For The Love Of Dogs

My Labrador Retriever, Maggie

When I moved to Palm Springs, one of the things I wanted as much as anything else from my old life was my dog Maggie. We really do design our lives whether we want to call it that or not. And one of the things that you quickly discover, on your morning walks, here in Palm Springs and just about every other city in the Coachella Valley, is that there are dogs. Lots of dogs. Usually in multiples everywhere.

In the condo complex where I live you meet everyone pretty quickly as we all seem to walk our dogs at about the same time. Most are friendly but then there are those that aren't.

For me, living alone for the first time in nearly 40 years, a dog sort of grounds you into a daily routine, whether you want one or not. I've discovered its not unlike bringing up a child all over again! However, they also provide great company and are so happy to see you when you return. Feed them, give them walks every few hours and they make the best companion ever.

Palm Springs Dog Park

In the Coachella Valley you discover that dog lovers abound. You see them in stores, on leashes at the street fair, your morning walks. They have many many fundraisers for animal shelters and it is a source of pride to point out at the city dog park that the dog was gotten at the SPCA. The weekend newspaper even features dogs and cats that are available to be adopted ... usually a full page of them.

We started walking to the city dog park when I realized it was about a 20 minute walk away from the condo. Maggie has spent most of her life alone with me and has never been particularly interested in other dogs. Not aggressive to them, she prefers going up to the owners and getting a free pet instead! Each visit however she becomes more dog sociable and that gives the owners a chance to chat and pet whatever dog happens to come up and want petting. Soon you realize most do.

Lizard Patrol

Here at the condo she has discovered the joys of catching lizards to such a degree that I now call our pee breaks "doing the LP " (... lizard patrol.) Bred as retrievers she has no problem looking up at trees, the numerous walls as well as the ground and moves so fast they are in her mouth before I can even react. How can an 9 year-old dog move so fast? I try to get her to drop them and she pretends to do so then later I spot them on the living room floor. She doesn't eat them but trust me, they ARE dead. One of the funniest scenes was when she managed to capture a pretty large one. In the process of stunning it by shaking her head it got out of her mouth and ran towards a rock near me. She looked the other way and missed the escape.

After breakfast - she sleeps you are awake!

Currently we have a small problem. While I used to always wake up quite early, say around 4 - 5 am, she still thinks that is the proper time. I would get up, feed her, make coffee and begin my day. I don't need to get up that early anymore but well, she still does. It starts at the appointed hour, say 4:30 am with half of her on the bed. Her cold nose finds a vulnerable spot, the tongue comes out and then paws. It doesn't do any good to discourage her because, well, I am now awake.

Oddly, once fed, she is content to go back to sleep again and leave you awake. So there I sit, coffee in hand and catch up on the email I have ignored all day the day before.

There is a short LP, then later we have a good 30 or so minute walk that she is insistent on having. Actually, I need it too so after delaying it if I'm involved with something she comes up to you with "the look." First its just "the look." Then she grins and if that doesn't do the trick up come the paws on your

The look!

knees. Usually that will do the trick so I put on walking shoes and off we go.

I'm not really sure here who is training whom. I would say that she has done a pretty good job of getting me to do her bidding. While we haven't had 100º+ weather yet, I would imagine soon that feeding time and our long walks will coincide. This week promises to be the hottest one since I moved here in January and so far she doesn't seem to be affected. I'm concerned about the heat on her paws though.

Already I am beginning to look for walks that have more shade. I've discovered that while palm trees are impressive and quite large here, they are useless for shade. Palm Springs has been tearing up the grassy sidewalks and replacing grass with desert landscaping. That includes trees that do give some shade. Actually this desert landscaping is far more colorful than grass and provides even more interesting places for critters to hide, much to Maggie's delight. Their world must be so different from ours. They say a dog has a 100,000 % greater sense of smell that humans; watching her sniff a spot in the dirt, this must be so.

Riding shotgun.

After the long walk

She is also a great travel companion ... always riding shotgun if she can. Sitting up and looking out the window, like a people, she causes more than her share of stares as she looks down from the truck's high window. After awhile, she will sprawl across the seat and really stretch if I pull up the center armrest. Now that the truck is gone though, she will have to be content with her new front seat. The center console doesn't move anymore. Sometimes she will stretch out in the back but she seems to prefer getting as close as she can, putting her head on the console,  making sure she gets her petting quotient.

Qiang and Maggie

A friend recently visited who, growing up in China during "The Cultural Revolution," never had a pet. I was surprised and he admitted that well, they had rabbits and chickens ... then ate them. He was nervous about being with a dog, his first time. However, she took to him like a long lost friend letting him bathe her (the first time since she came here) and groom her everyday. I must admit she never looked better. He would feed her in the middle of the night and even walk her. They became best buddies. Labs are like that. Being around people seems to be their greatest joy. And yes, it is a joy!

