Thank You, Luci.

Just delivered. All 362 of them. Plus a bag of Kopiko! (my favorite coffee candy.)

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Magnificent Collections

My idea is to do a series of photos of things kids can collect, no matter how much or little their allowance is. Buttons, bottle caps, rings, pebbles, sea shells, rubber bands, marbles, stamps, paper clips, beads, sea glass, charms, rubber bugs, rhinestones, wire, string ... even things that may not last long: tiny leaves, flower petals, feathers ...

I used to collect all these things with a passion. For the past twenty years I've taken pride in not collecting things. Except for sea glass. The project is not only to inspire kids to collect things or to inspire people to see ordinary objects in a new light. I'm afraid it's an excuse for me to start collecting again. And an excuse to take photographs!

Any ideas for things I might photograph for this project?

note from Luci:
I was reading the news, everything was so bleak, and I could not help feeling scared. I read Peony in Love and was haunted by the aching love story. I watched Au Revoir les Enfants and felt so, so sad. But, seeing you and Christer collecting ordinary stuffs but with a sweet dreamlike goal ... makes me happy. I somehow feel comforted that something simple, something engaging is still going on. And that makes life lovely.

Ocean Beach Sampler

All the stones came from Ocean Beach last night, gathered in a frenzy after the sun had set. The top two photos were shot inside this afternoon, and the bottom photo was shot outside in the sun.

Collecting Fever

From: Luci
Subject: i have caps coming out of my ears!
Date: September 5, 2008 8:22:54 AM PDT
To: Linda
1 Attachment: penance.jpg (135 KB)

Every day I kept on bugging (or begging as Hugo said) people for caps. He asked me a few days ago, "Are you sure you don't already have a hundred?" I was so sure I did not have a hundred already. Today, after work, I decided to count all the caps. Well, how about that? I've amassed 362 caps!

I'll wash them, dry them, and send them to you this afternoon. Okay?
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Two weeks ago I posted sketches for my collections idea.

Luci's comment: I love the plastic caps pictures. You allow me to see how beautiful they look. Christer used to collect bottle caps, and for some reason it drove me crazy.

From: Linda
Subject: bottle caps!!
To: Luci
Date: Sunday, August 17, 2008, 11:24 AM

'Tude! Does Christer still have the bottle caps? This is exactly the kind of thing I have in mind. Would he be willing to send them to me? I would handle them with care, photograph them, and send them right back. I can send you a big padded SASE! I used to collect bottle caps, too. I LOVED collecting things as a kid (and obviously still do).

From: Luci
Subject: Re: bottle caps!!
Date: August 17, 2008 12:59:44 PM PDT
To: Linda

Oh, I'm so sorry ... and here comes the confession ... I'm an awful mother. I'm sneaky too. I had been slowly throwing away his bottle caps. And, then when we went to Denmark, I told Dena to go ahead and throw away the rest of the caps. When we came home, Christer had a totally new room.

How soon do you need the caps? Because I can relay for bottle caps from the people at work and my students. Oh, and how many?

And, you don't have to send me the SASE. It'll be my penance. I thought I was able to get away quietly with this ... but like the proverb I learned when I was small ... buried misdeed is like smoke, it will seep out.

I was so excited when I received Luci's e-mail today with the photo! It gave me the collecting fever. This time it was for rocks. Suddenly I was burning to do a new photo sketch tomorrow. I hit the beach soon as I could, which was after sunset this evening, and started collecting rocks like mad. Here's what I found:

















And then, walking back to the car with my bag of rocks, I ran smack into a rock band.

Beach Glass

These photos are very grainy. I tried getting closer. I have my camera set on Superfine. What else can I try?

Perfect Day

What would you do if you didn't have to do any work and could spend the day any way you wanted? I did have to work today. But instead, I did the following:

1. Had my daily morning meeting with The Major. (Peet's Major Dickason, that is.)

2. Washed the plastic I picked up on the beach yesterday. Let it dry on newspaper on the back deck. Arranged it on the bathroom floor.

3. Discovered Tom's old tripod in the closet. Aggles' little Canon Elph screwed right on. The tripod made a world of difference, I found, after trying twenty or thirty times to get the picture square.

4. Saw new Woody Allen movie Vicky Christina Barcelona. Medium popcorn.

5. Made spicy Bloody Mary with fresh tomato juice Tom bought from the farmers' market this morning. Trader Joe's Oriental Rice Crackers are great with it (some are sweet, some are spicy). I'm also eating a carrot for good measure.

To me, this is a perfect day so far. And it's only 8:07.