Mosaic Mom

There is an error in the mosaics in this shot. Can you see it? It drives me crazy. I was working this area in the afternoon but assumed someone on the evening shift would finish. They didn't see it either, but it really bugs me. 

Another view of our mosaic car. Awesome! 

My old college buddy Chet Peckett is admiring “The Stink Bug” during Art Car Day in Mt. Dora.

Peckett totally hates tobacco and this car is an anti-tobacco campaign on wheels. It is made out of cigarette butts mosaiced to this VW Beetle.

Maybe Peckett is thinking about buying it as a starter car for his daughter.

Maybe Peckett wishes he still had his little Fiat he used to drive in college. Then he could turn the little Fiat into an art car, maybe with a plant theme, and use it for a trade show promotion!

1974 to 2004! Yikes! Has it really been 30 years since we were in college?

Chet Peckett admires "The Stink Bug" art car. 

What a celebration! 

The Lake Sentinel Newspaper put the Mt. Dora Mosaic Art Car story on the front page of today’s issue.

There was a huge photo of Rich Rudden polishing the fish created by Debbie Harbin, Board of Directors of the Art Center.

The caption reported that the car was lodged at Joe Difiore’s studio.

There was a photo detail of the air foil work that I had done but no mention of me, which is just the way I like it…anonymous. The whole point for me was to go have fun and learn things. For once the paper got it right.

Tonight there is a big gala at the Lakeside Inn. Tomorrow there is a parade and the car will be on display.

I feel like a kid on Christmas Eve waiting for Santa to arrive. I can’t wait for tomorrow to go see our work of mosaic art.


Art car web address

This morning's paper showed this area of the car. 

Sam Hornsby taught 7th Grade English at West Side Junior High School in the Spring of 1965.
That school year from 1964 to 1965 was his first year out of college and first year teaching. Fortunately, nobody had told him to dumb down the material. He gave it to us straight.

In the 7th grade he had us students reading Idylls of the King. That was high school or college level stuff. It was hard. I loved it.

At some time in High School, we got to Chaucer. Chaucer was easy compared to Idylls of the King in 7th grade.

Fred Newman was in that class. Fred is some semi-famous TV person now. Sam Hornsby’s 7th grade English class was one of the few places Fred did not make his obnoxious mouth and nose grunt sounds. We were just too busy.
In class discussion one day, Fred successfully defined the concept of “nothingness” and the logic proscribing the use of double negatives, i.e.…”There’s nothing going on.” is correct. “There’s not nothing going on.” is incorrect. Fred’s explanation was favored over mine and I’m envious to this day. Anyway…

Hornsby also required us to memorize 100 lines of poetry that spring. I memorized Vachel Lindsey’s “The Congo”. Reciting that has amused me for almost 40 years now.

I kinda like memorizing poems, too, thanks to Sam Hornsby. It’s pretty cool and pretty rare these days. Because of Sam’s influence, my kid memorized a good chunk of Poe’s “Raven” and it serves her well at parties in college, too.

Eventually Sam gave up on Junior High School and went on for a PhD and ended up teaching English at LaGrange College. I don’t know if I ever had a course under him while I spent a year at La Grange College. I don’t remember.

The real treasure was having taken us 7th grade students to a level we couldn’t even have imagined existed.

I just realized that this is the same thing Joe DiFiore did for me in Mosaic Class…showed me techniques with the medium that I never could have imagined.
And, Wow! That’s the way Jasper Joiner and Frank Pokorny taught plant propagation.
It’s a philosophy of education that says you don’t let students explore on their own. You don’t make them re-invent the wheel every time.

Good teachers have been down the road and will give you a map.

I enjoyed working the sea shells and bling-bling across the air foil. I enjoy mosaics as a sculptural medium more so than as flatwork. 

In the very first organizational meeting for the mosaic car, one of the members of the board estimated that the car could be completed in 100 hours of labor.

As of today we have exceeded 300 hours and the decision was made to forego grouting since we are running out of time. The grouting can be completed before the next event in October.

If body work and engine mechanic time were added in, this project may exceed 500 hours.

