Water Skiing Whale

The (almost) final result, tho I retain the right to re-do this rather quick "sketch-painting," along with adding an admission of a certain amount of TECHN-ILITERACY on my part, as I seem unable to crop this pic to fit correctly - but then, there you have it, such as it is!

The Angry Whale

A few days ago I was on a painting expedition with my friend Mick. I had been doing yet another whale painting (part of an ongoing series I call "A Whale A Day") and having trouble making that day's subject matter (a waterskiing whale) look believeable. (Gee, why would that be hard to believe?!)

I was working out this problem with some sketches when, for whatever out-of -the-blue reason, I started telling him how angry I continued to be with a person I had once considered a friend, and how it seemed like every time I thought about the way she had "wronged" me, I just kept getting madder and madder.

Eventually I happened to start paying attention to the expressions I was giving my water-skiing whales - and I absolutely lost it when I realized the whale I was working on when I was venting to Mick about my anger concerning my former friend, had an absolute expression of total anger on his face! (You might note it is the only unhappy whale in the whole pod of sketches!) Isn't that a scream?!!! I have to say, we howled a good long while over my Angry Whale!

(And now, for your amusement, my cathartic whale drawings...)

BTW - the whale on the top of the page is the Angry Whale; the one on the bottom is the one that I based the painting on...

It's Been a Long, Long, Tii-eee-iimmme....

Seriously, I cant believe how friggin long its been - no wonder no one ever drops by my blog!
5 months and counting!

I was originally going to title this particular post "No Shit Sherlock!" - in reference to my comment in my last post that I am not particularly good about keeping my resolution to post a bit more frequently than once or twice a year!

No matter; its just time for a little update - Jovi is now a bit over 6 months old and ridiculously cute! My granny name didn't end up being Exreme Granny or even Extreme Grammy after all - I'm going with an abbreviated form - "E.G." Not a Granny name in sight (tho it does still stand for Extreme Granny!) I imagine I'll get over this eventually, but for now - as much as I love and adore my grandaughter, I still have not reconciled myself with the idea that I am, indeed, a Grandma! Jeeze, aren't I just way too young for that? *Sigh* I feel that way, anyhow - at least til I look in the mirror! So, E.G. it is, for now anyway! (Jovi can call me Extreme, I suppose, if she wants - I'm really just trying to keep the Granny part from going public (which is why, of course, it feels safe to spout off about it here! I don't have to worry about anyone seeing it!)

OK, I'll try to update this a bit - I mentioned in my last post about getting the heck out of Dodge (caravan) but never actually told the story. I also said I would post a picture of the fire trucks in action, putting out my van, and of course I haven't done that - but I have a good excuse there. I sent my cell phone (which is all I had with me at the time to take pictures with, as unfortunately I left my camera inside the van when I made the mad dash to safety!) Anyhow, I sent my cell phone through the wash cycle not long after that , and sad to say, everything but the outer shell of that little razor phone got washed away as well :( So you'll just have to take my word for it, but yes, I was driving the van down the highway when I apparently had a little issue with a broken fuel line - and my nephew, who by sheer coincidence happened to be in his truck right behind me (not that he was following me to a repair shop or anything!!!) started blasting his horn and when I looked in the mirror I saw him flashing his lights in a rather frenzied sort of way. Whoa! Nephew is not the kind of person to joke around about that sort of thing, so I knew he was trying to tell me something - and then I saw the smoke pouring out from under the hood - and then (yes, it's true, where there's smoke there's...) FIRE! Sweet Jesus, what the hell! So I'm in the middle of a 4 lane highway and I can't just leave the damn thing there, so I try to pull off to the left where there's a parking lot, but damn, there's a semi coming the other way, and what the hell, why wont he get out of my way, doesnt he see I'm burning up and oh, YEAH!, he does see and now I see he's stopped and blinking his lights on and off, waiting for me to make my move, so I whip the van across the road in front of him, flames totally coming up out of the hood of the car, and skid through the gravel in the lot and I dont even think the stupid thing came to a full stop before I grabbed my purse (yes, duh, I did that!) and leaped out of that hellish trap before I turned into pink mist! Pschew! (Unfortunately I didn't think to grab my camera as well, which is why I had to take pics with the cell...)

