I'm Still Alive....

I didn't realize how long it has been since I last updated this blog. So much has changed since my last post! It is late tonight but I think I will try to do some updates over the next few days. Life is crazy and so much has happened over the last five years. I will try to add some insight to my life and all the changes since I last posted. I hope everyone is doing well!

Wild Winter....

We have had an amazing winter here in Oklahoma. Not only did we have a white Christmas, but the snow that fell on Christmas Eve was on the ground almost 20 days. It helped that we got around 10 inches here at the house! About the time all of that snow melted off, we had another storm leaving 8 inches of snow. That fell 3 days ago and seems like it will melt off a lot faster. We do still have a lot on the ground, though. Interestingly enough, we are supposed to get another round of snow starting tomorrow evening.

I need to get the camera out and take more photos. I was hoping to get some time on the telescope but between the clouds, cold, and my scope acting up, I just haven't got it done. Here's to better weather!

Leaving on a Jet Plane....

Nah, I'm not going anywhere. The song title just seems like an appropriate title for this post. The song was written by John Denver (my wife's favorite artist). It was first recorded by Peter, Paul, and Mary and later recorded by Mr. Denver on several of his albums. I've loved the song since I was a kid but it became even more special after I married Lisa because Mr. Denver's music was such an important part of her life.

If you have followed my blog for a while, you know what Lisa has been through over the past years and you also probably know how hard it was for me to see her so sick. You also know how happy and proud I was to see her recover and return to work as a paramedic. She loves EMS and it was so important to her to get back to doing what made her so very happy.

A week and a half ago, I discovered that she was having an affair and had fallen in love with someone else. One day later, I moved out to begin my new life without her. I can honestly say that I have never had anything more devastating happen to me. We had been married for twenty years and I had never imagined that this could happen to us. Before you ask me about working things out or counseling, please understand that she has no interest in pursuing any options like that. She had already decided to marry this other man before I discovered the affair.

Needless to say, I had a REALLY rough week. The good news is that I seem to be doing really well after less than two weeks. I think that is good news, right? I expected the hurt to last much longer than it actually did. I now seem to find myself feeling sad for Lisa and her new man. I'm not sure I can explain it and I'm not sure I even understand it myself. All the anger and hurt that I felt when I discovered the affair just seems to have vanished. There are still moments of pain but the constant assault is over.

I have been surrounded by my friends and family since all of this happened and I attribute my rapid recovery to all the love they have shown me. I have several sets of what I consider family. I have my blood family that is in Texas. I didn't tell them initially because they were in Colorado on vacation. I did not want to ruin their trip so I waited as long as I could to let them know. I also have a really close group of friends that are like family to me. I use the term "group" loosely. Really, it is three people and and their families. One of which, is the older brother I never had. I told him the day I found out about the affair and by the time I got off work, he had a moving crew (his son and one of my other close friends) at my house to move me to a spare bedroom at his home. Last, is my work family. They have been so supportive of me since this all happened.

I can't imagine how hard this could have been without all the special people I have in my life right now. I know I will be fine now. I know I will be happy again. Happiness is already returning to my life. Just yesterday, we had a very small get together. I am still easily overwhelmed by attention so it was just me, my buddy's family, and one other person that is pretty special to me. I'm not emotional anymore but I get pretty anxious and somewhat cranky when the conversation stays focused on my marriage and the affair very long. I'm also a bit sensitive about people wanting to "fix" something or making me do stuff to distract me. I have to do this my way at my pace. Anyway, back to yesterday! I spent most of the day cooking on the smoker while my buddy's wife and sister prepared side dishes. We had an incredible meal and then played pool, drank, and enjoyed life.

In many ways, yesterday was my "jet plane". The only life I had know for 20 years ended yesterday and with the help of some very special people, a new life took off for destinations unknown. What I do know, is that I will be happy where ever life takes me. As long as I have people in my life like those there now, I can't be anything but happy.

