Monday, May 15, 2017

A Crazy Few Days

It all began last Thursday when I received the new condo information from Steve. After researching the location, I thought to myself, I bet I have a photograph of that building, or at least the area, from my visit to Vancouver two years ago. Those photos are stored in Picasa, the Google place I used for the previous nine years.  I've been having problems with it for a while now, however, I tried once again to view my photo history with no success, even though I'd shut down everything else on my computer. Remember when I joked about how many photos I had a week or so ago? I lied. I've got more like 200,000!

So,  because Picasa was freezing on me,  I decided to call Apple Care which I paid for when I bought this new computer about 18 months ago. First I spoke with a young woman for about 45 minutes, and when she had no success, she transferred me to Will in Oregon. It is a long convoluted story, but the upshot is that it is still not working, in spite of hours upon hours of conversation, during which time I learned everything there is to know about Will, who is 25 years old, btw.

And you know what? I think I see the building in this blog post!!! Deep into the post, if you see a photograph of the Granville Street Bridge and some buildings across the water on the right hand side, I'm thinking it is in one of those. We will be on the 20th floor, so not quite as high as the other. When we get there, I will be sure to post photographs of our surroundings. But you knew that already, didn't you?

In between time spent with Will, I did a few things, but not much. Perhaps I'll go backwards in this post. Bruce was only home on Friday, and left again Saturday morning. Guess what?? We actually had rain Saturday afternoon, much to everyones relief. We are 9 inches behind normal rainfall this year. Hopefully a new trend has started, but no one is holding their breath.

Bill and Dave took me to lunch on Mother's Day at the newly renovated Julie's Waterfront.
We learned it was purchased by a restaurant group from downtown, and the new menu reflects that change. Our food was scrumptious!
I began Mother's Day with a Facetime call from Matt around 7:30AM. While I was chatting with him, and thanking him for the lovely bouquet that arrived on Saturday afternoon,
Bruce called from Dallas. No sooner had I'd hung up the phone with Bruce, telling him I'd call him back after my visit with Matt and Tom, then the phone rang and it was Will apologizing for not calling on Saturday. We spent most of the next five hours on the phone. Finally I told him I needed to get ready for my lunch date and we agreed to get back together when I got home. That did not happen because I was gone for so long, but maybe on Thursday when he is working again we can pick up where we left off. Yeesh! I will say, at least I learned a bunch about how my computer works during these marathon sessions.

Bruce came home because we were having blinds and shades installed on Friday afternoon. It was a crazy scene with four men here, including the sales rep of the remote control devices. He's the big guy...
With this heat wave we've been having, the sun room was SO hot in the afternoon, that I am absolutely thrilled with the new shades. Bruce and Mike making preparations..
Now, it looks like this:
The shades are tucked up into those little headers for most of the day. Woo hoo!

Irene had a friend, her former sewing teacher, Susanne, visiting from Portland. They both are wearing sundresses with patterns made by Susanne. Pam, Lynn, and I shared a lively dinner with them at K Restaurant in College Park.
It might have been that same morning that I went out early in search of my birds, and I was in luck, but before I rode over there, I rode down to the lake after seeing the beautiful morning full moon. Not to mention that it was shining on the lake as the sun rose.
That was just crazy good. Eventually I found the youngsters on the same branch, taking care of one another.
There's just something about this shot that I love.
Driving down Pershing recently I noticed a sign advertising an event that is either good, or bad, depending on how you look at it. Yes, another long-time elementary school is being torn down to make way for a new K-8 school.
If we had any kids on our street this is where they would attend. Personally I'm always a little sad seeing history wiped away. Then too, I thought this sign out front was utterly ridiculous.
Since when do we need to give parents a gold star for just doing what they should do anyway? Is it any wonder our schools are in trouble if the parents are like this? Never one to shy away from voicing an opinion, I believe that school success rests not on the teacher's shoulders, but the parents. If you are going to have children, you have a responsibility to do everything you can to help them succeed in life. At least that's what we did. Do I sound like a curmudgeon? Sometimes I guess I deserve that description!

I was so fortunate to quickly find some guys to cut the seed pods out of our palms, which are the bane of my existence because they drop into the pool, clogging up the cleaner. It is not good when I'm here, but disastrous when I won't be.
I finally got out on my bicycle today. This is by no means a great photo, but I finally saw the hawk babies. Use your imagination...
I suspect it won't be long before they leave the nest.

Finally, here are some super cool shots, or at least I think so, of that hive I showed you in a previous post.
I'm pretty clueless about hives, but I'm thinking this is full of honey? Absolutely an amazing transformation from the last time I took some shots.
I wish I could find a better way to shoot it though,  but it is high up in an Oak tree, with poor lighting. I suggest you click on the above photo to view it larger. Of course you may not have any interest in nature in action, but I'm pretty confidant that for my readers, that is simply not the case.

Another long week without my honey, but it isn't the first time. That said, it is getting closer every day to being the last time. :)

yours truly,

Gail




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