Two Years In

Two years ago we went to a new restaurant in a nearby town. It was a really enjoyable event and I remember telling my friends all about this place. I know some of them have been there since, but I never have. Shortly after that dinner out the pandemic changed all our lives.

Not only did I not go back to that restaurant, or any other for that matter, but I didn't go into any stores either. In the beginning, friends picked up what I needed in grocery stores, and if we really needed something else it was ordered online.  That first Christmas came and went and was totally ignored by us as we were not comfortable shopping in crowded stores and the lineup outside the post office grew ridiculously long and the weather too cold to stand in it so we were no longer ordering online.

The grocery stores installed safety measures and I went back to shopping for food myself. We only ventured into a city mall a couple of times this past year to pick up something needed at a specific store so those were just quick in and out experiences. It was not crowded so that made me feel relatively safe. We did not go there during the Christmas season but we did manage to get some gifts bought this year.  Most of them have not been delivered yet but we hope to remedy that soon. 

The latest variant is highly contagious so once again I am not shopping in the grocery stores. I now order online and we park in the lot and have the order brought out to us.  I tried this in the beginning but there were too many bugs in the system and I gave up. Now it's quick and easy at my chosen store. After only one month I find I have already saved over a hundred dollars on my food budget shopping this way, despite the rapidly rising cost of food and the added convenience charges.  It probably saves time too, but I am losing out on the added exercise of walking around the store.

Yes, I have had both vaccinations and my booster shot and know a lot of you are feeling safe now. But the case numbers were rising again because of that and the extra contagion. Right now, though things are improving, the number of people with Covid-19 is still higher than it was at the beginning of some previous shutdowns.  I am a senior who gets bronchitis to the point where I can't catch my breath when I catch the regular flu so I do not want to take chances with this virus. They say this Omicron variant is milder than the previous versions but that is just doctor-speak for "it's not as likely to kill you," but it still could, and has taken many.

I am part of the Stop-Cov Study and routinely send in dried blood samples to check for antibodies. They check my antibody levels against those of other people in my age group and how my group is doing compared with other age groups.  My latest report shows that I have had no antibodies and have been basically unprotected from September until my booster shot in January. That's not everyone, but that is the results my tests show. We are all different and I am certainly glad I have remained careful.

I had to travel to a city an hour and a half away for a medical test. Since it was Valentine's Day we decided we would venture into a restaurant partway through the afternoon and enjoy a meal out. It wasn't busy at that time and it was great to finally have something other than fast food or takeout in the car.  The restrictions are being lifted soon but that does not mean I will jump back into normal life right away.  If the trucker convoys and other related demonstrations don't cause a superspreader I will feel more confident that it's time to get back to pre-Covid life.  

Just Start

Is there something you would like to do but think you can't?  Have you ever actually tried? Or did you try and not do as well as you had hoped and then just give up?

I remember seeing a painting of a dalmatian in a how-to magazine once that totally fascinated me. I was learning to paint but I didn't think I could ever do anything like that. I came across that old magazine recently and now that painting doesn't look nearly as intimidating as it once did. I've learned some skills.

I didn't use to be able to draw a decent stick figure but I have now been commissioned to draw two pet portraits just because I post what I'm learning on social media. If you want to do something you don't think you can do, take steps to learn how. Start today and just keep going. I know you can do it, whatever it is. It might take training. It might just take practice.  It might take luck or it could be that even your happy accidents lead to the success you weren't even expecting.

Sometimes something you do will lead you to do something else you had not thought of before, or it might even inspire others.  A new cyber friend of mine went out to take pictures of the new snow clinging to the trees.  She was disappointed later when she realized the photos were badly overexposed. We interact on a creativity page and she decided to share those shots after all. She ran them through a filter and was surprised by the truly lovely results. If she had just deleted the pictures without trying something new she would never have discovered how beautiful her mistakes really were.  And today, when I tried to take a specific picture, the angle of the sun was making it next to impossible.   I was inspired by what this lady had done and decided to see if I could turn an over-exposed picture into something beautiful too.  There are no mistakes, there are just opportunities.  

Go create some opportunities for yourself. Whatever it is you ever wanted to do, go take that first step. You may really love where it leads you.

Scribble Art

 For the past couple of years, I have taken part in Self Portrait Sunday. It is a group on Facebook where the only rules are to only draw yourself from a mirror or another reflective surface (no photos allowed) and you can only post on Sunday. Beyond that, any method or medium is fair game.

