Gravel road

As I drove along the other day snapping my regular shoulder shots I recalled the days of my youth when I had plenty of time to roam in the woods and down the long gravel roads that are so abundant in my neck of the woods.

And I thought about some of the more popular sitcoms that depict city people. Sex in the City, Seinfeld, Friends and more, I began to wonder how many people "don't" see the country. How many people go through a day, a week, a month, or heaven forbid a year without seeing live plants, wild roses growing, trees tangled up in each others' branches? When was the last time they touched the bark of a tree? Or heard the buzz of a bee or the song of a bird? And what a sad thought that was for me.

While looking back at the photos on my computer screen I began thinking that the sun is shining on that field or that patch of woods every minute of every day (well, during the sunny daylight hours) and that life is going on all around it. Far to the east in New York city the people are trodding over ground billions of footsteps pounding the pavement and out here in a little wooded county of Ohio gets barely one footstep every five years or ten years. If even that.

Then a wild thought popped into my head. What if we could just take a group of those city folks in NYC and drop them onto the gravel road above for one hour? Let them walk along the sunny backroads and see what I see. Let them feel the sunshine filtering through the tree branches and leaves and let them smell the wood that permeates this country back road. Would it change their day? Would it improve their lives?

Is some company somewhere simulating this so that a city person can take a walk down a sunny back road on their lunch hour? Just to get away from it all? I sure hope so. Because it does wonders for me.

Famous

Photo Friday Challenge - Famous. My sister that looks like the famous Jackie Kennedy.

A huge thank-you to all who commented on my blog about my daughter getting her last mole removed. At least I hope it was her last surgery. She is sore but it is healing. They look like centipedes on her back with the stitches. After the stitches are removed the scars look like fossil imprints of a centipede. She wants to get butterfly tattoos to cover them up. How poetic. From a centipede to a butterfly. Kind of close to a caterpillar.

I still am researching flat screen LCD monitors. When I purchased my PC and my daughter's I just ordered them through Dell and took whatever monitor came with what I picked. Now, I need to get just the monitor, I have to wonder if I get a nice enough monitor should I upgrade the video card? And if I upgrade the card, will the BIOS need upgraded? Ugh. There is a new Dell shop that just opened up north of here. Maybe I will just take the old monitor and see if they can give me a replacement or fix this one or trade it in. Hey, it's worth a try.

What is that?

Paying attention to the group of kids on the gator (croc?) I didn't notice the statue behind them to the right when I was taking this shot in Myrtle Beach 2003.

What is that statue doing? Praising his god(s)? Or is this how golfers look when they make a hole in one?

Surgery is done. The offending mole is (hopefully) all gone. The scar tissue from the previous surgery causes some grief to the dermatologist. Now, we get the stitches out in 2 weeks. The six internal will dissolve by themselves, the six outside will need removed. And then, if this last test results come back okay we just go every six months to check and see if anything new is developing or if the old ones are contrary and decide to grow back.

My daughter said this is why she keeps her hair long. When she wears a swimsuit this summer her hair will cover the scars on her back. Her entire left arm is sore so I will need to monitor her carefully over the next couple of days. She insists on going to school today. I really hope nobody pats her or smacks her on the back.

Working from my daughter's PC because her monitor died and she is using mine.

Some sun fun

Some fun in the sun in 2003. Before the mole removals began. Tomorrow evening is the (hopefully) last one. This is the one the dr. should have taken off three or four months ago and we would have been done and over with. Then a month later, she decides it needs to come off. I put it off as long as possible. Tomorrow is the day. My daughter told me she is scared. After having six or seven removed, this one scares her. Because it has been so long since the last one.

Now, look!

Now, look Great Aunt Peruby. You remember what I said I was going to do with that camera the next time you started flashing that thing in my face!

Oh no.

Peruby has found the liquidate feature on Photoshop. I can see why nobody told me about it before. They knew I would get carried away. This pic was taken this evening. It was a few gray clouds by some blue sky with a black stark tree and the moody sun bidding me farewell. Well, I liquidated it. Just like in the Wizard of Oz.

I am tired. I went to a small theater today to see a live production of Anne of Green Gables. It was longer than I expected but still very good. The costumes were spectacular.

I should be sleeping, but just had to post new pictures of my dogwood tree to my web site. Yawn. Link on the right bar, yada, yada, yada.

Flowering dogwood

My dogwood is getting very close to blooming. This picture was taken yesterday in the evening, but I spruced it up with a lens flare and a bluer sky. I then added artistic brush strokes or something similar. Sometimes I just get carried away and I have fun.

