My routine is very predictable. I do the same things everyday. I drive the same routes. I eat the same foods. I speak with the same people. Variety comes from what chores I do, the art I’m making, classes I take and stuff I do online when I’m winding down. To some people, my life…
Author: Steve Ainslie
Ordinary…Beautiful
Since I have been doing urban sketching it strikes me that something all the sketches have in common is that they take an everyday scene and transform it into something beautiful. The subjects are urban streets, shop-lined districts, buildings, villages, people, and occasional landmarks. Often the reference photos are completely unremarkable with bad lighting, dull…
Two Shots And A Knucklepunch
It is time for my annual flu shot. I’ve been getting these annually for at least the past 30 years. I’ve heard the mixture is “a best guess” and that effectiveness in preventing/minimizing the flu ranges from 10%-50%. I don’t care. I’ll take those odds. I’ve had the flu 3 times in the past 20…
Old Ladies No Ladies
For most of my life I have been attracted to older women. When I was a Freshman in high school, I wanted to date the Juniors and Seniors (there was no hope of that happening). When I was a Jr/Sr in high school, I wanted to date college girls. When I was in college, I…
Petty Concerns
Most of my concerns are petty. Pool hours Interruptions to my daily routine Traffic Irritating conversations Workouts Chores Dogs Weather My fitness, health, aches and pains Painting Is this what my life is today? I used to think my life was sooooo important. I was concerned with being a good husband, a good stepfather, a…
Time Lapse
Yesterday, for the first time since I injured my knee, I woke up early, walked the dog and worked out. Later I went swimming, walked the dog again, baked in the sun, caught up with two friends, and eventually wrapped up the day icing my knee while streaming a TV show. It felt great to…
Goodbye Again
My wife visited me in a dream last night. She was driving her car and dropping me off somewhere. She was smiling her huge toothy grin with her eyes were shining brightly and mischievously. In my dream she hadn’t aged a day from the time we first met. Whenever I think of her, I think…
Swooning For Sweden
Lars Trägårdh was on the Solo Podcast today to discuss the book he co-authored, The Swedish Theory of Love. Here’s what the Univivesity of Washington Press wrote about the book: “…Henrik Berggren and Lars Trägårdh argue that the long-standing view of Sweden’s welfare state as the result of socialist collectivism is flawed. While social values…
Embracing Errors
Man, do I hate making mistakes – and I make a lot of them. From putting my foot in my mouth, to giving away everything I owned to live permanently in the wilderness (lasted 2 months), to pushing too hard during workouts resulting in injuring myself, to just doing the wrong thing I have innumerable…
Incommunicado
I just removed the Contact page on my site. I did this with comments a few years ago. After 850+ posts over 6 years, very few people contact me via my blog anymore. And by very few – I mean three people have in the past 4 years. Those three people all know me. They…