Still Alive after all these [UNpacked] Boxes

So, we are still alive, just barely in this blistering humidity of New York state. A few weeks ago I saw a bulldozer moving an almost intact wooden shipping crate over to the side of the road to be taken off as trash. I mentioned this to Sheila, and we went over to check it out. Seems it was trash that had been sitting around for some time, with a lot of dirt and webs on it. 

Nobody wanted it but we took it to our new home and thought we might use it as a shell and a helping start for a shed, though small. That was weeks ago. We finished the move but the unpacking and organization is taking time, especially on my end. I hate boxes, but they hate ME more and I have the cuts and scars of many years on my shins to prove it!

So we've been working on this shed even before we even finished moving our stuff from the old to new. We had called a small local company to move the piano, a small upright that Sheila's had for decades. Our biggest items were still in the house also: bed frame and mattress, three big and awkward heavy dressers, portable air conditioning unit, a refrigerator we were going to swap between one left at the old and new home, and a few big heavy bulky boxes of miscellaneous items. The local Buffalo moving company did so well, the piano didn't even have to be tuned, but that in itself isn't a problem, since Sheila knows how to tune her piano also!

Is there ANYthang my Sheila does NOT know how to do? Nooooo, I've learned over our many years that Sheila has a vast knowledge, plus the power tools to build every and anything!

So we are up to our last few major steps in this shed. No blueprints. No downloaded online plans. Not even a scribbled plan on a torn sheet of paper. We are working completely out of our minds [really!] and without a script or plan of any sort, with our limits being the sides of the crate we salvaged! Really!

I estimate about a week has been lost in finishing this shed due to the high humidity. We will go out after the sun is much lower in the sky, to avoid the heat. Then the other problem was the rain, which has been extreme in the last weeks! We might work for two days, with three days off due to rains all day!

We had the roof of our little shed lower than the current wooden hand-built shed we inherited with our new home. It's a bigger shed but obviously handmade as ours is, but just more worn....  a lot more worn. We had already nailed down the roof, BUT slowly but surely, raised it to the same height of the older shed. In addition, we left a gap between the old and new sheds of about two feet wide. Within this narrow space will go our trash and recycle bins, plus yard tools with long handles. 

Today we put the finishing touches to our doors for the shed, and placed the two uprights on either side to hold the doors. Sheila nor I have never mounted a door hinge before, so that will be a first. Even the hinges we are using will be second-hand, as these were saved from an older door that was removed! Sheila calculated today that we have spent less than $25 on this 4x4-foot shed as we are constantly using old wood she's had or purchased for other projects, and had wood left over! 

I am just hoping that the coming days will NOT be as immensely humid as it's been for several days along with hours of rain recently, so we can actually spend a whole day to finish it! 

I might even post a picture of it when it's completed!

I still haven't had the time to get my portable folding solar panels mounted on the roof yet! Actually, we have NO idea where it will be mounted, but hopefully within the next week, it will be mounted, and start anew in charging our three 300w solar batteries!

Otherwise, I have also updated my online portfolio gallery, revamped the site menu, added more pictures, along with a few new galleries:

  ~ On the Road:: Travel imagery

  ~ Panoramas

  ~ Faces People and Sports

  ~ Architecture Churches and Bridges

  ~ Western New York - Upper Niagara Areas

Of course YOU are invited to visit/reVisit my portfolio, which was most likely created while I was still living permanently in Spain before I booted meself out due to the high cost of living due to the monetary change from pesetas to the gawd-awful euro....  a lot of people I know have departed the premises.

If you do visit to see my galleries, por favor drop me a line please to advise me you did visit, and if you didn't like the changes!

I thank YOU in advance, and hoping you and yours stay safe and well! 

July Fourth in the states....

....for me will be in a military passenger terminal, waiting for a flight eastward to Spain, back to my apartment to start anew the work in clearing out my mess. Just spent a week-long weekend in California after delivering yet another two suitcases full of my life-belongings, and have many more trips remaining before I am done. Can't wait to return as the a/c I am experiencing throughout my time here has been wrecking hell on my allergies and sinuses, and to finally leave cannot be soon enough! Though I was on the road today, I managed to catch the last half of the Spain world cup match, and am so happy the spaniards are still in the game!!! I could almost hear the millions of spaniards screaming and cheering on their team wearing "red". Though I find it very difficult to follow the matches in the USA, at least I am finding a few places when one can listen to, or even SEE the matches when on the road. I was even lucky enough to find me a well-priced Spain jersey yesterday, which I wore today while the spanish team played.

