I told you yesterday that I spent the morning installing the newest version of Windows, then Start 10, then made a new System Image to use in case of catastrophic failure, then backed up my data. I am one of the least technical people I know so this was stressful, but necessary.
The result of all that – other that I’m grateful it’s done – is that the folder in which I have gathered images for the blog and elsewhere only showed an ‘icon’ image, NOT the picture. It showed the name of the picture, but not the image. This is really frustrating, irritating, and down right unacceptable. I know better than to ask my husband about it, so I have been fighting with it off and on the rest of the day yesterday and then about an hour just now. I kept at it, and then FINALLY hit an option button that restored the images. Whew!
I’m feeling a bit triumphant, a bit empowered, but mostly grateful and relieved.
My whole day thus far has been spent trying to get my computer updated.
I updated to the newest version of Windows, and then made a system disk, just in case my computer crashes with no warning. That took from 9:00 this morning until about 20 minutes ago. I was beginning to think I would die of old age before it finally finished.
I am not a computer or technical person. It’s all magic to me. I love my computer when it’s working and am ready to toss it out the window when it isn’t. Happily, it seems to be working okay now, except for a folder of images I’ve gathered for my blogs. They have names under an icon for a picture, all looking the same. Arrrrgh!
SO. I will limp along, hoping that if I can’t figure out what to do to fix it, it will miraculously heal by itself. (One can HOPE…)
Clipart Library
On a happier note, our weather is nice now, although it’s still a bit brisk outside. There is lots of glorious sunshine and the temperature is now 46! We will probably get rain Saturday, but no more forecasts of snow/sleet, and flying hairballs in the near future. I’ll take it. :0)
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We will celebrate Christmas with the Lunch Bunch tomorrow, exchanging gifts, eating, laughing, and catching up. The next Friday is Christmas, and the following Friday is New Year’s Day, so we probably won’t meet again until January 8th. We’ll have to make it last.
My elliptical trainer is in our garage. It’s the only place we could put it where it would not be on carpet and wouldn’t take up too much room. Therefore, the outside temperature affects my willingness to use it. Most of the year, this is not a problem. My husband mounted a nice box fan on the wall in front of the elliptical. I can turn it on all spring, summer, and fall to make it more comfortable to be out there. I have a problem when it gets too cold in the winter.
Right now it is 27 outside. Even with the effort on the elliptical, I freeze. I use that as an excuse not to do it. That works for today, and possibly tomorrow, but my excuse won’t be good when it warms into the 40s and 50s by the end of the week.
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I AM doing my super gentle yoga for old broads daily, though, and that is truly helpful. Without it, I tend to fold up like a tent. I notice this in particular when I have monthly massages. My therapist spends a lot of time pulling on arms, legs, and head, trying to ‘pull my head out of my rear’ (if you’ll pardon the expression) because I tend to implode. Right now I’m not getting my massages because my therapist is recovering from surgery. I’m hopeful we will be able to resume in February or March, when she is feeling sassy again.
My yoga is not the ‘fold-yourself-into-a-pretzel-or-paper-airplane’ type. It’s good, quiet, long, gradual stretches that make my body say, ‘ahhhhhhhh!’ when I finally am able to relax into each pose. I move into it as far as I can, then just BREATHE. I can FEEL my body giving a bit at a time, stretching more and more. I started my practice a few years ago, when I was 71. I’ll be 74 in March, and I’m hopeful I can continue this the rest of my life. I want to get and stay as flexible as I can. It also helps with my back, plus my balance.
I am trying to do some walking, but again, the weather is a factor. I’m not desperate enough to get out my “Walking-with-annoying-Leslie’ DVD yet, but it may come to that as winter sneaks in.
I hope you’re trying to take care of yourself, too.
I’m doing my part in trying combat my OWN stupidity by reading almost a book a day, rereading my collection of In Death books by J.D. Robb (Nora Roberts) before I receive the newest addition in paperback at the end of this month, # 51 Shadows in Death.
I’m on book # 16 right now, enjoying Eve Dallas’ world in the future of trying to put the bad guys away. Her world is gritty, and parts of it are heart-wrenching, but her incredible strength, determination, and courage bring her through. I also feel I know all the people around her.
