Snow, wind, and guitars …..

Nice map of the wind in the USA.  Would have loved to have had this when I took a meteorology course in college.  40 years too late.  ■  I’m in the process of cleaning and organizing my office.  It’s taking longer than I had thought.  One of the steps was to see if I could get all of my guitars, basses, ukes, etc in my office closet.  Nope, but close.  ■  It’s snowing out, but it appears that we’ll only get about an inch.  That’ll be nice.  I really don’t want to have to get out my neighbor’s snow blower.  If it’s only an inch and not heavy then I can do it with a shovel.  ■  Got to go for a blood test tomorrow for the doctor.  So fasting is the order for the rest of the night.  ■ 

Last attempt at people . . . .

This is my last attempt at painting people.  It was a cute photo of our neighbor feeding her grandson, so I thought I’d give it a shot.  ■  It’s almost 4:00 am and I’m up; on my pc blogging with Zoe in my office wanting more biscuits.  And she’s vocal about it…making noises to get my attention; looking at me with pleading eyes.  Ok, I just gave her another biscuit.  ■  The upcoming new version of Windows (Windows 10) along with holography is sounding pretty neat.  Technology moves very quickly.  I wish I were going to be around for the next 50 years to see it.  ■  Band practice was cancelled last night due to illness of one of our members.  ■  Today will be office cleaning/organization day.  I’m going to try and get all of my guitars to fit in my office closet.  I don’t think it’s going to work, but I’m going to try.  I’m also setting up a space to do music recording.  ■  Time either to get back to bed, or feed the dogs and then get back to bed.  ■  Goodnight/good morning . . .. .

Yet another attempt at painting people . . .

Getting proportions right is always difficult – maybe impossible for me. Or at least impossible at this point.  Practice, practice, practice.  ■  Band practice tonight.  I’ve got to attempt to organize the basement practice area.  To say it’s a disaster is understating its condition.  ■ 

Maggie Byrd & I playing lapsteel . . . . .

This is my third painting.  It’s Maggie Byrd and I playing lapsteel in our dining room turned into a temporary relaxing reading/playing lapsteel room.  I worked for hours and hours on this.  A true labor of love.  ■  Took my car and dropped it off to get a whole new exhaust system put on.  $1200 for it, but at least it’s cheaper than a car payment.  ■  Tomorrow the band gets together again for another go at it.  I’ve got massive cleaning/organizing to do down the basement before we can practice.  ■ 

Rosemary . . . . .

My attempt at drawing Rosemary out in the snow.  This is probably the best face I’ve done.  Faces are hard to do and get right.  ■  My car is having $1200 worth of work done on it tomorrow.  At least it’s less expensive than having a car payment.  ■ 

Digital painting . . . . .

I thought this year – ok, last year (Christmas, 2014) that I’d attempt some digital painting.  I’ve done my Abby & Zoe cards, but never tried to do something serious.  I’m terrible at people/faces, etc., but painting something digitally gives one the opportunity to erase, or paint over areas with ease.  Even though you’re painting over ‘mistakes’, it doesn’t mean that you’re not going to make mistakes with your ‘corrections’.  Kudos to the folks that can really paint and have the painting of the person actually look like that person.  That’s really tough.  At any rate I did a total of five paintings.  The one above is the first one and it’s of Rosemary and Maggie Byrd – their first time in snow.  The green tennis ball (yes, it’s a tennis ball) is for Beau, their dog who has a never ending game of “throw the ball and I’ll bring it back.”  ■  I’ll post the other four in my posts here over the next few days.  ■

Headaches . . . . .

I still get headaches everyday.  Not bad, but they’re there everyday.  I’m reading a blog post about someone who gets HEADACHES every day, but really bad headaches.  Mine are not even noticeable compared to his.  Here’s the link to the article:  http://blog.longreads.com/2015/01/13/a-meditation-on-pain/?utm_source=nextdraft&utm_medium=email

First post of the new year - 2015

First post of the new year is one of the grandchildren and Grandma taken a few days after Christmas, 2014.  It’s a tad blurry – sorry for the potatoe-quality.  ■  It’s coooold out.  6 ° right now.  Wednesday and Thursday it’ll hit –10 and –14 degrees.  Burrrrr.  ■  Trying to get my office back  in some kind of organized shape.  It needs help.  ■  Short post, but it’s late and it’s time for bed.  ‘Night.  ■

Busy day . . . . .

