Rocky Top Rambling

I had a photo selected from Flickr for Photography Bay's online magazine/blog for May 23. It is the 12th one down from the top. There is another in the May 16 issue; it is also the 12th down from the top. Photography Bay is my first choice for factual photo gear reviews. The publisher gives pertinent information and I have found no reason not to trust him. Here is a link to the main page.

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Folks, I'm telling you something you can take to the bank; I can sing every word of this tune in my sleep. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the best Bluegrass song ever written and performed:
ROCKY TOP!

This is one of the State of Tennessee's official songs, but it isn't about Tennessee; it is about East Tennessee and in particular, the people who call these hills their Home.

In my vast music library of 20-odd LP's, six eight-track tapes, around 40 cassette tapes, and three or four cd's, I have this song in its original version, a disco version, a techno version, and yes, in a hip-hop version. I even have a Rocky Top ringtone for my cell phone but I can't use it; no one wants to talk to a man while he is sobbing, and Rocky Top brings tears to these sad old eyes every time I hear it. I have a version played by the University of Tennessee's Pride of the Southland Band. Have you ever heard 100,000 people sing Rocky Top at the top of their voices and all at once? I have and I was singing as loud as any of them. 

The Pride of the Southland Marching Band

 in its Power T formation as it prepares to welcome

the University of Tennessee Volunteer football squad

onto the field for a Saturday afternoon of mayhem,

Southern style!

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In case you didn't catch all of them in the song, here are the lyrics to Rocky Top which was written by
Boudleaux Bryant and Felice Bryant:

Wish that I was on old Rocky Top
Down in the Tennessee hills
Ain't no smoggy smoke on Rocky Top
Ain't no telephone bills.

Once I had a girl on Rocky Top
Half bear the other half cat
Wild as a mink but sweet as soda pop
I still dream about that.

Rocky Top you'll always be
Home sweet home to me
Good ole Rocky Top, Rocky Top, Tennessee
Rocky Top, Tennessee.

Once two strangers climbed old Rocky Top
Looking for a moonshine still
Strangers ain't come down from Rocky Top
Reckon they never will.

Corn won't grow at all on Rocky Top
Ground's too rocky by far
That's why all the folks on Rocky Top
Get their corn from a jar.

Rocky Top you'll always be
Home sweet home to me
Good ole Rocky Top, Rocky Top, Tennessee
Rocky Top, Tennessee.

I've had years of cramped up city life
Trapped like a duck in a pen
All I know is it's a pity life
Can't be simple again.

Rocky Top you'll always be
Home sweet home to me
Good ole Rocky Top, Rocky Top, Tennessee
Rocky Top, Tennessee.

Rocky Top, Tennessee...

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Flowers

I mostly took the day off Saturday; internet was off and on a few times because of the storms of Friday evening. I rode with Carolyn to Piney Flats to clean a building and later did some work on Megashot and commented on Facebook for the Megashot flower contest. You can enter up to 90 flower photos over the thirty days the contest will run, so there is no excuse for YOU not having some entries. Sign up for a free account and upload your entries for the contest and your other photos you want to share with other members, family, and friends. If you are a photographer, sooner or later you will become a member of Megashot so why not make it sooner?
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This is my new photo presentation on Megashot:



You can have up to 50 photos in the show and upload your own music or sound effects as I did. The standard slide show has a limit of 20 photos and no sound.
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The above photo is just exactly what you think it is. If it is considered a work of art, you decide what it is. If it is just a manipulated photograph, then it is the center of a pink rose. There is a bit of a dramatic story to go along with it but it is still playing out so I will save you from it for the time being.
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Later today, I may try to go make a few photos if I can find something to shoot. I hate shooting outdoors at this time of year in the middle of the day. It ain't the heat; it is the quality of light at mid-day hours.
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Have a good Sunday!
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Happy Memorial Weekend!

