Ellie got the finger

Actually she got ten. Nailed. Lacquered in fact.

It turns out my friend Tony runs a nail salon.

My dear Ellie loves to decorate herself in every imaginable way, so of course would LOVE to have her nails done.

So for her fifth birthday I took her down to Tony's place. They treated her like a princess.

She got flowers on top of pink nails.

Perhaps the best part of the whole event was the time Ellie spent with her hands under the drying lamps. She had a good half hour with a couple of Calaveras County grandmas. Being such a talker, and with those blond curls... of course she charmed the heck out of them.

Dad took pictures. Of course. So here you are.

Born to be Wild

Kids love bikes. I still love bikes, though it's been a long while since I was a kid.

There were a couple of weird things I learned about Robin when we met;

She never learned to swim in the ocean.

She never really learned to ride a bike.

Now I understand that up here in the hills there's not a lot of salt water, but I couldn't quite fathom the fear of bikes. She'd rather break an angry horse than ride a bike on a marked trail or paved road.

So when we moved up here, I reminded myself about the kids, the bike thing, and set myself on the mission of ensuring that they did not inherit their mother's fear of two-wheeled conveyance.

To her credit, Robin takes the kids out to ride their bikes almost weekly, and they love it.

Having removed myself from the fear of their fear of wheels...I must confess to my new fear;

They'll learn to ride away.

Homage to my friend Richard

I got caught smoking. It'd been a long LONG time since I was enslaved last to the demon weed, but alas...and again.

Having been caught, and then caught, I had to think...so I thought.

All the times, all the smokes...all the cigarettes, cigars, and pipes of my past.

They are numerous, and the number is vast.

And there's this box. It came from Richard.

Now I must say Richard and I knew each other when I was a kid, so he NEVER gave me anything to smoke. But I got this box, and later found my own things to fill it with.

What Richard did give me was a fearlessness about expression and visual art that has served me (rather well or poorly depending on whom you ask) for a lifetime. I don't know what I would have become had I not known Richard. He showed me how to be gleeful about colors.

I still have a wonderful broken briar-wood pipe that's almost as old as some of Richard's oldest paintings. I got lot of great and quiet time from that pipe before I broke it.

I still have the pieces...perhaps for another time.

Or not.

I might get caught.