Scattered Thoughts . . .

The weather has been lousy this week so I've been indoors.  As luck would have it, for a change, my health is also lousy as I continue to rebound from the side-effects of my last Shingles vaccine so not much has been lost solely due to the lousy weather this time around.  I'd be stuck inside anyway due to my poor health.  It's worth noting that it is rare when the weather and my health are in sync like this!  Regardless of the lousy weather and lousy health, I have managed to do some much needed organization of astronomy gear a little bit each day over the past couple of mornings.  I'd do a little bit...  take a break...  do a bit more...  take another break...  go back to it the following morning...  take a break...  etc.   My first priority was to find and purchase a couple of heavy duty cases for two of my mount heads.  I purchased a large sized case for my smaller mount head and an extra large case for the larger, heavier mount head.  I had also ordered some close

Back in May, I got my first of two Shingrix vaccinations in an effort to avoid developing Shingles.  Shingles, alone, is bad enough but an illness such as this would more than likely compound problems with my primary illness so I wanted to do whatever I could to avoid that situation.  The good news is that I had absolutely no reactions after my first shot other than a slightly sore arm for a day or two.  Other than the sore arm, I felt no different than any other day.   After the first shot, you are supposed to get a second vaccination within two to six months.  I did that a week ago and, honestly, didn't expect any difference in the way of side-effects or reactions since my first shot was so unremarkable.  I was wrong. I was told to expect flu-like symptoms...  that didn't really happen other than perhaps some initial body "aches".  The body aches very rapidly progressed to inflamed joints and inflamed nerves.  My joints felt like a red hot marble was injected