One of the Downsides.....

to losing my Outlook Express email is that I had at least ten emails saved; from which I could expect to glean ten future posts for the blog. Now they are gone and I'm on my own to come up with something to write about. It's getting drastic here, folks!

We did have one perk today. The genius who fixed my computer found and isolated the old email addresses - all 200+ of them! I decided to print them, so when the computer messes up again, I can at least have the ones up to this date. Guess how many pages it printed?  Eighty-six! Of course, there was a lot of white space on each page. I really thought that my printer would run out of black ink before it finished printing, but every page is sharp and clear. The cartridge isn't new either - so that's very good! I've decided to try to remember to write out all the new email addresses that we get after this, so it is never a problem again. Also, when he attempted to set up Outlook Express on the other computer, it loaded 2,848 spam emails that we have gotten over the last 2 and 1/2 years - but they went directly into the spam files and we never saw them. None of the 2,848 looked remotely interesting.....LOL.....so we deleted all of them immediately!

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The pressure-washing, board-replacing and deck-sealing people are finally finished. It looks okay, and I know it is better for the wood to be sealed - but - I really preferred the look of the wood when it got weathered and gray  (sort of like me!) Another problem, which I am trying to ignore, is that the guy who sprayed the wood with sealer got it on all my plants and the ivy that grows all along the fence and retaining wall. It is nice and shiny now, but I know those leaves will die soon and I'll have to wait until the plant can push out new ones before it looks nice again. I had no idea that they would not use a drop cloth or something to protect the plants. If we ever have to have pressure-washing done again - you can be sure they will use a drop cloth - or they won't get the job. I will be firm on that. You've had fair warning, so you are armed against your pressure-washing people. Make them do what's right.

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This photo was taken from the site of my decade reunion last weekend. It is my beloved Kanawha River, in Charleston, WV. I have loved the river since I was a child, but I don't think I properly appreciated living in a city with a river until I didn't have it any longer.

When I first moved away from home, the ocean took the place of the river in my heart. When we moved to Raleigh some 41 years ago, I quickly realized how much I missed bodies of water - and lakes don't quite do it for me. I've always said that if Raleigh had a river, it would be perfect. Too bad I can't transplant Raleigh to sit beside that beautiful river. That would be Almost Heaven, indeed.

(I took the photo from inside the event site, so you see reflections in the glass.)

How Sad Is It?

How sad is it that I can't come up with ten names of the people I speak with often on the telephone?

We recently got rid of both our land-lines and went totally cellular. The plan allows each of us to name ten people who we talk to the most, and those calls will be free all the time. The ten people have to be on some other cellular carrier than ours, and therein lies the rub. Most of the people I call (or call me) are already on our carrier. So, I can only come up with eight people, and some of them are people I barely ever speak with.

The telephone has taken a backseat around here since email was established. Not with mr. kenju, mind you, he is the king of gentleman phone talkers and can stay on it for hours at a time (not every day, but frequently.) I choose email for almost every communication these days, unless it is an emergency or I need a quick answer. Email is user-friendly, I think, in that the person you send it to can choose when it is convenient to answer (or if they want to answer) and of course, they can always return the communication on the phone, if that is their choice. My younger daughter, who is undoubtedly the reason the word "Crackberry" was coined, hates it when I email her instead of calling. But since she is never far from her phones (yes, two of them) I figure an email is the best way to go. But for some odd reason, when I email her with a time-sensitive message - she doesn't get it until it is too late. Go figure.

Anyway, do you want to be on my list of ten? LOL All appliers seriously considered.

Certainly most of the people who read here are astute enough to realize that many of the email forwards we receive each day are simply untrue. I have written about this before, as have some of you.

Here's an example.

An old school friend of mine sends this stuff to me on a regular basis. He, and the many veterans like him, get all riled up at the thought of anything that demeans the military or God and Country. And they should- when the information is factual - but I rankle when it is false.

