At least one post per blog

 

It's doubtful that I will start blogging again but I thought I'd do one more post per blog since I first started blogging in 2005 or maybe 2006 to help cope with a stage three melanoma diagnosis. 

Gradually I started blogging more as a way to do something with the numerous photographs that I was taking and moved away from this cancer related blog to my then, new photo blog.

I don't even remember the last time that I posted to either blog but it gradually got to be too much when I was commuting to work instead of working from home.

I was able to return to working from home in 2020 and have been able to continue with that. Recently I was diagnosed with lung cancer which wasn't even on my radar. I haven't had any interest in returning to blogging as I'm still working and have my plate full. I have also not wanted anyone at work except for the people I work closest with to know about this. I think my blogs are obscure enough that it's doubtful anyone will see them. It also doesn't really matter because I'm able to hold my end up with work and have lots of accumulated time off for when I need it. I found out about the lung cancer when I had pneumonia the week of my 66th birthday (November 2023) and having quit smoking close to 25 years ago and having made it without a melanoma recurrence, I was shocked. 

However, in a lot of ways I'm far more optimistic than I was in my late 40s when I received the melanoma diagnosis. My doctor thinks the fact that I feel like working and am only minimally symptomatic works in my favor. I had my first combo chemo/immunotherapy treatment on Monday and worked on my laptop while I was receiving the infusion at the cancer center. I'm spreading out my hours somewhat but am finding it doable to continue working which I think for now is good for me.

I'm not taking much time to select these photos or words for that matter. I am amazed at how much progress seems to have been made within the medical communities both in terms of the scientific advancements and the wholistic care that is available. 

I guess this as good a place as any to end this post after all these years. 

Combining my two Blog

This will be my last post on Carver's Sight or is that Site? for the foreseeable future. After I publish this post all new posts, following this one, will be on my other blog. You can click here for that blog, Carver's Photographic Journey. I started blogging here in August of 2006 as a way of dealing with Stage III melanoma, the interminable follow up appointments and scans, as well as the physical problems I've had since the groin lymph node dissection. I stayed on edge because I ended up with ongoing and at times debilitating health problems.

When I first started blogging, I used photographs to serve as breathing spaces in between the flow of words. I also used this blog as a way to house links to research, clinical trials, and information about advanced melanoma.

As time went on, I became more interested in photography and less interested in discussing my health issues. When I first started my other blog, I called it Carver Cards and my idea was to have each post on that blog be one large format photograph. Carver Cards was the name I used in the 1990s when I made stationary cards with my flower photography on the front. 

I wanted two blogs because my original idea was that I would continue to write about what was on my mind on this blog while keeping the other blog free of health whines.

As time went on, I didn't want to continue talking about myself (other than in terms of nature or other interests) on either one of my blogs and they have both gradually ended up being places where I post photographs and participate in online group themes (Photohunters, Nature Notes and Today's Flowers on this blog and Our World, ABC Wednesday, SkyWatch and the Weekend in Black and White on my other blog).

I will probably continue to participate fairly regularly in the same group themes but there isn't any reason not to do that on the same blog. I decided that Carver's Photographic Journey was a better choice for that purpose. I changed the name of Carver Cards a while back because that blog had become a photographic journey of sorts.

I have a superstitious side which has made me afraid that if I close this blog I'll have a cancer recurrence.  The lymph nodes in the basin where my nodular melanoma spread to were removed in March of 2005. I started out with a poor prognosis because my primary was so deep and the melanoma had spread to a lymph node. However, after so many years it is highly unlikely that my melanoma will have spread to an organ or other nodes and even in the unlikely event that it does, I doubt I'll want to talk about it.

I still see a number of medical specialists although I've started streamlining how many I see. I've found that limiting the number of doctors I see is good for my health overall.

I had to give up on most of my exercise efforts and attempts to get back to where I was physically, prior to when all of my health issues began, but I'm starting to walk again regularly which helps me mentally.

