Beers and Sears

At a New Year's Day family gathering at my house, my father-in-law turned to me, and said, "So, when are you going to paint?"

"Paint!? My god," I said, "it's all I want to do but I never find enough time. Do you know what it is like to always want to paint and hardly ever be able to do it?"

That's when he gestured to the door we'd hung a few months ago, but that I'd yet to paint on the inside.

"Oh, that," I said.

I painted the door the next day.

But today I had the chance to color a picture that I sketched in my Moleskine on site at Cantina Dos Amigos in Satellite Beach, here in Florida. I wasn't too crazy about the food, but from our booth we had a great view of the bar and of the bartender and of the couple she was serving. Wonderful place! Who needs good food anyway?

I've been reading so much on all of your blogs about the cold and the snow and the ice and I just can't imagine it myself. So I send a shadow shot your way from sunny Florida for Shadow Shot Sunday so that you can look at it for just a moment, close your eyes, and dream. This seems like some exotic locale, but it was just some palms against a Sears department store. (And no, I'm not trying to be cruel. Consider it a gift.)

My cousin Ellyn, when she visited from Boston several years ago, said I live in paradise. I laughed, but as time has passed I realize that it is true.