Random Thoughts

milly-and-Tilly

2007-01-20T15:22:00.000-06:00

milly-and-Tilly
Originally uploaded by rosco j.

OK one las post today....This started out as a brush and ink and then U added watercolor. What do you think about adding watercolor to the pen and ink drawing of "He's not going to show"?

cowboy2

2007-01-20T15:17:00.000-06:00

cowboy2
Originally uploaded by rosco j.

Another 6x6 watercolor . i haven't figured out how to blog several items at the same time so thats why there are all these consecutive posts to this .

elaphante

2007-01-20T15:13:00.000-06:00

elaphante
Originally uploaded by rosco j.

This is a small watercolor, 6x6 inches. I have been doing small work lately like this because I have had so much going on that i have not had the time to paint. Hopefully this will change soon and I can paint more soon. I have just been experimenting and I have no idea where I am going

He's-not-going-to-show

2007-01-20T15:10:00.000-06:00

He's-not-going-to-show
Originally uploaded by rosco j.

I have been playing with pen and ink lately and thought it was time to ad to my blog after a long dry period.

june12

2006-07-24T14:25:00.000-05:00

june12
Originally uploaded by rosco j.

This is another pastel that i did last month for the Wetcanvas site. I tried to push and pull with tempature changes-warms and cools

Phaedra

2006-07-24T14:19:00.000-05:00

Phaedra
Originally uploaded by rosco j.

this is a pastel i did for a web site called Wetcanvas. Each month you are given a reference photo and everyone paints their impression. Actually i was only give the horse but i thought

#5-Crystal-Cove

2006-04-29T13:46:00.000-05:00

I have been working on this this week. I started out in watercolor nd then began working on it with pastel. it was from a photo I took about 3 years ago in the spring and all the flowers were just exploding.It is a cottage in Crystal Cove in California. Originally, it was a small settlement of workers, some say squaters, on the beach just north of Laguna Beach. The state has made the owners leave, I believe the complaint was that the sewage was polluting. Now the area is under construction to make it a tourist area. I was there last Thanksgiving and this cabin doesn't look like this anymore. I did take some license with the color of the cabin.
#5-Crystal-Cove
Originally uploaded by rosco j.

lighthouse-maine

2006-04-15T11:19:00.000-05:00

lighthouse-maine
Originally uploaded by rosco j.

The Mill

2006-04-12T07:15:00.000-05:00

Mill
Originally uploaded by rosco j.

I painted this last Fall. I should have greyed it some, at least out of the focus area. Perhaps just to vivid.

(my patient quote of the day.)
" When I was a child,I lived in the hills with no one to talk to except my dog and a pony and the pony kicked me in the head and gave me seizures"

cotton

2006-04-10T14:43:00.000-05:00

cotton
Originally uploaded by rosco j.

I did this watercolor a couple of years ago from an old black and white photo of a share cropper in a cotton field. I don't recall the source. I like taking an old photo like this and changing the composition and and then trying to visualize what colors I would like there to exist in that time and place. It connects me to the past, a past that will never be seen again. I feel it kind of keeps the person, who is long gone, in this world still. At least for me and whoever may view the painting. I have another one like this on this blog. Here.

door

2006-04-09T13:14:00.000-05:00

door
Originally uploaded by rosco j.

I was really very pleased the was this watercolor turned out.

Today it feels like spring may have finally arrived. The daffodils are about to open. I had to ruin my day by attempting to play golf. Tiger has nothing to fear from me. The only golfers that have something to fear from me are those I come close to hitting with my errant ball. On the 7th hole I noticed shadows moving around me on the ground, looking up in the sky there were about 7 vultures circling overhead. Everyones a critic.

2006-04-07T09:02:00.000-05:00

watercolor 11x15

COUSCOUSKID.CO.UK

2006-04-02T21:38:00.000-05:00

COUSCOUSKID.CO.UK

"Couscouskid is the work and home of Mathew Star Thomas, graphic designer and illustrator based in Bath, UK. Mathew's images and work lie somewhere between the cutting edge of the new breed in contemporary illustration and the tempting nipple of naive. Impossible to pigeon-hole,"

Deadheads lose head

2006-04-02T18:13:00.000-05:00

Jerry Garcia's toilet disappears from Sonoma. The long, strange trip continues for Jerry Garcia's toilet.

Police say the Grateful Dead leader's commode, until recently part of the guitarist's former estate in Nicasio, was stolen recently from a driveway in Sonoma County along with three other toilets and a bidet.

Garcia's salmon-colored toilet was the subject of a legal battle before it was finally moved to Sonoma, to await shipment to a Canadian casino.

It's unclear if the toilet was swiped by a wayward Deadhead or a thief remodeling a bathroom. Police have no suspects or leads.

Henry Koltys, a former Tiburon resident now living in Sonoma, bought Garcia's 7,500-square-foot Nicasio home for $1.39 million in 1997 and removed the toilet and other items he planned to sell to raise money for a charity.

After Koltys sold the house to a friend of the band's, the new owner sued to block the auction. The dispute was resolved last year, and Koltys moved the items to his home in Sonoma.

Last month, Koltys sold the Grateful Dead singer's toilet for $2,550 to online casino Goldenpalace.com, which planned to use it as part of a traveling marketing exhibit. The casino is offering a $250 reward for its return.

Koltys said the toilet was in the master bathroom of Garcia, who died in 1995 at age 53.

"It would have been his personal head," he said.

The casino also paid $25,000 for actor William Shatner's kidney stones and $28,000 for a grilled cheese sandwich that reportedly had the image of the Virgin Mary on it, Koltys said.

Jonathon Lipsin, who worked for Garcia as a gardener and now owns a Northern California record store, said the toilet might appeal to dedicated Deadheads.

"It's a little gross," Lipsin said. "But I could see it at a rock 'n' roll museum, too."

Tell me this isn't an April Fools Joke.

JULY 4TH

2006-03-20T14:45:00.000-06:00

JULY 4TH
Originally uploaded by rosco j.

This is a watercolor I finished. Part of a series on July 4th.

hometown

2006-03-15T17:53:00.000-06:00

hometown
Originally uploaded by rosco j.

