21 January 2007

Happy Birthday, Kelly!

Day six in Florida.  The fact that it is the birthday of my dear girlfriend Kelly who lives in Wisconsin, and that the only photo I shot today was of my mom’s terribly spoiled—if not awfully darn cute—dog, have absolutely nothing to do with each other!  Really . . . I swear!

Kelly is one of our friends who is actually reading the daily KRuMB fairly regularly, and offers words of encouragement.  So, this is for her:  Thank you, Kelly.  Happy Birthday!  Hope dinner was yummy.  It was wonderful to talk with you, today.  I love you.  And gosh, I miss you!

Now, about the dog and day.  The dog’s name is Sable, and she is the star of the show in this household.  (At least when my niece, their granddaughter isn’t visiting!)  Both my mother and John, and until very recently, Gammy, too, all delight in and dote over this little dog.  Today, a neighbour was power washing his driveway and Sable informed John that she really had to be able to oversee all that activity from her own front door.  So, as he’s obviously done a million times before, he moved this little ottoman, covered in alpaca fur, right into the open doorway, so she could safely sit behind the screen door, and yet still see out.    Too cute.

I made the difficult decision today, to leave here tomorrow (barring a drastic overnight change in Gammy’s condition.)  In an unexpected, yet very slight turn of events, we were actually able to get a little food into my grandmother, today.  And by “a little food” I mean twelve elbow macaroni noodles and nine cheerios.  But, that’s a vast improvement over yesterday.  And since she’s just a little lady, that sort of eating could sustain her a few more days, if it’s consistent.  She can’t go on forever like that, and it’s hard to know if lengthening her life is actually a good thing or not, right now, but that’s what we’ve got.  No one can ever say she’s not a fighter. 

So, tomorrow I’ll go home (assuming I get on the flight) and I’ll try to dig into my work and get as much done as I can, before the phone rings and my mama tells me it’s over.  Then, when that happens, I’ll be off for Florida, again!

~MB

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20 January 2007

Day five in Florida.  No real change, here.  Gammy’s still holding on.  Not sure to what.  I spent some time on the internet, some time watching a movie, some time reading, some time playing mah jong.  Lots of time watching over an old woman’s final struggle. 

An interesting holiday, this. 

The weather here in central Florida was gorgeous, today.  So, I went outside for a while and took some odd, random pictures again, of things around the house.  I have a very cool little series of pictures of the swimming pool area within the linai.  Cool shadows, and interesting patterns in the concrete.  A stray little fern plant amidst some rocks–my mother called it a weed.  But, of all of the pictures I took today, this is the one she favoured.  And since I couldn’t really make up my mind, I’m going with her preference.

~MB

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19 January 2007

Day four in Florida.  This is a shot of one of three beautiful little citrus trees in my mom’s backyard.  She’s got two different varieties of grapefruits and this lemon tree.  I’ve always figured it must be some sort of mutant lemon variety ’cause it produces such huge lemons.  They are yummy, though!  And it has lemons on it year ’round—I took this shot so you can see both the huge mature fruit and the little green fruit and flower on the other branch.

~MB

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January 15

My wife rode with me to work on Monday morning because she was flying on to MCO to visit her family (I would’ve gone, too had it been possible). She’d been moaning that I kept taking photos of this beautiful English garden, so I drove her by it so she could grab a shot or two herself. Turns out she didn’t use any of the ones she took here at the Daily KRuMB, but I get to use this one in both my Daily Photo Diary and the KRuMB. She’s trying to take a photo of the frozen fountain (a bad photo of it can be seen here), and inadvertantly got in front of me. It makes me smile.
Cheers.

~KR (day seventy-six – 15 January 2007)

Camera: Canon PowerShot S1 IS
Exposure: 0.005 sec (1/200)
Aperture: f/4.5
Focal Length: 5.8 mm
Exposure Bias: 0/3 EV
Flash: Flash did not fire

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January 14

Still iced in, but an urgent need forced us out of the house (I truly forget what that need was now). So, typically, I found my way to No Frills Grill for a much-needed (ok, really just much-wanted) beer. This little bush was alone and frigid in the parking lot, so I grabbed some shots. I like this one best, although the other two are alright, too I think. I had neglected to grab my camera so this one was shot with my wife’s (admittedly) superior camera.
Cheers.

~KR (day seventy-six — 14 January, 2007)

Camera: Canon PowerShot A520
Exposure: 0.017 sec (1/60)
Aperture: f/5.5
Focal Length: 23.2 mm
Exposure Bias: 0/3 EV
Flash: Flash did not fire, auto mode

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18 January 2007

Day three in Florida.  Not many photo opportunities.  Gammy got her new adjustable (we don’t use the word hospital where she might hear it) bed, today.  What a great idea!  No more struggling to get her on and off of a queen-sized mattress.  And no more propping with pillows that slide and wiggle out from under her.  The bed is electrically adjustable!  Head and foot—up and down.  Hopefully these next days will be a little more comfortable for her.

The glass paperweight I’ve photographed today is the one I gave my mother three summers ago, after my very first glassblowing experiences.  I made three of these lovely little things.  The one at home, photographed for an earlier entry, the one I gave Kyle that he keeps at work, and this one.  This is the only one that I did with the bubble mold–I think it’s my favourite.

