Life Coming Full Circle

...or, we're getting old.

...or, just appreciate the random symmetry.

32 years ago, fresh off of our graduations from Haverford College and Bryn Mawr College, we moved to west Philadelphia, Powelton Village to be specific, to be near both my new job in Center City and Amp's PhD program at the University of Pennsylvania.

One of the first things we found in our new neighborhood was the White Dog Cafe, a quirky and revolutionary restaurant on the 3400 block of Sansom Street. Judy Wicks founded the restaurant in 1983, and was an early disciple of the kind of farm to table cooking and sustainable agriculture focus that was pioneered by Alice Waters of Chez Panisse in California. Such a thing might not seem unusual now, but it was very unusual in the 1980's...

Anyway, despite being one of the better restaurants in Philadelphia, the White Dog's prices were very reasonable, and the food was astonishingly good. So with a good job, and a stipend, and no kids...we ate at the White Dog maybe once a week. For a couple years. We became familiar with the staff, and became friendly with the Manager at the time. We attended a few fundraising dinners and wine tasting events with Judy Wicks and Kevin von Klause in the residence space above the restaurant.

September 1990 rolled around, and a wedding was happening, so we needed a place to have a small reception for 50-60 family and friends, with us footing the bill ourselves. Our first choice was to have everyone to the White Dog, but they didn't do wedding receptions. Until we had a nice conversation with the manager, let's just call him Mr. Blake, who agreed that we could have our wedding reception there if we could squeeze it in between the lunch service and the dinner service. Which, for a noon wedding at my childhood church in Havertown, would work out fine.

We picked a menu, worked with the pastry chef to come up with a chocolate raspberry wedding cake, and had a wonderful wedding day. I still have the copy of the then-current dinner menu from which we picked the three entrees from which the guests could choose. Keep in mind the prices are circa 1990...

White Dog dinner menu c. September 1990

So we got married...

The Bride

And some years later we had kids. And the kids grew up. And Grace got a job as a junior server at a retirement home. And then Grace decided that she would like to work in a somewhat similar but more dynamic environment (i.e. a real restaurant). And she saw that the White Dog was opening it's 4th location, less than 10 minutes from our house, this September. And this name rung a bell for her. So entirely on her own, she applied for a job as a food runner and hostess trainee. And got the job. She starts later this week, when the place opens for business.

First, I am immensely proud of her initiative, in that she decided entirely on her own that she wanted to do this, did the research, applied, and got hired. Without any help from us other than an enthusiastic "go for it!"

Second, it gives me a warm feeling inside that she is going to be working at the White Dog Cafe. The White Dog was a part of the earliest years that Amp and I had together. And now... Well... Less than a month short of our 30th anniversary... If you have kids (or a heart!) you'll get what I'm feeling.

It's strange how things work out. Pure chance, or a graceful symmetry, who can say.

That being said, with time to spare on this Labor Day holiday Monday, Amp and I put together a meal with help from the White Dog Cafe cookbook.

The Cookbook...

We did a simple grilled chicken with Lime-Mojito marinade (McCormick's marinade, not White Dog), with Warm French Lentils (page 206) and Lavender and Honey-Roasted Butternut Squash (page 198). We decided to do something simple as the main course/protein, and try a couple of new side dishes from the cookbook.

All I can say is "wow!" This was one of the best meals we've had in a while, and given that we have been stuck at home cooking a good bit to kill time during the pandemic, that says a lot.

Mojito-Lime chicken with Lentils and Roasted Squash

So... Who knows what the future brings, but I am happy that my daughter is going to start working at my favorite restaurant, and one the has a strong connection to our little family's history.

Not to mention the fact that we now have a White Dog right down the street, as dangerous as that may be...

Anyway, I wish any and all who may stumble upon this blog post health and happiness in these difficult times. Stay safe. Wear a mask. And recognize that the choice in the USA this November is between democracy and the slippery slope to fascism, between progressive views and a reversion to the social stone age. Personally, I prefer democracy, not living in the stone age, the rule of law, checks and balances, and an open-minded viewpoint that respects and supports everyone. I prefer living in an America that the rest of the world respects, not laughs at. I reject "Make America White Again" as a thinly-veiled campaign slogan. Or a world-view. Despite being an aging, relatively well-off, straight white guy... Right is right. And I need to be able to look my kids in the eye and tell them that I used my vote to try to make their world a better place. For myself and for them. Your mileage may vary. 

PS - It has been pointed out just now that I always seem to avoid posting pictures of myself. True. Very true. So...

Amp and myself, downstairs at the White Dog

Clearly September 1990 didn't still count as the '80s, judging from the lack of hair on me. A trend that would continue... We won't be posting high school pictures of me anytime soon, thank you very much.

The Happy Couple

Well, nobody pays any attention to the groom anyway, right?

