January 2025 - Nina Paley

Journey to the Crawl Space

My supposedly “high end” furnace is being repaired for the third time in a week, so I decided to go down into the crawl space and have a look.

I grew up in a proper house with a basement, and didn’t even know crawl spaces were a thing until we moved to this mid-century modern (1956) ranch house in 2016.

To access the crawl space we have to remove the chairs and push the table on its rug out of the dining area. Thus revealing this hole which would be something out of a Jungian dream were it not right there in my house right now.

You have to crawl in the crawl space, not merely hunch over. Not enough room.

So there’s the furnace. Hell if I know what’s going on here. Took the repair guy 3 visits and ordering an expensive part from Texas to get this far.

Literally on my knees down here. Unlike the furnace repair guy, I am not wearing knee pads.

But I am wearing my art gloves, which are not appropriate hand gear. I am under-equipped for the dark recesses of my psyche I mean home.

Returning to the light, between the Under- and Over-worlds.

Cover that shit up Jesus I don’t want to think about it

And so I have returned to the World of the Living. But I am not finished with the Underworld: the bill has yet to arrive, and I am warned it’s gonna be a doozy.

Sleep Scrutiny

I scrutinize myself trying to fall asleep as I try to fall asleep, which makes it harder to fall asleep, upping the scrutiny, etc.

I’ve struggled with insomnia my whole life, and today thought drawing a picture of it might help. It’s never helped before, but neither has scrutinizing my sleep.

Warm Anger

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All this and more at my Merchandise Empire!

https://store.ninapaley.com/

Spiritual Bypass

Apparently the term was coined by this guy.

Drawing based on a true story.

Cold Inside

My furnace went out yesterday, the coldest of the year. A tech came and got it back on. 3 hours after he left it went out again. He’s coming back this morning, but I faced the night — coldest of the year, -3°F with windchill below -20° — with space heaters and a few open taps to keep the pipes from freezing and bursting, and multiple electric blankets for me and the cats. I was freezing and shaking when I went to bed at 1am; I awoke at 5:30 to cloying dry heat, because the furnace mysteriously turned itself on in the wee hours. Got up, turned the thermostat back down to the usual 65°, have no idea if it will turn on again or plummet into the 50’s or below as it did last night.

Also had a bitter argument with a friend, a real disappointing horror.

Just a shitty terrifying night all around, so I drew a picture.