Scattered Thoughts . . .

We went out last night to celebrate the birthday of a very dear friend.  It was actually a bit of a surprise birthday celebration for Judy. Judy's daughter, Lindsay, made a surprise appearance from her campus during finals week.  As Lindsay tells the story, "That amazing moment when I surprised my mom by calling her outside the house and knocking so she tells you to hold on because there is someone at the door and she opens the door and it's me, SURPRISE!  Happy Birthday mom!!!"  Lindsay also helped to arrange this surprise dinner celebration with a few close friends.  All of this during finals week! We had dinner at The Reservoir Restaurant and Tap Room , otherwise known as The Rez by the local crowd.  As always, it was really nice to get out with friends.  A couple of us at our table have had our problems lately in finding consistently good health so it was a pleasure to finally get out together and to feel well while celebrating!  Getting together has been

The sailing season is almost upon us but I still have some work to accomplish on the sailboat.  We are excited to be heading to the lake house in a few short weeks but the sailboat must be ready by then! Most of the parts I have ordered have arrived so I can now begin working on the hull and installing new parts. The main thing that needs to be accomplished, above all else, is to do some much needed hullwork.  This past winter we had some water get into small cracks in the gelcoat and then freeze.  The expanding frozen water cracked out a larger hole in the gelcoat.  This gelcoat is applied over the fiberglass hull, sanded smooth, and then some serious elbow grease is needed to wax the shine into the newly applied gelcoat. This photo, to the left, shows the cracked out gelcoat on the hull.  I also have a few other small areas of the hull which could use some attention so I will work on those areas as well.  Eventually, I would like to refinish the entire surface of the hull..

I was opening the mail this morning and noticed the flowers that Whitney had brought for Sheila yesterday for Mother's Day.  I immediately realized that, even though I missed the opportunity to shoot photos yesterday while everyone was here, I could get a photo of this bouquet of flowers and post it. So, although a bit late for the blog post about Mother's Day, here is a photo of Sheila's Mother's Day flowers...  the day after Mother's Day!

Yesterday was Mother's Day and I believe Sheila had the nicest Mother's Day she has had since I have been in her life.  I'm very happy for her since there is no doubt that she certainly deserves it! What is very odd, and highly unusual, is that I did not shoot a single photo all day long to capture this great day in photos.  Rarely does an event occur without me shooting a few hundred photos!  Before everyone arrived I managed to find some time between preparing food and removing clutter in the house to prepare my photography gear for some photos.  I even had two cameras ready with different lenses for different purposes and a flash gun all set to go with freshly charged batteries and a diffuser.  The day went by so quickly and I stayed so busy all day with food prep that I never had time to pick up a camera. Adam (Sheila's son) did most of the house cleaning.  He vacuumed the entire house...  dusted everything...  and he even cleaned the bathroom.  His years as a c

Liza and the kids walked over to our house for a short visit yesterday just before dinner.  As always, it was nice to see Liza and the kids.  I had a chance to shoot a few photos while they were here playing in the yard. You can see the very small album of photos at my Zenfolio webpage here. Last summer Lukas liked sitting in the sailboat and it is obvious in these photos that he is going to enjoy being out in any of the boats.  Just for fun, we placed him in one of the small cargo compartments of one of our kayaks and he was happy to just sit there as long as we let him!

When I wrote about Sheila's awards ceremony the other day, I mentioned that I could write a separate piece just about the problems I had in shooting photos at that event.  Well, I am going to keep this as short as possible because it is a boring topic for most people, but here is some info on the problems I had that day. I suspect that most people probably assumed that I had problems shooting photos that day because people kept getting in the way.  That does, indeed, happen at many events but that did not happen at all at this event.  Not at all.  The few people shooting photos at this ceremony were polite and considerate, ensuring they weren't in the way of others and always being aware of their surroundings. At other events, however, this type of thing is often a huge problem.  Wedding photographers have a nightmare at every wedding because so many people constantly jump in front of them to shoot crappy photos with their cellphones or cheap compact cameras.  Of course, e

A couple of weeks ago, we had an absolutely beautiful spring Saturday that was like a sunny, early summer day.  My health was relatively good that particular weekend so we dropped everything we needed   to do and instead did something we wanted   to do.  It had been a long, cold winter with far too many months spent inside our small home so we decided to get out and about to do some socializing and spent about 12 hours bar-hopping in Burlington on picture perfect Lake Champlain. The Burlington Boathouse at the waterfront. The weather was absolutely beautiful that weekend.  We managed to spend time with a good number of friends over the course of the weekend which included this entire day in Burlington with two close friends.  It really was a great weekend and any time spent at the waterfront and on Church Street in Burlington is always a good time and time well spent!  Especially when you spend it with close friends such as Frank and Christine! Lately, 'good health' wee

I had the pleasure and honor to accompany Sheila to an awards ceremony today in our State's capital, Montpelier.  We were attending the State of Vermont's Department of Corrections annual awards ceremony and luncheon.  Sheila was a distinct honoree at this awards ceremony for earning the honor of being chosen as the Administrative Employee of the Year. When we arrived in the State's capital and pulled into the parking lot where this luncheon was being held, Sheila was immediately surprised by the number of cars already in the parking lot.  As we approached the building, we couldn't help but notice the two Department of Corrections Honor Guard members flanking each side of the entry doors.  I think it was at this point that Sheila realized this event might be a bigger thing than she had anticipated! Once inside, we were greeted by more Honor Guard members in the lobby.  When we entered the grand room where the ceremony was to be held, it was already crowded with

I'm still recovering from the excruciating kidney pain I had all last week and through the weekend but I am up and about and accomplishing small things around the house.  Although we still do not know for sure the cause of this intense pain, it is good that the pain is waning and I am able to accomplish a few little things again. What I am now struggling with, however, is unbearably hot weather so early in the year.  I had to retreat to inside the house by 11:00 am because the heat was so oppressing.  When I retreated to the protection of our home, our little weather station was showing the temperature to be 93 degrees.  By the time I had finished lunch, I was wishing we had the air conditioning units installed in our windows. My health does just fine when the climate is in the 70s.   When it is in the 80s, I need to take a lot of breaks to cool off.  One of the quickest and effective ways to cool down my body is running cold tap water over the blood vessels in my wrists.  This

Today I awoke feeling so miserable and in so much pain that I needed to call my doctor to ask if I should make an appointment or just go directly to the emergency room.  You know when you are already thinking of an emergency room visit before you even call your doctor, the pain is bad! Since Monday morning, I have been awaking every morning with intense pain in the area of my kidneys.   This pain has been so bad at times that I can barely walk across a room. The odd thing is that the pain has mostly been when I awake in the morning and then wanes throughout the morning. This problem, however, seems to be a relatively common problem for those of us suffering from the more aggressive form of Systemic Mastocytosis.  The mast cells erroneously attack an internal organ, for instance the kidneys, and that causes irritated and inflamed nerve endings on and around my kidneys.  But, before we assume this the cause, we must rule out everything else. For Systemic Mastocytosis patients, ther