TODAY'S TREK

I met Bear Bryant at church yesterday. . .

2011-08-20T22:00:00.003-05:00

It's true! I met Bear Bryant at church yesterday. He was quite a nice guy even if he wasn't wearing a houndstooth cap.

Now as Paul Harvey would say, "here's the rest of the story."

This started with a phone call. The guy told me he had a shipment for me, and could I tell him how to get to our address. Fortunately, he delivers to the area regularly, so he knew several things close by.

Then he mentioned he was driving an 18-wheeler.

Uh-oh.

I told him no way he was going to be able to get that rig down our road. It's narrow, a dead-end, and there is a very sharp curve into our driveway. The guy who came to clean the ductwork had a van and trailer, and he had a heck of a time getting back out of our driveway!

Well, probably less than a mile from us there is a Church of God ... so we agreed to meet there and he would put the shipment into the back of the pick-up.

As we were working on the bill of lading and laughing over the fact that all it said was "bird" we got to discussing names and that's when I found out his ... Bear Bryant.

So see, I really DID talk to Bear Bryant at church yesterday, even if it was in the parking lot, and not quite the Bear Bryant of AL football fame!

Why I Don't Answer the Phone. . .

2011-08-15T22:01:00.002-05:00

I'm not big on talking on the phone. One of my quirks I guess. I much prefer email and snail mail. Positively medieval, I know.

But there's more than one reason why I don't answer the phone, and why we have caller ID. First, let me say if you're family or friends and I recognize the phone number, I DO answer the phone. But otherwise... nope.

Why? Well, here's a list of my reasons not to answer the phone.

1. Solicitations. We're supposed to be on the "do not call registry." But there is a loophole you know, and supposedly a company can call if you have made contact with them. I seem to have made contact with more companies than I remember. Guess it's that Old-Timer's Disease kicking in.

2. Medicare. What's medicare got to do with our phone calls? Well, evidently Jess's previous wife would have been 65 years old this year, and the calls just keep coming and coming, wanting to sign her up for some Medicare supplement plan. I have been very tempted to fill out one of the forms that come in the mail, and put down a cemetery as an address but with my luck some bureaucrat would fail to see the humor and I'd end up in jail.

3. Political calls. I do not want to attend a town hall meeting or listen to the latest spiel. I suppose this is only going to get worse as the presidential elections get closer. Ugh.

4. Wrong numbers. We get a surprising number of them.

Sometimes I'm the one that calls a wrong number. I punched one button wrong last week when I tried to call Jess on my old cell phone and got some guy that I have no idea who it was. I apologized and told him I was sorry for calling the wrong number.

So what happens? About 5 minutes later there's a buzz from my phone for a text message (I can receive them, just can't send any.) I looked to see what it was - it's almost always the phone company - and here there was a message from the dude I'd mis-called. He was wondering where I lived.

Shortly thereafter, a second message arrived from him, wanting to know if I'd like to get together with him. Dude! How desperate are you??? I mean, calling up a totally unknown chick who dialed your number by mistake??? With no idea of how old she is or what she looks like??

I guess there's another reason not to answer the phone any more.

The Impossible Dream

2011-08-08T21:04:00.003-05:00

I love Andy Griffith reruns. And if you've ever watched them, you are familiar with Gomer Pyle. Then there was the spin-off of Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. Always lots of humor there with Gomer driving his drill instructor, Sargeant Carter, round the bend.

But what REALLY amazed me was when this guy who talked like such a hick would open his mouth to sing.... and this incredible voice comes out. Who would have believed such a glorious voice would emerge!?

Here's Gomer (Jim Nabors) in one episode singing "To Dream The Impossible Dream" . .

Of course, Jim Nabors also did a fair number of recordings, many of which were old-fashioned gospel songs. Here's one of my favorites, "Take My Hand". . .

I'm not ready for the Lord to take me home yet, but I sure hope He keeps hold of my hand. Some days you really need to hang on tight!

Rejuvenation and Recuperation

2011-08-01T23:56:00.005-05:00

We were on vacation last week. It was a time of rejuvenation. Now I know rejuvenation is defined as:

"the phenomenon of vitality and freshness being restored "

And while physical vitality and freshness might not have been restored, the vacation was a good rejuvenation of the heart and spirit. It was time off from working online, and great fun to visit with the kids and grandkid.

Jess and I walked on the beach a little. Ellie and I dug in the sand and made holes and built sand castles. And at times another little girl joined Ellie in her sand castle building.

We ate out every evening, and enjoyed lots of good seafood.

Jess and I also had a couple of day outings. One morning we went to the Naval Aviation Museum in Pensacola. The Blue Angles have practice sessions there on some Tuesdays and/or Wednesdays, and one was scheduled for 8:30am.

There was a HUGE crowd there, and we had to stand the whole time, but it was really, really cool to watch these aircraft put through their paces by ace pilots. It's amazing how precise their maneuvers are!

Another day we were headed to Fort Pickens to look around, but Jess was hungry for Zaxby's Chicken. That was in the other direction, and after we ate we ended up looking around at stuff in that area instead of going back to Fort Pickens.

It was a great week and it's always sad when it's time to say good-bye. Richard, Chrystie and Ellie were headed to Minneapolis for the weekend, and Jesse was headed to Tuscaloosa for a men's conference. He drove from Pensacola Beach to the hotel south of Tuscaloosa and met up with some of the other guys from church.

I punched in our home address and Miss Garmin and I headed north. By the time I made it home, we'd been 9 hours on the road, and somewhere between 3 and 3 1/2 of those I was driving. For most people that's not a big deal, and at one time it wouldn't have been for me either. Now it's a different story. Holding my right arm up to the steering wheel and moving it back and forth for 3 hours is bad news.

That's where the recuperation phase comes in. I drove home Friday. Here it is Monday and I'm just now starting to get back to normal pain levels. And the chronic fatigue syndrome doesn't like such shenanigans either. I've had very little energy to do anything for the last few days.

Hopefully tomorrow that will all change and I'll be able to get more work done!

A Clean Sweep

2011-07-17T15:36:00.002-05:00

I'm not finished, but getting close.
Finished what?
CLEANING!!!!

I'm trying to get the house back together after we moved stuff around for the air ducts to be cleaned. Jonathan got his stuff back together Friday, but there was considerably more to be done upstairs.

First off, Jess picked up a new air filter yesterday, and we took off the louvered vent in front of it so I could scrub it clean before putting it back.

With furniture moved out of corners, I scrubbed the floors before the furniture was moved back. In the den I also had 3 throw rugs that got washed and put back before two sets of shelves and the rocking chair resumed their rightful places.

Since the ductwork to the den presents the biggest problems, being exposed in a crawlspace under the house, I also covered the two registers in there with a fine wire mesh so no mouse of any size could make it into the house through them. They may chew their way into those two ducts again, but each end is now blocked to prevent them from going any further.

Perhaps the house can "breathe" easier without stuff clogging up the ducts, clean registers, and duct tape applied to ductwork tears. (Actually using duct tape for ducts!)

The floors have been cleaned and registers put back at the top of the ductwork in the kitchen and dining area as well. Rugs were washed in bathrooms, floors cleaned, registers cleaned and replaced...

I have the covers washed and replaced in the living room, but one corner in there still needs vacuumed and furniture needs scooted back in position.

Once that's done, my cleaning spree is over for the moment. My body is not happy with me, and I need time to recuperate before we go on vacation next Friday!

It may not be a totally clean sweep in the house, but it's a lot cleaner than it was!

About that dirty ductwork. . .

2011-07-15T22:10:00.003-05:00

A day late and $10 more.

We were supposed to have the ductwork cleaned yesterday, but at 7am the phone rang and this cheery voice said, "Mrs. King, would you mind if we postponed your job?" Before I could struggle to form a coherent thought (I am NOT a morning person anymore), she rushed on to inform me that a lady with FIVE kids had called and asked for a rush job because the ductwork in the house seemed to be clogged up and they had no air conditioning.

Well, what am I going to say to that? "Sorry, I'm a mean witch, and I want you to get your sorry posteriors here TODAY as scheduled?"

So because we had to move stuff away from vents so they could get to them to do the cleaning, our furniture was left sitting in the middle of a lot of rooms for an extra day.

They got here at about 9am today. Two people worked steadily from about 5 hours to hook stuff up to the vents, blow air through, run brushes through, and otherwise clear all the junk out of the vents.

Now I am in the process of soaking the registers from each vent in a solution of soap and bleach, then scrubbing them with brushes (I'm using Jess's toothbrush for the fine cleaning... think he'll notice???), cleaning the floor that was under the register, and putting them back. It is tedious, hurtful work.

The vents were such a mess they had to take both ends off instead of just one, and push stuff through. I don't know if they got any live mice sucked up, but they did find at least one decaying corpse hanging onto the edge of one vent. (Yuck!)

AND he did remember to put the wire mesh barrier up to try and prevent any new incursions of mice.

So a day late, but their part of the job is done. As for the $10, that's for the vent I forgot down in the basement that wasn't included on the estimate.

Now to finish cleaning and putting everything back together. Jonathan is working on the basement, running the sweeper, and taping up the one duct the mice had chewed through, and putting the ceiling fabric back in place.

Tomorrow I'll try to finish the rest of the cleaning and get the rest of the registers back and let the guys help me move the furniture back in place.

and I hope it is a LONG time ... how about NEVER... before we have such a mess again.

I hate mice!

Of refrigerators, mice, and ductwork!

2011-07-12T21:51:00.008-05:00

Life is crazy. Bet you've noticed that. So what is our particular brand of craziness at the moment?

For one thing, our refrigerator needs Depends. Yes, I'm afraid it has become incontinent, and no amount of fixing the plumbing seems to help. I keep a towel on the floor in front of it. I think this has more to do with the defrost sequence than a hole in the water line.

Also, the ice dispenser hasn't worked for a long time. I can live without that, but it really is nice not to have to open the freezer door when you want ice. And it's also nice to be able to get milk and other drinks from the fridge without opening the refrigerator door. This model has what's called a "refreshment center" with a drop down door that allows you to access a shelf inside which has a drop down shield on the other side that helps prevent cold air from flowing out.

Both of these things are more energy efficient, and I like them both, especially the drop down door. However, our present fridge is now over 21 years old having been bought when we were living in the Cleveland, Ohio, area. Which strikes me as rather hilarious, because this nice refrigerator must have looked SO out of place in that run-down house we were living in with the kitchen floor that required climbing shoes lest you fall off one side or the other.

(It also had metal drums for a septic system, but that's another story. . .)

So we're looking for a replacement fridge, only wouldn't you know that they stopped making models with the "refreshment center" last year??? GE says they no longer have any of those kinds in their warehouses anywhere. The only hope left is to find a store that has had one sitting around for a while.

We tried looking locally without success. I found a place online that said they had it, but guess what? Their supplier didn't have it either. I went to the next online place, and yesterday received an email saying the fridge was backordered. How can you backorder something that isn't being made anymore? the only hope is that they are ordering it from one of THEIR store warehouses since I already know they aren't getting it from GE.

I don't know what I'm going to do if I can't find one like I want. I am pretty set on having another fridge like the one I've got. I'm not the least bit interested in their stupid "French doors" that are so popular. No refreshment center in my fridge after 21 years of having one is not going to set well with me. This may get ugly.

Then there's the mice.

We seem to have gotten rid of the big fellas, the rats. They were too fond of the pelleted poison I kept putting out for them on the back porch. Every night they'd eat one or two packets. After about 4 days I started seeing deceased rodents around the back porch and nearby yard.

But the mice laugh at traps and poison. All kinds of traps. All kinds of poisons. They are cunning little devils that evade every means we have tried to eradicate them.

And they unfortunately like our ductwork. They think it's tasty. They chew on it. Insulation comes floating up through the vents. And they have chewed holes in the plastic ducts under the den and gained access to their very own habi-trail.

We don't have cute little hamsters or ferrets in our critter trails, oh no! We have filthy little mice running around. They are especially active in the wee hours of the morning, and wake Jonathan up as they run through the ducts running along the floor over top of his bed.

Having tried everything else we can think of, we are calling in the experts. No, not exterminators. I don't see what they can do we haven't already tried. Instead, we have someone scheduled to come clean out the ductwork.

He'll hook up a big vacuum to the air intake system then go to each vent, one by one, and use brushes and other equipment to push through the vent and clear out all the junk. Hopefully including all the mice and their nests and droppings. Once he's got the ductwork cleaned out, he also uses a disinfectant.

While he's at it, he is going to put a wire mesh over the opening between the plastic ductwork coming in from under the den and the main metal ductwork. At least that way even if the rotten little rodents chew back into the ducts running under the den, they won't be able to run through all the ductwork in the entire house again.

He's scheduled to come Thursday, so tomorrow Jonathan and I have to move everything away from all the vents in the house so he can get his equipment there, and also from around the furnace and air intake in the basement. Oh boy, this ought to be fun. (NOT!)

And that's the way it is here on the farm, trying to take care of refrigerators, mice, and ductwork!

Another 4th of July

2011-07-04T20:33:00.002-05:00

So happy 4th of July everyone! (Even if you're not from the U.S., you can still go for a happy day, right?)

For some reason I was thinking I started this blog on the 4th of July, but looking back I see I missed the anniversary date, as I started it on June 7, 2007.

Wow. I didn't realize it had been 4 years since I first started blogging. A lot has changed since then, and my poor blog gets sadly neglected. It's not that I'm not blogging, but generally because I'm working on business blogs instead of personal ones.

For instance, right now I am working on my laptop but can see the screen for my desktop where it is split into 4 sections to show 4 different projects running at once. I love automation, but oh! LEARNING how to use it drives me round the bend sometimes. I was having trouble getting this particular set of projects to run correctly, then finally discovered the ONE little radio button I'd not marked that made all the difference.

But it's always the same. When I'm having to learn how to use new software I grumble and complain and wonder why on earth I wanted to do this, but when it finally starts to click I wonder how I ever got along without it!

I'd say "kind of like email" because when the boys were first trying to talk me into using it I couldn't see why I had any need for it and who on earth would I email??? Ha! That's really changed too! Now I get way too much!

At the moment I have a love/hate relationship with email though. First it's been glitchy, and then it's been too much at once. There are probably 1500 emails at any one time in my inbox. I filter now. If I forget to put someone important in the filters... well, I'm likely to miss that email as it has rolled up the screen past what I can see.

I unsubscribe from a lot of stuff. But some things are necessary evils and I have to do a quick check through that mess of mail to see if any business stuff came through that is necessary. But most of those are filtered too.... narrowing my focus to only a few.

Anyway, I digress, but the point is.. times they do change! And I guess it's true you'd better change with them or get left behind.

So for now, I'll just say Happy 4th of July, and although I missed the 4th anniversary date of this blog... I really will TRY to do better at keeping it up!

Klutzomaniac

2011-06-14T02:12:00.003-05:00

At midnight I get an email from my FeedBlitz service with any new posts from blogs I've subscribed to. Tonight (this morning?) I got one from Chrystie's blog, in which she talks about how bad she's been about posting to her blog, which reminded me about how bad I've been about posting to THIS blog.

Yes, when I looked to see when the last post was made, I saw it has been over a month. Hmmmm.....

Well, maybe I can blame mine on being a klutzomaniac. Yeah, cause today I was in total klutz mode, dropping an egg on the floor, somehow getting two slices of bread in ONE slot of the toaster... honest, they just dropped in there like that... couldn't have done it if I'd been trying.

Then I spilled a canister of parrot food all over the floor. Oh, and the apples in lunches? Gee, guys, those hit the floor too.... just kidding!

But there were other things today, like pencils hitting the floor every time I wanted one... but you get the general idea. Klutzomaniac for sure.

But I don't guess that's really a good excuse for no blogging, especially since I'm thankfully not that bad EVERY day!

How about I work on so many other blogs during the day that I never get around to this one? Too true, but probably not a good excuse either.

Since I can't really think up a good excuse, and even though it's 2:30 in the morning, I'll just give a quick "report" on the clan here. . .

Jesse is finishing up a long-term contract job he's been working on for over a year, and very thankful he is too! It was supposed to have finished up in the spring, but there were extensions and more extensions. They did the final inspection so now it's just paperwork and soon an end.

That doesn't mean he doesn't have work. It usually comes in spurts, but he stays pretty busy most of the time. He's thinking about retiring or semi-retiring and only working 3 days or so a week... we'll see what happens next! (I think he might miss getting out and seeing people like he does now.)

Jonathan has been spending a lot of time doing some clearing in his part of the basement, and over the weekend he and Jesse moved the old kitchen cabinets out of that space. The original reason they were put there was becaue I had a notion to make a craft area down there and use them for storage, but they didn't work well in a living space. Took up too much room, and couldn't get to them to open the doors and use them for storage. And they drew dampness and were getting a some mold on them... so out they went.

It definitely opened up the space down there and it actually looks more like a living area now that you can see the walls.

Otherwise, it's work at the pizza place for Jonathan, and most weeks he's been getting overtime.

As for me, I'm back to my regularly scheduled program. The book project is on the back-burner while I try to figure out a new way to market it. My original plan needed rearranging, and I'm slowly working on that.

In the meantime, I'm back to my other blogs which I already know can make a little money, so now the idea is to get them making MORE money!

The only other notable thing around here is the heat. As in, I'm tired of it, as I'm sure a lot of other people are also. It's only June and we've had a couple of weeks of high 90s temps. Enough is enough! Our a/c isn't keeping up and it gets way too warm in the house for my comfort zone.

Okay, that's a quick sum-up of what's going on around here, and I'm finally made a post!

Decisions

2011-05-06T11:00:00.005-05:00

I'm tired of decisions.

Every day, people have to make all kinds of decisions. For some people it comes easily, others are okay with it, and still others have a hard time with the simplest decision. You know, like people with A.D.D.

Adults with A.D.D. have symptoms like:

Hyperfocus, tuning out the chaos by becoming totally absorbed in tasks,

poor organizational skills (home, office, desk, or car is extremely messy and cluttered),

tendency to procrastinate,

trouble starting and finishing projects,

low self-esteem and sense of insecurity, and

sense of underachievement.

So what am I doing? Trying to make it as an entrepreneur with online publishing, and each and every day there are decisions, projects to start and finish, things that need organized...

What do I work on today? Priorities, priorities! What needs done next? What will get me where I want to go faster? Which is more urgent, or more important?

What assignments should I give my outsourcers? Should I take time to train them to do something more?

Which tools are worth buying and which should I ignore? Some software helps me get more done. Sometimes deals come up that are a bargain, and sometimes they aren't.

Like just last night I listened to one seminar about marketing and how to make ads and split testing. At the end they talked about a new software that makes ads with 'plain' pictures, or animated .gifs or with flash. It's loaded with templates, and you just put in the text and change pictures if you want, and viola! In a few minutes you have a complete set of ads in all sizes accepted by the network. Instead of spending hours doing it, and an amateur result, you get quick, professional results.

I would have loved it, but $997 is out of my budget right now.

And then there was an offer for a complete course on learning how to use Camtasia, which is THE movie-making software used by most web publishers and marketers, PLUS a course to show you how to use movies in your marketing. The real sweet deal with all this was the fact for the first 24-hours it was available, you also got the $299 priced Camtasia... FREE.

Decisions, decisions.

And no one to talk to about those decisions.

Okay, that's not entirely true. I have one very good friend who listens to me talk about what I'm doing and what I need to be doing, even though she hasn't got a clue sometimes what in the world I'm talking about. But she 'listens' and that's priceless.

Another friend is also an onlline entrepreneur, but she is doing some different stuff, so we don't always mesh on what we're doing and why. But it's great to have someone who understands what you're talking about!

But neither can really help me on decisons about how much money to spend on what, or how much time to spend on what. Or tell what direction to go with my business, or any of the myriad decisions I need to make every day.

Nope, I'm on my own.

Some day my head will just explode, or maybe the voices will just tell me to do something really stupid.

Or maybe I'm just stupid already. Ah, it's just too much trouble to decide!

From Incommunicado to Communication

2011-05-05T13:11:00.002-05:00

For three months I was close to being totally incommunicado. I had taken on a big project, and was just trying to get it DONE. It turned out to be even bigger than I anticipated, and my email in-boxes started to overflow. And I've got a number of email boxes, between private and business emails, so it's a flood!

At the same time, the phone calls started. It seems like every medicare supplemental insurance company in the U.S. wants to talk to Michael King. Besides phone calls, there are still one or two or three pieces of mail addressed to Michael arriving every day.

