My pottery instructor was sick one day and was upset because she felt that we had not gotten to make as much as we might have made.  She decided to send us home with some clay, to make things, and bring them back for glazing.  I'm trying to make a dish for our cat, with some success.  The bowl she has now has a chip in it and I've been wanting to replace it, and now I can.  I'm finding that it's harder than I thought to work with clay at home, messy and I don't have a roller to roll out the clay nice and evenly, but it's also nice because I have more time to fuss with things, like a crack, or something I don't quite like.  I am enjoying it though and I'm making time for it which is important for me.  There is always housework to do, but I'm ignoring it and working on my pottery.  It's not like the housework is going to go anywhere.  It'll still be there when I'm done.

However, the dogs still need walking.  I had my first photography course on Wednesday evening, not Tuesday evening as I had said.  It was good.  I did have some envy because easily half of the ten particpants were travelling and wanted to brush up on their skills before going on a safari, or to Scotland, one woman had just gotten back from Antarctica.  Sigh.  The course was very good and I still have three more classes before it's over.

I took my camera with me when I went walking at the park yesterday, to practice with ISO mostly.  I'm pretty good with apertures.  I need to work on shutter speeds as well.  Baby steps.

I received this photo of Katie from one of her caregivers this morning.  They're at the zoo and Katie is obviously enjoying herself.  The sun is shining on her and she looks relaxed.

I talked to my middle daughter this morning for awhile.  She just got back from Palm Springs where she visited her aunt for three days.  Her aunt is a heavy drinker (alcoholic), like her brother (my ex), so that wasn't great, but it wasn't all bad.  My daughter had some time away from social media, which is not easy because her job is social media.  They also went to someplace called Bombay Beach, which I had never heard of.  If you look at the photos of Bombay Beach, it looks like a post apocolyptic climate change version of the future.  The place is a ghost town because of the salanity of the lake, (Salton Sea), which killed off 97% of the fish.  The lake was destroyed by chemicals and droughts, and people abandoned their properties.  It's mostly a ghost town now.

Here's an interesting article about the Salton Sea.

I'm feeling better finally.  The general fuckery was hard to get used to, but like most things, humans learn to accomodate.  We adapt, and fortunately my poor brain can still do that.  I'm thankful and I'm most thankful I still have my sense of humour.