Almost there

A spinning quarter

I have been off from work since Wednesday. That is three days out sick. That is quite rare for me as usually the occasional migraine will knock me out a day at the most. Usually I only need half a day with the sick headaches because of the medicine that is now available.

But this cold/flu. Which is it? I didn't take my temperature but at work on Tuesday I caught myself wiping my forehead and face with a paper towel. When someone asked me if I were alright, I replied "Oh, just a fever of sorts." I had a relentless headache that did not respond to any medication that I threw at it. It may have been a very bad cold for all I know.

The sneezing was so bad yesterday I felt like each time my head would fly off. I got to the point where I was sneezing into a hand towel because I just felt like I was blowing up. The only thing I had to do yesterday was drive my daughter to a dentist appointment. Since I had only eaten toast, applesauce and liquid soup for three days I was pretty hungry last night. We ordered pizza. Oh, cruel, cruel world. No taste buds. It seriously tasted like I was chewing wet cardboard. Although, I can't recall exactly when it was in life that I had the chance to chew wet cardboard.

So, today I am back to soup. At least I can half taste it. Pizza probably wasn't the best thing to place into my digestive system that was still dealing with the bug.

Well, folks. I just got a call from my daughter's school. They say they are asking all the parents of students with un-natural color hair to change it back to their natural color. Well, well. I almost got into it with the guy that called, but I bit my tongue. He said that the advisory committee has commented over the past couple of years that this is what they want from the career-oriented students. I said, "And your advisory committee is listed on your web page?" He said, "Yes." I said, "So, if I call each one of them, they will tell me the same?" He said, "Well, that's over 100 individuals, ma'am." Blah, blah, blah. They have given us the long week-end to change it.

I then questioned the "School policy" vs. "Class by class" policy. He said "Yes, per school policy." He said their "natural" hair color. I know of three or four girls who dye their hair a different color than their natural color. As in all red, or all blond. This does not include all the students who do the bi-color or tri-color hair. Will they be having to return to their natural hair color, also?

Oh, bother. Now, I am in a sour mood.

Big Brother

Buddies

By looking at the photo you would think that the orange kitten protects the gray one, huh? I saw something yesterday that was so touching.

My big black cat (Casper) was sitting on the arm of my T.V. chair. I was sitting in the chair. The little tiny orange kitten jumped up onto the arm and immediately got a hiss and a claw swipe from Casper knocking the poor tiny thing back onto the floor. I usually let the critters work things out for themselves.

Ten seconds later the gray one jumped up onto the edge of the arm. You could tell he was scared. His eyes were as big as saucers and although his tiny claws held him fast to the arm of the chair, his body leaned as far away from Casper as he could. He perched there for about a minute or two prepared to take the brunt of whatever Casper was going to give out. Casper backed up a bit and they had the usual stare down.

After a couple of tense minutes, the orange kitten jumped up onto the chair beside me. Still scared. The gray one moved down off of the arm and covered the orange one with his body. It looked like he was smashing it, but this is how they cuddle. And that was that. Casper went back to relaxing on the chair arm, and the other two slept by me on the chair.

It was amazing to see since I don't get much time to just sit with my critters.

I am so sick. The headache from hell lasted through Tuesday night into Wednesday morning. Now, I am not sure if the headache was a result of the liquid vitamin or this flu bug that I have. The sneezing and coughing are severe. (The kind of sneeze that rips your throat out). I am sore from coughing. My head continues to hurt, but not like before. Medication will take the edge off of it. The bug is still going strong. That is why I am awake at this hour. I have no taste buds. My daughter was very sweet and brought throat lozenges home yesterday. I take them, but I can't taste them.

Oh, and we have decided to keep both kittens, now. My daughter's friend was going to take the gray one but she couldn't wait until I had him all taken care of with the shots and stuff so she went out and got a frisky kitten of her own. She said she would still take the gray one, but I don't want to separate the two and I don't like her track record with pets. The cuddler stays with me. Now, for the names.

My daughter calls the orange one Titten. Hmmm. I guess that is her way of getting back at me for calling her Buttercup. I've taken to calling the gray one Cuddles for now. After a childhood stuffed mouse named Kuddles.

Well, cuddler isn't a word. But, he is "one who likes to cuddle." So there is a word for Peruby's dictionary.

My sister is also a cat lady. At one time I think she had over nine in her house. She found out yesterday that one has jaw cancer. Her daughter was distraught to say the least. Although her daughter is married and lives in another town, she comes back to take the cats to the vet's office. This was her very favorite cat. They are going to medicate and make the cat as comfortable as possible. The vet said the cat probably wouldn't survive surgery and if it did, would have to live on a feeding tube. They got this cat in 1988. Wow. Well, that is what my sister said. They take very good care of them. Wow. 19 years if it was a kitten when they got it.

I dread the day when any of my pets are dying.

Golden hue

October Sunrise

I have posted this photo before, or a variation of it. I love the golden hue of the sunrise I captured that morning on the way to work. October has always been one of my favorite months. Not sure why. I guess I love the crispness and freshness in the air. I am glad I don't have allergies, as I have heard that is a bad month for the ones afflicted with that ailment.

The daughter was treated very well today by the teacher. Mama Bear did not have to attack. Mama Bear was ready. However, I am glad it did not happen. I want this to be a fun and wonderful experience for my daughter. Not a war zone. Cripes.

