Doppelganger is a German term meaning duplicate or double. My blog on Google's Blog Spot  is posted under my alias Doppelganger, which I meant to mean my evil twin. Why? Because my ascerbic wit, usually unspoken in polite society, is allowed out and about. I do have opinions. What 76 year old curmudgeon wouldn't. Everyone has opinions. My favorite quote, from I know not where, is "Opinions are like ass holes. Everyone has one and they all stink."

I plan to write on the blog and express some of my stinky opinions. You may hate them or love them. I frankly don't care. If you disagree, post a contrarian opinion. I'd love to hear from you. And please tell me what you like and dislike about the Greene Studios website. Are there subjects that you'd like to see me paint? Let me know that too.

See Doppelganger's blog at: http://dustdevilry.blogspot.com/ 

Rocky has been gone for over a month now

Rocky brought us much love and entertainment. The whole family has missed Rocky, which includes Rowdy.  Rowdy seemed very subdued for several weeks. He seemed to be looking for his buddy and constant companion. Neither my wife nor I could keep from tearing up just thinking about him, and many things called him to mind, particularly his soccer ball. I have decided that I need to paint the little guy so we can enjoy his handsome face all the time. He was with us only a couple of years but he will remain in our hearts forever. 

Getting there was to take the better part of four days and five flights. Our final flight took us from Belém to Manaus, 900 miles up the Amazon River. From there our mode of transportation switched from jet planes to a small wooden outboard motor boat. The trip to Ariau Amazon Towers, 35 miles up the Rio Negro, took an hour and a half.

The Rio Negro is truly black. The jungle, through which it flows, is flooded six  months of the year, leaching color and acids from the dead leaves on the jungle floor.  Fortunately, the acidic water prevents mosquito eggs from hatching. We brought mosquito protection with us but never used it. 

The first day at the Royal Livingston Hotel on the banks of the Zambezi River above Victoria Falls, we took a pontoon boat ride up the Zambezi River to see what sights the river had to offer from the water. The river was beautiful, but we saw few animals except for a lone rhinoceros and a few birds.

Rocky the Sheltie Soccer Champ takes his gamesmanship very seriously.  Rocky was rescued off a Louisiana highway by our son, Kevin.  A pizza truck driver was trying to run over the little guy.  Fortunately for the driver, Kevin was too busy rescuing Rocky to deal with the driver.  Little did Kevin know then what a rollicking soccer player he had encountered.

There is an interesting bird that lives in the southern part of Africa. It is the Hadeda Ibis, according to my friend David, who lives in Johannesburg. It looks like an Egyptian Ibis but is slightly different. David says they are probably a distant cousin. The Egyptian Ibis inhabits the parts of Africa north of Kenya and the Hadeda Ibis inhabits Southern Africa, in and around Johannesburg. They are a very large bird with a long curving beak, but what makes them interesting is not so much their looks as their habits. Whenever they take to the air, they squawk and raise such a noise that you would think someone was murdering them. They like to roost in tall trees. One particular flock of them liked to roost in the tall pine trees adjacent to our apartment in Johannesburg. They were early risers, often waking us with their loud squawking at first light, long before we wanted to leave our bed.

After we were settled comfortably in Sandton, in the north suburbs of Johannesburg, and with Peggy working long hours at the bank, I fell into a routine. I was the house husband doing the cooking and shopping, and painting on the patio until mid-afternoon. I usually went to the gym around 3:00 PM where I worked out for an hour. Then I would pick up Peggy and go home to prepare dinner. Following this routine I painted the 16 acrylics shown on this website over a period of ten months. At that time I had no ambitions of selling my works in galleries or on the Internet. I had never painted with acrylics before and was just interested in learning the medium. 

Having traveled only from Johannesburg about an hour by plane, we were ready for our first safari that first afternoon. We, and several other guests, gathered at the Land Rover where our guide, a strapping South African, and our native Tsongan tracker were waiting. The guide placed a rifle across the dashboard of the Land Rover as a precaution. The tracker took his seat on the left front fender so he could see the animal tracks in the dust in front of the vehicle. He had an uncanny way of spotting tracks and knowing how old they were. He could even spot a gecko in a tree as we drove by at 15 to 20 miles per hour. As we left the camp the guide announced that he had a surprise for us.

The Afrikaner has a well developed sense of humor.  Upon arrival at Johannesburg International Airport in 1985, my colleague and I were met by the head of the bank’s technical service and his assistant.  We had heard much about all the unrest in South Africa so my colleague was quite nervous.  I did not hear what she said to our host, but he drolly responded to her that we should stay inside until the shelling stopped.  The only possibility of shelling there would have involved a sack of peanuts.  We had arrived in the full knowledge that the government had issued a state of emergency, and his remark was not helpful to my young colleague.

On my first trip to Kruger National Park, I learned a lesson in South African courtesy, but I also learned that South Africans won't let the truth stand in the way of a good story. We were staying in cabins at one of the park’s compounds. Kruger is where they lock up the people, and the wild animals roam free. All cars check in at the gates, and all are accounted for in the compounds.  Under no circumstance are visitors to get out of their cars for any reason. Those in a stalled car may be there for hours until the rangers find and rescue them.  That is preferable to becoming an entree in the food chain.

Giraffes are fascinating and my favorite of all African animals.  I look at those long, graceful necks and am astounded that they have the same seven vertebrae that humans have.  I watch them stand in among the thorny Acacia trees and wrap their huge, thick tongues around the branches to strip away the leaves.  They seem oblivious to the wicked thorns.  These lovely creatures with their camouflage hides almost disappear among the sun dappled trees despite their imposing height.  They grow to nearly 20 feet tall.

The two male lions had given us yet another thrill that we hadn't counted on. We were not used to such scrutiny from dangerous, wild animals. It was almost dark at that point, when the radio crackled to life again. A leopard had been sighted.