St. Patrick's Day

These are some pictures from Cardiac Rehab yesterday-St. Patrick's Day.

I thought that the girls looked cute with their little green hair bows. And asked why the guy didn't have one. He did, but it was in his pocket. He put his on, as a bow tie, for the pictures.

I thought that we should have thought of something like this, when I was teaching. Instead, we just gave the kids a piece of green paper to wear, if they didn't have something green to wear to school-so they wouldn't get pinched.

We always seem to take photos when Hazel is on the treadmill. And she always has a great hat or outfit to wear.

I wore my green Tigger shirt, socks trimmed with green "racing stripes", tennis shoes with green "racing stripes", and even green undies. I also wore my ear bobs that I got for high school graduation so many years ago. I always wear them on St. Patrick's Day. They have little four leaf clovers in them. I had 2 pair of them, but one had a clover that started to turn brown, and I lost those somewhere. I also had my green sweater as the wind was a little cool. Oh, and my purse was green!

They didn't have an official dress up day at rehab as they did for the week when we had a theme week, when they told people to wear green, but, like school, many people participated.

One girl, in the next room, had one of those great, Dr. Seuss-looking tall green hats on, but she went back to that room before I took pictures.

One man said he thought it was okay for people of Irish decent to wear green, as he answered another man who asked why he didn't wear green. But he wasn't Irish, so he didn't participate. Then he proceded to tell about his travels to England, Scotland, Ireland, etc.

I'm always amazed at people who have been somewhere!

Tomorrow is my last day for rehab. I have to decide what I can do after that. My driver said that I am staying at home. She's tired of having to take me places.

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I think I have found our Irish connection, regarding family history. That would be through the Days, and "Old Club Axe" Davis, the fire and brimstone Irish Baptist preacher in Alabama. I've posted a picture of his daughter, who married Aquilla Miles, of Georgia and Alabama.

So, it really was appropriate for our family to wear green on St. Patrick's Day, if we went by who is really Irish.

Of course, on St. Patrick's Day, isn't everyone, at least a bit, Irish!

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Sketch Crawl Tomorrow

26th World Wide Sketch Crawl

Saturday Feb. 27

In Bryan, meet at 9 a.m. at the Clara Mounce Library downtown

In Calvert, meet at 9 a.m. at Mud Creek Pottery on Main St.

The above sketches are from my sketchbook, done while waiting. I have all kinds of sketches from experiences to what I observe, journal pages to gesture drawings, memories to imagination.

Different people are going to interpret what they put into their sketchbooks and journals differently.

The first sketch is one I did yesterday, while I was waiting in the Social Security Office. Light reflecting off the tin roof of this office building (which looks like a big house!) and the strong shadows from morning light, were very interesting. I also took a photo of the building, but it doesn't show the shadows as I saw them. The guard asked me what I was going to take a picture of, so I showed him my sketchbook and talked to him about drawing. I'm glad that he decided that I wasn't up to no good-just an old lady drawing!

The next picture is one that I did while I was waiting to be hooked up to a monitor and checked in at cardiac rehab. I only had time to do a gesture or stick drawing of a lady on the treadmill. They don't let you sit around there! But I had enough information to finish the drawing later and add a little bit of watercolor. No detail but I captured the pose and the moment.

I did the next drawing at supper while we waited for our food. Very strong shadows in there due to low lighting so I was more interested in that than in food. I didn't take pictures there, but maybe I should have. I thought it was kind of funny to have supper in the cotton patch! They got my order wrong, which was sort of nice. Gave me more time to draw. Had to send it back again because instead of fixing me another plate correctly, they just scraped off the wrong stuff and sent the plate back, dirty and cold. By the time I got mine, everyone else was ready to leave. So I brought my food home and ate part of it later. Wasn't too good warmed up, so it ended up going in the trash. But, I got a pretty good drawing, I think!

