Scattered Thoughts . . .

A lthough I happened to finish my antibiotic for my recent sinus infection last night, today was a day of very poor health! My sinus infection is clearing up but I fell asleep on the couch before I could make lunch today.  I slept straight through to dinnertime.  So, I slept four to five hours this afternoon which is double the amount of time I normally nap each day.  I was exhausted and couldn't keep my eyes open.  Plus, falling asleep before lunch is exceptionally odd.  Sleeping straight through to dinnertime is even odder.  To make matters worse, missing a meal almost always results in anaphylaxis for me.  Systemic mastocytosis is brutal and unforgiving of even one mistake. Considering the amount of cold medications I was taking since before Christmas but had stopped taking days ago, I should be well rested already.  I slept a lot while I was recovering from the sinus infection.  Theoretically, I should be feeling pretty good today so feel...

W hile Sheila and I were discussing our upcoming Amtrak journey with Lukey and Kenzie, I had to dig through old photos to figure out something about a previous Amtrak trip.  (That's one of the advantages of shooting so many photos and keeping them stored on external hard drives...  they become records of all we do, when we did it, and where we were located at a specific time.) During this search for Amtrak photos, I scrolled through all of my photos from 2018 and 2019.  In one of these daily folders, I found a photo of the moon that I don't think I had shared previously so I figured I would share it. I purposely rotated this image for a different perspective than we normally see from Earth and I'm liking how it looks.   When I came across this image, I was surprised by its clarity.  As best as I can tell, I think I shot this image through my Explore Scientific 102mm APO telescope and captured the image using my Sony a6000 camera mounted on the telescope's f...

L ukey and Kenzie have been dying to take a long distance trip on Amtrak for many years.  Last Christmas, we were booked to take Amtrak to Manhattan with Lukey and Kenzie but our train was cancelled as we were waiting for it to arrive in Waterbury.  It was cancelled due to flooding here in Vermont and, at the last minute, we decided our only option was to drive down to Manhattan instead.  That means Lukey and Kenzie missed out on a huge part of last Christmas' surprise trip.  That Amtrak travel was supposed to be the highlight of the trip but it was cancelled! They were definitely sorely disappointed but we still had a great time in Manhattan at Christmastime.  That train cancellation really put a big damper on the trip though which we were reminded of constantly during the long 12 hours in the car contending with heavy rain, traffic, and detours in a cramped car rather than a long train allowing us to get up and walk whenever we felt the need.  Having to s...

Kenzie stayed with us for the weekend when we were celebrating Christmas (this year we celebrated the weekend after Christmas).  While she was here, I made a nice breakfast. I made French Toast with thick sliced Challah bread...  it was delicious!  The Challah bread is hard to come by in our area but we got lucky and found some before Kenzie arrived.  I grab some whenever we do see it especially for making French toast... And, some Harrington's thick sliced bacon...   We enjoyed breakfast very much!

T his morning, I wrote about Lukey's Christmas gift from Gee and Papa.  I wrote about his gift separately because there was an interesting story pertaining to how he got his gift.  The rest of the grandchildren opened their gifts just like everyone else around the world...   tearing off wrapping paper like a monkey on a cupcake! Tonight, I'll share some photos of the rest of the grandchildren opening some of their Christmas gifts. Kenzie stayed with us for the weekend so she opened one of her gifts on the previous day.  We gave her two pairs of boots...  one for everyday playing in the snow and a nice pair of boots for special occasions.  We figured she would want to wear the nice pair of boots for our night out so we had her open that one gift on the previous afternoon.  Then...  she had to wait patiently for the rest of the grandchildren to arrive before she could open the rest of her gifts. Sophie was in a very happy, festive, and playful ...