Just in time for the New Year

Susan and Michael visited us between Christmas and New Year. 

They came with a project in mind. 

The plantings in front of the porch were getting a bit  -  uh, skanky. 

They were all full of grapevines (well, then - don't SPIT the SEEDS!)

and overgrown with bird planted greenery.

This is the Landscape Design Team.

The Assistant Landscaper regards the completed design.

They took the time to hang a hammock for T.to use. 

They also took the time to make sure it worked as it was supposed to.

We appreciate their Plant and Swing Project and anticipate years of  use and enjoyment. 

Happy New Year, all!

 If you need T., you'll know where to find him if he's not inside. 

Reach Out and Touch Someone

We have had a network set up for computing ever since we got the netbooks.  Only trouble with the system was that Elder Daughter had to either sit on her front porch, sit on my back steps or else come into the house to access the network.  Outside worked on nice days but it's getting cold.  Did I mention we had snow flurries the other day?  We had checked with the Computer Guru, better known as Zeta's son, Steve.  He said get something called a Range Extender.  Well, first he said to get to get an N Router,  which  we did.  The signal was better but still not strong enough to reach from inside one house to inside the other.  So we looked into the extender thingy.

I asked at Wally World one day and received a quizzical look from the clerk.  She gestured with a hand and told me to look at the end of the aisle.  Okay, admittedly, she was with another customer who was asking multiple questions and he didn't seem to be getting any further than I did when she turned and smiled at me.

I took her raised eyebrows to mean, "What do you need, Hon?"  So I ventured to inquire about their Range Extenders.  I strolled in the direction of the aisle she indicated and found nothing that even vaguely looked like something that could extend the range of our N Router.  I left the Electronics section without attracting the attention of any other sales clerks and slunk away to pay for my groceries. 

Not to be defeated, I called around a couple of stores and was told they didn't carry Range Extenders.  Elder  Daughter began to speak about (shudder!) Dial-Up.  We were in the area of a store called Onyx and we stopped in to see if the owner could help us.  I've used the store several times in the past for my computer needs and always been pleased with their knowledge and service.  The owner didn't carry anything for networking but suggested we try New Egg or Amazon or Walmart.  Ah-hah.  Well, we knew Walmart wouldn't work but Amazon... there's a name to conjure with! 

Christmas Eve I did a search for the words NetGear and Range Extender.  Up popped a suggestion and a price.  Reasonable.  Delivery sometime in January.  I clicked to order and we sat back to wait.  Today, UPS delivered a box.  I opened it when I got home from work.  It was the Range Extender by NetGear.  Earlier than promised.  I love when a merchant comes through.  It's now New Year's Eve - Eve and Elder Daughter is cozily inside her home, connected to my NetGear Router signal which delivers Internet to her netbook - and if you take a  look at the photograph - all lights are green and the curtain is drawn across the window.  This Extender really does do the job. 

Thanks Onyx and John Gunther.  Thanks J & R (JR.Com) and Thanks Steve for your help.

Take that, Dial-Up!

How'd we get so dependent on the technology stuff!

This morning, I put my cellphone in the top  of  my purse but inadvertently dropped my sunglasses on the rug.  I  leaned down to retrieve them.  This time of the morning,the sun is in my face driving to work.  I need those clip-on shades to see down the road.  They are quite necessary in my getting to work scheme-of-things.  Satisfied that I had all my equipment, I set off on my way to work.  I passed familiar landmarks and came to the bend in the county road where there is a chicken farm.  I put my hand in my purse and rummaged for my cell phone.  Rummaged.  Ru-u-ummaged.  Couldn't find  it.  I pulled over into a driveway and really tore the purse apart.  The phone wasn't there.  I turned around and double timed back to the road we live on, sped down to the house and stopped in the drive.  I had to unlock the door to get in and met T coming from the living room.  He offered to help me look for the phone, a Blackberry Curve in a shade of maroon that matches my netbook.  I'm really fond of that phone.

