Against the Wind

Just a note before falling asleep. I associate the phrase “blessings of the day” with my grandfather. Let me recite a few of the blessings of this day.

I rose from my bed this morning unassisted. One of our bridge group died after a surgery.

The club bridge game went forward in spite of a national tournament in New Orleans.

Two of the three grands were here a bit today.

I’ve had some little time to myself, a scarce comodity of late.

I’m making a little progress toward getting my computer back the way I want.

Any blessings you’d care to name?

Surprise!  Marianne’s old computer is now working, and I am back online.  I still don’t have my email set up, but I had moved almost all my files over to an ancillary drive, and it seems to have worked well. Most of the programs I use I already have on the other drive!  Easiest computer change I’ve ever done.  Carlo is using the internet connection.

And now a day later, Quetin is using the internet connection.  Some moments… like now… I just want to get my quiet little life back.   But when I have my quiet little life, I crave a bit of commotion.  Just try and make me be happy.  Just try!

Quentin arrived at 7:30 and wanted to use the computer to listen to an internet video he’s been waiting and waiting to see.  But the sound is somehow boogared on this computer.  My speakers don’t work, the head set won’t work.  A good bit of trouble shooting later and I’ve found the place where the sound card has an exclamation point by it, meaning something as I recall… wish I could recall what it was that it means!

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So, maybe I should share a little bit of Trinibagan memories.   Here’s a photo by Ginny Dressler, from the day we missed on a north coast beach I believe.

Oddly enough, though the experience was such an overall positive, I spent so much effort swallowing my objections, or my discomfort, that now all I want to do is WHINE full throttle.   I’m still in “suck it up” mode, which is why I hit the writing tablet with my complaints.  This can work.  I can whine now and edit it out later.   I cannot send straight away in any case.

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Pat and Sandy came with me, which really did help in the big picture.  On the flight down, I learned a new little card game, golf, which is perfectly suited to passing time on a flight.  Pat is one of those unlucky folks who has a good deal of flight anxiety, so she has to be occupied the whole time, or suffer some very unpleasant consequences.  Sandy just wants a quiet spot where she can be quiet and get her calm.  She has problems with arthritic knees and all, so I suspect that’s her way to deal.  Or maybe I just project what I would like.

I got nothing but grief from Marianne for inviting Pat and Sandy.  But really there was going to be no one I could consider my friend at the wedding.  Carlo is the closest I would have had.  Don’t think I would have survived the heat, the mosquitoes, the nonstop activity, the strange environment without someone more reassuring than an ex-husband.

Pat was a trouper.  She knows that I’m very socially uncomfortable.  I’d just as soon do a social situation by sitting in the corner and watching.  But the Mother of the Bride does have some small role to play even when the festivities are financed mostly by the couple and the groom’s family.  Pat helped me put on make up, drape a shawl so I didn’t look like I was about to freeze in some arctic clime.  She was generous with praise, and very helpful to my fragile ego.

The day after the wedding, we were to head to Tobago with all the guests from the States, and as we were to go, I got the message that they were sick, and going to try to change their tickets and go back to the states.  The rest of the trip I did as the lone old lady among a lot of kids.

I’ve had the sense, as recently as this morning, of standing under a shower of blessings.  My manic depressive side kicked in a few hours ago when I figured out that the computer which has been limping is no longer.  At this point I start a full throttle internal whine about all the stuff that needs fixing or replacing when I do not want to fix or replace.

My wonderful kids have had pity on Mom through several of these episodes, and handed down old computers.  I have two that sort of suffice.  The old apple product doesn’t run the bridge interface I like and the desktop was so viral it had to go the “format c:” route.  That’s well and good if you can reinstall all the drivers.  But the previous owner discarded all those junk disks, and I’ve never located or properly installed a file needed to get the internet going.  Tomorrow, it’s off to the local computer guru, and then probably to go buy a computer.   Once I have a working machine, I can clean up the mess in my computer room which looks like a place old computers go to die.

Meanwhile, G— has been hanging around in a cardiac care unit, toughing it out in SLC.  Send up a prayer or two for the “independent b—-” who couldn’t even call her sister till a week later.  I spoke to her sis today, and the claim is that G is at least third in a long line of strong willed independent women.  Yup, I kind of recognize the syndrome.

