Still Out Of Commission!

This is getting really annoying! I am still having to use the computer at the library. I have to completely wipe out my computer and call Dell and have them put in a new window.
My mother is gaining weight. She started out at 94 pounds when she was in the hospital. She is now at 114 pounds. Some of it is water retention. Her feet are terribly swolen. This morning she had a port put in. This will be where she gets all her needles from now on, whether is be an injection, chemo, or getting her blood drawn. Her veins don't want to cooperate and she's tired of being a pin cusion! Her arms are all black and blue from missed attempts to find a vein!
Taffy is finally getting used to me. Last night, when she was outside eating, I was sitting on the floor at my back door, taking pictures as usual! She came right up to the door, but I had to shut it slowly so that she would know she couldn't come into the house. Next time, I will have marshmallows there to hand to her. I have a bunch of pictures, so I will have to get over to Lori's to post from there so I can put some pictures up.
We are having a family cookout at Aunt Pat's tomorrow, and my grandson Cody's birthday party is Sunday. His birthday was Wednesday, but everybody had to work. He is 3 years old now!
Gonna go for now. Hope to talk to you later. Sorry I haven't visited anybody's posts, but I am only allowed 1/2 hour on the computer, which doesn't leave me near enough time to visit all of you. Hopefully, I will get my computer fixed soon!
Thank you to everybody who has been patient with me while my computer is on strike! LOL
Love Ya
Lisa

Internet troubles!

Hi everybody. Sorry I haven't posted or read any blogs all weekend. My computer went on strike! I have been having a lot of trouble with it lately, and now it simply won't connect to the internet. AT&T says something is missing from my computer, so Dell told me I have to save EVERYTHING to discs and wipe out the system and they will replace what is wrong. Currently I am using the computer at the public library, so unfortunately, no pictures! SORRY!!! I will be spending most of the day every day now with my mother. We went out there Saturday for dinner. We made lasagna and took it out there. When Chuck saw my mother, he said it reminded him of his mother all over again. He and Lyle don't think she'll make it to Christmas. She goes back tomorrow for her 2nd dose of chemo. I will be going with her.
Talk to you as soon as I can. Lori told me I could use her computer if I want to put pics up on my posts.
TTYL
Love Ya
Lisa

It's Finally Friday!

You couldn't tell by the weather, but autumn is on it's way. These pine cones are starting to turn now. They have a lot of sap all over them. Not really sure what that is for. Just a couple of weeks ago, these pine cones were still green, as you saw with my pic of the baby praying mantis. This pic is actually the exact same pine cones that the mantis was on.
I was out Tuesday evening trying to get more pics of the Sharp-shinned Hawk, but when I did get a glimpse of him, he was too far away. So I wandered over to a walnut tree that is on the Maddox's fence line. I saw two of these nests side by side. Thought it might be something other than a spider making the webs.
Until I saw this little guy adding to the webs. Apparently this is his winter house.
I can't let a post go by without putting one of my raccoons int here, if I have a picture. They are starting to get used to me standing in the doorway taking their pictures. This one, shortly after I took the picture, decided (s)he would use the food dish as leverage. Wrong thing to do! The dish flipped over off the step, onto the raccoon. It wasn't really sure what to do for a moment, then started eating what had landed on the patio below. This one is not Taffy. Taffy's tail is very thin, not fluffy. This one and the one that was with it both had bushy tails. Maybe Taffy's babies, but I'm not sure. I know I have at least three raccoons that visit me. Taffy and two that have the bushy tails. Don't know yet if they are male or female.
I got this shot of the woodpecker yesterday afternoon while I was fixing dinner. I'm not sure if it's a Downey or not. I know that there is another that looks similar, but I don't know the difference. I had the camera on the counter set for a hummer, which I never saw. There was a Black-capped Chickadee out there at the same time, but too briefly and hidden at the wrong end of the feeder. I would like to get a shot of a Chickadee, as I haven't gotten one yet. Soon enough, I suppose.
I'm sorry I didn't get a chance to let my recipients of the award know it was here for them yesterday. As soon as I posted, my mother called needing me to pick her up from her luncheon up town. Her classmates get together on the third Thursday of the month and have lunch at Karen's Kafe. Only the ones living locally, of course. Next month is their 50 year high school reunion.
Gonna get off here for now and clean up Michael's disaster area, better known as his bedroom!
Love Ya
Lisa

Thank You Tom

This is just a micro post to say thank you to Tom a.k.a. The Fishing Guy. I don't know if there is a limit to how many people you give this particular award out to. Here's my list.

