Saturday, December 31, 2011

THE LAST DAY OF THE YEAR OR EMERGENCE

Wishing you all the happiest and most prosperous of new years.

There were probably many, many times this past year when I may have disturbed you, troubled you, pestered you, irritated you, bugged you, or got on your nerves with all the e-mails, tags, postings and comments I've sent.

So today I just wanted to tell you.....................


Suck it up , "Cupcake"!!!
Cause there are no changes planned for 2012.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Thursday, December 29, 2011

The 29th day of the 12th month

IN ANTICIPATION OF AMATEUR NIGHT!

As an (Lucky) old drunk, I think that I have earned the right to caution my friends (I worked to hard to get them) and my family (whom I love beyond reason) about the excesses of New Year's Eve.


Please don't drink and drive!


Monday, December 26, 2011

The day after the night before!


I am headed out to shop for wrapping paper for next Christmas!



She did wait for Christmas morning to open all the gifts.

Sunday, December 25, 2011

Happy Birthday Jesus

To all my friends and family I wish the fondest and merriest of Christmas's.

Saturday, December 24, 2011

THE DAY BEFORE THE MORNING AFTER

A Christmas card to all my friends and family.

How many times have you gotten that card in the mail from an old acquaintance or family member that you either see or hear from once a year.  And then only because it has become ritual from some old mailing that we once maintained because it was on the "Christmas Card" list.  I can remember my mother keeping "The list" and beware if you were banished from said list.  I remember serious conversations about who was on and who was off and why.

 God forbid that we get a card from someone who we'd forgotten or had not already sent one.  I have one on my desk right now.  That means adding a hand written note, using the last stamp in the house which is likely to be a "Snoopy" stamp or some other inappropriate cartoon.  And having to face the mailman, to whom I have not given a Christmas gift. 

Do they still do that?  I remember my parents always, always remembered the postman and milk man on Christmas with five or ten bucks.  Boy, that was different times.  A delivery man actually dropped off the milk, eggs and butter every day.  Placed it in a grey insulated box on the back step with "Bordens" stamped on it .  If you needed something special you left a note in the box.  Today, well that's their job..."What do they expect"?  And now Christmas cards are mostly sent via e-mail, Facebook,  or some blog that serves as a "One size fits all" greeting.  Oooops!

And here's the biggy.  When you get a one page letter of  "This is what we and the kids did this past year," Christmas letter.  This way they only have to send one letter or card per year.  OK, Johny got all D's and an F this year.  Sally, is running with the wrong crowd and got pregnant (She's 14 now),  but we're going to raise the child ourselves (that will work with that track record).  And little Georgie had his hair lip fixed.  The husband lost his job and is flipping burgers at the local joint and momma thinks she might be in a family way too.  But they had a great year and certainly wish you a similar one. 

Or the alternative. 

We had a so-so year....both kids are now in college (Ivy League you know), we wintered in the Bahamas, summer in the Hampton's, and skiing this past month at Vail.  And you are working your A off trying to pay the mortgage.  Sigh!

Someone would say that the above is the reality of Christmas.  Oh I remember all that.  Lived some of it. Laughed at the lines on Black Friday.

  I Love my kids and grands and miss the hell out of them.  And that makes this time of year very hard for me, but to all my friends and family ... A very Merry Christmas.

My annual Christmas letter to you will come, when it's supposed to, as we approach the new year.  Because it's actually a summary of the year past and has little to do with Christmas. 

Christmas is the celebration of the Birth of Christ.  To one and all I wish you a happy season with family and pray that He ...

Sheds the light upon you and yours during the season and for the year to com.

"

Wednesday, December 21, 2011

The 21st day of the 12th month...time to start Christmas Shopping

MURPHY WAS AN OPTIMIST!

Since I am the Vice President in charge of keeping the house presentable and somewhat clean, it is my duty to access Murphy's theories.  You will remember Murphy, he said that "anything that can go wrong..will"!

