Scattered Thoughts . . .

S heila and I had a very nice and quiet Christmas Eve dinner here at home as we usually do each year.  Most of the horrendous weather is behind us and the power is back on in our house.  We do have branches down all around the house but we fared very well compared to others especially those who are still without power.  We only lost power for an hour and a half.   Today was a nice Christmas Eve spent at home ending with a nice dinner.  Well...  I may have something for dessert.... As I usually do, I made a rib roast for dinner.  We also had mashed potatoes, gravy, fresh green beans with chopped garlic in oil, au jus, and dinner rolls.  It was pretty good food but the dinner with Sheila was very nice, as always.  It is always nice to make something special for dinner for special occasions and tonight was one of those occasions. Tomorrow we have another rather quiet day filled with prep for our Christmas celebration with all the grandkids the following day.  Although it will be quiet her

I  honestly didn't think it would happen this week considering the way it started out but, fortunately, I was feeling fairly well this morning so I spent some time at the piano recording a few video clips.  I included the video at the bottom of this blog entry. I don't do too well at the piano when I'm not feeling well so my time at the piano is often quite limited.  I felt pretty miserable the first half of this week so it was a pleasant surprise that I had this opportunity today to put together a few recordings.   My extensive spinal injuries don't help at all either especially when it comes to the piano.  Spinal pain significantly limits the amount of time I can spend at the piano.   Trying to do anything that is the least bit artistic is out of the question unless I am feeling well and this is especially so when it comes to the piano.  I'm not one of those people who can relax or "feel better" by performing.  I must be feeling well right from the start

O nce again, I have fallen behind in writing here.   My health has been really lousy...  the fatigue has been brutal and then I spent most of today in the bathroom.  I just can't seem to get much of anything accomplished.  Things have been lousy and leaning toward miserable (especially today).   I have a lot to get done this week and it's beginning to look like I will not get everything done before Christmas at this point.  I'm hoping that my health improves through the night tonight so I can jump on a few things tomorrow morning.  Honestly though, at this point, I don't think there are enough hours in the day to get done what I need to get done this week before Christmas.  Add in the fact that I need to sleep a few hours every afternoon and this means it is less likely that I will get everything done at this point.  To say that this is frustrating is an understatement.   Anyway...  I shot a few photos of our outside Christmas decorations a few days ago but forgot about

We've skipped a few years of celebrations due to the pandemic.   Although, I have to be honest, we did recently discuss the wisdom of celebrating this year considering how many people are now sick with the virus, the flu and other viruses.  We took a chance and headed to Stowe for our annual Christmas celebration anyway.   We started the afternoon at Idletyme Brewing.  Frank and Christine met us there.  We had some wings, a big pretzel, and a few delicious beers.   I started with Zog's Pale Ale.  Sheila started with a Stowespresso which is made with Green Mountain Vanilla Vodka, Kahlua, Baileys and cold brew espresso.  We both tasted a unique Stout sporting notes of chocolate and coffee as well as a unique Vanilla Porter.  Personally, I preferred the Zog's Pale Ale and stuck with that.   Here is a photo of Sheila's Stowespresso... Here is a photo of the big pretzel with beer cheese dipping sauce as well as a spicy mustard dipping sauce.  This was "okay".  We&#

L ukey's hockey team, the Black Bears, had a game against Stowe this past Sunday.  The game was at the Waterbury ice rink so we made the very short drive to the rink to watch Lukey and visit with the rest of the family who attended the game.   Lukey has been playing the goaltender position for the past few years and he is getting good at it!  He has a lot of saves each game and this game was no different.   Even though this Stowe team was a tier above Lukey's Black Bears team, it was a one-sided game in favor of the Black Bears.  This is a pretty solidly balanced team.  Their offensive line is good with some fast skaters and pretty good stick-handlers.  Their defensive line does a good job.  And, Lukey's goaltending has proven to be difficult to penetrate by most teams his age.   I don't often shoot video at his games but I attempted a few clips this time.  Shooting video is tough at these games for a few reasons.  First, the rinks are tight which means you are close to

