Scattered Thoughts . . .

For the most part, healthwise, I had a good week while we were at the lake house last week.  And, the previous week was pretty good too.  I am definitely paying the price for all that good health now though! " All that good health"...  That seems to imply that I had years of good health...  or even months...  No, this was just a matter of 12 days or so. A body burdened with a myeloproliferative neoplasm such as Systemic Mastocytosis rarely goes longer than a few days without some debilitating symptomatology.  Having 12 relatively good days was a blessing. Unfortunately, when I have a few "good" days, I tend to overdo it.  I don't nap...  I stray from my specialized diet which minimizes mast cell degranulation...  I become active which causes a rise in body temperature which causes idiopathic anaphylaxia...  activity also causes inflammation and pain in my spine due to all my spinal injuries (for those unfamiliar with my spinal injuries, the injuries inclu

I decided that one of the first things I should work on this week is putting together a short 'teaser' video of some of our sailing at Lake Groton.  I have a lot of video footage to sort through but here are a few short clips of some of the excitement we had while sailing last week at Lake Groton... I have video clips shot from the rudder, low on the mast, on top of the mast looking down, from the end of the boom, and from shore.  Certainly, the most exciting video is shot from the boat during periods of relatively high winds!  The view from the top of the mast proved to be a bit boring because the view was not wide enough to get a real feel for what was really happening.  I did manage to get some decent footage from this view, however.  I will include some of these clips in the full-length video. The camera mount on the rudder broke after the first half hour of video!  Adam was sailing the boat at the time...   he was tacking and, as the boom swung overhead,

We brought two high-powered, waterproof walkie talkies and a base station with us to the lake.  This turned out to be a great idea and the whole plan of using radios for communication at the lake worked out great!  We had some initial bugs to work out at first (operator errors related to feature setup), but overall, this form of communication made life so much easier for us. Mostly, these radios were used whenever we were kayaking or sailing.  We also used them in the cars which turned out to be a great idea as well.  The Groton State Forest has no cellphone coverage at all so our cellphones were useless.  Not only did the radios work where the cellphone would not, but they were much easier to use than a cellphone.  No dialing required...  just push to talk (or voice activated, if you wish...  we prefer push to talk). The radios were invaluable while sailing... this is a frame capture from video of me sailing. Adam even took a walkie talkie with him on a bike ride.  The conc

I have always wanted a photograph of the view from the house at Lake Groton...   to choose a beautiful time of day and shoot a panoramic of the same view we get from the house each day...   I think I may have succeeded this year!  This one below is the best one I have captured to date. The view from the house on Lake Groton has always amazed and captivated us.  This view is not only seen from the deck and dock, but it can be seen from inside the house as well.  The lake-end of the house is actually out over the water like a houseboat and the windows wrap around three sides of the house allowing us this beautiful view everyday... 180 degree panoramic view from the house... This panoramic image consists of eight photographs...  I started on the right, which is what is seen from the kitchen and dining room of the house...   then kept shooting shots as I turned left...  until I was facing the view from my desk overlooking the lake. I stitched these eight photos together last nigh

We are back home from the lake house now.  Although it was a great week on Lake Groton and I prepared for this week for months by being vigilant with my daily physical therapy (a daily ritual since my second line-of-duty spinal injury in 1998), it has really taken a lot out of me. My spine is inflamed from dragging around kayaks and the sailboat.  Packing bags into the car didn't help either!  As bad as the spinal pain is, problems associated with my Systemic Mastocytosis are far worse and much more debilitating. Wearing myself down is one of the worst things I can do to my health today and has the same effect on all Systemic Mastocytosis patients.  The absolute worst thing we can do is to miss a dose of medications.  Wearing oneself down takes a close second though and requires the longest amount of time to recover. It just so happens that I did miss a dose of medications on our first night at the lake.  Our daily lifestyle changed so much at the lake that my medications wer