Take vacuuming for instance.  Not a real problem were the machine not attached to a long cord, which much like the hose outside is possessed by demons.

First the culprit responsible for most of the dust, dander, dog hair and downright dirt in the house refuses to move when approached with anything other than a cookie.  See all those words start with the letter D..interesting, rhymes with dog..Sigh!


Why is it when you go from one room to another with the vacuum, and are in full speed ahead mode, the cord sticks somewhere?



And don't even go there with the cords under the computer table.


Just try to get anything straight down there.  Even the vacuum doesn't want to get tangled up with that mess.  And speaking of vacuums.  They have an appetite.  That's right, they seek nourishment of their own kind.



Those fringes of throw carpets.....like pasta to a vacuum.  Right around the brush and that means stopping the machine.  Bending over and untangling the fringe.  Right after I have bent over to untangle the cord.  After bending over and promising the dog a cookie.

Oh and did I mention? 
 At my age, bending over to do ANYTHING, is simply God's way of getting even!  He does have a sense of humor after all.

Monday, December 19, 2011

The 19th day of the 12th month of Emergence

A little behind on this Christmas thing!

I have been having a bad time getting into the Christmas spirit this year.  Let's see yesterday we got up to seventy somethin degrees, and only this morning did we reach down to the freezing mark.  Oh, of course the decorations are up on the front door to welcome all to see.  The tree is decorated in the front hall and the dogs have colorfull bandanas around their necks.  Much to their wonderment and confusion I suppose.  And the birds just don't care....afterall their brain is the size of a pea.  What can you expect.... I, on the other hand, am supposed to have a brain somewhat larger than that.  Therefore, I should be dancing around with visions of sugar plums and stuff.  Well, ok maybe a sugar cooky or two.  Got to have something to leave for Santa on the mantel.  That reminds me, need to clean out the fireplace for his arrival and of course the first fire of the season if we ever get cold enough.  And yes Virginia, I do still believe in Santa Clause.  Tooth Fairy, not so sure, but Santa....oh yeah!  You see there is a reason for Santa kids....it's called Jesus!  So after you get through all that ribbon and wrapping paper, give pause to the real reason for the season.  See, now I can get into the spirit a bit.  Last year was a little easier cause Jesus gave us some Christmissy stuff to wonder at.


Have you ever noticed how quiet it is during a snow storm?  Especially if the wind isn't blowing.  Then some idiot comes along in his pick me up truck draging his kid behind on a sled and ruins it all.  Particularly if the kid falls off, you know then the sirens, flashing lights and all...oh well!

This was a time exposure taken at 9:30 at night, and just amazed me what a digital camera can do.  Of course if I had turned off the time exposure and used a flash that didn't have a great deal of power, then it was a little different.



A little less sepia and more black and white, but you can see the snow flakes.  Now that out to get me into the season a little bit.  But one of my favorite times during a snow storm is when it's all over and the sun comes out.  It all just glistens.  Thank you Lord!



Sigh.  Well, I guess I just got to put on my wifebeater T-shirt and a pair of shorts and take a walk.  Now where the heck did I put those sun glasses?

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

The 14th day of the 12th month of Emergence

MINDING THE ROOTS AT TAVERN CREEK - 14

There was a time when the only way to get around the Chesapeake Bay was by boat.  There was no Bay Bridge at Annapolis or Virginia beach, nor were there mighty railroads that opened the bay's products to the incredible markets of Philadelphia, New York or points west.  A lot of commerce went out of the port Baltimore as shown in this 1908 postcard.



Of course everything was directly related to the waster as shown in this 1920 card depicting a Cutter Drill at the Naval Academy in Annapolis.



Even vacations were taken via ship to beaches and resorts around the bay, such as in  this Betterton Beach card of 1904.



And in 1905 there was an old wooden bridge spanning the mighty Chester at Chestertown.



