Apparently it has been a short moment since I last posted anything. Yikes! And a lot of things have happened since then. In short, I still have a unrideable horse, I went to the Outer Banks, my truck has been in and out of the body shop, I've tried to spend some time in the pottery studio, and fall is officially here. Never a dull moment!
We had a final outside dinner cookout at Aunt Linny's. We gave her a lot of crap for getting a tablecloth with weed all over it. It was nicely color-coordinated, however.
The sunset that night was really pretty - the setting sun turned the sky turquiose and the clouds pink. The trees were still mostly green, but slowly turning at the tippy-tops.
I finally got the courage to glaze some of my pottery pieces for the first time. Here are some examples of what I've done. These are tiny - only about 2.5 inches across.
A few weeks later, I headed down to Fort Monroe in Hampton, VA for work. We installed another shallow monitoring well, took soil samples, as well as sediment, surface water, and groundwater samples. One of the first evenings was quite nice and I spent a moment watching this big ship pass by...
And was able to catch part of a sun dog. A sun dog is a really naet 'atmospheric phenomenon that creates bright spots of light in the sky, often on a luminous ring or halo on either side of the sun' (yanked directly from wikipedia). You can see the slight vertical rainbow effect to the left of the buildings.
During the course of the field work, the contractor let me help (whee! I hate standing around doing nothing) and I even ran the GeoProbe for a teensy little bit.
A few days later, when we realized our sediment sampling equipment wasn't going to work in the conditions, I went (partially) diving for sediment samples. Why we didn't get these particular samples when it was 90 outside versus the windy mid-50's, is still an enigma to me. It was cold in the water. Especially so since I ended up getting water INSIDE my waders (I'm in the yellow). All's good though. We were able to make the best of the situation and had a good laugh because of it.
Even when it rained, we were still able to get our work done. Here's our make-do rain protection.
The day after I came back from field work I was on my way to see Jim and hit a small bambi. It was dark and I was doing all the correct things - driving in the left land of a 4-lane split road, had my lights and fog lights on, was not fiddling with either my phone or my ipod, but still, shit happens. The little bugger came from the left instead of the right, and due to lights in my eyes from oncoming traffic, I didn't see the poor thing until I was alreay hitting it. Thankfully even though I left skid marks on the road, I kept my truck in my lane, and the damage was very minimal. However, I still had to go through insurance and take it to a body shop. I was mortified at killing the deer, but thankfully it appeared it didn't suffer very long. Jim and his friend came to my rescue and made sure the deer wasn't in pain.
In the meantime, the front maple tree coninuted to turn very pretty colors and the November weather was unseasonably nice.
Mom and I have been working on getting the (ample) front porch ready for painting - we've been sanding and scraping in spurts since this summer. Due to the fantastic weather (it was in the upper 60's and very sunny) we made the decision to get the damn thing painted.
And after two VERY long days, we got the first coat of paint on the porch. We'll be replacing the lattice, but that will have to wait for now.
Driving over to Jim's on another day, the sky was fantastic. I find myself always in awe of the colors and shapes of the clouds during sunsets. Nature is inspiring and each day is unique and wonderful. I seem to find pretty in just about everything nature. It makes me smile. And no, I wasn't driving at the time of this picture - I was stopped at a red light.
Our front tree is currently vibrant. I was complaining a few days ago that the colors this year were disappointing compared to last year. I felt the colors were drab and subdued. The front maple has proved me a liar.
This was my rental car for the majority of this week. It was kinda fun to drive, but I missed my truck.
The front tree no longer disappoints.
Finished another pot, this one for Jim. Probably one of my best bowls thus far.
This is what the inside of the student studio space looks like. We each have a shelf on which to store our pieces and use one of the wheels during class. It's wonderfully cluttered and chaotic in a peaceful, creative way.
I picked up my truck yesterday from the body shop. The body shop did a superb job on it. The grill was replaced, the supporting panel behind the grill was replaced, the AC condenser was replaced, the front bumper replaced, got two new fog lights, a side light replaced, and the truck got a bath. I'm so glad to have it back! :)
So there it is - what I've been up to. Of course, in that time period I also went with Jim to the Outer Banks in North Carolina for his brother's wedding. I will save pictures from that for another post. Sniper is still on the road to recovery. For some reason, he's not growing any sole for the bottom of his foot so he's still unrideable. It doesn't seem to bother him any, but I really miss my weekly lessons. Hopefully in the next couple of weeks the sole/bottom of his foot will finally harden up and I can get a set of shoes put on him so we can start riding again. Fingers crossed!
:)
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