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After the hernia surgery I did little till the fall of 2017 and on labor day weekend I woke up and
could not walk in a straight line , (so what do you do with a drunken sailor early in the morning ?, )
I was in the hospital for 5 days 3 cat scans , 3 m.r.i.s, an e.e.g and several x-rays , no stroke , heart
attack or neurological problem was found so I went home with no answers . a couple of weeks
later I went for a 6 month checkup with a pain management Dr. , he did not like what he saw and
took me for an mri which went a little lower in the back which comp;eted the study of my back and
the problem was apparent , finally after 2 months relief was in site of relief , it was Dec 20th that I
had the back surgery and Peggy brought me home Christmas eve .
Christmas day the furnace quit, I could barely move but I did work my way down to the
basement and took the covers off the furnace and coaxed the furnace into functioning for a while ,
by manually starting the motor that blew the gases out , it is a high efficiency furnace , the furnace
would work long enough for the house to warm up and then we had to shut it off till the house
cooled down , fortunately we had changed all the windows and put extra insulation in the attic .
As of March 3rd 2018 , the painting that I began in the fall of 2017 of Genesis / big bang has omly
the rough outline , I am at a point that I can sit for an hour or two and can now return to painting ,
the same pattern start to paint , distracted.
The winter has been one of watching TV or playing games on the Computer. I did manage to get
to music practice twice but it was painful . We went grocery shopping , I did not think that pushing
a grocery cart could hurt me , the operative words are “ did not think”.
I finished the 8 ft. x 12 ft. Clegg mural and , I also painted 2 -16 x 20 inch paintings to be
auctioned off at the Library book sale where for the past few years I would be outside under a tent
selling paperbacks for $ .25 each and I play my dulcimer for everyones listening pleasure for 3 days
. I thoroughly enjoyed this event every year.
I had been asked if I could paint something on the south side of a building in town . there was a
faded and peeling mural there already that had been painted by a 16 year old girl , I told the
owners of the Donut girls that I would not paint over that mural but that I would repair it to honor
the courage of a 16 year old art student .
August 5th 2018 I started to paint first by marking where all of the elements were and then by
grinding off the paint and priming the brick , which was what that the young girl did not do and the
cause of the deterioration . I then recreated the mural and added enhancements . I only took one
month to finish this .
It was very hot that month with temps reaching 98 degrees , I was sweating all the time and
wound up with walking pneumonia and then played 4 concerts with the riverstrings.