Quiet

This morning I sit sipping coffee with my spotted companion curled up on the couch next to me and a heating pad on my back. Life has been full of, well, life stuff I guess. We had a giant push to get Dave off to Alaska and as far as I know, he’s really there in Kotzebue. Last I heard was from Anchorage. Not certain he has cell coverage and if he does, it probably will cost some astronomical amount! Kotzebue is a small coastal city just 33 miles north of the arctic circle. It’s considered sub-arctic tundra with oodles of little lakes and lots of ocean.  He’s staying at LaVonne’s Fish Camp where he is helping bring in a harvest of salmon, some of which will go to help the Jensen Arctic Museum annual fundraiser.

Moby decided to cause problems of his own. Saturday I discovered a giant lump had formed in his throat area. I wasn’t certain what it was or what could have caused it, but it made me very concerned. He’s been doing some coughing for the past couple of weeks (I thought it was due to all the grass seed or maybe a touch of kennel cough). Monday morning we had a traumatic trip into the vet. Fearful situations cause him to flip out. I pretty much have to stay with him the entire time, putting on the muzzle and attempting to restrain him. Thank goodness for the muzzle or numerous folks would have been badly bitten. I ended up with giant bruises on my legs and by the next day my back muscles had flipped out (hence the heating pad). Between what I could describe and the vet’s attempts to finger the lump, it’s most likely an abscess caused by a perforated trachea. He ate something about 2 weeks ago that caused the problem. Antibiotics seem to be doing the trick for now and we’ll reassess in 2 weeks.

I’m also waiting to see what happens with Dave’s dad. He’s been in hospital for the past week plus and this mornings report wasn’t good. Things had been improving… cancer and pneumonia are a tricky balance at the end.  From my perspective, I think back to the last week of my dad’s life. Watching the mental decline as well as the physical was so difficult. He remained at home until his body was really shutting down. I felt like we honored his wishes as best as we could. Once in the hospital he didn’t speak to us coherently again and slipped away after about 4 or 5 days.

I did manage to drop off an entry into a juried show and pull together an artist statement and photos for the Philomath Open Studio Tour website. Please click on the link and check out the group. It certainly will be chocked full of artists! 29 total this year!

Is there art getting produced??? Not much, in fact nada for the moment. Between battling clearing out the Eugene house and everything else going on, I’ve not done a sketch one. So here is an older print image that’s not ever been shown on the blog before.

Originally a charcoal drawing, I transferred the image to a polyester lithography plate and ran several prints back in 2002.