Today Penny and I slept in. We got to Target later than normal—but that didn’t stop us from spending a bundle. We found lots of items 75% off and they were all things that we will use. We got 4 LED lanterns for hurricane supplies and for use during the week at the beach house. We’ve been watching them lower the price on lightweight sleeping bags and today they were finally cheap enough to buy.
Next we decided to check our local Ross for wine glasses for the wedding. They had them and we got them. There is another Ross in Destin and we talked about going there. I used that thought as a springboard to get out to Destin and see Avatar. Penny can’t watch the movie because it would increase her negative symptoms. So I went to see the movie while Penny had fun shopping in the stores around the theaters. I think it worked out OK. She got some stuff for the kids and looked at makeup.
Avatar-3D was awesome. The storyline reminds me of Dances With Wolves. The visual effects are incredible. The plot was run-of-the-mill and mostly predictable. It had some of the feel that Jurassic Park had. But all that wasn’t important. All the visuals were done perfectly. The movie is incredibly long but it fills all the time with plenty of action. Just experiencing the visuals made it worth seeing. Who cares about the plot? I even didn’t care that they flew all the aircraft in impossible formations. I just sat back and enjoyed. I really wish Penny could see it but the sound alone would be too much for her.
Since I’ve been home I’ve spent my time on the computers. I got Norton anti-virus back on my desktop and downloaded Anti-Vir onto out netbook. That’s a free antivirus program. We are already paying for Norton on 4 computers.
I also loaded Office Home and Student on the desktop. We got that about 6 months ago and can install it on 3 computers. It just took a while for me to finally put it on one.
When I looked at my apparently recovered files on the desktop only a few pictures were there. When the program recovers the files I let it do every type. I’m now going try just one type of file at a time (I’m starting with music and podcasts) and see if that makes a difference. It apparently has the files backed up. I just have to figure a way to fully recover them. I’ll let you know if I succeed.
Friday, January 29, 2010
Thursday, January 28, 2010
Restoration Day?
It took the computer 24 hours to back up files and reload factory image. I haven’t powered it down yet to see if it was successful. I’ll do that when I get off the treadmill. If the recovery is successful I will have to reload my anti-virus protection and any other software I have added. I manually backed up all my picture files, documents, etc.. about 2 weeks ago because the computer was beginning to act a little squirrelly. I’ve got that backup and the one the computer just made for most of the important stuff.
UPDATE- the computer works.
I got a clean bill of health from the Dr. today—just bad thumbs and some weight to worry about.
No work on the kitchen island today. Instead I did some of my full time job, housework.
I assembled the mechanical duck toy I got for Christmas. Here is a video of it strutting its stuff.
Here are some pictures from our recent visit to Disney:
UPDATE- the computer works.
I got a clean bill of health from the Dr. today—just bad thumbs and some weight to worry about.
No work on the kitchen island today. Instead I did some of my full time job, housework.
I assembled the mechanical duck toy I got for Christmas. Here is a video of it strutting its stuff.
Here are some pictures from our recent visit to Disney:
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Computer Problems
I’m sitting here typing on my laptop watching the HP recovery manager as it is backing up my desktop computer’s files. The desktop completely bombed out. The hardware diagnostic found no issues. I have a serious software problem. The computer didn’t even try to start up.
I’ve played around with every recovery tool I have but when the computer doesn’t boot up the choices are limited. I had my best luck with the set of recovery discs I made when I got the computer. Right now it is creating a backup of my files. It’s been running for 2 ½ hours now and is only 1% done. After the backup is done it remains to be seen whether I can recover the computer itself.
I’m also listening to the president’s state of the union address. He’s a good speaker but a poor leader. I wonder how many of those who were caught up in his campaign promises and the hope that he would do what he said have seen the light about who this man really is. I personally can’t believe it when I hear people say we have to give him more time. Right now he is saying some encouraging words. We will see what actions actually follow.
