The Big Klosowski

Josh at Graduation in May 2009

I don’t do things like this often, so please bear with me. My nephew has been seriously injured in a car accident recently. He is currently in the ICU after being airlifted to Brackenridge Hospital in Austin, TX. His condition has just recently become “stable”, but his medical bills and cost of rehabilitation is going to be extraordinary, even with insurance.

On Sunday, September 13th, Josh was involved in a horrific car accident. His car went off the road and careened into a tree.  They were wearing seatbelts, and they had airbags, but it didn’t matter.  The side impact cause Josh and his passenger to collide heads, leaving both young men with severe brain injuries.  Both boys were in ICU in the beginning. Thankfully, Josh’s friend, has been moved to a regular hospital room and will be heading to rehab soon. Josh is still in ICU now and a long way from rehabilitation.  Even if Josh wakes up soon, his rehabilitation is going to take months, if not years.

To say I’m close with my nephew Josh is an understatement.  He’s one of my favorite people in the entire world.  I’ve been there most of his life and I can’t stand to see my strong, 17 year old nephew unable to move or even to speak.  Josh just graduated high school, and started attending Austin Community College this fall.  Things were really looking up, and we hope to see them looking up again.  But first we have to find a way to pay all of the medical bills.

Josh's car after the September 2009 accident.

My sister is a teacher working on a teacher’s salary, and to say the medical costs are overwhelming is an understatement.  Thinking about paying for weeks of ICU treatment, as well as the medical airlift helicopter service that got him to the hospital, and years of rehabilitation is dizzying. Insurance will cover the majority of the hundreds of thousands of dollars this accident will cost, but there are still high out-of-pocket deductibles and major family travel expenses to help with the ongoing care.

I don’t do this often, but if anybody out there can help Josh’s family with a small donation to pay for his road to recovery, I’d sincerely appreciate it.

With the economy as it is, I totally understand if you can’t donate, but if you could at least help us pass along the message I would be sincerely grateful to you.

If you would like to help, please donate through PayPal using the widget below.  It would make a world of difference to our entire family!  Thank you for any help you can provide!

The little plant that could, in Downtown Denver. Click for Hi-Res Image

In case you haven’t been following my Tweets and Facebook posts, I’ve been pretty excited about this project at WorldwideMoment.org for quite a while. It’s a project where thousands of photographers from all over the world take a photo at the exact same moment – a moment meant to inspire peace.

Today was my day to take the photo, and love it or hate it, this is what I thought best represented the concept.

To me it represents finding happiness in unusual places. It’s about starting small and dreaming big (I like to think the flower is hoping to be as tall as the skyscrapers around it). It’s about thriving out of your element.

It’s also just a darned plant in the middle of a crosswalk – so think of it what you will.

I will say that taking this photo was fun. My initial concept involved a pile of dirt in the middle of the road with the flower in it. However, laying down in the middle of a busy street seemed risky enough without trying to plant a flower at the same time. Trying to focus a 50mm 1.4 accurately while lying on your back and hearing the oncoming traffic coming up behind you is definitely an exercise in stupidity.

Funniest part of the whole exercise was hearing a lady on the street corner say to her walking buddy, “That idiot is trying to take a picture of a flower in the middle of the street, and I thought I was crazy…”

But it was fun, and I liked the image, so there. Enjoy!