well! re: new kitty, the name Smokey which the shelter gave him just didn't fit him and he would not respond to it, soooooo after much deliberation I have decided that he looks like grey jasper and he purred when I called him that so Jasper is his now and forever name!
Smokey-Jasper--whatever his name he is a most gorgeous kitty. How old is he?
Continuing good vibes to Puddle for her modem problems. A working computer is a lifeline for a lot of us.
Have just spent some time on a local blog--the (Jo) of that blog starts some interesting topics--but some nay sayers there also. He lets them go on so long and finally if they are disrupting a productive conversations he pops in with a phrase or two--and sets it back on track for a time.
Well found and downloaded the appropriate driver. It didn't open; it was "unreadable" ~~ so now I'm off to download FireFox, on the off chance it'll do better than WaterFox. . . . Rope is getting VERY short.
Did I mention that I'm getting angrier and angrier at Dell for shipping what is clear they knew was a non-functioning computer? Am.
If I started over, then I'm back to square one, after about two solid weeks work. The computer itself seems fine -- the hold-up is the modem, and they knew when they shipped it that its drivers were out of date. They also seem to have no way on their site (I have twenty tabs open, looking) to download drivers for the modem. Conexant provides "generic" drivers, but warns they do more harm than good, so go back to the mfgr, and get new ones *there*. . . . Beyond that, there's a lot of actual contempt on the Dell forums for idiots that *need* modems. . . . Sort of like having your husband have an affair, and then being blamed because "happy men" don't stray. . . .
Anyhoo, am done for the day, and maybe the rest of the weekend: just accepting that every page will need to be reloaded five or six or seven times for it to take, if it does at all. . . . Going to try to think about other things, do other things, that don't require much modem help.
Quiet enough in GSO this morning--the Urban Market is setting up and Brenda and I are taking the Camry for a spin this afternoon--assuming we don't get drenched out!
Beautiful moderate summer day out there. Nancy came down to mow the road (I personally like it wild, but hey. . . . ), and I headed up to the garden: two bags -- one of weeds for her chickies, and SIX cukes. She lurvs cukes, so I gave her four of the six.
I seem to be discerning a pattern with the modems -- they work pretty well, when I first start, and decline as I keep surfing. I checked to see (bless google), and it turns out that it IS an issue. So going to try getting another one or two of the one I like best (and is also the cheapest of the two) and swap them out every six hours or so. Am having to reboot that often anyways. . . . I remember from one of my old computer boards a couple of techies that kept their hard drives in the freezer. . . . may try that, too, lol!
Whew!! Managed to entice Stevie out from behind the tub. Where he's been for almost two days. Figured if I didn't get him out today, it was going to be too late. He'd found the ONE place in the bathroom that I absolutely could NOT haul him out from without doing him some serious damage. Now have access to that "getaway" blocked with bricks and paint cans. . . . Doesn't look wonderful, but will stop him from getting stuck, hungry and dehydrated. . . . He now also needs a bath, which he'll be getting in a while, after he's filled that tummy up.
He seemed delighted to be out, getting some loving and some food. I haven't any wonder. . . .
It's been a busy week here, and Puddle and Shirlee, also for you as well. Congratulations on your patience, Puddle, and your problem solving. I admire that.
Still hot and muggy, no rain. We have some heavy clouds, so hopefully, we'll get a shower if not today in the next couple of days.
Am still working on editing and thinking of dear friends.
We didn't get any rain so Brenda and I did go for a short drive--best find--a man on the porch of a farm house in his rocker smoking his pipe and looking contentedly across a side lawn which contained three very old structures--a log cabin near the road, a small one story barn with sloping wings and another--perhaps a tobacco barn. They looked perfect in their place and very well kept. Could have been in their original spot--or maybe moved in. Anyway he was enjoying them.It is always a pleasure to see old buildings preserved.
Took a "nap" last night at about eight. Woke just before midnight, decided to try to make it all the way through. Didn't.
Stevie got the bath last night. I need one, but not near as much as he did. And turned out that he needed two whole buckets (I use one). Had to leave him soaking wet in the tub while I heated the other. He'd gone from shock to whining to purring before I even got the second bucket warmed. And when I finally wrapped him in the towel and set him on the bathmat, he was joyous. It was actually easier than I'd imagined that it would be, so am grateful for that, and *he's* clearly very grateful to be squeaky clean again. Now feeling guilty that I didn't do it sooner. And WILL be doing it oftener.
Now that I'm checking for heat, *both* modems are obviously *warm* after a couple of hours. Combo likely of the WAY I use the computer, and the fact that I don't have A/C on a regular basis. Also found a couple of modem settings that are lower than the default, but which seem to help them by NOT pushing them as hard. Ironic, eh? A couple of guys out there in google-land actually drilled holes in their modem cases (voiding their warranties) to help theirs keep cooler! Remembering back to the early days of office computers in the late seventies, when the environment they lived in was wholly constructed for their "comfort" -- low static carpet, dust control, temp control. . . . Cp. to what we do now, which is virtually nada. . . .
Funny, I remember my learning curve with Frankenstein (my first computer), and being actually grateful he had SO many problems, because I learned HOW to take care of, and keep running, a very old, fragile, badly put together computer. Which I never would have had to learn if he'd been functioning well. That knowing was likely what kept Green Lantern running so long past his likely expiration date, lol! Also helping me now. . . .
Good Morning All--glad your Stevie is safe, clean, warm, full and happy. They are rascals aren't they?
Oh, yes I have memories of non-static carpet, no dust--and don't get the vacuum cleaner too close.S0--how are you supposed to keep the carpet clean? The little town I lived in at the time in MI had a small very good computer shop--who not only delivered, but set it up and came back and tweaked it.
When I asked about vacuuming they said-- "this is a___ (can't remember the brand)not to worry about the vacuum."
It was a great small town business. Now we have to buy our computers,etc at huge chains or on-line. Great loss, I think--maybe things are less expensive but at what wear and tear on the mind, body and soul?
Well--that is a cheerful start for the day--but I am glad you are getting things under control, Puddle.
Local computer shops. . . . That's where Harry got Frankenstein. Nice Iranian boys. They'd SOLD him Windows 98 Second Edition, and it came with that disk. But whenever I'd try and do a disk fix with the disk, it would reach a point about a third of the way through, and freeze. When I lost my fist modem three weeks into the internet experience (lightening storm fried it) and had to drag him to the local hospital, the computer guy pointed out that I *didn't* have SE, I had the very first edition. . . . which was known to be unstable. Since when he bought it, no one would have bought the first edition, they just substituted the SE disk rather than reprogramming the machine. He never knew, and I might never have.
The first time (and only) that I contacted M$, they asked who made my machine? I told them "Iranians in Garages." Later talking with a friend with an Iranian boyfriend, she laughed: Close -- Iranians in rec rooms watching the Super Bowl!
Wow--what a computer story, Puddle. Maybe I was just lucky!
