Damn Straight Polar Bears are Democrats

(Dad, you’ll just have to overlook some of my bad language today.)

So the U.S. Senate has once again decided that drilling for oil in the middle of a wildlife refuge is a good idea. “Fuck the environment! Our constituents can’t possibly be expected to run those ten miles back and forth to their offices every day in anything smaller than their three-gallons-to-the-mile SUVs.”

This issue doesn’t have quite the train-wreck quality of some other low points of this administration, but holy shit. Drilling for oil. In a national wildlife refuge. What the fuck are these assholes thinking? No, never mind, don’t answer that. The whole answer boils down, as so many other answers to the stupid shit that these idiots get up to, to money.

Ah, hell. It’s not even six thirty on a Saturday morning, and I’m already pissed off. Not a good way to start things out. (As my father always says, “Better to be pissed off than pissed on.” Problem is, most of the folks in this country are now both.)

In other, hopefully non-political, news… I’ve been hung! (I was going to say “I’m hung!” but went for once with my better judgment and refrained.) I managed to actually get my act together, with help from The Amazing Husbandini and “help” from Madame Lazonga, and get four pieces up on public display. They’ll be up until the end of December, and with any luck someone will fall so in love with one or more of them that the pieces won’t ever come back home but a couple of big, fat checks will. (‘Cause while I’m fond of my artwork, I’m even more fond of being able to do things like pay my utility bills and get the accounting department of my horrible ex-dentist off my back. Neither of which are looking promising unless some extra funds come along.)

Well, so much for my momentary good mood…now I’m thinking hurtful thoughts about the greedy bastards at the utility companies. Quick, somebody tell me a good joke!

Okay, I’m better now. I had a brief interlude where I went downstairs and stuffed the laundry in the dryer. In a little bit, I’ll have nice, warm, fluffy sweatpants to put on. That will tide me over. Of course, Zagnut’s fur is still growing out from her summer haircut, so it also means I’ll have a cat attached to my legs, but that’s all right.

My brain is just going about 500 miles an hour this morning, and I can’t seem to settle on one topic for discussion. (And everyone who knows me well can be heard to respond, “And this is news?”) I am quite definitely a morning person, but sometimes that means I have to be careful until my brain quits over-revving itself. On the plus side, I never need an a.m. caffeine jump-start. I go from sleep to 90 in about 2.5 seconds. (And after about 9:00 p.m., the reverse is true. Don’t stand too close to me at night…I might go to sleep on you.)

I’m setting aside some time this weekend to work on “Lola”. I’m having to kind of force myself to work on it, but not because I’ve lost interest; I feel really bad about how long it’s taking me. If I’d picked a different medium, or at least switched to “Lola 1.1” early on, I could have had it finished, up for auction, sold (hopefully), and the money in to one of the charities by now. But no…I had to decide on oil and stick with it, and so it’s still sitting on my easel well after the initial Katrina-relief fervor has faded. I feel like I’ve let Lola and all other little critters down. However, in my search for an upside, I do have to say that I still like the painting. My last work on it was to put in some shadows on all the skin tones, and now I’m thinking that I want to re-work the skin tones for the third time. The first coat had her looking very fake-and-bakey. The second was better, but the shadows I put in were too dark. However, I’ve now decided to take the shadow color and make it the overall skin tone, giving her a somewhat more African-American look. Nowhere in any of the stories I read about Lola did it indicate the appearance of her owner, but from a strictly artistic standpoint, Lola’s coloring will “go” much better with a darker skin tone in the background.

Disc #9 is spinning its selections out into the studio this morning. That would be Marc Cohn’s first, self-titled, album. Most people have heard “Walking in Memphis” and even “Silver Thunderbird”, but there are a lot of other good tunes on that album that most people have never heard. “Ghost Train” is one of my favorites, and I take silly-grin-delight in “29 Ways”. I don’t remember what else is in the player…over the past couple of weeks, I haven’t spent enough time with the CD player on to get all the way through this disc and on to disc #10.

When Mr. Sweetie and I first got together, a little over eight years ago, he mentioned in one of his e-mails to me that he had a 24-disc CD changer. I was amazed. I, myself, had a 3-disc changer on my stereo, and I couldn’t understand why anyone would need to have 24 discs lined up and ready to go. Silly me. The 24-disc changer went off to our friendly neighborhood pawn shop several years ago, and proceeds from its sale went toward the purchase of a 60-CD changer. Soon after that, MP3s came on the scene, and my darling uber geek went in that direction. So now the 60-disc changer is up here in my studio, and I keep it stuffed full pretty much all the time. And the “random play” function is one of my best friends.

That last paragraph was probably pretty boring to anyone other than me. If you happen to agree, you can just go out and get your own damn journal.

I just got around to changing the page on my “Cat Lovers Against the Bomb” calendar here in the studio. This month’s model is Willow, from Lincoln, NE. She’s a very lovely kitty, napping in the dappled sunshine. All of the photos in this calendar are black and white, which sometimes makes guessing the kitties’ coloration a little interesting. I’m guessing she’s a flame-point something-or-other. She looks like she might have some Maine Coon in her.

What the hell am I talking about? Go to www.nebraskansforpeace.com and find out. The 2006 calendars are now available. (No, sorry, you still can’t click the link. My resident webmaster is going to get his butt kicked this weekend.)

Okay, I think I’ve fully shifted into “random musings” mode, and even I’ll admit it’s probably not making the best reading. I’m just feeling chatty today and it’s all coming out in here.

Everyone have a lovely day, and I’ll be back later.

(Oooh…Disc #10 is John Hiatt’s “Bring the Family”. I’m a happy person.)