Kernel Panic Loop

 I don't know about you but when something has the word panic in its description, I know it cannot be good and my instincts were correct. Perhaps you have wondered when a new blog post would be coming out and if you were, so was I! 

Since last we met a lot has happened and most of it has been good, so let's start there, shall we? 

Here is something that most Floridians would like to avoid, however, these Floridians are kind of enjoying winter even though it has lasted much longer than last year.

Finally, after many attempts to do so, frost on the car windshield in a photograph. It's been harder to capture than one would imagine. Aren't they fascinating?

Once the windshield cleared we headed over to Andrews for some indoor pickleball. The drive had a lovely surprise in store for us.

Yes my friends, there was snow on the mountains, and that is because it snowed not one day, but two!

Unlike the previous snow, this was wet and did not hang around for long which is why I got out there and got some pictures while I could.

Honestly it took us by surprise, or at least me. Here is something to ponder; my phone showed no snow while it was actually snowing for several hours!! 

Zach and Michele across the street have been gone for weeks and weeks and have missed how lovely their home looks while it is snowing.

The first day it snowed was probably Wednesday, because on Tuesday I went to volunteer at the church and when I got home my darling husband was granting my wish for a windowsill! While I know that most people would find it weird that I longed for a windowsill, well, I am kind of weird. The shutters were quite nice, however, not only did it prevent me from having a windowsill, I realized once he removed them,

that with them being so close to me while I was at the sink, I felt a little hemmed in. Poor explanation but there it is nonetheless. One day soon those bare trees will flower and now I will be able to see them in their full glory. Once he removed the shutters, he thought the sill was too shallow so he built a new one and you would think it had always been there. I was really digging the new look.

Bruce, on the other hand thought it was a little too bare so on Thursday I made some cafe curtains with some fabric I already had in my baskets that Mary brought from Florida. Below is when I was sorting through them. As well, please note the new artwork over my sewing table. Framed vintage bird prints given to me by Mary Beth. The room continues to grow in coziness.

And here is a bit of the curtains with snow on the ground below.

I am using the same fabric for the binding of the new quilt which I am finally quilting after waiting for the batting to arrive from Amazon. While waiting. I kept it on the bed where it will reside.

After church yesterday Bruce helped me with the assembly using that huge floor space in our bedroom. Seriously, it is so big and I still call it a bowling alley!

Something else I made this last week was a little rope trivet, using rope from the flea market last year and Liberty fabric given to me by Matt and Tom, to use under the plant on the new bookcase. In other words, high and low end combined!

That red is SO good! I liked it so much so that I had Bruce paint the shelf above my sink with it. 

I think it was the day before it snowed that while rainy, the temperature was relatively comfortable,  so I went out back with the intention of picking up all of the magnolia pods that fall from a HUGE tree with four trunks that is a hundred years old.

I have no idea what made me think of it, but I am glad that I did because it made the job, while a bit tedious, very manageable. I picked up SEVEN buckets with my long kitchen tongs.

Following that task, I raked up countless snow shovels of spent bird seed. Countless! Mr. Bruce was working on the windowsill, so I thought I might contribute something. While doing so, I caught a peek of color from our neighbor Jason's yard, which turned out to be innumerable Crocus plants in various stages of bloom. Plu,s the field adjacent to us is filled with wild chives. 

I also spotted a stand of daffodils on the cusp of opening.

I need to check and see what damage the snow and VERY cold weather has done to these beauties! 

I completely forgot about Valentine's Day which was crazy cold because I went to play pickleball and after one game said I had had enough, what with the wind and the cold, no thanks! I could at least walk along the river.

Anyway, in honor of Carol, our deceased sister, I invited Hank over for dinner to enjoy his company on what would have been their maybe 45th wedding anniversary. He and Bruce are talking man stuff.

Can you believe no birds so far? Too good to be true! 

Our neighbor Sandy's pink magnolia tree, with buds I might add. It is sort of a Where's Waldo sort of photo, except the subject is birds.

Can you count them in the snow? Enlarge please!

How fun, right? 

No need to search for the bird in the one below of a female Spotted Towhee which only seems to appear when it snows. Actually, two came scavanging which thrilled me to no end, in part because they are rare, and in part because they are pretty. I noticed that the new quilt shares some of the same colors.

Last but not the least in the snow series is everyone's favorite.

According to most forecasts we are due for more snow in the next month, but only time will tell.