On the woodworking front, I made more progress on the island today. I have only the drawers and doors to cut out. Then I assemble and finish (sand and paint) it.
Hey, the backup is now 2% complete. I think it will still be running tomorrow at this time.
I’ve played around with every recovery tool I have but when the computer doesn’t boot up the choices are limited. I had my best luck with the set of recovery discs I made when I got the computer. Right now it is creating a backup of my files. It’s been running for 2 ½ hours now and is only 1% done. After the backup is done it remains to be seen whether I can recover the computer itself.
I’m also listening to the president’s state of the union address. He’s a good speaker but a poor leader. I wonder how many of those who were caught up in his campaign promises and the hope that he would do what he said have seen the light about who this man really is. I personally can’t believe it when I hear people say we have to give him more time. Right now he is saying some encouraging words. We will see what actions actually follow.
On the woodworking front, I made more progress on the island today. I have only the drawers and doors to cut out. Then I assemble and finish (sand and paint) it.
Hey, the backup is now 2% complete. I think it will still be running tomorrow at this time.
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Disney Weeekend
It has been almost a week since my last blog. In that time I went to Jacksonville, The Magic Kingdom and High Springs.
We were mostly ready to leave for J’ville Thursday night and planned a late morning departure on Friday. We got a call from Christy early Friday. She wanted to know if we could pick up something in Gainesville and get it to J’ville by 4 PM. We said, of course, and quickly finished packing and got on the road. I am glad I’ve made a trip checklist that we use for every trip now. It comes in very handy when we get in a rush like this. I know that if we have everything checked on the list we have all the important stuff done and don’t leave with the feeling that there is something we forgot.
About the half-way poin t iun the trip we called Christy and found that we didn’t have to get the item—she found someone local who could do it. So it was on to Jax arriving early enough for me to get in a nice nap before Karen got home.
We were going to Jax to give K&T a date night. This plan got altered by Sophie who threw up in Karen’s car on the way home from daycare. Seeing Sophie apparently choking in her rearview mirror temporarily panicked Karen. Then when it was apparent what was happening Karen called us and requested we meet her outside with towels in hand to help speed the cleanup and get Sophie and Lucy inside.
We ended up spending the evening watching the Haiti relief program while Sophie continued to empty her system. It is a pitiful sight seeing a kid do that without fully understanding what is going on. Sophie first described it as her back hurting. Her stomach settled before bedtime and she got some liquid in her and made it through the night OK. Apart from that it was actually a pleasant evening together.
Sophie awoke apparently OK and after a couple hours K&C decided the planned trip to Disney was on again. We entered the Magic Kingdom just in time to see the Character Parade with all the princeses and cartoon characters.
The best part of the park for Sophie was the Dumbo ride. She didn’t want to get off so later in the day they rode it again. They were on the ride for the fireworks finale—an added bonus. Going through that park with a 2-year-old is a special experience.
On Sunday we went down to visit C&C for lunch and conversation.
We drove back home on Monday under clear blue skies and with light traffic.
Monday night I sat down with the video I had taken and after 3½ hours, just as I was adding the last clip, the program bombed out and I lost everything. I still have the video clips, I just lost all the edited stuff. I’ll get back to it another day.
Today I did more on the kitchen island, cutting out most of the facing.
And that’s a summary of the last week. All 4 kitties, plus Slash showed up tonight so that is back to normal. It looks as if another raccoon or possum is visiting us so I’ve set the trap again. Perhaps tomorrow will have another critter story.
We were mostly ready to leave for J’ville Thursday night and planned a late morning departure on Friday. We got a call from Christy early Friday. She wanted to know if we could pick up something in Gainesville and get it to J’ville by 4 PM. We said, of course, and quickly finished packing and got on the road. I am glad I’ve made a trip checklist that we use for every trip now. It comes in very handy when we get in a rush like this. I know that if we have everything checked on the list we have all the important stuff done and don’t leave with the feeling that there is something we forgot.
