Some Historic Things

Well, not much of an art post today... general news wrapping up the month. In most every blog I keep up with, people are begging for the snow to stop. Gray skies! Cold winds! Inches upon inches!
Sorry, guys!
Here in PA we just got the most snow we have had all winter. The most relaxing thing about it is the natural-ness of this snow. Mark off at least one more day without those conversations about the worrisome high temperatures, or that unnerving feeling of seeing buds and shoots in February. Today is just a beautiful snowy, snowy day. Tonights forecast? Ice, snow, sleet and then rain. Possibly freezing rain.
(shrug) Well, it was nice while it lasted.

The night before last we were also having freezing rain, but the clouds passed right in time to see the lunar eclipse! Thanks to Celeste for remembering, we bundled up in blankets and hats and drifted outside into the cold, dark night. The view was pretty thrilling, half the moon was red (!), all around us the snow has a glaze of sleet over it that glittered in the moonlight. The soft, crystalline hush of recent ice settling on grass. An unusually touching suburban night with at least 1 other neighbor watching from their front stoop.
Amazing.

New drawings and projects have slowed (preparing to stop) in light of studying for my driver's permit test. I've been hovering over my driver's manual for the last several months... easily distracted... until we started getting into all the possible options and schedules regarding the road trip out west. Finally, this week, I really had to dive in. The table is cleared of sketchbooks and projects (other than mailing) to keep me from temptation. I know I should have done this, what is it now... 14 years ago? It is super fun to have something to study, to be able to trust my (passenger) instincts on my practice tests, but not for a second has it lost the surreality of learning how to drive in the twilight of my 20's. Totally weird.

After a day of studying, we turned on the Obama & Clinton debate in Texas. Sadly, Lost won the debate in this house (but *yow!* what a better episode than last week!). Still, it was compelling enough to keep drawing me into the living room from 8-9pm, critiquing, absorbing, watching and being generally intrigued. I don't know how deflated and full of sorrow I would have been after the last era of Bush if the election were not as engaging as this one. That's probably all I'll be saying about politics in this blog for quite a while, but I'm grateful there are actual choices to be made. :)