ProPhoto By Lori

Fugazi Foto

Libs Private Paradise

Nancy's Nonsense

theVintageNest

evening bell/Steven May

OLD LADY LINCOLN

That's it for now.
Hopefully I'll be able to post a little later today. Picking Mom up in town around noon and taking her home. I'm gonna help her around the house a little. Changing sheets and a little bit of dusting. Nothing major.
Love Ya
Lisa

Sharp-shinned Hawk

I wish I could have captured what this guy was doing out in my yard yesterday morning, but he was too quick for me. Fortunately, he wasn't quick enough to catch breakfast. My squirrrels!
It was really funny to watch this guy flying circles around the tree trunks, through the tree branches and along the ground trying to catch just one squirrel!
He was unsuccessful, at least while I was around.
The funny thing is, while this Sharp-shinned Hawk knew I was in the near vicinity, he would stop chasing the squirrels, even if there was one on the same branch that he was sitting on.
At one point, he was on my patio under my computer-room window. A squirrel was hiding under the tarp that we had covering up the old stereo we keep for outside. As soon as I looked out the window, the hawk took off.

Here's Taffy again. Michael had startled her while she was up on the step eating, and she fell off. Here, she's seeing if the coast is clear to go back to eating! Poor baby!
This is a resurection lilly, or some people call it surprise lilly. Under brightened and over contrasted.
These two rose pictures are the exact same picture.
Done with the same process. Overcontrasted and under brightness.
This is a tree fungus of some kind. It is growing all around a tree stump in an empty lot at the corner of our block. Same process again with the contrast & brightness. Can you tell that I get bored easily?

Mom went to the doctor yesterday and had her entire entourage with her. Lyle, me, Aunt Pat and Aunt Linda. The answer wasn't too good. He told her that if she did not do chemo, her best bet would be 6 months max, possibly less. With chemo it could add about 6 months, only if she responds well to it. She did her first treatment yesterday after her regular appointment. She has gained weight from 94 pounds to 109 pounds since being in the hospital 3 or 4 weeks ago. Her treatments will run 1 a week for 3 weeks, off one week then 3 more. Then they will do another cat-scan to see if she is responding well to it. Today, she said she was a little dizzy and did not get out of her night clothes. She is sitting reading a book.

I'm going to go for now. Everybody take care and please keep mom in your prayers.

Love Ya

Lisa

Time For School!

It's time for school to start again. Michael starts back tomorrow. Yay, I get my computer back during the day! This is Blackford High School. Michael will be a freshman this year. He is not looking forward to it at all, except for the fact that he found out they have a game club. But, they have to keep their grades up in order to stay in the club. I'll take any incentive I can get for him to get good grades!

These two pics are my honey's pride and joy. He brings this truck home every weekend to clean and polish it. He is the only driver in the fleet allowed to bring his truck home. He is now on his way back to Indiana from Tennessee. He has to be in Plainfield tomorrow morning, but doesn't know his next destination yet, if he will get to come home for the night.
This particular truck, along with it's twin, were originally Nascar haulers. They are all decked out with chrome everywhere. Really a nice ride, compared to the day cab he used to drive.
This is just a large spider web on a tree branch that I found while I was walking the old railroad tracks a couple of weeks ago. I just thought it was kinda neat.

This is just a small portion of the empty lot next to our house. It is owned by Maddox's who live on the other side of the lot. We are allowed to use it, as long as we don't tear it up. The squirrels love to play in this hollow stump. that's where I put ears of field corn for them. You can sort of see the squirrel feeder mounted on the tree at the right of the picture. This whole lot is the squirrels' playground. Lori loves coming over and sitting against this old stump and watching and photographing the squirrels.

Gonna go for now. I really need to get out and take some more pictures.

TTYL

Love Ya

Lisa

Did I Mention That I Like Raccoons?

Good morning! I took these shots of the two adorable babies Friday night. Michael and I went through the same process as what we did to get Taffy's picture. Michael creaked open the door while I focused on the babies. Amazingly enough, they saw us and just kept on eating. The door was almost all the way open with me standing in it. They looked and kept to what they were doing. For that, they got a treat of marshmallows. Michael accidentally bonked one of them on the head with a marshmallow, then it bounced into the food dish. She grabbed it, the other baby grabbed another one that I threw out, then they were on their way.
I love watching these cuties!
You can see how dirty the water is from them washing their hands all the time. You can see in all three pics that the one has a hand in the water.
Another shot of our neighborhood vulture. They fly low because they roost in our neighbor's trees.
This is one of my mom's peacocks. Not sure which one, as Peapot has shed all his tail feathers till next year. The other two haven't had the long tail feathers yet. They are not old enough yet.

This butterfly was on the garage wall Friday morning while I was sitting in the computer room. Don't know what kind it is though.
On my way out to my mother's Friday, I got this shot shortly after I had crossed the RR tracks. I saw that there was a train coming, so I pulled into AgBest to take the pictures. Not really what I had hoped for. This is in coloring book format without removing the final bit of color.
These were at mom's Saturday. I saw the butterfly as soon as I pulled up to the house. Surprisingly, it held still for about half dozen shots. These are the best of the group.

