"If ye are prepared ye shall not fear..."

    This week has been pretty productive for me I think. I was able to come up with a solution to my car's gas cap dilemma. Upon search and after questioning the helpful people at the auto parts store, I discovered that the part I was missing had never gotten lost before with anyone else. Normally that latch popping mechanism never pops off.... I'm just lucky I guess. As a consequence I couldn't find the part. My solution:

A locking gas cap and duck tape....the universe is held together by duck tape you know....or so I've heard. 

The cape works great...the tape, we are still working out the kinks. Since it gets so hot here the tape doesn't like to stick as well so I keep having to replace it.

Now the left side of my car matches the right side where I'm missing a hubcap.

Ohhh the joys of car ownership.

    On Monday, I went over to visit my dad and brother. My dad is on this emergency preparedness kick, and with all the natural disasters going on lately I can't blame him.  So he and I each started to put together a 72 hours kit. Since Vegas is a desert, if anything were to happen, having water would be key. So for the last little while I've been stocking up on water. Here is my stash and my 72 hours pack:

Not bad if I do say so myself. I'm feeling a little better now. My pack has enough food to last me about four days, and a first aid kit. I just have to add a few more things to it and I think I will really feel prepared.

      Since I've moved into my apartment I've been trying to get myself organized, but sadly I am just a couple bookcases short. As a consequence, a lot of my movies have just sat on the floor of my bedroom. Not a very good system, if I happen to want to watch one of them. The other day I was standing in my walk-in closet and thought to myself, "You know, if I moved those spare blankets to a higher shelf I could use this shelf to stack my movies." Perfect solution!

Now they are at eye level and easy to access. Why it took me so long is the silly thing.

    Lately I've gotten back into the artsy mood. We are coming up on autumn so I got out my silk flowers and redecorated a little in my front entry way.

Love those fall colors. Even though it is still about 80* outside, I know the cooler weather is just around the corner.

As a last note, here is my latest oil painting, still a work in progress but I thought I would try my hand at black canvas painting. I'm trying to capture that beautiful star nebula pictured in the book on the floor.