That is roughly 3 to 5 hours per square foot of mosaic surface.

At 300 volunteer hours, the alligator along the driver side is finished. 

Today Mosaic Mom and Plant Daddy have been married 25 years!

The best thing that has happened in 25 years is the birth of little Mind Escape.

The worst thing that has happened in 25 years is that we still fight about landscaping. When we went to Pre-Cana, the priest assured us we’d fight over money issues just like everyone else.
Nope, we came within $32.50 of going broke and never squabbled about money.

But try to plant a tree and Oh My Gosh it’s WWIII around here. For example, remember the Okra Battle we had last month? See.

For our celebration we are going to Red Lobster because we really like shrimp.

On our first date like 26 years ago, we went to a restaurant called Jeremiah’s in Mt Dora. It is still there. That actually gave us pause, and we selected Lobster Rouge instead.
On our first date we ate Calzone and fell in love. If we ate calzone now, we’d be fighting over the PeptoBismol after supper.

Plant Daddy and Mosaic Mom were recently asked what would make a nice gift for this occasion. We made a list.
1. Prayer. PD and MM know this is the best gift ever. Pray for us.
2. Food. PD and MM have never met a food they didn’t like.
3. Homemade gifts. These represent that the giver spent some time thinking nice thoughts about us and it gives us a part of them.

We also like that Aunt Karin gets us a Penney’s gift certificate every Christmas thus keeping us supplied with BVD’s for the year, but we didn’t think that ought to be on the anniversary list.

Today is the Feast Day for St. Bartholomew. And this is my 400th Blog.
Quite an occasion indeed.!

A marriage doesn’t live in a vacuum. Thanks to everyone for all your love and support.

I hope you have a great birthday celebration! With Love from Mosaic Mom!

Because of heavy daily rains, the Art Car has been moved into Joe DiFiore's Studio. 

I really like to blog everyday, but Blogger has been burping a lot lately and it ate my posts twice. Then a thunderstorm knocked our phones out yesterday so that killed that.

I'm off today to work on the art car. We got good press in the newspaper this morning. Wonder how much we can finish by showtime on Friday. Photos later, if Blogger lets me. Grrr.

Fourth Grade with Miss Shirey may have been the most wonderful year of my educational life.

All us students auditioned for singing parts in the Christmas pageant. I beat DENISE MANSOUR for the starring role!!! I got picked to sing…

Santa Clause
Down the chimney they say you go.
So I’d very much like to know
How you keep your beard white as snow.
Santa Clause
Though your reindeer are swift and light
Yet it puzzles me how they fly
Without wings through the night.

I was so happy.

In 4th grade, Ricky Cleaveland’s father, who was a dentist, came to teach us how to brush our teeth. We made turkeys out of play-do at Thanksgiving time and a Christmas village out of milk cartons. Donna Daniels won the spelling Bee by correctly spelling “separate”.

But the most important thing ever, the life changing experience was that every Friday, late in the afternoon before dismissal, Miss Shirey read us poetry. I will never forget “Little Orphan Annie” or “The Village Blacksmith”. I just got fascinated with rhyme and meter. I got hooked on poetry.

I have continued a life long love of poetry. My favorite has to be A.E. Housman. I really really like Stephen Crane…(hated his novels, loved his poems). Sandburg,yes; Ginsburg,no.

I spent 6 years at Harwell Avenue Elementary School.
My teachers were:
1st grade…Mrs. Johns
2nd grade…Mrs. Michaels
3rd grade…Mrs. Calloway
4th grade…Miss Shirey
5th grade…Mrs. Kitchens
6th grade…Mrs. Connally

Two of these teachers left a really positive impression on me.

The first was Mrs. Michaels.

