Boxing Day

For our traditional Boxing Day Chinese dinner we all went to China Rose in Brunswick, ME. 

The last time we were there in late Summer the food had gone from mediocre to barely edible. We stopped going.

When we read in the local paper it was under new management we thought we'd give it another go.

We're sorry we did.  This time the food was not even edible.  When I tore apart a conglomerate of chicken slices in black bean sauce I found the meat inside to be raw.

When I pointed this out to the waitress she laughed and took the dish away.  Leaving soon after I told the management. 

They said "raw chicken!" &  laughed some more.  In the middle of this conversation a woman came in to warn of the icy conditions in the parking lot.

He laughed again and said "No much I can do about it. "

Then I told him he just lost business from 2 regular customers. 

He frowned that.

-30-

Things change by remaining the same.

Nine years ago I met a man who I thought held a certain position.  It took me three years to discover that he didn't.  As of today, he now does.  Amazing what can happen if you wait around long enough!

-30-

Does Scibefire for Opera work?

If you're reading this on Belltowernews.com, it does.  This is a much underused blogging tool I made great use of when Chrome was my primary browser.

Now that I've started up a new laptop and, in an attempt to keep things simple, I am using opera for browsing, reading and all my email, it's good to know It can be used now to also write to the blog, a habit I would like to more than I have been of late. 

A caution here:  I just went to my Picasa online photos and was very surprised to find a copy of picture I took with my EVO.  I thought I sent the picture, which was of a document, to Evernote only.  It surprised me to no end to find it sitting there all nice and exposed in my Picasa Gallery.  The good news is it was in my not public, but how not public these files are is anybody's guess.  I need to check settings on the phone and with Evernote to see that this doesn't happen again.  Taking pictures of information for later use is too convenient for me not give it up.

-30

Talk about taking a long time!  It was my intention to make the simple modification to the template of this blog that put back up in the style we preferred.  We took a minute away from our Thanksgiving dinner, between the pile and the pie, to bring up the template and fix it.

Now I wish all of you a very happy and fulsome Thanksgiving.  Don't get trampled tomorrow.

-30-

This was a surprise.  Because I edit most of my posts outside of the online blogger interface and ignore most of my emails, the sudden, at least for me, change in the layout of this blogs page came as a bit of a shock.  I know I backed up the old template somewhere, perhaps not on this computer, perhaps somewhere in the cloud, but somewhere.  I will find it and try and reload it.  If not, I will consider two things, moving this blog to one of our servers, where most of the other Famous Grazing Blogs reside, or just trudging on and hope for a better design.

Because this blog has been sitting here for so long, it was started in May of 2004, the early days of blogging, it makes little sense to pull it from Blogger.

Standby.

-30-

Another One Down!

The anxiety waiting for the tests results at Dana Farber is alien to me.

More potent was the discovery of the extended anxiety from my family.  As a 'moment' approaches I tend to deal with it then. I was convinced early in life not to dwell on things over which we have no control.

But these tests every 90 days can feel like waiting to hear if the Governor called.  When the doctor comes into the examining room and says. "It all looks good." the weight is lifted and you feel your digestive track restarting.

Then she says, "See you in three months."

-30-

The Quick Reference Code For This Blog.

I used the QR Generator mentioned in our twitter account to create this Quick Reference (QR) code.  It links from here to Belltowernews.com.

Now that I have it, how do I use it?  I am thinking of making this my default user photo when signing up for the million or so sites that allow an avatar.

It should probably go somewhere on Belltowernews.com as well.  Let me think about it.

-30-

Sitting in a railway station...

I knew Malika vicariously in NYC in 1970.  I've known her personally, meeting again in San Francisco, since the early 80's. 

Now I am sitting in Union Station near the State Capitol in Providence waiting for her train to arrive from Virginia.

We don't have much time.  She and her daughter are going south from here to be with family while I will be going north to be with mine.

But,  we'll always have the Cheesecake Factory a block away from the train station.

-30-

Just a short comment in support of the people of Vermont.  We lived in the town of Charlotte in 1993-94.  The biggest weather burden was the blizzards.  Our house overlooked Lake Champlain.  I can honestly say, hurricanes were the last thing on our mind.

They happened off the ocean.  Vermont is inland with no thoughts of the ocean.  It's neighbor, New Hampshire, has Portsmouth, a good harbor, but the only real harbor we ever saw in Vermont was at the end of Ferry Road.

This was a left hook from nature that no one could expect.  My sympathies to all who lost their loved ones, their livelihoods and their beloved covered bridges.
-30-

Only 1200? It seems like more...

