Scattered Thoughts . . .

Sheila's COVID test earlier in the week is negative so we are no longer quarantining.  This also means that I don't need to bother getting tested.  She is the only one of us who had some new COVID-type symptoms which is why she is the only one of us who was tested.  She seems to be faring better today than she was earlier in the week.  We're both assuming she is suffering from seasonal allergies again since the COVID test was negative. So, that is a spot of good news in what has been a rather lousy month.  This heat and humidity must break soon...  my health needs a break.

Sheila was tested for COVID-19 again this morning so I suppose that means we are both in quarantine until we get word on her test results.   She is feeling kind of lousy...  mostly symptoms in her sinuses and nose...  although she has watery, itchy eyes and fatigue as well.  It is possible she has a cold or allergies but we thought getting tested was the wisest idea because she was exposed to the public at the hospital a few days ago for one of her regular cancer checkups.  Other than that, we really have not been exposed to anyone in the past few days.  We've only been at home as we should be during a worldwide pandemic.   Anyway, now we wait for test results.  I suppose I will need a test as well if she tests positive.  My bet is that she is suffering from some far worsened allergies.  It is better to be safe and responsible so we'll sit tight while we wait for her test results... 

I am planning to get (well, really, hoping to get ) a few videos of me at the piano recorded, edited and published so I can share them here.  Right now we have too much noise from outdoors entering our living room for me to do any music recording in the house so I'll have to wait until the weather is cool enough to block out all noise (which means winter).  Closing all the windows and doors will mostly resolve this issue.  In the meantime, I'm playing around with settings and editing techniques in preparation of that project.  I haven't shared a video in quite some time and, unfortunately, a bit has changed since that time.  I'm quickly realizing that there are significant changes with my blog's formatting, with video editing, and with my video hosting website.  This means I have a bunch of new stuff to learn. I need to point out that it is incredibly and too often needlessly exhausting for an unhealthy person to keep up with these types of constant changes.  The H

F or the past couple of weeks, it has been very rainy and very humid.  On the occasional day of some partial sun, the sun has been mostly obscured by California wildfire smoke.  When I awoke this morning at 6am, I looked out the window to see this...   The sun was barely illuminating our neighborhood through an eerie yellowish, hazy smoke.  More often than not, we are shrouded in dense fog in the mornings but the fog on any other normal day is a neutral gray color.  We now have an eerie yellowish haze almost constantly this summer.  It is mostly noticeable in the early mornings and early evenings when the sun is low but the haze is also quite visible on the rare midday sunny day because it noticeably cuts down on visibility.  I can't put my finger on it but this smoke just appears different than typical haze.   The moon was shrouded in this yellowish, hazy smoke last night too.  I didn't get a photo of it though.  I was feeling rather lousy last night so I had no desire to grab

W e've done a lot of walking over the past week which has resulted in my ankle and knee swelling up again so I'm laying a bit low lately.  To recap, back in January, I first sprained my ankle badly enough that I could not put any weight on my left leg at all.  That required about four months to heal well enough to do some things again.  However, the four months of hobbling around with all my weight on my right leg only resulted in a sprained MCL (medial collateral ligament) on the side of my right knee.  The knee injury was mostly better until we did miles and miles of walking this past week.  Now my knee is painful and swollen again so I am now back to ice and elevation for a good chunk of each day.  My left ankle is a bit painful too but nothing like my right knee. Putting my health problems aside, I always try to accomplish something, anything, each day.  Mostly, I've spent my time at the piano lately but I have managed to squeeze in a few other little things too.  Time

T he weather has been horrendous anyway but my health has really slowed down any sort of chance of being productive over the past week and a half or so.  I think the rainy, damp, wet weather may be playing into the amount of pain I'm in all day long so I suppose it does have some bearing on my health.   My main issue is pain...  joint pain, bone pain, spinal pain.  My sprained left ankle (since January) has worsened in this damp weather so I'm limping a bit due to that.  My right knee is still a problem even though it is better than it was a month ago.  The pain in these two joints alone is enough to keep me up through the night.  I also have nagging, relentless bone pain.  My extensive spinal injuries are always worse in periods of damp, wet weather too so my spinal pain has been worse lately as well.   The pain wears me down and causes sleep issues so then there is overwhelming fatigue added into the mix as well.  I just want to sleep.  Well...  I suppose I really want to sle

I've been feeling rather lousy for the past week or more so it was not much of a surprise when I quickly realized this morning that today wasn't going to be much better.  For the most part, I've been extremely fatigued and inexplicably weak over the past week.  My usual bone, joint and spinal pain has been far worse as well.  I have pain all day every day but far too often this pain dips into severely debilitating levels.  This is where my health has been lately.   I've also been feeling "not right".  Sometimes I just can't put my finger on what is wrong.  All I know is I don't feel right.  I think this is usually due to multiple symptoms spiraling down into the debilitating levels but no single symptom seems to stand out.  Regardless of why I feel this way, I have been feeling this way lately.  Late this morning, I began having some difficulty breathing.  No red flags were waving in my head though because this is a common occurrence in warm environmen

A few weeks ago, we did a short photo shoot with Lukey and Kenzie and I wrote a blog entry about that evening previously .  I ended up with a lot of great photos but I thought I would share a few of the outtakes here and briefly describe the problems or difficulties we had in getting a good shot. This first one shows what happened when I tried to use a reflector to bounce some of sunlight that was shining brightly behind them onto Lukey and Kenzie's darkened faces.  They had the sun at their backs so they were very much silhouetted against the bright, colorful background.  My camera is capable of capturing a lot of data in a larger dynamic range than most cameras but adding some light to their darkened faces would make things better for light, shadow, contrast, color, and clarity...  this reflector was a tried and true way to brighten up darkened faces...  or so I thought...   No matter which type of reflector I used, the kids could not keep their eyes open!  I first tried using th

I made something a little different for breakfast this morning.  We had the usual things like coffee, toast, bacon and home fries but I also made Eggs Poblano.  I have to say that it was pretty good and, even though it is a dish that is moderately spicy, Sheila liked it too.   Eggs Poblano is a poblano pepper cut in half with an egg nestled inside it.  It is then topped with diced ham, some chopped poblano pepper, and shredded cheese and fried, covered, in a pan.   Anyway, it turned out to be a nice change for breakfast!

W e did a photo shoot with Lukey and Kenzie at sunset last night.  At around 6:30 yesterday evening, we headed out for a nearby grassy field where I could put the setting sun behind them.  It worked out fairly well and the kids learned a little bit about the real difficulties of modeling.  The kids learned that good modeling is about knowing which angles and poses work well for you...  about knowing how to express a natural smile and not a forced plastic goofy smile...  about knowing which clothes make you look good...  it is about knowing what to do with your eyes, your hands, your feet, your chin, every part of your body.  What they learned is that modeling is not about simply being a beautiful, attractive person and just standing there but that modeling is actually a verb that requires a lot of knowledge, skills and abilities.   This was good practice for me too.  I haven't done any sort of photo shoot in about two years or more.  Shooting portraits with the sun behind your mode