Bone Chilling Cold & JaVidMo 6 in General Mental Anesthesia

Gah!!! Late again for JaVidMo… My health has really slowed me down lately. It also hasn’t been above freezing since the storm hit 4 and half days ago! At night the temperatures have been 10, 6, last night it was 3 degrees F.

I’m from Boston (though don’t live there anymore) and I’ve been in much colder weather than that, but I haven’t been in this sort of cold since Dec ‘99. Not to mention that I’ve lived in South Florida for a long time and my blood has thinned considerably… (what little I have left given my health condition). Link to story w/ updates

I haven’t received mail in 4 days. Why?

Because all the neighborhoods look like this…

Think that’s just slush? WRONG!!! Caused by cars that drove the night of the storm or morning after which has since been frozen solid! Jagged 4 and 5 inch deep gouges of razor sharp ice sawtoothing its way throughout every neighborhood.

This is what happens when you get significant snowfall in an area that rarely sees snowfall. And it’ll be another 24 hours before temps rise above freezing.

Oh… And Inspector Noodles really, really doesn’t much care for all this winter nonsense!

So… stuck inside unable to go anywhere (not that my health would allow me to do so any how…)

This happened…

I feel a certain way about something… about pictures, memories, nostalgia.

I’ve heard stories of things and events in my life as a baby, toddler etc… that I of course have no memory of, but there are few pictures to help me visualize and piece together those moments, especially all the (firsts).

Now, I’m sick and I’m in a lot of pain, but being where I am at the time that I’m here, I’m in the enviable situation to capture all my nieces firsts. This is her first time seeing and experiencing snow. And I really want that for her. At a year old she can’t appreciate it now, but many years from now as an adult, she will. I’m the sort of person that will go through any amount of suffering to give that gift to her.

I hate that I’m the only one that thinks like this and the only one that cares. I had to convince her dad to help me build the snowman, but I would have done it myself if need be. Fortunately he was happy to participate as much as he hates the cold. Hey, no one hates it more than me, but this is not about me.

So we made this this little guy and he and my sister said that we could do the shoot the next day around 11am. This is important because well… for a few reasons:

1. Given my poor health, I’m the most sick and in the most pain in the am. So I have to make sure I’m out and about several hours before hand to try and handle the shoot.

2. Also do to my health, I was forced to sell a couple of very nice camera lenses that I had to pay for hospitals / dr visits, procedures etc.... Both capable of shooting in low light. Because I no longer have those, I only have my stock lens which is fine in daylight or studio setting, but not in low light, so we had to shoot at peak hours.

3. The temperatures were to remain below freezing so there’d be little to no snow melt.

4. We built the snowman facing east so the sun would compliment the shoot.

5. Come 11am and through hell and high water I was ready.

12pm, 1pm, 2pm… finally they emerge and say… we overslept blah, blah, blah, I accidentally shut my alarm off blah blah blah… typical for my sister.

So now they say say ok, we’ll be ready in a half hour. At which point I get ready and go outside. Now I need to turn the snowman in the other direction or else I’ll be shooting into the sun. Of course this causes me to get sick and I have to run inside.

After which, they are still not ready, so I go outside again and wait. Mind you it’s 20 degrees out there! I wait… 10 mins, 20, 30…

Like I said earlier, this isn’t even my child, it’s my niece. If it were my kid I’d do everything in my power and make every sacrifice to create these memories. To them it’s a chore. I just don’t see it that way.

I know I’m not dealing with her 24/7, the crying, teething etc… I get that, but I’m in pain 24/7, I’m bleeding internally (I’m dying) quite literally. I’m dealing with Prednisone withdrawal thanks to incompetent Dr’s which increases my suffering 10-fold. I have multiple herniated discs and I’m putting all that aside to do this for their child. I just don’t understand how selfishness can even enter the equation.

40 minutes of waiting, freezing, hoping I don’t get sick for the 20th time that day.

Finally, Dad and Talya come outside. Yay! I start shooting.

Notice no mom in any photo’s. When my sister finally came outside, she wouldn’t sit with her daughter in the snow by by the snowman. I offered to lay down a blanket for her, she still wouldn’t. My sister is anything but camera shy… needless to say, I was very disappointed in her. You do it for your daughter, you just do.

Oh well, I can only do so much.

On to JaVidMo…

A parody/satire of a song you love/hate

I don’t know who the original artist is and I don’t care nor do i want to know… If it’s pop culture I basically hate it. I know that I would hate this song, it’s annoying, but what makes this version enjoyable is the brilliance of Weird Al Yancovic. As a writer, I can appreciate the lyrics more so than most.

Last updated January 07, 2018