" Procrastination Has Its Cost"...

Cool...

 Good "frosty" Friday Morning, all bodies!

Oh, about a year ago, something in the studio smelled musty and kinda mildewed. After a month or so of investigating every corner of the place, I surmised it wasn't the window AC. I believe it was a throw rug near the back door. Problem was I practically took apart the window unit to check it out and never reassembled the damn thing because I just don't bend and twist like I did when I bought and placed it in the window years ago.

Well, in late summer of last year, some industrious wasps decided since I wasn't using the damn thing that THEY would. I wrongly assumed that the buzzing sound the bugs were making

were nothing but another flying insect desperately trying to extricate itself from a spider web.

Good riddance, I'd say.

But it kept getting louder and louder and more frequent. I decided it was time to create my own "RAID riddance" on the gang, and put back the air conditioner into service . I actually thought about calling a repairman to put the unit back together again, but figured having one come out to "service it" would probably cost as much as the unit did years ago.

Well, you know procrastination has its cost. it took me the entire year to think about it, until yesterday! Ah yes. The added expense to our electric bill never sounded so sweet as when I plugged in that beauty.

First Giddy Up cup, y'all.

Copyright 2023/Ben Bensen III

"I Never Look A Gift Chicken In The Beak!"

It didn't turn out like I planned.
My approach was rather vague to begin with.

 Well, good "Mayhem Monday Morning," y'all...

It's Back To School Monday. Back to dodging school buses, sitting in 3pm traffic, and school zone tickets. Gotta leave yourself plenty of time to get anywhere on time!

Yesterday, I mellowed outside on the patio deck at Giddy Up to finish a value sketch of more broken down fences from the back paddock. Later, as the morning got a bit more uncomfortable, I left the markers behind and did a few touchups indoors with a second cup.

Paula Alario came by to drop off a dozen or more fresh eggs. She apologized for the size of the eggs blaming it on the recent heat wave. I thanked her and told her that I never look a gift chicken in the mouth... I mean, beak!

First cup... at home!

Copyright 2023/ Ben Bensen III

"The Insurance Company Never Admitted That It Was A Tornado!"

 Good "a bit sketchie" Sunday Morning, y'all.

Decided to spend some time sketching today. Too hot to do much more than that. So, while Tee took off, in the cool of the early morning for her Jazzercise class, I decided to take the lawn tractor, a cup of coffee and my sketchbook over to the running shed in the back paddock to sit and render the destruction.

The insurance company never admitted that it was a tornado that, three years ago, skipped across the back paddock, but they found enough damage to our roof to replace it. I also got reimbursed to fix the shed, but life got in the way. So, the next best thing to do is to sketch it...

First cup!

Copyright 2023/Ben Bensen III

"A Marker Sketch.. On site!"

Not as plentiful as when I started!

 Good "no news is good news!" Saturday Morning, all bodies.

But then, there's no such thing, right?

Spent a good portion of the afternoon, yesterday, at the service dept of Honda in Slidell. It's so bad they lent me an Accord for five days, and after 2.5 hours waiting at a local restaurant, I found that as I was calling them in the traditional way... by phone, they were trying to get a hold of me with the prognosis through text messaging.

Oh bruther... The onion rings were good but not as plentiful as when I started sketching them... Ha!

Second cup!

Copyright 2023/Ben BensenIII

"She's Such A "Good Egg!"

Paula's Dozen Plus...

 Good "you're such a good egg" Thursday Morning, all bodies.

When I walked into the coffeehouse, Mimi was having an egg fritata with a friend. She waved and said hello in between bites.

I promised Mary (Giddy Up's "don't call me a barista", barista!) a half dozen or so from the two dozen or so of fresh eggs a friend had bestowed upon me. I didn't have an egg carton, so I placed the eggs, nice and snug, in a small square box stuffed with plastic grocery bags and delivered it to Maddie who was working the counter.

Maddie's a "good egg" and can be completely trusted with delivering the goods.

Badass was sitting all alone, so I decided to spend some time with him, but soon the two sofas were filled with friends chewing the fat. Phil brought a dolphin skull for Frank to put on the community shelf and Big Al had to get up to further inspect the alien being.

Someone said the skull and Al had much in common.

Dennis, who has relatives from Australia, got to talking about aborigines and boomerangs with Erich, while I tried to talk to Jeanie about her days in college at USL. MaryJane and Maureen waved hello having arrived late from the local gym.

About twenty minutes later, Paula Alario, who provides me, on occasion, all the eggs I need, dropped by to return a baking tray that I used to make her a ham and cheese quiche earlier in the week.

It was my way out, having already spent so much time. As it always happens, when one person decides to leave, EVERYONE decides to leave too!

Having temporarily solved all of the world's problems, I grabbed my baker's tray and split.

First decaf cup this morning...

Copyright 2023/Ben BensenIII

"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

"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