Beautiful

Languidly lounging

Lost in laziness

As lush as a peach

As perfect as a pin-up

Biggie

Today's Headline

 

Maybe Check the White House?

Short Bits

Instagram. Yes, a time sink, but yes, fun and inspiring. I love watching funny cat and dog videos, but I also like listening to clips of good music, both new and vintage; watching historical videos (although, I have to be careful since one, supposedly true story, of a truck stopping a runaway plane, was a tv commercial); and yes, listening to regular people or people of history speak eloquently on how to live when life can be challenging. It helps me to believe that we will make it through this time of idiots and minions wasting our country.

Today, in yesterday's The Week Evening newsletter, I read that it can be good for us. The caveat, of course, is short bits, not hours at a time. Truth be told, ten minutes of given time usually turns into thirty, so bad on me for that. And, thank goodness, from my first days on it watching dads braid their kids' hair and folks doing 'easy' recipes (yeah, right), Instagram has gotten to know me and refrained from both now. Whew.

Belly laughs and tears from inspiration are both good reminders that life is good. We do forget that at times and we shouldn't.

Big Rewards

Who Knows What Lurks

Getting ready for work the other morning, 

I saw a sign.

Winter Is Coming.

The Shadow Knows 

Is It That Easy?

Heard a song a few weeks ago driving in to work and liked it enough to jot down the lines that stayed with me. Today, bringing out the paper I'd written it on, I thought, yep, still good. How I wish

To "Get Along"

This Day

 

The morning comes

dark and quiet

little wind

less sun.

Still

Morning,

and with it

a chance

To Be Better

To Be

I love New Yorker covers. Holding artwork in my hand to appreciate and enjoy, and to think that it comes in the mail every week, well, it's a treat. This past week was no exception. I smiled every time I picked up the magazine. Simple? Yes. Resonating in its happiness? For sure!

The Dog

Who Knew?

There's Relief! (Don't Forget the costume.)

We're Living In Hell

Trucks and Politics

I am not a fan for big trucks. To begin with, many where I live aren't used for work; they're a status symbol, a 'Look at me. Aren't I cool.'* When I see a truck with rust and it's clearly a working truck, I'm a fan, but I'm also a fan when I see a new truck, and it's also filled with tools. 

I'm also against big trucks because they're killers. If I stand next to a new truck, the hood is often above or at my shoulders. Statistics prove that when hit with one like that, accidents can turn fatal. Think about it: with hoods below or at the waist, a person can flip onto the hood, but when so high there's no place to go but under. Look it up. It's true. 

But, today reading a New York Times interview on Democrats and what they need to do differently,* I saw a different perspective. and it made sense. The kicker though? Note that when talking about having a truck, they mention going to work. It's a status symbol, yes, but it's used not only for that, but for work and vacation and yes, as a way of saying, that they're doing all right. 

So, I'm expanding my thoughts of why people have them (sort of, since, again, they're used for work), but the second? Can't budge on that. 

Change the Design

** A good article on that topic and I recommend reading it, but not what this post is about.

Flashback: April in Syracuse

Along with an incredible night of fun in music with friends (See here), I also had a great afternoon. We'd decided to go early to enjoy our trip. Our destination? A museum, The Emerson! Set in downtown, we found parking and went in.

Various exhibits awaited. First up was one arranged around the five types of painting, something I'd never heard of. From portraits to historical to genre painting, we then moved onto landscape and still life. Much like other visits to what could be called small venues, I totally enjoyed and learned so much. No surprise: art is art, right?

Portrait painting: I can totally bypass all those old white men paintings museums usually start with.* But, there are portraits of people who I can't resist, people who look out and I feel like I see them, really see them. (Maybe that's true of all those I walk right by too, but do I really want to look into them? Answer: no.) 

These portraits were my favorites. The last two might not be portraits, but hey, I'm not an art historian, so I'm doing the best I can. I liked the images and stories I saw there, so here they are.

Historical Paintings: These two were tough to view, just as reading some historical novels can be tough to read. Who wants to know just how awful human beings can be to others? But, art and novels help us to have empathy, to understand not only what was, but how far we have come and how far we still have to go.

