Let me re-phrase that

My little aches and pains are nothing right now. It is pouring a cold, steely rain outside and I feel just fine. A little ache here and there is nothing to mention. My Mom said her grandmother (the lady that raised her) was bedridden for the last 7 to 8 years of her life with painful arthritis. She kept a bottle of Four Roses under her bed. That was the only medicine they knew of back then and in her part of the country, I suppose.

So, I can get out of bed just fine. I do not want to sound like a baby. It may be starting but we have great advances in medicine and I realize that certain exercises can keep that pain at bay.

This poor lady did not have anything but a decent and friendly neighbor lady who took care of her and her bottle of whiskey. I think I will count my blessings!

Along the road

Taking a snapshot of the treeline on the other side of the road from where I was taking pictures of the lake. Whew. That was a long sentence.

Arthritis runs in my family. My doctor told me to take magnesium daily. It ain't workin', doc! My left elbow kills. It is my "picking up my coffee cup" elbow. I have to use two hands now to sip my coffee if I don't want much pain.

But, not every day. Today there is a big weather front moving in. Hmmm. Well, I can't complain about headaches anymore - so  you get some arthritis. I'll take the arthritis any day!

More pics

Another photo. I didn't even take the time to touch this one up to try to get rid of all that shade at the bottom. Bear with me as something goofy or funny is bound to happen with me or around me so I can share. It is the nature of my life.  If nothing eventful happens, I will conjure up a funny memory or life experience to tell you all.

Simple clover

I've seen it everywhere. Mostly the white. I consider this pink, not red. I just read that the world record for the most clover leaves is 56.  I can't even find a four leaf clover, let alone 56.  I read it on wikipedia.

A post for a post

Taken at the lake a week ago. My week started off horrible at work. I hope I do not have a repeat of yesterday. The ugly horns on the top of my head may just re-appear.

Oh, Ohio in Autumn

From my drive five days ago.

What happens when I read the news

Seems "Big Tex" caught fire. I didn't even know this structure existed. I guess I need to get out more. Well, I bet that most of the folks in Texas don't know that Ohio has a huge basket that is what --- 8 stories high or so? Yeah.

Well, anyway - they said the fire is still a mystery - they do not know what caused it.

I do.

He certainly must have applied this brand of sunscreen. 

"The maker of Banana Boat sunscreen is recalling some half-million bottles of spray-on lotion after reports that a handful of people have caught on fire..."

And, I am so sorry but I actually laughed when I read that headline. Before the seriousness registered with me of course. But it was so absurd and caught me as funny. 

Well, then when I read about poor Big Tex...well, you see how my mind works.

OH Autumn!

I snapped this one with my phone while driving back from my sister's house on Tuesday afternoon. The sun was bright  - the foliage was brilliant. Later that evening I went to the lake but should not have wasted the two hours resting because then I may have ones at the lake that look like this taken with a real camera. :) Click that photo to big it - you won't be sorry.

Let me throw a scenario at you.

You have two 21 year old people. One male, one female. The female has been to rehab for heroin use. In fact her baby needed to be in a rehab also because he was born addicted to the drug. The boy is almost two.

The male drove the female to a nearby city to purchase heroin.  Two days later she overdosed and died.

Is he:

a. Totally responsible for her death
b. Partially responsible
c. Not at all responsible - she would have found another way to get it

Now, think about that and chose your answer. Let me add this, now. The 21 year old guy is a regular dealer. He knew the place in Canton to go (she may have also, I don't know for certain) to obtain the drug. Does this change your answer if you chose b or c?

Lake view

I had an unexpected appointment yesterday  morning that caused me to take the day off from work. It was one of those drives home that said "Must go home, get camera and go to the lake to take pictures."

After a couple hours of rest, I did just that. The setting sun was casting long shadows but it was still quite wonderful to behold.

They grow up fast

Not my photo. One of my sisters took this one.I keep a copy of all family photos posted on facebook for myself - but also just in case some body's PC blows up and they do not have a back up. In fact, I think I will remind each of them to copy their pictures to a back up drive or a DVD this month.

An update to an earlier post that I removed. The district that paid all that money for software and was unable to use it. Come to find out - it will work on some equipment. So the school tech must have wanted to vent or make the curriculum director look bad. Some techs get high and mighty and do not like it when they are not consulted on purchases and then they go and tell everybody "It won't work. You should have talked to me first!" 

