The Mask of Zorro - Part I

We had ventured outside to replenish the food pantry, although in reality, we had enough food to last months.  Our excuse was that I was missing the essential chocolate and hubby needed to get his laptop checked as he had broken the speaker system. How did he do that you may ask?  If you saw the movie My Big Fat Greek Wedding you may remember the scene where the young woman gets nervous and proceeds to walk away from her computer with her headset connected and still on her head.  Hubby did not pull the laptop off the desk during his quick retreat, but it seemed that he destroyed the plug-in port and needed to get a USB replacement.  (He is the most expensive computer user I know!) Anyway, I digress...terribly.

We went to the big box store where we could save hundreds of dollars by spending hundreds of dollars and managed in a short time to fill the shopping cart with big boxes of stuff.  Paper towels, pasta, chocolate, coffee...you know...the essentials of life.

The winter winds continued their bitter stomping through our neck of the woods and they shoved us across the parking lot like tough bullies.  Loading the car took careful speed as our fingers froze and frozen wind whipped down our necks and pulled bags from our grip.

It was on our drive home as we turned into our wooded neighborhood that we saw this wounded, or what appeared to be wounded, cedar waxwing.  He was hopping ever so slowly across the road.  He would hop once or twice and then seemed to catch his breath thinking about whether he had energy to hop again.  As we approached he stopped hopping and just sat there in the middle of the road maybe hoping his suffering would finally come to an end under the wheels of our car.  Hubby looked at me and I looked at him.  Finally I said that we needed to see if we could help. (My loyal readers will remember another encounter we had with an unexpected woods visitor here or the time we failed to help a lovely owl with an owwie which I posted on my other blog here.  I am a BIG softie for animals.)


"You get him." hubby said with decisive speed as he rubbed his hands between his legs and sat back against his seat stoically indicating he was definitely going to remain in the warmth of the car.

I opened the door and moved slowly to the front of the car expecting this fragile gift of life to fly into the sky leaving me cold and startled.  But the small bird  continued to just sit there and then surprised me by hopping across the road and with some effort toward my feet!  He stopped and actually looked up at me!  Honest!


I bent down to lift him and was very surprised that he did not struggle in anyway.  He just snuggled into the warmth of my leather gloved hands like he had come home to mama.  I returned to the car and realized that I had no hands to open the door.  Hubby had to lean across the seat and open the door.  I am thankful to have exercised recently and maintained my sense of strength and balance as stepping up into a large SUV while holding your hands out in front of you in a prayer and getting into those high seats requires considerable strength and balance.

Cedar waxwings up close are the most divinely colored birds.  They are gray and brown and yellow and even a little peach and look as though they were wrapped in the softest velvet.  They wear a dark velvet mask across their sparkling black eyes, intriguing Zorros of the bird world.  (They also are very messy if you read my post on my other blog a while back.)


This little waxwing peaked his eye through the space between my thumb and forefinger, but made no effort to push his tiny head through the opening.  He just watched my face as we headed home and made no sound.


We have a fragile bamboo bird cage that has never held a bird.  It was purchased in Indonesia or Panama...I cannot remember from which roadside stand so long ago.  It was lovelier with the natural bamboo, but I was in my cottage phase of life and painted it white and hung it covered in silk flowers in my sun room decades ago.  The cage now sits in the basement with dusty abandon.  Hubby got this cage into the garage and we released the bird inside.  I took him into the house and filled a small bowl with water.  Since we have well water, I did not have to worry about the chlorine.  Zorro proceeded to poop three times (they are from the Bombycilla family) and then jumped feet first into the small water bowl and drank heartily.

I sighed as these were good signs.  

I could study him now and saw that one of his wings looked slightly askew and showed the blood red wax tip on one of his secondaries that is the reason they got their name.

I knew that they don't eat bird seed but placed a little on the floor of the cage, just in case.  I also put in several small pieces of fresh date and dried cranberry.  Hubby went outside to find juniper berries, without success, and by the time he returned it was dark and I had place the bird on the floor of the laundry room and put a beach towel over the cage so that he would not die of stress or fear.  It is late in the evening and I have not heard a peep out of him.   If he lives, I will call the rescue office tomorrow.

Cabin Fever

This past week the days were filled with 30 mile per hour winds and temperatures that did not go above 30 F for very long.  (It seems that the entire northern hemisphere of earth did not escape this frigid freight train that was storming its way to the equator.  Even iguanas were falling out of trees in Florida like frozen gray green popsicles.)  I watched out the window at the birds darting around the feeders.  They were all puffed up like cotton balls of brown or tan or red or black as they tried to stuff themselves even more round with fatty seeds.  I was getting so tired of staring out windows.


I put on my heavy winter coat and braved the winter winds to see what was happening down on the river.  I had not been outside in three days and this indoor sentence was certainly getting on my nerves.  I steeled my courage to head outside. The back door to the deck which had not been opened in days was stuck and stiff to open.  I pulled hard and it released suddenly blowing open with the rush of bitter icy wind followed by tulip tree seeds that scattered across the carpet.

The wind whipped at my scarf and coat as I held on tight to my camera to keep it warm for just a while.  The naked branches of trees above my head danced as if in some crazy drug induced trance.  Everything was being pummeled by this arctic rush hour expressway.

I saw the scene in the photo above when I reached the river's edge.  Waves had frozen in custard layers as they grazed the shore during the night.  The tide was heading out but against the push of the wind onto the shore creating waves of ice.  Nothing was moving along the edge of the river.  Everything was still and frozen or hibernating somewhere.

A gust of wind pushed hard against my back and almost dumped me unceremoniously into the cold wet river.  I planted my feet firmly and leaned into the wind, but found it hard to keep my balance as the gusts were not predictable and I was out on the edge of the open water and not in the small shelter of the woods.

I took a few photos and then made my way back to the house.  Its warmth was certainly welcome when I opened the back door.

This cold is below the normal and seems to be going on forever.  Thankfully we have not had to contend with snow drifts or ice sheets...just endless blowing wind that was cold enough to freeze a witches...!  Spring, do not be afraid, your turn is coming.

The Drill

For those who celebrate this season of peace and love and understanding...you know the drill.  

