Devon Rodriguez is a New York City artist. He offers drawing lessons, and custom portraits. He keeps his skills sharp – and just seems to have fun – sitting on the subway or a train and sketching random people who interest him. When the sketch is finished, he simply goes to the person, says, “Excuse me, Ma’am, I drew you,” handing the person the sketch. When people offer to pay him, he tells them it’s free. Their delight will warm your heart.
There are more of these on YouTube. His website is Devon Rodriguez Art.com Enjoy. Warning: you may become addicted to watching these. :0)
Yesterday I managed to sneak out and take the trash down to the bottom of the driveway and deal with the humongous trash can without incident. My husband listened to my, “I’ll get the mail,” and didn’t even think about the trash. Today I’m hoping that I can do the same, tethering the empty trash can back to the pole. Fingers crossed. His back is getting better, but he’s still in pain and still refusing to see a doctor.
I started ‘garden tea’ yesterday, making a mixture of 1 part worm castings to 3 parts water in two buckets. It was supposed to ‘steep’ 12 to 24 hours, so I’ll pour some of it on the tomatoes and the rest of it on my square foot garden plants this morning. I’m eager to see if I’ll be able to see any difference in my plants this season. I have the two planters of tomatoes and then four of six 4′ x 4′ boxes planted with spinach and head lettuce plants so far.
We’re due for more severe weather on Thursday (oh, GOOD!) – just what we needed. One of my online friends was talking about snow in the Denver area, so that made me feel guilty about griping.
Later this morning I’ll attempt to share a video of an amazing artist I found. His name is Devon Rodriguez. He does sketches of random people on either trains or the subway in New York mainly. When he finishes, he goes to the person and says, “Excuse me, ma’am/sir. I drew you.” He then hands them the sketch – which is stunning. He won’t accept money. It’s free. Online he offers art classes and commissioned work. He just loves to sketch and ‘practices’ his skills this way. I hope I can share one of the videos with you.
Can you hear me gnashing my teeth from where you are?
It’s still morning and I may be completely bald by the end of the day from tearing my hair out, or hoarse from going outside to yell.
You know my husband ‘pulled on something’ in the shop and heard a ‘pop’ hurting his back. You know he refuses to go to the doctor. I told you in my first post that he INSISTED he accompany me to Walmart yesterday. He ALSO insisted that we stop at the Sonic for a large banana milkshake, though he is a Type II diabetic. (He denies this, saying he has a ‘sugar problem.’)
So – we tested blood sugar and blood pressure this morning as we do twice a week. He was shocked that his blood sugar was 185. He was piously telling me he didn’t eat a ‘sugar ball’ (an apple tart) for TWO days. I pointed out that he had a large banana shake yesterday, and he then had to admit that THAT wasn’t a smart thing to do.
I started gathering trash and had to tell him “NO” firmly when he started to get up to help, pointing out that he was having pain when he walked, got up, or sat down this morning and should be resting all day. He grudgingly said, ‘okay.’
We’ll probably have the same or worse ‘discussion’ later this morning when it’s time to take the trash down. I’m going to try to sneak out and get it done while he’s taking a nap in his chair. I already have the bags of trash in the back of the truck.
This is the same man who was explaining details neglected in the ’60 Minutes’ two segments on Artificial Intelligence last night…
It’s a beautiful day here. I feel a bit like the aftermath of riding a roller coaster too many times. One day the day will be perfect. The next – huge hail and flying hairballs. Spring is usually volatile, but Mother Nature is taking it a bit too far this year for me.
I got the six king-sized sheets I used to protect the plants washed and folded yesterday. Today I’ll bag them up and take the bag out to the shop again so they’ll be ready for the next time. I’m also gathering trash and taking it down for pickup tomorrow.
I’m going to TRY to be sneaky about it. My husband’s back is still hurting. He INSISTED on going with me to Walmart yesterday. He did okay, but he’s having trouble this morning, so I think it was too much too soon. He really doesn’t need to be hauling trash or trying not to slide when dealing with the huge trash can at the bottom of our driveway.
The exciting day will also include paying bills, filing, and starting my first bath of ‘garden tea’ from the worm castings I got last week. I’m hoping that the plants really love that. I’ve read how to make it online, but I’ll also check the bag itself and go by any instructions I find. I know I have to steep it for 24 to 48 hours, so it’ll be at least mid week before I use it.
I hope that the weather where you are is calm and comfortable and that you have something fun planned today. Enjoy your Monday.
We were due for severe weather with large hail yesterday afternoon through the evening. I debated how best to try to protect my young plants and decided clothes-pinning sheets above and around the plants was best, though if we did, indeed, get baseball-sized hail as one of the forecasts said, nothing would save them.
I found some plastic deep trays in the shop and put them on top of each of the sprinklers in the planter boxes here. Then I spread the sheet and clothes-pinned them around the legs of the box supports.