All in all, it’s really been a great day.  And life is good.  But I sure go off the deep end when my computer goes belly up.

And Nita and Linda, no I didn’t abandon the site while I was out of town.  It turns out the spam looking mail I was getting about my domain name expiring was not spam.  So July 14, suddenly there was no longer a dloye.com.   No great loss, as I’ve not done a thing commercial with the site, though that was my original intention. But I’ve had an awful lot of fun blogging and messing about.  I didn’t even unpack my suitcases before getting that problem resolved.  When stuff doesn’t work, I get the shakes.  Mother has returned…. in my skin!

What a wedding! A Trini drum corps, and dancing and drinking into the wee hours. Just a quick pic of Marianne and Barry on Pigeon Point Beach in Tobago. I didn’t take many photos, and none at the ceremony or celebration. By the time I got this photo of them, they were exhausted from trying to entertain the troops…. a select group of Marianne’s family and friends.

She’ll be back in the States in a little more than a week. He’ll go back to work and she can try to figure out the next big adventure. God Bless them both.

The decorative tiles of Portugal were a big part of the visual environment of the Azores as well. This is inside a little sandwich shop.

One last photo of the Azores before I pack up and head to Trinidad & Tobago. There’s a wedding there this weekend I cannot miss… I’ll be playing the part of Mother of the Bride. By tomorrow, this time I need to have every thing organized and ready to go. What you see here is panic. Tomorrow. Tonight I’m going to bed!

I saw mention of IM and Don going to Oxford for the music festival this year. Henry L– had a couple of files of Carp Camp’s Irish music in Facebook, so here’s a link to some fine Carp Camp Jam music. Brother D called about closing out the last of Mother’s accounts, and I mentioned the music festival trip, and got myself a bed if I go. Maybe another trip in September!

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I’ve several photos ahead waiting for blogging, so today it’s a glimpse at the Azores. Most of the buildings in the town, Ponte Delgada, were well maintained, but there were a few that were derelict. Something about the decay that can befall our best efforts to overcome entropy is fascinating. Vishnu will have his way.

I’m still hoping Gail is serious about going to the Azores next spring. Definitely a place I want to go back.

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The next is for the independent/conservative/libertarian types. Dennis Prager is likely in talk radio, and I know he writes a good column. This is a video of excerpts of his responses in some forum. Preach on Mr. Prager, I’m in the amen corner here!

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And this clip is on an enterprise to try to finance some filmmaking that reflects the sense of American Exceptionalism and Motherhood and Apple Pie values that used to play in films. I don’t know that it’ll work, but I’m curious if anyone has any reactions. Bill Whittle’s writing and essay skills make me envious!

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One last link! A local blog I follow has a report from a speech by our mayor (ok, New Orleans) Inspirational.

Likely this tidbit has not gotten the play in the MSM that it’s gotten in the rightosphere. At least Investors Business Daily is willing to mock a bit. Our head of NASA said in an interview with Al Jazeera that his foremost mission is to make Muslims feel good about their contributions to math, science and engineering.

Bolden’s one small step for Islam comes after presiding over the demise of the space shuttle program and the cancellation of the Constellation program, which was to put America back on the moon and restore America’s space dominance.

This administration does not believe in American exceptionalism and has said at conferences such as the G-20 that we would just like to be one of the 20. We no longer seek to lead, but we yearn to apologize. Hey, fellas, forget that American flag on the moon. Sorry about that. It won’t happen again. Welcome aboard the starship Kumbaya.

On the cruise liner, a great deal time is devoted to organized entertainment of the passengers. One activity B enjoyed a lot was the trivia games. I can’t recall things very quickly anymore, so it’s not so much fun when brain fog descends! Anyway, B was drawn out of the pot to play in this Jeopardy knock off, and she and her random teammate won the game. She’s got an encyclopedic knowledge of music, and uses that to buy and sell vinyl records. It also stood her well on the cruise liner for a moment of fame.