• Brave the cold winds and bring in all the lights and faded wreath from the deck that is on the side of the house facing the angry Nor'wester.  Yes, your fingers are frozen as you try to untie the tie-holds.  Just cut them and get on with this before your thumbs web to your fingers!
• Remove the lights from the gable while your wife holds the ladder and hope she is paying attention in these high winds and be thankful that you can't hear her whining above the moan of the Norther.  Be sure to duck when that last line of lights whips across your back.
  
• Spend an hour trying to find the bag that the door wreathe goes in and try to remember where you pack the wreath hanger this time so you don't spend two days looking for it next Christmas like you did this year.
• Get the stool out and bring down all those high decorations on the mirror without breaking your neck or the mirror.
• Pack the votives that have been distributed romantically throughout the house including those with the candles you never got around to burning...maybe next year.
• Carefully take all the ornaments off the tree and pack in their correctly marked bins.  Make sure you look at the bottom layer of the bin before you fill the top layer...it IS empty and you need to start packing there.
• Take the ornament bins downstairs so you have more room to dismantle the tree.  You will have to count the number of steps (15) since you cannot see your feet around the bins stacked precariously in your arms.
  
• Label the outlets on the artificial tree (again?) so that it will go together easier next time and try to find why the second layer of lights would not light.
• Take the tree apart...it is heavy and it will require two people.  Try not to yell at each other and try not to drop one of the layers on someone's foot, particularly the heavy metal pole end.
  
• The layers of tree are much like a Chinese puzzle as they fit in the tree bag...good luck!
  
• Zip up the tree bag...unless you notice that small red bird ornament on that bottom branch that was forgotten.  Darn!  Take the ornament downstairs and put it in the bottom ornament bin after lifting off the top bin of stuff... or just stuff it into any old bin that is easy to reach.
• Drag the tree bag downstairs to the basement trying carefully not to kill each other or damage the furniture or scratch the walls or stub your toes or tear the tree bag or swear out loud.
  
• Once everything is packed away be prepared to find that forgotten silver star hanging in the guest bathroom and that home-made wreath from the church still hanging on the kitchen window! 
• Pour yourself some leftover eggnog with a stiff shot of bourbon and put your feet up, you have survived another season.
  

Bringing Dharma

(This is a brief movie review and if you hate those you probably do not want to read this post.)



Spent a holiday afternoon watching the much touted (or maligned depending on which critic you read) movie,  Avatar---in 3-D.  Writer/Director James Cameron spared no expense and with such lovely and terrifying special effects, the movie should gender a return on these expenses.  His previous work with deep water life can be seen in all the mimicking botany on the planet including the mesmerizing phosphorescence of plant life in each evening scene.  He borrows Jurassic park sounds and uses similar animals to flesh out the wild animal part of the planet and ideas from Star Trek also seem to be there. 

There is nothing really new about this story.  The indigenous peoples of the planet are all spiritual and intelligent, even if sometimes immature.  They 'connect' with all the living things on their planet and have strong family and ancestral ties.  There is an earthling/indigenous being (interracial) love story, of course. 

The earthlings are 99% evil businessmen or military killers providing the action of death and destruction by man and machine.  The industrial military complex has but one mission, to retrieve important minerals without regard for indigenous life.  Such lopsidedness gives the movie an unrealistic liberal skew.  I would have liked to see more respect for our military by adding more good guys. 

In spite of this heavy handedness, it is a good ride to be seen on the big screen, especially if you are a sci-fi fan as I am.  That part of the story is pretty cool.

(The title of this blog was taken from the Hindu gift of Avatars and this blog was written the day after Christmas.)

I also saw Nine because I am a sucker for musicals.  It was not nearly as good as Chicago. It lacked the energy and the theme was a bit old hat. Daniel Day Lewis does a great job of becoming the old Italian artist in spite of his size.  Sophia Loren is sadly stiff in her old age, but I wish she had been given a longer part to warm that face up a little.  The best show numbers are done by the two youngest in the cast, of course.

Leftover Sparkles

I thought that we had gotten all the decorations tucked away into their respective and carefully labeled boxes. We had braved the cold weather and brought in the extension cords and timers from outside. Then I looked out my window and saw that someone thought we were rushing things just a little.   Fortunately,  these sparkles do not use electricity and someone else is responsible for putting them away.

Cold Windy Day!

Being retired means, for most people, that everyday is Saturday or Sunday.  Baring economic hardship, you can pretty much do what you want.  Baring guilt trips or health restrictions you can pretty much do it as long as you want.  Baring the attitudes of people you live with you can do it all day if you want.

Lie in bed and pull the covers over your head on a cold windy winter morning.
Grab the binoculars and watch the bird feeder for hours until your stomach reminds you that you have eaten nothing yet today.
Drink your coffee slowly and mindfully rather than in scalding sips on the way to work.
Read an entire book in one sitting.
Watch more than one movie on DVD in an afternoon.
Spend an afternoon wondering how on such a windy and cold day the geese can manage to tack their way flying down the river pulling into stalls and then tacking to the other side to continue with their progress.  Takes them much longer on a day like today.  Spend another hour trying to get a good photograph of that challenge.

And if you have a little Puritan work ethic in your soul, as I do, go through all those old files in the basement with your husband and reduce them to 30% by tossing or shredding the 60%...
OR actually exercise through an entire episode of NCIS which you have seen several times before!

The Old Year's Journey

Looking back over time, for some of us, this year was an arduous mountain to climb with no promise of a better view at the top.  We were given the task of keeping one foot in front of the other with the only assurance that it could not go on forever.  For others of us, this year was a swamp to slog through with pockets of quicksand that were eager to pull us down and each effort was accompanied by biting gnats that gave us no peace.

The smart ones among us saw only a morning with a fresh start and they inhaled the breezes that crossed the mountain trail seeing the beauty of new beginnings.  Or perhaps, smiling through the parting swamp grass noticing the small birds that were being fed by those annoying gnats.


If you looked into the eyes of the smart ones you saw they offered you a hand and reminded you it is the journey itself that must be treasured, because the destination comes to us whether we stop and quit or go on and enjoy the trip.


