A Short One

I don't have much to write as I haven't done anything today.  Jeannie just stopped by with a box of 4 huge fruit danish rolls for my breakfast tomorrow.  I just finished one and am considering eating another, which would leave me two for breakfast.  It's a difficult decision, but if I hold off until morning I'll be able to enjoy coffee with them.

She also asked if I want to eat out tomorrow evening and mentioned a couple of places, one of which is my favorite, Straw Hat Pizza.  So that takes care of breakfast and dinner tomorrow, and I can probably grab something out of the fridge for lunch.

My only outing today was the gym this morning.  Otherwise I've been moping around waiting for this supermoon to do it's job and let me get back to normal!  I feel like I've been through the wringer and the worst is probably yet to come.  When I got up several times in the middle of the night I could see the nearly full moon shining in on my bed, and it is beautiful.  I could hardly get to sleep because of the moon in my eyes!  Nothing like being caressed by moonlight though!

Have a nice evening.

New Zealand Earthquake

New Zealand was hit with a 7.8 magnitude earthquake, reportedly the largest in 50 years!   This is followed by a tsunami to add to the problems.  So far I've seen reports of 2 deaths, but there are no doubt many more.

One of our bloggers lives in Christchurch, NZ; her blog is "Growing Older Gracefully", and can be found in my blog list to the right.  She hadn't posted in approx. 2 months, so I wrote to ask her how she fared through this earthquake.  She responded and described the rolling motion that went on for over 2 minutes - a long time when you have no idea when it will stop.  I think she and her husband fared better than many,  and I hope her children and extended family are all safe.  NOTE:  I just see that Anne has updated her blog and you can read her latest post.
 
Please remember Anne in your thoughts and prayers, as well as the people of NZ who have been devastated by this very powerful quake, and the following tsunami.  This is likely the beginning of a series of quakes that will spread throughout the area, eventually making their way to our west coast/Central/South America.

I will post my regular blog later, if I have anything to say.  So far I'm being lazy and just trying to talk myself into taking a walk at Mather (former AFB).

Farmers market

After an absence of several weeks I made a quick trip to the farmers mkt this morning.  It took me all of about 15 minutes because I only visited one stall.  I usually have another vendor for potatos, but didn't need any today.

I brought it home and began washing the rainbow chard and kale, and tearing them into smaller pieces to put in ziplock bags for easy access.  I can't tell you how gorgeous the kale and chard is, but it is so pretty and so fresh that I wonder why I ever get that stuff in the grocery store, even in the organic section which isn't bad for a grocery chain.  In addition I bought some broccoli, zucchini, and celery, and that did it for today.

I had eaten a big breakfast of strawberries, blueberries, white grapes, chopped walnuts, and sliced banana, topped, of course, with a splash of whipped cream!   I didn't bother to try to figure out the calorie content, and as I would be perfectly happy with a dinner of veggies this evening, add just a few calories, and you can see why I don't gain weight.  For lunch I did make French toast, which I have always liked with salt and pepper.  I ate the first slice with those seasonings, and then got out the maple syrup for the second slice.  Even so, the calories in my lunch don't add up to much.

I might gain weight if I started eating out a lot at fast food restaurants, or if I cooked with packaged dinners such as Betty Crocker, but that's not how I like to eat and I just can't help it.  And looking further into the contents of Ensure, I've decided I'm going to return it to the Costco warehouse when it's delivered to me (so I will have to carry it after all!)  

I figured out that the supermoon is going to fall on my birthday evening, and I looked up the full moon for November 1940.  I think it was also a supermoon, but it was a full moon nonetheless and it fell just a few hours after I was born!   With that coincidence I might have something very good (or very bad) in store for me during this supermoon, or probably not.

I like to know what is happening in the skies and I believe in astrology up to a point - I'm certainly not a fanatic on it and never change my behavior to coincide with it.  I think I was most affected by what was in the skies when I lived in Ireland.  It was uncanny, to tell the truth - maybe the starshine didn't have to go through so much pollution to get to me.  In fact, that is the only time I remember actually seeing the Milky Way!   I was also affected by the gale-force winds which were common.  I would be an absolute ball of energy when the wind was strong.  Sure doesn't make me energetic these days!

I want to thank everyone who commented on the three small paintings I've hung in my kitchen - I have three more to go but need some gale-force winds to get me moving to hang them!    I feel like an absolute blob of putty right now and can't get up the motivation to do a thing.  This shouldn't last much longer and maybe I'll get back to a more normal state.

Birthdays

I have a few days to go before my age climbs to a steeper number, and as it always has, it makes me depressed.  I think I was like that even as a child - not so much depressed about having a birthday, but anyone making a big deal over me was embarrassing.    My dear father, the most important man in my life, always remembered even down to the exact time of my birth, and would invariably call me and announce that in x minutes and yy seconds I would be zzz years old!  It didn't make me feel any better, but I sure would love to hear him say it again.

So that is the major reason for my depression - I hate having a birthday.  I wouldn't mind so much turning a year older, but having people make a deal out of it bothers me.

The Irish farmhouse painting has me stymied for the time being.  The driveway didn't look like a driveway and when I tried to fix it, it just got worse.  This morning I ended up painting over it with a small amount of gesso.  

I'm now on Series 10 of Bob Ross' videos, and still learning things from him.  I checked online at "Cheap Joe's Art Stuff" to see how much it would cost me to buy a supply of water soluble oil paints, and the answer is "too much for now at least".

