Schrodinger's Dad
Thursday, December 8th, 2022 11:55 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
snoozefestaudioHad a nice 45 minute walk with the dog, first thing this morning. She's back to eating and drinking water too. I know she misses Dad terribly, but we seem to have struck a bearable weekday arrangement.
Long walk at 10AM, followed by three Good 'n Funs, and I turn the TV on. Short walk before I leave, followed by three Good 'n Funs.
Long walk at 7:30PM, followed by three Good 'n Funs. I mute the TV and turn on Dad's bedroom fan for the night.
Short walk at 9:30PM, followed by three Good 'n Funs.
All that and a promise not to allow the cats downstairs... is enough to keep her happy during the week. Weekends, of course... I'll spend more time with her indoors downstairs.
--<>--
Got a call from the hospital around 12:30PM saying that Dad was in the process of being transferred to Strive, the rehab center.
I had to give them his credit card number over the phone to cover the $9.00 copay for his prescriptions, and give the go ahead for him to go by ambulance... rather than me driving him myself, because... obviously he'd never be able to get in and out of my car.
But since the process was gonna take two hours, I opted not to visit him today, and had the nurse tell him for me, that I'd see him tomorrow.
This gave me an extra hour to spend with the pets at home before leaving for work.
--<>--
Later, at work, around 4:30, I got a call from a lady at Strive, saying Dad was just getting ready to leave the hospital.
What? I thought he'd left at 2:30?
Well, anyway, she gave me his room number and some other instructions. I needed to bring proof of his vaccination, and some clothes tomorrow. Also, it's up to me to do his laundry.
--<>--
An hour later, at 5:30, I got a call from the hospital. The nurse said Dad was going to leave for Strive at 6:30!
What? I thought he left at 5:00?
--<>--
I was so late coming home last night, because of the grocery run, I made it a point to get back at exactly 7:30, and immediately took Yvette for her walk.
Then, while on that walk, I got a call from the hospital. The nurse said Dad was just now leaving for Strive.
What? I thought he left at 6:30?
--<>--
That's what happens when you have a hospital trying to coordinate with a rehab center, an insurance company, and an ambulance company... to get a man seven miles across town!
It's midnight as I write... has he left yet? I don't know!
------------{=0=}------------
Okay, here's tonight's progress on the Seven of Spades...
As you can see, all today's efforts went toward detailing the St. Brigid's cross... and it's still not done. One arm still has to be shaded.
I like how it's turning out so far! It could use some backlighting behind it, to make it pop a bit more, but... it looks like wicker!
I gotta say though, this damn card has raised the bar on the effort levels I'll have to bring for the whole deck, now!
It's not even done and it's making the Halloween card look kinda lazy... and those Aces... those now look like primitive garbage!
But this is how projects suck you in... you start with a few simple ideas... it seems like fun, so you focus more... and suddenly it's three years of your life!
------------{=0=}------------
My art background was in the pre-computer days. My drawing was decent. I did better with oil painting. And when I started using computers... MS Paint was THE app!
In 1999, when everybody else was graduating to PaintShop Pro, I was poor, and embraced an app called, PhotoImpact 4.0. It was on a CD that came with a scanner I'd bought.
PhotoImpact 4.0 was a glorified version of MS Paint. And I took to it!
So... it shouldn't surprise you too much, to hear that... twenty years, and ten computers later... I'm still using PhotoImpact 4.0!
I just managed to hang on to the CD! I still have it today! And Windows has emulators to run legacy software as if it's an earlier version of windows... going all the way back to Windows 2000!
So I just kept reinstalling it on every new computer until... CD drives went extinct!.. but that was okay, because PhotoImpact 4.0 is just a self contained .EXE file!
So, with my old machine that still has a CD drive, I copied off the EXE file and saved it to a thumb drive!
--<>--
But as you can see above... it's fine! All you really need is something like PhotoImpact 4.0, and... some patience... and... twenty years to work up your technique!
This card relies heavily on a technique I developed doing the thumbnails for Snoozefest tracks...
Where I find an image of a real life object... like the trees, the groundhog, and the cross of St. Brigid... and then trace over them, freehand, to get the outline, and create my own object.
I then discard the original image and just work with my object, coloring, detailing, and shading it by hand.
This way, they have the correct shape, but the final result is my own work and not a copyright infringement.
It's all custom colors. I don't have to worry about... proprietary Adobe colors suddenly costing money to use or anything.
The only gray area is with the fonts!
--<>--
All the fonts I use are free fonts, found online, so... I'm pretty sure they're safe to use?
On this card, the snowflakes, and the spades used to make the candleholders, are both free fonts.
