April 3, 1998

What does one write in a journal? Why should I even keep any type of journal? These are some of the questions I ask myself. I haven’t even finished my bio-page, and I decided to start writing here.

I enjoy the Internet. It allows one to have access to an unbelievable amount of information, and enables the individual to interact with folks all around the globe! The Internet is an amazing tool, and a stunning piece of technology.

Guess I can talk about the amazing day I had on April 1. I participated in the State of Oklahoma Transportation Day. I had arrived in Oklahoma City the day before to set up the Museum's traveling exhibit in the State Capitol rotunda. I returned early on the 1st to arrange literature and be available for questions.

It was an incredibly enjoyable day. First of all, I had never been in the State Capitol building before--it is a monumental structure brimming with white marble, stuccoed detail, historic portraits and expansive murals. The statue in front of the building is by Native American Artist Allen Houser. The whole building was a-bustle with activity. Lots of questions were asked about the Museum, Navigation System, and the Port.

  There were booths representing the Oklahoma Department of Transportation, Amtrak, Trucking Industry, AAA, a highway architectural firm, to name a few.

A most enjoyable day of meeting tourists, Capitol staff, and other interested individuals.

April 6, 1998

Very busy weekend. Friday: attended reception and dinner for Dr. Charles Main, visiting professor from NC State University. Saturday: After teaching my class (US to 1865) Estelle, Deborah, Christine, and I took Charlie to Gilcrease Museum to see the Thomas Moran Retrospective Exhibit. This is an incredible show. Moran's monumental works steal the show: Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, Chasm of the Colorado, Shoshone Falls on the Snake River. Afterwards we went to Borders, and then out for some Tex-Mex for dinner. Sunday: Charlie invited us to lunch at his hotel--groan! I can't handle those buffets. At 3 attended reception at Harweldon, Arts and Humanities Hq., held by Gilbert and Sullivan Society. It was actually a "Tea." Entertainment included songs from various operettas. Very enjoyable. --More later. UH, now do I hear someone saying that all this is rather boring? Maybe what you want to hear about is me walking my dogs? No? Then send me your request via E-mail. Okay? [email protected]

April 10

Did a little work on my ART page today. Scanned and put up some more Magritte paintings. Magritte was one hell of a creative fellow! He did one painting that is actually five paintings. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. Let me try to describe it. Each of the five paintings is part of a nude female body. They are arranged vertically--literally, from head to toe. First picture is the head. Second is the breast, er, chest area. Third is uh, um, well? Get the picture? Thing about the set is that they would make one helluva great set of clickable icons for an exhibit! (You know how the cursor turns into a hand when it hovers over a hyper-reference?--think about it.) Guess they could also be used for some other sort of display too! I'd love to use it as my Gallery intro page, but guess I'm afraid geocities might not approve. I'll have to look into it. Later..............

April 12

I’ve been teaching a class on Saturday morning at the Community College this spring. I’m really enjoying it. The class is made up of older non-traditional students--very bright group. They ask lots of questions. Keep me on my toes!

I usually get up pretty early (I’m definitely a morning person). Yesterday I headed out toward the Port before sunrise. I just love driving the freeways in the early morning. The Port is Northeast of the city--means I’m driving toward the sunrise! Often, I listen to the Classical music station. Couldn’t do it this morning. Instead of music there was this info-mercial. A pretty crappy one at that, ummm. Guess that was a pun. The program was about some Aloe Vera product that’s used as a laxative! They were reading letters from folks describing the quality--and length--of their bowel movements! Something about the impurities of processed food and how to get it out of your system. Yecccccch!

So I punched a cassette into the player. Never know what tune will come up. It was perfect. Concerto for two trumpets in C, by Vivaldi! Perfect, because an oblique streak of light had just appeared in the eastern sky! Glorious morning! I observed the silhouettes of road lights and electrical wires against the awakening sky. Unfortunately, I did not have my camera with me yesterday morning. So I just drove and looked and listened. Beautiful morning, beautiful land, amazing day. Just me in my Benz, on the freeway, headed toward the sunrise, listening to Vivaldi!

April 14

My friend Gary Henson called the other day. I recently purchased a print of one of his recent paintings. He didn't tell me the name of the painting--that was the purpose of the call. He said the name of the work is "Now"(this is a detail of the painting). He also said that he had written a poem to accompany the painting:

Let the living live.
Now the moment is born and born again endlessly.
Do not cling to the familiar without good reason.
As the chick must leave the egg,
So there are times in life when we must break into a new world.

Gary reminded me that this painting is one of 78 in his current series. They will form a Tarot deck. He chose the title "Now" because he wants each of the paintings or cards to have a short and easy to remember name.

I'm still working on improvements to my website. I hope to add an Architecture section soon. I am also thinking about smaller icons for the index page. It all just takes time.

Return to Allan's Gallery Index: