Slow days in January

Wow!  Already a week has passed by!  It seemed like a busy week but not filled with too many memorable moments... which says a lot about how one lives one's life...  I apologize that most of my blog posts are filled with my drawings, but I haven't been out taking pictures and they are really the only way that I record my days recently...

I got to the dentist and have my new crown...

I got together with some friends for English despite Tetsu thinking that I should just lay low for a couple more weeks.  It is a balance of how much I can do and the benefits of chatting and being with friends.  Tetsu is still driving me around so he gets pulled into any activities that I may have planned.

I also am back at the crosswalk but here again, Tetsu drives me there (15 minute walk usually) opens up the front gate for me so I don't have to do any unnecessary walking, and then picks me up an hour later.

And during the day, Tetsu does the brunt of the housekeeping while I sit and quilt or draw.

Speaking of quilting, (and this was at one time a blog about quilting), I am still hand-quilting the Plaidish quilt.  Probably this is the way most people mark their quilts but this is the way I do it if I haven't drawn in lines with a pencil before basting.

I have a ruler and I decided to mark my quilting lines 1 3/4 inch from the pieced seamline on all the pieces.  I used a very fine line chalk marker and it draws lines for me with one stroke across the fabric.  I will mark two or three lines just the width of my quilting hoop, quilt with two or three on-going needles and then move the hoop and mark again.  

You can't really tell in the photo but I'm quilting with three colors of thread and not making any decisions about when to use what color.  I thought it went well with the multi-colored quilt.  I am nearly finished with all this marking and quilting and now I'm thinking about quilting in the ditch at all those seams... which means this is still only half done...  Does it need more quilting?  This was not supposed to be a grand project but it does make the sitting time (of which I have a lot) more pleasant.

The swimming pool is closed this week (they take a week off every year after the New Year's holiday) and so we have been using the time that we'd usually spend there to go to various hot spas again.  Yesterday I had the whole outdoor bath to myself (though I didn't actually sketch while I was in it...)  Maybe I shouldn't have included my weird looking feet but they are proof that I was there.

And the biggest news is that I was referred to and saw an orthopedist at the university hospital this week and after looking at my x-rays the doctor said that a hip replacement would be the only option for relieving pain and getting back to normal life...  That diagnosis wasn't a surprise as my rheumatologist has basically said the same thing.  I will talk to the school and the City Hall about taking time off from work and probably surgery will be scheduled for sometime this summer.  I am feeling very good about the direction things are taking and I've talked with Tony and even sent him my x-rays.  Now to get through the next few months with as few problems as possible.

So that's my week.  From all the weather forecasts on TV, Japan is heading into deep cold next week so I'll stay bundled up and close to the space heaters that we use!