After days and days and days of disgusting grey weather, the sky has finally cleared.
Month: March 2008
Please to be Noting!
The sun is out.
That is all. As you were, comrades.
In Trash Bag News
After a sucktacular couple of days, there was finally a bright spot. And, no, it ain’t the weather. I just went down to the cafeteria, and on my way back, lo and behold! The water fountain outside the Kent Cooper Room is sporting a black trash bag! I’ve made a note to go out that way when I leave, so I can get a picture.
Yes, folks, I’m excited about a trash bag. One must learn to take delight in the small things, no?
Thank You, Amazon.com!
I got an email this morning from Amazon.com, telling me that my card had been used to open a new account, and that as they thought this was suspicious, they’d cancelled the new account. Now, not having fallen off the turnip truck yesterday, I did not “click” on the provided “link,” but went to Amazon’s website to confirm. I couldn’t find any info there, because the transaction had already been cancelled by Amazon. But, I went to my bank’s website to check my account, and there were, indeed, charges pending to Amazon, Yahoo, and iTunes.
Aieee!
I’m pretty careful about computer security, so I was wracking my brain, trying to figure out how someone could have gotten my card number. And then I remembered that I’d had to do some computer troubleshooting over the weekend. My printer had stopped working, and I suspected that my firewall may have started blocking my USB ports again. I couldn’t get it to play nicely, so I turned it off long enough to make certain that that was, indeed, the problem.
In the couple of minutes it took me to test my theory, some jackass must have accessed my computer.
In all, there were five transactions: one to Amazon.com for $1, one to the Apple iTunes store for $1, and three to Yahoo Voice totaling $11.42. None of those are large amounts. Hackers usually test out a card by charging small amounts, to see if it’s live. If I hadn’t noticed there was a problem (and with small initial charges, many people wouldn’t!), I’m sure Mr. Jackass would’ve soon hit me with a large charge. With my luck, it would’ve happened on Friday, when my car loan, insurance, and student loan payments are due to be automagically taken out of my account.
Thankfully, since Amazon emailed me, and I was able to report it promptly, my bank said that I won’t be accountable for any of the charges, even if they cause overdrafts.
No serious harm done, considering what can happen to folks who get hacked, but that’s really not how I wanted to spend my morning. And to top it off, when I tried to go back to work, I couldn’t find a parking spot. Meaning, I’m getting another unintentional afternoon off, but also meaning I’ll have to work Friday to make up time.
Grrr.
Oh, and it’s pouring down rain. Just to make things even more bettererererer.
Alsotoo, I won’t have a replacement card until next week. I’m glad I bought gas a few days ago, because otherwise, Id have to go to the bank and withdraw cash the old fashioned way, then I’d have to pay ahead at the gas station, which I hate doing.
On the bright side, I stopped on my way home for a little retail therapy. I needed a new black printer cartridge, so after looking online, I realized that OMG, there’s a Staples and a Barnes & Noble right by my house. Duh. I don’t know why I don’t pay attention to these things. I only drive past them every single damned day.
Anyway, I stopped at Staples and got my printer cartridge plus some spiffy new pens (Uniball Signo retractables with pigment based ink). I killerated a couple of my favorite Sarasa gel pens last weekend (I did a lot of writing), so I felt justified to indulge my pen fetish. The pigment based ink means that the ink enters the paper instead of sitting on top. It dries fast, so it’s good for doodling. I gave them a quick test, and they seem to write very smoothly.
More Raspberry Leaves
This is the third photo from a couple of days ago. I meant to go out and take follow-up shots of these leaf buds yesterday, to show how much they’ve opened, but didn’t get around to it. Between cat sitting and looking up census records, I didn’t get around to much of anything this weekend. Maybe tonight, if there’s a break in the rain.
Sun Drawing Water
Crepuscular Rays, New Unionville, Monroe County, Indiana
I took this as I was coming back from cat sitting last night. One thing about living here is that, when you’re driving, the view is constantly changing with every hill and curve. This is one of the few relatively flat areas along this particular stretch of road. It’s also about the only section of road with a safe place to pull over, so when I saw how dramatic the sky had become, I hoped that there’d be something interesting to see when I got there.
I happened to pull over in front of a house where roofers were working. They must have thought I’d lost my mind, because when I got out of the car and started taking pictures, they all stopped working to watch me.
[Sun drawing water is what the ancient Greeks called crepuscular rays. Not exactly how evaporation works, but it does make a certain amount of logical sense.]
Spring
Raspberry leaves unfurling
I’ve got two cat sitting jobs this weekend. At one of the houses, the pussy willows are budding. I’m going to try to remember to take my camera tomorrow. Then, when I took the dog out for her afternoon walk, I noticed that the leaves on the black raspberries are starting to unfurl.
An unfortunate byproduct of Spring is that one of my neighbors has been leaving their little Chihuahua outdoors for long periods of time. The dog shrieks non-stop, and it’s about to make my ears bleed. I feel sorry for the dog, and I’d like to kick the owners in the shins.
Buddie
Buddie 1934-1948
Grave Marker, Dunn Cemetery, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana
Sometimes, the full names, dates, etc. were placed on a central family monument, then simple head or foot stones with initials or just the first names marked the actual graves. I need to go back over to the cemetery and take another look, but I’m pretty sure that there weren’t any family monuments nearby that looked connected to this one. The other side of the stone bears an inscription for Erma Defur, who died in 1902, just after she turned a year old.
So who the heck was Buddie, then? A child? A beloved family dog? Was he a brother of someone in the Defur family?
And who was Erma Defur? There is another monument with her name and dates on it, in the Stewartsville Cemetery. I wonder which grave she’s actually buried in.
Flowers
The flowers on top were received by a coworker, as a birthday present. I sneaked a few photos while she was away from her desk. The bottom photo is of a raggedy silk flower I found lying on the ground at Dunn Cemetery.
Sarah and William and Nell and Louis
Graver Marker of Sarah and William Frost
Dunn Cemetery, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana
And on the subject of people’s dead relations… I’ve been running into genealogical road blocks because my great grandmother’s surname is not at all common. I’ve found a lot of Basquills, and they are surely all related in some way, but I can’t get farther back than my great-great-great grandfather, Michael.
I’ve had the opposite problem with my great grandfather’s name. Do y’all know how many Louis Thompsons there are and/or were? Lordy! I finally managed to grab at a thread that lead me to a 1910 census record for his family, though.
1910 US Federal Census
Louis Thompson b. 1904
Fulton County, Georgia
William B. Thompson age 34
Estelle Thompson age 34
Douglas Thompson age 11
Russell Thompson age 11
Beulah Thompson age 8
Louis Thompson age 6
Miller Thompson age 4
Estelle Thompson age 2
Warren Thompson 6/12 (6 months)
Each of those names is another thread that might lead to more information and yet more threads. Most importantly, I now have the names of his parents, along with approximate birth years. If those don’t pan out, I can look for information on his siblings, and see if someone else has traced them backwards.
It’s dry stuff, I know, but it totally made my day.
red paper boat 