Yesterday was definitely a day full of kayaking. I started the day, alone, at 5:30 in the morning.  I always check the lighting and atmospheric conditions at this time while we are at the lake. If it is sunny and clear, I don't bother getting up and starting my day. If, however, it is still foggy and misty, I am always eager to get up and get out on the lake.  Today was one of those foggy and misty days. I spent well over an hour on the lake before breakfast this morning and I shot at least 300 photos in that time.  In addition to getting a lot of beautiful photos, I also got a good workout.  I definitely miss getting part of my workout by paddling a kayak.  I used to live on the Winooski River in Waterbury and kayaking the river was always part of my daily exercise whenever the weather was cooperative.  When we are at the lake house, my exercise goals are no different.  A plus is being able to get great photos this early in the morning and, especially so, when the conditions

View from the deck... Today has been a very long, tiring but great day!  I'm exhausted now so I am going to keep this as short as possible so I can get to bed before my eyes just shut on their own. We made it to the house with no problems.  Unpacking and getting settled in happened very quickly...  especially when compared to how much time and effort that went into packing everything up and loading the cars! We were greeted with a nice little sign in the parking area when we arrived simply stating, "Welcome Maher Family".  The house was exceptionally clean and included some nice upgrades since we were here last. Adam was quick to get the boats off the roof of the cars and ready for the water.  Not long after we finished settling in, Adam was heading out on the sailboat.  It was a really nice day for sailing...  nice stiff breeze and, at times, quite gusty.  I hope to get out on the water tomorrow.  In the meantime, Adam seemed to enjoy himself out on the water

Two of the three hull problems...  the aft end of the cockpit, starboard side... First, let's take a look at the hull before I did the gelcoat repairs. This first photo shows the hull damage on the aft, starboard side of the cockpit. This photo was shot after I ground out all the loose gelcoat.  At this point, the hull was ready for some new gelcoat in these damaged areas... The weather cleared up enough later in the day yesterday for me to try my hand at these fiberglass hull repairs.  I made a few beginner mistakes but have learned from these mistakes and I'm now ready to tackle more repairs before next season.  I am probably the only one who will notice the mistakes I made so I will let the problems sit until I tackle more hullwork projects next season.  The sailboat is good to go for this season! The repaired hull...  the damaged areas were all along this side of the cockpit...  note the waterproof camera mounted on the rudder... The mistakes I made were defi

The weather was beautiful yesterday, my health was in good condition and I was feeling well and energetic.  Lately, this seems to be a rare combination of conditions so it was the perfect day to work on more of my sailboat restoration projects. My little 37 year old AMF Alcort Minifish sailboat is coming along nicely even though parts are extremely difficult to find.  This boat is no longer manufactured.  The parts are no longer manufactured.  The only way to obtain parts is to either find used parts or substitute parts designed for other sailboats.  In my case, I opted to buy new parts designed for the Sunfish, Super Sunfish and Laser sailboats. Speaking of Laser sailboats...  I would love to have a Laser!  The Laser is still small enough to transport on the roof rack of a car yet it is large compared to my little minifish.  The Laser is designed for speed...  it is sleek...  it is lightweight...  and it can really move!  Unlike what my spinal injuries and health have done to my a

Sheila's daughter, Liza, had to work this weekend so we had a nice visit from the grandchildren over this rainy, snowy and damp Memorial Day weekend.  When Liza returned to the house after work, we dug into a nice barbeque pulled pork dinner with homemade cole slaw and homemade french fries. Even though we were stuck inside the house, we had a really nice time.   You can view all 28 photos here, at my Zenfolio account .   Someone is now comfortable on her feet... The kids are getting big very quickly.  At 13 months, both of the kids are standing now when they feel the need but Mackenzie appears very comfortable on her feet.  She has no problems getting to her feet, bending to pick things up, standing again, taking a step, but still seems to prefer to crawl when she needs to get somewhere.  There is no doubt that crawling is still easier and faster for both of them...  but not for much longer! Uncle Adam set up some of his trains for the kids.  While he was setting up th