The last sketch is of some kind of object, hanging over the door to another part of the Longhorn Tavern, a fairly new place in downtown Bryan. They used to be out by the auction barn on north Hwy 6 going toward Hearne. But, they recently moved into the old Coca Cola bottling plant in downtown Bryan and the old building on the highway was torn down. At night, the dining room with all the old license plates, etc. and the room with big windows, was closed. The slilding doors were partially opened, and it was very dark. Some VIPs came in and the waitresses showed them into that room, which was then very light!

I thought that this object looked like it might have been one of those old railroad signal lights, of some sort.

I drew while we waited.

This place has huge amounts of food, cooked like it should be. Like we used to get in the old days! There wasn't any way that any of us could eat that much food! But we were really glad to see that.

It's very disappointing these days, to order southern fried chicken, for example, and all you get is this tiny little chicken patty, lightly fried, with hardly any batter. In this place, they have big plates or platters, filled with chicken fried steak, gravey, homestyle french fries. Glasses are big, rolls are big. Steaks are huge. You do get your money's worth!

Of course, I'm usually more interested in sketching than in eating. I always end up having to take most of my food with me.

My little sketchbooks, pencil case with pens, pencils, eraser, sharpener, water brush, little spray bottle, a set of travel watercolors, and my camera, in my purse, make me prepared for any wait time!

And they are ready to go for tomorrow.

I hope that you, too, will be going out to sketch tomorrow. People all over the world will be doing this.l You can start looking at the results on the Sketch Crawl website later tomorrow. Some countries have probably already started.

Remember, it's FREE and open to everyone! You can draw where ever you are, with a group, by yourself, someplace interesting or at home doing laundry!

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Monday at noon, the Brazos Valley Art League will meet at the Art Center in College Station. There will be an artist's demonstration of encaustic painting.

I need to update their events for March. I received the newsletter, but, for some reason, it won't open.

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Patriotic Day

Patriotic Day

photo

Friday was Patriotic Day, winding up a week of different themes at Cardiac Rehab. Again, the lady on the treadmill just had to be the winner for the best costumes. Her sparkling red, white, and blue top hat left glitter around, but it looked great! A trail of fairy dust, I teased.

I wore my blue shorts and blue t-shirt with a spangled Lady Liberty. Also I wore dangly star earrings and a matching necklace. Those of you who went to HHS will remember my denim stars and stripes shirt that I wore on patriotic occasions, and also when I needed to keep warm! I loaned it to one of the therapists while we took the picture. It still comes in handy. It's too hot for the Fourth of July, which is what I bought it for, but great for cold days.

It was kind of a quiet day Friday with not as many people there. I guess some were sick and some were taking a long weekend.

Two of the therapists showed their skills with hula hoops and encouraged some of us, who were not using machines, to try their hand with the hula hoops. I thought that these things were after my time! I was grown and this was something that the kids played with, way back when!

I took my sketchbooks of my experiences, since some had said they had not seen them. But only one therapist took a little time to look at some of these sketches. They were busy helping people set machines, watching monitors, taking blood pressure, checking people in and out, taking care of some folks who didn't feel so good.

As I look around at the other people, sometimes I wonder what I'm doing there. I think I am so much better off than those who have had their chests cut open for heart surgery, are on oxygen, etc. My one little stent and high blood pressure, etc. seem pretty minor. Oh, well. It gets me out of the house and gives me something to do-playing "P.E. person"!

Hopefully, it's going to keep me from having futher problems. I'm going to be so "in shape" after "pumping iron"!

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It's one thing after another. Monday, I'm having a place cut out of my back. They did a biopsy and said they took it out before. But, last week, the dr. said it is still there and the next step is to cut it out. He said they will deaden it, and there will be lots of stitches, in two layers. They aren't going to put me to sleep. I thought that surely they would!

The dr. said that your skin is like a Pine Tree!
"What?" I thought.

"You get a little spot or imperfection and it's like a knothole in a tree. Other spots then cluster around it."

