A New Camera For SUP

I am still new at the whole stand up paddleboard thing, but from the first moment, I knew I wanted to have a camera on these trips.  My SLR was certainly not a candidate.  It has not learned to swim yet.

A few pictures around the neighborhood were underwhelming so I was anxious to try it underwater.

Today was my first day out with my new toy; the Nikon CoolPix AW100.  I had the auto setting set to ‘underwater’ the whole time.  This to avoid spending time or risk falling every time I wanted to take a picture.  I added a little float strap in case I dropped it.  While trying a new turn, I learned how to fly.  Even with a splash landing there was no worry for the camera.

The water was not as clear as I had hoped and being surrounded by trees made the lighting a little sketchy.  The angle is super weird because I took this kneeling on the board, still moving, still steering, and trying not to fall.  Overall, I am very happy with it.  Some practice maybe needed to adjust my SLR thinking.   It will certainly be easier to take the underwater pictures when I am not a part of a tour group.  One and a half thumbs up.

Look closer, hidden in the green:

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Pain

We don’t seem to understand it.  We are not that good at controlling it.  We are becoming better at addressing it.  We have a long way to go.

Picture from Encyclopedia.com.  Info Video

There was a post on My Lymphoma Journey addressing this issue and it really got me thinking.

We are just leaving the declared decade of pain control and research.  So, where are we?  Pain is now the fifth vital sign.  Hospitals, doctors, and drug companies are now more attentive to the issue and attempt to relieve their patients’ agony.  There are still areas for awareness improvement.  For example: Medicare reimbursement, at some levels, is dependent on functional improvement.  Sleep and pain are not considered functional.  Therefore, a person can have 9/10 pain while trying to get dressed (after a sleepless night) but as long as they can get dressed independently they do not need treatment.

Opioid insanity

click for drugfree.org

There are some great new medicines on the market to help with pain control.  There are some to help neurogenic pain, such as Neurontin and Lyrica. (Hard to miss all the Lyrica commercials).  These are not opiate based.  Rather they seem to have their roots in seizure control medicines.  They do have their own side effects but can be very helpful.

Drugs, such as oxycodone, are being used to treat everything from acute (new) pain to chronic (long term) pain.  It is very powerful and has a pretty high street value.  Due to the abuse and over prescribing by many individuals, states are beginning to crack down on its use.  This includes more paperwork for doctors.  While making sure medicines are used ethically and as intended is very important, especially with narcotics, the increased paperwork and investigations have meant a new barrier to access.  Some doctors stopped prescribing it in order to avoid the whole issue.  Some pharmacists try to avoid it for the same reason.  Who wants to go to jail or lose their license because they did not research their patients’ lives enough.  I witnessed a doctor in the hospital accusing a patient of being a wimp and a “clock watcher”.  Only to discover later, he just did not like all the paperwork that he had to do every time he prescribed pain medicine.

An issue of particular importance for chronic pain patients is opioid-induced hyperalgesia.

How to Identify Venomous Snakes

Exploring the great outdoors is a wonderful way to relax and workout.  With extensive research and years of experience, I have learned how to differentiate between a deadly bear and a bear statue.  I have also learned the difference between gators and gator tail stew. Snakes are a bit more challenging.  Top photo credit:  reptilechannel.com

This young man has some good info on the topic with a unique delivery style.

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Yogi From:  http://journalstar.com

Mad Momma from: http://modernsurvivalonline.com

Image Highlights

This is a collection of my favorite original graphics and photos from the last six months. Hope you enjoy!

Highlights on Living

Today’s six month highlight list includes posts for life management and general tips.

1. Advanced Directives
2. Don’t Take Things so Seriously
3. Taking Care of Your Teeth
4. GIGO
5. Personal Mission Statements
6. Scheduling Priorities 
7. Dating
8. Crucial Conversations
9. The Melting Pot of Ideas and People
10. Tennis Ball Uses

Diet Highlights

As the six month anniversary review continues, today the diet and food post highlights will be featured.

1. Food Sensitivity
2. Diet Wars
3. For the Love of Coffee
4. Eating Socially
5. Probiotics
6. Things to Add to Juice
7. Sugar Highs
8. The Start of the Fast

Exercise Highlights

This week I am highlighting some of my favorite and most popular posts from the last 6 months.  Today’s focus will be on the exercise posts.

1. Exercise Variety
2. Working Out in My Mom’s Garden
3. How to Pick the Right Shoes
4. Pelvic Floor Exercises
5. Finding Adventure in Workouts
6. Balance Exercises

6 Month Harvest

Six months ago I began to juice.  I thought that I should journal my experiments; the good, the bad and the ugly.  The blogging bug bit me and I decided to start a more general site.  A whole new world opened and I began reading other blogs and gaining some WP friends 8)

Six months after a tentative juicing start, my free time has transformed.  This morning I was driving home from a paddleboard workout found on meetup.com and stopped at the organic supermarket to pick up fresh fruit and veg.  For a treat, I just had tabbouleh salad on organic brown rice cakes.  Who just wrote that?

I used to laugh at the idea of a juice fast.  Well, one 10 day fast later, I stopped laughing.

I have gotten my first pair of glasses, likely because of all the extra time on the computer. 8)  And have taken my first photography lesson.

After 70 posts, 5800 views, and and almost 800 comments, I am looking forward to the next 6 months.

Thank you for visiting!!! Make yourself at home 8)

My next few posts will feature some of my favorite posts, photos and graphics.

Booker

Leanne at Mindfulness4now was kind enough to nominate this site and Fred for the Lovely Blog Award.  Fred and I were very excited.  It is his first nomination!  The blog has already excepted this once before and Fred has been out celebrating all week, so I will not make a formal acceptance.

Jenni at newsofthetimes was kind enough to nominate me for the Booker Award.

The rules:

1. Nominate other blogs, as many as you want but 5-10 is always a good suggestion. Don’t forget to let your recipients know.

2. Post the Booker Award picture.

3. Share your top 5 books of all time

Books and the stories they contain, are like dreams to me.  I enjoy the dream but after I wake, I can only remember flashes and a general sense of what I was feeling during the dream.

The books that stand out from my childhood are: A Wrinkle in Time and the Chronicles of Narnia.  Stephen King’s Bag of Bones is in my top 5 because of the experience.  I was driving across the country and listening to the audio book.  It was when I learned to love audio books.  When I arrived at my destination,my thoughts were in his voice.  As I walked down the long, dark halls of the dormitory from a bygone era, an internal dialog was describing the layers of lead paint.  Green paint shown where layers of the more recent pink paint peeled away.  The Complete Works of Shakespeare stand on my shelf as a reminder of a college course that I thought was a drama class that ended up to be a senior English class.  We compared the original works to movies made of the famous plays.  My last book is one that I have not read yet.  It may be released in the next couple of weeks and I am looking forward to it!  The Seneca Scourge by Carrie Rubin, looks to be an exciting and entertaining medical thriller.  Click on her name for the blurb.