I'm unclear what the motivation is behind email forwards like this one, but I've read it is a way for the perpetrator to get multiple email addresses, which are then used for spamming purposes. There could be something more nefarious going on (like viruses or trojans), but I don't know how it works. Unfortunately, these people also take advantage of superstitious and devout people, by sending forwards that warn of dire consequences if you don't send it to ten people immediately (or promise something funny on the screen later).

It is SO easy to go to www.snopes.com and search for key words. In checking this one, I typed in ACLU + cross-shaped headstones, and was immediately taken to the page that shows it is untrue.

Telling people about it isn't always a solution, however. It seems to me that the people who get all riled up by this sort of thing are not really interested in whether it is true or not - they just like stirring up a tempest.

Tiny Deer

This tiny deer was delivered by Caesarean section at a wildlife hospital after his mother was killed by a car. Little Rupert, who is so small he can fit in an adults hand, was born after vets failed in their battle to save his mother.At just six inches tall and weighing just over a pound, he is now in an incubator in the intensive care unit at Tiggywinkles Wildlife Hospital in Buckinghamshire. He has only recently opened his eyes. Les Stocker, founder of Tiggywinkles, said: Rupert's mother had very severe injuries.

We brought him out and got him breathing and then he went into an incubator on oxygen. He is now being fed by a tube. Staff are optimistic that Rupert, now five days old, will make a full recovery. Deer are very, very tricky but this one has spirit. He's an extremely feisty little guy and quite pushy, Mr. Stocker said.

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Go here to see some fabulous photos!!!

Typewriter Art....Believe it or Not! (Plus TV)

Here's another of the amazing emails going around. Would you believe that these art works were made on a typewriter? Scroll down for the text of the email.

Paul Smith, the man with extraordinary talent was born in Philadelphia on September 21, 1921 with severe cerebral palsy. Not only had Paul beaten the odds of a life with spastic cerebral palsy, a disability that impeded his speech & mobility but also taught himself to become a master artist as well as a terrific chess player even after being devoid of a formal education as a child.


'When typing, Paul used his left hand to steady his right one. Since he couldn't press two keys at the same time, he almost always locked the shift key down and made his pictures using the symbols at the top of the number keys. In other words, his pictures were based on these characters.... @ # $ % ^ & * ( ) _

Across seven decades, Paul created hundreds of pictures. He often gave the originals away. Sometimes, but not always, he kept or received a copy for his own records. As his mastery of the typewriter grew, he developed techniques to create shadings, colors, and textures that made his work resemble pencil or charcoal drawings.'

This great man passed away on June 25, 2007, but left behind a collection of his amazing artwork that will be an inspiration for many.

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Boston Legal has been one of my top favorite shows for five years and I anxiously awaited the first show of this season, purported to be the last. Okay.......I watched part of it tonight and I am here to report that Boston Legal has officially 'jumped the shark.' Stupid fantasy sequences, interspersed with idiocy about Denny Crane's dangling "parts" served to put me in a daze - and not in a good way. They will have to forget the nonsense and get back to basics before I will spend another minute watching that drivel.

TNT has the best new show of the season, so far.......Raising the Bar.......and they saw fit to place it on the schedule opposite Boston Legal (Monday 10:00 pm) At first, I was upset about that. Now I see that I needn't have worried. It's "Raising the Bar" for me!


Dancing with the Stars started off with a bang. I think Lance Bass shows great promise, as does Cody Linley (I think I got the name right) a boy with more poise than most teenagers have. Cloris Leachman was on a comedy roll, but made the show run long. They'll have to keep her under control if she gets voted back. I wanted to see Susan Lucci (mr. kenju's fantasy girlfriend), but I inconveniently fell asleep. I think it is odd that she is the only dancer I didn't see. What did I miss? Was she good?

Go here to see some really amazing rain forest sculptures.
Found originally at Dark Roasted Blend.

