What am I doing?

Well, it only took about a week before the novelty of writing a blog every day wore off. Why do people do this blog stuff? Why do people (including me) think that the rest of the world cares what they think or had for breakfast for that matter? I mean, I thought I should do it because it's another way for me to get images of my paintings up on the web. But after a few days I realized that I couldn't think of anything to write about! So maybe I should just post a picture of a painting every day and call it good.

Hurricane Relief

Omar be gone! We made it through the storm unscathed thanks to a last minute shift in direction of Hurricane Omar. Like threading a needle, the center of the storm passed between the islands here in the northeast Caribbean and we all came through with little damage. Yahoo!

This was actually a good dry run for me. Usually I'm little Miss Civil Defense, starting my initial hurricane preparedness at the very beginning of each season. The last couple of years I've gotten lazy though and when I went to do things to prepare for Omar, I discovered issues like stuck and loose hurricane panels. Ack! If this had been a serious storm I would have been seriously screwed!!! So I'm grateful for the warning.

I'm a firm believer in signs. We get them all the time. We just don't read them. Omar was a sign. Lemmee go get my glasses.

Awaiting the storm

This morning there are no rainbows leading the way. This morning there's just lots of gray meeting my eye from every direction. Hurricane Omar is out there just sort of lumbering along. It looks like it will track just east of us which is good for us, bad for Vieques and St. Thomas. We're expected to get up to 20" of rain though, which is why I'm worrying. I have friends that live in the area that will bear the brunt of this thing. They're up in the mountains and with the 30" of rain we got a few weeks ago, another 20" is going to cause some serious mudslides. I'm up in the mountains too, but I'm on the north side of the island, opposite of where the storm is coming in, so I'm feeling a bit safer.

I've been trying to paint but with the storm pending, I'm distracted. I have a gallery owner from Miami coming to my studio on Friday to check out my paintings. She's interested in representing me. I'm fussing over having to close my house down for this storm and move all kinds of stuff from outside to in, and then unpacking the house in time for the gallery owner's arrival. It's hard to look at paintings in the dark (if the power goes off) whilst crawling around bbq's, outdoor furniture and generators, ya know? But I will make it work....assuming she can make the drive out here from San Juan.

Off to buy gas and dog food....and more cheeze whiz.

Rain Rain Go Away

Lot's more rain comin' this way. We had around 30" just a few weeks ago and now we've got another storm headed in our direction. I'm happy that I live up high but worry about mudslides. Every place we choose to live is a trade off, I guess. Californias are fighting fires, Oklahomans fight tornadoes, we fight tropical storms.... at least it's not snow!

I can remember the day I made my decision to leave upstate New York. It was an April morning, theoretically SPRINGTIME and I was trying to chop my way through a layer of ice on my car so I could get the key in to the door lock. It was still dark and I was wet and frozen with sleet and something told me that in another life, I didn't live like this. By May I was living in Key West.

Now I'm even further south and waiting for more rain. Sigh. It will be a good week to stay inside at my easel and get some work done.

All is right with the world.

Oh Happy Day!

Yesterday's rainbow truly was a portent of good things to come. I had an exhibition last night and sold 15 paintings. Joy! Joy! Joy! I'm happy. My bank's happy. It's a happy kind of day!

The truth of nature

I don't know what the weather forecast is for today, but right now I am at my computer looking out over the coast and watching showers line up like passing ships over the water. It fascinates me. One of the showers is not so dense and has a rainbow as its leading edge. Maybe it's a sign that in spite of a storm, things really aren't be so bad. I've never known nature to lie.

Awake

It's a beautiful morning on my little mountain, not quite 7:00 AM. The sun has lit the tops of the palms just beyond my easel, while below the rest await the warmth. It will be a good day, I know.

This blog is a new venture for me, one of the reasons I believe today will be great. Another new horizon is open to me!

Welcome all!