from yellow to orange.

Hi there all:
We are still here in Banos. The other day I made mention of having the city of Banos practicing a city wide evacuation. Well according to my informers... there will be another city wide evacuation practice,but it will be at night. I am sooooo looking forward to that. My heart rate still is a little more rapid from the last one. But it is a good thing that the city's fathers are wanting to make sure that everyone is ready.
Unfortunately for Banos, this vocanic excitement has not lead to more business. Many people are afraid of the volcano,.... and if you think about it, if you were to look for a nice relaxing holiday it would not be next to a volcano. However if you are into excitement, well have we got the volcano for you. Actually, she has been changing tacks again so maybe not the place. By this I mean that the volcano has decided to become more quiet. However like me I suppose, if I get more quiet, you had better watch out. And so it is with the volcano. The other day the kids and I went to Ambato and on the way back I noticed the volcano, as I always do. I can't help but look at her when we are driving back as she just looms over all she prevails over, she is after all 5,000 ft. Anyway sorry for the outtake once again. As she was doing her looming thing, I notice in broad daylight, an orange streak running down her. As it turns out I was not the only one to notice. What I was looking at was lava. Normally, you have to wait till evening to see lava flow and glow but there it was in the daylight. So, I guess it was a copious amount and also quite hot by lava standards...... Hence the authorities have decided that this cranks up the notch for safety warnings for Banos from Yellow Alert to Orange Alert to be in sync with the color coding of the lava. Actually, I feel rather safe somehow.... shockingly. There has been alot of rain and it has been quite cold here so I am sure that the lava will cool down as necessary but the height of the volcano will continue to increase and she builds up. This is making Banos a bit of a sore spot for the business people of Banos, as I am sure it will continue to drive out the visitors with weak knees. As a true blue Canadian though, I will not actually respond until necessary and when I do it will be quite the spectacle I am sure. Again though, the town is a bit spooky and only the real Banians (people from Banos)Banyanios...... not sure on the spelling or pronouncement of that one, and other property owners are staying. There are really some words that in any language that I just can't pronounce. It is a dyslexic/add thing.
So on I plod, I am struggling with a painting that is a three panel on black of the jungle. What I have done is a painting that has no umfff. What I think that I need to do is step out of the safe beige head space and embrace some daring and unusual color for shadows and highlights. Right now this is a painting that, I am sorry to say, god please forgive me for what I am about to right, but really.... one that you would find in a house with the majority of the walls would be builders beige or builders of white and this painting was hung to try and spice it up a bunch as it matched the sofa and side table..... Home decorators, I apologise, I know that it is very important to do that but it does not make for a very interesting or even exciting painting. As an artist safe is not better, safe is .... welllll....boring. It is making me rather poopy. I will decide what I need to do to make it pop. I think purple and red could make good high lights or reflective lights or underlights. I used to have this boy friend years ago, whom was very gifted. He was a sign painter. I never said it to him but he opened my eyes to something lacking in me and that was the under lights of color. I saw him paint only once but what he did stays in my head forever.... for his shadow as a reflective light and contrasting color, he added a simple streak of red on a sign. He was the only working artist that I ever dated but who says that all the men that you have dated are not to be remembered, and that is just one wonderful thankfulness (sorry about the grammar on this one, I know it is a booboo but it is the only proper description that works here) that I will take with me fron that experience.
Which brings me to another stream of thought. Sorry. warning. runaway tangent. Even though we have had relationships, there was something in that relationship that was important for our growth. That relationship may have not have ended as kindly as it could have, that relationship was still somehow worth it. I like to think that they (my relationships)made me a better person. I do my best to try and remember the former boyfriends fondly, some are easier than others of course. I had one really not OK relationship and even though I have still no respect for that man, I learned a great deal. Secretly, I am glad for Kharma here as I know it will bite that guy in the butt. I just hope that comment will not hurt my kharma. I thank them for having been in my life so that I can be the person that I am now with the man I am with now, and to better appreciate him too. So thank you, fellows and dear ones.
Another note. This is in regards to going to Ambato in the first place. I took a young lady with some kind of female discomfort to the doctor. She put it off until she no longer could. She was scared and frightened and felt that she could not go with, or have her mother even wish to go with her to the doctor. She felt that she was dying or atlease very sick and the doctor would only ever give her bad news. This is very sad to me as a woman. I like to think that family, especially family could support each other like that but I know that it is often not possible for any number of reasons. So I gratefully, took her to a fabulous hospital in Ambato called Millenium, where we had all kinds of tests done and after she felt like a pin cushion and urine factory, but I think that they nailed the problem. I say that I was grateful as she honored me with trusting me to take her somewhere where they would help her and also trusting me to support her. I also had them do a number of other tests just to make sure and elimate other possibilities. Having std tests are rather scary for people especially in this culture where the only time you even think about that place, you know that--- place, is procreation. So in this country where the percentage of children born out of wedlock outweighs the number of children born within, embarassment about STD's should be addressed alot more with out shame. Sex is normal sex is natural yadahh yaddah, but sex information and confidence about sex should be public without shame, but also accompanied with responcibility, honesty, and privacy. The line between privacy and information and openess is very blurry and difficult to draw. This is the information age however, and this line needs to be clearer. I think that that is anywhere in the world though. The misunderstanding of, you know, wink, wink, nudge, nudge, (for those who can't read between the lines, sex). This behaviour ultimately increases STD's and ignorance about sex. I remember in Canada as a Massage Therapist and having women open up to me about sex, and having to council a number of them and advise them with my heart aching for them about having the supposedly wonderful act of sex as being such a burden, simply because they were uninformed about sex and sexuality. Because of the lack of information about sex, they were easier to manipulate, conn, hurt and because they did not chose to become informed they by their own making were easier to victimize or made bad judgments or ruined relationships. That part of doing massage therapy was sad for me. Fortunately out there especially in places like Canada there are endless places to go for information and help where people are will and happy to guide you, with compassion and care. So I take my hat off to those people who armed themselves with information and take the responcibility for their own health and those who help to educate others (hopefully without judgement) and guide the searchers to where they need to be.
Be compassionate with everyone and try to focus on the positive so that you can possitively influence the world. Think constructive thoughts rather than destructive thoughts....
Robin