It's Not Easy Being April

On the drive to school this morning I asked April how she had slept. 'Well, not so good'. She then slowly opened up and told me about her bad dream. A little background first: yesterday our piano instructor, Larisa Ivanovna, dropped by to give the younger girls their weekly lesson. April usually forgets to practice, and somehow she's always oblivious of her upcoming lesson, so when the day inevitably arrives it's always a rude awakening.

And now the dream... April is in the middle of a tedious piano lesson, working on some classical piece, when all of a sudden Larisa Ivanovna turns into a hideous monster with the body of a whale and 5 dragon heads. The heads are all screaming things like 'Did you practice at all, April!?', 'On the upbeat, on the upbeat I said!', 'And which piece is your left hand playing?' 'This is Mozart, not ragtime!'

A bit later in the dream April is completing her homework for school and is on the last page of problem sets. She finishes the last problem but suddenly out of nowhere a few more pages appear. She completes these, too, but still more pages materialize. Then she hears an awful noise from on high and looks up to see her school teacher, Elena Evgenievna, riding the piano teacher monster through the sky and screaming at the top of her lungs 'Did you do your homework, April?!!'

Lake at Dusk!

This one was too nice- I just forgot to post it before!

We're Back- Sort Of!

Well, it's been a while since the Lewis' had a post, so I thought I'd better update you. This has been the summer of Mom's recovery from her hip replacement- a difficult surgery for anyone and lengthy recovery, and even more so with the preexisting conditions Mom deals with. We feel thankful that she is still here - a very close call occurred less than one week after her release from the hospital. She was readmitted with symptoms that were determined to be hyponatremia- extremely low sodium levels. Her levels were sufficient for brain damage, coma, or death if it was not corrected. So Mom faced another week in the hospital as they gradually re-infused her with Na- aka salt. Mom is a fighter, though, and Dad has been by her side. I'm part of the care team, too- support work- cooking, cleaning, bill-paying, medical appointment driver, but Dad has been a saint. Gradually there are "normal" days, and the hip replacement itself has been confirmed via xray, and her doctor, as being a complete success. She is standing, walking, and sitting with more comfort than in years...good news to say the least. Dad is working hard on a 50 year anniversary of the Oklahoma University Met. Program- talk and paper. I was enrolled for 14 credits this fall- one class was cancelled, and another looked too challenging for this semester (biology) so I am down to three classes, nine credits total. I am avoiding my 1,250 word essay on Socrates "Apology" right now so I have to get going. Here are a few photos from the summer- In August Debra and the kids visited us, and the lake at dusk, photo from the docks...just a short walk from home. Take care, all! hope to hear your updates soon. Geneva

Crossroads

Here is the time lapse video of the sculpture project. Roland and I got it up in the gallery on Saturday. I have one more day to finish a couple of paintings for the show at Windsor Art Center. I've jotted down some thoughts about the sculpture if you care to read them, on my art website.

The other artist I"m showing with came to see us install, because after hearing about it, she was worried the piece might overwhelm her pieces. With good reason, the thing looks so much bigger indoors.