Board Meetings

My funny black and white cartoon of Bryan walking the plank on a pirate ship. Drawn by artist Bryan Skinnell.

Board meetings aren’t for me.

Call me a heretic but I am totally convinced that the Devil created board meetings just to antagonize and pester our poor souls as much as he can get away with. It must be true because I’m past deadline and I need to write something and that’s the first thing I thought of. So I’m gonna run with it. Might as well because I’ve got a thing or two to say about board meetings anyway. Here lately I’ve had to sit through a couple of them which is what inspired my latest epiphany about board meetings; they leave me bored to tears every single time I have to suffer through one.

It’s bad enough that I have to be made to come to board meetings but it’s doubly humiliating to have to be tied down and gagged just so the meeting can proceed smoothly without my input and interruptions. I don’t appreciate it either as I have lots to say about lots of stuff. Can I be blamed if I think it should be national law that all board meetings must compensate their participating members with all the hotdogs, chili and fixings they can eat, all the root beer they can drink and a hundred dollar check for our time? I think that’s perfectly reasonable. I know if I were munching on a good hotdog with some tasty root beer to wash it down I’d sure be more motivated and a fount of ideas.

But let the record show that the rest of the ingrates aren’t in favor of my progressive and radical ways. So I’m forced to bring my own hotdogs and root beer to protest their stubbornness which I will continue to do until they relent. The other board members must have had just about enough of my antics and that’s why I’m tied me up, gagged and locked in the closet while writing this. And I’m sure they’re all enjoying my hot dogs too, the hungry buzzards. But it could be worse. Next time I’m bringing chitlins!! That’ll serve them right.

Why hello there! My name is Bryan Skinnell and I am a middle-aged (50-ish) artist and neighborhood kook who is living the artistic and creative life out in the boonies of Bedford, Virginia. Bedford is one of the largest counties in the commonwealth of Virginia and, for the most part, it’s still a mostly rural one that bridges the gap between Roanoke and Lynchburg. You could say, in more ways than one, that Bedford is the heart of Virginia. I can’t argue with that although I usually think of Bedford more as Virginia’s belly button myself.

I grew up right here in Bedford and have lived and toiled most of my life on our infamous red clay. The sort of clay that makes the stickiest mud known to man after a rain and which clings like super glue from God to anything and everything it touches. If you are so foolish as to get it on yourself you’ll wind up tracking and leaving a trail of red goop everywhere you go for days afterwards to the delight of your family and friends. But I wouldn’t want to live anywhere else and Lord knows I tried as I’ve wandered from one end of the country to the other. But Bedford has my heart and that’s where I’ve chosen to live my life today. In my free time when I’m not stuck in my studio making art I do love being outside gardening or hiking or just pestering the neighbors.

Every day I try to write something that’s original, entertaining, and half-way thoughtful here on my blog while sharing my happy-go-lucky attitude and zest for life. Quite often I don’t have the foggiest notion of what I’ll end up saying in a post. But, whatever I end up writing about, I do hope you enjoy it!

I do keep a mailing list for interested readers and fans. If you would like to get in on the action and follow my musings and rabble-babble, that can be easily arranged. Just give me an email address that you would like for me to send my blog posts to and I’ll see that you get it.

Thanks for stopping by!
Bryan Skinnell

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