Moonscape

Spent some time taking photos of the moon and stars the other night. This was my favorite! I was surprised at how much detail showed. I will have more to post soon.

Zoo Safari III

Thought I would post a few more photos from the zoo trip.

This is one of the two rhinoceroses at the Tulsa Zoo.


They have beautiful flowers in the Tropical Rain Forest Exhibit.


Another flower from that exhibit.


The always majestic lion.


Meerkat!


Be sure to visit my Flickr site if you want to see all my photos. Speaking of sites...I just joined Facebook! I never really thought about it until one of my coworkers urged me to join. I am amazed at how many of my friends are on Facebook. I'll add a link to my page later today.

Zoo Safari II

I'm pretty pleased with the Canon XSi. The zoo trip was a good measure as I have taken photos of the same subjects with my two other DSLRs and I knew I would be able to compare the differences. The Canon is a 12mp camera and my D80 was 10mp so I didn't know if there would be an discernible advantage. In my opinion, the Canon's 12mp sensor did a better job and showed a noticible resolution advantage. To me, the photos from the Canon are just more pleasing to the eye than those of my Nikon. As I said below, I have always been a huge Nikon fan so it is not easy for me to admit.

When I would take the D80 to the Tulsa Zoo for a day, I would usually come home with about 60% of my photos "postable". The other 40% had noticible focus or exposure issues that were beyond fixing in Photoshop. I was amazed to see almost all of my photos from the XSi usable. I would guesstimate that about 90% of the photos were correctly exposed and had good focus. This is in spite of the fact that I accidently had my EV setting two full stops in the negative for the first half of my photos!

All of that said, the Nikon D80 and Canon XSi are both wonderful cameras. You can't go wrong with either camera. Knowing what I know now, I would choose the XSi above the D80. Here are some of my favorites from last weekends photo safari at the Tulsa Zoo.









I hope you all have a wonderful holiday weekend. Don't forget to honor those who died so that we could be free. This post is dedicated to my grandfather, Lonnie Ables, who served in World War II.

Zoo Safari

I spent a couple of hours at the Tulsa Zoo yesterday taking photos. I ended up with around 260 photos! I an using a Canon XSi that I bought a couple of weeks ago. I believe I took some of the best photos I have ever taken. Don't get me wrong, I have had 3 DSLRs (Olympus E-330, Nikon D80, and now the XS-i) and they have all taken some wonderful photos. But, I don't ever remember getting output that was this consistently good. I have used digital cameras since the beginning and have always been a Nikon man but I think this Canon is going to change my outlook significantly. I used my 55-250mm EF-S IS lens for the entire day and just captured one great photo after another. I know that some of it is my increasing experience and the studying I have done. Mostly, I think it is my new equipment, though.

I will be posting photos to Flickr and the blog starting tonight so keep your eyes open. I will probably post in sets of 10 to Flickr and follow up with post here. It takes forever to process 260 RAW images!

While you wait, here is something recent I took.

Clouds

We have had rain in Tulsa for twenty two days straight now. The good news is that it has presented a lot of weather photography opportunities! I sold my tripod because it wasn't what I wanted so I ended up trying to take handheld night time lightning photos. That failed miserably. I did get a few interesting photos but no good lightning shots. Here is a night shot of the clouds as a thunderstorm rolled in last night.



This is cloud to cloud lightning lighting up the clouds.



I took this photo looking straight up. I really like how it turned out!



If you get a chance, check out this new website. Photocrati is a very nice site about photography. To be honest, it is one of the better websites I have seen. They cover a lot of news on DSLRs and software that is of interest to me. Check it out! Hope everyone has a great weekend.

Sorry!

I can't believe that it has been nearly a year since I last posted to this blog! I am ashamed. I don't have a good excuse other than it has been a busy and trying year.

