AAARRRGGGHHH!!!

I am so frustrated. I literally hate AOL right now. I kept an AOL account for years because I travel to places, like to my mother's home and a few other locations, where I had no way to access the internet except by using AOL access numbers. I have DSL at home so I haven't needed that access here for several years, but continued to pay to have the access available to me wherever I went. AOL also offered it's paid members lots and lots of online storage for pictures and other types of files. I took advantage of that storage for many of the pictures, music and videos that I posted on this blog because it gave me more control. I justified the expense for the access coupled with the massive storage I had.

Long story short, AOL is changing how they do business and decided to do away with their ftp storage. Users had a one month notice to get all of their files to a new online location or downloaded if needed. Needless to say, the AOL ftp gateway was not accessible most of that time due to the sheer volume of files to be moved and because their clunky ftp software would only allow people to download one file at a time. Not a problem for me since I already have most of those files stored somewhere on my hard drive anyway. The real problem for me and lots of other people, including many ebay users, is that we coded the location of those files to reference the AOL storage site.

I contacted AOL several times about this matter and was assured as late as yesterday that even though I would not have ftp access (meaning I would not be able to upload / download files anymore), the files would still be there. I asked the question three times yet the tech helping me didn't understand what I was asking or deliberately misinformed me. I'm more angry at myself because I was fairly certain what was going to happen but let someone assure me of something that I suspected wasn't true. The point is, I now have holes all over my blog pages because of this. I just fixed the header but still have many files that I need to get to flickr or some other site and then I will still have to re-code every instance of the files that are affected or just remove the coding referencing those files completely. So if you see blank spaces or the dreaded red x on my pages, that's why.

If you see flames and smoke coming from this site in the next few days or weeks, well that will be coming from me!

EDIT: I decided to simply remove the coding referencing any files stored at AOL until I can get them moved to a new location. I've been thinking about re-doing the site anyway, but haven't found a look that I am satisfied with yet. Obviously, with the lack of updates, I've struggled a bit with what to post or what direction to take this blog in or if I even want to keep it going. hmmmm... seems like this blog truly is a reflection of my life.

Rain's A Comin'

Poor Ginger is headed towards panic mode, trying to hide under the computer desk or get to my lap, whichever she makes it to first. She is like many dogs, afraid of the noise of thunder, which means that today will be an unpleasant one for her.

Dark skies and ominous lightening with big claps of thunder are here along with much cooler temperatures. For this area, we have been in the midst of a cool down, with temps hovering around the mid 80s the past few days. Trust me, in late August, in the delta area of Louisiana and Mississippi, those temps are like a cold snap. This comes just a week or two after record setting temps and heat indexes of around 120°. We've had a few days with enough rainfall and cloud cover to resurrect the lawns in the area. Many of us, me included, were out mowing last night before the anticipated storms come upon us over the next few days. It was the first time I had mowed in about three weeks.

It seems we will be in for a possible deluge of rain from the same storms which have hit the Oklahoma City area and caused flooding there. Even though we were experiencing very dry conditions, this area has had plenty of rainfall the past couple of years so we really don't need a lot of rain to fall, just enough to keep us comfortable and to lower the *@#&$@*# electric bill that's running so high from trying to cool off our homes.

Me and Ginger, signing off, hoping to stay dry and keep power and cable on.

Tired - and hot!

This is the fourth day in a row that we've been under heat advisories and it looks as if it will continue. If you watch the Weather Channel on television, I am part of the big red blob near the bottom of the U.S. map that incorporates a small bit of Texas and most of Louisiana, Mississippi and Arkansas. Of course I had several errands to take care of today and by the time I got home, I was sure I had melted off at least 10 pounds. At least it felt that way but I'm sure I won't see that evidenced on my scale!

I had to go to the bank, where I got in the first lane behind a vehicle that looked as if it was getting ready to pull away... NOT! So I finally decided since the other lanes are open, I would move to the next one. Fine, I'm first in line in this lane yet still I sat there waiting for someone, anyone to help me and relieve the one poor lady handling the entire drive-thru by herself. I had Ginger with me and as much as she loves being in the car, even she was getting crabby... not really, Ginger never gets crabby... jealous and manipulative maybe but she's never crabby. But I'm pretty sure she was as miserable as I was sitting there, even in the shade, for 15 minutes.

