"Total Ellipse from the heart... ha!"

 Here’s today’s product from the Lacombe Art Guild sketching get together, today at the Giddy Up coffee house in Folsom!

Copyright 2024/Ben Bensen III

"Symbiosis"...

Yum...

 Well, good "Groundhog's Day" Friday Morning, all bodies.

What will the big rat have to say about the weather?

Yesterday, I had to have a CT-Scan just to make certain all my innards are behaving themselves. Naturally, in order to see what the scanner needs to see, one has to gulp down two bottles of "barium" with inactive ingredients like sodium benzoate, sodium citrate, potassium sorbate, simethicone emulsion, and benzoic acid all wrapped up in a tasty berry flavored smoothie!

I've had worse smoothies than this, that's for sure.

The deal is that you have to drink a quarter of the bottle of goop every 15 minutes, which leaves a lotta time to be bored. There wasn't many patients hanging around and wrestling with the goop.

One man spent about 15 minutes talking about the dangerous things he did on motorcycles as a 26 year old. In the blink of the eye, he motored in and motored out of the office. Can't say I blame him.

There was one woman who acknowledge me by nodding and saying hello... And, that's all she cared to say, so I decided to sketch her. Problem was, I forgot my sketchbook and some decent pens to draw with.

Desperate to entertain myself between quarterly goop gulps, I borrowed a black Pentel from the nurse at the front desk window and grabbed the blank back pages of a recent patient portal summary and went to town.

"Marlayna", the woman I sketched split after about ten minutes or so, so I turned my attention to a heartfelt, but tacky plastic centerpiece with a metallic fuzzy Valentine centerpiece.

Well, that still gave me another barium bottle to drink and another sixty minutes to blow. I figured in order to be "at one" with nasty stuff, I'd try to see it in another light. Our symbiosis really didn't change anything or make our relationship any more palatable, but the diversion became that spoonful of sugar that helped the medicine goop go down.

The results of my scan will debut sometime next week.

Copyright 2024/Ben Bensen III

"Super Duper DeFlation!"

De-Flated...

Good "Super Duper" Day after, Monday morning, y'all.

I'm feeling rather deflated about the entire game... Though I love football, the game, especially the NFL, is impossible to watch nowadays.

Congrats to all the teams that made it to the playoffs, and, I guess, congrats to the teams playing in the Super Bowl, but I have no real interest in the outcome this year. Correct me if I'm wrong, but weren't these two teams in the Bowl game four years ago?

C'est la vie...

What’s the problem w NFL games nowadays?

I never watch it (well that’s a lie, I do watch the Super Bowl each year maybe the last few innings of it anyway

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Author

Ben Bensen III

It's a bit difficult to explain to those that really don't follow it on a game to game way. There are way too many changes by the networks to accommodate the female audience.

It's like a boy's club house that displays a sign which says,"No Girls Allowed." Sure enough some female is gonna want to know what's going on and why can't I join.

It doesn't take long before they start making changes and accepting the "softer side".

Understand, I am not against football loving women's participation. It's the NFL and the major networks need for a bigger audience that has caused the slow decline ... As far back as the late 1980's!

Author

Ben Bensen III

But, that answer is only part of the problem. There is now sports betting which I am vehemently against. One example is the pass interference rule which is too nebulous and ripe with fraud. Games can be won and lost on a simple play juried by lawyers in New York and the constant excuses, injury timeouts and such provides for way too many commercial breaks.

There is no flow in the game of football nowadays!

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Dorothy S Willse I have to totally agree!

Copyright 2024/Ben Bensen II

"Candelabra Cactus!"

Cactus!

So funny… Yesterday, the ice that formed on both cars had me totally locked out. Everything was incased in ice, frozen shut! Using some warm water helped me, just enough, to get into the driver’s side door, but it took a lot of patience and the sun to melt a portion of the windshield to be able to drive.The temperature gauge in the car registered at first 21º.

Today’s a bit different.

