Sunday September 30

Antelope Neighbors

I called Microsoft Chat last night to ask about the problems with the computer. It was giving me about a gazillion error messages and problems, all of which I sat and wrote down as they happened. I didn't know how else to ask about this. All the tech person did was have me find and uninstall OLE which I thought was a valid program - that was as far as we got and the whole thing slowly began to crash. I did what she told me to because I figured she would have me continue on with doing something and reinstalling OLE. She said to next run the virus control and I quit that at 3 a.m. Figured I'd start again in the morning. But by morning it was dead. This began another round of calls to Best Buy and them not responding for more weeks.

Somehow I was able to coax a letter for Mixed Media meeting and upcoming show out of the Word program although many of the parts wouldn't work and the mouse eventually wouldn't respond either. Kay and I talked on the phone to tweak it for corrections. Made two dozen copies and got it addressed and ready for mailing in the morning. Then took the dogs for a ride to the mailbox on the ATV. We saw a lot of antelope.

Saturday September 29 2007

Mixed Media on the Upper Green
Counter clockwise from left - Nancy, Melita, Jose, Ruth and Pam


Photomerge Panorama Of the Valley

Looking Down the River from Pam's Deck
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Green River Running Across the Center of the Photo

Snow on the Horizon

I had started out early and got all the things done that I had planned including the mammogram which I wasn't at all sure I would get in (see yesterday's blog). And I got four - count 'em - four, which was one too many, paintings that Judy picked up and hauled home for me from Cody. I'm so grateful to her for doing this for me. But they gave her one of somebody else's and now I guess its up to me to get it back to them. How come things always get complicated?

Met up with Nancy (chauffeur), Melita, and Josie at the Rendezvous Point after we all got our blood test results. Today Mixed Media met at Pam's beautiful home on the Upper Green. The drive up north of Cora past the Place was beautiful and enjoyable visiting with the gals. Pam lives up a hill with an expansive view of the Green River Valley and the Sawtooths. It was pretty overcast so the pictures are sort of dark. When I downloaded the photos I was surprised I didn't get the Sawtooths in except for one small end of them, I guess I was just so drawn to the bright foliage. Fall colors were about as good as they are going to get.

What a wonderful day together in a special part of the world. There were six of us attending today. We first enjoyed seeing Pam's greenhouse with totally amazing Jack in the beanstalk tomato plants, and her home and artwork and then got right to painting. I worked on a colored pencil I'd started earlier, and am not real impressed with how it's turning out. Instead of the Tetons and Jenny Lake, it looks more like some tropical island in the South Pacific.

Pam had a wonderful soup for lunch (creamed carrot and butternut squash with a hint of orange juice) with delicious crusty homemade bread, a home grown cherry tomato and basil salad with balsamic dressing, and Nancy brought a yummy angel food cake with strawberries and whipped cream. There was every kind of weather, constantly changing, even a little snow. We stayed until about 4:00 or so and started home. We could see the Wind River's had a new coating of snow as we came down from the mountains. I was able to drop Joe's wool shirts off at the dry cleaners and got home about 5:30. It rained more or less all the way home, and had good puddles here at home. I really enjoyed the whole day and came home a lot more relaxed. Joe had dinner ready, leftover potroast, with the table set and everything!

Friday September 28 2007

Rocky I

Rocky II

Having a run away, so grab ahold and hang on tight. There are ten things going on all at once and I hope I get them all done. After lunch Joe remembered he had a haircut today at 2:30 and has taken off for town. The house is a total mess - bed to change, other laundry to wash and fold, floor needs vacuumed and dishes from yesterday are still needing finished up. A lot of the imperishable groceries are still sitting on the counter to be put away.

Remember that garden wagon I bought a couple of months ago? I finally put it together this morning. There were no instructions with it so I asked Joe's advice on how the washers and bolts went and all he could do was use four letter words about me buying junk from China and how I'd wish I had that $80 some day. He finally said the way I had it looked right. But I like it and it seems very sturdy and solid. So hauled the cat food from the back of the SUV to the shed, then used it to move the flower pots back to the wagon where they set all winter. Cleaned up the rock paved area they sat all summer. I cleaned leaves out of the corners, the steps and the porch, and now the wind is howling and blown them all back. I had a sack of plastic recycling sitting out there to take to the garage, and its scattered all over and the sack totally out of sight.

