It’s Memorial Day weekend here in the USA and today I was thinking about my grandpa while I was at church, listening to an old hymn. He was at Normandy and The Battle of the Bulge, where he earned a Purple Heart for taking a slug right under his butt cheek. Given how skinny he was, that’s no minor amount of a wound. Grandpa John was a little guy, a bird of a fellow, but courage is thankfully not based on vertical achievement.
My dad is just as slight in the back and I often tease him about that. He’s about half a foot taller than his dad was but with the same build. My dad was in Korea, but after things had for the most part, settled down.
Funny, my fella was on the DMZ less than 25 years later. When they talk shop (read: acronyms) I have no idea what they are talking about. Maybe that’s a good thing.
So, I guess I should be writing about painting today. It’s raining outside, but not for long! This week will be a welcome baptism into the long, delicious days of summer in NW Mi. It’s about 80 everyday, almost no rain, and sun until 10 pm. It’s also why we bother to tolerate the 10+ feet of snow each winter and snow til Mother’s Day.
I think I’m on the home stretch with this piece that I started before doing the Camino de Santiago with our eldest the last two weeks. We hiked the Portuguese coastal route and I could have stayed a lifetime. It was so beautiful and the people, it’s national treasure. And what a peculiar, beautiful language! I hope to go back and see the inland route next time. A vacation chock with daily exercise suits me. I’ve never felt better.
Here’s where I stopped today. I ate quite a bit of shellfish in Iberia. And octopus. So crazy good!
Below: “Shrimp”. 16x20. Original Acrylic on Canvas. Available. Although, I am going to send an image to the lovely gal in Punta Gorda who purchased “Spiny Lobster No. 01”…I think they’d look nice together on a wall.
