Friday the 13th

This title has nothing to do with the image. Oh well. I guess I could have gotten a photo of the black cat up the street since it is Friday the 13th, but I liked this. It's a bit early for me to post, but decided that this was okay and then I could put my obsessive compulsion of Blip behind me for the day and perhaps get a few projects done. And if a UFO lands in our yard, I can always change this.

I did have a "meet and greet" with our new "doctor' on Wednesday. He is a Physician's Assistant and that's who will be taking over for our doctor who left to pursue other interests (although I hear he is a bit disappointed in the Hospice Fellowship he is doing..). Anyhoo....this new guy is really nice and we chatted for a bit about arthritis and sore tendons and fingernails. Tendon is slowly, slowly healing. Garden variety osteoarthritis frustrates me, but it's manageable, I guess. However my fingernails have never been in such poor condition. They are peeling and they are in a mess. I read up on fingernails on the Internet and found that one cause is dryness (lack of certain oils in the diet) and that linoleic acid is a great nail strengthener. It is found in vegetable oils, but it's greatest concentration is in flax seed. I bought ground flax seed meal at the "health food" section of my local huge grocery store and now take 2 tablespoons daily with a bit of yogurt (Greek yogurt for extra protein). It will take awhile for the fingernails to grow out. I'll let you know how this works. In the meantime, he ordered a blood test to check on Vitamin D levels as previous doctor never did that, to see if the calcium, Vitamin D and the generic Fosamax that I take are balanced. The breakdown of the bones due to osteoporosis and the things I do to prevent that has to be in the right combination, I have learned. So, boring, I know...BUT,my point being: flax seed is awesome stuff and will provide your body with much needed goodies. The doctor said to keep taking it as it also helps to lower triglycerides in your blood. Not to mention, fiber is always a good thing. So...take your ground flax seed, found at your neighborhood large all purpose grocery store, or a health food store. Ground flax seed is better to take than just the flax seed, or so he said. This is your health tip for the day. Film at 11.

PS: Okay, I guess I'll do a bit of self promotion. Capture Clark County is a site associated with our newspaper that has been having a photo "contest" for nearly a year. I thought it was for 6 months, then they extended it. It is one of those deals where the newspaper and a publishing company have gotten together to do this county wide photo contest to involve local photographers and to sell advertisements on their website, and to sell the eventual book. Of course, the contest is for the fun of it, but also, it would be nice to have a photo selected for the book. I'm needy that way, I guess. It's sad, what can I say? (Other counties around the country are no doubt doing the same thing.) So, if you have managed to stay with me so far, good for you! And thank you. If you have time and are up at looking at more photos you can go to this site, and do a simple sign in procedure, and you can look at my photos (Sue Collins) and vote for me (especially for Purple Dahlia, which you can search for) which would be wonderful. Also, I would recommend, if you like wildlife is to find the categories and look at that one. Wow, we have some pretty cool wildlife photographers in the area. Or any of the categories are fun to look at. Just a suggestion...no pressure! But it ends in about 3 weeks. LOL