To the hospital I go

I'm going to the hospital and I'll probably be gone for about a week, but I shall return.

Keeping my promise

Today after coming home from church, having been inspired by the lesson given, I felt good, at peace with myself. I decided to rest and went to sleep but when I got up I just took a leisurely pace and did that which I felt I wanted to do. I updated my profile on MyShutterSpace and got rid of my complaints about my problems between my computer and the site. I hate complaining and being a whiner. I went though some of the pictures from others on the site and found many new people who I invited to be friends with on the site. I edited a picture that I took of a barn at the end of the road. One that I kept saying I really liked but kept putting off because while I really liked it I didn't think enough other people would like it. So I didn't make it enough of a priority to get out my tripod to take pics of it. I took the photo after my promise to myself to take pictures just because I liked them. Today I took it one step further and edited it and posted it. Before I could finish with the description I already had a compliment on it which just goes to show that maybe I should trust my instincts more.

Just Because

I posted these photos just because I like them:

Funny

After the last post I realized that I don't take a lot of pictures just because they are funny. I may take them because they are interesting or even because I think others will like them, but to take a picture just because it's funny or purely something that I would enjoy I don't do. Shame on me. I went through my pics looking for funny pictures and did not find many. I did find this one and this one was not taken by me but by the camera. I dropped the camera and when it hit the ground it took this photo of our concern. Now that I have made this realization; I've another promise to myself....TAKE PICTURES TO PLEASE MYSELF AND THINK ABOUT PLEASING OTHERS LATER.

Laughter on a dreary day

Yesterday: rain. drizzle, grey skies, fever, aching muscles and joints, nausea, doctor's office: enough said about the dreary day. When we went to get lunch we took a wrong turn and found this little strip mall with this little shop in it with this sign in the doorway.

I never thought I would see such a sign in real life. LOL but who ever thought in the seventies that plastic would actually be safer for doing business than cash. That the ease of using plastic would not be the reason for not accepting cash, but the ease of counterfeiting that would cause it. Of course there's what the store sells that adds to the laugh out loud, 'What they been smokin' in there?' A real good laugh and a bit of serendipity.

Electric Sunset

On the way home from the store a couple of days ago, I saw this sunset and had to take a picture of it. I don't very often get to see a good sunset because my house is surrounded by very tall trees which block any real good sunset shots. I have to be out on the road to get sunsets or sunrises. Anyway I've also decided to work on one good edit a day and really spend some time on it. I posted this photo up on MyShutterSpace today as my first concentrated effort and thus far even though it has been posted only a short time I am getting probably the best response I've ever had. I check on my responses just before I go to bed and I just had to share this with you all. I'm excited.

I'm back

I've been busy the last several days getting a display of my photography ready for a program at our church. I promised myself that I would listen to my body and rest when I needed to and not worry if everything didn't get done. I pretty well kept that promise and since I usually write my posts at night that was what didn't get done. I am proud of myself for keeping that promise and I recuperated from the extra effort quickly.
The program at the church was to give many homemade quilts to the Linius Project. This is a project where children who experience traumatic events receive a quilt to snuggle with to help them through the crisis. Policeman carry them with them in their squad cars, hospitals have them on hand so they can be given out in time of need.
At the same time we celebrated the many talents of the ladies of our church. We displayed our talents and gave a little speech on how we got started and what our talents and developing them meant to us.
It was a truly wonderful inspiring evening. I've got a couple of pictures edited and ready to go except for permission of the person in the photo to post it on the Internet. I'll put up what I can and put up more later.

Celebrate the day

Original picture for Confused

I accidentally left this off yesterdays blog.

Confused? bare trees, autumn leaves, rose blooms, winter berries

I am so excited for the first time I am laying down with my feet up and doing my blog. I've had the computer for a couple of days and Tom, Benn and I have been working on getting it set up with programs and data. It still is not quite organized like I would like, but it is useable.
I also had a touch of serendipity with the programs. With the old computer for some reason we had an editing program that didn't get put on; I don't think Jeremy and I
could figure out how to do it. I wasn't going to worry about it but Tom went through the programs and any program that was for photography he put on. The program, Photo Suite went on with no problem and I think it is going to be my favorite program. Not only do I really like this program but it does a good job of replacing the programs that can not be upgraded for my new computer. A real good case of serendipity.

Then on the way to the library yesterday I saw this little garden and it stuck me as a perfect representation of what I have been seeing all around me. The plants and the weather can't seem to make up it's mind as to what season this is. I have seen flowers blooming next to fall leaves, my veggie garden has started producing again, tomatoes and green peppers. My herb garden is growing like crazy. I have trees that lose leaves with every whisper of wind. I have flower buds in my front flower garden.

The plants seem truly confused than I saw this garden with all of it combined. It had bare trees, autumn leaves, green trees, roses blooming including rusebuds, winter berries and trees with algae on them and had to take this picture.

I decided to use this picture to explore my new program and have some fun with my new computer and program before I went back to organizing. I hope you enjoy the fun editing I have done.

