Okay, I Give In

I have often said since November that I think Facebook is ridiculous. I've said if it is not completely ridiculous, it is at least a major waste of people's time or it is a blatant display of how much time people waste. Something like those type of complaints have ushered from my lips or at least rolled around in my grey matter.

But I give in. I have to declare Facebook as being a nifty tool. Someone got a facebook account just so she could find me. Me. Little ol' grumpy-pants,-yell-at-the-world,-sack-cloth-and-ashes,-we-are-screwed-up" me. And because I have a Facebook account and I am actually attempting to use it, even though it requires that I say no more than a sentence or two (that is torturous quite frankly), she did indeed find me.

So for about a month and a half now, an old friend (clear back to seventh grade folks!) and I have had a couple of conversations, visited in person and on Facebook. And today she is coming for another visit to Vicktory Farm and Gardens so I won't tarry here long so that I can run the girls into little town this morning, return a movie to BB and books to the library and be back to greet her with a fire in the woodstove, a cup of something warm and some little toasty things to nibble on.

And I suppose I would have to say that some of last weekend's basking in an old friendship with a family we don't see but once a year, accidentally at the Fair, would also have to be attributed to stupid Facebook. It is just too easy to say, "hi, come on over for dinner" when you "see" a person on Facebook often.

And not to mention Facebook is going to be instrumental in the girls and I getting to know the sister of a good friend just a little better than seeing her occasionally at said friend's house for events that we would both be there, like wedding and house warming and moving days. Because she is going to come and make applesauce donuts with us next week! Just because of some silly little banter on Facebook, and because another Facebookian who knows both of us in real life, a reluctant and grumpy sort (kinda like me only far more pessimistic) who doubted the accuracy of our being able to say we are friends said, "oh, yeah and you guys are going to be real friends and actually talk?" or something to that effect. Well Bucky, this is Facebook Throwdown with Lanny.

So there it is, I cave, I cave to Facebook. But I admit I am not sure how some people can have 450 "friends". I just have 45 and I run to keep up with them. Yes, only 45 Facebook friends, isn't that like way sad?

Hey, is sad the only word these days that is still used in it's original manner or did I just say that it is actually cool that I have only 45 Facebook friend or something equally weird?

Have an awesome day Sweet Listener and Brave Converser. I'd have included a picture here but you can just see Facebook for yourself on your own computer. Maybe, just maybe, I will have some illustrations for you tomorrow. Oh wait, I will be without computer tomorrow, so you will not be hearing from me 'til at the very least Sunday. Because, yes, I am trying to get back to posting nearly every day. We'll see how that goal works.

Tute ta lue

If I Was Gunna Be In A Box....

I'd be like Purr Bob and get in this kind of box.

I wouldn't get in this kinda box....

And if I wouldn't get in that kinda box but would

rather be here instead,

then why would I put something I spend time with, that I miss when it is gone, can't really get into substitution no matter how lovely, something that I have named,

why would I put it in this unfortunate box?

Exactly!

Well Purr Bob has come to his senses, momentarily anyway, and is getting out.

So am I.

I am not sending my computer in just because they managed to make him forget he had a big boy keyboard. It is just a matter of learning and making it become automatic to hit the num lock key before I use the key pad. Big deal one extra key stroke, well two actually, on and off, but what the heck I usually hit a half dozen extra keys so what is one more intentional one, twice.

So I have homeied up Conrad and he is looking very much like himself again. Actually more like himself than when he first got back from his long spa vacation. I am glad I have decided to not send him in. The only problem is the key board thing and I'm determined that it will be okay. And yes, I have given my computer a name. I am positive now that I have anthropomorphized my computer all will be fine from here on out. I won't mistreat it and it will behave like a good Conrad.

I'm outa here, going to where there is no light, no sound and only a pillow. I am taking a little pill, biggish actually, with me in hopes that I can call an end to the stupid head. I might actually take Conrad so he can play a little Pachelbel on Pandora. Dirt is kinda tired of me being sorta short tempered so even though I feel like chopping my head off, he actually might.

Yipee

Yipee, my computer's key board issue is not fixed and it only took from what, about seven-thirtyish till now, after one, to find out that it was all a waste of time, hanging around my computer making sure it didn't need me and then telling it things occasionally to finish 'er up. Yes, I said yipee and I meant it. I must be struggling with this for some deeper meaning and I am a happy sufferer.

I embrace technology and all the silly lessons that come with it. If I can't be Amish and drive a horse and buggy, I want to immerse myself in all the technology I can get my hands on. Stress from this is good, it builds character.

