Things are starting out quietly here this morning. I actually got some good rest last night, so I’m feeling almost human this morning. My husband is sleeping in.
We plan to run errands today, getting the mail we didn’t yesterday, plus hitting a couple of places for supplies.
We will only be going down to the bottom of the driveway tomorrow for mail and to leave our trash for pickup, since our small town expects viewers to arrive for viewing the eclipse. The schools will be closed, too. We have traffic jams twice a day (around schools opening and letting out – hence, the bypass that is being constructed) so – even with the schools closed – if three people come to see the eclipse, we’ll have a mess on our hands… :0)
Our skies are due to be ‘partly cloudy’ which probably means we won’t be able to see much at all here. I’ll be out there with my glasses to see whatever I can see. I have a pair for my husband, too, but he tends to scoff at things such as this, so I don’t know if he’ll join me or not.
Yesterday was a complete wash-out since I had gotten very little sleep. I did a bit in the veggie planters and some cooking, but did not exercise, except to get into and out of my recliner. :0) I’ll make up for that today, doing my yoga and the elliptical.
Have a wonderful Sunday wherever you are today.
Filed under Thoughts on a ________
I told you that she has been getting into trouble lately and causing us a bit of grief. I am taking her out late at night as her last outing of the night NOT on the leash, as my husband was doing, since she pulled him into the planter and caused a lot of grief plus an all-nighter in the ER. I am simply letting her out, telling her to ‘hurry up’ and hoping she won’t be gone long, if she leaves the area. So far, so good.
The other problem is that we had taken down baby gates, leaving only one between the tiled areas on the first floor and the carpeted ones. She has a nice bed in the utility room right next to the garage. Suddenly, she was stealing food off the counter in the kitchen, or grabbing not-yet rinsed dishes and taking them to her bed, etc. We finally re-installed the baby gate between the dining/kitchen/pantry areas and the utility room.
The problem THEN was we installed it so the gate opening part got in the way of the door to the garage. We go in and out of that door all day long, so we were TRYING to adapt to the difference. We finally decided today to turn the baby gate around so it opened the other way – AWAY from the door to the garage. It took us a bit of time but we just accomplished it. This will save us a bunch of problems, as I found myself with the gate part open, the door to the garage open, the dog trying to bull her way past me to get OUT and the cat trying to sneak past me to get IN – all at the same time with me right in the path.
Hopefully we can now separate Amber from any food that needs to be out to thaw, or the chance to take a breath after dinner before cleaning up the kitchen. I’ll be able to let Amber out without getting trapped between the doors and the cat streaking her way in.
Life gets complicated sometimes, but we – as our animals’ people – are supposed to be smarter than they are…
Filed under Challenges
Dorky Dogs – Liucija Adomaite – BoredPanda.com
Filed under When Wood Comes Alive
Filed under Cork Art
I won’t say I have built a ‘habit’ of doing my approximately half-hour of old lady yoga stretching daily, but it HAS become a grudging ‘responsibility to myself.’ I highly resent that I don’t get a flood of endorphins, or whatever you’re supposed to get that makes you happy to be alive, raring to go, climbing Mt. Everest in the morning, and what not. I just do my stretches the best way I can, usually feeling a bit ‘looser’ than I did when I first got down on my mat, and put my sparkly star on my calendar.
Yesterday I started a new thing – a few exercises to strengthen my arms with 5-pound weights. I only did 5 reps of each movement, but it’s a start and I’ll build up from here. I’ll do this M-W-F. (I put TWO stars on my calendar yesterday.)
Today I’ll do 10 minutes or so on my Elliptical Trainer in the garage – after cleaning off quite-a while’s-worth of dust off and finding my MP3 player. (I just FOUND it – plugged into its charger behind my computer screen, along with the earplugs that go with it. :0) ) I’ll plan to do this right after lunch, and the plan is to do this T-TH-S and increase the time as I can.
Since I’ve already been out weeding and harvesting my veggie planters this morning, the yoga and the elliptical will round out my day nicely on moving the bulk.
Filed under exercise, getting the lard off, taking care of yourself
I THINK I’m functional this morning, but I’m sleep-deprived. Last night was awful. My husband was constantly moving – an unusual thing for him – intermittently snoring – NOT as unusual. He was actually cross-wise in the bed at one point and I had to wake him up to get him to move so I had a spot. Then I had a bad dream, so I went downstairs to read until about 2:30. I was just dozing off again upstairs when Amber started barking. I went downstairs to ask her firmly to stop. I caught about 45 minutes sleep, I think, and she started in again. AND, of course, I was up twice to pee…. So I’m feeling like a zombie, trying to get what I need to do done anyway.
