Why didn’t Microsoft ever bother to put a timestamp display on the error dialogue boxes that pop up? The flippin event viewer is already cryptic enough and I find it next to useless in trouble shooting situations. What gets me is that on Monday mornings when I go back to the sever room 90% of the time there is some dialogue box informing me of some failure or another, but I have no idea when it happened – how long the problem has existed, arrgh!
It’s freakin’ cold in here! Usually it is in the mid seventies in the office, but this morning it wasn’t even sixty-eight when I got in.
Oh what a great camp trip. Even with the downpours and showing up after dark Friday, we still enjoyed ourselves immensely. I just love camping, and camping with tremendously good company just tops the cake. We got the mandatory late start that all experienced campers are required to have. Planned to have all campers and equipment in the car and the car headed south by 4:30. Of course last minute packing, shopping, etc turned it into after 6:00pm. By the time we were on the highway for 45 minutes, I was falling asleep at the wheel (from packing late the night before) and Frank had to take over. I don’t relieve driving duties lightly. I have been the driver for the past five plus years and I feel nervous, tense and physically awkward in any passenger seat. Then right around Mill City, the sky turned a dark pink and five minutes later sheets of rain pouring down. Literally moments before we turned into the campground, the downpour lightened. We raced through the check-in procedure and found Mike and Michelle. They helped us put up the wonderfully amazing screen tent, I started to put the little tent inside, but changed my mind and decided to have a big waterproof tent. It worked just fine. We went over and had Oktoberfest bratwurst, and sat around the fire. The first night was cold for me, so Saturday night we changed the bedding layout and Michelle and Mike loaned us a comforter. Saturday morning they made us the hugest wonderful omelets and we lazed about with coffee until it was officially naptime. After Lexie threw a fit, we all lay down and slowly fell asleep. Dana, Tracy, Sierra, Lucas, and Rosie showed up and officially rang out naptime. We spent the rest of the day eating and watching the kids play (including Rosie and Isabella), walking around, sitting around the fire, telling stories, and laughing. Watching Sierra talk about “The OC” and music was great. Reminiscing with Tracy about our youth was funny and happy. After the movie, we sat for a couple hours getting to know Mike and Michelle, which too - was awesome. We are grateful to have met two marvelous people we can consider friends, Tracy sure does have good taste. I hope the bunch of us can get together more often. The next day was gorgeous weather and we slowly broke camp after coffee. Frank was my knight in shining armor. I was trying to get up to the showers right when Lexie woke up, and she is not a morning kiddo. She wanted to go with me, so I brought her, but then she didn’t want to be there, and well, she was just cranky and making it impossible for me to get anything done. Frank came to the rescue and got her all dressed and ready, and waited for us. Soaking up the sun and slowly organizing and breaking down tents, we decided we would no longer do the foam pad. Next trip we will invest in an air mattress. So I walked up to the dumpster with the old foam pad, and saw the camp neighbors from the other side throwing away both their tents. I went back down and told the group and Michelle recollected they got here shortly before us and the mom and kids stayed in the Durango and made the dad pitch tents. I remembered that they never looked like they were camping, all dressed like going to school or dinner. We went up and snagged the tents. Turns out that one is now ours. I asked them why they were being tossed and the wife replied that it had ‘some weird leak’, and that they would just go get bigger ones. After pitching this 17” X 10” X 12” tent I discovered that they had somehow screwed up the door zipper leaving an inch gap that probably was the ‘weird leak’. Took me about two minutes to fix it. Brought it home and it’s set up in the back waiting for camp dry. The only downside is that we weren’t able to locate the rain guard and it has large screen mesh. It appears to be a Coleman Red Canyon after marketed for Wal-Mart. If we can’t find an exact match we’ll just have to improvise for rainy weather. In the long run, we’d like to follow Tracy, Dana, Michelle, and Mike’s plan to get a tent trailer. Late Saturday night we sat around the campfire and talked. Frank, Mike, and Michelle had smores, I’m not much of a marshmallow fan. The, they made us the most amazing like individual cherry pies using a pie iron. That is one terrific invention. The trip was a blast and it’s only unfortunate that it appears to be the end to warm camping season. I can’t say enough about Mike and Michelle’s hospitality.
I love my new Word blog editor tool. This is great!
I am so blessed! Prayers to Katrina victims, Jan’s aunt, and to keep all safe from Ophelia.
