Five things Friday #25 - Drawing from inspiration, DMV success, Planning Nana & Papa camp

1. The 2026 calendar I have is "Art Dogs" where each month has a dog painted in the style of a different artist. June was "Yaydog Kusama" inspired by Yahoo Kusama who really, really likes polka dots. I used watercolor markers on journal paper, did a quick drawing and don't have exact colors. I like the way it came out and think it captures the inspiration in it's own way.

2. It turned out that renewing my driver's license was super easy despite my at fault car accident and being over 75. The process in CA was simple: receive an email renewal reminder, complete an online renewal application, schedule an appointment and then walk to the DMV office down the street for a vision test, photo and payment. I was done 5 minutes after my appointment time. Easy peasy. I'll count it as a gift from the universe.

3. We are running "Nana & Papa" day camp the last week of July by request of the 9 year old grandgirl. She has swim team practice starting late afternoon 4 of the 5 days which leaves just one for a longer field trip. After talking with her, I think we are going to the Sonoma Botanical Garden to see large mosaic spirit guide sculptures which are presented in the garden setting and then lunch of course. That will be fun for me too.

It is about an hour drive from our house so the outing won't exceed the pup's approximately 5 hour proven tolerance for being home without a walk. I offered the Museum of Modern Art in SF plus lunch as another option, but we will do that on our own.

4. Yeah for PBS streaming of foreign shows: I just finished watching a season of the French detective show “Agathe Koltes”We get PBS Passport through being a member of our local station.

5. And little things that add up - 

Hubby used an ACE Hardware $5 off coupon we received in the mail to buy a small item. 

I walked to the DMV to renew my license (the irony!) saving gas and getting exercise. 

Inspired by other bloggers steady small improvement projects, I finally ordered a blind for the upstairs bathroom window as the top half is clear glass and it gets intense, hot sun in the summer. We really only use that bath as a 1/2 bath. It does have an old small shower which could be used if the main one was out of order. We are not motivated to remodel that bathroom!

I tried the "how long could it take" approach and made a list of little things I wanted to get done. I'd say it took half an hour to get all 5 done. This month I'm going to continue this practice to get those pesky or boring tasks done. I want to stop putting these type of things off as retirement is so open ended which makes it easy to procrastinate.

AND in the I didn’t know that category - San Francisco 4th of July fireworks are launched from the Golden Gate Bridge. Makes sense though.