Scattered Thoughts . . .

The past three weeks have been quite lousy for me.  Somehow, my body started bleeding internally.  Accomplishing anything or even doing anything, naturally, was put on hold until this is resolved. Eating has been minimal and my drinking has been mostly water (and I absolutely hate drinking water).  Once a day I add a glass of apple juice with some fiber too.  The rest of my daily food has been soft, very bland foods and fruit.  I haven't eaten such bland food in about four decades before I left my parents' house for college and the Air Force.  My mother was the queen of dry, overcooked, bland cooking.  The running joke on our block was that whenever someone smelled something burning, everyone would remark, "Oh...  Mrs Maher must be cooking again."  She certainly liked her food bland and beyond well-done, that's for sure.  Even when we went to restaurants, she would always send her plate back for more cooking or less spices or both.   Two of my daily medications, t

Sometimes, if you listen carefully, it seems as though nature sends us clues.   I had sketched some plans for a treehouse to be built next to the kids' playhouse.  I had sketched a ladder going from the deck in front of the playhouse up to the treehouse next to the playhouse.  I would store firewood and the snowblower underneath this treehouse.  It really seemed like a good plan but, honestly, I keep wondering whether it is a good idea or not.   I have so many other projects that need to get done around the house and the building season is short up here.  Adding a treehouse to that long list sometimes seemed a bit too much especially considering my health also limits how much I can get done.  Another reason I was questioning the wisdom of this project is because the grandkids have now moved from right down the road to about an hour away so their time here at Gee and Papa's house will probably be quite limited.  Because of these reasons, I was leaning toward forgetting about thi

Due to the usual and frustratingly predictable winter overcast skies here in Waterbury, a community nestled in a valley between three ski resorts, yesterday was our only chance to capture a glimpse of the conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn.  It was still three days before the actual conjunction (the point in time when the two planets appear the closest from Earth) but the weather forecast was indicating that Friday (yesterday) was our only option.  Contrary to what we've been seeing in the media and in news articles lately, this conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn is not a terribly rare occurrence.  What makes this year's conjunction a little bit special is that the apparent gap between the planets in our sky will be smaller than usual at around 1/8 of a degree in our sky.  This conjunction actually occurs every 20 years but we usually see an apparent separation between the planets in our sky of around 1/2 a degree to 1 degree.  So, the two planets will appear closer together this

Last night was one of those nights when you simply cannot sleep and you end up getting up out of bed at 5:30am because you know sleeping is a lost cause.  This is exceptionally rare for me but it was my night last night. I was having a little bit of difficulty breathing last night after going to bed but I wouldn't call those breathing difficulties anything more than mild.  Needless to say, that was the start of my lack of sleeping.  I was lying there wondering, "Should I go get my inhaler and epinephrine?  Or, will this pass?"  The problem is that if I get up to retrieve my inhaler and epinephrine, that act alone will cause me to lose some sleep because I'll need to calm down again and slow my heartrate down again in order to have any chance of falling asleep.  If I need to take epinephrine, that will keep me up for a while too.  So, I laid there wondering what to do which is also a sign that my breathing difficulties were no worse than mild. Then, I couldn't get

First thing this morning, I noticed that the bathroom sink was not draining.  I don't mean it was slow or sluggish.  I mean it was not draining.   We had to run to the Post Office as early as possible this morning to ship a couple of packages but I knew I would now have a frustrating morning ahead of me once we arrived back home. I had a pretty good idea that the rather long drain pipe running to the side wall was probably clogged with hair, gunk, soap and I don't want to know what else.  This would mean that I would need to disassemble the drain.  I decided to just check the trap under the sink first though just in case this could be a relatively simple problem to resolve. I emptied out the long vanity cabinet and then went looking for a bucket.  I placed the bucket under the trap and disassembled the trap...  nasty, foul water spilled out...  but the trap didn't have as much gunk in it as I thought it would or should considering the sink wasn't draining at all.  "

