Scattered Thoughts . . .

Due to the usual and frustratingly predictable winter overcast skies here in Waterbury, a community nestled in a valley between three ski resorts, yesterday was our only chance to capture a glimpse of the conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn.  It was still three days before the actual conjunction (the point in time when the two planets appear the closest from Earth) but the weather forecast was indicating that Friday (yesterday) was our only option.  Contrary to what we've been seeing in the media and in news articles lately, this conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn is not a terribly rare occurrence.  What makes this year's conjunction a little bit special is that the apparent gap between the planets in our sky will be smaller than usual at around 1/8 of a degree in our sky.  This conjunction actually occurs every 20 years but we usually see an apparent separation between the planets in our sky of around 1/2 a degree to 1 degree.  So, the two planets will appear closer together this

Last night was one of those nights when you simply cannot sleep and you end up getting up out of bed at 5:30am because you know sleeping is a lost cause.  This is exceptionally rare for me but it was my night last night. I was having a little bit of difficulty breathing last night after going to bed but I wouldn't call those breathing difficulties anything more than mild.  Needless to say, that was the start of my lack of sleeping.  I was lying there wondering, "Should I go get my inhaler and epinephrine?  Or, will this pass?"  The problem is that if I get up to retrieve my inhaler and epinephrine, that act alone will cause me to lose some sleep because I'll need to calm down again and slow my heartrate down again in order to have any chance of falling asleep.  If I need to take epinephrine, that will keep me up for a while too.  So, I laid there wondering what to do which is also a sign that my breathing difficulties were no worse than mild. Then, I couldn't get

First thing this morning, I noticed that the bathroom sink was not draining.  I don't mean it was slow or sluggish.  I mean it was not draining.   We had to run to the Post Office as early as possible this morning to ship a couple of packages but I knew I would now have a frustrating morning ahead of me once we arrived back home. I had a pretty good idea that the rather long drain pipe running to the side wall was probably clogged with hair, gunk, soap and I don't want to know what else.  This would mean that I would need to disassemble the drain.  I decided to just check the trap under the sink first though just in case this could be a relatively simple problem to resolve. I emptied out the long vanity cabinet and then went looking for a bucket.  I placed the bucket under the trap and disassembled the trap...  nasty, foul water spilled out...  but the trap didn't have as much gunk in it as I thought it would or should considering the sink wasn't draining at all.  "

Sometime during brunch yesterday, we realized we had no internet and, unfortunately, it was a Sunday.  It seems like things requiring a service technician always go down on a weekend.  I rebooted the modem about eight times...  the lights on the modem consistently stopped before the modem booted up...  sometimes none of the lights illuminated.  It was clear that this modem was toast. Sheila got online using her cellphone to request service from Comcast.  She was able to notate that our problem was with the modem.  Shockingly, they indicated that we would see a service technician by mid-afternoon.  That was welcomed news! The service technician arrived within a couple of hours.  It was an easy fix...  just swap out the old non-functional modem for a new one...  boot it up...  and done.  It couldn't have been an easier service call. Best yet, our internet speed is now faster than it has ever been.  Our internet speed is now triple the speed it was with the old modem!  That made the c

We have a significant astronomical event fast approaching.  On December 21st, Jupiter and Saturn will appear as one bright star in the sky because they will be lined up almost one behind the other.  To the naked eye, they will likely appear as one.  Through a telescope, they will be separated enough to get a nice photo of the two of them in the same frame.  These two planets won't appear this close together in our sky again for another 60 years so I'm hoping the weather cooperates.  Actually, I question whether the Earth will even support human life and an ecosystem as we know it 60 years from now, honestly.  This conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn occurs every 20 years, approximately.  Some are closer than others.  This 2020 conjunction will show Jupiter and Saturn appearing closer than usual in our sky on the 21st.   Since this is a significant astronomical event, I've been planning and preparing.  I've pulled out the appropriate astronomy gear and even assembled and d