Every couple of years I get a stupid streak and purchase vitamins. Why, oh why do I do this to myself? This was the liquid one you put under your tongue. I had been feeling very run down (because of my flu bug) and thought that vitamins would again be the answer. I am so sick with a headache. My Advil won't touch it, nor will my migraine medicine. I tried to nap, but this nagging cough is keeping me awake and causing my head to split open. And, this happens to be the evening that I get phone call after phone call.

And, I keep getting the damn hiccups. I have spent the evening gagging, coughing and sneezing. A regular bear alright. I can't type anymore because of the headache.

Clean bill of health

Healthy by scared

No worms. No leukemia. Ear mites and possibly fleas. Have been treated for both. In two weeks will be the shots. They are quite overwhelmed by our three cats and dog. Sable just wags her tail and whimpers. She tries to get as close as she can to them. Wagging, wagging and whimpering. I do hope that is a good sign for a dog. Hee, hee. Maybe she thinks they are her very own live toys. She is such a dog!

Thing 2 (smaller orange one on the top) is a girl and the vet guesses her age at 14 weeks. She was the bravest and went exploring right out of the box. I call her Buttercup, much to my daughter's chagrin. Thing 1 is a male and is about 4 months. He seems to be a bit traumatized by the ordeal. He just wants to hide, sleep and forget about things for a while. I did hold him and he purred away. A friend of my daughter's said that she will take him. I am going to get his shots first, though. I am not sure she will be able to afford them. I will also get him fixed for her if she doesn't take it upon herself to do it.

My daughter told her teacher that she plans to re-color her hair in two weeks. I instructed her not to say a word. But, she told her. It didn't help. Later that morning, my daughter couldn't get her locker to open (discovered they had given her the wrong combination), and noticing that the handle was bent my daughter tried to push it with her foot. Which had more power than her hand. The teacher grabbed my daughter by the arm and told her "That's not the way to get it to work!" My daughter said she pulled her arm away and said "Okay!" In the class room the teacher told her "I can see we are going to have a problem!"

Another girl was rolling her chair on wheels back and forth between two desks and the teacher yelled out "Is that (my daughter's name)? Tell her to stop it!" My daughter was on the other side of the room and said "I"m clear over here!" The teacher said "Oh, well who is it then?" And told the girl to be careful because she could get hurt or break the chair.

Later, after the combination fiasco was corrected a friend of my daughter's was putting his books away and closed his locker with his foot (making a loud bang sound) and the teacher tapped my daughter on the shoulder "Did you just kick that locker again!?" My daughter said she got really angry and lost it this time. She began screaming at the teacher (she has no recollection of what she said - a friend had to tell her later). The teacher was taken aback, I guess and said "Oh, well who did it then?" The boy came forward and said he had kicked the locker. The teacher said "Oh, okay." And walked away. My daughter said the teacher was super sweet to her the rest of the day.

I asked her if she had apologized to her about the wrong accusation. My daughter said "No." But, my daughter said she was feeling lousy for yelling at the teacher. She said "Mom, I am sick about it. I wanted to apologize to her, I felt so bad."

I said "One more day. If ANYTHING happens tomorrow you are to leave, go straight to the office and call me on my cell phone. ANYTHING other than her teaching you." And, I told her forget about re-coloring her hair now. That lady is pushing one too many of my buttons. My daughter's arm may be forming a bruise. We'll have to wait and see.

My daughter was rising above their policy and took it upon herself to agree to the hair color change when I told her not to and this is how it ends up. She was very upset to say the least. Now Mama Bear has been stirred into coming over and watching. Claws out and ready. I ain't listening to anymore.

Get together

View from my nephew's front yard

The house in the distance is not my nephew's. He does not need that much room. His house is just charming. This is the view of the land across from the small road he lives on. Quiet, peaceful and reminds me of farm country.

We drove around 200 miles to join family, his friends and co-workers in a house warming party for him north of Columbus. He was having a Bar-B-Que. What my family has always referred to as a "cook-out".

Driving home, the sunset view was spectacular. But, we were in a hurry and my camera was stowed away in the trunk of the car. Drat! My daughter said "This looks like tornado country" because the land was so flat. I told her about Xenia, Ohio in 1974. Since we had been to Cincinnati in April, she saw a lot of flat land there, too.

I have not made any decision on my daughter's hair, yet. Although, I am much calmer about it.

I am exhausted. August was extremely busy for this old gal. I like to stay home more than most people. I have caught something. I was achy all week. I am running a low grade fever, and have a sore throat, headache and scratchy (tickle throat) cough. It is the type where it makes your eyes water. You drink and drink, but it still tickles. This is another reason why I am not sleeping so well. Plain rundown. I would like to rest today, but the house is a disaster. Because I have been running all of August only the "have to" things got done. I want to go back to bed and dream of little elves that come and work while you sleep.

Dress codes

This is an older picture of how my daughter wears her hair when she gets the red dyed into it. Her home school did not even blink when she showed up with it. Probably because they had gone through a controversial situation with a girl with purple hair about two years ago. I don't know.

Since my daughter had downsized to two colors over the summer (black and blond) when she returned to the red last week, the blond was porous enough to grab some of the red and turn a bit pink. In April we went to Cincinnati to see "The Lion King" on stage and her hair had a pink hue to it then. This photo below is my second favorite style for her to wear her hair. It may be close to my very favorite.

