September 2020. Or is it?

 

Or is it July? Or are we still stuck in 2020? Whatever. Again.

Labor Day Weekend, September 2020

 

Costco sold chocolate lava cakes that came in these little ceramic cups. (The cakes were great! I hope they bring them back soon.) I didn't want to throw the cups away - after all, we ate about 40 of the lava cakes over the 2 months they were sold - so I've been painting them and leaving them in places on my bike route. We have a mask mandate here in Austin so my bird is obeying.

Mask on!

 Birds do it, bees do it.

I Would, If I was an Alien

 To compound all the crazy things going on, my local H.E.B grocery store has produced a new Product Purchasing Limit list.

Here's the good news: Toilet paper no longer has a purchase limit.              Here's the bad news: Brisket - Limit 2.

You can't be a Texan and not be able to cook/grill brisket all day long, all week long, whenever. What were they thinking?!?!

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Note: My Blog Wrangler is furious with Blogger. They've changed the format and one change they made was eliminating the user's ability to control line spacing. See above where the good/bad news lines are right next to each other?  No, Blogger didn't want them to be together, they forced a break, just like right above this note where she wanted no line space. But she did find via Help comments (where she wasn't the only pissed off user) that you can put two lines close together by faking blank spaces at the end of the first line and then pretending the second line is a continuation of the first line. So that's how she got those 2 lines together. Barely, by guessing and going to Preview several times. And she's mad she can't center images and see it as she's editing. No, I won't go to Facebook... don't even mention that to her!

Here's Extra

The New Normal, again.

The New Normal

OK, what day do we want it to be?

Oh yeah, the New Normal.

I'm still out riding my bike and was able to finally see a stopped train so I could add this painted ceramic lizard to it. He's not wearing a mask - Bad boy!

Stay safe! 😷

Remembering, Memorial Day, 2020: Barry Lynn Brown and James Clifford McKittrick

I first posted the information on Barry Lynn Brown and James Clifford McKittrick in 2009 (link below). This is a later Memorial Day post from 2011.  It hurts to know now that we use the number of Vietnam deaths (58,220+) as a reference to the increasing number of Americans (97,196+) who have died from Covid-19.

Arlington National Cemetery

Heart weeps.

Head tries to help heart.

Head tells heart how it is, again:

You will lose the ones you love.

They will all go.

But even the earth will go, someday.

Heart feels better, then.

But the words of head do not remain long in the ears of heart.

Heart is so new to this.

I want them back, says heart.

Head is all heart has.

Help, head. Help heart.

__________

Head, Heart, by Lydia Davis

_______________________________________________________

Memorial Day is a Federal holiday observed on the last Monday of May to honor U.S. soldiers who died while in military service. On this long Memorial Day weekend enjoy your picnic, your barbecue, your family gathering and maybe a long break from work.

But before you do, please go back here to see why it is so important for me that you take a few moments to remember two men who gave their lives defending our country and the freedoms we have.

 Captain Barry Lynn Brown, Killed In Action, Vietnam, 1968

Major James Clifford McKittrick, Missing In Action, Vietnam, 1967

Happy Valentine's Day, February 14, 2020

Susan hates fruit. So I try to trick her into eating it for breakfast. Usually works!

Happy New Year, 2020

My old-man's bike and my contribution to making your commute a little better.

The flowers come from a nearby cemetery. No, I don't take them off the grave sites! People will replace the older fake flowers they put there before with new, fresh fake flowers. They throw the old in the trash. I rescue the old flowers from the trash. The telephone poles have lots of staples on them from when people put up posters.  I can just slide the flower stem in the staple already there.

Happy Holidays to everyone. 

7 days left in 2019 to make art!

Remembering, Veterans Day, November 11, 2019

Nurses, Vietnam, 1969

Don Madden, Vietnam, 1969

Tens of thousands of American troops remain deployed all over the world, some in war zones such as Somalia, Afghanistan, Iraq and — even still — Syria. And the United States maintains even more troops overseas in large legacy missions far from the wars following the Sept. 11 attacks, in such allied lands as Germany, South Korea and Japan.

