Interests

My Hero’s Have Always Been Racers

I  started out the day thinking about going downtown and watching the bicycle time trials. The air was chilly and it looked like rain. I stayed home and played around on the computer most of the day.



Catfish spent the day on the couch watching Annie who is in major hyper mode because she hates going out in the rain. Go figure, a lab that dislikes the water. She did go out long enough to bring in her witch tennis ball – a ball covered for Halloween with a witches hat and orange cover sewn over it. It was so soggy that I finally took it away from her and gave her a new bright green minty flavored ball to replace it with.



Tomorrow is the Daytona 500. I should probably not admit this but I am so a NASCAR fan. I have watched since the 70’s when ABC’s Wide World of Sports had highlights o the races. The only sports hero (I guess that is the proper term) I ever had was Dale Earnhardt. I do consider Lance Armstrong up here but I have never collected his memorabilia like I did with Earnhardt. In my younger days I was known to have put in a few laps around a track myself legally and illegally :0 DOH.


I don’t have one driver a root for anymore but I do have my favorites (Carl Edwards, Tony Stewart, Mark Martin, Dale Jr. are a few). Mostly I have least favorites – drivers I so dislike that I sometimes chant anybody but . … I don’t care if they win every Series until the end of time – THE BUSCH BROTHERS SUCK! Kurt gets caught driving drunk and Kyle is just a cry baby.


I hope the race is exciting and no one gets hurt.

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It’s the Popcorn

Not much new around and about here. Rather boring actually.  Until dinner time that is. Cooking chicken in the dutch oven atop the stove and the dang stove wires started melting, melting. Unlike the wicked witch water was not the culprit.  It is just 20yrs old. The oven element went out a few weeks ago and we have been in a dilemma  of sorts as to whether it was worth $150.00 for a new one. Guess the gods have spoken. Now to find the funds to purchase a new drop in.

imgp0474_2006_03_29_2269_I have been spending my evenings laying in bed reading and eating popcorn. I am on a popcorn binge. Each night as a come upstairs Mr. Catfish is right there.  I read to him sometimes changing the characters names to his and Annie’s. Yeah, it is strange.  We head up with book and popcorn – now a nightly ritual. He is usually so good about not begging or snitching it. Until this evening that is.

Downtrodden about the stove debacle upstairs we went with our bag of microwave popcorn, book, and Mr. Catfish’s stuffed toys.  I set the bag down and headed to the throne room muttering to myself and Catfish that I had at least remained calm enough to pull the circuit breaker.  Now I ask you does this dog look innocent?

Mr. Catfish eats the popcorn

I think not.

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Dunno Dance

Annie

I am doing what I now call my acceptance of denial dance. I have never had the required rhythm to dance great and it seems that life right now fits right into that analogy –I got no rhythm going here.

Now if someone told me I had A disease and if I did B I would get C then ok. But come on, after net searching, forum pursuing, blog reading, and asking questions of the docs, here is what I have come up with about MS:

Dunno what causes it
Dunno what cures it
Dunno what is going to happen
Dunno ________ fill in the blank.

Well how about I dunno if I really want to claim this multiple sclerosis diagnosis. I mean what the heck. I am not in the frame of mind or understanding to use the, and this is important to me, disease modifying drugs they have available – why chance feeling like doo doo or damaging my organs – when only potential to slow the inevitable down exists?

So, I should call the MS society here right? Maybe they have some better info or help or support you know? Well, what I got was an offer to bicycle in the next fund raiser. If I want to call ahead I can go to the newly diagnosed meeting – next January. The support group deal has not worked well for me. The first group spent most of their time arguing politics and since has been cancelled. The second group – I guess I was not up on the proper etiquette – silly me I answered a question truthfully.  I must have gotten the wrong dance card.

Planning for the future is depressing. We own a two story townhouse, the neighborhood has now turned ghetto (impossible to sell in this market) anyways. No way to afford a new home. Working on the debts that two full time salaries used to pay and since I can’t work we are down to one plus a small amount from SSDI. So, in about six years LOL we will be out of debt if and only if we have no more major expenses. It scares the heck out of me that I won’t make it up the stairs someday since the only bathtub/shower is up there. And yes, you can scoot up to the landing and then up the next set of stairs on your ass – been there done that dance before (not due to MS).

My friends and partner are very supportive and my dogs still think I am head wolf so life is good. These people have known me for years – some most of my life. So at least they know that I don’t not do something because I am lazy etc.

My friends and I started a photography group. He has since left state so I was doing it but it is too much for me right now (we have 292 members) so my other friend is doing all the work. I miss being able to know that if I say I will be somewhere and do something that I will be able to be there. I hate that my eyes mess up my ability to see through my camera lens well.

So for right now I am trying to eat better, exercise when I can, read a lot, and see what happens when I wake up tomorrow.

If I just ignore this dance I suspect the result will be the same But then again who knows?

Members of my pack:

Annie and Mr.Catfish

Lazy Day

I did nothing today. Really nothing but breath in breath out – a good thing – watch television – read some blogs – and share the couch with the dogs. Yesterday tuckered me out. Another side effect I suppose – or so the doctor says. I have not taken my pictures for the day but the night is young! I did read a few pages of the manual – now I can use the bracket function. Woo hoo. I have many photos from yesterday that are great examples of what not to do! Never change to a real high ISO thinking it will help. Never assume your holding the camera still enough in low light conditions. The built in flash is useless in a museum. And it helps if you can find a particular button on your camera in the dark :).

Things I did right. I listened to Drumsnwhistles and paid attention to Thomas Hawks nice message here and attended the Photo Walk at the Sacramento Train Museum! It was fun. I met some really nice people from Sacramento and I am going to go on the Sacramento Photographers Flickr Groups photo walk on Feb. 10th. I brought a monopod instead of a tripod (thanks Chuck for loaning it too me) and I did play with the aperture and shutter settings to see what I would get at the different settings in the lower light. I also got a lot of tips from the other locals who like me lost track of the main group. I suspect that Drums will be attending the one in Santa Barbara!

Others posts on the Photo Walk:

Had a Ball at the Sacramento Photo Walk

Photowalking 5 The California State Railroad Museum

Photowalking at he california state railroad museum

Photo training

My Photofu is Weak

Fun at the railway museum

Photowalking With Thomas Hawk and Robert Scoble


Catfish is in on the bed acting like all that. He has a favorite stuffed toy that is bigger than him that he cuddles up to. Annie is downstairs guarding her domain while watching TV. I swear she really does watch it just in case one of those other dogs dares to walk across the screen.

Well, off to read more blogs and all that stuff . …