I need to get pretty well finished with all this because tomorrow is another busy day - mammogram, pick up blood results from Health Fair, get my prescription renewed, meet Judi to get the paintings she brought back from Cody, and go to our Mixed Media monthly painting group meeting from 9:30 until about 4. Then of course Joe will want me home to have dinner on the table by 6. We're going to be able to carpool to the meeting. It's on the Upper Green near The Place. I'll have to be out of here by 7 or 7:30.

The biggest problem I'm trying to deal with today is - remember those 15000 messages I said were sitting on the server? Well they finally sent a email that my mail was about to the quota and I'd have to get rid of some of them. I knew it was happening but hadn't quite figured out what to do about it, because all I could see to do is that you had to click and delete 10 at a time. I had done that once in a while then would give up until another day. And if you're getting 50 or 60 emails a day it didn't change much. I finally asked their tech support -YES!! more tech support - (and this was the second time I inquired - when I asked about this before I was dealing with the receiver problem and they said to wait) - how to purge the entire inbox, and they said the best it could be set on was selecting and deleting 50 at a time. The place to change it was in Preferences, and I didn't find how to get to it until last night. So when I have a few minutes or want to sit down, I sit and delete messages - over and over and over and over. Then, guess what???...... they all go into the trash folder and you have to delete them the same way out of there, or it doesn't take your quota down at all until it is emptied too. Cannot purge it either.

I found the setting that was causing all the trouble while I was reading help and clicking all the buttons. It has a default setting that makes it save a copy of everything that is downloaded into my Outlook Express, so every email has been getting saved on the hughes.net mail for about a year now. And for some reason NOW "its" wanting to download all those backed up messages into outlook express AGAIN. The only way I can figure out how to stop it is get ALL of them out of there. I might have to read more "help", and go into the innards of the thing some more. I might have clicked something and said o.k. that I didn't mean to. I sure don't want to be spending time doing this, and I never will either, so might as well get it over with. So far I got it down to about 8500. When that's done I'll have one more issue to resolve with hughes.net mail program. There are three log in places, maybe more, customer support, mail, and myHughesNet information. All of them are seeming to want a different user name and password in order to log in. It has been driving me insane from the beginning, because every time I went there my password and sometimes even the user name would be WRONG, and I would set another password and it wouldn't like that, and another one and it wouldn't like that. When I went back again I never knew which one was right because none would work. It would tell me the page had expired and wouldn't let me back at all, like I was a hacker. That's why I never went there all this time. So I'm going to have to get that fixed in however many ways there are to do it. Doesn't even make sense, does it - not to me either.

This afternoon I got a call from their tech support I hope will be helpful in the password issue. I have to have the time to sit and go through the steps she had me write down. But I understand how it's working better now.

THEN maybe I can use my new email program which I hear is really nice that came with new new software Microsoft Office 2007 - instead of Outlook Express I will switch to MS Outlook. It has a bunch more doodads in it, but when I tried to switch some time back, there it was downloading 15,000 messages that I'd already gotten - How long would that take??? So its a good thing to be getting it taken care of, just time I don't have. Just for today and tomorrow if I don't get something you sent, send it again in a couple of days. It might have gotten deleted in the frenzy

Why am I sitting here blogging? Because I want to! I'm having a glass of milk and a caramel frosted doughnut and enjoying the quiet for a few minutes .

BTW in case you care to keep up, I wrote up the Rock Springs day in yesterday's blog.

Thursday September 27 2007

A Couple More Muddy Canyon Shots

Off early to Rock Springs. We have an appointment with Joe's eye doctor to see if he needs new glasses and will shop at Walmart. We hoped to get Joe's flu shot at the V.A. but the shots are not ready yet. Maybe also I can shop for a filter fan for over the new stove at Home Depot. Lunch and any other shopping. I have my lists all made out. Its going to be a good day for it weather wise. Hopefully while we are there I can get a copy of my last eye test from the eye doctor to send in for my soon to be expired driver's license. Then I won't have to go into the driver's license place and take the eye test. In that case I can just mail in the application with my fee this time. As long as I don't put off doing it too long.