The trash can deals handily with such mail, but it's the phone calls that drive me around the bend. I've had up to 12 messages on the answering machine at a time, and all of them wanting to talk to Michael King. I don't even listen to most of them these days, but just delete, delete, delete.

So unless I recognize the number, I don't answer the phone these days, and if you left a message and I didn't reply... sorry, it probably got deleted.

And just to be blunt, unless all these people calling want to hold a seance with a medium who can communicate with the dead, I don't believe they are going to be chatting up Michael. Nor do I think it's going to do much good to try and sell their insurance.

I suppose the biggest kicker was the day the insurance guy showed up at the door with a cheerful, "I hear someone is turning 65 here!" I asked him if he was looking for Michael King, and then informed him that she wasn't available. After all, her ashes have been residing in an urn for almost two decades, and I don't really see any way she's going to be needing Medicare insurance at this point.

Then we had the tornadoes and no electricity for a while and more email piled up.

What with medicare insurance pushers, project overload, and a time without electric, I just haven't kept up with snail mail, email or phone calls. Even Facebook is mostly a distant memory. I have no doubt missed some important communications. Like just this morning I was trying to slog through some of the email, and noticed there was a blog entry saying the kids had sold the house! Yeah, I missed that until later when they mentioned they were moving and I was wondering when they sold the house!

Anyway, I am slowly trying to get back into communication. But I still have more to do than I can handle, so it's a slow process. I've already dealt with a couple of people wanting to use pictures from the farm blog for books and paintings, and thinking over an email from someone asking about buying one of my blogs. But there is just so much there it's overwhelming.

Incommunicado still? Not quite. Communicating? Sometimes.

If you had something important to say to me and I missed it... sorry. Will I eventually see the communication? No guarantees. Sometimes I get in a deleting frenzy and probably delete something I shouldn't.

And now this rambling communication is at an end, though there is so much more I could be saying about depression, pain, projects, sunshine, a wounded cat, decision overload and ADD, and... the list goes on.

Nevertheless, for now I bid you adieu.

Cautiously Celebrating

2011-04-20T19:55:00.004-05:00

It’s been 3 months to the day since I committed to doing a book project. I didn’t actually get to start right away, but still. It seems rather fitting that I got to a very important point today, and totally finished the ebook, bonuses, and membership site.

I went through the entire setup one final time, made another test sale, then filled out the application to become a vendor on Clickbank. (If you’re not familiar with them, they are probably the biggest marketplace for digital products online, and the workings behind a huge share of ebooks and membership sites.)

It will take 3-5 business days before I know if my application was accepted, so I figure it will be sometime next week before I get word. I have plenty to do while I’m waiting, since this is only the first, albeit most intense, part of the project.

So what’s left after the entire product is completed, wrapped up and ready to go?

Marketing.

It doesn’t do any good to have a wonderful product if no one knows about it! So that’s next on my agenda. I have a course to finish on marketing on the big G’s Display Network, and another for marketing on Facebook to help in that area.

Other methods, I already know, like using SEO (Search Engine Optimization) to help drive organic traffic (in other words, free traffic, which really isn’t free unless you have a LOT of time to spend on it yourself, so you have to use outsource workers and special software). And of course, there’s paid traffic like Google AdWords and Yahoo’s ads.

I’m borrowing a copy of Jess’s Microsoft Project to help me keep things sorted. The only trouble with that is I need to learn something else new!

And once again, that is definitely fodder for another post, and one that will be forthcoming soon (I hope). As I went through the process today I printed copies of all the online pages and email messages that are needed before someone actually gets their ebook and becomes part of the membership site. It’s amazing how many different pieces all had to fit together for this to work correctly.

Now to fit the next pieces together, with building up the sites ranking and doing the marketing. Too bad Microsoft Project won’t do all that magically for me!

In the meantime, I’ve kind of goofed off the latter part of this afternoon, and been reading a romance novel. It’s one of my favorite series, and I’ve had it for some time. I’ve been keeping it as a carrot dangling in front of my nose…. “When you finish the project, you can read the book!” Some days I wondered if I was ever going to get to read it!

Of course, in about 5 minutes, a seminar is starting that’s part of my second business model so I won’t get to finish the book until later. But I don’t want to rely on only one income stream so am refining a couple of others.

A woman’s work is never done.

Just one nodus after another. . .

2011-04-18T21:25:00.007-05:00

nodus (NOH-duhs) plural nodi (NOH-dy) noun

MEANING: A complicated situation or problem. ETYMOLOGY: From Latin nodus (knot). Ultimately from the Indo-European root ned- (to bind), which is also the source of node, noose, annex, connect, ouch, nettle, and denouement.

Yep, that's me, I've been plagued by nodi the last 3 months! Actuallly, it hasn't been quite 3 months since I started this project, but it's getting mighty close. And I am sooooo close to being ready to 'go live'!

I have the book done. I have the bonus reports done. I have the sales page, and other necessary pages done. The membership site... well, as of today I think I've *finally* got it whipped. It has been a week in the making, but I think the vendor and membership softwares are now talking to each other correctly.

My last major hurdle is streaming video. I'm beginning to hate it. Unfortunately, I have 71 videos I need to put in on the membership site. I thought I'd put a link there and people watch the video and easy-peasy, right?

Ha! And again I say, HA!

First off, with that many videos, I can't reliably host them on my website. I ended up learning how to use Amazon S3 (Simple Storage Service). Or at least, learning enough to get my videos uploaded and viewable and the links I need. (That's fodder for another post... on how many things I have had to learn to do this: how many videos I've watched, manuals I've read, research and reports and.... !!!)

Anyway, you can't just put the links on the site. You need a PLAYER for the video. And there's the rub.

I've looked at shareware but can't use it on a commercial site. I've looked at services for 'building' the players for each video, but there's a monthly fee. I looked at a whole lot of software, but wow! $90 a site, and for unlimited use anywhere from $1000-$2000.

I finally found a reasonably priced software that is supposed to work on html or php files (I'm using both), will work within a membership site, will work with mp4 files, and will also work with videos hosted on AS3.

But you caught that one little word didn't you? SUPPOSED to work. I've tried every combination I can think of for files, folders, server paths, etc. I've spent days trying to make this work. I've emailed support a dozen times.

It *looks* simple. And I get a nice player on the page... but it doesn't play the video! I've tried and tried and still no success. I work and work until I finally fall in bed exhausted when I can't focus my eyes any more to try something else.

To parapharase Thomas Edison, "I now know a thousand ways not to get a video to play."

But one of these days, and soon (I hope!), the light bulb is going to come on and those dadratted videos are going to play correctly!

And then, my friends, it's going to be time to 'party hearty dudes'!

Too Much P in My Life!

2011-03-24T22:56:00.003-05:00

I finished the rough draft of my book last Friday. I even celebrated a little. But although that was a major milestone, I didn't get TOO excited because I was all too aware of how much work is yet to be done.

And there are so many distractions keeping me from focusing on this Project!

Yes, there are an amazing plethora of P's in my life right now. . .

People. People need fed. People need clean clothes. People need you to bring them phones they forget, or pick up lawnmower belts, or... whatever. Need to talk to people. People are important. Can't forget the people. But takes time, sometimes distracting. . .

Plants & Pots. I planted some seeds in a flat. They sprouted. They grew. Now I've got to transplant them into bigger Pots. Yes, I'm going to pot, and it takes time, and it's another P!

Pictures. A photography resource book needs pictures. I can buy stock photos, but to save money, I use some of my own when I can. However, after searching through my files time and again to find an appropriate photo, I have about decided I need to trash the lot! Where are the technically correct pictures with good composition and detail??? I don't know. I see a lot more trash than treasure in those files. Yes, it's a bunch of Pathetic Photos!! And here's another couple of "P" words ... Purge the Pictures!

Proofreading. I am on my own. Everyone is too busy to read a book they're not interested in. But sometimes it is difficult to proofread your own work. You can go over the same page again and again, and totally miss some left out word. Or a word that shouldn't be there. Or.. whatever. This is really slowing me down, and where's an editor when I need one???

And while I'm proofreading/editing, I need to add links to other resources, and insert the aforementioned pictures, put in headers and page numbers, make a table of contents, and then. . .

Pdf file. This is an ebook, so need to convert the Word document to a .pdf file when it's finally finished. And then...

Pages on the web. Yes, after pages and pages of text for a book, now I need more pages! A sales page, an information page, a whole lot of other pages!!!

Projects, other. As in, I was supposed to start a new project this week. Oops. I am still trying to finish up a previous project! That means I'm...

Pressed for time. This needs to get finished. Can't make any $$$ until it's actually for sale.

Pokey. That's me. I think I must just be terribly slow. I started researching this project two months ago, and I'm still not done.

Pitiful Post. Wasn't this the most pitiful post you've ever read???

P.S. Did I mention I have too much P in my life???

24 Down!

2011-03-14T22:11:00.004-05:00

I'm sitting here sipping on a rum and coke (hey, it's raining, so it's for medicinal purposes!), and celebrating a little. I just finished the last chapter on different specialties, the biggest section of the book I'm writing.
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24 chapters down, 5 or 6 to go.

A week or two ago I told my friend, RR, that I figured I'd have about 100 pages when I was done. She informed me she knew how much research and detail I put into things, so I'd have more than 100 pages.

Well, she wins, cause she was right. I don't know what she wins, but since the book is already up to 110 pages, and not finished, yep, over 100 pages for sure.

I started this project not quite two months ago. The first few weeks were spent listening to videos and doing homework, researching what would be a good niche, the competition, and deciding on the product. It's been an exhaustive and exhausting process.

If all goes well, I hope to finish the book this week, so I can get it on the market. I've already got a website up with a blog about it, working on gaining rank in the search engines.

As a matter of fact, I really, really MUST get it done this week. I have another project starting Saturday, so the major part of this particular one has GOT to be DONE. And the major part is, without a doubt, the book!

It's going to be a wild week.

Fried Brains

2011-03-11T20:38:00.005-06:00

No, it's not one of those strange southern dishes. You can't have them for lunch, cause those fried brains are still in my head. Where I'm hoping they'll regenerate a little, cause I could really use them. . .

I had hoped to finish my writing project this week. No such luck. Life happens. For instance, I figured on getting 3 chapters done today, and only finished one because of some unexpected interruptions.

In fact, I really should be working now... but have I mentioned my fried brains?

Somehow I've got to get it finished within this next week, because I've got another project coming down the pike that is starting the following week, and this one needs to be DONE first. Well, the book part anyway. There's more to be done to go along with it, but not as intense as trying to get the book written.

It just means I'll have to be working on more than one project at a time once I get the book done, but I'm used to that.

What I'm still getting used to is training and keeping worksheets up to date for 1 1/2 minions. (That's one full time, and one part timer.) I have to be sure they have a new worksheet that lists what they need to do next before they finish the one they're working on, so they always have something to keep them busy.
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It makes me be thinking and planning ahead a little more than I'm used to, but that's not all bad.

Right now it's just as crazy work-wise for Jess as it is for me. It never fails. He can sit around for days with nothing to do, then all of a sudden 3 or 4 people want something done at the same time. He's going to have to do some work at home tomorrow to be able to have a bid ready in time on Monday.
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Otherwise, we're all fine, just busy.
Except for that fried brains part.

Three Generations of Shoes

2011-03-04T03:33:00.008-06:00

I finally got my new shoes. I don't buy new shoes very often. Guess you can probably tell that from this picture:

I usually have one pair of shoes I wear when I go outside to do chores, and another pair of shoes I wear inside or when I'm going to the grocery store.

Can you tell which is which? Ha!

The old shoes got so bad that even duct tape, which holds the universe together, wouldn't stay put on my shoes and hold them together.

Jess and I went for a walk in the woods over the weekend, and every five minutes I had to stop and find the duct tape that fell off one of my shoes.

Guess it's time to retire the old black shoes. They've been faithful and loyal servants, taking good care of my feet. And when you have neuropathy in your feet, that's saying a lot.

Well done thou good and faithful servants.

Once they've gone to that great shoe heaven in the sky, the scruffy looking white shoes will take their place as my work shoes, and the spiffy new white shoes will be my inside shoes and going to the grocery store shoes.

My, I lead such an exciting life when I can do an entire blog post on three generations of shoes.

Taking a break...

2011-03-02T21:20:00.009-06:00

I thought I'd take a break from writing.

Oh wait! I'm writing again!

Well, this is different.

I'm not going to do any research for this post.

I am not going to worry that I am 100% correctly factual.

I may even lie to you. (I just turned 39 my last birthday... isn't it amazing I have kids that are 30+ years old?)

Okay, here's something that is no lie. Building a business is not for sissies. I have an increased respect for every successful business person out there. It means they stuck it out when the going got tough and that they've had the combination of savvy and good fortune to make it.

Building an online business reminds me a lot of coding in html. Everything has to be done just right for it all to work. If you mess up one part, it doesn't matter how good the other parts are, the whole thing is messed up. Did you forget to put a measly little . (period!) in there? Too bad, nothing will work until you figure out what you did wrong.

Okay, it might not be quite that stringent, but there are still a lot of parts that have to come together. And a lot of decisions to be made. All very tough for the person with ADD and focus problems (Look! A squirrel's in the front yard! Is that the bird hollering for a taxi ride? What's the dog barking at? Oh, look, there's an article of interest. Look! I could use that info later. Wow! Who would have thought of that....)

Not that I would know ANYTHING about all that....

Was there a point to all this?

Probably not. It's just nice to write and not have to get it all as perfect as possible. I figure it's my blog and I can write whatever I want. You don't have to read it, right? Right.

Okay, break time's over... time to get back to work.

M.O.R.E. R.E.S.E.A.R.C.H. N.O.W.

(More Of Reading Everything -- Really Entirely SUPER Entirely A Real Crushing Helping -- Not Overly Wonderful)

Stormy Weather

2011-02-24T23:44:00.007-06:00

We spent a couple of hours without electricity tonight, from about 9-11pm. Thankfully, it's warm out, so it doesn't trouble us to be without a working furnace and heat.

Of course, it being in the 70s in February is why we're having thunderstorms and tornados!

However, I will admit I don't like sitting around by candlelight or oil lamps. I'm afraid I am NOT pioneer material.

Of course, pioneers wouldn't be sitting around letting their laptop and Gameboy screens light up the living areas. . .

We are such geeks.

Unfortunately, we aren't out of the woods yet weather-wise. We have heavy winds and tornado warnings, not to mention heavy rain. I'll stay up until the weather settles down so if I need to roust Jess out of bed and head for the basement, we can do that before we get blown away.

I guess thunderstorms are better than snowstorms. At least better than ice storms. Just whatever the weather, don't mess with the electricity. I don't like playing pioneer!!

Hoarders

2011-02-19T15:00:00.003-06:00

I think I need therapy.
I think I'm probably a good candidate for the "Hoarders" show.

I'm taking a break from cleaning my office. The couch has been piled high with stuff for a while, because I got on a reorganization binge, then discovered I didn't have the file folders and other stuff I needed, then got busy doing other things, then...

Well, I need to consolidate my "offices" pronto. Right now I have piles of stuff on the living room couch, and that's my office where I use my laptop when I get tired of sitting in the office chair in front of my desktop computer.

The trouble with my satellite office in the living room is it's right in the middle of the traffic pattern for Jess going from his den back through the house to bathroom or bedroom, and for Jonathan coming up and to the kitchen. There are a lot of distractions when you're sitting in the middle of the house.

Most of the time I get by, but I have a BIG writing project I need to finish, and SOON. So I need to get my act together and get in the office where I can shut the door and make myself FOCUS on the task at hand.

All that for the why I'm cleaning my office. As for the why I'm a hoarder... well, some of the stuff I'm sorting out in the office is OLD.

Here's an example. I had a stack of little magazines from the public tv station in West Virginia. They were dated from 1987 to 1989, during the time we lived in Eureka. Now, I did have a legitimate reason why I saved them in the first place. I'd taped several episodes of "Dr. Who", and these magazines had the program schedule and told about the episodes.

And I do still have those tapes. But do I watch them these days? No.
Could I get the info about "Dr. Who" episodes off the internet if I needed it? Yes.

So why am I keeping these old public television guides?

Cause I'm a hoarder. A pack-rat. A "I can't throw that out cause I might need it" and "I've had that forever and it just seems wrong to toss it out now" kind of person.

But it's time to let go. Jess has already carried the first big bag of trash out to the garbage can for me and that means the old public televisions guides are in the trash.

Darn. I was going to take a picture of them to go with this post.... see, I knew I'd need them if I threw them away!

Have I mentioned I need therapy???

A year ago today I was in Florida. . .

2011-02-17T21:12:00.003-06:00

Yep, I noticed on my calendar that one year ago today I flew to Florida for the first time of several times in 2010. It was the first time I got to see Ellie after her surgery. And now here it is time for her to go for her one-year checkup in Vancouver. Chrystie is flying there with Ellie while Richard holds down the fort at home. Unfortunately, insurance only pays for one parent's ticket, and at $800 a pop... ouch. It will be interesting to hear what the surgeon thinks of Ellie's progress.

Here on the home front, things are much the same as usual. We're in a warmer spell right now, which is very nice. Dreaming of spring but not so thrilled about the coming heat of summer. I'm not looking forward to the heat anyway... I don't think it bothers the guys so much.

We've got plans for a good sized garden this year. In a couple of weeks I'll be starting some tomatoes inside for later planting outside. Supposedly Jess will be retiring sometime this summer so he can take care of this garden... we shall see.

In the meantime, I'm working like a madwoman trying to build the business up so when Jess retires we can continue to live in the style to which we've become accustomed, ha! I need to finish clearing out my office this weekend because next week I need to hole up in there, without distraction, and research and WRITE. LOTS. I've got a pretty big project I need to get done, and SOON.

It's a continual learning experience. I'm not used to dealing with minions. (I know, I watch "Despicable Me" too much.) I did have two working part-time, but one had some changes in her circumstances, and had to quit. For the moment I have one full-time helper. Training someone to do stuff is time consuming, but should help me in the long-run. But it keeps me on my toes planning and making sure I have work for her to do that is USEFUL and fits in the business plan.

Jess has taken over doing morning chores, going out before he goes to work. That helps immensely. I've cut back on posting to the farm blog also, which frees up more time. It's a nice blog but it's not where I make money. Right now, I need to work on the ones that make money!

At least once every month or two, though, I hear from someone wanting to know if they can use a picture from that blog. Someone asked just last week if they could use one to make a painting. That's about the 3rd time I can recall off the top of my head that's happened. Paintings, 4-H projects, flyers... and who knows how many people have used one of the pictures without asking. The only people who ask are the ones who are either a) honest, or b) need a copy with better resolution (or possibly both).

And I recently got a check for the elk picture the company is going to use as part of redoing the Oconaluftee Visitor Center of the Great Smokey Mountains area in North Carolina. Turns out it is against park policy to use the names of private citizens in displays, so they had to send along compensation for not being able to give me a "byline" as was part of the original contract.

I'd like to be able to hire someone to clean the house at least a couple of times per month soon. Otherwise, I'm afraid we're going to end up on some "Hoarders" or "Tornado Aftermath" show. But I still have to pick and choose, and right now the business comes first when I'm spending money. (Though I did just order a pair of shoes tonight... my work shoes are held together with duct tape so maybe it was time...)

Another project this spring is stocking the farm pond. Jess picked up a flyer today with information about fish available, what mix and numbers are good for the size of our pond, and the prices.

And it's not all work around here. At lunch or some other break times when I need something different to occupy my brain I'm alternating between reading about energy healing, and at the moment, a historical book on The Orthodox Church. Fascinating stuff, but making me stretch my theological terminology and perspectives a bit.

Jess has taken over the Netflix queue for his entertainment when he's not watching sports. Jonathan watches Netflix movies too, but he streams his through his Wii to his tv. He's still working pretty much full-time and more. They often send him home earlier on Sunday because he's hit 40 hours and they try to pay as little overtime as possible.

As for this year's travels... I don't think we're going to travel near as much this year. We'll see how things are going come summer time, but for the first half of the year, well, I need to stay home and "get 'er done"!!!

And that's the way things are down on the farm!

Back to Normal . . .

2011-01-19T21:35:00.003-06:00

It's past time to report in here for those family members who keep up with us by reading this blog. So here we go!

