Perfume

Posted on March 23, 2010 by ruthek

I don't remember when I decided to stop using perfume. I still have a tiny bottle of Jolie Madame, which I can't seem to throw out–twenty, thirty years old; I can't remember. Certainly before I understood that I was old. At the same time I started using unscented everything: soap, shampoo, laundry detergent, fabric softener. I don't want to constantly smell anything.

Maybe it began with those nasty perfume samples they put in magazines and mailing pieces. I had a subscription to Bon Appetit. It came with a picture of a slice of wonderful chocolate cake on the cover, but it smelled like a perfume sample. (I don't think any perfume really smells like that–at least, I hope not.) It ruined the chocolate cake, and the magazine, for me.

I like smelling aromas that appear and then leave; a person walking past with an almost unobtrusive scent, bread baking as I walk past a pizza place or bakery, garlic from an Italian restaurant. Even the smell that clings to a person after they have a cigarette is interesting, if they quickly move away from me.

Why am I thinking about this? It's not that I've become more sensitive to smells. I'm sure there are many smells I never register. Smells seem to have become more important to my brain; every time I sense a new one I pay attention to it; play with it, almost like gently tossing a ball from one hand to the other and examining it carefully. So in my old brain, which strongly prefers handling only one thing at a time, smells become a distraction–OK when I'm out for a walk, but not OK when I'm driving, or watching a movie, or anything that requires concentration.

St. Pat’s Day

Posted on March 17, 2010 by ruthek

In my reply to Mage's comment about spring I forgot to mention St. Patrick's Day in Chicago. While it's true that Chicago mostly went directly from winter to summer the exception was St. Patrick's Day. It could snow on March 16 and/or March 18, but March 17 was always beautiful. I was certain Mayor Daley (Richard J., not the current one) had an in with the god of weather. The parade always marched under blue skies. Now that they've moved the celebrations to the weekend before, I don't know what happened in Chicago. It was a cold, rainy day here. Today is beautiful.

You can see a great photo of the 'green' Chicago River here.

I’m beginning to believe in spring

Posted on March 10, 2010 by ruthek

Not much sunshine today, but nice and warm. I've been walking (2 plus miles) most days. A new round of classes are beginning. I'm learning about the geology of the national parks (Monday was parks with caves), contemporary art as explained by grad student creators, and today a class about Carmen. Also two movies and a meeting of the "digital imagers," a group who meet to talk about digital photography, occasionally using slides for their examples–a little strange. I'm supposed to be cooking this week: two friends coming for lunch on Friday and a dish for a potluck on Saturday. I think I'll buy for Friday, cook a wonderful pear and squash crumble for Saturday. I've made it a couple of times so I have confidence in it.

We are supposed to get rain tomorrow and the weekend. Lots of talk on TV about flooding. I wasn't here for the last big flood, 1996. I think I'm on high ground here. Years ago we had a basement that flooded with increasing regularity as the neighborhood got built up. In 1967, as the Israeli's were fighting the '67 war, Richard was working for an Israeli company as their American marketing agent. We were up to our ankles in water trying to clean it up when G's cousin called asking about his Israeli cousin. All we knew was what we heard on TV or radio. All we cared about at that moment was cleaning up the mess. Amazing how a little water can change your perspective.

Sunshine and deep blue skies

Posted on March 4, 2010 by ruthek

Finally! Maybe spring will come again. It's hard to believe surrounded by all the great piles of dirty snow.

With any luck today should be my last day of Gigapan work. I've color corrected, then stretched and shrunk in order to stitch the four separate images together. Today we go back to the super computer and put the whole thing together, I hope. It was fun for awhile, but got tedious at the end. The files kept getting larger than the computer wanted to handle. I would do two or three keystrokes then wait for the computer to compute. I did a lot of Sudoku in between.

More snow!

Posted on February 28, 2010 by ruthek

We have had more snow in February than in all of Pittsburgh's recorded history. It's not a record I'm enjoying. I stayed home most of yesterday; today I'm going to a film about Japanese kamikaze pilots. It's being shown at a school about 2.5 miles from here. I plan to try walking. I can always get on a bus, but walking would be good. I got two good walks in last week. It all depends on whether the sidewalks have been shoveled.

Pittsburgh has a law about pavements being shoveled within 24 hours. After the big storm, now four weeks ago, the city suspended the law along with any other intelligent ideas about dealing with the snow. (Sometimes I think the mayor has suspended intelligence.) This time the city said walks have to be shoveled–tomorrow. I'll see how far I can get walking.

Here is another picture I put together yesterday. It's from a garden in Nikko, called Shoyoen, behind the Rinnoji Temple.

Beautiful, sunny morning

Posted on February 24, 2010 by ruthek

I got in a good walk. It's supposed to snow again later, and maybe tomorrow. I've been spending a lot of time working on that Gigapan. Sometimes it's extremely frustrating, but then equally satisfying when something works out. Learned lots more about Photoshop. I don't own the latest and greatest, which is what I'm using at the university, but help files for several versions are online. Very satisfying to learn all the new stuff.

Back at home I'm working on the Japanese Garden Book. Decided on format and layout design. For the most part content will be my photos and info from the Internet; layout is very important to me. I've decided to make it 8.5 x 14, with the width being 14". I've completely the pages for the gardens I visited in Tokyo, about 50 pages. I'm very nostalgic about it all and contemplating another trip. Stay tuned!

Many of the photos I took never got published, in the blog or in the book. So this is my opportunity to published most more of them. On many occasions I took what I hoped were multiple, overlapping pics. I've been sorting them out and putting them together in Photoshop.

