|
|
| Week One: |
|---|
| Like every month, if you're coming here
at the first of the month, you're going to want to go back a month,
to August, to catch up on all my latest news |
Now on to the news for
September:
There's a lot happening in the area of the state - the Cleveland Air
Show, the Canfield Fair, the Randolph fair, and soon the Stark
County Fair (that's the one for my county
 )
- but unfortunately there's been a lot of rain too.
So I've just been chilling at the house here lately, and it has been
a tad chilly too. The highs are only in the low 70's, and with the
off-and-on drizzle, it seems like Fall is coming in early this year.
The plants all seem to be doing ok, and only a very few rare trees
are changing colors yet.
Since the weather for the Air Show just wasn't any good, we spent
Jim's day off with Joxer and Gabby going for the ride over to Jim's
house. For a while it almost got sunny while we played in the
backyard. Of course, while Jim was cleaning a few stray leaves out
of the pool, Joxer dove right in.
But for a minute here, let me ramble like a proud papa.
Joxie jumped right into that water and swam and swam. There's no
more slipping off the side and clipping his feet on the edge. He
paws the water several times, and then just leaps in! Twice he
leaped in far enough to immediately catch his football that I had
thrown out into the water for him. Walking around the deck, he
followed
a tennis ball in the water that wouldn't quite drift close enough to
the edge for him to get. Twice, he nearly nipped it; but his muzzle
would nudge the ball further away. Finally when he let it drift in
close enough, he plunged his head straight down into the water and
snagged his ball. As water streamed off his head, he was snorting
the water out of his nose. I swear he turned and smiled at me with
that ball in his mouth then. I do know that his butt was wiggling
hard enough that I was sure he'd fall right back into the pool with
that ball still in his mouth.
|
|
Still not enough money
coming in for me to get back online; but that doesn't stop me from
getting access.
I just don't get as much of it. Every time I'm near an open terminal
I always check up on my email (as many of you know, since I'm still
answering your email. LOL), and msnbc.com to check up on the latest
news. Of course, I've always got some question floating around in my
head to google up too. The latest question was what is that spider
is that is in my yard? You know me, I love to find out all the
species of plants and insects in my yard.
I've always called those spiders, "writing spiders", and sure
enough, that is what they are called. I also found out a lot of
interesting things about this arachnid, bear with me just a little
bit and take a biology lesson with me. Here' are some quotes from
the information I gleaned about the Writing Spider, that will just
amaze you! (Along with some of my own comments in yellow.) |
| Much to the dismay of
unsuspecting gardeners. Argiope aurantia prefers sunny areas among
flowers, shrubs and tall plants. Yep, mine
lives behind the shrubs and beside the cosmos that spread there.
Open fields and meadows are another typical home for this
sun-loving arachnid. The Writing Spider enjoys open, sunny
locations, long grass by the dunes or even a pretty flower by the
driveway. We'll have to check around the
cosmos by Jim's driveway to see if any live at his house.
Argiope aurantia is an orb-weaver. Orb weavers are famous, not only
because of their debut in Charlotte's Web, but because
of the incredible webs they spin.
OMIGOSH! I cried so hard when I read that book as a small kid.
 Now Charlotte lives at MY house.
The "Writing Spider," in particular,
earned her name because she weaves a series of characteristic X's
through the center of her web. She
destroys, eats and then rebuilds her web every night.
So every day THAT has been a brand new web out
there for the last three weeks?!?! I had been careful NOT to cut
those shrubs yet, so not to destroy Charlotte's web; but I guess
I could wreck it and it wouldn't really matter that much. MouseOver
these pictures for some CloseUps. |
 |
 |
| Parts of the web can be invisible to
the human eye, but not to insects. Argiope aurantia, has adapted a
unique foraging strategy in which both UV-reflecting and
non-UV-reflecting silks are spun on the same web. Argiope decorate
their webs with UV-reflecting silk zigzags (known as stabilimenta), while the
rest of the web does not reflect UV light. The function of the
UV-reflecting stabilimenta is to attract insects, using the same
strategy the UV-reflecting designs on flowers (use to) attract
pollinating insects. In other words, those 'X's' amount to a
bull's-eye so far as the insect is concerned and for the Writing
Spider that means lunch. |
 |
|
Yep, mine lives behind the shrubs and beside the rose bush and cosmos that spread
there. Isn't that amazing though? Those zigzag lines in the web
actually reflect light differently to attract bugs. Wow!Argiope is no different
from many other spiders in that she often eats her mate after
they've copulated. However, Argiope aurantia is utterly unique in
that she is the only known spider-known species on the planet- whose
mate dies spontaneously during intercourse.