Why just look at me, I have not picked this silly little plastic box that cost more than a good horse and flung it across the room. I can learn to be patient. I can learn to be sweet when faced with aggravation. I can see the silver lining in every black screen

And now I get to decide to throw it into a box, okay, yes, I did mean pack it carefully into a box, and send it back to HP for the keyboard to be fixed, maybe, or just live with it.

A secondary decision is if I send it back when? and do I set up stuff for a day or two or live with a non-personalized computer for a day or two.

Keep in mind I am the person that you see in a hotel room, there for only one night, yet I have made it homey in a matter of minutes after arriving. I take flowers from my garden when I go camping. I already have an urge to set everything up the way I had it even if I do box it up, I have to wait for the box to get here, I can't be uncomfortable while I wait.

I'm going to let Dirt decide for me when he gets home. I'm not going to deal with it instead I am going out to finish putting my fuchsias, geraniums, begonias, canna, cuphea, abutilons, gerberas and verbena away for the winter. Yesterday, Dirt made a lovely little insulated cubby for everything, I am kinda tired of doing the curtain thing for all the stuff on my Laundry House porch, and it is getting nice and cold, it may actually be late fall now.

So, until we meet later, have a delightful afternoon dear reader, take a restful tea time or after school snack time whatever you want to call it. Me? I'm going to be outside and if I can find enough flashlight and car headlights I am going to stay outside 'til bedtime.

Girls, make your dad dinner. My luck I'd blow up the stove, ignite the microwave, chop off my hand with the food processor.

Okay, Not So Much

Best laid plans of mice and moms. Put in the disc after reading on the front of it that I am to follow the on screen instructions and guess what, you got it, no on screen instructions. Arghghgh.

But I must be destined to speak with Costco concierge and HP fix it people tomorrow. I will try very hard to want to do this early in the morning. Its going to be cold and crunchy out in the morning any way so I might as well spend it in my lovely dining room in front of the fire with my computer and the phone.

Girls,make sure I have coffee in the morning! And a hot bready treat would be nice too.

Dropping out now with a little Acts, Galatians, Psalms and Tozer, good night dear reader, can't wait to hear about your adventures tomorrow!

All Tuckered Out

The computer is about to get another lobotomy, this time it will be on purpose. It is supposed to fix my key board issues. Num locks makes my computer think that it has a small key board. After that gets fixed I hope to figure out the issue with my Signiture Mini and my stuff coming back as "read only."

I'm a fairly smart person, this has got to be easier than it seems so far.

But it will be a nice evening just sitting here watching my computer get fixed.

The Orange Tractor Rides Again, to the Rescue!

So, if you remember from earlier today I was going to completely clear out my lawn border and replant it. I figured I wouldn't finish the project today, I expected that I would be replanting tomorrow. I remembered that Siberian Irises are a bugger to move but I forgot the extent of how much of a bugger they are.

After Dirt was done with all of his after-work projects he came by to see how I was doing.

Now mind you, I was already way behind schedule because earlier I decided that I would do the right thing and clear my honeysuckle off of Dirt's unique fence. On top of that I looked for quite sometime for our blower only to come up empty so I borrow Norine's and blew all the leaves and stuff away.

When Dirt arrived home it took him a minute to see why Norine's blower was here, but once he did he was very pleased. (I'll include pics of the other side of the fence when I finish the whole project.) That meant that he was in the mood to help me out.

When he saw my struggle, the shovel completely sunk in under the iris clump had no effect on it, he asked for the shovel with the statement "I'm a big strong man, this is what I am for."

You got that right. I wish he was around for more of my large plant verses Lanny moments, but he is here now so that shovel was released as quick as Dahlias die back from a frost. Well a few stabs and lifts, attempted lifts, with the shovel and he leaned back and suggested he get The Tractor.

"Nah, it would be a hassle to get it into the backyard."

"No, it wouldn't. Remember, I made the gate specifically to get The Tractor into the backyard."

"Okay, if you think."


No sooner did I say it than Dirt went after The Tractor. Yes, you see correctly dear reader, it only has one front wheel, luckily it is what is known as a tricycle tractor. We can talk about that later, for now lets get back to the iris removal.