I think I'll end it here and continue with my photographic meme posts on Carver's Photographic Journey. However, first I'll digress. I've never understood the word meme. When I first saw meme, I thought it looked like ME ME but found out it's an umbrella word for organized participatory blog themes. I googled meme and found this definition on wikipedia: a meme is "an idea, behavior, or style that spreads from person to person within a culture." There is a long article going into the origins and expanded meaning of the word meme which was first used in a book published in 1976 called The Selfish Gene. 

When I googled blog memes I found this, also on wikipedia: an internet meme is an idea, style or action which spreads, often as mimicry, from person to person via the Internet, as with imitating the concept. I have to say that I think there should be a better word for the participatory activities on the Internet. It's not imitation when each person is taking a theme and showing their world through photographs, essays, etc. 

Also, what I like about the memes I participate in is that I learn more about people from different parts of the world as seen through the eyes of their camera or poetry or essays. Even if I wanted to imitate blogs I visit, that wouldn't be an option because people are sharing their neck of the woods so to speak and we all live in different places, visit different places and have different camera equipment, creative and technical skills. I lied before, I didn't end there, I'm ending here.

Photohunters: Vertical Reflection

Last weekend I went on a walk and looked for vertical reflections for the upcoming photohunt.

I found a bunch of vertical reflections on my walk.

Today (Thursday) I am reflecting on my sincere desire that my trees remain vertical. We had snow and freezing rain last night and freezing rain and snow today.

I have already lost power during the evening on Wednesday, this morning (Thursday) and briefly when I first started composing this post in advance.

I will end my reflection by saying that I have it much easier than the birds who seek shelter in vertical trees and bushes. The birds in these shots are being fed by me on my deck so that helps them somewhat.

Click here for the reflection photohunt and here for the vertical photohunt.

Nature Notes: early February

I'm going to begin with three shots of the birds snacking on my deck wall.

The first shot is of a rufous-sided towhee and the second shot is of a carolina chickadee with a towhee at the bottom.

 I think the posture of the male cardinal below looks like a fish and there's a junco beside him.

When I walk in my neighborhood I always see a downy woodpecker at the same suet cage.

The same house has two suet cages and numerous bird feeders but this particular cage is the province of the downy woodpecker.

 I also spotted the squirrel below on a neighborhood walk.

 I think the bird below is a raven.

 The next shot is another day and includes both suet cages and bird feeders at the neighbor house.

 In the shot above the downy woodpecker is on the far right suet cage and below I zoomed in.

 I could photograph this bird all day.

 The carolina chickadee below is finding seeds to eat in the crepe myrtle tree.

 The next three shots were taken at the Prairie Ridge Ecostation.

My Our World post this week is about the ecostation and you can click here if you are interested.

 As we walked by, flocks of birds would emerge from the grasses but I didn't get any good bird shots.

 The rest of the shots were taken during a walk on the Crabtree Creek trail.

 This trail is on the other side of the road from the Shelley Lake trail I frequently walk on.

Runners frequently continue on this trail after running on the Shelley Lake portion.

Back when I jogged I hoped to get to the point where I could jog that far but health issues made me stop jogging. There is a 26 mile loop which includes a number of these connected greenway trails which marathon runners use.

If I want to walk on this trail I drive and park where it begins because by the time I would get there walking from home on the greenway trails near my house; just turning around at the start point and walking back to my house would be a long walk for me.

Click for the home of Nature Notes.

Photohunters: Intricate Water

The two photohunt words go together very well this week.

 

In the winter frozen water makes very intricate designs.

I find intricate frozen water designs in everything from bird baths to puddles to lakes and creeks.

 

The first shot is frozen water emptied out of a bird bath and the second shot is a frozen puddle.

The third shot is a frozen lake near the shore and the shot above is a frozen bird bath. I like the intricate play of light on the frozen ice at the lake below.

Click here for the intricate photohunt and here for the water photohunt.