Old Times

Bird in the house and bird shit everywhere. Not a welcome gift. Have to deal with it but I need a drink first, the end of a grueling day. Yesterday and today, D and I, making up for lost time. Finished installing this afternoon. I still have to touch-up paint the pedestals, clean the plexiglas and install bonnets, do the labels, but the show is set. Unbelievable, as Friday morning the task looked impossible. Some cool aspects: a mountain of milk bottles in the middle of the gallery, some other milk-related objects; there were a lot of yard-sticks and we ended up stacking them, on a wall in a rather elegant way. The bottom one, a beautiful 4 foot ruler, is held on 3 'L-Hooks' and all the others, there must be fifteen or more, are merely stacked, to carry the weight, and stuck to the wall with rolls of painter's tape. No visible attachment, it's so clean, so unexpected. I have to pick up another stove, so there'll be 2, quite different, from the Portsmouth Stove Works, and, again, some related objects. There are a couple of 'eyes' from a cookstove, decorative, that have little pintles as part of a hinging mechanism. Never seen one before. Speaking of gudgeon and pintle, which sounds like an old circus act: Gudgeon And Pintle. The greatest example of which I'm aware is vault doors. Stop and think, I'm not sure how the gates open and close on locks, how bridges that hinge, hinge. I'll get James to make a search, he's good at this. There are a few leaves left, the hangers-on, but it is become stark. In that stark gray light that follows sunset on a perfectly clear day, everything is already black, the trees, the vines, the remaining leaves, all black. A reminder of harsh realities. Winter is always a test, unless you live south of Orlando. I'd sell out, move further south, but I love my job and enjoy the challenge of living. I'm still stocking the larder, but I could go on an acorn diet tomorrow. I'm flexible, and I have plans, but things might not be constellated correctly, right, then you fall back to a fall-back position, simple demographics. What you thought you heard about something. I pay-along, whatever you thought I meant. I pay (play) along, because I'm invested. What happens now. My rule of thumb is to expedite whatever might be possible, some things I can do, some things I can't. You learn to draw lines in the sand.