Wednesday, January 11th

Is this not just the happiest staircase you’ve ever seen? This is out at Shake Rag, in Melrose. If you haven’t been out there, you really need to suck up the 15 minute drive and go see it. Shake Rag isn’t just an art gallery, but a cultural community center. It has art, and studio space for artists, and it also has a second-hand shop (downstairs) and live music on Wednesday mornings (with free coffee and all sorts of homemade goodies that people bring in) and other live events on the weekends that range from Pow-Wows to outdoor movie nights to dances.

I had to go out there yesterday to do a soap inventory (I sell in the gift shop there) and Aunt Gay and Uncle Joe went with me. I appreciated that, because apparently they’re also sick with the same thing Tim has, so it was nice of them to come with.  I think they had a good time, though, in spite of The Grunge. They saw a number of people they know, we heard some good music, and it was good just to hang  out with them for a while.

Yeah. That’s all I’ve really got this morning. I’m a super, super-light sleeper, and the dogs woke me up with the incessant scratching scratching scratching always with the scratching at about 5 AM. I tried to lay there and not hear it, but that just made me more tense… to the point I could feel a migraine coming on… so I got up. Now the dogs are underneath my feet, snoring as if they didn’t have a care in the world (which I guess they don’t, since Tim and I take care of their every need). I envy their ability to fall asleep at the drop of a hat, and the fact that they can sleep all day if they want. Fuckers. I can’t even take a nap unless I’m exhausted and/or sick, because the trauma of waking up ONCE in a day is bad enough. I’m a grumpy sourpuss crankypants if I have to wake up more than once. I may be a grumpy sourpuss crankypants today, from having woken up before I wanted to. Don’t you want to meet me for knitting tonight? YAY!

PS. So far this experiment of getting back to daily blogging by using my photo-of-the-day as a kick-start to writing something seems to be working. I’m monotonous, I know — it’s like a choose-your-own-adventure of boredom. “If the dogs need to go out, turn to page 7! Talking about HaldeCraft? Turn to page 23!”… but at least I’m getting something out there in my poor, previously neglected blog.