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An APHORISM is a short, pointed sentence expressing a wise or clever observation or a general truth. 1. The nicest thing about the future is that it always starts tomorrow. 2. Money will buy a fine dog, but only kindness will make him wag his tail. 3. If you don't have a sense of humor, you probably don't have any sense at all. 4. Seat belts are not as confining as wheelchairs. 5. A good time to keep your mouth shut is when you're in deep water. 6. How come it takes so little time for a child who is afraid of the dark to become a teenager who wants to stay out all night? 7. Business conventions are important because they demonstrate how many people a company can operate without. 8. Why is it that at class reunions you feel younger than everyone else looks? 9. Scratch a cat and you will have a permanent job. 10. No one has more driving ambition than the boy who wants to buy a car. 11. There are no new sins; the old ones just get more publicity . 12. There are worse things than getting a call for a wrong number at 4 AM. It could be a right number. 13. No one ever says 'It's only a game.' when their team is winning. 14. I've reached the age where the happy hour is a nap. 15. Be careful reading the fine print. There's no way you're going to like it. 16. The trouble with bucket seats is that not everybody has the same size bucket. 17. Do you realize that in about 40 years, we'll have thousands of old ladies running around with tattoos? (And rap music will be the Golden Oldies!) 18. Money can't buy happiness -- but somehow it's more comfortable to cry in a Corvette than in a Yugo. 19. After 50, if you don't wake up aching in every joint, you are probably dead!! 20. Always be yourself because the people that matter don't mind, and the ones who mind, don't matter "Others will follow your footsteps easier than they will follow your advice

Browsing Old Cemeteries

Harry Edsel Smith of Albany, New York: Born 1903--Died 1942. Looked up the elevator shaft to see if the car was on the way down. It was. ============================= In a Thurmont, Maryland , cemetery: Here lies an Atheist, all dressed up and no place to go. ============================= On the grave of Ezekial Aikle in East Dalhousie Cemetery , Nova Scotia : Here lies Ezekial Aikle, Age 102. Only The Good Die Young. ============================= In a London , England cemetery: Here lies Ann Mann, Who lived an old maid but died an old Mann. Dec. 8, 1767 ============================= In a Ribbesford, England , cemetery: Anna Wallace The children of Israel wanted bread, And the Lord sent them manna. Clark Wallace wanted a wife, And the Devil sent him Anna. =============================== In a Ruidoso, New Mexico , cemetery: Here lies Johnny Yeast... Pardon me for not rising. =============================== In a Uniontown, Pennsylvania , cemetery: Here lies the body of Jonathan Blake. Stepped on the gas instead of the brake. ============================== In a Silver City, Nevada, cemetery: Here lays The Kid. We planted him raw. He was quick on the trigger But slow on the draw. ================================ A lawyer's epitaph in England : Sir John Strange. Here lies an honest lawyer, and that is Strange. ================================= John Penny's epitaph in the Wimborne, England , cemetery: Reader, if cash thou art in want of any, Dig 6 feet deep and thou wilt find a Penny. ================================== In a cemetery in Hartscombe , England : On the 22nd of June, Jonathan Fiddle went out of tune. ================================== Anna Hopewell's grave in Enosburg Falls , Vermont : Here lies the body of our Anna, Done to death by a banana. It wasn't the fruit that laid her low, But the skin of the thing that made her go. ================================== On a grave from the 1880s in Nantucke t , Massachusetts : Under the sod and under the trees, Lies the body of Jonathan Pease. He is not here, there's only the pod. Pease shelled out and went to God. ================================== In a cemetery in England : Remember man, as you walk by, As you are now, so once was I As I am now, so shall you be. Remember this and follow me. To which someone replied by writing on the tombstone: To follow you I'll not consent .. Until I know which way you went.

Could You Pass?

