It's the Start of Another Very Busy Week

Hello Monday, the start of a very busy week, and it's damned COLD outside (-12F -24.4C). I'll be bundling up for work and apologizing to my car for having to keep her outside while I'm working, instead of semi-cozy in our unheated, but at least protected. garage. *sigh* At least I got a good workout on the treadmill. That's one positive thing about sitting at my desk. Another positive thing is putting up my daily blog post, but that's pushed away by the stack of bills to be paid that are sitting on the desk behind my keyboard. I just can't win. Every positive has a negative right now. 

We actually had a nice, relaxing day yesterday, and that 
was one very positive thing. I also had a really good 
fast-walk this morning. I suppose I can handle a little 
bit of negativity after two positive things. 

So while I'm feeling much better than a few days ago, I have a Wednesday that's stacked with both positive and negative outlooks. A morning appointment with radiology - I don't think I'll be receiving any radiation on this visit, I'm fairly sure it's more informational than directed. And in the afternoon, my wrap-up appointment with my Oncology Surgeon. I love her - she's a straight shooter and doesn't mince words. I suspect she'll be not happy that I shoveled the driveway on Friday, but I'm not really happy with that decision either - LOL. I do seem to be healing, however. 

I knew better than to shovel the driveway, but 
I felt it needed to be done. BUT it was a BAD 
idea, and I've been paying the price. I suspect 
my surgeon won't be happy with that particular 
decision. *sigh* 

I still have a lost email that I had wanted to send to the auction house we're thinking about using for some of our Southwestern items. I worked hard on that email for more than an hour, and my laptop hiccuped when I was sending it. It disappeared into cyberspace and I haven't been able to retrieve it at all, from any direction. That was a lot of work that now needs to be redone, and I have limited time in which to compose it. GRRRR

If it was merely a deleted email, I could easily get it 
back. It disappeared while I was sending it, and I 
can't find a trace of it. I'll do some more hunting later 
today. *sigh*

So, here we are, starting off another week. I'm hoping that your week will be terrific with a lot of really positive things happening, hugs, puppy dog snuffles and good news. I think we all need some good news right about now. I'll stick with living one day at a time right now ... it's not paying to look too far ahead. And I'll also start work on that lost email once again. No choice. *sigh* Have a great Monday, I'll be back tomorrow. Slava Ukraini. 

It's Time To Think About Cleaning the House for Sharon's Visit

Sunday was a somewhat lazy day. DH and I spent time in the garden, we gathered up sticks and brush and dropped them over at recycling, and we watched TV. DH fell asleep in mid-afternoon, so I got a little bit of computer time, but not quite enough to clear up the stacked-up emails on all three accounts that I use. Still, I got two of them cleared and up-to-date. That's better than it had been. 

I'm not using this program, but seriously might consider 
using it for my phone emails, which I simply can't 
keep up with and which can't be mass-deleted. I pretty 
well keep up with my computer email addresses, and I 
don't use Google for my email on my computers, but I 
do on my phone, and I absolutely HATE it. 

I've started casting a serious eye over the house, cataloging what needs to be cleaned first in my mind before Sharon arrives at the end of the month. It's actually not horrid. The kitchen is clean, of course. That room is constantly cleaned on a regular schedule. The bathrooms - the guest bathroom and the shower room are also clean, although I do need to scrub the floors in both of them. The sinks and counters are in excellent shape since I've been using the guest bathroom regularly because of my braces and the various extra things I have to use to keep my teeth in happy, clean and good health. 

Aside from mouthwash, toothbrush and toothpaste, I 
also use flossers and my oral irrigator to clean my 
teeth several times every day. I don't have one of these 
at the shop, so there I'm just using floss and brushing. 
But I've found the "water pick" to be invaluable, 
and use it every time I need to at home. It takes up 
counter space - minimal, but still...space.

The living room will need a seriously good vacuum and dust, but again, it's not too bad. The table is cluttered, but that only makes sense since I sleep there, so there are a few things (like charging cables and ear buds) that I keep handy. Still, it's again mostly a matter of getting the dust and any cobwebs taken care of. With the extra-high vaulted ceiling, there are always some cobwebs that escape my initial glances and only get caught in a serious clean. 

It's actually pretty easy to clean any minimal cobwebs from 
the ceiling. It's a bit harder to clean them from my 
copper dragon chandelier. But, I love my dragon, and 
love having him cleaned up and ready to see Sharon 
every year. 

