Thursday, September 24, 2009

A QUIET MOTORCYCLE RIDE IN THE COUNTRY

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For any of you folks with an interest in Microsoft's Live Writer be sure to hop over to RICK'S blog to-day & check out his explanation of those confusing tags & label thingys.

Nice weather day so took my cameras & went for a long quiet motorcycle ride……………..

GROANER'S CORNER:((  The older you get, the tougher it is to lose weight, because by then your body and your fat have gotten to be really good friends.

OUR PHOTO ALBUMS  http://picasaweb.google.com/stargeezerguy/

The only thing better than right now will someday be the memories of right now...AL.

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

GHOST TOWNS OF FAIRBANK & PEARCE, ARIZONA…..DEAD OR ALIVE!!

REMEMBER TO CLICK THE PHOTOS TO ENLARGE THEM & HOVER YOUR MOUSE OVER EACH ONE TO READ THE CAPTION

The old tumbling down Adobe walls along the San Pedro river in the heavy Mesquite underbrush of Charleston Arizona marks the spot of a long dead ghost town.  A few miles up the road is the bustling main street of a town very much alive.....Tombstone.  And in the same general area are two other little western towns in various states of.....dead or alive.

ONE OF THE FEW BUILDINGS LEFT STANDING IN FAIRBANK

I THINK THE SIGN SAYS IT ALL THE TOWN'S OLD FORGOTTEN CEMETERY

FAIRBANK, Arizona was once a bee hive of activity along the banks of the San Pedro river complete with a busy 3 line railway stop, post office, saloon, general store, a school, & all the other buildings & business's that once made for a rootin tootin lively little western town.  The people are long gone now, the school has been restored, the remains of the old saloon, post office & store are fenced off for safety purposes & an old sign hangs on a sun drenched withered wooden building telling you to.....beware of rattlesnakes!!  We walked around the remains of Fairbank & it's old forgotten cemetery half a mile away on a craggy rock strewn hill back in March of 08 & you can read our blog of that day HERE & see our photos, HERE.

 PEARCE'S MINING OPERATION IN THE 1800'S

THE ORIGINAL POST OFFICE IN PEARCE THIS STORE ACROSS FROM THE POST OFFICE IS ONLY OPEN ONE DAY A YEAR

PEARCE, Arizona was another typical tough little  western mining town back in it's day & a few of it's buildings are still somewhat alive.  You can drive right into the town.  Gold was discovered nearby in the 1800's which resulted in a stampede of people from Tombstone.  Pearce's old mining remains are still very visible high atop a rocky outcrop southeast of town.  The lady in Pearce's OLD PEARCE POTTERY STORE on the southeast side of the intersection is very knowledgeable about the town's history.  My blog for our visit to Pearce is HERE & my photos of the town & cemetery are HEREKELLY'S SCHMOOZING IT UP WITH THE LOCALS IN PEARCE

We will be returning to this ghost town area of Cochise county late next month when we head back to, 'The Ranch.'  We will once again be ranch sitting for RV friends Jeanie & Ray while they head off on a 3 week cruise with friends Rosanna & her Mother, Carol from the Paws & Hooves Ranch which we visited last March.  I will blog about & post some photos about our 7 week ranch sitting job & the Paws & Hooves gang earlier this year in a later blog.  And I will get Sergeant John & his Hudson Hornets in there too:))PEARCE CEMETERY

 Picasa 3 has just released it's 3.5 version & I downloaded it last night.  Biggest advance is in the 'face recognition department.'  For you folks who take a lot of people photos this is probably a good thing.  You can read about & download it here.  PICASA 3.5  DSC_1701

Last night's video is only the 3rd video I've ever put in the blog in the past 2 years so just want to assure our 'air card' readers that it is not something I make a habit of.  We use an air card while traveling as well so know the frustration involved in watching those precious Gigabytes been chewed.  A Verizon store manager in Casa Grande, Arizona last winter told us he figured because of the evolving technology that Verizon would be taking the cap off the 5 Gigglebyte limit sometime this winter but I'm a little skeptical of that!!

SALOON, POST OFFICE & GENERAL STORE IN FAIRBANKLoaded up Max & Checkers this morning & we took the big wheels for drive up to Wal-Mart in Goderich & back.  I was lucky enough to get myself smartened up this time & stay with the rig while the engine was running.  Three weeks ago I started it up in the driveway, forgot about it & left it running for nearly 5 hours.  In my world, some days just aren't quite as forgetful as others....sometimes:((

MANY A FAIRBANK TOWNSFOLK WALKED THIS ROAD TO THE CEMETERY ON THE HILL GROANER’S CORNER:))  To-day I have an original groaner written by myself.  But, not to worry.  I won’t make this a habit. SANDRA over at the Nightly News had mentioned seeing spider webs a few days ago on her walk & that reminded me of something.   I wrote this following piece back in 1969 & it is called:

                INCIDENT IN A FOREST

The spider spun his silken vines

Back and forth in magical lines.

First he went up then he went down

Then he came back and went all around.

Soon it was done and paused in the breeze

Enchantingly silent among the still trees.

The night passed on and gave way to the sun

But the spiders work wasn't quite done

For a passing fly in all innocence flew

Straight into the web & mornings still dew.

The spider advanced with caution and stealth

To claim his victim of bountiful wealth.

The fly in desperation struggled but knew

That for him this was his final adieu.

A struggle ensued in the morning light

A struggle that lasted on into the night.

First they went up then they went down,

Then they came back and went all around

Finally it was done and they paused in the breeze

Locked in death among the still trees.

Al Bossence 1969

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So there ya go……..told ya it was a GROANER!!

OUR PHOTO ALBUMS  http://picasaweb.google.com/stargeezerguy/

The only thing better than right now will someday be the memories of right now...AL.

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

AL’S FOOD VIDEO CONTRIBUTION….SOUNDS YUKKY – TASTES YUMMY:))

AT LAST IT'S DONE!!!!(Hover your mouse over the photos for the captions)

Neighbor Hank finished up the painting on our kitchen & bathroom cupboard doors yesterday so dropped them off last night.  This morning I have been busy putting cupboard doors back on.  Kelly really likes them so that makes the whole kitchen cupboard painting ordeal a success.  When I look at them I just see white colorless cupboards.  Seems like they should have some big bright orange & fuscia colored dinosaurs painted on them or something.PUTTING THE CUPBOARD DOORS BACK ON It was October of last year when I was checking out some things on the motorhome prior to our trip to the southwest when I managed to embarrass myself pretty good again.   You can read my blog for that day at….NOT THE BRIGHTEST CRAYON IN THE BOX.OUR KITCHEN THROUGH OUR FRONT DOOR

I’m going to keep the blog short to-day because the video at the end of this blog may eat up some air cards out there & I know what that is like because we too use a Verizon card for our internet while on the road.  Videos & musically animated websites use  up those limited Gigabytes pretty fast.DSC_3650

I've noticed in the past a lot of RV blogger folks are really into the food thing.  Not high on my list of favorite topics but I do have a contribution to throw in the pot so to speak.  Maybe I’ll even get myself up in the ranks of Foodie Friday, Sautéed Sundays, Sumptuous Saturdays, Mushmelon Monday, Tootsweet Tuesday, Wet Yer Whistle Wednesday & Soupy Surprise Thursdays. LOOKS YUKKY - TASTES YUMMY I have blogged about & posted an article several times called, Sounds Yukky - Tastes Yummy.  It has to do with my daily morning breakfast concoction I have been mixing up for about 10 years now.   Tuesday I took that written blog a step further & made myself a Video of my Yummy-Yukky morning ritual.  It’s my way of getting my daily dose of veggies in a palatable way instead of having to gnaw on the darn things like Bugs Bunny .  Haven’t had a cold or the flu for the last decade & I attribute that to my morning Soy shake.  The blog version is HERE & the video version is below.  Try it….you might like it:)) I couldn’t get the video below loaded from my files so had to come around & slip in the back door  through You Tube.  I don’t think that is the right way to insert a video but at least it appears to be working.

