Updates on things, and various goings on.

I have once again picked up my shelved Ninja Turtle sculpture, and begun the process of smoothing out the torso, legs and arms. He still needs hands, feet and a head. Those I will tackle some point soonish. Then I’ll need to start adding skin texture and details to the underbody, and skin. I have a tin foil base set aside for the shell portion. I have a lot of fitment challenges going on with the shell that will need some looking after. I suppose that once I get the shell in a good state I can begin to add the layers of clothing, pads and armor the Turtles are known for. If I don’t muck it up, it could be one of my better turtle sculpts. At least this one will get painted, so that’s an added bonus, at least to me it is.

I picked up The Grapes of Wrath a month or two ago, and finally started to read that. Which is interesting. I’m only three chapters in, so I don’t have much of an opinion either way about it. I also bought a Carl Sagan book, the haunted something or other. I look forward to that book too. I think I might attempt to read some other older classics, if I can muscle it. Like Moby Dick, and War & Peace. That sort of thing. I shied away from tougher reading in my youth, and now I wonder if I missed out on something deeper in literature. Hard to tell. It could just be a long depressing slog that I’ll give up after forty pages. Don’t know until I try.

Haven’t had a chance to grab any raw materials for furniture projects. But I do have a line on one or two less expensive bass guitars. I play a six string guitar, and have always wanted to tool around on a bass. So enough waiting on dreaming, I’m going to get an inexpensive one, so that I can learn new parts to favourite songs. I’m not concerned with being good, but enjoying the doing of it. I’m no piano virtuoso, but I like to play snippets, and learn new riffs. To hell with being good! I like to do things for the fun of it! I kinds want to get a scaled down drum kit, but that could be a leap too far, you know what I mean. Loud, large and kind of annoying when the kids have at it. But should they choose to take up an instrument in their teens because of the exposure to how great live music is, then that’s a huge win for intrinsic value added to their lives. Might have to take the family on an extra vacation funded by my reports to sweet talk them all into letting me bring a full drum kit into the house. I do have a lot of hobbies already. We’ll see how the bass guitar goes over first huh? Yeah.

I definitely have my childrens book on my mind as of late. It’s all written, no issue there. It’s coming down to my lack of illustration chops after years of sitting unused. My pencil skills have diminished greatly. No duh! Use it or lose it! So, I’m trying something a little different with digital painting for my book. Rough going. But I’ve gotta be 70% done the project as a whole. I may need to put a hold on it until I can no longer work outdoors. Seems a shame to put furniture building down to paint on my computer when furniture building has a hard cut off date in early December. Decisions decisions….

In the next two weeks I’ll have to start a massive clean up effort for our poor neglected house. It will cheer me up, and make me feel less anxious in the space. Back to my regular domestic duties Monday/Tuesday schedule. Oh boy! Ciao Bella!