Back in the early 80s, I found an interest in photography. I bought the latest Canon film camera, an A-1, lenses, filters and an assortment of other gear. The hobby began, as many of my hobbies do, with research and plenty of reading and, in this case, looking at the pictures of many photography artists of that time. My enthusiasm also took me to school - I enrolled in a B&W photography course at a college in San Mateo, near where I was living at the time.
Pick Your Best Smile
Beautify the Space Between Your Teeth
Flents Plastic Toothpix with Carry Case Review
This is the best toothpick ever! It’s a Poly Pik, which is a very difficult to find brand, unless you want to order 500 at a time. I can’t remember where or when I found my first Poly Pik (this product is branded Flents on the packaging), but it was years ago and I have been using the same 4 Toothpix all that time. Well, actually, I use only one at a time, but I keep one in my car and another at my desk. I used to keep one in my wallet too, but that just didn’t seem right – people would stare when I’d pull the thing outa my wallet
What’d you pay for that Segway?
How much did that thing cost you?
It seems like a fairly innocuous question. I get asked that question every time I am out gliding about on my Segway. I know it’s an unusual device, especially where I live – I think I’m the only one in Plumas County, CA that has one, or uses one regularly. But I sure wish people would think about that question before they blurt it out.
What would be your reaction if a stranger walked up to you and asked how much you paid for your car? A person you have never met comes up and asks, “what’d you pay for your watch?” Someone stops you in your tracks and says, “how much you pay for that bike/ring on your finger/bag of groceries?
Disability and Depression
Dealing With Depression Associated With Disability
by John Meyers
In my years of working with adults with developmental disabilities, I also dealt with many people with physical disabilities and with mental illness. Sometimes, they had all three! One thing I learned for sure is that you don’t have to have a developmental disability to have other disabilities. People who have an onset of a severe physical disability, whether it’s an obvious disability such as the loss of a limb or your sight, or less noticeable such as heart trouble or the loss of lung function, can easily slip into depression. And depression is serious stuff.
We all get “depressed” at times, but
Doctors Ain’t Always Right
Three years ago, one of my doctors at the Veterans Hospital in Reno, NV told me I had 2, maybe 3 years left. I am very happy to be here to show you that doctors ain’t always right.
Yes, I still do have COPD (Emphysema). Some doctors call it late stage, some end stage, others call it severe COPD. Whatever stage it is, it means that they have prescribed for me the last, best drugs and treatment to extend my life – and my breathing – as much as possible. There is no cure,
I Want My Old Body Back
My old body could eat junk food on a regular basis because my work installing floor coverings ate up a big portion of the calories I took in. I could stay up past my bedtime too. My after-hours activities ate even more calories – dancing (I loved dancing), bicycling, making love and even shopping. And I could get by on 4-6 hours sleep and be fresh as a pot of coffee in the morning.
As I got older, the calories began to be more noticeable
David Bromstad Brought Me Back To Life
Just the way I had spent most of my days the last 3 years, in early May, 2009, I was holed up in my cave of an apartment waiting to die. I was told I had end-stage Emphysema and not a lot of time left.
But that day last May was the beginning of something that changed the way I felt about my life and what I wanted to do with at least part of what I had left of it. The credit goes to David Bromstad, interior designer and host of Color Splash
A Computer Mod is OFF the List
More than a year ago – yeah really, that long ago – I wrote What My Other Foot Wants. This was/is my own personal “bucket list” or as I called it, my “other foot list.” Well, things have changed in the last year. My health hasn’t gotten better, but I have a different attitude and my priorities have changed. I am paring the list down, maybe changing a few details or even adding new. But this is only about one item: number 8 on my other foot list is outa here.
That’s right, no great computer mod that has designs to be published in a computer magazine. I already did that. It was a great mod I called Functional Design. It took a couple of months to build and had
Not Dead Yet!
I can’t believe I let this website nearly die. It has been over a year since my last post and I am still kickin’. I am doing better than this blog. My apologies to all of you thinking you shoulda never added it to your favorites or bookmarks. To show you my sincerity, I have finally given the site its own favicon – the little graphic you should see just in front of the address in your browser (browsers are weird – you may not see it yet, but you will when your browser gets around to it). It looks like a smaller version of the graphic you see over there on the left upper corner of this post.
My health has deteriorated, as is expected with a disease that is chronic and has no cure. But they adjust my medication levels and
What My Other Foot Wants…
…My other foot should get. No doubt you’ve heard of “The Bucket List.” I haven’t seen the movie yet, but I understand the premise. Well, I don’t want to copy the title, but it is, in fact, a bucket list. But because my website’s name is “1 Foot in the Grave,” I figured a good and proper name for my bucket list would be “My Other Foot List.” Although I do have one foot in the grave because of this damned lung disease, my other foot is not ready yet. This is sorta what my other foot would like to do before I die.