I was looking at my big fat beefsteak tomatoes the other day and it struck me how very green they were, so I thought I would do a photo essay of summer ending – by color. Color my world – just like we used to back in grade school, with the big 64 pack of Crayolas. I just happened to have a box with my craft supplies in the basement and they have the same waxy smell I remember.
The Crayola company first began selling crayons in 1903 and since then they have made over 200 distinctive colors. (Wikipedia link) Although many of the original colors are still around, I believe they are a bit more inventive with the names now, so I’ve decided to help them out, (see brackets).
The very green tomatoes. (Lean Green Tomato Machine, because what tomato plant isn’t this time of year)
The purple clematis is blooming. (Purple Rain, as in the Rock Star Formally Known as Prince).
The neighbors yellow Black-Eyed Susans nodding hello over the fence, (so very Mellow-Yellow).
The orange tones of fresh summer fruit – melons, nectarines and peaches. (Fruit Salad Palette)
Ripening tomatoes. (Red Hot Salsa)
The Last of the Pinks. This Dipladenia was the best plant I bought this summer, water and drought resistant (we had both) and no deadheading. It’s still hanging in there as if it was in the tropics, which it felt like some days. (Caribbean Dream Pink).
The first bouquet of fall flowers – yellow and green and pink.
White for the clouds of late summer, towering and cumulus, but looking fall-like. (Cumulus Cloud White)
Blue for the water and sky and sailboats. (The original Sky Blue can’t be beat).
And beige for the sand and the last trip to the beach. (Sandblaster Beige)
Let’s say goodbye to the last (Psychedelic Sunset) over the lake.
The first signs of fall are already here – the sound of crickets at night, sometimes on the hearth – the first drift of wood smoke in the air – the maple tree with it’s leaves dipped in paint – that first chilly morning when you have to reach for your chenille housecoat and it’s not because of the A/C – and that dreadful/wonderful/your pick pumpkin spice which saturates the season!
Class dismissed – put the crayons away and go outside and play while the sun is still high in the sky! (Sky High Blue-Green)
PS. Red for the apple for the teacher and for the harvest coming in at the farmer’s market. Speaking of farmer’s markets, I’ll be doing a restaurant review soon on a locally sourced Harvestfest Dinner (link) – so get your forks ready to join me. I hear there will be pie – as in (Very Cherry Red)!
thehomeplaceweb 
I enjoyed this exercise. Oh, those gorgeous tomatoes, green or red. These look like heritage tomatoes, like Brandywine. Are they? My favorite of your summer pictures is the single sea gull, standing, huddled in his shoulder feathers against a salty chill.
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Thanks Jo. No they’re just regular old beefsteak tomatoes, planted from one seedling in the spring. I put one beefsteak, one cherry tomato and one Roma tomato seedling in and now it’s just all a tangled mess!
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What a delightful and refreshing read – a lovely exercise!
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Thanks Anne – it was a quick post to put together while I’m trying to enjoy what’s left of summer.
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I remember as a kid going to the garden and picking a tomato, wiping it off on my shirt, and eating it right there. It wouldn’t even spoil your supper.
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I’m not a big fan of eating tomatoes (I grow them mostly for other people) but I do love the smell of a tomato and the tomato plant itself. It reminds me of summer and farm gardens. You certainly don’t get that smell or taste from a store tomato!
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This post is wonderful. I like all your colors and your perspective on the changing seasons. Your first bouquet of fall flowers is wonderful, refreshing.
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Thanks Ally. A friend brought me that bouquet from her own garden, when she came to see my new kitchen, and also because it was my birthday. I don’t grow any of those types of flowers myself, but they looked lovely together and very fall like. She found that green vase at a thrift shop, and it matched it very nicely.
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We’ve spoken of creativity: your employing the Crayola box and colors lent nostalgia and a fun creative touch to this delightful photo essay. Extremely enjoyable!
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Thanks Annie – it was a quick post while I’m busy soaking up the last of summer!
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This is a great post Joni – all the colors and all the freshness of Summer, (even though we often have not felt so fresh ourselves as we dealt with the barrage of heat and humidity that you and I sure don’t care for). You have captured the colors that are the pick of the crayon box and new colors as well. It feels like the first blush of Fall here but not to worry, Summer will kick the Fall temps to the curb next week and return full strength once again.
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Thanks Linda! It was a quick post to put together. I’m working on my Plein Air Painting one tonight, assembling pics which is fun. I hope you can get caught up and not stress over the weekend. I hope it’s a good one, and not rainy and humid.
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I enjoyed it – I have the sunflower festival today – now it is overcast, they say maybe sprinkles not in our area though (fingers crossed). I could gamble and wait until next weekend when it might be sunny and lovely, but it might rain all weekend too, so off I go.
I am not a person who likes to drive and this is a fifty-mile round trip out in the boonies and I’m never been out this way.
The directions are all surface streets as I don’t like expressways and the last 7 miles are turn left, turn right, turn left – etc. Tomorrow is the lighthouse tour. Due to the EEE virus and someone died yesterday from it (not the young girl still fighting for her life), I’m wearing long pants/shirt – it’s not a woody area as far as I can tell. There is a free festival (old-time memories type of event) at Elizabeth Park next Sunday – it is woodsy, but not deep woods – you can see through the trees and I’ll decide on that based on the weather and how much it rains this week – they say lots of rain. I might save that til next year – it is free and this is the third of fourth year for it. The second butterfly event is next Sunday 12-4 … that depends on the weather too and I went once so could pass on this one (Monarchs only) … last time it was a hot and beautiful Summer day and I saw one or maybe two butterflies, so iffy on that. After that in October, I’ll go back here to the pumpkin patch and corn maze one day (open all October weekends through the 27th) and that little cruise on the 19th (fall color cruise to look at raptors) … next year just the lavender festival in July. I worry too much about the weather and coordinating it with my paid in advance events. Yikes! I may be worrying about the EEE virus next year and spending my time on paved pathways or at Council Point Park instead. Enjoy your hopefully nice Saturday Joni.
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Sounds like you have a lot planned. Hope it is a sunny day there!
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Again, I’m sorry I didn’t write back – I knew the post yesterday would be long, even though it was not the intended sunflower post. I had a little time this morning – the lighthouse tour does not begin until 1:00 p.m. but they want us there at least 15 minutes ahead and I plan to go walk at the nature preserve before that … it looked like it would pour when I set out yesterday but it never rained and today it is already overcast but no rain as of now … heat and humidity are creeping back for later in the week – a few thunderstorms too – ugh.
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Hope you have a good day. Cloudy and gloomy here.
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Thanks Joni – gloomy and dark clouds all day long here too, but it made for an interesting sky for the lighthouse and started sprinkling on the way home. I have nodded off at least a dozen times while working on this post which I just finished,
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I was amazed you got 3 blogs up over the weekend, and walked 15 miles!
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And two were very long (probably way too long too). I was up to really late though and felt it today. I had hoped to do some Reader (still in Comments which is the problem with doing that many posts in a row … you get behind with Reader). The walking – I was okay with all the walking but coming down the lighthouse steps I messed up some muscles in my legs (fronts of my thighs) from doing that. I was really wobbly when I came down. I need to get more limber … when though?
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Hope you get to bed early!
