Working with Picasa.

Location, at Home, CA

On Monday I took the truck in for the smog test. It only took about a half hour to complete the test and cost $72.

Tuesday I had a follow up appointment with the surgeon who did my gall bladder surgery. I was in his office all of 2 minutes. He looked at my scars and pronounced me “good to go” with no restrictions.

So with that behind me I came home and started moving some dirt Craig had piled up in the back yard. I just wanted to get that one area cleaned up. I still have more to do in the area and will slowly peck away at it.

Today we had the carpets cleaned in the house as well as the carpet in the RV. All of them needed to be cleaned especially where the dog lays. Even though we have a rug for her to lie on in her favorite spot between the living and dining room she doesn’t always stay on it. Consequently, that area was the dirtiest.

Recently, Clyda had a bunch of photos printed for her scrap book and some she wanted to use as greeting cards, however, the colors were just not correct. Using some hints I picked up on a couple of RV blogs I played with each photo in Picasa, Googles free photo software. I straightened, sharpened, and color balanced all the photos then took them to Costco for printing. At Costco I used their software to select which area of each photo I wanted printed and declined to use their “color correction” software. The results were much improved over the first prints. It took me most of the morning to correct 20 photos but now that I have done it I believe I can whip through most photos fairly quickly.

Photo before enhancement.

 

Photo after straighening, sharpening, and color balancing.

Some of the changes are subtle but they all improve the quality of the photo.

Bringing the blog up to date.

Location, at Home, CA

The after effects of my gall bladder surgery have been nonexistent. The healing has gone well for the four holes they poked in me.

In a few weeks Clyda and I will celebrate our 50^th wedding anniversary. To that end we have been planning a party with our friends to celebrate the occasion. It just so happens that the party is on our 50^th anniversary and so we have invited about 75 people to the event. We are not going overboard with this but wanted a gathering of friends to help us celebrate.

It will be at a local restaurant as we don’t have room for that many people at our house. Besides, there would be no place for everyone to park on our street.

I think we have all the details firmly in hand with only a few remaining details to do and some last minute items to buy.

We will have family staying with us and several others will stay with mutual friends nearby so it will all work out.

Monday I need to take the truck in for a smog check. It really frosts me that I have to pay $70 for a smog check on a diesel pickup. I expect the state put this law in place because diesel owners weren’t paying there share as regular car owners pay. The only thing they check is to see if you have tampered with the computer by adding a high performance chip. It bums me out.

Slightly off my normal subjects.

Location, at Home, CA

Maybe I should have been a book reviewer. I certainly have read enough books lately to qualify.

I am particularly stuck on authors who write a series of books based on the same character. To that end, I keep lists of authors and which of their books I have on hand to read vs those the author has written but I have not gotten my hands on yet.

Authors high on my list right now are C. J. Box and his Wyoming Game and Fish Warden Joe Pickett series. Also, I really like Lee Child’s Jack Reacher series. Jack is one of those guys who finds trouble where ever he goes.

I have been reading a lot of James Lee Burke’s books after recommendations by our friend Cindy. One of his latest, Tin Roof Blowdown was a little hard to take as it was an inside look at New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina and Rita. The scenes he paints leave a bad taste in your mouth as an American especially about the breakdown in our government response during this crisis.

I read a lot of books based on terror attacks or possible attacks against the United States. Some of the books by Stephan Coonts, Tom Clancy, books by Alex Berenson and Vince Flynn who fight back against our enemies are some of my favorites.

One of my all time favorite writers is W. E. B. Griffin who writes several series based on different military services. His series The Corp about the Marines after WWII until the present are classics as is his series called Brotherhood of War about the Army from WWII until now or the series Men at War about the OSS the fore runner to the CIA. The Honor Bound Series is about America’s efforts to stop the Nazi’s from taking over Argentina during WWII. He also wrote a series called Badge of Honor about the Philadelphia Police Department. He continues to write about two books a year with the help of his son.

I do read non-fiction also. Especially books about WWII or related. After reading some of the classic WWII books I wondered how the German civilian population survived after WWII. To this end I read a book called German Boy written by a survivor of the war who resided near Berlin. It truly was a story of survival. I followed this by reading Post War by Tony Judt which chronicled the rebuilding of Europe after the war until the establishment of the European Union. Reading it gave me an insight into the problems with the Euro Union today.