Band Camp 2020

 It's August, which means we should be having Marching Band Camp. In a normal year. Which this isn't.

Socially Distanced Sectionals

Fortunately, we are able to have voluntary band practices, with certain accommodations. We wear masks at all times. We have bell covers for all of the wind instruments. We maintain proper social distancing at all times. We do not congregate in large groups...

The Central League has just announced that there will be no sports until January 1, 2021, with the 2020 fall sports season (i.e. football) expected (hoped) to be played in March/April of 2021. (Winter sports in Jan/Feb and spring sports in May/June).

So the band rehearses music. And learns basic drill. But more importantly, for the first time in ~6 months, the kids sorta get to do something together with their friends. It's difficult to put a value on that...

School in the district starts next Tuesday, virtual for at least the first month. Beyond that, who knows, but I would doubt that anything but virtual will happen until 2021.

But at least for the moment, we have 100+ kids scattered around the width and breadth of the high school campus, doing something that has the vaguest hint of normalcy about it, which is a good thing.

I think that one of the things a parent would wish for the most is the ability to protect their kids from this sort of...whatever you would call it. But that isn't possible. So at the very least we can sew bell covers, do temperature screenings at check-in every day, ask about Covid symptoms, and spend 3 hours every evening strolling the campus and checking for proper social distancing. It's a very small sacrifice...

Something to Last

Roughly 21 years ago, in about 1998-99, we planted this tree. It's a Dawn Redwood, and was about 6 feet tall when we planted it, maybe a little less. All these years later, it's about 40-45 feet tall, which would make it a relatively fast grower for a tree. Which is a good thing, since it has a lot of growing left to do.

Dawn Redwood in the mist

The cool thing about this tree is that is has a good 60 feet or so of growth left, reaching a final height of about 100 feet.

The Dawn Redwood was only known as a fossil until found growing in a remote valley of the Szechuan province of China in 1941. Since then it has been propagated around the world. Including right here in my part of Pennsylvania, by me and my wife.

With luck, it could outlast me by a few hundred years. With a huge whole lot of luck, it could see the year 3000.

Highly highly unlikely, but possible. Which is kinda cool to contemplate. The end of life for this tree could be as far ahead of us as the defeat of Harold Godwinson by William the Conqueror at the battle of Hastings is behind us.

Perspective is good.

Our lives are a fleeting instant in the life of the world. Which I think means we have an obligation to not irrevocably mess things up for all that may come after us. My kids. My grandkids. Yours, and your descendants.

Mad Max is a good movie series. Not a good future.

What Passes for Normal

We're in the middle of August, and we're supposed to be halfway through the first week of band camp. If there were a band camp this year, which there isn't. At least not until maybe sometime in September. I've taken the week off anyway, as time is going by quickly, and there's no particular need to take days off, but I need to take some eventually, so, yes, this week is vacation. We should have been at the beach last week, and helping with band camp this week and next. Instead, we are home. Again. Like always.

In lieu of band camp, there will be socially distanced outdoor sectionals next week and the week after. I spent much of the morning today cutting wind instrument bell covers of all different sizes from exercise fabric (82% nylon and 18% spandex), which is the recommended fabric for homemade bell covers. It is said that you learn something new everyday, and over the last few days I have learned that the bell diameters of various musical instruments are (typically) as follows. Trumpets 5 inches. Clarinets 3 inches. Alto saxes 4.75 inches. Tenor saxes 6 inches. Baritone saxes 7+ inches. Baritones 10 inches. Trombones 8 inches. Mellophones 10.5 inches. Sousaphones 25 inches. And that the GV band this year has roughly 27 trumpets, ~35 saxes of various types, 7 trombones, 1 baritone, 2 sousaphones, 5 mellophones, 17 clarinets, and who knows what all else. It's a big band for us, with a big incoming freshman class. And fraught with uncertainty. The district and the volunteers are all doing a lot of work in the hopes that we can have some sort of band season this year.

On the home front, we are all still healthy. The company I work for still continues to be doing more Covid testing than any other commercial lab in the country, so that feels good. Amp still works in a dialysis clinic serving Covid patients, so that feels good too. The kids are starting to climb the walls a bit, which is to be expected. But no serious complaints.

I haven't been feeling much like creating any art recently (i.e. painting), but hopefully that will change with my sister in law's family staying with us this week (since she is a watercolor painter). I've been writing a little, but not much.

The biggest news here, I guess, is that Grace passed her learner's permit test and is now beginning the process of learning how to drive. She and I go out at least a little bit practically every day. She needs the experience of time behind the wheel, but she is doing fine, and our driving sessions have been remarkably stress-free thus far. Fingers crossed.

