Getting Paid What You're Worth

Our city has a few gems in its special places to visit. The Haggin Museum in Victory Park is one of them. It is Stockton's record of local history, but equally emphasizes quintessential artwork. The currently featured exhibit is a large collection of National Park plein-air paintings, not a few crafted by locals like Gil Dellinger and Ray Roberts.


Over a dozen Plein-Air Painters of America were invited to paint and sell their work this last Saturday. They set up their tripods, tables and easels in and around the museum to capture their versions of the grounds and exhibits. Each participant seemed to enjoy talking to inquisitive purveyors while plying their trade. All the works would be sold around noon.


It was amazing to see real artists at work, transforming a blank canvas or piece of paper into a treasured art piece while you watched. Their years of practice made it look too easy, like anyone could do it. Yeah, right.


Doing something well means doing something often. After 40 years of running machines, I probably make it look pretty easy, too. All of us are artists in our own right when it comes to doing stuff. Do you do a great job mowing the lawn? You're an artist. Is your kitchen immaculate after you clean it up? You're an artist!



Unfortunately, we just don't get paid the per hour wages these oil and pastel people get. Some were asking over $2000 for a little 8x10 with a $2 frame that only took two hours to finish! Yes, that's $1000 per hour --- a little more than you're making cleaning that bathroom!

But money isn't everything. It's the knowledge that you're doing a job well that pays the most. If someone doesn't want to pay what you're worth, that's their problem!

Check out the morning's pictures here

Go Carts on Moss Avenue

Back in the day, you used to actually make your own personal flying machine. But this one came with four wheels that never got off the ground. We creatively attached them to a slotted 2x4 with a big hole in the middle for a shiney new bolt (or an old one if you were poor like us). This front axle would sport a rope rein and swivel perfectly. You had to count on it to steer you away from any deadly obstacles. Of course, if you ran into something solid like a curb or car, the warranty would be voided immediately.

Wheels and axles were cannibalized from old doll buggies or beat up wagons. The floorboard and sides were made from just about anything that was 12" wide, flat, and could be nailed together. Any opened pint of paint was enough to add class to your custom cruiser, but most of us couldn't wait for the paint to dry before that first run and opted for that natural look.

Paso Robles was the perfect town to test drive your newly designed go-cart. Plenty of hills and little traffic assured hours of pain-free racing. And when the cart-bug bit a whole neighborhood, it was race time on Moss Avenue!

Move over, Jeff Gordon!

Avila Beach in the 1930's

My father, Don Skinner, grew up off of South Broad Street in San Luis Obispo. Born in 1921 to a hard-working Union Oil man from Templeton and a doting mother from Tennessee, he and his younger sister, Margaret, would become part of the greatest generation of kids who experienced relative innocence before the horrors of WWII re-defined their view of the world.


Avila Beach in the 30's offered a great getaway from the somewhat bustling burg of SLO. Picnics, swimming, trying to get a suntan and people-watching were the main fare. Take your best friend and just have fun --- all encouraged, financed and supervised by your parents. I doubt if he enjoyed that last point as he entered the hormone crazed teen years.




Dad was a great model builder, trumpet player, Boy Scout, swimmer and track star. Oh, then there was the lady's man image that I don't need to detail.


















And all of this brings me to the real reason for this blog. I need your help in identifying the homemade board stuck in the sand behind my dad. The year is probably 1938 since Grumpy was a big screen star that year. Was this board used to ride the waves or water-skim on the shore? I really doubt it was used for surfing as most boards at that time were extremely long and heavy. [But later research information from the SLO Tribune's David Middlecamp has debunked this ignorant theory! Thanks, David]

Gary Lynch has told me this much about it: "It is a very common design/shape seen on the beaches of So Cal starting approximately after the turn of the last century (1900). It is a take off of early Hawaiian shapes and used in abundant numbers both in private ownership and rental concessions at many of the most visited beaches in So Cal and other areas of the USA." Gary lives in Templeton and is the author of Tom Blake: The Uncommon Journey of a Pioneer Waterman.

Tom Wegener Surfboards website labels this board style as a Hawaiian Alaia. Yes, it is still used on the waves!


You could also share any vintage beach and surfing stories, pictures and SLO area trivia for my readers. Thanks!

Sunday Sermon

There's a powerful passage in St. Paul's letter to the church in Rome that says something I used to vehemently deny. "For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness supress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse." Romans 1:18-20

My reason had been disabled by my unwillingness to admit (and therefore acknowledge and listen to) the existence of God. Paul goes on to say, "they exchanged the truth about God for a lie" in verse 23. For me, truth was something I was making up for myself along the way, like, "If it feels good, do it," and "If it doesn't hurt anyone else, it's okay," and "I'm the captain of my own ship."

