Finding new things.

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So, I have had a lot of downtime before my next doctor's appointment and I have been extremely bored with most things. For me, living alone suck in that aspect because there is no one else around most of the time. That makes my stress and stuff go up because then I just sit around thinking a lot.

Cue my brother putting me onto Fortnite. Now it seems like that is a big way I connect with him and my sister-in-law. Yea it sucks that they are in Alaska so the time is way off but once their kids go to bed we are on playing. It has kept my stress down and I get to virtually hang out with my brother.

Friday I see my dentist again and then Monday is back to the doctor to see what we are going to do moving forward now that almost all the other doors are shut so having something to keep my mind on is a big plus.

 

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I'd hoped you would pop in FlaGuy just tosay you're doing your thing.
What would we do with out internet friends. What a solace in the lonely world.

 

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@Maymay941

I have not had a lot going on. Same old stuff, different day. My guts still hate me and my medications are not working as they should.

Hoping that my appointment on the 28th gives me an idea as to when things will move forward with the next steps in finding something to help me.

I just take it one day at a time because that is all I can do.

 

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@ThatFLGuy
I know it’s hard to adjust when life just seems to stop. I compared it to a game of musical chairs when I went to the gym on Thursday night and did a 2 hour workout, then took my wife out to dinner because I wouldn’t be back in the gym for a couple of weeks due to surgery in the morning. I traveled so much we joked we’d fight the whole 3 weeks together because I wouldn’t be able to fly for a bit and I hadn’t been home that long in years!
After surgery I woke up paralyzed from the waist down, instead of practicing jump kicks, I was learning how to maneuver a wheelchair….
This opened a whole new window into LIFE that I never sat still and really looked at. My wife went out and bought a PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo and a ton of games for me. It turns out it just was not for me? I tried a few times, it seemed to make me feel I could now only have a “Real” life in a game, again that’s just me.
I made a list of all the things I always wanted to try, including getting back to my photography. I got back into fishing, on a pier for Bass & Crappie, not quite the Marlin & Sailfish i had become used to but I was fishing on a lake, quiet, outdoors, fresh air etc..
I forced myself to be out of bed & showered every day no later than 5:30 I HAD THINGS TO DO!
My suggestion is to simply define a life for yourself, not for anyone else, and go after it with abandon! Stay as busy as your body will allow you, but add 10% more than you think you can do! Open just 1 new door and it will lead to another & another & another.
It’s very easy to get bogged down, especially with chronic pain and the medical battles you are fighting, then add in the accidents and clean ups, just existing can be exhausting.
Covid is finally lifting and there is no better time than now to start opening doors that don’t lead to Doctors offices & Hospitals! Don’t let anyone say you can’t live a full life!
There is no better day than today to begin “YOUR” new life! As long as your not hurting yourself or anyone else, just go for it! It doesn’t matter how silly, stupid, boring, lame etc. anyone else says it is, if you want to do it, do so & do it with alacrity!
Wishing you nothing but the best!

 

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@Sprung87


Thank you so much for this reply.
It is just crazy to me how much some people have been through and still keep kicking.
I have been fighting to have a reason to even get out of bed some days. I tell myself “you did not move a thousand miles away to the middle of the small town you were born in to be going through everything you are.”

Like you, I share a huge passion for photography. I can edit in Lightroom/photoshop and even developed black and white film during high school. I currently own over 15 cameras including the very first digital I ever got. My avatar here is one of the shots I took with my Sony A6300 with my 30mm Macro at a location in St. Augustine Florida. It is not even close to my best squirrel shot. I spent a lot of time in the location and it was very much meditation/worship time for me.

Here is the big thing, I never wanted photography to become my job. I have a degree in Ministry and was working on my master's before getting sick. Ministry was/is my end goal in life/my calling. The pandemic made ministry jobs disappear. I am an ordained pastor/reverend and the goal was to move here to Pennsylvania and get involved with ministry but my health took a turn and now I cannot even finish school.

Now I am trying to figure out how to put both my passion and calling back to the front of everything I do. I have accepted that my health issues are not going away and that there will be consequences for carrying my camera gear around. (Lifting and weight-bearing makes accidents worse, more frequent, and fatigue worse) I am going to do a whole one-lens one-camera thing. Also, I got one of the Fujifilm Instax Mini 90 Neo cameras that shot Instax mini film and I have a ton of film so I am going to go old school and shoot more Instax film this year as well.

There are a lot of cool things to shoot near me so once spring decides to stick around I am going to get back at it. Also, I have a lot of cameras that record so I can Vlog and also have a full podcast set up in my bedroom.

I know that there will be ups and downs this year because of upcoming things that will have to be done to fix my health but at this point, I got to start living again.

 

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I love to hear it! Back in high school (I lived on my own from age 16 until now) I was scheduled to graduate a year early, but I needed on more credit. My counselors best friend ran the photography department and told me it would be an easy credit if I would just meet with the teacher. I went and found an old Brownie Hawkeye (Made of Bakelite just like the old phones!) The thing weighed a ton, but it was a camera (only slightly better than a shoebox with a pinhole for aperture!). My teacher really got me hooked, I spent hours in the darkroom before school opened. One afternoon she came up to me and offered to loan me her spare Minolta x700, that thing was a machine! So much more to learn, I loved it, I was HOOKED! At graduation she presented me with a brand new one to keep, with the promise I would never stop shooting. To say I was shocked would be about the minimum I could explain. I still carried that x700 shooting B&W, infrared anything I could capture. I actually had my first show in a “Real” Gallery in Chicago the year before my botched surgery. I’ve got a few Sony / Minolta DSLRs but mostly shoot my Nikon D6 my wife bought me for Christmas. As you know, All it takes is a shoebox and a few pins!
What a great feeling seeing people view your photos and attach them in some way to their own lives! I’d love to say it was a smashing success, but I knew nothing about shows and spent far too much on framing etc. I sold every piece I brought but learned another valuable lesson, FRAME YOUR OWN WORK!!!
Now it’s your turn!

 

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ThatFLGuy -- You sure are a busy guy! I like 2 see that!! Yeah, I could never get into those gaming things either. Tried, but not 4 me. You make some very good recommendations. Thank u!!!