One of the best things about living here is that I don't have to worry about her escaping as before. She is an escape artist. I probably got her because she got out of her previous owners yard. She can easily climb a chain link fence ... a constant source of worry leaving her alone in the yard. Now I have a concrete patio with high walls and a high wooden gate. I can leave the slider open so she can sleep in her kennel, have access to water or roam the condo when I am gone.

A man's best friend!!!

There are many ways we create a lifestyle ... I prefer saying "design" our lives. We can be single, single with pets, married, married with pets or married with children and oftentimes pets. There are dog people, cat people, bird people even fish or bird people, often having several of the above. I never truly realized how much they bring to our lives until alone again. Like an unruly child they can be a pill but what they bring lovingly to you far outweighs any other thing.

Thank you for reading my blog. Please check out earlier blogs as they all, one way or another, talk about the way we and our world designs how we live.

TESLA Model S: I've seen The future and it's already here!

Tesla Model S

Wandering around the El Paseo in Palm Desert with friends, this is the Rodeo Drive of the Coachella Valley, we recently stumbled onto the Tesla Showroom. Tesla, if you don't know, is an all electric vehicle made in the United States but sold all over the world. There is no engine of any sort, it runs on Lithium Ion batteries, and, its NOT cheap! Yet in Norway several years ago they were the best selling car a few months at a time and were thick as fleas in Hong Kong with right hand drive no less.

The showroom car was red which drew me like a moth to flame and in the process of admiring this

The Tesla frame and simple surrounding showroom

amazing vehicle, ogling the frame, sitting in it and realizing how comfortable it really was (often beauty does NOT equate into comfort) started talking to a salesman.

In many ways the Tesla Showroom reminds me of an Apple Store with a stark presence that does not in any way get in the way of admiring this car and the technology behind it. A vehicle chassis clearly shows the underpinning of the Tesla, one wall has frame colors and interior trim options. Another wall shows the available wheels and of course there's the necessary table to get "down to the nitty gritty" with an Apple  27" iMac at hand.

I have written before about the design of electric cars and in that interim nothing has changed. If anything many Hybrids and all electric cars are some of the ugliest vehicles on the planet. Not so with Tesla. Their Model X, a stunning SUV has similar design and restraint and until you are alongside it, doesn't look as big as it is. The new Model 3, a $35,000 variation of the Model S will be offered at around $35,000 and already has 400,000 reservations for its debut in late 2017. If anything it shows that people are ready for this new technology and are eagerly awaiting an excuse to get it. If you've seen the latest Prius, you will clearly understand what I mean about design. Lipstick on a pig.

Somehow I found myself agreeing to a test drive the following Friday even after stating there was no way I could afford a $100,000 car. "Its free," he said. And, well, why not? Little did I know that my truck of 13 years would be stolen the next day.

The Tesla Model S cockpit beckons

Arriving at my appointed time, actually a few minutes late as Siri had trouble locating the showroom, I met my sales consultant, a woman around my age. After a quick tour of the red showroom car, we headed to the parking lot where a variety of cars were located. The Model S comes in several configurations, mostly dealing with battery life, the 70, 70D with a range of around 250 miles, the 90D with a range of 300 miles and a sporty model that will get you from 0 - 60 mph in 2.6 seconds. Only the $2 million Bugatti Veyron will get you on the freeway any faster. A $100,000 for sports car performance sure beats upwards of a million dollars for the likes of Ferrari, Porsche or Maserati, no?

Key fob in hand, nearing the car door handles magically come out when you approach allowing you to enter the car. The air conditioning was already on and the huge touchscreen was lit and ready. There is also a smart phone app that allows you to get the car ready for you before you get to it. It will even open your garage door and meet you in the driveway.

Once in your seat you are presented a range of options on the huge touch screen. Choices include the type of driving you would like ... comfortable (read 1950's Cadillac boat), standard or Sport that I tried on winding hills above the valley and felt just like my old BMW 1600 as we whipped around the curves. Choices include the setting or mirrors, seat, even climate that you set so that it will always be the same way when you enter the car. The gear shift is a short stalk on the right side of the steering where that has R, D, N, P. You move it in the direction indicated and it shows up on the dashboard in front of you. Once you make your selections you are ready to drive the car.

The interior is large and spacious

I had a "Platinum" finish with a full length heavily tinted sunroof. When opened you notice a screen in front of the opening ... I guess to keep those pesky insects away. Already warm, we kept that closed and were very comfy in the cabin. It is roomy without being overwhelming, the seats are firm yet very supportive. Since it can only seat 5, my only complaint is the front center console; there really isn't any. There is a space on the floor but but nothing can be stored there. It seems almost out of place since there is no need for a transmission hump. There are cup holders and thats about it.

You glide over the road in an eerie silence. Road noise is held to a minimum. Accelerating you hear a distant electric hum but otherwise you could be in your living room watching a movie as the world cruises by. The surprise, no I think shock is a better word, is that the car can drive itself. REALLY! As I sat, arms crossed and watched the car's screen show the road and looking out the window we calmly drove up Hwy. 74 as if this was the most natural thing in the world. Google may we working on a self driving car but Tesla is already there. As we climbed the winding road up towards Idyllwild, I asked if the car can drive it by itself. Because the white lines are so close to the edge, I was assured it could but would give you a hair raising ride. I bet.