These are the first 3 pictures I hung in the kitchen.  I would welcome comments as to whether or not I should put them in frames.


Another reason I'm depressed is my weight.  I don't get on the scale every day, but only once in a while.  This morning I couldn't believe it when I read "117" pounds.    I have to get it back up over 120, so after the gym this morning I made a trip to the grocery and thought about buying a 6 pack of Ensure (I hate that stuff!)  They only had regular, strength which is 220 cal. per bottle, and if I'm going to drink the vile liquidt I want the extra strength with 350 cal. per bottle!  I knew it was on sale at Costco, so I ordered a 30 pack online, and will be glad to have it delivered.  If I'm going to lift a heavy box of beverage, I'd prefer it to be a case of beer!  So three a day should last me 10 days, and I should notice an increase in my weight with the addition of 1050 cal. per day.  I'll have to be careful because it could ruin my appetite for real food.  Therein lies the problem - I have very little appetite, especially after lunch.  If I could train myself to eat a full dinner for breakfast I might be on to a solution! 

Here is a photo of Jeannie's favorite cake, German Chocolate.  Everyone loved it, and as I mentioned, she cut me a little sliver that didn't have coconut on it and it was superb!

That's all for now. 

So Tired

I don't know why but I'm tired and lack energy today.  I did go to the gym but that was it - I came straight home and haven't left it since.

I figured out how to use the tape hangers for the small paintings and it's pretty easy once I tried it.  I've hung  3 of them so far and wonder if I didn't make a mistake by not putting them in frames.  I'm not sure how difficult it would be to remove 3 paintings - 6 tapes - from the wall.  Then I need to find some inexpensive frames - nothing elaborate but just something to outline the canvases.  So that kind of slowed me down today and while I've looked at the Irish farmhouse painting I started, I didn't do anything today.  I'm not happy with the colors I've used for one thing.  I am terrible at mixing paints, just knowing what color(s) to add to achieve a particular shade.  I know it takes practice, but I'm ready to go out and buy a few tubes of specialty colors so I don't have to mix so much.  Of course I'd still have to mix other colors with it to achieve the exact shade I'm looking for.  I think I'm just burned out for the day - about everything.  I'm not unhappy about anything but just tired and a bit burned out.   

I will be back tomorrow and hopefully in a better frame of mind.

A Short One Tonight

As you know, I am going over to my daughter's house for her birthday dinner, and I'm not sure what time I'll get home or if I would have time to write a longer post.

I did a little work on the painting today, but it seems that everything I do leaves me needing to make corrections.  I'll just keep working on it and see what it looks like.  I have a lot of "how to" and "what should I do now" questions but no answers.

I drove to Costco in Folsom this morning because that is their only store I know of that carries Hazelnut coffee beans.  I had directions to drive there, which I looked at a day or so ago and thought I would easily be able to find it.   The entire trip was a comedy of errors, starting with me going way past Folsom and realizing the higher I gained in altitude the more I was driving too far.  I got off the freeway and back on coming back toward Folsom.

The Costco was in sight but I had lots of difficulty getting to it.  I had to drive through a hotel parking lot to get turned around, and then ended up in an In-&-Out Burger lot.  I finally made it to Costco, but leaving to drive home I turned the wrong way and several blocks down the road had to make a U-ie to get back in the right direction.  I finally got on the freeway and made it to where I am comfortable.  It was an amazing trip though - traffic was not too heavy to begin with, but it seemed every road I drove on was like Moses parted the Red Sea so I could safely travel without traffic in my way.

Did I say this was going to be a short one?   Have a nice evening everyone, and I'll be back tomorrow.

Work in Progress

I took some photos of the house I'm trying to paint, and one of the painting in progress.   I maybe should have used a ruler, but I'm committed this time at least to just paint it and not worry about perfect lines, proportion, etc.  My vision keeps me from doing a decent straight line, no matter how hard I try.

Here are two shots of the house:  (Click on photo to enlarge)

And here is the painting in progress.  (Laughing is permitted and maybe even encouraged!)

The yellow is the undertone I painted the entire canvas with to start.  I will be painting the hillside, grass, driveway, etc., right over the yellow.   The house had a one story addition added on to it, and you can see where I was going to make it taller - I will paint out that white line that shouldn't be there.  I also painted the house a darker color than it actually is, but the color was darker than the photos indicate

My landlady told me her father built this house when he married her mother.  I just loved living there, and the house had good feelings and good spirits in it.

I can only do a bit of this at a time as it seems to sap my energy!

I  got my hair trimmed today, and it is a long way over there in traffic.  There was a lot of construction on Fair Oaks Blvd, so I decided to take Folsom Blvd back - maybe a little longer but very little traffic at that time of day.  Of course there were lanes closed on Folsom for construction as well.  I try to remind myself that construction means people working; earning wages; paying taxes; supporting their families; supporting local businesses, and so on down the line.   I can be pretty pragmatic about construction tie-ups because I usually have all the time in the world, and I ALWAYS leave early for an appointment of any sort so I won't be late due to things like construction.

Tomorrow is Jeannie's birthday, and even our hairdresser was wondering what kind of cake Donald is going to  make for her.  I'll try to remember to take a picture of it.

The beautiful sunlight is shining in the front door, but it shows the dust and dirt on the floor.   I'd better go clean it up while I can still see it - once the sun is down the dirt won't show and it will sit there for another day!