"A Salvation Army Special"

Celebratin' a holiday... for some folks!

 Good "Salvation" Friday Morning, all bodies.

It's National Donut Day... Who knew?

The Salvation Army established National Donut Day in 1938 to honor The Salvation Army's 'donut lassies,' who made history when they risked their lives to raise spirits and fuel hope by serving thousands of soldiers during WWI, in part by delivering donuts and other sweet treats to those in the war.

In 1917, Salvation Army volunteers traveled to France and set up makeshift huts on the front lines where they provided essential goods and sweet treats to boost morale. The donut was then, and continues to be, a taste of home and a symbol of comfort for Americans, so says the promo by the Salvation Army today.

And, it just happens to fall on a First Friday Folsom Business and Community breakfast at Giddy Up. How fortuitous!

First free cup!

Copyright 2022/Ben Bensen III

"Such A Pleasant Surprise!"

Welcomed visitors...

 Good "WTF" Wednesday Morning, y'all.

"Therese, c'mon, we're gonna be... What the?"

Looking out the living room window, I couldn't believe what I was seeing. It was a visit from a Canadian Goose couple and their Mallard sidekick grazing on, I guess, grass seeds. And, to think that I was gonna cut the grass later in the afternoon. I actually left the coffee shop early to fill up my gas containers with ethanol free gas in preparation.

If we get another visit like the surprise one we received this morning, it may be a while before I crank up the mower.

Such a special treat for us since we've lived here for over twenty years, we've never been able to attract any kind of waterfowl with our two ponds. Occasionally, we'd flush out a kingfisher or small green heron, but not much else. Just about every morning and evening the geese will honk and breeze in their "V" formation pass our property choosing better spots to graze.

About ten years ago or so, Tee succumbed to those cute little chicks and ducklings that are traditionally displayed around Easter at pet and local "feed and seed' stores and purchased two. She raised them to adulthood and enjoyed having their clowning around for over a year or so. The male, who we named, "Duckman" was ever as goofy as the cartoon character and Therese fell in love with him, his antics, and his protective ways.

He actually displayed such personality!

Seeing in the goose couple what we perceived to be an ever vigilant, protective male struttin' around the other two birds with his head raised up high perusing the landscape, reminded us of "Duckman."

When we had to leave, the birds were not at all fazed by our presence as we got into the car and headed out. All three waddled a bit more spritely to the front pond allowing us passage halfway down the driveway. Naturally, when we returned later in the day, the group was gone.

It will be interesting to see if they will return this morning, and if so, will they be towing along with them their sidekick? We're still a bit perplexed by the presence of that seeming confused male Mallard...

First cup, y'all...

Copyright 2022/ Ben Bensen III

"Double Oh Seven Styled Stuff"...

Shirt foundations

 Good Thursday Morning, all bodies.

Last Saturday, at the Scenic Rivers Gallery show, my friend, Peggy Usner, noticed that I was wearing a new shirt. I don't know how she knew that other than the fact that I haven't bought any shirts since my stay in Palm Springs with the American Society of Aviation Artists three years ago and had seen over time every shirt I ever owned.

"Did you buy a new shirt?" she asked.

"Yes, I did. Why?"

With a twinkle in her eye she said that I forgot to take a tag off. I froze. I froze because a few days earlier, I bought three or four shirts and none of them fit once I tried them on at home. Two of the four were on hangars and the other two were created by structural engineers intent on making the deconstruction most difficult.

And, of course, once the shirts were taken apart in order to expose hidden internal assumptions and be analyzed, it was nearly impossible to put back together again. The shirts never looked as good as they did all neatly packed firm and tight.

On one shirt, which I came close to buying, I confidently snapped the plastic line that held the last possible deterrent. I was so sure it would fit, but it didn't.

"You shouldn't have broken that seal," my wife belatedly commented.

"They won't take it back now even if you have the receipt," she said.

Well, I certainly wasn't gonna keep a shirt that I'm not gonna ever wear, I thought to myself.

"Maybe, I'll just donate it to some needy shirtless dude," I said.

While stuffing all the deconstructed parts to the shirts in the original bag it dawned on me that I could mend the plastic strap by heating a screwdriver and melting the two ends back together again.

It always worked in my model airplane building days when glue no longer worked to hold two broken pieces together. Oh, the tactics of a fashionably covert shopper.

