Prineville and Meeting A Blogging Friend

No, we didn't meet our blogging friend in Prineville.  Dave and I went to Prineville yesterday and this afternoon at the RV park, we enjoyed meeting and visiting with Loree (Life With Luci & Loree) and her dachshund, Luci.  Loree doesn't live too far from the fairgrounds RV park where we are staying.  Luci is a very well-behaved dog that likes to keep her "mom" nearby. 

Loree with Luci in her arms

The visit flew by and before we knew it, it was time for Luci to be taken home to eat her dinner.  Loree, we hope to visit in person with you again, and until then, we'll keep on reading your blog!

In the midst of Loree's visit, Dave was dealing with a problem with the motorhome's transfer switch.  Earlier we had smelled an electrical odor--never a good thing.  A mobile RV repairman came to our site and fixed us up temporarily until a new transfer switch can be ordered.  You can read all about it on Dave's blog.

Yesterday, Dave and I drove to Prineville.  We had a picnic lunch in the shade of an outdoor pavilion (I would have called it a band shelter) at a city park.  The weather was too hot for working outside, but it was nice sitting in the shade.

A bird's eye look at Prineville from Ochoco Viewpoint

Crook County Courthouse in Prineville, Oregon

Even though we've made several visits to the Bend area, we never happened to visit Prineville.  It's a decent-sized town and seems like a nice place to live.  Prineville is the headquarters of our favorite tire store, Les Schwab.

The Les Schwab warehouse complex

After lunch, we headed out of town for another seventeen or so miles and visited Prineville Reservoir.  This lake is formed from Bowman Dam and Crooked River.  Yesterday the weather was just right for boating, water skiing, and tubes pulled by boats.  The fishing is supposed to be good there, too.  There's a state park campground here, with a few full-hookup sites, and quite a few partial hookup sites.  The sites didn't look quite as inviting for big rigs, but some sites were suitable, and other, smaller rigs were enjoying the park and it was full. 

One section of Prineville Reservoir

After visiting the state park, we drove another bunch of twisty miles and reached the private Prineville Resort RV Park.  It had quite a few small sites located next to the water, but other than that it was a dusty place and not much of a "resort". 

The state park swimming area

We headed back to Redmond and enjoyed a pizza and salad dinner at one of our old haunts from our years in Riverside, California--Straw Hat Pizza. 

Shoes in a Blog

Today I would like to tell  you about a new blog that I've been following.  A young friend of ours who lives and works in Washington D.C. has started a new blog called A Reason to Put on My Shoes.  He writes his blog each week from the perspective of his shoes.  Take a look at his blog when you have a chance.  I think you will enjoy his sense of humor and his style of writing.  He calls himself "Quite the Guy", so I won't reveal his true identity.  He is, indeed, quite a guy!

Quite the Guy

New Followers

Welcome to the following new blog followers.  Thanks for tuning in!  Click on each name to read their blogs.

Kate and Terry--Travels in Cholula Red

Erik's RV Blog

Sprocket (couldn't find a blog)

BlessOurVoyage--Tales of the McMillans' Travels

Cruzin2some

Jeff and Sheryl Bright

99% of my blog readers are fellow RVers, many of whom live full-time in their RVs or are preparing to live full-time in their RVs.  A few are part-timers like we are.  We all seem to like to follow each others' travels, and from there we become friends, even though many of us have never met each other.  It's a treat when we get to meet fellow blog followers and we always seem to have much to talk about. 

For those of you who read my blog and are not an RVer, I thank you and appreciate you, too.  Keep on reading, please!

Dave and I arrived home about 12:30 this afternoon.  We had good weather the whole trip, other than a little bit of fog when we first started out.  After we unloaded the motorhome, Dave had to winterize it because it's supposed to be cold (mid-20s) here later this week.  We have an appointment to have the motorhome's Norcold refrigerator fixed, although it behaved itself on the way home after Dave unplugged the temperature sensor, so maybe that's the only thing wrong with it. 

