Sunday March 8 2009

Bonnie Configuring the Atomic Clock the Other Day

(All the atomic clocks we'd bought updated the daylight savings time perfectly, so that was nice. And can't believe it's 5 p.m. already.) Up before 5 dst because Bonnie invited me to go to church with them today and I didn't want to be late. It was still so dark! Changed clothes three times trying to find something o.k. to wear. Found I had no slip for one or the other of my two skirts, no stockings, no dressy shoes that matched that would be good on the ice. So wore wool pants with a turtleneck and red blazer with boots. Looks like shopping for some clothes is in order. Sacrament Meeting started at 9 a.m. Even having nearly four hours to be ready, still kept her standing while I gathered up all my stuff and took pills. We stayed for Sunday School and Relief Society's lesson. I enjoyed it very much, and knew quite a few people. It was fun seeing so many I'd not seen for years, and others who are neighbors or friends. Afterwards Bonnie and Craig stopped in to say hi to Joe and then went on home. Their daughter-in-law Amy was at church but Cheyenne stayed home to babysit the two boys, one who isn't feeling very well.

Joe had gone out to the ranch early this morning to feed the cats, because there's supposed to be a storm coming in, so tomorrow might be nasty. As usual not sure how much it will amount to, but the wind is blowing again. Joe unloaded the snowmacine at the mailbox this time and snowmachined in to the ranch. He gave Sparky a ride, but Raven ran along. Sparky is about 12 or 13 now, and running a mile in the snow would be hard on him.

This afternoon I made some vegetable beef soup in the crock pot for dinner and we'll have some biscuits with it and fresh veggies and dip. It took longer to prepare than I thought it should. But also got the fridge cleaned out. Made a huge mess, so had to clean up the kitchen and filled up the dishwasher.

Just a while ago I stuck the photo card into the laptop and pictures came out just like they did on the old camera. Thanks to Sally, and also Cheyenne, who said I didn't need to download the camera software. It was with trepidation I stuck the card in for the first time. The photos go clear back to our last couple of days in Vegas and the trip home. So I have a big job editing and sizing them to get some on the blog now. I'm just so bummed out that I lost so many pictures of the trip on the old camera - all the ones of Red Rock Canyon disappeared in a flash. But guess that's life. So I'll let you know when I get some pictures with the older blogs.

Things that are not right with the house just keep popping up. I had it noticed earlier, but tried to clean the utility sink yesterday and the builders had something in there that has stained it and won't come off, though I tried scrubbing it again. The little toilet off the utility room has no nice covers over the bolts that hold it to the floor. It's like they just were in such a hurry that they never went back and really finished things nicely, or more likely just didn't care.

Betty called yesterday and we had our weekly chat. Takes us nearly an hour to catch up each time. Have a couple bills to pay later.

Saturday March 7 2009

Lacy Aspen Branches

Still pretty chilly and icy out. We’re supposed to get a storm. And colder.. but it’s not here yet. Another day without a cloud in the sky, beautiful until you step out the door and the wind is blowing at 20 degrees. Uggg! Unless it quits no walk for me, and the dogs will just have to den up. I took them around the block yesterday afternoon and they had a ball. They went without their leashes and minded me actually better than usual. I don’t let them go into the neighbor’s yards, so they are getting used to being called back at those places. Was proud of them each time I said they couldn't go into a yard, they came right back out. Good Girls!! They can run where they want otherwise. Of course they want to investigate all the smells. The road is clear enough that I can mostly walk on pavement at the moment. I use my hiking stick to hopefully help from slipping on the icy patches. The berms alongside the road are still often up to my shoulder.

Then made two loaves of Irish Soda Bread with light raisins and it turned out really good. It was a very simple and easy recipe, my favorite kind. Joe says it’s good and had two pieces after dinner. I toasted mine for breakfast. It was yummy.

I ordered the Taking Chance movie from Amazon and it will be mailed 5/21. Guess you can also order from HBO, but it was a few $$ more. I also ordered Australia and it is on the way. Everyone said it was so good. Hope it’s worth the money. I won’t be able to watch it until I go back to the ranch where the DVD player is.

Today is the writer's group meeting over in Big Piney. I decided not to go again. But I hope they all have a good time. Joe's got his sports on. Not sure what I'll find to do. Maybe make some popcorn. For Raven. I bet she'd like a cold pepsi with ice in it too.

