Saturday, February 23, 2013

Round Robin: Give It Up - For Good

For this week's Round Robin Challenge: Give It Up!, I asked to see "something you've given up at some time in your life, or would like to give up, or wish someone else would give up." I could maybe get clever or esoteric or, more likely, depressing on this one, but let's go with the obvious for once. Where does a successful dieter go to look at all she's given up? Why, the supermarket, of course!


In July 2011 I gave up high carbohydrate foods. I've since lost over 130 pounds, but I've been stuck at 170 pounds since December. I've going to have to give up carbs even more stringently. Part of the problem is I had to give up running, or even walking long distances, after injuring my right knee.


The empty plate here had a little round layer cake for one yesterday. I bought it for my dad's 90th birthday, deliberately small because we can't help him eat it. He didn't eat it, either. Tonight my dad is in intensive care, but not because of some food he ate or didn't eat.


My healthy choice is not to eat even "healthy" bread.


And my candy consists of one or two squares of sugar free dark chocolate per day, and maybe an Atkins bar.

Please visit the other Robins' entries, and comment if so moved. The list of entries is below, but please do check the Round Robin blog for any updates and late additions:

Linking List
as of Saturday, February 23rd, 2013, 12:02 AM

Karen - Posted!
Outpost Mâvarin
http://outmavarin.blogspot.com
http://www.facebook.com/mavarin
@mavarin

Sue.
A Picture is Worth 1000 Words.
http://susiesphotospace.blogspot.it/

Carly
Ellipsis
http://ellipsissuddenlycarly.blogspot.com

I have a defensive driving class in the morning and my dad is still in intensive care, so I won't be around much this weekend. I'll try to check in when I can!

Karen

Saturday, February 09, 2013

Round Robin: Frozen in Time

For Round Robin Challenge: Frozen, I asken to see anything frozen, literally or figuratively. I was expecting a literal interpretation for my own entry, even if it meant resorting to something like this:


This is my freezer tonight, full of freezer-burned meat, a few low-carb ice cream bars and a box of Good Humor bars to take to my Dad. Maybe tomorrow I'll have a new snow-on-the-Catalinas shot for you, but I'm not concerned about that right now.

What I want to talk about tonight is the freezing of a moment in one's memory - the freeze frame of a camera, the click of a shutter freezing that moment forever, or at least until the photo gets lost or the file gets corrupted. Or maybe it doesn't take a camera. The sight of something wonderful, or awful, funny or sad or ordinary, hits the eye and a synapse is formed to preserve the moment, probably imperfectly, in the human brain, at least as subject to degradation as the photograph would be. We can throw away pictures or frame them, but how much of a choice do we have as to what gets frozen in our memory?




Here is a moment that is frozen in my memory. This is my dog Pepper as of January 22nd of this year. Just out of frame is a wet patch of Pepper's bloody diarrhea, the first I had seen from her. She was already emaciated and not eating. One of her vets wanted to take out her enlarged spleen, not to cure her but mostly just to diagnose her. The other vet wanted to treat the latest health crisis indicated by the wet spots on the exam room floor before doing anything else.

Tomorrow morning, we're putting Pepper to sleep. She is in liver failure, her red blood cells, platelets and blood sugar are low, she's vomiting and dehydrated and her spleen, now even bigger, is pressing on her stomach. It doesn't matter that we never had the $2000 operation to take out the spleen. We could not have saved her. John is devastated, and so am I. "But it's Pepper! It's not fair!" he kept saying tonight.

 

This is the memory I would rather have frozen in my brain and on my blog: a sunny Sunday morning at Pantano River Park last summer, with the dogs panting but happy as we take a quick rest before returning to the car. I have to remember that Pepper had four good years with us before the last three months of awfulness.


And here is another memory to preserve, whether for good or bad I can't say yet. My dad arrived from North Carolina two days ago. He has little or no idea that the memory care unit at The Cascades here in Tucson is his new home, and probably has little idea who I am. He knows he has four children (actually a son, a daughter and two stepdaughters), and probably figures I'm family, maybe even one of the daughters. My calling him Dad all the time should be a clue, but we can't count on anything like that sinking in. But here he is, friendly and reasonably content after two days recovering from the stress of flying across the country to an unknown destination for an unknown reason. No doubt I will get used to his being here, used to his dementia, used to being a caregiver again, ten years and a few months after my mom's death. And I will probably be grateful for the memories I make now, finally spending time with him after decades of living at opposite ends of the country. But right now, this is not the memory I want, not the image I want frozen in my brain. Tough luck. It's what I've got. Along with the image of the emaciated, sweet, stubborn dog I have to say goodbye to in the morning.

