Speakers

The volume on this computer really leaves a lot to be desired. I have a hard time hearing a lot of what I want to listen to. I do have some speakers from my old desktop computer and I used to use those with the laptop, but I had a young dog here for a few months and he chewed up to cord to the speakers, among other various items. My friend Dan bought me an MP3 player for Christmas this year, he bought it off eBay apparently. So far as I can tell it doesn't actually work, but I will take it with me next time I go to visit my Mom, and I will take it over to my nephew's place so he or his kids can figure it all out. In the meantime, I just tried the earbuds from the MP3 player in the laptop and they work well. Mind you, I'm not fond of earbuds, so I think it would be nice to buy myself some akg headphones. Headphones are way more comfortable than earbuds are and better than external speakers would be as they are much more portable, thereby going better with the portability of the laptop.

Chiropractic Keeps Me Going

My neck is hurting, my head is aching. I have been doing some neck stretching exercises and this is helping quite a bit. I have an appointment to go to my chiropractor again on Monday, so this is good. I went to see him on Wednesday and while there getting the 'usual' work done, I asked him if acid reflux could have anything to do with my back. You see, I have acid reflux problems and the medical doctors can't figure out what causes it, they just know how to prescribe drugs that did work but don't any more. The chiropractor said yes, there could be a connection, and adjusted that area of my spine. I still do have a bit of acid reflux but not as much as I did before the adjustment. My sore left foot has also improved a lot with chiropractor adjustments. for the last 30 years, chiropractic treatments have kept me going.

Random Thoughts

- I just changed some of the things on this blog, so while it is still the same template, the look has been changed by choosing different fonts, different shades of white/grey/black, different size of fonts, etc. I also widened the center and both side bars. The changes are subtle, yet I like this look better.
- I love the smell of hay drying in the fields, the smell of bread baking in the oven. I love the smell of leather and the smell of the air after a good rain. I love the smell of freshly dried laundry, and even the smell of horse stalls and of a cattle feedlot in winter. Yes, smells are important to me. I wonder what arturo fuente cigars smell like.
- I am blessed to be sitting here on my couch, watching my 51" TV, my cat cuddled up beside me, my cop of tea on the other side, the birds asleep in their cages across the room. Yes, my life is very blessed.

More of Life's Ups and Downs

I told you about a man friend of mine in my previous post: Life's Ups and Downs. Well, as time progresses, I am feeling more and more like he is not the right man for me. In fact, it is starting to feel like he may not even be such a good friend. For some time now, we have been friends, seeing each other every weekend when he was working, then when he went off work due to back back issues, we started seeing more and more of each other. Every day he phones and or we get together, usually me going to his home to watch movies or meeting downtown for coffee & tea. Lately he's even come to my home a few times, though that's not something he does often. He so often says how bored he is and sometimes when we part he says something about if he's bored he'll call tomorrow. The other day I was fed up with this "if I'm bored" he'll call or we'll get together, like if he has anything better to do I won't hear from him. So I got assertive and told him if he wants to call to share something, call... or if he wants to call to talk to a friend, do it... etc... but if he is going to call just because he's bored and has nothing better to do, then don't bother. The next day he didn't call all day until about 6pm. Still, I hear from him every day. Today he bought some blank DVDs and came out as I had told him I had downloaded a bunch of movies and would burn him some. He was obviously antsy and wanting to get his movies and get out of here, go home and watch them. I ran into issues burning and told him it will take a day or two to get it done, so he left. I'm feeling like it's maybe time to cut him loose... or even to kick him to the curb. This makes me sad as I do care a lot about this man, but I care more about me!!

Quotes

"A man's life is what his thoughts make of it."

~ Marcus Aurelius ~

"The positive thinker sees the invisible, feels the intangible, and achieves the impossible." 

 
~ Author Unknown ~

Life's Ups and Downs

All my life I have felt like, while my sister's life is on a Merry-Go-Round, mine is on a great big old Roller Coaster. All the wild ups and downs that I have experienced, wow. Wome have been so awesome and exciting, then of course they were followed by the fast trip down to bummed out. Mostly these involved men, the wild excitement of love followed by the pain of the end of the relationships. Finally I just quit taking the chances, just quit going out with guys. Oh, I still have lots of men friends, but they are just that... friends, not love relationships. Life is good.

Lately it seems like my life is something of a yo-yo and maybe I need to go hang out at yoyoplay.com for yoyos,lol. One of my friends might, just might, be becoming more. He said he doesn't want a relationship and I said good, I don't either. We have been just friends. And I have 'more than friendly' feelings starting to raise their heads... sigh. Twice now when he was drunk, no he doesn't get that way all the time, but when he did, he talked about me becoming his ol' lady. Biker talk for girlfriend. The first time, when he was sober he claimed to not remember, the second time he said he had just been joking, just having fun. So each time the ups, then the downs of the yo-yo. Today he was sober when he told me he's getting tired of being on his own, something about when we get older we start to want companionship. I am trying not to read something into this than there really is, but I can't help but think "maybe, just maybe". He's not "perfect", not quite everything I want, everything I had on "my list", yet I like him a lot. I feel safer with him than I do with most men, more comfortable, and I trust him more than I have trusted anyone in a very long time. Somehow, even though he isn't all I had in mind, something about this just feels really right.