(As an oddity, this is my 800th post today.)

Lifting Fog

The best time of the day for me is when I get up around 6:00 AM. The house is very quiet since hubby sleeps in until 7:30 or 8:00.  The house is also still dark because it is winter.  I make my coffee and open blogs as the sun slowly climbs up into the cold sky. In winter I hear the geese flapping and honking their way out of my side of the river into their bigger world of abandoned corn fields or sometimes escaping the hunters when I hear the pop of guns on the other side of the field. Today, I saw them high above the fog over my house looking as if they were ghosts of geese heading out to some mystical retreat.  I hear the crows distant cawing ordering the rest of the birds around.

Yet, it is still relatively quiet here in my little corner of the world. I am surprised that I still need a little corner of time in retirement that I treasure. Time to be alone with my waking thoughts and time to write and create with my photography. Time to think about what lies ahead in my non-activity filled day.  Time to hear my breath.  Time to wait for the fog to lift.

Important Holiday Thoughts

No matter how you feel about this current conflict, please keep all the soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines in your thoughts this holiday season and throughout the year.  They have a big mission to accomplish under very difficult conditions and we want them all back home to reunite with their families as soon as possible!

Gifting

This past year my blog readers have been more than generous with their comments.  I am told by REALLY good writers that they enjoy what I write.  I am told by REALLY good photographers, that my photos are sometimes exceptional.  I have been told by warm-hearted and generous bloggers that they share my feelings and ideas and were sometimes inspired by what I wrote. What wonderful gifts I have been given in your comments.  I admit that my blogging is usually words thrown out on the screen without the care and thought that many of you give to your writing.  Some of you have 100's of blogger fans that read and/or comment on your blog and I am so surprised and humbled when you take time to visit and leave a comment on mine.  You cannot imagine how inspiring that is!

In my culture, land of abundance, this is the season of giving and I am so rich this year that I am going to provide a trunk full of gifts for my readers.  Yes, this is for you.

Wrapped in bright red paper with a green bow is this very large box.  Inside I give you tomorrow.  It comes both with clouds and sun and warmth and cold.  It only came in large sizes.  It is magical in its magnificence.  It is perfect in its wholeness.  It is filled with small surprises and big purpose.  Do not set it aside (back under the tree if you have one), but please use it all wasting no part when the morning kisses you awake tomorrow.

Wrapped in bright green paper with a red bow in a slightly smaller box, I give you the sounds and smells of spring.  No batteries are needed.  When you lift the lid and push aside the tissue paper, close your eyes and open your nose and your ears.  Can you smell the fragrance of those tiny white daffodils?  Can you smell the perfume of that purple trumpet flower?  Can you smell new rich earth and green grass?  And listen, don't you hear robins chattering and wrens scolding and chickadees trying to shush them all as spring rains tap against new lime-green leaves?  OK, now you have to replace the tissue and close the lid and wait until another gray day when you need this reminder of spring.  You don't want to use it all up before spring actually arrives! (Those of you in another climate can put this in the back of the closet as it will keep until your  gray or winter days arrive.)

Wrapped in paper covered in laughing Santas is this medium sized box, and I ask that you hold on tight.  This is because inside is a big red bowl full of rolling laughs.  Do not eat them all at once or your belly will shake too much.  Also, be sure to share them around the room as laughter is always better when enjoyed with others.

Next, wrapped in paper with golden glittering stars, I give you the gift of a child's smile.  What?  You say there are no children in your life.  Then you must open your eyes and watch closely because somewhere near you a child IS smiling or needs to smile.  Then again you can enjoy this gift sooner if you go out and help a child smile.

 At the bottom of the trunk, wrapped in white paper with silver icicles in a very small box, is the jeweled gift of eternal/internal peace.  Sometimes peace is so light that you cannot hold it; sometimes peace is so blinding that you cannot see it.  Therefore, you may think this tiny box is empty.  But it is not.  Lift the lid and close your eyes and breath in deeply and very gently.  There it is.  It has entered your soul.  It is gently filling all the nooks and crannies of your mind and heart with a soft warmth.  It is, perhaps, my best gift as one size fits all.

Oh, I almost forgot.  This last gift is for my bloggers that are fighting the bigger challenges in life these days.  Down in the bottom corner of this dusty trunk is a platinum pill box and inside are little nanobots that come with tiny platinum hammers.  Their job is to smash replicating cells inside bodies of those fighting difficult diseases.  They are like the energizer bunny in that they never quit so you need only take a few every once in a while when you think you can no longer find energy to fight the good fight.

Now as we sit surrounded by piles of bows and wrapping paper, I wish all the happiest of holidays.

Hmmm...excuse me...I think I smell cinnamon...

The Dirty Seven

Lessons from a Windows 7 user (I know, I know...I promised>):

1. The version of Freecell that comes with my PC  has lovelier graphics but is much harder to play.  I can't win most of the games like I used to. 
2. USB ports sometimes recognize what you plug into them and sometimes Windows 7 is off polishing its mother board and ignores your hardware.  (Maybe computers are so snarly because they don't have a father board? Is he out running another background check on a virus?)  PS...Through training I think my PC is beginning to get the hang of my plug-ins at long last!
   
3. The default on this new version of Windows does not change how your mouse looks (remember the hourglass) when it is thinking.  That means that sometimes you think 7 is done thinking and you move your mouse elsewhere...but nothing happens because it is still thinking!
4. Windows 7 does not like anything 'old' and there are not enough Windows 7 users for software companies to make something 'new'.  Use your old software at your own risk and good luck finding compatible new versions on the Internet.
5. Windows 7 gives you lots of 'helpful' little pop-up windows asking you questions when you are trying to move or upload something as it accesses various software "assistants" and it sometimes makes me a little dyslexic as to which one to choose.  Sometimes the windows hide behind each other and you don't even know it has been hanging until you close all the windows.
6. A fancy new feature of Windows 7 that would only appeal to the designers or 14-year-0lds is that you can 'shake' the window in which you are working and it will automatically expand to the full screen.  This unfortunately also happens if you cannot see the mouse pointer and you are moving the mouse rapidly back and forth to see where the pointer is located and the screen jumps to full view.  Very annoying if you have several windows up at once.
7. The last thing I noticed on this PC, although not a function of Windows 7, was that the flash drive port is a little tight.  My husbands X-rated response..."Well, of course.  It's a virgin port.  It should be a little tight."  You can see how much tech help I get from him!
   