I checked on my veggies and actually had my first lettuce harvest!
I hope that your Saturday is more ‘alert’ than mine and that you feel really good this morning.
Filed under Thoughts on a ________
Dorky Dogs – Liucija Adomaite – BoredPanda.com
Filed under Agathe Moisden Mosaics, mosaic
I wanted to share more of Laney’s animal portraits from wood with you. I think this is super-creative and different from anything I’ve seen.
Laney – PineandBirch.com
I’m finally making a bit of progress on my efforts to do woodburning in my art room. I’m working on a couple of things at the moment – a little owl on a small piece of wood and a larger wooden plaque.
It’s fun, but I’m still a bit intimidated by the whole process. I found that the special gloves I ordered that were stretchy and pretty comfortable – with only the first two fingers and thumb covered – didn’t really do the job. After only a very few minutes, I was feeling the heat and had to stop. I finally got some pretty used-up leather gloves that I had in the shop and cut them up in the same manner as the stretchy ones. They are more cumbersome, but they seem to protect my fingers and hand better. I’ll continue to use those.
Learning to use the various tips in the kit will take a long time. I’m only using two basic ones so far – one for outlining and lettering and the other for shading. I’m moving very slowly because I have little clue what I’m doing.
There are lots of people online doing woodburning via lasers and computers. They are doing some really nice things, but it’s a question of buying or writing computer programs that guide the lasers. My husband and I have done things like this in our shop, with metal, using computer-guided CNC equipment. It’s fun, but I don’t consider it very creative or real art. We do our mailbox decorations like this. I would rather try to do the woodburning myself, creating things manually.
Filed under playing in my art room
I’m down 23.6 pounds – closer to my interim 5-pound goal. I’m doing my 30 minutes of old lady stretching yoga each day. I’m going to add exercise for my arms with 5 pound weights on M-W-F and a few minutes on the elliptical trainer T-Th-S. It would be nice to see a good difference by the end of April.
My sweet veggie plants are still doing well despite the wild changes in temperatures. I just watered everything, and I’ll take some pics tomorrow to share with you. I also plan to harvest some lettuce!
We had to re-install one of Amber’s gates last night. We’ve been keeping her on the tiles since her tummy hasn’t been completely reliable lately. It doesn’t happen often, but we try to at least make sure her food has settled after feeding her before we let her into the carpeted area. Now she has started routing around for more food in the kitchen. I’m careful about not leaving anything on the counters or island, having learned the hard way that she will eat anything she can find. Last night I heard something and found her with her front feet on the counter in the kitchen licking the counter! So we re-installed the gate between the dining area/kitchen and the utility room.
I learned this morning that with the new gate I have to plan ahead to get out into the garage without incident. I managed to have the utility room gate open while trying to also open the door to the garage. Amber wanted out and Abby wanted in at the same time. It was a mess. I ended up shutting the door to the garage, closing the gate, then starting over on going out. When I finished, I related my ‘lesson’ to my husband, hoping to save him from experiencing the same thing.
I’m still having bad dreams about trying to help my husband after Amber pulled him down into the brick planter on the 30th. I was really freaked out that I couldn’t get the blood to stop, and then we spent all night in the ER getting him the help he needed. In my dreams I continue to rush around frantically trying to gather what I needed to help him. We HAVE 1st aid kits, but they tended toward snake bite kits, etc., and I was rushing around upstairs and down, trying to find things to help us.
I have now ordered several things online in order to create two bins of wound care supplies – one for upstairs and the other downstairs, gathering the things I would have liked to have, or have more of. I’ve received some of the things I ordered, and I think I’ll receive the rest of them today. We’re going to get two bins with lids that I can label, distributing the things I ordered into them. Having them organized, where I can grab them quickly and have more of might be needed to at least get us to the ER intact will help me sleep better. Hopefully, I won’t need them.
I wish you a wonderful Friday.
Filed under Thoughts on a ________
Filed under David Zinn - Street Artist, drawings
I’m awe-struck in regard to Agathe Moisden’s creativity and skill. I love the fact that she seems to have used slate as a background, making the mosaics really pop. She also seems to have used glue, rather than the more traditional cement-type bonding stuff, so you can see the slate in the middle of the images, rather than it looking like one piece on a black background.
Filed under Agathe Moisden Mosaics, mosaic
Things are quiet so far this morning. My husband slept in and is just now trying to rise and shine. :0)
I’m starting to get excited about the eclipse Monday – since we’re supposed to be in the path where we can see the total eclipse – though the weather forecast said it will be partly cloudy with rain coming before and after the actual eclipse, and they don’t know if it will be too cloudy to see it or not. Frustrating! Whatever happens, I’ll be outside to see what there is to see. We have our special glasses and my camera ready to grab.
