A stick horse!

I'm reading a book and it mentioned this poem. It conjured up a lot of childhood memories. Whoever is readI'm reading a book and it mentioned this poem. It conjured up a lot of childhood memories.

Whoever is reading this, I wonder if you had to learn it too.

It talks about an old lady...maybe in another life I was that 'old lady'. This was written back in the 1600's..........and this silly verse has lasted all these many years.
Somewhere in my house, I do have a picture of it....if not, it's in my mind.

Jeff could not possibly remember this...probably his first homemade toy.

Thanks for the memories. I guess our minds our kind of like a computer, stored up information, much of it useless, but every so often, it just pops to the surface and a memory flashes and it makes me feel good.
ing this, I wonder if you had to learn it too. It talks about an old lady...maybe in another life I was that 'old lady'. This was written back in the 1600's..........and this silly verse has lasted all these many years. Somewhere in my house, I do have a picture of it....if not, it's in my mind. Jeff could not possibly remember this...probably his first homemade toy. Thanks for the memories. I guess our minds our kind of like a computer, stored up information, much of it useless, but every so often, it just pops to the surface and a memory flashes and it makes me feel good.

Getting ready!

Yesterday the tree surgeons were around...very busy! They were chopping down any low hanging branch that may come swinging or break off during a hurricane.

This morning I went out to put my trash near my car and this massive truck with many parts came to not just pick up all these tree-branches...but to demolish them in this state-of-the-art truck...3 different parts to it.

The men fed the enormous branches in...it chewed it up...and then spew it into the main truck.

A massive meat grinder...or on a modern level a paper shredder. So..everything that goes around...comes around. Originally the paper was made from wood products...and now it's being ground up and it will make wonderful compost....or furniture.

When I was young we had to recite this poem...Irving Berlin takes credit for writing it...but this was written long before he came along.

It's called "Woodman"

More about GPS

Our ancestors had to go to pretty extreme measures to keep from getting lost. They erected monumental landmarks, laboriously drafted detailed maps and learned to read the stars in the night sky.
Shopping for a GPS receiver?Compare GPS receiver prices at Consumer Guide Products before you buy.
Things are much, much easier today. For less than $200.00, you can get a pocket-sized gadget that will tell you exactly where you are on Earth at any moment. As long as you have a GPS receiver and a clear view of the sky, you'll never be lost again.




If you're lost, a GPS reciever can help you find your way back. Watch as Marshall Brain explains how GPS recievers work.
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When people talk about "a GPS," they usually mean a GPS receiver. The Global Positioning System (GPS) is actually a constellation of 27 Earth-orbiting satellites (24 in operation and three extras in case one fails). The U.S. military developed and implemented this satellite network as a military navigation system, but soon opened it up to everybody else.
Photo courtesy NASANAVSTAR GPS satellite
Each of these 3,000- to 4,000-pound solar-powered satellites circles the globe at about 12,000 miles (19,300 km), making two complete rotations every day. The orbits are arranged so that at any time, anywhere on Earth, there are at least four satellites "visible" in the sky.
Photo courtesy U.S. Department of DefenseArtist's concept of the GPS satellite constellation
A GPS receiver's job is to locate four or more of these satellites, figure out the distance to each, and use this information to deduce its own location. This operation is based on a simple mathematical principle called trilateration. Trilateration in three-dimensional space can be a little tricky, so we'll start with an explanation of simple two-dimensional trilateration.
Shopping for a GPS receiver?
Compare GPS receiver prices at Consumer Guide Products before you buy.

. As long as you have a GPS receiver and a clear view of the sky.
So...I ordered a home phone charger (thanks to Virginia's help) and I found out it takes 7 to 8 hours to fully charge. Then I program it to where I'm going....and I'm in business.

Where oh where shall I venture!!!!! As long as I have gas in the car and a credit card...and oh, it's charged....I can go..go..go!

I'm giving up too soon!

Our ancestors had to go to pretty extreme measures to keep from getting lost. They erected monumental landmarks, laboriously drafted detailed maps and learned to read the stars in the night sky. NOw this thing works with about 8 satellites which I can't fathom. I'll have to do more research.


