*
No photos to remind me what I did.
I just fooled around with a little bit of leatherwork…….
Covid19 Day 17 Tuesday April 14
Called my mom this morning and she sounded much better and very positive. She is doing well.
Most of the call was taken up by trying to troubleshoot why she has no Wi-Fi like the day before. Turns out there is no power on her router.
Then she gave me the name and phone number of André that helped her on Saturday.
I found out I cannot get through to my mom’s cell phone or André’s cell phone – not sure where the problem lies there. So I called him, thanked him, and asked him to stop by when he goes to the store to just have a look at her router.
Called my mom back after that and spent another 45 minutes just chatting to her.
By this time I had missed the first hour of my online class on leatherwork, but that is available to catch up with later.
I sat down to some leatherwork of my own and was jaw-drop amazed at the weather every time I looked up. Within twenty minutes we had full on sunshine, clouds, snowy flurries and blizzard like snowstorms. And this repeated itself quite a few times.
Somewhere there I saw this – the falling snow only accumulated where the shadow of the house kept the ground cooler; elsewhere it melted immediately.
When the sun came out five minutes later it confirmed this visibly:
I also load software to edit videos with so that I can publish instructions again to my leather instructions blog: www.leatherlearn.com
Covid19 Day 16 Monday April 13
I hopped on the treadmill early and got 6 minutes in when I got a message on my phone from a cousin in South Africa saying that her mom cannot get hold of my mom. Turns out that was about a week ago.
But it caused me to call my mom, only to hear that she fell Friday evening and spent the whole night on the floor trying to access her phones and trying to get help. I do think she had some concussion, because it was only Saturday morning when she was able to reach an angel, André Scheeres, who swooped in, helped her get up and called paramedics to take her to the hospital, where she spent most of Saturday being x-rayed and tested. She also had a gash in her head stitched up. She was able to be discharged Saturday afternoon late and André took her home again.
I fooled around a bit with leather again, played with a few old photos,
…..but my creativity had fled.
I was so ready to step out of this day!
Covid19 Day 15 Sunday April 12
After such a beautiful sunshine day yesterday, it started to snow this morning and we got 6″+.
I took the day off from the treadmill.
We drove to church early and was greeted by our five pastors and Holy Communion; drive-by fashion outside. All very safely done! And home-made doughnuts.
And there I was struck speechless. I got so emotional that I could not speak.
We then drove home to watch the Easter Sunday service streamed live.
While watching and listening to the service, I drew this on my tablet, using the Sketcher App:
I futzed around with with leather, streamed a Facebook Live video about a leatherwork technique and watched the snow pile up outside.
This is the start of our new veggie garden that Wilhelm is developing:
Covid19 Day 14 Saturday April 11
Follow up success this morning with 23 minutes on the treadmill!
*
*
*
Covid19 Day 13 Friday April 10th
At last I got as far as using my treadmill this morning for a fast 22 minute walk.
I listened to the first three stations of the cross from our church at
While doing some leatherwork, I listened to the first half of the book “Make Your Bed”.
I made a new batch of Droë Wors [like the elite version of dried jerky sausage].
This struck me the moment I saw it – I hope it helps me to relax:
Covid19 Day 13 Thursday
A bit of a weird day, weatherwise.
Mostly sunny.
But with a blustery wind full of snow! At times.
I had an appointment with my diabetes educator, and absolutely delightful lady to talk to.
All over the phone of course.
I organised things a bit in my workroom, did a bit of leatherwork and EVEN took an afternoon NAP!!!!
That was the first time in many years. But I did set my alarm and got up in time to get Gina’s laptop ready for joining our small group on Zoom.
I skipped this evening’s small group to attend another online leather class I had paid for – to do woodgrain on leather. I have done a lot of different woodgrain effects on leather, but this was taught by Jim Linnell, a master I admire very much, and I see these classes with him as a kindof back-to-basics excercise. This is not done yet, but this was the subject of the class this evening:
Covid19 Day 12 Wednesday
I drove up to my store this morning, mailing a gift on the way. At the store I took this picture of a 3d embossed picture I did a few years ago and only recently framed [just to make a marker for myself where I was this morning].
Then I hopped over to Aldi and did our grocery shopping. At the post office and Aldi I noticed new plastic/acrylic shields were up to protect the staff.
I was home in time to attend the third online leatherwork class this week at noon. I like that this keeps me in contact with other people that shares my passion with leatherwork.
Covid19 Day 11 Tuesday
It was a good day, all in all.
First my usual hour and a bit chat to my mom in South Africa. She is doing so well and works through things that stress her with a very healthy attitude and with good help from God.
I attended an online leather class again and was able to do this:
I was just done and got a phone call – the technician who is here to look at our internet connection was a welcome day early. He checked out everything on the outside with us inside, communicating by phone. Our line was good, so he gave us a new wireless router and when I went out to get it, he saw me and remarked that he knew me. We quickly established the fact that he was a customer at the store I manage!
The new router was easy to install and worked well. For an hour….. Then it gave me some despair for an hour where the signal disappeared very often. Then it started to work very smoothly again as soon as I got up to investigate.
And then I had all three of us drive down to the Mississippi and go and bask in the sun for a bit [18C!!!!]
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
To leave comments, simply tap/click on the post heading and there will be a comment block below the post.
Covid19 Day 10 Monday
Much better day!
Wilhelm has been helping us sort through some old stored boxes and one of the finds was this:
It is the 63 year old predecessor of texting! And what makes these so special, was the humor with which they were done. I scanned them all and will post in a different post – they are, of course, in Afrikaans. These were folded very small, the name of the recipient was written on it and it was then sent through a classroom to the intended recipient. I also did this when I was at school. Yes, there was an era before cell phones….!
At noon I attended an online leatherwork class again and drew this design to be used in a notepad holder that will be constructed tomorrow in the class:
