Freestyle Friday: Smart Phones

Neil over at Yorkshire Pudding ranted recently about businesses expecting everyone has a smartphone. I agree with him that relying on apps only is wrong, and I have had a smartphone almost since smartphones first came on the market.  I was already carrying Blackberrys when Apple came out with the first glass faced "smartphone." I bought an android phone within a couple of years of the first smartphone. 

I bought the blackberrys for a couple of reasons, they had great international phone and data service and we were starting to travel a bit, the thing that tipped the scales for me, was maps on the phone.  The novelty of maps on my phone, rapidly wore off, one car has in-dash GPS, I have a portable Garmin unit to use in the other car and when we rent cars. I find maps on my phone to be annoying most of the time, and I think using a phone to navigate while driving is very dangerous, it should be outlawed. 

What kept me using smart phones is email. I check email on my phone several times a day. I solve Wordle on my phone everyday. I exchange morning text messages with three people on my phone. I seldom use it as a phone.  Honestly, smartphones make lousy phones, they are hard to hold, hard to hear. The flip phones of 25 years ago were better phones. I take photos with my phone. It takes good photos, and when I am away from home it is always in my pocket. The best camera is the one you have within reach. I check the news, looking for a particular obituary every day on my phone. 

I dislike the app world. I find it cumbersome to unlock my phone, find the app, then half of the time the app wants me to log in, enter a password, while the world is waiting behind me. I can, but I never have used my phone to tap and pay. I prefer paper boarding passes to electronic ones, I hate struggling to get the boarding pass to display. The battery never runs down on paper, it can on my phone. 

Five years ago, when I bought a new phone, my old phone was so short on memory that the phone store couldn't download the app to transfer my data to a new phone without deleting something. The guy asked if he could delete Facebook and Instagram from my phone. I agreed, and then I never put them back on. I freed myself from Meta on my phone. Try it, you will like it. 

So why do I carry a smartphone? I like having a phone with me for my use when I want to use it. I like having email and a camera in my pocket. I like being able to do a quick web search. When needed the maps come in handy (I used maps to find a restaurant in San Antonio, including walking directions.) I check the temperature outside on my phone. But I try to avoid being bullied into using it as my only means of doing anything.  

Thursday Ramble: What has changed in retirment

I am a little over two years into retirement, long enough to have passed the extended vacation phase, and I am starting to understand the joys of retirement. 

I recently realized that when I was working I often wanted to escape, to get away, from work. I wanted to go someplace and be quiet, to do nothing, to talk to no one. And this was very-very hard to do. At best I might get a random day or two here and there, but for the most part vacation days were just replacing one filled calendar for another filled calendar. Since retirement I don't have this feeling. I am often able to have quality alone time. There is nothing in my life that I wish to escape. It is not that I don't want to get out and see the wonders, I do this often, or travel - I love to travel and will keep traveling as long as I am able to - but it is no longer to escape. I don't need to escape from this life. 

The longer I am retired, the less my identity is tied to my work. When introducing myself, my work is no longer in the first sentence. Slowly it is moving into the third or fourth sentence, sometimes not even being there at all. I am retired. Not a retired lawyer.  I am no longer afraid of the term retirement.  It is nothing to be ashamed of, or afraid of. We worked and saved for many years to be able to do this. 

I no longer dread Mondays. Monday morning, is just another morning. Sunday evening is no longer filled with fear and loathing. There are differences from day to day. Sunday is CBS Sunday Morning Show and 60 Minutes, Thursday and Saturday are water aerobics. Saturday if the weather is nice is farmers market morning. Everyday I walk, and most afternoons I spend time in the pool. The day to day, stress level is very even. 

It took me a couple of years, to replace the social network of the office, with social connections in the community. This is something many people fail to do. I was surprised how fast, and how completely the work related network ended.  There is one person from my old office that I stay in monthly contact with. A couple of people that I connect with a few times a year. But most of them are busy with their work lives. I have new connections, here in the community. 

The last few years that I worked the income far exceeded my needs. It is easy to say I miss the income. But we have enough, our savings have grown over the last two years. I remind myself that we can't take it with us, and we should start spending what we want (within reason - once a stingy bastard, always a stingy bastard.) 

