Last Year's Cotton

Waiting patiently to be plowed under to make way for this year's crop, while grass has grown over the rest of the field.

Michaelangelo's David

I'd seen pictures of it before. They don't do it justice.

Neither will this one.

In person, he is breathtaking. Every detail is perfect.

Absolutely perfect.

The veins in his hands. The wrinkles of skin around his knuckles. His muscles. Even his toenails. Perfect detail.

I never knew until I saw him in person that he holds a stone in his right hand.

Breathtaking.

That's all I can say about it.

Kickathon

The second annual kickathon at the dojo was a little late because of sensei's surgery last fall. McGruff the Crime Dog was there, with the police department and the fire department. All told, 26 students participated and did some 13, 000 kicks to Kick Crime in Grenada.

The children's safety seminar with McGruff the Crime Dog:

And the advanced children and adult classes:

Good news! I finished scanning in the first album of my Italy pictures. Now working on the second...

This is me, June 21, 1992 in the ruins of Pompeii.

And this is what is left of what was once a beautiful fountain.

The little white things outlining the fountain are sea shells. In those days, the house surrounded the yard, instead of the yard surrounding the house. All of the rooms opened into a central courtyard, usually containing a fountain or two, and certainly containing well tended gardens. In many of the buildings, there are remains of frescos and paintings. Pompeii was once such a beautiful city. More pics later...

Bad News! Of the seven snakes I fed this weekend, four refused their mice. Ok, Sunset I'm not surprised, because he seems to be in breeding mode. He's been eating really irregularly these last few months anyway. The ball pythons, I wasn't really that surprised either because they are notorious for going off their feed for weeks at a time for no apparent reason. Onyx surprised me. He seldom refuses a meal. But I let Cody play with him before feeding him, and I think that got him a bit worked up. We won't make that mistake next week.

New DAUB Drawings

For my next lesson, I had to chose two or three objects and draw them in pen. It didn't matter how closely they resembled the original objects, just so long as I drew them with dark, bold lines and didn't lift my pen from the paper until I absolutely had to. For homework, I have to draw at least two more objects and draw them.

My biggest difficulty in drawing like this is that I can't see. I can't see my object without my glasses, and I can't see my paper with them. I have wierd eyes.

More Pictures of Italy

Since I don't have anything interesting to say tonight..or else it's so late that my brain isn't functioning correctly, I'll leave you with a couple more pictures of Italy. I'm almost done scanning the first album. One more to go, then comes the hard part--sorting, filing, and labeling them all.... and uploading them to Webshots. Sigh...quite a task I've undertaken, but I think it'll be worth it in the end. Anyway, the pictures...

This is Caligula's Arch, which spans a street in the ruined city of Pompeii.


Pompeii, as most folks know, was destroyed in 79 A.D in an eruption of

Mount Vesuvius. This is what Vesuvio, as it is called in Italian, looks like today--rather what it looked like in 1991. The smaller peak on the left is actually the remainder of the original volcano. In the extreme violence of an eruption, Vesuvius quite literally blew itself up. The peak on the right is the new Vesuvius, which rose from the remains of the mountain.

Looking at the volcano as it is today makes me wonder...

Just how big was that thing originally? Wouldn't it have been a sight to behold?

Band Concert

The spring band concert was last night and let me tell you, I was absolutely appalled at what I heard.

Oh, not the kids. The kids were great. They had worked hard and played really well.

But I was still appalled.

You see, I remember a day when you went to hear children perform, whatever they were doing, and actually sat quietly and listened to them. Even if you weren't that interested, you still respected the amount of work they put into their performance, and, well...sat quietly.

Not so anymore.

Apparently I'm pretty far out of the loop these days. Five bands played last night, a concert that lasted just shy of two hours. It was a standing room only crowd. That auditorium was packed with people.

I wondered why they were even there. They for sure weren't listening to the bands. They were too busy talking. There was NEVER a moment during those two hours when the audience was quiet. A steady murmer of conversation. People talking to each other. Talking on cell phones. Playing games on cell phones. Walking all over the auditorium.

