A Mixed Assortment of Things

Things have been very busy lately. Much too busy for my taste. We have numerous projects going on that all seem to be headed in different directions. I don’t even seem to have the time to visit the various blogs that I like to read.

We have been getting our house ready to put up for sale. It is time for us to move on. Our oldest daughter is moving and my wife and I are tired of the winters. I really dislike all that goes into this pre-sale preparation. We have torn out the old carpeting. The new carpeting is set to be installed in about 2 weeks. At that time we will have to shuffle the furniture all about. We also had new kitchen appliances come in. They have all been installed and are functioning wonderfully. We have also started to strip the hardwood floors and get ready to refinish them. In any future house that we have, I want to have concrete or ceramic tile floors for the easy maintenance and durability.

My wife has also decided that this year the garden should have raised planter boxes. So, I built the boxes and ordered in topsoil. This was just pure grunt labor. I had to wheel barrel the dirt about 100 feet. After a couple hours of that I was pretty much useless for the rest of the day. My snow blower broke this last winter so with all of the shoveling I am nursing a torn rotator cuff in my left shoulder. Getting old is truly an adventure. But that is all done and we will have loads of fresh vegetables this summer since my wife loves to garden.


My oldest daughter is moving. She was born in California and has always wanted to move back there. So, she loaded all of her belongings into my cargo trailer and we drove out to San Diego, CA. She doesn’t have a job yet but has enough money to survive for about 3-4 months. We don’t worry about the job. She went to school to study and become certified as a Radiological (X-Ray) Technologist. I am very happy that she is moving forward with her life.

The trip out here had numerous problems ant set backs. Now that we are here everything has gone pretty smoothly. In the first week she found an apartment, moved in and set up her household. Found all the nearby markets, Laundromats, and other necessities. She found a good auto mechanic who is honest and reasonably priced. She even managed to get some job applications and resumes sent out.

Monday morning we leave and head back to Michigan. We will go by way of Bisbee, AZ, a little artsy-fartsy town in the desert. Then on to Silver City, NM and we will go through the much-fabled town of Roswell, NM and then through Fayetteville, AR. I haven’t done much art on this trip. I am mostly using my camera and done a few sketches. I did find a great art supply store and bought myself some toys, extra large oil pastels made by Sennelier. I am looking forward to getting home and trying them out.

The 2 pieces here are some different techniques I have been playing with. The landscape is titled “The Winter Blues”. It measures 20” X 16” and is oil and oil pastel on prepared paper. The nude is titled “Model with Hairy Armpit” and I think it measures about 23” X 17” and is a mixed media piece. I have been building up thin washes of oil and at various times drawing back into it using graphite, litho crayon, and oil pastels.