Scattered Thoughts . . .

F or the week or so that we were in Dayton back at the very beginning of this past summer, we visited a lot of different and historical places but we stayed on the campus of the University of Dayton during our entire time there.  I definitely wanted Kenzie and Lukey to visit a campus like this one and I'd like them to continue visiting as many campuses as possible.  Before we even made plans for this trip, I knew that if we were going to spend some time in Dayton, a UD campus tour would be something to do especially if we had the two of them in tow. I wrote above that I definitely wanted Kenzie and Lukey to visit this particular campus because it is a stunningly beautiful campus, it is an outstanding school and the people are unbelievably friendly both on the campus and off the campus.  This school is truly special.  There is a vibe, a feeling, like it has a life of its own.  You don't find that in a lot of places. I have very positive memories of UD and a fair...

I 've been out on my new bike more than a few times over the past couple of weeks since the bike arrived.  Some of these times, I mounted my Sony X3000 action camera on the handlebars.  This is a pretty nice little action camera.   Actually, I captured some underwater video of Kenzie and Lukey in the pool in Dayton earlier this summer that I haven't done anything with yet.  I need to revisit all those photos and video from that trip and share some of that here.   Anyway, back to my recent bike rides this autumn and having cameras with me during the rides... I didn't keep this little action camera running continuously but I did get some decent footage ten to twenty minutes at a time.  My plan was to eventually cut the long videos into four or five second clips of interest and then put together a video of those short clips.  I really didn't spent a whole lot of time on this but I managed to get a video put together this morning. ...

I was feeling relatively well this morning and the weather was very nice so I wandered out on my bike this morning for some exercise and photography.  I quickly took my morning dose of medications, had an English muffin and some iced tea then packed up a backpack with emergency medications and a little bit of photography gear.  Then I grabbed my helmet and backpack and headed out the door to my bike.   A small issue arose with my bike on this ride.  The gears were a little wonky today.  I need to adjust my rear derailleur because, on its own without any input from me, my bike kept changing gears on me when in the range of around gears three to five.  In the big scheme of things this really is a small issue.  It is just a matter of finding the time and energy to fine tune that rear derailleur again.  Actually, I need to spend some time refreshing my memory on how to make this adjustment first which adds some time to the whole task. Unlike my ...

I went on a longer bike ride this morning and it's only the evening but I am already feeling the consequences!   The ride this morning had a lot more hills to climb and, clearly, I was not yet ready for that.  After a week of rain, however, it was nice to get back out on the new bike.  I'm really liking this bicycle after all the upgrades I have added since it arrived. This time, I loaded up my photography backpack with three different cameras for this ride.  Unfortunately, I ran into some problems. The first problem is that the primary location where I wanted to photograph is now mostly obscured by trees that have grown significantly over the past few years.  This wasn't the end of the world but it was disappointing. The next problem is there were people everywhere and I was hoping to capture landscape photos devoid of people.  Oh yeah...  the traffic on this Sunday morning was insane too!  They were all Vermont license plates so I can't ev...

I n order to catch our train for our departure from Ohio and back to Manhattan, we had to set an alarm for 1:30am so we could get up, check out of our hotel and meet our driver to get us to the train station.  After a very busy, hot, and humid day with a lot of walking, this allowed us only about three hours of sleep before waking up and heading to the train station but our sleeper car beds would be waiting for us on the train.   After shaking the cobwebs out from our short nighttime naps, we made our way down to the hotel lobby just before 2am... The hotel lobby at this hotel is quite memorable with a towering ceiling (see photo below) and its immense size.  I had been here a few times about 40 years ago while traveling with the Air Force and this towering, expansive lobby is something I have always remembered very vividly and very fondly.  Back then, however, this towering lobby had a grand piano in it and this lobby led into a towering bar in the next room....

I t has been about two and a half months since my table saw accident that resulted in a bit of an amputation of my thumb including part of the bone so it is probably time for an update.  I know that most people think that no news is good news so are also assuming this injury is probably long behind me at this point since I haven't mentioned anything in about two months, but...   it is not behind me.  My thumb is indeed healing well but it is not behind me just yet. It is still quite sensitive to the touch.  Trying to trim my nail is still very painful.  It's not that my nail is overly sensitive...  it is that area where the flesh meets the nail is still very sensitive and painful.   I'm still dropping things.  I'm still slamming it into things which, naturally, results in even more pain.  And, I'm still having great difficulty picking small things up with that hand.  I think I have difficulty picking things up because the ...

T his past Sunday, Sheila and I participated in the Cystic Fibrosis Great Strides Walk in Burlington on our granddaughter, Ellie's, CF team.  The weather was great and Ellie was totally pumped up for this event as you'll see in the photos below. Ellie was wound up and super excited...  she danced most of the time we were waiting for the walk to begin! Lining the beginning of the walk were posters of each of the local children struggling with cystic fibrosis... The walk was along the waterfront in Burlington so we had great views of the lake and the Adirondack Mountains on the other side of the lake... Taking a short break at the midway point... After we completed the walk, we visited the treehouse... We all went to The Longhorn for a much needed lunch afterward.  We were all starving!  I definitely did not eat enough for breakfast but everyone seemed to be ready for a good meal after the walk.   It was a really nice day and we had a lot of fun on our walk a...