Scattered Thoughts . . .

After raking and playing in all the leaves out in the backyard, we headed indoors with a collection of colorful autumn leaves that Lukey and Kenzie had collected. Gee pulled out some wax paper... some crayons... some newspaper... and then Gee, Lukey and Kenzie put together two pieces of colorful art by diving into an autumn leaf art project. This art is being shipped to Uncle Adam who recently commented that he was missing some of Vermont's autumn color. Although he is missing some of Vermont's autumn color, Adam is fortunate enough to be enjoying an authentic Octoberfest in Germany (which definitely interests me far more than some funky-colored trees) .  The kids had a lot of fun putting together this little art project with Gee... After cleaning up the kitchen, the kids then made some delicious chocolate chip cookies, from scratch, with Gee's help. Then Kenzie picked up the telephone and called Nan and Pop to brag about making cho

The kids were excited to get out in the leaves this past weekend. The weather provided us with a perfect crisp autumn afternoon with mostly overcast skies. The crispness was actually bordering on feeling like we are in for some impending snowfall in the mountains surrounding us but it was still a beautiful autumn afternoon.  With all the excitement about the all the colorful leaves covering the lawn and having rakes within view and ready to be used, the kids put a nice dent in raking the lawn while trying to build the biggest pile of leaves possible for some autumn leafy fun! Someone did more throwing of leaves than actual raking though... ...and, some hula-hooping... Leaf diving...  "I'm going in..." "That's enough... I'm done raking... I'm going in!" Grandma Bear bent a tree down for baby Bear to reach some colorful leaves... After collecting a bunch of colorful autumn leaves, we all went

I've mentioned many times before that pets often help me out with my health.  They seem to have this ability to sense energy levels... or lack of energy levels.  Whenever my health is about to crash, these neighborhood pets tend to come toward me and start nudging me with whimpers and meows... looking at me... nudging me... following me wherever I go.  When I see this type of behavior, I am quick to grab my emergency medication and start sorting out a new game plan with my medications because history has proven that these cats and dogs are exceptionally accurate at knowing about my health and warning me as though they are an early warning system. As I mentioned above, I believe it is our energy levels that they are sensitive to and to which they respond. These pets come and go over time (as our neighbors come and go) but I always seem to have at least one resident pet at any time who looks out for me. Lately it has been this blue-eyed, long-haired cat who keeps close tabs on

A week ago, I had written about having screwed up my prescription refills. One of my medications... one which is a mast cell stabilizer and an H1 blocker...  and one which is not yet FDA-approved... had fallen through the cracks of my record-keeping and memory which means I forgot to order a refill before I had run out of this medication.  For most prescriptions, people can just run to the local pharmacy to pick up a last minute prescription. I actually do this with any acute problems I am having. I bite the bullet (taking a serious hit in cost) and I buy the prescription locally so that I can start on the medication immediately.  Unfortunately, most of my medications are absurdly expensive and going to our local retail pharmacy is not financially possible for me. For instance, one of my medications, by itself, costs upwards of $40,000 annually. If I bought this medication locally rather than through my insurance plan's mail order program there would be two problems... 1. The c

I'm experiencing some poor health (I ran out of one of my medications so the next week or so will be quite miserable until this medication finally arrives) so I'm just sitting around at my computer sifting through some photos.  I came across a few photos of Gee that I shot this summer... I have many photos of Sheila but these four stood out this morning.... I recently shared a sunset photo very similar to this one, below, but I captured Sheila at the edge of the frame in this one... Sheila is pretty easy to photograph on any day but she is exceptionally easy to photograph when she is "Gee"... of course, Lukey and Kenzie make it easy too!

A few months ago, I wrote about having to replace our 'whole house water filter'. The supply pipe fittings running into the old filter had cracked and we had a mess of shooting, spraying water everywhere, flooding two rooms of our house. We immediately went out and bought a completely new version of the same whole house water filter and I installed it by that night. (All of this happening after being out all day long... it was a long day and night.) Everything has been fine with this water filter thus far so we have no complaints with this Whirlpool filter itself. The filter cartridges, however... A few days ago, I noticed that the water pressure was significantly diminished which usually means that the filter cartridge is in need of changing because it is clogged with built-up sediment. No problem... I always have a couple of filters on hand.  I immediately replaced the filter. I tested the water coming out of our bathroom faucet... everything was back to normal. We

Another one of our annual excursions crept up on us again this past weekend and we found ourselves in southern Vermont for a train show. Throughout the year, we attend various events around the northeast. Every fall, we attend a train show in southern Vermont. This particular train show is so small that it isn't even the main purpose of this annual weekend getaway. It is a good reason to get out of town but it takes up so little of our time that it is hard to call it a train show weekend! What I can say about this annual excursion is that we enjoy traveling through the fall foliage, visiting other restaurants, visiting stores we don't get to normally visit and it's nice to simply get out of the house for a bit.  My health keeps me close to home almost every day so it is nice to get out from under this roof every now and then... really nice. We actually try to get out of the house for a few hours every weekend but it rarely works out... between things needing to get