The Suspenseful Tale of a Bipolar Week, or, Snow and Ice and Viruses- Oh My!

Well, the past week has been sort of bipolar, from good to bad, frustration to joy.
First, joy: the beautiful snow, plus a whole week off from school! I took my first real photos with my new camera, and had lots of fun watching the birds. It was great.
Then, frustration: my computer stopped working. It started with a notice from my anti-virus program, so I ran a complete scan. The next morning (last Monday, our first snow day), no internet. Then my battery backup surge protector stopped working, making a horrible screeching noise. Without going into boring details, I spent lots of time on the phone with the manufacturer, who finally decided to send me a new one.
Joy! The problem would be fixed! So I unplugged it from the battery backup and into the wall.
More frustration: I still could not get on the internet. After trying all the fixes my son knew, I called the internet provider. More large chunks of time on the phone later, they decide I need a new modem.
Joy: Another snow day, but we have a 4WD truck, so went and got the new modem.
Frustration: After installing the new modem, I still couldn't get on the internet. The anti-virus program detected 41 viruses. WHAT??!!! That's when I noticed the anti-virus system that kept popping up wasn't the one I had installed. Apparently, it was a virus/spyware thing that was taking over my computer like those creepy alien things in that movie.
I called my son (who had lost electricity due to the ice storm), for about the 10th time. We spent much time trying to get rid of THE THING, but to no avail. ARRRGH!!
Joy: More snow days, so I had time to do some artwork, seeing as how my computer was not working.
Frustration: By about Thursday, The cabin fever set in, yet the roads were still icy. My son thought he could download a program that would get rid of THE THING, and email it to my daughter, who lives down the street from me. She could then put it on a flashdrive and bring it over. The email didn't come through. My daughter had to work. She also had to do homework. She was cranky, and my kids decided that I was addicted to the internet. Ha! They couldn't live without it for ten minutes on a bet.
The cabin fever grew.
Joy: She finally brought it over on Sunday night.
Frustration: It would not install. We kept trying, and it just kept disappearing.
Joy: Just when we were about to give up, it installed. I started the scan, and went to bed.
More joy: Monday morning, it had run for over 5 hours, and seemed to have conquered THE THING. YAAAAAY!!!!
And even more joy: We have another snow day today!


Does anyone know what kind of bird this is? I think he's very cute.





Deep and profound lessons I learned from this experience:
1. Too much of a good thing (i.e. snow days) is not a good thing.
2. Neither is too much of a bad thing.
3. I really, really, really HATE computer viruses!
4. My kids are way smarter than me, as well as kind and patient.
5. Many things look very weird when covered in ice.

Real Snow!

I realize that this isn't a big deal to many of you, but we don't often get a foot of snow in Kentucky, so I'm excited! Snow just floated down like big white feathers, it streaked sideways in the wind, it fell in buckets and just kept coming. Then the shiny ice pellets came, sounding like millions of june bugs tapping on the windows. This was followed by- guess what?- more snow!


Since we've been off all week (believe it or not, we teachers are more excited than the kids), I've had time to work on art, and also to try out my new camera. I stood on my back porch and took pictures of birds at the feeder about 30 feet away; if had set up the tripod (not really practical in the snow) and zoomed in all the way, I could have taken pictures of their eyeballs. I LOVE this camera!


I call this cardinal Marilyn because she loves to pose- or really, she's probably just a glutton because she's always at the feeder. I thought she was beautiful, though, and she didn't flit around as much as the smaller birds. Did you know that birds can move astonishingly quickly? Unbelievable! I really did need a tripod.


Hey! I just found out we have another snow day tomorrow! Whoo-hoo!

New camera!!

Okay, long story short (or maybe not): I have not had a camera since last summer. I was taking pictures while standing on a rock in the middle of the Kinneyconnick Creek. Of course, I had to stand there to get a better shot of - whatever it was. So the camera slips out of my hands and lands on a rock- striking right in the middle of the lens (what are the odds?), resulting in a big scrape on the glass, which causes a big floopy blurry spot on all my pictures.
I set out to buy a new camera, but couldn't decide what kind to get; if you've been reading my blog you'll see several references to my inability to make decisions, and this is a lot of money we're talking about here. My son would come up every once in while and photograph the artwork that was too big for the scanner, so I continued to put it off.
I finally ordered one on December 29, because to get the special deal I had to order before December 31. It came yesterday, so I'm very excited, and this morning it was raining ice, which reminded me of last year when we had an ice storm. The sun came out afterward, making everything sparkle because it was encased in ice, like this magnolia tree I took pictures of. So if it happens again, I'm ready. Oh, and I got a strap for this camera.