I think I have moved forward into an engaged, but relaxed phase of life. Then I am shocked to think, HOW CAN I BE OLD ENOUGH TO BE RETIRED? 

My World of Wonders: March 4, 2026

 

What have I been up to in the kitchen this week? I poached a chicken, boned it out, and made chicken stock, then made chicken pies with steamed veggies and homemade pastry. I have two half-liter containers of chicken stock to cook with later.  Risotto, chicken and coleslaw. Duck eggs benedict. 

Who have I talked with? My middle brother, he is sending me the paperwork to do his income taxes with. Giuseppe, Mary. My sweet bear. 

What blog posts from this week, needed a longer comment? 

    John at Going Gently, posted this about an encounter at the grocery store. It got me to thinking, my Grandmother and her family left England over 100 years ago, leaving behind everything they knew, family, friends, culture. They were economic refugees, seeking a better life. My Great Grandfather made a living digging tunnels, not as an engineer in an office, as a man with a shovel underground. How bad must things have been at home, for them to leave behind the life they knew for the unknown. The immigrants washing up on your shores are fleeing something pretty horrible, or they wouldn't be fleeing. 

    Doc Spo posted about life expectancy and the shift from saving to enjoying. A couple of years into retirement, I am still struggling with spending anything from a lifetime of saving. There were a couple of trips I wanted to take last year, to see family and friends, that I didn't take, in large part because I didn't want to spend the money. One of the friends has been back in the hospital, if I keep putting off going Kim will not be there. I have a grand-nephew I have not met, how will he ever know his funky uncle if I don't meet him. Make the plans, spend the money, you can't take it with you. You have saved for your old age, you are only going to get so much older. And likely the last few years of your life, you will be limited in what you can do. Harsh to say, but it is what I have watched happen thousands of times. Go meet the Viking, Go see the family and friends, come see where George Washington had dinner. 

Where have I been this week? Mt Vernon for a nice walk. The library, and a fluenear along the waterfront near King Street, and a wander through the Torpedo Factory Arts Center.  The Farmer's Market in old town Alexandria, the first time since the weather turned cold. Across the River to National Harbor for a nice walk - I had the top down on the car for the first time this year on the way there and back. 

What was on the easel this week? I finished this. I remarked that it was my cubist phase, and Sweet Bear suggested "Cubist Phace". Should I show this one? 

What did I have a flashback memory of this week? My Sister and her youngest are staying at Universal Orlando for a week in the sun, she texted me that they had dinner at Universal Citywalk the first evening. My brain flashed back to the mid 1990's. Emeril Lagasse had a restaurant there, we took my parents there for lunch one day. The service was formal and fussy, over the top as my mother described it, and the food was very-very good. They both enjoyed it. It was a special treat for all. It was fun to see them both smile.  

Travel Tuesday: San Antonio Riverwalk

Hilton Palacio Del Rio on the Riverwalk

The electric boats are a wonderful way to explore the Riverwalk, covering about 2.5 miles of meandering water. 

Top left, is the Hilton we stayed in, with a room on the River side.

The color in the water caught my eye. 

The View from the balcony of our room, down onto one of the boats. 

There had been a hard freeze a couple of weeks before, and the trees and many plants were brown, adding an unusual dimension of color to the landscape. 

 

Monday Moods: Spread the Adventure not the Ugliness

I am not 95, yet, though at times my knees feel like I should be, but I so identify with this quote from the painter Grandma Moses. 

There is a lot of sadness and ugliness in the world, but I don't think the world is improved by spreading or repeating it. I get angry, I get political, things around us can be very depressing, even terrifying. I feel all of those things. I do what I can. (VOTE!) 

But, I try hard to keep Travel Penguin a retreat from it all. A place of peace, and reinforcement.  Most of the time, I keep my comments on other's blogs positive and upbeat, if I can't do that I try to skip commenting on that post. Not because I haven't read, or don't care, but I don't want to amplify the angst. With very rare exceptions, (is there room at the Tower for a former Prince?) I don't comment on politics in other countries. I can't truly understand the full picture in another country, it is challenging enough to understand the politics in this country.  

I try my best to not paint or write sadness or ugliness. 

Pause today and breathe. Look around you at the awe and wonder. Find the good in others. Notice the beauty around you. 

