This Week

           This week the Luby house saw some changes.

          “Like what?” you ask.

          Like the addition of another upper kitchen cabinet.

          It all started after we put the new cabinets in the kitchen.

          “We could take the shelves down and put two more cabinets up,” Mike said.

          “No,” I said. “Those were your mom’s.”

          “That’s alright. We can put them someplace else. It’ll give you more room and less dust,” he pointed out.

          This same conversation took place several times over the past few weeks and the more I thought about it, the better I liked it — at least the less dust part.

          This week we made the trip to Lowe’s in Dickson City. Because we’ve made the trip on the same roads so many times over the years, I decided to take my big lens with me and hopefully get some better pictures of hawks for you.

          I only took two pictures on the way down. This old house...

          ...and all these birds lined up along the bank overlooking the road. They looked like they were plotting an attack.

I did better on the way home.

          “Now that I’ve got my big lens, I probably won’t see any hawks,” I complained.

          We were almost to Meshoppen, not far from home, when I saw the first hawk.

          Then we were between Meshoppen and Laceyville when I saw the second one sitting on top of a utility pole.

          A minute later, a big bird takes flight from the road in front of us.

          “Is that an eagle?” I asked. I could see the white tail feathers.

          “I think so,” Mike confirmed. 

          I snapped away and most of the pictures aren’t that good — heck, even the good ones aren’t that good. But I was excited to be photographing an eagle anyway. 

          I would’ve seen him sitting on the road having lunch sooner except that I tend to watch the trees, which is where you expect to find birds.

          Sometimes I see a flash of white in the trees. Is it a hawk's breast or trash?

         I get my camera and my hopes up. I’ve learned it’s better to take pictures first and delete them later, rather than wait until I’m sure, or I might miss the shot. The voice of experience here guys.

          After we got home and got the groceries put away, we put the new cabinet up. Mike got to use our brand spankin' new drill to drill the holes for the handles. 

          Our car is small so we only bought one cabinet. Next month we’ll buy one more. 

          Mike put his mom’s shelves up at the entryway into the exercise studio.

          “Peg, what are all the little white squares on the glass doors?” you ask.

          The plastic is still on the windows. It’s only been that way for a few years. To quote that handsome neighbor of mine, “You can’t get in a hurry about that stuff.” It only took him fifteen years to put a railing up on the basement stairs.

          Monday was shopping and installing the kitchen cabinet. Then someone had a job to do washing dusty dishes and putting them in the cabinet.

          On Tuesday I worked on my next commission.

          I have lots of conversations with my clients. I want them to be happy with their commissions. What appeals to me may not appeal to them. And this will serve as a good example of just that happening here.

          The first thing we had to establish was what we were going to call it. “Here are some suggestions. Good Times, Adventures, Best of Times, My Favorite Things, Happy Times, Shenanigans, Memories, My Remember Board. Do you like any of these or can you think of something else?” I asked.

          “Happy Times,” he chose.

          Perfect. Next, we needed an image for that board. “Flowers, hearts, puppies, kittens?”

          “Puppies, kittens, and flowers,” he said.

          I used AI (artificial intelligence) to create images. I picked out the ones I thought I could paint and put them in my design space on the computer.

          He didn’t like them.

          “How about something less babyish?” he asked.

          This girl is four! I figured once she outgrew this board, he could order another one. He wasn’t falling for it.

          I scoured my saved images looking for things I wanted to paint. I tried to give him a variety of subjects less babyish.

          “I like the boots and the heart,” he said.

          I designed two boards for him. One with the boots and the other with the heart. Just using “Happy Times” left me with too much white space and you know how I abhor white space! It needs to be filled with something! I decided to add the little girl's name.

          He chose the heart.

          I was getting ready to print my patterns and looking at it, it bothered me a little. I didn’t like how the flowers created a “block” between the words and the image. I just thought it would flow better if the scroll of flowers was on the outside. Rather than tell him this, I sent him two images hoping he’d choose it.

          He didn’t.

          “Heart on the right,” he said.

          Darn!

          I went back to my design space and made two more designs. This time I flipped one of the hearts.

          “How about if I flip the image?” I asked.

          “Bottom one,” he said.

          The man knows what he likes, that’s for sure.

It took me a couple of days to transfer the images and get this far. My shadows might be a little dark so when I start again on Monday, I’ll add a wash of red and lighten them some.

My peeps like to see what I’m working on so I sent them a picture in my morning love note.

          “They look like butt cheeks,” one of my peeps said to me.

          “That was my first thought, too!” another one said.

          And it’s one of those things that once you see it, you can’t unsee it. Nonetheless, I smiled. At least my painting has dimension to it!    

