Friday, March 18, 2011

Illustration Friday - Cultivate

Dry Creek Vinyard by danguerra444
Dry Creek Vinyard a photo by danguerra444 on Flickr.

Grapes are cultivated in the Sonoma and Napa Valleys, one of my favorite places on Earth.

Friday, March 4, 2011

How ya Doing Dean?

I've been volunteering at the library for over 6 months now and I'm pleased to say I still enjoy it. Maybe it's the atmosphere of being among all those books. Just walking up and down the aisles with all those volumes just aching to be read...and I do, I pluck one off the shelf and try not to get lost in it...
And the people there are very nice. The senior librarians are mostly older ladies who would pretty much fit the description of 'librarian' with the cashmere sweater draped over their shoulders and the horn-rimmed glasses they peer over. One of them is a dead-ringer for Miss Hathaway of 'Beverly Hillbillies' fame, right down to the voice and mannerisms.
And they give me a warm hello when I come in. Though for some reason, one of them calls me 'Dean'...which is no big deal, but after six months it's become a comical dilemma. I'm dreading the day when she learns she's been calling me by the wrong name all this time...and it doesn't help that I answer to Dean.
"How ya doin' Dean! stayin' outta trouble?"
"Oh hi Joan! yeah I'm always outta trouble."
"Haha!"
So it's probably too late to say, "Oh by the way, it's Dan, not Dean." I should have said that way back when. And it's odd that others call me Dan within earshot of Joan, but I guess her attention is focused elsewhere. I worry that she'll be utterly embarrassed and maybe even mad when she finds out I'm Dan, that I didn't correct her sooner. But there came a point of no return after I just started answering to 'Dean'...
Actually, I'm prepared for the eventuality...I'll just shrug and say something like, "Oh it's close enough, it's just an extra E." And that will be that, I hope...because after six months it may be hard to start calling someone by a different name, and answering to it for that matter. But until that day comes, 'Dean' it is...

Illustration Friday - Warning

0robot by danguerra444
0robot a photo by danguerra444 on Flickr.
"Warning! Warning! You are already 97 astro-degrees off course Dr. Smith!"
"Silence! you cackling cacophony..."