January, 2013

   

Christmas with new Travertine floor

Well, we made it

Drama, drama, drama. We don’t particularly like it but we have been living it for the past couple of months. I have been going on and on about our crushing self-imposed schedule, and for all intents and purposes, it’s over and “we made it”. The absolutely ‘MUST do’s’ got done, as well as a heck of a lot of ’we would really like to get it done” on the endless to do list, done also. I mentioned last month that you can’t very well paint an entire house and lay flooring with a house full of furniture, so we kept virtually everything we owned in storage until the job was done. 

 
This was our front door 3 days before the kids arrived at Christmas when we were replacing the threshold.

Queen bedroom

Twin room

With so much more of our furnishings to replace than I remembered (all new beds, linens, sofas, dining room chairs, pots and pans and many appliances), Janice not only worked like a dog by my side but had to put her decorating hat on also. We allowed ourselves an outing to hear a Christmas Carol concert and took a trip down memory lane. 

Years ago, we were attending a midnight Christmas service. The church was packed and the pastor was delivering his homily. His podium was all decorated for the holidays with a wreath, pine cones and even a few candles. As his enthusiasm grew, the podium shook and a candle began to slip and set the wreath on fire. Everyone could see it---everyone except the pastor that is --- because of his position behind the podium. It was a case of everyone thinking that 1) he will see it and put it out or 2) someone else will surely see it and walk up and put it out but that 3) I WONT be the one to go up there just as he spots it and look like a panicked fool.

Yet the fire grew and still he didn’t notice. I am not suggesting that it was a towering inferno but good grief, the podium was on fire and this thing was growing fast! Finally, I jumped to my feet and walked straight toward him thinking that the eye contact would allow him to see what was going on. He looked flummoxed as I approached closer and closer with that “what on earth are you doing” look. I knew that he kept a glass of water on the shelf on his side of the podium so I reached around and in one shot, doused the now visible smoke and flames. I turned, returned to my seat and not a word was said about it. After all, you don’t interrupt a pastor preaching fire and brimstone.

By Christmas, the kids arrived to the now upgraded home of their childhood memories, including some of their mementos we had been saving for decades until they became adults themselves. To cut to the chase here, they arrived for Christmas on December 24^th and most of our furniture got moved into the house in the preceding 48 hours. Our dining room table was brought in a mere 2 hours before they arrived, having allowed for the second coat of sealer to dry. For the past 3 months, we had been using our laptop desk to dine.

Sunken living room

This had been the first time so many of us had been together at the same time in over a decade so it was a wonderful holiday. We sure missed Amy and her family but it was not to be this time. The kids did some things together (like decorating our 12 foot Christmas tree [4M]) and got caught up with old friends in the area, so they had a blast. It was also an introduction to Nanna and papa’s California house for granddaughter Kayla, so that was big. 

Nanna playing with Kayla in the pool

Of course, no sooner had the last kid left that we emptied the 2nd floor of its furniture, smashed an area that still had tile as we were having it all re-carpeted. Once done, I checked myself into the hospital the next morning for my knee surgery.

Once again, I was facing a barrage of IV’s, shots and blood tests, a real drag for someone with a rather serious needle phobia. We came to an absolute wall though when they casually mentioned that of course they would be inserting a catheter. I just as casually told them that of course they would have to kill me first. Not to bore you with the details, we settled with a documented agreement that no one would “touch my junk!”  As a new bionic man, with parts guaranteed for 40 years, I should only need to do this once or twice more. 

I did have one serious complaint though. They gave me a booklet of exercise instructions for me to take home to help with the rehabilitation. In the booklet there are drawings of a man showing just how each exercise should be done. Fair enough, but they clearly gave me the wrong booklet as all of the pictures in the booklet showed a fat, old, balding guy. The nursing staff was completely unsympathetic. Humph!

I had planned to really cool it for a week, and then start doing some very light odds and ends but my doctor had other plans. Aside from my PT exercises (pain and torture) I was ordered to sit on the sofa and lift no more than a remote control until we board our plane for Paris at the end of the month. This, just when I was planning to add cooking, laundry, dishes and dusting to my share of the domestic chores. Bummer. 

While I was only in the hospital overnight, I was told that I needed to get back on my feet and into the swing of things immediately. Still, I seemed a bit much to wake up from anesthesia to find some trapeze and stirrup looking thing suspended over me. Fortunately, no whips, chains or fur lined handcuffs were to be found nearby. I looked.

Artsy fartsy

I think that few things open a window on people’s personality, character and soul more than the art they chose to surround themselves with. For Janice and I, it is an eclectic collection that just seems to fit here and it was a real treat to unwrap the pieces we had so carefully stored away after being out of this home for the past 8 years. I have included photos of our baker’s dozen.. in no particular order but among our favorites not only because we just love them but because some come with a great little story. Like our Peruvian blowgun for instance…

Peruvian Blowgun

I acquired this 7 foot long (2M 30cm) little jewel of a piece while navigating the Amazon River in a dugout in the Peruvian jungle I visited before I was happy. (The period Janice has defined as prior to having married her) The trade included the piranha jaw necklace used to sharpen the darts as well as the coconut shell to store the cotton that centers the dart in the tube. I questioned just how lethal the darts could be until I later loaded one and let it fly across the room into the wall. Expecting it to bounce off, it embedded itself well into the plaster, making a believer out of me. The cost of our trade? One plain white T-shirt, right off my back. 

