Craic House Redux

http://CraicHouseRedux.groups.live.com/

I don't have time this morning to do a discussion post....I'll be back later today tho...

You'll have to apply to join at this point...I'll approve anybody I recognize who wants in, for the time being...okay?

If the new group gets some play I'll probably close down the other sites...but it won't be this week...or even next.

Webby I hope will continue as Co manager....and Willie too if I can catch up with him to ask....

Willie are you reading any of this hon?

Re A Windows Live Group....

Ok....now three of us are in sync to try a new group site/setting....

I don't want to name it after myself, or Sylvan Glade....shall I try for Craicers or Craic House Revised or something totally different???

Input people....input....I'm too weak really to try and think this all up alone anymore...trying to save what stamina I have left for the 350 mile drive Monday. That will probably kill me.

The new group will have very few frills...but is quite easy to navigate and post in, and anybody can post as a member...

Communicate and collaborate with your group online.
Your group will appear in Windows Live Messenger.
Coordinate using a group calendar.
Share photos and files.

Groups with up to 20 members can have group conversations using Windows Live Messenger. Members will be able to see the e-mail address and online status of other members in Messenger.

I lived...

and posted a big ol' fun post about my experience...and then the phone rang; I hit a wrong key and lost the whole post somewhere.

Suffice it to say I sailed through the TTE and the Cardioversion...I heard today (the phone call) that my coumadin level is good...but I need to take more of this ghastly potassium shit. The pills are big enough to choke a horse and must be taken 3 times a day now, with food...goddamitall, I don't eat 3 times a day on my BEST day. GRRR

I'm STILL packing 13 pounds of excess fluid....so that's fairly miserable...but hopefully it will fade...thank goodness my hands and arms aren't bloated up too. Just elephant feet, ankles n' legs. Hurts though...

But my heart is no longer racing or out of rhythm...that's quite nice.

Anyway...so far so good...

OH BTW....I'm thinking of starting another Group...at Windows Live....It is MUCH simpler to join, find, use, and enjoy. PLUS if you have Messenger, live CHAT would be possible for those within the group with messenger....


Any discussion?

Still alive!

HEY...I found the lost post...such as it is...


That was the slickest procedure I've ever been through....no muss, no fuss...bada bing I was awake again and eating a turkey sandwich while the drug effects wore off. We were outta there by 3:30...and popping a beer at the oul' local by 4:00 p.m. At 2:20 the Anesthetist had said to me...



"Okay honey, a couple deep breaths through your nose...blow out through your mouth..."



I did as told .... and woke up to find all the peeps and equipment cleared away, with Himself at my bedside. It was about 3:05....they got me up/dressed, fed and out the door shortly.

I didn't feel any differently except my heart was no longer pounding. Pretty cool beans, ehhhh?

Off to the clinic I go....

for some kind of tune-up for my heart...something to do with the timing chain...I suppose...guess after all these years I need a jump start...the only thing that really bothers me is that they will administer some kind of amnesiac....

ya'll cross yer fingers that I only forget a little bit...they have been known to overdo some meds...and after all this latest round of quacks...I don't trust them one bit better than I ever did...my poor doc is so tired he can hardly stay awake from victim to victim....

Anyhow...Reb will know what's going on...if anything goes on you should know...hopefully I'll be back later today.

Till soon, Slainte !

Not to upstage Colorado Birds...

I found a lovely North Atlantic Skyline Blog about Irish birds this morning...and then at a Montana Tourism site I found this lovely little site about feathery friends...I don't recall ever seeing any of these pictured, but they are beautiful photos. Hope the link works...

http://www.montanahighplains.com/montana_field_and_fowl.htm

I entered some contest for a trip to Montana too...only 1 per email addy...no dupes allowed, so I'm sure I don't stand a chance but it would be fun to get a PAID trip for a change.

More bad pictures of cool yardbirds

Finches:

Red winged blackbird:
Mrs yellow headed blackbird:

Mr yellow headed blackbird:
I've not seen the yellow headed blackbird before. I think it's kind of fun and festive that I've been having black & yellow (gold) birds lately, though, to celebrate my hockey team's win of the Stanley Cup!

The Yardbirds

Just a variety of finches, who stop by to entertain my cats:

Tonight was the first time I'd seen the goldfinches out there, so ran to get the camera. I ended up shooting them through the screen, which explains the unfortunate lack of focus!

These house finches were partaking of the bounty of tiny bugs stirred up by my weeding activities on Sunday morning.

