It's Really Real

I've been saving for a guild trip to Walt Disney World this coming October. As of today, it's 132 days until I'm in the air on my way to Orlando. It hasn't seemed real until May. Finally,  Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Party dates and tickets released. This was, kind of, the big reason we chose to go in October. It's pricey, particularly to our overseas guild mates. But, there was sheer joy when I got a letter from Lake Buena Vista, Florida.

There it is. My ticket to the Halloween party. This one plastic item caused me to really ramp up the collection of things. The next thing was to order this bag I'd had my eye on.

When I went to Disneyland in 2015, I wanted to pare down all the stuff I carry to a small handbag; a wristlet, is what it's called. I love this bag. I use it exclusively now. It fits in the glove box or under the seat or in the well between the seats. Everything I could use fits in it. But, DisneyWorld requires a different strategy from Disneyland. The sheer size of the park means I need to carry more things. Building on the lessons learned from the Land trip, I need a portable phone charger. My phone and my digital camera wore down with all the picture taking. Disney World has portable chargers for sale. But I felt I should do my research and get one before I got there, mainly to figure out how it works. Thankfully, one of the tech sites I frequent had a recommendation AND a coupon code.

Viola. The $20 phone charger the same size as my ancient iphone. It takes an hour to charge the phone to full when it's less than 40%. It take 10 minutes to charge the charger, when it's 50% or greater. 

I'm going to need a water bottle. I can't duck out of line to get water and I don't want to pay $3.50 for a bottle of water. Staying hydrated is going to be important. But my little blue bag certainly can't hold a water bottle or this charger. 

Then, I had this thought; when I made dinner, lunch and breakfast reservations back in April. There will be times when I'll be standing or sitting; waiting for whatever is next; i.e. our table to be ready. I need to bring a paperback book with me. I read everywhere. The blue purse certainly can't hold that. I don't read books on my phone. I prefer the joy of flipping pages. I was now into large purse territory. I am not carrying a backpack. Disney searches ALL bags and they pay particular attention to backpacks. My little blue purse makes it easy to see exactly what I have with me. I need something bigger.

Four years ago, I bought a leather purse with a Celtic emblem on the front. I looked at that purse. While I like it, I've always had issues with the interior pockets. Getting stuff out was a chore. This wasn't the right purse for Disney. I looked into just a large "beach bag" with a zipper top. No. That didn't appeal to me at all. Then I got a catalog in the mail and there was this steampunk "shoulder satchel", they called it. Now THAT was something I could get behind. Weird and funky and just the right size. Plus, it wasn't too big that I might be tempted to bring everything with me. We have this list of items people on various web sites have said are worth bringing with you. You would need a backpack to hold it all. One of my friends goes with her mom to Disney and the problem with her mom's backpack is, invariably, what mom wants has fallen into the bottom of the backpack. It takes her 10 minutes to find wet wipes. I am not going to be "that person" in the group.

The purse was $70. That's kind of pricey for something I might not use again. And then I thought, "Who are you kidding? You're going to be buying all sorts of things you'll only use for this vacation." I started searching "steampunk purses". Double viola.

The pin, to the left, is a Christmas gift from Liz. That's the Small World facade. I wanted canvas and a sturdy strap because, while I don't collect pins, I will buy a few as souvenirs. The purse itself, is canvas with probably cardboard(?) or some other thing in the flap, front and back, to give it bulk and to hold shape. The side pocket is too small for a cell phone, but will be perfect for pens or other small items. There is the small top pocket and a zippered pocket on the back and one inside. Otherwise the interior is open.

The three bottles on top will be filled with glitter and glued shut. In the game, players have status bars which increase or decrease based on what they are doing. Health is red. Mana, which can be thought of as the essence needed for spells, is blue. Hunters, which is what my main is, use focus, which is an orange red.

All of this fits inside the bag. There's plenty of room for a small container of wet wipes (a great idea), a tube of sunscreen, my cell phone and ...

