A few days before this entry I called Chad at school (Vassar College) and asked him if he could come over and assess the technical situation with the surveillance cameras for Catherine's (Murphy) drawing. So he came over and went through the manual for the cameras and it's recording device, looked at the extender we installed. He came to the conclusion that we would need more equipment, that he would order and install.]]> Maria cleaned. A whole lot of food spilled onto the kitchen range so that was worse than usual.]]> Elliot came over to discuss with Catherine (Murphy) her stacked book (painting) he is doing an article on that painting for Tether Magazine. We all had lunch together. We had an Antipasti, Eggplant soup and cookies from Adams.]]> Andrew came by so i could pay his bill for plowing the driveway.]]> Simon also came to work on Friday, February 2nd, but i forgot to take his photograph. He went to Home depot and bought Astro Turf in order for Catherine (Murphy) to start sketches for a new painting. The model for this painting is coming on Thursday. We set up the table for a Dinner on Saturday. He also took photographs for a new sighting of one of the surveillance cameras outside. Today Simon came a over a little later this morning and helped us finish cleaning up from dinner last night (see last entry). Then we had lunch and brought the large table back to the garage, and brought back in the regular dining room table. Simon moved the surveillance camera to the new place and now we are working on the site.]]> This was our first dinner party since Cathy's knee infection, which means the last one we had was about three years ago. We served for an hors d'oeuvre's homemade gravlax with herb butter, capers, lemon, black bread, and gluten free bread for Elena. The first course was brussels sprouts and frisee salad (warm brussel sprouts cooked in butter, put on top of frisee and endive), Ossobuco over palenta (shown in photograph) with a gramelade (parsley,horse radish, orange zest, garlic), for desert we had Caramel oranges (from the new Christopher Kimball Milk Street Cookbook). None of the other couples had met each other before Sunday.]]> A couple of weeks ago I received an email from Stacy introducing herself and asking if there were any modeling jobs at Vassar. She has modeled in the past. In between she is a ship's captain. She emailed me because of my connection of Vassar, but I called her up to see if she would be interested in modeling for Cathy (Murphy). We had arranged for her to come over to our house to meet Cathy and talk about the possibilities on the 27th of January (see post Stacy Torres in Visitors). As arranged Stacy came over two days later with her sister Elisa to continue the discussion about modeling for Cathy. Elisa seemed enthusiastic about the job, so we arranged for her to come back on Thursday the 8th of February, to start modeling for drawings for a new painting.]]> That Evening I planned to go to a screening of three short films presented of Anton Vidokle's, "Citizens of the Cosmos". Molly Nesbit had invited Vidokle as a Claflin speaker to give a lecture the following night. Because of the screening Cathy (Murphy) and i were going to eat our dinner very early, so i asked Simon to come at 9:30 instead of 10am. There was a traffic accident around the corner so Simon got delayed until 9:45. Because Cathy had an appointment with Stacy and Elisa (see next entry) Simon went out to get us all lunch at Popeyes. Simon and I spent most of the afternoon working on the website.]]> A couple of weeks ago I received an email from Stacy introducing herself and asking if there were any modeling jobs at Vassar. She had modeled in the past. In between she is a ship's captain. She emailed me because of my connection of Vassar, but I called her up to see if she would be interested in modeling for Cathy (Murphy). We had arranged for her to come over to our house to meet Cathy and talk about the possibilities on the 27th of January (see post Stacy Torres in Visitors). She called and left us a message that the bus she was taking to our house never came so she suggested rescheduling for another day. I called her back and said I could come and pick her up, which I did. On our way back here Stacy mentioned that she was only going to be in Poughkeepsie until early March at which time she would be getting her new commission to captain a ship. This meant that the modeling wouldn't work out because Cathy would be working on the painting for months after that. While talking Stacy said her sister might be interested in the modeling job, so we made a date for Stacy to come back with her sister Elisa in a couple of days (see post of Stacy and Elisa Torres). Stacy and Elisa both grew up in Poughkeepsie, but Stacy is away most of the time captaining ships.]]> Maria cleaned the house.]]> Simon brought down a big roll of paper from Catherine's (Murphy) studio, in preparation for her drawing of the surveillance monitor. He also worked with her on the monitor itself. In the afternoon Simon and I worked on the China 1987, Not A Film, for my chronicle website.]]