Just a note before I lay me down to sleep. Dizzy from Dilaudid which I took for torturous knee pain. Painted anyway. Have been. Still painting the abstracts but one little one has fish in it. Should take photos and try to get opinions. The first one could be finished.

Painting like a house-afire and enjoying it. In pain most of the time from my knee. Haven't cleaned the house, or today, washed the dishes. Will do that very soon. Then, I'll go back to painting. Worked last night from about 11 to 12 or so, and during the afternoon yesterday. don't get up till about 11 or 12. I like all this. Best way for me to live my life, or so it seems. Will try Tai Chi tomorrow morning and back to swimming Tuesday. Knee hurts when I stand and walk and hurts in the water too. Went to a doctor who seemed as goofy as me, with 1970's pants. Not keen on his advice. Can't do one of the exercises at all. Wouldn't send me to "my" PT folks. Strange. I wish people had warned me first, instead of agreeing with me later. I love old fart doctors after I'm okay.
I hope people like Pogie H., and I forget the names of her cronies, read this. I should really pray for them because they're soooooooo messed up. If there's such a thing as reincarnation, they've got a number of lives in front of them. I pray for me too, because I still harbor hate for them. I can't see the humanity in them. Only anger and destruction. I just can't see it and I almost always do. Is it their guarded nature? Noncel Spore, I forgot her. She's another one in whom I cannot see humanity. I guess it's their overriding anger or righteousness. Noncel, I think, had a very tall wall up, in order to survive in her working world. I can't stand those kind of people and there are so many of them. I think of them as corporate people. Are they shut down? How do they do it? My kids are not like that, but then they're not corporate. They're both scientists (of which I am mightily proud.) Read it and weep Poggy Horseman! I'm not giving your name Poggy. And I'm not telling about how you're the mean, rotten kind of witch, not the Wiccan kind. What about your dedicated car-dealing office manager friend, Mory, or Futzie, or whatever her name was? Boy oh boy, she couldn't see past corporate policy either. And Flower, your secretary. Floozie? Fucknozey? What was her name? How do these people function? Is it their Catholic education? If anybody reads this and understands, please enlighten me. I have no idea.
Now that I've figured out funny names, I can tell my work stories! That's a joy. Poggy Horsenose. She was a pretty lady, actually.

Just want to check in. No paintings done. Covered over two new ones. They sucked, big time. Enjoying painting the new one over the porch flower painting. Ah well. Big time painter.

Didn't paint today. Dragged myself out of bed and made a great grilled cheese sandwich with my hot chile cheese and wonderful thickly-sliced cheese bread. I almost never cook and I love my grilled cheese sandwiches. I also redid my Abstract page on my website. Two accomplishments.

I'm missing posting paintings regularly. I take as long as it takes to paint in oils. And it usually takes a long time for me to be satisfied. I love the painting Celebration Circles. I have two more coming along that are similar. It's much prettier in person. That's not a great photo.

I'm not a bad painter. Somewhere in the middle, I would think. Of today, anyway. That's a huge blessing and I'm very grateful. The adjectives are deserved. To love anything that much is a gift and to be able to create is something special. I really do have to thank my family for encouraging me.

Knee, not the knights

Oops. Drunk. I'm drinking Spiced Rum like some people drink Coke. Seems like I can put it away and enjoy it. Not so great.
Painted all day. Been painting. Got two abstracts going. One, so far, is flowers. I like the purple and glad my dear daughter suggested using more than basic colors. I was just using my favorites. Even used the Rose, which I don't much like. The purple is beautiful though. Didn't get to use Cobalt Blue but I will. My knee hurt so much, my leg hurt, but while I was painting, I didn't notice. When I sat down to look at the paintings, I was really exhausted. I ate later. Just realized I drank beer with my Pastrami, Cole Slaw, and cheese, and then Spiced Rum. I'm okay though. Luckily, I'm sleeping again, so no drugs. Nothing helps the knee except the Tens, when it's on. Can I do Tai Chi tomorrow? I'll see. Might go with my bathing suit on so I can go swimming afterward. I like being in the water because my knee doesn't hurt then. Gotta get up early so off I go.

I've painted almost all my life and I enjoy it more now than ever. I'm disillusioned with galleries and that process is exhausting anyway, even if I felt good about them. Right now, I'm working on two more paintings that may relate to the Circles painting. Except for old abstracts, this promises to be a larger group of "pretty" paintings. I'm painting to please myself and I like them pretty.
I forgot to take pictures of the porch flowers painting. I entered it in a Wilmington show that's purely amateur with a big etcetera. People have talent but the show is major boring. Almost no one used red or bright colors in general. Everything was "quiet". My friend Ken Se gal, also an artist who now lives down here too, encouraged me. He comes from near where I lived in Philly and went to Tyler. So, I'll see if those folks like the paintings. He keeps saying the landscape will win a prize, but I'm not confident. We're talking about people's taste.
I worked today on my flowers painting and also on my current abstract. I like how they're coming along. I didn't like the abstract and couldn't figure out what to do with it, and started "fixing" it today. I also went swimming. My knee hurt me so badly every time I bent it, I just had to do something where it wouldn't hurt. I enjoyed being in the water. A lot. I hoped that when I got home I'd have the energy to paint, and luckily, I did.
I think my daughter had a good idea about using colors other than primary ones. Those are my favorites, but variety is kind of neat. I used Naples and Yellow Ochre, in addition to that mud red that takes forever to dry and "spreads". I've been using Viridian again too. I'd like to find a way to use a rose red if I could. I generally don't like it. I'm crazy about Ultramarine and Thalo Blues. Maybe I should look for my Cobalt Blue. I may not even have any. Sometimes I don't use color for so long, the tube gets hard. I poke them in the side or the top with a toothpick and paint from that. It's messy, but I'm messy.
Being able to work in the Arts is truly a gift from God. I dream about singing and dancing, but I love, adore, cherish, painting. I feel blessed.
I realize I'm somewhat of an atheist, believing in the highest level of spirit energy is God or Gods. Maybe that's not an atheist, because I believe in angels and the whole magilla. Last night, I had another dream of the other side. I think "the other side" is different from what I see, but whatever it is, that part of existence is not horrible. I would doubt, but then I remember Jerry's flying photos and the rest. Plus Aunt Millie--her spirit. In the dream, I looked into a mirror and saw spirits. Of course, I wanted to see Jerry, and was reassured I would eventually. I had a chance to dance on air, and looked at a huge swimming poor where a couple of women were doing the Dead man's Float. I realized finally they weren't coming up for air and tried to give one of the women a tap, saying something like, "You go, girl!" I value those little visits. I didn't see anyone I knew, but I learned. And I couldn't wait to go swimming!