I think my guys lasted a couple more years after I dealt with them--big guys moving in 20 miles away. Same thing happened to a wonderful office supply store, an old-fashioned hardware store, two pharmacies and a furniture store. It was sad to see.
Here is hoping everybody had a good--and productive:) day! I still seem to get more tired than I should since the guy with the knife went after my tongue--so off to bed. Gotta be ready for our travels--love you all.
I think recovery after surgery likely takes longer than we think, no matter *what* our age is.
When I was so impatient in January to BE WELL, I was a bit annoyed that I just wasn't! Surgeon assured me that although I wouldn't *see* much progress from day to day, that it would be observable from week to week, and month to month. And he was exactly right.
That seems to be the experience of most of the members of the support group, too. There's a huge improvement almost immediately (the difference in being able to swallow or not is enormous, lol!), but then it just keeps getting better and better in little bits. Thank Godde!
Shirlee, when does your actually travel begin? And be sure and give us a trip tick, grin. Are you going to be able to blog along the way? Surely Brenda is a lap top gurl?
Thinking about Pat and Barb -- and editing. . . . I was an editor for a Big 8 accounting firm for four years, a mama bear accounting firm for 6 weeks, and a baby bear accounting firm for two years: all equally awful experiences. The worst/hardest/most thankless job I've evah had.
But the time I got home from work -- nine, most nights, I was literally speechless. I could barely remember my name, and trying to do *anything* with words was impossible. Doubt I read one whole book during those years. Well, not strictly true -- I was still in my book group, so one book a month. With difficulty. I became a TV person again for the first time since my kids were very small. I really didn't have enough brain left to do/be anything else.
Might have been slightly better if the typists/work I was editing hadn't been SO bad. I became *intimately* associated with the Proofreader's Devil. . . . The mind's absolute belief that when you've caught and corrected THE error in that line, there ARE no more -- brain just will miss more. I regularly caught five or six. And let the last one go. So when the corrected copy came back for copy editing, it was just like a first read: it *had* to be. . . .
Spell checkers were just coming on line, and the accountants used to believe that my job would soon be obsolete. . . . As if a spell checker could catch things like these: 1-- We need to check the railroads right away -- [We need to check the railroad's right of way. . . . ]. and, 2-- It is difficult to tell the difference between ceiling tiles and carpeting. . . . [What he wanted to include and didn't, was: "in terms of deciding whether they are permanent or temporary improvements to a leaseholding, for tax purposes."] (Peggy and I tended to keep our door closed because we were laughing so much. And were the only two in building that could possibly have understood. She and I became very good friends despite that fact that we were very different personality types -- comrades in foxholes, and all that.
I'd never been all that mathematically inclined, and thought when I first accepted the job, that the math would be the bigger problem. Not. I came to love the math, simply because if you told them a column didn't foot, they didn't argue, they went back and did the work to make it come out correctly. If you told them that some usage was ungrammatical or substandard English, each one had an English teacher in their background that said that use was A-OK. . . .
Added to all that was the fact that I'm not a natural speller, so was checking my dictionary virtually for every line. The irony, was I very seldom ever messed up on the spelling, whereas my office mate, who WAS a natural speller often did, lol!
All three places I was hired were because the editor that preceded me was a brand new English majors (which can be had on the cheap, lol!). What was left out of the equation was humility and respect for a very odd and old tradition: the official accountants' opinion at the opening of a financial report means something VERY specific, and legal. The opinions are *awful* to read: they hurt the mind, eye, and brain, but they are what they are for very good reasons (they keep accountants in business and out of jail). The youngsters just couldn't grok that, and kept trying to grammaticalize them, lol! Late in my career as an accountants' editor, I actually discovered a book recounting the history of each opinion, which generally dated back a couple of hundred years. Every couple of decades or so, a comma would be inserted. Or possibly replaced with a semi-colon. . . . In half a century, one word might be changed. . . .
I often wondered "what that was all about" when I came out the other end. Until I met Edwin. His father was an accountant, and ended up being a Partner at Arthur Andersen. Partners at Big 8's are some of the most authoritarian, self-righteous, non-communicating, least empathetic and most unable to give people I have ever known. Angry and insecure. I didn't have to imagine at all how he was treated as a child. . . . Or why he was still in therapy working on childhood issues in his sixties.
I used to feel bad for an accountant if I liked them: I knew that meant they wouldn't make the next cut. . . . Too much humanity left.
Ah, Puddle. You are indeed correct. Editing is a thankless and hard job. I love being a bookkeeper because of "footing" I can catch my errors before anyone else sees them.
I finally finished editing and formatting Burts new book on Cognitive Biases for politicians. It is a sort of primer and not a full fledged book that goes into chapter and verse. Just gives the bias, an example, a misuse, a proper use and a bottom line, then on to the next page and next bias. He's sending (in pretty much draft form) it to our local politicans and most of our fav tv and radio hosts for their perusal and to see what their ideas on it might be.
He's about a 1/4 of the way thru the second thread of the sequel of Rare Earths. this could well be a full time job!
Thanks for your long posts, Puddle--so good to hear your voice again.
Yep--Brenda is a lap top AND an iPad girl--so we can keep you posted.
Plans so far are --leave here on August 16--scenic route through the mountains to Johnson City TN for two nights. Really wanted to go back to Bristol VA/TN--the crazy town where the state line runs smack down the middle of main street. That was where Victor recording came-in 1927, put out a call for musicians to come in--and as in "Down From the Mountain" "sing into the can." Some of the people recorded made huge impressions on people like Doc Watson. Those sessions have been reproduced on a 2 disc cd set. That session was so successful that Columbia came the next year to Johnson City. They did a better job of advertising--and were able to pull in more people. They are trying just now to find the best copies of the recordings and turn those into cd(s).
Hampton Inn in Bristol was $40 more per night than the one in Johnson city 20 miles away. HI has the only motel bed that I can get into--rest are too high.
From there we go to Marietta, Ohio on the Ohio river--one of my favorite old river towns--one night. The next day --20th we should be at The Rock about 4:00PM. Marla will come running out arms open and so happy to see us--just as her cleaning crew is leaving. We try to be the first ones there--it is nice to see the house totally clean, flowers in the windows, every thing in order before the crowd arrives:)
On the way home we make one stop--not sure yet where that is. Leave The Rock by noon Sunday the 26th. Should be home by the 27th-28th. SOMEBODY in the family need to go to work!!!