I don't like moles or knotholes in my skin. I was hoping he would take them all off, but he keeps saying, "We'll leave that one alone." So places I would like to have removed are still with me. I can't see the one he is taking off next week. I can only see a bit of a purple spot on my back, sideways in the mirror.

I just know that this"place" is from one of the sunburns I got when I was younger. In particular, I remember having a horrible sunburn, with bad blisters, when I was in high school at the end of the year.

Mrs. Sullivan, the homemaking teacher, arranged for us homemaking girls to have a day at the Country Club. It was too cold to swim, but we wore our bathing suits, hoping to swim. It was sunny, though, so we took sunbaths around the pool. I got the choice spot on the diving board. I went to sleep and spent the morning " getting a tan".

When we went into the club house to eat, then go home, my skin felt stiff and prickly. I put on my jeans for the ride home, and they really rubbed my legs.

I was staying with Pappy, then. When she saw my back and legs, she got some Hinds Honey Almond lotion to rub on my back and legs. By then, I was bright red, especially on my back side.

She put that cold lotion on me and I felt like I was going to faint. I begged her to stop and I lay on the bedroom floor. That hurt even worse because the floor was covered with a wool rug!

Blisters formed all over my back side from my legs to my neck.

That night, there was a softball game in the park, that I just had to go to. Pappy wanted me to stay at home, but I persisted. She tore white sheets for bandages to cover my burns, and fastened those with big safety pins. I had to go to the ball game, wearing those under my peasant blouse and circle skirt. But I went to the game to be with my friends, and look for cute boys! I was a bit embarrassed and a whole lot miserable with all those blisters.

Eventually, it got better, and there were more times of getting blistered while trying to make my fair skin tan over the years.

Anyway, that's what I think of when I think of these "knots" on my back and skin. It just had to be that day at the Country Club, so long ago. Plus a few other days of sunbathing.

*****

Plan to join the 26th World Wide Sketch Crawl Saturday Feb. 27th

in Calvert, meet at Mud Creek Pottery on Main St.

in Bryan, meet at the Clara Mounce Library at 9 a.m. (downtown)

meet by the bell, or, if it's bad weather, meet by the entrance on the south

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Tie Day

Tie Day

photo

Tuesday was Tie Day at Cardiac Rehab. Some of the therapists and a couple of participants gathered by one of the treadmills to show their ties that they wore for the day. I don't really have things like ties or belts (which were included in the attire for the day). So, I found a genuine 1950s/60s neckerchief, like we used to wear. This one belonged to Toot, my great-aunt, so it's extra special.

Today is Patriotic Day. I have a denim shirt with stars and stripes, a t-shirt with the Statue of Liberty, and some star earrings that I plan to wear. The shirt actually has the Fourth of July embroidered on the shirt pocket, but it is way too heavy and hot to wear in the summer time. I've worn it to school when we have had patriotic days, or when I just needed something warm!

Cindy, at rehab, asked me to e-mail her the photos, but, sorry Cindy. The computer there wouldn't let them go through. Maybe she will see this post!

I'm moving up in the rehab program. Higher levels on the machines and heavier weights. I don't think I can handle those big 5 pound weights that some people are using. I can barely pick those up! And, to think, I used to drag tables around, scrub them and the sink, in 2 places, pull on that heavy kiln lid, lift 25 and 50 pound bags of clay. I'm just amazed that, now, picking up 4 pound weights seems really heavy!

I laugh when people at rehab mention "pumping iron". That is so not me!

*****

National Heart Month

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Plan to go out and sketch for the 26th World Wide Sketch Crawl, Saturday February 27. It's FREE! Just journal, sketch, draw, paint, journal, or even doodle about your surroundings on that day, along with others all over the world. Work all day, or for a little while.