Virginia phoned the company and they said it takes about 7 or 8 hours to charge....but we could order a charger on line for $20 plus $5.00 shipping. So...now all my problems are solved.

Just waiting for the UPS man to deliver it!-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Are compasses becoming obsolete?

My kids came to visit recently and they brought with them a new toy...and boy was I ever impressed.

It was a GPS....a directional with a voice actually telling you which way to go..what turns to make...even if you've gone too far to turn back.

They wanted me to show more of an interest in this while they were here...but they were also giving me classes on my computer...and the old brain can only absorb so much...and then I reach my capacity.

So..it's been a few weeks since they left, and since I'm directionally-challenged, I figured this is a 'must have' for me. Maybe I'll get more courage to venture out into the world...and maybe even go to Boca.

So, my friend Virginia and I trot off to Circuit City where they have them for $200. They had many other models...but I just needed basics. How to get where I'm going...and then to get me back home again.

Jeff's had 2 extension cords. One for charging inside the house...and the other to put in the used-to-be cigaret lighter.

The salesman programmed it for our return trip....and we were both duly impressed. Then in the evening when I went to inspect my purchase and study on usage, I discovered it only has one cord for the car...nothing for the house.

So..I took a half hour drive to charge it up...and it barely charged...died immediately.

Does this mean that I would need to drive 100 miles somewhere to find out where I'm going...so I can get it charged.

I don't think so. I never ever return things....but tomorrow is return day at Circuit City. I think they charge a fee for returns...but it's no good the way it is.

I still love the notion of it though!

And I thought it was going to be a bad day!

When I glanced out my sliding door onto my patio today, I noticed that the hose holder had pulled away from the stucco wall. It held for 19 years and how did it happen to fall out now. I wasn't using my hose even...and so it just gave!

Then as I was emptying my dishwasher, I noticed that a plastic juice glass had fallen thru the rack and melted onto a rod in the back. I tried jiggling it but to no avail. It's glued there. I wouldn't even mind if I thought that it wouldn't affect the washing of the dishes.

But I really won't know until I try to wash another load of dishes.

Then I had an appointment to have my teeth cleaned...and I know that things fall into a pattern of 3 so I was deep in thought as I walked from my car to the dentist's office...and all of a sudden a young man who had just gotten off a motorbike spoke to me. He said what a pretty color you're wearing. My pant suit is a fluorescent green and against my very dark skin, I guess I must have had a shocking effect on him.

Anyway, I told him he made my day....and he really did.

And everything went great in the dentist's chair. Nothing unexpected.

The Circus Comes to Town

Why do I write this blog? For me...yes, when you live alone and you have lots of thoughts in your mind, sometimes it's good to put
the words down. It used to be you'd write it in a notepad with a pen. Today, I can type it effortlessly on my computer.

I'm reading a number one best seller "Water for Elephants" and it's sure bringing back a lot of memories. I guess that's what good reading is all about...triggering thoughts.

This is about a circus and I recall when the circus came to town...and the schoolchildren would be dismissed so that we could watch the parade with the elephants leading. This had a sadness to it also. Featured would be people who were born with deformities...dwarfs...people with 2 heads..fat lady..tallest person.


When they were born, their parents knew that this was the only way they could make a living the rest of their lives.

Anyway...all these years later I'm remembeing a highlight of my childhood...and that's good too!

So this is how it all began...interesting!

Today when we want to hear music..we either sing in the shower...turn on a CD...or listen to video which I still enjoy. When I was a young depression-age child, we used to take a piece of toilet paper on a comb and make harmonica sound music. Also if you were very gifted, you would take a thick blade of grass and make music. YOu can actually hear the music below. Just click on the picture. What magic



But there had to be a beginning....a start....and here it is.

LIsten! It's not exactly a synthesizer. I'm sure that back then many cavemen enjoyed this.

