Scattered Thoughts . . .

Whenever I post some photos here of songbirds, ducks, loons, any wildlife as well as the moon, I know that few will understand the distances involved. I also know that few will understand many of the terms I use pertaining to these lenses.  After capturing some images of the moon last night, I thought it would be a good idea to get a couple of comparison images to show here. In this first image we see a fairly wide view... the red arrow is pointing to an insulator on a utility pole which is just peaking above the rooftops.... Just barely visible above this rooftop is an insulator on top of a distant utility pole... For the second image, I shot a photo using my longest lens... a 600mm lens...  of course, I understand that saying a focal length of such-and-such "mm" means nothing to most people which is why I am posting this comparison for everyone to see. These comparison photos help to picture the difference between focal length in millimeters. What may be mor

I had another lousy health day yesterday so I didn't do much around the house. My spine was so inflamed that I could hardly walk so I put all the home renovations on hold for a day while the inflammation subsided. Today, I'm feeling considerably better but I'm waiting for the rain to stop. While I was camped out in the living room on the couch yesterday, I decided to refresh my memory on effectively using two of my camera bodies that I use for super-long telephoto. I practiced getting some steady shots and reminding myself of the best settings for each camera body under specific conditions.  Both of these cameras have tiny viewfinders so viewing my subjects while wearing glasses is difficult and frustrating. As a result, I really do not enjoy using either of these camera bodies. I'd love to get a newer body with a much larger viewfinder but it simply is not in my budget just yet. I'll need to use these bodies again for yet another summer season.  I practiced u

I had another productive morning today which puts me on a pretty unusual streak. The weather is about to get lousy for a little bit so I can take a short break until it clears up since I have no room indoors to be cutting big pieces of lumber.  A piece of pine spread across the two foundation pilings... stone pathway is now extended to this new window alcove too. This morning I went outside with the intention of backfilling the dug out foundation and then quickly moving on to some carpentry indoors. Backfilling was done in a matter of minutes so I continued grading the area... then decided to continue with hard landscaping around the area. I expanded our stone pathway to where this new window alcove will be located. Then I placed some sod strips alongside the new stone... cleaned up the adjacent flower beds... did a little bit of raking... and now it is looking nice and clean out there. The two foundation pilings are slightly low (on purpose). I'll rest the outside end of

After overdoing it yesterday on home renovations, I only worked on the house a short while today. We have the grandkids here today so I'll spend the rest of the day playing with them. Yesterday, when I was digging the foundation for the little three window alcove, I realized that the septic tank is in the way by a few inches. So, last night, I came up with some new plans with new dimensions. Now I can cantilever this small alcove out beyond the two pilings holding up this alcove.  After digging the foundation deep enough, I dropped in some pre-made footings... then glued the concrete pilings on top of these footings once the depth and dimensions were correct.  I'll wait a day or two before backfilling.  This bedroom renovation project is coming along nicely but slowly. As long as I accomplish something almost every day, I should be okay.  

For days, we had planned to head to Lowes and Home Depot on Thursday night. We need some building supplies so I can begin renovating another bedroom. This particular renovation project was down fairly low on my "to-do" list but was recently moved to the top. I bumped five or six other projects so I could start renovating this bedroom. Heading up toward Burlington on Thursday night fit into our schedules without having to change anything and the weather was forecast to be beautiful. The building supplies would be on the roof of the car, exposed to the weather, so we need good weather for this particular purpose. Actually, for an activity such as this one, we need good weather to coincide with good health. Last night, some miserable health changed everything. My health had been teetering on that fine line between "okay" and "poor" all week. In hindsight, I should have been more aggressive at adding extra medications to my daily medications. I did add som

Currently, I am in the final stages of being chosen for a long term research study for Sony. As some of you may already know, I am a big fan of Sony electronics. In particular, I feel Sony is the world leader when it comes to digital imaging and televisions. As such, I have a Sony Bravia television mounted on our living room wall which we find stunningly crisp, vibrant and realistically colorful. I am also slowly swapping my photography gear to all Sony as well because I find Sony's cameras and lenses leaps and bounds ahead of all other manufacturers' cameras.  Sony has always been a leader in the television world going all the way back to the popular Sony Trinitron televisions in the late 1960s. In my opinion, Sony still leads the way with their televisions. The truth is, when it comes to imaging in general, Sony is leading the way.  I've been slowly swapping out my photography gear, piece by piece, and purchasing photography gear in Sony's new mirrorless e-mo

Even though I had great difficulty breathing again today (it is my 'new normal', I suspect) , I managed to start working on a new project this morning. I didn't get a whole lot done but it was nice to have a fairly productive morning, for a nice change of pace. Our old bedroom has been relegated as a temporary storage facility rather than a nice bedroom since we moved into our new bedroom just before Christmas. This morning, I started moving things out of this room so we could begin renovating.  I needed to take a lot of breaks to catch my breath... used my inhaler about three times... got a little dizzy a few times... but, slowly, I managed to make a slightly noticeable dent in clearing this room of clutter.  After lunch, I went outside and started excavating for a small foundation for a small three window alcove we plan to add to this bedroom.  The good news is I did not encounter any buried utilities. I started this digging by hand with a plastic shovel just in

We've had a very busy weekend!  We started our weekend by spending Saturday in Burlington with Liza and John and then Frank and Christine joined us later in the afternoon. As are all our visits to Church Street in Burlington, we had a really nice time... Ri Ra's was comfortable, fun and the food was delicious... we ate far too much... and we had some really tasty drinks and desserts! On Sunday, we celebrated Lukey and Kenzie's fourth birthday at Nan and Pop's house. As I wrote in my previous blog entry, everyone had a great time at this little party.  My health held up through the weekend thanks to plenty of rest beforehand and a lot of extra medications but I'm left worn out... I slept a solid 12 hours last night and I'm looking forward to sleeping through this afternoon.  I already posted a short video from the kids' birthday party... now, here are some photos too... well, far too many photos for a single blog post but here they are anyway!

Yesterday, we went to Nan and Pop's house to celebrate Lukey and Kenzie's fourth birthday! The weather was great and e veryone had a good time, especially the birthday kids. Here is a very quick edit of a very short video I threw together... some photos will follow soon... PS... Kenzie's CBA has been repaired and is now operational (Candle-Blowing Actuator).

Today was one of those rather lousy days. It wasn't "miserable" nor "grueling" but it was quite lousy. Systemic Mastocytosis causes all sort of transient symptoms, problems, difficulties and obstacles. One day can be vastly different from another. One moment can be vastly different from the next! Today, however, was fairly consistent... quite lousy. This all started late last night with some flushing. Sheila had noticed a splotchy, deep red rash on my face and neck. I felt "okay" at the time so I just let this first sign of impending trouble just slip by with no countermeasures. By the time I laid down in bed last night, I was experiencing palpitations and mild tachycardia (120-130 bpm). This is a sign that my blood pressure was dropping too low... my body would respond naturally by jumping into overdrive to counter the loss in blood pressure (which is a very good thing)... then my blood pressure would drop again... body would respond.... etc. Co