Christmas Eve 2019 Chaumont NY

View of our Chumont NY house on Christmas Eve, 2019. We had a lovely evening. 

It is Christmas Eve, 2019 at our house in Chaumont NY.  I spent the day taking care of last minute odds & ends. Delivered gifts for my kids families to my daughter's house in Watertown. She will take th3m to her mother's house tomorrow morning. I made a lot minute gift purchase at Home Depot fr the Bettr Half. A couple of pairs of pliers for her personal tool box. Standard pliers and needle nose pliers.
I dropped off a coulee of inexpensive gifts for brothers Ron & Al, & nephew Tim.

In the evening we watched a couple of Christmas movies. A Christmas Story, the tale of Ralph and his dream of getting a Red Ryder BB gun rifle.A great, perfectly made movie. The other one was Charles Dicken A Christmas Carol, the newer version storing George C. Scott as Ebenezer scrooge. Two great films. For food we had Hanky Pankies, Spinach Artichoke dip with corn chips, and some olives and carrot sticks.. I had Shiraz red wine, the better half hade Mike's Hard Cranberry lemonade.

November 17, 2019 Shadow from the roof top, selfie photo

My shadow cast on the house next door to where I am doing a roof job. iPhone 6 selfie photo. It was a cold day.

November 2019 has been a colder than we usually experience here in northern New York. A few days ago the temperature was 4 degrees in the morning and warmed up to only 9. Anyhow, my brothers Ron & Al and I have been putting a new roof on my ex's house on Mustard Rd., Brownville. A few years back, in November, my brothers and I did a roof job on my Franklin St apartment house working in short sleeves. It was that nice out.  While up there I spotted my shadow falling on the house next door. So I snapped it. Technically it's a selfie.

I visit Will Salisbury, Omar's Man of Steel, today

Friday, December 20, 2019 .  I dropped in on Will Salisbury today. I have dubbed him Omar's Man of Steel. He lives in Omar, NY. He is a sculptor and is mostly known for working with steel.

December 21, 2019 shingles still bothering me

It is now 4 weeks since I came down with shingles. My skin in the region of the rash still feels numb to my touch, yet painful when I put on a shirt. My lower back and my front abs feel sore as if I have been doing many sit ups. The pain / discomfort has been continuous since day before Thanksgiving. When it first came on my pain level was a 9, maybe even a 10. Now I would say this lingering pain is about a 4 or 5 (on a scale of 1-10).
For the first time today I feel like I might be improving. I cannot describe why, I just felt better in some way. Perhaps it's just psychological. A couple of places where the rash is/was feels itchy. This is the first time I can say there was a definite itch. I have resisted scratching it.

I read that pain and discomfort can linger for 4 months. Sometimes it can take an entire year to fully recover. And even longer. For years. Yikes.

I come down with shingles Wednesday, November 27, 2019

So the day before Thanksgiving 2019 I came down with shingles, the disease that breaks out in one who has had chicken pox as a kid. It would be days later when the rash broke out that I learned what I had.

It was Wednesday afternoon and I had been out all morning doing yard work and feeling normal. I felt a sudden pain in my lower right back. "Whoa, what is that," I wondered. CouldI have suddenly hurt my back?

The afternoon wore on and the pain became a steady ache. 

Thanksgiving morning it was more distinct. Noticably worse. We had some family over, had dinner, drinks, the whole deal and the pain got worse.

By the evening it was severe. Pulsing & stabbing in my lower right back. It kept me mostly awake all night. This was the worst pain I have ever experienced. On a scale of 1-10 I gave it a 9.

Friday morning I go to the emergency room at Samaritan. Googling my symptoms I thought I might have kidney problem of some sort. Maybe kidney stones. Blood & urine tests and a CT scan showed nothing. It was most likely muscle spasms r other muscle related issue. One doctor commented that I appeared to be "The healthiest 65 year old alive." Oh dear, I hope he didn't jinx me.

Got 2 prescriptions, muscle relaxer and an anti-inflammation drug. within a couple days the pain was more bearable. Down to a level 5.  The drugs however, weren't agreeing with me a whole lot. I was very sleepy. My urinary & bowel habits changed. I was very miserable. 

Tuesday evening, December 3rd, I discovered an ugly looking, wide spread rash on my lower back where the initial pain started. The rash wrapped around to my front abdomen area, and part way down right buttock. 

Urgent Care Wednesday morning & diagnosed with shingles. Started a regimen of valacyclovir, and anti-viral med. 

Storm damage photos. Pine tree blown down at our Chaumont NY house

Last night, Halloween 2019, the giant pine tree in the backyard of our house came down in a wind storm. I really liked that tree. Over the years I watched as it lost branches and limbs with every big storm. Last nights 60 plus mile an hour winds were too much and it snapped the trunk 5 or 6 feet above the ground. It destroyed an outdoor glass topped table that I hadn't put away for the winter yet, and also ruined our large smoker/grill that I've been using for at least 10 years.