I found this old picture taken around 1885, I would guess, of the main street in my home town. It's name? That's not important.It is probably simular to many such small midwestern towns of that time and today. What strikes me is how simular it is to the same street today. The streets are now paved and there are a few autos but fewer people. This is a picture of a town that had visions of growth and properity. The railroad came through a few year later, a huge grain elevator was built, auto and farm equipment dealers followed. Schools were built. Soon towns had paved highways connecting them. Two great wars came and went leaving lots of veteren's graves, including my father's, in the growing cemetary outside of town. Korea and Viet Nam later added some of my friends. The school grew and the town for awhile was vibrant and crime was unknown. No murders or robberys ever occured. People left their keys in their cars ("just in case someone had to move it") and no one locked the doors to their house. As kids we took off in the morning and only told to show up at supper time. There were no molesters that we ever heard of. Fiday night lights at the football field_Hoop Dream on the Basketball court-cheerleaders and marching bands-circus came to town-parades- county fairs-watermelon and corn on the cob-corn fields and freshly mown hay.
Now when I return, there are few people downtown and most of the buisness have closed. Grass grows on mainstreet. People drive 40 miles to shop at Walmart. Bob's meat locker and Odie's Icecream Parlorand Jim's Standard Station are long gone. The bowling ally where I use to set pins for 10 cents a line is gone. You are probably dated if you understand what that means. The school closed a few years ago and with the closing of the school the heart and soul was finally ripped out of the town...it's identiy is gone. I walk the sidewalks and it is quiet and I can smell the oder of decay and death. A town of old people and old houses and old memories. The tornado a few years ago took out most of the trees in city park. All the town offers now is cheap houses and cheap living. Taxes of ridiculously low compared to the citys. I saw the first Afro-American last summer in all the years I have been with my town. I haven't really lived here since I left high school but it was always my home always a place to come home to....Last year my mother passed away and her house was sold.
All I have left there is a cemetary full of relatives and a lot of memories. I wish that I could recall my warm and wonderful memories and not feel so damn sad....

drawing-at-Dana-Point

2006-03-05T15:39:00.000-06:00

drawing-at-Dana-Point
Originally uploaded by rosco j.

I am playing with turning people into line drawings from inside a photo using photoshop Elements. This is me at Dana Point Harbor, my first attempt. It's kinda fun and get some interesting results. I am playing with filters with this. I am going to play with the inverse also. Its all play, play ,play.

Perhaps I should change the name of this Blog to Random Posts.

The answer to spider

2005-12-05T11:50:00.000-06:00

Common name: Silver argiope Genus/species: Argiope argentata Order/family: Araneae: Araneidae Stage: Male and female Origin : Orange County, CA Notes: This spectacular orb-weaving spider is common in Southern California in the Fall, especially on prickly-pear plants. The male is much smaller than the female which means this is a female in this picture. The spider includes zig-zag structures called stabilimenta in the “orb” web, probably in order to make it more visible to birds who might otherwise fly into it accidentally and destroy it.

spider

2005-12-04T09:42:00.000-06:00

spider
Originally uploaded by rosco j.

Over Thanksgiving I was in Laguna Beach Ca, There is Resort called the Montague which has a excellent and beautiful walk on the sea wall overlooking Laguna Beach. I spotted this spider on a cactus that had just captured its prey and watched as he neatly wrapped the unfortunate in a cocoon, presumably for a midnight snack. Anyone know the name of this spider? No, I don't mean Charlotte.

So last week it was 80 degrees and now back in the Midwest it is Zero this morning and 6 inches of snow.

house

2005-10-18T17:56:00.000-05:00

house
Originally uploaded by rosco j.

Another watercolor I did about a year ago, which is now seasonal. The tress are turning yelllow and red and orange around here. There is bitter sweet feeling that as beatuiful as it is right now I know that the cold, wet windy weather is around the corner followed by the freezing ice of winter.

"O what a glory doth this world put on

For him who, with a fervent heart, goes forth

Under the bright and glorious sky, and looks

On duties well performed, and days well spent!

For him the wind, ay, and the yellow leaves,

Shall have a voice, and give him eloquent teachings.

He shall so hear the solemn hymn that Death

Has lifted up for all, that he shall go

To his long resting-place without a tear."

-Longfellow-

flores

2005-10-18T13:35:00.000-05:00

flures
Originally uploaded by rosco j.

This is a watercolor I did awhile back and just took a picture of it recently. I think I did it from a photo I had. Actually it is a mixture of watercolor and India ink. I thought the black intensified the color.

womansketch

2005-10-16T22:19:00.000-05:00

womansketch
Originally uploaded by rosco j.

I was in the Bookstore sipping a cup of coffee., Yes, just plain coffee. Not cappachino, not a latte, not a expresso, just coffee. This woman was sitting at a nearby table talking in a very loud voice, expressing her views to a group. It had to do with some Elizabethian drama. I guess that her group wasn't a large enough audience and wanted to share with whole coffee shop in a really grating voice. All I wanted to do was simply enjoy my coffee in peace. I thought I would do a quick sketch and share her with the blog world.
Only someone on the cellphone could be more annoying. I was in a bathroom stall the other day when a voice in the next stall said," Hey ,how are you?" I thought maybe it was someone I knew so I said, "Ok, How are You?" Then the voice said "What ?I couldn't hear you the guy in the next stall is trying to talk with me">

monoprint1

2005-10-16T21:38:00.000-05:00

monoprint1
Originally uploaded by rosco j.

I completed his monoprint this weekend. I first painted on a acetate plate, actually several layers allowing each layer to dry fist. I then placed a wetted sheet of watercolor paper on the place and burnished it by hand. I think that he turned out a lot more sinister than I planed. Monoprints are always a surprise to me.
Today is my birthday. Not a very major event by any means but a kind of milestone to me. Better than a tombstone I guess, but still another year closer. I am post realizing this ain't a dress rehersal. Does everyone get morbid on birthdays, perhaps after 30-maybe 40. I was a day today when artists work and Gods rest. The air was cool crisp and the trees turning yellow and red. We walked by the lake today, sat on the rocks and watched one of the last days of summerlazily drift by like the boats on the lake.

WAR!

2005-06-27T13:19:00.000-05:00

2ndOregon1.jpg (JPEG Image, 580x442 pixels)

“A sudden disaster shocks a nation. America has been attacked. Furious, we react. The media report the blazing outrage while stoking its flames. Within two months, the United States is at war.

After a fiery successful beginning, the war looks won. A treaty is signed ceremoniously. Mission Accomplished! Then, messily and inconveniently, the conflict bogs down in a protracted struggle against a wily, elusive insurgency that is bitterly anti-American. The war drags out, bloodily and expensively, across months and years.

