Urban Sketching...

On to better things. It's almost laughable that my rustic sketching is better than a movie...trust me it is... at least that last one anyway.

One sketch for the month of July:

"Frank, Frank" is the guy to the right. He's a big guy so suffice it to say that the skid steer is closer than Frank. Frank. FF is one of the good guys that works for the company.

We're doing a bridge joint repair this day, which is fancy talk for potholing on a bridge. It's still dangerous to do and probably more so since we had to close down a lane and driver's do not pay attention. Switch off the electronics while driving, please and thank you.

Happy Sketching,
L

Random Thoughts...movie review...

The Hateful Eight...ugh

This is one of the worst movie's ever made. It's an angry man movie against women and then includes all humanity. I'm shocked that Kurt Russell and Samuel L. Jackson (along with other actors) agreed to do this movie. I thought they had some semblance of humanity, I guess I was wrong and there are a lot of angry actors out there too. Or maybe they're just broke.

I was sick to my stomach with disgust by the end of this movie. Don't bother watching it it will be 2 hours of your life that you will unfortunately never get back and would be better off spent watching a lava lamp.

The Weinstein Company (TWC) funded this film, yep THAT Weinstein, creepo Harvey and his bro, no surprise there, since this movie is all about hating women and then humanity. Directed by Quentin Tarantino and also puts his character in question here too.

Thank you Wikipedia for all the convoluted information regarding Miramax and TWC (now Lantern Entertainment), which is truly much more fascinating than this movie. Trust me, it is...

Regards,
L

PS I was going to insert a photo of the movie poster, but really, why bother???
Here's a lava lamp instead:

Image from SCI - YouTube, thank you.

Dear Friend...

today was a "Brad" day.

In my family (or in my mind) having a "Brad" day is synonymous with having a "bad" day.

Brad is a real person and someday I'll explain again. I explained a long time ago but it's been awhile.
Send me all the news,
L

Urban Sketching...

June sketch:

I was "farmed" out to work at the main headquarters to help with inventory count. And finally felt inspired to catch my view that I had while eating lunch.

This month I didn't draw much as I've been struggling with depression for awhile and it depletes my inspiration and desire to draw. When I get into a funk like this at times I'll take a pencil and big piece of paper and just scribble on it, which helps.

Happy Sketching! L

Side note work comment: one of the guys I was working with in the inventory audit was perturbed that I sat outside and ate lunch instead of going inside to each lunch in the break room with them. It's frustrating to work with men because you're damned if you do and damned if you don't, as these guys would not have spoken to me in the break room even if I had had lunch with them. grrr

Urban Sketching..

and now for more sketching:

Spraying weeds. I'm in the coverage vehicle, which should be an attenuator but there is no budget for that so I am in a one-ton pickup. I guess someone has to lose their life before that happens. sigh.

Milling. I love hauling millings. Driving a dump truck is awesome! I wait my turn and while waiting I do a quick sketch. I later get to be on the milling machine too, which was interesting.

Happy sketching! L

Dear Friend...

I can't sleep...so instead I'll try and write about the previous weeks work. I wrote posts in my head and didn't post them because even to me the truth sounded far fetched and with a little time maybe the weirdness has worn off.

Perhaps I'll just write my random thoughts that were created from my work experiences.

I hate to admit it but I have exchanged "Castle Rock's Hateful Eight" for "Stephen King's Strange Hillbilly Heaven," which is not necessarily a good thing. Things are so strange here that I just try to stay invisible. I think it's even weirder that all these strange men I work with are married and married for a long time to the same woman. I'm speechless and my hat is off to these women who must be saints in their own right for marrying them and these women all have my undying gratitude for taking the men off the market and saving the rest of us.

It is the beginning of football season so maybe the irritability and strange behaviors will slow down a bit as most of these men do not multi-task and love football.

Take Thursday: My TMII is a stickler for having time in each day and informed me that I would need to manually input a work order into my time sheet. I tried to do this because he is so bad about complaining if this isn't done. I then get the complaint from him that I need to tell him that I am doing this. Ugh. I don't get why I have to tell him I'm doing something he told me to do. Say what??? In fact my TMII's control attitude was so bad I thought he was going to tell me how and when and what time I could take a SH*T!!

Whatev or Whev...

Or take Wednesday, A driver drives around and brings a load to dump off of HWY 24 takes two of our loads and dumps, parks for two hours at a restaurant - possible morning constitutional?? --- highly doubtful --- but hey, I'm willing to give the benefit of the doubt...Then leaves, drives for another hour and a half, passed a rock fall that he should have cleared from the road that was called in, but didn't clear it, and then drives around for another two hours. Really??? it was all very strange and I just didn't get it. I'm certain he was checking the road. Problem is the road he is assigned to is not the roads he was on. ugh... or Whev...


And now we have a memo from someone in an office who has never done our job putting into effect a directive that we have to shut down a lane for pot holing which means we will be in the way of traffic about 12 times more than if we do a "throw and go" plus it takes a lot longer and places us in more danger of traffic because we have to set up at least 4 sign and a lot of cones. Not to mention the angry drivers. This is a huge safety issue for us. Our jobs are already dangerous enough without having some pencil pusher making it more dangerous. He probably got a bonus for that idea too. oh, Whev...

Insert Big Sigh here.

my prediction is that potholes will not get filled.

Send me all the news,
Love L

Urban Sketching...

hello, despite not sharing any sketches for awhile, I have been doing some...
These were all done in April 2018:

This is "Cougar Ridge" so named because my TMII saw a large cougar lying on the rocks sunning himself and watching all movement below him. Nothing like being on the food chain for this beautiful animal. This is my first sketch done in my new Region.

I helped assist with a lane closure for the bridge crew doing work on Hwy 24 looking down into Manitou Springs. There are a lot more buildings but I didn't feel like drawing them. This is Patrol 37. Me and my other co-worker get "farmed" out a lot because our road is a "sleepy" road.

This scenery is directly across from "Cougar Ridge" and looks towards Ft Carson on Hwy 115. The Blackhawk helicopters like to pop over this ridge and do quick surveillance on people at the turn around that I am in. It's pretty cool when they do this as you don't even hear them.

This is Cheyenne Mountain drawn from the public archery range parking lot. This day was cool because I was on my own and the guys were still ignoring me and trying to figure out what to do with me at this point and it's only been a week into my transfer and my co-workers in my patrol are gone for today.

All sketches are done on down time like lunch or a break or wait time for equipment being fixed, etc.

Happy sketching!
L