I'm trying to do some things around the apartment in Boulder that won't put stress on my rotator cuff injury. I've been going to therapy two days a week for almost three weeks and don't seem to be making much progress. The therapist says I have to make an effort not to do anything that will further stress the injury, so I'm thinking little and low.
I thought I had been tapped to drive Olive and Kooky to Louisville to Kooky's dog groomer this morning, but she told me yesterday that the woman who has had the honor in the past, who had been ill, had volunteered to take her again. I was a little relieved because we were going to take
Olive's car and I really feel uncomfortable driving other people's
vehicles and I'm not sure she has the requisite insurance either. So, after I walked with Olive and Kooky this morning I had the entire day without appointments.
I continued painting on this lawn ornament...
I'm dabbing on watered down Patio Paint in Woodland Brown, Wrought Iron Black and Pot O' Gold Dore'. I think maybe one more go and I'll have it.
I like it so well, I'm going to do this other lawn ornament...
...and I've already used the brown and gold on this long gourd that I've been toting around for two years, having found it in an antique shop in a little town in northwest Missouri...
...It had got pretty skinned up in its travels. I'm going to drill a hole in the top, and in this incarnation, as a nod to the Indian theme I seem to have going on the balcony, I may try running some fairly long, sheer colorful ribbons (I'm thinking that marvelous French seam binding) through the hole as a hanger or just decoration. I may go a little heavier on the gold paint too. Don't worry, it will all come together!
Then I used some Gorilla Glue on the front stringer on this chair, which was loose...
...I hope that's enough weight. I know the glue works since it, affixed to a bit of trim, kept the front bumper of my car from falling off earlier in the spring and it had been applied almost a decade earlier!
What else? Oh, I had gone to Walmart in Longmont yesterday after therapy and purchased a 3M Command Brand hook for that other shower caddy that I bought Saturday at the Goodwill 50% off sale and got that (the hook) put up...
...I wanted to give it plenty of time to "set" although I think you really only have to wait one hour. I see, based on a coupon in the package, that they're now
making these in clear although I didn't notice the clear variety at
Walmart if they had them in stock. I'm going to get a clear one for my
apartment door next month so I can hang a wreath. These are the "damage-free" variety that can be pulled off so I'm sure management will like that.
And I spent quite a bit of time using the heated tip of the hot glue gun on that mixture of hot glue and strands of red gimp that remained on the back of this chair...
...and got an amazing amount of it off. This is what it looked like before...
I tried to sand the remains off and that doesn't seem to work at all. I'll give it one more go with the hot glue gun and then just figure the black paint will make it all disappear. Maybe some day I can get a new back put in this chair although I really don't think it's worth the expense. I certainly have been getting a lot of good out of it since I moved into the apartment though.
I brought the electric stapler down from the cabin the last time I was there and so should be able to get the fabric put on this chair seat and the balcony chair and settee seats within the next few days.
I also called in a work order this morning to have maintenance come and hang all of my decor out on the balcony. Yes, they'll actually do that for tenants. I think I've lived with things out there on the balcony long enough that I'm sure where I want things hung. When I first heard maintenance would do this I thought they'd just have to move in since it takes me forever to make up my mind where I want things and often, when I'm doing it myself, I move things after I've got them hung...."No, that needs to be at least an inch lower. Start over." I expect these guys will only put up with so much of that. At any rate, they'll be drilling into concrete block and I did that in the kitchen for a clock and it takes forever even with the right drill bit, so I'm really happy they're available to do it.
All for now...Teddee
I'm at the apartment in Boulder and am starting to have some appreciation for the Birdman of Alcatraz. Confined to the shrinking world of this box (I'm able to rent the box, which leaves me with little money for anything else), I find my focus shrinking as well. Goodbye Rocky Mountain vistas, hello world as seen from my balcony.
I brought the small hummingbird feeder down from the cabin, hung it from the balcony railing and have been gratified to have hummingbirds of at least two varieties feeding almost from day one. But, boy, they are hard to photograph with the equipment I have. The feeder is very close to where I sit so I can't blame them for being gun shy, but their movements are so sporadic and quick that it's almost impossible to guess what they're going to do next and in which direction they're going to do it. These are the best shots I've come up with so far...back half or back three quarters...
...and front quarter...
This one looks almost ethereal...
I had my camera set to capture movement for this last one, but apparently it's not enough to freeze the hummingbird's rapid wing motion. I'm not sure what kind of hummingbird this is, but there has also been a spectacularly colored Rufous coming to feed. He is really flighty, so to speak, and I just haven't been able to get even a bad shot of him.
The other thing I've been focusing down on are some plant tendrils growing up from the hanging baskets on the balcony below mine...
I snagged this morning glory tendril early this week, barely had enough to wrap around my balcony railing a couple of times and have been watching it rapidly climb this upright. Now I'm waiting to see if plants, like baboons, can teach other plants to follow suit! Here's one that's trying to make up its mind...
It isn't long enough yet for me to help it along. I'll try again each day.
Now if that isn't exciting enough for you, here's a view of the street out here in front of my balcony...
There's a nice curve here and it is especially pleasant at night when the lights from the gardens around this apartment building make these trees look as if the trunks had been painted white up a few feet like the citrus trees in Arizona. I tried to capture that last evening to no avail. There is something rather "boulevardy" and European about this bit of street, and there's always the anticipation of a head-on collision since there are no center line markings and the drivers, from both directions, tend to drive right down the middle, over-correcting when they see a vehicle coming from the other direction.
What else? Here is a candle holder that I spray painted when I was at the cabin the last time...
It had been white and I painted it that Rubbed Bronze I like so much. It provides a nice decorative screen effect hanging from the balcony railing. I need to clip off the prongs so I can use battery powered candles. The candle holders themselves are hinged and flip up which, of course, was one of the reasons this appealed to me. I love furniture and decorative objects that fold even though I can think of no practical reason for these to do so unless it would be so they didn't collect rain if, as I am, you were using this outside.
I think I blogged about these brown bottles with the lights in them in one of my last posts. Here they are illuminated....
I love this look. I've been plugging these in most evenings along with the grapevine lights I have draped on the back of the settee...
You can see I've left a space for my back. This is where I sit each evening.
Well, that's about it. I did, obviously, get my internet up and running here at the apartment on Monday. CenturyLink gave me a great deal--$29.99 a month for a full year and threw in the modem plus $50 toward installation--so I'm really happy about that.
I also took my car in for an oil and air filter change today and had them check to determine why the car had been making an increasingly horrible sound when I turned right and found that the power steering pump, another thing that had been installed by that inept mechanic at the now-closed Longmont Sears store, was leaking, but I should be able to go for at least some time just topping off the fluid. That will enable me to get my share of some of these medical bills that are filtering in from that fall I had back in May paid off. Still have heard nothing back from Boulder Housing Partners' insurance company following my meeting with their representative about three weeks ago.
I have started physical therapy for my shoulder, but neither the therapist nor the patient are happy with how it's progressing. She did tell me I needed to quit doing basically anything that could further stress the shoulder, so that has really put a crimp in some of my planned decorating projects here and at the cabin. I'm reading a lot and helping an elderly resident, who herself had a bad fall about three weeks ago, walk her dog Kooky, the cutest little Pomeranian. If you aren't familiar with the breed, they look like stuffed toys. I haven't taken Kooky's photo for some reason. I'll try to do that tomorrow although we're taking him in for a final summer shave next Tuesday and he'll be even cuter after that.
More later...Teddee
