Assorteds and TBT's

RIP, Rep. Elijah Cummings

"He worked until his last breath because he believed our democracy was the highest and best expression of our collective humanity and that our nation’s diversity was our promise, not our problem"    

                                       ----Maya Rockeymore Cummings


"Those in the highest levels of the government must stop invoking fear, using racist language and encouraging reprehensible behavior. It only creates more division among us and severely limits our ability to work together for the common good."

                                       ----Rep. Elijah Cummings

Definitely assorted messages in this image!

Still some color and fun stuff to be found in fall wanderings.

To Sefo, the father of the triplets and husband to our niece Laura:  hope you have a happy and memorable day of celebration. 

To brother Jim who celebrates his birthday tomorrow.  Hope your birthday is something special, Little Bro. 

-------Painting by Annie's Grandma Virginia Tibbs, horse:  Black Rambo


To daughter Annie, whose birthday is Saturday.  Hope your special day is filled with some neat adventures.

Heck, I don't have to hope; I know it will be as you spend it with your friend on the East Coast. 

Besides being a beautiful spot for a trail ride, this place near Grouse Creek and the Forest Service seed orchard, involved a hunt several years ago.

I was hunting for my belt buckle which had popped off during a ride in that same area a week before.

This day's outing, where Bill accompanied me on foot, over the Cowboy Trail, proved fruitless.

About a month later, the stars lined up. 

I learned that the day my buckle popped off on the trail, some bikers had come through, picked it up and held it for the day when someone would claim it.

Remember when Sandpoint used to host a phenomenal annual Draft Horse and Mule Show at the local fairgrounds?

Kinda miss that. 

I truly hope the day does not come when we nostalgically remember when Sandpoint once hosted a phenomenal music festival every year. 

That would be sad. 

Yesterday Bill did a presentation about the history of the  timber industry for Leadership Sandpoint.

About 12 years ago, my friend Alice (gray and pink ensemble) provided a walking presentation for Leadership Sandpoint, highlighting good ol' stories and noting some light history on downtown points of interest.

I still recognize a lot of faces in this particular class.

I don't think it would be wise for Alice and me to do such a presentation anymore cuz we might not know the names of most of the businesses, let alone their history.

Times change.  Towns change.

Good bye grass.  Hello, Turf.  

A trail ride with sisters Laurie and Barbara at Ginter Wildlife Management Area. 

I'm thinking it may have been Dusty's (Barbara's gelding) first ever trail ride. 

A fun spot along the trails at Farragut State Park. 

There was a time when I occasionally rode Lily in horse shows---always the easy classes.

Lily did pretty well, but she's not really in to show rings.

My sister Laurie helped me through this ride. 

I found this classic among the photos.

Good ol' Mac McClean, Spokane area auctioneer extraordinaire and representative of the old Washington Water Power, now known as Avista.

He was actually in Sandpoint for the draft horse show when I took this picture.

Mac gave horse clinics, judged and cried many a fat stock sale at our county fairs. 

Memories of the grandpups, Brooke and Todd,  when they first came to Sandpoint.

Happily, they are still doing okay. 

Our family's first home in Sandpoint---214 Euclid.  

The town has changed a lot, but this house hasn't.  

We left this home and moved to the country in 1950.  Sadly, not a trace of our presence there at the North Boyer farm remains. 

That's all. 

Happy Thursday. 

In the Midst of Tedium

They are tedious, time-consuming jobs and someone's gotta do them. 

That's the story of life with falling leaves, dying plants, apple picking and wood gathering here at the Lovestead.

For now, the tedium is okay since any one job around here is gonna take time. 

Because cutting away and hauling away dead stuff, picking apples (yes, I found that they weren't all frozen) stacking wood, picking up leaves can't be finished in a day, we have the liberty to drop whatever we're doing in one place and go do something else. 

So, during one break yesterday, I took off on one of my usual afternoon drives around the country roads.  

I must say with regret that dullness reigns in much of our fall color show. 

Occasionally, however, something would stand out along the roadsides, and with no cars behind me, I could take some pictures. 

I saw deer hanging out with other deer and deer hanging out with turkeys.  

I saw a few pretty trees and a clump of still vibrant cattails.

I also noticed a few larch in the transformational stage leading toward their annual show of brilliant golden needles in the midst of everGREEN. 

The in-between stage of larch needles is actually rather striking. 

Bill and I also spent many hours outside working at our projects.  

While doing so, we both enjoyed visits from dogs coming to check up on us and then returning to the other work site. 

I also had time, for a change, to listen to most of last night's Democratic debate, which, still with 12, includes some very bright, articulate and competent candidates.  

I'm still deciding who to support.  

One decision maker for me says don't support anyone older than you are, no matter how compelling they may or may not be. 

That eliminates at least two, leaving me with 10.

Yes, it's ageism at its best coming from an oldster herself.

  Each day on this earth, I become increasingly aware of the odds of someone older than I living out a full four year term as our President.  

That's not to say it can't happen, as yesterday my friend Helen and I talked about two 90-year-old local friends who seem to be very productive in the community and doing just fine. 

One sees that lovely art appears on the walls of our local hospital, while the other helps run the farm tour each year. 

Amazing ladies, Polly Mire and Virginia Wood!

Still, I'm gonna stick with the odds.  

Historical notions would dictate that an old goat like me should not support the young bucks and does who haven't reached 40.  

Again, I'll go against the grain cuz I do like Mayor Pete.  

