The Potgieters in Minnesota – see a small window to our lives below
At last I got as far as using my treadmill this morning for a fast 22 minute walk.
I listened to the first three stations of the cross from our church at
While doing some leatherwork, I listened to the first half of the book “Make Your Bed”.
I made a new batch of Droë Wors [like the elite version of dried jerky sausage].
This struck me the moment I saw it – I hope it helps me to relax:
A bit of a weird day, weatherwise.
Mostly sunny.
But with a blustery wind full of snow! At times.
I had an appointment with my diabetes educator, and absolutely delightful lady to talk to.
All over the phone of course.
I organised things a bit in my workroom, did a bit of leatherwork and EVEN took an afternoon NAP!!!!
That was the first time in many years. But I did set my alarm and got up in time to get Gina’s laptop ready for joining our small group on Zoom.
I skipped this evening’s small group to attend another online leather class I had paid for – to do woodgrain on leather. I have done a lot of different woodgrain effects on leather, but this was taught by Jim Linnell, a master I admire very much, and I see these classes with him as a kindof back-to-basics excercise. This is not done yet, but this was the subject of the class this evening:
I drove up to my store this morning, mailing a gift on the way. At the store I took this picture of a 3d embossed picture I did a few years ago and only recently framed [just to make a marker for myself where I was this morning].
Then I hopped over to Aldi and did our grocery shopping. At the post office and Aldi I noticed new plastic/acrylic shields were up to protect the staff.
I was home in time to attend the third online leatherwork class this week at noon. I like that this keeps me in contact with other people that shares my passion with leatherwork.
It was a good day, all in all.
First my usual hour and a bit chat to my mom in South Africa. She is doing so well and works through things that stress her with a very healthy attitude and with good help from God.
I attended an online leather class again and was able to do this:
I was just done and got a phone call – the technician who is here to look at our internet connection was a welcome day early. He checked out everything on the outside with us inside, communicating by phone. Our line was good, so he gave us a new wireless router and when I went out to get it, he saw me and remarked that he knew me. We quickly established the fact that he was a customer at the store I manage!
The new router was easy to install and worked well. For an hour….. Then it gave me some despair for an hour where the signal disappeared very often. Then it started to work very smoothly again as soon as I got up to investigate.
And then I had all three of us drive down to the Mississippi and go and bask in the sun for a bit [18C!!!!]
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
To leave comments, simply tap/click on the post heading and there will be a comment block below the post.
Much better day!
Wilhelm has been helping us sort through some old stored boxes and one of the finds was this:
It is the 63 year old predecessor of texting! And what makes these so special, was the humor with which they were done. I scanned them all and will post in a different post – they are, of course, in Afrikaans. These were folded very small, the name of the recipient was written on it and it was then sent through a classroom to the intended recipient. I also did this when I was at school. Yes, there was an era before cell phones….!
At noon I attended an online leatherwork class again and drew this design to be used in a notepad holder that will be constructed tomorrow in the class:
Bit of a tough day again.
We had our virtual church service via Zoom.
And then I saw this that a friend had shared on Facebook:
And they all apply to me in this time except #7.
I always say awareness is half of the battle won. I have been able to just recognizing the symptoms as they arrive. And I have been discussing it with Gina and Wilhelm.
Again a tough day.
Made tough by not having the peace of mind to just sit down and immerse myself in leatherwork.
Technology also gave me a few headaches – I wanted to scan in a sheet of my handwriting to create my very own personalized font. No matter how many times I manipulated the image, it was not accepted by fontifier.com So there was a few hours gone.
Then later in the day I wanted to relax in front of the big TV watching some amusing YouTube videos and music videos. Out of the blue we were unable to cast to the TV. Spent another hour or so – nothing……
We did do a run to Walmart to get some supplies. Was kindof busy there and few had masks on.
Another reminder: If you want to comment on any of these posts, just tap/click on the heading of the post – that opens up the comment feature below the post.
It’s been a week, seven days.
Not an easier day.
I started finishing off the leather bound volume cover I had made over the last few days. It is now ready to be part of a cover once I have some old magazines bound. This was after applying the red and brown stain to the leather:
And this is after an acrylic sealer was applied:
And this is after an antiquing process to make the tooling pop:
In the middle of the day I caught a dip – lost my temper and my creativity. I also cannot stop clenching my jaw – it bothers me.
Late afternoon Gina suggested we go out for a trip – so we went to Caribou first for coffee (my coffee cooler is an actual no-no according to my diabetes educator, but I had to regain a little bit of my humanity). Then stopped at Burger King to satisfy her lust for fries. And I also got cheese sticks and nuggets. Both these we did the drive-thru pickups.
This evening I felt better and made this cover for a wireless charging bank:
If you want to comment on any of these posts, simply click on the heading of the individual post and the comment box will open up!
Mostly a leatherwork day!
I am so grateful for a creative craft that I can express my self in and that I can teach to other people! It truly is a blessing.
A small piece of me see this as a preview of a very distant time of retirement (Damn! I need to meet that multi-millionaire now that can sponsor me just to stay home and do leatherwork…!)
This evening we attended our small group (church) with others over 50…. Virtually On Zoom It worked Somewhat But highlighted the isolation even more It was GOOD though, very good!
If we lived 40 years ago, there would already be authors preparing and assembling nice big Time-Life coffeetable books about this viral time. I wonder how memories / happenings of these times are now going to be preserved. Digital interwebs world is so invisible and seemingly fleeting, even in its massive world of volume.
Well, it is still below freezing outside, but by Saturday / Sunday we should warm up again and see the sun. So I’ll get to leatherwork tomorrow…..
I think starting this journal of my days at home is really helping a lot. For me personally. I had a second night of good sleep.
First thing I did was to go to a big general store where I picked up a prescription refill and quickly did some shopping for fruit, veggies and meat, milk,etc..
I was then able to catch up on two instruction videos done on Monday and Tuesday by a good friend of mine before I joined his livestream class at noon. My own class project is still a bit behind, but I will catch up soon.
The three of us also did a session in the afternoon sorting through boxes that are stored there and just taking up space. I hope we can refer back to this time as “the big Purge”!