*blend

Blending technology with everyday living. Integrating technology in a useful, intelligent way by learning to use it, and not letting it use you.

• Twitter Weekly - 2009-06-21 http://ff.im/4eWLk #

Powered by Twitter Tools.

• Twitter Weekly - 2009-06-13 http://ff.im/3XhsJ #
• Golf ball hail storm in west Texas. Oh joy. http://ff.im/3YVNZ #
• I uploaded a YouTube video — hail storm 20090614 9pm http://bit.ly/K8m1I #
• hail storm 20090614 9pm http://ff.im/3ZcZi #
• 100_7453.MOV [pic] http://ff.im/3ZDtT #
• 2nd day in a row… Insurance company is going to love us. [pic] http://ff.im/415cC #
• Today I will be making my first trip to Corp office. 2 years and haven’t been. Looking forward to it. re: http://ff.im/42j4H #
• Getting funny looks at the Hilton. Maybe jeans, combat boots and a blouse that doesn’t completely hide my tattoes… http://ff.im/442MV #
• Often a company will block social networking, streaming, IM, and download sites not so much for the time wasted… re: http://ff.im/3I9PV #

Powered by Twitter Tools.

• Twitter Weekly - 2009-06-06 http://ff.im/3G6Y7 #
• Tarantula Wasp hanging out in the front yard. Cool but creepy http://ff.im/3GWy7 #
• Found in back yard: one turtle. With “speed” written in pink nail polish on shell. [pic] http://ff.im/3HJt5 #
• Broke my home network last night while trying to make it “better”. Doh http://ff.im/3UR5m #
• Oh yes, @dmullens (hangs head in shame). To think they pay me to know these things makes it oh so much more humiliating :) in reply to dmullens #
• Quick! Stock up on toilet paper and energy drinks! :) “Beware the coming Twitpocalypse”… http://ff.im/3VOep #
• i cant be the only person who HATES being barefooted… shoes, socks, sandals, something, but not bare. ugh. http://ff.im/3VWMJ #
• Free matching set of window adornments. Will ship overnight anywhere in the world. [pic] http://ff.im/3W6FB #
• i will also hand deliver them within 5 miles… and i know where you live…. re: http://ff.im/3W6FB #
• How could our media have screwed up so badly regarding the Iran election? Embarrassing. #

Powered by Twitter Tools.

• Twitter Weekly - 2009-05-30 http://ff.im/3qhJ4 #
• Watching my daughter work on her laptop. Is a proud day for me. (even tho she’s the one that broke it in the… [pic] http://ff.im/3r01T #
• She has laptop completely apart and is staring at system board. “now what?” [pic] http://ff.im/3r0Mp #
• kid rebuilt her laptop. still won’t boot. she calls it waste of time, i call it entertainment. i should have taken… http://ff.im/3rar2 #
• I prefer ff for the commenting. Can have, and follow, more in depth conversations than on twitter. re: http://ff.im/3r9cD #
• @paddysplace I’m afraid I have to agree. That’s just wrong.., LOL #
• I agree with mrsth. The vendors will kill you, and try to sell you more than you originally went to them to get…. re: http://ff.im/3rPpg #
• Overslept. It’s 5:15 am and I’m barely getting my first cup of coffee. Going to throw off my whole day http://ff.im/3xbTH #
• Sure, rub in the fact that you have made it to the second cup. :) re: http://ff.im/3xdK5 #
• Too cool. As a mom who knows, most if us get the biggest kick from our kids who get nervous when we’re on the… re: http://ff.im/3ycOr #
• It should, I wonder if I could find a venture capitalist to back THAT business plan! ;) re: http://ff.im/3xdK5 #
• If we all act like it’s Friday then maybe it will feel like Friday re: http://ff.im/3zF9m #
• New Rancid album - I am very happy now. If i could get to a concert all would be perfect. http://ff.im/3B373 #
• Rancid hands down. Wishing I could, nearest is 500 miles away though. re: http://ff.im/3B3le #
• If you get the answer to this please let me know! Been dealing with the same and it sucks re: http://ff.im/3CEC6 #
• Beautiful Saturday morning. Even if it started out earlier than I planned with work. http://ff.im/3EGPA #
• Took kids to lake. Got thrown in. Realized I don’t take nearly enough down-time. Glad they waited til I put work… http://ff.im/3FQBA #
• I’ve had a subscription for years. One disk never arrived. One cracked in half. One wouldn’t play. Not a bad… re: http://ff.im/3FTyl #

Powered by Twitter Tools.

• Twitter Weekly - 2009-05-23 http://ff.im/3c99o #
• Somewhere out in far west Texas off interstate 10. [pic] http://ff.im/3cHil #
• At Insights Science Museum, El Paso, TX [pic] http://ff.im/3d1yO #
• @evernote sure would love one of those @EyeFiCard goodies you are giving away. Thanks for a great app and service! #evernote_eyefi #
• @neilhimself audie doodie! congrats :) in reply to neilhimself #
• Trimmed all the shrubs, pulled weeds, and scrubbed porch. Just in time to enjoy the rain storm http://ff.im/3pGra #

Powered by Twitter Tools.

