By Ted Grussing
… so how am I doing? Really well … the knees are not perfect (yet) but I seldom have any pain and the mobility and gait is substantially better. I may take three Advil once or twice a week and some mornings I wake up and I think the knees are not going to have a terrific day, but with no medications within an hour any thought of that is gone and I am into a pretty normal day (not sure what a definition of normal is when applied to me). So how much better? There is no possibility I would consider a knee replacement and if I had to rate my current status it would be about 75% of what no problem knees would be. I am told by others that the greatest improvements occur between 3 and 6 months so there is likely more improvements to come.

Would I have it done again? Absolutely!!! With all due respect to Jonathan’s skills as a surgeon I like the image of him injecting rather than cutting. I do believe that had I not wrestled that heavy mattress 2 weeks post procedure the knees would likely be close to 100% now. If there was no further improvement to come that would be okay as I am functioning quite normally and seldom have pain.
I got an early flight in Sunday morning and got shots with the sun in the east and good lighting for shots looking west. Also the clouds were relatively low with base around 8000’ MSL and they provided a fabulous pattern draped over the land. I shot this photo about a mile east of Oak Creek Canyon, over the Plateau and looking to the SW. Oak Creek Canyon runs on a diagonal from lower left to about mid right. Wilson Mountain is immediately above the canyon and you can see the partial volcanic cone about mid image in the left quadrant. An earthquake or series of them sheared the cone and moved it to the left about a quarter mile and dropped it several hundred feet. Above Wilson on the left side you can see Thunder Mountain and above Wilson and through the gap mid photo right is Long Canyon, Boynton Canyon is hiding behind the cloud and horizon left you have Mingus Mountain, about a third of the way from the left below clouds is Black Mountain and the other side of that is Sycamore Canyon which continues up to the right about 20 miles. Sedona and the Village are all left of this photo.
Got a pleasant surprise in the mail Saturday, my aerial shot of Sycamore Canyon during a monsoon storm graces two pages of Arizona Highways and is the intro to the article on the canyon. Even cooler is that two of my friends also made significant contributions with their photos from the ground, Guy Schmickle at: http://www.explorethelightphotography.com/ and Derek Von Briesen at: http://pbase.com/sedonamemories/ and you can always see my work at: http://tedgrussing.com and an archive of these missives at: http://tedandcorky.com/wordpress1/ –
Buy a copy of the magazine to see my photograph and you can subscribe here: https://arizona-highways-magazine.com-sub.biz/?utm_source=bing&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=2014%20MDC%20-%20[509]%20Arizona%20Highways%20Magazine&utm_term=subscribe%20to%20arizona%20highways&utm_content=[509]%20Arizona%20Highways%20Magazine%20-%20Subscription .
Gallery of Modern Masters who sell my work will also have this image in the gallery this week: http://www.galleryofmodernmasters.com/
Flying again in a little while, but first a few hours of sleep and the morning dose of espresso :+)
Busy week coming up and that is good … hope you have a beautiful day … keep breathing, smile and share your joy … we move into the passing lane soon enough so live while you have life!
Cheers
Ted
Whatever else you do or forbear;
Impose upon yourself the task of happiness;
And now and then abandon yourself
To the joy of laughter.
— Max Ehrmann
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The easiest way to reach Mr. Grussing is by email: ted@tedgrussing.com
In addition to sales of photographs already taken Ted does special shoots for patrons on request and also does air-to-air photography for those who want photographs of their airplanes in flight. All special photographic sessions are billed on an hourly basis.
Ted also does one-on-one workshops for those interested in learning the techniques he uses. By special arrangement Ted will do one-on-one aerial photography workshops which will include actual photo sessions in the air.
More about Ted Grussing …