OMIGOSH! I love you honey, I'm dead!
 However, the female of the species does appreciate his
sacrifice. After he's dead, she gently wraps him in a body bag of
silk and saves him for an afternoon snack.
Yummy, I guess.
So males have it rough, but it's tough being a lady
spider too: she's kind of intimidating, she's got to destroy and
rebuild her home every night, she eats and essentially kills her
lover and then she never gets to see any of her 1,400 children. She
builds these fantastic papery brown egg sacs and watches over them
until the first frost, when she dies because she can't stand the
cold. When her babes emerge in the spring, they drift away in the
first wind. There's nothing of her left. She's got no bones to
fossilize and her last web probably went to pieces in the first
winter storm. Boohoo! I'm going to cry again.
What were the names of Charlotte's baby spiders that stayed
behind with Wilbur? As soon as my "Charlotte" starts writing "Some
Leatherman" out in my shrubs, her kids Peggy Sue, Bobby Sue, and
Billy Sue will be welcome here anytime.
|
I finished up the Star
Trek novel that I started last month by the first day of this month.
Since I didn't count that book last month, it gets counted as the
first book of this month.
In the first week of this month, I've already finished up two more books to
bring the total to 3. A very quick read, the next book I finished
was by ABC's John Stossel called "Myths, Lies and Downright
Stupidity". I've always enjoyed his debunking style of news
reporting and the book was just as good.
After reading all 12 of the Dune books lately, the afterward
in the last book stated that another trilogy was being
written to finish off the series. After leaving the series
unfinished at his death, Frank Herbert did leave notes and a
partially written version of his story finishing off the set. It was
many years before his son found these missing documents in an
unknown safe deposit box. So now I've read "Hunters of Dune",
and will have to wait a few more years to read the last couple of
Dune books (they are still in the process of being
written).
In the meantime, I just finished up a book by Steve Hockensmith
called "Holmes on the Range". This rather cute
story was about two cowboys (no, not like in Brokeback Mountain -
these guys are brothers not lovers) solving a western murder mystery. Although
one of the brothers couldn't read, he fell in love with the Sherlock
Holmes stories, that his brother could read to him, which were being
published in the newspapers in that day. When several murders happen
on a ranch owned by an Englishman, the illiterate brother sets about
"deducifying" in a Holmes-ian style to solve the crimes.
Rather than starting the Isaac Asimov book next (a sci-fi book about
robots), that I also checked out from the library, I am now working
on a much weightier book. David Brion Davis' "Inhuman Bondage:
The Rise and Fall of Slavery in the New World" is quite a
serious book to tackle. Coming from the South, I, of course, realize
that the War of Northern Aggression (aka the Civil War) was about
states rights more than it was about slavery. However, since slavery
is something in the South's dim past, I thought I'd read up about
the subject so when I talk to my Yankee friends, I can properly
place slavery and states rights into the right perspective. |
|
| Although Summer seemed to start a
couple of weeks early this year, the weather forecast seems to
indicate that Fall is going to be moving in several weeks early.
Even though only a few trees have started changing colors, the
shrubs, grass, and flowers are all starting to peter out. After I
mowed the lawn and clipped the shrubs this weekend, I imagine
that I'll only have those two chores to do once or twice more this
year. While we still had some sun and upper 70's, I tossed the
doggies into the tub, one by one, and gave them all a good
scrubbing. Joxer wasn't too bad to do since he's been "bathing" in
Jim's pool so much these last couple of weeks.
|
 |
|
|
Week Two: |
|---|
| Jim and I watched a couple of movies
recently on DVD. Although I kind of liked the newest version of King
Kong, it was really unbelievable at times and Jim wasn't impressed
at all. However, on the other hand, we watched the movie adaptation
of Jeffery Deaver's novel, The Bone Collector, starring Denzel
Washington and Angelina Jolie, and really enjoyed that flix. It's
been a while since I read the book, and at some point I saw JUST the
ending of this movie once before. I was quite entertained and
thought it was an excellent movie version of a good Lincoln Rhyme
novel |
|
And now for some very happy and
exciting news: I'm back online!