Long story short, we couldn't find the phone.  T said he'd continue to look, although he wasn't really sure what  it looked like.  I headed off to work and made it just on  time.  I felt somehow bereft.  Like an arm was tied behind my back.  Like I couldn't do my work without that phone  linking me to home and family. And the Internet and Facebook, which we can't access from our work server.  I slogged through and finally called the house about 11:00AM.  T.said he wasn't sure but he thought he had located my phone.  He described  the object in his hand.  Kind of reddish, with silver and black buttons and numbers and a-b-c...and the word Blackberry on the top.  Oh, yes!  That's it.  I asked where he had found the phone.  He said it was on the rug, just under the table.  We both had looked there earlier in  the morning and I hadn't seen the blasted thing.  Apparently - in addition to  all  the other features the phone has, there is an invisibility button somewhere and I must have switched it on before the phone jumped out of my purse.   It may be a smart phone, but it isn't all that bright. 

This is a simulation of the view it had to endure all morning before it made itself visible to  T and was returned to the tabletop to wait for me to come home after work.

Shop 'til your feet drop...

So, I went out today with Elder Sister (our daughter who lives behind us on the property) and we went Christmas shopping this morning.  I had no idea the amount of people who were in the stores, business was brisk and the crowded stores were still offering dollars off on the items I wanted.  I got three people finished and part of the fourth 'lil guy has a good start, plus I know what I'm going to buy to finish his list.  That leaves his mommy and a son-in-law to buy for.  But not today.  The rest of the day is dedicated to putting my poor feet up and taking Tylenol to relieve the throbbing arches.  I'm not even going to tiptoe out on the porch to turn on the outside lights. Nope - just gonna' luxuriate in the feeling of having no shoes on.  Wiggle toes, go ahead, you can do it.  No groaning from down there! 

Well, maybe I'll turn on the Christmas  lights for a little while.  If I can get my feet to agree to get back down on the floor long enough to walk outside.

To Be or Not To Be...that is the nagging question

Elder Daughter lives behind us, maybe 200 feet as the crow flies.  Even if the crow has to walk and ask for directions, it's just not that far.  Her domicile is a mobile home.  We wanted to set up a network for the computer system that could include her home.  That way, if it's late and the boys need to do some research for school, they can do it from the comfort of home.  I just thought it would be neat to increase the range. 

 We spoke to one of  The Computer Guys in the downtown area yesterday.  They recommended going from a Wireless G to a Wireless N Router.  They said it would have a stronger signal.  (This is the same advice that Ranger gave - thank you Ranger!)  So, I got the WSN2000 N Router from Netgear.  Elder Daughter got home earlier than I did so she hooked it up.  When I got home, the lights were on and the mini-tower was sitting on my desktop where the little Belkin used to dwell. 

Elder daughter said the signal was stronger.  Today, I noticed her sitting in the grass about halfway between our two places.I made out her netbook in her hands. I'm guessing that's where she got the best signal.  At least we pushed the range that much farther out, but I don't want her to have to set up a halfway house in the back yard for her netbook and peripherals. So if anybody knows of a way to boost signal even more - all suggestions received will be gratefully entertained.  Now, those suggestions that include using tinfoil will be entertaining, I suppose.  But we're only going to implement the ones that don't require the use of tape and knitting needles.  And don't even mention moving the mobile home 150 feet closer - !

We might not be in Kansas -

Ah, the learning curve sometimes gets sharp and there may be no information signs along the high speed internet. 

Case in point:  Elder Sister and her sons were at the house when I arrived from work yesterday-eve.  They left shortly after I arrived with some Chinese take-out and we all sat to a meal in our separate households.  Once dinner was a distant memory, I booted up the lil' red ACER and double tapped Internet Explorer.  Instead of springing to attention and opening my home page, I was told that IE could not take me home because I was offline.  I may be off  the mark and off my rocker but I certainly didn't see how I could be offline.  Wasn't my daughter just using you, snarled I! 

Cursor just sat waiting.

I tried another website  - and another.  I made sure the check mark wasn't on under the Tools menu next to where it says "Work Offline".  I tried a few other sites and then turned the ACER off and  went to the desktop computer where I was rudely informed that I was off-line there, as well.

