Cars, Trucks, and Airplanes
Hi everyone! It’s me, and I’m back! Have you missed me? Life for Mister Guy, The Lady, and me has been crazy busy since I last posted. Mr Guy and The Lady spend way too much time teaching and not enough time helping me with my blog. That’s just my opinion. But I do love them and they take very good care of me!
Today I was going to write about our Christmas, but I had a very special day today so my Christmas stories, which aren’t very exciting except that I got some new T-shirts, will just have to wait.
Mr. Guy and The Lady decided to end the old year…or is it begin the new year…by buying a new car. They actually bought it in New Year’s Eve. Does that make it the end of 2015 or the beginning of 2016? Are beginnings and endings the same thing? Do they always happen together? Can you have a beginning without an ending? 2015 had to end for 2016 to begin. 2016 had to begin for 2015 to end. This is way too complicated for a little blue and orange furry monster to figure out! Maybe The Lady can explain it to me. But, not now because right now I am going to tell you about my exciting morning.
Because it was so late on New Year’s eve when Mr. Guy and The Lady finished all the paperwork on their new car, the dealership did not have time to clean it and make it pretty for them before they closed so the salesman very nicely said to bring it back today and they would do all of that stuff. I’m not sure why Mr. Guy and The Lady decided to take me with them this morning, but they did and I am really, really glad!
When we walked in, I saw a great big blue truck with blue and orange balloons. I was sure that that was the new car we were getting because I love blue and orange and Mr. Guy and The Lady know that.
I asked Mr. Guy if this was our new car and he said, “NO!..” It is way too big. I would be like I was driving an airplane if we got that truck.” I have been on lots of airplanes, and it didn’t look THAT big, but since Mr. Guy is the driver, I guess he knows. If we are going to ride in an airplane, I don’t want Mr. Guy to be driving; I want him to hold me on his lap like he always does so that I can look out the window!
Almost as soon as we walked in the door, a really nice man starting talking to us. His name was Mr. Edwin. Mr. Edwin asked Mr. Guy and The Lady all about me. After hearing our story, he volunteered to have his picture taken with me. Yay! It has been awhile since I have added anyone to my 100 People project. I am going to have to get busy in the next six months to get to 100 before my “birthday.”
Meet Mr. Edwin!
At the car store, he is a salesman, but he did not sell us our new car. Mr. Edwin has another job too. He hosts a radio show called, Juicy Talk. It was exciting enough to meet a radio personality. But even more exciting than that is that Mr. Edwin said that maybe, just maybe, that we–me, Mr. Guy, and The Lady–someday could come to talk to him and his show and share our story with other people. That would be so much fun for this little blue and orange furry monster!!! The Lady gave Mr. Edwin our card and he gave her his information so this could happen if Mr. Edwin doesn’t get too busy selling cars and Mr. Guy and The Lady don’t get too busy teaching. I hope this works out because I am a very happy and lucky little monster and I would love to share those things with the world.
I don’t watch TV or read the newspaper because I know that a lot of the news is sad and scary. I am too little to want to know all of the terrible details of many of the things going on in the world. Fortunately, my family takes good care of me and takes me places where I meet lots of nice people who are very nice and are also willing to be part of my 100 People Project. Today I am grateful for having met Mr. Edwin! I hope I get to see him again…or maybe I’ll just get to hear him on the radio.
And back to the now less exciting news…our new car. We didn’t get the airplane-like big blue truck, but I did take a minute to pretend to be the co-pilot.
What do you think? Would I make a good co-pilot? I guess that first I have to find a pilot since Mr. Guy won’t do it.
After all of my pictures, I got to play while the service department finished “detailing” (what a funny word) our car.
Our new car is much smaller than the blue truck. Mr. Guy showed me pictures and told me all about it.
I guess it is kind of like the little tiny airplanes we flew on between Philadelphia and Salisbury all those times, and the big blue truck is like the jets. Hmm…no drinks or snacks on those little airplanes. I’m not so sure about this new little car. The blue truck was so big I bet it had a refrigerator and microwave!!! I suspect what I’ll get in our car is only my lunchbox. Oh well, that is better than nothing.
I like our new airplane car. It is quite comfortable. Mr. Guy even let me sit in the pilot’s seat before it was time to buckle up and head home.
Thank you to Mr. Edwin and all of the folks at Freeman Buick GMC in Grapevine, Texas for making my whole family happy!
Mr. Guy, The Lady, and I all wish you and those you love and happy and blessed 2016!
A Quick Trip to Philadelphia
Hi, everyone! Life has been quite busy around our house. Mr. Guy and The Lady are both back at work and the animals and I have been at home during the day. I thought things were going to be calm and quiet for us, but we have been having lots of landscaping done at our house. The dogs have spent the days watching intently and barking a little, the cat has slept through it all, and I have been trying to stay out of the way. despite all of this busy-ness, we got to take a short weekend trip to Philadelphia last weekend.
