Scattered Thoughts . . .

As I mentioned in a previous blog entry, my health has been a bit lousy since my medical appointment earlier in the week. As a result, not much has been accomplished around the house other than making meals and cleaning myself up. It is during these quiet times when I have a little time to take notice of things I normally don't have the energy nor time to notice. This afternoon I decided to check my blog statistics to see how many people are viewing my blog, where these people are located, which pages they visit, which blog entries they read and how they found my blog. This is something I try to do at least once a week. The results are often interesting. More often than not, most of the people reading my blog are those researching chronic illness and my illness, Systemic Mastocytosis. Sometimes, however, a different blog entry will capture some attention and the tide of visitors shifts. This time of year usually finds traffic from a different source when compared to the rest of

Every year, when we attend the annual Amherst Railway Society's Railroad Hobby Show, we always set aside Saturday evening for a group night out on the town for dinner. The past few years, the place we have chosen for this group night has been a rather unique and lively little restaurant called The Munich Haus ... fashioned after a German festhaus albeit smaller and a bit more personal. We have chosen this restaurant consistently over the past few years for a number of reasons including it is unique, it is cultural, it is something we cannot experience near home, the food is quite good, the desserts are outstanding and it has that happy German festhaus atmosphere and vibe with live music, singing, clapping and, of course, tasty beers! This little yet always crowded restaurant has a large selection of draft beers from Germany... a vast selection of schnitzels... a long list of different types of sausages... chicken dishes... beef dishes... fish and seafood dishes... vegetaria

Mortamore Grim the Conductor... he vibrates and shakes from side to side... The kids really enjoyed most of their first train show in Springfield this year. I believe their biggest issue was the same as my biggest issue... fighting fatigue. Overall, they both really loved the show and I'm sure they will jump at the chance of joining us again next year. They loved all the trains... Kenzie loved the people figures, city scenes, people figures and even some of the trains... Lukey loved the trains, in general, but the bigger, the better... they both enjoyed everything associated with Maggie the Clown... they loved driving the trains... they loved the Thomas the Train play area... they loved the Lionel trains play area... Kenzie loved all the railroading gifts and trinkets... but, one thing scared the bejesus out of Lukey... Mortamore Grim the Conductor . Old Mortamore Grim is simply a lifesize mannequin of a conductor who is a bit shakey like a weak, old man. This mannequin

Watching all the G scale trains from his bucket pedestal... On Saturday of the train show down in Springfield, we came across a huge operating layout of G scale trains. There must have been at least a dozen trains running in all directions. For those unfamiliar with model railroad scales... G scale trains are twice the size of the standard Lionel trains.  Lukey immediately got up on his five gallon bucket so he could see better. He had his locomotive whistle in his mouth while he pointed out different trains. One of the men showing these trains noticed Lukey and came over to talk with him. Within a minute or two, Lukey was asked if he wanted to drive one of the trains.  Lukey's eyes enlarged as he started looking around and getting antsy to get off his five gallon bucket... In the driver's seat... Grammy walked him beyond the cordoned off area where all the controls were located for driving all these huge trains... Lukey sat on the lap of one of the engineers and wa

Sheila's dad, Will, is quite tall but looks like a  young kid next to Maggie!   It's funny...  I can actually see the little boy in Will  in this photo! I suppose  there is a little  boy  in each of us which shines through at these shows... Most people don't like being called a clown... but Maggie the Clown does! She seems to thrive on being a clown and entertaining kids. There is no doubt that Maggie is good at what she does and she enjoys doing it! In all the years we have been attending the annual Amherst Railway Society train show, Maggie the Clown has been an active participant in keeping the young kids entertained all through the weekend. Maggie personally greeted Lukey and Kenzie shortly after they arrived at the show... she introduced herself and invited them to her show... offered them balloons... and we learned a bit more about Maggie this year... Maggie the Clown actually lives on a train! She is a clown with the Ringling Brothers Circus and, as many

We seem to have started a tradition when it comes to dinners while out of town for the train show and especially so on the first night of our annual train show weekend. It took a few years to get to this point however.  Truth be told, we didn't really know what to expect the first year we attended this particular train show. That first year, Sheila, Adam and I left home at around 6am on Saturday morning... arrived in Springfield when the gates to the show opened... waited in traffic to enter the immense parking lot... waited in more lines to buy tickets and actually enter the first of four buildings housing the show... made our way through the four buildings and walked around the extremely crowded show all day... then drove back home that evening. It was a verryyyy loooonnnnnnggggggg and exhausting day!  Not only was that a long, exhausting day but we knew that just one day at this show was not nearly enough time to see everything. This show is big... I mean BIG. I've