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It was 11:00 p.m. but I need to change my routine – I need to get some balance in my life because I used to be a little more productive on weekends … since I’ve been going on longer walks, taking more pictures and writing these really long blog post, though I love all that – I feel like during the week I get nothing done … where does the time go Joni? I feel frivolous taking all this time to myself having grown up for many years with “agendas” … hmmm. I keep saying well it might rain all next weekend, better enjoy myself. It will be nice this weekend but much hotter … not just warm, but hot. It would have been better going to the sunflower festival last Saturday. I could go this Saturday I guess, when they open at 10:00 and come home and Sunday I could skip the free old-time festival at Elizabeth Park and the visit to the butterfly garden. The woman has not told me about it – she usually comments on the last post as I always send her a message on Facebook and she posts it on her Facebook page. I could go to all those three things and then get things done the following weekend … I have not begun to load things in for the Winter either. I may skip the anti-bullying walk on the 22nd – it is free so no money involved in it. Maybe just recoup and do some things that weekend and stay close to home walking wise. Now off … it is not really light or bright out but am running late (again). I seem like I am always running and scrambling around these days.
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Life is short – do what you enjoy the most and forget the rest! Winter will be here before you know it and we’ll be stuck inside and you can do all the house stuff then. I know that my house standards are not what they use to be and I don’t care!
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You are right of course and I was horrified that Saturday and Sunday night it was after midnight when I got to bed and up at 4:30 – just not a good idea. It seems if I get anything done it has to be on the weekend because the rest of the time it is on WP. I am behind with my friend who got out of grad school and cannot find a job – so she has been writing long e-mails. I have two not even opened yet. I have really low house standards these days. We are having severe weather tonight, but not near me but some rotation in the radar – our day will be tomorrow. Oh joy.
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That would not be enough sleep for me – I need a good 9 hours! Although I remember many nights when I was working, when that’s all the sleep I had – 5 or 6 hours and would feel horrible the next day but plough through it running on adrenalin and caffeine and the next night be too tired and wired to sleep. But then I worked days and afternoons and the constant switching was too hard to do when you are older. I find sometimes if I work on the blog too late, then I’m still editing in my head when I’m trying to sleep, so it’s better if I relax and read a book before bed.
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I don’t really like what I’ve done to myself and that sounds silly of course but it is just what Hugh has written about – it is constantly having your free time thinking about, writing, editing, commenting, reading – I really have to balance my time better and Winter is coming so more time inside the house but also getting to bed earlier is a better idea … I heard the flue season is going to be bad again this year.
I’m waiting a few more weeks to get my shot. I do occasionally go to bed and not pull the alarm but that is only if they say a big rain is in the morning … but haven’t done that lately as they are wrong so much! Then I get up and the sun is shining.
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I read Hugh’s last post and he made some really valid points. Do I have time to to read every post of every person I follow – no. It made me stop and think. I read all the posts of some people I follow, even a couple who post daily, because I enjoy them. Maybe with others, it’s better to just pick and chose, if you are feeling overwhelmed and lacking time. He inspired me to go through and edit my list of followers and I saw some who haven’t posted in 8 months, not likely to return ever. We don’t usually start the flu shots here until end of October as it wears off too soon, when peak flu season comes in March. If I bombard you with too many comments Linda, let me know and I’ll write less frequently!
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Hugh made some valid points and I got a post from someone I followed two years ago and was impressed with himself and I read it and unfollowed him … he made it sound like he was a struggling student and one day alluded to a book and I looked up “R.S. Noel” on Amazon – he had published a few books … yes he pops up once a year. I followed back everyone in the beginning – that is my problem and I am slowly turning some of them loose – if they are not commenting, I am not commenting and I don’t like to be like that … some people I give a little leeway. I think Shelley, Diane and Jan are the only ones who post daily and I have told each of them that I am often behind – I was caught up every night when I went to bed but can’t seem to do that anymore. I started stepping away earlier this Summer due to my arm then my “sitting too long” issue … they underdstand. When I read Hugh’s columns I find myself nodding in agreement at each one. We had a whopper storm last night and I shut down early … had two storms earlier in the day, torrential rain and have a stormy day today and tomorrow … now may rethink the sunflower jaunt – they likely will be bedraggled and it will be soggy, but I have boots and Saturday is the only nice weekend day – Sunday rainy and stormy, so there goes the old-time festival and the return to the butterfly garden, both which I was mixed on going, but would have gone to the old-time festival to try it and out and it’s free and the butterfly event to be sociable – Verne forgot to tell me about it (hoping she does not mention it because I’ll say I’ll plan on it if not stormy – we have rain all morning and storms in the afternoon currently) … so now to decide on the sunflower event or just go for a nice long walk on a paved area and take a loss on that part of the season pass. I am not frivolous with money, but am practical and filled up my gas tank too. (Just in case I got lost.) I love commenting back and forth with you Joni – if we lived closer we would be friends in real life not just virtual friends. We have the same values, background and age … lots in common. Please don’t stop commenting.
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Why don’t you just forget the sunflower field then – the fields may be a mess and there will be mobs of people and you are unsure of the directions – it sounds too stressful to me! But if its a nice sunny Sat and you’re in the mood then go! I’m worried about this weekend as my Harvestfest is on. I saw a picture of a sunflower field advertised here and it looked pretty impressive, but too far away for me to try to find too – as it’s down some country line way way out in the sticks. How is your arm by the way? Well I’m glad you don’t mind my comments. Yes, it’s too bad there is distance and a border between us. I could invite you over for a tea party. Who knows, maybe some day we’ll meet in person. I’ve often thought I’d like to rent a farmhouse in Tuscany for a month and just invite some friends to stay – no tourist agenda – everyone welcome to do whatever they want. Maybe some day when I’m working on my book……i’ll need some Italian background.
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Well you are going to laugh at what I’m going to tell you Joni.
A fellow blogger, Rebecca, lives in Tennessee. She does a post once a week or so, of what she sees on her walks, usually birds/herons, or flowers. She lives in the country. So last year she did a post about sunflowers. I told her years ago the community college I went to, I would pass a huge sunflower field on the service drive – it was gorgeous. I took my mom to see it a few times. So, I researched a little to find out if it was still there – it was part of Ford Motor Company World Headquarters. I even wrote to Ford Public Relations. Had a nice woman and she said – no, they plowed it up a few years ago and will put a Ford building there when done. She said they are planting a small field (10 acres I think) near their credit office – try again next year… So tonight before I got here, I looked again at the map to the festival – despaired a little, just don’t like the idea of getting lost, and not the crowds there – you are right. So for kicks, Googled “sunflowers at Ford Motor Company” and there is a huge field of them and a local weatherman just visited it last week. So, I got directions – only 8 miles away and I cannot get lost – I went to school in Dearborn … how difficult can it be? I’ll go there instead – now I could be honest and say I took the easy way out, but maybe I’ll just say “Sunflowers – Take 2” and let it go. These are all one type of sunflower where the others were a variety and they had zinnias and cosmos all over the place … but I can do without the kids and all the added attractions. Why did I not think of that in the beginning and save myself money? I still have the other part of the pass for the pumpkin patch – I have time to dwell on it – if I don’t go there are other places to go to see pumpkin patches – yes, not purple and other colors of pumpkin, but I can do without the wagon ride to the fields and corn maze too. So, I admit it is a cop out … I did not need to fill up with gas, nor need the map, but the map will maybe come in handy another time, another year. And if I don’t go to the lavender festival that is not the end of the world either … to me, looking at the map originally seemed easy, just 25 miles (which is a lot for me as I don’t drive all that much, just on the weekends to big parks), but it was a matter of too many twists and turns. I get my “shirt in a knot” and it’s not worth it – by myself on a road would be one thing, but someone has to rush past you or honk behind you. I’ll be going the speed limit here at the end of the street, and someone passes me up speeding and honks. We had an incident earlier today that a drunk guy was on the interstate and smashed into a state police car. The interstate is not for me – they go too fast.
