Daily Musings Page 3

That's funny, pixie, especially because you have a misplaced modifier, so when you said "Now I don't like them" I thought you meant you don't like your brothers! Because although I only had two brothers and they were younger, they were enough to make me swear off boys for life. Now, I like men, I like baby boys, but I do not know what to do with little or schoolaged or teenaged boys!!!!

My wishes came true, I didn't give birth to any boys, but now I have two teenage girls at once! HELLLLLLLLP!

xxx, Carrie

Carrie ~ My sympathies to you. Teenage girls are soooooo trying!!! I had the same thing happen, but the good news is you survive! My daughters are 28, 27, and 24 now but subtract 11 years and they were 17, 16, and 13.
In between the 16 & 13 year old sat a 15 yr. old boy, who egged the girls on. The youngest was 8 at the time and watching all this drama going on. The 8 yr. old grew up to be the one who didn't give me ...maybe he figured the older ones had put me through enough! He is kind, considerate and does everything I ask of him w/out much hemming and hawing.

I thought about the snake issue all day today. What makes snakes different than (almost) all other land critters is that they don't have legs. Well - worms don't have legs and "we" aren't mortally terrified of them ~~ but worms don't have mouths! So it has got to be something in the no legs and big mouth physique that triggers our "flight or fight" response. Actually I like snakes - as long as they aren't a surprise. Okay - so I did do the snake hollar dance the first time Holly (cat) brought one up from the basement and left it on the kitchen floor for me - still alive. The second time - I just scooped it up and took it outside and put it in a safe place to recover from it's wound. I remind myself to wear gardening gloves in case I disturb a snake - I wouldn't want it to bite me in fear. But when I do find them - I make sure they are out of my shovel's path and go on with my work.

I have never had a face-to-face with even a little garter snake in the garden, which I find odd. When I was a child we lived in a new development with fields behind the house and we saw them in the field. I don't remember being afraid of them. I had a cat that brought home lot of little presents, but never a snake. Don't you think fear of snakes might have something to do with the fact that they do bite and some of them are poisonous? Most of them, I know, are not agressive at all, but if you don't know snakes you wouldn't know which ones to avoid.

yankee, it's the no legs and the slithery way they move for me. Not to mention how they blend with their surroundings, so that you just walk up upon them before you realize it. Thats just a heart attack waiting to happen for me!
I was wondering about tree's and leaves today. How some tree's have mild color change, while other's are extreme. Here's a few photo's from today as I was studying their color difference's.

I love the fall colors.

You know - for the next week or so, every sound in the basement will freak me out!

It is raining like the dickens out there right now. Don't you love the sound of the rain? Listen to it on the leaves, on the roof and the general 'silence' during the rain.

Debi & Pixie, I am glad and amazed you survived all those brothers. Debi that worm trick is hard core!

There are lots of mammals that bite & eat people. While these can be scary they don't send that same chill down most peoples' spine that even a harmless snake can. I think there is something unique with spiders and snakes.

Anita, the rain IS what I'm afraid to find in my basement. That has "dampened" my pleasure.

We got an inch and a half of rain last night. Thunder and lightning kept Sarah in my room all night, poor thing hates thunder. Heavy rain wakes me up, that darned skylight is noisy in the rain not to mention the lightning flashing in.
Sarah cornered a cat in her dog house this morning. There were a few tense moments and a very quick cat. LOL
She never uses the house, it was for my previous dog which was smaller. It holds the gas can for the lawn mower now.
Andy P

In terms of causing fear of snakes, does anyone suspect the Biblical snake stories that pervade our culture? I'm not really afraid of snakes, but I've never been called upon to test my bravery. I don't choose to handle them if there's a demonstration at the zoo, but I don't scream if the rangers decide it's my turn. I was always taught that if you leave the animals (including reptiles and bugs) alone, they'll leave you alone. Take nothing but pictures, leave nothing but footprints. I've pretty much stayed out of trouble that way.

Cat gifts are something altogether different!!! Once when I was an elderly child, our cat left a baby bunny on the floor of my bedroom where I would be sure to step on it when I woke up. Yucko!

