Scattered Thoughts . . .

We have two little inexpensive telescopes here at the house that I would classify as cheap garbage. When I bought each of them, I thought they would be "decent" but they were far from decent and well below my own level of "acceptable".  Neither of those telescopes are capable of relatively sharp viewing which has been a source of significant frustration. Even the little telescope that I had as a child produced far better images of the moon whenever I pulled the telescope out to view with my neighbors. I've gotten to the point where I want to just throw these two little telescopes on a bonfire and be done with the frustration. This sentiment has led me to a decision that it was time to shed my life of more unnecessary frustration including these two telescopes. If you follow this blog, you know that the past nine months have been nothing but stress and frustration for Sheila and me in every aspect of our life except for our relationship which, amazingly, hasn...

It was our second sunny day in a row today! First thing this morning, we headed up to the hospital to see our warrior princess and her parents in their new PICU room overlooking Lake Champlain and the Adirondack Mountains. We picked up some coffee and breakfast for ourselves as well as for Whitney and Wayne and continued on to the hospital.  We were fortunate this morning to have arrived early enough to meet with the team of doctors. Although Ellie had a nice burst of energy and consciousness yesterday and seemed to have a great day (albeit with some visible pain)... which was perhaps the most "normal" day for her since being in the PICU... she had a rough and rather dangerous night through the night. Naturally, the doctors addressed this while also showing concern about her continuing struggles and evolving problems. Ironically, Ellie was awake during this doctor visit and seemed to be listening intently as the doctors talked and carefully examined little Ellie.  Ellie r...