Who knows, one day we may get together – I can’t cross the border as I have no passport. I was going to do that this Summer, it was on my to-do list but my post office no longer has the paperwork to fill out and I had to go to another city, then all the house issues happened so I just tabled it til next year.
I hope your Harvestfest is nice – be sure to take some pictures of the full moon. It is big tomorrow – a bigger harvest moon than usual and the harvest moon won’t look that big again for 30 years.
I would love to go to Italy – Italy and France are on my bucket list. That would be fun to do that. No pressure, but you could take a day trip if you wanted. My boss and his wife and son did that about 10 years ago years ago. His best friend and wife had twin boys – their boys and my boss’ kid were on the high school swim team So they rented a small villa in Italy for two weeks. It came with a full-sized pool out in a garden and it was near a town. Now Robb’s family and his friend’s family did not go to any tourist attractions – they stayed at the villa lounging around the entire time. The wives would walk into town every morning and get fresh groceries, lots of bread and wine and make their dinners. The other guy was into gourmet cooking so he did all the cooking. They had a great time. So funny you mention Italy as I heard this story on the news this morning – I was going to Google it to read myself, but just got the link to share with you. I think this would be a lot of fun – if you were a person who had not many possessions, it would be easy to do this – you/me with our house furnishings and me with my clutter, could not do this – but how fun! The only catch to moving there is you have to set up a business. I would not care for the snowy part, but you don’t need a car – you walk everywhere. https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/molise-italy-pay-to-move/index.html
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Wow that is an interesting article – I should learn to speak Italian. I’ve certainly read enough travel books to envision the lifeststyle and it’s certainly appealing. Not too sure what kind of business would be successful if these small villages are off the beaten tourist path, but they look close enough to Rome. The snow might be especially appealing if you didn’t have to deal with it too long. It would make a good travel book idea. I noticed library among the suggestions, but I believe they meant a bookshop, and it would have to be Italian books. Did you ever read Under the Tuscan Sun by Frances Mayes, there was also a movie? I think your nearby sunflower field seems a much more sensible option and a lot less stress. I don’t think I could deal with that many bouncy castles and slides. As for explaining the different venue, I don’t think people will mind – just say you found this other one and decided to support local instead!
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I was kind of relieved to find that other sunflower field – and reading and Googling around it looks like it is nice –
I hope I can find it and you are right – I owe no one an explanation … I can ‘fess up and say I stuck close to home or just use the sunflowers and be done with it. It might be soggy there as well, but I’m no fan of those kid attractions either … I should have read up on it more – I saw the beauty of the flowers. I have learned a lesson and not to assume I can just go where I want – I am not good with directions and construction or expressways will just get me frazzled. So if I don’t go to the pumpkin patch event, so be it – unfortunately I have wasted money before and will just get past it.
As to that Italian info … I was fascinated to hear the story on the news and then reading about the venue – so picturesque! I am not a big movie buff, but it reminded me of “The Godfather” when Michael Corleone went into hiding in a tiny town in Italy … he would walk through that small village –
later met his wife Appolonia (sp?). I could imagine spending the rest of my life there as I don’t require much entertainment – I’d be enjoying not having to worry about driving in that weather … just walking where you want to go. Buying fresh bread and produce in the street at the vendors (assuming this is done?). My days of dressing up and being vain are in the rear window – it pains me to see clothes, accessories everywhere, just as it does you. Our last life. But yes, it has appeal … just living/existing in this small town where you would know everyone and set up a little shop … but what? Bookstore is logical and it would be good if you spoke Italian, or at least read it … that would be the stumbling block for sure. I follow a photographer and he lives in a small tourist town on Vancouver Island. It’s busy in Summer, but the rest of the year, it is like a sleepy town. He does not need a car as everything is walkable and if he goes farther, he just rides a bike. He uses a small boat to go out on the water to shoot his wildlife pics. Small town sounds nice to me – going outside and not worrying you’ll get mugged … I just said to Shelley yesterday when catching up on her posts and she did one on sunrise … I said I can’t see one with no houses or trees in the way like she has a clear vista.
I told her my neighbor Marge went every morning to see the sunrise down at Bishop Park on the Detroit River. Her car was parked right at her side door and she’d leave in the pitch dark and drive to McDonalds and get coffee and her breakfast, then go watch the sunrise. She took pictures at the same time. She’d come home and get ready for work. Even after she quit working due to her COPD, she still did that every morning. I would have to go outside, open the garage, unhook the car from the trickle charger pull out, put the charger into its metal pail (it’s warm when I take it off), close the door – are you kidding? People in the neighborhood get their cars broken into every night/early morning – someone would likely hold me up. Nope, not a way to live but I am in the house when it is dark … it will me that will get mugged in broad daylight. I hate living like this and Lincoln Park is not that big – just 5 miles square but we have gang violence infiltrating from Detroit and Southwest Detroit – two separate factions.
Not a great way to live … I also used to watch “Murder She Wrote” (and betting you did too because you like murder mysteries) and used to say to my mom that I wished I could live in a small town like Cabot Cove and ride my bike around like Jessica Fletcher. I wrote a post about it one time – it was about my vivid imagination. It is long, so one time when you get a chance, here it is: https://lindaschaubblog.net/2014/02/28/back-to-the-bike-no-more-back-pedaling-on-my-nys-resolution/.
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A co-worker of mine moved to Vancouver Island after she was retired a few years, just sold her house and rented a place for a year to try it out. It’s supposed to have the mildest weather winterwise in Canada, which would be a big bonus. if you can’t go south. When you retire and have time to read, I will send you the names of several books by people who have moved to Italy. The Frances Mayes series is popular, but this past winter I read a series by another author whose name escapes me, and she found that she didn’t fit in very well with the natives, but then she was very flamboyant and artsy and had married an Italian Banker. Lots of wine drinking and bread baking in her books, she was a cook as well. I will read the Murder she Wrote Post – my mother was a big fan of the series, and still watches the reruns at 7pm. A small village on Prince Edward Island or Maine would be nice, but I did not like Nova Scotia….it was too poor and boring. I would love to live anywhere on the water – a beach house would be my dream home, but maybe one set back aways since the water levels are rising.
I could open my bookstore there, or maybe just work in one, less hassle!
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I have heard that about Nova Scotia and cold winters and snow. I think I knew that Italy had snow in the mountains, but it you didn’t have to drive as you said and you just walked around. Yes, these days with the water levels due to climate change, you’d worry about a beach house. Every park where I go that has water nearby has high water levels – so I’m wondering if I have to worry about this park where the lighthouse is tomorrow – we had torrential rain two times at least today. There is lakeshore flooding at each park that is on the water. You’d always be worrying about it, unless there are “stilts” or up on a hill like the Grosse Ile houses were – the guide said the water came up over the seawall and across the highway to the edge of their property. Being an employee is less hassle, though it would be fun to be the proprietor. Yes, I look forward to reading when I retire – it’s been years since I read like I always did on the bus – after Robb/I moved to the new office and went out on our own, I was riding with people in the building, or occasionally myself, so not as much chance to read anymore. I always liked “Murder She Wrote” – I would love to live in a small town like Cabot Cove. Did you keep in touch with your co-worker; is she still in Tofino?