Karen

With any luck, the other Robins' entries will be less depressing:

Linking List
As of Saturday, 2/9/13, 7:52 AM MST

Karen - Posted!
Outpost Mâvarin
http://outmavarin.blogspot.com
http://www.facebook.com/mavarin
@mavarin

Jama
Sweet Memories
http://mummyjam.blogspot.com

Sue - Posted!
A Picture is Worth 1000 Words
http://susiesphotospace.blogspot.it/

Ellen **Welcome, new participant!**
Ellen's Photo Journal
http://ellensphotojournal.blogspot.com/

Carly - Posted!
Ellipsis
http://ellipsissuddenlycarly.blogspot.com


Gill **Welcome, new participant!** - Posted!
Stamping Lemons
http://stampinglemons.blogspot.co.uk/

Sunday, January 27, 2013

So Falls Niagara Falls

Carly was curious about my other shots of Niagara Falls in winter, which date from February 1986. I think John took most of them, possibly all of them. Here's some of what I have floating around on my hard drives. They have mostly been posted before, but six years ago and longer.


I think it was -11 degrees F that day, and windy. Miserable weather, but well worth it to see this! This was during our "driving around the country, looking for someplace it wasn't winter" trip. But when even the Florida Keys were rather chilly, we drove north to where it was really winter. We saw the Falls, visited my Dad in Syracuse for his birthday, and ended up photographing snow sculptures in Montreal.



My favorite moment was when we stood on the river itself, just a little upstream from the falls. There was a little island that the water would normally rush past, but it was so heavily frozen that the snow and ice extended past the land. Daringly, I stepped out on the frozen patch of river, perhaps a few hundred feet from what you see here. 


I think my pseudo death defying feat was somewhere near this spot!



I think of this as the "grotto" shot. I remember looking through an observation window in a gift shop or museum or something, and seeing nothing but ice.


 I later did an FX version of the lamppost shot above, lighting the inside with fire.


All of the photos were originally developed in some other city after we left the Niagara Falls area. They came out all gray and awful. Fortunately, that's fixable to some extent with modern photo editing software!

Karen

Saturday, January 26, 2013

Round Robin: Long Enough, Far Enough

Okay, so I can't give you the oldest of my old photos for the Round Robin Challenge: Long Ago, Far Away. My oldest photo album, the one I filled up in about third through eighth grade, is hiding from me. But I do have lots of photos from 1986, when we drove around the country, looking for someplace it wasn't winter. I've shared a bunch of them before, including shots of Niagara Falls in winter, Boot Hill in Tombstone, and some backyard wildlife photos. But let me try for some new 1986 scans for you.

 Hannibal, MO. I eventually won second or third prize in a camera store photo contest with the photo I took a few seconds later.


 Niagara Falls in February. The store that developed the film basically ruined the roll, making everything gray.


Lookout Mountain and Rock City, Chattanooga, TN.

Karen

Now let's see the bumper crop of other Robins' pictures from long ago and far away!

Linking List
as of Saturday, 1/26/13, 5:46 PM MST

Karen - Posted!
Outpost Mâvarin
http://outmavarin.blogspot.com
http://www.facebook.com/mavarin
@mavarin

Carly - Posted!
Ellipsis
http://ellipsissuddenlycarly.blogspot.com

Freda - Posted!
Day One
http://fredamans.blogspot.ca

Danielle
My Blog Thingy
http://dindannieblogthingy.blogspot.co.uk/

Martha - Posted!
Seaside Simplicity
http://seasidesimplicity.blogspot.com

Jama - Posted!
Sweet Memories
http://mummyjam.blogspot.com

Tina  - Posted!
Tina´s PicStory said...
my entry:
http://tinaspicstory.blogspot.de/2013/01/royal-barn.html

Ria **Welcome, new participant!** - Posted!
Airforcewifecabral
Riacabralphotography
http://airforcewifecabral.blogspot.com/

Bobby **Welcome, new participant!** - Posted!
Creative Collision
http://creative-collision.blogspot.co.nz/

3 Sides of Crazy **Welcome, new participant!** - Posted!
http://www.3sidesofcrazy.com/2013/01/round-robin-photo-challenege.html

Flashback Friday #5: College Compadres

Here's a quick scan for Flashback Friday.


From left: Evelyn Orlando (now Dee Wolke, then nicknamed Schmendrick), Betsy Cronin, whom I lost track of immediately after leaving school, and me, circa early 1979. Evelyn was my sometime roommate and friend through most of my first stint in college, and ultimately my co-maid of honor in 1979. Betsy was also a close friend at the time, but I could never find her again afterward. We hung out together, played D&D together, went to see Superman (the first Christopher Reeve one) together.

