Floored

9:44 a.m.

9:59 a.m.

2:04 p.m. lunch break

2:20 p.m.

5:53 p.m.

Lucille's 88th

From: Lucille

March 16, 2012 6:43:43 AM PDT

Subject: RE: Happy Birthday Photos

To: Linda

Linda, you epitomize totally the wisdom of my mom: Major in Fun. I woke up this morning thinking of the joy you orchestrated. I must have the luck of the Irish to have you for a friend.   

Love and hugs, Lucille

Peter brought his guitar and mandolin, Anne made a card with eighty-eight 8's (flower blossoms), Tom brought a beautiful box of macaroons from La Boulange and a bottle of Prosecco, and I brought some ice cream (mocha chip) from Joe's. Carmen lay under the table and sighed.

Using My Scanner as a Camera

Today I bought two more books by Josie Iselin. She uses a scanner instead of a camera to shoot her work.

After dinner I put some things I had collected this week on top of my scanner and turned out all the lights in the room. I left the scanner lid up.

I have a long way to go, but I'm amazed! Here's what I got, with a little help from Photoshop.

Detour

We took a detour off the Coastal Trail, down a long wooden stairway. Halfway down we came upon this maze. We had heard about it and caught glimpses of it from the trail, but had never seen it up close until this evening.  At the bottom of the steps is a beach covered with big smooth stones.

Sea Glass Hearts

Josie Iselin used a flatbed scanner to take the photos for her book.

My very best beach glass find last week actually happened at the BookShop on West Portal. And it's a book! A book by Josie Iselin.

The photos are otherworldly. Josie explains on the book jacket that she uses a flatbed scanner to take the photos ... and a whole new world opens up for me.

p.s. When I asked for permission to post her images, Josie told me that she had just returned from a fantastic sea glass festival in Cayucos. She said that she sold over 150 books in two days. WOW!!!

Sea Glass Hearts by Josie Iselin

Pre-Internet Brain

5:17 p.m.

“Aliens didn’t come down to Earth and give us technology,” (Douglas Coupland) said ...“We invented it ourselves. Therefore it can never be alienating; it can only be an expression of our humanity."

So what is the place of the novel — that rather old-­fashioned technology — in a world where newfangled “content delivery systems” are continuously changing the way we read? “Two decades of profound technological shifts have literally, biologically, rewired our brains,” Coupland wrote. “We all know it. We all feel it. I think new work needs to address this astonishing shift. My agent tells me the only books people are writing or reading right now are fantasy. Great, but I want to see how our new brains tell stories set in present times as long-form fiction. I miss my pre-Internet brain, but that doesn’t help anything. We can only go forward.”

from today's NY Times Book Review

Found 3/10

Another great evening for glass.

We found these creatures, too.

6:09 p.m.  Time out. Something's going down.

Looking Down

5:56 p.m. A great night for glass. Low tide and beautiful light.

Walking to the Moon

6:19 p.m.

Up One Side and Down the Other

5:39 p.m.

The Great Highway was closed this morning. It was covered with sand. This evening it was still much too windy for some people to walk on the beach, though the tide was perfect. We hit the Coastal Trail. There he goes! The man in the red jacket walks up the steps on the west side of the hill, and down on the east side as the sun sets.

5:48

5:50 p.m.

Found

Pulling My Hair Out

Well, today my green hair fell out.

Kimberly had actually glued it in this time, and it remained in place for nine weeks. I still have one tiny blue strand.

The book I'm working on is mysterious and difficult, even though I'm the one who wrote it. At the same time it's very satisfying work, especially being that I have such a smart and funny group pushing me to make it better. 

Most of my friends are smarter than I am. I'm not putting myself down; au contraire, Pierre! I'm bragging.