Scattered Thoughts . . .

Lukey really seems to enjoy sailing and I definitely enjoy our time out on the boat together. We went sailing a few times this summer, as always, but this summer I managed to capture some video of one of our outings with the intention of sharing it here. Well... okay... the real intention was to add this video to my large collection of videos of the grandkids. I did, however, want to also share it here. I shot about 30 minutes of video on this particular outing but I miraculously edited the video down to about 12 minutes so it is a bit more bearable to watch... especially for those of you who aren't Lukey or me! It is still a bit long but I wanted to keep all the minutes of footage that showed some interaction between the two of us. There was plenty of time when we just enjoyed the sailing in silence but, as Lukey gets older, there is more and more talk between the two of us when we are on any of the boats. We both had a great time... Lukey was a pleasure on the boat and it

Slowly, and in between health issues and medical appointments, we are making some headway on our summer home renovation plans.   Our latest project is to paint the house. Well... to at least paint the part of the house that is mostly finished!  We plan to finish another part of the exterior this summer but we wanted to get the design and colors right first. I think we are moving in the right direction but this little exercise has pointed out the need for some minor adjustments that weren't in the original plan. This current project is going well and it involves designing, building and installing some new architectural details for the exterior which match our new renovations on the interior. Between a drastic color change and adding these architectural details, the house is beginning to show some character! In this photo, below, we can see the new lighting at our front door... The weather has been rather wet this summer so I had to set up a little workshop outdoors under

Every year we always look forward to a few different annual events. The annual Lake Champlain Antique Boat Show has always been one of these annual events and it has always been a great time in the past.  The show was yesterday and, since it has been raining almost everyday here in Vermont, we were very fortunate to have a beautiful sunny day! I was feeling "fair" (which is better than I've felt in the past week) so I packed up a camera, a couple of lenses and a bag full of medications and we headed to Burlington in anticipation of viewing a fleet of antique boats on beautiful Lake Champlain with the rugged Adirondack Mountains looming in the background.  It was a beautiful day for walking around Burlington. The sky was clear. The sun was shining but it was still quite comfortable with temperatures in the 70s. Since I don't do well in hot climates, this was my kind of weather!  Our walk toward the waterfront was very nice and a much needed break from recove

I've had a few good days recently and managed to get a few things accomplished around the house but that never lasts long.  My health is often in a constant see-saw motion... sometimes a roller coaster motion... and lately, I've been struggling with a few days on the low end of these fun rides. During those few good days, I built a few new planters for our front deck and two new window boxes for the front of the house. I was on a roll and I was optimistic that some good health would continue so I could get more accomplished on the house. It was a nice thought but what the hell was I thinking?  My health was rather poor yesterday with weakness, dizziness, lightheadedness, and simply feeling rather poor. I even spent some time in the bathroom sick as a dog. It wasn't until later in the day that I realized that what was really bothering me the most was bone pain.  This bone pain is brutal. It is pain all through my body. Everything hurts but especially my long bones. The

You can clearly see the joint failing here. I'm frustrated... and exhausted. That's not a good combination.   As many of you have probably already read in previous blog entries, we've been searching for wood screen doors for months. Actually, we've been on the hunt for wood screen doors since last summer!  To save on time and energy, rather than build my own doors from scratch, I opted to buy a good quality stock door to customize.  I could (and, in hindsight, I should)  have made my own doors, completely, but opted for a stock door to save some much needed time and energy. I have very little energy due to my health and I have very little time due to the very short summer season here in Vermont. Our summer is packed solid with renovations which must be accomplished.  I had to add these screws to hold the joints together. I have a kitchen and living room to renovate and this includes new windows, new insulation and new exterior siding. The summer season

I was out shooting some photos at around 5:30 in the morning as I usually do while we are at the lake house... covered completely in clothing from head to toe yet still getting eaten by millions of flying insects. Even though I hate dealing with all the biting insects, I'm always hoping to capture a good photo of some early morning wildlife while the lake is calm and the sun is low creating a warmer, softer light. That rarely happens but I can always hope for the best.  On this particular morning, I was attempting to compose a landscape shot that I've shot far too many times already but I prepared to shoot it again anyway.  As I was looking through the viewfinder, I caught a glimpse of what appeared to be the moon at the top edge of the frame in the center. I pulled my head away from the camera... looked up... sure enough, the moon was still rather high in the sky.  I snapped a quick photo of the landscape and then switched gears.  I grabbed my other camera that has a b

Our new refrigerator finally arrived this morning and the installation was flawless! As I wait for the temperature in the refrigerator and freezer to drop to safe levels, I decided to capture a few photographs of it to share here...  I've already flushed two gallons of water through the fridge water lines so it is ready for drinking... the ice needs 24 hours... then dump all the ice and it is ready to go after the new ice is made... Sheila is particularly excited to be done making ice in ice trays! This fridge sports a partial stainless steel interior... It is difficult to see here because the kitchen is so dark on this dark, dreary, rainy day but this next photo shows the quick access door... This is a Bi-Zone drawer... we can choose any of four preset temperatures for this drawer ranging from deep freeze to mild refrigeration... Much of the interior of this particular refrigerator is stainless steel... And, of course, it is a Samsung... So.

We're in the process of renovating our kitchen. We've done most of the design work (although, there is a little bit more to be done), we've ordered some of the major appliances, and now I've started re-routing plumbing.  Our current kitchen is old, worn, and a confused mix of mismatched cabinets. We have some cabinets which were gifted to us by a friend... we have some stock oak cabinets... and we have a few cabinets that I made to somehow match certain features of the previously mentioned cabinets. It is a functional kitchen but not at all organized, cohesive nor attractive.   After years of searching for an affordable counter-depth refrigerator, we have a new counter-depth refrigerator arriving on Thursday so I've been making room for it in our old kitchen. Our current fridge is only 32 inches wide but this new fridge is 36 inches wide so I needed to remove some shelves between two wall cabinets and two base cabinets to make room for this wider fridge. I rem