LATER: We loaded the dogs in the back of the SUV and got away just as the sun was rising. There was a spectacular full moon setting at the same time over in the west. Took the back way to Farson, and the traffic had sure chopped up our road after the last storm, but it was better than getting in the oilfield traffic on the highway. They are also putting a bunch of passing lanes on the highway so there are delays.

We got down to R.S. about ten and went right to Walmart. I was in there two and a half hours. Joe was very patient - he walks the dogs there, has coffee in the snack bar and sits and waits. The good thing is I'm pretty stocked up for winter now. I got me a couple pair of knit PJ bottoms and tried one last night. They are really comfy. And a new pair of jeans. When I came out and we got the groceries loaded from the cart to the back of the car and the coolers, we didn't think we had enough time to have lunch and not be late to the eye doctor, so took the shorts Joe decided he didn't want that we got last time back to Penney's and got a credit on the card, then over to the Dr's. office.

Couldn't believe he was in there three hours. I finally went out to the car for a while, walked the dogs and dozed off 6 or 7 times. After the last nap I felt pretty refreshed. It was too warm in the sun though. I did remember to get the form for the eye test for my drivers license, but it had been longer than I thought since I'd had the checkup. It might not work, but I'm going to mail it off anyway and see if they take it. Otherwise I'll have to go in for the eye test before my birthday.

After Joe was done with the several tests, including the flouracine test where they inject you with dye, the Dr. told him that new glasses wouldn't do him any good. I felt really bad for him. It's pretty well established now that it's not his eyes, but what the stroke did to the part of his brain that interprets what he sees. He has another appointment in a few weeks to have a side vision test.

Joe said later he doesn't think he will get another driver's license after the one he has now expires in a couple of years because of his eyesight. It's pretty upsetting for both of us. We also talked about the heart doctor. That Dr. essentially said that nothing with his heart or medication was causing his dizziness. Joe said he wouldn't go back to Idaho Falls to see him, since he was sure it would end up with them wanting to replace the valve in his heart. I sure wouldn't want to see him go through that, and he doesn't want it either. Between everything, there doesn't appear to be any solution for all the things he's going through, especially the dizziness he has all the time.

So with breakfast very early and no lunch until almost 4 p.m. we went over to the Outlaw Inn and had chicken fried steak which was dinner. Took out the white box of leftovers to the dogs, their favorite part of the trip. Then to Home Depot to get him some pipe fittings for his septic tank project, and looked at vent fans to go over the new stove. I liked the way one of the slender Nutone fans looked. It isn't vented to the outside, but recirculates and filters the air. I think we need to have at least that. The salesman said we'd have to rip out the cabinet over the stove and I said, uh-uh. It will lower the space over the stove by 8", but I think it will work. We will think about it, get more input and maybe buy that when we go back down there about the middle of October. There happened to be a Maytag stove nearly the same model as I ordered sitting there this time, so we were able to look at it. I didn't especially like the industrial look of it, but it will be o.k. It has two ovens, a small one on top, and the large one on the bottom. When I opened the bottom oven I thought boy this is really low! - it goes clear to the floor. As in - think about lifting a 20 pound turkey out of there, but that wouldn't be that often. My friend Jackie said she has that stove and she really likes hers with the smooth cooktop, but that the oven was low. It will be a change from what I've had for 20 years to a whole different way of cooking, but I'll like it.

So it was 5 p.m. by the time we started home. Vehicles coming our way were just solid - we aren't used to this. Five years ago or so you could drive to Rock Springs and not pass that many cars. I said I was going back on the dirt because I was in no mood to do the traffic on the highway. And we did. We only passed one other truck the whole way after we turned off the pavement. I kind of missed the turn we usually take back in the boonies of Farson farms and so we just kept going heading the right direction and went right by the Big Sandy reservoir for a short ways and came out on the road where I'd walked the dogs that morning and hit our road home. We got here about 7 p.m., groceries unloaded and the cold stuff put away and things fairly back to normal by about 8:30.

Wednesday September 26 2007

More Muddy Canyon

There was a beautiful full moon last night. There's a full Moon tonight (Wed., Sept. 26) and it has a special name--the "Harvest Moon," the full Moon closest to the autumnal equinox. In the days before electric lights, farmers relied on moonlight to help them gather ripening autumn crops. The bright Harvest Moon allowed their work to continue late into the night. Now, post-Edison, we appreciate the Harvest Moon more for its beauty than its utility. Moonrise happens tonight at sunset; look east and enjoy the view!And I looked through the spotting scope at Venus in the early morning hours. I could tell it was a crescent, so that was kind of neat. Northern fall has begun with a vibrant flourish of green--that is, green Northern Lights. Another solar wind stream is due on Sept. 27th or 28th.

