21sst World Wide Sketch Crawl Bryan/College Station, Texas Part II

6. Sick Bitsy-Murphy's Law was at work for me on Sketch Crawl Day. I woke up with a touch of stomach flu, which seems to be going around. I just had nausea, though, and felt bad. I went into the kitchen to find that Bitsy had diarreah and vomiting, again, which meant giving medicine and a lot of cleaning up. This goes along with the renal failure that she was diagnosed with a couple of weeks ago. It was almost noon before the sickness let up.
Bitsy is not a cuddly cat to begin with. Pick her up and claws go everywhere. She runs at certain times when it looks like I am going where the medicine is. Since she came back from the vet's, she has stayed pretty much in the kitchen/den and utility room, with a few trips into the dining room. Before the visit to the vet, she spent a lot of time on the fuzzy blanket on my bed. She hides out on a chair where she is hidden under the table. Teeth and claws come out when I start to give her medicine.
I was trying to give her pills, but I had too many bites and scratches that way. So, I took a tip from the way they give meds in the nursing home, and started putting a pill in a spoon of water. When it dissolves, I put it into a syringe. If some of it dribbles down her mouth, I figure that she will lick it off. I wrap a towel around her to try to contain her claws when I give her medicine, but that doesn't help the teeth. Now, I'm finding that she has learned to spit and will spit out the medicine while I am squirting it in her mouth! And she was so nice for the vet!
Last night, she wouldn't even come sit on the arm of the couch while I was watching tv, as she always does. She did choose my daughter's recliner and sat on top. Maybe she is trying to get closer to the heat in the ceiling vents and the ceiling fan.
I finally called the Frame Gallery and told her about my cat on Saturday.
On top of that, my daughter didn't want to drive me to downtown Bryan for the Sketch Crawl, to work for a while. (I don't drive due to my AMD and cataracts, so I have to depend on others to take me places.) She did agree to take me to one of the places I suggested that we might go to eat and sketch for Sketch Crawl. I had thought of the fireplace and warm barbeque, rustic atmosphere, and view of a little creek out back, at Rudy's Barbeque.
I had thought that I might be able to make it to town in the afternoon, at least, but, by then, Bitsy had resumed a bit of diarreah and vomiting. I sat down to darken up some of my sketches, thinking that I might get a ride to town when my grandson went to work. But, my crew all headed out the door without me. So, I spent the rest of the afternoon, darkening the sketches I had done earlier, between taking care of Bitsy.
They did announce the date for the next Sketch Crawl for Saturday April 11, 2009. I hope that this one works out better and that we will have more participation here. And that I can get where I am trying to go when I need to go.


7. Whoop!- As I sat at a long table, covered with red and white checked tablecloths, in front of a dark fireplace, I looked around Rudy's for things to draw. Just behind me, there was a Blue Bell ice cream box, draped with a sign that said Breakfast Tacos. It was jammed beside a wooden column. At the base of the column, it looked like a little pile of dirt that had been swept up by one of the several workers patrolling the restaurant with brooms. It looked like someone had used their finger to write the Aggie "Whoop" in the dirt. I thought that was a cute touch to add to other Aggie touches that are typical of this area.
Most likely it was just something made into the floor as part of the rustic decor. But it caught my attention.

8. Smoke- Ashton laughed as he pointed to a sign beside the rock fireplace. I could see the fireplace. I could see the window. I could see a dark wall. But I couldn't see the sign.

It was funny that the No Smoking sign was beside the fireplace. I meant to look closer for the sign, but I never did see it. I had to use Ashton's good eyes and description to tell me about the sign in order to draw it. I thought this was a cute idea for a picture for Sketch Crawl.

In my drawing, you can see another Aggie touch with the Texas A&M University logo over the fireplace.

All of the above pencil drawings are done on 9"x 12" Strathmore drawing paper.

I'm looking forward to the Plein Aire painting workshop in Calvert February 21. And the next Sketch Crawl April 11.

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