just a color dream…
It’s an out there, 99%-sure-it’s-never-going-to-happen dream but it would be cool if one day some kid (or adult) somewhere colors something frank page blue. So far, it’s just been me. #dream #frankpageblue
On approaching work…everything
It’s all about the work.
Middle age is odd. On the one hand, you’ve amassed an archive of life experience from which to draw upon for your work. Any problem that you face can be kinda sorta dealt with based on prior experience. On the other hand, you also realize that you know absolutely nothing. The new is too new and too exhausting to keep up with. You make a valiant effort to try and keep up but the pace seems to get quicker and quicker… even if it’s not changing.
The pace hasn’t changed, you’ve changed. And sooner than you think, there’s more behind you than there’s ahead of you.
I say there are things that I’m not going to do. I say there are things that I’m definitely going to do. If I manage to get 50% of any of it done that’s a win, right?
I’ve been struggling with the strip lately. This also accounts for my lack of posts. That struggle is nothing new. Do something for 15 years and you’re bound to have a few off days. Maybe the thought of the 5,000th strip approaching intimidated me. I don’t know. Lately, the off days have stretched into off weeks. It genuinely scares me. I can’t do the thing that I do as easily as I once was able to. But, I’m still in the game…. and I’m still drawing. Below average work is still better than avoiding work altogether.
I think about the baseball player Ichiro Suzuki. He’s played professional baseball in Japan and the U.S. since 1992. I only became aware of him when he was traded to the NY Yankees in 2012. He wasn’t a home run hitting guy, he wasn’t flashy, he was just Ichiro. He got on base with singles. Sure, he’d knock one out here and there, but he was clutch when the team needed clutch. He would do the exact same stretch routine every time he got in the batter’s box. He had a weird swing that worked for him. AND, he could field like a teenager. Even if he struck out, I really looked forward to his at-bats. He was professional, reserved and just awesome.
He was traded to the Miami Marlins, at the age of 41, at the beginning of 2015. He’s still playing today. He may not get as many at-bats anymore, but he’s still important. he’s still relevant. From the Miami Herald:
As the iconic outfielder for the Marlins prepares to embark on his 25th season in professional baseball — the past 16 of them in the U.S. majors — Ichiro is an enigma.
At 43, he is the oldest position player in the majors. Only Braves pitcher Bartolo Colon — 51 days his senior — is older among active players. And yet there is no sign of quit in him.
He said he wants to continue playing until he’s 50.
“I’m not joking when I say it,” Ichiro said.
“Physically, unless you have some kind of injury, you don’t really need a break,” Ichiro said of his relentless work ethic. “I think mentally you sometimes need a break. But for me, my body is built so that if I don’t work out, that’s when I put more stress on my body and get more tired.
He still puts in the work. Even if his role on the teams has been diminished, that’s no excuse to stop working.
Don’t get me wrong, I’ve learned to LOVE the work. If my daily routine (and I mean DAILY…no off days, weekends or holidays) is disrupted in some way I make it up. If the struggle is too much, maybe I need to change the work out. So that’s where I am now… looking for a way to change the workout and in turn helping the work. Fine tuning it and making it just as good or BETTER than anything I’ve done.
It’s still exciting to me. Not many people can say that about something they’ve done religiously for a decade and a half.
To my wife on our anniversary…
To my wife… on our wedding anniversary:
You’re the best thing that has ever, or will ever happen to me.
You’re a pain in the ass.
You’re caring.
You’re frustrating.
You’re kind.
You’re demanding.
You’re beautiful.
You’re stubborn.
You’re perfect.
You don’t know(or refuse to accept) how beautiful you are. You just doesn’t believe it. That only makes me tell you more. You not thinking you’re beautiful just makes you more beautiful… and a tad frustrating for me. I want you to see what I see, but at the same time I want to keep what I see all to myself. I’m kidding myself though… because anyone who spends a moment with you will know what I get to spend a lifetime with.
I appreciate every moment. Even the moments you asks me to take the garbage out or clean up the dog puke. It may not be immediately apparent, but there’s appreciation there.
We are the definition of opposites. And that’s fine. You probably never thought she’s fall in love with a dude who still has the Voltron action figure he got on his 9th birthday. A man that lives for 1970’s funk music, silent comedies, the early space program and Hootie and the Blowfish. A man that paints clouds on the shed… and the garage door, and the garage wall, and the fence, and the gate and the ceilings. A man who buys light sabers, eats gummy worms by the bucket, drinks diet soda by the gallon and whose best friend is an imaginary talking squirrel.
You once told me you went for the weird ones. I’m not sure who you’re talking about but obviously you didn’t mean me. 🙂
It’s taken me two years to finally get comfortable calling you my wife. Not because I didn’t want to… but because I still couldn’t believe it was true. It is true. Boy, is it true.
There’s a big difference between love and romance. Romance is great and wonderful but it’s like the petals of a sunflower. You nurture the plant for weeks in anticipation of seeing the bright yellow petals reach for the sky. They bloom and stay for a while, but eventually wither and fall away… leaving the sunflower seeds behind. Those seeds are love. Love is planted and grows and grows… building off of each season… always there, always providing, always replenishing. Without love, there is no romance.
Love is working at your drawing board all evening and you bringing a brownie… just because. To be fair that brownie was accompanied by an order form for Lauren’s 2017 yearbook. But the brownie was good. Really good.
You know me and I know you. I’m lucky. We’re lucky. Very lucky.
Happy anniversary sweetheart. I love you more than you know.
Thanks for the brownie.
a new character?
For those of you new to the squirrel scene, you need to know this: we grow sunflowers. They’re kind of our thing… and not just because squirrels love them. We love them. It was the primary flower in our wedding. Last year I planted a ton… thinking that nature would cull most of them. We got a ton. It was great.
This year, I selectively planted here and there. So far we’ve done okay. This year’s crop is grown from last year’s crop.
Last night, I noticed we have new livestock on our tiny farm. Ladybugs. Lots of ladybugs. They especially love the yet-to-flower sunflowers. So, don’t be surprised if a new diminutive, yet sassy character makes an appearance in a future strip.