The Photo Friday Challenge I already had covered on April 13th. They must have been sneaking in and looking at my blog and stealing my ideas. No, not really. Just co-inky-dink.

It was 'Golden'.

I have watched about half of Brokeback Mountain. Unexpected company stopped in for a visit and I had to stop the movie. Now my daughter and her friend are in the living room and I will wait to watch the rest of it. Perhaps on my computer. It is better that way because I just can't seem to get the audio loud enough from the television. Darn movies. Just when I get it to the level to where I can hear what they are saying the scene changes and the sound likes to knock me out of my chair. Arrrggghh!

My red tulips

I lost a day this week because of having Monday off. I forgot to put the garbage out on Wednesday morning. I had a lot, too. Because of all the food fixings I did for Easter dinner.

Above picture was taken about ten minutes ago. I wanted to capture the tulips while they are fresh. They are in the front yard. The ones in the back yard do not get very much sunshine and the leaves show up, but no flowers. I think they bloomed the first year and that was it. I may dig them up this fall and replant them elsewhere.

My yellow feather tulips are blooming also. Again, I will mention that I did not order yellow ones. I am sure I ordered deep orange red, but this is what I got. You can't really tell from the bulb you stick in the ground. Bah!

My peonies look like this will be a banner year for them. They are light pink.

My dogwood is coming along nicely. My lilac bush has a lot of dead debris on it that I need to chop off.

I was gassing up my car the other day and it never ceases to amaze me what people will paste onto their vehicles. I feel the same way about yard ornaments. About the time I turned 25 I began thinking of a house of my own and how I would decorate it and landscape it. I never really understood the homes that put a wooden cutout of a little boy with his pants down peeing into a bush or flower. They would use a clear tube for the stream of urine. I guess they thought this was cute. It was kind of in the same vein as the shapely lady bent over her flower garden in a red print dress with her bloomers showing. At least I think that is what it was. I always wondered "What are you trying to say to people who drive by your house?"

Which brings me back to vehicles. There are so many bumper stickers or support stickers you can paste onto your car to tell the world how you feel or what you support. I recall seeing a bumper sticker while living in Virginia that said "Sh!t happens". It was also a big thing to get vanity plates during the mid 80's. Some people really had imagination.

At the gas station I saw a nice truck backing up. On his back windshield was a huge red sticker. I couldn't make out the picture, but the words were clear. "My other ride is your girlfriend." Oh, how mature is that? I am kind of glad I couldn't make out the graphics. I never did get a look at the guy, but he did have a girl in the passenger side. I remember thinking to myself, 'What kind of girl would ride in a pick-up with that on the back window?' Needless to say I didn't have much respect for her or him.

A few weeks back on one of my jaunts, I sat in a redlight behind a Pacifica. There was a purple support sticker. (The usual loop ribbon shape). I wondered 'Now what does the color of purple support?' I inched closer to read the ribbon. 'Support B!tch!ng' Wow. Okay. On the other side of the Pacifica was a clear ribbon outlined in red. What did it say? 'Some a$hole, stole my support sticker.' This really is a character, huh? It didn't stop there. In the bottom left corner of the back window was a sticker of Homer Simpson bending over and pointing to his rear end. I guess that meant 'Kiss this?'

Of all the things you can tell people about yourself with your vehicle or yard and this is what some people choose? Where is the class? This is another big reason I can't stand to watch shows like The Simpsons and The Weakest Link. There is no respect for other people on certain television shows. Where have we as a civilization come to when we criticize and put others down? Can you actually laugh when Judge Judy belittles the people in her courtroom? I can't. I can't help but wonder who in the hell she thinks she is.

Wait! And this coming from somebody who loves to watch Seinfeld. Oh well. Guilty as charged.

Tiny Bubbles

Give me some tiny bubbles in the wine, Mr. Ho! Turn your speakers on and sip the wine!

Country Sunshine

Who sang that song? Oh, Dottie West. "I was raised on Country Sunshine." This was my drive yesterday. It was sunny. The sky was clear - no beautiful clouds to photograph. The grass was green but the trees were brown. There were some tiny buds, but you can't see them from a distance. This photo is near the Leesville Lake area of Ohio. The sun in the upper right corner is fake. You can tell by the photograph that the sun was directly overhead and if the sun was really coming from that angle the left side of the rooftop would be shaded. Oh well. The sky needed something.