Unfortunately, her hair is not that long and she does not have near the same amount of blond covering the red/pink as she did in this photo.

I can attest to the fact that she gets a compliment a week on her hair if we are out and about. People make a point to walk up to her and tell her. A lot of times they are women my age or older. This makes her feel good about herself.

I looked the rules up at this Career center on line last night. My daughter told me that a couple of teachers she talked to on Friday said that they did not have any problem with her hair. The teacher of Graphics Arts is the problem. And she is only the teacher for the Juniors. The guy that teaches the Seniors told my daughter he did not have a problem with her hair.

The rules are printed as:

Makeup must be of a natural color or tone. Hair color must be an acceptable color as deemed by the administration. Unusual hair is unacceptable.

We have received nothing in writing. The teacher spoke to my daughter. There are nine individuals listed under Administrative staff at this school. It does not specify that the color of hair is considered on a class per class basis. So, this means the lime green and bright pink that the girls are wearing to cosmetology class will have to go if my daughter's has to go. Or, they can be accused of discrimination.

When my daughter mentioned the cost factor to her teacher, the teacher said "Aw, that's so sad." Then she said "Our Cosmetology department will do it for free." My daughter was not amused. My daughter told me that she had been talking to one of her classmates at lunch and asked "What does she want me to do, shave my head?" The classmate told the teacher and I guess the teacher said "I would like to." I guess the teacher came up to my daughter later in the day and said "I meant that I would like to shave my head, not yours because I can't do a thing with mine." Hmmmm.

My daughter also told me that the teacher told her she had a customer scheduled to come in that day but since she saw my daughter's hair at orientation night, she cancelled the appointment. Why would she schedule a customer to come in when the Juniors were going to play games all day Friday and were not going to do any work? It was the first day for crying out loud. The Seniors don't start until Monday. And, don't you think the Seniors would be more apt to work with potential customers than the Juniors who don't even know what they are doing, yet? To me this was a blatant effort to make my daughter feel bad.

So, what is it I want to teach my daughter? That is where the problem lies. If we fight this thing and she gets to keep the red hair, how is that going to lay the groundwork for the relationship between her teacher and herself for the year? Pretty ugly if I know human nature to be what it is. I am also picking up bad vibrations from the way this teacher speaks to my daughter.

My first instinct is to fight it. If we win, then change the hair color to a more normal one. If we don't win, she will have to change it regardless. I didn't sleep very well last night. I have a big family get together today 200 miles away. It is going to be a long day, but at least I will get to discuss this subject with my sisters who are older and wiser about kids and school conflicts than I. And,, by that I mean that they learned the hard way. Two of my sisters were school teachers. They went a couple of rounds with school staff in an effort to fight for their kids. Was it worth it? I think they may regret it and I will find out today.

I also have at my disposal a wealth of advice from my colleagues. There is another career center in another county that I work with. I can get advice from them. I personally work on friendly terms with two of the nine administrators listed at our career center. Not that I want to ask for any favors from them, but I can get their advice on the situation. One of them I am quite close to.

I know what my Mom would have done. She would simply say "Change your hair." And, that would be the end of it. Sigh. Sometimes I feel like such a rebel but not in a good way. Other times I feel like I have a problem with authority. But, who doesn't from time to time? The main issue for me is "Are they being fair, or is one person just being difficult?" Then if that is the case, am I myself being difficult? And again, I want to scream out "Aren't the Arts supposed to be a display of creativity and originality?" Do I want to suppress that talent in my daughter? Hell, no! This is the part of me that gets fired up and says to myself "Hell or high water, we are going to fight this thing!" Then the little voice comes creeping in (probably my Mother's, LOL!) "Don't make waves. Go with the flow. It will be easier on you that way. Less stress."

Mudville

This is a photo of one of the 4 schools that I put up with in the school district for over 3 weeks. Usually my job is much easier. Normally I would only have to come out to the building twice or so to setup and configure my equipment. This summer was a comedy of errors with this district. What a fiasco. And in a couple of years (if that contractor was right) the building(s) will fall apart anyway.

Between this mess, my sparring with my home Internet cable support, this oppressive heat, I now get the word from the career center my daughter is attending that she must get rid of her "magenta" hair.

Mama Bear is mad. My daughter went back to the blond on top, bright red in the middle and black on the bottom. Her home school did not have a problem with it. This career center has a cosmetology department. Of course they can have pink and lime green hair if they so choose. She is in a program called Graphic Arts. This subject in and of itself is an expression of artistic creativity. The reason she must change her hair color? They must meet with customers from time to time to do a project for them and they must present a professional appearance.

Mama Bear is still mad. I told my daughter we have about four choices. We can:

1. Ignore this and see if they will actually kick her out
2. Change her hair color (they have given us 2 weeks) If we choose this option I want a longer time frame because it is too harsh on the hair.
3. Buy a wig
4. Fight them

Of course she wants me to go with number four. I said "You have to realize the consequences. Do you really want to begin your two year education on this subject this way? It could make it pretty rough on you the rest of the year if we do win."

The first thing I am going to tackle is the school rules. Is the "hair" policy by a classroom basis or is it an overall school rule? If it is a school rule, then the pink and lime hair has to go. I also told her that she just spent the summer with black and blond only. Would it be so bad to go back to that? It all boils down to what do I want to teach my daughter? It's only hair.