Was able to get my Picasa Plug-In installed on the laptop OK but the desktop doesn’t show the plug-in as being installed in Live Writer.  It won’t download it either & keeps coming up with a ‘repair’ menu.  Not sure if I like the way the ‘Tags’ feature works.  What are all those advertising sites anyway??

GROANER’S CORNER:((  And did you know that the the easiest way to find something lost around the house is to buy a replacement.

OUR PHOTO ALBUMS  http://picasaweb.google.com/stargeezerguy/

The only thing better than right now will someday be the memories of right now...AL.

Monday, September 21, 2009

A FEW LAST LIVE WRITER THOUGHTS………..

 VIRGINIA CREEPERS COLORS OF AUTUMN After 3 weeks of sunny dry days it's nice to see the rain coming down this morning.  Just in time to help out my newly planted cedar trees.  Re-located & transplanted some shrubs yesterday so it's a bonus day for them as well.CANADIAN THISTLE

Remember to hover your mouse over the photos to see the captions & click on the photos to enlarge them.

Forgot to include the address for LIVE WRITER yesterday so just click the link.  I have a few more things about Live Writer to say & then I'll get on with other things.  And thanks to some helpful tips from RICK, LAURIE, & ROD, I've been able to fit a few more Live Writer pieces to-gether.  DSC_3672

Yes, LW can be saved to draft & also auto-saved as your doing it.  That is very important!!  Go to Tools-Options-Editing & put in how often you want LW to auto-save your blog to draft.  I selected....one minute!!  Do not forget to do this because it will save you a lot of grief & frustration down the road when your computer suddenly winks off for whatever reason & your in the middle of a blog.  Just re-open LW later, go to Drafts & resume where you left off before being so rudely interrupted!!  Your blog can also be manually saved at any time by just clicking on the ‘Save Draft’ button near the top left of center.

NO, THIS IS NOT THE KIND OF TOAD YOU TOW BEHIND YOUR MOTORHOME!!

Figured out the Photo Album feature too & that is going to be super helpful for sure & here's a neat-O feature I like.  When you press 'View Photo Album' it opens up our Windows Live Photo Album.  You can click each photo individually but I would recommend clicking on 'Slideshow' because it presents the photos in a really super nice photo color format.  Also recommend looking to the bottom of that screen & clicking on the little square box with an arrow in it.  That will give you a full screen...'WOW & DOUBLE WOW!!'  Microsoft has done a really nice job here. Press your Esc key at the top left of your keyboard to exit the full screen mode.

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Vera, a faithful blog follower liked the way Blogger would substantially enlarge the photos she clicked on before but LW wasn't doing that.  Well Vera I think I may have solved that last night as well but not sure yet.  Might take me a couple blogs to get my settings correct but I think we can make those pictures nice & big for you again once I get the hang of things:))

I have both our Hotmail & Gmail accounts set up to receive a copy of each blog everyday & that has been my way of backing every blog up.  I will continue to do that but another great feature of LW is that it automatically places a copy of your blog into ‘My Documents’ each time you publish a post.  You don't have to try & remember to do that......LW automatically does it for you.  Wow, how great is that!! OUR KITCHEN & CUPBOARD DOORS ARE BACK

KELLY FIXIN UP A MORNING TREAT FOR THE GUYS 

I also figured out how to add a Video.   Has some kind of ‘You Tube’ connection I think.  Only takes a minute or two setting that up & it's done.  Now you can click & & press buttons for instructions on how to get your video from your hard drive to the blog.  Depending on the size of your video it may take a few minutes to load.  While loading you can continue with your blog.  I’m going to try adding a video to the end of this blog:))ARCHES NATIONAL PARK NEAR MOAB, UTAH I know what tags are so I'll try adding them in this blog later then click them on-line to see if they work.  My 'previewed' blog last night wasn't exactly the same as I had laid it out but was close.  Probably just needs a little tweaking on my part.  And I still haven’t got my picture sizes right quite right.THIS IS CALLED...PARK AVENUE

Now, one thing that has not worked for me is my Picasa plug in thingy which is found at the end of the 'Insert' list.  At least I don't think it's working because I kept getting an error message trying to install it half a dozen times.  I'm not really sure what it is supposed to do but I know I can only access about a third of my photo albums at the moment & it may be connected to that.  Would appreciate any help on that one.NAVAJO ARCH

I am typing this blog using my old method of doing it in my Outlook Express email format.  In yesterday's blog I did it entirely in LW itself.  I feel a little more comfortable doing it in Outlook for now until I'm a bit more familiar with LW & then may make the switch to doing the entire blog right there.  THESE ROCK FORMATIONS NEAR THE DEVIL'S GARDEN ARE CALLED...FANS

I had a video all set to go in here but after 4 unsuccessful attempts to upload it I will have to call it quits & head back to the drawing board.  Thought I had this video thing figured out but I guess not yet!!

IN CONCLUSION..… Hardest part for me so far is getting the photos sized right so I am going to have to devote some extra time to that.  I do a lot of cropping in some of my photos & I think that is what’s giving me a hard time when it comes to sizing.  When I previewed to-night’s blog everything looked fine but I have a feeling when I publish it the photos will somehow come out smaller…….We’ll see.  Sure is great brain exercise though!!

GROANER'S CORNER:))   A Pessimist sees a dark tunnel, an optimist sees a light at the end of the tunnel, & a realist sees the lights of a coming train.  The train engineer sees 3 idiots standing on the tracks!!

OUR PHOTO ALBUMS  http://picasaweb.google.com/stargeezerguy/

The only thing better than right now will someday be the memories of right now...AL.

Sunday, September 20, 2009

LETS HAVE US A LOOK AT WINDOWS LIVE WRITER

sunset with sail boat

BAYFIELD  HARBOR

Thought I would try my hand at putting to-gether a blog which will show a few of the things Live Writer will do.  I have figured out about a third of it so far.  I have added ‘Color Pop’ & ‘Reflection’ to the above photo.  Color Pop enhances the colors to deeper richer colors.  I have also added a white Bayfield Bunch watermark in the lower right corner.  Photo sizes are a standard small, medium, or large format, but you have the option of changing the photos to any size you want which is what I did with all of them.

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Photo at right of our house is in the small format & has a slight shadow border added to it.

 

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I made Pickle head Kelly even smaller & added a ‘Photopaper’ border.  Here is a Hyperlink added for our SUNRISES & SUNSETS site at Smug Mug.

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HANG ON BUDDYDSC_2934 THIS 4 PICTURE BOX FORMAT IS CALLED A TABLE & YOU CAN ADD PHOTOS OR TEXT OR BOTH…..I STRETCHED THE FLOWERS BELOW.DSC_0001
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TILTED THE CONE FLOWER
TURNED THIS COLOR PHOTO TO BLACK & WHITE.DSC_2929

I haven’t totally figured out the ‘Photo Album’ stuff yet but it’s something like the photos below.  Haven’t got the, ‘View Full Album’ thingy figured out.  Don’t know what it does but maybe once I post the blog……it might work.

DSC_0016Stretched this little green bug clear across the page & hit him with a ‘Color Pop’ feature plus cropped my arm out of the picture. 

HAD A LITTLE TROUBLE GETTING THE PUSH PIN LOCATED BUT IT'S PRETTY CLOSE.
                  NICE MAP FEATURE THOUGH

h f j u b o 7

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There is a bit of a learning curve involved to all this but most of it is just having enough patience to stick with it & keep clicking on the feature buttons to see how things work.  Helps to have a good short term memory too.  If I’ve made it this far with my lack of patience & short term memory…….then any of you folks out there can do this.

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Added rounded corners to the photo of the Red Tail Hawk taken in Leslie Canyon, Arizona. 

And you can underline things as well.

Or change the text style anytime…

And I have totally distorted the hawk over a grassy field in the picture below.

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Now, don’t even begin to ask me how long it took me to put this blog to-gether but it’s one of those things that the more you do it the smoother & faster things will become.  I haven’t figured out the ‘Adding Video’ part yet or how  ‘Tags’ work & I’m not sure about the ‘Add a plug-in…’ feature but it will just take time.  And I’m sure there is more features that I haven’t even found yet.

So, in conclusion, I would say that I have made the switch from Blogger to Live Writer & it’s now a matter of refining everything until I have the blog looking the way I want it.  Not there yet but I’m working on it.

Going to post this early to-day because I’m not sure if  live Writer autosaves the blog like blogger does.  I don’t need an electricity burp to wipe it all out on me!!!!!!!!

GROANER’S CORNER:))  Did you know that flea's can jump 130 times higher than their own height. In human terms this is equal to a 6ft. person jumping 780 ft. into the air.

OUR PHOTO ALBUMS  http://picasaweb.google.com/stargeezerguy/

The only thing better than right now will someday be the memories of right now...AL.

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Saturday, September 19, 2009

MONTICELLO…..DEFENCE AGAINST INDIAN ATTACK

BEEN WAITING FIVE & A HALF MONTHS TO SEE THIS

Nearly did a double take this afternoon when I saw Kelly heading for the motorhome with an armload of clothes.  She followed that with some dishes, shoes, & an assortment of odds & ends destined for travel to the southwest.  That just kind of makes things officially official.  Hadn't expected her to do that for another month yet.  HEAVY OLD DOORS IN MONTICELLO

Last night I blogged about the little western town of Chloride & to-day we had a nice email from some folks living near there saying if we ever travel that way again to stop by & they would give us the nickel tour of the area complete with history.   Mighty nice of them western folks I'd say.  The same day we were in Chloride we had also been to another small western town not far away.  Monticello was even smaller than Chloride & it's houses were arranged around a central square much like a fort might have been.  It was deliberately built like this as a defense against Indian attacks.  For our visit to MONTICELLO click HERE & for the photos click HEREMONTICELLO PORCH FACING INTO THE SQUARE

Before leaving Truth or Consequences that morning on our search for these western towns we had stopped at the MOVING WALL MEMORIAL dedicated to Vietnam veterans.  You can read about the wall & how it was inspired by the Memorial Vietnam wall in Washington by clicking on the capital letters.  This wall travelled from State to State years ago & now calls Truth or Consequences it's home.VIETNAM WAR VET'S TRAVELING WALL MEMORIAL

Yesterday afternoon I took my health card out of my wallet & waved it in front of my sore right knee & said, "if you don't get yourself smartened up by Monday morning Mister I am going to call the Doctor & have you looked at!!!!"  I noticed a big improvement in my knee when I woke up this morning:))ORGANIZING THE MOTORHOME FOR THE TRIP

I wonder why bad stuff is always cheaper than good stuff.  Isn't it supposed to be the other way around.  I was at the grocery store in Goderich this morning looking for a box of healthy cereal.  They had rows of huge jumbo boxes filled with Captain Sugarballs cereal.  It would take 2 people just carry one box out of the store.   Probably on sale for a cheap couple of bucks.  I guess people take that stuff home & fill their kids up with it.  Next on the shelf was some natural fiber & fruit cereal guaranteed to make you live till you die.  The tiny wafer thin box was so small it could have fit in my shirt pocket.  I bet you would have had to mortgage your house to buy a box of that stuff.   Why are things like that anyway.  Have I exaggerated this little tale.......well ok, maybe just a little:)) 

MEMORIES OF DAYS GONE BYAlso had a nice email this week from Lori at Bayfield's prestigious LITTLE INN.  Seems they would like to use some of my photos & I was more than happy to oblige.  Thanks guys:))

GROANER'S CORNER:((  You know your over the hill when you & your teeth don't sleep to-gether!!

OUR PHOTO ALBUMS  http://picasaweb.google.com/stargeezerguy/

The only thing better than right now will someday be the memories of right now...AL.