I forgot to mention in my blog yesterday that while we were in Corning, CA, I visited the Olive Pit.  Dave doesn't like olives so he didn't go on this field trip with me.  I enjoyed their olive tasting bar, and bought a jar of almond-stuffed olives.  Those and the mushroom olives were my favorites.  I'm not a hot, spicy person, that is, my taste buds aren't, so the most daring olive I tried was the garlic olive.  Notice that I didn't buy that one.  It's a fun store with a small cafe.  There is plenty of RV parking in back of the store, so don't be shy about stopping there when you are traveling on I-5.

There was also an olive oil place near the Jelly Belly Factory in Fairfield, CA, but we didn't stop there, so I can't tell you anything about it.    We saw the sign for it, though.  Does that count?  Also, one of the friendly Longaberger basket people recommended it, so it must be good!

Weekend Activities as We Travel Home

Tonight we are less than 200 miles from home, spending the night at Rice Hill RV Park in the bustling metropolis (not) of Oakland, Oregon.  This is a Camp Club USA park, Camping World's  1/2 price club, so we paid a whopping $16 for full hookups, satellite, and free wifi.  We thought that this close to home we for sure would pick up our local channels, but no such luck.  The park offers cable TV, though, so we didn't have to miss episode one of the new season of Amazing Race, Unfinished Business, featuring eleven teams who all raced before but didn't win.

Saturday night we stayed in Corning, CA at Rolling Hills Casino and met up with blogging friends, Russ and Donna K.  We enjoyed our visit with them very much and continued the visit during dinner at the casino buffet.  All too soon we had to say goodbye to our new friends and wish them well as they continue their travels to southern California to pick up their brand new Lazy Daze motorhome. 

Russ and Donna K

Around noon on Saturday, on our way to Corning, Dave and stopped by the Jelly Belly Factory in Fairfield, California, located near I-80.  The factory offers free tours, but we were there to buy some "Belly Flops", candy that wasn't quite perfect enough to make it into the regular bags.  Nothing wrong with the taste, though!

The Jelly Belly factory tour is fascinating and well worth the time, and includes free samples.  We did the tour several years ago, so skipped it this time.  This weekend was "Longaberger Basket" weekend, and featured a special tent for the basket cases, I mean, people.  I'm not sure what the connection is between the beans and the baskets, but the basket people seemed very enthusiastic.

Our fun-filled weekend also included a visit to Monterey Friday night to see our 22-year-old niece, Laura, and her boyfriend, Will.  She cooked us a scrumptious dinner of lasagna, garlic bread, and homemade red velvet cake, awesomely decorated.  Thank you, Laura and Will!  We stayed overnight at the Monterey Fairgrounds, which was the cheapest place to stay in that area at $36 per night.  We had full hookups and wifi, but a very unlevel narrow site.

Laura's red velvet masterpiece

Mount Shasta from I-5 heading north

Monday we plan to arrive back at our home in Vancouver, WA, after being gone since January 10. 

Mariposa and Yosemite

Our cell signal here at the Mariposa Fairgrounds is good for phone calls (1G network), but not good for tethering our computers to the internet, so I will publish this blog with no pictures.  There's no wifi in the area we are camped in, which is the full-hookup area.

Tomorrow and possibly Friday we plan to visit Yosemite National Park.  My pictures of the park will have to wait to be published when I have a better signal.

Dave and I left Corning at 8:45 am and got delayed a bit when we stopped at the WalMart in Willows.  We sailed through the Sacramento traffic and turned onto Highway 99 south.  Near the town of Ripon, we ran into some highway road work and it took us almost an hour to go six miles.  By that time we finally passed by the roadwork we were hungry so we pulled into a shopping area in Modesto to eat our lunch.

We were back on the road shortly after that and got to Mariposa around 4 pm.  We found the fairgrounds and the RV self-registration area but had a little trouble finding out which of the five RV areas contained the 15 full-hookup sites (area 5).  As we were pulling into a site in area 5, the very friendly campground host (named Indian) directed us to park parallel rather than backing into the site.  This was in order to be more level in the site.  It looks like we are taking up three sites instead of one, but it was his suggestion, so it should be fine. 

