http://www.logitech.com/videomail

Don’t look like it worked.  Sorry.

I also have ordered a wireless keyboard for the laptop.  Should be easier to type that way.  The laptop keyboard works, but typing on it is to slow to suit me.  Does that sound like I’m bragging a little?

Anyhow, for my own information, I wanted to see that posting to my blog on here works all right.

Later on I got to start playing with the new laptop computer that Ivan and Brenda blessed me with.  Ivan had already registered the computer to me, and had done all those things that need to be done with a new  computer, plus he had installed a picture of himself and Brenda as my screensaver.  Neat !!!  Since I am new to laptop computers, and there was no manual included with it, I was not sure how everything worked.  (I later found out that the manual could be downloaded from the internet.  Which I did later.)  I also got a wireless mouse with the computer.  Since I already have wireless, and since there were directions for getting that up and running, that went well.  There was no problem getting on line with it so I thought that it would be nice to transfer some of my files from my desktop to this one.  I had done a transfer from my old computer which had Windows XP to my desktop which has Windows 7 so I was familiar with the process, and still have the easy transfer cable for it.  I got everything ready and started it.  Everything seemed to be working well when I noticed that it started to disconnect and then connect.  It finally finished the transfer, but when I tried to open some of the files, they would not open.  The more time I spent with it, the more it seemed not to want to cooperate.  Finally the only thing I had was a blank screen with a live curser.  %#^&(%##$&*##  My new computer.  YIKES    !!!!!  The next morning I called Ivan and Brenda and reported on my progress with my new computer.  We tried some things that Ivan suggested.  They did not do anything to solve the problem, so he suggested that I get with the technitions at HP and see what they could do.  After I got connected to a nice lady named Jessica, and after spending about 2 1/2 hours on the phone with her, I have my computer back the way it should be.   I printed out the manual for it off the internet, so I now have answers for many of the questions that I have, or might have later, about it such as functions of lights, touch pad, camera, etc.

Thursday evening, we had company and lots of music by the Kormann family, and Charlie Warner.  In preparation for the show, I hooked up another light over the center of the front room to get better lighting for the camera.  I sort of cobbled up a stand with a platform to hold the laptop so that it could cover all the activity in the whole room.  I wanted to check it out on Skype that way, but that did not work out.  I also wanted to see how it did with making a video, but I did not get that to work either.  It’s a learning process, and for this old guy, what I do learn is absolutely amazing.  I hope that I will have a better progress report later on.

I have had another project that has been going on for several weeks and that involved getting a picture of a bird.  This is how the project came about. Last fall, Royce, Audrey, Lou and I had been thinking that it would be nice to set up another feeding station outside of the TV room window so that Lou could see it from her chair.  Royce brought over a steel pole that is bent so that he could hang a feeder for bird seed, a corn cob, and some suet.  It took a while before there was any action out there, but once they found it, the action started.  We started to get visits from Chickadee’s, Nuthatches, and Woodpeckers.  — Mostly Woodpeckers, and they seem to really like the suet.  Around here, I think there are three sizes of them, but I just read that there are over 180 species of them. ???  I know that one of them here is the Pileated Woodpecker, and one of them has been visiting our suet.  It is quite a thrill to be within three or four feet of one of them working the suet right outside the window.  I have been working at trying to get a good picture of him, but it is not easy with the two stage click on my camera.  Whenever I thought I had a good shot, he would not be there long enough for the camera to take the picture.  Also, since I had to take the picture through the window, I could not us the flash because of the glare.  Then, his visits were generally pretty brief, so there needed to be a whole lot of cooperation.  The other day, I finally got a good one of him that I am sort of proud of.  I am including it here on this post.  –   Be sure to click on the picture to enlarge it.

I would like to take this time for Lou and I to wish a Merry Christmas and a wonderful new year to any of our family and friends that we may missed with cards or e-mails. 

 Merry Christmas from Lou and Gene

P.S.  Am adding the Christmas letter that I sent out with my cards.

Christmas  2011

      Greetings to all of our family and friends.  It is our hope that this letter finds each of you healthy, both in body and spirit.  As at other times, the year 2011 has seen a lot of challenges and tough situations.  Our country and our society seem to be on a downhill slide, but– our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ is still on the throne and in control.  Thank you Lord !!!!

Lou and I are finishing up this year feeling very blessed in our circumstances.  We have so many things to be thankful for.  We have a warm comfortable home, and so many family and friends who love and care for us.  We do appreciate each and every one of you and send our wishes to you for a Merry Christmas and a happy and prosperous New Year.

Blessings,

Gene & Lou

P.S.  I received the following poem in an e-mail recently and thought it worthwhile to pass on.

THE WORLD IS MINE

Today, upon a bus, I saw a beautiful women, and wished I were as beautiful.

When suddenly she rose to leave, I saw her hobble down the aisle.

I saw her hobble down the aisle, she had one leg and wore a crutch.

But as she passed, she passed a smile.  Oh God, forgive me when I whine.

I have two legs, the world is mine.

I stopped to buy some candy.  The lad who sold it had such charm.

I talked with him, he seemed so glad.  If I were late, it’d do no harm.

And as I left, he said to me, “I thank you, you’ve been so kind.

It’s nice to talk with folks like you.”  He said ,  “You see I’m blind.”

Oh God, forgive me when I whine.  I have two eyes, the world is mine.

Later while walking down the street, I saw a child I knew.

He stood and watched the others play, but he did not know what to do.

I stopped a moment and then I said, ”Why don’t you join them dear?”

He looked ahead without a word.  I forgot,–he couldn’t hear.

Oh God, forgive me when I whine.  I have two ears, the world is mine.

With feet to take me where I’d go…..With eyes to see the sunset’s glow.

With ears to hear what I’d know.  Oh God, forgive me when I whine.

I’ve been blessed indeed, the world is mine.

We were blessed on this year’s anniversary with a visit from Lance Buhrman, who lived with us as a foster son way back in 1965, 66, and 67.  It is always great to get together and dig up old memories and see who remembers what.  We are proud of him and look forward to being able to spend more time with him whenever the opportunity arises.  I have to say that he was a great help while he was here.  He did some cooking, did some driving, and some helping blowing my leaf crop.  Evidence below:

This October 31 is also an anniversary that I would just as soon forget.  It has been exactly 20 years since we had that Holloween snowstorm up here when we got the three feet of snow.  It was the evening when I wrecked my semi at the bottom of the big hill south of Minong.  At that time, hwy 53 was a two lane road.  Just so glad that nobody was coming up the other way.   I slid for half a mile on the black ice, and wrecked at the bottom and then got hit by another truck who did the same thing.  It was a dandy wreck.  Two trucks and trailers totaled but neither one of us or anyone else was hurt.  I said then and still do for that—-THANK YOU LORD.

WHEN GRANDMA GOES TO COURT

Lawyers should never  ask a Mississippi grandma a question if they aren’t prepared for the answer.

In a trial, a Southern small-town prosecuting attorney called his first witness, a grandmotherly, elderly woman to the stand.  He approached her and asked, “Mrs. Jones, do you know me?”  She responded, “Why, yes, I do know you, Mr. Williams.  I’ve known you since you were a boy, and frankly you’ve been a big disappointment to me.  You lie, you cheat on your wife, and you manipulate people and talk about them behind their backs.  You think you’re a big shot when you haven’t the brains to realize you’ll never amount to anything more than a two-bit paper pusher.  Yes, I  know you.”

The lawyer was stunned.  Not knowing what else to do, he pointed across the room and asked, “Mrs. Jones, do you know the defense attorney?”

She again replied, “Why yes, I do.  I’ve known Mr. Bradley since he was a youngster, too.  He’s lazy, bigoted, and he has a drinking problem.  He can’t build a normal relationship with anyone, and his law practice is one of the worst in the entire state.  Not to mention he cheated on his wife with three different women.  One of them was your wife.  Yes, I know him.”

The defense attorney nearly died.

The judge asked both counselors to approach the bench and, in a very quiet voice, said, “If either of you idiots asks her if she knows me, I’ll send you both to the electric chair”.

Now I find that summer is almost over and I still don’t have things the way I would like to have them in my yard. Probably never will have that happen. I do appreciate the fact that we have friends that are more than willing to help with some of the things that I need done around here. I can still get out there and do a few things myself to help the looks of the place, but help is always welcome.

Niece Linda and her husband Larry were here around Memorial Day and helped clean up the yard some with their leaf blower and picking up sticks and branches that have accumulated out there. There were lots of them, and it makes a huge difference to be able to see the bare ground. Recently Royce and Audrey let me know that they wanted to stain my deck, so we got all the necessaries and got that done. Earlier, Royce had been over here with his chainsaw and cut up and stacked some of the dead trees out in the woods. Larry and Linda were here again over Labor Day weekend. Larry and I took the skidder out there and picked up all that wood and brought it in by my woodpile. (The rack that I made to fit on the skidder blade works like a charm for hauling that stuff out of the woods.) Royce has been seen splitting some of that up for me as time allows for him. He is also adding to my woodpile with loads from his pile from time to time. I think that I owe for about five loads so far, but will get that squared away when we get the pile to the right size. I have been using my favorite tool all summer (the weed trimmer) to keep the yard looking decent. The weeds grow almost faster than I can keep up with them. This is what is known as JOB SECURITY.

