All good things

[bwt1213]

Had the surgery mid March.. Looks like it probably didn't work. Can bend my pointer finger even less now and the thumb not at all. Thank God for long/best words.

Had a heart ablation to handle the Afib last month, which seems to have worked. Tired oof the meds. Tired of not being able to push myself in workoutsl After a lot of expensive heart tests that cost me nothing, my cardiologist informed me that I have the heart of a 45 year old. I replied that it was probably less of a testiment to my health and more an indictment of 45 yo's.

Must be all the gardening keeping me healthy. We have around 3,000 sf of flower beds and landscaping. The wife has been pressuring me to hire a landscape firm, but I opted for a teenager. She was one of my favorite kindergarteners, now a senior in high school--an incredible worker, an athlete almost as tall as me.

We've added around 500 new plants (400ish annuals , 100ish perennials) already. Just wave after wave of color as plants bloom and fade. Lot of watering, weeding and deadheading. Last Sunday I clipped 785 dead blooms (I'm a compulsive countr of such things.) She's done many times that number over the last few weeks. And by next week we'll be spending hours cutting more dead blooms.

Yesterday, we sledgehammered out around 400 plus lbs of decorative custom concrete border, expanded those beds with coral bells, hosta, begonia and imatiens. The hosta are Ben Vernoojj with rich cream colors, the coral bells are a rich burgandy alternating with carmel.. Behind that, up the slope we added half a dozen gold standard hosta. That was about 110 plants.

We still have around 150 plants waiting to meet Mother Earth. But, it's just so peaceful. And beautiful.

Not to mention we have a female mallard fly over us squawking every time Wonder Teen is here. We named her Veronica because those blooms had just started appearing. Veronica spends a while foraging in the ponds and then waddles down and visits TW. A bit sad that she's lost her mate, who used to come with her in early spring. Fortunately, mallards don't mate for life.

Hope things are going well your way.

On FaceBook, there is a (site/podcast/documentary/reel?) called Nature Vault all about valuable plants that are little known today or old farming/gardening techniques. Some of the plants would be a boon today and were disparaged or eradicated because no one could make money from them. Others fell out of favor because they could not be raised as row crops. Others could not be mechanically harvested. One, I believe it's called yellow nutsedge, was raised in Egypt and all over Africa. It fixes nitrogen, tolerates drought, and its roots form nodules like small nuts. The yield is about twice that of corn. There's no easy way to harvest it mechanically, it doesn't need fertilizer, doesn't need irrigation, so all the aid organizations aren't interested in it. Foreign companies want the people to raise peanuts, because there are so many products made from peanuts and so much profit to make. But they need fertilizer and irrigation and are not drought tolerant. So the people could raise nutsedge and have food and be independent of outsiders, or work for outsiders and need food aid when droughts come. Yes, it grows in America and was a staple of Native Americans in the desert areas, so the US tried to eradicate it.

It's fascinating to read and listen to. I highly recommend it.

[dannyb]

I haven't used the autumn olive in a few years. I would add them to a beurre blanc served under a slow roasted salmon (etc). I still occasionally get my Euell Gibbons on and collect mushrooms, ramps, sorrel, dandelion greens etc.

You are so right about the romance of drawing, even with my much more pedestrian pencils.

Be well.

[Naboka]

Used to love the sunday paper when we were kids. The comic section was huge and full of color-- unlike the daily offering.. Not even sure where to get a paper any more. Only see them when traveling.

Agree about the pencil on paper rather than using the computer. For me, art supplies can be in and of themselves works of art. I bought a wooden boxed set of Caran d'ache 76 museum aquarelles. When I opened the case, I realized they were too beautiful to use. So I bought another set. Same thing. Ended up ordering the cardboard encased set to use.

Same thing happened when Derwent put out their Lightfast series.

Applying art media to surfaces is almost romantic, a dance of sorts, where motion of our hands brings to life images from our souls.

Those are some take-no-prisoners invaders. The horror stories you must have.

