COMPUTERS AND TECHNOLOGY

$%(^*#*@*$*^&(&)_&**  What I feel about computers, servers, networks and Internet connections today is not fit for print.  If anyone want to figure out how to bring down the country forget roadside or suicide bombers just screw around with our computers and the Internet.  You will bring us to our knees in a matter of minutes.
I need to do payroll  which has to go over the Internet by tomorrow morning and there is no Internet connection at work.   Like I said  #)$*^&^*@Q()_$%*%.  I think employees might understand the problems, though they won't be happy with no check, but dear old Uncle Sam cuts no slack.....payroll and payroll taxes late.....penalties charged!  As for servers, networks and computers who decided to make our lives so dependent on them while making them so complicated to understand that with out a PhD in computereeze no one has a clue how to keep them working properly! Yet we can't live without them.  If you are thinking this gal has lost it you would be correct!  Bring back the abacus!!!!!

LIFE OUT MY WINDOW IS PRETTY GOOD COMPARED TO.......

Right now life out my window is pretty good compared to many in Montgomery County!  For this I am very thankful to God!  He has been gracious to me.  When I went to bed around 1am I wasn't so sure what life would look like when I got up.  I had already begun making plans on how I was going to mop up the flood in the basement from a defrosted freezer and how many trash bags it might take to haul out a freezer full of food.  I can't say that these thoughts were causing any great deal of stress.  I just was being proactive with what I figured I was going to be faced with in the morning.  You see ten hours earlier a rather severe thunderstorm rolled through the area. It was amazing to watch out the windows in the dining room and the kitchen and see the trees virtually whip around in circles at their tops and the rain blowing first one way and then the other.  My power went out and came back multiple times and then finally left for good with the storm as it moved on.

I was one of the fortunate ones in the county....my power came back on sometime after 2am, after being out almost 12 hours.  When I got up in the morning approximately 300,000 in the area were still without power and many will be without it until Thursday or Friday of this week(it is now Monday).  This was some storm!  I went out to do some errands with mom and was amazed at how many trees in our neighborhood had lost very large branches.  And we were the lucky ones.  Down county whole trees were uprooted.  Several people lost there lives as trees came down on their cars.  Yes life out my window is pretty good!  I did have to throw out some questionable food from my refrigerator, but I think both freezers kept things frozen enough that with refreezing after 12 hours food is fine and there was no flood in the basement. My trees are all intact and all traffic lights near me are fully functional, though in doing our errands we had a few harrowing experiences trying to figure out who was next to go through an intersection that had four lanes of traffic in each direction.

Tonight I think there are still about 200,000 without power.  I know more than a few of them.  Rockville, just south of us was hard hit as was Potomac.  It is a small blessing that the storm also took with it the extreme heat and at least sleeping without A/C is possible.  So.....I am grateful that I survived yet another onslaught of nature in 2010.  What will be next?  So far we have has snows beyond belief, extreme high temperatures for long periods of time, an eathquake and a storm that caused wide ranged chaos!  I'm not so sure I want and answer to what next.....that might cause stress that non of us need!

CONSISTANCY

Well this summer is turning out to be pretty consistent if nothing else.....as the days and weeks continue to pass by it continues to be HOT, I continue to ride the emotional roller coaster of highs and lows, watching the evening news continues to be pointless and depressing, and my office at church fills up with stuff within 24hours of my cleaning out the last batch of stuff.  Somethings in life just don't seem to change no matter how much you want them to.  BUT eventually summer will be over and temperatures should drop and eventually I will no longer be the occupant of the office at church and someone else can deal with it's being the warehouse for church stuff that has no home.  As for my roller coaster and the evening news........well those are things that I am afraid will be consistent for much longer........I can stop watching the news, but I just need to make sure the bar is down across my waist on the roller coaster of life and hang on for dear life.  Who knows maybe some day I will even learn to through my hands up into the air and just enjoy the ride and then when it ends laugh with relief at surviving. 

NICE TO BE MISSED!

I've been gone from home on a short trip for a week.  I was gone for a week.  When gone I always wonder if anyone missed me or if I was just gone.  Well I think at least one little guy missed me or at least I choose to think so. 

I posted a picture of my friend during the snow storms of February and he has been visiting me pretty much every morning since then.  No I don't feed him (though I think my neighbor may be), but we do chat.  It's nice to have someone to talk to.  I know its the same guy (well I don't really know its a guy; may be a gal) because he/she has a damaged left paw....poor thing. Anyway, after our opening discussion of "No, I do not have any food for you", I ask how he's doing and what his plans for the days are.  Then I tell him mine. Unfortunately he is lacking in conversational skills, but I still enjoy his company.  He looks in the kitchen and looks right and left and up and down.  Sometimes he climbs the screen door to get a better look and then he is off digging in the yard for I suppose his breakfast. 