A few days ago, while still recovering from mast cell symptoms, the sun had peaked through the clouds so I grabbed a lightweight telescope with a solar filter and headed outside.   I wasn't feeling well enough to do any solar imaging (that can get complicated and involves a lot more gear...  as well as a clear head) so I just grabbed one of my lightest scopes which happens to be my lowest quality scope too.  Even though this was my lowest quality scope, I knew it would be good enough for a few quick views of the sun.  Besides, it was still mostly cloudy and the sun was just peaking out in between clouds.  I knew the solar observing would be short-lived on this day so it would have been a waste to use up energy on my better, heavier and bulkier astronomy gear. The moment I peered through the telescope, I realized that the sky conditions were lousy too.  I hadn't noticed it before but it was hazy and the sun was veiled in thin clouds that I could see passing in front of the sun. 

The other night, around the time we were heading to bed, I started having typical mast cell disease breathing difficulties again only days after another miserable night of breathing difficulties.   This is a fairly common symptom for my primary illness so, at this point, common symptoms like breathing problems alone don't raise any red flags.  If a second symptoms appears while struggling with the first, then that does raise red flags which indicates the start of a cascading of symptoms and I need to start on emergency medications but that didn't happen the other night.  I was just experiencing what I would call and felt were moderate breathing difficulties. Sheila reminded me to check my O2 saturation level...  so I did and it was at 87%.  That may seem okay and a decent number but it is actually considered very low.  They say that normal breathing is in the 98-100% range.  "Moderate" breathing difficulties are experienced in the range of ± 94%.  Once you get down t

I slept for a total of three and a half hours the other night...  I was having a dream about doing electrical work on some house but I wasn't having much success...  wires were exposed and lighting fixtures were hanging from ceilings...  nothing seemed to be working correctly...  then I started having great difficulty breathing in the dream.  I was calling out for help but it seemed as though nobody really cared that I couldn't breath and were even acting as though I wasn't even there...  maybe I was stuck in some other dimension...  at this point, I awoke and realized that I was indeed having great difficulty breathing.   I then grabbed my inhaler...  two puffs...  no improvement.  There is nothing new with that...  my inhaler rarely helps more than just slightly.  I took two more puffs about five minutes later and I finally was able to get a halfway decent breath of air after another few minutes of waiting for some improvement.   It was time at add more medications to my

Sheila and I managed to get to the Christmas decorating a bit early this year so our home has been decorated for Christmas, inside and out, for the past two weeks or so.  For a few months, I was thinking we wouldn't do any Christmas decorating at all this year because I had been feeling so lousy.  Mostly, among a few symptoms, I was in quite a bit of pain and I was overwhelmingly fatigued. I then had a few relatively good health days...  not to be confused with a healthy person's good days...   and the weather was cooperating for outdoor activities with some unseasonably sunny and warm days so we tackled the outdoor decorations.  The weather had jumped into the 70s on this particular weekend so we were outdoors. While we were on a roll with decorating the outside of the house for Christmas, we then moved inside and put up the tree and the rest of the indoor decorations.  I started putting up the tree and put the lights on the tree but Sheila finished decorating the Christmas tr

We had a very nice and peaceful Thanksgiving yesterday...  well, the best any Thanksgiving Day can be anyway...  truthfully, Thanksgiving has always been my least favorite holiday and, actually, perhaps in the Top Three of my least favorite days of the year...  regardless, we had a nice, peaceful and relaxing Thanksgiving during this pandemic. We were able to video chat with the family...  Adam and Joi, in California while Adam is in Air Force Leadership School...  Whitney and Ellie, at home, with Ellie being the physical comedy comedian she is...  and, of course, some video time with Liza, Kenzie and Lukey.  Video chatting is an everyday occurrence here anyway but it was nice to see all the grandkids yesterday.  Somehow we missed video chatting with Will and Sue so we'll need to attempt that sometime this afternoon. Dinner was nice for a turkey dinner.  The weakest dish of the dinner, by far, was the turkey breast and Sheila agreed.  I'd definitely prefer a nice grilled steak

