Scattered Thoughts . . .

I've had more biopsies than I could count in the past 12 years or so... ranging from simple punch skin biopsies to bone marrow biopsies (yes, plural on the bone marrow biopsies)... but today's minor procedure was a bit "different" and thus worthy of a few words here.   A month or so ago, a small spot appeared on my neck. At first it was no big deal but it grew quickly... got pretty nasty looking... and seemed to continue growing. It was scabby, red, irregular shaped but, other than looking rather ugly, didn't affect me at all with itching or any other symptom. It was just there and growing. The doc scheduled me for a biopsy and that appointment was today.  Skin biopsies are typically pretty simple, straight-forward and quick...  oftentimes not even requiring anything more than just sitting there in a chair as the doc quickly collects a small sample for the pathologist. Today's procedure had me lying on a table on my side for this "different" pr

This weather is brutal for my health!  Our thermometer hit triple digits this afternoon and that is extremely dangerous for my health. Warm environments cause my health to deteriorate quickly and dangerously. Other than a medical appointment first thing this morning with Sheila, I've been accomplishing absolutely nothing lately. I'm not even sure I would imply that getting to a medical appointment is an "accomplishment"...  but, it is something I managed to do without my health crashing. I have resorted to residing in our air conditioned living room which is at a comfortable 75 degrees... a much more comfortable and mastocytosis-friendly environment especially when compared to the triple digit temperatures outdoors! Whenever I have had to wander from the living room and into the heat (for instance, going into another room in the house), my health would begin to crash quickly. There is no doubt that heat is my kryptonite. These short trips from the living room ca

It is a hot and humid day today so I am indoors in the air conditioning today.  My original plan was to put the table saw on the deck and start cutting some lumber to finish a large desk and shelves. Unfortunately, it is far too hot outside for my health so I changed plans for the day. ("Too hot" means any environment which is consistently in the 80s... hot environments cause anaphylaxis and numerous debilitating neurological and gastro-intestinal problems for me... today is in the mid-90s, so I'm in the air conditioned living room.) Yongnuo YN560-TX transmitter mounted on my camera. So, as I was sitting in the air conditioning, I pulled out some new photography flashes I recently purchased. I opted for flashes rather than big studio lights so I could stay as portable and flexible as possible (and to minimize storage space required in the house!) . Also, being on a very limited budget, I needed a low cost system and this system fits the bill. Up until now, I

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