It's hard to believe that my little girl has turned 16, and is the tallest female on her Mom's side of the family. Mom is 5'4+". Julia is 5'2" on a good day. Her two aunts are less than that. A lot less... She is a shade under 5'6", and growing fast the last couple of years (a good 6 inches+). It's a remarkable thing to watch. And funny as well. I laugh on the inside when I find myself saying things like "where's the rest of your shirt?", "are you planning on wearing that outside the house?", and "what's with the green hair?". Most of which is just giving her a token hard time to let her know that we care, and that we are paying attention. I figure as long as she's taking all Honors and AP classes and getting fantastic grades, she can color her hair any color she wants.

Anyway... We forge ahead, doing the best we can with what passes for normal these days. School in the fall is still up in the air, with at least the first month being entirely virtual. Beyond that, who knows. The current occupant of the White House is still a worthless moron. So, same old same old. Hopefully in the not too distant future, things change for the better. I wish you all peace, health and happiness.

Appreciate the simple beauty in the world

Stay safe and wear a mask.

Mr. D, and High School Band

I was sad to see where Brother Dave posted on his blog that Mr. D, our high school band and orchestra director, had passed away. [see Dave's Musings link at right]. We were in SHS in the early 1980's, and Mr D retired way back in 1991. A very long time ago...

I don't know that I could add much to what Dave very eloquently said, other than "I completely agree".

Many of my fondest memories of high school revolve around the band room, and band and orchestra in general. High school wasn't always easy, especially the first couple of years, but the band room was always a safe place, and it was where most of my friends were.

As a volunteer for the Garnet Valley marching band in recent years, I have been back to Springfield 3 times for what are now "away games", and while much of what surrounds the football field has changed, the field itself is the same. Ghosts from the life of a much younger me haunt the place. I wouldn't want to guess at how many hours I spent on that field for 4 years as a trumpet in the marching band. Summer band. Evening practices. Games. Sweltering heat, bitter cold, and every temperature in between. A bunch of girls who weren't interested. A few who were.

It's funny...I can think back on 4 years at one of the most prestigious liberal arts colleges in the country and feel...not much. But I think back on 4 years at Springfield High School and smile, and have lots of good memories come flooding back.

As for Mr D, there are worse things, I think, at the end of a very long life, than to know that you touched the lives of a great many young people.

Rest in peace Mr. D.

The Dog Days of Covid

Sometimes I feel like this too...

 

School will start virtual-only for Grace's junior year. Band camp is postponed. Football season likely won't happen since the governor has recommended no scholastic athletics until at least January. Everything is in a state of flux.

Bah humbug.

Dereliction of Duty

Political rant warning. Feel free to click away now...

It's the 4th of July weekend, one of the centerpieces of an American summer. Independence Day. Beaches and barbecues. Hot dogs and hamburgers. Swimming pools and fireworks. Beer and wine and family and friends. Group gatherings.

In normal times. But these aren't normal times. Or even close.

The rampant a$#holery coming out of the White House never ceases, or even slows down. In a couple of national speeches (thinly veiled white supremacist political rallies) this weekend that only sought to further divide us, the current occupant of the White House assured the American people that 99% of Covid-19 infections are "totally harmless". A direct quote. "Totally harmless". An odd statement, one might characterize it, given that we have 129,000+ dead and 2.874 million confirmed cases. So...if you round the numbers to make them slightly better, we have a death rate of 4.4% of confirmed infections. 4.49% actually (or 4.5% to round it mathematically). To say nothing of the other people who get sick and stay sick for a couple weeks or more, some of whom require hospitalization. So I guess that "99% harmless", compared to the actual number of less than 80% "harmless" is..what?...a rounding error? A$#holery.

So we get white supremacist political rally speeches in lieu of Presidential holiday addresses. And we  get flyover parades of military might that would make the Kremlin and North Korea proud. The only thing missing were the convoys of truck-mounted missile launchers trundling down Pennsylvania Avenue to the accompaniment of goose stepping soldiers. Which, to be accurate, the current occupant of the White House has previously stated his desire for. The tanks and armored vehicles anyway. Fortunately, the mayor of Washington DC didn't want her streets chewed up by tank treads.

We have a self-proclaimed "wartime president" who has surrendered and left the battlefield, leaving us all to fend for ourselves. He can say some of the stupidest and most irresponsible things ever uttered by an American Pre$#. And the public health officials won't call him on it because if they do they will get fired. Which is part of the reason we are where we are.

Pravda over on the Fox News Channel barely even recognizes that Covid-19 exists anymore. I'm sure they have more important things to do, like continue to dig into the critical current issue of Hilary Clinton's email servers, or trying to answer the age-old question "why do Democrats hate America so much?"

Large population states with republican governors, eager to appease this person and toe the party line, ignored the science. Florida. Texas. Arizona. They are now paying the price, setting records for new infections every day. Hospitals are at or nearing capacity. To be fair, there are blue states like California that are also going backwards. People need their SoCal beaches, bars and restaurants in the summer after all. We have freedoms.

