October 17 is National Pasta Day!

And I know that is true because Sandra Boynton told me so on FaceBook. I am celebrating by not eating pasta, but if Mom has some, she may give me a bite. Evil grin.

As usual, I am not up to date on posting, but that's the great thing about pictures: they don't get stale. So here's my semi random collection ...

Last Friday, I bemusedly watched the clouds rolling in. This was the morning and clouds have produced no rain so many times, I didn't think much of the clouds. However, by late evening, the downpour began. I have never seen it rain so hard here and at the end of a very fierce lightning storm, Palm Springs had accumulated almost one inch of rain. (Last year, they had 1.42 inches of rain for the whole year, but that is still drought conditions.)

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Lee Anne is back from her stint as a guest at a wedding so we played pickle ball last night. We like it when the sun goes down. Last night it was very colorful. 

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On Sunday, Mom and I went to see the Crawling Babies, which are an outdoor installation opposite the Palm Springs Art Museum. The Babies are by Cerny.

The Babies don't have faces, it's a vertical bar code which is part of the artist's comment on dehumanization.

Main entrance to the Palm Springs Art Museum, with my back to the fence surrounding the Crawling Babies. (We enter from the right where there is a ramp and elevator to the main floor.)

Before we went in, the PS Water company took our picture and gave us free reusable water bottles!

And, much to my delight, the ongoing glass sculpture exhibit had changed!

This was my favorite.

For some reason, I see this as a portrait of the artist's mother when her mother was a young girl. I really like it.

I also love baskets. I can imagine the woman laboring to make these exquisite baskets.

This "basket" below is huge -- about 8 feet top to bottom. (Is that two radii?) It is made up entirely of crushed soda and beer cans. 

Stupidly, I saw the heading "Basket" on the wall caption and thought it did not pertain to this. So I have no information. But it's quite a sight!


Below is another favorite. I sat on a bench with Mom and we just gazed at it for a long time. It's all hand woven. How was that done? To me it's a masterpiece and reminds me of my favorite Dali melting clocks.

I'm not a big fan of Dale Chilhuly's later works such as this one on the bottom of the picture -- it reminds me too much of snakes. (I do like his flowers on the Bellagio ceiling though.) Anyway, I posted this picture so Lee Anne can see the yellow wall thing on the top left. It doesn't move, but as you move an optical illusion makes you think the squares have moved. (Remember, if you click on the picture, it will enlarge.)

These guys always mystify me. Maybe one day I'll find the explanatory card ...

Finally, I have a really bad picture for you, but it's an object that I love.

It's in the Modernism section. Now I have to go back and get a better picture. I have a lot more pictures, but this process of uploading them is tedious. And Mom needs her computer. 

Ciao! Have a great week!

Sunnylands

Sunnylands, the Annenberg Trust. We did not have tickets for the mansion/art museum, but the gardens (below) were wonderful. There were many benches so we took our time.

"We are not a botanical garden, you are supposed to feel as if you are in a painting." ~ /Sunnylands docent.

Nope, not going to linger here whether there's a performance or not!

There's a bee in here somewhere.

Labyrinth

On the move.

This water was one of many 'streams' which provided lovely water music.

This wall in the great room is made of stone squares. From the movie, there is a similar wall in the mansion. Many of the walls there are covered with priceless paintings, i.e., Monet, Van Gogh, Gaugin, etc.

These animals are made from flip flops by women in Kenya.

I took this picture for Sharon -- didn't think they would survive in my suitcase.

6:23 a.m.

It was 6:23 a.m. when I first saw him.  I was looking out of my bedroom window waiting for the sun to turn the mountains from pink to gold  at sunrise. Movement near the pool caught my eye and it was then that I saw him. It was a full grown coyote who headed to the other street. He came back soon and sniffed around the house across from Mom's. Later on, he zipped by my window and he was about eight feet away from me. Obviously, he was making a grid search. My friend and neighbor, LeeAnne saw him too and she had her camera ready. (Photos courtesy of LeeAnne Wilson)

Yup, he was successful. It appears that there is one less bunny in the neighborhood. These are jack rabbits which have longer, more stickiuppi ears than Amherst bunnies. They seem to be leaner too -- maybe from running away from coyotes.

