Tag Archives: Drone

Today’s Thoughts 3/30/2018

30 Friday Mar 2018

Posted by in Cancer, Photography

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Only 138 days left until I retire.  Not that I’m counting or anything.

I took my drone flying today. There’s an old railroad car yard that’s been left to rust near my home.  I’d been meaning to fly out there for a while now.  Today was the day.  I was off today being that today was Good Friday.  The wind was a little high but I managed to get the flight off without much of a problem.  I’ve got another flight plan that takes the drone down a little closer, maybe I’ll get to do it tomorrow.

I finally heard from my pharmacy today and I should be able to get my new meds on Tuesday of next week.  I sure hope I do well with this med.  I talked to the pharmacist and they told me that there’s a lot of side effects. Some pretty bad.  I can deal with some of the effects as long as the medicine works.  We shall see.

A Few Thoughts and Other Entanglements

18 Sunday Mar 2018

Posted by in Family, Photography

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As I sit here tonight, they are predicting severe weather for tomorrow evening.  The biggest threat is north Alabama but they include large hail, strong winds, and a few strong tornados.  I can handle the severe thunderstorms but tornados is another thing.  I’m still not over the tornado outbreak of 2011 that wiped out nearly half of our town and killed eleven people in our community.

What I’m also doing is putting together a few videos that I’ve created.  Most of which have been taken to try and boost the city’s morale. We have several city FaceBook pages and each one of them consist of negativity about our community.  We lost a lot of homes and families right after the tornado.  With these homes destroyed, many of which were never rebuilt and the families moved out.  With that said, we lost a lot of tax money.  Our city doesn’t have the money for a lot of the upkeep and people are complaining about the trash, businesses closing, and crime.  What I’m trying to do is post these videos on these pages showing what we have to be proud of; A nice athletic complex, a nice school, a storm shelter, etc.

During the tornado of 2011, we thought we had lost the brand new school.  Some kids and I were on a bus with the band heading to Orlando for a school trip when the tornado hit.  There were all sorts of rumors that told of the school burning, people lying on the ground dead and many other stories.  Most of which were true but the school did not catch on fire.

The tornado hit about a half a mile from the school and the athletic complex.  Like I said, a lot of rumors floated around and we were happy that we didn’t lose either of these landmarks.  My house was also spared thankfully.  The athletic complex is one of the jewels of our community.  Between the complex and our park (I don’t have a video of it as of yet), the kids of our community wouldn’t have a place to go and play.  My kids were fortunate to be able to spend a great deal of time at the park and they couldn’t wait to go and play in the creek.

I think we take for granted these places that our city has supplied for us. We always focus on the negativity instead of the positive.  I’m really hoping these storms that are predicted for tomorrow will pass us by. I’m really hoping!!  I’ll let you guys know how we faired tomorrow night.

2018 Pinewood Derby

12 Monday Mar 2018

Posted by in Family, Photography

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I remember going to these things when my boy was in cub scouts. I would always end up working on the car because he would never do it the way I wanted him to do it.  We had fun working together anyway.  It was a good time for us.  He was at the, what I would like to call, the fun age.  We would always find something to do together.  He loved the scouts as did I.  This gave us a wonderful opportunity to be together plus it gave him an opportunity for him to be around kids his own age.  I really miss those days.  He’s grown now, moved out of the house not long ago and into an apartment not far from here.

Boy Scouts has changed somewhat since I was a boy scout those many years ago.  One thing that hasn’t changed is the program and what they have to offer.  You may not like what’s happened within the past few years, neither do I in some aspects but there’s one thing they still offer, and that’s a program that keeps the boys out of trouble and in doing so they have the opportunity to learn something.

I digress.  This article was supposed to be about the Pinewood Derby which was held yesterday.  Eighteen cars were entered from all over our district.  Nearly all the boys won some sort of trophy.  They had to win their division just be able to race their car in this race so they had to win something before they got there.  Everyone had a great time.  Hope you enjoy the video.

Update 3/4/2018

04 Sunday Mar 2018

Posted by in Cancer, Leukemia, Photography

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I know it’s been a while since I’ve posted an update and I do apologize for that. With my health such a roller coaster and my job is as crazy as it is well, I just haven’t taken the time to write.

First of all, let me say that I’m feeling better today than I have in years.  Seriously, with all the crap my body has been going through, it’s about time.  But, I have a feeling that it’s about to change for the worse again.