When you think of the things that need to be changed, think of what you can do to make them better, focus on the solution not the problem.  Spread the beauty, not the ugliness. 

I am reading blogs this Monday morning, this post was written last week, not as a reaction to anything anyone has posted today or yesterday, it was written in reaction to the Quote in the top image. Love you all! 

The Sunday Five: Photography

1: When was the last time you took a photograph? 

2: Do you own a camera that is not a part of some other device? 

3: Have you ever been told you can't take photographs here? 

4: Do you leave the flash on or the flash off?

5: How often do you share your photographs? 

My Answers: 

1: When was the last time you took a photograph? Yesterday, I take at least one everyday. 

2: Do you own a camera that is not a part of some other device? Four of them. 

3: Have you ever been told you can't take photographs here? Yes, several times, at one time I thought about doing a collection of forbidden photographs. 

4: Do you leave the flash on or the flash off? Flash off 99.999% of the time, one of the first things I do with a new camera is find how to turn the flash off. 

5: How often do you share your photographs? Everyday, on this and another blog. 

Please share your answers in the comments.

The Saturday Morning Post: Is It Art?

Most art is obvious, it is in your face, it shows and glows, and is clear what the message is. But not all art is that way. I like to think of this as "Unseen" art.  Messages that you might pass by 100 times and not see anything of interest, then it hits you. It suddenly makes you smile, you wonder how could I have missed that? Is it really intended to make me feel this way? Do others feel what I feel when they look at this? 

Maybe this is the difference between looking and seeing. Looking is a physical process, seeing is interpreting what we are looking at. When I look at the image above there is a rather nondescript painted surface and what is probably an electrical outlet. When I see it, the eyes, the nose, and the circle creates a smile for me.  If the artist was just plastering around the outlet the opening would probably be rectangular, making it round, adds a layer of meaning for me. 

Take time this week to look around for art in unexpected, maybe even accidental art. You will smile at what you see. 

It it me, or is this art.  

 

Fabulous Friday: Balls Out

This is a mechanical steam engine speed regulator. As steam passes through the engine, the top spins, when centrifugal force spins the heavy metal balls far enough out, steam is released from the system, lowering the pressure, and regulating the speed of the engine.  By adjusting how far out the balls spin before steam is released you can change the engine speed. The term, "balls out" came from this mechanism, and has nothing to do with masculine anatomy. 

I took this photo in the summer of 1976 at Greenfield Village, a part of the Henry Ford Museum complex in Dearborn Michigan. Shortly after I took this, the docents turned on the steam, let the balls fly and demonstrated how this worked. 

I developed the film, and made the print. There is a reflection on this image, there is glass in the frame. It has been in the frame since 1977, I am not going to take it out at this age. This was the first piece I showed in a public show, at the Titusville Art League show in the spring of 1977, earning an honorable mention. It will be going into a show with a theme of New Works and First Works, in late March.  

The Thursday Ramble: I Talk To Strangers

Much to the dismay of others, I talk to strangers. When I sit on a plane, I always ask my seatmates if they are headed home or headed out. Sometimes there is no response, other times it leads to a conversation. I have a few dozen stories that start with a sat next to a guy on a plane one time. 

On the recent trip, there was the tall-thin kid from Georgia who had just completed Air Force boot camp and was headed to some remote base in Texas to study munitions.  Going to boot camps was his first time away from home, his first time flying on a plane. 

A few years ago I sat next to a guy who worked for HP. He was on the road selling print on demand book publishing. If you order a self published book on Amazon, odds are it is printed on the machines he was selling. He said it was the future of book publishing, and he was right. 

I sat next to a guy on time, who was returning home from a job interview. He worked for a company that made control systems for cars. They were developing autonomous driving controls. He said, I need to move on. He went onto explain that he had spent most of the month before in a conference room full of engineers and ethicists trying to write computer code to decide if faced with running over the baby buggy or the wheelchair, which should the car run over. He said "I just can't be the guy who wrote that piece of computer code." 

I sat next to a guy one time who described himself as a corporate executioner. His specialty was firing senior executives in corporate America. He was an outside independent contractor. He said about 80% of the time the reaction is relief, thankful that the ordeal is over. The other 20% of the time, he is paid well to hear all kinds of rude things said. 