The new Blogger interface tells me we have blogged 1200 + times since Belltowernews.com opened.  It seemed more than that, but I am most likely combining all of the other shouts made to the now bottomless social media.

The editors here have a combined Twitter count of over 5000.

Had Twitter never appeared, many of those comments would've landed here.  Facebook & Google Plus are also now taking a lot of our expressive output.

The tweets are brought up in the sidebar of this blog, and the blog entries, at least the gist of them, make it our the @sgtret Twitter account.  I know there's a way to ling the Google + account as well, but, at least while it is still in beta, we will keep that account off of the radar.
-30-

Sitting Here With 4 Screens...

On this sultry Summer night after a heavy rain, I'm sitting in my cave with floor fan on high.  There are two laptops running different pieces of work.  The home laptop has an additional two screens.  Combined with the other; there are now four screens in front of me.

So,  what am I doing?

Reading a Jim Butcher short story in the collection entitled Urban Fantasy on my HTC Evo as it rests on its kickstand.  It starts with a story by Jim Butcher, which after reading his latest Harry Dresden book, Ghost Story,  I am apt to buy anything written by him.

His illustrated novel, Welcome to the Jungle, is very tempting, but $15.00 for what is essentially a high class comic book goes against the grain of someone who remembers getting a comic book, soda and candy bar for a quarter.

-30-

Clear!

One year, four to go.

-30-

Blood Work Done.

Now we wait an hour before CT.
-30-

Dana Farber tomorrow morning

Three months can zip by when you'd rather it drag like Summer twixt 1st and 2nd grade.

This is a full body scan. Though the lymphoma manifested itself in my neck, because of the nature of the nasty, it can crop up again anywhere in the lymph system.

I need to drink some awful stuff on the way there to expedite my getting into the machine.  My doctor won't be there but her very-very competent NP will be.

I have extreme faith in these people.  They are no nonsense - tell it like it is.  My favorite.

-30-

The New Blogger Editing Page Didn't Work.

It worked in Rye Cake but wouldn't let me edit Belltowernews.com.  And, when in Chrome 12, every time I hit the shift key and a letter, if that letter is the same as the first letter in any of the Chrome add-ons, it brings that features screen up.

Very odd.
-30-

Lost Four Dogs in One Year

Though we have only a cat now, in our extended family at the beginning of this year there were four dogs. A Belgian shepherd, a golden lab and two standard poodles.

This morning the last of the them, a joyous standard poodle called Cirq, had to be taken to the vet and put down.  She belonged to my wife's mother and son's grand-mother.

Now our cat is the last pet in the extended New England family.

He's called Booger.

-30-

• Open in Google Docs Viewer
• Open link in new tab
• Open link in new window
• Open link in new incognito window
• Download file
• Copy link address
• Edit PDF File on PDFescape.com

Civilization on Hold

If I step back for a moment and look at the state of the world, it's looking oh so uncivilized. The thing is it probably is much more so than it was 50 years ago.

Our ever widening ability to catch a glimpse in real time of it all, instead of through the filtered delay of weekly or even monthly magazines, is what's making it seem so wild.

If The Queen spit out of the window of the Royal Carriage as it crossed the Thames I'd hear about inside the hour followed soom by the opinions of everyone for river ecologists to organizers of the spit championship.
There would too, I guarantee, be footage of the act on YouTube.

To escape all this, we will be on the coast of Maine for the holiday weekend..
-30-

Really, I Was Just Sitting There

With no apparent aggravating activity my middle back suddenly screamed OUCH in the worst way.  As a person with a lot of experience with pain, I must say this was an 8 on the ten scale.  

I live daily between a 4 and 6, so when the meter tilts into the red, I respond quickly.

As quickly as I could, I sprang into action, using the methods I've learned over the years that help, each in a small way but when combined usually knock me back to the manageable 5 or 6.  Getting there, getting there...

-30-

A quiet weekend in Maine

Unlike the physically draining visit to DC, this shorter visit to Maine has been more of a battery charger.  If only the mosquitoes would give us a break, this would be perfect.
-30-

What a Week for News!

I wonder what the people who follow the stars are saying about this week.  The global attention span was sorely tried with the tornado, the wedding and the assassination.  The second ripped the first, and the third blotted out the second.

Than like rats in the morgue at night, the pundits came.

Bloody pundits!

-30-

Been in DC For Five Days

April is living up to its reputation for us.  Today was a gorgeous day to visit Mt. Vernon.

