Just Drawn to It

I have continued to work on adjusting to the three hour time change and get back into my old routines. I have not gotten back to the routine of going to the gym to work out and I am not sure how I can. It has been so very hot and there is no air conditioning, I am just not sure I could survive 100+ heat AND working out. In fact, except to go to church and to the market on another day, I haven’t left the house That has always been how I have tried to cope with extreme heat – avoiding it!

I have spent some time this week on drawing. I have had fun playing with my brand new 132 colored pencil set. I don’t know why I keep feeling to attracted to colored pencils, since they are such hard work, but I do seem to have a fascination for them. I especially seem to enjoy doing birds and cats with the pencils. All those beautiful colors are so irresistible. Still, I will admit my first love continues to be doing portraits with graphite. I am currently working on a first draft of Dad and Mom when they were young. I hope to eventually do them on good paper and frame them. I finally have the noses right (my Waterloo) and now I just can’t seem to get the eyes (well I just haven’t done much other than sketch them in on my dad). Aren’t they beautiful in their youth?

In addition to drawing, I have really enjoyed reading on my KINDLE. I do love the Kindle so far. What do I like about it?

1. How easy it is to forget it’s electronic! More than once I have found myself trying to turn the pages manually instead of hitting the electronic buttons.

2. The ease and rapidity of choosing, buying and downloading books onto the Kindle. It’s almost instantaneous. I wanted a commentary on Esther for Sunday School lesson and in less than a minute I had it!

3. It’s portability and small size. I can stick in my purse, carry in my hands and it weigh almost nothing. With a mighty bright light, I can read it in bed at night with no effort at all.

4. The text to speech function. The voice is a little on the electronic side, but you can switch from male to female and even vary the speed. When I drove to Indianapolis while in the US, I turned on the feature coming and going and was able to hear almost a whole book.

5. Being able to underline passages and make bookmarks and even comments on certain passages.

6. The wide number of free books available at Amazon and also on other ebook sites. These are, of course, books by new authors, or the old classics, but it’s nice to be able to read old classics.

7. My very sexy hot pink leather cover.

8. Being able to download sample chapters of a book before buying it. I have already ruled out a couple of books that way. 

Although I really, really love my Kindle, it’s not perfect. There are some things that I don’t like about it:

1. I think it’s hard to turn off. I have problems with the switch and that’s irritating to me.

2. Reading the Bible with it, for you can’t go to book, chapter and verse and it’s slow finding a reference you want.

3. How easy it is to buy books. Yes, I know I liked that about the Kindle, but I also dislike that. It’s just too much temptation to buy impulsively and spend too much money. There is, fortunately, an option on Amazon to immediately cancel an order and I do give them Kudos for that.

4. The experimental browser function. It’s very SLOW, and hard to use and to me impractical.

5. Reading a newspaper (at least the one I tried out), as it bears no resemblance to a newspaper and doesn’t even have all the content of the articles. A complete disappointment to me.

6. The fact that I have to pay extra here in Brazil to use the Whispernet (receive documents and books via wireless instead of hooking the Kindle up to the computer).

7. Being black and white. I miss the color illustrations.

These days you’ll find me doing lots more reading than usual. I sometimes feel a little guilty about that, but I guess the novelty of the Kindle will eventually wear off – maybe. Until then, I may not have so much time to write on my blog.

Back Again

There is so much for me to write about, I don’t know where to start. I have been to visit my family in the US and I am back in Brazil. How do I sum everything up in an entry that’s just not tooooo long to read? Or do I do a whole bunch of entries, one for each thing? And for that reason I have put off writing. After a couple of false starts, I am going to try to take a stab at summing up my trip to the US. The LOVE sculpture sums it up the best. Lots of LOVE! 

  I spent most of the time at my mom’s house, visiting with her and my sister. I found them both well and we all enjoyed our  time visiting together. I did a little shopping (by my standards, not much!), worked on Mom’s computer some, cooked some, but mostly we all just enjoyed each other.

Mom generously loaned me her car and I was able to drive up to Jeri’s house and spend a weekend with her We had fun eating at a Brazilian restaurant, visiting the Indianapolis art museum, and running out the Speedway 500 track. Getting to be up close and personal with works of art of Van Gogh, Renoir, Rembrandt and O’Keefe was pretty exciting for me. My time there was shadowed by my niece’s health crisis. None of us are sure of what is going on with her, but it was very scarey. Although the neurologists have yet to discover what she is suffering from, and she appears to be getting a little better, we continue to be concerned and would covet your prayers for her. I could only make my return to Brazil with any peace trusting in God’s total sovereignty.

So return, I did, on schedule. On my return, I hand carried Elly’s wedding dress. What a responsibility. I tried never to let it out of my sight on the whole trip, since I had it in a carry-on bag. I was especially glad I had done that when my plane from Miami to Rio had an extreme baggage crisis. In Miami we sat at the gate for 3 hours while they hammered and clanged trying to shut the baggage compartment door. In Rio the inverse happened, as it wouldn’t open and we sat in the baggage claim with no food, water or air conditioning for two hours. I will tell you up front that it was TAM airlines and even if you save over $1,000 on the tickets (as I did), it isn’t worth it. I will never travel internationally with them. It was a horrible experience that I never wish to repeat. I would not recommend them to my worst enemy, so I wanted to get that word out.

The five hour delay, messed up our best laid plans, as João had a 10:45 flight out to Vitória where he was doing a wedding. I arrived as he was leaving. Meaning I had no way to get  home or keys to the house. But, he was able to call someone to pick me up, and Sissy came home to let me into the house.  

I was ever so glad to be home. Elly was also thrilled I was home with her dress. Although she has forbade me from sharing a picture of this dress, I couldn’t resist this one. What do you think of it? (hahahahaha) This is an inside view of the dress. Even the inside slip is beautiful. Okay, that’s all you get to see!

Gradually I am getting back into my routine. Even Mia is beginning to accept me again, which usually takes a couple of weeks to accomplish. I felt like I had been gone forever. I had been gone a long time, though, for look at how much my cactus has grown. On the left, is the cactus now and to the right is the cactus a few weeks ago. Incredible, isn’t it? So life goes on, always moving ahead. So, off I go moving ahead.