Tea at the beach

My life could not be better, well, maybe if I won the Lotto, but tea with MY honey sitting by the waves. Actually, who needs money?

Update to Teardrop camping: life is an adventure

We worried about the wrong gods, the weather gods were appeased it was the mechanical gods we should have thought about. All loaded up, pulled out beyond the gates--truck won't start. Seems as the column, where the key goes, has a very important gear and it broke. Bummer. No one is going anywhere in that truck.

We got the trailer unhooked and pushed back in the back yard and Dan "hot wired*" the truck to get it behind the gate. He realized it was not something that could be fixed in an hour, more like days, so while he worked I unpacked all the camping stuff. Everyone, including the hundred-year-old-dog, was disappointed. Good thing it happened in the driveway and not our first gas stop along the way which would have meant towing. We hate towing.

After living with old cars for more than 40 years these kinds of problems always pop up and I'm sure will continue as long as we keep driving old cars. No quitters here.

* For any law enforcement folks reading this post please note Dan would never use his "hot wiring" knowledge for anything nefarious. But it has come in handy more than once.

Weather of not

Our once-a-year Teardrop Gathering (we've gone since '07) is this week and with rain in the forecast my honey is none to pleased. His Safety Event was rained out last Sunday so the weather gods have not been too kind to him lately. Quoting Noah, I say go for it, what the hell is a little rain going to do?

We've not had the Teardrop out since our unfortunate accident in New Mexico and it's been repaired. The water leak has been fixed with the wood stripped out of the galley and replaced and everything is looking quite spiffy. I've got all my cast iron loaded for a few days of Dutch Oven cooking. Oh how I look forward to this. Will be making a carrot cake, potato side dish, and two pots of chile verde--not all on the same day, whew.

Before we get on the road I will attend the last Life Drawing class of this quarter and partake in a potluck. This class has been a lot more familial than the other with everyone eager to bring something. Jay is marketing this as "The Last Supper" but that sounding a little too ecclesiastical I think it should be called "The Luncheon of the Boating Party." After all, Renoir's masterpiece is much more festive.

I'd like to say I sacrificed a chicken last night to the rain gods but actually I just burnt dinner a bit. So, snorkel and fins in hand we'll head for the lake.

Life drawing final

Our final is to be a narrative and most of my work has been very detailed. I wanted to break away from that and create something totally different for me. That's part of what the class is about.

When dopplegangers meet

Self portrait assignment for my life drawing class but I didn't get it finished. There are a few touches I'd like to add but given the size, about 90 inches wide, it takes a while to get it up on the wall in my tiny studio. After the class is done, hopefully.

Most people don't get this and I was reluctant to even post it but here it is. My teacher understood right away, as did some in the class, so I was happy with that.

The quarter is near over, only one more class. I will miss this class, I've learned so much from Jay, the instructor, and hope to take another class with him in the future. He will be teaching this summer in Brittany, hmmmm.

More from the drawing collective

All these drawings are from class with live models. The first is a new model for us and though she was very graceful in the posing she twitched and moved and yawned so I didn't make her very pretty.

The last two are of a male model we were lucky enough to have for many classes. He was perfect in holding a pose and just a nice guy, too. He never spoke until the break and then never looked at any of our work though did comment on homework hanging on the boards. When he left he said how much progress we'd made. Nice touch. I was hoping he'd be back for last class.