Motorin On -- Day 81

Walk: R/T Garage several times, Corte Madera Shopping Center
Distance: 1 mile

Fairly organized day started with --- Dead Battery. Goodbye organization. From then on it was basically catch up. To the point where I almost forgot this post.

I've always been a 'buy a (used) car and pamper it' woman. Several of my cars were in their late teens before they got so quirky I had to let them go. So I know a dead battery is a signal of pampering to come. I did the obvious and bought a new battery - with a 6 year guarantee. This follows a new timing belt (Expensive) a few months ago, so I've made my investment in the future of this car. On my way home from Marin I stopped at an Audi dealership to get an estimate on a new clutch which I think is the next pamper.

Yikes, you say - so expensive. But to me a new car is more so. Just the tax, registration and increased insurance costs are more than the battery, belt and possibly upcoming clutch. And then there's the emotional expense - letting go of a car friend, that's hard for people like me.

Many, many, many people think our type is nuts. Rent, get rid of the hassle, don't get attached, a car is just a way to get from one place to another, you get a chance to try a new type, technology changes so rapidly, etc, etc is how they reason. And certainly they are right. But my type doesn't care really. Plus I have a V-8 engine, stick shift, when the mechanic came today to start my car, he wanted to buy it, guys stop me at stop signs for the same reason, etc. This is fun! The car is fun, and the word is out on that. All this has happened with all my cars. Those of us who look at our cars this way are kind of a (little) club.

So the day was slated to go one way, and it did a hairpin turn. But that's okay; my car and I motored on.


(Not me but clearly a member of 'the club')

iPad Rehearsal -- Day 80

Walk: R/T Fillmore Street/Curbside Cafe
Distance: 16 Blocks

A NYC trip is coming up, and I'm test driving my iPad as a way to post while gone. Haven't had much luck using it for the blog so far.

Wow! I just tried it and it worked - although copying an image didn't. So, think that might be it for ciwt today. Met a new person over lunch and may have exhausted my verbal creativity/energy.

Painting Daffodils -- Day 79

Walk: Shortly will walk to Mindful Body, Teach and Return
Distance: 8 blocks and teach


Inspired by Wordsworth's beautiful poem, and looking for some cheer on a grey, blowy, wet day, I went searching for some lovely paintings of 'Daffodils' by well known artists. These are the only two I found.

1. Here's Vincent Van Gogh:

Vincent van Gogh, Bowl with Daffodils, (1886) Oil on Cardboard on Panel

2. Lucien Freud doesn't portray his daffodil in an uplifting manner either:



Lucien Freud Woman with a Daffodil (1945) Oil/Canvas (at MoMa)

That's it from the internet. For some reason artists don't/didn't seem to get inspired by daffodils. Wonder why?

Anyway my real daffodils still bring MuCh cheer around here.

The Russian Bride's Attire - Part 2, The Man in the Doorway -- Day 78

Walk: 2 R/T Mindful Body, Teach 2 Classes and Errands
Distance: 2 Miles and Teach 2 Classes


Who is this man?



If you guessed he's the man coming through the door to Maria's chambers as she is being dressed for her wedding to Alexis I in The Russian Bride's Attire, you're right!


(To see him look to the upper right rear of the painting)

And, if after that, you have no further idea about his identity, you've joined most of the the rest of us. Even experts are not sure who he is or why he is entering the chambers usually forbidden to men.

We do know who he is not. Many people assume he is Alexis but this isn't the case. Alexis was born in 1629 and married in 1648 at age 19. Way too young for the man in the door.

Nor is the man the artist himself, Konstantin Makovsky. Although it is not uncommon for artists to include self-portraits in their paintings, Makovsky did not resemble this man. For one thing, two of his physical characteristics were very dark hair and large, bright blue eyes. (Tall and handsome too. Sigh...)

The man could be a simple messager bringing in a wedding gift. But I wouldn't be surprised if he is Makovsky's imagined image of Alexis' highest placed and closest advisor (or boyar), Boris Morozov. Morozov had in many ways placed himself in the midst of the wedding action. He had advised Alexis to marry Maria. When Alexis had acceded to the throne at age 16, he had been entrusted to the care of Morozov, so Morozov's wish was essentially Alexis' command. This advice regarding Maria followed the sickness and exile of Alexis' first choice in brides, Eufemia. And, here the plot thickens dramatically, because Morozov was strongly suspected of having poisoned Eufemia to induce her illness and to rid his enemy, the girl's father, into exile along with her. Finally, Morozov was engaged to marry Maria's sister, thought to be the girl at Maria's feet, and in fact did so ten days after the wedding in this painting.

We see a courtesan with her arms up trying to block the man's entrance into the chamber. However from all that we know of Morozov, he was not a man to be denied nor did he consider any matters at the highest level of the Russian court to be outside his sphere. So my bet is on him being the man in the doorway.

Wordsworth, Trader Joe's, Daffodils and Me -- Day 77

Walk: Kabuki Theater/Fillmore Street for 'Hunger Games' and window shopping
Distance: 2 Miles

One of the great pleasures of living in the Bay Area is affordable fresh flowers all year round. A friend and former flower shop owner corrected me years ago when I said his store sold wonderful luxuries. "Flowers aren't luxuries, they're Necessities." And he's so right. By now fresh flowers have become constant companions/friends around my home.

At this time of year Trader Joe's (another necessity!) sells crates and crates of daffodils at 10 stems for $1.29! I and everyone I see walking out of T Joe's when I'm there buys at least one bunch. It must be amazing in other, more wintery parts of the country when these bright yellow bundles of cheer are suddenly in the stores - and at a price no one can walk past.

Certainly the flowers themselves blooming in England on a stormy day made an indelible impression on William Wordsworth - and became the subject of his most famous poem.

I wandered lonely as a Cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and Hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden Daffodils;
Beside the Lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:-
A Poet could not but be gay
In such a jocund company:
I gazed---and gazed---but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude,
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the Daffodils.

Published in Collected Poems, 1815