All of those places were in the vicinity of the Tavern, but a log ride away in the little 14 footer.  And those scenes were all about fifty years before my time.  But the Eastern shore changes little over time and I guess that is part of the charm.  After growing up on two creeks, the Tavern and Swan, I spent my adult life on the Chester River at Chestertown.  It is a broad slow moving river for the most part.  Still bordered by the old farms and mansions of the south.  Large land holdings have held back the more crass (in my humble opinion) developments of modern life.  There is still too little water in the world and too many people, but that's for another time.

The upper reaches of the Chester is littered with small docks and a variety of boats providing for work or recreation.  Boat traffic is moderate to heavy on weekends and non existent during the week unless you are a waterman (commercial fisherman).



In the upper part of the River there are fewer working fishermen, but the sign is evident from time to time.  Ofter you can see an old flat bottom bateau,  http://fineartamerica.com/featured/bateau-skip-willits.html,  or a deadrise working boat oystering in morning light, http://fineartamerica.com/featured/tongers-sunrise-skip-willits.html, or even my granddaughter's canoe http://fineartamerica.com/featured/elizabeths-canoe-skip-willits.html.

And occasionally you will see a Watermen's toolbox.


Finally


The river widens near it's juncture with the bay proper.  Here the little boat could reach and still have  enough fuel to make the return trip to the Tavern.  Someone once said that most of our world is covered with water.  Well in a little fourteen foot, plywood, boat it certainly seemed so.  I have no idea how many miles we put on with that little boat so many years ago, but I know that the memories of those miles go on forever.



Saturday, December 10, 2011

The tenth of the 12th of Emergence

For all my Lighthouse friends.

A crass commercial self promotion!

If you don't see your favorite East Coast Lighthouse, email me and I will post it.  And while your at the sites, please take a look at my other categories for sale.  Yes, this stuff is for sale......Like for Christmas?  And, there are about 20,000 other artists on the site, so if you can't find something....your destined to wait in line next year on Black Friday with the other couple of thousand poeple standing out in the cold.

Finally, please pass this blog on to your friends and followers.  I really do need the business!  As do the other 19,999 starving artists.




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Friday, December 9, 2011

THE ELEVENTH BIRTHDAY OF FRANCIS THE FIFTH

This is "Francis the Fifth"

And Birthday wishes are in order!


Poor guy is saddled with a family name and is the fifth in line........that's why he's called "Ben"!  Is why his father, "the fourth", is called Todd and why I, the third, is called "Skip".  No, we're not ashamed of our family name...not by a long shot.  It's just that a guy going through grade school, high school, and college with a name like Francis can be dangerous.........Kids can be rough.  My father, the Junior, was called Fran and rose to be the president of a major corporation.  Strangely enough Juniors father was called Paul, but his father was the first Francis.  He was the sect. of agriculture for the State of Pennsylvania a hundred or so years ago.  So most of the "Francis" people did good relatively speaking.  Paul owned his own farm.

The "Fifth" is a pride and joy, like his sister and cousins, but the poor guy has been given the responsibility of carrying the family name forward....like Henry the Eighth?  


We never know what we or our young spawn will turn out to be, but this one like his father,..... constructs.  They both like to build things.....like Leggo robots, roads, bridges, and big buildings.  Whether it be a new kind of target for his (gasp) BB gun or some computer intricacy that I will never understand, he actually likes to put things together, take them apart, re-invent them.  And intense interest in what interests him and and healthy way of ignoring what doesn't interest him.  Must get that from some old man I know.



 If it has more than one moving part, it was made to be disassembled and reconstructed.  A very intense guy....Who is Bill Gates,  a Jeopardy question?


He hasn't taken it apart yet, but we have readjusted it and he is learning just how to use it.  Great lessons in compensation in order to get the arrow into the right portion of the target.  He's just being a boy and we love him to death. 

Happy Birthday Ben!