Fearing it being damaged while returning home with it, I claimed it was a religious Scepter and that I should be allowed to bring it on board (Pre 9-11) The airline staff were on to me and refused but still got it to my destination in one piece.

"Hymn to Hathor"

The “Hymn to Hathor” was cast from a mold that was made on site in the Egyptian tomb of Queen Noferati from a temple relief. The casting material is the rubbery product used to make dental molds and is of sufficient quality to capture detail as fine as a human hair. With the mold, the artist hand painted the hydrostone replica with a limited edition of 105 pieces.

Ganges Missionary pot

Another favorite is our “Missionary pot”. Actually a 17^th century hand beaten Ganges river copper urn (you can see thousands of little hammer blow impressions on it). It was affectionately renamed our missionary pot because it was clearly large enough to cook one in it. Our friend Joe (who happens to be our pastor) was taken aback when he helped us move it and heard us name it. Later, when he had a real missionary visiting him, he offered to bring him over if we would empty the pot of its plantings.

Urhli bowl

Close up

The Urhli bowl is a stunning, 3 foot wide (1M), cast heavy solid Bronze bowl from India.  Typically, it served as a ceremonial center feeding vessel for a large group, allowing those around it to reach in and scoop a portion of its contents onto their plate.

Leather art

Leather art. One of two art pieces we made ourselves, this one would qualify as oversized refrigerator art. At 12 feet [4M] across, it consists of 5000 pieces of hand cut leather scraps that we got from the only remaining working tannery in California. Janice did all the cutting and the design while I climbed the scaffolding and fastened them individually according to the directions of the “ar-tist” 20 feet below [7M]. 

We actually had enough left over to do a partial wall in our bedroom at the island. When we returned here to the dome in October, we realized that the piece needed serious cleaning but was not ‘removable’.  Also realizing that everything around it would be repainted and the carpeting below it would be replaced with Travertine, I made my life easier by bringing a power washer in the house and blasted it with it. It took almost a week to dry. 

"Harp" Muse for the eyes

“Harp” muse for the eyes… was a piece we picked up from a Santa Barbara sculptor who was moving to Costa Rica. At 10’X 3’X2’ [3M 30cm X 1M X 60cm], it was like much of the art we need and have in this home…

voluminous!

Close up

Assembled primarily from salvaged French Oak wine barrel staves, it has neither glue nor hardware. Rather, it relies on an ancient Japanese structural method of hardwood pegs and counter pegs of Oak, Bubinga, Purpleheart and Ironwood.

Japanese Kimono

Japanese Kimono. We found this in Los Angeles and is an authentic wedding Kimono, complete with tea stains on the lapel. The Sashiko invisible gold and silver stitching embroidery technique  is no longer used due to the excessive eye strain for the artist.

12 foot wind chime

The wind chime.  At 12 feet in length, it was one of only 3 made by the artist. We purchased this one in San Francisco; the other two are in collections in Seattle and Hong Kong. The 4 notes are said to be exact enough to tune an instrument by.

The Metamorphosis. This full size stage prop was designed by Houdini and this particular one was built by our friend Barry Lebel who worked with us for many years in our show. He was the chief technician, general problem solver and often…the brains behind the operation. This particular illusion allowed me to be handcuffed, tied inside a large fabric mailbag then locked inside this box.  A female performer would climb onto the box and hold a silk in front of her. She would toss it in the air, allowing it to fall to the floor, revealing me standing in her place. We once performed this switch in a 1/3 of a second. You can see this illusion being performed here in the last part of the video:              http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z14hkryBJt0
 

The prop being at the foot of our bed testifies that it can be examined by anyone and that real magic does happen. The bricks on the stand on the top of the prop are a foundation fragment from the Houdini Estate in Hollywood that I recovered after it burned to the ground.

Petrified wood

Then there is the Araucacioxylon…(aka petrified wood). One of the larger pieces that can be legally obtained outside the Petrified Wood National Park in Arizona, it measures 2 feet in diameter and 6” thick (60cm X 15cm). Rough cut when we got it, we could see that polished it would be a splendid specimen to be used as a coffee table next to our outdoor hot tub. We searched high and low to find a lapidary artist with a polishing table of sufficient diameter to handle our piece. The stone is placed on the table upside down with special oils and finer and finer grit and is shaken across the surface in an oscillating pattern.  It took a full 10 days, 24 hours a day to polish our piece.

The outdoors is a wonderful place to display appropriate art also and we have jumped at every opportunity. Years ago we found a 6 ton (5,500 Kilos) Redwood root. Redwood trees as you know are enormous and their roots are no slouches either. This one was a splendid architectural piece that we knew would be a focal piece. This required preparing an area in advance that could support something of that size and weight and get it right the first time as moving it would be prohibitive. 

 

I got a couple of buddies (one with a commercial large flatbed truck) drive the 454 miles (900 Km) up to Northern California with me where a crane was waiting for us to load the beast on the spot. We then headed South, across the Golden Gate Bridge and back 8 more hours to the house where a second crane was waiting for us to unload it and drop it in its prepared position. We put it right next to a 3,000 gallon Oak wine cask that we will convert into a sauna. But that is another story.

Piece of cake! 

Of course there is the Goddess Durga (volcanic stone carving), the Redwood carving of two seals, “Twilight Crystal” (painting)… enough!