What Do You Do With All The Bad News?

Looking heavenward

How's everyone doing? 

I ask because the news of the last couple of weeks has dragged me down in a way I can't remember feeling.
  
I've tried ignoring the news, delving into it (bad idea), listening/reading/watching selectively.  If I ignore the news, am I being irresponsible?  Poorly informed?  Or wise?  

I'm also getting Caring Bridge updates I've requested for three cancer patients, one very young, and getting these always jolts my heart.  Will it be good news?  Bad?  Things progressing in a good way--or bad?  How're the families doing? 

One afternoon,  I rigged up a digital frame with pictures I took in Inverness and escaped to the peaceful, uninhabited scenery.  I sat for quite awhile in a welcome stupor,  watching a slide show. 

* * * * *

Other distractions and antidotes:

Yesterday Claudia M.'s adorable nephew came to visit.  A four-year old squirming, testing, charming bundle:

Checking out his new digger,  just purchased at Mr. Mopps

 A mischievous grin

* * * * *

I've been working on a new quilt:

Thumbnails, 2014 --  or something

  I'm trying out possibilities:

Frame each of them with a different green/blue?

Add more?

Impatient, I did this to it last night:

Who knows where that's going.  If you have an opinion, please weigh in.

 * * * * *

My sister and I have been choosing paint, tile, flooring, and plumbing fixtures for the bathroom remodel, is scheduled to start in September:

Paint and floor and on top a rejected sample of back splash tile

The glass tile we liked better

"Selective demolition" starts tomorrow.  I have no idea what this means, but I have big plastic tubs standing by so I can empty towels and sheets into them.  Think of me doing this at 8 am.

And by the way:

Yes, this is Hillary Clinton, but look at her back splash.  I'm obsessed.  People in the allergist's office must have wondered why I took so many pictures of a magazine.

* * * * *

The Wine Cellar restaurant at Old Town, Los Gatos.  Plenty of umbrellas helped with the fierce sun.

On Saturday, I drove to San Jose to take to visit my friend Lin, who won the auction quilt.  We went to Los Gatos for lunch, where it was hotter than the hinges of Hell.  Honestly.  We ate lunch outside at Old Town (above) and then knocked around the shops.  When we got back to her car, the thermometer read 112 degrees. After we drove for awhile, it plunged to 102.

* * * * *

I just found this picture on my phone:

What's he doing?  Why, he's searching for tiny moths that blew on the floor while he was trying to sort them.  See the open cigar box on the table? He's going to pierce their little bods and stick the whole works in there.  This was taken at a motel in Hesperia in June.  Not at all eccentric.