Cute but stupid

19 toddlers in your car lady, really? She is a nursery school teacher.

"We're really a very cute school".  Cute doesn't cut it - you dignbat.

http://www.citizen.co.za/citizen/content/en/citizen/local-news?oid=328732&sn=Detail&pid=146826&Teacher-crams-19-toddlers-into-Clio

Towards the dock

This is the opposite view from the Lighthouse photo from yesterday. The sun was setting quickly and I did not have much time left.

Here is what I have been dealing with this week. Tweaked a paragraph from a Micr0$0ft training course (some poetic license has been used on my part):

The name of the GPT folder is the GUID of the
GPO that you created. It is identical to the GUID
that AD uses to identify the GPO in the GPC. The
path to the GPT on a DC is a PITA.

Seriously? The verbiage is not too far off. This is how they write the course.

On a funny note, I heard this in the move "Think Like a Man". Three rings in a relationship. Engagement ring, wedding ring and suffeRING. LOL!

The Lighthouse

I had dinner here last evening with the ladies from my work building. Our "Girls Night Out". I had the loaded baked potato soup and a chicken gyro with a tzatziki sauce, feta cheese, cucumber, onions, lettuce and grape tomatoes. I asked for black olives to be added, but either they did not have any or the preparer did not get the message. No worries. I did not like the soup which is very rare for me. The huge ham chunks in the soup had a bite to them, maybe allspice or nutmeg?

Another pic

Sorry. Too busy or too lazy to post any words. Just another photo of the tyke. One year old this Friday.

Hair

LOL! My little grand nephew seems to be jealous of the birds with their full heads of hair. He is pointing. Or, maybe he is counting. Either way, I thought it made an adorable picture. Photo courtesy of his Mom (my niece by marriage).

Oh, just for the record. I spoke to a principal of an elementary school yesterday. I was helping her with the filter since the district's tech person had left. She was so sweet and so thankful for my help. It made me feel so much better after dealing with the teacher I spoke to last week. What is that saying about 'one bad apple...' eh?

I'm tellin' ya. It is quite obvious to me how different districts are. I can only hope that your children or grand children are in one of the good ones. There are some unhappy teachers out there because their administration just does not give a damn. And I don't want to put all the blame on the administration. I know it takes two and goes both ways and all of that. It is just a sad thing when the anger and the animosity starts and it just has to have an effect on the children's learning.

Glowing

My niece is travelling this month. She captured this shot of the Gateway Arch. I remember driving past it years ago. My memory was in the daylight, though. I do recall hating the traffic in St. Louis at that time. A madhouse. Pure madness. I hope her experience was much better.

Another world

I had my head stuck in subnetting at work yesterday. It took my mind off all the other problems I was having. When dealing with this it is like you stick your head into this big tree that is full of leaves and you can see nothing else around you until you pull your head out of that tree. That was how it was for me. Very intense.Four long hours with one bathroom break.

The tech on the other end of the phone was super fantastic. We started off slow because I did not know what to expect and neither did he. By the time we were done he and I had shared dog stories and we were laughing and calling each other awesome.

I actually only had him on the phone for maybe two and a half hours. The first hour was prep work on my part. The last half hour was pack up and get out of there.

Yes, my head hurt by the time I was done. It may have been from no lunch. This tech is on the west coast so we began at 11 a.m. my time and finished at 3. I did have a helper - he ran and bought me a bottle of water during the marathon.

I was not "properly" trained. I have never been to formal schooling or training for computers. I have been to a few week-long classes - mostly two to three day classes. I did learn the hexadecimal numbering system - on my own. I  did not need it for work - for some reason that one just clicked with me.

As for subnetting, I did write a paper on it back in 1997 or 1998. I understand it, I just cheat and use an online calculator. I do not know how to figure it out in my head. Yet. I may learn, still.

In high school I was the artist or the short story writer. I managed B's in math but I only took as much as I would need to get into college. First level algebra and geometry. Nothing higher. It made me sick to my stomach. So did the teachers. Then, I did not even go to college. To this day I have not come across a math teacher that I liked. I did pick up a college refresher course (when I thought I would go to college back in 1992). His name was Lovejoy Das. I sort of liked him. He was from India. He said as a boy they used to do math problems in the dirt with a stick. WTF? I would have drawn pictures in the dirt.