Children of Children

The ancient ones never dreamed that we would have the power to travel back through time and pass the sun as we glide slickly into another time zone.  They never dreamed that we would be powerful enough to turn rivers around and even to tame them, or with breathtaking greed, use them all up.  They never thought about how, like ants with ugly tools, we would remove entire mountain tops turning them to dust and toxic water, and then, in our guilt, try to rebuild them.

They never dreamed that our thoughts would follow electrical pathways in the air and invade the day of those we know, or like, or love, in the flick of a second without imparting any thing of importance.  They could never envision that we would be powerful enough to place electronic eyes everywhere and see from the mountains to the beaches to the bedrooms, all from the comfort of our throne. 

They never could imagine that we would make new 'better' versions of living things and parts of living things to suit our tastes, both physical and mental.  

They would have been aghast at the weapons of mass destruction with which we play so eagerly every day. 

They never knew that we would become the false gods sitting on the mountain in huge temples of artificial gold growing ever so fat and complacent as we proselytize about truth and justice.  They would be so frightened for us, their children, if they could have seen this future.  They would be even more surprised that being so powerful we naively fear the strangest of things, such as the arrangement of numbers on a calendar.  We are like mind-compromised children, fascinated by every little thing but learning nothing as we poke and pry and tear things apart.

Stuffed

The world is full of stuff and this is very evident in the United States at this time of year.  Our primary economic goal it seems is to produce new stuff to replace the old stuff.   
We get so much stuff that we have to rent spaces outside our homes in which to hoard what we no longer need or use.  (Yes, I have harangued on this theme before.)  There are those that produce paper instead of stuff (not the authors or poets), but the others, and they are a bunch of crooks so I give them no space or comment here.

Stuff includes toys that break the day after Christmas, electronic devices that are old and dated within months, cars that lose their value once sold, new clothing that is too tight, too bright, and too sad to wear, the rarest of foods that cost more than would be spent on food for a year in a third world country, and those sparkles that say 'I make more money than you' and also outshine the person it was bought for.  (Unless you are thinking of that famous bra which is worth more than some countries' budgets.)


I do not need more stuff, but not because I am so pure or so rich or so zen, but because I have purchased lots of stuff and I now know its true value.  I have thrown away more stuff than can be gathered in an all day Christmas sale....perhaps an all week Christmas sale.  I need nothing.  (Except that new PC so that I can tell the world my thoughts, of course.  Although, truth be told, it is not really necessary to my life.)  I am old enough that everything I wear can last me until I die.  My house is so crowded with furniture that I could get rid of much of it.  The garage needs a real cleaning as does the basement in this NEW house. And I won't even begin to detail the kitchen with cupboards and drawers hiding every gadget known to cooks. So much for going through another holiday of being 'stuffed.'

Next year I am going to take the reins of this holiday giving in hand early and send out a list of what I really want.  More of their time.  That will fix them!

Joyful Music and Laughter Do Mix

As most readers know I am not a religious person, but do enjoy the lovely holiday music that has come about for Christmas.  Here is a tongue in cheek version of monks singing The Hallelujah Chorus---one of my favorites!


Hallelujah

My Reward

I guess I was somewhat powerful as I removed the sky of the gray...see prior post...and this was my reward!  Be sure to click on the photo for your reward.

Grayness Begone!

Today has been one of the grayest and wettest days thus far.  I am hoping that this will not be a consistent pattern for the winter months, because we have been having luscious weather and I have gotten used to that and this weather is beginning to get on my nerves.

I decided to post a few flowers photos to cheer myself (and you all) up.  I was cleaning out old folders downloaded to this new PC and loading some new photos off the camera.

These yellow strawflowers above  were still blooming yesterday on my deck in spite of weather dropping to the 20's C at night and barely breaking 40 C most days.  They do look a little bedraggled today.

This other flower below is one I took at the conservatory at Biltmore.  It is a lovely varigated hibiscus that I had never seen before.

OK, that cheered me up a little.

Last time...I promise

I am still fiddling with my PC and trying to get my photo software packages to work like well-behaved children instead of Monk. (If you don't watch TV you will not get that statement.)

Jarielyn said she had luck by calling support for her new laptop. Being old at this game, that thought never occurred to me!  That gave me visions of bathing in ice water.  I had the experience in past of waiting on hold for hours and then patiently waiting while the tech on the other end walked me through all the things I had already tried...again!

Two cute little bugs that I have never seen before and which I corrected by searching the web were:  my apostrophe key defaulting to the search box at the bottom of the screen and not typing the apostrophe in the text of the emails.  For several days I have avoid using contractions and possesives...but found  on the web a toggle fix using the numlock key.

The second interesting bug was my camera (Canon EOS) would not download photos...kind of REALLY REALLY annoying as you know how much I love diddling with my photography.  Well some geck online found that if you reset the camera menu to downloading to a printer instead of the PC this will work in Windows 7.  Don't you just love how Microsoft's mind works?


Now I must figure out why my microchip ports on the front of the PC are not lighting up or being recognized when I put memory chips in them.  They were working just fine a few days ago.

One thing Windows 7 has accomplished...fewer readers to my blog.  Who wants to read this stuff!  But my blog is where I get it off my chest...I was going to write a Bagman comment here about my chest...but I will refrain and go get another cup of coffee instead.

Grade School Style

I am all about saving trees, but this is the entire documentation I got for setting up my PC and monitor.  When I called the store and asked about the manuals, they said they were online.  Perfect to access if you have your PC up and running...BUT!

I was trying to figure out the numbers on the various ports in the back and the front and how to recognize them.  I even looked for an image online.  After trial and error I got the printers plugged into the best ports.

Why did I go with HP you might ask?  Well, my recent one lasted almost 10 years and actually it is still running, only very slowly.

