Voter Registration Purges

 

The Voter Purge Project, State Score Cards

Brennan Center for Justice, Voter Purges

Voter purging is when a registered voter is removed from the voter registration list where they vote. It keeps the voter registration lists up to date. 

In Vermont, for example, if you don't vote in 2 consecutive general elections, then your name is removed aka purged from that voter registration list. 

I've been voting in Vermont for decades. This is the first time I remember my voter registration being purged. I've missed elections in the past, but never that I recall purged because of it. I re-registered online.

This is a Very Important election year.

Please, make sure you are properly registered to vote.

Update, Monday:

Today I received a confirmation email from Vermont dot gov.

My re-registration over the weekend has been received and approved by the city clerk. I am a registered voter!

Wild Apples & Creativity

Wild Apples

    

Are they though? Wild apples, I believe, grow outside an orchard or in somebody's yard. Along the roadside you can see shrubs that you know must have been planted by a house, but there is no house. The same is true of apple trees in a group. Then there's the issue of wildlife carrying the apple seeds into the woods by various means.

    One morning on a slow walk the sunlight was catching a bunch of wild apples just right to make their rotting shapes look lovely, almost ripe again. I took a photograph to paint from. The canvas has been hanging around. The photo hasn't. There are folders labeled, ToPaint, that I use. Once in a while though, a picture becomes lost. Like the apples, it has gone wild.

    Autumn is a season of reflection, I feel, more than the other three are. We harvest our knowledge, our memories, our expectations of where we have been and where we are going. 

    I'm thinking that way because I've been painting again, regularly on a few canvases at a time, old as well as new images. Depression isn't selective. It mows down much of what we enjoy doing in life. Being an artist that doesn't paint is not comfortable for me. The irony is that when I am in a severely deep episode, art is where I retreat from the pain. This time, however, it is the resolve to be Artist, not pain that brings me to pick up a brush.

    I feel that there are times in life when we don't need to figure out why. It is better, when it happens, to just enjoy our creative selves.

Oh That Tree!

East Main Street Along Rt 22A
11x14 inch acrylic ~The After version

Over, (I estimate), 15 years ago I started a series of paintings for places I see on my walks around town. The above is the first and only artwork I've done. Projects get put aside for other projects.

The small painting has been hung in various places over the years until today. The large tree on the left has always bothered me. I intended to add more branches. I mixed the colors. And then got lost on other areas. The house behind the tree, I didn't even notice I was covering it up.

Main Street Before

I see now from the Before version, what my mistakes are. At one point, I signed it as I was determined to leave it as is. The tree will go back to being smaller, the house more visible, and the shrubs on the left less shrubby.

As that's all going on, I look up to see another painting that I planned to finish hanging on the wall. Mostly because I liked the way it was except for the sky.

An October Morning at the Field Puddle
16x20 inch acrylic on canvas

As I was painting, to my surprise I remembered the original idea for the image. It is taken from several watercolor sketches I did in 1999 of snow geese landing with the sunrise to their backs. The sketches are missing. I have no idea where they are. Thankfully, I have the pencil sketches in a sketchbook. More painting to do, this time I hope I don't lose sight of what I'm trying to achieve.

Update: The sky is getting there. The tree had to go. It would be in the way of the snow geese landing.

Remembrance 9/11

 

9/11 Victim List

God Bless America

Reflection Monday September 2024

There is, I believe, absolutely no way in 2024 a presidential candidate can appear at the Arlington National Cemetery to be filmed,

release the pictures, 

and not be about politics.

Campaign stunt, IMHO. 

==============

Honor the fallen.

Please,

Think about Honor

when you vote

5 November 2024

 

A Monday Pondering Something

Wild Grapes 2016

As development takes hold of a community, habitat loss may go unnoticed. A huge area of wild grape vines was chopped down years ago when the area nearby, (where horses use to graze), became apartment buildings. Housing is badly needed. (Update, recent look, not all the vines are gone.)

We are in the time of Find Another Grapevine, as far as birds go. I think about the bears that are showing up, (since the separate compostable trash rule began), and I see the grapes as a big attraction for the bears. Ugh. Balance isn't always as easy as it might seem.