So, he's still on my short list.  Elizabeth Warren is old but  not older than I, so she'll still be a possibility. 

Behind them, I see a group of evenly matched candidates and would not complain if most of them got the nod. I think a couple of that group will eliminate themselves if they haven't already. 

That's information I'll keep to myself.

These folks give me hope that when and if our American governing nightmare ends, we can put aside junior high behavior and get back to issues that really matter to and make a difference in the lives of every day, ordinary citizens. 

In the meantime, let the autumnal tedium continue.  

If I stick at it and my timing is right, I may just get the yard under control for its winter dormancy and Bill will have enough wood chopped for our winter warmth. 

Happy Wednesday. 

   

Old R Us iPhones, Please

So, what if we didn't want the new iPhone operating system?

Too bad, you've got it. 

No taking it back either cuz if you don't agree to the agreement, you're not gonna see the new operating system and immediately learn that you were right:  you don't want it. 

And, if you want your passcode turned off so you don't have to type it in every time you use your phone, too bad!

Well, there IS one option on this aspect of the new operating system which sneaked into my iPhone overnight. 

You can turn off the passcode, but if you ever forget it, you'll never ever get into your Apple ID account and, of course, into your phone.

In order to turn off your passcode, you have to provide the password for your Apple ID account.

And, if you're like me, you're scared to death that you might type something wrong in your phone and never be able to open it or any feature it offers ever again. 

So, for the moment or until you go stark-raving mad every time you type in that passcode, you leave passcode requirements as is.

Once you agree to the agreement where you have no choice but to agree, you get into the phone where all backgrounds are now black.  

Then, you remember one other time a year or so ago when a new operating system took over your phone while you were driving down the highway and how suddenly passwords were required to enter every password-required website. 

You also remember that when you finally brought up this inconvenience to a member of the generation behind you, they thought you were nuts cuz you hadn't signed up for the apps. 

So, the generational geniuses fixed that problem. 

Since then, you've been putzing along happily without concerns for passwords. 

Thankfully, the new operating system has not interfered with access to favorite websites. 

~~~~~

Yes, I did get a new operating system overnight, and so far, beyond the passcode, I've performed one function this morning. 

I went outside and took the picture of the wind shield up above.

When I went to edit the picture, all new icon styles appeared, including some which were not available before. 

Editing went okay, albeit an adjustment for my old brain. 

Then, I went to send the picture to my email account, as I always do for future use of phone photos. 

An unfamiliar window popped up that said to swipe my finger over the keyboard for faster typing. 

I swiped.  Nothing happened. 

I swiped again.  Still nothing. 

A moment of mental paralysis ensued.  

How the heck am I gonna get this picture from my phone to my email account?

Fortunately, intuition prevailed.  

I hit the "next" button, and rejoiced upon seeing the old familiar keyboard for "slow" typing. 

Happily, the picture arrived unscathed into my email account. 

Overnight approximately 60 other pictures also arrived in my email account.  

I hadn't sent them, but my phone with its new operating system did. 

I still can't figure out how my phone accumulates all those messages that need to be sent cuz I always send my messages and my pictures. 

Guess they've all been sent, so I won't have to worry about that for a while. 

Last week, while we were traveling through Ireland and a few miles through Northern Ireland, both of our phones quit giving us mapping information. 

When Bill, who depends on the mapping gps lady wizard, suddenly noted that the mapping information quit working, I took his phone and tried to figure out why.  

That's when I discovered that Bill has not backed up his iphone since I purchased it for him about two years ago. He still uses his passcode to get into his phone. 

I asked him this morning if he'd ever gotten a new operating system without asking.  

He didn't know. 

BTW:  we finally figured out the next day, after turning off both of our phones, that our trip through Northern Ireland probably screwed up our mapping and who knows what it did to our International phone plan?  

Guess we'll find out when the bill comes.

Anyway, after this morning's operating system shocker, I'm thinking that Apple must not have any old people working for them. 

If they did, they would know just how traumatic it is for all of us old people who have iPhones which suddenly turn into monsters.

This morning I'm just thinking that the day will come--if it hasn't already--when I'm gonna want to go throw my iPhone in the lake cuz I can't figure out how to use it anymore. 

As I wade through yet another operating system mine field of authoritarian surprises, even more options we don't understand and authoritarian draconian requirements, I propose to the folks at Apple to start working on a simpler phone for oldies. 

Oldies probably don't need new operating systems.  

Lord knows, God doesn't do that to humans!

Oldies just need a one-time phone that calls people and that has a few simple steps on how to get on Facebook and the news and Twitter and mapping and any other favorites.

Please take the Thoreau approach.

Start rolling out those Old R Us iPhones!

 Simplify!  Simplify!

Thank you.

  Happy I Hate New IOS Operating System Day.

Enjoy the photos.   

 "A child looking at ruins grows younger

but cold
and wants to wake to a new name
I have been younger in October
than in all the months of spring
walnut and may leaves the color
of shoulders at the end of summer
a month that has been to the mountain
and become light there
the long grass lies pointing uphill
even in death for a reason
that none of us knows
and the wren laughs in the early shade now
come again shining glance in your good time
naked air late morning
my love is for lightness
of touch foot feather
the day is yet one more yellow leaf
and without turning I kiss the light
by an old well on the last of the month
gathering wild rose hips
in the sun."
-   W. S. Merwin,  The Love of October

 

"Just before the death of flowers,
And before they are buried in snow,
There comes a festival season
When nature is all aglow."
-   Author Unknown