The cactus (or is it cacti?) that I planted 3 months ago need some help. I was assured by Betty that I couldn’t kill them. Just plant them in sand, and they’ll love it. Well, neither of us anticipated the wet summer here in Texas. Most of that nice sand washed away leaving these interesting little monuments......



So, tomorrow, I will go down to the sand/dirt pile and get more. Plus some little rocks and pebbles. I’m thinking that the rocks and pebbles will help keep the soil where it belongs. Who knows, maybe they’ll survive!!

Ya’ll take care,
Suzanne

Yesterday, the rain woke me up. The sound echoed down from my metal roof. Torrents falling and then a respite and then more torrents. I stepped outside onto my porch and saw the waters flowing down my street toward the lake. The lake is 80 yards away. At the beginning of the summer, it was 100 yards away.

It finally stopped around noon’ish. Five and a half inches had fallen. Wow!

I went for a quick ride in the golf cart and then saw this neat fungus/mushroom? It had sprung up from all the moisture. Today, when I went by, it had opened up. Of course, I didn’t have my camera with me for that. Here’s the picture from yesterday….and my neighbor’s rain gauge reading 1.5 inches (he had emptied it at 4 inches).



And, while I was stopped, I heard a large tree limb crashing to the ground out in the woods. The thud it made when it reached the ground was pretty good. I think there’s a really good reason why rotten tree limbs are called widow-makers!

I finished my project with Access! It took me about a week, but I now have a form that is easy to understand and reports that make sense. And, I have deleted (scary word, I know) forms and reports that were cluttering up the place! Plus, I have addressed all those nasty little questions like……if the report is titled “Members Who Are Mailed Bulletin”, why is there one member with no address? So, I am a happy camper!

Yesterday, I learned how to put a “plug” on the end of a cable TV coax. The good news was that the wall did have coax coming to it…..the bad news was that the coax was sitting there with an ugly chopped-off end.

But surely, it couldn’t be too hard to put a “plug” on it!

So, I hopped in the car and went to Radio Shack. I walked in and explained my problem and showed the man some of the coax. (See, I remembered that handyman lesson……always bring what you’re fixing or a picture of what you’re fixing to the store.) He immediately picked up the three things that I needed and demonstrated how to use them.

So back I go. I put the plug on, but is it safe to attach a brand new TV? How do I know for sure that the TV won’t be blown apart? We really think that it’s OK, but still……! So, Dad and I decide to borrow a small, inexpensive TV from a neighbor. We figured that if we blew his TV, we could replace it and actually end up making the neighbor really happy. So, we send Mom next door to the neighbor.

The next thing we know, Mom and neighbor Joe are walking in. And guess what? Joe’s line-of-work is installing coax cable for televisions!!!!!!

He checks the work, gives his OK, we plug in the coax, and we have television!

What a great day. And that is how Dad gave Mom a television for their anniversary!

Ya’ll take care,
Suzanne

Aren't the anniversary flowers pretty?

Fred and his brother-in-law have been fishing all week, and they finally had enough fish to eat the whole park. So, that’s what we had this evening…..a Fish Fry! Here’s a picture of the fish getting fried….don’t know if it was crappie or catfish, but it sure was good.



Everyone either walks over or rides over in their golf carts. Here’s a picture of some of the golf carts with our traditional party birds. Aren’t they fun?



We all had a good feast and a good gathering. The weather almost rained, but it held off. Then we all slowly drifted away for a quiet evening on the lake.

And that was our fish fry. I’m still working on Access and determined to conquer it. So, I’d better start doing it!

Ya’ll take care,
Suzanne

I have decided to face Access and defeat it. Or, at least, tame it enough so I can get in and out without having my shoulders completely tense up.

Access is a “wonderful” program for entering and manipulating data. It is so great that I have purchased the Access 97 Bible to help me. This book has 1026 pages, and that does not include the appendixes.

I have been reluctantly using Access for about ten years. But I am now determined to slooooooowly go through my ham radio data and correct and delete all reports and tables and forms that aren’t the way they should be. I’m tired of seeing my database called WINTER TOTAL MEMBERSHIP when it should simply be called MEMBERSHIP.

So I changed the name. This caused all 23 reports to become unusable. They are unusable now because they can’t find WINTER TOTAL MEMBERSHIP. Somehow, the writers of Access didn’t include that line of code that takes care of simple things like name changes!

But I’m slogging through and making progress.

Enough of that, though! I am back on the lake and enjoying it. The water is pretty high in the lake, and the fishing is good. The mornings are perfect for walking around, but don’t try it in the afternoons! Right now, my main activities (other than Access) are washing clothes, visiting with everyone, and mowing grass.

That’s about it now. I’m back to Access now and working on those reports!

Take care,
Suzanne