We had some dandy thunderstorms in the area last evening although we just caught the edge of them at my house. Looks to be the same for the next few days, so I am still planning nothing for the weekend. I probably won't return to the mountains for the views until October when the cooler temps will clear the air; it is difficult to see any kind of detail even a few hundred meters away. I am thinking of taking the 30 minute drive to Bristol tomorrow if the weather is ok; I've done very little shooting there. I've always wanted to stand on the Tennessee side of State Street and pee onto the Virginia side. I'm not normal. I also live within a 30 minute drive to one of the country's greatest concentrated fossil finds and museum at Gray, Tennessee, and I have yet to visit although I've driven past it many times.
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Downtown Johnson City is having its ludicrous Blue Plum Festival next weekend; it is a minor event in a minor town with minor things to do and will have a minor effect on or for the city as a whole. It is another stupd brainchild of the Johnson City Development Authority (JCDA). I hope out of towners who attend see the sandbags in front of the doors to several of the businesses, but I suppose the bags will be removed for the occasion. JCDA is still studying the situation and it seems all they want to do is remove affected buildings instead of addressing the flooding problem that an average summer thunderstorm brings. It would seem that 30 years of studying should be sufficient.
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I did not get my shot yesterday; I figured it best if I didn't try to drive.
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May your famulus be particularly keen of this last Friday of May.
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Snuffbox

 Carolyn's 1st tomato of 2010

I got a half-hour of porch time yesterday and nearly an hour this morning before my eyes got sticky. Claritin helps at times, but it makes things a bit more tolerable at best. My neck is bad again today so I think I will go for my shot this afternoon; getting some relief is a must. Blurry eyes and hunched shoulders from neck pain are making typing even more adventuresome.
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Carolyn has tiny tomatoes on a couple of her plants; I am Pavloving for fried green tomatoes right now, and a juicy red one with mayo on a baloney sandwich would be mighty fine. Fresh sliced tomatoes with scrambled eggs sounds good, too.
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"... adversity is what makes you mature ... the growing soul is watered best by tears of sadness ..."
 ~Charlie Brown (Charles Shulz)
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May your tabatièrebe be full on this beautiful Thursday!
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Spaced

It is sort of sad to see the era of the Space Shuttle coming to an end.  As I think back, I know the loss of astronaut lives was a high price, but the knowledge gained over the past 30 years has been priceless. Any one deep space photo from the Hubble telescope has made my tax dollars invested well worth the sacrifices. I hope when the last shuttle ends its final flight that it is not the beginning of the end of a broad American space effort. If not for the US space program, I would probably be sitting somewhere typing this newsletter on a manual typewriter and sending it out by postal service.
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President Obama. His reign as Supreme Leader becomes more of a bad joke on a daily basis. His big promises that got him elected have been nothing but political sellouts. He raised minimum wages but few--other than illegals and teens--have benefited from it; no one else has a job. His medical overhaul ended being mostly of benefit to providers and a burden to taxpayers; few will enjoy "universal healthcare". The finance reform thing he is now pushing does nothing to bring the Five Big Banks under control; it is semi-regulatory at best and does not allow for the breakup of the big banks when they get out of line. Look what the breakup of AT&T did in the eighties; it allowed competition to to control the communications marketplace and it worked fine. This same threat has to be put in place or the big banks are going to completely take over American finances. The hell of it is there is no one with the balls to go against big business anymore. We need some Teddy Roosevelts and fewer Teddy Bears in our government.
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Not much going on at the home front; Carolyn is at hairdresser and I am bored out my ass. My neck is better than yesterday, but has a long way to go. Carolyn has a new hairdresser; the man she has used for several years has throat cancer and is in a nursing home. I'm spending less porch time this year than in the past; freaking allergies are forcing me inside after only a few minutes of quality time. No pic today unless one falls in my lap.
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Have a great day!
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Sleepy

 Yellow-shafted Flicker

As you may tell from the previous post, I didn't sleep well last night. Neck pain kept me seeking a comfort point and when I did find a moment's reprieve, I was too keyed-up for sleep. I had a lot of time to think about a lot of things, but my thoughts were mostly about the sad state of our country. I got up at 5:30 and tried to ease my restlessness by sitting on the porch and feeling the world awaken, but I soon found myself back inside the house as it was a bit cool for comfort and the chill was making my neck more stiff.
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Not much happening at present. Carolyn's work will have at least the next two weekends tied up, so I won't have much opportunity to look for photo ops. On the days we usually go out she will need to rest, so I must find other things to occupy myself. I won't be presenting very many photos on this blog as you have already seen most of what I have. There is naught for Flickr and the only thing I am putting on Megashot are old ones from Flickr. Sigh ...
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Hope all of you are well and have a a good day.
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Of ... By ... For ...

