In spite of my efforts, I gained back two pounds. UGH. I didn’t do it like this sweet doggie, by eating popcorn or anything on the deliciously bad list. My scales are laughing at me. I can feel it.
I will continue to be ‘good,’ and see if those two, plus some more, will come off.
Filed under DIET!, getting the lard off
Today we honor the men and women in uniform who have defended our country from those who would cause us harm. It’s a national day, but ultimately is very personal for each city and town. In Greenwood, Arkansas, where I live, the center of our small square is the Veteran’s Memorial. This is an old photo, but it gives you an idea of how the memorial looks today. There is a small bronze statue representing each service that are on the ground at the base of the clock. People have honored the veterans in their family, buying a small plaque which is engraved with the veteran’s name, rank, branch of service and dates. Newer plaques are added to the others from time to time. The park kind of resembles the spokes on an old wagon wheel now and each plaque has an American flag on days like today. There are sidewalks so that you can walk through reading the names, or sit on a bench.
The schools have assemblies honoring the veterans who wish to attend. There is a parade that goes around the square. Bands play. People remember. Veterans receive free meals today.
My husband served for 4 years in the Marine Corps before we were married. I told him I would like to buy a plaque for him to go in the park. He got upset with me, saying he didn’t ‘deserve to be there.’ He thinks that only veterans who died for their country should be there. We agreed to disagree.
I love this painting.
It will all depend on one detail to see if our day will go well or if we’ll have to regroup several times to get it all accomplished.
We need to –
I will make the call in about 5 minutes to get the essential detail answered that will determine whether we can do this all together and in one trip or regroup and take several trips.
Fingers crossed that this will all fit together smoothly and well.
Filed under Challenges
A couple of days ago my husband turned off the irrigation system to the planters in our yard, turned on the propane heater in the well house, and plugged in the electric heater out there. Several weeks ago I cleaned out my raised bed square foot planter boxes and put tarps over them for the winter.
Today I unhooked the hose on the outdoor agricultural faucet that goes to the garden and unhooked the garden irrigation system control and stored it in the shop.
I will now try to clear out and neaten things up for the winter in the yard, along the driveway, etc. so it looks like someone cares. I will try to do something out there each day where the weather is cooperative.
The end of the growing season makes me sad, but I realize that everyone needs a rest before the whole cycle can start again.
Filed under Fun with Fingerpaint, Gardening, Mother Nature, Seasons
“When an 85-pound mammal licks your tears away, then tries to sit on your lap, it’s hard to feel sad.” – Kristan Higgins
“A watchdog is a dog kept to guard your home, usually by sleeping where a burglar would awaken the household by falling over him.” ~ Unknown
“There is no psychiatrist in the world like a puppy licking your face.” ~ Ben Williams
“The most affectionate creature in the world is a wet dog.” ~ Ambrose Bierce
Filed under Amazing Animals, Favorite Quotes
We got our mail, left the trash for pickup, and went to the grocery store. My husband thought the snow tires we put on yesterday looked low, so when we came home, we drove the truck out to the shop so we could check the tire pressure.
And that’s where the frustration began. The air pressure tools we have are not cooperating. They don’t want to attach to the tire pressure “thingie’ on the tire the way they are supposed to. My husband is trying to do something to fix that problem now.
Since I’m useless in that situation, I decided to use the time to finish repainting the wart-hog that was damaged recently while on display. That is now finished again, and when it’s dry, we’ll hang it up on its storage hook with the rest of the decorations for the mailbox.
I’m planning to drive the truck down to the bottom of the driveway this afternoon and start the painting refurbishment on our greeting robot. That’s IF we can get the tire pressure problem checked and fixed and IF the weather will cooperate.
I hope that your day is without huge challenges.
UPDATE: It’s an hour later. My husband tried to fix the tools we have and was unable to. We have been back to town to buy a tire pressure gauge. The auto store didn’t have a replacement for the tool we had. My husband is checking and filling the tires now. He will probably try to find one on the net when we finish lunch.
