Thursday Art Walk

 

In Which Today Was Rough

So after yesterday's ridiculous heat, I was excited that today would be in the 70s instead of the 80s. I was even looking forward to the idea of a rainy day inside, since we were supposed to get thunderstorms (which we did... eventually).

Unfortunately, pretty much as soon as I started to go to bed, someone got into an accident and knocked out power to my block.

At 1:20AM or so.

For seven. Hours.

Seven.

In the first hour or two, we still had internet, so I reported the outage to the power company (which is owned by Spain for some stupid reason... a country over 3200 miles (5150km) away from me.

The linemen are all great, though. They're local folks and they do their best with what they're given.

It's not their fault that the power was out for 7 hours.

Somehow, the freezer stayed 100% cold, though! When I checked after the power came back on, yeah the strawberry cheesecake ice cream was soft, but the lemonade bars were still frozen solid.

I don't do well when there's a crisis going on like the power being out. I prefer to know what's up, and I largely lose the ability to find out what's up when I don't have reliable internet access.

So I had very little idea what was going on, when the power would be back, etc. Especially since when the power first went out after 1, the outage map said it'd be back by 3:45AM...

I texted my folks at 6AM because they were out of town, let them know the fridge would probably be a loss and that the power was still out. Apparently the outage map had updated with a new time, which my dad relayed to me via text: 9AM

Tomorrow.

Uh...

Yeah I just about lost my mind. I don't like power outages - I'm afraid of the dark (my eyes and brain really like making shapes in the shadows...)

He'd misread the listing because his phone still thought it was the 26th. It was due back buy 9am today.

And it came back at 8:22AM.

Which I know.

Because I stayed up the whole night.

I have only slept about 20 minutes so far.  It's uh... It's a low-brain day.

So what did I do during the 7 hours of outage?

The first thing I did was make sure there was a flashlight near me. Then I snagged the book I've been reading - "Everybody Knows" by Jordan Harper.

I read the last two thirds of the book by flashlight light with a cat digging into my lap while my neighbors' generator hummed, distant machinery beeped, the train horn wailed, etc.

I finished the book...

Go read it. It's heavy, it's fast, it's hard-hitting and harder-nosed. Neon noir grit lit at its finest.

Made me set the book down mid-read and cuss at the author (in an "I'm so jealous of how well written this is! How dare you be so masterful!" way) twice.

After the book, I had plenty of time - it was only just past 4 when I was done with the book, so I went down to the kitchen, lit the stove with a lighter, made coffee without cream, and grabbed my sketchbook.

I worked out a little sketch in pencil.

the finished sketch, taken under the light of a Maglight

Once I finished the sketch, I puttered around the house before carrying the sketchpad upstairs and running primary inks with my Pigma Micron brush pen.

I really liked the way the inks looked at this stage and decided not to do colors

With the primary inks done, I set it aside, did some digging around for a non-refrigerated breakfast (pretzels, it turned out). Finally, I gathered a few more things - the sweater I'm frogging into yarn, a pair of shorts I wanted to try repairing, my sewing kit, my yarn ball winder - and brought them down to the living room, where there was more space & light. Then I took another pass at the drawing with the brush pen!

"Power Outage Again!"; ink on watercolor paper; 2023
[DEDBERT]

Once I was done drawing and inking, I set my art aside and took out the sweater, which started coming apart even better. From one section of buttonhole/chest piece and one section of bottom-ribbing, I ended up with three balls of yarn!

Which I then set aside because I was ready for a nap.

I am beat, guys. I'm probably just gonna try to go to sleep.

I hope you all had productive art weeks!

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Talk About Tuesday: First Blizzard of 2021

 

In Which I Have A Good Excuse Today!

Probably 75% of the time when I have a late blog entry (or none at all!) it's because I'm lazy. I know, I know, that's such a shock (sarcastic eyeroll), but today is different, I swear!

Our power went out.

Because we're in the middle of a blizzard and there was a car accident somewhere nearby and it knocked out our power.

So I couldn't upload until now! I was going to! Was, in fact, just about to shut down today's playtime on Stardew Valley to start working on the blog, which was going to talk about how boring the snowstorm has been and how many ducks are in my yard and how Nolan the Farmer and Elliott the Writer have a kid now (Trish), but uh... boop! No power!

Now, I had internet because my old man has the net hooked up to a battery backup that worked, but I don't like running my computer off of battery (what with the last two laptops failing in the battery/power supply area) and I wasn't sure how long the power would be out (estimates were that it'd be off for maybe 5 hours!) but thankfully, the local guys got the power back up... 12 minutes ago. Two hours early.

If I was wearing a hat, I'd take it off to them.

It's been quite the day.

Here's my plan for the rest of the week into next week:

• Thursday: More Art (probably won't be done with the digital bonkbubble) 
• Weekend: Might do a tea review and/or a video game review but I can make no promises!
• Next Monday: I hope I'm finished with the stocking, but who knows? Maybe the cuff will cause problems...
• Next Tuesday: I'll be back to jaw atcha

I'd like to take a second here and say that I really, really don't like winter anymore. I used to love it as a kid, but like most people, once I started having to do things like shovel snow and walk on icy roads, it became a chore to even wake up after November...

Not to mention that I'm a wimp and hate being cold unless I'm wrapped in blankets and curled up in bed. Then I want my face chilly and my hands toasty. Unfortunately it tends to be the other way around...

Regardless, I'm beginning to hate winter a lot, and losing power in the winter is so much scarier than losing it in the spring through fall. Spring? Eh, it'll be a lil chilly but I'll be fine. Bored but fine. Summer? Ugh. Windows open, water in hand, but doable. Fall? Crisp and comfy, so I'm golden. Winter? Well... if it's out too long we'll have to go for an extended drive, I guess... hope you can catch the cat in the dark and put her in her carrier so she doesn't freeze in our heatless home...

So yeah. I'm whining right now.

But I'll bet you anything I'll wake up tomorrow, toasty-toed and swaddled in blankets, and look outside to the marshmallow world and think

"Dang"

"That's pretty"

And then I'll go downstairs and make my coffee while watching what seems like every Mallard duck in the state (seriously we had over 30 today, I counted about 15 pairs!) huddled under the bird feeders, all facing the same direction like boats anchored in a bay. I'll pet the kitty, curled up in the chair she probably kicked my mom out of at some point in the morning, and I'll sip my brew while thinking of story ideas. All of the stress from today will be forgotten in the face of a new day.

Not to be confused with the WWE tag team/stable.

I think I'll work on my book for a bit after posting this blog.

It's only taken 27 minutes from the power coming back on for most of my anxiety and bitterness to depart. I don't fear the cold like I should. I fear the dark. I can't see and I'm really clumsy. I hate accidentally stepping on cat toes.

Sorry this is a bit scattershot!

I hope you're all safe and cozy :)

Go Enjoy Something!

FC