Scattered Thoughts . . .

As I've mentioned before in previous blog entries, whenever I am having health problems and feeling too lousy to accomplish much, I go back to my storage hard drives to revisit some of my old photos. I have many thousands of photos to sift through! Last night, while struggling with my eyesight (which is still a problem today), I scrolled through some photos on my big desktop computer's new pro-quality IPS monitor. This monitor makes viewing photos and websites a lot easier for me when I am having issues with my vision.   The folder I chose to sift through held photos from 2011 of a long weekend visit to Long Island. We had spent some time at Jones Beach that long weekend. I also have some photos from our walk along the Nautical Mile on Freeport's Woodcleft Canal. The photos of interest in this particular folder, however, were all the photos I shot of family members at my nephew's high school graduation party. (Although, truth be told, I shot a lot of really ni

As I opened my eyes first thing this morning, I was having difficulty breathing.  I couldn't catch my breath.  I would suck in lungfuls of air but it may as well have been water. I felt as though I was trying to breath oxygenless air in the vacuum of deep space.  I sucked air deep into my lungs... nothing... the air just went in and out and I still needed air. It was like the air had no oxygen in it... or like I had the wind knocked out of me after being slammed to the ground while playing hockey or basketball.     I also was having difficulty finding the energy to wake myself up enough to get up out of bed. I felt as though I went to bed completely exhausted, fell asleep, and now someone was trying to awaken me just a few minutes after falling asleep. This wasn't just trying to wake up. No, this was weakness like I had no control over my own body. This is something with which I am far too familiar... I quickly realized that this is bad news... bad, bad, bad news.  As I

Sheila and I have become huge fans of The Travel Channel's "Hotel Impossible". The show helps hoteliers in need who can't seem to grasp why they are losing business. In many cases, what many of these hotel owners and managers think is "acceptable" is absurd and that is the reason they are failing. What is worse is that I think most travelers could be better managers than many of these featured hoteliers. This makes for some interesting shows. The host of the show, Anthony Melchiorri, is an interesting guy and highly qualified to host this show or manage any hotel or resort in the world. His resume is quite impressive and his management style, vocabulary and behavior resembles my own. He knows when to get angry, he knows when to raise his voice and he knows when to back off, listen and be a bit more 'soft' when necessary.  His resume includes glowing reviews of his work and successes at The Plaza, DoubleTree Times Square, Lucerne Hotel and the histo

My Systemic Mastocytosis is rearing its ugly head again this week.  I could be feeling worse... but, I wish I was feeling better.  I feel as though I am in a constant battle which frustratingly involves two steps back and only one step forward, over and over and over... I'm very nauseated this morning...  weak...  overwhelmingly fatigued... mild tachycardia since awaking this morning (now down to 100 bpm... but was up around 120 bpm when I awoke). This is usually a sign that I had an anaphylaxic episode in my sleep before awaking.   During an anaphylaxic episode, if I am awake, I notice a marked weakness and heaviness in my legs, vision becomes narrow, and breathing difficulties start.  These are my usual signs of impending anaphylaxia and I must jump on emergency medications immediately... if I am awake, that is.  If this happens in my sleep, as it sometimes does, I must hope that my body responds naturally and effectively to this sudden drop in blood pressure. On the positi

For those of you who visit TripAdvisor before booking hotels and such (as I do), I felt I should point out something I recently noticed which affects the overall ratings of any hotel listed/reviewed in TripAdvisor. Let me preface all of this by saying that I think TripAdvisor is just awesome!  It is the best tool for any traveler.   We recently stayed at La Quinta Inn in Springfield, Massachusetts.  Overall, our stay was "fair" but there were enough problems to warrant looking elsewhere for rooms for our next visit to the area.  While I was reviewing the reviews for La Quinta in TripAdvisor to see if maybe I missed something when choosing this hotel, I noticed that many of the good reviews for La Quinta were rather short and each seemed to be the same length as the other.  Each of these "5 Star" reviews were around 50 words. Hmmm... that prompted me to look more closely... At the bottom of each of these short "5 Star" reviews is a line that states

As most of you already know, I am still trying to recover from an overly busy December as well as from our recent trip to Springfield, Massachusetts for the Amherst Railway Society's annual train show.  I am still so exhausted that I am having great difficulty thinking clearly.  Trying to focus on any one thing has proven to be impossible.  There are a lot of things which I would love to be doing but simply can't find the energy to even think straight. In the meantime, I spent a few days writing a review for Trip Advisor about our stay at La Quinta Inn & Suites during our train show weekend.  I was just notified that the manager of the hotel wrote a response to my review.   A partial view of one of four buildings housing the train show... Overall, I feel the manager's response to my review is acceptable and nice. That alone may indicate something positive about this hotel. He didn't give me any lame excuses as we have seen from other hotels. He didn't g

I think I can safely say that everyone enjoyed themselves at the Amherst Railway Society Train Show this year. Of everyone in the group, I probably had the most problems and even I enjoyed myself. I've been quietly recovering at home this week.  My week has involved sleeping, showering and cooking meals for myself and dinners for Sheila and Adam.  I'm still not 'myself' but I am slowly recovering. This will be a tougher recovery than usual because I had such serious health issues over our long weekend. We arrived at the hotel Friday evening and we gathered in the bar/lounge of the hotel for dinner and a few drinks. That was a nice little party and I do believe everyone had a lot of fun!   Later in the evening, shortly after going to bed, I had some sudden health issues related to my mast cell disease, Systemic Mastocytosis.  I'm not going to get into the disgusting details, but I will say it was not pleasant and it kept me awake most of the night.  Needles

Tomorrow's the day!  The train show begins tomorrow for us and five other families joining us. On Saturday morning, the train show will begin for another 50,000-60,000 people.  It should be a great weekend. Sheila and Adam are busy packing. (I have time to pack in the morning.) This evening we picked up our beer, drinks, and snacks for the weekend.  I know I'll be ready to crack open one of those beers when we arrive tomorrow evening.   Right now I'm feeling halfway decent.  Let's hope that carries through the entire weekend.  I will be posting a few photos from this year's show next week.  In the meantime, here are a few more photos from past shows....

"Hmmm..." I've been revisiting older photos lately. Here are another two images from this past September. Mackenzie was wide awake but Lukas was sleeping soundly on his little fold-out Disney futon. The room was quiet and Kenzie had all the toys to herself but it was clear that she wasn't too comfortable with playing alone.  You could see her thinking and imagine her saying to herself, "Hmmmm... how can I wake him up without getting in trouble..." I shot these two photographs with one of my older Olympus camera bodies. Although it is an older body, it is one of my favorites. This camera's sensor is what makes it special. The sensor was produced by Kodak in better times for this corporation which is no longer in the digital camera business. (They have licensed out their name to other smaller companies to produce cameras in the Kodak name. The once photographic giant now only produces paper and printers.) Kodak's sensors are known for producing

Well, the train show weekend is now upon us. We will be leaving for the show before long. Our bed is covered in photography gear and other stuff I hope to remember to pack for the long weekend. What a mess... I've been very fatigued for the past three or four weeks and the past few days haven't been much different. Lately I've been experiencing a fairly good day but then my health crashes and I am feeling quite lousy very quickly, again. I'm hoping that the weekend is a good one for me.   It is bad enough that my health often ruins my own plans but this is compounded by knowing that my health often instantly changes plans for Sheila and Adam and anyone else tagging along with us. Last year, the train show was one of those times.... By the time lunchtime arrived on Saturday of the show last year, my health was beginning to crash. My legs were getting very heavy and not cooperating, my back was killing me, I was weak... I knew I needed food and medications. Missing