I really like Pinterest. I find wonderful things that make my spirits soar, make me laugh, bring me to tears, and more. What I wish could be different is that people pin things and don’t tell you who the source is or where they found it. If I want to use it, I am unable to do anything but label it “Pinterest.” I find that frustrating, because I would love to tell you the artist who painted the painting. End of rant.
Filed under Watercolors I Love
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We’re just back inside from working in our driveway. Each time we don’t have a lot to do, we spend a bit of time in the driveway cutting back the branches that are encroaching on the driveway, forming a ‘tunnel’ now in some places. I jump up and grab a branch and bring it down with me, holding it down as far as I can while my husband lops it off as high as he can reach. I then haul it down the driveway some to a clearer spot on the ‘yard-downward-side’ and try to throw it off the driveway as far as I can. It doesn’t take long for us to call it a day, but we can see the progress we’re making.
Today was a bit harder because there were lots of briars attached to the branches. We did as much as we could with the loppers. My husband, thoroughly pooped at this point, went to sit in the truck while I did a bit more with my hand-held cutters. I cleared off the driveway a bit more of the stuff he had cut. Then we drove the rest of the way down, put our now-empty trash can back where it lives, got our mail, then drove down the road to the church to turn around.
Seton
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The road in front of the church had ‘road closed’ signs in both lanes, so I guess the bridge demo is going full steam today. We’ll have to go the back way to get to town until further notice.
Another day with no hot water. I’ll tell you it’s quite refreshing to ‘wash’ with a cold wet washcloth and then wash my hair in the sink with ice cold water. It’s a good cure for being sleepy. :0)
Our plumber called yesterday with a technical question about our tankless water heater system. My husband had to go down to the basement in order to answer it. Our plumber is going to come and ‘flush’ our system, hoping to get it working for us again. He’s trying to get here today or tomorrow.
We haven’t heard anything from the mattress lady on the warranty for the air pump on our bed.
And so it goes.
Filed under Thoughts on a ________
Filed under Ute Sturm Watercolors, Watercolors I Love
Amazon
I’m down almost 12 pounds now, so I’m encouraged that my current efforts are bearing fruit (if you’ll pardon the expression.) I have a LOOOONG way to go, so I’m just quietly smiling a bit, but it’s good to know that if I just ‘keep- on-keepin’-on,’ I may live long enough to see the results I would like.
I’ve changed two things –
THING ONE – I’m eating breakfast. Nothing fancy, my husband and I are eating Cheerios, blueberries, and milk.
THING TWO – I’m trying really hard to not eat anything in-between meals, before I go to bed, or allow myself to get up in the middle of the night and snack because I can’t sleep. (this has been hard, but has been the biggest reason I’ve been yo-yo-ing, so I’m trying to be really serious about it). I now picture myself getting on the scale in the morning and hoping to see a lower number.
As a preliminary, I checked what I’m eating on MyFitnessPal.com. It basically decided I wasn’t eating enough, but I’m paying attention to what I’m eating, trying to increase my veggies and fiber. I’m eating some fruit, some protein, some carbs.
I’m trying to drink more water. My exercise varies all over the place from basically nothing to being outside in the garden, then doing yoga and/or my elliptical trainer, and cleaning the house, all in the same day. I’ll concentrate on trying to even that out over time. Paying attention to my eating is enough for now.
Filed under DIET!, getting the lard off
Ryan Franco – Unsplash
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I’m disappointed. There was an unbelievable video on Pinterest yesterday showing a gazillion hummingbirds swarming several feeders. I laughed aloud watching them. I copied the URL so I could share it with you today, but no matter what I did, the URL wouldn’t embed. I finally gave up. I wish I could have made it work. I’m sorry. :0(
Today is the day the people are demolishing the bridge between us and town. We need to call in a prescription and go get it today, so we’ll go the back way for the first time. It’s been awhile, so I’ll pay close attention to the turn-off on the way home. I don’t think there is even a street sign there. I’ll try to find a landmark. Meanwhile, I’ll try to reach someone at City Hall to see if I can find out a ballpark estimate of how long it will take to build the new bridge.
We’re due for some rain today (yeah, I know. JUST what we need). We’ll get our errands done and then batten down the hatches for the rest of the day.
Peggy J. Hughes – FineArtAmerica.com – art; Anthony J. D’Angelo, quote.
Hoping for a quiet day here, and one for you, too. :0)
Filed under Thoughts on a ________
thegingerpowers.tumblr.com
Since so many things that I consider important can’t be done today, or at least WON’T be, I find myself extremely lazy, not wanting to do anything.
