RoseGarden

Waves Are Like People

2012-02-01T21:38:00.001-04:00

- some begin pretty far out

- some begin close to you

- some are tall

- some are short

- some are narrow

- some are wide

- some make a big splash

- some are quiet - no noise at all

- some slide up real close

- some stay far away

- some travel together

- some are alone

- some make you think

- some make you run away

People Are Like Waves

What's A Local

2012-01-30T13:37:00.001-04:00

In the "local" Panama City News Herald there is always an ongoing feud in their Squall live between snowbirds and other visitors vs. locals.

It's easy to tell a snowbird, but what's a local?

Local resident? How long to qualify?

Born, raised & live here, that's a local, no problem with that one.

If you live here 4 months of the year, are you a local?

If you live here 6 months of the year, are you a local?

If you live here 6 months of the year and own your house, are you a local?

What if you stay for a year, does that make you a local?

If you return every year and stay the same length of time, are you a local?

Let me check again. Was that "local" or "loco"?

WhatZizIt?

2012-01-29T11:03:00.001-04:00

Yesterday morning I went outside to get the newspaper and there were cars lined up and down the street, on both sides.

People in heavy over-coats were going in all directions.

A guy was trying to stuff a step ladder into too small a station wagon.

Pedestrians were jostling for position.

There was an air of determination in the air.

There were glum faces, there were happy faces.

The pace of life seemed constant and even.

Money quietly changed hands, followed by treasured items large and small.

Proud looks, sad looks, stern looks and no looks were abundant.

Had the world gone mad? Were they building a stadium close by?

Not at all. The people across the street were having a Yard Sale!

That's the popular 6 a.m. Saturday entertainment around here.

Sundays are so peaceful.

You Only Understand This Where You Get Snow

2012-01-28T01:14:00.001-04:00

The folks where I am right now wouldn’t really understand the truth in this.

This cartoon in my hometown newspaper explains what happens when you lay off experience and hire contractors.

Mr. deAdder of the Halifax Chronicle Herald you are right on the mark.

That’s What Snowbirds Do

2012-01-21T13:29:00.001-04:00

Saturday is usually kind of an off day. Here in Panama City Beach it is often considered yard sale day.

It works like this. Friday you scan through the local paper classified section looking for the locations of the closest yard sales. You might even get to program the addresses into the GPS before time. Make no mistake, there are often some bargains to be found. There are also some waste of time trinkets lurking about too.

I heard a story this morning about a couple of couples heading out for the yard sale adventure.

Now this vehicle is equipped with two GPS's, one large and one small. (Does the little GPS watch where the big GPS is going? Or is it the other way around?)

As I said before this vehicle is equipped with two GPS's - and two women, along with their male counterparts. Off they go into the clear morning sand filled air, and finally reach their first yard sale treasure depot in someone's yard.

Not finding much of interest they again get aboard the above mentioned fully equipped van, this time using the GPS(s), and head out for a better stocked yard sale location.

They drive 5 miles, through twisted streets, intersections, past palm trees, through vast neighbourhoods - - - and end up at the same yard sale they had just left moments before.

What are you laughing at? That's what snowbirds do . . .

Shield Your PIN–Easily

2012-01-20T21:50:00.001-04:00

We are all told to shield or hide our PINs when using credit and debit cards.

What they really mean is shield or hide the keypad.

How easy is that to do? Especially at gas pumps and some ATM machines. Or beside the cashier when the keypad is mounted a foot or two high on one of those swivel arm holders. Holding with one hand and pressing the numbers with the other can be difficult. And you are supposed to shield the keypad from view too.

It has also been said that some people are embarrassed to shield their PIN input. Really?

PINs Are Easy To See

PINs are fairly easy to get hold of. The numbers on most if not all keypads are in a standard order. The 1,2,3, etc. are always in the exact same location. The person so inclined doesn’t really have to see the actual numbers, only the location you are pressing.

Therefore a person standing in the next cashier lane could easily see your PIN input. And don’t forget the person talking on the cell phone with the camera pointed your way.

Confuse The Keypad Watcher

My method of confusing would be PIN collectors is to touch six or more buttons. No one can tell which ones I actually pushed. (If you make a mistake and accidently press a wrong number, just Cancel and begin again. Even more confusing to someone trying to watch you.)

Or as Bob Rankin suggests in his Ten Identity Theft Protection Tips #5, use two fingers while you enter your PIN.

These methods work on any kind of ATM, gas pump or store keypad machine. It just might be worth your while to do it.

When You Go . . .

2012-01-19T15:07:00.001-04:00

When you go on a cruise ship, your life depends on one person - the Captain

When you fly in an airplane, your life depends on one person - the Captain.

When you go somewhere on a bus, your life depends on one person - the driver.

When you drive, your life depends on one person - You!

Stop

2012-01-18T10:50:00.001-04:00

Around here they don’t have to repave when there are cracks in the pavement.

They just say “stop” – and it does, no more crack expansion.

Longest Bikini Line

2012-01-17T12:15:00.001-04:00

If you have ever been around Panama City Beach at spring break time, you know how much and how fast the population can increase. Probably more than 200% and likely 150% are bikinis. If you haven’t, just Google Panama City Beach spring break for samples.

This year the promotions people have come up with a great idea. A contest that just might get into the Guinness World Records, the “longest bikini line”. The beach here is roughly 27 miles long, so there is plenty of space.

This generated all kinds of comments:

Its degrading to women in this day and age - Huh?
They should have a senior bikini line – see how they make out with that.
Or a ‘snowbird’ bikini line – that would give those northerners something to do.
Who’s going to check all those bikinis to see if they are of proper age – there’s been a recent girls gone wild court case here.
And you thought a casino was a bad idea – that’s another story.
Bring it on!

Just some of the comments in the local media that have appeared lately. Then today a NewsHerald article indicates Australia is up to the challenge and is ready to take them on for a competition.

Sounds good to me, only its in the summer, I won’t be here.

As a non-understanding northerner I have only one question. Will this lengthen or shorten the tan line?

Fly trap–for people?

2012-01-16T22:11:00.001-04:00

If you were walking by this thing late at night - - - would it turn into a Venus fly trap for people?

Too much Blue Light–Lack of Restful Sleep–f.lux

2012-01-14T22:45:00.001-04:00

Things change, months ago I tried a program called f.lux and I didn’t really care for it. I spend a lot of time in front of the computer screen, quite often during the evening hours. I kept reading about this free program called f.lux. Recommendations for it would pop up at various sources.

So I decided to try it once again, only this time leave it on for a few weeks and really give it a chance. Now I think f.lux is a keeper.

Why because it lets me sleep – better.

f.lux reduces or eliminates computer screen blue light. As I understand it, this blue light messes up your sleep pattern. Circadian rhythm, melatonin and blue light are just a few of the terms affecting our sleep patterns. I’m not going to repeat what others have spent time researching. You can get as little or as much detail as you need on these sites as well as others:

Mark’s Daily Apple How Light Affects Our Sleep

LowBlueLights.com

Or pick your own information sources from Google.

And of course there is plenty of information on their own site, f.lux, where you can download the free program to try.

Once you have f.lux set up and adjusted properly, it adjusts the blue light from your screen to follow the sun in whatever time zone you are in. Plenty of blue during daylight hours, warmer during the evening hours.

I found I was waking frequently during the night, and not sleeping a restful sleep in a lot of cases. Since using f.lux for an extended period of time, it makes you want to go to bed by 10 or 11 pm, sleep right through, get up early feeling totally rested, ready for a new day.

I will say it takes at least a week to get used to the changes.

From the various resources there are a lot of things you can do to induce and improve normal sleep patterns. Using f.lux was a good start for me.

First one this year.

2012-01-13T09:08:00.001-04:00

Just make sure you say “Rabbit” at the beginning of the month, you’ll be okay.

You didn’t? Cross you fingers, knock on wood, . . .

Toaster Revolution

2012-01-12T22:44:00.001-04:00

Last year about this time I got an email about a new toaster (not available in any stores) for a toaster with a radio built in to it. Musical toast, right up there with the radio in the shower crowd.

Today I got this email with the title, “Collect for Free Toaster.”

(Click for larger.)

If you read the fine print it says with 15 unique PINs + $18. shipping and handling you can get your ‘Free’ toaster with egg cooker.

First Question: Where’s the free in that?

Second Question: Does it come with the toast?

Third Question: What about the egg?

Okay, I’m being silly with the second and third question. But not the first!

Things I Can’t Figure Out

2012-01-11T22:08:00.001-04:00

I’m finding out it is hard to keep regular . No, no, not that kind of regular, I am talking about regular entries for RoseGarden. There are so many things for a northerner to do when they become a southerner for just a few months.

Slow Internet

I’ve managed to get a few videos produced for YouTube, however this year we ended up with a very slow internet connection and uploading even a small one tends to take 5 hrs or more. Overnighters bring on a new meaning for every byte that follows. In fact being the resident computer guru, poor, impossible, or eventual internet connections seem to be the majority of questions I am asked about.

At home I am used to a super fast internet service like no other. Like many things, we take it for granted until something makes us pay attention. Kudos Eastlink back home, you're the greatest.

Things I Can’t Figure Out

As the new year gets under way there are many things I just can’t figure out.

I Can’t Figure Out - Just what group of office types would sit around and come up with the name Ice Cream Sandwich for a browser?

I Can’t Figure Out – We have wireless headphones, how long before we have headless ones?

I Can’t Figure Out – If we can have long pants shortened, how long will it be before we can have short pants lengthened?

I Can’t Figure Out – If you’ve already experienced yesterday, why do you try to live it again today?

I Can’t Figure Out – Why “Pedestrians crossing busy highways at night, and wearing dark clothing, are not very "bright" (From Panama City NewsHerald Squall)

I Can’t Figure Out – Tablets are all the rage, but why does everyone want a keyboard to work with them? Isn't that a netbook?

Maybe its old age? - Someone recently said to me: "Don't worry about old age--it doesn't last that long."

Happy New Year

2011-12-31T15:49:00.001-04:00

“Have a safe and Happy New year!

All the best to everyone –

May 2012 be the best one yet!”

Merry Christmas Once More

2011-12-27T15:10:00.001-04:00

Part of the holiday season is over, the Merry Christmas part. Just the New Year part to go.

Christmas is different in Florida, no snow, decorated palm trees and warm breezes made it excellent for us. Some of the local residents would prefer it a little cooler, but for us snowbirds you couldn’t ask for anything better.

Some things are the same, some are different. We are not used to seeing businesses open on Christmas day, which a lot of them were here in Panama City and Panama City Beach. And ‘back home’ we have to wait for the boxing day sales to start on Dec. 27th, where here they actually have the big sales on boxing day.

This seems a whole lot more realistic.

Each year I usually pick a Florida video to post on RoseGarden, and although this one is not new, it seems to fit the situation this year. Thanks to ‘birdcat’.

Merry Christmas Everyone

2011-12-24T12:29:00.001-04:00

Merry Christmas everyone

“Back Home”

and

Around the world

from all of us at

Panama City Beach!

Panama City Beach Christmas

2011-12-22T10:38:00.001-04:00

Its still 22 deg. C (73 deg. F) here, Merry Christmas everyone.

Panama City Beach Christmas–Merry Christmas Everyone

I bought some invisible tape, now I can't find it.

2011-12-20T00:20:00.001-04:00

Thank goodness the Christmas shopping experience is almost over, although at times it is an educational experience.

It amazes me that they can come up with a new chopper every year that works better than anything else ever invented. Well they don't have to change the script much for the TV ads.

New innovations pop up every year. The Fat Magnet. Now who wouldn't want one of those? Works some slick according to the TV guy. Weight watchers will be upset when they discover what happens when you stick that thing on your belly.

And a water clock. Come on, you're interested aren't you? How does it work? How do you set it? What's the water do? Now you can combine daylight saving time with water conservation.

I am a little disappointed that I couldn't find my favourite new items. Double sided suction cups for example.

They aren't fooling me though. I was going to buy some invisible ink. I could see liquid in the bottle, so it wasn't invisible right? I'm not falling for that one.

On more serious note, we are enjoying the first part of our winter here in Panama City Beach. The best December yet with temperatures in the middle 20s for you folks back home, middle 70s for the rest.

A first time Panama City Beach Christmas display was kind of unique. Its a combined light show/display consisting of several blocks of lights and animation. Everything from projected video on a multi-story building to underwater projections and sound on the white sand.

We thought it was a nice display, something different from the usual Christmas displays. (We are in the process of editing some video and still pictures which we hope to post soon.) Every single person working for this display was so friendly and really into making the experience an enjoyable one for everybody.

We also attended the Raiders family country show for our second time. This is truly a family show of generations of performers who truly enjoy being on stage for everyone.

Some are professionals, were professionals or probably will be professionals, with Grandpas, Fathers, Sons, Daughters, Wives, and Grand-children who get together for a family fun show for everyone.

Earlier we had attended a Christmas concert in Lynn Haven, also our second time. A professional production with an orchestra, choir, and performers young and old.

The production was very good with lights and sound similar to what you would see on an expensive TV show.

These shows were free, or a small donation or a very low cost. You can’t beat that. Panama City Beach is the place to be for us.

JLBC

2011-12-11T01:08:00.001-04:00

Was directed to go shopping at J C Penneys today, penneys? More like dollars.

Filled out a survey form online for them. One question said, "What is your race, so I said NASCAR.

Went to the Santa Claus parade in Pier Park this evening. Missed him, he was in a fire truck bucket, up so high he was in the dark and couldn't see him.

Can’t say if I believe in Santa or not.

The kids beside me said they do.

For some reason I am still suffering JLBC. Jet lag by car. Two hour time difference here, and I am tired by 10 o'clock and awake at 5 a.m. Isn't that supposed to be gone after a week?

Buy Three Get One Free

2011-12-09T23:26:00.001-04:00

I mentioned the terrific sales here on the Gulf coast in hopes of luring more customers during the Christmas season. There are so many bargains its difficult to determine how much you saved. (Or how much they made.)

One that catches my mind though is available both here and in Canada.

"Buy three tires, get the fourth one free!"

That's a good deal, right?

But what if I only want one tire? Isn't that some form of discrimination or something?

What if I only want two tires? The next person that buys one should get one free, don't you think?

You've heard me say before, if I go into the grocery store and only want to buy one pear, how do I ask for it? If I ask for a pear would I end up with two? Possibly. A pair is two, correct?

So when I go to get these tires, what do I ask for? Do I say I only want to buy three tires and the tire dude will figure out I want four?

Or do I say I want four tires, but I am only going to pay for three, you see.

The real problem though, as I see it, is the tax. If I am buying three tires I should only pay tax on three. The fourth is not taxable because I only bought three. You gave me the other one for free. And there is no tax on free (yet). Got that figured out. Okay fine.

Now about that tire disposal fee. Not on that fourth one because I didn't buy it . . .

This sale stuff is confusing. Every day is a school day.

Go South Avoid The Cold ???

2011-12-08T09:19:00.001-04:00

Okay, who’s messing around with the thermostat? Someone pulled a fast one on me.

