Being laid up these past few days has made me appreciate my dogs even more. When I am in my normal go-go-go routine, I work them into my schedule – sometimes impatiently. There are days when I want them to walk faster, to stop barking at me for attention or to just leave me alone….
Author: Steve Ainslie
Aging Out
I am on day 3 of no activity due to my knee injury. The first two days were really bad – I couldn’t bend or straighten my leg, my knee was swollen like a grapefruit and nothing relieved the pain. Fortunately, I sought the advice of a friend who has a history of knee injuries….
Taking Things For Granted
Last night was another bad one. There has been no improvement in my left knee. If anything, it seems worse. I cannot bend it or straighten it without significant pain so it is frozen at a slightly bent angle. I toss and turn all night trying to find a position where the pain doesn’t keep…
Overdoing It
I guess that my age is catching up to me. My latest round of injuries has forced me to reconsider what I am doing and why. My left knee is f***ed. After a few days of me pushing through the pain, last night I raced a breaking point. I can’t bend it beyond a few…
Not So Bad
This morning I woke up feeling like I’m falling apart. My right foot injury has still not completely healed. I’ve got lingering, chronic plantar fasciitis pain in my heel. I reaggravated my shoulder injury last week. And I have a new injury behind my left knee – which I’m pretty sure is due to overstretching…
Drilling It Into Our Heads
Repeat a lie often enough and it becomes the truth, is a statement often attributed to Joseph Goebbels, the minister of propaganda for the Third Reich. Decades later, when Trump was called out for lying that The Apprentice was the #1 show according to ratings he was purported to say, “…just tell them and they believe it…That’s it,…
14th Century Photoshop
Throughout my drawing and painting lessons, the instructors remind me that it’s OK to change the scene I am painting. They resize buildings, add trees and people, change colors, modify the light source and redirect shadows. One instructor even said, “Never copy the image you are painting. Don’t try to match the colors. Your goal…
The “One”
A friend my age is looking for “the One”. He’s had girlfriends – some short term, others for years. But he’s still looking for his perfect soulmate to marry, have kids and grow old together. I’m lucky that I found “the One” when I was 21. I was naive, madly in love, overconfident in my…
No More NFL
I haven’t owned a TV for 4 years. I can’t tolerate the excessive of commercials on OTA TV and won’t pay for cable. Anything I want to watch, I stream on my iPad. I only miss two things about TV: Watching it with my wife. NFL football For the past 3 years, I was able…
Urban Sketching
After running across a series of watercolor and ink paintings that I absolutely adored, I’ve spent the last few weeks using them as inspiration to create my own. As I struggled to draw people and cars while mimicking the loose, flowy line art, I went down an internet rathole. To my surprise, I discovered that…