Landscape of Virginia

I just finished watching the film "Before the Devil Knows Your Dead" with Phillip S. Hoffman as the protagonist, wow what a performance, he's always putting on such a powerful performance when he plays a part. No matter what it is you can almost always count on him being complex and not ambiguous at all in his role. This character he plays is no different, besides that the movie unravels in a rather nouveau manner. Beginning with the center of the problem being presented at the start of the action then working the story both back in time and forward in time from that event and moving back and forth to "fill in the blanks" more or less. I really liked that manner of storytelling, it lent to me keeping up on just where the film was in the story, moreso than if it just had a set start and ending and it was told chronologically. I would suggest seeing it for yourself.

We rode up the Shenandoah valley hugging the eastern side northward from Afton and Waynesboro, when we came upon an old railroad stopover town that was pretty much deserted. The town is just south of Luray and it's called "Shenandoah". The town was a layover town on the railroad line that went up and down the valley and the engineers and many workers of the trains would stop in here for there nighttime rest spot. Since the trains no longer spend time on an overnight layover here the small town has died out. It's deserted and lay barren but some trains do hang out on the tracks which still run between it's "First St." and the river nearby. It's got a nice feel to it, it's got a wide not so long lay of the land, and it's gott'n a grant that improved the streets and facades of it's remaining buildings. It just doesn't have any people save a few holdouts. We ran into one man who had simply bought

It's been great working as a job coach in the University of Virginia dining hall at Observatory Hill this past year and a half we all do a helluvajob. I work with two young men now and they are really doing quite well thanks to the guidance of a couple of good instructors. One works in the dish room busing dishes, cups, glasses, silverware and then feeding it to the Hobart dish washing machine. He works hard and he loves it. He often says to me on a Friday " I can't wait until Monday", my response is usually "why?" and he always says "So I can come back to work of course" how about that, he's a rare breed , he loves the dish room work. Others work there alongside of him and I often pitch in and lend my hand to the effort of cleaning the students plates, glasses, and on and on. It's a job with one of the rewards of being able to enjoy a meal yourself that usually is made for the students alone. It's good food bel

Tonight the event on at the University of Va. was the lighting up of the lawn. It was interesting how much fun it was to just wonder around inside various places up there with no other intent then to just see it. There were many lights on rooms of the students and the dean's all had there homes open up to we towns folk, but it was an event for the students afterall. I was there because of a close friend's invitation to it. So I had an excuse. It was a good energy event and I was enamored by all the electrical lights all over the rooms and doorways. Plus how could one not be enthused by the large white orb which no one really could tell me the reason for it, but there it was as large as the moon. It was tethered by some strings but it was unusual looking at night but why not have a glowing orb hovering over tables with cookies and cider. Afterall, it is the Holidays!

One thing is that it's always been interesting to see just some of the items hanging in the dormrooms of the lawn. Tonight I had the chance to go up and see some for myself. I went to "the Lighting Ceremony" and in doing so I had the chance to see some of the new residents of the Lawn and since they had opened there doors to the public I got a chance to look inside for items on there walls. It was very unique stuff that I had a chance to lay my eyes on. You could see in a minute where the interest of the occupant lay. Some had a lot of home made art. My favorite kind of art. Others had many books on shelves in the room, while another had many albums by wonderful musicans laying on there desk and on bookshelves. Of course the one that caught my eye was the "Woman in Red" or this painting I photographed as the artist spoke to her friends inside. I enjoyed see it. And I also noticed that she wasn't a one hit wonder but had other good

Can you believe this truck that is actually a motorcycle engined small truck built by the Chinese and found through the internet. It's called a Tri-Fun It's parts are built in China and then it's shipped over here and assembled then sold through the web. There really aren't that many around right now, only two hundred or so have been made here so far. It gets about thirty to forty miles to a gallon of gas. It's about a ton and a half in it's weight plus it's engine which was built by GMC is under the drivers seat. I remember some Japanese vehicles using motorcycles as a basis for a truck much like this one but that was back in the 1950's. It has A/C and a stereo and it's comfortable to drive said it's driver.

