Scattered Thoughts . . .

S heila and I were both sick with a stomach virus this Thanksgiving.  For me, it started Wednesday evening...  for Sheila, it started on Thanksgiving day.  On the positive side, it only bothered us for approximately 24 hours each and, today (Friday), we each got our appetite back. We missed the planned usual Thanksgiving dinner at Sheila's dad's house since we were both sick.  We ate very little this Thanksgiving Day.   Today, Friday, we both got our appetites back so we finally had some food and actually had an exceptionally nice and tasty dinner! I slept most of the afternoon today to make up for all the sleep I lost while feeling miserable and nauseated through the night the night before Thanksgiving.  I was awake long enough here and there to watch bits and pieces of the University of Dayton blow #2 ranked UConn off the court at the Maui Invitational Tournament.  That was an extremely impressive win and it made both of us quite happy! ...

S heila and I started our Christmas season last weekend by decorating the outside of the house.  The weather was ideal for spending time hanging lights and wreaths so we jumped on the outdoor Christmas decorating.  While we were out there, I also winterized the sailboat and pulled out the snow shovels and roof rakes.   This weekend, we finished our Christmas decorating by decorating indoors. We always try to get the outdoor decorating done in good weather...  ie, temperature in the 50-70 degree range...  and last weekend was quite nice in the 50s.  It was actually nice to spend some time outdoors for a change.  (I don't get outside much anymore due to my health and crappy Waterbury weather.)  I have absolutely no desire to be out there in the cold...  or when it is wet (most of the time)...  or damp...  or even too hot! We had pulled out all the decorations last weekend and we had intended to get the indoor decorations done too...

A s I do every Christmas, I set up a six foot section of train track on our mantle.  I usually have my O scale trains on two tracks set up here for Christmas.  These are Lionel-sized trains.  This year, however, I decided to set up my newly completed large scale trolley (F scale) on the mantle which is more than double the size of those O scale trains. This trolley I've set up on the mantle is the one I just finished rebuilding this summer for our new garden railroad.  It is really a pretty nice model now that I completely rebuilt it.  The beauty of this train is that is it wireless which means I don't have to fuss with keeping the track clean...  there is no need for a power pack or transformer...  there are no wires...  there is no need to deal with finding a nearby outlet.  I placed the track on the mantle and then placed the trolley on the tracks...  that's it...  ready to go.   I ran it back and forth a few times to m...

I haven't done any macro photography in a very long time...  perhaps a couple of decades...  so I tested some of my photography gear over the past few days to see what works best for macro photography when using some of my newer gear. Although I have quite a bit of photography gear, I actually don't have any macro lenses.  Macro lenses allow you to get closer to your subject due to the closer minimum focusing distances that macro lenses provide.  I do, however, have some extension tubes which also can shrink the minimum focus distance which allows me to focus on objects that are much closer to the lens than without an extension tube.   Getting closer makes your subject appear larger in the frame (obvious, I know, but I had to mention it).  Lenses oftentimes only allow you to get as close as three feet or so.  With some lenses, you can only get as close as ten feet.  It is difficult to get a close-up view at those distances so adding an exten...

A s I've mentioned in this blog previously, we've been in the process of getting a new water supply to the house which has caused months of chaos not only in our neighborhood but for our schedule as well as for our home.   They dug up the roads all summer long to install a new water main so we were trapped at home every now and then.  On a good day, we'd have a detour and very rough roads to get out of our neighborhood.   After installing the new water main in (well... far underneath) the street, they dug up each resident's property from the street to the house to lay pipe and then install water meters at the front each house.  Now we are dealing with them connecting each house to the new water meters at the front end of our house.   For us, unfortunately, we need the new water main to reach all the way toward the back end of the house.  In order to get the water back to where the old water pipe comes up from underground, they had to run abou...

T his is going to be a rather boring blog entry and I'm only writing this entry because I haven't written lately.   My health has been rather lousy so I've been sticking close to the living room, bathroom and bedroom over the past few days.  Writing here has been farthest from my mind.   I've had breathing issues which is interrupting sleep so I'm overwhelmingly fatigued.  I had a cascade of symptoms that started heading toward anaphylaxis so I immediately jumped on extra medications and then some emergency medications.  My bones ache.  I had some gastro-intestinal issues hence my need to stick close to the bathroom.  And, I've had some blurry vision which is mostly affecting my ability to read music at the piano.   So, for the most part, I've been either sitting at my desk or sitting on the couch.  I have had a few cameras scattered around me while I work on refining my slow synchro flash techniques for each camera while using...

I really dislike cellphones and I probably mention that far too often in this blog but I recently upgraded my cellphone so felt it was time for a blog entry about "smart" devices.  How often I mention this dislike of cellphones here should be an indication of how much I truly dislike these things and especially in regard to how people can't seem to put them down.   I used cellphones during my career through the 1990s along with radios and landlines but effective and immediate communication was truly essential in my job.  I'm retired now and have absolutely no desire to be attached to a phone all the time.  In fact, my cellphone is set to "Do Not Disturb" almost always  unless I am waiting on an important phone call.  I have absolutely no desire to be fielding telephone calls at all times and I especially have no desire to be fielding any type of text messaging which is almost always poorly communicated, hence, I actually do prefer a phone call over t...

U nlike any other night in recent memory, tonight's sky appears to be crystal clear! We were at Shaw's to do our weekly shopping tonight (not in Waterbury, for a change) and to get our flu shots (last week was COVID shots) and, when we stepped out of the store, we were greeted with a very bright and noticeably sharp moon low in the sky.  I knew that when I got home, if it was still clear, I would be attempting to capture another photo of the moon.   Well, surprisingly, it was still clear when we arrived home so I put together a combination of lens and camera body that I have not used yet other than for capturing only a few photos of birds in our backyard.  I truly expected Waterbury to be cloudy when we got back home so I was quite surprised to see we also had clear skies here at home.  Using this combination of lens and body would be interesting especially handholding this very long, heavy and unwieldly combination.   For this photo, I reluctantly use...

A s I wait for my latest oncology test results, I've been doing some research about treatments and drugs that my oncologist has discussed with us in a recent visit.  I have to admit that I actually have been losing sleep over the direction my health is headed in recent years and this research isn't helping any.  If anything, I'm losing more sleep! My health has been so poor that the poor health makes it very difficult to sleep at times.  Most times, however, I can't keep my eyes open but, now, what I'm learning in my current research is keeping me up at night.   For the first five years or so that I've had this illness, I was very active in support groups and research.  I was actually a board member and had written a few lengthy papers for this national support group to help newly diagnosed patients.   In the beginning, this research helped me understand and come to terms with my future of surviving with this incurable illness.  Also, I was h...

I  don't think I've pointed a telescope nor camera toward the sky since the total eclipse on April 8th and even that day was overcast with thin clouds.  It has been a truly abysmal year for astronomy.   While the rest of the east coast has been capturing photos of a comet lingering in our night sky as well as capturing photos of unusually southernly northern lights colorfully illuminating the night sky, we've been under the clouds, rain and fog.  Even on the rare mostly clear nights, we've seen no northern lights.  Then again, I may have headed to bed far too early on those few clear nights to see the northern lights.  Regardless, as far as astronomy goes, the past six months have been absolutely horrible whether we're talking about daytime solar astronomy or nighttime astronomy. Tonight, however, I noticed the moon trying to shine through the clouds and decided to grab a camera, open the living room window, and shoot a few quick photos.  The moo...