Enjoy the pictures and remember I also have a lot of pics displayed at my newest website!!

i love lines!!

lines and windmills

it still supports though dead and broken

we will never forget!

I now know the difference between a HARE and a rabbit!!or a jackrabbit!!

Watching geese float down a fast-moving stream

a full moon seen at 35,000ft

i love flowers but bees are even more gorgeous!!

humans aren't the only ones who like the beach

trees are gorgeous even in dim light

The time always comes sooner or later.....

Rota sunsets are always gorgeous

... to make a critical decision, which I have made. My life, or what I perceive as a life, changes continuously, and now with my life in Rota once again, things have come to such a point that I have decided yet another important stage in my life must be made.

I am moving my stuff back to the states, and will eventually resettle in Eugene, Oregon. I love the greenery there, the people are just as friendly as in Rota (though they don't speak spanish), and the sunsets are just as wonderful. It'll once again be only the third location in my life where I will not have a ocean near me but after a curvy two hours' drive, that can be resolved.

As I type this, I am in Charleston SC awaiting a flight to Rota, after having gone through my boxes in SF and taken some things with me, and eventually left more of my Rota things in its place. This will be my life for the next year as I continuously fly back and forth to get my things back in the states. Eventually am hoping to sell my spanish apartment to resettle in Eugene permanently. The ash-cloud of mid-April was a nightmare for me and now I cannot get a refund for the unused portion. I expected that response though hearing it hits home sadly. I feel for those who are still away from their homes due to that event, as they possibly face the same fate.

It's not easy being a nomad, not in any life or country..... moving from one country to another is not easy and takes a lot of pre-planning. I just cannot wait to get back to someplace where I can call home and to continue to practice what is my passion: photography.

There are advantages to living in Spain and it's a gorgeous culture and life, but there's just so many things that I cannot tolerate, and a few of those is the constant smoking in restaurants and bars, and my inability to freely practice my love of photography. This has been an ongoing problem for over a decade, and I am putting an end to it. Does it mean I will never return to Rota/España? No, I can return anytime I so desire and I will....

there are other places with sunsets just as gorgeous

Now I just have to get accustomed to speaking english all the time!!! hahahaaa

last days......

and am planning to pack the laptop and external monitor Sunday so will be silent finally, and be able to do the last work. Earlier this week some East Bay friends crossed the bay by BaRT and invited me to a chilly outdoor lunch. I didn't mind at all... even got to see some noisy parrots one last time before leaving. Last night a few friends of my sister invited me with a close friend to dine at Zarzuela, a great spanish restaurant just a few blocks from where I live with my sister. I had dined there previously as a birthday-dinner over a year ago and really loved it... this time was just as great and in addition was treated with a solo rendition in spanish a birthday tribute to a diner. The restaurant was packed - as usual - and Spain-noisy (which I like) and when the singing began, the hush was complete as it continued for quite a few minutes. It was a special treat, feeling almost as if it were sung for me! In just a few more days I will be in Spain, so this really touched me, plus having these nice send-offs..... I wish the packing went as easy and quick.

I have been preparing for my departure for over a year, and started the serious packing over six months ago, trashing a lot of junk and boxing others. then came the decision to burn all of my images on CDs to external hard drives delayed me quite a bit. Two months ago when I was hit by a - what I like to call the facebook virus - they delayed me by another three weeks as I was busy night and day trying to fix that. Oh yea.... in case you are interested, I was hit then by up to 24 viruses after that facebook virus hit me... for that reason I stay off facebook a lot now.

These last few days have been a blur of packing and trashing. In just the last three days, I estimate I've dumped enough papers, plastics and other recyclable items to fill up the SF blue recycle bin four times over. I won't even mention take your time to describe the five huge garbage bags filled with trash. I've been so stressed packing and worrying - at one stage I couldn't find my passport and thought I had perhaps trashed it, recycled it, or plain boxed it inside one of 15 containers already taped closed!

I had one side of my sister's crowded filthy messy garage for meself and my boxes. That garage is much cleaner than it was when I first arrived over two years ago, and so is her flat too. I've worked my butt off all this time and now will devote some hard manual labor in my apartment very soon! Just hope my key works!! hahahahaa

Today delivered the bulk of my packed and closed boxes to a shipping company near the airport. Imagine myself and a friend who's been giving me a lot of her time to selflessly help me pack, driving on the freeway - she hates that and has never driven on a freeway before - following me with my boxes in her car and mine loaded down with even more, my fuel gauge very low and the low gas light lit. The drive from North Beach to this place is just about 11miles and I made it there in the rush hour with just a half gallon remaining in the tank. Now I can "relax" and try to clean, box the remaining few, and get ready to DEPART!!!!! Monday I'll take a few last boxes and plastic containers, then I'm through. Just to clean up and finish up on some last things... the laptop gets closed and packed Sunday so no more distractions... the next time will be in Rota somewhere probably in a cybercafe or a library!

