Winter is here

I was in Paris last week. I went to see Murakami at Versailles, Basquiat and Larry Clark at the Musee D'Art Moderne, Kertesz at Jeu de Paume and I never miss paying a visit to my favorite museum, Maison Europeene de Photographie in the 4th arrondisement. It was just what I needed. Looking at art calms and inspires me. And I love the light in Paris the way that I love the light in the Hudson Valley and Provincetown.
Here's some photos of my trip:

When I got back to New York, I did my laundry and packed a bag for the weekend with the Parker-Thomassons and to check up on the church progress.

It was one of those expensive check writing weeks that didn't really yield any wow factor or, unfortunately, my goal of working heat and running water. But we are getting closer. Here's what's going on at the church in Coxsackie. 

In the biggest improvement of the month, here is my 98% efficient natural gas furnace with tankless water heater.

And here's Jeff, my plumber, starting to reconnect the toilet plumbing lines.

I met David at the Home Depot in Catskill to buy a new toilet, I mean, who wants to inherit someone else's toilet? So we bought one and put it in David's wagon and ...  Magic!

Now, I need to find a tub and, oh yeah, a billion other things.

In one very happy moment, I walked upstairs to see that they had removed the plastic from the windows (bitchier for staining but nicer for seeing!) Here was the view I saw:

That made me feel good. 

Another bit of progress occurred when we fixed the street that we had dug up. Not the most beautiful blacktop job but at least cars weren't wrecking their shocks anymore as they bumped over it.

David also installed the Bilco Doors to the basement entrance. This will further help in the ongoing plight to keep water out of the basement.

We went over some details for the kitchen cabinet installation and talked about when I can order the lights, front door and window (now) and that I wanted him to find some inexpensive pine planks (that I would paint the high gloss white shit out of!) and lay that down as flooring in my bedroom.

If all goes well, when I go up in two weeks I should have a working toilet again and a brand new working heating system (all the baseboard has already been installed inside).

Without much more to do in the church until I get heat and the flooring installed, we went junk store searching and road tripping. Here's some snaps from our outing:

I also had my dining room hutch moved to "Jake's Lock Up", my storage shed in Coxsackie. Here I am with Lawson who moved the piece (behind us) from the store in Earlton to Jake's.

After all that TCB, I slept well with Sparky for company.

And today, I had a really beautiful sunset on my way home. Thanks Mother Nature and Amtrak; it was a very spiritual journey.