Then my too-brave nephew goes flying into the resturaunt (in whose parking lot I'd just left my hot little van!) and back out again with a fire extinguisher and tries to put out the fire... and tries and tries and tries, and I'm screaming at him to get outta there, it aint worth it, and he finally gives up, thank God! And that's another lesson to be learned (besides don't try to put out a fire yourself due to all the danger involved) - you also shouldn't try to put out a vehicle fire with a restaurant's grease-fire style fire extinguisher, even if it is a big hulking commercial grade one. (Oh yah, and that'll be about fitty bucks getting that one refilled for the restaurant owner, I'm about to find out in a few days!) And so we (and about half of our small town by then) are just sorta standing there, milling around while we wait for the fire department to arrive. Finally they do, and after what seems like an awfully long time, they do put it out, so fortunately there was no big explosion, no pink mist, just me and my nephew and half the town, and - oh, crap, my sister had driven past just before everything started getting fired up, I'd better call and tell her I'm ok, not that she'd be worried because of course I had no reason to think she'd have walked past my car and noticed any kind of gas smell or anything, how could that be? So, I said to my nephew, I probably should call her anyhow, its a small town and all, and as I was attempting to do just that, I see her come up and I wave and say "hey, how ya doin' I was just trying to call you..." and then of course the firemen wanted to chit-chat a bit, what happened? - oh just the funniest thing, you know how these things go, I'm driving along, and suddenly, out of the blue the damn fuel line musta broke, and something musta sparked it, and damn! I'm glad no one got hurt, too damn bad I only have liability but then this van was on its last wheels you know, what are you gonna do? (Certainly not put full coverage on a beater like that, unfortunately, as it turns out!)

Anyhow, I get through that, and getting it towed out of there, and of course there was never an issue about responsibility for the fire trucks having to respond or anything because I certainly wouldn't be caught dead driving an unsafe vehicle with an issue like that, not that I had any reason to worry or anything!!!

These days I drive a real sweet little sedona red Subaru Forester, now thats a nice little car, doubt she'll be catching fire any time soon! ('Course, if she did ever have a problem like a fuel leak, I certainly wouldn't try to get thrifty and drive the damn thing to a repair shop or anything like that, not that I've ever had any experience with that sort of thing, I'm just sayin'! She's fully insured (including fire insurance, I'm pretty certain!) Named her Phoenix, just because ...

On Keeping Resolutions

Apparently I suck at it! The whole year almost got by me without one single post after the last one claiming how much better I'd gotten at it! But that's ok, I'm forgiving myself for this; it's been one heck of a year for changes for me.

Probably the biggest change has been...Dustin and Cori (pictured previously in the wedding pictures on this very blog) have already started on their resolution to make me a grandma several times over! (Tho they have since revised their plans to include two children instead of the proffered 4!) I am now the proud grandma of a beautiful little 6 week old girl, Jovi Ann. She is sooooo sweeeeet!

As I was telling my new grandbaby in the hospitol on her very first day about my activities the previous day ("your grammy just hoisted - by hand - 4,ooo pounds of pellets onto a truck, then into a spare room, little one...") Cori coined a new granny nickname for me - Extreme Granny (or Extreme Grammy, as I prefer) - I like it! Been trying to live up to it ever since! (Actually, I seem to earn that name without trying sometimes - as soon as I get some pics, I'll scribble in the story about how I managed - just a few days before Jovi was born - to get the hell out of Dodge (my '96 Dodge Caravan, which caught fire WHILE I WAS DRIVING IT!) Ah, but there I go, spoiling the story!

OK, enough for now...

New Year's Resolutions

Almost a week into the new year now, and some folks, were they aware of what my resolutions are, may think I've not been very good at keeping them. Not that I made a serious list of them - I like to try not to set myself up for failure. But one of the things I keep saying I'm gonna do is be more faithful in my blog entries. Since it's been over a month since I last posted, you could say I haven't done a very good job of it. You could, but I'm not gonna! I'm choosing to look at the bright side, build some positive momentum here, create my own excellent reality. And the fact is, with this posting, I'm currently blogging almost twice as frequently as I previously did. Dang - I'm good!

Hope your resolutions - and your year - are going well for you, too!

publish post or perish...

Unbelievable that it has been almost 2 months since I've written anything here. Just way too lame. So I thought I'd post something, anything, really, just to try to get back into the habit (like I ever succeeded in forming one where this is concerned!)

Anyhow, like everyone else, things just seem to get crazy busy, but I know that's no good excuse - it's get somethin' writ or get off the post time!

Been doing some brainstorming lately, and have an urge to try a few things out - like maybe a little sketchbook idea thats been rustling about in my head lately. Really need to figure out a few technical, how-to-blog related issues so I can just post one blog and let it go off into its own pages. Unfortunately, I'm such a technilliterate, I don't even know what that's called, let alone how to do it! But I'll try to figure it out, and return (soon I hope!) with the fruits of my labor...

Spice

This is my other Quarter Horse (the sighted one), Spice. The goofy looking white thing I'm holding is my bicycle helmet, which tries to pass as regular riding gear. I'm hoping Santa might remember me putting a real riding helmet on my wish list this holiday!

Spicey is a really awesome horse, great personality, big heart, and very well trained (which I take no credit for, since she came that way when a friend gave her to me last year.)

She pulled up lame last time out though - hugh bummer - and I guess only time will tell if that's the reason I received her gratus! There was no swelling, no heat, and she hadn't had this problem on previous excursions, so I am really, really REALLY hoping she just pulled something or stepped wrong or some other relatively minor thing that will prove to be just temporary. We'll see. Eithor way though, I love her, so I guess she's stuck with me!