Anyway, the day (yesterday) ended with a huge success.  I (we) pulled off a minor miracle as far as I was concerned. I had no idea how to set this unit onto the network and we did it. It required the wonderful world of subnetting, but I did not give up. I figured out the necessary changes and they worked. By god - they worked. It certainly made me feel better than the last few days of holy horror I have been through with another district. I have another job today and I am going to try my hardest to be successful with that also. Then tomorrow - back to the horror mess. Who knows? Maybe I will hit them out of the park all week. LOL!

My headache. I did take some Advil. By the "bewitching" hour of 9 p.m. it was completely gone. I have mentioned before that strangely, a lot of my headaches seem to dissipate by 8:30 to 9:00 p.m. By the time I went to bed I felt wonderful. I had taken a sinus Advil maybe that was the ticket.

Still fuming

You know how you get an e-mail or a message or something and it makes you so angry you see red. I posted about that last week. Right?

Well, today I was cleaning out e-mail and came across the e-mail again. Now, I don't re-read this type of e-mail because I am SO upset the first time, I do not add fuel to the fire by reading and re-reading the message.

I guess I had not seen it all. Down at the bottom were more points that the tech guy at the school had made and now I am back to angry.

I worked with him on Wednesday and Thursday (not know that he had said these things).  That may have been a good thing.

To backtrack a little, I talked to my manager. He was all like "Do not let this upset you, we know how this tech is, blah, blah".  He made me feel a lot better by letting me know he was totally on my side.

I spoke to the superintendent of this school district. After all, I had worked with this guy for over 10 years. He made me feel better by telling me that he had only read the first line of the e-mail from this irate teacher and deleted it. Now, I don't know if that is true or not, but I know he was trying to make me feel better. I would hope that he read the entire message, but I think he was telling me the truth. He said that this teacher is a whiner, etc...  

Which brings up the fact that - if this is the way a superintendent treats complaints from his teachers - does he really care about his staff? There is the remote possibility that he told his principal to handle it. That the superintendent does not need to be bothered with this sort of complaint. I don't know.

Sigh. The issues that started this mess have NOT been resolved. I am trying. It is complicated. The problem does not happen every time. I am trying to prove it is NOT my filter. Sometimes it is more than one problem causing the issues. Things like this take time.

Meanwhile, this tech keeps slamming my filter. You may as well bad-mouth my daughter. I take my job very seriously and I have worked very hard to get this filter to bend to what everybody wants it to do. 

To give you a little background, the filter is designed to work for one school district. We have it covering 45. To save the schools money we are trying to provide this service but we know how big business is. They would love for each school to purchase their hardware for each district, and here we are purchasing the biggest unit they have and trying to make 45 districts happy. 

Maybe it is impossible. But this tech needs to get off my back. Most of the "points" he brings up he has not properly re-searched. He has somebody's ear and he keeps beating this drum. Funny thing is - out of 45 districts nobody else is complaining. They complain but not in the manner that this guy does. 99 % of my techs out there lavish praise on me. This one guy - what? Does he have a vendetta against me? I know, I know. I am not supposed to take it personally. But, really. Working with this guy I am finding out that he has not taken the time to even learn the basics of this filter setup. That gets my goat!

Fun times

Not my photo. I wasn't there. But, thanks to facebook I got to go along with them in photos and comments.

I finally had time to sit down and watch the movie "Cyberbully". This is a big convseration at our meetings at work. Almost every school bans the use of  facebook in the class room, but some classes actually have a facbook page. That is okay with me, because really - I can see both sides.

Now, the use of smartphones. Sexting, bullying. Do school personnel have the right to take away a students phone? All local sheriff departments has somebody handling this area and they are going to every school to educate staff and students.

What a mess

Taken from one of my schools.  A year ago.  How in the world do they troubleshoot a problem? Where do they begin?

Well, for starters the tech person at this school points the blame at everyone else except himself. I flushed out about four things he said this past week that were out and out lies. He said he did this, he said he tried that. Come to find out he did none of that. This is the place where the teacher flew off the handle after I called her. No wonder she is so upset.

