Scattered Thoughts . . .

Sheila now has a completed new home office! I've been working on the room and building a desk over the past two or three weeks.  The long wall of the room had significant water damage so fixing that was my first task.  My plan has been to remove half of that wall, install a beam, and open it up to a desk area of all windows that juts out into our yard. Until now, I hadn't repaired any of the water damage so that was the top priority.  The need for a home office presented itself so the wall needed to be repaired at least temporarily.   I spackled the damaged wall...  three coats...  then two coats of paint...  then trimmed out the windows which were never trimmed when installed (windows were installed by the previous homeowner many years ago)...  added some crown molding...  then started working on the desk. If you've been following this blog, then you know that we had originally ordered a desk online.  A few days after placing the order, we were notified that the desk was b

Sheila and I are in the process of moving her workstation from our kitchen table to her own home office in what used to be referred to as our 'train room'.  The trains are all on shelves now and the room has been cleared of clutter in preparation of Sheila's new desk and office. The legs and supports for the new desk. Sheila received word that she'll be working from home for the foreseeable future so we figured it was time to move her out of the kitchen and into her own working space.  Converting a room to a home office was quite an undertaking since we are still in the process of renovating the house little by little and this is a very small house with no 'extra room'.  Making a clean spot is like a giant tile game of sliding numbered tiles one space at a time to free up space elsewhere on the board.  That is what we had to do to make a clean spot for Sheila and my spine is in no condition to do things like this anymore! The process of designing and building he

I missed a dose of medications at dinnertime last night and, before bedtime, my health was crashing.  By 10pm, I was sick and in the bathroom.  I finally made it to bed by 4am after taking some extra medications and emergency medications.  I still couldn't sleep until around 5:30am because of nausea and I was still feeling as though I might need to get the bathroom quickly. This hot, humid weather is not helping my health at all.  My health does not do well in consistent temperatures above about 79° or so and we have been well above that lately.  I'm finding that humidity about 60% or more along with temperatures in the 70s also negatively impacts my health and breathing.  The humidity hasn't been as bad as it typically is in coastal areas but it has been high enough to trigger some significant health issues for me.  I'm actually a bit surprised by how only mild humidity negatively affects my health. Anyway, my health is struggling in this climate...  a frustrating unse

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