Shirley -- have you tried dropping wheat (not gluten) -- the newly engineered stuff (last 30/40 years) is turning out to be *REALLY* bad for the human gut.
http://www.wheatbellyblog.com/
I'm familiar with Bristol. The first day I came searching for property in WV, I drove from Baltimore where I was staying all the way down and stayed the night in order to begin the trip back up through WV the next day, stopping at local cafes and talking to the waitresses about what local property was available, what they liked about the area, etc. Had to laugh: half way through town, I was no longer IN Virginia, just like that, lol! All in all, a lovely, interesting trip. I'd kinda wished I could have afforded *anything* in Pocahontas County (where Green Bank is), but the Gubbmint salaries had really driven up land prices. . . . made another over then down #77 and back up and across. My third trip was directly here, to buy. After a side trip up to Deep Creek Lake, buy I did. What I was looking for was X amount of acres, with or without a dwelling, pasture space, garden space, woodlot, water -- ideally spring or river. I was told, constantly, that that just wasn't available for @20,000. But yanno? It *was.* So bought, and moved in -- first eight weeks I was camping on my building site, laying things out, cleaning up downed trees, and finally beginning the holes for the telephone poles/foundation. The footprint was two rectangles, and two levels. When I hit two feet on the holes, I hit hard pan, and discovered where it got its name from! When the troops (friends, relatives) arrived for the inserting of the poles, it took eight more people two days to get down the extra six inches. . . . Scotty and his childhood friend were the last to leave on Sunday night, and it took them six hours on their bellies with water buckets and I kid you not: spoons, scraping the last three inches in the last hole. Once the poles were all in, I moved down the road as we had an early winter, and my plans to have a roof over my head by October were out of the question. Took another year of building -- I moved in on Christmas Eve. And my brother an his family came for Christmas dinner the next day.
On other fronts -- From my earthlink start page: (about the ACA)
Overall, spending cuts and tax increases in Obama's law more than offset new spending,
Repealing the law, as Republicans want to do, would increase the deficit by $109 billion from 2013 to 2022. ########### Buggers can't even be true to their own statements about being fiscally responsible. . . .
Great story about your place, Puddle. Thanks--I had always wondered how you ended up in W.Va--and you were inspired by W.Berry?
Are you familiar with Thomas Berry? No relation to W.B.--he was a priest from the first Catholic family who moved into Greensboro.
Apparently from his boyhood he was drawn to the beauty of the land. He ended up writing three major titles--about the earth, the universe and our relationship to both. I bought his "The Great Work" when Brenda took me to our local really good book man for part of a Mother's Day celebration.
It seems to me his work puts a theoretical, philosophical underpinning to Wendell Berry's work--which tends to be historical, practical, poetic etc. T.B. died in 2009.
Thanks for the tip on wheat--Brenda is a careful shopper for me and doesn't pick up many gluten or wheat filled things--but we do eat out some--and I do love good bread.
I know soy gives me huge problems-- Ah, well all part of aging--or whatever!!!
Long time ago, in the seventies, had a friend who moved to PawPaw, WV, as sort of a back to the land thang. He was renting a tiny cabin -- well, actually, it was free: the guy had moved it over the ridge, and it was due to be a wedding gift for his daughter who was just a little girl. He needed someone IN it to keep it from being moved elsewhere. I got to spend a fair amount of time there, and filed WV as a place one might be able to live on SS, come the day, lol!
When I was cleaning up after the Santa Rosa '95 floods, came across a land brochure I'd saved -- WV. Decided HOW/WHERE I was living was wonderful (in the redwoods up against a creek), but knew I could NOT afford to do it in California. . . . I'd gone to CA to try again with an old college love, and moved out of his place when it *really* didn't work. But yes -- between January and the move back to the East Coast, I discovered my local farm store had a great book section, amongst which I was introduced to Wendell Berry. Wasn't till later I read his poetry. Also read Thoreau for the first time during that period. And a wonder woman named Anne LaBastille -- Woodswoman, who made me believe that anything was possible. She was entirely responsible for my being able to take baths on my back porch, summer and winter, for five years before I got an indoor bathroom. . . . Never did stand in the snow though. . . . And 10º was my limit. Colder than that I got a hunter's bath till it warmed up (read total go over with baby wipes).
Whewk! They just dropped the prediction for Thursday from 97º to 91º -- which I believe I can live with. Was getting worried about that nearly one hundred. . . .
Fading here. Night all, under the wing, next to the heart. . . .
Wendell Berry in a farm store! Love it--never saw that in the mid-west or Texas. Books would not have occurred to most of those farmers or ranchers. Nor would they have given them shelf space if it did. Had not heard of Anne LaBastille--need to Google her.
What else to do in the middle of the night? COULD go back to the rowdy Irishmen (have Rutherfurd's Rebels of Ireland on audiobook from the library) but tired enough I might fall asleep in the middle of a disc and miss a great battle/turmoil between the Catholics and the Protestants and/or the English and the Irish!
Beautifully cool and foggy this morning. And they've lowered tomorrow's forecast again --> to 88º! Yay!!
Pretty good sleep; almost straight through (woke up, but didn't *get* up). My intro to Berry was The Gift of Good Land -- thinking how important The Gift of Good Sleep is, lol!
Now, Puddle! This is getting to be more than just accidental! The first W.B. book I had seen or owned was this very same book. One of the women who worked for me was an avid reader. She looked at me one day and said "You need to read Wendell Berry." Had no idea who he was--but hi'ed myself off to a near-by small used bookshop. When I asked about W.B. they said "most people who buy Berry keep their books-- but let's check. Sure enough on the shelf was a copy of "The Gift of Good Land." I was blown away by his subject, and also his beautiful writing. After that I began collecting his work and reading and re-reading. I have all I ever purchased. Cincinnati daughter has added to it at gift times. Now she is giving me the audiobook version of some of the novels. There is such detail in those I think a newbie could learn to farm the old way by paying attention to what his characters do. I have great, great respect for the man. He will be 78 this month--
Well, I've just caught up with this thread at least. I am sorry to be so long away too often. My hope is to do better, because you're all such a great group to hang out with!
Jo! Congrats on your new Kitty! He looks all grown up...yes? There is a lot of wisdom in getting a kitty who already knows what's what and is basically healthy.
We decided to do the heavy lifting of getting two little kittens. Mizzen and Spinnaker are their names, and they are the only two survivors of a 7 kitten litter. Spinnaker is a Calico, white underneath with black and orange patches. She looks and acts a bit comical, but she's a sweetie. She loves to be at the forefront of things and is the colourful one, in more ways than one. A spinnaker is the big puffy sail at the front of a sailboat which catches the wind and makes everything go fast. Her sister Mizzen is a "Brown Tabby"...picture Calico with a dark tiger striped kitty overlay! Mizzen is the brains of the outfit. While Spinnaker plays by leaping and leaping until she finally lands the toy, Mizzen will watch it swing by and wait for just the right second, then WHAM! she nails it! In TaeKwonDo terms, Spinnaker is a red belt, and Mizzen is a black belt. LOL! A mizzen sail is a small sail at the back of the sailboat and acts as a wind rudder! Ha! Though they are litter mates, Mizzen came to us weighing about a pound less than Spinnaker; and we really don't know how much of that is illness and how much is different father cats. They were the same size until they were about 4 weeks old. Anyone know at what point kittens differentiate?