Seeing some of the white stuff on the ground this morning was a bit of a surprise. No matter, the schools are in session and the day will go on, it's just a gentle reminder of the season we are heading into and what may be in store for us. Seeing all the great things that fall brings has been a real joy, like a new president-elect, that in itself is a real joy. I'm glad to have helped the system get him in office earlier this month. I will be working with a student on an art project of painting something he would like to see. I'm not exactly sure what we will produce but it will be something worthwhile and hopefully a joy for him to work on. I am going to be using art equipment much like the equipment I use here at home with my own art. I want these guys to have a real experience of doing what artist do with the stuff artist make their work with, the brushes, the palette, the very same canvas that I use when I make a work of art. It's cold outsid

The day is gray, wet and dark with little hope of change for the next day either nor this one. This is good dismal weather for the blackest crows to fly overhead and well you know the rest.... A good day to spend indoors. A day of work, meetings, exercise in the gym and being on the run. I guess it's what must happen in order for us to be forgiven for the sins of our forefathers but it's hard at times. Never too hard, just hard and wearing on my inner soul. However the alternative is not any better, only worse to be truthful so I shouldn't complain, I am not really complaining but it's ruff. I know it won't always be like this and we will attain our reward if we give it enough time. And I also know the reward is having the kind of life that I do enjoy living. So on I will go, and smile about it because after all it is the best of all lives that we live here in the states. I've seen other parts of the world and I realize that t

Enjoying this cool morning is very much a good time for me. The apartment house is quite from all the present occupants being asleep from their partying last night, see it's Sunday morning and well I just didn't fall asleep so....I'm up and you can hear a pin drop, or a cat lick itself clean. I have my favorite Radio Paradise on my headphones right now and they're playing some really good Squire Nut Zippers "In the Afterlife" it's some really funny stuff. Today I get to rest for a good while with the extra hour of time to waste, I might take a easy finally but who knows. As I've aged, its become a little easier to deal with missed sleep than it was in my younger years. I use to hate missing sleep. I hated having my girlfriend, even if she was one of the most beautiful scenes I ever woke up to, get me up early on a weekend morning just to watch the sunrise. Hell I hated that, my eyes were bleary, my mouth was always real dry and m

What an awesome time up in the mountains this past weekend, it was incredible for me. I've lived so nearby this wonderful place but seldom have I taken the time to be in them and walk into their trails. The trails took my on a journey to another mental place. The place my mind went was one of awe and joyfulness for seeing such plants in change of their states of being due to the change of seasons. It was terrific to see all those huge trees which were so old and big because people weren't allowed to cut them down. Then there were the berry bushes which had their yearly harvest on their branches, and not to overlook the changing leaves of those ever so wonderful trees which colored the light that fell on our trail. Truly something I didn't expect to see, I thought I was in for merely a walk but on our journey up into the Skyline Drive trails at Trayfoot Mtn and Loft Mtn I was overwhelmed with awe for the natural changes of autumn in the forest this year.

I'm headed off to campout in the mountains this weekend with a friend from work. We're going to be on Skyline Drive in the Blue Ridge Mountains and it should be a good dose of what fall is for all, since the leaves are changing and we are expected to have much cooler temperatures than we had been getting it should be very nice. My liking is for cooler autumn temps and hues in the foliage around us. This is such a great area of the country for this time of year with all the leaves changing into such wonderful variety of colors. I am looking forward to walking through it all and taking some really good photos which I will share with everyone once I return on Sunday. We will campout up on the mountains and there is talk about the black bears being so prevalent near where people frequent up on the trails so we might have some unexpected visitors on our campout up on the hills. I'm interested in getting some good photos so I will have a good number of them when I re

