Looters

Looters

Got up early and started plugging away on some details on our project. Edy chimed a bit later from Taos and we had a pleasant FB chat session before we both signed off to go get some exercise.

I decided to bike down to the Urban Farmers Market before the promised thunderstorms opened up to see what they had to tempt me with. I held off on breakfast, just in case there were some goodies there.

The front was blowing in right on my face so the “burn” in my legs started sooner than usual, oh well “good”, I thought, get em in now, because the bike will not be going out too much in the coming days with the storms that are forecast.

I made it to the Farmers Market OK and could see as I peddled up the street it was crowded.

I noticed a new unit being framed in a “Luxury Development” next door and could see already it was going to be a challenging morning.  The Big-Mother of a sign in the front said “Luxury Townhomes $900k and UP…..ugh. Stick built, 24” centers, Built up 2x lumber beams, Not even any flitchplates, OSB sheathing, the cheapest of standards for the maximum of pricing. I wanted to yak my breakfast before I even had it in my gut. …….ugh, LOOTERS.  

I shook my head, parked my bike, put the helmet on the handle bars and I did my 1^st pass of the stalls, eyeing both the produce and the people. Mushrooms looked good, greens were also looking good. Rain is helping things, finally!  I rounded the last bend and saw one of the larger stalls replenishing their stock from boxes clearly marked CALIFORNIA !!! I asked them what the deal was and they said oh, yea we just mix it in with the other “local” produce……Riiiiiight, “local”, my butt………………Looters.

 I needed to shake off the growing “attitude” I could feel building in me, so I headed north to a favorite Beignet place we like. It was busy with families but the line moved quickly. I ordered and took my plate outside. I grabbed one of the “free” papers and skimmed through it as I noshed on my deep fried goodness. A gent with a suit came and sat at the next table to me and started complaining about “Romper-room” or some such issue he had with inside dining. I ignored him and did not even look up.” I’ll bet he’s probably the developer of the Looter Condos,”  I thought to myself.

Now that the cinnamon / sugar had kicked in … and kicked out most of the “attitude” ,I decided to head over to the MFA and try to see the Dutch Masters Exhibit (again). I stopped at the Center for Photography on my way to see what they had going on. It was a nice showing. Parking at the MFA was easy and the exhibit halls were practically empty despite being “open” this time. The show was marvelous and the breath of the work quite impressive. No Vermeer’s, but all the others were represented, in all genres. Rembrandt’s solo portrait was stunning.   Truly, a Masters show with large paintings over 10’x14’ and some as small as 6”x6”, all with the requisite attention to detail and finesse I admire so much in their works. Being a bit of a history buff, I like envisioning the “times” when looking at paintings or artwork. It’s kind of fun to imagine living in that particular era and this show allowed me to go as far as I wanted. Politics, social classes, transportation, weather, architecture, food, flowers, it was all there with depth.

As I strolled through again for a second pass,  I started looking closer at the framing of the paintings.  Holy Moly !!! That is a 18” x 10” solid piece of EBONY !! Then next it about the same dimension of Cocobolo, then  Purpleheart, Rosewood, Wenge  and on and on. It finally dawned on me that, as these “Masters” were honing their skills in the 1600’s, their countrymen were off pillaging far away colonies for their natural resources and enslaving the indigenous peoples for a guilder or two.   I was having a hard time trying to reconcile how such deep beauty and sensitivity could coexist with Looters, of the first order?  

I did a fast forward of my “history loop” and remembered that the Dutch ended up paying dearly in the centuries that followed for their schenanigans and started to feel a bit better about the whole day.   Ah, Karma, the great equalizer.