Whispers

I started my first day of vacation with a great cup of coffee, today's and yesterdays newspaper and my camera in hand. I placed the camera underneath one of those yellow goats beard puffs and tilted it upwards toward the tiger lilies and shot. The light from the sun was great. I don't get outside to shoot this time of the morning very often.

I cleaned all day and had company all evening. I am whipped.

Irfanview

Here is a screen capture of Irfanview and some of the effects I can use with it. It is a free program that offers quite a bit. I figured out some other neat little cheats with it, too.

Ohio Farmlands are disappearing

Carroll County cows

How long will I be able to drive along the quiet country roads and take pictures of cows in a green grassy field? Three of my sisters married into farming families. All three farms have been sold. No longer are they growing crops, raising cattle, baling hay, or anything else. The sons didn't continue the family tradition. Two went to the steel mills and one is driving a truck. Farming is hard work and the way things are today, there is no money in it.

This crazy world

My neighbor has some alliums in her yard. She is the one who also has very blue hydrangeas. I have not been back near her place in over a week to see if hers are still blue and blooming. Mine have little blooms and a light lavender blue hue to them.

I don't have any alliums, yet. They look like a nice flower I might try some day. I think I read that they are a member of the onion family. I don't want to mow my grass. It is so dry and brittle out there. Anyone who has mowed in the past four days now has a very brown and dry grass. I have clover. Dry, burnt clover.

I realized as I was making up my party invitations that the day is 7/7/07. I usually don't send out invitations, but this year I wanted to make sure the ones who have never shown know how to get to my place and do not have the excuse of not knowing exactly when the party was. Heh.

I've been reading the news online. The whole world is going to hell in a hand basket. For example, this story. Where the guy's wife drives him to the hospital when he woke up complaining of a severe headache. She shot him the night before, for crying out loud! Didn't she realize the emergency room doctor/nurse would find the bullet in his head? Maybe she thought she dreamt it. Then there is the young girl getting her feet severed on an amusement park ride, a wrestler murdering their families and committing suicide in a steroid rage, a man shooting and killing a child for throwing rocks at his house, five cheerleaders dying in a car crash, not to mention the guy who killed his pregnant girlfriend. This one is too close to home for comfort at less than 50 miles away from me. My nephew went to school with him. I am on information overload.

Mental shake. Close the browser window, turn the television off.

To get the "oil painting" effect on the above photo, I used my very favorite free program "Irfanview." It is small, neat and fast. I've used it for years and I doubt that I will stop any time soon.

My daughter and her beau are out watching the movie "Live Free or Die Hard." I see where Justin Long is in the move. He's good. Since I was deafened by the volume of the theater last week, I will wait until the movie comes on on DVD to watch it. I have Ghost Rider to watch. Maybe this week-end. I am supposed to help my sister purchase a new PC and go canoeing with friends. I think that is a great way to start vacation. Sorry spell checker, but according to www.dictionary.com canoeing is spelled correctly.

I'm nervous

10 days. I have 10 days before my party. I've been working in the basement. So nice and cool down there during these hazy, hot and humid days. I have the vents turned off but it is still nice and cool. I created another Power Point layered photo with my purple twirlers. Added bubbles from Paint Shop Pro and using the green lush leaves of my back hedge as the background. I like purple and green together.

I've asked for another week of vacation. If it is approved that will mean I am off from 3:00 p.m. Friday the 29th of June until 8:00 a.m. on Monday July 16th. That is 400 hours. Giggle, giggle.

Spiral layers

This is a photo of four images of my spiral twirlers on my patio. Using MS Power Point and Irfanview. Layering is so much easier with PP.

I watched Deja Vu. Reminds me of one of my favorite books, Einstein's Universe by Nigel Calder. The movie was a bit far fetched, if you ask me. It was a stretch of the imagination.

There was a period in my life where I kind of dropped out. 21 to 23 years old. I hibernated in my Mom's house and read and read and read. I wrote poetry. I went inside myself. I was probably clinically depressed but if I was, I pulled out of it. I read a lot of Carl Sagan during this time frame also. I read books on nuclear power plants. I read a superb collection of art books. (My Mom's library and the public library). No Internet back then.