It's amazing we have them at all. Their Mom (a white Calico with orange spots, ears and tail) was a rescue from South Carolina and had an upper respiratory infection, thus so did her kittens. One (a Tortie) died on the trip to Vermont. Three more died in the first two weeks (the other Tortie, a match for the Mom, and a Calico). The other white kitten, who was the largest and looked just like his Mom, died at 8 weeks. By then the remaining kittens had already come through the upper respiratory infection, and had come through bacterial pneumonia, and now the original infection had returned resistant. Their vet thought it might be best to quarantine them from each other, so no more nursing and we brought Mizzen home at age 9 weeks. The vet had just cultured her congestion and we were waiting to hear what it was and what could kill it off. She was so sick she couldn't even put her head down to eat, because with the congestion she wouldn't be able to breathe and eat. So I fed her with a syringe, as we waited for the results. The results came 5 days later and we got the medication that same day. We also got Spinnaker that day because she also needed the med and there was one bottle of it. Spinnaker was always a lot better off, not as sick, and is doing fine now. In just five hours Mizzen went from sick kitty sitting around to happy kitty racing around with her sister! Hurrah!
Last week our new vet declared them both in excellent health, even though they were completely off the med by then! Yay!
Three days later we were back at the vet with Mizzen, who had one lung getting congested again. (In her case it has always been just one lung, which is probably why she is alive).
There is nothing like tending a sick kitten when she rubs her face lovingly on yours to make you bond!
Thanks for the kitty stories, Listener. always good to know of sick ones getting well. It always amazes me what different personalities kittens from the same litter have.Sometimes just no resemblance to the others--but once you can decode them they are all delightful.
Hello! I'm back too for a bit :) I just caught up on two week's worth of threads. Sorry I don't stop by too often. I leave tomorrow for a whirlwind trip, starting in Grand Rapids, MI, close to where my dad was born.
Genentech is one of the sponsors of the Transplant Games of America, and we are having a photo booth for the athletes to have pix taken with friends and their donor families. It's a real emotional event, and I'm happy to be going. And I get to enjoy Fricano's pizza, yay!
Then it's off to Cleveland, Pittsburgh and Toronto to take part in a business review of our exhibit houses. Whew, I'm tired already.
I started physical therapy for my knee yesterday. Had some kind of electric ultrasound waves applied to it, made my leg all tingly down to my feet. He then showed me some very easy exercises to strengthen the muscles around my knee. Feels pretty good today after some walking to and from the ballpark/parking lot. It was our department's turn for the suite and even though the Giants lost, we had a great time. Weather is perfect.
Good to see everyone here. I better go pack and then try to get to bed. My flight leaves at 7am, ugh!
Heck! Today is back to a 97° prediction! Guess I need to go up and turn the A/C on right now, or it'll be a losing battle. Well, it's a losing battle anyways, but I'll lose BIG if I wait much longer, rather than losing smaller, lol!
Hope all are well--and computers working. I am just here to tell you--you just haven't LIVED until you have had a good going over by a urologist's office--Yuck! But needed to be done to pin down some other problems.
Stay well, everyone!
I am forever grateful to Jo for many things--one is not being beat on the head about our President's perceived faults!!!!!!!!
Well, Weather Underground recalibrated (again): back to 87º. Which it DOES look like is happening. Can live wit dat.
The propane fellows showed up to play with the dog (his view), so he's happy, too. And upstairs, directly in the stream of A/C air. Smart puppy HE is. . . .
Not going to ask too much more from either of us on a day like this. . . . Stevie's in front of his fan in the bathroom. All's well in Sugar Grove.
Ah, Shirlee, I *have* -- there's a certain path in the fertility thing that urologists handle. And yer right: WHEEEEEEE! They can't really *see* whether your tubes need to be blown out, but it sometimes works, so why not?
Rest, recover, find something delicious to eat, drink, read, listen to -- cures almost ever thang. That, and the company of an offspring pretty much covers it.
I'm going to have an interesting experiment this evening. . . . I have slowly been working my way through the MREs. Found one yesterday: Chicken Pesto. Not holding my breath exactly. . . . But. Also wondering how a goodle boy from NC in the wilds of Afland might react to Pesto, lol! Other realization as I work my way through these, is that we must leave HUGE stacks of garbage wherever our soldiers go. It may be that the tin foil burns, I haven't tried yet, but my guess is that mostly they aren't doing fires (thus the heating bags). I remember reading that in China after WWII, the bottoms of coke bottles were reground into lenses for eyeglasses, since they were the highest grade glass available. . . . Can't think what a local population might want to do with a plastic coated foil pouch, but maybe there's something, and my imagination just fails. . . .
Computers create beautiful images, videos and the internet. They calculate the movements of the planets and stars, predict the future, archive the past, inspire ideas and are the new medium of human interaction. This is all done by a series of trillions of yes or no choices. One or Zero. With computers there is no maybe. This is not so different from human life. We think there are grey areas and maybes but if you break each choice down into smaller points of choice it always comes back to yes or no. Choose wisely and truthfully because each choice you make connects you to another choice, another point, with a new set of choices, which ultimately form the picture of your life. If you don’t know how to get from this choice to that with a simple yes or no, then you are missing the choices in between. Go inward, meditate, and find the path. ~ Robin Luke Schulte
tc asked if it can be shared, and he says it's okay. I ask only that it be credited to him.
Listener, what a wonderful piece of writing by your son--thank you. I remember being taught the rudiments of whatever passed for computer technology in the early 80's. There was one librarian and our very enthusiastic director of libraries who were really interested. The rest of us were being dragged along as soon as the need arose. I still remember the librarian teaching me.
After a particularly frustrating session she said "remember there is only on and off." It helped tremendously and still does. I Had never thought about applying that concept to life. Many thanks!!!
50 comments:
well! re: new kitty, the name Smokey which the shelter gave him just didn't fit him and he would not respond to it, soooooo after much deliberation I have decided that he looks like grey jasper and he purred when I called him that so Jasper is his now and forever name!
Smokey-Jasper--whatever his name he is a most gorgeous
kitty. How old is he?
Continuing good vibes to Puddle for her modem problems. A working computer is a lifeline for a lot of us.
Have just spent some time on a local blog--the (Jo) of that blog starts some interesting topics--but some nay sayers there also.
He lets them go on so long and finally if they are disrupting a productive conversations he pops in with a phrase or two--and sets it back on track for a time.
Well found and downloaded the appropriate driver. It didn't open; it was "unreadable" ~~ so now I'm off to download FireFox, on the off chance it'll do better than WaterFox. . . . Rope is getting VERY short.
Did I mention that I'm getting angrier and angrier at Dell for shipping what is clear they knew was a non-functioning computer? Am.
Good reason to be angry, Puddle. Sure hope they can send you a good one. You have had WAY too much trouble with this one.
Quiet enough here in GSO today--but sunny and warm/hot--depending on ones bodily heat/cold gauge.