We're back to normal here, or as normal as it ever gets with this crew anyway. All the snow melted off, most over the weekend. A little lingered in shady spots, but the rain yesterday took care of that.

The latest trip to the grocery store was more normal, with fully stocked bread shelves. It's entirely possible we'll have more snow before the winter ends, but I doubt we'll have another big storm that dumps quite so much snow. I hope not anyway!

As for family. . .

Jess seems to be trying to get another cold, boo, hiss! Tomorrow morning he's not going into work right off, because he's got a 10 a.m. meeting just a couple miles from us with a lawyer and some other people. They want him to be an expert witness for them in a lawsuit concerning some subdivision construction stuff. Gee, can you see him in court? Llike one of those tv shows, ha, ha!

Actually, he doesn't know yet if he'd have to go to court, or just do a deposition or what. Maybe he'll find out some of this stuff tomorrow.

As for Jonathan, after two weeks of working extra hours, including Saturday night, he's back to his normal work schedule. The first week got messed up because he missed a couple days work because he was sick, so then he made it up later. Then we had that big snowstorm and the store was closed one of the days he usually works. So again, he made it up by working other days.

And me, same old, same old. Tweaking my new business plan, and trying to do more things than I really have time to get done.

I guess we're not very exciting around here. Which isn't all bad either. Not all excitement is GOOD excitement!

Snowmageddon

2011-01-09T21:40:00.003-06:00

Yes, it's finally started... snowmagedden. There's not much snow out there yet, but the forecast is for a whopper of a snowstorm for our part of the world.

Jonathan and I made our regular run to the grocery store today, and there was very little bread left on the shelves... NO hot dog buns at all! The milk shelves looked pretty bare too. Anyway, we're now stocked up on food. Our only problem is if the electricity goes out... how do we stay warm??? No electricity, no furnace, no heat.

Fortunately, Jonathan was back home from his evening shift before it started to snow. He's supposed to work day shift at Domino's tomorrow, but the plan is if he can come... come. But if the roads are bad, just stay home. They're probably going to do carry out only tomorrow, no deliveries.

Jess isn't planning on going to work tomorrow, so looks like we're just going to hunker down and hope however much it snows, it doesn't take down the power lines.

Facebook is full of comments from people in the area talking about Snowmageddon, and hoping they get to go sleigh riding.

For my part, I don't mind the snow... just hope we don't have any ice storms. That's when we have problems.

Guess we'll see how bad this snowmageddon gets!

Out with the old, in with the new.. .

2011-01-02T17:31:00.002-06:00

Here it is, already the 2nd day of the new year. If this year whizzes by as quickly as 2010, it will be Christmas again before we know it! Well, it seems like it anyway.

I was putting important dates on my new fridge calendar on New Year's Day, and using the old calendar to copy from. It was interesting to see what things we'd done through the year. Here's a smattering of happenings from 2010:

January: We didn't have anything special for us on the calendar, but Ellie had her surgery late in January and that definitely a BIGGIE!
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February: I made the first of many trips to Florida. I didn't go to the hospital when Ellie was having her surgery, and wanted to see her as soon afterwards as I could.
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March: Guess what? I went to Florida again! I went an "Entrepreneur's Conference" while I was there, so it was a pretty busy time. But I also stayed a couple of nights at the condo with Richard, Chrystie & Ellie.

April: Jess and I drove down to Florida to visit all the kids and grandkids there. I thought it would be cool to have both sets there but discovered it really isn't. When you're visiting with one side, you think about the other too. If everyone lived in the same area all the time I think that would be different, but this wasn't ideal.

May: Richard & Chrystie & Ellie had to say good-bye to Florida at the end of May and headed back towards Canada. They stopped here for a few days on the way home.

June: Jess and I had our 16th anniversary.

July: We went to West Virginia and picked up Dad and headed over to the eastern part of the state to go on a 9-hour train trip. It was awesome, but tiring! Then we met up with Maria & family and went fishing on the Elk River. Good times!

August: An up and down sort of month. I was on some antibiotics & discovered it is possible to have psychotic reactions to them. Good grief! And then my llama lost her cria and that was a major bummer.

September: The calm before another round of travel. Also notable as being the first month I saw revenue for a number of online sources.

October: Over to Gatlinburg to meet up with Richard, Chrystie & Ellie, staying at a cabin. We all chipped in to cover cabin and food, and had a great time. Visited the aquarium, a parrot sanctuary, and Cades Cove.

November: Our annual trek to Florida to visit with the Sanfords and Dave's family and Randy. We have sooooo much fun over the Thanksgiving holiday!

December: A quiet Christmas. Working on a business plan for 2011. I guess you could say a quiet but busy month!

So the old is out, and now here we are, into the new year of 2011!

Oh, you're wondering if I have any New Year's Resolutions??? Why, yes I do.

What are they? It's a secret, ha, ha!

Okay, it's mostly just to get back on track with stuff I started last year. The biggest thing different is while I am frantically trying to amp up my business to also try and get some stuff done at home AND also keep in better contact with friends and family.

Sure could use more hours in my days!

What's the matter with me???

2010-12-30T12:20:00.007-06:00

That's the question all right... 'What's the matter with me?' I'm afraid I can ask that question on so very many different levels.

There's that "What were you thinking?" level. Or maybe, "How could you do that?" And then there's the literal, "What's the matter with me?"

First off, I don't know what I've been thinking or how I could do that. Particularly, my falling back into my "old" ways the last month or so. I'm like an alcoholic that has 'fallen off the wagon' and totally out of control.

I'm not eating the right foods.
And I'm eating a lot of the wrong foods, like a lot of sugar.
I'm not taking the supplements I should be taking to help my body.

I'm not doing my energy healing work or meditation, both which relieve stress. And just because I don't venture far from home most of the time, and work at home, doesn't mean there isn't stress!

There's stress from trying to do too many things at once, from trying to get a business off the ground and making consistent earnings. There's stress of trying to change my lifestyle and eat those right foods, and exercise, and all the many things I know I should be doing and can't seem to consistently put into practice.

I totally empathize with Paul when he wrote in Romans,

"I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do."

Yep, that's me all right. What was I thinking? Why did I do that? What's the matter with me anyway!!!!?????

And then there was yesterday.
Now we're talking about the literal, "What's the matter with me?"

I felt fine yesterday morning. Jess and I were sitting at the dining room table looking at seed catalogs, trying to figure out what we want to order to plant in a garden this year. I had dug out what leftover seeds we have to make sure we didn't duplicate stuff. Everything was hunky-dory.

Then the room started to get dark. I felt hot needles in my chest and head. I sat there and thought, "Am I imagining this????" I mean, it was surreal. One minute I was fine, the next I felt like I was going to pass out.

Now if you've never fainted, you might not recognize the feeling. But I've done it plenty of times, and it usually happens because my body is reacting to some medicine it didn't like. I think Dr. Bill called it an "atonic-parasympathetic reaction." It just means the body's automatic response to what it thinks is an emergency, causing a state of shock. Blood pressure drops, you feel faint, etc.

Only this time I hadn't got a shot of novacaine or marcaine or anything else my body objects to that usually causes that response. I hadn't eaten anything strange I'd never eaten before. So ??????

When I convinced my brain that this was indeed really happening, I said to Jess, "Something is very wrong." He helped me to the couch, and I sat there until I started to feel better.

But then it happened again a little while later. The room was going dark, I was woozy, and Jess said I was very pale.

He wanted to know if he should call an ambulance. At first I said "yes"... which if you know me you can realize I was really bad off and scared to even consider that! But I backtracked before he got to the phone and decided to try and call my doctor. Wouldn't you know they were all out on their lunch hour.

Jess decided to take me down without waiting to call first, saying if he "had to make a scene to get me in, he would". And if she felt I needed to go to the hospital, we'd be that much closer.

Thankfully, they worked me in quickly. I hadn't sit there more than 5 minutes until the nurse called me back. By that time I had the shakes. Teeth chattering, chilled.

To make a long story a little shorter, I had an EKG and she said it didn't "look significantly different than the last one." She listened to my lungs and they were okay. She was convinced from all the shaking and stuff that I was/am getting the flu.

The upshot is she sent me home with a prescription for Tamiflu, and if I get a fever, I'm supposed to start taking it. But even though I had another episode of the shakes in the middle of the night, I still do not have a fever. I do, however, still have pain in my chest, but it's going to rain here, and that causes my fibromyalgia and costochondritis, an inflammation of the cartilage between the ribs and joining them to the sternum, to act up.

None of this makes any sense. Or at least that passing out part sure didn't. I have no idea what's the matter with me.

Maybe time will tell.

Merry Christmas!

2010-12-25T17:33:00.005-06:00

Here in the Huntsville area we had the first white Christmas they've had in 21 years. In fact, 1989 is the only other time there has been measurable snowfall on Christmas until today!

Since I haven't lived here that long and wasn't here 21 years ago, it's the first white Christmas we've had since we moved here. It was kind of funny because I happened to wake up about 3am and look out, and there was nothing but a damp sidewalk. I figured it was going to be just another "scare" and no snow would be forthcoming. But when I got up this morning and looked out, WOW! I was sure wrong about that.

I must admit I'm glad we didn't have to travel anywhere.

This year we did more for Christmas than last year (which wouldn't take much since I did nothing). Jonathan carried up our little fake tree, and we actually bought some presents and put under it.

Now I'm not saying we got fancy and *wrapped* the presents, ha, ha! Boxes or freezer bags, and a red magic marker... and that's it.

We opened gifts last night, and there again, WOW! I don't know when I've been so pampered! Jess got me a new meditation cushion, a craft table, a new set of headphones to use with my laptop.

Then Jonathan got me some movies and a Night Fury figure (my favorite dragon from "How to train your Dragon" movie).

The guys weren't left out! For instance, Jess got a Garmin. Or maybe that's a present for me? You know, the whole "let's not get lost next time we go somewhere" idea! A pair of boots, folders for his state quarters collection. Jonathan got models to paint and shirts to wear.

I think we all were happy with the gifts under the tree, even if the wrapping wasn't fancy!

Christmas Eve Eve

2010-12-23T17:10:00.005-06:00

If it's the evening before Christmas Eve, than that's Christmas Eve Eve, right?

This has been a grandkids kind of day. We were surpised to get a package in the mail from Lee today with a framed photo montage. Very nice! Good pictures of the grandkids, and Dave and Debra, and they even managed to sneak one in of me and Jess from when we were down there at Thanksgiving.

Then I checked with Richard and Chrystie today via email to see if they would have any time for a Skype call on Christmas... turns out the next couple of days will be busy (no surprise!), but today they were having a quiet sort of day, so we chatted this evening.

Ellie had BIG NEWS. She lost a tooth! See, Southern Grandma!

I didn't hit the button quick enough to get her showing me the gap where her tooth used to be!

And furthermore, she got a car from a friend for her Zhu Zhu pet. and she lost a tooth! And she's going to the movie theater for the first time to see Rapunzel. and she lost a tooth! And she has a stuffy nose. and she lost a tooth! and Santa is going to come and leave some presents. And the Good Fairy came and left a Toonie, cause guess what.... she lost a tooth!

Grandkids are such fun!

Playing Dominoes

2010-12-15T15:41:00.004-06:00

I think I mentioned playing dominoes earlier. Maybe not here though, but on Facebook. I'm not talking about the game with the numbered tiles however, but more about the "domino effect."

You know, if you move one thing, then the next thing must be moved, then the next, and on and on, until the last piece falls.

Or perhaps I'm playing "Pilot." In that game, you pile it here, and you move a pile there, you just pile it, pile it everywhere.

Or maybe it's a combination. I just know it's killing me.

It started when Jess got a new recliner for his birthday/Christmas. That meant his old recliner had to be moved out of the way to make room for the new one. I got the bright idea to put it in my office figuring that when I get tired of sitting in the office chair, maybe I could sit in the recliner and work on my laptop, instead of moving to the living room to do it.

I'm hoping if I do that, I can consolidate my reference materials so they'd all be in the office, instead of some stacked on the couch and loveseat. And of course, whatever I need, it always seems to be in the opposite place of where I am.

But to put the old recliner in the office, I needed to move out the bird's exercise door. And to make room for it by her cage, we had to move the play gym out.

That was Part I. Today I'm working on Part II.

After putting the recliner in my office all the stuff is too cramped together. And I also am in the midst of setting up a filing system in a big office-sized 4-drawer filing cabinet. Everything is torn out so I can sort through it all, then file it, find a new home for it, or throw it away. I'm trying to get things organized to be ready to rock and roll with a tweaked business plan for 2011.

So to make more space in my office, I need to move out a writing desk that is setting beside my computer desk. I'm going to put it in the spare room.

However, to put it in the spare room, I needed to move a set of double bookshelves. To do that I needed to empty all the books off them. We're talking books on 10 feet work of shelving. A lot! Once I got all the stuff off, then Jonathan helped me move the shelves to the living room... Oh! but before I moved them, I had to empty stuff off a tea table and move it out of the way.

At present it has a little Christmas tree setting on it. Where it goes after Christmas... I'll figure out later.

But the bookshelves are in place, and all the books back on the shelves. Now all the stuff is moved off the top of the desk, and from underneath it, and when Jess gets home he can help me move it.

For now, I need to go out and do evening chores.

I hope to have this done by the end of the week if I don't collapse before then.

Wish me luck. This playing dominoes is hard work!

Short post

2010-12-07T10:36:00.006-06:00

Short post, short hair.

Don't think I've mentioned to anyone I got a haircut right before Thanksgiving. Of course, the folks in Florida know it, because they saw me. but I went from waist-length hair to this:

Do I like it? No, I do not. I told the beautician to leave enough hair so that I could put it in a clip and wear it up. It is too short for that. Once she cut the first long length off, about 12 inches or so, she just keep snipping away like a mad woman! =:-O

Oh well, I suppose it will grow out soon enough!

More Sanford Baptism Pictures

2010-12-02T15:12:00.003-06:00

I just put a bunch of pictures in an album on Facebook, but I know there are some diehards that do not have a Facebook account (Hi Jess! Hi Randy!) ... so here's a slideshow. Some of the first few pictures will be repeats from the video I did yesterday of the actual baptisms.

But then we had breakfast in the park, which was totally awesome. Debra and Becky had made a bunch of food, some ahead of time, and some like the bacon and eggs they cooked right at the park. It was positively scrumptious!

After breakfast, we walked along one of the trails to see more of the Rock Springs and Kelly Park. So here are pictures from our special day at the park. . .

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If you want to see this full screen, click here and you can check it out.

It was a great day!

A Special Day

2010-11-30T18:14:00.003-06:00

We made our annual Thanksgiving traditional trek to see the Sanfords and Randy and some of Dave's family last week. It's always a treat, but this year we got an extra special Thanksgiving treat... all four of the Sanford grandkids got baptized.

I'm going to put up more pictures on Rural Ramblings tomorrow, but thought I'd put the video up here tonight.

Another Sunday in the South

2010-10-31T15:26:00.004-05:00

Let me just say, I love, love, LOVE this kind of weather. It gets cold at night, then warms up during the day. Beautiful sunshine during the day, a little frost in the morning. I wish it would stay like this longer than it usually does here, but I'm afraid all too soon it will get REALLY cold. I'm not looking forward to that.

Things are settling back into a routine after being gone for a week. Jess is busy at work; he was getting calls before we got home. Jonathan is working 8 days straight. I guess they're letting him "make up" for all his time off!

I'm slowly getting all the laundry done, suitcases back in storage, and other stuff. Seems like I'm carrying something down to the basement every whipstitch! And sure got a lot of ironing that needs done. Some shirts and pants just don't emerge wrinkle-free from the dryer.

The grocery shopping is done for this week, and I've got a work plan made up for the next month. It's a lot easier when I have a list of tasks and can just move from one to the other without having to think about which thing I should do next!

So we're settling back to the status quo, at least until it's time for the next trip!

Maybe we should have stayed on vacation...

2010-10-27T13:48:00.007-05:00

We just got home yesterday from almost a week in Pigeon Forge. I'm beginning to think maybe we would have been better off staying there.

There were bad storms around the country yesterday, and the Canadian contingent was flying home. Bad combination. Evidently a big storm in Chicago messed everything up and their flight from Knoxville left about an hour & a half late.

Worse, when they got to Chicago their flight to Fargo had been flat-out cancelled! They ended up having to fly out on another airline, and instead of going to Fargo where their car is parked, they had to fly to Winnipeg instead. So after a little over 12 hours of trying to get home, now at some point they'll have to spend even more time and make a trip to Fargo to get their car!

Now unlike the Canadian contingent, the actual trip home went fine for us. Jonathan did the driving, and we only made a couple of stops along the way. No, our problems began when we got home.

First off, when we drove up Jess noticed the feed room door was hanging open and the feed bucket and the llama's food bowl were sitting in the yard. Why???

It's like this, I pay what I think is a pretty good sum to have the animals looked after. I left a short checklist of what needed done for use as a quick reference each day, AND then a detailed explanation of everything WITH PICTURES to be sure everything was clear. And yet, there were things that were NOT done that were very clearly written on the list, such as:

* getting our mail out of the box at the end of the driveway and putting it in a bin on the back porch,
* feeding the dogs 2 eggs each every day,
* keeping one of Toby's food bowls full of food,
* giving the peachicks a sack of greens every day.

I'd put stuff on a table on the back porch. I worked hard before we left to chop up enough greens to place a couple of cups full in each of the paper lunch bags, so each day the peachicks would have some, and they didn't get any!

And as I said, I left pretty clear instructions. I was disappointed since in times past one of the kids from this same family had done the chores and did an excellent job. When it's plain so many things were NOT done, it makes you wonder what other things didn't get done that you can't tell anything about.

Well, once we unloaded everything from the car, Jess and I headed towards Huntsville to pick up the parrot. We got her home and eventually realized that all the flight feathers are gone from one side. No wonder she took a nose dive to the floor when she tried to fly from the top of her cage to the den!

I haven't been able to stretch out her wing yet to see if they were clipped or she pulled them out. I think it's a distinct possibility that they were clipping her beak and toenails, and most of the time people also ask to have the flight feathers clipped on their bird. Maybe they got started and realized they weren't supposed to do it, then quit. But it doesn't make any sense to do just one side, even if they weren't supposed to do it at all. Once one side was done, might as well make it even and clip the other side, too.

And coming back from the bird vet's office we had to drive through heavy rain and lots of wind, and tornado sirens going off in north Alabama. Good grief!

And even more stuff... We put some special air cleaners out in the house before we left, and it did smell better when we came back so I was all excited about that. However, I'm not so sure we've solved the problem, because once we got the air conditioner going again, it seems to me there was more smell. I don't think that problem is conquered. Bummer.

Because of the air cleaning, I'd placed a towel over the turtle tank to prevent any of the chemicals getting in there. When I took that off, the smell was awful. Upon closer investigation I discovered some of the food from the automatic dispenser had fallen in a floating decoration, made a stagnant, yucky soup, and there were little larva that looked like mosquito wrigglers in there. Considering the abundance of little black gnat/flies I'm sure that's what was breeding. I put on plastic gloves and cleaned up that mess, so hopefully that's the end of that!

Further, once we got home I found out about a family situation that I think is a train wreck in the making, but there is absolutely nothing I can do about it. The person is an adult, can do what they want, and I really don't have any say about it. Unfortunately, there's little doubt that at some point I'll have to deal with the consequences from this situation.

All that was yesterday evening. But it wasn't the end of unwanted problems.

Today I spent time searching for another avian vet. There isn't any unless we drive an hour away. So I called and asked about the missing feathers, very polite like, just to see what they'd say. The vet insists he didn't trim her feathers, that she must have pulled them out. Anything is possible. I've never seen her do it before, but it does stress her to board at the vets, so who knows? I'll give them the benefit of the doubt and presume she did it herself.

I also mailed a payment to my farm-critter-sitter today, along with a note about being disappointed because all the chores weren't done, and high-lighted the parts of the chore list that were missed so it's plain. Maybe the next job for whoever, it will prompt a little more care?

And then I went down in the basement to do laundry and discovered yet another unwelcome surprise. We have glue boards down there to catch cave-crickets and spiders that wander in, but one glue board had an extra critter on it... a little snake. A little *live* snake. (I won't creep you out with a picture... but there will likely be one tomorrow on the farm blog!)

Are we having fun yet?

Okay, I'm ready for things to settle down to some semblance of normal, or at least just toodling along with no unwelcome surprises. So excuse me now while I go down and put more laundry in the washer and dryer... if you hear me scream, you'll know there was something else down there I didn't want to see!

