still life

the Clematis likes cool feet

grown up games

for Dr. Elizabeth Doolittle

Texas Toes

Do you use Wikipedia? It is the “Free Encyclopedia anyone can edit.”

It is said to be more comprehensive than the Encyclopedia Britanica. Any person can contribute new articles or edit existing entries. This New Yorker magazine article will bring you up to speed. Read about backlash of online collectivism at The Edge.org

Now, in the Great Internet People’s Encyclopedia everything is equally important. Like the flag on Mount Everest or even the Moon…I hereby submit and claim addition of… Texas Toes.

Is your big toe the longest on your foot? That is said to be the norm. Do you have “Texas Toes?” Sometimes the second and even third toe is longer. It runs in families. It may be a prehensile holdover from our ape-like past. Good for living in trees. Four hands better than two? There is nothing in Wikipedia about Texas Toes….Yet. -James

Can you play ...Happy Birthday?

first look

hi, sissy

summer acrylic

Asheville, NC

Quirky and laid back, Asheville is not your basic southern, NASCAR-type city. It is an amalgam of art and craft colony, mountain music, and outdoor sports. On Fridays, tribal rhythms emanate from Pritchard Park downtown as folks percuss in unison. Across the street is the old S & W cafeteria dressed in art deco charm.

(click on picture for animation)

late summer

the will of the wind

Young kite...breaks a string

logic and reason will bend

the will of the wind

Dental records

The Infection Control Department ruled that coffee mugs are forbidden in hospitals. “You must use Styrofoam Cups”. Alas, they all look alike. Add creamer. Maybe the shade of brown will identify mine from the next guy’s. Many a time I took a swig of the one closest at hand…too late..ack. it's laced with..sugar.

So, now I have adopted a foolproof method. A forensic approach to the habit. (and why do I need to have a drink in hand all the time anyway? Is this my grown-up version of baby’s thumb or bottle- soothing my way through the day?)

So I have marked my territory... Mine. -James

Arizona scene

Desert dawn, without irrigation

But it's a dry heat

Desert dawn

What motivates you?

I spend about as much time thinking about what needs to be done as doing it. Whether the task is essential, creative, or recreational it is easily put off for later. I make to-do lists…have whole file folders of them. They range from the must do to the would like to do. They are just words on a page but being out in the open is a start. So I decided to make another list...of things that motivate:

• Food and shelter….. have to work. didn’t marry an heiress. The lottery is making someone else well off. I haven’t yet invented the next great thing.
• 6 months same as cash….is the road to ruination paved with easy finance? Doesn’t take long for multiples of $98 a month spread out for a year start to add up. Got to have that new electronic item or lawn furniture.
  
• Avoidance of pain…
  
• Propagation of the species… that’s for the 20 and 30-somethings.
  
• Pursuit of pleasure…I love to listen to mostly old rock and blues while editing pictures. Gave the golf clubs away. Not what I'd call pleasureable.
• Fear the neighbors will complain… the neighborhood has specific rules prohibiting the old washer on the front porch or weeds above waist high. ..hmm maybe that is why some folks live way out in the country.
  
• Fortune…that is for the risk takers.
• Fame? No… I seek the lower profile. The witness protection program looks attractive. If I ever write that book- definitely a pseudonym.
  
  I had to give up balancing the checkbook. (never could quite get around to it) Now, as crabgrass is calling my name...The recycling piles are leaning... The hand tools from the last 5 projects have accumulated on what used to be a workbench. I respond fairly well to the time honored honey-do list. But some times I yearn for something definitive. Tell me what to do next. e.g. “put down the mouse…step away from the computer.” Ouija Board? Not concrete enough. I want a clearer sign. Like, I’m stuck on a corner. I want to know… Walk or Don’t Walk. -James

Summer re-runs

The cooks’s tour of 2005 posts for new friends of FOI

Is someone growing up right before your very eyes?
Does somebody want everything they can’t have?
Secret sales technique revealed here.
Every mother’s nightmare.
It’s a bird, no, It’s a plane…
Do you hear what I hear?
Did you ever keep a diary?

the long dream, 1981