My Mom and I canned tomatoes during the summer, and we went places. I am not sure what my brothers and sisters thought of this time in my life, I guess they just let me find myself. They were busy with their own lives. I think they were glad I was there to keep Mom company.

I thought and thought and thought. I was fascinated by life and the universe and religion.

Orange, orange, orange

Tiger lily in bloom

I love orange flowers. My favorite used to be the deep, red tulip. Not sure when I changed to orange. My infatuation with marigolds goes way back. I have planted more orange flowers around the house this week-end. And, my hydrangea is showing two tiny little blooms. And, blue is there albeit faintly. I think this means I can add more of that whatever stuff I bought. More blue, more blue! Just to let you know, the blue hydrangea isn't anywhere near the other orange flowers. Gads! Blue and orange, yuck!

I hate to change light bulbs. I get the ones that claim they burn 7 to 10 years. I am in the process of putting a 7 year burner in my kitchen fan overhead light. I have two outside lights that need replaced. I'm thinking of putting 10 year burners out there. The only problem with this type of practice is when that time does roll around to change the bulb, I can't recall how the contraption that houses the bulb unscrews. I figure it out, but since I don't do it often, it is a major undertaking. Here is an interesting story of the longest burning bulbs.

I have unexpected company this week-end. Family. It is only overnight and I wasn't bothered by it. They will be on their way today. My nephew rode his bike down. He came in freezing last night. Brrr. My sister (his Mom) followed about an hour or two later with her beau and a huge moving van. Seems they were cleaning out a storage shed. My daughter loves it when her cousin visits. He shows her all kinds of neat web sites. Like, this one. Then, they proceed to play all night on these sites, watching videos. I just watched "The Pale Blue Dot" narrated by Carl Sagan. I have mentioned that I am a huge fan of his (he has passed on.)

My nephew started out with an Atari computer back in the mid-80's and is now an Oracle database manager for a similar educational establishment like the one I work in. Only his is located near Columbus. He is a computer whiz. He probably got all of the genes in the family that came from this guy. (My Mom's first cousin who tragically passed away).

I went to see the movie 1408 yesterday. Now, I remember why I don't go to the movies any more. Why I wait for it to come out on DVD. The volume in the theater was deafening. I sat there and held my fingers in my ears for most of the movie. It didn't help that I had already been fighting an earache. I imagine the folks around me thought I was scared and blocked my ears. Okay, I admit. That WAS part of it. But, mostly it was the immediate pain that the loud sound brought with it. Trying to block it out. Sheesh! I was spared a migraine. Hallelujah!

Along the way

Picturesque Carroll County

3 years and counting

My blog is 3 years old today. I would celebrate but I filled up my gas tank. Ha! Ha! The above photo was one of the best I had seen depicting the current consensus of rising fuel prices.

Drops of Jupiter

Rain drops on some weeds reminds me of the song by Train. So many times folks try to figure out what the song means and place some kind of cosmic relativity to the words. When in reality, the band just rhymed the words as they rolled out of their heads. The writer claims the song is about the passing of his Mother.

The worst of the migraine monkey has passed, I am thinking. And this is what I am left with. Discombobulated thoughts. Ack!

Old, rusty truck

Last week while waiting for a school tech to get the key to the building I roamed the edge of the school yard. I try to have my camera ready and with me at all times. I stumbled across this old truck that had seen better days.

Freddy Fender sang a song with the words "Wasted days and wasted nights". That is how I describe a migraine. My medication took most of it away but by lunch time I was sick enough to go to bed. I took Advil, alka seltzer, used my eye drops and drank warm tea all in an effort to get my eyes to stop hurting. I am going back to bed with cold tea bags on my eyes. Nice.

There is a cold front moving in tomorrow. It will bring relief from the heat and drought, and, I am hoping, from this stupid eye pain.

