While waiting for breakfast (or lunch or dinner) I often take a spoon, lay it on the paper placemat and trace around it. I add a facial feature or two. And Voila, meet the Spoon People.
The Spooner Family
I also have the Forkers, the Blades (knives), and creatures from salt shakers, butter dishes, keys (from my pocket) and assorted found objects.
These and other doodles can be found in my Paint Blog. (<<<link)
My step-dad longed for a boat. He talked often about owning a boat. As a young man he had worked as a crewman on yacht. He worked in ship yard building boats. During WWII he joined the merchant marine and carried goods around the world.
After the war he stayed on land, became a finisH carpenter and the assistant to a contractor...but his heart was still at sea. He wanted a boat...but did not get one.
When I inherited his money. I GOT A BOAT.
I bought a twenty five foot Albin cabin cruiser with a little diesel engine that would cruise, full speed, at a merry six and half knots per hour. It took two hours to reach the channel islands. It took an hour to go to the nearest marina...from Oxnard to Ventura...six miles up the coast. I could have bicycled faster.
But leisure was my pleasure. I often motored out and anchored behind the breakwater, and just lolled in the sun and breeze. I watched other, bigger, fancier yachts go by. I joined the Power Squadron, a group of power boat owners. We did civic projects around the harbor and motor boated locally on weekends. We taught boating safety. There was always something to do.
My Albin Cabin Cruiser Captain Chuck in 1990
At Christmas we decorated someone's boat and entered the Parade of Lights around the harbor. My apartment had a deck and dock and my boat was moored by my doorstep. I had only to step out my door, onto my boat and go on a merry cruise around the harbor. A typical cruise would be from my dock to the ocean, out to circle a freighter anchored waiting to enter Port Hueneme, back to a restaurant for breakfast, and then home.
The Sybarite made a neat guest bedroom. When overnight guest came to stay, I would give them my room and sleep on the boat, gently rocking in the main cabin. The Albin had an aft cabin, too, that could sleep one or two folks.
There was more to my fleet. I had a row boat with an outboard motor, and a two man sailboat. I was very nautical.
All the almond trees in Merced County, CA, started blooming at the same time. The old folks from our home climbed aboard the bus and took a two hour tour of the groves, just to view the blooms.
There were mles and miles of almond groves. More of the almonds you have eaten have come from Merced County than from anywhere else.
We stopped and a few people got out to pose with the flowers.
Almond Blossoms make our Activity Director sing and dance.
There is going to be an eclipse of the moon tonight. The amazing thing is that it can be predicted right down to the minute (second, even) And...the prediction was made years ago. And the next eclipse in six months or so...and so on...for years to come.
Who does the math on this stuff? And how did they do it before computers?
My grandfather told me that when he was in college in the 1890's, a new comet was discovered. All the undergraduates in astronomy gathered at the observatory and as soon as it's position had been plotted by three observations...they all went to work and plotted it's orbit around the sun. How that works I cannot fathom....but, oh, my, how they could have used one of our simplest lap tops.
I won't see the eclipse tonight. It will be over by the time the moon rises over the Sierrra Nevadas. Unlike a solar eclipse, when the moon blocks the light from the sun, it can be observed by anyone who can see the moon. A solar eclipse can be observed only from a narrow path that the moon's shadow makes over the face of the earth.
Why? Because the moon is smaller than the earth, you see. (You don't see? Ah, well.)
Anyway, I am up at five am..which is all right because I went to bed at ten pm. That is seven hours sleep, and with an afternoon nap, I will be all right. Our fellow-b logger, Karen, (Mavarin) seems to get by on no sleep. I don't know how she does it.
Read the question, take a flyer at the answer, run your cursor over the answer, kick yourself. In that order.
How many of the United States names have a vowel in them? Fifty, and I am surprised how many people think there are fifty-two states.
If plane flying from Canada to the United States crashes on the border, where do you bury the survivors? Nowhere. Survivors get very upset if you try to bury them.
How many three cent stamps in a dozen. Twelve of anything in a dozen.
How many red stripes in the US flag? Seven, and six white ones for a total of thirteen stripes.
If a rooster lays an egg on the continental divide, do the eggs roll east west, north, or south? Roosters don't lay eggs...hens do.
If you call his tail a leg, how many legs has a mule? Four. Calling a tail a leg doesn't make it one.
Can they hang a man with a wooden leg in Texas? You cannot hang anybody anywhere with a wooden leg. You have to use a rope.
Tablemate: How come we don't have conversation at our table anymore?
Me: Because you contradict everything I say.
Tablemate: I do not.