Thursday, December 8, 2011

The 8th day of the 12th month

COMING AND GOING!

The first of our winter Camilias


And the last of the knockouts



Wednesday, December 7, 2011

The seventh day of the 12th month of Emergence

QUIET THOUGHTS AND PIKE PLACE ROAST


My better half had foot surgery late last week and of course I am playing the good cop to her bad cop.  Which means she gets to sleep most of the day and is awake at night.  Ergo.....the Pike Place Roast this morning at five....Thank you Starbucks.  I think that they must have figured out how to get more caffeine in that stuff without us all knowing.  It certainly is additive.

  The neighborhood had a thrill last Saturday night.  I was standing at the kitchen window doing dishes like any good fifties wife, when the police showed up next door and up the street.  Have you any idea how bright those lights are on top of squad cars?  Of course I didn't take any pictures.  I am just too nosey and was trying to and find out what was going on.  Still not totally sure of the whole thing, but it seems there was some kind of drug bust a block over and people were running through back yards to get away. 

I've got news for all the would be Jesse James out there in our community, I am protected by Smith and Wesson (38 hollow points), a chi-wa-wa, border collie, and two cockatiels.........so don't come runnin cause I know how to use those cockatiels.

OK, so it's way too early and I am giving too much information into my personal life of the moment and most of you could care less anyway.  And anyway what's the point of the blog today anyhow.

Refill! 

If you haven't notice Christmas is coming in some eighteen days or so.  Well, if you hadn't noticed I can't blame you.  After all, organizations are afoot to ban Christmas from the public celebration,  if not Christianity all together.  The government has become what the founders never imagined.  Unemployment is at major depression levels.  Congress is self centered and dysfunctional.  White House leadership isn't.  People wait days to get into a store to save 50% of some trinket and freeze to death in the process.  So not so much you wouldn't miss the fact that the birth of our Lord is to be celebrated in a couple of weeks.  Which brings up the point of the blog today.

Freedom!

Man that's a leap!  But there is a photograph up there.

My first bicycle arrived on Christmas morning in a little bedroom town in central New Jersey when, I guess, I was in fifth or sixth grade.  If I recall correctly it was not like the one posted here, but one of those English types with the skinny wheels, 648 gears, and brakes on the handle bars.  You could actually pedal backwards and nothing would happen.  That was a good thing when your pants cuff got caught in the chain.

 But that bike represented a freedom that only a kid could appreciate.  There would be no restrictive monthly payments for Beetles, Pontiacs, or Ford Explorers....just the freedom to get in the saddle, wind in the face, and explore.  Hell, it was a big thing to go across town to see how the other half lived.  And no parental or spousal restrictions.....weeeee!

We didn't have to worry about deficits, unemployment, people gathering in protest who never before felt the need.  Other people gathering in protest for they know not what.  And what now seems to we adults as an uncertain future for our children and grands.

 It's no longer as simple as getting on the bike and pedaling up the hill just to see what's on the other side.

However, Christmas is coming and with that brings the renewed need for tightening of family ties.  Yes, the bike was great and the gift from Santa (all big gifts were from Santa) lasted for many years.  But the memories of my parents and sister, grands, uncles and aunts, nieces and nephews, friends, pulling together to celebrate, was really the core of the season for us.  Now it's my own kids and grands that are so important.  And the recognition of the "Reason for the season"...to quote what is becoming a cliche.  We were never overly religious growing up, but my parents made sure that we knew why we celebrated...We didn't need to be seen on Sunday to believe in God!

I saw a five year old on TV the other night.  She was asked about Christmas and what she liked about it.  "I get presents"  She smiled.  A beautiful child with a beautiful smile.  Do you know why we celebrate........."No".  Her parents had the freedom to teach her and wasted that freedom.  Pull them together folks, hold them close, and whatever you do .... teach them what we are all about so that they can ride over that hill just to see what's over there.  We don't want them running through some stranger's back yard just to get their freedom.