The RV sites here cost $25 per night.  There's 30 amp at this park instead of 50 amp, but other than that, we are all set.  It's a fairly private area and only three RVs are here, so it should be fairly quiet and dark (yay!).  The draw of this park is it's location near Yosemite--only 50 miles to Yosemite Valley.  That sounds like far away, but there aren't very many full hookup parks close to Yosemite and none in the park. 

The weather today was spectacular and I wish I could post my pictures which (finally) showed a blue sky.  The outside temperature, which we monitor while we are driving, got up to 75 degrees.  It will probably be in the 40s tonight and it's supposed to rain tomorrow. 

I probably won't be able to read or comment on the blogs of others, but I'll catch up once we get better access.  I can still get email, so I will be able to get and publish the comments that my blog receives.

Stay tuned!

Reflections

I still expect to see Margie's blog pop up each afternoon.  I was happy to see her daughter, Stephanie, post an update yesterday.  My tears are starting to dry up but I am fully aware that the emptiness is just beginning for Margie and Bruce's family members. 

Many of us knew Margie through her blog, but we weren't as familiar with Bruce.  I was surprised, when we visited with Margie and Bruce in person, to find out that Bruce was just as interesting and captivating as Margie was.  Bruce had a lot to say!  So even though Margie's voice and personality was the one that came through on the blog, Bruce was right there with her. 

We know from Margie's blog and pictures that Bruce was a very active grandfather.  He seemed to have infinite patience with the "Grands", even though he sometimes pretended to be reading or sleeping so he didn't have to play one more game of beauty shop or restaurant!  The pictures of him playing chess with Mackenzie on the computer were precious.  Margie was the scrapbooking grandma, and both grandparents played a lot of games with the girls.

Together, Margie and Bruce were quite a team.  I really can't picture one of them without the other, so in a way, maybe it was a blessing that they entered heaven together, just as they spent their lives here on earth together.  I'm sure it was harder on their family to lose them both at the same time, though. 

So carry on we must, even though one of the lights in my life has burned out!

Margie's last comment to me referred to the logo pictured above:

"Cute logo, Carol, and it really would be great for your blog. Congrats to Dave on the re-election results. Hope you enjoy a lovely weekend."

sent October 15, 2010 7:04 PM

Life's a Journey

An online friend of mine, Pidge, who writes a blog called The Frugal Travelers, recently posted the following picture of a shirt that she bought in Story, Indiana.  I like this shirt!  This could be a logo for me and for my blog.

 

Dave left this morning to go home to officiate his football games.  The officials go out for pizza after their games, so he's all set for food tonight.  Congratulations are in order for Dave because he was recently re-elected by a large majority for another two-year term as secretary-treasurer of the EFOA (Evergreen Football Officials Association) board.  This position requires a big time commitment, so I didn't know whether to hope that he won or that he lost!

I don't mind spending time by myself in the motorhome as long as it's only for a couple of days.  It seems very quiet here without Dave, though!  He will be back tomorrow evening.

Comments Mystery

Sometimes things happen in cyberspace that I don't understand.  Yesterday I reposted the news about Tim and Kiersten because I didn't get any comments about it the day before.  I thought that was strange, and I even had Dave check and see if the blog post appeared on his computer.  I thought that maybe since I had published the post at 11 pm, nobody saw it. 

This morning I got an email from Mike and Gerri (Happytrails) telling me that they had sent two comments, neither of which I received.  At that point, I went directly to my blog and looked under comments. Sure enough, there were a whole bunch of comments waiting to be moderated.  I was surprised to see that because comments usually come to my email.

I don't know what happened this time.  And of all the times for it to happen, when I had such "big news" to share!   I hope it doesn't happen again, but now I'll periodically check the "comments" section at the top of my blog.

Thank you all for your nice comments, and thank you for your patience when I blogged the same news again the next day!  We are definitely looking forward to becoming grandparents!

