Scattered Thoughts . . .

We invited Will and Sue as well as Liza and the kids over this past weekend for another barbeque in the backyard.  It was a beautiful day and everyone enjoyed themselves.   I have to mention that it has become very clear to Sheila and me that the best home improvement project we have ever done was to build our outdoor kitchen and grill.  This improvement has made things so much easier even in the dead of winter.  That outdoor kitchen and grill is under cover away from rain, hail and snow.  In the summertime when inside the house is ridiculously hot and sticky, it is awesome having everything available outdoors.  We could still use a few small improvements in this convenient outdoor kitchen but it is already our most useful home improvement.  This kitchen worked out very well on this day too. When the kids arrived, they were pretty hot so we started off the day with fresh strawberry popsicles.  Because of the pandemic, we don't see the kids all that often anymore so I try to get

I knew we had a visitor streaking through our solar system but our skies are rarely good for viewing anything so I had almost completely given up on the possibility of seeing this fast flying visitor.  Plus, it was located low near the horizon and we are surrounded by trees so that was also making me lose hope of catching a glimpse of this guy.  Sheila and I got lucky with the weather tonight which made it pretty easy to find this visitor in our night sky! This comet was actually discovered on Sheila's birthday, March 27, 2020, and named Neowise.  Comet Neowise is hurtling through our solar system at 17,500 miles per hour and it is about 3.1 miles in size.  This comet won't be visiting us again for another 6,800 years so this is a once in a lifetime event.  The comet and it's diffusing blue ion and golden sodium tail were clearly visible in our northern sky tonight and, for a change, I was prepared for it and the weather cooperated and my health cooperated and we encounte

The kids and Nan and Pop decided to stop by Sunday morning to bring us some cider donuts for breakfast.  I warmed up the grill while Sheila pulled out the cinnamon sugar so we'd be ready when they arrived.   We warmed up the donuts on the grill and they were delicious!  We had some apple cider as well.   Since the skies were clear in the morning, I set up one of my solar telescopes so we could view the sun.  There were no sunspots so the sun was a featureless disk but it was nice to peer through the scope anyway... As always, Lukey and Kenzie took turns shooting with two of my cameras and they did a pretty good job.  This particular day was a bit more difficult for them though since the sun was high and bright.  They managed to get a few keepers though... I'm not sure when this was but, apparently, mommy took a short nap... Donuts for breakfast led to some hot dogs on the grill for lunch.  Sometime after lunch, I thought it might be a good

We had a small get-together here at the house this past weekend.  We had only nine people here but it seemed like a yard-full of people.  During the first six months of this pandemic, we missed six birthdays in the family.  Things in Vermont had settled down for a short bit as related to the virus so we made plans for a small gathering while keeping within recommended guidelines.  That was Saturday. Since we exposed ourselves to each other again, we are now back to checking temperatures everyday again for two weeks though.  Both Sheila and I already had this virus but we don't believe that this will make us completely immune to future infection so we're trying to play it as safely as possible.  Of course, we don't want anyone else to get infected either.  The first five months of this year were miserable for me because of this virus and I don't have any desire to go through that again.  This virus wiped me out and I am still recovering.  (Perhaps I'll write more a