Clouds in my coffee

Sunset silhouette

I noticed clouds in my coffee this morning. I went to move the cup of hot Joe out of my way while putting my make-up on and I saw what looked like a bunch of clouds in there. I thought "Huh. Clouds in my coffee." Sounds like a song, eh? hee, hee.

So, I started thinking. What did Carly mean by that phrase? Was it a bad omen? I don't put much regard into that type of thinking, so I promptly forgot about it. I went on to work and what a day I had. I felt good at the start. I had a small success with a cabling issue. Then it all went downhill. I'll bet I spent three hours straight walking back and forth between a school basement dungeon (where the phone lines come in) and to the dark and dirty closet on the 2nd floor.

The telco insisted that their line was good. I tried every trick I had and then some to get that T1 line to come up. The school has 4 others, so it wouldn't miss that fifth one. It was the fact of that matter that the telco brushes us off. I was going to make damn sure it wasn't anything I could fix. I swapped cables, I re-routed cables, I re-crimped cables. I moved cables from one interface to another. I re-configured interfaces. I increased the differential-time delay. I was grasping.

The fifth T1 line remains in an unusableFault state. I have read Cisco web pages until my eyes dried up and fell onto my desk and I had to soak them in a glass of water before I could put them back into their sockets. Maybe there is a limit vector going on here.

I don't have any other school with 5 T1's (7720MB approximate) bonded together into one big pipe. I had one with four. They were in another area code and that area code got fiber. Our area code does not offer fiber. Between the telephone company and the cable company - it is a no go. Fiber offers the schools 10MB of bandwidth. They can go hog wild.

I'll be back at it tomorrow, drinking coffee, pushing the clouds out of the way. Oh, it is still hot in the closet. I tracked a custodian down to empty the air conditioner pan. It stops working when the pan becomes full of water. I asked him to wash the filthy filter, too. I replaced the power supply in the ATM switch (the other one burned up - surprise, surprise).

For now, I am back to reading all about Troubleshooting ATM IMA links... (yawn).

A little ball of dynamite

Chessa a Schipperke

We get to babysit Chessa for 10 days in August. This breed is one mighty feisty ball of energy. She does settle down in the evening and is very jealous of cats. She cries when her owner leaves and races around the house like a Tasmanian devil. In fact, I think she resembles one.

I was out visiting tonight. I have a headache. About 15 people showed up at my brother's house and the guys kept throwing little Nerf and plastic balls over our heads in an attempt to make it into a child's basketball hoop. I got hit many times. Add to this a dog that is half German Shepherd and half Rottweiler running around slobbering. Four children under 10 and my head is ready to explode.

I took my brother dinner, but we couldn't eat because of the sheer number of visitors they had drop by. My brother had told me last week that they always have people at their house. Well, it must be the central location.

I saw something very sad. My sister-in-law's Mother came down to visit. This is one sweet lady. I like her very much. I looked over and her ankles were black. A deep purplish black. I almost got sick. I recall that she has circulation problems and a very bad case of varicose veins, but I had never seen the circulation so poor that the ankles turned that dark. Maybe in a photo, but never three feet away from me.

My SIL had made zucchini bread and cake with cream cheese icing. The cake was delicious! I told her I want the recipe. Well, I want the cream cheese icing more, but whatever it takes. Which reminds me of a joke I heard a long time ago.

Question: "How do you know when somebody doesn't have any friends?"

Answer: "They have to buy their zucchini in a grocery store!"

LOL! I plan to buy some this week-end so I can make the cake. Poor, poor pitiful me. Actually, I'll find a farmer's market and get me some.

More glowing

My nephew is enjoying his camera features

This is more colorful movement on the night of the fireworks with the glow sticks. Too much fun!

I was working with a Cisco engineer today and I wasn't quite following what he was telling me. At one point he just blurted out, "I'm not explaining it right." I could tell he was exasperated. In other words he was telling me 'You have no idea of what I am talking about!' LOL!

