Where you're going, Jacksonville Beach

My garden, April 29th, 2016

 Daturas (Angel's trumpets)

 Hibiscus

My layered area. We have had a great Spring and my garden is flourishing.

Birds seen today

 Willet and boaters

 Pelicans

Three Carolina skimmers and two Royal terns. They go to the same barber.

PVIC, Ponte Vedra Beach, FL

Ponte Vedra Beach

Slow moving vehicle, Jacksonville Beach

 I love these old VWs

Jacksonville Beach

Many choices.

Hydrants, Jacksonville Beach

 An old timer and a kid.

Jacksonville Beach

Jacksonville Beach

Five weeks ago I woke up with a very bad back. Sciatica down both legs, right leg enervated and weak. I went to my primary care doctor and got an x-ray and an MRI. I have spondilolithesis and spinal stenosis. The first is a slipped/rupture disk and the second is a narrowing, due to arthritis (read wear and tear due to age), of the vertebrae. Both of these put pressure on various nerves in the lower back. In extreme cases there is an operation that removes the disk and injects bone to fuse the two vertebrae. I did not want that. I went out from that diagnosis determined to walk and went to Jacksonville Beach. As I walked I heard a slapping sound. It was my right foot coming down with no control, a condition called foot drop, caused by impinged nerves. Yuck. I tried to take a lot of pictures but was thinking more of my condition. And yet, this came out of the walk. I like it and cannot explain why.

As a follow-up, I got a massage and, as I got off the table, wrenched my back, causing more pain in the left leg. I was discouraged. By the time I got home the pain had equalized on both sides and seemed better. By the next morning most of the sciatica was gone but the foot drop remained. As a week passed, the sciatica disappeared and the foot drop left. I was referred to a Physical Therapist in Jacksonville Beach and he has given me a regimen of exercises and poses to build my core muscles around the back. With fingers crossed I can report that the pain is reduced to a small area near my left hip and my core is already stronger after 3 weeks. I have learned where to be careful with lifting etc. We spent last week in Millbrae, CA, seeing my sister-in-law and brother-in law, who will be moving to Florida soon, I hope, and, even with terrible plane seats on the way out (very old plane), my back behaved. Yay!

Now that the organ recital is over I will tell about this picture. It was taken with the Sony a6000 that I bought at huge discount when the a6300 replaced it. It has the same sensor as the newer camera, a 24mp aps-c one that has gotten rave reviews since it came out. I got bargain priced Sigma lenses for it and have a nice kit. The Sigmas with this sensor return very clear files. Clear, in this case, is my own private definition, but means that they look like what I saw with no additions or enhancements. The camera is small and the lenses are in scale, as opposed to a lot of aps-c lenses that look like beer cans pasted on the front of the body. The camera is not an easy fit for my hand and shooting method and it will not allow me to shoot square (1:1) which I prefer but the files are truly lovely. It explains why Nikon uses the same sensor on some of their aps-c cameras.

Man, am I long winded. That's enough for now.

Pelican and cormorant PVB