U.S. troops commit atrocities against prisoners and civilians, and refer to the natives with insulting slurs. Gradually, opposition to the war builds at home, though those who are against it are angrily called unpatriotic. The nation is divided. Some Americans wonder why we are fighting at all. Others support the troops to the hilt and speak of America's destiny to spread democracy.

No, it is not Iraq. It is the nearly forgotten war in the Philippines, which lasted from 1899 to 1902 and reshaped the balance of power in Asia. More than 3,000 American soldiers died in the archipelago, along with 100,000 Filipinos. In the end, America triumphed and made the Philippines a colony for nearly a half-century.”

I searched the web for more information on my previous Blog and found that there was indeed a lot going on in Manila in 1902 and before. The Spanish American War.

When the battleship Maine exploded in Havana Harbor on the night of Feb. 15, 1898, killing 253 U.S. servicemen, it galvanized the entire country, which already was spoiling for a fight with Spain. Plans to annex Cuba had been hallooed as early as the 1870s, under U.S. Grant. So was the explosion of the battleship Maine the 1898 equivalent of 9/11? I found this interesting article by Michael Browning. Very interesting.

But this only adds to more intrigue and questions. What the Hell was he doing in the middle of a war zone a half a world away? And why didn't anyone talk about it?

robpastel

2005-06-27T05:26:00.000-05:00

robpastel
Originally uploaded by rosco j.

This is a pastel I did of my son who was visiting last year when he was between France and California. He has buzzed his hair and decided to teach himself the banjo. Listening to someone learn to play the banjo is right up there with chalk on the blackboard. He is coming to visit next week sans banjo I hope. He has now dedicated his life to wine, growing it, that is. I have dedicated my self to drinking it.

For father's Day my children gave me the equipment to brew beer. I hope that I will soon start me first batch. But first I have some reading and preparation and planning.

The Wall

2005-06-26T09:54:00.000-05:00

the-Wall
Originally uploaded by rosco j.

A mystery. While going through some old photos of my family, all who have long passed away, I found this stereoptican card. (If you aren't familiar with this it this, it is is a card that was photographed in stereo and is viewed in a handheld optical device that allows you to view the photo in 3D.) A hand written note on the back of the card says that it is a picture of my grandfather taken in 1902 and he is sitting on the wall of Old Manila in the Philippines. I had never heard that he was in in the Philippines and the is no one left alive that can tell me how and especially why he went there. He did, I recall, tell me some stories about traveling in Mexico at the turn of the century. However, I was very young when he told me these stories and when I was older and asked about them he was vague and acted like I had imagined it..
So now when all of my relelatives from the previous generations are gone I am left with my half remembered stories of childhood and a mystery. Was he on some secret mission? just a tourist? Did he have a family there in secret? Why had no one ever mentioned this to me? Perhaps the simplist explanation is that it is not really a picture of my grandfather at all and some one just wrote it on the back of the card. There are so many pictures of longdead rerlatives that were past on to me that I can not identify. Fortunately my mother did, sometime in the past, write many of therir names on the back. The hand writing, however, on the pictue here is not in her handwritting. I am probably the last one living that knows who these relatives were. Do memories of the living keep you still in existence and when the last person who remembers who you were in life dies, do you then truely cease to exist?
I look at pictures of my grandparents when hey were young and vital, like my grandfather on the wall, and am filled inexplicitly with some sorrow. I guess that when you see youthful picture of thoes who have gone you tend to contemplate your own mortality.
I'm getting too morbid here, sorry. Back to the picture: What can I do now but let my imagination free to build a story of what my grandfather was doing in Manilia in 1902. Is it true that whatever story I write in my head will be the true story? Is perception reality? Who is left to say not. What do I really want the story of my Grandfather and Manila in 1902 to be, if I can choose ? I think I need to do some resesearch on what was happening in the Philippines in 1902.

My-Poppies

2005-06-25T12:33:00.000-05:00

My-Poppies
Originally uploaded by rosco j.

My poppies have bloomed. They are usually the first to bloom in my garden and I was really happy they survived the killing freezes that we had this spring . The freezes appear to have killed most of the other perenials in my garden. I had to replant annuals twice because of the late spring freezes . Now we are having a near drought, it hasn't rained for at least two maybe three weeks and the temps are in the 90s this week . Shure making it hard of my garden this year. Herbs are looking ok and tomatoes also. My Terragon is going wild and is 5 ft. tall, having survived the winer . The first day of summer has come and gone before I realised. Feels like August here this week.

I have no other comment on the following from the "This is True" news letter LINK

SITH SENSE: Inspired by the Star Wars film "Revenge Of The Sith", Mark
Webb, 20, and Shelley Mandiville, 17, decided to get a video of their
own "light saber" duel. Not having access to Hollywood special effects,
the couple from Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire, England, filled two
fluorescent light tubes with gasoline and lit them on fire. Burn unit
doctors say they have a 50 percent chance of survival, and police are
trying to find the cameraman to learn more about what happened. (London
Evening Standard) ...Seeing as he was the only one smart enough to
leave.

Pemequid

2005-06-23T21:12:00.000-05:00

Pemequid
Originally uploaded by rosco j.

This is the one I posted previously and is a half sheet of paper. I poured the sky in this one. It was early and the light was warm and clear with deep shadows.If ever in Maine be sure to visit this lighthouse. I want to return and paint it again,

pemequid-wc

2005-06-23T21:09:00.000-05:00

pemequid-wc
Originally uploaded by rosco j.

I previously posted a watercolor of this, which in Pemequid Lighthouse in Maine. I was trying to get back to painting and thought i would try a different rendition but in smaller format and more vivid colors. I will post the previous one also for comparison.
I love lighthouses perhaps because there isn't one with in 500 miles of me. The closest is on Lake Michagan I guess. When I paint I try to recall the smells of the sea and the beauty of the day and what I was feeling. I just wish my skills were up to it, anyway I guess its a zen thing.

Birkebeiner-4

2005-06-22T22:13:00.000-05:00

Birkebeiner-4
Originally uploaded by rosco j.

Son David having chased the wolves in the boundry waters of Canada has now spent the winter in Norway. He spent the time away from his studies cross country sking. I guess if you are going to take up cross country sking it is best to pick a narrow country like Norway. with the Euro vs dollar beer was $12 in Norway so I guess he sayed sober until he got to Russia.
He is now back in the USA working on an organic farm. He called tonight and said he had spent the day on stilts putting up somekind of netting. I on the oher hand spent the day in boredom talking with sociopaths. I wonder how I would do on stilts? It is hot, damn hot and we need rain..

