What a strange and kooky summer this is turning out to be.
I usually love the summers. It’s arguably my favorite time of the year. The hot weather and long days combined with some fun and frolick makes a combination that’s mighty hard to beat. However this year’s summer saga hasn’t delivered much fun or frolick for me. Quite unexpectedly I had my wings clipped as my trusty twenty-something Buick, a jalopy I inherited from my late grandmother, started acting up. I could tell that something was amiss but that’s bound to happen when you’re driving an old and crotchety car. Much like old and crochety people, all you can do is put up with their shenanigans as best you can because there’s no changing them. My ol’ Buick had its issues of course but it was still part of the family as far as I was concerned. And I hated to part with it. It was getting up in years and becoming a bit temperamental. But it was still reliable transportation which is all anyone really wants in a car. However this summer was my Buick’s untimely demise which caught me by surprise and also unprepared.
I was really hoping my Buick had a few more years left. With only a hundred and fifty thousand or so miles on the odometer it seemed reasonable to me that it still had a long life ahead and would keep scooting along. But apparently it didn’t as things turned out. For awhile I figured it surely must be the fuel pump that was crapping out on me so I went and got a new fuel pump and even installed it myself for the fun and to save a little cash. The job wasn’t difficult but did take longer than I anticipated as some complications cropped up. When all was done I was feeling pretty good about my work and even better that I still had a running car. But the other shoe soon dropped and it became apparent that my car had more than just fuel pump problems. Much more it turns out. My mechanic confirmed my worst fears. Turns out that my Buick had an impressive list of issues unbeknownst to me. As I was listening to him give me the lowdown on my car’s health it was pretty clear that my Buick was toast. Which was a royal pisser as I’m hardly in any position to get another car. So much for my summer of fun.
But there is a happy ending to this debacle which I couldn’t have predicted. I’ve got a brother-in-law that’s quite the mechanical maestro who fixes and resells cars on the side. When he heard about my predicament he let me know that he had a nice Subaru that he originally gave to his daughter as a college car. She has since found something more to her liking so the Subaru is now back in his hands again and just needed some parts replaced. He should have it finished up and ready to swap over to me in a few days for nothing more than what he spent in parts. Sounds like a pretty good deal to me! While I sorely miss having my wheels I am grateful that this predicament worked out as well as it did. Being stuck at home ain’t much fun but it turned out to be a blessing of sorts as it forced me to really sit down and focus on what’s truly important. Like this here blog.
I’ve been doing some hard and heavy thinking about that for months now. I certainly enjoy blogging and have played around and tried various ideas over the years to find my voice and see what kind of writing clicked with me. Blogging is special in the sense that it’s a very conversational medium. However I’m not a very conversational kind of guy most of the time. Humor has always been a reliable fallback for me and it has (almost) never failed to score points when I’m in a pinch to say something. And the ability to make people smile and laugh is probably more appreciated than ever these days. So why not try my writing chops and think of funny stuff to share with y’all? Cap it off with a cartoon and bingo, an instant blog post guaranteed to add a little sunshine to whoever might be reading it. It seemed a pretty cool idea and one that wouldn’t require outrageous amounts of work. The main thing was whether or not that I could do it consistently and on a regular beat.
And that’s where I’ve been putting the bulk of my creative energies for the past year or so. Being Mr Funny Guy was a cool gig and it worked for awhile, but the grind of coming up with new and original material was wearing me down. I’ve got a new appreciation for those geniuses who truly have the gift and can stay consistently and genuinely funny day after day and year after year. Just how do they do it?! Lord, how I wish I knew because they make it look so dang easy. I think the funniest people around just have an odd and contrarian way of seeing the world. Great comics are usually killer critics with a devilish sense of mischief and I’m just too much of a sweetheart to ever stoop to that. You either got it or you don’t so time to come up with a new game plan. And I think I’ve got something. Maybe this is what I should’ve been doing all along.
Rather than strain myself writing daily silliness, I will focus my energy and talents on writing a weekly Sunday post with possibly another one thrown in sometime in the week on whatever I feel like writing about. Being an artist and living the creative life is a grand experience and I feel like that’s too good not to share. So I expect I will be writing quite a bit about art and my own dipsy adventures, discoveries and epiphanies I make while messing around in the world of art. It’s a wild and almost spiritual experience as I meet new people, try new things and make new discoveries that enrich my soul and hopefully yours as well. Life is art after all and truly is a buffet that keeps on giving! And golly, how I love a good buffet. While I’m writing about art I might as well share my own art and paintings of the week with you which I hope will jazz things up and become an appreciated addition along with my writing. Folksy writing and dapper art to wile away a lazy Sunday afternoon or evening, what could be better I ask?
As an extra perk to keep y’all entertained between posts I’ll try to work up a daily comic strip that I’ll send out on weekdays. I find comic strips to be easier to think up, write and draw for some reason than writing humor pieces. Not sure why that is but it’s true. And everybody loves a good comic strip and it will still allow me the chance to cut up some, so there’s that.
That pretty well sums up what’s been going on in my little corner of the universe. The summer isn’t over yet by a long shot so I hope you can get out and enjoy yourselves. I aim to grab some enjoyment myself before too long. But before I do I’d better get cracking on my Sunday blog post.
Enjoy the weekend.