I took over the "sport" steering and have never driven a vehicle that handled this way. It was both solid and heavy taking 30 mph curves at 50 mph with no lean or hesitation. Even climbing a goose of the pedal had it eagerly adding power, and this was the long distance model. It knows where you are as all controls are clearly shown on the dashboard ... percent of battery left, the temperature outside, your speed and how you are managing your battery. I didn't experience it but I'm told when you reach a certain threshold the car will inform you of the need for a battery charge, will show you where the next available station is and the estimated time to get there.

One feature I really liked was that when you take your foot off the accelerator the vehicle starts to break, really. By the time you get to where you need to stop, a light touch on the brake is all that is needed to completely stop. Milage on the highway is around 300 miles but in the city closer to 350 miles in town as your breaking helps recharge the battery! I wish all cars could do that. It also stops your car if you get too close.

There all kinds of things on the screen to choose from. Music, various controls, syncing your phone. Many of these options can be voice controlled. Getting a call? The car answers for you so you never need to fumble for the phone or take your hands off the wheel.

Not only do you get one trunk, you get two.
Perfect for shopping! Grocery bags can stand up!

The test drive lasted well over an hour and including things like letting the car parallel park itself. It really can and does a damn good job of it too. You just sit back, the rear view mirrors tilt down and it just happens. It can do the same thing in a parking structure too. "It" looks for a parking space and once finding one backs into it. OMG, Tesla where have you been all my life?

The cost of "gas" for all this luxury? The estimate is your electric bill will increase about $20-40 a month depending on your rate. Heavens, at times it cost me $100 to fill the tank of my truck. At home, getting a charge on 240 volts, you get about a mile a minute. The fast charge stations on the road can get the job done in about 15 minutes. You need to stop now and then anyway so I don't find that onerous. They are getting new stations built every day and already you can cross the country without too much bother.

It is recommended you bring the car in for servicing once a year for a tune-up. I was told that one customer had 250,000 miles on his car (that's a lot of charging!!!) and his battery had only lost about 1 ½% charging ability. They are warranted for 8 years though some test cars have gone 12 years with no problems. Currently the cost to replace the batteries is around $4,000 but that cost may come down when Tesla's giant new battery factory in Nevada comes on line.

Environmental concerns will force us to make changes in our lifestyles. The sooner companies realize this and embrace rather than fight new technologies the better life will be for everyone. Obviously GM has listened as they will be offering their 2017 Bolt at the end of 2016 and it too will have a range of about 200 miles beating Tesla's Model 3 to market by at least a year. While is it is not as handsome as any of the Tesla's, it shows what can be done and even more, that if you want a place in the market you had better help with the winds of change or be left in the cold. History if rife with tales of those who didn't heed change. Look at Kodak!

Thank you for reading my blog. Please check out earlier posts! Comments are always welcome.

Reporting A Stolen Vehicle: Why Americans Are So Stressed

2003 GMC Extended Cab Pickup Truck

On Monday, April 18, 2016, I discovered my GMC truck of 13 years was stolen. I am 70 years old. I was once robbed in my late 20's when my over the garage apartment in the back of a long driveway somehow invited a thief to take all my electronics ... TV, stereo system, electric typewriter. Luckily I had my cameras with me. You never forget the stock and feeling of violation.

When I realized my truck was missing, I searched the gated community I live in and realized that it was not in front of my rental condo or in the designated carport parking space. The last time I used it was the day before, not an unusual event as I have spent the past few months getting my life organized again. There would be a burst of shopping and then days of unpacking and organizing. I called the Palm Springs police and a few hours later an officer arrived to take my report.

The irony in all of this was that I had been thinking about getting a new and yes, smaller vehicle, but felt that I didn't have the necessary funds and what I had was good enough. It was paid for.

Tuesday morning, after organizing my thoughts, I felt that I had two basic things to do first:
1. Report the theft to my insurance company
2. Get a rental car

Easy speezy, right? Wrong. Since I live close to the airport, I discovered in my dog walking that there is an Enterprise Rental Office a short 10 or so minutes away from me. Dog in hand, for our morning walk, I went to Enterprise to get a car as I had doctors appointments and a commitment to help out at an art gallery. Imagine my surprise when I was told they didn't have any cars. "Late morning or early afternoon. We will call you," I was told. A car rental place with no cars? Now to be fair, the Coachella Valley was having the Coachella Music Festival that brought in upwards of 100,000 people for two 3-day weekends but this was Tuesday and first wave had gone.

A friend offered to take me to AAA, the insurer of my truck, so I could report this loss. Insurance folder in hand and the case report given to me by the policeman, I arrived just after the office opened. I waited and waited. Every person arriving after me was called but I sat. The lone survivor. Finally, someone came for me and hardly seated reported what had happened and was immediately told that they didn't take reports for stolen property there. He handed me a card with a phone number on it and I was told that I had to call them and report the loss. I was stunned. Why have an office that can apparently SELL the insurance but does not REPORT the loss of your insured items? Noting that they also had programs for special AAA member vehicle pricing I again was given a card with a number and told to get the VIN number and they would get me a price. Why have an office, seriously, if I have to do all the work? I was not a happy camper.