This handmade booklet is a take-off on the in-game achievements available to players. Liz and I spent months, going back to her trip to Disneyland in November, coming up with "achievements". The first one, "Attend Spectacular Death's 10th Anniversary Disney World trip", is done. Every guild member and family member going with us, got a book. Most of the achievements are completed by taking a photo of something. Then, you show me the photo and I'll put a sticker on the page. After receiving my Halloween party ticket, I spent two weeks printing, cutting, folding and stapling books. They have all been mailed. I was going to pass them out when I got there, but we're coming at different times and I know I'd want to have it sooner so I can plan where to go to do the most achievements at once. I'm going to try to do every achievement in the book. We came up with some which can overlap others. "Take a photo of Mickey. Double sticker if you're in the photo." can be combined with "Take a photo of a character not in their usual costume", because we're going to a character breakfast in the Animal Kingdom and Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Goofy and Daisy wear tour guide outfits.

I took the car in for an oil change and tire rotation and I'm going to need to replace the brakes. There is a sale at my mechanic where I can get $50 off new brakes. I sighed on the way home. How can I save when I need something important like this? It's not like I don't have the money, but it's spoken for. I decided I had better pay for the vacation so I know what I have to save for. That was done Friday. Disney has acknowledged receipt of payment. The only thing left is airfare and the travel agent is watching those numbers for me. I need to have $137 for my foot and leg massage on the Wednesday we are there. I have that saved. I need $40 for an Epcot fireworks boat ride and $48 for a tour of the Disney steam train. I have those saved. I can now look at the calendar and plan to rent a car and get the brakes fixed toward the end of the month. Then, save for souvenirs.

Whew.

Beverage:  Poor man's mimosa

Deb

How Was Your Summer, Part 1

2016 was eventful on a couple of fronts. I had already planned to take a serious look at replacing the Jeep. Built in 1997, it was entering the end of its life. I said, back in 2002, when I bought it, I would probably drive it until it died. I'd saved and I had my budget ready. September is when cars are, historically, priced lowest because the new year's models are coming and dealers have inventory they want to move. I would start the process then.

I didn't spend much time looking at cars when I bought the Jeep. There wasn't much, in 2002, to find on the Internet. I had done some research, but all I knew is that I wouldn't be buying new. That new car smell makes me physically ill. I picked a street where I knew there were a huge number of car dealers and just drove along. The Jeep was parked by the street in a Volkswagon dealer's lot. My mechanic gave it a green light and it was right in my price range. The whole thing took 3 hours from start to finish.

Buying a car is just not fun. In spite of all the "helps" from various sites, like Carmax, it's still not a fun experience. But I knew I would have to do it. It was in the back of my mind every time I took the Jeep on an excursion. I headed west, to Bangor, Wisconsin, at the end of June. Things were going fine, until they weren't. The Jeep died as I was getting off Interstate 90 at the Bangor exit.

Now, you have to know this area of Wisconsin is a cell phone nightmare. There are so many hills that dead spots for cell phone service are everywhere. I couldn't raise my towing service but I remembered, from the day previous when I'd come this way, there was a car dealer, Wehr's Truck and Auto, a walk down the road. I headed that way.

I explained my problem. They arranged for the Jeep to be towed to a mechanic with whom they worked because they had no room in their repair shop to even look at it. I could hang out in their show room until he'd had a chance to look at the car. They overheard me talking to the homeowner whose house I was to inspect. They knew him and loaned me a car so I could get his inspection and an adjacent one done. I had an inspection for later in the day and they were fine with me just hanging out.

So, I got the inspections done and came back to the show room. There was still no word on the Jeep and it was now 11:15. The dealer called the mechanic and was told there were "issues" but they would have an answer in an hour. They called an hour later and said the best they could diagnose was the fuel pump. I should come talk to them about the problem.

The dealer said a fuel pump is an $800-$1,000 repair. "In a Jeep of your age, they have to pull off the gas tank to get to the pump. In later models, the pump is off to the side to make it easier to repair. Then, they would need to test it to make sure it's the pump. He's tested your electrical system and the battery, but they cannot get the Jeep to start." I was crestfallen. "I don't know what to do," I said. "If it were me, I'd say put that money toward a new car. Of course, that's going to sound like I'm itching for a sale, but I'm being honest. You don't have to buy from me. You can go back to Chicago, but, really, get a new car. We'll take the Jeep, as is, for $150 toward a car off the lot. Go talk to Jason and have him walk you through the process."