Glowing creature

Jumping rope with the glow sticks

At the front and east end of my house is where we sit to watch the fireworks. Waiting for them to start, we handed out the glow sticks. One creative young one made a jump rope and my nephew captured him in a photograph. July 7th, 2007 during my party.

Night Blooms

The first of my moonflowers this year

Bob Seger had his Night Moves, I have my night blooms. I love this flower. It happens to grow very well in my soil. They are perennial, the lady before me planted them (or the folks before her) and I have relocated two sets of them. One in the front of my patio which came up this year and the other by my back porch, which didn't come up this year. Not sure what happened there.

I hear through relatives that a few other folks had the same little bug that I had this past week-end. The kind that makes you want to stay close to home and comfortable surroundings.

I didn't get to any more movies today. I did hit a cook-out at my daughter's boyfriend's house. I made deviled eggs to take with me.

While in Niagara I had pulled a muscle in my side. I did it while jumping into the driver seat of the rental car and I guess I wasn't used to the car and I was in a hurry because traffic was heavy. Anyway, each time I laughed it hurt. If you know me and my family that is what we do best. Laugh, laugh, laugh. It passed in a few days, as most pains do, but at the cook-out I laughed and I thought "Oh, no! The pain is back." I was telling my daughter about it when we got home. I said I didn't know what I had done because I had rested all week-end. Then I remembered. My 83 lb. dog. I lifted her into the tub to bath her. Oy vay! How many days will it take this time before it goes away?

A rose by any other color

A beautiful rose in bloom behind my office

For lunch Thursday I took a walk. For some bizarre reason most of my photos came out blurry, I must have been having a bad day. Except for this one. It was the only decent picture of the roses that I got. At first I described it as apricot and then I quickly realized that I was off course. Pinkish/orange salmon or coral? Either way, it sure is purdy.

I wonder what the people in their houses think when I walk into their driveway and start taking pictures of their flowers? If I saw someone I would immediately go up to them and explain what I was doing and compliment them on their beautiful blossoms, but at this house they never come out. It is only 2 feet off the alley and I am quick. But this is the second time I have photographed their roses. I don't step on their grass and I never touch the flower. I just step in their driveway, snap and step back out. Well, I think I just figured out why most of my photos were blurry.

My daughter went here today with friends. I have the day to myself and I have caught something. Just enough to put me down a bit. I had a touch of it yesterday and Thursday, so I am resting today. Movies and rest. Light work on the side if I feel like it.

I am trying to find someway I can get back the 2 hours of my life I wasted on this movie. It was horribly, horribly bad. I also watched Premonition and still feel like Sandra Bullock has no acting range, or if she does she is hiding it. Same character, same looks, movie after movie after movie.

Golden Elvis

That's a real guy in there

Yep. He was real. He was handing out gold bead necklaces at $2 a pop. What a racket. I didn't want a gold beaded necklace nor did I want to go anywhere near this metallic monstrosity. My zoom let me see all I wanted of him.

The next day at the casino my sister said there was a head-to-toe gold guy wearing a toga. I wonder if it was the same one. Probably.

Photo Friday Challenge this week is vacation. Gee, I don't think I have a problem finding a photo to choose from there!

Misty

Taken from Journey Beneath the Falls

I discovered a co-worker was at Niagara Falls a week before I was. He said his wife came down with food poisoning the day they left the area. He also remarked on the Nazi-like conduct of the border patrol. We were expecting that type of behavior from them.

The Journey Beneath the Falls was exhilarating in the fact that the spray coming from the falls invigorated you. It was akin to running through a sprinkler when you were young. Just fun stuff and everybody was laughing and giggling. The grass there was so lush and green you wanted to run and get a horse and let it chomp away.

Of course you had to take a dark, dank and basement smelly tunnel to get there. What got to all of us the most was the sheer number of pushy people. They would not take turns or stay to the right as we were directed. They jumped into the left side of the tunnel in some selfish effort to get ahead of the rest of us and in the meantime blocking the tourists coming out of the tunnel. At one lookout point we just got tired of the mass of rude people pushing to the front and waiting for our turn that was never going to come, that we just turned around and went back down the tunnel. We refused to sink to their level and push our way to the lookout.