This is probably a flaw in me, but one I enjoy – that I can reread and gather details I don’t remember. I remember the main thrust of each book, but I notice things I may have skipped over, or not appreciated as much as I would like, before. I do the same things with favorite movies. :0)
My book collection has helped me weather the pandemic, feeling as if I’ve visited old friends. I’m making myself go through my collection, culling out books I probably won’t read again. I’m listing them on Amazon for resale, and we go to the post office almost every day to mail a sale to a person I hope will enjoy the book. I’m down to a small shelf of books to sell now, so very soon I’ll make myself tackle another area of books in the house.
I hope that you are enjoying favorite books as we continue to try to stay safe and well.
Yesterday turned out to be my favorite kind of snow – except not enough to build a snowman. The worst place we drove was our driveway, and even that wasn’t bad, though we may rethink our decision not to put on our snow tires. The streets were almost dry, though the world looked like a winter wonderland. The sun was shining brightly; the air was crisp and clean. Just gorgeous!
Today is not as nice. It’s 28 degrees with a bit of wind. Of course, my husband decided it was the perfect day to stand outside at an auction. He is there now, hoping to grab some goodies. I am hoping – but not really expecting – that he remembered to put the two bags of trash out at the bottom of the driveway. If he didn’t, my next hope is that we haven’t missed the trash people when he gets back.
Our excitement for the day – other than the trash :0) – is a routine appointment with our primary doctor. (Be still, my heart.) Actually, I’m hoping that my blood work showed I need a change in my thyroid hormone dosage. I’ve felt as energetic as a slug lately.
My project for the day is November bookkeeping. I’m only half a month behind, which is pretty good for me, the champion procrastinator.
I hope that your Tuesday is shaping up to be a good one for you, too.
Hiroko Kubora via Lina D. – BoredPanda.comCayce Zavaglia via Lina D. – BoredPanda.comChloe Giordano via Lina D. – BoredPanda.comVeselka Bulkan – via Lina D. – BoredPanda.com
This is ALMOST my favorite kind of snow. We had flakes that kept getting larger and larger as time passed. We ended up getting about 3 inches, I think. It fell softly, coating each branch of our trees so that they were outlined, almost as if they were painted by some careful hand.
My favorite kind of snow is just like this, except that it’s perfect for making snow critters and then GONE off streets and driveways by the end of the day. We are snowed in today, since we haven’t put snow tires on our truck yet and our driveway is over 650 feet long and STEEP. We can just admire the beauty and stay home.
I’m trying to convince my husband that we’re a bit ‘long-in-the-tooth’ to change from regular tires to the snow tires ourselves, but he won’t listen. If our driveway isn’t clear by tomorrow, we will probably start our day changing tires in the shop before our doctor’s appointment and other errands.
We have bright sunshine right now, so maybe I’ll catch a break.
I finally saw some progress on my scales this morning. My husband and I have been eating well, enjoying individual frozen meals from Real Food and Stu’s Clean Cookin‘ in Greenwood.
The problem is that we’ve been enjoying too much OTHER food that isn’t so good for us. The pandemic is our latest excuse, but the real problem is us.
I have decided – once again – to be responsible for my OWN eating, letting my husband stuff his face with ‘sticky buns’ – his latest indulgence, while I drink more water, eat some raw veggies with Ranch dressing as a dip, and hopefully continue to see results on the scales. The fact that HE is also seeing results is maddening – but I’m too old too whine and pout – MUCH…
I will concentrate on doing my elliptical trainer this morning, my yoga this afternoon, eating my raw veggies and drinking water, and looking forward to the scales being impressed with my efforts.
It’s cold and wet here today – and the first day of winter isn’t until next week! The forecast is for rain/sleet/snow and flying hairballs all day today and overnight. It has been pretty warm here in the afternoons, so I’m hoping that it will just end up being a cold rain, as far as the streets are concerned. We plan to say in, being grateful we have a warm, dry home.
Penn Fitness Warehouse
My elliptical trainer is in the garage. It will be cold, but it will be dry, so I’ll be heading out there in a few minutes to get my rear in gear.
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My back started to hurt a couple of days ago, so I’ll also plan to do a session of yoga stretches this afternoon to see if I can stretch things out.