Since you have serious culinary skills, have you tried harvesting the berries from your autumn olive? I've heard they're very nutritious and make decent jams and sauces. You know, the adage about making lemonade.

[dannyb]

I'm dealing with a different class of invasive plants. We live in the woods, but roads boarder our property on two sides, where the utility lines run. So, thanks to bird droppings, there are autumn olive, Asian bittersweet, and rosa multiflora, among a few others. (Thank God there is no giant knotweed, or Japanese knotweed.) If these plants aren't controlled, they can march through the woods in no time.

As for my comics, if I am unhappy with the first frame on the page, I'll scrap it. If I have a good first frame or two, I'll try to repair any mistakes in later frames. I usually run six frames per page, but I have done one to eight frame pages. My daughter in law said that I should work on an I pad with a stylus, and then I can fix every drawing, and then arrange and size the frames as needed.

I guess that I am old fashioned. I love the sound of a pencil point scratching a sheet of paper. I love my eraser. Then again, unless I am on vacation, I pay in cash, and I get two print newspapers per day (much to the amusement of the rest of our family).

[Naboka]

Probably not regarding the next step for the hand. But, such a minor inconvenience compared to what some have to deal with.

Having someone to share 2 hour hikes certainly makes life rewarding. We do our best communicating on walks.

I always wonder about your comic books. That's a lot of work. Having artistic friends, I would guess that you have to do several drawings for every one that ends up in the book. So many design and story considerations to be determined. Very admirable to be able to do that.

I planted pink evening primrose about 25 years ago. Very invasive. It spread all over. For years I fought it, then realized it was so beautiful. So, I let it bloom. Kip just pulled it all out after the flowers were mostly gone. Next year it will be back just as magnificent. This stock image represents about half of what we get surrounding the pathway to the upper pond. Just too pretty to spray with poison.

OIP-2428939615.jpg

Now that the wife will be officially retired next Friday, we'll have to put Italy on our bucket list. Such a beautiful country.

Listening to Birdy's "Black Waves." Such a haunting song. The beauty of longing.

All the best to you also. Life is just amazinng.

[dannyb]

Is there a "next step" for the hand issue?

Sounds like you have an excellent quality of life. Nature seems to ease the stress of what ever problems that weigh on you. I know it does for me. My wife and I spend two or so hours hiking every day. It is so peaceful. My wife gardens, I wrangle invasive plants.

I have been playing a little less lately. We were in Italy and did a couple "monster" (for us anyway) hikes. I was also getting ready to start my last comic book. Outlining, note taking. The last book took 36 months, the one before that 27 months. I hope to finish this one. It is my most ambitious one.

All my best my friend.

[Naboka]

Naboka, any update on your hand?

Had the surgery mid March.. Looks like it probably didn't work. Can bend my pointer finger even less now and the thumb not at all. Thank God for long/best words.

Had a heart ablation to handle the Afib last month, which seems to have worked. Tired oof the meds. Tired of not being able to push myself in workoutsl After a lot of expensive heart tests that cost me nothing, my cardiologist informed me that I have the heart of a 45 year old. I replied that it was probably less of a testiment to my health and more an indictment of 45 yo's.

Must be all the gardening keeping me healthy. We have around 3,000 sf of flower beds and landscaping. The wife has been pressuring me to hire a landscape firm, but I opted for a teenager. She was one of my favorite kindergarteners, now a senior in high school--an incredible worker, an athlete almost as tall as me.

We've added around 500 new plants (400ish annuals , 100ish perennials) already. Just wave after wave of color as plants bloom and fade. Lot of watering, weeding and deadheading. Last Sunday I clipped 785 dead blooms (I'm a compulsive countr of such things.) She's done many times that number over the last few weeks. And by next week we'll be spending hours cutting more dead blooms.