I hesitate to pinpoint any nationality of people, but there were busloads and they literally stepped on you or pushed up against you. It was as if they were raised in a country so crowded that it has become normal for them to push, push, push. It can ruin it for you. I did tell my sisters that I read somewhere that many foreign folks were brought up in a rude and barbaric culture, so I guess they cannot be totally to blame.

We passed up some of the side trips because of this crowd. The next day it was just another busload and more pushing and shoving. Stepping on toes. You couldn't even say anything to them because they did not speak English. And they were long gone anyway, pushing past other unsuspecting tourists.

For the most part, the trip was a memorable one. I need to plan better next time and try to go during a less busy season. Maybe that will help.

Dots

The butterflies in the conservatory at Niagara Falls seemed to like my daughter's headband. I can see why this one liked it, because it has dots that match but before we left we had to get one of the workers to remove a bright orange striped one. Since we were not supposed to touch them we asked him to remove it before we left. He uses a soft piece of felt to lift them off. Very gently.

Do you ever notice how some hair stylists are gentle when they do your hair and others are quite rough? I had a stylist today who was ever so gentle. It was quite refreshing. No poking me with the comb, no combing the tops of my ears off. In fact I barely kept my eyes open. It was hypnotizing. I aim to remember her name so that I can request her again.

I am getting back into the swing of work, I think. Disappointment. The usual. Not disappointed in me, but in my organization 's leadership. My heart sinks. I must keep my head up. I must take pride in my work.

Speaking with a school worker today, she said her son had just taken a trip to Niagara Falls. She said he called and asked her to put more money into his bank account because it was so much more expensive than he thought it would be. Yep. That seems to be the sentiment. Maybe a tour bus would be a better deal for folks.

I would skip: Maid of the Mist, Skywheel and Montana's restaurant. Hey, I didn't think about it at the time but maybe her son lost his money in the casino. Yikes.

While my sisters went to the casino my daughter and I caught the show: Cirque Niagara's Avaia in Niagara Falls. If you are thinking of going to this show, you may not want to spring the extra dough for the ringside seats for two reasons. The arena seating is small enough that you can see all the show from anywhere and so many seats down in the front are left empty, some folks just move into them from their cheaper seats after the show begins.

The show was stunning where it brings horses and acrobats together. No photos allowed so I did not get to record the event. Boo. I don't like attention and I was singled out to be a comedy sketch with one of the clowns. When I realized what was happening I was mortified. The incident seemed to last an eternity and nearly ruined the show for me. I played along but was silently praying for it to end quickly. For the rest of the show, every time the clown came out, I was so afraid that he was going to come back over to continue the sketch. I know it is all fun and games, but I wish they had picked a younger girl who would giggle and entertain the crowd more. I was like "get away from me!" I think my daughter got a kick out of it, though. There is a third reason NOT to buy ringside seats!

775 feet above the falls

The view from the Skylon Revolving Restaurant

The menu on-line says that the cheesecake is 9.50 per slice. The menu I saw on Friday night said 11.00 - Canadian. It was still the best food we had during our entire time there.

I am in the process of slamming Montana's cookhouse via an on-line comment. I need to find my receipt, though to finish it. That place was a disaster from the time we sat down. I'll never eat there again.

But the Skylon was fabulous. The only setback was no ladies room on the floor of the restaurant. Men's yes, ladies a floor up where the Observation deck was. What is up with that? The view from the revolving restaurant was spectacular. We picked 8:30 p.m. to dine and the clouds were almost melodic in nature.

The tower itself is 520 feet high. The restaurant revolves once per hour. I probably took a continuous stream of photos for 50 minutes straight. It was a beautiful experience that I have no regret doing whatsoever.

One Ominous Photo

With a cloud cover as shown and the day being Friday the 13th we were lead like cattle to a slaughter in our blue plastic rain covers. Herded onto the boat to sail into one of the most powerful waterfalls in the Northern Hemisphere. Maid of the Mist. I barely got wet enough to even wear the plastic. Journey Behind the Falls was much more exciting. Bah!

