A Country Scene

I always enjoy a trip to the country to Ms. M's place. It makes me so thankful to live in a small community where the country is just a few minutes away.  I get most distressed to even think of living in a large city (Metropolitan style).  I like the look of nature without a sea of concrete and steel.  I've said it before, and visiting Ms. M's only makes me say it again.  It's peaceful!

 I love the look of the barn.  I know it has recently been redone.  It looks like a very elegant barn, if a barn could ever be considered elegant.  It certainly is an upgrade from some barns I've seen.  I will admit that an old run down barn has 'character', but I do think this one is fine to look at.  Yes, it is used for real animals.

 On the drive to the house, Snappy couldn't resist these cute little critters.  Ms. M has quite a soft heart for critters, and they can be found in many forms.  I rolled down the car window for Snappy to get a picture, and it didn't seem to bother them at all.

As I drove away from the beauty of Ms. M's place, I drove very slowly.  Snappy was really in the mood to take some photographs, so I drove very slowly.  Yes, this is the road.  It doesn't look like New York City.  It is a little road across the creek.  When it rains, the water sometimes covers the road, and Ms. M has to drive across the pastures rather than use this super highway.  It had been raining a little the day before, so water was on the 'road', but it wasn't deep.  We were using it.

Continuing on the road, we stopped again for a lovely shot with many shades of green.  I would love to have gotten out and sat here for a long time.  Something Ms. M had said as I left made me a bit cautious. She mentioned that I might see the bobcat that was around.  I didn't think Snappy would like that at all, at least not up close and too personal.   Besides, this is a one lane road.  Someone else might want to use it.  I decided to stay in the car and enjoy the view from there.   I suppose the truth is, when thinking about bobcats, I really am a city girl... small city girl.  They would totally ruin my idea of peace in the country.

Cyber Waiting

I made up my mind this morning to do some yard work.  I don't really like yard work, but there are pesky weeds lurking between things, and someone needs to pull them.   I woke with a plan.  Today was weed pulling day.  

However, I first needed to check e-mail and have a little eye opening caffein loaded coffee.  I love that part of the day.  I'd do that first, then head to the yard.

I noticed in my e-mail that there were lots of ads coming through to my inbox that weren't addressed to me.  Not me at all... someone else's e-mail address.. not mine.   It's like a postman who drops letters for your neighbor off at your house.  Wrong house... not my mail.... wrong e-mail address... not my mail.

Now, is that difficult to understand?  I didn't think so.  However, I had noticed that yesterday as well and wondered if anyone out there in Cyberspace was noticing it.  Considering the amount I had this morning, I decided to tell someone.  Who?

I found a little 'Live Chat' button on my e-mail page, so clicked on that.  I was number 214 in queue. Not good... big number... I'd wait a little while and see.   I had a notice every little bit about how many minutes I had to wait.  It was never more than three.  After fifteen such notices, I thought I'd just hang in there and it wouldn't be much longer.  I had a total of thirty-three notices.

I guess, on the bright side, it gave me a little time to practice patience while I waited in line in cyberspace.  I kept wondering why I was really doing that.  I just sat there minute after minute waiting.  I couldn't give up.  It was a little frustrating.

Finally,  I thought I'd hit pay-dirt when typing appeared and I was welcomed to the Live Chat session.  I let them know what was going on.  Then I got the little notice that they didn't support sbcglobal.net customers.  What!!   I was instructed to go to att.  Lovely.  Bye.

Off to ATT.   I could go on their website, perhaps, and chat.  I opted to try for a real live genuine person.  It took awhile, but I got one.  Once again, more practice in patience.  Yep... One hour later I got off the phone.  Worn slick!  Slick! Slick!

What did I find out from all that waiting in line in cyberspace?  Well... it seems that all that mail probably had hidden addresses.  O-k-a-y?  So?  It looks like the mail is only for someone else.  BUT... my address might be there, although it is invisible to me.  Uh-huh.

I hung up.  Worn Slick!   I believe I said that.  I went to the yard, wondering why I hadn't gone there in the first place.  It certainly would be easier than all that support I got over e-mail.

I spent a little while in the yard, pulled a few weeds, got my sense of humor going again, and came in for a little lunch.  I sat down in my chair, put my feet up and went to sleep.  I think I needed it.  The yard will have to wait until tomorrow.  I'll not call anyone anymore about anything to do with e-mail.  I have that nice little mouse that I can use to simply click 'Delete'.  

Troubleshooting

I have to admit that my teeth have been grinding together a bit the last few days.  When e-mail would arrive it  was often addressed to my old name, not my new name.  I've managed name changing in many places, yet here came that pesky e-mail with the name I didn't want.

That's when I began troubleshooting.  I looked into about every file on my computer and could find nothing to fix the problem.

Now here is the spooky part.  I wrote a note to one of the tech support places for mail I receive and told them about the problem.  I pled with them to fix it... make it STOP.  I had a nice note back from them today telling me that they had my new name on everything and couldn't figure out why it came in with my older name. They suggested that if it happened again that I was to forward their mail back to them.

Well... There it was!  That old name right at the top of the page where it says TO:
So....  I decided to copy that whole thing and put it in mail right back to them.

Magic!  When I pasted it into the e-mail, my name changed.  More head scratching on my part.

Okay... the problem has to be me.  Like I said, I'd been through so many places trying to figure out what the heck was wrong... and I was getting frustrated... a little on the madly miffed side.  It was beating me, and I didn't like it.

I tried to remain calm and think.  Then it dawned on me!  I have a lovely little address book on my iMac and I hadn't changed my own contact information there.  I don't know why, but it puts me in there automatically with a cute little icon of me.  Strange, but that's what happens   I edited all the information there and 'presto' everything is right now.

I'm a very happy camper now as don't have to be irritated to death with mail addressed to the old me and not the new me.  I'm feeling fine.  It just takes some persistence once in awhile and a little focus on troubleshooting.  Tah Dah   Oh, if you don't understand a thing I've said... Sorry.  Really.  Not everyone gets so wrapped up in this kind of doings.

One Must-Know Website

A friend asked me if I had any suggestions about the best organization to contribute to for disaster relief.  My first thought was to refer to a little tool I've bookmarked and use when I want to give to any organization.   If I'm moved to donate my money to a cause, I want it to go to that cause as much as possible. There are charitable organizations everywhere.  While an organization may have good intentions, I also want it to be thrifty with my money.

Therefore, I'm going to share this little link with you and hope you bookmark it and use it yourself.  It uses tax filings from every organization and gives a detailed account of where every penny goes... and shows graphs to break down percentages spent in different areas...

My gift to you today...
 Click here, then bookmark this little jewel!   Charity Navigator