More old photos coming right up!

Karen

Friday, January 18, 2013

Flashback Friday #4: Thinking of Dad

Martha of the blog Seaside Simplicity has a meme, Flashback Friday. I have a bunch of photos from my dad's papers that need scanning, so....


My mom had this old photo of my dad on her vanity mirror as I was growing up. Until the divorce, that is. I found this in my dad's desk in June after my stepmother died.



This was in a box of my dad's papers when we went through his stuff after Christmas. It was almost certainly taken at my brother's high school graduation party in our back yard in Manlius. It's my dad, me, and my brother Steve.

Steve told me something while we were in Wilmington that I'd never, ever suspected. When my mom was pregnant with me, my dad asked Steve what girl's name he liked for a little sister. Steve was watching Mickey Mouse Club at the time, and he had a bit of a crush on little Karen (Steve was six years old at the time). So I'm named after Karen Pendleton! 

He doesn't know it yet, but my dad is leaving North Carolina soon and coming to live in a memory care unit a couple of miles away from me here in Tucson. He'll be here on February 6th.

Karen

Saturday, January 12, 2013

Round Robin: In My Hermit Cave

Two weeks ago, when it was time for the Round Robin Photo Challenge, I was at my dad's condo in Wilmington, NC. My stepmother died back on June 1st and my dad had been in the hospital or in a rehab facility since mid-November, and he wasn't very computer-savvy even before his dementia hit. So there was no longer any Internet at my dad's place, except for on my iPhone. If you've ever tried to do a photographic blog entry on an iPhone you know it can be a tedious, frustrating process.

The next night I was on the road when I posted the next Round Robin Challenge, In My Room. I was trying to play catch-up that night on some work I'd promised to do for my second job, so I didn't put a lot of time into my post. Neither did anyone else: so far I'm the only one who has signed up for it. (Updated: Jama has posted her entry, too!) And I only signed up yesterday myself!

Nevertheless, here's my entry. I asked to see anything you might think of as your room, whether it's a bedroom, an office, your favorite room at a museum or library or whatever. I illustrated the Challenge post with a shot of my hotel room that night. But now I'm home, and my thoughts turn to other rooms that have been "mine," past and present.

Here's the only bedroom shot I intend to give you tonight. This is me in my room in Manlius, NY in 1971, age about 14.



I grew up, ran a store for a while, worked in other people's stores, became a travel agent, and then became a bookkeeper. At Worldwide Travel from 1993 to 2005, I worked in a back room with a window on the rest of the office. I used to say that someone could give birth up front and I wouldn't know about it unless someone thought to come back and tell me. I called that office my "hermit cave."

My next office, at First Magnus, was not a hermit cave. It wasn't even a room, just a flimsy cubicle.So never mind showing off that one tonight!


This shot of my office at church was taken three years ago. It's a bit messier now, and the bulletin board has a lot more on it. Otherwise it hasn't changed much. And it's a bit of a hermit cave, too. On Tuesday I brought my dogs to work, because they're welcomed there and to give the dogs a treat after being left alone at home and at the animal hospital, respectively, while we were out of town. Unfortunately, Father Smith's very jealous dog was also in the office that morning. So my door was closed to keep Stevie from getting at Cayenne and Pepper. At least two people who wanted to stop by and see me saw the closed door and did not feel free to come in.


My other hermit cave is a little office off the reception area of Small Non-Profit, my second job (not its real name). The post-Christmas addition is that black box on the left side of my desk: a SoundFreaq dock and speaker system for my iPhone and iPad. Hooray!



Just yesterday I took a lot of pictures of another room, another potential hermit cave.  I had just received word that The Cascades of Tucson, which has a memory care unit, is willing to take my dad, based on detailed discussion of his medical history with the place where he is now. The room pictured here is the mirror image of the one I just put on hold for him. He'll be in Tucson before the end of the month. With me now working three jobs and resuming work on my novels and trying to start walking again as my knee heals, I don't know how I'm going to fit it all in once I add daily visits to my dad to my routine!

It's not too late to join in on this Challenge. Check out the link, and let's see your room!

Karen


Linking List
as of Saturday, January 12th, 2012, 1:21 AM


Karen - Posted!
Outpost Mâvarin
http://outmavarin.blogspot.com
http://www.facebook.com/mavarin
@mavarin

Jama - Posted!
Sweet Memories
http://mummyjam.blogspot.com