"Come-a, Come-a, Come-a, Camelia... You come and go!"

Come-a, Come-a, Come-a, Camelia...

 My first Plein Air painting for the Abita Springs Show in Abita Springs, LA on April on the 21st-23rd... Three more on-site paintings to go.

                                                                          Copyright2023/ Ben Bensen III

"Wanna Read The Paper," He Asks?"

 Good "early morning shout out" Tuesday, y'all.

Tom Burns one of the many octogenarians that, on occasion, shows up at the opening bell and beats me with his buddy, Herb, to my favorite chair. It's a friendly competition... GRRRRRR!

The diminutive Tom, I'm told, is a retired judge which is maybe the reason he keeps it close to the vest. On this day, Herb did not show up so, Tom's hiding behind the newspaper, every now and then, taking a sip of his coffee. Nothing is said.

I guess, nothing needs to be!

Twenty minutes later, Tom gets up, gathers up the local newspaper and tosses it onto the table that separates us.

"Wanna read the paper," he asks.

"I'll just leave it here for you," he says as he moseys on over to the microwave oven to warm up his small cup of coffee.

As he's waiting for the microwave to do its thing, I venture to make a comment.

"You do that often, don't ya?"

He grabs his paper cup, pauses for a moment as he attaches the plastic top back onto his cup, and then, heads for the door, turns, smiles, and blithely says," I don't care for cold coffee!"

The newspaper is the St. Tammany Farmer and as I page though the different sections, I noticed an article that interested me.

About two months or so, Tee and I met a good friend, Peggy DesJardin, at a downtown grocery store. We stood out in the parking lot as she spoke of spearheading the building of a labyrinth in Covington for Lent.

There's lots of history behind labyrinths. The stories abound, but my knowledge extends only with artistic and graphic versions. Apparently, there's much more to it, but for the sake of this post, I just wanna thank Peggy for her tenacity and resolve in getting this approved and completed. Pretty cool...

Lately, there are many things that I say I'm gonna do, but don't!

Props to you, Peggy...

Third cup!

Copyright 2023/ Ben Bensen III

"S'what Happens Before My First Cup Of Coffee"...

 

Good "wishful thinking" Wednesday Morning, y'all.

S'what happens before my first cup...

I got a lot of stuff to do today, so I have to make a few promises to myself.

It's time to get TOUGH!

I promise to not stare out of windows and think about stupid things.

I promise to not listen to that German "do-wop" song I posted a while back.

I promise to tuck my shirt in my pants and keep it that way and wear socks.

I promise to not let hangnails ruin my day.

I promise to not open any tortilla chip bags, nor the really out-a-sight Dutch cheese which always leads to me opening another bottle of wine.

I promise to stay in the studio focused for at least one full hour.

I promise to drink more water, which means potty breaks to leave the studio!

I promise to not allow the birds to distract me.

I promise to not curse at my Mac, or lovely little pop ups reminding me that I'm a out of date loser!

I promise to not listen to the song,"Every One's Gone to the Moon" cuz it gets me down.

I promise to not let Joe Walsh's high energy have me "boogalooing" all over the house ( although that German do-wop post is pretty good!")

I promise to not watch MLB on the "telly". Nor PTI reruns.

I promise to stretch and do my "yogi" thing even though it hurts like hell.

I promise to not get depressed over the fact that "yogi" thing it hurts like hell.

I promise to not get upset when telemarketers hang up on me first!

I promise to not open the refrigerator door and stare into it.

I promise to ignore my mind when it reminds me of things I'm not getting done!

I promise to not spend the day waiting for Facebook to make my day.

( although that German do-wop post is a pretty close substitute!")

Did I mention drinking more water, which means more potty breaks!

I promise to use CS6 Photoshop, which I hate, instead of CS3 which I love.

And finally, I promise to not open any wine till it's five pm... somewhere!

No real coffee yet!

Copyright 2023/Ben Bensen III