My 390 HP Dream Vehicle

Well the need for power is an evil influence. I went car shopping this month. As I was looking at the ads 0n places like cars.com and AutoTrader.com I found my next dream vehicle.
Rewind to 2005. I was looking for a good old American pickup, went to the lot and lo and behold there was this silver Jeep Grand Cherokee priced $1000 below book. It drove well and we took it home. It was a nice ride, but not a pick-up.
Forward to 2007. I discovered my new dream-mobile. Cadillac CTS. Very cool, power from a V6, power this and power that, premium sound, XM Radio, leather seats. The CTS also fit nicely with my part-time real estate agent job. The Cadillac speaks money and money speaks success, and real estate clients always want to be connected with a successful agent.
There after my regular job was leaving town and Real Estate wouldn't pay the bills. So we moved to Arkansas and I found a new position with EDS (now HP). Soon came the urge for a truck to pull a RV. I can't put a hitch on the CTS. So we go shoping for a truck.
Drove a couple, but for what I wanted to spend I couldn't get all the bells and whistles I had come to enjoy in the CTS.
Then I came across a fairly rare SUV, the Chevrolet 2008 TrailBlazer SS. Yes, a 6.0 litre Corvette powered TrailBlazer that has 390 horses, leather heated seating, BOSE Sound, DVD player, sunroof, towing package and the list goes on and on.
It is fun to drive and makes me wonder in 2011 what will be able to beat this. maybe his is a keeper.

Hello, John Daly

As people start to follow you on Twitter, you seem to see the names fly by in the emails from Twitter.com come in. However as I was deleting email I saw a name I recognized. It was PGA golfer John Daly. Many may not know it but he is having vision problem that is affecting his game. Tomorrow he is to have laser surgery. So I take this time away from my studio to say, "John, see back in full swing soon!"

The Fine Print

Have you seen these ads from car dealers where they shout you can buy used cars for $99 down and $99 a month? The the announcer then says, "Choose from sedans, sportscars, SUVs, pickups, Fords, Chevrolets, Toyotas, Hondas and more. Just $99 down and $99 a month."


While he is rattling off all these details there the fine print disclaimers that shows for 5 seconds on the bottom 10% of the screen.

$99 special is limited to Stock #43561, subject to previous
sale. Offer may be withdrawn at any time. With approved credit. $99 a month
is for first 4 months, thereafter payment reverts to $240.00. Interest and
payments variable base on credit rating

The reason I bring this up is besides being one of the traps of the retail world. it is time for me to bring up the fine print of blogging. As you notice a have opted to have small ads on this page. So Google just sent me notice to publish the following privacy notice. So here is the fine print

We use third-party advertising companies to serve ads when you visit our
website. These companies may use information (not including your name, address, email address, or telephone number) about your visits to this and other websites in order to provide advertisements about goods and services of interest to you. If you would like more information about this practice and to know your choices about not having this information used by these companies, click here.

See you next time in the studio.

Hello and welcome to my studio

Well, this will be my first blog. And you are one of the first to see it. Pictured to the right is my wife, Rhonda and my self on a bridge in Monet's Gardens in Girveny, France.

These are the same ponds that Charles Monet painted many of his water lilies paintings. This is where I learned that taking photographs of flowers was so relaxing. We were part of a tour and only had a couple of hours there. I could have spent the entire day there, for me there was so much to do and see. Rhonda found herself quite content finding the restroom and gift shop.

I have included a few of my favorite photos from the gardens in the slide show. Enjoy, visit my shop, subscribe and we'll enjoy a cup of coffee next time in the Studio.