Our son is 42 today. He lives in Thailand and there is 12 hours time difference, so I sent him birthday wishes last night before I went to bed and then chatted with him real-time this morning. (He was up late trying to finish up a computer project for a client.)
Brian is our only living child. (Our daughter, Jade, died at two months old due to SIDS.) We feel very lucky that Brian is such a good communicator. I can almost forget that he is across the world from us. He set up a secure chat program so that we can communicate on almost a daily basis. We send pictures and videos, leave messages, chat real-time, etc. We communicate more than some people do with their kids who live in the same city.
I miss two things since he lives so far away:
THING ONE – His truly amazing sense of humor. He gets into it, making me laugh, adding to it with gestures, and finally getting up, adding more and more until I’m laughing so hard my stomach hurts. I have to beg him to stop and then rest awhile. :0)
THING TWO – He gives the best hugs in the world. He doesn’t give just a one-armed hug with a quick pat. He envelopes me, hugging me really tightly – asking me to hug him tighter – and really squeezes. We create so much love it makes me cry.
Happy, happy birthday to Brian – a man who is better than his parents ever thought of being – who makes us proud of the kind, caring person he is.
Tricolor Heron_Green Cay Wetlands_Scott Helfrich_The Natl Wildlife Federation Blog
Mother Nature treated us well this morning.
We went to Lunch bunch and then did several errands afterwards. The rain didn’t start in earnest until shortly before we drove up our driveway. The rain is supposed to continue the rest of the day into the evening, and then we’re supposed to get more for sure on Sunday, along with cold fronts, so it was good to get things accomplished and be able to enjoy our warm, dry house now.
I spoke too soon about our window replacement yesterday. An hour before the guy was supposed to be here, he called and said he only had 2 of the 3 parts we needed. We agreed to try again when the part (backordered) arrives… I had taken most everything out of the dining area and had cleaned in preparation for the installation, so now I have an unusually clean dining area – an exercise in character-building now. :0\
After Lunch Bunch we stopped at Stu’s Clean Cookin’ in Greenwood to see what frozen meals they had to offer this week. I am so impressed with this company. Everything is spotless. Even though there are always other customers, we never have to wait long for good service. Sometimes we order ahead. Today we just stopped to see what they had. The man who fills our order is always very friendly. Great place to find frozen meals that are good for you, ready to put in your freezer or right in the microwave. Between Stu’s and another company called Real Food, we are very spoiled. They make it easy to stay on our diet, using that as the main meal of the day – UNLESS we are in the middle of a pandemic, tending to eat bad things as comfort food…
Yesterday I received a happy email notice that one of my hand-painted wooden Christmas ornaments sold in the local shop in Greenwood where I share a booth with a good friend. (These ornaments are all painted to resemble Gingerbread cookies.) Today I checked my Etsy shops and discovered I had sold an etched and hand-painted cylindrical vase called, “Fancy Butterflies.” This was bought as a Christmas gift – bought by one lady to have sent to another. I smiled all the way to the post office. :0)
I hope that you are having a great Friday, feeling ‘very spoiled’ by something or someone.
I have just cleaned out or dining area so that the Window World man can come this afternoon to replace two of our windows. We had all new windows installed at the end of 2004 and have been really happy with the results. Our energy bills decreased and it was so much QUIETER – something we didn’t expect.
Earlier this year we noticed condensation between the panes in the window in our guest room and in the middle window of the set of three above. I had been lax about keeping the paperwork we needed, but finally we were able to find our information and schedule replacement of these two windows.
The pandemic has played havoc, of course, and I had down on my calendar to call next week and check on things, but the nice lady called me yesterday to see if it were all right for the guy to come and install the replacements today!
If you’ve been thinking of window replacement, I highly recommend Window World. Even though the world has placed great stresses on everything, this is a company that deserves your business.
My husband and I have quarterly doctor appointments next week. We went first thing this morning to get our blood drawn for tests for which we want to see results at that appointment. After that, we rewarded ourselves by going to enjoy a huge breakfast at our favorite restaurant in Greenwood, The Dari, which just opened recently for indoor dining, limited seating.
I not only had a big breakfast – I had a biscuit with sausage gravy. It has been over two years since I had one of those. YUM!
I was impressed with all the changes they had made to keep employees and customers safe. It was almost like a different place, except for the wonderful food.
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