Some of the other visitors that we have been blessed with this summer have been my brother Jim and his son Alan. What a nice surprise there to have them drive up one afternoon at the end of their trip from Wyoming. It’s been a long time, and a chance to play catch-up for all of us.

Our friends Jack and Sandy from Thorp in his pride and joy (a 1956 Ford that he has rebuilt.) Jack was my partner in crime when we were escorting wide loads (Modular houses) around Wisconsin, Minnesota, Michigan, and Illinois. Always a good time with them.

And most recently, Joe McDowell, and old and dear friend from high school and motorcycle days. Another tough old guy. Up here to ride the fat tire bicycle race up by Cable. Needless to say, but he is in the old timers class. I knew some of this, but he has had open heart surgery and two hip implants. Hard to keep a good man down for long.

The summer has also provided us with our share of opportunities to socialize with a few of the doctors, dentists, and pharmacists in our area. Don’t know what we would do without them.

Now, since I did not take any notes to help my memory on past happenings around here, I will just have to wing it. I remember calling on my good friend Pastor Marvin Wilbur to solve an electrical problem that had been causing problems with our hot water heating system. He cured that problem.

Since my long term memory is faulty, I will start in with one of the more recent events in the goings on around the “Shanty”. I suppose that this one could be counted toward my ongoing education. Seems like there are always opportunities cropping up for us seasoned citizens to learn something, and this one went like this, and I will tell you how this all came about.

I have been thinking to myself about all the great strides that I have seen made in the world of technology and communications in my lifetime. When I was a boy, the telephone system consisted of the old telephones in a large oak box with a crank handle on the side that you used to crank out a combination of long and short rings. Anyone could listen in to the conversation whether it was for them or not. For some, it was a wonderful way to gather gossip. Back in those days, the TELEPHONE  LINES  were attached to glass insulators on the telephone poles.

There have been a constant stream of improvements over the years to the point where most folks have a cell phone on their person at all times, and these phones also do all sorts of other functions. Me being one of the seasoned citizens, I don’t even pretend to understand all of these uses. Besides, we don’t have good reception in this area, so I haven’t gotten involved much in cell phones.

However,—–I have just been treated to a lesson in one of the recent improvements, and how it came about in our lives. I guess that the main reason was that my wife had a birthday, and I had been wondering what to get her for a present. She has been having problems with her eyesight, and reading had been a problem for her for some time. I had been asking questions about Amazon’s “Kindle” and some of the benefits with that. With a “Kindle”, there are thousands of books, booklets, newspapers, etc. that can be purchased and downloaded to it. I was interested in something where you could enlarge the print size on whatever you were reading, and when I found that you could, I decided to get her one for her birthday, and so, started my lesson.

I had been asking around about Kindles and was told that there were different models of them, and the one that I should get was the Wi-Fi one, and even though it was wireless, I could download e-books to my computer and then download them to the Kindle by USB cable. Sounded good to me, so I bought one and presented it to my wife on her birthday. O.K. now all I had to do was start figuring out how to get it working. After asking more questions and a whole lot of trial and error, I did manage to get several books onto the Kindle. There was only one major problem. The books would not open. This led to another round of questions to find out why this was happening. Eventually I wound up talking to one of the technicians who provided support for the Kindles. Turns out that the books had to be downloaded wirelessly, and I needed to find some place who had wireless capability. After a bit of research,  I decided that the library in Rice Lake was the place to go for that.

I made the trip to Rice Lake and related my problem to the receptionist there at the library. I was fortunate to find that this kind lady new exactly what the problem was, and what to do about it. Seems that this happens when books are downloaded to the computer and then downloaded to the Kindle by USB cable, they will not open with the WI-FI Kindle’s. Since the Kindle is the WI-FI model, the books must be downloaded wirelessly. — So, the procedure now is to remove the items from the Kindle and then download them again wirelessly there through their router. — Nothing to it when you know what you are doing. The necessary removal’s and re-downloads were done for me, and I thanked the lady and made the trip home with something on there that Lou could actually read.

After some more thought, I concluded that it would not be to practical to have to go to Rice Lake every time that I wanted to buy a Kindle book to be able to get it to work, so, the next sensible thing to find out was, what would it take to get myself set up for wireless capability. More questions along those lines, and as usual, each one of these has a habit of giving birth to more. I was fortunate in asking the right person, (Shirley Owens), who just happened to know who could and would help me out with this. I contacted this person, and learned that he could order the router that I needed, and then get me set up whenever it arrived. We made the arrangements and within about a week I was setup wirelessly. It is great to have all these aforementioned resources available and be able to have most any of them on the Kindle within two or three minutes.

These old folks are doing our best to try to catch up to a little bit of the new technology in this old world today. Such fun !!!!