I got up early this morning and finished my on line appliance shopping - Maytag dishwashers. I chose the stove a week or so ago, and continued to research and decide where I was going to order it from. Lots of phone calls, and going on line to read. The stove will be a Maytag with a ceramic top. That will change my whole way of cooking when I give up the Jenn-aire with the grill top. But it will sure be easier to clean. I'll go back to broiling more instead of the grill. The new stove has two ovens. The one on top is small with a broiler. I like the idea of not heating the big oven up for an hour and a half to cook two baked potatoes. The store in Jackson that was recommended wants $1 a mile coming and going to deliver it plus installation. That is 200 miles. So I will go as we first thought with our local "mercantile" store, Falers. I've procrastinated as long as I possibly can.

It is very different shopping this way, rather than going into a store and seeing what you are going to buy. But there is no store here to do that. Everything has to be ordered. It's also confusing because the prices are different levels, but the statistics for most of them say you are getting almost the very same thing in every model. I don't get it. So I marked the one about 5th from the top of the line. The store doesn't install. I called the recommended installer. So far he doesn't answer the phone, morning or afternoon, so I can make a preliminary appointment for it.

LATER;.....This afternoon I talked to Jim at Falers and ordered the stove and dishwasher. Everything seems all set. I had to change the model number of the dishwasher because the one I rather arbitrarily chose that is online, is out of date now, and I just said o.k. I'm flexible. He sold me one with a stainless steel interior rather than polymer, otherwise it should be almost the same - oh, yes except about $200 more. They are making a special consideration of delivering beyond their 15 mile limit because Joe is good friends with one of the bosses, and they will take the old stove and dishwasher away. Rather than calling a installer to come out, Joe is going to hook them up. He did the last ones and it doesn't amount to much to plug the stove in and connect the hose on the dishwasher....he says.

We're going to Rock Springs in the morning. Joe has an eye doctor appointment for new glasses. Maybe there is a place down there I can actually look at appliances, Home Depot and John Paras I suppose. I'll look into a small recirculating filter fan that will fit under our cupboard above the stove, since the old stove was a downdraft and Joe doesn't want to put another hole in the roof for an updraft. We'll cover the ends of the old downdraft vent.

This morning is lovely and sunny. It should get warm this afternoon - 66 the weather report says. Got some of the stacks of paperwork gone through and filed in the round file, and paid some bills on line.

Tuesday September 25 2007

Muddy Canyon

Joe made his breakfast again, two rare days in a row, and he took the dogs and went to town this morning. It was pretty foggy and snow covering the ground early, but the storm is over. It was also foggy in Pinedale where 3" of snow fell. This is good because it is putting out the forest fires which have still been burning. The fire fighters have had a busy and tiring season.

Then the Dish TV repairman called and said he could come out today. He was here by maybe 10 a.m. I have a full page of typewritten notes so I could describe the problem. COULD NOT BELIEVE within moments he was able to get the dang TV to play properly. We got the second TV going too. It all seemed to be back to normal - as if nothing was ever wrong. And (although he was very kind and helpful) he probably thought it was the elderly owners not able to run the remote control. Even though we've been using this system for 10 or 11 months, and the one before it for years.

He charged me $75 for the service call even though my equipment is still on warranty. Since it was apparently alright he said he had to charge for the visit. I said I guess we needed him since we couldn't fix it. And he left. In a while I went back and tried to change channels, turn it off and back on, use the guide etc. it worked for a few channels then went right back to the original problem of snowy screen saying no signal, and no response to the remote. For some time I tried and went through all the choices, - input - selecting satellite, etc. - could not get it back with a picture. As long as it shows a certain banner on the top, the remote has no response. After spending quite some time, for some unknown reason, it held on satellite and the picture came back correctly.