The last few days were taken up with Museums. Holocaust, Spy, American History, National Portrait Gallery,  Hirshman - so far.  Tomorrow we finish with my favorite - The Newsium!

-30-

Resetting Android Blogger App

We cleared not only the cache,  but all of the stored Blogger data with the hope it would clear up the problem.   Here goes.

-30-

We Are Having Problems With the Android App

It is only at Belltowernews.com where this problem is occurring.  We're posting this directly from the Blogger website to see if it's here or with the Android itself.

-30-

The New Building was marvelous

My treatment today was at the new building at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute.

It's called theYawkey Center for Cancer Care.  At the Dana Building everything was jammed into one room, now we begin on the second floor, go to the third, then the eight, return to the second and finally to P1 were the free, (to patients) Valet Parking is top notch.

I will be returning there in July for further tests and treatment.

-30-

A Blustery Day.

Driving my Scion xB all winter was a joy - the excessive snow was not the challenge I thought it would be. 

But then came Spring!

For almost a year, my wife & I drove a 36 foot class A RV literally around the United States.  I could feel the wind hit our side as we crossed bridges or through storms.

It may've been a bit difficult, but we always stayed in the lane.

Not today.  Driving what my son calls a breadbox on wheels down the interstate,  I crossed over the bridge into Rhode Island and was hit by a gust of wind that pushed the car into the break-down lane.

There was nothing to hit and the car quickly recovered the road, but it was a heart stopping moment.

This blog entry was started to inform that I will be going into Dana Farber for my 3-month check up on Thursday. 

-30-

Too Many Ways to Present the Moment

It was exciting in the beginning when Android apps started to appear along with keyboard apps that made it easier to type on a smartphone than my office keyboard. 

But now there are too many ways to present the moment on the Internet. If the moment is visual, I open Picplz, social, Gowalla, universal, Twitter, etc.

Rarely anymore does it occur to me to post to one of the Grazing Blogs.  The exception is during reflective moments like this.

Then a squirrel runs by me and I'm off chasing bits of information such as Ken L.  revealing he lived once with Candy B.  How titillating, for a moment...

-30-

Just When We Thought...

...We were out of the web page creation business a new way to post a web page came our way.  We are avid fans of DropBox.  If you don't have a DropBox account, simply, get one.  It is useful in so many ways.

While browsing through the commentary on the utility's many uses we saw mention of one we never thought about, web page hosting.  We went to the link for DropPages and saw it was a rather simple thing to do.

It was so simple that it took a while for us to drop down a few gears to see it.  Having designed hosted pages in HTML then XML with CSS, we were looking for all of the language we needed to learn.  Nope, none.  Just do what the instructions say and zing, you have a website.

We got to make use of a four letter .com that's been lingering around our list of owned URL's for a while.  A few years ago, it was attacked by spam monsters, so we took it off the track, covered it with white cloth and closed the door.  Now it's back up and hosting a list page of the Famous Grazing Blogs.

We may never change it again, now that we put it up, but it will be there to be found by those with an interest in what a free website hosted on DropBox.com look like.
-30-

Thanks For the Tweets!

We are back up as Belltowernews.com thanks to the hard overnight work of Brian and his coworkers at directNIC.com.  Their @directNIC.com Twitter page kept us all informed without having to panic.

Panic is never a good thing.
-30-

directNIC not redirecting!

If you came here using belltowernews.com that means directNIC has resolved the problem.  Please go to twitter.com/grazingportal and leave us a tweet.  It is too late for us to stay up and worry over this.  There is just too much real chaos in the world right now to worry over keeping a blog up.
-30-

A Friend's Blog - @spedteacher

It Isn’t In the Air « Education On The Plate
This is a link to @spedteacher's blog,  Education On the Plate.

I've known the author for,  let me see, 42 years.  We were fuzzy faced teenagers, ready to hit the streets & make the world a better place.  We worked for reform, attended demonstrations, some that turned into riots, others into moments of communal bliss.

We grew up but still each of us tried to make life better for people on a more personal level, one person or family at a time.

Read this story & the rest of the blog to see how @spedteacher hasn't given up on the world yet.

-30-

They're Saying New Blogger

I usually write blog entries using software outside of Blogger.  This is because the Blogger interface leaves much to be desired.  Old hat, so to speak.  When I saw this page on TechCrunch, I rushed right over here without watching the film...

To be somewhat disappointed at seeing, as Nicely  Nicely would say, same old-same old.

Ahh! but careful examination does show there have been subtle changes, in the composition, template set up and the general interface with the writer.  What we need now is the fancy-dancy interface, portal so to speak, they are calling the Dashboard.

