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Friday, May 26, 2023

"Mary, Can You Change The Music, Please"....


 Good "I hate the f%@*king Eagles, man!" Saturday Morning, y'all.

Well, ya know, it's one of those pre-programmed stations whose playlist just overplays certain songs and certain groups.

Big Al and I arrived at the counter to the mellow sounds of "Take It To The Limit" to order some coffee. Al always gets a small expresso cappucino. He normally stays only long enough to finish his morning jolt, but today was a bit different.

"Mary, can you change the music. I hate the damn Eagles," I said rather irritably since I hadn't had my first cup yet.

"Dude, exclaimed Big Al, The Big Lebowsky!"

"Hey you mean like the Dude, his Dudeness, Duder, um, the effin El Duderino?"

"Yeh, man, Al said, that line is from the movie,"The Big Lebowsky!"

"Oh man, Mary jumps in and says, I love that movie!"

Next thing you know, we three are recreating our favorite scenes like bowling alley confrontations, the sweater, the rug, the Dude's penchant for a white Russians... stuff like that.

Al and I got our coffees, sat down and for another twenty minutes or so, we're mixing the movie with other subjects like the finer points of welding (Big Al's a metal sculptor) and my Air Force paintings in the Pentagon.(I had just received my new copy of ASAA's "Aero Brush" magazine and brought it along to read.)

His cappucino finished, Al gingerly extracts himself from the leather sofa and as he heads for the door, Al turns and stops, smiles and points to the heavens and says, "I hate the f%@**king Eagles"... Ha!

"Take It Easy" was playing on the radio.

No cups, yet...

 Copyright 2023/Ben Bensen III

Wednesday, May 24, 2023

"A Friend Liked The Photo Better"...

A friend liked the photo better, so I sold it to him...

 

Good "on the road" Wednesday Morning, all bodies!

A couple days ago, first thing in the morning at Giddy Up, with a first cup I decided to draw this rusted stirrup that I found behind one of the western saddles outside.
It took a bit longer than I anticipated, but I got it done to my satisfaction before the gang showed up...
 
So, I sketched it as is on one of the Giddy Up coffee tables and posted it. David, who earlier had bought a saddle painiting I did, saw this post and loved it. He thought that the real rusted spur sitting on the table in front of the Giddy Up branded logo was gonna be a nice edition to his collection. 
 
So, he asked to purchase just the photo... How could I refuse him.
 
Check's in the mail, man...


Copyright 2023/Ben Bensen III

Tuesday, May 16, 2023

"The Kingbird Returns!"

The Kingbird is known for the red gold crown he flashes!

 Good "westfull wetreet!"Wednesday Morning, all bodies.

A warm, humid breeze had been gently wafting its way throughout the soft fragrant new leaves of our cypress trees. I turned to the east along side of our long gravel laden driveway to check on our neighbor's very tall pine tree that is slowly dying. So sad.

A horsefly buzzes by my head as I get closer to our next door
neighbor’s property. They have three horses in the pasture and the flies aggravate them as well as all horse lovers. I’ve not been bitten yet this year, but just the other day, two of them zoomed into the opened car door to bounce around the interior and the windshield.

The annual aggravating "Gadfly!"
                                                                        

 We used to get annual visits from the Eastern Kingbirds that would sit along the fences to intercept the flies midair. Their aerobatics are fun to watch and their presence certainly make a difference, but I hadn't seen them this year.... Until now, yeah!

It's gonna be another air "Battle Roya!" to "decrease the surplus gadfly population!"

First Hampton Inn cup!

Copyright2023/Ben Bensen III

 

 

Monday, May 8, 2023

"I like EX-CA-VA-TORS," he said..

Tonka Toys... Sorta!
 

Good "late morning TBT" Day, y'all.

Well, there's a new kid in town. One of them, named,"Ben" is four years old and his little brother, who's name I've forgotten, is three.
 