          I am not the only creative one in my family. My grandmother painted, although I’ve never seen anything she painted nor do I know if she was any good. My mother dabbled in colored pencils and she was pretty good at it! My cute little red-haired sister is by far the best, in my opinion. She can create from her head whereas I can only copy what I see.

Some of my other siblings are talented in the drawing department even though they don’t pursue it. Other siblings don’t want to paint or draw and have talents in other areas.

Patti, my oldest and much-adored sister is an enviable handyman. She handles repairs and upgrades to her home that you wouldn’t think a woman could or would want to do. It would take me at least a page to list all of the projects she’s tackled. I’m always in awe when she tells us what job she’s gonna do next. Patti has made a few amazing pieces of art too, one of which hangs on my wall and I smile every time I look at it.

          “What’s it say?” you wanna know.

          It says, “Mother wrench feeding her young.”

My cute little red-haired brother makes beautiful things from wood. I use a carry box he made to hold my paints. A mirror with a shelf hangs in my bathroom. There are many other things, too, but you get the idea.

And, oh my gosh! My handsome younger brother Paul is amazing! He has a love for watches and can repair them. Just this week he said he was toying with an idea to convert his 3D printer into a watch parts cleaning machine! How cool is that!

Some of us have more than one talent. I tend to try lots of different things. I love to master a craft and move on. It’s not that I don’t want to make more of whatever-it-is, it’s more like what am I going to do with them once I make them.

That’s why I’m always thrilled when something I make gets a request from someone I love. I got a request for two of the playing card holders and I made her four. It was fun. My only regret is that I didn’t think to make them for her before she asked.

Now, there’s one more sister I want to talk a little about. That would be Phyllis, my beautiful younger sister. Phyllis is a wizard in the kitchen. She can look at a recipe and instantly know how to make it better. I’ve also seen Phyllis do some amazing handyman chores. She’s repaired furniture the dog chewed up, erected fences, gardening — oh the beautiful gardens she’s made! — and landscaping.

Phyllis also has a heart full of kindness and compassion. She spends her days with her 99-year-old mother-in-law. Jean is just a few months shy of being a centenarian. Phyllis makes clothing protectors for Jean (I won’t call them bibs) and she made this greeting card holder to display Jean’s cards for her. All of these things she does while battling MS. She’s my hero.

Two of my brothers have gone on to walk with the Lord and that leaves three I haven’t talked about.

My older brother Chuck pretty much does his own thing and isn’t big on staying connected with us. We love him anyway.

Our youngest brother John is busy being an amazing father to his young son. With grown daughters and grandchildren, he has a second chance to get it right. Something some of us may wish for.

And David, my Irish twin, his superpower is kicking cancer’s ass. I’m thankful for every day this courageous man stays with us.

I’m truly blessed to have such talented, amazing, inspiring, awesome, not to mention beautiful and handsome, siblings.

Now speaking of siblings, I wanna call out that commercial on TV for Colonial Penn Life Insurance.

Two sisters are having coffee and one says to the other, “I see you're still using Mom’s old coffee pot.”

The other sister says something about it being the kids' inheritance and they can sell it to pay for her funeral.

The other sister tells her she should get Colonial Penn. “We all have it. John, Maria, and even Paul with all his health problems.”

Have you seen this commercial?

If it had been me, I’d’ve felt resentful. “Y’all have it and didn’t bother to tell me about it?”

When I find something good the first thing I do is tell all y’all about it. But that’s either because I love you or I have a big mouth. You pick.

>>>*<<<

          We woke to three inches of snow Saturday morning.

          “Peg, I think we got four,” my handsome mountain man says.

          When I went out to feed the birds, Raini brought her ball out for me to toss. She caught the first toss and missed the second.

          It was amusing to watch her try to figure out where the ball went. She puzzled over it for a minute before using her paw to dig the ball out.

          Then she dove in and came up with the ball and a snootful of snow. Despite trying to shake it off, she still had snow on her face when she brought the ball back. 

          Speaking of birds, I have baby Zebra Finches!

          “Peg, I thought you weren’t going to let them have any more babies?” you say.

          I know, right! But the only way to do that would’ve been to take out their house, and I did do that, but then they didn’t have any place dark to go and nap during the day or sleep at night. They didn’t seem happy so I put the house back in.

          I decided not to torture myself. If they had babies and didn’t feed them and they died, that was on them. I avoided feeling guilty by not looking in their house.

          Yesterday I kept hearing more cheeps and mews than two birds can account for. My resolve not to peek in the house lasted half a day. I had to know. I got up and took a quick peek. I didn’t even take the time to count. All I know is there are several fat, fluffy babies in there and boy, can they be noisy! They get louder every day. I’m guessing they’re two, maybe three weeks old. It looks like Mom and Dad finally figured out what they’re supposed to do.

          With that, let’s call this one done!

          Done!