“Back home” its 16 deg. C. (60 deg. F.)

Here in “sunny” Florida its 1 deg. C. (34 deg. F.)

There’s nothing wrong with these pictures except things seem a little backwards. I don’t want to go any further south cause I might fall off.

Don’t have to worry too much about snow or skiing here. (No hills ).

We’ll be in shirt sleeves by noon – I hope!

It’s Christmas–Sales

2011-12-06T21:32:00.001-04:00

We are settled in after several days of unpacking. The weather has been welcoming us, 25 deg. C. every day and lots of sunshine, although showers are promised for tomorrow.

The palm trees are all decorated and the stores are having sales on sales. Don’t you like those sales. I do. Well no, not the sales, but the people that are drawn to them.

After 15% off 20% off, your sales receipt indicates, “you saved $30. on this purchase.” Now I ask; “Where’s the thirty dollars you saved?” I don’t see it. It appears you don’t have thirty extra dollars in your pocket. One more observation. You didn’t buy the items because you needed them, you bought them because they were a good price. Who made on this deal anyway?

Wait, there’s more. What about the sale that says an additional 30% off if you spend over $50. If you didn’t plan on buying anything, but this deal was too good to pass up, and you spend over $50., who wins? Even if you planned to go to that store and buy an article for $22.50, but you bought goods worth $59.95 so you could get 30% off, who wins?

I’m thinking the only way to save 20%, 30%, or any percent, is to stay right here and write this blog.

Down South

2011-12-04T20:51:00.001-04:00

Why is south always down? We always say “down south, up north.” Anyway we have made our journey to our winter location at Panama City Beach, Florida. Our houses back home remain lived in, so that part is easy, but its the little things that take time and planning. For example how to get a 3 ton truck load in a SUV.

The driving was busy in spots. We had a drive for several hours in an extreme Tennessee rain storm, with high wind and lots of road spray – from trucks. Thankfully in our SUV we were high enough to be able to see pretty good, difficult for cars where their windshield level is at wheel spray level.

Its not hard to tell everything travels or ships by truck these days. This picture is only a sample of the miles and miles of continuous trucks you can encounter on the interstates. This is typical day after day.

Have to say, those guys and ladies are out there making a living, and of all the 18 wheelers we seen, there was only one that was a bit uncaring.

Even the ‘four wheelers’ as they call us exhibited good driving habits. Its amazing how well the intense traffic moved along so easily.

There are some huge long loads on the interstates. The front of this load is the tractor with the hood up in the second picture. (I couldn’t get far enough back to get the entire length in one picture.)

There were several of these containers being moved. Just like the TV program, only these are real.

Enough snow to make the ground white was encountered in Virginia, although nothing accumulated on the road. The temperatures varied all the way down, but were on the cool side, meaning around 5 deg. C many times.

We took 3 1/2 days to do the journey, with two vehicles traveling together. We used a set of Cobra walkie talkies to keep in touch and they worked very well. There will be a review of those upcoming on the website in the future.

Our motels, since we were in economy mode, were reasonably good, except for one, which was barely good. We still managed to find some humour in these where least expected.

For example one place had senior telephones. (We are seniors.) We could see the numbers with no problem.

Not so with the shampoo that didn’t exist, or the old 32” tube type TV with the scuzzy picture.

Perhaps one of the more interesting encounters was these security instructions in one motel.

“Do not keep valuables in the room.”

“Do not leave valuables in parked vehicles.”

I wonder what they suggest you do with valuables? Makes that ‘keep on truckin’ statement sound reasonable.

At any rate we arrived in sunny Panama City Beach, Florida where the temperature may go to a low of 5 – 10 deg. C. some nights, but by early morning it goes quickly up to 20 – 24 deg. C. People still strolling on the beach, and shopping in flip flops and shorts.

Our aim this year is to provide more pictures and videos in the blog and on YouTube while we are here, hopefully on a reasonably steady basis. It is a little hard to get in the production mode when life is so relaxing. But we’ll try our best.

Your Computer Is Causing Errors – #7

2011-11-18T22:28:00.001-04:00

I missed this important call last week, I must have been out. Was glad to get it this week at my second home, because this time it was an emergency call.

Heavy Accent: “This is an emergency call from MS central tech services. Who am I speaking to?”

Me: “Who did you call? Who did expect?”

Heavy Accent: “(Gives my name).”

Me: “Then that’s who you got.”

Heavy Accent: “It has been detected your XP computer is creating a lot of problems, it is an emergency, that you get it fixed immediately. On the internet your computer is causing errors which is very bad. Very bad emergency for you, and for others. Okay?”

Me: “My computer is causing errors? Which one?”

Heavy Accent: “Sir, I already told you, your XP computer is causing errors. These errors are like a virus and stuff and get into your hard drive and motherboard and can cause big problems. It must be fixed right away. You have Microsoft operating system, and we can tell if it produces errors, because when you register windows operating system it lets us know its your computer. Your computer sends out these errors and we detect them. Your computer is connected to a router okay? And it is the same IP as your computer, so very bad. Your computer is running slow, and it can have bad crash.”

Me: “Hold on a minute. (Interrupting) Listen to me for a minute. You say my XP computer is causing errors?”

Heavy Accent: “Yes, your windows operating system. XP.”

Me: “I don’t have XP. If you are saying my computer is causing errors, you need to tell me which one and which operating system.”

Heavy Accent: “Which system you have?”

Me: “You called and said my XP computer was causing emergency errors. Right? If my computer is causing errors, you should be able to tell me which one, and what operating system it is.”

Heavy Accent: “Okay okay, hold on a minute and I will email my supervisor technician, okay? He will verify which one. You hold on? (Sound of pounding on the keyboard keys, not typing, but abnormal key activity. The line goes quiet, I hang up.)

In 3 minutes phone rings again, same Heavy Accent.

Heavy Accent: “Hello, we got disconnected. I emailed my supervisor technician and he verified your windows operating 7 computer is definitely causing bad errors. Important it be fixed right away. If it gets into your mother board it would be very bad. You understand?”

Me: “I understand you told me my XP computer was causing errors, and now you switch to 7. You haven’t told me which one. I have one question.”

Heavy Accent: “Your ..yes your windows 7 is causing errors, verified by my supervisor technician.”

Me: “ Listen and answer my question. I was just talking to MS and their caller ID said MS. How come yours is blocked?”

Heavy Accent: “Huh? who were you talking to? What was his name?”

Me: “Doesn’t matter what his name is, its Reggie if it matters.”

Heavy Accent: “Reggie? You were talking to Reggie!”

Me: “I want to tell you something. I am a computer technician, and a good one. My computer is not causing any errors. If you are detecting that my computer is causing errors, then its your computer that’s causing the errors, not mine.”

{Insert loud click followed by silence.}

The things I do for entertainment, I must lead a dull life - - - waiting for call number 8.

Fall Routines

2011-11-15T23:41:00.001-04:00

This has been a busy week, trying to get things in shape before our annual trip south.

Fallen Leaves

The routine is the same every fall. Wait for the leaves to fall, and with the last extremely heavy rain storm we had along with high wind, they certainly did. With a little help from Chicky and Lit’l Red towing a sweeper, they were cleaned up and bagged in short order.

Mower to Blower

The next day was partially used up taking the mower off Lit’l Red and putting the snow blower on. That can be a major operation. Wheel weights, counter weights on the rear, drive mechanism underneath, blower bracket on the front and finally attaching the blower itself.

After installing some things upside down, removing and installing the right way, plus wondering why a certain part won’t fit, then realizing it was for something else, all went smoothly. I’m not sure if having one part left over is a good thing.

Lit’l Red is ready for snow.

Toilet Seat

This is a different sort of fall routine. Has nothing to do with the seasons. First the journey to the store to get a new replacement seat. There’s more choices than cars in a used car lot. There were thin ones, thick ones, padded with palm trees, solid wood, and more. I proudly left the store with a plain old toilet seat.

Directions say you need a screw driver and an adjustable wrench.

Let the procedure begin. It’s easy right? Just two screws holding the old seat on, what could go wrong? Everything! The attachment bolts on the new one are plastic. On the old one they are metal, and rusted in place permanently. With a wrench on the bottom and the trusty large screw driver topside, it takes less than ten seconds to strip the slots off them.

What next? No room for a hacksaw. Drilling them out would work – if you have a rubber power drill that will bend around the tank. Time for some low level four letter words.

As I sit on the floor contemplating what to do next, certain things come to mind. “Pee in the toilet bowl, not around it,” was often heard when the family was growing up. A TV show came to mind where it was said, always close the lid before flushing. If you choose not to, the mist goes over the whole bathroom, including your tooth brush.

Upgrade the low level words to high level words. Finally the ‘idea’ bulb came on. A tool that you only use a half dozen times in a life time, but when you need it nothing else will do the job. The Dremel tool, a rotary grinder with an endless list of attachments. Two discs later and the tops where cut off the bolts and the old seat was garbage bound.

The new one with plastic bolts went on in less than a minute.

Google Knows

The next day after things had calmed down a bit, I decided to check with Google just to see what would come up. I am always saying Google knows everything.

If you ask “change toilet seat” – look at all the answers you get. Some were practical, some not. One of the suggestions at the bottom said, “Did you mean toilet seat content.” No I didn’t, but it certainly was worth the click.

Glossary: Lit’l Red = lawn tractor. (Lit’l Red, Big Blue and I all live at Pickle Palace.)

Leave the Driving to Us

2011-11-12T08:11:00.001-04:00

Can’t wait 10 years. Any chance this can be finished by the end of the month?

Lest We Forget

2011-11-10T23:57:00.001-04:00

Christmas 2011 -- Birth of a New Tradition

2011-11-09T09:07:00.001-04:00

For me its early to think Christmas, but what an idea. Christmas gift giving is often a burden, this would work. Posted here as suggested in the last paragraph.

As the holidays approach, the giant ... Asian factories are kicking into high
gear to provide Americans with monstrous piles of cheaply produced goods --
merchandise that has been produced at the expense of American/Canadian labor. This
year will be different. This year Americans/Canadians will give the gift of genuine
concern for other Americans/Canadians. There is no longer an excuse that, at gift
giving time, nothing can be found that is produced by American/Canadian hands. Yes
there is!

It's time to think outside the box, people. Who says a gift needs to fit in
a shirt box, wrapped in Chinese produced wrapping paper?
Everyone -- yes EVERYONE gets their hair cut. How about gift certificates
from your local American/Canadian hair salon or barber?

Gym membership? It's appropriate for all ages who are thinking about some
health improvement.

Who wouldn't appreciate getting their car detailed? Small, American/Canadian owned
detail shops and car washes would love to sell you a gift certificate or a
book of gift certificates.

Are you one of those extravagant givers who think nothing of plunking down
the big bucks on a Chinese made flat-screen? Perhaps that grateful gift
receiver would like his driveway sealed, or lawn mowed for the summer, or
driveway plowed all winter, or games at the local golf course.

There are a bazillion owner-run restaurants -- all offering gift
certificates. And, if your intended isn't the fancy eatery sort, what about
a half dozen breakfasts at the local breakfast joint. Remember, folks this
isn't about big National chains -- this is about supporting your home town
Americans/ Canadians with their financial lives on the line to keep their doors open.

How many people couldn't use an oil change for their car, truck or
motorcycle, done at a shop run by the American/Canadian working guy?

Thinking about a heartfelt gift for mom? Mom would LOVE the services of a
local cleaning lady for a day.

My computer could use a tune-up, and I KNOW I can find some young guy who is
struggling to get his repair business up and running.

OK, you were looking for something more personal. Local crafts people spin
their own wool and knit them into scarves. They make jewelry, and pottery
and beautiful wooden boxes.

Plan your holiday outings at local, owner operated restaurants and leave
your server a nice tip. And, how about going out to see a play or ballet at
your hometown theatre.

Musicians need love too, so find a venue showcasing local bands.

Honestly, people, do you REALLY need to buy another ten thousand Chinese
lights for the house? When you buy a five dollar string of light, about
fifty cents stays in the community. If you have those kinds of bucks to
burn, leave the mailman, trash guy or babysitter a nice BIG tip.

You see, Christmas is no longer about draining American/Canadian pockets so that
China can build another glittering city. Christmas is now about caring about
US, encouraging American/Canadian small businesses to keep plugging away to follow
their dreams. And, when we care about other Americans, we care about our
communities, and the benefits come back to us in ways we couldn't imagine.
THIS is the new American/Canadian Christmas tradition.

Forward this to everyone on your mailing list -- post it to discussion
groups -- throw up a post on Craigslist in the Rants and Raves section in
your city -- send it to the editor of your local paper and radio stations,
and TV news departments. This is a revolution of caring about each other,
and isn't that what Christmas is about?
By: Vicki Mueller Roudonis

Chippy

2011-11-08T23:38:00.001-04:00

Well, Look at this little guy.

A little closer.

Closer!

Just a little more closer!

That did it – I’m outta here!

How do you end text messages?

2011-11-06T20:30:00.001-04:00

A big percentage of us do text messages, right? I have to admit, my thumbs don't talk as quickly as some of the young thumbs. But I get by most of the time.

My biggest problem is how do you end a conversation after several text messages back and forth?

Some people just stop texting. You never know whether they are finished or not. Especially if they are the kind that takes a couple minutes between each answer. So you sit on the other end and after a half hour you think, "Guess they are finished."

The other kind are the ones that say, "Well I guess I gotta go." (Remember this is not voice, this is text.)

"Okay, talk to ya next time."

"Good talkin' to ya, nite."

"Yeah good night, talk later."

"Later."

"Bye for now."

"Yep, so long."

"Later, I'm gone."

This could go on for hours. Why can't texters take a lesson from the truckers who have been "CB-ing" for years:

"See Ya, Bye!"

How’s Your Clock?

2011-11-05T17:06:00.001-03:00

It’s that time of year again. Tonight we do it.

Set your clocks back one hour.

This is an intensive operation not to be taken lightly.

You have to get those clocks off the wall, set the time back an hour once you find the doo-ma-jiggy, and then get it back on the hanger on the wall with less than two four letter words.

Then there’s the ones where you have to hold one button in, change the hour with another button with the other hand, and watch the display at the same time. Ever notice how the digits speed up just as you get close to the correct time?

Don’t forget the one where you have to hold the button in and go all the way around 23 hrs. to get the time set correctly. See if you can get that one first time around.

You just cut your finger nails didn’t you? And you still have all those tiny stem watches to set back. Don’t laugh ladies, the long finger nails don’t work on stems either.

And then there’s the VCR. - - Don’t worry about that one. Its been flashing 12:00 since 1972.

The car, the car, don’t forget the car. At least you can sit down while pushing those hold buttons. Where did you say the manual is?

In the morning the fun begins. Which one did you miss. If not tomorrow, then days later, you will always find one time piece chugging along an hour ahead of time.

Hope someone calls you so your cell phone can set itself.

