To Do List

What can you do when you can't do anything?  Interesting problem.  I've been thinking about this one for a couple of days now.  Well, really a couple of months.  I've watched all the really good instant play movies on Netflix and am beginning to run out of good SF show to watch online as well. So now what?

Stargazing
I have a really nice telescope that my dad gave me when I was a kid.  Maybe it is time to set it up in the yard again.  I can also just lay on the deck in a blanket looking upwards and watching.  It takes about a half hour for your eyes to adjust to the dark so patience is key.  Also a nice dark spot in the yard.  I have to get out of the streetlight glare.  Just a pair of good binoculars makes this fun.  Husband will often join me on this one, particularly when the space station is going overhead or comets or meteors are flying about.  This evening I saw the new moon right next to Venus.
http://stardate.org/nightsky

Painting
I haven't done any painting in a long time.  I used to be good at drawing but never got good at painting even though I like it.  Thing is I would like a place I can set my stuff up and then be able to leave it and not have to clean it up so that we have somewhere to eat dinner.  Maybe I'll convert my sewing space into a painting area.

Calligraphy
Another art form I haven't practiced in a long time.  This takes a very steady hand though.  Mine shakes a lot lately and I have trouble even writing some days so maybe I'll wait on this one. http://www.studioarts.net/calligraphy/

The Womanly Arts: Needlecraft
I've stopped sewing since I've been sick.  Since I make my own patterns I have to be up and about and moving around constantly to sew which is too much for me these days.  I was actually sewing a lot when I first got ill.  I didn't know this wouldn't go away and I was in the middle of making a skating dress for a competition.  I remember wanting desperately to fall asleep while I was sewing.  However, there is also knitting which is much more sedate, along with embroidery, crochet, cross stitch, rug hooking, etc.  Maybe I'll try some embroidery again.  I haven't done any in about 25 years.

Printmaking

Carve up a potato, roll on some paint and print away.  Time to make some homemade cards for the holidays.  Stickers, glue, sparkles, different papers, cut up old holiday cards.  Be creative.  What the hey, cheat.  Do the black part on the computer and then fill in the color with your kids' paint set.  Easy piesy.

Make Music
Screw Guitar Hero, buy a recorder.  It is a small handheld instrument that was popular a few hundred years ago.  It is easy to learn (I learned it in kindergarten) and you can play some fairly complicated music on it when you get good at it.  There is also violin, a real guitar, cello, viola, keyboards.  Drums are a bit energetic.  My friend who is dealing with cancer right now has been writing blues songs since he has been ill but he has played guitar for decades. 

Take a Virtual Museum Tour
Most of the big museums have virtual tours that can be done on line.  This is particularly fun if you have a technophile in the family that has a large HD plasma TV with a computer hooked up to it.  I sat with a wireless keyboard and mouse in my lap and toured the Prado in Madrid for three hours while laying on my couch.  It was a blast and I saw a lot of very famous paintings complete with audio guide.  http://www.museodelprado.es/en/the-collection/what-to-see/

Play Blogspot Roulette
This is a fun online game I invented.  Go to any blog that is part of the blogspot family such as mine :-)  Use the "next blog" button in the top menu bar to go a semi-random blog.  If it isn't interesting press again.  This button will cycle through roughly ten blogs before you get back to where you started.  To jump out of this loop and into another one click on one of the blog links that the author has posted that has an orange B next to it.  This will jump you to another blog outside the first loop.  You can then use "next blog" to cruise through a fresh set of blogs.  Switch between the two methods to find blogs on random subjects.  This is how I've stumbled upon some ultra cool stuff such as http://rulesformyunbornson.tumblr.com/ 

Ornithology
My friend who is a professional ornithologist told me that 90% of bird identification is done by ear not sight so spend some time learning bird songs.  Then next time you sit out on the deck you can try and identify the birds by their songs rather than trying to remember where the hell you put the binoculars and the birdguide.  http://www.enature.com/fieldguides/view_default.asp?curGroupID=1
BTW, it was my friend that told me that the tortured cat sound I was hearing at night was really an Eastern Screech Owl.  Freaked me out when I first heard it.  Although I hear these every summer I have never seen one.