View from our room upon arrival... This year was the first year that we were able to leave home for the train show by lunchtime, or even whenever we wanted, so we could arrive by check-in time. In the past, we always had to wait for Adam to get out of school before heading out of town.  We are now empty-nesters so we have the freedom to leave home whenever we desire!  Liza, however, had to wait until she was finished with her teaching school day which meant that Liza and the grandchildren would not arrive at the hotel until later in the evening. When the kids arrived at the hotel for their first train show, we were all in the lobby lounge area enjoying a few beverages and waiting for them to arrive so we could order some pizza. The hotel lobby with some of our party at the front desk... Liza tells us that the kids were a bit confused when they left home... and understandably so. All of us had been reminding them all week long that we will be going to a train show for the we

This past weekend we met up with a group of friends and family for one of the largest annual train shows in the country. The grandchildren accompanied us this year as well. This was their first visit to any train show and I suspect it was probably the first of many train shows for them. I shot quite a few photos as well as some video... a bit of each will be shared here in the coming days depending upon how my health is holding up through the rest of this week. Right now I could use about a month of sleep! Before I get into any specifics about our trip, I thought I would start with something simple and show some photos of a train I bought while at the show. I always begin the show with a long list of items that I want to purchase and/or research while we are at the show but, by the end of the day on Saturday, I was a bit disappointed in that I didn't find anything I was hoping to see. Just as I was sharing my disappointment with Sheila, George and Barb, and as the words

One of the many exceptional models at the show... Christmas is now behind us... tomorrow is New Year's Eve when we say goodbye to 2014 (or good riddance, whichever the case may be) and welcome in a bright new year. In the first month of the new year each year is the biggest and best train show in the United States.  This enormous train show is something we look forward to every year. Actually, we look forward to the following year's show the moment we leave the show the previous year! We now have only another few weeks to wait before we find ourselves in Springfield, MA again with tens of thousands of other model railroading fanatics. This year Adam will not be attending the show with us since he will be beginning his new career in the Air Force. The weekend of the show will be his first weekend at basic training. We will, however, be accompanied by some new train fanatics to take Adam's place... the grandchildren and they will be bringing along their mom. It is g

As many of you know, a group of us attend the annual Amherst Railway Society's Railroad Hobby Show every January. It is now the time of year when we must start counting heads and reserving rooms. The number of hotels offering special rates for this event has diminished significantly this year. Actually, most of the hotels offering price breaks are hotels we would not stay at even if they were free! This has severely limited our options this year. We have decided to try to reserve a block of rooms at the La Quinta Hotel in Springfield. La Quinta is not offering any kind of event pricing nor group pricing so we are stuck with regular rates minus a AAA discount. Fortunately, La Quinta is only slightly more expensive than the event rate we were offered last year. Unfortunately, although only slightly more expensive, this means the price has increased nevertheless. We stayed at La Quinta last year and we had a nice time. The location was very convenient... the hotel was clean... a

As most of you already know, I am still trying to recover from an overly busy December as well as from our recent trip to Springfield, Massachusetts for the Amherst Railway Society's annual train show.  I am still so exhausted that I am having great difficulty thinking clearly.  Trying to focus on any one thing has proven to be impossible.  There are a lot of things which I would love to be doing but simply can't find the energy to even think straight. In the meantime, I spent a few days writing a review for Trip Advisor about our stay at La Quinta Inn & Suites during our train show weekend.  I was just notified that the manager of the hotel wrote a response to my review.   A partial view of one of four buildings housing the train show... Overall, I feel the manager's response to my review is acceptable and nice. That alone may indicate something positive about this hotel. He didn't give me any lame excuses as we have seen from other hotels. He didn't g

I think I can safely say that everyone enjoyed themselves at the Amherst Railway Society Train Show this year. Of everyone in the group, I probably had the most problems and even I enjoyed myself. I've been quietly recovering at home this week.  My week has involved sleeping, showering and cooking meals for myself and dinners for Sheila and Adam.  I'm still not 'myself' but I am slowly recovering. This will be a tougher recovery than usual because I had such serious health issues over our long weekend. We arrived at the hotel Friday evening and we gathered in the bar/lounge of the hotel for dinner and a few drinks. That was a nice little party and I do believe everyone had a lot of fun!   Later in the evening, shortly after going to bed, I had some sudden health issues related to my mast cell disease, Systemic Mastocytosis.  I'm not going to get into the disgusting details, but I will say it was not pleasant and it kept me awake most of the night.  Needles