The Lady is part of a group called NOAH, National Organization for Albinism and Hypopigmentation. Every other year the adults of NOAH get together for a weekend of fun. NOAH is for people with albinism. One of the things that that means is most of them have white fur. Even though I have blue fur and Mr. Guy has no gray fur, they let us go too. People with albinism also have difficulty seeing so Mr. Guy and I were able to help them find things in this unfamiliar city.
We got to the airport early, but not as early as when we were flying to Salisbury all those times, on Friday morning, September 11. We sat down to eat a quick breakfast in the airport.
As we were finishing our meal, there was an announcement about a service of remembrance in the airport chapel. Mr. Guy and The Lady explained to me that fourteen years ago at exactly that time, a terrible thing happened in our country and lots of people lost their lives. As I was listening to what had happened, I got very sad. Mr. Guy held me tightly and we all said a prayer for all the lives lost and changed forever on September 11, 2001.
So that I wouldn’t be quite so sad, Mr. Guy took me to the candy store and bought me a treat to have on the airplane. I got grapefruit, watermelon, and peach gummy chews. Yum!
I must have fallen asleep as soon as we got on the airplane, because I don’t remember the flight at all. I didn’t even eat any of my candy! When we got to Philadelphia, we met some of The Lady’s NOAH friends in the airport and then we all rode to the hotel together. While we were in the car, I realized that it has been quite a long time since I have added any new photos to my 100 People Project. I hoped that while I was in Philadelphia that maybe I would meet a few people who would be willing to support my project.
As usually, Mr. Guy was carrying me when we walked into the hotel. Several people called out, “Look! It’s Blueper B!” I wasn’t sure who any of these people were or how they knew me. Mr. Guy said that he bet that they read my blog and that’s how they knew who I was. I felt kind of like a monster star. I got to talk to people, shake hands with them, and have my picture taken with them! The first one is with Joni. She and The Lady are good friends. They have lots of things in common like this thing they do where they tie string together with two sticks. Somehow they make the string turn into objects like hats and socks. They call it knitting. I think it’s some kind of magic trick. Maybe they could knit me a magic T-shirt.
The NOAH people said that people are fascinated with their white hair and that sometimes people ask if they can touch it…and sometimes they don’t even ask; they just do it. I don’t think that that is very polite. Another friend of Mr. Guy and The lady asked if she could give my fur a new style. Ms. Cindy worked hard to give me a Mohawk.
What do you think of my new fur-do???
I think Mr. Guy might be a little jealous that he can’t have a cool Mohawk like mine.
Since I let Ms. Cindy practice her hairstyling skills on my fur, she agreed to have her picture taken with me.
Ms Cindy and I had some interesting conversations. She lives in Canada and invited us to come visit her some time. That would be fun; I have never been to another country before.
On Saturday, we went on a walking tour to see some of the historic buildings in Philadelphia. Well, I went on a carrying tour; everyone else walked. We had to take a short ride on a train to get to the starting point of the tour.
We saw lots of old buildings that are important to the history of our country. Since I don’t go to school, I don’t know very much about history, American or an other kind. We had an entertaining tour guide whose name was Mr. Jim. He knew lots of things about all of the historical places in Philadelphia. Though there is much more that I need to learn, he gave me a good start on learning a few things about my country.
We saw Carpenters’ Hall where the First Continental Congress met.
Independence Hall where the U. S. Declaration of Independence and Constitution were debated.
We saw the Liberty Bell, but only through a window. The lines to get into all of these buildings were long. Mr. Guy and The Lady said that we will go back sometime when we can spend longer looking around.
We saw this interesting sculpture. The Lady was taking pictures of it when Mr. Guy said that she should take a picture of the reflection so that all of us would be in the picture. I don’t have many pictures with The Lady because she is always behind the camera.
I am grateful that Mr. Jim was willing to show us his city. And, that he was willing to be photographed with me!
Even though it was a quick weekend trip, I had lots of fun in Philadelphia. Mr. Guy and The Lady have some great friends in NOAH. One of them in particular made me laugh all the time. Her name is Becca. She is very silly and lots of fun! Becca and I ate donuts together and we had our very first Slurpees together. I think that will make us friends for life! And her blue eyes make my blue fur really stand out! We also had a Philly Cheesesteak together in the airport. She said that she might come visit us in Texas sometime. I hope so!
Thank you everyone for letting me share in the NOAH weekend even though I have blue and orange fur instead of white fur! You all are lots of fun!! The Lady just told me that I will get to see you all again next summer in Pittsburgh. Yay!