Puppy mill busted

http://www.khq.com/Global/story.asp?S=10466996

If you look pretty soon you should see some of the dogs rescued from the pup mill...this has been on the news here for days now...LOL I thought they were the little yappy doggies...but these are Alaskan dogs...I would probably adopt one if I could...

I didn't realize until today that there were 400 of them!!! Jaysu....

Hey Kids, Can you see...

The blue box for the chat room in the right frame? Or do you see just a red X with only the text "Come Chat With Me" ??? Since I 'upgraded' HAH! IE 8, all I see there is the red X, although the link still takes me to the chat feature....

So far I see NO redeeming reason for IE 8, and I'm kinda sorry I bothered...it has screwed up more than it's made anything better. My icon for my Google notebook is now right below where I'm typing, for Chrissake...how stupid is that??? And I can no longer retrieve my Outlook server mail with the little Icon in the tool bar...I now have to go to the server's site to read it. Hmmm progress me arse!

Anyway...just wanted to stop in and let you know I'm still kickin' and bitchin', altho I'm not feeling a whole lot better, I AM still alive. The stinking Flecainide makes me cough...and my blood pressure isn't really a lot better than when I went to the hospital in the first place. I've got a lttle energy but when I try to do anything my legs ache so bad I don't get far...and NONE of these quacks has given me much confidence about anything. Meanwhile I just get madder and madder at the uncertainty and their guess and by golly approach that EVERYTHING is caused by Caffeine, Alcohol, and Nicotine, and oh yeah....Sodium....and it can ALL be fixed with life on Coumadin....THAT's BS !!!

The CH has been cancelled

but we're all still here...hope we can make the best of it. That's really all I can say.

Here's another thing or two wrong w/THE PLANET

Several weeks ago now, Himself slipped on the ice and boogered up his ankle. I wrote about it somewhere, when last week he finally drove the 70 miles in a snow storm to the VA emergency room to get it looked at. He was there from early a.m. until nearly 5 p.m. waiting for someone to tell him if the ankle was broken or needed casting, or whatever. He can barely see to drive after dark so he left the ER and came home. I was a nervous wreck waiting for him...whew. We figured the VA would call if there was a need for him to go back...



Finally today after numerous fruitless calls, he got ahold of someone who knew he'd gotten an xray. Because of confidentiality THAT person could tell him nothing about his ankle. He was told they had paged him at 2 p.m., when of course he was down in Radiology getting the x-ray! And that he had been paged again at 9 p.m.!!!!!!! Of course by then he was home safe n' sound.



The ankle is still bothering him but he can't just take off from work every day hoping to get treated at that zoo...it SEEMS to me though...that a THINKING clerk might have said to him, "you can make an appointment for a cast..." OR "You can get an ace bandage". As a former medical records person I know there are ways to give clues to anxious patients, without breaking any confidences....Jaysus...being an understanding human is NOT rocket science...



MEANWHILE back at the ranch, I must quack about people like my dear-pointy-headed-one...who do stupid things online...like sign up for the FREE credit report sites that are all over the web now....

THE REPORTS ARE NOT FREE!!!

Unless you read the fine print and make that call or whatever to cancel the charges you ARE signing up for....gawd...'nuff said.

A quick weather update...it was overcast and 50F an hour ago here (on the verandah)...the temp has dropped to 40F and there is horizontal slush pelting us....it looks and feels November right now. The gusts blew my flag off....sighhhh...it's beer:30 for sure.

Just thinkin' ...

My mind still wanders the globe, even while my feet accept their failure to comply with the tingle of desire to rise and flee to horizons beyond the walls.

I'm reminded of how I snickered when I first watched the TV commercial..."I've fallen and I can't get up". The last time I tried to sit on the ground and plant some spring flowers flashes in the mind's eye...it isn't a laughable recollection.

The oldest member of the Gang of Four has gotten so infirm, her hind legs no longer hold the spring for jumping up to counter tops, laps or comfy chairs,and her meow has been reduced to small squeaks of protest at her limitations. We sit in a chair now, catching naps, musing about the rainbows and robins we followed once.

Seems like only yesterday.

Soggy Sunday

Found this tune by Neko Case...
I'm sorry to say it's better than the original Buffy Ste. Marie video I found, but delighted that Case's cover of the song is very well done. I used to sing this before I lost the range and the voice; it's still a favorite and so is the incomparable Buffy.

Neko is worthy of a music lover's ear...so I'll go find some more of her stuff. My heart's big enough for both artists.

Hope you're all getting ready for an Irish feast...

Budgies for sale.

