Franz Kline... 16 days and counting

...a tree in our backyard, Highland, Wisconsin

We came back from the Highland house Sunday night. Whenever we go up there, the first day I’m always overwhelmed by the list of things to do. Towards the end of the day, I start to loosen up and realize it’s just a house, and being so, if it rots into the ground… well, that’s ok. It doesn’t have to be perfect. The floors can bow and beetles can eat the windows and joists and I don’t care whatever it is they eat. If I have to, I’ll just watch the place disintegrate. When we can no longer open the doors, we’ll raze it into a bazillion pieces and build a new one. Until then, we’ll just patch it bit by bit… such is the nature of a house. Somehow, when I accept the impermanence of structure, the supremacy of physics, nothing else seems to matter. And from there, I can just enjoy staring at the ceiling even if there is no hot water.

In the back yard, before we left, I spent some time admiring a tree. There are plenty of trees everywhere, and this tree did not exhibit any unique characteristics (unless you subscribe to the theory that all living things are unique…) Nevertheless, it was not the tree, but the moment and a certain degree of light and wind and drifting… it was lines on canvas… it was Franz Kline black and white… and I was at the MoMA … it was Terry Winters, thick crusty paint and I was in SoHo… it was pigment and linseed and thinner and I was in Paris… it was a painting, and the closer I focused and dissected, the clearer the composition became. It was a tree and I was in my backyard in Highland, Wisconsin. At that moment, the tree was my museum and nothing else mattered.

I got my lab results back today and all seemed normal, with the exception of my GGT, which is high. That has something to do with liver damage and/or obstruction. I’ve asked about it and will see if it’s anything. Per Dr. Baum and UNMC, I started antibiotics last week. Dr. Baum was convinced that I had an infection caused by tumor obstruction and decreased bile flow. After about 24hrs of taking the medicine, my fever went away and the pain started to rapidly decrease daily. Now, the immense pain I had is gone and my WBC is back to normal, from 10-11 down to 4.5… so, something was going on that they did not catch in the ER, but Dr. Baum called it. Whatever it was, I’m just glad I’m feeling better.

I’m slammed with projects and working on multiple international shipments. We also have a few new installs, designs, and of course, my personal work… and how can we forget, taxes! Well, we’ll get an extension and take care of those later. I’ll pay the fine, whatever Uncle Sam… 16 days and counting.