Scattered Thoughts . . .

My big O scale Hudson steam locomotive is headed to the shop for some nice upgrades. This old locomotive, by MTH, currently has only very rudimentary control and some generic sounds which, to be honest, aren't that great. This upgrade will be a significant upgrade and will be  very welcomed! My MTH O scale Hudson steam locomotive... This old locomotive runs great but it operates unrealistically just like the old Lionel locomotives... press a button on the transformer and the locomotive jumps into forward... press it again and it jumps back to neutral while coasting to a stop... press it again and it jumps into reverse...  press again, back to neutral... forward, neutral, reverse, neutral, forward, neutral...  So, what if I am going forward and I want to stop at a freight station or passenger station and I want to leave the station going forward again? The next time I press that "direction button", I'll be heading in reverse! I'd prefer to have complete

It's been a quiet week since Christmas. As with any major event in our life, my health needs a long period of rest and recovery afterward. This is especially true after the long buildup to Christmas and Christmas Day celebrations. So, this week has been a quiet week of rest and recovery. Right now, I don't want to do anything else for the next three or four weeks... I'm tired and worn out! There were a lot of great presents this year and a lot of happy expressions as gifts were opened which makes a photographer's job a whole lot easier! I had some time to sort through well over 300 photos and found some from Christmas morning to share here...  Here it is, in the wee hours of the morning, as we wait on Lukey and Kenzie... Sheila is chatting with Adam on Skype as I prepare breakfast... Lukey was excited about this ferry boat with cars... the boat actually floats and can be used at the lake house!  And, this ferry sort of resembles the ferries we

Christmas morning, as anticipated, was very nice... a lot of great presents to unwrap... a delicious breakfast... and, after the kids left for their daddy's house, we got to eat a nice quiet breakfast and then play with all the toys.  This morning, I whittled our 30 minutes of video down to 20 minutes and then rendered it in high definition. That little project required the entire morning... mostly work for the computer, not me... but the results are nice!  Having a separate camera mounted on a tripod while I shot still photography with my usual camera worked out great. I had hoped to get some video clips with the camera I had in my hand to add different angles but shooting video, shooting stills and cooking breakfast all at the same time proved to be more than I could handle. The results are really nice though... It was a magical Christmas morning... and everyone enjoyed it! It is really nice to have video footage to help remember our day. At some point, I'll w

It is a beautiful Christmas Eve... the house is quiet except for soft Christmas music being played on our home theatre... the gifts are placed around the tree... comforting drinks are being served... as Santa makes his way around the globe to visit all the little children of the world, we are relaxing in the warmth of our home decorated for Christmas awaiting the children and our Christmas guests...  We have some gifts from Monticello and a dated letter from President Thomas Jefferson provided to us by timeless Santa... There are so many gifts that they are stacked against the wall, climbing toward the ceiling.... So... where are Lukey and Kenzie???  They are probably wondering when Christmas morning will finally arrive... I'm sure 6am will be here soon enough!   Okay... where is my drink?

Dark Chocolate Bark... not quite done yet... it needs another layer of dark chocolate... We've begun our food prep for Christmas Day...  Sheila started with making some candy... a Dark Chocolate Bark with Candied Orange Peel, Pistachios and Dried Cranberries.  This is the first time Sheila has made this but I'm sure it will be good. That being said, we did encounter some minor issues so we'll make a few minor changes the next time we make it.   I par-boiled a bunch of potatoes for a big pan of Home Fries for tomorrow morning's breakfast... it will have the usual mix of green peppers, onion, bacon and some spices. This evening, I'll be preparing a Breakfast Egg Casserole. I've made this casserole the past few Christmases and I adapt it each year. This year, the bottom crust will be flavored French Toast bread... and the casserole will contain chunks of sausage, ham, green peppers, and cheese... an egg mixture poured over it... refrigerated overnight...

I've been down for the count the past couple of days. My health has taken a serious nosedive which affects everything  in my life.  I'm experiencing difficulty breathing... my bones are aching (mostly long bones... ie, legs)... my joints are extremely painful (mostly my hips, knees, ankles and my spine)... I'm having cognitive difficulties... and the fatigue is completely overwhelming. Oh...  and I simply feel lousy at times, even miserable the rest of the time.  I've thrown a bunch of extra medications at this problem in the hope of stabilizing my body again as quickly as possible. We'll see how that pans out... I'm hoping to stabilize my health today so I can get back to 'Christmas stuff' tomorrow... 

Just before bedtime last night, I was looking at Kenzie's dollhouse townhouse... at first, the new window box on one of the third floor windows had my attention and I was thinking, "That looks really nice... it will look really nice when I get the remaining four window boxes mounted after Christmas." Then my attention moved downward to the first floor and patio french doors I fixed yesterday (Kenzie broke off part of the mullion grill on Christmas morning last year and I just got around to fixing it yesterday along with a few other parts that broke over the past year). I was thinking that the repair wasn't even noticeable. That was looking nice too! Then I noticed the empty patio right outside those french doors and was thinking, "I really need to do something about some furniture or something for that patio"... "Hey wait... didn't I order a tree to put on that patio?" Yes, I already ordered a tree and had hidden it in a different place t

Kenzie's big townhouse dollhouse was perched on our living room coffee table last night so she jumped right into playing with her dollhouse family. It is always fun watching her expressions as she plays... especially through a dollhouse window... Gee played with Kenzie and her dollhouse too!  Interesting place to move the little girl's bedroom... I'm thinking Kenzie wants a room with a view! As Kenzie and Gee played with the dollhouse, Lukey took everyone's order for dinner and then made our pizza's as requested! Kenzie was cleaning floors in her dollhouse in preparation of the Christmas holiday fast approaching... And the gifts spread out under and around the tree seem to continue to grow a little bit each day... Christmas is getting close!