Not Invited

Since we are both retired and our holiday parties with former workers are such a drive in this weather, we are not going to them.  We do not belong to a church and so will not be attending any of those holiday activities.  Since we do not have children in school, we are no longer going to those events.  Our new neighbors used to have a holiday get together but that is no longer done.

Looks like we will just be heading out to our daughter's for the Christmas Eve and Christmas day family activities.

Yes, we could probably throw a get together for the few folks we know here, but my heart is not into that kind of work when the weather outside is frightful and many are traveling. 

I don't miss these parties in actuality.  They were nice and the food was nicely caloric and I was a master at the small talk.  But I am calmly happy doing not much these days.

90% done

Things I  learned today (and which you probably have no interest in):

• New PCs (with an II X 4 910 processor) are faster but not amazingly faster than my old one.
• Windows 7 WILL lock up if you are trying to install some driver or software that is not compatible and then it will not let you get the CD out and then it WILL crash.  You know that commercial where the PC guy tries to one-up the laid back Apple guy?  Not so funny anymore, somewhat like a documentary in my view.  Good thing I know just enough about computers to get myself out of trouble.
• The design of this new HP has the button on the top right corner where it is very easy to hit and turn off when all you are doing is checking a connection in the back of the PC.
  
• It also has a very CHEESY CD eject button.  Something one would find on a much cheaper computer.
  
• The new wider HD monitor that I got for almost free because I had a coupon from Best Buy is to die for.  Now I can watch all those important YOUTUBE productions of people's cats and babies in high resolution....!
• After an entire day I have one printer up and running...the free one I got with my camera purchase years ago that uses tons of expensive ink.
  
• I have not given up on the old workhorse HP932C printer because I just spent $30 on a cable for it!

• I worked for about ten minutes clicking and restarting and by luck got both monitors to display!

• I have not purchased any new software and am forcing the older software to work...for now.
  
• The house has not been vacuumed in days nor laundry done because my husband had an old laptop repaired when I got my new one and we are glued to our separate PCs right now.
• Interesting but the new monitor makes some of my photos look worse than I thought and others much better.  Go figure.  Must be my old eyesight. 
• And as an aside I find the nerdy geeks that repair or adjust my PCs when I do call them in are really nice kids and homemade cookies go a long way.  It is the developers that are aliens from outer space!
  
• This is both my birthday and Christmas gift I have been told, and I love it in spite of all the getting to know you dance (war). 
  

UGH!!

I am struggling with all the changes that happen when one goes with a new computer.  Some things went easily such as ONE of the printer installs and getting the online to work.  The other printer my old workhorse a HP deskjet 932C has a Windows 7 driver some where out there.  I am dwnloading about 32 windows updates, maybe I'll get lucky.  I did get lucky with the dual monitor setup.  Didn't want to give up my old monitor and now have TWO monitors...one for blogging and one for photos.


Others such as installing all my old 'licensed' software packages are not going so well.  Most have been stalled perhaps by this 64 bit Windows 7 system?  I have been told that many old software packages just will not work with 64 bit.


I have the choice of buying all new software or calling in a professional to fix all this.  Neither are going to be very cheap!

I will return, once I can get this stupid pre-installed cable from the back of my brand new monitor and install the HD cable I bought.  It appears that I need to get a pair of pliers.  Beware of PC workers carrying pliers or screwdrivers.

Other things I have noticed that are cramping my style is that new features do not easily let you change your home page to that old familiar one and this keyboard...they keep moving the delete key!!!  AND I HAD FORGOTTEN HOW NASTY these companies are forcing one to use Yahoo or AOL as the home page on install!


On ward and upward.

Open Wide

Retirement to a country life is deemed romantic by some and is usually a less expensive life style.  But it has some distinct disadvantages.  One of these is finding a reasonable selection of health care workers.  While we retained our connection with specialists an hour away such as my husbands prostate cancer doctor, we did change all of the others.  Our primary care physician is scattered, sort of nerdy, and reminds me of my uncle who was a 'momma's boy'.  He has correctly diagnosed a few illnesses we have had since moving here. We are continuing to use him, but really hope to find someone we connect with more.

Our optometrist is young and cute and female.  Hubby has fallen in love with her. He claims he likes her because she looks him in the eye (!).  She uses all the latest technology, and her office is nearby so we will keep her. 

The dentist was selected on a whim while driving by his office in a delightful building on a side road.  He is charming and his whole staff is pleasant and very good at what they do.  The only problem is that he is off network for our insurance.  This means our insurance will require us to pay 40% - 60% of all expenses.  Hubby does not want to give this dentist up and start the search for a new one.  In-network dentists are quite a drive from where we live.  Hubby also strongly feels that the health of ones teeth are more important to general good health as we age.  He is right of course.


We asked what insurance this dentist carried and we looked at getting that as a rider.  But it would cost about $900 a year for the two of us. At that rate, after three or four years it might be cheaper just to pay for dental care out of pocket!  I am looking at a filling replacement  and a small bite correction in the near future.  I have until the 15th to change my health insurance in any way.


Yuck!

Style Maven, NOT

Among the many gifts brought home from my husband's recent trip to Indonesia was the silk batik fabric below.  It was a gift from the people he was assisting.  It is supposed to be used for making a shirt.  It is so lovely and since I no longer sew, we will have to find someone who can turn this into something usable and something to show off.  Maybe a blouse for me?

Below is a photo taken on the "short-sleeve shirt" side of my husband's closet.  You can tell from the aloha shirts and the multicolored shirts that he has Pacific and Asian tastes.  At first glance, one might think that he was gay.  Well, he is gay, very gay...but not that way.  He is a strong man, secure in his manhood to be able to wear this stuff.  He actually was once a hunter and lifts weights and does SCUBA.  I wonder what Queer Eye for the Straight Guy would say about THIS closet inventory?

Crystal Ball Gazing

There are moments when you are given the magical power to look into a crystal ball.  You can see into the future just as if you were there already.  You can see the images in the ball more clearly if your eyes are cloudy with age.  Taking this photo of my 2-year-old granddaughter was one of those moments.  Look out world, here she comes.

