Hootin' Anni's Day Trippin' : Thursday Thoughts

Showing posts with label Thursday Thoughts. Show all posts

§ Whether it Weathers...Birds of a Feather

Watching the sky for weather patterns, birds, and deep blue!!

1] Having my blog[s] on Blogger is a challenge a lot of times. Just the other day I uploaded some images for a post and decided to try the option of 'adding a caption'. I thought..."Cool! Now I don't have to add captions below the image in a paintshop pro frame any more!" "That'll save me a lot of time." I imagined that it was a good thing! Until I uploaded, added the caption, and published the post. I then clicked on the images to view them enlarged as in the nifty Lightbox feature Blogger has implemented. WRONG! Once the caption feature is done, the caption disappears in Lightbox!! With a three column blog template, the images must be quite small to fit into the post properly! Right? Right!! So the enlarging Lightbox is a must for those who visit and want to see the full view by clicking on them. What's the purpose of enabling the enlargement feature and adding the caption if only one works!?!!

Making use of Blogger's caption option [enlarging won't work with the caption visible!]:

Hibiscus Blossom

DISABLING CAPTIONS [Lightbox enlargement works the very same as with the caption. Just a waste of time then most likely!!]

...and to add the cherry on top of it all, the caption option really messes with the alignment of the text afterward also!! You have to continue to hit the 'enter' key on your keyboard to have the remaining text of your post to be UNDER the captioned image. Otherwise the alignment of the text is half way down the captioned image on the right, left or centered below the image just uploaded. No fun, no fun at all. At least I HAVEN'T figured how to adjust to have it work properly. And knowing how Blogger works it's own magic, there isn't a fix. Except to accept the extra work involved, and no Lightbox feature, or forget the captioning all together under the Blogger admin. I bet that all didn't make much sense. rofl

My weather app on my smartphone has been going berserk for the last couple of days with weather warnings!! One day this week, we had a near 80° high [F] ---Yesterday it was chilly but a beautiful, mild winter day with the high of mid 60° range. But the whole scenario is about to change. Today, the temp will again be 60° before midday. Then, the bottom is gonna drop out!! The temperature is going to plummet, then the winds will pick up to gusts of nearly 40MPH...that means the windchill will be in the high 20's!! Predicted anyway. By night fall, the rains will come in form of sleet [with windchill factors of temps dropping in the low to mid teens!!] --- warnings of driving hazards are in affect. Ice accumulating on the highways!! Driving in Colorado, the snowpacked, icy roads are a given and y'all grow accustomed to how to drive on slick streets. Down here, the drivers see speed limits of 65MPH, and that's what they're gonna drive; no matter the road conditions!! Texas drivers, at least in my experience, are not icy-road knowledgeable!! They're discourteous to begin with on NORMAL roads!! I look for lots of accidents before this clears out late Friday. Hopefully none fatal.

3] While the days have been mild this week, Bud and I have been dabbling at getting a low spot in our yard on the side of the garage raised up and leveled so we can have some sod put there eventually. Even when we soak the foundation for the crazy soil in Texas...we always end up with a puddle there. Makes for a muddy mess at the backyard gate. But yesterday, we took a few hours off to relax our sore muscles. Ended up walking at Pollywog Ponds - it's a beautiful, quiet area outside of town. We then drove over to Calallen, Texas to Bazemore Park and had lunch at one of the Subway delis after seeing very little bird activity.

4] At home, we decided to sit at the larger computer monitor and watch SLEEPY HOLLOW's season two hour season finale! Whoa...what a cliffhanger!!! [fox tv]

5] Oftentimes these days when outdoors walking, and I spy a bird, I get fixated on that bird's actions and forget about all the other birds flitting 'round. And this Golden Fronted Woodpecker [quite prevalent to our area in South Texas] was the main attraction for a while as it foraged for the dried berries on the tree. Upright, sideways and upside down, it kept its balance all along!

Sidebar Linking to: Camera Critters, Friday Random 5, Saturday Critters, Friday Fragments, Thursday Thoughts, Skywatch Friday

§ To the Moon, Anni...