About the half-way poin t iun the trip we called Christy and found that we didn’t have to get the item—she found someone local who could do it. So it was on to Jax arriving early enough for me to get in a nice nap before Karen got home.
We were going to Jax to give K&T a date night. This plan got altered by Sophie who threw up in Karen’s car on the way home from daycare. Seeing Sophie apparently choking in her rearview mirror temporarily panicked Karen. Then when it was apparent what was happening Karen called us and requested we meet her outside with towels in hand to help speed the cleanup and get Sophie and Lucy inside.
We ended up spending the evening watching the Haiti relief program while Sophie continued to empty her system. It is a pitiful sight seeing a kid do that without fully understanding what is going on. Sophie first described it as her back hurting. Her stomach settled before bedtime and she got some liquid in her and made it through the night OK. Apart from that it was actually a pleasant evening together.
Sophie awoke apparently OK and after a couple hours K&C decided the planned trip to Disney was on again. We entered the Magic Kingdom just in time to see the Character Parade with all the princeses and cartoon characters.
The best part of the park for Sophie was the Dumbo ride. She didn’t want to get off so later in the day they rode it again. They were on the ride for the fireworks finale—an added bonus. Going through that park with a 2-year-old is a special experience.
On Sunday we went down to visit C&C for lunch and conversation.
We drove back home on Monday under clear blue skies and with light traffic.
Monday night I sat down with the video I had taken and after 3½ hours, just as I was adding the last clip, the program bombed out and I lost everything. I still have the video clips, I just lost all the edited stuff. I’ll get back to it another day.
Today I did more on the kitchen island, cutting out most of the facing.
And that’s a summary of the last week. All 4 kitties, plus Slash showed up tonight so that is back to normal. It looks as if another raccoon or possum is visiting us so I’ve set the trap again. Perhaps tomorrow will have another critter story.
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Lunch with Lou
The main event today was taking Lou to lunch.
I had other plans for the morning but Pam called Penny and commandeered both our mornings. Pam needs medical help but won’t get it. Penny is more stressed every time she sees her and stress is not good for Penny.
I had other plans for the morning but Pam called Penny and commandeered both our mornings. Pam needs medical help but won’t get it. Penny is more stressed every time she sees her and stress is not good for Penny.
Lou and I went to the local Greek restaurant. We had a lively discussion about when and how people develop “destructive” habits. Lou is doing good (in his words “better than fantastic”).
After dropping off Lou I went to Lowe's and got lumber for the next phase of the kitchen island. I’m not going to be able to get to that project until next week. Things got busy.
Penny’s quilting frame arrived today in apparently good shape considering the terrible packing job that UPS did. She’s excited about it so I’m sure we will be assembling it and playing with it soon.
I also got 4 day passes to Disney for Penny and I. We are planning to join Tim, Karen and the kids at Disney in the near future.
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Coming Together
I got the island “frame” together, squared and glued. Basically it’s a box. Now I have the details to add. Here is what it looks like so far.
It was another beautiful day. We got up to 60 today, quite a contrast from last week.
5 kitties showed up for dinner tonight. Slash hung around on the outside and I made sure he got some food. Velcro and Marmalade don’t like Slash and hiss at him.
I’m hoping that the republicans win in Massachusetts today. Not that the republicans are better. I just want politicians to at least listen to what people want rather than just furthering their political agenda and rewarding those who help. The democrats are just so damn arrogant believing everybody who disagrees with them are just right wing idiots. We want to save what is good with our healthcare system and fix what is broken. We don’t need to tear what we have apart. If the current bills were so good they wouldn’t need to ram them through in the middle of the night and bribe people for votes. I’m hoping for our political process to start fixing itself before a real revolution occurs and we lose everything.