Here is a quick rundown of the past year's events. My wife and I moved to a new home. She is still working as a paramedic....and she is still on an opposite shift from me. It suck having no seniority! She caught meningitis from a patient and spend a couple of weeks in the hospital. I am still at the same job and in the same position. I have not done any geocaching in a long time. I sold my beloved Nikon to help finance our move. To be honest, it was not so beloved as I wasn't completely satisfied with the camera. My MS is status quo and I haven't had much progression! My chronic back pain due to my MS is worse than ever. Winston and Delia (my two Dachshunds) are still terrorizing anyone they come in contact with. I bought a Canon XS-i a week ago and LOVE it. I discovered Oklahoma casinos (specifically, Cherokee Casino in Catoosa). I think that is it!?!

Since I bought my new camera, I should be posting a lot more often. I made it to Woodward Park at lunch the other day so I will leave you with a recent photo.

Busy, busy.....

Wow, it's been a crazy month! We are closing in on the end of our fiscal year at work which means it's budget time again. Combine that with the fact that we are coming in right at our annual goals and it is just utter insanity at the work place. Where I work, meeting our goals is not an option. Peoples lives depends on our ability to meet our goals and commitments. It seems to get harder and harder as each year passes. While I struggle however I can to help meet our goals, I'm also responsible for putting together a $9 million dollar budget. All of this equals a lot of stress.

The wonderful news is that my wife is back working and loves her job. Unfortunately, she ended up with a shift opposite the hour I work. That means we end up with about 12 hours a week together. She is so excited to be back at work and loves the work so I don't think she feels the impact of our time away yet. I had grown used to having her to come home to each day. She balanced my life. I really miss her being here.

Hopefully, I will have time for some photography and geocaching here in the near future. It hasn't hit that miserably hot time of the year yet so it is still pleasant outside at times. Although, the humidity can be a killer with all the rain we have received!

I did get a nice photo a couple of weeks ago of the new arena they are building here in Tulsa. It will be nice to have a place where bigger name entertainers are willing to come.

Smokin'....

I did my first smoke of the year this weekend. Like geocaching, it was a low priority for the past year as we worked through my wife's illness. Usually, I smoke year round but it has been at least a year since I fired up the smoker. I spent the evening Friday getting the smoker ready to go. I also prepped the brisket by trimming and covering it with mustard and a dry rub. It was then wrapped in plastic wrap and placed back in the fridge.

Got up yesterday morning at around 0600 to get the smoker started and the meat loaded. Once the smoker was up to temp, I placed the brisket on to smoke. I like to smoke food the old fashion way...with real fire and wood. I think the food is better that way. I have tried electric smoking and it just wasn't for me. I am the type of person that gets a lot of pleasure from tending to the food and fire. To me, that is half the fun. After the brisket had smoked for about six hours, I added a split chicken for the wife. She is not big on meats but does enjoy chicken on occasion.



The brisket went twelve hours and the chicken smoked for six. I was very pleased with the results. The brisket was very tender and tasty. The chicken just about melted in your mouth it was so tender. Paired up with a little potato salad, baked beans, and some Head Country Barbecue sauce it made for a great dinner.

Geocaching!

After a long break, I finally went geocaching Sunday!! Yes, I am excited about it. Between my wife being so sick last year and my MS, I did not get hardly any caching in this last year. Now that our lives are pretty much back in order, I can start caching again. I traded my Lowrance H2Oc some time ago for a new, in the box, Garmin 60CSx. It has pretty much gone unused since I made the trade. Needless to say, it got a nice test drive yesterday. Our first cache was MnM Urban Jungle. It was relatively close to home and new since my last time caching. We were able to park fairly close and walk to the cache. Mike spotted it first. It was a nice size ammo can. We didn't take anything but we left a few trinkets. Here is a view from near the cache.