The rest of the world must be looking on in horror as we spiral out of control. I would say that they are laughing at us, but pity is probably more accurate. Europe is opening up, but not to Americans. Not that I can blame them.

Almost all states are going backwards at this point. A lot of that is driven by pretty much no states meeting the federal guidelines for reopening, but we are reopening anyway. Or we were until just recently, when more and more states have started clamping down again. It's July. We should be reflecting on all the good things we did to flatten the curve and get this under control. Celebrating the sacrifices we made, and the positive impact they had. Instead, we are looking at another round of shutdowns. We are back where we were in March. Although, to be accurate, we are in worse shape as a country than we were in March. Did we do all that for nothing? The numbers say probably, yeah. We made all the sacrifices and reaped little of the intended longterm benefit. Maybe I'm wrong. I hope I'm wrong.

I get that people are tired of this. I'm tired of this. More than I can express. But this Covid-exhaustion has made us complacent (if you believed that this wasn't a democratic hoax in the first place). I get it. The only social thing I have done since March 12 is to sit on someones's deck one time with 4 other people, wearing masks and seated many feet apart from each other as we discussed what the marching band season might look like in the Fall. This Covid weariness puts us in a bad spot as much as anything.

Ugh.

Happy birthday, America. Land of the free.

Billy Squier...Nobody Knows

YouTube's suggestion algorithms are...scary good? The rathole sucked me in again tonight, but presented me with a gem that I had not listened to, or thought about, in...maybe almost 39 years?

I was doing some work on my laptop this evening, with a few Rangers of Shadow Deep battle report videos playing in the background on the iMac (related to my solo gaming experience last night). Then there was an email that I was thinking about regarding the upcoming (we hope) marching band season. Which reminded me of Ozzie Osbourne's Crazy Train, which the band does a version of after the end of games (lots of teenage screaming and dancing). So I searched for Crazy Train videos and had that playing. For some reason YouTube equated Ozzie Osbourne and Black Sabbath with Billy Squier, which suggested a whole bunch of early 1980's Billy Squier videos, from both the Don't Say No (1981) and Emotions in Motion (1982) albums (which I should note that I have both of on vinyl in the basement...with nothing to play them on).

Without bothering to type it all out, Billy Squier had a lot of great songs in the early 1980's. A lesser known (i.e. not a popular MTV video) song, but probably my favorite song of his was Nobody Knows from Don't Say No (1981).

Don't Say No (1981)

How does YouTube know to suggest this one particular song to me? After watching Ozzie Osbourne videos?

Get out of my head.

Adventures of Erindale - Part 1

With lockdown continuing on...maybe forever...the need to get some sort of gaming in has become more and more top of mind for me. So if all else fails, do it yourself. In other words, play a solo game. I've owned Joseph McCullough's Rangers of Shadow Deep (ROSD) since shortly after it was released and have always wanted to give it a go. There's no time like the present.

ROSD is a solo (or cooperative) miniatures games set in a dark fantasy world where the "Shadow Deep" is encroaching on civilization. You (or several of you) play a Ranger and their band of companions, playing through programmed scenarios to defeat the evil rampant in the world. Each scenario defines the game board setup, objectives, random events, clues that can be found that tie in to the multi-scenario adventure paths, treasures available to be found, and gives basic artificial intelligence on how to control the evil creatures you are fighting against. No matter how many players you have, you are all on the same side fighting against the evil.

I would be remiss to note that ROSD is a different-flavored adaptation of the same game engine that runs McCullough's well-received earlier game Frostgrave (published by Osprey), which pits wizard-led war bands against each other in a player-versus-player version of basically the same game, but in a different fantasy setting (and much more oriented toward magic).

Scenario 1 from the rulebook is called The Deserted Village, and pits a brand new Ranger and his companions against swarms of zombies and giant rats while trying to discover clues as to what happened to the villagers. The initial set up is shown below. [I had so much fun fumbling though this first scenario that I forgot to take any more pictures after this one...]

Game Setup - The Deserted Village

A few notes on the scenario (and the setup). The Ranger and his companions start in the center of the 36" square board, surrounded by zombies and rats. There are a few houses spaced around the board, and 6 clue markers (the white beads, some of which are visible in the picture). The good guys need to collect the clues while surviving the attacks of the bad guys and their reinforcements, which come on every turn in the form of random events. I painted the terrain board. The rest are houses and various other pieces from my collection. The figures at this point are almost exclusively D&D figures from the various WizKids lines, although I have a bunch of new Frostgrave figures that I am assembling and painting specifically for ROSD.

I found the rules to be simple but fun, and made for an enjoyable ~2 hours. If I knew the rules better, this probably would have been played in under an hour. The nice thing about the AI for the enemies, and the randomness of the clues and events, is that by some very simple mechanics, it removed the usual issue in solo gaming of how to play the enemy at least somewhat fairly...