Elton John's Your Song for Fingerstyle Guitar

Here is a video I made a few weeks ago. It's a nice arrangement for classical guitar of Your Song by Elton John. The arrangement is by St. Louis guitarist Larry Beekman. I played my 1984 Guild Mark V classical guitar. I bought the guitar new from Dr. Guitar in Watertown, NY. I made the video in the lesson room where at Dr. Guitar.

I play Elton John's Your Song on classical guitar

Here is a video I made a few weeks ago. It's a nice arrangement for classical guitar of Your Song by Elton John. The arrangement is by St. Louis guitarist Larry Beekman. I played my 1984 Guild Mark V classical guitar. I bought the guitar new from Dr. Guitar in Watertown, NY. I made the video in the lesson room where at Dr. Guitar.

Your Song for Classical Guitar played by Gary Walts.

Bagpiper plays at Campbell's Point 100 year celebration in Sackets Harbor NY

July 27, 2019- I was hired to play guitar for a dinner party on Campbell's Point in Sackets Harbor NY. Afterwards there was a bagpiper playing at sunset. I snapped this phot of him with my iPhone 6s.

Bagpiper plays at Campbell's Point centennial celebration, Sackets Harbor NY.  photo copyright Gary Walts

Earlier in the day I worked scraping paint off the front porch of our house in Chaumont, NY. I am using a Porter Cable heat gun to strip away the paint. I only put in 2 hours when the better Half decided we should go to our favorite swimming hole in Cape Vincent with her daughter H & son in law D. WE returned home about 3:00 and had a delicious pop chop dinner with green beans from our garden. At 5:00 I headed to Campbell's Point and had a wonderful time playing guitar for a couple of hours. I got many compliments and was paid well to boot.

Wooden Sailing ship off Cape Vincent Ny, Sony a6000 & 500mm f8 Minolta lens

We were at our favorite swimming spot at Wilson Bay, Cape Vincent NY and saw this wooden sailing ship way off on the horizon. We could barely see it. I snapped a photo of it with the Sony a6000 and a Minolta 500mm f8 auto focus mirror lens. It was very hazy. I had to do quite a crop and then play around with photo shop to somehow make the photo interesting. This is what I settled on.

3 masted sailing ship on the horizon, Lake Ontario, off Cape Vincent NY. Sony a6000 & Minolta 500mm f8 AF lens. photo copyright Gary Walts 

Guitar playing at Channelside Restaurant in Clayton NY

Wednesday July 10, 2019.
Had wonderful time playing guitar from 6-9:00 at the Channelside Restaurant in Clayton NY.

Earlier in the day I mowed part of the lawn. I had to stop because the cable that engages the self propel feature on the lawn mower broke.

It's a Toro walk behind mower.

Here is a photo I snapped from the parking lot of Sam's Club in Watertown NY a few days ago. I think it really says Summer.

Summerday in northern NY. Photo snapped with Sony a6000, 200mm f2.8 lens from parking lot of Sam's Club, Watertown.  photo copyright Gary Walts

Busy day today and old Tri-X negative copied with Sony a6000 camera

Monday, May 6, 2019

Had a terrible nights sleep last night.Truly lucky if I got a solid 4 hours. Sometimes that happens. Very little guitar practice this morning. However I had a productive day. I worked quite awhile cleaning the garage. It is packed with about 30 years worth of disorganized stuff ranging from personal memorabilia to a variety of odds and ends gathered for various art projects that never got off the ground and it's doubtful they will. Anyhow, I carted off a load of scrap metal, old books, and other stuff to the recycling center. Then I went Walmart and picked up a couple of items to make guacamole. Then I changed the oil in the Better Half's 2011 Kia Sedona van. after that I mowed the lawn. Then I sat on the porch and drank a beer. It hit 71 degrees today and mostly sunny so it was wonderful. Oddly though, I didn't snap any photos today.

One of my first attempts at digitizing my black & white negatives with a Sony a6000 camera. It appears to be a satisfactory alternative to using a film scanner. More testing and experimenting needed to confirm. 

The photo posted  I snapped in April or May of 1977. My ex brother-in-law RC is at left, my brother Dale at right. This photo was made with Kodak Tri-X black & white film and a Minolta SRT 101 camera. A couple days ago I copied the negative with my Sony a6000 camera fitted with a Minolta 50mm f2.8 auto focus macro lens. I converted it to a positive with Adobe PhotoShop. It is an alternative to digitizing film images with a film scanner. Something I've been wanting experiment with.