Bat in the non-Belfry!

When we made it to the cabin and opened it up to see what awaited our arrival, Steve found this little guy/gal hanging on the screen behind one of the shutters. It hung there for several photos, most likely due to being disturbed during sleep-time. It bared it's tiny teeth for me once but that photo didn't quite capture the "feeling" it was giving me. Maybe after some editing I can fix it to share.

Summer Vacation 2008

We went across the big bridge once again to go to our cabin in the woods of the UP of Michigan.

I took 493 photos with the a100 and who knows how many with the Canon.

I do know that I took less than 24 with my Minolta 35mm SLR and the Kodak APS.

I went for a walk out in our woods this afternoon and took a photo of what the path looks like this summer. Last summer my Jeep would fit through here. This summer our ATV barely fits.

There isn't a lot of exciting things going on back there. I heard a lot of birds but they weren't going to let me see them.

The neighbor has had one of his horses back here and left hoof prints deep enough for me to fall in so I have to pay attention to where I'm going and what I'm stepping on or in.

Happy 4th of July!

The Lillies that surround my house somehow remind me of fireworks. Maybe it's their shape and the way they look like they're on fire. They force me to take their picture. Everyday. Not the same lilly since they only live one day. I also have several photos of what they look like "the day after". Still rather interesting, I might add.

Knitting. I've been doing some. A couple weeks ago I received an e-mail from someone who can be rather overbearing from time to time. She saw a photo of a pair of socks that I had made for myself earlier in the year as a Mother's Day gift to myself from myself. After that, I posted a photo of some yarn that I had dyed. This got her a little worked up and she said that she thought I was in too much pain to knit.

Now, since I was a "volunteer" for her group I don't really feel the need to explain to her why I haven't been knitting socks 2 pair/month for her as I was before. I couldn't.

Why not?

Well, last December I injured myself at work. I can't prove that I did since I technically had a desk job. All I know is I was fine one day and the next day I wasn't. Seven months later, I'm still not fine. I have spent around $3500 on medical bills, physicals, x-rays, medications, etc. Changed jobs and took an $4.75/hour pay decrease then ended up being part time and only working 20 hours/week.

Yet, she wants an explanation.

Will she get one?

Only if she comes here to read this. I explained to her in February that I was packing up the goods and shipping them back. She told me not to and to keep knitting. She just didn't want to hear what I had to say. The box was packed and ended up getting pushed under the old antique sewing machine where I couldn't bend over to reach it. Last week, after some relaxation exercises and Tylenol, I managed to get it to the post office. Any mention from receiver? Nope.

I enjoyed knitting for the group when I could. What happens when I knit is my back between my shoulder blades tenses up and becomes rather painful. Other favorite things I can't do? Can't go to the UP to our cabin as I can only tolerate about an hour in a car. I can't do my yard work so my flower beds are rather depressing. Can't ride my bike and I used to be a 10-mile/day rider. No rollerblading, no walking in the woods behind my house since uneven ground really causes hip discomfort, and I can't even attempt to take our atv for a ride. I got to use it once last fall.

Yet, she wants to know why I've managed to knit 1 pair of socks and dye some yarn over the past 7 months. I'd say I'm a real speed knitter - me, who used to knit and finish a pair of socks in 1 week. Sweaters for myself would take less than 1 month from start to finish. I have a sweater that's been under construction for over a year.

Thanks for listening.

I feel better now.

Happy 4th of July!

I want to also mention that I lost a friend and former co-worker 2 weeks ago when he was killed in Afganistan.

Ross Toles, Jr.

37 years old.

Left behind his wife and children for his country.

Rain, Rain & More Rain

It rains everyday here lately. When I leave to go to work in the morning it's sunny. Yep, sunny. I used to leave in the dark but since I've changed jobs I leave during the daylight and come home during the daylight. The coming home during the daylight will be another thing when winter comes back, I'm sure.

Actually, my hours are as flexible as I want them to be as long as I get my work done. Gotta love it.

Back to the rain. It seems to be raining here while I'm at work because I come home to a wet sidewalk. Today, it appeared that someone powerwashed the porch on the west side of the house since even the wall was wet up to the "roof ceiling". It was also rather wet inside the house. Not a usual occurance since the porch is 12' wide and 49' long. Normally the rain wouldn't make it in through the windows. I heard on the news that we had straight-line winds from the west which would explain that.

So, since it's been raining almost every day in about 2 weeks the grass is almost up to my armpits. Well, I'm not quite that short. It's probably about 12" tall now. Good thing we have a heavy-duty professional-grade mower. Too bad I couldn't operate it. I should just buy sheep or borrow someone else's.

A business idea!

Sheep rental for an environmentally-friendly lawn service.

I've got a registered DBA, maybe that's what I can use it for.

No, alpacas.

Decisions, decisions.

So Calm

This vision caught my attention Wednesday morning while I was getting ready for work. I came upstairs to check my e-mail real quick and happened to look out the west dormer window and saw this.

Now, usually, my cameras are all where I'm not. This time, all but 2 were up here with me. That would be all but 3. I keep forgetting about the silly little charge-card size digital camera that I got for free a few months ago. There are photos on it that I haven't uploaded yet. I can only imagine the quality of a photo that's less than 1 megapixel.

There have been so many storms lately that I've been taking thousands of cloud pictures. Seems like it, but it's really been around 200/week. The thunderheads are building again right now and I can see them right outside the window here. I've already taken some today with my Minolta SRT200. Yep, that's an oldy, isn't it? I bought it off eBay a while back for $10 and haven't actually gotten a photo out of it yet. It helps if the film winds the right way. The first roll that I sent through it wasn't advancing so all 24 of my shots were on the same frame. Talk about exposure. Good thing I wasn't charged for the development of that one.

Daisies

Spring is here!

For one more day.

Summer starts in 1 day.

Goes to show you how long it's been since I've been here. Most of my posting these days is of photos to my flickr account. That can be extremely time consuming since I like to edit most of the photos that I post. You know, add a frame here, a watermark there....

I'm still knitting. Had to slow down and give up the charity knitting for a while. There's some weird thing going on with me that's causing pain and aggravation. Yep, I'm in pain and aggravating to myself.

I'm working on it. Maybe by the end of the summer I'll actually be able to do something without causing myself pain and aggravate myself in the process.

I'm working on something that's new to some people (knitters) but not new to me. I knitting a shawl-size piece of handknitted "fabric" then dyed it and am now reknitting the yarn into socks.

I'll post a photo when I actually have some progress.