There was the morning that I slept with Gabriel Iglesias's road manager. It was an early morning flight out of Detroit, going to Phoenix.  I had been in Detroit for a memorial party the day before, and checked into the hotel in the airport the night before, as I recall the flight left at like 7:00 AM. He had finished up a series of shows in Detroit was flying home. He had been up late the night before at an aftershow party. We were in the first row of first class, and slept most of the way to Phoenix, before talking about what had taken us to Detroit. All we did was sleep, and then talk for a last few minutes of the flight. Nice guy headed home for a few days of rest. 

My World of Wonders: February 25, 2026

What was the first thing I thought of when I saw the above? Dump Trump. It was nice to read the Supreme Court ruling that he can't just decide that there is an emergency and levy tariffs. 

Where have I been this week? Out for a haircut, and shopping at Target. The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts to hear the National Symphony Orchestra. The community center to hang and open a new gallery show.  The latest gallery show opening. The gym. Into the city, and the African and Asian Art museums, and the National Portrait Gallery. It was great fun to ride the metro and walk in the city. 

What made me very sad this week? Attendance at the NSO last Thursday evening. The hall was half empty. There are ten seats in the section we were in, and the two of us where the only people in that section, it is usually full.   

Who have I talked with this week? My Sweet Bear, Linda, Jon, Amy, Kevin, Ruth, Warren, the usher at the Kennedy Center, Amy, Linda, Anna, Susan, Joan, Mary, David, it was a socially busy week with the gallery show opening. 

What do I have in the new show?  

What have I been up to in the kitchen?  Fried chicken and smashed potatoes for butter and chives. A quick ravioli with butter, cheese, and ham. Steaks, safarin rice, and glazed carrots. Roast pork with potatoes and carrots. 

What travel plans did we make this week?  I have a board meeting in Chicago in late July early August, I booked the hotel and we made airline reservations. It is fun to have plans. 

What is keeping me busy these days? We have a month long adventure coming up in a couple of months, and I am writing and scheduling blog posts for while we are on the road. I have about 2/3rds of the posts finished. There will be a digital detox on this trip. 

What else have I been writing? I submitted an article on housing options, I am editing one on keeping the bills paid and the lights on, and I have started one on older lawyers in the ABA. It keeps me active and thinking.

What made me laugh this week? The man who said, "money can't buy happiness, must have bought a Tesla, instead of a Porsche." 

What did I read that I wanted to quote? "Vae, puto deus fio" translated to mean, "Dear me, I think I am becoming a god." 

Travel Tuesday: All That Glitters at the Smithsonian Natural History Museum

 

Monday Mood: I Waited Too Long - Don't Put It Off

I waited too long, and now something on my travel wish list will never happen. Don't let his happen to you, take a few minutes this week to think about what you really-really want to see or do while you can, and sit down, make the plans, book the travel, spend the money. In the end you can't take the money with you, and sooner or later something will make your dream - impossible.  I know, I have let this happen. I coulda, shoulda added three days to last springs trip and checked this one off of my list. But I didn't.  I can't use the excuse that we didn't have the money, our earning days are behind us, there is more than enough in the accounts to have made the trip. I can't say we didn't have the time, we are both retired, our time is our own. We were gone for a month last spring, another three days wouldn't have made a big difference. And we changed planes in Iceland, on Icelandair that famously offers a stopover in Iceland for the same airfare as changing planes there. But I blew it, and now sadly it will never happen. Things happen, things change, things that are unexpected, and beyond our control. Go and do it now, or regret it later. 

So what happened? I have wanted to visit the black sand beach with the basalt stone cliff at Vik in Iceland for years. The basalt cliff was formed by lava flowing into the sea thousands of years ago, forming geometric blocks, stacked high into the sky, trapping a narrow volcanic sand beach between the cliff and roaring ocean surf, often with ice washing up on each wave. People traveled from around the world to see this beach, but no more. A couple of weeks ago, the cliff collapsed in a landslide onto the beach. The rocks are being cleared off of the beach, but the basalt cliff is gone, replaced by a muddy hillside. This very rare geological formation is no more. I waited too long, and I really have no valid reason for waiting. 