We had a nice lunch and then I got sleepy. The next thing I knew, an hour had passed! I’m up and alert now (I think :0) ) and I just cleaned up the kitchen after our lunch.
I’m not even in the mood to go up to my art room and start something. That’s REALLY unusual.
Maybe something will grab my fancy while I’m here at the computer…
Filed under Laziness - Sloth
Good Thoughts-Riny van Gend de Zeeuw-Facebook-Buddha Heart
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Enjoy your day.
Filed under Thoughts on a ________
Filed under Amanda Hawkins Art, Watercolors I Love
Tenor
The gang was almost all back together yesterday at Lunch Bunch. My husband stayed at the house to wait for the tankless water heater tech call/visit, but Kay and Bud were there, plus Linda, and me. It was a nice reunion after several weeks of disappointment.
We were all back in one piece and well. I enjoyed hearing what they had been up to and it was great to soak up all the smiles and laughter.
Filed under Friendship
Tenor
It was overcast when we got up. We ate breakfast and did our morning chores, opened up the front and back doors to enjoy the morning breezes and went into the office.
I looked out the window a few minutes later to see DARK skies and branches whipping around. We’re having quite a storm now! I shut the front door, but left the one to the porch open. How quickly things change!
The tech is coming sometime today to look at our tankless water heater. We are still without hot water and are hoping he can get it going again. If not, we’ll have to get another one ASAP and installed while having to resort to wash cloths and cold water hair washings. Happily, our machines, like the dishwasher and the clothes washer, heat up the water used, so we’re not completely back in the Stone Age.
On a happier note, the replacement battery pack we ordered for our cordless vacuum cleaner arrived yesterday. We got it installed and everything is on the charger. I’ll try it later today to make sure it works as it should. I’m delighted. I also got the full size vacuum cleaner’s filter back in and the clean canister put back on the machine. My husband took a large piece out to the shop and used the air compressor to blow LOTS of dirt out of it, so it’s almost like it has been to a refurbishment center. :0)
The lady who is handling whether we’re under warranty for the bed pump is to be back in the office Monday, so we should get an answer soon after.
Maybe we’ll get things back together around here one of these days.
Filed under Thoughts on a ________
Filed under Amanda Hawkins Art, Watercolors I Love
a5.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net
nickmackmansculpture.co.uk
davidfieldsculpture.co.uk
Filed under Nick Mackman Animal Sculpture, sculpture
unknown
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We have a backup regular type hot water heater. We try to have backups on everything we consider important because we live at the top of a ridge line, up a steep driveway, outside of town and many times are ‘on our own’ during bad weather situations, etc.
Since our tankless water heater threw its hands up in the air and yelled ’13!” whatever that means and quit providing hot water a couple of days ago, my husband decided to light the pilot light on the backup heater so we would have hot water while we tried to find someone to help us with the tankless. After a lot of effort, we finally admitted defeat on getting the pilot light lit and called our wonderful plumber to see if he or his assistant could help us on their way home from work.
The assistant showed up very quickly. (He had to walk up the majority of our 650+ foot driveway because his tires don’t have a lot of tread and his truck wouldn’t come up.) H found that one of the hoses had a leak. He and our plumber worked together, got a new hose and installed it. He still couldn’t get the pilot light to STAY lit. On further examination, he found that several of the fittings and connections had simply rotted out after being in the basement over 10 years. He strongly suggested we drain it and get rid of it. We thought we would replace it, but our plumber said that the 40 gallon propane-powered water heater tank would cost over $700 now. OUCH! So, we’ve decided to get rid of the old one, and NOT have a backup system.
I had found a company who would send out a technician this afternoon. After talking to our plumber, though, we decided we would work with one of his buddies, rather than the larger company, who has a “come-out-and-look-charge-$89-then-leave-and-order-parts-to-come-back-later” routine.
My husband will stay home from Lunch Bunch today to wait for a call and for him to come. Our plumber got our model and serial numbers for the tankless. He said he would Google it and then contact his buddy about what to expect. I’m hoping that the tankless can be repaired. If not, we’ll order another one through him and have him install it. The super-expensive part of this installation was all the stainless steel routing of the propane to the system in the basement (which cost more than the system) and that shouldn’t have to be redone. It’ll be bad enough, though.
