Phoenix Art Museum

Yesterday my friend, Sarah, and I went to the Hollywood Costume exhibit at the Phoenix Art Museum.  

I've lived here 23 years and have never been to the museum.  I wasn't expecting much.  Somehow I forget that Phoenix is the 5th or 6th largest city in the country.  I was surprised to discover that it is a wonderful museum.  Much bigger than I realized.  

The Hollywood Costume travelling exhibit was interesting.  The focus was on the decisions that the fashion designers make when creating a costume for a character.  Tidbits like how many hats they made for Indiana Jones, and how they made them look worn, were fascinating. And since the costumes on display were on life-sized fixtures, you could see how tall or tiny the actors were.  

The other two wings were amazing as well with American, Contemporary, European, Western art, etc. Sometimes I don’t understand why something is considered art, rather than a child’s drawing.  But there were a lot of interesting and/or beautiful paintings. 

The giant lizards made out of junk caught my interest.  The chameleon was especially cool.  His spines were broken boards, his flanks were tree roots, and his feet were covered in bottle caps.  And there was a giant bird made out of wicker baskets. 

I also really liked a  sculpture of a life sized horse made of old wood plank and chicken wire fencing.  

Other than the Hollywood exhibit, we spent the longest time looking at the Thorne Miniature Rooms.  Phoenix has 20 of the rooms on exhibit.  Years and years ago, I saw the ones in Chicago.  Such amazing detail on a 1" to 1' scale.  

I have full intentions to keep track of when the exhibits change so I can go back.   

Phoenix Art Museum

Thorne Miniature Room

Hollywood Costume Exhibit

Stained glass transom

I got sidetracked by book reading and dog training, so this set of panels took a year to finish.  But I think it turned out well.

THESE are the good old days - phones

Lately there seems to be nostalgia for the 50's and 60's, even the 70's.  Television shows and music portray those days as if they were some golden age of civilization.  Life was so much better back then.  So simple.  So pure.   

It's irritating as hell.  I've been there.  Done that.

THESE are the good old days.

Take cell phones, for example.  Completely disregarding the computing power you carry in your pocket, just think about how liberating it is to have a phone with you at all times.  

The first phone I remember was a party line.  Yep, one of those phones that are shared by several households.  You couldn't just pick up the phone to call out.  Think shared house phone with no way to tell if someone else was on the line.  And if another party was really quiet, they could eavesdrop on your phone conversation.  Nothing was particularly private.

And the dial!  You put your finger in the hole for the number and cycled it over to the stop. The 0 took the longest time to move.  You always hoped the phone number had low digits in it.  If your finger slipped, you had to hang up and start over. 

After we got our "private" line, there still wasn't anything private about it.  Most families had one phone.  With a cord connecting it to the wall.  With another cord connecting the receiver to the phone.  There was a limited range of movement dictated by those cords.  

Our phone was in the dining room.  So any phone call I made could be overheard or interrupted at any moment. There was a linen closet beside the phone stand.  If the television was too loud or my brothers were arguing, I could crouch in the closet with the sweaters and the ironing board.    

It was a huge deal when we got an extra long cord connecting the receiver to the phone.  My mom could now talk on the phone and wash dishes or cook.  

Want to go somewhere and your parents aren't around?  Too bad.  There was no way to contact your parents if they weren't home or at work.  Did the crappy car you bought at 16 break down?  Put on your walking shoes until you find a home or business that will let you borrow their phone. 

When my husband and I drove a truck cross-country, we had to rely on pay phones, or kindness, to call the company for our next load.  Pay phones only took coins.  They were frequently vandalized and inoperable.  Money for phone calls was saved for business calls.  We rarely spent our phone money calling family.  

Lost and need to call for directions?  Good luck.  Want to call to let the shipment receiver know you're stuck in traffic and will be late.  Too bad.  

These days, everyone I know carries a cell phone with them.  Sure that causes its own set of issues.  But it's a huge convenience to have a phone available whenever you need one. 

