It’s Friday the 13th today. I mean, it feels like it’s Friday the 13th every day, except Fridays are usually good. Look, the world is feeling pretty shite right now isn’t it, it’s hard to deal with the news everywhere, it’s hard enough to deal with daily life going back and forth. I’m not even glued to the news, and try to limit social media for the weight it places on you mentally, but the world keeps happening. I try to deal with it by putting a pen on a piece of paper and looking at something while moving the pen around and making a pattern that looks like the thing I’m looking at, and I find that relaxing, and sometimes when it turns out well I feel like I’ve achieved something positive. A small achievement every day can make a difference, even if it’s a small difference. I wasn’t in a great mood last Saturday for whatever reason, and though I did get out for a first decent run in a while (my leg’s been hurting, limiting my running) I pretty much stayed inside, watched the football (Spurs won again and hey, we are top of the league! That’s definitely not shite), watched the Rugby World Cup (I’ve been getting really into that) and then decided that I really needed to get out for a bit in the late afternoon to do a sketch and pick up some Octoberfest beer. It was still really hot, mid-90s, and not massively comfortable sketching weather. I got a cold drink at Newsbeat and went down to 2nd Street, stood outside El Patio Mexican restaurant, and drew the Hunt Boyer Dresbach Mansion on the corner of 2nd and E, one of the really old historic buildings of Davis. Or Davisville, as the town – not yet a city – was known then. Actually it’s the Dresbach Hunt Boyer Mansion. In my sketchbook I’ve written Hunt Dresbach Boyer which is totally wrong, but I’m getting forgetful. I wasn’t having a great week. The Dresbach was William Dresbach, the first postmaster for Davis, and it was apparently he who shortened the name from Davisville to Davis, probably envelopes were really small then. I’ve always found it a bit hard to draw, partly because that tree is always in the way. I didn’t go over and look at the City’s official seal which is right outside, and was recently raised above the ground, I should sketch it some time. When I say seal, it’s a huge round bronze plaque, not an aquatic mammal, or a singer from the early 90s. There were a lot of people around, it was late afternoon/early evening on a Saturday, and a couple of different people did say “Come on you Spurs!” and “Nice shirt! Tatten-ham!” to me as they passed, I was in my navy shirt from 17-18. Well we are top of the league now (don’t know if I mentioned that). That violinist who annoyed me that time was over the crossroads, but there was also a pianist playing in the little plaza by the mansion making some nicer music to fill the air. Still I mostly listened to podcasts about history, football, the Beatles, I don’t remember which now. I ended up feeling a bit too hot and sticky, and not really in the mood to soak up the downtown atmosphere, so I ended up stopping after all the penwork was done. I got a couple of Lego minifigures from the Avid Reader, some Hofbrauhaus beer from the Davis Beer Shoppe, and cycled home to finish the painting. At least I did a nice drawing. When the world is a big horrible ball of rubbishness, look for the good bits, and focus on them. Not everything’s shite.