Monday, January 18, 2010
MLK Day
Retirement is such that holidays are nothing special—except when it gives the kids an extra day and they come see us. Now I find myself having to confirm that it is in fact a holiday. Don’t get me wrong. That’s not a bad thing. It’s nice having every day off.
Today I worked all day on the kitchen island with the result being all the major pieces are cut to size. Tomorrow I will dry fit it together and if all looks good glue the basic box structure up. This is the easiest and speediest part of the project.. The facing, molding, drawers , doors, shelves and painting will take a little longer.
It was a beautiful day to be outside. A light sweatshirt was comfortable.
It doesn’t make for an exciting day, just a nice one.
Today I worked all day on the kitchen island with the result being all the major pieces are cut to size. Tomorrow I will dry fit it together and if all looks good glue the basic box structure up. This is the easiest and speediest part of the project.. The facing, molding, drawers , doors, shelves and painting will take a little longer.
It was a beautiful day to be outside. A light sweatshirt was comfortable.
It doesn’t make for an exciting day, just a nice one.
Sunday, January 17, 2010
Island Sunday
On Friday I started cutting wood for the kitchen island. Yesterday it rained all day so, since I work on the deck I couldn’t do anything. I did laundry instead. Today was cloudy windy and DRY so I spent most of the day on the project. I’m fitting the island under a 50’s style Formica tabletop. It is rectangular with rounded corners and presents some interesting design challenges.
If I shape the cabinet to match the rounded edges I limit the storage space available. If I don’t I make a compromise on the appearance. I chose to go for storage space and make it look as good as possible.
We ate our first meal of the pulled pork for lunch today and it was good. I like cooking the pork. It is very forgiving and always seems to come out good. The ribs were great also.
I also finished the Harry Potter series today. It certainly goes out with a bang. I’ve now gone back to listening to my podcasts. I have 6 months of podcasts backlogged—many hours of listening.
As I casually rinsed off our lunch plates today my thoughts drifted to the disaster in Haiti. Here I was using lots of water while there are literally millions of people there who have no running water, let alone roofs over their heads. While conserving water here would have no real affect on the Haitians, the fact that I have water available any time is a blessing that I have always appreciated. The biggest inconvenience I must deal with is waiting for the water to get hot when showering because the hot water heater is at the other end of the house. On 60 minutes tonight they showed bodies being scooped up by a front loader and being dropped into a dump truck to be buried in a mass grave. The sight of human arms and legs dangling over the edge of the shovel of the loader as it lifted the bodies really drives home how serious this disaster is. Be thankful for what you have.
We have only 2 months until the river run and I have just begun my “training”. Between being sick and then taking medication that left me feeling little ambition to do anything I’m wondering if I’m going to make it this year.
If I shape the cabinet to match the rounded edges I limit the storage space available. If I don’t I make a compromise on the appearance. I chose to go for storage space and make it look as good as possible.
We ate our first meal of the pulled pork for lunch today and it was good. I like cooking the pork. It is very forgiving and always seems to come out good. The ribs were great also.
I also finished the Harry Potter series today. It certainly goes out with a bang. I’ve now gone back to listening to my podcasts. I have 6 months of podcasts backlogged—many hours of listening.
As I casually rinsed off our lunch plates today my thoughts drifted to the disaster in Haiti. Here I was using lots of water while there are literally millions of people there who have no running water, let alone roofs over their heads. While conserving water here would have no real affect on the Haitians, the fact that I have water available any time is a blessing that I have always appreciated. The biggest inconvenience I must deal with is waiting for the water to get hot when showering because the hot water heater is at the other end of the house. On 60 minutes tonight they showed bodies being scooped up by a front loader and being dropped into a dump truck to be buried in a mass grave. The sight of human arms and legs dangling over the edge of the shovel of the loader as it lifted the bodies really drives home how serious this disaster is. Be thankful for what you have.
We have only 2 months until the river run and I have just begun my “training”. Between being sick and then taking medication that left me feeling little ambition to do anything I’m wondering if I’m going to make it this year.