Back home I called the number AAA had given me and a nice lady took my information then informed me another person would handle my claim asking yet again for all the information she just took. She would call me back. This now was the second person I talked to about the claim in less than an hour and was nowhere close to getting that claim filed.

I called Enterprise again and was told that there were no cars and that I would get one the next day. I had an appointment for that afternoon and other than showing up had no way to contact them. I immediately went online to Expedia, clicked on rental cars, put in the PSP, the Palm Springs airport ID and had a car rented in about 10 minutes. I printed out the confirmation and headed over there by foot. Its about a 10-15 minute walk and the weather was nice. On the way I got a call from AAA. She introduced herself and asked me if I had time to make a report. Being halfway to the airport I said I hoped she could hear me between jets taking off and cars passing by. So again, for the third time I gave my report. I was told they wouldn't file my claim for 2-3 weeks to give the police time to find the vehicle (though everyone said it was already in Mexico) and that any coverage for a rental wouldn't start for two days. I had made the car reservation for one week only and wondered about what I should do. Between jets taking off, I got my report filed then was told I would get an email that had the forms I needed to yet again file my report. (It was five pages of closely spaced questions regarding the truck that needed yet another visit to AAA to be signed and logged in I guess. The Palm Spring office gives new meaning to slow. I waited over an hour to get photos taken for my new passport. They were so flustered they gave them to me free.)

Next was Dollar Rent-A-Car at the airport. When I got to the rental reservation area it was jammed. Every company was there, including Enterprise, and each had a long line of renters. Dollar didn't seem to be any worse but an hour later, when all the other lines were gone it was still "old home week" at Dollar. Watching molasses pour from a bottle would be more exciting. Even with reservations the clerks looked at the monitors with what looked like the first time. I know that look. The natives were getting restless but that didn't seem to phase the clerks. Finally, and it was an hour, I got to the desk and was told they didn't have the size car I had signed up for. They would give me an upgrade. Fine. I just needed a car and by then was feeling pretty stressed.

Up since 4 am, unable to sleep, I had started looking into vehicles that I thought I might want. I was tired and by now hungry and just wanted the car and something to eat. Given no choice, I was given the keys to the rental and told where to find it. After walking about the same distance back to my condo I found the car. A red car, a color I like but a Hyundai Elantra that I didn't. First off it wouldn't start. No matter what I did the ignition wouldn't engage. Finally giving up I found an employee and told him the car wouldn't start. He took the keys and tried it and it didn't start for him either. Suddenly he grabbed the steering wheel and giving it a big jerk seemed to free it from a locked position. The car started. Lesson: make sure the car is exactly where you want it before turning the ignition off. He was a lot bigger than me and far stronger.

Today, five days later I have not heard from the police, I have filled out the report to the best of my ability but have to still file the report with AAA. I have looked at and driven a few vehicles. I also made another reservation for a rental for two weeks this time in the hopes that AAA will settle the claim, give me a check for the value of the truck so I can make a purchase and not pay the onerous fees rental car companies charge. To say an Elantra is a mid-size, a step up from compact, is splitting hairs. They must measure these things by the millimeter and charge accordingly. At a bit over $200 a week and years rental would be well over $10,000 almost half the price of one of the cars I saw. well except for the gorgeous Tesla at about $100,000.

Am I stressed? Yes. Today, Saturday April 23, I get a call from my AAA agent around 8:30 with a response from a call made over 12 hours ago. Again, I am reminded that I need to  take this document in to have my signature witnessed and the form filed. Since I need to walk and it is relatively close I walked over, paperwork in hand. They don't open Saturdays until 10, 10-2 in fact.

Our lives are literally not in our hands anymore. We are subject as clients, shoppers and consumers to the whims of those we must deal with. It is for their convenience, not ours. I laughed the other day when I saw the new grocery store in town, the German Aldi, didn't open until 9 am. I hope to be finished by 9 not just starting. I couldn't believe it. Our lives are like the Russian dolls that when you open one, there's another and another. What used to be a simple task of talking to one person is now the agony of many all of whom are trying to put their work on you.

After dealing all week with rental companies, car dealer salesmen and insurance people I am packing up my dog and going on a small trip to the mountains. I need to get that breath of fresh air.

Thank you for reading my blog. Please check out some of my earlier blogs. ALL talk about how are lives are designed for us.