Sharon's Room will take a bit more work. I have the portable clothes rack set up in that room, with my Mom's dresses arrayed on it. I'm not sure I'll have room in the closet for the rack. I'll have to check. Then, it's vacuuming, dusting, and a general clean. I can't open the windows for a good airing, the windows need replacement and if I opened any of them, I wouldn't be able to close them again. So, I might set up a fan in there to get the air circulated. It's a bummer about the windows, but it's an expense since we really need ALL of the windows in the house replaced. 

I have an old-style fan that I keep on the 
bureau in Sharon's room. We never know 
what the weather or temps will be when she 
gets here. It could be upper 90's hot, 
or it could be hints-of-snow cold. We've 
had it all, over the years she's been coming 
up for the State Fair. 

After that, there's just general cleaning - dusting the glass shelving for my dragons, vacuuming the hallway, and making sure that I have access to and can use the second sink in the Master Bathroom. I usually just let DH have that bathroom for himself (he's not the neatest guy in the world), but I'll need to use my sink while Sharon is here using the guest bathroom. DH will just have to tolerate me for a short time, and I'll have to tolerate him. We don't share spaces easily - LOL, but we'll work it out. It's only for a few days. 

I have always dusted first, then vacuumed. It made 
sense to me because dust settles in the lowest 
spot it can reach. Your vacuum is the final step in 
getting a clean room. So, I'll stick to that formula 
this year again. It seems to be common sense. 

All told, it's not too bad. I'll start working on this next week on my "days off", between my regular cooking and laundry. It'll all work out, I'm sure. It always seems to, and the house is actually a lot cleaner this year than it has been in some of the years past. When it's done, I feel quite accomplished and ready to face another year of spot cleaning instead of intensive cleaning. Have an excellent Monday and Slava Ukraini. I'll be back tomorrow. 

Thoughts Of An "Idyllic" Past

Yesterday's "unintentional experiment" actually seemed to work quite well - at least that's the feedback I received from a variety of readers. I'm pleased about that, because AOL is being skanky in the early hours. I suspect that's when they make an attempt to do some serious coding and bug fixing behind the scenes. It isn't working very well - pulls me to a screeching halt. But yesterday's emergency altered posting rotation worked, and I even forgot to mention that yesterday's post was post number 2700 in my blog! Yes, 2700 posts of good, bad and boring (on occasion). Yippee! 

Yesterday was the 2700th post in my blog. I've been
doing my daily blog for a long time and love that so
many of you tag along for the ride. 

So - email. We love it, we hate it, and we have to have it. I'm not actually that fond of AOL. There are a lot of portals and mail options out there, it's more a familiarity and the fact that I can operate it in my sleep (as I have proved many times with my early morning posts). But I have to at least look at other options. So ... besides Microsoft's "Outlook" and Google's "G-Mail", what other email options are out there? I doubt I'll ever actually change - I've got hundreds of personal and business contacts that nail me into my AOL addresses (I operate four different active email addresses and DH has one). Still, it never hurts to look. 

Does anyone actually write letters any more? I think
having that physical piece of paper with thought
behind it is sometimes a wonderful thing to send
and receive. One of the reasons I send my holiday
cards each year is to have that enjoyment of
sending and receiving something of substance. 

Any recommendations? What do you use for your email? I suppose I'd better limit the options to those in the USA only, but that's a few million options - at least it seems like it. And what about Email forwarding services? Has anyone had occasion to use one and how well did it work? 

Any of you remember the old dial-up modems? I had a friend
who worked for a very high-powered computer company and
who would borrow their modem on weekends so that we
could gather in his living room and play text games with
his computer. We've come a long way!!!

We've come such a long way from the old dial-up modems, 9600 baud speed rates, black and white monitors, clunky desktop systems, and no attached photos. I wouldn't turn my back on our progress, it's what's allowed me to have friends throughout the world, and open dialog with so many, so often. Still, sometimes those simpler days are so tempting. 

Am I becoming my grandparent? I sincerely hope not! I am older,
certainly, but I hope I'm not as set in my ways. I do think that
computers and the internet have helped all of us stay just a little younger. 

OMG - I'm turning into the old grey-haired coot sitting on his front porch rocking chair and talking about those "...crazy young-uns ..." playing in the neighborhood. I'm expecting to be meeting a fellow coot for a game of checkers and a glass of refreshing lemonade before pulling my aching bones back into an overheated house (no air conditioning in those days), a coronary-guaranteed meal of beef and potatoes with real butter, and a hard night's sleep tossing and turning in the sheets in the overheated night air. 

