Scattered Thoughts . . .

Lukey was excited to use one of my cameras... This past weekend, 3 year old Lukey tried his hand at shooting some photos while we were at Shelburne Farms.   He was having a little bit of trouble holding the camera upright even though he was using my smallest, lightest camera but he managed to capture a few good shots. I think his hands are still slightly too small for even my smallest camera. It was good to get those little fingers working though! I set the camera to a fully automatic setting and then asked him if he wanted to shoot a few photos as I offered him the camera. He quickly figured out how to review photos after shooting... then how to get back to shooting... he did very well. That being said, he was a bit fussy about the wriststrap staying on his wrist. Every time I turned around to see how he was doing, the wriststrap was just dangling in mid-air. It's amazing he never dropped the camera! One purpose of handing him one of my cameras was to give him some pract

As I've written in a previous blog entry, we had a really nice time and a fun-filled day with the kids over the weekend. I shot quite a few photos and even captured some video of our day. We started at 'Shelburne Farms'... then went out to lunch at 'The Olive Garden'.... then headed over to 'The Christmas Loft' where it is Christmas every day of the week! (The kids knew we were going to the farm but had no idea we planned to also go to 'The Olive Garden' for lunch and then back down the road to 'The Christmas Loft'... it was a nice surprise for them and it was their first visit here.) I know the kids had a great time and Sheila and I also had a great time. Here is a short five minute video with some clips from both 'Shelburne Farms' and 'The Christmas Loft'... (I'll post some photos soon...  even some photos that were shot by Lukey!)

Today has been a miserable day in the heat and humidity for my breathing and health in general. One of the things I hadn't mentioned earlier today, however, was that I am experiencing unbearable bone pain today. This bone pain is so intense that I am having difficulty sleeping even though I am completely exhausted. I couldn't nap today and that will definitely affect my health in a negative way. I'm hoping that I can sleep tonight.  My bone and joint pain has been getting progressively worse in the past couple of months. I don't know what is causing this worsening in these two symptoms... perhaps the warmer summer months are having a more serious affect on my Systemic Mastocytosis symptoms... or, perhaps this just happens over time as the illness affects more and more of the body. I don't know.   What I do know is the pain is unbearable right now and has been all day.

We chose the correct day of this holiday weekend to head up to Shelburne Farms... that is for sure! Yesterday was a sunny and warm day but there was a nice breeze to keep the temperatures tolerable. Today, however, was brutal. At 9am this morning, we got into the car to head to the supermarket to pick up some bagels and donuts... it was already so hot outside that the inside of the car was dangerously hot which triggered an anaphylaxic response from my body before we even pulled out of the driveway. The weather only worsened as the day progressed. By 2:30pm (the last time I checked the thermometer), it was 96 degrees. Worse yet, our trip into town this morning was wasted since there were no bagels left... as usual.   I haven't been able to breath today... I have absolutely zero energy... it is simply a brutal day as I struggle with the typical and debilitating symptoms of Systemic Mastocytosis. Fortunately, we had chosen yesterday for our visit to Shelburne Farms. Today defin

Lukey, milking Giselle the Cow Today was an action-packed, fun-filled day with Lukey and Kenzie! And, Nan and Pop joined us as well. We started out the morning by heading up to Shelburne Farms. After parking the car and paying our admission, we took a wagon ride to the old barn...  The kids got to play with sheep, goats, a couple of baby calves, and then learned how to lend a hand at milking the mother cow. We then headed to the learning play area, followed by spending some time in the chicken coop with some very animated and noisy, clucking and cock-a-doodling chickens and roosters. Lukey got to spend some time on an antique tractor and then we made our way outdoors again to see some bunnies, more chickens, more cows, some horses... then some surprisingly  HUUUGGGGEEE pigs... then some donkeys (Shrek was nowhere to be found though).  Shelburne Farms... the barn and farmyard in the majestic building in the background. The kids learned a bit about making cheese and then

The past week has been quite lousy as far as my health goes... and, as a result, I've accomplished almost nothing this week. This morning, however, was finally a productive morning! I can't begin to explain how good that feels! First, I did some weed-whacking... then mowed the lawn. The weather is considerably cooler this morning so I managed to mow the lawn and be able to breath. Usually, I am struggling to breath when I cut the lawn... weak... close to losing consciousness... my health crashing... I finished with the lawn by 9:30 am and still felt pretty good, relatively speaking. The sign of a good, clean caulking job... a nice wide bead yet it is invisible! Since it was only 9:30 am and I was still feeling fairly well, I decided to get some work accomplished in Adam's old bedroom. It still needs another coat of paint... two colors... but I decided to tackle something I've been putting off doing. The windows needed to be re-caulked.  Before I could re-caul

Well... summer is over (although, you'd never know it by how warm it has been lately) and our time at the lake for this year is behind us. I know I'd like to get back to the lake again during foliage season but, considering how far behind schedule I am with projects around the house due to my health, that is unlikely to happen. So, I have put together a photo album of photos from the lake this summer... Lake Groton Photo Album - 2015

The kids were here for dinner again tonight and that is always a welcomed change of pace so that part of our night was really nice.  The problem was that it was a bit hot this afternoon (the low 90s) and I think this negatively impacted my health. Something caused my health to nosedive and I know warm environments are terrible for my health so... I'm blaming the heat. Ironically, earlier this morning was a better morning than I have experienced in quite a few weeks. As a result, I managed to do some much needed laundry... cut my hair... and shower. This may not sound like much, but it was more than I had accomplished in one day in quite some time and enough to completely exhaust me of energy... even taking my breath away. I ate some lunch and then slept for almost three hours. When I awoke, the kids were arriving at the house for dinner. At this point, the temperature in the house was in the low 80s and my health was beginning to slide down the slippery slope it finds far too o

I just came across another photo that was hiding in one of the folders on my desktop computer... shot almost a year ago on a day when the grandchildren were visiting for dinner. Little Miss Mackenzie was deep in thought at the table and I happened to capture a quick photo of her... Young Thinking Woman...

I ended up getting sidetracked away from painting a bedroom this morning (Lukey would tell me I got "derailed"... his new word of the day) and, by the time I had a chance to get back on schedule, it was really too late to get anything significant accomplished before lunch. And, after lunch, I must nap or my health will crash. So, to kill some time, I grabbed a different camera than I grabbed a few days ago and, again, headed out to our wildflower gardens. It is the end of the season now so there isn't much to shoot out there. This was more of an exercise in using a different type of camera... This camera I chose today is my old digital SLR camera which sports a beautiful and unique Kodak sensor. I'm not a fan of Kodak in the digital age, in general (they really shot themselves in the foot and wasted away an historic and tremendous corporation) , but this imaging sensor is stunning. It is my oldest camera but it has one of my favorite imaging sensors. The clarit