Back to the page creation software, but I will visit the Blogger homeland more often.
-30-

Happy Thought Motorcycle Adventures: The Day my Husband Fell in Love....with his Kawasa...

"How could something so boring looking require so much love, be so much fun and have all the boys drooling over it..." My niece @HappyThought1 wrote in her blog below:

Happy Thought Motorcycle Adventures: The Day my Husband Fell in Love....with his Kawasa...:

I commented that she had entered into an epiphany when she answered the question above by embracing the joy her husband found instead of rejecting it out of hand as a danger to him, which it certainly is, or as competition to her, which it is no longer.

Until I saw them in person for my recent six decade birthday, I was still a tad worried, as all good Uncles should be.  But now I too have embraced their honest joy.  My wife, er.... not so much.  We can work on that.

You should go there and watch the videos they've made of their drives through the beauty that is Washington State.  If you have the time, don't miss the pieces she did going for a her licence.  Some very funny parts there while being entirely education as to the process.
-30-

Freezing Rain is Never a Good Thing

Several times in my impetuous youth,  & before the blessing of anti-lock brakes, I've touched my brake while driving in freezing rain only to find the ton of so of metal containing me floating effortlessly in a circle off the road, connecting with nothing more solid than a fresh snowbank.
So far.
When I once asked my uncle why old people drive so slow.  "How do you think they got to be old people? " He answered.
Now that my beard is white, it seems just the right thing to do when I drop 5 mph below the speed limit when I pass the first car that has slipped off the road, falling victims of the freezing rain & black ice.
-30-

We're Having a Heatwave!

When I looked at my HTC Evo screen and saw it was 50 degrees F.  I was shocked.  Glancing out the window,  a winter landscape of white still greeted me. But I was also surprised by the smokers standing in their shirtsleeves.

The view is sending me conflicting information.

Should I replace the torn winter coat of wait another year? It's the Scot in me combined with living the last 20 or so years in New England.
-30 -

Second Dog Down

Last week our mother's dog Maya gave up the ghost.  Today it was our sister's golden lab Hopi.

Sadness continues. 
-30-

You May Not Believe This

It came as quite a surprise to me,  after seeing them on CBS Sunday Morning, I am not a fan of Black Eyed Peas.  The super bowl half time show was 90% hype & 10% blinking lights.

Thank the stars for TiVo.

-30-

Lassie Spoof So Far the Best Commercial

I wonder, though,  how many in the audience will see the connection?

Even if they don't, with the volcano, the laughs came freely.
-30-

National Anthem Massacred

The young lady who "sang" The Star Spangled Banner at the beginning of the Super Bowl caused me severe pain. Just saying...
-30-

The King's Speech

That was a most enjoyable movie!  Good company at dinner followed by a movie with no explosions or car chases, (unless you count the man they followed in fog), and yet I still cheered and clapped.  See it.
-30-

A Night Out on the Town!

I think Randolph is a town. Dinner for nine at NYA JOE'S,  reservations made online followed by all of us pulling a u-ee to go see The King's Speech.

Though not one to normally enjoy large crowds involved in social circumstances, I am determined to kick Winter's butt & enjoy myself tonight.
We'll see, won't we?
-30-

We Have a New Barber!

For the past 17 years I've been going to the same barber.  Around the new year she moved to Florida.  This is a traumatic thing for a man of my age. 

After letting my hair grow for three months, to the point where it was attracting comments, it was time to find another Barber. Not a hairdresser mind you, but a real barber who would cut my hair & not style it.  I did and his name is Dee.

Hello Dee - have fun in Florida, Barbara!
-30-

Feeling Overworked

Every once in a while a Friday comes along & I ask myself why do I continue working.  This was one of those day. 
-30-

Droid App For Blogger

Just when I was wondering if I'd ever find time to bring Belltowernews back to the vibrant, almost daily discourse it was in the beginning, we are saved by @neilhimself when he twittered Blogger has a Droid app.
Watch out world!  We are back in the saddle!
-30-

Booker T & the M G 's - Green Onions (Original / HQ audio)

If I was going to pick a funeral song, this one would be near the top of my list.

-30-

Three Month Reprieve

For those who are following the lymphoma adventure: Dana Farber CI scanned me yesterday.  The oncologist came into the examination room with a huge smile on her face.  I have seen the other face.  She said it looked good but she had to wait for one more opinion. UP-down!!

Then UP again when she came back, thumbs up, saying "See you in three months!"

Another reprieve from the Governor.
-30-