They have a lazy technology person. In his defense perhaps he is overwhelmed and frustrated. That still does not justify the lies and the arrogant remarks that his issues are my problem. He does not want to do the leg work to determine where the problem lies.

My organization is provided by the state to assist the school districts. I can pretty much determine how much assistance I give. Some need more help than others. Let's hope your child does not go to this school district.

Where is the editor?

Last evening my daughter asked me to "tell her a story".  We did a few back and forth and then I asked her what was one of her favorite books when she was little. She said "Old Bear."  I looked it up and sure enough there are videos of the Old Bear books. We watched the one with the story book we had.

Halfway through I noticed something that seemed a little racy for children. Where is the editor?

Sadly, I was laughing hard and had to pause the video and capture the scene. Sick ticket that I am. My daughter just sighs and shakes her head.

Don't hate me because I am beautiful   observant.

Seeing red

In extreme rare cases (maybe twice) in my life did I get so angry I have no memory of what I did. Twice. In my early twenties. I became angry yesterday to where I became faint. I read an e-mail that pertained to me and wouldn't you know I could not get anybody on the telephone. I had to leave a few voicemails and stew about it.

Long story - I was attempting to help a school district fix a problem. Instead of waiting for the technology person to get around to working with me I called the teacher directly (a name given to me by the technology person) to see if we could "cut to the chase".  She mistook my call for me asking her to fix the problem for the entire school. At least that is what she said in an e-mail to the superintendent. 

I was not ill mannered in my call. I was more than sweet. I apologized for bothering her and asked her if she had a free  period where we could work on the issue together. She went into a rage. I backed out of the call and told her I was sorry to have bothered her and thanked her for her time. She retaliates by writing a scathing email to the superintendent saying that I told her she had to help me fix this problem. I did not say any such thing.

Ah...well. The superintendent must have confronted the technology person who, in turn - e-mailed me and carbon copied my boss stating the teacher's side of the story only.

Angry? You betcha. Somebody put words in my mouth and twisted what I did say. 

I waited for half an hour for anybody to return my call. Nothing. I finally got up to go to the bathroom and almost passed out. This was over 45 minutes after I read the e-mail. I was still that upset.

I stewed all evening. I dreamt about it. I am going straight to the school today to work on the problem. I had other plans and cancelled them. I am still angry. I am going in composed. I am no shrinking violet. I won't see the teacher I attempted to work with. She is at a tiny elementary school. I will see the technology person, though and if possible, the superintendent. Funny thing is, I worked with this superintendent for over 10 years. He was the building superintendent at the place where my remote office is. He is a good guy.

Sigh. I came home with a headache and needed the Advil. I think they are creeping back in. The headaches. Drat.

I am hoping my eyes are seeing pink, now. Or, at least coral. Blogger keeps flashing a message at me that it is having an issue saving my work. I'll make sure I copy and paste this text into notepad before I publish it. I don't want to lose everything and try to go back from memory.

In the basket

The face of success.

In the basket we go

Since there is nothing going on at my house...I am posting photos from my nephew and niece's collection. I think we can all remember these times if we have had little ones around. Crawl over and in the basket. Crawl out of the basket. Back in.

Depressed - lower in amount

The above photo is not mine. The sweet potatoes at my county fair numbered about three. The presentation, the show was more depressed than usual. I have not been to the fair in a couple of years. There was a huge sweet potato at our fair, though. I can't recall the weight. 

I always try to go through the barn displays of the 4-H. I like to see what photos and pictures were presented and which ones won. Years ago I entered about three photos in a county close to where I grew up. One of my paintings brought in first place. The other, second. My sister entered it. I wasn't even there. I had promised that picture to a friend. He was the one who went through my paintings and he must have seen something in it. LOL! Maybe he was the judge. NO! Just kidding. What was that? Thirty, thirty-two years ago?

Come to think of it, since I wasn't there - maybe there were only three paintings entered. Grin.

If somebody liked my painting, I gave it to them. I have not painted in years. I took up drawing again about twenty years ago, but .... eh. I was always "the artist" in my class. I wonder what some of my teachers and fellow students would think when they found out I ended up in computers. They would probably scratch their heads and say "Huh?  Her?"