The Department of HyperAgriculture announced Monday that it will begin investigating possible restrictions on the cultivation, implementation, and breeding of genetically modified farmers, weighing possible safety and health risks against the farmers' dramatically increased yield and efficiency.LINK

THis is the most disgusting thing I have read today LINK to Digusting

Ph.D

2005-06-21T19:09:00.000-05:00

Ph.D
Originally uploaded by rosco j.

OK, so I'm Bragging. But my daughter just graduated with her Ph.D. and even has a JOB.

Two down and one more to go.

Yes, I know I was going to try to do better on this blog and I have a millon excuses but will spare anyone who may stumble across this blog.

2005-04-17T21:08:00.000-05:00

Has it really been over a month? I told myself that I would try to keep this Blog current, clearly I have failed. There has not been a whole lot that I have had to say I guess. I have been doing a lot of pedesterian things . It is spring in the midwest. the past two days I have been doing exciting things, like mowing the yard, spading up the garden, edging the side walk, planting herbs, pulling weeds. The weather has been perfect this weekend and I ended the day sitting in a chair with a BIG glass of Tequila and watching the cardinals on the feeder.. Wonder how the Cardinals in the Vatican are doing, haven't seen the news today. I should be taking some pictures of Spring here I guess, maybe tomorrow. . I am going to have another Tequila. I am studing Spanish again. i bought some Spanish tapes on Ebay and have been working on it. I have forgotten too much in the past 30 years since I last studied Spanish, maybe 35 years actually. In 1963 I and 3 friends drove to Vera Cruse in a 1950 Hudson Hornet, but thats another story. I got bit on my ass by a dog in the slums of Mexico City on that trip, which my friends thought was hilarious at the time. I lasted the maximum on the shock machine in the out door bar and mexicano frat boys got me drunk and ended up sleeping on a beach with sand crabs. So every now and then I drink Tequila and remember a muchacha named Maria and a mongrel dog named Diablo.

children-dancing

2005-03-13T18:02:00.000-06:00

children-dancing
Originally uploaded by rosco j.

These two children were so absorbed and so intense, I was enchanted Link I have more photos of this powwow on Flickr.

young-Brave

2005-03-13T18:00:00.000-06:00

young-Brave
Originally uploaded by rosco j.

What a great time I had this day at the Powwow! I was totally blown away by the dress and especially by the young dancers.

I didn't mean to but...

2005-02-25T14:22:00.000-06:00

I have been following a blog by Tim Zim from the UK who bought a boat, a huge ocean-going fishing boat, that he has been refitting to eventually take to sea. Being land locked in the middle of the frozen corn fields as I am, he has tappped into one of my fantasys that I can now live vicariously through Tim. See his Blog at I didn't mean to but....

Another Blog that I have followed is one by a young man who is working for an Austriaian charity called KOTO that is located in Hanoi, Viet Nam. They are working with street kids to teach them in service jobs like cooking so that they can get off the streets and be employed. I am again fascinated by the pictures he sends and his experiences.
See his Blog at ourmaninhanoi.

I really enjoy blogs such as these that talk about what people are doing with their lives, what they build, create and share. Sure wish I had a life other would like to hear about-well one I could talk about.

Dame Ellen

2005-02-09T10:27:00.000-06:00

Originally uploaded by rosco j.

WHAT AN INCREDIBLE FEAT!

For 71 days Ellen MacArthur was alone at sea, no visitors but a fly-by from an albatross and close encounter with a whale.

After passing the finish mark late Monday to set the record for fastest solo circumnavigation of the earth, she sailed home to Falmouth, England, on Tuesday in triumph, a royal title - Dame Ellen, age 28,- the 5-foot-3 sailor completed the 26,000-mile journey in 71 days, 14 hours, 18 minutes, 33 seconds, beating the record by a day.

Think just how difficult this would be. All alone for 71 days, you have to sleep but who will stand watch for tankers, whales flotsom whatever. How long can you sleep at any one time. All the way through the attempt Ellen suffered exhaustion through sleep deprivation. Help was at hand from Dr Claudio Stampi, a sleep specialist from Harvard University, Boston. He developed sleep patterns for the sailor including cat naps of five to 45 minutes to maintain performance. There is only one cooker ring on board that allowed Ellen to boil water for her freeze dried food. During the attempt she consumed 5000 calories a day to help keep her strength up. The boat does not carry water and Ellen had to use watermakers which desalinated sea water. Throughout the challenge MacArthur had problems with the watermakers. The 75ft boat was made in Sydney, Australia, and cost in total £2 million to develop and build. She was launched on January 8, 2004. Five other countries contributed to the work, including the UK, which made the foils and rudders. The boat is a trimaran, which means it has three hulls, and that makes it very fast. It weighs 8.3 tonnes, and its mast is over 90ft high.
Not everyone is fascinated by sailing. A lot of people share WC Fields' attitude to water ("I don't like the stuff - fish fornicate in it," he said, or words to that effect). I do not envey Ellen, I have an explosion of admiration, given the opportunity I would never have the courage to attempt her feat. When Ellen MacArthur broke the record for a solo circumnavigation, she was not doing it for me or for you. She was doing it for herself, out of some possibly inexplicable impulse.

drawing

2005-02-06T13:50:00.000-06:00

drawing
Originally uploaded by rosco j.

Well I just learned that if you delete a picture from flickr it also gets deleted from your Blog. This is the drawing that is from the earlier post "San Juan Capistrano" that I deleted-in case anyone gives a damn.

poppie

2005-02-06T13:38:00.000-06:00

poppie
Originally uploaded by rosco j.

There is a blog that I truly love called Sensitive Light.(Link) it has some of the most impressive, stunning photos covering a wide range of subjects.
Here on a dismal, overcast day watching the freezing rain mixing with the sluge of winter these photos bring color back to a study in black and grey. I also have had the flu for the past week and have the feeling I won't get warm again until July.

Pemequid

2005-01-29T09:42:00.000-06:00

Pemequid
Originally uploaded by rosco j.

I was in Maine about two years ago and finally got around to painting this last summer. This is the lighthouse at Pemequid, and I bet is probabaly the most painted lightouse in the world from a lot of different angles and all of them much better than mine. When you paint a place like this at a later time, lots of memories of the day come flooding back. On the sea side there is a long rock jetty that extends down into the sea where Deb and I scrambled down the rocks out next to the crashing waves and shared French bread,cheese and wine with the gulls. Well,not the wine. I visited a lot of light houses in Maine and they are a fantastic place to spend the day. I have painted a number of them. Ok, I don't have any thing I painted this week to show . I have been trying some portraits, quick studys that are really kind of fun. When i have something I like I'll show it ,but not yet.