I check the router and antenna.  All seemed as it should be.  Both computers could see the router but neither was able to gain access and sail off into the Ethernet. 

Frustrated, I chalked  it up to weather conditions and - turning off all computers, I toddled off to watch me some Fox News and  go to bed.

Next morning, I turned on the little red netbook and met the same conditions.  Offline.  I tried the desktop standby. Offline!  WHAT?  Am I never to surf the 'net again? 

Oh, woe is me! What a whirl, what a whirl, I moaned, channeling the Wicked Witch from Oz.  And my eye  fell on the instruction manual for the Wildblue modem.  Vaguely I recalled a discussion about DNS addresses and that their being missing from the modem meant it couldn't go online. 

Same thing as Offline, eh?

What's the fix, what's the fix, Dorothy, I asked!  Dorothy snickered rudely and suggest I try reading the manual.

Three minutes of reading later, I pulled the modem's power plug and waited the requisite one minute before I plugged the power back in. Two minutes later the modem lights clicked three times and twinkled back on, I tapped the IE icon.  My home page opened like it had been there all  the time; just hiding behind some curtain. We zoomed off like a hot air balloon in an updraft - high over the information highway.

This must be why they call all those helpers that install various and sundry software - - - Wizards?

A New Location

I have a clunky desktop computer running XP in the family room.  I was only able to access the internet by dial up - until I slipped on my running shoes and jumped aboard high speed internet.  Still I was limited to the desktop in the one location. Younger Daughter in Alabama purchased a router with antenna and pretty much set up a home network for me which did little good as I didn't yet have a fast connection.  We learned it was impossible to complete the setup without getting off dial up.  The ethernet plug had no place to go. 

Fast forward to a few weeks ago when Wildblue set us up with a dish in the yard and a modem on the desk.  Now we were talking!  Once again my hopes rose for that router that was sitting on the floor in a  box. Maybe this time - maybe this time we could break free from the confines of the chair at the desktop and boot up the little red ACER and actually move about the house in complete computing abandon!

Elder daughter's husband came over one evening and handily  hooked the wires and plugs and antenna in their proper order and I turned on the ACER.  It could see the router.  It seemed blind to the internet connection. 

Tonight, Elder Daughter was at the desktop working on Facebook.  Her husband came in and wondered if I had ever been able to connect to the Internet on the Netbook?  I said no, that I had unplugged the router in frustration.  He set things back in place and asked me to try it again.  So,I did.   I turned on the lil' red ACER and waited for the icons to load.  What's that?  A tiny symbol of a computer with signal bars.

SIGNAL bars, I tell you! 

Google popped up for my home page!  McAfee advised that the site was safe and we zoomed off on the information highway.  My first stop  was  my weblog.  This entire  post has been done on the cute lil' red ACER!  For the first time - and probably not the last, I have been sitting at the dining table while  online.

What a heady feeling this is. Hoo-yah!

A Nose by any other name is stuck in a book....

The folks at Amazon sent me an email and a link to UPS so I could check the status of my pre-ordered book by Stieg Larrson.  It's the third in the Millennium Trilogy and I ordered it way back beyond the beginning of the year.  Well, maybe just after.  It was a good deal off the new-book price and I already owned books 1 and 2, courtesy of Walmart.  I planned on checking the website to see where book 3 might be spending the night but when I got home yesterday, there was a brown box on the dining table where our new mail lands.  Ripping it open, I did an internal happy dance.  There in all it's shining glory was The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest.  Um, I think I will see you on the other side of the weekend - or when I decide to come up for air. 

So the phone rings and.....

So, I'm sitting at the computer and the telephone rings and I pick it up and it's for T. I called him to take the call and he did. And, I'm still online and surfing the Internet.

In the good old days, when the phone rang, I wouldn't have heard anything because I was using a dial-up connection to access the Internet and y'all wouldn't have gotten through to the house. The good old days were about 20 minutes ago!

