To my readers, that is if I have any left. First of all I must apologize for my absence, not even a quick post saying I’m still here just very busy. What can I say other than sometimes life gets in the way of blogging and sometimes the human soul needs a break to re-think and energize.
~I will try to do a brief synopsis and keep it light. The trip to NC was wonderful and I returned happy but very sad that I am so far away from the people I love the most.
~We’ve had some big projects going on with the house that are now completed but that took a lot of my time.
~Remember the new laptop computer from several posts back? Never did follow up on that. I love the new computer but getting use to Windows Vista has been quite the challenge! I still find XP much easier to work with though I do not dislike Vista the way I did several weeks ago. Also instead of installing my old version of Paintshop pro 7, I bought the latest Paintshop Pro X2 which is not entirely compatible with plugins as the PSP 7 or 9. Anyone who wants to run the newest version of PSP with Windows Vista better have a lot of RAM or you’re in for much frustration and programs shutting down. Fortunately I have plenty of RAM to run both programs but it’s the plugins compatibility issue still giving me the most grief. I seriously wonder if I should have bought a Mac.
~ The weather has been a real trip the last few days! Last I heard on the evening news there were still over 100,00 without power in the surrounding area from yesterday’s storm. We were outside working in the yard when the tornado sirens went off around 4:00. This storm came up so quick and fast it gave people very little time to move. It was a horribly hot day and think of Michigan with all the lakes which meant boaters out on the lake. Last night there were still rescues going on.
~ Gas has been over $4.00/gallon for at least a week. Last time I filled up it was $4.10 and will be more when I go to the pumps this week. Since seeing my husband depends on airlines this really is a critical issue for us with the cost of flights going up and up. Not to mention the amount of traveling I do to to DC and NC. He is working from home now for a week at a time (which means 2 weekends a month at home) so that is a positive. The housing market remains the same or even worse in MI. However it’s not easy with a house in MI, an apartment in Washington DC and all the travel back and forth. This is NOT where we expected to be at this stage in our lives. There was a special report on one of the local news channels about this a few months ago, titled, The Michigan Widow’s. Never since WWII have there been so many women living alone in this state while their spouse works elsewhere.
~ And I said I was going to keep this light LOL. Well the thunder is rolling again and a new batch of storms coming in. Let’s hope and pray that hurricane season is nothing like the tornado season has been or we’re all in for a world of hurt.
Elaine! I had no idea there were tornados there! I’m so glad you are okay… Do you have a basement or somewhere safe you can go? They scare the livin’ BLEEP out of me! I hear ya about the Hurricane season if it is like the Tornado season. I’m ready for a reprieve!
On another note… I hear ya about Vista… My laptop doesn’t have as much go juice as yours… I really wish I had ordered an XP machine from Dell… With my RAM, I could be doing tons of things on XP, but with Vista, I have trouble even surfing the net (Tho I do tend to have several things running at once :-/. My old XP could handle three times what this one can, tho, and this one has four times what my old desktop has)! PSP 7 has issues, too. The autosave seems to glitch… etc… (I’ll keep it “light”, but the list of things I hate about Vista is nearly endless
)… I do like certain Vista features, but I think Bill Gates is just a crook (Is my resentment coming out in this post too much???)
Anyway.. GAS… GAS… Ours is in the $3.80ish range for now. I thought that was bad enough. I can only imagine how that is effecting you in the situation you are in. You have my sympathies… On the positive side, tho… I read someone’s blog recently that mentioned that gas is $9 per gallon in Europe! They think our gas is cheap!?!?!?!
(((Hugs))) Hope you have a safe night and no more tornadoes…
I hope you have a soothing and harmonious summer!
Well, I for one am glad to see you back! My “Elaine’s Place” box on my Google homepage said “A Quart Size Bag” at the top for so long, I couldn’t even remember what that was about! LOL! We are fortunate here in South Carolina that we have had no severe weather for quite some time (at least not in Columbia) and gas is still under $4 per gallon. Sadly though, it seems the price of everything is rising. We have an election tomorrow but I am sorry to say I have no faith in what any politician can do. God alone is faithful. Have a great week, Elaine!
Gas price rises very quickly and it’s very bad because it affects the budget of the family! Right, hopefully there’s no more tornado and other natural resources that can destroy the environment as well as human lives.
I am glad you both are in one piece, Elaine. I did not realize that Michigan was affected by those storms. I know what you mean about being *in a place* that you did not expect to be in this time of life.
We are just sort of rolling with it.
Julie – have you thought about buying more RAM? That would probably help speed things up considerably. About the gas, predictions are $5.00/gallon by the 4th of July! If so that will really cut into families travel plans for the summer.
Laoch – thanks! same to you and let’s hope this wild weather calms down.
Jennifer – sadly many Americans have lost faith in politicians and our government. I do think this presidential election is critically important and whoever wins has one hell of a mess to clean up.
Martin – yes the gas prices hurt many struggling families here in the US and elsewhere too.
Cilicious – I think there are a lot of us “rolling with it”, many more than people realize.
Weather’s been a real pain — rain luckily so far in my town – but that’s to be expected…next it will be frogs falling out of the sky!!!
I’m calling it a good blog at No More. But i thank you for the comments, jokes (Hill) and comments. Figured I owed you a final comment.
take care and good luck!!
Glad you are back. I hear you on the weather and the gas. I am in North Central Indiana and we have been between the tornadoes to the north and west and the flooding to the south. We have had a lot of rain but haven’t been flooded; have had a lot of wind but no real damage. Our gas prices are just over $4. Luckily we don’t drive much–only making about 6-10 outings a month. A little more this month because Mom has her medical and vision appointments this month and we had to take her car in for repairs. I am looking very locally for jobs (which are few and far between) because even a round trip to nearby towns and cities uses two gallons of gas. I hate working simply to fill the gas tank. I sympathize with you on the computer issues. I have had to work with Windows machines on most of my previous jobs. The experiences have made me appreciate my iMac even more.
Good to see you back at it once again! Although I know what you’ve been going through lately, it’s always good to stop by and find a couple of new posts.
And do you really think your readers would give up on you? Hah!
The tornado warning here is over but we had had a short but furious time with severe winds that took down several tree’s including an old maple in my neighbor’s yard. Amazing that it only took down the phone line. I put up a couple pictures I took on my site. You don’t often get tornado warnings in Vermont.
I need to I guess, Elaine. I like to keep too many things open at once. I could on my XP machine, and go for weeks without rebooting even. I was spoiled to being able to do that. I still prefer my desktop, but with a baby running around and homework to do, I am stuck on the laptop most of the time. I’ll probably invest in more RAM in the near future, because I am fighting daily frustrations with this! :-/