I consider myself so lucky for having been born in this time slot.

clipped from www.ponderabout.com

The Oldest Musical Instrument

check out the video below to see and hear
the bone flutes

the world’s oldest intact, playable, multi-note
musical instrument is a bone flute, carved from
the wing bone (ulna) of a red-crowned crane

six such flutes were found in 1999 at the
early Neolithic excavation site of Jiahu,
located in China’s Henan province

using carbon-14 dating, scientists at the
Brookhaven National Laboratory estimated
the flutes’ ages to be in the range of
7,000 to 9,000 years

more detailed information, from Nature Magazine,
can be found here

If you were born in the 1960s or 70s, you remember the Etch-A-Sketch®. It was the cool, amazing, must-have drawing toy for kids. It seemed like every kid had one. Today the Etch-A-Sketch has a retro feel. You would think it would have been replaced by the PC - given a choice, would a kid rather see the scratchy black line of a etch-a-sketch or the color of a digital crayon in a paint program? There are also things like Magna Doodle® that are a lot easier for kids to use. But the Etch-A-Sketch hangs on with a surprisingly large audience. There's something about those two here. If you would like to see just how amazing an Etch-A-Sketch can be in the hands of a pro, click

reading...so much fun!

Even with all our television...tivo in case we don't wish to watch commercials or have missed the program....there is nothing better than reading a good book.

If the author can really write...we become part of the plot and join in the family (the characters) in this manuscript.

IN our minds we try (while we're reading--unbeknowest to us--we're imagining what the author had in mind--or we're actually re-writing it in our minds--so anxious to enter into the mindset of this book.

Sometimes I can't bear it to end....simply because I'm not ready to part with it.

Other times I feel an anger toward the author because I feel that he should have gone into a different direction. I guess that why groups have formed bookclubs all over the world....someone to discuss it with.

Once I get settled with a good book, it's like eating potato chips, I simply cannot put it down.

Actually when you go to the library you'll find there are more authors than ever before....such a bouquet of reading before us.

WHICH TO PICK...WHICH TO SELECT. A decision that I'll live with for the next 14 days. If it's extra good, I try to pass it along to a friend, selfishly so that I'll have some to talk to about it.

When I have something worthwhile reading, I feel a sense of elation ...of happiness within me. And I can honestly say that I've never peeked at the back of the book to see how it ends. That would be cheating myself out of a good time.

I hope that everyone has these same good feelings. I also feel that way about music.

I believe that many of us suffer from phobias. Some of mine are dancing with someone with the fear that I may not be able to follow him (or her) women have asked me to dance too.

Another is fear of bugs which is probably very common...and I've always had a fear of roller coasters...and, of course, a fear of the hereafter, which none of us know about so we try to live a good life here.

Anyway I came across this article and I thought it very worthy so I included it my blog. How far we've come with technology.

Unbelievable....yet here's another area!