Yesterday, we sledgehammered out around 400 plus lbs of decorative custom concrete border, expanded those beds with coral bells, hosta, begonia and imatiens. The hosta are Ben Vernoojj with rich cream colors, the coral bells are a rich burgandy alternating with carmel.. Behind that, up the slope we added half a dozen gold standard hosta. That was about 110 plants.

We still have around 150 plants waiting to meet Mother Earth. But, it's just so peaceful. And beautiful.

Not to mention we have a female mallard fly over us squawking every time Wonder Teen is here. We named her Veronica because those blooms had just started appearing. Veronica spends a while foraging in the ponds and then waddles down and visits TW. A bit sad that she's lost her mate, who used to come with her in early spring. Fortunately, mallards don't mate for life.

Hope things are going well your way.

[dannyb]

Naboka, any update on your hand?

[dannyb]

Wishing you the best.

[Naboka]

Got a bunch of tests done. Turns out to be a problem with the anterior interosseous nerve that's a motor nerve serving the thumb and pointer finger. I can't bend the joints in either the thumb or index finger on my right hand.

Also have carpal tunnel syndrome and cubital tunnel sydrome, complicated by (not to be too complex) nerves running from my spine around my shoulder and down the arm.

My first orthopedic surgeon handed me off to another who realized it was stuff he couldn't handle either so he handed me off to an orthopedic sports surgeon. I'm very comfortable with him so we'll do the carpal tunnel and anterior interosseous nerve procedures first. Suurgery not scheduled yet. Full recovery will be slow, maybe a year before my fingers get back to normal--if the nerves haven't been too damaged.

The good news is I can go back to the gym now until surgery, and then 8 weeks after surgery. The other surgeons were telling me no. I had been just using our indoor cycle 5 days a week for 15 mile runs at 85% maximum heart rate. Was missing all the upper body stuff. So, now I'll be doing both. At my physcial in August, I told my GP that I feel pretty healthy for my age. He said I was healthy for any age, so now I get to brag about that.

This hand stuff started a month later, but I'm making adjustments and not bothered by it especially.

The fun thing is I now can play lots of 15 seconnd games looking for best words. Well sometimes much longer before time runs out with nothing to show for it, but... Nothinng's perfect.

[dannyb]

Hey Naboka, How's your hand doing? Any procedures or therapy?

[BoggleOtaku]

BWT1213, this basically amounts to a desperate plea.

Spotify lifetime streams compare at 675+ million (PK) to 4.5M (HRL) to too low to list (T)
Monthly listeners compare at 10.6M to 112k to 3k.

I was familiar with PK when it came out, but hadn't heard it for years until recently.
I wondered why.

First ever official music video of PK made this year.
This, a 2005 remaster of the song, and recent major covers account for a resurgence.

OK, I'll admit,
It's a desperate plea from me,
as my teenager
sings Psycho Killer incessantly.

[bwt1213]

You can kill that song for good with either "Hot Rod Lincoln" by Commander Cody and the Lost Planet Airmen, or "Transfusion", by Nervous Norvis.

[dannyb]

All of this talk of electricians and wires caused these lines to run through my head for a few days now:

Can't seem to face up to the facts.
Tenses and nervous, can't relax.
Can't sleep, bed's on fire.
Don't touch me ,I'm a real like wire.

[bwt1213]

I was able to pay the electrician's spouse (same kind of company setup we had back when we were young -- husband and wife) $2,000. He did extra. He worked hard. And he said good things about his wife and children while he was working hard. I'll see what else I can do for them, too. This is so much like what my life was like when I was his age. But I had only two children. He has seven! I can't imagine life like that. But I was able to show him Radio Garden and TV Garden (two websites). He really liked Saltillo Mexico for Radio Garden -- it was really good rock music (I liked it a lot) and it was all Spanish! And when he got home, he showed both to his kids and they loved it, too. High praise: they thought it was "cool". I sent an email to his wife telling her how much I appreciated his hard work and professionalism, and told her he'd said really nice things about her, so since he was so exemplary that meant she must be really super. I hope they all have a really nice Christmas.