Three days ago, I started up sketch season for 2024 at Giddy Up by drawing a new plant that replaced the white poinsettias. It is a cactus called the Candelabra which does have thorns but tastefully placed at each little "leaf." Kinda looks like something piano player, “Liberace” would have had atop his instrument if he, and his brother, George, was into that sort of green thumb thing.

First cup!

Copyright 2024/ Ben Bensen III

"Reading Is Fundamental"

The family that reads together...

 Good "MLK" Monday Morning, all bodies.

Mended a fence board yesterday and felt like I needed every damn tool necessary to complete a simple task. If this keeps up, I'mma need a fancy Roy Rogers design tool belt...

Nothing less will do.

Also, found some time to play around with a few "Reading Is Fundamental" concepts. No tool belt necessary 'cept my electric eraser!

First cup...

Copyright 2023/ Ben Bensen III

"I bought a brand new French easel!"

My sketchbook drawing in gray markers a few days ago! Might even have a buyer...

 Well, I think I left my coffee mug hanging on one of the many fence boards that surround this huge estate. So, I may have to return to the scene of the crime, today.

Three days later, my coffee mug was "sittin' on a fence!"

For the second week, Giddy Up's First Monday sketch day turned into a Monday En Plein Air painting session.

I bought a brand new French easel, but haven't taken it out of the box, so I decided to just sketch a scene totally in gray markers. Turned out pretty well for the time spent, I think.

The subject matter from which I sketched.

Copyright 2023/ Ben Bensen IIII

"AND, Babbah bah booooo, BRING IT RIGHT HERE!"

Contrary Mary...

 Well, Good "Tidings to You!"Thursday Morning, all bodies.

The news on NPR was talking the Ukraine, and Tee was staring off in the distance contemplating the day's activity as we make our way to Giddy Up. I was in my own world giggling with my own sense of humor.

I had a Bing Crosby Christmas tune in my head and was laughing at the prospect of doing something with it...

Mary, the don't call me a barista, barista, is gonna be my prime suspect. But, is she off today? She wasn't. Now, I just have to find a way to single her out from the other, always attentive, ladies behind the counter. Maddie was creating some kind of creamy latte filled with some kind of Christmas goodies and Danielle caught my eye as if to say that I was next to be served, but I winked at her and pointed towards Mary.

Luckily, there's was no one behind me awaiting to be served.

"Hey Mary," I called out in a rather demanding way, which so unlike me, "I need some coffee!"

"Hey Ben... Your regular?" Mary asks in her matter of fact, ho-hum way.

Yes, I said, the French dark roast, AND...

"We won't go until we get some,

"We WONT go until we get some,

"We won't GO until we get some,"

Pointing to the counter, I completed the end of the song with a bit of Bing...

"AND, Babbah bah booooo, BRING IT RIGHT HERE!"

"Okay, Mr. Ben, (she seldom calls me mister!) In the Christmas spirit already, I see."

"Yeh, Mary, Bing Crosby style... Babbah bah booooo,!

She mumbles, as she turns to pour me my coffee, something like, "You beddah change your tune if you want anything!" She then, hands me my cup.

Trying to be as unimpressed as she can muster up, she asks, " You need anything else?"

"What? No Bing styled Christmas today," I asked.

Danielle, sensing maybe some tension in the air, and still working up some kind of frothy concoction, smiles to me and says, "I love Bing Crosby especially at Christmas time. My mom used to play his records all the time!"

"Yeh, I found on YouTube, he had quite a bit of Christmas songs over the years. I guess "I Wish You A Merry Christmas" is gonna be my earworm for today."

"I thought I'd share it with someone I love," I said, as I nodded towards Mary, who, by now, is working the drive up window.

Maddie rolled her eyes, shrugged her shoulders and giggled. Danielle nodded.

I sat down with some friends feeling satisfied that I got a bit of a smile from "Contrary Mary!"

Time to crank up the Christmas music as long as it isn't another Mariah Carey interpretation!

Second cup!

Copyright 2023/Ben Bensen III