What has happened to Our America? Have the words of Lincoln which were etched in stone by the spilled blood of our nation's strength been eroded away by time and greed until they are now meaningless? Has "... government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth" become an empty phrase used only by unscrupulous politicians¹ and others wishing to expound some selfish viewpoint?
"Of the people" means we have decided to control our own destiny by electing a representative government and dear friends, that means to represent us and not personal agendas or special interests. We have failed miserably on this tenet².
"By the people" means it is up to us to see that our representatives are working to protect and elevate the nation as a whole while keeping individual liberties as top priority. The sacred Constitution has been set aside by our elected government with our blessings; our leaders have taken control from us and of us. This is not tolerable in a free society.
"For the people" means for the common good of all people who come under the protective umbrella of this nation's Constitution. As we stand today, only the privileged are fully covered by the common good; the remainder of us are here only for their support.
None of this is something some mythical "they" have brought upon us, it is from lack of Constitutional education in our schools and our individual greediness on a national scale. Don't wait for the politicians to tell us what should be done; know at least the basics of our marvelous Constitution and use self discipline, your voice, and the ballot box to forcefully retake control and again be "We the People". "People" is the third word in the preamble to the Constitution of the United States of America and it was capitalized on purpose; We are the People and We are to control Our destiny.
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¹ Yes; I know that "unscrupulous politicians" are redundant words
² tenet: a principle, belief, or doctrine generally held to be true. ~Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary

Crooked roads

The past two weekends have been a total bust photo-wise. Hundreds of crooked miles driven and my best shot was a distant crow walking a sidewalk. Just part of the game of not constantly shooting flowers; not to say flower shots are particularly easy, but blooms are everywhere and rusty Coke signs are rare.
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Speaking of flowers, the Megashot flower contest begins one week from tomorrow and I am holding back my killer, sure to win rose shot. It is so good I may just sweep all prize categories with just one photo. If you haven't joined up and posted a flower photo, now is the time to do so. There is a scant possibility I won't win it all, so you may have an opportunity to secure a nice prize. Even if you cannot come up to my level of stunning photography, I think you will have a lot of fun entering the contest and being a participating judge. Humility comes hard for me.
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My neck still isn't much better and it is cramping my style; can't turn my head to the left. Cripes, that may mean I am becoming a Republican! Well, I could use some of the money all Republicans seem to have. Tea anyone?
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There are four markets on Highway 107 we frequent; well there were four until yesterday. We were about to stop at the first one when I saw the proud display of loser flags pictured above. I knew the proprietor was a redneck, but it would seem he is thumbing his nose at most of the world by displaying and selling these symbols of ongoing hatred and bigotry. It is a free country and he is free to sell what he wants, but he should remember a big portion of his business comes from city folk who don't care for this type of tomfoolery. I shot the photo through the car window as we passed through his parking lot. He may end up selling his produce to his good-old-boy neighbors, but I say good luck with that; most of them have their own vegetable gardens. The grinning face on the flag is a likeness of one of country music's best known rednecks, Hank Williams Junior, aka Bocephus.
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Have a peaceful Monday!
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Tired I am

Got out of bed with no plans but wound up riding back roads in the mountains. The most excitement we had was on a dead end gravel road when the Escape was attacked by a pit bull dog; it bit the back bumper twice while we were making our getaway. Didn't find a thing to shoot, and I wasn't about to ask the Ford eating dog to smile for a portrait. Two straight weekends on winding mountain roads has worn me to a frazzle. The photo is from Jonesborough, Tenn.
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I cleaned the sensor on the Pentax before I left home and it seems to have been a success. I was not cleaning the actual sensor surface, but instead I was cleaning a special piece of glass called a low-pass or infrared filter which covers the sensor, but I still have to be very careful when doing so.
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Have a good Sunday night!
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107

