Li'l Jack.

 Li'l Maren.

Li'l Isla.

The Once-in-a-While 

Daily News:

On Li'l Works of Art

1  I began this one on Saturday night, right after Stanford buried Oregon State 49-7, and after Cal destroyed Washington St. 37-3.

2  Sports.

3  Thank goodness sometimes for sports. 

4  I'm a pretty good sport.

5  The Stanford/Oregon State game caused me to daydream midway through it. I got the message early that this game was going to be reasonably one-sided. Not rocket science.

6  I'll get to other sporting things, like curling, as they unfold.

7  Right now I am existing on Saturday night, time approximate 11:23 p.m.

8  Instead of watching the entire Stanford game, I decided to check my emails. I had sent Effie and John Arnolfo a link to this nonsense. Effie wrote back thanking me. I saw my own link in her email and decided to test it. It worked. Before I knew it, I was hurled back to my own website. 

9  I read a few back issues, just to establish a rhythm. Sidebar: These Once-in-a-While DN's always come out on Wednesdays. I've NO idea how I hit those deadlines, but they always manage to slide in safely on Wednesdays.

10  They all read fairly well, all things considered. One of my more recent blogs had me giving Latin lessons. How I wound up talking in Latin I couldn't tell you.

Plutarch in search of Advil.

11  I do know that the last three times I tried doing this, I was trying to come up with ideas while little Beebeez would come up and demand my attention. 

12  I found myself balancing my arm on a pillow and holding a milkshake in my left hand while attempting to hit this deadline with my right, all the while using my legs to block the Beebeez from killing themselves. 

13  They were great, as always. They're beginning to call me, "Paw" instead of the more trendy "G-Paw." 

14  Maren is the keenest at getting this one. When I got back from Shasta last week, she came running at me, hugged me, smiled, and said, "Hi, Paw!"

Li'l Maren, creative 

author of "Hi, Paw!"

15  It works every time.

16  Amazing.

17  They are just amazing to me. Little miracles, all three. Or more accurately, Li'l Works of Art.

18  Moving On, Part One: On the selfsame Saturday, we were able to visit a consignment store, this time without Beebeez. Rene, Coley and I snuck up to Roseville and happened into the Home Consignment Center there, just to mosy. 

Consignmenting is fun. I didn't take this pic,
in fact, I think it's one from the Folsom store.

19  Around a year ago I began messing around with photography. I learned a few tricks from a guy who would email me with tips. 

20  I always appreciated learning a few things. My only trouble is I'm neither trained, nor am I good.

21

22  The last time I went into that store, I took a few of what I called "artsy-fartsy" pictures, experimental in nature.

23  Around that time, it might have been summertime, 2016, I also took a few pictures in Tahoe.

24  All of those pics are at the top of this page, and I think they harmoniously converge with the Beebeez as little works of art.

25  The simple search for art took me to the Home Consignment Center, where I saw those odd stained-glass balls at the top of this page. They were just sitting on a shelf.  Ordinarily, I would walk past most of those sorts of things. But I was armed with a new way of looking at things. It was fun. The clocks (see above) I saw when I walked around Michael's, somewhere around Halloween. I used no Instagram nor PhotoShop in the process. I just had fun!

26  I also got the below shots by seeing ordinary things as potential art. The picture below was one I took at Josh and Caitlin's house. I think the girls were down, and I saw the sun trying to get in. I aimed up and shot, cropped a little using my iPhone, fiddled around a bit with shadow and light, and came up with a sort of "noir" feel. Anybody can do this. 

Shadow and Light. Easy to do.

27  With the shot below, I found myself sitting outside at the Alpina Coffee Shop in South Lake Tahoe last year, and I caught the sun's rays lighting up the American flag. I again switched it to a B & W picture and it came out beautifully. Here is the pic:

Twilight's Last Gleaming

28  I posted that one on FB, but never took myself seriously. It's fun playing around with camera angles, framing, side and backlighting (above) to get sort of artistic pictures. My theatre training helped, as some concepts are consistent in both lighting design and in photography.

29  I also caught this sunrise from the Eagle Falls area of Tahoe. I didn't make this one. The Creator-of-the-Universe gets the credit. I took the picture, but I didn't make this. I've taken dozens of shots of Emerald Bay over the years. I enjoy getting up early and catching sunrises. This remains one of my favorites:

Emerald Bay sunrise.

30  It is now 1:01 on Sunday morning. I am still writing this stuff because finding these pictures took me on a mini-search. I didn't realize how vibrant they were, since they look like teensy thumbnails on my laptop. 

