Then’s Neighborhood

Folks, I have a theory.
   After asking on Twitter, and using two different ISPs in two different cities, and trialling different browsers, I have found that in New Zealand, I (and one other Twitter friend) cannot reach our Autocade site without the browser coming up with an error asking one to save the page.
   However, using a US proxy server, there is no problem, and the page functions normally. It actually opens.
   I suspect something is afoot with ISPs in New Zealand blocking certain sites. Can friends reading this confirm this with me, please? The site is autocade.net.
   I remember last month there was quite a bit of furore on Twitter when TelstraClear customers could not reach justinflitter.com (since closed). Again, I had no problem accessing Justin’s site via a proxy server. I simply could not reach it from New Zealand, even though Justin is a New Zealander.

~

Today, while we were walking, I was thinking of a comment  Apolline had left on my Missing Strangers post about social movements and urbanization.  We turned a corner and here was exactly what I had been imagining loneliness all together to look like:

Fuckity FUCK. I just tried to post and upload a video. I got the following existential error message from Vox:

"Sadly, your search couldn’t be completed. You could try again, but it still might not work. The world is a very unpredictable place. For this, we are truly sorry."

That sounds very, um, Protestant.

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Want to see a stay-at-home-mom go a little insane? A little nutty? A little drooling from her mouth while rocking herself in the corner style behavior?  Yeah...throw in a stubborn storm that actually caused schools to shut down and make sure it coincides with a teacher conference staff only work day and the Veteran's Day holiday.  Dear Lord. My girls have been off from school since Monday and the weather has forced us to remain inside the whole time. Help me....

Ok the first two days, I gotta give them credit, they were amazing.  They played nicely. They didn't draw blood. And no one even received a time out.  But they can only be locked inside this house together for so long before good behavior is out the window and they are threatening each other's lives.  And oh man..we still have the rest of today to get through as well as tomorrow. 

What have I been doing to survive?  Ha, cleaning like mad (because somehow it releases frustration) and hiding and seeking escapsim through reading of course.  I have almost finished the Masters of Time series by Brenda Joyce. I am just waiting on the last book right now from the library.  I refuse to fret, though, as I finish up the last 15 pages of her next to last book--because I still have Ward's new Fallen Angels book to read--Covet.  And what adds to my feeling of "all will be ok in the world as long as I have a good story to read", I just found a local smut dealer via craigslist. Good lord, this woman has over 280 books--over 280 paranormal romance books.  I about keeled over and died with a smile on my face when I found her listing.  I wrote to her and low and behold, she has several that were on my "to buy" list.  I'm currently waiting to see what kind of deal I can strike. I've made out like a bandit so far with my quest to own the entire Anita Blake series by Hamilton--hell I've gotten the first 14 books for a mere $30.  Why anyone in their right mind would sell such a valued collection is beyond me. But hey, the outcome of someone else's foolish behavior is my gain, right?    Me thinks momma is gonna need smut holder bookcase #2 soon.

I did manage to fit in a few work-outs during this God awful unrelenting session of rain and that story idea I spoke of the other day continues to haunt me. I think I just need to steal the girls' laptop and hide away in my locked bedroom with some good music and just type before I go insane from it.  The idea won't go away and I find myself daydreaming of it during my every day tasks.  Probably a sign I need to get it out of my system. 

Since Matt has returned home from deployment, I have wanted, desperately, a weekend of quiet--of nothing to do and no where to be.  Given the weather, Jules soccer tournament was canceled and now here we are....nothing to do, no where to be. And I am going freakin looney. There are now paint samples all over my house because, damn it, if I have to spend another winter inside here, I better have freakin color on my walls. Good lordie I hate white walls.

The only other happenings was a dental visit for all four of us girls--we all passed with flying colors and I have just about made it to the big 3-0 without a single cavity. I can't complain.  This coming week, Jules and I have an eye dr's appt.  It appears our girl needs some reading glasses. Believe me, I am just glad she's not blind as a bat like her mother!  I hope none of our girls get that curse.

With any luck, I'll have more exciting happenings to report next week because right now we're just pretty much been sitting around staring at each other.  This rain has got to stop.....

 

I'm taking an extended break in my 25 minutes-on 5 minutes-off schedule today to post an FSotD to prove that I have been writing today! 

With the goatee grown in, David now looked like his own evil twin.

(I stole this from real life -- the same is true of Cappy when he has one.) 

Okay, break over, back to it.

Oof. I hurt. Took us 6.5 hours to get out today, with a few rest stops on the way.

I'll post more tomorrow, including oodles of pictures.

In one word: spectacular.

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My transporter? Coming in VERY handy. And they said Star Trek technology was fantasy. Pshaw!

I love the OUTDOOR GIRLS series books by Laura Lee Hope.

I couldn't even begin to wish you love them as much as I do or for you to have even heard of them, but in case you do, &/or have - or don't but still love camping out or the "good old days" - these other Turn of the Century books might really interest you.

I found two (non-fiction) books that might have been read by the girls and boys of Deepdale, had they (the boys and girls of Deepdale I mean...) been real:

On The Trail, An Outdoor Book for Girls

(1915) by Lina Beard & Adelia Belle Beard.

and Camping for Boys

(1913) by William Henry Gibson.   (Both also available on Google Books)

If I can't live one hundred years ago - and I do wish I could, I can still wish my friends and I could take a month off and camp out like this:

All images and content used withOUT permission.  Please visit Gutenberg.org, Shorpy.com, and the best site of all - Series Books for Girls - Jennifer really knows her vintage books and I LOVE LOVE LOVE her site, blog and Bonanzle booth.  I admire her work so much and hope she doesn't mind me lifting an image from her site.

Soldier's goodbye & Bobbie the cat, ca. 1939-ca. 1945 / by Sam Hood
from the State Library of New South Wales collection on flickr

It is really time to ditch the canned food! Visit the healthy librarian to find out why.

My friend Mickey at Nicholas Landon Jewelery in Texas is having a Thanks-Give- Away
Her work is really lovely!

Another friend, Mark Brennen shared this link to a really interesting 1941 film produced by the National Film Board of Canada about the famous painter A.Y. Jackson following him on his painting journeys into the bush.

Still trying to raise $1000 for a digital mammogram machine and getting ready for those 6 hours of fitness classes on January 30th for Bust a Move! If you could help me please I'd be very grateful. It says Canadian $ but will convert US to Cdn.

Delicious Butternut Squash and Pear soup. I use an immersion blender and you don't have to add the cream at all or you can use evaporated skim milk for creamy no fat flavour.

Also, don't forget to enter my bloggy 1st Anniversary draw:)

Have a fun weekend:)