A Queer Mobile

The four pumpkins of the Apocalypse

At the ribbon-cutting for the new building each of the tenants created a pumpkin for the front window. The flute through the pumpkin is from the woodwind repair studio. The sunglasses and headphones are from the sound production facility, while the goat is the symbol for the graphics design studio.

Bet ya can't guess who did the frowny-face pumpkin with the saw blade down the middle...

Ribbon-cutting at John's new shop

I made it back from California just in time to be at the ribbon-cutting for the new building where John has his new shop. Next to John is Lijun Chadima, the president of the Thorland Company, which owns the building. The current and former mayors of Cedar Rapids were also there.

The Chadima family provided copious quantities of food and drink. Lijun told me she wanted to provide a way for the friends and family of the building's tenants to meet each other. John and I hung out for about three hours; he took countless people through the shop.

More fall color

Here's another photo gallery of some Iowa fall color. I shot these in early October while John and I walked along Indian Creek early one Sunday morning.

Moving John's shop

Just before I headed west John moved all the heavy equipment from his shop here at the house down to his new digs. Much of the equipment is incredibly heavy - the lathe is solid cast iron! But the three guys from Heck's Transfer here in Cedar Rapids moved everything and set it up in less than two hours. Check out this gallery for more shots from the move.

Fall's here!

It turned cool in late September -- cool enough for me to think about pulling in the remaining herbs before an early frost. I wandered out one late afternoon just as the sun was sinking behind John's shop. A cold wind caught me as I was harvesting fresh parsley and basil for the evening's cooking. I looked around and felt a bit forlorn: I hadn't thought it would get to be fall so quickly!

As I was cooking John walked in with his shirt stuffed with golden pears. In a flash I remembered why I love this time of year. Nothing makes me happier than a perfect pear, and we wound up with about a peck of pears right from our Moonglow pear tree.

Then there are the apples. When John moved here in 1983 he planted five different varieties of apples: a perfect combination of taste in pies and applesauce. We never spray our trees, so we have what I like to call 'high-protein' apples. While I processed crab apples for jelly John fixed me a stellar apple pie and set about making applesauce from the culls. I'll make apple butter with some of the sauce - my favorite thing to add to a bowl of oatmeal!

A week later the weather shifted completely and we had brilliant sun and warming weather just right for early morning walks. Check out my photo gallery so see what the garden looks like now. The Echinacea blooms are now drying seed pods - we always leave them for the birds. But the asters, mums, and the annuals are a riot of color...

My museum opening

The Cedar Rapids Museum of Art opened its new show, Cedar Rapids: Day into Night on 23 September. The Museum accepted one of my prints into the show, and John and I went to the opening. I must admit feeling like an impostor pretending to be an artist when I got there. The show was beautifully mounted. With some trepidation I walked into one of the gallery rooms to find my print on the wall - and it looked very much better than I'd seen it before. John told me he feels the same very often when he sees his work in a professionally curated show. There's something about great lighting and the juxtaposition of works that makes things look fresh.

We met many of our friends at the show - most of them artists who known John well. I had a chance to meet Karen Kurka Jensen, an inspiring Sumi-e painter. John bought me one of her works for Christmas last year; it hangs in my office where I often use it as a meditation focus. One of her paintings proved to be one of my favorites in the show.

The biggest surprise was the response my print had. I had several people tell me of their interest in purchasing the work - so we'll see!

I've been a pill about writing...

One of my good friends asked me if there was any significance to my not writing much here for the last six weeks or so. I fessed up that I'd been up and down with allergy issues and the desire to do much writing just went out the window.

So here's what's been happening. August and September are always my worst months allergy-wise: plants are putting out their last best effort to seed the world before the coming frost. Unfortunately their sex lives wind up in my nose! I went in for my annual check in late August. My internist told me my lungs were fine, but my head was a mess - for this I need a doctor? I monitor my lung function daily with a peak flow meter and knew I was fine. He insisted on giving me a shot of Depo-Medrol, an injected, long-acting steroid (methylprednisolone). He got into scare stories about not wanting to see my asthma get worse. I didn't want the shot, but I caved in.

About six hours later I started feeling miserable - I always do when I'm on systemic steroids. Forty-eight hours later I started feeling decent again - the two-week shot having worn off in about two days. I checked the prescribing information for Depo-Medrol: apparently it has an extremely variable half-life of between two days and two weeks. I got the bulk of the agent in my system immediately, which is why I felt so miserable. So I wrote him a letter never to push me again to take a course of therapy that I don't want to take - and no more injected long-acting steroids. I've heard nothing back, so I may be seeking a new doctor.

About the same time I had nagging foot pain - my right foot's a mess biomechanically, with very weak tendons. I wound up in a podiatrist's office for a consult - and got some good advice. I was very impressed with this guy's office: I was in for an x-ray, a history, and a consult in no more than thirty minutes start-to-finish. He headed in with the films, and took the longest time just looking at my feet. He found the spot immediately. It was a stress fracture too small to see on the film, but he localized the pain to a single spot. Prescription: stay out of sandals (my fault for wearing them too much during the summer!). I stayed laced-up with my shoe inserts for three weeks. Problem completely resolved.

The head stuff isn't so easy to fix, though. I revisited all my old notes from my California allergist. I'm extremely sensitive to the house dust mite (off the scale sensitivity the report says...) and to certain molds (Alternaria spp.). I've been using mite-resistant bedding for years, and all our floors are hardwood - meaning they can be cleaned effectively, unlike carpet which can't. I stepped up my cleaning program in the bedroom, though, including mopping the floors weekly after vacuuming. Things are tending a bit better, but it'll be after the first frost and after the leaf mold vanishes that I start feeling better.