Just about every morning for the last month or so, they drop by with their mother, a wedding photographer, named Whitney, to entertain and terrorize the coffeehouse. Two days ago, the boys were wearing their plastic, red, firehouse helmet as they colored with their brand new set of crayons given to them at the firehouse.
 
I was told about a week ago, by Ben, that he likes construction machines. And, he knows the names of many of those thunderous, ground shaking instruments of destruction and... construction. Backhoe loaders, bulldozers, steam rollers, EXCAVATORS, he knows them all.
 
"He likes to draw them all, Mr. Ben," Whitney said.
 
"I like EX-CA-VA-TORS," Ben said. So, I made a deal with the little Ben.
 
"Hey, Ben, I said, " I like drawing machines and I'll bring my drawings and share them you if you promise to show me how you draw an EX-CA-VA-TOR!"
 
Well, a small crowd gathered around to see my sketchbook of about a dozen construction scenes... and to see Ben's own artistic interpretation, but it was not to be. He was not into performing for the crowd today. Impressed, Whitney inquired about purchasing prints for the walls of the new house they're building in Franklinton and that's pretty cool.
 
But, later, he and I did analyze the work and name all the of those magnificent, mechanical earth movers."
Fun to be a kid again... with another kid!
 
Second cup!

Tuesday, May 2, 2023

"Making The Best Use Of My Time"...

Thirst quenching for the Soul...

 Good "expecting two phone calls" Wednesday Morning, y'all.

Not that I'm gonna get either one... Just sayin'...

Had a fun morning on Monday with some of the LAG pals at Giddy Up. It was fun to sketch with a cup of coffee and "chew the fat" with the pals till the sun came out full force and practically blinded everyone at their sketchpads. My effort was rather half hearted, I think. 


Hated to do it, but I left everyone to get to my doctor's appointment early only to spend over an hour "Waitin'". I wasn't sure I could stand another home renovating program on TV in the medical center's lobby.

So, I snuggled up to this incredible thirst quenching machine with my sketchbook. I was sure they'd come and get me before I finished the rendering... Thirty or so minutes well spent, me thinks!

First cobweb clearing cup, y'all.

Thursday, March 30, 2023

"MORTICIAN?"

Momentarily stunned...

Good "talk about a throwback" Thursday Morning, all bodies.
A couple of days ago, Tee and I went to the small town of Franklinton, LA where we now employ the services of a CPA. Occasionally, we stop at a Mexican restaurant called "Don Juan."
The woman who took us to our seat and offered us something to drink looked vaguely familiar. When I asked her, as I normally do, what her name was, she told us it was Lynn.
That should have been our first clue.
I inquired about the new bar renovation they were adding to the restaurant, to which she said, "I don't know what their plans are. It got pretty crowded having the bar behind the cash register."
"I really don't know". Today's my last day here at Don Juan's."
"Oh wow, I said. Where you moving to?
Albuquerque was all she said like she was tired of being teased about it.
"No kidding, Albuquerque, huh... that's wild," I replied.
"There was a waitress here about a year ago who told me that originally, she was from Albuquerque, but moved from Houston, where she met her husband to be. They eventually married and moved to Franklinton to care for his mom," I said.
While placing my fajitas order, I rambled on about this woman with plans to return to her home town. I remember her saying that in the next six months, they hoped to complete construction on some property belonging her husband's family, sell it and move back to Albuquerque.
”I noticed her pause mid order with pen and pad in hand and a stunned, distant stare.
"And you know what," I asked, "This woman was returning home to continue the business she left behind."
"You'll never guess what she does for a living," I said.
"A mortician?" she supposed.
"Yes!"
"Wait... WHAT? How did you know! Is that you?"
"You mean, you're the person I'm talking about? You mean that you've never left after all this time?
"So, you're the mortician I wrote about in Facebook last year."
"Yeh, she said. You wrote about me in your Facebook?"
"Yeh, I replied, this is incredible!" I wrote about you for one of my Facebook posts." I felt our conversation about a year ago to be quite fascinating!"
"I remember that your hair was a lot longer and you ending our conversation by saying, "And, it's cool 'cuz I can take my “Don Juan’s” uniform (which was all black at that time!) home with me when I leave!”
Finishing our lunch, I wished her all the best and as we headed for the door, she said, "This time, for sure!"
First cup..