As for my mini-campaign, I created a Ranger named Erindale, named for my earliest Dungeons and Dragons character I can remember (an elven ranger from the AD&D days of the late 1970's). Erindale would be supported by his companions Roderick the guardsman, Volko the archer, Irina the tracker, Thomas the recruit and Ethan "Grayblade" the rogue.

In a very quick recap of this scenario, we took some significant damage early, but then had a good run of luck in the mid- and late game, resulting in a smashing success. Nobody dropped to zero Health, and we achieved all of the scenario goals, getting experience points for those, and also killing a bunch of zombies and rats in the process.

The role playing game aspect of ROSD is that your Ranger gains experience (XP) for things that happen in each scenario, allowing you to "level up" after gaining enough XP. This in turn allows you to improve your stats, skills, etc... Your companions can also improve, but at a much slower rate (they get a point of XP if they survived the scenario without dropping to zero Health, and advance at a different rate). A Ranger or companion that drops to zero Health during the game (i.e. out of play) must roll on a chart to see if they are killed, suffer a long-term wound/effect etc...

Since we had such a successful mission, Erindale will advance from level 0 to level 1, gaining some skill points as a result. I can't wait to play the next (and final) scenario in this two part mini-adventure. Which might happen tonight. Or I might work on some terrain, or paint some figures... There are other adventure paths available after this simple 2-scenario one.

Lastly, if you want to see great examples of what ROSD is about, go to YouTube and search for Guerrilla Miniature Games, then look for his Rangers of Shadow Deep playlist and find this scenario as one of the very first videos listed).

Masks

Americans like to think of ourselves as special, and we certainly have an overly developed sense of superiority. We might be the richest nation on Earth, but sometimes we are just dumb as f#$%.

Masks.

The simplest, most effective way to slow the spread of a pandemic that is devastating our country. If you believe in science. Which apparently many of us do not.

The level of ignorance required to turn a basic public health reality into a political statement is hard to comprehend. For which we have the current occupant of the White House to thank. That person won't wear a mask to set an example. The CDC says wear a mask. The World Health Organization says wear a mask. Pretty much every public health official or medical professional in the entire world says "just wear a mask".

Nope. No can do here in America.

We have rights. We have freedoms. We have liberties. No pesky public health officials can tell us what to do.

So most of us wear masks. Many do not. We have rights after all. Science? Never heard of it...but we're good at Fortnite.

We've made masks a political statement.

Personal freedom. I'm all for that. I'm just not sure how you can reconcile your desire for personal freedoms with the fact that your exercising of your personal freedoms could be killing your family and friends, or your neighbors, or any random person you run into at the grocery store.

Just wear a f#$%ing mask. Please.

A Vindaloo, Chickpeas, Dragons, and Dwarven Halls

It's Covid-19 Day 101 here at home, and it's both (A) a beautiful day, (B) Father's Day, and most importantly by far (C) in the vicinity of Grace's 16th birthday from a blog-posting perspective.

A few weeks ago, I made the Pork Vindaloo recipe from Cover and Bake, by the editors of Cook's Illustrated (I've noted their wide range of books that I own previously - May 7). Today, having a nice leisurely Father's Day ...at home (shockingly)... I needed something to make with some cubed beef stew meat. We all loved the vindaloo recipe, and there's no reason you couldn't swap out the pork and replace it with beef. So that's what's for dinner.

Beef Vindaloo

For a side dish with an Indian recipe, or frankly, any recipe these days, is my modification of a chickpea recipe, which I will post the details of separately for anyone who might be interested in that sort of thing.

Chickpeas with Coconut Milk and Spinach

For Father's Day, I picked out a few miniatures things for myself, and we did curbside pickup from Games Keep in West Chester when we were in the neighborhood to pick up the new Pilot a few days ago. There were 4 large miniatures from the Wizkids unpainted lines, and included a Gargantuan Skeletal Dragon, a Young Red Dragon, a Behir and an Adult Remorhaz. Now I have lots (more) things to paint...

Father's Day minis

From a crafting perspective, I have had the urge to do some EPS foam board crafting, so I have pulled out the Proxon hot wire table and made some more Dungeons and Dragons terrain pieces (modular caverns and passages, as well as some "Dwarven Halls" dungeon tiles). Given that I have all the dungeon tiles I really need (in two color schemes, no less), it made sense to scratch the itch by making a few fancier pieces. A few of these are shown below (work in process), and I'll continue to tweak some of the techniques and colors. Painting red squares onto the piece at upper left in the picture below was way too stark. The very watered down wash on the other pieces looks much better.