Grounded

The following blog post was written a few days ago by a man named Dave Williams.  I don’t know anything about him except what I read on his blog.  Click on his name to read more of his thoughtful posts.  I liked this post so much that I wanted to share it.

GROUNDED—BY DAVE WILLIAMS

“I've gotten a couple of notes from people asking where I've been this past month or more. They naturally suspect I've spent all of August seeing the wonders of North America in my Sea Breeze. Alas, that is far from the fact.

The fact is, I'm grounded. My beloved motor home sits in my backyard, lonely, tethered to a 30 amp outlet. I visit nearly daily. I step inside and enjoy the smell of paneling and glue and whatever it is in motor home construction that gives me the unique thrill that says, "Packing and going!"

I sit in my captain's chair and run my hands over the wheel. Every couple of weeks I crank her up and exercise the generator. A quick trip around a few blocks keeps the moving parts movable but then she goes back into her pen. I reattach the power line, lock the door and go back into the house.

I swear I can hear her whimper as I leave.
It can't be helped. I am grounded.

You see, I am not yet of retirement age and, more to the point, I am not of retirement funding. I have not feathered my nest. I have squandered a great deal of income over the years and now find myself in a job that barely covers the anticipated monthly expenses. The unanticipated ones cause trouble. And nowhere in what I laughingly refer to as my monthly budget is there room for 75 gallons of gas. Or, insurance. The registration is coming due in a couple of weeks and $800 might as well be eight million.

I don't tell you all of this to whine or beg for sympathy. I have no regrets in my life. It was my money and I spent it happily. I'm just a little short right now, that's all.
No, I tell you all of this because I suspect some of you are in similar straits and I think we can help each other hang on.

I've also very much missed writing my weekly account of what I lovingly refer to as my "Postcards from the road and mind trips of a restless gadabout." The thing is -- when you're grounded you run out of things to say.

But I have come  up with this...

We who are feeling the squeeze of lean times still have every reason in the world to get out of bed each morning. I have my loving family, a good roof over our heads, food in the pantry and surprisingly good health for a fat man pushing 60. I can't begin to count my blessings here without sounding like a braggart.

Every morning I open my eyes around 5 a.m. in a good, warm bed, next to the wonderful sleeping woman who has been my heart and anchor for the past 22 years. Every single morning my first thought is, "Thank you, God, for the blessing of another day on your good Earth."
I make my coffee, feed the dogs and together we sit down and watch TV with one eye on the sunrise over the San Gabriel Mountains. It always makes me long to fire up the Sea Breeze and wake up on the other side of those hills tomorrow.

I'll get there. I won't always be grounded. And, neither will you.

We have hope and new opportunity given to us before each sunrise. They are waiting for us like unopened gifts on Christmas morning. They are dreams that become reality by merely opening our eyes.”

Posted by Dave Williams at 9/09/2010 10:54:00 AM

Almost Christian

I saw the following article on several blogs that I follow.  This summary from White Horse Inn briefly tells the story.  Click on their link at the end if you want to read the entire article by Kenda Creasy Dean as featured on CNN.  I have not read her book, but I found her ideas interesting.  I looked up Moralistic Therapeutic Deism, the phrase coined by Christian Smith of University of Notre Dame, and I agree with Wikipedia, which in addition to the definition, states that this term can apply to many religions, not just Christianity.

“CNN online recently featured an article on Kenda Creasy Dean’s new book Almost Christian: What the Faith of Our Teenagers is Telling the American Church (Oxford University Press, 2010).  

 

Dean is a professor at Princeton Seminary who participated with Christian Smith and others in the National Study of Youth and Religion. The CNN article discusses the theme of Moralistic Therapeutic Deism, a phrase used liberally by White Horse Inn hosts for the past few years and coined by Christian Smith to describe the religious and spiritual lives of today’s teenagers.

Dean discusses this problem at length in her new book, and argues that teens have received this “fake” view of Christianity from their parents. She writes, “The problem does not seem to be that churches are teaching young people badly, but that we are doing an exceedingly good job of teaching youth what we really believe, namely, that Christianity is not a big deal, that God requires little, and the church is a helpful social institution filled with nice people…”

She goes on to say that “if churches practice Moralist Therapeutic Deism (MTD) in the name of Christianity, then getting teenagers to church more often is not the solution (conceivably it could make things worse). A more faithful church is the solution….Maybe the issue is simply that the emperor has no clothes.”

Michael Horton recently interviewed Kenda Creasy Dean for the White Horse Inn, and that interview will air in early October.”

Click here to read the entire CNN article titled, “More Teens Becoming Fake Christians.”

To read three responses from Kenda Dean about her CNN article, click on the following links:

CNN Response

Almost Christian

Called into Disconnect

God, the Gospel, and Glenn Beck

Here I go again.  I am not trying to offend anyone.  I hope I don’t offend anyone. 

Ever since Glenn Beck’s “Restoring Honor” events last weekend, my brain and emotions have been working overtime.  Let me say up front, I am not a Glenn Beck groupie.  However, I am a both a fiscal and social conservative.

I did not watch Glenn Beck’s rally on Saturday, but I saw his show on Monday where he shared highlights of the weekend events.  What I saw disturbed me.  I wanted to like what I heard, but I didn’t like it. 

If you are interested in this topic, you might be interested in reading the following two articles.  I chose these two out of many internet articles because I thought these two summarized the objections to the rally the best.   Both of these men happen to be prominent Baptists.  I am not a Baptist, but I agree with them on this topic. 

Russell Moore:

http://www.russellmoore.com/2010/08/29/god-the-gospel-and-glenn-beck/

Albert Mohler, Jr.:

http://www.christianpost.com/article/20100901/evangelical-scholar-troubled-by-theological-ambiguity-at-beck-rally/index.html

If you are not interested in this topic, then please ignore this post and, as the late Gilda Radner’s character, Emily Litella, on Saturday Night Live would have said, “Never Mind!”

Update on Jonathan

I’m  writing this while sitting out at a picnic table at North Jetty.  Behind me, up on a hill, is Cape Disappointment lighthouse.  Why I am sitting outside, besides taking advantage of the sunshine and mild weather?  It’s because this spot in the state park has two bars of cell service, which allows me to tether to my computer.  I need the umbrella so I can see the screen. 

Have you seen all those pictures of people using their computers outside or at the beach?  How do they do that?  I can’t see the screen if I’m outside.   As it is, my face is reflected in the screen, and I don’t like looking at myself while I type.  Oh well, at least I’m connected to the internet!

We talked to Jonathan yesterday.  Since he put the news on his Facebook, I think I can put it on my blog.  He made it into Trooper Basic!  21 out of the 54 cadets are moving on to Trooper Basic and the others will be employed as security officers.  Those people can apply to get into Trooper Basic after they’ve been out in the field for a while.

Jonathan has two more weeks of the “arming” session and then 21 weeks of Trooper Basic.  After that comes eight weeks under supervision in the field.  Then…if he makes it…graduation at the state Capitol on March 16, 2011.  His dream and career choice is coming true!

Sunset at Benson Beach, Cape Disappointment State Park

Spoof—A Homeschool Family

Tim Hawkins is an comedian who features clean jokes.  I found the link to this YouTube today and thought it was worth sharing.  The video is only a little over a minute long, so it shouldn’t take up too much bandwidth.
I don’t think that this YouTube spoof on homeschooling will offend anyone.  As with most spoofs, there is a lot of truth in this one.  Maybe it won’t be amusing to anyone who hasn’t homeschooled, but I thought it was cute.
 

I hope you enjoyed this insider’s look at homeschooling! ;)

Wouldn’t It Be Nice?

Wouldn’t it be nice if we all agreed about everything?

Wouldn’t it be nice if we never got hurt by another person?

Wouldn’t it be nice if WE never hurt another person?

Wouldn’t it be nice if others tolerated our right to free speech?

Wouldn’t it be nice if WE tolerated others in that same way?