Some things change for the better. Some things are amazing. There is now a satellite dish on a post outside my side door. And a modem on the desk beside the CPU. Green lights flashing away...loading information up. Loading information down. I really need to figure out how to hook the Belkin router into the system so I can move around the house while I surf. How cool is all this technology.

Very!

Hi Speed WOOT, Mon!

Wow, it's been a while since the last post. We're blocked at work from several websites and most blogs are among the verboten. We have been told that once the server and entire new system is in place in all areas - the IT guy will go around and restore select sites. We can't even access Facebook and that is in use by some of us in an official capacity. It has been a major bummer, believe me. I feel cut off from humanity and the news and just about every amusing website on the 'net. Guess that is because, like Popeye, 'I yam whats I yam!'

The lack of contact with outside weblogs and even my personal email has brought me to the brink of despair at work. At home, my sloooow dial-up is just maddening and I made a decision to do something about it. I called our satellite company and signed up for their first level of high speed satellite service. The technician is supposed to be here on Friday between 8 and noon to install the dish, modem and cables that will allow me to jump into the fast lane with the rest of the world. Of course, the service guy may be running on a different kind of time than I am. I have taken the entire day off. I will call later in the afternoon to confirm that I do indeed have an appointment. The company has been known to schedule a call and then have it evaporate right off their screen - leaving no trace. If by some miracle we do get set up in the morning hours - I could go back to work... nah, I can't see myself doing that. I can see me surfing as fast as my fingers will take me to those sites that have always been slow to load. Places where I have sat and waited for minutes for a NASA Hubble picture to scroll down the screen. I may even set up a wireless home network and boot up the netbook in the living room. Look, Ma! No cords!

Oh, wow -I need to go work on some strong passwords!

You have to laugh, or else.....

Things sometimes get interesting around our house. Especially when it comes to T.'s memory problems. I'd like to share some things that have brought me to the edge of patience - until I take a look from a different angle. Then I may laugh about it.

There's something called Perseverating -which is when you keep dwelling on one thing. You talk about it over and over. It could be as innocent at the next NASCAR race scheduled or as complicated as the directions from our house to Wal-Mart. You just keep repeating such things until they are settled in your mind. Or until you pick up on the verbal edge in your listener's responses. Regardless of the event - we eventually wind up on the proper television channel or else in the parking lot at Wally World.

Hoarding.
Apparently we are short of canned cold drinks in the whole world and can't allow them to be out in plain view in the kitchen floor. We tend to shove them in a line against the hutch and cover them over with a layer of plastic bags.
Out of sight, out of mind? Maybe.
Unwilling to share? Maybe.

Whatever the reason, we have wound up with 6 cases of Sam's Club soda hiding in plain sight and 3 packs of frozen pancakes (72 total) shoved into the freezer. I need to cross stuff off T.'s list when I know we absolutely don't require more.

Losing things.

We have missed the following items and searched for them for extended periods of time.

Mobile Phone #1.

Mobile Phone #2 that replaced #1.

AAA Batteries

The hood release location on the Buick

The door to the side yard.

Laundry detergent.

All items were subsequently found; some requiring repairs. (the hood release quit working after being jerked upwards several times. The auto repair fixed it for us)

The latest item that went missing last weekend was a white dustpan. T. couldn't recall where he put it last and searched the kitchen cabinets, the bedroom, the utility room and under the parrot cage. He did mention that he might have taken it across to the barn and left it there. I showed him a red dustpan that clips onto a red-handled broom and stays in the kitchen. The red pan wasn't what he wanted. It was the white one, the one he always uses.

Yesterday, Elder Daughter had come over to use my computer and I got a text message from her. T. had found the white pan. He brought it over from the barn and hung it up in the family room. On a nail. Which he had banged into the mantle of the fireplace. When I came home that evening, the first sight to greet me was a white dustpan hanging beside the entry door - swinging from the mantle. T. took it down - not without my strong urging.

We will dedicate a prong from the over-the-back-door coat rack to hanging the white dustpan. You can hardly see the nail hole in the mantle.

Another Holiday?