--<>--
I suppose it really doesn't matter unless I actually get this deck done and try to have it physically printed and sold for money.
And again... that's years away.
So... for now I'm just having fun... while my life is trying to fall apart... as usual.
°¦}
https://soundcloud.com/snoozefestaudio
Long walk at 10AM, followed by three Good 'n Funs, and I turn the TV on. Short walk before I leave, followed by three Good 'n Funs.
Long walk at 7:30PM, followed by three Good 'n Funs. I mute the TV and turn on Dad's bedroom fan for the night.
Short walk at 9:30PM, followed by three Good 'n Funs.
All that and a promise not to allow the cats downstairs... is enough to keep her happy during the week. Weekends, of course... I'll spend more time with her indoors downstairs.
Got a call from the hospital around 12:30PM saying that Dad was in the process of being transferred to Strive, the rehab center.
I had to give them his credit card number over the phone to cover the $9.00 copay for his prescriptions, and give the go ahead for him to go by ambulance... rather than me driving him myself, because... obviously he'd never be able to get in and out of my car.
But since the process was gonna take two hours, I opted not to visit him today, and had the nurse tell him for me, that I'd see him tomorrow.
This gave me an extra hour to spend with the pets at home before leaving for work.
Later, at work, around 4:30, I got a call from a lady at Strive, saying Dad was just getting ready to leave the hospital.
What? I thought he'd left at 2:30?
Well, anyway, she gave me his room number and some other instructions. I needed to bring proof of his vaccination, and some clothes tomorrow. Also, it's up to me to do his laundry.
An hour later, at 5:30, I got a call from the hospital. The nurse said Dad was going to leave for Strive at 6:30!
What? I thought he left at 5:00?
I was so late coming home last night, because of the grocery run, I made it a point to get back at exactly 7:30, and immediately took Yvette for her walk.
Then, while on that walk, I got a call from the hospital. The nurse said Dad was just now leaving for Strive.
What? I thought he left at 6:30?
That's what happens when you have a hospital trying to coordinate with a rehab center, an insurance company, and an ambulance company... to get a man seven miles across town!
It's midnight as I write... has he left yet? I don't know!
Okay, here's tonight's progress on the Seven of Spades...
As you can see, all today's efforts went toward detailing the St. Brigid's cross... and it's still not done. One arm still has to be shaded.
I like how it's turning out so far! It could use some backlighting behind it, to make it pop a bit more, but... it looks like wicker!
I gotta say though, this damn card has raised the bar on the effort levels I'll have to bring for the whole deck, now!
It's not even done and it's making the Halloween card look kinda lazy... and those Aces... those now look like primitive garbage!
But this is how projects suck you in... you start with a few simple ideas... it seems like fun, so you focus more... and suddenly it's three years of your life!
My art background was in the pre-computer days. My drawing was decent. I did better with oil painting. And when I started using computers... MS Paint was THE app!
In 1999, when everybody else was graduating to PaintShop Pro, I was poor, and embraced an app called, PhotoImpact 4.0. It was on a CD that came with a scanner I'd bought.
PhotoImpact 4.0 was a glorified version of MS Paint. And I took to it!
So... it shouldn't surprise you too much, to hear that... twenty years, and ten computers later... I'm still using PhotoImpact 4.0!
I just managed to hang on to the CD! I still have it today! And Windows has emulators to run legacy software as if it's an earlier version of windows... going all the way back to Windows 2000!
So I just kept reinstalling it on every new computer until... CD drives went extinct!.. but that was okay, because PhotoImpact 4.0 is just a self contained .EXE file!
So, with my old machine that still has a CD drive, I copied off the EXE file and saved it to a thumb drive!
But as you can see above... it's fine! All you really need is something like PhotoImpact 4.0, and... some patience... and... twenty years to work up your technique!
This card relies heavily on a technique I developed doing the thumbnails for Snoozefest tracks...
Where I find an image of a real life object... like the trees, the groundhog, and the cross of St. Brigid... and then trace over them, freehand, to get the outline, and create my own object.
I then discard the original image and just work with my object, coloring, detailing, and shading it by hand.
This way, they have the correct shape, but the final result is my own work and not a copyright infringement.
It's all custom colors. I don't have to worry about... proprietary Adobe colors suddenly costing money to use or anything.
The only gray area is with the fonts!
All the fonts I use are free fonts, found online, so... I'm pretty sure they're safe to use?
On this card, the snowflakes, and the spades used to make the candleholders, are both free fonts.
I suppose it really doesn't matter unless I actually get this deck done and try to have it physically printed and sold for money.
And again... that's years away.
So... for now I'm just having fun... while my life is trying to fall apart... as usual.
°¦}