I wish I could write fancy addresses, but I can barely
write well enough to read my own scrawl, and if
I'm going to put time into a card, the address isn't
the part I'm concentrating on. I did, however, print
out the envelopes last night. Now I'm ready to
start decorating the backs of those. 

Pipe dreams - and so far from my reality as to be a small bit of fiction on the page. I'm not sure if that bucolic past-days history every truly existed, even in small town America. Hmmm ... But I'm going to slap photos into here and bring the results of yesterday's card marathon to the shop with me for the next stage. They are progressing very well, and with luck will begin to hit the mail by the end of next week. More or less on time. 

So,  enjoy your Thursday and the final day of November. Panic will probably strike tomorrow as you realize December has arrived, you have Christmas shopping to do, and you have less than 25 days in which to do it. Remember ... BREATHE!!! 

Winter Storm Quid is Coming

I'm looking at my calendar and it says today is the 23rd of February. Then I'm looking at my unread email list which usually increases by about 100+ a day and the last entry posted is from February 21st. Something is seriously wrong and I guess I'll have to spend some computer time at the shop trying to fine tune and get things back up and running properly. What a PITA. Still, I suppose it could be worse. No ... not really. I rely on my email and my LJ to keep in touch with my friends. So no. Right now this comes under the heading of Not A Good Thing.

I rely on email and usually get 100-200 on an average day. I can
whip through them quickly, but they actually have to be in my
in-box for me to do that. *sigh*

Assuming I can get that fixed, I'm going to enjoy this final day of our very unseasonable and very early Spring thaw. By the time I leave the shop tonight the rain will be falling and it will turn to snow overnight. The predictions are ranging from 6"-18" of snow by Saturday, so I'll be shoveling and DH will be snowblowing. If it has stopped snowing by Saturday, he'll be pulling snow off the roof Saturday morning. Darn, I was really hoping we managed to dodge the bullet on this storm, but it looks like it's put us right in the bulls-eye.

Winter Storm Quid will cut straight across Wyoming, Nebraska, Iowa
and Minnesota before going to Wisconsin and Illinois. We'll get snow -
a lot of it, because we're in the deeper blue directly north of that bright pink. 

Today is still warm, though, and no snow boots necessary. I'm reveling in that. We're living in the Frozen Northlands. Snow at this time of the year is expected and normal. What we've had these past two weeks is massively abnormal but it was wonderful. It's been a lot of fun having winter temperatures in the 60's, but it couldn't last. So bring it on, Winter. We know you well and we can handle you even though we'll grump and curse when we are trying to get to work on Friday.

Here's our winter storm names for this winter season. The one we're getting
now is Winter Storm Quid. We still have a few to go before running out
of alphabet, but it's only February. March is one of our snowiest months. 

Short and sweet today. I hope each of you has a wonderful Thursday. A shout-out to my friend Just Ann Now who sent me a beautiful greeting card featuring a covered bridge from her part of the country. It's just stunning and totally brightened my day. I'll be back here tomorrow, same bat time, same bat place.

Instant Communication - Blessing and Curse

Momentary amazement at modern technology, and a very busy day at the shop yesterday, left me totally exhausted by the time night came. Usually my mail orders are made via email - thus the term mail orders. Yesterday I had email questions back and forth for one order, another order was phoned in, and an international order for my friend Shruti in India.

Mail order used to be something like the Book-of-the-Month Club
or Columbia House for music. These were easy to join, but so hard
to get out of. My mail orders are filled one at a time for specific
customers. No need to fear receiving unordered and unwanted items. 

Here's the thing, though. A few years ago what Shruti and I were doing to get her order figured out and finalized would have been impossible. She wanted colored cording to use in projects, and because of modern technology, I was able to talk with her via FB Messenger, send her numerous photos of what I was choosing for her, and finally get her approval for the colors, sizes, and number of items that will be packed and put into the mail to her later today. It's my day off, but I'll push this one through while I open the store. I'd rather not keep her waiting.

I'm not a huge fan of Facebook Messenger, but for this application
it was perfect. I was able to text back and forth with Shruti,
determine that the product she originally wanted wouldn't
work for her, switch to a different product, take photos and
send her those in real time, it worked great. Her package will
go off to her today. 

All of this action took place on my smartphone - the gadget that has grown from just being a portable phone to being a full-fledged portable computer. Although I don't type my invoices out on it, I do print the shipping labels out from my phone and do so many other things. I'm totally amazed at this small, powerful computer that fits into my pants pocket.

The Vietnam War was the first war to come into our living rooms
in "real life". It wasn't splashed across a newspaper headline, it was
announced by Walter Cronkite every night as we sat down to dinner. 