Filed under Challenges
My husband and I are petting each other on the head because we just finished changing the regular tires on the truck for our snow tires.
No bad words, no tears were shed, no one was hurt, and high fives for all. We even had an easier time of it than we did last time, when two of the tires did NOT want to line up with the wheel studs.
The tires are on now safely, aired up to the proper pressure, and the truck is back in the garage. The shop has been straightened up and we’re having a cold drink and a good rest.
Hooray!
Filed under Seasons
I feel even more justified regarding my pet peeve, Daylight Savings Time, than I did when I wrote before.
We are still finding clocks to change. The last ones will be our vehicles
Amber shares my intense distaste for DST. She now runs around restlessly, whimpering at times, because we feed her, and our cat, Abby, at 7pm, right before we fix our own dinner. Her body clock tells her it is time for chow at 6pm now. She is very frustrated that we are asking her to adapt, still eating at 7.
Since I find it hard to adapt, as well as a pain in the rear to change all of our clocks, I shouldn’t be surprised that she is showing her upset, as well.
Good dog! :0)
Filed under Amazing Animals, Attitude, Pet Peeves
Filed under drawings, Lucy Wilson
I got sick Saturday right after lunch and have done absolutely nothing until now, so I can attest to the truth of this quote by one of my favorites, A. A. Milne.
You hear of people being asked, if they could meet and talk with someone from any time in history, who would it be? My personal list is long, but high on it is A. A. Milne, and his illustrator for the Winnie the Pooh books, E. H. Shepard. What imaginative, creative people! I love the compassion and the rich sense of humor shown in these books, as well. The artwork is so distinctive, simple, yet beautiful. This is one of my favorite quotes –
I’ve been a slug for a day and a half now, so I’ll have to redouble my efforts not to make it my new lifestyle.
Many things clamor for my attention. It will be difficult to choose which to tackle first.
Have a wonderful day, everyone!
Filed under Attitude, Favorite Authors & Books
I think these would be wonderful if they were created with paint or clay, but the fact that Calvin Nichols makes these out of paper blows my mind. I wouldn’t have the patience to do all the hair, for example, with a pencil, and yet you can see the individual hair in the fur, plus snow ON the fur. No words are enough.
Filed under Calvin Nichols, paper art
It amazes me that some people take a creative bent and keep creating until there is simply no one else in their class anymore. I feel that Petr Vaclavek – Dubanci.cz has achieved this level. I love the idea that he began this to entertain his kids and then got hooked, thinking of more and more ideas. Now it’s definitely an art form and he is the master.
Filed under acorn art, Petr Vaclavek - Dubanci.cz
I’ve been sick for almost two days now. I’ll try to be back here tomorrow. Be well.
Filed under taking care of yourself
“The owl,” he was saying, “is one of the most curious creatures. A bird that stays awake when the rest of the world sleeps. They can see in the dark. I find that so interesting, to be mired in reality when the rest of the world is dreaming. What does he see and what does he know that the rest of the world is missing?”
~ M.J. Rose
“He respects Owl, because you can’t help respecting anybody who can spell TUESDAY, even if he doesn’t spell it right.” A.A. Milne
“I think I’m a tiny bit like Harry ‘cos I’d like to have an owl. Yeah, that’s the tiny bit, actually.”
~ Daniel Radcliffe
“A wise old owl sat on an oak; The more he saw the less he spoke; The less he spoke the more he heard; Why aren’t we like that wise old bird?”
Filed under Amazing Animals, Favorite Quotes
I don’t waste a lot of energy on it, but Daylight Savings Time is one of my Pet Peeves. It makes me angry twice every year.
In my humble – but vocal – opinion, it should never have been created in the first place. Congress said it was to help the farmers, but they get up with the sun anyway, many times before the sun is up, so what difference does it make to them what the clock says? They do what they need to do when they need to do it.