. . . got lots done.  UPS’d 3 packages; had doctor’s appointment – ok and got flu shot; got note cards printed; got To/From tags made (that’s the cardinal in the corner); got gas; got mailing labels; printed off mailing labels for Christmas cards.  The biggest pain was printing the Avery labels.  For some reason their label template didn’t work correctly.  Might be a Microsoft Word problem, but it took some gymnastics to get the labels printed. ■   Oh, and gift wrapping – not for me.  I’m terrible at it.  Seriously.  ■  Lots more to do tomorrow.

Pen & Ink–still drawing . . .

Have a few orders this year – very few unfortunately.  My pen & ink website has fallen in popularity in Google searches.  Most likely due in a large part to making almost no changes to it in the past couple/few years.  Time to get hoppin’ on that.  ■  The drawing on the left is pretty well close to done.  Still a few hours to go.  ■  I’ve got some Christmas presents to give this year that I hope are good.  After Christmas I’ll post pictures of them.  ■  Lots of stuff to get done this week.  ■  Back to drawing . . . . ..

Yeah, it’s cold . . . . . .

. . . and it’s only November 17th!  We’re having temps like we’d have in late January and early February.  I’t cooooollllllddddd.  (That didn’t make it past spell check.)  ■  Rescheduled my diabetes doctor appointment today.  Now it’s scheduled for December 30th.  Scary.  ■  Did a Holiday Market at our local nursing home this past Saturday.  Talked to a lot of people.  Hopefully I’ll get some drawings out of it.  ■  Got some pics today from Libby and Jay with the grandchildren out in the snow.  They had more snow (probably 3/4 of an inch) than we did.  ■  It’s late, I’m cold, and it’s time for bed (TFB).  ‘Night.  ■

New gutters–done…..

New gutters were put on today.  Everything looks good.  ■  And thanks to my neighbor Jac, I spray painted the lights that flank the garage and he put them back up for me.  Thanks, Jac.  ■  Trying to see if the Jawbone up3 is out yet.  It’s a device that can measure your heart rate, track your sleep, and play your favorite tunes.  Just kidding about the tunes.  I’ll check out the other wrist bands from other companies to see what their products offer.  ■  The weather has turned cold.  Had a few snowflakes tonight while I was grilling.  ■  TFB.  ‘Night.

Coming along . .. . … .

They say they’ll be done today.  Hard to believe as it seems that there’s so much to go.  ■

Afib and siding . . . .

Had an appointment with my cardiologist on Thursday.  Everything was normal until he took my pulse.  He then said “we’re going to do an EKG.”  Nurse came in; hooked me up to the EKG machine; ran the test; and said you’re in Afib.  This is the 3rd time I’ve been in Afib.  The first two were resolved with electro-cardioversion.  ▄  Electrical cardioversion is a procedure in which an electric current is used to reset the heart's rhythm back to its regular pattern (normal sinus rhythm). The low-voltage electric current enters the body through metal paddles or patches applied to the chest wall. ▄  I got a burn from the last one I had done.  They had to hit me twice to turn the ol’ engine over.  I’ve got an appointment in a few weeks to see him again and decide what should, or shouldn’t be done.  ■ ■  Our house is getting new siding.  They’ve taken the old siding off, insulated it, wrapped it and are in the process of install the new siding.  It should look nice.  ■  Cribbage tonight.  We’re hosting it.  ■

Furnace fixed . . . . .

Got the furnace fixed.  It was a minor problem, but still expensive $98 just to come out and then the repair on top of that.  At least we’ve got heat downstairs again.  Had it up to 66º degrees and it felt hot.  The temps in the living room with the colder weather have been hovering between 59º and 64º – mostly around 62º.  ■  Worked on and finished our Christmas card for 2014.  Now I’ve got to go and get them printed – and then written, addressed and sent.  ■  TFB.  ‘Night.  ■