Between the Lines

Here I was, once again, on my way rushing to the dock.  Why I am always rushing is any-one's guess but I know that some day I will be too arthritic to rush anywhere and I will have to settle for a joggle.  Anyway, I was hurrying to help blow out the lines...the hose line that is used at the boat.  Hubby was in the house with an air compressor at the correct (we hoped) plumbing juncture in the basement.  The incorrect junture might blow the expensive 'ornaments' on the inside sinks.  My job was to turn on the hose water at the dock, watch it drain into the river and then let him know when it was empty so that he could turn off the water line from the house. 

As I carried cell phone in hand I skipped ever so dangerously over the slippery leaves that had since covered the path on the hill down to the dock trail (for the 4th time I might add--the leaves covering not me skipping),   As I maintained a tighter grip on the phone I saw with surprise that I was just getting ready to put my foot down on the back of our resident black snake!  There he lay in the path slightly covered by brown leaves and not moving his curving black line.  He was in slow mo due to the colder weather.  My frantic approach did not encourage him to move away and yet I knew he was alive.  I hesitated stepping over and, instead, scuffled some leaves toward him hoping it might encourage him to go on his way.  No such luck.  I finally got the courage to move around the back of him while straddling the tree roots on the side of the path.  I did this pretty rapidly, because, while I am an outdoor gal, I am always leery of snakes, even safe ones like our black resident.

He was still in the same place 15 minutes later when I returned after successfully emptying the hose line but his curving black line was more squiggly which is something they do when nervous.   This time he had formed a U as if wondering if he should return to whence he came, since this path which had not been used much recently due to colder weather seemed to be enduring some crazy rush hour human traffic.  I, once again, only on the other side of the trail away from his head, stepped on some fallen logs and made my way carefully around giving him plenty of room.

That afternoon I finished vacuuming and dusting the upstairs bedrooms to be ready for Thanksgiving company.  Then, as a reward, I went up to my upstairs nook to blog and read some blogs.  I was alone in the house because hubby was greasing the boat lift; boats are an endless source of fun and expensive time consuming maintenance.  The house was quiet except for the clicking of my fingers on the keyboard.  Behind me I heard a light tapping/slicing noise.  I stopped typing and 'opened' my ears and turned my head from side to side.  No noise.  I continued typing and the tut tut noise started again.  It was coming from behind my head.  I turned and the photo below is what I saw.

It was the line of my vacuum proceeding in snakelike fashion to move on down the stairway where the weighted head of the cleaner was pulling it with gravity.  The tapping was the ridges of the hose catching and then releasing against the corner of the file cabinet as it uncurled.  This silver snake like movement was just a little unnerving after my morning experience.

Thanksgiving Leftovers

The American Turkey

Dear readers, enjoy in moderation. (Photo of wild turkey taken in the mountains of North Carolina.)

If you want to do something today when you are feeling too full you can go here or here or here.

Life Story # 29 -- The Dinner Party 2009

It began with the request by hubby to invite a couple to dinner.  Tabor was not exactly excited about this burp in her weekly plans.  Thanksgiving was just around the corner and there were bedrooms to clean, meals to plan, food to buy and porches and decks to clean as well as decorations to get out and large platters to pull from the back of cupboards.  Now he wants me to cook a meal for some other company before all this?  For people I don't even know?  But Tabor realized that this dinner was important because they were like strangers in a strange land and needed to break bread with someone.

The man had just been hired to work at the nearby small community college and was still trying to find his way.  He was working with people from a different culture and people who perhaps did not have the passion for accomplishment that he did.  They were people who hesitated to make change because it probably meant failure but most certainly meant more work.  He was American but actually an Eastern Indian by culture and who for the past six years worked in the Marshall Islands.  He was tall, thin, and handsome and had not lost his country's accent.   His parents still lived in India although his father had worked in France for a while.  This dinner guest, in spite of or due to his sophisticated upbringing, was still seen as an outsider by the local community.  

His wife, shorter and pretty, was Laotian but had lived in America since she was eight.  She had stayed and worked in Boston during this time and was raising their two twin boys with the help of her parents.  She had worked her way up in a company providing support to database software and hardware for the big stock brokers and finance companies.  She had held on to this job when the company was laying off others.  The couple had sacrificed big time by being apart for months at a time over many years, knowing that in his field of science jobs were hard to come by.  Now he had been rewarded with a job stateside where he was much closer to his wife and sons.  He was so happy to be back in America but somewhat unhappy in this stagnant job.  He was smart and energetic.  They were strangers in this rural conservative community and we could be the connection they needed to maintain their sanity.

(Tabor asked hubby about dietary restrictions, having at least some idea of international eating issues.  Since there were none, she proceeded to put together a salmon with a Thai curry sauce with chopped kaffir lime from her tree.  To this was added a tumeric rice dish, stir fried swiss chard in bacon fat with chopped bacon and to cool the tongue a cucumber salad with mint/basil/sour cream dressing.  For dessert, just to really make the meal over the top crazy, she made brownies served with vanilla ice cream.  Fortunately, everyone had cast iron stomachs and she got compliments.)

The dreaded entertainment event went very well.  The couple were completely charming and well educated.  Once they realized that we saw that the world was composed of a whole group of people with common interests and common goals and that we did not view the world as privileged citizens from the top of Mount U.S. we had wonderful conversations in our attempt to solve the world's problems.  We shared stories of travels and travel interruptions and travel surprises.  Relieved that there were no talks of sports, potty training, holiday shopping, it was like the old dinner parties.

A discussion of the movie, Slumdog Millionaire, brought to light the concept that maybe this slum was actually kept in place by the government of India because it produced many cheap products and provided cheap but intellectual labor.  It was like a company town kept in place by government bureaucracy according to our guest.  The young man mentioned working with a technician from India who helped set up the cell phone network in the Marshall Islands.  When our dinner guest had returned to India with this man on a trip he found that his home was in the slum.  A one and half story shed built of tin where 8 people slept.  Tabor's guest was from a higher level in India and even he was surprised at this contrast in the man's skills and where he lived.   Tabor's guest was not like some of the haughty Brahmin's she had met on her travels and she realized she must watch her prejudices.  His life in the U.S. had made him very democratic.