> Simon came to work. The idea was to have Simon and Tim Liefer here at the same time (see last entry), so we could continue hanging the sculptures back up in the summer studio. Simon did some shoveling, did the trash, brought the barrel down to the curb, nWe all (Tim, Simon, Catherine and me),had a special lunch. When Catherine(Murphy) and I were in the city yesterday we stopped at Hill Country and bought BBQ chicken,ribs and brisket. We had that for lunch today along with potato salad and cole slaw from Adams Fairacre Farm. In the afternoon Tim, Simon and I reinstalled sculpture. Tim also gathered up all of the trach that was left over outside the summer studio from the exterminator's visit and took it home to his dumpster. After Tim left, Simon and I continued in there studio for a while and then left for school to cut a piece of wood to mount paper on for Catherine's new drawing. When we got home Catherine realized it was too small so we'll have to get some new wood to make a larger mount. We had about an hour left so Simon and I worked on my web site,nSimon left 25 minutes ago and I am still working on the site.]]> Tim finished painting the wall that was damaged in the apartment.]]> Tim came over to do a couple of things. He primed the wall in Alec Levinson's apartment(the Apartment). We had a BBQ lunch (see next entry - Simone Totsky). Before lunch he packed the trash that was still in back of my summer studio to bring home to his dumpster. After lunch he worked with Simone and me reinstalling some of the sculptures the SS that were not done as yet after the exterminators came to treat the studio for powder post beatles and carpenter ants.]]> Aaron delivered salt for our water softener from Culligan. He has been coming to our house for at least 8 years or so.]]> Maria came to clean the house.]]> Simon worked on Catherine's (Murphy) surveillance images and in the afternoon we worked on this website.]]> Simon came to work.]]> Simon came to work.]]> Delivered package]]> Ben came to work. He did a few rudimentary chores first, including making coffee. We spent most of the day working on China 1987. He also brought some things up to Catherine's studio.]]> First Kallie did his regular chores. In the morning he unloaded sand from the trunk of our car. Straightened up in my studio. We had lunch. When Patty arrived Kallie did some errands. When he got back Patty was still here so he laid low for a bit. After Patty left Kallie worked in the studio for a while and then he and I did some computer stuff.]]> Pattie Fagen is the curator who is handling a show of my drawings at the Lehman Loeb Art Center at Vassar College. She came over to look through the work so we could start working out what would be in the exhibition. The exhibition will be from about the middle of June into a week or two of September 2020. After the studio visit we, Pattie, Catherine (Murphy) and O had cookies and tea in the house.]]> Sharon who Catherine (Murphy) first met when they were both at Skowhegan. (At that time an art summer school for students between their junior and senior years in 1966.) We saw her once since then but still many many years ago. Sharon has emailed for the last three years to see if we could get together around this time of year. She lives in California but comes to this area at Christmas time to visit her daughter. We were supposed to go to Montreal for Christmas but Billy wasn't feeling well so we were home and able to visit with Sharon. We had enough snacks for everyone's dinner. It was nice to see her after all this time. And also to meet her daughter and her daughter's partner.]]> Judy came here on Tuesday and the three of us, Catherine(Murphy), Judy and me drove up together to Williamstown to have Christmas at Billie Finn and Arthur Salvadore's house. (see William Finn and Arthur Salvadore December 24, & 25 in Groups). Today the three of us drove back to Poughkeepsie.]]> Kallie brought the newer car to Al's because the low oil light was going on. He waited while they did an oil change. We then had lunch. After which, he did some chores and then went to Adam's Fairacre Farms to buy some things. We tried to deal with too much data on the computer. After which we went over to the heated studio and tried to make sense out of some of the photographs, partly to see if we could find the missing China photos. I couldn't take that for too much longer because the disorganization made me want to hit my head against the wall. So that's why now we are doing input on the computer.]]> Aaron started delivering salt here more than a decade ago. A few years ago other people came and when I asked where Aaron was. I was told he wasn't well so stopped delivering and worked in the office. So, it was a surprise to see him at the door. He said he was feeling good and he looked fine.]]> Simon came to work. He did some of his chores and then Simon and me and Catherine (Murphy) went up to Catherine's studio to fix the seat on one of her chairs. Then we went over to the dutch barn and organized the summer outdoor furniture. We had an early lunch before starting to work on the site. When Kallie got here at 1:00pm the three of us worked, are working, on the site so that Kallie could get a beginning idea of how it worked. First we're going back over to the dutch barn so Simon and Kallie could vacuum and straighten up the studio. When that is done Kallie and Simon are going to remove the air conditioner to the bedroom, put down some storm windows, and that should be all we have time for.]]