A sea of amber cornstalks cut to about a foot tall in a Nebraska field with clear blue sky above.

Little dog and self at a table in a restaurant full of farmy stuff (e.g. the John Deere sign behind me).

Me in front of Atmosphere Mountainworks (colorful leisure wear made in house), Laramie, WY. Filling the windowpane that contains the business name is a rainbow flag.

Mike stepping onto the sidewalk in front of Atmosphere Mountainworks holding a paper shopping bag (an item we bought elsewhere). In addition to the rainbow flag above the storefront seen in the previous photo, there’s also a Progress Pride flag in the window of the white painted door adjacent.

#RoadTrip Day 8 — O’Neill, NE, to Laramie, WY. Last season’s corn crop; Me and Tickles in Sanford’s Grub & Pub, downtown Cheyenne; Me in front of a storefront in Laramie with Pride Flag in the window; Mike coming out of the same store.

The crowd outside the Legislature in the Lincoln, Nebraska, Capitol on Friday included soldiers in uniform and a quartet of Handmaids in their red cloaks and hoods.

Here’s a scene from the rotunda Friday as the session was going on.

A Progress Pride Flag hangs in the window of a brick storefront in a tiny Midwestern town.

Selfie in front of a grand four-story civic building across a huge lawn. The Calhoun County Courthouse in Rockwell City, Iowa.

Self and husband at a picnic table. There’s a box of pita crackers and a jar of Jif peanut butter between us. Behind us is a green park with trees and a lake.

Little dog on the faux wood laminate floor of a cheap motel lobby. Behind her is a hideous brown sofa and above that on the wall is a framed monochrome “postcard” reading “Greetings from O’Neill Nebraska.”

#RoadTrip Day 7 — Des Moines to O’Neill, Nebraska. Storefront in Rockwell City, Iowa with Pride Flag; Selfie by Calhoun County Courthouse; Picnic lunch at Bacon Creek Park, Sioux City; Tickles in front of the Postcard mural for O’Neill (in the Super 8 lobby).

Selfie in front of Edward Hopper’s painting of a woman sitting alone at a table in the Automat.

Me with a Hopper in the #DesMoinesArtCenter
Years ago I painted a detail of this Hopper painting (for an art class assignment to copy a favorite artist). When we get back to Sacramento, I’ll post a photo of it as a comment.

Mike and Ed on a path in the Botanical Gardens, behind them two freestanding angular portal arches that frame the Ruan Reflecting Garden. They look like something the crew of Kirk’s Enterprise would have found on an uninhabited planet, left by some highly advanced alien civilization that doomed itself with their own technology. Also behind Mike and Ed is the glass dome that houses the tropical plants, perhaps also left behind by the doomed aliens. Fortunately neither Mike nor Ed is wearing a red shirt…

The four ou us under the massive iron leaf sculpture in the Botanical Gardens. The sculpture is a memorial.

Self and husband in front of the entrance to the Des Moines Art Center — a terrific little museum with free admission.

Husband among the thousands of crabapple trees blooming in the Arie Den Boer Arboretum.

#RoadTrip Day 6 Des Moines: The Botanical Gardens, the Art Center, the Crabapple Arboretum

Four humans and a hound under the white arch that cable-stays a pedestrian bridge over the Des Moines River.

Center, below, on The Iowa Women of Achievement Bridge: Leo, a dog.

Self, in black No Kings t-shirt in front of a mosaic image of a shirtless man in chains.

Des Moines. A mosaic mural in the Capitol.

A crowded Nissan Rogue interior (L to R): Self, husband, hound, pit-mix, sister, and brother-in-law’s shoulder.

In the car. #Tickles and
hound-in-law Leo
#DogsOfBluesky #pets #RoadTrip

At the top of the hour, this LED clock art installation puts on a cool display. I began this video at fifteen seconds till noon.

Touristing. We literally drove here just to see it. (And all the scenery along the way).

Dog on the sidewalk. Across the street is a mural “Greetings from Des Moines” with the letters of the city name full of colorful local iconic scenes.

#Tickles in front of the city postcard mural — Des Moines #TicklesThePitMix #DogsOfBluesky #pets #PitMixRescues

Two huge, weird, and creepy heads on the lawn

Black and white “snowmen” at the sculpture garden

Tickles in front of the Love sculpture

An LED clock art installation down the street from the Sculpture Garden

Public #Art the Sculpture Garden, Des Moines

Little dog on a concrete path leading to an elaborate Chinese pagoda.

Self, Brother-in-law, Leo the coon hound, Sister Sue, and Mike on the bridge

The four of us under the Capitol dome

Self, husband and dog at the Iowa State Capitol

#RoadTrip Day 5: Des Moines.
#Tickles at the Asian Garden; the four of us at the Iowa Women of Achievement Bridge; Under the Capitol dome; and Mike, Me and that dog at the Capitol.

