Happy ...

 I left the wilted flower as a balance point

to my youthful demeanor

Oh, you lucky people! You get a genuine self portrait of yours truly as a present on my birthday. Thanks everyone for all the kind comments, greetings, and wishes you have bestowed upon me. I truly am blessed.
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This crash diet I'm on is really clicking: Two months and I've lost two pounds! In just 4.75 years I will be down to my target weight of 220 lbs; 70 years old and fit as a fiddle! Nohow, the doc put me on more fluid pills to try and get the swelling out of my feet and ankles and that means I will be hanging close to the bathroom more than ever. Thursday I get to go back to the surgeon who removed the doo-dads from my back. Two of the wounds are healing very well but the lower one is still running fluids of various colors and consistencies.
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I have found what I believe to be some equality on the internet in the form of the Megashot contests. Everyone who reads this blog and enters photos in the contests seem to be doing about the same, which is to say better than average but not up to par with the art crowd. Mark and Maggie both have had photos hang around for awhile on level three and so have I. I will say this; we all three like b/w photos, but it is pretty obvious ours or no one else's are going to be winners. Even if there was a monochrome only contest, a tinted shot would likely be the winner. Like one guy said, "I see in color and I dream in color and black and white means nothing to me". Well, I may dream in color—I don't really know—but I know how to see in b/w when it comes to photography. It is something that has to be learned but is never perfected.
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Have a good day!
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