Turtle Dove

Ever wondered about it, how turtles and doves are related?  Kind of a stretch don't you think?  Doves don't eat turtles; turtles don't eat doves.  Interbreeding seems an extremely remote possibility, don't even want to think about it.  They don't resemble each other in the slightest, don't sound alike, don't live in the same habitat, don't even hang out in the same taverns.  Anyway, they've been called that for ages and everybody
accepts it without question.  Until now.

Actually, the disconnect in the name appeals to my sense of the absurd.  And, since we're talking absurdities, I've come up with some new names for fine feathered friends yet to be discovered.  They're living out their quiet, obscure lives in Amazonian jungles and lesser known regions of Africa and Australia.

Chimpanzee Chickadee
Buffalo Bushtit
Cockroach Cockatoo
Alligator Albatross
Grizzly Grebe
Whale Warbler
Aardvark Auk
Hyena Hummingbird
Platypus Plover

I could go on.  And on.  But, no, I'll wrap this up with one of several theories about the turtle dove name.  Allegedly, this bird's song is a deep, purring 'turrr, turrr' that kinda sorta sounds like 'turtle'.   Hey, don't blame me!  I didn't name the doggone thing!

Buses

Buses by the Bridge is an annual January event in LHC and it's happening now - as is the annual balloon festival.  Yesterday, we did the Buses, after whacking a bucket of balls at the driving range and before whacking a burger and fries at In and Out Burger.  Hey, did we pull out all the stops or what?

Hundreds of buses of the VW persuasion gather in the state park for 3 days along with the owners thereof, groupies, hippies and assorted camp followers.  And I do mean assorted, everything from Rastafarian types in rags and dreadlocks to the swave and deboner.

A few - damn few - buses have been totally refurbished and/or customized and look like a million bucks.  At the other end of the spectrum - the larger end by far - are the beat-to-shit rigs that look like $1.98.  The majority, though, are in the middle somewhere: they run, they look okay, but they're nothing to write home about - or blog about for that matter.

You may detect a hint of sarcasm (Who?  Me?  Nah!) or wonderment in my comments, a bit of "I don't know what kind of weird disease these poor folks have but I darn sure don't want to catch it!"  You see, I'm mystified by car fanatics.  And motorcycle fanatics.  All flavors of motorized vehicle fanatics.  To me, vehicles are tools.  They take you from here to there.  If you take good care of them, they will also bring you back from there.

Granted, vehicles are more useful than your average tool, a hammer for instance.  But - they're still tools.  I love tools, both new and old - but not enough to haul them around the country to tool shows several times a year.  Not enough to spend countless hours swapping tool tales with other tool nuts.  Not enough to join a tool club so I can spend even more time immersed in tool mania and trivia.  I thrive in a much more diversified life style.

It's all a matter of perspective I reckon.  Maybe I'm the oddball, the one with the weird disease, the main symptom being 'the inability to stay focused on any one thing for an extended period.'  Actually, I may not lack the ability but I darn sure lack the desire.

Sunspots

Colors influence moods and feelings.  Red = excitement.  Blue = calm.  Yellow = happy.  Green = envy (just kidding).  Lines and shapes influence us also, although it seems we're less aware of that influence.  Horizontal lines = relaxed.  Jagged lines = excitement.  Diagonal lines = movement.  Dots = buoyant.

One of my how-to art books has a small picture of brightly colored spots.  The picture appealed to me and inspired me to paint Sunspots.  The appeal of the little picture, sort of a feel-good thing, carried over to the painting.  It wasn't until I finished the painting that I fully realized the mysterious appeal of the colors and shapes wasn't really mysterious at all.  Anyway, I'm now more aware of color and shape influence than I used ter was. 

Sunspots

Acrylic on Canvas,  18" x 24"

December, 2012

I'm something of a 2-year old, always asking, 'Why?'  Why the feel-good?  Is it the obvious - they remind me of balloons and lollipops - or is it something much more deeply ingrained?  I'm inclined to think it's the latter, maybe dating back to our hunter-gatherer days when those shapes and colors meant fruits and berries, food that was easy to get and easy to eat.

"What's for dinner tonight, honey?"

"I was thinking either fruit or saber tooth tiger steaks."

"Aw gees, I'm tired, had a long day, just not up to battling one of those nasty, stinking cats.  Then you gotta skin the darn thing, cut it up, pound the living crap out of it until it's chewable, heat the BBQ rock for a couple hours. Let's go with the fruit."