Since returning from the Creative Industries Summit in Salida, I have been dealing with some challenges.

My body has not felt very good the last week or more.

Exhaustion was the first challenge.

Then I realized I was experiencing neck pain like I hadn’t felt in years. I determined my head was off its axis – something I lived with for many years. That misalignment puts the pain right behind my eyes. And it travels up and down my neck to shoulders and middle of my back. Not fun at all.

So on Monday, I went to the local $15 a visit chiropractor to see if he could give me some relief. I had never gone to him before, he had taken over the practice from another chiropractor who did adjustments for $10 for many years, then changed it to $15 a visit just before he left his practice and this new person took it over. They don’t deal with insurance companies or keep records of the visits or take credit cards. Seems to work for them. And I had had a couple of people recommend this new person, so decided it was a good idea to try to get some relief by a visit to his office.

And did seem to help. As the day wore on, my neck felt much better.

I had also scheduled a massage for Tuesday with someone I had traded some essential oils, my book and a membership discount for 3 massages last year before the flooding happened. On Tuesday morning, she called and said she was sure she had already given me my three massages for the trade last year. That didn’t sit well with me, as I was pretty certain she had only done 2 of the in trade massages. She said she was moving and would look it up in her records that she keeps for patients. She hasn’t called me back yet. I called today and told her message machine that “Yes, she had given me 3 massages last year. The first one I paid for and was how we got to talking about essential oils and that conversation peaked her interest. She came to my home where we worked out the trade for 3 massages, and I had two of them last year. So there was one still due me. But if that was not how she remembered the 3 three massages she gave me last year being done, to give me a call and we could talk it through.” Haven’t heard back from her after leaving that message either.

Tony’s Tuesday webinar was on how to take better photos and turned us on to one of his most favorite plugins to use to tweak them after they are taken. This plugin was being offered for FREE for a limited time. Usually it costs $99, so as soon as the Expert Media Show ended, I went and downloaded it. And I have gotten lost playing with it. It has some really cool effects, but one of the best features is it will darken, make a sky more blue. And it will find details and sharpen them. Some times that is good, sometimes really ugly. I have fallen in love with the “surreal” filter to use for future fun images.

The day after my neck began to feel better, my right knee gave out and sent some sharp pains up my leg. Whoa! What is that about? And this is the leg I rarely have any trouble with and didn’t have the blood clot in years ago. Applied many essential oils and given it some gentle massages. The Lemongrass seems to be helping a bit and Young Living AromaSiez takes the pain away for a short time. And I am still tired . . . so adding more pain isn’t helping my mood or energy.

I had wanted to go on a hike on Thursday after going to a meeting with an Insurance Agent and the person coordinating the Beer Garden for Commonwheel’s Art Festival on Labor Day weekend, but decided that wasn’t a good idea. Or at least not to schedule with my regular hiking party. And then the weather was predicted to be cold and maybe even snow!?!

I was really glad I had brought my best camera with me.

The weather started out beautiful, then the clouds came in.

So I did stop and take photos of clouds and Pikes Peak and birds that posed for me in a couple of places. I have some very dramatic images of the Peak. And as I headed home through the Garden of the Gods where I wanted to take a short gentle “hike” it began to splash large white drops on the windshield, so that was not weather I wanted to walk in with my knee so achy.

Oddly walking in straight line actually made my leg/knee feel better. But bending my knees on stairs or getting in and out of the car, of my, that did hurt.

I decided to drive down Cañon Avenue to get home and there was big equipment dredging the creek. I parked and got out in the sloppy weather to take some interesting photographs of this process.

I did arrive just as the last bit of debris was dumped into a truck that left, so I didn’t get many photos of the debris actually being lifted out of the creek. But I did learn how the smaller pieces of equipment get in and out of the creek. They get lifted by the larger equipment.

It was just drizzling, but I did get a bit damp and chilled before the equipment moved out of my safe range of focus. 

I went to the Taurean Birthday party with Deja Vu Singles Thursday night. Had some fun conversations and danced a bit. I am really good at one-leg free form dancing, but that doesn’t work when someone asks you to slow dance, but only irritated my knee a little bit, or so I thought. The chocolate, chocolate cake was a real delicious treat for this chocoholic.

Luckily, I had a short “Tune-up” massage with Kathleen of Sharing Inner Health on Friday morning.

I walked over to her office and and took my secondary camera as the sky looked like it could rain hard any minute. But it never did. She relieved some of the pressure and as I said before, walking on flat ground helped my knee feel better.

I went home and had a bit of lunch, then headed back out with my best camera and took some spring photos. I walked back to Sharing Inner office and took some green leaf and flowery photos to put on her web site to replace the drab winter ones that are there now.

And the flowers were coming out in many areas. Unfortunately so was the wind. I had some problems getting photos that were not fuzzy from moving leaves and petals. Still, I got some really lovely ones.

And the pansies gave me an idea for a book. Have to think about that a bit more, and get my “Sustainable Festival” book finished before I start another project.

Am having a real hard time on Saturday to get motivate as my knee still aches badly. I did my posts done for the next show in Commomwheel’s Gallery: “Demented”. And connected with people to come pick up their art work when “Old Spokes” closes on Tuesday. So I didn’t totally slack off.

There was to be some dancing tonight, but it got canceled due to the illness of one of the band members. Probably a good thing for me to not be dancing on this knee.

I am doing some more catching up with my blogs, but that is not really very productive. Still, doing something which is better than feeling sorry for myself.

So have been using cold packs and that seems to help. Maybe one more day of this and then it will be better . . .