When I go to the Y, there is a dry erase board to sign up for 10 minute intervals on the treadmills. I can’t do it. I cannot coordinate the clock and the little squares on the board. Some sort of connection in my brain doesn’t work.
In the second grade, you had to learn to tell time. I absolutely, positively couldn’t do it. I was the very last person in the class to pass “clock reading”. I had failed 3 or 4 times. So Mrs. Michaels took me into the hallway at EXACTLY 10:30AM one morning and at least I had enough skills to correctly read that number.
Then the clock ticked. It was 10:31 and I couldn’t read it. Mrs. Michaels asked me what time it was but when I failed yet again, she just shook her head, sighed and passed me anyway.
I really needed that break. Eventually I absorbed clock reading, but time is still a difficult concept for me.

We also learned how to cut out snowflakes and how to weave pot holders.

But I remember her act of kindness most of all.

My Mom makes the most AWESOME cakes ever!
For our anniversary she just sent/we just received a pound cake with lemon glaze frosting. Totally delicious.
It’s the kind of cake I could eat the whole entire thing in an hour and die happy in a sugar coma. Thank you, Mom. You’re the best!

She also sent me my wedding dress! I love having it especially since she sewed it for me. However, since I’ve been eating cakes for 25 years now, I’ll never fit into that dress again. Maybe Helen…..

And she sent candles for my hurricane supplies. We almost needed them tonight. The thunder storm that rolled through an hour ago was really fierce. Fierce enough to send me and Jake diving for a safe room. The hail was banging steady on the overhead roller door and it was actually raining through the roof vents into the mosaic studio. Florida is intense sometimes.

I was in a hissy mood today.

First at the YMCA, I tried to help a very heavy woman who fell out of her Scooter and couldn’t get up. I hurt my back trying to lift her, then gave up and summoned help. It took 3 of us to re-seat her and was she grateful? No way. She was just as huffy as could be. I understand her pride was wounded, but a thank you would have carried the day.

After my work out, I drove over to the Publix for groceries and came within inches of death when an idiot ran a red light and almost broadsided me. I’m talking an inch and I’d have punched my ticket. It really shook me up.

So did I thank God for sparing me? No, just like Scooter Queen, I got hissy.
I only turned my attitude around when I related the story about almost being killed to Jake and he said,”You didn’t die because even God couldn’t stand being near your attitude today!”

That did it. We had a huge laugh then humbly thanked my Rescuer!

This evening I got a few pieces on A/C, D/C…the Strawberry pot. The red and the white zones are not coming together right. It looked good on paper, but isn’t right in the real world. I’m going to have to introduce another color in that section.

The mosquitoes are horrendous!!! I remember a Miami friend telling me about mosquitoes after Hurricane Andrew. Man, was she right.

Rich Rudden just phoned and my next assigned Art Car work day is Sunday from noon till 3PM. Good Heavenly Days, I hope it does not rain us out again!

Sandy works ocean around a fish. 

Sunday afternoon I worked the sea water around the red fish. 

Rich Rudden phoned at lunchtime and asked me to come for an art car shift! I was totally amazed to hear from him! He lives in the part of Orlando that was scoured by Hurricane Charley.

I changed clothes, gathered up my kit and dashed over to Mt Dora. Wow! Our art car had a new tent and there was a crew hard at work to meet the August 27th finish date.

Rich said there were many, many trees down in his area. He had been clearing branches for days and had managed to free his car. His neighbors were not so lucky. One had a tree on top of his car. Another had a tree come through the roof of the house. There is no electric service. Later on the radio, I heard a report that power might be out up to 10 days. How grim.

Rich said he had gotten to a stop in his clean-up and came to work on the art car as a break. There’s much sand and ocean to be filled in and the alligator on the driver’s side must be completed. They have a work day scheduled for Tuesday. I can never go anywhere on Tuesday until the dumpster tips the can. Maybe the truck will come early. Hope so.

Six volunteers and Rich worked till we got rained out again around 3PM. Hope the Hurricane Earl moves on elsewhere.

Our mosaic art car has a new tent! 

Thanks to everyone for all the prayers. We passed a relatively quiet evening.
We’ve had afternoon thunderstorms that were more challenging than this.
However, 30 miles from here, people got scoured.

The nursery insurance agent called early this morning to see if we had a claim. We have a bunch of tattered plastic but no structural damage on the greenhouses.

