Barbecue anyone?

Well it finally happened, winter came to Maine. For some reason the jet stream has been circling the storms around us and though we're usually dumped on for months at a time, it took until January to really see much of it this year.

Out in the cold.

I like this picture for several reasons. The most obvious is it's a visual oxymoron. The hot grill chilling out. A reminder of summer stuck in winter. (I could come up with a few more) Sometimes in Maine we barbecue in winter. Especially for football games. Use your imagination and place a Patriots helmet atop the snow covered grill and it bares a very close resemblance to #75, Vince Wilfork. Go Patriots! I smell Superbowl Champions...

Ok, now that I got that out of my system, lets talk about Out In The Cold. It's how I felt yesterday...

I recently joined facebook. I know I'm really late in doing so, but I had my reasons. I'm still trying to find my way around in it. Unlike blogging, I find it a bit confusing. I stumbled upon an artist and noticed his friend list was filled with a lot of artists. It was like hitting the jackpot. I like being connected to other artists, so I decided to start sending friend requests to them.

One artist, led me to other artists, which in turn led me to even more. Wow, I thought. This is pretty cool! What a great opportunity to meet lots of new artists. My mouse was running ramped, clicking on artists. A simple message, copied and pasted on each read, Hi. I'm an artist.

It was all that was needed. My mail box was filling fast with acceptances. As people returned to their computers, adding an artist wasn't a problem. Isn't that wonderful about artists? We are already connected and have so much in common. There's no hesitation when asked to be a friend to another.

Suddenly I was really liking this new experience. The excitement rushed through me. I was setting ground to meet and discuss with artists from all over the world!

And then it happened. I was sent Out In The Cold!

Facebook blocked me from sending anymore friend requests. And just as I was thinking it was a cool place to be... Not only did I get blocked, but all the pending friend requests were removed! I guess facebook doesn't understand that artists are fine with lots of artists friends. It seemed strange to me that the pending ones were removed. How can that happen if it's already in someone's mailbox? I suppose facebook thought I was spamming, but seriously if someone didn't want to be my friend, they didn't need to accept.

So just like my grill out in the cold, there I stood too.

The block is for 2 days. It's like being grounded or something. What a strange feeling. So next time I start clicking that friend button, I wonder how many it will let me send before it shuts me down again?

The sun is shining brightly here. I think I'll go paint before the big game tomorrow...