March 13, 2006

• News and Notes: Pacific Coast Highway Gallery

    

  PACIFIC COAST HIGHWAY WEBSHOTS GALLERY

  My 2006 "photo series" covers Pacific Coast Highway. I have already featured two Photo Posts and my first Video Blog comprises footage shot along PCH. Just when I was wondering if I would have to get more  photo storage online, since I already have 3000 photos on Webshots, they increased the amount of photos I can store online by 2000 images. Immediately I uploaded my PCH photos to two new folders in my Gallery. I've now got almost 300 photos in two different "PCH" folders in my Webshots Gallery. Gallery 1  contains 102 photos taken in Banning park and around Lomita, Torrance and Wilmington and Gallery 2 contains 170 photos, most of which I took yesterday from 7am to noon while driving up as far as Venice Beach. I have shots taken at Redondo and Hermosa Beaches, and along the coast through El Segundo.  If the weather is nice next weekend, I plan to take both video footage and photos along Venice Beach, the Santa Monica Pier, and perhaps up the coast a bit into Malibu.

  
  LIZ'S ANKLE

  Last Wednesday (3/8) Liz (The Queen of Swords) decided to go rollerskating on her first break from work. She had her skates by her desk, and when break time rolled around, she donned them in front of the building where she works, and proceeded to skate down the sidewalk. There was an imperfection in the concrete, and she fell, breaking the bones right above the ankle. The break was pretty bad, and she was taken to a local hospital by ambulance, and stayed in the ER for the remainder of the day. Tests were taken, and she was situated in a regular hospital room on Thursday, when she called me. An operation was scheduled for Friday at noon. I visited Liz in the hospital immediately after the operation was performed, meeting her in her rolling hospital bed in the Surgical recovery room. She was in good spirits, and although in pain, after the operation, in which a rod and screws were put in her bones to set them, the pain was not as great as berfore the operation.
  The break was sizable enough that she had to stay longer in the hospital, and she is still there, hoping to be released either late today or tomorrow. Frankly, I can't believe she has to stay this long. She did not have her computer in the hospital, and Doug (dosmangoes) created an entry on her blog to let her readers know about her little inconvenience.
  Some people freak out when they are hospitalized, but Liz braved through this in wonderful spirits, and took everything matter of factly. I'm very proud of her. I don't think an almost week long hospital stay would weigh very well on my impatience. I was home three days after my hip replacement back in the early 90s!
  We'll have to plan dates and excursions that don't involve much walking.I started going out with Liz in March of last year, by the way, so we've been real-life  friends as well as internet friends for one year. I'm sure with her stamina and willpower she will be walking before long. When I asked the nurse how long we could expect her to be laid up, she said "it depends" on conditions, so we'll all hope for the best. Her mother spent a lot of time by her side in her hospital room, sometimes sleeping in a chair.
  Liz won't be skating again. She said one time skating as a child she broke her wrist. I told her I won't plan any roller rink dates any time soon.

  VIDEO BLOG

  Because I took off from work on Friday afternoon to go directly to visit Liz in the hospital, I didn't have any time alone at home to tape my latest "video blog" entry, which is now offically one week late. You can still watch the first one in my header (after turning off the music element) by clicking the "play button". The "scene" I need to tape is in my living room, and I can't do this with my roommate home. All three times I planned to tape the segment, my roommate was home because of chemo or dental appointment, or because I came home too late on Friday night. I hope to have a few hours to be able to tape the segment after I get home tonight so should have my new edition of "Mike's Video Blog" online sometime this week.

  INTERNET ISLAND and SOCRATES CAFE

  I haven't spent too much time blogging lately. (Like a lot of people I read, so it would seem.) I'm scaling back on my internet activities when the weather is nice, and yesterday, as I just mentioned,  I drove up to Venice Beach, camera at the ready, and took lots of photos for my new "Pacific Coast Highway" photo series. I did want to create a Socrates Cafe entry soon, and to announce a new Internet Island Topic Post. I'm still getting "stragglers" from the last Topic Post, and I believe I'm up to date with the links in the header. Last time I posed three questions and also asked for additional topics from "Islanders". I didn't get any additional topics but I will ask multiple questions next time as well, to give people more of a choice.

  HEALTH PROBLEMS

  I promised myself I would not go to the doctor's for the first three months of this year, because I seem to have spent a lot of time at the doc's in 2006, what with my cataract surgery. I have three health problems right now, and will be seeing a doctor soon even though they won't be able to "fix" me and will just send me to more doctors and take more tests, just like when I pinched my nerve. 1. My hip replacement is hurting excrutiatingly, and I haven't even been able to sleep soundly or take my daily walks because of it. In fact, the day after Liz  broke her ankle, when she called me, I was using my cane,  because the pain was so great and I was having trouble walking. Time to go in and see if the screws are still tight. I'm forever reminded that when my orthopedic surgeon inserted my prosthesis, she mentioned that most of these operations are performed on elderly people (I was 41) and I might even have to have the replacement replaced. It's over 10 years old now. 2.About 6-8 times a day the whole right hand side of my face "tingles" like the nerves are going to sleep. This is what permanently happened to my left hand after I pinched the nerve in my back. I've got pain in the right hand side of the back of my neck as well. I hope I don't have Bell's Palsy or some such nerve disease in my face. Just something else to tell a doctor, so he can perform "tests" and then tell me they can't do anything. I'm always a bit negative when it comes to doctor's prognoses because of my history with them. I spent nearly a year trying to find out what was wrong with my leg, before they replaced the hip, and when I got nerve damage in my back, the best news the neurologist could tell me was that I didn't have more damage than was caused. I spent nearly six months going to nerve specialists. I still only have partial feeling in my left hand. 3. My face and upper body tend to break out with almost acne like red bumps which do not develop heads. I know not to aggravate the irritations, which cause them to get bigger and more painful. After a while they disappear. Liz had me google the disease rosacea online. I don't think I have this because sometimes the "pimples" show up on other parts of my body.
  I like to gang up a lot of different problems, so that I get my money's worth when I pay my 20 dollar copayment!

  Well, that's enough News and Notes for Now.

  • 10:18 am
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