Sunday, August 23, 2009

Learning new things.......

We have had some pretty intense weather of late. It is common to get those afternoon tropical downpours with a bit of thunder and some lightning. But it seems that the weather gods have really become aggressive and have been sending some scary stuff our way. I mentioned that a house recently burned to the ground after a direct lightning strike. It happened again this week. This time it was a tad farther from us but with the same result. And again, the homeowners were not in the house.

Shortly before the latest assault, I took this picture of the approaching dark ominous scene. Note the golfers on the course. At this point, the thunder was loud and lightning flashes were obvious but they played on. This is the 4th hole....not sure how long they acted foolish. They don't sound alarms for weather on the courses....it's up to the individual to have a brain and seek shelter. We are tied into a system where we get calls on our home and cell phones about weather warnings. That is helpful. We also have a NOAA radio, thanks to Jon and Marybeth, which is really LOUD.


Remember the picture of the sad plants on the trellis? We replaced them both the other day. And come to find out, the plants that I thought were mandevilla's, really were another type, called diplodenia. The new ones have larger blooms and lovely large shiny leaves.




It comes in white, pink and yellow.


Looks pretty skimpy right now but we look forward to vigorous growth and an abundance of blooms.

My latest project involves some technical reading. I know very little about computers. I can wander around and do most of what I want but don't understand a thing. And if something goes wrong, I have to ask for help, which is gladly given. But I want to know for myself. And everytime Michael adds something new , which we appreciate, I get behinder and deeper into ignorance. To that end, I have been thinking about a MAC. In this family, that is heresy. Having iPODS and iPHONES is bad enough but to go completely over to the dark side is not highly thought of at some family discussions. Jeff did get a desk top Apple for his photography work but uses a PC for a laptop. Now that would really confuse me.

I love the iPHONE. I've found it so intuitive and easy to understand and it just does what seems logical. We have a Sony laptop that has some quirky issues and is pushing me over to consider other options. To that end, I am doing some reading these days.

This is really basic stuff but that's where I need to start. And so far, I understand it all. But it makes me want to have one to practice on.
And, I am feeling better but still not 100%......but then, the last time I was 100% , I was 16 and .....well, we won't go there.





1 comment:

  1. I grew diplodenia one year and they were gorgeous. I don't know why I didn't do it again, maybe because I didn't see them at the nursery. I also grew madevillia several years. They would be fabulous when I bought them, then go into transplanting shock and not bloom again until Sept. so I gave up. I think I'll make a point of looking for diplodenia next year.
    As for getting a Mac, I'm a big fan and there's always those great lessons they offer. $99 for a whole year, as many as once a week. Hard to beat.
    Glad you're better!

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