We have troubles but I know we will pull up from this nosedive, many professionals around the world are working to help shore up our financial markets. I hope and pray that it works out for our good future. I know that Pope Benedict XVI says that we should not put our hopes in the success of our investments but that is the way of the western world, that is how our economy does it's thing and help nurture those who are in our Main Street businesses and our people who work in those businesses. I do believe that faith in Christ Jesus is of the highest priority but we too have to help out our country and it's workers. I know some people invest only for greedy purposes, but others are doing so to help them at a time when they won't have the ability to bring in money. We people become older, they need to be invested so that they can live out their lives without the struggles they had when they were younger. Let those who have worked so long in our society gather so

What are they thinking, those Republicans are doing us more harm than good in a very selfish way. I cann't believe the way a vote on our future financial well being was simply dismissed by a group because it might harm their reelection chances, and if they are just mouthing the voice of their voters then they need to get a grip and lead those voters to do the right thing instead of simply ignoring the needs of the country right now. Its a selfish thing to ignore your neighbors plight simply because it isn't your own. And as far as having government leading our country's banking regulations well if they didn't we'd be in a pickle. Our government is an organization that is in office because it is to look out for our common good and well being. This means to keep us from hurting ourselves as we tend to do if we just run wild. We've let down our guard by letting down our controls over our monetary practices and now we see the results of what happe

Friday evening, in days past it was a good reason to get "blasted' or better yet "wasted" in all things done by my friends that one took the priority over everything else. It was all about who had "it", how much was "it" and where is he now? I don't miss the never ending chase after "it" and losing so much money getting "it". I play it out today and it spells out that I no longer am an escape artist about my life. I'm ok being a little sore and a little tired. I don't need anything "for it". Tomorrow I will be in a better space to enjoy my weekend, alert, awake and ready to go by the morning. I will no doubt have a very full day tomorrow and I will remember what I did and how I felt during that day and the day before (today). I'm glad to be ok with that, and I make a daily choice to continue with my quest of learning what I can from whom I choose to ask, "How do you do th

I'm getting more calls dealing with my vote as I'm sure most Americans are at this time in the political calendar. I'm hoping to vote early. I work at the polls so I am able to do so. Lucky me! As it has been said on NPR voting early in other states is now an option for many and this takes the load off the poll workers ( of which I am one as I said) and so without large numbers rushing in to vote we don't have to work really hard for long periods of time at the polls clearing them so they (the general public who are registered voters) can vote. There are many plus sides to this manner of casting a vote including the fact that the registrar herself has more time to be sure that the person is an eligible voter in any number of ways. Anyway, I'm looking forward to seeing this election come to the voters as also I am looking forward to the vote on our helping our financial situation get back on it's feet and headed in a good direction with oversight

It's always a good feeling to live in a state that gets the nicest of fall days even before the season actually begins. Today is one of those days, the air is crisp and the sky is a rich blue with whispy clouds streaming by during the day. Now it's drawing towards a close but it's yet got more coming with a wonderful sunset in progress as I write at my window. I am thankful for all I have seen and heard this weekend, it encourages me to continue on the course I am on, to stay clean and work on art. That is my job and joy. I can also say that it is meaningful to work with those who don't have all the gifts I've had over the past few years, and those who are handicapped both in body, mind and spirit. It's been a real joy to work with them and to share my life with them both at work and leisure. Both are important to a fulfilling life, and I consider them equal in needs by everyone no matter how well off one is or how disabled one is both are nee

I might be an old guy but I still don't like being laughed at for being it. It's like people just don't get it, just because I'm old doesn't mean it should count me out for understanding what's up or having heart, or even understanding new technology and even using it. These new folks are so anti-anyone over forty that it boggles my mind as to how much prejudice still rears it's ugly head through the young now. I've got to laugh at how predictable this new shunting out the old is when you compair it to how people use to shunt out the black or the long hairs or whatever outside look someone else has in part because it might cause someone to see something good in someone who doesn't look so good. Isn't that why they put so many behind bars in mental asylums years ago, because they bothered people, they didn't look so good in society, they aren't "cool like us" attitude. Here's where the new boss is just like the o