Whatever happened to common courtesy?

Pappaw

This is my grandfather, Walter Lee Gunstream, Sr.

He is posing in his World War I uniform. We called him Pappaw.

I don't really remember much about Pappaw because he died when I was 10. I'm told he got to be pretty grumpy in his old age.

I don't remember that.

I do remember he used to wear flip up sunglasses--clip ons over his regular glasses. As a small child, I was fascinated with them. They looked so weird sticking straight out from his face like they did.

I also remember sitting on his porch swing with him while he told me stories of the War.

I don't remember the stories. I don't remember the words he used. I don't remember anything he said.

I just remember that he spent time with me.

Simple Gestures

Sometimes the simplest gestures can have the most impact on people.

My dad's funeral procession.

I glanced out the window of the limosine, and saw a man standing on the sidewalk watching the procession approach. As the hearse passed him, he took off his hat and placed it over his heart.

I don't know who that man was, but I wish I did. So I could thank him.

Because ten years later that simplest of gestures still brings tears to my eyes.

DAUB #2

This is DAUB drawing #2. Again, we were supposed to draw it upside down. (I have given you the right side up version as well.) Again, I am not pleased with the result. And again, erasing and sketching out the drawing first were not allowed. I was just supposed to put my pen (although I did it in pencil) down in one spot and draw around the outline until it was done. This is actually my second attempt at the drawing, as the first one ran off the page. And yet again, the quality of the drawing was not important, just so long as I used dark, bold lines. This has got to be the wierdest drawing course I've ever taken. I'm already planning on getting rid of this book once I finish it. And I for sure won't be recommending it to beginners.

Josh and I went up to the dojo for a couple of hours yesterday afternoon. Why is it that men complain so when they get hit there, but refuse to wear personal protection? They say, "It's uncomfortable." But is it more uncomfortable than getting kicked in the groin?

Before we even started sparring, I asked Josh if he had his cup on. He said he didn't and admonished me to keep my kicks above the waist. I replied, "I can't promise that. My old legs don't always get up that high." So he can't say I didn't warn him. It was pretty cool though. He aimed a roundhouse at my head, which I blocked and came at him from behind with a squat kick. I didn't plan it that way, though he insists I did, it just happened.



I talked to John Tedder in church this morning and told him that Sensei is planning on having us tested soon. I told him that I didn't feel I was ready and he replied, "Yes you are. " I then expressed concern that the board wouldn't know what I could do and what I couldn't, and he said, "They know." I asked him how they would know if they've never seen me work, and he responded, "They have...they know."

I mentioned that my biggest concern was bunkai, since we'd never gone over bunkai for any kata higher than naihanchi. He said he'd try to get caught up so he could come up to the dojo and work bunkai with us between now and then.

Now back to scanning Italy pictures...

P.S. I apologize for the poor quality of the pics. They were taken with an old instamatic camera, many of them from the window of a moving tour bus.

A Daunting Task

This morning, I set myself a pretty daunting task--one that I've been thinking about for a long time. I finally decided to get started.

Ok, what is this daunting task?

To scan and put on disc my pictures of Italy.

Yep, daunting task indeed.

I've barely gotten started, and I've got two albums full. That's approximately 400 photos.

Sigh...

This is what I looked like 15 years ago:


At the Coloseum in Rome, March 1991

Note to Self

Kodak EasyShare Camera Dock 6000 is not compatible with spilled Dr Pepper.

Mammaw

This is my grandmother, Fannie Mae Winfree Gunstream.

This photo was taken when she was in her early 20s. She died February 28, 1987 at the age of 92. If she had been elderly these days, she would have been diagnosed with Alzheimer's Disease. Back in those days, we called it going senile.

I didn't want to laugh. She was my grandmother and I loved and respected her. But some of the things she would say and do were just so funny.

Once it became apparent that she could no longer live alone, she moved in with my oldest aunt and her husband. A little while later, Aunt Martha and Uncle Verne decided to build a new home out on the old Winfree homestead, near their daughters and their families. So they sold their home and moved in with their youngest daughter for a few months while they built their new house right next door.