I took their rental and went to the shop. Jason was nice and he showed me what they had done and what they had and had not been able to determine. "It's an $800 job, assuming the fuel pump is what's wrong. Also, I can't get to it for a week." He gestured around his shop which was full with three cars sitting outside. I thanked him and went to get lunch, to think.

On a napkin, I wrote out my budget. I had leeway, but I was secretly hoping to get the Jeep through to September, so I'd have more money for a down payment, to cut the amount I'd need to borrow. I could afford car payments of a certain amount. My credit is still not very good, thank you Fifth Third Bank, but I would be able to get a loan through my bank. I called them and waited. I was approved for a loan. I just needed to tell them how much and give them the VIN of the car I would buy.

I went back to the dealer. "I've done the budget and let's see what you have." There were several used cars from which to choose. He suggested a 2011 Jeep Compass. I took it out for a test drive and loved it. Room. The SUV part would be great for the few times I am on construction jobs or have to go into a quarry. I didn't drive anything else. "Sold."

There was an issue with paperwork. My bank does not have a branch close to Bangor, Wisconsin. The dealer handed me the keys and my copies of the paperwork. "Take this to your bank tomorrow. Get your loan and have them send everything back to us. Include the title of the Jeep. I don't think you're going to welch out on us. I'm sorry you're in this predicament in the first place, but this will be a very good car for you. We'll probably wind up scrapping the Jeep and you'll not have to worry about it anymore."

So, I drove back to the mechanic to clean it out.

So many things were wrong with it. I was on borrowed time. There was body rust. The windshield had cracked due to rusting of the frame around it. In order to fix the windshield, I'd have to replace that frame. The U joints holding the chassis to the frame were rusting. Sometimes, there was a small shudder if I had to stop suddenly. I'd had the U joints replaced once before. If they rust through. The chassis will stop but the frame won't. It will be a Flinstones car.

The heater fan didn't work except on medium and then only about 65% of the time. When I got heat, it was a lot but this fan issue meant the defrosters took a long time to clear the window. The front seats were all cracked and I'd covered them with duct tape for the third time. The rubber cap around the stick shift was so old, it froze when the temps got below 15 so I had simply popped it out. You could look down the shift well and see the ground.

The back bumper was loose on the right side although my mechanic had bolted that to the frame. The top was still good, although the windows were getting cloudy as plastic windows do. I only took off the windows now because it was just too hard for me to remove the top only to have to put it back on in 24 hours. You can see the seal below the driver's door had come loose. You can put it back into the track using a spoon. I knew there were better things to do with my time. I would need new tires if I kept the Jeep beyond September, if I couldn't find a new car.

I cleaned everything out. 14 years. It's been my friend. I've gone everywhere with it. I remembered driving through a corn field in September, mowing down the stalks. Driving out of my drive when there was 6 inches of snow? Pffft. Engaging 4-wheel drive and making it through icy roads and running topless in the summer. I ran my hand over the side. I knew I was doing the right thing.

This is the last photo I have of the Jeep.

We tried to get the license plates off it. The back one was rusted to the bumper. The front one, which would come off, was longer than the bumper so it had been bent backwards from all the years of driving over and through things. "I'll just get brand new plates," I said.

I felt sad as I was emptying everything from the Jeep. It wasn't until I was on my way home that I realized I'd forgotten the Hawkeye car mats. But they had seen better days, too, so I put them on my birthday/Christmas list. The sadness didn't stay long. 14 years is a long time, but I think I had made my peace with getting rid of the Jeep. I drove away in a Jeep Compass with a huge amount of space. I could afford this. It was a good car. Things were going to be okay.

Except, they weren't.

Beverage:  Water

Deb

Next Christmas

If you're on the Christmas card list, you got a card with a photo from my Disneyland trip. It was one of my goals to get some kind of photo from either BlizzCon or Disneyland to make personalized cards. When Liz said you could meet Tigger, assuming he was out, well, that's who I wanted to have my photo taken with. We wound up waiting 20 minutes but it was worth it. Using my cell phone and my camera, Liz took quite a few photos.

