Preparation

You can't just turn on creativity like a faucet. 

You have to be in the right mood.
What mood is that?
Last-minute panic. 

― Bill Watterson 

Two tests for this year's doves (and a cat). Hobbes is 19 and cranky. The utility room is the warmest one in the house.

Yeah. You know procrastination isn't just your problem when "Good Reads" has more than 400 procrastination quotes.* People are people. 

And here, well, it often comes to a paring down of the list and a "this can wait" behavior once again.

Some people must clean out the frig (poorly, but moldy veggies are out!). Others may need to leave the toilets sparkling (downstairs is done). Still others make sure the bills are paid (two or three more checks to write). 

Some retirees may be good at keeping up. We all know those people, but they were probably timely before retirement. They were not want to finish typing the psych paper with barely time to walk it up the hill to the classroom. They didn't make their last reservations as they were packing the bag. Dammit, they don't have mold growing on the yellow squash in the vegetable bin.

Whatever. The day before the deadline is here... two art projects are completed one is turned in and the other in the kiln. DH's meals are underway - eggs boiled and shelled, oatmeal cooking, shelf-stable "emergency rations" on the shelf where he can find them. Post-it directions are in the works (and he knows where to get a bean burrito - for good or ill). Cat litter is purchased and in play (DH has learned the two processes we have - new cat with her own way of doing things). DH has successfully given Hobbes his meds.

Packing is a wreck. It has been started and stopped too many times.** But it is about to be finished. Naked is no longer a good look, if it ever was.

I know, I know...one more cup of coffee and the trash needs to go out before the garbage men show up. They are usually early.

Stay tuned.

[I leave you with close-ups of gifts from the kiln. Pray for the rest of the flight.]

Sorry about the light. I didn't think of a photo where I have good lighting. The colors are brighter than this - turquoise and brown. It works. This was supposed to be the pattern for 100. But the texture tool went missing for a day. So, there will be some of these, but also others.

Did I mention tool missing?  This was an experiment. 5 were made. More will likely be made as they turned out to be rather striking - perhaps the most "arty" of the whole shebang (5 out of 1000? I will take it!).

NOTES:

*Going back to Twain! Never put off till tomorrow what may be done day after tomorrow just as well. ~ Mark Twain

And even LINCOLN! You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today. ~ Abraham Lincoln 

**The air conditioning went out in part of the house. It was too hot to pack there and too hot to schlep everything to a cooler spot. Air is back on. Packing may commence in earnest (or in the good "rolling suitcase" - I guess it has a name now).