Recently I followed a 30-minute demonstration by Dena Marshall on Etcher about how to draw a dog using a scribbling method. My results turned out better than I expected so I tried another of one of a friend's dogs. I admit I did revert to hatching partway through both drawings because neither of those dogs had curly hair and I didn't want them to look like they did. I decided to try again with my self-portrait this week. I may need a bit more practice with this technique but I find it fun and rather freeing. I like to work with a pen, and if you are scribbling you don't need to worry so much about putting a line in the wrong place because you can just scribble over it anyway. There is a 90-minute workshop on Etchr later this week that I might just have to look into.

 

This is the dog I learned how to draw in 30 minutes.

And these are the drawings I have done on my own since.

Off to a Good Start

Most of the time when I pick a project or challenge to follow, something else I would maybe have preferred comes along and I let it go because I am already involved in something. At this time of year, there is certainly no shortage of such offerings as they know people want something that will give them the needed push in the direction they want to go.  I didn't choose one this year. I signed up for several as they came along. In fact, I picked up another one this week.

So, how am I doing?  Ha.  Obviously, I'm not committed to any one project but I have managed to do something each day toward two different kinds of challenges.

My first project for 2022 was to create 12 bookmarks to exchange with 12 other artists (yes, I am going to start calling myself that now) across North America.   I have done greeting card exchanges in the past and traded ATCs (Artist Trading Cards) this past year so I couldn't resist getting in on this.  I used four stamps I carved myself to create my bookmarks and sent the results off to one address where they will be redistributed along with other submissions to the various participants. There is only one other Canadian taking part. I can hardly wait to get my package, not that I need more bookmarks, but because I love to get art in the mail. It's a great way to make new friends.

There was a 5-day challenge to draw flowers.  I did a quick sketch in my junk journal on day one but the photos of the flowers presented during this particular week didn't inspire me at all.  I may look back on that some other day this month when I am even less interested in what is being offered elsewhere.   We'll see.  The idea, for me, is just to do something artistic each day.  The bookmarks kept me busy.

Besides the quick flower sketch I did on day one, I was also prompted to draw some of my pens for a month-long challenge. Each day since then it has come up with other simple things like cups, nuts or feathers. I didn't get inspired to do much with those and I was much too busy doing the other type of project I'll tell you about in a moment.

I did get inspired by something I saw on Facebook though. I follow this interesting creativity coach who lives near Paris, France. He is about to put on a 5 Day Creative Challenge and he has been doing the occasional video lately to stir up our creativity and get people interested in the challenge. (Yes, that's the one I picked up this week). In a recent video, he was telling about learning to draw using the blind contour method and mentioned his results looked like monsters. While he was talking about it, he rather looked like a monster himself, since he was shining a light up toward his face. I instantly wanted to see if I could draw him like that.  The lighting was so dramatic that I thought it would be fun to try. I dug out my acrylic inks and it turned out better than I expected. Normally I only draw self-portraits. I may have to try a few more people!

Two other challenges I'm working on have more to do with decluttering. I usually do one every year to kick start my spring cleaning.  It aims me at places I've forgotten to clean or only do once a year. This year there is a shorter new one as well, that is interesting in that it gets you to declutter just your own stuff, and not worry about the messes others in the house might be making. Between the two of them, so far this week I have cleaned out a drawer, decluttered all my cups or other drinking vessels (how many do you really need?), cleaned up and decluttered my night table and other bedroom surfaces where my own stuff might be, and did the same in the bathroom. Getting rid of old makeup, or good things I don't use is not as easy as it might sound! I also went through all the food cupboards and storage and got rid of anything that had gone past its expiry date. 

I have had a productive week even if I didn't do something for each and every challenge every day. I even got this blog posted so I think this year is off to a good start.

Getting On With Blogging

I've had just about two years of not writing much in here. I intend to change that. The pandemic is still raging and I will try to not mention that any more often than I have to. I may have been cooped up and kept away from friends and family during those two years, and even immobilized by a health problem since about mid-June, but I have still found things to do and I'm feeling better so I'm going back to telling you about what I'm up to in the new year.

At the beginning of each year, I am usually signed up for several projects. These are not necessarily tied to any New Year's Resolutions but may be kick-starters, just the same. I have a couple of decluttering challenges to follow and a few art-related projects, workshops, and/or courses lined up. It's all likely more than I can handle all at the beginning of the year, but it gives me things to choose from each day so that I do more than sit around eating leftover baked goods that I would normally be sharing with friends well into the year.