31  I felt I was digging for art, or maybe just digging art. In Greece, they close streets and have archeologists in brown pants brushing rocks with toothbrushes in search of art. 

The Theatre of Dionysos, Athens. This is the world's

first Theatre. I did not take this pic, for the record. 

32  There's a lot of stuff buried in the dirt clods that make up my collection of pictures. Many are horrendous. I'm struggling to make an analogy here, but I assume readers are intelligent enough to get that. 

33  I give massive credit to my sister Linda, who, when I once asked her what her secret was to always taking such amazing pictures, answered without missing a beat, "I take tons of pictures, and allow nobody to see all the lousy ones." Not verbatim, but you get the essence. 

34  She's WAY better than that and way better than I'll ever hope to be at photography, but it is a fun hobby, and one I always wanted to pursue. 

35  It is too often that people tell themselves that they can't do things. I always thought I could be a pretty good photographer because my mind works like that. It's that artsy side of life that has always fascinated me. 

36  I also write some terrible poetry, but I enjoy doing that as well. I'm certain that Lord Snooty and his DN constituency would disapprove. 

37  Snoots. It is now 1:14 a.m. I'm still tacking away here.

38  Moving On, Part Two: Fast forward a bit to Monday morning. I just did. 

39  Helene and I have planned a trip to Hawaii. The trouble is, I have certain health issues I need to confront before I sit six hours on a plane.

40  I had an examination a little bit ago, and all my vitals seemed fine. My doctor was concerned about my Dad's history. Monday morning I expressed my concerns to Helene, and without hesitation she made an appointment for me to see the doctor, who I felt was probably quite busy, what with hospital evacs and people in much worse shape than I. 

41  I didn't want to go, to be honest. I fear going to the doctor, as a general rule. I know it's ridiculous, but yes, doctors out there, I'm that guy. 

42  I made the appointment for 10:40 Monday morning. That's later this morning as I write and as I travel through time. I'm watching musical artist Pink on Good Morning, America singing her new hit, "What About Us." She's giving me lots of strength. Some songs hit you at just the right time. Beautiful trauma.

43  So I wound up going to the Doc just to check and see how my engine was running. She was supportive, vibrant, and attentive. I was examined, only this time my blood pressure was high. 

44  They tried a few times, but it remained high. Most people would have shaken it off, adjusted diet, and scampered off.

46  I'm not that guy. It shook me up. I got worried. Then I went home, made a nice lunch with lots of veggies and a little chowder, and rested. All good gifts.

47  And then I got a sweet tooth. Anybody knows me knows that my weakness isn't sweets, it's salt. My body has always treated me nicely in that area. 

48  But I did get a sweet tooth. I'm a huge fan of Breyer's Raspberry Cheesecake gelato. I have it often, and I will break a small Hershey's milk chocolate bar into that scrumptious dessert. I felt I deserved a treat after having spent my morning doing the right thing.

49  So gelato it was! I couldn't even wait to get to it. I didn't bother with an ice cream scoop. I just got a semi-bent spoon and ran that stuff ragged. I touched the face of God somewhere in all of this, and it turns out that she was cute, and pretty "well-put-together" as my Dad would say. I soon after drifted off to sleep, or I sank into a coma of pure pleasure, not sure which. 

50  I woke up a little bit later shivering. The cold coursed through my veins. I wanted to crawl under a blanket, but I also went into self-loathing. How could I DO that? How could I have DONE that, to myself, to my family, and to the United States of America?

51  Because it was the best thing I've done for myself in the past two months. 

52  And because as I said previously, I'm a pretty good sport.

53  Because I didn't see it as a gamble at all. I played the odds. I'm sure it's happened, but I have never heard of a case of Death by Gelato. Especially delicious raspberry. Doesn't happen.

54  Cavalier?

Charles I (1600-1649) King of England

Artist:  Daniël Jijtens, Cavalier.

55  As my old friend Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. would have said, "Oh, I imagine."

56  Oh, I imagine.

57  And by the way, I never tried my hand at curling, but I promised earlier that I would come back to other sports, like curling. I don't wish to let my fans down, so there it is. 

58  I gottago. Those Li'l Beebeez are all three a work of art. Scroll back up and look. They are Li'l Works of Art, and yes, I DO mean to be a tad cavalier about it, but I'd never dress the part. 

59  See you again.

60  Have a GREAT day. 

61  Live life.

62  Love life.

63  Love Breyer's Raspberry Cheesecake gelato.

64  Love it all.

65  Peace.

~H~

fin.