The Dissonance of Colors

Colors and shapes mimic the desert

dissonance |ˈdisənəns|• a tension or clash resulting from the combination of two disharmonious or unsuitableelements: dissonance between campaign rhetoric and personal behavior.• unsuitable or unusual in combination; clashing: Jackson employs both harmonious and dissonant color choices
After decades of trying to get the colors "right" I have finally realized that mother nature rarely follows the rules of man. The other day while walking my dog, I was watching all the landscaping that is going on along Ramon Road in Palm Springs. Grass is slowly disappearing as the rush to plant desert landscaping to save water during the California drought proceeds. It hit me that the landscapers, taking their cue from the desert, were using different rules as well.To be granted, some of these plants are not native to California or even the American desert but all are known to tolerate heat and lack of water ... or less than the amount of water grass needs to survive. I noticed that they were putting in some kind of drip irrigation to help the new plants survive and hopefully thrive. Yet look at these colors ... yellow, magenta, a red bordering on vermillion, as well as a variety of greens, tan dirt. A painter might faithfully record such a scene but to western, northern eyes they appear a bit discordant.

Buddhist Shrine

Not all cultures view colors this way. Visiting Hong Kong recently I was struck over and over again by their use of colors. Red is used everywhere! My case is point is this Buddhist Shrine we happened on. Can you imagine something like this is a Christian Church? Christian Churches tend to be monochromatic unless you have stain glass windows. This seems to be the only allowable way you can add a bit of color. However, not only are the shrines vibrant they also seem to violate Western views of the color wheel. Green and red, splashes of blue and orange, gold and a variety of greens.
I remember in one of my first advertising classes in college. Our director was also our teacher and he gave us a quick review of the color wheel ... what would work and what wouldn't. He was especially disparaging of red and green used together unless it was for Christmas. Always a kind of closet rebel I took that as a challenge. My ad, in those days we had to literally draw the headline typefaces, was for a line of women's clothing. I used red and an avocado green with tints of both of them for contrast. Black ink was a given so we were told to pick two more colors for a two-color ad. When I walked in with my masterpiece, I spent the entire day Sunday creating this, there were stares and a few gasps. I sat down and when he walked in, had us stand up one by one and show the class our creations. Most of the ads were pleasant enough but nothing really stood out until I showed my ad. The red literally popped off the page whereas the green became a foil, much like leaves on a tree filled with flowers, better than black even. He looked at it, then at me, shook his head and muttered, "I knew it. You took this as a challenge." I nodded and got an A.

Hand blown vase

We may not always like what we see when rules are disobeyed.This vase is a case in point. I didn't like its use of color yet it attracted me enough to take a picture of it. It is striking and would surely create comments. I began to wonder as I stared at it are we too used to playing it too safe? Then when an item uses colors in a new and challenging way we dismiss it ... at first? Is this what Van Gogh did? Not only was his brushwork unrefined, he used stark brilliant colors, usually, colors that in many cases vibrant off the canvas. Once seen who can ever forget the moon and stars in "Starry Night?"The clash of similar colors in his "Sunflower" series.
Expressionists and many abstract artists were especially eager to use colors in this new way. After the Germans and especially Kandinsky, Russian born but German living, saw their first Van Gogh, German art turned upside down. They never did like the dreamy landscapes of the French Impressionists. They wanted the brute force of color and shapes. Then they created their own.

Hong Kong Street at night

They would have loved the far east. Doesn't this normal street scene seem like something ripped right out of a Van Gogh painting? Its colorful and its colors vie with each other reaching out to passersby to stop and look! On one hand they are very discordant ... blues and purples and reds, yellow and shocking greens all mixed together in a jumble of color. I was so struck I had to record this with my iPhone that luckily recorded exactly what I saw.
The most popular blog I wrote here had to do with color. We all want to be sure that we use color "correctly." Yet, I ask, what is the correct use of color? Sure, we know that one color doesn't go with another ... or can it? We can look at a color wheel to get an idea of what is and IS NOT acceptable. Again, these rules seem to apply to western eyes only. Anyone that has ever been in the Orient or India knows that their use of color

literally boggles the mind. I say that is a good thing. I think artists should be working with color, colors, finding new ways to express feelings and emotions with color than some of the shocking, bordering on pornographic images they create. In temples I saw in Hong Kong, the detail work on temples had no problem mixing beautiful blues with bluish green separated with white stripes. Looking at the color wheel we see clearly the relationships between primary, secondary and tertiary colors. Yet how many times have you seen adjacent colors used and often to great effect. Some fast food restaurants use orange and red together as it stimulates you to eat more and faster. Muted tones are more conducive to a slower, calmer pace of eating, resting or sleeping depending on the room. Just think of the last hotel room you stayed in. It almost put you to sleep before you were ready to go to bed.
I

Even the lowly cactus is colorful

urge you to look at natural color more carefully around you. See how it is used. Is it boring? Is your art boring? Now I'm not saying to just slap any old paint on the walls of your house, the canvas you're painting or flowers you are planting. However, you need to be aware of how color(s) can be used to spice things up ... remove the boring and make lives more interesting. This cactus sure did!
As a kid growing up in the 50's color was all the rage in cars. Turquoise, vermillion and white, black, pink and white cars, even yellow and white. Cars were a showplace of your good and colorful taste. Then cars became white, silver and black. You could look down a parking lot and realize they just about all looked alike. Red made a comeback as did candy apple red. However, it was the Fiat 500 and Mini Cooper using a variety of 50's pastel colors that seemed to turn the trick. Now we are seeing blues, rusty reds, shocking greens, yellows, gorgeous metallic browns alongside the

