Scattered Thoughts . . .

We've had quite a bit of rain in the past couple of weeks... hmmm... maybe even longer! Everything outside is waterlogged... the house is damp... towels never seem to dry... and the grass is growing wild. Regardless of whether or not I can specifically remember the daily weather, I'd say all signs are that it has been rather wet lately. My health has been rather lousy, off and on, so it is hard for me to remember much about the weather. When my health is lousy and particularly when it swings back and forth between lousy and miserable, I seem to spend most of my time on the couch in the living room. During these periods, the days blend into one another and the nights fade together. Lousy health due to Systemic Mastocytosis is oftentimes accompanied by brain fog so this makes remembering specifics like daily weather difficult as well. I do, however, remember the other night quite vividly because the kids had visited us. While the kids were visiting us, we had some more rain s

As I've mentioned in previous blog entries, we all had a great time at the Lake Champlain Maritime Festival. The antique boats were beautiful and impressive... there was a really nice selection of boats... and we were even surprised by a newly created raffle for one of these beautiful wood boats! (It would be nice to win that!) I shot a lot of photos and I'll be posting some of those soon. In the meantime, here are a few video clips I shot during the "Parade of Boats" at the Burlington Boathouse...   It was a good time!

During the antique boat show yesterday in Burlington, we decided to head up to Church Street for lunch and a few cold drinks. We couldn't get a seat at Vermont Pub & Brewery so we headed to Sweetwater's. As always, Sweetwaters provided great service, great food and decent drinks.  While we were at Sweetwater's, I had a hankering for some smoked buffalo wings. Sometimes chicken wings do not affect my health and sometimes they have a huge impact. Unfortunately, it seems yesterday the wings impacted me negatively. Regardless of how they affected my health, these smoked buffalo chicken wings were succulently delicious! I'm not sure exactly what caused my health to crash (and this is a very conservative, mild term when talking about what happened to my health last night) but I do know that chicken rarely, if ever, agrees with my health.  We also had some french fries and onion rings at the restaurant at the boathouse which were clearly deep fried in the same oil as

This is a stunningly beautiful boat at this year's show... it is for sale... it is definitely a style of boat I would love to own but, at a price of $25,000, it is well out of reach for me... Yesterday we attended the annual Lake Champlain Maritime Festival which is an event we always look forward to attending each year. The weather was comfortable, sunny and simply beautiful which made the day much more enjoyable since my health suffers significantly in hot environments. This day was perfect for my health! As always, there was a nice assortment of boats at this year's show... each more beautiful than the previous. The boats are so beautiful that I always leave this show wishing I had the energy and a large empty garage so I could build my own boat. I've been keeping my eyes open for a small runabout for the past couple of years. (I'd also love to get my hands on a Laser sailboat to complement my little Minifish sailboat, but that is another story for another ti

After struggling with the first five years or so of my illness so I could finally acquire an accurate diagnosis of my debilitating health problems (now that was a brutal five years), I knew I needed a break from medical appointments. Five solid years of medical appointments every few days... involving quite a few painful, invasive tests... is enough. I quickly came up with a new rule... absolutely no medical appointments through the summer...  June through September. I need a break... I need to enjoy life... I need to focus on me, not my health. For the most part, I've been successful with this rule over the past ten years. Sometimes, however, a rule must be broken. This is one such summer when this rule needed to be broken. As a result, my summer is now over and it is back to business, as usual. My business since procuring this insidious illness is managing medical exams, medical testing and medical care. We've been to the ophthalmologist five or six times in the past week

I can't believe an entire year has already passed but this coming Saturday is the day for the 2015 Lake Champlain Maritime Festival. It seems like we were at the 2014 show (and the sweltering, oppressing heat) just last week! Since I'm a big fan of antique wooden boats, I really do enjoy this show and look forward to it every summer. I wish I could find a nice little wooden runabout for myself with a relatively small engine... maybe at this year's show! Assuming the weather is cooperative... assuming that Sheila's health is cooperative... and assuming my health is cooperative... we plan to be in Burlington for this year's show on Saturday. If anyone would like to join us, just let us know. I know we are looking forward to spending the day in Burlington looking at classic boats, doing some street shopping at the annual Sidewalk Sale and visiting a few watering holes. Until the show this weekend, here are some photos from last year's show... The Ar

Today was a rather slow day (poor health through the night) so I took a little time to shoot a photo of a tank car I picked up on eBay recently. There is some significance to this particular tanker though... it has the name "Gramps" written in large lettering across the car like it is a special production train car rather than a true model of a real train.  The moment I first saw one of these unusual freight cars, I thought of my own grandfather, whom we affectionately called "Gramps", and how he is one of the main people to get me interested in model railroading as a young child. Dear 'ole Gramps is no longer with us but he is in my thoughts often. Both he and my grandmother were responsible for providing piano lessons for me... for my sailboat... for my love of antique wood boats... he got me started in photography... he is responsible for my nautical knowledge and interest in boating... my grandmother is responsible for much of my cooking skills and ab

The grandkids had dinner with us last night and, as always, it was a nice time. A couple of days ago, Lukey took a tumble down a set of stairs with his mom... all appeared fine except for some minor swelling in one area of his leg. The following morning he still wasn't putting any weight on that leg so it was time for a doctor... then the hospital... then after some x-rays, it was determined that Lukey had indeed broken his leg! For now, he has his full leg in a splint. He will, however, be getting a cast shortly (the hospital had computer problems while he was in the ER so they could not view the imaging so they just splinted it for the time being.) So... what does a three year old boy do on a hot summer day when his leg is in a full leg splint? He plays with Papa's trains! Of course, he would probably be doing the same regardless of his broken leg but now his activities are a bit limited. (It is a good thing we already spent time at the lake!) Sitting on the floor and

This morning, I wrote about how I missed a dose of medications yesterday... then missed some more medications last night... then missed a medication this morning... and how this sort of thing snowballs into something out of control...  This snowball has indeed enlarged and gotten out of control! This is a dangerous sequence of events for anyone struggling with Systemic Mastocytosis. Today was a "down" day for me... trying to recover from the missed medications... rest up... avoiding the heat and humidity (which trigger anaphylaxis and miserable health)... so, after lunch I laid down on the couch in the air conditioned living room to try to catch up on much needed sleep and to, hopefully, recover. The good news is that I had no problems whatsoever in falling asleep... The bad news is I was awakened very abruptly. My chest was pounding in palpitations... I was groggy... although I awakened suddenly, I was still groggy...  and feeling weak... I still wasn't thinking cl

Those of you who follow this blog know that I've been excited about getting our outdoor kitchen grilling area completed. Unfortunately, this project has been put on a back burner. About two weeks ago, I found that the roofing material I need/want for this grilling area is out of stock. This is what happens when the building season is extremely short and places to buy supplies are even shorter. So, I need to wait until this product is back in stock. Who knows how long that will take?  In the meantime, I decided to do a "quick" project in Adam's old bedroom.... While he was home on leave... for a whole month... he was supposed to pack up all his stuff, toss out whatever he does not want anymore, and clean up his room a bit. Everything he owned fit into this tiny bedroom so this was by no means an overwhelming task for him nor was it an unreasonable task. Sheila reminded him a few times that he needed to get started on his packing... he chose to just sit in front