We did try to go there back in 2021. We were driving from Geysir* to Vik, and drove into a blizzard, heavy snow and 40 mile per hour winds, it was so bad that trucks were getting stuck in the roundabouts. We turned around when we could find a safe place to do so, and followed a local driving a tiny Toyota back toward Reykjavik, driving out of the storm in about 40 miles.  The hotel in Vik was kind enough to allow a last minute cancellation, the roads were so bad that people couldn't leave Vik, or get in. 

But that was five years ago, two years of which I have been retired, and we even changed planes in Iceland last spring, a perfect time to have made the trip. I blew it. 

What is on your wishlist? Stop making excuses, make plans and go now, while you can, before something makes it impossible. 

* Go stay at the Hotel Geysir, it is amazing. I am so glad we did that. 
 

The Sunday Five: Chickens

1: Have you ever kept raised or kept chickens? 

2: Should your neighbors be able to keep chickens in their back garden? 

3: Other than chicken, what kind of eggs can you buy in your local neighborhood, and do you? 

4: Have you ever been chased by a chicken? 

5: Do you eat chicken? 

My answers: 

1: Have you ever kept raised or kept chickens? I have not, my father didn't want anything on the farm that required daily care. 

2: Should your neighbors be able to keep chickens in their back garden? This has become a hot topic in many American cities, I think they should, they don't make anymore noise than many dogs, and produce eggs. 

3: Other than chicken, what kind of eggs can you buy in your local neighborhood, and do you?  I can buy quail eggs almost all of the time, if I go to the fancy market or the asian market they often have duck eggs, Whole Foods has stopped carrying Emu eggs. Quail eggs are cute, but fussy to cook, Duck eggs are wonderful, I wish they were easier to get (we lost the Egg Man at the farmers market during COVID, he often has Duck eggs.) 

4: Have you ever been chased by a chicken? As a child, but then I ran from almost everything until I was in my 30's. 

5: Do you eat chicken? Yes, often. 

Please share your answers in the comments. 

The Saturday Morning Post: Use All Of The Tools You Have To Create

I sincerely hope that someone looks at this self-portrait and thinks - shouts - "I could do better than that." You probably can and you will only ever know if you try. 

Come paint with me. I will show you how I did this one. 

It started as an attempt to print out a selfie I had taken with my phone. Everything went wrong, it printed on plain paper instead of photo paper, and a couple of ink cartridges had dried up or gone empty, so the print was washed out, more of an outline than a photo. The essential elements of shape. 

I have never taken the time, to develop what little drawing skill I have. I am likely to say, I can't draw, but I also have never worked at developing what skill I might have. 

With this print, I had a start. Lingering on the floor behind my desk chair is a light-box, it was used as a slide sorter back in the day of 35mm slides. I just couldn't bring myself to toss it when we stopped using slides. I plugged it in, put the attempted print on it, put a piece of paper on top, took a dark fine point marker and created a sketch, an outline of my face. 

My original thought was that this would be a good linocut image. And I have started to explore linocut for the first time in about 45 years, but the image was complex and the wrong size. Hmm what to do? 

I painted a base color on a 12 by 12 canvas. Used tracing paper, basically carbon paper (who knew they still sell that?) and traced over the line drawing transferring the outline onto the canvas. I filled in a few lines here and there, then started painting. 

A few days later my Sweetie Bear looked at it and said, "it's you!" 

Can you do better, probably, a few of you I know for sure that you can. But it is me, trying. Using all of the tools I can to create something I don't know how to do. I am happy with it, it is in the community Arts Show of Portraits and Self-Portraits that opened today. 

Funky Friday: When I Wore A Younger Man's Shoes

I went out last Friday to run errands and take a walk. It was just above freezing, so I wanted to walk indoors as much as possible.  I went to the art supply store, then walking through a dozen local shops, to get my daily hour of walking in, while spending as little time outside as possible.  

One of the shops was a massive shoe store, Designer Shoe Warehouse or DSW, my readers in the USA will likely recognize the brand. 

