Nikon-Z8

Nikon Z8 & LR

Taken a few weeks back; you’re getting an old one today because, like Jasper, I didn’t touch a camera today.

The surgeon today rocked my world a little bit.

There is good news: the surgeon says that if you have to have a cancer tumor, this is the kind to have. Less than 4 cm, clean margins, nothing in the bloodstream or lymph nodes. They removed half of my thyroid, and it turns out it had a small cancer tumor on it. They got it all, but now, every 6 months I have to have it checked out because I now have a higher chance of something returning.

The surgeon gave me a clean bill of health and a nice little letter saying I can return to work. It was very nice. But he doesn’t know how the FAA works…

I’m now considered by the FAA to have thyroid cancer and always will, and I now, until I retire, will need a special issuance medical, meaning before every 6-month FAA medical I have to comply with all their requirements of testing and proving I don’t currently have cancer. Ya, it’s as awful as you think it would be. A royal pain in the keister.

How many years until I retire? It can’t come soon enough.

So, it was a barrage of phone calls today, and tomorrow will be the same. Calling chief pilots, insurance companies, training scheduling, and finding and getting established with an Endocrinologist to track this new thing in my life. Can I call it a friend? It was in my body. My body grew it. Let’s just hope my new friend thats now been removed won’t be coming back.

I sat in the parking lot before my appointment today, and I literally said, “This is me before my appointment,” and thought about things, my current situation. Then when I got back in the car after the appointment, I said to myself, “This is me after the appointment.” Two completely different life situations. Things change fast, my friends. What did Ferris Bueller say:

“Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.”

I’ve been off work since late August, and now I’m off work until who knows when. The FAA is running way behind in issuing special issuance medicals, so it could be months. Some pilots I know, theirs took 6 months. It’s really hard to say how long it will take and what other info they are going to want. Honestly, I was ready to go back to work. I had a trip starting on the 22nd. Now I don’t.

One more time, all together now. Fuck Cancer.

Thanks for stopping by today and reading about my day. How was yours? I hope the world was kind today.

Remember to vote.

Remember to take some pictures.

Nikon Z8 & LR

Nikon Z8 & LR

Lots of thunderstorms rolling through today, dust advisories, and very dirty brown air out there. Shot from the truck window, cropped and converted.

Spent a lot of time today scanning Kodak Gold 200, using the Frontier and Noritsu scanner color models. It’s a unique film; it has lots of color and punch. More experimenting to do with this film.

Surgery is tomorrow morning, early.

If you see a picture posted tomorrow, you know I lived.

See ya on the other side.

Nikon Z8 & LR

Another fine day: mild temperatures, a good swim at the gym, and cleaning and organizing the garage. Then my favorite thing: working on the new project. Getting close to publishing. Still adding some photos and working on the about page, etc.

Ya, I need another blog like I need a hole in my head, but yet here we are, working on a new blog. It’s a photo blog, but it will be more photo-forward, clean, simple, and have a few nice features to highlight the photography along with photography trips. There won’t be any rules with this one, and I’ll just post my favorite photos and some “Cliff Notes” about anything photography-related.

I’m not sure if I’ll keep posting to 365Pixels after I (hopefully) complete my goal of posting every day for a year. I may, but this other blog may win out. We shall see. I’m not sure I want the pressure of posting every day. But it’s become such a habit that it may not be that hard to continue. The hardest part some days is just remembering to take some photos, any photos, when the day is long and busy.

I’ve been trying not to think about it, but Monday is my thyroid surgery… I’m hoping I’ll feel up to posting a pic after the surgery. We shall see. I don’t pre-post on this blog! There are rules! LOL. I have a suspicious nodule on my thyroid, and they are going to remove half or more of it. Ya, not great. But better than leaving a possible cancer nodule thingy in your body. They are hoping to leave enough in so I won’t have to take medicine every day for the rest of my life to produce whatever the thyroid is supposed to produce. Good times will be had by all. Thank goodness for modern medicine and drugs that knock you out. Can you imagine surgery without anesthesia? Prior to 1846, you just took a swig of whiskey and hoped to pass out. Ugh.