Do I want to teach her that this is life, sometimes we have to bend to the rules a little bit, or do I want to fight for her - that I think it is unfair that they are making her (and only her) change her hair coloring. Mind you, a couple of students in her class have eyebrow, nose, cheek and tongue piercings.

I also got on line immediately to see who the potential customers of this program would be. I will go to each and every one of them and ask them if they mind the hair color if I have to. Unfortunately, the list only produced a couple of live hits on the Internet. The others I will look up in the telephone directory. I'll go the distance if I am inclined to. It all depends on how I feel in the next couple of days. I will be seeking advice from my sisters.

This red has bled into her blond a lot and created a pink (magenta?) hue. Perhaps I should go back to the salon and see what they can do to fix it up. Or, change the red to auburn. Mama Bear is getting fired up again and it is getting late. I have a big day ahead of me tomorrow.

Green Beans straight from the garden

"Well, somebodies garden." That's what my Mom used to say. She had a garden for years. If she was serving something and it wasn't from our garden or years after we stopped having a garden that is what she would say. Somebodies garden.

The photo above is from my grocery store. I thought I would try to take some produce pictures. One blog that I visit has a theme every Thursday. He says "Because Thursday is grocery night." I asked him if he takes the pictures in the grocery store. He said that he does, but he does it without anyone who works there seeing. Well, today I did 3 pictures. Bananas, peaches and green beans. And, I would like to know how in the heck he manages it. First thing I did was turn the flash off. And, I was still nervous. Oh, well. So here you have the green beans. I don't think I'll be doing any more. I'm not cut out for the sneaky stuff.

And, are people so organized that they actually DO go to the grocery store on a set day every week? Ack! When I leave for work I ask myself the following questions: 1. Do I have enough energy to go grocery shopping? 2. Do I have enough money to go grocery shopping? 3. Do I have appointments, errands or visits tonight? and 4. Am I hungry? Cause if I'm hungry, I am NOT going grocery shopping. Big mistake! Actually, I envy folks who are that organized. I barely know what day it is.

I wrote the "Me and FTP" tale that I spoke of a few days back. It is L.O.N.G.! Now, I have to write about the Todd the Technician episode. My speed seems to be back to normal. My download tests are averaging about 3000kbps and upload of 700kbps. Oh, well.

I still haven't brought the pictues of the mud at the construction sites off my work computer to home, yet. I was showing some folks today. What a mess. My manager told me not to go out there again until next week. And only if I have to go. I am hoping I can do everything remotely now that I have access to my equipment via telnet.

My nephew's house warming party is Saturday. It is about 2 hours away. My daughter starts school tomorrow. Hey, why isn't she in bed? Gotta go!

Thing One and Thing Two

I called the vet's office today to make an appointment. Since it is going to be over $100 just to get their leukemia tests, heart worm tests and the office visit, I need to wait until after payday. So Monday it is. I definitely see some serious ear mite activity going on. She asked for their names and it threw me, since we haven't named them yet. You don't name what you aren't going to keep, right? (LOL!) I said "Let's just call them Thing One and Thing Two." She laughed. She said the vet will decide about their shots when they get the results from the leukemia tests back.

My daughter said her friend will take the gray one and she wants to keep the orange one. Whatever. We'll see. My daughter wants to get rid of Moose since she keeps throwing up. I can't do that! After a certain amount of time, I bond with the critter. Look at my bird. She is back in my bedroom temporarily until we get the kittens checked over. Boy, do they love the laser light beam. They are very playful, active and curious. After the first mess in the litter box, their stool has been solid. The orange one has glassy eyes. I don't like the looks of that. No sneezing. Nothing coming out of their noses. Coats look good.

I keep reminding my daughter to wash her hands carefully after each visit to them and gave her a fresh new cylinder of anti-bacterial wipes. She has wiped down her keyboard and mouse, too. They have their own room, litter box and dishes.

Well, I did not have any bouts of conflict today. Relief. In fact I solved a couple of problems that made me feel pretty good. All my schools were up and running today. They are ready for the office people to come back and prepare for the opening of school. I really hope that I do not have to see any more construction sites or construction workers for many, many months. Hopefully, years.

I watched "Wild Hogs" this evening. I was not crazy about it. I like Martin Lawrence and Tim Allen. I also like Wm. H. Macy and Ray Liotta. I can tolerate John Travolta. When Blade made his appearance, I was like "Who is that? Who is that?" Aha! It took me a few seconds. Who else for a biker movie?

What a day!

Seagull waiting for food at Conneaut, Lake Erie

Northeast Ohio's high speed cable connection is having serious problems. One particular technician named Todd (was too afraid to give me his last name) is especially having problems tonight. A few other techs gave me their last name. They have nothing to fear. I am pretty sure that Todd has had his life threatened before. I really, really hope that my high speed Internet provider records their customer calls and that they actually play them back. Hope, hope, hope I do. I called Todd a difficult a$$hole. He asked me to please refrain from using that type of language with him. Which I did, but I still called him the most difficult technician I have ever worked with. He hung up on me. I told my daughter that I had bit my tongue no less than eight times before I finally laid into him about his rudeness to me.