By the end of the evening Tabor wanted more time to explore Laos and its customs with the wife.  She had forgotten to ask for pictures of the twins.  She knew that the young man would be moving on to other jobs when the opportunity came, but maybe she would have the chance to entertain this young couple again in the future.  They were a nice reminder of what Thanksgiving was all about. 

That Digital Sugar High

I listened to a program on MSNBC  (I think) that was discussing how hard it is for people to stop checking their Bl**kberries or logging into FB or Blogger on their computers at least a dozen times a day. They were addicted to any new items from friends or from news feeds. The network interviewed a psychiatrist and she said that our brains were hardwired for the novel. We automatically were intrigued by a new view, a new vision or new news. Therefore this new social networking was like a chemical addiction for the brain. She actually said is was like sugar for our brain.  My husband, who does not own a hand-held personal communication device like a Bl**kberry, said that on his travels many of the people he met with had these little electronic devices in hand and were checking routinely.  (It is almost as if they were waiting for a tweet that the world is indeed coming to an end.)

I find this so true. We want that quick interesting new hit. But we don't really have time or energy to follow the deeper links and really understand that new/new. We read about some climate disaster, or a celebrity breakup, or political icon's last interview or that next emerging plague, but we don't research beyond the initial report. We don't apply critical thinking. What was the extent of the disaster? How are people coping days later? Where did Palin get the facts to make that scary statement? What really is the definition of a plague that they are using and what are the chances this new germ will affect me personally?  Why do I read anything about Paris Hilton anyway?  I have written before my concern about our schools no longer teaching critical thinking skills.  Analysis of what we feed our brain, instead of just feeding our brain is key.

We don't have time for deep thought anymore.  We are unexcited unless there is blood or spittle.  We are even bored at trying to think deeply about an issue, finding it hard to really study other sides and see other angles.   It is always on to the next exciting news or photo or embarrassing event.  We are always on to the next roadside accident which makes it all so simple.  Everything is black and white or start and stop and never gray and there is an endless supply of this novel two bit stuff.

That is one of the reasons I have my other blog. It forces me to sloooow dooown. It forces me to study what is happening in the very small area of my world where I live on a day to day basis. It creates a habit for me to see how I fit within that quiet realm before I try to react in the larger scheme of things. Then when I am breathing at a normal rhythm, if I see something of interest, I know that I need to ask questions about it and not just skim it and then repeat the nonsense to someone else as if I really know what I am talking about. (Maybe I need to research this report?)

That Yucky Verbal Diarrhea

Those of us who love to write but have nothing really significant to say and even less skill in saying it are like the distracting  nats of the evening air. We arrive at a pause in the day, not large enough to really cause a ruckus, nor interesting enough to cause a little pain, but still annoyingly dancing there in front of your face and being a distraction from the lovely sunset as you lose your place in blogdom.  You feel guilty because they did comment on your post yesterday and so you tediously read through the post and hope to find some grain or idea to help you comment and to return the favor.

This writing is an addiction with us. We love the words and we love the pictures we can paint with them. No, we cannot paint like Van Gogh or tell a story like Vermeer with light and shadow, but we are compelled to take the white screen canvas and sprinkle letters here and there hoping they form words and hoping eventually the words form sentences and perhaps, miracle of miracles, a complete thought! Keeping that train of thought on the track is another task frequently beyond our enthusiastic and spastic skill. Getting to the point of a story or valuable lesson is certainly a challenge for our energetic scribbling. You may wonder...DO we have a POINT as we scribble through the list of the mundane activities of our day?

But, you, my blog readers, are ever so forgiving, because you faithfully return. You let me splash a noun here and smear a verb there and even overuse the exclamation point. You let me clutter the canvas with superlatives.  You wonder if I have ever heard of "spell check."  You wonder why I put every other phrase in quotes and you wish the parenthesis keys on my keyboard would break.  You let me split infinitives (whatever they are) and end sentences with prepositions all in an effort to capture something that was recently remembered from my past or to describe something routine that happened that day and to try to make it significant......because you know that sometimes I get lucky and actually post something interesting and a little thought provoking.   And then we can both smile at the end of the day.  I need you in this dance of design.

(The photo is something I was motivated to do because one of my bloggers is working on textures with her photos and I remembered I had this taken this rose photo in my garden this past summer.  I have reduced the size substantially, but it still holds the texture effect, I think.  You will have to click on the photo to really get the furry texture.)

The Answer

Here is the reveal on the gifts from Indonesia.  I am sure my Asian readers had it figured out, but were too shy to test me.  You may need to click on the photo to read the answers.  I have no idea how I am going to use all the large quantity of spices.  The coconut sugar is delish...just like candy or sort of like that southern Louisiana pecan candy only crunchier and wrapped in bamboo.

Travel Presents and a Guessing Game

As promised here is a photo of some of the gifts from hubby's travel in Asia.  Above is also a picture of a lovely small ikat table runner that my husband brought me.  (I have a nice collection of ikat weavings and this will add to it.)  In the first photo are all the little things that he brought home.  Can you guess all of them?  I will email a nice sunset photo or fall photo  (your choice--or perhaps a print) to the blogger who gets it right first!

(With the new Blog editor bar it appears that there is no longer a spellcheck?   I am a terrible speller and apologize until I can figure this out!) (I will turn on comment moderation.  I just checked the comments and no one has gotten all of them yet.  I'll give a clue...Indonesia was known as the spice islands.)

Odd Neighbors

Every neighborhood has someone strange living in it. That odd person that you pretend to be nice to, but you often wonder about them. They are just a little odd. Some idiosyncratic behavior of theirs makes you keep your distance. Perhaps they wander around in loud colored shorts or perhaps they peek at you through the drapes or perhaps they spend too much time washing that fancy car or perhaps they sit on the porch and pick their nose for what seems an endless amount of time. I am sure that sometimes my neighbor has second thoughts about asking me out to lunch as she did the other day. Her husband was out running a tractor, grading the roads to the farm they lease out, and she knew I had been alone for several weeks. So she offered a lunch date followed by a healthy walk around the island.

