Dave's Journal / Nov2025
Got my new "Kanso-3" cochlear implant processors (both sides), and so far I like them a lot. A noticeable improvement in the sound quality. And the internal program (there are 3 of them) that does not filter out noise is excellent and helps a bit with "word recognition" (which is different than "hearing sounds").
Waiting for the "co-pay" bill from medicare insurance.
November thru March is when I take up coloring with pencils again, usually with a (synthetic) log in the fireplace (it's a really nice therapy session). I hardly got into it last year and have lost some of my "artist vibe" and need to crank it back up again.
Started this picture the other day and hoping if I post my "progress" here, that will motivate me to keep rolling on it.
There is no guide for the colors so you're on your own picking what you like and shading, etc etc. Also, the drawn lines are sometimes weird and things are half drawn and I can't even figure out what it is I am coloring - grass? concrete? cobble stone? a stream? a snow pile? But it's fun and keeps me away from Youtube, TCM and Netflix.
Well .... I found a picture of Van Gogh's actual painting "The Yellow House", which this coloring book sketch is based on:
Nope .... I have no intention at all to go back and recolor my version to match the original .... I am an artist and must stay true to my own personal vision.
The mind wobbles .... 1000 piece puzzles .... good therapy for some, would drive me mad !!! Here is Chris, Catherine and Mike attacking it from various angles.
The day before, I took Catherine to the Museum of Religious Icons, which is an amazing place if you admire centuries-old craftsmanship.
A collection of my icon pictures is here: https://davesjournal.net/Pictures/MuseumRussIcons/MusRussIcon.html
Catherine discovered this place was long ago a local jail .... here we are in the basement cells !
This page sat dormant for two years, so I decided to finish it this week.
Here it is in grayscale ....
Here is a copy of Van Gogh's original .....
Weather is wet and dreary ....
And I cooked up a meatloaf this morning (first in a few years) ....
....and it was really good (I use equal amounts of ground beef and ground pork and I swear that makes a big improvement).
Deb and I fidgeted with a funky (new!) washing machine - not fun, but it ended well.
Mike came around and cleaned up the fallen leaves in our yard.
Then I colored a window ....
Now I plan to watch a vintage 1930's musical ( "Goldiggers of 193x")
Well, it's not exactly a vintage musical..... I ended up watching Prometheus (2012).
Comments: They did not skimp on the special effects $$$$, and the basic plot concept was excellent. But the screenplay got distracted into many many action / violent scenes that detoured away from what the story was. And the end was .... well it didn't quite end ... maybe they were planning a "Prometheus 2" sequel (?).
Once in a while, someone sends data to my inbasket, and sometimes it's kind of interesting. This (from USAFacts) is interesting.
New data from the Census Bureau shows how the foreign-born population - meaning anyone born outside the US, including naturalized citizens and people authorized to be in the US on visas - continues to shape the country. Here's the 2024 data on these populations.
In 2024, 50.2 million people living in the US were foreign-born. That's about one in seven residents, or 14.8% of the total population - up from 13.3% a decade earlier.
Overall, the nation's foreign-born population grew from 42.4 million people in 2014 to 50.2 million in 2024.
Well.... I am now remembering my grandparents ... came here through Ellis Island, logged in, became US citizens, raised a generation of great people.
