a donkey's jaw on a desert dune

time is winding down here in peachtree city! we are leaving early next saturday for ohio. all in all, we've been here about a month and a half. we've built a pergola, laid a concrete slab, a big deck off the second floor, and we're making handrails and cutting a door for it now. our next step is building a lower platform for it that is level with the house, which unfortunately entails moving dirt around the yard in an awkward wobbly wheelbarrow. im trying to finish my ukulele case before we go. the construction is done (and done well!) and im working on the paint job. im doing most of the surface in an islamic geometric design inspired by this image:

lots of painstaking work with a protractor and mechanical pencils! the smiths, mewithoutyou, and breather resist are in heavy rotation, so its been agreeable. one freak incident however! i had my mechanical pencil on the ground, just barely under the edge of my toenail. i moved my box really quickly to get a better look at what i was doing, and i accidentally hammered/wedged the sharp end of the pencil under my toenail. it really felt like a razor blade cutting into my toe! it bled a bit, and got a nasty infection the few days later. it really hurt to wear shoes. worst of all, i couldnt skateboard. ah! anyways, it makes for a great story, accidentally hammering a mechanical pencil under your toenail. hm. ive been working on some hectic spanish songs on guitar. ive learned 'romance' (composer anonymous) and im currently working on, struggling with, recuerdos de la alhambra (tarrega) and leyenda/asturias (albeniz). its so challenging and refreshing, fresh to work on. i hope to really master them someday in my life. im currently reading 'the kingdom of god is within you, or christianity not as a mystical teaching but a new way of life' by leo tolstoy. it is so fascinating! he is basically calling for non resistance to evil on all levels, but pointing out that in doing so towards the government takes away their strength, since their power is based on control and violence. this leads to the abolition of government, armies, and taxes, allowing humans to live together caring for their neighbors in a communal spirit. he even extends the creed of elimination of violence to animals, promoting a vegetarian lifestyle in 1894. yes! a bit of a more modern take on his writing might encourage one towards veganism .. ;) kyle and i dumpstered a way cool huffy women's road bike -- a santa fe -- a few days ago in a goodwill dumpster. we took it to our friend alex's last night so he could take it to the atlanta bike co op. hes the nicest guy! we met his girlfriend and roommate, had pizza and ginger ale, and then went to a xiu xiu show. the show was great, though xiu xiu's set was unfortunately pretty short. and they didn't play buzz saw! i always think that they will .. its such a good song. the opening band was great as well .. carly buzolich i think was her name. before the xiu xiu set, i started talking to this girl beside us. turns out that she was german, on a 2 month vacation in america, travelling and working on photographing urban landscapes. very cool! she kyle and i went out for coffee at majestic's diner after the show, and we drove her home at around 2 30 a.m. it was nice to meet her! after accidentally driving in a few circles in downtown atlanta, we got on 85 south for the car ride home. we arrived shortly before 4 a.m. and laid down in the hot humid house to sleep. i woke up at 10, feeling like real hell, but a cup of irish tea and menial measurements of angles on my ukulele case woke me up. its a bit rainy today, so we're working on some stuff inside the house, and hoping that it clears up enough to work on handrails. for now, auf wedersehen! claudia, if you read this, mail me at joshuadaraja@gmail.com! i tried calling the number you gave me but it didnt work ..