Showing posts with label Computers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Computers. Show all posts

Sunday, May 24, 2020

Some Early Sunday Shopping, Investigation, Family Birthday, Flower Power


The Ridge
Sunday, May 24th  we woke to a surprising sunny sky. I’d expected clouds to fulfill the forecasted 80% precipitation requirement. Don’t get me wrong, it was pleasant to see clear sky. We got up by 7 and I was in the shower immediately. 

Last night, our solar lights around the tree were pretty
against the sunset
How nice not to worry about wet hair when I walk. Our thermometer was reading 14C/57F. With just my light hoody over a sleeveless top, I slipped my bug hat on and headed out. I didn’t need the screen down as there wasn’t a bug of any kind in sight.
  
Morning walk and the second picture in two days
with a ghostly spot
Daddy? Dad? Bruce? Mark? .............. George?
I find this extremely interesting.
It was another beautiful walk and I contemplated the things I’m grateful for with each step. Sometimes (I’m glad no ones sees me) I just raise or stretch my arms out and say “Thank you!” Do you ever feel like that? Back home, I sat with Bill at the table and started reading blog posts. He is on the hunt for a laptop, I might have mentioned it, so was doing some online searching. He has pretty much decided what he’d like with very little assistance from the peanut gallery. (me)

In Foodland, this is at the bakery/deli corner
How many people can't walk by these sweet cakes?

There was a 'hot dog' cake but this 'hamburger' cake was my favourite
No, I didn't buy it
After my tea, I brushed my teeth and drove into Durham. I went straight to Foodland’s Garden Centre and made some more choices. See? Never enough flowers! This time, I bought 2 more hanging baskets and then some perennials. Different ones and I’ll have to read the labels to tell you what they are.

This is my own perennial garden
Phlox

A brand of Poppy

I forgot this plant  had a surprise

These little grape hyacinths are fuller than they've ever been
They must like the cold late spring
We have a rusted old dozer bucket up on the hill that I started planting in last year and thought I might put some perennials in there. Maybe. Enough $$ was spent there with no begrudging and I walked into the grocery store. We have a big shopping trip planned this week one day but need milk and a couple of other things now.

So, I bought a couple more hanging baskets
I picked those up and it was when I was walking back to Ptooties that I recognized the young gal who sprayed my hands, on entry. I’m a tad embarrassed that it took so long but soon dismissed that feeling when she couldn’t easily place me either. We laughed about that. It is Emma, Jamie’s daughter. I went back in and caught up on what she’s been up to since March when this pandemic started. It was nice to see her and hear about things. I miss seeing and chatting with her Dad, so easy going.

Not much mist this morning
but a pretty pond in the sun
Back home, time was flying by and although I thought I’d cut grass when I returned, I easily got distracted. The clouds and rain moved in while we were eating our lunch but if that was 80%, I’m a monkey’s uncle. LOL It lasted all of 15 minutes, perhaps, and I’m sure my vegetables are still thirsty. I was counting on the rains to save me watering. Gosh, am I complaining about that already?! Bill was involved online so I washed dishes up to get them out of the way.

A very gentle breeze this morning
provokes ripples on the pond
He’d made his phone calls to his girls so I wanted to do the same. After a phone call to Staples in Owen Sound, we got the answer we wanted. Their store is open now for customers to walk in. Tomorrow morning that is where we’ll be headed. Bill is excited and ready to buy. Once we had that done with, he went out to the Hangar. We’d had a little rain but not much so I filled the two watering cans from the hand pump and went up to water my vegetables.

The skies were unpredictable occasionally
There is quite a strong wind today and that not only kept the humidity to a comfortable level but it also sent the black flies off into another county. Hopefully. I didn’t see one today. This encouraged me to stay outside as the sun was wonderful and with the breeze (27 mph gusts!) I wasn’t hot. I figured that I may as well get dirty so removed the 6 petunias from the store container and put 3 in the shovel on the hill with some blue grass.

Rustic Daisy
Hmm, looks interesting
Ruby star cornflower
This one I'm quite anxious to see bloom
I planted the other 3 with more grass in a clay planter that we have. I’m trying to remember if I got it from Pat and Rob or just where I got it but it was one of our only ‘big’ pots left. Two large plastic ones finally cracked last year and had to be tossed.

