Changes

Well we seem to be past the initial full moon craziness, but more is to come, but what about me? I think I have goon a bit loco also.
Fist, I want to change the name of our street to Rose Hill Street in honor of all the roses in most of the houses in our small street. Here are my contributions

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Then of course there is the house for sale across the street, which I think is quiet nice and with this neighborhood would be ideal with a family with a couple of preteen kids.

The I finished my long project. The 30 x 20 water color on watercolor board. I did cheat once, but will let people guess first.
I love watercolor board because the transparent paint does not "soak" into the board the way it does on paper (even hot press). It presents lots of challenges and because of my love of detail, lots of work. Of course changing things was absolutely needed because my vision keeps improving. Take a look and see some of the glaring perception errors I had when I started the project. With board, i get to use some of my favorite "strange" brush stokes with wild abandon, the case in point is that all the grass is done using reverse strokes. Combination of wet and dry brushes and wet and dry base are some of the more interesting things i like to work with. Much harder to do on any kind of paper.
I realize that my "style" is NOT typical watercolor, but it is mine, no white paper and very detail.


I think sometimes a full moon is not so bad.

The fun things in our house

One of my visiting friends will be over this afternoon and I really need the visit, especially since they are predicting rain and I will be stuck inside again and David is working.
The other gentleman who stays with us is really not company, although he has one minimal diagnosis, he shows all the characteristics of some schizophrenia. This is much more difficult to work around, but this kind of thing I have been doing for 30 years and he is the son of a friend/pastor who is no longer in the area. What it really means is that he is not able to be the companion kind of a person that David, who is simply brain damaged from birth.
The only fun thing is when we get into short lived political discussions, he has some very socialistic views (he claims to be a communist, but isn't even close in practice) and I think his views are challenged by the communalistic way we in the house live (I have said before, I live in an intentional community which is spiritual in view and goals, but definitely not pushy in what we believe to other people, I simply do not believe ANYONE has all the answers).
Sadly, as we are trying to move down to the southern Virginia area, we are a bit scattered in location at this time, but the emotional bonds are really strong.

I think this is the reason I miss/dream of work, lots of people contact.

I was going to do another water color progression series, but decided to show much less than I originally thought. I am back to landscapes, but only something that i remember, so there are no comparison pictures. There will be more cause the feelings of different scenes are growing in me.
Jenny loved her portrait.
This is out the door of the old farmhouse, unfinished.

Emotional turbualnce

I generally sleep very well during the night, but last night I woke actually feeling lonely. Dave was back and we took a walk to target yesterday, but the numerous days of being fairly cooped up in the house took a tool on my emotions. Believe it or not there are times I miss the hospital because you have people always looking in on you and it is a strange thing in some ways to miss. In one sense there is no privacy, but you are always being cared for or looked after. I also know that it is not the same for everyone, but I had a very good set of nurses who, at least to me, showed their kind side. In some ways I do think there is a link to my strong, independent spirit, pushing my self to get better and this emotional reaction. I have become more dependent and I do not consider this to be a bad thing, just one I am still adjusting to. Anyway, one more experience for me along the path of my adventure.

A Day at home

It is simply amazing what you find when you start cleaning up. I mean really! I have thrown so much away, it is not even funny! This time I found a fun picture of me in 2006 for Halloween (beat up cat in the hat, but you can't see the hat). I also have been responding to someone in blogger land who seems to know a bit about the city, at least they know about the beach meeting, which I will not attend (I really do not want to look like a drunk in front of the USEPA, the pirate look is fine though!). The amount of dust has also been very bad. I am almost in the mood to do another environmental post, since the house has not been conducive to me painting (Eric, the other disabled person we host, tends to kinda take over and plays (or records) music on his laptop fairly loudly, plays video games on the TV, etc...). We believe he is somewhat Autistic, because there are certain areas in life he can function well in and talking to him about issues gets results for maybe one day, things don't quit sink in. otherwise he is very fun to talk to, very knowledgeable, and liberal (he would hate me calling him that cause he believes he is a communist, but that is a different story). Life in my house can be interesting!

Cleaning up

The last couple of pictures that you have seen in the header are some of my older work and why, at one time, i was in demand as a painter. Since my creative juices have been flowing again, I have been trying to do something i never was able to, portraits. So far I am not successful, except for one sketch. the watercolor attempts have not captured the people in a way I wanted to yet. Alsd have been cleaning out my desk and found 2 photos they tore at my heart, one of my recently (last August) deceased white cat and one of my Dad (deceased 12 years). I stopped cleaning after that.

Thanksgiving

So you thought I might be complaining since I am not 100% yet, ?
No, I am very thankful.
1) I am alive and I might not be other wise - that tumor was not a good thing.
2) Yes I see double - most of the time, but I see and that is better than many.
Ans I sometimes see singly, especially in the morning and close up.
and yes my gait is off balance, but I am better than I could Imagine all things consideringSo I am not complaining, I am waiting for things to get to "normal" and I am sure they will, but I need more patience.
Thanks for all the encouragement from those who have responded here.
I have others who contact me directly and encourage me, thank you for that also.

Still Recovering

for those of you following this crazy post, you know I have bneeen through a ringer. I am not out yet, but finally I can say things are lokking up. Today, I did not have significant headaches for the first time in a couple or weeks or since the last operation. The eyesight is bad. but maybe getting bettter. Thw queation has been how long? August 7th. 3 months plus. at times I have been able to see part the scrabling that my brain has made of my current eyesight, but it is not enough. I patch and can almost see straight, but I need my glasses to see anything like reading materail and that is with a patch.. Walking has been a mess no matter what lately and that is a pain. So I am still in recoverery.

And The Reslts are in...

And I do not know, I feel like I got knocked back a couple of months.. head aches, more trouble seeing, but the swelling in the back of my head is gone. Most of this is expected. I had been recovering with this large lumo of CSF in the back of my head and it wasputting pressure on everything. It is gone and I expected maybe a week of readjustment. I got it. There are improvement I can see for a little bit then they get scattered all over the place and I am lost. The Doctor told me of headaches, my boss told me about headaches, a nurse friend told me of headaches - thought there would be headaches, but not on the level I got and muscle aches where the fluid was. Of course, the fluid adjusted how my neck musles held my head, It is gone, now things can proceed normally. And that is exactly what is happening, so now I am on the true road of recovery. And yes the operation was a day surgery, I am at home.

Home Now

So I have been hone since tuesday -2 whole days and some.
I have been doing a lot walking all over a bit of weeding and cooking twice.. for everyone in the house.
Then the physical therapist came yesterday.
I thought I was doing a lot..I was more than when in the hospital, even with the PT.
Well she had me walk down our small street down a another street (which is downhill) and of course back again.. I was tired mid way on my street back, but she didn't stop there, no then she had me go up and down all three stairs in our house. So last night I slept.
Now one thing she said that actually cheered me, because I have had such a hard time getting into things at home, too tired, too weak. She said people lose their strength after 3 days in bed rest, I was out 6 weeks, I guess I should be thankful I can do as much as I can.
The same questions about the eyes and the prism glasses..the same answer, the eyes are vacillating to much ( as is the swelling in the back of my head) and time they would be good would be very short. Sometimes there are times when I can see single vision for 4 feet, then it deteriorates, but change is good.
All in all it is good to be home.