Category Archives: The Story

Personal Vision, The Story, Themes

2022 Wrap ups: The ups and downs

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As a year, 2022 seems to have had a lot of ups and downs for our family and friends. So let’s start with with ups.

Early in 2022 my Mother celebrated her 98th birthday. Overall she is still going strong and we’ve started thinking about doing something special for number 100! For her 90th birthday we had a big family gathering in Florida, and unless we think of something else, we plan to do that again.

2022 was also the year of our Johnson family reunion. It was hosted by my cousin Dwight and held at a wonderful county park near Cincinnati called Winton Woods. Family came from as far as Colorado, Florida, New York, South Carolina and the state of Washington, as well as the greater Cincinnati area.

In 2022 Donald & I celebrated our 24th wedding anniversary. It doesn’t feel like it has been that long.

For our anniversary we hosted a party at our favorite Italian restaurant called Parma. We invited all of our local friends.

2022 has also brought some triumphs for my health. My full knee replacement has completely healed and I barely have a scar. Some pituitary issues have been resolved and are now under control. And my back treatments have stabilized my lower back issues until I’m well enough to have surgery for the issue. My balance has improved enough that I no longer need the walker. This has allowed me to start working on my blind cane training, which is coming along well.

Now for the downs, which have exclusively been health related. The first is my Mother in law, who shattered her femur. She also took a face plant into the door on the way down and looks like she’s been in a fist fight.

She spent four months in a rehab hospital and is still struggling to transition from the wheelchair back to a walker.

Just after my my mother in law fell, husband fell and tore his quad. After 5 months it didn’t heal, so he will be having surgery soon to repair it.

And the big down for the year is my vision loss. It continues to slowly degrade. I’m facing complete vision loss in the next few years so I’ve started to learn how to navigate with a cane. Once I learn to use the cane I can apply to get a seeing eye dog. That is my eventual goal.

Low Vision Photography, Personal Vision, Portraits, The Story, Themes

Tweeting No More

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I’m writing this blog post for my Twitter followers. This, and my other blogs, were set up to automatically post on Twitter. However due to the actions of the new owner of Twitter, I will no longer be posting there. I hope to keep my Twitter followers as blog followers as I restart this blog after my long illness. I’m also considering alternatives to Twitter such as Instagram, but haven’t finalized that. I’ll make an announcement here when I’ve decided what I’m going to do.

Landscapes, Portraits, The Story, Urban Landscapes

Through The Glass: Ongoing Treatments

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“Do you know where you’re going to?

Do you like the life the world is showing you?

Where are you going to?

Do you know?”

Mahogany (1975 film)

This is my favorite song quote from the 1975 Diana Ross film Mahogany. It says a lot about my current situation.

As you can see I’m still using a walker. And as it turns out, I will soon be having surgery on my right knee; a total knee replacement. Hopefully my recent fall on my left knee will not require additional surgery.

Sorry that I missed my August posting, I’ve been very distracted due to my continuing health issues. I also have an update on my vision. I am now legally blind, but with my husband’s help I am able to continue to blog. The proton beam radiation treatment for my tumor has damaged my optic nerves, leaving partial degraded vision in the right side and no vision in the left. As you can guess, this has made photography challenging, but not impossible. I persevere! I have even heard of blind photographers. I will have to investigate their work.

Expect to see an update in a couple of weeks.

Inspired By Series, Social Commentary, The Story, Themes

The Gap Band: A Tulsa Heritage

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Most People outside of RAP don’t know the connection.  The GAP Band members were born, raised and started their Music career in Tulsa. 

The band is an acronym based on the streets of Greenwood, Archer, and Pine in the historic Greenwood neighborhood of the Wilson brothers’ hometown of Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Celebrate the Music. Remember the loss and play some GAP Today.

Architecture, Film Photography Projects, My Garden, Social Commentary, The Story, Urban Landscapes

Front Door Gift from my Neighbors

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While I was at the Mayo Clinic last Fall, some of my neighbors decided that I needed a more accessible Front Entrance:

At first I thought how wonderful my neighbors are! But I felt that perhaps my mom-in-law and my neighbor from across the street (whose husband designed and organized the Project) might need it more that me, But with recent snows that we had I learned to appreciate my hsnd rsils. Sometimes other people know what you need before you recognize what you need!