It is also said Daylight Savings Time gives us an ‘extra hour of daylight’ in the evening. Again, if people are going to do yard work, play outside, cook out – whatever – it doesn’t matter what time the clock says. If it’s light, that’s fine. If it isn’t, we do have and use electricity to turn on a light….
If you can tell me a good reason for this practice, I’ll honestly consider changing my mind. In the meantime, however, my attitude is BAH – HUMBUG as I change all the clocks in our home and in our vehicles again late tonight.
Filed under Attitude, Pet Peeves
Filed under drawings, Niki Firmin - Pet Portraits
Filed under Morten E. Solberg, Watercolors I Love
We just got back from Lunch Bunch and errands.
Our friend gave us quite a ‘thank you’ today for making the Freedom sign for her last week. She paid for our lunch, brought us a home-baked cake/bread with a huge, pretty bow on it, and hugged both of us. I feel that we should make her another sign for the extremely nice ‘thank you’! :0)
The sign said, “Don’t want $ – Want FREEDOM.” She stood on the side of the road across from a busy intersection off the expressway in Ft. Smith. She had a flag in one hand and the sign we made in the other. She said she had people honking and waving, and one man rolled down his window so he could yell, “Freedom!” and smile. It was a good experience for her and probably made some people who saw her happy.
(I’m happy to report that no one has damaged Yosemite Sam (our mailbox decoration) today. I’m relieved, and I hope to be able to one day take it for granted again, rather than driving down our driveway with dread. I will try to finish the repainting of the back of Wonder Wart-Hog this afternoon.
I hope that you are having a happy day, too.
Filed under Friendship, kindness, Lewis Mailbox Decorations, Lewis projects
Just between us, I’m getting really tired of painting the Wonder Wart-Hog mailbox decoration. This is one of my husband’s favorite comic book characters, so I really tried hard – though totally out of my league – on painting him. After we cut him out, he was essentially a green blog with a head and a nose.
I finally finished doing the best I could, and my husband was pleased.
Then, while we had him up on the mailbox, someone sprayed the back with ‘something.’ When we brought it in, I had my husband put him on my painting table in the shop so I could clean him.
I spent an hour trying to get whatever it was off. I finally gave up and started trying to re-paint him.
I have now spent three days working on it again. I THINK I will be able to finish it today. I really don’t enjoy this piece. It points out my lack of expertise on painting body and muscle – something I try to avoid. :0)
I have never understood people who do this kind of thing. Thankfully, this is the first time it has happened to us in over 30 years of living here. I’m really hopeful that this was a one-time thing. If it keeps happening, we’ll have to stop displaying the decorations and that would take a lot of fun out of life for us and the people who DO like what we’ve done.
We have Yosemite Sam up now. Every time we go out, I brace myself to face another case of damage. I really hope this can be just a bad memory one day.
Filed under Matt Dixon - Robot Art
I particularly love these because of the poses. A dog lover can’t see these without breaking out into a great big grin.
I’m back to “Ground Zero” this morning with 30 lbs. off. I’m hopeful that I can continue the onward and downward trend now, even though it’s Lunch Bunch today.
I’ve been able to talk myself out of over-eating at our mid-afternoon snack, and I’ve been sleeping better, so I’m not up in the middle of the night – my biggest temptation time.
I’m trying to talk to myself (I do that a lot :0) ) telling myself how happy I will be if I start a new 5 pound goal instead of re-losing what I’ve lost before.
Hopefully, the next time I report, I’ll be able to tell you I’m into new territory!
Fingers crossed and mouth firmly shut.
Filed under DIET!, taking care of yourself
I just got home from the EXTRA massage that my sweet cousin gave me as a “just because” present. She is – bar none – one the truly NICE people in the world.
I feel wonderful. Relaxed and limp as a noodle right now. Nothing hurts. :0)
I’ll fix us some lunch and then probably spread out and take a nap in my recliner.
This is the life of a truly spoiled lady.
Filed under Delightful Surprises
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