Capitol selfie, the towering Deco edifice behind us.

One of the elaborate black and white mosaic art pieces in the floor under the rotunda, this one apparently celebrating things that fly — a hot naked human figure kneeling on a cloud is surrounded by a ring of creatures : moth, dragonfly, pterodactyl, and five birds. Plus three birds in the center with him.

From across the rotunda, a massive electric chandelier hangs under the dome. Beyond, on the grey stone wall high above seven casually dressed people standing on the balcony level opposite mine and directly behind the chandelier, there’s a huge painting in tones of orange, gold, and olive green. Divided into five panels, the mural seems to depict culture and artistic industry. On the far left, a man bows an upright bass. Then three panels mostly obscured by the chandelier feature a woman dancing, a man playing a flute, and a man doing something in front of him with his hands, possibly throwing a pot on a ceramicist’s wheel. The panel on the right looks like he might be sculpting something — his hands are atop and at the side of some object he seems to be working on.

Three women dressed in the red cloaks of Atwood’s Handmaid’s Tale are walking out of the ongoing legislative session they were attending.

#RoadTrip Day 4: Lexington, NE, to Des Moines. The Capitol in Lincoln, Nebraska

The green marble goddess Truth holds a lantern flame against the villainy of falsehood.

Once upon a time in America we valued this. Here’s a statue of #Truth personified. Cheyenne Capitol.

Luxuriating on a motel room bed, that little dog stretches one paw toward the ceiling.

Good morning #Tickles #TicklesThePitMix #DogsOfBluesky #pets #PitMixRescues

Dramatic cloudscape over tawny hills seen from Interstate 80 between Wennemucca and Elko, NV.

#RoadTrip USA #scape from the car window in motion: Crescent Valley, Nevada.

Little dog in front of an outdoor painting of a grand piano on a concert stage.

#Tickles by some #StreetArt in downtown Cheyenne #TicklesThePitMix #DogsOfBluesky #pets #PitMixRescues

The little dog in the grass below a colossal head of Abraham Lincoln on a hewn stone plinth

Mike and me under the Wyoming State Capitol dome, Cheyenne.

A floral mural on an old brick building in downtown Cheyenne.

A cropless cornfield on a vast expanse of flat prairie.

#RoadTrip Day 3: Rawlins, WY, to Lexington, NE. #Tickles at the #LincolnMemorial (Highest point on I-80); Cheyenne Capitol dome selfie; Street art in Cheyenne; the motel room view, Nebraska.

Self and husband in front of the state house in Salt Lake City

Husband taking photos below the pioneer mural, Utah Capitol

Two chocolate vanilla swirl soft serve cones being handed to Mike in Little America

Downtown Rawlins, WY, in the evening.

#RoadTrip Day 2: Wells, NV to Rawlins, WY
The Utah State Capitol, Little America $1 cones; Downtown Rawlins

Donner Lake from an I-80 Scenic Overlook

Tickles in front of two of the many garlands of padlocks in Lovelock Civic Plaza

Self and husband on the courthouse steps, Lovelock

Scenic Nevada basin land out the car window. Fluffy cotton ball clouds in the sky overhead.

#RoadTrip Day 1 Sacramento to Wells, NV: Donner Lake; The Love Locks in Lovelock, NV; Pershing County Courthouse; the roadside out the window in passing.

Lebanon Emergency Relief Arabic, Dutch, French, and Spanish below:

Lebanon Emergency Relief www.chuffed.org/project/1719...

Tickles standing on the scritch shelf between her two dads looking intently at the world out the window of the Kia Niro on the road. Like she does…

#NationalPetDay #Tickles on the road #TicklesThePitMix #DogsOfBluesky #pets #PitMixRescues

The pool after the resurfacing and before the new plants went into the ground in the rear garden. Tickles sits in a char overseeing.

Yep — that’s ours

Aerial photo of a California ranch house

My house from a drone. (Me on the driveway)

The *series* finale.

Sacramento needs a WNBA franchise so they can be called the Queens.

New LEGO Video from IRAN | LOSERS FIRST! YouTube video by AI IRAN

youtu.be/i0u_BNPOsMw?...

Pencil sketch of man naked from the waist down facing away. The leather strings of his bar vest dangle around his butt cheeks.

Pencil and colored pencil sketch of a naked man holding an elaborate red and gold filigree heart.

Pencil and colored pencil sketch of a naked man

Three sketches from last night’s life drawing group at our house. #Nudesketch #lifedrawing #figuredrawing #malemodel #malefigure #art