Scattered Thoughts . . .

I managed to finish building that doorway trellis at our backdoor that I started designing and building a few days ago. This little last minute project was built using mostly scrap lumber that was taking up space in our shed but I have to say that all this scrap lumber looks better at our backdoor cut and assembled this way! Of course, this trellis could use some plant growth but that won't happen this time of year. Regardless, it is a nice addition to our home. Little by little, over the past few months, I've been adding a few architectural details around the house. These little details make a tremendous difference in the appearance of the house and I'm liking the way things are coming together. It is almost time to start decorating the outside of the house for Christmas. I was hoping to get a jump on that before the arrival of snow but it looks as though we'll be awaking to snow tomorrow morning. I'm sure we'll still get a few more days of unseasonably

Today, Sheila moved into her last phase of radiation treatment.  Well... Sheila thought this same thing 11 years ago (her  last phase) but here we are again.  Sheila is now in her Boost Phase of radiation treatment and she is pretty happy about that! This last phase is a "boost" of radiation to only the area of the tumor. Up until today, she had been getting radiation to the entire right side of her chest... from the lymph nodes under her armpit to the center of her chest. Now, she is getting one focused beam of radiation to just the area of her tumor for seven treatments. The good thing about this Boost Phase is that most of the tissue and skin that has been burned and irritated over the past 26 treatments will now be able to heal without additional radiation making this large area worse. Sheila is definitely happy about this news. The itching, burning and peeling was getting pretty rough for a bit. Now, these last seven radiation treatments will be focused to a r

Since I haven't been able to tackle any larger home renovation projects due to our daily visits to the hospital, I have decided to attempt to tackle a few smaller projects around the house. My theory is... as long as my health is stable enough to allow me to get some work accomplished, it doesn't matter what I do as long as I simply keep busy and do something. One such relatively small project was to design and build a timber trellis-type structure at our back door to the house.  I sketched out a few ideas a few days ago and Sheila liked the idea. We stopped at Lowes after leaving the hospital yesterday to pick up some lumber and galvanized lag bolts. This little project didn't require a whole lot of supplies since most of it is being built using scrap lumber from previous home renovations. The first thing I started with today was transposing my sketches to full-size cut lines on the lumber. Once I was happy with this transposed design, I got busy with my new jig

I was sifting through some of my photos from this past summer and came across a few worth writing about and sharing here. As I've written before, we have two new residents at Lake Groton disrupting life on the lake... a pair of Bald Eagles. I knew I wanted to capture a few decent photos of these birds in flight. Anyone can go to a zoo to shoot a photo of a Bald Eagle sitting on the limb of a tree so I wanted to test my photography skills by capturing a few decent photos of this pair of eagles in flight. This first one is a little bit unusual in that the Bald Eagle is in silhouette against a cloudy sky. The eagle is flying from the darkened clouds to the light and clearer sky. I like the light in this photo and I actually like that silhouette... This next shot is a photo of one of the Bald Eagles circling over my head while looking for some prey. All the wildlife on the lake becomes silent and goes into hiding whenever either of these two Bald Eagles is flying within a mil

Most people simply buy manufactured train tracks to run their model trains. Some people will painstakingly build their model track just like building the real thing... railroad ties, rail, tie plates and spikes... and drive every single spike themselves. This option looks the best but it is a lot of tedious work. Some of us find some middle ground for various reasons. I'd prefer to be getting some work accomplished on the house outdoors but it is damp, wet and waterlogged out there so nothing is getting accomplished outdoors. Besides, since we are at the hospital every afternoon for Sheila's radiation treatment, there really is little time for any home renovations. By the time I set up all the tools, saw horses and materials, I would need to start cleaning up so we could eat lunch and then head to the hospital. Needless to say, I've been indoors for the past few months. Every fourth tie removed using a Dremel tool. I am currently indoors working on building a 12 fo

Another lunch in the hospital cafe. Sheila has moved into a new stage of side effects. This new stage of side effects has appeared only about a week before she moves into a new stage of radiation treatment. More on the additional change in treatment another time because I want to write about the current issue... burning, peeling and itching. At this point in radiation treatment, Sheila's skin is showing some burns. She has already been showing signs of a "tan" for weeks and we have known that the tissue beneath the skin has been getting irritated but now she's getting into burn territory.  Sheila has been a little bit swollen since her surgery and the radiation isn't really allowing the swelling to go down. She had already been feeling "tender" in the tissue under the skin and that continues to slowly worsen. Sheila says it isn't bad but it is obvious by her guarded reactions to things that she does feel tender in various areas.  The other

I'm always on the lookout for good quality lenses at low prices. I can and do find all sorts of manual focus lenses that meet this criteria but I rarely come across an autofocus lens that is both a "good quality" and available at a low price. Fortunately, Rokinon has started producing autofocus lenses for Sony E-mount cameras and these lenses seem to be of pretty good quality. I already own a Rokinon manual focus lens that I find is great for portraits... the 85mm f1.4. As you can see in the portrait of Sheila at right, it really renders beautiful portraits. It is sharp, has nice contrast and the bokeh is smooth. For portrait work, a manual focus lens is no problem since my subject is always static and I really like this Rokinon 85mm lens for this purpose. However, for family events and parties, an autofocus lens helps out considerably because my subjects are always in motion and rarely want to stand still while I take a few short seconds to focus manually. Addition

I've always been an admirer of Thomas Jefferson and, as an engineering and architecture student, I've also always been an admirer of his home, Monticello, in Virginia.  We have many things in our home with a relationship to Thomas Jefferson and Monticello. Among these things is some glassware. The latest additions to our glassware are two matching tankards and I thought I would try to capture some decent photos of them. Shooting photographs of glassware (as well as jewelry) is difficult so I knew this would be a nice photography exercise in lighting. Getting light where you need it and where you want it while avoiding blinding reflections while, at the same time, keeping some reflections is crucial in effective glassware photography. I knew this would be a bit of a challenge since I have not attempted this type of photography in quite some time. I pulled out some flashes. I pulled out a constant studio light. I pulled out a remote flash trigger to mount on my came

I had mentioned in a previous blog entry that Sheila had a few medical appointments yesterday and that I would write more about these appointments soon. I have a little time today so I suppose that now is the time. Sheila's first appointment yesterday was her usual radiation treatment appointment. Physically, these are pretty easy appointments on the patient... in and out quickly and, really, not at all invasive. What is grueling about it is the everyday drive to and from the hospital as well as the emotional aspect of daily radiation treatment and constantly being reminded that you are fighting cancer... for the second time. Of course, as this daily treatment continues, more side-effects are physically affecting Sheila each day too. The radiation treatment appointment itself, however, is usually a quick in and out appointment. At the moment, Sheila says she feels as though she has a bad sunburn. Her breast is swollen and tender enough that she can no longer lay on it nor can s

New sink and faucet installed in our old cabinets. Our renovation plans include a garden window in place of the window in this photo. We're planning to completely gut and renovate the kitchen as soon as we have time and some cooperative health (for both of us!) . In the meantime, we're storing away new building supplies for this project.  We've had a new kitchen sink and faucet sitting here for a few months while the old sink and faucet continued to drive us crazy everyday. The old sink was too small... the faucet was a poor quality one with very little clearance between the sink and the spout... the sink was dented and old... and the sprayer hasn't worked correctly in years. This stuff needed to be replaced years ago. Since the sink and faucet were just sitting there on the floor, I decided to do something about it the other day. I've replaced sinks and faucets in the past and, typically , this is a quick and easy project requiring no more than one to two