Always make sure there isn't a box of packing peanuts precariously balanced near where you are vacuuming up water. Cause then you have to touch the gross water to fish them out before dumping.

That much storm.

Hope the shop vac sucks up all of the water and you can sleep knowing you aren't flooding soon.

It's weird. I lived in Portland for seven years and there was a lot of rain, some flooding. Since moving back to the desert, I have to stop and *think* about how there is that much water still in places. The entire world didn't dry up just because mine mostly did.

Always make sure there isn't a box of packing peanuts precariously balanced near where you are vacuuming up water. Cause then you have to touch the gross water to fish them out before dumping.

I feel like I will always fail this test.

Well, I certainly did!

It's not much water. Honestly, I could leave it alone, everything that needs to be is off the floor. We're talking trickles and puddles a lot of towels could handle. Well, and where the depression for cleanout fills. That's maybe a couple cups worth and it kindly is lowest, so refills.

I do think I need to replace the filter on the shopvac. My eyes are a little burny. But that could also be the tequila.

My eyes are a little burny. But that could also be the tequila.

Mine are too. But it's totally the wildfire. And not, yet, the cocktail I made.

Cool air seems to trump air quality so I have my windows open. It might smell nice (but too much) if I hadn't driven past the fire yesterday. Over 1,600 acres and probably won't be contained for at least a week. So it smells more sad.

The entire world didn't dry up just because mine mostly did.

I was legitimately boggled at all the unassisted green everywhere when I went back to Pennsylvania. I honestly was thinking "Man, they spend a lot of time watering those fields--oh wait. They have rain here."

Ms. Belle and ita (and others) GINGHAM!

I was legitimately boggled at all the unassisted green everywhere when I went back to Pennsylvania. I honestly was thinking "Man, they spend a lot of time watering those fields--oh wait. They have rain here."

Moving to San Diego was weird after various deserts, but it was still basically a desert with good irrigation. Moving to Portland was a total revelation. It wasn't just that things could actually grow there, moss grew if you didn't move things around.

That, I actually miss. The sunsets and skies are spectacular here but I miss water just existing.

Stuff still needs too much watering in the tropics. I mostly view lawns as one of those tricky parasites--it's brainwashed home owners into eager partners in the reproductive cycle, they get fed and watered and groomed and trimmed. It's a really sweet deal, and a few lumps of turd are not a drawback.

Vortex, that made me get off my duff and give a first go at my Mail Art assignment. I haven't seen the video, so I don't know if it qualifies as anything more than a literal level (that's an envelope: [link] but I do intend to finish up the back with some sort of trompe l'oeil imagery for stitching it closed, and with the required kiss.

Then I'll mail it to myself tomorrow morning, and whatever shape it comes back in (soon!) will be the found art portion. But I think I can speak to my goals with this picture fairly clearly. I used to these all the time to my sister back in the mid nineties. I'd do graphics and then print them out on the envelope. Hell, she has one hanging on her wall that she mounted. It would be cheating to go back 20 years for my homework, right?

Arrrggg. I've done something to my foot. At first I thought my sandals were just rubbing wrong and had irritated the side of my foot, but I haven't worn them in over a week now. It is the area on the outside of my foot, just above (below?) my pinky toe. The area, when you walk, that widens out a bit as you roll off the ball of your foot? It just hurts every time I step, is sore to the touch, and hasn't improved for over a week. Tonight I cross my legs and touched that area with my other foot and darned near shot through the ceiling. I'm going to call my doc tomorrow. It is the same leg as the knee I screwed up back in Feb.

But that could also be the tequila.

It was a tequila kind of evening, wasn't it? I don't often get into the tequila, but I did tonight.