May 30, 2009
Hello dear reader, The moon has passed across the sky many times since last I was here. Lets just say that my body has disintegrated a bit more, my attitude has gotten more bilious, and my disgust with our society has gotten greater. Come on people, GOD GAVE YOU A BRAIN, USE IT! Turn off the TV and read a book. OR if you MUST watch TV, turn on PBS and learn something you didn't know before...What made the Italian Renaissance the "re birth" was that it was SOP that a man learned something new every day....but I didn't kick in the door to this blog to preach...
I've spent the last two weeks dealing with my health insurance. JESUS what a racket! I was on the group plan at work. When I got laid off last July my employer should've put me Cobra...but he didn't-he kept me on the employee plan, starting in December he started charging me the fee. Because he has no employees they canceled the employee plan in April and now I'm without health insurance. I applied for an individual plan, and was turned down. I was told I could appeal...I needed a letter from my GP explaining my health issues and all my medical records for the last 5 years...Oy, what a project. It ended up being almost 40 pages of stuff from 4 doctors...and I had to fax it-that took almost an hour and half. I know what the outcome will be, but I had to try.
"SO, mr. bear, what have you been doing????' Hmmm, funny you should ask. I've been trying to keep busy. Since I'm not working my weeks have taken on a sorta pattern. On Monday I go to Greensboro, I work in the shop of my former job...I'm working on a couple of jewelry boxes for clients...funny they're both out of left over Bubinga that was purchased for two different jobs...I just finished the inlay for one the other day. At about 5 pm I knock off, get me some dinner and then head to my life drawing class(-it acts as my social life). I get there early and work on my most recent wood engraving till class starts, my progress in class is slow, it'd get better if I had more time to draw. On Tuesday I run errands, pay bills and do my laundry, that takes all day. On Wed I spend on the computer looking for a job, before last July I could take between 2 - 2 1/2 years to go through a ream of paper, it isn't a year since I got laid off and I've gone through one and working on my second-I send out at least 3 paper resume's a week, and 2-3 electronic ones. The economy is in the toilet-no work for a woodworker and cabinetmaker....Take a lesson America, this is what believing in somebody that claims morality and a religious philosophy of life gets you....IF they are moral and religious they aren't running for office. We didn't learn our lesson about easy money in the 30's, the 70's or this time...the only people that get easy money don't need it cause they're rich.
On Thursday I work on the studio...I've been doing maintainence-broke down my table saw, cleaned it and lubricated it, and replaced some parts...it took me almost a week. I still have to service the shop smith. The shop is actually cleaner then it's been in a while. On Friday I actually work. I'm starting a couple of new projects...One, I'm going to revisit my sculpture/painting experiments begun when I was in school-I've got the wood, I need to do some drawings-probably today. I've got a show to get ready for-the guys across the street that were going to open a gallery have floundered-their first and last show will be in June and they've asked me to submit a piece. I also inherited a couple of antique hand tools from my attorney and friend's cousin Agnes. She died early in May and my friend had to go through her personal stuff-he sent most of her art supplies/tools here for me to deal with. Agnes spent her life in pursuit of art as a hobby-yeah well she had the money. In this collection were some antique wrenches and other mystery tools- I noticed some aspect of these tools that had a sensuous odd quality to them, I kept moving them around the shop and then it donned on me! there was this one wrench (an early attempt at an adjustable wrench) that was "s" shaped, probably for the visuals as well as ease of use...It mimicked the classic "S" curve of late Gothic crucifixion's. An Idea formed...I'd been looking for an excuse to repeat the experiments done by Jim Dine with his tool drawings, I've always considered doing a crucifixion, and the aspect of the tools lent themselves to the story of the passion really well....So, I'm going to be starting on a new project. I still haven't finished in the living room although I did get my library cabinets up and my books moved-I need to put the furniture back in there and my picture of Botticelli's Venus needs to be re framed...the frame fell apart-note to self-always frame with plexiglass, regular glass is way too heavy and brittle especially with big pieces. I've still got one more panel of my 3 fates I need to ink in, I put that down a couple of months ago to get projects for money done. My projects for money...I turned a pitchfork into a coat rack for Dr. Vaughn...Nice lady...another Scorpio Red head....I'll not go there again...but nice lady, she really enjoys my woodwork, doesn't understand my flat work and that makes her uncomfortable. yeah well, what can I do, I don't do it for her or anybody else. On Friday's-Saturday & Sunday I try and get work around the shop accomplished. On Saturday my homeless people usually show up to earn a couple of bucks cleaning the loft and sweeping the floor of the shop, works for me-I get hit up for a hand out a little less and they can maintain a bit of their dignity by earning the money.
I attempt to make a bit of progress every day. I'm reading 3 books Ngal's epic Icelandic tale of revenge, a book of "weird" short stories called "tales of unease" pretty lame, but there is one story that has a couple of extra corners in it that have caught in the fur of my mind, and an extended version of one part of the Ghita...I read a really abridged version early this year and I'm looking into finding something between the cliff note's version that I read and the multi volume actual text...It'll show up when I'm ready for it.