1955 Ford Fairlane

white, silver and black cars that still dominate but are slowly being replaced. Will we ever see the return of that era? Who knows but for me it IS nice to see color on the roads again. However, I doubt we will ever see a Ford like the one at right. Can you believe you could buy this gem right off the showroom floor?
Yes, you need to learn more than the basics of color. You might want to read my blog FUN WITH COLOR written in Oct. 12, 2013 for the basics. Maybe its time to review it again. Life can be colorful or dull. It is up to you. However, the choice remains and will remain yours, and yours alone. My suggestion? Get some color in your life.
Thank you for reading my blog. I cover the way design affects our lives and urge you to check out my earlier blogs.

Setting Up A Studio ... At Last!

The studio at the beginning ... once the most dangerous room in the house!

They say that parting is such with sorrow but after 30 years of living in the same place, to me moving is such with sorrow. To see what you have, all of it at one time in one place is well, it's overwhelming!

When I moved to Palm Springs I pretty much segregated the bags and boxes to the rooms they would ultimately go in. As you can see the studio (the smaller, second bedroom) was packed to the gills. Boxes teetered on either side of the narrow path through and you took your life in your own hands when you entered. The washer and dryer was in this bedroom's closet so it was always an adventure. What would fall on you next? Trust me, they did too.

I left this room for last. The master bedroom saw the creation of a new computer work station, the living room saw its boxes slowly disappear as things were put away, new shelves and furniture added so that finally everything had a home. It was a time consuming, tedious task, one that has taken more than two months.

Last but not least I needed to tackle the studio. I was feeling creative and needed to create! Such incentive!!! It was such a mess, there were so many boxes I truly didn't know where to begin. I bought two more freestanding metal shelves, assembled those and then just put things on them all as I emptied box after box. Where did this all come from? This is truly mine? Tubs of unfinished items followed tubs of completed items.  Trips to the small storage room helped create more space ... but I realized that at some point they would have to be dealt with as well. For now, just getting in the room was a priority.

At least you can see the floor!

I toyed with the idea of adding another table, one that could be used for projects that needed to be assembled, put aside for the meantime or to be used for shipping IF I ever opened my Etsy store again. Shopping with a friend at COSTCO we found a folding outdoor table that was the right size and if necessary could be put away. I demurred buying instead helping him load his purchase in the car.

Not having the cabinets or shelves I had before, I jumped at the chance to relieve a friend of a 4-drawer filing cabinet and take a drafting table off his hands. Imagine my surprise and delight when I discovered that the distance between the file cabinet and the wall would take that drafting table top perfectly. Since It had no base I wondered exactly how I could prop it up when I got a flyer from Harbor Freight Tools with a sale on sturdy plastic saw horses. Measuring them in the store I found they were 22" wide and would support the 36" deep top with a minimal overhang, one that would not be unstable! For $20 I had my base.

The studio ready at last. While never pretty, everything has a home!

That done, the worst task of all began. Organizing the mess on the shelves. Magazines, books, paints and an assortment of parts and pieces let alone finished paintings, some framed, many not, needed homes if only to just get them off the floor. Some paintings were taken to the living room to be hung while others, not all, just needed to be put away. It took several days of shifting before I felt that it all made sense with the most used items around me ... back and side with other items clearly visible on the shelves that lined one long wall.

The drafting table sits in front of a window that has sun all day long hence the curtains that contain a great deal of the heat and the easel sits on the side but is easily moved if necessary. Printer, radio and craft books are all within easy reach while canvases and other craft items sit on the tops of shelves out of the way but easily accessible when needed.

Paints, extra brushes, printer and radio are to my left. The
books of inspiration are behind me. The perfect niche!

My paints are all on my left side in either a turntable or on shelves especially designed to hold the paints. Tubs are also on shelves with an assortment of items I add to my birdhouses ... fences, feet, trees and whatever else I've managed to accumulate over the years. Each item I create is usually embellished in some way making it distinctive from the items you buy off the shelf. It goes without saying that each piece I create is either a Rosemaling, Pennsylvania Dutch or whimsical design that I come up with. Finally, after many years, I have the work space I have always dreamed about! It probably isn't perfect but it sure beats what I had for many, many years!

Paintings and crafts now grace the walls and window sills of my new home. And, it really feels like home, my home.

If you have a space as I now have, you might want to rethink it like I did. The stuff was all there but how it was arranged and set up, for me at least, makes all the difference in the world. If nothing else take everything out, measure and then slowly add things back in. The shelving was less that $50 at Target for an easy to assemble 5-shelf metal shelving. The work station was a gift but I have seen them for about $100 at Dick Blick or online at Amazon. Mine has a central tray and four smaller ones on the side. The glass top tips and there are plastic trays on either side to put paints, glue and whatever else you might use regularly. It need not be expensive. Michaels, JoAnn's, A.C. Moore, even Walmart has items you can use. Wait for the sales or coupons to save even more! You can, like me, design a space that suits the way you work.

