Life Through My Eyes: 04/01/2009

I Love Your Blog Award

I just found out that I won the I Love You Blog Award from Kanmuri, who has a great blog called Turning Iwatean You should go check out her interesting blog about Japan and the Japanese culture. Thank you so much Kanmuri for presenting this award to me. It is greatly appreciated. Rick

Using My Photographs

I have had several people ask me if they could use my photographs for their own use. Thank you for asking before using them. Yes you can....feel free to use them BUT please give credit where credit is due. If you go back to the very beginning of my blog, you will find many beautiful photos of flowers from last year. Thanks again and enjoy using them. Rick

Why Does Verizon Allow This To Happen

As some of you might or might not know, about 3 weeks to a month ago, Verizon decided to shut down my internet account and I went without internet access for several days. As a result of their error, I ended up with 3 free months of internet access and a $100 pre-paid credit card...all of which I did receive. Today I received email notification that my most recent Verizon statement was available for my online viewing. I decided to take a gander of this statement. First thing i noticed was that it was more expensive than it should be, especially since I have 3 months of free internet access and I have only used up 1 of those months so far. Upon further review, I noticed something called "Enhanced Services". Under this category there was this written....
Date Apr 06
Description
RESDNT1EMAIL MO FEE
The charge for this "service" is/was $14.95 PLUS I got taxed on that amount which is an additional $ .75 bringing the total for this "service" to $15.70. I have no idea who would have attached this charge to my account. Neither Veronica nor I gave anyone permission to do this. Verizon acted like they had no idea what 3rd party company had done this but made it sound like it happens quite frequently. Verizon was more than willing to help me out with this issue. The Verizon customer service personnel removed the charged for this unwanted 3rd party service that I never requested and on top of that, this Verizon customer service personnel was going to send a letter to this unknown company stating that I did not want this service...did you catch the problem with this last sentence compared to who Verizon did not state was the 3rd party was. And for the icing on this Verizon cake...this Verizon customer service personnel told me that she would put a "block" on my account so that no other 3rd party business can charge me for services that I did not request. So the lesson to be learned from this event is....don't walk but run to where you pigeon holed your last phone bill and grab that magnifying glass on your way to the kitchen table, so that you can carefully review what extras have been attached to your phone bill without your permission. And one final word....SHAME ON YOU VERIZON!!!!

Friendship Award

I want to thank Dottie for awarding me this Friendship Award. Please feel free to check out Dotties blog I am supposed to deliver this Award to 8 deserving bloggers/friends. I will do that as soon as I get a little time. Been rather busy and hectic here. Thanks again Dottie..I appreciate it greatly. Rick

Getting Closer

Veronica and I are getting closer to our cruise...only 9 days and a wake up before we fly to Seattle and then take the big ship to Alaska. We are both looking forward to going to Alaska but with all of this Swine Flu.....ok I can't call it that because all of the pigs and piglets will get ticked off and really try to do a number on humanity plus by calling it the Swine Flu one of us humans might think that we can get it by chowing down on some nice bar-b-qued ribs. So let's call it what it is....H1N1 Virus. Personally I don't care what those cheeseheads in the think tank want to call it...I call it a concern for us. I am excited about going to Alaska but also rather concerned about being on several airplanes, in several airports and on a rather large vessel with about 3,000 other people that I don't know. Being in that close of proximity to that many people really kind of concerns me. All it takes is one person to sneeze in our general direction in order for us to catch something. Or maybe someone that sneezed into the palm of their hand, blew their nose and then wiped the excess onto the back of their hand. This would be the same person that touches everything in sight and never washes their hands except when some shower water might accidentally stray and hit those 2 paws, on its way down the drain. I guess what I am trying to say is that my health and Veronica's health depends upon all of these other people using common sense and proper hygiene. I know what I am supposed to be doing but do they? I have been around long enough to know that double dipping a nacho into sauce comes right after a good healthy full bore deep throttle nose pick.....like digging for iron ore. I know that I should not make light of this but I am doing it because I might be just a little scared. I just want to go on vacation without having to worry about everyone elses hygiene and habits and how it might effect others. I do know that before boarding the ship, everyone has to fill out a questionnaire about ones current health or any conditions that might need to be brought to light prior to leaving. Now remember that the ones filling out the questionnaire are the same people that spent thousands of dollars for this cruise but neglected to purchase travel insurance. Let's see...diarrea...nope.....aches and pains....nope....cough...nope...fever....nope....trouble breathing...heck No!!!! I think that you catch my drift. And before you ask me that question....yes we did pay extra for travel cancellation insurance. So Saturday morning, 5/9, Veronica and I will visit 3 airports, be on several airplanes and the next day board that crowded ship. And during this whole time, I will put my faith in God, hope and pray that we both get through this vacation Swine Flu free....ooooppppsss.....I mean H1N1 Virus free. I also hope and pray that everyone out there stays safe and healthy.