After a few weeks, the foundation of the new house was laid, and the framing was up. By this time, Mammaw had gotten to the point where she could not be left alone for any length of time.

It was my turn to stay with her when she pulled off her shoe and sock and showed me an almost perfectly round sore on the top of her foot. According to my uncle, she clonked her foot on the corner of the dresser. Mammaw had a different story.

"Do you see that sore? Do you know how I got that? Do you see those men? They're over there building one of those places. You know, where they keep them kind of women. I went out there to tell them to stop and they shot me in the foot! Can you believe that? There ought to be a law against shooting an old lady in the foot."

I tried not to laugh.

Really.

I did.

Quote for the Day

"Is life so dear or peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God. I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!"

-- Patrick Henry (Speech to the Virginia Convention, 23 March 1775)

DAUB Drawing #1

Well, here it is, DAUB drawing #1. And yes, we were supposed to draw it upside down. The purpose of that is to teach you to see lines and shapes rather than "a bird." Speaking of birds, when I got home from work this afternoon, there was a bird trapped in my bathroom. I don't know how it got into the house, but it took some doing to catch it and get it outside. It left my bathroom an absolute wreck, but I'm too lazy to go clean it up.

Back to the art lesson...I'm not exactly pleased with the result, but erasing was not allowed. However, according to Ms Garcia, it isn't the quality of the drawing that counts, but the quality of the line--dark and bold. It'll be interesting to see where this one leads...

Now I've got homework to do, an upside down drawing of an owl. Before I go, though, I will leave you with the right side up version of my bird.

Oh, just a note about karate--some of you may remember a week or so ago when I posted about the blue belt who'd opened his own dojo. Not to sound like I'm gloating or anything, but two of his three students now attend OUR dojo. They visited once, and decided they wanted to join that same night. They said, "This is the REAL stuff!" And wouldn't you know it, she is already in love with them. Let's see, how many does that make in a year's time...James, Justin, Josh, Brian, Barrett (his being married didn't stop her), Brandon, Twinkie, Chachi, Randy, and now these two, and I have a sneaking suspicion that there's been a little bit of a crush on sensei and Mr Tedder. There is really something wrong with that girl...

One Year Ago

today, I picked up a drawing pencil for the first time. And this is what I drew.

DAUB

Drawing for the Absolute and Utter Beginner, by Claire Watson Garcia.

I've only just read the first part, up to the first drawing assignment. I don't think I'm going to like this book. First of all, the list of junk I gotta buy takes up a whole page, two columns! What ever happened to pencil and paper? Oh, and the paper she wants you to use is Strathmore 400 series 80 lb drawing paper for light washes and dry media. It is very good quality paper, but waaayyyy too expensive for beginners to mess up on. Anyway, after looking at the materials list, and how much the stuff costs, I decided to just stick with what I have on hand. Until I get to the lesson that calls for watercolor paint. PAINT???? I thought this was a DRAWING book!

Ok, so I get to the first drawing exercise. To do it, I have to go buy a spool of 24 gauge galvanized steel wire so I can get 15" of it for this lesson. Which means I either have the remainder of a spool of wire that I will never use cluttering up my house, or else I throw the rest of the wire in the garbage--throwing away money. After I get my 15" of wire, I have to bend it into a squiggly shape and draw it. I do this three times, drawing once with pencil and twice with pen. Which means I have to buy expensive drawing pens. Or I'm supposed to...

Now, I'm supposed to draw this wire with a dark, bold line. Sketching lightly, according to Ms. Garcia, is a sign of a timid artist. This flies in the face of everything I have ever read about drawing. I've always heard that you start sketching lightly, in case you have to erase, then build up your darker values until you have your finished product. I for one, am not going to rough out a drawing with dark, bold lines. It is almost impossible to erase them, and if you do get them erased, you most certainly damage your paper.

I decided to skip this exercise.

So far, I don't think much of Ms. Claire Watson Garcia.