Strolling the aisles, I was reminded of my early 20's, I was working full time, and I had a steady if very modest income, and I discovered the joy of shopping for shoes. Not just one or two pairs of shoes, the necessities, but being able to buy shoes for style, sometimes shoes for special occasions. There was a discount shoe store on the south side of Colonial Drive just west of Semoran Boulevard in Orlando that had great prices and often unique styles.  At first it was boat shoes, this was the early 1980's and leather boat shoes were the peak of Yuppy Fashion. Then it was nice dress shoes. I have fond memories of a pair of crocodile slip ons that I bought at an outlet mall out near Wet and Wild for about $100. I loved Cole Haan Driving Mocs, at one time I had at least 6 pairs of them in different colors and finishes. 

And starting in my late 20's running shoes. For a long time almost always Nike's top of the line running shoes. Avia gym shoes. Later Asics running shoes - I have probably half a dozen pairs of them in the closet today. 

Then in my 40's my feet started hurting.  I picked up some weight, I had spent a decade running a lot. I had a couple of jobs where I spent a lot of time on my feet. My days of stylish shoes were over by my early 50's. Shoes need to be comfortable, provide plenty of support and cushioning. 

Today I wear mostly running shoes. I have a couple of pairs that are all black, that I wear with suits. Have a couple of pairs of nearly waterproof hiking shoes or boots. And a few pairs of fancy dress shoes that I only wear when needed, and then limit the amount of time I am on my feet. But mostly it is one of the many pairs of running shoes in the closet that I wear each day. 

In DSW last week, there was this pair of sparkly black velvet formal shoes, I looked at them, picken them up, coveted them, and remembered the days, when I wore a younger man's shoes, and I could / would have bought the lovelies. Maybe I miss those days. 

 

The Thursday Ramble: Phones

I was ten years old before we had a phone in the house. My grandparents lived around the corner, and they had a phone, They had had phone service since the 1930's, but my parents decided a phone was a luxury, and didn't have one. That winter, my father went out of state to a a beekeepers convention in Little Rock Arkansas. Around the time he was to fly home, we had a massive snow storm. My mother trudged through knee deep snow to my the old farmhouse to use the phone. The house was cold because my grandparents were sensibly in Florida that January. Eventually everything worked out, he flew into Detroit, took a taxi to an Uncle's house, and we picked him up a day or so later, barely making our way through the snow. My mother decreed that a phone was no longer a luxury. 

At first it was a party line. Two short rings was a call for us. One long ring was the Bader family, two long rings was the older couple across the street at the corner. When you picked up the phone, you had to check for a dial tone. Often you would pick up and one of the neighbors would be talking on the line, you had to wait for them to finish the call before you could make your call. Sometimes you just listened to hear the neighborhood gossip. A few years later everyone was converted to a private line. 

And they were all rotary dial phones. 

When I was in high school my parents bought a house in Florida, near the space center, a home I would live in for a couple of years after high school, and that they would retire to and live out the rest of their lives, they both died in that house. They had phones installed, and for the first time, they were touchpad dialing, not rotary. I had a phone in my bedroom for the first time. 

I bought my first cell or mobile phone in 1996. I had moved to Kentucky, and was commuting 82 miles in each direction everyday to and from law school. The phone was huge by today's standards, and I was paying $30 a month, for 30 minutes a month of calls in a limited geographic area. If I went over the number of minutes additional minutes were about 50-cents each, calls outside the calling area were about the same cost. 

I bought my first semi-smart phone when we were getting ready for a trip to England. I wanted a phone that would work across systems. The best option was a Blackberry. The salesman lied to me, he said in a week they wouldn't be able to pry it out of my hand, it only took about two days for me to feel that way. A couple of years after I moved to DC, I bought my first glass faced smartphone. 15 years later, I have had four of five of them.  I use it daily, but seldom, very seldom for phone calls. They are great email devices, but really lousy phones unless you plug in a headset. 

Last year, my phone broke just after we boarded the cruise ship for a month long adventure. I posted my daily selfie while having lunch on the ship, and the next time I pulled out my phone it was dead. I went a month without a phone, and guess what, I survived. My maternal grandmother, lived without a phone for the last 30 years of her life. I never talked with her over the phone, I was 4 or 5 years old when they sold the farm - and they never had a phone after that. 

I wonder how many people under the age of 50 could figure out how to dial a call on the phone above?  