P.S Daylight Saving Time huh? I don’t get it. Daylight comes our way throughout the day in its own time frame, and leaves the same way. You can’t save it. I can’t take this daylight hour and save it until 10 o’clock tonight to use when I feel like it.

Early Lights

2011-11-03T22:25:00.001-03:00

Lots of controversy these days that Christmas lights shouldn’t be put up until after November 11th in honour of our veterans.

I certainly believe in honouring veterans young and old, everywhere, that have enabled us to live the life we have today with all its freedom and goodness. We take so much for granted, and often fail to see tiny bits of it being taken silently away.

But what does that have to do with Christmas lights? Personally I don’t want to see a single Christmas light until the 1st of December. It makes me cringe to see various businesses set up Christmas displays in October or sometimes even earlier than that.

Although I admit, I did leave my outside Christmas lights up all year once, many years ago. The only purpose was to save two bouts of labour, they would not be turned on until December. That was the year I looked at the bulbs real close, discovering the paint was on the outside of the bulbs. By December of the following year I had all white bulbs.

The two bouts of labour took place all in one day – at below freezing temperatures, in high wind. Lesson learned.

I don’t suppose the new LED bulbs would be like that would they? ~

Boo!

2011-10-31T22:52:00.001-03:00

Halloween is over once again. Times have changed.

I don’t know which is the worst.

Going door to door one hour before it even gets dark.

Carrying small kids to the doorstep, running back to the street, while the young’un rings the bell, then running up and retrieving junior again.

Sending junior up to the door with an empty plastic pumpkin to get some goodies, then returning the pumpkin to mom & dad to empty in a huge bag before the trek to the next door – with an empty pumpkin.

Or . . .

Dressing up dogs on TV to make them look like idiot monsters.

Don’t you hate websites

2011-10-30T23:56:00.001-03:00

Don’t you hate websites that:

Ask you to enter your postal code before you can see the rest of the page.
Have a pop-up that asks if you want their free newsletter every time you reach the title page.
Have a pop-up that asks if you want to help them by filling out a survey after you leave.
Use those funny captcha thingy's with letters you can never read.
Make you click through four pages for that free download that will start immediately.
Have a count down timer making you wait minutes before you can download the free file unless you purchase the pro version.
Have dark grey text on a light grey background that old eyes can’t see clearly.
Open pop up pages that have no ‘close’ or ‘x’ to get rid of them.

Thought so!

Mixed Up Day

2011-10-29T21:48:00.001-03:00

Its been a mixed up day.

The telephone rang, and I picked up the phone and said, “Hello, hello, ….hello…” then I noticed the TV channels changing.

Some time later I was sick of the same old stuff on TV and thought I would flip through the channels. Point it up, point it down, push the button and nothing happens. Friggin’ thing never works. Then I heard the dial tone.

Brought to you by a Senior Moment

Your Computer Is Causing Errors - 6th call

2011-10-27T23:01:00.001-03:00

This is getting to be a regular Thursday call. They either like this number or the script is stuck on page one.

I won’t relate the conversation, it went pretty much the same way, you’re computer is causing errors, it will destroy your computer and so on. Same technician story from MS.

Funny, I was the same person too, with the multi computers, and bozo picked the wrong operating system that I didn’t have. Love wasting their time like they waste mine.

Only this time I told Mr. Accent what their previous supervisor had told me last week. F.. my computers, call the f.. police, we don’t care. Talk about instant hang up.

I’ve made up a script for me too. If they call next week, I have another avenue to try. This could go on, and on, and on …

If you would like to read about how they do their technique, this write up at Windows Secrets describes it to a ‘T’. Scroll down to

What you should know about Windows’ Event Viewer

to read their procedure, something you wouldn’t want just anyone doing on your computer.

Where Is My Little Cat?

2011-10-26T20:52:00.001-03:00

“Goodbye Bully”

A sad day in our household today, we had to say goodbye to our little furry friend. Only pet owners would understand.

His name was Bullet, because he traveled all over the place at times while playing, at the speed of a bullet. Of course his nickname became Bully.

A loyal friend for so many years, no matter what, so full of unconditional love.

Everyone’s pet has so many special characteristics and Bully was unique with his.

It was normal from time to time to wake up in the morning and find all the closet doors opened overnight.

Many was the time while I was writing this very blog that Bully would hop up on my lap, and lay down placing his two paws on my arm to prevent me from typing or using the mouse.

And no matter who was coming or what time, Bully was always running to the door to say hello.

There are many more, the list could be long, but the one I will leave with is pretty neat to say the least. Most people say cats don’t understand or won’t do anything. I must say my wife when she was with us, taught him this one somehow. She would say: “Where is my little cat?” Bully would appear in seconds every single time.

After her passing, he would answer me by showing his presence if I said, “Where is my little cat?” But he wouldn’t for anyone else.

Bully lived a good life with us for many years, and we certainly had a good and rewarding life with him.

I am sure I will hear those words silently and often, for the rest of my years. “Where is my little cat?” And in my mind he will come running.

They're Making Things Smaller

2011-10-25T23:44:00.001-03:00

They are making things smaller, for the same price of course. I've mentioned some things before.

Ever notice the size of a loaf of bread? There's a few slices missing, compared to a year ago.

Check out the buns. No not those, the ones you eat. Notice the size, smaller around and less thick.

Look at the cookies. The bag is only partially filled, and the cookies, pretty small diameter and darn thin to boot.

How about the boxes of cereal? Thinner, and shorter.

Do they think we aren't going to notice?

Darn, even the print is smaller. I can hardly read the labels.

Age you say? Well the nerve ...

Driving through water

2011-10-24T23:07:00.001-03:00

With all the heavy rains we've had around the country, along with severe flooding at times, I am amazed so many people haven't a clue of how to safely drive through water.

You see it all the time. Drivers going at high speed trying to get through a large area of water covered road. High speed in this case is anything more than a walking pace.

And many of said drivers end up stalled in the middle of the water covered area. Right where they deserve as far as I am concerned. When you see a vehicle heading into water with the splash flying everywhere that driver is asking for problems.

Lets look at why this is so.

First of all you don't know what's under that water. The road could be washed out, you may be driving into a large hole. Manhole covers may have been misplaced, or other debris that you can't see lurking under the water.

It takes three things to keep an engine running. Ignition, fuel and air.

Driving fast through water can get the engine and ignition parts wet. Water conducts electricity. If the ignition gets wet, the engine will misfire and possibly quit. If the fan is running you can be quite sure everything is going to be more than wet.

If water gets into the air cleaner & intake, the engine is also going to quit pretty quickly. Cars today are made pretty good and designed to run well in the rain, but not to go high speed through large bodies of water. That's what boats are for.

Consequently, often when you see the shots on TV, you often see the vehicles flying through the water, and then some stopped in the deepest part. There is no advantage of driving through deep water at high speed. The risks are increased immensely.

If you must drive through a large quantity of water, the way to do it is drive less than a walking pace. Don't make the water 'wave' anymore than necessary. Be prepared for unknown obstructions. And if you do make it successfully through, remember your brakes will be wet. Feather them slightly to dry them out and be prepared for longer stopping distances for the next couple of stops. (Feather means apply the brakes slightly while driving, but not enough to slow the vehicle.)

Temperature Again Already

2011-10-23T08:58:00.001-03:00

Snowbirds go south for the winter right? I’m talking about the human kind that roll off towards places that don’t have snow. And we all have our favourite places like Panama City Beach.

Yesterday and today I began checking the temperatures again. Remember last year during the winter I compared the local temperatures and for a time it was warmer here in Nova Scotia than it was at our southern base?

Its happening again.

This is the temperature today in our warm(?) southern spot.

This is the temperature “back home” where we usually hang out.

Its only the end of October, a month to go, what will the temperature be like then?

I know, go further south, its warmer, but we like Panama City Beach best.

Are they doing it to me again? Am I heading to Frosty Florida again? Come on, they had the hottest, dry summer ever. Don’t change it now. I already got pictures of frost on the palm trees.

5th Call – Your Computer Is Causing Errors

2011-10-21T18:45:00.001-03:00

I think they like me. Calls are only days apart now.

Last night the conversation went like this. The accent was extremely heavy, and the line very noisy with a lot of background conversation noise. Their names have been upgraded. -=Edited for length=-

Idiot #1: Good evening sir, this is Daniel calling from Computer Support Services. Your com-pu-ter is causing massive errors on the internet, and it must be corrected immediately.”

Me: “Who did you say this is?”

Idiot #1: “Daniel, calling to fix your computer’s errors.”

Me: “Who did you say your were?”

Idiot #1: “I am calling about errors from your computer. Are you by your computer now. I will show you errors.”

Me: “But who are you, do you work for Microsoft?”

Idiot #1: “No. Yes. Computer service. I am Engineer Technician.”

Me: “From Microsoft?”

Idiot #1: “Yes, support services.”

Me: “Tell me something. (caller babbles on non-stop) Shut up and let me talk for a moment. (Silence) I was just talking to Microsoft moments ago, and the caller Id said ‘Microsoft,’ with a number. How come your number is completely blocked?”

Idiot #1: “Huh? Oh, is a big company you know. There are many phones, they all don’t show the number on the telly phone.”

Me: “I am inclined not to believe a word you are saying.”

Idiot #1: “Just a moment sir, I will get my supervisor, ok? Ok?”

Me: “Sure, go ahead.”

2nd Idiot comes on the phone. Clear line, less of an accent.

Idiot #2: “Hello, hello, good evening sir, we are calling because your computer is causing many errors and it must be cleared up immediately.”

Me: “Great, who did you say you are?”

Idiot #2: “I am a supervisor.”

Me: “Supervisor of what?”

Idiot #2: “Computer support services. If you will start your computer we will show you the errors.”

(Here we go again.)

Me: “Which one is it?”

Idiot #2: “Your main computer, the one you use all the time.”

Me: “I use them all – all the time, tell me which one it is.”

Idiot #2: “Your main computer, it doesn’t matter, start any one of them, they all come through the same IP.”

Me: “If you are suggesting my computer is causing errors, you should be able to tell me which one and which operating system is causing it.”

Idiot #2: “How many you have.”

Me: “22”

Idiot #2: “You running a cyber cafe or something?”

Me: “It doesn’t matter what business I am doing, you need to tell me which computer is causing the problem.”

Idiot #2: “Any one with Windows XP or Vista on it.”

Me: “Listen, I think this has gone far enough. I don’t have any with XP or Vista. So you are a bit off track. I have a strong suggestion for you, don’t call this number anymore, or something will be done about it.” (And I do have a plan that will make for an interesting situation should another call arrive. Great for a follow-up story.)

Idiot #2: “Fu… You, You can call the police, you can call the military, we don’t give a Fu…! Fu… your 22 computers!”

CLICK!

And chapter 5 of the saga ends. Not bad, kept them on the phone for 20 minutes this time.

Solar Emergency Lights

2011-10-20T18:37:00.001-03:00

Thought this a great idea & worth passing on! Once again this is from one of those emails that get passed round & round. No person to credit it to, but it is such a useful novel idea.

... Last week, a thunderstorm rolled through our neighbourhood and a huge oak tree came down on some power lines, creating a power outage for a large area around us. We lost power for about 5 hours.

We were scrambling around in the darkness, looking for matches, candles, flashlights, etc.

We looked outside, and noticed our solar lights shining brightly all around our patio, stairs, dock, etc. They were beautiful. Pat walked outside, and brought several of the solar lights inside.

We stuck the solar light pipes into plastic drink bottles containers and they made the nicest, brightest, safest, lighting you could ever imagine.

We put one in the bathroom, the kitchen, the living room, etc. There was plenty of light. There are all types of solar lights available. We put them all around our yard. They look nice and they do not attract flying bugs like the outdoor lights around our doorway.

The lights we have fit into the small (20oz) water bottles and they also fit into most of the larger liter bottles. If you need a weight in the plastic bottle to keep them from tipping over, you can put a few of the pretty colorful "flat marbles" that they put in aquariums, and vases. (you can also use sand, aquarium gravel, etc., whatever you have available).

The lights we have were perfect inside our home. They burn all night long if you need them.

The next day, you just take your solar lights back outside and they will instantly recharge and be ready for you to use again any time you need them. Perfect for power outages, hurricanes, etc.

Ship Building–Ark?

2011-10-19T23:31:00.001-03:00

It was announced today that Halifax, Nova Scotia was granted a 25 billion dollar ship building contract. This is great news for my home province.

The weather department (Environment Canada) announced a heavy rainfall warning. Up to 90 mm over the next day and a half.

I am sitting here thinking, maybe they should get a move on. Might be needing an Ark real soon. Just saying …

Taps–Il Silenzio

2011-10-18T23:56:00.001-03:00

Quote:

“Amazingly beautiful .. Melissa Venema, age 13, is the trumpet soloist.

Here is Taps played in its entirety. The Original version of Taps was called Last Post, and was written by Daniel Butterfield in 1801. It was rather lengthy and formal, as you will hear in this clip, so in 1862 it was shortened to 24 notes and re-named Taps. Melissa Venema is playing it on a trumpet whereby the original was played on a bugle.

The conductor of the orchestra is Andre Rieu from Holland . The young lady, her trumpet and her rendition of TAPS makes your hair stand on end. Many of you may never have heard taps played in its entirety, for all of the men & women that have died for you to have the freedom you have in America .. This is an opportunity you won't want to miss and I guarantee you'll never forget.”

End Quote!

I’ve heard many versions of this and here is one of the best.

Just The Fax

2011-10-17T23:24:00.001-03:00

Why do some companies still use the Fax machine? I suppose each has their own particular reason for doing so, but aren’t they kind of old tech now?

Now days when some place requests you fax a form back to them or something similar, it becomes a bit of a pain. You can search out a local business or post office and for a fee that is usually way too much they will send the fax for you. Figure in the cost of fuel and your time and the cost per sheet can be more than reasonable.

This spring I had some dealings with Sony corporation where they had to send me a form by e-mail to sign, and I was requested to send it back.

Their instructions: Please print out the attached form, sign it, then scan and send it back to us by e-mail. If that is not possible, please find a local fax machine.

What a novel idea. Print it, scan it, and e-mail it. Kudos to Sony. The process was completed in about 15 minutes.

Most computer users have a scanner these days, why can’t more companies and businesses follow this procedure? And most scanners will scan directly to PDF, the most universal type of document.

If the above process is not possible, my next preferred method would be to use Skype. Yes Skype does Fax. Partnered with PamFax it is possible to Fax at a reasonable cost. The only catch is you need to put a small amount in an account. The price is reasonable per page, but if you only need to send one page once in a long while, the rest of your deposit may sit there for awhile.

Still, if you drive all over town and find that place that will fax your one page, the cost per page, plus the fuel you used will likely exceed that deposit.

Keyboard–Forget–Mouse

2011-10-16T20:54:00.001-03:00

I’ve said many times I am a keyboard person, I much prefer starting programs with keyboard shortcuts and shortcut programs, rather than the mouse.

It just seems easier. And quicker. For me.

There is one exception.

Now that I have reached the age of no schedules, no commitments, sleep in as long as you want, there is one problem. A possible set back.