I 'm lagging behind in keeping this blog updated which, for some reason, seems to be the norm for the past year or so.  Perhaps it is due to overwhelming fatigue.  Whatever the reason, here is an update to my recent oncology care blog entries I wrote in the past month or so. My overall health over the past year or two has been gradually worsening.  This rather lousy overall health has become my new normal so I'm kind of used to it now.  Plus, it changed so slowly that it was difficult to see.  Since I'm used to it now, I have been having difficulty in recognizing it as an everyday thing and a new normal.   The biggest concern and perhaps the most debilitating concern has been overwhelming fatigue.  On far too many days, I'm ready to head back to bed long before lunchtime and sometimes right after leaving the bathroom getting ready to start my day.  On these days, I have difficulty keeping my eyes open and I have no energy.  My brain wants to do things that interest me b

We had a very quiet and peaceful Thanksgiving this year.  The food was pretty good for it being a pretty vile bird, the drinks were cold and refreshing, and the decorations were festive.   Unfortunately, Liza's kids were sick so they stayed at home which made for a very quiet day for us with a lot more food than we really needed.  Whitney and Ellie visited with us for a while though which was really nice.   We usually decorate for Christmas through the long Thanksgiving weekend but, this year, we finished all our Christmas decorating by the day before Thanksgiving Day so it looks like Christmas in our house.   As many already know, I truly despise  Thanksgiving so having the house completely decorated for Christmas helped my mood and attitude significantly since Christmas is my favorite time of year.  Maybe we should do this every year...  Thanksgiving Day as Day 1 of Christmas.  Hey, if some guy in a big goofy hat with symbolic pseudo-power at The Vatican can move Christmas to sui

I started our Thanksgiving prep today by making some homemade cranberry sauce.  I had that completed by 9am which was nice!  I was up at around 4am this morning because I was having great difficulty breathing.  I was actually having a very involved dream about being unable to breath and when I awoke I instantly knew why.  I really  was having difficulty breathing.  I had to get up to use my inhaler and take some other medications.  I was able to fall back asleep for a bit but I really did not get nearly enough sleep last night and what little sleep I got was while not getting enough oxygen.  Instead of sleeping later this morning, I chose to get up early and start some Thanksgiving prep work in the kitchen.  I ended up having difficulty breathing on and off all day long.  I'm hoping tonight will be better than last night so I can get some much needed rest.  Of course, it is good to breath easily too!  Breathing difficulties are a far too common problem with my illness.  Fortunatel

W e've had a number of Leviton smart switches in our home for quite a long time and, until the past year, they worked flawlessly.  However, one by one, they started failing or burning out about a year ago.  This wouldn't be so bad if we were still able to use them manually but that wasn't the case for us.   The switches failed completely. Having smart switches has always been a major first-world convenience for us especially when we travel.  No matter where we are located, we can still control our lights.  Actually, our thermostat and cameras are also able to be controlled no matter where we might be visiting.  This is a tremendous plus as far as we're concerned and especially when we travel in the winter when we must be sure our furnace is keeping the house above freezing. So, a significant number of our Leviton smart switches were broken and this morning I decided to replace four of these smart switches.  It should have been a very simple little project but it turned

A fter checking the weather forecast for the next 10 days, we decided that today would be the best day to be outside putting up our outside Christmas lights.   We started by trimming a couple of trees around the house.  Some of the branches were touching our roof after our last snowfall a few days ago so these needed to be cut back.  On the positive side, these branches were now available to be used to make a big wreath for our front door.  We make a large wreath every year out of the branches that need to be trimmed off the trees.  So, the first thing we did today was to cut some branches and make a wreath.  This is the most back-breaking work so I wanted to start with this and get it out of the way first.  My spinal injuries have been screaming since moving some snow the other day.  It's been keeping me up at night and I cannot get comfortable.  Well...  not even close to comfortable...  at rest, the pain is around a seven on the 10 point pain scale.   We don't use the front