Scattered Thoughts . . .

We went out last night to celebrate the birthday of a very dear friend.  It was actually a bit of a surprise birthday celebration for Judy. Judy's daughter, Lindsay, made a surprise appearance from her campus during finals week.  As Lindsay tells the story, "That amazing moment when I surprised my mom by calling her outside the house and knocking so she tells you to hold on because there is someone at the door and she opens the door and it's me, SURPRISE!  Happy Birthday mom!!!"  Lindsay also helped to arrange this surprise dinner celebration with a few close friends.  All of this during finals week! We had dinner at The Reservoir Restaurant and Tap Room , otherwise known as The Rez by the local crowd.  As always, it was really nice to get out with friends.  A couple of us at our table have had our problems lately in finding consistently good health so it was a pleasure to finally get out together and to feel well while celebrating!  Getting together has been

The sailing season is almost upon us but I still have some work to accomplish on the sailboat.  We are excited to be heading to the lake house in a few short weeks but the sailboat must be ready by then! Most of the parts I have ordered have arrived so I can now begin working on the hull and installing new parts. The main thing that needs to be accomplished, above all else, is to do some much needed hullwork.  This past winter we had some water get into small cracks in the gelcoat and then freeze.  The expanding frozen water cracked out a larger hole in the gelcoat.  This gelcoat is applied over the fiberglass hull, sanded smooth, and then some serious elbow grease is needed to wax the shine into the newly applied gelcoat. This photo, to the left, shows the cracked out gelcoat on the hull.  I also have a few other small areas of the hull which could use some attention so I will work on those areas as well.  Eventually, I would like to refinish the entire surface of the hull..

I was opening the mail this morning and noticed the flowers that Whitney had brought for Sheila yesterday for Mother's Day.  I immediately realized that, even though I missed the opportunity to shoot photos yesterday while everyone was here, I could get a photo of this bouquet of flowers and post it. So, although a bit late for the blog post about Mother's Day, here is a photo of Sheila's Mother's Day flowers...  the day after Mother's Day!

Yesterday was Mother's Day and I believe Sheila had the nicest Mother's Day she has had since I have been in her life.  I'm very happy for her since there is no doubt that she certainly deserves it! What is very odd, and highly unusual, is that I did not shoot a single photo all day long to capture this great day in photos.  Rarely does an event occur without me shooting a few hundred photos!  Before everyone arrived I managed to find some time between preparing food and removing clutter in the house to prepare my photography gear for some photos.  I even had two cameras ready with different lenses for different purposes and a flash gun all set to go with freshly charged batteries and a diffuser.  The day went by so quickly and I stayed so busy all day with food prep that I never had time to pick up a camera. Adam (Sheila's son) did most of the house cleaning.  He vacuumed the entire house...  dusted everything...  and he even cleaned the bathroom.  His years as a c