Black and White Photography Blog, Vol. I

Thumb compilation from New York Mementos book. (I’ve set up the cart mechanism, so you can now order it online).

I know that for some blog readers - this whole book thing has been a big technical bore. Where are the photos? But the real sufferer has been my cat. When I began getting into this, my work habits changed. I would wake up at 4 in the morning, and start working through the day. I suppose he could have stayed up in the loft and continued sleeping, but of course he needed to know what the heck was going on. So he’d hop downstairs, tired and confused, and just lie down by my feet waiting for some sign of movement from me. So I owe him a nice cat treat or something for putting up with this backwards time schedule.

I suffered as well.  I wasn’t used to sitting in front of the computer so long.  One morning, I went to reach for a cup of coffee and couldn’t move my right arm.  I thought I must have had a stroke, so I walked into the bathroom, stood in front of the dirty mirror and tried to speak.  Speech okay.  I looked to see if the right side of my face was drooping.  No more than usual.  But I couldn’t raise my right arm higher than waist level.

Trip to doctor.  He’s a smart guy.  Asks me if anything has changed in my work habits.  I tell him about hours in front of the computer.  Does a couple of simple tests and says, Pinched Nerve.  If it doesn’t go away in a month, come back.  So for a few days I’m walking around with a limp right arm - grabbing my drinks with my left arm, and thoroughly discouraged.  But I keep typing.  A few days later I woke up and it had disappeared.

A few days after that my thumbs went numb.  No kidding.  Just the tips.  I took a day off and just walked around.  Thumb tips came back to normal.  So, all in all, we’ve all suffered through this book production - and man - this was a simple book to do, compared to the next one.