SHARE YOUR WORLD AS THE YEAR ENDS 12-28-2021

Holy moly, can it be this late in the century? Weren’t we worried about what would happen when it turned to 2000? Whoosh! Time is speeding by like a diesel at full throttle.

This is a holiday week. Despite not being big holiday celebrators, having a week when working people have time off to spend with us was lovely. Even though we don’t live far apart, we don’t see each as often as I would like.

Youth is so busy. This is, after all, our retirement — but not theirs. Being young can be awfully busy. With work, new relationships, and figuring out exactly what you are going to do with the rest of your life, it can be a lot of fun and crazy at the same time.

We — Garry and I — are in a much more peaceful place. I can barely remember what it was like to work full time or be that busy. Even though that part of my life lasted much longer than retirement has lasted, the long years of work have faded fast.

Is this when we discuss “resolutions” for the New Year?

Personally, I have no resolutions, but I do have a plan. I have signed up for a drawing course. I’m embarrassed to admit how much it costs to buy all the stuff you need.

For one thing, drawing — especially drawing lessons — requires a staggering amount of paper. You can’t just use any old copy paper because it isn’t heavy enough and it bleeds. The only thing that wouldn’t run would be plain colored pencils, kids’ crayons, lead pencil, ballpoint pens, or charcoal. Otherwise, you really need a lot of paper which needs to weigh at least 60 lbs. Sixty pound paper is good sketching paper and fine for practice, it isn’t heavy enough to use with any kind of wet medium — like watercolor, or even watercolor pencils. And it isn’t cheap.

The thing is, while you are learning, you will make a lot of mistakes and be throwing away a lot of paper, even if you use both sides. As far as I can tell, you just can’t buy enough paper. You can, however, buy the wrong paper, so I spent all day yesterday studying up on paper. Cold-pressed versus hot-pressed. Smooth, with or without grain. High quality paper — especially hot-pressed paper — is awfully expensive, but fortunately, it will be a while before I need such high-quality paper.

So my plan is to take this course and come out the other end of it knowing how to draw a simple landscape, birds, squirrels and if I’m really good, maybe a portrait. Perhaps that’s overly ambitious, but I can dream.

Otherwise? I plan to survive another year and if not be younger and healthier, try to not be worse off. Obviously, this isn’t a lot of plans but I have wanted to do this for a long time. Blogging ate my available time for the past 10 years and it’s time to do other things, too. Also, this is the first year I could find the funds to pay for the course or buy the materials.

I’m not going to ask about anyone else’s “resolutions” because it’s none of my business. If you have resolutions, good luck with that. If not? Good luck with staying alive. Remember when that was a sort of “throwaway” line? It isn’t a throwaway anymore!

So now, to the questions!

SHARE YOUR WORLD QUESTIONS

From Melanie: 2022 Is bearing down on the world.   In my opinion 2021 was 100% better than 2020, but it hasn’t been without its own set of problems and fresh worries.  I’m hopeful that 2022 will somehow see a return to ‘life before COVID,’ but I also realize that’s a foolish hope.  

At 12 a.m. on December 31st/Jan 1st, what will you be doing? 

Watching an old movie with a kiss at midnight. Without company. No party. This is what we’ve done for the past 15 years.

Is there a tradition you have for New Year’s Eve?

Only to stay home and off the roads. Too many drunks on New Year’s Eve. It’s a great time to go nowhere!

Do you have any hope or reason you find that next year will be better?

I have hope.

Optimism? Not so much.

I’m not without any hope, but having a glimmer of hope is not quite the same as optimism.

What’s the biggest personal lesson you learned during 2021?

Try to not give up even though it seems that the fastest spreading disease in America is stupidity.

On a personal level, no matter how hard it is, stay on your own feet and keep moving, even if it’s difficult. Once you give up on moving yourself, you never get it your legs back — at least not at our age.

Describe in 1-3 words how you feel going into 2022.

We made it!

Categories: #Birds, #gallery, #Photography, #SYW, Anecdote, Arts, Share My World

Tags: #Photography, #SYW, birds, humor, Marilyn Armstrong, Share Your World