facing away from the desert

Southern California is Burning Again.

Yesterday someone replied to the Craigslist ad I put up regarding our old catboxes, (the cats have taken over the bunny-igloo litter-spaceship David brought over and will never give it back), and I replied, “Sure! Come on over.” while sending David a note, “were they bleached or were we overwhelmed by other things?” The message back, “overwhelmed.” So while I’m at work, feeling guilty for having David scrub the catboxes, as it was my chore to do, I decide to rectify matters I must fetch him delicious treats and chocolate while getting groceries on the way home.

(It’s fully dark by the time I leave work. The only benefit to this: Keith and I watch the result of the four p.m. sun set from our seventh floor office window as the tips of ordinary architecture are suddenly beautiful, bathed in melted girl-music gold, while everything at street level is already a heavy blue day-crunched dark.)

Fast-forward to arriving home. I stumble in, ready to drop, heavy with bags of vegetables and canned soup, and then I stop, stunned. The apartment I left in the morning is gone, replaced by an entirely new portion of space. Everything unsorted that was haunting our living space, (minus the bathroom and the bedroom, untidy disasters both), has been shifted into neat piles in the spare room library. There are no more boxes to step over. The floors are clear, flat surfaces have resurfaced, it’s a miracle. The apartment has been organized.

Summary: There is Not Enough Chocolate In The World.

artpost: some inventions are more obvious than others

via Brass Goggles.


Steampunk Space Helmet, by Herr Döktor, entitled Vacuum Survival System
Build Progress Forum Thread

Recently recovered from the archive at Castle d’Arrogance, details of Herr Döktor’s Vacuum Survival System, or ‘Space Helmet’, have just recently come to light; this object was produced at some, as yet, undetermined time (due to the peculiar and labyrinthine method of personal dating) as a means for ‘personal safety while travelling the Ætheral Void between the Spheres, and for safe and comfortable promenading upon the Airless Planets of the Solar System’

Apparently it started as a large acrylic Victorian cloche-style garden propagator and a large polypropylene planter. Fantastic! (More pictures at Brass Goggles).

on a scale of one to ten I’m terrified

It’s confirmed. I’m going to California next week. Work gave me the alright, and Lung bought the ticket to Vegas today. (Where he and Natasha pick me up, then bring me to the Salton Sea). My flight leaves Seattle first thing Monday morning. Today after work I’m hopefully picking up a wee foam mattress from Don, getting laundry done, and packing as best I can. After that, it’s a matter of working as many hours as I can until Friday evening, when David and I are catching a ride with my mother down to Seattle for Robin’s Saturday house-party.

Rent will be tight this month, as will everything else, but the chance is too good to pass up. I swore, awhile ago, that I will never again say no to free travel, no matter what, and this is it, this is exactly the sort of thing I promised myself I would do, no matter how risky or fiscally chancy, because if the offer is solid, then the correct answer is always Yes.