Oh, broken lines are on the road; Leave behind what you know. So down, maybe, it’s cold down. Put your hand on my heart.

  Mainline Florida: Link to Mainline Florida

I am making more use of links: music and visual. Click on them and then you might have a second link to search. Some locations, such as YouTube generate revenue for your "free" viewing by running ads, so be patient. On occasion there is a "skip ad" button. Sometimes it will load and start when you go there, sometimes you need to click on the white arrow in the red box. Moreover, when I can, I attribute sources for photos; unfortunately, some have been passed along several times and I have no idea of the source.

I closed my Instagram page due to the political climate and to protest their political attacks on conservative voices...that’s about all I can do. 

An important note: I work on this blog for one person - ME; I love sharing it with about 60 friends, relatives, and acquaintances in the States and in Europe. 

With this in mind, I hope you enjoy the updates to my art and life as presented in this blog. IF you don't like the political stuff and don't want to receive future blogs just say so, no hard feelings. So far, only  five have taken me up on the offer. With that in mind, remember: Below the Fold below is where lies controversial stuff, if you don't want to go there, stay above.

And now, Ladies and Gentlemen, I present:

Art: I am going to take a break while we entertain guests, about 6 “units” in all over several weeks. We love it. As most know, we have the guest cabana which allows our guests to come-and-go, do their own thing independent of our schedule. 

Before taking the break, I primed some canvases, drafted a couple of ideas, and finished another “what if” piece. For this, I took a larger, 16 x 20” canvas board and tried to translate a thought, or maybe a dream, or whatever. I wanted to make use of the acrylics rather than my usual oil or pastel. And, since I live near the Rauschenberg Gallery; Bob was known for his collage pieces, I wanted to try adding a photo I touched-up.  In a black frame, well, I like it. It stops me when I walk across the room and it invites me to look at this piece I call Quarantine. 

This is another piece I “saw” one day. As I worked on it it evolved, somewhat. I might try another version one day. It is 20 x 16” oil on canvas board. If interested, either piece is $199 plus $20 postage; I’ll let you purchase your own frame, seems like everyone has their own taste/need when it comes to framing. 

Florida:

In the middle of March we took an Edison Ford Estate Directors Tour to four local gardens...I know, some of you still had snow on the ground. I have covered previous tours in prior years. They had to cancel last year’s due to Covid. So:

After assembling over coffee and donuts, we boarded our motor coach and hit The Grubby Thicket hosted by Lars Cain, one house off of the Caloosahatchee. When he purchased the home the lawn was sod. He removed it and began to plant everything he could get to grow. Here is the result.

The next hour was spent at Debbie’s Artsy Garden hosted by Debbie McPhail, whose father moved the family to Fort Myers many, many years ago. He owned an auto dealtership in, I think, Ohio.

The third stop was at Lynn Stewart’s The Garden Gate. In just a couple of years she remodeled the cottage and installed the garden. Her background in retail design and visual merchandising, I believe for American Eagle, came through in her planned garden. Still a work in progress.

The last hour was spent at the home of the Estate President and architect, Mike Flanders. First, he has done a great job designing and expanding a tiny cottage and carport into an attractive, functional home. He loves palms, so that is on what he focused. His wife is an art teacher and you will see her effect on the grounds. The kinetic sculpture was purchased. 

What we do for others:

Greg had a chance to assist at a summer camp while he was in high school. I keep this photo on my desk.

  Dom recently combined a rescue dog mission with his love to fly. He joined another flight club member and transported a dog for the second leg of a mission from Texas to Chicago.

Listening: An interesting story. Many of the actors and actresses in Hallmark movies are multi-talented. Some write, some produce, some direct, one has a “real” job hosting 48 Hours on NBC. Many sing, and this woman, who has appeared in many productions, most known for her role as the police Chief in the Aurora Teagarden mysteries has a great piece. She has not recorded much and it has been infrequent. In the TV shows I have only seen her singing once, singing background and playing an electric keyboard. 

The Link to Hiding Place - there are other versions including an acoustic with video

Reading: I am not an engineer; however, most of this sounds right...

Electricity has to be one of the least efficient ways to power things yet they're being encouraged, even pushed.  Glad somebody finally put engineering and math to paper.

A British Columbia Hydro Executive asked how that renewable thing was doing. He laughed, then got serious.

If you really intend to adopt electric vehicles, you had to face certain realities. For example, a home charging system for a Tesla requires 75 amp service.

The average house is equipped with 100 amp service.

On our small street (approximately 25 homes), the electrical infrastructure would be unable to carry more than three houses with a single Tesla, each.