Have you ever gone down stairs and forgot what you went down for? Can’t remember a thing until you go back upstairs, and ‘bam’ it hits you.

That’s the problem with being a keyboarder.

What happens when you can’t remember the name of the program you always use? You use it every day right? Its… its …

Oh dang – don’t tell me you have to lower yourself to use the menu.

Wait! That means you, keyboard person, probably have to use the mouse. Sure you can open the menu with the Windows key. But it takes longer to scroll up and down opening the subs.

Well look at that. The old brain kicked in just as your hand touches the mouse. Knew the name of the program all along. May as well click it, we’re there now.

(If you see a keyboard with this key included, please let me know.)

Kids–Don’t Mess With My Computer

2011-10-15T22:45:00.001-03:00

This is a message for sons, daughters, grand kids, anyone that visits.

Over the past year I have had quite a few requests for assistance to fix a computer that is running slow, does crazy things on its own, or barely runs at all.

The most common reason:

A relative who had been visiting downloaded a bunch of “stuff” while they used Mom’s or Dad’s computer.

The nice things you download from Facebook, Twitter, Messenger and other places may be your favourite little gems, but probably don’t do much for Mom’s or Grandma’s computer after you leave and they need it for more important things.

If someone gives you permission, or you use someone’s computer, don’t download stuff on it.

First of all, they don’t know you downloaded it until trouble erupts.

Second, what may seem like the best program add-on since the Commodore 64 to you, likely won’t rate a Z minus when the computer fails.

After all, when someone lets you use their computer, that is quite a courtesy, and should be appreciated and used cautiously.

This message is not only for sons, daughters, grand kids, that visit, but anyone that uses someone’s computer with permission.

(I sure hope you don’t use someone’s computer without permission.)

My Computer Is Producing Errors–again :)

2011-10-14T20:57:00.001-03:00

Got that phone call again, (that’s four times this summer,) that my computer is producing errors. It could crash any time. It could ruin my hard drive. Its even worse than a virus. That’s why my computer is running so slow. (I didn’t know it was, seems fast to me.) It is sending errors to everyone.

By the way, this call is from an engineer technician at the Microsoft technical division. Let’s listen in.

Phantom Tech: “This is causing problems for everyone, not only you, and has to be fixed. Would you like to see the errors?”

Me: “ First you have to tell me which computer it is.”

Phantom Tech: “Your main computer, the one you use all the time.”

Me: “I have more than one main computer, which one is it?”

Phantom Tech: : “The one with Xp Windows 7.” (more babbling on about all the errors my computer is doing.)

Me: “ Sir, you listen to me for a minute. Sir? Listen to me. You called me saying my computer is producing errors. I have more than one computer. You should be able to tell me which one.”

Phantom Tech: “More than one of your computers is (sic) causing errors. We need to look at them. Are you beside your computer?”

Me: “When you first called you said my computer is causing errors, not computers. So you should be able to tell me which one it is.”

The b-turd hung up on me. I was just getting wound up.

A MS tech alright, they never give up I guess. I could almost understand him. Blocked caller ID. Hey, that’s for next time. Next time I will work on them to see why their caller ID is blocked.

Some fun nobody fightin’.

Not True

2011-10-13T20:54:00.001-03:00

Today back to Computer Tips

Every time I see this or similar statements it irks me to no end.

You need a PDF reader to read these files, but it doesn’t necessarily have to be Adobe Reader. Adobe Reader is fine if you already have it and are happy with it.

There are alternatives.

My favourite by far is Foxit Reader. It is smaller, much faster and doesn’t load a bunch of stuff that is not needed.

Another option could be Nitro PDF reader.

If you search Google you will find many other PDF readers.

So remember, when you see insistence such as that above, there are choices.

Its the road’s fault

2011-10-13T00:17:00.001-03:00

The statements were in the news several times over the last few days, following some severe traffic collisions. (They call them accidents. I spent a good part of my working lifetime as a driver trainer for large vehicles. There are very few “accidents.” They are collisions.)

The statements I am referring to go like this: “That road is terrible, it should be twinned.” “If proper road maintenance was done it wouldn’t have happened.” “That road is dangerous, they should do something about it.”

How can the fault of a collision be the road? Its the driver, pure and simple. Are we not supposed to adjust our driving to conditions? Conditions do include the weather, traffic, and other awareness things. The biggest condition we need to be aware of is the road, pure and simple.

I regularly see drivers texting while driving. They are not aware of conditions.

I regularly see drivers speeding way above the speed limit. They are not aware of conditions.

I regularly see drivers passing where they are not allowed to. They are not aware of conditions.

And on it goes.

Heck, there are so many drivers that don’t slow down for heavy rain, icing and other natural weather occurrences it is just amazing. No, its sickening.

I think the worst thing I have seen this year, more than once I might add, is vehicles with the words “Student Driver” on them, making continuous infractions in just a few kilometres. No a student wasn’t driving, I can only assume it was the instructor. Are our driver training programs working?

Some final thoughts.

When you see skid marks on the pavement, it means a driver spotted a hazard - - - too late!

When you see a rental truck or cube van on the road, does it tell you anything? It should. Not always, but there is a great possibility that the person driving it may not be used to that type of vehicle. Be prepared.

Mouse Enforcer

2011-10-11T22:41:00.001-03:00

I've said many times I am primarily a keyboard user most of the time. Sure I use the mouse at times when looking through web pages and doing some things. However when I get down to business doing things with programs I almost always use the keyboard.

When you are used to it and remember the shortcuts, its easier and quicker. You've heard it before, if your hand is already on the mouse, the mouse can be quicker. If you are typing or your hands are already over the keyboard, then for most the keyboard is quicker. That includes starting additional programs or using the menu items.

What irks me is that a lot of sites are starting to force me to use the mouse.

Many survey sites are especially forceful. " Do not use the mouse, or the forward & backward arrows, click on the arrow to move ahead or back."

That's fine if you can click the dots or the answer with the mouse. But often you have to type in a response, then you have to use the mouse to scroll down to see the aforementioned arrow that you must click.

It would be much easier to use the keyboard to scroll down (space bar or down arrow) and use the arrow key or enter to move forward. Nope can't do that. Must type, then fiddle with the mouse. That's why, if you have ever completed one, the instructions say it is a 10 minute survey, and it takes you 25 or more to finish.

It's not limited to surveys.

Banking sites often say "don't use the back key or you will pay your bill twice," or similar things.

Quite a few web pages seem to be set up so you must click on the page before the keyboard input will work. And even then, sometimes certain keyboard standards won't work. For example, the space bar won't scroll the page down. You must use the mouse wheel or left click and drag.

Things can really get frustrating if you are using a portable with only a touch pad.

They removed the mouse balls, then the tail, all for the sake of wireless. Is this animal input cruelty?

makeuseof

2011-10-10T20:20:00.001-03:00

Since the main purpose of our sites is to help make computer users lives easier, with a little entertainment here and there I thought I would mention another site that has so much good material you won’t believe it until you see it.

The name of the site is makeuseof.

There are guides, answers, best of suggestions and books of how to information that you can download. You have to register (free) for a password to get all the downloads, but it is certainly worth it.

They, meaning there is a crew of people working at the site, also have an RSS feed, Facebook page and Twitter, for ways to keep up with their new material. And new material is regularly produced.

There is information on just about any technology you can think of, easy to understand, detailed and in a web site format that is easy to find what you want and avoid what you don’t want.

makeuseof their site, it is worthwhile to have a look.

Thanksgiving

2011-10-09T16:48:00.001-03:00

This is the Canadian Thanksgiving weekend, a time when we are to reflect on what we are thankful for.

* I am thankful to be here.

* I am thankful for my family.

* I am thankful for everything I have.

* I am thankful for all my new friends.

* I am thankful for all my old friends.

* I am thankful that I have a home and food to eat.

* I am thankful to be living in a wonderful country.

* I am thankful to be able to go south for the winter.

* I am thankful for the visitors to my web site and this blog.

These days it is easy to think of negative things. When you really think about it, there are many things
we take for granted that we should really take the time to appreciate - often, not just at Thanksgiving.

This list could have been many more screens long. Lets just say "I am very thankful, for so much."

What Makes 100%?

2011-10-08T17:19:00.001-03:00

I got this in an email, author unknown, so credit to the original publishers. It does make sense…

Mathematics:
This comes from 2 math teachers with a combined total of 70 yrs. experience.
It has an indisputable mathematical logic.

This is a strictly ..... mathematical viewpoint.. and it goes like this:
What Makes 100%?
What does it mean to give MORE than 100%?

Ever wonder about those people who say they are giving more than 100%? We
have all been to those meetings where someone wants you to give over 100%.
How about achieving 103%?
What makes up 100% in life?

Here's a little mathematical formula that might help you answer these
questions:

If:
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Is represented as:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26.

Then:
H-A-R-D-W-O-R-K
8+1+18+4+23+15+18+11 = 98%

And
K-N-O-W-L-E-D-G-E
11+14+15+23+12+5+4+7+5 = 96%

But ,
A-T-T-I-T-U-D-E
1+20+20+9+20+21+4+5 = 100%

And,
B-U-L-L-S-H-I-T
2+21+12+12+19+8+9+20 = 103%

AND, look how far ass kissing will take you.
A-S-S-K-I-S-S-I-N-G
1+19+19+11+9+19+19+9+14+7 = 118%

So, one can conclude with mathematical certainty, that while Hard work and
Knowledge will get you close, and Attitude will get you there.

Its the Bullshit and Ass Kissing that will put you over the top.
Now you know why some people are where they are!

Entertainment Tonight

2011-10-07T21:28:00.001-03:00

You probably know about the program Entertainment Tonight.

Just wondering. If you record it and watch it tomorrow, is it still Entertainment Tonight?

Or would it be Entertainment Last Night?

Or Entertainment Yesterday?

Or perhaps its Entertainment Tomorrow because that's when you’ll be watching it.

If you record it and watch it in the daytime it could be Entertainment today, or tomorrow ...

Oh never mind, I'll watch something else.

Self Checkout

2011-10-06T17:22:00.001-03:00

Do you use self-checkout kiosks at stores? That was the question on a survey touted by many media outlets as filler material recently.

Most responses included the fact that an interaction with a cashier was much more pleasant and satisfying.

They didn't say much about the interaction with the self-checkout machine. My few experiences with such a device went like this:

"You are ready to scan your items."

"Are you ready to scan your items?"

Well yes, you just told me I was.

"Please scan your first item."

Beep!

"Place the item in the bag, <pause> scan the next item."

Beep!

"Place the item in the bag. <pause> you did not scan the item."

"The items in the bag weigh heavier than the items you scanned."
"Please re-scan the last item."

Beep!

"Thank you. <pause> Place the item in the bag."

"Do not remove the bag!"

I never touched the freakin' bag.

"Please scan the next item. Press finish if you are finished."

Looking for button. There is ,<Exit>,< End>,< Stop>, but no <Finish>. I try <End>.

"You cannot end the transaction. You have scanned items that have not been paid for."

So I press<End>.

"Do not press end. Scanned items need to be paid for."

I do nothing. Just stand and look at the LCD display.

"Please select method of payment."

I knew it would come around eventually. I select Credit Card.

"Please insert your card."

Card inserted.

"I am unable to read your card, please insert the card according to the diagram."

I flip it around the other way.

"I am unable to read your card, please insert the card according to the diagram."

"Your card is unreadable. Please stand by. An attendant will be with you shortly."

My half dozen tries at using self-checkouts all went something like this, unless I had only one single item. If the attendant was there and walked me through the whole process, it worked every time.

So for the people of that survey that said they prefer the interaction with a cashier, try self checkout. You get a much more involved interaction. I guarantee you will talk to the machine. You will talk to yourself. And you also get to talk to the attendant cashier once she/he gets finished with the other six customers.

What better interaction is there than that?

Eat out–way out

2011-10-05T20:37:00.001-03:00

My theory of eating

I'm different - I don't like eating out. No restaurants, no fast foods, no social gatherings if food is involved.

That's weird right? Most people can't wait to go somewhere for lunch, dinner or whatever banquet pops up.

I don't like exotic spicy tangy sticky stringy foods. I am a meat and potatoes type of person, as plain as you can get, no coleslaw, no tartar sauce, no dip, no frills.

History

I grew up on a farm. Food was plentiful, all kinds of it. I was never forced to eat anything I didn't care for.

As life went on I found eating to be something you had to do to survive. At times, to me, it was a royal pain. Here's why. You would be busy doing something when you got that call: "Dinner's ready!" So you had to drop what you were doing and take time to eat.

After eating you got groggy and didn't feel very ambitious for an hour or more. Finally you get back at what you were doing. Then the call again: "Supper time!" (You can see how long the grog was.)

Another interruption from what you were doing. No wonder some jobs take days instead of hours.

I am not going to mention anything about the business people that take an hour lunch that lasts two and a half hours. Full days work for a full days pay.

I'm Sticking To It

I made up my mind at an early age that I am not going to eat anything I don't like, no matter what.

And, I am not going to eat anything I don't like the look of, or don't like the smell of.

Try It You'll Like It

I've heard that so often, now I just block it out. Why do I need to try something that someone else likes or thinks is good? I don't want anything new, and if I do it will be when I think its right, not at your fancy meal where I can't barf it into the plant if I don't like it.

Think about it. If at someone else's urging, you try something new at a group gathering and you don't like it, you are forced to swallow it and like it whether you do or not.

Eating Out Roadmap

Eating out usually goes something like this. A joint - sorry a place, is chosen. It doesn't matter where it is. If it has a fancy sounding name that has been bantered about, its in.

One or more of the following things usually happen.
You get there and hopefully find a parking spot near by. Remember the best easting places have the least amount of parking spaces.
P.S. a lot of trucks outside doesn't mean its a good eating place. It means they have a huge lot big enough to park trucks.
Inside the door you wait, and wait, and wait to be seated. If you are lucky, you will get a normal table with chairs. Or you may end up with a booth for four to hold the six of you. If its really your lucky day, you could end up with chairs six feet off the floor at one of those tower tables. No ladders for short people, and tall people can jump down. Feel the breeze?
There may be multiple flat screen TVs, with a different program on each one. You always face the program you don't like.
Many places supply music that will always be so loud you can't hear the waitress, or each other, with the tone of a cheap transistor radio from the sixties. Or was that the fifties?
You will smile and pretend to talk to each other about nothing that has any importance, because you can't hear each other, and marvel at how good the food is, whether it is or not. (Notice how dim the lights are? Candle light dinner my foot.)

Wind Up

So here's my take on the situation of eating out. Why go to a restaurant and pay twenty five times as much, for something you don't like, and have to hear music so loud you can't hear the conversations of the person next to you, and may end up getting high by sitting on a six foot high chair?

Who needs that when I can go to the fridge, grab a slice of turkey, butter, and a couple slices of bread on the way by the cupboard, assemble it, down it, with a splash of soft drink, burp, far... better and - I control the volume of the music.

