Framing the Sound

Category: Summer

  • I’m a Degenerate!

    And I’m using that as my excuse for the long gap between blog posts. Let me explain…

    Back in January of this year, after a wedding shoot, I started noticing some lower back pain. Nothing severe—just an annoyance. I brushed it off as a pulled muscle from bending, twisting, and hustling around with heavy camera gear.

    But the pain didn’t go away. It got worse.

    By the end of February, I figured it was time to see my VA doctor. X-rays were scheduled, and about a week later I got the news: I’m a degenerate.

    Well—not me exactly… but the discs in my back.

    Degenerative disc disease.

    Once it was explained to me, it all started to make sense. The worsening pain, the discomfort that wouldn’t quit—it’s those worn-down discs putting pressure where they shouldn’t be, triggering sciatic nerve pain.

    So now, I’m learning.

    Learning to move differently.

    Learning to slow down.

    Learning to be intentional.

    Things I love—gardening, playing guitar, tapping out rhythms on my slap-top cajon, mowing three acres of lawn, even getting down low for macro shots of bugs—all of it now requires a bit more thought, a bit more strategy. The goal is simple: don’t make things worse.

    It’s an adjustment, no doubt about it.

    But if there’s one thing I’m realizing, it’s this: adapting isn’t quitting—it’s continuing, just a little wiser than before.

    Still… I stand by this truth:

    Aging is not for the young at heart!

  • No, it doesn’t look good there!

    I get that quite often from my wife when I suggest most any decorating idea. And this goes for outside decorations too, places she has flower beds are off limits to any planting idea I might present to her. “No, they’ll look like little soldiers lined up for inspection,” she’ll say when I suggest a row of zinnias here or there. Or, “No, hanging it that way doesn’t fit with how the rest of the room is decorated.”

    There must be something wrong with how I look at things. I had my eyes checked this year and, yes, I needed new glasses. I was also told that I have cataracts, but they’re not quite bad enough yet for removal, or are they? Could that be the reason my deco ideas don’t carry much weight? I don’t think so.

    I think it’s 34 years of marriage. Yes, that’s why I don’t have any interior/exterior decorating skills. But I decorated my recording studio all by myself. And I have a few garden beds where I can plant what I want, however I want.

    I think my straight row of zinnias look nice, and so does the framed photo I have hanging “that way” on the wall in my studio. Even if I’m the only one who thinks so.

    I reckon I’ll have those cataracts removed.

    Spiders can’t decorate either