Goose Creek

Here's an eraser carving I made a couple of years ago and it's always been one of my favorites.

The farm we are buying sits by a wonderful fast running rocky beck called Goose Creek. Could the image have been a premonition of our future home? I'm thinking of somehow incorporating it into a logo for the hand made soap and crafts I hope to have for sale.

I'm so sorry I haven't been posting much here. Moving day is rapidly approaching and I've been busy packing. This time next Sunday we should be on the road getting very close to our destination. Actually I hope we will be there before dark. The way my eyes are, driving in the dark is horrendous!

Last week we went to the vision center and got my glasses. The doctor and I both decided that instead of bifocals I would be better off with two pair. One for reading and one for distance. What a time I'm having trying to get used to them! The reading glasses aren't too bad but the ones for distance are awful. I don't think I will be able to drive in them at all. Everything looks distorted. People look short and fat! Cars all look like low riders. Almost broke my ankle stepping off a curb that appeared to be about a 2 inch drop and turned out to be 8 inches!!! Needless to say I've been in floods of tears and at my wits end with them. If I get behind the wheel with those things on I'm going to kill somebody. The optician says he doesn't know how I've been able to function without glasses but the only benefit they seem to afford me is that I can read signs from a longer distance. And then I have to sit very still and really concentrate. So, yesterday I said to h*ll with them and put them away. It's so annoying. Not like you can return them and get your money back so that was $200 down the drain. Heck I could have got a Scottish highland calf for that! I could just spit right now.

Anyone else out there had the same problem?

Trouble at Nine O'clock!

Some time ago while perusing files on our old computer I came across a GIF animator. I think it was included as part of a free Ulead Photo Impact package that came with the computer. I started messing around with it and this is what I came up with. It shows our cat Fiddlesticks up to no good as usual.

One day while cleaning out the pigeon loft my little son says "Momma, don't look now but there's trouble at nine o'clock!" Sure enough there was Fiddlesticks hiding under the bush next to the aviary.

While it isn't an eraser carving I thought it was still quite fitting for this week's Illustration Friday theme of Mischief!

Mischief!

Yes! We finally have a closing date on the house. Looks like the big day is going to be the 23rd of this month. Now I can start seriously packing.

Time has just been dragging while waiting and I haven't had much ambition to get down to any art work at all. Which reminds me "ambition" was this weeks theme at Illustration Friday. Oh well, I didn't have any.

I did get my hair cut though! It feels so good to be rid of it. I jumped on the scales as soon as I got home in the hopes of having lost a couple of pounds. No such luck. Another reason I'm looking forward to more manual labor. I'm not fat by any stretch of the imagination but if I sit around much longer I will be.

Also last week Hubby convinced me to go get my eyes checked. Yikes!

The guy said: "read the next to the last line"

After the initial shock I said: "well, why don't I tell you which line I CAN read!"

It wasn't anywhere near the last line. Could this be the reason I keep burning my forehead on my little lamp while carving erasers? Duh! I've kept saying it isn't bright enough.

So Saturday after the hair cut we stopped by the vision center to try on some specks. Bifocals to be exact! Man, they all make me look like the old village school mistress! I'm half tempted to go over the top and get some of those real old fashioned ones with the wings!

But, things could be a lot worse. The week before last we made the trip down to DC to the Walter Reed Army Medical Center. Our little son needed to have some new inserts made for his shoes so we had to go to the prosthetic lab. The waiting room was full of young soldiers who had lost limbs in the war. They all had artificial legs or arms. One young guy about 19 0r 20 had both his right arm and right leg missing. They were in good spirits though and getting around amazingly well. In fact if they hadn't been wearing shorts and tee shirts I doubt that we would have noticed anything wrong. But it made us realize how fortunate we are. Ken got home from his 16 months in Iraq in August of last year. His unit was bombed almost every night and RPGs have landed just yards away from him and failed to explode!

We have a lot to be thankful for!