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Working on a new poem. I'll probably edit it with some other ideas I have, or make them into two verses - this one does have the 17 syllables, not quite in the right format though ..... oops, not it doesn't either have the 17 syllables. Why do I have such trouble with numbers, even counting to seventeen. Shouldn't that be easy??? Well, I'm disappointed that no one noticed and let me know about it. :
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Haiku by Lynn -
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Lacy aspen branches
Stretch to embrace lake,
mountain and sky beyond.

I may be schizophrenic, but at least I have each other.

Friday March 6 2009

Sawtooths

Slow start this morning. Slept later than usual. Had one of Bonnie's big delicious banana nut muffins for breakfast with "real" coffee and amaretto cream, plus my o.j. No real plans for today. Joe went to have breakfast with his friends. They have been doing that every Friday. Then he went sound asleep in his chair. The dogs are so soft and clean since their baths. I should get them one more often, but it's not cheap. Surely they must feel lots better afterwards.

There is a hazy sun this morning and breezy, about 30 degrees at almost noon. Nothing planned for today, but maybe it will get more interesting later. I'll probably clean up a little paperwork and pay a couple of bills. Maybe check out plane tickets to Atlanta. Thank you for the information, James. And then theres the camera software to install. I'm procrastinating and wondering if it really needs the software if I put the photos from the card into Photoshop. Can't believe I haven't even tried to see if the card fits into the slot on this laptop. Maybe I should do that. The wireless internet is back working great again. I'm happy about that.

Read the blogs and got into the email next. Mi gosh!! Jackie in Washington has mowed her lawn already. But then said that it snowed another 3" afterwards. Yes, that's spring for you. There's still five feet of snow on parts of my yard. Had an ad from Amazon.com - I'd heard of this a year or so ago, but now there's a feeling of coveting coming on. Probably everyone is way ahead of me on these new fangled technical things but if you like to read, look at this!! :

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FOLLOW YOUR DREAMS! Except that one where you're naked in church.

I FOUND JESUS! He was in my trunk when I got back from Tijuana.

Thursday March 5 2009

Our House from the Corner

Eye Yiii Yiii! Where did the day go? I got up earlier than usual and filled every moment with mostly enjoyable things. Never did get breakfast eaten, just too busy to get around to it. I thought this would be a painting day too, but no painting accomplished. Let's see, Yesterday evening Cheyenne came and worked well over an hour on the computer trying to solve the error message thing I've been getting so much of. He mostly honed in on the Norton, but since the internet wasn't working and "they" say that problem he discovered downloads really slowly, it wasn't resolved. It was still sitting there "downloading" when I turned it on this morning. I was supposed to finish it up by his instructions, but things weren't there exactly as he said and I might have goofed that up by not knowing what I was doing. THANK YOU, CHEYENNE FOR COMING OVER TO HELP.

Early on sat down at the computer, should never do that if anything else is to be accomplished. I attempted to sort out some of my multiples of saved files on the external hard drive. I have NO IDEA how to manage all these copies it keeps making and can't find anything, as it doesn't copy my nicely organized folders. It just dumps everything out in a huge heap and no way can I tell if there's one copy or ten, or none. After a couple of hours of that I've about decided to delete everything in there, and then read the manual, and then save everything ONE TIME out of the PC and the laptop. Haven't figured that out yet.

Still been having trouble with the wireless Internet connection. And twice was on the phone with the centurytel tech guys. First called before lunch, but didn't have time to finish. Seems like somehow I got connected to some second wireless connection, probably the neighbor's nearby. It may have gotten knocked off the signal while I was gone by a power surge or something. I have a good surge protector, but perhaps it just keeps things from getting burned up, not slightly scrambled. Anyway, that's what the gist of the problem was with not getting on the Internet most of the time I tried since I got back from the trip. Sometimes I could and sometimes not. It ended up on DSL with no wireless or a very low signal??? I don't know. Another mystery to me. It's back to normal now. I wanted - in fact demanded - the local centurytel tech guy to come and do it for me, but that would have been $85 if the guy on the phone couldn't find a problem to put on the work order, and doing it on the phone to who knows who and where was free. He was sure puzzled for a while, but gradually figured it out. Thank goodness. So just got done reading everyone's blogs and emails for today. All interesting.

At 11 a.m. took the dogs downtown to get their baths and at 2:30 had to go pick them up. I drove on the back road - I should just start calling it Lake Street so you know where I mean when I tell you next time - and there were about 100 deer between the cemetery and the hill. So pretty and unafraid. Took a few more pictures. The dogs are all clean and brushed now, and she cut their toenails so I don't have to do that either. I let them run home alongside the car from the corner to our house so they got a little exercise.

