beady-eyed monsters

I'm awake early this morning. I couldn't sleep. Actually I haven't been sleeping well lately. I keep having bad dreams. You see, something weird always happens around this time of year. And I don’t like it. People start acting very strangely. It creeps me out. They wear strange clothes. They cover their faces with other faces. Faces that aren’t theirs. Sometimes they aren’t even people faces. Rabbits, birds, even dogs! They take long walks in large groups. They sing. They hang coloured cloth from the windows. They go up and down the streets making terrible noises banging and rattling things. I don’t get it.

But the worst thing I ever experienced was a couple of years ago when I was visiting a friend far away from here. It totally freaked me out. There were these things, kind of like people – maybe they were people. I didn’t stick around to find out. They were completely covered up in a dark cloth, even the head, and all you could see of them were bare feet…. and, peering out from two holes cut in the cloth, two beady eyes. Eyes of a monster. 

I still have nightmares of these beady-eyed monsters.

Ahhhhh! I couldn’t stand it. All the fur on my back stood up. My chest started thumping really loudly. I started to shake all over. I was drooling (and believe me, I'm not a drooly kinda guy). I got out of there faster than a seagull can eat a sardine. And I’ve never been back.

Now every year when this period of weirdness rolls around I surround myself with friends. It just feels safer that way. Today I’m going to hang out with my friend Charlie Barker and his people.  They live in a house beside the beach in Burgau. The food there is always good and there’s a better than fair chance that his people will drop yummy things on the floor. And Charlie always eats so much at this time of year that he spends a lot of time snoozing. This is the perfect opportunity to make some sketches of him. If I manage to do any today I’ll post them here.

Watch out for the beady-eyed monsters!

Tchao-wow