Dwarven Halls tiles

Lastly, and most importantly, Grace is now 16. Hard to believe. As with many of her friends who have had birthdays during the quarantine, and mostly Sweet 16s, it totally sucks that she doesn't get a real birthday party surrounded by her friends. We (I) spoil our kids, admittedly. And we would have spoiled her on her Sweet 16th. We do have a few things up our sleeves, and we will make it up to her when things allow. Until then, Happy Birthday, Grace! You bring me joy each and every day.

This and That

...or... A General Update.

If you count from March 13 (Day 1 of self-quarantine for us), it's Day 98 of Covid-19.

It's fair to say that everyone is feeling the strain from staying home for so long (and doing the right thing). I am still working at home full time. Amp is still working three days a week at a Covid-only dialysis clinic. Grace has started working some shifts again at the retirement home she worked at over the last year or so. We are all still healthy, despite having gone through a health scare over the last few weeks. I haven't blogged much because I haven't done much or felt like doing much during that. Blah. But hopefully we are past that and things will get back to our new abnormal normal.

We are still doing the fairly hardcore conscientious self-quarantining thing, despite the fact that our criminally incompetent occupant of the White House no longer seems to recognize that Covid-19 is even a thing. Nothing to see here. Move along please...

We do try to order takeout to support some of our favorite local places which are open again, and place curbside pickup orders where needed from some stores, such as art and craft supplies from Michael's, office products from Staples and some nice-to-have-but-not-necessary D&D unpainted miniatures purchases today from Games Keep in West Chester (a store that I love and want to go out of my way to support). Aside from that sort of thing, we don't go out much.

Along those same lines, and in the hopes that we will play Dungeons and Dragons again either online or eventually in person again at some point, I ordered a bunch of painted D&D minis from my go-to online source, Kings of Light. I love these folks. And with several hundred figures purchased from them, they probably love me too.

D&D minis from Kings of Light

In spite of Covid-19, some facets of normal life continue on in their appointed pace. One of these things is that we are nearing the end of the 3 year lease on our 2017 Honda Pilot. Loving the Pilot, and not being particularly interested in shopping for other things under current conditions, we talked with our salesperson at Scott Honda and told him we just wanted to roll over to a new Pilot with a minimum of physical presence required on our part. In other words, we picked the exact model and exterior/interior color and told him to go find one and do all the paperwork. This was safe enough to do since the only difference between a 2017 and 2020 Pilot is a few minor exterior trim changes (front grill, rear lights and rear bumper), and the addition of lane change warnings and some other electronics as standard.

New 2020 Honda Pilot EX-L

Short summary, we got a great deal, only showed up at the dealership for an hour today to check out the new car and sign papers, and drove home in our brand new Pilot. The process took a week and a half from end to end, with most of that being waiting to get the exact vehicle we wanted brought in from another dealer. As always, I like that Amp and the kids get to spend most of their in-car time in a big heavy tank. This is our 5th Honda lease for Amp's car, and we have now had a dark red Pilot, a dark blue Pilot, a white CRV, and a black Pilot. And now this medium/dark blue Pilot. This one isn't as dark as the very first blue Pilot back in 2008/2009, and is brighter and more metallic in the sunlight. I like it.

Anyway, life continues on (fortunately), and I have gotten back to doing some hobby painting and hobby crafting. That should make for another post in the near future.

Until then, stay safe, and don't listen to the brain-dead morons that are trying to tell you that the virus is "dying out". Look at the numbers. Be smarter than that.

Gaming Plans

After a hiatus of the better part of a year, we had just begun to make plans to revive our role playing gaming, and had played a session or two to get things going again.

Then quarantine happened and everything stopped.

Zoom and Skype and the like have taken over work as well as leisure pastimes, so we are taking baby steps toward seeing what we can do use online technology to enable gaming of some sort. There are a bunch of virtual table top options out there, but I am thinking start very modest. Get a few people together on a Zoom call and play something simple, without the aid of a VTT. For now.

This may or may not end up happening, but in anticipation of it, I have scribbled some map drafts. A borderlands region "beyond the mountains" from a fading kingdom... Semi-wilderness. Rugged terrain. Frontier laws, etc...

Borderlands

And the town of Oren, center of the modest Duchy of the same name. The town is divided into Orenspire, or the more affluent section of town built atop a defensible rocky hill, and Orenlee, the lower (and poorer) section of the town built on the level ground in the lee of the hill.

Orenspire and Orenlee

I have no idea what any of this means at this point; it's just a few rough maps.

I'd like this to be the basis of trying out Index Card RPG from Runehammer Games. It's simple, and I think my players would like it. And it is straightforward enough that I think we could play over a Zoom call without any difficulty.

We shall see...

Junior Year

Having finished her sophomore year this past week, Grace is now technically a Junior. I wonder what her Junior year will look like...

Grace's two main extracurricular activities are the Drama Club and its 2 (or 3) per year musicals, and the marching band.

