Scattered Thoughts . . .

Last week, I wrote how Sheila and I have had a rough two months with some relatively 'normal' health stressors for us . What is 'normal' for us is not even close to what is normal for most. Even so, it was a rough couple of months with health nonsense. We had felt as though we were in thick woods for two months and then, suddenly, we emerged into a sunny, colorful meadow... That was a tremendous feeling of relief and very welcomed! Now, less than a week later, we are feeling as though our sunny meadow quickly was overcome by the surrounding forest and now we are a bit lost in a deeper, darker, danker forest.. devoid of sunlight... seeing only tree trunks in front of us blocking our view any farther than we can physically reach with our hands... not knowing which way to go. A few times each day we find ourselves hopeful that we'll find that colorful meadow again but our hopes are consistently and quickly dashed each time.  Suddenly, like during the past two mon

Late last night, my spine suddenly was on fire... I had difficulty getting up out of my chair... I had difficulty sleeping... rolling over was excruciating. Today is even worse. The pain has been absolutely brutal.  The pain is a searing, burning pain in the lower half of my spine... radiating to my hips, around my kidneys and through my groin... whenever I try to put any weight on my legs, my legs experience tremors and the pain instantly jumps to a big fat 10 on the 10 point pain scale.  There are times when I almost ended up on the floor because I could not stand on my feet without actually seeing stars due to the intense pain. Reaching out for the couch, the bed, a chair and the kitchen table helped me keep from being a heap on the floor. This has been an exceptionally bad day. Most times, despite my extensive spinal injuries, I get around just fine (with pain, but I get around just fine) but there are times when my spinal injuries are excruciatingly painful. During these pai

I put together another short video of our train trip this past weekend. I had previously shared a short video of all of us waiting for the train to arrive in Waterbury so now it is time for a short video shot on board our train.  I'm glad I have these clips but, to be honest, these are not my best work and even I find this particular video a bit boring. The problem is that I didn't really have a plan... I just turned the camera on and recorded video hoping that something interesting would happen. There are a few decent memorable moments but nothing riveting... so don't expect anything exciting... it is short though and there are a few memorable moments that I'm glad we had recorded.  At one point, you can see Conductor Adam giving the kids tickets... He had previously come over to us to let us know we would be crossing a river over a bridge soon and that we should look out for it. He explained to Lukey and Kenzie that the bridge was home to a well-known troll. He sa

The second of two used Canon lenses I had purchased arrived the other night and I had a chance to wander outside this morning to see how well it works on my Sony camera body.  Unfortunately, this second Canon lens is not nearly as fast at autofocusing as the first Canon lens I had purchased a few days ago so I'm a bit disappointed. I was hoping this lens would help resolve some of my longer telephoto woes but now I'm not so sure.  I'm definitely keeping that first lens that I played with the other day to use for landscapes, architecture, cityscapes, and maybe even some indoor wide angle photography. This telephoto lens... I don't know... I'm still undecided. The photos are contrasty and sharp which is quite impressive for such an inexpensive lens but the autofocus is so slow on my Sony camera body that I know it would be too slow for its intended purpose... wildlife photos. I don't need blazingly fast autofocus but I do need reasonably fast... acceptable..

As many readers already know, not only do I struggle with a debilitating and incurable illness but Sheila has had breast cancer and continues to deal with all sorts of things related to that. I don't often write about Sheila's journey through cancer on this blog but, today, it is worth mentioning here since she has (we have) had a rough couple of months.  Sheila has been what is referred to as "cancer free" for almost a decade but the lingering symptoms, constant appointments, tests, exams, and anxiously awaiting lab results... on pins and needles... never ends. Our past two months have been like this... yet again. As I've mentioned in previous blog entries, Sheila has lingering problems related to her cancer and cancer treatment as do virtually all cancer patients but some patients have it worse than others. Since a cancer patient will always be a high risk cancer patient because history has proven that those with cancer once are far more likely to develop new

Here is a short video of us waiting  for Amtrak's Vermonter  at the Waterbury train station before boarding for Lukey and Kenzie's first train trip... I will share another video and more photos soon...

Yesterday, we surprised the grandchildren with their first journey on Amtrak!  I'm completely worn out today so I'm only going to share a few photos and write a short preview of our day... Lukey and Kenzie have been itching for a train ride for years (especially on Amtrak) so we finally arranged schedules with Liza, Nan and Pop and threw together a trip on Amtrak so Lukey and Kenzie could finally get to experience a day trip on Amtrak. The kids didn't know anything about this trip until shortly before getting in the car to head to the train station so it was a complete surprise for them. By the time Nan and Pop arrived at the station to join us, both Kenzie and Lukey were very excited about this much anticipated journey. The plan was to board Amtrak in Waterbury heading south... find a place to stop to have lunch... then hop on the northbound Amtrak to head back to Waterbury.  We knew we would need a three to four hour layover to have time for lunch and unforeseen

Today, in just a couple of hours, we will be taking the grandchildren on another new adventure!  We've had this trip planned for months but we've been keeping it a secret from the kids.  Funny thing is, I had heard through the grapevine that Kenzie and Lukey were asking about this weekend just the other night... Kenzie wants to go to 'The Christmas Loft' and out to lunch and Lukey asked to go to Disney. Liza told them they couldn't go to the Christmas Loft nor Disney this weekend but that they might be able to go out to lunch and left it at that. Then, Lukey asked if they could visit the train station this weekend since they didn't get to stop there earlier in the week...  Actually, we are taking the kids on their first Amtrak trip so they will be visiting the train station... and there, they will be surprised by Gee and Papa and Nan and Pop! We'll be getting on Amtrak's 'Vermonter' this morning, heading south... having some lunch and wal

Two years ago, I purchased a Sony camera. It is, by far, the best camera I have ever used in my life (and I've used a lot of them over the past 40 years) but the selection of lenses available for this new Sony camera is rather poor.  Sony produced this outstanding camera line and keeps pumping out new models of cameras bodies in this new line but Sony has been exceptionally slow at filling out a full line of lenses. To say I've been frustrated by this delay is a huge understatement. I'd like to get rid of all my old gear (other brands not worth mentioning here nor anywhere else) but I've been hanging onto and using my old gear to make up for the holes in the Sony lens lineup. The problem with trying to use my old gear is that I've advanced enough in photography that these older cameras are even more frustrating for me than Sony being slow to fill out their lens lineup. I really should also mention that after using this new Sony camera, I do not enjoy using any of

The other day, I shared some photos here of the grandkids having a leaf fight with Gee out in the backyard. I really like those photos because they show a lot of candid emotion. I actually had a little bit of difficulty shooting photos because I was laughing. It really was a nice few minutes. This morning, I decided to compile those photos into a time lapse animation...