Looking for boring. . .

I Sing Because. . .

2010-09-22T21:54:00.003-05:00

There are some things I really miss about going to church. I miss the music, both listening and getting to sing in choir. And there are some special people I really miss.

A couple of those special people are Carl and Eveyln Tate. During a very dark time, they were good friends to me. In fact, Eveyln was praying for me even before she knew me. . . she just knew that a neighbor needed prayer. Then once I started attending the same church and got to know them, what a blessing! Their kind words lifted me up more times than I can count.

Everyone needs the blessing of some friends like them.

So I was thrilled to see this video that combines two very special things... the music I love and a special friend that I love.

Carl Tate - "I Sing Because..."

Amen, Brother Carl, amen.

Random Thoughts About Another Week, Another Saturday

2010-09-18T13:32:00.004-05:00

The days speed by, the weeks speed by, the months speed by, the years speed by.

Whatever happened to way back when I was a kid, and thinking it was taking such a VERY long time to get to 16, because after all, when I got to be 16 I could do everything? I could get contacts, I could date, I could drive, I could.... well, you get the idea.

Well, I don't want to be 16 again. In fact, if I was in a time machine, I'd probably go back to about 30 or so. I think that's a good age. You've got more a grip on who you are and what you want out of life. A little life experience and maturity under your belt.

But then, 30 isn't a magic number either. I'm still rediscovering who I am, and what I want, and it doesn't stay the same from one day to the next. Okay, the basics do, but there are always changes. You can't be living and not changing. If you never changed, well, that would be a sad state of affairs.

Even more on time passing so quickly. . .

I was wearing an old tee shirt this week that said,

"My grandchildren are as cute as buttons."

These days, I only have one grandchild I could say that about. The others have gotten past the "cute as buttons" stage and are gorgeous young ladies and handsome young men. Again, how did that happen so fast? And even our little Ellie who can still be classified as cute... well, she started kindergarten this year.

Time keeps on slippin' away.

I'm reminded of that every time I look at my spreadsheets and where I should be business wise. Time keeps relentlessly speeding up and I don't get things done I wanted to.

For instance, I spent a large part of the last week learning some new software. I hereby confess I positively HATE learning new software. But once I've figured it out, it's like, "Wow! This is really cool!"

This time was no different. It took a long time to set-up everything and figure out how to work it, but now it will be a big time saver and a great asset to the business.

But all that being said, it put me behind for the moment, and I didn't get work done on a lot of stuff I wanted to finish up this week.

Still taking time to learn. . .

The SEO webinars that lasted from 7:30pm until 1:30am DID finish up this past week however. But there is a follow-up course in October on a related subject. And I still have a different course on Tuesday nights, but thankfully it doesn't last as long. On the other hand, neither does it deliver so much information! But shorter seminars allow you to digest and implement stuff a little quicker. Too much information and the brain kind of short-circuits, and I wonder what to do first!

As for the rest of the clan. . .

Jesse isn't having the time of his life at the moment, considering he has a cold. Also, he's been pretty busy at work, and his plan for taking Fridays off hasn't been happening because of that.

To add insult to injury, a guy he did a bunch of work for just went out of business. He owed Jess a bunch of money, but no way to collect it, so Jess and all this guy's other creditors are just up the creek without a paddle, too bad, so sad.

Jonathan is working over time this week, and only had one day off. His usual days off are Thursday and Saturday, but he's got to work today to help cover for people being out.

And now it's time to close. . .

Well, I need to get back to work. Hope those of you reading this have a good time this week!

Saturday morning on the farm. . .

2010-09-11T11:20:00.006-05:00

Or maybe, "Everything you wanted to know about what I'm doing but were afraid to ask." And if you aren't interested if what I'm doing, well, now would be a good time to stop reading.

At the moment I'm doing my usual Saturday thing of work a while (more physical work... as in, cleaning house), then take a break and sit down for a while and do some stuff on the computer. For this break I decided to update my woefully neglected personal blog here.

Most of the time posting here gets passed over for posting on working blogs. With two outsourcers working for me and Jesse on the brink of retiring, I need to boost my income considerably, which Jess so kindly reminds me of from time to time. (NO pressure.... nooooooooooooo.......) But I've got to be able to stop pouring all profit back into the business and have some for living expenses.

I guess this week is fairly representative of how things go ... I do the usual farm chores and fixing lunches and cooking... occasionally get some laundry and cleaning in there. And I still attend webinars. There will ALWAYS be more to learn. Working as an online entrepreneur is like anything else in that the rules are always changing, and the stuff that worked yesterday doesn't always do so well today. Only maybe in the world of instant communication it happens a little faster! (Okay, a LOT faster.)

So this week I had a webinar on Tuesday night I needed to attend. (We have rearranged our schedule for mastermind group calls that we were previously doing on Tuesday nights, but yes, I'm still in a mastermind group.)

Wednesday night I had two webinars. One didn't last long, and I left it before the Q&A session at the end was over so I could go to the next to the last call of another series I've been attending on SEO (search engine optimization). The guy doing these webinars seriously over delivers on information. It's not fluff, it's solid content, and we have consistently been on these sessions for 5-6 hours. This last one lasted from 7:30pm to 1:30am.

But it's important to keep learning more things to help my work. Sometimes it's a new way of doing things to help get things done better or faster or both. Sometimes it's finding out something I've been doing is ALL WRONG, and I need to change. That's a little disheartening when that happens, but it just means it's time to fix things, dust myself off and move on.

Of course, in-between the regular farm and household work and webinars, and making sure my outsourcers have stuff to work on, it's critical for me to be actually DOING , and working on stuff online that will generate income.

I have 3 main business models I'm using, and rotate working on the sites associated with these methods. I won't try to explain them fully; if it's not your thing you'd be totally bored pretty fast. But as an example of what I do, in the past couple of months I have built 11 new blogs and seriously overhauled several old ones. Most of the new blogs are part of a batch I'm working on that feed into a larger authority site. So far I've done about 100 posts for those sites. Fortunately, there will come a point when I feel they are built up sufficiently, and can slow down on those.

But there will always be more to do once those are done. To increase income, I have to keep building, plus do an occasional brush-up of those already done.

Being an online entrepreneur is NOT the get-rich-quick thing some gurus talk about. It takes time to learn how to do it, and time to build a business. The guys who say you can get rich quick online are the only ones getting rich quick off the money you spend buying their products. Now, there are legitimate products out there, and some are a big help. And there are also a lot of tools you need to streamline the work you're doing, or to just plain out-right be able to get it done.

But it takes a while to become savvy enough to know what's good and what's not, and from the talk on forums it's clear that most people spend a lot more than they wanted to before they figure it out.

At any rate, the bottom line is I'm still working on building my business. The coffers aren't filling as quickly as I'd hoped, but I'm starting to see some results. Right now I'm really PUSHING to have a lot done in the next couple of months, particularly that new batch of websites, so they'll be firmly entrenched in the search engines before Christmas shopping season which for my purposes I'm counting as starting around the first of November.

And there you have it. This may seem like a lengthy post, but it just scratches the surface of what I'm doing. So if you don't hear from me, it's not that I'm lazy, I'm just going crazy(ier) trying to get things done!

Comedy of Errors

2010-08-31T21:25:00.003-05:00

Well, I ended up with two things supposed to be happening at the same time tonight. One was our usual Mastermind call, and the other was a webinar to give some in-depth instruction on a system I bought some time ago.

First I had trouble finding the phone number for our conference call. Finally found it and had the online webinar booting up at the same time.

I got on the Mastermind call, and only one other was there. We chatted a little while, and I told her about how this call was supposed to be Thursday, and now it was Tuesday, and... bottom line, decided I'd attend the webinar and come back to the mastermind next week.

In the meantime, the webinar had started, then all of a sudden the screen stopped moving. After a few minutes the webinar went totally down. I clicked back on, and this time the partner of the guy who was going to give the webinar came on and said his partner's internet went down, and the call has been rescheduled to.... you guess it.... Thursday.

Argh! I could have went ahead with the mastermind call if I'd known. But that's the way it is sometimes, a total comedy of errors.

While I was trying to get all these things set up at the same time, I knocked over my glass of iced tea and had to clean it up, and I got my head set wet and had to dry it...

And through all this I'm dealing with itchy ant bites, like half a dozen on my right knee, and a couple of bigger ones on each ankle. That was another comedy of errors, that the llama and I should end up standing in a fire ant hill yesterday. That's a black comedy I fear... okay, red...

Well, that's how it goes! Guess I'll just go back to work, and hope things go better Thursday night and next Tuesday, and all the rest of the days in-between!

Cheers!

I am not the farm...

2010-08-23T21:26:00.003-05:00

Today has been a hard day in a whole lot of ways and I didn't get much sleep last night, so I'm a little cranky. If you don't want to listen to me grousing, stop reading right now.

Okay, so here it is. I write a lot about life on the farm. I used to send out an email to interested people a few years ago (TN Tattlers), but quit because I got tired of explaining that I was writing about what time I WAS active, but that didn't mean I was active 24/7, and yes, I still had/have chronic pain and fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome. I just didn't see writing, "Oh, I was on the couch for a couple of hours today" as being interesting reading.

So I gave up with the TN Tattlers. But I like to write, so now I do it on a more public and a little less personal forum of the farm blog. It gets quite a few visitors, enough so that the website has a page rank of 3. That probably doesn't mean anything to most people reading this, but short explanation is that Google ranks all pages from 0 - 10, and there are a lot more ranked zero than about anything else. 3 is a solid ranking.

Anyway, the point is that I write a lot about the farm and a lot of people read it. Most I never hear from or know who they are. Many comment and we have an enjoyable dialog. Others I hear from I could do without, those being the ones who love to tell me what I'm doing wrong.

And then there are those who are so interested in what I write they want to come visit and see the farm. Many don't even make a pretense of saying they want to come see me, they just "want to see the farm and the animals I write about."

Well, we don't have a petting zoo. We're not open to the public. And for the most part, I don't do visitors. Seriously, when I say I'm turning into a hermit, I am NOT kidding. Especially right now when I am concentrating on starting/growing a business, while still doing the farm work and a little bit of house work, because the guys are also working full time and somebody's got to do it!

So at the moment we do most family visits by meeting family elsewhere, like taking Dad on a mini vacation, and meeting Maria and family and staying overnight at a cabin in eastern WV. Or meeting the Canadian crew this fall in the Pigeon Forge area.

The point to all this rambling is why would I want people I don't even know to come visit when these days I rarely even have immediate family visit the farm? It's just too difficult to take time off to clean and get ready for company, and still get other work done. It's more fun, easier, and less stressful to meet people elsewhere.

And seriously, "I am not the farm"... people can see me without seeing the farm. If people have to see the farm to see me, they're not really interested in seeing me, they want to see the farm. I just happen to be the keeper of the farm animals. And frankly, I'm a little tired of people feigning an interest in me so they can see the farm.

So there it is. I repeat, I am not the farm. If someone really wants to see me, we can meet somewhere besides the farm. Go out to dinner perhaps. Or here's an idea... what about THEIR house?

Hey, I warned you I was cranky!

Retired Classmates

2010-08-22T12:36:00.004-05:00

I was just looking at Facebook, and noticed there are a lot of my classmates from high school that list their present occupation as "retired."

First off, it seems a little early to be retiring if you go by Social Security standards. Even with early retirement, you're supposed to be 62 years of age. People in my class should still be at least 5 years or so away from that. So what's with all these retired people?

Of course, for my part, I never worked at any job long enough to become vested for a retirement plan. I was a SAHM, we moved way too often, and I tended to have money making projects, but not so many jobs outside the home.

And while retirement seems foreign to me, I *still* don't work outside the home. (I am such a hermit!) I'm working hard getting a business off the ground, but I sit at home and work odd hours - albeit a LOT of hours - and not even thinking about retiring. Who's got time to retire?

I never did do things the way most "normal" people do them. So why start now?

Jess has got a green toe....

2010-08-09T23:51:00.002-05:00

Yeah, that's supposed to be a green thumb, but Jess likes to do things differently.

See, he went to the podiatrist today. He's been having trouble with the toenail on the big toe of his left foot. The podiatrist removed it. (Ooooowwwwww, I cringe as I write this!)

So now to gain the sympathy vote, he's got a bright green bandage around his toe. I didn't think to get a picture of it, and I don't think he'd appreciate me waking him up at midnight to get one.

He says it doesn't hurt, so hopefully it will stay in that condition.

Other news... what's to say? Busy as usual, same old, same old!

What's happening?

2010-08-08T16:57:00.005-05:00

First, an update on the "psychotic reaction" episodes. Thankfully, once all that second antibiotic got out of my bloodstream, they went away. I suppose one of these days I'll see the humor in me "being psycho", but that's a long way off for now. It's still too vivid in my mind, too real, too intense, too... scary.

Now, as for what's happening around here. Mostly it's the same old stuff, but here's a short run-down of life on the farm. . .

-> The weather. Everyone talks about the weather. Well, it's summer in the south, and no big surprise that it's hot. Temperatures in the high 90s for days and days and whew! Is it fall yet? And dry. The trees in the front yard are losing so many leaves it looks like fall, but it sure doesn't feel like fall.

-> The farm. Lots of baby chickens, 4 baby peafowl, a couple of baby guinea birds. One heavily pregnant llama (due in late October - 11 months gestation).

-> Jess's garden. He's given up on the tomatoes, but has quite a few watermelons. He ate the first one yesterday, and it was nice and sweet tasting.

-> Jess himself. Sometimes very busy at work, once in a while employs "time-users" like playing cards on the computer. Choir starting back at church after a summer break. Going to a podiatrist tomorrow.

-> Jonathan. Still delivering pizza, and working full-time most weeks, and often even gets into overtime. Started a league playing tabletop war games.

-> me. Crazy busy. ALL THE TIME. Oh, I take a little time off now and then, but most of the time I'm either working on farm stuff, critical household chores (I'll confess, if it's not critical, it's not getting done), and otherwise working online. I want to keep the growth momentum going, especially since I'll lose a lot of time come November with various activities. I'll need to have things in place to keep my two girls busy even when I'm not working.

And there you have it, a short summing up of what's been happening around here!

Psychotic Reactions

2010-08-03T21:05:00.005-05:00

All kidding aside, I've been dealing with psychotic reactions the last couple of days. Waking up with anxiety attacks and pretty much having nightmares while still awake. Scary stuff. Feeling I couldn't go back to sleep because I had to stay awake and tell myself to keep breathing or I'd die. Unknown presences looming over me. Did I mention it was scary stuff?

And the cause of all this?

Well, the doctor thinks it was the antibiotic I was taking. Yes, an antibiotic. It seems one of the less common side effects is "confusion, psychotic reactions."

Wonderful. I'm on an antibiotic to get rid of an infection, and I get psychotic episodes instead.

And oh, by the way, that was the second antibiotic in a row I was taking, because the first one didn't do anything at all to help. I suppose I should be grateful it didn't create any bad side effects either. I mean, psychotic reactions from an antibiotic!?!

So it's now week three, and a third antibiotic. I'm almost afraid to start taking this one. I'm not ready to deal with any more strange side effects. But it seems I have little choice since the infection lingers....

Well, I'm off to take another pill. Hopefully withOUT side effects.

It's pretty bad when you're scared to take an antibiotic. . .

We're still here!

2010-07-17T15:52:00.004-05:00

So it's been almost a month since I wrote anything on this blog. How to condense activities for that much time? For the most part, it's pretty easy. Jess goes to work Monday through Friday, spends Saturday mowing or doing other chores around the farm, and goes to church on Sunday. Jonathan works full-time at the pizza place, helps out at home, and is in a wargaming league. For my part, I've been working long hours trying to get sites built and more money coming in from my business, while keeping up with the house and farm.

Then last week we were in West Virginia. For a combination Father's Day and birthday gift, we took Dad on a mini-vacation. We picked him up and drove over to Elkins and stayed the night, then the next morning had breakfast and headed to the train depot.

We took a ride on the Cheat Mountain Salamander, described on their site as:

The CHEAT MOUNTAIN SALAMANDER ... a spectacular 128-mile, 9-hour round trip through one of the largest wilderness areas in the Eastern United States. Your assigned-seat ticket includes the following enhanced on-board services: a sandwich buffet for lunch and a dinner featuring a choice of hot entrees served buffet-style in our dining car, the “Red Spruce”.

From Elkins to Spruce is 9-hour ride that transports you through mile after mile of unbroken, untamed mountain wilderness that relatively few people have actually seen. In fact, this rugged mountain area is so inhospitable, neither early settlers nor contemporary society have opted to settle here. As a result, with the exception of early 20th century resource extraction activities, this stronghold of nature remains largely as it was before modern civilization arrived.

Your excursion route includes many interesting features such as a long tunnel built with an “S” curve far underneath Cheat Mountain, numerous long mountain vistas, and many opportunities to view exotic wildlife including bald eagle and black bear sightings. Also, stops will be made at the inspirational “High Falls of the Cheat” and the former sight of the notorious town of Spruce, WV, once the highest and coldest incorporated town east of the Mississippi.

We were fortunate to have beautiful weather for the day of the train ride. I got to thinking about it ahead of time and wondering about how hot it might be, but with the windows open as far as they would go (maybe 10 inches?), and up in the mountains, it was fine. We never got too hot.

As for all the exotic wildlife, we never saw any. No eagles. No black bear. Just lots of birds and butterflies! But the scenery was beautiful and we enjoyed the trip.

When we got off the train, Maria and crew were waiting for us and we headed to a cabin about 40 miles away. We spent the night there, then went over to Elk Springs Resort and Elk River the next day. Caleb and Clair did some fly fishing for trout. Jess and Dad both tried their hand at it, but the trout were mostly ignorning them. The water was so clear you can see the fish easily, and they were just swimming around more or less taunting the fishermen. Claire and Caleb did finally catch some, however.

Monday we were going to visit Jackson Mills but it started raining soon after we got there, so we didn't spend much time there. We drove Dad home, and he and I looked through a bunch of picture albums. Then Jess and I needed to head out, because it takes us two days to get back home.

We did stop on the way home and spent a couple of hours at the National Corvette Museum in Bowling Green, Kentucky. Jess has wanted to stop there for ages, so we finallly took the time. I've never seen so many Corvettes in my life! There are some pretty neat looking cars there.

I took lots of pictures everywhere we went, but I haven't sorted through them yet. I actually filled up a 4GB memory card and started on the second one, which I have never done before, so I've got a lot to sort through. Since many of them were taken ont the train while it was moving, I'm sure a good portion of them will be too blurry to keep. My camera has trouble focusing at the best of times, and pictures while moving are even more problematic. I'll try to get some posted... sometime. I won't even attempt to guess when or make any promises!

Now it's catch up time, and I'm finishing up laundry today. Jonathan is off the hook for taking care of the farm and it's back in my bailiwick. Jess is trying to get his tractor working, make some repairs around the house, and keep up with stuff at work. We're all busy, and just trying to survive the heat!

And that's the way it is for now in our part of the world!

Happy 16th Anniversary!

2010-06-23T12:15:00.007-05:00

Yes, it's been 16 years since our "big" church wedding. (Just us, Richard, Jason, Jonathan, and the preacher, Rodney Bowling.)

And here we are on our honeymoon...

Wow, are we cool, or what?

We went and had a more formal picture taken soon after our wedding.

HAPPY 16th ANNIVERSARY TO US!

Mom's Birthday

2010-06-13T18:05:00.017-05:00

Today would have been my Mom's 76th birthday. It makes me sad she didn't get to see all the grandkids and great-grandkids. She so wanted to, but it just didn't happen. Dale and I were only married 4 months when she died.

To celebrate her life, here a few of the pictures I found of her, in no particular order...

The picture above has written on the back, "Florence at Stanley Rock." I have no idea where that is or when this was taken.

I don't know when this was taken either, but Mom looks pretty young!

And she looks pretty young in this picture also...

I am assuming she was the one to get the deer in this picture since she is posing with it, but don't know for certain.