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I wouldn’t mind commuting if I could read a book while doing so, like on the GO train in Toronto. No, I don’t keep in touch with my co-worker, although I am on her Facebook friend list, she seldom checks in, so I don’t know if she is happy there or not. Her mother had died a few years ago, and she has nieces out there so I think she wanted to be around family, so she moved with her boyfriend, who found a job out there. It seemed like a sudden decision to me, as I had sat beside her at one of our hospital retirees lunches and she never said a thing about it, but then I heard from one of the staff in the dept. that she had moved but maybe she was ready for a change, or just sick of our cold snowy winters. I guess when you’re retired you can live where you want. Do you ever think about moving back to Canada? I know we have crime here too, and guns, but maybe not so much. I think houses are more expensive here too. A house in Oakville now would easily sell for over a million. Anything Toronto way is crazy prices, even around here it is getting expensive, as we are getting more retirees who have sold their homes in Toronto for big prices, and then move to smaller cities for the affordability.
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I think about moving back to Canada all the time Joni. I waver every day. The house is small and easy to take care of (despite the fact that I am not diligent like I was before and am ashamed about that) but it is a cute house, paid for long ago, so I feel that moving from here would take me out of my “comfort zone” once I am retired. But I don’t like the fear of going out and worrying in broad daylight whether I might get mugged, a pit bull will come out of nowhere and attack me –
our city has gone down in recent years –
we were in receivership about 8-10 years ago, A lot of people left and at that time we had less first responders – as they retired no new ones were hired and if they needed police/fire, they just hired part-time. It has been solvent five years or so now, but it took its toll on the City.
I have lived here 53 years and still using a green card and never became a citizen –
neither did my mom … don’t want to to be honest. Don’t know if you will check in before you leave tonight for your Harvest evening. You will not believe this but I could not find the sunflower field in Dearborn. After I wrote today’s post, if it is nice tomorrow (may rain in afternoon), I may search for another way to go … the map say to turn down a street and I could not find the street, so I had to follow another street and I went to school in Dearborn when I was at the community college before I transferred downtown Detroit to finish my last two years, so I was okay when I got to the main drag in the city (and they had construction!!!) and I circled around determined to take another street (which had no name on it!!) and try again, to no avail. I was really frustrated. I still want to go. In the meantime, I went to see the other lighthouse in Belanger Park. It was supposed to be $10.00 but the security guard waived me in for free – was happy as really nothing to see but the lighthouse and view of the Detroit skyline and a nice cooperative seagull. I was going to save the post for the anniversary of the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald and will just do it tonight – hope I’m not up all night. Haven’t looked at the pics yet – was talking to a woman on the boardwalk, and she was nice, gave me a few history tips. Have fun tonight if you check in here and see this message. I’m off to write this post and look at pics –
I took a lot. If I were smart, I’d start it, finish it tomorrow. (But I’m not smart.)
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Checking in…..you should go to bed and I should to……Harvestfest was okay…..meals was just ok…..some good things some not so good……not quite as good as I expected but maybe my expectations were too high for $40? I uploaded my pics tonight but that’s it. I’m beat. When I got home I tried to take some pictures of the harvest moon but my zoom isn’t strong enough so I’ll have to steal some from Facebook. Also when I got home the smell in my bedroom above where the hive was sprayed, stinks like dead animal. So tomorrow I’m going to call the owner and ask him if that is normal – do dead wasps have a smell or was there something else in there? It’s right beside my bed. I smelt it the other day that something was funny, but today it’s very strong. He told me to give the powder 7-10 days, which is just what it is a week from last Saturday, so it can’t be the powder itself. I hope he can reassure me or come on Monday to check it out. It’s down on the floor near the hot water heater rad, so when the heat goes on will that spread it worse? It’s always something. Luckily I have another bedroom with my old bed in it although it’s not as comfortable. That’s good you wouldn’t mind moving back to Canada – it keeps your options open. I think that’s why a lot of people move after they retire – they want a fresh start, someplace with out as much upkeep. And safe, if such a thing exists anymore. I drove home in the dark tonight along a rural road I used to drive every night, after work in the dark, but that was 5 years ago, and I’m not so brave now. Don’t know if I could do that anymore. I’m so tired tonight I probably won’t be able to sleep……stayed up late reading a murder mystery and didn’t get to bed last night until 3 – I know, it’s my own fault. I’m sorry you couldn’t find the sunflower field, but maybe it’s fate trying to tell you to wait until next year. It sounds like more trouble than it’s worth, all that stress of driving in construction and unknown surroundings. Sleep on it and decide tomorrow – we’re having rain in the afternoon and I was supposed to go to an arts and crafts fair but maybe I’ll just stay home if it’s humid again. I will say tonight we certainly didn’t freeze eating outside – it was a perfect day and night, in fact a bit too hot during supper which started at 6pm……after the sun went down it was just perfect.
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Yes, I should be in bed, been up since 5:00 and I’ve been having little “sleeps” nodding off between proofreading. I proofread it before I added the gazillion pictures and always proofread one more time – kept getting heavy eyes. I think the sunflower farm was not meant to be – I should have picked a restaurant or store on Michigan Avenue and gone from there. Next year – I figured the money I saved from not paying for the lighthouse park parking fee and no butterfly event tomorrow and no gasoline to travel 50 miles (that was about $12.00 when I topped it off to ensure I had gas if I got lost) evens out and I’m not going to have angst over spending that money.
Sorry your meal was not as nice as you’d like but at least it was good wether and not rain which may have made you not go as you’re like me. Also like me … when I worked on site, in the Winter I’d come home from work and if the weather was clear (no ice/snow), I would take the car for a spin. Sometimes I’d run an errand, but seldom, mostly just to give the car a run rather than run it in the garage. It would be 6:00 p.m. but pitch dark. I came home in the dark in the dead of Winter and left in the dark to catch the bus. I was not overly concerned … I was mindful of my surroundings, but I could not do it now. I made the right choice not going back to work … not the way the crime has gotten so bad. Going down a rural road in the dark would bother me. I will stay home tomorrow – they are iffy on the start time of the rain. Those are all events to go to next year … I was going to add some variety to my blog. So you stay home and finish your book … I’ll do my housework. And likely sleep in as it isNow I’m off to bed having not read your comments, other’s comments and e-mails. At least the lighthouse I did not get lost going to it, but it was in a bad part of town – River Rouge and I was talking to the woman and said “I was worried coming through this bad part of town” … she lives right in River Rouge four miles away from the lighthouse and Belanger Park … oops. Open mouth – insert foot. Good night if you’re still there. I am shutting down, not a moment too soon.
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Good night Linda…..get some sleep and rest tomorrow! Sometimes we need to give ourselves permission to rest! I’ll read your post tomorrow. midnight now.
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I was ready to shut down – remembered the wasps – do you think there were that many to make their bodies smell? I hope your guy can come out and check it out for you. Thank goodness you have another room to sleep in. It is always something with a house.
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He seemed to think there was a lot in there, but it had only been 3 weeks so is that possible? I should google….
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PS. I left a comment on the post – it’s a shame no one read it back in 2014. Do you still have the exercise bike? You could repost it sometime when the weather is bad and you can’t get out.