Budgies For Sale


On Saturday there was a bird cage on the counter in the pet-food shop. Inside was a budgerigar. A blue one. There was a handwritten sign. It said; Budgies For Sale £10.

I owned a budgie years ago. It was a yellow and green one. It belonged to my aunty. She died and I had it. It screeched like you wouldn’t believe.

The sign implied that there was more than one budgie for sale but there was only one in the cage. The shop is small and full of pet food smells. The walls are crowded with shelves filled with anything and everything to do with pets but they don’t ordinarily sell the actual pets. Sometimes it’s interesting to look at all the products while you wait to be served but today the blue budgerigar was something new to look at.

It was a good-sized cage. The budgie was chirping softly. It looked content. It had everything it needed inside the cage.
“I was hoping it would go by today,” the woman said.
My wife and I were admiring the budgerigar. We were buying wild bird seed to put in the garden for the sparrows.

This woman in the pet shop never smiles or says hello to us. She doesn’t usually have much to say about anything. I don’t know if this is how she is with everyone. I wasn’t listening at first and then I realised she was still talking and it was the most I’d ever heard her say.
I think another customer had asked if she planned to take the bird home with her for the weekend. Tomorrow was Sunday and the shop was closed.

“I can’t be bothered to carry it all the way round to the car park,” she said to us. “Then take it home and bring it back on Monday.”
She said she planned to put some extra water and seed in the cage and stand it by the small back window so the bird would have some sunshine. She would have to take the calendar down from the window first. The small window was set deep in the wall and guarded with thick bars. It looked out on the bare brick wall of the next property only a few feet away. I think she might have been hoping we’d feel sorry for the bird and buy it and take it off her hands. But it’s hard to know what people are thinking when they tell you things and she might not have intended that at all.

She was looking at the bird as she talked. We’d paid for the wild bird seed by then.
I said the bird would be all right as long as it had plenty of food. My wife agreed and the woman nodded.
“I might leave the radio on for company for it,” she said.
It was a nice looking bird. Looking at it made you wish you could buy it and take it home and give it a name but we couldn’t afford ten pounds for a budgie and if we hadn’t seen it there we would never have thought about buying one.

It would probably cost about fifty pounds altogether by the time you bought a cage and a water bottle to clip to the bars. You’d have to buy seed and sand sheets for the floor of the cage. I know from experience that wherever we decided to put it at home there would soon be seeds and feathers on the floor. Also, the novelty of owning a pet soon wears off. These were all things to be taken into consideration when buying a budgerigar and I considered them and mentioned them to my wife when we had left the shop.

I have a picture now in my mind of a blue budgerigar in a cage in the small window at the back of the pet-food shop. It’s Sunday and the shop is closed and still and the lights are turned off. There’s no one there. The budgie is looking out of the window but there’s nothing to see.

From the Great Falls Tribune...This is cool

...in my opinion. I've tried to pay attention to this project. A bunch of my rellies were pioneers round that part of the country, and slowly as I get more information I'm hoping to visit these areas some more before I kick over the traces. Wonderful country over in that part of Montana. If you want, click on the blog title for the full article.

Van Jamison, vice president of Gaelectric, stands southeast of Fort Benton at the Frenchmans Ridge site, where the company is planning to build a wind farm. Gaelectric is planning to develop three other sites, including one south of Havre.

Company eyes compressed-air energy storage


Ireland-based Gaelectric said last week that it was planning to construct a $282 million compressed-air energy storage plant in the salt caverns beneath the Antrim coast in Ireland.

In Montana, Gaelectric, which has an office in Great Falls, continues to conduct feasibility studies of building a CAES plant at two unnamed sites, Gaelectric's Van Jamison said.

At CAES plants, cheaper off-peak power is used to compress air into underground storage reservoirs, Jamison said. During times of peak demand, the stored air is released and used to generate power.

CAES facilities will give wind developers, who are beholden to an intermittent power source, a readily available supply of "firming" power when the wind isn't blowing, Jamison said.

"What storage does is allows you to stock your shelf so you actually have inventory," Jamison said.

More details

Gaelectric is working with landowners and testing the wind in preparation for four Montana wind farms. The company is considering using 3-megawatt turbines in some instances. The turbines at Judith Gap are 1.5-megawatts. The four projects are:


A 180-turbine wind farm between Judith Gap and Harlowton;


A 45-pole facility called Frenchmans Ridge southeast of Fort Benton on the northern foothills of the Highwood Mountains;


A 62-pole wind farm called Tiger Ridge near the Bear's Paw Mountains south of Havre; and


A 34-turbine Pine Ridge project between Billings and Hardin.