The first thing I will tackle is making 12 hopefully artistic bookmarks that will be mailed off no later than mid-January.  I will then happily await the arrival of 12 new ones from other artists scattered across the continent. I've done card exchanges before, and swapped Artist Trading Cards (ATCs) but I have never done bookmarks before.  I have no idea if I will make them all similar or extremely different from each other. I do have some new art supplies from ArtSnacks so maybe I'll start with them and see where it takes me.

I hope you will stick around to see what I'm up to in the new year. 

Caught in the Crossfire

 I posted several notices on Facebook asking you to sign in support of the optometrist's job action. 

 After three decades of being underpaid by the government, the optometrists felt it was time to take a stand. Over the past thirty years, the increase in the payment they receive has only gone up by a total of $5 while the number of seniors needing their services has increased by 70 percent. The average cost for an optometrist to see a patient is $80 and they are getting less than $50 of that from the government for seniors and children. To see all those patients who are covered by OHIP every year at such a loss is just not sustainable. They want that gap filled, and who can blame them. Right now that money is coming out of their own pockets

When I posted those requests to sign in support of the optometrists, I thought that if I did need to go see one I would just have to pay like all the other adults who have not become seniors yet. Well, it turns out that the government has made it illegal for those who are eligible for OHIP services to pay out of pocket for an eye exam.  That means that if we need to see our eye doctor, we simply cannot. As of the beginning of September, the optometrists taking part in this job action are not allowed to see us.  That means that all those patients that use over four million services on an annual basis no longer have access to optometry services. 

I recently had cataract surgery and needed new glasses to read with afterward. I got them but I find that they don't work well for me. I took them back to where I got them and the prescription was checked and was correct. I was told to go back to my eye doctor.  I did that yesterday. Or tried to.  A technician there also checked my glasses against the prescription and once again no problem was found.  I explained that when I try to read I keep finding myself closing one eye. She tried to get the optometrist to see me, and was told the doctor was not allowed because I was covered by OHIP.  While I totally support her position, I find myself caught in the crossfire. I have read a few stories in the news of others with even worse problems so the sooner this job action is settled, the better.  

I have been put on a list......a very long list, I'm told.....to be called when an appointment can legally be made.  But just think of how many people who would normally have regular appointments, let alone ones for problems, will be on this ever-growing list. It's bad enough things have slowed down due to the pandemic, but this is going to create a real bottleneck once the offices are open once again to seniors. 

Please contact your MPP and help get this problem solved.  Even if you are not personally affected, I'm sure there is someone in your life who will be. Here's the link you need.  Home - Save Eye Care

Thank you.

The Day I Became "The Karen"

My name is Karen, but really, it's not pronounced the way you are reading it. This is a good thing lately because people are making rather derogatory remarks about Karens.

I recently had my cataracts done, both on the same day. Two days before the surgery I was to start taking two of the three kinds of drops I needed to keep my eyes healthy and heal well after this procedure. The antibiotics drops were fine but another one meant to reduce inflamation made my face itch, my nose bleed, and gave me diarrhea. Worse than that, it made me dizzy. That didn't go away even when I tried to lie down.

I was actually afraid to take any more of the drop that was causing the problem so first thing in the morning I called the ophthalmologist's office. As expected, I just got an answering machine. This was very worrisome since I had left a question several days before and had still not gotten an answer and my surgery was to be the very next day. My hubby decided to go talk to the pharmacist. They are very helpful at our local drug store and offered to try faxing the ophthalmologist's office as that might get through sooner. The pharmacist also said that of the three drops I would be taking, the one that was causing the problem was the least important.  

Meanwhile, the hospital phoned with the time for me to show up for my surgery and I explained the problem to them too. The lady said she would also try to reach the doctor but that she would be calling the same line as me so suggested I just keep trying.  

I don't know which message the office eventually got but someone finally phoned and told me it was okay to discontinue that particular drop and repeated what the pharmacist said. It was the least important of them all. That was a relief!

The day after the surgery I had to go for a follow-up appointment at the ophthalmologist's office.  I presented my health card, and the receptionist looked at it and said, "Oh, The Karen!"  I told her I was sorry if I was coming at her from all directions but timing was of the essence and not knowing what to do was the most nerve-wracking thing about this surgery. 

I have never been so glad that my dad named me after a Norwegian lady he knew.  I will definitely be correcting people's pronunciation of my name until all this blows over.