The plants came through fine. My husband estimated that the hail we received was about 1/2 inch – 5/8 inch. It was making so much noise during the worst of it that we couldn’t hear each other talk. We were standing together with the back door open, looking out through the screened porch. It was pretty impressive.
Above is one of the best head lettuce plants we have. Isn’t it pretty?
And this is one of the best spinach plants. I need to get out and trim off some broken or dead plant parts, plus do a bit of weeding, but I’m SO happy that they came through what could have been devastation just fine.
The tomato plants made it through, too. I wrapped the sheets around the supports and clothes-pinned the sheets as tightly as possible. This is the smaller, square planter. There are four tomato plants here. They should perk up a bit more now that the sheet is off and they can be in the sunshine.
This is the second tomato planter. There are six plants here. I clothes-pinned one king-sized sheet over the whole support system here and then tightened the edges around the bottom as much as I could.
Here’s a close up of one of the tomato plants. I can’t wait until we have ripe tomatoes to cut up for lunches and dinners!
It’ll take quite a bit of the day to get the 6 sheets washed, dried, and stored in the bag in the shop waiting for next time.
I’m totally enjoying the current seasons of American Idol and The Voice. I may be wrong, but I think the quality of the singers is simply amazing this time. AND, I’m caught up in the stories of the contestants and am actively rooting for them – if not to win the contest outright, to make enough of a splash that they can continue their careers successfully.
I love the fact that I can watch the performances on YouTube. My husband would cause a stink if I watched the programs real time. I can catch up with the shows’ progress in the office with my headphones on while he watches some truly awful movie on TV. :0)
There is so much talent that my heart fills and spills out onto my cheeks. I love seeing their determination and growth during the contests and it brings pure joy to hear them sing.
The only problem is that I am rooting for SEVERAL contestants on each of these shows. I realize there can only be one winner, but I really don’t like it.
We have a cold front coming through this afternoon, with accompanying strong wind gusts and large hail.
The colorful blogs on the far left are zeroing in on us, the threat lasting from about 2pm to 8pm tonight.
I’m really delighted because I JUST finished putting in an entire flat of head lettuce, another flat of spinach, and 10 beautiful tomato plants. Even regular hail is deadly to new plants, and LARGE hail will be hard to deal with.
My plan is to cover my two planters of tomato plants with sheets. I have support things around the tomato plants, so hopefully those plus the sheets will keep the hail from battering them.
In the square foot garden, I have four of six boxes full of plants. I’m planning to find something to put on top of the sprinkler at the center of each of the boxes and then to put tarps over each box, held down by bungee cords. Not sure of the details of all this.
I’ll go out after lunch and see what I can do. One of the things I read talked about ‘baseball-sized hail.’ If THAT happens, NOTHING will help. I hope whoever said that is wrong, wrong, WRONG!
I had to leave my husband home, since his back is still hurting a lot. He says it’s better, and he looks a bit more perky, but he still needs recovery time.
Today Lunch Bunch was especially fun. When I got to Lunch Bunch, Kay and Bud had brought a neighbor couple, Willie and Cheryl. We mainly talked gardening, and then were surprised when Patty and Linda came late! So almost the whole gang was there. The conversation was lively and fun, with a lot of laughing.
I brought home good wishes from everyone plus a bacon cheeseburger for my husband.
On the way down the driveway, I saw a package was sitting on the ground behind the trash can. (UPS has started leaving stuff down there, rather than trying to drive up our driveway.) It was the bag of Worm Castings I ordered from which I’ll make “tea” for the garden. It’s supposed to be an organic fertilizer and disease prevention for all garden plants and flowers, etc. I’ll start the process of ‘steeping’ it this weekend.
I’m going to rest a bit and then water my tomatoes and check on the main garden. We’re due for possible large hail tomorrow afternoon and evening, so I’m thinking of a method to try to protect my plants as much as possible.
This actually meshes well with my occasional ‘threat’ when my husband is acting up that I’m thinking of digging a hole for him in the back yard… :0)
I haven’t heard from anyone, so I’m assuming everyone will be at Lunch Bunch today. I’m going to bring a burger back for my husband. His back is still hurting, though it is ‘marginally better,’ he says. I wish I could wave a magic wand and FIX this.
I’ve been keeping a close eye on my husband since he hurt himself, so have been neglecting my yard and garden duties. I’ll try to at least water our tomato plants today and check on the main garden.
I just had the most wonderful video chat with our son. He lives across the world from us. It was fabulous to see his face and talk with him real time. We do that often, though it’s a bit hard since there are 12 or 13 hours difference in our time. (12 or 13 depending on whether we’re in Daylight Savings Time or not.) Right now it’s almost 1am for him, I think.
He’s safe. That’s the most important thing the way the world is. He is happy. He is living where and how he wants to live, doing interesting things, not hurting for anything. Right now he is trying to start writing a series of articles on how to get started in meditation, something that has really helped him. He wants to do the articles in three languages – English, Mandarin, and Thai. He’s been taking Thai lessons to become as fluent as possible so he can communicate well. He may also do videos.
