The MeHoe Song...

When Julie works the night shift, my wife Beth gets the girls to bed. This includes singing to them a song or two. The other evening they wouldnt rest until she sang the MeHoe song, which she had no clue about. So she made something up, but it wouldnt do. All that would work was the song that ended "coming for to carry MeHoe".

On my wall is a canvas that I doubt I'll ever paint. It has the sketch for "Girl in a Window". The more I look at it, the less I want to paint it. Not because I've lost interest, but because I've become accustomed to it. There is a thoughtfulness as she looks out into the air. In some way I cant explain, she has become a silent friend, gracing my studio with her presence, and it pleases me.

The Ventures - Walk Don't Run (1960)

These guys are usually classified as "surf rock" but they were doing this years before.

Doncha just hafta luv the choreography?!

Miracle Whip is not a substitute for Cool Whip...

These two are Tristan and Julia, our grands living in South Carolina. As you can see, they're cute, but have yet to master the art of the "casual smile".

The moon is full and beautiful tonight. Skies are mostly clear with scattered clouds reflecting the moonlight. Temperature in the Mile High City is 70 degrees. Humidity is 64%, higher than usual so we're a little muggy.

I love living in Denver. We have 300 days of sunshine per year. A typical winter includes about 10 days below zero and summers include about that many at 100 degrees or more.

That's right. Someone was recently seen using Miracle Whip on strawberry shortcake. imho...THIS IS NOT OKAY!!! They say "dont knock it till you try it", well just call me Mr. Opportunity, cuz I'm knockin' this combo off the table, out the door, down the street and into oblivion.

Dont get me wrong. I like to try different things. I've done chocolate covered insects, peanut butter stuffed jalapeno peppers, even earthworm chocolate chip cookies (which is also NOT OKAY). All that being said, you could not get me to voluntarily consider the possibility of putting Miracle Whip covered strawberry shortcake on my plate, let alone into my mouth.

Some names I've recently heard which should be strongly discouraged--

Barbara Sue
Juliether (pronounced Julie - Eather)
Sharonica

All three of these names sound like someone couldnt decide who to name the poor child for, so they compromised with a franken-name.

Perhaps there should be a test before people are allowed to fill in a birth certificate. Maybe a multiple choice type thing.

Which of these names do you prefer?

a. Celeste
b. Barbara Sue
c. Juliether
d. Sharonica
e. Mary
f. all of the above
g. none of the above

If Americans want to make English the official language- they should learn to speak it.

I remember when my stomach was flat. I used to wear my shirts unbuttoned. Some I had even removed the sleeves. You know the look.

So it's a discipline thing. If I could get myself up and do situps and leglifts and trunk twisty things, I'd probably have a flat stomach today. The routine today is more like - get up, go to the bathroom and snooze on the throne, wander out to the main house where Beth is, say "good morning", have some juice and watch Nicole Mitchell talk about weather, notice the time and rush to get ready for work.

At 50, I think flat stomachs are over-rated. Sure they look great on 22 year olds who havent started that second crop of hair in places we dont talk about. Okay, maybe it has nothing to do with hair. I remember Burt Reynolds and Tom Selleck photos. Now those are some hairy guys, but it didnt seem to matter back then. Besides, I dont think either of them has a flat stomach today, either.

I am not alone...

A pizza house employee talks about life (and kids) in the pizza place. She said what I might say, and she's kinda cute, not to mention that she does a pretty good impression of the Teletubbies to start off.

I'm keeping my intelligence under wraps...

A young woman I know just took a new job and she's trying to keep secret that she's smart. That way they wont try to pile the work on. Sounds like a plan to me.

There have been times that I'm sure I was working with someone in stealth mode. You know what I'm talking about. Have you ever known someone and thought, "No one can really be this dumb." Some people are really good at this.

I know of a high ranking person in a local company whose office backed up to the reception area, so the computer screen was visible to the lobby, and guess what he was watching on company time...

---

It's been an interesting few days. We have extra children for the weekend. Our daughter-in-law's grandfather passed away and we're keeping their boys while they go out of state for the funeral.