I went to the county fair today to watch the trotters. It turned out to be a beautiful day. There were only a handful of races. The attendance is way down this year. Economy, perhaps? Swine flu scare?

We did not walk through the animal barns except for the goats and that was when we first arrived to get from point A to point B. Nobody was walking through.

I watched "Snow White and the Huntsman" last night. I missed patches of it because I was doing other stuff and at one point even took the dogs outside. My daughter liked it. I find it very difficult to watch K Stewart. And it is not because of her recent indiscretion, but I just find it hard to look at her.

Buzz Ballz

I saw these little ballz in the grocery store last evening. They are clear plastic with aluminum lids. They came in red (cranberry), orange, yellow (lemonade), and green - tequila w/vodka. 20% by volume. Yeesh! Check the web page - there are a lot more flavors. The suggested retail is $3.99. They float, won't break and can be frozen to a slush.

End of the Line

A picture is worth a thousand words. I thought that this picture (of a picture) I snapped at my "Unusual" lunch spot would tell a great story. You could write an entire story about this one picture. How would you start it? Mine would go something like this. 

The guy with the ball cap: "He flipped over the railin' right 'cheer." Then he spit a wad of chew to mark the spot.

The guy with the hard hat: "That would have made a fine mess."

The young boy, in utter amazement, trying to picture the scene, shudders: "Gosh!"

Missing my boxer

I dreamt last night that he forgot who I was. His owner (not the actual one I gave him to) had brought him to a party and he ran right past me. I tried to call out to him but he just kept running around and he did not remember who I was. Sigh.

Current Owner said that his family is going on vacation in October to Florida and I could watch him , but what if they don't want me to? What if they are worried I will get re-attached to him? What if I am worried that I will?

Mean and Green

Guess where I had lunch the other day? That's right! The place where they sell a thousand different brands of hot sauce. Well, maybe a hundred or so. I was able to capture about five shots of sauce that I did not previously post. I did not feel comfortable taking pictures because I neglected to ask permission first. They were just too busy.

I have not purchased any, yet. Some day I will. Maybe.

Sweet!

Zucchini carrot cake with cream cheese icing. Made it Monday evening. It was SO sweet, I could not finish it. Yes, I had to purchase zucchini. Drat! No friends. :(  Yes, this small cake was still too warm to ice, but I had things to do!

Hold strong

For all the ignorant conspiracy theories I heard this year regarding 9/11 - they are out there. The nut cases who think that the government was behind this horrible tragedy. My niece married one.

Car lashes

The photo is blurry. I was a couple of parking lots over and only had my phone with me. This photo is cropped from the original. I had never seen them before. Car lashes.

I was with sisters Saturday night and we watched "A Joyful Noise." I have a sister who is a D Parton fan. We made comments about the surgery structure of her face of course - how plasticized she looked and she even had a zinger put in the movie to make fun of her surgeries. Q Latifah's character was arguing with her and spit out  "I liked you seven procedures ago!"  - or something to that nature. It has a few one liners but for the most part if you don't like singing - skip this one. I love singing and still did not like it.

My sisters and I would have sworn that was Stella Parton at the end of the show singing on stage, but no - the movie claims it was Karen Peck. Sounded very much like D Parton.

And it was very strange that all choir members had loose-fitting choir robes but Dolly's was form fitting - snug as could be to show off her figure. Bizarre and distracting. What is up with that? Why does she feel the need to do that and how in the heck does she think it appropriate for a church choir for one to stand out like that?

My black babies

I did not take pictures Saturday night. I don't know why. I did not even think about it. My niece 1982 snapped this one of my babies. I had 23 show up from the family. My daughter had an after-the-family-leaves party for her age group. 21 - 23 crowd. From what I could see, she had about a dozen. She came in and chased me out of her bed at about 5:00 a.m. I was sleeping in her room with the window open so I could keep an "ear" out for their noise level. At 2:30 she had the group move inside the garage to continue.

I am just concerned about the one neighbor lady whose bedroom is almost butt up against my patio. She is 95 and has had many falls the past few years. She has somebody staying with her. I heard a man coughing while I was hosing off my patio Sunday morning.

I felt great the next day. No headache. But then again, I only drank a couple of the Bud Lite Lime-a-ritas that are kind of popular right now.

Inside

Inside a laptop. The guts.