The next couple of pictures had to be taken in the late 1950's, because that's me with Mom in both of the following pictures.

~~~

Here's a couple of bathing beauties. . .

Once again, I don't know where the picture was taken, but the other looker in the picture is one of Mom's friends, Mary Lee Reed.

I don't know what year this was taken either. Too bad the date wasn't printed on all these pictures!

And a good picture of Mom and Dad...

Here's Mom holding a palomino horse we had, and that's Maria riding it.

Here's a fairly rare picture of our whole family together. It was taken in Washington, D.C. We went to visit Charles while he was attending Gallaudet College.

This picture was taken by Michael Boggs at mine and Dale's wedding in 1972.

And this last picture didn't turn out as well as I'd hoped, but it's a picture of Mom with another one of her friends, Betty Metheney. There were up at the Metheney place, making apple butter.

Sadly, it couldn't have been more than a year or so before she died, as she passed away on April 26, 1973, about a month and a half shy of her 39th birthday.

I still miss her.

Another Rainy Sunday

2010-06-06T14:54:00.003-05:00

I guess better it rains today than yesterday. One of my best friends was at an outdoor wedding yesterday, and Jess and some of his friends went to the race at Nashville Speedway last night. So they all got to attend the events without getting rained on.

And it didn't rain today until Jonathan got all the groceries in from the car. Good again!

I got a new notebook while we were at the store, or maybe I should say a 3-ring binder. I needed a bigger one for my paperwork on websites. This one is soooooo cool. It's the kind with pockets you can slide a paper into on the front and on the back and even on the end, so you can put something in there to be able to tell what's inside the notebook.

But considering the eye-popping electric blue color of this binder, I don't think I'm going to have any trouble picking it out from the others when I need it!

Got to admit, that's my favorite aisle... binders, paper, pens and pencils... better than jewelry! The only real competition is a book store. Good thing I don't get to one very often, ha!

So I don't fit the "typical" female profile and want to shop for clothes and jewelry. Give me office stuff and I'm a happy camper. But lest you think I'm a cheap date... I'm mighty fond of digital cameras and computer stuff too. However, they're not on the shopping list very often, whereas I can buy a new pen or binder almost any time!

It's good to enjoy the little things in life!

Back to the old order of things...

2010-06-02T22:15:00.001-05:00

Richard, Chrystie and Ellie were here for a few days on their way back to Canada. Today Richard and Ellie flew from Nashville back to Canada. Chrystie is driving the car back, and made it to Indiana tonight. If all goes well, she'll be back in Canada by the beginning of next week.

So it's back to the old order of things.

Back to taking at least two layovers for a visit, cause that what it takes to make it to Canada. There's no more non-stop flights to go visit them.

And Chrystie will be back to work, and Ellie will be back to her therapy routine, and this fall be starting school. And of course, Richard's been working right along through the Florida sojourn, and goes back to work tomorrow in Canada.

All of this means it's back to being difficult to arrange visits!

Here's it's back to the same old, with both Jesse and Jonathan busy at work, and me busy working at home.

So, for now, it's back to the old order of things. sigh....

Success at last!

2010-05-23T15:58:00.004-05:00

Yes, I have FINALLY got the Tracphone working.

However, that doesn't mean the problems have been resolved. Oh no, we're on the FIFTH go round of "We'll definitely have it fixed in 48 hours." Yeah, right.

At least one of the last customer service reps I talked to had sense enough to tell me that even if I couldn't use my credit cards to put minutes on, I could go to someplace like Walmart and buy an airtime/minutes card, and then use that to put airtime on the phone.

So when Jonathan and I went to get groceries today, we also bought one of those cards. Since the airtime ran out on May 15th, that meant the phone had to be reactivated, which meant I had to call to have the minutes put on. Otherwise I could have done it from a menu on the phone itself.

At any rate, I called, and the phone is now working. At first the guy said they'd email me a new phone number, and I had a HISSY FIT. I informed him I was told at the beginning of this fiasco that since they were the ones trying to fix the problem, I would be able to keep the old phone number even though the phone was inactive.

9 days later of their inept problem solving, and they wanted to go back on their word and give me a new number. No sirreeeeeee dude!

Bottom line.... the phone has more airtime and is working. It still has the same number. But I STILL have to call back in another 48 hours to see if they corrected the problem with being able to get online or using my credit cards.

They've given me all kinds of stories, even to the point of telling me one of the cards had fraudulent activity on it. Oh no buddy, I know better than that! I emailed the service department of the card in question to double check, but I have email alerts on my credit card. Every time something is charged, I get an email telling me where to and how much. When I use the card at the store, the email is waiting or me when I get home. I positively KNOW it is NOT anything wrong with my credit cards. The problem is on THEIR end!

As for Jess and no work... that didn't last long! He got work pouring in faster than he could do it last week. In fact, he has more than enough work to keep his busy this coming week also!

In the meantime he's outside trying to fix our lawnmower. I believe he said there was some problem with a belt. And I think he was going to fix a broken perch in the peafowl's pen.

As for me, I'm working on an updated business plan, and disengaging myself from any gurus or companies that aren't in line with what I want to focus on.

And of course, there's always farm and housework!

In other words, we'll are still busy!!!

So there you have it, the latest news from our neck of the woods.

Three is NOT charming!

2010-05-15T19:32:00.003-05:00

Okay, I know the old saying, "Three's a charm." but I've got to tell you, today I am not finding the number 3 charming. Not. at. all.

#1 Uncharming incident was getting up and try to check my email, and once again, NO internet service. I called customer support. Let me say here and now, I have a love/hate relationship with Mediacom Internet. When it's working, of course it's wonderful. But when it's not and you have to contact them, it is most decidedly BAD NEWS.

I have called them many, many times over the years. The first thing the system does is ask for your phone number and checks to see if there is an outage in the area. I think MAYBE that one out of 25 times it will actually tell me that yes, there is an outage in this area and that's the end of that because then I know they'll have someone out to work on it.

But usually I get the "There is no reported outage in your area" and shunted over to a different automated system.

This one has an oh-so-cheery female voice that is going to help me figure out what is wrong. She asks a zillion questions, but the bottom line is a) unplug your modem, and b) wait a few seconds then plug it back in, and c) oops, it STILL ISN'T WORKING and she doesn't know what to do so sends your information to a LIVE tech. (About time!)

Of course, all that rigamarole takes about 20 minutes, and is insulting because anyone who has had a problem with their internet going out, after the first go round already KNOWS to unplug the modem so it will reset.

So after maybe half an hour I finally got to talk to a real person, repeated all my information, and was told, "Oh, there's an outage in your area."

#$%@% No kidding!

I told him very politely what I thought of their automated system, and how ridiculous it is, and how it wasted at least 30 minutes of my time to tell me what I already knew! He agreed, but do you think anything will ever be done?

No, it will not. Because Mediacom thinks that stupid automated system is saving them money, because they sure wouldn't want to have to pay another tech. Never mind how much we're all paying them every month for internet service, and do you think we get a refund when it doesn't work? No, we do NOT!

But I mentioned 3 things didn't I?

#2) I work online. I have several blogs. I was trying to do something with one of them I've done many, many times before, but two accounts have crossed wires on one of the wordpress.com systems, and it won't work. I have an email into support, but so far, the problem hasn't been resolved. In the mean time, that blog is sitting there with no spam protection and is not collecting stats. I'm sure it will eventually get worked out. I hope.

#3) Tracphone. Ohhhhhh, tracphone. The airtime on the one Jonathan uses was due to expire today. I always go online, put in my user name and password, and add airtime.

Well, not today.

First off, the system wouldn't accept the user name and password. Here again, this is something I've done many, many times. The information hasn't changed. I thought maybe they had a system-wide glitch and tried to enter the user name and password for my phone. That went right through. So I tried to get a new password for Jonathan's phone. The system informed me that email was not in their records and contact customer support.

So I did.

Trying to get a straight answer as to why I suddenly can't get into my account never happened. I spent well over an hour on this. When it became obvious I wasn't going to get an answer, I was going to let them put the airtime on.

So the first person tried it, and said the system wouldn't take my credit card. What??? I tried to give her a different one then, and she needed to send me to someone else. (It's called passing the buck, ha!)

I explained my situation again, and this guy told me I could go online and put airtime on the phone without actually logging into my account. So I tried it.

It didn't work.

Then he tried it with two different credit cards, both of which I KNOW are in excellent standing. It didn't matter. The system wouldn't take it.

I asked him if this had anything to do with the fact somebody used my name and address and stolen credit card number to buy a bunch of stuff from Tracphone a few months ago. He didn't think so. Okay, then what IS the problem? He didn't know.

The bottom line with this one is that I have a ticket number, and am supposed to call back in 24 hours to see if they know what the problem is, but he also said they'd know in 24 to 48 hours. So I might call and they still won't have an answer.

By the time I hung up, it was getting dark and we needed to go out and do chores. My lady llama was as crabby as me and tried to spit on me. That's unusual. She usually spits at Jess, not me.

When we came back in I sat down and looked at my email.... and saw THREE transaction alerts from the credit card company for charges from TracPhone! Considering someone has stolen my credit card information twice, and NO, not from on-line..... well, I'm more than a little paranoid about my credit cards!

So I called TracPhone back. As I suspected, those charges are from when they tried to put airtime on my phone, but should go OFF the credit card because their system didn't accept my account getting new airtime.

We shall see. You can bet I'll be keeping my eyes open on this one. If I see those charges pop up on my account, there will be a lot more phone calling happening!

In the meantime, I'm hoping the rest of this day is QUIET. Boring. Serene. Peaceful. Nice. No glitches.

I can dream, can't I?

Plugging Away

2010-05-13T23:02:00.007-05:00

Jess is momentarily out of work, so he decided to stay home today and help me in the basement. We managed about 4 hours of work down there, and that did me in. Jess however, being a tough old geezer, went out and tilled his garden and mowed a little grass. He must have ate his Wheaties this morning!

We got two sections of shelving cleared out and rearranged. There are three levels, about 25-inches deep, and each section about 4-feet long. There was a set of bookshelves on top of one section with a bunch of stuff too. AND an unbelievable amount of stuff sitting on the floor in front of the shelves.

We took all of that outside, sorted through it, decided on a more-or-less permanent disposition of the items, then put the stuff back. We had a lot of leftover and never used paint and some gardening stuff in that area. Not to mention extension cords, old tv converter boxes, and what-not.

There's a couple of boxes by the door now for the "give-away" stuff, and a bunch of boxes of foot-square floor tiles I'm going to see if I can sell on Craig's List. I don't see any of us wanting to crawl around putting these tiles down on the basement floor. I actually got them thinking I'd use them in a bathroom or the kitchen, but a nice vinyl flooring was so much easier to put down!

So here's what it looks like now:

I'm glad I took before and after pictures, because when we were done for the day, it was hard to see what we'd accomplished. Jonathan helped me put it into perspective though by telling me from the square surface area, we'd cleaned out an entire room!

However, one thing is painfully (literally!) clear. It's going to take a long time to finish this project considering all the space and how many sets of shelving there are in the basement and that I can only clean in shorter periods of time. No all day cleaning sprees I'm afraid!

I'd hoped to finish it within a month. It's obvious that isn't going to happen. I guess I can live with that as long as we keep it a priority and keep chipping away at it.

I want a clean basement and a nice smelling house!

Gardening Overload

2010-05-08T21:34:00.002-05:00

Life is busy as usual. Jess still has a lot of work. Jonathan has been working more than 40 hours a week, even going in on one of his usual days off.

And of course, I always seem to have more to do than I can manage to get done.

But in the midst of all this we planted a garden. My original idea was a few tomato plants, a few pepper plants, maybe some flowers. But once Jesse started tilling he just kept going.

This morning we went and bought some plants. Jess wanted to have a variety of tomato and pepper plants. I think he succeeded in that mission.

For we now have these varieties of tomato plants in our garden:

1 Lemon Boy
1 Cherokee Purple
3 Mountain Pride
3 Rutgers
6 Early Girl
6 Roma
6 Park's Whopper
6 Burpee Big Boy
6 Better Boy
6 Celebrity
9 Atkinson
9 Brandywine

That makes 62 tomato plants. And of course, we also have 13 pepper plants:

1 Gypsy
3 Golden Summer
3 Sweet Banana
6 California Wonder

That makes a total of 75 plants in our garden.

When questioned what he was going to do with the produce from that many plants, Jess said, "Eat it!" I told him no way he could eat all that, so then he declared he'd give a lot away.

I believe we may have a teensy bit more garden than we really need. Gardening overload indeed!

What's That Smell?

2010-05-02T23:44:00.005-05:00

First off, I can't believe it's been 12 days since I last posted. We've been home some time since my last post of April 20th, having motored back the 24th & 25th of April. Last week was "catch up" time, trying to get caught up on all the stuff that was not done the 9 days we were gone.

And of course, one of the bad things I noticed when we got home was the smell. It's one of the banes of my existence. I'm sure it's the first thing anyone notices when they come to our house, and wonder, "What's that smell?"

There's no getting around it, the house stinks.

Of course, when we're here all the time, we get used to it and don't notice it so much. But after being gone a while and coming back... oh yeah, it's still there.

I have tried air filters of all sorts - ionic, HEPA, charcoal. The carpets have been shampooed. There are air fresheners sitting around all over the house, and scented oils.

All those things help, but it's a temporary fix. The smell may seem like it's gone, but it always comes back.

I've about come to the conclusion that one or both things are at the bottom of this smell. One is the carpet. It's been here since we moved in and looked a little worse for wear even then. We had problems with cats spraying some places, and they were put outside and the carpet then cleaned with stuff that was supposed to remove the cat urine.

And maybe it did. The smell doesn't really remind me of cat.

I think it is more likely the basement is the main source of the odors. It flooded several times before we got it fixed. No telling what kind of mold is growing underneath the paneling or inside the blocks.

And it has lots of cardboard boxes. Many of these got damp. They are probably still drawing dampness. More mold/mildew and odor.

I've done a lot of research into getting odors out of a house, but I just recently found something that may actually do the trick. It was used in New Orleans to remove the black mold and other mildew and smells from houses. Of course, they would tent a house and fumigate it. But now you can buy packages that do one room at a time. It's supposed to be non-toxic, but at the same time, it's still supposed to get rid of all the molds, mildews and odors.

So I'm on a mission. I've enlisted the help of the two J's here. The game plan is this:

Clear the basement of all cardboard - everything in cardboard boxes needs to be put in plastic bins if it's worth keeping, or given away or thrown away.
Once the basement is cleared out and cleaned up, time to "bomb" it with this stuff to kill all the nasties and odors.

Of course, the upstairs needs "bombed" too. I even read that it's a good idea to do the attic at the same time to get rid of any problems there.

We got started on the project this past weekend, and Jess had quite a bonfire burning up cardboard boxes that were already empty or easily emptied. We bought our first batch of bins to get started on sorting. We got rid of a bunch of plastic grocery sacks that have been accumulating for a long time by taking them to be recycled. We have a place fairly well cleared out for a "staging area" as we sort things into categories of give away, recycle, throw away, or put in a bin to keep.

This is all a lot of work. LOTS. And it's not exactly cheap either to buy a bunch of plastic bins and to buy enough stuff to clear the entire house of any molds, mildews or odors. But I'm tired of being embarrassed for anyone to come to our house.

Somehow, we've got to get this work done. I don't want the first thing someone wonders when they walk in our house to be, "What's that smell?"

Visiting Family in Florida

2010-04-20T07:17:00.003-05:00

Here we are in Florida, and we are indeed visiting family. I thought this would be so cool having everyone in one place. and it will be this evening when we all get together in one place to visit.

But most of the time there's a major drawback. You can only be visiting one house at a time, one part of the family at a time. And when you are visiting them you're having a good time, but in the back of your head, you are also thinking about the other part of your family.

In other words, I want to be in two places at the same time.

Obviously, that doesn't work. But we have such fun both places, and enjoy seeing our family, just too many places we want to be at the same time.

We just love all our family bunches and wish we could see them all bunches!

Greetings from Tifton, Georgia

2010-04-17T20:27:00.002-05:00

Here we are in Tifton, Georgia, sitting in the motel room. Jesse is watching baseball (big surprise!), and I’m working on the computer (another big surprise!)

Tomorrow we're headed over to the Okefenokee Swamp, then on down to Florida.

More to come!

One week from today!!

2010-04-10T15:38:00.004-05:00

Yep, in one week I'll be headed to Florida again. Don't know when I've been there so much, ha! But this time Jess is also going, and we're taking a couple of days and driving down. and we'll get to see not only Richard, Chrystie & Ellie, but Randy and the Sanfords as well. Fun times!

Now, looking at the dates, I can't believe it's been over two weeks since I last posted. Well, come to think of it, yes, I can. I've been totally swamped.

I talked it over with Jess today, and have decided to ease up a little. An Apple iPad isn't worth the misery, ha! I just can't keep up with this contest. I lost a week at the beginning, we're going to be gone another week soon, and the work load is just tremendous.

Besides it's too much of just ONE thing. I've got other projects too that are being ignored while I try to get this done. So I'm going to forget about the contest and just do the work at a slower pace. And that way have more things I can work on too.

It's just been too crazy. I have been so totally immersed trying to catch up and keep up, that all my waking hours seem to be involved in farm work, house work or computer work. No letter writing, no reading, no casual blogging, and even very little photography or tv watching.

Time to ease up a little.

And I've got a blog to repair. I can NOT believe my hosting service just up and deleted "Helping Ellie Walk", including all the back-ups. Absolutely everything gone. If I hadn't made my own back-ups it would have been a total loss. But the trouble is my back-ups didn't include pictures, and the text ended up with strange characters here and there, and of course I had to set-up the blog again and Wordpress, and plugins, yada, yada, yada.... it's going to take a while to fix it.

So I'm losing hours of my time for their mistake.

Jess spent part of last week getting our taxes done. Well, he has them finished, but the Turbo Tax/IRS connection keeps spitting them back. He's going to have to keep working at it next week, or finally give and print and mail them if they won't go electronically.

He also mowed the grass today for the first time this year. He even went up in the orchard and mowed there and the main pasture too.

And he's dealing with some kind of allergic reaction. His woke up Wednesday morning looking like he had a bad sunburned face and puffy around the eyes, and he had to take his wedding ring off. It's red like a burn under it! We've tried to figure out what in the world could have caused this but just not sure.

He tilled the garden last Saturday, but that means at least 3 days passed, and that seems a little long for sun poisoning or something. He had a hair cut Tuesday, so maybe they used a new kind of shampoo or hairspray? Just really don't know why or what he's allergic to all of a sudden.

So as usual, life remains interesting!

Back in the rainy south . .

2010-03-25T17:38:00.004-05:00

I didn't comment on Day 3 of the seminar, and I even spent another day with Richard, Chrystie & Ellie before flying home Tuesday.

But Tuesday I was tired. Wednesday was a payback day. Today is the first day I'm starting to feel human again.

Honestly, there were times during the seminar I wasn't sure I could make it. I'd be tempted to slink off to my room, but then one of my mastermind group or someone would ask me about something, and I'd say to myself, "Okay, just a little longer."

As Chrystie said on Monday when I was complaining about being run over by a semi-truck, "The adrenalin has worn off." Yep, exactly. During the seminar, I was running on adrenalin, pumped up and hanging in there as best I could.

I had big plans for this trip. I was going to go see Ellie at therapy. I was going to go shopping to get Ellie a birthday present. I was going to call the Sanfords. I did not get any of these things done. It was just a rough trip, feeling bad before the seminar and just finally the evening before getting a little better, managing to last through the seminar itself, and then trying to recuperate.

As for now! I just hope to keep moving forward, rain or no rain, pain or no pain.

Seminar, Day 2

2010-03-20T21:52:00.002-05:00

All I can say is a repeat... wow!

I have learned soooooo much in the last two days. I told Jess when I talked to him this evening that's it's like a revival or "tent meeting" for online entrepreneurs!!!

It's not just sitting in there listening to someone lecture about what you need to do for websites or traffic or other components to online work. It is far more than that. It's creating a mindset for success. It's learning more about yourself AND your master mind group. It's been about changing limiting beliefs and replacing them with those beliefs about success.

