A Moving Experience

August has been a hot month! And I'm not just talking about the heat! I've been so busy that I am not sure if I am coming or going or just gettting back from where I went. We've had visitors. My darling sister, Marlene and her daughter Johnsie and Johnsie's two sons, Alex and Ethan came for a visit the first week of August! I enjoyed their visit so much. Marlene and I went searching for things to go in her home to create a lodge look. We visited the Lake and Lodge store in Arcadia, Indiana. We went to lunch at the Loon Lake Lodge on 82nd street. She loved that place with their animated bears and various other wildlife. And we went to the Shellhouse in Indianapolis. It's a 5 story storage building which is owned by my husband. She found a love seat and rocker that will be perfect in her lodge living room. The boys played a lot of croquet and I do mean a lot! Ethan won the championship tournament!

Then a week after they went back to North Carolina, my son, Ben came for a two week visit from Los Angeles. He wanted to meet his new niece - Korrine. Like the rest of us, he just melted at the sight of her. It is always love at first sight with that baby. And of course he was constantly finding ways to have adventures with his two brothers and sister. Somehow a garden cart became a ready made ricshaw (sp?) Having him home was wonderful!

Also, I want to mention something wonderful that happened during HOT! August. My youngest son, Harrison, my baby, got engaged to the lovely Brittany B. They have been going together for almost 5 years and plan a July 09 wedding.

On top of all of that, I found out at the end of July that the renters in the back of the building are expanding their business and will be taking over my studio. They need my wonderful space. So for the past 3 weeks I have been boxing up and moving to the other side of the building into a space I have come to call "The Inner Sanctum." It's basically 2 huge supply closets. I'm including a few pictures of the move in process.
There is nothing like moving to clue a person into the fact that they have too much stuff. These pictures are the before pictures... though I did have a bunch of boxes piled up in the room on the left. At this point, the last week of August, I have almost completed the move out. I will post some more pictures in a day or so to show all the stuff that needs to be put away. It was just imperitive that I get the space cleared out as they have semi trucks on the way with stuff that will fill that wonderful space.

Philip's Dream - "Travelling Through a Hostile Land"

They were moving slowly down the street
carried by a driver.
Nervous, he saw two children
with branches.
It struck a chord of fear
as if a sign.
This is not right,
speed it up!
Get out of here quickly!
The Arab man
in the kitchen of his fine home
was startled.
He looked up to see an old man -
a Jew. He was in his home - uninvited.
"What do you want?"
"What are you doing here?"
His children, a boy and a girl
looked aghast.
His wife was horrified.
"Step outside" the old man said.
"I want to talk to you."
They walked out to the garden
then the street.
"I want you to rent me a room."
Before the Arab could answer
a shot rang out.
The daughter, shotgun in hand,
had blasted both the Jew and her father.
They both lay in the street.
The Arab wounded, the Jew dead.
The mother horrified, grabbed the shotgun
and her daughter and quickly put them
both in the house.
She said said "Look what you have done...
he was our support."
She returned to help her husband back in just as a torrential
rain began to fall.
The water flooded the street and
the body of the Jew washed randomly under a parked car.
Two people observed this bizzare scene.
One turned to the other and asked
"Why do they leave the dead man's body
in the street?"
The answer "He is a Jew, that's how
they treat the Jews."
The young boy goes to the back door of the house.
There is another Jew there.
He has a scooter, a push scooter.
He tells the boy, "You can have this."
The boy gratefully accepts.
The other Jew turns to leave
and sees the boy come to him.
He presents him with a gift
two beat up shoes - more precisely a
shoe and a sandal.
The Jew accepts the gift and leaves.

"I am reminded of a true story. One Jewish man, perhaps confused, perhaps deranged, perhaps on a mission from G_d, was walking randomly from his home in a Jewish settlement on the West Bank through Arab territory. He was killed and his body was found, perhaps his killers were never found. What would happen if a thousand Jews, each alone, went on such a walk. Would they all be killed? And if they were, suppose a thousand more walked the next day and a thousand more the next? What would happen?"