Wednesday, February 27, 2013

A Better Connection

I have been having a hassle with my cell phone service provider lately.  I just am so fascinated with all things technological!  Email, on-line purchasing, information at my finger tips without having to travel to the library, keeping in touch with friends far and wide right from a cozy perch in front of my computer, and doing it all NOW!  Not weeks from now as in the old ways of earlier days.

BUT... when technology fails... I freak out!! Liking these new toys, I thought to upgrade my simple, (I call him 'No Nonsense'), cell phone to one just a tad 'smarter'... not too smart... like the iphone of my dreams which I can't , being so frugal, bring myself to justify owning.

Well, my new cell phone (I call him 'Little Smarty'), a multi- tasker, doesn't want to work using the towers of communication that faithful, plod along No Nonsense uses.  SO it seeks out a tower that caters to the smart crowd among cell phones, one that is more advanced and uses Smarty technology.  However, there must not be such a magic tower around here close enough to accommodate the new Little Smarty. So I have called India or the Philippians or some exotic place of outsourced jobs to request the transfer of  all my minutes and service back to 'No Nonsense'.  I spent 30 minutes one day and 60 another day and last night 80 more precious minutes trying to make the poor little rejected one come back to life!!  No success YET in resuscitating him   The nice lady last night was from the Philippians and she got my service and minutes, plus ninety extra ones, 'for my inconvenience', transferred.  BUT, it seems that 'No Nonsense is miffed for being jilted for the newer flashy model and he now refuses to make or accept a call even with all his minutes and service in tact!!  I have apologized to 'No Nonsense'  for casting him aside so maybe today he'll forgive me and let me make a call!!  Each time I try to make a call the nice "Verizon lady" wants to know if I'd like to make a collect call or use my credit card !  So this morning we have to  call again and see if we can get rid of the "Verizon lady". More minutes, i.e / $$$.

Through all this frustration a couple good things have come about, one being the 300 minutes added to my hubby's phone, which is what I use to communicate with these folks in exotic places.  The other is my affirmation that I need to keep open, every minute, my connection to the one tower, my Tower of Strength, my Lord, with whom there is always an open connection line IF I would just slow down and call upon HIM! Today's little message in the Daily Guideposts that we read everyday even seemed to be written just for me today.  Without this connection I'm sure to blunder around in frustration.  How much more important my connection be kept open to Him than to worry too much about a cell phone connection!!

Well, it is now afternoon and the nice lady from afar has finally punched the right buttons and VOILA! I now can use my little 'No Nonsense' once again!!  Maybe he forgave me after all!   So I will now continue to use the phone as a phone, my camera as a camera, and my computer for all the other things the little smarty was supposed to do.

Thought you might like to see a picture or two from Sunshine Village.
I apologize for the size of the picture at the top of my blog.  I haven't figured out how to shrink it down to a more normal size!  More techie stuff to mess with!!  It is a picture I painted yesterday as we were under a tornado watch here and as the wind and rain whipped around, the weather setting a mood to match my frustration!  It is called, Blowin' In The Wind'.

All decked out for St. Patty's Day

Some of the goodies for intermission as we gather to listen to a 'Jam' session as the local musicians come to treat us all to great music.

I am now going to do some old fashioned, low tech stuff like ironing a few shirts and making some jello for supper.

The Thought For The Day:

Lift up your eyes, despairing one,
The Lord your help will be...
You have a friend in heaven who cheers,
And calms the troubled sea.           Anonymous


Saturday, February 23, 2013

Of Parties and Pollen

I think it is really Spring here!  The live oaks are now getting their new leaves and shedding the old ones.  Along with this comes the POLLEN!  The only thing I am allergic to is live oak!  I get those itchy eyes that drive me crazy!  These beautiful breezy days with temperatures in the low 80's are so nice and I just don't like to stay inside!  So  I itch and itch some more!  Eye drops help, but not much.  The pool is so nice these days and I still go for my swim around 3 PM.  I manage to control all this a bit by coming inside and sloshing out my eyes with cold water often.
Today was especially nice as cousin Natalie and hubby Jerry had a party at their place to celebrate four birthdays.  We had a nice luncheon with birthday cake and key lime pie for dessert, YUM!  Nat's sister and brother, their spouses and her nephew along with our high school friend and her hubby, Dennis and I had a great time visiting and eating and catching up on each others 'doings'.  Here's a picture of our gathering.


 
Tomorrow we party again!  A nice lady is throwing a party... with great food of course, for the carpenters who built her new screen porch and their wives are included.  With all this good eating, we will have to roll home if we don't really practice that portion control!!

This week we have had house guests, Natalie's sister and hubby.  Janice's kitty stayed with Natalie but as we have a guest room, we had the honor of housing the people!  Her kitty and our Miss Lizzie are both 'only children' and don't like to play nice with each other so it is a better plan to keep them at separate houses.  Samantha settled in nicely at Natalie's so that was good. They will be leaving for home on Monday and it will be pretty quiet around here then.  It is always nice to have company. 