I know it is rather pitiful that I talk to squirrels, but think of me as a one way Dr. Doolittle.  There is also a mother and baby rabbit that have been frequenting the yard.  I enjoy their company as well.  One thing I have learned over the past 8 months is I am not a 100% solo person.  There are things I enjoy about living alone, but I do miss having someone to just chat with and sit with.  To share the plans and events of the day.  So since I have no one else for now my daily companions at home consist of an unusually friendly squirrel and a family of bunnies.  God does provide!

Yes, when my friend showed up yesterday morning and today I rejoiced in his presence and choose to think he was telling me that I was missed.

ROOM WITH A VIEW

Now if this is what I saw every morning when I looked out my window then life would indeed be good!  There is something about water that I  find incredible peaceful and relaxing.  "Life out my window" if this was it.....well there is not much else I could ask for....a bit more but not much.  Thank you for allowing me to enjoy this wonderful view Marcia, if only for a couple of days.  My soul needed it.

FROM A FRIEND...

This statement and question was posed on Facebook this morning by a friend I met on our Alaskan cruise.  Not sure what is going on in her life but it is an interesting question to ponder and hopefully find the answer to....

"They say follow your heart, but what happens when your head is right and your heart is wrong?"

HOT!

Currently the news around me is simply that it is HOT!!!!!!!  Something is wrong when you look forward to the upper 80's as being cool..........but that's where we are on the East Coast now.  I had hoped that  since June was so hot, a record set of 18 days of 90 + degrees, that the heat would be all used up.  That is not to be the heat is only going up.....another 100+ degree day today and again tomorrow!  I am almost afraid to think of where we will be in August which is often the hottest part of our summer?????????

I keep trying to remember the snows of February to cool down........

HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMERICA!

It's the 4th of July.  What is traditionally celebrated as the birthday of the USA, so Happy Birthday America you are 234 years old today.  It is a day of picnics and fireworks and time spent together with family and friends.  At least that's what I remember from my childhood.  Time spent at one of my grandparents lake cottages.  Time spent with loved ones.  Wonderful memories!  Oh that I could turn back the clock and go back to those carefree summer days. 

I know there are still families that value time to gather together to celebrate special holiday's.  They make the time to be together, but they are no longer the norm as when I was a child.  Maybe even then in the 50's and 60's my family was the unusual one.  Maybe most families did not gather together like ours did, but as a child we only judge the world by what is taking place around us.  Children tend not to see things outside their personal world. What we see an experience then is what our memories are made of. Whatever the reality of the mid 20th century was I miss the time of family togetherness and unity.  I always have since I moved so far from family some 35 years ago, but today I miss it more than usual.  If I could turn the clock back I would do my best to not take those times with family for granted.  I would not let the closeness we felt fade away with the passage of time and distance.

Maybe next year will be different, though I doubt it.  Times have changed.  We now live in a society where families are literally spread throughout the world and time spent together in family gatherings is limited to weddings and funerals.  We live in a time when families are separated for a wide variety of reasons. Due to monetary, time, and relationship constraints they just can't gather together except for significant events. But these differences in family structures don't change the fact that it is the Birthday of America.  It is a time to celebrate.  I have my popcorn, wine and chocolate and will watch the DC Mall fireworks on TV.  It's the 21st century and it's a new world.  A sign that I am getting old is that I truly do miss the old world I grew up knowing.  HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMERICA!  It's time to celebrate Public TV will bring it all to me.

TIME FOR SOME GRATITUDE!

In the business and craziness of life it is easy to forget to be grateful for the many blessings in my life.  Human nature, at least my human nature, seems to want to focus more on what I lack than what I have been blessed with. Daily I nee to remember something I recently read that was said by Helen Keller:

" So much has been given to me, I have no time to ponder over what has been denied." 

If anyone had reason to be bitter about life and what had been taken from her it was Helen Keller; blind and deaf from a illness in infancy.Yet, in time she saw her life as full and blessed beyond measure.

So this morning I am taking time to look aback on the blessings I have received in the last day or so.......

1. The streak of hot humid weather has been broken and the days are beautiful
2. The temperatures at night are back low enough that I can open the window as sleep with fresh air
3. I have four jobs that provide me with needed income and yet allow me the flexibility to take time off when I need some R&R to regain my sanity.
4. I have three wonderful loving children who have grown into beautiful and responsible adults and a fantastic new daughter (not doing the in-law stuff I love her as my own).
5. I got to have dinner with Nate, Lindsay, Steve and Lena last night AND make a spur of the moment trip to Jimmy Cone with them all.  Lots of love and laughter.
6. I have a house for shelter and will make it a home for me.
7. I have a beautiful new sewing machine that I did not have to pay for with credit....it's all mine!
8. I have been granted the ability to make beautiful quilts and cards.
9. Despite all the stress in my life the past few months I can still move without pain (most days) and  have not had a flair up of my RA.
10. And last but certainly not least I have a God who loves and cares for me and my future. Though I don't know what that future will totally look like he does and he will be with me at all times as I move toward it!  

 "Glory be to God! By his mighty power at work within us, he is able to accomplish infinitely more than we would ever dare to ask or hope."~~Ephesians 3:20