Inside

Inside a laptop. The guts.

Ouch!

I had never taken a laptop apart before, and if I have my say - will never do it again. To remove the bevel off the display I had to really pinch my fingers. But for me to take a picture while they were pinched, don't you think that rather odd?  My blogging must be some kind of addiction or obsession. Here is a photo opportunity for the blog. Oh, dear.

I still have very little in the posting department. I am gearing up for a big family get together at my place this Saturday. Since I did not have the fourth of July because of the outbreak of headaches, I am making up for it with a Labor Day bash. Who knows, I may change my holiday to this one. It was getting to the point where nobody could see the fireworks from my house anyway.

Empty

Nothing, I've got nothing. The photo above was taken at the work parking lot when I saw cloud reflection in the Volkswagen beetle parked next to me.

Seriously though, I have had nothing to write about. Have not read any blogs - I am so far behind. Either my week has been very boring or very busy. I can't decide because I can't remember. I know that I worked on my brother's computer yesterday and nearly rendered the darn thing useless. There was so much wrong each time I tried to fix something, I found a new problem I had to fix before I could continue and I never even got to any original problems. Sheesh.

Just plodding along. I have to go and read all your blogs now because I can't remember the last time I did. I don't know if I am running out of steam or if this is just a lull.

Wait, it's coming back to me. I had a busy week. Ah.

Passages

August has been busy. I threw a photo of Cheech up here today. He is looking at me as if I am going to make him move or something. Sort of like "What? What did I do? What do you want from me? Can't you just leave me alone?" The dogs do not like the camera.

My niece lost her baby over the week-end. She was only 11 weeks along and they told her the baby stopped developing at six weeks. My daughter told me two weeks ago that she thought that my niece was pushing herself while bike riding. hula hooping etc... I was not around them as much as my daughter was so, who is to know? It was a stressful time in the ER on Sunday night.

My two older sisters lost their first child. But they went on to have more children. My niece and her husband went to stay with my sister (her Mom). I thought it was because she wanted to be with her Mom (that is probably part of it) but came to find out they have another festival in that area this week-end. Her husband plays guitar and sings at the festivals for donations or gets paid. I am never quite certain of the circumstances. I don't ask.

I am not positive what their plans will be when the dust settles. They had been staying with me in a camper in my driveway. Don't ask. Let me just put it this way: I had that little girl a lot when she was growing up and I was  not about to let her go live in a camper in a campsite with no electricity while she is expecting.

'Nuff said.

Gearing up for a Labor Day get together for the family since I was unable to have the 4th of July. I hope that one day headache was just that. A one day episode. Grrr!

Flashback

A photo from August 2006. Holmes county, Ohio.

The visitor

My moon flower has a little visitor. At night, yet.

I am going to focus on my beautiful moon flowers, of which I happen to have an abundance of this year. I am only going to mention briefly the horrible headache I had yesterday. I slept most of the day away. I tried to manage with acetaminophen. That was not helping much. At sundown (as usual) I was feeling much better. I woke with a bit of one again this morning. Back to ibuprofen. Sigh.

I did manage a movie before the pain hit me. The Experiment with A Brody and F Whitaker. My niece happened to catch part of the movie and mentioned that she watched a video in psych class that was similar to this movie we watched.

A Tor by any other name

This image was taken from the Geograph project collection. See this photograph's page on the Geograph website for the photographer's contact details. The copyright on this image is owned by Martin Bodman and is licensed for reuse under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 license.

Tor can be the rock pictured above, or it can be what I have had my nose stuck in for the past two days. Anonymous browsing. I had such a hard time saying the word anonymity. An non nim itty.  Anon imitty. Yep. www.dictionary.com will sound the word out for you. Go ahead. Try it. Yay!

This post has nothing to do with the photo above. I just figured a picture of the topic Tor (The onion router) I have been working with would be very boring. Why an onion? Layers, I think. A Vidalia, no less. I suppose I could have slapped up a photo of a vidalia onion. I love Vidalia onions. Oh well. Too late now.

What is Tor? Do you care? Well, I had to care about torvpn. I was able to download that program and circumvent my filter. If I can do it, those smart kids in high school and junior high can do it. Technology is topsy turvy. The younger set knows more than the older set. It really challenges us to stay on our toes.

