Scattered Thoughts . . .

I've mentioned many times before that pets often help me out with my health.  They seem to have this ability to sense energy levels... or lack of energy levels.  Whenever my health is about to crash, these neighborhood pets tend to come toward me and start nudging me with whimpers and meows... looking at me... nudging me... following me wherever I go.  When I see this type of behavior, I am quick to grab my emergency medication and start sorting out a new game plan with my medications because history has proven that these cats and dogs are exceptionally accurate at knowing about my health and warning me as though they are an early warning system. As I mentioned above, I believe it is our energy levels that they are sensitive to and to which they respond. These pets come and go over time (as our neighbors come and go) but I always seem to have at least one resident pet at any time who looks out for me. Lately it has been this blue-eyed, long-haired cat who keeps close tabs on

A week ago, I had written about having screwed up my prescription refills. One of my medications... one which is a mast cell stabilizer and an H1 blocker...  and one which is not yet FDA-approved... had fallen through the cracks of my record-keeping and memory which means I forgot to order a refill before I had run out of this medication.  For most prescriptions, people can just run to the local pharmacy to pick up a last minute prescription. I actually do this with any acute problems I am having. I bite the bullet (taking a serious hit in cost) and I buy the prescription locally so that I can start on the medication immediately.  Unfortunately, most of my medications are absurdly expensive and going to our local retail pharmacy is not financially possible for me. For instance, one of my medications, by itself, costs upwards of $40,000 annually. If I bought this medication locally rather than through my insurance plan's mail order program there would be two problems... 1. The c

I'm experiencing some poor health (I ran out of one of my medications so the next week or so will be quite miserable until this medication finally arrives) so I'm just sitting around at my computer sifting through some photos.  I came across a few photos of Gee that I shot this summer... I have many photos of Sheila but these four stood out this morning.... I recently shared a sunset photo very similar to this one, below, but I captured Sheila at the edge of the frame in this one... Sheila is pretty easy to photograph on any day but she is exceptionally easy to photograph when she is "Gee"... of course, Lukey and Kenzie make it easy too!

A few months ago, I wrote about having to replace our 'whole house water filter'. The supply pipe fittings running into the old filter had cracked and we had a mess of shooting, spraying water everywhere, flooding two rooms of our house. We immediately went out and bought a completely new version of the same whole house water filter and I installed it by that night. (All of this happening after being out all day long... it was a long day and night.) Everything has been fine with this water filter thus far so we have no complaints with this Whirlpool filter itself. The filter cartridges, however... A few days ago, I noticed that the water pressure was significantly diminished which usually means that the filter cartridge is in need of changing because it is clogged with built-up sediment. No problem... I always have a couple of filters on hand.  I immediately replaced the filter. I tested the water coming out of our bathroom faucet... everything was back to normal. We

Another one of our annual excursions crept up on us again this past weekend and we found ourselves in southern Vermont for a train show. Throughout the year, we attend various events around the northeast. Every fall, we attend a train show in southern Vermont. This particular train show is so small that it isn't even the main purpose of this annual weekend getaway. It is a good reason to get out of town but it takes up so little of our time that it is hard to call it a train show weekend! What I can say about this annual excursion is that we enjoy traveling through the fall foliage, visiting other restaurants, visiting stores we don't get to normally visit and it's nice to simply get out of the house for a bit.  My health keeps me close to home almost every day so it is nice to get out from under this roof every now and then... really nice. We actually try to get out of the house for a few hours every weekend but it rarely works out... between things needing to get

I truly love technological advances. What's not to love about the ability to use new, more effective tools to organize and streamline our lives or to make certain tasks easier to accomplish?  Even home entertainment is far better today with affordable, large screen, high-definition televisions, impressive surround sound and digital streaming media. It is always great to move forward and to improve our lives through technological advances. Cell phones are a part of these important technological advances. We all probably agree that today's cell phones provide us with some amazing and effective tools and, for these very reasons, I've owned a personal cellphone for more than 15 years and I'll continue to own a cell phone. I've used cell phones manufactured by Motorola, Nokia, Blackberry, LG, ZTE and now Samsung. There is no doubt that my current Samsung Galaxy cell phone is the best phone and mobile tool I've ever used and I really love how well it works