Son 2 is home from the the northern wilds of the Boundry Waters. He had no encounters of Wolves only followed their tracks. He and his friends all went for a polar bear dip in a hole they cut in the ice on a day that was -45 F. The thought of it makes my daddy parts receed.
He just left this morning to drive to Minneaplolis to catch a flight to Iceland where he will stay and then on to Norway for the semester and summer. He has never left the country before and is partly disorganized. What keeps parents from sleeping well? I bought him some more memory cards for his camera with orders to take losts of pictues.

Thais have their own response to tragedy

2005-01-24T21:20:00.000-06:00

I recent read a terrific book, Bangkok Eight, link by John Burdett. I highly recommend this book. I give a hypnotic picture of todays Bangkok through the eyes of a Buddist policeman, the son of a whore and an American GI.
John Burdett is a nonpracticing lawyer who worked in Hong Kong for a British firm until he found his true vocation as a writer. Since then, he has lived in France and Spain and is now back in Hong Kong. He wrote a recent article on the Thais response to the tsunami that devastated Phuket and much of the rest of southern Thailand. I found this story interesting and if you are interested read it here. LINK

Waiting For Them To Come Back

2005-01-23T11:16:00.000-06:00

Waiting For Them To Come Back
Originally uploaded by rosco j.

I finally finished this today. I am fairly happy with the way it came out afterall since I was beginnig to have some fear about the way it was looking for a while. Do you think the sky should have had some clouds so it wouldn't look so damn postcardy? Is it too saturated, should I have dulled the follege more or the sky? The Mission is the center of focus where I should have hade the most contrast in value and color. If anyone happens to stumbble on this blog here in the vast cyberspace feel free to comment, critize, or rant about it. I blogged this because I wanted some repsonse besides just making a commitment to get going again on painting.

man-with-blue-hat

2005-01-22T11:57:00.000-06:00

man-with-blue-hat
Originally uploaded by rosco j.

I am still working on Capistrano and wouldn't want to bore with the small progress I'm making. I'v been preoccupied with other events-ok thats an excuse. I confess! i thought I'd Blog this watercolor that I did a year or so ago. I liked the colors using the blue with the complimenty orange. should i have called it "Study in blue and orange? I can't remember the genesis of this painting. I ran across it in a stack of stuff i stuck in a drawer. Still mucho frio and super windy here and my feet get too cold where I paint or am I just getting "cool feet" in my painting?

bush_coronation

2005-01-22T08:45:00.000-06:00

bush_coronation
Originally uploaded by rosco j.

2005-01-22T08:05:00.000-06:00

I am a member of the 49% of loyal Americans that voted against President Bush. Given my bias, this is my vent on his inauguration speech:
It was demoralizing to see again the inauguration of Big Oil and Big Buisness.
Although eloquent. the speech was shallow and devoid of ideas except " Freedom is good" and "Tyranny Bad" Hard to argue about freedom not being a positive thing, The speech was full of cliches. The only point of his speech that his writers attempted was to make him seem presidential. Not once did he mention IRAQ or War or the absence of WMD. He did,however, present a thinly veiled threat to Iran. Terrific. 4 years of destruction of the environment, dismantling of the Social Security System, many more dead GIs, suspention of civil liberties, and paying of his debt to the religious right lunatic fringe.

capistrano-3

2005-01-17T08:30:00.000-06:00

capistrano-3
Originally uploaded by rosco j.

I have completed another stage in this water color. There is just too much unintersting blue. I wonder if I should have added some white in the sky, perhaps clouds. I think I should have done some thumbnail sketches, which is a good way to work out design and composition. Do I need more contrast between the sky and the white of the mission? I wonder if I am using too much saturated color and need to dull down more around the shapes I want to to be pure and vivid. Perhaps I can add a lot of dulled greens and cooler colors.I think that I will keep the foreground without much shadow and use it arond the misson for contrasting values. The palm tree has been one of my greats concers since I have never painted one before. I think it may become closer to what I wanted to do in edging closer to more of an impressionistic style. We'll see.

capistrano 2

2005-01-16T11:40:00.000-06:00

For some reason know only to the Gods of the Cyberworld, the text portions of these posts do some thing new every time. On my last posting the text doesn't show when I use Foxfire but does when I view it on other browsers like Explorer. Regardless, this is the second stage of this watercolor. Clearly I didn't get a whole lot accomplished yesterday. I'm home alone today and have my domestic chores half done so I have some time to paint this after noon. Sure to damn cold to do anything else outside. #1 son called last night , says he is having a great time. He has decided to devote his life to wine. Both the making of wine and the consumption of it. He is working for a vineyard/winery in Sonoma and is taking some more classes on wine. He sent a case of their white wine and I am diligently savoring each and every bottle. To paraphrase WC Fields, " My kids have led me to a life of drinking and I have never had the decency to thank them for it."
I have added some color in the foreground and the tress in the back. I am trying to set some direction for the valuse and tempeture of the piece. It is starting to take some form here .

capistrano-2
Originally uploaded by rosco j.

capistrano

2005-01-15T13:05:00.000-06:00

I think that the hardest part is picking up a brush and putting the first wash onto the paper. All that white paper! It is so intimidating and then when you put the paint on it, it never looks like what you pictured in your mind. I often start with a sense of dread that I am really going to screw this up. I remind myself that I am painting for myself and this is but a learning exercise, still no one likes to screw up. Especially, since I made myself kindda go public with this now. Already is see I should have stretched the paper since it has buckled some and alread I have a blob in the sky wash. "Just leave it alone!" "Let it dry." One of my biggest faults is "fiddling" ,that is; not letting the paint dry and fiddling with it to "fix" it, or putting more paint on paint that hasn't dried yet. I have found that is probably the single biggest error, since it tends to make the paint muddy and lose its freshess. Just put it on and leave it alone I have to keep telling myself. But I'm a compusive fiddler. It is , I am told in all the advice to begining painters, good to start with a plan of what you are trying to do with the painting. What you want to say. "I want to paint a pretty picture", I tell my self. Well, OK, it should be more that that I'm told. Ok, I'll try again. "I want to try to recreate the feeling of the the day, the memories of a wonderful day at the misson with the color of the flowers and the sun hitting the white of the Mission. I am trying to remember the smell of the flowers and the trees. I want to feel the warmth of the sun but it is too damn chill in the basement to feel that today. I want it to be sunlit and airy. I would like to paint it loosely to get away from my uptight, realistic bent. To not paint every damn blade of grass and flower but more impressionistic. Well we will see. What else? I want to have contrast. I want to juxtapose the warm colors (reds and yellows ) with the cool (blue and green). I want to try for texture. Remember Values. Values, the light and dark contrast. I have to make some decisions here on values and that I'm still vascillating on. Can I keep it light and colorful and still put in the dark values that it will need for some punch? But mainly I want to try to keep it sunlit and warm. is that better or just BS? Whatever. I am not exactly excited with the way it is looking right now. Perhaps it will get better. Enought for today.Don't Fiddle!

capistrano
Originally uploaded by rosco j.