That was about the best shoulder shot I got. Too much brown out there for me. I don't drive fast and only take photos from my shoulder if it is a back road. On one main road I was driving along enjoying the sunshine and the beautiful Carroll county scenery. A huge new truck passed me on a double yellow line between two small hills. After he passed I could see into the cab of his truck and he was making the motion with his right finger pointing at his head and his hand circling around. I think it is the motion for "crazy". I had to laugh. Sheesh mister. He probably sees the country every day - he probably farms it. I wasn't even taking pictures, just driving. Maybe he was telling me that he was crazy. Nah.

Note that if I am taking pictures and a vehicle comes up behind me, I put the camera away. Usually I pull over and let the other driver pass. I didn't think I was going all that slow. Maybe I was rubber necking. Soaking up the scenery.

After dealing with technology, computers, printers, software and lines of code - the beautiful country landscape makes it all come back into focus for me. My sanity.

Fun stuff

Easter purple

I did get to spend a wee bit of time with the munchkin before she was carted away to the other Grandma's house. I had a surprise tyke show up with my niece. He is her nephew on her Mom's side and we got to enjoy him for a little while before he also had to go to another dinner.

One sister and I helped another sister move some furniture in the morning on Friday and in the afternoon I had unexpected company show up. A welcome guest. She and I worked together in 1978 and have remained great friends since. I moved to Texas and Virginia and back. She has moved a few times to Columbus and back. We played catch up. She is a grandmother of three and takes care of her Mother who is wheelchair bound.

My sister and nephew came on Saturday and the baking and fixing of food began. I have stayed up way past midnight on all three nights and still get up around the 6:30 a.m. time frame. I am exhausted. It is no wonder that a sore and scratchy throat feeling began this morning.

I loaded my car up on Sunday morning and was at my sister's house for the family get together from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. There were about 20 people in all. If everyone came with their significant others, children, step-children and grandchildren we would have at the very least 30.

In the middle of all of this I have neglected my teenage daughter somewhat. She has had a friend over and they have run amok since Friday. Last night was a tad bit too much drama for me. Her friend is causing trouble between her old boyfriends and her new ones. I put an end to all of it this morning by taking her home. Her parents never come to get her, she wouldn't go home if I didn't take her there. I gave this one a second chance since the late night fiasco a couple of weeks ago and she blew it last night.

So that was even less sleep and the result is one cranky Mom this morning. I slept with my daughter's cell phone and with the Internet box unplugged. I cleaned house this morning, my daughter did a few chores and is now enjoying one of her late birthday presents from her cousin. She talked to me for over an hour with tears about how she misses her boyfriend and how she really didn't want to run with her friend this week-end but was so bored. I guess I should have made her go to the family get together yesterday. Then I would have had to put up with her whining every hour, "I'm bored, can we go now?" Without her I was able to help my sister clean up. She had to work today, I didn't.

Oh, well. The dust has settled from my house cleaning and we are settling into a quiet last day of Spring break before returning to school and work tomorrow. And what a beautiful day it is. If I get rested up enough, I want to tackle the yard work. Yeah. Well, that's the plan.

Still cooking...washing...

Still cooking, baking, fixing and washing clothes in preparation for tomorrow...err - today's family dinner.

Tater Tot

I hope to get a little quality time with this little 'tater tot' tomorrow. Sweet!

In Full Bloom

Photo Friday Challenge - Full (In Full Bloom).

My lilacs last year. Hoping for a similar display this year.

Must sneak one in....

Before I retire for the night, I wanted to post one picture of the new baby. I need to tell my nephew his hands look like a giants' hands next to the little bambino. My nephew is on cloud 9 + 900 along with my sister and her husband.

More photos of my Grand Nephew, Sunsets, Grand Niece at my webpage. Link is in the right column, blah, blah, blah. I have added a new feature - screen savers with the Photos. Whoopee.

Golden

Sunset from the hill. Somewhere in Ohio. Somewhere close to my house, but on a hill where you can actually see the western sky and not your neighbor's house. The park was full of ball players, walkers, cyclists, cars and squirrels. No dogs. No pets allowed.

The Easter holiday stretches out before me. Almost every day is filled up with socializing of one sort or another. My daughter said she does not want to go anywhere or do anything. She is depressed with not being able to see her beau. She did speak to him on the telephone last evening.

I do have most of Saturday free so that I can make my part of Easter dinner. We travel about twenty miles to one of my sibling's houses this year. Not very far.

I remember Sunrise Service when I was young. We would get breakfast in the basement of the church afterwards. One of those little boxes of cereal and half a banana. Some years I would have a new Easter dress. I remember two favorites. One pink and one yellow. My older sister would polish me up until I was shining. I wasn't allowed to wear the dress anywhere but to church. Only once to school for picture day. It was such a special feeling. It was also kind of silly. Somebody paid good money for that dress and I only wore it a few times.