Monday, December 5, 2011

The Fifth day of the twelveth month of the year of Emergence

MINDING THE ROOTS AT TAVERN CREEK---13

The little 14 foot plywood run-about was a fine ship.  But not large enough to make all the trips on the Chesapeake that I would, as a sixteen year old,  have liked.  Sure it was enough of a craft to manage the Tavern or the Swan and even the mighty Chester.  But to make meaningful trips south past the Bay Bridge at Annapolis or north up to the Susquehanna Flats at Havre de Grace.....not so much.  Each year she had to have vast numbers of brass screws replaced in her hull before she was put in the water so the wood could swell and seal the small cracks that the annual paint job didn't fill.

I just finished reading Bill O'Reilly's new book "Killing Lincoln", and in it he talks about some of the people who took part in the killing conspiracy as having been held in a prison on Point Lookout in Maryland.  You know O'rielly, he's the one that is always right and nobody wants to admit it.   It brought back a number of memories.  I did some copy work for an art collector in Chestertown a few years back and he allowed me to keep a copy of the old fort down there.


That would be the Chesapeake  Bay on the right and the Potomac on the left.  Today the road runs through the middle of the point and the whole place is supposed to be haunted, including the lighthouse.



Now you can say all you want about believing in ghosts, but that's alot of people to die in one place and ..... just sayin.....what are the odds?  Huh?  Got to be a couple of aberrations walking through corn fields with muskets over their shoulders.  Then they vanish....true story, don't know it's true though.  And then there's the lighthouse.



The building is empty and fenced in.  The only ones who can get in are the park rangers and they don't give out passes willy nilly to just anybody.  When we made the first poster "Lighthouses of Maryland" back in '90, this was the way she looked.  Place was empty.  Look carefully in the upstairs window, second from the right.  See anything?  Somebody or something seems to be looking out to sea.  Oh well, maybe.  But I believe...hell I believed in the Mets when they won the world series too.  Sigh.

I had occasion to photograph the old light once again in November of '02, after they painted it the original colors.


On this trip, the ranger did allow me to enter the grounds and the building.  As he works there every day, I had to ask the question.  "OK, is it or isn't it"  He chuckled and said he could not tell for sure.........but. 

 They do have a ghost walk once a year and he was in charge of turning one particular light in the house off an on as the people walked past.  He said that no sooner had he turned the light off, than it would go on again all by itself and then in a few seconds off again.  All by itself.  He said that it was a little disconcerting.  I know that the hair on the back of my neck stood up when I toured the place, and it was just the two of us. 

And while they were painting the new colors and doing some renovations inside, a local lumber company was called on to deliver some 2x4s and plywood.  The driver was reportedly suspect of superstitions of a number of kinds, having lived in the area all his life.  The gate was left open for him and the rest of the people working on the place had not yet arrived, so the place was void of people.  Not the way the driver explains it!  He got out of the truck and was loosening the straps that held the wood when a hand was placed on his shoulder.  He swears it was a hand, firm, gripping and steady.  Of course when he turned to look.........there was no one there.  Honest story.  Honest truth?  Story has it the lumber never did get delivered that day.

Friday, December 2, 2011

The second day of the month of Santa's Emergence

I have been neglectful of the blog due to a long weekend of travel and an operation on my better half's foot.  Some extensive surgery there, but a way too short stay with the kids in Maryland and Pennsylvania.  Now three to six weeks of playing Nurse Ratchet. At least I hear the Pikes Place Roast making the last sounds of "I'm ready" and that's a good thing.  Very quiet here and I just may have a cup before duty calls.  Dogs have been fed and are quiet.  All I can hear is the dull buzzing of my inner ears.  Don't get old, it ain't for sissies!  On my way to Maryland I passed the usual flocks of geese that make their annual trek to the Chesapeake, but also in the middle of the day at least two bands of whitetail deer racing across open fields.  Only one reason for that behavior in the middle of the day.  No pick me up trucks parked along the roads to indicate deer season.  So must have been more natural, like the rutt.  That is that time of year when the ladies are receptive to the males and the males act like damn fools in order to accommodate the ladies condition.  What if we humans had such seasons?  Well, I guess we do.  Might be called "Friday night at the meet market season".  At any rate the sight brought back tons of memories .... of Deer Hunting Season .... not Friday nights.


