Pebbles Update

Today pebbles went back to the vet for a follow-up appointment.

Despite everything, she has only gained 1/10th of a pound which is bad.

This is a very Pebble-thing to do.

I thought she had gained more; she sure feels more solid but that scale doesn't lie.

I could have gone to Europe on the amount of money I have spent on this cat.

And Pebbles is VERY difficult to live with.

No other cat has stressed me as much as Pebbles has, consistently over the last 13 years.

I'm at the end of my rope with it.

I'm at the end of my stress limit, I'm definitely past the end of my financial willingness.

Especially since IT DIDNT EVEN HELP.

I'll get an update on Saturday.

*******

A guy came into the vet office while I was waiting.

And I was waiting for a long time because the office was running behind.

It's normal for people in the waiting room to talk to each other but this guy was something else, and he immediately hit my radar in a bad way.

He has a calico cat.

Who is the "only calico cat on the planet with perfectly spaced colors like this" because Howard Stern's wife told him so.

The guy was absolutely completely unhinged. 

Fantastical bragging, fantastical drama about his life, WAY oversharing with complete strangers, WOULD NOT SHUT UP about himself. Also he was a college professor since 17 years old, has a computer science AND a martial arts background, was born with "hypersensitivity" whatever the fuck that is (probably schizophrenia), has had dramatic near-death experiences a few times etc etc etc.......

I closed my eyes and pretended to nap so he would not engage with me.

I had to hear his dumb stories twice, and they kept getting weirder and weirder.

He spoke like a narcissistic schizophrenic weirdo who wanted to just talk fantastical shit about how special and divine they are and the great dramatic depths of their suffering that no one else can possibly relate to.  

Awful.

More Wildlife Refuge Painting

Tonight we have nice weather, so I went down to the wildlife refuge to do a painting.

It was very serene and peaceful.

8x10 oil, always thinking about irregularly-spaced horizontal intervals.

Princess Nubbytail

Tonight I finally finished that painting that got interrupted.

This is Aimee's foster kitty. Her real name is Velma but she has a short nubby tail so I renamed her Princess Nubbytail and it stuck.

This painting was a bit of a haul and it didn't come together until the final 10 minutes.

Sometimes that happens.

Princess Nubbytail, 9x12 oil

I used Jennifer Gennari's palette, complete with Lead White.

Boathouse CPR

It's that time of year again, and I am up for my CPR certification renewal for the boathouse.

I have to keep a current certification because I am a keyholder.

The class is a fun one; Warren teaches it at several boathouses in the area.

I got to be injured, stabilize injuries, and pass out.

And I had 2 green lights on my CPR dummy for the whole 2 minutes!

I am so ready for the season to start...I can't wait to get on the water!

Candle

Sometimes we all need a little divine assistance, protection, and blessing.

Rockaway Sunset Painting

I went to the beach after work to paint.

The plan was 2 paintings... a regular seascape and then a sunset painting.

First painting, 8x10 oil:

And the second painting, 6x8 oil:

The colors over the water weren't that great... then I looked behind me...!!!

Oh well, lesson learned, next time!

Stranger Things on Broadway

There is a new Stranger Things play on Broadway.

Grace had an extra ticket and asked me to go with her.

It's a good play...the staging is incredible, so is the acting.  The story is..... mostly good.

It could have been a half hour shorter.

The end was fantastic, it got a standing ovation.

It'll do well on Broadway, I think.

Despite the play REALLY not being for children, the people behind us brought their child and it was annoying and distracting.

If you are in town and are thinking of seeing it you should.

When I got home there was an AMAZING gift in my mailbox from Dru:

Thanks Dru!!

Rockaway Wave Study

Today is my last egg tempera class until september.  

Last week I was ready to start something new, but I didn't want to do a long painting so I pulled reference from Far Rockaway from last September and did this little wave study.

Doug gave excellent advice and I learned a lot.

5x7 egg tempera, features a lot of cobalt green.

Canada Goose & Don't Jump LOL

Finally, a Saturday with good weather... today was time to test out my new hybrid hiking/painting day pack.

It works great.

I went back over the GW Bridge into Fort Lee Park, but this time I did not go down those death-stairs.

There were people at the Don't Jump LOL rock, so I hiked further on to see what I could find.

There was another overlook with a single Canada Goose sunning itself on the rocks.  He was there the whole time I was, and I decided to paint him.

6x8 oil

After hanging out with the goose I hiked back to check out the Dont Jump LOL rock.

I did paint it, but I also had to deal with people staying for a while.

6x8 oil

Back over the bridge....

And back to Sharon's to take care of the cats.

Matzo-Stealing Cats!

Tonight I arrived at Sharon's to find my box of matzos on the floor.

Hmmm....

Nala was far away from the situation and was being overly cute, which is definitely a sign of guilt.

I went to pick up the box and discovered..........

Oh my god they got to my whole box!!!

I know it was Nala.

She was trying to steal them last night too, but what kind of cat goes nuts for matzo???

Luckily the grocery store is right across the street so I went and got new matzos.

Harry sniffed a bit but wasn't too interested.

I know he helped Nala in her crime though.

I texted my friends and...THEY ALREADY KNEW THEIR CAT STEALS MATZOS!

They were not surprised at all.

The Theoretical Cleaning Day

Today was a season-prep boathouse cleaning day.

It is cold and rainy and miserable outside.

I got to the boathouse around 11.

Sara was there too.

Sam brings food to the boathouse but he really shouldn't, it's off-off-off brand food (usually in Hebrew) that he gets from stores that can't sell it anymore, usually because it is expired.

Sara and I went through the newest drop-off and threw it all out after finding unmistakable signs of rodent visitors.

I said to Martin, "Martin the rats have been in this food!"

He came over to look and replied, "That's a mouse!"

Like that's any better.

BBQ flavored doritos look gross in any language, whether or not they are expired.

The rats/mice disagree.

Andrew and Frankie are building a jousting platform that fits over 2 singles.

I think this is a fantastic idea.

Andrew asked me if I would be the sponsor, to which I replied "Absolutely yes!"

I'm not really sure what I have to do as the sponsor, aside from proclaiming I am the proud sponsor, which I am glad to do.

Then the water cooler- which is empty and no one is using right now- started beeping so Martin found a probably-20-year-old hair dryer and started drying the water cooler with it.

I said "Martin that old hair dryer is going to overheat and explode..."

Martin replied "... that's ok it has a circuit breaker."

At this point I needed to do a sanity check on myself.

I said to Sara and Boathouse Grace (not NJ Grace), "Can someone please confirm reality?

Because what is happening on this "cleaning day" is that the boys are building a jousting platform and Martin is drying the water cooler with a very old hair dryer."

They both confirmed that summed it up accurately.

Sara found a bunch of safety inspection stickers from last year. I took some and have put them on my Belly River and Blackfoot boxes.

I'll have to find the 2025 ones so I won't be expired, but these will do for now.

**********

Tonight I start cat sitting for a week for Sharon.

My cats won't like that I will be gone overnights but they will have to deal.