Bonnie brought back a container about 11:30 and some banana nut muffins. She said they were a peace offering because she was worried that Craig had burned my container heating up some tamales I sent home with them. But it was probably already burned. It's only a plastic cube anyway. I kept the muffins.

So we invited her to come to lunch at Rendezvous Pointe with us. They had some braised? pork chops and mashed potatoes and gravy. It came with sauerkraut, but several of us declined the sauerkraut. The salad bar is always delicious and there was pumpkin bread with cream cheese. Joe had to get some new batteries for his hearing aids there today, so that's why we went. Bonnie stayed and we had a good chat. Since Sandra gave me the atomic clock, I've been trying to get all the displays to work right. Kept showing Eastern time. Bonnie gave it a try and got further than I have - it's got the right time, but now it won't show the outdoor temperature. I was going to take the batteries on the outdoor sensor out and back in, but haven't got to that yet.

Rollie was there for lunch and it was kind of funny that he said he'd been reading the blog and wanted to know if I'd found my black knit pants (missing from the trip to Vegas) yet. And no they haven't showed up anywhere. I'm beginning to think I must have had a really good time somewhere, but just can't remember it.

Sitting on the phone with the centurytel guy the second time took until time to cook dinner and there was the day.

Perhaps tomorrow or by the weekend I can get the new camera software installed and start getting pictures on to the blog again.

Gas Explosion in Downtown Bozeman

Charm sent this. There were some good photos but I couldn't get them to copy/paste. If you want to see pictures, there are some links below. In there somewhere I read that this was #2 in the nation for twitters - maybe tweats? today. I thought the twitters were boring, but the other stuff was good. Amazing to me to see the helicopter videos right on the computer screen.

A natural gas explosion early this morning in downtown Bozeman destroyed several businesses, including two bars, an art gallery and the American Legion. Information is still coming in, but so far, there’s no confirmation on reports of possible injuries or casualties. The explosion happened at 8:12 a.m. at Boodles bar and restaurant and spread from there, destroying the nearby Rockin R bar, the Montana Trails Gallery and the American Legion. Starkey’s Deli is also burning but crews are hopeful to stop the blaze there on that side of the site. On the other side, the Rockin R is destroyed, but crews are working to stop it there, so it doesn’t spread into the Montana Rug Gallery. City officials said at a press conference this morning that one gas line is off, but others are still on—to make sure gas isn’t building up in other places. Crews haven’t been able to get into rubble to check for injured people or casualties. Bozeman City Manager Chris Kukulski said at the press conference: “There’s so much damage there and so much fire there that we can’t get our crews in to assess at this time ... to do the kind of searches we typically do.” NewWest.Net Bozeman editor Lucia Stewart says there’s glass scattered for seven blocks and debris is spread in at least a 200-foot radius. Gov. Brian Schweitzer immediately flew in and was on hand at the press conference this morning. He promised support for those affected by the explosion—business owners, workers and the likes. He encouraged people to call the Department of Commerce for help at 841-2700 Main street is all closed, but officials said parts of down may open soon. The 100 block of east Main is likely to be closed for several days, however. Fire crews from surrounding towns are all on the scene, as are glass trucks—many business owners are walking around the site trying to figure out what to do with their stores now that the glass is broken out. Many are boarding up their windows. There’s some amazing photographs and on-the-scene information coming out of Twitter. Go here (#bozexplod) to see the tweets and here to see some photographs. Watch superjaberwocky’s Twitter feed here —so far the most updates. You can also follow live coverage on KMMS here. or see coverage here from the Bozeman Chronicle or here from KBXZ. Here’s a few photographs from Craig Dugas, who also has a bunch of photos from right after the explosion here: and on his Flickr page here.

Wednesday March 4 2009

This might show better the snow drift in the

back yard. I figure the deck is about 3' high.

Quiet morning. Didn't do much except to get myself going and looked at email for a while. Fixed Joe some lunch, showered and was ready to go to my Dr. appointment by 2:00. I didn't have to wait and found my thyroid is doing fine according to the recent blood test. I reported to Dr. Kappenman on how the regime that he gave me for my sinuses worked- which has been pretty good - that I'd done all the things he told me to except couldn't get the glycerin spray. I asked if there was a way I could buy glycerin and add it to the solution myself, and he called the drug store and set that up.

At the drug store the pharmacist showed me how to put the glycerin into OTC saline nasal spray (no meds in it) which was very easy. For $4 I have enough for about 6 of those larger bottles of nasal spray. Remember earlier the druggist in Jackson wanted $40 to mix up a small amount. I used some and it feels really great.

