The chores were the usual: laundry and vacuuming. In other news, I love my film cameras, the Nikon F3, the Leica IIf, and the Rollei 35. I have digital cameras that I like, but film cameras are the ones I love.
Same chores: vacuuming and laundry.
I had a brainstorm while talking with my partner. I was talking about my chaotic time in college and she suggested a graphic novel about student life at a big college in the 60’s. It was mind-blowing as we emerged from the repressive Eisenhower 50’s to the student rebellion in the 60’s. I was not part of that rebellion, mired as I was in inner conflicts. As a student, who showed great promise — according to my SAT scores — I was a magnificent underachiever who spent an entire year floating paper airplanes out of the window of my 7th floor dorm window.
I figure my tale would require four volumes: freshman year, sophomore year, etc. It would be a huge undertaking on the order of a masterpiece such as Kent State: Four Dead in Ohio, by Derf Backderf. FYI, that’s an affiliate link. Derf has been doing comics for 40 years. It would take me 40 years to learn the skills to describe my four chaotic years at the Great Big University.
Alas! So many books to write, so little time.
Today’s chores were pretty much the same as last week’s: laundry, vacuuming the house, and gardening. Normal stuff. After taking Nacho for his afternoon walk, I had time to open Clip Studio Paint and start painting a background image showing the kids arriving in Acapulco. In the background are circus tents. I used my imagination to paint the initial sketch, then I thought: “These are boring tents. They look like an eight-year old drew them.” That’s when I realized it was time to look a some references.
As you can see in the tiny reference picture, Mexican circus tents are really eye catching.
The diners, Willy and Nacho, admiring the chef’s Michelin star technique
Lots of chores this week. Because I’m having eye surgery tomorrow (Monday), I have to get a head start on the workflow of my part-time job. I spent most of this morning loading two days of work into the system so that it can be released automatically Monday evening and Tuesday evening. I should be able to work by Wednesday, if all goes well.
Besides preparing stuff for my job, I did some cooking for next week’s fine dining. The main dish was a vegan “loaf”, what some vegans would call a “no-meat loaf”. I prefer to simply call it a loaf. My loaf is actually a kind of moist bread made with oatmeal, walnuts, quinoa, and kidney beans. Beside the loaf, I made a tomato sauce and a cheese-y sauce. There I go — breaking my own rule. I use cheese-y because it’s a lot easier than saying onion, red bell pepper, and nutritional yeast based sauce.
Today’s chore were:
weeding the backyard “lawn”. I call it a “lawn” because the ground is covered with weeds that look like grass until they become obnoxious weeds. Today we used brute force to dig them out. My fear is that all of the billions of tiny roots they left behind will have their revenge next spring.
doing laundry
washing clothes
That’s it for today.
All the normal chores: vacuuming and doing the week’s laundry. After breakfast (a chocolate+banana+wild blueberry smoothie), I practiced painting for the first time in month’s. Behold my opal apple.
Today was chore day (laundry, vacuuming), with a bit of time for practicing using vector tools in Clip Studio Paint. I’m going to keep practicing until I get it.
As for the picture, it’s what’s called a work in progress. In fact, all of my pictures are works in progress.
Sketch
Vectorizing
Not a life-shattering lemon. Just an annoying lemon. This time the unsavory fruit is a refrigerator that won’t refrigerate. The buggy machine has been a hassle for years, and now it’s just giving up being useful. I spent most of the day trying to get the defroster to work. I learned about arcane error codes and about pressing two buttons simultaneously for three seconds, and when all of the magic incantations had been studiously applied, the refrigerator still wouldn’t refrigerate.
So now I’m scouring the Internet in a mad dash to learn about refrigerators so that I can buy one that won’t torment us with annoying antics. And guess what! Every refrigerator that fits my requirements is out of stock, back ordered, or not available for delivery until August (it’s now April 10).
Then I think that my problem is trivial. It’s annoying. It’s an inconvenience. It’s just a matter of waiting a few days and all of my petty irritations will evaporate. It could be so much worse. Then I begin to feel gratitude for all that I have, my family, my dogs, my friends, my job, my health. And I send out a few words of kindness to all the suffering people and animals I will never meet.
May you be happy and content. May you be safe, protected and free from inner an outer harm. May you be healthy and who to the greatest degree possible. May you experience ease of living.
I’m not working this week at my square job, so I’m doing some long-postponed chores. I resurfaced our front screen door, which involved paint scraping with a wire brush and washing. I also replaced the house numbers, which were getting rusty.
This is my final version of Dylan Dolphin for page 65. Even though I say “final”, I will probably have to change his colors. I believe his skin is a little too blue.
