Inside The Lines

When I was in early grade school, one of my favorite subjects was 'Art', which I think was just a way for the nun to get some rest while we drew pictures. It always made me happy when the teacher would pass out the construction paper, and announce, "Everybody, get out your crayons.". I of course, would pull out my little box of eight crayons, that had been passed down through generations, and begin my masterpiece.

While I labored away, trying to express myself with little stubs of red, blue, green, and yellow, there would always be one girl in class who would pull out her giant box of 256 crayons. It looked like a tier of stadium seats, populated by people wearing various colored hats. While I struggled to get the color of the sky correct, she would be choosing from multiple hues of crayons marked 'cerulean', 'periwinkle', and 'blue bell'. I don't think she even had a crayon simply called 'blue'.

This past weekend, in preparation for our Memorial Day party, Mark and I, decided to repaint the coping around the swimming pool. I had wanted a muted, dusky, green color, but Mark picked a blue-gray color that looked nice. So with a can of blue-gray paint and a roller, I went to work on the pool. I have never been able to stay inside the lines going back to my childhood coloring books, so it was inevitable that I would slop paint on the tiles in the pool. This caused Mark to run around the pool waving his arms and screaming at me in his most high pitched, and irritating voice, "Why didn't you tape it! You always do things half-assed!". But Mark was wrong. I was definitely doing it 'whole-assed' and had thought it out before I started painting. With a little elbow grease and a Scotch-Brite pad from the kitchen the paint came right off the tiles, calming Mark.

I was wondering, if my dog Molly had hands, could she paint and not get one drop of paint where it doesn't belong? I base this on the way she eats leftovers I give her after dinner. I will put a plate covered with meat scraps, gravy, mashed potato bits, and assorted vegetables on the floor for her to lap up. Within thirty seconds every last bit of food on that plate will be gone and like magic the plate will licked clean all except for the vegetables. They will still be resting on the plate, licked clean of all evidence that there ever was anything else on that dish.