The Drama Club is scheduled to do The Addams Family in the Fall and Newsies in the Spring. All of that depends on social distancing, what can be done in person, etc... We are hopeful, but...

Thing 1 and Horton the Elephant

As far as the marching band goes, the Hawaii trip this year was canceled and then postponed until next spring. So it should still happen. Maybe. If we are lucky.

The year end marching band banquet this year was replaced by a Zoom call (Monday June 1) where we played videos, had a slide show, honored our seniors, and unveiled next year's show (Western Side Story - a western themed show).

2019-2020 Band

One thing that wasn't included as part of the year end banquet, but which the kids have been clamoring for, is the naming of band leadership positions for next year - drum majors, field majors, section leaders and other positions. Drum majors, of which there are 3, are the student leaders of the band. Field majors, of which there are generally 2, are assistants to the drum majors, and are sort of drum majors in training (at least if they are underclassmen who will be around the next year). Grace was very anxious for these announcements, since she had applied for and gone through the interview process for a field major position. A bunch of people had applied for field major, and I told her just to wait and see what happened, but not to be disappointed if she didn't get it. She was also in consideration for a clarinet section leader position if field major didn't work out. Which I didn't expect that it would. There were a lot of good candidates.

Sophomore Clarinet

Those leadership positions were announced today. We have 3 great drum majors. A wonderful bunch of section leaders. And I am bursting with parental pride to say that Grace is one of two Field Majors for the GVHS 2020-2021 marching band season.

Now I just hope we actually have a 2020-2021 marching band season...

America Burning

America is burning and the current occupant of the White House needed a photo opp. So... tear gas and rubber bullets on peaceful protestors.

I guess First Amendment rights are subjective. God forbid we infringe on anyone's Second Amendment rights, because we all need assault rifles, but the First Amendment.... meh... when it's convenient.

It's astounding to me where we are as a country. And saddening. We are 50+ years after the historic days of the civil rights movement, and this is what we see on the news. Maybe we haven't made any progress at all.

We watch current events on the news. We try to stay informed. And we try to have a meaningful discussion with our kids. Looting is bad. Burning cars is bad. Throwing stuff at the police is bad. Anarchy and chaos is not the answer. Maybe understandable in a way, but not the answer.

But we also make sure that our kids know that every American should be outraged. And we should all protest the racial inequity that still exists. If we aren't in a place to be able to literally join, arm in arm, with our fellow human beings that are actually out there standing in the streets, we should support them. Support them with our voices and more importantly our votes. Not just to make ourselves feel better, but to actually hope to affect a real change.

Every American should support the protestors. Not the burning. Not the looting. But support the peaceful protesters. We Americans like to think of ourselves as great. Because we are a rich people. A dominant military power. For what that's worth. If anything. History will be a more objective judge, and perhaps not so kind.

If we truly want to be great, we need to lead. Lead ourselves toward a future that is better than today. Or sadly, at least keep pace with most of the rest of the world, which seems to be more socially advanced than us.

Most police are good. The story of the Flint Michigan sheriff who laid down his baton and helmet to peacefully march in solidarity with protestors warms my heart and gives me hope for the future. Celebrate the good. Weed out the bad. For the benefit of everyone.

One people.

Change is good. Righteous change is great.

At the most basic level, all people want the same thing. A roof over their head. Food to feed their families and keep them from hunger. Safety from persecution. Protection from living in fear. Shouldn't this be the most very basic thing that we can all agree on?

Let's teach our children in the hopes that their generation will be better than ours.

Senior Sadness and the Little Things

It's quarantine day 64 in our household, and instead of having an end-of-year Drama Club banquet tonight to celebrate this school year, there is a one hour video on YouTube, followed by a Zoom after-party for anyone who wants to join. It's the best that can be done as an alternative to the usual, but just another example of the great many ways that this spring is a very different and disappointing one for our Seniors.

The involvement that Amp and I have with school activities drives this point home very strongly. Amp is the creative head of costumes for the Drama Club, and I am a board member for the Band Parents Association. Amp has been doing costumes for 7 years now, and has known all of these graduating seniors for years. I did some volunteering for the band last year, and had my first year as a board member this year. I've gotten to know the students in the band pretty well. Band camp. Evening practices throughout the fall. Bus rides to away football games. All the games, home and away. Competitions. A multitude of hours spent with these kids for both of us.

Seussical Costumes

The seniors don't get their spring semester as usual, or the Senior Prom, or the various end-of-year activity celebrations, or graduation. Or any of it. It's a shame, and I wish it could be different for them. They are good kids, and like everybody else affected by these world events, they deserve better. I'm sorry, Seniors, and I wish I could tell you that in person.

