{"id":18851,"date":"2017-02-15T19:31:11","date_gmt":"2017-02-15T19:31:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/?p=18851"},"modified":"2017-02-15T19:37:30","modified_gmt":"2017-02-15T19:37:30","slug":"long-time-no-speak","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/?p=18851","title":{"rendered":"Long time no speak!!!!!"},"content":{"rendered":"

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So sorry, I’ve been asleep at the switch! \u00a0For the past several days I’ve been deeply involved in family issues. \u00a0The short story,\u00a0\u00a0is my son Wesley, (above), checked into the emergency room on Friday morning, \u00a0pale as a ghost and weak. \u00a0I joined him there and after a morning of tests it was determined he had lost over 4 pints of blood. \u00a0 An immediate series of tests were done to find the point of bleeding, and start transfusions. \u00a0Some years ago I was in that same emergency room with a GI bleed in almost as bad a shape as Wes. \u00a0Unforutnately there was no evidence of a bleed, which led to the more feared possibilty of some form of blood cancer. \u00a0Over the weekend and into Tuedsay, (yesterday), \u00a0we waited to hear what we feared was going to be bad news. \u00a0A lot prayers went up and we placed it in God’s hands.<\/p>\n

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When we met with his hematologist yesterday she said it was a puzzle, in all the tests, lymph node removal, bone marrow extraction, and tons of blood work they could find no sign of Lymphoma. \u00a0More tests will now follow, but I trust it was an answered prayer, whatever issue casued the loss of the blood, I’m confident will be found and treated. \u00a0I wanted to post about this and ask for prayers, but Wes insisted we know what were battling before I went public. \u00a0Well we still don’t know for sure, but your prayers for Wes would be coveted and appreciated. \u00a0His level \u00a0had dropped all the way to 3 normal is 15 to 16, after 5 units of blood he was up to 8 and the next day he had gone up another one and half to 9.5! \u00a0We were all waiting to see how much it would drop! \u00a0Score one for my Heavenly Father. \u00a0Stay tuned and I will keep you up to speed!<\/p>\n

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Sadly our planned night photography workshop in Arches has to be cancelled! \u00a0Got a note this morning from the Park that they will be doing road construction from March 2017 to November 2017 and the park will be closed in the evening from 7:00 p.m and not open again until 7:00 am. pretty much killing\u00a0some key shooting times and making night photography from within the park impossible! \u00a0I am looking at other possible locations and will advise those signed up soon, if we cannot replace the location we will refund deposits.<\/p>\n

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This brings me to a “potential” decision. \u00a0In recent years I’ve found it all but impossible to work with many of the parks we attend, fees get higher and the paper work much more involved. \u00a0One park asks for a detailed plan for waste disposal. \u00a0I jokingly put on the paper work I use the park provided restrooms, they didn’t find it humorous, I did! \u00a0All parks now require a financial report at the end of each year asking what my gross income was from workshops. I requested to know the total cost of office supplies from one park, per year, once again, the joke was lost on them! \u00a0I’m certain that the plans are being laid to charge workshop companies a fee based on what they gross, no thanks, not going to take part in that! \u00a0Last time I checked the National Parks belong to us, and the people that administer them work for us, the American people. With the exception of the Great Smokies, Acadia and Zion N.P. who all have continued to be very workshop friendly, \u00a0I’m seriously considering reducing my National Park workshops down to a minimum in the future. \u00a0In my humble oninion we need to drain the swamp faster, and I’m not talking about the Everglades!<\/p>\n

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Our numbers for the Old Car City event to benefit St. Judes Children’s Hospital is small. \u00a0I really want to make a contribution to this great orginization and $595. is a killer low cost for this great location! \u00a0We will be a small group and obviously you will get lots of personal attention, please consider joining us!<\/p>\n

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Tomorrow night I will be at the Chattanooga Camera Club, hope to see my friends \u00a0from that area then!!!<\/p>\n

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Saturday the 18th all day class at Grace On The Hill in Corbin!<\/p>\n

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See you out there!!!!<\/p>\n

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Blessings,<\/p>\n

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the pilgrim<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  So sorry, I’ve been asleep at the switch! \u00a0For the past several days I’ve been deeply involved in family issues. \u00a0The short story,\u00a0\u00a0is my son Wesley, (above), checked into the emergency room on Friday morning, \u00a0pale as a ghost and weak. \u00a0I joined him there and after a morning of tests it was determined […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18851","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18851","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18851"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18851\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18855,"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18851\/revisions\/18855"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18851"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18851"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18851"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}