Fractured
Effie waiting in the orthopedics department for the doc.
Effie waiting in the orthopedics department for the doc.
Effie waiting in the orthopedics department for the doc.
Effie waiting in the orthopedics department for the doc.
Effie waiting in the orthopedics department for the doc.
(click to view large)
I was half-way to work on my bike the other morning when my cell phone rang. It is unusual for me to get calls at that time. Occasionally, Sarah might call to say that Theo was too sick to go to school. But I had dropped Theo off at camp myself, so it was not likely to be her. In fact, it was the director at Shady Lane, my mother’s board and care facility. Usually, when they call me, I know it is not going to be good news.It wasn’t this time either. Effie woke up with a new mysterious pain and swelling in her left shoulder. She needs go to the emergency room and get some x-rays.
I turned the bike around and headed home. First, I called my boss and had some files uploaded to an ftp server so I could slave a little during the interminable emergency wait. Then I called Kaiser to see if it was possible to get an urgent care appointment. After some two-fisted phoning with the advice nurse on the land-line, and the facility director on the cell, we got an urgent care appointment with her regular doctor. I downloaded the files onto the laptop, got myself together and headed to Shady Lane to get mom.
At the appointment, her doctor sent us straight to radiology for x-rays. It seemed to be a slow morning and so we didn’t have to wait long at radiology. The tech was in his 50’s and sort of animated in a, for want of a better term, New Yorker kind of way. He took a picture. He commented, “yeah, fractured humerus. Nah, they won’t do surgery for that. Don’t quote me.” He seemed knowledgable and competent. Then the fun began.
He wanted to get some more shots from other angles, of course. He went over to her and sort of barked, “She just needs to relax and let me move her. People make it a bigger move than it needs to be.” She was perched on a stool in front of the imaging screen. He grabbed the stool and sort of twisted it a couple inches. She, taken by surprise, yelled out. She’s short, feet barely touch the ground, and on her third set of hips. And she’s sitting there with a broken upper arm. She doesn’t like to have her stability taken away like that. I tried to calm her.
The tech repeated the stuff about staying calm and not making a bigger thing out of it, sort of getting louder in the process. I was sort irked but keeping my deferential attitude. I tried to help move her, but he waived me off. After some wrangling, he got her repositioned where he wanted and took another shot.
Then he moved her again in the same sudden way, and again she yelled out, “Ohh!” I tried to calm her down. Meanwhile the tech started his spiel again about how “people make this a big thing and it isn’t. Just get her to relax and hold still where I put her.” I tried to suggest I could help move her. I also had a sense that we should stand her up, let her shuffle once and sit back down. The tech practically shouted, “No, I don’t need that much. I just need an inch. Tell her to relax!” I reassured her, although I myself was feeling confused and disoriented. This guy’s manner was like nothing I’d ever experienced in a hospital. The more he told us to relax, the more worked up he got himself. It was bizarre and a bit frightening. I think he managed to get another shot.
He wanted to reposition her again, and again he sort of yelled about staying calm and twisted the stool. She yelled and moved the other way. I said, “Maybe I can move her. ” He said, “Well, if you were a radiologist, maybe you could. But you’re not. This is incredibly complex bone structure.” Then he said, “Fine, you stay in here with her,” and he grabbed a big lead apron and actually put it on me. I stood there, I’m sure, with my mouth agape. Then he said something else, but I don’t know what. Once he said it, I nearly blacked out with rage. The next thing I heard was someone shouting, “NOW YOU ARE FUCKING PISSING ME OFF, MOTHER FUCKER!” and realized the voice was mine as I took the lead apron and threw it on the ground in front of him.
He took a step back, “ok, ok, let’s just hold on a minute, let’s have the supervisor help.” He turned and pivoted out of the lab and down the hall. Unfortunately, the supervisor was not around at the moment. It gave me time to calm down. So, he came back and we agreed to start over. Not saying much, we got my mom positioned and he took a final shot.
As we left the lab he came up and in the same slightly manic way, sort of apologized and shook my hand and almost tried to hug me. I felt bad about losing my temper, but I wasn’t in a kiss-and-make-up mood. We wheeled our way way back down to the doctor’s office to find out what the prognosis would be.
Weekly Photo Challenge: Morning
The WordPress prodders suggested this photo topic to me (and millions of others). It makes me think of one thing.
About three years ago my late cousin Tommy and his wife Maia were hosting Thanksgiving at the compound in Orinda. He insisted that our family come over the day before to hang out and spend the night, and just leisurely cook and drink and relax. We did. We had a lovely time all around. And it was one of the last times I’d spend an extended amount of time with him in good spirits.
I brought my camera and tripod along to play around with some night shots. Then, since the room we were in had gigantic east facing windows, we were roused by the lovely dawn. I got up, grabbed the camera and tried to figure out how to expose for these solar edge events.
On second thought, there is one other thing that comes to mind when I hear “sunrise”: The Who playing “See me, feel me” at Woodstock.
Trying to Re-Engage
No, the photo is not stretched horizontally. That’s just how they used to make ’em. And no, I didn’t pump up the saturation at all. Sometimes the light just does that. I don’t know why.