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How Virtual Medicine Works
Millions of people suffer from phobias that limit their activities and negatively impacting their lives. Many seek psychological treatment in order to manage or conquer their fears. For years, a popular form of treatment was exposure therapy, in which a therapist would expose a patient to stimuli related to his fear in a controlled environment. In many cases, patients would learn to manage their anxiety through repeated exposure coupled with encouragement from a therapist.
Exposure therapy is time consuming. Often it's also expensive and inconvenient, and it can compromise patient confidentiality. For example, treating a patient with aerophobia, or the fear of flying, usually involves a trip to the airport. It might take several visits for a therapist and patient to make their way through security to a gate. Eventually both have to get on a plane and fly to a destination. Now that you have to be a ticketed passenger to pass through security at airports, it can be prohibitively expensive to treat a patient with exposure therapy. Because patients and therapists travel together, the patient's confidentiality is compromised because the public has the opportunity to see the therapy in action.
Virtual Reality Image Gallery
Photo courtesy of Virtually Better, Inc.Virtually Better, Inc. uses virtual therapy to treat a patient's fear of flying.One alternative to traditional exposure therapy is virtual reality exposure therapy. This kind of therapy uses a virtual reality unit to simulate situations that cause anxiety in phobia patients. It has several advantages over traditional therapy. Doctors don't have to leave their offices. Scheduling treatment is easier. It's less expensive in the long run. And patients are often more willing to participate in a program they know will allow them to deal with their fears in a nonphysical setting. Since patients can undergo therapy inside the doctor's office, confidentiality isn't an issue.
Dr. Larry Hodges, a virtual reality computer scientist at the University of North Carolina -- Chapel Hill, became interested in a possible therapeutic application of VR technology in the early 1990s. He approached Dr. Barbara Rothbaum, a professor of Psychiatry at Emory University, and together they collaborated on a project that would test VR technology's efficacy in recreating patients' fears. They decided to design a simulation for patients suffering from acrophobia, or a fear of heights. Dr. Hodges felt that it would be relatively easy to create a program giving the illusion of height compared to other, more complex fears.
Thank YouThanks to Dr. Larry Hodges of the University of North Carolina -- Chapel Hill for his help with this article.
Dr. Hodges and his team worked with Dr. Rothbaum and volunteer patients to determine what stimuli were particularly powerful. Volunteers would wear a head-mounted display (HMD) that would create the illusion that they were on a tall ledge. Going into the project, Hodges and Rothbaum weren't certain that they would get the same reactions from volunteers in a virtual environment as they would a real one, nor were they sure that by treating someone using virtual environments that progress would translate into the real world.
Video Gallery: Using Virtual Reality
Virtual Reality is not only used to help people get over their phobias or play games in a more realistic setting. Check out these videos on HowStuffWorks to see some other uses of virtual reality.
UC Davis has built a virtual reality cave; researchers don't have to look at flat, 2-D maps anymore. Using a radar scanning technique called Lidar, geologists can better measure earthquakes at a distance. See how virtual reality and earthquakes work in this video from UC Davis' NewsWatch.
The Chaim Sheba Rehabilitation Hospital, near Tel Aviv, Israel, has developed a virtual reality system to aid in the physical rehabilitation of its patients. Using a life-sized video game, patients are forced to use atrophied muscles to heal injuries or disorders. See how virtual reality reahbilitation works in this video from Reuters.

Doggy days

Jeff and Donna, my grown up kids came to visit me the July 4th week....and I was excited about their visit.

I wanted so much for them to have a wonderful time because this was their vacation..

They told me in advance not to make any plans because all they wanted to do was relax.

Jeff was content to stretch out on his large excercise mat and do his stretching excercises for his back.

Donna was thrilled to be writing programs for my computer to make my life easier .

But I didn't believe them and I went overboard. Sometimes these things backfire.

So...I learned now that I am not in control of anyone's life. They take care of each other and have a good marriage and are very happy.

Which, of course, makes me happy too.

I won't worry again.

Their agenda this week is to adopt a puppy and they're both very anxious about this.

Our dogs always bolted out the front door...barked and aggravated the neighbors...and was a thief and took Jeff's socks....

They claim that they are going to train their own dog...and he will never put them to shame.

We shall see what we shall see! Good luck.

Jeff and Donna

My grownup children came to visit me over the July 4th week. I anticipated this visit with excited feelings...but I knew that this was their vacation and I wanted it to be so special.



They told me countless times that I don't have to knock myself out...all they want to do is visit me and help me with the computer that they bought me.



I have a tendency to go to extremes...and I try too hard...and sometimes it backfires and you feel that maybe that's not what they really wanted.



Next time I will just listen. Jeff is satisfied to roll out his exercise mat and do a lot of stretching exercises. It makes his back feel better.



Donna who was just recovering from a heart procedure was still healing from being zapped in her heart.



For some reason in this life I have always felt that I had to take control.



And now...after all these many years of my life, I realize that Jeff and Donna will take care of each other and I don't have to worry any more.



It's out of my hands....so I should just relax and be content that they're so much in love with each other and make each other happy..



So...now that the vacation is over, and my house feels empty but with very pleasant memories, I am fulfilled also.



I guess all we want in our lives is for our kids to be happy...because when they're happy...then I am too.



They are moving on.....their next adventure in life is to get a good dog that bonds with them and that they can train.....they're really looking forward to this. We always had a dog...but untrained. If the screen door opened..the dog would bolt. He also b



rked a lot and annoyed neighbors...and he was a thief...he stole Jeff's socks.



Well, Jeff and Donna claim that their dog will be trained by them and he won't have any bad manners.



We shall see what we shall see. Good luck, trainers!