a soccer ball for Fiona

Once upon a time, I had a Scottish Terrier named Fiona. Our youngest son, Jeff, was about 7 or 8 years old and seldom put away his soccer ball. One day I nudged it with my feet through the family room towards the staircase — and Fiona quickly joined in the game! She became quite proficient at herding the ball with her hard head and it became her favorite game.

I recently bought this doggy soccer ball, thinking I’d teach Butters to play soccer with me. She already loves fetching tennis-size balls and often uses her head to toss them in the air. But she wants nothing to do with it, thank you very much!

a marathon of appointments

Well, we can definitely say one thing about M.D.Anderson — they are certainly thorough! A nurse once told us that they had a limit of 5 appointments per day per patient. On Friday, we ended up with 7 separate pre-op appointments.

I had planned on sketching between appointments but we moved from one to the next all day with no breaks. So I later sketched the pile of paperwork they gave us to read. Everything seems good for my ostomy reversal surgery one week from tomorrow (also removing whatever is left of the tumor).

The first appointment threw the whole schedule off, which the schedulers set for 30 minutes — they took about 2 hours! It was a complete eye exam to establish a baseline for them to compare to. I have glaucoma; the long surgery will have me positioned in a way that can affect my eye pressures.

Then there was bloodwork, meet with the surgeon, a heart check, meet with the anesthesiologist, an EKG, and lastly talking with a nurse in ostomy / wound care. All in all, a very long day!

rain, rain, go away!

We have had rain day and night since Monday — over 11” to date! I no longer walk with Butters in our front pasture, I slosh with her wearing muck-boots! Very sad news for a corgi whose number one joy is chasing balls!

On the brighter side, we just heard this morning that our granddaughter Mikala, who just began her senior year at Texas A & M, was accepted into early enrollment at their vet school! So proud of her — she has worked hard for this!

unreliable deliveries and a procedure for Bill

Sketches from yesterday:

On 18 December I reordered Bill’s favorite dark roast coffee beans from Amazon — the order has still not arrived and may be unavailable. So I bought a couple of other varieties for him to try.

Living in the country, many of our Amazon deliveries that used to come by truck have been sent by USPS instead. Which is unfortunate, as they go through Houston’s USPS distribution centers which have broken down. Many mail items are late or have gone missing.

Also from yesterday, Bill had a routine colonoscopy done in College Station. I sketched him as he tried to catch up on missed sleep, waiting for things to start. Thankfully , his results were “all clear”.

breakfast out

With my blood counts getting back to normal, I am no longer as susceptible to infections and we are sometimes eating out again. This morning we went to Gabby’s for breakfast and I fully intended to sketch my actual breakfast. But it has been a cold day and I wanted to eat Hot Food! So the only sketch is of my tea while it steeps.

Like so many restaurants in this area, Gabby’s does not offer hot tea. But I carry my own tea bags, just in case, and they brought me a cup of hot water. Coffee drinkers always have many selections but tea drinkers must be rare around these parts.

holder of the Christmas chicken

Each year we have a “white elephant” gift exchange with our kids and grandkids at Christmas time. Several years ago, one of the gift boxes had this squeaky rubber chicken included.

The following year, it reappeared in someone else’s gift box. And has now become a yearly tradition. This year the chicken appeared in Bill’s gift, giving me a chance to sketch it.

For the bumpy texture, I sprinkled coarse salt into the wet paint — fun experiment!

recent sketching

This is last night’s sunset, just before the arctic chill really set in. Today’s “highs” have been in the 30s — so much warmer than other parts of the country are dealing with but colder than normal for central Texas.

I’ve been trimming dog and cat nails. In our cats’ case, one paw at a time is all that can be managed. At least with Bardie. I haven’t yet trimmed any of Scottie’s and his are by far the worst! Butters, on the other hand, is easy — good dog!

a bit more yarn play

Leftover cotton yarn plus time on my hands = crocheted potholders for two of our kids who love to cook.

preparing for the home stretch . . .

Thursday and Friday were busy days: bloodwork and medical scans followed by consultations with the main three doctors on my team. The above sketch is in one of the waiting rooms — I absolutely love the sliding door’s glass with real botanicals imbedded within!

Tests show that the tumor is pretty nearly destroyed. My next step is a colostomy reversal surgery sometime in early February. This journey is almost done!

a muted limited palette

Yesterday I was playing around with some pans of color, putting together a more muted limited palette. The first combination I tried with Undersea Green and Neutral Tint was too dull. Switching them out for Cobalt Turquoise and Lunar Black helped brighten things up!

Making a small swatch card helped in my decision making. Inside are swatch strips of various colors that can be mixed with the two color dots in each section. (I’m especially loving quinacridone burnt scarlet mixed with cobalt turquoise! Similar to the cadmium red mixed with cerulean blue that I used to use.) This card fits in the cloth bag the Pocket Palette is carried in.

letters, a thing of the past

With my father’s passing away last year, I no longer write real letters. I miss that somehow. When I was just a child my father’s aunt, my great-aunt Lucile, became my pen pal. How I loved getting letters from her! A teacher who began her career in a one-room schoolhouse, she always showed an interest in what I thought or felt. We shared many interests as well, and she made the best strawberry preserves!

Emails and texting is more immediate these days, and multiple-people texts can be fun conversations. But there was something special about real pen and paper.