Vision

Here I sit typing with 1 hand.  The other hand is full of Brie’s sleeping head.  She barges her way onto the computer desk and somehow proceeds to tie me up.  I pet her and find myself pinned by a sleeping head.

I went to the Dr today because of pain in my eye.  This began months ago when I was on Lyrica.  It dried me out so much that my eyeballs weren’t lubricated sufficiently.  I would wake up and feel like there was sand in my eyes.  Evidently that resulted in some abrasions on my eyeball.  The pain had been mild until a couple days ago.  Since it was getting worse I called the doc and got right in this morning.

The diagnosis is dry eyes so now I’m using some eye drops and placing a warm washcloth over my eyes twice a day.  The question now is whether this  will heal and not be a problem (caused by Lyrica) or whether I’ve got a new chronic problem.

I finally have our video security cameras up and operating in what is close to the final configuration.  We haven’t had any problems that caused me to do this.  I just thought it was a good idea.  I’ll run it in this setup for a while and if I’m happy with it I’ll make the installation permanent and more secure.  I put the system together as inexpensively as possible and I’m happy with the results.  I already benefited.  I saw our neighbor’s dog come onto our lawn and begin to squat.  I dashed out and told him to go poop in his own yard—and he did.

I also took Penny back to the fabric shop in Pensacola today and she finished up taking advantage of the great sale they are having.  Before we went there we had lunch at Red Robin.

49 Years Ago

John Glenn made the first American orbital flight on this date in 1962.  I was 13 years old and followed the space program closely.  The networks covered the space missions from launch to splashdown back then and I used to sneak my “little” 8 transistor radio (it was about the size of a brick) in to school, run the earphone up my sleeve (no stereo then and only AM stations on the radio).  Then I’d rest my head on my hand covering the earphone and listen to the latest information.

Eventually the missions got too long for full time coverage and the public lost some interest in the programs.  At the time we were racing to get to the moon we were fighting in Viet Nam and our major cities were having race riots.  It was a crazy time to grow up.  It all culminated with 1969—the year we landed on the moon, the year the Mets won the world series and the year of Woodstock.

Catch a Possum, Write a Blog?

The last blog I wrote was done 10 days ago on the day I caught that soggy possum.  Well, this morning I caught another one.  In the 10 days between captures I went to Jacksonville to help watch kids and give K&C a Valentine’s date night.  Penny and I also went to her Uncle’s funeral.

As with all plans  some things went awry and others went as desired.

A bug went through the family , likely beginning with Lucy.  Karen got it next and then Tim.  It was a 24-hour bug with a taper off period of an additional day or two.  Lucy had tubes put in her ears on Thursday.  K&T had their date night on Saturday.  Penny and I spent Sunday with C&C and Monday was the day of the funeral. 

It was a good weekend for a Grandpa.  I got some excellent 1-on1 time with both Sophie and Lucy.  The high point with Sophie was putting her to bed n Saturday.  We read the “My First Words” book and she was able to spell almost every word.  She only confused small “n”s with “u” they look alike except they are flipped over and she thought “p” was “b”.  After brushing teeth and reading she asked me to sing her my song –the same one I sang to Karen and Christy at bedtime.  Lucy and I developed our own rendition of “twinkle twinkle little (pause, wait for it)  STA_A_A_A_R” , singing the star with our mouths wide open and shaking our heads from side to side.

We went to Micanopy with C&C.  It’s a quaint little town full of antique shops, Spanish moss and old buildings.  Here are some pictures:

 

We drove back home on Monday.  That’s when Penny got the bug.  It visited me at about 2 AM.  So we spent Tuesday basically in bed.  Wednesday Penny was much better and I was only partly better.  I got little done except I did go outside and sit in the sun.  We are having beautiful sunny cool days this week.  I also managed to set the trap.

This morning I was still iffy but better than yesterday.  I had a normal breakfast and then released the possum.  I actually got some useful stuff done today but ran out of steam by 5 PM.

I was going to do a lot of walking this week in preparation for the river run but my tummy won’t let me.

Kitty Update—Buzz and Meredith showed up tonight.  I haven’t seen Marmalade in 3 weeks.  The last 2 nights before I went out of town the long-lost Velcro showed up.  He had been gone for a couple of months.

I’ll probably write again next time I catch a possum.  Now I’m going to bed.