A few months ago, Earth experienced a "Super moon"...and I was there, outdoors, photographing it as it appeared over the bay downtown and then again when we arrived back home. My post about this phenomenon is HERE. On Tuesday evening, and Wednesday, we on Earth were encountering what science has termed "micro-moon". This month's moon is the smallest of the year. By that I mean, it is about 30,000 miles [50,000 kilometers] farther away in our atmosphere than when a super moon occurs. But, what has caught my eye is at nightfall this month there has been a very incredible bright 'star' in the east just after sunset. And that 'star' is Jupiter. On Tuesday evening, after we came home and as I was about to shut the garage door down, I got out the camera and snapped these two photos; facing East --click to enlarge for more detail

Full view of the night sky with the Moon & the planet Jupiter to its left

Making use of the zoom lens to capture the craters and shadows of the moon

...another image of the wonders of nature...
Previously I shared the Brown Pelican. Today, I spotted this reflection of an American White Pelican on the mirror-like pond, it was like everything surrounding it was immovable, a still-life... and had to photograph it to share with y'all--

Did y'all read the last of my Wednesday post...regarding the Denver Broncos Championship game this Sunday afternoon? Just to get into the spirit of things, I redid my toenails in Bronco Blue and Orange Crush!!! My feet aren't dirty, that's tan lines. LOLOL

..and lastly this week, I mentioned I finished my sketch of my grandson - drawn from my favorite photo of him from long ago when he was just a babe!! Now consider that he was born with Down Syndrome, and just having him sit on his own was a feat worth raving over. But, to have him be so vain [comes with the bloodline I guess *wink] as to sit in front of the mirror while visiting with his great grandmother at her home just boggled my mind. That he could be in control of his muscles and coordination at such a young age after physical therapy so well; well enough to hold on to his hair brush and brush his hair blew me away. Besides, he was a cute little booger!! Okay, 'nough grandma talk. I went down and had a evergreen mat with black trim around the opening and placed my drawing there behind it, with a red maple wood frame---

My favorite photo of Clint -c. 1990 & beginning of sketch

Continuing the sketch & Half-way done...

...to the finished & framed sketch!!

Sidebar Linking to: Thursday Thoughts, Friday Fragments, Random 5 Friday, Camera Critters, Saturday's Critters, Alphabet Thursday [today- the letter "i" as seen in my post with bold text], Skywatch Friday

§ ...chitchat, prattle, small talk

I've been trying to keep myself busy and trying not to go stir crazy by being cooped up in the house the past few days. I know it's my fault in some ways...I could've ventured outdoors and walked in the cold winds, and damp air...without seeing any sun for days. But I just couldn't get my mojo in gear any way, shape, or form. And besides, I'm still nursing the cough I've had for weeks!!! Wednesday it was warming up, but again no venturing outdoors 'cause it was a drizzly rainy kinda day. If I get too wet, I begin to melt. I don't want that. So, again, I stayed indoors like a hermit or a hibernating bear. But today, Thursday and the next day...it is promising to be much warmer AND dryer!! Altho, that remains to be seen since it's spitting rain right now at around 5 a.m.

So, let's see what have I done to entertain myself? 1] Reading Petra's Legacy some, 2] baking -- I had some day old french bread that I whipped into bread pudding. We topped it off with vanilla yogurt after we warmed it in the microwave. 3] Bud and I bought a new card game to wile away the hours, 5 Crowns. Have you ever heard of this game? We didn't. But heck, it was something new. We usually spend some winter days playing scrabble or Gin Rummy. This 5 crowns is a fast game, and I'm winning on the average of 5 out of 6 games against Bud. Can't be all that bad, now, can it? 4] I did another pencil sketch after watching the DVD of the Broadway's CATS. I love that program. Grizella I can associate with in so many ways..."I was beautiful then..." in my memories. But, in all honesty, I like the character Jemima the best. She IS beautiful in looks AND in voice. So, after watching the video I drew Jemima from my own memory!!! That was the beginning of the week that I finally finished it. Now it's near the ending of the week, and 5] I began another sketch. This sketch I've been wanting to do for almost two decades. I begged my daughter, Irene, to send me a photo of my first grandson while they were staying at Clint's [grandson] great grandmother's house. There is a long story to his life; born with Down Syndrome, open heart surgery at the age of 5 months, and all specialists and pediatricians and cardiologists told Irene and Dan that Clint would probably not live to see his sixth year. Well, miracles do happen and he is our miracle child...he will be 25 this May. I truly, TRULY think he has some special connection with his Maker. Prayers are answered.

As I type this post out for publishing, I am hoping we can go somewhere, do something, watch for birds, travel around the islands and maybe go to lunch and enjoy being away from the four walls we call home. It seems that it's been way too long. I know we were out Sunday morning, but it was cut short with the storm that moved in. --- I can hardly wait to get out in the yard and get my flowers worked over, trimmed, and blooming again. Did I mention how dreary it's been? We have even talked about moving to Hawai'i!! LOL

Okay, so as I mentioned, the sketch. Of Jemima from Broadway's CATS. Here she is from beginning to completion...