Next, we headed for Fenced In. We were able to locate the clever hide quickly. From there, we headed over to Fitness Walk - West Bank (South). They don't call this one Fitness Walk for no reason! It was a bit of a hike in to the cache. Trust me, I need the exercise so I am not complaining! We ended up hitting three caches and made thee finds. I am so impressed with the Garmin 60 CSx. I loved my Lowrance but (as much as I hate to admit it) the Garmin is just a all around better unit. That said, it should be as it is about 33% more expensive. I was fortunate to get such a good trade. I traded a Garmin eTrex Legend (older model) and my H2Oc for the 60CSx so I think I ended up with a good deal as the 60CSx had not even been opened. The two units I traded were in good shape but well used.

As soon as I get more time with the new Garmin, I will post a review. Like I said, I'm quite impressed so far. It is a VERY accurate unit.

While we were out, we swung by Riverside Airport and did a little photography. There was a B-17 visiting that had caught our eyes.

Uneventful...

It has been an uneventful week here in Tulsa Oklahoma. Work was work with nothing interesting to break the blahs. Lisa is enjoying her new job, though. The training academy at EMSA is about six weeks and involves a lot of learning and testing. She had two major testing events this week and did well on both in spite of the stress. She did a ride out Friday night and from what she told me the calls are the same as they were back when we were both paramedics....alcohol and assaults for the most part.

Even the weather was uneventful this week. I guess that is a good thing for most people. As weird as it seems, I really enjoy severe weather. It is not because I have never been touched by severe weather. I have been in a tornado and my grandparents lost their home to a tornado when I was a child. I was old enough to remember everything. We got their the day after the tornado hit. I remember walking around in shock at the destruction. I'd never wish that on anyone. All that said, I'm facinated by tornadoes, hail, lightning, and the likes.

We did have one storm blow through on Wednesday, I think. I got a nice photo of some scud clouds after the center of the storm had passed.

Party

My closest friend's wife had a birthday this last weekend. We gathered at their house and celebrated the occasion. A good time was had by all and I got some nice photos in the process. We shot a little pool and I did not do well at all! I've never been the best pool shooter but I was ever worse than usual. Mike romped me badly.



After we tired of playing pool, we moved outside to his fire pit where we built a fire and enjoyed our drinks in the cool evening air. Fortunately, he lives in the country so we can enjoy this activity without alarming anyone.



All in all, it was a great evening and we really needed a wind down session after a rough week at work. We had our national auditors in for the whole week and it was quite stressful!

Movie Night

We had the whole family piled on the bed last night watching a movie. By whole family, I mean me, my wife, and the two dogs. My wife and I were not able to have children so we went the dog route instead. I think we both grew up loving animals so it is only natural that we would have pets now. Winston and Delia are like children to us. Most likely, we are closer to them than most people are to there children. How many people sleep with their 12 and 14 year olds? I had the camera out and decided to take advantage of the situation.

Dog Parts-Nose


I had my Tokina 100mm lens on the camera so it forced me to be a bit creative and I did a series of close-up shots. I ended up with a bunch of photos that I could not help calling "Dog Parts". I had fun and ended up with some unique photos of the pups!

Dog Parts-Toes

Weather Part III...

This spring is really getting started with a bang! Once again, we had more severe weather. The first round last night was mostly a rain and lightning event. I decided to brave the lightning and take some photos. I was very impressed with the D80! I have been shooting digital since around 1992 and noise has always been a battle with long exposures. Even with my last DSLR, noise would frequently ruin my long exposure photographs. I set up the camera on the tripod and took about twenty 30 second exposures. The D80 does an excellent job handling noise. I have read some less than flattering comments about the D80 and noise, but I was pleasantly surprised. Here is the first good capture I made:



It was the only cloud to ground lightning caught. The next was a decent cloud to cloud lightning capture. Needless to say, I'm still very happy with the Nikon D80. We had another wave of storms that hit around 3:30 in the morning. Being that it came with golfball size hail and tornado sirens, it was a lot less fun!

Weather Part II...

