Scattered Thoughts . . .

We've traveled quite a bit by train over the years. Naturally, there have been a few memorably long delays due to derailments. Derailments are quite rare and I've only been affected by two in about thirty years of Amtrak rail travel but, when they happen, it is time consuming, frustrating and memorable! I was on one train that derailed in one incident and, in another, we were delayed by about eight hours due to a freight train derailing up ahead of us. During both incidents, it really would have been nice to know what was happening and to have an estimated time of when we'd be back on track (pun intended). But, how would that be possible? When the train that I was on derailed while I was on my way to my sister's wedding,  Amtrak resolved the issue within a couple of hours. T he tracks were washed out due to heavy rains in the preceding weeks and only one or two of the cars came off the tracks. They sent buses to pick us up and transported us to a station about sixty

I just thought I'd write a quick update on Sheila's treatment problems.   After the ER visit a few weeks ago, Sheila's Oncology team decided that the significant symptoms she was experiencing were probably not due to her new treatment drug.  Since they were fairly certain that the treatment wasn't presenting these significant symptoms as side effects of the treatment drug, we came up with a plan to get back on the treatment plan and give it a shot again. Unfortunately, Sheila was back on this particular treatment drug only two days before one of the significant symptoms appeared again... and now it is only a week later and both of the significant symptoms that landed her in the ER are back again. At this point, we're both quite certain that these are actually side effects of her cancer treatment and they are far too severe to be tolerated for a long term treatment plan. Right now, these symptoms are more mild than the first time around but it is still only a m

My health took a nosedive more than a week ago... and then, more recently, took a deeper nosedive with terrible nausea, weakness and general malaise holding me back and keeping near the bathroom. I'm still recovering but, as always when I am recovering, I am now trying to find little things around the house that I can actually accomplish without triggering my health to crash yet again.  This time around, I decided to scroll through some old photos to see if could find anything worth salvaging. All three of these photos, below, were shot at Oakledge Park on Lake Champlain. These photos were shot back a number of years ago when I was shooting with a couple of cameras that did nothing but cause me grief. I always seemed to struggle to get decent shots and especially when the light was not ideal. Ironically, the light was terrible for all three of these photos below. I really had to search to find good, interesting light. This first photo was shot from a rocky beach looking towar

Talking with the staff at The Presidio, planning our visit... Our cross country rail journey to San Francisco by way of The Lakeshore Limited and California Zephyr trains has been foremost in our thoughts lately (even more than all our health problems so that is good news). This past weekend, we made some progress on these plans as we booked rooms for our stay in San Francisco.  At this point, we're not sure if we'll ever make it back to San Francisco so we decided to choose rooms which are unique, in a great location, moderately affordable, and meet the highest of standards. With this criteria, there wasn't much of a list of options. We quickly chose to stay at an inn on National Park grounds at The Presidio.  We needed to jump on booking these particular reservations because the rooms in this Inn on the grounds of The Presidio have a booked rate of 100% every single day since the inn opened more than six years ago. We knew that if we waited too long to make reser

For many years, Sheila and I have been talking about and dreaming about one day taking a journey across the country by rail. It has always been one of those things we've wanted to do someday when the opportunity presented itself. There is something about train travel... it has a romantic air about it... it is classic... it is relaxed by comparison to other modes of transportation... and it provides spectacular vistas as we wind our way across the country. This was one of those trips that we always figured would have to wait until after Sheila retires since we knew it would be a time consuming trip but Adam recently moved to California so that has prompted us to take a closer look at transportation options. One way or another, we were headed to California to visit Adam. We figured why not do it in style and the way we want? Originally, whenever we talked about a cross country rail journey, we talked about stopping at various cities along the way. We'd spend a night or two

I've been trying to get outdoors with my telescopes this summer but there have been a number of obstacles to this seemingly simple endeavor.  Most importantly, the skies on most days and nights have been obscured by clouds or fog. On the rare occasion when the sun is shining (and it has been very rare this summer), it has been incredibly hazy ruining any chance of seeing detail on the sun. The very few clear nights we've had have been incredibly hazy too.  Another big problem we've had this summer is a big Black Bear wandering around our neighborhood at night, getting into things and causing a big stir. I have no desire to have this bear join me out there in the darkness so I've been reluctant to get out there even on the rare hazy, mediocre nights. We've been struggling with some health issues in recent weeks so when Friday came around last week, we were both planning to eat dinner, watch a little television and then head to bed as early as possible. Neither

After Sheila's terribly rough night (and frightening) and middle-of-the-night ambulance ride to the hospital almost two weeks ago, we had a couple of follow-up medical appointments. Those are out of the way now but a few more appointments are scheduled for the next eight weeks or so.  (Plus, a few appointments for myself in those same eight weeks for diagnostics and treatment for my own serious health issues... this is a couple of months neither one of us are looking forward to.)  To refresh everyone's memory... Sheila is in treatment and still under constant medical care after her second fight (in ten years) with breast cancer. She has another nine years of treatment to go this time around and it has been rather rough going thus far. Honestly, if we were to compare her treatment today to treatments two+ decades ago, what she is experiencing is... let's say mediocre... by comparison. That being said, her quality of life has been rather low regardless. Sheila is ol

My health is still recovering from the problems I had Saturday but I felt like dragging a telescope out to the front deck to observe the sun this morning. It doesn't require a whole lot of energy to peer through a telescope but I do need to be careful out in the sun or I'll end up with failing health again. I definitely don't have the energy nor is my head clear enough to attempt any home improvement/repair projects so I will probably bounce between the piano and the telescope all morning. It is a bit hazy again today so the viewing isn't great but it is better than the clouds and rain we've had for the past week or longer. At least the sun is shining! Up until today, all my astrophotography has been done using my Sony a6000 with its 1.5x crop sensor. This morning, however, I decided to give my full frame Sony a7 a shot... My Sony a7 worked just fine. This camera will give me a slightly wider view but also should provide smoother gradients and simply bette

Sheila is recovering from her hospital visit a few days ago and we're ready to jump into more medical appointments for her. On the positive side, she is slowly recovering and feeling better. We're still waiting to see her Oncologist and her Primary Care doctor early this week to discuss these newest problems but, for now, she is feeling more stable.  My health, however, is taking a serious hit. I went out to mow the lawn after breakfast yesterday morning since it was a first day in a week that we finally had dry grass. It was beginning to get warm so I opted to forego pulling out the weed-whacker and just do a relatively quick mow. I figured I needed to minimize my time out in the sun, heat and humidity so I skipped the weed-whacking. My health does not do well in the heat and Saturday was a bit warm and quite humid. I knew the wisest thing to do would be to just run the mower over the lawn as quickly as possible without overdoing it and then get out of the heat.  About

Sheila nudged me awake in the middle of the night last night...  I thought she was waking me because I was having another violent nightmare again (which, unfortunately, happens too often)... and I immediately said to myself, "...wait a second... I wasn't having a nightmare."   I was thinking, "This must be serious..." All she said was, "I need you to... " and I jumped up out of bed to see what was wrong.   She was about to vomit... she couldn't move... she couldn't focus her eyes as they darted violently back and forth... she wanted me to get a bucket. I ran for the bucket and a plastic bag while all sorts of first aid techniques were running through my head... and, as I wondered why this was happening.  She kept saying, "I can't move... I can't move... I think I'm going to be sick..." and she looked terrible. She was stiff yet she seemed to be only as flat as the contour of the bed and pillow as though she were