I called the business and asked them if they could get the TV guy could he turn around and come back on the same service call before he got too far away but they couldn't get him. He called when he got back to their shop and we talked. He said sometimes receivers had interrmittant problems and he would order us a new receiver, since the receiver he had brought to change out was the wrong one and wasn't for our HD-DVR. Our receiver is still on the warranty and Dish pays for everything including the service call. It only has a month to go so its best to get it taken care of now. I asked if I'd get my $75 back since he didn't make the right diagnosis, and he said no, but the next one and the new receiver would be free (the receiver costs $450). I said o.k. but under protest. It will probably be another 5 days or more before he gets the new receiver and brings it out and they don't work on the weekend. What a morning. Not sure why I stressed over it so much, but I have. Need to do my calming breathing and took an herbal calm remedy. I know its just been too many broken things all at once to deal with this summer, and what I've had to go through with all of it to get it taken care of. I may go to living in a tent! And tomorrow I'm ordering the stove and dishwasher from Falers.

o.k.......I feel better now.

So after Joe got back and we had some lunch I took the dogs and we rode up to Muddy Canyon to take pictures of the fall colors, chasing the receding snow and have an outing on the ATV. It was still windy and cold, so wore my down coat and gloves and glad I had them on. It was very pretty with the colored leaves, but my camera batteries were about gone, so that was a nuisance trying to nurse it along to get pictures. Even at that I took nearly 50. Raven and Sparky had a great time too. It was the perfect thing to do,

Judi called just as I got back and she and Vicki are having fun on their Dubois/Cody/Thermopolis trip. They did Sunlight Basin this morning and Buffalo Bill Center this afternoon. She was asking about the motel in Meeteetsee where I stayed at last year so they can go to the museum there too. They picked up my paintings from the Cody Art League. Tomorrow I think they are soaking in the hot springs and then home by Thursday. It sounded like "Having a wonderful time - Wish you were here!"

Monday September 24 2007

Snowy Morning

Joe fixed his own breakfast this morning and let me keep sleeping. It seems I'm sleeping better lately than I have for years and although staying busy and getting really tired, I'm getting more rested - eventually. This is a very good thing.

Peeping through squinty slits in my eyelids first thing this morning I saw that the clouds were down below the mountain tops and gradually lowering to the valley floor. It must have rained again in the early morning hours. Shortly I could see the rain drops changing to snow flakes and pretty soon large feathery flakes were falling. It wasn't sticking at first then started piling up around the tufts of grass. By the time I got out of the shower the ground was white. Snow fell more or less all morning, often big fat flakes. By afternoon it was melting off but continued to snow, just not sticking. The dogs are really holeing up in the house. If we put them out they want right back in. Its really pretty out. I love that foggy misty look. It's supposed to be nice again and in the 60s in a day or so.

Joe was going to town to get some things he needed, but the weather has changed his mind about that. He's been bugging me since the middle of last week about when I'm going to town again. I'd been the day before he decided he wanted soemthing, but I'm not going until we have to go to Rock Springs on Thursday for his eye doctor appointment. Both Sandra and Charm called this morning, and enjoyed visiting with them. So the phone is back on. They weren't getting the snow staying on the ground at their places.

Sandy from the phone company wrote and said the whole system was down again. I'm sure it was off all day yesterday, and probably ever since we had that strange brown-out and power failure. The power has been fluctuating frequently lately. Betty called this afternoon and said she tried to call twice yesterday.

Except for doing the normal duties yesterdayI worked again most of the time on my painting data base. Remember I lost 2 or 3 hours of it I had done by not saving! So got it all back in and all updated. I was happy to see all the sales I had made during the last year, each time an entry changed from available to sold. Even as thorough as I tried to be updating the list I still missed entering a large new piece, so don't know if I'll reprint it again or just write it in by hand. I'm feeling in the mood do work on some of the artwork today. I have 90 pieces hanging in the barn, plus the prints, and maybe seven new ones at the framers.

And am at a place now where I can finish up getting the last comments into our WAOW membership structure for the new bylaws. Then will go on to the next thing - setting up a new Standing Rules and Outline for the officers jobs. Bet the board will be glad when I get back to working on all that. I just haven't had the ambition I had before I got sick to keep up with everything. It's been a change for me to deal with that.

The video of the moment is Lucy and Desi in The Long Long Trailer. I could hardly watch the part about taking the trailer over the mountain road. It made butterflies in my stomach. Nothing else much of interest today. There's leftover pot roast in the oven for dinner.