Seriously, THESE are the good old days.  

I've declared "war" on the pigeons

I like to feed the birds.  Well, mostly I like to feed the quail and hummingbirds.  But I have hanging bird feeders for the sparrows and finches as well.

As much as I try, I cannot like the pigeons.  There are too many.  They crowd out the other birds.  They chase the quail away from the bird block.

When I say too many, I mean that one day I counted 40 pigeons clustering in the shaded areas of my back yard.

Bogie catches the slow ones.  I haven't the heart to shoot the pigeons with a BB gun.  What if I hit one and wound it?  As much as I dislike them, I don't want them dead.

I just want them to go away.

My latest solution?  A Nerf gun.  I bought it for work.  One day I wondered if the noise and flying disks would intimidate the pigeons.

Yes.  Yes, it does.

So far I have cut my pigeon population down to 1/3.  I can live with that.

Not sure the effect will remain on the days I'm at work.  But if I am persistent, maybe I can convince the majority of pigeons to move elsewhere.

Non-violent pigeon displacement.

I like it.

Never thought it would happen.

Bogie is a certified Good Boy. He passed his AKC Canine Good Citizen test yesterday.

If you had told me a year ago this was possible, I wouldn't have believed you.  

There are 10 tests that evaluate a dog's sociability, obedience, and acceptance of other people.  We had a practice session with 2 other dogs on Thursday evening.  Those same two dogs and Bogie were tested yesterday.  Bogie passed them easily.  

I'm so proud. 

The test:: CGC Test

The training facility: Top Dog Training

The relationship I don't have with my mother

My mom has been in the hospital for the past two weeks.  The reasons involve obstinacy and a flagrant disregard for her health. She is one week shy of her 80th birthday.

I've visited her once or twice a day since she was put into the hospital.  It's the most time we've spent together in a two week span in as long as I can remember.  It has been a sad reminder of our lack of closeness.

I don't think it's me.  I have a couple of friends that I can spend 8 hour days with and never run out of things to talk about.  I regularly talk with my sister for 30 to 90 minutes at a time.  I get into long conversations with co-workers.

I don't think it's her.  From the number of people who have called in concern and who check on her status regularly, my mom is a popular person.  She can talk on the phone with my youngest brother for a long time.

Somehow it's us.  Together we run out of conversation in only a few minutes.  Oh, we've had the occasional dinner out together where we've talked for an hour or so.  About my siblings, my niece and nephew, about people we know in common.

But our normal is five minutes of conversation, then an attempt to find something to talk about.  That's why we play a lot of Scrabble when I visit.

I have closed off any inner part of my self that I could share with her.  I learned long ago, from two different instances, that what I tell her in private won't stay private.  She will share it with her friends.  And it will be brought up again at a most inconvenient time.

So I don't share anything really important to me.  We both read, but not the same kinds of book, so that doesn't take us long to exhaust.  She has no understanding of, or care to understand, my work.  Conversations about my dogs keep her interest a little now that she is confined to a bed.  But normally she changes the subject.

She does that often.  Change the subject.  If I do have something I feel I can share with her, she changes the subject.  Sometimes in mid-story.  I take that as a lack of interest in what I am talking about.

Shrug.

She's low maintenance.  At least for me.  She and my sister have a much different relationship.  But my mom only expects periodic visits or phone calls, and gifts for Christmas and her birthday.  She doesn't expect, or want, us to be by her bedside all the time she is in the hospital.

I knew a woman, long before free long distance, who lived here in Arizona and called her mother in Massachusetts every single day.  I can't imagine what one would want to talk about every single day.

But sometimes, occasionally, I wish I knew what that felt like.

Back yard lizard

It's been a good week for back yard visitors.  First the tanager, now this lizard.

I've seen 5 different kinds of lizards in my back yard in the past couple years.  It's probably why I don't have much of a cricket problem.

This guy was hanging out the other afternoon.  The blocks are 16" wide, so he must be 6 or 7" long.

I hope Bogie never sees him.