Easy Monday

I'm not expending a whole lot of energy today, although I did make a quick trip to drop off a prescription refill for my eye drops.  As I was near the shoe repair I stopped in to find out if they could resole my Birkenstocks and was told they positively could.  It will cost me $45 which is well under the cost for a new pair.  Since I was wearing them I'll have to go back tomorrow when I pick up the eye drops and leave my sandals at the shoe repair.   I wonder if it's going to feel much different walking in a pair with new soles.  I hope they are still as comfortable as I'm used to.

Jeannie & Ara spent yesterday and last night at Mike's place in NY, and are off again this morning.   I hope they have good weather and not-too-heavy traffic.

Joe came by to wrap my swamp cooler for the winter.  I kept a close eye on things when we had such heavy rains, but had no leaks that I could tell.  I'm relieved to have it covered and hope the rains are frequent this year.  After he covered it we talked for a while until he had to go pick up the girls from school, and he brought them back by my house (he still had to load his ladder on the SUV).  It was nice seeing them as it's been a while.  With school, soccer games & practices, plus my dental problems and lack of energy that goes with them, we just hadn't gotten together lately.    One of the first things Keira noticed was the big vase of paintbrushes, and of course she asked about them.   Lucky for me they found the crayons and coloring books I keep for young visitors, and forgot about the paintbrushes.

The girls asked me how old I was although I'm sure they know because they ask me every time.  I told them I was 75, and Keira wanted to know if I was born in "olden times".  I said "for sure, they were olden times".  I get a kick out of how I must seem to all the young children - maybe I'm one of the oldest people they know!    It's funny when I think of myself at their ages, and wonder how I saw older people.    I know I was savvy enough to not say anything that could embarrass someone or hurt their feelings.  I don't think anyone ever told me to be that way, but it was just instinctual.   Now that I'm old I have a very thick skin about such things, and know that children are honest and often say things that other people just think.  I don't ever let it bother me.

I tried doctoring up the lemon painting, and the bananas are as good as I'm going to get them.  I have to do something to compensate for not being able to "eyeball" where to start painting on the canvas.  Everything I do is off center, too low on the canvas, or too much to the right or left.   I'm a little discouraged today about the class on Wednesday, as I'd like to finish the lemons and call it  over with.  That deep blue background is offensive to me for some reason - maybe it is supposed to highlight the contrast with the lemons but it just upsets me for some reason.  Time to sit back and take stock of what I'm doing and what I want to do. 

I will continue to draw, and decided to try my hand at drawing a lighthouse.  I have a ceramic lighthouse given to me in Ireland; it has an opening in the rear where you can insert a small candle and the glow shines from the lighthouse windows.  I love it and think I did a decent job of drawing it (only decent, from the standpoint of a newbie).  I don't think I'd be ready to try painting it, even though it is simple enough.

The rest of the week will be sunny and lower 70's, and I'd love to take a walk down along the river - maybe take some photos of easy to sketch scenes.   I'll be halfway there tomorrow when I drop off my Birkies, so I might possibly make it to the river.

Finally, I have some pictures I took last night just after sunset - the photos don't show how dark and foreboding the sky actually was.  These clouds were coming in off the Pacific Ocean and headed towards the mountains to the east.  I should probably turn off the flash for a better picture at night, but then I'd forget how to turn it back on again!  (Click on a picture to enlarge)