kids doing it later.

Moving to Russellville? Have to sell house. Has to be presentable. Depends on how much crap - excuse me, invaluable reminders of her life - still has to be sorted out. Don't take any bets.

But I would love to be surprised.

Last try?

Once again, to convince her to let me help going through her stuff, I am not her enemy. She can't do this alone. We'll see.

Bad news

I don't have confidance we can get out of here this year. H moves like a snail and changes her mind every day. Very depressing.

Over and out.

Progress

The return

Suddenly (again) everything is more difficult than it needs to be. I'm passing the buck to the company. Get as far away as I can. Unfortunate.

Downsizing basement

Heroes

2 women working in basement. Man, they have a system and get things done. I am impressed.

Spectacular!

This company has done more in two hours than I did in six weeks. An ending imagined! Listening to Caruso to celebrate.

Help arrives

... today. Hope it accelerates the transition.

Trash and more trash

3 more bags out ...

Bowl of the soup of the wife of Kit Carson

Been making this since grad school. Turkey, garbonzo beans, avocado, cheese.

To the rescue

Downsizing help arrives tomorrow. Hooray!

9/11

Turned day into study, documentaries, reflection.

Not so hot ...

... today. One box. Cooking. Dragging ass. Old.

Iffy

Half speed, low energy ... chores to do ... What?

Shotgun King

Sketch, in old age, would rather ride shotgun, cruising, than anything. I dig it.

We listened to the Mariners take a 14-0 lead. Crunch time.

Salvage the day

Baking olive bread ... not a total goof off.

Saturday challenge

Feel like a day off ... college football etc ... Sunday free, I don 't follow pros. Decisions, decisions.

Translation

Rec'd request to translate some of my short stories into Indonesian. Granted.

Late entertainment

Story Corps selfie

https://storycorps.me/interviews/selfie-090916/

Passing time

The worst part of the cycle: waiting for energy renewal.

A wee 2nd wind

Emptied desk in office, manuscripts, contracts, business correspondence, all recycled. Ms already digitized, no use for rest except to be reminded of how much work for hire I did in 80$. A very busy writer.

Exhaustion

Early start, a lot done ... but need second wind to continue.

May try out StoryCorps app.

Safe arrival

Call from Harriet, waiting for ferry to Salem.

Hot damn!

Pac 12 network just joined Sling TV, my provider since cutting the cord. Watching live UCLA soccer as I write.

Good karma!

Man, recycling the PC feels like major change. Liberating.

Content/content

Love mornings like this, puttering in the kitchen. Only improvement, move scene to Russellville, so I can take a break, wander into lobby, strike up a conversation, brag a little.

Chicken two ways

My easy Korean marinade, a staple ... a parmesan rub I found, trying for first time.

Love labor intensive cooking!

Ghost of Wayne Morse

I keep thinking of the Sen. Wayne Morse speech with which I end American Gadfly, my one-man play about him: that democracy depends on an educated citizenry. He is rolling over in his grave. Sarah Palin was embarrassing enough. But now!

Mellow

Harriet departs on 2nd trip east tonight, short visit in Mass. with high school buddies, back Tues. when calvary arrives. Gives me my last four days of solo downsizing, will do all my energy permits.

Modest plans

Deposit the dismantled computer system to recycling facility. Rearrange and evaluate office furniture freed up as a result.

Cook something labor intensive.

Pass it along

Had a good keyboard, which with Finale software I used on a number of projects over the years. Past tense. Instead of selling it, I gave it to my publisher, colleague and friend, TS, who also will use it well. Karma.

Cold brew

My God, I'm in fashion! Coffee brewed in refrig, which I've been doing for ages, is the new beverage rage, says the WP. Damn. I hate fashion.

Tech downsize

In the old hyperdrama, digital filmmaking days, I had 2PCs linked together with 3 external hard drives, a pretty sophisticated arrangement. Today I tore it down. Keeping two drives, recycling the rest. Will rely on netbook and tablets.

A major downsize!

Baking = sanity

Fighting reality

Having a hard time with fact that Trump has so much support. Are so many of my fellow citizens this reckless, this gullible?

StoryCorps app

StoryCorps, of course, is the series of interviews/dialogues between ordinary folks that runs on public radio and elsewhere, getting archived at the Library of Congress. I just learned they have an app, making the series accessible to anyone. Beautifully designed, easy to use, free. I plan to take advantage if it.

The app triggered an additional form, the self-interview or audio selfie. I'll begin there.

Maybe start a series at Russellville.

Labor Day

... reminds me of the Wobblies.

Legacy of the Wobblies, a show I did at UU with General Strike, the labor songs group.

One member said my version of Miner's Lifeguard brought her chills, the best performance of the song she'd heard. No better praise than that.

Where to begin?

Someone unfamiliar with my writing asked where to begin. A fair question. My recommendations.

1. A Charles Deemer Reader. An overview of my work, my favorites among plays, screenplays, fiction, essays, poems.

2. Whole Cloth: the Quilt of Literature.  Documents the influence of my life on my work, making them inseparable. A short memoir. "Amazing," says one review.

3. Sodom, Gomorrah & Jones. A novel very close to my heart and mind, autobiographical in spirit. Two cogent reviews at Amazon.

"It is intelligent, funny, bawdy and real."

"...a treatise on living in the 21st century."

R.I.P. Fred Hellerman

Of the Weavers.

Hellerman on right

The end of retirement

Excellent documentary on BBC (at 3 a.m., when else in America?) about the history of pensions after WWII, a golden age of retirement, and its end because folks live longer and fewer pay in.

Retirement is not a birthright but an historical aberration enjoyed by a few generations in wealthy countries. Young folks today will have something very different if anything at all.

Lucky once again!

Harriet's opening II

Harriet's opening I

Manic depressive?

Out on errands, before returning to find flowers, I was wondering why I was feeling so good. All the usual stress events are present. Downsizing, selling the house, so many possible complications.

Well, I'm not in a flood or wild fire. Not in a war. Not an immigrant. Not a Republican.

What's the worst that can happen? Doesn't seem too bad. And we may even get lucky. We may get out of here before turkey time.

***

Uploading video from opening. Takes forever. Once upon a time, did this every day, making movies.

What a surprise!

On our front door, congrats bouquet on Harriet's opening, from ... Russellville (3 women we've been dealing with)! Talk about feeling good about our new home.