Star Trekkin'!

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

Trying to keep up....

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

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. . .

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?

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

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...

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!

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

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!"