The cell phone camera has a darker color than the digital camera. These were good but when I compared them to the ones on the digital camera, I felt the color was better on the camera. 

I went with the last one in the series. The cell phone seemed to latch onto the dark of the area and enhance it. The background got lost in the shade. I liked the color and our positioning of the bottom photo. What you can't see is that my tee shirt had Tigger on it. He's always been my favorite Disney-fied character so it was exciting to get a photo. Pooh turned out to be just around the corner in his photo spot. It was funny to see Tigger's line be twice as long as Pooh's. 

Making my own cards was a lot of fun. There is free software with the new printer so it was reasonably easy to print what I wanted. It has me looking ahead to this Christmas. What do I want to do for cards? I have a lot of regular cards I've accumulated over the years which would cover my needs. I wouldn't have to buy any this winter. And then, it snows. 

There is a pine tree outside my office window. I watch squirrels go up and down, chasing each other. I left one noon to get lunch after a morning of wet snowfall. I was greeted with these images. 

There are large pine cones on this tree. I'm not up on my identification of pines so I don't know what kind this is, but they make for great photos. 

I particularly like this photo below. 

If I was going to do a personalize card this Christmas, there is great potential in this photo. I don't spend a lot of time composing my photos. I'm very much a point and shoot person. Photos like this tend to be a happy accident. 

So, I will keep this in mind for the winter. Of course, there are 10 months between now and when I need to have cards. We'll see what other photos present themselves as card potential. 

Beverage:  English Breakfast tea

Deb

SQUEEE!!!

Sometimes the stars align perfectly.

Back in August, I had a meltdown when, as I was headed to Rock Island, the Jeep malfunctioned. I know I need a newer car. I have a new car fund, but I also use it for those inevitable repairs to refresh the duct tape and baling twine which holds the Jeep together. Given what the beast was doing, or not doing (staying running) as the case may be, I had real feelings that Jeep repairs would take all of that meager account. I completely fell apart thinking about this, forgetting my cardinal rule to find gratitude in every day and slivers of happiness in every situation.

After the situation was diagnosed to not be as horrific as I had convinced myself it would be, I remembered that, in years past, even the $225 it took to fix the Jeep would have left me destitute. I had that. AND I would still have a bit left in the new car fund. There are things which need to be done but I am nowhere nearly as bad as I was 3 years ago.

So, it was back to saving for things for my vacation in November. I've been on the road again and those trips and the long days associated with them, have helped pad my BlizzCon and car fund. I've been able to cross off things that need to be purchased. BlizzCon ticket. Check. Air fare. Check. Ground transportation to hotel. Check. Material for shirts. Check. I still need to pay for Disneyland tickets and my part of the hotel room. I know how much I need to reserve for those items. That will leave money for food and souvenirs. It's 6 weeks away. I'm starting to get a bit nervous. I've never done anything like this before so there are nerves. I even ordered compression socks for the plane ride which will make me feel more comfortable and I won't show up in LA or back in Chicago with swollen ankles and feet.

The other thing I wanted to get, but it was not a need, was an ipad. In my head, if I had an ipad, I could upload photos from my camera to the ipad and then they could go into all the things I maintain; my Facebook page, my guild's web site and this blog. After a lot of discussion, a friend suggested an eyefi card for my camera. This is an SD card with wifi built in. You use wifi technology to upload your photos to cloud-based storage and then have access to them with other devices. It all sounds so high-tech and, if there's one thing I'm not, it's high-tech. The other option was an adapter for the ipad. With any wifi network, I can upload photos from anywhere to my storage. In buying an eyefi card, the price came with a year of free storage. That's the route I've taken.

But what about the ipad? It's not a priority. I could do without it. Yet, road trips for work provided money not expected. I could afford an ipad. Savings for me. Savings for the car and save for BlizzCon. Viola. A box came to work today.

I did a lot of research. I wound up buying a refurbished older model from a company called iTParts. Their prices were very reasonable and there was no shipping. Other places I looked wanted to charge me shipping and their return policies on refurbished equipment were the same as this company. For what I want to do, low price was the determining factor.