Carbohydrate Coma

Ray's Pizza Wintersville, Ohio

My silly, selfish wish (if I had one) would be for my doctor to say "Peruby, you need more carbs! More carbs!"

Yeah, like that'll ever happen.

Anyway, I found myself close to Wintersville last night and stopped in to order some pizza that takes me back to the 70's for some delicious saucy slices made only the way that area can make it. Since I moved away I can't get that taste anywhere else. My brother and I have this stipulation that if we are in the area and can get some of this delicacy we are to bring the other back some. I did. His wife picked it up this morning. This stuff freezes well. I've only had to resort to that method once because it just doesn't last long enough.

I will not tell you how many pieces I ate. I haven't come out of my coma long enough to realize the quantity and when I do I won't be talkin'. Humph!

Active

This be one active network.

Photo Friday Challenge: Active.

Is it Friday, yet?

Why does the SAVE NOW blue bar expand as I type? It is freaking me out.

Anyway, is it Friday yet? I'm really tired of this week. The above photo was taken at the Lighthouse restaurant where I met my friend and had dinner by the sailboats. My family was never a boating family. We would go to the lake a lot to swim. I never wore sunscreen. I can recall my sisters using suntan lotion to enhance their tans. But, SPF 15? Never heard of it back then.

And, how about the gals that lay on tin foil? Where are they now? Did the broiling increase their risk of skin cancer? My brother burned so bad one day while out golfing he formed blisters on his shoulders. Somebody had the bright idea to give him a bath in vinegar. Stunk up the whole house. I used to put Noxzema on when I got a sunburn. I would freeze after the sun went down. And, I couldn't sleep. Do you remember how sunburns hurt so much to move that you couldn't sleep? It hurt to put your bra on. And, you were ready to kill anyone who slapped you on the back. Yeah, they thought they were funny !

My hair is very thin so the top of my head got sun burnt a lot. I was not a big hat wearer. When my scalp would peel it looked like I had a serious case of dandruff. I have a big, white hat now. My daughter doesn't like to be seen with me when I wear it, but that's the way it goes. It's all about comfort, now.

Ugh. It was THAT kind of day

I Photo Shopped the above photo a bit. The rain is real, though.

I awoke at 2:30 a.m. unable to get back to sleep. Okay this is freaking me out. As I am typing the SAVE NOW blue bar at the bottom of my post keeps getting longer and longer and longer. Oh, there it stopped stretched all the way across the frame. What ever. It has been THAT kind of day!

To try and make myself sleepy, I cleaned up e-mail on my computer. The most boring thing I can think of. I finally drifted off again at around 5:30. Not a good sleep either. I kept waking up. It wasn't because of caffeine. Not sure what caused it. Worries? Maybe.

I made mistake after mistake at work. I transposed numbers in the subnet mask. How stupid is it anyway? In one part I type 255.255.252.0 and in another area 255.255.255.252. I typed the wrong one in the wrong place and I didn't catch it. I went over and over the router config and still I had to call and somebody else found it for me. Things did NOT go my way. Little tiny elementaries with little tiny rooms. Hot. Sweat running into my eyes. Forgotten console cables. Getting snappy with people. Sigh.

On my way home I thought I would do some shopping for red, white and blue decorations for my party on the 7th. The lights went out in the store 3 times while the cashier was trying to use my debit card. I finally wrote a check. The rain had begun to pour. And pour. I felt like Dorothy during the twister while I drove the 40 miles home. Except I was beyond tired and didn't much care. It was one of those rains where the oncoming cars splashed huge amounts of water onto your windshield and you are blinded until it is wiped away by your windshield wipers.

I got home and the electricity was out. That lasted for 3 hours. I tried to nap. The animals kept waking me up. It may have been too quiet with the electric off. I am just tired and I want to go to bed and forget about this day. I hurt my back somewhere at sometime today or yesterday. Each time I get up to do something I am jerked back into the reality that I try to do too much by myself and I have been that way all my life and it is beginning to catch up with me. I only have myself to blame.