From there, I took Ginger on to Petco, where I dropped her off to get groomed. They will give her a full bath, trim everything, including her nails and the hair around her bottom, which is all we ever do with her. She will get brushed as long as the girls there want to brush her and she will smell beautiful and look beautiful and may even have bows in her hair when I pick her up. They do a great job with her. Never mind that she stopped to pee on their sidewalk before she went in. Which is still better than the last time we were there when she dropped a present by the checkout stand.

Having left Ginger off for her spa treatment, I headed on to T`arget, the south's most loved French department store and spent a bit of time looking around as well as spending a good bit of money. How can a person who lives alone spend so much? Huh? I ask ya... how? Geesh! And I've still got places to go!

Lowe's is next on my list and here's where the heat really kicked in because everything I want is in the outside section. I bought some bags of top soil to do some lawn repair and corn for the squirrels and realized that even feeding the squirrels in my backyard is no longer cheap! But the worst of it was having to admit that I could not face taking out that cart full of stuff and lifting those bags of dirt again. Just a year ago I don't think know I wouldn't didn't ask for help with that kind of thing, even if I wanted to. So on top of everything else, now I'm giving into age! I've lost my pride! Of course some might say I found good sense! I almost lost that though when I had to stand out in the heat waiting for the two young men who came to help me. Let's say when it seemed to take both of them to get the stuff to my car, my pride returned a bit. Okay, I know that task didn't really require both of them but both of them did it so I'm reclaiming my pride! Until I looked in the mirror that is and saw how I looked!

Sam's Club is right across the road from Lowe's so that was next and I spent a bit of time meandering through there, not caring about my appearance at all. I mean after all we all know what I was doing there... free food samples... which equates to free lunch! Unfortunately only one stand was open but she had some killer wings with ranch dressing. Drat! now I'll have to stop somewhere and buy lunch! One good thing there was realizing that a good bit of what I just purchased at T`arget was cheaper where I bought it and I had for once done the right thing, at least cost wise. But Woody K. Nibs' food is still cheaper at Sams so that went in the buggy along with the wine that I like which was on sale and some great looking grapes. Of course I hit the wrong lane checking out here as well. Do not ever follow me to a check out line because you will be making a big mistake! I finally moved over to the next aisle and still got out before the poor woman that had been standing in front of me in the first line. Anyway, we're out the door and headed down the parking lot to the gas pumps because this is the cheapest place in all of this area for me to buy gas. As the last drop entered the tank, it hit me that when I first started driving, I could have driven for almost half a year on what it took to fill up today.

And that was the end of my pride once and for all, at least for today... hair is wet, shoulders sagging, back of my shirt is damp, I feel stinky and sweaty and know that I am for real turning into Maxine more and more each day.

Ya know, there's a kind of freedom in acceptance!

So with that, I was off to Sonic and the best onion rings in town!

And I'm home and cool and just waiting to get the call to pick up Ginger so I can start this process all over again. I can hardly wait!

God's Sense of Humor

About two months ago, I had to have the old clay pipe sewer line at my house replaced, which meant my yard was turned into a complete mess. During the past two months, I've worked my big butt off (well not off, but at least it hasn't gotten bigger during this time) trying to re-establish the lawn. Today, I wanted to over-seed and re-fertilize at least the side portion. It was very hot here so I waited until evening to start. I had some low spots that I wanted to fill in and a big bare spot to repair so I was really busting my rear to get it all done. As I finished spreading dirt and trying to make sure I was leveling the soil out so that it will drain properly, I realized that it wasn't just on the verge of getting dark, there were clouds forming.

Now understand that I didn't start this work without checking the forecast. No rain predicted until at least Sunday. Woo-hoo! I could get this done and make sure the new dirt and seed and fertilizer would stay in place before one of our gully washers came rolling in! I wasn't really concerned as it clouds up a lot here without anything happening so I finished up, started a very gentle watering cycle and proceeded to clean up and put away the tools I had used and looked forward to a leisurely and very hot shower.