WOW

This is going to be short and sweet; I'm stealing time between setting up my new computer and transferring data. This photo is the WOW I got from my new computer. This little beetle has been in my files waiting to be edited, but it was not very high on my list of priorities because it was just a little beetle on the brick wall with a reflection on it's back. Kind of dull and ordinary. Then I put one of my back-up disks in my new computer just to see how the pictures would look on the new screen with the new computer. I set it up for slide show and when this picture came up I realized that the reflection was not just a streak of light but a reflection of the sky and the trees. WOW! I almost couldn't believe my eyes (giggle with delight). I love my new computer and I have a feeling that it is going to make even more of an improvement in my life than I thought.

Wonderful day

Yesterday was a wonderful day. One of the first things I do in the morning is check out MyShutterSpace to check and see if I got any comments on my photos. not only did I have nice comments but I got a personal comment from one of my friends asking how I was. It was really nice to know that I was missed ( I hadn't been posting photos like usual) and they were concerned enough to ask how I was. Sometimes things like that can make a positive difference in one's day. It sure started mine out nice.
I'd gotten a good night's sleep, the best in months, so I decided to run errands while I was feeling good. Went to Wal-Mart and had this flower collage made into a poster so this winter when things outside are kind of blah I'll remember the flowers from my garden. In talking with the cashier I mentioned the poster and why I was getting it and that last year I had done one up for my husband. She thought that was a wonderful idea for Christmas for her husband. I hope she does it, and she gets one for herself. She really liked the idea of the picture coming from my own garden and thought she would look though her pictures so she could give something truly personal. That's one of the things I love about photography or any piece of art is that it is always personal. No one will take the same picture even if it's the same subject. One famous fantasy artist said that he did not worry about copyrights, that even if you traced his art you put so much of your personality into it that it would always belong to you and not to him. I'm sure he feels different about scanning and photocopying, but that's not creating art.
Wal-mart has this secret plan to get you to spend more money while one is in the store. It's called one hour photo. They put photo processing in the store, charge less than sending it out or about the same and then tell you to come back in an hour. What do you do during that hour? You shop. In my case I had to go back 3 times, because of problems with the machine. The poor girl running the machine was trying so hard to get things right. By the second time I went back the manager was getting quite rude with her and the machine representative, which flustered her even more. By this time I was looking at my list and my cart and realizing how different the two were so before I went back the third time I made the list and the cart come alot closer to matching. The manager was getting ready to leave, to the salesgirl and my relief but she did give directions that I only had to pay for one of my posters instead of two. The poor girl was all red in the face and I told her I'd worked retail before and understood there were days like that. However Wal-marts secret plot was foiled that day. I was there long enough to realize that I was spending too much and I got a free poster so their plan was spoiled.
While I was shopping I did finish Christmas shopping for all nine grandchildren; I already had a couple of boxes filled at home. I was real proud of having finished before Thanksgiving and now all I have to do is ship the gifts. One of the things I did this year is I went with my camera and took pictures of toys I thought they would like so I could remember what there was and if necessary e-mail the pics. All my grand children live far away and I have no idea what they have and I thought this might cut down on returns. So far it seems to be working. The last two presents are pictured here.
Then when my husband came home from work; he asked me to go with him and to bring my drivers licence with just in case he could not drive. This was a really strange request but I went and we stopped at Best Buy and pulled into the pick up parking. My husband had bought me the computer I wanted online and I needed ID to pick it up. I was THRILLEDSo much of my worries about becoming useless and isolated was relieved. I felt like crying except this time with joy. I don't think I expressed the appreciation as well as I should have. It really was a stretch on the family budget but to get it is going to make a world of difference in my life. There have been times in our married life were no matter how much Tom would have liked to give me things we would not have been able to afford it. I'm very grateful for Tom's generosity and his willingness to work hard to provide for us.
Then to top it off he took the long way home to show me a pretty place to take pictures. He watches for photo ops for me and I think that's pretty nice of him. This time was especially nice as he had to go back to work and work the night shift that night and only had the opportunity for a couple of hours of sleep as it was. Taking the extra time to show me this lake was very sweet of him.
The only difficulty I had was my computer froze up which is why I'm doing this today. It was probably a blessing in disguise as I had done a lot that day and I was very tired. I listened to my body instead of getting frustrated with the computer after all Benn is coming Saturday morning to get my new computer set up and hopefully I won't have that problem anymore.
Hope you have a wonderful day.

Good Morning

Good morning all; I woke up this morning to a beautiful sunshiny day. It's amazing what a good nights sleep will do, especially when it's nice outside, no rain, no migraine and plenty of sunshine. A couple of weeks ago I posted the top picture on a photography site and a friend, Wayne D suggested that I clone out the moon. I had no idea what he was talking about and had never been able to get the cloning tool to work to find out what it did. Well I kept playing with it and two night ago I figured out how to use it. I took out the most annoying powerline on one of the pictures I posted last night and this morning I cloned out the moon on this picture. GO, me. It has some flaws but, for a first attempt I think I did pretty well. Now I just have to learn to finese it. Thanks Wayne.