San Juan Capistrano

2005-01-13T18:53:00.000-06:00

sanjuan-bw
Originally uploaded by rosco j.

Ok, I am going out on a limb here. Perhaps this will make me get off my ass and try to start painting again. I have posted a sketch of the Mission at San Juan Capistrano that I did last spring. I will try to post the stages of this painting over the next few days (or weeks if I can't get my butt going like I hope). Lets see how this works. Even though I am sending this into the great cyberspace of obscurity, it gives me some feeling of commitment.

"Unless commitment is made, there are only promises and hopes... but no plans." Peter Druker.

I did not go to work and stayed home today and did what I wanted to do, in the full realization that I was being self absorbed. But I really needed to be home. I never left the house. I watched the birds at the feeder, read the paper drank a full pot of coffee , read the new Tony Hillerman book, drew the sketch, took a bath, made chicken stir fry for supper, had two glasses of tequila and read some other peoples Blogs.

nude-1

2005-01-11T22:16:00.000-06:00

Everybody talks about the weather but nobody does anything about it…I would like to live somewhere where the bad weather isn’t always the headline of the local paper. But then, if it wasn’t for the weather most of us, me included obviously, wouldn’t know how to start a conversation.

Off into the dark of night and the freezing rain I ventured at 6:oo this morning, slipping and a sliding a grooving and a gliding, I considered it a challenge to get to work with out becoming a statistic.
”Why don’t you wait a couple of hours to see if it’s better?” she says.
“No”, reason I, “Everyone is going to do that and then they will all be on the road getting in my way.”
“You are nuts”, counters she. She is right about that I know.
“I was right” (thinks I ), The roads were empty and I cruised along the Interstate, at 45 mph or less, being sane and taking it slow as I nervously eyed the cars and semis in the ditches and medians from last night, now covered in a shroud of ice. I hoped shroud wouldn’t be a prophetic term. The semis on the road were in the other lane only doing about 10 mph faster than me. That’s when th e rain started to freeze on my window (“she was right”, think I). So with me constantly squirting window washer fluid on to the window to keep the clumps of ice off the blades the intrepid fool drives on. And I made it.
“See”, thinks I, “I was right.”

Unique and lucky gifts from the toad gift shop.

nude-1
Originally uploaded by rosco j.

David

2005-01-10T17:47:00.000-06:00

This is my youngest son David. As you can seen at the time I took this picture his hair was very long. He decided to start growing it long after a 10 hour surgery on his sholder resulted in temorary loss of hair from his head remainig in one spot too long . He grew it for 3 years . When he was home at semester break he decided to have it cut at a salon that then donates it to "Locks of Love" a organization that uses the donated hair to make wigs for children that have lost their hair because of chemo. treatment for cancer. I think that this my favorite picture of him for a lot of reasons. His only misgivings came when his roommate , who has even longer hair , upon seeing him , said, " What's amatter, David, were you tired of being cool?" David is currently in the boundry waters area on a biology class studying Wolves. I hear it is way below Zero right now. On another matter, I ran across the most tasteless kids game ever. If interested it is Harriet Tubman.
The slidding drawer that my keyboard is on just fell off the desk and now my keyboard and shelf is on my lap. The computerGod is tell me to quit.
David
Originally uploaded by rosco j.

3 cows

2005-01-09T08:59:00.000-06:00

Sunday morning with a cup of coffee, a English muffen and the Sunday paper . I am wareing blue jeans, sweatshirt and slippers.What would life be like if I didn't have that to look forward to each week? As years go by it is the simpler things I enjoy. When i was younger I worried that when i got older I wouldn't be able to do the things I wanted to do. Now that I am older I find that I don't want to do thoes things anymore.Wait; is it that I don’t want to do those things? Or is it that I feel I can’t anymore after all? I use to love to play basketball, now I don’t play. I am overweight and out of shape and my knees will hurt for a week if I play. I’ll probably puke if I tried to play. I remember the last time I played several years ago I was sucking wind big time and every one had at least a step on me. We were playing full court but I seemed to be playing only half court, the center half, because by the time I got to mid court they were already coming back the other way. It was the pain and embarrassment that I couldn’t run with the young guys anymore that made me go into retirement. What else? Mountain biking. It was only 3 yeas ago Deb and David and I took our bikes to Winter Park, Colorado, where you put your bike on the back of the ski lift and are taken up the mountain. Then you Kamikaze like come hurtling down single -track trail over boulders, logs, mountain streams, switchbacks and other unsuspected deathtraps. Did it for a week. Loved it. Planned to come back soon. Didn’t. Maybe it was the classic over-the-handle-bars- on to big –rocks tumble that cracked a rib the last day, who knows.
What was my point here? Getting older and not doing things you use to love is it because you can’t anymore or lost interest? Maybe just lazy. I still sail my 14.2 Capri the local lake and I still play golf and I am planning a camping/hiking trip (sometime).
The Cows? They are a watercolor that I did last year. Just thought I’d stick it in here because I have nothing new today. I kind of liked it. My new years resolution to paint more has lost its strength. Maybe I better get off the computer and get going.

cows4
Originally uploaded by rosco j.

Cardinal

2005-01-08T09:25:00.000-06:00

The snows of January have fallen of the midwest. We are wrapped in a blaket of white . The weather men on TV are trying to terrify us with there usual hysterics about the weather. You would think that the only reason to drive to day is if you need a kidney transplant. i got up at 4:30 this morning and franked up the snow blower to clean my driveway so I could go to work. I briefly thought about how it would wake the neighbors. "Screw them" I thought they are still in bed so what do they have to complain about? In spite of the TV hysterics it wa normal January winter driving. At least it keep the amatures off the roads.

