Another week of self-investment (and reaping the rewards of previous self-investments),
another week of being above ground!
To celebrate this first day of the rest of my life I combed the web to find some of the best pokes at this virus confining, nonsocializing, travel restricting covid thing to hopefully put a smile on your face this Monday.
You can thank me later.
You can even vote for your favorite ones afterwards.
Some may be more clever then funny.
Hey, I like creativity.
So cheer up….
Its Monday!
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So what do think?
Did you like any of them?
Pick your top 3…
That’s all for now knuckle heads…
I will try to do a better job next time.
And I will keep wearing my mask….
Its just the right thing to do.
Until then, stay safe, be well, perfect happiness….
Oh yea, PS, we enjoyed a good movie last week. It was kinda funny and spoke to us.
So now I want to be like Mark Wahlberg in a second way, not just the bod he has in Good Vibrations… way
So raise your hand if you have done or thought of this….
…Walking into a bank with your Covid mask on and asking for money.
Right?
Now is about the only time you can walk into a bank, wearing a mask, and the bank not get excited.
 So with losing my job, some dire family issues, Covid 19 and E-Learning, its been quite a year here. So with my attitude spiraling downward I followed the advice of my therapist and went to my doctor for….an anti depression prescription.
And with all the ugliness and oppression going on in the world today…
…I did not resist.
Now, had I not been on this medicine, I probably wouldn’t have told you that (let that logic marinate).
But since being on this medicine I dont mind telling you.
See? Its working!
I was not so depressed anymore and actually ride on the happy side.
A happy guy more or less.
After all, I was taking the course on Happiness too.
Now, a true story, this really happened…
A few weeks ago my pharmacist called to tell me they were out of this anti-depressant medicine(?) prescription and that it was on back order and may not be in in some time.
I guess lots of people are depressed these days.
So, after hearing this news from my pharmacist, I paused for a bit and then said sternly,
“You know, this doesn’t make me very happy!”
Another true story…
I was at the gym to work out some issues. The gym was unstaffed and on auto pilot, including the radio station playing a country music station (not my first pick).
So I just focused on my reps.
But then a song came on where the words of the song caught my ear (country music does have some great lyrics after all). It just summed up the way I felt, or would like to feel.
The words stuck in my head….
“.…my only worry in the world is……is the tide gonna reach my chair”
Yea, sounds like the perfect phrase for someone who just had their no-depression prescription increased!
.…my only worry in the world is the tide gonna reach my chair
Soooo…I’m just going to take my Zoloft.
This year life tried to stop me but it sure didn’t
and now I’m gonna put the world away for a minute
Pretend I don’t live in it
Sunshine gonna wash my blues away
Had sweet love but I lost it
She got too close so I fought her Now I’m lost in the world trying to find me a better way…
Wishing I was Knee-Deep in the water somewhere
Got the blue sky, breeze and it don’t seem fair Only worry in the world is the tide gonna reach my chair
Sunrise there’s a fire in the sky Never been so happy Never felt so high And I think I might have found me my own kind of paradise
Wrote a note said “Be back in a minute” Bought a boat and I sailed off in it Don’t think anybody’s gonna miss me anyway.
Mind on a permanent vacation The ocean is my only(?) medication Wishing my condition ain’t ever gonna go away
‘Cause now I’m knee-deep in the water somewhere
Got the blue sky, breeze blowing wind through my hair Only worry in the world is the tide gonna reach my chair
Sunrise there’s a fire in the sky Never been so happy Never felt so high And I think I might have found me my own kind of paradise
This champagne shore washing over me It’s a sweet sweet life living by the salty sea
One day you could be as lost as me Change your geography Maybe you might be….
Knee-Deep in the water somewhere
Got the blue sky, breeze blowing wind through my hair Only worry in the world is the tide gonna reach my chair…
Sunrise there’s a fire in the sky Never been so happy Never felt so high And I think I might have found me my own kind of paradise
Come on in the water’s nice Find yourself a little slice
Grab a backpack and lawn chair You never know until you try When you lose yourself…… You find the key to paradise
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(OK…I actually just finished mowing the lawn)
Lose yourself and find your paradise!
I hope you find your own little paradise this week or next weekend….
Thanks Zack Brown Band, with a Jimmy Buffett accompaniment!
If you are looking at this post at some time in the future, Congratulations. You DID survive Corona 19 (T-shirts coming), So, since we are still alive in the future, I wanted to show you a little time capsule on how you survived that Covid pandemic back in 2020 that everyone might still be talking about.
SIGNS OF THE TIMES
Some of the signs of sheltering in place were actually neighborhood stuffed bears-in-windows scavenger hunt and chalk paintings on sidewalks
Here was an amusing sign in an elevator on my way to my doctor. “Everybody grab a corner!”
And, of course, the schools were closed and the future of education, E-Learning took over..
So we tried to think of Diversions help us cope with Sheltering.
Verizon is offering free Disney + for a year if you have their Unlimited Plan. Big plus! We love it. Lots of things to chose from like the Mandalorian, Runaways, and One Weird Rock.
Also, I heard about a well received Free course from Yale online on the Science of Well being. Actually its a Happiness course on the science of being happy.