— Karl Puckett

Well...geez...

It would be nice to hear from some Contributors...or even a follower...

I know the weather is total GAK nearly everywhere, and people can be busy...and all the usual n' sundry reasons that people have for not keeping in touch, but I'm runnin' on empty here too, and to never read anybody but myself is really losing my interest...y'know? I'm even running out of depressing thoughts to expand into a sentence or two.

Wild Women's Wednesday is coming up on the 11th here. Any idea what costume would work for a Mardi Gras theme? I thought I could go with a dab of ash on my forehead, my hair dishevelled and soaking wet, but I'm afraid that humor might be lost on the Valley girls. I could sing "Looking for a Home", but that might be OTT too, but the cost would be negligible

WALES!!!!

These videos are WONDERFUL FUN...requires Flash 9 and Javascript...but it's SO worth the downloads...

You should be able to click on the title but in case it doesn't work,
http://www.acartacrosswales.com/flash/

Charlie are you still rumbling about? I'm staring out at what is promised to be a foot of new snow, gnashing my teeth that I don't have a carte blanche travel voucher...I believe I'd go to Mexico first...or maybe Australia...someplace with hot desert sand, and some SUN. But somewhere down the line I'd wind up in the UK, for a leisurely ramble around all the Isles.

Wales would be the last stop before I'd jump over to Ireland for a last look round, but I'm damn well take my sweet time.

Saturday morning...

The temperature has risen to 38F and the sun is brilliant...appears like it will be a lovely day. I've checked both the Galway and Fort Benton cams...it's pleasantly bright in the latter, and looks at least a clear, dry evening in Galway.

Himself has gone off to work for a few hours, and the old Civil War epic, Shenandoah, with James Stewart, just ended. Last night we were up late watching the 3 hours plus of Merlin. I missed the final Conan O'Brien show, but supposed it will show up somewhere online. Wonder if Conan is ready for California, and vice versa. Time will tell I s'pose.

Yesterday was Willie's birthday...wonder how the head is today? I lifted a G&T for you just before Irish midnight, Willie...hope you had a fine celebration.
Joan's other half, Fran will celebrate his birthday tomorrow.

Main reason for my post today is to tell ya'll that Reb/Webby sent me the link to the Tiny Chat, and I've embedded it in the side frame here...IF I did it right, we now have a small, very basic chat room, for instant messages. One can see from the start if anyone is online I guess. I'm so dense about all this magic...who knows? Anyway...that's all for today.

Have a great weekend.

Lovely day in the neighborhood

It's up to 41F with some sun and pale blue sky. I really need to dress and get a few groceries in, but for some reason my back has gone hurty on me the last couple days, so I'm tottering gingerly around trying to find any remedy besides Naproxin to assuage the ache. Aspirin hasn't touched it, and I'm out of Ibuprophen...which is on the TOP of the grocery list. Yesterday I broke down and took a Naproxin ...and sat zoned out for the better part of an hour in my comfy rocker. It's helpful but bites me back right in the liver...so there has to be another answer. Would love to have a hot tub for these little annoyances...

The Irish Craic House has migrated successfully to Multiply, whew. Sure hope the members get comfy with it. A load off my mind. I don't know what the hell is going on with the 'Windymare' (sic) site...admin seems to be down by half, and nobody but me has posted...that alone is enough to clear a room in a hot minute...but damn...I din't do nuttin'...

Since I started this post the temp has climbed to 42F !!! warmer than it's been in DAYS ... the sun is moving to the front, so I'll go open the drapes for the gang...and rustle up some brunch before making an attempt to do something with the day.

Hoping ya'll have fair skies...

The tarnishing golden years

This story was on last night's 11 pm news, but I didn't hear/see all of it until just now...too much of this is happening. Hopefully, I've enclosed the link, if you want to read the legal .pdf doc that was appended with the online edition of the KREM 2 news. Such a pathetic story...I feel sorry for the poor mope...at least the wife's suffering has ended, RIP.

Medical Lake woman dies after 10 weeks on the floor

10:36 AM PST on
Wednesday, February 11, 2009

By LINDSAY CHAMBERLAIN / KREM.com

Click links below for more details

DOCS> Graphic content: 82
year old husband arrested
MEDICAL LAKE -- Spokane County Sheriff's deputies
arrested the husband of a 73 year old woman who died on the floor of her home
about 10 weeks after she fell out of bed.

82-year-old John
Klein is charged of Second Degree Manslaughter in the death of his wife, Pia.

