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....