Wow, we just had Christmas and New Year - plus some birthdays in the family and it's time for another 3 day weekend. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birthday is a new county holiday so I'm off for the weekend plus the Monday. I can hardly stand staying home another three days, given my bout with a horrible cold that lasted from last Tuesday until this morning. It had me on the couch with tissue and juice, hacking until I thought I'd cough up a lung. I'm still coughing like crazy but my sinus cavity is no longer dumping sludge down the back of my throat and causing soreness with every swallow. I would normally have appreciated the time off in a planned vacation. Spending the enforced idleness in a haze of misery was about enough to cause a permanent state of cross-eyed boredom.

I did find a Starz Channel preview for the weekend. Last night, I was able to catch up on a couple of movies. I hadn't seen the latest versions of either "Race to Witch Mountain" or "Mall Cop". I enjoyed Witch Mountain enough to watch it twice. Mall Cop, not so much. I also finished 2 paperback books during the week and am nearly done with Amy Tan's Teaching Fish to Dance. It is a departure from her usual story telling in that the main character is - well, dead - not to put too fine a point on it. But the story is so well told that I am enjoying the book. Today I'm up and dressed and planning to stay off the couch as long as possible. Unless the urge for a nap absolutely overtakes me. That's possible on a cool and rainy day.

Way to go!

Our insurance company informed us that we needed to do some things around the house in order to renew our homeowners for next year. We needed to cut some of the tree branches hanging over the roof. We needed to put up a handrail on the stairs outside the utility room door. We needed to replace some dry-rotted wood on the roof eave.

We have two out of three completed. We used someone that Elder Daughter and her hubby knew at their church to lop the tree. We had to wait for a dry day and then, bing, bang, boom -the big truck came and the tree limbs were removed and cut up and some even stacked for firewood.

Last weekend, our son-in-law built a handrail. It went up faster than I thought it would. I guess when you have the proper tools and know how to use them, it's easy. He borrowed my debit card and went off to the local Home Depot and came back with pressure treated wood that he assured us will last forever. He even got a newel post to finish it off. I loved that touch! It makes it safer to go up and down the 3 brick steps leading into the back yard. I hadn't realized how awkward it was taking laundry out to dry with no railing on those steps.

Next weekend, we will hand the debit card over again and we should have the rotted wood on the roof eaves looking ever so much better.

Thanks, Rich!

Winter is coming

Winter isn't so far away. I missed the Autumnal Equinox by a day. I was going to make sure to see the sun coming up directly east, blinding me as I drove to work. But I got a late start and it was overcast - so, I missed the solar reminder that the sun is over the equator and will be heading back the other direction as we turn on our axis. The days will be dark in the mornings until we set our clocks back in October. Still, it's going to be a refreshing change to see the roadside flowers showing themselves in their yellow hues. White seems to be the Spring foliage color and mostly yellow for Winter.

Youngest daughter and I took a box of wildflower seeds when we first moved to our country home. We traipsed up and down the road - blithely shaking seeds along the edge and waited to see what glories we'd spread. Next year, pretty much the same things blossomed. Maybe a few more of those spiky yellow things came up. They remind me of Snapdragons. Still, I like to think we did our part to increase the wildflower population roundabouts.

Like it needed a boost!

Is it catching?

I've been noticing Ranger's posts lately. Seems as if an awful lot of appliance and vehicular failures are happening at that end of the state. I was kind of congratulating us on avoiding such shenanigans with our washer or dryer or windshield.

Oops.

This morning I got up to get ready for work. I was sitting in the living room chair, talking to T. when I heard a splish. We spoke some more. (Splish.) I asked if he heard the sound. He said no. (Splish.)

It sounded like it was coming from the air conditioning closet. There is a line that leads outside for drips and splishes and the guy who installed our replacement unit added an inside line for us in case the outside line gets backed up. We put a large container under the end of the line in the closet. I heard water splish-splashing into the container. Inside the house.