Flowers Of The Day

With the heat wave that we have been having, all kinds of things are blooming. I have been experimenting with our new camera to see what it can do. I have several of these "test" photos shown down below. I thought that some came out kind of cool looking, so I thought that I would share them with you. One thing that I have forgot to mention, if you see any photo that you would like to use as maybe your desktop background, please feel free to go ahead and use them. If you don't know how to do this, just mouse click on the picture that you want. It will enlarge the photo once you click on it. Then right click and a menu will show up. You can either save it as your desktop background or you can save it to folder for future use. I hope that you enjoy these.

Flowers Of The Day

Another hot one around here. It is still at 90 degrees right now. A cool down is expected on Thursday, so a couple more days of this heat. Usually the heat does not bother me but because it came quickly this year, I did not have time for my body to acclimate to the sudden change. I have been keeping my eyes and ears open about this swine flu that is going around. With our upcoming cruise only 12 days and a wake up away, I have a few concerns that we might catch it before or during our vacation. There are so many locations to come into contact with someone who has it...airports and cruise ships to name a few. All it takes is one person who has it, acting irresponsibly and sneezing or coughing all over the place. Got my fingers crossed and hoping for the best. Here are a few more photographs that I took today:

First off we have the first blooms of our Clematis

Then more Irises

Flowers Of The Day

Today was a scorcher. It got into the low 90s. Currently it is a cool 86 degrees. Haven't seen heat like this since last September. It is really early in the year for this type of heat. Tomorrow it is supposed to be almost 90 and on Tuesday 86 degrees. Then on Wed things will get closer to normal and much more comfortable...temps in the 70s. Veronica left today...flew to Detroit, MI for some training. She will be home really late on Thursday night. At least it will give her a break from my snoring, which has got really bad over the last year. When we get back from our cruise, I will have to go and find out what can be done to silence the foghorn. Below are some newly opened irises. Seems like each day I find something new that has bloomed.

Did Someone Say Deer

Here are a couple of photos that Ken Gauthier sent me. They are some deer that frequent his backyard. Ken told me that these deer have become family pets and that they have become fairly tame to Ken and his family. Thanks for sharing Ken.

Morris And Esther At The Fair

I received the following joke from my friend, Ken Gauthier, up in Ontario Canada. Thanks for sharing Ken and keep'm coming.

Morris and his wife Esther went to the state fair every year,

And every year Morris would say,'Esther, I'd like to ride in that helicopter.' Esther always replied, 'I know Morris, but that helicopter ride is fifty dollars, And fifty dollars is fifty dollars'

One year Esther and Morris went to the fair, and Morris said, 'Esther, I'm 85 years old. If I don't ride that helicopter, I might never get another chance.'

To this, Esther replied, 'Morris that helicopter ride is fifty dollars, and fifty dollars is fifty dollars.'

The pilot overheard the couple and said, 'Folks I'll make you a deal. I'll take the both of you for a ride. If you can stay quiet for the entire ride and don't say a word I won't charge you a penny! But if you say one word it's fifty dollars.' Morris and Esther agreed and up they went.

The pilot did all kinds of fancy maneuvers, but not a word was heard. He did his daredevil tricks over and over again, But still not a word.

When they landed, the pilot turned to Morris and said, 'By golly, I did everything I could to get you to yell out, but you didn't. I'm impressed!'

Morris replied, 'Well, to tell you the truth, I almost said something when Esther fell out....

But you know, fifty dollars is fifty dollars!'

New Flower Photos

With the warm weather upon us, flowers are starting to bloom all over the place. This weekend it is supposed to be around 86 degrees. Time to turn on the air conditioner. I have been practicing with the new camera. Tried some different things today. Click on the photo to get a closeup view. Here are the latest flower photos:

Hives Are Not Just For Bees

About a week ago, my doctor prescribed Amoxicillin to take care of my throat issues. 2 days ago I broke out in hives due to an allergic reaction to the Amoxicillin. The hives are mainly on my neck, back and shoulders. They don't really itch much but they do look kind of nasty on me. Hopefully it won't take much more than a week to get rid of the hives.
I wonder what happened to Springtime. It has been in the 60s to low 70s around here. Flowers are growing ahead of what they normally do. This weekend it is supposed to be in the mid 80s. A little too warm too quick for me. I like a slow gradual increase in the temperature. If it gets too warm in the house, it will be time to turn on the air conditioner. It won't be long until there will be lots of flowers blooming. We have a lot of irises getting ready to bloom. As soon as they do, I will get some photos to share with you.