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Showing posts from May 25, 2014

SpaceFest Weekend

The aforementioned dedication ceremony for the "Wall of Honor" at the National Museum of the US Air Force kicked off a weekend full of events for the museum's annual SpaceFest. Below is a short highlight video of this fun event showing some of the many activities of SpaceFest throughout the weekend. It looks like a really fun weekend for kids of all ages!

Oakledge Park

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Last week, while we were supposed to be in Dayton, Ohio at the National Museum of the US Air Force for a dedication ceremony (see my previous post with video of the ceremony), we were attending a prior commitment at Oakledge Park in Burlington, Vermont. Sheila's employer holds a statewide meeting for their employees and a related media event each year and, this year, this meeting and event fell on the day of the dedication ceremony at the National Museum of the US Air Force.  We plan to head to Dayton for our own little dedication ceremony of my "Data Plate" on the Wall of Honor sometime this autumn.  (Assuming fate and my health cooperate.) See the island in the top photo? This flock of geese was flying way out by that island... I used a very long zoom lens to capture this shot. I like the motion blurring of the flock... shows action. I always try to attend this annual event at Oakledge Park with Sheila. She does her thing at the meeting while I walk around the

Missed the Official Air Force Dedication

I've written about this before so, as many of you already know, a "data plate" in my name was to be installed on the "Wall of Honor" at the National Museum of the US Air Force. My plate was installed about two weeks ago and the US Air Force dedicated this "Wall of Honor" in a ceremony last Thursday. Unfortunately, we had a prior commitment which kept us in Vermont on that day. We hope to get to the museum in late September/early October to finally view my name on this wall and have a little dedication of our own. Until that time, I (and we) can view the video of the official dedication ceremony provided by the National Museum of the US Air Force...  I wish we could have been there for the official ceremony with our own group of people but we'll get there soon enough. This is a great honor to be remembered and honored in this way at the National Museum.

Night of Nausea

When I awoke from my nap yesterday afternoon, I immediately noticed that I was experiencing some pretty intense nausea. Nausea is a fairly regular visitor for any Systemic Mastocytosis patient and I'm no different. At the time, I was hoping that my dinnertime medications would knock that down and I would be feeling better...  I took my meds... unfortunately, the nausea only got worse. We headed out to our local supermarket to pick up some food and this is where the nausea became unbearable. At this point I was holding down puke... I had a few small dizzy spells... and my vision was narrowing. I knew I needed more emergency medications before my condition worsened into all-out anaphylaxis. All these symptoms are signs that my body is headed toward anaphylaxis and unconsciousness. Out came my emergency medications and I popped a few pills immediately.  The nausea stuck with me all night long and there is still a little bit lingering this morning but my condition never worsened in

Does Anyone Really "Beat" Cancer? (or any other incurable illness)

I have so many health problems that I often forget about some of them until they are thrust back into the forefront of my mind and life. Some of these temporarily forgotten health problems are incurable things like cancer, tumors, and variations of Systemic Mastocytosis symptoms which make their appearances much less frequently. My primary illness, Systemic Mastocytosis, is in the forefront most days. My spinal injuries are in the forefront at all times because these injuries affect everything I want to do, everything I attempt to do and the pain never goes away. Sometimes, however, something happens or I see something to remind me of the things which I do purposefully push to the back of my mind and would prefer to forget.  I suppose this idea of pushing things to the back of one's mind is a way of coping. I purposely try to let go of all the things I cannot control. I don't want to needlessly worry about these things because, hey, I really can't do a damn thing about

Recharging Car Air Conditioner

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A/C Pro Refrigerant with gauge and hose. My car now has over a hundred thousand miles on it and the air conditioner was starting to lose its ability to cool down the car on hot days. For me, this is a serious matter because hot environments cause anaphylaxis within minutes of exposure so I need to ensure my car is able to keep my body cool. So, I made a few phone calls... The price I was quoted was $150...  ugggg. That is a significant chunk of my fixed retirement/disability pension. Most of my ridiculously low retirement/disability pension is spent on out-of-pocket medical costs each month so I already have little room for extra costs. I have some hobbies like anyone else just to keep my sanity in the boredom known as retirement and these hobbies cost more than I see in my bank account every month. I needed another option for this air conditioning dilemma... The first thing to do was to do a search online for a do-it-yourself fix. Naturally, I found one. Not only did I find

Dashboard Lights

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Sheila bought herself a new car back about six months ago. When I first sat in her car at night and saw how crystal clear her dashboard lighting was I started feeling like my car was old and worn out. So, let's see... my car is 13 years old... okay, I guess my car is old and worn out but does it need to appear old and worn out? I don't think so. One of the things I decided to do was to order some new LED lighting for my dashboard to brighten things up. All these new cars seem to have LED bulbs and everything seems newer and brighter so why not add that to my car? While I was on a roll with some auto repairs this afternoon (recharged my air conditioner), I decided I should tackle this dashboard lighting project too. I already had the correct LED bulbs on hand so all I needed to do was pull my dashboard apart, pull out the old bullbs, insert the new bulbs and then reassemble everything. Easy, right? Brighter LED lighting for my dashboard.   In the big scheme of thing