Yesterday afternoon, while Sheila was making a cheesecake for today's Thanksgiving Day of overeating (although, I do want some of that cheesecake even if it does over-stuff me later today) , she dropped the entire canister of sugar on the floor and it suddenly shattered into pieces with a loud crash and even a few choice words.  Now we had no sugar in the house yet we both needed sugar for things that each of us was making for Thanksgiving.  This meant we would need to venture out of the house to go to the virus-laden supermarket.   As any sane person would expect, we've been avoiding the market as much as possible in an attempt to stay as healthy as possible so we weren't too happy about having to head into a place that could be referred to as 'viral headquarters'.   Instead of making ourselves vulnerable to this viral pandemic, we always have our groceries delivered to the house.  Unfortunately, it was too late in the day at this point to have anything delivered t

We ordered a few prints this past week so we can hang some nice photos in Sheila's home office.   Lately, we've been ordering prints mounted on wood called Gallery Mounts and we've been happy with them.  Since the wood that the prints are mounted on have beveled edges, these Gallery Mounts don't really need any frames so it is nice no-fuss option.  They look nice and the quality is high.   I keep saying I'm going to put together a few photo books...  in coffee table size...  but I just never seem to get around to starting a project this large.  With the number of good photos that I have, I could easily create an entire bookcase of photo books.  At this point, the idea of this project is a bit overwhelming but if I never start, I'll never get anything done.  

This morning was a Thanksgiving prep morning.   I made some fresh cranberry sauce.  Sheila and I like this freshly made cranberry sauce so much that we can't eat canned cranberry sauce anymore!  It has maple syrup in it... allspice, nutmeg, cinnamon...  freshly squeezed orange juice...  lemon zest...  and a little more maple syrup.  Usually, I add some fresh blackberries or some other fresh fruit to it but we skipped that this time around.  That would have required a trip to the supermarket and we are not exposing ourselves to the supermarket while the pandemic is still in full swing.   Once the cranberry sauce was cooked, I immediately spooned it into some Ball jars.  I let the jars sit out to cool a bit before putting them in the fridge.  While the fresh cranberry sauce was cooling, I got started on making a fresh white cheese sauce.  This sauce will be used for a green bean dish...  fry up some bacon...  then saute some onion and garlic in the bacon grease...  then add the green

I've often mentioned in this blog about struggling with spinal pain every day.  I mention it often because it is a significant daily pain.  Some days are better than others, however, some days I use a cane.  Some days I can't stand any longer than necessary to move from one spot to another.  Even though the pain stops me in my tracks often or even drops me to my knees, the pain has become a 'normal' every day thing so I actually do think of it as 'normal'.  I understand that and I accept that.  It isn't until I actually see some imaging of my spine that I am reminded of the severity of these injuries and these occasional reminders bring anger to the forefront. Why anger?  I get angry because the Air Force dragged their feet while I was in such intense pain that I could not sleep or think clearly.  Worse yet, they were actually a bit obstinate in acknowledging even my first line-of-duty injury nevermind acknowledging my extensive injuries flaring up in a subs

Back around Labor Day, Lukey came over and we brought his trains outside to the backyard.  Gee's new office is in what was the train room so we currently lack the space in the house for running trains.  Besides, bringing these trains outdoors also provides nicer backgrounds and lighting for photos. This particular day was overcast and dark clouds were moving in very quickly but we figured we had an hour or two before the rain would start.  I was not feeling all that great on this day...  I was feeling lousy enough that I vividly remember feeling lousy on this day.  I had significant breathing problems, I was nauseated and holding back vomit, and I generally felt lousy.  I also had significant spinal pain that was probably adding to the breathing problems and nausea.  We still managed to get the trains up and running in the backyard for a little while though... One of the great things about bringing the trains outdoors is that I can capture some nice photos.  The lighting is realist