It's been cloudy around here lately, cloudy and stormy. I love this, I think I've mentioned that fact before. I'm not focusing on my love of stormy, grey weather this morning, however. Cloudy weather means many things to me, but, primarily, it means I've got work to do. I am, you see, the cloud animaler for my county.
I first got into cloud animaling when I was in high school and needed a little extra spending money. It pays pretty well because it's a difficult and dangerous job. You have to fly the invisible helicopter, with the black-ops rotor-silencer, and operate the cloud trimmer at the same time. It takes concentration and skill just to handle the technical aspect of the job. What differentiates one cloud animaler from another, however, is the quality of the cloud animal they sculpt. This is the art of the craft. I hate to brag, but I'm pretty good at this part.
A good cloud animal has to be clear enough to suggest the intended animal to an onlooker, but vague enough that his friends can't really see it. A novice cloud animaler struggles to find this balance. Too much realism and people start voluntarily checking in to the loony bin. A really good cloud animaler, like me for example, can actually shape clouds so that one person sees them as a sheep while another person - standing right beside the first person - sees an elephant. Once I had five people swearing that the other four must be blind if they can't see the gorilla/bat/cow/kangaroo/cobra. It was a day I'll never forget.
It always makes me sad, though, when my clouds blow into Dallas County and Shirley, that no-talent hack, mutilates them. One thing you learn as a cloud animaler, though, is that you can't hold on to the clouds. You can't fight the prevailing winds. You have to take joy in the next job, and the memories of the last one. It's a little like painting masterpieces on a roll of paper as it's being fed into the shredder. Can this be discouraging? Yes, but it also teaches you to appreciate a thing while it's there. There are, after all, lots of Shirleys in the world.
Hello, friends. How are you today?
Later. Love.
