Mt. Rainier and Lenticular Clouds - Dec. 2008 copyright: JMM

February 16, 2014

Winter Can Go Away Now.



Mercury Retrograde started up the beginning of February but it was already starting to build a few days before.  That's always fun.  Not.  

I am so goddamn sick and tired of snow and cold.  I am NOT adjusting well at all to these winters.  My electric bill is so expensive that I'm going to have just let the house get cold during the week and keep the heat way low.  Tired of this neverending winter.  Everyone's like, 'This is Massachusetts/New England, this is winter.'  Well I guess I got spoiled by mild winters on the left coast.  February in California is when all the trees start to bloom.  Washington is just rain with sunbreaks and 40-55.

Saw some disappointing news on my FB newsfeed the other day.  The Widgetbox application is closing at the end of March.  I have four of them here on my blog - the Penguins, Moon Phases, Clock and my hamster Buddy.  I am so bummed out.  Not only will they not be supporting the app, they are shutting them all down, so essentially they are killing my virtual pets.  Do any of you use widgets?

I was out walking Sagan out in the front yard so he could potty one day when I saw a grey streak charge at us.  Sagan got in front of me and the dog fight was on.  I was yelling and trying to get the dog to leave.  I somehow managed to get us both away from the dog and back in the house.  Russell had the TV on and didn't hear a thing.  He told me to call animal control and he'd try and find the owner.

It's a little smaller than Sagan and I could only assume it's some kind of pit bull mix.  And for the record, I am not anti-pitbull either.  The officer told me they had a complaint about that dog a few days before.  The owner did come over and apologized profusely and said she'd take care of it if Sagan was injured, which fortunately he wasn't.  We were both shaken up for awhile though....poor Sagan was whining and I had a wicked asthma attack.  Needless to say he got a special peanut butter cheese biscuit treat.

Got some more goodies!!!  Michelle sent me the pretty key chain on the right, and the soaps and beads are from my college pals Josh & Tracy!  

And I got this Valentines ATC from Angie!  She does beautiful collage and altered art work and I was so honoured to be among the recipients!!


In other news, keeping with the whole Mercury Retrograde thing, my computer decided it wasn't gonna boot up one night.  I was bereft.  Fortunately we have a friend, Glenn, who fixes computers for a living.  His company is High Performance PCs of Cape Cod.  I brought it over with the recovery discs and hovered like a nervous parent as Glenn got it up and running.  He asked me how much room was left on my hard drive, which isn't much.  He asked to see my photo files and he was horrified....HOR. I. FIED.  He said if my computer has been running slow (which it has), it's because there are way, way too many pictures on it. Even though I take a lot off onto flash drives, it's not enough.  He got me an external hard drive and I put all my pics on it.  I'm surprised that I still don't have much room on my hard drive despite dumping almost everything I had saved.  

Also, because I draft my blogs in advance, I am actually writing this on February 15.  We are about to get hit with another blizzard; it's already snowing heavily at 3:00 PM.  Yes we have a generator, but if my computer runs out of juice and needs to be restarted, and doesn't boot up again, I will be screwed.  Can't afford to replace it at this time.  I am hoping that it doesn't crap out on me, but if it does, that is why I haven't visited any blogs or been on Facebook.

With that, I leave you with a moon shot.


11 comments:

  1. Glad you were able to get your computer fixed! Though I'm not a professional photographer like you, I take a LOT of candids of the family and should probably take this advice. I mean, I have my cloud back-up with Norton, and my writing double backed up on USB drives...can never be too careful,,,
    Tina @ Life is Good
    A to Z Team @ Blogging From A to Z April Challenge 2014
    @TinaLifeisGood, #atozchallenge
    http://www.facebook.com/TinaLifeIsGood

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    1. Norton kept trying to charge me for more storage so I was never able to get everything backed up. I need to find out what's taking up so much space on my hard drive cause clearly it wasn't the photos, although I am glad to have those stored externally now. I still have a lot of work to do with organizing but at least they'll be in one place.

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  2. Glad you and your dog were OK. That is so scary. As far as the computer goes I finally got a different one from a guy on Craigs List who fixes and updates them for a really reasonable price. Hope you stay up and running. I have always liked winter and snow...but this year I am so sick of it. So ready for warmer weather and spring. So tired of the cold weather. I know just how you feel. It has been a rough one and lately the major snow has screwed with my husband's paycheck too because the place where he was supposed to deliver got hit with a foot of snow so he was delayed a couple days trying to get it off...so only about 800 miles for one week. Not good at all. Although they will pay layover pay... it is going to be another extremely small check if we get pay at all after they take out all the deductions. :P

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    1. Winter is hell in the trucking biz. It beats up on his truck so bad. Plus he's freezing his ass off lumping loads, and he is spending so much on fuel b/c he has to keep the truck running 24/7. I'm sure Glenn can clean this one up, he said it wouldn't be a problem at all to work on it. It's a good computer; a Toshiba that I got in 2008 and it runs constantly.

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  3. Way to go Sagan! So glad neither of you was hurt. I never blame the dog; but the owner. She should have him securely locked up inside if he is so aggressive. Sorry to hear about your dealing with Winter. I actually love the snow. Good thing I live up here, eh? Take care.

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    1. I get in such a high state of anxiety with snowstorms. Big time. I just don't like it. Give me rain any day. And yes, I blame the owners too.

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  4. Oh, man, I think that's why my computer is so dang slow...not from a harsh winter (sorry about that. I feel guilty getting sunshine over here in CA), but from too many pictures. What a headache. Hope things clear up across the board for you.

    Take care,
    xoRobyn

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    1. I have to say that I do feel a huge sense of relief, having almost everything transferred to the external drive now. I spent hours on it last night, organizing and alphabetizing all the photo folders. Now if only I could get the pictures off the really old desktop computer in the back room, I'd be golden. It doesn't even have a port for a flashdrive and it won't read or record on any writeable CDs either. It's probably 10 years old now.

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  5. Anonymous2:02 AM

    Stay safe from the weather. If you keep your house cool it will be difficult to live. Try to reduce some other current to reduce your electricity bill.

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    1. Yes....keeping the house cooler isn't working well for me. It's just too cold out and we are on a concrete slab. The bathroom tile floor is insanely cold.

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  6. Hi JoJo, as you don't read your emails anymore, I came over here to respond to your comment on my blog. I don't think that's what the blogger meant - it's rude to never acknowledge your commenters, but no-one expects you to respond to each and every comment. I also think they meant by email, not on your blog. The overwhelming response to my question was that people never go back to see if the blog owner has responded to their comment. Personally, i think it's a bit arrogant to expect it, we're all really busy and don't have time to visit each and every post 2 or 3 times to see if they've said "thank you", it's MUCH easier to email a response and that's how I've struck up friendships over the last 3 years of blogging - by email after a comment on a blog.

    You can click "don't count my pageviews" in the dashboard view if you're worried about your stats.

    Don't bother responding to this in your comments as I won't be back to check!

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