Oh, there was a lot more to the situation. Which I am way too upset to go into here. It happened five hours ago and I am still fired up about it. I called Customer Service. Okay, it took me four times (I repeat - four times) and almost an hour to get the customer complaint made against Todd, but I did it. Two calls ended up in dead air when the technician tried to transfer me to Customer Service and I had to hang up and try again. I am not completely satisfied, but that is all I can do. They make it so difficult to get around the bizarre automated phone system. I am persistent if I am anything.

One support technician gave me an 800 number for Customer Service, it ended up being disconnected and I got a recording giving me another toll free number, which just so happened to be the number I had been dialing in the first place. Four times to get through to somebody who would lodge a complaint about Todd the technician who had studied networking. He never said he passed any certifications, he just kept saying that he had studied networking so he knew what he was talking about. Well, maybe he did, but I don't tolerate condescending and rude.

So, I figure their Customer Service department is their technical support department and vise versa. I am still really fired up. Two technicians did apologize for Todd's rude behavior (the women) and I thanked them.

Anyway, while dialing the toll free number, I finally get the message that my high speed Internet provider is experiencing difficulties in my area of Ohio because of the recent storms and flooding.

This was one sour post today. If I offended anyone I am sorry, but it feels great to punch the keys on this keyboard and just lay it all out. I am seriously getting depressed about the state of things I see on a daily basis and I am getting sick and tired of it. So, do I take the easy way out and ask my doctor for nerve pills so I can settle down? Or can I do something about it? I want to write a letter to the editor of the newspaper for starters. Yeah, that would go over like a lead zeppelin.

Oh, bother. Well, for all you pet lovers out there you will be happy to know that my daughter "forced" me to bring home two kittens we found outside a small diner this evening. We were returning my sister's dog to her and stopped for a quick bite and there they were. Clean, friendly, older kittens. We have them quarantined in the back room until I can get them to the vet's office. Sigh. Please, no lectures. I can't take it. I'll try to find homes for them, but I know that is unrealistic.

Oh, and I locked myself out of the house today. I was so upset dealing with that technician today that I grabbed my laptop out of my car to do some troubleshooting and took it down to the basement. In an absent minded moment, I threw my keys on the table with it. We took off and "wham" out the door I am. I have an extra car key in my purse and I called my sister (the one we were meeting to take the dog back to) and told her to bring our extra house key. She brought me a hand full of keys, and said she hoped one of them was it. My daughter picked it out first try and we got back into the house, which was a blessing because the two new kittens were trying their best to get out of the box that the diner gave us to carry them in.

I'll get pictures of them tomorrow. For now, I want them to relax and settle down and I want to settle down, too. Grrrr. Then this evening we are sitting at the school for my daughter's orientation and she informs me that tonight is Wednesday. I thought to myself, "Oh no! I missed an appointment at 5:00 p.m.! How in the world did I tell my sister I would meet her tonight when I knew that I had an appointment?!" Of course, I was just sick about it and it was well into ruining my evening when a friend told me that "No, this is Tuesday evening." Cripes. I just want the day to be over with.

Ol' Blue eyes

The goats wanted all the attention at the fair. Most of the horses wanted to be left alone and all of the pigs wanted left alone. The rabbits were beautiful, but I was tired of taking pictures by the time we reached their barn. Goats are natural clowns.

We have to take our little adopted dog back tomorrow. Probably a good thing. Sable and the little rascal have been fighting a lot lately. Growling, snarling and biting at each other. It isn't playful biting, either. Oh, well.

That was a good one!

This is a photo taken by my sister at the fair. It looks as if she just told the horse a good joke. Which we did a lot of also. My photos of my niece are actually worse than the ones I took at the Pat Benatar concert. My camera is not real good in the zoom department. My sister sat us up in the grand stands instead of directly in front of the stage, so pictures are blurry.

She was remarkable. Her voice was giving her problems that day and she had a slight problem with the low notes, but she can nail the high notes. She enters all kinds of karaoke contests so she knew what songs she wanted to perform. I think she did about six, three of my favorites are a remake of Tammy Wynette's "Til I Can Make it On My Own", Martina McBride's "My Baby Loves Me (Just the Way that I Am)" and Carrie Underwood's "Before He Cheats."

Can I buy just one?

The theme for Photo Friday this week was old. I dug out the old stamp collection started by my eldest brother back in the 50's. Here we have a stamp that costs 1.5 cents. I guess purchasing just one was not an option.

Sour grapes

Grapes a bit on the tart side

I like grapes. If they are a bit too sour, I add them to a salad. I like romaine lettuce leaves, cottage cheese, Swiss (or some other cheese - mozzarella is good), black olives, sweet onions, green peppers, cherry tomatoes and anything else I have to throw into the salad. Grilled chicken, fresh deli turkey, even pepperoni on occasion. My favorite dressing is French. On the side. Once in a while I will use Ranch or Italian.

I don't think I have "sour grapes" about anything in particular in life. At least, I hope I don't. I am pretty much at a place where I am content with what I have, what I have achieved and look forward to learning a bit more about technology, creating web pages and digital photography.

Not a lot to post about today. My daughter had a dentist appointment at lunch time and I didn't return to work after that because of a sick headache. I slept most of the afternoon away. I feel much better, now. We did a little more school shopping. Ouch to the pocket book.