Go to the Sketch Crawl website to find others near you, or start your own group or crawl where you are. http://www.sketchcrawl.com/

Locally, meet about 9 a.m. at the Bryan Public Library, now named the Clara Mounce Library, in downtown Bryan. Or, in Calvert, meet at Mud Creek Pottery.

I hope that others in the various communities in the Brazos Valley will draw their own places and participate, or join us in Bryan or Calvert.

Hat Day

Hat Day

at Cardiac Rehab

February is National Heart Month, so I wanted to pay tribute to all those therapists, doctors, nurses, patients, etc. who are involved with our hearts and health. Of course, since we all have hearts or we wouldn't be here, this does involve everyone and every living thing.

Barbara Bush spoke at a luncheon to raise funds but, at $50 a ticket, that was a little pricey for me. I tried to watch the live streaming from KBTX tv, but there was no sound. May have been my computer, but I would have liked to have heard what she had to say.

Tomorrow, there will be a speaker at the College Station Convention Center. They told us about it at Cardiac Rehab and gave us a slip of paper with the details. But, like everything else of mine, my daughter threw it away when I tried to show it to her. It's at 6:00 p.m. I probably won't get to go because of my transportation problem. If I want to go to something, my driver doesn't.

At Cardiac Rehab, this week, they are doing something a little different, with a theme each day. Monday was hat day, as in the picture above. I know that Hazel should have been the winner, for sure, if we had had a competition. She's the lady on the treadmill, with the tall hat with a handle on it! That was some hat! I just wore the cowboy hat I got at Target for painting outside. As it turned out, I discovered that it may not be so good for outdoors, though, with the sides permanently turned up, and it's so loose that the wind blew it down the driveway when I started to get in the car! One lady had on a straw, wide brimmed hat. And, of course, Cindy had on her hot pink cowboy hat, with rhinestones around the brim. Several men had on their baseball caps, as did some of the therapists.

I had to take my hat off to exercise, though.

They also had a bean bag toss game. I thought I wouldn't be able to do it with my vision, but I got 3 out of 4, and got to draw for a little prize from a bag. I brought home a cute little soft toy St. Joseph's Hospital ambulance.

Today, we are supposed to wear a wild tie or belt. I don't have any of those but I'm planning to wear a genuine 1950s neckerchief. That's sort of a tie, I think! It was a little neck scarf that belonged to Toot, my great aunt, back in the 50s and 60s.

Friday is Patriotic Day. I know what to wear for that. The denim shirt with stars and stripes that I always wore to school to keep warm, and to show my support and love for the United States. And some star earrings.

Dr. J. James Rohack of Bryan/College Station, is going to be honored at one of the local country clubs at a fund raiser for the heart association. He is a cardiologist and president of the AMA. And he lives just down the road. He was my first cardiologist here, years ago, and he has the most interesting eyes! Anyway, I'll have more information on that event in another post.

I'm thinking of starting another blog, just for my heart drawings and experiences.

There seems to be so much heart information, discoveries, and problems out there, these days. When I see what others are going through, mine seems to be so small and I feel like I am so much better off than so many people.

I just have to find time to start the new blog! Everything takes so long, the way my computer is.

*****

I set everything up to participate in the One World One Heart event, and, when I checked, my blog was not listed on the site. I wondered why I was not getting any comments. When I contacted the site owner, I was told that she didn't receive an e-mail from me. I guess that it didn't go because of my computer problems. At that time, I was getting a lot of error messages, this program is not responding, and out of memory. I did get one comment from Robin, so, I guess that she is automatically the winner! I don't know since I was told that I am not participating due to the owner not hearing from me. I thought it was all set. But, since my computer was acting up, I didn't go to the site and check until after the deadline.

Well, maybe another time. Actually, I heard about it a little late, too. I just found out about it through someone on the Everyday Matters group.

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It's cold in "the neighborhood", as Mr. Rogers would say. Warms up to the 50s in the daytime, cools to the 20s at night. Really clear cerulean blue skies!

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