The reason I think she must have second thoughts about my stability is that she can now see me in my yard as the trees have become sparse of leaf cover. She can see Tabor walking up and down her driveway or standing out on her deck at all hours of the day with camera in hand. She sees me stop and then bend over peering into my camera with my butt out in the air like some freak flag flying and taking a picture of the driveway, or photographing the seat of my deck chair or even taking a picture of what at times looks like my feet!

I am sure she thinks I am a very strange bird. But I keep finding beautiful things as I walk around the yard that I need to photograph. I keep trying to stop time!




Do you blame me?

This and That

What does it say about us when we post colored charts for threat levels on terrorism and Canada posts colored charts for this .

I decided that I would adjust my blog settings so that any comments that come in more than 10 days after a post would be held until I could moderate. I did this because for some reason blogger lets spam and scam through for commenting on older posts. I get comment posts weeks later and of course I don't get back fast enough to read those posts to delete. So now they sit on my dashboard hidden until I decide to delete. I have been getting quite a few lately.

I also have been feeling guilty for not commenting on some blogs. I read the entry but can't really think of anything interesting to say when everyone ahead of me has said the same thing. So I just keep my keyboard shut.

My husband's trip took him across the many, many, many islands in the Indonesian chain as well as some bordering countries. Indonesia is both Muslim and Christian but Bali is mostly a hybridized Hindu. He noticed that the island and/or villages where the majority of citizens were either Muslim or Christian remained relatively peaceful and the areas where the division was 50/50 or 40/60 were full of rancor and anger as each group fought for control of the local political system. Why does God make people so angry? I know, I know...just had to write that

While staying at my daughter's house last week a young father came by with his son to play with my grandson. As we got to talking I learned that his wife worked for the FDA and was in the office where they worked on drug approvals for humans. He said she had been there for 10 years. I asked how she liked her job and he said that during the past administration their budget had been cut substantially and they had also felt pressured to get drug approvals moving faster and she had been very miserable. Now she is happy as they have been given a decent budget and are being allowed to do their job as professional scientists without any outside interference.

I took hundreds of photos of fall scenery over the last month and recently found that my camera settings had been on a lower resolution than I usually have. I guess it was from fiddling around with settings that I don't really understand as I experimented with photos. When I was younger I could immediately figure out a camera setting and easily focus on the subject. Now with age I forget to make changes and focus...well even depending on autofocus doesn't always work! I do not like getting old, but I do love having the time to play with the camera.

Hubby brought back a number of gifts from the islands...most from him but some from friends of his. I will post on that later. They are not the usual things one brings from an overseas trip.

Lucky Friday the 13th

I do not fear Friday the 13th. Both hubby and daughter are due home today. The winds have slowed and so have the rains. The water rose to the end of the dock but not over the top. No downed trees although the yard looks like a major battle took place. Those two trees that lean across the dock on the right in the photo above are widow-makers and I wish we could get someone to cut them down. It appears that since they are so close to the water we have to get a permit. (Others, of course, were not so lucky in this storm.)

I will actually venture out on this lucky day to shop for food since I have eaten every scrap that was in the refrigerator and now need to begin cooking for two again.

Boy I hope Mother Nature doesn't tie one on again like that anytime too soon!

Rushing (T)Rains

I had just returned from two days of taking care of two preschool grandchildren last night. They had tag-teamed me and while the deafening roar of children screaming, laughing, crying, shouting was still ringing in my ears, I removed faded jeans and sweatshirt to put on the softer pajamas as I heard the roaring and banging of the weather. The wind has been pummeling this end of the bay for over 24 hours. The rain bangs intermittently on my kitchen skylight and I can see the glisten of water in every area hit by outside lights.

I had arrived in the dark and hurried out of my car in the pelting rain to open the gate. There were no trees down in my driveway, but I am too far from the dock to see how high the water is and it is too dark to see if the wind has brought down trees elsewhere in the yard. I snuggled down beneath the covers so thankful that I have shelter from the storm and can worry about damage until tomorrow.

The continuing tempest of nature woke me at 4:00 this morning and I am sitting here waiting for the sun to push a little gray light through the tropical storm clouds. I am curious to see the sudden transformation of naked trees and also to see if there is damage. This lovely summer without any storm made me complacent and I am surprised by this violent aftermath of late summer that pushed her way up here in our late fall.

The sound of rushing trains continues as I post.

Danger, Will Robinson!

When I was a little girl we only shopped at two department stores. My father called them Monkey Wards and Sears and Roarbucks and of course, we laughed at his joke.

During the first week of November I had to head up to the city to do some babysitting as both parents had to do some business travel...in opposite directions, of course. During the two days that I was there and after dropping children off at their respective schools, I decided to take advantage of being near the large malls and get started on my holiday shopping. I tend to forget that traffic problems begin this early.

Well, I would like to caution others that may have this same plan. First, do not shop at Sears. It has not changed. There is no help, only one register with long lines (even in the middle of the week), and staff that speak limited English and always seem to be learning how to use the register for the first time. After spending many minutes waiting in line to pay for my purchase I was then rewarded for my patience by having the alarm go off as I left the store with a loud voice blaring that the security tag MUST be removed. I walked all the way back across the store to the ONLY open register and was told that the security tag was "probably" inside the box and to just ignore the alarm. I cannot tell you how hard it was to 'steal 'myself to leave the store a second time while a very loud robotic voice demanded that I return to the store!

The second shopping warning is to let you know that sales people in both the chain stores and the kiosks in the mall have been given strict instructions to part you from your money using any sales pitch they can find. Clearly this recession has convinced them that they will be closing shop if this holiday season does not turn a substantial profit. The recession is hovering darkly over the retail industry. These staff are the managers who hope to be working there in January as temporary staff have not yet been hired. If you ask for assistance they will answer your question or direct you to the correct area, but then will proceed to convince you to buy at least three of the item due to the huge discounts and sales. If you explain you really only want one, they will then direct you to their other sales specials, their newest products, etc. etc. and it will take some very polite determination to get out of the store with your wallet and sense of humor intact. I actually had to pull my hand away from a young Israeli man who insisted his product would make my hand 20 years younger!

(The blog title is for those who can remember 1960's science fiction TV.)