If I started over, then I'm back to square one, after about two solid weeks work. The computer itself seems fine -- the hold-up is the modem, and they knew when they shipped it that its drivers were out of date. They also seem to have no way on their site (I have twenty tabs open, looking) to download drivers for the modem. Conexant provides "generic" drivers, but warns they do more harm than good, so go back to the mfgr, and get new ones *there*. . . . Beyond that, there's a lot of actual contempt on the Dell forums for idiots that *need* modems. . . . Sort of like having your husband have an affair, and then being blamed because "happy men" don't stray. . . .
Anyhoo, am done for the day, and maybe the rest of the weekend: just accepting that every page will need to be reloaded five or six or seven times for it to take, if it does at all. . . . Going to try to think about other things, do other things, that don't require much modem help.
You surely must need a break--after all that work.
How about a reading break? My remedy for just about anything that ails me --or doesn't!
Good Night All--
Quiet enough in GSO this morning--the Urban Market is setting up and Brenda
and I are taking the Camry for a spin this afternoon--assuming we don't get drenched out!
Beautiful moderate summer day out there. Nancy came down to mow the road (I personally like it wild, but hey. . . . ), and I headed up to the garden: two bags -- one of weeds for her chickies, and SIX cukes. She lurvs cukes, so I gave her four of the six.
I seem to be discerning a pattern with the modems -- they work pretty well, when I first start, and decline as I keep surfing. I checked to see (bless google), and it turns out that it IS an issue. So going to try getting another one or two of the one I like best (and is also the cheapest of the two) and swap them out every six hours or so. Am having to reboot that often anyways. . . . I remember from one of my old computer boards a couple of techies that kept their hard drives in the freezer. . . . may try that, too, lol!
Whew!! Managed to entice Stevie out from behind the tub. Where he's been for almost two days. Figured if I didn't get him out today, it was going to be too late. He'd found the ONE place in the bathroom that I absolutely could NOT haul him out from without doing him some serious damage. Now have access to that "getaway" blocked with bricks and paint cans. . . . Doesn't look wonderful, but will stop him from getting stuck, hungry and dehydrated. . . . He now also needs a bath, which he'll be getting in a while, after he's filled that tummy up.
He seemed delighted to be out, getting some loving and some food. I haven't any wonder. . . .
Hello,
It's been a busy week here, and Puddle and Shirlee, also for you as well. Congratulations on your patience, Puddle, and your problem solving. I admire that.
Still hot and muggy, no rain. We have some heavy clouds, so hopefully, we'll get a shower if not today in the next couple of days.
Am still working on editing and thinking of dear friends.
I'll check in periodically.
We didn't get any rain so Brenda and I did go for a short drive--best find--a man on the porch of a farm house in his rocker smoking his pipe and looking contentedly across a side lawn which contained three very old structures--a log cabin near the road, a small one story barn with sloping wings and another--perhaps a tobacco barn. They looked perfect in their place and very well kept. Could have been in their original spot--or maybe moved in. Anyway he was enjoying them.It is always a pleasure to see old buildings preserved.
Good to have Pat and Puddle back!!!!
Took a "nap" last night at about eight. Woke just before midnight, decided to try to make it all the way through. Didn't.
Stevie got the bath last night. I need one, but not near as much as he did. And turned out that he needed two whole buckets (I use one). Had to leave him soaking wet in the tub while I heated the other. He'd gone from shock to whining to purring before I even got the second bucket warmed. And when I finally wrapped him in the towel and set him on the bathmat, he was joyous. It was actually easier than I'd imagined that it would be, so am grateful for that, and *he's* clearly very grateful to be squeaky clean again. Now feeling guilty that I didn't do it sooner. And WILL be doing it oftener.
Now that I'm checking for heat, *both* modems are obviously *warm* after a couple of hours. Combo likely of the WAY I use the computer, and the fact that I don't have A/C on a regular basis. Also found a couple of modem settings that are lower than the default, but which seem to help them by NOT pushing them as hard. Ironic, eh? A couple of guys out there in google-land actually drilled holes in their modem cases (voiding their warranties) to help theirs keep cooler! Remembering back to the early days of office computers in the late seventies, when the environment they lived in was wholly constructed for their "comfort" -- low static carpet, dust control, temp control. . . . Cp. to what we do now, which is virtually nada. . . .
Funny, I remember my learning curve with Frankenstein (my first computer), and being actually grateful he had SO many problems, because I learned HOW to take care of, and keep running, a very old, fragile, badly put together computer. Which I never would have had to learn if he'd been functioning well. That knowing was likely what kept Green Lantern running so long past his likely expiration date, lol! Also helping me now. . . .
Good Morning All--glad your Stevie is safe, clean, warm, full and happy. They are rascals aren't they?
Oh, yes I have memories of non-static carpet, no dust--and don't get the vacuum cleaner too close.S0--how are you supposed to keep the carpet clean? The little town I lived in at the time in MI had a small very good computer shop--who not only delivered, but set it up and came back and tweaked it.
When I asked about vacuuming they said-- "this is a___
(can't remember the brand)not to worry about the vacuum."
It was a great small town business. Now we have to buy our computers,etc at huge
chains or on-line.
Great loss, I think--maybe things are less expensive but at what wear and tear on the mind, body and soul?
Well--that is a cheerful start for the day--but I am glad you are getting things under control, Puddle.
Local computer shops. . . . That's where Harry got Frankenstein. Nice Iranian boys. They'd SOLD him Windows 98 Second Edition, and it came with that disk. But whenever I'd try and do a disk fix with the disk, it would reach a point about a third of the way through, and freeze. When I lost my fist modem three weeks into the internet experience (lightening storm fried it) and had to drag him to the local hospital, the computer guy pointed out that I *didn't* have SE, I had the very first edition. . . . which was known to be unstable. Since when he bought it, no one would have bought the first edition, they just substituted the SE disk rather than reprogramming the machine. He never knew, and I might never have.
The first time (and only) that I contacted M$, they asked who made my machine? I told them "Iranians in Garages." Later talking with a friend with an Iranian boyfriend, she laughed: Close -- Iranians in rec rooms watching the Super Bowl!
Wow--what a computer story, Puddle. Maybe I was just lucky!
I think my guys lasted a couple more years after I dealt with them--big guys moving in 20 miles away. Same thing happened to a wonderful office supply store, an old-fashioned hardware store, two pharmacies and a furniture store. It was sad to see.
Here is hoping everybody had a good--and productive:) day!
I still seem to get more tired than I should since the guy with the knife went after my tongue--so off to bed. Gotta be ready for our travels--love you all.
I think recovery after surgery likely takes longer than we think, no matter *what* our age is.
When I was so impatient in January to BE WELL, I was a bit annoyed that I just wasn't! Surgeon assured me that although I wouldn't *see* much progress from day to day, that it would be observable from week to week, and month to month. And he was exactly right.
That seems to be the experience of most of the members of the support group, too. There's a huge improvement almost immediately (the difference in being able to swallow or not is enormous, lol!), but then it just keeps getting better and better in little bits. Thank Godde!