Snow Day

All dressed up and ready to go,
I went outside into falling snow.
Four inches deep it must be,
And nasty roads that I can see.
Drive in this? Of course I can,
Though an enjoyable day was my plan.
As I started to clean my truck off,
I looked around and began to scoff.
"Give your head a shake, girl." I said,
"Go back inside, go back to bed!"
So back inside I then did go,
Inside out of all that snow.
Now fully clothed, with tea in hand,
On bed with laptop I sit... not stand.
There are places I must go late afternoon,
And am hoping the snow will stop falling soon.

Alice Gypsy-Girl Price
February 16, 2012.

Vegan Recipe

Carrot Rice Casserole

2 C rice, cooked
2 C carrots, finely grated
1/2 C bread crumbs
1/2 C onions, chopped
1/3 C peanut butter
2 C water
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp thyme

Dissolve peanut butter into water. Mix all ingredients together. Bake in an oiled 2 quart casserole dish, covered, at 350 for 45 minutes.

This is a recipe from my favorite Vegan Cookbook (Of These Ye May Freely Eat). I cooked the rice (brown Bazmati); grated the carrots and put them in water in the fridge; toasted some bread and made my bread crumbs in the blender; dissolved the peanut butter in half the water the night before. The rest was done in the morning. I went to a pot luck lunch, took the casserole there and put it in the oven so it was fresh baked and hot for lunch. Everyone liked it a lot and most went back for seconds. There are no leftovers of this one. I will be making this again soon.

Weather Change

About a week ago our weather went from warm and sunny to foggy then temperatures below freezing which caused a lot of hoar frost to form all over everything. for several days we had such a beautiful though very white world here. Now we have returned to the plus side of temperatures. Today we had a high of 6°C and that is the forecast for tomorrow's temperatures too, with a bit of sunshine thrown it. My yard is getting very muddy with the melting of the little snow we had and all the ice that built up over the winter. It is early for winter to be over, but a girl can hope.

Scents

It seems that so many people these days are allergic or overly sensitive to scents. Everywhere you go women's perfume, women's cologne, and likely even mens cologne is forbidden to be worn.... and then you meet the odd woman who is absolutely drenched in strong smelling perfume. (gag, gag, cough). I still really enjoy the scent of a man wearing cologne, or even being near a woman with perfume, so long as it is not ever done. Everything in moderation! I also love the scents of flowers, of leather, of horses, of fresh cut hay drying in the fields, and of course, fresh baking or dinner on the stove. Yes, I love smelling lots of things, some very unusual things included.

Hoar Frost 2

I was looking at the Environment Canada Weatheroffice on the internet. We still are having fog all day around my place, though other parts of this area have gotten sunshine over the last day or two, or so I heard at the store today. The forecast I read is for warmer temperatures starting tomorrow, a possiblity of a wee bit of sun tomorrow though clouds for the rest of the week, and possible rain and snow all this coming week. Not my favorite weather, but it is February. Just 3 weeks and it will be March, thank God.

Here are some more photos of the hoar frost from my Adventures in Wonderland 2 days ago.

Movies

Something I've been doing a lot of lately is downloading movies off the internet. This is not quite the same as dvd duplication, though I could burn the movies to DVDs. So far I have just been saving them to my computer, then moving them to my external hard drive to free up space on this laptop. Eventually, I will get the necessary cords to hook up my older laptop to my 51" Plasma TV and watch the movies on that. I think that will be so much nicer than watching them on a 15" computer screen. Also, I plan to hook the TV up to a surround sound theater thing that a friend of mine said he has and I can use. I just have to wait until he gets back from working in Alberta.

Hoar Frost

The other day, with nice warm weather and sunshine, we got some fog in the evening. You see, the city I live in is built on 3 lakes and I live just across the highway from one of those lakes, then in the hills behind my place is a small lake, the 4th lake we have here. With all this water, it's not surprising we get a lot of fog at times. That night, with all the fog, the temperatures suddenly dropped and everything froze. This resulted in the dampness of the fog forming into hoar frost on trees, blades of grass, weeds, wires or all kinds, etc etc. Here are a few photos of the hoar frost.

Frost on the leg of a wire tomato cage that is laying in the yard.

The wire fence covered in frost is the north west corner of my property, the tree is on the neighbor's land.

This is the north east corner of my place, the highway and neighbor to the east.

A more distant shot from the top of my driveway looking towards the north east corner.

Looking up the driveway, you see the fence between me and the neighbor to the north. The trees are mostly on their land.

I love the beauty of hoar frost on everything... and I think it would be so much more beautiful if the fog finally went away and we had clear blue sky with the white frosted trees and such. Maybe tomorrow.