Andy, with a regular digital camera, can I take cool closeups too?

xxx, Carrie

Carrie, I was hesitant to mention Biblical stories connected to the fear of snakes. They have always been referred to as EVIL in the Bible. That may well be part of the fear factor.
If your camera has a macro mode, you should be able to get good close ups, too. Check your owners manual.
Andy P

Well, today in western NY it snurfed all day. No...that's not right. It scorped...no. I just can't say the word. It snew. Yes, that's it! It snew all day. We hadn't even had a frost. But we have a wonderful weather phenomenon called 'lake effect' here. So rather large, white, cold, fluffy pieces of Lake Erie are falling from the sky and piling up around us. It's disgusting. Traffic has slowed to a crawl. I don't know if there will be school closings (doubt it), but there are some things closed this evening. so when I finally managed to get home from work, I dragged in my last few pots (my one brug was still sitting out, poor thing, but it looks ok) and some potted mints and ornamental oreganos. I'm going to make a pot of chicken soup. It'll probably all melt by tomorrow, but this is just wrong :-(

gram

Here's what gram is talking about. I posted this on the other thread too. Right now the snow looks very pretty. I guess gram and I have differing opinions. It's cold, and it's a nuisance, a definite drag on traffic, but I don't really want to live anywhere that doesn't get snow.

About the Biblical referrences, I still wonder which came first, the chicken or the egg. Are snakes used in the Bible because they freak us out, or do snakes freak us out because they are evil in the Bible? I think its the former. We tend to be freaked out by snakes so they are used to depict bad. Why else would "spineless" be considered an insult? (I do know that snakes actually have a spine-but you know what I mean.)

Somebody stop me!

Dave, I'd guess you probably weren't really expecting a serious answer to your question, but as a reader of the Bible, I can offer a short opinion. The snake was the form given to the Devil in the Garden of Eden, which is where so many negative sayings, and I suspect the innate fear that so many people have toward snakes, originated. I respect the Bible as Truth. The Bible is a wonderful Book, one everyone should read. Might learn a few things.

By the way, I'm not afraid of snakes.

We had our first frost here last night, got down to 31 at my house. Time to move the Sarracenias and VFTs to the attic for the winter. Brrrrrrrr!

Tom

What's a VFT?

Andy, my camera's owner's manual is way too long for me to read. I've tried, and I do read non-fiction for fun sometimes, but I can't tell if it's too difficult to understand, or if it's soooo uber-simplified that it's frustrating. I'll try again.

x, C.

This message was edited Oct 13, 2006 10:35 AM

OK, here's my best attempt. This is still blooming, btw. But this was taken 7.12.06. Do youse guys blow up your close-ups, or crop them? I did.

xxx, Carrie

Carrie, either or both, depending

btw, Carrie was my fav great-grandmother's name and if I had a little girl that's what I would have named her

if we don't hear from Nancy today, there are several hundred thousand people w/o power here. we know she's safe at home, anyway, because she was posting last night.

this storm got pretty nasty. state of emergency in most of the towns around here. we have about 6" of snow, but in the city of Buffalo there was 30+" of very wet snow. many, many broken & downed trees & power lines, people stuck in cars, it's a mess. I work from home on Fridays, and I have power, so I'm very lucky

gram ~a warm, safe girl~

Gram,
'
I always wanted a great-grandmother, and or a big sister. (A good big sister, not like I was!)

My real name is Carolyn, and I am named after my grandmother. I named my daughter after my great-grandmother. So my mother used to say "my mother's name was Carolyn and my daughter's name is Carolyn. My grandmother's name was Emma and my granddaughter's name is Emma!" Can you tell she was the first grandchild? After that my sister and one brother started having kids too and it all got much more complicated. But for a while there, she was living a palindrome.

xxxx, Carrie

Yea ~ What's a VFT?
Carrie, there must be an index in your manual, look for "Macro Setting".
Most of my close-ups are cropped and all the pics I post are re-sized to medium. I also sharpen them in PhotoShop.
Here is an example. The image as it came out of the camera, re-sized to post here.
Andy P

Here it is again after using the "Unsharp mask" feature in PhotoShop (to sharpen) and cropping. I would have cropped it more if it was clearer.
If you use Microsoft Windows XP there is a free re-sizer down load I can give you the addy for. Works great.

I just saw the news about the snow in Buffalo, wow.
Andy P

Andy - I need the addy for the Windows XP resizer, please. I found a beautiful caterpiller today and took a picture of it and then the batteries in my camera died and I can't get the picture out until they recharge. (Frustrated sigh.)

Yank, here ya go. http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/powertoys/xppowertoys.mspx The description is about half the way down the page and the download button is slightly lower on the right.

I got this image in an e-mail today. Feline couch potato.
Andre

Venus Fly Trap. VFT

Sorry about that!