Shirlee, when does your actually travel begin? And be sure and give us a trip tick, grin. Are you going to be able to blog along the way? Surely Brenda is a lap top gurl?
travel actually
lol!
Thinking about Pat and Barb -- and editing. . . . I was an editor for a Big 8 accounting firm for four years, a mama bear accounting firm for 6 weeks, and a baby bear accounting firm for two years: all equally awful experiences. The worst/hardest/most thankless job I've evah had.
But the time I got home from work -- nine, most nights, I was literally speechless. I could barely remember my name, and trying to do *anything* with words was impossible. Doubt I read one whole book during those years. Well, not strictly true -- I was still in my book group, so one book a month. With difficulty. I became a TV person again for the first time since my kids were very small. I really didn't have enough brain left to do/be anything else.
Might have been slightly better if the typists/work I was editing hadn't been SO bad. I became *intimately* associated with the Proofreader's Devil. . . . The mind's absolute belief that when you've caught and corrected THE error in that line, there ARE no more -- brain just will miss more. I regularly caught five or six. And let the last one go. So when the corrected copy came back for copy editing, it was just like a first read: it *had* to be. . . .
Spell checkers were just coming on line, and the accountants used to believe that my job would soon be obsolete. . . . As if a spell checker could catch things like these: 1-- We need to check the railroads right away -- [We need to check the railroad's right of way. . . . ]. and, 2-- It is difficult to tell the difference between ceiling tiles and carpeting. . . . [What he wanted to include and didn't, was: "in terms of deciding whether they are permanent or temporary improvements to a leaseholding, for tax purposes."] (Peggy and I tended to keep our door closed because we were laughing so much. And were the only two in building that could possibly have understood. She and I became very good friends despite that fact that we were very different personality types -- comrades in foxholes, and all that.
cont'd
I'd never been all that mathematically inclined, and thought when I first accepted the job, that the math would be the bigger problem. Not. I came to love the math, simply because if you told them a column didn't foot, they didn't argue, they went back and did the work to make it come out correctly. If you told them that some usage was ungrammatical or substandard English, each one had an English teacher in their background that said that use was A-OK. . . .
Added to all that was the fact that I'm not a natural speller, so was checking my dictionary virtually for every line. The irony, was I very seldom ever messed up on the spelling, whereas my office mate, who WAS a natural speller often did, lol!
All three places I was hired were because the editor that preceded me was a brand new English majors (which can be had on the cheap, lol!). What was left out of the equation was humility and respect for a very odd and old tradition: the official accountants' opinion at the opening of a financial report means something VERY specific, and legal. The opinions are *awful* to read: they hurt the mind, eye, and brain, but they are what they are for very good reasons (they keep accountants in business and out of jail). The youngsters just couldn't grok that, and kept trying to grammaticalize them, lol! Late in my career as an accountants' editor, I actually discovered a book recounting the history of each opinion, which generally dated back a couple of hundred years. Every couple of decades or so, a comma would be inserted. Or possibly replaced with a semi-colon. . . . In half a century, one word might be changed. . . .
I often wondered "what that was all about" when I came out the other end. Until I met Edwin. His father was an accountant, and ended up being a Partner at Arthur Andersen. Partners at Big 8's are some of the most authoritarian, self-righteous, non-communicating, least empathetic and most unable to give people I have ever known. Angry and insecure. I didn't have to imagine at all how he was treated as a child. . . . Or why he was still in therapy working on childhood issues in his sixties.
I used to feel bad for an accountant if I liked them: I knew that meant they wouldn't make the next cut. . . . Too much humanity left.
Ah, Puddle. You are indeed correct. Editing is a thankless and hard job. I love being a bookkeeper because of "footing" I can catch my errors before anyone else sees them.
I finally finished editing and formatting Burts new book on Cognitive Biases for politicians. It is a sort of primer and not a full fledged book that goes into chapter and verse. Just gives the bias, an example, a misuse, a proper use and a bottom line, then on to the next page and next bias. He's sending (in pretty much draft form) it to our local politicans and most of our fav tv and radio hosts for their perusal and to see what their ideas on it might be.
He's about a 1/4 of the way thru the second thread of the sequel of Rare Earths. this could well be a full time job!
Thanks for your long posts, Puddle--so good to hear your voice again.
Yep--Brenda is a lap top AND an iPad girl--so we can keep you posted.
Plans so far are --leave here on August 16--scenic route through the mountains to Johnson City TN for two nights. Really wanted to go back to Bristol VA/TN--the crazy town where the state line runs smack down the middle of main street. That was where Victor recording came-in 1927, put out a call for musicians to come in--and as in "Down From the Mountain"
"sing into the can."
Some of the people recorded made huge impressions on people like Doc Watson. Those sessions have been reproduced on a 2 disc cd set. That session was so successful that Columbia came the next year to Johnson City. They did a better job of advertising--and were able to pull in more people. They are trying just now to find the best copies of the recordings and turn those into cd(s).
Hampton Inn in Bristol was $40 more per night than the one in Johnson city 20 miles away. HI has the only motel bed that I can get into--rest are too high.
From there we go to Marietta, Ohio on the Ohio river--one of my favorite old river towns--one night. The next day --20th we should be at The Rock about 4:00PM. Marla will come running out arms open and so happy to see us--just as her cleaning crew is leaving. We try to be the first ones there--it is nice to see the house totally clean, flowers in the windows, every thing in order before the crowd arrives:)
On the way home we make one stop--not sure yet where that is. Leave The Rock by noon Sunday the 26th. Should be home by the 27th-28th. SOMEBODY in the family need to go to work!!!
Thanks for your advice on healing from surgery. My mouth is progressing nicely--just tired and some of that is the AR/IBS.
Just need to be patient--always forget!
Shirley -- have you tried dropping wheat (not gluten) -- the newly engineered stuff (last 30/40 years) is turning out to be *REALLY* bad for the human gut.
http://www.wheatbellyblog.com/
I'm familiar with Bristol. The first day I came searching for property in WV, I drove from Baltimore where I was staying all the way down and stayed the night in order to begin the trip back up through WV the next day, stopping at local cafes and talking to the waitresses about what local property was available, what they liked about the area, etc. Had to laugh: half way through town, I was no longer IN Virginia, just like that, lol! All in all, a lovely, interesting trip. I'd kinda wished I could have afforded *anything* in Pocahontas County (where Green Bank is), but the Gubbmint salaries had really driven up land prices. . . . made another over then down #77 and back up and across. My third trip was directly here, to buy. After a side trip up to Deep Creek Lake, buy I did. What I was looking for was X amount of acres, with or without a dwelling, pasture space, garden space, woodlot, water -- ideally spring or river. I was told, constantly, that that just wasn't available for @20,000. But yanno? It *was.* So bought, and moved in -- first eight weeks I was camping on my building site, laying things out, cleaning up downed trees, and finally beginning the holes for the telephone poles/foundation. The footprint was two rectangles, and two levels. When I hit two feet on the holes, I hit hard pan, and discovered where it got its name from! When the troops (friends, relatives) arrived for the inserting of the poles, it took eight more people two days to get down the extra six inches. . . . Scotty and his childhood friend were the last to leave on Sunday night, and it took them six hours on their bellies with water buckets and I kid you not: spoons, scraping the last three inches in the last hole. Once the poles were all in, I moved down the road as we had an early winter, and my plans to have a roof over my head by October were out of the question. Took another year of building -- I moved in on Christmas Eve. And my brother an his family came for Christmas dinner the next day.