What the heck is the title referring to you might be thinking, and rightly so because it is not a term one hears every day. Actually, I hope to never hear of it again! For some time now my computer has been a bit challenging to use and while I won't describe it all, I will say that maybe it was Monday that it began shutting off of it's own accord. Plus there were very scary error messages in between shutting off. Doing some research on the iPad I learned the cause was what is called a kernel panic and in my case because it kept doing it, a kernel panic loop. Bruce took it to the local computer guy who basically said that I had way too many photographs on the hard drive and I needed to delete a bunch ASAP! Figuring out the megs and such, Bruce thought at least 12,000 would do it. 

Deleting photographs is right up there with some dreaded household task. I know that doing so when they are fresh is the answer, but I've never been able to operate that way. Nevertheless, if I wanted to continue blogging, and photographing for that matter, it was a job that needed doing. One thousand, two thousand, three and on I slogged until I was at over 6,000 in the trash bin, and it seemed as if the error messages had ceased. This scary message did not cease however, and eventually I had to concede this was not something to mess around with.

Along with the spinning beach ball, the above happened many times. Things actually degraded and as it now stands, the computer will not even open. I did my very best not to panic, knowing all those years of photographs were possibly in jeopardy. I do have two external hard drives which seemed promising, but still it was not an ideal situation. Thus on Saturday, Bruce drove us the ninety miles to the Costco in Woodstock, GA, a very northern suburb of Atlanta. Costco is ideal because they extend the Apple warranty for a year.

While it looks calm in this photograph, it was anything but during our time there. Oh my goodness, am I unaccustomed to crowds anymore. What a sissy, right? 

Aside from now being behind a new Mac, the best things about that trip were several things, including learning the drive there was not terrible as it is not too mountainous, and two, the cherry and apple danish we bought from the Costco bakery. Oh my gosh, are they ever fantastic!! 

Let us hope this is my last computer because I am getting far too old to go through this again. Because of having iCloud I do have some of my photographs, but only about a third. The total before it completely quit was 93,000 photographs. Not being able to import from the old machine complicates things. The total on the new machine says 39,000! Maybe I am saved from deleting because the machine did it for me? I have no idea what to think. In the meantime, I am praising God that all is not lost. That would have been a very hard pill to swallow.

Speaking of swallowing, I needed a card reader to hook up to the new machine so we stopped at a WalMart off of the highway. Girl Scouts were on the sidewalk selling their wares and Mr. Peck has never been able to pass a stand without buying. I'm sure some of you would do the same even though we already have a source for delicious mint cookies. Dollar Tree for the win baby!

He bought two boxes and because we had not eaten, dove right in. As with most things during our Information Age, I decided to investigate where GS cookies come from and did the same manufacturer make the above cookies to be found at DT for $1.25, compared with $6.00 for Girl Scout cookies. During my investigation I came across an article that circulated about a Tik-Toker who received much publicity for telling folks how good the above cookies are. I think I first found them a Big Lots, thinking at the time, why not? Turns out they are delicious and after our lunchtime taste test today, Bruce preferred the Dollar Tree house brand!! Who knew?  Well, in fact, now you do so if you purchase any, you will very much thank me for tipping you off on this, well, now, as it turns out, a not very well kept secret.

It is hard to stay down when beauty surrounds us, our children and their spouses are all good, and baby Christian is thriving. Smiling some too! Long ago we decided that if money would fix it, we should accept it graciously, even though sometimes it is not easy to do so. 

And now my dear and faithful readers, it is time to go out into the sunshine and walk; the day began really, really cold, but the brilliant sunshine is working its magic. 

your friend,

Gail

p,s, they are not made in the same factory

I'll Give it My Best Shot

So, the good news was that a buyer bought an image from Sun Dance, while the bad news was that the image was way too low resolution to be made into a product the size (40x84!) they wanted. In other good news the location of said shot was but 75 miles away.

Should I go, or should I stay?

Last Thursday I went, telling Alajandra, "I'll give it my best shot." Trying to recreate an image can sometimes work, then again, sometimes it doesn't. This time it did, I am happy to report. Leaving the house around 8 in the morning was not the greatest idea because the commuter traffic on the interstate was still pretty heavy, but in a case of things working out for the best, I arrived at the Ponce Inlet Lighthouse just as they were opening. After telling them I would go, I got to thinking about people. I work strictly for no people shots. Not that I don't like to photograph people, but in the business I'm in, random people are a no-no.