Thursday, January 14, 2010
Smokin’
Today was my day to do the cooking.
First thing after waking up I pulled the pork shoulder and ribs out of the fridge to allow them to reach room temperature before smoking.
The pork cooks and smokes at about 215-220 degrees. That means 8-12 hours of cooking time for the shoulder to reach ideal pulled pork temperature. I just checked the temperature and there are only 3 more degrees to go. That means it will take about 8 hours. At temperature I take it out and let it sit and cool for an hour and then let the pulling begin.
The ribs were cooked in the classic 2-1-1 fashion. 2 hours in the smoker, then 1 hour cooking wrapped tightly in aluminum foil (to steam it and keep it moist), then 1 hour uncovered with barbeque sauce if desired. I used a Carolina Tennessee
After starting the meat smoking I went to the front yard and uncovered the 3 Sago palms. We are not supposed to have a hard freeze here for at least the next 10 days or so—maybe the rest of the month—maybe the rest of the winter.
The meat reached temperature (180) at about and I went out and opened the smoker. As I’m taking out the meat I hear a slight meow followed by the arrival of Meredith, Buzz and Velcro. It’s not feeding time but SOMETHING must have attracted them here early. So with kitties running all around I took the meat out and brought it inside to safety.
When I removed the meat thermometer liquid squirted from the hole. I don’t think I dried out the pork.
Pork before pulling.
After pulling.
We’ve got a lot of good eats ahead.
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Red Sky at Night
Today we grocery shopped, Penny cooked for hours and I took a sunset beach walk.
We bought some pork shoulder and ribs and it will be my turn to cook that tomorrow in the smoker. The intent is to make pulled pork as practice for feeding people the week of C&C’s wedding.
The beach walk was nice but the sunset fizzled some due to some clouds being too thick. The walk was good and while it was cold it wasn’t freezing. The cold ends tomorrow.
I just finished cleaning up the kitchen and now it is bedtime. Good night!
We bought some pork shoulder and ribs and it will be my turn to cook that tomorrow in the smoker. The intent is to make pulled pork as practice for feeding people the week of C&C’s wedding.
The beach walk was nice but the sunset fizzled some due to some clouds being too thick. The walk was good and while it was cold it wasn’t freezing. The cold ends tomorrow.
I just finished cleaning up the kitchen and now it is bedtime. Good night!
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
1/12/10
I succeeded in creating a viewable DVD of the video clips from Christmas and made 3 copies---one for each family. I’m watching one now as I walk on the treadmill and while it is just a bunch of clips put together in chronological order it is a nice record of the weekend we had. Of course all the clips are of the kids.
The rest of the day was spent making ready to cut wood –making some final decisions on how the table top will best fit on the island. I also cleared some clutter from the shop that I piled up in there over the holidays.
Kitty Update—For the past 2 nights 3 cats showed up. The two cold nights before that saw only Meredith showing up. Maybe the others have a warm place to stay. Tonight all 4 showed up. Buzz was not here for 4 nights in a row but showed up tonight. Only 2 more nights below freezing left in this cold spell.
The rest of the day was spent making ready to cut wood –making some final decisions on how the table top will best fit on the island. I also cleared some clutter from the shop that I piled up in there over the holidays.
Kitty Update—For the past 2 nights 3 cats showed up. The two cold nights before that saw only Meredith showing up. Maybe the others have a warm place to stay. Tonight all 4 showed up. Buzz was not here for 4 nights in a row but showed up tonight. Only 2 more nights below freezing left in this cold spell.
Monday, January 11, 2010
Slow Week for Blog
The past week has been spent doing various odd jobs and spending some time with Penny. I haven't done much worth blogging about.
With this long spell of cold weather one task has been covering the 3 Sago palms.
I downloaded the video I took at Christmas time in Jax and I’m playing with the editing software that came with the camera to make a composite video of the best parts.