So far it is a cloudy, breezy morning here in Legoland, but some blue sky is threatening. We will most likely drive to the markets on hwy. 107; a small amount of fresh produce is trickling in. Green onions, leaf lettuce, radishes, and small carrots are to be found. After the shopping, we well return home so Carolyn can finish her work; it is difficult when she is short-handed.
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I gave the outside and the reflex mirror of the Pentax a good cleaning; I had been using a damp cloth and cotton swabs on the body, but it just wasn't coming clean enough. This time I used alcohol and swabs and the K200D now looks like it is close to new. I cleaned the reflex mirror the same way. The unit is more than two years old and has made 40,000-plus images. Next I will give the 18-250mm zoom lens the same treatment; it looks terrible now when compared to the camera. There are a couple of annoying specks on the camera sensor which will not come off using the built in vibrating mechanism or with a blast of air from the Rocket blower, so I'm waiting for my batteries to discharge before I attempt to clean it. New ones will be installed because I don't want them to give out while I am cleaning the sensor. Dead batteries will cause the focal plane shutter to snap closed on my cleaning stick and damage the shutter. It has been about a year since it was cleaned and it takes a good eye and steady hand to do so. I could ship it back to Pentax or to a a camera service place and have it done, but they charge $80-$100 to do it. I'm a gambler.
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I've bored you enough for a Sadidy, so I will wish a good one upon all of you.
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Last month of spring?

 Carolyn's maters

Carolyn will have an employee off work for two or more weeks; she had surgery on her thumb this morning. That will put Carolyn working weekends during the time. Shoot, it usually rains on Memorial Day weekend anyway, but I would like to have the opportunity to get out if it doesn't rain. Damn, I wish she would get out of this business before it it kills both of us. Her best paying account (one-third of her income) is talking about re-bidding the cleaning; she could lose it at any time.
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I sat on the porch yesterday for the first time in a couple of weeks. I spent about an hour outside in the morning and got along fine. I then was out again for another hour yesterday afternoon and the allergies hit me; sneezing and sore, sticky eyes. It is going to be a long summer. Today is the first day of the last month of spring; where the hell did the season go?!!!
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I'm thinking about returning to school; not to get a degree or anything like that. I want to take a few elective classes such as a second term of psychology and another art history and English and American Literature. I would like to take an astronomy class, but those cold nights under the stars don't sound as appealing as once they did. I will look around and see if I can get some grants and check what is available in on-line courses. That way, I can take an on-line psychology class and analyze y'all at the same time; won't that be fun?
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Have a fantastic Frydy!
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Red

 I am thinking about entering this photo in the

Megashot Flowers Contest ...
... your opinions are welcome ...

If I was an opinionated person--and you know I ain't--my opinion would be that to graduate from the twelfth grade of school, each student must take and pass a full-term course about the Robert Heinlein book Stranger in a Strange Land. Just my opinion.
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North Korea is shaking its non-existent saber again; non-existent for now, I think. The world is going to keep letting that piece of shit country float right up our noses and do some serious damage, especially to the United States. They's got to be some ugly children in that country; the big-wigs of government conscript all the pretty young women as concubines, and the average family is left being fairly plain looking. I have nothing against plain or homely, but I can see why their soldiers never smile. If South Korea would parade some half-naked beauties around the border, I bet there would be a mass-desertion from the People's Army of North Korea. The US should beam tv shows like Shimmy and Namaste Yoga into the country, overriding regular propaganda programming. Pussy and rice seem like good diplomacy to me.
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It feels good to feel good!
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Have a thoughtful Thursday!
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Y'all!
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Domestic doings

My neck is much improved and I feel almost human even though I still look like a hillbilly. It took a week of my pleading, but Carolyn finally hauled her potted vegetable plants to the porch where they can get sunlight most of the day. She was going to try to raise them in a mostly shaded area. All she has is a few cucumbers, tomato plants, and banana peppers. She has three varieties of tomatoes this year, including big boy, some kind of yellow, and something she called a black tomato. Interesting. I don't much care as long as I get some fried green 'maters.
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'Maters. I generally write tomato and potato, but I talk mater and tater. A cantaloupe is a mush-melon. Okra is okry. Corn on the cob is roast-nears (roasting ears). Peonies are pineys. Cranberry beans are Octobers. Peanuts are not goobers; at least in the hills they ain't.
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I am again trying to get caught up on my Flickr comments; I've missed a bunch of wonderful photos while I was sick. I don't have a lot of contacts on Megashot, and many of the ones I do have don't post regularly, so it is pretty easy to keep up there. Megashot becomes more awesome, and they had a bunch of new members come in over the past day.
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Yesterday's elections went as expected; the crooks won. Americans better be taking Palin's Ignorant Party more seriously.
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Twitter is offline again; happens about everyday at least once. My grandson and I swap witty quotes.
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Speaking of witty quotes: Have a wonderful Wednesday!
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Calm

