Monday, March 15, 2010

Crocuses are FIRST!

I'm trying something different--I just set comments to open in a separate browser window, which can be refreshed without refreshing the whole page. You need to click the word "Comments" to get the window.

--Renee


























And here's my first crocus, about to open mid-March!
That's the earliest I ever recall seeing a blossom here.

32 comments:

  1. HD1!

    Pretty--don't know as I have seen crocuses before. We have had good luck with summer crocuses in our flowerbeds. I think this will be a GREAT spring for wildflowers in California. On the way home from mining salt this afternoon I saw poppies beginning to show up in large orange splashes on the green hillsides; some yellow flowers are a little ahead of them, and I saw some purple too--maybe lupine, but I saw other purple wildflowers near the road as well. Lots of yellow-orange flowers just starting to show some color.

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  2. Please read the previous thread for details of my tinkering with the comment settings.

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  3. Bill Thomasson3/15/2010 01:26:00 AM

    We got our first crocus a couple of days ago.

    I liked having the thread update itself automatically, but I also like having the newest post at the bottom. I guess you can't have everything.

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  4. Well, what I'm most interested in finding out is whether or not this change makes the blog work again for Cat.

    Grading this week. Hope to be able to come up for air soon.

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  5. ...Where did my comment go?

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  6. Thank you, thank you, Renee!

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  7. Well, aside from Cat's being back (Yay!!), the page seems to load lightening fast (sez Mz Dialup. . . . )

    Thank you, Renee!!!!

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  8. Bill Thomasson3/15/2010 02:46:00 PM

    Actually, having just refreshed, I noticed it loading as slowly as ever.

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  9. Yeah, I'd have to agree. But it sure was fast earlier, lol!

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  10. Well. There seems to be a huge difference if you comment, or if you refresh the whole page. That last comment was posted in about a second.

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  11. Well, it appears I did lose a bit of road in this flood: on the *far* side. Woke up to find my neighbor, Nancy, hauling sand by hand to fill it in. . . . Two old ladies stuck on the far side of the river, lol! It's good now.

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  12. You're welcome, everyone.

    Regarding the page refresh/load speed, there was an option to have the comments in a pop-up window. But I couldn't seem to get that to work last night.

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  13. TC's candle page:
    http://www.gratefulness.org/candles/candles.cfm?l=eng&gi=TC

    Ally's candle page:
    http://www.gratefulness.org/candles/candles.cfm?l=eng&gi=allys

    Charlie's candle page:
    http://www.gratefulness.org/candles/candles.cfm?l=eng&gi=Graps

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  14. Love it Renee!! Thank you!! Now the comments go all the way across the screen!! YAY!!!

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  15. Bill Thomasson3/15/2010 05:28:00 PM

    Yeah. I guess that like a lot of software it takes a little experimentation to get it to work the way you want.

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  16. Since Thursday it has been windy, sometimes extremely windy, and we got some rain. Imagine my surprise to find national headlines proclaiming a massive nor easter. Like, huh? Yet again, apparently, Springfield's part of the Connecticut Valley was sheltered from the worst of the storm. Our power didn't even go out. Knock on wood! Yet again I'm very glad to live where I do.

    Over the weekend I reread The Host. It is a remarkable book. Before that I read The Amazing Interlude by Mary Roberts Reinhardt, which is not a mystery but, hmm, an adventure romance, I suppose. It's about a young girl who goes to Belgem(sp?) from Pittsburgh to care for the men at the front. A young intelligence officer falls in love with her, but she's already engaged, so she doesn't realize this for quite some time. It's very exciting. Did you know MRR was a war correspondent in WWI? More than that, she actually reported from the trenches!

    I've been working a bit on Marooner's Haven. Sent Puddle the revised first few chapters but, as I told her, the last chapter of that section is NOT going well. Since it's the most important chapter, that's mucho frustrating!

    Still no word from Weird Tales. I'm growing anxious about that again. Their submission page says six weeks response time. It's been twice that, but I don't want to write again. If the editor really is snowed under, she doesn't need pointless inquiries. But, the waiting really is kind'a nerve wracking. *sigh*

    Submissions to the Writers Division holiday anthology are slow indeed. Never thought I'd have that concern. Maybe I'd better speak to Robert about it. On the other hand, his idear seems to be to dragoon people, which doesn't seem right to me. I'll give it another week or so...