Oh, one more Tor. A science fiction/fantasy site. Can't forget to mention that.

Hoopin'

Another shot of my niece - the hoop girl. She has put the hoop away for a few months (until after the baby is born). It is a wonderful exercise and will probably help her to lose the baby weight. She may be one of the lucky few who won't have much weight to lose. She may be "all baby" - as they call them.

Moon Burn

I gave one of my moonflower's a nasty sunburn. Or, would that be moon burn? Just playin' around with those free programs again. These days I spend most of my time fixing food and cleaning up the kitchen. It is getting old.

Most of us are sick. Even the dogs. They had kennel cough. I did not get them shots for it this year (we board them when we go to the reunion for three days) - they got their shots yesterday and their distemper. And flea medicine. The neighbor told my daughter their dog and cats all have fleas. We don't see any yet, but we should put the medicine on them anyway. Check. Taken care of.

I have small ear aches in both ears. Nothing too harsh. I almost always have a fan running on me (these days) and at times it causes me to get an ear ache. At home it hits my right side, at work my left. That explains why I have it in both ears. Sigh.

Trudging on through August. Work is busy - school staff are back in the buildings. Some have already brought students back, some are coming back next week.

Still playing

 I used Photo! Editor (free download)  to modify this picture. The original is below with the gray background. The modified one has the gold tones to it. The original was modified a bit with an automatic color adjuster so it is not straight out of the camera, either. Both were given a rounded edge frame from the (also free) program Photoscape.

Headache update. What can I say? Not a single migraine since I began the Neurontin (Gabapentin). I don't like the monopoly of pharmaceutical manufacturers but I do like not having any migraines. I'll just say it as simple as that. It is what it is.

You can read more here and here.

My home has been very active the past month. I have my daughter back living with me and her beau (from Florida). I have my niece and her husband staying (she is 9 weeks pregnant). It is fun to look up what the baby looks like and what is forming. We go here.  The way my daughter talks, this may be the closest I get to participating in the "grandmother" role. That is fine by me. I have lots of nieces and  nephews, I get a share of baby time. Don't get me wrong. That is not near the same as having your own grand-bambino/bambina, but I respect my daughters' wishes to not have children if that is what she chooses. If I wanted to guarantee that I have grand babies, I should have increased my odds by having more children.

Let's throw in a movie update while I am here. The Hunger Games. Lots of confusion in this story. I will skip reading the book unless I get laid up in bed for months at a time and need reading material. I know that the movie is geared towards the young adult. **Possible spoiler alerts - stop here***.  

To me, if you are trying to survive, you do not hang around or walk out in the open area. You keep your ass hidden in the trees and you keep moving. When a "friend" dies, you do not just hold that person (while the other killers are possibly close by) and sing to them and then bury them. Your enemies are all around you tracking you.

Many instances of this practice in the story. I am not clear why it got the publicity and acclaim it did. It was a good watch. A lot better than some of the shows I have seen. We like how they chose lesser known actors (that could have been a monetary decision) but this made it look a bit more real. For the girl to have short and dirty fingernails (not bitten) made it so much more believable than some of the better known actresses who may have insisted on having perfect manicures.

I did not care for them gussying the girls up in prom dresses during the ceremonies. Really? Have we not progressed beyond this sexist image? Apparently not. Will I watch the sequels? Perhaps. Maybe to see if they have more of a story line for the W Harrelson character.  And we always love Stanley in anything.

Oh my

I just posted the photo above and as I was thinking about a title and a subject to post about, I realized the picture matches the old saying "Pushing up daisies".  Sorry.

Either I am very busy or very lazy here in the Peruby household. I have a full house this month and spend a lot of time visiting/chatting with relatives who are here.

The days seem to be sliding through my fingertips like running water.

Julia Fractal

I was messing around with a new program I downloaded called Pinta. I opened a photo and chose edit. Then I chose julia fractal. From that image, I came up with the above. Just messin' around.

Survived

Survived another family reunion. This time with extended family members is so special to us, but alas - not everybody feels that way. Our attendance was so low this year we doubt we will have it again next year. Or, we need to change the format to a much less activity-based event.