Then took back a moldy loaf of bread I bought a couple of days ago and got my money back. I'm tired of how much I'm buying that rots and gets thrown in the garbage. From now on if it's spoiled it's going back for a refund. Got some "fresh" vegetables and a few things on their sale. Then went to the car wash and got the car a bath. Before mud obscured the view out the back windows, so it's clean now. I photographed more deer, but the other drivers don't like me stopping in the road!

The box Debbie sent me UPS with my tote bag I left in Beverly's garage came today. My black pants weren't in it.

Computer has not been quite right. Bonnie called and said Cheyenne would come over after he got off work and see if he could get it working better. He spent quite a bit of time this afternoon trying to get it right. I still have to call Centurytel to get the wireless box looked at - tomorrow for sure. My icon says the wireless is connected but there is no signal and the lights on the box aren't lit the way they were before. But here I am on the blog. Symantec is running and has been for about 3 hours now -removing files. Bonnie and I talked again and I have to check to see if we can get that direct flight to Atlanta from Jackson. Didn't get that done today though. Cousin Iris also called; she will be going there on the 16th and home on 5/5, so that is the time frame we're looking at.

I went back and put another story into yesterday's blog - just in case you missed it. We had some lobster for dinner, and it was good.

Tuesday March 3 2009

This is Sandra's pony Toby who has volunteered

as a trusty steed for handicapped kids in Casper.

He is doing a wonderful pony job.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SHERAL

MY SISTER-FRIEND

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Today four of us met at Kay's out past the Cora turnoff to paint. The dogs got out of Joe's truck when he got home from coffee and jumped right into mine. They were in a vehicle all day, except I took them for a couple of good "walks". They've had their dinner and are layed down by me smooching on each other. They are ready to go to sleep.

I drove down the back way through town and photographed some deer. I can see this camera is going to be difficult to use. It has a large view screen, but no view finder. And in bright light it's impossible to see what you're taking the picture of on the screen. I knew that too, but thought maybe somehow they had improved.

After lunch we watched a movie Kay had recorded that was on HBO. The title was Taking Chance with Kevin Bacon. It was about an artist friend's son, Chance Phelps, who fought in Iraq and was killed. His father is John Phelps (a western artist). In the movie Kevin B. was the officer who accompanied the body home. We all remember when this happened - about '04. They live in Dubois.

I met Chase just after his boot camp training. He had come home to Dubois to hunt elk with his dad on his leave. He certainly was one of those special and charismatic people you only occasionally meet, kind, capable and with a wonderful smile.

I have a peculiar story about knowing John. We were at the same art show in the then brand new Headwaters Art Center. After the show everyone tears down their artwork and heads home, clearing the place out in a jiffy. I wanted to change my art show clothes into something more comfortable to drive in. So grabbed the clothes and dashed into the ladies room to change. There was this guy (John) washing his hands at the sink and I thought disgustedly "What is a man doing in the ladies room. Oh well, I'm too tired to care, just went into the larger handicap stall and slammed the door and changed. Found out as I exited I was in the men's room. ..... Now why won't my bad memory let me forget that ever happened!!

Today I got pretty far along on a pastel forest scene with a cow and calf moose in a clearing. It's turning out pretty well so far. Kay's cats were sure pretty today. On the way home I went to the framers and picked up my snow scene. I haven't named it yet. I'm going to hang it in my bedroom which has blues, and it has a lot of blue in it. I was quite disappointed that the colors in the snow pastel seemed very dulled down.

Talked to Beverly today to ask her how she made her yellow squash with onions peppers and mushrooms she served when we were down there. I fixed that to go along with Salisbury steak tonight.

Didn't hardly sleep last night. Sat on my shower stool and took another shower until all the hot water ran out, hoping that would get me all relaxed. After that I sat in my rocker and tried to get the atomic clock to work right - reading the manual. Not sure I want to mess it up by clicking the buttons yet, but guess it has to be done. The time is displaying in eastern time, two hours later than it is here. There is no instruction for that problem. Not on line either. While I was in there I registered the clock on line though.

It's still warm, over 40 today for a while, and the snow is melting. We didn't get any snow like the forecast said we could. There were stormy looking clouds around, but the sun was shining pretty much all day. Every day this week there is a chance of snow and getting colder toward the end of the week.

I enjoyed the day with the other artists, and think I'll get the pjs on and watch TV and hopefully get some good rest.