My funny black and white cartoon of Bryan getting another bill. Drawn by artist Bryan Skinnell.

Forgetful customers are a business’s ace in the hole.

That’s my latest theory on how to properly manage a business after I had to fork out yet “another” late fee courtesy of the Post Office for a bill forgotten. We are all good at something I guess and Lordy knows I can forget important stuff with the best of them. And I’m absolutely convinced that businesses everywhere great and small take no small pleasure in capitalizing on my scatterbrained ways. For they well know that those mental lapses from absent-minded patrons like myself allows them to charge plump and juicy late fees which will keep even the most ineptly run enterprises afloat. At least that’s what I keep telling myself every time I’m hit with another late fee to appease the money hounds. Isn’t it my civic duty to help support the local businesses? And how else are you supposed to earn money these days? Why I ought to have a wall full of plaques commemorating their appreciation of my faithful and uncomplaining payments of all their late fees, hassle fees, grumpy clerk fees and the most dreaded of all; the backed up toilet fees that nobody willingly confesses to but leaves you to discover serendipitously on your own.

Maybe one day I’ll manage to stay on top of it all like a good and responsible citizen. While I’m at it maybe I’ll stay out of bathrooms too.

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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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