Everyone please send JIM a big "Thank You!" email, since my honey is
the one that paid and got my cable back.
I'll keep thanking him everyday and every time I chat with y'all
again, or read one of your emails sitting at my own desk.
Let's see, it's been part of April, all of May, June, July, August
and part of September that I haven't been offline or really had any
TV. Using an antenna, I do get FOX Channel 8 in, but it's really
badly fuzzy and really only good for "listening" to the weather.
While I've been offline, I've reverted back when I was in my car
more driving around town (either as a courier or the Computer Tutor)
listening to a local talk radio station out of Akron (WNIR).
Not only are there a lot of whackos hanging around in this area; but
there are a fair amount of really intelligent people who like to
talk about local and national issues. As I mentioned early, with the
bad state of affairs this area of the country is in, there's plenty
of talk on all sides of all issues. (I'm for raising the Ohio
minimum wage rate. I think the school-zone speeding cameras in Akron
are just a money maker not an accident deterrent. It bothers me that
Akron's crime rates are rising and that Canton's rates are even
higher! I think Bush should quit fighting a conventional war and
fight the "religious" war that it is.) The local radio hosts are all
pretty good. One of the afternoon guys is Bob Golic, an
ex-Cleveland Brown football player and a member of the "Saved
by the Bell" television series. 
Even though I have television back on, most daytime fodder is not
worth watching, so I still listen in to my local radio talk station
; but now WHILE I surf the net.
Since Jim tells me that it's about time I sent out an update for the
month, I'm done with this update and will get out an email to you
all. Hope to SEE and CHAT with you online again soon! |
|
|
Week Three: |
|---|
 |
School has started back and someone I
know had to get a quick hair coloring. LOL Kayle had just recently
had her Mom put these beautiful pink stripes through her hair. Of
course, my own hair coloring has not been very natural at times, so
I have nothing against Kayle trying a new look; but you know how the
school principals are these days. ROFL Having just had this process
done to her hair, Kayle got away with this "distraction" in school
for a few days (just enough for the novelty to wear off) and now has
to make it go away. She's going to try a dark cherry color to
hopefully blend it all back together and still be a little on the
"wild side". |
Linda, the mother who LET her daughter
look like THAT, and Kayle, that wild child who totally
destroyed this years' learning experience.
|
 |
| Having no adventures
lately, Jim and I did take a tiny trip this past Monday. We went
over to see Carolynn and Trent. Both of them were having computer
problems; plus we had promised a visit when they were over for
Pooltag. We had a nice visit with Carolynn. She only had a few
questions about her computer, because when I got my internet
connection turned back on, I had remote-controlled her computer one
night and had fixed most of her problems.
Later in our visit, we stopped by Trent's Dairy Queen and tried out
the caramel Moo-lattes. MMMMM
Afterwards we spent a little too long at Trent's house because one
of his two computers was VERY infected.
The poor machine was running
with NO anti-virus or anti-spyware programs
(You have those on YOUR
computer, don't you? I always suggest AntiVir, Spybot, and
Ad-Aware), so I eventually just took that computer back home with me
to finish exorcising the evil spirits out of it. (Eleven hours, 35
viruses, 8507 infected files, 10 spyware programs and 497 bad
registry entries later, I now proclaim that computer clean.
) |
 |
But Trent had more than just that
terribly sick computer for us to see. Back in May, I mentioned that
Trent had two new puppies, and luckily too much time hasn't passed,
because they ARE still puppies right now and cute as can be.