T. went outside and said the line wasn't draining into the yard. When he came back in, he dipped the excess water out of the bin and then we called the guy who did the work for us and (sorry!) apparently woke him up. He very nicely said he'd stop by this evening and blow out the line so the water would start going out in the yard again which is where we really, really want it. Things could be worse. Before the new unit came to live in our closet, we used to not know the drain to outdoors was backed up until we squelched across the dining room rug and felt the water ooze up between our toes. Now that will wake you up!

Technologically Challenged?

It's a Sunday. It was supposed to be a day of rest. We were getting ready for church. T. had his shower and dressed but hadn't combed his hair or put on his shoes and socks. I was sitting at the computer (the slow clunky dial up model that doesn't always want to cooperate any more) trying to follow the on-screen instructions to update an error in T's new cell phone programming. When I logged onto his account and saw the words Programming Error, fear struck me right in the brain. It trickled down to my fingertips so that I couldn't quite follow directions. It took me two tries per screen to get things fixed.

Now, considering that I just bought this marvel of a TracFone yesterday at the local Wally-world and after purchase, the salesman had offered to activate the phone while I finished shopping -would you expect to see a programming error? He told me he only needed about 10 minutes to complete the procedure. I thought that sounded good and the guy seemed to know what he was doing so, entrusting the little silver phone to his keeping, I went off to find T. and run the checkout gauntlet. Groceries purchased and packed in the basket, we wound our way back to the phone section and I could see the salesman yonder at the register. He sort of ignored us as we approached and as we drew closer, I heard him tell the other person at the register that a lady was coming back to get her phone and for the other salesperson to make sure she gave the customer her the phone and card for minutes. Then the salesman sort of half turned on his way out of the register area, spotted us and said, There She Is! He kept walking away while he told the other salesperson the phone was on the counter and to be sure to finish the entry. (What? I guess it time for his break or something?) The remaining salesperson sidled over and asked me what was it I was supposed to pick up. I indicated the phone lying behind her. She bundled it into the packaging and bagged it up and thrust it towards me when I dangled the receipt in front of her. I told her I had also purchased a card for 200 minutes and it was probably still in the shopping bag on the counter behind her. She turned and took the card out of the bag and started to scratch off the silver area over the numbers. I told her the salesman had told me I didn't need to add minutes until after we were sure the phone would fit our needs. That way the card for 200 minutes could be returned if the phone wasn't what we needed. She bagged and handed me the phone and minutes card.

Once home, T. agreed he could use the phone and went and put it in the bedroom where he could locate it again. That evening the minutes card was pulled out of the bag and used, by my visiting daughter - to add 200 extra minutes to the 10 minutes the phone came with. We noticed right away that the silvered area had already been scratched off by the saleslady, therefore rendering the minutes non-returnable as the salesman had said they could be. That may have been the first inkling the phone setup wasn't as promised by the salesman. But, since all seemed well, we put the phone away again and I went to bed with a clear mind. No worries, mate.

This morning I went to the TracFone website and entered the passwords to magically get me in - and was notified there was a programming error (see above passage re: fear strikes brain) and I would need to turn on the phone before clicking Continue. Seems that the somebody who originally programmed the phone used the wrong codes and hadn't set the phone up to receive the new minutes we had entered the evening before. I was able to overcome trembling fingers and after the two tries got the proper codes entered so that the additional minutes showed up.

One feature the salesman had touted was that the phone will automatically double whatever minutes are installed. And, now it does.

We put in our card for 200 minutes last night. When the programming problem was finally corrected this morning, the phone showed 400 minutes. Oh, wow, this thing is a durn genius! It also announces on-screen that the minutes expire in February of 2010. Next year!

What a wonderful little phone. I just hope we can find it when we need to add some more time. We're currently searching for a little red AT&T flip phone that has about 100 minutes on it. We turned it off and T. said he'd put it away so we would know where it was.

That was the last time either of us saw it!

It's a Jungle Out There.

