Wednesday, October 22, 2008

A Blog Is A Curious Thing..

A blog is a curious thing. For instance, has it ever occurred to you to wonder just how many people actually see your blog? Do you really know at all how many read your words of wisdom? I thought not. Well that is something that I began wondering about as I sat around trying to imagine first what I was going to write about next in this blog, then, more than that, whatever it is that I end up writing, will anyone actually read it at all. I mean like, why bother? Big question..


We bother because we think we have something worth saying. I guess that's it. Or it may be because we just wanted to see what it looks like up there in print. In other words, many of us really write because we do, having any one (or more) of a myriad of reasons for doing this. It can even thought to be fun to actually write something; almost anything actually, with little more inspiration or reason than that. Some people, me included, just like to carry on with pen and paper. Or, as is the case here, keyboard and screen. To support that, I have thousands of pages of pen and paper musings (not so sure they are always exactly that, but..) packed up in boxes around the house. I have thrown away thousands more pages that fell short of whatever standard I tried to apply to my writing. It is for sure that quantity like that can hardly make its way onto the pages of a blog, but still, the blog draws out the stirring that caused all that production in the first place. Yet, who reads it all? Few have read most of the boxed writings. Indeed, the large majority is unread by anyone else at all. Still we write. And when my son showed me how even I could write a blog, I fairly leaped at the chance to get to it. Of course, I spent little time wondering who might actually read whatever I was going to write, but that didn't matter much at all (still doesn't). But a few weeks into this new adventure, I have done some wondering about this minor detail of blogging, like just who reads it? So I decided that for this blog I would set that question out on the line and see if I could get any response at all. What I would like anyone who reads this blog to do is simply enter a reply. Make it as short as you like, or longer if you feel particularly prolific, but just give me a response of some kind. I would appreciate it, and I am curious. Since happenstance is the most likely way you have stumbled onto my blog in the first place, I don't imagine I will get many replies. But for whatever I do get, thank you..

Monday, September 29, 2008

September 29, 2008










It is a Sunny Day and the Cows have decided to stay in California after all..






This is the first time in a while that I have made an entry to this blog. For me it takes a little getting used to, writing in this format. One of the things I have wondered about is just who reads the blog in the first place. It seems like there are what, fifty billion or so blogs posted on the internet, and finding any one of them randomly looks to be one very remote chance. Thus it appears that self-promotion is an essential of blog posting. Truth-fully, I lack the enthusiasm for that. Just where that leaves me in terms of readership I don't know, but hey, life is full of unanswered questions..
I am also trying out a new (to me) text writer, a program called OpenOffice.org Writer. That rather laborious name is the result of some quirk where there is some other program called “Open Office”, so as I understand it, the longer moniker was conjured instead. Be that as it may, the program is free and seems to have a lot of interesting features that are less complex to understand and use. I have been using a program called Professional Write of many moons, like from the early 90's, and more and more I find it wants to balk at uses with the 'modern' operating systems like Win XP. The fact is, I can't even get the PW documents to print on anything more than my very old Epson LQ-570. So, facing a little reality, I find myself having to go a bit more modern. The fact that it is free for at least the basic version is not a small influence on my decision to try this program out.
Another effort we are trying to make here is to insert pictures!! into our blog. OK, so everybody else does it without sneezing, but remember I am a newbie, so it is an exciting venture to me. Alright, I could ask my son or daughter how they do it, since they do it all the time. Alas, I am a tad stubborn, and adventuresome, so I will go it on my own and see what I come up with. THEN I will ask..


SO.. The above is a picture of me eating lunch at a wilderness park in the Coastal Mountains of California. You get to this park by traversing several miles of winding dirt mountain roads. But once there it is one of the most serene experiences you may have felt in a while. It is national park, and fairly well maintained. That means there are campsites, rough toilet facilities and I think, running well water. There were a few RVs there, but it is all dry camping. We stumbled upon the camp by following some camp signs down a side dirt road where we found the site laced into the woods alongside a nice meadow with a small pond. It is not a casual drive to get there, but well worth the effort for those who like the peace and quiet of mountain retreat camping..


I expect I will have more to tell of this particular road trip in upcoming blog entries..

Friday, August 29, 2008

Journey's End..


This past month, July, 2008, my sister Marlene reached the end of her journey here on earth. She will be missed so very much..


Marlene Turner
1937 - 2008

Friday, August 22, 2008

That elusive "B"..

For several days I have been enchanted by that simple white on red "B" icon that showed up when I saved my daughter's blog to my Explorer Favorites list. BUT, try to find that sucker for use! I don't know, maybe it is the precious copyright material of some hopeful who imagines all will ante up big bucks to use it. If that's the case, then pathetic is the word that comes to mind. I spent hours trying to find a snatchable copy of it (I quickly learned you can't snatch it from the Favorites list, and besides, just today it disappeared even there, replaced by the mundane Windows "e" that is the universal MS symbol for 'exciting!'). I gave up in frustration. I slipped off to bed last night nearly a broken man, unsure that the world would ever reveal to me just how to gather up the little bits and bytes that make up the tiny "B" icon. Yet, almost like magic, the old days of Windows graphics began flittering through my troubled mind, and the little words 'icon' and 'bitmap' peeked out at me from behind mysterious dark clouds of nothingness (you know, that stuff that always gets in the way when you get to the good parts in your cluttered little mind). And, there I was, realizing that this was a horse that could be whipped, a mule that could be saddled, a hog that could be herded, a... well, you get the idea. In short, I knew I was onto something big and Windows was about to lose one more battle with the lessers of the world. I even celebrated my victory by daring to use the Windows useless Paint program that I am not sure I have ever used in over 15 years of Windowing. And when I did, I not only got a "B", I improved it so it is a black on red one. (OK, so I couldn't get it to go white on red. Maybe the guy that first made it has sent out vibes that turn things black when you try to make copies..) I eagerly attached it to my blog thingie on my desktop and hailed my wife, ready to proudly receive all the acclaim due my gallant effort. She came by, looked, said "that's nice dear", lightly pecked me on the cheek and sallied off to check on whether the dinner hot dogs were ready yet.

Is there no understanding or appreciation in this world, anywhere???

Sunday, August 17, 2008

Humboldt County

My wife and I just spent a few days in Humboldt County (on the north coast of California) visiting our daughter. Our son flew out from Massachusetts to join us, so it was in all a swell "two-fer" for us. There was a lot of fog in the area, but it would lift fairly early over Humboldt Bay, so it was workable for us. We stayed in our little Salem trailer at a nice KOA RV Park between Eureka and Arcata. Given that it was just above 100 degrees back home in Oroville, the cool mid-60's weather was a pleasant change.

This is mostly just a few intro lines for my new blog here, but I figured I might as well say something useful.. sort of.. We'll follow along with more later..

Thursday, August 14, 2008

Open it up!

Typing something right quick....