Another Rainy Monday

Last night I set the trap hoping to catch the latest raccoon invader.  I didn’t know it would be raining in the morning.  I awoke at 6AM and heard the rain.  Hoping that I didn’t trap anything, I went to the living room window and looked at the trap.  It was sprung but it was empty.  I went back to bed.

When I finally got up and went out to check the cat feeder I found that ,to my surprise and distress, I had trapped a small possum.  I didn’t see him from the window because he was tucked in under the slanted metal door of the trap.

I moved him out of the rain until I could go release him.  This was one well-washed possum.  He didn’t even stink up the car when I moved him.

A couple of months ago the blue jays made a big ruckus in our front yard.  Thinking it was a cat I went outside to find a hawk looking at me from the fencepost.  I dashed inside to grab my camera but made too much noise and scared him away.

Today the jays did it again so I got the camera and stealth  went outside.  I didn’t see anything.  The jays kept going crazy.  I waited.  Just as I was turning to go back in I saw what had caused the panic.  Way up in the sky were 3 turkey vultures riding a thermal in that circular pat they use to capture the wind.  At least I’m learning jay-speak!

I’m writing my blog on the treadmill again.  I trying to build a little stamina for the Gate run.  There’s not much time left but this is the way I do it every year.  I might as well just accept it.

New Electronics

We’ve run into issues with 2 computer accessories- our wireless router and our primary printer.  The printer has always been a little flakey but it has turned downright ornery this week.  Our wireless router has always had a weak signal back in the bedroom and now I found I completely wipe out the signal if I turn on a wireless security camera.

So we got a new printer.  Penny has wanted one that could scan negatives and this one can.  It was also a good opportunity to go wireless with the printer allowing us to put it anywhere in the house. I’m going to rearrange and neaten up the computer desk .

The wireless router is touted as having the best range and speed and it isn’t  an expensive one.  I’m also going to wired with the security cameras so we can benefit from the stronger router signal without interference.  The router also has a USB storage capability.  I can leave a USB drive attached to the router and can back up files on it from any computer on the network.

I also recently replaced my computer chair with a new one that has adjustable everything.

Our electronics world is changing.  Who knows maybe I’ll actually send my first text message or get an i-phone sometime soon.

Test Number Two

Well, my first experience with live writer went OK.  So now I'm testing it with the voice recognition software to see how well it does with that.

The last couple,  three days have not been very exciting.  Monday Penny and I went to see the movie True Grit.  I really enjoyed it.  It's a good ol' predictable western story with outstanding acting.  If you want to see an entertaining movie that doesn’t require much deep thought then I'd recommend this movie.

The weather's been crummy and Penny hasn't fell well the past couple of days so I've done mainly indoor stuff-- attending to Penny and the house.

I did get my phone back yesterday.  Thank you Anne and Todd. Today I got the oil changed in both cars.  Penny’ s car needs some servicing for brakes and other things that wear out at 100,000 miles.  I've got to decide whether I have the dealership do that or our local mechanic.  I've got to bring it into the dealer because the check engine light and the SRS light are on and only the dealer can fix those.  Either way we're looking at a big bill.

Happy groundhog day.  There's a huge storm moving across the Midwest today and we are in for rain and then cold weather.  But Mr. Groundhog saw his shadow so spring isn’t that far away.  I think everyone is sick of winter this year.  Maybe this spring and summer won't be as extreme.

Windows Live Writer

Penny discovered that Windows Live has a feature that makes blogging easy so I’m testing it out.

It’s supposed to make inserting pictures and videos easy –so let’s see.

I selected 3 pictures at once and inserted them with no upload delay.

Videos are more complicated.  Essentially you load your video to YouTube  and that takes a while.  The good news is you can write while it  loads.  …but it takes a long time—so I quit trying video.

I found out Penny was also downloading a video back in the bedroom so I was competing with her for bandwidth. I tried again with a short video taken from the cruise ship of a storage tank in Tampa.  This took less time than it took me to write this paragraph. 

manatee

This program checks spelling as you go just as Word does so my poor spelling isn’t a problem. It also accesses the internet on its own—no need to open AOL or windows explorer first. It also saves a recoverable copy as you go .  It also is a what-you-see-is-what-you-get format so what I see while typing is exactly what the post looks like.

Now I will post this and see how well it works.