Then one day the lie was exchanged for the truth. The Bible became a living letter. The Lord Jesus Christ stopped me in my tracks and said, "follow me." What a fool I had been!

Listen to C.H. Spurgeon's comment on God's revelation of Himself in nature: "Flowers, what are they? They are but the thoughts of God solidified—God’s beautiful thoughts put into shape. Storms, what are they? They are God’s terrible thoughts written out that we may read them. Thunders, what are they? They are God’s powerful emotions just opened out that men may hear them. The world is the materializing of God’s thoughts, for the world is a thought in God’s eyes. He made it first from a thought that came from His own mighty mind and everything in the majestic temple that He has made has meaning! From Vol. 50, Sermon 2896.

God has spoken twice: in nature and in His Word. Are you listening?

September Visit To True Tennessee

Tennessee is neither for the impressionist painter, earringed pirates, nor frumpless foo foos. It is real America, real rural America with real rural residents whose roots extend back to a time when the simple life ruled the forests of the Cumberland Plateau, Sequatchie Valley and the Appalachian Mountains.


Big city life is closer to the almost-all-American pulse, but the smaller the town, the truer reflection of the historical character, values and architecture can be seen. A modern world defines this cultural phenomenon as backward, backwoodsy, and hicksvillean. It derides any mention of its simplistic beauty. It fails to appreciate its depth of character and laughs at all things red-necked.



I feel a bit guilty for snapping this picture without getting to know the man first. A little unfair to him --- and you as the viewers, who are right now thinking biased thoughts of who he might be, has he ever been out of Pikeville, and what color corn-cob pipe does he smoke? Sorry.

See all the pictures here: Dave Skinner Photography

Little Brother

Angel's little half-bro is definitely looking the part of a Limas. Like father, like son and daughter.

A Wowie-Zowie Dinner

Sometimes originality pays big dividends, as proven by Barb's out-of-the-blue Crocktipzini. Here's how to treat yourself to an easy, pleasy dinner, especially if you like to dip your bread in the savory juices!

Ingredients:

* 1 1/2 lb. Tri-Tip steak strips, about 1 to 1 1/2 inch wide
* 1 - 14.5 oz can S & W stewed tomatoes, Mexican Recipe (style)
* 2 - small 5" fresh zucchini
* Seasoned pepper
* Mrs. Dash Garlic and Herb seasoning

How to:

In a 4 qt. crock pot, put steak strips, stewed tomatoes cut up, 1 teaspoon seasoned pepper.
Sprinkle Mrs. Dash Garlic and Herb seasoning to taste (about 1 1/2 teaspoon).
Cook on low for 8-9 hours. Add sliced or quartered pieces of zucchini for the last hour only.

Pretty easy for you super-cooks out there. Warning: This is all it will take to make them ask for more and beg you for the recipe to put on their blog!

First Time Champs

I'm watching the last out of the last inning of the Little League World Series and the Blue Bombers from Chula Vista, CA just pitched the final strike to win the game and championship with a score of 6 - 3. Chinese Taipei (Taiwan) was narrowly squeezed out by a better California defensive team that had some late inning hits by their key players. Click here for details.

There so much more emotion and excitement in Little League than the majors. These kids don't hold anything back, especially their tears when they lose a big one. And the crowd/family support is phenomenal.

The U.S. now enjoys five straight championships, in spite of the 75+ other nations that enter the competition. The largest organized sport in America, some 2.5 million kids (boys and girls) participate in our favorite pastime.

Many of us boys played with our 12 year-old peers back in the day. We learned teamwork, throwing and hitting skills, and a lot of humility. We've hopefully forgiven all the bad coaches who belittled us, team mates who didn't like us, and parents who never saw us play.

We'll keep those memories for a long time. But toss the bad ones and just hold onto the good ones.

Rusting Out

Thanks to bruxelles5 Photography for this reminder that due to the physical law of entropy, all things that can rust WILL rust eventually, given the right circumstances. That pristine new set of wheels you bought back in 1960 just isn't the same car 50 years later, even if you've done your best to keep it spit polished.

Just as glaring is the degenerative aura taken on by your face in the mirror as the years add up.

We're all rusting out, like an old car, soon ready for the scrap heap after the engine shuts down and the battery dies.

And you can bet there will be no Cash for Clunkers Program for any of us.

Minor Invasion

A little flock of even littler bushtits landed in the birch trees outside the dining room window after dinner. These diminutives flitter, flutter and add some acrobatics to their feeding routine. They'll stick to the side of a tree looking for insects and spiders or hang upside down examining the back of leaves.

My 200mm lens is hardly the best bet when shooting through this window. And with midget birds in trees, manual focusing is a must. I've done it enough to know you have to take 50 pictures to get 5 that are close to being in focus. There's also the fun of gently sliding your long lens between the open wood shutters without scaring the little guys, although when they came through the last time, I was able to get withing 5 feet of them in the backyard without spooking them.