She wants to get her hair done and return to the blond on top, red in the middle and black on the bottom. We plan to do that on Sunday. We have a county fair to go to on Saturday. My niece has been asked to sing before the main attraction and we don't want to miss her performance. She sang the national anthem at the opening ceremony and they decided to let her do more.

I am hoping that I am able to get a better photo opportunity than I did at the Pat Benatar concert.

My new hat

It was time

When a school is under construction the first thing they ask you to do is to wear a hardhat. I have been to about a half dozen schools under construction in my 12 years with my work. In the past two weeks I have been to one school district under construction at least 6 times. There are not enough hardhats to go around. Most of the folks bring their own, as I was so rudely told by a gruff worker.

The secretary quipped "Oh, you won't need one. I don't wear one! It would mess up my hair." I figured I'd only be there a time or two. That turned into six. The secretary sits in an office away from the construction. I walk the halls. Oh, the custodians aren't wearing hardhats, either. Workers are welding, pounding, painting, hauling and driving little machines around all over. Once I had to walk under some guy drilling concrete blocks apart at the top of a wall. I was nervous to say the least. Each time they told me, "there are no hardhats".

Today the superintendent of the school was giving a tour. They were all wearing hardhats. He saw me. He was nice about it, but I know that I needed to wear one. I've just never had to bring my own, before. I can probably forget work reimbursing me. I'd have to justify it to the Treasurer of the organization. Needless to say it isn't worth the $7 dollars to argue with her.

For my own personal safety, I got the hat. Since they are few and far between, I made mine personal with flower bathtub appliques. There are about 50 guys on site and two women workers, not counting me. I don't think I will have any problem losing my hat. Do you?

I've started a new place to post my pictures. We'll see how long they let me upload before they tell me that I have reached my limit in storage, or that I must purchase something in order to keep my album open. I don't have near as many photos as I did, but the link is on my sidebar. Can you believe Peruby was already taken? I probably did it a couple of years ago and forgot about it. I've been known to do that from time to time.

No Man's Land

Old truck revisited.

Here is the old truck with a richer hue to it. It may be a bit too much gold.

I got lost today. In the southeastern corner of Tuscarawas county there are no main roads and no schools. I do not travel there very often. I left a school late this afternoon after I had completed a job and thought to myself "Where does this road go?" Naturally I do this when I have very little gas, have not taken a lunch and needed to go to the bathroom. I drove and drove on roads that were given the names with the likes of "Blizzard Ridge", "Hawk Hollow", "Gravel Lick", and "Toad Hollow".

Why do I do this? It seemed like a good idea at the time. Mostly, I want to escape the wiring closet full of blinking lights and wires and electronic humming. The farthest away that I can get is to drive down a gravel road with nothing on either side of me but trees, trees and more trees. Sigh.

I made my way back with my gas light glowing now and then to inform me that I had better find some petrol. I took care of all said necessities and am ready to tackle the construction zone again tomorrow. Fighting with the telephone company. They tell me it is my equipment. I check my equipment. I move interface cards from one place to another in an attempt to jar something into working. Nothing. No CD light. (Carrier Detect, it's like a dial tone on your telephone). My equipment, my ass! Oh, sorry. That was supposed to be kept to myself. I call my manager back. He calls the telephone company back.

More of same tomorrow. I'll let you know where the fault lies. If it is mine, I'll fess up to it.

The other day while working in one of the school buildings under construction, I was making my way down a long dark hallway. During construction, most of the lighting is not wired and there are ghostly dim bulbs hanging every 50 feet or so casting an ugly glow over the cinder blocks, dust and scaffolding littering the hallway. As I walked along the hall, I heard footsteps behind me. They weren't human footsteps. It was the sound of metal on cement. A sort of metal spring noise, scraping on cement. Dare I look back? They were footsteps alright. I could hear them, clank, clank, clank. I quickly turned my head. There was a guy walking on 2 foot tall metal stilts he used for drywall construction. They were strapped to his legs. I felt like I was in some bad science fiction horror movie.

It wasn't anything sinister. I turned the hallway and there was the rest of the construction crew all busy doing their thing. I ducked into the new closet and closed the door behind me shutting out most of the noise and a lot of the dust.

Here is my contribution to Photo Friday Challenge: "Oddity".

Just sit right back...

And you'll hear a tale.

I have a tale. It isn't written yet, but it will be. It is about my experience with technical support, my high speed Internet provider, FTP and my personal web page with said provider.

It spans over 10 days or so and I take very careful notes. I take names, I write times down. I capture screen shots, the works. It will be similar to "My Hell in Dell" post that I wrote about a few years back. Who knew that there is an entire web site that scours the Internet for anyone posting about Dell and Hell together.

Oh, the above photo isn't the U.S.S. Minnow. It's The Maid of the Mist from Niagara.

Tech Support

I called my cable high speed Internet tech support again today. We seem to have the "turbo" figured out. The download speed is fantastic. I am not sure I am going to keep it after 30 days, though.

Anyway, the guy couldn't help me with ftp. He didn't know what ftp was. Certainly he was playing dumb. How can somebody assist me with my high speed Internet and use the terms turbo, Ethernet, wireless, tracert (short for trace route) and ping without knowing what the hell FTP is?

I told him "Never mind. I'll research the problem on the Internet and then call tech support back if I can't get it to work." He said "Thank-you" in a relieved sort of way and hung up. Now, I have waiting in my inbox a survey to fill out. Oh joy.

