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...

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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.
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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!

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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!

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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. 

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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...

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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.

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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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. 
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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.

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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.
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