Then, to round out the day's post I thought I'd share some funnies for laughs of current events [Colorado's legalizing mara-gee-wienie -- I've been seeing the word of the day/year on a lot of blogs, so I decided to show you MY word choice...Marageewienie, aka GRASS, reefer, marijuana. I'd prefer the wienie!! Kinda synonymous to Rocky Mountain HIGH] and weather. Laughter afterall, is good, yes? These images are NOT mine, I claim no possession of them in my name...they are from emails I've received from family and friends and the copyrights do not belong to me...

...hoping to be outdoors for most of the day after sunrise, I bid you happy day!!!

Sidebar Linking to Thursday Thoughts, Friday Fragments and Random 5 Friday

§ Memories of Christmases Past...

It's been a chilly blustery few days this past week and...rainy, misty, dreary on Monday!! With trying to get back to a healthy body after this cold, I have become a bit stir crazy. Usually around here, if the weather leaves a lot to be desired one day, the next day it's all well and good again. Not so this week. I've been reading a small soft-cover book that Bud found for me at Half Price Books...it's all about ME?!!! No, not really, but it's about the winter blizzard[s] of 1948 and 1949...of which I came into being during the blizzard that ran amok over most of the central plains states and farther south. VERY interesting. Tho, the author moves around from state to state a bit too often, the life-line stories of some of the survivors and the loss of livestock in Nebraska [the state in which I was born], the torture, fears, phenomenal stamina those folks dealt with is, to say the least, riveting. The book goes from day to day, the snow fall records, the generosity of country residents taking in and harboring those in need of shelter...a great historical value for me. And the family stories I heard as I grew up, brings this narrative to life for me.

Okay, so then, more stir crazy adventures. I did put a halt on the cobalt blue crochet project while Erik was here for the few days. And I have yet to return to working on it. No, I haven't given up yet, but I am taking a break from it all. In the meantime, I took my scrap yarn carpet bag out of the closet the other day and began a simple, new project. For my cell phone. I saw these cute little boogers on Pinterest quite a while ago, and bookmarked it after finding the instructions online. And of course, I did a little tweaking on the pattern; instead of round circular wings I made two smaller triangular wings to look a bit more 'real'. With a little buttons here and there, I have a new owlet cellphone carrier. I will add a couple more things before I use it: two belt loops on the back side and I plan to line it with some material so the button-nose won't scratch my cellphone screen, along with adding an interior pouch to carry my ID. That way I won't be needing to lug anything around my shoulders or neck when birding and having the binoculars and camera strapped on me. No need to tote around with me, any excess 'luggage'.

Our annual viewing of Polar Express DVD came about this past weekend also. It's my all-time favorite holiday movie...surpassing any of the classics. We still have GRINCH to watch, then, Christmas can come to our home on the 25th. LOL The theme song from Polar Express is a favorite of mine also. Tho, my #1 Christmas Carol is "I'll Be Home For Christmas"...always has been since my parents are no longer with us on this earth. The dreams and memories come forth full force when I stop and listen to the lyrics of this song. AND --the 1980/81 Miller High Life Beer commercial with the instrumental "I'll Be Home For Christmas" always makes me shed a tear or two...the farm house in the commercial looks just like my grandparents' house, not to mention the huge red barn at the beginning ---memories of playing in the hay loft on a cold winter's day and the warm, sweet scent of the hay below as I jumped off for fun.
How I wish I could go home again. :::sigh::: Oh, and Bud came home the other day with a new released DVD...Red 2. Will watch that this evening during our dinner hour, probably.

...the year was 2009 and I composed a post of questions other bloggers asked of me. With Christmas coming so near, I thought I'd re-share this particular question that Pea @ Pea's Corner [she no longer blogs] asked: Here question- " As for a question for you....what is your very favourite Christmas memory? "

I answered as such: "That's difficult since I love 'em all. I want to say equally...I've loved 'em all equally. Let me begin by saying when I was single, my parents made Christmas a very special day. We always went to church on Christmas Eve so the actual day was family only. All day long. I loved waking up to the wonderful fragrances coming from the kitchen. Mom and Dad both would get up before daylight and begin cooking while we kids were still asleep. I shared a bedroom with my older sister. As the light of day would start peeking through the windows, the two of us would be heard giggling with anticipation of the day. [SHE was my Santa...what I mean by that is...when I was a kid getting gifts from the big guy...and I'd get out of bed and rush down the hall to the tree, the gifts from Jolly St. Nick would be there for me with huge tags with my name on it!! If I hadn't one time verbally recognized my sister's hand writing on the tags...I would still be getting presents from Santa!! I just KNOW it!] I guess what I'm trying to say is, I remember the year I found out all this. And on my own. No one came right out and told me...I figured it out and blurted that it was my sister who was Santa to me. That year, I got what I wanted too...a huge doll...a doll in a wedding gown I had seen at the store while shopping for other gifts. I wished for that for weeks before Christmas. I can still see the room where the tree stood in all its holiday glory and beauty. The fireplace lighted and glowing and crackling its warmth for everyone. I can still smell the turkey roasting...and doorbell ringing continually as other grownup brothers and their families arrived for the big day! Oh and by the way....I still have that doll!!! She's continually packed away with other 'toys' of mine. But, I know just where to find her...I brought her out of hiding just for you Pea!! By the way.........the year? 1958!! I haven't had Santa visit me for over 50 years and I still believe..."

