With a title like this I should probably write something sweeping and poignant about current challenges and how little of myself I sometimes recognize in my own existence. But I think that would be premature and needlessly dramatic, because some of what’s been nagging at me lately could be due to medication problems caused by absorption issues.
Reading about my life is already boring enough without detours into yet more intestinal talk or explanations of why the Humira might not be as efficacious as usual due to continued methotrexate misadventures. (If you’re curious and/or need help falling asleep, though the methotrexate is used for other purposes, one of its benefits is that, in the words of my rheumatologist, it ‘boosts’ the Humira.) So instead of getting into that, here’s Umbrella Guy with his first coat(s) of paint.
Each coat is much thinner than you’d realize by looking at this, so there’s still a fair amount of work to be done, some with finer detail brushes than I utilized today. My attention is drawn to two issues I’ll try to correct: his boots and thigh. The boots were painted with a brown that dried too dark, and one thigh is darker than the other because that area was first painted with a different color that I abandoned after just a few strokes.*
From a distance, it almost appears that I’m going for a camo effect with his pants. Unfortunately, if you enlarge it, it looks more like Umbrella Guy has a weak bladder. His umbrella remains unpainted because I haven’t decided whether or not to turn it into a parasol. Not pictured: the work I did today on a post about personal finance, which is threatening to turn into a two-parter if I can’t edit it into something more cohesive. Because if there’s anything more interesting than critiques of painted boots it’s my approach to retirement investing.
* There might be a third issue — I was going for a salt-and-pepper look with his hair that I’m not sure photographs well — but I’ll have to reevaluate it in better lighting.