Scattered Thoughts . . .

We had a very late start to summer this year due to some snowfall in April and May. I couldn't plant anything until very late in May because the ground was still frozen. We even had some piles of snow and chunks of ice leftover through Memorial Day weekend which still needed to thaw. Needless to say, we by-passed spring altogether and summer has been late. This morning, while I was staining our front deck (a continuation of yesterday morning's little staining project... and a project which will continue into tomorrow morning), I noticed that we are finally beginning to get some flowers in our wildflower gardens around the house. We have three good-sized wildflower gardens and, oddly enough, the garden which is doing best this year is a garden which hardly had any growth in previous years. Maybe our other two gardens are a bit tired and need a year of rest. After cleaning up from my staining project, I decided to grab one of my cameras to attempt to capture a few shots..

After a very rough week of lousy health and a lot of pain, I started feeling a bit better last night and this morning. As a result, I managed to get a little bit of work done on the house.  In the big scheme of things, what I accomplished was very little, actually...  just a tiny little bit of staining outdoors... but it was more than I had accomplished in at least a week. I stained a new landscaping step I installed a couple of weeks ago along our short stone pathway to the back door. While I had the stain out, mixed, and ready-to-go, I decided to stain the two steps leading up to our front deck as well as a small landing at our back door.  The positive thing is I managed to get a small task accomplished this morning. The negative thing is I feel as though my health has now taken a couple of steps backward again. I slept all afternoon which was necessary and really nice especially since I slept in a nice, cool, air-conditioned room. Unfortunately, I am still completely exhausted

I am starting to feel a little better so I think it is time for a blog post which is a little bit on the lighter side... A couple of weeks ago, Sheila, Adam and I climbed to the summit of Owl's Head Mountain overlooking Lake Groton. Because of my health, we drove up most of the way and then climbed for about 15 minutes to get to the summit. My days of climbing thousands of vertical feet in a day are behind me. I've climbed many mountains and reached many summits over the decades but now I need some help getting to even the shortest mountains. Any activity which raises my body temperature can trigger anaphylaxis so I always try to stay near roads and hospitals. I definitely try to keep my body temperature as low as possible too. Hiking and climbing deep in the woods could be a bit too risky so in recent years we have been choosing mountaintops which have roads winding to the summit. Besides, I have already climbed my share of mountains, many requiring steep vertical climbs

As I wrote in a previous blog post, I've been experiencing horrific pain all throughout my body for the past week and it has seriously affected my mood in a negative way. The level of pain was worst through this holiday weekend. At times like this, I increase my normal dosages of medications to try to bring my body back into check. This past week has been no different. On the positive side, I am feeling a bit better today but I have to say that just the simple act of walking across a room is still quite painful. Now, add to this pain and lousy mood a weekend full of constant fireworks... We had been invited to view Burlington's fireworks a few days ago but I quickly declined. I've always had a bit of a problem with the logistics of this particular event considering my health issues and disabilities so that made me hesitant to accept this offer but I also do have a problem with fireworks in general... and especially, the smell of gunpowder. The constant barrage of firework

As one would expect, my pain level definitely affects my mood. As my pain increases, my mood worsens exponentially.   Over the past few days I have experienced increasing pain every hour of every day. The pain just seems to get worse as the day wears on and does not subside after sleep. I slept for a solid 11 hours last night and awoke feeling worse than I have all week.  So, you may be wondering... Where is my pain? Quite simply, it is everywhere. My bones hurt deep, deep within the core of each bone but particularly my longer bones. My joints hurt. Every part of my body hurts to the touch. My skin hurts.  The odd thing is that this level of pain did not register in my brain until I noticed a serious change in my demeanor and mood. The moment I noticed I was easily angered was the moment I noticed how bad my pain had gotten. You see... I am in pain all the time even on a good day. My spinal injuries always hurt...  every moment of every day. Quite often I get bone and joint pa