For even half the homes to have electric vehicles, the system would be wildly over-loaded.

This is the elephant in the room with electric vehicles. Our residential infrastructure cannot bear the load.

So as our elected officials promote this, not only are we being urged to buy these things and replace our reliable, cheap generating systems with expensive, new windmills and solar cells, but we will also have to renovate our entire delivery system.

Eric test drove the Chevy Volt at the invitation of General Motors and he writes, "For four days in a row, the fully charged battery lasted only 25 miles before the Volt switched to the reserve gasoline engine.

 

"Eric calculated the car got 30 mpg including the 25 miles it ran on the battery. So, the range including the 9-gallon gas tank and the 16 kWh battery is approximately 270 miles.

It will take you 4.5 hours to drive 270 miles at 60 mph. Then add 10 hours to charge the battery and you have a total trip time of 14.5 hours. In a typical road trip, your average speed (including charging time) would be 20 mph.

 

According to General Motors, the Volt battery holds 16 kWh of electricity. It takes a full 10 hours to charge a drained battery. 

 

The cost for the electricity to charge the Volt is never mentioned, so I looked up what I pay for electricity. 

I pay approximately (it varies with the amount used and the seasons) $1.16 per kWh. 16 kwh x $1.16 per kWh = $18.56 to charge the battery. 

$18.56 per charge divided by 25 miles = $0.74 per mile to operate the Volt using the battery. 

 

Compare this to a similar size car with a gasoline engine that gets only 32 mpg. $3.19 per gallon divided by 32 Mpg = $0.10 per mile. 

The gasoline-powered car costs about $25,000 while the Volt costs $46,000 plus. So the Canadian Government wants loyal Canadians not to do the math, but simply pay twice as much for a car, that costs more than seven times as much to run, and takes three times longer to drive across the country. 

 

Oh, OBTW, the lithium for the batteries comes mostly from China. Follow the money! And, what do we do with all of the obsolete gas engine cars? And how do you charge-up if you don’t have a garage? Or, what if you are poor person who lives in a run-down neighborhood, that only drives to get groceries of pick up the kids from school? Sure, if you can afford it, and there is an infrastructure, or you and your neighbors want to pay a tax, different from the current gas tax, to upgrade your block to handle the increase grid load...I could go on. Buy one if you want, but don’t make the rest of us do so. It’s like mass transit in NYC vs Hutchinson Ks.

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Humor:

  

 

 

More fun than humor...parents often take advantage of their last name when naming their child. Dusty Rhodes is ubiquitous. So, I am reading the rundowns on this year’s teams in March Madness: “The Spartans’ (MSU) leading scorer, Aaron Henry, has been playing better on of late in averaging 16.5 points per game game.” But, how many home runs?

I Found this Interesting:

Most of us are aware that what happens to us in childhood has a huge effect on who we become as adults. But what if the opposite is also true? What if what doesn’t happen in childhood has an equal, or even greater effect? The absence of emotional support in childhood is as damaging as other traumas. Childhood Emotional Neglect (CEN) is not a form of childhood abuse because it’s subtle and usually unintentional. Rather than a direct act, it is the absence of action. It’s inaction. The result when a parent is disengaged in this way is that a child learns to ignore and hide his feelings from others, even from himself. Children in these homes learn very early in life that emotions are inconvenient and should be dismissed—and they take this mindset with them into their adult lives. 𝗦𝗼 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗱 𝗼𝗳 𝗽𝗮𝗿𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗻𝗲𝗴𝗹𝗲𝗰𝘁𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝗺𝗲𝗲𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗶𝗿 𝗰𝗵𝗶𝗹𝗱’𝘀 𝗻𝗲𝗲𝗱𝘀? - The Bereaved/Depressed Parent: Divorced or Widowed - The Addicted Parent (drugs or alcohol) - The Distracted Parent (workaholic) - The Narcissistic/Achievement-Focused Parent (consumed w child's accomplishments to make parent look good) To LISTEN to this podcast episode, click here! To WATCH this podcast episode, click here!

Copyright © Suzanne Venker, All rights reserved.

******************************************** QUOTE OF THE WEEK  “There are 2 opinion polls in the New Testament: 'Who do the people say that the Son of Man is?' (e.g., Matthew 16:13) and 'Which one do you want me to release to you, Barabbas, or Jesus called Messiah?' (e.g., Matthew 27:17). The mob got it wrong both times.” — @Celticlown ************************************ Below The Fold-------------------------------------Or, as I have learned from your input, Preaching To The Choir vs Unbelievers Enter at your own risk: