Hi, it,s the last day in the year and I am taking a review of what I have accomplished, well , I could have done better but I lacked motivation. I hope to do improve in the upcoming year. I continue to give thanks for good health,my job, my home and my family. May everyone continue in good health and prosper.

computer woes, again I might have to take my computer in to have my hard drive wiped clean.

Today is my son's 40th . birthday. My, how the time has flown. I'm not where I had hoped to be at this stage in my life and I don't know if Brian feels quite the same But life goes on. He had a beautiful day for his b'day today-sunny and 60 degrees which is rather .unusual for this time of
year.

the mid-term elections are over and the voters have sent a message to the Democrats that they are out of favor. The Republicans have gained control of the House but the Democrats have retained the Senate. It will be an . interesting two years leading up to 2012, speaking of which debunkers are saying that the conversions of the Mayan calender to the Gregorian calender are off by a number of years. I really don't believe this because they have had years to analyze this. They probably don't want people to panic on December 21, 2012 which. is the winter solstice. Well we'll see.

hi the year is winding down and I hope to have something positive to say at the end of the year so far as my goals are concerned.

try

Hi, today is my 37th anniversary at Cleveland Clinic. My , it has been an experience. As I look back over my life, I ask myself what have I accomplished.


1. I took care of Brian and myself


.I took classes in order to get my registry

a visit from mr. woodchuck looking for his afternoon snack.

A photo taken by my 6 year old great niece, Maya. She shows talent.

hi, I know that I haven't made an entry for awhile. Well, I'm still in my rut, trying to climb out of it. What I lack is motivation. I still do just the bare minimum in order to function at my job and my life away from the job. Sometimes I wish that I could just wave a magic wand and have everything fall into place with no effort on my part. Dream on.

well,we are in the last quarter of the year. I'm trying to get myself motivated so that by the end of the year I can say that I accomplished something in my personal life. If I could just get organized so that I could create some of my artistic projects I would be happy. My reach is much bigger than my grasp, unfortunately.

summer heat 2010

the high heat band humidity finally broke. thank God, because I was having constant hot flashes.

I had made an effort to contain my spending and not have to pay overdraft protection on my checking account. wouldn't you know that I went over? I'll pay it off next payday and make more of an effort to be more cautious in the future.Money woes.

Still a lot of heat in most of the country. In comparison to last year,.this summer has been much h
otter. In Europe and Russia they are having a serious heat wave which has. caused crop losses.

summer heat

this has been one hot summer so far . My lawn is looking pretty grim.

I just tried my hand at using my hdtv as a computer monitor. I'm going to need help because I can't get things to work properly. I got a picture and no sound. I hope that I can find a computer geek who can help me get it set up. People are streaming internet video through their computers which is something that I wish I was able to do. Will give an update.

whoohoo! my funds were finally deposited, now I can pay my bills.

I had a mammogram last Monday and I got a letter stating that I needed to come back for a repeat exam which I did today. The doctor did a confirmatory ultrasound and told me that it was a benign
cyst and that I didn't need to do anything more other than come back for another mammogram next year.

I had mammogram on Monday and I got a letter from the clinic saying that they had found abnormal image on my right breast-oh God, please let it not be breast cancer. Oddly enough, I had a small rash on my right breast as though from an insect bite. It seemed to take a long time to heal but it's healed now. I'm praying that I don't get bad news but I will deal with whatever comes. There is a history of cancer in my family but it's a variety of different cancers. My mother and grandmother died of stomach cancer and I recently had a first cousin to die of lung cancer. This generation seems to have a much higher rate of cancer than previous generations. May be it's exposure to things in the environment. I had wanted to stop work but not this way.

Hi, I am glad for online banking since it makes it easy for me to keep track of my balance. The banks have made a lot of changes to try to increase their revenue. It just makes me try to be more careful of what I am spending which is something that I should have been doing long ago but it was a hassle trying to call the bank and making transfers over the phone. I ran up a sizable overdraft balance which I have since repaid and now I am working on my credit cards. It's tough because I don't want to have to wait for something.

hi haven't made any entries for awhile. just thinking of how i can retire if ever. my son, brian, says what would i do if i did retire. it's dangerous to sit around with no focus, no activities,no outlook. i can agree because i have known of of people who had heart attacks a few months after retiring.

this is my cousin, Carmella, who died of lung cancer on 7/6/10. May she rest in peace.

Hi, I just learned over the weekend the details of my Aunt Dora's second will:(. My brothers and sisters were virtually cut out of her will but it was not properly signed so it is invalid. This just confirms my feeling that the St. Louis cousins hold the Cleveland
branch of the family in contempt. Once this is over I won't have
any more contact with them.

Bernice and I at Put in Bay yesterday, 6/15/10

some of my digital layouts

6/14/10

I heard somethings last night on coast to coast about the gulf oil spill which if true is really scary for our future. Basically, what was said is that they can't stop it which means the gulf will be poisoned and the health of the people will be compromised.

I just think that I have made a mistake. Some how I changed my web browser from firefox to bing. Now I will have to reload or something. Since the weather is nice and sunny I might go to see parade the circle today.

I just finished my third to the gym and I'm feeling like a wet noodle. There is some sort of ellipticycle that people use. I can do only 3 or 4 minutes at time before my legs start to burn. I can only admire the stamina of the people who can use it for 0 to 45 minutes at a time.
6/4/10

5/24/10

I just got a call today that one of my ST Louis cousins has lung cancer.
from the description it sounds like stage four which would have a poor prognosis.

5/23/10


I just came back from a visit with my great nieces and they are coming along as well as can be expected. I have high hopes for the three of them. I hope the world they enter will be a nurturing place where they can grow and progress.

5/21/10
. Bummer. I hit the wrong key and lost my posting. I have hopes of getting my flowers planted before the rains come in today. If not then , I'll try for next week. This morning, when I was fixing breakfast, I saw a fox go through my yard. I didn't have time to get my camera to take a photo.

Hi, nothing new, just the same ol same o. Trying to make changes in my life a day and one step at a time.

Brian took me out to dinner at Marbella's, a Spanish restaurant in Woodmere. I had paella and he had something similar but without the rice. The food was good and the portions were enormous. We both took home doggy bags and I had enough for two more meals. The prices were rather steep for me so I don't think that I'll be making lunch reservations. 5/16/10..

happy mother's day to all.

I just finished my yearly physical and I find that my blood pressure has risen a bit so the doctor prescribed an additional pill to take once a day. I had been taking Nadolol and hydrochlorothiazide which had wooed quite well. I have been taking the two of them for close to 10 years. I didn't get the colonoscopy done last year so the pressure is on to get it done this year and I hope for a negative result. I am fortunate that I work at a world class facility and my insurance can cover the cost. I believe last year my physical ,including lab work would have been $900 if it had to come out of my pocket which I could not afford to pay and I would have put off seeing a doctor until I got really sick. 5/4/10

spring

What is spring? To me, spring means a new beginning . I see green shoots springing up everywhere , the return of the birds and bees. I see the flowering trees which are gorgeous. However, I have hay fever and right now I have a spring cold and cough brought on by all the pollen which is floating around in the air. I should buy stock in Theraflu because that is the one thing which has helped me during the season. This makes the second long weekend that I have been feeling under the weather.

new beginnings 4/30/10

hi, just trying something new. I’m still learning all the in outs of my new computer and operating systm.

.Hi. just checking in.

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I have notice a larger than average number of natural disasters-quakes tidal waves and now a volcano which has shut down air traffic in Europe. It was predicted that as we get closer to 2012 that there would be an increase in earth changes. Could this be a harbinger of change?
4/16/10

some of the cousins at Aunt Dora's funeral in St Louis on April 10,2010. It was a beautiful day for a send off -warm and sunny and everyone was on their best behavior.

Oh me oh my, computer woes, somehow I think that I changed the registry on something that I shouldn.t have. I guess I might have to give Toshiba a call on Monday.

My Aunt Dora died yesterday of a heart attack in her sleep at around 7am. She had lived a long and productive life and leaves many friends and relatives. I plan to go the funeral if possible. I am already scheduled off so all I have to do is decide how to get there-fly or drive.4/1/10

success! i am now able to open my editor function in photoshop elements 8.

Man o man. I'm having the hardest time trying to get used to my new computer. Some things that I had been able to do on my old computer I can't do on my new one. It's a learning curve for me but I think theat I can get there eventually.

Hi. I have not posted anything in awhile because my computer was stolen last week and I just got my new computer yesterday and windows7 is taking .some getting use to.

Hi, haven't had time to make an entry for awhile especially since my computer was stolen. This was something I never dreamed would happen to me, but it was a wake-up call for an alarm system which I had installed. It gives me some peace of mind.

It is unusual in the past few years for Lake Erie to completely freeze over but it did this year. So since I was off I went down to the lakefront to take a few photos. Although it was sunny it was cold, bout 18 degrees. Ouch! So much for global warming.

I celebrated my birthday by watching QVC fashion day and ordering two pairs of the special value which was denim crop pants. I really don't need any clothes just to update what I have. I look back on my life and ask myself just what have I accomplished. I have endured.

Hi, today is my 64th birthday. Whoohoo! I never thought that I would make it this far. Don't know why I felt this way but I did. The weather for my birthday is cold and cloudy with snow on the ground. Back in the 90's , the weather would be milder with no snow on the ground. So much for global warming. I don't have any particular plans for today except to watch fashion day on QVC. I don't plan to buy anything, just get ideas for spring fashions.