Ouch!

I had never taken a laptop apart before, and if I have my say - will never do it again. To remove the bevel off the display I had to really pinch my fingers. But for me to take a picture while they were pinched, don't you think that rather odd?  My blogging must be some kind of addiction or obsession. Here is a photo opportunity for the blog. Oh, dear.

I still have very little in the posting department. I am gearing up for a big family get together at my place this Saturday. Since I did not have the fourth of July because of the outbreak of headaches, I am making up for it with a Labor Day bash. Who knows, I may change my holiday to this one. It was getting to the point where nobody could see the fireworks from my house anyway.

Empty

Nothing, I've got nothing. The photo above was taken at the work parking lot when I saw cloud reflection in the Volkswagen beetle parked next to me.

Seriously though, I have had nothing to write about. Have not read any blogs - I am so far behind. Either my week has been very boring or very busy. I can't decide because I can't remember. I know that I worked on my brother's computer yesterday and nearly rendered the darn thing useless. There was so much wrong each time I tried to fix something, I found a new problem I had to fix before I could continue and I never even got to any original problems. Sheesh.

Just plodding along. I have to go and read all your blogs now because I can't remember the last time I did. I don't know if I am running out of steam or if this is just a lull.

Wait, it's coming back to me. I had a busy week. Ah.

Passages

August has been busy. I threw a photo of Cheech up here today. He is looking at me as if I am going to make him move or something. Sort of like "What? What did I do? What do you want from me? Can't you just leave me alone?" The dogs do not like the camera.

My niece lost her baby over the week-end. She was only 11 weeks along and they told her the baby stopped developing at six weeks. My daughter told me two weeks ago that she thought that my niece was pushing herself while bike riding. hula hooping etc... I was not around them as much as my daughter was so, who is to know? It was a stressful time in the ER on Sunday night.

My two older sisters lost their first child. But they went on to have more children. My niece and her husband went to stay with my sister (her Mom). I thought it was because she wanted to be with her Mom (that is probably part of it) but came to find out they have another festival in that area this week-end. Her husband plays guitar and sings at the festivals for donations or gets paid. I am never quite certain of the circumstances. I don't ask.

I am not positive what their plans will be when the dust settles. They had been staying with me in a camper in my driveway. Don't ask. Let me just put it this way: I had that little girl a lot when she was growing up and I was  not about to let her go live in a camper in a campsite with no electricity while she is expecting.

'Nuff said.

Gearing up for a Labor Day get together for the family since I was unable to have the 4th of July. I hope that one day headache was just that. A one day episode. Grrr!

Flashback

A photo from August 2006. Holmes county, Ohio.

The visitor

My moon flower has a little visitor. At night, yet.

I am going to focus on my beautiful moon flowers, of which I happen to have an abundance of this year. I am only going to mention briefly the horrible headache I had yesterday. I slept most of the day away. I tried to manage with acetaminophen. That was not helping much. At sundown (as usual) I was feeling much better. I woke with a bit of one again this morning. Back to ibuprofen. Sigh.

I did manage a movie before the pain hit me. The Experiment with A Brody and F Whitaker. My niece happened to catch part of the movie and mentioned that she watched a video in psych class that was similar to this movie we watched.

A Tor by any other name

This image was taken from the Geograph project collection. See this photograph's page on the Geograph website for the photographer's contact details. The copyright on this image is owned by Martin Bodman and is licensed for reuse under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 license.

Tor can be the rock pictured above, or it can be what I have had my nose stuck in for the past two days. Anonymous browsing. I had such a hard time saying the word anonymity. An non nim itty.  Anon imitty. Yep. www.dictionary.com will sound the word out for you. Go ahead. Try it. Yay!

This post has nothing to do with the photo above. I just figured a picture of the topic Tor (The onion router) I have been working with would be very boring. Why an onion? Layers, I think. A Vidalia, no less. I suppose I could have slapped up a photo of a vidalia onion. I love Vidalia onions. Oh well. Too late now.

What is Tor? Do you care? Well, I had to care about torvpn. I was able to download that program and circumvent my filter. If I can do it, those smart kids in high school and junior high can do it. Technology is topsy turvy. The younger set knows more than the older set. It really challenges us to stay on our toes.

