My woman feeding pigeons is coming along nicely. It is so much brighter with the trees around her. The painting is taking a long time because 1.) It is oils, which always take longer, and 2.) It is a rather large canvas- 30"H x 40"W, which is a lot of painting! I will post her when she is done. For now, be satisfied with a much older painting; one that I did a few years ago.

I have so much else I should be doing, but the canvas draws me as if it were a magnet. I have two publications that I should be working on, and a rather large project that I have neglected. I need to get busy! Maybe that is what I should be doing with those hot afternoons that keep me off the porch.

The upcoming election has me really puzzled. Sometimes, I just don't understand people and how they perceive and contort things. I get emails from my conservative friends that are so inflammatory. At least one used the N word, and I did respond to that one and asked the sender to NOT send me emails like that. Criticize Obama, if you must, but keep racial slurs out of my mailbox. He stands accused of being too white, too black, too Muslim(?), a Communist (one grass roots supporter had a Che Guevara poster on her wall)- ridiculous criticisms not of Obama, but of his supporters! There is little understanding of how he ran his campaign. Grassroots meant very few significant donors, and the majority of the funds were raised by supporters at rallies, and through limited individual donations. This leaves him beholden to no one. He was not the DNC's choice for front runner, and he managed to go up against their favored candidate to clinch the nomination- by using grassroots (community development) tactics. His campaign was run from the bottom up and will likely change how all campaigns will be run in the future.

I am most surprised by the Clinton camp. If Hillary's campaign was about Hillary's ego, then it might make sense, but if it is about the good of the Nation and the party, then she should fully endorse Obama without reservations. It is as if she is holding her supporters hostage in her bid to at least walk away with the VP position. This serves no one except McCain.

Like I said, everything about this campaign has me puzzled- the response of the 'Common Man', all the way up the top to the candidates themselves. Make sense of this for me: what is it about Obama that is truly offensive? The color of his skin, or the Church he attended? Heck, if someone attended my church (Catholic)there are plenty of Sundays when one would walk away thinking we are all nuts. For none of us, tertiary beliefs is why we belong to any church or denomination. We share primary beliefs, and that is what matters.

BTW: I am done with political posts. The last two are all I have to say at this time.