Happy Mother's Day

Every year my family works on my front flower garden, rearranging plants, planting annuals and generally setting up my garden for a new year of beauty.  This tradition has brought me years of joy as every time I go out and come back home; I am greeted by beauty that my family has created for me.

I have been missing from the web for several months now due at first from problems with our Internet provider, which took several months to even get them to realize that we really did have a problem.  They kept telling us every thing was fine.  We kept after them and finally got a tech who found a problem, fixed it, sort of, but we continued to have various problems.  After being a squeaky wheel for weeks on end and several different techs later we now have a temporary fix.  The Internet is now fairly stable, but it is still on a temporary basis. (Roll of eyes)

  

Anyway I decided to come back to the web today despite the temporary nature of our fix to share with you the beauty that greets me as I return home.

Hopefully this will be a good welcome back to the web as I greet you with the beauty that greets me daily and continue to share with you the beauty which part of my life.

Enjoy

☺☺☺Johnina☺☺☺



Morning in the country



This mornings sunrise

Living out in the country has it's advantages and it's drawbacks; while I get to view wonderful wonderful scenery and sunrises like these, it also means having a persnickety Internet.  My cell service is a little on the erratic side, too.  If we are lucky we get one bar.  It's not unusual to go outside and see a neighbor outside on their porch trying to get better reception.  Personally I think the view is worth it although it sometimes keeps me from posting and just plain being on the Internet.

Rise and shine

My second problem with posting recently is the little understood or acknowledged problem with Fibromyalsia.  One of the theories of what Fibromyalsia is; is that it is a problem with the bodies electrical system.  In one of the books I've read on Fibromyalsia talks about how one lady complained to her doctor about how she seemed to affect the lighting around her.  Her doctor dismissed it as her imagination till her left the office right after her and saw the street light dim as she walked under it.  Apparently people who have this disease also have problems with electronic watches and computers.  Personally I have gone through 4 watches in 7 weeks, had the lights lights dim in the bathroom, and had and still have freaky, flaky computer problems.  The last has been a really big problem in this last week- sometimes I can get the Internet, sometimes not and this is over and above the Internet problems from living in the boonies- sometimes I can't open any of my programs.  Grrrr....



I hope you

Enjoy

this country morning as much as I did.

☺☺☺Johnina☺☺☺

Age, race, location- No problem

What a great gift we have in the Internet-common interest social sites and blogging where we can get to know other people without the usual ways we have of pre-judging others.  I have found that I have developed more friendships based  more on personality and common interests than the traditional way of meeting and getting know others.  My life has been greatly enriched by this.  On the Internet  there is an anonymity that fosters a diversity of friendships that would not happen face to face.  How often do we in the world surrounding us, dismiss possible friendships because that person is not in our age group or race or any other visual cues?  How many people would we have never  met just because of the distance in where we live?  On the Internet unless one's avatar is their photo there are not visual cues to eliminate possible friendships. Your judgement on possibilities of friendship needs to be based on your common interests and the personality that shines through on the blog or website that you are visiting.  As I get to know people on the Internet I find myself with much more variety in my friendships and am  therefore exposed to a greater variety of ideas and lifestyles. This definitely enriches my life.  The diversity added by the lack of distance provided by the Internet is an added bonus.  I also find that I am less judgemental in meeting and getting to know others in my home town.  I have gained in confidence in approaching others and talking with strangers through my Internet experiences.  I had someone quote to me "we are all more alike than we are different" and I am finding this more and more to be true; as I get to know more and more people.
Thank you

Enjoy
☺☺☺Johnina☺☺☺  

And the winner is...

First I would like to thank all those who participated in my give away.  I have met some wonderful people in the last few weeks and have seen and felt the support of my longtime Internet friends.  This give away came at both a good time and a bad time.  It was good in that while I was under trying times; I felt the support along the way.  It was bad in that I was not able to comment back or keep track of my friends.  I do want you to know that that the support and new friends are very much appreciated.

The winner turned out to be Lolit.  She was only entered once which just goes to show the luck involved; she is however a long time Internet friend of mine and we communicate over several sites.  Facebook & My Shutter Space

Congratulations Lolit

I'll be contacting you soon

I've also decided to do another give away; there will be details tomorrow

Have a great day!!!