This was the only big pot we have and that's a good thing
since I ran out of flowers!
Lastly, I planted the cornflower and daisy plants in a flower bed along the corral fence and then I split the lobelia into two and planted them by my garden bench behind the Restroom. I’m liking the idea of having more perennials so I can lessen what I spend each year to add colour to the Ridge.

Queen Victoria Lobelia

They went here with the rhubarb and my moonflower
IF (big if) rhubarb grows here, I'll move the lobelia
Some of these perennials I’d never heard of so it is a learning experience for me to see what works well and what I wouldn’t do again. (Like I’ll remember!! LOL) By this time all I had to do was take a hanging plant (that I don’t know the name of) down to Bill’s area. He will place a bracket on the porch post for it. This way it won’t be sitting on the porch where he walks. 

And the bucket on the hill has petunias
and some perennial blue grass
The old tree log I set at the point of the corral fence
houses a plant or two every summer

And Bill's hanging plant has the rest of the verbena
I went into the Bunky to put the cloth things away (my stool, gloves and apron) just as Donna texted. She is doing well and very happy to be home on their porch. 😊 

This is the first planter I bought but I didn't realize there
was a purple flower in it too



They get the ‘weather’ first and then it moves this way so she told me about black clouds coming and a big show of threat that will amount to huge drops, some thunder and then it will move on. She was exactly right. I could see the clouds coming and I timed my work just right.

The geese hunker down in the rain

Here I go: what are they thinking?
Inside the Suite, the windows facing west were closed so I made myself a tea and relaxed. It didn’t last long and the winds had calmed when the rain finished 15 minutes later and the heat returned. It feels like summer and I’m loving every bit of it. There was no rainbow though things sure look green after a nice rain. My planting is done for now until I get some dutch sets, pumpkin (?) and now I’m thinking lettuce. Shirley, you have encouraged me.

Weird clouds this afternoon
The awning is partially open to keep the rain off the door and my side window
Look at the black cloud coming from Hanover with blue sky following

I checked the back window often but no rainbow today
Bill came in around 5 and turned a Jeff Dunham special on that I don’t remember seeing. Even if we have seen them, we love watching him and laugh through the jokes his ‘puppets’ tell. This is turning into a novel and I apologize. So, I’m going to just inform you that supper is going to be simple. We feel like something summery so we’ll have toasted bacon tomato and cheese sandwiches. Yum. Nothing would be better than cherry pie for dessert, so that’s what we had.

The bread doesn't look toasted but it was
It tasted quite good for a 'spring' meal that tasted like summer
Today, is Bill's oldest daughter's birthday. He talked to her to send wishes along and caught up on her family news. We hope she has had a wonderful day.

Happy Birthday, Yvonne!
Who knows what the evening will bring but I’ll wish you a good one and close this off.

We're expecting more rain this evening
good night!

Thank you for stopping by!




Thursday, November 8, 2018

Clean Clothes, Computer Fix, Happy Hour with Friends


I went up to bed last night at 8 pm and turned the tv on. I knew my eyes were too heavy to try and focus on my book. I found Wheel of Fortune and managed to keep my eyes open long enough to solve a few puzzles before turning the television off and rolling over. I know I dropped off pretty quick and didn’t hear Bill and Clemson come up later.

Nice prices - $1.25/wash - $1.00/dryer
This morning, Thursday, Nov. 8th, we were both awake at 4 and tossed and turned until just after 5 before giving in and getting up. These time changes are doing us all in. Rob and Pat are experiencing the same sleep habits. After our tea and coffee, Bill and I sorted laundry and drove down to the laundromat near the Office.

Driving into Albuquerque is so pretty
We only had enough quarters to do 3 loads of wash and to operate 1 dryer but Rob and Pat popped in for a few minutes and loaned us .75 for the second dryer. The Office opened at 9 so I bought a roll of quarters for the next time and to pay our debt. We finished the laundry and drove back to the Suite. Bill had eaten cereal before we left so while he put his clothes away, I had some oatmeal and strawberries.


We had touched base with Rob and Pat about their day and we all had different plans in mind for the early part of the day. That is what is great about a friendship, we know that we don’t have to do everything together in order to remain friends. Bill wanted to take his laptop somewhere to get looked at so we headed into Albuquerque following directions to Staples, first. We were greeted immediately and directed to Kevin, who looked at the laptop right away. No delay.