Have a wonderful Week!

 

Surveying the Summer of 2024

Birthday roses

Open Summer Fields

Lake Champlain

Town Beach

Tiny Deck Garden

Otter Creek Falls

Fields Days

Lunch Time Along Lake Champlain in August

Well, here I am now, in the last full week of August 2024 on a sunny Sunday afternoon, thinking about what this Summer has been. Overall, these months have been more interesting than previous years because I put effort into making sure I did not stay indoors so much or let depression drag my down so far. I cannot claim this year that summer went by too quickly or I didn't experience a real summer.

I had a fairly nice summer. Heat, rain, storms, are all part of the season's Earth wardrobe. I wore it well. I may not have achieved everything I planned, but I did well with what I accomplished.

Being so positive is rather a shocking experience for me. I'm not sure how it fits in with the depression episode I have been struggling to get out of. I think it might be a situation of emotional isostatic rebound going on.

Isostatic rebound is the movement upward, back to the normal shape after being compressed. In glaciology, the weight of a glacier on the Earth compresses the ground. When the glacier melts, the ground is released from that weight and uplifts. (Earthquakes can be a result as the Earth adjusts.) Think memory foam impression returning to smooth.

As my depression weight lifts, I feel lighter in spirit. This summer has been a period of uplift for me.

Now, onward into the fall with the same attitude to embrace the season as well as I can whether I go anywhere or not. There are trees and views to the mountains. No matter where I go, Nature is available.

Flowers in August

At Cape Cod Massachusetts near Marshfield, the pictured type of roses here, were everywhere. We call them Rock Roses. I forget their other names.

They are very hardy, even here in Vermont. The rose hips are large with a lovely dark coral color. 

Do you have a favorite summer flower?

The chill in the morning air has convinced me to not resist the end of summer drawing closer. Instead, I daydream about autumn being spectacular. Soup Season is a delightful time of year. I sort of look forward to feeling soft socks on my feet. Even seeing Halloween decorations no longer makes me cringe that they are out so early. 

Have a cringeless fantastic week!

Posted using my cell phone 

Afterall

An August Sky Over Vermont

Multiple projects are a certain indication one's mind has been active. There is a difference, however, between have (the project) and doing (the project). Creative ideas grouped into one interest like art, writing or poetry can become overwhelming if they are left to build up as new ideas emerge.

Belief is the fuel that keeps the oldest project going.

Inspiration is the fuel that a new idea rides on.

When both run out, then one can end up where I am today.

Deliberately distracted by other things like reading or doing laundry. Any mundane task is good enough for me to be busy not looking at what I want to do. 

I began a novel a few years ago, Cornsilk Moon. I posted about here on this blog. Yet, since last winter it (loose-leaf notebook) has followed me around my living room because I'm always feeling that today is the day I begin editing to write the last draft. Writing is a scary process when you get close to the ending. I'm not good with endings.

This week, starting today, I'll be telling myself not to be scared. Afterall, Halloween is 78 days away.

Day 222 of Week 32 August 2024

August 2022 Route 17
Addison, Vermont

 At peak summer, the heat creates a haze that places a pale light over everything. A simple tree in hot sunshine for no particular reason reminds me of summer more than a sandy beach or butterfly does. I can almost hear the June bug's buzzing sound piercing the stifling air as the sun stings my skin. I can almost smell the gravel stones cooking as the dark shade calls me in for a moment of cool relief.

This summer of 2024 has been the definition of what summer is, hot, rainy, and muggy with weather as delightful as a country fair. I am grateful that I have been able to sit outdoors under an umbrella to have my lunch; and moments to think about nothing special. My list of summer plans may have few things crossed off, but what has filled my days is much appreciated.

Appreciate Your Weekend!

Tell a pair of flip flops a funny story

Sing to a moth

Read about grasshoppers

Browse summery wallpaper online

Watch a lemon slice float in ice tea

Draw a sailboat

Play catch with a friend

Reflection Monday August 2024

If you feel alone,

then consider reaching out 

into your family, friends and/or community

to build positive relationships.

Have compassion for yourself

as well as others.