This buck is in Cades Cove in Tennessee, but my own pursuit of the wonderful whitetail started in New Jersey where there are more deer per capita than in any other state.  Why is that you may ask?  Well because there are more anti gun/hunter types per capita than in any other state.  And our children have been taught that hunting is evil because 1.) it involves the dreaded gun, and B.) also involves shooting one of natures creatures.  Both lines of reasoning are false, but that's another topic.  As for you green save the earth types (And I am one but of a different stripe than presented on MSNBC, et al), you are all rookies.  Hunters and fishermen have been saving the planet for hundreds of years.  Also another topic.

I am not sure when my first deer hunt occurred.  I know I was in high school.  I know it was with bow and arrow.  And I know I killed or wounded nothing but my pride.  It was reasonably local to where I lived in east central NJ and was probably was somewhere around Martinsville, New Jersey.  My group of friends and I would find a farm, get permission, and then stalk around the area for days after school, scattering game all over the place learning the trade of hunting.  We considered ourselves amongst the likes of the old buffalo hunters (like Buffalo Bill and the [gasp] Indians), providing food for thousands. 


Oh, we would see a lot of deer.  Generally the white tail for which they get their names.  They raise that thing when the are running away from something in alert mode.  Saw lots of them.  The first deer killed was not until we were well into college.  It was a four point buck, killed in Stokes State Forest in North West New Jersey with a running shot that should not have been taken but which did end up mortal, much to my absolute amazement.  The first of only two deer I ever killed before taking up the camera and laying down the weapons.  The first by bow and the second by rifle.  I found that I get far more enjoyment with the camera, but these herds do need to be thinned or the deer will eat themselves into starvation.  Hunting does provide a most humane way of herd management.  And hence the hunters in this world are leading edge conservationists.

My hunting experiences have provided me with the tools to get close enough to animals to make decent photographs.  My father's advice was to go out into the woods young man, scrape a spot clean around a big tree so you can move quietly, sit down, and act like a bushel of apples.  Deer love apples.  What he did not say was how much enjoyment one can get from simply sitting in the middle of a woods quietly, not moving, listening and watching.  Try it sometime, for a couple of hours.  You don't need a weapon or a camera...use the mind's eye.





Thursday, November 24, 2011

Thanksgiving Day, the 24th day of the 11th month of Emergence

Happy Thanksgiving to all you gobblers out there!


Wednesday, November 23, 2011

The day before Thanksgiving in the year of Emergence

It snowed in New Hampshire over night.  This is a capture from a webcam in Wolfeboro an hour ago.


The coffee pot, set to automatic, is my alarm clock and this morning the "Pikes place roast" is calling unusually loud only becuase it is so quiet in the cabin.  No red squirrels scampering over the roof.  No great horned owls hooting the woods away.  And certainly not wild cries of the loons penetrating the silence of the lake.  Just the drip, drip of the coffee perking. 

It is one of those mornings that one can simply lay awake and listen to the silence.

I throw on a set of long underwear, woolrich shirt, jeans and boots.  A pine knot or two under a couple of red oak logs will restart last night's fire.  Camera over one shoulder and the old Ithaca double bore  over the other.  I am more likely to shot something with the camera than the gun, but who knows a ruff grouse or even a turkey might present itself in a suicide run. 

And there is an old pine tree that probably predates the native americans that might offer a good image.  Not that I really need to expand my library of 50,000 or so images but my training tells me never, never to go out without the camera. 

