My Sunday Feeling

The same storm that put the kibosh on my plans to play golf Friday night shut down Miracle League yesterday morning as well. This presented me with what NV refers to as a UDOR which is an acronym for Unexpected Day Of Rest. So after reading the paper, I headed down to the gym to run on the treadmill.

I have made no secret of how much I enjoy living in the People's Republic of Hillcrest. One of the reasons I like it over here is because of all the interesting people that seem to abound in the square mileage bordered by War Memorial Golf course, Riverdale, Catholic High and the Arkansas School for the Deaf.

The only other person in the gym when I got there was a local artist named Kevin. Kevin actually supports a family by doing art. And does it well. I got on the treadmill next to him.

"How's it going in the art world?" I asked.

"Oh man," he said. " This latest project is going to kill me."

" Oh yeah?"

He shook his head and winced.

"Big piece. Biggest I've ever done," he said. " Mother Nature. This is how big she's gonna be. Her hands are gonna be 25 feet apart."

He held his hands out to show me the perspective.

"Anyway, last week I did her head."

"Okay."

" Now this isn't a sculpture in the sense of me chipping away at stone. At least not all of her. First I had to build her head out of wire. After that I had to shape her face out of cement. You understand what I'm doing, the process?"

" I do," I said. I did.

"Anyway, they backed the concrete truck up to the frame, pulled out the chute and let her rip. You know how fast they pump that stuff?"

" Not really."

" Let me tell ya, it must be different pumping cement for a construction project that doesn't require a lot of manipulation. It's different for pumping it for an artist!"

"I guess nobody thought of that."

"I guarantee you we didn't because I had to do some fast work with those trowels. I mean, I must've looked like Kevin Scissorhands trying to keep up with all that."



All of a sudden he started doing his best Johnny Depp impersonation, hands flying around, fingers splayed open.

I kind of wished I had seen the real performance.

Maybe I'm wrong but I have my doubts that you're going to overhear many similar conversations in the various gyms in the Central Arkansas Area.

And that's why I like living here. I live a stone's throw from a couple of writers. An actor and screenwriter. He belongs to my gym too but I've never seen him. And any number of artists like my stressed out cement worker.

And that's also why I can't imagine that I will ever leave.



Mea culpa: Not that anybody cares but I want to explain my lack of blogging lately. Quite honestly, I have just simply been swamped at the day job. The last thing I want to do when I come home is look at a computer screen. I hope to be back more regularly once I put a couple of major projects to bed.

But thank you for your continued support of this ministry. I will try to do better.