Life Through the Eyes of my Scattered Brian

Every year for the last 25 or so years there has been a Reniassance Festival held in Arrington Tn., which is about a 55 min. drive from the house. I have been wantingto go for years and there has never been an excuse since it runs for 4 weekends in the month of May. This year I went...finally. check it out at http://www.tnrenfest.com/ There on the site where to festival takes place is an actual castle built or the last 25 years by the Freeman family. You are able to view the lower level of the castle which is included in your festival ticket. The buses over to the castle stop running about 2 hours before the festival is finished for the day. My friend, Debbie and I got so tied up in walking the festival, and me taking pictures that we missed the castle. But thats okay also since we hada blast. Check it out. http://www.dupontcastle.com/castles/gwynn.htm People who are involved in the festival dress in the mid-evil times but the fun part is that a lot of people that attend the festival a...

Years ago I owned a 1987 GM Sierra pickup. Big thing, with big hauling mirrors on the side and you had to step up into it. Loved that truck. My brother Ray gave me that truck when it was about 5 years old. It had the hauling mirrors on the side because that is what they used to haul Chase’s race car around when he started racing locally. I had not had the truck a couple of weeks when the motor went out. Well, Ray was not going to let that be a problem so he had another one put in for me. Let me say, right here and now that I have two of the most awesome brothers around. After having the truck repaired things seemed to be going well for awhile. Then one thing or another would go out. Master cylinders for the brakes, wheel cylinders, alternator, to the regular stuff like brakes and shocks. It even with stood the tornados that hit downtown 16 years ago. Most cars were thrown around, into each other, glass blown out, but not my truck. But the one thing that really got me the most was when ...

My niece Holly, who I have written about before went out for class president for her school. Last week she found out that she got it. Her best friend Grace got the VP spot. Holly worked on her posters, which were so cute. The slogan she used was “Got Holly, She does a student body good”. I am so proud of her. Yesterday she took part in her Volley Ball teams car wash. To funny to watch these kids out TRYING to wash cars while they are goofing off. But I can honestly say that she took a part in washing her aunts car! My other niece, Jessica, went to her prom the other night. Beautiful dress but I have to question the shoes! She wore some strange looking tennis shoes, high tops with this silky long dress. Go figure….Kids. To funny. I did not see the outfit on her, she did show me both the dress and shoes a week or so ago, but Lori my sister in law sent me pics. These girls are nuts! Anyway, I know Holly will do a good job and she is very out going. And I so hope that Jessy had a good time...

Friday will be the 1st anniversary of my last day with the Department of General Services for the State of TN. And then Saturday will be my first anniversary of my present job with the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation for the State of Tennessee. This past year has really gone by fast and it does not seem like I have been with the TBI for a year. I started working for the State of Tennessee, Department of General Services, Printing Division right out of high school at the age of 18. After two years of working there, having met my ex there, gotten married while working there, I left to have my first child, Amber. That was in December of 1980. I stayed at home with her for a year or so then I decided that I needed to work, a least part time. So I worked a mixture of different places like McDonalds, Revco and Kmart. After being away from the printing division for 4 years, I was asked did I want to return. The guy I had worked with in the camera room and dark room was moving over to the ar...

Hello. Been a few days since I last posted on my blog here. But sometimes life gets in the way of things like this. My last post told about allergies, this time of year and stuff like that. Well, the allergies kicked up and actually put me down for a few days. I use to take allergy shots but I stopped them 3 years ago. The last couple of years have not been bad but this year I paid. Funny thing about it was that the pollen count was way down to almost nothing when it hit me…. but I am sure what got me was mold spores. Over 7 days of rain and the mold kicks in. Anyway, enough about that. Over the last 5 or 6 years I have reconnected with several people that I attended high school with (the internet is great). I was able to do this via our school website (which is awesome and manned by one guy) or Facebook. But anyway, back about six years ago I started wondering about people from school, I think it’s part of getting older and you want to kind of connect or reconnect with your younger da...

Okay, its bad enough when the pollen is up and you can justify allergies, but when the pollen is down from rain….then comes the mold. The stuffy nose, drainage and the cough. It’s a pitiful feeling. I took allergy shots for years only to drop off and stop taking them in 2006. I figured this would be the year the allergies would kick back in and the shots would be out of my system for sure. Actually its not been that bad until today. Right now I am sucking on a cough drop and trying to keep from rubbing my eyes. The chest is tight and the nose is running…wait, now its stopped up again…..it alternates between the two. We are having a break in the rain today….or at least until tonight at some point. Cloudy just the same. We have not had a nice sunny day in over a week. Mother Nature, its time to give it up and let the sun shine. Thanks for stopping in, Pam

Thursday night I attended the fund raiser for the Kid's on the Block, Chair-ish the kids. Kid's is a non profit group that takes puppets into the schools, churches, and other organizations to teach kids about life's issues, like blindness, deafness, CP, teen pregancy and so much more. Every year they hold an annual fund raiser that is centered around chairs. Most items donated by local artist involve chairs, painted chairs, decorated chairs, and paintings of chairs. I have been a part of Kid's for the last 5 years. The first year I donated a childs painted rocking chair. The next year it was a stool with Jack and the Beanstalk painted on it. The last 3 years I have donated a painting with a chair in it. Those items can be seen in my post for Feb. 21, 2008 (Charish the Kids)and then this years project is posted on Feb. 22, 2009 (Granny's Front Porch). During the fund raiser, there is a live auction which is so much fun to watch. I saw a wooden, hand made toilet seat,...

Last Saturday was my night. I had my very first art showing for my paintings. The showing took place at a small gallery in Watertown TN. Owners Mitch and Dianna Laney, Gallery of the Mad House Wife. Awesome, cute older building in a small town about 45 minutes outside of Nashville. I have been painting for almost 9 years now. Not finding out I could do it until I was 40 years old. I had taken art class the last two yrs. of high school. I painted a couple of paintings, one of which hung in my Mom's dinning room from 12th grade until I produced my first painting in oils. Mom got the first one since she is the reason I took up painting. I started sketching in color pencils and Mom saw some of the things I had done. She told me then that I needed to take up painting. Told me to look into taking a class. I of course said I would but just put off calling places. One day while leaving my brothers house, she saw people going into a home two doors down with canvas'. Mom went down to che...

Those April Showers have moved into May it seems. Although we can always use the rain, I like it better when it comes a day at a time and not several in a row. Here in Nashville we have scattered showers that started on Tuesday, and this morning we have had several really good rains. Apparently a storm or two came through last night but I slept through that! This being Friday I would love to know that the weekend is rain free, but that is not the case. And there are so many things going on this weekend around Nashville and the surrounding counties. I personally would love to take in the Nashville Craft Fair but at the same time I am thinking I need to stay home and start working around the house…rooms to paint and things to do. Maybe with the rain, that will keep me home and maybe I can get something’s done. As I type this the rain beating against my window here at work as slowed down. At least maybe that will mean I will not get as wet going to the car for lunch! The sky’s look gray, ...