Not much happening in Dullsville today. We are getting plenty of rain for a change, and life overall isn't too bad. Carolyn is playing with her flowers and insisting I make photos of them but I am about sick of my own flower shots for awhile; I get this way every spring. I can now turn my head, but bending my neck is still a problem. Just feeling better than I did Sunday is like walking away from death's door.
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The BP oil spill is still spreading, but just like Washington politics, the public doesn't really know what is going on. I think the C.E.O. of BP should don his Speedos and be sent down to personally plug the leak. Instead he will most likely get a multi-million dollar bonus. Is it very stupid of me to ask why gasoline prices are dramatically rising as the wholesale cost of oil declines? Is it stupid of me to ask why Americans are so gullible? We are wed to the status quo.
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The Megashot flowers contest will soon open to all members and they have some nice prizes for several winners. $300 is a second prize and a nice Nikon p&s camera is first prize. Even if you don't win, you should have fun playing the contest. Get at it!
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Enjoy what is left of the fabulous Tuesday!
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Thoughts

 Home ...

I feel better today; still some fluid and very sore neck; I can't turn my head to the left.
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Mark emailed me that one of the good guys of music has died; Ronnie James Dio passed away yesterday from stomach cancer. He was simply the best rock/metal singer ever. Dio wasn't a big man in stature, but he was a musical giant with a huge heart and an even larger voice. It is as if one of the last vestiges of my youth has slipped out the door into darkness ...
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Even on a very hazy day like we had Saturday, the view across the Appalachians still managed to cause me to want and need to go deeper and deeper into their mysterious offerings. Every hollow, every knob, every tree and every stream has a story and all I have to do is sit quietly for a few minutes in their presence and their tales will permeate my mind. The trees gossip among themselves while eons-old mossy boulders echo the songs of birds and the buzzing of myriad insects and the fussings of tiny critters. Small, silent seeps from the hills join and transform into laughing creeks as the sky darkens and rumbles threats of rain. Life is difficult but good good in those places, and to one of them I someday shall return so that I may forever be part of the singing birds and the whispering trees and the giggling brooks.
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Worsh day again ... have a good one!

Corel Paintshop Photo Pro X3--another day of use

An update on the Corel Paintshop Photo Pro X3 program Pan Tool lock up. The only tool that will still work while the Pan Tool is on the photo is the Crop Tool. Everything else seems to work fine except some third party scripts are acting a bit strange lately. I have found a work-around to get the onerous Hand of Death off my workspace; I can save the file under a different name and the Pan Hand will go away when I select another tool. This worked twice Thursday, but is no guarantee it will work every time. It is still frustrating to have duplicate files sticking around here and there. If this works as a permanent "solution", I will tell you about the new features included in version X3 and my thoughts on using some of them. But as I said before, I do not like the awkwardness of the new file browser and the time delays between it and the editor. The file browser does have useful features, but they do not make up for the lost speed and convenience of having it on the work area at all times.

