Welcome to the Neighborhood

We have another newcomer to the neighborhood and this one is (oh happy day!) a winery.  Folin Cellars is now just up Ramsey from us.  The grand-opening is coming up August 8th.

We are wondering exactly how much water 2.5 acres of grape vines would take.  Increased property value and a ready market.

We took Huxley and Molly for an exercise walk up the street this morning; needed by both dogs and people.  I snapped a few pictures of the new neighbor for you to see.

Taken from the entrance road on Ramsey.

 And a zoomed-in view of the winery.

 Seen through trees a little farther up Ramsey.

 Molly thought that a summer morning walk was a really dumb idea and sprawled out every time we reached some shade. That girl needs to get her bod in shape.

The Man in the Moon Turns Forty

Forty years ago
I looked forward to my senior year in high school
I was idealistic
I still want to be idealistic
I thought myself no longer a sophomore
Not knowing that most of us remain sophomoric
Our entire lives.

Forty years ago
I envisioned launching the future
While I remained earth-bound
I would send others to discover and report back
Now on Facebook
Were I to create a "How well do you know" quiz
I would fail my own.

Forty years ago
Our peers told us "go with the flow"
But life's river took us
To a sea of petty challenges
Which has kept us too busy
To dwell on past dreams
And present realities.

Forty years ago
Arthur Clarke had a vision of a computer
Tool turned tyrant
The computer remains a tool with no personality of its own
But tyrannical nevertheless
We stare at the screen every day hypnotized
By the data thereon.

Forty years ago
We watched in awe the fuzzy images
One of us stood on the moon.
Now there are those who deny it happened.
They accept with their faith
Only fables told from the pulpit
And decry science and fact.

Forty years ago
Robert Heinlein told tales of a Future History
Religious fanaticism prevailed.
I cannot fathom how it came to be true
Perhaps by sheer number
How ironic that those with no belief in the theory
May win the battle of evolution.

Copyright © 2009 by Carolyn Cannon

More Socks

I think these came out kind of pretty.

I'm finally feeling competent to bestow them as gifts to others.  The recipient of these was niece Mari.

I'm already working on the next pair, but I'm not very fast having limited hours to work on them.  I seem to be averaging about one pair per month.  How long until retirement?

Who cares, we're CAMPING

We got a slow start yesterday, with Tom spending several hours doing phone support for a customer who shall remain unnamed. When your computer doesn't come on, look for the obvious first. Like that the on/off button is a little cockeyed and not making contact with the true switch below it. Do not take the computer over to a work bench and plug it in and see that it still does not have power, not noticing that the breaker is turned off and nothing has power on that outlet. Then especially do not take it apart and remove the battery from the motherboard to check its voltage. Removing the battery from the motherboard will make your computer lose its bios settings and become really stupid.

We lost another 15 minutes when the little switch did not make the trailer lower onto the ball on the hitch. That was just a corroded connection that sandpaper took care of. Both truck and trailer batteries were replaced last week as both were dead.

Then we spent another half-hour stopped along the road helping a second customer with a stuck print-spooler file (actually it turned out to be the print-server). Then we spent another half-hour in Remote (yes, that's the real name of the "town") fixing this:

 But looking on the bright side, the loud startling bang happened right in front of an RV resort.

 Which is for sale if anybody is interested. Around 6 acres, mobile home and rv spots, river frontage, $470k. The owners moved back to Florida (too cold in Oregon!) and the managers are very nice and helpful people.

We didn't make it into Bandon in time to get dinner at the blue shack, so we tried out Tony's Crab Shack. Some jerk in a big truck deliberately ran over one of the well-fed seagulls who was trying to cross the road as foot-traffic. 

Some jerk in a big truck deliberately ran over one of the well-fed seagulls who was trying to cross the road as foot-traffic.   Suddenly the sky was filled with the deceased bird's family. I didn't pull out my camera quite in time so they were starting to disperse.

And this morning . . . the coffee pot wouldn't come on! Fortunately Louise and Gary had a pot. Going to the beach shortly. 

With any luck, there won't be a tsunami warning.