Bill_G, retired, affluence of effluent, and errata

[Foggy]

Best thing you can do for a good lawyer is send them more clients.

[bill_g]

Best thing you can do for a good lawyer is send them more clients.

And that's how I found her - by referral from a friend.

!

[bill_g]

Here’s why I felt like I couldn’t take it:

You are an angel in your own right Maybe. I love people who care.

[bill_g]

It's Jan 28th, two months since Mrs passed. I still get a rubber lip thinking about her. I still cry during movies like Fried Green Tomatoes (now available on either Netflix or Prime - can't amember which one). Still digging through all her tubs and boxes of stuff. I did get through probate. The house and her car are mine. BofA will get her checking and savings accounts, but have to absorb the remainder of her credit card debt (about $6000). The estate and tax lawyer I hired did a great job, and I'd recommend her to anyone.

I've invited the kids and other fam damnly over for dinner. Gramma's chicken casserole ala William is the main course. I made enough for eight. The table is cleared off, but gotta clear off the sofa. Gotta neaten the house and push the vacuum around. Bathroom already cleaned. The boxes of stuff I'm giving the kids are ready. I think this will be the first time the kids have been here in two years cuz of covid and Mrs' illnesses. So, they'll get to meet the wheelchair ramp, and all the handrails I put in, and probably other things I changed to accommodate her.

Should be a good afternoon.

[AndyinPA]

[p0rtia]

[Tiredretiredlawyer]

[Slim Cognito]

[Annrc]

[Volkonski]

[Foggy]

Good news, bill.

[bill_g]

Oh boy. I can't do that very often or I'll be in my grave real soon. Our little celebration would make Irish Wakes proud. Minus the alcohol though. Cigarettes, 7-Up, Mountain Dew, coffee, cranberry juice, and a shitload of weed. Eight adults and no one under the age of 40. It was 50F outside. So, we spent equal time between the backporch and indoors.

Boy child #2 brought some of his latest crop and treated us to a tasting the same way a vintner would. Bro #3 brought out his. The two of them put a whole show together. Who knew you could mix this with that and get different flavors and buzzes. Good thing I had dinner in a buffet warmer, and the table was set already.

We got some good laughs going through the photo albums. Revisited old basic training pictures, grade school report cards, hand print turkeys from 2nd grade, baby pictures, road trips no one remembers, trips we did remember, pictures of neighbors whose name we can't agree on, pictures of grampas second and third wives and who liked who better. And stories. Everything triggered a story. The buzz we had made the stories meander, or start tangents that had no relation to the original topic at all.

We facetimed a couple distant younger famdamnly members. We were lit, and they weren't. So they got at laugh at us geezers. They did get to share in some of the stories and pictures ... if we remembered to turn the laptop so they could see. We were not good content providers or producers. Sorry to say.

Overall it was a welcome change.

[AndyinPA]

[bill_g]

Found one of her breaking in the back porch in 2003 after I rebuilt it. It was all sparkly new, and ready for our first sioree.

[AndyinPA]

Nice.

[Tiredretiredlawyer]

Pretty lady.

[bill_g]

Pretty lady.

Nice.

That photo is the first of a series of snaps that caught her gesticulating as she was rebuting someone. The rest of them get out of focus as she bobs about. It's a lost story. It was a famdamnly gathering on the new porch, and smartasses abounded. Someplace around here used to be a picture from that gathering with me buried in a pile of babies. It's probably on a computer that doesn't exist anymore. Haven't seen the picture in a while. We were in mixed mode back then - some real photos from real film cams, and digital pictures from digital cams.

[Slim Cognito]

How lovely, the photo and the stories.

[Annrc]

So pretty. Love your description of the gathering.

[p0rtia]

Thanks for sharing this journey, Bill.

[bill_g]

Since the famdamnly gathering a week ago Sunday, I've done nothing. I kinda liked having a clean house. All the boxes and tubs were stacked back in the third bedroom storeroom, and there they've stayed untouched except to get photos for someone interested in her sewing machines.

I've watched too much teevee, smoked too many cigarettes, and stayed up too late too many days. I'm still on auto-pilot as far as the daily chores are concerned. The kitchen never stacked up with dishes. The bed was made everyday. Garbage emptied. Groceries shopped. And I actually get the roses trimmed back on a dry day. Other than that I fucked off. I turned down the offers of free weed, and kept the drinking down to a single 4oz glass of wine with dinner. That's basic Survival 101, but that's all I'm doing is surviving.

Then I saw Gregg's picture.

Angels come in many forms, and seeing Gregg do a Lazarus spurred me to do something for someone else. That's what I'm good at. That's my super power, or maybe it's my deeply pateralistic bullshit - my messiah complex - but either way it was my signal to steer into the wind. Head for shore. I grabbed some pens, and started drawing him. I posted the image yesterday. I hope he likes it. He can hate it if he wants to. I won't be offended. It was therapy for me, and I'm grateful for it. I did another one last night of our great grand daughter Emily. She is my avatar for today.

Looking at both of them, I can honestly say they are not my best work. They are both people I've never met. I have no emotional attachment to either. So, the finished products don't reflect the deep feelings I had for Barbara when I drew her while sitting beside her for twenty days in November. The energy is different. The inspiration is different. I became a technician and pushed through trying to be faithful to their likenesses while offering a interpretation of them. They are living people I need to care about.

So, this morning I will offer a brief explanation of my process from photo to finished. It always starts with a photo image. I crop the face with plenty of border that will get cropped further towards the end. That gets converted to black and white. Then the background elements are removed, and the result is printed. Now I start inking with multiple size black Sharpies. Clothing becomes broad black strokes. Facial features get highlighted in dots. Hundreds and hundreds of dots. It totally ruins a Sharpie. I keep plenty of fresh ones on hand. That gets scanned in, and brought back to the editor to remove mistakes, remove elements I don't want, and to deepen white areas. That gets printed, and more ink applied. This time I'm filling in with lines blackening areas, and smoothing edges. That gets scanned, edited, corrected, reprinted, and inked multiple times until I'm satisfied with the work. Gregg took three times. Emily took four.

I can see I removed Gregg's cleft chin. I rounded it too much. It was buried in shadow and not apparent to me until this morning. That shadow was one of the elements I removed along with a spider shaped shadow on his neck. Gregg also got a haircut. So did Emily. I figured Gregg had hospital bed hair. Maybe he has a haystack like the former British PM. Hard to say. I combed it and gave him a wave. He has deep orbital sockets, and may have over emphasized them while shaving his eyebrows back. I may have put too much effort into his teeth too. I had one version on the computer where I had removed all the tooth shadows leaving him with a horizontal line represnting his uppers and lowers. I put his teeth back in.

Overall the process is to put as much as I can in, and then start removing things until the image smooths out with invisible lines inferred by the black ink like the right side of his face down to his shoulder. His neck is gone! Where'd it go? Your brain will fill it in. Your brain will finish his nose too. Brains are great. I love messing with them. I want you to see things that aren't there. I want your head to interpret my drawing creating your own image in your mind. What you see is what You See. You are participating in this art.

You will see that progression in the photo I've attached. Enjoy!

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20240208 gregg process.jpg (291.25 KiB) Viewed 211 times

20231225 avi Emily.jpg (5.39 KiB) Viewed 211 times

[p0rtia]

What a precious journey, Bill

[Annrc]

[AndyinPA]

Thank you for sharing that.

[Slim Cognito]

Love. It!!