3/5/06

Greetings!
For a few weeks there I seriously thought I was going to have to give up my diary. I was slowly giving in to the idea that my OpenDiary was a thing of the past. At first it angered me, (not hearing anything from tech service) then I just gave in, but from time to time gave some thought to other ways I could possibly get in. I knew it wasn’t my computer that was the problem. It was that just “all of a sudden” I couldn’t log in. Strange, eh? Or, if I did log in, I’d go to favorites, and immediately, I’d TIME OUT. And so it would go. I couldn’t read, or leave notes. Frustration abounded. I finally emailed Katherine and at least let her know that I was alive and well …. just basically locked out.

Recently I decided to download Firefox (a very nice alternative browser) and see if maybe that would help. It did. It doesn’t have all of the bells and whistles that Explorer does, but in this case less is better. What happened between OD and Explorer in my case, I have no idea, but the combination was enough to keep the program from running, and with no tech support from OD, I was on my own.

Suffice it to say, it’s good to be back, and I know I have some catching up to do with all of my friends. Did anyone get married? Divorced? Give birth or make first communion? I’d love some good news. 🙂

Life for me has been pretty status quo. My youngest son came home to spend the weekend with me. Tomorrow I’ll be another year older. Big whoop. I bought myself a rainfall shower head (WITH 127 holes) including a hand held massage unit. I have to say I’m quite pleased with the way it works. We installed it Friday night, after I went to the hardware store and bought a pair of vice grips. Who knew? 🙂

Work is work. I’m often giving thought to retirement which is 10 years away if the gods are with me. At that point I have to make some big decisions about where I’ll spend the remainder of my life. Do I live in poverty in the country I’ve paid heavy dues to forever, or semi comfortably in a foreign country? What happened to the American Dream? Where did we go wrong? Why did our government sell out the working class?

In my last entry I mentioned about Ricky’s laptop. He love love LOVES his computer! He uses it every day, on and off. I’d like to share one picture of him here. I know he’s not smiling on the outside, but he is on the inside. He’s BEAMING! 🙂 Trust me. I have an OD friend who requests to remain anonymous that contributed to this project and I want to thank you again. You have one of the biggest hearts I’ve ever known. (love love LOVE YOU!)

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March 5, 2006

Aloha… I retired at age 45… and thought that I would have enough $$$ to live on… Well… the divorce took over half of that… Emily took some more… So… I decided that rather than go back to work… I would simplify my lifestyle… No regrets…! I’m moving to the southern coast of Oregon in May… (trying to restart my life)… Too many painful memories in California… Aloha

March 5, 2006

When I retired a man who had been retired many years gave a talk about retree life. He passed out a pamphlet: “You an’t Talk to the Trees”. the gist was stay with your family and friends. A neighbor couple moved to a condo in Maui. Their new neighbors weren’t friendly. ~10 wasted years later they came back to the USA. I’m 26 years retired & still in the same home & surrounbded by newcomers

March 5, 2006

Happy Birthday Babe.

March 6, 2006

So glad to see your name on my list! Happy Happy Birthday! Love,

March 6, 2006

Welcome Back…so glad to see a new entry pop up in my favorites.

March 6, 2006

Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday dearn BBe, Happy Birthday to you!!!!! Glad to see you back.

March 6, 2006

Retirement is on my mind a lot, but I doubt I’ll ever be able to swing it until I’m just not able to work. Glad you found a browser that will allow you to come back and write. It is very irritating that we get no tech support from OD.

hope you enjoyed your birthday. i dont know how retirement works in america, but i hope things work out. try not to worry too much about it. mull it over, and in time things will come together. ryn; everyone at LH were beautiful, though they wouldnt believe it. i guess thats what comes from trying to be perfect in an inperfect world. all the best xxx

March 10, 2006

ryn: LOL! you’re so goofy! I mean goofy in a good way though! 😉 check this out — maybe old but I just got it from a friend. http://www.paulsadowski.com/birthday.asp

March 14, 2006
March 19, 2006

thankyou for your lovely note. hope you’re well. xxxx

RYN: Yes, the size of the file is not the problem but that the Photo Editor will not work as it should. If I paste into it and then set a size on it it only shows a tiny dot. If I dont con strain the size it shows the full size of the JPEG. ThomaS NSI

March 22, 2006

ryn; my sister likes the name Joshua at the moment. when he’s still little we’ll prob. call him joshie. i hope you’re well. all the best xxxx

April 5, 2006

I don’t know which of us is the poorer correspondent at this point… but much love and blessings to you – and your big heart of gold!!

I was in a place you were in. No help from the gurus of OD. I couldn’t change the front page of my diary. I could however get in and write if I decided. However not being able to change something I wanted to made me want to just delete my diary. I actually went to ‘Inthewire’ and tired to delete the one I had there. I still plan to do that though but for the time being I’ve decided to keep this…

I’ve decided to keep this one for now… You hit on a big point about the American Dream. As long as jobs go overseas the state of America will continue to be what it is and get worse. Glad to hear you are ok and I am doing ok as well.

April 17, 2006

just stopping by — hope you had a good Easter.

ryn; thankyou for your note. the smells there do seem to stay in your mind, not nice. the shop i work in on saturdays is a crystal/glass and china shop. i’ve been there nearly 2 years. its not a long term thing, but fills a gap. hope you’re well. take care xxx

May 9, 2006
May 22, 2006

Hi my friend, it’s been a long time. I hope all is well for you. Retirement is a tough decision. I would like to be working but I really needed to be available to help Hubs with the new house. Now that the house is done I’ll look for work after my vacation & our summer visitors. I hope you are feeling well & I hope you start writing & sharing your life with us again.