Brown Arabian

Transformation?

We have a "reflecting pool" here and I was looking into the possibility of turning it into a goldfish pond. So I wrote up a plan and gave it to our Director who said we would do that. He also wants to install an aquarium in the wall between the living room and meeting hall so it is visible from both sides. Plus a koi pond outside. Looks like we're going fishing. And the nice thing is that I now have an illuminated keyboard for my computer so I can see which key my finger is aiming at. Should make a difference in my spelling, I hope.

Monument Valley

Here's a rendering of Monument Valley, in ink and watercolor.

Hot Air Success

Well, the hot air balloon rides went off Friday morning and yours truly was one of the fortunate ones. I was #13 in line and went up and came down without a hitch. The tethers let us ascend about 40 feet, which was enough to take a shot or two of the surrounding mountains. Several people took photos while I was on the way up, but I haven't been able to get my mitts on any of them. So here are some shots I took of the affair.

A Missed Anniversary Ride

We were scheduled for a tethered hot air balloon ride this morning in our front driveway, but the event was canceled due to a forecast of high winds. So our anniversary ride was not to be. If all goes well, we will try again in the morning. As we understand it, the balloon is owned and operated by the only licensed parapalegic in the world. There is no gondola, we will be in a chair of some sort, one rider and the operator going up together. Should be fun! We will try to post photographs of the affair.

Drumming and Learning

If I could take my computer into the shower in the morning, I'd have some interesting things to write, as that's where my mind tends to wander. So how long before some enterprising individual markets such a device? Anyhow...
I was down to ASU this afternoon for a music program. There are several students learning how to apply music to group therapy and I volunteered to participate. There were 11 of us from Westminster Village with a wide range of interests. One fellow brought his guitar; his wife had bought it for him 3 years ago and he was waiting for his 90th birthday to begin lessons (next year), as he is too busy these days. One person has Parkinson's disease; most were curious about the program. I wanted to find out if I have the ability to learn to play the guitar. Today was a get-to-know-each-other session. We formed a circle and beat on some drums, sang some songs, talked and beat on some drums. I enjoyed it! Our bus took us there and brought us back, there is no charge for the program, so whatever happens will be a wonderful experience. Of course, if I find a natural skill for playing the guitar, there will be the expense of the purchase of one guitar, but I'm willing to take the chance. After all, we are helping the students, right?

Some Personal Statistics

It occurred to me this morning that Grandma and I have been living in Scottsdale, Arizona for 21 years, having moved here in February 1990. That’s over 25% of my life, 26.25 to be exact. So I started figuring out the other places by percentile. I lived in Batavia, New York for my first 10 years, which is 12.5% (I’ll be 80 in July, so I’ve assumed the full 80 for these calculations, in case anyone wants to check my arithmetic). College in Stillwater, Oklahoma for 4 years comes to 5%. After Grandma and I were married, we lived in Ontario, New York for 12 years, which calculates to 15%. The rest of my life was in Rochester, New York and suburbs, which accounts for 41.25%. So now when anyone asks where I came from I can safely say Rochester for about 41% of my life. How do your statistics add up?

Similes

Don't you just love similes? As nervous as a cat in a room full of rocking chairs. As easy as pie (is pie really that easy?). As black as coal. As soft as a newborn baby's skin. As smooth as glass. As stiff as starched Levi's (from Life 101). I'm sure you have favorites.

More About Art

I thought I'd try to clarify some things from my last post about art before anyone is turned off from trying watercolor painting. First off, it IS possible to correct some "mistakes." Mistakes in quotes because sometimes they turn out to be better than what the artist wanted. You see, watercolor paints have a life of their own - left to dry, they will do whatever they want, and the end result is usually very pretty. The problem I created for myself was that I became impatient and tried to make a correction before the paper was dry. The result was that I damaged the paper surface so that I couldn't paint over the area without making it worse. Not just once, but twice! So the obvious lesson is to have more patience than I had. I'm trying to remember that for the future.

Ain't Art Wunnerful!

I've been struggling with a painting of a bouquet of sunflowers based on a photo I took last summer when we met Rick and Jilda Watson for the first time. The first attempt had some things I didn't like, so I tried to do some erasures and wound up damaging the surface of the paper. The second attempt used a slightly different perspective, but I'm still not happy with one area. I will press forward, though, trying to avoid the earlier corrective mistake. I'm also working on a watercolor for our newest great-grandson, Roman, born last December 24th, which I hope to get to him sometime before his teen years. Assuming there aren't too many corrections.