But, alas, we live in a broken world.  Things do not always go well.  We have to learn to live in this broken world.  We have to learn to try not to add to the brokenness of this world. 

Isn’t it great when we can agree on things, such as the beauty of God’s creation?

Zion National Park, April 19, 2010

2010 Version of Dr. Seuss

  

“I do not like this Uncle Sam,

  I do not like his health care scam..

  I do not like these dirty crooks,

  or how they lie and cook the books.

  I do not like when Congress steals,

  I do not like their secret deals.

  I do not like this speaker Nan ,

  I do not like this 'YES, WE CAN'.

  I do not like this spending spree---

  I'm smart, I know that nothing's free.

  I do not like your smug replies,

  when I complain about your lies.

  I do not like this kind of hope.

  I do not like it. nope, nope, nope!”

I looked on the internet to try and find who wrote the above take-off on Green Eggs and Ham.  I couldn’t find any information about the author. 

If you are interested in the latest news about fighting back against the healthcare bill,  you might want to read the following article about the recent vote in Missouri: Missouri Vote Repudiates Healthcare Law

Upcoming Live Webcasts

Dave and I have decided not to attend the upcoming Family Motor Coach Association (FMCA) convention in Redmond, Oregon.  We decided that the daily cost to attend was too high.

The other reason, besides the cost, that we decided not to attend the convention in person is that four of the seminars are going to be available by live webcast.  That means we can (hopefully) watch the seminars next week from the comfort of our own home.

Click on this link, FMCA Webcasts, for more information about each  of the following four webcast seminars.

1.  Supplemental Towed Car Braking

      Wednesday, August 11, 10 to 11:15 am Pacific time

2.  Picasa (by Geeks on Tour)

      Wednesday, August 11, 3:15 to 4:30 pm Pacific time

3.   Ask the Experts (with Gary Bunzer)

      Thursday, August 12, 3 to 4:15 pm Pacific time

4.  Microwave-Convection Cooking

      Friday, August 13, 9:45 to 11:45 am Pacific time

I’ve never tuned into a live webcast, so we’ll see what happens.  As far as I know, I do not need to be a member of FMCA to view these webcasts on my computer.

Thoughts About My Blog

Welcome to my new blog follower, Judy, a full-time RVer, who writes a blog called Travels with Emma.  The other day, Judy included a picture of Bryce Canyon National Park and challenged her blog readers to identify it.  I recognized her picture right away, because we took  the following pictures and many others at Bryce when we visited there on April 20, 2010.

When I started writing my blog in April, 2009, it was used as an update about my upcoming heart surgery.  Gradually, as I recovered from the surgery and felt better, I started to blog about other subjects, including our travels. 

In late December, 2009, I began adding pictures to my blog.  That was fun for me as well as my blog readers.  I discovered a new-found interest in photography.  You know it’s bad when I say to Dave, let’s go somewhere so I can take pictures for my blog!

When Dave and I went on our six-week Grand Circle tour in our motorhome this spring, my blog became a travelogue of our journey.  We hope to take more of these long trips in our motorhome, and in the meantime, we enjoy going on shorter trips as often as possible. 

Gradually, more and more RVers have started following my blog.  We RVers seem to be a vocal bunch, and those are the people that leave 99% of the comments on my blog.  Thank you!  It’s fun to get comments.  Yes, I’m writing the blog for my own enjoyment but, at the same time, it’s nice that strangers have tuned in, also.  And after reading their comments and reading their blogs, these people don’t feel like strangers, but online friends.  Some of them, like Margie and Bruce and Ali and Ron, we’ve even met in person!

My blog is a travel blog, yes, but it’s also a blog about me and all of my interests.  I know that if I veer off into the subjects of religion and politics, which are two of the major no-no subjects of travel blogs, I will lose many of my online RV friends as followers. 

