Category: photography

Heartthrob

So, I got a diagnosis, Chronic Congestive Heart Failure. Doesn’t mean I have it. Just the start of the journey. My chest cavity has water, more than is needed to cushion my lungs. I have trouble breathing, impeding my walking, bending and being active.

Have had blood tests, echocardiogram and x-rays. Cardiologist says my heart is good and the blood tests came back normal. Cancer Doc says not caused by CLL.

Monday, drainage. All involved say I should feel better. Just need to know what is causing it. Staying positive.

Imbruvica Keeps Me Alive

When the docs finally realized back in 2017 why I was sick, they concluded I had a blood disorder that at the time didn’t require any treatment. As the symptoms continued and assumedly worsened, I was put on Imbruvica, a hard to get and very expensive drug.

Every morning I take a couple of pills. They cost $300 a pill, give or take a few shekels. A bottle costs $12,000 to $14,000 a month. Not sure how I can afford it; insurance, I guess. Lucky I am in remission, though I still have to take it.

Now the US Government is investigating the Chinese company that developed it or manufactured it or distributes it. They might even have a lab next to the one that developed the covid virus. Who knows?

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/15/health/wuxi-us-drugs-congress.html?searchResultPosition=1

At least President Biden is aware of the problem. He wants the price reduced. I sent him a note asking him to make sure all who need it get it, along with an album of my Imbruvica images. Have not heard back from him about my note or the photos. He has other things on his plate.

 

 

Blood Today

SO, you have to have a blood sample analyzed. Now, instead of going to a hospital or lab near all the other imaging and testing devices, they send you to a place once called a drug store, but now a place that sells everything and takes your blood. To get there, opportunities arise to buy, buy, buy.

Modern check in. Doc has forwarded by text or fax the order. Reservations made on line like getting a table in a restaurant. Identify yourself, verify your insurance and personal information.

Take a seat.

XRAY Today

It’s just another day in the hood for the aging. I go to Publix or I go to a doctor or a support service. Well there are other things, but not many outside the home, especially where we live.

So, they try to relax you with aquariums that have no fish.

Then, into the chamber with weird tools, ones not in your workshop.

A cute woman, trained to operate the camera and pose the subject, asks your name and date of birth and then a few stupid questions to make sure if you know why you are having this XRAY done. Stand here. Turn. Deep breath. Bang and it’s over. Another photog at work.

Then you get to leave, passing what impersonates for art and has no relationship to why you are there.

 

Staring Philodendron

No matter where you go these days, some eyes record your movements. Could be a plant, a tree, a shrub or a drone. Could be a neighbor who has read 1984. Or maybe your salad fixings.

No way to tell to whom they report, but someday, when you don’t pay attention, an image will pop up to remind you. So, be aware. Don’t do anything you wouldn’t do in public, because there isn’t such a thing anymore.

PASFLA at Loxahatchee

 

To be supportive of my camera club, I went on a birding trip at Loxahatchee. Everyone shoots birds down here, except me. I cannot carry the heavy equipment and don’t have the patience.

 

I  got one shot. Missed the bird eating. My expert advisers told me the hawk was digesting his food. By the time I got my cell phone out, he had finished.

 

So, I walked over to a spot I had selected to shoot a self portrait and these two people were birding. Karli was spotting and Russell was looking with the glass. They sat for a portrait, a memorable one  I hope. We had a nice time chatting and I got some practice in.

 

 

 

Gene Joyner, Died

Eugene Joyner died. https://www.tillmanfuneralhome.com/obituaries/eugene-joyner

We did not know him, personally, just botanically. Interesting man. He had an interest in rain forests and botanical gardens. So, right in the outskirts of West Palm Beach he built a tropical rain forest, supported it with private contributions and filled it with plants he had picked up traveling around the world. I wrote about him on this blog previously on August 14, 2018. https://www.duckpondworks.com/?p=7237

On visiting the gardens, he was the personal tour guide, always enthusiastic, always informed. There were plants and trees and fruits, several different kinds of avocados. He had tables for eating and lectures, but that never seemed to work out.

Yesterday, we called to make reservations at the garden and learned of Gene’s death. The web page said today and tomorrow would be the last days the garden would be open.

I found the two images displayed here and printed them 11×17, and looked for more. In my haste, I missed a couple. But, so what? During the drive, Sharon Googled Gene and much to her surprise, she gasped, the search turned up a picture I had taken in 2017

We arrived, parked, amidst several cars, a sign many were coming to pay their last respects. I photographed the guide we had walked with in the past who was helping to park cars. Tears welled up in my eyes.”Go in and see his sisters,” she said.

I carried my camera and the two prints. As we approached the interior, a woman sorta shrieked, “…, you’re the photographer. Come over here. We looked all night to find these pictures you took.” She remembered me and honored me by having my images displayed.  And, there on the table were the two images I had taken, 8.5×11 in the original sleeves I had sent them.

Sharon and I walked around up and down familiar paths, the only difference being that this is winter. We remembered all the seasonal views. Soon, after the property is sold and developed, all the trees will be gone and deflowered. Town homes will fill the space. There will be no sweet smells or exotic plants.

Natures natural noise won’t ever be heard again. Order will reign.

Publix Sushi Maker

I don’t know his name, but I eat what he makes. I smile at him; he smiles back. If I don’t see what I want, I point or tell him. Whether he understands, I dunno. But our Publix puts out a credible Sushi and handroll product.

I have taken many images of workers at the store, printed and distributed them. Dunnot know what they do with them. A fruit cutter had hers on the wall for all to see. Usually supermarkets have the manager’s images posted near the service/complaint dest next to the founder’s. I give the workers equal status.

Arthur Marshall Fish and Wildlife Tree

It looks just like a tree, but it isn’t. I don’t know what kind of tree it is or anything about it, except it sits in the Swamp Walk at Arthur Marshall Fish and Wildlife Center. I look at it for a few seconds as I do a loop.

No one cares for it, but it cares for us, dancing in the wind, casting reflections off the mossy water. In the Spring it will sprout leaves again and the whole swamp will take on a new charm. If you walk by, it probably won’t look like this; it changes its appearance by season and time of day. And of course, my camera sees it differently from your eyes.

People look for gators and birds and our Barred Owl in residence as they walk around the swamp on the boardwalk. People want a Disneyland type experience from a nature setting. Seeing me with my camera,  they ask if I have seen anything. I always reply, “Yes I have.”