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Thank you – I do have the same bike. My mom bought it for me back in 1987 and I’m going to use it again this Winter. I usually use it when I can’t walk … or I used to use it before blogging as I do comments and sometimes work on pictures to organize them. I am surprised Marge did not comment here – she must have been in the hospital at that time. She had issues when the Yahoo breach occurred – she could not get into her e-mail for the longest time as she could not remember the password, then remembered and reset her account and there was a second breach so no more e-mail for her. She was fed up and so asked me to send each post I did to her at Facebook, so did that for the rest of her days on earth. But no comments until you – how sad. Ann Marie didn’t start following me until late 2015. She usually comments, but sometimes misses them – she subscribes by e-mail.
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Your writing is so good, I’m surprised you didn’t have more comments. I can’t figure WP out, my followers increased by about 30 in the early summer, and then have been at the same stagnant 194 since then…..I think there must be some kind of algorithm at work that the more you seek out new blogs the more yours is displayed? I have stopped seeking new ones, as I have enough problems keeping up with the ones I enjoy.
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Thank you – no one but a few high school friends followed me (I had two comments by them from 2013 to November 2017). Marge, my neighbor had encouraged me to start a blog but even if I sent the link, if she was sick or in the hospital or on her phone only (in the hospital) she said she’d read it later and forgot. Ann Marie usually comments and was at that time (beginning in 2015 though) and she often misses them – these people subscribed by e-mail. In November of 2017, a blogger named “Uncle Tree” found a post because I wrote about the colors … he followed me and all of a sudden some of his followers gravitated to my blog and then it kept blossoming. But I followed a lot of people back, most of them, and they no longer comment and I have unfollowed. Now I followed the lawyer this morning as he was funny and some of the items I follow are poetry which I don’t always want to have to scratch my head and figure it out at day’s end … I can’t follow anymore people as I am also having big time problems keeping up. I have to find a better work/life balance because I am just spending so many hours here – I intended to be here just an hour and because it is raining still I stayed longer but I have to make some significant progress in the house and I have to return to Reader tonight. I spent a long time on yesterday’s post – maybe not so smart as I said at or near midnight last night. 🙂
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That’s interesting, does Uncle Tree still post?
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Yes he does Joni, but not lately – he has taken a blogging break as he’s had some heartbreaking issues in his life. He documented them in his blog: https://uncletreeshouse.com/
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PS. I find summer and fall there are always a lot of activities to go to, and things to see and then it will all die off and we’ll all hibernate for the winter. It would be nice if some of those activities could be sprinkled over the winter season, but maybe they are and I just don’t go? I bought tickets to a Xmas musical last week, planning ahead as they are always sold out months in advance.
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Well, this morning I walked at the grocery store – didn’t need anything and especially since they are calling for storms every day through Friday, some severe, I didn’t want any items for the fridge. I wanted to get a paper map which my neighbor and Robb (my boss) both said to buy and study. A map of Michigan was $10.00. I looked on Google Maps again, but this time I will redo the map after studying it on the paper map. I have to tell you though that I Googled after I left work to get some different (maybe better) directions and found a story about last weekend’s sunflower festival. So it looks like lots of people were there picking sunflowers and we’re having a rainy week. Telling myself the sunflowers won’t look as nice, nor be as plentiful, although 14 acres of sunflowers, even missing some, will still be impressive. I have a few more days to dwell on it because I still would like to go for the pumpkin patch (part of the season pass) and also lavender festival next July. The kid stuff there is probably a draw so lots of families … bounce houses, big slides, corn maze, petting farm and pony rides – will give it some thought … maybe should not have said I’d return. This was the story and I guess I cannot walk out to the fields and forego the wagon … looks like you have to do the wagon: https://expo.mlive.com/news/g66l-2019/09/6bc7ae93718957/sunflowers-fields-gather-crowds-at-debuck-family-fun-farm-festival-.html
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Saturday is supposed to be okay here – sunny…and Sunday may be okay. I would wait and see. The map sounds like a good idea…if it is detailed enough. The days until then are cloudy and rain. I didn’t walk today either, too humid after I had the library apptment, and now it’s getting dark sooner so if I don’t walk before supper I don’t feel like it after. That farm is very impressive. I see a whole bunch of zinnias too, which I love. No wonder it’s so popular with the kids, all those rides. Sounds like you have to ride to the fields on a wagon which might be better than walking if it is muddy.
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Same here – it is 74 degrees right now … it only went down to 70 degrees last night. And rain and storms today/tomorrow and rain Friday afternoon/evening … the one picture showed some mud on the floor of the wagon people were sitting in to go to the fields. They make 75 trips per day it said on the website … I had thought I’d get my walk there but maybe they don’t allow it either or maybe the farm is so big it is necessary to go by tractor pulling the wagon. I hate that I am wavering and wish I had just found it last weekend – the sunflowers would have been fresher looking, more plentiful, it was nice and cool that day and it had not rained in a while. I don’t want to talk myself out of it. I had worn my old walking shoes in case it was wet. I don’t think there is an issue with mosquitoes at this venue. I’ll wait and see. I am ready for Fall because this heat/humidity and chances for storms is not good. Last night in Midland and Saginaw (maybe 1 1/2 hours from here) they had rotation and concerns for a tornado – we have potentially severe weather slated for here today, though they’ve not gone on too much about it like last week so hopefully that means it is a routine storm. There was a barricaded gunmen right on Huron River Drive where I was driving to go to Lower Huron Metropark – there are three metroparks within about a 3-4 mile area. Right near Willow Park (I’ve not been to that one yet, though it is in the triangle of parks and bicyclists take the winding trails and go from park to park on the paved trail and I understand it is very nice … at Willow Park they shut the street off, closed the park entrance, and they could not locate people inside the park as they might hiking in the woods, as someone in the neighborhood was barricaded in his home with a rifle. That was all evening and this morning they said nothing about it. Going to look for a story online later. Want to ensure the situation is over.
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Wow that sounds scary and too close to home. I ran errands in town today and there was a torrential thunderstorm/downpour/lightening for about an hour – I was stuck inside Winners, made a dash for the car, went to the DQ for a milkshake as it was 5pm and I’d skipped lunch, then had to wait it out again for another 30 minutes, the parking lot was swamped with water, then most of the traffic lights were out on the drive home so it took me forever to get home. Should have just stayed home! We’ve had some bad storms this summer, but this was the worst. Hope you didn’t get it.
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I just looked outside and don’t believe I’m going out as the sensor light is still on and it looks very dark like it will pour down any minute – I think we have no storm til this afternoon and the evening as well. Our storm was also one of the worst of the season as it was due to that heat spike – it was 90 yesterday here. We had three different storms and the night before we had a storm too and I was worried for it, but for that storm there were five different “rotations” spotted but no tornado touchdown. One tornado touched down last night but they have not measured it yet … not near me. I’m really frustrated with the weather and am ready for Fall and hope it is not volatile. Glad you were unscathed … me too, so far. Crossing fingers for both of us.
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From Saturday on it looks all sun, but that could easily change. Yesterday when I was sitting it out in the DQ parking lot, it was so dark, all the streetlights came on!
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No wonder you stayed there a while after getting your milkshake – I would have too. I one time left the house to go to the allergist – this was after I got home from work. The allergist is two miles away – I pulled out of the driveway and it was sunny, went a little over a mile and it began storming, pouring and hailing – I could not believe it. I’d have never left had I known and it was just for routine shots, not an appointment so could have gone another time. I had little dents on the roof and hood/trunk after the hail. The dog next door is alone and has been all day – it has been whining ALL DAY LONG! It whimpers and whines then shuts up, then starts again.
