Yea !!!!!!!!!!!!

Indulge me once again in writing about my dear ol' dad. Today would have been his 80th birthday. This photo was on his 65th I believe. He was doing a lot of woodwork in his shop at the time so I made a cake and put tools on them with icing, using brown sugar for sawdust.
My brain is trying hard to focus on the wonderful birthdays we celebrated with him, but my stubborn heart marches to it's own beat - of course - and it feels soggy and heavy.
On an upbeat note.....

I finished another 'maytagarama'! For those of you unfamiliar with that term...I am painting 2 x 3 foot canvas' in acrylic of old washing machines for a friend's two businesses. There are to be a total of fourteen, a set of seven for each place. I will not have them exactly alike, though they could be, I choose not too. I dubbed them 'maytagaramas' after the Maytag brand washerss. Finding time has been difficult and they are taking longer than predicted. Keep in mind, I have painted less than 20 'real' paintings since I graduated from college so I am improving, getting faster and more confident. BigBoy says that my latest ones are better than the first ones.....probably so......due to my experience but also to the different types. Some lend themselves to become a more interesting, pleasing eye experience than others. I will post them all soon. I have more to do......

Gotta go sketch out the next one AND be ready to go to Target with family when they return from the gym. Hope to catch up with your sites soon!

Day for the Fathers

Happy Father's Day to my Mr. Unplugged pictured above with his beloved Apollo.

Thank you for making these two great kids possible!

......and thank you dad, for all the love, kindness, humor, patience, good sense, hard work, talents and the wonderful memories that are cherished so dearly now. Glad you liked all the shirts, bird boxes, Goo Goo candy, caps or whatever we could come up with to somehow honor you on this day in those years past. Though you are far from my touch, you are never far from my mind and always, always in my heart.

Happy Father's Day to all you dad's out there!

Dogs On Thursday: Highs and Lows

Yesterday my best buddy and dad were gone ALL DAY making it one of those sad days...

It's like the 'J' is missing from the joy when they are gone and I just kind of forget my position of canine royalty and sort of shlump about. Mom kept snapping that #!*! camera at me.......

Today is fantastic though, with my morning little walk that BigBoy took me on allowing me to take care of business and breathe in those awesome outside odors!

Ahhhhhh, relaxation once again comes easy when all is as it should be in my kingdom. Big woof to all you four-legged subjects, especially Snuffles, Annie, Luna and Emma! Til' we meet again.........

Dogs On Thursday: My Thoughts This Week

Every morning I enjoyed snoozing on my favorite comforter that is on the couch for me.

Mom lets me look outside the big window in the study...I rather think this would make a good addition to my other 'Royal Portraits'. It appears the heavens have opened up for me...I like that.

I'm a happy canine, not turning to the bottle! Dad always brings me a toy when he buys my big bag of food. He doesn't let me play with it very long, is that because I can tear any toy up if it is left with me? Can't help it if I am mighty....

Mom sometimes have me wait a bit at the door...........I just got tired.

Hmmmmm, I haven't seen this photo....that new dude obviously was moved out back....wow, he really gets around!

I really don't get how some of you blog EVERY DAY! This is exhausting!!!!!!!!! Big smack to all my buddies.....Snuffles, Luna, Annie........

Dogs On Thursday: Apollo Shares Special Moments

Hey, I'm still not sure if this guy is my friend or foe. Dad moved it the other day. There for a minute I thought the dude was following me........carefully, slyly and nonchalantly, I moved in.

She's one of my favorites but it has taken all my royal, pig/dog-like charms to woo VolleyGirl, but it's working...oh yeah, it's working. She said she looks awful in this shot - puh-leeze! Teen girl humans can be a bit odd!

Moments pass slowly when dad is working away from home. Pausing to remember a special time with him - even one where he teases I find comforting.

Mom has been working in his study while he is away so I can sleep in my favorite places in there in the daytime and it has helped. It's true, she is quite the lady-in-waiting........."excuse me, could I have fresh water, this old stuff has drool floating around in it!"

Until next week....woof, woof Soulbrush and all my canine colleagues.

Dogs On Thursday: A Week In Retrospect

This is pretty much what I live for.......my best buddy tickles me before leaving again.

