We work hard to fight the January Blues on several different fronts. Above all we're thankful---very relieved to have gotten through the last two months with no floods. The forecast is for cold and flurries and that's good news.
We had talked about beating the winter blahs by buying a flat-screen TV; the only TV we have now is an old 13-inch that allows us to watch the evening news. After pricing the big sets and reading about the added utility cost, we decided instead to buy a $50 ping-pong table from St. Vincent's, complete with net, paddles, and balls! We just finished a round in our attached garage; we don't keep score but we're competitive enough to keep a fast volley going for a while and there always a lot of howling and laughter to go along with our best efforts.
Every day we get out walking or skiing and that keeps back the blues. And we have our wonderful memories of the first days of the month in Big Bend National Park, hiking 10-12 miles a day for each of the 4 days we were there. We had perfect weather and an absolutely wonderful time, once again staying at the Chisos Mountains Lodge.
I play around with painting as well, this gecko (cut out and painted on a board) for my friend Dan who (with his partner Marv) has been a longtime salon neighbor of ours at Carlton Gardens. He wanted a gecko painting of mine in the worst way and was delighted with this. It's made for outdoors.We also get out and about, twice out to eat for 2 grandkid January birthdays, once for a wonderful video and tour of the local Frank Lloyd Wright house, and another time to Frederick Meijer Gardens. But most of the time for me is spent working hard at the computer on some out-of-town lectures coming up and finding illustrations for my church history text, a grueling ordeal usually done by the publisher but I know what I want and have determined to be very involved in the process.
