When I was growing up, I loved the color blue. I wore blue jeans and blue T shirts. I painted my bedroom blue. I never tired of looking up at beautiful blue skies or seeing the Blue Ridge Mountains when we went on road trips. At some point, I stopped liking blue. Eventually, my color…
The Cheapest Customer Support
After upgrading my iPhone to IOS 16, I could no longer use my phone for calls or texts. I use Visible for my cell service. One of the trade-offs for Visible’s low price is that you can only get support via their website, user forums and tech support chat. Naturally, all of the troubleshooting options…
No Free Lunch
My mom told me she just got a new iPhone from T-Mobile. This is her 3rd new iPhone in 3 years and she’s not a techie-nerd. She’s retired and uses her phone for calls, texting, Facebook, Words with Friends and watching TV. I asked her why she got a new phone since her old one…
The R Word
I stopped using the word “retarded” as an insult about 10 years ago. Up until then, I thought it was a clever, irreverent and funny way to describe when someone did something dumb. Back then, social norms regarding what is a slur vs. what is everyday language was beginning to shift. (More accurately, I think…
Not A Team Player
In school, I hated when we had team projects because nobody on my team would work the way I did. I always ended up having to work more to carry them and cover what I considered their mediocre, half-assed efforts. In gym class, I was never the “team captain”. I was a fat, un-athletic kid…
Root Reality
Occasionally when I am eating dinner, I’ll crunch down on a bone fragment that was hidden in the ground beef. Sometimes I’ll feel a piece of my molar break off. Other times, I think, “Oh shit…I hope I didn’t crack my tooth on that.” I’m pretty sure my first root canal a few years ago…
Born An Old Man
My wife used to tell me I was an old soul. I liked that. I always felt that I was more mature than my peers. I had to be. For me, being an old soul is more than taking on responsibilities at an early age. It’s a core part of who I am. I was…
Redecorating
I have been replacing the impressionistic landscape paintings on my wall with my recently painted urban sketching watercolors. I like to study my recent paintings as a way to see what’s working and what’s not. Plus, it’s a nice change of scenery on my walls. I’ve pretty much run out of wall space with over…
Cruisin’
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…
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…