Scattered Thoughts . . .

While we were in Dayton with our two oldest grandchildren back in June, we visited Young's Dairy in Yellow Springs.  Most of this long Amtrak journey had been a learning experience of science, technology, history and zoos but we wanted to fit in some recreation too so we put aside an afternoon to visit Young's Dairy. This farm has grown significantly since I had lived in Dayton but it still has the same general vibe...  you know it is a farm but there are quite a few things to do.  Of course, it is a dairy so there is homemade ice cream too.   You'd think that the ice cream would have hit the spot on a day that was in the triple digits with humidity close to 100% but, by the time we were ready for some ice cream, we were completely drenched in sweat.  Sitting in the air conditioned creamery while completely soaked with clothes sticking to us was quite uncomfortable!  By this time, the sky had opened up with heavy rain and a passing thunderstorm so sitt...

W e always have our first barbeque of the season on the weekend that falls around July 1st which happens to be my birthday.  This year, we had this barbeque on July 1st.  If anyone is wondering, I turned 61 years old this year.  Unfortunately, most days, I feel like I'm 81 and I have difficulty and a lot of pain trying to get around and I even look the part due to being hunched over and having difficulty standing.  Contrary to how I feel on these days, my birth certificate claims I am 61 years old this year.   We had a very dry spring to the point where everything in the yard was dying and turning brown but the past two weeks were filled with day after day of solid rain until the day before our scheduled barbeque.  The rain stopped just in time for me to mow the lawn, do some much needed landscaping and set up the backyard for our barbeque.  It was sunny, hot and humid with a bit of smoke from Canadian wildfires hanging in the air.  My h...

B ack in mid-August, we had a nice evening of pitching and putting in the backyard with some of the grandchildren.  This type of thing is always a great opportunity for capturing photos of the grandkids so, naturally, I had a couple of cameras and a few lenses on hand.  While they played, I kept moving around trying to capture the best angles.   Shooting photos of kids means getting down on my knees or crouching or sitting on the ground but my knees have been painful and swollen since my first bout with COVID-19 so this little informal photo shoot was a bit painful.  Even if I sit on the ground, getting down onto the ground and getting up again is painful.  Kneeling or crouching, however, will put me back on crutches again so I always avoid those two positions.  Still, I refused to resort to shooting photos of kids while looking down on them.  Kids should always be photographed down at their level.  It was beginning to get dark as the sun set...