Sometimes I Don't Want to go to function

      There are certain things that I would rather not go to. They may be excellent events but I'm not interested in them and I don't need or want to attend the function. 

     One such incident happened yesterday. One of the local malls puts on a free senior's appreciation lunch . I didn't want to go to the  free lunch!

     Well, why wouldn't I like a free lunch and why did I go anyway?

     My manager is big on free stuff. If poison was free she'd be the first in line. So yesterday she wanted to be at the mall to line up for the free lunch. Now here's the catch. My manager doesn't drive. The transit service isn't the best here. We have buses every twenty minutes but which twenty minutes? Since we don't use the bus how do you get across the city on  a bus? It was really cold yesterday so old Red felt sorry and offered to take the manager to the mall. Since it's across town it didn't make much sense to drop her off and come back again.

     I had told the manager that I would drop her off but I wouldn't stand in line or eat anything. Well, I know that one doesn't work because my manager will be a softy and pick up two plates of stuff. I will thank her and eat the stuff.

     So what's the big deal? I happen to be somewhat wary of free stuff. It's usually junk! Now I know the people at the mall went to a great expense and effort. I appreciate that.  I don't like triangly sandwiches that have mayonnaise and margarine on them. I don't like Styrofoam plates and plastic forks. I don't like crowds and in particular lineups. At 10:30 there were about 200 people lined up for the 11:30 start. There was entertainment and I wasn't too keen on the performances.This was definitely not my type of event.

    Now seniors also get a free pictures with Santa. I'm a little past getting pictures with Santa...been there done that. But guess who had to get her picture taken with Santa?

     Now I am a senior. Being with 400 other seniors should be  a bonus. I didn't know anybody and it was not one of those functions were you had an opportunity to mix. Being alone in a crowd isn't my idea of fun.

    Now I admit that there are times when I don't want to go somewhere that I can invent some pretty lame excuses. For this function I would rather have been any place else.

    Now I know some people will say, "You're nuts. That sounds like a perfectly good event to go to." Other people may not be so kind as to just say , "You're nuts!" Other things could be said that are worse than nuts.

    So there I am ...whining again! I feel better now.



    

Lighter Christmas Preparation

    In a previous post described how I worked so hard in preparing for Christmas by bringing lots of snow.

    Today I will show you some preparation that took much less work than bringing snow. I have put the lights on my house! I don't put many lights on the house. I get them up about the middle of November and try to pick a warm spell. Now it's early December and time to turn on the lights.

If you look hard there are lights on the house

The little birch got in the way

The birch is still in the way

Look hard and you will see the house lights

The house lights are really there

The lamp with a cap of snow

And after putting up lights I went to a lot of work and took pictures of the whole affair.

Fresh New Snow

     Yesterday we got about 15 cm (6 in.) of fresh snow. We had a good snow cover before and this added to the accumulation. My ski trail is in excellent condition. I had to get busy with the snow shovel!

     Temperatures have been  from minus 15 ( 2 F) to minus 10(12 F) . The sun set this afternoon at 4:25 and will rise tomorrow morning at 8:27 AM so that means we have 7 hours and 58 minutes of sun. We lose another two minutes in the afternoon and then it stops. The sun sets at 4:23 for about 7 days and then we start gaining in the afternoon again. We still lose time in the morning. We do get long beautiful sunrises and sunsets.

My heavily loaded juniper.

A little snow on the roof!

Up the snowy street.

Further up the snowy street

Spruce full of snow

I'm enjoying my snow although many people disagree with me. I hope you enjoy  a look at the snow.

Bloggers Block

    I am suffering from blogger's block. In fact, I've been suffering blogger's block off and on for some time now. I may have suffered from blogger's block since I first stated blogging.

    We've all heard of writer's block. We've probably all suffered from that too. As I was thinking of this post I thought I should do some research and look up writer's block. Sure enough . There were many sites on writer's block and most of them had ten easy ways to overcome writer's block. Then I thought , maybe I should look up blogger's block. Sure enough ...dozens of site on blogger's block. Most of them were carbon copies of writer's block. Darn! I thought I'd invented a new term. Now I'll have to research and see how many years behind I am.