 I thought that it was time to upgrade my phone so I bought one a bit 'smarter' than my old one.  It does have some nice features, like a real keyboard to use when texting, which I do very little of but sure like when I do!  It is a touch screen phone but not a real genius like the iphone, which I have on my wish list!  (BUT I am to frugal to pay all the fees necessary to run the thing!)  SO now my so called smarter phone doesn't get as good a signal as the old simple one!   Sometimes I am ready to just toss all the 'techie' stuff which has such temperamental moods and go back to the good old days, you remember, just crank up 'Central' and when you hear "Number Please" just give the nice lady the number of your party and BINGO! she connects you right up. BUT I sure love email!  Snail mail took way too long to get an answer! Guess I have one foot in the old days and the other in this crazy present.

It is count down time now.....only 30 more days and we will head back to the hills.  The time sure went 
fast this year.  I hope to have more interesting things to write about when I have time to just be quiet for a bit and do some thinking and pulling up some good memories to share.  I'm thinking of the garden already and  getting my annual sip of sap from the old maples and looking for the crocuses to peek their heads above the melting snow. Maybe there will be some snow left,  just enough to go on a short snow shoe hike.

Miss Lizzie is telling me to quit and come to bed so I guess I'd better do just that.  Goodnight moon!!

Thursday, February 7, 2013

It's Warming Up Again

I am enjoying a lovely overcast day here.  We have had many very cool morning lately with the thermometer reading in the high 30's when we get up.  These were a bit nippy but by noontime we were into the 70's and that was just right.  Last night was warmer and we are at 74 as I write this. I am sitting on our porch/FL room sofa watching the birds at the feeder and the birdbath.  I still marvel at the big cardinal who so enjoys taking a splashy bath!
The respiratory crud has been making itself know for a couple of weeks around Sunshine Village.  Many folks affected so all social activities were cancelled for a week to try to contain it from more spreading.  It seems to have helped as no more cases this week. Thankfully we haven't caught it yet!  We are now back to enjoying our gatherings.
It is good to have cousin Natalie around again.  They will be here until the first part of March.  We have been going to the flea markets each week and we are busy studying for our American Sign Language classes.  We even went to Bingo this week at the Hall. We don't usually do that but thought we'd give it a try. We had a good time and I actually won a game!  We like the ice cream bars at intermission!!
Another fun thing is going into the village here for a great spaghetti dinner the first Thurs. of each month at the Methodist church.  They really do a wonderful job with the spaghetti and nice salad.  Then your choice of many homemade desserts.
I have been doing some knitting during our 'cold spell'.  Made a couple more of the boa scarves so popular now and am knitting myself a 'fun fur' hat to take back for those cold days we always get in April at home.  The craft classes are still going on but I have already made the Pot Luck Place Mats that will be taught this week. I taught the class last year.
Place mat  with napkin in left pocket and silverware in right pocket


All rolled up for carrying 

Well, It is another day!   I got called away while writing and am now back at it!  It reminds me of Spring at home today.  The little birds are singing and there is the smell of Spring in the air.  A great day for drying the clothes on the line with this nice breeze. Always the scents and sounds of spring bring back good memories of the days when growing up, and on a break from school, my friend Janie and I would plan a little jaunt back into the woods to spend the day.  She being a great girl scout and me just a follower in awe of learning all this survival and self efficiency stuff.  We'd stop at the general store first to get some meat..pork chops or burger then raid Mrs. P's pantry for some potatoes and maybe some carrots and onions.  Then with all in the backpack off we'd go.  The snow had melted a lot by late March or early April when we had our Easter break from school.  So we usually didn't need any snowshoes to cross the pastures.  We'd head up toward the mountain following a stream that was flowing full as it carried the new melted snow along on it's way down to the valley and the river. It wasn't far from home so we weren't long getting to a great spot where the brook split for a ways leaving a nice island there in the middle.  It was this neat place where we decided to build a lean-to and make 'camp'.  Of course we had a nice little hatchet along to hew down some small pines or some big branches from a big one.  With these and some rope we fashioned a cool lean-to.  The pine smelled so good, and provided a nice little shelter from the still chilly wind.  Next we had to fashion a fireplace on which to cook our lunch.  I think we did the fire pit first so we could roast our potatoes when it burned down a bit.  The firewood was pretty green but we managed somehow to get it going pretty good.  We spent the whole day up there building and cooking and eating.  I can still smell the fire and hear it snap and pop as we added more dead pine to it to keep it blazing.  We forgot to haul along something to sit on in our cozy cave of branches so we just cut some more for a fine settee!  Good memories.  I wonder where Janie is today?  Over the years we have lost track of one another.  I assume she is somewhere in northern Vermont, probably living the simple life with no phone or even a cell phone, back in the hills where time sort of stands still.  Sometimes when my computer doesn't respond properly or I am having trouble understanding the new cell phone, I long to just go there... get some chickens to feed...buy a couple of goats to milk, can the TV and LIVE!!!  Maybe snowshoe out into the woods and cook supper on an open fire... just for fun! 
You have a great day.... don't do to much technical stuff and stop to smell the spring or the roses or woodsmoke or feel the rain on your face or better yet let some snowflakes melt on your tongue!!