Hasta pronto... la proxima sera desde Rota, España! ciao - it's been nice, interesting and a lot of work.

those gorgeous clouds and more

I have been packing like crazy..... I am down to those tiny little nonsense things that mean nothing to others, but to you they mean the world, and hold so many memories... of places seen and things done. I have too many of them already, and building even more all the time. I've already missed one deadline.... suitcases all too heavy, folding bike in a box too dam big and too dam heavy.

things seen recently on the streets when I can break away from the nightmare of packing...

moving again - the story of my Life

okay, I know I've been AWoL frome here but you wouldn't believe my life these past few weeks.

It seems I was infected by a virus some months ago but it sat quiet. My sister let me buy a new faster motherboard, CPU and memory.... when that arrived I installed everything, then loaded my old hard drives from the old box into my new faster setup! After testing and revalidating my windows (wot a pain), I finally got it working - and it was fast but still not as fast as my laptop.... something seemed wrong. I ran tests and it was during the testing phase of the new system that I discovered I was infected by the bug Trojan.vundo. It finally reared its ugly head and made my life miserable for three whole weeks before I decided to wipe it and my hard drives clean. I didn't want to do that but now that I look back, it seems logical. I just didn't want to reinstall everything but ended up doing it anyway... I could have saved myself three weeks of hell and misery: sleeping maybe three hours a night, testing, scanning and finding those critters.

Fortunately they affected only system files.....

So, now my system is up and running (again) and the tests are good, being the fast system it's supposed to be, much faster than my older system I picked up while in Oregon and lightspeed faster than my old dinosaur in my apartment in Spain... hopefully within a week I'll be able to box this desktop up and take it on the plane in April when I return and start my waiting game for a cargo plane to Spain.... not looking forward to that at all!!

So, for the last seven months I've been packing up slowly, and now even more than before. My biggest job was to box up my folding bicycle and now that I know how to FOLD it (so simple yet so difficult for dumb non-bike owners like me), that is finally done and out of the way. This will be flying with me on my initial British Airways flight to Spain as excess baggage and I'll be paying for that to go with me. I have never carried so much on a plane before!! I'm already dreading it when I have to take this up into my apartment on the second floor, but at least there I have an elevator!

So, my life continues: I'm living in boxes yet again, and am hoping this will be the very last time till my death. During the day while sis is at her 7am to 5pm job, I pack and clean and during the afternoons/nights, I am on this desktop trying to move everything off onto my ext hard drives (eHDs) so I can access it later through my laptop.

I do not expect to have home net access for many months when I return to Spain. So often a person who has moved gets ISP service to later discover it's not what they want. This is due to not knowing what is available, what is better than others, and just wanting something quick. I hope to resolve that possible situation by NOT contracting net service until I am truly ready and not the reliability and quality of the service I'll be paying for! There's a lot of cybercafes in Rota, plus I hear there's a free wifi spot now downtown!

In the meanwhile I continue to search for my lost boxes from Spain and Oregon (two remain hidden ~ where I have no idea), and separating stuff into three groups: take with me, take in April with me, and shipped to friends' in VA and I won't take to Spain with me until later this winter.
So, if you don't hear from me, you know what I am doing: packing and I've probably packed my brains by accident!

Less than a month togooooo before I fly out!!!

On the weekends I've been gone on small foto trips to destress from all of my hectic schedule and activities..... pray for me I don't pack my eyes too!!!

views from Pinnacle National Monument

I forgot

this is the nightmare awaiting me upon arrival

...a year ago at about 4:39pm, I arrived in San Francisco after a long tiring 9-hr drive from Eugene. I was barely settled in the Northwest when I had to move down here.... with increasing success on the tip of my camera lens, I wasn't too happy leaving Eugene and moving back to my hometown and have to start all over again. I really don't want to be here...

Today, I tolerate a first year here... a year that has seen me work alone, without assistance or help.... cleaning out the stuff of a deceased person, and attempt finding room where there is none for my stuff. My car was parked in the street for months with many boxes within, while blocks away cars' windows were being smashed and being broken into.

