Scattered Thoughts . . .

I had mentioned in a previous blog entry that I had a photo of Kenzie from nine years ago that shows the same expression I captured on Ace last week.  I went digging for that old photo this morning. Here is Kenzie at four months old in 2012... And, here is Ace at two months old in 2021 with the same expression in the same living room...  Although there are distinct differences in their facial features, the expressions are the same.  Even more interesting is that I vividly remember this particular afternoon with Kenzie nine years ago.  When I saw Ace with the same expression, it immediately brought me back to 2012. I thought this was worth sharing here so here it is!

A s I am laid up with a bad knee...  oh yeah...  I don't think I wrote that I have a pair of crutches now.  I got tired of being set back to Day 1 of recovery every time we went grocery shopping or if I walked across our lawn so I broke down and ordered a pair of crutches so I can keep most of my weight off my right knee.   I don't use the crutches around the house but I do need them whenever we leave the house.  Leaving the house means a lot more walking than I do inside our house.  I haven't cut the lawn in about a month now because the last time I cut the lawn, I was set back to Day 1 again.  I definitely do not want to be set back to Day 1 of recovery yet again so it was time to be a bit more careful and allow my knee more time to heal before testing it.  The year is actually coming to a close and I started this year with an ankle injury which lead to this knee injury on the opposite leg.   This has been one of the most miserable years in my life already as far as my he

O ur living room wall clock has been an intermittent problem for months and it finally bit the dust about a month ago.  So, we were on an internet search for a better clock.   There was a beautiful clock at Monticello that is sold as a reproduction that both Sheila and I really liked.  I've mentioned this before in this blog but I should mention it again here in this blog entry that I have always been fascinated by Thomas Jefferson and his Monticello homestead.  I even studied this historic home design while in college as an engineering student.  I like Monticello's fusion of old European, French Provincial and Early American styles.  One could also argue that Monticello has many Craftsman features and details as well.  These are all styles I am fusing together in our own home.   So, finding a wall clock at the Monticello gift shop was a plus and we both really liked this clock.  The problem was that I had never spent more than about $40 for a clock in my life and this clock co

S ometimes, when Sheila or the grandkids are observing the sky with me, I can't help but think that having two telescopes mounted side-by-side would make things a bit easier.  For years, I've been saying that I'll put together a piece of hardware to allow me to do this but I never got around to it.  I could always set up two complete telescopes with two complete mounts but that is a lot more work.  Plus, then I would be going back and forth between the two mounts making sure they are both centered on the object we are observing.  A way to mount two telescopes side-by-side, tracking together on the same mount, would be a bit easier.   Well, while I was laid up with my knee injury (I'm still mostly laid up with this knee injury), I was doing some internet surfing looking at astronomy parts.  I found a source for a nice heavy duty dovetail mounting plate that would be perfect for this assembly and I already knew I had a good source for two saddles.  I ordered all three pa

I 'm still mending a sprained MCL in my right knee so I'm still not really accomplishing much on my To-Do list.  Every now and then, however, I feel halfway decent and am able to jump into a small little project at the kitchen table.  This still needs to be short because I need to keep changing positions...  no sitting for a long period of time, no standing for a long period of time.  This keeps the size of these occasional projects on the very small side.  Plus, the longer I work on any project, the more likely I am to do something stupid with my knee.  The last thing I want at this point is to be set back to square one yet again.   I have this old Celestron 70mm refractor telescope that, in recent years, I adapted to a different type of mount.  In order to do that upgrade, I needed to remove a bunch of mounting hardware that was bolted through the optical tube.  This hardware wasn't needed and was in the way of the new mounting cradle rings and dovetail bar so most of the