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Hi, I haven't posted much since my computer virus but I have hopes of getting back to it. I admire these people who post the equivalent of a Tom Clancy novel everyday-where do they find the time. I really don't have that much to say and it takes up a lot of time, for me at least anyway, to compose something to say. I wonder down the years what people will say if they read these postings.

I have learned a rather tough lesson regarding computers. They are liberating but one has to be care about downloads. I'm still recovering from my virus attack.

The country is having snow in 49 states, which is a rarity. What happened to global warming? We were lucky in the Cleveland area to dodge the bullet of the heavy snowfalls of the mid atlantic region. But I know that there is a blizzard with my name on it in the near future.

2008-08-22 20-18-42_0002

2008-08-22 20-18-42_0002, originally uploaded by veracortes.

3 sis

3 sis, originally uploaded by veracortes.

I have been using my antibiotic eyedrops and it seem as though they are helping. My focusing in my left eye is almost back to normal. I'm going to to get another eye exam sooner than I had planned.

I just had a scary recurrence of my eye problems today. The vision in my left eye turned blurred all of a sudden and I don't know why this happens. I had an eye exam in December and they found a scar on my cornea and antibiotic eye drops were prescribed. My eye got better and I started using moisturizing eye drops. I don't know if this is related to diabetes or not. Lord know, I hope not. I would hate to lose the vision in my eye since everything that I value in life is so visual.

new year 2010 vera

new year 2010 vera, originally uploaded by veracortes.

Hello, I'm slowly but steadily restoring my programs. I learned an expensive lesson about computers and viruses.

my blog doesn't quite work the way it used to. I also had a problem turning my computer on. It didn't want to boot up. It's three years old so I hope that it isn't on its last legs.

Bummer! I downloaded a virus that crashed my computer and I had to pay $100 plus another $50 for antivirus softwre to fix the problem. I lost some information and saved some. I am gradually restoring my files.

august photos 2008-017

august photos 2008-017, originally uploaded by veracortes.

vera12

vera12, originally uploaded by veracortes.

b rian super

b rian super, originally uploaded by veracortes.

NYC2 2009

NYC2 2009, originally uploaded by veracortes.

scenes of nyc

I wish that I had this image when I created the dvd's that I handed out at Larry's funeral.I added three more images to the dvd which I think makes it more effective. His daughter, Shiara was unable to watch it without getting emotional and said she would have to get herself together before trying again to watch it. I can understand her decision since she hadn't seen Larry in years and she wishes she could turn back time.

I was very industrious for a change and renewed my license sticker and drivers license nearly three months ahead of time. Now, when my birthday comes on March 3rd I don't have to run around trying to take care of renewals and praying that I don't get stopped for a traffic violation and have to pay an extra fine. I know people who have gotten tickets for driving with expired stickers. On another note, I think it robbery to have to pay the same amount for a plastic sticker as for an actual license plate. When I first started driving it was a new plate each year. Now it's the same plate with a new sticker. Oh well.

There was a major quake in the Caribbean centered in Haiti yesterday-7.0. There was major damage and a loss of life. It is rare to have a quake in this area although Jamaica had a major quake in the 1600's which caused the destruction of the port city. There was no mention of any damage to the other half of the island which is Dominican Republic. It is estimated the loss of life is at least 100000.

I had posted the disappearance of the sea lions at pier 39 in San Francisco and there was a an earthquake out to sea a few days ago. It has been theorized that animals can sense danger and leave an area that the feel is unsafe. We will have to wait and see if San
Francisco has a major quake soon.

I just watched a documentary on the history channel about life in yhe world of 2100. It extrapolated trends that are in the works now and made some rather scary conclusions. Of course, I will be long gone but the world my great nieces will inherit will be a much poorer place. We can turn some things around but it would take some sacrifices which I don't think people are willing to do. No one wants to give up their cars, single family homes, food out of season, air conditioning, cheap gas, utility vehicles etc. I don't know what it would take for people to adopt a more green lifestyle. Probably some ecological disaster.
They envisioned ecological refugees as the climate changes, sea level rises, and drought spreads. It was a Mad Max type of world which would be survival of the fittest . I know that I would not last in such a world. The U.S fragments in such a world into feudal enclaves with the lucky ones inside and the others at the mercy of the elements and roving bands. Our present life would be seen as a forgotten utopia.

Psychic predictions for the new year: no major hurricanes, slow economic recovery, more terrorist attacks, earthquakes in Europe and Alaska .

I had heard briefly on C2C that the seals at pier 39 in San Francisco had disappeared and no one knows why. It is speculated that they have found a new food supply. I saw them when I visited the city in April of 2009. As a matter of fact, that was one of the main items on my agenda. One theory, unsubstantiated, is that animals leave an area when earthquakes are imminent. I am listening to C2C as I writing this and I have heard several predictions of major quakes in psychic visions.