For my younger friends, a hand-held phone that can be used to read books, play games, communicate via voice or text, and surf the web is almost a yawn. It's common and everyday. But I'm a bit older than my younger friends. I remember corded land lines, even party lines (those were shared telephone lines, for those of you who don't know or remember). I remember operators at switchboards and pay phones - which actually probably still exist in a few locations. I remember when bulletins on TV brought us the latest news, and I remember the Vietnam War - the first war brought into our living rooms by the media.

Human beings react to news - good and bad - often emotionally and
without a lot of thought. Tempers can flare and in today's instant
environment, that can mean anger moving into action without
fully thinking through the consequences of that action. 

It makes me wonder if we've learned anything at all. We're still at war, even though our communication has gotten so good we know what happens across the world within seconds. Communication is a two-edged sword and sometimes a bit of time and distance can grant a necessary perspective. That small waiting time between speaking in haste and acting with thought often disappears within our modern technology. So, as you're interacting with others today, take a moment to think before you speak or text. Happy Tuesday - I have my day "off" today instead of tomorrow. I'll be messed up all week because of this - LOL ...

It's A Mystery

So yesterday I mentioned that I can't get any emails on my desktop computer after August 2011. Very annoying and frustrating. However, I did discover that I can get all of my emails on my new laptop. So I was able to catch up with some yesterday morning at the shop. I'm not really understanding what's going on here, and I haven't had a chance to check and see if the other desktop computer has a similar problem or if it is just my own machine. I'm going to have to try and track this down, however, because I really need to access my emails on this computer too, not just my laptop.

All I want is to get my email cleanly and efficiently. I've had AOL as my
email carrier since 1996. Everything I have is linked to this, although I use
three different screen names. Changing to a different system is really NOT
appealing to me after all this time, and seems like far too much work. 

The laptop is settling in nicely, though. It's big - almost embarrassingly huge - but the screen is rather amazing and it seems to understand my inability to take full command of the Starship until I've settled through my learning curve. I suppose that's a positive thing.

I'm not quite ready for the Captain's chair on the bridge of my laptop,
but I'm trying my best to understand it and get it to do what I need done. 

On the personal side, my eye is still swollen but looking better. Today is the last day that I have to use the ointment three times, starting tomorrow I'll be able to just use it at bedtime for a week. I'll be so relieved when I don't have to use it at all and maybe can begin seeing without a curtain of goo in front of me. It's been a month of goo so far and I am a great fan of clarity. I'm hoping that soon this whole nightmare will be behind me.

A 17-pound turkey. What was he THINKING? 

I left DH clear instructions for his Thanksgiving shopping trip to the grocery. It was a list of pretty standard stuff - potatoes, corn, broccoli, and a 12 pound turkey. He wanted to get the bird on his own because he had it in his mind that he could get a better deal at Target than at our local grocer's. He was probably right. But he ended up with a 17 POUND TURKEY. For just the two of us. Oy! We'll be eating turkey leftovers until Christmas!

Happy Friday, everyone. Enjoy the end of your week :-)

Moving On and Frustrations

First of all, I survived my surgery and thank all of you for your very kind thoughts and good wishes. I'm really hoping I don't have to go through anything like that again in my future, but it went quite smoothly and I actually got most of what I needed to, accomplished during the day. After this morning's writing I only have a bit more than 6000 words left before winning NaNoWriMo again for the third year. I got a lot written yesterday because I was supposed to be a bit quiet after the surgery, so I sat down and wrote another 2000+ words. DH spoiled me with bar-b-qued ribs for dinner along with a gourmet cupcake for dessert. Yummy!

I do love gourmet cupcakes. So yummy! 

I'm frustrated right now because I'm having all kinds of problems with my AOL email accounts. My main account which I use constantly suddenly isn't allowing any new mail to show. I can't access anything newer than August, 2011. Three out of my five accounts are compromised in this fashion and I can't get in touch with an agent to figure out what's going on. Getting this resolved is my NUMBER ONE PRIORITY today.

I'm about to pull my hair out over this email issue. It's more than
frustrating. It also means I can't get order confirmations, questions
from customers and general comments from daily subscriptions.
SO NOT HAPPY! 

So I'm really happy on the one hand, and really cranky on the other. Life could be so easy...but it's just not. *sigh* Happy Thursday everyone. I hope yours runs a bit smoother than mine has lately. I'll be back with more tomorrow, and thanks once more for all of the kind thoughts and wishes for my eye surgery.