A Person, Artist, Software Engineer, Geologist.

Here is my latest.  Same barn but with ink + watercolor and a little larger format.  I'm pretty happy about how it turned out. I'v decided to create a private group site for budding (?) artists or artists that have broken bones and are stuck at home healing (like me).  I've called it "Broken Ankle Art" works.  I'm using the WordPress P2 site for this and it's invite only for us budding artists to be peer feedback and nudges to each others.  The last thing I want it every Tom, Dick or Sally to make all sorts of suggestions (or even steal the art) on what we should be doing.  It's only for select friends for now. So sit back and just enjoy what I've done or am trying to do.  I'm not just working to get better but also to get different.  My new set of Winsor & Newton Watercolor markers arrived and I'm excited to see what I can do with them and where they lead me. Enjoy

(Just my thoughts & opinion folks) I quit working (at least for a company) 2-1/2 years ago.  It appears my timing was pretty good.  I'd hit my peak with the company and there was a sense that the company was either rudder less or had too many.  I couldn't tell.  What I could tell was that (in my opinion) top management believed in the philosophy that if you believe something strong enough and force (?) others to do the same that it will become true.   It doesn't.   Buy a bunch of small companies and mush them together, tell every one that they must be "ALL IN" (or else) and have middle management in echo chambers will produce great results.   It doesn't. My timetable was my own and I had my own plans.  I followed them and I left.  Turns out my timing was good. I was there a long time (in Software engineering time it was forever) and saw the company change hands (or primary structure) about every 3 years.  People stayed the same and for a while times where

 OK, yeah I do have new art work (via Broken Ankle Art) but I also learned some interesting things this week.  Here we go. Thing #1 : The NASA asteroid probe collected some samples from a quite touch down.  A complete success that they are not even going to weight it.  So how do you weight something in space?  In this case they have the collection at the end of a long arm.  To weight the sample, the spin the craft and from the amount of thrust used and the resulting spin rate they can determine the mass of the sample at the end of the arm.  Pretty cool. Thing #2 : The earth is always producing sounds (volcanos, earth quakes, asteroid strikes, man mucking around, etc), but there is a constant 26 sec vibrations coming from the south Atlantic off the coast of Africa.  This was discovered about 30 years ago and through modern equipment has been narrowed to the bay (way off shore) off of Equatorial Guinea.  From a map you can tell the alignment of volcanic islands trending to the NE, but a

Still Fall.  Actually it’s right in the middle of Fall and I just love the this season.  Just wish I could get around better to enjoy it. But back to Fall.  The colors, oh my gosh the colors.  It’s life’s last gasp before the grays of winter take hold.  What a palette to be seen.  I’ve been in and out of a funk because of......my broken ankle.  It’s healing but the doctor wants me to be careful or it could “go south” so sometimes I’m in a funk and not wanting to do anything. <Enters Bobbie:> “Here are some fall leaves that would look nice as a watercolor painting.” If you have been in a funk, you know that pressure, no matter how well meaning can be .... difficult.  Yes they would look nice but hey, I’m kind of funky right now, so maybe later (not know if I’ll ever get around to it). Each day is new and no funk today.  Got up with my standard list in my head, but this morning I was going to actually do some of the items on the list.  The fall leaves are on the list so I did a pai

Got my 2 week checkup on how my ankle fracture was going.  So far so good, but....  on looking at the latest X-Rays and from what I now know about Fibula Weber zone B factures, I'm very very close to requiring surgery.  How close?  When your doctor says just be really careful over the next 2 weeks so this does not "go south", my ears stood up.  You can see that the fracture starts way above the joint at an oblique angle and continues down to the other side of the Fibula.  Not much bone left to retain a stable joint.  Seeing that the ankle is a hinge joint and the Fibula closes the lateral side of the joint, it's kind of important to the ankles stability.  Good thing I did not tear or damage any ligaments as those are what's keeping everything together. Whew.  So at least 2 more weeks before any weight and then slowly adding weight and some walking on it from there and see how it feels.  So far so good and my pain level has been low and getting better.   It will be

My life has slowed down a bit because of my broken ankle.  I look at the wonderful fall weather, the colored leafs and wish that I could just walked around outside.  Not so much.  The first week was hard as this was all new and I had the knowledge that the rivers had just been re-stocked with trout.  Bummer. This 2nd week has gone much faster.  My pace is about the same but I know that time just takes time and not much I can do about that.  I can ice and elevate my leg but in the end, healing must proceed at it's own pace.  I can't hurry it up much.  Did I tell you about the different colors that have appears on my foot? Sometimes I just stop and do nothing.  Hard to do at first but it takes work.  Works best outdoors and in the sun.  Very very nice. I have an artist friend that sent me a craft project for Halloween and that is making some crows out of newspaper print.  So here is my current work towards that.  I emailed her back with the first evidence of completion with the u

 Ouch! I knew it as soon as it happened.  I had been traveling the low water at the South Toe's headwaters. working my way upstream.  Caught a couple of fish as I'm working my way up.  When it happened I knew it was not good.  It was a small step onto another rock that went sideways.  Right foot, toe landed first then slipped to the left just as I was transferring all my weight onto it.  I was committed and down I went, with my right distal end of my Fibula on the lateral side taking the brunt of the weight.   I was hoping for a sprain, but I suspected it was much worse. I checked the different axis movement of my foot, all good there.  Up / down, left / right, tilt left / tilt right, ligaments appeared ok.  Sprain ???  hummm not so much. I was on the far side of the river (large stream really) and needed to wade back over then go up the bank and to the gravel road about 100' away.  OK, did that.  Pain not too bad, but that was the easy part. The gravel road is a forest ser