I hope you are well and happy today.
Filed under Thoughts on a ________
We have always changed from snow tires to regular tires and back again ourselves in our shop. We had snow tires mounted on wheels so that it’s just a case of taking the current wheels with tires off and putting on the other set, already on wheels. It has always been laborious, but quite doable.
Now we have had to admit (my husband more grudgingly than I) that now that we are older than dirt, it’s better to let the people set up to do this do it for us, rather than struggle to do it ourselves.
To be completely honest, it took the TWO of us to get each tire into the back of our truck this morning. By the time we got the four regular tires into the bed of the truck and found the lug nuts and special one lug nut and wrench addition needed to put it on each tire, we were both a bit short of breath.
I took my Kindle so that I could read while I waited, but didn’t actually use it for more than a few minutes. There was a constant ‘show’ going on with people coming in and out and things happening all around, so I put my Kindle away and just watched what was going on.
I only had to wait about half an hour for them to get to our truck. The changeover went quickly and they only charged us $32.50 for the job.
When I got back home, I got our mail and dragged the empty trash can back up to where it lives without falling on my head. (I’m trying to train myself to put my phone in my pocket so that if I fall, I can call for help.)
We managed to get the snow tires OUT of the truck and stored – with their lug nuts – in the shop until probably November.
As we drove from the shop to the house, my husband asked, “Do you really think it’s a good idea to have this job done for us, when we could do it ourselves?” My answer – an enthusiastic, “YES!!!!”
HOORAY!
Filed under aging, Challenges, Changes
Quick note – going to pack up the truck and get our snow tires off and our regular tires on at the tire place this morning.
Used to do this ourselves, and finally had to admit it was too much for us. My husband still feels upset when we do this, but he’ll just have to learn that he has plenty of company with people getting older all around him and he isn’t immune.
I’ll write when I get back.
Filed under aging
Laney of PineandBirch.com is so good she has a waiting list to order a portrait. I found her yesterday on Pinterest and went to the website. I was blown away. She does ‘batches’ of work to go on Etsy and lets her followers know. It’s all sold and on its way to its new owners in a flash and then the site is ’empty’ until the next batch.
Laney – PineandBirch.com
Filed under Funny Signs - Humor, You Only Had ONE Job To Do
The forecast severe weather apparently mostly missed us last night and I’m really grateful. The gusty winds were enough not only to dislodge parts of the sheets I put over the three planters, but BREAK the clothespins!
The hail missed us, thank goodness. I don’t know how much rain we got. I’m washing the sheets this morning, since our local forecast is a cold front moving through and freezing temperatures Wednesday and Thursday mornings. UGH.
I was really happy to see that our sweet veggie plants seem to be okay. I’m going to start harvesting some lettuce leaves to add to our salads.
And finally, here is the azalea I couldn’t cover up. :0)
My stubborn husband insisted that he mow the yard yesterday, even though he’s only two days out from the all-night visit to the ER. He did it, with me nervously monitoring – even complimenting me when he came in, saying I did a good job of making his job easier with the weed whacker. Even though his picture is beside the words “Stubborn” and “Obstinate” in the dictionary, he’s definitely a keeper.
We’ll do our errands, but hopefully will enjoy a quiet day, otherwise. I hope that you are well and having a really nice day.
Filed under Thoughts on a ________
The first I remember about April Fool’s Day was my dad playing pranks on his family and friends. He had an unstoppable sense of humor. You just couldn’t be around him with smirking, smiling, or downright laughing out loud at his stories and antics.
My mom told us that when they agreed to marry, my dad wanted to get married on April Fool’s Day. She just stared at him, saying, “I’m not fooling!” (They married on April 3, 1942).
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We have a geothermal heating and cooling system similar to this. Ours wasn’t put in when we built the house, but they were able to install the system for us several years ago. We took advantage of a service with AirPro Heat and Air, our service company, to have a tech come out twice a year to check everything over inside and out, change our filters, fix problems, etc. The tech is here now, making sure all is good before we do much changing from heating to cooling.
I’m going to have to take sheets out and cover up my garden plants before dinner, due to a forecast for possibly severe thunderstorms tonight – with rain, large hail, damaging gusty winds, possible tornadoes, and flying hair balls.
I’m HOPING (1) we don’t get the “severe” – just the rain, and (2) the sheets I put up protect the veggie plants. And (3) that the other plants in the planters around the house survive and aren’t beaten to death, like the azalea above.
I wish you a safe and happy April Fool’s Day.
Filed under Gardening, holidays, Square Foot Gardening - Raised Beds, weather
creativeartworksblog 