The trivia that was hopping in my life today…number one daughter came over to make sofa pillows. We only got one done, as I just played instructor, and she sewed the thing up. It’s a very straightforward pillow we constructed, but she was happy with it. She plans to do some more after the wedding. BUT, when T comes over, so does Miranda, so I got a lot of nearly 6 wk old photos. Her newborn hair has fallen out so that she has rings of alternating dark hair and baldness (or the newer light hair, which looks like baldness!) Strengthening happening in her neck, she follows us with her eyes as we move about, and was very stingy today with her smiles and conversation. She seems to have some reflux problems or some sort of tummy issues, which should pass shortly. Just hard to do much interacting when your gut is grabbing you.

Cameron calls her Baby Buranda. Don’t think it’ll stick, but it’s cute.

I know those who read feel incredibly lucky today. It’s a two photo day!

The view from the stateroom balcony, which we saw a good bit. The balcony helped with the fact that a stateroom is rather small, and Betsi and I are both used to a good bit more room!

The second is only because there’s no one here to show! I have never tried applique blocks, or not for a long time. So I tackled one today. If I make four or five more, I’ll have my row ready for the row robin.

Gail sent me a political piece on trying to get cap and trade passed. It all looked terribly peculiar to me, because I don’t want to see that passed. But I’ll probably see that, and open borders and fin-reg and a few more fiascoes passed by the Democratic juggernaut we have for a government.

I’ll still look up something that explains why cap and trade is not something that everyone wants to see happen. But the good well written piece I saw today is from Claremont Review. Found it from Powerline. A rather long piece called The Audacity of Barak Obama. It starts

“Any politician who has taken on Bill and Hillary Clinton’s national political machine and won should not be underestimated. Yet Republicans as well as many Democrats persist in underrating Barack Obama’s electoral talents and, above all, his soaring political ambition.”

It’s a good piece of writing, and makes me more clear on why I feel ever like there are two sets of reality in this land. It’s the 4th of July, and a day to celebrate our country. I never was one much for patriotic display, and frankly it’s too hot and buggy in these parts to get out and enjoy fireworks displays. But I love my country, and I love that it’s a country that has some enduring values that are important to me. Just as I love my kids, I could see their warts. I love my country, not “warts and all,” but because we are free to try to fix the warts, and disagree about what foundational values are, and take it to a court of law to sort out our differences. I hope all that survives this “progressive” agenda we’re watching being crammed down on a country very divided. The civil war was fought once. It may happen again.

Gail, I found some pieces on why cap and trade is not necessary. But nothing that got down to the bedrock that might make it readable for a progressive dem. I could bestir myself to write an essay. Not likely!

On the first day of the big vacation, I decided to document my trip by taking a photo more or less each hour of the day as I went through my days. Those photos would be a journal I could use to blog about my trip. This photo is the second of the series from the first day, taken just past Meridian Mississippi. I had to stop and buy some gasoline, and get refreshed, so I took the road a bit off the expressway and ran into a little campground. In front was some very accessible, photographable wisteria. I like wisteria, for the name, which sounds magical, and for the bloom which reminds me of grapes on the vine.

Alas the photo journal only lasted one day. And the blogging while traveling didn’t work well at all. The connection to the internet on the ship was slow, expensive, and pretty hard to justify spending as much money as I did trying to do it.

Anyway, I’m going to continue to plow through all my photos, best of 10, and publish one a day, so we’re thick into the travel photos for a while. I think I had something on the order of 400 photos, so more than a month of trip photos. I’ll enjoy the walk down memory lane.

Home late from the quilt bee… worked about three hours getting the paper cleaned off some paper piecing. Still not finished! I’ll be glad to finish this and get on to the row robin. I’m down to two weeks and counting, and have only a vague plan. I’ll get some of it going tomorrow… I hope!

We did get started talking about oil spill stuff a bit. One member of the bee is the mother of the president of St. Bernard Parish. He’s taken to living out in Breton Sound as the oil disaster continues. It’s not like we have to solve any of the problems in our quilt bee, but everyone knows people who are affected. And they sounded like they’re not eating much sea food this year. I continue to eat a bit of gulf shrimp, but I never did eat much. So a fried shrimp po’ boy now and again won’t do me enough damage to worry about.