No Ideas Today

I should read back to see how the weight is going. I am holding steady at a loss of 140lbs and that is all I want to lose. I now have to call a moratorium on clothes buying for the summer, I HAVE ENOUGH. I even went out on a limb and bought a cute skirt, do you hear that, cute. Maybe I will wear it. someday.

Last Saturday I was striding along quite normally when my right knee gave out with a sharp pain that nearly sent me to the ground, I caught myself on a nearby parked truck and managed to hobble in to the service I was attending. I did the right thing (for a change) and went to the doctor on Monday where she declared I have a torn meniscus and ordered an MRI and made me an appointment with an orthopedic guy. The insurance company denied the MRI, you must be in pain 6 weeks. My knee did not start to improve until Thursday and now I can straighten it and there's only a little pain and stiffness. Medically this is probably the first time I ever tried to take care of a problem in a timely fashion.

I returned to the pool this week, but I only went twice, the first day was very painful and after the second day there came the marked improvement in the range of motion of my knee. Next week I will shoot for 5 days in the pool. I did learn that when your BMI drops from 39or 40 to 23.5 the floating isn't so easy anymore! I used to float like a cork and did not need a noodle for the deep water exercises, now my arms are getting a great workout keeping my head out of water on those same exercises! I think that's a good thing.

I have been collecting various new art supplies this spring to try some different types of media and styles for me, searching for my retirement art form that I can enjoy without taking up more space in the house. I have I like to do oil pastel landscapes and am also ready to try the methods of a very wonderful colored pencil portrait artist, Kullberg, I am all set to go, just have to pick a portrait to do. She is a lot more structured than I am so we shall see. Wish I could remember how to make a link. My brain does not retain these things, hence the lack of photos and links. My daughter who talks me through this is camping in the wilds of IL prairie this weekend so you will just have to look up Kullberg yourself, she is fabulous.

Explorations

I discovered a colored pencil artist with a couple of wonderful books on the artrageous site. I purchased two books and a really big box of prisma colored pencils, the Cadillac of colored pencils. I wish my 8th graders could use prisma on their repeat design, but they are too expensive for school. I have also tried a few oil pastel landscapes at school and am finding I like it, don't know a lot about it but am having fun with it. The colored pencil artist I found in my search for a smaller format art form that wouldn't take up every square inch of our house, what is left of it....meaning it is already packed with our art from over the years. What can I do to stay creative and even call myself an artist that doesn't take up that much space? This might be it. We shall see. Ann Kullberg, "Capturing Soft Realism," in colored pencils is a very step by step book and she is very step by step, I have always been rather slapdash, but I am so intrigued by her beautiful results that I am going to give it a try. I have been accumulating stocks of art supplies for the last couple of years in anticipation of my retirement which is not exactly looming. Best just get started. Restarted. Going. I do acrylic landscapes with my 8th graders and have learned to enjoy them myself, we did not do landscapes in college, period. So here I am, playing with it now.