I'm trying to get back in shape...this sitting around for a year has taken its toll on me. I'm working on adjusting my diet and doing some more physical stuff...I've got a letter to write to my convict/student...There's a story for ya...maybe next time. Its nice to be back....We'll see if it does any good.
I've spent the last two weeks dealing with my health insurance. JESUS what a racket! I was on the group plan at work. When I got laid off last July my employer should've put me Cobra...but he didn't-he kept me on the employee plan, starting in December he started charging me the fee. Because he has no employees they canceled the employee plan in April and now I'm without health insurance. I applied for an individual plan, and was turned down. I was told I could appeal...I needed a letter from my GP explaining my health issues and all my medical records for the last 5 years...Oy, what a project. It ended up being almost 40 pages of stuff from 4 doctors...and I had to fax it-that took almost an hour and half. I know what the outcome will be, but I had to try.
"SO, mr. bear, what have you been doing????' Hmmm, funny you should ask. I've been trying to keep busy. Since I'm not working my weeks have taken on a sorta pattern. On Monday I go to Greensboro, I work in the shop of my former job...I'm working on a couple of jewelry boxes for clients...funny they're both out of left over Bubinga that was purchased for two different jobs...I just finished the inlay for one the other day. At about 5 pm I knock off, get me some dinner and then head to my life drawing class(-it acts as my social life). I get there early and work on my most recent wood engraving till class starts, my progress in class is slow, it'd get better if I had more time to draw. On Tuesday I run errands, pay bills and do my laundry, that takes all day. On Wed I spend on the computer looking for a job, before last July I could take between 2 - 2 1/2 years to go through a ream of paper, it isn't a year since I got laid off and I've gone through one and working on my second-I send out at least 3 paper resume's a week, and 2-3 electronic ones. The economy is in the toilet-no work for a woodworker and cabinetmaker....Take a lesson America, this is what believing in somebody that claims morality and a religious philosophy of life gets you....IF they are moral and religious they aren't running for office. We didn't learn our lesson about easy money in the 30's, the 70's or this time...the only people that get easy money don't need it cause they're rich.
On Thursday I work on the studio...I've been doing maintainence-broke down my table saw, cleaned it and lubricated it, and replaced some parts...it took me almost a week. I still have to service the shop smith. The shop is actually cleaner then it's been in a while. On Friday I actually work. I'm starting a couple of new projects...One, I'm going to revisit my sculpture/painting experiments begun when I was in school-I've got the wood, I need to do some drawings-probably today. I've got a show to get ready for-the guys across the street that were going to open a gallery have floundered-their first and last show will be in June and they've asked me to submit a piece. I also inherited a couple of antique hand tools from my attorney and friend's cousin Agnes. She died early in May and my friend had to go through her personal stuff-he sent most of her art supplies/tools here for me to deal with. Agnes spent her life in pursuit of art as a hobby-yeah well she had the money. In this collection were some antique wrenches and other mystery tools- I noticed some aspect of these tools that had a sensuous odd quality to them, I kept moving them around the shop and then it donned on me! there was this one wrench (an early attempt at an adjustable wrench) that was "s" shaped, probably for the visuals as well as ease of use...It mimicked the classic "S" curve of late Gothic crucifixion's. An Idea formed...I'd been looking for an excuse to repeat the experiments done by Jim Dine with his tool drawings, I've always considered doing a crucifixion, and the aspect of the tools lent themselves to the story of the passion really well....So, I'm going to be starting on a new project. I still haven't finished in the living room although I did get my library cabinets up and my books moved-I need to put the furniture back in there and my picture of Botticelli's Venus needs to be re framed...the frame fell apart-note to self-always frame with plexiglass, regular glass is way too heavy and brittle especially with big pieces. I've still got one more panel of my 3 fates I need to ink in, I put that down a couple of months ago to get projects for money done. My projects for money...I turned a pitchfork into a coat rack for Dr. Vaughn...Nice lady...another Scorpio Red head....I'll not go there again...but nice lady, she really enjoys my woodwork, doesn't understand my flat work and that makes her uncomfortable. yeah well, what can I do, I don't do it for her or anybody else. On Friday's-Saturday & Sunday I try and get work around the shop accomplished. On Saturday my homeless people usually show up to earn a couple of bucks cleaning the loft and sweeping the floor of the shop, works for me-I get hit up for a hand out a little less and they can maintain a bit of their dignity by earning the money.
I attempt to make a bit of progress every day. I'm reading 3 books Ngal's epic Icelandic tale of revenge, a book of "weird" short stories called "tales of unease" pretty lame, but there is one story that has a couple of extra corners in it that have caught in the fur of my mind, and an extended version of one part of the Ghita...I read a really abridged version early this year and I'm looking into finding something between the cliff note's version that I read and the multi volume actual text...It'll show up when I'm ready for it.
I'm trying to get back in shape...this sitting around for a year has taken its toll on me. I'm working on adjusting my diet and doing some more physical stuff...I've got a letter to write to my convict/student...There's a story for ya...maybe next time. Its nice to be back....We'll see if it does any good.
posted by ak at 5:40 AM
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