My comfort zone was stretched so far out of the norm this afternoon it will never be the same. If I had known ahead of time some of the stuff we'd be doing, I probably would have reconsidered coming. Which would have been too bad, because it has been good for me.

I don't know what tomorrow holds, but once again, even if I went home right now, it would have been worth the money.

Seminar, Day 1

2010-03-19T21:50:00.002-05:00

It's late, and I have another long day tomorrow, so this will be short.

To sum it up, I survived it.

Not only survived, but thrived!

Oh, the seats weren't the best and my posterior and back are feeling the pain.

But I learned soooooo much, and we got sooooooo much accomplished today. It's incredible!

If I left today, it would have been worth it. But there are two more days, and lots more to learn.

Wow!

This, That & The Other...

2010-03-12T14:00:00.004-06:00

I've got dining room chairs in my living room. People who clean house regularly will probably figure out why right off, but for the rest of us, they're in here with me because I mopped the kitchen floor and am waiting for it to dry.

I don't do a full-out all-floor mop-up very often. More prone to spot cleaning, because scooting chairs and rugs and table around is a big hassle.

I have also dusted everything in the den and straightened up some in there. Don't anybody keel over in a faint.

I've done chores outside, I've sorted through some papers, I've done this, that and the other.

There were two factors in play to create this cleaning-semi-frenzy. The first one is the fact I didn't have any internet working until about 1pm, so couldn't work anyway.

The second is a variation of your mom telling you to always wear clean underwear in case you're in an accident or something. (Frankly, I don't remember my mom ever telling me such a thing, but it's just something "everyone" knows.)

Anyway, my variation is "clean the house before you go on a trip, in case something happens to you and other people have to go in your house."

Hey, I didn't say it made any sense.

Of course, it's also nice to come back to a clean house after you've been away, instead of home to a mess. However, since on this trip I'm leaving two men behind while I'm gone, and they like to clean house maybe even less than I do, who knows what the house will look like when I get back. (I must here relate though, that a certain older gentleman actually ran the sweeper in the den while I was gone the last time. Wow! I didn't know he could even do such a thing, ha, ha!)

Anyway, I'll do a little more today, and a little more tomorrow, shop for groceries the day after, and do less physical stuff after that until time to get to Chattanooga and fly to Florida.

As for Jess, he also has a bunch of work. It's feast or famine, and he's in the feast stage again. This morning he mentioned he had FOUR jobs to work on.

So it's pretty much the usual around here, busy, busy!

One week until Florida! Again!

2010-03-09T11:19:00.004-06:00

Wow, I'm just a traveling maniac these days. (As usual, no comments please!)

For the second time this spring, I'm headed to Florida one week from today. This is a combination fun and business trip. Fun because I get to see the kids and how Ellie is progressing while I'm there. Business because I have a 3-day seminar to attend.

Of course, Richard, Chrystie and Ellie are getting company from the far north too. And one of those times they went to Disney World. From all accounts, Ellie loved Cinderella's Castle!

I thought it was pretty cool too, but it's been years since I was there! (Like when the boys were in grade school! I believe Richard has grown a bit since then, ha, ha!)

Anyway, it's over to Chattanooga in one week to fly out on Allegiant. Wouldn't you know that in May they're supposed to start cheap, direct air flights to Orlando out of Huntsville. Too late for this year, but maybe it'll help the next time Jess or I want to fly to Florida.

In the meantime, we'll be heading down there again in April. This time Jess and I will drive down, and Randy will be down there at the same time, so we ought to have a great time visiting family.

Too bad we don't have that much family in one place more often.

Shopping

2010-03-06T15:33:00.002-06:00

We went shopping in Huntsville this morning. I was telling Jess on the way down that's just one of the ways I am stranger than most. (NO comments allowed!!!) See, I don't do very many "middle-of-the road" kind of trips. I'm either going somewhere really close, like about 10 miles away, more or less (grocery store, Walmart)... or I go far away like Florida or West Virginia or Canada or something!

I needed a new laptop case however, because the zipper busted on my old one. And it was an OLD one. I'd guess over 10 years old and seen a lot of use. I'm pretty sure I bought it at Walmart, so it lasted a long time considering.

We looked at Walmart on our way down the Parkway, but they didn't have much. I suspect they weren't wide enough either. The labels said 15", and that's how wide my laptop is... but I didn't want to chance it. I'd like a little more room, and to be able to cushion it a little more when traveling.

Jess wanted to look at fire-proof safes while we down there, so we stopped at Lowe's next. He's been looking at ones big enough to put all his firepower in, but the weight of these things is a BIG problem. How do we get something that weighs 600-800 pounds in the basement?

Anyway, he downscaled his plans for the moment, and decided to get one big enough for papers and stuff. I just got a bill for our bank box, so I think the deal is that I'll now get the stuff out of there and put it in this safe.

Even the small versions are heavy! I think this thing weighs close to 200 pounds and it's just a 2' cube of concentrated weight. If we'd planned on buying the safe, we might have drove the truck, but we didn't. (Actually, it might have been even harder to hoist that thing up into the truck bed!)

So we tried to get that heavy object into the trunk of the car, and that took both of us tugging and lifting and tilting.... only to find out it was about 2 inches too big to slide into the trunk. ARGH!

That meant we had to carefully ease it back down onto the cart and take it around to the side door, and try to somehow get it scooted up on the back seat. Where were some of those strong stock boys (men) when we could have used one?

At present the safe is still in the car, awaiting Jonathan's return from town so HE can help Jess move it this time. I've done my part and made a place to set the thing, but I don't want to help move that monster again.

After that fracas, we finally made it to one of my favorite stores... Staples! Actually, it doesn't have to be Staples, just drop me off in any office supply type store and I'm as happy as a pig in slop. Pens, pencils, papers, notebooks, computer stuff. . . oh there are lots of things to drool over there!

I did find a decent laptop bag. I was looking for something rather lightweight, but sturdy enough to do the job. And of course I couldn't resist getting a few pens, and needed a new pad of paper before going to the seminar in a couple of weeks, and then there were. . .

Jess finally dragged me out of the store. Spoil sport. I told him I could have easily spent another hour in there just looking around. He made some remark along the lines of "that was what he was afraid of."

Of course, by then he was thinking RED LOBSTER. We timed our trip to be able to use gift cards for there that we got at Christmas time. Jess enjoyed lobster and grilled shrimp, but I got my very favorite coconut shrimp! Yum!!!

It was a nice break in routine, got some needed stuff, and had a good time. All right!

Family Update Time!

2010-03-05T14:44:00.002-06:00

Yes, here we are again, time for a family update. I've about decided that's all I use this blog for these days, and will try to make it here once a week. Although sometimes we're just not doing anything that exciting!

In about a week and a half I'll be in Florida again. Woot! This having the Canadian Crew closer is a lot of fun. I'm taking advantage of it while I can.

Of course, the reason I'm headed to Orlando in March is for a work-related seminar, but I figure no need to waste a perfectly good plane ticket.... might as well go a little early and see the kids too! I'm eager to see how Ellie has progressed. From the sound of things, she's doing quite well.

As for Jess, he's in one of those "work coming in like crazy" phases. Sometimes just little jobs; sometimes not so little.

Tomorrow we're planning on going to Huntsville so I can look for a new laptop case. The zipper on my old one busted, and I don't want my lovely laptop falling out of the bag on the plane or something!

Since we're going to be in town, we're also planning to eat lunch there and use one of our wonderful gift cards for Red Lobster. Double woot!

As for Jonathan, he's also going to Huntsville tomorrow to meet someone for some war games. He's still plugging away at work, and the job seems to be doing fine.

So... we'll are still busy with our respective work & life, we're all okay, and that's the way it is in our part of the world!

One Short Trip!

2010-02-25T23:15:00.008-06:00

Last week I was in Florida for a short time. I wanted to go down and see Ellie with my own two eyes and check out how she was doing after her surgery. And of course, that meant I got to see Richard and Chrystie also!

There are 3 bedrooms on the 3rd floor of the townhouse they're renting. From the room I was staying in, I could walk out on the balcony and see the clubhouse and pool area. It looked pretty neat at night.

One day we walked over there to check it out. It's a long jaunt for Ellie, but she does well! Sometimes she likes someone to walk beside her though, and this time she wanted her Dad.

Ellie has a little toy computer she loves to play on. She liked for me to sit beside her and type on my laptop while she typed on hers. She would tell me to type her name, or Daddy or Mommy.

One day Richard got a picture of us playing. It's one of those weird and wonderful pictures!

You know, I'm weird, Ellie's wonderful!

It was brief, but fun to see them. I'll be going back in a few weeks since I have a seminar to attend in Orlando in March, then Jess and I are driving down in April to see both them and the Sanfords and Randy too.

Fun times!

A Brief Visit

2010-02-18T20:40:00.005-06:00

I'm here visiting Richard, Chrystie & Ellie. A *short* visit, but time enough to see how Ellie is doing at home and at therapy.

Ellie is using her walker and getting around really well. I tried taking a video of her outside this morning, but I goofed up and the video didn't shut off but kept going and going... so lots of sidewalk and shoes... I don't think I'll upload that one.

And we can't take pictures in therapy, so just going to have to go with a couple of still shots from her morning stroll outside this morning.

.

I think she's doing super to have just had major surgery 3 weeks ago this past Tuesday.

And her incision is all healed up and just a thin little scar. Amazing!

And now that she's seen for herself, Grandma feels better too. :-)

Past Time For An Update!!!

2010-02-10T21:38:00.004-06:00

Oh wow, I can't believe it's been so long since I've been on here. Almost 2 weeks! Oops! It's not that I haven't been online, but I've been intent on my other internet work. Like I've said before, this is my make it or break it year, so I'm really putting my nose to the grindstone and all those other cliches!

Anyway, as to what's been happening around here. . . mostly same old, same old.

But speaking of old, I got another year older since my last post. I was going to get a new office chair for my birthday, but instead opted for a ticket to Florida (leaving one week from today in fact). Just a short little trip, long enough to say hi and see how Ellie is doing, and how Richard and Chrystie are keeping up. I'm flying Allegiant, and the only days open in February were on Wednesdays and Saturdays. And they have such wildly varying rates!

We started out with the plans of both of us going to Florida in April, then saw an opportunity for March, but then Randy wouldn't have been able to be there, so we're back to driving down in April, and I'll just make a flying trip down there by myself earlier to see how things are going. (I just couldn't wait for late April!!!)

Travel plans are also shaping up for the annual trek to West Virginia. As things stand now, we'll go in July, and we're going to take Dad and head over to Elkins and take a ride on a railroad. According to their website, it's a 9-hour trip - "through mile after mile of unbroken, untamed mountain wilderness that relatively few people have actually seen. In fact, this rugged mountain area is so inhospitable, neither early settlers nor contemporary society have opted to settle here. As a result, with the exception of early 20th century resource extraction activities, this stronghold of nature remains largely as it was before modern civilization arrived."

Sounds like a lot of fun. I think we're all excited about that!

Otherwise, we're all doing fine. We all stay busy with our respective jobs. We're all doing okay health-wise. Like I said, mostly same old, same old.

Just waiting for spring. To be the shortest month in the year, February sure seems to last a long time!

And that's pretty much the way it is in our part of the world!

Star Trekkin'!

2010-01-28T21:02:00.001-06:00

Here we are, Star Trekkin' across the universe!!!

Trying to keep up....

2010-01-27T23:42:00.002-06:00

If you want to read about Ellie, check out Helping Ellie Walk. It has links to Chrystie's blog about the whole surgery experience, and to Ellie's Facebook page. I've posted about her surgery on Rural Ramblings also. So I'm not going to say more here, except to say my heart aches for her and her parents. I remember what it was like after a lumbar laminectomy. Ellie's surgery was far more extensive. Ouch is an understatement.

Besides posting on the aforementioned couple of blogs, I have 5 others I post to every day. And that's only half the day's online work. In-between I do critter chores, cooking, laundry, and whatever else needs done around here.

For the occasional entertainment, I sometimes turn on the tv! I watch Castle on Monday night, NCIS on Tuesday night, and CSI on Thursday night. That's it.

I read too, but mostly it's work-related.

This is my make it or break it year. The year to spend lots and lots of time building my online real estate, so I can get some rent coming in. It's going to be a more-than-ever hard-working kind of year, but the results will be worth it.

But for now, I'm just trying to keep up.

Getting Used To New Stuff

2010-01-24T13:24:00.002-06:00

This week I got a couple of major new things, and now I'm getting used to them.

First off, I got a new pair of eyeglasses. I ordered them some time ago, when my old eyeglasses broke in two. However, I was able to get the old eyeglasses soldered together, so wasn't in any hurry to get the new ones.

Still, since Jonathan needed to go up to Fayetteville to have the tires rotated on his car, I decided to tag along and go to the eyedoctor and get my eyeglasses.

Then I had my laptop worked on. When I bought it, part of the deal was a free upgrade to Windows 7. The disks finally arrived, but since I needed to have the networks fixed, I decided to let an I.T. expert do both.

So one of Jonathan's friends came over Thursday afternoon and spent over 5 hours fixing my computers. I'm glad I didn't try installing the new O.S. because it wasn't easy. There were glitches that he'd never seen before. Leave it to me or my stuff to do something weird!

He had to remove the Google toolbar, and then he had to remove the McAfee software that came pre-installed on the computer. Talk about something that must have a HUGE footprint on the system!!! It took about 45 minutes for it to un-install. That is totally unreal. What a resource hog.

Anyway. he was finally able to install Windows 7 and now I'm learning to use it. While it isn't wildly different from Vista, I still find myself doing the "Now where is it?" thing.

And all the computers can talk to each other now! Hooray!!! He even hooked up my little mini-me baby computer to the network. Cool.

Oh, and as for the McAfee Antivirus program. I told him to absolutely do NOT reinstall it. It's time to renew the Vipre antivirus on the desktop, so I'll just get a license for both computers. It is MUCH more resource efficient!

New eyeglasses, new operating system on the computer... good changes and I'm getting used to them quickly!

One Week From Today. . .

2010-01-19T18:49:00.003-06:00

By this time next week, Ellie should be through with her surgery. Hopefully this is the first step toward her first steps without a walker.

But it’s a long haul. Tomorrow Chrystie and her mom are flying with Ellie to Vancouver. Pre-op testing and doctor visits begin later this week.

Richard will fly out to Vancouver before Ellie’s surgery date.

Please keep them all in your prayers for all the traveling, stress, and most of all, for Ellie’s surgery to go super well.

Thanks!

Tyrannosaurus Rex Anyone?

2010-01-17T22:53:00.006-06:00

I was trying to find a particular picture this evening, and while rummaging around looking for it, I came across these photos:

I think they were taken around 1987 at COSI in Columbus, Ohio. That means Richard would have been about 11 years old at the time.

He's wearing a vest I made him with a Tyrannosaurus Rex on the front, and standing in front of a "T-Rex", so I guess that's pretty appropriate.

Just a little blast from the past.

Instant Nothing

2010-01-14T19:59:00.003-06:00

Have you ever noticed in these days of instant communication, nobody communicates?

We’ve got snail mail and email, faxes and telegrams, telephones and Skype, Facebook and MySpace, cell phones and texting, blogs and websites… just all kinds of ways for people to communicate.

Except somehow, we all too often don’t.

Sure, I get lots of junk mail in the mailbox at the end of the driveway. And I get a lot of spam in my email box. I’ll bet you do too. I hear a lot from people I don’t really care about. But keeping in contact with family and friends doesn’t seem to happen so easily. I guess it’s the “I’ll do it tomorrow” syndrome. Except usually a whole lot of tomorrows pass, and it doesn’t happen. Everyone is just too busy.

I don’t know the answer. My present solution is to put a family update on my blog every week or so, so any family and friends who want to know how everyone is doing at our house can read it. But I can only tell what I know about the 3 of us here. Not ideal, but something.

But what’s happening with the rest of the family, well, who knows? Not everyone has blogs. And most everyone is far away from us. No more than we all communicate some times, you’d think we were waiting for letters coming by Pony Express, or wagon train or something.

I guess we’re just not good communicators these days.

Another Saturday night...

2010-01-09T21:52:00.002-06:00

It's still cold, and for 3 days now we've had snow on the ground. Not much snow mind you, but it's unusual for us to have 3 days in a row that are cold enough that snow doesn't melt away.

I'll admit, I'm ready to get back to a little warmer weather. I'm not fond of carrying water. I don't like cold wind. I'm a wuss.

Otherwise, it's pretty much business as usual around here. Jess is staying busy, busy - no need for any "time users" at the moment! He's had work coming in steadily since we go back from the beach way back in September!

Jonathan is working full-time too, along with staying active socially.

And me, well, I said things are pretty much as usual! My biggest frustration is figuring out how to do everything. It seems I keep adding stuff I need to do, but can't seem to come up with any tasks I can delete! I've tried making a list of all I do, and see what has priority and what I can elimate. I'm not having much luck there! It all needs done.

I need to learn how to stretch time.

DON'T PANIC!

2010-01-06T22:01:00.003-06:00

I think people around here could use a little advice from Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy guidebook:

You see, the weathermen are using that 4-letter word. . .

S - N - O - W !!!

Schools are already planning on closing early. I wouldn't be surprised if a trip to the store would find bare shelves where the bread used to be, and no milk either. Sometimes I think that people who HATE milk would still buy it if the weatherman says it's supposed to snow.

I admit, I don't have to get out on the roads, so snow doesn't affect me so much. I am, however, concerned about the guys having to drive if the roads get icy. Especially in Jonathan's case. He usually has Thursday off, but not this week! Tomorrow night is the big BAMA-University of Texas championship game. Domino's expects to be busy.

We're not used to having much in the way of snow around here. That being the case, I guess a towel might not be enough to prevent panic (another HItchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy reference - ""A towel, it says, is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have. . . ")

But still. . . I think we could still use the advice, "Don't Panic!"

Thankful for 2009

2010-01-02T14:22:00.002-06:00

Life happens. You know, good stuff, bad stuff, mundane stuff, exciting stuff. And I’m probably guilty of focusing too much on the bad stuff that happens, and not enough on the good stuff. So here are some of the good things that happened in 2009.

I'm thankful that:

> Jess has pretty much recovered from having both knees replaced. Though the surgery was actually done in December of 2008, he spent the first month of so of 2009 doing lots and lots of therapy.

> Jonathan started work at Domino’s in March 2009, and it's turned out to be a pretty decent job. He knows what days he'll be working from week to week, and approximately what hours. He is working full time, and is at a good store where he usually gets pretty good tips for deliveries.

> My office is rearranged and fixed up with new shelves, and it’s a much better working space.

> That Jess wasn’t hurt when our car was totaled, and we have another decent car to drive now.

> The mess was finally straightened out with my credit card, and I didn’t have to pay any of the fake charges those jerks put on it.

> In October I got a new laptop. It is soooooo nice, and such a joy to use! It's very nice to be able to change locations (the office chair gets to me after a while) and still be able to get some serious computing done.

> I finally got my first commission check. Nothing huge, but a start.

> For all the trips and visits that occurred in 2009:

Richard, Chrystie & Ellie got to visit in February.
Randy visited in March.
Jess went to Florida for some of Ryan's graduation festivities.
We made a trip to WV back in June, and took Dad over to Cambridge, Ohio, and spent some time at Salt Fork Lodge and park.
Jess and I went to Canada in July to visit Richard, Chrystie & Ellie.
We took a week’s vacation at the beach in September! First time in years we've went off on a "vacation vacation". Nice!
Went to Florida for Thanksgiving and got to visit with Randy and Sanfords and Dave's family. Always fun!

I'm thankful for all the stuff I learned in 2009, and looking forward to learning even more in 2010.

I'm thankful for getting to the Fibromyalgia Clinic, and for other medical help I've got, and hope to see some big improvements in my health during 2010.

We're just mighty blessed around here. We've got a nice little hobby farm, a roof over our head and money to pay the bills, and great family. I'm thankful for email and blogs and Skype to keep in contact with family and friends. I'm pleased for all the good things that have happened to/for all our family in 2009.

I'm thankful for all the things that happened in 2009, and know there's going to be lots to be thankful for happening in 2010!

To paraphrase a little, "Rejoice, and again I say, rejoice!"

The Eve Of A New Year

2009-12-31T21:21:00.005-06:00

In a few hours it's going to be 2010. Are you ready? I am! I'm looking for GREAT THINGS to happen in 2010!!

The past year, 2009, has been a year of learning. It has been the beginning of healing. . . I say the beginning, because I have a long way to go yet, but for the first time I actually feel like I have the tools I need and am getting somewhere.

Of course, this all goes back to learning. Learning about different healing modalities. Learning what works. . . and a whole lot of what doesn't.