 View from Blue Ridge Parkway

We left home yesterday too late in the morning for good shooting light. Someone told Carolyn there were still several abandoned country grocery stores on Highway 321 between Greeneville and Newport, so I was willing to do some scouting if not some shooting. We drove away just past eleven and stopped at a grocery store. While Carolyn was buying picnic supplies--baloney and pimento cheese--I hooked up the Tom-Tom GPS and set it for Newport via scenic route and it took us directly to 321 in Greeneville. I drove and drove and we were both looking for the old stores but didn't find a one until we were in Cosby which is not far from Newport. I turned around and decided to give it a try with the Pentax. I found a good parking place across the highway in the lot of a Dollar General Store. That was good fortune because I could not walk more than five paces from the car; I was hurting. I made three or four pics of the old store with its rusty Coca-Cola signs and as I started to get back in the car, the volunteer fire department on the hill behind the building came to life. I waited until the red fire truck started to pull onto the highway and got a pic of it along with the store. Nothing special but it was pretty well the highlight of the day. I drove on into Newport and they were having a Veterans Celebration Day at the small town courthouse. In that town, the traffic lights are hanging on one side of the street and it happened to be the side on which I wasn't. I merrily drove through one red-light and almost another before my brain candle lit and told me to be careful. After that bravado, I was ready to give Gatlinburg a try; no one with any sense goes to that tourist trap but everyone I know does and that included me on that day. Of course the traffic was bumper to bumper and the sidewalks and stores were packed with the ignorant and curious. Having gotten through town (I hadn't been there since 1970), we decided we were hungry; we had eaten nothing to so far. I said let's drive over the Smokies into Cherokee, North Carolina, so away we went. We found no picnic spots with tables and just as we got to the state line, I noticed I had forgotten to put gasoline in the tank of the Escape, and we were still hungry. I found a place well off the road to park, and Carolyn made sandwiches which we wolfed down fairly quickly. I spotted a crow walking along a sidewalk and got a pic of him. Why the crow was walking uphill on a sidewalk near the top of one of the highest mountains in the Eastern United States, I will never know; crows are strange people. I figured if bad became worse and we ran out of gas, I could use the hand brake and coast into Cherokee. Carolyn decided she needed to pee, so off the side of a bank she went and came back fussing; she peed on her pants waist. I don't even try to figure out stuff like that; men have their own problems. I had already used my can on the way up the Tennessee side, so I was good to go. We made it to the bottom of the mountain and saw an elk on the way down; my first ever. We didn't run out of gas but did fill up in town. We took off toward Asheville, NC and from there we would soon be home. We decided to go back part way on the Blue Ridge Parkway which is a scenic road skirting the tops of some old and tall mountains. At first scenic view pull-off, I tried to get some pics as my bride sliced a cantaloupe for our belated desert. We were immediately attacked by every gnat and tiny black fly this side of Myrtle Beach. All but the first shot I made at the spot had dark blurry spots all over it when I loaded them on the pc. Damn bugs! On the other side of the road I saw hundreds of trilliums just waiting to be shot, but the bugs won; we retreated to the car and left. By this time I was worn out and Carolyn wasn't in much better shape. At the next overlook we must have elevated ourselves above bugdom and I got a couple of unsatisfactory shots. Carolyn volunteered to drive for awhile, and I managed to get her to take a wrong turnoff in Asheville; she was fit to be tied. I blamed the GPS but she didn't buy it. Just before 7:00pm, she drove us into the driveway at home. We had been riding nearly constantly for eight hours. She went directly to bed, but I stayed up for awhile picking bugs out of my body crevices, finally coming to the conclusion I would have to shower to rid myself of the varmints. After that excursion, Carolyn has decided not to try to drive the 21 hour trip to Texas for our grandson's Air Force graduation. She has a short memory and will probably want to do so anyway.
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This is why they call them the Smoky Mountains

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Saturday's photo trip results

sattidy

I'm out making photos ... I hope ...

Floating

I had to take the day off; shot day and errands. My eyes and most other ailments are improving except I am still carrying a tanker load of fluid but it too will pass. Tomorrow I plan to ride between Greeneville and Newport on old US 321 and see if there are any interesting photo opportunities. I will probably take another fluid pill before I leave home and like most other hillbillies, I will pee in a can and toss the golden fluid out the window as I travel; should be interesting especially if I am driving.
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Have a great weekend, my friends.
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Sorrow

Our friend Jola's mom passed away Thursday morning at about 6:00 Łódź time. You are in our thoughts Jola. I hope you and the family can find some peace through the coming days.

Springish

Does my butt look a little wide in this shot?

Today looks to be a perfect spring day; hazy sunlight filtered by wispy, high altitude clouds, warm with thunderstorms possible, and bird songs filling the air. Much of my ailments of the past few days have withered away. My fingers are still stiff, swollen, and now sore, but that will ease within a few days. Life could be worse ...
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A friend of Carolyn's lost his job as president of a local bank back in December, and he recently went back into the job market where he was immediately hired by a Dallas, Texas bank. Good luck to him. I don't care how much the small banks around here scream bloody murder about being left out of the Wall Street Giveaway Feeding Frenzy, they were never hurting to begin with and are now hiring many new people at low paying jobs. Carolyn's janitor service pays employees better than do these high profile institutions.
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Barring lightning, tonight is the night; off to the creek and that belated spring bath. Just in time, too as I was actually considering taking another shower; the one I had a couple of weeks ago made me feel really good for a few days. I'll be at the third hole above the Peter Hole ... if you care to join me.
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Thursday is "plan for Saturday" day. Make some good ones; this is the last spring we will have this year.
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The photo was made a few years back in Elizabethton, Tenn.
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Corel Paintshop Photo Pro X3

Corel Paintshop Photo Pro X3 -- This is my third or fourth report on this Corel product. The original complaints I had about the product frequently freezing and crashing are still unaddressed by Corel. I have the latest (and only) maintenance update installed. I had both Version X2 and X3 loaded on the pc, but on separate Windows XP partitions. I became so fed up with trying to convince X3 to cooperate that I went back to X2 but lo and behold, it is now doing the same little dance that X3 does by suddenly placing the Pan Tool on the the photo I am working on and I cannot not get it to go away. This tells me there must be a common file(s) that Corel uses for both versions of the program and that X3 has somehow hijacked the file. Like a good boy, I uninstalled X2 and hoped that would cure the problem. No dice. I would not complain if it was a sometimes problem, but it happens several times everyday. At times, closing the program and restarting it will make the hand of evil disappear. Other times, a reboot is all that will temporarily fix it, and at other times, just leaving it alone for a time will temporarily get it going again. I've not been to the Corel user forums because I don't have the time or inclination to chase bugs for a large corporation like Corel. Now I am going to be forced to remove X3 and reinstall X2 again; it worked fine until X3 came aboard. The odds of it working fine again are not too good, because most software does not completely uninstall itself even if it says it has done so. It will sometimes leave stray files in the Windows System folder and it will sometimes leave them in the Common Files folder. They nearly always leave crap in the all important Windows Registry and fooling around in the registry for any reason can cause problems up to and including mandatory re-installation of the Windows OS. If I cannot get X2 to work, I will be going to the Gimp as my photo editor. One thing for sure, Windows XP has been around long enough that coders should be able to create stable products for it, yet I don't see Corel even acknowledging there is a problem. Corel is a Canadian company, but they are acting like an American outfit that doesn't care for anything but the bottom line.
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George and Lucy

I'm either getting well or dying: I slept in this morning but finally had to get up after waking from a dream in which George W. Bush owned a local McDonald's and I was working along side him in the kitchen; he was a fascinating fellow. I wonder if Lucy van Pelt is taking new patients?

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I'm getting behind on nearly everything again; but seeing as how I am in my wonderful Golden Years, it doesn't seem to matter so much.
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Ever get a song lodged in your head and cannot get rid of it? I've got Volbeat's The Garden's Tale stuck for three days now. Like their ancestor Vikings, Volbeat has invaded and conquered. Thanks so much, Mark!
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I now have 25 friends on Facebook, and I actually know who about half of them are. I will consider the rest as groupies.
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On Wednesdays, look deep inside yourself and find a forgotten piece of happiness which will carry you through until the week's end.
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Shakes

What a miserable night I had! Today isn't much better. I awoke about two a.m. with a heck of a thirst. I took a big swig of water and lay back down and began shivering uncontrollably; I was chilling. It went on for more than 30 min. and it stopped as quickly as it began, but I could tell from my breath hitting my arm that I was feverish. I looked for extra-strength Tylenol, but couldn't find any in my nightstand. It was surprising I couldn't locate the pills because my top drawer looks like a refugee from pharmacist's nightmare; I've got a little of everything. At six a.m. Carolyn awoke to use the bathroom and I asked her if we had Tylenol, whereupon she furnished me with two of them. My sinuses were clogged and I had a bitching headache. Thirty minutes after taking them, I was sweating big time, the fever was broken, and headache gone. Today I am carrying about a gallon of excess fluid which is making breathing difficult so I took a fluid pill and it is drawing some of it off. I still feel like crap, though. Growing old is an adventure. Very bad allergies to ice the cake.
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Yesterday was Bono's birthday. I know he perpetuates some good causes, but for some reason I have never liked him. It may be because uncle Roy once told me to never trust a man who wears dark glasses at night.
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Have a Happy Tuesday!
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My uncle Roy and my uncle Fred on the front porch of the house where I was born.

