Today was a nice and relaxing time propped up in bed listening to the hard rain hitting the roof, a florescent lamp providing ample light and a stack of books waiting to be read. In preparation I had three full water bottles ready in case I got dry. Nice ambient music played unobtrusively and never in competition with the sound of the rain. Read from the "Scott County Diaries," a very old and water damaged book that my oldest brother gave me. I've read this book before. It's about my ancestors on my mother's side and has some great stories. There is one tale that I remember hearing when I was young and laying on a porch swing as all the grown-ups reminisced during a family reunion. It's the story of a Great Great Aunt named Ruth who was about to be raped by a soldier during the Civil War, he came after her up the stairs and he didn't realize that she held a hatchet behind her back. His head rolled down the stairs. My family has had some amazing stories. There are so many frightening events that happened, so many adventures, some funny, some sad, that if they were all written down it would come across like it was from some Hillbilly Stephen King. Never really got around to finishing any of the other books because of all the rain and what I was drinking and that constant need to go the bathroom and relieve myself made it too difficult to sit for any length of time and get involved in the story without being interrupted.
 
Attempted to record another podcast, but my computer crashed again. My friend Steve talked me through updating my operating system to the highest version possible and it worked great until I was downloading newer versions of my applications and I think I overworked my poor little machine. Had to start all over again. Couldn't get my new one terabyte external hard drive to work properly, so I took it back for a refund. Soon I will need to bite the bullet and get a new machine or have to learn to do without. Have been going through old boxes and found some artwork that I had done maybe 10 or 15 years ago. The colorful piece you see above is one of a series I sold to a restaurant in Texas. When I got my cash back from the hard drive I walked past the aisle containing art supplies and it made me pause and think that maybe I should buy some canvas and paints.
 
Seems like it might be fun getting my fingers wet with paint again!