We found out that the meds for my CML was causing all the fluid to build up around my heart and lungs; more so the lungs.  In short, the oncologist took me off my meds and my pulmonologist took 1.5 liters of fluid off my left lung.  He left fluid in my right lung due to him not wanting the infection to set in on either or both the lungs.  A heavy dose of Lasix and now my right lung is clear of fluid.  In two weeks I see my oncologist and a new med will be prescribed and one of the main side effects is fluid retention.  Oh well, it was good while it lasted.

At this writing, I will be retiring on August 15th of this year.  After 32 years I’ve finally had enough, well, I’ve had enough long ago but I can officially retire when I turn 55 so I’m turning in my notice.  I’ve got a lot of hobbies so I know I will stay busy.

I’m working on a Youtube video about the tornado that went through our city back in 2011 and I’m doing some test shots with my drone.  Let me know what you think of it.  In the video that I’m working on, I will hopefully show some areas of our city that still shows some damage that the tornado left.  I will also show areas of major improvements that wouldn’t have happened if the tornado hadn’t visited our city.

There’s a lot more going on but I’ll post about it later.  I hope you enjoy the video.

 

Tim

Trying to Stay Up!

01 Saturday Oct 2016

Posted by in Cancer, Depression, Leukemia, Photography, Weight Loss

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Pleasant Grove High School

This blog was supposed to be able to help others that are going through the same stuff I am such as CML, Diabetes and being over weight, deal with life’s up’s and downs.  However, all I seem to be doing is bringing myself down.  How can I be helping others if I can’t seem to help myself.  I keep telling myself that once I get my health back on track I’ll be able to use  this experience to help others if and when they go through something similar.

First things first.  I’m still dealing with my labored breathing.  I think the last time I posted that I was going to see my cardiologist.  Well I did and he scheduled a echo cardiogram of my heart.  Really!  The problem is not my heart but fluid retention in  my lungs.  Anyway, had the test done and after a few days I got a call stating that all was fine.  Then he scheduled a CT scan of my lungs this past Thursday, nothing heard as of yet.  I have an appointment with my GP on Tuesday and my pulmonary on Wednesday.  Keep in mind that every time I have to take off to go to the doctor I have to work over to make up for the time lost.  I’m so sick and tired of having to stay late it’s about to drive me nuts.  Of course, that’s another story.

In the mean time…my employer is stressing me out.  I’m not exactly sure what I’ve posted about this but my boss has noticed some memory problems going on with me.  I, of course have denied all of it but it turns out that I am having some memory issues.  They’ve run a bunch of tests including some neurological tests that are not covered by my insurance company.  I’ll be paying for these tests for years to come.  But it seems that I’m having some short term memory loss.  The neuro psychologist  has even diagnosed me with amnesia.  Seriously??  Now my employer is wanting to demote me to a lower pay grade because I can’t do my previous job because of some safety issues.  If it wasn’t for the money issues I wouldn’t mind doing the job I’m doing now because it’s a whole lot less stressful.  As of yet the doctors have not determined why I’m having these memory issues.  They’ve done a MRI of my head and of course they didn’t find anything up there. (Pun) and they’ve pretty much ruled out my medications as well.

On top of all this the associate health nurse is telling me to seriously consider disability.  I’ve checked into it and can’t afford doing the things it’s asking me to do.  For instance, if you make more than $1300 a month you will be denied right off the bat. With two kids in college, one at home, a wife and all my bills there is no way I can live off of $1300 a month.  I have got less than 23 months before I can retire.  I told the nurse not to mention disability again to me unless she want’s to pay my bills while I’m off making less than $1300 a month.  She didn’t much like that comment.

Regardless how I feel, I try to do something fun at least once a week.  Tomorrow I’m going to my girls college for some homecoming festivities.  Getting to the place is not the issue, it’s once I’m there having to walk the seven to eight blocks to where I can view the parade, that’s going to be the issue.  I’ll be able to spend some time with at least one of my daughters tomorrow but the other one will be busy with band stuff.  I’ll see her in passing.
I’ve also bought a drone.  It’s a Phantom 3 Advanced and so far I like it.  I’m still scared that it will fly away on me and I’ll never see it again.  It takes pretty good pictures and real good video.  I’ve already been asked to do some aerial photography of some upcoming events so at least I’ll be able to sit down while I do that.

Anyway, that’s what’s been going on lately.  Maybe I’ll get some relief for my breathing soon.  We’ll see.