Living the Life

• I’ve had several emails inquiring about whether I miss work (the answer is no). Others ask when I realized I didn’t have to go there anymore (answer: I forget already). Still others ask, “What the heck are you doing all day?”

• Well, life at the Palm Creek Resort is not for slackers! Upon arrival, I received a calendar listing the schedule of activities for December. Every day is full, listing up to 20 scheduled options for passing the time while one is supposedly busy doing nothing. Choir, yoga, wood carving, line dancing, square dancing, assorted card games, water exercise, badminton, sewing, bingo, calligraphy and volleyball are all on the schedule. Other activities such as golf, quilting, stained glass, lapidary, library and pickleball are available on an as-you-like it and drop-in basis.
  

• The activities that are keeping me blissfully occupied are watercolour, painting rocks, and my newest pursuit of writing. I’ve even tried my hand at oil painting and, as well, can never resist the eternally unfinished puzzle in the laundry room.
  

• Watercolour and painting rocks are, of course, my artistic home turf, although there is always something new to learn. When preparing for this trip, art supplies were as high on the must-take list as the hundred rolls of toilet paper.

• I picked my first 80 rocks along the road to the local WalMart, arriving there with pockets near-to-dragging on the ground. Each of those nuggets provides a perfect platform for an Arizona sunset design and I whipped off 30 within a few days.

• I have always thought that oil painting would be easier than watercolour because you can keep painting over your blunders until you get results you like. However, unlike watercolour or the acrylic paints I use for painting rocks, oil paint takes a month or more to dry. For me the trade-off doesn’t seem worth the delayed artistic gratification.

• I took an all-day oil painting lesson fashioned after those TV shows where the artist produces a completed oil painting in a half-hour. In my case, it took six hours to complete the assigned project, following a method eerily reminiscent of paint-by-number. At the end of the day I carted home a framed painting and the next day concluded that I’ll be best served by sticking to what I know rather than boring myself to death watching oil paint dry for a whole month. (Frame for sale!)

• At the writers’ club, each person has the opportunity to read aloud their choice of something they’ve written. A second reading opportunity is available to those who accept the weekly ‘writing challenge’. Of course the purpose of reading aloud is to get feedback from the group. The club includes a published author, another who is completing a university writing program and two who read excerpts from their own well developed draft novels. To say I felt somewhat intimidated at the prospect of reading my own work out loud is to seriously understate the level of my intimidation. I read an entry from my blog. Buoyed by the real or imagined positive reinforcement from the writers’ club, I sprang out of bed at 5:30 the next morning to complete work on this week’s writing challenge: Create a non-political, David Letterman-style top 10 list.

• Of course, no good life would be complete without chores, the dailies of which include pressing the buttons to check the battery, fresh water, propane, and black and water holding tanks. It is important do to the latter every day since you wouldn’t want to learn the hard way that the holding tanks, especially the black one, is full.

• It’s December 15 and I must report that the weather here in southern Arizona has taken a nasty turn, in keeping with the current weather for the entire continent. From the end of the street I have watched distant hills masked by sand storms on the desert. This uncharacteristic weather has included more rain and as I write this at nearly 11 a.m. the temperature has not reached 50 F. That’s only about 10 C. Brrrrrr! On with my fleece clothes!