Quirky thoughts from an old man.
“If you want peace, prepare for war.”
Si Vis Pacem, Para bellum
Publius Flavius Vegetius Renatus
Vegetius was a military writer in the late Roman Empire. The quote is apropos since we are touring Herculaneum today and the world has a few small wars bubbling along.
Continuing the glass art theme, these three warrior goddesses were on sale at the Duncan McClellan Gallery in St Petersburg, FL
The classical view of Tuscany from one of the hilltop villages.
Tomorrow we leave on our first ever ocean cruise on a large cruise ship. I have always opposed cruises because in my uninformed opinion they were too organized and regimented. Too focused on comfort and too large to let opportunities for serendipity appear. I hope I’m wrong.
Historically this old saw was my go to one liner when the subject of cruises came up:
Who Goes on Cruise Ships?
The newly wed
The over fed
And the nearly dead.
Let’s hope we are in category two not three. I expect to enjoy it because I’m a chameleon and we have had expert advice organizing the trip and because I will get to spend three weeks with Nurit away from the rush of daily issues. They have free laundry service.
The glass piece in the photos is made of glass with different refractive indexes so that as you move around it the colors change. Very cool. From the Imagine Museum in St Petersburg FL
“We listen to the unspoken, we gaze upon the unseen.”
Kakuzo Okakura, The Book of Tea
From the Pendergast novels by Preston and Child. The books make wonderful summer reading. They have little redeeming intellectual value but are very engaging. You can read one in a day or two. Think Louis Lamour or Earle Stanley Gardener.
Photo is from our glass trip to St Petersburg FL.
“It is often the case that the louder a person speaks the less they have to say.”
This quote has multiple attributions and so it is not necessary to find the original author.
the flower in the photo is created from glass. I’ll try to add another. It is at the imagine museum in St Petersburg FL.
“Beware the dog that does not bark and the man who does not talk.”
Lakota Folk Wisdom
The photo is of one of the beautiful pieces of glass we saw on our recent trip to Florida. The quote is from one of the Pendergast novels
Last April we were on a Glass Trip to Pittsburgh. During the trip we bought a lampwork glass piece that evoked an early, now extinct, jellyfish. Last week while I was organizing our taxes I found a credit card charge for Radiolaria, Carpocanium Irregulare. It took me a few steps to figure out what it was and that it was a legitimate charge. I hadn’t been ripped off by a Latin speaking internet scammer.
I need to get more regular at reviewing my credit card charges. What is needed is a way to note that a charge has been reviewed. And I need the habit to review charges when they appear and are fresh in what little mind I have left.
The piece was created by Lisa Demagall a glass artist in Pittsburgh.
On our trip to Oregon last month our daughters organized for us to go to a glass blowing studio and have a lesson. I was suspicious. I love glass and thought that it was unlikely that we could create anything that was worthwhile or that we would be allowed to really be involved in the process. I was wrong on both counts. Shown above are three of the four pieces we made. Continue reading “Glass Blowing”
