Perhaps Florence is moving on

The clouds are moving from the southwest to the northeast which is a good sign - that means that the center of the storm's rotation has moved out of our area and is going to wreak havoc elsewhere.

The bad news is that the weather we are now experiencing has increased in intensity - we have had thunderstorms and reports of tornadoes. 

I did manage to turn this black walnut bowl from a blank that was stacked up in my shed. Also managed to sell it, so it's good to make a little money even when a storm is raging.

A day like today calls for some rockabilly.

Good shabbos

A friend wrote an email which said "Good Shabbos, mein freund". I figured out the last two words, looked up the first two. I like that concept - a day of rest. I could sure use on about now - getting a bit burned out from work and the thought of actually taking a day off, a day away from it all, might actually be a good thing, assuming I didn't fret about the work I wasn't doing.

Then I read about a Calvanist dog. Well now, maybe that explains some of what I am going through. Where is my stuffed tiger when I need him.

Turns out there is an actual tiger rescue place nearby that I heard about today. I like cats but having been on the receiving end of what a house cat can do when motivated I think I shall forgo interacting with, say, a 500 pound feline. I found it interesting that such cats live in my neck of the woods.

But back to the subject at hand - it is summer and I am trying to make the most of it. Today my cousin got married down on the Delta but I didn't drive over - too much time on the road. That makes me sad as I haven't been there in 50 years and it really would have been good to see her. Maybe she will come up this way and visit. I still have a few stories to tell her about her late father and what a character he was. Here is a picture of what happens when one's arm interacts suddenly with the relatively sharp edge of a spinning walnut bowl:

The walnut chips and dust stanched the bleeding. The bowl has been shipped and should arrive at the bride's house while she is on her honeymoon.

One of my favorite tunes that I first heard in 1968.

Weather report

It was raining when I started mowing my lawn yesterday. It stopped, and I completed the task, but the wet grass clumped up and clogged the mower deck. I hate it when that happens.

Today dawned clear and cool. The air was noticeably drier than it has been lately. We had a bit of wind and by this afternoon the grass was actually looking dried out. That was a big change in a short time. Tonight's low temp is forecast to be 57 degrees. It is August. What's up with that? Not that it's a problem - I am getting some work done. Is autumn arriving early this year?

This morning's sunrise:

A bowl I made this week:

That is a walnut bowl surmounting a red mulberry head with a quilted red maple base and an octagonal silver maple transition piece. This piece is the result of trying to tap into something other than conventional bowl design.

Two very different pieces of music.

Duane and Aretha.

Bluegrass

Shooter

As I mentioned, I am watching the Netflix series Shooter based on the Bob Lee Swagger books written by Stephen Hunter, of which there are ten. Shooter, both the series and the movie, are based on the book Point of Impact, which I thought was a pretty good book.

The movie starred Marky Mark Wahlberger, which was one terrible bit of casting. I could list the reasons why, but compared to the little Frenchie who plays Swagger in the TV show, it was brilliant.

The TV show suffers from all of the things that you know I dislike - it is filmed in California but is set elsewhere - the Pacific Northwest, DC and other places - so it has the wrong trees, wrong hills, wrong light and so on.

The movie version did have Levon Helm in one of his last roles, so that was good. His replacement on the TV show was not good. Which brings up another issue - the writing in the TV show is bad even for TV. It wasn't until the last sniping scene in the last epi that some of the Bob Lee from the books shows up. That kind of redeems the show.

So that's my review - the writing is awful, the acting is not good, the scenery is all wrong and yet here I sit watching season two. So it goes.

But enough about all that. It is what it is. Life, and work go on.

Today I made this:

Levon was great.