I’ve also got one remnant ache left over from the bug I had last month so I had a couple trips to see the doctor and get a test run. I’m also taking that crummy antibiotic again. It upset my stomach last time. This time I’m doing a little better with it.
Friday we bought the metal 2-tier slide out shelves to use in C&C’s kitchen island. Next step is to double check the measurements and start cutting wood. I’m trying to get caught up with the house before I actually begin the island and everything falls apart again.
The cold weather makes doing anything outside uncomfortable. We’ve been down into the teens the last 2 nights. There’s no relief coming tonight.
So that's my slow week.
With this long spell of cold weather one task has been covering the 3 Sago palms.
I downloaded the video I took at Christmas time in Jax and I’m playing with the editing software that came with the camera to make a composite video of the best parts.
I’ve also got one remnant ache left over from the bug I had last month so I had a couple trips to see the doctor and get a test run. I’m also taking that crummy antibiotic again. It upset my stomach last time. This time I’m doing a little better with it.
Friday we bought the metal 2-tier slide out shelves to use in C&C’s kitchen island. Next step is to double check the measurements and start cutting wood. I’m trying to get caught up with the house before I actually begin the island and everything falls apart again.
The cold weather makes doing anything outside uncomfortable. We’ve been down into the teens the last 2 nights. There’s no relief coming tonight.
So that's my slow week.
Wednesday, January 06, 2010
3 car pile-up--Wal-Mart
Here is the paper's video about the crash I saw yesterday--it will only be on the page today.
http://www.nwfdailynews.com/
http://www.nwfdailynews.com/
Tuesday, January 05, 2010
Lunch and Errands With Lou
I spent most of the afternoon with Louie today. He needed to get to both of the local Wal-Marts (Crestview and Ft Walton). They’re about 30 miles apart. He needed to pick up a prescription at one and replacement gift cards at the other. The gift cards were those he sent to his wife. They turned up missing so Lou cancelled them and had replacements done. Since canceling them he found out what happened. His eler grandchild stole them from his wife. The kid’s too young to drive so he asked a neighbor for a ride to Wal-Mart to use “his” gift cards. The neighbor checked with his mother about giving him the ride and he got busted.
While in Crestview we ate lunch at Ryan’s Steak House. Lou’s pastor said they had an all-you-can-eat lunch buffet for $5.99. They did and it was good. We both ate too much. Lou is normally a big eater and this gave him an opportunity to shine without costing too much.
We then went to the Ft Walton store. Lou got in and out of both stores rather quickly. I expected to have long waits at both stores but my expectations were wrong.
The afternoon got exciting when we got back to the car. I backed out of my parking space and seeing 3 cars backed up in my isle decided to take the long way around to get out. I finally rolled up to the end of the isle at the front of the store. Two cars were ahead of me. One went and the other rolled up and waited for a car to pass. I didn’t see another car coming and wondered why the car ahead of me was waiting to go. I looked to the left at the same time that there was a huge crashing sound directly ahead. I looked back in time to see a speeding car hitting the SUV in front of us hard enough to push it into the parked cars beside it and tip it to a 45 degree angle leaning on those cars.
Lou and I couldn’t believe our eyes. Lou’s reaction was to jump out immediately and see how the drivers were. While he did that I backed my car up the isle and parked out of the way. There were many witnesses and fortunately no pedestrians were hit. Both drivers said they were OK but that SUV got hit hard enough on the drivers door to tip the larger vehicle.
The parking lot security guy was there quickly and reported the accident directly to the authorities within minutes of the accident. Three police cars were there within 5 minutes and we saw fire and ambulance vehicles on the way when we left.
We don’t know why or how that car got moving so fast in the parking lot or why it turned up the aisle to clobber the SUV in front of me. I do know that but for a couple of decisions I made delaying me slightly from being in that particular spot that car could have hit me. You don’t expect to see such a serious accident in a parking lot. It is sobering, indeed. Maybe it will make the papers tomorrow.