Honest and forthright doctors

With many years of dealing with many different doctors I have found that honest and forthright doctors has always been a blessing. I may not like what they have to say at the time, but I always need to hear what they have to say. Sometimes they knock me off my island ofcomplacency and denial and that does not feel good. Getting dunked into the cold water and again realizing I'm on an island can be quite a shocker. That's what happened to me today. I went to the third doctor about the swelling in my ankles and legs. The first saw it and diagnosed it. The second doctor, my primary care doctor confirmed the diagnosis. Both told me to keep my feet elevated, and wear compression hose and I would probably be fine. Well I knew that keeping my feet elevated would cut into my computer time and I certainly was not looking forward to wearing compression stockings, but the consequences were to great. As a diabetic I already had poor circulation which was contributing to my neuropathy and eventually could lead to amputation (not a pleasant thought). Having the small veins in my legs deteriorating was adding to this possibility. Well today I went to the foot doctor because my efforts were not working well. Now this is were the honest and forthright comes in; he told me that the reality of the situation was the compression socks were very difficult to put on and most people who had them gave up wearing them because of the difficulty. Since I have neuropathy in my hands and have had past surgeries in my hands putting the stocking on would be impossible and he went out to show me what they were like. Okay so in honesty that option was out. Then he told me that I needed to keep my feet raised above my heart level for at least an hour at least 4 times a day. Well that was a little longer than I expected; a little more than try to keep your feet up. He also wants me to avoid sitting at a desk for any length of time. Okay, okay that really cuts down on editing and being on a site or writing a blog. Tom is currently looking to see what we can do about a laptop for me.
On top of that I keep spraining my ankle because I have permanently stretched out tendons. I can't have surgery because of my health and I can't wear a brace because of the poor circulation and swelling. That certainly cuts down on my forays to take photographs. Unless I am on a completely flat surface, I can feel my ankles shift while I walk. I have already started to work on that problem; I'm learning to take pictures from the inside of the car or on streets and sidewalks. All the pictures that I have posted tonight was taken one of those ways and for the most part they came out. I'm glad I have a telephoto lens. A lot of the shaking I've had problems with has come from the car shaking. I did some art edits with some of the picture since they were just for fun so I had some fun with them.
I've cried some (well quite a bit) from the reality check but thanks to the family grapevine I was able to talk to Sarah, my eldest daughter, for quite awhile and get some good advice and felt much better afterward. She grew up pretty smart and I'm thankful for all my family. Our grapevine works well and Emily, my youngest daughter called too and wanted to know if I wanted to talk. Pretty nice family, huh.
All in all I will survive and I will develop more coping skills so I can go back to enjoying my life again.

November goals

It has been raining here again and that means more mushrooms and it seems that every time it rains for a few days than stops for a few days we get a different kind of mushroom. I've never seen such a variety of mushrooms in all my life. I've said that before and still more and different kinds of mushrooms keep popping up. The newest ones are bright red and seem to match the bright red of the leaves right now. Since my goal and priority for October was to get this blog up and tweeked I have several groups of mushrooms from different rain times that have been sitting around waiting to be edited and organized. I have learned that the blog will always need some tweeking to keep it fresh and interesting but it won't be the drain on me that the start has been. I now know lots more tricks and tips and where to go. I really think I did well in accomplishing my goals for October; I posted 27 posts, and my blog sure looks a lot more professional. I'm also learning to toot my own horn and let people know about my blog. My niece JoAnn used to say " You've got to toot your own horn, or someone else will use it as a spittoon." Pretty smart considering she was in her teens when that was her favorite saying. That attitude got her a job as a disc jockey at a local radio station instead of flipping burgers as a teen. Pretty nice. Thus far I have received favorable comments from those who have visited my blog and this has done wonders for me personally. I have learned many things and not just how to take pictures and use a computer. I have grown in courage to try new things, not long ago I would not have had the courage to do this blog. I've overcome a lot of my shyness, I talk to complete strangers (in safe situations of course) and take pictures of them. I pull over to the side of the road to take picture and have even had the police stop and talk to me without getting flustered. The setting of my goals for the past couple of months has seen much in my personal growth, especially with sitting down and thinking through my thoughts and putting them into words for the world to read.

November has another set of priorities, I want to keep up this personal growth, but I need once again to bring back more balance in my life. I need to balance this blog, MyShutterSpace, and Facebook. They each play a different part in my life on the computer. I need to get out in the world more, as much as my health will allow. I've been asked to do a powerpoint presentation on the 14th with my photography for a special women's night out at church, considering I've never done a powerpoint presentation I've got more learning to do. I also need to do more to increase my health so I've decided since I've been doing so many deep knee bends taking pics of mushrooms I'm probably strong enough to go back to swimming at the gym. Something I love to do but have put off. Lots of things have gotten a little off balance and since I have so little strength and energy it doesn't take much to get off-balance. This month's priority is balance; something everyone must apply then reapply again as we go though our lives.