An Adventure

The first school trimester at Michigan State College ended in the middle of December (1948), so Bill Cass, one of my 13 roommates, and I decided to hitchhike home. Bill was from Frewsburg, in southwest New York state, and I was from Rochester, so we could travel together to Buffalo before going our separate ways. Because of the cold winter weather, I was wearing a sweater, my ROTC winter coat covered by a top coat, with a scarf wrapped around my neck. As was the custom in those days, neither of us wore a hat.
We started out in East Lansing by riding with a family as far as Port Huron. Our good fortune continued as we were picked up by a trucker who took us to Hamilton, Ontario. It was early evening when he let us off. Shortly thereafter, we were picked up by a hockey player who was going as far as Buffalo. Bill hopped into the front seat and I settled into the back seat and promptly fell asleep, expecting to be awakened in Buffalo. Imagine my surprise when I woke up to a pleasant female voice telling me to wake up for breakfast. More surprise when I opened my eyes to find it was a nurse in the St. Catherine‘s Hospital. And I with my right arm taped to my chest. Bill was in an adjacent bed.
The story, as I found out later, was that the car skidded on some ice and slid into a steel light post, hitting about where my knees were. The ambulance crew thought at first that I was dead because of all the blood - caused by numerous cuts from window glass when my head hit. I suffered a broken collar bone; more severe injury was avoided probably because of all the padding I was wearing. I was asleep, then probably knocked unconscious by the blow, then sound asleep again in the hospital bed. I did have the sensation that I saw the lamp post coming at us, but it’s a very vague impression. The driver had a bump on his forehead and Bill had gravel in his hands as the result of being thrown out of the car when the door was flung open from the momentum.
My parents were notified and came to bring me home, where I went to visit the doctor for further treatment. He checked the x-rays, noting that the bones had shattered at the break, then left the room. I heard the sound from the basement of someone sawing wood, wondering what remodeling he was having done, when he walked back into the room carrying a piece of plywood. He had sawed it into the shape of a T and taped it to both shoulders and across my belly. “There,” he said, “that should hold it while the bones knit.”
I wore the brace for a bunch of months, including a train trip back to East Lansing to turn in my ROTC uniform and pack up my clothes. Believe me, it’s not very comfortable to wander through life with a piece of plywood taped to one’s back. It eventually came off, and the break did knit, but to this day there’s a bump at the break.

Saturday Livin'

Grandma and I finished our 30 minute walk after breakfast, then showered and got down to important stuff. Grandma composed a confirmation letter for some donations to the Westminster Village Foundation, then had some planting and harvesting to do on her Facebook farm, while I rewrote an article for our newsletter about our mascot alligator. After it gets to the final stage I'll post it here. My plans are to settle back and watch some football this afternoon and evening. Hope you have a great day!

Red Cellophane?

Last night, I had a dream about making red cellophane. Now I have no idea where that came from. Is there any significance? Can anyone help me here?

Happy New Year

I hope you all had a great 2010 and that the new year brings you good health and financial security. May all your resolutions be fulfilled and please don't send your shed weight my way.

Art

Here's my latest watercolor.

Goin' Fishin'

Howdy, Billyjoe, how y’all doin’?…Saturday?…Fishin’?…with Jimbob? Wall, bring your beer and your ownself over here ‘n sit down so’s I kin tell y’all what really happened.

Twas last Saturday when me ‘n Jimbob went down to the crick with our fishin’ poles, can a worms, foldin’ chairs and cooler fulla ice ‘n beer that was so heavy we hadta stop ever little while to rest up and so we didn’t really get at the crick so early as we thunk we‘d a done when we stepped offen Jimbob’s porch at six o the clock thet morning’. See, here we were a walkin’ along the road a tryin’ to hold onta our poles, our can a worms, our foldin’ chairs and still carry thet thar cooler thet grew heavier each step. Jimbob finally thunk out our problem and declared we oughta put everthang atop the cooler ‘n then we’d a been able to hustle right along, so we done it, but we kept gittin’ out of step with each and the other and thangs kept a slidin’ off, so we took to countin’ out our steps just like them thar soljers done we seed one time on the RCA Telley Vision down at Mr. Grandin’s country store. It sure helped for a good bit, but it turned out the cooler was a mite heavier, so we stopped ever little while to rest and the little whiles kept gittin’ closer and closer to each and the other. The one thang thet saved us was thet Mr. Franklin, who usually drives to town of a Saturday for provisions and a beer or two with his ole buddies at the Ragged Bear saloon, right here where we’re a sittin’, came chuggin’ along in his pickup truck thet had seen better days twenty yars ago, seed us a struggling’ with our gear ‘n cooler ‘n ast if we didn’t think he could help us out by letting’ us ride in the back seein’ as how he was goin’ past the crick that thar morning’ but neither one of us could reckon why he was goin’ that direction because he always went to town for provisions ‘n a beer or two. Bein’ wore down ourselves, we allowed as how we’d be happy to hold down the back end of thet thar wore-out old pickup truck, so we quick-like threw our gear and cooler in the back ‘n then hauled our own selves in, ’n all the while Mr. Franklin kept thet truck a movin’ slow-like down the road. Now I don’t recommend you go right on out ‘n try to jump into a movin’ pickup truck jist to see how hard it is, but I’m a telling’ you it’s like tryin’ to jump onto a slow movin’ freight train which I know you’ve tried onct or twice in yer lifetime.