Lou likes it a lot here. The church people seem to like him and he is enjoying working with them. I usually bring Lou to the grocery store and bank as part of our lunch ritual. I’ve told him not to depend on me to do that because I may not always be available. Today Lou didn’t need groceries or the bank. He is really settling in and becoming more “independent”.
For the past week or so I’ve had a problem with my windows media center not seeing the TV tuner in my computer. The computer has a DVR function and is very easy to use and useful for recording TV shows I want to watch. I can watch them in the corner of the monitor while doing other things on the computer. For some reason the media center software was only looking for a digital signal. I finally fixed it after days of searching the internet looking for answers. It seems I had a conflict with another program which was supposedly using the tuner.
Nineteen degrees expected tonight. I see in the weather report that even Tampa is having below freezing temperatures. I hope Kathy keeps her caterpillar farm warm. I put out boxes for the cats to keep warm in but I doubt they will use them. They have a nice fur coat and seem to manage OK. I just wonder where they hang out most of the time.
While in Crestview we ate lunch at Ryan’s Steak House. Lou’s pastor said they had an all-you-can-eat lunch buffet for $5.99. They did and it was good. We both ate too much. Lou is normally a big eater and this gave him an opportunity to shine without costing too much.
We then went to the Ft Walton store. Lou got in and out of both stores rather quickly. I expected to have long waits at both stores but my expectations were wrong.
The afternoon got exciting when we got back to the car. I backed out of my parking space and seeing 3 cars backed up in my isle decided to take the long way around to get out. I finally rolled up to the end of the isle at the front of the store. Two cars were ahead of me. One went and the other rolled up and waited for a car to pass. I didn’t see another car coming and wondered why the car ahead of me was waiting to go. I looked to the left at the same time that there was a huge crashing sound directly ahead. I looked back in time to see a speeding car hitting the SUV in front of us hard enough to push it into the parked cars beside it and tip it to a 45 degree angle leaning on those cars.
Lou and I couldn’t believe our eyes. Lou’s reaction was to jump out immediately and see how the drivers were. While he did that I backed my car up the isle and parked out of the way. There were many witnesses and fortunately no pedestrians were hit. Both drivers said they were OK but that SUV got hit hard enough on the drivers door to tip the larger vehicle.
The parking lot security guy was there quickly and reported the accident directly to the authorities within minutes of the accident. Three police cars were there within 5 minutes and we saw fire and ambulance vehicles on the way when we left.
We don’t know why or how that car got moving so fast in the parking lot or why it turned up the aisle to clobber the SUV in front of me. I do know that but for a couple of decisions I made delaying me slightly from being in that particular spot that car could have hit me. You don’t expect to see such a serious accident in a parking lot. It is sobering, indeed. Maybe it will make the papers tomorrow.
Lou likes it a lot here. The church people seem to like him and he is enjoying working with them. I usually bring Lou to the grocery store and bank as part of our lunch ritual. I’ve told him not to depend on me to do that because I may not always be available. Today Lou didn’t need groceries or the bank. He is really settling in and becoming more “independent”.
For the past week or so I’ve had a problem with my windows media center not seeing the TV tuner in my computer. The computer has a DVR function and is very easy to use and useful for recording TV shows I want to watch. I can watch them in the corner of the monitor while doing other things on the computer. For some reason the media center software was only looking for a digital signal. I finally fixed it after days of searching the internet looking for answers. It seems I had a conflict with another program which was supposedly using the tuner.
Nineteen degrees expected tonight. I see in the weather report that even Tampa is having below freezing temperatures. I hope Kathy keeps her caterpillar farm warm. I put out boxes for the cats to keep warm in but I doubt they will use them. They have a nice fur coat and seem to manage OK. I just wonder where they hang out most of the time.