R iding the Local Transit with my bike, it was the very best of rides being that it was on time and fast. The only problem was that it did go in a round-about-way of getting from my place to the street my job is on but it was manageable for me and I plan to do my transit this way more often in the future. Granted I have to awaken a half an hour earlier and I need to put aside time to prepare to ride my bike which means gathering my gear putting my bikebag together with lunch, lock and chain, wallet and glasses for reading with my notebook for taking track of who belongs where at work then I have to dress for the weather if I'm going to ride home. But let me tell you it's all worth it when you zip by traffic at a standstill downtown while they are waiting for a light to change. I usually only go to the head of the line and wait unlike many bike riders who tend not to obey the laws of driving a vehicle and they cross no matter what color the traffic light is and

I've been wanting to go biking but other things seem to get in the way, either I need to carry things too big to carry along on my bike or just needing to get some rest from activity for the moment. Biking is a great way to get around and I plan to ride to work in the morning since the weather is cooperating lately but sometimes a person can just be too too worn out to make it onto the saddle. Thankfully, I can choose to ride my local transit system to work with only one transfer in getting their, I can always choose to do that if I don't feel like riding as long as I am awake early enough. The city bus system takes a good deal of time to use in order to go just a few miles, but it is a money saving method of travel here as long as your not in a hurry. These buses tend to loop around to places where not many travel but a few do, they just don't go one way down a street here, they take a lot of side trips to get from place to place. It's Charlottesvil

I think a friend of mine was right when he said "if a hurricane hits and destroys buildings and such, why do they rebuild in exactly the same spot, they shouldn't be allowed to do so because they will just get the same thing to happen again." I think he has a good point in these days of "global warming" because if one rebuilds in New Orleans we're seeing how the same type and size storm will come again, and again to this spot on our planet. With atmospheric conditions like they are and water temperatures higher than ever before one can pretty much see that storms along our Gulf of Mexico are only going to remain bad to worse in the near future so why should we invest in areas destroyed by storms like Katrina and ones to come like the one on it's way today to New Orleans Gustav . I believe we do need to take a look at our own behaviors in light of the new weather patters that are changing the actual formation of our planet. We need to project

School is terrific so far, we've only been on the job site one day since last Wednesday, but I am hopeful that it will be useful to our student's job history and future. We are getting things in order for the coming school year, it takes a while to get use to the new pattern of activities but it's coming. I have started a new painting but I haven't been able to find the time to work on it much. I think I put in two sessions of a few hours per session on this new painting. I'm feeling like this will be the last of the Japanese painting series. I can always go back to them later on but I'm finding it more interesting to draw pen and inks from those photos my Dad took in Japan while we live their. Either way I will work with those photos again, but I think I will tackle them with another medium.

We know you want to be one of the one's on the cutting edge , did you get the text message from the Obama camp? It came early in the morning, I heard it was sometime near midnight. Granted everyone wanted to know who the choice for Vice President would be and no doubt there must have been an attentive audience on the edge of their seats when the message was sent out early Saturday morning, I just wasn't one of them. It's a good thing to be using new technology but I think that a little forethought should go into it's usage and not just using it because you can. You've got to put yourself in the place of the person your sending your message to sometime, don't you think?

