Scattered Thoughts . . .

One of my favorite cameras... an Olympus with a rare Kodak sensor... was rendered useless by a faulty battery charger. While the radio batteries are charging (the walkie-talkies and base radio mentioned in my previous post) I figured I should also get on with double checking all my camera batteries and chargers.   Last year, I meticulously checked all my camera batteries before we left for the lake.  My main concern was having enough batteries on hand for both still photography and videography. Even after being meticulous with all of these batteries, I still ran into problems the second day we were at the lake! In all, I think there are about two dozen batteries I must keep conditioned and charged for my cameras and accessories (ie, my flashguns use four batteries each). Before we head out for any weekend getaway or time out-of-town, I always ensure I have enough batteries charged to get me through at least one full day of shooting, preferably two full days.  Conditioning and c

Whenever we are out on the boats and especially while we are at the lake house, we regularly use two high powered walkie-talkies and a base radio for communications. Cellphones have no service in most of the areas we frequent so these radios are necessary for general communications as well as emergencies.   These radios have been in storage all winter so none of the batteries have had a charge in many months. Hopefully the batteries are still good and will hold a charge. I dug the radios out of one of our closets this morning.  I'll let the batteries charge for about 24 hours before putting them through a series of tests.  Hopefully, we're good to go...  If not, I'll need to order some new batteries very soon... Next up...  camera batteries... Update:  The batteries in these radios seem to be fine.  I charged them for 24 hours and see no power problems.  Now, I just need to remember how to use all the features on these things!

The grandchildren turned two years old a couple of weeks ago but I have been feeling so lousy that I have just now managed to doing anything with the photos I shot at their birthday party. So, while I am on a roll posting photos of the grandchildren from this past weekend (see my previous posts), I thought I should also finally post some photos from their birthday celebration before these photos just become another lost folder of photos on an old hard drive. So... a birthday party for two new two year olds...  presents, toys, laughs, music, playing, dancing, giggles, cake, food and drinks... everyone had a fun time!  A new train for his birthday... This is one happy boy dancing to a train video... and yes, his eyes were closed most of the time he was dancing... feelin' that groove... Apparently, Grammy is getting a bit too close to someone's cake...

I've already written about the kids enjoying their little "Thomas the Train" train table but it is worth writing about again and sharing some new photos. While the kids were visiting this past Sunday we did the usual things... we watched a movie ("Finding Nemo")... we watched the usual model train video... we watched some videos of family... Kenzie played with the Mega blocks and built a tall building... Lukas played with his trucks... Kenzie played with her new doll... Lukas played catch with himself on the couch bouncing some soft, squishy balls against the wall... and they both enjoyed playing with their trains on the little train table. Whenever I watch them play with the trains, I can't help but wonder how long it would take for them to get bored with their little train table and village. I know it is only a matter of time before the kids prefer to watch the trains propel themselves around the track rather than pushing them by hand. I don't

This past Sunday, as usual, the kids visited and we had a nice afternoon and evening together. Dinner was a tasty herb encrusted pork roast and, to be honest, I really didn't think it would go over all that well with the kids. I was completely wrong though! The kids each had three platefuls of pork, roasted potatoes and gravy. Less popular were the carrots but they did have a serving each. Their lack of interest in the carrots also surprised me because these carrots were in a butter and brown sugar glaze which I thought they would really like. Truth be known, I won't eat carrots without a glaze like this! Typically after dinner, we usher the kids quickly into the bathroom for showers. This time we tried something a little different before showertime. We had some black cherry gelato in the freezer so we put a scoop or two in a couple of ice cream cones for the kids. That, too, went over well and excited the kids! Their laps were covered in melted gelato by the time

It seems that most people think that no news is good news. Well, that is not the case for me. Actually, that never has been the case with me. I can tell you with absolute certainty that if I go quiet for a while, something is not quite "good". I am still struggling with my health (since Christmas) and I have had a few relatively minor incidents and episodes over the past couple of weeks. That being said, I think that if I look at how lousy my health has been over the past four months, my health has actually been relatively stable in the past couple of weeks. It is still worse than I feel it should be and I feel rates as quite lousy and debilitating. I've struggled with some mast cell-related issues, as always, as well as some spinal injury-related issues over the past couple of weeks. As one would expect, struggles with both of these issues still seem to grind my life to a halt. This grinding wears me out too! I never celebrate Easter so never really have anything t

We went for a nice Springtime walk with the grandchildren the other day. The weather was relatively warm, clear and sunny. I think the temperature was in the 40's for a change which is much more tolerable than the freezing daytime temperatures and sub-zero nighttime temperatures we've been experiencing for many months now. With the sun shining and the temperatures well above freezing, Sheila decided it was a good afternoon for a short walk around the block with the kids. The ground, for the most part, is still covered in a foot or two of snow and we still have snowbanks up to four feet tall so there is still a lot of snow to be melted out there. Unfortunately, all this snow makes for a lot of puddles and deep mud as the ground continues to thaw. Much of our walking route around the block was mostly dry, however, there were some areas with water-filled pot holes and streams of water run-off. Needless to say, the kids were attracted to these wet areas like ants to sugar

After a lousy evening last night with some painful and debilitating health issues which left me drained, weak, and having difficulty just walking across a room, I am having a surprisingly "good" morning! The pain I experienced the last few days was miserable and last night that pain moved into the area of my kidneys only making the pain more widespread and bordering on intolerable. I am feeling a bit better this morning. Of course, this is with the help of some extra emergency medications which come with their own problems and side-effects but these medications have elevated my health into a far better place overall. I also managed to get some extra sleep last night which is always good. I had enough energy this morning to shower and shave. I was even thinking clearly enough to fix an email issue I've had for the past few days! I was having such cognitive difficulties that I could not figure out how to resolve this email issue. (Incidentally, my web hosting service co

My health has crashed again so I am down for a few days. I was feeling pretty good this morning, relatively speaking. I was having some cognitive difficulties which I have been struggling with for the past few days but I have had far worse problems related to this in the past so I wasn't all that concerned at the time. When I awoke from my usual afternoon nap (and always much needed nap), I was not feeling well at all. That is very unusual. I usually awake from my afternoon nap feeling pretty good and refreshed...  not today. Those pains in the areas of my lower kidneys was back again. My left leg was weak and that is a sign of either worsening spinal issues or impending anaphylaxis. To make a long story short, I kept getting weaker and weaker until walking was difficult and slow going. I quickly realized that my blood pressure was probably dropping to dangerous levels. Before long, I was feeling as though I would lose consciousness very soon. I opted for taking some emergenc

This morning I wrote about recovering from a painful week of lousy health... I think I spoke too soon... I had slept all afternoon which is very much a typical day for me. I really need to lay down for a few hours everyday. This is pretty much a requirement for survival. When I avoid that daily nap, my health quickly deteriorates. So, I slept most of the afternoon but, when I awoke, I wasn't feeling "right".   I don't know what it was, but something just didn't feel right. I took my dinnertime dose of medications and we started on dinner.  I wasn't hungry in the least though and was feeling generally lousy. Within minutes after dinner I found myself back in the bathroom with worsening health again. I had some relatively minor dizziness, nausea, cramping, weakness, and my legs were not cooperating. This quickly deteriorated into some typical Systemic Mastocytosis lower GI problems including its unique brand of diarrhea. Oh, it has been a fun week. When