I had it shipped to the office because the last thing I want is a Priority Mail box containing an ipad stuck between my front and screen doors. It's a pretty nondescript box but look at the goodness contained therein. The sale came with a charger and ear buds.

The charger I expected. I don't know that I'll use the ipad to listen to music. I have so much music on CDs that hasn't been uploaded to my Mac and then I'd have to port it to the ipad. Not an impossibility for sure, but a huge time sink. Right now, I don't think I have that kind of time without sacrificing other things which are important to me. I could, if I desire, get Pandora or Spotify music streaming services on the ipad, since this is akin to an oversized cell phone. I just don't listen to music like that. They tend not to have what I like.

It needs a charge before it can be used, so I plugged it in.

Up pops the familiar Apple logo. And then came the greetings.

Bonjour to you.

What's happened here is that I have really entered the information age, in a huge way, no less. The SD card isn't here yet for me to try that out and get it synced with my computer and my ipad and get them synced with this cloud service. I'm always afraid I will explode something when I start messing around with electronic devices. My way more tech savvy friends have said I'll do fine and the world won't explode because I hit the red button instead of the blue button. (Extra points if you know THAT reference.)

So, here we are. I need to get a case. I'll get this one because there isn't a good World of Warcraft case available right now. In my mind's eye, I see a large selection of cases in various fabrics in a pile in my house. There are ipad case patterns and lord knows I have the fabric.

I'm really excited to be able to sit in the recliner in the living room, feet up, and updating my blog while I have a lap cat. That is the best part of this.

Beverage:  Water

Deb

Sundogs

I was late to work today. I have an excuse, two of them actually.

These are sundogs and are created when ice crystals are in the air. I'd seen several photos this winter during the weather segment on the local news but had not seen any myself. I'm more familiar with the ones that show up in the evening. 

That yellow blob at the top is my gloved finger holding the cell phone camera. I couldn't find my regular camera in my purse so I decided I'd just use my cell phone. I'm less sure where my hand is when I use that camera. Of course, when I got to work, my regular camera was in the bottom of my purse.

It might be Monday and it might be a -5 with a -20 wind chill, but these were just beautiful. An impressive way to start the work week.

Beverage:  water

Deb

Upside Downside

It's left me pondering, it has.

The computer has been back a whole week. Of course I admit to spending some of my evening hours sitting in front of it playing World of Warcraft, but I also do enjoy being connected to people via a desktop that doesn't need to be turned off or back on when you're trying to access your email. (Looks at her phone.) As the frustration level with that grew, I found myself turning the durned thang off and just being without, just as I was some 20-odd years ago before the Internets were filled with cats.

One of the delightful things to come from a week without a computer was the big black cat's desire to actually commandeer the lap. I would come home, do a chore or two, make myself some supper and then retire to the recliner for an evening of stitching. She would jump up into my lap and settle down, sometimes for 90 minutes, falling asleep. Then, she'd go lie opposite me and fall asleep. This cat snores, too. I've mentioned before how a cat in your lap is a great way to lower your blood pressure and let the stress of worrying about things you can't change melt away with every ear scratch. Although I spent quite a bit of time reminding myself about gratitude, there is no doubt having Pilchard in my lap helped make the week easier to handle.

I would be remiss if I didn't mention that Mija would, on occasion, jump up and settle down, too. On several occasions, I'd have Mija opposite me while Pilchard was asleep in my lap. They might pick on each other at times, but they do get along, usually.

So this past week of getting the computer back has produced an unexpected result. Pilchard is angry. How do I know? I've been around cats as long as I can remember. I've had a cat in my direct life for almost 27 years. That's a long time. You get to know the tone of a meow, the body language, the subtle messages being sent by how your cat reacts to things. I brought the computer back, set it up and realized it would be a couple of days before I'd be playing World of Warcraft again due to the amount of downloading time required. She was happy last Friday and Saturday. Come Sunday, when I sat down and actually played, she was not.

