Closing in on Winter

I usually make a few notes for the blog during the week, but this Monday morning greets me with a blank screen.

Yesterday was the monthly Cyclone Coaster ride. I've mentioned it before. Cyclone Coaster is the antique, and classic bicycle ride, every first Sunday of the month in Long Beach, CA. I brought out the 1950 Schwinn B6 for the cruise. Love this old cruiser!

 

 

Our club, RatRod Riders B/C, started in the Cyclone Coaster gathering. We had almost the whole gang out Sunday, except for Jim, who was in Arizona with his father. Jim's dad got the bug. It looks like he'll be OK, though. Dave came out to ride again, and that was a blessing. Dave is recovering from a bout with cancer. He's still on the electric assist three-wheeler, but bit by bit, he's doing better.

 

But there was hard news from the on-line  world. I've been a commenter over at (best site on the internet) Gerard VanderLeun's American Digest for a few years. On-line- friendships, and acquaintances  are strange creatures. There is nothing to identify an on-line friend except a nic name, maybe an avatar, and a style of writing. Yet we become friends after a fashion. We trade notes, get some idea of who the person is we're "talking" to, and come to care about that individual, even though we'd not recognize him if we were sitting at the same bus stop. That web of coincidence that catches us up, and connects us with others is mysterious, indeed. There are some wonderful metaphysical implications in this.

Jewel, is such an on-line acquaintance. We've traded notes on blogs for years now. Last night Jewel posted that she may terminal with the virus. Nothing is working, and they're going to put her on a ventilator.

Now, as I just said, I would not recognize the woman if we met face to face. Nonetheless the news hit me like a fastball to the gut. I woke in the night thinking about it. Many of the commenters over at American Digest are offering up prayers for Jewel. Ever think how a prayer gets routed? Somehow, the Almighty knows who is praying and for whom, even if the one offering the prayer does not. I guess that's taking it on Faith. It's all we have sometimes.

 

 

As far as the business of playing artist goes, I've been dragging my heels all week. Low energy. Malaise. Just plain feeling low and lousy. Even so, I made some decent progress on the stone. The last week or more I've been excavating the space at the base of the form.  It's kind of cool to see all that air and light open up in the middle of a rock. It's gratifying to see all this  space that started out with a single well-placed 1/4" hole. 

There is much much more excavation to come. I'll be working up in the top section this week, hollowing out the "head", and the troughs on the inner forms. It's all about working the light. 

 

 

This is the darkening season, and soon we'll see the shortest, and darkest day of this long, unhappy year. And in this darkening of days,  we wait for the light of Christmas.

 

"O Come Emanuel..."

 

please