Still resting up and recovering. We retrieved the big galoot today. I think she is really depressed now that she knows how the other half lives. Real dog lovers who don't leave for work every day and spoiled her something awful. I return to work tomorrow. Yippee Skippy.

Rainbow Bridge

The rainbow over the Horseshoe falls. Whew. I'm whipped. I'll post more tomorrow.

The big galoot

I miss her already, the big galoot!

We drove Sable to my sister's house this evening. We won't pick her up until Sunday. She saw me put my shoes on and pick my purse up and she was trying to get out the door. How do they know? She will be spoiled rotten up there. Three retired dog lovers. They had BLT's and she wouldn't even look at the bacon. I ran out the basement garage door and closed it before she could get there. My daughter and her beau went out the front. Arrgghh!

Tomorrow morning, we are headed up through Ohio, PA and Buffalo to Niagara Falls. We are staying on the Canadian side. My cell phone provider could not tell me if I had coverage in Canada or not. He had the tiniest map. I'll see what I can find on line. He tried to sell me 100 minutes for $10 but after holding for 15 minutes he told me that I was probably covered. Double Arrgghh!

This afternoon I was hit with the "after-the-event" crash. I crashed. I slept for 2 hours. That is not normal for me at all. The most I would ever sleep in the afternoon is a 20 minute cat nap. I awoke and thought I was going to get an "after-the-event" migraine. It didn't materialize. Hooray! I have a full month's worth of my headache prescription for the trip, so I am good to go. I guess I'll start packing. Nothing like waiting til the last minute, huh?

Tired

My 7/7/07 Independence day bash:

39 people showed. 10 didn't, but extras came that I was not expecting, so it all evened out. I invited 40, hoped for 30. I did not purchase fireworks, but one nephew brought some. The grass was very dry, but all went okay. The glow sticks were the big hit again. My niece brought a sno cone maker - also a big hit. (Non alcoholic sno cones). My sister brought the bar - literally. She brought an oak bar for my patio. I will get a picture of it soon. She completely stocked the bar also. I only had to bring out my gin for one gin drinker. I had beer in the coolers, but she used to be a bartender so she mixed the drinks.

I had so much food and beer left over that five stayed over again for Sunday to party. They went to a car show at the festival over the hill in our town park. The heat was too intense. So many cars didn't show because of high gas prices and the heat.

I did not take one picture. I usually don't if I am hosting. My nephew got some awesome ones of the kids running around in the glow sticks and of the fireworks. He is going to be very busy though because his computer crashed, he bought a house and will be moving, so I don't think I will see the pictures for a while.

The above photo is layers of my Christmas tree lights from December. I thought they might pass for fireworks.

Me, my daughter and two sisters are headed for Niagara Falls on Wednesday so I have plenty more to do. You can bet I'll take pictures of this trip! I am still cleaning up after the party. The old dishwasher has had a work out. I handed food out left and right because there will be nobody here to eat it. I am taking our dog to my sister's to babysit and she is getting a cooler full of beer and pop. She is having a get together on the 4th of August.

Peruby very tired. Yawn.

Busy, busy, busy

Can you believe it? The theme for Photo Friday Challenge this week is busy. The above photo is a shot of my kitchen before the party. Out of chaos... and all that stuff. I have been going non-stop since eleven a.m. this morning. Five hours straight. I am ready for a break. My feet are killing me. 23 hours before the hoopla.

The fog on the lake

There was no fog. This is a creation of three pictures planted on top of each other. I have been having some fun creating since I realized I could do layers at three times the speed in Power Point that I can in Photo Shop or Paint Shop Pro.

We went to the lake's fireworks show last night. My daughter is 16 and she is beginning to realize what we all do sooner or later. Things are not as spectacular as they used to be. She made the comment about how short they were. I have two theories on this. 1. As we age we find that the more fireworks we see, the less awesome they are because we have more to compare our current experience to and 2. They finished them off just before the rain came, so maybe they hurried things along as it began sprinkling.