Detectives say 82 year old John Klein called 911 Monday afternoon to
report that his wife, Pia Klein, had no pulse. Deputies arrived at the couple's
home and found Pia lying on her left side, on the floor in the doorway of the
master bathroom, naked, and surrounded by stains.

Deputies arrested John
for Second Degree Manslaughter, citing negligence for failing to get medical
help for his wife.

According to court documents, John told the deputies
Pia had fallen out of bed around Thanksgiving of 2008. He told the deputies he
attempted to help her up, but she cried out, refused help, and told him to leave
her there. John told deputies he believed Pia would eventually get up and begin
walking around again.

Over the course of 10 weeks, John told deputies he
fed Pia, gave her water, cleaned her, and advised his wife to exercise while on
the floor. Court documents show deputies asked John whether she ever asked for
medical aid, to which they say he hesitated, and replied, "No."

Deputies
also asked about the couple's adult daughter, who lives in North Carolina. They
say John told them Pia had not spoken to her daughter since falling out of bed,
and told John to tell her she was sick.

John told deputies Pia had no
serious medical history. The couple was married for 52 years.

Is anybody wandering through...

or has the place been abandoned?

We're experiencing some almost decent weather...it's not noon yet and 45F with a little bit of sunshine, so The Gang are crowded close to the glass door basking, enjoying the little warmth through the slightly opened drape. This fine spate is supposed to last until tomorrow at least. Weather folk are actually saying that we are in rather a snow-draught this year, despite the tons of snow that fell in December. Doesn't bother me in the least....c'mon SPRING!

I survived the daughter's birthday, and got a newsy email and pictures from her yesterday, thanking me for the amethyst necklace. There is one shot of her, at 50 now, and my granddaughter (from the younger daughter)...about 27 I think. I'm delighted to say one is hard pressed to even hazard a guess at either one's age...good genes in the pool somewhere. None of the women aged badly. Course...I'm the blackest sheep of the small flock, and now that I'm pushing 70 my features are pretty derelict, but tha's okay...I've got nothing to prove anymore so collapsing to a little ol' raisin is not a big deal.

Charlie are you still stopping by? I miss reading your posts. Hope all is well?

What's everyone else up to?

Hey Missus

Are ya familiar with the work of the botanist/artist Wendy Walsh? Read Ireland has her book for $125. Awful pricey to me, but apparently worth the money. She's PD good.


http://www.irishtimes.net/newspaper/images/2009/0102/1230842348715_4.html

Making a Better You.... from Thomas

Second Life

I'm slowly but surely getting back to my old computer habits. We're all settled in in our new place and it's wonderful. Each morning I wake up with gratitude -- everything is so totally different here compared to the old place. We've been out much more...not only to shopping malls like before but rather to the ocean or just to watch the duck population at Lily Lake. We had a cold spell for a few days so there's much less open water now.

Last night I watched a show on a Canadian channel about the computer game Second Life. It was about how people had gotten affected by it... «cheated» on their spouses, divorced, re-married and so on.

It was quite amazing, listening to grown-ups, people who had been well-adjusted in society, openly talk on national TV about their experiences with this game. 

One Canadian woman had actually married her «virtual lover» -- a biker from Kansas. He was married in real life when they met online, but his real life wife finally couldn't take it anymore. 

I remember when Second Life came out. Uffling told Angharod and me about it and we both installed it but never figured out how to handle it. It didn't seem to agree with my computer either. Online games have never been my thing so even though I'm a 'computer person', and even met my 'significant other' online, I have a hard time understanding this. 

The show was pretty graphic so you got a good idea of what it was all about...how you created an avatar for yourself and then lived out all your fantasies. I just don't think I have enough imagination to do it. 

It seems that Microsoft have given up on Windows Vista and released a new operating system called Windows 7 in Beta. From what I read in news groups and such, most people seem to be really positive about it. I never had Vista...haven't even used a computer with Vista on it so I can't say anything about it personally but I haven't heard much good about it.  With its bad reputation I think it would have been hard for them to carry on with it, no matter how much they'd fixed it up.

Anyway, just thought I'd post a little «sign of life». It's a good thing to have this blog to keep up with one another. We're very happy here in Atlantic Canada...we love the apartment, the city with its friendly people and...the ocean! No matter what the weather conditions might be -- it's always there to watch and it has a soothing effect on the mind. 

Cheerio!

Rebekah /formerly Webby/

My FAVORITE Robbie Burns...

There are SO many versions of this lovely sad ballad...but I heard this one just tonight, and like it just fine