As this is only one of the challenges we’re dealing with lately, it’s a bit hard to keep a smile on my face. It’s easier when I think about all I have, and the fact that I’ll be seeing at least one good friend at Lunch Bunch in about an hour. :0)
Filed under Thoughts on a ________
fineartamerica
Walk in Fog – Sabantha – fineartamerica
Filed under Watercolors I Love
“Dorky Dogs” – Liucija Adomaite and Justinas Keturka – BoredPanda.com
We’re having a quiet day here so far. That’s good because the stress level here has been higher than we would like for a couple of weeks now.
Rheem Tankless Water Heater
This has been wonderful. We’ve had ours for several years now and never had a problem. Now we have a ’13’ code. On the net it says that means “water heater has buildup of lime deposits, or air intake or vent exhaust opening may be blocked, or vent pipes may not be connected properly, or the gas shut off valve is not fully opened, or gas service has been interrupted, or LP gas is running low.’ If we check all these and the code is still showing, call service tech for service.
I’ve decided that there is little that is a better wake up call for me than washing my hair in the sink with stone cold water. I did have the option last night of taking a cold shower and THEN washing my hair in cold water this morning, but decided I could simply skip that for one day.
Dyson – Amazon
Hopefully, we will receive the battery pack part we ordered as a replacement for the part that is not working in my cordless vacuum today, AND that it is the correct one, AND that the vacuum again works after we get the part in. I really like this for vacuuming the tiled parts of our first floor. It’s so quick and easy compared to the full-sized plug-in version. I’ve gotten spoiled. :0)
Comfortaire Selenia
We didn’t hear anything from the mattress lady yesterday. Hopefully she’ll contact us today with what we need to do to tackle the problem of the failing air pump on the bed.
I finished the weeding in my raised bed square foot garden recently. We took two heads of lettuce to our wonderful hairdresser when we went for my husband’s haircut. He was very pleased, and I so enjoy sharing the wealth. I’ll probably harvest another couple of heads today. I’ll also start emptying the 2nd failed planter box of the Mel’s Mix today. I’m putting the soil alternative in big trash cans, as the mix is expensive. We aren’t in any rush to build replacement planters, as we have plenty of space to plant whatever else interesting that we find in town, but I would like to get this phase of the garden project finished.
My painter’s water bowl is still on my side table beside my computer. My days are whizzing past my head they are going so fast. It seems I barely start the day and it’s over. I will try again today to at least get it up to my art room, if not try it out. Such a thoughtful gift for my husband to get for me. :0)
I hope that you have some fun projects going on, and that you are not too adversely affected by the bad air quality caused by the wildfires in Canada. We MAY get some rain this afternoon and this evening. That would be nice.
Happy Thursday.
Filed under Thoughts on a ________
YouTube – MarDominoes
Right now it feels as if my husband and I are in the middle of this with dominoes falling in front of us, ready to knock us over, and the speed is increasing.
It started with our Sleep-Number-bed-competitor air pump beginning to fail. We have now submitted our paperwork to see if we’re still under warranty for help. Of COURSE, they are not making the bed we bought anymore, and we’re not sure if replacement parts are available.
Following this closely, my cordless vacuum is no longer charging. I keep it on the charging station, but it only works a minute or so and then quits. We THINK we found a compatible replacement battery, and we’re supposed to get that tomorrow.
Various fluorescent lights aren’t coming on when we flip the switch. Sometimes they’ll come on if we flip the switch several times. Sometimes the lights will come on LATER. We’ll be sitting there and the light just comes on after not working for half an hour or more.
We had no hot water this morning. We have a tankless water system. My husband checked the read-out downstairs and it said ’13.’ We have no clue what that means. He reset the system and we’re hoping that solves the problem.
Two of the six veggie planter boxes we built several years ago are failing. The bottom actually fell out of one of them, dumping the soil alternative on the ground. The other one is sagging visibly, ready to fall in at a moment’s notice. I’ve removed the Mel’s Mix from one of the planters, and will tackle the 2nd one probably tomorrow.
These are just the things that come to mind as I type. I’m sure others will occur to me after I finish this. I wish I could just hit the ‘off’ button as I do when I’ve chosen a movie on TV that turns out to be a real loser, or the ‘delete’ button when a Kindle book is appallingly bad. Sadly, real life is a series of character-building exercises, and I feel I should have had at least a class or two in how to handle it better.
Filed under Challenges, character-building exercises
The plants are looking healthy. If they spill out in the way of the lawn mower, I’ll trim them, but other than that, I’ll just let them do what they want this year. Last year I trimmed them pretty severely, following some directions I found on the net that was supposed to increase our yield. I think I’ll just let them do their thing this year and see what happens. I’ll fertilize again next week.
