We Have Been Reminded

Only 74 more shopping days until Christmas!

It's snowing here!

According to www.blackdog.net it's 2 months, or 74 day, or 1775 hours, or 106519 minutes, or 6391134 seconds and counting down until Christmas! Black Dog's Countdown to Christmas, even with your own timezone. Aren't you excited? This site is cool. It has a lot of stuff to do with the kids and grand kids. I liked their Christmas mazes.

Whenever it snows, I like to put on our Christmas tunes. My sister Millie and I did the same thing each year on the first snowing day. Love you Mil!

The snow was coming down like crazy and now it's stopped and looks like the sun will be coming out for the rest of the day.

Old and New

I was thinking about the last vote we had here in Alaska. A new Proposition that would protect private land owners from the government not compensating property (imminent domain) owners fairly for their private land/home. I thought wrongly when I figured Alaskans would support this proposition. The voters turned it down!

I could not believe that our voters would trust our well-being to the Borough so much that they would not put into place protections for the public. I have to believe that the voters did not realize they were voting for more government leeway.

Anyway, why did it come up for a vote? Isn't it only right that owners in the way of public improvement should be able to get out of their lifetime investment what it is worth? Yes, it is right.

I did a read on imminent domain and look at the map of all the places that are now dealing with this trouble. Map of Imminent Domain Cases. One thing this does support in my mind is that I should not put my heart into this old world. My home is not here - even though it is pleasant at times.

Mom and I had such a nice day yesterday. I brought her out to The Point and we made a small fire and I roasted marshmallows for her. I had one even though I am on a diet because how can one resist when your Momma asks, "Are you going to have one too?"

My son Klint has put a log-swing that he built out there and she sat in the swing, in the sunshine and enjoyed her marshmallows while I continued to pick up dead brush and put it on to the fire. As I worked I heard a car and car doors shutting. I stopped and said, "Oh, someone must be here." I listened and she hurried (as fast as she can hurry) over to me and said, "Somebody is here?" When I looked at her face she had marshmallow stuck on her chin and cheek. I laughed and told her and we both laughed. "You look like the grandchildren, Momma." What we heard was Calli coming home.

This morning we had a heavy frost and a big ol' cloud is hanging overhead, so it makes me wonder if we will get snow soon.

I picked up a new toy for Chewy and it squeaks. He squishes it and it squeaks and he cries. Over and over. I only give it to him occasionally when I am going to be busy so he can be occupied. Now I can hear Mom trying to console him. I might try to get a video of this dog. It's funny.

I thought I would share a poem this morning.

New Friends and Old Friends

Make new friends, but keep the old;
Those are silver, these are gold.
New-made friendships, like new wine,
Age will mellow and refine.
Friendships that have stood the test---
Time and change -- are surely best;
Brow may wrinkle, hair grow gray,
Friendship never knows decay.
For 'mid old friends tried and true,
Once more we our youth renew.
But old friends, alas may die,
New friends must their place supply.
Cherish friendship in your breast---
New is good, but old is best;
Make new friends, but keep the old;
Those are silver, these are gold.

Joseph Parry

I am loving cultivating this new, yet old friendship with my Mom. It is a silver and gold friendship.

What A Beautiful Morning

Even if it's a cold one, it is truly a beautiful land. I know I say that a lot but that is all I can say each morning I go outdoors.

This morning is a bit chilly here and we were out of wood. I got on the 4 wheeler and rode around the property in search of logs that would fit into the stove. I did find some wood. (It might be rotten wood which Doug would not put into the stove.) We did not stock up on wood for the winter. Looks like this winter we will be going out for a ride to bring home wood enough for two or so weeks at a time. I love it. It is a great outing for couples. I love it when Doug and I can do this together.

"This is the day that the LORD has made, we will rejoice and be glad in it."

My Mom is here. I love how she always has a verse from God's word to say throughout the day and something for every conversation. She sprinkles the days conversations with Truth. I love her faith in God and her fear (reverence) of God. We do not see that enough these days.