Size Matters

2011-10-04T22:35:00.001-03:00

"My TV is bigger than yours. I've got a 52 inch."

"So, I've got a 72 inch."

"I can watch TV on my computer."

"My laptop has TV."

"Wow, TV on my netbook."

"I can watch TV on my iPad."

"I can watch TV on my phone."

Size does matter - as the years go by, everything gets smaller.

You're sending me that stupid email again?

2011-10-03T20:37:00.001-03:00

Too bad they don't have replacement memory chips for humans.

I can't think of any other reason why I get the same e-mail joke, video or whatever from you three or four times. That's right, not twice, but three or four times.

Sometimes the time span is weeks, sometimes months or even a year. But there it is again in my inbox. Its okay because I always read everything over and over three or four times.

There are only two explanations I can think of.

1) Your memory is worse than mine. Otherwise I would think it is a brand new e-mail.

2) You don't read them yourself, and just forward them to everyone on your list.

I enjoy reading the list of email addresses you neglected to hide because you didn't use bcc, they are far more interesting than the repeated content. I could have some fun with those.

By the way its nice of you to check the email for virus content with your free virus checker. I didn't have to read that either, its always there.

And that advertisement for the free email program you use, bonus, I like the little butter flies. I wouldn't use it though, it might take a byte our of my computer or hatch a bug in one of my programs.

The only thing I didn't like was that little tracker that verifies an active e-mail address.

No means no

2011-10-02T20:26:00.001-03:00

For years it has been drilled into us that no means no. I am sure we all understand what that means.

It means no, right?

Well apparently not. There's a high profile advertisement on local TV here that ends in a fade to black with a lady saying, "I won't take no for an answer."

Huh?

Facebook Spam

2011-10-01T21:10:00.001-03:00

Spam emails get to me, forward forward forward this, or you'll lose everything you have. (Including these emails?)

Now Facebook has spam. Spam in your face.

Post this on your status if you know someone that has or has been affected by lack of something else to put there.

If you love (insert kids, wife, grandmother, someone) post this to your status. I know the ones who will post this and bet I know those who won't. (Then why in heck are you asking?)

The first requests were only a few lines long. Now days they are a full screen long. If everyone posts to their status we can keep this spam rolling for nine screens.

Status updates started out as a line or two. Then a longer paragraph.

Now you have status updates that tell a complete story that goes on and on for two, maybe more, screens.

Heck some of them go on for days, even weeks.

Isn't that what e-mail or some other medium is for? I think I know why Twitter limits posts to a certain amount of characters.

I think I am going to like Google +. At least I can put it in a circle and it will go round and round.

Go Button

2011-09-30T14:37:00.001-03:00

Why do some web site designers put a "Go" button beside their drop down selection box?

As you see here, you use the drop down menu to select an item, and it sits there. You have to click the "Go" button to get the page you want.

Why the extra step?

I design my own web site and use these drop down lists frequently. It is very easy to say you don't want the "Go" button.

When a user selects the item they want, the site immediately takes them to that page. No delay, no extra clicks.

There must be a reason for the "Go" button, darned if I know what it could be.

When you lose your sunglasses and they are on your forehead…

2011-09-29T14:22:00.001-03:00

As I was about to get in bed last night there was this loud crash.

"What fell on the floor?" she says.

As I looked at the night table and observed my glasses were not there, "My friggin' glasses," I said.

"Oh oh, that doesn't sound good," she replies.

As I search the floor looking for my glasses and they are nowhere to be found, it hits me! "Oh s--- I got them on," I have to say.

It was the TV remote that hit the floor.

Tell me that wasn't good for a laugh and a half - I can see clearly now...

New Updates Available

2011-09-28T14:47:00.001-03:00

So Many Updates

I don't know about you, but it seems to me every time I turn the computer on there is a long list of updates waiting. And my computers are on every day, and used many times a day.

And it seems they all say important - security related. So that makes you want to do the update right away.

Firefox & Thunderbird

On top of that we have programs like Firefox & Thunderbird, that do upgrades every few months with little more benefit than what appears to be a version number change.

Then most of the extensions or add-ons for those programs don't work anymore, until days later when the authors finally get them upgraded too. You have to keep checking to see if they are updated so everything will work like it used to.

That used to happen about once a year or so. Now it is every month or couple of months. I spend a lot of time just keeping up with updates.

How come the programmers can't get it right like they used to? Seems to me it is a version war to see who can get the biggest version number fastest.

Custom Install

The category I hate the most is those programs everyone almost have to use such as 'java' and their updates always include a little "gotcha". Unless you do a custom install and pay attention, you will end up with an unwanted Yahoo tool bar, or with some others your search engine and home page changed to ask.com.

I've said here many times, always do a custom install when possible and pay attention to the little boxes that are checked. When in doubt, always uncheck. If you miss anything important you can always go back later via preferences setting in the program.

Important

Whether it is intentional or not, I notice some programs that didn't do it before, are now putting the choice of custom install in a drop down list. You will find an arrow beside (or part of) the install button or the next button. If you just click the box you get the regular install. Click the arrow and the drop down list appears, giving the custom install option, and sometimes some other choices.

Sneaky, it gives the impression custom install is not necessary.

Whether you are installing a program for the first time, or doing an update, make sure you take your time and know what you are clicking on.

All this updating is becoming frustrating. It is beginning to make me want to search for alternate or replacement programs that aren't updated so often. Or at least those that can update their add-ons at the same time by themselves.

Save Online Articles Without Additional Sign In - Print to PDF

2011-09-27T20:27:00.001-03:00

One of my favourite newsletters has a habit which really burns me to no end. I get this fancy web style newsletter which is often filled with articles of information I find valuable. Usually there is one or two I would like to keep for reference.

"Click here to download this article in PDF format," it says.

Free Registration Required

So you click, and it leads you to another page that says "sign in," free registration is required. Even if you have already registered, you still wait for another page and wait for the download to begin.

That's a lot of clicking and waiting, plus it takes a lot of time if you have other e-mail or newsletters waiting.

Print to PDF

There is an easier way.

Just install one of the many PDF printers that are available for free. There are many of them, and most work equally well. Basically its a printer driver that when installed adds a "print to PDF" option on your drop down printer list.

doPDF, CutePDF, PrimoPDF, PDF Creator to name a few I have tried, and they all work equally well.

Now when you read that article, and want to keep a copy of it, just highlight the area you want to save, click print, select print to PDF, select print selection - it will ask you for a file name and where to save it. Just like that you have your own copy of the article for ready reference quicker than you can read this paragraph.

I use this method often, not just for newsletters, but for most written material I want to save. You can include graphics & pictures too. Much faster and more convenient than signing in to additional pages.

Tip: Some articles may not be all on one web page. Look for the 'print' icon near the article. They don't all have it, but when they do, it opens the full article as one document which you can print to PDF.

Responsible Dog Owners

2011-09-26T20:42:00.001-03:00

Is there any such thing?

Now before you loyal dog owners get upset with me, hear me out. Throughout this summer at my home location the media has had numerous stories regarding dog owners.

Stories of dog owners not cleaning up after their pets being quite common. Dogs running off leash in public areas gathered some attention. The most upsetting stories about dogs this summer were those where people, including small children were bitten by dogs on the loose. In many cases the owners were present or near by when the incident occurred.

Ask any driver if they are a good driver, and most likely they will say yes, and point out examples of other bad drivers.

Ask any dog owner about responsible dog owners, and they are always responsible. It's other dog owners that don't meet the criteria.

However to answer the question at the beginning of this post, here are my observations.

It goes along with that saying, "If a tree falls in the forest and there is no one there, does it make a noise."

There are responsible dog owners - if someone is there, watching.

If no one is there, (or the owner thinks no one is around), then many will cheat a little, or a lot.

Whether it be clean up, running off leash, or whatever, I've watched more than one responsible dog owner avoid the obvious.

When confronted, I've seen owners get angry and call others names, and I've seen pickup bags suddenly appear where there didn't seem to be any before.

Please understand, I like dogs, I was an owner myself a few years ago, until 15 year old Sam had to be put down. To this day I still miss him.

I don't blame the dogs at all, for it is almost impossible for them to train humans to do what they are supposed to do.

Kind of one sided isn't it.

No self advertising in forums.

2011-09-24T16:43:00.001-03:00

By now you probably know the site nscave.com has a primary purpose designed to assist people with computer hints, tips and solutions. Sure it has other sections related to travel, and is related to this blog. Its main purpose though is to assist people in enjoying everyday technology.

You are one bad individual.
Not long ago I got a stern lashing that I was not supposed to have any signature or tag line related to this site when answering peoples problems in a certain big name forum.

Consequently I do not answer any problems for anyone on this forum anymore. That's sad. For often I have had a reasonable answer for some of their woes.

The tag line used was (¯`·._.·ns¢ävË·._.·´¯)

I have this set on my computer so that it automatically appears whenever I comment or write anything. Its identification that the comment really came from us.

As an after thought it struck me funny that the big name site mentioned has their C logo more than once on every page, every email, every newsletter, every blog and video clip multiple times that they are even remotely involved in.

Don't get me wrong, their forum policy says no site promotion. It's all in interpretation. To me (¯`·._.·ns¢ävË·._.·´¯) is a signature.

This would be site promotion:

Filling out online forms - it all disappears

2011-09-23T09:00:00.001-03:00

Have you ever been filling out an online form, get it almost ready and suddenly everything disappears? This can be especially annoying when you type a fairly large amount of text into one of those little boxes and you are ready to submit it and poof, its gone.

This can also happen on sites like Facebook where you fill out the little text box to comment or write on someone's wall.

This happens for various reasons. Sometimes its you. You accidently click on the wrong thing. Some boxes won't allow copy and paste, and if you do the entire box is erased. This applies also when you use the keyboard for the manoeuver such as CTRL+V.

Solution
My method of approaching this problem is to always type everything in a text editor first. Notepad will work, along with plenty of free notepad replacement programs such as Metapad, NoteTab Light and Notepad++.

Another program I find good for general word processing is Jarte. It has the advantage of being able to bold and a lot of other things that text editors don't have. Plus it saves to rtf and MS word format as well as text.

Just type your piece into the note pad program, then copy and paste it into the box on the site. In this case copy and paste will work fine so long as you are pasting everything you intend to write into the box at one time.

Click submit and the job is completed. Should anything go wrong you still have the original in your notepad program that you can use again. Much better than having to type a paragraph or more over again.

You know its going to be a bad day when:

2011-09-22T13:45:00.001-03:00

Ever have one of those days where everything starts to go wrong the minute you put your foot on the floor? You knock your glasses off the night stand on to the floor and you are afraid to move because you can't see where your glasses are without your glasses.

The bathroom door is shut and you know no one is in there because everyone is accounted for. But the door is locked because someone flipped the little dooey unknowingly on the way out the night before.

You begin filling the sink with water and the telephone rings. As you hang up the phone you realize you left the water running and discover the little overflow hole can't cope with a fully open tap.

You open the cupboard above the toilet and everything comes tumbling out. Now you realize why they put a cover on that specialty seating. (One should always keep one of those golf ball retrievers in the corner.)

You realize the shower curtain is on the outside of the tub when you step out and your feet are still in the water.

Nope, I didn't do any of that. I just used the body wash for shampoo and used the shampoo for body wash. I never did find those glasses.

Microsoft Word Tabs

2011-09-21T09:25:00.001-03:00

Today we are constantly living with tabs. How did we do without them?

Tabs in our browsers allow us to have more than one site open at a time. Tabs in other programs such as our text editors allow us to work on more than one document at a time. Or tabs allow us to have one document open as a reference while writing another.

Office Tab is a handy add-on that allows you to have tabs in any version of Microsoft Office. It also works in Excel and Powerpoint.

For the reasons mentioned above, I have found it very helpful. Switching documents is so simple, and fast. The download is only a few meg. and it installs in less than a minute. It integrates so well with the program you will think it was always there.

There is a paid version for additional program use such as Publisher and Access, but the free version will suit most users.

If you use Word and Excel a lot, and like to have more than one document open at a time, you might want to check it out.

Clicking on the ‘x’ or centre clicking will close the tab.

Opening another document will open it in a new tab.

Click the tab to change documents or

For us keyboard types, CTRL+Tab changes tabs

There are many other useful things on the ExtendOffice site you may find useful.

RoseGarden is still here.

2011-09-20T12:28:00.001-03:00

Once again RoseGarden has been pretty quiet throughout the summer. We hope to fix that now. Seems to me I said that before more than once.

This has been a busy summer in more ways than one. It turned out to be twenty five times busier than I expected.

Dictionary dot com defines busy this way: actively and attentively engaged in work or a pastime, not at leisure; otherwise engaged or full of or characterized by activity.

So busy can mean different things to different people.

Natural Disasters
From the beginning of this year to present there has been a continuous stream of natural disasters. Earthquakes, tsunami, tornadoes, hurricanes, floods and many other things have affected people's lives.

It would be safe to say people living in areas where these events took place have been busy in the worst kind of way. And many will likely be busy for some time trying to return to normal if that's possible.

As a side note, it has been interesting with sadness watching the eastern US seaboard earthquake and hurricane that happened not long ago. Driving back and forth to Florida for the past several years allowed us to become familiar and recognize many of the towns and areas that experienced flooding and other damage.

Overheated

When your car overheats, there is usually something you can fix to eliminate the problem. This year parts of North America were to the point of overheating. Many places in the US had extreme heat, such as Texas where it went on for months, with little or no rain, and wild fires became a natural enemy.

Here in Canada, the central and western parts had temperatures much higher than normal for long periods of time. Even northern parts had continuous temperatures far beyond comfortable.

So it would be safe to say these people were also busy, in a different way.

Incidentally I recently heard parts of Ontario already had snow flurries, and our areas are beginning to have frost warnings. Some things just don't seem natural. Isn't it to early for that?

My Busy

My busy was a little more routine. I planted some flowers, mowed the lawn once a week, traveled every second week, cleaned out some closets, got rid of some things no longer needed, went to two weddings, planted some grass,cut down some plants, watered the grass, watched NASCAR once a week - this sentence is too long so I can't tell you the rest.

The point is we are going to do our best to get RoseGarden back on track again. Some nonsense, some comments, some computer items and maybe a surprise or two.

Too Tall

2011-08-09T21:11:00.001-03:00

I can understand toilet paper rolls getting smaller and the card board centres getting larger. But they still fit on the holders.

I’ve seen advertisements for “Too Tall Chocolate Cake,” and that boggles the mind a little bit.

What I am seriously wondering, is what’s with the “too tall” pop bottles? That’s soda bottles for the folks across the border.

Look at them – the shelf is actually pushed upward, with the shelf at its maximum.

Most refrigerators have standard placement slots for the shelves, that allow adjustment for most products.

That was in the past.

Some where, some how, some time, some one, came up with the bright idea of making these bottles taller so they would appear to contain more for the same price. At least I am supposing that is the reason for the taller plastic container called a bottle.

We are all familiar with food containers getting smaller in diameter with less product for the same price. Or changing shape to achieve the same purpose.