We took her beau and his younger sister with us. We should have taken her to the zoo with us. They all had more fun lying on the blanket creating art with the tube of 100 neon light sticks I brought along. I bought 3 tubes for the party and let them have one for tonight. My daughter's beau was very creative and made her a flower by biting little holes into the plastic connectors. He also had to bite into one with the glow liquid just to see what it tasted like. My daughter cautioned him, saying that she did it once and it turned her tongue numb. Yuck. He said it tasted pretty awful. Of course, I told him not to do it again. Kids will be kids.

It was chilly up on the hill and I had packed plenty of blankets and sweat shirts. As it turned out, I needed the warmth. I also brought a fold-up lawn chair for myself. The kids can sit on the ground for three hours. I can't. Well, not without a lot of pain.

The air is damp and cool today. Our town festival is in full swing. I may take some time today or tomorrow to go over the hill to succumb to a sausage sandwich. I have been watching the weather channel and they keep saying that Saturday will be low 80's and sunny. Having the entire week off from work before my party has helped me tremendously. I am actually getting everything that I wanted to get done accomplished. It also helped that my trash pick-up day is on Wednesday and that got pushed back a day, so I have more trash out of my house before the party. As in the way of kitty litter.

Since I am serving alcohol, I have accommodations for five extra people that I can place in my daughter's bedroom and our basement. My basement is fully finished and sectioned off into two big rooms, and a laundry room with a full bath/shower. On one side I have a day bed with a trundle pull-out bed and on the other side I have a sleeper sofa. The lady that lived here before me had completely set up the house. I told my real estate agent, I wanted a house that I would not have to make a lot of repairs to because I can't get up on the roof or tile a floor. Well, okay - I could do those things if I had to but they wouldn't be pretty.

Most of my company has one driver that doesn't drink. I am hoping for a crowd of at least 25, but I have planned for 40. Most is family with a few friends that show up. I had to purchase blank music CD's. I have not bought them in years. I am busy making music CD's for the get together. A lot of oldies for me and my sisters. If somebody likes the music I just pop out the CD when it is done and give it to them.

As I sat on the hill last night overlooking the lush green trees and a small section of the lake while looking up at a cloudy and effervescent sky; a serene calm came over me. You know the feeling. That everything is right with the world. I guess I am in a place in my life where I am content. Not just content, but very content. My daughter and I had a few turbulent years, but are growing closer all the time. I am settling into my life, enjoying my job and am able to pay my bills. Things get a little scary from time to time, but for the most part they are smoothing out.

The migraines are still a pain, but the miracle of the medicine has given me my life back. No longer do I lose hours and days to the monster. For the most part it brings me back to living a normal life in a couple of hours. Okay, enough with my complacency. Back to work getting ready for the big bang.

It's Independence Day

The eagle photo is mine (taken at the Cleveland Zoo yesterday) and the flag background can be found here. The title of my post today is the same as a song penned by Gretchen Peters and performed so soulfully by Martina McBride. To grow up in a family with alcoholism we find ourselves escaping. Whether it is outside of the house, in a book, or eventually into alcohol ourselves one day. The song is a favorite of one of my sister's.

How I wish that I had not posted the Photo Friday theme before yesterday. The elephant area was the first we went to at the zoo. I was not tired of taking pictures since I was just beginning so I got plenty of shots of "gray" elephants. Ah, well. Here is what I posted.

We had a great day at the zoo. Wonderful weather. The traffic was a bit hectic and I lost my way while driving to the Interstate leaving the zoo, but I soon righted myself. I told my daughter, forget the map, I will follow my nose. I turned right one time and there in front of us was the exit to the very by-pass we were looking for. I've driven to Cleveland many times to the zoo, museum, theatre - so I just followed my gut feelings.

This is a day for cleaning and getting ready for the party, so I must get to work.

Motherly advice

Fuzzy picture because I used my maxium zoom (12x) of the Mother Bird and baby on my neighbor's landscaping trim.

