Faces Places

This film on Netflix is a completely charming, artistic, graphically unforgettable French documentary that everyone should see!

Two friends--one a young man of 33 and one a woman of 88--set out across France to see villages and visages, places and faces, and to capture them on film.  Then they paste enlarged versions of the photos on huge walls, over the bumps and tears of aged brick and wood.

The story of the friendship is so dear--as they travel together, yet share little of their personal lives.  It's understated and simple and sweet beyond anything I've seen in a long time.

The woman does get to meet JR's 100-year-old happy grandmother.  The woman photographer  reveals a little about her former friendships, but we don't know if either is married or single, have children, or much of what they have done beyond their lives as photographers.

This is definitely one you'll watch more than once.  We will.

Friday Night

Finally, I am feeling better--though the mold problem hasn't been fully resolved.  I have a mold man coming on Monday and hope to see an allergist this week to find out (a) if there is mold, and (b) if I have a toxic reaction to it.

I'm hopeful that recounts will adjust some of the big election close calls in our favor--especially with Stacy in Georgia and Gillum in Florida.  The race between Beto and the other guy was excruciatingly close as well, but I'm still wearing my Beto shirt and hoping that someone in Texas finds a drawer of lost ballots that turn it around.  Carlene and I are on the same page--which makes watching the news, if not pleasurable, at least something we can complain about together.

It takes a little while to settle back in, and we've taken a few days to do not much of anything.  This morning, Carlene and I sat in adjacent turquoise chairs at Sky Nails and got pedicures and manicures, two hours of pampering that is always good for the body and soul, especially at Sky Nails where they play good music and no TV.

Then we enjoyed the last of the soup Pam had left in the fridge, took a nap,  and went out to dinner with Will and Bonnie and Elena.

I'm reading Almost Everything by Anne Lamott--who looks for what's good in a world choked up right now with awful.

Here's her take on Trump world--though she doesn't name names:

"Something that helps is to look at adversaries as people who are helping you do a kind of emotional weight training.  Nautilus for your character.  They may have been assigned to you, to annoy or exhaust you.  They are actually caseworkers."

Maybe so.

But I'm ready for a whole new gym and a new cast of personal trainers.

Halloween Pictures

Halloween is Marcus' favorite holiday.  When Betty asked him if he wasn't worried about scaring little kids, his reply was, "I think that's a Them Problem."

As it turns out, his costume this year--a chicken--isn't too scary.  I think he's rather cuddly:

On the other hand, Elena's vampire costume and make-up looks rather scary.  Even with two front teeth missing, she's a vampire!  And Nathan is a spy with the FBI:

Wednesday Night

It amazes me how kids can sit down at a table, listen to adult conversation and contribute--while making art.

They grab a sheet of printer paper and a handful of markers and they're off!

Nathan in his new glasses

Kitchen table art-making tonight

Elena's Solar System

By Nathan: "That moment you realize...That you have messed up."

By Nathan
"Wanna Taco about it?"
"It's Nacho Business...."

Round things

Ingrid Fetell Lee writes that round shapes are bringers of joy.  The round shapes of glasses and bowls, for example:

Here's a quilt I snapped in a Claryton, Georgia gallery--made by Annie Cochran, all circles.

These round-ish coconut masks from Mexico in my living room always make me happy:

As do the wide-circle eyes of dolls and puppies and human babies:

Wheels and balls and tire swings.  Birthday cakes and candle flames and bath bombs.  Fruits and flowers.  Round things are everywhere--we just have to look for them for bursts of joy!

Imagine my surprise a couple of weeks ago, when Betty and I were in a New Hampshire general store, and I walked to the bathroom in the back of the meat market.  Between the meat cutters and packagers, I spied a matched pair of adorable humans with bald little heads and big round eyes, perched on the red-topped cutting table--instant joy!

Mold? Or what?

Carlene and I are slowly slowly settling back in, eating meals left in the fridge by Pam and Jan, taking turns reading the new Anne Lamott book Pam left for me (Almost Everything), and catching up on this and that a little at a time.

The month before I left for my trip I had what I call "fibro" and associate with CREST syndrome--though it's not necessarily connected.  As soon as I left for my long road trip, there was only one day of pain--and that coincided with washing clothes in a basement.

Upon returning, I discovered that--having turned off the AC--the floors in my bedroom are buckled badly in three places.  It made me suspect that perhaps mold is the cause of the aches and pains.

So thanks to suggestions from Carlene and Dana--who's renting the apartment--I ordered a dehumidifier and am looking online for people who treat houses for mold.  My brother has mold toxicity, and I'm thinking that may be the problem with me as well.

Tomorrow, I'm having an AC man and a plumber, both coming to see if we can find the source of the problem.  My own diagnosis is that the water got under the wood floors and the heat in the house caused the water to expand.  It may be that the water was there for a long time and I would never have known it if the wood had not expanded to make my bedroom floors like fun house floors. You literally have to be careful not to trip on the floors!

Does anyone know of someone who does mold testing and treatment?

Wish lists

Veronica shared with me these two letters, one from Nathan to Santa, one from Nathan to his parents.

I love his closing paragraphs!

To his parents after the list of army and Jurassic requests:

"But a card or money, or a hug will be nice.  Love y'all!!

and to Santa:

"Thank you for all the gifts you've given me throughout the years!"

6868 Miles

Beach Days

We started our trip west by driving to Perry, Carlene's hometown, and meeting her sister Dot and Dot's husband, Dozier, at a restaurant next door to where their grandmother Cana used to live.  Good country Southern cooking in a pretty little Georgia town.

Carlene 93, Dot, 87

Perry Methodist Church--where Carlene,
Dot, and their three brothers grew up. 

Then we headed toward Alabama--spending our first night in Eufala, followed by lunch in a Harry Potter-themed cafe called Black Cat, then spent the next night in Evergreen--trying to keep our stops alliterative, all in E-named towns!

We enjoyed miles of cotton, corn, cows--to keep with the alliteration of natural resources in Alabama.  I love looking at cotton fields and barns....

Yesterday, we drove along the Mississippi Gulf Coast through Pascagoula, Ocean Springs, Biloxi, Gulfport, Pass Christian, and Bay St. Louis.  I had hoped to poke around in my favorite of these towns, Ocean Springs and have lunch there, but the town was literally impossible to reach by car--a huge crafts festival was going on downtown and we were unable to find parking.

We had the best cheesecake ever at the independent book store and cafe on the Pass Christian overlooking the water.

Me and My Shadow, Biloxi

The Pass Christian Book Store

The Blue Dog, Lafayette, Louisiana

One of George Rodrigue's many Blue Dog paintings in the restaurant.

Then, last night we had dinner here in Lafayette at a Cajun Creole restaurant I remembered from last trip, The Blue Dog.

It's been a great trip but we're ready now to hunker down and take the main roads back to San Antonio--where the speedometer will register 7000 miles, a few more or less!