Dated daisies

Playing with Paint Shop Pro, Jasc Paint Shop Photo Studio and Irfanview to create a moody, old fashioned field of daisies. I save my pictures often so that if it gets too far out of hand I can go back to the point where I liked it last.

My daughter is into the movie Girl Interrupted. She was watching a documentary this afternoon on Angelina Jolie. Does anyone else get the impression that she is going to dump Pitt the same way she did Miller and Thornton? Has Laura Dern and Jennifer Aniston started a club for women who had their man stolen by Jolie? I am not sure if Jolie resembles Elizabeth Taylor or Mia Farrow more? Not physically. And, why am I wasting my time on this fluff?

I am so lame when it comes to the popular television shows. While doing the daily crossword puzzle in the paper, the clue was American _ _ _ _. I subscribed to the magazine American Girl when I was young and that is what I thought of. Of course after a while I realized it was idol. Good grief!

Here are the daisies as I took the photo yesterday.

Clouds and sail boats

This photo is a little out of my normal range. I had an early dinner here meeting a friend. I am so tired I can barely keep my eyes open, but I wanted to post a photo. I have over 100 to sort through and add to my PHOTOS page.

I was up until 3:00 a.m. this morning because my daughter's cell phone was stolen by the little neighbor girl. I was out with a flashlight at midnight searching. I retrieved it this morning. She is a troubled girl. Thank goodness it didn't rain last night. Cell phone is fine. As for the little girl (eleven years old) - she has a rough life ahead of her.

Light on the water

At the lake last night somebody was getting married across the way in the shelter area. They had a beautiful day for it. Perfect temperature, perfect day. The lake was brown because of the awful storm that went through last night, though. A neighboring camper caught a huge catfish. I think he tossed it back in. I recall seeing a sign that said you have to.

I got some work done before a nasty migraine caught me late in the afternoon. The medicine took a while to work, but by 6 p.m. I was feeling much better. I sat in a chair with frozen bags of vegetables on my head and the back of my neck. My daughter laughed. I didn't much care. By the time I got up to put the veggies back in the freezer my neck was frozen to the touch. Then I took a super hot shower. An attempt to get the blood flowing by changing from severe cold to hot like that. I had taken the medicine a few hours before all of this. I drank alka seltzer and just recently hot, sweet tea.

The work? I cleaned out my bathroom sink drain. It was nasty! Not something you really want to do with a migraine. The smell was horrid. My daughter was like "What's that smell?" It is hair, toothpaste, make-up and old soap! Maybe some dirt mixed in. Yum. I don't pour stuff down my drains. I will boil water and push baking soda down them, but that is it. I just take them apart and clean them out. That is what a plumber told me to do. Besides, the smell of the chemicals used to unclog drains gets to me, too. I had all the windows in the house open and fans running. Of course this brings the dust in, but I love open air.

My headache was also a product of having my hair done yesterday at the salon. It took longer than usual because I had waited too long. My neck is bruised from leaning back over the sink. Ouch! I thought it would be better to have it done at a salon because the smell bothers me. Either way, it looks like I am going to get some kind of headache from the ordeal. Blah!

After the rain

I took a walk after the rain last evening. We had quite a storm north of us, we managed to get a soaking, some winds and that was it. You know how everything smells so clean and fresh after the rain. I read somewhere that the rain washes the air. Gets the impurities out of it and leaves it clean and fresh. I never thought of air that way. Since I couldn't see it, I didn't think it needed washed. Of course I have used the expression dirty air and clean air, but never thought that what I couldn't really touch needed washed. But that is a lovely way to put it and it sure fits when I smell how clean and fresh it is after the rain.

My dog did not co-operate very well on her leash. I was a bit nonplussed. I couldn't figure out why. Now, she didn't take off and she came to me each time I let her off the leash to do a bit of roaming, but she wasn't as loyal as she normally is. I guess she is subject to her funny moods as well as the rest of us.