Here they are, ready for sleep on the little blue cots. They've been very good this weekend and I'm really proud of them.

One of my peeves is parents who let their children misbehave in public places. I realize that you cant always make them behave, but there are people who seem oblivious to their children when they go out.

Nobody Dies...

"Nobody dies" is what this young soldier said. The movie is "A Walk in the Sun" from Lewis Milestone. I didnt watch the rest of the movie. I imagine he probably didnt make it to the end either.


We tell ourselves all kinds of things in uncertain times. Most of the time it's something like, "Everything always works out in the end".


Does it?


We have our three granddaughters and their mother living with us right now. Here they are eating ice cream. They're sweet and rowdy and loving and difficult, all at the same time. Above all, though, they are sisters- and somehow that transcends hardships. The two daughters who live here now exhibit the same thing. They argue and laugh, just like the little ones, but most of all they lean on each other. Beth and her sisters do the same.


Yes, I'm the only male among all these girls and women. It's a mixed blessing. I've missed having girls around the house. The reasons are the things I just mentioned. I love their voices and their smiles and a million other things and I wouldnt trade places with any man I know.


One thing is that it's almost like a do-over. When my girls were little, I didnt know how enjoyable they were. I was too busy trying to make them grow up. Now they're grown and I so often wish I could make them little again. So, with these I can smile inside when they're being too loud or running too much. I can make time to sit with them on my lap or next to me on the sofa.


I dont know what I will be to them as they get older. What I do know is that I'm doing everything I can to be better than I was for their mom.

I left work early today to go paint and meet a friend for dinner. When I left the office it was hot. The readout in my car said 106. As I drove around downtown, it fluctuated between there and 102, but by the time I got to my painting spot, it was down to 98. By then the clouds were moving in.

Painting wasnt fun because the overcast sucked all the color up and made everything shades of gray. The wind came up and then there was lightning. When the geese and ducks started leaving the water, I decided I should hurry.

Dinner was fun. I havent seen Keita for a long time and a lot's been happening in both our lives. She's a blessing to me in several ways. I hope she thinks of me that way as well.

The Magician Lives Next Door...

Tonight I sketched out the foundation of a painting from this pic. I took this on the first Friday of June. It was raining. I'd seen the girl before, in the gallery where I hang my stuff. She was cute and had a nice smile and I thought I'd like to paint her, but that was as far as it went. Later, when I saw her in this window, I ran out onto the wet sidewalk and told her, "Please, dont move". I've not seen her since.

So now she'll become a painting on someone's wall, that will last longer than she will live, and she probably wont ever see it.

I dont usually do paintings of people. It's so much easier to do trees and rocks. After all, a tree is a tree is a tree, but a person pretty much has to look like that person. Trees can be wonky and lean to one side. Cant do that with people.

Jenedy Paige is a wonderful illustrator whose work I just love. She's so good at communicating just what the piece needs to say. You cant say much in a landscape, except, "Wow! Look at those trees and rocks and water!"

Tomorrow I'm going out painting at a "lake" (Colorado slang for a pond). I'll have a lot of time, but it's supposed to be really hot. Then I'm having dinner with a friend.

Tal Bachman - She's So High

She's So High

Just love this vid... Yes, it's old and quirky, If it were made today the girl would be bleached blonde with her navel pierced and her booty shaking all up in the camera. As for me, I just think it's cute.

I used to dream I could fly, but that hasnt happened in a long time. I could breathe underwater sometimes, too.

I'm a lucid dreamer. That means I usually know it's a dream and can control what's going on. It's like create-your-own dreaming. Nightmares are lots of fun when I'm lucid. Monsters cant catch me. If I need a gun to shoot the bad guys, there's usually one there.

There's a phenomenon that's difficult to explain. It's when I talk to someone who's dead. My grandfather or uncle or something. Sometimes it's as if we both know they're dead, but it's just nice to have a conversation and I wake up feeling all cozy and grateful. Other times we're doing something, maybe at a reunion or something and everybody acts like the person is still alive and I'm the only one who thinks otherwise.

