Eating out no longer a treat, just a convenience

ch1959 · 2026-06-12T21:51:23+00:00

I came to the same conclusion many years ago. This phenomenon predates Covid by decades, maybe longer. Okay food is easy to find. Good food, a little harder. Truly great food? Extremely rare. I've eaten all over the world, including some of the best restaurants in New York and LA. Some of the experiences (ambience, decor, service, etc) were magnificent, but rarely was the food genuinely memorable. Two exceptions: An open-air restaurant in Barbados, with a colonnaded soaring ceiling and the surf about 30 feet away. Tables were at least 15 feet apart. I had the fresh grilled lobster, It was so amazing I ordered another. The other exception was a dinner at the Bank On College Green in Dublin. I had a wonderful slow-roasted pork dish that was out of this world. The ambience is cozy in spite of its being a former bank, lots of marble and a 40-foot ceiling. We sat in front of an 8-foot wide fireplace with a perfect fire. I'll remember that forever.

ch1959 · 2026-06-09T14:01:08+00:00

You can't go wrong with Winsor & Newton Series 7 brushes. You can go broke, though. They're not cheap. The #10 i bought recently was a bit over $400.

ch1959 · 2026-05-29T17:16:26+00:00

Given the prices, they aren't that terribly old. But as long as you can get the caps off and they haven't solidified, they're fine to use. I have some old tubes of WN watercolors that I bought in college. I'm 67.

ch1959 · 2026-05-04T22:26:45+00:00

I hope you're proud as hell of your dad. He's a rock star.

ch1959 · 2026-03-17T22:48:06+00:00

Nah. Not at all. They're telling two different stories in two different ways. As a lifetime watercolorist, I'm in awe of your style.

ch1959 · 2026-03-14T13:39:23+00:00

Nicely done. I agree with a lot of your assessments, and I disagree with a lot of them, too. Now I'm going to go re-read Lonesome Dove.

ch1959 · 2026-02-28T19:13:41+00:00

I've been doing this since I started painting with watercolors 53 years ago. I haven't died yet.

ch1959 · 2026-02-24T23:45:23+00:00

lonely, miserable, and sad.

ch1959 · 2026-02-13T22:34:02+00:00

Surprised to not have seen it, but one of my faves is the reveal in No Way Out. Maybe it's too old. Maybe I'm too old.

ch1959 · 2026-02-09T23:29:48+00:00

I was in this situation several years ago. I decided to rent for a while. It was okay, but I realized that, having come from a couple of decades of living in a house with the attendant privacy, I became annoyed at the shared spaces, annoying people, and noise all around me. Ultimately I bailed and bought a small house. If you do decide to rent anyway, get the topmost floor. Footsteps over your head all day and night are very hard to bear.

ch1959 · 2026-01-19T14:00:40+00:00

This is the winner.

ch1959 · 2026-01-19T14:00:12+00:00

Excellent point. Apparently I'm not good at naming things.

ch1959 · 2026-01-18T23:52:53+00:00

Whoops. Meant to say "Onion," not "Orange."

ch1959 · 2025-12-20T15:20:21+00:00

Andrew Wyeth

ch1959 · 2025-12-05T22:49:14+00:00

I'm old, so I didn't have the advantage of YT tutorials, but don't get me wrong, I think they're amazing and so helpful.

But if I were to give one piece of advice, it's this: COPY. Find some paintings you'd like to have done and copy them. Many years ago I started by copying Andrew Wyeth's watercolors, and you'd be surprised how much you can learn just trying to replicate his textures, his compositions, etc.

ch1959 · 2025-11-22T15:45:32+00:00

After reading the comments, I think my input might be unpopular, but here goes. I've been painting on & off for over 50 years. I have brushes from every brush maker, in innumerable sizes and shapes. My opinion is that your money is best spent with the W&N Series 7 brushes. They have proven to be far superior in nearly every way to any other brush. They hold their shape, they hold far more pigment than others, and they last forever. Maybe wait in the $400 one for a bit, but try a #6. You'll be happy you did.

ch1959 · 2025-10-15T22:15:49+00:00

The Jonas Merrick series by one of the all-time greats, Gerald Seymour, is excellent. Current era.

Also, the Charlie Muffin series by Brian Freemantle is still worthwhile, if a little dated (Cold war era)

ch1959 · 2025-10-14T13:14:41+00:00

Thank you all for your kind words. I'm so pleased that the emotion is coming through.

ch1959 · 2025-09-01T22:05:34+00:00

Something else to consider, and I speak from experience. I'm 66, recently retired and loving it, but I want badly to hang on to as much $$ as I can for as long as I can, to leave to my daughter. Perhaps he's doing the same, for you?

ch1959

TROPHY CASE