• @jodybooks just had court this year. Next year is going to be a nightmare! in reply to jodybooks #
• Has been a horrible time these past 2 weeks. But today is beautiful, hope it gets better for us all #
• Woohoo! Cloud cover! Itching to fire up the bike…. #
• Pretty hard to clean the bike without any cleaning supplies. Go figure. #
• Just took @toolyman’s chopper out for a spin. Oh yeah. I can get used to this baby! #
• At the shining star MC rally. #
• Pondering why doing nothing, ie sitting on the porch drinking coffee, begins a time warp whereby 2 hours of my weekend instantly vanish #
• wow, didn’t realize it had been that long — I joined twitter 877 days ago - http://whendidyoujointwitter.com ? #
• Happy Monday. Happy it’s darn near over at least. #
• @techsyslonghorn I don’t procrastinate. I perendinate. . . in reply to techsyslonghorn #
• Glad to see Monday #2 of the week grind to a slow screeching agonizing halt. Die already, I say, DIE #
• I wonder if having an iPhone app for FriendFeed will make it more useful to me. I really dislike logging in to a web… http://ff.im/2TMYN #
• Making a mess of my ff stream with dupes from twitter and facebook. Must look into why… http://ff.im/2VJrR #
• Too many movies queued up on the hard drive and no time to catch up. Maybe I’ll just go watch star trek instead. http://ff.im/2Xa8H #
• Reminded @by jodybooks how very much I miss my years as public library director. The paycheck was crap but the purpose was worth it #
• I believe it has been a sufficient # of weeks since my last alcoholic beverage. Cork screw , pls… http://ff.im/2XBi5 #
• Love how even as teens the kids eyes light up when they hear the ice cream truck down the street http://ff.im/2XIwV #
• By no means am I photographer but enjoying getting pics of birds at the feeder http://ff.im/2YE96 #
• Sunday Morning - Birds at Feeder -1 http://ff.im/2YU9P #
• Morning - Birds at Feeder -5 http://ff.im/2YU9L #
• Morning - Birds at Feeder -2 http://ff.im/2YU9O #
• Morning - Birds at Feeder -3 http://ff.im/2YU9M #
• Morning - Birds at Feeder -4 http://ff.im/2YU9N #
• Manimal Crackers…. re: http://ff.im/39B3X #
• Teenagers are God’s way of getting back at us for the whole Garden of Eden fiasco. http://ff.im/3baG3 #
• 30 minutes into a 4 hour drive with 3 12 year olds in the backseat. Yay http://ff.im/3bNpB #

Powered by Twitter Tools.

• @neatcompany RT Neat is giving away 10 NeatDesks http://bit.ly/4CW53 I love my little Neat scanner on Mac, makes finance time a breeze! #
• @paddysplace drinking is bad for you. I bet you read THAT. Hehehe in reply to paddysplace #

Powered by Twitter Tools.

Yesterday I had planned to do nothing. As usual, it had been a long stressful week at work, and as usual my focus was on trying to relax and not work, while counting down the hours before I had to go back to the office. For at least the past 8 months, that is how life has been. And time has just gone by, with nothing really to show for it except a paycheck every two weeks and a breath of relief when the next wave of layoffs hadn’t hit our department yet.

But something else was planned for me, for us. Our friend Charlie came by looking for a motorcycle chain, but Brian didn’t think he had one. I thought that was that, but then Charlie came back by with a stranger, a long haired man with the biggest smile I had seen in a long while and an accent you don’t hear in rural west Texas. An Englishman! At least I thought so, asking us to determine the origin of an European accent is as likely to be right as asking a Yankee to determine if what they are hearing is an East Texas twang or a West Texas drawl, or maybe was a North Texas chop.  Anyway, we soon learned that his name was Simon, and his wife, Lisa, was about 20 miles outside of town at the rest area with a broken chain on her BMW. Rural Texas hospitality was engaged: phone calls to everyone in a 20 mile radius were made, all in search of an appropriate chain, with the nearest bike shop over 100 miles away, and the nearest BMW dealer over 400, in the wrong direction from where they were heading. While waiting for the posse to return with (hopefully) the needed part, the trailer was cleared off and hooked up, on it’s way out to pick up the stranded Lisa. All afternoon was spent helping out Simon and Lisa, and culminated with one spare link that could repair her current chain, and a whole new chain, delivered by a a Sheriff’s deputy, complete in hat and gun (which tickled Lisa so much she had her picture taken with him). We celebrated with pizza, pool, and plenty of alcohol at a local bar. And more laughs and smiles than could be counted. With both bikes parked safely in Charlie and Carol’s barn and Simon and Lisa checked into a local motel, we went home and for the first time a long time I went to sleep without worrying about tomorrow or Monday or even one thought about the fragile state of our local economy and the security of my career.

This morning, an emergency at work required me onsite for about 3 hours, but I didn’t mind it, we did what we had to do, and I think I may have been smiling, even on Easter Sunday with a callout that started at 5:45 am. We went to see how the repair went for Simon and Lisa, and got there just in time to catch them packing up the last of their stuiff on the bike and going to breakfast at the truckstop. Where the 6 of us laughed and joked, and I was reminded why I wasn’t worried last night, and why I felt so good at work this morning. It was something Simon was telling Brian: our lives are not the sum of our possessions or accomplishments, but instead are the sum of our experiences.

I haven’t been experiencing - I have been existing. Day to day, working to keep the bills paid, the kids fed, and seldomly taking the time to experience my own life. When Simon and Lisa left they so graciously thanked us for all we had done for them, but I thanked them, and meant it sincerely, because their prescence and predicament took my mind off the “stuff” of life and put it on the people in my life: Brian and his huge giving heart; Charlie and Carol and the value of good, true friends; all the good people in our town who work together to help a total stranger. And on the importance of keeping your heart and mind open to the unexpected, and to welcome those moments, so you have experiences on which to to build a life.

And I also need to be thankful for one more thing - having been motivated to write again after so many many months of no creative ideas or drive. I am going t try to hang onto this good feeling, and hope that I can help make the lives of those around more of an experience instead of an existence.

Simon and Lisa’s web page: 2ridetheworld.com  Riding across the world on their BMW bikes

*renee
Sent from my iPhone

Posted via email from Renee’s posterous

Testing posting from Posterous to blog….

renee

Posted via email from Renee’s posterous