Our small generator refused to crank when tested. It will need to be repaired. We had the tractor powered generator ready for a long outage, but for a day or 2 we can make do on the gas one. So we have to address that.

We did well with everything but the supply of candles. I will buy a wad as soon as stores get re-supplied.

Mel and Sharon and the 5 shitzus went back to Apopka early this morning. We assume the park was open but don’t know if they have power.

Over in Deland, Helen’s roommate lost power for a few hours but the real issue now is getting the landlord to fix the roof that leaked before the storm even hit.

Helen’s boyfriend and family in Deltona have some trees down and they are without power still this morning.

Being prudent, I am going to call the tree service on Monday and have the oak tree on the west side of the house taken down.

The local weather forecasters were a hoot. One guy was bracing himself against the “wind” when a carload of local yahoos drove up along side, rolled down the windows and said, “Man, you’d better get inside. Don’t you know a hurricane’s coming?”

One another channel, while the reporter is predicting doom, a fellow could be seen strolling along the sidewalk in flip-flops toting a Winn-Dixie bag full of groceries.

Well, Charlie is about a half an hour from here and we still have power. It is raining steadily since 6PM but nothing too blowy. Glad Helen is here; there was a tornado in Deland an hour or so ago. But here...nothing. We are actually bored.
We are throwing popcorn at the cat. Watching HGTV to avoid the panic talking heads on the networks.It's nice to have Air Conditioning.
Our friends who were forced to evacuate from their manufactured housing park may get to go back home tonight.

It's now a cat 4 and is still 2 hours away from land. It has started to rain here. Off to the south there is very deep constant thunder. Sounds like what we hear from the north when the navy is practicing bombing in the national forest.
Am glad it will miss Crystal River and the nuclear power plant down wind from us. All the weather girls on Channel 2 are preggers. Will they deliver when the pressure drops?
Birds are gone. All very quiet. Cats asleep. I had a nap.
In the thunder storm coming up from Clermont there is a tornado embeded. Tornado warning till 2:30PM

Very dark and thick sky. Presses in, hard to breathe. Not too hot but very humid.
Grey all the way down to your feet. Must fight the urge to go to sleep.

Spending the morning storing water. We expect power to go out or be cut off. Last we heard Tampa will be landfall. Then it will follow the I-4 corridor to Jax.

No wind or rain for us yet. Just a strange change in pressure. Ants are on the move. A mouse moved in to the attic 2 days ago. Hope it has eaten the Dcon.

Jake has lost his cell phone. Thank God it's a pre-paid not an account so no one can call China.

Helen's roommate evacuated Sarasota but may find hersels at ground zero in Deland. Poor girl.

Our cats are nervous.Last load of laundry is spinning. I will catch up when I can.

Charlie is now predicted to hit as a Cat 3. Looks like we're going to take one for the team

Pray specifically that the oak tree on the west side of the house stays up.
Pray that the oak tree in the front yard will not drop our main electrical wire.
Pray to protect us from looters.

I will call Aunt Karin via cell when I can get a cell out. After Andrew the systems were jammed and fairly useless. She will blog any updates I can report.

My chores for Hurricaine preparation

Beg Beg Beg Cobb Tractor to get our tractor over here so we can set up the generators
Move potted Philodandron Xanadu’s into middle ghse
Clear ghse alley of trays, stacks of pots, boards,etc.
Remove hoses and secure
Raise bleach bottles off the floor in laundry room
Move chairs indoors, move cat perch indoors
Clean gutter
Hyperchlorinate the pool
Dig drainage ditch near the well
Dig drainage ditch in patio
Dig drainage ditch by laundry room
Secure hose and loose pots there
Secure the screen door on the head house, remove trash can
Sign for Fed Ex packages
Phone chat with Helen about how to secure her apartment before she comes home
Fetch snail mail
Phone Blue Cross which has denied a claim from 2003…yay, they DID have the paperwork we sent THEN
Call Jake with progress report
Blog
Move mosaic pots away from flood prone area near the door
Eat Lunch
Watch the Weather Channel

We have begun hurricaine preparations. I'll post when I can.