Here, Billyjoe, let me git a round….Barkeep, two more here….Thank ya kindly.

Now whar war I? Oh yeah. Well when we got right near the crick, Mr. Franklin slowed down thet old pickup a mite so’s me ‘n Jimbob could drop off our gear ‘n cooler ‘n then jump down our own selves, so we done it and were mighty glad to see we hadn’t lost any of our bait nor spilled anything outten the cooler. We knowed the spot we wanted to settle into to fish and were mighty happy to see it weren’t taken up by anyone else, so we set up our foldin’ chairs, rigged up our fishin’ poles, popped a top ‘n settled down to some fine relaxin’ in the shade. Twarn’t more’n two or three beers later when Jimbob had a bite ‘n scared the bejesus outta me the way he sprung up outta his chair and hollered out “I got one” only it wasn’t no keeper, so we settled in agin to relax. Wall, time went on her merry ole way ‘n me ‘n Jimbob caught a bunch a keepers ‘n swapped room in the cooler, beer fer fish. It was gittin’ on toward supper time when Jimbob declared it was ‘bout time to pack up and head fer home so we done started to do just that. The troubling’ part about the packin’ up was what should we do with thet thar cooler full of fresh caught fish in with all that ice when Jinbob declared thet we oughta let some of thet ice thet had melted down to just plain water out of the cooler so we took the top off and proceeded to tilt the cooler to let the water out when one or the other of us - Jimbob said it was me, but I knowed it was Jimbob - let go and the whole dad-blamed kit and kaboodle landed in the crick. Lucky for us we had sense enough to let go afore we-uns was swept along with the fish and the water and the ice into the crick. To make a long story short…

Well, Billyjoe, thank ya kindly for this‘n. I do ‘ppreciate it. My mouth was beginning to feel like a cotton boll. Be my pleasure to git the next one.

Now y’all’re probably wonderin’ what come next so I’ll try to git through it without pointing’ any more fingers at guilty parties. Turns out we didn’t need to keep any bait ‘cause we’d used all but one or two of them worms so we took pity on ‘em and let ‘em go in some grass down near where Jimbob - I mean - where the fish and ice and such were lost. Of course, the cooler bein’ empty wasn’t no problem to carry no more, so we could set off for home at a pretty good pace and I reckon Jimbob was mighty hungry ‘bout then ‘cause he started off mostly at a trot and kept a step or two ahead of me all the way so it was just blamed hard to keep up a conversation with me doin’ all the talkin’ and Jimbob just a hustling’ his ownself off towards home. Didn’t even say Howdy when we git to his house, so I just moseyed on home my ownself and had my supper. T’other day, I seed Jimbob comin’ down the road ‘n when he seed me he crosst over to keep from Howdyin’ me head-on like usual. Not very neighborly, I’d say, considerin’ we’d gone in halves on the bait ‘n the beer, even if Jimbob did catch most of the fish.

Now, can I buy y’all one for the road, Billyjoe?…My pleasure….Did y’all have a good weekend?

Immigration - A World-wide Problem

The Arizona Republic is running a series on immigration around the world. You can read the articles at www.azcentral.com/immigration/immigration-index.html#. The problems are not local to the United States. I highly recommend the series.

A week or so, Rick Watson posted on his blog - Life 101 - a photo of his snowy yard and mentioned that I had given he and Jilda a painting of the scene. So here's a look at it. I titled it "Jilda's Deer at Dawn". Can you see the deer?

Reasons

In his new book INFINITE QUEST, John Edward posits that the only reasons we do something are FEAR and LOVE. Looking back, I can see where fear has affected my decisions. Hopefully, yours are all in the love category.

I Wonder

I wonder if the people living as the Ice Age was ending ever thought about global warming.