Scattered Thoughts . . .

S ometime late last year, I purchased a relatively small but powerful power station.  The primary use for this power station was for my astronomy gear but it has proven to be a useful power source for blackouts at the house.  So far, I've been very happy with this little powerhouse. When I purchased the power station late last year, it was on sale at a very good price.  This power station also has a portable solar panel array that you could purchase separately, if you needed, that could charge this power station using only solar power.  Unfortunately, that portable solar panel array was priced a little higher than I was willing to pay at the time so I was waiting for it to drop in price.   Shortly after purchasing the power station, I couldn't find the portable solar panel array anywhere.  I kept this product in my Amazon Wishlist anyway.  I would periodically check to see if it was in stock and, l ast week, I noticed not only was the portable solar panel array in stock but it

I spent about 24 hours sick with a stomach virus.  It wasn't horrible but it was pretty lousy.  I'm typically not a puker but I had a very difficult time keeping everything down especially when I was lying in bed.   This virus started shortly after going to bed on Mother's Day so I must have picked it up on Saturday when I went to the Post Office to send a package.  I suppose it is possible that I picked it up on Mother's Day from Whitney or Ellie but it is more likely that I picked it up the previous day at the Post Office.   I spent almost all of Sunday night going to and from the bathroom.  Even when I was not in the bathroom, lying down to sleep was not much of an option.  Lying down just allowed the puke to move upward more easily so I spent my little bit of time in bed in a sitting position.  I think I may have gotten only one to two hours of sleep Sunday night before being awoken with a mouth full of puke.  I didn't actually get any restful hours of sleep un

Ellie and Whitney came over to visit with Gee this Mother's Day to wish her a happy Mother's Day.  They had a really nice time together and the visit made Gee very happy, as always! They spent some time in the house while Ellie played with blocks, a basketball and a soccer ball.  The ball usage got a bit rough for playing in the house so we moved outside.   While outside, the ladies spent some time in the playhouse.   I managed to clean the gutters and set up the downspout to fill our rainbarrels while we were outside.  The downspouts were set up to divert water away from the house for the winter.  Now we have all the water collecting in our rainbarrels so we can water our gardens. Afterward, Gee and I made some nachos grande for dinner.  That was pretty good too!  

M y first springtime woodworking project was a small one but one which will be very useful this summer.  I decided to start my annual woodworking projects by making a Giant Jenga game for the backyard.   I cut up all the wood... 54 pieces in all...  then cut some additional pieces to replace any pieces that weren't looking so good in the first batch.  As I was cutting the initial batch of pieces, I noticed that some of them would not work well so I cut up an additional eight foot 2x4.  After I cut all the pieces, I started working on cutting and assembling a leveling base.   This leveling base has leveling feet at each corner so we can have a level playing surface even on uneven ground.   The great thing about the leveling base is that it can be turned upside-down to store all the pieces (see the last photo, at bottom).  I'm thinking I might need to make some handles for it too.  It is exceptionally heavy with all of the pieces stored in it.  Sheila and I did move it but quickl

H ere is a photo that I shot this morning in our living room.  This is an Asiatic Lily plant sitting in sunlight coming through one of our living room windows.  I've mentioned a few things in previous blog entries about infrared light but this photo is a good example showing a few of these unique characteristics. First, the chlorophyll is glowing white which makes the green leaves render as a very bright white in infrared.  All else inside the house is dark.  It is like the lily plant is illuminated from within itself!   I've also mentioned that another characteristic of infrared imaging is exceptional clarity.  This is certainly visible in this shot but, honestly, it is really noticeable outdoors when shooting a wide landscape shot.  Infrared light seems to see through much of the haze that our human eyes see in visible light.  Well, it doesn't see "through it".  The haze that we see simply isn't visible in the infrared wavelengths. There is such thing as haz

As I suspected when my health crashed last night prompting the need for emergency medications, today was pretty much a down day.  I was groggy from the medications and lacking energy so I laid low all morning and napped all afternoon after lunch.   Just before making lunch, however, I grabbed my infrared camera and headed into the backyard.  I've been waiting for some leaves to grow on the foliage so I can really test my old camera that I recently had converted to capturing infrared light only.  Green foliage (well, really chlorophyll) really lights up and glows in infrared light so green leaves glow brightly against blackened blue skies in monochrome infrared photography.  Although the leaves are not fully grown just yet, there is enough small young leaf growth on the trees and shrubs to see how this old camera captures infrared light today. These first two photos show sunlight catching just a few leaves on a branch that are in a small bit of sunlight.  Just a little bit of sunlig

The weather and my health cooperated for a change so Sheila and I managed to have a relatively productive weekend. We cleaned up the yard and then I seeded the necessary areas of the lawn (lots of them for some reason) while Sheila cleaned up the flowerbed all around the house.  I pulled out the lawn mower and cut the lawn.  I worked on the putting green and added seed again.  Sheila cleaned the playhouse for the grandchildren.  I did some pruning and clearing some new growth of Sumac saplings (we hate this invasive, nasty, ugly, weedy tree).  I turned on the outdoor plumbing and found that we have a couple of very leaky ball valves.  I'll need to pickup a couple of those so I can replace them.  I had hoped to get to some woodworking but I never got to that.  The yard is looking good for this time of year though. We had two solid weeks of rain but, oddly, everything was still very dry.  The lawn mower was kicking up a dust cloud everywhere I mowed.   My bone pain and joint pain is

I was feeling "okay" this morning (which means not all that well but not terribly lousy) so I pulled out a camera and opened the living room window to see if I could find something to photograph.   I didn't feel like wandering outside.  I wasn't feeling well enough to go wandering around outside and it was still a little chilly this morning anyway so I didn't have much of a desire to head outside.  Also, it is a bit muddy out there too.  I could live without the mud and chilliness so I stayed indoors and just opened our living room window to shoot some photos from the comfort of indoors. I used a few different lenses, getting a feel for each lens (I'm a bit out of practice after the long pandemic) but the lens I used for this photo was my lens with the longest focal length.  I shot this one at 600mm...  handheld without the steadiness of a tripod.  The older I get, the more difficult holding a camera steady gets. The robin in this photo was in our spruce tree,

Last week, we had dinner at Sarducci's in Montpelier for Lukey and Kenzie's birthday.  Sheila and I have not been going out to restaurants all that often but we do enjoy our occasional meals at Sarducci's.  Sarducci's is near the halfway point between Liza and John's house and our house so we chose Sarducci's for Lukey and Kenzie's birthday dinner again this year.   Kenzie and Lukey opened their birthday presents at the table before dinner... Kenzie is running a 5K again this year in June with Gee so she has been running regularly after school.  She wanted a fitness tracker to keep track of her running and, I suppose, to keep her motivated to run.  She video chats with Gee almost every evening and they compare notes on their running that day... I almost always order the chicken parmesan at Sarducci's and I did this night too.  It was very good, as usual... Sheila and Lukey had the grilled salmon... Here are two comparison images...  above, what the camer