Once the tricky operation was completed, I tugged at the plastic cord with the label attached and it held together perfectly. The proof of my handiwork would be vindicated at the return desk...

... or sent to jail for defrauding J.C. Penney.

So, with the tags securely intact, I carefully rebuilt the two shirts that I had originally stuffed back into the shopping bag. I rebuilt them to the best of my knowledge with stickers, pins, collar inserts, cardboard backing and tissue paper folding them ever so neatly and hiding the repaired labels so the cashier would not suspect a thing.

Sweating bullets as the cashier took the two shirts off the hangers and placed them aside, she took the receipt out of the bag and never even checked to see my "cloak and dagger" handiwork.

It was a bit of a tense moment when she looked me straight in the eye and then... handed me my refund. I thanked her and walked off looking back to see her take the bagged shirts and throw them in with the other returnables.

Double Oh Seven styled stuff, I tell ya!

Second cup...

Copyright/2022/Ben Bensen III

"What IS That Sound And Where Is It Coming From?"

 

Good Saturday Morning, all bodies.

S'been some pretty good weather, lately. The French Quarter Jazz Festival got lucky, for sure!

"Damn, what's that sound," I said to no one.

About a month or so ago, I borrowed a book from a friend that I started to read before we had to leave. It's not a great book and it is only about two hundred pages or so, but I'll be damned if I can stay focused on it.

I've always been amazed at my wife's ability to concentrate. When were first dating, I noticed that she did her college homework in the kitchen that had two or three brothers in and out looking for something to eat.

Amazing!

But, I can't be any where where there's the slightest bit of a distraction if I plan to understand one sentence from any book I am interested in reading. Guess that I've always been that way...

Wait... what's that noise?

Locked alone in my bedroom, I attempted to read my book. But, there was this low constant drone that I hadn't noticed before and I just couldn't continue to comprehend one page until I found out what the noise was and wearing it is coming from.

I found it somewhere between page 121 and 124. I don't remember a thing about those pages, but I found that what I was hearing was a timer that I had left on the lamp after we returned from our trip to California. I tried to ignore it, but could not.

It got disconnected!

I few nights later, after Therese went to bed, I sat down with a chardonnay that I had bruised with some ice cubes, and continued my perusal about why we draw. I think I got to, I don't know, page 126, when I heard a beep, beep, beep.

"What the hell is THAT?"

For the next twenty minutes, I attempted to ignore the sound. Beep, beep, beep. I finally got up to investigate our cell phones, and that wasn't it. I walked to the office. Surely, it must be the shedder or one of those battery back up systems that's supposed to protect one's computer from electrical spikes...

No, that wasn't it.

What IS that sound and where is it coming from?

I checked each and every room trying to determine the location.

Maybe it's those frogs that just love to croak at the moon this time of the night. Each species seems to have their own style. Beep, beep, beep!

The beep, beep, beep, seemed too insanely rhythmic and constant, but against my better judgement, I went outside anyway. We've got a frog or toad, can't tell which, that actually barks like a small dog. It sounds like a dog that trying to get someone's attention... Kind of a yelp!

I stood out there for a minute or two and still heard the beep, beep, beep. It obviously was not coming from my noisy amphibian friends.

I just knew that I'd never get another page read until I stopped the beep. By now, my glass of wine was more water than wine, so I moseyed over to the refrigerator to replenish my muse, and whad'dya know... there is was beeping loud and clear.

It was our new refrigerator telling me, all that time, that the freezer door was not completely shut. How thoughtful!

I shut the freezer door, put the wine glass in the sink, closed the book, turned the lights out and went to bed.

Sherlock Holmes got nothing on me... Ha!

Second cup!

Copyright 2022/Ben Bensen III

“Art Is Where You Find It”

 

Good "Easter weekend" Saturday Morning, all bodies.

"You mind the garlic bulbs in your crawfish," the young server at Pat's Seafood in Covington asked.

"No, I said, not at all... Why?"

"Well, some folks don't like garlic I guess, though I suspect they think they're getting gypped!"

"You mean they think you're replacing a crawfish or two with garlic?"

"Wow, I wonder what's the weight difference between half a bulb of garlic and one or two crawfish," I said.

"I don't know. With some customers, you just never know," she replied as she served up to me a ten pound bag of cooked mudbugs.