Learning about working on the internet and writing for the internet. Learning about all kinds of different self-help available. Learning about self-limiting beliefs. Learning about all kinds of interesting things, at least to me.

Learning, learning, learning. And may I never stop learning! Anyone who stops learning is at best static, and at worst, going backwards. We're either in growth or decline. I want to be growing until the day I die.

But the next step is to TAKE ACTION. For me 2008 & 2009 have been intense learning years, and while I have a lot I still need to learn about a lot of things, it's time to combine that with taking action.

And it's time to think on what specific actions I want to work on this year, and what my specific goals should be. Spiritual, personal, health, business - all kinds of things to think about!

Hope you are ready for a new year, and here's hoping 2010 will be the best we've ever had!

A New "Lord of the Dance"?

2009-12-31T13:04:00.003-06:00

We don't watch "Britian's Got Talent" obviously. Mostly because it's not on any of our channels, ha, ha. But someone sent this video to Jess who sent it to me, and it made me laugh out loud. So I hunted it up on Youtube, and now you can see it too.

>>> 01-01-10 >>> The trouble with using other people's videos.... all of a sudden all the ones of the first performance I thought were so funny have disabled the embedding on Youtube. So here's another pretty good one, of their final performance:

Watch out Michael Flatley, Stavros Flatley & son may be the new Lords of the Dance!

Pizza Anyone?

2009-12-30T16:49:00.002-06:00

I'm working away sorting out pictures, and came across this one of the pizza delivery guy getting ready to go to work. . .

Shhhh... don't tell him I put his picture on here!

Time To Tidy Up

2009-12-29T19:26:00.002-06:00

There's not much of 2009 left, and it just hit me this morning, bam! That means I need to get my pictures and other files on my computer tidied up and sorted out so I'll be ready to make new ones for 2010.

That's especially true for my pictures. When I take them off the camera and put them onto the computer, I put each group into a folder. Later I sort the pictures into categories, to make it easier to find the ones I might want later.

Unfortunately, I have a tendency to get WAY behind on the sorting part, so I'm trying to catch up with that.

Then I need to take the new external hard drive out of the box... the one I bought at the same time I got my laptop... and hook it up and back up everything. Then I can set the computer to do automatic back-ups again. My present back-up drive is full, so I haven't been able to do that.

Blog posts and info, business stuff... all kinds of folders need backed up and then new folders made for 2010.

I also ordered a copy of Windows 7 today. Actually, I get it free as part of the deal when I bought my laptop. I don't even have to pay shipping and handling.

Once I get that, I hope to hire one of Jonathan's friends to install it on my laptop, then set up a secure wireless network for me so I can finally swap files between my computers. It would make things ever so much easier!!

I also need to erase the Office 2007 programs I put on my desktop since they're going to go defunct after I open them a few more times, and get the older programs put back on. Too bad. Guess I'll just have to remember how to use both versions.

I also need to find my Photoshop disk and install that program on my laptop. It has as much power as my desktop, so no reason I can't use it to edit photos. In fact, since it has a 15.6 inch edge-to-edge HD+ wide screen, it will probably be even better. I know the colors certainly look more vibrant and crisp on the laptops screen than they do on the CRT monitor with my desktop computer.

AND I also need to hook up a different printer. Right now I don't have a color printer (why doesn't anyone mention if you don't use an inkjet printer on a regular basis the heads will clog up and ruin the printer?). Jess got a new printer, so I'm getting his old one to use. It sucks up ink like a dessicated sponge, but it will be nice to have a color printer handy for snail mail.

I'm going to be lucky if I can get all that finished this week and be ready to rock and roll the first week of the new year.

I may need more to time to tidy up my computers!

What An Imagination!

2009-12-26T23:21:00.004-06:00

Yesterday I had a Skype call with Richard and Ellie. When we first tried Skype, Ellie wasn't too sure about her "Sussern Mama" showing up on her Dad's computer and talking to her. She was pretty shy and it would take a long time for her to warm up and get going.

I'd say those days are pretty well over. Now it doesn't take long for Ellie to start talking and telling me about what's happening in her life.

She had a new toy camera to show me yesterday, and a new Sesame Street sort of dolly, Abby. She had her dad set Abby up beside the computer screen so she'd be "sitting by Sussern Mama", and then she proceeded to tell me to "Say Cheese" and took a picture of me and Abby.

Then she had to show me how she drives, and told me that she and Abby drove to the store not once, but THREE times, and Abby drove home because Ellie was tired, and they bought lots of Play-doh. In fact, they bought so much Play-doh that Ellie had plenty to send to me and Sussern Grandpa and Uncle Geek as presents.

She does this with one of her imaginative games of throwing a present. Richard and Chrystie have no idea how she came up with this game, just one day she started giving out presents! When we're doing the Skype thing, it works with the present going right through their webcam and in and out of my webcam into my waiting hands.

"Open it!" commands Ellie.
"What is it?" says I.
And then it's Play-Doh, or food, or toys or any number of things!

Like I said, what an imagination! I smile and laugh a lot at her stories.

It sounds like she had a good Christmas time, with being in a play at school and at church, and playing with her friends and relatives, and generally enjoying Christmas.

That's the upside of her surgery being postponed. Since her surgery is now scheduled for January 26, 2010, she was able to do all the Christmas stuff. If it had remained January 5th, her Christmas activities and visiting would have beeen curtailed in an effort to be sure she didn't catch any "bug" before surgery.

And from what Chrystie says, all the arrangments are in place again for flying to Vancouver, the surgery, home and then down to Florida for Ellie to have therapy.

After that, we hopefully won't need an imagination to see Ellie walking much better!

I guess it's Christmas!

2009-12-25T12:00:00.006-06:00

There's no nice white Christmas here. It looks kind of bleak and dreary.

In fact it brings to mind a twist on Poe's poem . . . Once upon a Christmas dreary, while I pondered weak and weary. . .

Thankfully though the weather may be gray, windy and wet, it's snug and warm inside! There's the aroma of fresh-baked bread, fresh-baked pumpkin pie, chicken cooking. . . at least we'll eat well!

The wild birds are feasting at the feeders. . .

And the farm critters have been fed, and are out grazing.

The King is in his counting house (the dining area) counting out his money. . . Jonathan gave him another handfull of quarters, so he's sorting them by states.

The Queen is in her office, eating homemade bread and honey. . . (okay, so I'm on the computer, but I had homemade bread and hot chocolate for breakfast!)

The maid. . . well, no maid. How about a Jester? He's in the basement, either playing computer games or working on models.

So it's a pretty quiet Christmas. I know it is the only Christmas in my adult life where I have done absolutely NOTHING in the way of decorating and buying presents and all that sort of thing.

Oh well, I agree with Mother Teresa:

"It is Christmas every time you let God love others through you…. Yes, it is Christmas every time you smile at your brother and offer him your hand.” —Mother Teresa"

Hope you are having a happy Christmas.

Windy, VERY windy, with a little rain thrown in. . .

2009-12-24T22:16:00.004-06:00

There you have it - the weather report for our part of the world. We have a severe weather advisory for high winds. We've had some rain. Snow, however, is not on the agenda. Now aren't you just totally thrilled and excited to know all that?

Jess and I actually went to Huntsville today. He needs a new printer and scanner for work, and Staples had one on sale he wanted to look at. We checked it out, bought it, and brought it home. He'll take it to the office on Monday.

We also stopped at Tractor Supply, Lowe's and Gander Mountain, trying to find another item he wanted. We actually saw several varieties, but haven't figured out how we could move and install something that weighs 800 pounds in our basement.

On the bright side, we stopped at Applebee's for lunch. I greatly enjoyed one of their Oriental Chicken Salads. Jess went for the Southwest version.

There was a lot of traffic. Hmmmm, I guess that could be because tomorrow is a holiday.

So speaking of tomorrow, well by mutual agreements with many relatives, no gifts were exchanged. Here at home there is also no tree or any other Christmas decorations at our house, and absolutely nothing to go under a tree or put in stockings or anything else. I mean, I truly have not bought a thing or done a thing to celebrate a holiday.

I do plan to cook a decent meal tomorrow, and promised to make hot chocolate for breakfast, but I do have to wonder. . . how is it on holidays the women are still working while the men sit around and watch tv or play on the computer?

I remember at Thanksgiving or Christmas gatherings at my grandmother's house, the guys would be in the living room watching football or parades on tv, and the women would first be cooking, then cleaning up. It didn't seem right to me then, and it still doesn't. But the facts are, if it's going to get done, usually it's the women who are going to have to do it.

So it seems if the woman of the house does nothing about a holiday, well, then it just won't get done. No baking. No candy making. No buying presents. No mailing cards. No decorating. No whatever.

It's kind of depressing.

As far as I can tell, the so called woman's liberation movement has accomplished this: women are now free to work outside the home. But that doesn't seem to excuse them from doing the work INSIDE the home as well, or even that the two adults now both working will split the work needed done at home. So in effect, it just means most women now essentially have two jobs, so more work and responsibilities than they ever had.

Gosh, I just feel so warm and fuzzy to be a liberated woman.

It seemed like a good idea at the time...

2009-12-23T23:46:00.004-06:00

Ever do something that seemed like a really good idea.. but wasn't?

I'm a pro at that sort of thing.

Like I got the bright idea to use the installation disk for Office that came with my laptop and put the program on my desktop computer, so I could have the same version of Word and Excel on both computers.

The only problem is once I got it installed, the program asked for the serial number, which I DID have. Only trouble is a message popped up informing me the program had already been used, and obviously they don't want you to use it again, so after "x" number of times, the program won't work any more.

Great. Instead of making things easier, I've complicated them, because now I'll have to UNinstall that set of programs, try to find the installation disks I had for the older versions, and REinstall them. Boo, hiss. You pay enough for these programs you'd think they'd let you put it on another of your own computers.

Another one of my "seemed like a good idea at the time" was to buy a set of headphones that will plug into the jack on the telephone. They work okay with the regular telephones, but when I use them with my cell phone, I get a lot of static.

Worse, when I try to use it with Jess's cell phone, like tonight when I wanted to listen to a training call, the phone would disconnect just as soon as it connected. Dial, ring, connect, disconnect. Unplugged the headset, and the call went through fine. Well, rats.

Then I got the bright idea to do a "12 Days Of Christmas, Country Style" for the Rural Ramblings blog. Well, I like the post I ended up with, but it sure took a lot more time than I envisioned when I first got into it.

But it seemed like a good idea at the time. . . yeah, I get a lot of those.

What was I thinking?

2009-12-22T22:53:00.003-06:00

I got my usual chores done this morning, and was ready to sit down and get to work on the laptop computer.

Then I got this idea. . . always dangerous.

I decided I wanted to do the "12 Days of Christmas" lyrics, country style, for the Rural Ramblings blog. So instead of going to work, I went back to the desktop computer to play.

What was I thinking?!!! This is a BIG project!

I've got 9 days done, which means I have 3 to go if my math is correct.

Guess I'd better get back to work. It's taking so much time, I imagine it will be my last Rural Ramblings post for the week.

Hmmmm, now what should I do for the 10th day?

Are You Entitled?

2009-12-21T23:12:00.002-06:00

Jonathan comes home with some interesting stories after a day of delivering pizzas. Last night he told me one of the more bizarre. Well, the kind that makes you shake your head and wonder about people.

It seems that he had a delivery to one of the posher neighborhoods. The slip said, "Deliver to the back door."

Well, the only time these delivery guys are allowed to take a pizza to the "back door" is if that door happens to be on the side, or somehow well-lit and in view of the road. It's one of the company policies for safety.

So he tried knocking at the front door.
No answer.

Then some woman came out from behind the house and told him to come round to the back. Okay, he'll stretch it a bit and do that.

Now you caught that, right? The woman is already OUTSIDE.

But she went back inside, and then she and her husband INSISTED that Jonathan should come inside and put the pizza on the counter.

He told them he was sorry, but it was against the company policy for the delivery people to go inside a private residence.

They continued to insist, and told him he wouldn't get paid if he didn't bring the pizza INSIDE.

He continued to tell them he was sorry, but he wasn't allowed to do that, couldn't they just step to the door and take the pizza?

Well, no, golly, it sseems like they felt they were entitled to have their pizza delivered right to their kitchen counter.

Eventually they called the store to complain to the manager, who informed them that she was sorry, but that is indeed the company policy - for safety reasons the delivery people are NOT supposed to go inside.

They continued to rant and rave, and the guy even went so far to tell her the pizza was COLD, which I guess he is a kinetic or something, because he never touched the pizza so how did he know that?

Since the store was really busy, just to cut things short, the manager told Jonathan to just give them the pizza for free.

It boggles my mind that someone believes they are entitled to:

Have someone delivering food bring it in their house and sit it on the kitchen counter.
Complain because a delivery person wanted to keep to the safety rules of the company and hand them their food at the door.
Lie and complain the food is cold when they have NO idea whether or not that is the case, and thereby get free food.

So I guess if you have enough brass, you can throw a fit and get your food for free. Because, after all, they're living in a posh neighborhood, so must feel they are "upper class" and thereby entitled.

Personally, I think what they're REALLY entitled too is a good swift kick in the behind.

More Than One Life To Live

2009-12-20T23:31:00.000-06:00

I know there’s a soap opera called “One Life To Live.” But the fact is, I feel like I’ve lived several lives already. I often think or even say, “Oh, that was back in another life.” It’s usually when I'm thinking about something in the past that is so totally different from my present life that it seems in no way connected to it.

I’ve been thinking about these changes a lot lately. I’ll no doubt be doing even more of it as I become more and more involved in the healing process I’m learning, as it involves a healing of the heart, a spiritual healing. The more I learn, the more I can see how many radical changes there have been in my life and I can also see how many places I’m so totally messed up and have wrong thinking.

Here’s an example. I’m not sure I can trace the exact path that got me there, but I suspect it has a lot to do with being taught you should think of other people first, and it’s selfish to think of yourself, and I internalized all that and moved on to where my mind said, “You pray only for other people. You do NOT pray for your own needs.”

Seriously. I could not pray for myself, because in my mind, that was selfish. You’re only supposed to pray for other people. You can’t ask God to help you or bless you or whatever, because it would be selfish to do that.

Yeah, I know. Totally warped. In reality, it’s more like when you get on a plane, and hear the flight attendant’s speech about oxygen masks, “Put on your own mask before attempting to help others, even small children.” Why? Because if you don’t help yourself first, you might get in such bad shape you won’t be *able* to help others.

I could expound on this and more. I could talk about how much I’ve been learning, and changes I’ve been making. But not now. Cause right now what I’m REALLY wondering is, “How far am I willing to bare my soul, so to speak?” And further, “Does anyone really want to hear it anyway?” I might shatter quite a few illusions, or maybe it’s a matter of too much information.

After all, a lot of family members read this, like my kids.

I’ve even considered writing anonymously on a different blog. If no one read it, fine. But then again, maybe it would help someone else on their journey of transformation. Cause in the past couple of years while I’ve been learning about ways to make a living online, I’ve also been led towards side paths on self-help, self-realization, self-empowerment… I’m not sure what to call it.

No, I’m not talking about New Age mumbo-jumbo. Some things I’ve learned may sound “far out” at first, but they’re all based in science and a belief in God. You can talk about quantum physics, neuroscience, healing, the law of attraction, and on and on… it all comes back to the source… God.

There are just so many things in my head and heart, and so much changing. I feel in such a state of flux, and feel like yet another person is emerging. Sometimes I slip back to my "old ways", but mostly I’m moving forward, and I feel like things are coalescing and speeding up. I really believe 2010 is going to be a great year in a whole lot of ways.

The question is, how much do I want to share about why and how?

I Heard The Bells On Christmas Day

2009-12-19T15:31:00.007-06:00

It’s Jess’s week to teach Sunday School. (He and another guy teach on alternate Sundays.) Since he was super busy this week, what with a load of work, choir practice Wednesday night, and the church Christmas program and Christmas dinner on Thursday night, he's having to do all his studying today.

Evidently the lesson has references to Christmas songs in it, as he asked me to find the lyrics for a couple of them. It was in my search for the second song I got really interested. They lyrics of “I Heard The Bells On Christmas Day” were written by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. I’ve loved his poetry since I was a child and first came across it in an old book someone gave me, but I didn’t know the story behind this particular poem and subsequent song made from it. Here’s the poem as it was originally written:

"Christmas Bells"

I heard the bells on Christmas Day
Their old familiar carols play,
And wild and sweet
The words repeat
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

And thought how, as the day had come,
The belfries of all Christendom
Had rolled along
The unbroken song
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

Till, ringing, singing on its way,
The world revolved from night to day,
A voice, a chime
A chant sublime
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

Then from each black accursed mouth
The cannon thundered in the South,
And with the sound
The carols drowned
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

It was as if an earthquake rent
The hearth-stones of a continent,
And made forlorn
The households born
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

And in despair I bowed my head;
"There is no peace on earth," I said;
"For hate is strong,
And mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!"

Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
"God is not dead; nor doth he sleep!
The Wrong shall fail,
The Right prevail,
With peace on earth, good-will to men!"

I’d be willing to bet you’ve never heard it sung with all those verses. More likely this traditional version is what you've heard or sung:

In case you haven’t guessed from the words of the original poem, it was written during the Civil War. And from what I’ve read, it seems the feelings behind this song were about three years in the making. While the whole nation was living through the tragedy of the Civil War, the Longfellow house was hit with its own tragedies.

In the summer of 1861, the Longfellow family was living in the Craigie House overlooking the Charles River in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It was a hot summer, and Longfellow’s wife, Fanny, decided to trim the hair of their 7-year old little girl to remove some of the weight of it, and hopefully allow her to be more comfortable.

As mother’s sometimes do, she wanted to save a few of the curls. She got a bar of sealing wax, and melted it with a candle, so she could preserve them. What she didn’t notice was a few drops of the wax dripped onto her light-weight summer dress.

About that time a breeze blew through the window, and ignited the wax on her dress, causing it to burst into flames. Fanny ran into the nearby library, trying to spare her children the sight of their mother in flames. Longfellow was in the library and tried to put out the flames with a small throw rug. The rug wasn’t big enough to do the job, so he threw his arms about his wife, trying to extinguish the flames.

Talk about love in action.

Longfellow’s face, arms and hands were severely burned. Fanny died the next day, and Henry Longfellow was too ill from his own burns to be able to attend the funeral.

The first Christmas after Fanny's death, Longfellow wrote, "How inexpressibly sad are all holidays." The following year, December 25th 1862, he wrote in his journal, “’A merry Christmas' say the children, but that is no more for me."

But tragedy wasn’t done with the Longfellow family. Almost a year later, Longfellow received word that his oldest son Charles, a lieutenant in the Army of the Potomac, had been severely wounded with a bullet passing under his shoulder blades and taking off one of the spinal processes. However, he did NOT die, so contrary to popular belief, it wasn’t his son’s death that spurred Longfellow to write “Christmas Bells.”

However, I’d guess it’s safe to say that his wife’s death, his son’s serious injury, and the Civil War as a whole were much in Henry Longfellow’s mind when he wrote the poem on Christmas Day of 1864. Though the song speaks of despair, in the end it offers hope.

The music for the Christmas carol, “I Heard The Bells On Christmas Day” came from John Baptiste Calkin. He rearranged the verses of “Christmas Bells” and left out the two with more direct references to the Civil War.

The traditional music and verses were used in the above rendition of the carol, which is quite nice. However, while searching for a video, I came across a little different version I reallly like. It's sung by the group, Casting Crowns.

That's what we need not just at Christmas, but all year long,

"Peace on earth,
.
good will to men."

All I want for Christmas. . .

2009-12-18T23:15:00.004-06:00

Well, all I want for Christmas, I guess I've already got. I certainly haven't thought of anything I would put on a gift list. In fact, we're all kind of non-Christmas at our house this year. It seems to be a non-event. I'm not sure why. But right now it's one week until Christmas, and -

There are NO Christmas decorations anywhere to be found.
There are NO Christmas presents anywhere to be found.
Thare are NO Christmas cards being mailed.