Buckets of water collected in the tent on Sunday and now there are 2 Tropical Storms in the Gulf! Not looking good! 

The tent that shelters our Mosaic Art Car in Mt Dora is the kind you buy at Wal-Mart to shelter backyard cookouts.

It is held up by ½ inch PVC poles. The soil behind the art center is too compacted to drive the poles in, so the poles are propped up inside of concrete blocks. No mortar was poured, just free standing blocks with poles propped up inside block hollows.

There used to be 2 center risers, but now there is only one because of the length of the car. Many of the perimeter poles have broken and are repaired with duct tape.

Little Wal-Mart tent functioned pretty well for a while. All it had to do was give the volunteers shade, and it did that. Since the middle of July we had had a few light rains, but nothing significant. These light rains had caused the ½ inch PVC roof struts to snap, but the duct tape was performing well. Can you guess where this is going?

Sunday afternoon, a storm howled in on top of us. Lightning flashed, rain poured, and wind sent the tree branches flying.

I was one of the frightened, quivering volunteers under Little Wal-Mart tent when the weather came in so fast. Poor Little Wal-Mart tent could not stand up to a job like this.

First it sagged to the level of the car roof. No one could stand up straight, but we were still dry at least. We got sticks and propped the tent roof up off the car roof. Water was now cascading in and washing tiles off the mosaic car. We were trying to get the radio and other electric lines up off the wet ground. Not good!

Pools of water were collecting in pockets of the tent roof. You could hear the PVC start to pop under the strain. Two of the ladies kept trying to smoosh this water off the sides, but it filled in as fast as they could empty it out.

I am very afraid of lightning, so I grabbed my stuff and ran to my car. Last I saw as I drove away, the others were turning Little Wal-Mart tent into a Tarp to at least salvage what they could.

I suspect the Mt Dora Center for the Arts is getting a new tent this morning. Maybe they will find a good used sturdy Army tent!!!

They are going to need it. The weather reports say Tropical Storm Bonnie will strike Florida on Wednesday.

A heavy rain downpour sent volunteers scurrying for cover and almost collapsed our tent. 

After my Dr. Phil weight loss group meeting this morning, I drove over to the Art Car site and dropped off the violet colored glass bits I had cut for Rudden. He said I was just in the nick of time; he had finished the orange part and was ready to move into the violets.

I browsed Goodwill this afternoon looking for ceramic figurines to incorporate into the mosaic sculpture Christmas tree. All I found was one cute bunny statue that I can use for my Bunny mirror.

Hip Hip Hooray! I found a new pair of shoes at Foot Locker. They are Sketchers and they fit like a glove. The only problem is they are grey. I would have liked a pair of red or orange shoes. Oh well, fit is everything.

Plant Daddy did a lot of yard work today. We will have excellent Malvaviscus this winter thanks to his efforts today.

When we got married, the priest at our pre-Canna told us we would most likely argue about money.

In 25 years we have never argued about money. We argue about landscaping.

Today we got into it about where to park a new coral colored Bougainvilla. We had not yet decided as of sunset, so the saga will carry over to tomorrow. To be continued…

After supper, I cleaned my mosaic tools and packed the kit for my Art Car shift tomorrow. I would really like to work one of the tropical fish. I hope Rudden doesn’t stick me on the sand of the front bumper again. To be continued…


Malvaviscus penduliflorus © 2001 Stewart R. Hinsley

Rudden has finished the dolphin on the passenger door. DeFiore is working on the red fish on the rear fender. 

137 volunteer hours 

We now total 137 volunteer hours on the art car...and Joe DiFiore never logs his hours into the book so that number is actually higher. We are about 1/3 way through with tesserae.

I have photos but the internet seems to be running slow today. I can't even get an e-mail out. Grrr.

I had a riotously happy day working yesterday afternoon and spent this morning chipping glass tiles for Rudden.

I'll post more tonight. It must have something to do with this being the first day of school in this county or something. Grrr.