Why then would someone choose to make bottles too tall to fit the average fridge? Is that really supposed to make us think we are getting more?

Doing Your Business - Operating Hours

2011-08-07T12:51:00.001-03:00

Holy Shssh, I arrived too late.

Now I realize most businesses often have to adjust their operating hours to meet customer demand.

But when you have to do your business, you somehow need to know in advance.

What are the hours here anyway? Evenings? Weekends? Summer hours only?

At times like this it might even be difficult to go to the competition.

Honourable mention – Margaretsville, Nova Scotia.

NSCAVE Rating

2011-08-05T18:25:00.001-03:00

This is a special message to all those who send me emails about site promotion. I know you read this blog, I can track too.

Lately I average three emails a day saying my site doesn’t rank high enough in search engines. Foreign search engines can’t find the site. I need better keywords. So many people can help us out.

I Can Help You Make More Money

It might sound silly to you, but NSCAVE is not about making money. Sure there are some Google ads, and maybe an affiliate or two in the works. If I make enough money to pay the site’s expenses, that is good. If not, I will try to do it anyway.

The main purpose of NSCAVE is to help others with computer related items, be entertaining and provide some travel information about various places we get to visit.

Oh yeah, there’s one other purpose. I actually use parts of it myself when on the road for reference when assisting other computer users. After all, my memory chip is getting smaller with age.

Foreign Search Engines Can’t Find Your Site

Zatso? Seems to me Google and Bing cover many parts of the world. I haven’t heard of many that don’t know about those two, regardless of what part of the world they are in.

And how come I get comments and requests for some assistance from various other locations? When I check the hit list for the site, not all the locations are from North America. Our MetroFactor pages have gained us new interest from many far away places.

You Need Better Keywords

I know how to make keywords. You just put letters together. Since NSCAVE’s staff is a total of 1.1, that means the content, design and keywords are all entered, changed and updated by one.

Did You Get My Email

Some individuals, companies or whoever send out a second email, or a third, still craving to do all of the above. If the first is not answered, you can figure the others will meet the same fate.

In addition to keywords, I also learned how to make email filters.

Purpose of NSCAVE

So those emails are not going to work in this case.

As always we will do our best to assist others to enjoy new technology and provide information that is tried and true the best we can.

NSCAVE is a labour of love – we do it because we want to.

Seven & Network

2011-08-03T19:09:00.001-03:00

Once again it has been some time since RoseGarden was published. The last was our upgrade to Windows 7 below. Like most users, the more I use Windows 7 the more I like it.

Pin To Taskbar

At first I thought pinning programs to the taskbar was a gimmick akin to animations and other eye candy. Now after using it for some time I have all my most used programs pinned to the taskbar. It is a very useful addition, certainly way ahead of the old quick launch tool bar.

Win Key +

I also particularly like some keyboard shortcuts that I found with the help of others via Google and some of the regular newsletters I get. For example, with two monitors the Win Key + Shift + Left or Right arrow keys quickly zap the program from one monitor to the other. Previously I had to use a third party software program to do this efficiently.

The Win Key + up or down arrow keys maximize and minimize the active window in the blink of an eye. Win Key + Left or Right arrow keys move the active program to the left or right side of the screen, using exactly half of it. Very handy and easy to put two programs side by side equally.

I keep finding more things to like about Windows 7, and as time goes on I will keep this page updated with things I like the most.

D-Link Powerline Network

I have installed and set up home wired networks, and have installed and set up numerous wireless home networks. I gained a lot of knowledge troubleshooting and setting these securely so they would make internet access easy and transparent for their owners, yet secure and safe.

There is another type of network in the picture that is awfully close to the wired system in terms of speed and security. So far it has been the easiest of all home network systems to set up. Speed is close to a wired system. You still need a router as the main source, but nothing is easier to set up. I have outlined my initial experience with the D-Link Powerline Network here, and will also update this page as long term usage takes place.

Get It Back

This is an old one, but remember, if you are doing something on your computer and it disappears, whether it is filling out a form, writing an email or making an adjustment to a picture, CTRL+Z will often bring it back.

Windows 7 Upgrade Experience

2011-07-07T11:40:00.001-03:00

Upgrading my computers to Windows 7 has been a successful venture, worth all the time involved. And the time involved was long. Since there were many factors involved, it rated a separate section on the parent website which will include additions as I explore the many plus features of Windows 7.

You can read about my Windows 7 upgrade experience here. The page doesn’t tell you how to upgrade to Windows 7, you can find lots of instructions by using your favourite search engine. These are some of the experiences I found different from other upgrades in the past, which could be different from yours. Installation of any new operating system has its own characteristics for each system.

Important Points

* Be prepared to wait - and wait, in my case over 5 hours on one machine, plus another 5 hrs. for updates.

* Multiple Reboots – Your computer will reboot by itself many times, (seven for one of mine).

* Black Screens – there is plenty of black screen waiting. In some cases the computer sits and appears like nothing is happening, not even a drive light flicker. Don’t touch it, after what seems like an exceptionally long time, it will spring back to life.

* Unattended – maybe to a certain extent. There are certainly long wait times where you don’t have to do anything. On the other hand during certain portions you will be required to agree to the terms of use. It will await your response. This particularly applies to some updates.

* External Drive Needed – You could possibly do without one, but it is much easier to backup you data to an external drive. And you should backup. You must if you are going from XP to Windows 7.

Summary

Even with most reviews and reports saying how much better the Windows 7 operating system is than any other, one always wonders if it is really true. Like the others I would say yes.

Windows 7 has some nice newer features. Some not available previously, some modified to work better. Seven runs more efficiently and much faster. Operating procedures are close enough to the old ways that you won’t have a big learning curve, but you will also discover new ways of doing things with less input from you.

XP to Windows 7 – I noticed a big change in speed, and efficiency.

Vista to Windows 7 – Differences were noticeable for sure. Seven is easier to work with and provides extras. If you are happy with Vista there is no need to hurry, but you will be happy you upgraded.

Windows 7 uses much less drive space and resources than Vista on my computers. Do I like Windows 7? Yes!

Happy Canada Day

2011-07-01T20:24:00.001-03:00

As we do every year, our group celebrated July 1st, 2011 at Hampton Beach, Nova Scotia.

The weather was perfect, with warm sun and clear skies moderated by a slight ocean breeze. Thoughts and conversations included how lucky we are to live in a wonderful country that is Canada. Our thoughts included the military one of the biggest reasons past and present that make it so.

Although the beach appears empty in this picture, there were many people coming and going, families, children and folks with their dogs, just enjoying the tranquility and charm of being by the ocean which is known as the Bay of Fundy.

It was a day to sit back and relax and just enjoy being here. NSCAVE and the RoseGarden hope your day was just as good.

We would also like to take this opportunity to wish our American friends a Happy July 4th which is their day coming this Monday.

Automatic Doors–Have You Noticed?

2011-06-11T14:19:00.001-03:00

Watch those automatic doors, they are up to something. There’s a family of them out there.

1) Reach Out And Touch

You know the kind, you notice the sign says “automatic doors” as you smartly approach it. When you are almost nose to door, you quickly reach out to give it a push as obviously nothing is happening. Then swoosh it slams open as you walk through with your arm stuck out in front of you, making you look like some kind of … well you know what I mean.

2) Try Me I Dare You

Not falling for that again you walk up to the next set of automatic doors, smartly strutting right up to them. With a jolt at the last minute you quickly thrust up both hands and arms, shoving the door open just in time to prevent a red nose and other impact possibilities.

3) I Sense You

Then there’s the doors with the super high sensitivity. You meet a friend and stop for a cheery hello. The dang automatic doors keep opening and closing rapidly, and suddenly you realize you have been detected – ten feet away.

People look at you with that “why don’t you move” attitude, and you wonder if this set of doors will revert to number one once you do decide to approach and exit.

4) Halt Don’t Move

You know these types of automatic doors. Despite what the sign says, you walk up to the door, wait, place your hand on it and it just isn’t opening. Try as you might, you need the local bulldozer dealer to assist pushing that door open.

P.S. I’m not talking about the door with the sign that says, “Use other door.”

5) Revolve With Me

I thought most of these were gone, but airports, hotels and some businesses still have them. The famous revolving door. First you have to synchronize yourself with the revolving mechanism. If you step in the wrong sequence, the door behind you whacks you silly, too fast and you might need that nose job after all.

You better hope your “get off” vision is pretty good. I once seen a person going around in one of these contractions for five minutes.

Scanning The Headlines

2011-06-06T22:31:00.001-03:00

So help me, these are all headlines for articles in various cross country newspapers.

What do you like to put on your french fries?

I hardly ever take them out, so its rarely I have to dress them up.

Uncontrolled emotions are like a tornado

Is that something to do with hot air mixing with the cold?

The undead should stay that way

That shouldn’t be real difficult to do.

Get ready for skirt season with leg kicks

Now this should be real interesting for an old guy.

Doctors N.S. wants better patient access

Don’t they still have those little sharp Xacto knives?

Bra - buy one get one half off

Not getting me this time, I fell for that one on the dress sale.

On box of Honey & Nut Toasted Oats, "made from 100% recycled paperboard."

Not really a headline, but should make for an interesting breakfast.

Pump It Up

2011-06-02T17:40:00.001-03:00

Things used to come in aerosol cans until a couple years ago when the discovery was made that some of the propellant wasn’t doing our environment any good.

Then along came these innocent plastic bottles with their little plastic pumps. Even I thought they were a better idea. I still do, but there are a few complications, the way I see it anyway.

Unscrew, It’s New

It’s happened more than once. Get that new stuff home and get ready to use it. Directions say: “Just unscrew the top thing and …” uh oh! Twist and turn as you might you can’t budge it. How can something that’s easier than a spray can be used if you can’t unscrew the top thing.

Ah – water pump pliers to the rescue. Except the whole dang bottle twists, not the top thingy. What’s more stressful than plastic packaging? Top things!

Pump It Up

Finally after the frustration subsides you get things to near normal. Wonderful invention these environment saving plastic pump things.

Just a quick push and you have a palm full of soap, lotion, or whatever it is inside that container with the thing.

What? You push the thing and nothing happens. What? Here we go again. Pump pump pump! Nothing.

Pump pump pump, oh how I long for the days of the spray can.

Pump pump pump – splooooosh! Finally. Huh? Not a drop on you palm, where did it go?

Oh there it is – on the opposite wall, and the front of the counter, your pants leg and your left slipper.

This is not one step forward, this is the era of the splooooosh!

Good To The Last Drop

You laugh now, just wait until the container is nearly empty with about a half inch of ‘stuff’ left. Just try and get that out. You will really find out how these pumps work.

Travel With It

And if that doesn’t do it, just try and take one of those pump bottles with you when you travel. I dare you to push that pump down and try to lock it.

Get any on ya?

The Last Box

2011-05-30T21:54:00.001-03:00

They tell me I am still in the last box.

Telephone Survey

Telephone rings, this dude says he is doing a survey on radio stations and my number has been selected at random for their research survey. Do I have time for a few questions. “I have a few minutes,” I say.

He starts by asking my age group, 15 – 23, 25 – 45, (they don’t do two fours), 45 – 55, and 55 plus. As soon as I say plus, he says: “We have reached our quota in that age group, this is the end of the interview.”

So here I am in the last box. No one cares if I listen to the radio, or at least they don’t give a hoot about my opinion. Maybe they figure I won’t be listening long anyway.

Online Surveys

I do a few online surveys regularly, some offer compensation, some do not. Three times this week, three times, I have begun to fill out surveys on various topics, and that question again. ‘Please select your age group.’ As soon as I select over 55, same result: We have reached our quota in that age group. Please take part in some of our other surveys.

So again, here I am in the last box.

Retire Will You

This is a lot like retiring from a job you have done for years and years. The clan respects you, tells you you are great, but the signs indicate it is time for a change. Hurry up and get out of here, you’ve earned it, you are in the last box.

The Last Box

However the real last box is not here yet. I hope that can be true for a few years yet. I told you before I am busy, and I have a lot of things to do yet.

Here’s to the last box.

Tabs & Tips

2011-05-27T20:37:00.001-03:00

We all like tabs right? Well, most of us do. They are in nearly every program we use, except Microsoft Word.

Tabs For MS Word, Excel & PowerPoint

If you use MS Word you might like this add on. It was brought to my attention by PC Mag’s newsletter, one of the better ones I subscribe to.

Should you be like me and often have several documents open at once in MS Word, Office Tab will make it super easy to click between one document and another. You can use the keyboard or mouse for changing tabs and of course it allows you to easily see what documents you actually have open.

Office Tab by Extend Office works in any version, 2003, 2007 and 2010 of Microsoft Word and not only that, it also works in Excel and PowerPoint, to help you work more easily and efficiently.

Tweet From Firefox to Twitter to Facebook

Several people asked me how I can add something to Twitter and have it go to Facebook.

First of all I use a Firefox add-on called HootBar. This adds a little blue bird by your address bar. By clicking the ‘bird’ you can tweet the current url, or any other thing you decide to type in the address bar. No need to sign in to your Twitter account. If you check the setting in your Twitter account, you will find you are able to have each of your tweets sent to Facebook.

Watch & Install Carefully

This has been said many times, and is worth saying again. If you decide to try a program, especially free ones, pay close attention during installation. Do the custom install if its available. This allows you to select and see everything that is going to take place. Otherwise carefully read every line, and note what each checkbox is for.

Don’t just click through.

Many programs that are good ones, now days include extras you may not want. Even some excellent programs that didn’t participate in the past in this procedure, now include toolbars, trial ware, and other ‘goodies’ you may not wish to have.

The programs are still good, you just have to separate the dandelions from the grass.

Busy But Back

2011-05-24T23:02:00.001-03:00

Its time to get RoseGarden back on schedule after being silent for over a month. Since returning from our winter southern adventure things just got so busy there wasn’t time to handle it all. There have been a lot of things happening, nothing bad, just busy and time consuming.

And I predict this whole summer is going to be that way on this end.

Changing World

I think it was supposed to come to an end a few days ago. Now they have rescheduled it for the latter part of October. I’m glad they did. I don’t have time to attend right now.

Dunk Your Phone

News has it that a friend of mine washed his BlackBerry in the washer. Shouldn’t be any dirty language on that phone anymore. Wonder if that means his caller ID will be all zeros now?

Ten Steps Up Three Steps Back

This is not new, but just amazes me that the price of gas can go up thirty some cents a litre compared to this time a year ago or so, then come down eight or ten cents and everybody is so happy about it. I wish I could run a business like that.

Strawberry Expansion

Have you bought strawberries lately? Have you seen the size of them? What’s going on in California? Strawberries used to be “small little” sweet things that enabled all your taste senses. Look at them now. Geeze there are only half a dozen in a plastic container. They are the size of soaked golf balls. You have to cut them like apples and dice them again to fit a portion on a spoon.

Or Is It Me

They are on so often so many days in a row I think I watched “So You Think You Can Dance(ing) With The Stars American Idol.”