I tolerated a lot of stuff and know it will continue even more, as the work is far from finished. I estimate moving alone over 500 lbs of materials, stuff and junk in the first three months down six flights of squeaky wooden stairs. That doesn't include the mid-height piano I moved out of this same room I live in now, and out of the apartment, till months later it was finally moved ~ thankfully by others ~ out of the building. In the garage below, I've moved around probably over 400lbs of junk, gotten rid of another 300lbs, organizing the way it looks, and built some new shelves to hold some of my boxes. In the small room I live in, I started with only about one square foot of open visible floor in a room ~ guessing ~ measuring about 10'x15', and now I have about 20 square feet available of open floor space.

I don't know if I will stay to tolerate another year here.... but I am not happy and my heart is somewhere else. My only desire is to escape from my cell here.... and perhaps never return.

What would you do if you were confronted with this lovely sight?

After a year, it's not the best now but it's a much better and organized view than these above four images display. Perhaps I'll show some pixs at a future date....

When I departed Spain in December 2006, the euro was inching higher in value against the dollar - this being the reason of my departure. Since I have been in the USA the dollar has fallen since and hasn't dropped below $1.30 against the euro. Now for the first time that I know about, it's below $1.30 and still gaining ground against the euro!! Could this be a sign from that big bank in the sky to return?

well, you've done it again!

My next followup appointment with the eye clinic for my new eyes is next week but I have already called to have it rescheduled for tomorrow, so again I drive to San Jose.

While shooting the sunset the other night, aside from staring straight into a brighter-than-BRIGHT sphere with NO haze, fog or clouds as a filter, the usual happened as always, but later that same night and this morning I noticed that my camera viewing eye (left eye) will not focus clearly. Until that sunset the eye was progressing well and I could see sharply but that isn't the case this morning.

As that eye is very important for my photography, I want it checked soon and to determine any damage.... actually it feels like someone punched me in the eye, which I also did by accident the previous day but luckily it hasn't left any bruising.

I know what anyone ~ nobody but a few handful reads this blog anyway ~ would think: that I am already ruining my eyes and these are the new improved ones! But how can anyone stay away from any blinding gorgeous sunset?

Put yourself in my position: not happy at an unexpected event in my family situation which resulted in my moving to SF. To not have any friends in this new place and to be always working at moving out (heavy) stuff of a deceased person, a seemingly never-ending task. To not have any personal income so at least I can do more than I am now, and not available to work for several reasons I won't go into here. To have so much of my personal stuff inside a tiny room - not bigger than a small bathroom with an adjoining closet and walkway, serving as my bedroom, computer room, living room and dining room, and not to forget a storage area for my stuff from Spain and Eugene.... and still with stuff remaining of that deceased person ~ everything in one spot, but with so much stuff there simply isn't room for everything, yet not having the money to send my stuff not needed here to my apt in Spain.

Photography is my only "form" of relaxation or enjoyment. It earns me so little money that I would be sleeping on the streets ~ and that has happened even recently ~ that people ask me why I haven't given up doing something that is worthless to me as a paying profession. There's not much else I do or can do here with my limited funds, all of which goes to pay my spanish mortgage of which the world financial situation is not helping at all right now. I lose so much money it's not funny and is actually quite depressing.

Toleration and Respect...

... and I am the one who tolerates a LOT. My years in Spain has taught me patience, patience and a bit more patience. In my few months in San Francisco, I have put up with a lot to which I seemingly have gained no respect, appreciation or even praise. It seems to be all taken for granted, and someone somewhere is happy it is I doing the work, moving heavy boxes up and down the stairs, and me cleaning through the mountains of dust and not them.

Or does anyone care at all?

One can tolerate so much, and even the most tolerant will see when things appear to be worst and not better, then for the sake of all, it must come to an end. So, during the next few weeks before driving to Eugene again for a friend's wedding, I will start packing my own things for a change, and moving these items to the garage where hopefully these will be safe while I settle somewhere else. Maybe I'll hit the lottery and will be able to ship my things to Spain but right now don't have the funds to get a place of my own, and I've learned decades ago the car is not comfortable - but if I need to, I'll sleep in the car again.

So, again.... I thought of spending the money to have a new business card printed, and sure enough.... it appears I might be moving yet again! While in Eugene, I had a total of five cards made, each card due to a change of information or a move, each one now displaying old outdated information.

So it's back to the norm: once again it seems I have NO idea if I should stay or leave, and if I were to leave, where I would go nor for how long, but at least I can sleep nights knowing I can be respected and appreciated for who I am.

So, I guess the question here is should I turn a deaf ear or should I keep my chin up and forgive. I am not in a situation to move yet again - now three times in the past two years from Spain to Oregon to San Francisco - and allow destiny to have a gentler hand in my future? As the past has proven, things will probably occur again which creates my torturous existence... who knows what the future brings?