Returning back to normal . . .

Over the past couple of months I have wanted to post things, but life keeps getting in the way.
Finally, at least for awhile, things might calm down a bit and I can concentrate on making posts
a habit.
For the last month, our sweet little "Biggie" has been visiting. He is our youngest grandchild, 3 almost 4 yeas old. He lives on the west coast. We live in the mid-west.

                                             
 He and his Mother lived with us his first year of life and then lived again with us for several months
just before he turned 2. His Father is in the Army and had been stationed out of the country. As a result, he is very attached to his "Poppy Pop Pop" (hubby). This past year "Biggie" has been here 3 times, a month at a time. And, that whole month is all about him.
Only the basic necessities get done. Laundry, meals, grass mowed, (because he likes to ride the mower) and almost everything else is what he wants to do. At this time (3 years old) that really isn't much. Just being out doors, picking berries, eating berries, playing with a foam airplane, taking walks and shooting "stomp rockets" are high on the list.  

                                               
Our hearts break a little when he leaves and the house is pretty much silent, but the memories are wonderful and we plan for the next visit.

Thematic Photographic 374 - Lightbulbs

In the right light, at the right time, everything is extraordinary.  ~Aaron Rose

Virginia Beach - Hampton underwater tunnel.

Joining Cari @ Written Inc with this weeks Thematic Photographic theme on Lightbulbs.

An "old dog" learns new tricks.

 You know, as we get older, we get set more and more in our ways. Of course, this is pretty much true of everyone. Oh sure, there are those people who decide that on their 80th birthday, they want to jump out of a plane or go white water rafting, but for the most part; they are not the norm.
  Take my husband for example. He knows a lot about technology. He has built his own computer, several times. He has built his own car engine. He tinkers with everything. Things like "Geocaching" intrigue him. However, he HATES his cell phone! Yes . . . HATES!
   Several years ago we got rid of our "land line". Why have a home phone when the important people in your life call you on your cell phone? Until recently, my husband's cell phone had been one of those old text and call flip phones. Then, the battery was not staying charged and I was changing carriers, so he decided to upgrade his phone. ( I think the bigger reason to upgrade was to receive pictures of our grandson, but who am I to question things. . .) Welcome to the 21st century!
   I'm sure you know how it is when you get a new phone. You have to learn things all over again. ( Let me insert here that he hated his old phone too.)  It's been a couple of months, and to be honest, he really doesn't use his phone that much  . . . so how could he possibly be learning how it works? He's not! He doesn't even really know how to answer it.
   BUT . . . probably, to continue to evade using his cell phone, hubby has discovered the convenient process of restaurant  online ordering. In the past, I have always been the person to call or order food online. Hubby would go and pick it up. That all changed when I went out of town in February. When I got home hubby was excited and eager to tell me that while I was gone, he got online and ordered food. Almost every week since then he has order food.
    The "new trick " may not be astounding to others, but to the "old dog " it's a major accomplishment.
   
   

Wishing for Spring

Over the past few days I have jealously peeked in on your blogs. I am jealous of the sunshine and beautiful flowers that you are showing. The part of the country that I live in has yet to show that side of Spring. We have had high Spring winds and grey, rainy cloud coverage for days. Yesterday, we started out with sunshine, but alas, it was soon taken over by those puffy grey blue clouds.

Today was sunny, minus the Spring warmth. However, I took a quick trip to my local plant nursery. Only the green house and store front are open. There are very few plants, but what is there is full of color.

There were many green plants, that in the coming weeks will mature and establish flowers. And there were loads and loads of garden decorations and garden tools in amazing colors. So, for now, I am satisfied with my flower fix. Now I can wait for my tulips and daffodils to emerge. At least I'm trying to.

Good Monday morning!

When I awoke this morning the sun was shinning brightly. Now, it's kind of cloudy. The thermometer says it's about 55 degrees f. out. Last Thursday and Friday nights it snowed. Not much, just enough to cover the ground.  The snow is almost all gone now. There are just a few piles where it was shoveled and not in direct sunlight. Tomorrow and Wednesday we are suppose to have rain.

As I sit looking out over my front yard, I'm enjoying my morning coffee. I'm so grateful to be able to drink coffee again. It's strange that we may not realize how much we enjoy something until we can't have it. For about 5 months , while going through chemotherapy, I couldn't drink coffee. One reason was because I had to watch my caffeine intake. The other reason was because it made everything I ate or drank run right through me. I still have to be careful of how much caffeine I have, but at least for now, I still get to enjoy my coffee.

My new blog is about my journey with cancer. You can find it here.

Enjoy your Monday! 

Starting a new blog

Today I started a new blog. It's some insight on what I have been going through. I decided to put everything together in one place to make it easier to find and read. Take a look here.
Vicki

Thematic Photographic 367 - Data

I have been away from blogging for a couple of years. Several things played into this happening and over the next few weeks I will be posting things that will give you some insight as to why. Being able to return to my blog took some work. I tried to get back several times over the past couple of years and always had a problems viewing my blog. Finally, I was able to see my blog long enough to realize that a WIDGET, which used a barcode was outdated.  Thus my "theme" for my THEMATIC PHOTOGRAPHIC post on DATA hosted by Carmi Levy at "Written Inc".

This week's the theme is ~DATA~

 My view right now is, many others had the same thought that I had when I saw that theme was DATA. To tell the truth, it wasn't a very good thought. Not that it was a bad thought , but more a "What??" "Data??" hmmmm. I was looking forward to posting.

After really thinking about it, I realized that we are so use to all the data in our lives, that we really don't think about it. Yes, I said ALL . . . we use data everyday, several times a day.

We use these cute little things called "barcodes" on almost everything we purchase. A barcode is  an optical machine-readable representation of data relating to the object to which it is attached. 

For us, it scans the price of a product we are buying. For the retailer, it provides so much more data. Things like, how many of these items are bought (is this a popular item for the retailer to provide?)and how many are still in inventory.

It track's items that we send to others at a convenient low price. And allows us to know when the item has reached it destination..

They can also help us save money. No more wadded up coupons in your purse or pocket.

Of course, barcodes are used on so many more things, Driver's licenses, credit cards, library cards, employment and school identification cards, medical wrist bands as well as entertainment wrist bands and much , much more. Yes, it's true! We live in a world FULL of data.

Don't forget to visit "Written Inc" to see more posts on Data.