Walkin' Home Alone (and Crashing in a Ditch)

Sometimes Kyle and I buy too many records at once, and I forget to listen to them. Last night I was making the awesome blog header picture and discovered that I hadn't listened to my Stan Ridgeway records yet! Bonus! Stan Ridgeway (from Wall of Voodoo), was actually not someone we had on vinyl when I was a kid, it was a CD in the early 90s, called Songs that Made this Country Great, and we LOVED that CD.

I have memories with my dad - once I made him a mix CD called the Epic Song Collection or something like that. These were songs that he and I would sit in the living room in the dark and listen to. Great Gig in the Sky by Pink Floyd, Courage by The Tragically Hip, Wicked Game by Chris Isaak ... I am pretty sure Camouflage by Stan Ridgeway would have been on there.

SO I am listening to The Big Heat record, which has 5 songs from the CD I knew. I am hearing a couple new songs, blanketed between the familiar favourites.

When I was 16, I was riding dirt bike with my dad, and I came up on a cattle guard and was going too fast to navigate my way over the bars straight and manage to turn with the road immediately after. I got safely across the obstacle, but rode straight into the ditch instead of making the corner. When Dad discovered I wasn't behind him, he came and found me, and looked at my wonky wrist and assured me nothing was wrong, lying in that way that dads do to help you feel safe. After a stopover at the cabin to change my pants and put on some makeup (I was going to town!), we headed to the hospital in 100 Mile House. I should mention it is difficult to fasten jeans with one hand, and there was no damn way I was letting my dad help me! Anyway, at the hospital, we waited patiently in an empty emergency foyer after giving our info at the triage desk, and staff walked around and didn't talk to us. We waited about half hour before I started to cry. My dad walked over and opened the door where all the doctors seemed to be, and said "my daughter's in a bit of pain here!" He was a big intimidating looking man, and immediately they realized they forgot about me and took me in right away. A quick x-ray revealed a broken wrist, and it was too complicated to set in 100 Mile House, so they sent us to drive to Kamloops Hospital. Well, it was a great drive, I will always remember it, we listened to Stan Ridgeway (probably over and over) and the two songs that stood out were "Walkin' home alone" which we already loved, but the line "I can't wait to get this cast off" seemed fated. The other was "Lonely Town" with the line "And I think about those mosquitos on my windshield, and how they don't give a damn about Christmastime," which we thought was hilarious. (That is on the other Stan Ridgeway record I got called Mosquitos, which I also listened to tonight because I'm typing too much crap). When we got to Kamloops, the doctors decided to do a closed reduction on my wrist, which involved putting a tourniquet on my upper arm and injecting freezing into my arm and then two doctors yanking the ulna back into place. I was warned that there was a risk that the freezing could go into my brain and kill me, but they preferred to set the bone this way. My dad and I looked at each other, what was I going to say? Anyway, as they were waiting for the freezing to do its thing, I could see my dad looking ill, and he had to leave. He said he couldn't look at my arm because it looked like it had been found on the side of the road. Ewww!

Mosquitos on Spotify

The Big Heat doesn't seem to be available on Spotify

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Today, we need to discuss this tray.

It used to be this tray:

I really like the original, however, the resin turned yellow and it looked horrible. I have no idea why it happened! It is an artist grade high-end resin and it has not happened with other pieces done at that time. I spent a lot of time and effort on it, but I can see that the tray was painted poorly the first time. Anyway, I primed it and started over, and did a second painting, which I didn't like, and scraped out. I am quite happy with the current painting, and I am hoping with resin it will pick up the metallic like the old version did. I masked off the painting and spray painted the outer part on Friday, and when it dried, I flipped it over and painted the bottom. Well. It wasn't dry. the newspaper embedded in the paint and it was a fucking disaster (I've decided I am allowed to swear on my blog when it is important to the story). I had to scrape it and sand it, and paint it again tonight. I can't imagine how much time and resources have been put into this tray. Sigh. Fresh resin tomorrow. I hope it works. It would break my heart for it to be garbage after all this. Hopefully it finds a good home soon so I can't torture it anymore!