Dad's 81st Birthday

Dad and Mom were just going to keep me company as I drove out to see the school where I might be doing a mural. When we got close by, I left them to walk the aisles of a new Lowe's while I went on to the school. After my meeting, we had lunch and then headed toward home. I remembered mentioning that the Witte Museum's current exhibit was about the human genome and that Dad had been interested in seeing it, so we detoured to the Museum. It was a fascinating, interactive exhibit and we pulled every lever, watched every video and turned every crank. We moved on to the permanent exhibit at the Witte and then went outside to see the log cabin exhibit, then over to the Science Treehouse. We raised ourselves up by pulleys, suspended a ball on a stream of air, saw ourselves on a "green screen", Dad sent himself a postcard from an email kiosk, and played with every science plaything they had. Mom and I played soccer indoors with a beach ball. Then we noticed a boy outside riding on a "sky cycle" -a bicycle held to a cable with only a counterweight. I nudged Dad to go ride and he did! I was proud. Then we went for fish and chips and drove through Brackenridge Park til we found a picnic table near the river. After our picnic we noticed the train station was just over the bridge so we bought tickets and popcorn and had a fun ride.

Mom will turn 81 next month. You wonder what this has to do with art? Maybe nothing. But it has a lot to do with this artist. I'm so grateful they live nearby now where we can look after each other and celebrate the passing years, even as they clip by at a dizzying rate.

I'll be painting online tomorrow (Wednesday evening). Hope you'll drop by!