You know, file it under, “Art Is Where You Find It” along with crafts like wine cork fleur d'lis, painted oyster shells and decorated slate tiles ...

On the way out of the seafood store, just behind the bevy of cashiers, was what I'll call, “The BeerBottleCap Crab!”

I love how the artist stayed with the cap theme and didn’t try to solve the pincers and legs of the beast with some other easier solution. Upon closer inspection, staying with the theme of bottle tops, the artist bent and twisted the caps into the shapes needed to complete the entire art with the same materials… beer bottle caps!

"Happy Good Friday, sir," she said as I departed.

"'Tis the Season, right?" I replied.

First cup!

Copyright 2022/Ben Bensen III

"Saving Namou, If Only Temporarily!"

I'm told it is an English Bulldog!

 Good "windswept" Saturday Morning, y'all.

A few years back, there was a home off Pat O'Brian Road where, standing on a concrete pedestal on the front lawn, was a three foot walking "Patty Playmate" type doll circa 1960's.

The owner, on special occasions and seasonal holidays, would bring the doll out in all sorts of fashions like summertime bikinis, festive Christmas costumes, an Easter ensemble, Mardi Gras regalia, and Catholic "back to school" uniforms. At times, I'd take the long way home just to see how the doll was decorated.

As they say in these parts, "It Ain't Dere No More!"

Fast forward to the Covid years and lo and behold, a neighbor here in Merrywood decided to brighten the lives of all that drove by her home with a smiling, wooden English bulldog head peaking behind the driveway fence.

I noticed, when the owner of the home took down a Mardi Gras colored boa from around the dog's plywood head, that it needed a bit of TLC. One morning en route from my home to "Giddy Up" in downtown Folsom, I spotted the lady of the manor walking her dog. I introduced myself and proposed, with her permission, to give the peekin' pup a well deserved makeover.

At first, she was a bit skeptical, but I won her over by assuring her that I was a professional artist and could help to restore it.

So, yesterday, with an hour to spare between my wife's hair appointment and the coming rains, I grabbed a tube of acrylic titanium white and a tube of ivory black and went after the restoration.

In the process of completing the project, the owner, Christiane Mummectheu, drove up with her pup,"Doodlebug". We had a good conversation about the history and condition of her "Namou." She told me how nice it was for me to help save her welcoming doggie decoration. I told her the story about the three foot doll off of Pat O'Brian Road and how much I enjoyed seeing it from time to time. I hoped to continue to see Namou everyday as a I drive by.

 A work in progress...

A bit later, I apologized for having to end the "chit-chat" as I was up against the clock to finish. She said she looked forward to seeing the finished product, told me that she had errands to run, thanked me again and took off.

I finished up with the dog's eye lashes as it started to drizzle...

Good Timing!

Copyright 2022/Ben Bensen III

"A New Kinda No Fly Zone!"

One of the seven panels in a brochure...

Good Saturday Morning, y'all.

From 1978 to 1981 I was employed at the electronics division of General Dynamics. Jack Leynnwood got me connected with a head hunter named, Helen Edwards after I complained to him about my struggles to make any head way with my Art Center degree.

Two weeks before my interview, Helen Edwards instructed me to get a haircut and purchase a suit. I told her that I had just purchased a three piece suit for a job working as an editorial illustrator at a local bank.

In less than one month, I was hired as a graphics designer and tech illustrator. Fast forward to 2022 and my world of realities past have resurfaced in the form of the Javelin and Stinger weapons system.

At GD, another designer and I, created ads and brochures advertising the merits of the shoulder held surface to air weapon.

Although Stinger has been provided to the many insurgent groups fighting in civil wars, when we were creating the ads, both weapons, the Viper ( later the Javelin ) and the Stinger were considered a potent defense for NATO against the Russian buildup of tanks and the helicopter gunship, the MI-24 Hind.

If you look closely, senior GD illustrator, Ed Ramstead, who got all the juicy assignments, has a Russian gunship downed by the Stinger missile... And of course, the silhouette of another Russian aircraft is being targeted!

But, of course!

And now, several nations like Germany, Lithuania and the U.S. announced that they were providing the new and improved Stinger missiles to the Ukrainian forces defending against the Russian invasion.

A new kinda "No Fly Zone" deterrent. Hopefully, shipments will arrive there in time, but honest, "is this trip really necessary!"

Second cup!

Copyright 2022/Ben Bensen III