Well, the best-laid plans...

This blog began in 2009. Chasing technology and providing services related to that discipline provided a good livelihood for over 34 years. However, it is a younger person's field and wearisome keeping up to provide the best services possible.

Cleaning up, throwing out, recycling, re-purposing, and organizing for a new job: "To occupy until He comes." Some goals and structures to guide "retirement" have been set. The journey of learning is exciting. So much of the planning is toward that end. After reorganizing office space and clearing up some other home spaces the game will be afoot.

Monday through Thursday will start with coffee with my wife. Following this will be one hour of bible study making observations, interpretation, and applications of as many books of the bible as possible starting with Paul's letter to the Ephesians and following with similar letters to the believers Colosse and at Philippi before moving to an Old Testament book or two.

The next hour will be spent drawing or sketching. The only way to get better is to practice, practice, practice. However, practice must be done properly. If a pianist doesn't practice scales and arpeggios then she will never get better. However, if the practice is not correctly done then progress will not be made and skills will not be acquired. Work will be done in pen and ink, pencil, carbon pencil, and lampblack watercolor using photos or still life objects for reference. I have never spent much time practicing drawing or sketching so learning a proper approach is underway. To this end, reading and applying the guidelines (no pun intended) and instruction in Carl Purcell's fine book, Your Artist's Brain (ISBN-10: 1-4403-0844-6; ISBN-13: 978-1-4403-0844-4), is where the focus is being placed. Its big idea is to develop better skills of observation of relationships between shapes, spaces, subjects, backgrounds, angles, sizes, values, and more. This is basic to producing good art of the type I like to do.

The next hour will be used to start and complete a 6" X 6" or 6" X 8" oil painting either from a still life setup or a photograph. The goal here will be to develop more looseness and speed to prepare for doing Plein air outdoor painting. It is a fairly common practice of many painters to do a daily painting (see Daily Paintworks site).

Following painting, one hour will be spent writing. Initially, the goal is to write small sketches of personal memories or just describe a setting, person, smell, emotion, or experience.

The fifth hour will be spent reading on theology, philosophy, bible and creative tasks perhaps choosing to read into a different one each of the four days of the week.

The sixth hour will be spent studying other humanities subjects. The list will include history, philosophy, literature, and critical thinking. The current reading is about the life of John Calvin along with two multi-volume histories by Winston Churchill: Marlborough: His Life and Times (a descendant of the duke) and The History of the English Speaking People. Included will be two surveys of history by Susan Rice Bauer--one Medieval and the other Reformation.

Five days a week thirty minutes of exercise: fifteen minutes walking on the treadmill and fifteen minutes of weight training on Precor stationary equipment and free weights. Thirty minutes a day will be used for training Chase, a Bichon Frise dog who needs attitude adjustments. Friday and Saturday will be household chores such as yard, cleaning, and organizing. Sunday will be church activities and rest.

Evenings will be spent watching some favorite shows via our Amazon Prime subscription such as The Closer, Doc Martin, and Hercule Poirot. While watching TV some knitting projects started some while ago such as a sweater for my wife will be continued. Knitting was learned while in the Naval Hospital in San Diego recovering from pneumonia.

Sounds ambitious but changing from busy life of support and development in computer technology to vegging out is not an option. The structure will help keep the mind alert learning new things and continuing personal development.