Walking around town , I see many faces who's names aren't known to me but their face is; because seeing them over the years brings familiarity of them into my life. I enjoy seeing people gain their own stride in life and working in the school system you see students graduate and once in a blue moon you see them walking downtown and one can see if they are continuing to accomplish their goals in life by merely seeing their outsides. Now I don't belief you can tell a book by it's cover but you can tell some things by the appearance of said book but granted one doesn't know the whole store until one communicates with that person. But people change over time, the question is does the person inside change? I'm still seeking the answer to that one. "Some do and some don't" so it seems to me. In my twelve step program I've learned that only through "stepwork" can we change that addict inside to be a person who's ok in

Preparing for the coming new school year what story is on the news but how the governor is planning to put education on the table for cuts in the coming year's budget, now that is an issue for me to feel good about and look forward to continuing to work in my career. Nothing like job security huh? It seems that the notion of job security is gone by the table with every career, but I know all I can and have to do is take care of myself today and let tomorrow take care of itself. Afterall, who really knows what lies ahead anyway, and why let it ruin today. Or this coming schoolyear for that matter, I'm hoping for a really good year. I will be working in a cafeteria dishroom with a couple of our students, keeping track of their work and progress towards independence on that job. I'm amazed that I am being called upon to teach others what I know about dishroom work, something I did for so many years and in so many different situations and something I never t

Another day without using anything to change my feelings or my thinking, this is the credo for a fellowship I willingly and happily belong to , it brings much joy into my life but it also can bring problems in living with others who suffer from our common disease. I guess I can be overly wanting to believe someone at their word and today and for a few days earlier I have had the wool pulled over my eyes in as much as a friend has been lying to me. Dealing with deceit is difficult but it needs to be done or it will not sit easily with me. My life in Recovery is a learning process and addressing someone else about their honesty is a part of the learning process, it's a real issue which in days past I would want to overlook. Today, I can't afford to do that and I must face it squarely.

Summer has but a few days left for me before it's back to work at Post High. I have seven new paintings to photograph and then I need to post those painting"s photos on both my website and blogs etc... One thing for sure, this summer I must have done something right because it's been a very productive and enjoyable summer for me. I got more paintings finished (worked on smaller sizes...well there you go) than I did last summer and met some people I really do value (old classmates up in Philadelphia on a trip up their) plus I saw a whole lot of artwork in both DC and Philly with my friend Dave Barrett. It's been a much more satisfying summer. The art I've done is much better, it's just painted better than previous work. And I've been able to link up with a group in Philly so that I will have six small paintings shown up their in Sept 8th thru Oct 8th at Benna's Cafe at 8th and Wharton Street in Center City with a group of Academy Alumni.

We don't get a lot of rain here during the typical summer but today I can see rain off to the west that should reach here by this afternoon if it doesn't dry up. We have some really dry air overhead. I'll be happy to see the rain when it comes even if I am planning to put up an artshow of my own this evening. I will hang a group of my watercolors tonight at a local produce shop just around the corner from me. It will hang for the month of August. I've gott'n everything together, I've written the "artist statement", I've written the description for each piece that shows the title, name, size and so on. I've also brought all the hooks and nails that I will need and well I'm ready to go. You wouldn't think a vegetable shop would be a good place in which to hang art, but this place is ideal for letting the local public see art. It will be hung right at the end of the checkout line and while people are waiting to have

It's been hot , but that's a regular thing during this time of year and I'm ok with it even if I am more of a cold weather lover I still enjoy getting out into the heat of the sun today. I've been able to watch some good films lately on this summer break, one of the best being "The World is Not Never Enough" a Flemming spy story featuring James Bond of course and I loved it. What unbelievable fun it was to watch the incredible events that unrolled one after another in that film. In between paintings, films are a good diversion while I wait for the paint to dry. I've been painting a lot of smaller canvases mainly because I don't have to spend as much time on them before I get to an end point. It's quicker to see something come from my efforts with a small canvas. It's ok to not know what your doing when one starts one because you won't mess up that much if it's a flop. And afterall, I think my Dad was right when he said to