Oh, one more Tor. A science fiction/fantasy site. Can't forget to mention that.

Hoopin'

Another shot of my niece - the hoop girl. She has put the hoop away for a few months (until after the baby is born). It is a wonderful exercise and will probably help her to lose the baby weight. She may be one of the lucky few who won't have much weight to lose. She may be "all baby" - as they call them.

Moon Burn

I gave one of my moonflower's a nasty sunburn. Or, would that be moon burn? Just playin' around with those free programs again. These days I spend most of my time fixing food and cleaning up the kitchen. It is getting old.

Most of us are sick. Even the dogs. They had kennel cough. I did not get them shots for it this year (we board them when we go to the reunion for three days) - they got their shots yesterday and their distemper. And flea medicine. The neighbor told my daughter their dog and cats all have fleas. We don't see any yet, but we should put the medicine on them anyway. Check. Taken care of.

I have small ear aches in both ears. Nothing too harsh. I almost always have a fan running on me (these days) and at times it causes me to get an ear ache. At home it hits my right side, at work my left. That explains why I have it in both ears. Sigh.

Trudging on through August. Work is busy - school staff are back in the buildings. Some have already brought students back, some are coming back next week.

Still playing

 I used Photo! Editor (free download)  to modify this picture. The original is below with the gray background. The modified one has the gold tones to it. The original was modified a bit with an automatic color adjuster so it is not straight out of the camera, either. Both were given a rounded edge frame from the (also free) program Photoscape.

Headache update. What can I say? Not a single migraine since I began the Neurontin (Gabapentin). I don't like the monopoly of pharmaceutical manufacturers but I do like not having any migraines. I'll just say it as simple as that. It is what it is.

You can read more here and here.

My home has been very active the past month. I have my daughter back living with me and her beau (from Florida). I have my niece and her husband staying (she is 9 weeks pregnant). It is fun to look up what the baby looks like and what is forming. We go here.  The way my daughter talks, this may be the closest I get to participating in the "grandmother" role. That is fine by me. I have lots of nieces and  nephews, I get a share of baby time. Don't get me wrong. That is not near the same as having your own grand-bambino/bambina, but I respect my daughters' wishes to not have children if that is what she chooses. If I wanted to guarantee that I have grand babies, I should have increased my odds by having more children.

Let's throw in a movie update while I am here. The Hunger Games. Lots of confusion in this story. I will skip reading the book unless I get laid up in bed for months at a time and need reading material. I know that the movie is geared towards the young adult. **Possible spoiler alerts - stop here***.  

To me, if you are trying to survive, you do not hang around or walk out in the open area. You keep your ass hidden in the trees and you keep moving. When a "friend" dies, you do not just hold that person (while the other killers are possibly close by) and sing to them and then bury them. Your enemies are all around you tracking you.

Many instances of this practice in the story. I am not clear why it got the publicity and acclaim it did. It was a good watch. A lot better than some of the shows I have seen. We like how they chose lesser known actors (that could have been a monetary decision) but this made it look a bit more real. For the girl to have short and dirty fingernails (not bitten) made it so much more believable than some of the better known actresses who may have insisted on having perfect manicures.

I did not care for them gussying the girls up in prom dresses during the ceremonies. Really? Have we not progressed beyond this sexist image? Apparently not. Will I watch the sequels? Perhaps. Maybe to see if they have more of a story line for the W Harrelson character.  And we always love Stanley in anything.

Oh my

I just posted the photo above and as I was thinking about a title and a subject to post about, I realized the picture matches the old saying "Pushing up daisies".  Sorry.

Either I am very busy or very lazy here in the Peruby household. I have a full house this month and spend a lot of time visiting/chatting with relatives who are here.

The days seem to be sliding through my fingertips like running water.

Julia Fractal

I was messing around with a new program I downloaded called Pinta. I opened a photo and chose edit. Then I chose julia fractal. From that image, I came up with the above. Just messin' around.

Survived

Survived another family reunion. This time with extended family members is so special to us, but alas - not everybody feels that way. Our attendance was so low this year we doubt we will have it again next year. Or, we need to change the format to a much less activity-based event.