Our first year we had over 150 attend, this year - maybe 38. It was our fourth one and the heat was so intense I believe some of us suffered a mild heat stroke. So many were dizzy and we just sat around limp. Not to mention the body odor. It was a good idea to choose burgundy color shirts for our matching tee shirts but not healthy. The heat was intense and with a dark, thick tee shirt on - well, you can imagine. Some of my family members refuse to wear them and opt for spaghetti straps and what not for a cooler outcome.

I certainly will have to do something next year. I have expressed my desire for an air conditioned building and having it inside. That seems to be the major reason for absenteeism. The blessed heat.

The party on the patio at the motel was rather tame, also. Just a few who wanted to burn the candle at both ends, and the staff finally moved them into the lobby because of motel visitors complaining. I had gone to bed long ago. I do not party any more. Especially since I am on this medication. I asked to try the bud light lime a rita. It was so delicious and I only drank 6 oz. but it knocked me on my butt. (Medicine intensified, I am sure). I am not one to follow the rules, but when I felt woozy - I stopped cold. I don't push it too much. (Any longer).

We had two siblings that could not make it this year. The first time all 8 of us have not been to the reunion. Well, the first reunion sister 1954 could not make it. Not because she did not want to, though. Most of us find it difficult to understand why they would not want to come to the reunion but you have to let stuff like this go and let people be. Their "excuse" was that they had to work but we all knew about the reunion months in advance. The actual date, anyway. And the ones who could not make it got days off just prior to the reunion and another one - they are going to the ocean in a week or two. So it isn't like they CAN'T get time off. They just decided not to. We held the reunion on a Saturday this year to make it easier for folks who have to travel and get back to work on a Monday. That backfired. All the ones who requested that option, did not show anyway. Claiming they had to work. What is up with that?

Whoops. I am not letting it go, am I?  My daughter showed up and the ones that did show - we had a fantastic time. When the heat was so bad, we got out the water balloons and the mister (sprays water). I find it nice that we have coolers full of water bottles in the same amount as soda. I did not drink one soda, all water. I crave a soda once in a while - but drink water all day.

The food was fantastic - a lot less to choose from - but there is still plenty to go around. Desserts were almost non existent this time. Some cookies, pies and nut bread and that was it. I made calico beans. Once I heard my nephew was bringing a generator (my sister told me he was bringing it for me so that I can have a fan on me) I grabbed the chance to make my beans. The generator would run fans and a crock pot or two on low. I am just grinning to think that he would bring that for me. I love that boy (he will always be my little boy to me) so much! Even though he and his mama are very close and I am so happy they are. For all the hell they have gone through with each other they are so very, very close. It just makes my heart burst.

I find it strange to hear stories about other families that do not step in and take a child if their sibling is having trouble or problems in their life. My sister has been in and out of prison and I had no problem taking her daughter into my home.  Her son was old enough to be on his own. When she moved back home in the early 80's I was working a daylight job. She was tending bar at night. I watched her little boy every night and cared for him. This is family. Her children are my children. That is how I feel. My sisters ALL feel the same way.

Anyway, reunions are a special time for me. I grumble about them. I grumble about the heat. I grumble about the work. I grumble about the money - not so much because to me, complaining about money is vulgar. If you want a wonderful time - sometimes it costs a lot of money. But (to me) you cannot put a price on family and love.

Last, but not least - headache update. Although I did not have a migraine, I had a very bad headache through out the week-end. I attribute that to sleeping (or NOT sleeping) in a motel, the heat and the upset in the schedule. And driving long distance. If I were still on my migraine medication, I certainly would have taken one. Although the pain I felt was not a classic migraine, it was bad enough to warrant a migraine pill. The migraine pill would have knocked it out of the park. Alas, I did not and just kept taking Advil which was not touching it. Many more of my relatives were suffering, too.

This morning. No headache at all. I have taken this Monday off from work (recovery day!) and will releax, wash clothes and enjoy my daughter and her beau's company. The laughter is rocking the Peruby household once again. Quiet time is over. And... the dogs come back today. Ugh!

Headed south

All the folks in this old photograph have passed, now. My father is the only one not in the picture. We are hoping to see a lot of the children/grand children/ great grand children/ great-great grand children of these folks tomorrow. Not positive we are up to great-great yet. That would be the Mother of the clan in the middle. She went blind when my father was young. Or before he was born, I don't know. Glaucoma they say.