I'm glad I did as I said in my last post and kept my camera handy today. The meteorologist were correct in forecasting severe weather for today. We had some active weather in the area but nothing appeared to be an imminent threat. I walked by our front door an peeked outside and it was plain scary looking. I grabbed to camera and went out. The sky had a greenish tint and the clouds were quite ominous! When I walked around the end of the house to look across the field behind us, I was worried that i was seeing a wall cloud.



It wasn't a wall cloud, but the perspective made it look very threatening. Still the clouds were pretty amazing this evening.



Fortunately, we got away with just rain, hail and winds.

Weather...

We had some interesting weather over the last couple of days. I guess it is that time of the year again! Personally, I love severe weather. I have been fascinated with storms since I was a little kid growing up in west Texas. I took three semesters of meteorology while I was in flight school and ate up every minute of it. I'm trying to do a better job of carrying my camera with me everywhere I go so I hope to capture a few nice weather related photos this spring. I did get a few nice shots yesterday.

This was shot on the way to work yesterday morning. Storms were just moving out at sunrise and made for an interesting view.



Later in the morning, we had more severe storms move into the area. We had a couple of tornadoes in the area, but nothing too close to Tulsa. We did have heavy rain, flooding, lightning, winds, and hail.



They are forecasting more storms on Thursday so I'm keeping the camera handy.

Taken with My Nikon D80 using a Nikkor 18-55mm VR lens

Flowers...

I bought my wife an Easter bouquet (okay, I wanted it for photography purpose, too). I wanted to experiment with light sources so I used a incandescent bulb and my Nikon SB-400. I was very please with the results! Most of the photos were taken with my Tokin 100mm AT-X Pro Macro mounted on the Nikon D80. Hope you enjoy!

Interesting Friday....

I was scheduled for my monthly Tysabri infusion on Friday. I knew that it would take about two hours so I scheduled it after lunch. I went ahead and scheduled my physical therapy session afterward. I figured I might as well make the most of my four hours of PTO. I arrived at the infusion center about fifteen minutes early and my nurse was still at lunch. They took me back to a treatment room, pointed me to the recliner, and handed me the TV remote. I always seem to watch the Food Network during my infusion. It is one of my favorite channels and I no longer get it at home. I was watching the clock pretty close since I needed to be done on time to make my PT session. I should know better.



My nurse was a bit late getting back from lunch but I told her it was no problem. Actually, it wasn't yet as I left an hour leeway just in case. She got my IV started an placed a port on the catheter. After getting the Tysabri set up on the IV pump, she hooked my up and got the medication infusing. After about 10 minutes of visiting and watching Rachel Ray, she decided to ask me the pre-infusion questions on the paperwork. I bet you can see where this is going. She quickly discovered that we had an issue with two of the questions on the questionnaire. She picked up the phone and called my neurologist to see if it was okay to infuse the Tysabri. No one answered the phone so she had to leave a message. She decided to discontinue the infusion until we heard back from the doctor.

To make a long story short, it took 45 minutes to get a hold of my neurologist because he was on vacation. I was impressed that he called back at all. When I am on vacation, it takes me a bit to return calls. The nurse was instructed not to infuse me because I had recently received the Solumedrol infusion and there is a possible increased risk of PML when you mix steroids with Tysabri. To say the least, I'm not real thrilled that she forgot to ask the questions before the infusion. I hope that it matters that I only received about a quarter of the usual dosage. I do know that the real risk is minimal, bit still....



I ended up with about an hour and a half to burn before my PT session. Naturally, I went and took some photos! I swung by St. Francis Hospital and got some shots of their BK-117 Life Flight helicopter on the helipad. I then headed down to a local retention pond to photography some of the local birds. I must have taken a hundred duck and gull photos! I got so involved in what I was doing that I was almost late for my PT. This was the first time I really got out and tried to walk around with my camera using the cane. It was a bit of a task to say the least. I ended up with a couple of nice photos so it was worth the effort.