Scattered Thoughts . . .

A s I mentioned in my previous blog entry, we spent the day out for Sheila's birthday.  Most of the day was really nice while some of the day was pretty disgusting as will be described later in this blog entry.   The drive up to Burlington was nice...  the sky was clear and it wasn't snowing for a change!  The mountaintops clearly have snow but the snow at our lower elevation was mostly gone over the past few days and wouldn't return until the following day.   Sheila had gone for a massage in mid-morning in Waterbury so we were heading up to Burlington a little later than we normally would have started out.  She enjoyed her massage so that is good.  By the time we arrived in the Burlington area, it was a bit later in the lunchtime hours so we were pretty hungry.  We had decided to have lunch at a new Mexican restaurant in Willison called "Casa Grande" since we had never been there before and we do like Mexican food.  I think we visi...

Y esterday was Sheila's birthday.  She had already opened one gift a few days before her birthday (a good pair of ear buds) but she had another one to open on her birthday.   I had purchased a new ring for her...  the main stone is aquamarine (her birthstone) and it is surrounded by white sapphires... Shooting photos of jewelry isn't something I do all that often.  I had forgotten how surprisingly difficult it is to get a sharp photo due to all the specular highlights reflecting off the jewelry.  To compound this primary difficulty, you need a lot of light coming from many directions which makes even more specular highlight reflections.   Another problem I had with this particular photo is that a ring is quite small.  Since it is small, you need to try to get as close as possible which then results in a very shallow depth of field putting most of the ring out of focus.  I resolved that problem but the specular highlight issue is still a ...

A s I've mentioned a few times in this blog previously, Sheila has been practicing her figure skating in an effort to be as prepared as possible for our trip to Manhattan with Lukey and Kenzie.  Until a couple of months ago, she hadn't skated in decades so she knew she needed to get on skates again before we were at Rockefeller Center and Bryant Park.  Lukey and Kenzie want to skate as much as Sheila has wanted to skate at these two popular rinks so this has been the plan since we started talking about a Christmas trip to Manhattan with the kids quite a few years ago. We've been heading to a couple of different rinks a couple of times a week so Sheila can practice.  Sometimes Sheila skates with Kenzie before Kenzie's skating lessons but most times she is out there alone while I practice my video and photography skills.    Sheila has improved quite a bit over the past few weeks but she is now done practicing.   She took a bad fall the other night and h...

S heila's birthday was last weekend.  I've been a bit too distracted with other things to write here in the blog for the past couple of weeks so I'm just adding some photos from Sheila's birthday now.   Sheila received her birthday gifts before her birthday even arrived this year.  I bought her an updated Samsung Smart/Fitness Watch (updated two versions from her old watch) which arrived a week before her birthday.  She opened that gift when it arrived in case it needed to be returned.   I also gave her some jewelry for her birthday and she opened that a couple of evenings early while she was video chatting with Lukey and Kenzie.  I gave her the gift while the kids were chatting with her so they could see her open at least one gift.   It turns out that Liza and the kids stopped by the house for a short while on Sheila's birthday too so I shot a few photos and we had a birthday cake for Gee.   It was nice spending a little time ...

S heila was featured on the evening news this evening!  I took the easy route and just recorded it with one of my cameras while standing in front of the television.  

T oday is Sheila's birthday so, Happy Birthday to Sheila! She took a couple of days off from work so we started her birthday celebration a couple of days ago.   It has been a wet, damp and muddy weekend so far.  We have some fresh snow on the ridge of the Worcester Range just outside our living room window, which looks really nice, but our yard is a squishy swamp and the driveway is like quicksand which is typical silty Vermont mud.  This month has been brutally bitter with high winds whipping across the flats and rattling our roof all day and all night long.  Between the wind, the rain and the mud, this really is rather typical weather for Sheila's birthday. Anyway, Sheila opened her birthday gifts the other night.  One of the gifts was a nice app-controlled heated coffee mug.  She seems to be enjoying this gift so far this weekend so this turned out to be a nice gift and especially for someone who works from home. There is no need to be microwaving c...

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.  

I just thought I'd write a quick update on Sheila's treatment problems.   After the ER visit a few weeks ago, Sheila's Oncology team decided that the significant symptoms she was experiencing were probably not due to her new treatment drug.  Since they were fairly certain that the treatment wasn't presenting these significant symptoms as side effects of the treatment drug, we came up with a plan to get back on the treatment plan and give it a shot again. Unfortunately, Sheila was back on this particular treatment drug only two days before one of the significant symptoms appeared again... and now it is only a week later and both of the significant symptoms that landed her in the ER are back again. At this point, we're both quite certain that these are actually side effects of her cancer treatment and they are far too severe to be tolerated for a long term treatment plan. Right now, these symptoms are more mild than the first time around but it is still only a m...