This came to me in email and I thought you'd enjoy it. I'd never be able to pass that test now! How about you? What it took to get an 8th grade education in 1895... Remember when grandparents and great-grandparents stated that they only had an 8th grade education? Well, check this out. Could any of us have passed the 8th grade in 1895? This is the eighth-grade final exam from 1895 in Salina , Kansas, USA. It was taken from the original document on file at the Smokey Valley Genealogical Society and Library in Salina, and reprinted by the Salina Journal. 8th Grade Final Exam: Salina , KS -1895 Grammar (Time, one hour) 1. Give nine rules for the use of capital letters. 2. Name the parts of speech and define those that have no modifications. 3. Define verse, stanza and paragraph. 4. What are the principal parts of a verb? Give principal parts of 'lie,''play,' and 'run.' 5. Define case; illustrate each case. 6. What is punctuation? Give rules for principal marks of punctuation. 7 - 10. Write a composition of about 150 words and show therein that you understand the practical use of the rules of grammar. Arithmetic (Time,1 hour 15 minutes ) 1. Name and define the Fundamental Rules of Arithmetic. 2. A wagon box is 2 ft. deep, 10 feet long, and 3 ft. wide. How many bushels of wheat will it hold? 3. If a load of wheat weighs 3,942 lbs., what is it worth at 50cts/bushel, deducting 1,050 lbs. for tare? 4. District No 33 has a valuation of $35,000. What is the necessary levy to carry on a school seven months at $50 per month, and have $104 for incidentals? 5. Find the cost of 6,720 lbs. coal at $6.00 per ton. 6. Find the interest of $512.60 for 8 months and 18 days at 7 percent. 7. What is the cost of 40 boards 12 inches wide and 16 ft. long at $20 per metre? 8. Find bank discount on $300 for 90 days (no grace) at 10 percent. 9. What is the cost of a square farm at $15 per acre, the distance of which is 640 rods? 10. Write a Bank Check, a Promissory Note, and a Receipt. U.S. History (Time, 45 minutes) 1. Give the epochs into which U.S. History is divided. 2. Give an account of the discovery of America by Columbus . 3. Relate the causes and results of the Revolutionary War. 4. Show the territorial growth of the United States . 5. Tell what you can of the history of Kansas . 6. Describe three of the most prominent battles of the Rebellion. 7. Who were the following: Morse, Whitney, Fulton, Bell, Lincoln, Penn, and Howe? 8. Name events connected with the following dates: 1607, 1620, 1800, 1849, 1865. Orthography (Time, one hour) [Do we even know what this is??] 1. What is meant by the following: alphabet, phonetic, orthography, etymology, syllabication. 2. What are elementary sounds? How classified? 3. What are the following, and give examples of each: trigraph, subvocals, diphthong, cognate letters, linguals. 4. Give four substitutes for caret 'U.' (HUH?) 5 Give two rules for spelling words with final 'e.' Name two exceptions under each rule. 6. Give two uses of silent letters in spelling. Illustrate each. 7. Define the following prefixes and use in connection with a word: bi, dis, mis, pre, semi, post, non, inter, mono, sup. 8. Mark diacritically and divide into syllables the following, and name the sign that indicates the sound: card, ball, mercy, sir, odd, cell, rise, blood, fare, last. 9. Use the following correctly in sentences: cite, site, sight, fane, fain, feign, vane , vain, vein, raze, raise, rays. 10. Write 10 words frequently mispronounced and indicate pronunciation by use of diacritical marks and by syllabication. Geography (Time, one hour) 1 What is climate? Upon what does climate depend? 2. How do you account for the extremes of climate in Kansas ? 3. Of what use are rivers? Of what use is the ocean? 4. Describe the mountains of North America . 5. Name and describe the following: Monrovia, Odessa, Denver, Manitoba, Hecla, Yukon, St. Helena, Juan Fernandez, Aspinwall and Orinoco . 6. Name and locate the principal trade centers of the U.S. 7. Name all the republics of Europe and give the capital of each. 8. Why is the Atlantic Coast colder than the Pacific in the same latitude? 9. Describe the process by which the water of the ocean returns to the sources of rivers. 10. Describe the movements of the earth. Give the inclination of the earth. Notice that the exam took FIVE HOURS to complete. Gives the saying 'he only had an 8th grade education' a whole new meaning, doesn't it?! Also shows you how poor our education system has become! and, NO! I don't have the answers.