Tag Archives: latest sketch

Sunshine Sunday 11-16-2025

Better Life Optimizers

It is an absolutely stunning day today here in Chiang Mai. It’s only 82, sunshiny, and a nice breeze blowing. It was really foggy early this morning, causing some planes to have to delay or divert, but burned off pretty quickly. Brian said the fog is really unusual.

We visited Harvey at the nursing home this morning. Harvey wanted us to buy him a camera with a long lens and a truck. When we asked him why, it took him a long time to answer. Over the course of half an hour, we finally got that he wanted the camera to take pictures of the nests of the white birds that were congregating in the rice fields outside his window to prove that the birds were having babies, not just ‘tourist birds.’ Ooookaaaaay… The truck was a dual display Izuzu he saw on TV. It doesn’t need a key and responds to voice commands. Can you imagine him trying to d

rive this truck when it takes him half an hour to say, ‘no key,’ and ‘dual displays?’ Not to mention he can’t get out of bed… Since he was calm, showed some interest in what we were telling him, and didn’t seem to be in any pain, we declared the visit a success.

ZenArtSupplies.co

I’ve decided to paint Christmas cards for the people here who have been so nice to me. I have 14 people on my list so far. It isn’t much, but it will at least show them I’m thinking about them and am grateful that they have gone out of their way to make me feel more comfortable in my new country.

ElaineNeoWedding

We have been invited to a wedding at the end of this month! It’s supposed to be a very informal affair. I can’t wait to see what it will be like. It’s exciting to see a couple at the very beginning of their lives together.

Pngtree

I learned a lesson today. I was groggily awake at around 4 this morning when my walkie talkie on my nightstand started making noise. We got these as an emergency measure if I have trouble in the middle of the night when Brian turns his phone off. The device was saying, “Check the battery.” over and over. I charge it twice a week, starting when I get up at 5am. I unhook it from the charger when I get back from breakfast at about 8. Wednesday I was up super early and went ahead and plugged it into the charger. It was charged up before we went to the gym, so I unplugged it. Turns out the hour or so made all the difference on when it needed to be charged again. I won’t do THAT again…

Freepik

The building fix-it guys are due to come tomorrow morning sometime to work on my door. I’m counting the hours. I’ve taken a lot of things for granted over my lifetime, but being able to leave and come back to my place whenever I wanted without the door trapping me on one side or the other didn’t even make the list of noticeable things! I will be really glad if they can make me independent again!

On our travels today, I noticed a shop that was called something like, “Overseas Pet Shop.” We went by it very quickly, but I thought, “I want to visit that place!” Then, as I thought about it more, I decided, ‘No, it would be best if I didn’t visit. I would want to adopt most, if not all, of the animals there, and wouldn’t be able to even get ONE. That would break my heart. (I researched it when we got home and found my instincts on NOT going there are correct. I’m in love with the PICTURES I found.)

Finally, this is the latest painted sketch.

I hope your weather is wonderful where you are and that you’re packing your day with fun things.

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Happy October 2025

Happy October 2025! I miss being able to drive down with a mailbox decoration from the shop and my husband and I changing out the one there for the new one twice a month. It was particularly wonderful when someone would start to drive by, stop, and get out of the car to tell us what a kick they got out of our decorations. Several people told us they drove by often just to see if we had changed the decoration yet. How wonderful is that! 🤗

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This morning I was up at 1am wringing out towels from my leaking windows with a hard storm from Typhoon Regasa. I got back to sleep, back up again at 5 in order to check the towels again and get ready for the gym. I had to wring them out again, but that has been it for the day. I got the towels on my drying rack out on the balcony, and everything is almost dry now. I have rolled up towels in the window sills again, in case we’re not finished with the remnants of the typhoon, but hopefully, it has passed us now.

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This is the latest painted sketch.