In the winter I always keep several bird feeders full for my little friends. This little Red guy and his friends were very busy today.
I ran across an interesting Blog that I would like to share (if i can figure out how to do a link) it is called J-walk " stuff that may or may not be of interest to you"

.
Cardinal
Originally uploaded by rosco j.

Girls in the garden

2005-01-04T18:40:00.000-06:00

two-Asian-girls-in-the-garden Originally uploaded by rosco j

It was a beautiful day in the Chicago Botanical Garden in the spring of this year. The flowers were in bloom, the sun warm and the sky was clear. I was really feeling at peace with the world. I came upon an Asian wedding party in the garden and was struck by these two young girls with their umbrellas . Later this fall I painted this and it brought back the memory of that beautiful day. I try to visit the Botanical Garden when ever I am in the area visiting family. I especially love the walled English rose garden and the Japanese Island.

The memory of that warm day begins to cool as the weather reports for tomorrow are increasingly dishartening. Now the forcast predicts 8 to 14 inches of snow and wind chill in the minus zero range. Driving will again be and adventure-hope the amatures stay home. Its hard to complain about this weaather when my toughts are on the Tsunami devestation. Now the youngest victims face even mor danger. Agencies providing tsunami disaster relief are cautioning that the most vulnerable survivors face peril from exploitation and illegal adoptions in a region already known for human trafficking and child prostitution. They already have received unconfirmed reports of such from agencies providing tsunami disaster relief are cautioning that the most vulnerable survivors face peril from exploitation and illegal adoptions in a region already known for human trafficking and child prostitution. They already have received unconfirmed reports of such things happening.

We-were-colored-back-then

2005-01-03T20:06:00.000-06:00

We-were-colored-back-then
Originally uploaded by rosco j.

This vignette was taken from an small, old black and white photo I stumbled across in a magazine. The caption said it was from an exhibition entitled "We were Colored Back Then." I subsequently lost the reference. They were sisters and the photo was taken on a desolate plain in Kansas circa 192o. I actually painted this a year ago and it has hung, unframed by my desk. The image has always intrigued me, perhaps it is the juxtaposition of the differences in sisters and their apparent close relationship. I am attracted to images that promise, in my imagination, a secret story behind them. Anyway, I tried to bring them to life in watercolors.( The background is whiter in the original.)

I struggle painfully with painting. I consider myself pretty much a beginner and have only painted for my own edification. Usually, only my family has seen my paintings. It really intimidates me to post these publicly but I am making myself, perhaps trying to get some motivation to get off my butt and paint. Thanks to a couple of people who have
made some kind and encouraging comments.

Picasso said that "Painting is just another way of keeping a diary".

sanjuan

2005-01-02T09:10:00.000-06:00

sanjuan
Originally uploaded by rosco j.

San Juan Capistrano
I painted this small watercolor over the weekend. Its is from a sketch I did last spring when we were in california. The mission is a beautiful spot to visit even though the swallows no longer return. I was told that the restoration on the mission disturbed their nesting and they haven't returned. I have started another larger one. I have done the drawing but am going to wait for the chaos of the weekend to subside before I paint.
Son D is off tomorrow for 3 weeks in the Boundry waters, that wilderness area at the Minnisota /Canada border, for a biology class to study the eating patterns of wolfs. I hope he is not on there low carb diet. We spent the week getting him outfitted for the cold-and it will be COLD. Fortunately the winter clothes will be used because when he gets back he leaves for a semester of study in Norway. It is a mystery why after 4 years of Spanish in high school he decides to study Norwiegien in college. It is a mystery how he thinks 3 pairs of under pants will last him for 3 weeks. It is a mystery that he spent New years eve at a concert by a Albino Rapper whose improbable name escapes me .
Dads never understand anything for themselves and it is too tiresome for the children to keep explaining everything to us. It is best to figure out what they want to do and tell them," Thats the way I would do it."

man-in-white-hat

2005-01-01T11:07:00.000-06:00

man-in-white-hat
Originally uploaded by rosco j.

Well, it is officially 2005. I am glad to be done with this year. /This has to be my worst year in a long time. 05 has to get better, doesn't it? Please Please.
"More than any other time in history, mankind faces a crossroads. One path leads to despair and utter hopelessness. The other, to total extinction. Let us pray we have the wisdom to choose correctly. "
Woody Allen

New Years resolution #1: Paint more.
I did this watercolor this last week. It was from a old black and white photo. I have been working on a small watercolor or San Juan Capistrano from this summer and then a larger one.

Resolution #2: Lose weight. Well, tomorrow I'll start.

There is a Mexican proverb the says, "A good resolution is like an old horse, which is often saddled but rarely ridden. "

Christmas Story Leg

2004-12-26T10:12:00.000-06:00

leg
Originally uploaded by rosco j.

Christmas story leg . Watched Christmas story again. I love it everytime I watch it. I wish that i had this lamp. I wonder if anyone has made reproductions of it. My wife would also have a fit if I put it in the front window. Maybe I'd put it on my desk at work.

"Reminds me of my safari in Africa. Somebody forgot the corkscrew and for several days we had to live on nothing but food and water. "
W. C. Fields

I have been following the earthquake and disaster in Asia since early this morning. Just incredible the force of Mother Nature. Every hour the toll goes up another 1000. At last count it is in excess of 11ooo. It is nighttime there and it must be like a scene from Dante's Inferno. I can't even imagine the terror and absolute devastion of lives and families.
You think Nature is like some Disney movie? Nature is a killer. Nature is a bitch. It's feeding time out there 24 hours a day, every step that you take is a gamble with death. If it isn't getting hit with lightning today, it's an earthquake tomorrow or some deer tick carrying Lime disease. Either way, you're ending up on the wrong end of the food chain.

"The only thing that stops God from sending another flood is that the first one was useless."
Nicholas Chamfort
(1741 - 1794)

pow wow

2004-12-26T07:52:00.000-06:00

Orange-black
Originally uploaded by rosco j.

A dancer take at a local pow wow. I was mezmerized by the movement in his costume. This has nothing to do with the day after Xmas but i am practing on posting a picture in to the blog. I guess you can't add to a previous posting but have to start the new posting with the pic and then add the text?? I'll keep looking. I took pictures at a pow wow they had here a while back and did some editing . I like this one especially.
The post Xmas carnage surrounds us. We decided to have a Feliz Navidad Xmas this year and I made tostadas, enchiladas, fajitas and tacos for dinner. Everyone was stuffed.

Iowa gothic

2004-12-24T12:16:00.000-06:00

Iowa city gothic
Originally uploaded by rosco j.

