"He's Not A Licker... He's A Kisser!

 

Pierre le Pooch

Good "Thus with a kiss, I die", Monday Morning, all bodies.

On another less stressful thought, I sketched this photo of Pierre this morning after a first cup. I love when he takes the lead on our walks, but has to look back to see if we are following. Le Pooch doesn't hear too well and even though he gets all excited when I grab his leash, it doesn't take too long before his pace around the bird sanctuary slows down.

I usually stretch in the morning in a place where Pierre is not, but every now and then, I'll watch the morning news and lay on the living room floor to go through my pseudo pilates pace in an effort to improve physical strength, flexibility, and posture, and "mental awareness."

Aware of what is the question!

Anyway, Pierre jumped off the couch and came over to inspect my progress. Maybe it was a goodbye kiss since he thought I was in some kind of peril laying on the floor. Maybe he thought he was losing his meal ticket. Nevertheless, he nuzzled my head, sniff around a bit and then, gave me a kiss.

Okay, okay... it was not really a kiss. A cynic would say Pierre sniffed some leftover food item stuck to my forehead and decided to try and lick it off with one timid uh... um, lick!

I choose to call it a kiss because our cocker spaniel is not one to slobber his tongue on people in an effort to grab a lick of facial salt. This dog, in all the thirteen years we've shared together, has never licked Brian or Tee or me... Ever.

He's not a licker... he's a kisser!

That's not to say that he is not happy to see you when you arrive through the front door or wake up in the morning. He is a "Dino the Dinosaur" from the Flintstones when he greets you... especially if he smells the slightest chance of food.

His nose knows all, and I insist that after a few sniffs, he gave me a kiss on my forehead... food or no food!

Second cup, y'all...

Copyright 2021/Ben Bensen III

"Fancy Stirrups"

A pair of decorative stirrups from a collection...

Well, Good "rest in peace" Monday Morning, all bodies.

I found out yesterday, at Gus's, that a friend of mine passed away last Wednesday. Even though the last time I saw him, which was about three months ago, he commented that he looked better than he felt, his mood seemed a bit dejected. 

I was doing a demo painting at the local coffeehouse and he was awaiting a good friend's arrival, so I didn't want to interfere. It was about one year since I had last seen him, accidentally, at another restaurant. When I asked him how come I hadn't seen him here for a breakfast or two, he told me that his creative time was late at night and had a hard time getting up in the morning.

For a while, we'd get together at his home which wasn't too far from my home, to talk and listen to him philosophize as he picked out new tunes on his old Gibson. When my wife became ill, I kinda curtailed those extracurricular activities hoping to catch up with him and the many sea going tales he loved to tell at lunch sometime.

Even though I had my breakfast at Gus's, I decided that I'd put off the day to drink coffee and think about our good times. The sketch is from a collection of saddle stirrups on display at Giddy-Up in downtown Folsom. Because of a rather large thunderstorm, that lasted over one hour, I decided, thankfully captured as I was, that I use the time to my best advantage and dedicate my grief to Tony. Of course, to my knowledge, that "salty dawg" from Grand Isle, never owned a horse... or a stirrup!

Copyright 2019/Ben Bensen III

Westful Wetweet at PJ's...

 Saturday, after satisfying my blood thirsting lil' brother's need for more blood samples, I went to a local coffee house to check my messages, have some coffee, an orange/cranberry muffin, and attempt to upload this second of two sketches I drew at the blood center. I took the pic, but didn't have the usb attachment to load it to the computer until I got home.

It was drawn in ball point pen, like the other sketch I did that day, and was drawn in about five minutes. The woman was one of five people watching Rachel Ray cook up something "breakfassy" on tv. It would have made a great picture, to capture all five staring at the television, but no one sat for very long.