I found some lovely aromatic flowers in my neighborhood. More types of flowering trees than just the flowers themselves. One I am keenly interested in was what I would guess to be a magnolia bush of some sort. It wasn't a tree. It wasn't over five feet tall and it bushed out from the bottom. It smelled heavenly and had beautiful yellowish magnolia flowers on it. My research tells me that it may be a "sweetbay magnolia" (magnolia virginiana). Now, I need to order one and get it in the ground.

The photo above is some sort of twisted vine that is growing in my neighbors border hedges. They held the raindrops well and gave me ample opportunity to practice my macro shots. I have been toying with the idea of purchasing a new camera. Mine is scratched up and worn a bit. It still works well, but I want another to supplement what I like to do. My nephew purchased a Canon SLR (I think it was the 30D). I never was one to copy, I am looking at the Nikon SLR line. I have been very happy with my Canon (except for the delay between pressing the shutter and the actual taking of the picture - infuriates me!). I want to branch out and experiment more. Money is the main obstacle at this time, so I will begin saving for my treat.

Summer looms ahead. I know it has a tendency to go very quickly. I have a party tonight (my delayed birthday get together with wonderful friends). My 4th of July bang is approaching quickly and other than catching up with a few friends we have no travelling plans. I have a dinner on Monday evening and I plan to go early and capture a part of a lake I don't get to photograph often.

I did catch Night at the Museum. A forgettable flick scantily reminiscent of Jumanji. Although it was very nice to see Dick Van Dyke and Mickey Rooney. Bill Cobbs has been a favorite of mine, also. I want to see Wild Hogs, but other than that - not much movie watching is planned.

Edit: And if you read my post on Wednesday (The good, the bad and the ugly) there was an accident at the construction area of route 93. I felt that it was a dangerous setup. That road is so twisty and so busy it just felt like something was going to happen there. You know the saying "An accident waiting to happen." That was how it felt when I drove it.

Lookin' back

Sometimes when I am finished for the day, I will drive back home on a dirt road. I know the area well enough now to do this and not get lost. Heh, heh. When I take shoulder shots, this is the type of road I am on. No traffic. No pavement. Just slow country scenery.

I am able to stop when I see a really special area that deserves more attention to picture taking. But, mostly I just drive and enjoy the route. It clears my head after having it stuck inside a dusty, convoluted mass of electronics with blinking LED lights and 'too tiny to grasp' screws. Ugh!

Leanin' Tree

This one is from my drive past the lake one month ago. I have not gone that direction much lately. I have been headed the other way. West. Sugarcreek to be exact. I spent the day out that way today installing memory and modules into a router. What was left of my long finger nails are now gone. Torn off. Split apart. Screwdrivers, blades and modules have no mercy on finger nails. They have been snagging on hair and clothing anyway.

Much, much cooler today. I got the grass mowed. Or, I should say the clover. So, it is clover no more.

Leaf Laughter

I would hold the tree leaves down so he and my grand niece could touch them. They were delighted. How tedious to be so small where almost everything is out of your reach. This is my grand nephew from the Memorial cook-out at my sister's house (his Grandma).

He isn't all that used to me so this was a rare smile that I was able to capture. He would keep a discerning eye on me. Both his Mother and my sister have dark hair and I have blond. He just wasn't real sure about me.

I have one month until my big summer bang. This year it conflicts with vacations and a wedding. Sigh. I have my party the night that my town chooses to set off their fireworks, so that is that. They aren't putting them off until the Saturday after the fourth of July, so it is hard to say who will be available to come and who won't. Last year they put them off on a Monday or something like that.

They also have a big park festival during this time. It is wonderful to go and see all the people and especially the children having fun. They are running the Ferris wheel this year. I won't be on it.

Four Thousand Books

Here is a photo of some of my Mom's old books. We boxed them up this past Saturday. My niece wants to keep them and store them. They are aged, to put it mildly. This is one wall of three. My Mom included pamphlets in this count I believe. She claimed to have over 800 cook books and I know this included pamphlets. She was a voracious reader. I recall her reading 4 books at a time. Then her eyesight failed her. She went to the eye doctor frequently and had many operations on cataracts, but still they failed her. I believe it was macular degeneration.