Our first year we had over 150 attend, this year - maybe 38. It was our fourth one and the heat was so intense I believe some of us suffered a mild heat stroke. So many were dizzy and we just sat around limp. Not to mention the body odor. It was a good idea to choose burgundy color shirts for our matching tee shirts but not healthy. The heat was intense and with a dark, thick tee shirt on - well, you can imagine. Some of my family members refuse to wear them and opt for spaghetti straps and what not for a cooler outcome.

I certainly will have to do something next year. I have expressed my desire for an air conditioned building and having it inside. That seems to be the major reason for absenteeism. The blessed heat.

The party on the patio at the motel was rather tame, also. Just a few who wanted to burn the candle at both ends, and the staff finally moved them into the lobby because of motel visitors complaining. I had gone to bed long ago. I do not party any more. Especially since I am on this medication. I asked to try the bud light lime a rita. It was so delicious and I only drank 6 oz. but it knocked me on my butt. (Medicine intensified, I am sure). I am not one to follow the rules, but when I felt woozy - I stopped cold. I don't push it too much. (Any longer).

We had two siblings that could not make it this year. The first time all 8 of us have not been to the reunion. Well, the first reunion sister 1954 could not make it. Not because she did not want to, though. Most of us find it difficult to understand why they would not want to come to the reunion but you have to let stuff like this go and let people be. Their "excuse" was that they had to work but we all knew about the reunion months in advance. The actual date, anyway. And the ones who could not make it got days off just prior to the reunion and another one - they are going to the ocean in a week or two. So it isn't like they CAN'T get time off. They just decided not to. We held the reunion on a Saturday this year to make it easier for folks who have to travel and get back to work on a Monday. That backfired. All the ones who requested that option, did not show anyway. Claiming they had to work. What is up with that?

Whoops. I am not letting it go, am I?  My daughter showed up and the ones that did show - we had a fantastic time. When the heat was so bad, we got out the water balloons and the mister (sprays water). I find it nice that we have coolers full of water bottles in the same amount as soda. I did not drink one soda, all water. I crave a soda once in a while - but drink water all day.

The food was fantastic - a lot less to choose from - but there is still plenty to go around. Desserts were almost non existent this time. Some cookies, pies and nut bread and that was it. I made calico beans. Once I heard my nephew was bringing a generator (my sister told me he was bringing it for me so that I can have a fan on me) I grabbed the chance to make my beans. The generator would run fans and a crock pot or two on low. I am just grinning to think that he would bring that for me. I love that boy (he will always be my little boy to me) so much! Even though he and his mama are very close and I am so happy they are. For all the hell they have gone through with each other they are so very, very close. It just makes my heart burst.

I find it strange to hear stories about other families that do not step in and take a child if their sibling is having trouble or problems in their life. My sister has been in and out of prison and I had no problem taking her daughter into my home.  Her son was old enough to be on his own. When she moved back home in the early 80's I was working a daylight job. She was tending bar at night. I watched her little boy every night and cared for him. This is family. Her children are my children. That is how I feel. My sisters ALL feel the same way.

Anyway, reunions are a special time for me. I grumble about them. I grumble about the heat. I grumble about the work. I grumble about the money - not so much because to me, complaining about money is vulgar. If you want a wonderful time - sometimes it costs a lot of money. But (to me) you cannot put a price on family and love.

Last, but not least - headache update. Although I did not have a migraine, I had a very bad headache through out the week-end. I attribute that to sleeping (or NOT sleeping) in a motel, the heat and the upset in the schedule. And driving long distance. If I were still on my migraine medication, I certainly would have taken one. Although the pain I felt was not a classic migraine, it was bad enough to warrant a migraine pill. The migraine pill would have knocked it out of the park. Alas, I did not and just kept taking Advil which was not touching it. Many more of my relatives were suffering, too.

This morning. No headache at all. I have taken this Monday off from work (recovery day!) and will releax, wash clothes and enjoy my daughter and her beau's company. The laughter is rocking the Peruby household once again. Quiet time is over. And... the dogs come back today. Ugh!

Headed south

All the folks in this old photograph have passed, now. My father is the only one not in the picture. We are hoping to see a lot of the children/grand children/ great grand children/ great-great grand children of these folks tomorrow. Not positive we are up to great-great yet. That would be the Mother of the clan in the middle. She went blind when my father was young. Or before he was born, I don't know. Glaucoma they say.