you come back....

i wonder if i am really ever going to be a good blogger. funny that i even wonder because it's not like anyone is grading me. but perhaps since i have spent roughly 30 of my 34 years in schools as a student first and a teacher later, i think along the lines of being held accountable somehow. it would be nice for me to do something without thinking about it attached to a letter or numerical outcome. does anyone really ever do something just because without thinking about what someone else will think? without wanting some kind of feedback on it? everyone who has a profession of some sort seems to be "graded" in some way by returns, marks, raises, or how others respond. maybe it is precisely school that orients us in such a way of thinking. so if i were to give myself a blogging grade based on how many times i have actually written something and how hard i have worked on getting more readers, i would have to say i am only getting like a c-.  and i have never been a c student. in fact, i only made one (ONE!) in my entire life. so i wonder if i can do this just because it makes me happy without thinking i have to "get" somewhere with it.... so far, this blog is way too esoteric for the image i want to post. can you do a 180 real quick?
a few weeks ago while walking with my dogs and baby, i passed a little house in my neighborhood for like the hundred and eighth time. and on this 108th day i noticed the beautifully aged paint and wood. in terms of homes it probably would not be considered "beautiful," but with the eye of an artist who tends to be drawn toward urban decay, it was the picture of beauty. i made a point to walk back by with my camera (iPhone just didn't cut it) and snapped a few, complete with a pink plastic horse in front. as i took snapshots, a man came out in shorts only and barked, "why you take a picture?" he must have thought i was some city official or a complainy neighbor, complete with my dog and baby entourage...but when i answered i simply liked the colors, he smiled, patted his bare belly and replied, "oh! well...it needs to be painted. you come back when it's painted?" no thanks, i like it just the way it is! "you come back, you come back," he kept demanding. he only seemed satisfied when i said i was an artist, but even that explanation still got a kind of quizzical half smile. maybe i'll give him a digital copy of the collage i made with his crackly little house.

oh, and yes, the non-legible sign on the garage does say (in bright red letters) NO TRESPASSING. so maybe that's why the belly man came out. in my defense, however, i stood on the very edge of where the street meets his property... maybe my armed stretched out with the camera in hand did the trespassing.