We live in Grant Wood County, and this is Deborah and me this fall . I am in the process of trying to figure out how to post pictures on this Blog. Bound to be disorganized. Tis the day before Xmas and all through the house is the strewn belonging of the prodigal son. Makes it seem more like Xmas to have his presence everwhere. There is such a thing as being too tidy. i confess I am a strewer also, but I have been half trained. Genetic thing. The trees in the back exploded this year into reds and oranges making for a exceptional fall. The weather until recently has been unseasonably warm and the grass is still rather green, but that wiil end because there is some light snow expected for tomorrow, Xmas day.

Brass monkeys and astroids

2004-12-23T07:01:00.000-06:00

whew, that was close!link No early warning on Astroid attacks.

More than 20 people, including US military and civilian personnel, were killed in a mortar attack on a base mess tent in Mosul a couple of days ago. This appears to be a suicide bomber, perhaps a civilian worker on the base.
Its real Brass Monkey weather here today with wind chills in the -5 to-16 degrees range.
going to go do last min. Xmas shopping.

Frosty the Snowman was Jesus Christ's best friend he stood melting by the cross to the very end/

2004-12-20T10:46:00.001-06:00

5 days till Chrismas and 11 days till 2005. 60 more die in Iraq. Beginning to look a lot like Xmas. Snow expected.

salubrious: Conducive to health or well being.
Protean: Readily taking on different forms and shapes. Proteus was a Greek sea God who could change his shape at will. At first I wished that I was protean but then started to think what I would so if I could change my shape at will. What would I become? an animal? a bird? a beautiful ravishing woman? A sexy hansome man. a mason jar? Perhaps altering my physical appearance as a human could be a lot of fun and I am imagining some disturbing but funny scenes in my head. Is probably best that I am not protean afterall since I clearly am not to be trusted.

Talked to a man today that said that he had been troubled by hearing others speaking to him but their mouths weren't moving. He said that he has had trouble in the past hearing "voices" but he thought that he had "killed them last July" and was distrubed that they had returned. He was considering that he needed a new precription for his glasses.

This was in the Chicago Trib. today Just close your eyes and try to imagine this scene. It will someday appear in a movie.
Parents, transgender models brawl at YMCA
December 20, 2004, 9:43 AM CSTA scheduling mix-up is blamed for a weekend melee between parents of young children and participants at a transgender fashion show at a North Side YMCA, WGN-Ch. 9 reported.The incident happened Sunday morning at the New City YMCA, 1515 N. Halsted St., police said.Parents bringing their children to an early morning swim meet encountered people attending the fashion show, which had been going on since shortly before midnight, WGN reported.A scuffle broke out when some parents allegedly directed sexual slurs toward transgender models and guests, WGN reported. Chicago police and private security guards were called after someone threw a chair, and the sound was mistaken for gunfire.Police officers and guards broke up the scuffle, and no injuries or arrests were reported.A New City Y official attributed the incident to a "regrettable scheduling error its not uncommon for men to ware dresses at the Y but usually only at night" and said the organization would undertake a complete review of its rental and fashon policies today, WGN reported.

Christ its cold

2004-12-19T10:22:00.000-06:00

Ok I guess that Winter has finally arrived this morning really pissed off because my thermometer reads 4 degrees F!! That s too cold for this person to deal with on a sunday morning. So the upside is that it is sunday and I don't have to go out in it if i don't want to- and I don't want to. So i get some time of this machine to futz around. No extra bodies in the basement this morning nice and quiet, all alone guess I can't complain...really kind of pleasant although my feet are cold, Knew i'd fine some thing to bitch about if I tried. Id like to try and figure out how to put some pictures on this today. i signed up for flickr but had trouble downloding pictures but will try again.
The News Today as we explore Man's decline, A woman was strangled and her 8 month old child cut from her womb by another woman. The child lived and the following day the Killer/kidnapper was showing off her new baby at a local resturant. She is in custody. I was wondering just how that child. when they are older, will explain her entry into life to others." my life started as I was untimely ripped from my mother's womb" Very Macbethian. More die in Irac. Bush now decides to revamp social security.

The toths are slivey

2004-12-18T15:44:00.000-06:00

It is Saturday and the xyl went to work. I discovered an unspecified number of unidentified young men draped about the furniture in the basement surrounding a number of dead soldiers. All are breathing, snoring and several i suspect passing gas. The are several suspicious cars parked in front of the house. No in the driveway.thankyouvery much. I didn't want to tiptoe around the house fearful of awaking the feral brood beneath my floors so i went to go wok out. Good time to go Saturday morning only use older weekend geezers. Felt good to push some iro around, but will surely feel it later. Need to take that Ibrofin asap. I decided to go to Bestbuy to get a couple of memory chips advertised this morning but was told that the sale starts to morrow. I was not happy and expressed my ire. Second time in a row I have gone to that misnamed store and left totally pissed off. I did some other shoping at Lowes and picked up the all importent toilet stopper ball and repaired the toilet when I got home ---God isn't this boring? what new insights have i gained today? Young sone had awoken in my absence and only he and Bear remained wateching the Devision III football champions ships. They looked at me and made some vague suggestions that it was lunch time but i pretended that they were only making small talk and they fended for them selves. i am now going to stay in my recliner and attempt to finisn a novel I have been working on for two weeks and try to finish. She will be home in one hour so time dear time is runnig on Nikes.

Tgif.with and the prodigal son.

2004-12-17T11:00:00.000-06:00

Its Friday, and its been a really really long week. Prodigal son returned last night with several other people's prodigal sons in tow and wanting to be fed. Semester is over for them and they decided they were entitled to let go and to meet here before returning to their homes and anxious families. They rolled back in after a night of carousing in the local campus watering holes about 3 am. Hope no one pees on the couch again. They were all in the downstairs family room. Their cars parked behind mine so I couldn't back out this am and had to arouse them for their keys to move the cars. Is 10 am and no one answers the phone at home. Who thinks they are up and being productive. Raise your hand. He is supose to be at University hospial by noon to tour the medical school.
Since he is going to Norway next semester he brought all his stuff from the dorm room which is now pilled at the foot of the stairs and will probably remain there until I threaten to move it to the trash. I will enjoy his presence for 3 weeks until he treks to the boundary waters of Canada to study the eating patterns of wolves for 3 weeks before he heads to Norway. He is getting long underwear for Xmas since the temp will be about 30 below.
I made a huge pot of chile last night to feed his friends.