Ooops... that's lightning... not just heat lightning but the real deal... and big thunder... real big thunder, booming and rumbling and obviously not too far away. I could hear Ginger in the house whining as she has started doing recently during thunderstorms. I just prayed a little prayer that it wouldn't be too bad. Please God, just a nice gentle rain that will finish watering my yard and save me a buck or two on the water bill. I went inside, turned off the computer and the television and hit the shower.

I came out in my jammies and took a look outside. I realized that God had displayed His enormous sense of humor and apparently at my expense. All I could see in the darkness was water standing where I had just worked.my.ass.off. Guess my neighbor to the right of me is going to have the greenest, lushest grassy ditch in the neighborhood (he just sprayed it last weekend to kill the grass in his ditch so he wouldn't have to mow it; which, tells me that anybody even remotely close to me is subject to God's humor too!)

When the storm subsided enough that I was able to get back online, the first email I opened was from the NWS. Where were they before I worked my butt off?

THE NATL WEATHER SVC IN SHREVEPORT HAS ISSUED A

* FLASH FLOOD WARNING FOR.
OUACHITA PARISH IN NO. CNTL LOUISIANA.
THIS INCLUDES THE CITIES OF.WEST MONROE.SWARTZ.MONROE.
CLAIBORNE.BROWNSVILLE-BAWCOMVILLE.

I live in Swartz!

Told ya God has a sense of humor!

(now playing Wilson Pickett: Knock On Wood ...it's like thunder and lightning...)

The Big Screen

Last Friday, my son asked me if I wanted to go to the theater with him to see Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End. I jumped all over the offer. We had a quick lunch near the mall before seeing the movie, which I enjoyed, then went our separate ways. I was struck by a few thoughts on the way home.

When I was a child, we had three movie houses in the town where I lived. All three played different movies and every Saturday afternoon you could count on each one having a double feature plus a feature cartoon and newsreel, insuring real bang for your buck. (That buck not only got me in the theater, but also paid for my refreshments with change leftover that I could use at the candy store next door to the Rivoli where we killed time waiting for our parents to pick us up after the movie!)

Those were the days before multiple screens but still, I had an option of up to six movies to choose from on Saturday afternoons. Last Friday, I had immediate access to three theaters with a total of 31 screens, yet on that day, I could only choose between 8 movies on those 31 screens. AND NO CARTOON AT ANY OF THEM!!! HUH?

Today, I can get in the theater for a reasonable amount of money, if I go to a matinee, but it will cost an arm and a leg to get a soft drink and a bag of popcorn, which isn't fresh, which doesn't have real butter but some oily glop that is pure fat with no taste at all, that leaves me with nothing but a greasy residue on my fingers that always ends up on my clothes. Of course I could opt for a five dollar candy bar or box of Goobers. (I didn't buy Goobers when they were 25¢ - why would I pay 5 bucks for those suckers now... did someone mention suckers? ahhh, of course... an oversized tootsie roll pop for $2... a real bargain!)

Methinks there is more piracy at theaters today than what plays on the big screen.

(now playing: from Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End - Hoist The Colours by Hans Zimmer)

Choices

I often think that I will enter some new profound thought(s) to my blog but struggle to find a meaningful topic to cover. Over the past couple of weeks I've considered entries on the VA Tech shootings, the performances or judging on American Idol or some other topical subject, most of which have been overdone anyway. I ultimately decide that my humble opinion will not provide any earth shattering conclusion to the discussions that are certain to go on and on and on.

I consider more personal topics such as another entry requesting prayer for my friend Margaret who is back in the hospital and once again - make that still - in need of healing from a very stubborn infection. She desperately needs to get to Baylor for a bone marrow transplant but cannot go until she is reasonably healthy and strong enough to make the trip. I can always find words that will bore people enlighten others about the whacky behavior wonderful qualities my children, grandchildren or other family members exhibit. I could always add another song that I want to share and post the lyrics that are such a big part of the music I love. It would be easy to discuss the 4th trip that members of my church's mission team made to the New Orleans area just last week - the memories are fresh and I have plenty of pictures that I could display. Instead, I sit here on my butt typing about my options.

Sometimes there are just too many choices.