It is priceless to see him smile. I love it when I can make him laugh. I’m not biased or anything – :0) – but he’s one of my favorite people on the planet. How lucky I am to be able to spend part of a morning seeing his face and catching up on what’s happening with him!
As much as I love and collect baskets, I also am a fiend for boxes. There is something about them that WANTS them so I can put my collection of ‘something’ in them. I’ve always loved kits of any kind. Having the same items separately just isn’t as satisfying. I want the thing together in a box or basket…
I’m better today, but my husband is still in pain from hurting his back. He won’t even consider my taking him to a doctor, but he IS on the heat pad in his chair, taking Tylenol, etc. I put some muscle gel on him two nights ago and I thought for a minute it was burning him. He really reacted, hurting his back more. It turned out the gel felt COLD and his back muscles clenched. I got it smoothed in and he rested reasonably comfortably. Last night he started downstairs about 3am. I came down with him to make sure he could get what he needed. We read until about 4:30 this morning and then went back up. We were both able to sleep then. I got up about a couple of hours before he did this morning.
I’m much less sore. If things are going okay around here, I’m planning to finish the weed whacking today. There isn’t much left to do. I also want to water the tomato plants and check on the lettuce and spinach plants in the main garden. I also plan to do my yoga this afternoon like a good girl. :0)
Our activities have pretty much stopped, other than trying to recover. My husband announced last night that he was discovering that “he wasn’t a teenager anymore.” I’m really sorry he had to mess himself up so badly to realize it. One day at a time.
Our weather is beautiful. The sun is shining and it’s supposed to get near 80 today. Mother Nature seems to be calming down now and I’m grateful.
I love ALL baskets and have become a master at finding reasons I HAVE to have another one in my life. I had to declare a moratorium on gathering more several years ago, lest I become buried. :0)
Nowadays I confine myself to LOOKING and DROOLING over baskets. I found several I think are definitely droolworthy –
My husband and I had a contest yesterday (of which we were unaware) on who could mess up their back more. I was doing more weed whacking sessions in the yard and he was doing something in our shop.
We finished up about the same time. He helped me wind up the long cord for the weed whacker and put it away. We each got a drink and rested. I was stiff and sore, but was too lazy to try to do my yoga, as I knew I should.
He explained that he was pulling on something in the shop and heard a ‘pop’ in his back. He decided that was it for the day and came in.
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He was sorer last night, but took some Tylenol and rested on the heat pad in his chair. He is still quite sore today, but doesn’t want me to take him to the doctor. He is in his chair on the heat pad, and I just took him some Tylenol. I guess this is yet another lesson that we are no longer 30 and need to be more careful. There isn’t a ‘good’ person between the two of us today, but I’m a spring chicken compared to my poor husband. I’ll watch him like a hawk.
Our son has lived in Thailand for several years now. He simply loves the whole atmosphere, the people, and the lifestyle. The annual water festival to celebrate the Thai new year really surprised him and his friends the first year they were there.
They didn’t know anything about it and went out on the street to get some supplies. All of a sudden, they were drenched! On purpose! With people laughing and cheering. This continued the whole time they were out. They finally found out enough to know what was happening, and got into the spirit as much as they could.
Our son essentially said, “Once is Enough.” He looks out the window of his condo down at the street several times during the 3-day celebration, but basically keeps a very low profile, ordering food in, foregoing the trips to the gym, and waiting for the celebration to wind down.
I’ve been out weed whacking. I was going to take a nap after lunch, but my leg was twitching, so I got up and did a session in the front. I did two sessions yesterday, concentrating on the back yard. I’ll do another sometime this afternoon and see if I can get the job finished. I’m trying to do several short sessions to give my back a break. It really doesn’t like the position I need to get into to do a good job with the whacker.
We did a short trip to town today, starting with my husband’s haircut and ending with retrieving our trash can and tying it to the pole toward the bottom of the driveway. Married couples usually argue about money, the kids, and other important stuff. OUR arguments are about whether we should tie the trash can to the pole and what color we should paint the newest mailbox decoration…
We DID put a piece of plywood over the inside of the cat/dog door yesterday, so we won’t have to worry about critters getting into the garage at night anymore. Hopefully, that will also mean that Amber won’t bark at what’s going on on the other side of her wall. (She sleeps on a bed in the utility room, and that shares a wall with the garage.) The cat’s opinion on all this hasn’t been shared yet. (She sleeps in a cat cube on top of the wood pile on the shared wall.) I’m HOPING that she won’t decide to leave us ‘treaures’ on the floor since she can no longer go out in the middle of the night. The garage door is open all day long and until we go to bed, so hopefully she can adjust graciously to the change.
I’m going to do a bit more resting and then head back outside. I hope your Tuesday is a fun one.
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