~MB

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17 January 2007

Well, against all odds, she made it.  Barely, I daresay, but . . . she made it.

It was a good day overall, but it sure started out rough.  Birthday party plans involved dinner for fourteen, bright pink party decorations and cute little favours that Mama and I built last night.  But, fairly early in the day, it became painfully evident that Gammy might not even know there was a party happening. 

It’s been a very hard eight months since her mini-strokes in May.  She has lived with Mama and John for practically their entire marriage—I’m not really sure how long that even is, but getting close to twenty years or more, I know.  Until last spring, Gammy was about as fiesty as they come!  But, since then, each month brings a new challenge, each week a little more decline.  We weren’t sure we were going to have her through the holidays, and really didn’t think we’d get to celebrate this birthday with her.  But, despite the fact that the doctor estimated she had “about three weeks” last June, here she still is. 

A few days ago, she really took a turn for the worse–just before my arrival this week.  And even since I got here just a couple of days ago, I’ve seen her condition worsen.  She can no longer help herself do much of anything–she is terribly weak.  She seems to be struggling so; sleep is almost never restful for her, if it comes at all.  And although yesterday, we were still able to convince her to eat meals, today, we were not so lucky. 

So, the guest of honour missed most of tonight’s party–her loved ones still gathering together to celebrate her 95-year milestone.  After dinner, she finally expressed a desire to leave her bed, and we were able to present her with her birthday cake and sing to her.  It was a lovely little event, and I believe Mama was pleased, as well as exhausted.  At the end of the evening, after all the guests were gone, we even had enough consecutive moments of lucidity from her, that she was able to tell us she knew it was her birthday we were celebrating. 

This little woman has always been a huge part of my life, and I will miss her when she is gone.  I am so grateful that I am able to be here this week with my family.

I found a great little quote today—apparently Cherokee in origin:

When you are born, you cry and the people around you rejoice.  Live your life, so that when you die, the people around you cry, and you rejoice.

~MB

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16 January 2007

Day one in Florida.  I slept late.  I guess that’s what “holidays” are for, really.  But, this is not an early-rising household!  Breakfast happened around 10 a.m.  Then, lunch around 1 p.m.  In between was some quality time–some photo sharing, lots of time spent with Gammy (not that she really realizes it) and much catching up–and then after lunch a two-hour trip to the grocery store.  An hour into the outing, my mom looks at me and says, “Hey, you don’t like grocery stores, do you?  I’m sorry . . .”  But, since this is just about the only outing she ever gets, I told her not to apologize.  And I *was* actually glad to be there with her.  By the time we were done, though, I was really ready to go home and take some ibuprofen.

To be fair, the headache started before the grocery trip.  And now, it’s gone–that’s the important thing.  Dinner was great, and Mama made my favourite dessert.  Then, we made party favours for the birthday tomorrow, and then, at nearly midnight, I finally decided to go outside–yep, outside, in my bare feet and wearing my nightgown–and take my photo for the day. 

I had intended to shoot the pretty blue flowering bushes in front of the house.  Positioned near them is a lovely blue glass gazing ball, and I had thought it would make a nice contrast from the ice of yesterday.  But, I couldn’t get quite the shot I wanted in the dark–even with the flash.  So, I began experimenting. 

What I finally got here, that I really rather like, is a shot of the palm trees in the front yard, with the camera pointed almost straight up, and with the black night sky as a backdrop.  I let the flash fire, but with the camera on manual.  That means the flash exposes the subject, but since the shutter stays open longer, it doesn’t overpower things and cause that washout problem.  That seems sort of backwards to me, and I don’t really understand, but it seems to work.   I had done this once before taking nighttime photos at TRF and was fairly happy with the results.  The colours come out good, and the black background is strikingly cool. 

~MB 

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Thanks for your help, Kyle.  I picked eight.  You narrowed it down to three.  This is my favourite of the three. 

~MB

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15 January 2007

It’s warmer in Florida than in Texas, that’s for sure.  I’m at my mom’s house in central Florida–warm under only a sheet on the bed, and there’s no mattress pad or space heater involved!  I left 26 degrees and arrived to 72, I believe.  And that was at 11 p.m. 

But, proving I’m still a Yankee at heart, I look fondly on the pretty pictures I took this morning after our ice “storm” in North Texas.  It wasn’t much of a storm for us, really, although I know lots of folks throughout the midwest had it much worse. But, there were some great photo opportunities.  I get inspired by the beautiful things Mother Nature provides us, and I took a whole bunch of pictures this morning.  I chose eight of the best ones and put them all up on Flickr, hoping Kyle would help me decide which one to post here . . . then I forgot to call him early enough to actually have a conversation about it. 

So, my dear–when you read this, which I know you will–please let me know what you think.  <wink> That goes for you, too, Terrill, and Kelly, and Lisa, and whoever else might actually see this posting any time soon.

btw:  I’m sneakily piggy-backing on some neighbour’s wireless connection—right from my bedroom!  Pretty cool! 

Peace, Love, Mickey Mouse!

~MB

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