Until last night, I had not visited Lowe’s in about a month. I knew they were remodeling. So last night I got a look at the new tile section.

There was a heap o more floor tiles.

An aisle and a half, both sides were flooring. There was a wide variety, from outdoor patio stuff to marble to an interlocking layment system. I don’t prefer this palate for my work, but if you do, you’re in luck. It’s a smorgasbord of floor tiles.

The next aisle has a wall of adhesives, grouts, a sparkle grout system, floor underlayments, sealers, and cleaners.

About 1/3 of the opposite wall on this aisle is tools. I like that they’ve moved tools inside an aisle. You used to have to stand right next to the restrooms to shop for tools. The rest of that wall is glazed indoor tiles. I’m usually looking for Olean 4x4’s and my selection is dramatically short.

What I really, really liked was that the Durarock and cement boards are on the end cap between these aisles now. I don’t have to hike to the section storing the paneling and the drywall to locate my hardibacker. I don’t have to worry about standing in the driveway and getting run down by forklifts just to fetch my durarock. They have made it a one stop shop. Woo Hoo.

Well, I did something at Lowe’s last night that I’m ashamed of. I confess to you my brothers and sisters, that I spotted a professional tile man on the aisle asking questions of the Lowe’s assistant. So I sidled over and eavesdropped on their conversation.

I can’t believe I was sponging off a professional on the tile aisle. However…they were discussing the use of colorants with the adhesive/grout combination product. There was some good info there. Still, I feel cheap for my lurking about.

This morning’s Orlando Sentinel newspaper held the answer to why there is so much floor tile. An advertisement for a new housing development touts tract homes that are “tiled throughout”. Aha, light bulb moment.

Carpet at $2.00 per sq ft. and up vs. tile at .89 cents a sq ft and up. The tile takes it.

What did the Postman bring today?

1. Congratulations! …you have been picked to receive a FREE Cookbook!

2. Chrysler Dodge Jeep “Program Headquarters”…Registered Document Enclosed

3. Shell Gasoline V-Power …Money Saving Coupons Inside

4. Readers Digest…Access Number xxx92133BCA …1 year, 12 issues

5. Salvation Army…Urgent S.O.S. Appeal….

6. Win up to $4000 in Cash…Huge Tent Sale…Automotive Credit Challenged ?...

7. Wholesale Office Supplies….Get 3% back on business expense…

8. Ornamental Outlook Magazine August issue

9. Ornamental Outlook Magazine August issue…why do we get 2 even after we reported this duplication?

Items 1. through 8. went directly unopened to the garbage.

Item 9. is tonight’s bedtime reading.

Grrrr….The dumpster hasn’t come on time. I am trapped till the can is tipped and the security gate is locked.

Grrrr…The neighbor’s hay crop is in full bloom. My nose is completely plugged.

Grrr…I’m out of grey grout so I can’t finish my Back to Basics pot.

Grrr…It’s hot…and it’s the weather this time, not me.

Grrr…My legs are yippin’ from sitting yoga style on the ground to mosaic the bottom front panel of the Art Car on Sunday; then I overdid it when I cranked the Precor elliptical jog machine up too high at the Y yesterday.

Grrr…The tractor is still in the repair shop after a week.

Well, hmmm, the dumpster just dumped and I just locked the gate. While I was walking out in the field, I found a really neat blue jay feather. I think I’ll wear it in my hair today and let people think I’m nuts. Yeah, that’s the ticket.

Good things that have happened so far today.

1. The strawberry I ate for breakfast was very sweet.

2. I didn’t get a phone call at 3AM to bail Helen out of jail from having celebrated her 21st birthday by getting drunk and dancing nekkid on some tiki bar.

3. I will take a sinus pill and that has acetaminophen in it so my nose and my legs will get pain relief.

4. Jake and I are going to Lowe’s for grout tonight so I’ll spend my day productively indoors doing housework and reading a book by Ivan Bunin. It’s about Russia…at least I can read about a cold climate. Brrrr.


Eye Candy today from Tom Snyder

We love you, Sweetie!!!

HAPPY 21st BIRTHDAY !!!!