Mid Winter, I think!

   Winter is most certainly upon the landscape and cabin fever is a small but ever present thing to deal with! That being said, when you come out of the valley and rise above the inversion the view is breathtaking! Or maybe thats a result of the hiking to get up to the beautiful views! Either way it is nice to get some vitamin D from above this time of year.Its been seven weeks since going off chemo and I had my blood work done today to see if all was good. And everything blood wise was great! Everything that was low because of chemo was back to good levels! Three and a half weeks until surgery. I won't be going to Arizona or to Death Valley for a photo shoot with Marshall before surgery, due to a lack of funds and it just not working out this time. Marshall is a great teacher in the photography field! I have been on a few shoots with him and have learned so much! This picture was taken close to the top of Blewett Pass, up an access road to a cell tower. Have a great and wonderful day!

2013 its here !

                                            GOLDEN FUMED VORTEX 2012

2013 is here and with it all the anticipation of an upcoming surgery and possible disability from the RRB"Railroad retirement board". I have applied for disability bennies from Social Security SSI and also the railroad and the waiting game has begun. I am fairly certain that I have filled out and sent in all that is required of me and am waiting for any response from either entity. In the mean time I am getting a lot of Starbucks time and even making a few pendants for jewelry stock for the upcoming summer.

The picture is of the next to the last pendant of 2012, a golden vortex, of which I am getting better at making.

 I did get to talk to my surgeon Doc about the upcoming whipple procedure that I am getting. It turns out that my pancreas is connected to the lower part of my stomach and shares a blood supply! So when they take out the lower part of my stomach they will be taking the blood supply for the one end of my pancreas, so they have to remove that part of it too! That will leave me a diabetic for a year or so while my pancreas  recovers from its partial removal. It is all very unnerving to think about so I am not dwelling on it too much! I am just very thankful to have a plan for the removal of the cancer and a future after the process is done. I hesitate to make any plans until I recover from the surgery.

I might go to Death Valley with my friend Marshall of a week of photography or possibly fly down to Arizona to visit Doug and Barb before the surgery gets here but money and time will tell. Thank you all my friends for the prayers and well wishes! Until later............

2012 is almost history, and what a year its been!

2012 What a year!
As the year winds down I am reflecting on the journey with humility,humbleness and utter amazement!
The year started off with a failing marriage and the utter lack of work up in Show Low, AZ.
As the months went on the plans were made and remade as the relationship I was in,crumbled and the work never came through either. I had made $667.00 at my part time job at the music store in the first three months, and my soon to be ex found herself a 3 month job at a Christian school, she saved up for her departure and I borrowed money from family to get me through the drought. The divorce was started and I planned to go north to Washington to work at Village Art in the Park at Leavenworth, Wa.
So plans led to preparations for the departure from Arizona for both my future ex and myself, and on the 26th of May my ex left for California and I left for Washington. I got there on the 28th and started working at Art in the Park on the 1st of June. I worked all 5 weekends in June and as I was tearing down my booth on the 1st of July I started feeling physically terrible! I wound up in the emergency room at the Wenatchee ,WA local hospital on the 2nd. Then again on the 4th of July. This time the admitted me into the hospital and pumped my stomach and scoped it. They let me go back to my Mom's house (where I am staying) on the 7th. Then on the 10th I got a call from the Doctor and he told me I had stomach cancer. So,what next was my question?I was referred to an oncologist and a surgeon.
 I then got an exploratory surgery on the 25th and then on the 1st of August I started 3 types of chemo.
Nine weeks of chemo then surgery then 9 more weeks of chemo was the new plan in my journey!
 Two weeks later I came down with blood clots in my arm, close to where they put the chemo port in my chest. So then the plan had to be modified. I went on shots in my belly and blood thinner pills, then after two weeks I went off the shots and have been on blood thinners since. Since I had a clot problem the Doctors decided to do all 18 weeks of chemo up front then do my surgery and remove the port at that time. Thus taking the clot problem with it! The chemo ended on the 10th of this month and I am waiting on surgery now. Also waiting on a second opinion as to the time I get the surgery. The surgeon wants to do the surgery on the 21st of February and the oncologist said it would be after waiting 4 weeks, not the 8 weeks the surgeon wants to wait. I am being referred to the University of Washington hospital for the second opinion, as they are supposed to be the best around this area. Stay tuned to what actually happens in the near future, as I plan to post more than the 3 times I posted so far this year.

SPRING!

Finally spring is here! And yesterday it was snowing and the day before it was snowing and blowing! So I went cross country skiing for what seems like the last time of the season. Today is clear and the temps are rising with the high altitude sunshine. Soon, I hope to have a blog posted on my website. Until then. Jon

Southern Cross Jewelry Arts , My new website!

Finally I have a working website up and running for my new business name!

The website is www.southerncrossjewelryarts.com So anyway iWeb makes creating your own website a very easy task even for a novice like me! I have yet to get the payment and shipping up and running but at least it is started. Stay tuned for more stuff to be published to the website. I plan on putting my blog on the site too as I get it all together. And I soon will have items up for sale.

Blogging from my iPhone4

What will they think of next? I am publishing this from my iPhone! How cool is that! Oh, there's an app for that! I have an interesting life!!!

Last night's Tarantula!

The Tarantula was probably 6 inches in diameter, so, big enough to impress me!