...Old Peasant's Blog

One Of “Those” Pictures

carpathianpeasant — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 04:59:00 +0000

January 2 Is Okay

carpathianpeasant — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 22:22:26 +0000

The year started all right, not good or great or any such thing, just all right. “All right” is something in the vicinity of “adequate.” In this case, it means something like “nothing lost.” The usual expectation is sort of like hoping to take one small step forward only to find that what happens is two or three steps behind. It’s the way things work out, and the makings for such were there but things got covered well enough. Case in point there, the air bed sprang a leak Saturday, got patched and was thus okay for New Year’s.

Now, such is not in good working order. It’s more like keeping one’s head above the waters. There’s a spare air bed at hand, but that doesn’t mean that one’s okay or that the drug store has a replacement in stock in case it isn’t. (They can easily give out). It isn’t good to throw one out without back up. So, the bed is iffy, the food is running low, the nose drip has persisted in earnest all day (the trash bag’s not overflowing yet), and assorted other things are riding similarly. Perhaps the biggest concern is that the nose drip seems to be attached to a cold.

There’s a posting up for yesterday. It’s pictures, but it’s a posting. And, happily a very positive thing transpired. A little houseplant came with the Thanksgiving dinner. It seemed to be doing okay until yesterday when it was found collapsed. There was an emergency dash down the hall to a lady who had been asked earlier if she would re-pot it as it was getting too big for the thing in which it came. Well, it didn’t die – she brought it back today all spiffy in a new pot. It’s back where it was under a table lamp, fed and watered.

Breathing is easier with positive moments.

Happy New Year!

carpathianpeasant — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 05:01:00 +0000

Being unable to decide between these two images, it seemed sensible to just show both at this time. Take your pick.

Magic Word–Armenia?

carpathianpeasant — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 19:46:00 +0000

For some unknown reason that name draws a foggy blank. It was today sitting in mind as a misty, white blob in the middle of a mass that would be something like the Eurasian continental mass. It is a country, a small one, that is somewhere in the middle of that. The size (apart from relatively small), shape, background, a noteworthy element or two, etc., all sat as a total blank. The United Nations list has something like two hundred counties. Mental references (even locations on maps) can be conjured up about a good many of them, but today not that one.

It came about like this: there is an Australian man who decided to go trekking in former Soviet Union countries and nearby Islamic nations taking more or less a few current pictures of life and times there nowadays for posting in a weblog. It was discovered about when he got to the area of that terrible nuclear accident in Ukraine. “Hooked” is an apt description for yours truly. He went back home, all intended covered for the time being anyway. The connection stayed connected. Evidently misplaced pictures of the country were found and posted.

The name was recollected, but what, where was it? Everything was set aside to look at the pictures, which rather assumed the viewer knew something about the place. More looking had to be carried out – a fast over-view today. Completely, but completely, alien words about a couple of million people in some mountains, words too alien to even guess to something were there. It must be for when a lot of time is available. But, finally, one item was found by which to remember it. It is said that’s where Noah’s Ark settled after the biblical flood.

It’s never known what one can find.

Merry Christmas!

carpathianpeasant — Sun, 25 Dec 2011 04:59:00 +0000

Northern Winter Solstice 2011–B

carpathianpeasant — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 04:59:00 +0000

This is version “B” of the topic. Or, maybe it is version “A.” Time-wise, it is “A” bein’ as it is the first to be composed. The Diary’s Blog has another version. As that is supposed to be the more professional thing, technically that should be #1 or “A” in the order of importance. Maybe in the end it doesn’t matter a lot which is which, it’s just that stuff might be said here that wouldn’t be said there. And, it all might as well be gotten out of the way to allow for less cluttered commentary on the subject.

As the sun set Tuesday, the Jewish Festival of the Lights (there are others) began ushering in a new life cycle in the northlands. It is a time for assessment (at least personally speaking) of the way things are here and now – what’s the situation as the earth shifts to a new year in the natural order? It’s the time before Christmas to the tune of a week or so. Christmas preparations are “in the air” many places. People have their minds on the holiday, the legal part being on December 26 this year. That isn’t when folk want to celebrate.

The food truck didn’t come as scheduled. The homemaker aide called in sick on Monday. The computer quit working. Gifts for some people didn’t arrive in the mail. Christmas cards from unknown people did come. The missing food wasn’t much, but it did make the money on hand a bit sparse. On the Solstice itself that was set at “okay” by Virginia with a special trip. The missing homemaker, among other stuff, left yours truly sitting amid a week’s trash and laundry. Most, not all, of the trash is now in a big bag. Someone may get it out.

Beginnings are important.

Yes, Christmas!

carpathianpeasant — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 04:59:00 +0000

In accordance with the Biblical aspect of the December holiday season, one commonly presented picture on holiday greeting cards is an angel (or angels) notifying shepherds “tending their flocks” of the birth of Christ. The idea, although it has never been personally thoroughly studied, is a personal favorite and subject of much speculation. Maybe the most important part of that is that the shepherds were some people at work. It’s been said that in the absence of the shepherds (who went off to see the baby), an angel (or angels) watched the sheep. The whole flock wasn’t taken along.

