I've been having a persistent earworm of the latest Beatles release.
Yes - I mean that. A new song released by the Beatles.
Back story: Some time after Lennon's death (1980!) Yoko Ono found a cassette tape of a song that John had written and recorded, and sent it to Paul. It was, of course, a bit scratchy and tinny, good for nostalgia's sake but not much more. Now fast forward 40+ years; technical and film making genius, Peter Jackson, could separate and clarify John's voice on the tape. He then made a video with the two remaining Beatles - Paul and Ringo, along with clips of all four of them at different stages of their careers.
Technically, it's brilliant. I especially noted that Jackson was able to synch the strumming of the various avatars with the beat of the music. And the avatars interact at times with the current Paul and Ringo (and I love the older George smiling at his younger self in Dr. Pepper regalia)
Emotionally, it packs a real wallop. Especially when the current Paul and Ringo sing "Now and then, I miss you" and it cuts to a clip of George and John laughing together. And, of course, the very lyrics of "Now and then, I miss you. Now and then, I want you to return to me" hits home.
I've just been really feeling it lately. One - it's October, that somehow mysterious month. I miss being part of something so much bigger than myself, the Halloween Howl trail. The weather has shifted - a bit dramatically. It's been chugging right along at Florida normal - low temperatures in the mid 70's, high humidity. Then suddenly the low temperature hit 42 - and what I have set aside to put on in the mornings is my usual shorts and tank top. I had to put my fuzzy robe over all that while I dug through a storage box for sweatshirts (and for some reason all my sweatpants have disappeared.) Bob loved this time of year, when suddenly you get a break from sweating. And I feel like I'm waking up after surviving another summer - but with that comes the feeling of continued loss. I'll be happily working on my puppet in the cottage, singing along to music, and realize that I also have tears streaming down my face because I can't show him my progress.
And there's the "old habits die hard." Things that you've done most of your life, and the habit won't go away. Such as whenever I come into the house, I feel like I should go check the answering machine, even though I ditched that along with the land line over three years ago and usually have my phone with me. So when the nights are chilly, and I'm mostly asleep, I automatically shift over to what was, for 48 years, the warm side of the bed, only to find my hand searching the cold empty sheets.
I also experienced some extreme frustration. I was going to try my hand at airbrushing - something I wish I had taken more lessons from him. But I got stumped at step one: attached the hose from the compressor to the airbrush. Problem is that the fitting is wrong. I dug through his airbrush parts box and couldn't find one that worked. And I can't try to go to Lowe's to see if they have anything that works, because I don't know what it's called, or what size it has to be. After some tears, I tabled airbrushing for now. Eventually I'll figure it out (it doesn't help that the only hobby store in town that would have people who would know what I was talking about has gone out of business).
After two months and three postponements, my car is finally in the shop to get the bumper replaces (repairing things is a thing of the past now). That ended up taking most of the day. I had to turn the car in at 8:00. Fortunately for me, Gill was kind enough to offer to come give me a ride to Hertz (their courtesy driver doesn't start until 10 so I was going to Uber over). Fortunate, because when I reserved the car, the default time was noon and it wouldn't change. She dropped me off and waited while I checked. Yep - wouldn't be able to get a car until noon, so she took me home for tea and chat. She also had a baking order to deliver, which happened to be to a woman who was a student assistant in my office in the early 90's (we've seen each other a couple of times since then). I did have to check out my gray hairs, because it's weird for someone that you knew when they were barely out of their teens to be talking about nearing retirement. Then Gill dropped me off (promising to come get me if I still couldn't get a car). I could - but it took another hour or so. And now, since I don't like driving in the first place, and I definitely don't like driving a car that doesn't belong to me, anything that I was going to do for the next couple of weeks (because the shop is short handed and it might take that long) will be cancelled. Sigh.
I did have a cute moment with nature. With the weather being tolerable again, I can resume my coffee/reading afternoon break on the back deck. This normally entails having a handful of peanuts handy because Crazy Ass squirrel is still around. I had put a few peanuts on the porch railing. Crazy picked one up, and then just sat up, little paws clutching the peanut to his white tummy, looking at me. After a few moments, I toasted him with my coffee mug and took a bite of my cookie, whereupon he started nibbling his peanut and we had a nice little moment together.
And I got to experience some puppy love - literally. Last week Christy and Rik's lab popped out a litter of eight puppies. Fortunately Roux is a very sweet girl who didn't mine me cuddling her puppies.
I think I might finish the new puppet tomorrow, who Ebaida has named "Anthea" after the Greek goddess of swamps (those people had gods/goddesses for everything). I need to get a better picture of her - despite not being able to try using an airbrush, I like the paint job. It took a few days; one thing that I've learned is that you can't just give something a coat of paint and call it done. You have to paint it, and paint over that, and maybe again. Then give it a dark wash and wipe it off, then go back and dry brush to bring out the highlights. I think she has four layers of paint. I used to tease Bob that he would do at least 12 layers of paint - maybe not that many, but close, which is why his models look so good. Her pool noodle body has been swathed in cheesecloth, and I started giving her cheesecloth "hair" today. Tomorrow I'll add more of that, finish doing the mouth mechanism, tie her static arm in position and put the control rod on the other one. And then likely have the post-product letdown (I don't even know if she's going out anywhere). But I can extend it a bit because I'll need something to wear with her..
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