Phutu...because you just can't tell

9/14/2003 I haven't been able to get much done on the house lately. Sometimes I feel like I have all these little blocks of time that I waste, but they never seem to be big enough to actually get something done on the house. I have been thinking about repairing the siding on the back of the house, but I haven't because I need to have the plumbers come back to install a vent pipe for a second set of laundry hookups that we want to put in the basement. Having the laundry in the bathroom is great on one hand and annoying on the other. So I thought that for the sake of my ultimate sanity that we should put another set of hookups in the basement. Still, I can't decide whether it's really worth it to pay for another set since we have one already and I'm not oozing money at the moment. It's these kind of decisions that can really delay a project...that and I should have ordered the windows a couple months ago so that I already had them...Hopefully I'll have them by next week.

So, in the mean time, I have been doing other things. Last Sunday morning I went to a special demonstration by a Japanese bonsai master for our club. We have a juniper bonsai that is the basis for our club's logo. (go to www.gsbf-bonsai.org/bssf to see it) It has been a bonsai for over sixty years and is probably close to a hundred years old in total. I was really excited and thrilled to watch Mr. Mitsuya work on the tree since most of the demonstrations that I see are on much younger trees, and by people who are far less experienced than he. Then on Thursday, we had our annual auction. I didn't buy much, I wanted a crabapple tree but there weren't any that I liked...but I did get a juniper for only $5, which I did a little work on this morning. Maybe by the time that I pass away it will be as beautiful as the club's logo tree. There is something sad about the pursuit of bonsai. The people who lovingly take care of trees for years on end often don't live to see the tree come to it's full potential. The club's logo tree belonged to a doctor who lived in L.A. who willed it to the club thirty years ago when he died. I have for the past year been starting all kinds of seedlings on the path to being bonsai, but I realize more and more as I go to meetings and work on trees that I will never see most of those seedlings at the height of their beauty. Which means that I need to go out and spend a lot more money on trees that are older that other people started many years ago. The royal family of Japan has many bonsai that are more than 400 years old...and still alive and well.

This coming Monday and Tuesday I plan to get back to work on the house. I'll decide before Monday morning if I am going to call the plumbers out again and then just get some work done. I need to finish the siding so that I can do the rail for the deck, but there are a million other little things that I could do if I just sit down and think to do them. No more bonsai until I get some work finished. Otherwise it'll be December before I know it, rainy and cold with water hitting all the wiring that is exposed on the back of the house.

8/30/2003
8/13/2003
7/29/2003
7/19/2003
7/8/2003
7/1/2003
6/3/2003
5/29/2003
4/22/2003
3/18/2003
2/27/2003
2/18/2003
2/15/2003
1/31/2003
1/21/2003
12/18/2002

artichokes and all...

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