    

My World of Wonders: February 18, 2026

Where have I been this week? Into DC to have lunch with a friend, to Belle Haven Exon for my annual car safety inspection (passed.) To the art supply store. The pool. The Library, Harris Teeter and Trader Joe's. Aldi. 

 

Who have I talked with this week? Erica, Marcel, Sweet Bear, Amy, Anna, Michelle, Eric, Amy (a different Amy), Giuseppe, Larry, Warren, the water aerobics ladies, and Mary.  

What have I been up to in the kitchen? Shredded pork quesadillas (drawing a comment "didn't you get enough Mexican food in San Antonio.) Steaks and gratin potatoes, fried potatoes and eggs, avocado toast with salsa. Chicken corn chowder. Beef stew. 

What have I been reading? I finished "The French Art of Living Well" it was okay, a little academic at points. Backstage, by Donna Leon. Well written, some chapters are literary criticism that means little unless you have or intend to read the book, other chapters are brilliant prose. 

What is on the easel? A 16 by 20 canvas with a deep red base coat, that is earning its stripes as it emerges from my mind.  

What other arty stuff am I doing? I am curating a show that goes up in late March, titled New Works and First Works.  New works are anything created in the past year, First Works can be your oldest work, the first work you ever showed, your first work in a new media, your first time showing with Arts in Montebello.  When we were brainstorming themes we talked about doing a show of all first time creators, and someone pointed out that excluded a lot of people, and we are trying to be inclusive, so we combined New and First works into one show theme.  Submissions are starting to come in.  I have two pieces for the show, one new and one I first showed in 1977. 

What is the quote of the week? "She is taking a one week cruise in the caribbean, she doesn't care where the ship is going, as long as it is warm." I need to remember to do this each winter. 

Who deserves a slap this week? The Spam Commenters, I have been fighting off a major spam attack over the past week.  Spam is being posted to old posts, and neglected secondary blogs, a sure sign that a business is paying a "marketer" to spread the word about their services, probably a pittance per placement. I slap them by reporting them as spam and deleting them. About 20 slaps in the last week, and as many as needed in the weeks to come. Blogger needs to shut them down, lock them out. Redirect them to Adsense where they can buy legitimate adds. 

Travel Tuesday: High School Art at the Briscoe Museum of Western Art

The Briscoe Museum of Western Art in San Antonio Texas has a special exhibit of western themed art by high school students in Texas. Below are some of my favorites from probably 50 pieces on display.

Monday Mood: Changes in Latitude, Changes in Attitude

It has been a cold winter in the DC area, the last ten days before we went to San Antonio were especially cold. Oh my, how a few days in warm weather improved how we are feeling. Both of us were rejuvenated by getting away, and spending a few days in a much warmer sunnier climate. 

The people in San Antonio were especially nice. Kind, welcoming, they seemed genuinely to welcome us and want to be helpful.  Sweet Bear asked the hotel staff several questions and they went out of their way to answer the questions. This helped us enjoy the time. 

The food was great, and not all Tex-Mex.  I did get my fill of enchiladas, but also nice seafood, and a nice pasta with wild boar. 

I was among my fellow wizards for a few days. We have a common experience, we speak a common language. That helps. 

The winter Meeting is in Chicago next year.  I need to balance that with a week someplace warmer next winter.  A change in latitude does change the attitude at this time of the year.  

The Sunday Five: Booze

1: Do you drink alcohol? 

2: Did you participate in "Dry January?" 

3: A martini, Gin or Vodka, Shaken or Stirred? 

4: Is there a place you would consider your local pub or bar? 

5: What is your favorite drink to order? 

My Answers: 

1: Do you drink alcohol? Yes, in moderation. 

2: Did you participate in "Dry January?" No. No reason to. 

3: A martini, Gin or Vodka, Shaken or Stirred? Gin, extra dry, shaken. 

4: Is there a place you would consider your local pub or bar? For most of my life the answer was no, there was never anyplace close by, or within walking distance. Here at the condo, we have a bar in the community center, a two minute walk across the back drive. 

5: What is your favorite drink to order? I am most likely to ask for water, if I order a cocktail away from home, a gin martini, or a Manhattan. 

Please share your answers in the comments.