Filed under Gardening, Square Foot Gardening - Raised Beds
Temu is a deeply discounted collection of ‘stuff’ that’s hard to resist.
This was delivered today. My husband bought it for me, and I think it’s ingenious. It’s a water supply for painters, with the reservoir to clean your brush in the bowl part with the green in the center. After you’ve rinsed your brush, you push the green button with the spring, and it ‘flushes’ the dirty water down below and refills the reservoir with clean water. It’s supposed to have enough water for 30 ‘flushes.’ I may actually make time to go up to my art room to try it today. It only took us about 20 minutes to put it together. :0) Supposedly, it sells for around $30, but we paid $6.00.
Be careful, though, this site is addicting. You’re paying almost nothing for each thing, and yet you keep putting more in your cart.
You’ve been warned.
Filed under Bright Ideas
A favorite trilogy of ours is the one by Sieg Larsson. We call it “The Dragon Series”, but it consists of three books, “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo,” “The Girl Who Played with Fire,” and “The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest.” The books were later made into movies, and therein lies the debate – who did the best job as the main character, “Lisbeth Salander” ?
I just tried to look up the three movies and their casts, and it’s confusing, to say the least. The bottom line is that the main male character was played by Michael Nyqvist and then by Daniel Craig. We think Michael Nyqvist did the better job.
There were three actresses who played Lisbeth Salander: Noomi Rapace, Roony Mara, and Claire Foy. Each was interesting, but we like Noomi Rapace better. We haven’t seen her in anything else, and the other two actresses have each been in several other things.
If you haven’t read the books and seen the movies, dive in. They are a real experience. If you HAVE, please join the debate.
Filed under Book - Movie - TV Reviews
Phase 1 (of 3) is done!
I just came in from weeding the garden boxes. (Phase 1)
I will harvest the head lettuce over the next week or so, depending on the weather. (Phase 2)
The last phase is finishing cleaning out the 2nd of the two boxes whose bottoms gave up so that we can rebuild them when the time seems right.
Since my spinach and head lettuce crop has gone so fast due to Mother Nature sending way too much rain, yo-yo temps and premature summer temperatures now, I’m going to think about whether I want to replant with whatever is available that looks good at the sources in town.
I brought in 3 heads of lettuce that are soaking in the sink now. I’ll clean them up in a few minutes. I’ll take two of them to give to our terrific hair stylist when we go for my husband’s haircut tomorrow. Guess who will be having some salad tonight!
Tomorrow I’ll check on the tomatoes on the opposite end of our yard and take some pics to share with you.
Hope you’re having a nice Tuesday.
Filed under Gardening, Square Foot Gardening - Raised Beds
Nanea Hoffman – Sweatpants and Coffee, LLC 2022
This one hit me right between the eyes this morning.
I’ve been overwhelmed lately by the awful state of the world, Mother Nature crashing down on people, fear caused by clashing of countries, bad policies wreaking havoc, and petty people just being mean unnecessarily, so I’ve been escaping.
I’m very thankful I have so many ways to escape things that are bothering me –
While I spend time trying to avoid what is happening around me that I can’t control, Nanea Hoffman is reminding me that “sometimes we forget how beautiful it is to be here, on this Earth, right this moment. Life, for all its difficulties, is still a wonder. And so are you.”
A funny example of this is –
hahahahahahahahahaahahah I’ll bet that each person who has an account on Twitter got one of these on their page today.
Filed under Favorite Quotes
YouTube-Nerd Nite
Jim Henson left a lasting, creative footprint that changed the lives of children all over the world.
Sesame Street – Jim Henson’s Creature Shop
I don’t remember how old I was when I first saw The Muppets on Sesame Street or The Muppets Show, but it was love at first sight. The whole idea of puppetry was forever changed. The closest I’ve seen before or since was in some of the characters created by modern ventriloquists.
Even though he died when he was only 53, his creativity changed the world.
“A statue of Henson with Kermit was erected on the campus of Henson’s alma mater, the University of Maryland, College Park in 2003.” ~ Wikipedia
“Disney artists Joe Lanzisero and Tim Kirk drew this tribute of Mickey Mouse consoling Kermit the Frog, which appeared in the Summer 1990 issue of WD Eye” ~ Wikipedia
I hope that he knew how much his vision brought joy to people, aside from the Grammys and other awards and tributes. I picture him seeing the delight in the faces of children (and adults) as they enjoy the colorful world he created.
Filed under Favorite People
creativeartworksblog 