I would like to thank everybody for your well wishes and prayers for my mother. She has been feeling better. She goes in Tuesday to find out if they think treatment will do any good. She has gained weight. I think a lot of it is fluid from IV's, but she went from 95 to 110 since her hospital stay 3 weeks ago. I'm dealing with it okay, so far. I think I quit my job at the right time. I can spend more time with her. Please continue to pray for her. Gonna get off here now. Chuck has to head out in the morning. They are giving him a new run. They are consolidating the Detroit and Cleveland runs into one. Chuck is now going to be going to Johnson City, TN. I will do my best to post again tomorrow. I apologize that I have been so slack in posting as well as commenting on your blogs. Please don't hate me! :) Have a great rest of the weekend.

Love Ya

Lisa

Day With Mom

Hello. This raccoon is Taffy. Michael slowly opened the back door a little at at time, so we wouldn't startle her. I was focusing on her while he was opening the door, so as soon as it was open far enough to get the lens through, I snapped the picture. Can you tell she wasn't amused?!
I know, I missed yesterday. I was with my mother most of the day. She had me come out there to her house. I took her to the convenience store where she works. She wanted to see her co-workers and get a sandwich. Then we went to Grandpa's and sat there for a little while. Then I took her to the bank so she could give them her power of attorney, then to the grocery store, then back to her house.

I got this hawk on the way to mom's house. He was sitting on the side of the road at first, so after I got past him, I stopped and backed into a driveway leading into a field. I was going to drive back past him, but while I was in the drive way, another truck drove past and scared the hawk. He flew up onto the utility post right by the driveway. I got out to take a picture, but he flew off and landed on the next post. So, I drove past that post and got this shot. Best one I've gotten of a hawk so far.
This is my step-dad, Lyle. He is standing out beside the corn in his garden. I don't remember what type of corn it is, but he brought the seeds back from Tennessee this past spring.
This is one of their peacocks trying to hide behind the Bachelor Buttons.
This is another shot of a hummer, obviously! They get all kinds of hummers out at their house. At least this one had some color to it, unlike the one I shot at our house. My mother is feeling better, but Lyle said the doctors don't think there is much hope. She has had to go to the doctor every couple of days for an infusion. The cancer is telling the body that it needs more calcium, so they have to do the infusion to flush out the excess calcium. She goes back on Tuesday morning to find out if treatment is going to be possible. Gonna go for now. Have a great rest of the week. Love Ya

Lisa

Horse Show Pics

These are just a very few of the pics I took at the horse show.
There were several entries.
The ponies were my favorite.
They were just soooo cute.
I had to crop a lot of these pics because the handlers' faces were visible. I don't have permission to post their pics.
I know this was short, but there is still a lot of editing to do before I can post more. Next post, I promise! I've been on the computer all day. Half the time it has been uncooperative! The weather here has been great. Yet another day without air conditioning, and that's the way I prefer it. It is currently 81 degrees, but the humidity is very low, so it doesn't seem that warm. Gonna get off here for now. My juvenile delinquent(Michael) is driving me batty wanting to get on the computer so he can play his Runescape! Whatever!
See you all later.
Love Ya
Lisa

Gorgeous Weather For A Horse Show

Hello everybody. Sorry I was away so long. I would have posted last night, but i was simply too exhausted! I don't do mornings, and I had to get up at 6:00 Saturday and Sunday to be ready for Lori to pick me up at 7:00 to go to the horse show. The weather couldn't have been better. Saturday was a bit warmer, maybe up to 80. But Sunday was perfect! It only got up to about 70 degrees. To me, that is a perfect summer day. There was a nice breeze and some people were wearing jackets. It was a bit chilly when we first got there on Sunday. Lori said she wished she had remembered her jacket. There was a lake across the road from the horse park, so when things started winding down on Sunday, I took a walk over there to get shots of the water fowl. The shot above is a Canadian goose. I know, I'm supposed to have pictures of the horses. Lori has most of my horse pics on her computer. She is putting them on a disc and bringing them to me. I simply don't have enough memory on my computer to hold all those pics, and for some reason, I can't burn my existing pics onto a disc. My computer just won't let me.
These two pics are Lori's horse, Dream. He was in the show, but Lori did not show him. The trainer named Drew is the one who was showing him. These two pics were taken after everybody had started packing up at the end of the show. Lori went back to the stall to take him out for a ride. I can't post any pics of her riding him without her permission. So when she comes over later to give me the photo disc, I will see if she will let me post it on another day.

Now, you remember while reading my profile, I said I did not age well since the Glamour Shots picture was taken? Here's the proof! LOL This is me with Dream when we were getting ready to leave. See, I wasn't lying! :)
Back to the lake pics. A couple of Canadian geese coming in for a landing. The lake was full of birds. Geese, white ducks, mallard ducks. Grey geese. Not sure what they are called. I have only seen them previously on farms.

This sunrise was on the way to the show on Saturday. There was a blanket of fog over the fields that morning. Sorry it's not a really clear shot.
Another Canadian goose.
A female Mallard duck.
A male Mallard. I had just woken him up, poor thing!
I was able to get this guy flapping in the water. I kept seeing them all doing this, but I kept missing the shots, until this guy.

That's it for now. I promise next post will have horses on it.

Fugazi is going to see if she can "fix" the picture of me so I don't look like the old hag that I am! LOL.

Love Ya

Lisa