But I can’t write about travel every day, because we are not traveling right now.  I have other subjects that I want to write about, talk about, and dialogue about.  I thought about starting another blog which would be devoted to my thoughts and ideas about Christianity, but I don’t  want to have the pressure of having to write that kind of a blog every day, either. I want to be able to write about what is on my mind each day, whether it’s travel, or music, or books, or religion, or politics, or whatever. 

If I lose readers along the way, I have to reluctantly say, so be it.  All I can ask them to do is to look at my blog and if it’s not interesting to them that day, then don’t read it!  And if you DO happen to be interested in something I write about, please send me a note or comment.  Feedback is great!  Even if you are unhappy about what I write, feedback is still valuable!

Portland Festival Symphony, Part 1

Last night, Dave and attended a free, outdoor concert at Cathedral Park in Portland.  Every year the Portland Festival Symphony, started by Lajos Balogh thirty years ago, plays free concerts in Portland area parks.  We’ve been going to these concerts for many years.  They are always held the first three weekends in August.  The crowds of people don’t keep us away because we know the reward of hearing live classical music is worth it!

Cathedral Park is located underneath the north end of the St. John’s bridge.The symphony

Many thanks to my online friends, Roberta, who has a blog called Our RV Travels, and Rick, of Rick & Paulette's RV Travels for sending me the instructions about how to embed a slideshow into my blog!  Click on the arrow to start the slideshow.

Dave and Carol and the rest of the appreciative audience at last evening’s Portland Festival Symphony concert.

.

Today’s challenge was to embed the slideshow.  In tomorrow’s blog I’ll tell you more about the symphony, the music we heard, and the park.

Stay tuned!

I Need Help!

Help with Picasa, that is.  Well, I probably need help in other areas, too, but that’s a topic for another day.

The other day I posted some sunset pictures.  I edited them by using Picasa and they turned out okay.  I wanted to put them into a slideshow but didn’t know how to do that and get it on Live Writer. 

I have become a big fan of Live Writer, but I’m still learning to use it, too.  I haven’t downloaded the new beta version of Live Writer because I barely know how to use the current version.  Besides that, Dave always tells me to be wary of beta versions of any programs because the reason that it is the “beta” version is because it may still have bugs in it.  Well, don’t programs sometimes have bugs in them even after the beta version is gone and the “real” version is out?  But that’s a rant for another day.

Back to Picasa.  I am slowly making my way through the Geeks on Tour videos.  They provide a lot of information, but unfortunately, it’s not always the information that I need. 

 

I know how to watch a slideshow of my photos in Picasa, but I don’t know how to export a slideshow (if export is even the correct word).

The other feature that I tried to use was Geo-Tag.  I downloaded Google Earth and it came up okay and I found the location that I wanted to highlight, and I was able to Geo-tag the photos.  But again, how do I get the map to load onto Live Writer? 

The final area of Picasa that I need help is with is getting any edited pictures into Live Writer.  I am slowly figuring this out, but the way I’m doing it seems cumbersome.  I store my pictures in my computer’s C drive, not in Pictures.  One of the Geeks’ videos said you don’t need to save Picasa files.  Well, obviously I do need to save or export, or else I don’t know how to get the edited photos into Live Writer.  I added the Picasa Link plug-in to Live Writer but that doesn’t work unless I’m online.  The whole point of Live Writer is to be able to write a blog offline and then publish it later when I have an internet connection.

I did have a bit of success with Picasa.  I created a collage of the sunset pictures.  But I don’t like how they look in a collage.

I like my ocean collage a little better.

Today I feel very technologically-challenged.  I want to make use of all this new technology, but it’s a struggle to learn it all!

Sunset from our Back Yard

Last night as Dave and I sat down to watch a bit of television, I happened to notice this view of the sky outside our back door.  I grabbed my camera (I’ve learned to keep it handy) and took these photos. Our new neighbors to the west recently built a new fire pit and the smoke from their fire last night got included in these pictures of sunset.   The time was around 8:30pm and my camera was aimed toward the southwesterly sky.

Thanks for reading my blog, even when it’s a “nothing happening” day.  Well, the sunset happened, but that happens every day, whether we notice it or not!