I forgot to mention my arm – it is much better than the end of last year – around Christmastime was the worse and I could not pick up the blanket to move it with that arm, nor could I have any blankets on my shoulder. I tried a heating pad, the balms they advertise (didn’t like the ingredients in it – all kinds of warnings … didn’t want to use stuff with that many warnings on the label, so stopped it), and even aspirin, got some Aleve and something else – read the warnings – yes, take once in a while, not all the time – I kept waking up in the middle of the night, so I can sleep on that side now, but I still can’t life my arm all the way up to the top and range of motion is not good. I worry about it, but I was not going to go to PT in the Winter – I know me – had it happened in the Summer maybe, but my mom had the same issue and went for 6 or 8 weeks and we rented the TENS and bought a Thermofor moist heating pad and none of it helped. What needs to happen is less time at the computer – I worked at this location at the table for many years so it was not until the blogging took off (November 2017) … took a year to bother me and I think that is the same issue with sitting too long as well. I’ve researched the standing desks and Shelley has one and I asked her about it and she works like that a full day, but has an anti-fatigue mat, but I also researched it and it is not necessarily good for you to use a standing desk 100% of the time.
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That’s good that it’s better – I don’t think I could use a standing desk at all – I must be comfortable. According to the local news there was a possible tornado about 30 km east of us, where the storm moved off to late pm yesterday, some nasty cloud pictures posted online. I’m glad that didn’t hit where I was. Could not walk today either, as way too humid and rainy plus I waited for plumber to show up at Mom’s to do some minor repairs. He was great, I’m really liking signing up for that Reliance service. When I called yesterday, they wanted to sent someone last night between 7 and 11pm. Well my mom isn’t going to let anyone in that time of night, so I scheduled it for today in the pm. I guess that’s why they’re called Reliance – you can rely on them. I need to schedule a furnace check too.
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That’s a good idea having it – I think we have something you can sign up through DTE, our energy provider, and maybe I should look into it. I have a furnace check scheduled for October 26th – have highlights scheduled in the morning. I did that last time, in July, for the Summer check. I never called the HVAC place (I am on their gold plan, so you get two checkups per year, and on a faster wait list and 10% off parts/labor). I just got home from Jill (it takes about 90 minutes to 2 hours depending on how long we talk or if she has other customers) and now we only have a “window) … I hate that … I used to do it during the week and just miss a walk in the a.m. and be done with them by 9:00 a.m. as I had the first 8:00 a.m. appointment – now they have the window … annoying. So I had a noon to 5:00 p.m. window. I figured I was not going anywhere anyway after I got home as I prefer walking in the a.m., so might as well have them in. We have bad weather today – I did not walk this morning as they said there was a chance of storms this morning in the 8-11 time frame and also lightening and “light thunder” (???). I figured I didn’t need that and it’s Friday the 13th. We had a tornado touch down Wednesday night – this volatile weather is scary. I am glad I have another location for the sunflowers … it will be a beautiful day they say, but every park will be waterlogged and swampy tomorrow from three days of rain and storms.
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Woke up to torrential rain again……and it is Friday the 13th so another reason not to go anywhere today!
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I agree – I did not go out as they predicted storms – it did not storm, or rain. It has been a torrential rain for two hours – I am wondering if I should think about waiting until Sunday morning for the sunflower field at Ford … just thinking it may be muddy and they’ll be all wet? Sunday is iffy in the morning now – chance of rain. I’m not committed to doing any of these things since they are not pay events and the lady at the butterfly event, usually sends me a message on my last post (I always send it to her and she posts it on Facebook) or messages me on Facebook … she’s not, so no excuses. I wouldn’t say the sunflowers would be in good shape next weekend – likely not their peak. They are saying it will be beautiful tomorrow – sure hard to believe that now. It’s been rumbling for hours – I usually shut down if bad enough, even at work, but I didn’t get much done due to the issues with the xerox machine. There’s always next year for all of these things. 🙂
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Rained torrentially 3 times today….hope it’s done for the night. Keeping fingers crossed for tomorrow, which is supposed to be sunny later in the day. Yes, there is always next year – I didn’t get half the summer topics done that I wanted to blog about.
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I have a list of topics for all seasons in my laptop that had the disk failure issue … I’ve not taken an hour to transfer the topics off … hope you have a good time tonight if we don’t catch up – I think your weather is similar to us as we’ve said in the past … we had all that torrential rain as well and it is supposed to be nice all day today, tomorrow rainy in the afternoon, storms as well.
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PS. Is the dog whimpering because he is aware of storms and Thunder?
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No, she does not like being alone and starts whining as soon as Rita steps out the door at 7:45 a.m. and keeps it up until she returns home from work around 6:00 p.m. – she must have gone somewhere after work last night. She keeps the TV on for the dog to keep her company, but she goes into Rita’s bedroom which is directly under my kitchen window, about 10 feet from where I sit. Our houses are very close together … maybe 10 feet apart.
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That must be annoying listening to her whine all day. Does Rita know she does that? Sometimes I think people in town shouldn’t have dogs unless there is someone home often. One reason why I never had dog or cats which I like.
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Yes, it whines all day long and the dog on the corner used to bark until I went to the police and he was warned about it – next time they were called he’d get a citation. This dog is about four years old, a shelter dog. She lives alone. My mom used to spend most of 99% of her day in the kitchen. In those days Rita had two poodles (a mother and daughter) … she put them in her room before going to work and they whined and cried and barked all day long – why … they had each other for company? My mom could not go into other rooms as she had to sit on a hard chair and the other rooms were couches or easy chair – the last few years of her life, she could not go into a chair that sank that far down – difficult to get out of. So she nicely asked Rita if she could not lock her two dogs in another room or just shut her bedroom door because they were under the window because she (my mom) could not go into other rooms and even with the A/C on in the Summer, and the window closed, she could hear them all day long. Rita said “no, I’ll put my dogs where I want to.” The older one died and the second one died after my mom passed away. I can hear this dog in the Winter too. Crazy! I’m with you – if your dog whines, then put it in doggy day care (I have a high school classmate that did that with her Bichon Frise … maybe that breed are whiners as that is what Rita’s dog is) … her dog went to doggy day care every morning and she picked her up on the way home. Or don’t have a dog. Makes no sense to me at all. We had pet birds – no dogs since we moved here.
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Doggy day care – you’ve got to be kidding. Never heard of it here – yes, kennels for if you’re away on vacation, but my god that’s crazy. Why have a pet if you’re hardly ever home?
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I agree – my high school friend in North Carolina did it for years – maybe that breed (Bichon Frise) are a whiny type who cannot be left alone. They had Sarah euthanized last year as she had severe arthritis and was bline in one eye … I think doggy daycare was not so agreeable to taking care of pets with special needs. I also had a co-worker who did not do doggy daycare but put her Yorkie in a cage while she/husband were at work all day. They rode in to work together as he worked downtown and had free parking … they left the house at 7:15 a.m. and returned home by 6:00 p.m. and she said Dusty was like a maniac running all over the house when they let it out – that is wrong too. Get a dog if you’re home with them. I also know someone who has to large hounds and they are crated for many hours in the day as no one is home … it is also inhumane. When I was driving last weekend I saw a doggie daycare and spa … here is one we have here and it is a franchise and does well from what I read in stories about doggy daycare. Rita ought to do this … she was gone yesterday late in the day. I was in my room at this computer where I load my pictures, etc. and for hours on end I could hear the whining, two windows away from the kitchen and I did not have the window open … I cannot open any windows but one as my metal shutters are sealed shut … I decided to keep them down all the time and not a smart move as they cannot be moved up/down now – good for security, not for fire. Here’s a link:
https://www.caninetofive.com/dog-daycare/
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Linda, did you see the WP post about the digital climate strike on the 20th? Here’s a link. https://wordpress.com/read/feeds/25823/posts/2410839452
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Wow – thank you for sending me this link Joni, and I’m guessing you saw it in Reader? I am behind in Reader. Was caught up to one day and thought I’d finish yesterday then we had the thunder boomers. I think it is a good cause but I have not messed with any plug ins, have you? I’ve never even done my “contact me” page set-up yet. Are you going to do this or do you think anyone would notice – I guess companies that do it would make a statement.
