You're Giving Orange a Bad Name John

Oh my goodness this has nothing to do with art.  Why is John Boehner so orange looking all the time?  Well, maybe if you love the color Orange you notice things like that and it’s hands down my favorite.  But on a Republican from Ohio!   I mean no disrespect but it’s gotten ridiculous when you look like you’ve stood in the tanning booth to long wearing that old Q-T formula.  I guess though I'm not the only one wondering why you look like this:

 

Pull-eze Mr. Speaker, I’m from Michigan and we’re not that much north of Ohio and you should be pasty white like the rest of us poor Caucasian’s who live north of the sunny states. 

I have been pondering your plight every time I see you on the TV so today I googled it.  Boy oh boy – it’s quite the topic – just google “Why is John Boehner orange?”  Who knew?   I’m trying hard to take politics seriously, and I should.  And I watched the State of the Union speech - the disrespect in the cheers vs. our President left me very cold - and what does that say about our system and what kind of example does that set for our children.  Maybe if they don't like something (or someone) they should be allowed to boo or heckle.   Yikes - what a standard to live up to?  Congress sure didn't set the bar to high.  Really, it’s hard to take politics seriously when that's the behavior of the elected officials we are supposed to admire and when you look so silly with that much of a tan.

Orange is coming up a lot - like Orange is the New Black - a great show and concept actually for an orange lover.  At least orange is getting some respect.  And, obviously the Speaker loves it as much as I do but one of us isn’t dumb enough to paint our face with it….only our fingers.

 

Hey, maybe they should come out with a nail polish in his honor.  What could they call it – Nearly Republican Red?  Oompah Loompah John?  Boehner blush?  Come on my creative friends what do you think?  I want respectful red (and white and blue too) in my politicians and I want them to be the color they are naturally.  Be it white, black, brown, yellow, or red.  So let it fade John - let it fade. 

 

 

Goodbye Again U-Haul...and kiln, and torches, and....(sniff sniff)

Well, unexpectedly my youngest son had to come to Michigan so he did so in another large U-Haul truck.  So off to the races we went again with the packing, sorting, and loading.  Luckily, as you could see from the previous post, we were well prepared for this potential outcome.  We really didn't think it would happen so fast but it did. 

I actually think one last truck load might clear out the remains of our home in Michigan.  I sit here cuddling with Daisy and Brian and staring into Trudy's eyes.   She's curled up close on one of the remaining chairs.  I'm trying hard not to get reflective on Michigan.  It's a good state.  There are lots of lakes.  Drive in any direction and you'll run into them, big and small.  We are the "Motor City" state.  At my age you've had relatives who actually knew the first Henry in the "Ford" heritage.  Possibly the Dodge boys and others.  Everywhere you run into people who are either retired from the "Big Three" (Ford, Chrysler, GM) or worked in the associated industries.  There are families who great-grandparents started at the beginning of the auto age and their families continue to work for one of those companies.  Motor oil runs deep in many veins here.  My father worked for Budd Wheel.  They are now Thyssen Krupp and the plant has been dismantled.   The big presses that created things like this:

"The Budd plant — latterly, the ThyssenKrupp Budd plant — helped shape the contours of Detroit’s 20th century. Literally: in the 1950s, Budd Detroit built and assembled the body of the iconic, two-seat Ford Thunderbird."

I will miss the shared history of other children who's parents were members of that factory rat generation.  I mean how many can say they've seen these kind of presses in action.  They are monsters of manufacturing genius.  Now they reside in other countries.  They were dismantled and sold to Mexico, South America, and many other countries.  I guess in a way they live on despite the fact there will be no other teenagers dropping their fathers at work so they can use the car in Detroit.

 

Oh gosh - here I am getting nostalgic.  History has always been interesting to me - all of it.  And, of course, since I grew up in Detroit it's near and dear to me.

 

A little bit I feel like I'm part of the urban flight now.  A snowbird.  We used to laugh at the people who left Michigan in the winter - the snowbirds - they leave for warmer pastures in the fall and return in the spring.  Yup, me too now but it will be more permanent.  I will visit - I will still have two children in Michigan but I'm worried it won't feel the same. 

 

Life moves fast and I get I better get on the train before it leaves the gate.  Uh, and by the way - Budd made those too.  So every time you get on one now send out a good vibe for us Michiganders and think "Go Budd Go".

 



Where'd the studio go...

Wow - wow - wow, things have been so busy here.   I'd like to be able to say we are all packed up and on our way to North Carolina but that's just not so.  Over the holiday we packed up that one U-haul.  It made it safely to NC and my son and his friends unloaded it into the house. 

We took about 10 days following the holiday to relax and regroup.  Now we are back to packing up.  I've just about torn apart the upstairs studio where I worked.  The soldering area is nearly packed.  A few more odds and ends and it will be down and ready to hit the door.  Here is a picture of my pile. Rolling mill, casting equipment, and boxes of glass and glass I will hand carry rather than box. 

This has been how the work is going in the basement.  That is where I lampworked.  Today Brian and I finished packing the majority of the glass.  You know - wrap the rods and pack 'em up nice and sturdy like they ship them to you.  All totaled I have six boxes weighing about 50# a piece and then there are two milk crates with downspout that have more in them - including the odd glasses and expensive ones that I want to take safely in the back seat of my car.   I kind of figure when it's all said and done there is between 350 - 400# of glass in my stash.  Uh, I'm thinking I better get back to making beads as soon as I get my studio back up in NC. 

The final "box" of glass - except the boro rods which are 3 feet long and I'm not sure I want to cut the tubing down

I've had some of that glass for a very long time.  When they used to ship glass "in the day" (LOL) they shipped it in 36" lengths.  You would nip off what you were going to use.  So when the glass came I nipped off a 12" length off of every rod to set into the short stack boxes to use.  That meant that in the long downspouts next to the desk were rods that were 24" long.  I had to go through all of that stash and cut them up.  It turned into a 3 hour project to get it all done - and I was nipping pretty fast. 

What I found when I was doing that was some pretty cool glass I had put away.  Hard to find parrot green, some great old ruby gold, and what appears to be Vetrofond black.  Could it be? I won't know until I get a chance to try it out.  Back then they didn't always put the names on things - just one tag with the number.  Frankly, it's been so long I'm just not sure anymore.  There's original coral and carnelian.  Lots of goodies to play with once I'm ready to go.

I have to say I'm both pooped by the packing and excited about having some new digs in a couple of months.   I'll be more excited when we can get this house ready and on the market and I can free up some money again.  The only untapped reserve is Daisy's hip money - she's plodding along just fine and should anything ugly and unseemly happen (it's like Murphy's law when you are not prepared) we are ready on that front.

So what's new in your New Year?