I
even know their names this time. The small black short-haired
Chihuahua is name "Moe", while her long-haired sister from the same
litter is named "Casey". |
| Carolynn tries to get the girls to "go
potty" on a trip outside; but they are too, too busy playing with
Jim. |
 |
| I'm sure glad that Trent's
puppies like Jim and that Jim liked the puppies. We probably stayed
at Trent's house for about two hours while I worked on the computer.
The pups kept Jim from being bored the whole time.
|
 |
 |
| Speaking of doggies, I
enlisted mine to help me with an idea that I had been tinkering
around with. You see, Jim and I aren't identical thinkers; but we do
think a lot alike. That means that we end up discussing lots of
issues from politics to computers. From these discussions come some
of our craziest and some of our best ideas. My EAC commercials, the
photos where I'm seen in the reflections, Pooltag, and sledding down
the hill on the ex-Gilligan's Island were all products of our ideas.
The latest idea was to make some sort of "multiple shot" pictures.
The idea was of taking several pictures (with the camera mounted on
a tripod) and then to combine the pictures into a single image. Not
like when I've taken pool pictures so you get that 360 degree view;
but more like a crazy cloning process. To test this idea, I set up
the camera, then let the dogs out into the backyard for a while. |
 |
| Fall is really starting to
set in now, having gone from near 80 yesterday while we were at
Trent's to just the mid-50's today after a Canadian front of cold
air moved through during the rainy night. Since it was a little
cool, the dogs weren't much into playing around in the yard, so my
first attempt at the multi-shot picture was ok; but not quite
enough. |
 |
Later in the afternoon when the sun had
broken out of the clouds for a while, and the temp had gone up just
a tad, I let the dogs back out for another attempt. This time I got
a lot more pictures of the dogs which made for a much better
result. After dropping a few pictures, since I didn't really want
to include visuals of Joxie peeing or Gabby pooping
, I selected
enough images to TRIPLE my whole pack of dogs. Oh my gosh! So that's
what a dozen
cocker spaniels would look like! |
|
I started this image with one picture that contained all four dogs
in it at once. Can you tell which of the dogs in this picture were
really there all together at one time? If not MouseOver the picture
to find out! |
| As I posted this picture, I realized
that the plants in front of my fountain have really grown quite
rampant, so I ran outside and cut them back some. MouseOver to see
the difference. I'm glad this stuff has spread so well; but I can
tell that I'm going to have to fight it to keep it tamed down around
the fountain. |
 |
 |
Ah, a sure sign that the growing season
is over. My hollyhocks grew up to nearly 9.5 feet tall this year;
but now I've cut down all the dead stalks and they are reduced to
these few straggling blooms hidden behind the shrubs. |
| Some wind and rain really got a hold of
my pampas grass recently. It's been tosseled and blown around,
so that it's looking quite full and more like a bush than just a
clump of tall grass.
It won't be too long until the pampas grass
will turn reddish on the ends and put out seeds, before being frozen
under sleet and then dying and turning into straw for me to put
around my flower beds. But that will be much later on down the road,
thank goodness. |
 |
|
The multiflora rose bush that I planted
last fall has grown really well this year. The pictures below show
how it's already started running up the lattice on my porch.
According to what I've read on the internet, I really don't have to
do anything to care for this plant this winter. However, I'll
probably do like I did last year and put a lot of straw from the
pampas grass around the base of the bush for the winter. You never
know when we're going to have a bad winter here in Ohio.
|
 |
 |
| Unfortunately, after my
last hedge clipping, my writing spider, Charlotte, has left.
But, I've still got spiders everywhere. Every morning the tops of my
shrubs glisten with dew on literally hundreds of spider webs.
MouseOver these pictures to see some closeups of the spiders around
my house. |
 |
 |
MouseOver CloseUp |
We've put off the agony as long as
possible - it's time to close the pool up for the year. Although
some of our days are still nice, the colder nights suck all the heat
out of the pool water. No one, not even the dogs, should be swimming
in 50 degree waters! So we took Gabby and Joxer for a ride over to
Jim's. While the doggies played in the yard, we closed up the pool. |
Poor Joxer kept trying to con us into
taking him up to the pool with each of his toys. He just couldn't
understand the tarp across the pool when I finally let him up on the
deck at the end of the day. Poor boy.
Next Summer, I promise to take him swimming a lot more.