    One thing I definitely won't be telling Robert is that I lost our best submission. I was so much struck by the power of the story that I suggested to the author that she really ought to try submitting it to a national magazine, suggesting St. Anthony Messenger. It really seemed to me the sort of story they might very well accept. And, you know, she was so pleased. Said she'd been going through a bad patch and my message had heartened her. As you can imagine, that brought a lump to my throat. She's gonna try. I know I did the right thing. It would be a pity for that story to be ineligible for publication because it had appeared in our piddly little anthology. Still, I'm not altogether sure Robert would see it that way.

    Guess that's all that's new with me. I've missed you guys and am VERY glad to be back!

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  17. Maybe "the most important chapter" is an overstatement. It's just that, in it, or in one part of it, the minor revelation I've had finds expression. So, my difficulty putting it on paper *irritates* me.

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  18. Well, if you maximize, which of course I did. It looks great now, and is easy to use. I do like the "Reply" feature.

    Yeah, Bill. It's ;like anything else. You have to get checked out on it.

    Yesterday I helped Dad set up his voice mail. It was strange to watch him; he seemed almost intimidated. He got through it in the end, though. So, Mum and Dad now have voice mail, about ten years later than the rest of the world, but, hey. Better late than never. 8)

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  19. Binky went to the doctor today. She has gained six ounces, but we'll have to wait several days for the blood test results. I gather, if they aren't perfect, that means there's still a strain on her kidneys. That's a scary thought. She certainly seems fully recovered...

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  20. Had to laugh ~~ just at Ally's candle page and on the fourth row a candle from Cat and two candles over from hers one from dog (soldier from the BBB). Wonder what the parents/grandparents think when they're lookin' at the candles. . . . ?

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  21. LOL, puddle! I have wondered that too! The first time I saw it, Cat and Dog were right next to each other! :-D

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  22. I find the new format a bit fubsy, because it hides part of my toolbar.
    But if it means we have our Catreona back, then I'm okay with that.

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  23. listener: on windows, you can change the shape of a window by putting your cursor on a corner till you get an arrow, and then pushing or pulling till it's a shape you like. I'd thought I'd remembered that about apple, too. . . .

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  24. Thanks, puddle. I kept trying earlier and couldn't get it to work so I gave up assuming it impossible.
    But you inspired me to try again and it turns out that on a Mac you've got to go to the gray line at the bottom and drag it from there.

    It helps, even though I still have to do three clicks to set-up now instead of just one. It'll do.

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  25. :lol: Peaceable Kingdom, eh?

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  26. Oops! Sorry about that, listener.

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  27. Peter Graves died of a heart attack today. According to Dad, he was on his way home from his birthday party. According to Mum, he was getting ready for it. In either case, that's definitely the way to go.

    He is survived by his brother, James Arnet.

    It's a most peculiar thing. I thought of Peter Graves this afternoon out of the clear blue sky. Of course, I associate him with A&E's Biography programme, so that's the context in which the thought came to me. But, still, out of nowhere. Weird, huh?

    Rest in peace, Peter.

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  28. Puddle, you did get the message I sent, right? If not, please tell me. Robert hasn't replied to the message I sent him over the weekend, and he's usually very prompt. So, I wonder if my messages aren't going out.

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  29. Did get it. Am struggling with it, lol! Something about how/where you composed it puts all the quotes and apostrophes into some kind of gobbledegook. . .

    Example: to escort the load to Raklebad, the planet’s cultural capital

    “Ah, Shepard. Morrow here.”

    I didn’t quite stifle a groan. “Hello, Morrow. Yes, you caught me. Another five minutes and I’d have been sailing out of Raklebad Harbor.”

    Been seeing if I could get used to it, or rather to ask you to send it again in plain text. Or sumpin. . . .

    My sister's email program does it, too. But she's AOL. Go figure, lol!

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  30. Bill Thomasson3/16/2010 12:28:00 AM

    Voice mail? Well, I have an answering machine. Is that the same thing? No need I can see to pay the telephone company extra.

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  31. Bill Thomasson3/16/2010 12:36:00 AM

    Today we talked to someone about getting a replacement for the boiler that heats our house. We've been thinking about it for several years, and the state (using federal money) is currently offering a $1200 rebate on high-efficiency boilers. Frankly about time it was replaced. The boiler itself almost surely goes back to when the house was built almost a century and a quarter ago, and would have been converted from coal to gas in the 1960s. The bad news is that it's no longer possible to get a boiler or thermostat that will operate without electricity. Apparently most people in the Chicago area just trust that there will never be an extended electrical outage in the winter, but we have no intention of risking it. So a backup electrical generator becomes part of the cost. As does getting rid of the asbestos coating that surrounds the current boiler -- but we knew that.

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