Cool-der

March 15, 2007 (1:22pm)
23º F, Cloudy, NNE wind 4 mph.

Good afternoon,

Not too sure if I will be able to get this out in a timely manner today. We have been experiencing some problems with the internet again. Not all that sure it is a problem with the phone lines this time, but that might be contributing to the problem. We both have downloaded some updates from a couple of programs, which also may be the problem. A couple were automatic downloads and for a bit, they fell at the same time, causing two large users on the line at one time. Margriet disconnected her computer from the LAN and things greatly improved for my computer. Have to do more investigation into this and hope it will be solved.

One of the other programs, Adobe, has had a couple of updates in the past week or so. After the first, we are unable to access any pictures or drawings appearing on the site. Don’t know how that happened, or how to tackle that problem either. Tried to figure out Adobe’s support services, but without any success. There is a lot of help for things not printing correctly, but all I want at this point is to see it on the screen!

The weather has cooled a bit, so the water flow in the fields and rivers has slowed some. All of the major rivers in the area have more or less returned to their normal size again. They are some high, but not at flood stage any longer. A good thing. From what I have been able to gather, the flooding has been caused by ice dams on all of the rivers. County highway crews have been working over time to break them up and get the water flowing again. Didn’t hear of anyone using dynamite as they have in years past. Ah - the good old days!

I checked on the driveway as I went out to get the paper yesterday afternoon. It appears the driveway is in fair shape, but there is about 2" of the top gravel which has been washed off and into the woods. Suspect that I might try to retrieve some of it when things dry some and put it back onto the driveway again. Also spooked a couple of partridge up too. Haven’t seen many this winter. Usually see more. Haven’t seen many deer either come to think of it. Not even many tracks lately. Wonder where they are. I know the turkeys are much happier with the snow clearing off of the soil and their dinner plate exposed again. There are some really big turkeys around this year.

We are out of "Mrs. Miller’s Noodles" again. Sounds like we NEED to head to the Amish store in Shawano again rather soon. Margriet used the last of them making goulash last night for supper. We have been eating them often recently with meatballs and mushroom gravy and another time with some leftover lamb roast and mushroom gravy. The last of the lamb roasts is also history now. Hope they have them on sale again. Really good. We still eat too well around here, but who’s complaining? No I for sure. Margriet also baked some bread the other day and I am sure it evaporated before the second loaf was frozen solid in the freezer. It sure are good when it is fresh! Honey-butter doesn’t make it so worse either. Tonight leberkase is on the menu. Told you we eat well here!

I picked up a LED "puck light" on Tuesday. I have been looking at LED as an alternative to "normal" lighting for some time, trying to figure out how to build something that would work. Picked this one up to experiment with. It sure does put out the light with very small batteries. As an experiment, I held it near the ceiling over this keyboard and it provided enough light to work with. Surprised me. In theory, I think they are supposed to use about 1% of what a normal incandescent light bulb uses. That would present a pretty good savings on the electric bill I think. We do use the mini-florescent bulbs as much as possible now, but these would be even greater savings. This puck also has a dimmer on it. Not too sure how it works - yet - but it is an accessory worth looking into. Gee! A guy has to have something to play with!

Time to get a-going.

In Christ My Saviour,

Chris <><