Thank you for reading my blog. Please check out some of my previous blogs. All of them relate to design in some way and how design affects our lives.

Pedestrians Be Damned!

Living in California, Southern California especially, we and everyone else hears about "our" healthy lifestyle. We promoted the seat belt, smog abatement leading first the nation and then the world into finding ways to make the air we breathe better and ultimately healthy. (This lesson apparently slipped by the Chinese who now have the most unhealthy and possibly the deadliest air on the planet). Then there was the push for walking though many sidewalks in Los Angeles are the worst in the county, bike paths, coastal protection that we are now seeing is still up for sale and the recent sacking of the Chairman of the AQMD (air quality metro district) in Southern California that sets the guidelines of permissible pollution. They just passed a bill in the Assembly that says you have to be 21 to legally smoke a cigarette yet waffles on medical marijuana. It is a conundrum.

Walkers are encouraged to walk until they work!

Do these things work? Well, yes and no. The day my son was born in October 1981 the smog was so bad you couldn't see across the street. Since that day and that event we have never had anything like that happen again. The smog hasn't disappeared but what there is we barely see. To be fair to the Los Angeles basin, the Native Americans called it the "valley of the smokes" because it was so prone to being foggy, dusty and smoggy before "civilization" came to make the situation worse.

The transition from the anything goes mentality has not been easy and every interest group has put up roadblocks to delay or in some cases stop laws aimed at preventing additional pollution. Many cities and counties across the nation have added walking, bike paths and mass transit to encourage this type of exercise. However, when they want or need to work on the sidewalk or shut down the subway as in Washington, D.C., you are left to your own devices.

Having just come from an hours walk with my dog, something I do just about every day because of health reasons and she wants and demands it, I was struck by the fact that no matter where I have gone in Southern California how little thought and care is given to pedestrians. If there is a sidewalk people riding bikes use them and think you are intruding for being there even though there are signs that warn you NOT to ride on the sidewalk and stating a fine if caught. In fact today, in Palm Springs, there are bike paths with that name and arrow painted on them where us walkers are not allowed to be. However, there is one small catch ... there is no where else for a walker to walk!

When you walk a dog you must pick up your dogs droppings. There are signs everywhere with a minimum fine stating this but not a trash can for miles! I see many dogs on my walks ... do the owners just leave their gifts behind? Am I the only fool carrying a little blue or grocery plastic bag around looking for a place to deposit it? You hope to find a bus stop where there is always a trash receptacle but evidently the streets I walked on today do not have that. I never saw one.

Woe be to the poor pedestrian if there's an accident. We waited and waited
to cross. Evidently cars are more important and well, we just crossed!

When I lived in Alhambra and had no vehicle I walked everywhere within a 2 mile radius. Luckily everything that I might need was there but it was not a pleasant walk. You had to plan which side of the street you needed the most things on because signals were so looooong that you could die and be buried before they turned to let you cross. I'm discovering the same thing in Palm Springs. The big gripe is that it signals walk and about three seconds later, often before you are even off the curb, the hand comes up telling you not to cross. The other wrinkle out here is the talking signal. Its says "wait, wait" "wait" until it finally says walk then counts down the seconds you have to cross. Talk about getting a hitch in your get-along ... no dawdling is allowed! The frustration level is so high people J-walk with several fatalities here recently, like last week!

Not only was one corner closed, ALL four corners were. 

This lack of respect? for pedestrians is also shown with street construction people. We passed block after block of torn out corners that had yellow tape around them with signs that said, "Sidewalk Closed." What are you supposed to do? The poor walkers become billy goats as they struggle up and down hills fighting their way through cactus and desert landscaping as they cross the street to continue their walk. To make matters worse both sides of the street are torn up. My dog could have cared less and probably welcomed the adventure of fighting through the landscaping. At 70 I was not so easily won over and have a few scratches to prove it.

The design is this, at least to me, if you want a healthy, happy citizenry, do what it takes to promote healthy citizens. Instead, we get that make do with what you get. City, state, county state and the Federal Government need to speak to us with a unified voice. Either they encourage us and create the ways we can lead a healthier lifestyle or not.

On a visit to Amsterdam we were stunned at the number of bikes ... they even have their own lane! It turned out that the Dutch had gotten lazy like Americans and would drive their cars, despite gasoline prices that would cause riots in the states, down the block to the store. Noting the increased weight of its citizens the mayor of Amsterdam began riding his bike to work. Within months the streets were once again filled with bikes! This was a design that worked. Hopefully many more American urban centers can learn from this and treat pedestrians and bike riders with the respect and good health they deserve.

Thank you for reading my blog! Please check out earlier blogs that talk about life ... lives that are always designed, whether we realize it or not!