I suppose the best we can do now as we get through each day is to recognize and appreciate the little things in life. Which I suppose is a good reminder that you should take the time to appreciate the little things in life each day no matter what. This afternoon, while finishing up the week's work at my desk in my home office, I looked out my window and saw the picture below. It's the warmest day of the year thus far (84 degrees at 4pm) and Grace and Ryder were sitting in the grass, basking in the sun. Regardless of what else is going on in the world, this makes me happy.

Grace and Ryder

Please stay safe everyone, and take a moment to think about something you can be thankful for.

Copying Art, and Different Media

As I've been spending all of this time drawing, painting, thinking about drawing, thinking about painting, watching YouTube videos about.....etc, a couple of questions keep lingering at the fringes of my consciousness. The first question is...should I be concentrating on one kind of painting instead of dabbling in oils, acrylics and watercolors? Second, should I be spending less time copying other peoples' work and more time on creating my own original works?

At least at the moment, I think...

Dabbling in a number of different media is an invaluable learning experience. I might end up being better at some things than others. I might end up enjoying some things more than others. But you won't be able to get a feel for that unless you try different things. In that respect, I literally am a middle school or high school student. At this point I am content to immerse myself in as many different media as possible in the expectation that a path forward, at least in the immediate term, will reveal itself. If not, the dabbling continues, which is also fine, and will continue to be valuable.

Oils. I am loving painting in oils. You can blend for days. Literally. They are forgiving in the sense of being correctable while still wet (which again, is for days). There is a richness that you can't get from watercolors or acrylics. They are the classical media if you are into the snob-appeal thing. But they are finicky. And they are the one media that I wouldn't feel comfortable doing on my desk in my office or on the kitchen table. They are messy and complicated. But they are soooooo good.

Acrylics. I alternately love and am immensely frustrated by these. It's great that they dry so quickly from the perspective of adding to your work in layers. But they dry so quickly. You need to know what you are doing and commit, or the moment is gone. Blending is hard. I know there are various mediums and additives that will prolong working time, etc, but I am not that sophisticated yet. Quirky but fun.

Watercolors. Perhaps the most mysterious of the three painting media that I am fiddling with, at least to me. So simple looking. So hard to do well. Perhaps even more so than acrylics, you get one chance to do it right. In my very limited experience, you can fix errors in oils or acrylics, but not so much so in watercolors. Or not at all really. I have to admit watercolors intimidate me more than oils or acrylics. Easy to do kinda OK. Probably the hardest for a beginner to do well.

As for the second question, copying versus original pieces, that's a simpler answer, at least for the moment. I am so early on my learning curve that I just want to try as many techniques and styles as possible. I don't want to spend too much time worrying about composition or other considerations. I just want to practice. Almost everything I do these days is simply an attempt to answer the question "can I do that?"

For now, that's fine. It won't be forever. But it is for now.

Mother's Day and a Painting

Today is Mother's Day, and we had a nice relaxing morning.

While Amp enjoyed coffee in bed catching up on some TV watching, I went into the basement to attempt another rendition of the messy little abstract Provence painting I did in acrylics the other day. About an hour later, I had this little 8 by 10 in oils.

Provence (oils, 8 by 10)

Later in the morning, we had a nice Mother's Day brunch. I made buttermilk biscuits for this first time, which turned out wonderful. I'll have to do that again. The dough came together in the time it took to preheat the oven, and they baked in 10 minutes.

Buttermilk biscuits

Along with the fresh biscuits, I am omelets for everyone. In this case, a ham, mushroom and cheese for Julia.

Mothers Day omelet

For the rest of the day, we'll probably just.....stay around the house.

Happy Mother's Day to everyone out there. Stay safe.

Acrylic Sketching

I'm too far down the road to stop posting anything and everything at this point, no matter how insecure I might be about sharing these, so...

I have done (and posted) some simple impressionistic marker sketches. I wondered after dinner today what the equivalent would be in painting. So I got out some acrylics and a small 8" by 10" canvas and painted the below in about 20 minutes. I used only a #14 (about 1/2 inch) flat brush and a half dozen colors (mostly the 3 primaries and white).

Lavender fields in Provence

This was incredibly fun and freeing, regardless of the quality of the result. (Inspiration photo below - everything brighter...)

Provence...

I need to do more of this. Perhaps on canvas paper pads rather than actual canvases to cut down on the cost, but...

Castello Banfi Progress May 8

This is where this painting is at the moment, and this is where it will probably remain until my Jerry's Artarama order of more Golden Heavy Body acrylic paints arrives.

I am roughing in the midground of the painting, which mainly consists of vineyards and fields in the middle distance. This section isn't done yet, but it gives a better impression of where I am headed than the simple color blocking that it is layered over.

Roughing-in the midground

There is a lot of detail that needs to be added, but it's starting to feel better. Some shading, some highlighting, and more work in the very middle...

Roughing-in Vineyard detail

Getting there. Maybe half done. Maybe a little less than that...