Sunday, January 03, 2010
Brisk Walk
The latest medical advice is to have a brisk 30 minute (or longer) walk every day. The clouds looked good today for a sunset beach walk so that’s what I did. Does an hour walk in brisk weather qualify for my 30 minutes? It was 45 degrees with a north wind at the beach.
The clouds fooled me. They looked good when I arrived at the beach but at sunset most of them had drifted to the south. Someone a hundred miles out in the gulf had a very nice sunset . It was pretty where I was but not spectacular.
Lacking lots of pretty clouds I decided to look down for different textures and patterns with these results.
One of the bloggers Penny follows is taking a picture a day and including it in her blog. It’s similar to Karen’s resolution to blog each day even if it is only a picture. Penny suggested I do something like that. I’m not sure if I will or not. I may give it a try to see how it goes. No matter what I do I’m not going to feel bad if I miss days. Sometimes your just too busy or tired or lazy to bother. I just try to make sure I don’t go longer than a week or so without writing.
Tonight with the temperature dropping to the mid 20s I once again made sure the outside cats were well fed. I even warmed their food for them. Tonight I was surprised to find a 5th cat looking for food. Slash showed up tonight at feeding time. The other 4 cats haven’t accepted him into the group so I placed a portion of food away from them that he could eat. We are in for more than a week of cold weather.
The clouds fooled me. They looked good when I arrived at the beach but at sunset most of them had drifted to the south. Someone a hundred miles out in the gulf had a very nice sunset . It was pretty where I was but not spectacular.
Lacking lots of pretty clouds I decided to look down for different textures and patterns with these results.
One of the bloggers Penny follows is taking a picture a day and including it in her blog. It’s similar to Karen’s resolution to blog each day even if it is only a picture. Penny suggested I do something like that. I’m not sure if I will or not. I may give it a try to see how it goes. No matter what I do I’m not going to feel bad if I miss days. Sometimes your just too busy or tired or lazy to bother. I just try to make sure I don’t go longer than a week or so without writing.
Tonight with the temperature dropping to the mid 20s I once again made sure the outside cats were well fed. I even warmed their food for them. Tonight I was surprised to find a 5th cat looking for food. Slash showed up tonight at feeding time. The other 4 cats haven’t accepted him into the group so I placed a portion of food away from them that he could eat. We are in for more than a week of cold weather.
Christmas 09
I just looked at pictures I took at Christmas time and I got inspired. After seeing her face with Karen, I couldn’t stop laughing when I saw Lucy’s face in the picture with Christy.
Friday, January 01, 2010
Happy New Year
This is the one day that New Years resolutions are usually kept. Good luck to all of you that make them. I’m going to be like Andy Rooney and vow not to take up smoking in 2010.
I guess now we will call the year twenty-ten instead of two-thousand ten.
Penny and I started the year off with a shopping spree. (after sleeping in the new year). We went to both local Targets, grocery shopping at 3 different stores, got gas, and also went to Jo-Ann’s. We had a little trouble finding black-eyed peas today but did find some and had our taste of good luck for the year. I put the big ham bone out for the cats and I just checked it. Meredith is chowing down on it. She is probably fantasizing about being a big lion eating its prey.
We are in for a weeklong cold spell starting today. We will have overnight lows in the mid-20s. B-r-r-r.
It will be a chilly trip to Waffle house in the morning.
I guess now we will call the year twenty-ten instead of two-thousand ten.
Penny and I started the year off with a shopping spree. (after sleeping in the new year). We went to both local Targets, grocery shopping at 3 different stores, got gas, and also went to Jo-Ann’s. We had a little trouble finding black-eyed peas today but did find some and had our taste of good luck for the year. I put the big ham bone out for the cats and I just checked it. Meredith is chowing down on it. She is probably fantasizing about being a big lion eating its prey.
We are in for a weeklong cold spell starting today. We will have overnight lows in the mid-20s. B-r-r-r.
It will be a chilly trip to Waffle house in the morning.
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