One man in Virginia was a real practical joker. He caused a commotion in his neighborhood when he worked, stark naked, in his yard. He claimed he had a constitutional right to work disrobed around his own home if he wanted, but a Judge said "No, you don't."

That Judge in Virginia ruled that the Constitution guarantees freedom of speech, freedom of assembly and freedom of religion but it doesn't give a person the freedom to run around naked in the yard. The guy still thinks he has that constitutional right because he has been arrested several times for working outside in the buff.

Looking out the window and seeing some man puttering around in the yard in the nude would be as bad as those awful dreams I have where I find myself half dressed in a crowd of people and desperately looking for my clothes. I'm always glad when I wake up and discover it was only a dream.

I haven't sketched any April Fool pictures but I taught myself to draw after reading the book "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain." I don't have much problem with scenery but illustrating people is a different matter. I'm just not good at sketching people.

When I was taking classes at Front Range Community College I decided to take a Life Drawing class. Now in case you don't know what a Life Drawing class is, it's a class where you draw nude people. Various people told me drawing nudes was an excellent way to learn to draw people because you could see the muscles and lines. At that time I was working in Admissions and I took a lot of teasing over that class but I figured I needed all the learning I could get.

Now you might think a person who poses nude for an art class would have to have a spectacular body but that's not true. We had a different model almost every class and I only saw one I thought had a good physique. The rest were too fat, too old or too skinny. A fee of $25 was paid to the model and I must say it wasn't very good pay because they had to sit au natural and keep perfectly still for a couple of hours while we drew.

I was happy when at the end of the semester we had a couple of models who wore a little covering. I can't say I learned much from that class, I still couldn't draw decent looking people.

When I went on to Metro State College and tried to find an art class that would fit into my schedule I couldn't find a thing, except Life Drawing II.

"Well, what the heck?" I thought. I lived through the first class and didn't suffer too much so I'd try it again and see if I could learn because I really, really, really wanted to learn how to draw people.

Metro didn't have the variety of models Front Range did but I managed past the time to drop the class and I was over half way through the semester when they brought in an old man. They brought him in not once, not twice but for every class. I don't know, maybe he gave them a discounted rate. Shoot -- I was 60 years old so I'm used to looking at wrinkles in the mirror but this old guy must have been 70 if he was a day, he was a real antique and he was so crumpled he looked more like he'd been folded.

I went to class faithfully for awhile, but finally I broke. One day I started in the door of the classroom and there was that same old bird sitting without a stitch of clothes on. I took one look.

"Oh, no," I moaned. "I can't stand to look at him again," so I skipped class. I took my drawing material and walked down to the 16th Street mall. I drew the old Daniel's and Fisher's Tower. It had a much nicer shape than that old chap.

I had such a good time that day I decided to go to the 16th Street Mall just one more time, then I had to go back to class. But when I peeked in the class there was the old wrinkled bird again so I took off to the Mall to draw again.

After awhile I just stopped checking and every class I enjoyed my freedom to draw what I wanted. For some reason I was never able to force myself back into that room, but since we didn't take tests I figured I'd gone over half of the semester so maybe I would scrape through with a C.

Well, the joke was on me! When I got my grades in the mail I opened them up and there staring me in the face was the first and only F I ever got in my whole school life. And I never did learn how to draw people!