If you noticed the big brown patch on the grass, it's because they are scalping the grass right now. Yep, they take off the whole top layer (scalping) and then they re-plant the winter grass.

The city of Palm Springs is spraying for mosquitoes every morning until 8 a.m. all week. I wish they would spray for crickets. We have so many coming into the house that I'm looking up recipes for cooked crickets.

And, apparently, yesterday began the "We Are Going to Trim EVERYTHING with Chain Saws" Week for the private landscaping companies. The noise begins at 8 a.m. and continues forever. Or at least for a long time.

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You know, I try to be open to new concepts and 'think young.'  But I have to confess that I went back and changed "AM" to "a.m.". It just didn't look right. Just as I date myself by putting two spaces after a period (before a new sentence), I also persist in spelling "theatre." Some things are just comfortable.

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More in the adventures of pickle ball. After nearly dying in the heat of full sun, LeeAnne and I got smart and went out at 5 p.m. last night and it was GREAT playing in shade! We're getting better although we still have lots of graceful, but misses by a mile, episodes. It's fun and we sure are moving! I have to let a lot of the balls go by because even though it's smaller than a tennis court, I'm not up to racing to the opposite side. I consider it as a way for LeeAnne to improve her aim by hitting it to me. We get really excited when we get a volley going. Hey! It keeps us off the street!

Mom looked at me as if I were crazy when I asked if I could use her walker. It has great storage under the seat for the paddles, balls, water bottles, and key to the courts. (I also figured if I collapsed, LeeAnne could push me home, but don't tell LeeAnne I said that!)

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Speaking of Mom, she is doing really well, thank you very much. No more fluid in her lungs, no more partially collapsed lung, no more shortness of breath, and yesterday her oxygen level was great! (We have a little gizmo that you put on your finger and it measures your oxygen level.)

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I'm getting weary of political ads. Here, they seem to be employing the Trump School of Name Calling. There are two different ads calling opponents crooks and one woman called someone else a snake. None of these candidates are running ads for what they stand for, what their ideas are -- they just slam the opponent for being a crook. I don't know why the one who says the other guy stole $300,000 of public money isn't sued for slander. Is there proof? If so, why isn't the guy in jail? So many questions, so few answers.

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I am being hounded by an 800 number on my phone. It's a recording telling me that I have a problem with my Apple products. I don't have any Apple products and even though I have blocked this number I still have at least one call per day from them. Originally, I had six (or more) calls. I just don't know why they can still get through.

Meanwhile, Mom's computer is infected with something -- she's getting a million popup ads. I downloaded AdAware and that hasn't helped a bit. Some of the most persistent popups are from Google and says to go to 'myinboxmanager' or some such thing, but I'm afraid it will make matters worse.

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Gas prices here are hovering around $3.79/gallon vs. an average of $2.80/gallon in Massachusetts. Guess it's a good thing we're not going on any long road trips. 

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No luck in the volunteering at the art museum -- their docent program won't be taking applicants until 2020! And they want me to become a member to volunteer (in the gift shop or ? sweeping up?).

So the search continues.

At some point, my search for a volunteering position led some search engine to think I was looking for work and they keep dangling a TSO position in front of me. (Transportation Security Officer) The requirements are high school, citizenship, background check, not in past due debt of $7500 or more. The pay ranges from $17 to $25. 

These are the people that gave me a full body pat down in Hartford. It was a little embarrassing, but I don't think if they had had more education that would have lessened my discomfort. 

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I made macadamia nut bark (chocolate) this a.m. I used Swerve instead of sugar. Yum!

Cheers!