Hello 2023

January 2, 2023
Black and white comic of Bryan talking to an old geezer. Drawn by artist Bryan Skinnell.

Well by gum, it’s a new year isn’t it?

Why hello 2023 it is so good to see you. And just what do you have in store for me this year if I may ask? I hope this isn’t going to be the year that kills me. Because that would surely stink. Kook artist dead at 50 years old. And just how did he die anyway is what folks are surely gonna be asking. Who in tarnation knows??? For all I know he poked himself in the eyeball while trying to use chopsticks and the sodium glutamate jolt was just too much for him. Poor guy. Hey, if you’re gonna die early might as well make it a headline story I say!

But I don’t think I’m gonna die. And neither does AARP. Why the good folks at AARP, God bless ’em, have been letting me know that they’ve been thinking of me by sending me mail and flyers about their perks, services, and of course a prized invite for me to sign up and throw some money their way since somebody (don’t know who) squeealed to them that I’m turning 50 years old this month. Boy, if the rest of the world can follow their lead and show the neighborly love half as well as those AARP folks do we would finally achieve paradise on Earth! But, dang it, we have failed miserably in achieving paradise in the 2020’s. About the best we’ve been able to do is load our chow with sodium glutamate and other weird chemicals while flooding our mailboxes with junk mail with offers of help for people on the verge of a mid-life crisis made all the worse by low testosterone levels and too much sodium. And only too happy to push you over the edge it seems.

Hello 2023. It’s so good to see you. Maybe I’ll just go back to bed and wait for 2024.

Funny black and white groundhog cartoon. Drawn by artist Bryan Skinnell.

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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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