On other fronts --
From my earthlink start page: (about the ACA)
Overall, spending cuts and tax increases in Obama's law more than offset new spending,
Repealing the law, as Republicans want to do, would increase the deficit by $109 billion from 2013 to 2022.
###########
Buggers can't even be true to their own statements about being fiscally responsible. . . .
Great story about your
place, Puddle. Thanks--I had always wondered how you ended up in W.Va--and you were inspired by W.Berry?
Are you familiar with Thomas Berry? No relation to W.B.--he was a priest from the first Catholic family who moved into Greensboro.
Apparently from his boyhood he was drawn to the beauty of the
land. He ended up writing three major titles--about the earth, the universe and our relationship to both. I bought his "The Great Work" when Brenda took me to our local really good book man for part of a Mother's Day celebration.
It seems to me his work puts a theoretical, philosophical underpinning to Wendell Berry's work--which tends to be historical, practical, poetic etc. T.B. died in 2009.
Thanks for the tip on wheat--Brenda is a careful shopper for me and doesn't pick up many gluten or wheat filled things--but we do eat out some--and I do love good bread.
I know soy gives me huge problems--
Ah, well all part of
aging--or whatever!!!
Long time ago, in the seventies, had a friend who moved to PawPaw, WV, as sort of a back to the land thang. He was renting a tiny cabin -- well, actually, it was free: the guy had moved it over the ridge, and it was due to be a wedding gift for his daughter who was just a little girl. He needed someone IN it to keep it from being moved elsewhere. I got to spend a fair amount of time there, and filed WV as a place one might be able to live on SS, come the day, lol!
When I was cleaning up after the Santa Rosa '95 floods, came across a land brochure I'd saved -- WV. Decided HOW/WHERE I was living was wonderful (in the redwoods up against a creek), but knew I could NOT afford to do it in California. . . . I'd gone to CA to try again with an old college love, and moved out of his place when it *really* didn't work. But yes -- between January and the move back to the East Coast, I discovered my local farm store had a great book section, amongst which I was introduced to Wendell Berry. Wasn't till later I read his poetry. Also read Thoreau for the first time during that period. And a wonder woman named Anne LaBastille -- Woodswoman, who made me believe that anything was possible. She was entirely responsible for my being able to take baths on my back porch, summer and winter, for five years before I got an indoor bathroom. . . . Never did stand in the snow though. . . . And 10º was my limit. Colder than that I got a hunter's bath till it warmed up (read total go over with baby wipes).
Whewk! They just dropped the prediction for Thursday from 97º to 91º -- which I believe I can live with. Was getting worried about that nearly one hundred. . . .
Fading here. Night all, under the wing, next to the heart. . . .
Wendell Berry in a farm store! Love it--never saw that in the mid-west or Texas. Books would not have occurred to most of those farmers or ranchers.
Nor would they have given them shelf space if it did.
Had not heard of Anne LaBastille--need to Google her.
What else to do in the middle of the night? COULD go back
to the rowdy Irishmen (have Rutherfurd's Rebels of Ireland on audiobook from the library) but tired enough I might fall asleep in the middle of a disc and miss a great battle/turmoil between the Catholics and the Protestants and/or the English and the Irish!
Beautifully cool and foggy this morning. And they've lowered tomorrow's forecast again --> to 88º! Yay!!
Pretty good sleep; almost straight through (woke up, but didn't *get* up). My intro to Berry was The Gift of Good Land -- thinking how important The Gift of Good Sleep is, lol!
Now, Puddle! This is getting to be more than just accidental!
The first W.B. book I had seen or owned was this very same book.
One of the women who worked for me was an avid reader. She looked at me one day and said "You need to read Wendell Berry." Had no idea who he was--but hi'ed myself off to a near-by small used bookshop. When I asked about W.B. they said "most people who buy Berry keep their books-- but let's check. Sure enough on the shelf was a copy of "The Gift of Good Land." I was blown away by his subject, and also his beautiful writing. After that I began collecting his work and reading and re-reading. I have all I ever purchased.
Cincinnati daughter has added to it at gift times. Now she is giving me the audiobook version of some of the novels.
There is such detail in those I think a newbie could learn to farm the old way by paying attention to what his characters do. I have great, great respect for the man.
He will be 78 this month--
oops--W.. will be 78
in August.
Shirlee, you might enjoy Gene Logsdon from that same perios for me (and same store, lol! Also http://www.amazon.com/First-Person-Rural-Noel-Perrin/dp/087923833X
period. . . .
Store:
http://www.yelp.com/biz/harmony-farm-supply-and-nursery-sebastopol
Ally update at baby.
Candles
Came in from the garden to the news:
Clear scans for Ally!!!
=♥ALLYLUIA!♥=
Hurray for Ally!!!!
Puddle, I did find I have two of Gene Logsdon's books on my shelf--thanks for the reminder.
And now I know what Yelp is!
Thanks, Listener for the info on Romney.
Hoe anyone can abide him I don't understand.
You're welcome, Shirlee!
Well, I've just caught up with this thread at least. I am sorry to be so long away too often. My hope is to do better, because you're all such a great group to hang out with!
Jo! Congrats on your new Kitty! He looks all grown up...yes? There is a lot of wisdom in getting a kitty who already knows what's what and is basically healthy.
We decided to do the heavy lifting of getting two little kittens. Mizzen and Spinnaker are their names, and they are the only two survivors of a 7 kitten litter. Spinnaker is a Calico, white underneath with black and orange patches. She looks and acts a bit comical, but she's a sweetie. She loves to be at the forefront of things and is the colourful one, in more ways than one. A spinnaker is the big puffy sail at the front of a sailboat which catches the wind and makes everything go fast. Her sister Mizzen is a "Brown Tabby"...picture Calico with a dark tiger striped kitty overlay! Mizzen is the brains of the outfit. While Spinnaker plays by leaping and leaping until she finally lands the toy, Mizzen will watch it swing by and wait for just the right second, then WHAM! she nails it! In TaeKwonDo terms, Spinnaker is a red belt, and Mizzen is a black belt. LOL! A mizzen sail is a small sail at the back of the sailboat and acts as a wind rudder! Ha! Though they are litter mates, Mizzen came to us weighing about a pound less than Spinnaker; and we really don't know how much of that is illness and how much is different father cats. They were the same size until they were about 4 weeks old. Anyone know at what point kittens differentiate?