Cole Harbour Away

2011-04-16T15:23:00.001-03:00

As I sort through the many photos taken during our Snowbird season in Florida I thought I would mention that Cole Harbour and the ‘Crosby’ name extend farther across North American than you may think.

It is no secret that our hockey player Sidney Crosby has promoted Cole Harbour, Nova Scotia with a passion. And since I am also from Cole Harbour, it didn’t take long to recognize a familiar name while waiting for the parade at this year’s Pensacola, Fl. Mardi Gras parade.

Standing directly across the street from us was a gentleman dressed proudly with number 87 attire.

We yelled across to him and said “Nova Scotia", and he gave us a big thumbs up along with a huge smile of satisfaction.

We asked him to turn around for a picture, he immediately complied, doing some moves fit for the fashion runway.

This was almost the highlight of the night time Pensacola Mardi Gras parade – for us anyway, and the parade hadn’t even started yet.

Sidney Crosby has made it big, and it is nice to see in person just how far his charisma has spread across these two nations.

Departure from PCB

2011-03-31T23:49:00.001-03:00

The day was spent cleaning our temporary home and loading Big Blue for the journey back to Nova Scotia. Our whole trip has been fun, but I didn’t see any fun in this day at all, just manual labour.

Big Blue is full – from the floor to the roof, inside and out. We had to leave some things behind.

It wasn’t supposed to be this way, but it is. We didn’t buy much, where did all this stuff come from?

Fortunately we used some of those vacuum bags for clothes. You know the kind, where you stuff in a pile of clothes and then suck all the air out with the vacuum cleaner. The packages is only a quarter the size.

If the air ever goes back in those bags while driving, it will blow the roof right off the truck.

After getting almost everything inside that could possibly go, and testing to see if the doors would still close, a little hitch hiker was noticed.

Lets zoom in for a closer look. Hmmm, one of Florida’s little frogs.

Must have taken the jump course, because it is quite a jump from the ground to where it was next to the door rubber. And he did it with the door closed.

Now where the heck are those little Green Geckos. I don’t trust any of them anymore!

At any rate the two thousand mile plus journey from Panama City Beach to Nova Scotia starts tomorrow. Turn up the heat, melt the snow, have no desire to see any of that. I didn’t miss it a bit.

Northbound

2011-03-29T22:14:00.001-03:00

We haven’t done too well updating the blog since the first of March. In fact the entire winter season has been pretty sporadic. The reason is simple. We have been so busy enjoying our snowbird visit to Panama City Beach and many other areas of Florida that there just wasn’t enough hours in each day to do everything we wanted to do.

In reverse order some of the things that kept us busy goes like this.

Tyndall Air Show

The Tyndall Air Show was a highlight, with non-stop flying from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Each and every participant was top notch. From a retired RCAF perspective it was wonderful to see the old and the new flying together.

How we have progressed over the years. Kudos to all the US service members who did a wonderful job on air show day and all days doing what we all believe in. As my friend said, “It kind of lets you know why we are free.”

Eden Gardens

Florida has numerous state parks and sometimes we wondered just what are they like? After visiting Eden Gardens we will certainly be visiting more of them on our return next year. Eden Gardens is a magical place with a lot of history, flowers in abundance, and the Spanish moss hanging from the huge trees makes you feel like you are in wonderland. For example one tree known as the wedding tree, is over 600 years old.

Pensacola Mardi Gras

They are always fun, with the crowd, the food and throwing of the beads. We attended the night time parade as did thousands of others. It was a fun filled two day trip with lots of excitement, and a side trip or two to some monster sized malls and flea markets.

Spring Break & the Beach

The month of March was awesome weather wise at Panama City Beach. This is the heart of Spring Break with the population increasing many times over. The temperature was mostly in the twenties for you Celsius folks, eighties for the Fahrenheit people and with lots of sun, tanning and a dip in the water became a reality.

Pictures & Stories

Only a very small sample of some of the things going on. There are lots of stories, and thousands of pictures to be edited and hopefully put together so that some of them will be worthwhile to present in this blog.

Northbound

The sad thing about all this is the time has come for us to return home once again. Not sad that we have to return home, there is never any place like home no matter where you are from, but it seemed the time passed much too quickly. Our trek back to Nova Scotia will begin April 1st.

One thing you can count on, Panama City Beach, we will be back.

Panama City Beach – we would like to thank you for a wonderful place to enjoy our “Snowbird” winter. It is a wonderful place to visit, stay and be able to be part of.

Thank You everyone for having us!

Lucky Enough

2011-03-02T21:35:00.001-04:00

Beach – Its hard to do what I am supposed to do for the blog when you have beach days like these.

Waves rolling in, crashing on the sand, the unique smell of sea air, temperature in the high seventies and oh so soothing. Sea gulls standing in the sand and gliding above, wondering why so many humans are invading their territory.

And people, lots of people, young and old sharing all this goodness, taking in the sun whether it is good for you or not.

Overhead the local tour helicopter is busy, with steady trips back and forth every few minutes. I am glad for them. We took a ride in the 'chopper' last year and there is no better view of Panama City Beach. We likely will go again soon.

A lone plane towing an advertising banner passes regularly overhead in the blue sky. Small boats cruise back and forth off shore in the emerald green water.

Spring break has begun as the bikinis are plentiful, as are the young guys trying to impress them.

Whoever said it first is correct: “Life is Good. If you are lucky enough to be at the beach, you are lucky enough.”

Pier Park Pier

2011-02-28T10:01:00.001-04:00

One of the main attractions in Panama City Beach is Pier Park, with over a million square feet of the best shopping and entertainment you can imagine.

Across Front Beach Road from Pier Park is the Pier Park Pier. Prepare for a half mile walk over the ocean with a different view of the Panama City Beach skyline. You will find folks fishing, strolling and generally enjoying themselves, while tour helicopters, banner towing planes and jets from nearby Tyndall air force base fly overhead.

Relaxation at its finest. This is the Pier Park Pier.

Pier Park Pier

(Click the YouTube logo to view larger direct from YouTube.)

Searching For Gators In The Florida Everglades – Oasis

2011-02-26T20:30:00.001-04:00

Everybody kept telling me that Florida has lots of alligators. Well last year I only seen one laying in the water along one of the roads at the Kennedy Space Center.

On a planned visit to the Florida Keys they told me I would see lots of them, perhaps along the road ways.

There were none. So we adjusted our schedule to find some gators.

Ranger Station Oasis

(Click on the YouTube logo for a larger view direct from YouTube.)

We found some. Lots of them. And they were living in their natural environment. How does that beer commercial go? “It doesn’t get any better than this!”

Stories and Pictures Are In The Making

2011-02-23T22:31:00.001-04:00

You can guess by now that we made our trip safely back from the Florida Keys to Panama City Beach. I had intended to do a day by day, blow by blow entry to the blog during the return, but that proved to be difficult.

Internet Connections

Along the way internet connections at various places of lodging proved to be somewhat variable. Sometimes it was high speed as advertised, other times high speed turned out to be less than dial up. On top of that, we enjoyed our travels so much that often the time was used up just enjoying the scenery and local activities. There was time at night to check email and news from the areas we care about and get some sleep for the next day’s run.

Pictures

There will be some additions to the blog and YouTube shortly, sharing some of our adventure. There are lots of stories to tell, some humorous, some not. And, not stretching it a bit, there are hundreds of pictures to sort and compile into reasonable descriptions of our journeys.

Our trip took us through central Florida to Fort Lauderdale, down the east coast to the Keys. From the Keys through the Everglades to Naples, up the West coast of Florida to Madeira Beach, following hwy 41/98 back to Panama City Beach.

Rather than do a day by day routine I have decided to pick out some of the memorable moments that will be presented on a random basis. For example:

Gators

This is my third trip to Florida, second where we stay for the winter months, and I hadn’t seen any ‘gators’ so this year I was determined to find some. I didn’t have to look to far.

Traveling through a portion of the Florida Everglades we found some. Hundreds of them, swimming, and lying in the sun, looking as harmless as lizards. You know there will be some stories and pictures featuring the gators at the Oasis.

Beaches and Sun

And there were normal things too, like endless beaches, with temperatures in the high 70s F. With gardens half way to harvest time, and beaches populated with people, it was hard to realize at times that ‘back home’ snow, wind and ice were the order of the day.

(Madeira Beach)

Other Local Stories

And even though we were on the road for a week, things at our temporary home base at Panama City Beach continue to move on, generating more pictures and more stories that we will be able to share. Today we went on a stroll out on the Pier Park Pier, which allows a different perspective of the Panama City Beach skyline.

Texting while driving is a hot topic locally as they decide whether to have a law banning it or leave it as it is. During our travels I did see a lady driving beside me at 70 mph holding her cell phone in both hands texting, while steering with the bottom parts of her palms.

Canadian bashing has become popular this year at Panama City Beach. The local newspaper carries articles and comments daily about how Canadians shouldn’t complain about the $5.50 proposed charge for entry into the US for air travelers. There are constant complaints that Canadians are meagre tippers and the air seems to be we should stay away.

So once the pictures and material is sorted out, there will be lots of input for RoseGarden. It will just be a problem for this one man endeavour to stay focused sometimes. Mardi Gras is about to happen in various locations, the Tyndall air show is scheduled for the latter part of March, and the bikinis are getting more numerous day by day.

Key West

2011-02-15T00:05:00.001-04:00

SunPass
As you may know, southern Florida has a network of toll roads. Some can be paid at the typical toll booth by cash, some have no cash booths and you must have a SunPass. So I decided to install one of their SunPasses and go whizzing through. And that is exactly what you can do. Amazing that at some tolls you continue to go through at speed, 65 mph without slowing and it registers and deducts the amount from your account.

Marathon
We passed through Key Largo shortly after passing Florida City near Homestead, arriving at Marathon, approximately 1330 local time. Marathon is approximately the half way point on the way to Key West/ Check in time at Kingsail Resort was 1500 and after checking our room was not ready yet.

Electing to go for a drive and perhaps find something to eat, we cruised further towards the keys. The road throughout the keys is mostly a two lane road with a passing area here and there, speed limits in the 45 mph to 55 mph range. Thus it can be a long trip and traffic is heavy.

Trying to find a food location on the left side of the highway so we would be heading back towards our hotel when finished, we found ourselves crossing the seven mile bridge. It seemed like a twenty mile bridge before we found a place to turn around. We had spotted a restaurant some miles back.

The trouble with trying to find a business of any kind is that you are right beside it before you can see the name or what kind of business it is. Finally after getting turned around we made our way back to a place called Sunset Grille. It was a nice place with lots of sea food on the menu and would have been ideal had the weather been warmer and sunnier.

Weather
Oh didn't I mention the weather? Just like always, I take it with me. It was a cool windy 58 deg.F., with lots of showers and dark clouds. Not at all like we expected. No chance of a sun tan here. Not today anyway.

Kingsail
Finally getting back to our Expedia reserved room at Kingsail around 1430, the cleaning ladies were just finishing up. If it weren't for the weather, it would have been a great location. A heated swimming pool, folks fishing, and a couple of pelicans sitting on the post didn't do anything to make it look tropical.

The accommodation while adequate, lacked in a few areas. It was old, but clean. However the patio type entrance door which was installed backwards, didn't do much for security. Like wise the crank out windows which either had broken cranks or else didn't close tightly.

With the low temperatures, a little heat would be nice, but only an air conditioner was supplied for cold air needs. On the plus side, our room had been updated from a room with just two beds and a bathroom to one with a kitchenette. It included a stove for cooking, a clean fridge, microwave, with lots of space around a table and two double beds. The TV, was not large, but had super clear reception on the dozens of channels.

The bathroom? Well the first time I ever had to sit on the throne with my knees touching the wall. And the only air extracting fan would be the air conditioner in the living area. It was small enough I was wondering if there was room enough for me and that guy in the mirror at the same time.

Evening Has Arrived

The place is beginning to fill up. Looks like a noisy night. With all the air holes and tightly parked vehicles along the road, you hear a lot of everyone else's on goings.

February 13, 2011
The night turned out to be pretty good and restful except for some one's car alarm going off a couple times because they set it off themselves. At least it was still early.

So the day begins, with a trip further into the Florida Keys towards Key West. This would be as far as you can drive south from Nova Scotia to the southern part of the US along the Eastern seaboard. To make things easier and to have a base of operations for the day we booked our
room at Kingsail for another night.

Wooden Spoon
First stop, just across the street from Kingsail is a very small diner called the Wooden Spoon. We had read on TripAdvisor that the food there is better than first rate. Crossing the street was like an object avoidance game as we dashed across five lanes quickly in traffic that has few breaks.

The Wooden Spoon lived up to its name. It was packed, and the quality food explained exactly why. Our waitress was so busy I don't know how she could stand any more than an hour shift. People came and left in a non-stop stream.

The Keys
So now it was time for Big Blue to hit the road, destination Key West, about an hour drive away. The area is made up of a series of islands, each having a name, interconnected by various length bridges.

Seven Mile Bridge
Today we got to see the seven mile bridge during bright sunshine under a clear blue sky. The temperature was gradually climbing towards 72 deg.F. Seeing the bridge's length across the emerald water disappearing into the distance, with portions of the old railway bridge beside it, made one understand what a feat of engineering it really is. We are driving over the ocean for miles. Islands of various sizes on both sides, both near and far made it seem surreal.

GPS To The Welcome Center
Passing through the various towns and keys passed quickly. The landscape is covered with resorts, RV parks, and hundreds of fancy boats and cottages.

Having take a look at Key West online the night before, we had our GPS programmed for the Welcome Center. We arrived just in time to purchase tickets for the Key West Aquarium and the Old Town Trolley tour.

Old Town Trolley
The Old Town Trolley is a system of buses made to look like old time trolleys inside and out. Once you see the layout of Key West with its narrow streets, you will likely agree this is the best way to tour the city.

Off we go, starting out with a tour of the beaches and newer section of Key West. During this tour you have the choice of getting off at ten different locations and getting back on at your leisure. This allows you to walk around the areas of your choice, and move on when you feel its time.

One stop is by the "Southern Most Point," which supposedly is as far south you can go in the US, and is only 90 miles from Cuba. We decided on this stop and got off the trolley beside a little store that sells shells and a variety of other items.

Words of Panic
Just entering that little store, I hear the dreaded words. "Where's my purse? On no, its still on the bus." I get this sickening feeling, because these days I don't trust anyone. We see the bus about a half a block down the street, fighting through traffic. After about a block and a half, I find out a senior can't out run a bus, even if it is stuck momentarily in traffic.

Thankfully I have my Canadian activated cell phone with me, and we have the brochure with Old Town Trolley's number on it. A quick call to them assures us we are not the only ones that have had that happen. The purse will be retrieved from the bus we were on and it will be at the depot, which is at their #1 stop.

Being more that a little upset, we wait for the next bus which is due in fifteen minutes or so. Upon boarding, we ask this driver if he has any way of calling ahead to see if the purse has arrived at stop #1. He tries, but has some difficulty with the busy system. He assures us everything will be taken care of.