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No, I’m not going to do it, although I think it is a worthwhile cause, I don’t want to do a plug-in and I’m afraid it will mess up my site and I won’t get it back right! Esp. with all the H.E. away, where would you go for help? I just checked under settings and I could just slide the option to on, but I’m going to just play it safe and ignore it. I don’t know if that screen just comes up with that message temporarily on the 20th, or if that means that no one can read anything on your site that day, but I don’t want to take a chance with them tampering with my site.
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I agree – I don’t want to install any plug-ins either. It is bad enough that many years ago for some reason I had a quote that I had italicized and there was an extra “italics code” in there. I didn’t know that until I started a new post and it was all in italics and there was no way to turn off the code. I went back to the previous post and could not find where I had “started” an italics and didn’t finish it … I removed the quote, didn’t help. I even edited the post and took it off and redid the post and saved/updated it … nope, that didn’t help either so had to reach out to the H.E. and they, of course, found it right away. I never did italics for the longest time!
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Hope you have returned safely from your trip.
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Well, I did return Joni and should have checked comments earlier and responded, but I got back late and wanted to finish this post (and believe it or not nodded off several times compiling and proofreading this, but it is long). I did not go to the sunflower farm because I got lost. I don’t have GPS on my phone (it’s a flip phone) and I relied on Google Maps and it was not accurate. I therefore got to a place in the road which was a fork and it was not on the map I had, so the map was essentially useless. I saw no one to ask so I drove around for a while and found a Metropark and went there for about three or so hours.
It is a big park, walked around and also stopped at a roadside stand and took pics of it and sunflowers in their garden. I have to get new directions, perhaps going to the Park where I was today, and then going to the sunflower farm from there. I don’t know, but I don’t want to lost in the sticks and want to be able to go back to the other event in October. Thank you for asking – I am mad I didn’t get there and it was a nice day though they predicted rain this morning (just sprinkles) and it sure looked like it so I have carry along rain gear.
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Well I thought you were brave for trying! I’m not keen on driving anywhere where I don’t know where I’m going, as I don’t have a GPS either on my phone or car. Sometimes I will look up google directions and print them out and watch the mileage so I know what’s coming up. I find a GPS talking to me in the car very distracting. It wasn’t a great day here, sunny (hot) and cloudy (cool) mixed, but the Pest Person came in the morning and sprayed my wasp nest – he was nice and it’s guaranteed…..but $170 for about 15 minutes work. He said to give it 10 days and I still see them he’ll redo it. He used some kind of dust but it’s not toxic. I took some pictures in case I want to do a post…..
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This time I’m checking in first before I start my post. I thought it would be pretty simple, taking a handful of pictures of the lighthouse and that was it … but it turned out there is a group of people who are in tour groups that go to all the lighthouses in North America. So I was in with them and showed my ignorance as I knew nothing about lighthouses but good thing I read the story about this lighthouse beforehand. They were all senior citizens (us in a few years) and on this one-week tour of Detroit, then Canada and end up in Niagare Falls (Canadian side) but depart from Buffalo.
They are going via a bus and were all nice. I am going to write about it now, so a little more extensive than I planned, but it’s okay as it will add a little flavor to the story which might have been boring if you’re not into lighthouses? The people who honked were driving trucks and in this day and age, you do not want to even look at them the wrong way – a few years ago a young Black woman was driving and had the right of way, but a guy in a pickup truck (Redneck … and I like Southerners, but he was a Redneck) got mad she had the right of way and not him and and he killed her for cutting in front of him. I think a rifle, can’t remember now. So I tried to pull over and all the houses were a mile away from the road – it was nice and I will see how I can map out a different way – surely it is in the same city and I can find it … it is supposed to be beautiful this Saturday, so I will give it a go anyway … if I get lost this time, well … I don’t what I will do. But it was a beautiful day anyway and saw some nice sights. When I got my car 10 years ago and it now only has 6,600 miles on it, most from the last two years when I’ve been tooling around to parks more, I got a year free of Onstar which included GPS, phone minutes and satellite radio. That was just before my mom was confined to bed and I never used any of it, but the day I bought it, the car saleswoman sent me home with the GPS on. I thought I’d lose my mind, it was rush hour and driving down a busy street and a brand-new car, my first in 21 years, and all kinds of bells and whistles compared to the ’88 Regal and I was a basket case when I got home. I sure hope the wasp guy did the trick for you and I like that he’ll respray. That is good business doing that and he must be confident he took care of it. I will keep my fingers crossed that he does not return. I am off to do my post and hopefully not in bed at 11:00ish like last night. The blogging is out of control … I am just here too many hours in a day yet I don’t catch up with everything. And I neglect everything else in my life. I have to budget my time better, but it is difficult to do so.
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Yea you definitely don’t want to look at any of these road rage guys at all. There was a case in London this summer where a 21year old guy was shot in the face when the mad guy pulled up beside him, and you hardly ever heard that kind of thing here before. Wasp situation is good – haven’t seen a single one since Friday – he must have given them a nice big dose! Re GPS, one of the reasons I dread looking for a new car (and I should be next spring), is I don’t want to have to learn all the new bells and whistles. I got in my friends new car last week, (it still had that new car smell), and the first thing I looked at was that screen beside the driver with the rear view on it – I wonder if you find you’re looking at the rear view instead of the front? Plus a whole bunch of other stuff…..my brain is tired from doing a bunch of computer stuff this afternoon – updating browsers, opening a cogeco account (30 mins. could not find the link, tech guy not very helpful), changing the printer ribbon – after 3 1/2 hrs that was enough. I have an apptment this week with library tech to figure out what I can’t figure out! But she only seems to know Macs.
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There are so many issues here and we had a woman jogger a few years ago, just running through her quiet residential district as she did every morning and she was shot in the back and killed. Every day there seems to be some other horrific story – you hate to go out of the house sometimes. That is another reason I don’t like driving. And the issues of people driving and texting and/or watching movies or videos on their phone while driving. I like surface streets as it is not going so fast, but a person texting/watching a movie at 45 mph is still dangerous. We have tons of pedestrian accidents here – fatalities and they are left lying in the street. Glad to hear your wasps are no longer at your house – I hope it stays that way for your sake, especially with this cooler air, they’ll want to come in where it is warm. It is cold in the house and below normal temps – tomorrow 20 degrees warmer. Crazy weather. We have a reporter on the radio station I listen to and he does nothing but automotive reporting – he reviews different cars and the description makes me worry about the same thing. I don’t want to climb into a car with too many bells and whistles either – my boss has an SUV that is maybe four years old and it has an information panel that he says he took forever to get adjusted to – he uses it for wireless connections and I feel like I’m from another planet when he tells me about it sometimes. I have stuff to do with the computers like archiving and the new one sits there, unused to this day and taking up a plug. My friend Ilene who you gave the info about the AOL replacement had no internet for three days. I sent he ran e-mail to ask if she was okay as I’d not heard from her in three or four days and she said Distribel was out. I know several people with Macs – never have issues. Take them out of the box and good to go and none of the issues with upgrades to new platforms like Windows makes you do. I cannot use a Mac with out system as it’s not compatible or I would have gone to a Mac before this. I resent Microsoft’s entire approach to how they handled Windows 10, first foisting it on us three years ago and now making it mandatory to have it in place by 01/10/20.