It's amazing we have them at all. Their Mom (a white Calico with orange spots, ears and tail) was a rescue from South Carolina and had an upper respiratory infection, thus so did her kittens. One (a Tortie) died on the trip to Vermont. Three more died in the first two weeks (the other Tortie, a match for the Mom, and a Calico). The other white kitten, who was the largest and looked just like his Mom, died at 8 weeks. By then the remaining kittens had already come through the upper respiratory infection, and had come through bacterial pneumonia, and now the original infection had returned resistant. Their vet thought it might be best to quarantine them from each other, so no more nursing and we brought Mizzen home at age 9 weeks. The vet had just cultured her congestion and we were waiting to hear what it was and what could kill it off. She was so sick she couldn't even put her head down to eat, because with the congestion she wouldn't be able to breathe and eat. So I fed her with a syringe, as we waited for the results.
The results came 5 days later and we got the medication that same day. We also got Spinnaker that day because she also needed the med and there was one bottle of it. Spinnaker was always a lot better off, not as sick, and is doing fine now. In just five hours Mizzen went from sick kitty sitting around to happy kitty racing around with her sister! Hurrah!
Last week our new vet declared them both in excellent health, even though they were completely off the med by then! Yay!
Three days later we were back at the vet with Mizzen, who had one lung getting congested again. (In her case it has always been just one lung, which is probably why she is alive).
There is nothing like tending a sick kitten when she rubs her face lovingly on yours to make you bond!
=^. .^= =^. .^=
And, puddle, it's so good to hear about Stevie doing better! He's been such a great old fellar for so long. ♥
Oh! Forgot to mention that the kitties were born in early April and are now 15.5 weeks old. So cute!
Thanks for the kitty stories, Listener.
always good to know of sick ones getting well. It always amazes me what different personalities kittens from the same litter have.Sometimes just no resemblance to the others--but once you can decode them they are all delightful.
Good Night All--back to the Irish rebels!
Hello! I'm back too for a bit :) I just caught up on two week's worth of threads. Sorry I don't stop by too often. I leave tomorrow for a whirlwind trip, starting in Grand Rapids, MI, close to where my dad was born.
Genentech is one of the sponsors of the Transplant Games of America, and we are having a photo booth for the athletes to have pix taken with friends and their donor families. It's a real emotional event, and I'm happy to be going. And I get to enjoy Fricano's pizza, yay!
Then it's off to Cleveland, Pittsburgh and Toronto to take part in a business review of our exhibit houses. Whew, I'm tired already.
I started physical therapy for my knee yesterday. Had some kind of electric ultrasound waves applied to it, made my leg all tingly down to my feet. He then showed me some very easy exercises to strengthen the muscles around my knee. Feels pretty good today after some walking to and from the ballpark/parking lot. It was our department's turn for the suite and even though the Giants lost, we had a great time. Weather is perfect.
Good to see everyone here. I better go pack and then try to get to bed. My flight leaves at 7am, ugh!
Love to all
Shirlee...I could say the same about the personalities of my five children! LOL!
Denise...Always great to see you here! Take care of that knee in the midst of your wild schedule. Thanks for helping so many people as you do!!
Heck! Today is back to a 97° prediction! Guess I need to go up and turn the A/C on right now, or it'll be a losing battle. Well, it's a losing battle anyways, but I'll lose BIG if I wait much longer, rather than losing smaller, lol!
Observing sea's rant over at Rich's last night ("Obama is not a popular president, as we know.") After wondering who WE is (Tonto. . . . ) googled and got: http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/DC-Decoder/Decoder-Wire/2012/0725/Obama-widens-his-lead-in-polls.-So-why-does-it-feel-like-he-s-in-trouble
Hope all are well--and computers working. I am just here to tell you--you just haven't LIVED until you have had a good going over by a urologist's office--Yuck! But needed to be done to pin down some other problems.
Stay well, everyone!
I am forever grateful to Jo for many things--one is not being beat on the head about our President's perceived
faults!!!!!!!!
Well, Weather Underground recalibrated (again): back to 87º. Which it DOES look like is happening. Can live wit dat.
The propane fellows showed up to play with the dog (his view), so he's happy, too. And upstairs, directly in the stream of A/C air. Smart puppy HE is. . . .
Not going to ask too much more from either of us on a day like this. . . . Stevie's in front of his fan in the bathroom. All's well in Sugar Grove.
Ah, Shirlee, I *have* -- there's a certain path in the fertility thing that urologists handle. And yer right: WHEEEEEEE! They can't really *see* whether your tubes need to be blown out, but it sometimes works, so why not?
Rest, recover, find something delicious to eat, drink, read, listen to -- cures almost ever thang. That, and the company of an offspring pretty much covers it.
I'm going to have an interesting experiment this evening. . . . I have slowly been working my way through the MREs. Found one yesterday: Chicken Pesto. Not holding my breath exactly. . . . But. Also wondering how a goodle boy from NC in the wilds of Afland might react to Pesto, lol! Other realization as I work my way through these, is that we must leave HUGE stacks of garbage wherever our soldiers go. It may be that the tin foil burns, I haven't tried yet, but my guess is that mostly they aren't doing fires (thus the heating bags). I remember reading that in China after WWII, the bottoms of coke bottles were reground into lenses for eyeglasses, since they were the highest grade glass available. . . . Can't think what a local population might want to do with a plastic coated foil pouch, but maybe there's something, and my imagination just fails. . . .
Root*Center*Son wrote this today:
Computers create beautiful images, videos and the internet. They calculate the movements of the planets and stars, predict the future, archive the past, inspire ideas and are the new medium of human interaction. This is all done by a series of trillions of yes or no choices. One or Zero. With computers there is no maybe. This is not so different from human life. We think there are grey areas and maybes but if you break each choice down into smaller points of choice it always comes back to yes or no. Choose wisely and truthfully because each choice you make connects you to another choice, another point, with a new set of choices, which ultimately form the picture of your life. If you don’t know how to get from this choice to that with a simple yes or no, then you are missing the choices in between. Go inward, meditate, and find the path. ~ Robin Luke Schulte
tc asked if it can be shared, and he says it's okay. I ask only that it be credited to him.
Holy Moly, puddle, I never knew that the old saying "Eyeglasses like Coke bottles" was a more pithy reference than just thickness!
So glad you and Beau and Stevie had a good day after all...all knowing the best ways to beat the heat. ;-)
Listener, what a wonderful piece of writing by your son--thank you. I remember being taught the rudiments of whatever passed for computer technology in the early 80's. There was one librarian and our very enthusiastic director of libraries who were really interested. The rest of us were
being dragged along as soon as the need arose. I still remember the librarian teaching me.
After a particularly frustrating session she said "remember there is only on and off." It helped tremendously and still does. I Had never thought about applying that concept to life. Many thanks!!!
New thread!!
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