I set up my old computer for her to use for playing games. It is faster than the old computer that we had set up in the kitchen. I disconnected the old one then hauled my homebuilt down for her. She is enjoying it. She has an account at Pogo.com but whenever I see her playing her game she has Window XP's Spider Solitaire opened up. Then she wonders out loud, "How come the nice rain sounds are not playing?" :-) Mom doesn't just play games she also began reading one of Don Richardson's books, "Lords of the Earth."

Since 1974 Don Richardson has been authoring and promoting books, videos, and a DVD that demonstrate how the message of Jesus can be proclaimed with cross-cultural sensitivity to non-Christians worldwide. Go here to read more.

I plan to order his newest books which I have not read yet. "Secrets of the Koran" and "Stars, Sand, and Dust."

Mom has a pacemaker and has to have regular checkups for that. It was amazing to me to know that she can have this all taken care of over the phone! Medical technologies are amazing now. The medical clinic that tests to make sure she is pacing well called my brothers house and were looking for her. She has been going here and there, forgetting her equipment and this morning she has missed her check-up date.

Mom is considering making my home her home too. She is welcome here with us and I am trying to get her to believe that. She loves The Lake but she misses "home." Her home is not a safe place for her at times so she has to leave and go "visiting." I pray that soon she will settle in and call my home her home base. She is free to travel here and there but to make this house a comfort to her in her old age is my goal. I want to hear her say someday that she wanted to "come home." She helps me around the house too. Sometimes I see her dusting, sometimes watering my many plants. I love it when she is "home."

Did you watch the story on television news about the man I mentioned before, Eric Weihanmayer, the blind mountain climber, marathon runner, long-distance biker, and even a acrobatic skydiver, demonstrated how scientists are using computers and the tongue to help the blind to see? How incredible! Here is another story of the same thing. "Your Tongue Can See."

We have not had any snow on the ground yet but it is cold enough for snow now. The snow on the mountain tops is almost halfway down. The trees are about all bare. I took Mom on a 4 wheel ride yesterday and we saw bear tracks across the lake from home. :-)

Hope you have a beary happy day.

It's A Flaw-Flaw World

My son Kris had something horrible happen to his car while driving back from Anchorage and an evening class there. The car went up in smoke! What was left after he tried hard to save it was not something that could be fixed over the weekend. He needed to get to classes on Monday again so in order to fix that problem he had to use up his savings to make a purchase he was not planning on - a used truck.

Flawed engines.
Flawed relationships.
Flawed ideas of God.
Flawed goals in life.
Flawed bodies.
Flawed information.
Flawed computers!

It's just part of this ol' life to have to fix what this cursed world brings each day, week, month, year.

In spite of all that flaw-flaw, I have great news today. I figured out how to fix the problem I mentioned before. I have been using Firefox's browser since the trouble with IE. I downloaded IE 7, then removed the old IE and then reinstalled IE7. That did absolutely nothing to get rid of my troubles.

In frustration I refused to deal with it anymore. Until this morning - I ACCIDENTLY opened the internet with IE7 and there was the problem again - a fully loaded page that was blank. I thought, oh yes - this problem. As I sat there I saw that the Runonce page for IE was up again but blank. I saw the URL ended with .aspx

ASPX! I thought now there is a place to begin a study.

I went to Google and read then ended up learning that sometimes and for some reason that only a computer guru would know... dll's will get corrupted or they will need to be REregistered. All that I had to do was go to Start, Run and type in regsvr32 jscript.dll, click OK and after that type in regsvr32 vbscript.dll and click OK. Information was found at Microsoft.

The problems are fixed! Everything works. The webpage opens completely. System Restore opens completely. Search opens completely. Windows Media opens completely. Help opens completely. Dell Support opens completely. Windows Update opens completely. I am completely happy about this! I didn't even have to go so drastic as to wipe my hard drive. Thank goodness!

Here are pictures of the Camaro. :-(