She came into the office and meowed at me, repeatedly. She would stay just out of reach so I could not reach over and give her a reassuring ear scratch. Her meow was loud and had an edge to it. I would get up to get tea and she'd be sitting under the table in the living room, meowing at me. She would run away if I approached to offer a scratch. I would take my tea back into the office and she'd be behind the recliners, waiting. As I walked past, she'd meow and follow me into the office to sit by the door "commenting" on life or at least complaining that my lap was now elsewhere. She tried to lie down in my lap while I was at the computer but she doesn't like the angle nor the fact that she's sharing my lap with part of the desk. She prefers it when I have my feet up, reclining.

It's been quite the revelation for me. When they both came here, the pattern of the household was that usually, I played WOW in the evenings. My lap was available and I have places to my left and right where they can sit and be within ear scratch distance. It's quite interesting that it took less than a week for Pilchard to become accustomed to me sitting in the living room and having my lap available for use. She's not at all happy it's gone. Mija is more adaptable to this probably because she commandeers the bed and gets to sleep next to me. I didn't think cats were that adaptable. They are such creatures of habit and a change in routine can lead to behavioral problems, like elimination outside of the litter box. I tried to give her extra loves but this past week, she's wanted nothing to do with those.

So, this coming holiday is fraught with disruptions in schedules and patterns. There will be people they don't know coming and going and I expect some deliveries on the doorstep complete with doorbell ringing. Pam came over last night and even though they both know Pam, they scattered and didn't come out of their respective hiding places until she'd been gone for 30 minutes. All I can do is talk in soft tones and hope they get, by my demeanor, that life isn't falling apart. I'm thinking I really do need to set aside one day a week for use of the lap. It seems to mean a great deal.

Who knew?

Beverage:  water

Deb

Bwee Bop Boop. Connection to Reality Secured

"Now, with these guys; there's gonna be a lot of them. Just dps them down until their health turns green. Then they back up. After that, there's two more. Just dps them down, too. When they're done, we run up the stairs to the boss," said the guy who was leading the 5-man group running through a dungeon event in World of Warcraft on Monday night.

I knew the dungeon. I'd been in here before. I backed my character up a bit and took aim at the mean baddies attacking us. Twenty-five came at us. We knocked them all down. Then came the two larger mobs. The one started off with a flurry of punches and kicks. The other started to do his spinning attack. He spun...

and spun...

and spun...

and spun. I looked at my colleagues in this dungeon. I couldn't see Sprucemoose or Theudis. I could see Vervaine and she seemed to be stuck in an endless cycle of spell casting. Eromar stood off to the side, his character's left arm raised in perpetual healing stance. I realized my pet, a dinosaur named "Gimmzilla", was standing in one place, swaying back and forth. I was being disconnected from the game.

I play on a Mac. Apple computers are extremely stable in the internet gaming environment. Plus, my connection to the internet is extremely stable. It is very rare for me to be disconnected. It happens so one just gets out of the game and reloads. Even rarer is the need for me to shut down and restart. But, on Monday, my attempts to reconnect were met with nothing. I wound up completely shutting down, counting to 10, and restarting. Nothing. Then I noticed the modem/router. It's the top piece of equipment in the photo.

During the gaming session, I had become aware of a clicking noise. Unable to put my finger on what it was, I finally decided it was my office chair and that a little WD40 later in the week would fix that. As I was troubleshooting why I couldn't log back onto the internet, I noticed the power light on the modem would go red and then green. This color change was accompanied by a click. Now, I'm not a techie by any stretch of the imagination, but I'm fairly certain modems shouldn't "click", nor should their power light alternate red and green. That's when I noticed the DSL and Ethernet lights were not lit. This is definately not good.

I pushed the reset button on the back of the modem, plugged it in and no lights came on. Oh dear. I took the thing into the bathroom where I knew the outlet worked. Nothing. My heart sank. It sunk faster than a 2 ton stone in water. I was fairly certain the modem/router would have to be replaced. The piece that had died cost me $115 3-4 years ago. I couldn't even remember how long I'd had this. I did not have $115, not by any stretch of the imagination.

I shut down the Mac, picked up a magazine and spent the rest of the evening stewing over my options alternating with reading. The internet is important to me. It's become hugely important to be connected to it. But, I remember when a computer was a machine that took up a class room. I went to college when the only computer available for students to use was a machine in one room that was attached to a dot matrix printer. It played a really cool Star Trek game but you could only use it for 2 hours at a time and then, only from 6 a.m. to midnight as the building it was in was closed from midnight to 5:50 a.m.

