My family has always celebrated Xmas by staying up till midnight on Christmas Eve so on Christmas Day there’s not a whole lot going on. Usually I’m out of town at a relatives house, just lounging around and hanging out with my cousins. This year, because of COVID, there was no get-together. Today I just hung out at home and didn’t do much besides watch tv and movies again. I didn’t want to end the day without doing something fartsy so I did a quick drawing called “Hail Santa,” cause it’s Christmas.

For as long as I’ve been around, and before I was born, my dad’s side of the family always got together to celebrate on Christmas Eve. It’s always been a big deal for the grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, nieces & nephews. It’s a long running tradition that had to be canceled this year because of Covid. Yes, it’s a bummer but today wasn’t a bad day. I hiked a couple more trails at the Sierra Vista Preserve this afternoon and got a little bit closer to completing the whole space. I just need to do the Upper Calaveras Fault Trail, east of the Cutoff Trail, and the Lower Calaveras Fault Trail, which is a doozy. Just the Lower Calaveras Fault alone is almost 10 miles round trip and a 5-6 hour trek. I’m thinking of doing one hike to finish the Upper portion and coming back another day, nice & early, to knock out the Lower part. Depending on the weather the next few days, and how much it rains, I might be able to 100% complete the preserve before the new year.

I'm almost done with these. I printed them out in different sizes and scribbled some notes on what needs tweaking. In the end they'll be printed on vinyl stickers.

I’m almost done with this one. Just needs a few more tweaks and color changes.

After drawing out some names as extra goodies for a couple kids who received t-shirts of mine as gifts I was asked to do some for my cousin. One is for his girlfriend's daughter and the other for his little brother. The difference with these is that they're going to be created digitally versus hand-drawn like the last two. I worked on Layla-Mae's all day Friday and just finished sketching it out around 5:30 AM Saturday. There's still a lot more work to do, besides digitally inking it, like tweaking the letters to make them look more like the others and coloring it all in. I've been having fun with this and can't to see it finished. When it's done I'm going to print them out on adhesive vinyl sheets to make stickers.

Tonight I took apart the two puzzles my grandma and I worked on while she was here at the house these last few weeks. It was fun working on them for hours but it was frustrating taking them apart. (as seen in the video below) I dropped grandma off at my aunt's house this morning and we agreed to do a new puzzle together the next time she visits.

Today my grandma and I finished the 1000 piece puzzle we started a couple days ago. Afterwards, because the air quality was good, (from the wildfire smoke) I went on a 5 mile hike/walk through Alum Rock Park and just a few minutes ago I sent off the revised design for that little job I'm working on. Time for bed.

My grandma and I started a new puzzle today. It's a collage of a bunch of old school games & toys. Together we did the border, minus a few pieces, before she went to bed. I took a break then came back to do a little more. The next thing I know it's been 6 hours and I've completed half, if not most, of the puzzle. 

I went out of town and saw my cousins and had a great time catching up but I've also been dealing with a toothache for a few days. I think a filling fell out. The pain has gotten worse so I've been popping lots of ibuprofen for a bit of relief. I'm hoping my dentist can get me in tomorrow to fix it.

As I mentioned yesterday, I’m out of town visiting family I haven’t seen since before Covid shut everything down. I’m still gonna be proactive as to not risk anyone getting sick after coming home but I needed this after 6 months of sheltering in place and not having anyone to talk to openly about everything that’s been going on.

I hung out with my buddy today who I haven't seen since March, before the shutdown. We met up at a park, stayed socially distant, drank some beers, drew in our sketchbooks and caught up after 6 months. On Sunday I'm driving up to Ukiah to visit my cousins. I don't think I've seen them since Christmas and I really miss them. It's gonna be hot as shit but we'll still have a good time, plus they have AC. I've been needing to see friends and family after sheltering in place for so long. I always feel better afterwards. I like to think of it as recharging the soul's batteries.

My grandma is visiting and, since we have plenty of time to kill at home, I thought it'd be a great time to start a new puzzle together. We did one a last year and it was a lot of fun. It's really interesting to see how my grandma tackles the puzzle versus the way I do it. She groups pieces by color then starts trying to put them together. I like grabbing pieces then looking at the poster to figure out where they go. That's how we roll. We're a few hours into this puzzle, and as you can see in the picture below, we're using two tables to work on it. I think the puzzle we did last year only took us a couple days and I kinda hope this one takes a little longer. If we finish early I'll probably go and buy another puzzle and maybe a game to pass the time with grandma.

I figured it was only a matter of time until weddings started getting canceled due to Covid-19/Coronavirus concerns. Tonight I found out the wedding I was supposed to DJ in two weeks got postponed. Last Friday the fundraiser I was working got canceled that very same morning. DJ events at this time of year are already slow to begin with. So are the festivals where I sell my shirts. Two events that I was going vend at next month also got canceled this week. I know I shouldn't complain and I will try and remain optimistic, but damn, most of my income comes from working events. I'm going to try and file an unemployment insurance claim next week. I'll also need to contact my bank regarding my car loan and my credit card provider to see what my options are for late payments. Money is gonna tight the next few weeks, or months. Aside from that I'm doing my best to stay healthy and positive during this weird & uncertain time. I hope you and your loved ones are too. Let's hope we get out from under this soon.

I've never been a fan of year-end wrap ups, best-of lists, top-9 pics... none of that. But I do want to shout-out everyone whose rocked a Frankie Mcfly t-shirt. Every time I saw a picture online of someone wearing one a took a screenshot. I made these collages today and uploaded them to Instagram. It makes me happy to see all their smiling faces. Some in beautiful places, some rocking out and some just doing their thing. Thank you so much to everyone that's been supportive of me and my lil endeavor. 


Cheers and Happy New Year,
Frankie

I'm heading out of town soon to hang with the family-bamily so I'm posting this now so I don't forgot and miss two in a row. Enjoy these old Xmas themed pics: Me as Santa, My homemade ugly sweater  with decapitated polar bear head and a Secret Satan gift tag. Happy Holidays from me to whoever's reading this shit.

I came out to Galt for my cousin Laura’s birthday party today. I’m spending the night but I can’t sleep. I’ve been laying here for a couple hours and I almost forgot to post to my blog.

Today I ate breakfast. Animated the arms on my little robot guy. Cooked my "household-famous" lentils, but was light on the lentils. Ate the lentils plus more food with the family. Watched the new Rick & Morty episodes. Read a couple comics and ate more food. The only thing left to do is post this blog entry and sleep off this food.

I drove back home from Ukiah today. It felt good to get out of the city and hang with my cousins Bob & Liz for a couple days. My souls battery was able to recharge bit. Now I'm looking forward to starting new projects and wrapping up old ones.

When I got into town yesterday it was already dark so I wasn’t able to see much. Today I was finally able to check out my cousin & his wife’s huge backyard in the woods and go on a short walk/hike near their home. Afterwards we went out for lunch, beers and groceries. At night we we lit the fire pit and gazed at the stars before coming in for dinner. It was a super chill, laid back Saturday.