I ask you. "What is Art anyways?"

   My wife and I attended the Bienial at the Whitney Museum in Manhattan a few years back. Sounds kinda toney right? It's fun to put on a hipster costume and wander around like you know something. The fact is you do! You know what you like.
    In the middle of a white room there was a pile of , get this,   lard. It had been there a while. We're still at the Whitney,  you dig?  Some clear juice was oozing out from the pile on to the surrounding floor. I've been to a lot of museum and gallery shows before and since. I'm here to tell you, a pile of lard sticks with you.
   I had a neighbor once,  throw a actual tub of lard out a third floor window to see what it would look like when it hit the sidewalk.
   Tomorrow, Fun with Clay.

Older Maple Tree Diagnosed with Embarassing Affliction.

  Certain words we never like to hear together. Flat and broke. Small and mind. Ignorant and tool.  I won't go on.  Bed and bug. If you are a maple tree in your golden years, crotch and rot are two of those words. If your maples are in their late fifties, you need to have a peak at their crotches. Trees which weren't pruned as vigorously as perhaps was necessary can develop a deep and rot prone crotch.
   There is hope. Clear the organic matter and chisel out as much rot as you can access. Facilitate drying as is possible. Forget the hair dryer. I tried it, so you won't have to. An industrial heat gun will help. A week or so of nice hot, dry weather is best. Fill that crotch with concrete and trowel it off so it will drain.( I mentioned this in a face book post last year and some of you snickered.)
   Crotch rot. There, I said it. It's no joke.

Looking for Adventure.

   Look near, not far. Cleaning out your garage, if done with panache can be all  Indiana Jones. Don't throw anything with an electrical plug away without first taking it apart. You either try to fix it or at least you see how it works. Put it back together, plug it in and see what happens.
   Isn't that what adventure is? Doing something without knowing the outcome. (Remember Dave's Don'ts. 1/4/11) Some stuff is just plain ignorant. But putting a tool or home appliance back into to service when most hope had been lost, is a rip. Likewise, the "whoah daddy"  moment just before an electrical fire and the realization that even with your best shot, that saw ain't never gonna work again.
   Have fun, but keep a fire extinquisher handy.

Naughty Flower.

  There's a path on a perfectly landscaped estate. Gardeners and laborers have been engaged to attend to every detail of the grounds. A grand event is planned. Right in the middle of a manicured path, a renegade flower has avoided the attention of all, except for a small child, who stops and addresses the flower directly. "Naughty flower" she says sternly.
   You might say, "C'mon Smoothstar, why you dishing up this corn?" Stay with me here. It's a blue,  rainy ass monday. Let's have our cold, cynical hearts warmed a bit. Let's all be naughty flowers today and grow strong and beautiful, where we shouldn't be growing at all.
    Tomorrow . Lawn Care For The Lazy.

Ship Shape

    After  a long winter, your home may be a wreck. Most weekends over the last few months, all some folks can do is hole up, watch TV, gain weight and get blue. It's natural, don't sweat it. A few warm days and some brisk raking and straightening up will have you whistling a new and happier tune in no time.
     Smoothstar sez, "Above all, don't overdo it." The temptation is to make a great big list on friday. Fix your muffler, rototill , get the motorbike out, go fishing, plant your peas, build a bee hive and so on and on. It's one weekend man, it's not the rest of your life. Nothing is worse than a blue monday with the long undone list, and the sad thoughts of  "I'm worthless".
  I'm going to hold my face up to the sun, walk the dog,  take a nap. That's a list.

Make It a Habit.

    Have you ever finished doing something and said, " Whoah , I'll never do that again."? Of course you have, and hopefully, at least a few times, followed your own advice. The other side of that coin is, you do something and you like it it quite a bit and keep right on doing it , on a regular basis. Hopefully, its something like good deeds or vigorous excersize and not beating your head against a wall or drinking a quart of gin a day.
    We all want to get good at what we do. I, for one have the disadvantage of being bone lazy. Let's look at what our habits are. We know the difference between good and bad.
   A hearty breakfast. Good.  A daily blog?  Eh, who knows?

Hats On Our Minds.

   The other day my wife asked me," Does this hat make my head look big?" I said no , but it really did. It was one of those trucker's gimme caps. They make everyone's head look big. That's why we like 'em.      
   When we are looking for a mate, we are geneticly programed to be attracted to a person with  big brains. The truckers cap is sorta like the wonder bra. It just takes what God gave you and presents it in an extra special way.
   I won't go on and on today. Hats are fun. What would your co-workers think if you showed up at the office today wearing a fez or a pith helmet?  Go  a"head", find out.