I fall further and further behind in dealing with my photographs. This, despite the fact that I am shooting far fewer photos lately. Of course, both of these facts are related to starting a new job and feeling the pressure of getting work done. Few walks around the neighborhood when I’m at work, bringing work home on occasion, studying up a bit, and various other tasks and projects make it difficult to do much writing or photography. For the last month or more, I’ve pulled some really late nights doing everything from getting taxes done to a spectacular, last-minute, marathon sprint to complete online traffic school. The late nights make me slower at work, which makes me bring work home, which leads to late nights, which,…
I believe, and I hope, the worst of it is now passed.
Similarly, I am also fabulously behind on both this daily post to the blog, and the project 365 group on flickr. I continue to feel a bit torn about both of these projects. I want to do both everyday. I really do. I want to be able to say I did it, and I want have the resulting output from participating in projects like these. But on the other hand, I think that it does not often make for very good or interesting results if one is always pressed for time. Does it make sense to just take a picture of anything at all and throw it up there just to meet the obligation to post something everyday? Does one get better by doing that? Does it make sense to write a few sentences in the most dry and mechanical way just to meet the arbitrary goal? I think that if one isn’t taking time to think about it, or attempt to practice a particular kind of shot, or whatever, then one is not communicating anything or improving one’s skills.
As for photos, since there is plenty of work to do catching up on processing and archiving photos already taken, I am going to solidly re-commit to uploading something everyday, but the photo will not necessarily have been taken on that day. I took this photo on April 29th, but posted it to the group for the 28th. I had nothing on the 28th. Zero. And yet, I got a handful of fun shots on the 29th. Some days are just like that. And while there will be a photo representing each day, there may be multiple photos in my submission to the group taken on the same day. That’s a clear violation of the group rules, but it’s the only way to keep with it at this point. And I’d rather put up photos I actually like than put up photos taken on 365 different days but that I mostly hate.
As far as the blog goes, I hope to get back at it and write about something everyday–about something other than why I’m not writing.
Still Life with Lamp
Lamp, Chair, Photograph.
I often see wonderfully moody shots of interiors–you know, all dark and mysterious. I guess it is harder than it looks. Or maybe you just aren’t supposed to have the light in the frame. The lamp reminds me a bit of David Lynch’s stuff. I’m going to keep experimenting with it. But even with the dimmer, I couldn’t get this 300w bulb down low enough. I couldn’t get the color right. I seemed green to me. Just a scooch to the right, and suddenly too magenta! So, back the other way. Back and forth, back and forth. Finally, I just kinda left it where it started. I still like that Cougar, though.
Get Stuff Done
Yellow Wall with Blue Trim
I had a meeting to attend tonight, which led to two other things.
The first thing is that I parked in front of a bizarre storefront. Years from now, people won’t believe that it was once chic to glue rocks to your walls and spray paint them bright colors, so I wanted to make sure I documented it.
The second thing that happened is that after the meeting I walked by Phil’s fabrication shop down on San Pablo at the old transmission shop. I saw him through the window and knocked to simply say “hi”. Instead, he invited me in and we had a great conversation for a big long time. Again.
It’s genuinely inspiring to get to talk to such creative people and see their wonderful work. Again, we threw some ideas around and talked about cool stuff to try and do! Clearly, I must find a way to be more productive. Staying up late at night to work on personal projects after working at a job all day, parenting, and meeting other obligations, is resulting mostly in sleep deprivation and not a lot of quality work on any front. But I’m determined to figure out a way…
After Work
Painted Hearse, Oakland CA. April, 2011. (click image to enlarge)
These past few days I’ve been too engrossed in work to make it out to stroll the neighborhood. So I’ve only shot as far as the curb in front of my place of employment on my way back and forth to my own car. But I think there’s plenty of photography to be done right there: churches, hearses, lowriders, chinese hamburger-stirfry-donut shops–you name it.
Silhouette Memorial
War Memorial Silhoutte. Click to view large. © neo serafimidis 2011
As I passed, a jangling of neurons: something strangely familiar. I stopped. A minaret against the sky. Ironic perhaps, in these xenophobic times. Awaiting the crescent moon and the north star, just the same.
Weekly Photo Challenge: Lines
Lines © 2010 neo serafimidis
Lines. Lots of them, from a year ago. As soon as I saw the challenge topic, I thought of this shot.
A few more lines.
After I posted this the first time, I turned around to leave the room and saw my old Stella sitting there: strings, grain, all lines.
Swinging into Record Store Day
The Complete Tiffany Transcriptions
In honor of Record Store Day today, I took our guests for the day, Sarah’s sister Carrie and BF Glenn, up to Down Home Music. As many of you know, this is one of the most important records stores around for folk, Americana, jazz, and more. The result was that I picked up the 10-disk box set of Bob Wills’ complete Tiffany Transcriptions. I was absolutely overjoyed to find it there. I had it in my shopping cart on Amazon for awhile and then it sold out. But the double joy today was that not only did I find it, but I supported an independent record label/company/store that’s a major player in documenting Americana and folk music from around the world.
If you didn’t do it today, get out there tomorrow and buy something from your local indie record store. And if you are in the SF Bay Area, definitely check out Down Home Music. Really.
What’s New is Old Again
Afternoon Edition 4. Oakland CA. April, 2011.
I am now on the fourth run of The Afternoon Edition, wherein I explore the environment around my place of employment. It looks like a very rich area for exploration, except there is an official warning to not venture into the neighborhood to our immediate West as there have been problems. Anyway, this shot uses a Lightroom preset downloaded from flickr friend underthewaves called Ultimate Vintage. It sure worked on this one.