My Great Breast Cancer Adventure

Hot Jackie P.

Originally uploaded by my.third.eye

Jack & Livvy B.

Jack & Livvy B.
Originally uploaded by my.third.eye

Thermography and Iodine

I highly recommend this audio tape: Breast Health: Thermography and Iodine. I bought it for $19.95, I listened to it, and I thought that what this doctor (an osteopath) has to say about both thermography AND the use of iodine in breast cancer prevention (for any woman, whether she has or hasn't had breast cancer) was RIGHT ON.

I've gotten on the soapbox about iodine (Iodoral) in more than one of my previous blog posts. This tape gives an excellent summary of how and why iodine is so important to breast health and good health in general, for both men and women (and using regular iodized salt is not even remotely enough).

Thermography I haven't mentioned until now. Now I think it's an important adjunct tool for preventing breast cancer. Dr. Tenpenny's explanation as to why and how thermography works is EXCELLENT and very persuasive, so much so that I made an appointment and got my first baseline thermography done last week. I plan to use it in conjunction with mammograms; my belief, after listening to Tenpenny's CD, is that this will allow me to do fewer mammograms, which DO cause an accumulation of carcinogenic radiation in the fatty breast tissues.

Dr. Tenpenny also has a Breast Health Blog, the link to which I have added to my list of alternative health resources (lefthand sidebar...scroll down past the list of recommended books).

Gutter Swirl

Gutter Swirl
Originally uploaded by my.third.eye

I Can't Remember

I Can't Remember
Originally uploaded by my.third.eye

Bottom of the Billboard

Bottom of the Billboard
Originally uploaded by my.third.eye

San Francisco Rainbow

San Francisco Rainbow
Originally uploaded by my.third.eye

The Project

The Project
Originally uploaded by my.third.eye

And the house transformation continues, slowly but surely, in Jack's cracks of spare time (thank goodness he's now busy with "real" paying work, speaking of which, I must get back to my own; no time to blog-chat).

Like a Painting . . .

Originally uploaded by my.third.eye

. . .found on one of my neighborhood's many colorful, multi-layered and oft' times decaying walls. I'm learning that, as with pretty much everything else in life, photography is all about HOW you see what you see . . . how you choose to frame it, for example, and in what light. The choices are infinite.

My Beautiful Olivia at Dusk

My Beautiful Olivia at Dusk
Originally uploaded by my.third.eye

I'm having some problems with my landlord. The situation is so depressing, I went to bed last night at 10 p.m., woke up at 2:15 a.m. and couldn't get back to sleep. After tossing and turning for 45 minutes, I got up, walked the five feet over to Olivia's little bed, sat down on the floor next to her, and cried for a while. She pressed her head against my hand and looked up at me with that beseeching look that the good dogs give you when they know all is not right with your world (and therefore not right with theirs).

Then I got up, made a cup of coffee., went to the living room couch and stayed on it the entire day, because sometimes when things go awry, I need to stop moving, stop doing, and stop trying to "fix" what I can't control. If I'm lucky, the universe smiles on me and causes stuff to happen in my unconscious - stuff that helps me accept that all I can change is my perspective.

The good news is that I discovered, upon downloading my latest batch of photos, that I took what I think is a really nice photo of Olivia, if I do say so myself. Don't you think the blue-gray fence brings out the redness of her fur? If only I could look as good as my doggie does!  :-)

I Don't Wear Them Anymore, But. . .

I Don't Wear Them Anymore, But. . .
Originally uploaded by my.third.eye

Yesterday I went over to my "old" house, where most of my high heels still reside as "display" items in the living room. I went over to do basic Writing Salon duties of the daily grind variety - empty trash, vacuum, replenish toilet paper and paper towels, straighten rumpled couch covers, water plants, etc.

But I had my camera with me, and I couldn't resist taking some time out to sink into nostalgia for my little cottage home of almost 15 years. I began to walk around the living room and kitchen, just looking and re-seeing all that is so familiar that I had almost begun to look THROUGH rather than AT it.

Walls, doors, windows. Curves, lines, angles. Light, shadow, reflections. Orange vase, faux wall, the occasional leopard print, Matisse or pretty button.

I spent a good hour wandering around capturing bits and pieces of my warmly colored, flagrantly-flawed-but-passionate past. . . in ambient light and macro mode. :-)

Jack at Work - More

Jack at Work
Originally uploaded by my.third.eye

Here's my addendum to yesterday's "View Out My Window." No such view today, though. Today he's over at Sergio's house, three doors up the block. Pretty soon he'll have painted every house within a one block radius in all directions, methinks. People walk by, see how he's painting THIS house, and then want to hire him to paint THEIR house.

I often eavesdrop on fragments of conversations that he has with passersby who stop to ask questions about all sorts of things - paint colors and qualities, moldings, asbestos, shingles, dry rot, trim, etc. Of course, my ears perk up most when the conversations veer to more personal stuff, such as comments on how cute Olivia is, or why Bernal Heights is such a great place to live, or how much they're asking for the house down the street that just went on the market.

Yesterday's View out My Living Room Window

Master Craftsman #9
Originally uploaded by my.third.eye

The back of the house is finished, and now Jack is working on the side. Yesterday he was so absorbed and focused, he didn't even notice me taking pictures of him, and I took, you know, like....84!

I have to say that this is one of the best views I could wish to have while sitting on the couch with my laptop. His facial expressions are always changing as he works; I like watching them. That, and let's face it, he's pretty darn good lookin'.

Sunset Silhouettes

Originally uploaded by my.third.eye

Yesterday Olivia and I ventured over to the other side of Bernal Hill - North Bernal, where we walked down Folsom to Precita Park, then made a left on some skinny little street that dead-ended in a flight of stairs that took us back up toward the hill. We had to scrambled up a rather steep and slippery dirt path at one point, which is great fun to do when you know that you are not in the country but in the city. The juxtaposition of the two opposites pleases me, more often than not.

Olivia on the Move

Olivia on the Move
Originally uploaded by my.third.eye

I liked how Olivia looked like a wild animal, maybe an Irish Terrier Coyote mix running low to the ground, intent on stalking its prey. (In truth, I think she was running toward Violet, a black retriever friend hidden in the shadow of the benches.)

Three Views of Karen

Originally uploaded by my.third.eye

My friend Karen from NYC came to SF for a whirlwind two-day, mostly business trip. We met for coffee at her favorite Potrero Hill cafe, Farley's, and talked 90 mpm, played with our cameras, and compared shoes.

Originally uploaded by my.third.eye

Originally uploaded by my.third.eye