And since we were all stuck inside and no where to go, and one of us out of work, and that same person forced to be an E Learning instructor (instead of bike and go to the gym), we thought it might be a good time to enroll.
We tried to sneak into a state park, and get out of our house, and stretch our legs on some trails.
Most state parks were closed in the beginning. So we wore disguises.
For a little glimpse of some Lowcountry scenery…
(Daddy made the running creek sounds again….)
But…..everyone was still getting bored with not much going on.
So we tried to get creative at home with some corn hole toss, left over croquet and anything else we could think of…
But the fun could still run out…
Tired of losing to Dad in Cornhole Toss
And then girls got really bored …
(poor Chumley)
SPOILED
But with you being home, I mean me being home and unemployment and severance pay kicking in, your girls got spoiled!
First ever banana split
And the fav from last year’s vacation, frozen Mocktails….
Its tough being stuck at home!
STATE PARKS OPEN UP….
….but not our beaches.
Some of the state parks opened the beginning of May so we took a day trip down to Beaufort, SC for my birthday. Its the prettiest beach I have seen here in the US. Its a State Park named Hunting Island…..and they filled to capacity by 11am.
the Boneyard
Then, Memorial Day weekend, we drove to a remote little beach town called Edisto Beach. We checked in the state park there as they have a little trail that leads to ‘shell island’.
 We walked.
We picnicked.
We swam.
And the ocean felt amazing for being May!
So we were truly, if not unusually blessed during the pandemic of 2020.
I was being paid to stay at home; with my girls. Our home was a great place to shelter in place. We didn’t need to leave our home except for groceries. It felt like we were pretty sheltered from the novel virus. It couldn’t touch us.
REALITY HITS
Then, at the end of May, we got word that my 91 year old Dad, stuck in a nursing home, picked up Covid 19.
Back to earth we came.
But, through lots of prayers to the King of Heaven’s army, my Dad is holding on. Two days ago he was officially Covid symptom free, although he did contract pneumonia in a lung and has really lost his appetite. #covidsucks
So hold on Dad! We love you!
And so with a wink and a prayer, we all survived Covid 19 (if you are reading this time capsule in the future).
And now…
I have to get back to sheltering in place…..
.its my civic duty
That’s it for now knuckleheads.
Be good. Be safe. Wear those masks for me and our parents and grandparents. And say lots of prayers. God does things.
 A few weeks ago I ventured downtown to pick up a ‘picture’ for my brother on his birthday. Now that his birthday is finally over I guess I can post about it.
The piece came from a DELA gallery of a famous photographer Jorge de la Torriente and master framer Jeffrey Rodriguez. They hail out of Key West FL but have a a nice little gallery in my hometown too.
My brother used to go fishing in Key West by himself a few years ago and so I thought he might appreciate this pic ..
Let me preface the rest of the post that I run my life slightly off kilter and so I have a hard time leveling or centering these photos (it had nothing to do with alcohol)
Here are a few of the other Photographs that caught my eye….
Again, my Android phone nor the photographer writing this post can do justice to the brilliance of these pieces of art.
This photo was done at midnight on Miami Beach with the colored LED lights behind the stacked beach chairs.
Many of his great images were actually aerial photographs and these I thought the most stunning or intriguing….
Here is a close up of a boat carrying on in the water in the above photo…
Can you find it in the original one?
The photographer also had a series of horse photographs for the horse lover..…
And, if your are wondering, here was my favorite from the gallery…
That is so me!
Beach boy in paradise!
But the wonderful thing about this evening was we actually stumbled upon a local Art Walk in our town, where all the galleries ( and we have many) have open house with finger foods and wine, which makes for a nice stroll downtown.
So we ventured into a few galleries between DELA and our parking garage.
Here are some of my favorites…
Teenage Girl Dreaming
The next one you might have to imagine, that is, it is 3D. (get it?) It actually has 4 trainglular blocks popping out, making up the painting. If you look at the painting from one side you see this image….
If you look at the painting from the others side this is what you see….
( I couldn’t afford it)
I know Tassels seem to be trendy from time to time. Here someone made figurines out of hassles.
Brilliant!
Here is another detailed local fav…..
But I have always believed true art makes you think.
So here are a few to think about….
This artist is creative and with a sense of humor….
The top photo was titled ‘The Birds and the Bees’. The second one was titled, ‘Eve before leaving Eden.
These two were titled, left to right, ‘Open’ and ‘Closed’.
Enlarge the image and take a look.
But if any gallery made you think, it was one owned by an African American artist who made you think, using images and textures to form opinions…
An example is this blurry art that was comprised of many newspaper clippings.
Here is a close up….
Yea, its Flawsome, making an adjective and “she made broken look beautiful and strong look invincible…..” are some of the brilliant lines she captured there I think.
Take a look.
Who does it make you think of?
Another work I liked was this, again ussing textures to help illustrative the art….
If you look closer at this blurred pictures you can see the border is that made of old newspaper clippings. the clipping themselves we art and made you wonder and think….
You can also see what I mean by ‘using texture’ in her paintings if you look close.
That’s all for now knuckleheads.
I will try to do a better time next time.
I have a few blog posts built up behind this birthday art walk.
And thanks to YOU for being flawsome; so wonderful even if you do have flaws.