There are NO plans to remedy the above.

A bunch of Scrooges? Maybe.
Perhaps we're all Grinches? Maybe.
An over-reaction to the commercialization of Christmas? Maybe.

For whatever reason, it seems no one here can get in the spirit of the season. For myself, I would have to say I feel more sadness than joy this time of year.

Sure, you hear that Jesus is the reason for the season. If you can go to Christmas services, I guess you might feel that more. If I had a church home, I might feel that more. But for various reasons, I don't.

And, well, we don't really KNOW when his birthday is, now do we? I mean, historically it can't be pinpointed to an exact year, let alone an exact date. So instead of going crazy just at Christmas and Easter, well, why not a passion for Jesus all year long?

So it seems Christmas isn't on our calendar this year. I think it's just going to be another day off, like having an extra Saturday. Maybe next year will be different, but this year, I'm not doing Christmas.

Have a nice day.

Wormhole

2009-12-17T12:13:00.003-06:00

I put this picture up on Rural Ramblings as a "Gateway into another dimension". . .

Then I did a little work in Photoshop.

Actually, I didn't really do much but change the hue & saturation, and get rid of the tree branches. I didn't even notice the lighter areas to the left of the "wormhole" until I did that. Is it an alien being? A spaceship? Something in a parallel universe?

I don't know, but it's fun and it looks cool.

I just want it to work. . .

2009-12-11T07:36:00.002-06:00

To tell you the truth, there’s a whole lot of things in life that I just don’t care HOW they work. All I care about is that when I need them, they DO work.

I don’t know anything about fixing cars. I just want to be able to get in my car, and it works RELIABLY. It gets me where I want to go without breaking down.

I don’t know anything about fixing computers. I just want to be able to turn it on, and it works RELIABLY. It does what I need it to do without breaking down. (And if there’s a glitch, at least make it a simple one that my in-house or my Canadian consultant can easily diagnose and tell me how to fix it.)

I don’t know anything about fixing the heating and air conditioning system. I just want to be able to turn that thermostat on, and it’s hot or cold as needed. Again, RELIABLY. Granted, there’s usually a glitch getting the furnace started every fall, but for the most part, it’s been pretty good. And we have a good repairman to call if there’s a problem.

There’s just a whole lot of things I use every day that I can’t fix on my own. I reckon that’s modern living for you. If we were back “long ago”, we’d be using a horse and buggy instead of a car, and we’d have to know how to take care of the horse and buggy on our own. (Except I think even then, the services of a blacksmith were needed!) There wouldn’t be a computer, the fireplace/stove would provide heat and you'd have to hope for a breeze to provide cooling.

But I don’t want to be a pioneer. I want my creature comforts. And yes, I’m spoiled and want my communication system to work too. I don’t use the telephone much. I’m more of a writer than a talker. Besides, with email, you can send it off at your convenience, and the other party can read it at THEIR convenience. Nice for both parties.

Well, for a week or so I’ve been getting messages from Mediacom about how they are going to upgrade the email system. I guess they made the change yesterday, and so far, it’s just a mess.

I haven’t got ANY of my mail from about noon yesterday to 6 or 7pm, and what I’m getting now I KNOW is only a fraction of what I should be getting.

I haven’t been able to SEND email since yesterday morning.

They’ve got a new web-mail interface. I guess they’re trying to copy Yahoo, and have a home page, and there’s a button on it you click to get to the email. The really annoying part is that every time you click anything, it opens a new window. And I’ve only been able to get into the webmail a few times. Most of the time the new window times out. Pretty soon there’s half a dozen windows open and still no mail!

And even if you do get to the email, it’s still the same problem. The email isn’t coming through..

I called this morning and they’ve got a canned message saying that there are delays in people getting mail and sending mail, the technicians are working on it, and thank you for your patience.

Who said I was patient? I am NOT patient.

Here’s what I think.

If it ain’t broke don’t fix it. Cause gee, now it IS broke. If they’d left things alone I’d still be getting my email!
.
If I wanted a newsy home page for webmail, I’d just use my Yahoo email address all the time. And guess what? It’s FREE. I just want to go straight to my email, thank you very much, and forget this other crap.
.
I frequently see or hear Mediacom advertising for phone service. Now there’s a big joke. My land line works pretty reliably. I don’t have to worry if I’m going to be able to use the phone. It takes an ice storm or something taking down the lines before there’s a problem most of the time. But problems with my Mediacom service? That happens all too frequently. NO WAY I'd ever trust them for my phone service.

I just want it to work.

What EVERY Star Wars Fan Needs!

2009-12-09T23:50:00.007-06:00

Use the (chop)forks Luke, use the forks!"

Gotta love the guys at ThinkGeek.com. Who else would think up something like Star Wars Chop Sabers?

Or how about this Tauntaun sleeping bag?

You can "slumber in the belly of the beast," and they were even "thoughtful" (crazy?) enough to have "printed internal intestines." A little over-the-top realistic, perhaps?
.
They have all kinds of things Star Wars, like a "Force Trainer", cookbook, R2D2 trashcan, lightsaber laser pointer, and how about this?

Your very own R2D2 peppermill! Now how cool is THAT?

Gotta love Geeks!

Christmas Dinners & Broken Eyeglasses

2009-12-06T16:28:00.002-06:00

Well, yesterday we had our annual dusting of snow. It looked pretty cool (literally and figuratively). I went out and took a bunch of pictures. Toby liked that because it meant while I walked around in the woods, he got to run all over creation.

Jess went in to work yesterday morning, and it took him an hour to get there because of some road closings and detours. It’s just as well it wasn’t a regular work day, or there would have been numerous wrecks. People in the south get all rattled when they see snow. Just the forecast of snow puts them in a panic - QUICK! Go to the grocery store and buy milk and bread!!!

Anyway, tomorrow morning I plan on putting a bunch of the pictures up on the RuralRamblings.com site.

Jonathan came home sick from work Friday, and hasn’t stirred out of the house all weekend. That means I was on my own going to the grocery store for the second week in a row. Bummer! I think he’s feeling a little better this evening, and says he’s hopeful he can make it to work tomorrow.

Jess attended a Christmas dinner after morning church services. It was for the “older folks” Sunday School classes. They were doing some story telling about past years at church, which I think Jess really enjoyed. There are several older than he is, and have been at the church longer.

Yesterday my eyeglasses fell apart. Literally. In two pieces – a lens and earpiece on one side, and a lens, earpiece and nose piece on the other. It’s such a tiny little connection between one side/end of the nosepiece and a tiny little section of the wire around the lens that it connects to. Jonathan tried to use some of his special model stuff to mend it. It “cured” overnight, and I put them on this morning.

So I tried wearing them while driving to the store, and did all right until the first time my glasses were slipping down my nose and I forgot and pushed them up. They immediately fell apart again. Fortunately, I had very gingerly put my clip-on sunglasses on them, so they held the two sides together until I got to the store.

Guess the cure didn’t cure my glasses.

Well, I found an old pair of eyeglasses that are all in one piece, sort of. There’s a crack over an inch long down the middle of one lens, and the end of one of the ear pieces is broken off and just a sharp metal piece sticking out. I wrapped that in lots of tape, and am just peering around the crack. So it looks like a crackpot world to me. (No wise cracks!)

Guess I’ll call the eye doctor’s office tomorrow.

Time For A Family Update

2009-12-04T08:22:00.003-06:00

When I put up the post with Jess’s NASCAR birthday card, I noticed it’s been almost a month since I posted any real updates on what’s going on around here. I know everyone is busy, and many people even “more busy” with getting ready for Christmas.

Well, we’re no exception to that “being busy” phenomenon.

We had a super great time in Florida visiting with family. What a blessing it is to all get together over Thanksgiving. It works out so well with Randy having a room, and Jess and I having a room, at the missions complex. They’re nice rooms, economical, in a beautiful area, and close to the Sanford’s house. That means we all get to visit, but not all squished into one house 24 hours a day for the duration of the visit. 9 people in a 3-bedroom house would be a bit much!

And we have such wonderful visits. It’s so nice that not only do we have great family with Randy and all the Sanfords, but their extended family is pretty special too! We love Dave’s Mom, Lucille, and his sister, Becky, and her husband Dave. They’re just good people, fun to be around, and to have such a big house full of people and no fusses or tensions in the family… did I mention how blessed we all are?

We even got to say hello to the “special friends” of Lee, Emily and Ryan. Lee’s girlfriend, Danielle, was there quite a bit. We had an especially good time visiting Friday evening around the campfire in the woods by the Sanford house. (Chilly, but fun!)

Moving from the far south on up to the far north, the Kroeker-Boggs clan stay crazy busy, too. Chrystie has her own blog many of you read so I’ll only mention here that they really need your prayers! This bit about having a surgery date all set up for Ellie, and plane tickets and a rental place in Florida all set up, plus Chrystie taking leave from her job, and then what happens? The neurosurgeon and team change the date from the 5th to the 19th of January, then that doesn’t work either, and now it’s all up in the air, well! That sucks! (I actually hate that expression, but somehow it seems so appropriate for this situation.)

So anytime you think of them, pray that the arrangements all work out for Ellie to have her surgery before the middle of January, and work out soon so they can quit stressing about it! It’s more than enough to have on your mind that your child is having surgery without having to worry if all the arrangements made to accommodate the surgery and subsequent therapy are all going to work out.

Here on the homefront, Jess has been swamped with work since clear back after returning from our vacation at Panama City Beach in Florida. That’s a mixed blessing. It’s good he has work, and it’s good he’ll get more money, but sometimes it gets to be a little too much of a “good thing” and he starts to stress a bit. I’m thinking by the end of next year, it will be high time for him to retire.

Even working at Domino’s can keep a person busy! Jonathan works full time, and often even gets in some over time. With the economy still, shall we say, less than stellar, that’s a blessing. He even does a little work on the side now and then, getting commissions for painting models used in tabletop war games. With work and visiting friends and carting Mom to the grocery store or post office, he stays busy too!

As for me, one set of training is winding down, but I’ve still got a couple more going strong. One is a new set of seminars on healing, and I’m really excited about that. I’m hoping to learn some great things!

Besides training, I have to do the actual work of putting all this training to use, plus the usual household and farm chores. Yeah, I stay busy, too. Unfortunately, all this cold, rainy weather we've been having lately makes things difficult. It’s got my peripheral neuropathy (nerve pain in my feet) stirred up, making it hard to walk sometimes. And of course, the thoracic neuralgia and fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue are all aggravated too.

But I’ve got great hopes that 2010 is going to be a stupendous year on all fronts! I’m looking for a whole lot of things to “gel” and improvements all over the place. So as "they" say (whoever "they" are!), hang on to your hat and get ready to rock and roll, cause before you know it 2010 is going to be here!

Are you ready?

Another Birthday Greeting For Jesse

2009-12-03T18:46:00.004-06:00

When we were in Florida visiting with the Sanfords and Randy and all over Thanksgiving, the Sanfords had a birthday card for Jess. Emily picked it out, and she and Deb were especially excited to give it to Jess because "it fit him so well."

I'm not sure which one of the dudes is Jess, or who the second guy is. Maybe one of his buddies who likes NASCAR? Randy? Maybe even my dad, since he enjoys NASCAR. No telling!

Whoever these two good old boys are, now you know how the term 'NASCAR' came to be.

Someone Else Wishes Jess Happy Birthday!

2009-11-22T20:56:00.003-06:00

Well, actually she's wishing her Southern Grandpa happy birthday!

Of course, when the camera turns on, our little girl is apt to get an attack of shyness, so you have to listen real close to hear what she's saying!

Besides "Happy Birthday Southern Grandpa", it's "Roll Tide" and "Go BAMA" and "I love you."

BAMA outfit, BAMA birthday greetings! Great birthday video for BAMA Grandpa!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JESSE B. KING!

2009-11-22T14:34:00.029-06:00

So how about a few pictures to celebrate his birthday? Here's the earliest picture I can find of Jess. He's one year old in this picture. It's not the best picture, but it's the only picture (so I guess it IS the best picture of him that young, ha!).

And then here he is, long, long ago, with his mother:
According to the date on the picture it was taken back in 1941 . So probably Jess was about 5 1/2 years old at the time. Wasn't he a cute little guy?

Here's all the King siblings around 1944. That's JB standing in the front, in the middle.

This picture is marked 1944, so Jess ought to have been about 9 years old.

And here he is with his younger brother, Kenneth:

Don't let the sweet pose fool you. I suspect he was a little rough on Kenneth at times! You know, that brotherly love stuff!

Jess thinks he's probably about 11 years old in this picture, and wearing his older brother, Thelbert's army hat.

Eleven years old, and look at that big handlebar moustache! Man, he grew a moustache at a YOUNG age, didn't he?

Now, how about this school picture? What a grin he's got!
He claims he was really shy during his school years.

They had horses to do a lot of the farm work while Jess was growing up. Here he is with Kenneth and one of their buddies:

He's the one holding the horse on the left.

Now, does this look like a shy dude in this picture? I think he's sure playing it cool here.
That's him leaning against the tree, in case you didn't figure it out.

Here's a picture of his entire family from 1948.

That's our Jesse in the front again, clear to the left.

Fast forward 35 years, and here's the family again:

Jess got to be one of the taller ones of the bunch, and is in the back, second from the right. (Or third from the left if you'd rather go that direction.)

Jess loves his grandchildren, and here he is with Debra and Dave's kids: Lee, Ryan and Emily.. .

By the time this picture was taken, Kelley was added to the group.

It was some time later, in 2005, and there came another grandchild!

Here we are with Ellie, way back when they still lived in Texas:

I have to admit, it's one of my favorite pictures.

And here's the proud grandpa with all the Sanford clan at Lee's graduation:

And then at Emily's. . .
I'd put one from Ryan's graduation in here, but I don't have any!

Of course, when you get to the grandpa stage, you're also likely to have some wear and tear on the body, and Jess had to have both knees replaced. Here he is last December doing some physical therapy.

This picture was taken back in July of this year, when we went to Canada to visit Richard, Chrystie and Ellie.

And then here's Jess with The Phantom Son during one of his visit's.

And last, a picture of recent vintage, of our intrepid explorer, checking out the new culverts the creek by our property is running through.

Of course, this is just a smattering of pictures, but you know I can't put a picture for every year on here or I'd use up all my bandwidth or something! It'd take a year to download, ha, ha!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JESS!!!

NOT The Star Trek I Expected

2009-11-19T21:22:00.004-06:00

Spoiler Alert! If you haven’t seen “Star Trek”
and want to watch it some time, DO NOT read this!!!!
==============================================================

Okay, so I’m an old fogey. I’ve been watching Star Trek since the original series first came out on tv. I had to walk over to a neighbor’s house to get to watch it in color. Through hay fields that were full of icky slugs that got in my shoes and made me go, “ooooooooooooo”. (As in a YUCK kind of ooooo – I don’t know how to spell it.) But it was worth it.

The point is, I love Star Trek. I’m a long time fan.

So I was all excited to finally get to watch the latest movie. I was sorry to have missed it in theaters, and stayed away from reading any reviews or anything that would spoil it when I finally got to see the movie on DVD.

You know, the movie advertised as the one “that follows the early days of the intergalactic adventurers” – that’s EXACTLY what it says on the movie sleeve. The one that promos lead you to believe tells you how Kirk, Spock, McCoy and all of the bridge crew met.

Well, I’m sorry. While this was a decent sci-fi movie, it is NOT how the Kirk, Spock and crew of the Enterprise we’ve known in previous shows and movies and books met.

No, instead we got some kind of alternate reality switch.

They talk about reality changing because people came back in time. And unless they do ANOTHER sort of alternate reality switch in the following movies, there's no way to segue from what I thought was supposed to be a prequel into the present Star Trek Universe.

Kirk’s dad was killed off in the opening scenes of the movie. They killed off Spock’s mother. They blew up Vulcan. Spock and Uhura have a romance. Man, it is soooooo messed up. These people (and planet) are important parts of the following Star Trek adventures.

This movie really flew under false colors. False advertising. I repeat, it is NOT how the crew of the Enterprise from other Star Trek movies met. Cause, after all, this is all a different reality.

An enjoyable movie? Yes, but, and it’s a BIG but… it’s not the Star Trek movie I was expecting.

And that’s a big disappointment.
(And I'm glad I didn't waste my money seeing it in a theater.)

A Little Behind

2009-11-18T19:28:00.001-06:00

Okay, so I’m a LOT behind. As usual! (And my, wouldn’t I just love to have a little behind . . . )

I cannot believe that it’s only about a week until Thanksgiving. CAN. NOT!!!! You know what that means, don’t you? If it’s almost Thanksgiving, Christmas can’t be far behind, and then New Years, and there we are in 2010 and time just keeps whizzing by!

And so I just try to make the most of each day. That’s all any of us can do. I know that sounds trite, but as with most trite sayings, it also happens to be true.

I’d love to be able to make MORE of each day. I’m working on my health so I can hopefully gain more usable hours in the day. But there’s too much of the “gonna get worse before you get better” thing. Man, I am sooooo tired of that! Make one thing better, make another worse, or ever worser, create a whole new problem. What’s with that?

However, all things considered I feel extremely blessed. That’s something to think of with THANKSgiving coming up. However much I might whine and complain, we DO have income, we DO have a roof over our heads, we DO have food on the table, and on and on. We get so used to the land of plenty here, that we sometimes forget how much we have compared to a lot of other people.

I need to remember.

Imagine A Life Without Sports

2009-11-14T23:15:00.003-06:00

I was just browsing through Facebook, and it never ceases to amaze me how many comments over the weekends are sports oriented.

What would people do without sports?

I’m not talking about actually playing sports themselves and getting exercise. Of course it’s good to get exercise. And it’s better yet if you can have fun while doing it.

No, I’m talking about sports as entertainment.

I guess mankind (& womenkind) have a long history of watching other people compete at some sort of athletic event. Way before the Greeks came up with the Olympics, I suppose cavemen were watching footraces or dino wrestling or something.

It seems to be included in many people’s make-up to enjoy watching sports. Maybe there’s some kind of “sports” gene that makes people susceptible to the thrill of watching physical competitions.

So I have to wonder, what would happen if people couldn’t sit around watching their favorite sports? What if there were no sports channel, or ESPN, or whatever? (Maybe even no tv, period!)

Well, what would people do for entertainment then?

Poor Baby!

2009-11-12T14:32:00.003-06:00

I don't often chat about extended family on my blog, because as sure as I do, someone feels slighted. I don't know everything that's going on, I don't have time to mention everything that's going on, I can't begin to keep up with everyone in our extended family! So to prevent hard feelings, I usually stick to talking about us, our parents, kids, and grandkids.

But yesterday I mentioned that my niece, Bobbie, was at Duke with her youngest. Ava had to have eye surgery because of glaucoma. Sis-in-law Deb forwarded along a picture Bobbie took this morning of Ava:

All I can say is, "Poor Baby!"

Life Is A Whirlwind

2009-11-11T21:16:00.003-06:00

Whew, seems like things are all awhirl. Seems like everyone is extra busy these days.

Jess has a manic-depressive job. For days and days he’ll have nothing to do. Depressive phase.

Then all of a sudden half a dozen people will all want something done yesterday. MANIC PHASE! He says he’s “busy as a one-armed paper hanger” or another one of his little sayings (some of which are probably better not to repeat).

Jonathan has been working over 40 hours a week. One good thing is he keeps relatively the same schedule week to week. He doesn't know the exact hours, but he does know what days he has off each week, when he’ll be opening and when he’ll be closing. Makes it a lot easier to plan.

Me, well, for instance last night we were going to do just a HALF hour meeting. Yeah, right. How about more like two hours!?! Which isn’t bad, just kind of funny. Wonder how long the meeting will be Thursday night?

Otherwise it’s the same old thing of trying to do too many things. With the time change, I’m doing all the outside critter chores by myself now. Cooking, laundry, whatever. Trying to get more internet work done. Updating older sites while thinking up new ideas, and creating new sites. It’s all a balancing act.

And wishing I could figure out what I’m doing wrong with networking computers. My laptop sees Jonathan’s computer, which is hard wired. But it won’t see MY desktop, which is also hardwired. I really, really, need to figure this out to get optimum use out of my laptop. I need to be able to tap into the stored files on the desktop. I’ve got two hard drives in active use there (one for documents, one for graphics). I’ve got to figure out how to access them from my laptop, but none of the info I find helps any. I do everything, step by step, and it still doesn’t work. I know I’m missing something, but I don’t know what I’m missing!

Of course, we’re not the only busy ones in the family. Dad will be going to Pigeon Forge next week so probably thinking about getting ready for that. My niece, Bobbi, was at Duke University Hospital with her youngest today. Ava needed eye surgery because of glaucoma. Debbie is watching her other two kids, so she's busy too!

I suspect I could poll everyone in the whole extended family, and probably everyone is busy with one thing or another. Thanksgiving is coming up fast, as is Jess’s birthday, and Christmas, and then all of a sudden, it’s going to be another new year!

Whew. I get tired just thinking about it.