Although deployment numbers fluctuate daily, based on the needs of commanders, shifting missions and the military’s ability to shift large numbers of personnel by transport planes and warships, a rough estimate is that 200,000 troops are deployed overseas today.

Take the Day Off

Celebrate! We were at Ikea and Susan saw an ice cube tray in the kitchen section. Search Ikea for "plastis ice cube tray", and no, that's not a typo. There are other shapes available also, like hearts, on eBay. Use plaster of paris or push in clay, let it dry and there you are, ready for painting. I'm having a lot of fun doing different patterns. Some people say you can melt crayons in them and it makes swirl patterns. You try it, I'm not that energetic.  I've glued magnets on the back of some these.

Susan wants me to tell you that she insisted I buy the ice cube tray even though I said "Why would I want that?"Then it took her about a month of asking me to try it before I did. This picture is just a small sample of all the ones I've painted so far. Listen carefully, she's saying "I told you so."

someeecards.com

I Do Other Useless Things

Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson

I paint snails. My friends, Ernie and Shirley, take walks and find them for me. Nope, nobody living in these shells, which are all less than an inch long.

I also mark up bananas. Big deal, right? But these are bananas that are put out in our dining room, stacked up on a tray. I sneak mine into the middle of the pile. The amusing part (for me, anyway) is when someone finds it, looks puzzled, then puts it back and takes a plain one. Some people have absolutely no appreciation for fine art.

What Am I Doing????? Acccckkkk!

Susan made me a card that included this. Except that it didn't have any color, was just black and white.  Then she gave me some colored pencils.  So I colored it. Now she's threatening to get me a coloring book. Nooooooooooo!

Remembering, Memorial Day, 2019

Memorial Day is a Federal holiday, observed the last Monday in May, to honor the U.S. soldiers who died while in military service.  The son of a U.S. soldier killed in Afghanistan put it this way:

His life was not taken: It was given, to his country.

I served in DaNang, Vietnam, from February 1969 to February 1970 and then I came home. The Vietnam Veterans Memorial on the mall in Washington DC has etched on its black surface the 58,318 names of Americans who died during the war there. They came home draped in an American flag.  It includes these two names:

Barry Lynn Brown, Killed in Action, Vietnam, 1968.

James Clifford McKittrick, Missing in Action, Vietnam, 1967.

The Department of Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency refers to Maj. McKittrick as "Status: Unaccounted For."

Why are these two men so significant to me? Go here and I'll tell you.

Enjoy your long holiday weekend with family and friends.  And the next time you step into a voting booth think carefully about your choice.

2019: Have a Happy New Year

Need I say more?

Remembering, Veterans Day, November 11, 2018

Don Madden, Da Nang, Vietnam, 1969

Open Wide

Me: "I have a toothache that's really bad and it's not going away."
Dental appointment not available for 3 days but dentist prescribes antibiotic, which alleviates some pain.

Next day's dermatology appointment for suspicious leg spot whacking (initial basal cell carcinoma, final report = all clear):  Dermatologist: "It took a little longer because you needed 12 stitches."
(WTF? The spot was the size of a pea!)
"Here's the antibiotic to take."
Susan: "That's different than the one the dentist has him taking."
Dermatologist: "My prescription outranks the dentist's."

2 days later, dentist says tooth is bad, doesn't think a 3rd root canal will solve anything, extraction scheduled with oral surgeon.  Extraction done painlessly, thanks to paying $750 out-of-pocket for IV anesthesia ("Your insurance covers it only if you have 2 teeth removed. Is there another tooth you'd like to have removed?")
Oral surgeon: "This is the antibiotic you need to take."
Susan: "That's different than the one the dermatologist has him taking for that hole now in his leg."
Oral Surgeon: "My prescription outranks the dermatologist's."

Oh boy.
When two MDs conflict, Susan consults the appropriate authority, The Pharmacist: "One prescription is for oral germs, one is for skin germs. Take both and take PeptoBismal with them."
Problem solved.

We Swim

You've met Esther Williams before. Here she is with her new friends, Katie Ledecky and Missy Franklin.