Every time the kids visit us, the sailboat and kayaks in the yard seem to call to them... I know the sailboat does that for me... but it has been a long, snowy winter of trying to explain to the kids that we can't play with the boats until the summer finally arrives. Well, summer is here and Lukey wanted to play on those boats the moment he arrived! It is funny watching him on the sailboat. You can see him thinking and you can't help but wonder what thoughts are running through his young, inexperienced mind about a sailboat he has never even seen in the water. He has, however, seen the sailboat skimming across the water in our home videos that we watch with the kids whenever they visit so maybe he is envisioning one of these videos.  After realizing that he can easily climb up into the sailboat and then slide down off the boat, he kept going back and forth between the kayaks and the sailboat. It was a bit breezy the other day when they were visiting so I didn't rais

As I wrote in my previous blog post, Kenzie wasn't feeling too well at my birthday celebration. Her nose was constantly running and it was obvious she had a bit of a headache. She sort of moped around all evening... she was a bit clingy... she was scowling... she had a perpetual Clint Eastwood squint in her eyes... she had no desire to join Lukey on the boats... all telltale signs she was not feeling well. When the birthday cake emerged from the house with a candle on it, Kenzie perked up, smiled and clearly was getting a bit excited. When she dove into her big piece of chocolate truffle cake, I really think she started to feel a bit better. Afterward, she was a bit smiley...  more like her usual self. She was laughing and seemed content. Gone was the Clint Eastwood squint and the scowl.   So, is chocolate truffle cake a secret cure for all that ails us?

...one little one was not feeling too well. We knew Kenzie had a cold because of her perpetual runny nose but it was painfully obvious she had a bit of a headache too. Photos always seem to reveal all. In this case, it was easy to see that Kenzie was dealing with a painfully annoying headache too. Her usual bubbly, smiley demeanor was hidden behind squinted eyes like she was Clint Eastwood staring down a dirty villain at high noon. Her little girl personality was hidden behind a seemingly permanent scowl. Upon viewing the photos from my little birthday celebration, it was obvious Kenzie had a headache and wasn't feeling herself. She had no desire to play on the boats with Lukey. She was a bit clingy and just wanted to be held. Her nose continued to run like a babbling brook all evening long. She did, however, get excited and a bit bubbly when she found her baby doll in the toy-box and subsequently carried her baby doll around most of the evening.  Unfortunately, that s

Another birthday has come and gone leaving me another year older and wiser... well, maybe not wiser but considering my health issues, being left another year older comes as good news! This year's birthday found the weather sunny and hot... and I mean HOT! The weather was brutally hot and very oppressing which, unfortunately, is not agreeable with my health. My health deteriorates very quickly and oftentimes quite severely in warm environments nevermind in oppressing, suffocating heat. Fortunately, I was thinking ahead and spent the day fighting off the effects of the heat on my health by taking extra medications (a LOT of extra medications) and a few cool showers over the course of the day to cool my body down. My health held up and I enjoyed a nice, relatively quiet birthday at home. Liza and the grandchildren joined us for dinner and cake. I had spent the afternoon preparing a few new dishes for dinner. I have no idea why I chose my birthday to put together a couple o

As I wrote in my previous blog entry, my night last night was less than stellar as a result of some pretty lousy health. It turns out that today has been no better. Actually, today has been worse than all the time spent in the bathroom in the middle of the night last night. I've had difficulty breathing. I've been very weak. My bones hurt like only a Systemic Mastocytosis patient could understand. I'm overwhelmingly exhausted. I'm nauseated. And, after lunch, my throat was inflamed and a bit swollen. Then I passed out.  When I awoke a few hours later, all the symptoms were still present so I knew it was time for my emergency medications.  I've needed epinephrine today and I also needed to take some other emergency medications to try to stabilize my mast cells. Most of these medications cause drowsiness. Compounding this drowsiness issue is the fact that this huge cellular reaction inside my body causes indescribable fatigue also.  I really hate taking these