Lastly, I had mentioned that I had to retrieve my Santa Boot that I fill each year; with Rice Krispie Treats. I cleaned it out from it being stored for a year's time, and made my usual double batch of treats, wrapped them individually, and filled the boot!! Ho ho ho....

sidebar linking to THURSDAY THOUGHTS & Friday Random 5

§ ....no title, just randoms...

1- If y'all have been here visiting through the years since I finished this original-designed Santa Afghan [I made up my own graph chart for this making it into a pattern], y'all know then, that I post a photo of it each year, traditionally. Well, I may have mentioned that it has been confiscated each year when it comes out into view...by none other than our little Tahoe. This year, the first thing I brought out one morning for decorating for the season was the afghan. The insert in the upper left corner of the shared image below, shows just a few seconds' time before she made headway toward her 'gift'. And within record time - she was on our bed in the master bedroom - she spied me putting it on the love seat, and bam.........here she came!

...she hasn't left it except to do nature's calls and eat.

2- This year, the collection of Santas, sadly, are remaining in their storage boxes. I just didn't have much gumption with this virus I caught over Thanksgiving weekend. Bud and I only decorated a tree which is a new one we purchased at Target since they were half price this past week!! And the mantel and entertainment center. That's gonna be the entire decorating we do this year. Instead of going through the whole entire house, setting out Santas, we decided that is too much without enough energy between the two of us to unpack, store other every day decor away. etc. etc. etc. Since it's a new tree, we decided to go our 'standard' color scheme. And that is colored lights, snowflakes, icicles, and our small collection of blown glass ornaments instead of our most recent white on white from a few years now. Each of our glass ornaments represent a part of our lives. Just to show a few close up images:

[the tree, a dinosaur [Erik's favorite subject when a child], a white pelican [representing our life here on the coast], and "BELIEVE" is wood that Bud cut out from my pattern a couple years ago. He cut it out of a scrap piece of wood; I painted it. And it's placed amongst some Colorado Pine Cones I've saved over the years.]

3- I was saddened to read about the tragic death of young, 40 year old actor; Paul Walker.

4- No matter how sick I feel, a traditional treat for the holidays will be made very soon. Rice Krsipie Treats. I did unpack Santa's Boot. Which, for decades now, has been filled each Christmas with wrapped Rice Krispie Treats. In fact, I may get the stuff needed and make 'em now and then later just before Christmas. Sounds good to me, with a really cold glass of milk!!!

5- This weekend, our city planners have noted it's the annual Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony with Santa Parade and Harbor Boat Light Parade on the bay. I doubt whether we'll attend it, but in all actuality, the only part I really enjoyed in the past years is the boat parade on the water. The tree, for me personally, leaves a lot to be desired. It's not even a REAL tree, but made of green tinsel garland and wire.

courtesy KIII TV

...I'd much prefer the vast neighborhood "Candy Cane Lane" by the country club. That shows the spirit of Christmas much more than the city's 'mickey mouse' tree!!!

sidebar linking to Thursday Thoughts & Friday Random 5

§ Whazzz-up?

There is a HERO in every "walk" of life!! A calf, Hero, with no back hooves gets 'a lift' from veterinary surgery. Read more...

Our local theater, Harbor Playhouse, opens their annual Christmas Musical this weekend...From the 1843 story by Dickens...A CHRISTMAS CAROL. We've attended this several times, and it never fails to completely entertain us!!! The amateur actors do a fantastic job under their directors. The music, the singing, the stage direction, the scenery...all very well done.

For the last 23 years, the world renowned cattle ranch, rich in Texas history, will hold their annual Cowboy Breakfast on Saturday, the 23rd of November [it's always held on the Saturday BEFORE Thanksgiving]. It's a good way to visit and see a partial area of the historic ranch and enjoy a breakfast of coffee, juice, eggs, sausage, beans, and tortillas in an outdoor, ranch-hand, atmosphere!!! We've attended several times, and depending on the weather, Bud and I may go again this year. Not only the breakfast that is attended by thousands from around the Coastal Bend, there are exhibits and live music, along with cattle roping in the arena. A lot for $6!!! It's been a couple of years since we've been...