The Eye of the Camera

Camera lenses can pick up things that I can't discern until I look at the final image; which never fails to amaze me. For instance on the top right side of the succulent two chicks are now growing out of the main plant. A nice bonus! And even though the Kangaroo Paw blossom is nearly devoid of color after a week of sitting on my desk, the digital film still thought that the red existed as it had last week and chose to capture that rather than the dull grayish color.

The background paper on the left is a paper towel mono print. While I was painting paper towels to experiment with I blotted each towel with the one above. It's always exciting to see what will happen when I remember to do this.

I heeded the weather report that I heard Sunday night and had new tires put on the car yesterday rather than wait until I felt up to sitting for hours in the lobby of the tire store! It's supposed to be in the triple digits by Friday and for once I think that the report might accurate. A pleasant 82 yesterday and today it's 98! I had visions of a tire blowing out on the a long stretch of bumpy road between the house and the dialysis clinic; the salesman concurred, "This one is ready to blow and the other three aren't too far behind." I hate the smell that new rubber gives off making the two hour wait a rough one. Vertigo started striking followed by nausea and a pounding headache; FM is fraught with interesting symptoms of which chemical sensitivity is often one of them. I decided to make an excursion to the grocery store across the parking lot. I browsed the aisles looking at items I usually pass by while rushing to get in line at the check-out counter. Purchases: matches that we've needed for the last 6 months, cheesecloth and flour sacks to paint, an "original" feather duster, two clips to hold bags of chips closed and a bag of red potatoes. Oh and a donut as my reward for getting the new tires!

For the last four months road work is in the process of being done on two of the roads we travel on and the bumps are awful. I felt pretty confident driving home yesterday with new tires underneath me. "Can't you drive another way home? You're going to ruin the new tires." Mom has a way of saying just the 'right' thing. The direct route home is 10 minutes faster.

Loss

I posted a black-and-white version of the Kangaroo Paw yesterday on my other blog. I aimed my camera at the blossom again today; as the bloom loses more of its life I can't help but think about all of the loses that attack us daily. The loss of lives struck down by a deranged soul in VA who killed 32 people at Virginia Tech before killing himself. Why!?? The loss of the view of mountains in my backyard as neighbors plant more and more trees! I coveted the view! The loss of mom's memory as she struggles with the daily diminishing of brain cells. Today came into my room in tears. "I seem to be ready for the nut house! I put down a book and came back from the bathroom and the book was gone. I've looked everywhere."

This isn't the first time she's done that. I can only assume that she finished the book and put it away so I asked her if she'd finished the book. "If I did I sure don't remember the ending."

I recently read in a book about Alzheimer's that often people will think that had been in the midst of doing something but it was only an illusion. I hated to say, "Maybe you weren't even reading." I made her lunch because I could tell that she wasn't up to trying to figure out how to make a sandwich today. Actually, my brain is also rather fuzzy around the edges today but I thought it was due to a major allergy attack brought on by the latest windstorms. So, when I tried putting the chips into the refrigerator and mom caught it she had to laugh, "We're a pathetic bunch!" As Stacy would say, "Yep, you got that right."