Omg......looking around with my smushed sniffer is to die for! It's my next favorite thing!

I like to lay here in dad's study when he is working and also come to find solitude when he is not around......it comforts me.

I admit to watching a little of the junk box sometimes. I find it bores me to sleep.

Sometimes mom gives me bites of dry food for snacks....I know she has some so I'm just going to smoosh my head right here between her leg and the chair arm just to be sure she knows I'm interested!

This chair is super comfy but even I have to stretch out between my naps.

It is just more comfortable when I sit on the side of my hind end instead of straight down.

Very often I just have to stretch out in the floor, sort of loosens up my spine I think. It never fails mom is trying to get a picture of me. I'm trying to relax and just go with the flow. Dad has been gone overnight a couple of times lately and that bothers me. I keep a close eye on the door and like going outside alot more. Mom seems slightly irritated with that, I don't know why, what can lift spirits more than turbo-sniffing the ground when you feel a bit blue? Women, they confuse me............

In Memory of Dad

I was blessed to have two wonderful parents. Both of them were talented, mom was a great cook, quilter, seamstress, gardener and also crocheted. Dad was also a cook, particularly known for his pork shoulders cooked on the pit. Down south, that's simply known as barbecue. Thanksgiving and Christmas it was his cornbread dressing. Then there was his hush puppies, spring rolls, barbecue chicken......oh, how he loved food and loved to prepare and feed people. I could talk for hours just on dad and food. For as long as I can remember he had a big garden which you can see part of it in one of the photos, in their backyard just steps from the covered patio where the pit was. He had alot of creativity. I recall his snow person in our front yard before I was 6 years old. He didn't make a snowman, he made a statue! That was one of the few big snows in my lifetime. I recall watching him work on the bust of Lyndon Johnson at our kitchen table, mostly remembering that he used toothpicks some on it. The only one he ever did that I am aware of. That table is where I do my painting now....it's a story in itself for later! He did all the wood carvings in the photo while he was a night security guard when I was very young. During his last year of life he told me he read through the bible twice during that job. The photo was taken for an article on them in the base newspaper. I found the drawings as we were cleaning out their house, I don't recall seeing them before. Obviously, the colored pencil one is of President Kennedy and the other is of a General but I don't know who he is. He didn't draw or paint that often. He did pencil drawings of my two brothers' baby photo. He used it in various ways. I've been that way myself even though I have an art degree. In the 70's when macrame became popular, he did that-I still have a purse he made, with a wooden handle. Made jewelry from old mercury dimes for each one of my mom's seven sisters and one for her and I to share.

Dad was in the service during the Korean Conflict, he and mom got married on a weekend pass. Next time she saw him he had been severely injured in the back by shrapnel and was in the hospital many states away for a year. They thought he would be paralyzed. During that time he made some items out of leather and the copper reliefs. He learned to cut hair in the service too and had a barbershop where he worked Thursday evenings and Saturday when I was growing up. His real job was with the government and was on the base, where he started out as the security guard. He wasn't an educated person and he had his job to provide for the family but lived to do all the other things he enjoyed. He had a quick wit and usually a joke, he enjoyed being around people.

Our childhood vacations were spent at the lake an hour or so away, camping in a school bus he had totally renovated. He worked on it in the evenings in the backyard. I would go out and sit with him to keep him company while he worked. It had built-in cabinets, sink, an icebox, he made a booth to eat in using two of the bus seats and a table...just behind the driver's seat. There were two sets of bunkbeds in the back and a couch that folded down that could sleep two. Mom made curtains and he put them up all the way around. Yes, there was room in the very back for a porta-potty! He had it painted blue and white on the outside. There were tables attached to the side of the bus that folded down....the place for the gas grill....and all that cooking. He loved to fish.

He retired the first chance he got and sometime later had a building built in the back of the house that had his barbershop and a workshop. He then began building furniture. He built gun cabinets, entertainment centers, bedroom pieces. He made cedar chests that some of the granddaughters have. VolleyGirl has a sweet babydoll crib. OK, I could go on and on, but you get the picture. He socialized with his friends in his shop working together with some of them on his and their pieces.

The last photo is dad and my two kids in 1999. Today is the fifth anniversary of his passing. He is still greatly missed but he sure made an impact and left a tremendous amount of memories.