David Zinn Fix
Filed under David Zinn - Street Artist, drawings
Dorky Dogs 7
Agathe Moisden Mosaics
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
Thursday Thoughts 4-4-2024
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 ________
Beautiful Paintings
It’s Done
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
Tires Off, Tires On
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
Animal Portraits from Wood
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
You Only Had ONE Job…10
Filed under Funny Signs - Humor, You Only Had ONE Job To Do
We Made It!
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 ________
Let’s Hear It for the Cats!
Dorky Dogs 6
April Fool’s Day 2024
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
Accountability
I’ve been logging in at MyFitnessPal.com daily for 40 days, trying to be more mindful of what I’m eating, my exercise, my water drinking, etc. I’ve been following the keto eating plan for approximately half that time.
I’ve decided to make myself accountable once a month to keep my head on straight and stay on my way to many goals. I don’t have any particular goals on weight and measurements. I need to lose my lard – a lot of it – but I’m making mini-goals in 5-pound-increments to keep it doable in my mind. I’m trying to practice my yoga daily for half an hour, adding working in the yard outside, or heavy days of cleaning inside, lately, or future plans of using my elliptical machine in the garage when I can, or adding exercises with dumbbells to add strength, all in an effort to be stronger, more flexible, with better balance, less apt to fall.
Toward these goals, I am down 23 pounds since my heaviest. I have two pounds to go to meet my latest 5-pounds-lard-off goal.
Today I measured, since I have finished a full month of daily yoga in March plus another several days starting in February. (Can you tell that the sparkly stars on my calendar are a big motivator for me?)
Measuring shows a loss of .3 inches from my hips and a loss 1.5 inches from my waist.
So, bit by bit I’m making some slow progress. (I have to tell you that last night my husband and I were so grateful that we were still alive, relatively in one piece, and relatively healthy that we ‘celebrated’ with a dish of no- sugar-added vanilla ice cream. My husband added some fruit to his and I added some chocolate syrup to mine. This will be the last celebration for the foreseeable future. :0) )
I am now promising myself (and you) that I will report progress – I hope – again at the end of April.
Doggo Portraits – Just Beautiful
Aftermath
This is the aftermath of man vs dog, or trying to take our 97 pound yellow lab, Amber, out for her last outing of the day on the leash. We have now agreed to simply let her out, tell her to “hurry up” and hope if she finds something interesting, she’ll come back in a reasonable length of time.
My husband is pretty comfortable this morning, and actually was able to sleep in the bed without hurting himself. I don’t have to do any extra laundry this morning, either, a really nice thing.
We go to get the stitches out in 10 days time. We can do this at our local clinic. I’ll call tomorrow and see if I can make an appt for that.
We hope for a quiet, calm day today.
I wish you a happy day filled with hope.
Filed under holidays, Thoughts on a ________
ER
Amber went out with my husband for her last outing of the night about 1:30 this morning. At about 2:00am my husband woke me, asking for my help.
To make the story shorter, Amber saw something, reacted, caught my husband not paying close enough attention, and pulled him down and into one of our brick planters.
He was bleeding in several places and didn’t know if he had broken or dislocated his finger. I tried to clean him up, but couldn’t get the bleeding under control behind his left ear. His finger was also hurting badly, so we ended up in the ER in Fort Smith.
We left about 5:30 after x-rays and CT scans, plus 6 stitches behind his left ear covered by bandages and vet wrap, a ‘re-located’ pinkie finger, with him seriously out of patience and wanting to get home.
We slept in our recliners from 6 to 9. I talked to our son via conference call this morning, catching him up and letting him know we are the worse for wear but will rest and heal.
I will spend the day washing all the bloody clothes, towels, washcloths, carpeted stair steps and other places, and trying to get our medical supplies back where they belong.
Scary, exhausting time. Amber has on her innocent face and can’t see what all the hubbub is about.
I’ll talk to you again tomorrow. Take care.
