Whew, what a day it’s been. I did manage to get a lotus flower painted for the 14th Day of the 30 in 30 though. It’s a good thing I had dinner started early this morning in the crockpot or we might just now be eating a 9 o’clock.
Just let me tell you about my day. It goes back to last month and our outrages electric bill. I told my husband we should go check the meter to see how much we’ve used because of last month and I know the meter reader would be coming in a few days. I went out and snapped a photo of the meter and came back in to compare the new numbers.
Imagine my horror when I discovered we had already surpassed last months usage and we still had four days left! We were determined to figure out what was using so much electricity. This was our highest bill ever since living here and our usage online showed us using something like 74% more electricity than the year before. We knew it was colder this year, but this didn’t seem right.
So we set about looking for what we thought was the most likely culprit. I went outside with a walkie talkie and Daryl went about turning stuff off. The meter was spinning like an LP player. At first we just tried to see if it looked liked the meter slowed down. Then I got smart and used the stopwatch feature on my phone to time the revolutions and compare as he one by one tuned off things like our hot tub, furnace, etc.
All this time (winter), I thought a space heater we used often was the culprit, but it didn’t change the meter speed much at all. Daryl was at a loss. He swore to me there was no way the garage with a compressor and other junk would be sucking up that much electricity. All this time, he blamed it on me leaving lights on or my greenhouse.
So, he has a little workshop outside that was a makeshift house while the previous owners did renovations to our home years ago. At one time, it had a small kitchen, living area and bathroom. He has long since tore out all of that to make room for work tables and shelves. What he didn’t tear out was the little baseboard heaters in two areas. You see where this is going don’t you?
Yep, it turned out one must’ve shorted out over the last couple months and was keeping the building warmer when nobody needed it to be. Actually, it only was at 40 degrees, the lowest he could get it with the old dial type. But with our record low temperatures we’ve had since before Christmas it had been running all this time!
I’m so glad we found it, I do wish we had discovered it a couple of months though. Now I know we have another outrages bill to pay and it turns out we really did use the electricity. Bummer. I was hoping the meter was broke. A good friend of ours works for the electric company and we talked to him this morning and he said odds are it’s not the meter. When they go bad, it’s usually in the homeowners favor. Who knew?
So finally back to my lotus painting. I did get started on it until much later and of course it gave me trouble. Why do I keep picking hard flowers like this lotus to paint? I guess because they are just so darn beautiful.
A lotus and a water Lilly look similar, but are different. I’d love to grow a lotus in my koi pond, but common varieties get huge. Maybe I’ll order on someday that is small. Til then I guess I’ll just have to paint them.
UPDATE 3/4/18: This painting has sold. I’ll have prints available in my shop soon, I’ll add a link when they’re in.
What’s the point of the 30 Paintings in 30 days challenge?
I want to be a better painter. To be a better painter, I must paint more and more.
The whole point of the challenge is to get yourself back in the habit of painting everyday. Now I haven’t stopped painting, but I certainly haven’t painted as much as I wanted in the last few months. So I’m joining in with the challenge to give myself a goal and to help me to feel held accountable, too. Not that the Painting Police will come and pick me up if I don’t paint everyday, it’s more of a self motivation thing. I’ve signed up on Leslie’s website and I’m hoping to be able to accomplish a lot of painting.
I’m not expecting to get gallery worthy paintings each day, I may not even paint a whole new painting each day. I’ve been there done that and that was stressful. I put the stress on myself, but nonetheless, it was stressful. I do hope to foster the act of going into my studio each and every day to get more painting accomplished. You know what they say about habits, it takes 21 days to form one. It will help me get better by practicing more and more.
See the paintings I’ve painted during this challenge here. Thanks for stopping by.
About Me
some of my paintings
Learn more about me on the ‘About’ page in the menu at the top. I’m an artist – a painter mostly and an avid gardener. I paint a variety of subjects including birds, koi fish, my gardens, ponds and flowers as well as anything having to do with nature especially trees and tropical scenes. I also enjoy painting abstracts and have started creating more and more of them. My most favorite thing to try to achieve in my painting is mystery.
If you would like to keep up with what I’m doing, join my email list. About once a month I send out a letter that gives you invitations for shows, birthday greeting, sneak peeks at new work and more. I’d love for you to add your email to my Friends and Collectors list!
