Ohhh, That Need for Speed...

You know, I make jokes all the time about being chief operating officer of the duct tape and band-aid brigade, but honestly? It's not really all that far from the truth. Sometimes I think nothing around here works when I/we need it. Do you ever have that problem? We seem to be having non-technical difficulties inside and out this week. Why is it (as long as I'm on a min-rant here *laugh*) that I struggled to get my computer and phone to sync, which was supposed to be easy-peasy but developed digital hiccups, yet our refrigerator and oven are deteriorating in perfect synchronicity? The oven has either a malfunctioning keypad or "box". Naturally, both items are heinously expensive to replace, and (of course) there's no way to know for sure which one needs to be replaced (replacing both would be more than half the cost of a new oven). As a result, we're learning to do the "new math". Baking at 400 is done at 399 (the zero doesn't work) and setting the timer for 40 minutes equates 39:59 (because the 1, 4, and 7 don't work either). Pretty annoying, but until I win the lottery (and HaHaHa) I can afford to be annoyed more than I can afford a new oven. The refrigerator has decided it would rather be a freezer, and for some reason it has started freezing anything we put on the bottom shelf. [Photo inset: my duct tape stash - DH calls it 100mph tape}

Surprisingly, DH, his work schedule and the weather all cooperated (a rare happenstance, that ;o) and I was SO thankful considering the twelve foot weeds in the pasture. Too bad the sprayer had a flat tire; one which had no desire to air back up. The tire was unwilling to be removed, a small war ensued, and many bad words were snarled. (Jen bailed in the heat of the battle ;o) Didn't I say I was waiting for the other shoe to drop? Kerplunk. Of course by the time the tire was repaired it was too doggone dark out to spray. Why was I even surprised? The chainsaw has also crumped, which makes perfect sense since DH and I found another tree down in the far back corner of the pasture. It is on the fence (where else?) and though it didn't break - whew! - it did compress it, so we need to get it off before you-know-who finds it and decides to see if Mr. T. still has a vegetable patch in his yard (I am, of course, referring to Mad Max, who else?) While we do have a second fence beyond that one, you can't be too careful when dealing with a hoovenile delinquent, and I'd rather be sane than sorry (and no, that wasn't a typo *grin*) [Photo inset: messy, but you can see how the fence is compressed and just see the trunk in the top left corner of the photo]

One of the things that did go well this week was I got to shoot a bird (bwahahaha ;o) No, no, no, not that kind silly! Anni, if you're 'listening' - I got him I got him I got him! The Cardinal. The one I've been stalking for months. I swear, any time I stepped outside, sans camera, he was right there. If I had the camera with me, he was gone in a flash (HA that was a good one ;o) He'd stop just out of sight and start singing. Mocking me. I know that's exactly what he was doing; the little cretin. I'm pretty sure I've taken about a hundred lousy photos of him, although I think I did get one other shot that wasn't too awful awhile back. Actually, I suppose we had considerably more than just one thing. This is as far as I got with my post this week. Why? Because DD and her entourage have been here for most of it, and she's been helping me with the patio project (excuse me for swearing).
Between DD, Kimby and our pint-sized volunteers (this post), we've gotten quite a bit accomplished in the past two weeks *WOOT* Here is a photo update of our progress (along with a couple of other random and irrelevant shots because, well.... because ;o)

Random like this tiny Carolina Wren who finally paused long enough for me to grab a hasty shot with the camera. They're almost never still, but they are SO cute!

Okay, okay, back on task here. DD helped me lug the half barrel planter around to the patio and I planted some Zinnias in it. Maybe next year I can put a knockout rose in there (that's what I wanted to start with, but the checkbook said NO *laugh*). Have to say I do love the mixed colors and blooms though. Aren't they pretty?

I finally hung the welcome sign my Mom bought me forever and a day ago next to a hanging basket with some Summer Purslane. I'll take an updated photo once it grows a bit more - it's very pretty too. Should I add that people will be coming from the other direction, so that's why it's backwards?

The entourage supervised from their favorite place on the planet: the big drum. I think they like feeling "tall". Faith seems to be saying, "What? We're sunning." (the lawn mower has also been acting up; can you tell? The dogs almost completely disappear in the grass - we can only see their tails ;o)

We got the outhouse sign hung (remember my Picture Happy Potty Post? Click here if you missed it) and the hose minder up. Now I just have to finish painting the sink so DH can hook it up and we can have water! *WOOT* Not the best shot, but you get the idea...

I tried to capture a bird perched high up in the tree top, but he took off. I still got him, but it's definitely not the crisp, clear shot I was looking for (guess I'll take it, though ;o)

The best thing? I finally finished painting the horse DD cut out for me a REALLY long time ago and we hung it up by the sink. I've got another neat welcome sign made out of horseshoes that I think I'll put up there (we want our visitors to feel really, really welcome *laugh*). We also moved one of Bella's pedestals over by the sink so little kids could borrow it to wash their hands after visiting the horses. I think she did an awesome job. What do you think?