Is this what I get for calling technical support on the week end?

Invitation making

My friend's Mom

A couple of friends came over today and I scanned one of their Mom's high school graduation picture onto the computer and we worked on making an invitation for her surprise birthday party. Her 75th.

She likes the color red and she likes red roses.

Then we went to Walnut Creek and Sugar Creek to shop. I found a wonderful gift for my nephew for his house warming party. I'll take a picture and show at a later date - just in case he reads this blog. I don't think he does, but you never know.

Of course we stopped at Der Dutchman to eat. I had roast turkey (all white meat), mashed potatoes and gravy with the salad bar and coconut cream pie for dessert. Yum, yum.

I took my camera but after eating like that I got sleepy. I just concentrated on shopping and driving and did not worry about taking pictures. There were many tourists in the area and so many horse and buggies. It was a beautiful day.

My brother turns 50 on Monday. I guess he is having a sister over tonight and his .... You know I don't know what to call her. They were married for a couple of years. Now, they just live together. She is 17 years older than he is. So, I guess that makes her 67 this year. What do you call her? She is his ex-wife. She is hardly a girl friend. She is his woman friend. That's it. His woman friend's family is coming into town.

I forgot to get him a card and send it out. I suppose I could get a belated one. Or, make one like I did above.

Taking a dip

Rhino at the zoo

The weather is warm. This rhino has the right idea. Take a cool dip. I don't have a pool. My daughter has asked for one. Too much maintenance for me, plus we shun the sun.

Watched "Zodiac" tonight. It was pretty good. I liked the character cast.

I spoke with some workers in one of the schools today after I overheard one guy tell a co-worker that he put fire alarm systems in a college last week. He told me mostly what I read on-line. Both he and his co-worker stated that they were pretty sure 180 decibels (yesterday's post) would be incorrect. The co-worker said that would break the windows. Whew. My ears still hurt.

I am ticked off at my high speed Internet provider. I ordered the turbo and was having problems so I called them last night. They said they would have a tech call me. Asked for a good time. I waited all evening. Nothing. I am busy tomorrow all day. Not sure if I want to call them on a Sunday and lay into them. Grrr.

Hearing and headaches

Rushing water of the Niagara river

The river was noisy in a nice and natural way. Most of the charts I researched for hearing and damage to the ears did not use rushing water as a gauge.

Lawn mowers, jet engines, rock concerts and human voices - yes. Most say that prolonged exposure to 85dB or above can cause damage.

As I sat in one of the new school buildings today configuring a router, the construction crew decided to test the fire alarm system. Egad. Good God. Holy Hell. WTF? If the fear of fire does not make you run out of the room, that excruciating blast will.

I was holding my ears, but I could have sworn one of the crew said 180dB. That is one hundred eighty decibels. A car horn is 110 decibels. Rock concerts (I just went to the Pat Benetar one) and jet engines come in at around 120dB. The concert made my chest thump. I began to doubt myself. Maybe he said 80dB, but I doubt it. This alarm didn't make my chest thump, but it did do something very weird to my right ear. It would vibrate a great deal with each blast of the alarm.

House smoke alarms come in at 85dB. The school's was loud. So loud in fact me and two guys had to leave the building. We left an air conditioned building to step out into the 93 degree Fahrenheit heat to escape the sound. I'll bet they tested for 10 minutes straight. Between the blasts of sound and the flash of the strobe light I am amazed that I did not have to take a migraine pill this afternoon.

Needless to say, I did get a headache. But Advil took care of it. It makes my head hurt just to recall the pain that noise made. And that flashing light. And some of the rooms had two alarms in them. They were everywhere.

Huh. The pdf file I just read said that an emergency alarm should not exceed more than 120 decibels. I hope that guy was wrong, but it sure is hard to say judging by the way it ran a few of us out of the building. I may be going to another one of the schools tomorrow. Maybe I can find somebody to ask. My luck, they will be testing the alarms at that building tomorrow. Ear plugs. I must get me some. Sigh. And, a hard hat.

Edit: The more I read up on this, the more I doubt that it was 180dB. According to the research I am doing, over 120db will cause permanent damage. Ouch. I am still hurting.

What a cloudburst

Combined images of the clouds

We left to pick up Chessa today. We are dog sitting for my sister while she camps out for about 10 days. She gets involved in the county fair. She is a great baker of pies, cakes and cookies. She used to work in a bakery, but she just has a knack for that kind of stuff. Baking only interests me on a small scale.

Now, short order cooking is another story. I did that at 15 and I do it today. On top of the stove or grill and I am in my element. The more grease the better.

On the way to pick up the little dog it poured down the rain. There was a highway patrolman blocking the road because of an accident and he was turning everyone around. I am thinking to myself 'How in the heck do I get to where I want to go?' I was a bit familiar with the area, but I didn't want to go off exploring on back roads in the middle of a cloud burst. As I turned around I saw a big yellow school bus and decided to follow him. He led me back to the road we wanted to go on. We had a train of cars following us.

Three school levies in my area were shot down yesterday at the polls. Speaking of shooting, the factory in Ohio today where there were 2 people shot is far away from us.