He informed us that they did not have the equipment necessary to do what needed to be done and directed us to Computer Corner on Richmond St. N. We walked in there, after an easy commute, to find Joshua standing behind the counter as if he was waiting for us. It looked like a very nice open concept store and Kevin at Staples was correct, they weren’t too busy at all. Joshua was such a pleasant young man and conversed with us about Canada and our travels. 

We had egg omelette sandwiches for lunch when we returned home
He saw the problem and suggested a ‘portable’ Wifi adapter in the form of a usb dongle (doggle?) . We purchased one for $20 and it worked like a charm! Yay! Bill is back on line now too. This is much better than having to look for a new laptop right now. Back home, he had a pile of what I teased to be ‘homework’ so I left him to it. He had over 400 pictures to download, our online travel map to update and banking to get caught up on. Best that I get out of his way so he has no distractions.

Bill doing his 'homework'
I took Clemson out for a short walk and after returning him home, went for my own walk up through the hiking trails. It isn’t good walking, really, lots of rocky turf even though their trails are clearly marked. I forged on and captured photos of prickly pear cactus as well as a staghorn cholla cactus, up close and personal. The walk took me all the way from our site down to the Office and I popped into the laundromat to pay Rob back his .75. They were also taking care of their clothes.

Clemson enjoying the sun
It wasn’t a bad day out there with clear blue skies but the wind kept the temperatures around 14C/57F. In the sun it felt a tad warmer. When I got back 45 minutes later, Bill was still working on his laptop so I began downloading yesterday’s pictures into Picasa to make collages. Once that was finished, I tried to connect to wifi and whatever Bill did yesterday to fix it, failed me again. I was so frustrated that I just walked away. Grrr!


Lots of cactus along the path
I began prepping chicken for supper when Rob popped in at 4 to invite us over to their place for Happy Hour. We made a tea and joined them inside where it was warm. Clemson came too. I’m sure he is baffled about Pat and Rob’s house, as he wanders around and around for a while before settling on the couch beside us. He is so messed up with the new time too that he begins looking for supper at 2:30 now. It’s just silly to get upset about it so we feed him and relax.

Staghorn cholla
The path brought me out here at the Office and Laundry Room
Quite a few rvers pulled out this morning
Lots of empty sites up there ahead
At 5:30 we headed back and I baked the chicken thighs covered with butter and chicken seasoning. They baked for 45 minutes and we had Caesar salad on the side. They turned out good and with the last helping of Rhubarb Crisp and Cool Whip, we had our fill tonight. The trick was to eat our dessert early so it would have time to settle before I fell asleep tonight. I hope I can make it until 9 at least!

Selfie on a swing
Why not?
Just before supper, I managed to get my laptop back on line again but if it happens again, we’ll need to find out why it is happening so often. We might have to visit Joshua again. There must be more wrong than meets the eye. I finished yesterday’s post and I apologize for so many all in a row. We do what we have to do and I just wanted to get caught up.

I almost forgot to take a picture, I was hungry
This has been a good day, with some things off the list. We might try and find some ‘touristy’ thing tomorrow, something that doesn’t cost an arm and a leg. Check in and see if we found something!
Our sites for 3 nights
Goodnight from Hidden Valley Mountain Resort
in Tijeras, NM

Thank you for checking in today. Your comments are always appreciated.

Computer Frustrations, Cold Amarillo, TX – Warmer Tijeras, NM


Bill and I were awake and up out of bed at 6 on Wednesday, Nov. 7th. It was 10 last night when I crawled into bed and dropped off immediately. There was some concern from one of the ladies inside the Welcome Centre about where we were parked, advising us that it could be a very noisy location. Semis tend to park here overnight as well and it could be a restless night where we are. We decided to stay put.

When it grew light enough for a walk, the sound of these birds in the
tree was deafening
We both wore ear plugs, which is unusual for Bill, and we both slept well. I didn’t move all night, not to my knowledge. Last night, I had a familiar frustration with my laptop and I’m kicking myself for not writing notes when it happened the last time. Right out of the blue I am unable to make connection to the hotspot on our phones as well as any other wifi.

Last time, Bill called Bell and got instructions in broken English how to fix it. It took a while and I ended up changing my connection name to connect. I tried that this morning and still I’m missing something that he advised. Grrr! Now, neither of us have working laptops! I was so frustrated that I bundled up against the cloudy 4C/39F !!! and went for a walk around the lot.