Several stops further on, a gentleman with a two way radio sticks his head in the door and asks, "Is there a lady on board looking for her purse?" The driver and us have no hesitation saying yes. "It's at stop #1 waiting for you to pick it up," he says.

A feeling of relief would be an understatement.

Arriving at stop #1 some twenty minutes later, the purse was at their kiosk, with everything intact. Having retired from the bus business several years ago, I have to say right here that the Old Town Trolley employees did a super job. They took care of the situation immediately and kept us informed. We had a total of three drivers. All three were expert tour guides, and expert drivers I might add. Guiding a bus through narrow streets is extremely challenging and stressful. They all did a magnificent job, as did all the Trolley employees we came in contact with.

They truly live good customer service. Kudos to Old Time Trolley tour group. And yes I would have said that even if we hadn't had the purse incident.

Key West Aquarium
Stop #1 happens to be right beside the Key West Aquarium and it was close to the 1 pm feeding time. No better time to use our tickets. A young lady led us through the various areas while handling and feeding everything from sharks and huge snapping turtles to sting rays.

She made it look so easy, but there is no way I would want a job where my fingers would be so close to the shortening.

There were also various displays of tropical and rare fish from around the Florida Keys. Words can't describe the feelings you get when you realize how many creatures we share this world with.

Shopping & Looking Around

Exiting the aquarium it was time to look around one of the small shopping malls, and take a short stroll along the boardwalk facing the water front. It was busy with strolling people and boats of all kinds on the water, from sailing ships to cruises and fast jet boats. Overhead bi-planes, float planes and helicopters cruised around taking people for views of a different angle.

Get on the bus Gus
Time in places like this passes too quickly. Time for the last ride on the trolley, which takes us through the older part of the keys at first. Streets are narrow and filled with vacationing folks. Then on to the water front area where many yachts and ships hang out. Next a region that is filled with all kinds of eatery businesses for all tastes.

We pass a huge area that was built up by the navy in years gone by. In fact, this part of the entire island was entirely man made. This is hard to imagine when you realize you are on a five lane highway (in both directions), lined with shopping malls and other large buildings.

Stop #9
Finally we are back where we started some hours ago. It was an exciting and busy day. We only observed a fraction of the activity and interesting goings on at Key West. You could easily spend a week there and still not see all that is offered.

Send Me North To The Seven Mile Bridge
Time to retrace our steps back to the starting point in Marathon at the Kingsail. A quick stop for supper before returning to our room for the night. A slow walk around the Kingsail grounds for more pictures of their dock and pool area.

We will hate to leave the keys tomorrow as our journey takes us back towards Florida City and Homestead.

Next: Time to leave the keys and head for the Everglades looking for gators.

On The Move Southern Florida

2011-02-14T09:48:00.001-04:00

As expected, our journey is filled with stories and observations, mostly good, some unexpected.

11 Feb 11
Departed Panama City Beach at 0900 with intentions of arriving in Kissimmee, Florida near Orlando sometime in the afternoon. That part of the trip was good with little traffic, arriving Kissimmee around 3 p.m., which was 4 p.m. due to a change in time zone.

Find Baymont
We had arranged reservations for a room through Expedia.com at Baymont Inn and Suites, listed as being at 7601 Black Lake Road, Kissimmee. The GPS took us to some barren non-populated patch of Florida bushes. With some excellent help from a local UPS employee we found Baymont at Sherberth Road, not Black Lake Road.

Mentioning our strange directions at check in did little good as they were ignored with a smile. They did have our reservation on file and we were given a room.

Sales Pitch
The person booking you in does the major paper work and then directs you to a nearby desk to get a “parking permit.” I was obligated to stand in line for about 15 to 20 k
min. while the customer ahead of me bought Seaworld tickets. With apologizes it was suggested I could put the stuff in the room and come back, which I elected not to do. The reason you are directed to the second desk is because that is a high pressure sales pitch to get you to purchase tickets to local entertainment venues such as Disney Land.

When I said we were just passing through and on to Fort Lauderdale the following day, offers switched to wonderful deals at Fort Lauderdale which would get you $100. free gas. With insistence that I was not purchasing anything extra, I was given a cartoon type parking permit for the night.

Occupied
Off we go to our room 1115. Much to my surprise our electronic key allowed me to barge in on a couple from England. The room was already occupied. With apology and embarrassment I retreated back to the reception desk in a not so good mood.

Standing in line again, for another fifteen minutes I finally got to tell the same gentleman behind the counter - “You gave me a room that is already occupied.” I voiced my opinion that this wasn't a pleasant experience. With an apology and a promise to check out what went wrong I was given another room, 1117, which turned out to be unoccupied.

A Room At Last
Actually the room turned out to be quite nice. The furnishings and appliances included were fairly new and very similar to the pictures show on Expedia. A wide screen TV was a pleasant bonus, along with the large fridge, microwave and the coffee pot. The washroom was reasonably clean and tidy.

Internet? Well it was there, and I have to say they have several open connections for guests use. However the process of connecting requires patience, and the speed of it was only slightly faster than dial up. Dropped connections were high on the menu.

The Big M
So after getting the room set up, we decided to go to the nearby MacDonald's for a quick snack. MacDonald's was chosen because it was just across the street. Quick it wasn't. There weren't many customers, but getting a burger and a crispy chicken sandwich with fries took ages. Many customers got their orders while we waited because “crispy” was taking a long time.
On our way out we asked for a couple coffee's and three cookies to take out for later consumption in the room. That too took several people to put the order together while we waited another ten minutes.

So much for the “fast food “ name. It doesn't exist in that establishment.

Returning to the Inn for the night, we settled down in anticipation of what tomorrow may bring.

February 12, 2011
Rise and shine to a new day. The night was anything but peaceful with the heater/air conditioner unit cycling on and off every few minutes. Usually that is good because it keeps you warm (or cool), but in this case the thing sounded like a diesel truck starting up and shutting off. And it vibrated the floor the same way.

The supplied continental breakfast was good. Overall the premises was neat and clean. Despite the mix up in occupied rooms, we would likely stay there again.

Cruise
The original purpose of the entire trip was to participate in a Bahamas Celebration Cruise, booked by telephone last summer. Talking to a couple at Kissimmee who had experience with cruises, it was suggested we should check certain things about the cruise we were intending to take. Through online research the advice turned out to be correct, so we cancelled the cruise. It would appear if we had continued, we would risk spending much more money than we had originally anticipated.

Florida Keys
So the plan became to continue on to the Florida Keys. The trip by turnpike from Kissimmee to the keys was uneventful and traffic was relatively light most of the way.

Next: the fantastic keys, with pictures. Publication will depend on our internet connections.

Adventure Time

2011-02-10T23:41:00.001-04:00

The blogs have been few and far between lately due to the fact there hasn’t been much going on. Temperatures in this area of Florida have been averaging in the – 3 C. to 5 C. degrees at night, and highs of 12 C. during the day.(That would be approximately 32 deg. F. to 41 deg. F at night, 54 deg. F daytime.) I am beginning to wonder if this is going to be the normal trend in years ahead as this is the second year of those temperatures and they are lasting longer this year.

This meant excitement material for the blog is not as abundant as it should be. Sure we have lots to keep us busy as the traveling is great, taking in some shows and other functions, but little beach weather so far.

Speaking of shows, we did go to a RV show a few weeks ago, at Dixie RV Superstore where the motor home of my dreams caught my attention. It was only $273,000. on special for the show. Acres of all kinds of motorhomes and trailers. Now I know what the term “Land Yacht” really means.

Speaking of the RV show, I somehow managed to win the daily give away prize, worth close to a hundred bucks. No, it wasn’t a motorhome. It was a fancy RV sewer hose, and a set of levellers. Thanks Dixie RV.

What the heck am I going to do with those? The people in our snowbird group say: “Now you have to get a trailer.”

That’s kind of like buying a garage door opener and building a garage around it – isn’t it?

We are departing on an adventure starting tomorrow to warmer parts of the state of Florida and beyond. This will include Fort Lauderdale, the Florida Keys and intermediate points. There should be a blog story or two there.

Panama City Beach Is On Top

2011-01-18T13:42:00.001-04:00

Things we already know because we are here. Panama City Beach is often listed as one of the top beaches in the world.

This year it is named in the Top 10 budget destinations for 2011 as noted in the NewsHerald, with the complete article listed in AoL Travel.

Interesting that Panama City Beach is listed with Montreal, Cancun, Athens and other places.

We can verify that this is a true description of a place that welcomes you, has lots to see and do, and has room for everyone. Despite sometimes cooler temperatures than their normal, it is most often pleasant and refreshing to be here during our winter season.

That’s why so many of us keep coming back!

NewsHerald Delivery Is Different

2011-01-15T21:37:00.001-04:00

In Nova Scotia I’ve found the newspaper and flyer sales in the flower bed. I’ve found them in the middle of the driveway. I’ve found them in the middle of the lawn. Once it was almost on my doorstep.

Here in Panama City Beach the delivery of the NewsHerald is different. (click for larger picture) Several mornings I have gone out and wondered why the paper wasn’t around. C’mere friendly giant, “Look up, look way up.”

This morning it was on top of the SUV where the red arrow is pointing. On some past days it was found where the red X’s are in the picture. On the rear of the roof, on the hood, under it!

(I won’t say anything about the frost on the windshield in the minus three temperatures of the sunny south.)

Now, how good of an aim do you have to have to hit a SUV. Shouldn’t a smaller target be necessary? (I asked this in their Squall line, but it didn’t get published.)

This is a double wide cement driveway.

Some things are different from home. Some are the same.

I notice a small chip in my windshield . . . just sayin’ . . .

Headlines–What To Write

2011-01-11T01:02:00.001-04:00

Sometimes a blog entry comes easily, often from real life experience. Other times it takes awhile. I read if you put classical music on, it helps you think - it works, made me think about changing channels immediately.

So I decided to browse through some headlines of various publications to see what thoughts would be generated. The first one that got my attention was an ad …

Cialis 50% off

Now that’s strange, I thought it was to put something on, not off. Very educational.

Rogers set to break into home security field

I’m not sure if breaking into is the proper approach. Once they get into the security field, the alarm will probably go off anyway.

Penis enlarger case in small-claims court

This one I understand. If it didn’t work it couldn’t very well go into the high court could it? Glad I am not a judge, wouldn’t want to have to look at the exhibitions for this one.

No confirmed flu cases yet for Cape Breton District Health Authority

Did they all came down with something? Don’t know what it is? Maybe an outside consultant would help.

Churches versus the wrecking ball

Most of us believe in a higher power, but this is ridiculous. (At least they didn’t call it the swinger.)

There’s lead in your lipstick, environmentalist says

I know times have changed. Adds a new meaning to a ‘heavy date’.

Nope, scanning the headlines of various online newspapers isn’t going to work. I will have to get my ideas elsewhere.

Pondering The New Year

2011-01-07T20:33:00.001-04:00

Did you notice things you really want to comment on in the newspaper don't allow comments.

Is a bogo sale really a sale if you only want one?

Is it really a sale at 60% off inflated prices marked up 200%?

Is satellite radio really commercial free if they say "You are listening to Sirius XM radio," every once in awhile?

Is the music really uninterrupted on regular FM stations when they say "You are listening to twenty minutes of uninterrupted music," every few minutes?

If a page reads, "This page intentionally left blank," is it really blank?

Are internet offers really free with no obligation if the squares "Install _ _ toolbar," and "Get special offers from our associates," are already checked?

If the sign says no left turn and the road curves to the left, what do you do?

Sirius–ly The Year Is Already Flying By

2011-01-05T18:09:00.001-04:00

It really didn’t take that long to get over New Year celebrations and my birthday. I can’t believe the first week of the new year is almost gone. The start of this year was good. Champagne & fireworks on the beach, with warm temperatures, followed by some gifts which included a satellite radio for Big Blue. If you don’t know what Big Blue is, its the whip, ride, wheels, … that get us from good old Nova Scotia to the white sand land.

Sirius Satellite Radio

Following New Year’s day it was time to hook up and discover the world of satellite radio, something that was new to me, but so many others said there is nothing like it. The do it yourself installation went pretty smooth, taking less than an hour. The longest endeavour was installing the antenna on the rear of the SUV and getting the wire to the front, which wasn’t nearly as bad as I had figured it would be.

Then it was time to activate it. I decided since I was in Florida, but live in Nova Scotia I should call by phone, just in case there were any quirks because of that. So I go to the Canadian Sirius.ca web site and get the Canadian number shown (1-888-539-7474).

After several dropped calls, and a push this for that routine the conversation goes like this:

“Hello, welcome to Sirius satellite radio, what can I do for you today?”

“I got a Sirius satellite radio for my birthday,” Interruption – “Happy Birthday.” I continue: “Thanks, I would like to activate the radio. I live in Nova Scotia, Canada, but I am currently in Florida for several months.”

“You’re Canadian? You should register with the Canadian division,” he says.

“This isn’t the Canadian division? I got the number off the Sirius Canadian site,” I reply.

“Sorry sir, no this is the American Sirius, if you are a Canadian resident you should register with them,” he continues, “ Give me a second I will get you the number.” <pause> “ It’s 1-866-875-7474, give them a call, they will fix you up. Sorry for the inconvenience, thanks for choosing Sirius.”

Canadian Calling Canada

So I dial the above given number. Nothing happens. So I dial it again, and hear, “If you want service in English, press 1, if you want service in French …” well you know the routine.

So I press 1 : “We are unable to take your call today. Our hours of operation are Monday thru Saturday, 8 a.m. to 11 p.m.” Whuuuup! (loud electronic disconnect.)

Internet Rules

Thinking I have to wait until the next day, Monday to activate the radio, I go inside and check the Sirius Canadian web site to see if I made a mistake with the phone number. I didn’t. I do everything else by internet, why not activate the radio that way – Let’s see if it works. It did. Three minutes later I was listening to satellite radio, hooked up with a discount plan and I am a Canadian snow birding in the United States.

What the heck do we need phones for? You can hardly ever get anything done on them anymore. And you only get to talk to computers anyway, may as well let the computers do it.

Post-mortem

I never thought I would ever pay to listen to radio. I heard so many others saying how much they liked it. After having it for only five days, I too think it is great. Over 120 channels of music, news, talk radio, comedy, NASCAR, and much more that will never fade out no matter where you go. Every type of music you can think of runs none stop. Traveling the interstates, normal FM station fade out rather quickly. No more of that happening, and I don’t have to change CDs … insert smile ….

Happy New Year 2011 from Nscave & RoseGarden

2010-12-31T17:30:00.001-04:00

As celebrations begin pushing out good old 2010 and ushering in a brand new 2011, we would like to wish all our readers and site visitors, the very best in the year ahead. Having done many things we never accomplished before, new adventures and so on, over all our year 2010 was really quite good. We are looking forward to even better times in the year ahead. We hope you also had more ‘goods’ than bad, and that the new year continues to bring more positives than negatives your way.

We also would like to remember our armed forces members, especially those who must spend their holidays away from their many friends and families.