What a strange catalogue
Word(s) of the day: COPIOUS PRECIPITATION
Lexie log: Oh what a cutie! I just now looked up and noticed that six of the pictures I have on one of my cube walls I look at the most are of camping at Detroit Lake August 2004. One of Lexie looking at the ducks in our site, another of Lexie and Frank sitting next to each other in our camping chairs, Lexie at the edge of the lake looking at the water, Lexie in the RV, Lexie crouched by a puddle ‘bathing’ her kitty toy, and Lexie in her swim suit arranging rocks on one of the cement stop blocks. Also three more pictures from when we spent the day in July. She had a great time this time too. She really loved her new aunt Michelle and uncle Mike. I’m so glad Tracy, Dana, Lucas and Sierra showed up Saturday and stayed until way after Lexie went to bed. They showed up right as we were all laying down for a nap and when she woke up, she played with Lucas and Alyssa all afternoon. Ok, since I just can’t get over it, the whole Alyssa thing really opened my eyes on so many levels. Here’s the dealio (As Daddy would say); Late Friday night while we were all sitting around the fire, another family showed up at the site across from Michelle and Mikes. The next morning we found that the family had three kids; two older boys and a seven-year-old girl – Alyssa. As soon as Alyssa and Lexie discovered each other, they started to play. Alyssa came over and introduced herself and the three of us walked the loop. I was a little uncomfortable when Alyssa kept jumping off this wall that was twice as high as Lexie and watching Lexie contemplate if she should follow her lead. After a while of playing catch with them, the adult part of me lost interest and after talking for a while with Alyssa’s mother Shaylan, I went back over to our spots. Then, a short while later, emotion number one reared its ugly head. I found a little ugly jealousy that I was not the center of my precious daughters world anymore. Now, this is nothing new, but usually when she plays with other kids, they are closer to the same age, and this girl is seven. Something about having her look up to an older girl with adoration similar to how she looks up to me really hit a nerve. Now this was PookyMonsterSyndrome weekend, so emotions are at the brink of the levy anyway. So, I’m trying to ‘cope’ and not be so embarrassingly obvious to the rest of the group (and of course I’m also busily taking it out on Daddy) so I start to ‘check’ my self and talk it out with Daddy and aunt Tracy. I realize quick on, that this is a selfish issue and that Lexie needs all the love she can get, and really, it’s about her having fun, not me being the center of her world. So, with that ammunition, I carry on with a positive attitude. Then this other weird thing happens…I remember my report cards from Montessori that spoke of a concern over a relationship I had with an older girl named Teresa and how she was too controlling over me. I read these report cards so many times growing up that I really have them committed to memory. The instructors wrote about how I didn’t spend enough time with children my own age and that Teresa was easily able to manipulate and control me. We were about the same age as Lex and Alyssa, and at first I thought I was transposing my own past on Lex, (bad Mommy!) but the more I paid attention, the more I saw what was going on. I felt some sympathy for Alyssa who had only two older brothers, and she really did want another little girl to play with. But there was something else. We, meaning Daddy, myself, and Mike, Michelle, and Dana, all told Alyssa in plain words that Lucas and Lexie needed to stay in our sites or in the field/beach we looked out over, so that we could keep an eye on them. I watched really closely and Alyssa kept trying to get Lex to follow her back to her camp. Then I heard Lex over at Alyssa site asking to see her Daddy, and when I looked over, Alyssa had her arm and was pulling her back, keeping her from coming back over. That set me off, and I was ‘eagle eyes’ with the two of them the rest of the day. At some point Alyssa’s dominating attitude seemed to mellow out Lexie’s adoration, and she wanted to come back over and play with Lucas and Mommy. Then it was really more of an issue of letting Alyssa know that she was welcomed over in our area to play, but that Lexie needed to stay. Alyssa kept trying to tell me that she was sure that Lexie would follow her back, but it kept not happening. I finally asked her if she was standing there because she wanted her to follow her, and she said yes. Even when Lexie would try to run over to Lucas to play, Alyssa would grab hold over her and pull her the other way. Eventually, it was movie time, and we all went over and watched Aladdin. Lexie and Lucas sat next to each other and shared a blanket. Lucas kept making Lexie laugh, Lexie would sing to all the musical parts, and we sat outdoors in the covered theater while it poured. It was so awesome! Lexie fell asleep in my arms shortly after we got back to camp, and we laid her down to sleep in the tent. The next day was gorgeous, and after a morning shower, she ran around camp, spending time with Mike, Michelle, and Isabella, ate lots of wonderful junk food, and just played. She feed the ducks and seagulls, chased chipmunks, watched boats, splashed in mud puddles, threw rocks in the lake and in general had a great time.
Today I’m grateful for Frank and Lexie, Michelle and Mike and Isabella, camping, Oregon and Detroit Lake, good finds, weekends, water, scissors, vitamins, and pie irons.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment