Figures...

[rolanni]

So, all winter, we not only don't have winter, we hardly have any snow.

Until we're scheduled to be on the road.

To wit:

.. Potential for a major noreaster to hit southern and western
Maine and all of New Hampshire Wednesday and Wednesday night...

Low pressure will develop along the mid Atlantic coast Tuesday
night and currently all indications are suggesting this storm will
intensify rapidly as it moves northeast Wednesday night.

Strong winds would accompany this storm and may become very strong
with wind gusts of over 40 mph late Wednesday and Wednesday night
into Thursday causing significant blowing and drifting. Strongest
winds would occur near the coast.

Q: Where do we catch the train?
A: Portland

Q: Where are we going?
A: Boston

Gah.

Finished up the Unexpected Deep Background segment of Fledgling. I should say, the first Unexpected Deep Background segment. God, She knows, there will be more...

And -- I had meant to blog about this and then forgot because, ummm, I Am A Maroon.

Anyhow...

Thursday evening kinzel and I went to a reception at the campus art museum. This is one of the things I like about working on a college campus. There's always stuff going on, some of it quite odd, but most of it interesting.

In the case of Thursday evening, the stuff included an up-close and personal viewing of the sand mandala under construction in the museum's lower level. Words fail me. Beautiful, vibrant, magical -- OK, magical's good. Also? Unexpected. One thing, for instance, that I hadn't at all expected is that parts of the work -- the jaguars, the mountains, the leaping dolphins -- are three dimensional. I had expected the whole thing to be flat. Silly me.

The work is also poignant, because it's so fleeting. On Friday, the completed painting will be --- swept away.

Edger would be proud.

Onward now to the chores I didn't get done today because I was writing. Happily, I have already made rice for tomorrow's lunch (We have a microwave in the office! that means I can bring a yummy and nutritious lunch of brown rice, left over turkey medallions and broccoli, zap it and be happy! Words cannot express how tired I've gotten of cheese sandwiches.). But. The Mountain of Dishes remains to be done. Best get to that before it achieves sentience...

Edited to add: this link to a photograph of the sand mandala that almost does it justice. Thanks to kinzel for the heads-up.

Comments

[ckd]

Q: Where are we going? A: Boston

Q: When? A: Real soon!

(Sorry, couldn't resist the Buckaroo Banzai reference.)

[baggette.livejournal.com]

.

The work is also poignant, because it's so fleeting. On Friday, the completed painting will be --- swept away.

Edger would be proud.

Indeed! I wonder which culture came up with the concept of the ephemeral nature of art? Turtles? or ??
Thanks too for revealing that it will be dismantled on Friday! I may have delayed in going to see it, if you hadn't.

[mbarker.livejournal.com]

There's a part of me that wants someone to suggest to the IS folks on campus that they should either put a webcam on the sandpainting so that distant parts of the world can enjoy it AND/OR do a time-lapsed set of video or snaps to capture the growth and removal (there are always technogeeks somewhere on campus - law of nature that they cluster there).

I do know that some of the tribes do not believe in capturing sand paintings in a permanent form, so one might want to be cautious about the capture part. But letting the world see the creation seems innocuous?

[mbarker.livejournal.com]

Yerkses! I went and read the article. "This is the first time that sand painting has come to the west?" Please tell your college art folks to check the American Indian tribes for sand painting precedents. I can certainly believe that this was the first time that Tibetan or Buddhist sand painting was brought to the west, but . . . is it Navaho? One of the southwestern tribes has been doing sand paintings since before Europeans hit the shores. As I remember, they do not believe in capturing true sand paintings, so the ones in pictures and glued to boards for tourists are deliberately flawed - and even then, some of the elders aren't too thrilled about it.

Anyway, there has been sand painting in North America before.

[phil-boswell.livejournal.com]

I couldn't find the second link, which purports to "almost do it justice". Have I missed it now?

[mbarker.livejournal.com]

Does the storm indicate that moving writers in a train causes low pressure systems to develop and follow? Kind of like the butterfly that causes storms in the midwest?

[malkingrey.livejournal.com]

Here in Colebrook we're hoping that the storm moves through on schedule and doesn't get delayed; we've driven to Boskone and Arisia through falling snow of near-blizzard proportions more than once, but it was never any fun.

If the storm keeps on schedule, though, it should have blown through in time for us to drive down Friday morning in relatively clear weather.

Turtles

[(Anonymous)]

Go Edgar. I can't wait to read more about the turtles someday.

Kelly
TC, CA

Re: Turtles

[phil-boswell.livejournal.com]

Join the club ;-)