These dreams are hard to control. I think because I want to experience them emotionally, more than intellectually.

I was wrong about you. You really are a good dancer...

How important is it to live honestly? When we get to the end of it and we see the lives we've bumped and rattled on the way, will it make a difference?

Only if there's a God.

If there isnt, then we're unobligated, to ourselves or anyone else. Right up to the end when the light goes out and they close the lid on the box.

I ride the bus to my day job, downtown. There's no moral reason. My attitude is just better if I let someone else fight the traffic. Riding the bus saves me money and frustration. With the money I save, I can go out to lunch now and then. With a good attitude, I can even get someone else to go with me.

I had a good friend who died of cancer. We used to have lunch together. He was a good man who loved his wife. When she died it took the heart right out of him. She went suddenly, without warning. It was two years before he could get out and see people. My daughters called him Grampa. They knew him as a pleasant old man who loved their mom like his own girl and saw something in their dad worth taking the time. They cut his grass when he couldnt do it anymore.
The cancer drugs took him back to another time, when he was another man. He was brash and reckless, opinionated and sometimes crude- in a hazy medicated fog. I helped carry his coffin.

It's a little before midnight now and I'm having some ice cream. It's part of my new health plan. Anything I shouldnt to eat tomorrow, I eat today. That way I can work it off and eat something else later. The way it works is, I'll eat the ice cream now and when I start wanting it tomorrow, I'll eat an apple. Then tomorrow night, I'll eat something that I shouldnt eat on Sunday, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera...

Giddyupidness...

What a great non-word! It's something I just want to say all the time. Like - "Hey honey. Let's show em some giddyupedness." I dont like the commercial it comes out of, but that's a different issue.

To illustrate a lack of giddyupedness, this is Daisy.

She's a shihtzu princess who inhertited us when her former human passed away. Although Beth and Sharon say that she sees me as the "alpha dog", I think she just doesnt like the idea that anyone could not believe that she really is the center of the universe.

I am not a pet person. Really. All the mess and hassle that goes along with a dog or cat just seems like way too much for me. I have had fish as decorations from time to time. I like to watch them swim around in their little glass houses, all oblivious of a larger creation, most of the time.

I once put a blue shrimp in the same tank as a Beta (fighting fish). In the end, the Beta was lunch. My daughter, Julie, was pregnant at the time and almost blew chunks when she noticed the jubilant crustacean relishing his feast.

Let it be...

Wow. I'm tired tonight. It wasnt a hard day at work. There's just so much drama in life sometimes it's exhausting. wcis

It's a good time to put on the Pink Panther theme. Doncha think? No drama there. Maybe follow it up with the Baby Elephant Walk. Oh wait. I dont have that one. But it would be good anyway.

This is Samantha, who was curious about my camera and my studio and anything else that might hold promise of staying up past bedtime.

We forget, after many years of a grown-ups-only house, just how much work and time and noise and enjoyment are involved with these little ones.



I have a lot of work to do tonight. There's a newsletter to get out, a website to update, but somehow I wind up blogging. Maybe it's because I had a frustrating day or maybe its just a general lack of motivation.

Maybe I'll go get some ice cream.

Marisa Monte O Bonde do Dom

This is Marisa Monte, a lovely singer from Brazil. She's been around for some time, but I just discovered here work. It has that groovy Latin sound that just gets in there and makes me want to move around. I play it in my studio and at work. Here's one of my favorites.

article number 1

Okay, here goes.


This is the last time I'm gonna try to use this blog thing. Dont know if it's worthwhile, but we'll see. The last two have somehow stopped letting me log in and post. (Probably a Homeland Security thing, since I had that anti-Patriot Act blog a couple of years ago.


GoDaddy gives me a "free" blog, but there's a huge old ad banner across the top. It's like having a rash on your forehead. You know? It wouldnt be so bad if I could move it to a different spot, but it's just right up there. First thing you see when you click in, and it's full of ads for other artists. Now that's just rude.