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I’m not surprised by Distrubel and AOL…..they were in Quebec and not local. I haven’t had any problems with Cogeco, haven’t even had to phone about anything. Today was the first day I called AOL (I pay $4/month for tech support) as I had forgotten how to clear the cache, and WPress said that might have been causing an issue with not being able to delete some tags. I had read somewhere that more than 14 tags meant it didn’t get shown in REader. Not sure if this is true. H.E. are away until Sept 27? but you can still email them. I’m having a few minor problems with my browser so need help from the library computer tech. AOL has it’s own browser, but I think it runs off Internet Explorer or is linked up with Google Chrome. I can’t imagine being an 80 year old and having to deal with all the computer stuff on a new car – I had a hard enough time getting my Itunes to play on it. Trying to get to bed before midnight tonight, as last night it was 2pm. I had a long nap in the afternoon, and was working on my Vole children’s book blog on which I have spent way too much time, but it was fun and it’s done now, but I have two other Arts and Crafts one’s to go up first in Sept. and also Harvestfest. It will be too hot and humid to go out much of this week….so trying to get caught up with other things like computer updates. I’m glad I don’t have to keep up to date with work computers anymore – they brought in a new system just before I left, and it was horrible, when the old one was great.
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I was surprised Ilene went with it as I thought you had given me other options after your long phone conversation with AOL and Distrubel was not one of the options. Comcast has been okay lately except for not being able to access e-mail occasionally but I had that issue where they upgraded and blocked me from work and one time I lost my internet and they could not find out the reason. Robb was on vacation and it was in the Winter and they had to keep climbing up on the pole – not only lots of snow but it was during a Polar Vortex (the first one I believe) – it was a software issue on the pole and 3 1/2 days later on a Friday night (in the dark) they found the problem (thankfully). When I could not remote into work, but otherwise had internet, Ron (our computer guy) suggested I get a gizmo like my boss uses – looks like a USB drive and he puts it into the side of the laptop and has internet. He never uses hotel internet and even at home, he doesn’t use the “family wireless” … he just uses the gizmo. Ron said “why not suggest to Robb that he get the service on his Verizon which he pays for his phone and his service anyway?” (Ron configures Robb’s phones so is aware of it.) I said “when you take him his new laptop tomorrow, why don’t you suggest it so I always have internet” – the cost was $30.00/month. Ron has still not taken Robb his new laptop – Windows 7 expires on 01/10/20 though you can still use it. We are getting a new copy machine on Friday. It kept jamming and my boss bought it new in January 2005, but it was problematic – new one gets delivered Friday and the computer guy has to stand by. Maybe he’ll be a little more on top of things … I have no words for him sometimes. I do not like learning new things – we have new accounting software as ours was too old to transfer onto a new system. I am using an accounting program from 2004. It is on a Windows XP machine. We disconnected the internet so it runs Timeslips fine – no issues with viruses as no internet. Ron has not installed the new Timeslips and we cannot transfer our current data as it is too old of a program. Hopefully nothing breaks down before Robb retires. I have to put info, one client at a time into the system. Part of me is glad that Ron has not bothered doing anything – when would I do it? I told Robb it will be done a little at a time until all the data is in there. I don’t want to do it at night or on the weekends. I was a little more indulgent before blogging – I have taken back my weekends as much as I can.
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Good for you! Weekends should be yours anyway. Maybe Boss plans on retiring soon so he hasn’t bothered with new Windows? Library tech was okay today, very nice, but couldn’t solve why I can’t open my gmail, unless I use Chrome or Firefox instead of AOL like I always did. I guess it’s just a sideline for them to address computer issues, so I didn’t expect too much. I did get my blog info transferred to a USB stick which was the main thing. I have seen those sticks which allow you to access the internet anywhere, would be handy for travelling I guess.
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I really should back up everything before we convert to Windows 10 – that is what I mean about dealing with “things” … items that require my attention besides just blogging … I feel like I am behind in maintaining archives of what I’ve written/the photos too. No, I don’t think he will be retiring (unless health reasons as I mentioned before – he went for labs last week and will have a doctor’s appointment next Tuesday to discuss the genomes testing and what to do re: the cancer) … we have a new large xerox machine/scanner/printer being delivered on Friday so our computer guy needs to be on site to help configure it for scanning purposes and my using it to print. Betcha a dollar the computer guy does not bring the new laptop for Robb.
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I meant to comment on the H.E. – they are on vacation … all of them but a skeleton crew or just the H.E. helping you?
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It says Live Chat is closed until Sept 23, but you can email them. So I did, and got a prompt answer. He said if you have a combined total of 15 tags and categories or over it won’t show up in the Reader search for tags. I asked not show up at all in Reader or just not when you use the search bar when say you searched for “Squirrels” or “Tall Ships” or whatever – and have not heard back re that part yet. I sometimes have more than 15 tags/Categories as I was told at the beginning by a blog design person that the more you had the more likely your post would show up in a google search. I’m not sure how many people use the search function inside Reader – I know I never do. I have a hard enough time keeping up with REader let alone searching for more things to read….but I suppose if someone was interested in a specific topic they would.
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I feel like that too and Hugh made some very valid points in his post the other day (I read it last night) … I have some people who have followed me and comment and I do struggle to read their posts as they are abstract poetry or something that I am not always following what the theme of the post is … a mishmash of ideas and photos … perhaps it is me and I’m dense, but I’ve never been a fan of abstract anything, especially poetry and at the end of the day I don’t want to have to struggle with what I am reading.
I may be showing my ignorance here, but it is difficult sometimes. At this point I would not search out more to read – I’d be on two hours’ sleep then! (And still not caught up!)
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OMG! I remember my crayola box of 64 like it was yesterday. SO exciting getting a new box and opening it for the first time…as my kids would say “it’s so satisfying”. Love your writing Joni, always brings back fond memories of yesteryear.
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Thanks Denise!
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Oh that pie!!!!! I really need to bake something! Such a colorful post but sad that we will have to start buying those nasty veggies from the store soon.
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Do you have a good recipe for cherry pie?
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I actually haven’t made a cherry pie! I guess because I don’t have a sour cherry tree. Geeze I may have to work on that one!
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I’m shocked Diane – I can’t believe there’s a recipe you don’t have!
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I know! Probably because my husband likes gel cherry pies……YUCK! I refuse to make a pie that way. We go to Amish country twice a year and he always buys the hand pies the Amish make. There are hardly any cherries in them! I like most everything the Amish make but not their pies.
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Then remind me never to buy an Amish pie – I like lots of cherries too, although I have been known to use the store pie filling gel/cherry mixture to put on top of a Philly cheesecake. I’ve noticed those cans are pretty skimpy with the cherries now too.
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