“Long is the way and hard, that out of Hell leads up to light.” ~John Milton, Paradise Lost

So...

I have some really cool Light Painting photos I took this week.  I'm trying to get back into the swing of things.  I had been thinking about doing this for the past couple of weeks, but I just needed to pull the trigger.  It's getting lighter on my drive home, so I had to at least try it.  I think they turned out pretty cool!  But...be prepared...I took about a bazillion photos.....

Light can be gentle, dangerous, dreamlike, bare, living, dead, misty, clear, hot, dark, violet, springlike, falling, straight, sensual, limited, poisonous, calm and soft.  

~Sven Nykvist

"A rock pile ceases to be a rock pile the moment a single man contemplates it, bearing within him the image of a cathedral." ~Antoine de Saint Exupéry

So...

Today was another "girls day out" researching wedding trappings.  Emily found a really cool venue for her reception which is located in Maintrasse Village in Covington - the Leapin Lizard.  It was formerly the Main Street Methodist Church, built in 1888.  The Victorian Gothic Revival building is absolutely gorgeous, and exactly the type of eclectic setting Emily was searching for. 

Today was the very first time I have ever used a flash on Chuck.  I bought a really nice Canon 550ex Speedlite at an estate auction for $14.  The foot on the hot shoe was broken but I found some simple instructions on replacing it and voilà - a flash for me with a total cost of $27 - about 500 bucks less than it had cost new.  Yay!  (Now I just need to learn how to use it.)  I was also able to download and print the manual - for free.  :)

Well...here are the photos I took today.  Like I said, it's a beautiful building.  (I could have remembered to bring the correct lens, though.  Next time.)

Sorry for the sheer amount here...I am posting them so Emily, Chauncey and Pappy can see.

“The sun did not shine. It was too wet to play. So we sat in the house. All that cold, cold, wet day.” ~Dr. Seuss, The Cat in the Hat

So....

Here's another photo of the early morning foggy conditions I face on my "treacherous" morning commute home.

The weather has be absolutely crazy this year.  I saw a frog walking across the road the other night!!  Go home, Mr. Froggy!!  It's FEBRUARY...go back to bed!!  (He wasn't wearing a parka or mittens or nuthin'!)

"Art is not what you see, but what you make others see." ~Edgar Degas

So...

It was REALLY foggy again this morning when I left work.  I have a couple of different series of photos I made, but I wanted to share this one first.  For one, I went to GREAT lengths and put myself in HARM'S WAY to take these 7 photographs...I had to GET DOWN ONTO THE GROUND!

AND....I was able to get back up - BY MYSELF!!  (It wasn't pretty, though...)  I'm sure the neighbors were wondering if I had fallen and had their fingers all set to dial 911 - but then enjoyed the entertaining sight of me struggling back to my feet.

Well...it was worth it.  See?

And I'm throwing in some artsy-fartsy black and white ones...just for fun.

I risked life and limb to take these!

:)

"Women are, of course, more intelligent. Have you ever heard of a woman that would lose her head only because a man has pretty legs?" ~Faina Ranevskaya

So...

Back in August, I went to see an Orthopaedic doctor about my knees.  They took some x-rays (which I posted on here) and the doctor showed me where my right knee is in the worse shape of the two.  Bone on bone and some serious arthritis.  During that visit, I opted to have a cortisone shot.  Holy crap.  Not the actual injection but the state of my knee 5 hours later.  I could barely walk on it, let alone bend it whatsoever.  Luckily, that predicament only lasted two days...then on to about 2-1/2 weeks of much less pain - which wasn't very long.

Fast forward to the first of February...my next appointment.  I told the doctor that my leg was making a new noise - a really loud click for every step I take.  At first, I thought the noise was my shoelaces slapping on the top of my shoe...but I had switched to slip-on shoes (I have a hard time tying my shoes with my gimpy, arthritic right paw) and the noise was still there.  Not good.  Dr. Heis said that if the cortisone shot had lasted more than 3 weeks, he would have proposed we try another one, but it was pointless to even try.  He suggested I have an MRI so he could see what all was going inside there and maybe he could clean up some of the mess.

This past Friday was the MRI.  Of course, I schedule everything for the earliest possible appointment, and this time I actually showed up to the building before it was even open.  Consequently, I was the very first appointment...and the only person there.  I arrived at 8am, changed into shorts, the tech strapped me in, gave me earplugs and headphones, gave me a pillow and sheet and the next thing I know I'm back in my car.  AND....all of the sudden...it was 8:50am.  Holy crap!  I lost about 45 minutes!

Mara had to leave for class at 9am and I was driving the only working car...so I was hauling ass to get home on time - doing about 80mph on the expressway.  It was all for naught because she didn't wait for me and went ahead and walked to school.  Well, while she was in class, Pappy and I drove down to Claryville to pick up my car and drop off his.  His van was making some really weird scratchy/thumpy noises on the front driver's side wheel, so he was having his brakes replaced (after Tire Discounters told him they were fine).  Well...when the dude called him back a little later, he informed Pappy that the noises were from the fact that ALL FIVE lug-nuts weren't even tightened to finger tight!  And at least one lug-nut on each of the other three tires were the same.  I WAS JUST DRIVING 80MPH!!  Pappy went back up to Tire Discounters to read them the riot act.  Hold crap...I could have had a terrible accident if the tire had fallen off on the expressway!  Geez.

Where was I...oh yeah...MRI.  Well, this morning was my follow-up visit with Dr. Heis.  (I fell asleep there, too, waiting in the examination room.)  He had some news for me - don't really know if it's good or bad, though.  I do have some tears in what's left of my meniscus in my right knee.  About 20% on one side, and a bit worse on the other.  There's also some other junk in there he can clear out to help ease the pain.  So....surgery for me.  He said that I won't feel 20 again (thank GOD), but this will alleviate much of my pain.  He also stated even though my knee looks really bad, he doesn't recommend replacement - even though he has seen knees that look much, much better than mine be replaced.  Good, because I will go as long as possible before I even consider that option.  I told him I'm really, really concerned about the stability of my knees because they buckle all of the time.  (This is quite scary when you're walking through the mall - like I was last week with Mara and Emily.  It would take 5 grown men to get my fat ass up off the floor.)  The doctor explained that this happens because the meniscus tears are flopping around in there and disrupting the joint when I walk.  Ya think?

Well...here are photos of my MRI results.  You can see the tear on the right side here....

And the one on the left here....

And the big 'ole mess of my knee here...

Look at all of that marbling of fat in my leg!  I must be "corn fed"!

USDA Prime!!  (I think there may be a smidge more than "fine threads of fat" going on here...)