In the 1930s, the Civilian Conservation Corp built roads through many mountain forests, including those in North Georgia. An abandoned CCC road runs along the western boundary of our community, and it’s part of a long hike that I love to do in the fall. The CCC (pronounced “triple C”) runs along a ridge at … read more The orange road
Month: November 2016
Emotions for sale
What emotion are you selling? the webinar host asks us. That’s the question you have to answer. Good question. Another question might be, Why do you want to sell emotion? I’m watching the second in a series of free webinars about marketing your art. The host is selling us the emotion of happiness, the artist’s … read more Emotions for sale
Driving Ms. Zoe
Sky, trees, sky, air, sky, sun, sky, road, sky, speed. There’s nothing quite like driving topless on an autumn day. It feels like it’s me who’s topless, as much as the car is. Liberated. Sun-kissed. A fast girl. Tom’s Z3, who is named Zoe because it suits her, will be 20 next year. Tom has … read more Driving Ms. Zoe
What I’ve learned from writing 500 blog posts
On my birthday last year, 500 days ago, I started this blog. I had no idea what I was getting into. I intended for the blog to be a simple record of the sculpture I was going to build from 16,252 pennies. I choose a penny to represent each day, gradually creating the sculpture, and for the … read more What I’ve learned from writing 500 blog posts
Yes, “thing” is an actual word
I was happily writing away on my iPad and typed the sentence, “That isn’t a bad thing.” A word suggestion popped up: “thang.” You read that right. Autocorrect suggested a facetious mispronunciation to replace an actual word. There’s my proof – the featured image above is an unaltered screen shot. I really couldn’t believe it. Then I … read more Yes, “thing” is an actual word
What I learned when I almost died
Exactly one year ago today, to the hour, an axe hit me in the head. A brain aneurysm ruptured and flooded my head with blood. The extreme pain, dizziness and nausea cut a dividing line through my life – one second I was fine, the next I was on the verge of death. I can … read more What I learned when I almost died
Exploding devices
A few weeks ago, Tom’s old iPhone exploded. We didn’t hear it happen. We just opened the drawer one day, and there it was – an exploded iPhone. I discovered it while we were packing for our trip to Lexington, and didn’t have time to figure out the right way to dispose of it. But … read more Exploding devices
Turning off Facebook
This morning I felt that my grasp of reality was slipping away. I had to do something. I identified a major source of my disorientation: Facebook. When you spend hours scrolling through your feed and reading comment threads, your thought process starts to work that way – unfocused, trivialized, random, contentious, fact-free. That’s not the brain I want … read more Turning off Facebook
The Facebook lie
Mark Zuckerberg says that, despite all the fake news it disseminated, Facebook didn’t influence the election. He even called that “a pretty crazy idea.” It would be easy for any media outlet, including Facebook, to claim that each voter is responsible for filtering information in order to make a responsible decision. That’s the essence of individual … read more The Facebook lie
Lives on the line
I woke up next to a veteran. And am so glad he’s alive. Because I’m not a veteran, I’ll never be able to fully understand how Tom survived what he survived as an Army Ranger in the 1980s. I am simply grateful to him for putting his life on the line repeatedly. Not only that – he … read more Lives on the line