Sometime during brunch yesterday, we realized we had no internet and, unfortunately, it was a Sunday.  It seems like things requiring a service technician always go down on a weekend.  I rebooted the modem about eight times...  the lights on the modem consistently stopped before the modem booted up...  sometimes none of the lights illuminated.  It was clear that this modem was toast. Sheila got online using her cellphone to request service from Comcast.  She was able to notate that our problem was with the modem.  Shockingly, they indicated that we would see a service technician by mid-afternoon.  That was welcomed news! The service technician arrived within a couple of hours.  It was an easy fix...  just swap out the old non-functional modem for a new one...  boot it up...  and done.  It couldn't have been an easier service call. Best yet, our internet speed is now faster than it has ever been.  Our internet speed is now triple the speed it was with the old modem!  That made the c

We have a significant astronomical event fast approaching.  On December 21st, Jupiter and Saturn will appear as one bright star in the sky because they will be lined up almost one behind the other.  To the naked eye, they will likely appear as one.  Through a telescope, they will be separated enough to get a nice photo of the two of them in the same frame.  These two planets won't appear this close together in our sky again for another 60 years so I'm hoping the weather cooperates.  Actually, I question whether the Earth will even support human life and an ecosystem as we know it 60 years from now, honestly.  This conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn occurs every 20 years, approximately.  Some are closer than others.  This 2020 conjunction will show Jupiter and Saturn appearing closer than usual in our sky on the 21st.   Since this is a significant astronomical event, I've been planning and preparing.  I've pulled out the appropriate astronomy gear and even assembled and d

A few days ago, while still recovering from mast cell symptoms, the sun had peaked through the clouds so I grabbed a lightweight telescope with a solar filter and headed outside.   I wasn't feeling well enough to do any solar imaging (that can get complicated and involves a lot more gear...  as well as a clear head) so I just grabbed one of my lightest scopes which happens to be my lowest quality scope too.  Even though this was my lowest quality scope, I knew it would be good enough for a few quick views of the sun.  Besides, it was still mostly cloudy and the sun was just peaking out in between clouds.  I knew the solar observing would be short-lived on this day so it would have been a waste to use up energy on my better, heavier and bulkier astronomy gear. The moment I peered through the telescope, I realized that the sky conditions were lousy too.  I hadn't noticed it before but it was hazy and the sun was veiled in thin clouds that I could see passing in front of the sun. 

The other night, around the time we were heading to bed, I started having typical mast cell disease breathing difficulties again only days after another miserable night of breathing difficulties.   This is a fairly common symptom for my primary illness so, at this point, common symptoms like breathing problems alone don't raise any red flags.  If a second symptoms appears while struggling with the first, then that does raise red flags which indicates the start of a cascading of symptoms and I need to start on emergency medications but that didn't happen the other night.  I was just experiencing what I would call and felt were moderate breathing difficulties. Sheila reminded me to check my O2 saturation level...  so I did and it was at 87%.  That may seem okay and a decent number but it is actually considered very low.  They say that normal breathing is in the 98-100% range.  "Moderate" breathing difficulties are experienced in the range of ± 94%.  Once you get down t

I slept for a total of three and a half hours the other night...  I was having a dream about doing electrical work on some house but I wasn't having much success...  wires were exposed and lighting fixtures were hanging from ceilings...  nothing seemed to be working correctly...  then I started having great difficulty breathing in the dream.  I was calling out for help but it seemed as though nobody really cared that I couldn't breath and were even acting as though I wasn't even there...  maybe I was stuck in some other dimension...  at this point, I awoke and realized that I was indeed having great difficulty breathing.   I then grabbed my inhaler...  two puffs...  no improvement.  There is nothing new with that...  my inhaler rarely helps more than just slightly.  I took two more puffs about five minutes later and I finally was able to get a halfway decent breath of air after another few minutes of waiting for some improvement.   It was time at add more medications to my