I Met A Star!
Tonight I got to go to the theater. This time yesterday I had no idea what that meant, but now I do! The Lady explained to me that we were going to her school to watch a musical. I thought that you are supposed to listen to music, not watch it. Then I realized that The Lady said musical. She explained that a musical is when there are people called actors that are on a big thing called a stage and they tell a story through words and songs. People, and little blue and orange furry monsters, sit in chairs and listen and watch.
The Blue Ridge Parkway
The mountain with the most number of feet was Mt. Mitchell. It has 6684 feet and is the tallest mountain east of the Mississippi River. We drove as far as we could…
…and then we walked the rest of the way to the very top. Mr. Rusty and The Lady went all the way to the very top. Mr. Guy stopped and said he could not make it that far. The Lady and Mr. Rusty took me to the top and took pictures. Since Mr. Rusty is my new friend, I figured the picture of us at the summit would be a good picture of him for my project.
They were headed back down when Mr. Guy suddenly appeared.
I also had my picture taken with Mr. Guy because, well, I always have my picture taken with Mr. Guy.
He always carries me and holds me tight. He makes me feel safe.
Blueper B and The Paint Bug
Most days in the life of my family are about me seeing or learning something new, but today, it was about Mr. Guy trying something new. It was fun for me to watch him try something he had never done before. He has done lots of lots of things in his life, but he has never painted a picture before.
The Lady likes to do all kinds of creative things. She plays and writes music; she knits; she writes; and of course, she takes pictures. The Mr. Guy hasn’t ever found anything creative that he likes to do. He says that he is not a creative person. The Lady and I have tried to tell him that everybody is a creative person; he just has to find his means of expression. I was surprised when Mr. Guy and The Lady said that we were going to go paint today. Of all the creative things that Mr. Guy might have chosen to explore, painting is not the one that I thought that he would have chosen. What do I know? I’m just a little blue and orange furry monster.
After lunch, off we went to a place called the Bier Garden. Mixing beer and painting didn’t sound like a good thing to me, but again, what do I know? Mr. Guy said that the beer might help to get his creative juices flowing.
A nice girl named Abbi was the teacher for the class. I don’t think she knew what she was getting into having Mr. Guy in her class. She gave Mr. Guy and The Lady some paint and an empty piece of white board.
She said it was called a canvas and was made especially for artists to paint on. Mr. Guy kind of stared at it like he was really scared.
I told him it would be OK. He was a grown up and he could paint a pretty picture if he tried and if he didn’t drink too much beer. (I have never had beer because I am too little, but The Lady says that if you have too much that it can make you feel funny and maybe say or do silly things.)
Before they started, Mr. Guy kept looking at his phone.
I think maybe he was going to call 911 to come rescue him. I did not get to paint a picture. That was OK. I didn’t want to get paint in my fur. But, I did get to do something new today too. The Lady let me use her camera to take pictures of them painting. Unfortunately, I only took pictures of Mr. Guy because without photos, no one would ever believe that he painted.
Finally they got started working on their paintings. Mr. Guy seemed to relax a little. He did a great job painting the background of his picture. Then it came time to paint a background layer of trees. Mr. Guy didn’t like that part too much. He kept saying that what he was painting did not look like trees. The Lady told him that they were not really supposed to look like trees; they were just kind of texture in the background. They would give his painting depth. That was the wrong thing to say because Mr. Guy says that he can’t see depth in pictures. He still had 911 ready to push on his phone, but he didn’t. He kept painting…and drinking his beer.
He finished both. The Lady and I were proud of him for finishing his painting. He didn’t cry or say any bad words. This was thanks to his teacher, Abbi. She did a great job of talking everyone through how to paint a pretty picture. Abbi was kind, cheerful, and patient. She is very good at her job! She is The Paint Bug.
She does classes like the one we went to today at different places, but not in Texas so if Mr. Guy wants to keep painting, he will have to find a new teacher. Abi also paints custom “critter portraits,” paintings of people’s furry monsters pets. Maybe Mr. Guy would like her to paint a picture of me; I am not a pet, but I am a critter. 🙂 You can see all the cool stuff that Abbi does by visiting her website: www.paint-bug.com.
The coolest thing that Abbi did, though, was to have her picture taken with me! I am posting it here, but her friend also took one of us and posted it on her website! That is exciting! Abbi is 9 of 100 in my project
I am happy that we all got to try something new today. I think that I may have played with too many of the buttons on The Lady’s camera. I hope that she will teach me how to take some pretty photos rather than blurry ones. Oh well…
Oh, and one more thing…
My friend Stobbsie from Scotland asked to see a picture of my new T-shirt from the Biltmore; you know, the pink one. Here I am proudly wearing pink!