A Break in the Nasty Weather

Yesterday I managed to get out on my bike for a couple of hours. It was almost 60 degrees out, and mostly sunny. It felt really good.

The roadside ditches and areas between plowed fields are all turning green. There are baby cows out in the fields. I had a lovely time riding along, except that I involuntarily swallowed the biggest bug I've ever managed to catch in my mouth. It was disgusting. (I briefly considered getting off my bike and hurling.)

Also, oddly, on one particular section of the road, I was spinning along and suddenly I smelled puppy. You know that smell? There is no other way to describe it. Well, there it was permeating the air on a little empty road between empty fields. There was nothing unusual in sight. Not a bog or something that might make a peculiar smell. Also, no puppies. It was very confusing. When I turned around and passed the same area on my way back, I smelled it again. I slowed down and sniffed the air. It was puppy, through and through, and I have absolutely no explanation.

It stormed in the night and is supposed to drop into the 40's this afternoon. Grrr.

Confessions of Foolery

First of all, I would sincerely like to thank those who responded via comments and emails with kind words for my tattoo. I am particularly grateful to Judith, who was indeed my inspiration, if not quite in the way I may have construed in my last post, and who's timely comment also made my story just that much more credible so those who may have been inclined to doubt, doubted less.

Next, I would like to thank Laurel, for seeing through me but then whole-heartedly embracing the scheme and extending it via a print-out to those I can't reach from here in Iowa.

Also, thanks to friends who reminded me how well you do know me. As Liz said, "P.S. Not buying the tattoo story... I simply can't see you writing "the very vessel of my being - my body." with a straight face."

In the same vein, I would like to apologize to those of you who don't know me well enough to be acquainted with the perversity of my nature that would cause me to do something like this as an April fool's joke.

And, I would finally like to note that my big brother (with the help of my immediate family), as ever, one upped me in the end. "It turns out that I beat you to it! ...a modest geometric Polynesian band done around the middle section of my left thigh... I wasn't actually planning on showing it to (our parents), but now that we both have work done perhaps I will!"

Obviously, I learned from the best.

For anyone who is still confused, the truth is no one in the family as yet sports any permanent marks on the body from anything other than scarring. Clearly, one should be careful of anything a Stephen says on April Fool's Day.

And also, Brian doesn't have a tattoo fetish either.

Ink

As some of you know, I've been considering a tattoo for quite some time. A number of factors have deterred me from ever actually following through with these thoughts. One was the simple fact that tattoos are a fad right now and I don't like doing anything that smacks blatantly of mainstream. The other is that I've never had enough faith in the fortitude of my own personal taste to want to permanently affix an image to my body.

But lately I've been going through a few changes in my life. With these changes comes a certain need to have faith in myself. I realized that I can express myself via a fad by interpreting it my own way, and also that I have loved art and making art for so long it seems only logical to extend this love to the very vessel of my being - my body.

Other inspiring factors - the tattoos my new friend Judith is having done on her back (and her useful knowledge of all things tatoo). Also, Brian confessed he's always had a secret tattoo fetish.

Anyway, with this new spring season, I decided to do it. I took quite a while designing and talking to people about who the best artist would be for me. And then I did it. It hurt and took a long time and all that, but I am pleased to say it looks mostly like I envisioned, and I've started to love it.

Here's a photo. I might extend the linework and add colors later, but I'm staying pretty basic for now.

Feel free to tell me what you think.