Scattered Thoughts . . .

When I was a relatively young child, around the time I was leaving elementary school, my grandfather gave me one of his old twin lens reflex cameras.  I had just begun to show an interest in photography and was about to take a class in photography in my new school.  This was still the era of slow and deliberate shooting in photography.  Capturing a single good photo took time and careful planning.  Everything was done manually and deliberately.  These twin lens reflex cameras were  from an era before my time and thus were  all manual as well. My original Bioflex, left, and my new Mint.  The older I grew, the more I realized that Gramps and I shared a lot of the same interests and photography was one of them.  That being said, my father also seemed to have one camera or another in his hands throughout my childhood.   This old twin lens reflex camera (TLR camera), although non-operable, was the first camera that I could call my own. This camera was in terrible shape when I recei

Kenzie has always shown an interest in all things related to medical treatment and, fortunately, that interest has not yet waned.  Now that they have a kitten at home, she is also showing an interest in veterinary medicine.  While we were out shopping with Kenzie a couple of months ago, she asked for a veterinary medicine play set this Christmas.  Fortunately for her, she found this big box of veterinary play things under the Christmas tree this Christmas. The lab coat and safety glasses are from last Christmas when she was just starting to use my microscope and learn about the laboratory side of things.  These items work well with her veterinary play set as well.  Plus, Gee dug out her old stethoscope this Christmas so Kenzie could borrow it and learn how to use it.  Kenzie was pretty excited! Each of the adults in the room took turns showing Lukey and Kenzie where to place the stethoscope and what to listen for in each place as they listened carefully.  Then Kenzie turned her

It is finally beginning to feel like Christmas!  All the presents are wrapped and under the tree.  The house is decorated inside and out.  We'll soon begin our much anticipated Christmas celebrations at the house.   We had a little setback this morning.  When we got up this morning, both Sheila and I felt that the house seemed colder than usual.  Upon checking the thermostat, I noticed that it was indeed cold in the house compared to the thermostat's settings.  I had noticed some minor issues with the furnace a few days ago but didn't act upon it and now I was regretting putting off investigating further. The first thing I checked was the thermostat but that seemed to be working normally.  The next most likely culprit was a frosty/gelled fuel line coming into the house.  After finding a container to use for catching fuel, I bled the line from the tank...  we got about a pint of frosty, gelled fuel as I had suspected.  The week of sub-zero temperatures was too much and s

Sheila and I started our weekend (last weekend) by doing some Christmas shopping on Saturday morning.  Then we headed to lunch at The Longhorn restaurant.  We sat at the bar, had a few drinks and appetizers, and then ate lunch while we watched a Florida Gators basketball game.  It was a nice morning and afternoon!   We headed back to Waterbury in mid-afternoon because Lukey and Kenzie were marching in a parade after dark.   This parade was Waterbury's 10th annual "River of Light" parade.  The parade started 10 years ago as a one-time art project for the local primary school.  The community loved the idea so, over the years, this parade of light has grown and become a large annual community event.  As a matter of fact, we overheard surprised and excited tourists who were staying in Waterbury express their delight at learning of this rather unusual annual community event so I'd say this is a successful tourist event as well as a community event. For the event thi