Copyright 2023/Ben Bensen III
All rea

Tuesday, March 14, 2023

A "National Women's Month" Monday Morning Thought...

If the 45 skipped, put a quarter on the tone arm... and play!

 Good "National Women's Month" Monday Morning, all bodies.

We were on our way back from the hospital late about a week ago. It was dark, it was foggy, and it felt like driving into an abyss. We were traveling in our Honda Fit which didn't have a cd in the player, so Therese, put on the radio and found an oldies station on the AM dial.
Maybe, searching for a distraction or some music, she felt the same way I did!
It was a scratchy AM connection most of the way until we reached "radio free Folsom" where it suddenly came in loud and clear. That first clear sound that emanated through the fog was the 1959 top ten song called, "Teen Beat" by the artist, Sandy Nelson... a drummer!
To my knowledge, it is the only song, short of the mid-sixties classic by the Surfaris called, "WipeOut," that featured almost exclusively drums. It all put a smile on my face and brought me back down to earth... Sort of.
I was nine years old. My big sister was twelve. Adele was the more feminine of the three sisters. There was no rough housing around her which my middle sister, Becky and I, loved to do. There was always a "wrassle,"a fake brawl or western saloon scene she and I would recreate receiving fake punches and falling all over the bed only to roll a classic death scene onto the floor.
Adele, who, in her teen years, loved to be called, "Mickey" didn't like sports especially baseball which was something nobody else in the family, at that time, understood. I'm not sure, but I'd have to assume she had no idea who the real Mickey was. Probably, that Disney character.
Mom, in all likelihood, sent her to dance classes and recitals. "Mickey" had all the moves. And she used them when we danced. It's not like I hadn't seen them all when I'd occasionally catch her posing in front of the mirror. The "come hither stare", the coy look, the disinterested smirk, the ecstatic smile, the studious look with a pair of glasses ever so lightly, nipping at her nose, you know. Even so, as a nine year old, it was one of those things I didn't understand. Or didn't wanna!
Those moves, so different, so natural to a girl becoming a woman, would hijack my "sock hop days!" It was easier and safer in my letter jacket to stand in front of the band and watch the guitar players play.
But, in her room, "Teen Beat", oh yes, "Teen Beat" had Mickey and I pounding away on our air drums, hitting the cymbals, and rolling the floor toms, at just the right time. I'm sure shaking her hair wildly with an occasional "Shimmy, Shimmy, Ko Ko Bop", embarrassed all of her statuesque heroes, Buddha, Napoleon, and the Virgin Mary as they reluctantly rattled to our snare drum "paradiddles".
If you know the song, it opens purely with drums, but when the guitar and piano jump in, Mick and I would go crazy even playing a little air guitar long before it was a big thing. Oh man, and each time the music modulated to the next key, our moves got even more intense, working each other and our imaginary drum kit into a real sweat. Higher and higher the song goes as no African beat can comprehend with spins, and twists, with dizzying revolutions enough to send us teeter-tottering on the brink of disaster.
Thankfully, it is only a two and a half minute song.
Snare and bass drums, high hat and ride cymbals, tom-toms, and floor toms, we both played ourselves to a frenzy pounding out in a rhythmic heartbeat that is luscious and sensorial!
Exhausted and out of breath, with the song's final crash of the cymbals, we'd laugh and both collapse on her bed, or the floor...whichever came first.
Yeh, I learned a few things about girls with that song. I also learned how to play the drums!

Copyright 2023/Ben Bensen III