After church we returned home to hunt for our Easter baskets. Once mine was in the oven (not an easy task for Easter day - not sure how the bunny pulled that one off). Another time it was in the clothes dryer. Once my brother's was hanging from the ceiling in the place of a plant. That was funny.

We would have so many colored eggs that we couldn't eat them all. Oh, and back then we didn't know you were supposed to refrigerate dyed eggs. Ours sat out in the basket for weeks at a time and we still ate them. (That might explain a lot).

One time my brother, myself and a bunch of neighborhood kids played ball with a bunch of eggs. What a waste. I just remember pieces of hard boiled eggs flying all over the neighbor's yard. Somebody would pitch an egg to the batter and they would swing and "egg explosion". Wow. I am so glad we didn't think of that with the extra tomatoes we had in our garden in September. Most of them rotted on the vine and my brother and his friends would enjoy throwing them at me and my girl friends. Nasty boys!

It looks as though we get another seventy-some degree day today in Ohio. I think the rain sets in this evening or tomorrow. My daughter did rake the yard (YAY!) into about three piles of pine tree twigs and the neighbor (the one whose tree did the depositing) told us we can just throw it onto his burning pile. They will have a bonfire every other Saturday night during the summer months.

Time to get outside and get moving. I have had the windows open in the house for the past two days airing out the stuffiness. The cats have been killing each other for window post seating. They have to get a running jump for the bathroom window. I laughed because I expect one day they will overshoot and the screen will give way. Or maybe that is just wishful thinking. No, not really. We are one story so they wouldn't have far to fall and I would have to go outside chasing them. I can't let one of my babies out there in the wild with strange dogs, cats, squirrels and teenagers racing their cars up and down the roadways.

Wow. I am impressed. Spellchecker only stopped on the word YAY. I must be awake. Of course, if I ran it again it would stop on the word Spellchecker. Yep, it wants to change it to splices. I see why. Spell checker is two words, Peruby. Two separate words!

Pink jag

Hey - wait! The baby was a boy so I should be posting in blue. Oh, darn. He was born at 12:45 a.m. today. Another April birthday.

I am so darn tired tonight. I have postponed the hospital visit until tomorrow when my sister can be there. I have heard that baby and parents and grandparents are all doing fine. Relief. Apgar of 9.9 (which tells me either there weren't too many drugs involved or this is the second reading). Hey I just Googled the word Apgar and found out it is an acronym for Activity, Pulse, Grimace, Appearance, Respiration. Named after Virginia Apgar in 1952.

Okay, I don't think I want to know what they do to get the poor baby to grimace. I know what I do to get a grimace.

1. Think about my daughter and her boyfriend.
2. Think about the mess my pets are making or have made.
3. Think about a staff meeting.
4. Think about the rising prices of gasoline.
5. Think about how hard it is getting to post anything on this blog anymore.

There are more, but I am just too tired to think.

Network topic for today: Before you e-mail friends and family pictures be sure to resize the file so that it does not exceed the mailbox limit. A quick and nifty re-size program I use is called Irfanview. Free, dependable, easy to use. Lots of features for a free package.

Waiting...

I am waiting to become a Great Aunt for the second time. The doctor sent the expectant Mom to the hospital at 3:30 p.m. My nephew and my sister are on pins and needles waiting. This is my oldest sister's first grandchild. It will be a boy. They already know.

Mom also has a son from a previous relationship. He is nine. I am so excited.

I work tomorrow and then I can go to the hospital and visit!

Above picture is a forsythia bush from my Park adventure yesterday. Blooming beautifully!

Network term for today: DCOM - Distributed Component Object Module. Possible buffer overflow that could allow a worm to attack a network resulting in a denial of service attack.

Sunset through the trees

I took an hour this evening and went to the hill at the top of our town park. Most of the shots were taken through some huge but beautiful pine trees. I didn't mind. Although I felt like I had camera bulb flash or welders flash in my eyes. When I looked away out across the grassy park after taking the photos everything looked foggy. I thought 'Wow, what a day for picture taking'. And then I realized it was not that way really, it was my eyes.

Stress in the teenagers life. Her boyfriend got in trouble and she can't see him for a week, maybe longer. That is their entire spring break. I feel bad, but I won't have to worry about her sneaking him into the house while I am at work.

We are melancholy tonight. I just spoke with his Mom. Tough lessons, tough teenage life.

Today's network topic: smurfable. Many networks are understaffed and poorly managed. They are still quite "smurfable." See, I can talk about work without mentioning work.