After Sheila's terribly rough night (and frightening) and middle-of-the-night ambulance ride to the hospital almost two weeks ago, we had a couple of follow-up medical appointments. Those are out of the way now but a few more appointments are scheduled for the next eight weeks or so.  (Plus, a few appointments for myself in those same eight weeks for diagnostics and treatment for my own serious health issues... this is a couple of months neither one of us are looking forward to.)  To refresh everyone's memory... Sheila is in treatment and still under constant medical care after her second fight (in ten years) with breast cancer. She has another nine years of treatment to go this time around and it has been rather rough going thus far. Honestly, if we were to compare her treatment today to treatments two+ decades ago, what she is experiencing is... let's say mediocre... by comparison. That being said, her quality of life has been rather low regardless. Sheila is ol...

Sheila nudged me awake in the middle of the night last night...  I thought she was waking me because I was having another violent nightmare again (which, unfortunately, happens too often)... and I immediately said to myself, "...wait a second... I wasn't having a nightmare."   I was thinking, "This must be serious..." All she said was, "I need you to... " and I jumped up out of bed to see what was wrong.   She was about to vomit... she couldn't move... she couldn't focus her eyes as they darted violently back and forth... she wanted me to get a bucket. I ran for the bucket and a plastic bag while all sorts of first aid techniques were running through my head... and, as I wondered why this was happening.  She kept saying, "I can't move... I can't move... I think I'm going to be sick..." and she looked terrible. She was stiff yet she seemed to be only as flat as the contour of the bed and pillow as though she were ...

Last night, I quickly assembled my good telescope on the deck so Sheila and I could get some quick views of the moon and Jupiter. Sheila hasn't had an opportunity to view anything at all through my good and bigger telescope until now so last night was a first for her. Her only reference to a quality telescope was her few views through the little cheap telescope I rebuilt in recent weeks.  First, we checked out the moon... we started by observing the entire moon in the field of view... this elicited the first of many WOW's  from Sheila. Compared to the views she has seen before through the small rebuilt telescope, this better telescope provides stunningly crisp and bright views. The views of the moon are so bright, in fact, that we need to use a filter to cut the light down to only 13%. Then we moved to more powerful combinations of eyepieces and barlows. She got to see very closeup views of various craters as well as closeup views of the Montes Apenninus mountain range and...

The original plan was to celebrate Sheila's birthday on the night of her actual birthdate. Liza and the grandkids would come over... cake and presents... have some cake... and a little celebration. Plans were changed and her birthday ended up being a bit different. Whitney went into labor on the afternoon of Sheila's birthday and was headed to the hospital as Sheila was leaving work. So, Sheila's little birthday celebration was delayed while Sheila headed to the hospital to greet her newest granddaughter on their unexpected shared birthday. A couple of days later, Liza, Lukey and Kenzie arrived at the house to celebrate Gee's birthday. Sheila and I had already eaten most of the chocolate raspberry cake that we had cut into a few nights earlier so we had brownies this night... brownies... candles... some presents... cards... and we got to spend a little bit of time with Liza, Lukey and Kenzie for a late birthday celebration! Since Sheila's latest fight with can...

Sheila's birthday is tomorrow but we did most of the celebrating over the weekend. She opened most of her presents already and we had a meal of her choice last night.  Oh, and she chose a nice chocolate raspberry cake which we'd cut into on Saturday night.   The dinner she chose for last night was delicious.  I roasted a garlic herb roast beef. I inserted some garlic cloves into the meat spread out across the top of the roast. Then I rubbed on a mixture of spices and herbs. That was in the oven less than an hour and a half. I tented it under foil while finishing up the rest of this meal. That roast beef was tender and tasty! The asparagus was wrapped with smoked bacon in small bundles. We placed the bundles in a baking dish and then drizzled it with a smooth mixture of butter, brown sugar and soy sauce. Then I added some garlic salt and freshly ground pepper before roasting it just long enough to crisp up the bacon. The potatoes were cut into chunks and pa...

Sheila's followup appointment with the surgeon was the other day so we were back at The Breast Care Center at the hospital. Sheila still has weekly appointments for her ongoing treatment plus daily therapy to do but the followup appointments at The Breast Care Center are slowing down.  As expected, Sheila is healing well. Her lymphedema looks good which means it is no worse than what is "normal" for patients in similar situations...    scarring is minimal and healing nicely...   and she is beginning to regain some of her energy. This newfound energy is in spurts at this point but it is some very welcomed energy after months of exhaustion and seemingly nothingness in her life.  Life sort of stood still for many months during treatment... and, in hindsight, feels a bit like it was a whirlwind at times. But, this was a period which we both see as nothingness and blackness on our calendar.  The imaging was normal so that is great. There is some fluid w...

Sue's ICU room reflected in the windows overlooking Lake Champlain and the Adirondack Mountains. It has been a couple of days of serious reflection and I even captured a photo of this in a literal sense. We just can't seem to break away from the hospital! We certainly are on a consistent roll between me, Sheila and now Sheila's mom, Sue. The past couple of days have been spent at the hospital with Sue and we expect to do the same through the long weekend ahead.  Sue certainly has had a rough couple of days and she really had all of us worried yesterday! (And there are a lot of "us" in Sue's life!) The next few weeks promise to be quite rough for her as she continues to slowly heal. On the positive side, Sue is now stable and, hopefully, steadily healing.  Sue slipped on the ice right outside their garage yesterday morning... slammed to the ground... left with visible bruising, a bloodied head and a relatively small bleed on the brain. She doesn...