IdeaJones

Blog

  • Shades of Carmichael

    Headed out to an event we’ve never been to before. Shades of Carmichael features about 80 hand-decorated market umbrellas, which will then be auctioned off as a fundraiser for the park and for the Sacramento Fine Arts Center. Joey has painted an umbrella for the event, and has also booked a table as a “vender” (sic), which means we’ll be at the mercy of the weather. We’ll take our portable pop-up shade, and the weather report says to expect warm but not hot temperatures, so we should be okay.

    Here’s one of the focal points from the umbrella Joey painted:
    owlCU

    Fingers crossed!

     

     

    Event follow-up: Had a fine time. Weather was great, if a bit too breezy for our display materials. Lunch from the gyro truck on-site. Met some fun people, sold a painting (an owl based on the same Northern Saw-Whet owl seen above) and had some good arts talks. Only thing that would have made it better would have been more people in attendance.

  • Challenge Met!

    Last month, I challenged myself to create a new post here every day in June. I’m happy to report the challenge has been met.
    fireworksCU
    I’m not sure all those posts have done much good. Did people see them? (The bots did, because there was a definite uptick in spam messages coming in to the site this past month.) Did people actually go to one of the art shows, or the CapRadio record sale? Did you at least consider some of the points I made (whether you agreed or not)?

    Now that July is upon us, I’m not going to worry about posting each day. I might, but probably won’t. If the book (BOATS/RATS) is ever to be finished, we need to spend more time editing that than web posts. (I suppose I really should quit playing Candy Crush for a while, too.)

    While I may post more musings or news here, I more want to have an update on the RATS page, or the ART page. Wish me luck! I will now quit congratulating myself on meeting the challenge, and get back to writing more substantive things.

  • Pack Mentality

    If you’re familiar with the phrase “pack mentality,” you probably think first of its negative connotation. But pack can be a very good thing. Pack can be family, a support system, a group working toward a common goal. To that end, this article:

    On Saturday, July 5 at 10:30am, local members of the Vagos Motorcycle Club will make a special appearance at Nevada Humane Society—hand delivering three-thousand pounds of pet food to help the homeless pets. The delivery will take place at Nevada Humane Society, located at 2825 Longley Lane in Reno. A parade of motorcycles will precede the trucks holding the donations.

    I suppose you could think of this as a pack to pack delivery. I just thought it was an uplifting article, and wanted to share it with you. The Nevada Humane Society shelter in Reno is a no-kill facility, so animals  that go there have a good shot at finding their “forever home.”

     

  • Day of Rest

    Sunday has always been our “day of rest.” Christian upbringing and all – “…and on the seventh day…” So why does it seem that we don’t get much rest?

    These days, Sundays are more like “hurry up and finish these projects and get the house cleaned up, the work week starts tomorrow and I’m not ready.”

    Today I actually took a little time off. Watched 10 minutes of the end of the episode of “Orange Is the New Black” I started watching last week. I intended to binge view the season, but I can’t find the time.

  • Play Date

    Our dogs don’t get out as much as they’d like. We get busy, and their trips to the park get pushed off again.

    We have a large yard, so they can get up some pretty decent speed just running from one side to the other, talking with the neighbor dogs and keeping the area free of squirrels and vermin, but dogs like a change of pace as much as their humans do.

    One solution to puppy boredom and inactivity is the play date. Having friends’ dogs come in to play with our guys lets them have a chance to run and wrestle (you want to make those first visits closely supervised to make sure everyone gets along and plays safely), and also tires them out so we’ll all get a good night’s sleep.

    Play dates, especially among dogs of similar sizes and temperaments, can be a great supplement to walks, training sessions, and trips to the dog park.