> This is Kallie's 2nd time coming to the house, and the last visit was for us to meet him. As of right now the photograph from the last visit may be lost. Today, as we are writing this Kallie, is going to help with some things, but more importantly, he is going to start learning how to do various things on the computer including how to make entries onto the site. Simon (Tosky) is going to be leaving for a different job and suggested Kallie take his place.]]> Colin did the excavation of the trench for the waterline. He was recommended by John Slizewski (see last two entries).]]> Tracy met John here to assist with the waterline (see last entry).]]> John had discovered the problem with our water. Today (not actually) he came over with Tracy Petty to meet up with the excavation man, Colin Travis to dig the trench and put in the water line between the house and the well. The excavating was tricky because of trees and garden. Colin is very good with the excavation machine, so it looks like we won't have any lasting damage. (see next two entries).]]> Mike of Mike's Tree Service came to give us an estimate for taking down a large sickly Maple tree and to look at the cable on the tree against the dutch barn.]]> Rena emailed to tell us they were heading south from their house upstate and would it be possible to stop by and say hi. We hadn't seen them for a while and were very glad to have them come for a visit.]]> Rena (Fogal) emailed to tell us they were heading south from their house upstate and would it be possible to stop by and say hi. We hadn't seen them for a while and were very glad to have them come for a visit.]]> I had to be at school by 9:30 am this morning, so Simon very nicely agreed to come to work at 8:30 am. I wanted to have some time before I left for school to show him some ins and outs for a model he was going to make. After I left for school Simon did various things, but I wasn't home, so I did not witness them. I got home from school at about 3:35 PM. Simon and I went to the Dutch Barn to continue setting up my sculpture models. We had gotten a new table last week. Simon showed me the new digging he did for the water line from the well to the house, which was fine. While I went over some things for school, Simon worked in the basement. Now we are sitting on the porch and typing what you are reading.]]> John came to check on the water line between the well and the house. He brought Tracy with him, of which I was quite pleased because I was able to draw for some of the time they were working. John did the snaking of the water line routine to see if he could hear where he thought it might be clogged. Now that Simon had done quite a bit of digging he was hoping to hear it more clearly, which he did. John now dug for a while to follow the sound so he could unearth the waterline, which he did. He detached the coupling and snaked up the line going in the direction of the well. All kinds of crap came out of the line with the water. The diagnosis was the original line is compromised beyond repair. So that we could have water, he attached a hose above ground from the well to the house and had asked me to ask Simon to better uncover where that connection was visible, so he could better get at it. As soon as the hose was attached our water pressure increased 100 fold. He now needs to contact an excavator and arrange for a ditch to be dug for a new line. This is all very unnerving because of tree roots and the garden. His schedule is very tight, but he will have to get the line put in before we get freezing temperatures.]]> Simon got here early (9:00 am, his usual time is 10:00 am.) It was supposed to be sunny and the earlier time enables Simon to set up Catherine's (Murphy) painting when I am at school. It turned out not to be reliably sunny, so the painting wasn't set up. Simon had to come to school to pick up a bag of tomatoes that I accidentally brought with me. Then he went to the supermarket to get various things and to pick up Singapore noodles for Catherine for dinner tomorrow when I am at a critique. He also got lunch for himself at the Chinese restaurant. After moving a new table to the Dutch Barn he resumed digging a hole near the house to try and find the water pipe. Our water pressure is terrible and John from Sterling Pump thinks he found a blockage. When Simon locates the line we are going to look for the place where the plastic hose is connected to a metal line. Now we are typing this caption and we'll try to get to some more entries.]]> Simon helped Catherine Murphy set up for her paintings and also continued to clean and organize the basement.]]> We had Simon come at 9 am instead of 10 am (his usual time), so he could help Cathy set up for her morning painting (Pails). When he got here he did his regular morning routine, after which he helped Cathy set up. When he was done with that we did my self portrait and this photograph and now we are working on this site. From time to time Cathy (Murphy) will call Simon to help move her painting, when Simon isn't here I help Cathy setting up. After lunch Simon will help Cathy set up for her afternoon painting (Camo). We will work some more on the site (I assume). I have a doctors appointment this afternoon.]]>