And from our drive today
Open Texas ranges
The Bartimus Bus was in front of us at the Cadillac Ranch
and then we caught up to it on the interstate
The semi in the middle has mud flaps from Gerry's in London, Ontario
And a Class A motor coach with a Honda Goldwing
The change in temperature in Amarillo is not welcoming but we are heading further west. Funny, that the elevation where we are going is about 3,000’ higher than here yet the forecast there looks to be 10 degrees warmer. We’ll see when we get there. We had some cereal, mine adorned with strawberries and cream and then by 8:15 we were pulling out of the lot getting back on I-40W with Bill in the lead.

We have all been to this next ROD members campground before and we know what to expect. It is at an elevation of 6300’ but the sites are really narrow. Oh well, the view is spectacular and there are things to see in the area. I like the park for the walking trails. We decided to drive to the other side of Amarillo before stopping for fuel and since we had already planned to stop at the famed Cadillac Ranch, it worked out well.

Rob and Pat's first time here at the ranch
Hey, anyone missing their shoes?
Rob and Pat had never been to see the 8 Cadillacs with their noses in the dirt and even though it was a bitter cold wind, we walked back, found a spray can of paint and proceeded to play for a while. We all wrote our names on a painted area where there were no other names and then posed for pictures. We’ve been here once on our first trip and it was fun to see it again, this time with less people.

I can't believe the vandalism on display here! Ha Ha
If you look close enough, you'll see our signatures
And there we are!
It was very chilly but we had fun!
From there we drove ‘down the road’ to the Love’s but Bill and I missed the exit and so did our followers. Fortunately, they were able to turn around easier than us but we finally found a spot to get back on track. It was easy to get in by an end pump to fuel up but there were no good spots to park and eat lunch. Rob drove across the road to the Shell and found us a prime location and we stretched our legs and had our sandwiches.

New Mexico - such a warm and fuzzy feeling
that we are back here again
We missed these views
We were on the road again by 9:15 when I started to see staghorn cholla cacti along the roadside. It was 10:10 CT when we crossed into New Mexico and stopped at a Rest Area for a piddle break (the coffee from Loves’ seemingly went right through us). I also noticed our clocks had changed to MT and we gained an hour. Yes! The mountain ranges soon came into view and I said to Bill “We’re home”. It feels so good again to see these open ranges. We love these views.

few colourful trees, a nice camper bus
Great highway and rolling hills again
Beautiful overpasses in New Mexico
By 11:40 am we were back on I-40W and 56F. I could see snow-capped mountains to the north and smiled. Not this winter did we plan on being any closer to the white stuff than this. We rose to 7,447’ above sea level before dropping back again. I saw a sign for the Memorial of Perpetual Tears and wondered what it was and how far off the highway it was.

He couldn't be any happier, he is in the sun and curled up on
Dad's sweater AND coat
Of course, I Googled it. We were 20 miles from our turn off and when I looked to the right, I saw the small white cemetery stones. It is a faux memorial for those who perished as a result of DWI. How sad but what a beautiful cemetery. Today was another one of those smooth uneventful drives, the kind we all love. Little traffic, smooth roads and beautiful weather. We arrived at Hidden Valley RV Park at 1:20 pm, got checked in and set up by 2 pm.

More views and the mountains are all around us now
steep grade after rising to 7400' and now dropping to 6300'
Our exit to the park at Zuzax
Bill went with Rob to get propane at the station on the corner. We are on sites 69 & 70 up on the hill and I do believe we have a tad more space than down lower, where we were on our first visit. I’ll have to get a picture in the morning, I forgot to do that this afternoon. I went out and sat in the sun at the back end of the Suite but the wind was cool and when Bill returned, we only stayed out for about 30 minutes before we moved inside.

Arrival at Hidden Valley Mountain Resort
Our first time in 2016, we missed the entrance
We got it this time, no problem
A pretty tree at the office
With the satellite hooked up easily, we had our usual NCIS programs to watch. To be honest, we were both too tired to do much of anything so while Bill dozed, I watched reruns rather than read my book. We drove 275 miles today, which isn’t a lot but still tiring enough. We are all happy to take some time to regroup so we are staying put for 3 nights. There are a few things in the area we want to take in and laundry is also necessary.

We could see for miles as we traveled I-40W
Even the snow-capped mountains off in the distance.
I hope we can call Bell and get my laptop back on-line tomorrow. We’ve enjoyed this day and thank you for popping in to see where we are.