Ohio has 181 under-deck truss bridges similar to the one that collapsed in Minnesota. I was reading an article where the engineers denied a structural flaw and another article where the construction workers denied that construction had anything to do with the collapse. I realize that one life lost is too many, but I can't help but wonder how fortunate we are that more were not lost. I hate saying that because to the loved ones that lost somebody, it sounds crass.

Along those lines it always bothered me when I read in the newspaper or heard on the news a survivor saying "God was watching out for us." What about the ones who did lose a loved one? Were they not important enough for God to watch out for? It is something that has always bothered me, for somebody to say something like that.

The big spray

Spray from the water hose this evening

My dog is really afraid of water. It is so tempting to spray her with the garden hose. I don't. I talk softly to her and try to reassure her that there is nothing to fear. She walks around me giving me and the water spray a wide berth.

I watered my pumpkin plant, hydrangea and moon flowers this evening. That's all I got that is alive in my yard. No sense in watering the grass. I couldn't water it long enough to do it any good. I read where you are supposed to water in the morning, but I can barely get to work on time so I'll take my chances with watering in the evening and possible mildew.

Work didn't make my morning any better. My manager was in hyper mode. He must have sent ten emails in the span of 30 minutes. Do this, take care of that, then do this. Sheesh. When I would get around to taking care of one fire, come to find out he had already taken care of it. I hate it when he gets into these episodes. I emailed my co-worker at another office. He felt the same way. He was getting the same onslaught of emails. I opened a ticket up on one elementary building's T1 circuit on Thursday. I took a vacation day on Friday. My manager closed the ticket. This morning he is barking at me to call the circuit in. I called the circuit in asking who had closed it. My manager had. What fun this is. My manager said he didn't know why he had closed it. He needs help.

I don't want to make anything for dinner. I told my daughter to fix it. She balks. She is 16 and won't try anything. I push a little here and there. No dice. Not at all interested. Maybe microwave macaroni and cheese, bagels and pop tarts. That and plenty of cereal. Whatever. You know that carbohydrate/starch diet will catch up to her.

I have the stuff to make tuna noodle casserole which she dearly loves, but she won't begin to try to make it. I guess I'll shuffle off to the kitchen and make it. It has cooled down enough to bake.

Melancholy Monday

Party lights from the fiesta. It was loud and colorful, but this Monday morning I am melancholy. I can't use Firefox this morning for one thing, and that has me ticked off.

I ordered the turbo boost for my Internet and it worked okay for a couple of days,but then the cable guy came to fix my television cable and since then my turbo seems to have turned into no-go. Ah, I will call them again.

I don't have much to say about the fiesta other than the fact that I wasn't drinking and I should have left a lot sooner than I did. But, I insisted on helping to clean up and I got a drink poured on me and then I had to leave or somebody was going to end up in the fire and it wasn't going to be me. Guaranteed.

I did sit with my eldest brother for over an hour going over genealogy stuff. He has researched so much on our family history. It is amazing. I have the program that he uses and I need to get an update of the latest file from him that contains all the names.

Yuck! Why do I have to insert html for line breaks while using Explorer? That's tedious. I am off for a glorious Monday, I can tell.

Rojo

Red hot peppers

Here are the peppers we are going to use to decorate our sombreros. I made tissue paper flowers today, too. As I see it, a fiesta is all about spicy food and colors. Bright, bold colors. My kinda party. I'm all rested up with having a vacation day and the cable guy came and fixed our cable. I had a new cable box installed in May and have been noticing that movies break up (digital cubes on the screen) constantly. Not only when a sunspot passes by or something like that. All the time.

It took me a few months, but I finally had enough. This summer we have not had the television on very much. He came and saw that we had a six-way splitter (the previous cable company installed) and he narrowed it down to two and we are picture perfect again.

I am making calico beans and seven layer taco dip for the party at my sister's house. She said her entire house smells like a taco. It is going to be hot, hot, hot! I think that four out of five sisters will be there and two out of three brothers. And all the other folks, too.

Here are some of the tissue paper flowers I made.

Pat Benatar and band

Football Hall of Fame - Rib Burn off

Sorry, this was the best I got. I was too far away and the sound system had a structure over them (sans tarp) that blocked most of our view. But we certainly could hear Pat and the band. There she did not disappoint. Her voice was as vibrant as ever.

Now, as for her outfit. I can tell you for a fact it was 93 degrees Fahrenheit when we walked into the Stark County fair grounds. I can also tell you there was not much of a breeze. What I cannot tell you is why Pat dressed head to toe in solid black. She had a long-sleeve tunic on over top of black bell bottoms. I thought for sure she would change her clothes into something a bit more suitable for the heat. Not a chance. Her hair was tidy and smooth. She looked like a bank teller. Oh, well. I guess she used to BE a bank teller, eh?

At this site, you can search "Pat Benatar" and her May 2007 photos that come up are pretty much what she looked like tonight. She sang her heart out and the crowd roared. And I realized that darn it - I really like(d) a lot of her songs!

I was also able to post The Photo Friday Challenge for Loud before the deadline.

More fun with the truck

Using layers in Paint Shop Pro, I brought out the pinkish rust of the truck. I just read my e-mail where Tabor left a comment about the previous post. More brown, comin' up. There is something about this picture that I like, too. I have always liked old time trucks and it just seems to take me back to a more simpler time.

We found a kitchen decoration with a dozen bright, red plastic hot peppers on it. We plan to disassemble it to decorate our hats. I'll take pictures!