Three days without snow

Posted on February 21, 2010 by ruthek

and even a little sunshine. Ice has been falling off our roof. Some wires have been knocked down, but everyone seems to have phone, internet and TV, so we don't know what the wires were about.

I really felt the need for exercise today. That strikes me as so funny. Only since reaching old ladyhood have I felt the need to exercise. Never in my entire younger life did I care. I drove over to the university area, parked the car and walked about two miles. Mostly the pavement was clean and dry so walking was very comfortable. The 40 degree air felt warm. A good day. Sidewalks near my apartment are still bad and the bus stop is impossible. I think is won't thaw until April. Tomorrow it's supposed to rain, or snow, or something. Next time I'll tell you about the other things I've been doing.

Snow day 13

Posted on February 17, 2010 by ruthek

Still snowing. I admit to being obsessed with the snow, but I do have other things in my life, I think. Yesterday I wasn't so sure. My neighbor, David, is obsessed with Gigapans. You remember those photos you can zoom in on and see amazing detail. Last October, he and some friends went to the top of Pittsburgh's tallest building and shot four Gigapans, 360 degrees, 1000 photos in each. Now he's been trying to get those four huge photos stitched together. I helped him stitch together a quarter size version which you can see here. He insists the full size version will be better; he's nothing if not persistent. So he found someone with a computer with 64 GB of RAM. I didn't know such a thing existed. Unfortunately, it doesn't have Photoshop on it. I started the day with a meeting and lunch with David and friend. I think we have figured out a new procedure that we may, or may not, try later this week.

Back to the snow in my life. After lunch I walked, using my walking stick but still somewhat perilously, over to the Frick art building at Pitt to go to the preColumbian art class I've been auditing. Although the pavement was clear around the building there was no clear entry from the street, only those single file/foot paths where you have to put one foot in front of the other. I don't do those. I went to the library across the street, where I was supposed to meet one of my students. My phone was running out of juice so I had it turned off (it was a really bad day). When I turned it on I found a message from him begging off. Again, navigating the really awful unclean pavement, I made my way to the bus stop where I finally had to climb over one of those snow hills to get on the bus.

After a cup of tea at home I took the car out of the garage, almost didn't make it up the driveway (remember I'm from Chicago; I'm supposed to understand this stuff), and went to Whole Foods and got pears, tomatoes, spinach, a papaya and a lot of other stuff.

This morning I had to go downtown. The bus was half an hour late. I now flag it down standing in the street. There is no way I'm going to stand on the mountain at the bus stop. My neighbor at the corner of Penn and Murtland ought to be ashamed. His pavement won't be clean until May at this rate.

Do you wonder that I've become a little crazy?

Snow day 12

Posted on February 16, 2010 by ruthek

It's still snowing. The driveway was cleared, again, this morning. Now it's covered. I'm almost completely out of fresh fruit and vegetables. Sooner or later I have to go shopping, again. The question is always, Do I get out of the driveway and down my street, which has not been cleared. I'm going to school this morning. Maybe I'll stop on the way home and get something, then get the next bus. This is just nuts.

Snow day 8

Posted on February 13, 2010 by ruthek

More snow on the ground when I woke up. Unceasing snow, with the exception of a few minutes here and there, all day. Thankfully not much accumulation; didn't have to clean the car after four hours parked outside. This has been a lost week. Thursday morning I had to go for a blood test (Coumadin). I got to the lab with only a few minutes anxiety on a bad street, then couldn't park. Went to the Giant Eagle inside parking and walked back to the lab, about a block away. Hazardous walking, for the most part. Spent some money at the store, went home, got stuck pulling into my driveway. Very embarrassing for this former Chicagoan. I have great neighbors; three of them came and shoveled me out.

Friday I trekked out to Squirrel Hill for an appointment I was supposed to have on Wednesday. I was warned about trouble parking. Left the apartment at 11:30 for my 1 pm appointment. Walked on the street to the Penn Ave. bus stop. Snow piled so high couldn't get to the stop. Too much traffic to remain on the street. Another hopeful passenger helped me climb the snowbank. Her bus came, not the one I wanted, leaving me standing two feet above the pavement with no idea of what to do. Had my walking stick, useful for the most part, but only minor help standing on top of this mountain.

Bus came twenty minutes late and I managed to get on. Felt like an acrobat. Got off more than a mile from my destination; started walking, first half mile in the street. Missed the next bus, by minutes, continued walking. Sidewalks in the business section were mostly cleaned off, but not where shops were empty. Still some walking in the street. Arrived about 10 minutes early for my appointment. This would have been a ten minute drive if I had been able to park.

At least two feet of snow in my front yard.

Missed the bus again; started walking back. Waited 20 minutes at the transfer point. Decided to take a different bus and go to a 4 pm appointment at CMU. No point in going home. Arrived an hour early; started walking to the library. Way too difficult; sidewalk almost impassable. Walked to meeting point, got a cup of tea, just sat around. Got a ride home.

Icicles hanging from the roof are really horrible. Everyone worries about their roofs. My phone line is probably at risk. I don't care so long as it doesn't take my internet access with it.

Snow piled on the bushes.

Most of the streets were finally clear today; parking is still awful. It's taken eight days to get to a merely passable state. Mountains of snow are everywhere. I hope the mayor of Pittsburgh knows that one of the mayors of Chicago lost his job because of poor snow removal.

100 Books Before I Die

Ruthe Karlin