Life gets busy and the busy get lively, I've been painting a whole lot since I've returned from a northern city of my past. (It's Philadelphia in case you didn't know, I went to Art School their) I've been able to do six 20 cm paintings on masonite and then one small 10" by 20" painting since my return. Most of them have to do with old model cars and/or traveling on the highway. I found that people who knew me thirty-five years ago also enjoyed the way I painted cars and such, so I decided to get right back to it when I got back home. I have enjoyed returning to that subject to paint. I always like autos and trucks and now I can make up my own versions of them when I create a painting and it's fun. They will be up on my site in a week or so. It will take a while due to the fact that I am headed out to a NA campout, the very first campout type of event that ever happened here in Virginia, and it's taking place at Natural Chimney'

I was able to get up to Philadelphia this past week, on Thursday I drove up from DC and spent the day looking at the alumni show at the Hamilton Building and also the Bank of America's permanent collection which cost a little bit. The alumni show was free and it also showed more class than the Bank of America's collection did in my opinion. They wouldn't let me photograph it but what my eyes saw was astonishing. There was excellent control of paint shown by one painting in particular. "Smoke Dreams" was a painting about opium smokers, and it wasn't a dark foreboding painting as one might picture, it was more of a light colored and also lighthearted view of smoking such a drug. The background has a couple of Japanese people engaged in a sexual maneuver but it's painted in a newer, more western manner and it wasn't at all distasteful nor did it make me feel uncomfortable while looking at it. In the foreground stands a woman who is certainl

I took a walk . I brought along my camera on that walk today. Just taking a meandering stroll around the downtown area and I really enjoyed it. I was able to see just how much this place has changed for the better. To me at least, this town has put up some really nice buildings with good features on them. Some of the better ones have been put to good usage by patrons of the arts. There are many more craft and actual art shops and galleries in this downtown area now that are open for business. The good thing is that they seem to be surviving, they continue to be open for business month after month. Twenty years ago, this town just didn't have much in the way of art shops, or galleries. We artists had to show work in bakeries or restaurants if we wanted to have our work seen, now one can see one or two gallery spaces per block on the downtown mall. Yes, there are places to show one's work now. I even went to a workshop held at the Omni Hotel where we all talke

Why didn't we learn anything from the last oil crises, with our efforts to find alternative energy sources falling short as soon as the price of gas became reasonable again for us to stomach. Well now we are living on a planet that could easily be cooked by our not changing our gas guzzling automobiles to a non-burning engines like we should have thirty years ago during our first gas crises. Now big oil has us by the balls and there is nothing we can do about it but scramble to develop alternative means of going from place to place with the stuff we want without using gasoline to do it. I am using my car as little as possible. Now when I drive I do three to four things on one trip. And whenever feasible I ride my bike at all other times. Don't wimp out, think about how this planet suffers each time we sit in traffic at a light just burning, burning, and burning....no wonder this planet is warming up so....think of how many people around the world must be sitti

Remember the election of 2004 when they announced that they were missing 10's of thousands of votes from a mostly black precient in Florida, I was wondering how that happened and just where did those votes go. So I came up with this cartoon while wondering about it. I suppose anything could have happened but as it turned out that many votes could have turned the election of George W. Bush over to Al Gore if they had been counted, that is if those votes really were lost to the winds and not counted. I only heard one account of it on the news back then, I wonder if it was true or not. I never really heard much more about it.

Working on a new painting today, I was able to visit a historic house in a part of town where you wouldn't think it would be located, but there in the woods was a very nicely designed house. It belongs to a couple at least one of whom (it maybe that both were) was once the Mayor of this city. I had the good fortune to meet both members of the house and a couple of grandchildren as I was set up painting in their front yard. The house is a beauty, it's been added on to with a nice southern exposure sun room which is very long and gets good light during the day. The front of the house reminded me of the Jeffersonian style with large columns and old red brick highlighted with white wood trim. It had a massive structure around the front entrance but it really wasn't that big of a porch once you stood on it, it just had strong presence when you were looking at it from the front yard or as you approached the house from the driveway. I only got a start on it, but I

