Another summer has come to an end. I always feel down whenever summer's over, as it's my favourite time of the year. Onwards we go, though.
I've mentioned many times about the news - as much as I try to avoid it, I somehow always end up hearing about everything that's going wrong in this world, from horrible tragedies to political madness. Then I just have to remind myself that 95% of what I hear, what we all hear is blown out of proportion, sensationalised to get ratings. To quote a famous saying, and also the title of a canny good Jamie Lenman song, "No News Is Good News" - I choose to put the mute button on, avert my eyes from all the dread, and to just live my life.
In my July blog I mentioned the passing of Chester Bennington, the singer of Linkin Park - I say this as a reminder that depression is a sickness, and not something to be taken lightly, regardless of what the media might want you to believe. I'm not going to name any names, but there was a time this month that someone close to me was swallowed up by that depression, and myself, friends and family found ourselves unable to reach that person. This isn't the first time that it's taken hold of that person, and I fear that it won't be the last, but this is why it's important to reach out. I can't stress it enough - if you're feeling depressed, talk to someone. Shutting people out is too easy to do, and while it may feel like it makes it all better, it really doesn't. Aye, it's hard to see the light when you're in that hole, but just remember - you're not alone. We all have times where a dark cloud hangs over us, but that cloud always eventually passes.
To better news now - things could be looking up on the job front. As I type this, I have a job interview lined up for September 1, I will let you know how that went in next month's blog. I also helped out my wife Nicole at her workplace on a couple of days towards the end of this month, setting up meals for the staff on their morning training sessions. It was very busy but it felt good to help out.
One of those days was August 21, which as most of you know was the day of the solar eclipse. One of Nicole's co-workers was kind enough to lend me a pair of special glasses to check it out, and while the full total eclipse wasn't visible in my area, I was still able to see a partial eclipse, it was quite a sight, but you don't need me to tell you that.
We also made the most of the warm weather this month by hitting a few beaches, including a couple we'd never visited before. Probably the most notable trip of this month was to the Roger Williams Park & Zoo in Providence RI - definitely a great place to visit with a wide variety of animals to see, and the park was very relaxing too.
We were also at Foxwoods Casino on August 4th to see Dashboard Confessional and The All-American Rejects play, both bands put on a good show, and Nicole was singing along to every Dashboard song, as she is a huge fan of them.
On the artwork front, I've been busy working on the first Fyfe & Sparkplug comic, as of this blog I have 7 pages ready to go. It's certainly a challenge and as I am planning to try and get this comic published, I really want it to be as good as it possibly can be.
I'll leave you with a bit of summer themed artwork, my Surf Club characters enjoying some waterslide action. See you in Autumn.