The other morning, I am thinking it was Saturday, I went out onto my front porch to retrieve the paper and saw a baby bird making quite a mess as birds are prone to do (if you know what I mean). I noticed he wasn't moving and I opened the door. He hopped off the porch across the part of the yard between my house and my neighbors and attempted to fly. He smacked into the side of their house and just barely missed falling into their window well. He landed on their landscaping trim next to a coleus and there he remained for about an hour.

Mother Bird was nearby encouraging him. He had no tail that I could see. Maybe this comes later? My daughter and I watched him for about an hour and the Mother Bird kept feeding him worms and chirping what was either warnings or encouragement. Eventually I took my own Mother's advice and left nature alone. When we looked outside later he and the Mother Bird were gone. I really hope that he figured out how to fly and nothing bad happened to him.

For a lady who lived her first 20 years secluded on a small family farm in West Virginia and later raised 8 children in Ohio my Mother was quite worldly in her wisdom. I expected her to know things about farm life and wild animals, but other things surprised me.

One job I worked at the boss was accused of perjury. Mom Mom explained that term to me and told me all about how he got kickbacks in the business. At the time I was 23 and didn't much think about it (my Mom was a walking encyclopedia), but as the years unfolded I often wondered how she knew so much. Reading, I guess. Her television consisted of soap operas (until she shut them off for good because of their racy story lines) and sci fi.

Aw heck. Who knows? Maybe she obtained her worldly knowledge from the soaps. LOL!

We are on our way to the Cleveland zoo today. Daughter's pick.

Clouds in my head

I was sitting at my table this morning drinking my second cup of coffee, reading the Sunday paper and it started. That sick feeling in my head. Ugh, I thought. I got myself something to eat. Some starch. I tried to ignore it while reading the rest of the paper. I became irritated with the puzzle. I didn't know many of the answers. I found myself starting to read articles and then getting exasperated and moving on. Double ugh. I was getting real queasy, now. I took a migraine pill.

There is a time in every one's life when they know they are going to be sick and they just want to get it over with. Throw up and you feel better, right? Not with a migraine. Most of the time there is nothing to throw up and if you do, you don't feel better. In my case it makes my head pound until it feels like it is going to shoot off of my neck and shoulders like some clown out of a circus cannon. A lot of times I wish it would. Right into the toilet.

I went outside and sat in the shady side of the house and proceeded to weed the area around my moonflowers. My gosh it was a beautiful morning. I tried hard to ignore the feeling that was clouding my head. I took deep breaths of wonderfully clean air. The front door opened. My daughter asked if we could go canoeing today. My heart sank. Damn, stupid migraines! I told her I wasn't feeling well. She said "okay" and went back inside. I know first hand the epitome of "bursting someones bubble." You just take the joy right out of their face with one word. Migraine. It sucks. It sucks big time. Oh, sorry Mom. My Mom hated that word. I do too, but it just seems appropriate for the way I feel right now.

It has been over an hour and I have sipped a glass of alka seltzer. Trying, trying. I sit quietly at the computer with my bedroom windows open and the fans running to make it blessedly cool in here. I backed up all the pictures and work I did over the month of June onto my external hard drive. I should backup more often, but there you have it.

The eyes hurt. The back of my neck where it meets the base of my skull hurts. The temples hurt. Not a sharp pain, a dull yet annoying pain. I noticed something that I started doing years ago. I like to doodle. I would find myself drawing the parts of my body that were in pain. If my heel hurts, I would draw a foot and point to the part of the heel that was in pain. If my back hurt, same thing. I drew thousands of pictures of a person's head and the area of pain that I would be experiencing at the time.

I have just completed the head rolling, neck stretching and shoulder crunches. I even try arm flapping. Anything to get some blood flowing to my brain. Bring relief, bring relief! Trying, trying. Nauseated, I stop. Back to quiet. More fresh air is needed. Second day of vacation, not so good. Humph! I cleaned all day yesterday. See? I knew that cleaning makes me sick. Mental note to self: cut back on cleaning. LOL! Sense of humor? check.

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