Scattered Thoughts . . .

S heila and I went to my primary care doctor this morning for a follow-up visit pertaining to my partially amputated left thumb.  The plan was to make sure there is no infection, make sure it is healing well and, if it is ready, start removing stitches. My doctor says that, considering the situation, my thumb is looking very good so that is good.  This means that Sheila and I did a good job of keeping it clean even though that was unbearably painful! After taking a close look at the wound, she decided that at least some of the stitches needed to come out today.  She was afraid that the skin would start healing around and over the stitches so they needed to come out.   Unfortunately, I still have some exposed nerves and the whole area is hyper-sensitive.  Removing the first couple of stitches was painful but 'tolerable'.  The next couple of stitches were unbearably painful though.  Just touching around the area was remarkably painful.  My whol...

M y current desktop computer which I primarily use for photography and videography is getting a bit long in the tooth.  Back when I purchased this computer, my cameras only recorded FullHD video...  shortly later, 4K became mainstream....  now 8K and even 12K is well on the way to becoming mainstream.  This desktop does fairly well with FullHD but it struggles with editing and producing 4K video.  8K and 12K video is simply out of the question. I've also been experiencing issues with the computer freezing especially when I'm pushing it with photography edits.  Then I recently learned that Microsoft is no longer supporting updates to Windows 10 after this coming October and, unfortunately, my computer isn't compatible with Windows 11 so I can't just upgrade to Windows 11.  Common sense was telling me that I need to either upgrade my current computer or start looking for a new one. For the past year or so, I've been struggling with the limitations of my ...

A bout a week ago, I really screwed up. For over six decades, I've been almost religiously and ridiculously protecting my hands and fingers at all cost because I am a classical pianist.  No matter what activity I was doing over all these six decades, protecting my hands and fingers was always foremost in my thoughts. For at least five decades, I've been a carpenter too so I've always been extra cautious around all tools especially power tools.  I've built homes and everything associated with homes and only suffered relatively minor injuries.   The worst injury to my hands (until last week) was a drywall injury.  I was cutting drywall in freezing temperatures...  work gloves on my hands...  and accidentally severed the top of my left thumb with the utility knife...  my gloved hand had my thumb placed on the steel straight edge, unfortunately, slightly over the straight edge and in the path of the cut..  I only cut part of the nail and some fle...

B ack in 2014, I had the very rare privilege of being honored in a ceremony at the US Air Force Museum, however, due to poor health, we missed that ceremony and all of the subsequent annual ceremonies as more names of airmen were added to this wall.  In fact, we haven't seen my name on this "Wall Of Honor" at the US Air Force Museum in person until just last week!   (The photo at right is from that ceremony in 2014 courtesy of the US Air Force Museum Foundation.) Two of our grandchildren, Lukey and Kenzie, were with us during this visit last week but they were unaware of what they would find at this national museum.  They simply thought they would see a lot of airplanes at this immense museum.   As we approached this wall, I pointed out the name of the wall explaining that the names on this wall are the names of airmen who have been honored here at the museum with a "Data Plate" in their name and a brief biography written online.  Then we slowly walked...

Y esterday was haircut day for Lukey and Kenzie.   Kenzie went to Sheila's stylist to get her hair done while Lukey stayed with me so I could cut his hair. I had planned a slightly different haircut for Lukey   (far more up top than I did here)  but his hair was too short already which forced a few changes during the haircut.  All in all, it came out well anyway. I wanted a fade to zero on the sides and back but my shaver isn't the best quality so I really couldn't go to zero.  I'd say this is a fade to half... Sheila's hair stylist did a good job on Kenzie's hair.  She had quite a bit of length cut off... Today is packing day.  I think everyone else packed this morning so I'm the only one left who needs to pack.  My stuff will be a very tight fit.  I have a lot of medications to pack.  Actually, the medications will require almost an entire bag on its own.  I also have quite a bit of photography gear, chargers, cables, laptop ...

O ur outdoor shower project is coming along slowly but surely.  I am almost finished at this point.  I only have some touch-ups to do and some finishing touches.  I definitely wish this project moved along much more quickly though! As you can see in this first photo, I have stained all of the wood and added a roof and lighting.  Don't mind the rest of the back of the house.  That room just beyond the outdoor shower will be our last big project, inside and out.  There will be a set of French doors and a window and then I will add siding the match the rest of the house.  In the meantime, this outdoor shower is looking good and is helping to block that view of the one unfinished corner of the house.     Inside, this shower enclosure is rather spacious!  Actually, this is quite a bit nicer than our current bathroom! These two shelves were added yesterday... I installed the bench this morning... The wet area under this bench was from whe...

I had a very rare, very productive day yesterday but I'm left with excruciating  spinal pain from my lumbar spine all the way up through my thoracic and cervical spine (I have significant injuries in all three areas).  The pain was so extreme last night that it was taking my breath away!  My extensive spinal injuries are still inflamed even today but down to moderately tolerable levels.   Today I plan to do a bit of plumbing work if my body cooperates. I managed to get the entire shower and dressing area enclosed which made for a really good day.  I even made a door and hung it!   The day involved a lot of cutting, ripping and making rabbits on every piece of wood.  All of these piece fit together nicely.   The hot and cold spigots are installed.  Today's job is to connect these spigots to the house water supply.  I already have the wall inside the house that adjoins with this back wall of the house completely opened and ...

W hen I got up this morning, it wasn't raining so I immediately went outside to collect tools and building supplies for one part of this outdoor shower project that has been nagging at me for quite a while.   I had originally planned to use some leftover roofing membrane as a sort of shower pan to lead the water away from the house and toward the French drain.  I couldn't find any of my leftover roofing membrane though.  My next option was to bend my own aluminum flashing in place of the membrane.   So, this morning, I collected the rolled aluminum, some shears, my hand seamer, a hammer, and some straight lumber to use as a makeshift bending brake.  I had planned to head indoors at this point to get ready for my day and eat breakfast but i t was quite nice out there this morning so I stayed out there and started working on shaping the rolled aluminum into a flashing resembling half of a shower pan.   This flashing would protect the exposed lo...

L ukey and Kenzie are both a part of the band at school and last night was their spring concert so we headed out to Cabot last night for a bit of middle school culture.   This was Kenzie's first time singing lead vocals in front of a crowd and she did well considering it was her first time.   Lukey already had another previous concert under his belt (their winter concert) before Kenzie joined the band so he moved around from instrument to instrument on stage during the performances.  I think he prefers drums but he spent time at the keyboard in addition to rocking a tambourine and singing lead vocals.   It was a fun night for all of us!  There is a short video at the bottom of this blog entry with a few short clips of the concert. Below, Kenzie is waiting to come out on stage... I've seen this Kenzie "dirty-look" before...  it is usually directed toward me when I'm joking with her about something.  I'm not sure what it was about on stage...