7) A Little Sadness: The Wisdom of Bob Ross

The estimate for repairing my 20-year-old station wagon was more than the vehicle was worth, and a minimum turn around of three weeks from the only shop in the middle of nowhere. I had no way to transport it to somewhere that my friends could help me pull the engine out, either. It sucked, but we had to sell her for scrap. I really liked that car, but a car is just a car. She served me well, and I more than got my money's worth out of her.

Second weekend was spent shopping for and purchasing another old, high mileage car to get me to work and back. I like cars from the 90's and early 2000's, because I can look under the hood and understand what I am looking at. I also like not having a car payment. Shitbox life. It's just how I roll. The drawback, of course, is that I have to do a lot of maintenance and repairs on them.

I didn't paint the third weekend of the month, either. Our loyal family dog of 13 years, Washburne, died of cancer. The week that Washburne died, three of my elderly rats, Paprika, Vilkas, and Aster, also died over the course of four days. Another elderly rat, Onion, died a week later.

My pets lived wonderful, happy lives. Wash was a stray, and we had him for 13 years, so we figure he was probably 14 or 15 years old. My little vermins were all well over 2 ½ years old, which is old for a domestic rat, since 1 year is roughly 33 years to a rat. I'm sad that they are gone, and I will miss them, but I'm happier for having known them.

It was the very beginning of the year 2023, and my family had already lost one vehicle and five beloved pets. Needless to say, I didn't paint much, and I didn't meet my personal hobby goals. That's Ok. My family had some hard times. We got through them together, and if I go down in the basement right now, my painting station is still there, set up and ready to go. My current batch of minis are vintage metal figures that waited over 30 years to get painted. They can wait another month. Better times are coming. For now, all we can do is live in the present.

“It’s like in life. Gotta have a little sadness once in awhile so you know when the good times come. I'm waiting on the good times now.” ― Bob Ross

I didn't paint the final weekend of January, because we adopted an American Bulldog from the humane society, and I had to supervise his introduction to our four-year-old hound dog. The two became instant best friends, and they romped in the freshly falling snow and played until they were exhausted, then both crashed on our couch. Even though the boys really hit it off, I didn't feel comfortable leaving them unsupervised, so I stayed close to them all weekend. I was the only one home, because the wife was vending at a local tack sale, and the kid was at a LARP event. It snowed hard all weekend. It was a good time to be at home, on a couch, with my dogs and a hot mug of Door County coffee.