Tom

Nancy,
I hope you have your power back and are safe & warm. I was expecting a serious answer and I appreciate your's (I'm kind of unusual in my range of silly to serious often w/o warning). Most importantly, I hope I didn't offend you.
Dave

Andy, Andy, I DO have a macro setting! I do, I do! Now all I have to do is figger out how it works, and I'm all set!

xxx, Carrie

Hi. Looks like no posts from Nancy yet? I still have power, but lost my phone service for about 24 hours, and with it my DSL. We have really been very lucky. All of our snow has melted. They are now saying that power may not be restored to all customers for another week (there are still over 300,000 homes w/o power). I guess the big problem is that the trees still had their leaves so the snow stayed on the trees and the weight broke the limbs. they are estimating damage to over 50% of the trees in the city of Buffalo. there are still some driving bans because of downed power lines and schools in the city have already been closed for Monday. it is warming up which is good for the folks w/o power, but will start the flooding. our little lake is higher than I have ever seen it. our neighbor has a little dock that he hadn't had a chance to take in yet and it is totally under water. this is one for the record books for sure.

gram

Gram, Glad that you're ok. I've been watching some of this on the news - how terrible. Sounds like the next problem may be snowmelt and rain - no power, no sump-pumps. Hope things get better real soon. Kay

Gram ~ Glad to hear from you! So sorry you got socked with this sooooo early. Hope things get better soon and have had fingers crossed in Nancy's behalf. I went through a bad ice storm a few years back, no power for 6 days. I remember how difficult it was, my heart goes out to all those people.

I hope Nancy is staying warm enough. We have been without power for days in the past but not in cold weather.
It was a very nice but cool day here. I helped a neighbor paint his garage/boat house for a couple of hours. The sun was warm and the breeze was cool. Very pleasant.

Have you ever gone to the market and forgotten to use the $1 off coupons in your wallet? I hate when I do that, especially when it's for 2 identical items. There is this one lousy 'bagger' at my store. I go to another check-out isle to avoid her and she comes over with her incessant chatter. Puts the bananas in the bottom, 2 items per bag when 8 would fit better. I got distracted and forgot the coupons this week. No big deal, but it annoys me to be so absent minded.
Here is another pic from that e-mail, Laughing dog.
Andre

I got this one in a email...

Did you ever want to do this?

every day, Andy, every day.

quick story. I think I've mentioned I'm a systems analyst (that's 'pretty' for computer geek). I went to a meeting with some out-of-town consultants one day and they said 'well, we can get started as soon as the computer guys get here'. I said 'I am the computer guys'. they just don't expect someone who looks like a 'gram', which I do, to be a techie. I kind of enjoy watching folks kind of stumble over themselves and try to figure out how to get their feet out of their mouths. I'm not really offended, but they don't know that ;0)

gram ~a geeky girl~

Go get-em Gram. lol
Andy P

Gram, I think you are wonderful!

How about this one? I hate guns but the pose is so cute.

thanks, guys.

Andy, ditto about guns, but it's cute enough to get away with it :-) think I like the couch potato best, though. maybe it's because I can relate LOL

Carrie, cool about the names in your family. I was very lucky when I was young to have 2 gr-grandmothers and a gr-grandfather still living. my nana (Carrie) lived until I was 16 and I shared a room with her for a time so we were pretty close. you've got all winter to practice with that camera now. we're going to see some pretty spiffy pics next spring.

gram

So Gram - you're the one we can ask our hardware questions? Like what would you recommend as a good PCI Video card [for gaming]?

My niece has been worried about growing old lately...she just had her 43 Birthday in Sept. and I really don't have any words to comfort her with except ...im older! So I thought I'd make her laugh instead of worrying about it. Here's a few things I've come up with.

--- I feel like my body has gotten totally out of shape, so I got my doctor's permission to join a fitness club and start exercising. I decided to take an aerobics class for seniors. I bent, twisted, gyrated, jumped up and down, and perspired for an hour. But, by the time I got my leotards on, the class was over.

I love these........

The nice thing about being senile is you can hide your own Easter eggs

I'm getting into swing dancing. Not on purpose. Some parts of my body are just prone to swinging.

Know how to prevent sagging? Just eat till the wrinkles fill out.

And my Grandfathers favorite:
--- THE SENILITY PRAYER : Grant me the senility to forget the people I never liked anyway, the good fortune to run into the ones I do, and the eyesight to tell the difference.