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We went to visit Harvey at the nursing home this morning. This is a 3 hour round trip we make three times a week to show him we love him and make sure he’s getting the care he needs. At first we thought he wasn’t going to talk to us at all. I had almost given up after about 25 minutes of our asking questions or making statements with no reaction from him at all when he suddenly said, “I’m trying to remember where I got your engagement ring. I want to get you a “better” wedding ring.” I sat there with tears running down my face.

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Today has turned out to be a beautiful day with lots of sunshine. Dark clouds are looming, but they haven’t won yet. I’ll take it! 👍

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When we got home, Brian walked me to my door. A couple of minutes later he was back with a small package in his hand that had arrived downstairs. I opened it and found two new squeeze balls! When he ordered the original for Harvey, two came in the package. He gave one to Harvey and the other to me. I have to admit I keep it on my computer desk, reaching for it and squeezing it whenever I’m here. It’s mesmerizing. Sadly, about 3 weeks ago I punctured mine inadvertently with a fingernail. I told Harvey about it when I was handing him the ball, encouraging him to practice with his weaker left hand. Brian quietly ordered another set. I’m thrilled! I have my toy back! We’ll take the other one to swap out for the original one the next time we visit Harvey. This new one is actually better than the old one.

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I hope your day/evening is filled with giggles and grins..

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Get Started!

@wholesomememe.bsky.social

Now this is the attitude I love. The whole idea of doing something for someone ELSE on your birthday, rather than being the center of attention shows a desire to make a difference. This cheeky lady is showing she has a great sense of humor and wants to give others a special day. How refreshing is that! Talk about an inspiration!!! I will try to be more like this amazing lady.

We went to visit Harvey today at the nursing home. It was kind of sad because Harvey wanted to watch TV rather than talk to us, but we wanted him to be interested in something, and that’s exactly what he was doing.

The lady who picked us up to drive us home spoke with Brian much of the way home. It was in Thai, so I didn’t understand any of it, but she smiled warmly at me when I tried to say, “Hello, and wishing you a nice day,” in Thai. Roughly speaking, it sounds like, “Sawat Dee Ka’-ah.”

She took us to a stationery place so I could buy more heavy paper for the cards I make and then we got another Grab to get a chocolate. While we were at the chocolate place, I asked Brian what he and the lady had talked about. It turned out she recognized us, and has driven us out to the nursing home a couple of times now. She asked how Brian’ dad was doing and how I liked being in Thailand. Isn’t that amazingly nice?

I’m enjoying the afternoon now, with time by myself to do whatever I would like. The morning’s rain stopped, so I moved my laundry out onto the balcony. It’s supposed to be rainy all day, and there are some ominous looking clouds, so I’m keeping a watchful eye on the skies as I type.

This is the latest drawing. Those of you who follow the blog know what my ‘inspiration’ for this was. 🤪😜 I’m having a good time trying to get an initial handle on the new puzzle.

I have two more sketches that I did at the cafe to paint, also.

I’m having a great time in the evening listening to YouTube music. There is a search feature where you can talk into the remote, telling it a musician’s or singer’s name and it comes up with videos you can enjoy. I just LOVE that. I’m making a master list of favorite people, plus people I want to listen to to see if I like them or not.

I’m also enjoying watching a favorite movie if I have a totally free afternoon. I’ve watched two so far and look forward to enjoying more. I’m also interested to see what fare Netflix offers in this regard as time passes.

As soon as I finish blog posts for the day, you can giggle at the mental picture of me bopping around my living area with a water bottle in each hand, headphones on and grinning like a nut as I ‘dance’ to music with a heavy beat from the computer. It’s a really fun way to move a lot, exercise my arms and back with weights, all while not seeming to be exercise.

I showed you the flowers my housekeeper left for me last Friday. I think I told you that there are buds all the way to the top of the stems on this glorious display, so it’s the gift that keeps on giving.

Here it is this morning!

I hope you’re having a fabulous day and evening, doing something that gives you loads of pleasure.

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