Dirt must really have wanted to not finish digging the clump out by hand because he really likes his lawns, he had just been noticing how nice his lawn looks moments before he began to help me. I can't imagine him wanting to drive The Tractor on his lawn even as much as he likes his Tractor. It is usually the case with Dirt gardening with me, he is always quick to get out the heavy equipment, I just thought that his lawn would keep him from jumping to that solution. Clearly I'm not the only one who has issues with the Siberian Iris.


On the back of The Tractor is a "shelf" and on it ride a pile of chains, various chains, different sizes for different projects. Dirt carefully chose his chains for the evenings work, he even put one back and chose another in its stead, they both looked the same to these uneducated eyes.

With the chain securely wrapped around the base of the clump and fastened to the pulling chain Dirt begins to pull. Out it came. Slick as a whistle and over in a second and too quick for our slow camera.

Tomorrow I will finish my job and plant my red tulips and maybe if the day goes really well I will pot up my Princess Irene tulips and my Woodstock and Gypsy Queen hyacinths.

Thursday and Friday I will be cutting back my tender perennials that refuse to die back a little. Clean out their home for the winter and get them put away finally. I hope that by the end of this coming weekend I will have everything done that really should have been done last month. Then I can sit around and look at the seed catalogs that are beginning to come in.

Things Just Don't Feel Right

My computer is home, but it doesn't feel right and there is a lot of work to do to put things back on that are missing, spent tonight just on the whole e-mail thing. I loaded up my One Note but decided setting up my notebooks needed to be another day.

Along with all the work of restoring my computer to the best of my not-backed-up ability is the irritation of my num lock on my ten key section effecting my key board. Dirt says I have to call the fix it people. But I sure as heck don't want to send it off again.

The computer isn't doing much for keeping my mind busy, neither is my morning work out with Terry or ferocious gardening. I would think that after being without my own parents, my dad for twenty-seven years and my mom for fourteen, having lost a step-mother-in-law, grandfathers and grandmothers and others, that I would be used to this death thing. I thought that my faith in God, in Christ and His saving grace and victory over death and knowledge that Dale also believed, would lessen this pain I feel. Part of my pain is personal, I miss him, I find myself crying often. A larger part of the pain is watching my girls grieve, all four, but mostly the two that are still at home.

In spite of the beautiful colors, the rain, and Norine, Dale's wife, staying here in her home at the farm, things just don't feel right.

Titles Are Important But Occasionally Difficult

If I thought my lap top was becoming only a blog tool, I certainly do not think so any more.

It was very nice of Rebecca to have loaned me her lap top yesterday until we get together for gathering tonight. But I sure as heck hope that my lt comes back with all my stuff on it, soon.

But most likely it won't be returned until November fourth, a coincidence?, I think not. That would be two weeks after Dirt sent it in, which is what we were told to expect, or at least what Dirt told me he was told. And it would so serve me right as I am certain I was beginning to become way too involved in the political season. I am also on a strict news diet, just enough to keep me informed.

Some messages are not to hard to figure out. I'm not saying that a person ought not to care, I would never say that I still believe whole heartedly that you must be engaged in the life around you. But one must respond to what they are called to, and I know I was not called to politics, either directly or indirectly. To be an aware citizen, most certainly, but you dear reader were not exposed to even a fraction of what was swirling in my head, and that would definitely go well beyond being aware. Any who, lest I get carried away I will now stop talking. Besides my ballot is nearly all filled out and ready to mail.

I miss my lt, as I said above, I hope I get it back with my stuff on it.

But even if it is erased and all I get back is what I started with in April, oh well, I have lost many a yellow note pad in the middle of what I thought was a stellar thought about God, or a phenomenal organizational breakthrough and out there somewhere float many many note pads with vital ideas about my garden.

So it will not be the first time I have lost writings and ideas and heck even pictures, but I will say it is hard to live without the new "yellow pad" in my life. Yeah, I have written, ink and paper written, a few things, but it just doesn't seem the same.

And I must say that I have noticed that my handwriting has improved since I last wrote a lot by hand. Odd isn't it? I would have thought it would be the other way around. So much for, the more you do it the better you get.

Oh, by the way some of the mistakes in my last post have been corrected, so in case you were wondering if I was slipping into relativism I have corrected the glaring mistakes I saw.

Sunday's Lutefest was terrific, made all that much more terrific with the addition of some new faces at our celebration of the true European discoverer of North America.

