by Diane: Art Escape update #13, Near disaster, but saved beef gravy to make a tasty meal

Monday, May 4

Up early! Watched a fledging swallow being fed and Red Tail Hawk also watching with interest. Had a leisurely breakfast. My good breakfast was a good start following an anxious night of feeling inadequate to mounting challenges. I had many ideas of what I could do as the primary care giver of my husband.
 Ignored the urgency I felt during the night. Reduced theplan for the day to one enquiry on Don's ALS medication. Continued painting,  reading Facebook, exercising and walking relaxed me after an anxious night not sleeping after 4:00 AM. Being relaxed was more important for my caregiving than acting on all my night time plans.

 

Today marked a landmark life changing event in my and my husband fishing life. We sold the fiberglass Slidrite drift boat. It makes us a little sad. I started to tear up as the new owner and his boy drove it away.  At the same time we were feeling good. It was sweet to think that the boat will play an important roll in a boy's awareness and caring about the future of fisheries .


Fisherman hubby on the Deschutes late 80's

One daughter on same Deschutes trip.

We have many memories of the 34 years of drifting down some of Oregon's rivers. White water on the Deschutes, Grande Ronde, and Salmon. The oh so many drifts from Sweethome to McDowel Creek on the South Santiam where even I could catch Steelhead but mostly I painted. Also the longer run from Sweethome to Waterloo. Fishing trips included the North Santiam, the Siletz, the Alsea, the Nestucca and the Trask.

We still have the jet sled that will now have a year round parking place in our garage.

Our dinner was a celebration dinner. I made broth from a WinCo 4 pound bag of soup bones. Carrots, celery and parseley addition was tasty without using onions or garlic or pepper which bother my husband.  The intention of making the broth was to make gravy to pour over steak that had to be tender, tasty and easy to swallow. Timing the gravy to be done the same time as a Fred Meyer meat and baked potato was slightly problematic. Usually I cook beef from Rain and farm boss's ranch and know how long it takes to cook it until tender.  The Fred Meyer meat turned out to cook faster than the rest of the meal. The gravy of broth, whole wheat flour browned in butter had too much fat so I tried to pour it into a fat seperator. Unfortunately I tried to pour it over a cooling but still hot stove glass top burner. Happily I scraped it off the burner before smoking the kitchen and setting off the smoke detecter. The detecter's alarm spoils the relaxing atmoshere we need. I get frazzeled trying to turn on the fans and opening windows.

Tuesday, May 5

Five is a good number for us. Last night fisherman hubby put on his mask and started his VPap all on his own. He only woke twice during the night and I slept well too. My VPap concerns evaporated.

A supplier of a speech generating devise contacted us with the news that the co-pay for this very expensive machine can be completely covered by Team Gleason. Filling out a form that only takes five minutes to fill out. Of course not so easy for us. There wasn't a courtesy e-mail saying they received the form. Precious time lost for painting or drawing.  Maybe now between 2 and 3 PM before starting dinner I can paint and post my week's painting here. I am still working on the one I started last Wednesday.

Last week it had the nice directness of having been done all at once.
This freshness was lost this week but I am learning and seeing  which is more meaningful to me.



Just might paint over 80%.  But first will do some more watching the swallows.
This is an early morning and they fly differently in the still morning air.

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