In accordance with the spirit of the season, the above picture was the first image to be tackled for some “adjusting” in the meager collection so far gathered in the files of the computer at hand. (Yesterday’s snowman was the second). It doesn’t seem to be too bad, although far from what was hoped. There is, thus, a touch of seasonal things. And, in accordance with the new rule of life (do what you can if and when you can), this is being composed and posted deep in the early hours of a day (after midnight of the date shown). A needed nap lasted about five hours.

It was said the homemaker aide service might last as it had been running for two more weeks. Yeah, well, not so. Yesterday (as per the above date) the knock on the door came a half hour earlier than the last three weeks. She might show up at 10:15 a.m. again next week, but up coming are “legal” Christmas and New Year’s Day, so the activities will be some other day. If it snows the following week, just as a good bet, she may not come because of the weather. While erratic service is anything but unusual, it seemed proper to note down the current fact.

Notations can have value.

Problem Solved–III

carpathianpeasant — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 04:21:04 +0000

To continue where things were left a month ago…. The Project can no longer be viewed as any kind of a job. The bed bug “research” (that is more in The Diary’s Blog) can no longer be viewed as an ongoing thing. And, these weblogs cannot be on a regular daily basis. There isn’t enough power in yours truly to get it all done in view of seemingly endless events that turn up that manage to disrupt any plan of action thought out containing some degree of efficiency. In modern day life it seems too many things readily fall apart, for example:

It seems the homemaker aide service may have (momentarily) stabilized as near as can be determined. That is, a one person has shown up three weeks in a row at the same time on the same day of the week. It only took six months for this to be happening. It’s not a time or even exactly a collection of activities covered that’s of personal choice (with some things you take anything possible). And, should it snow or some such thing, the young lady will probably not make it as her driving distance is probably ten miles. It’s probable for two more weeks.

Now, in addition to working around the likes of the above, there’s a need to work in new things. The free pictures in the email have often been moaned over, and it took almost the entire day from the middle of the night onward to achieve some simple “fixing” of a picture to have something seasonal here. While it has been to an extent figured out once, the results at this point are truly pitiful (that below is one of two done nearly but not exactly as intended). A new rule of life that’s been decided on is, “Do what you can if and when you can.”

A trouble with being old is that there’s not much time left….

Hello, Again

carpathianpeasant — Sat, 10 Dec 2011 00:51:30 +0000

Sadly, it seems there will not be much “Christmas” here. The plain truth is, yours truly does not know how to work these systems well enough to be even changing the background without losing the one in place. That’s because the background’s taken from a picture that’s on the old computer that was fed into the space given by the hosting site in a format that had something provided to put there. It was a thing adjustable, so it was adjusted. If a new template is installed, it’s quite likely that the current background will be completely lost.

A few pictures have been put into the files, but they need some fixing before any can be included in this text area. While that’s remotely possible, it’s very remote in actual execution as nothing of the sort has been tried with equipment in use at present. About the only thing going that is seasonal is that it seems that there’s a measure of snow provided by the host. That is not too apropos for a spring-like pond, but, then, it can snow on spring-like ponds. The matter is dis-illusioning to say the least. Of course, there are still a couple of days to try something.

As there has not been any commentary for a while, some “updating” would be in order. Well, not today. Just trying – that’s trying – to start up again is more than enough effort without trying to reconstruct things that personally (or otherwise) have happened. Said “updating” may not come about tomorrow, either. There’s a lot. And, things happen all along, like the food truck was supposed to come but didn’t at either likely time, the second of which was today. So much for sausages, a luncheon mainstay. Changes haven’t been all that nice.

Picking up where one left off can be tricky.

Problem Solved–II

carpathianpeasant — Sun, 13 Nov 2011 23:42:23 +0000

To continue (this is part 2), “The Project” was initially envisioned as something in the way of a job – given some “right” circumstances eight hours per day along with all the standard break time, lunch hours and whatever else. If that were the case, the thing might have been finished off in a couple of months. That was not the case even remotely, and not just because of a lack of any computer skills. In the beginning what was realistically estimated was something like a part time job of two hours per day. And, computer know-how had to come first.

Thanks to the Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton county yours truly can get online and then some. Thanks to the Covington branch of the Kenton county public library (properly it’s the Mary Ann Mongan branch), there is an ability to create business letters (and more) as good as that of any youthful individual just getting out of high school clerical studies. “The Project” did get a start. Lack of an editor (or at least “critical reader”) created one hang up. World interference created a second. That doesn’t include the derailing by bed bugs.

The bugs will be somewhere around – ideally at a distance, but probably not too far away – for the rest of this lifetime. An entire way of living is still in process of change to an unknown. The world will continue to interfere even more so, if for no other reason, then the bugs; but, other reason is expected to develop, too. As for an editor (or “critical reader”), that’s still possible, but finding one will not be easy – all aspects of the easy have already been tried. As a song says, something has got to give…. “The Project” can’t be a time-set job. (More later.)

What seems easy can be complex.