December 30, 2006 Bonus Blog
Yesterday afternoon, I drove down to Aaron Bros. in Desert Ridge and bought two new sketchbooks ($13.49 each), expensive artboard (300 lb. watercolor paper and Bainbridge 2000 Ruling Mechanical Board, $13.49 and $15.49 each) , mixing tray ($6.99) and gouache tints (Spanish Orange, Payne’s Gray, Burnt Sienna at $3.10 each), five Prismacolor felt-tip-pens ($3.49 each). All for the Top Secret Project Prototype ($153.32, biz account). Came home and perused my completed sketchbooks (I thought there were only three but there are seven!). It was instructive to me to look at them with some distance, as certain sketches really jumped, while most sagged and looked gaggier than a Def-con gobbling greyhound. Of course when I was doing them they all had a certain equanimity, but some were beyond bad and more than a few were decent, and one or two were spectacular and I couldn’t believe I even did them. The trick is to find that place I was in when I did the decent and spectacular ones, and go back there. Easily said. Hard to do. I’ll post some of the winners and losers this next week so you can judge for yourself.

Towards evening last night, I built a fire in the house fireplace utilizing leftover wood from the chicken house. It was wet from all the rain so it took about three tries to get it going. I wanted the house to be snugly for Kathy when she got home. I also washed the dishes (and like most men, I would like a medal, thankyou very much). Kathy got home about six and I got the big, wet kiss and a squeeze in the money pouch area. This made it all worth while. We snuggled in and watched the second Preston Sturges film from the DVD collection I got for my birthday. “Christmas In July” starring Dick Powell was the film. It was better than “The Great McGinty” but still seemed horribly dated and goofy.

I ran into Gregg Clancy at the grocery store and yelled across the meat counter, “Hey, Gregg, did you leave that T-Shirt, ‘Don’t Trust Anyone Over 70’ on my desk last week?” He laughed and admitted he had, adding that his 60th was the day before mine so he and Susan gotme the shirt. Actually Gregg is a T-shirt manufacturer (Strawberry Fields) so it makes some sense. Also, Gregg and I share another common experience. We both worked at Chess King, a hipster clothing chain, at Christown Mall in 1970. As we both stood there, he with a gray beard and ponytail and me with my gray mustache, he told me he didn’t feel sixty. I told him I felt every day of it.

”Anything you're good at contributes to happiness.”
—Bertrand Russell