Easter Wishes

Happy Easter Sunday 2011

Signs of the times...

I have lately had a penchant for reading some of the church signs posted in our little community.  The one on the New Life church sign states, " An Closed Mouth Gathers No Foot "  They just changed it.  I smile every time I ride past.

The Church of God posted this little gem:  " The Church Is God's Gift To Man.....Assembly Required "

It stayed in my mind half the way home -- think about it.

Is there a book for these collected sayings?  A website where one can go and find a suitable post?  I should probably start carrying my camera along so I can snap a shot as I drive by.  Would that make a neat vacation?  Post a church sign a day, as we drive sedately through the countryside.    I'd need a pretty big camper.  Maybe a navigator?  Oh, here's the deal breaker - I'd need enough money to pay for gas.

I guess I'll content myself with the drive to work and home.  If I see any more signs that cause a smile, I'll bring them to you, here.

Warm Fuzzies

I follow several blogs - some that I have found from Ranger's list - others that I have visited on my own and been charmed by the content or touched by the writer's ability to create word pictures.  Some of my favorites are photographer's sites and they have lots of pictures along with a view of events in the life of the writer.  I have added another favorite to my growing list.  Pioneer Woman, whom I follow as do  lots of others I know, just closed out a photography contest where the subject was Horses.  Oh, my!  Can I just say that the subject matter was great and the contestants were so talented - I couldn't stay away and found myself checking back over and over.  I recall Ranger sketching horses when we were younger and I admired her ability to create the animal she so loved, on a flat sheet of paper.  I was always a bit intimidated by the real life thing.  Horses are so big.  I was so small.  How does one control such power. 

In 1961, when Mother took us on a trip out west with friends, we wound up in Steamboat Springs, Colorado.  We went horseback riding while there.  My horse was a paint mare named Dinah.  I was terrified of Dinah.  I suppose Dinah had walked the trail a thousand times and her only interest in going out with a rider on her back was to finish the trail and return to  the barn for her hay and  oats.  My only interest was to  finish the  trail ride in one piece and on the top side of the horse.  To that end, I spoke to Dinah almost the entire ride.  I whispered in her ears, telling her that - if she  wouldn't throw me  off her back and would just get me back to the barn in  good time, I wouldn't tell anyone how she terrified me.  She must have believed me.  We got back to the barn and I was able to dismount without my knees giving way.  Dinah was led away to her stall.  I was never so glad to see the back end of a horse as that day and haven't been on a horse since then.  I admire those who ride without fear.  I love to look at the beautiful beasts and have come so far as to pet and praise the two paint mares who reside in the field across from our house.  These girls belong to my child, Elder Daughter.  She, like Ranger has always had a love affair with horses.

To return to topic - sorry for the wandering mind - Pioneer Woman announced the winners of the contest and the prize went to Jennifer Warthan - of The Cotton Wife weblog and photographer of the most lovely shot of horses taken in the snow, in front of a great red barn.  One horse was standing at the fence and the other coming along around the barn.  I kept coming back to that picture and recommend you to take a look at it at PW's contest site. 

Jennifer also sells linen-stock cards featuring her photographic art on her website:  http://warthanfarmsphotography.zenfolio.com/fineart

I may just have to buy that shot that so won my heart and the Pioneer Woman's contest. 

Poor Copy Machine.

We have a fantastic copy machine at work.  It is a real workhorse that holds a ream of  8.5 x 11 paper in each of 3 trays, plus a ream of legal size in the fourth tray.  This modern marvel copies, sorts, collates, scans, faxes and dispenses coffee from a special stainless steel pot that sits on the left hand side.  Well, I may have exaggerated about the coffee.  We have to make that ourselves and pour our own from the thermos carafe.

 And the coffee station is nowhere near the copier. 

But the thing does just about everything else and is such a fine color copier that nearly everybody in the building runs by our office when they need a special job run.  We can scan in images and send email from the copier in TIFF, JPEG or Adobe formats.   We have forms in the document server that print at the push of a button The company that gives service to the machine has been known to send out a service technician just because they haven't heard from us in a while and wanted to be sure things were going well.  Oh, and while on site, they may as well check and clean the device.  No charge.  The company does not have an X in the name.  I will not tell the actual corporation - but the name rhymes with havin'.  As in, I'm not havin' any other brand of copier on the premises.  Others may extol the joys of the ex-rocks copier.  I'll keep what I got. 

All this to say that some folks ran into a panic situation this morning.  The FDLE employee who works out of our office went to the copier to run some forms through.  He picked the finished job out of the paper tray and then went "Uh Oh!" 

"What's wrong", someone asked.

I wasn't really listening, being concentrated on researching some stuff on my computer.  I kind of picked up the problem by osmosis.  It seemed there was a paper clip showing up on each page of the finished copy.  Right about the middle of the page.  Someone said  to open the document feeder and see if a clip had fallen in - Another person said to stop running copies in case there was a clip inside the machine and we caused a jam, or worse - by continuing to run copies.   Another voice chimed in to say we needed to call for service before we messed the machine up. 

At that point, I sat up and looked over at the briefing table where a couple of folks were inspecting the flawed copy.  One of the employees who knows me pretty well saw me looking on and said - Oh, it's April first.... April Fools!  That was you, wasn't it, Nancy!  I had to admit it was.  I had gone to the machine and put a paper clip on the glass and then pushed 5 and print.  Opening the paper drawer, I returned the 5 sheets to the top of the stack and closed the drawer.  All I had to do  from that point  on was wait!  And not laugh.

It was funny and fun.  I tip my hat to  our daughter in Alabama.  It was her idea first.