Paying my $7.00 admission, I asked if many people were already in the lighthouse. "You're the first one," the young woman replied. Perfect!! I rushed over and began ascending the 203 steps pretty much as fast as my little feet would take me. Stopping for a breather once, up I climbed, all the while wondering if I could get the same shot. I took way more than necessary, but that's how photographers do it.

Pretty neat right? Except, it did not match the tiny image sent to me on my phone. I did go outside on the catwalk, after all, that's why you go up there, and it was crazy windy. Thank goodness for small favors because it was another hot day and the trek up had made me very warm. The view is lovely over the Atlantic.

Walking back inside, it dawned on me why the photo did not match.....the one they wanted was looking UP!! So, down I went...round and round she goes.

Now we're cooking!

Or, at least this one is a close representation of what they were looking for. The lighthouse is quite nice as are the surrounding grounds with the keeper's cottage and more.

So much has happened since last I blogged, I won't go into much more, however, I did want to mention that following my drive back to Orlando, which went smoothly in case you are wondering, Bruce and I had lunch and then I drove over the Sun Dance with my memory card. It has been quite some time since last I visited their physical plant, so long, in fact, that I'd never been in their much larger offices.

One of three office dogs. :) Emily dowloaded the photos, called Sara into the office to check and everyone were happy campers. While there, Sara told me my mailbox money was going to be very nice, always welcome words.

Now you've been there too!

Woo hoo! The boys, well they will always be boys to me, arrived Friday evening. After an early dinner to us, and a late dinner to them, we went back home where they did their best to stay up and set their inner time clocks to EST.

For some time now I've thought the computer I'm writing this on needed some attention from my overseas tech support. Matt beat me to it, suggesting I might want to buy a new iMac because the display is vastly improved since last I bought one five years ago. And so I did, spending most all of my incoming mailbox money in one fell swoop. Matt set it all up, which is just how I like it.

Except we've been too busy until now, when I finally get a chance to see how this baby works. Loving it so far!

Carol and Hank returned from Melbourne Saturday afternoon. Earlier in the day we'd paid a visit to Bill's house so he could show it off to his brother. Plus, we got a chance to see Fallon's ring which is downright dazzling!

You might note she is wearing a sweater because we had a very, and I do mean very brief respite from the heat. Back in shorts today!

For dinner I bet you can guess where we went...

Obviously blurry, but I expect you can tell that we took them to Hawkers where we all shared a delicious meal. We ordered the little trio of creme brûlée which was delicious.

Because there are so many choices, I try to make a new selection each time. Crispy noodles were a mystery to me until my dish arrived.

Flavorful, but slightly difficult to eat. You live and learn, don't you?

Sunday we shared breakfast at home as well as conversation. Bruce put the pretty touches on all the packages I'd wrapped Friday, while others took a walk, or just hung around. I convinced Carol and Hank to let me take their photograph--still crazy in love after all these years.

In some sad news, an ambulance arrived across the street around 10 in the morning--never a good thing. Apparently Corrine became dizzy, fell, and could not get up. Her stepson Tim called and called, not getting any response, so Regina went to check on her. I was able to see her before they took her away; despite some severe bruising around her eye, she was in reasonably good spirits. That said, our time with Corrine is nearing the end as her daughter is coming down from Alabama as I type to take her back home. I learned that in the brief time Herb has been in the home he is fading fast. Needless to say, we are super sad about all this. Calling her in the hospital this morning, she told me she has no choice, something I really can't deny, however, we wish it were turning out differently. :(

I've only just now heard that Carol and Hank are safely back home in Beverly Hills, while Bruce is at the job site, and Matt and Tom are doing errands. In super good news, the permit finally came in and construction on the new restaurant begins tonight with demolition. Woo hoo!

After Carol and Hank left, to sooth my soul, some serious Adele watching ensued; the NBC concert was replayed, as was a British show that included a very sweet segment with some Adele impersonators. If my sister Nancy hasn't seen this yet, she is going to be in heaven!

Following that we went to a wonderful party at David and Cheryle's home, where everyone from the Hills Happy Hour gang was in attendance. They were crazy about Matt and Tom, as I knew they would be.

Cheryle made her Grandmother's recipe for gumbo using our Thanksgiving turkey carcass as a starting point. Despite their shyness, Matt and Tom hit it off beautifully with everyone. Maybe I should say Matt's shyness. According to Matt, Tom is a party superstar, and it sure looked that way to me.

And with that, I'm heading out to the kitchen to make some lunch.

Both happy and sad,

Gail

p.s. It is only just today that my thighs have recovered from the climb--yeesh they were sore!