Squatters

All this time we thought my Mom's house had sat empty.

Yesterday we cleaned. We bagged books. We bagged magazines. We bagged nick knacks. We bagged candles, plastic snow shaker orbs, broken china, plastic plates. We filled almost the entire living room to about three feet high with garbage bags. Sitting there to wait for a huge dumpster to claim it all.

We dismantled a mantel.

The baby raccoons are sleeping in between the walls of a bedroom and the upstairs bathroom. I stuck my hand inside the wall to take the photo. I blew on them to make them raise their head. My brother cautioned me about the possibility of the mama raccoon coming and taking my hand off. We never saw any sign of her. The neighbors say that they only see the babies climbing in and out of the house.

We weeded around my Mom's grave. I broiled in the sun during this part of the day. We walked the property behind the house. We spoke of selling the land off to the neighbors but keeping the plot where the house sits. The house is beyond repair but it belongs to my oldest sister for her to do with as she wishes. (My dad didn't work so the family responsibilities fell mostly on my oldest brother and sister). My sister purchased this house in 1966 after years of moving from one run down dump to another.

It was an exhausting day. There was no sorrow. There was some nostalgia. There were lots of jokes. We have moved on. Except for what to do with the house.

Color

I like all the colors that I was able to capture in this photo. I threw one of my biggest blooms into the hedge growing along my back alley and captured green, purple and white along with the delicate pink of the peony.

The blooms are pretty much spent, as are my poppies. Poof. That's it. That's all you get. One week of flowers. I will look around the neighborhood to see what else is blooming and try to plant those in my yard so that something colorful can take over when the peonies and poppies are done. My goal is to have flowers blooming all summer long.

Today is busy. I told you I would regret not mowing my grass the other night. I am going to be gone all day today. That leaves tomorrow. I think we have possible thunder storms in the area today and tomorrow.

I am meeting up with some family members today to begin removing some of the 4,000 books my Mom collected. I plan on getting totes, but with books you can't get them too big. Nobody would be able to lift them. Her books are hardbacks. She graduated when she was 16 (back then that was not unusual) and between that age and 20 (when she married my father) she spent long lonely times on the farm with her grandparents who went to bed at dusk. She had nothing to read and my Mom loved to read. Loneliness = 8 kids, boredom = 4,000 books. Yep, that would explain it.

I plan on getting dirty. I will take a change of clothes. I also plan to visit an old friend down in that neck of the woods. Her modem got fried by lightning and I found an old 56k external one. I need to find a cable for it, though. I think I used to take an old console port cable and connect it to the serial port on the back of my PC. It will take some jerry-rigging, but I will give it my best shot.

My daughter received her second (and last) paycheck from the telemarketing job that she worked for a short while. It is $366 after taxes. She is ecstatic. I told her one third of it goes into the bank. We agreed that while she is living at home, that she takes one third of her paychecks and puts them into the bank. She does not have to pay me rent or money toward the bills, but she is to save some of it. Of course, we re-negotiate if it looks as though she is going to be staying with me into her 20's and beyond. (I can only hope).

At 16 years old she does not need to be working 6 days a week while her boyfriend is out running with friends. She needs to live a little and enjoy the time. Last year she had mono for almost the entire summer. I told her that if she wants she can get a job where she works 3 days a week or so, no more. One that puts her around other people her age. We are waiting before we tackle getting the drivers license. We are just cruising for the summer. No worries.

I'm melting!

This picture reminds me of the witch in the Wizard of Oz melting. Photo Friday's Challenge was "How I see myself" and I posted the photo that the above picture was made from on their site. I am number 103 or something like that under "Peruby" of course.

My Mom's birthday is today. She would be 87 years old. She was born in 1920 in a log cabin. She had a lonely life as an only child raised by her grandparents. This could be the reason she had eight kids.

My kitchen smells like peonies. It is wonderful. My daughter said they smell like beer. Huh?

Poppy Lifecycle

Before

During

After