From Fred I got my love of and respect for Nature

From Roy I got my warped sense of humor and my philosophy

Photo and inscription by my mom

Photo made in 1969

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The window of the bedroom where I was born is farthest from the camera.

The near window was the living room.

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On the background ridge is where I spent many summer and autumn days of my boyhood.

The rock I am writing about in my Are you a god? story was located there.

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TSR

I had a pretty good day on Sunday; I was even able to snooze on the porch for awhile, but today the eye allergies are back full force in my left eye. Until I can see better, I am going into TSR mode; terminate but stay resident.
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Mark turned me on to an excellent band from Denmark named Volbeat. Although I generally do not like music videos, the one with this--The Garden's Tale--works very well:

Maybe I am an old romantic, but the song and video nearly brought a tear to my eye.

If you like the Man in Black, you will probably like this one called Sad Man's Tongue that Mark has featured on his blog.
Their music seems to be a mix of ballad, hard rock, punk, metal, rock-a-billy, and a few other genres. For me, it works when little else does these days. You shouldn't have to crank up the volume as much as I do, but they are good when played loud.
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Have a great worsh day and I will be back whenever.
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Happy Mother's Day

Always ...

Hot wax

 Plums

Allergies are a 7 today; RA is a 6: That is a total of 13 and we know how lucky that is. Other than constant feeling of tiredness and sore neck, RA isn't too bad today. I am using a hot paraffin bath two times a day for my hands, and it helps quite a bit. I may have to go to three per day.
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Obama is touting the health care law as already helping millions; tell that to Carolyn who has again been turned down for health insurance but makes just barely enough money to keep her from getting public assistance. Shit!
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A photographic tip: When shooting at high ISO settings with your digital camera, try shooting with a less than best setting for mega-pixels. If you normally shoot at say, 12mp, try shooting at the next lower setting which may be a 10mp or 8mp. The ISO will remain the same but lower mp's should alleviate some normal sensor noise. Unless you are making barn-size prints or doing some deep cropping, there is not much reason to shoot at highest mp's anyway.
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My how time flies; it is already mid-spring. If I was a school boy again, I would be counting the minutes until classes were abandoned for a summer of discovery in the fields and woods around Headtown. Headtown is the name of the little community where I lived for many years. Not one critter or plant which I saw could avoid my careful scrutiny. I love airplanes (as long as I am not required to use one for its intended purpose), but I would get so mad when one would growl overhead and break my spell of concentration as I was being a nature boy. Pollen wasn't a problem then, but I did have some RA. Sometimes I would cross paths with my uncle Fred; he enjoyed nature as much as did I and sometimes we would walk together, but usually we both preferred being alone. Uncle Fred could teach me more about natural life in just a few hours than I could ever learn from a book. On top of that, he hardly ever said a word when we were out; hand gestures along with eye and head movements told me what he wanted me to see or hear or smell, and then it was be still and observe until I learned what he already knew. If there is any gentleness in my soul, it came from him and his mom, my grandmother.
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Thanks everyone for your concern and encouragement about my allergies and RA; they probably aren't as bad as this old drama queen makes them sound.
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Have a sexy Saturday!
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Shot

 Pollen

Got my shot after missing a week, and I am feeling the effects of missing one. My joints have been sore for a couple of days and they are now beginning to swell. My fingers feel like sausages, the kind that are about four inches long which they serve at family picnics after they've been grilled and plump up and you can eat them with your fingers or put them on a bun with favorite condiments like mustard or kraut and then drink a lot of beer with your uncle Roy; that's how my fingers feel. It will be about a week before I enjoy the first effects of today's fix, and about another week for me to get back to where I was. Until then, my presence on this wonderful blog and elsewhere will be limited. Allergies are running strong, still.
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Have a wacky weekend!
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