The Blanton is opening

Long time no see but for some reason I just couldn't be bothered to write. I thought about it several times but could never find the energy to write.....it all seemed blah!

When back to the doctor again this morning re my back. Its not actually hurting me that much (it rarely cripples me like it did Gordon, to be honest) but I am a bit concern that my left side of my left calf is numb and so is my little left toe. The x-ray I had a few weeks ago shows I have Arthritis in my spine but the Doctor was puzzled because that appeared to be on the right side, not the left side. So tonight, I have an MRI of my lumbar region. Not much they can do if its arthritis to be honest. My uncle has spinal arthritis and he has just learnt to live with.

Of course walking is a big help and my pedometer actually cracked the 10,000 step mark, not once but twice in the last week. Its actually a lot more steps than even I imagined being honest. Even my walk with the dog, which I have deliberately made longer, only garners just fewer than 5,000 steps. By the end of it, even at 10 am in the morning, the dog and I are dying of heat exhaustion. Once I am in house, I'm fine as soon as I get long glass of water but the dog is huffing and panting for a good 30 mins afterwards, looking for suitable cool areas like the lino at the front door.

Of course there was one day when I actually managed to do less than 1000 steps which I suspect is fairly normal for me, given that I spend an inordinate amount of time browsing the internet to escape from this part of the world. Last Wednesday, I remember, looking and being shocked at how little I had moved. I had started a walk but got no further than the corner of the street before it started to rain. That was it for the day then as the storms had arrived. Later that day we had several thunderstorms which produced hailstones the size of golf balls. Must admit, its the worse hailstorm I have seen in the 6 yrs we have been here.

Below are some pictures I took whilst walking, just to prove that Texas isn't all flags, signs, cowboys and churches. This time of year is the best time for colour as all the wildflowers start appearing until its too hot and then the just the sunflowers are left. Unfortunately, they aren't as good as normal because of the lack of rain in last 12 months. However, last Wednesday, helped in that respect. Had over 5 inches of rain in less than 12 hours.

As I indicated above, the Blanton museum finally opens this week. As you can imagine with a big American institution, there is a lot a fanfare and hoop-da-la involved, so there is a whole week of opening events.

On Monday there was reception for the University of Texas faculty members, which for the security people must have been a hair raising event. The affair opened with a musical piece which had been especially commission to celebrate the opening of the museum. However, as this an art museum, it had to involve the works of art somehow. So we started in the atrium and then preceded upstairs to the main galleries, where a short piece of music was rendered before 8 selected pieces of art. Moving 100+ people around a building is hard enough normally but when it involves galleries which can barely hold 20 usually, its a nightmare.

My job was to help the musician move his equipment around the galleries, fortunately, this was just one piece, a marimba and only once. In the end we were all stationed before a painting because space was so tight, they could easily have been knocked off the wall!

Last night was an easy night, local teachers from schools and further education institution were invited. All I had to do was way find and warn people if they were getting too close. I only had one person leading on a display cabinet. If I hadn't of met 2 people I know, it would have been an extremely boring evening.

The weekend is the actual opening of the museum and that should be fun, especially, Sunday afternoon, which is for families. It should be interesting to see how they cope with kids doing fun activities and not touch some of the art work!