experimenting and commenting on various and sundry technical frustrations

This is a pic of the last Lily of my meager crop of 2022. The photo is edited for the purpose of honing in on ruffles and ridges, and shadows, which altered the shade of the green foliage. The browning of the leaves was I think due to the excessive heat and dryness. I’m no gardener of any note…nor photographer either. I do like to experiment with photo editing skills, though, and the purpose of doing this post and the previous one of the purplish bloom is to try to find an easier way to transfer photo from post image. When I had my system malfunction a couple of months ago I replaced my computer with a refurbished one I ordered online. It’s a good one, except for a few differences in US and UK systems. (Such as the absence of an @ at-sign, and occasional other items.) It also came with only a basic Windows version, and I had to install all of my programs myself which took some doing. My photo programs also took some reinstalling, as there were a lot of technical quirks that had to be worked out. I use Windows Photo which is very good, and I like to experiment with FastStone, which offers some features that I really like. One of those tricks involves a direct photo capture and transfer direct to WP and other applications. I suspect that my own fumbling with photo work is to blame, I always tend to make a BFD out of everything. (Big Fat Deal)

… on red cars and other observations

I have always been partial to red cars. My first car, a beat up old 1938-something Chevy, was a dark maroon, and the next several cars we had were not of my choosing. When I reached the point of actually deciding what color I wanted, red won hands down. Well, except for my blue chevy pickup.

One of my weird obsessions is counting red vehicles on the road, or in parking lots. That includes not only passenger cars, but trucks and miscellaneous vehicles of all types. Rather subjective when it comes to classification, all shades of red count, but not purple or orange. There have always been lots of red cars.

However, it has come to my attention lately that there is a great increase in the number of black, dark grey, and unidentified drab colors. Waiting at a long traffic light recently I amused myself by observing that the opposite bound traffic looked like a Mafia funeral. The entire line of oncoming vehicles were black or very dark. Not a red one within my line of vision.

The main “other” car color seems to be white. as contrasted with the usual array of light grey, beige, tan, silver. Blue also seems on the rise, and yellow! School bus/taxi cab yellow—and orange!

What dreary highway intersection wouldn’t benefit from some strategically placed touches of color?

my blue bird of happiness is a baby jay

This young bluejay was temporarily trapped in our garage for a day and a half before he managed to escape. He hopped back and forth among the rafters, but couldn’t figure out how to fly out the door. I provided a dish of water and some bread crumbs on top of a tall bookcase for the bird, it was very hot in there. The apparent Mama visited several times to escort him out of the garage. I always think it a privilege when a wild creature spends some quality time with me.

books, mice, and bluejays

This morning I’ve been sorting books to go to the Goodwill. There has been a baby Bluejay up in the garage rafters crying for hours. Now Mama Bluejay has showed up, so they are both flying around up there. The big garage door is open, and so is the man-door on the side, and now that I have left the scene, and my cat Dottie came in also, maybe the jay will be able to figure out how to fly out.

Speaking of Dottie, she is an in/out cat, and she usually comes in at night. She brought a mouse with her a day or so ago. I saw the little thing laying belly-up on the kitchen floor, so I grabbed some paper towels and picked it up carefully so I could toss the carcass out the back door. But omg as I gingerly gripped the creature in the towel, it woke up (I assume…I thought it was dead) and tried to escape. My reaction of course, was to scream. I hurled the mouse out the back door, paper towel and all, and haven’t had the nerve to inspect the still-there paper to determine its fate.

The book situation is slowllllly downsizing. The thing is, the books came from actual physical shops I had at one time, and the inventory has been culled at least once. It is sacrilege to me to throw a book in the trash, no matter how bad it is condition-wise. The Goodwill will not take encyclopedias, no matter how good they are, so I have them piled here and there waiting to be disposed of. If I was not such a good person, I would just slip the boxes of encyclopedias and other textbooks into the Goodwill cart outside when they aren’t looking…but I wouldn’t do that. 😉 I also clean each individual book as I pack them in boxes to be donated, and try to avoid passing on any book I think is unfit for children. I don’t mean porn, but those “Romance” novels can have pretty racy covers… I do not believe in censorship of information, but I do believe that some material should not be available to youngsters without their parents’ knowledge.

Back in the day my Dad used to glance at my reading selections. There was a book that he did object to, and asked me not to read it. I not only read it, but I had to really study it to determine just what Dad thought I shouldn’t read. I never did find out what content in that book he didn’t approve, but I know that it wasn’t about race, or gay people, or whatever. (I did not know until I was a married adult that any “whatever” hanky panky even existed.)

lilies july 6

Here are some shots of my Daylily patch. I apologize for the raw nature of this post, I really intended to post just a couple pics. They aren’t cropped or otherwise edited. My excuse is that since I installed my operation to my new/old computer…a really nice refurbished Dell, but its taking awhile to get moved into the new mainframe. Nothing seems to work as I intend. Guess I’ll have to do some studying. 🙂

These are my original plants from long long ago. They have been moved twice since they were new from the grower. The Lilies themselves are gorgeous…very prolific. There are more colors that are yet to bloom, and I haven’t been over to the side yard where the septic system is located. There were some nice white ones last year. The weeds are also doing well this year.

extra emergency funding not worth the bother in El Paso? outrage from the NewYorkPost

https://nypost.com/2022/05/20/el-paso-holding-off-on-immigration-emergency-declaration/?utm_source=sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=news_alert&utm_content=20220520&lctg=607d8f4d70302947037f4357&utm_term=NYP%20-%20News%20Alerts

No matter how you feel about the “immigration crisis” on the Southern Border PLEASE check out this article — and especially photos — from the NewYorkPost this morning.

(my comment: ) El Paso authorities were eager to get more funding for their border “emergency” until they discovered it wasn’t as much extra money as they expected. To paraphrase: “We were going to try to get it on the new give-away” of funding from Washington…but it’s not enough to make it worth our while. They might want to send investigators or troops to check on our “emergency” and cause more trouble than the little increase would be worth.”

In the first photo, there are SIX people wading across the river (in silhouette…very effective.) In another photo there are two kids playing at the river…skipping on rocks, Migrants?

Why are the handful of “asylum seekers” in the entry tunnel wearing uniforms? Grey shirts and black pants? Why are they covering their faces?

Three “Haitian” guys standing in line? Some dubious signs? Are they menacing or just squinting in the sun?