YardArt-Just for the JOY of It-Thursday Thirteen

Make Time for Small Reflections

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and Thursday Thirteen

Mary the teach at Work of the Poet
has asked bloggers to share Yard Art on Thursdays …
Lots of people who live near the beach
in Southern California ‘decorate’ their yards
(often in unique ways) so I’ll have a steady supply!
Here’s MY third contribution …
(click here for my first & second
at Happily Retired Gal)
None is from my yard!

This lion stands guard outside a home
in downtown Huntington Beach

Click to embiggen for better viewing
and for others participating in Yard Art on Thursdays

1. "Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful." Albert Schweitzer

2. Temperatures today here at the beach were in the low 80s and people were all over the place ... sunning themselves on the sand, surfing, playing volleyball, walking on the pier, fishing and celebrating St. Paddy's Day downtown ... just for the JOY of it.

3. Not only was the weather cooperative, skies were so clear that we could see the snow on the mountains in the distance from the pier.

4. "The Constitution only guarantees the American people the right to pursue happiness. You have to catch it yourself."
Benjamin Franklin

5. A few pelicans were hanging around the pier and this handsome fellow put on quite an entertaining display ... just for the JOY of it. I'm always amazed at how BIG these birds are.

6. The 'bread vendor' (see #7 in last week's post if you missed him) was happy to give me a loaf of cheese bread WITH jalapeños when I told him of the missing jalapeños in last week's loaf ... there aren't a LOT of them, but it IS tasty.

7. "People take different roads seeking fulfillment and happiness. Just because they're not on your road doesn't mean they've gotten lost." H. Jackson Browne

8. This seagull elicited lots of treats from sympathetic passers by ... he has no left foot but seems to manage just fine.

9. I like my new Sony Vaio notebook very much and am delighted that the 'Vista' versions of software I own seems to run just fine in the Windows 7 environment on this 64-bit machine.

10. "Those who can laugh without cause have either found the true meaning of happiness or have gone stark raving mad."
Norm Papernick

11. Tomorrow is the last day of my 'Digital Media' class in this session. Next week I begin a Windows 7 class ... just for the JOY of it! After class I'll be driving to Laguna Beach with friends around 11:15am to enjoy lunch and a play at the Laguna Playhouse. Life is good ;-)

12. Aren't these two labs adorable ... sleeping together (just for the JOY of it) as they wait patiently for their person downtown?

13. There is a wonderful mythical law of nature that the three things we crave most in life — happiness, freedom, and peace of mind — are always attained by giving them to someone else. Peyton Conway March

Click any image to embiggen for better viewing
and for others participating in
Just for the Joy of It
Thursday Thirteen

Small Reflections ... Smile Back

Thought for Today
"St. Patrick's Day is an enchanted time - a day to begin transforming winter's dreams into summer's magic."
Adrienne Cook

13 Random Thoughts in my Mind this Morning

Make Time for Small Reflections

Wordless Watery Outdoor Wednesday
is in the next post ...

13 Random Thoughts

1. At last! I planted the flat of pansies (purchased mid-January) on Tuesday when the rains didn't arrive as predicted this week because the dirt was finally dry enough (after the previous series of storms) to work with. I sprinkled the 'coyote urine' granules around each plant and so far, the cats next door haven't dug anything up. Perhaps this unique 'fix' will keep the cats away indefinitely? The rain is supposed to begin this afternoon and continue throughout the weekend and hopefully the pansies won't get drowned out.

2. Yesterday I spent an hour or so deleting a few photos from previous posts (and from Picasa) to free up space to upload more. It seems that posting so many photographs and mosaics (in the LARGE format without resizing them) for the past two years wasn't the wisest choice. Who knew? Live & learn, right?

3. It's a 'short-term' fix, but it's the best I can do at the moment. I appreciate Carver suggesting Photobucket as an alternative and I plan to check into that when time permits. For now, I've discovered I can upload pictures to my WordPress account then copy & paste them here ... and that makes me wonder if I could do something similar with Blogger using a different email account? Methinks I'll explore that possibility too ...

4. Apparently Monday's Digital Media class won't meet due to Lincoln's birthday so we only have one more session. Note to self: Avoid M-W classes in January & February from now on. In addition to Monday holidays, there was a rain cancellation and two Staff Development days. Out of 12 scheduled classes, we met 7 times ... yet paid the same fee that T-Th classes paid. It hardly seems fair does it? Such is life ...

5. Yesterday afternoon I met a friend from High School for a late lunch at Mimi's Cafe in Long Beach and enjoyed 'catching up' with her. We commiserated about turning 65 this month and all the Medicare 'sign-up' challenges ... and we've both got our fingers crossed that there will be no unforseen glitches before our 'cards' arrive in the mail. Her birthday is the 12th and mine is the 23rd.

6. When I turned on my cell phone this morning I discovered a message from my sister (left last night while I was in class) suggesting we get together today ... and since she & her husband plan to hit the road mid-March, methinks I'll do that because maximizing our time together makes sense.

7. Does anyone but me think it's strange that Starbucks doesn't keep 'decaf' brewed in the afternoon? They'll MAKE a pot if you ask ... and they say it only takes 4 minutes ... but somehow it strikes me as odd. I make 'half-cafe' in the morning at home, but switch to decaf after 11:00 or so because I like sleeping at night.

8. While I'm on the subject of Starbucks, I'm frustrated about the changes to their 'Gold Card' system. I liked getting 10% off all purchases ... especially when buying coffee beans and/or gifts. Now they want to provide free internet access (something I'm not likely to use ever) instead and award customers a 'star' each time a purchase is made (not based on what you spend, but on the number of visits). In addition (according to the gal at my local store), unless I 'load' the card with money in advance, the 'swipes' don't register at all! These changes seem wrong ... and methinks I may switch to Peet's in protest.

9. I just called my sister to see what she has in mind for today ... and she's going to call me back around 9-ish after they return from her husband's appointment with the doctor ... so that will give me time to finish & publish this post (if I can keep myself focused), take Molly for a walk, and get myself ready to connect ... possibly for breakfast and whatever comes next. Guess blog visits (and photo upload research) will have to wait until tonight (or tomorrow). Perhaps I'll drop my camera & lens off at the shop on the way home this afternoon?

10. I suppose it may rain today so doing something indoors makes sense ... though the weather forecast was 'off' for Monday through Wednesday so there are no guarantees about the rest of the week's predictions, right?

11. The gardener finally cut back the rose bushes last week (they had already begun to show new growth so this was overdue obviously), irises have sprouted, the Nastursiums are going crazy (as they usually do this time of year) though there are no yellow or orange blossoms yet ...

... and the Johnny Jump Ups (spread by visiting birds) have begun to bloom. Soon they'll be everywhere ;-)

12. I downloaded a 'Vista compatible clone' of Microsoft's 'Power Toy Resizer' for XP and used it to make these last two photos 'small' yet I imported them at the large setting. I don't see any 'visual' difference but suspect there's a huge 'memory' difference ... so methinks I'll experiment with 'resizing' images before uploading them from now on and perhaps (as time permits) go back to resize some of the memory intensive mosaics I've posted in the past to see how much space this frees up.

13. I wonder if we'll still be able to 'click to embiggen' these images? Guess I'll need to check THAT out too. So ... I've come to the end of the lollipop (so to speak) and it's time to wish you all a wonderful Thursday!

Click for others participating in Thursday Thirteen

Friday Addendum - Check out my Haiku Friday Sky Watch post at Sacred Ruminations for additional info about the Blogger Photo Update issue.

Small Reflections ... Smile Back

Thought for Today
"An ounce of action is worth a ton of theory." Ralph Waldo Emerson

Thursday's Thoughts & A Couple of Chuckles

NaBloPoMo-Day13

Make Time for Small Reflections
Click for Fun Monday, Ruby Tuesday, & Heads or Tails
My 401st post & bloggy awards
Unconscious Mutterings

While many of you are experiencing 'autumn' and some even 'snow' ... here in Southern California we have 3 days of gusty winds (20-60mph) and temperatures in the 90s ahead, followed by several days in the mid-80s as winds decrease in speed. Of course fire danger is high once again. I'm really ready for some cooler temperatures and rainy days, but I guess it will be a while before we experience those changes.

Today is the Great Southern California Shakeout. At 10am there will be a simulated 7.8 earthquake centered in the Palm Springs area on the San Andreas Fault ... affecting all of Southern California. A seismic event of this magnitude is expected to result in 18,000 deaths and $200 billion in damages. Apparently we have a 46% chance of experiencing such an earthquake in the next 30 years. I remember 'practice events' from my days as a teacher. They often took several hours to complete. With today's warmer WINDY weather, I'm relieved I'm no longer teaching.

I'm a native of California and have lived through many earthquakes, some more frightening than others. They're a 'fact of life' here ... much like tornados in the Midwest & hurricanes in the Gulf states. If you're interested & have time you can click for a 'clickable map' of Historic Earthquakes in Southern California. Here's a fascinating chronological listing of earthquakes from 1900-1999 with links to each event, and this link takes you directly to Northridge earthquake data from 1994 ... another memorable one that caused significant damage to the greater LA area. The last BIG earthquake here occurred in 1971 ... centered in the Sylmar area of Los Angeles.

I'm off to my 5th PSE6 class this morning so I won't be visiting blogs until later this afternoon when I return. I started a conversation about 'financial' matters at Sacred Ruminations yesterday and continued it today ... so you'll find more thoughts & information there than here. I'm skipping T-13 because I have no time to create something worth sharing, but hopefully I'll have time to put something together for next week.

Today I'm choosing ...

how about you?

The Bottom Line

A cowboy rides his horse up to a saloon.

All the patrons gawked as the cowboy kissed his horse on the butt before coming in and asking for a drink.

The bartender serves him and asks, "Mind if I ask why'd ya kiss your horse on the butt?"

The cowboy says, "It's 'cause I got chapped lips."

The bartender asks, "Does manure help them heal?"

Cowboy replies, "No, but it keeps me from licking them."

Totally Bats

Two bats are going for their midnight feed.

After an hour or so, one bat gets tired of looking and goes home with no blood.

The other bat comes home with blood dripping from its mouth. The first bat says enviously, "Where did you get all that blood from?"

The second bat replies, "Follow me. I`ll show you."

After awhile the second bat leads them to a cave. He says, "You see that wall over there?"

The hungry bat excitedly says, "Yes!"

Other bat says, "I didn't."

Small Reflections ... Smile Back

Thought for Today
"Common sense and a sense of humor are the same thing, moving at different speeds. A sense of humor is just common sense, dancing." William James

Blogger seems to be having trouble this afternoon

I'm a little surprised I got 'access' to 'the editor for a new post' because I've been unable to leave comments on anyone's Blogger site (or access 'Profile' pages to get email addresses) for a couple of hours. Clearly's something's up, but there's no 'scheduled outage' for today. I did notice yesterday that the way comments come up has been changed on two of my blogs. As of 1:44pm, my Blog Rolls & Bling site still has the old format, but I suspect it will change eventually.

Many folks had already changed to this 'in line' comment format once it became available through 'Blogger in Draft' ... but since it takes away the possibility of 'checking the little box to receive follow up comments in email' ... I hadn't made the change. I have mixed feelings about the new format ... but am not likely to complain because I'm just too busy with other things right now.

I appreciate all the comments & well-wishes on yesterday's 1st Blogoversary post here at Small Reflections ... and those left on today's 1st Blogoversary post at Sacred Ruminations. I ran out of time last night before creating at T-13 here ... (and had no time before leaving for my PSE6 class this morning) ... so I'm making this a 'quickie' to keep my Blog 365 streak going ... though it's possible Blogger isn't going to let that happen. I guess I won't know until I try to publish.

I hope you've all had a delightful day!

Small Reflections ... Smile Back

Thought for Today
"Spend the afternoon. You can't take it with you." Annie Dillard