There is a lot going on and little time to tell you all of it. Terry gave me another book by Tozer, we're wrapping up Foster's Celebration of Discipline (or are we), my tulip and hyacinth bulbs arrived, Terry and I switched to a later work out time and really getting to it, which reminds me of my abandoned Sheet Diet, the girls are getting ready for a gaming show on Saturday, Ivan and Holly's first public outing, Dirt's birthday on Saturday, our good friend's anniversary to celebrate, tricks for treats to get ready for, more apples to squish into various luscious concoctions, more beds to bury under mulchiness and plants to fuss over, a sewing room to clean out, an office to organize, notes for a book to find, not to mention all that has already happened in the last few days and tons of pictures, is your head spinning? because mine sure is.

The Tozer book alone is quite sufficient. I am struggling reading it. I don't make it very far before I have to drop it and just let my mind and heart sit. Thanks Terry!

Meditating on Jude. Reading Philippians.

I can't post all that I have read and thought but I would love to leave you with one quote from

The Pursuit of Man, by Tozer:

"Without doubt we have suffered the loss of many spiritual treasures because we have let slip the simple truth that the miracle of the perpetuation of life is in God. God did not create life and toss it from Him like some petulant artist disappointed with his work. All life is in Him and out of Him, flowing from Him and returning to Him again, a moving indivisible sea of which He is the Fountainhead. That eternal life which was with the Father is now the possession of believing men, and that life is not God's gift only, but His very self."

Update -

Now it is the next morning, I've come into town early, had to use Rebecca's computer to make an Azure Standard order. Just a little something I forgot to do when she had her lap top at my house for Thursday night dinner with her and Mike along with the promise to deactivate comment moderation. But now both are done and before I dash off to pick up Lutefisk and Korv here is a little update.



I just talked to Dirt who has arranged for the healing of my lap top. I fried the Mother Board. I killed my brain's mom! Man that just sounds wrong. But anyway Costco is sending a box and we are to put my lap top in said box, send it back to them, then in fourteen days I get my lap top back. Yes, fourteen days. That is why this post is written in blue... ink?



I'll whine, I'll cry, I'll.. I'll.... I'll buck up. I'll have a terrific weekend with family and friends, all wonderful friends. I'll get applesauce canned and gardens prepared for winter, living room floor installed, trim boards painted and put up, maybe even a bathroom remodeled, certainly ten or so books read. Who knows what all I can do, but I won't be writing, blogs or books or notes or organization plans or Christmas lists or....



Oh who the heck am I kidding, unless Dirt wants his ears to bleed from all the words and ideas I would have to dump on him each day I will go back to good old pen and yellow note pad, or sticky notes or backs of envelopes, or.... And then I will spend days putting it all on my newly restored laptop. So as long as I have pen and paper I can't really get all that much done.



I feel that the whole problem is that I did not name my lap top. Already that thought crossed my brain yesterday and then Bee's comment confirmed it. So I will be naming it when it comes back to me, perhaps something to honor my deceased Mother (board, not Bethel Barker).

Something to ponder while I am gone out dear reader.

Genesis 34. Read it slow, read it carefully. Then come back and read the opening lines a few times over.

May the Holy Spirit guide us and lead us today and tomorrow, in every step, in every way. May all of us always have on our hearts the amazing grace of God and the sacrifice of our Messiah. May the incredible joy that comes to us from Our Father, strengthen us to put self aside for others.

Not Many Pictures Lately

One minute you're eating breakfast at the breakfast counter, and the next minute you're fixing your daughter's camera that your wife broke, well really she was just holding it and cleaning the lens when it broke itself. (Shouldn't personal responsibility extend to inanimate objects too?)


This is what the insides of a camera look like. This is what happens when the photography consultant that you hire says that the professional fix would cost as much as the camera.

That and the fact that you have Techno Man living right under your very own roof.

Thanks Dirt, hope you can fix it.

Elisabet, aka Bet or Baby, does have a camera that works quite well. It does however eat batteries for lunch, breakfast and dinner. So I am not used to using it as much as Anna's. Can't wait to get my own digital camera, see my needs list. Okay, wants list, but I believe I explain the confusion in the title on the side bar.

Speaking of side bars, check it out all the way to the bottom.

Romantic Influenza and a lap top

We are all still suffering a little from the Romantic Influenza. My good friend Rebecca had it a few days before I did and that is what she calls it. When she first pegged it as the "Romantic Influenza" I said, "Why? Cause we can die from this?" That made her giggle, okay rasp-giggle, so it must be why.

The Romantic influenza had me out of any sort of rational participation in life for five days before I realized I just needed to go to bed and stay there. So I did, for three days, then I resumed to a level just below rational participation for five more days. On the first five days I didn't go anywhere and on the last five days I wished I hadn't.

