The Dog Days of Summer

It's hard to believe it's been over a month since my last blog post. I ended up slipping into vacation mode, and haven't found reason to return until now.

At the end of July we went on vacation to a lake near Haliburton. As much as I had grand ambitions to use the downtime to either design new furniture pieces or sort through my images folders, deep down I knew I'd be using my time off to do little more than absolutely nothing. Basically I just shut down mentally, to the extent that I could barely find the motivation to even check email (which, incidentally, would have meant driving into town to find some place with Wifi). Aside from a bit of swimming and a few long walks about the only thing I accomplished was putting a daily dent into my stash of Diamond Crowns, Macanudos and Arturo Fuente Hemingways.

In my mind there is nothing that caps off a lazy day on vacation quite like an excellent cigar under a star filled sky.



About the only real accomplishment I made all week was reading a book, which happened to be "Life" by Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones. One thing I found fascinating was the way in which Richards describes the creative process of song writing. In his mind he doesn't really write songs, so much as act as a conduit for pulling songs out from the proverbial aether. In many ways his description parallels experiences I have had creating some of my more unusual furniture pieces and details.

Speaking of furniture I had to laugh about the near fatal experience Richards had with some built-in bookcases in his home. Apparently he was reaching for a book on an upper shelf one time, and the shelf pins fell out causing him to fall under an avalanche of tomes. The incident resulted in serious injury including broken ribs and a punctured lung. Apparently Mr. Richards has need for a good cabinet-maker, and if he's looking I know of a good one I could recommend.

Perhaps the best part of the book was Richards' explanation of how the bluesy guitar riff came together on my all time favorite Stones song: "Can't You Hear Me Knocking?"

Even after all these years, this tune still rocks.



Hat tips to the late Andy Warhol for the iconic album cover.

(Yes, kids, there once was a thing called albums, and the album covers were a form of art).