Do you ever find yourself counting tiles on the floor or lining things up side by side to make them exactly even? I have discovered the TV show MONK! I think it's clever and funny and sometimes just a big inside joke that the actors and viewers can enjoy together. Tony Shaloub plays a detective who lost his wife to a car bombing several years ago and has been in therapy ever since. He has Obsessive Compulsive Disorder - which leads to the counting, lining things up and making them even. It hinders him but doesn't stop his solving crimes on a weekly basis. He has an assistant who helps him in his work - since he has a germ phobia as well as being O. C. D. - he needs a hand wipe after shaking hands or getting doused with questionable materials. Assistant's job. Whenever I hear someone say the words, "Here's what happened" I think of Mr. Monk giving his summation of the events leading up to the crime and then his solve for it. He solves every crime except the most important one; finding out who killed his wife. This is the final season and I haven't seen many of the previous seven but I search the schedule and auto tune to shows when I find them on in the evening. I have both the grandsons joining me on the couch to catch the latest and they say they enjoy watching the show, too. T. will give up part of a NASCAR event to humor me and catch the show. He even lets me have the 42" screen during Monk Marathons. He does love me!

The theme song from Monk starts out "It's a Jungle Out There. Disorder and Confusion Everywhere." Written and performed by Randy Newman, it's kind of catchy but hard to sing. I hope when the show is over, it will show up as a ring tone on some website. Some days at work, I find myself humming....

Rural Life

We're kind of out in the country - down a dusty road around a curve so you can't see the house from the paved county road that's located a mere two tenths of a mile away. I think Internet and wireless telephone signals don't care for the dirt road. They refuse to come to visit our computer and sometimes ignore our wireless phone.

The nearest DSL connection is about 6 miles away and apparently the different services have no plans to advance any further than that. Go to a telephone service website and they invite you to click to see if DSL is now available In Your Area. Whenever I try this option - I can almost hear the snickering at the other end of the dial-up connection. I imagine the voices calling for fellow workers to come and observe the poor victim of 26.4 speed as she tries to upgrade her computer to something faster. The answer is always a definite Not Going To Happen!

I always try, though. The eternal optimist in me believes that some day the DSL fairy will flutter by outside the window and I'll be online at blazing speeds. Screen draws will be instantaneous and I can download huge files and update my antivirus software in only minutes instead of the 6 to 8 hours currently suggested. I can't leave my computer running that long - surely someone will want to call me in that length of time. Or, someone in the house will forget I'm using the phone line and try and call out - thereby breaking the connection so I'll have to start over from the beginning.

There is always the satellite option for high speed Internet and the longer we struggle with dial-up, the more attractive it looks. Someday I may surprise myself and T. and just make that phone call to have the equipment sent to the house and have the technician come out and install it. Then I can talk on the phone while I pay my bills. Fast. Speed. Blur.... meanwhile, I'm still waiting.

Let the sun shine in.... The su-un shine in!

The guy came and cut the huge oak tree that overhangs our roof on the master bedroom side of the house. (The insurance company did an inspection and told us to cut the trees on the roof, replace some bad wood on front of the house and install a railing at the back utility room door) We waited last weekend and the one before that but either Richard's friend Chris couldn't get his cousin's bucket truck or else it was raining and he wasn't cutting due to weather conditions. Today he was at the house before 8:30am and a huge orange Asplundh truck was sitting in the front yard. I mean it was a honking big thing and very orange! Part of the cedar tree was blocking access so that some small limbs had to be cut before the monster bucket truck could make its way to the back of the house. Bzzz-aw. Bzzz-aw. Nice sound in the morning when it means the job is under way.

T. and I got dressed and fled to the peace and quiet of Wally World to do our weekly shopping. When we returned home, the tree had been well and truly trimmed and the gentlemen were running branches through the shredder to clean up the job. We got quite a few oak logs that will be nice in the fireplace after some seasoning. The larger logs can go in the burn pit out back.

There is a lot more light in the back yard filtering down from overhead. Now the yard is dappled with sunshine, instead of entirely shaded. I think we're going to really enjoy the difference. Plus, when we're having a windstorm, I won't have to slide out of bed and creep down the hall to the livingroom couch in fear the oak will topple over. The thing just looks lighter than it did before.