I would also peg this influenza as romantic because I fell in love during this bout of the crud. My husband has of late gone on a technology upgrade feeding frenzy. Since February we have new TVs and the components that go with them but the latest, just five days before the romantic influenza, was a new computer, a lap top. And I am in love! Okay so for the first few days of the new relationship I was so over whelmed if I wasn't just staring at it, I was playing spider solitaire. But right at about the time the romantic influenza hit so did my acceptance of this new relationship and once I accepted it I quickly fell head over heals in love.

You need to understand that the last computer purchase was back in '96! So I missed several system changes that you all had the pleasure of experiencing. I am not in the ranks of those who are complaining about Vista, claiming that XP was just fine and that "they" should have left well enough alone. Heck I missed the whole "we were fine with Windows 2000 why do we need XP" thing that probably happened too. Trust me anything that doesn't give me the time to clean a whole room between commands is a good thing. I wanted to say that it was like going from a crank up phone linked to a local operator to a cell phone but that would have been hyperbole. It really is more like going from a rotary phone with a party line to a cell phone. You really have no idea the leap of change. I feel like Rip Van Winkle.

Once I upgraded my e-mail program from Windows Mail to Windows Live Mail and called to have the techy help me through fixing my whatever so my battery would work properly I have been good to go, smooth sailing. I don't see what all the fuss about not liking Vista is all about, how it is so horrible. Okay, my learning curve on language etc. is more like a 87 degree incline but it is good exercise for my brain right?. I haven't cried for ten days. Well except for that one John Wayne movie I watched.

The whole e-mail thing kinda cracked me up after all was said and done. When I first opened my new e-mail via Windows Mail, DSL no less, I was ready to go at it. I wrote a lovely letter to a friend and then I went to spell check it. Mind you I must use spell check. Even though I am the daughter of an incredible English teacher who knew Latin and every play ever written, I stink at English, spelling most of all. And no thanks to a garage sale I had once and an appliance I had for sale all my friends have experienced my lack of spell-ability. Okay here is the dirty laundry, I hear an "l" in stove. Where, you ask? Why like this, S-t-o-l-v-e. And that my friend is just the tip of the iceberg. My spelling is sometimes so bad that I'll just bag the word and use a different one that I can at least get close enough for the spell check program to figure out what I want.

So when I was using Windows Mail, went to spell check my lovely creative endeavor and all I got was some ridiculous notice that it couldn't check my spelling because "this language is no longer available for spell checking" and would I "Please select another in the spelling options dialog" suffice it to say I was shattered. I had no idea that my spelling was so bad that it couldn't even be recognized as English. But then I went to try and find this "spelling options dialog" and as far as I could tell no such animal existed. So I went to the "Get help from communities link" and after a thorough search all over all the possible places that had anything to do with my current problem, I found that I was not the only one who could not get past the "this language is no longer available for spell checking" and "Please select another in the spelling options dialog" message. Somewhere in all my searching (I spent a full day on it and nothing else, except drinking plenty of fluids, taking aspirin and using my neti pot) I came across the recommendation to download Windows Live Mail. So I did. And even though I am not excited about the layout of the window and getting used to it not looking like my old aol e-mail page I am okay with it. Hey, I can spell check . I did go through a bit of a rigmarole at the start cause I didn't set it up right with my DSL folks, after that nice lady at fairpoint solved that problem I was good to go.

The battery thing was a way easier solve. I know that probably somewhere in the itty bitty manual or in the web page explaining how to use my computer there is some mention about how to correctly use the battery. For the first few days of using my computer I was near a plug so I left it plugged in and didn't think about the battery. I had put it in when I open the package and that was the last time I thought about it. Maybe when I changed rooms I recognized that I could cause I had a battery in it so I could unplug and not stop what I was doing. But then I needed to go to a spot that to have a plug in would have been a problem. After all I had a battery I would just go. Not so. When I unplugged my computer went immediately to sleep. So I called the technical support people and the young man stepped me through this hocus pocus thing with taking the battery out, turning the computer back on, hitting the f10 key till something happened and then doing something else. I don't remember what all I did or the technical terms for what happened. I remember him saying something about "build up" somewhere that needed to be discharged?

Anyway what he did helped and then he told me not to leave the battery in when I plug in. So now I have a routine for taking out my battery while I run the computer on AC. I just slip it into a nifty little bag that I bought for my lap top the last day I was out before I went down with the Romantic Influenza.