I don't really know where to begin this post.  I took a look back and I made four posts this year, not very consistant.  I must admit, I have had a couple of rough years with the appearance of Alzheimer's in both of my parents, their move to a nursing home and ultimately both of their deaths in the past year.

This year I also lost my job, a job I thought I would be at until retirement, but that's another story for another time.  So many changes in two years, sometimes it's been a little hard to wrap my head around it all.

Good things have also come out of the past two years.  I now have three little grandson's, one four year old and two one year old's.  I am also employed part time, so I'm not sure if I'm semi-retired or semi-employed.

Time has started to heal and it's time to move forward.  I couldn't think of a better place to come back to, but with Kim Klassen's Texture Tuesday.  She has been such an inspiration in my photography life.

Here's what I came up with for this week's Texture Tuesday.

I have a vase with bamboo sitting on the table and the sun was streaming through.  The first thing I thought of was using the lens baby with a star filter.  Not being close enough, I added a 4x macro filter.  The photo came out as I wanted with the unfocused light appearing as stars, but the backgound was a little boring, so I added a layer of Kim's autumnburst.  All was going well, but a little blank spot was calling out for an aligator from our trip to Louisanna.

If you've made it this far in the post, thank you for visiting me today.

Another day, another hospital

My daughter, now 32 1/2 weeks pregnant has been so sick.  We're not talking the normal pregancy problems of morning sickness, swelling and tiredness that we've all endured, but really sick.  She has had 5 months of kidney stones, constant throwing up, aching bones and muscles and ichiness to the point of burning.  The poor girl has had repeated visits to emergency and doctors.  A few weeks ago, when her OB called a specialist for advice, the specialist mentioned it might be a long shot, but she could possibly have Hyperparathyroidism.  Simple blood tests for Calcium levels and a meeting with a team of specialists at the Royal Alexander hospital has now confirmed the diagnosis.  Being only the second case of Hyperparathyroidism the hospital has seen in a pregnant woman she had become "medically interesting".

The most important thing is now that she has been properly diagnosed, new specialists will be coming in and treatment hopefully can proceed.  She is now in very good, expert hands.

After being with her this afternoon and hearing a new specialist had agreed to see her, I left the hospital feeling more positive than I have in months. There's a courtyard I had to walk through to get back to the main building and looking around I noticed all the new buildings totally encased in glass, reflecting an older parts of the hospital. Random Fact # 1: The history of glassmaking can be traced back to 3500 BCE

Looing up you can see how all the buildings have been connected with skywalks. Random Fact #2 Early skywalks date back to the 16th century.

After finally arriving at the parking lot, (Random Fact #3 I've been trying to lose some weight and the past couple of weeks have not gone so well.  With walks like this, I'll have to get serious again) I took a moment and looked back at the skywalk from the parking lot to the main hospital.

Random Fact #4: After four years of doing a daily photo, earlier this week, I made a decision to take a break from my dailies and I’m already missing it and still carrying a camera with me each day. Today I was glad I had a camera.

Random Fact #5 I've never seen a racoon in real life.

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