Enjoy

♥♥♥Johnina♥♥♥

Spring has sprung

At my house we have had a terrible time with the Internet over the past several days. It took me well over an hour to download 2 photos Tues. Sometimes the Internet would only stay up for a couple of minutes and then take forever to come back. I got real frustrated and stopped trying. My provider just got it fixed last night, but I was too tired to post on my blog so I'm starting again today.
Tues was a wonderful, hopeful day, my pain was lessening after coming down on my pain medicines (I thought I was going to have to make an ER visit for the pain the first week of coming down), the sun was out (a rarity lately), I saw the first buds on the trees (see above), saw three robins who would not stay still to be photographed, felt good enough to go seed searching, found some cacti that I really liked and purchased two, started some cacti seeds and some seeds for my garden. All in all a day I thoroughly enjoyed. Personally I don't care what General Lee (the official Georgia groundhog) says about when spring is going to come, I watch for other signs in nature and since I've be into photography I've noticed them more. It certainly brightened that day.

Last night I sterilized the seed starters from last year and refilled one with peat pots and they are ready for seeds tonight. I'm looking forward to planting it.

Websites from my friends at MSS:
Roxane Bay at http://bluebayphotography.com

This is a sales site. It is well done and easy to navigate. She has some truly wonderful photos.

Raymond Fuller at http://raymondfullerphotography.com
This is also a sales site some of which is under construction. I really like his photo and hope he continues to build his site.

Cameras, computers, and the internet

To me cameras, computers and the Internet; living in this technological world is as great a blessing as the medical wonders that also come in this era. The medicines have kept me alive and in some ways have improved my quality of life, but they come with a price. If you listen to the commercials for these new "wonder drugs" they sound so wonderful until... they get to the side effects. Then they don't sound so wonderful; my personal favorite is "with some fatal occurrences". It really makes you want to take the medicine now doesn't it. I've gone thru the all natural route only to find that if you are taking anything in medicinal doses you have the same problem as with taking medicine. But still in spite of my complaining about my meds I would be much worse off without them. Actually I'd be dead in a matter of days without one of them so I am grateful for modern medicine and the technology that makes it possible.

But with all the meds I'm still disabled and sometimes house bound or hospitalized. I've had to learn to cope with that situation too. In times past I would have been very lonely and bored. Thanks to technology there are many options for those who are disabled to be active in many areas even if they are house bound. I'll talk about some I've used in the past later but for now I am really into photography.

Thanks to technology cameras are now lightweight easy to use and much cheaper to use. I could never afford all the film and developing that used to be a part of photo taking and I certainly could not use or afford a dark room. I can take literally thousands of pictures to learn on and just delete the ones I don't like. It really speeds up your learning rate when you can take a hundred pics at a time instead of 24 on a roll. Taking photos has also given me a great appreciation of this wonderful world we live in. I notice things around me more and how wonderful they are and by being able to see other peoples photo from all over the world I see how beautiful the rest of this world is. I've included some of my photos I hope you enjoy them.

Then comes the computer and the Internet where you can get free editing software. When someone else develops your film did the picture not come out because you goofed or the processor goofed. It's extremely hard to learn that way. Besides editing your own pics is a great deal of fun.

The computer and the Internet also serves another important service. I have met many people over the Internet with my same interests. My two favorite are Facebook and MyShutterSpace. On facebook I keep in contact with my family and friends of various interests and MyShutterSpace has my photo friends and is the best photo site I've found I've learned lots and met lots of friends there and gotten lots of encouragement as I've been learning.

In fact since joining these sites I've been able to get rid of some of my medicines, especially after joining MSS. Which is a real tribute to the quality of people on that site.

Right now I am trying to save up for a good Laptop that can go with me to the hospital. I still go into the hospital occasionally and the fall and early winter are the worst times for me to end up in the hospital. Doesn't look like this year maybe next year.

The Internet provides many different opportunities to go out into the world and get involved without having to leave your house and for me that is a major blessing. Try it out, find something that you enjoy, enrich your life.