Genre Paintings: On a brighter and happier note, there are these. I felt like I was stepping into these two, and wanted to!

Still Life: The one on the right is typical still life but the left? I like how it's been framed.

As for Landscape, I see I have none, unless we count the bike painting. Let's do that. 

The exhibit was wonderful and took up a good bit of my time, but luckily I did go on. In one huge room there was artwork from the floor to the ceiling and on all four walls. Work was being done in the storage area and so they decided to show it all. What an assault on the senses. I took photos of a couple and one in particular. 

The dark one of a man in a room with artwork was of Emerson's first place. I was lucky enough to ask a question to one of the volunteers who then went on and told me so much history of the museum. I loved it! One fact: to this day the building is heated by waste heat from the cooling plant next door. How cool is that?!?

Coming out from there, I took an artistic shot of my own, the artwork and stairway lines, before going downstairs to a room I was happy to have been told about. 

There were works there where a past and present landscape photographs had been superimposed making a new piece of art. Talk about the past meeting the present!

And then, to end, in the basement there was a wonderful sculpture of a porcupine....made with knitting needles. What whimsy!

History, art, fun (and even one of me, if you look closely.) An afternoon at

Emerson Museum

*To better explain what I mean by that, let me quote my google search and AI, which I usually go right past, "Based on your description of "really old dark paintings of religious scenes or hunt scenes," you are likely thinking of works created in the late medieval, Renaissance, and especially the Baroque period."  

Another Take

 

From another recent post I recounted a story on dying. Today's is directed at people who exercise (like me);  mine was on how to live one's life.

We're All Going to Lose

Morning Coffee

But for the first morning (too much wind), I was able to watch the sun come up over the trees and have a fire with my coffee. We had two night fires also. Best of all, we had no rain with temperatures ranging from warm enough to somewhat cool. In short, my tent living was wonderful!

The music was good to excellent and quiet to exuberant. Skunkfest knows how to start slow and mellow and build to the end of the night. My favorite nights were Wednesday and Friday. The first night a lively local band doing covers and Friday had a band from England, Ruen Brothers, who had lots of energy. The other group, a husband and wife duo, out of Oregon did two songs that I loved. 

Music Magic

Nature's Beauty

 

On a morning walk we came upon this mushroom. I'd love to say it made me think of gnomes, but it didn't. This wasn't whimsy but art. 

Nature's designs are incredible. Could an AI generated work do as well? I'd like to think not, but maybe. Of course, it would only be copying from Mother Nature herself. 

I'll take the original.

Perfection

It's a Dog's LIfe

Human's too. In the background is a gentleman who has been at Greer at every festival I've been to. Some become friends we only see here, but friends still. That's true of so many: neighbors (sharing their hoses for water), rowmates (saving me from my chair tipping, and not from my tippling but uneven ground), and people who sit behind us (sharing a tequila, sharing stories).

Enjoying Life

Finding Love

 

In all the right places, surprise places.

I 🤎 Skunkfest

Beauty and the Beast

So gorgeous. But then I saw this in the campground bathroom, gorgeous too, and saved it. Good deed for the day. 

Outside, a woman told me, as she saw me taking my photo, that it's highly invasive. Killed it. Good deed for the day? 

Let's hope god it's not. 

Spotted Lanternfly

Whiteboard

In today's climate, it can be hard to do a political cartoon that is funny without being devastating. This one from The Week makes the cut.

So much is wrong with our world, but a little humor "helps the [toxic] medicine go down," as Mary Poppins used to say.

Big Lies

Once Written

Another basic lesson I taught.

Still True

Ps. People might wonder why I am constantly amazed when I see what I taught to be the norm. Here's why: I didn't plan to be an English teacher. I loved reading and came to love writing, but I most loved editing and teaching. I wasn't schooled in any of this nor did I research my craft. I learned from experience. My teaching was in the basics as I saw them and not from a manual. I think they worked for my students because of that. I tried to make writing simple so that students could find success.  

At the End

This Is Happiness was a quiet read that grew into a lovely story. 

"There is no way to get there, except this way." Live your life. Through pain and sorrow, defeat and loss, love and happiness, victory and laughter. It's all we have. 

Tell Your Story