DIGITAL PHOTO BLUES

       Be it resolved that they keep digital cameras away from the idiots. May I make my case.

       My daughter gave me a small digital camera a long time ago. Then I bought a much nicer digital camera. 

      So I was really  ready to take pictures. I took many digital photos of things I really liked . I took several photos of the same thing. I went to the same places may times and got more photos. I have many  photos of seasons. 

      Now one thing I didn't know about was a file system. A filing system is still beyond me. So my phots are scattered all over the place, I edited photos but did not delete the originals. Sometimes I edited three or four times. I labeled very few photos. I have learned how to label photos but don't do it because it's not in my routine. 

   What brings about all this self criticism? Since  I bought a laptop I now have to import my photos from the old PC.  Okay, that should be simple and it is. However, I had about 7000 photos. These photos are largely unorganized. Some of these photos I do not recognize. What was the location? Why was a photo taken?

    So now this old boy is going through and deleting photos he doesn't want before importing them to the laptop. So far  I've  deleted about 1500 photos.

    Poor me!

COMPUTER

     As you may know I've had a few challenges with windows 11 and blogger. I will admit that some of the problems were my fault. My lack if knowledge and experience causes some of my problems.

    So the  crucial time happened when the computer froze. Well , it didn't really freeze. McAfee came on and gave me two choices. I didn't know if this was scam or not. I could not move until I made a choice. One was uninstall and the other was renew.

    So this called my friend Todd's expertise. Todd came and explained the McAfee thing. I could click uninstall as windows has it's own protection.

    Then I was behind in my updates. Windows 10 down loaded updates automatically. Windows 11 you have to manage the updates. Todd also took off some unnecessary do dads and added others that were necessary

    Then what I had to sort out if my problems were windows 11 and what to do about them.

    I also got my scanner working.

   So Todd was like a technician who repairs your computer except you don't have to go to a shop.

    As a result of these situations writing a post and reading and responding to posts was very difficult.

COLLEAGUES

   As I start many posts, I was a teacher. I've been retired for 28 years. These two colleagues have been retired less than five years.

       I always watched the new  teachers when they came on the staff.  

       So on Wednesday, I had a long lunch with some two former colleagues. I've been retired for 28 years. These two guys taught with me in my last five years. They are both retired so it's interesting to find out what's going on in their retirement. I watched them carefully when they came on staff. I wasn't watching to see if they could teach. I  knew that  they came out and had the latest educational methods. I did this so that I could keep up with the times.

      Mike was a social studies teacher. I never taught social studies. But Mike was an excellent out door Ed. teacher and I got to teach some outdoor Ed. with him. Outdoor ed is a little different as you teach the theory and then take the kids on a field trip to see if they have prepared properly. Some kids were pretty cold as they hadn't prepared properly. We usually had some extra blankets. Then on weekends we sometimes went out back packing trips to check out new areas for field trips.

    Daryl taught science. I had taught science previously so  It was interesting to watch new methods. Daryl also liked back packing so he came along with us.

   So it was a good afternoon talking about old times.

MAYHEM IN COMPUTER LAND

       Four or five days ago my computer started acting up. It seemed like the size was larger and some parts of the blog did not fit on the screen. Well, I blundered through a post. I  did my editing three lines at a time. I tried to adjust things but nothing worked.

     The next morning I tried to read some blogs and make comments. It could be done but I had to use very different steps. I gave up.

     Then I found out that things had really fallen apart. I couldn't get on to many of my sites like email, Facebook and MSN. I worried about it all day. I was going to phone my friend but  decided to check some things on line. Since online information had closed I began to  see if I could find a solution. After a few hours I had got into all sites by using many strange moves. For emails, I went down about 20 pages before I found a sign in choice. 

    After thinking all this through I began to sense that all the problems were because of changes made by windows 11. And I must admit that some of it was from my lack of knowledge and experience. 

   I asked me friends today and they noticed some different things.

   However, when it comes to an elderly senior who's not that competent on computers it can be very confusing. They don't give you a warning that something is going to happen. Maybe they think that everybody should be smart enough to catch in.

     How about you? Did you notice anu changes?

SOME THINGS STICK TO YOU ALL YOUR LIFE

     Many stories were told  about my past with their Dad. We were less than a year apart so we were, to say the least, a little active. Because  of some over exuberance, we got into trouble once in a while.

     Our nearest neighbor w   My brother and his three kids came to visit me a couple of months ago. His kids are in their 50's and 60's. But  since I don't get out to see them anymore it was pleasant to see them. We had a great time  reminiscing and catching up with todays news.

     Every once in a while the kids would come up with a question about my past. How did they know about this. Well, you can guess that their Dad told them.as  a very elderly man who was on our yard most days. He   bought eggs from my Mom.

     So my brother and I were about 8 or 9. We quite often made sling shots. The sling shots didn't last very long as they had been made by little boys. However, at times they did have some power.

    One day the elderly neighbor came on the yard. The spare tire on his car was mounted on the back of the car. It looked like a great target. I envisioned my self hitting the bull's eye in the center of the wheel. Would all the kids think I was great.

    Well, was I not only far off the target. I hit the back window and broke it. Silence took over very rapidly. The gentle man was  not happy. He went  in the house to talk to Mom. There  were more kids on the yard besides my family. Things quieted down very quickly and my rash action brought a  chill over the group.

    So  this is what one of my brother's kids brought up. So some things stick with you your whole life. I imagine they will be talking about this long after I am gone.

NIGHT VISITORS

     I am not a great sleeper. It usually takes a while to go to sleep. I wake up three to five times a night. It helps if I get up and stretch. The one thing I have going for me is that my hearing aides are out for the night so I can't blame noise for causing sleeplessness.

    So because of limited hearing some things get by my. How do I know? I find the evidence (tracks ) the next day. Deer pass through  my front yard regularly.

   There are  two small entrances (one to two meters wide ) to my back yard. Animals are fairly cautious when they go through narrow entrances.

   Well, a few weeks ago when I went out to my back yard I noticed deer tracks. Deer very seldom enter my back yard for the above reasons. But they do travel at night and with their color are very hard to see.

   But what I noticed most about these tracks is that they were right below my bedroom window. So they passed very close to me and I didn't know it. I wonder if the deer knew I was that close?

A COLD DECEMBER

        The month of December here was just one long cold spell. It can happen that we get a month to 6 weeks of very cold weather with no breaks. Our highs were minus 20 to 22 C. Lows were towards minus 30C. Usually you don't get much snow during a cold spell but we had snow. This was during my recovery from surgery so the poor guy who shovelled my snow had lots of work. He volunteered to shovel my snow and would not take any money for it.

     In 1969 we had a major cold spell. In the school I taught in ,there were  quite a few rookies and they had old cars. As the cold spell continued, one by one the old cars wouldn't start. I picked up  a car load of people and then my car wouldn't start and we were all walking. 

   So just after Christmas it was very frosty but not hoar frost. So I didn't get the white on these spruce trees but I'll show them to you any way.

    So early January things have warmed up. For the last two days our high has been plus 3C. Today, I did a 2 km walk.