Visions of Color In The Desert

Sunrise in Palm Springs, CA

My real first memories of my surroundings growing up were those in Oregon. We lived in Portland but had frequent trips to the coast through green valleys and hills covered with evergreens. It was, in retrospect rather boring. Lots of green and since it rains about 60" or so a year, grey. I can remember the lights being on when I left for school in the winter and them being on around 3 pm when I returned home. Grey, green, rain and gloom! The flashes of color, the roses, the rhododendrons and azaleas and peonies provided a slash of color against the omnipresent greens.

The first time I saw what I guess you would call a desert was on a trip to Grand Coulee Dam in eastern Washington. After miles of the Columbia River with green hills nearly tumbling into the  river, it was a shock reaching the high plain where the dam was located. I mean there wasn't a green thing in sight during the summer. Miles and miles of dusty brown and weird trees and bushes as far as the eye could see. It was a shock. Looking at the dam rising up to nearly impossible heights in this dun colored scene was shocking. Below, an emerald green ribbon of water cut through the desert heading to the parts I knew, not this desperate, deserted scene.

It was hot, cars didn't have A/C like we do today and all my sister and I could think of was get out of there. You have to understand that to western Oregonians any temperature over about 80º was a heat wave! My mother used to make us play in the basement that was always cool!

When I was in college my mother, recently widowed, decided to move to Albuquerque, NM. She got tired of the rain and indeed the previous summer it rained just about every day. I know, I was trying to paint a house and had more down days than painting days.

New Mexico was a revelation not only because of its ancient culture but because of its landscape. For the first time I got to study the hills and valleys. After a morning Sociology Class we would head out to explore. When summer school was out we even explored more. Santa Fe, Taos, Farmington, Las Vegas, Roswell to look for aliens, Los Alamos with it secret labs, Bandelier National Monument, White Sands, Carlsbad with its caves and Las Cruces. It was like discovering the world again. Rather than brown or tan, the world took on colors that played with your eyes. At sunrise or sunset colors became pinks and deep rose, the shadows were purple just like the in Early Sunset magazine covers. The Sandia Mountains behind Albuquerque would turn a vibrant pink with luminous purple shadows almost defying every art technique we had been taught.

The biggest surprise was how the desert turned to color, literally overnight from the summer monsoons. Suddenly the flowers bloomed leaving you stunned. What is this you ask? How can such a drought stricken place have this much color. Yet, dry for months at a time or from an overnight rain, there are colors there; certainly not the ones we have been trained to use or even think of but just as beautiful and amazing as anything else we will ever see.

I can remember my first trip to the hills west of Lancaster, CA to see the wild poppies. Not

only were there poppies, there was a whole collection of wildflowers vying for your attention. It was amazing. When I moved there in November of 1970 there was no preserve and only a few came. Now its a stampede and the joy of those early days are just about wiped out. However, faithfully, rain or shine, they reappear each year delighting audiences that travel from far and wide to see them. I ask you, does that look dull? Have you ever seen anything like it unless you've been there?

Moving to Pallm Springs, CA, literally a desert, I have again become surprised at the color around me. The first morning I was in my rental condo drinking coffee in living room I was startled to see the scene unfolding in front of me. The windows face west and look at Mt. Jacinto, about 10,000 ft. above the desert floor. It is pretty much a dull tan all day, a blue shadow at night. However, this morning when the sun was just right the entire mountain turned pink. I sat there stunned. To be honest, I usually sit and watch the scene unfold with a cup of coffee. It doesn't last long but to see the colors appear puts to rest that the desert is dull and boring.

During a recent storm, yes we DO get rain, a rainbow graced us for at least an hour.

Going outside to walk my dog, drivers pulled over to snap a photo of the sight. As you can see in the photo right, the clouds had already started to cover the mountains and it rained later that afternoon and evening. However, it still provided a wonderful contrast in colors, something that is just never seen when the grass is always green. 

Even the city of Palm Springs is embracing the drought by removing water hungry grass and trees and replacing them with more desert friendly plants. Just because they are desert friendly, it doesn't mean that they are dull and boring. In fact, they are anything but! Walking my dog and watching the process, I am surprised by how pretty and colorful desert tolerant plants

really are.

One of the big surprises to me was how popular and how the bougainvillea thrived in this desert climate. Used to seeing them in tropical Liberia, they seem equally at home here. They are everywhere in vibrant magentas, reds, blends along with a whole host of other desert friendly plants that add color all year round. That is certainly different than what most plants can offer and makes living here so wonderful.

Since I haven't been here a summer yet, we will see how this all fares. Some of the things will not change ... the blue, almost blinding skies, the shadows, the morning sunrises, the occasional clouds that change colors whenever the sun breaks through. colorful flowers and even more amazing colored cactus.

I urge you all to pay closer attention to the colors that surround you. See just what mother nature has done ... what colors has she used, if the effect is harmonious or jolting. I might add that just because its jolting, that doesn't necessarily make it bad. Study how colors blend, what colors are dissonant, what are complementary. Don't be afraid to use these combinations in your own work. If nature can do it, why can't we? Let the exploring begin!!!

Thank you for reading my blog. Please check some of the others. They cover a wide variety of topics but all with an eye on design.