I know how to survive without computers. Plus, I have internet access at the office. It's not like I'm totally cut off. I just wouldn't be online at night. I looked at the stack of magazines to my left. It's been whittled by 3/4. I can buy a new modem at the end of the month and, in the meantime, finish off the stack. It will be hard on weekends as I won't be able to stream Iowa Hawkeyes play-by-play, but I also have my phone and it's somewhat acceptable. I seldom access the internet via my phone, although I can. The resulting view is too small for my liking and my fat fingers can't type very well on the keypad. I can do this. Fifteen days. I can do this.

I posted, via this phone, a note to my WOW guild's Facebook page, apologizing for my sudden departure and explained what I thought was the problem. I also said that replacing the modem could be problematic. The next day, I was in the guild's web site chat room and was fairly ambushed by guys who work in computers for their various companies, all wanting to a) diagnose the problem and then b) find a solution for me. Several different modems were found online, all with prices around $40. Forty dollars I can handle. They all agreed that going to an AT&T store would result in my being sold something woefully overpriced and probably "a piece of *&^#", to use Squidchin's colorful language. He finally said, "Gimm, just go to the Micro Center over on Ogden. Take the old one in and they'll get you set up." Thoryn looked at their web site and found the bottom one. "That's what you need, Gimm. Print this page out and tell them, but have them verify everything."

Off I went. I walked into the store and when asked if I needed help, I said, "The guys in my WOW guild told me to come here, that you'd help me. This died last night." The salesman looked at me, smiled and said, "What server do you play on?" Inside I'm thinking, "Yes, SCORE! He understands!" He looked at the piece of paper and asked a couple of questions. "Yup, this is the one you want and even you can set it up." I did have to call AT&T because I had written down the wrong user name and password for the modem. The guy who helped me was very polite and efficient and I was back up and running in an hour.

A friend of mine has been having problems with her left wrist. It was in a velcro cast and she's taken steroids and anti-inflammatories. Nothing seemed to work. She finally went to the doctor who put the wrist and arm up to 3 inches above the elbow in a cast. She's to wear this for 5 weeks. He hopes complete immobilization will allow the tendon to heal. Prior to the visit, she was online looking at all the things it could be, from a simple sprain to bone cancer. She had worked herself into a huge worry and was actually scared of what the doctor could find.

How does this relate to my modem? While not to diminish her cast, she's left-handed so life is, shall we say, more "interesting", this is not nearly the worst thing the doctor could have done or told her the problem was. I sat in my chair on Monday night, carving out the worse-case scenario for the modem. I'd be offline at night for fifteen days until pay day and I could replace it. We both did the same thing. "What's the worst that could happen? Okay, let me mentally think that over so I'm prepared."

Make no mistake. There are times when you need to be prepared for anything. If you choose to drive in a blizzard, you need to consider what if you get stranded. Are you prepared for that? But in all situations, considering the worse case in everything will drive you batty. Yet I can do it time and time again. "I don't want to be blind sided by something I wasn't prepared for," I tell myself and friends who ask why I considered the worse case. The problem with the mind set is that it doesn't allow for those same friends to offer helpful advice. Never once, in my ruminations over hot tea and a magazine, did I consider that I know quite a few people who might have sound, sensible advice that would result in a solution that was inexpensive. I never thought of them. It was all about walking into the AT&T store and finding out that a replacement modem would be $157.93 and that I'd have to be on the phone for 90 minutes to get it set up. Worse case.

My friend in her cast and I realize we do this all the time. A little set back is not a "little" set back. It's a do or die, fight or flight chance for major decision making. I think it's because we've made decisions that have turned out to be not so great and which resulted in greater messes needing to be cleaned up. We missed one piece of information that, of course this is hindsight, was there and we discarded it. We didn't think everything through. What this does to us is slows down our decision making. It prevents us from clear headed analysis. I don't mean that every decision should be a quick, "Meh, this'll do," but I know I need to not make everything so grave. I know I need to not see everything as a worse case scenario.

