Above and Beyond, by Bryan Haynes

The artist, Bryan Haynes, has a show of his prints at the old courthouse. Of the several dozen prints in the show, “Above and Beyond” seems to be the signature work. The Haynes prints depict rural Missouri life, often in a historical context. This still life depicts a sycamore tree in the fall, after its leaves have fallen. Birds dot the beyond of this print, a signature Haynes characteristic.

This has been a rough week for me. Since last Saturday, I’ve been plagued by backache that has been steadily intensifying. It reached peak intensity on Thursday. It was so painful that I stayed home from work and just moped about the house all day. I started taking Aleve, which eased the pain substantially. I went back to work today, but took additional sick leave to keep a chiropractic appointment. It was with fellow Team Kaldis rider, Dr. Bill, the ‘Mad’ doctor. After his examination, he provided treatment and performed an adjustment. I’m scheduled to see him again tomorrow.

I’m uncertain how my back was injured. On Saturday, I walked around downtown taking pictures. The only thing that I can think of is that all the squatting and stooping I did while photographing somehow caused a muscle to be pulled. By way of full disclosure, I should say that muscle I pulled is not so much a back muscle as it is a backside muscle. A similar incident occurred last year and its effects were more easily correlated to its cause. I strained a muscle while tying my shoes. Interestingly, the exercises that Bill gave me for rehab, looks and feels distinctly like tying my shoes.

Since this is Friday and as often as not, I’m at my wit’s end to scrape up enough material for a decent size post, I usually go the potpourri route. Next up then is the following joke:

At the end of the Cold War, American and Soviet spies just couldn’t stop spying on each other. So they decided to have a contest in one year to prove who the better spies were. They settled on a dog fight. A year later, the Soviets had raised a vicious pit bull; the Americans countered with a meek-looking dachshund. Seeing the dachshund, the Soviets were confident of victory. But once the fight started, the dachshund mauled the pit bull. The Soviets were stunned. The Americans responded: “While you were raising that awful dog, starving it, teaching it to be mean, we were figuring out how to disguise an alligator as a dachshund.”

This joke is Nancy Pelosi’s favorite and she has told it to her caucus to get them in the mindset to think outside the box against their Republican rivals for the 2014 elections. My final bit of potpourri involves the Super bowl.

Another joke about this game involves the fact that both contending teams come from states that have legalized marijuana. It is being referred to as the Smoke-a-Bowl. My informal polling of my workplace’s football intelligentsia has Seattle winning by a ton. Sorry Manning fans. No word yet on whether it is an English or a Metric ton, so watch that points spread, especially in the late quarters.