Thursday, July 9, 2009

Thursday, July 9, 2009
It looks like another beautiful morning in paradise, with the sun shining brightly and only a few clouds on the horizon. The temperature is a bit cool, in the mid to high 50s, with hope of it becoming warmer as the day wears on.
The winds are still blowing and keeping the wind-chill factor active, but local weather reports are saying that summer is back with temperatures in the low to mid 80s this coming weekend.
Today is a town day, so after my morning coffee and a short amount of time to check and respond to my emails, I will get ready and leave so I can meet my friend Greg for lunch in town.
We made it to town and I had lunch with Greg and a nice visit, and then ran a couple of errands and picked up my mail. My appointment is with an allergist and is at 3 O’clock, but they phoned and asked if I could come in earlier as they finished early with a patient. Because this is my first visit, he wanted more time to gather my history and discuss possible solutions to my Rhinorrhea, which is a constant running nose, or to put it bluntly, diarrhea of the nose.
I drove to the office and checked in, and was then led to a room and waited for the doctor. He arrived and introduced himself, Dr. Richard Buswell, and began asking me questions, referring to the letter of referral from my doctor. As we talked, the discussion of where I live came up and come to find out he is a well known professional photographer of old cabins and historical spots. We spent more time talking socially than about my allergies, but finished up with possible remedies for my Rhinorrhea, as well as asthma.
He prescribed a couple of different medications for my Rhinorrhea and one for my asthma, giving me several samples of them to try. Because of my high blood pressure, he doesn’t want me to use anything with a decongestant and due to my past problem with WPW (Wolff-Parkinson-White Syndrome); he doesn’t want me to use inhalers with stimulants in them.
Before leaving, he shared the three books of his photographs currently in publication, and told me that another was being compiled for publication. He shared that his home has a complete dark room and processing lab and that he does all of his own developing. He shoots 35 mm black and white and coats the film with gold, on top of the silver, to make them long lasting. He also has a climate-controlled room to keep all of the original negatives and invited me to come see it some time.
He said that he has been torn between being a doctor and professional photographer all of his adult life. He has specialized as an allergist for over 30 years and done photography for more than that.
I am very impressed with his photographs and we exchanged contact information so he can come up and see some of the places I have found that he may not be aware of, such as the mine and miner’s cabin hidden in the gulch near me. He grew up in this area (my location) and his father recently sold their old homestead, which isn’t far from me. I have digital photographs of many of the pictures in his book and offered to let him go through and see if there are any he was unaware of. He told me that I was now officially one of his information contacts for places to go check out. I invited him to come up and we could use the Argo to get some of the sites that you can’t drive to. He assured me he would.
Other than stopping at Safeway for some items and to pick up a prescription, we headed for home. Once the Jeep was unloaded, I played with Zack until he gave up. I fed him and Zoey, showered, fixed myself some dinner and then relaxed for the remainder of the evening.
This morning’s low was 30.1 and the high for the day was 74 degrees, with wind gusts to 24 mph. No rain for a change, and if things dry out, I may be able to get some work outside done.