Beginning with the summer break, the world opened up to be a pretty nice place mostly because many of my aches have gone away. I've had time to paint, draw, workout, go to many NA meetings and otherwise do whatever I wanted to with my day. I got to draw. That's had me reflecting upon the election material on the news. It's the people watching the candidate that I find interesting, watching them in the background of a photo or video on the news is really interesting to me. All the various 'listening' expressions and the excitement shown in the faces of those in attendance of a political rally of their choosing is so unique and a real feast of facial expressions. It's something that I have been enjoying this long long election season. It's also brought me a lot of new information about the way people dress now, that I have really incorporated into my caricatures features when I draw them. I need to study them once again to get these peopl

Today is our last school day for this year of 07-08 and I'm looking forward to seeing all the students off for the summer and then going to a teacher unwinding party at the High School. One thing that seems to have been done lately is to put cameras into the High School as a way of cutting down the trouble they have in curbing the problem of violence and just "bad behavior".. It's been in place for a couple of years I it's done that, but in thinking about it, would you want yourself to be on camera at all points when you were out in public spaces? Would you feel ok about it? What if those cameras were being manned by a group of people who wanted to keep citizens from gathering in groups of three or more and exchanging ideas? I know, it's not that way right now, but what if society changed so that it was, their cameras and computers which watched those cameras for suspecious signs could be in place by the time they took power, then what would you d

Seeing this city from the air was a real thrill for this bike rider. I saw so much green around here with a few exceptions of what was mainly the shopping malls and the large roads connecting parts of the city together. I took one picture of Barracks Road shopping center that shows 29 North heading right up towards the horizon which looks more like a drag strip than any typical road. Like I said it was a real eye opener for me to see all of this town from the air as I did last Friday afternoon. I don't think I'll be doing that again anytime soon. With this trip taken over head of where I usually drive I can see the need for another connecting road other than just a north south connecting route.

I went flying over this little college town yesterday in a Cessna, quite a bit different than flying out on a commercial plane. We were flying at 2,500 feet altitude, it was a little bit hazy but the sky was clear enough to see for some distance but not on and on. We packed two planes with our students and some teachers too in order to take them on a flight. When they returned we packed up the same planes with three passengers a piece then they headed out again for another half-hour flight over Charlottesville. I was able to get some good photos of the land below, I was even able to photograph my own apartment from the air. A student who really loves watching planes going over head and telling anyone who will listen just what kind of plane it is was able to go on my flight up airborne with me. He actually was flying the plane for a short time, he was thrilled by the experience believe me, I know this not only because he has been talking about Cessnas for the past year in

Another day done , another successful day clean another day at work being a Hobart programing master teaching his trade to an apprentice, it's been a good day all said and done. We have thirteen days of school left in our school-year. But who's counting! I had time to draw a little today. I'm glad after all the sadness in the global news with the serious earthquake in China and the storm in what was Burma, it's quite frightening if you really think of it. We seem to have a planet that is saying "enough in enough, I'm hurting you for what your doing to me". When calamity becomes commonplace something is wrong with us, with people, with governments, with our life choices maybe...I just hope, just hope we can find a better less harmful way to live our lives on Mother Earth.

Working on my own projects at home can be harder work than I do during my day job at school. I cleaned the livingroom, the bathroom and recycled my dry trash. I began working on another Japanese painting too. And this was all in just the beginning of Saturday afternoon, I have another whole half of an afternoon to go. Lot's to do. Where it's all leading seems to be the expression of my choosing, I chose to paint. I chose to recycle. I chose to clean. All because of my own wants. This new painting is of a main street in the town I grew up in overseas. I included myself on a tricycle in this one. It's kind of a fun thing to see oneself that long ago in another part of the world and I was acting as if the world owned me. It's kind of ironic since I felt so honored because the Japanese people treated me with such kindness and it wasn't so long before that our American people were demonized by them during the Second WW II. I am glad to have had that