Gilligan's Island is the last float to
be deflated, and those are the pieces of styrofoam that had been
around the pool, to prevent accidental beach balls snags and
deflations.
|
 |
 |
Ah! Another usage for 2-liter pop bottles!
Jim loops a piece of rope through the grommets on the pool cover and
ties a water-filled pop bottle to each end. We did this last year,
and the weight of the bottles keeps the canvas tightly covering the
pool, preventing leaves and junk from getting into the pool through
the Winter season. |
| One last look at the pool
for this season |
 |
| Sorry Joxer, the pool is
closed for this year |
 |
| Only eight months left
till we're back in the pool! |
| Every month, I receive a postcard
picture of little Ella, which I frequently use as a bookmark in all
those books I read each month. Now that Tara and the crew have moved
back to Massillon, I hardly ever hear from them; but I understand.
Tara is very busy being mommy to two little kids now (three kids, if
you count Jason
). Since Austin
has started pre-school now, Tara gets plenty of time to bond with
Ella. |
 |
Even though Tara's been
busy, Jason is still in Indiana, and they've been traveling back and
forth a lot this Summer, I've still been able to keep up on how
things are with Tara's family. Not only do I frequently receive
Kodak share albums of pictures (usually of the family at a zoo or
educational place); but every month since she was born, I've been
receiving a postcard photo of Ella. Each month she seems to be
nearly twice as big, along with her smile growing each month too.
Tara says Ella flirts with nearly everyone.
I sure enjoy the photos though. I use the newest one each month as a
bookmark - a smiling baby bookmark will make you smile every time
you open your book.
|
 |
 |
The two pictures above are
from this month, while the picture
of Austin and Ella, below, is a month or two old. |
 |
|
|
Week Four: |
|---|
Here's a story with some bad news; but
it isn't about me. Seems yesterday when Cliff and his buddy Mike G.
went fishing a county away, they took quite a bit of beer with them
- so much that by the time they headed home after midnight, they
were quite drunk. Cliff was also quite scratched up and bloodied
from having fallen off his chair, rolled down the hill, and landing
face first into the water. When Mike drove left-of-center, a sheriff
was there to pull them over. Both men spent the night in jail with
the car impounded before going to court and get several stiff fines.
All-in-all this isn't all that surprising. Even though Cliff has had
several brushes with Death over the last few years, he shows no
concern for his health and condition. Although he has heart and lung
problems along with diabetes, he thinks he should be able to live,
do and eat whatever he wants and as long as he takes his pills and
shots, everything should be hunky-dory. His continued bad habits and
irresponsibility has made most of us lose any pity for him. Many
times this Summer, while at the pool with DO, I expressed my
exasperation with Cliff and his behavior.
If he's not going to try to stay alive and do what's necessary, all
he's going to do is bring more problems and grief to DO. It's a
shame. I sure don't like the meds I have to be on; but I take them
and I ENJOY life and living, partly for me, partly for Jim
and partly for my dear friends and family.
I don't want y'all to have to worry about me or have to care for me
and I sure don't want to feel sick. |
| But on to some GOOD news, and it's
about me!
As I promised you in my late few
emails, I've got results back from the doctor. I had to wait till
now to post them though, because my doctor appointment was very late
in the month. If you remember, it's been a few months since my last
doctor visit. Back in June, because my Viral Load was undetectable
and my T-cells had taken only a tiny dip to 184, the doctor
gave me a reprieve from the monthly visits and I got to have the
whole Summer off with no blood work and no doctors.
Thankfully, I felt pretty well most of this Summer. Unlike the
previous Summer when I woke up barfing almost every morning, this
year's episodes of sickness where few and far between. I never
expected to ever escape it all; but it's sure nice to actually feel
well most of the time, instead of feeling sick all of the time.
|
Today at the doctor, I got such good
news that I get even a longer reprieve this time and won't have to
see him again until next year! (Jan 25th). My Viral Load count was
still under 75, which is counted as "undetectable", and my T-cells
which haven't been over 300 in over 10 years, took a big jump and
are now at 262!
Click the chart graphic below if you need further explanation. |
 |
|
|
|