Filed under Thoughts on a ________
You Had ONE Job…8
Filed under Funny Signs - Humor, You Only Had ONE Job To Do
Angie Wallace Fine Art
Filed under Angie Wallace Fine Art, animal paintings
Sonia Lera Preston Art
Sonia Lera Preston – @Sonia_L_Preston on X
Filed under paintings I love, Sonia Lera Preston
Doorstop
This is similar to the phone system that replaced our land line years ago. We have ‘stations’ all over the house, upstairs and down. Now it has died a sudden death and will probably act much as a doorstop.
A friend called us recently and said he couldn’t hear us, though we could hear HIM fine. Then, I got a call yesterday with the same problem. We took our system base and one phone to the local AT&T store, but they said no one had techs anymore and that we would have to call AT&T about the problem. I did, spending a lot of time, but getting no result, other than an offer to send me a link to the phones they sell.
After a lot of debate, we decided to just leave things as they are, using the phone to continue to use the program we added that screens calls, making people push # or something similar, if they’re a real person and not selling anything, before the phone rings to get our attention. That has saved us a lot of grief over the years. It will also still allow anyone making it through the answering machine part to leave a message. I can then call them back on my cell phone and let them know that number is no longer good.
I then spent most of the rest of the day going to important websites, including utilities and other services, looking at profiles, changing the phone listed there where applicable. I THINK I informed everyone, but will call folks who leave a message on the old phone to let them know as they happen.
Spending the afternoon like that means I did NOT get to do my yoga practice yesterday. I will do one session this morning, and another this afternoon, in an effort to make up for that.
We are enjoying a beautiful weekend, with warming temperatures, heading into the Easter weekend.
I hope you are doing well.
Filed under Thoughts on a ________
I Love 3-D Art
Filed under 3-D Paintings, ceramics
Thursday 3-28-2024
Each time the Mega Millions/Power Ball lottery gets to an astronomical amount, we buy $10 worth of tickets. That $10 buys hopes and dreams until the drawing, when they are again dashed. Until the next time. Someone in New Jersey won the 1.1 billion dollar prize – the one that could/should have been ours. :0(
Yesterday there was no hot water when I washed my hair in the kitchen sink as I do each morning. I waited and waited with the water running, then gave up and quickly washed it in the cold, cold water. I told my husband about the problem, but he basically blew me off, asking me if I had run the water. Pffffft! Later on I brought it up again, asking what I was supposed to look for in the basement where our instant hot water heater lives. He told me I should run the water longer. (Urge to kill.) Finally, mid afternoon I asked him again to look at the problem. He basically went down to the basement to make me quit bothering him, finding that there was, indeed, a problem. (Go figure)
It turned out that the battery backup thingie he had put between the main power and the hot water system had failed. When that happened. It turned off the hot water system. When we removed the backup and plugged the system into the main power, everything turned on.
We decided, after a discussion, that since our power almost never went off, and was already backed up by the generator, we didn’t need the backup thingie. We made a note of what humongous battery it needs and stored it.
My husband FINALLY had the good grace to apologize for blowing me off, suggesting I was ‘forgetting’ to run the water…
Ground was broken around the 1st of this month for the Greenwood Bypass. In the image above, the solid line is the current road and the dotted line is the bypass to be constructed. Two bridges are due to be totally reconstructed, as well as the road. It’s due to be finished – in two phases – by 2026, or so they estimate.
We use the solid road now. It looks like a war zone on both sides of the road now, with downed, broken, and piled up trees, what looks like a rerouting of a creek (yes!) and it’s not clear yet if they’ll finish the dotted part before they close access to the road we use to get to town. This is supposed to relieve congestion through town by people who would prefer to just bypass the square and go on to Ft. Smith or wherever else they would like to go. What worries me is that they’ll cut off access to the east side of Greenwood, where we are. Time will tell.
My veggie garden came through the freeze yesterday just fine and I didn’t have to cover things last night. I checked this morning and all looks good.
Things got busy yesterday due to the hot water issue and time got away from me. I had to hurry to get my yoga practice in before dinner and didn’t get up to my art room. I’m hoping to change that today.
I hope you have a great day.
Filed under Thoughts on a ________
creativeartworksblog 