laramie

It's been raining. Thunder and lightning were cracking the sky during the night, and then the sound of the rain washing down. I turned off the air conditioner and opened the door to the upper porch, setting the fan to pull the fresh air into the house. This morning the world was wet; the sky remained overcast. I carried my umbrella to work with me, but didn't use it. The air is moist, already over-warm, and likely to turn steamy by afternoon. I'm just as glad to be in an air conditioned office.

The weekend was a trade-off in frustrations and accomplishments. I had a lot of work to do, both for the KEEY site (paid work, and vital to getting this next mortgage payment in) and for the Farview site (unpaid, but repaying the help Ray gave me in supplying and installing the new water heater). The weekend was the only time I had for those projects (as well as for keeping up with things like laundry and shopping). On Friday evening I planned to stay in, hoping to find a little time for some creative writing, but I let myself be dragged out when Carolyn and Tom showed up at my door to take me to Richard's game party.

We only stayed long enough for a single game of Monopoly. (I don't much like the game, but it's Carolyn's favorite board game, and she's been good enough to play Scrabble with me, which she dislikes.) Before we left Richard told me that the Rise Up Singing group was having its camp-out that weekend, and offered to give me a lift out there for some singing on Saturday evening. I very much regretted having to decline in favor of my work obligations. The Mnstf garage sale was also scheduled for Saturday, and I did agree to visit it briefly with Carolyn – and that was as much time off as I could allow myself, also passing up the chance to attend a Mnstf meeting that afternoon.

On Saturday I got off to a good start, washing the dishes that had piled up in the sink, doing two loads of laundry, watering all the plants, cleaning up some cat vomit and washing the kitchen floor. I made a start on making thumbnails for all the photos I'd already sized for display. The computer had started crashing on me when I was checking my email, and I had trouble again when I opened Dreamweaver to start setting up the pages for the new photos. I was just as glad to take a break when Reen called and offered to give me a lift over to the garage sale.

Reen drove Carolyn and I over to cakmpls's house. On the way she told me about taking Shadow to a party for dogs at one of the big pet stores. (Petsmart? Petco?) And Carolyn told me about the time she'd gotten lost walking Shadow around one of the lakes during a thunderstorm. I pointed out Ray's house as we passed it. The only people at the garage sale seemed to be other Mnstf members. cakmpls told me about a plan to pack everything up and move it to laurafish’s at the end of the day, and hold it again next weekend, on the busier street. I said 'hi' to a few other people, notably dreamshark; she hasn't made any journal entries since starting at her new job so I asked her how that was going. (Busy).

We all went looking around at the merchandise. I found a T-shirt featuring someone who might be Galileo, and bought it for a dollar. Carolyn found a good deal on a couple packets of hair-ties and barrettes. Reen got a few reams of heavy duty paper. I also got a short straw broom that I thought could be useful for sweeping up around the house plants, which are always dropping leaves. Or maybe I could do something creative with it. (I still haven't done anything with the magazine bin with the broken handle that I bought last year.)

At home again I made some more progress with the KEEY photos; I was worried because of the way the computer had been crashing so I first made backups of all the work I'd already done, and then uploaded all the newly formatted photos to the site. While I worked I watched Indiana Jones in a couple of adventures. Then 'Practical Magic.' When I took a break, for a meal and to check my email, the computer crashed again in the midst of a reply I was writing to a message from Carolyn. I gave up on the computer for the evening and went upstairs.

On Sunday there was a benefit concert for Howard Harrison. Being in dire straits financially, I had thought I might contribute by donating something to the silent auction. I'd made several attempts to find out who to contact about this. On Friday there was a lead on the natter list, but the computer had crashed while I was in the very act of composing an email. (I think MSN is at the root of my current computer troubles.) I felt badly that I wasn't able to arrange anything in time for the concert, or to attend, given my situation. Still, I took a break from my work in the afternoon, long enough to tune up my mandolin and sing a few songs in sympathy with the cause. It's something to be with people in spirit even if it's not possible to be with them in fact.

Otherwise I made good progress on the work for Farview, completing the remaining three buttons and reworking the logo a bit. I still have to attach actions to the buttons and set them up in menu bars for the sub-pages.

I got out for a little while in the morning before starting work. I took some corn along and stopped at Powderhorn where I fed the ducks during my walk. At first there were only a few male Mallards attending, but as more ducks gathered a few females with broods of ducklings joined the crowd.

There were two female Wood Ducks; one had a brood of nine ducklings, obviously older and larger than the five ducklings of the other mother. The Wood Ducks' young were brown with small white dots on their sides. The Mallard female had six ducklings with yellow and brown markings, of a size between those of the other two broods. The youngest brood looked tiny compared to the older ducklings, and they stuck much closer together. One of them strayed among the other broods and those mothers both attacked it, nipping and shaking it and chasing it off. Poor thing. It scooted back to its siblings. (I love the way the tiny ducklings scoot across the water; you wouldn't think they could move so fast. It looks like they are running over the surface of the water.)

On the eastern shore I saw the family of Canadian Geese. The goslings are already nearing the size of their parents, and are showing adult markings, though with a fuzz of yellow down still visible on their heads and necks. It's amazing how fast they grow. In another couple weeks I may not be able to tell them from their parents.