So if someone would like to get me a new Nikon D90 and a fast f2.8 long zoom lens, they will be amply rewarded with some truly wonderful birdy pictures!



Jesus tells us, "Therefore, I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?" Matthew 6:25-26.


"Therefore do not worry , saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. Therefore, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble." Matthew 6:31-34

Lord, increase our faith!

Striking It Rich!

This year's rains and less than a little pruning resulted in an over-abundance of grapes. What a surprise, because there's normally next to nothing. Angel was wowed, too.

We took bags full to our class at church last Sunday and got rid of the first pick. We bagged another 15 or 20 lbs. today of Thompson and Flames. Not the biggest, but pretty sweet. Perfect for snacks at work and a refreshing change when you need a drink.

Sometimes there are rewards for doing nothing and letting God do the work.

Sunday Sermon

From Psalm 119:130, "The unfolding of your words gives light; it imparts understanding to the simple." -ESV

from Charles Bridges' 1827 commentary on Psalm 119 --- ". . . But - Reader - rest not satisfied with whatever measure of light may have been hitherto vouchsafed. Seek that the word may have 'an entrance ministered unto you abundantly.' The most advanced believer is most ready to acknowledge, how much of the word yet remains unexplored before him. Cultivate the disposition of simplicity - the spirit of a 'little child' (Matthew 18:3) - willing to receive, embrace, submit to, whatever the revelation of God may produce before you. There will be many things that we do not understand: but there is nothing that we shall not believe.

"'Thus saith the Lord' - is sufficient to satisfy reverential faith. To this spirit the promise of heavenly light is exclusively made. 'The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. The meek will he guide in judgment; the meek will he teach his way.' (Psalm 19:7; 25:9). It is beautiful to see a man like Solomon, endued with enlarged powers of mind (I Kings 4:29-34), acknowledging himself to be a little child (I Kings 3:7), afraid of trusting in his own light; and seeking instruction from above.

"But never will an unhumbled mind know the benefit of this Divine instruction. To such a student, the Bible must ever be a dark book, since its very design is to destroy that disposition which he brings to the inquiry. That knowledge, therefore, which is unable to direct our way to heaven - nay, which by closing the avenues of spiritual light, obstructs our entrance there, is far more a curse than a blessing. Far more glorious is the simplicity of the word than the wisdom of the world.

"'In that hour, Jesus rejoiced in spirit, and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes; even so, Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight.'" (Luke 10:21) -KJV

Scrabble On, Dude!

This 60's version of a futuristic freeway has yet to materialize. And if it does, there is little chance of any family playing Dominoes or Scrabble while scooting from San Francisco to Paso Robles. Families do next to nothing together in 2009. The current trend follows a more autonomous existence where the goal is to say as little as possible to each other and hole up in our personal entertainment/relationship universes. Computers, cell phones and lots of homework aren't very family friendly.

How about making a new rule: Game Night. It will definitely change your life - and reinvent your definition of family.

Playing in your car is optional.

"I Asked You First !!!!!"

I picked up Angel after school yesterday. She wanted to know if I brought the old pickup. I laughed and said, "Not this time." When her mother was in high school, she used to hate me coming to pick her up in the rattle-trap and would tell me to park far away so her friends wouldn't see her get in it.

Anyway, Angel parks herself in the backseat of the car and proceeds with the small talk for awhile. Then she wanted to ask me a question - something she'd learned in Language Arts, she said. This should be interesting, I thought. "If you have a snowman, how long will he take to melt?"

What?! First of all, I said this really wasn't a Language Arts question: it was more like a physics/science/math question. She agreed. Next, I told her, we need some more information before I can answer, like what is the size of the snowman and what is the temperature outside. That will get us closer to the rate of evaporation. She offered, "Two pounds" for the snowman and 100 degrees outside. That helped, but still left me guessing for a rate of evaporation.

I posed a hypothetical rate of 1 oz. per minute. Just guessing here. Then I said, "Suppose the rate of evaporation is 1 oz. per minute. You have 2 pounds of snowman. 1 pound equals 16 ozs., so 2 pounds would be 32 ozs. So if it evaporates at 1 oz. per minute, and you have 32 ozs., how many minutes would it take to completely disappear?"

I heard a big sigh from the backseat right before she said, "Why is it everytime I ask someone a question, they end up asking ME to answer it? My mom does the same thing!"

A bit shocked and humbled, there was nothing for me to do at that point than tell her the answer: "32 minutes - about a half an hour." She was okay with that, I guess.

She didn't ask me anything else for the rest of the trip. Smart kid!

ObamaCare In Action?

Let's see: It's the Crowleys of the world who will take care of the disabled elderly Gates of the world while the President doesn't seem concerned. Is something wrong with this picture. Or is something wonderfully right?