Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Just Beautiful

It was another early morning start for us and while the procedures themselves are simple enough (easy for me to say) and by now we are somewhat familiar with the different areas it still consumes a lot of time.

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From lower left Parking Garage 2 to

7:00 AM Blood Samples – Elevator A, 2nd Floor (right)

8:40 AM Radiation – Elevator G, 1st Floor (top)

9:00 AM Chemo – Elevator E, 6th Floor (left)

and back to Parking

Oh and keep in mind that not all of these elevator areas are on all floors so sometimes it’s necessary to take one elevator to a certain floor in order to end up in the area you need to be to catch the necessary connecting elevator.

(Reminder to self: If that’s your biggest issue today? Get over it!)

Anyway, between the 7 AM & 8:40 appointments we found the ‘Sun Dial’:

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Time for a little nap – on the 2nd floor overlooking the entrance to the main building.

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Usually much busier than this – Valet parking for the main building and where the shuttles drop off patients. Most of the hotels, motels and RV parks (including Lakeview) in this area offer this service.

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The Cowboy is definitely feeling more fatigued the last few days but he is eating more. He’s actually gained a couple of pounds according to his weigh in this morning. Plus he now prefers his soothing milky protein drinks over coffee. That’s all good news!

We have another full day tomorrow with radiation at 8:40 AM and 11:00 Bowel Management Class . . . sounds crappy doesn’t it? Pun intended. Then his weekly visit with Dr. P., the radiation oncologist at 2:00 PM. We will probably slip home for lunch in between since we are such a short distance away now.

Changing subjects now . . . I am lucky enough to own 2 very nice cameras.

My Nikon D80, which I love, is just too cumbersome to lug around especially when we make our trips to the hospital. Plus the fact that I never seem to have the right lens on for the shots that I want to take. So I use my Panasonic Lumix which is a great camera but it’s getting a little tired. It’s about 4 years old and has taken over 25,000 pictures.

Yesterday on our little jaunt to Galveston I thought I might have a few more photo ops so I took along my Nikon and some of the differences were amazing. Now, I use Picasa as my photo editing program and I can’t say enough good things about this free software.

This is a shot on our way . . . also remember that most of my pics are taken from a moving vehicle.

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I cropped, hit another button ‘I feel lucky’ to enhance and removed an ugly overhead wire.

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Or this one:

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After straightening, cropping and removing the Subway sign . . .

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Just one more – we stopped for gas on the way home and struck up a conversation with the owners of these two twin brothers Chico and Choco who were bought for the couples twins.

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After cropping and getting rid of those ugly overhead wires (again) and a small red, distracting sign in the background. They were very docile and friendly. Beautiful dogs.

Beautiful Day.        Beautiful Life.        Thanks for joining us.

5 comments:

  1. I sure am impressed with the facility Cowboy is going to. Those recliners would be such a welcome touch.

    Great job with the photos and the editing. I am definitely NOT a purist and believe if you can make it better then go for it! You sure improved those pictures. Love the pooches!!

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  2. I agree with Donna! You can almost feel the peace in there. Your pictures are incredibly clear!!

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  3. I agree with Donna! You can almost feel the peace in there. Your pictures are incredibly clear!!

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  4. Hi, Sharon. I gave my Nikkon D40 to my son because it was difficult to lug around, and replaced it with a small Panasonic Luminex - I figured he could use the bigger one more than me since I'm not traveling any more. Once in a while I get a little "give away" remorse, but how many pictures can I take of Jack?? I have Picasa--I'm so used to iPhoto, but I can't eliminate signs, etc. I'll have to take a look and see what I can do with Picassa. Usually, I have to post "WYSIWYG" pictures.

    Keep on keepin' on. Sounds like the facilities are taking good care of Cowboy not to mention the tender loving care you give him.

    When you're finished with all this and start to travel, again, if you're ever in Atlanta, would love to meet you in person.

    My gosh, I'd never get to where I was going with all the signs and elevators. Turn me around twice and I get lost. Until I got my iPhone where I can record where I'm parked, I used the panic button on my key fob to find my truck! I'm sure a lot of people didn't appreciate that!

    Thanks for the comment on my blog. You never have to thank me--you are the inspiration. You and Cowboy. I'm sure everyone agrees.

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  5. Hi there, Sharon! It was an absolute pleasure meeting you and Ron last week while I was there with my daddy! So glad to hear Ron's doing well this week...and give him a big "congratulations" hug from me! Gaining ANY weight while you're going through those treatments is quite the accomplishment! Love your photos and the narrative...Keep up the great work! :) Much love and warm wishes to you both!

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