I pass the little metal boat called "Putt", upside down on the beach and awaiting the spring fishing crowd.  Sneak through the parking lot with the sign stating that this is where the anglers park.  And on up the hill of the road.  Some one else has cross country skied before me.



Thats ok, the silence is still deafening.  I think that the silence of a new snowfall is the thing that amazes me the most.  It's as if the world has been insulated.  On mornings like this....no wind and the storm clinging to every exposed surface that can catch a snowflake.

The stream that feeds into the lake still runs clear and clean.  One could almost drink the water running over a stream bed created thousands of years ago.  Just incredible when one thinks about it.  A flowing stream is always alive.  The water that is.  Sure there are all kinds of little critters living in the water, but the water itself is never still.  Always moving.  What was, is.  What is, will be.


Eventually, the last sip of coffee is cold.  The morning light is too late for that tree.  No grouse or turkey, which is probably a good thing because I did'nt have to interrupts God's stillness.  No bear or moose for that "Will you look at that moment".  Just a pleasant moment in a lifetime of sometime pleasant moments.  Just the kind of moment to wish my family and friends a happy and wonerful family Thanksgiving.



Monday, November 21, 2011

The 21st day of the eleventh month of Emergence


On a clear day, you can see forever!

My gratitude to Dr. Bristow, another of Dr. Smith's fantastic posse.

You guys are keeping me alive with duck tape and bailing wire, and I appreciate it.  My little procedure went well and I have written proof from my proctologist that they in fact did not find my head.

Sunday, November 20, 2011

The 20th day of the 11th month of Emergence

Life is just an adventure.

And I guess that's how you got to look at it.  Today's blog will fall into the TMI category but as I have said in the past it's my blog, so suffer!  A few days ago my idol was decimated by scandal and now he has lung cancer. So when it rains it pours.  I looked at the Drudge report a day or so ago and was sure the world was coming to an end within the hour.  It started out at 34 degrees yesterday morning but got up to 80 by three o'clock.  What did the guy say....if they give you lemons make lemonade?  Or maybe whiskey sours!  God.....the glass has to be half full and not empty.  So for all you guys living in your mother's basement or garage, go back on your little puter and be positive.

This morning after building my cup of Pikes Place Roast (bless you Starbucks) without cream, it was then my chore to mix the Dy-NO-Mite cocktail in preparation for tomorrow's colonoscopy (hence forth the "C" word).  See, life truly is  an adventure.



Now why in the world would we as rational human beings pay $7.00 to put themselves through the anticipated agony that even an afternoon of professional football won't cure.  We all know that the results of this stuff will be challenging, but another adventure.


I got a call from the nurses yesterday to A.) check if I was all ready and remind me that I have to be there at a certain time and to call if I was going to be out of the country.  And 2.) to assure me that they were all ready.



Well, that was encouraging.  I just wonder what possesses a man, or woman for that matter to become a proctologist.  "Hi what's your Major............Oh thank you for asking it's proctology".  God I pass enough of those on the streets everyday, why do all that studying just to see another one?  And up close and personal at that.  God Bless em!



I think there's a reason why the sign at the right says "No trespassing"

  Furthermore, if that Rib eye in the fridge winks at me again I will grill the SOB up just for practice.

Thursday, November 17, 2011

The 17th day of the eleventh month of the year of Emergence

I just posted the banner for this blog on FAA




Here are a couple more images of  "Looking In"


I will probably post him to FAA shortly.

Maybe her too.





Then there's the laughing pony.





Tuesday, November 15, 2011

The 15th day of the 11th month of Emergence

Two new listings of FAA!



Both of these images may be purchased as note or Christmas cards on Fine Art America along with tons of the same type of cards from thousands of artists.




There will be more to come in the next few days.  Who would of thought of it, getting ready for Christmas even before Thanksgiving.  It's as bad as the politicos running for office a year and a half ahead of time.  Eighty degrees here today....Happy Fall!