    Back to blogger's block. I sometimes have two or three topics for a post in my head. For some reason I may not be able to write the posts because I am waiting for something. I may need some pictures. A series of posts I never made was my trip to Chicago and my daughter's wedding. It was a fantastic trip and I had many pictures. What I needed first was one picture from one of my friends. I asked him two or three times and never got  the right pictures. After  while the fire was gone from my belly and I didn't make the posts. If I'm waiting  for some reason I can't seem to come up with new topics. I seem to be stuck until I unload the two or three topics in my head.

   So here I am with blogger's block so I'm writing about it until I get the next series of photos I need.

    Funny thing is that I don't seem to see any of you with blogger's block!

I've Done the Heavy Work for Christmas Preparation

A well worn ski trail

When it comes to Christmas I have been known to be somewhat absent from preparations. This year I've out done myself and done a big job and look how early it is. This year I have lots of snow for a very white Christmas. Now this took and awful lot of work. How many of you wish for a white Christmas?

A nice rock  covered with a white blanket

Bare poplar branches

The trail disappears in the distance

Another large poplar

Long afternoon shadows

Winding ski trail

Snow and long shadows

So you see I've done a great job and have lots of snow for a white Christmas

My Humiliation Has Some Limits

      I have had a computer in my house since 1997. I did not have the Internet at my house until 2009.  For the Internet I went to my daughter's house. This arrangement worked well as I could go to her house when she was at work and search the Internet or do my email. 

The messy desk is for a later post with more humiliation.

     This arrangement worked fine for me except that I did not learn much about looking after a computer or learn what possibilities were available. Since it was her computer I left the management to her. 

     According to my daughter the computer crashed and since she was in a hurry she bought another computer right away. There was warranty on the old computer. The agreement she made for settlement was to take a reconditioned computer and since she didn't need it she gave it to Dad. I guess she thought that Dad had done enough dog sitting and renovation assistance that he deserved a computer.She left a few months later so I had to get the Internet at my house.

   Now I could really explore things since I had my own computer that was connected to the Internet. It took a while until I discovered that there were things I could listen to on the Internet but I found that the sound was way off. I could only get some garbled sound. I learned an awful lot about computers but I couldn't get my sound to work. I asked people and was about to replace the sound card. Now I had lots to do so I never got around to replacing the sound card. 

     I wonder if somebody has figured out what my problem is by now?

    The other day I posted about my ipod problems and how my neighbor told me to push the jack in until I heard a distinct click. A few days later it clicked in my head that maybe the same solution applied to my computer sound. You guessed . I pushed the jack in until there was a click and tried the sound and there it was! So after three years I have sound on my computer. 

    Now this is embarrassing and humiliating. Two of the same problems and the solutions were extremely low tech. Since I bragged about some of my technical skills I am humiliated to admit that I was stumped by such a simple problem.

     Please don't laugh too hard!

Comments Rock

    More and more I appreciate comments that followers and readers leave after my posts. Comments can do many things. Comments can compliment, affirm, amuse, enlighten and sometimes disappoint.

    Comments that some people make will add to what I've written. I don't always say all that could be said because I am unaware or too impatient. 

      It's always pleasant when someone agrees with you. However, I am not upset when someone disagrees. I appreciate a good debate and I will never make personal slurs and can usually ignore personal attacks and stick to the argument.

     Some commenters have amazing wit. There are many types of humorous replies. The ones I really like are those that are very distant that if you're not careful you'll miss it.  You can guess that I like Far Side the cartoon. I also like Far Side one of my followers!

    Commenters usually have their own characteristics and their comments are predictable. In other words readers that are stable and thoughtful.

     Other commenters take a global view and are able to make a comment the applies to the whole post. Others will focus on one point in the post. I tend to reply to one small part of the post. I haven't missed the rest of the post . I just think that one part of the post is more important to me.

    It's gratifying to see how hard readers work to keep up with comments. Some days you find a reader will comment on three or four posts. I appreciate people who have been busy and go back and read older posts. I  find that sometimes I just have to miss comments for a day or two. I can read the posts but I don't have time to make comments.

    Now I've posted on comments before. Comments are very meaningful and positive for me. The comments keep me going. 

     Thanks to all readers who stop by Hiawatha House and leave a comment.