I have to say, we were all pretty doggone (hee) worn out by the end of each day. We got quite a bit done; though there's lots left to do. I really hope there aren't any horrible errors and/or typos in this post, as I have not been very diligent in my proofreading this week (I'm pretty doggone tired myself). If I've made any, please accept my profound apologies. As for now, it's time to get back to work. *groan*

Have a blessed week everyone!

So where'd ya go this time Jen??
     Of all my online doings, this blog is probably the thing I've missed the most. Although it was not my intention to literally drop out of site (again), it became an unfortunate side-effect of our ISP woes. Living in a somewhat rural area, our choices [years ago] were very limited when it came to internet service. Because we wanted a land line without the added expense of cable, we've been pretty much stuck with CenturyLink (and yep, I'm namin' names people). 
     Back in the day, their service was pretty darn good. I'd click on a page and it loaded just like it was supposed to. As the internet became more and more graphics intensive, however, we began to experience a definite reduction in speed. By the time of last year's post, it was taking an insane amount of time just to type a post (the preview window would hang up, my cursor would get stuck in one spot or disappear altogether, yadda-yadda). Uploading photos was awful. One by one, I gave up trying to accomplish things online in defeat. 
Fast Forward to a couple of weeks ago
      It occurred to me as I attempted to reply to an email at home (which took two hours and many repentable words to type and send one doggone message) that I had not revisited the land line/ISP conundrum for a couple of years. Habitual ruts do have their disadvantages, don't they? 
      Verizon's Hot Spot was still too limited (and pricey), however, TimeWarner (TWC) had started including a land line phone service in with some of their bundles. Hmmmm. Although it included cable, the price for all three services was only slightly higher than we were paying now for just two. One really, if you considered the utter uselessness of our internet. The big question was: Could we get it in our area? Yes, we could. *DingDingDingDing* Ladies and gentlemen, we have a winner! Now I just had to convince DH (whose "ducttapeoughttadoit" mentality is: It doesn't effect me directly therefore it probably isn't really broken, so why would we need to fix it?) It took three days, four verbal dissertations, two heartfelt pleas and one rant (should've just started there, in retrospect ;o) to get him to finally agree to the change. (for some odd reason, the Twelve Days of Christmas song has suddenly popped into my mind - go figure). I am, therefore, proud to announce:

We have real Internet!

Some Perspective

     To give you an idea of just how bad it was, the state with the highest internet speed in the U.S. in 2014 was Virginia at 13.7mbps (I found a neat map here). Alaska came in dead last at 7mbps. My internet? Ha. It was supposed to be 6mbps; we were told to expect a minimum of 3mbps, but what we actually got was a pathetic 1.8mbps (when it wasn't raining, that is). Pages were loading in extreme slow-mo, and typing anything was a sight to [eventually] behold. I'd bang out a sentence, the cursor would disappear and after several seconds of waiting, the words would come up one letter at time. Made me crazed. 
      YouTube gave me frownie faces half the time when I tried to watch my crafting tutorials; we're talking regular videos here - anything HD wasn't happening at all. Adding insult to injury, my new[ish] computer was slowly hiccuping along as a result of our lousy connection. Windows updates (gotta love those, right?) took hours to download; sometimes days. Most programs now connect to the internet in the background, so if you have a poor connection your software will be adversely effected right along with your temper. Although TWC advertised speeds of 30mbps, I viewed that as an absolute impossibility. Shoot, I was having fantasies about 20mbps. 10, even. Do I hear 5? I am still reeling from the actuality: Would you believe we are getting a whopping 34mbps? Pages load  almost instantaneously (HD videos and everything!) and words actually appear as I type them. It's phenomenal. Colossal. Stupendous! 
Anyhoo, what now?
     Went on a bit more than intended here - this was supposed to be a coming soon paragraph - but I'm just SO excited to be back! *SQUEEEE* I have SO much to tell you guys! 

I am going to try really hard to get back into the swing of things over the next month or so. We're coming to the end of the school year which should, hopefully, free up some extra time for me (time seems to be in perpetually short supply, doesn't it?) I'm probably going to need a refresher course on which thing does what both here and on our site, but I'm hoping to get back into the swing of regular posts without hurting myself (and visiting everybody too - I've missed you!) Hopefully, I can give the blog a much-needed face lift and then try to tackle our sadly neglected website. My biggest challenge is probably going to be re-establishing the habit; not that I would ever forget anything, right? *facepalm*

As always, thanks for reading this far and have a blessed day!