I retired another pair of tennis shoes - Bye Shoes! They went in the trash today. I did not even take them with me downtown today to try to give them away during my volunteering shift, I didn't think anybody would want them. They were on their last leg (or last toe).
I feel weirdly sentimental when I throw away shoes. I start thinking about when I got them and what adventures we went on together. I had these for a long time. I keep stuff for a long time in general. Shoes, clothes......stuff. Now I need a new pair of rain boots. Unfortunately it will start raining here in Portand soon, I think tomorrow. The weather has been absolutely GORGEOUS for months. I also ordered a new pair of heels for work, the usual Stardust 7 inch platform clear with rhinestones. They are on their way. Then I thought about it some and decided that I need one more pair but in a different color so I will make the order later. That's it. I am good on shoes after that for a while.
It is Sunday early evening. The sun went down but it is not completely dark yet. It is kind of quiet outside. I am on the couch with my laptop on my lap. The sliding door to the back yard is wide open and it is so nice outside. I will try to get some stuff done before I go to bed.
I hope you had a nice week......I used to get anxiety on Sunday evenings but not anymore. Sunday evening meant school the next day. Get up early and I do not like waking up early. School or work for many - reality. I do not work on Mondays anymore. Not since Riverside Corral closed down, I used to be there Monday nights. I hope all the girls are OK, I thought about them, the owner and the club today. Memories.
Have a good night!
The weather at Burning Man was amazing the first five days I was there......and then it rained and Black Rock City turned muddy. And when it rains on that fine dry lake bed sand things change. I have been going to Burning Man since 2013 and have not experienced a muddy playa until this year. That mud is thick, sticky and stubborn. I had to pry it off my flip flops with a sharp plastic stick. I made shoes from plastic bags and schlepped around in those, until the plastic ripped and I continued barefoot. Forget about biking in that mud. You live, experience and learn I guess.
It rained from Friday erly afternoon until.......Sunday afternoon if I recall it right. Things kind of shut down for a bit. In the Default World (the world outside Black Rock City) rumors swirled around that people at Burning Man were stuck in the mud, starving, started to eat each other, that there was an Ebola outbreak, that FEMA was going to have to intervene......I do not even know all the crazy stories. All I know is that us Burners were fine. We had food and water and everything we needed. Most, if not all of those rumors were just that, stories with no truth to it. I have noticed throughout the years that people who never even been to Burning Man just love bashing Burning Man. Like WTF? Get a life you miserable narrowminded judgemental morons.
Anyhow......I did not do much for two days besides eat and walk around in the mud. The Man burn and the Temple burn were postponed for a few days. I wanted to see more art, do more and go dancing all night long until sunrise but that did not happen.
Right before it rained on Friday afternoon, me and Ann did the magic foam wash, I love that place. The people that make that happen do an incredible job. While we were waiting for our turn to foam the weather turned gray and windy and it started to rain. We found a beautiful place to get shelter from the wind and rain and had some tea. Once again the Playa provided, it is a magical place after all. Then we foamed and when we biked back to camp it started raining harder.
And then there was a double rainbow.......and everybody went WOW!
Hello from muddy Black Rock City.
So I did hear that you could not come in to Black Rock City once it started raining and yes they did deny people entry. I also heard that you could not leave and that was not true. You cannot deny people to leave, there was no martial law in effect and yes some people did decide to leave. And I do have to say that I observed some behaviors I did not like from some people. Random people got angry at the people leaving. Not OK in my book. Maybe people had to leave because they had a flight to catch. A pet to pick up. An emergency. Anything. A guy got stuck right behind our camper trailer and me and Ann helped him get his van unstuck so he could leave. Never once did it occur to me to lecture him about leaving. He in fact had a plane to get on to Germany. He drove a two wheel drive van out of Black Rock City to Gerlach in two and a half hours and managed to get on that flight. Good for him! Yes some people that tried leaving got stuck. And from what I heard people helped each other, the way it should be. But some of the reactions from some indignant Burners towards their fellow Burners for choosing to leave were just not right.
Monday during the day me and Ann helped with taking down Center Camp and got to have dinner in the Burning Man comissary afterwards. That was amazing! What a great experience. I watched the Man burn Monday night. We left Black Rock City Tuesday morning. Drove out slowly and Exodus took 3 1/2 hours. Not bad at all! In fact I think it took me seven hours to get out last year during normal conditions. Had we not had a camper trailer to return we would had stayed until Thursday evening.
Some random Burning Man stuff.
It has been way too long since I did something Halloween related......and I like spooky stuff and I love haunted houses. So me and a couple of friends went to the haunted corn maze out on Sauvie Island this evening. FUN!
I don't do a lot of running but I ran through that corn maze screaming.
Halloween is so much fun! I think it might be my fave holiday.
This year I had fun times at Burning Man with my friend Ann. We drove there together, well technically she drove the truck like 99% of the way. And we stayed together in a camper trailer. This was her first year at Burning Man so this was her Birgin year.
One evening Ann went down a slide and got an injury on her butt cheek. Not so convenient when you bike around all over Black Rock City. So I saw an ambulance and told Ann that we should flag it down so she could make sure that the injured butt cheek got some proper attention. You get free medical treatment at Burning Man, it is included in the ticket price so why not? And she got lucky because the medics were two really cute guys. And the treatment she received was nop notch.
Black Rock City A plus treatment, where can I leave a glowing five star review? If these two medics are back at Burning Man next year I will have to go down a slide too so they can treat my injury as well. Or I can come up with a story about a painful hemorrhoid issue that needs immediate hands on treatment.
Here are eleven (my special number after all) ego pics from Burning Man.
A heart because I ❤ this place in the desert.
I had to go to the bike repair shop three times during Burning Man this year. Turns out it was the rim strip each time which in turn caused three flat tires. Of course I had enough inner tubes for my bike and extra ones to give to the bike shop. I did not even know that there is such a thing as a rim strip so I going to make sure I will come equipped with those next time.
And then it rained......and things got muddy. Trash bags on the feet wrapped with duct tape worked pretty good as footwear.
The Burning Man 2023 art theme was Animalia. To me that means animals but of course it can be interpreted in different ways depending on the individual. I know I missed out on a lot of art (this year again) due to unexpected weather (same as last year). But here are some of the art installations that I saw.
There was a full moon during Burning Man this year so I tried capturing the moon in the pictures......
Let's start with this beautiful horse, the wings and legs moved.
This robot (Mechan 1) looked familiar to me and yes its sibling Mechan 42 Space Explorer was in Portland earlier this year.
I am not sure if it is still here......
And let's end this entry with the dog. If you have been reading my blog for a while you know that I love ALL animals.
Here is a link to all the Burning Man Animalia 2023 art installations and THANK YOU to everybody that worked so hard from creating the art to putting it on the playa and taking it down.
www.burningman.org/event/2023-art-installations
