Much to my Chagrin

With the heat comes aggravation and boy, is it hot here!

1. One of my greatest pet peeves is blogs with so many ads that you cannot get a good view of the content---especially the ones that pop up over the top. I stopped following several of those today because I couldn't take it anymore. You click on the little "x" to get rid of the ad and then up pops questions---nor does it completely go away. I "get" that many people have their blogs monetized, but here's one reader that doesn't have time for the distraction.

2. After living here for 21 years, someone has decided to build a house right behind us. I'm a little concerned that our tiny patch of woods---maybe 50 yards by 25 yards---is going to be taken out. If not, it looks like the back of their house is going to be right on top of the woods. The house will front on a pretty busy road, so I understand why they would want to put the house on the back of the lot. Actually, I don't know why anyone would want to build a house on that road at all. If the woods go away, not only will the house be on top of us, but we'll lose our wildlife---deer, turkey, groundhogs, and many other species that may not live there, but take refuge when passing through.

Not a great photo because I took it from the sunroom. If we'd known the lot was for sale, we would have bought it just to keep someone from building on it. Butch says if the woods go, we're moving. Good bye big house (which we really don't need), good bye pool (which we are still enjoying despite the huge maintenance bills), good bye whopping utility bills (which we won't miss).

3. Politics. Period. Enough said.

4. After about 10 years with annoying tables at bridge, they finally bought new ones. They are tiny!

Whoever ordered them certainly is not a bridge player, nor did they consult with bridge players. There is a lot of stuff that goes on the table. This is the view from my "south" position. As it is, I have my cup of water on the floor. The "boards" (they hold the bridge hands) aren't on the table yet either. Actually, I've never seen card tables this small. They are only 30" wide. I didn't even know you could get them this small.

5. Alas, after 7 years, my trusty Mac desktop is just about obsolete.

I do not plan to replace it as I use my laptop for just about everything. I only use the desktop for bill paying, scanning and printing photos and scrapbook journaling. It also stores ALL of my photos and about 25,000 songs. When I say it's obsolete, I mean it's really outdated now. It still works just fine, but I can no longer access my bank for bill pay as the operating system is too old. I can still download and print photos, but I cannot scan them. The scanner software is unable to download to this outdated technology.

As for word processing programs, I have Pages, Word and this old, old original AppleWorks application. I had this on all of my previous Macs and loved it. Very easy to use. When I got this computer 7 years ago, that program was obsolete. My computer guru told me I needed to just get used to Word. At first, I couldn't believe how complicated it was compared to AppleWorks. Still, he copied the AppleWorks program from the old computer and put it on the new one. I have adapted to Pages and Word now, so I rarely use AppleWorks anymore, but I do still have documents created with it. So sad to me. My computers are family---like people's pets---this is my pet. If dogs are 7 years for every 1 real year, then computers must be 10 years for every 1 real year. Yep that's about right. My "baby" is 70!

6. This annoyance is not really mine, but on behalf of my sister, Jeanne. When I was staying with her last week and admiring her gardens, I noticed this. It sort of freaked me out at first. They were everywhere! I've read about Japanese beetles, but had never seen any in person.

They are a very serious problem. For a second, I was feeling like "I hope I don't somehow carry these home with me!" They eat everything is sight.

And now I can see how they reproduce so rapidly! But I have to admit, they are beautiful bugs---if there is such a thing. Yeah, I can say that because they aren't in MY garden!

7. We've been warned about the airport traffic and long lines. When Chrissy dropped me off last week for my return flight to Nashville, I started to panic. I have never worried because I have the TSA Pre-check for the next 4.5 years. This scared me. They are selling too many pre-checks.

 Turns out, it still moved faster than this:

Plus I like that I don't have to take my shoes off and walk on foreign carpet and then put my shoes back on.

So there you have it. The things that are aggravating me lately. Still, I think to myself---these are small annoyances. I am truly grateful for all of the blessings in my life. Now, did that counter-act my negativity?
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