I have endured and slogged through a lot in the past 15 years. This climb to where I am has given me skills I didn't have before. I get through things, events, problems, because I know I can. It may not be pretty, but I figure it out and go on. I look back at the modem event and realize I need a reality check here. This wasn't just about connecting back into the Internet so I could play the game. This was about connecting back into reality. Not everything is do or die and I have a large circle of friends who have a lot of information between them. I need to stop, breathe and ask.

Beverage:  Homemade Cherry Coke

Deb

Albino?

It's hard to tell the species with a cell phone photo.

This bird has been in the back yard for the last two weeks. I first saw it the first weekend in October. My cell phone was dead then or I'd have tried to get a photo because it was just outside the back door. This past weekend, it was taking a bath in one of the puddles in the driveway. When I got my phone and went to photograph it, it had flown to the tree beyond the Jeep. This is the best I could get.

It has the size and shape of a robin but it's black and white. It's not big enough to be a pigeon. It's possible it could be an albino cardinal, as it's close to cardinal size. I don't know much about albinism other than it's the absence of pigment, but I thought the animal would be solid white and this bird is not. It has patches of black on it. It's not anything I've ever seen before so I'm quite curious. I have only seen it on weekends, but then, I'm not home during the day during the week so it could be all over my yard during the day.

It's times like this that I wish I had a better camera. Oh well the cell phone takes acceptable photos.

Beverage: Rooibos tea

Deb

This is Just Dumb

I've discovered there are photos I can take with my cell phone that I can't take with a regular camera. I'm quite mindful of how some places don't like photographs being taken. But, when you pretend to be answering a text on your cell phone, you can easily take a photo and email it to yourself and they aren't too much the wiser.

I've wanted to blog about this for some time, but my self-consciousness about photographing it overruled the collecting of the illustrative photo. But, lacking a camera right now, the cell phones camera is remarkably decent at capturing those photos I use for blog illustrations.

I have been puzzling about this for months. It's a potato. It's in plastic. It costs 3 times what the potatoes lying loose above it cost. The label on the potatoes says, "Perfect for the microwave. Just prick and cook for 45 minutes." And what do you want to bet someone buys one of these and just puts it in the microwave without poking it?

I guess there is a market for plastic shrink-wrapped potatoes. I guess this makes it easy to have a baker when you want it. I guess I come from a mind-set that taught me how to cook.

Bah. You don't shrink-wrap potatoes no matter the convenience. Now, if you will excuse me, I have cottage fries to make. Don't you dare shrink-wrap those.

Beverage:  Water

Deb

Morning Glories

The flowers are coming along.

In spite of the raccoon, the two pots of flowers from seeds are doing well. I'm particularly thrilled with the sunflowers. They are supposed to be compact and designed for containers. They are growing well in this heat. I need to spend another $6 and fill in the white pot and the one next to the deck steps.

I'm also okay with the quality of photos my cell phone takes. For the kind of documentary purposes I need, it's acceptable.

Beverage:  Irish Breakfast tea

Deb

Well What Do You Know

Sunday evening, the power went out, three times. The last time was around 1 in the morning. Now, I have a lot of understanding friends, but I figured that calling them at 1 in the morning to say, "My power is out. Can you call me at 6 to make sure I'm up?" would not be appreciated.

The last time the power went out, the guys in the office asked why I didn't use the alarm clock application on my cell phone. That's easy for them to say. They are running around with "smart" phones; Droids or iPhones; that clearly have alarm clock features. My phone makes and receives calls. That's all it does. Supposedly, I have Internet access but it's in a text format. You try finding out the Iowa-Northwestern football score via that.

I called Com Ed and put in an "out of service" notice. I was informed that my outage had been registered and it would be around 3 a.m. before the power would be restored. I needed sleep. How would I get up in the morning without an alarm clock? Well, let's look at the phone.

By golly, I do have an alarm clock feature. The power wound up coming back on around 5. My phone went off at 6. I far prefer waking up to the melodious sounds of jazz but a ringing cell phone does get your attention.

It's good to know I have this capability on my phone. Now I have to remember to keep it charged.

Beverage:  Edinburgh's Finest tea

Deb