Scattered Thoughts . . .

Replacing a coupler... If you've been following this blog lately, you know that I built a small HO scale model railroad for our grandson for Christmas. When he opened up his wrapped trains, I quickly realized that the flatcar did not come with the couplers installed. The couplers were included in the box but they were not installed. Before Lukey came to the house again to play with his trains, I installed these couplers. It was a quick and easy project. Easy peasy. Unfortunately, at some point during his next train session, a tiny spring popped out of one of the couplers on this flatcar and it no longer held a mating coupler and his train kept coming apart. I ordered some cheap generic replacement couplers... they arrived the other day... and, today, I decided it was a good day to install these new couplers. (I'm having a rather lousy health day so it is a good day for tiny, quick tasks rather than any projects.)   After removing the broken coupler, I quickly realize

This morning was another morning darkened by a medical appointment for ongoing cancer. Sheila and I seem to share everything and, unfortunately, this is one of those things we have in common. Today was my turn.  To be honest, even after all these years of never-ending medical appointments, I still have difficulty seeing anything on my calendar beyond these important medical appointments... I just see darkness. When I pictured my calendar in my head, the months and days only went to January 11th... Monday... 2016... then complete darkness.  No matter how hard I try, I just cannot shed any light on this calendar in my head until I get beyond these dark appointments.  On the positive side, these appointments allow us to spend more time together rather than apart while Sheila is at work. We always eat out on these days as well. And, that is always nice.  Before Sheila was in my life, I seemed to know more medical professionals than others. I would walk into a hospital and the peopl

I've been exhausted and in significant pain (relentless bone pain and spinal pain) since arriving back home from our Christmas trip but I have a few projects which have been nagging at me. One such project is to create a rendering of Monticello. Actually, I'd like to complete a series of renderings related to this historic property but I need to start with one piece.  I decided to do some drawing and sketching this morning to put some ideas on paper (in my usual notebook where all my thoughts go) but I also created some digital files of my artwork. Below, is one piece of my ideas for this series... I'm still not sure about how I want to put together a Monticello series but this rendering is a start to this series!

It has been very Spring-like through December this year. We occasionally had some snow flurries but it was so warm during the days each day that we had some flowers blooming in our wildflower gardens as Christmas approached! As of last night, our temperatures have dipped down into the single digits and today promises wind chills below zero. And, we even had a bit of snow yesterday!  I think winter has arrived! My health was not feeling well enough to wander outside last night but I did manage to get a few photos from inside our house through the windows. Before it is time to turn off the Christmas lights, I'll need to get outside with a camera so get more shots...

This is a view which is seen in countless books and photographs but I felt compelled to shoot this angle too. Sheila and I had an opportunity to visit close friends in Virginia for Christmas so we spent the bulk of our Christmas week in and around Monticello. The weather at Monticello was sunny and in the 70's... flowers were in bloom... the grass was green... the weather was typical beautiful springtime weather! I started studying Thomas Jefferson and his architecture decades ago and had always wanted to walk these hallowed grounds. I have to say that this was an inspiring experience to meander through history.  If there ever was a time in history needing a visit from Thomas Jefferson, it is today. I have always based my beliefs on Jefferson's philosophies and this visit reinforced my convictions even more. It truly was a moving and inspiring experience to see and touch all I had studied for decades.   I shot hundreds of photos and I will probably put together an

Our original plan for Christmas was what we do every year... we invite all of Sheila's immediate family including her parents to the house on Christmas morning for presents and a big breakfast. Then, we entertain friends later in the day and into Christmas night. This is something we have been doing since before the grandchildren were born but it has become more of a family tradition since their birth. Now Sheila has her own family of three generations so we tend to do the "family celebrating" here, at our home, for her family... which is pretty typical for most families. A few days ago, an opportunity arose for us to head significantly south to much warmer climates (yes, although hard to believe, much warmer than our wet, balmy temperatures in the 50s) to celebrate Christmas with our Air Force family... I came up with a plan before I even mentioned this opportunity to Sheila... then presented it to Sheila as a surprise... and she enthusiastically jumped on it immedi

While my health is recovering today, I'm taking it easy. I get easily bored whenever I am in recovery mode so I pulled out my camera in an attempt to shoot a few more photos of Lukey's model railroad.  I suspect this little model railroad will take a beating once Lukey starts playing with it... the same holds true for Kenzie's dollhouse. Needless to say, I'd like to have as many photos of these two gifts in their 'new - never been used' state.   Yesterday, I added a bit more shrubbery and weeds to the model railroad. I do believe it is detailed enough to hand over to Lukey now.  In the meantime, here are a few more photos... Train station on one side of the layout right in front of the jacks to connect power. I added some weeds and shrubbery to the foreground here.  Uphill, to the right above the concrete retaining wall, we will eventually build a small country town... The small combination freight depot/train station located on the opposite side o

I've always had this idea for a series of portraits... frameless photos, all mounted on a wall, in sort of a random pattern at different depths. I had this idea in my head for about two decades but never really did anything with it. Recently, I've been using a professional printer who  puts out very high quality products and I couldn't be happier with them. This printer has a wide variety of products, one of which is a p roduct called Mini Mounts.  These Mini Mounts are a product printed on Fuji paper and mounted on wood with a black beveled edge. This product has a very clean look and I am very excited about how great these Mini Mounts look. I ordered a series of 12 prints mounted on Mini Mounts about a month ago and finally mounted them on the wall in our new bedroom this morning (I was waiting to finish the bedroom). As any series of photos should, this series of photos has a theme.... in this case, 'The Lake House'. In order to hang these Mini Mounts

(As I wrote in my previous blog post, I'm experiencing some lousy health tonight. From past experience, I know I will be in and out of the bathroom for a significant amount of time through the night tonight so that gives me some time to write between the waves of nausea, dizziness, lightheadedness, and all the other 'fun' symptoms.) Power feed panel with simple banana jacks. This little layout is sitting on the floor on top of a plastic drop cloth which is what you are seeing covered in all that messy brown paint. I've finished preparing power feeds for Lukey's new train layout (one of his Christmas presents this year). Making the power feeds themselves was a piece of cake. Actually, it was so easy, I'm not sure why I never did this before now! Putting together the power feed jack panel, on the other hand, was a bit of a problem.... In the future, when I make one of these power feed jack panels, I'll be sure to leave more room behind the panel for wi