It was a walk in the woods that I used to do to feed my addiction back when I started feeding it. I use to buy a pack of cigarettes for thirty-five cents at a local country-store then go into the woods with a friend by the name of Tommy Beale my cohort in crime and we smoked them all. We smoked the whole pack between the two of us in one "sitting" or more like "walk in the woods", it's amazing to me that we could do that in just an hour or so without getting really sick. After those early days of not ever getting enough even after half a pack of smokes in a short time, I turned to beer as soon as I got to college. I was legal then but I still couldn't get enough, the one (beer buzz)I was about to have was going to be so much better. And on and on....I couldn't ever get enough and seldom felt good and if I did it was short lived, a few moments at best Last weekend, I walked in the woods with other men who suffer from the disease of addiction,

A new painting was finished last weekend, it was worked on for my full spring break from work. It was quite enjoyable to work on although it had it's moments I felt like I accomplished something good from doing it. It's not exactly the same as the photograph it's taken from but it's ok for what it is. I'm kind of thinking people are having so many problems from just what the combustible engine is doing to this world maybe looking back at a society that didn't have too many engines at the time this painting is done might be somewhat revealing to we who are living is such a polluting time as this one. Anyway, I hope you enjoy seeing Kamahura Japan in the 1954 era, pre-modernization but post war era. I don't think there is too much of a record from that era in Japan.

I took a trip to Northwestern Virgina yesterday and I had the good fortune to stop in Upperville, Virgina. It's on the John Mosby Highway (Route 50) which runs down the Main Street for the little town. It is certainly something worth stopping for an taking in the older buildings in that city because many of them are made of hand laid stones with some mortar between them. The library is about the size of my apartment, certainly not huge, but it is still in operation as an active library. The houses are all typical of early Virginian styles of homes. In fact it seemed to be that they had a about every style of house that one might find in Virginia right their on Main Street. I did stop and paint one of the stone homes, it had been added onto so it was a little bigger than just one three story home. It was a challenge to put all those stones into the painting but I imagine it was even harder for those that laid those stones into the house itself. It was a very impressiv

Today we met. The organizational meetings of this self-help organization I belong to happened today. Boy people can really beat a dead horse sometimes and other times people seem to ignore what others or even groups have decided in order to question authority or even whatever is accepted as a done deal. It's truly a learning curve in many of these meeting, new people take a while before they get it, whereas those who have been doing these meetings for a while certainly have the advantage but one only learns by doing there homework or jumping into the fire and seeing where/how they get burnt. Many times I find what I have to say, is little but needed at this point, just because I have been thru these meetings for many years now....and I can help out by letting people know what has happened in years gone by (if I can remember it well enough). Thing is to remain focused on what is the fair and correct procedure to follow I find to be of great need in these meetings. Many pe

Working has never been going so well, but I feel that even though our little corner of the world is going well that the cost of living today is going to soon have an impact on us all. With trucks spending over a thousand dollars for one fill-up we'd better get into local food sources. Some are already planning to plant a garden this summer for the very first time to offset the grocery-store prices that are already showing signs of strain. In a word it's better to buy local than to expect to get it cheap at the nation's grocery-store chains because that isn't going to last or so it seems to this little guy. Thankfully, our art supplies are staying about the same but with shipping using gas and oil products no doubt that it will change with the times like everything else. I am gonn'a not pretend that everything is alright just because I can take care of myself. I know we are in this as a nation of free people and not as individuals just trying to "get b

Its been a long time coming but I finished another in my Japanese style paintings this past weekend. It's of a fire cycle, they didn't have enough money to build a fire truck although they did have a few in the station instead they made a cycle which could fight fires. I thought it was kind of unique and looked very different that anything I'd seen before so I painted it. Using one of my Dad's black and white photos I did a rendering of it. I enjoyed working with the strong red colors even though the photo is in Black and White I could remember some of the colors involved in this vehicle so I went ahead and played with it. It took a good deal of work, but I continued on with it until it was completed. I just couldn't let go of it very long while I was painting it. I guess I did another marathon painting session last weekend. I know I felt it after I was done.