I hope it was a great day in your world today. Thanks for stopping by and taking a look around. Go take some pictures!

Good day today. Had lunch with an old friend; always good to catch up in person. Got a few desert shots today out on a drive and worked on my new web project. Nothing to announce right now; it’s still not ready for the public, and I’m still thinking it through, but it’s always fun to dabble in a fun new project!

Never stop learning!

Nikon Z8 & LR

This shot is from yesterday, but I just got it processed today. It was time for some black & white.

Lots of work on the blog today. I didn’t have a proper photo viewer you could scroll through all the photos with; now we do. You also couldn’t click a picture on the main page to bring up a photo viewer, so I fixed that. I cleaned up the footer a bit. I also set the default for my photos to post at the largest size, so now they extend out from the post. In my blog settings, this was called photo overflow. I like it this way better. I changed the give kudos button on posts to “Send Some Love” and it now gives a nice shower of confetti.

Lots of little changes all add up to a better experience, and I get to learn more about these Hugo-based blogs.

I hope it was an outstanding day!

Nikon Z8 & LR

Nikon Z8 & LR

A very long day today; too tired and too late to process more pictures. I’ll post the rest tomorrow.

Hope you had a great day, and I appreciate you stopping by.

Nikon Z8 & LR

Easy day today. Coffee and breakfast at Locus, excellent coffee, and I can recommend the Quinoa breakfast bowl. 7-mile walk in the cool morning mist, then checked out the Community Food Co-op.

Notice something beautiful today.

I appreciate you stopping by.

👾Click for Stray Pixels👾

Nikon Z8 & LR Processed

Nice 6-mile hike along the waterfront today. Yet again, fish & chips for dinner and Lopez Island ice cream for dessert. Not a bad way to spend the day.

Down in Stray Pixels, you will see three stickers I found today. What a great way to spread positivity and love. I need some.

Someone smiles when they think about you ☺️

👾👾 Click for Stray Pixels 👾👾

Nikon Z8 & LR

Outstanding day: 7.5M / 12KM hiking, surrounded by Mother Nature and all her creations, Amazing fish & chips in Bellingham, great conversations with some of the locals. It was overcast most of the day, but we ended up with blue skies at the end, all in a wonderful temperature of 68°F/20°C.

More “making pictures” and hiking tomorrow.

Do something creative tomorrow, something that makes your heart smile and thank you very much for stopping by.

👾👾👾 Click for Stray Pixels 👾👾👾

Nikon Z8 & LR

Good day, hiking and shooting. Not ideal because it’s getting the shot right now in this light; we have to keep moving. No waiting for good light or for this cloud to roll by. There is always a price to pay for being on the move, photography-wise.

Finally got the film cameras out and got a few shots on them as well.

I’m at least on this trip, starting to post pictures below that I normally wouldn’t. This blog is almost becoming an online journal of sorts. I want some pictures for my memories, not necessarily because they are good pictures. We will see how this evolves. It’s interesting how this blog has changed since its beginnings. I’m sure it will change some more.

Since writing more on this blog, I’ve started to ignore my personal journal. I sometimes just post a link to the day’s post in my journal. That was never my intent, but it’s what I’m seeing happen. Just more changes I see happening.

Keep the dirty side down, never stop learning, and take more pictures! Thanks for stopping by.

Click for Stray Pixels 👾👾👾

Nikon Z8 Shot, LR Processed

Easy 3-hour drive to Fidalgo Island today. Set up camp and went into town for halibut fish & chips, followed by the best ice cream on the planet at Lopez Island Creamery. ¹

Nothing too spectacular on the photo front, but finally got the Nikon out.

Click for Stray Pixels 👾👾👾👾

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1. They’ve had people fly across the country just for this ice cream. I don’t know how they do it, but it’s crazy addictive good stuff. Hands down the best ice cream I’ve ever had. ↩︎