I have read and am reading British sailing ship stories from the late 1800’s. Books by C.S Forrester and his Hornblower series, Patrick O’Brian’s series, and Dudley Pope’s Ramage series which I have just started to read.

I love John Sandford and his Prey Series or Stuart Woods many books. Recently I read all three books by Stieg Larsson of the Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. Good Stuff!

I love Naval stories. Especially about submarines, Navy Seals, or the Navy in general. I guess that’s why I served my military service in the Navy.

This really is only a small sum of the total books I read or of my interest in different topics.

I find my books wherever I can. I keep a list by author and mark off those I have on hand vs those I have read. I find books at the local library or a local used book store which does buy back some of me used books, and on-line at Paperbackswap.com.

I have always loved to read. It opens whole vistas to a world to which anyone can enter with just your mind. If I don’t have a shelf full of unread books, I start to panic. Fortunately, that rarely happens.

Felling good after surgery.

Location, at Home, CA

The surgery went well. I was only in the operating room about 45 minutes. I told the surgeon he must have set a speed record and he just laughed.

 
I was taken to my room about 5 pm and spent the night in the hospital. I had no pain so did not take any pain killers. I came home late Tuesday afternoon. There is only soreness now at the four incision sites. I am using the excuse to get a few naps in each day however. I see the doctor in a few weeks. By then I should be good to go.

Upcoming surgery.

Location, at Home, CA

I read the last post about “still getting beans from the garden” and laughed as we are still getting beans from the garden. I bet we picked 150 lbs of beans from that short two row plot. They are pole beans but still, that is a lot. Every time I pick I think they may only be a few more but it goes on. I need to pick again today.

I have been having a few problems which I finally concluded was gall stones. I had an attack in December, one in February and one about 2 weeks ago. I went to see my doctor and he ordered an ultra sound for me. Yeayup! It showed a one centimeter stone sitting down on my bile duct which is causing the problem.

On Tuesday I saw the surgeon and started the process for surgery. I have a pre-op meeting tomorrow and surgery is scheduled for Monday afternoon. I most likely will remain in the hospital overnight because of the lateness of the surgery and be released Tuesday morning.

I want this done an over with before our 50^th anniversary in October. I want to be able to eat and drink without discomfort on the cruise.

I will keep everyone posted after the operation.

Wedding at Moorpark.

Location, at Home, CA

I have really been remiss in posting to this blog.

I re-read the last post and need to bring a few points from it up-to-date.

We are still getting beans and zucchini from the garden. Not a lot of each but enough for us. The tomatoes are now getting ripe so we will have those for some time to come. We are still getting a few oranges from our naval orange tree although it is about done. Lots of lemons on the small tree in our side yard.

Clyda’s sister Candi left for home yesterday. She was here for our nephews wedding which was Friday night. It was held in a beautiful garden in Moorpark, CA. The weather was perfect. I thought we might need light jackets as the sun went down but we managed without them.

 

Table settings

It was a beautiful wedding with nine bridesmaids. I did say nine didn’t I.

Clyda, Candi and I drove to New Berry Park and brought the babies to the wedding along with their dad, Steve and the baby sitter. We dressed them at the wedding site in their wedding cloths. A tulle dress for Stella and a suit and vest with tie for Braedon. Chelsea walked them down the aisle in a red decorated wagon. She was afraid to let them walk by themselves as there is a water pond next to the wedding site and they might have just headed for it instead. The baby sitter then took them home as Chelsea was shooting the wedding pictures.

Braedon and Stella hydtating prior to the ceremony.

This and that.

Location, at Home, CA

Our trip to the Bay area was great. Always nice to spend time with friends. In total we traveled 860 miles round trip.

I did get the bottom back on the RV and sealed up all the places where mice might get in. Time will tell if that is successful. The next big job is to clean the rubber roof. I started that today by washing the edges from a ladder. It really is too hot to do the roof right now. I should wait for a foggy morning.

We of course have been watching the Olympics every day and night until 11:30 or so. It becomes addictive.

Last night I also watched the Mars landing on my Netbook while watching the Olympics. What a great achievement! There should be some spectacular pictures coming.

I am still picking zucchini and pole beans although I think they are coming to an end.

I dug up one row of boysenberries this week. So now I am down to one row of berries. It should still be enough for us.

Clyda’s sister Candi is coming to visit on Wednesday. She will stay for 2 weeks. We have a nephew getting married while she is here so will attend that wedding in a few weeks.