Sunday morning

[This post has been written in bits and pieces. It's now going on 9am Monday morning. I'm going to leave it pretty much as I initially began it, but I'll be doing little headlines for you. There'll be a Wendy update down towards the bottom and perhaps another little blurb or two, but it's gotten quite long already. I might just decide to do the Wendy one and leave it at that.]

Sunday morning ... Well, there's not much going on, but I thought I'd share with you what little there is.


[I wrote the above over four hours ago. Actually, there's a whole lot more going on now but I'm not sure whatall exactly I'd like to share with you at this point in time. To say that I'm 'ticked' would be accurate. To say more than that? Well, let's see how I feel as I continue to vent.]


Examiner and bridge ... I'm pretty sure I told all of you that I was accepted as an "Examiner" - actually, as a Houston Duplicate Bridge Examiner - within the past month. I published three articles early, but then danged near did myself in (physically) with my 'there and back in one fell swoop' trip to New Orleans almost three weeks ago. I published my 4th and 5th articles with the Examiner yesterday, one of which began what will be a multi-part series on defense.

I don't know how many of you out there who read my blog are bridge players. If you are not, you will not have the vaguest idea what I'm talking about when I say 'defense'. And even if you are bridge players, you might not have the slightest bit of interest in defense unless you are a duplicate bridge player - and then you still might not have the slightest bit of interest. Tsk, tsk, and shame on you, is all that I can (publishably) say.

It's my #1 interest in bridge and so there you have it. Theoretically, half of the hands you are dealt belong to your side (for declaring purposes) and the other half belong to the other side. Why not give it your best shot at defense if that's your only choice?


Scanner problems ... ANYhoo, while trying to find a good pic that I could use for these articles in the Examiner on defense, I remembered an original cartoon-type drawing that one of my Columbus, Ohio bridge friends created for me many years ago when I lived there. It shows a pipe-smoking frog wearing Texas (or maybe granny-type laceup) boots. Well, I don't smoke a pipe (altho I do smoke!) and have never worn boots of the sort shown in his drawing, but I LOVE the cartoon!

The next thing I did, of course, was try and scan it. There's a big yellow vertical line that appears. The same thing now, as well, on the Mother's Day card that I scanned for you just a few days ago. (It wasn't there when I first scanned it, but it is now!)


[A couple of hours later. Actually, that yellow vertical line was there on the scanned copy of the Mother's Day card, but we just didn't notice it -- and of course, it's there on my post as well, but nobody seemed to notice it. Certainly I didn't notice, my daughter didn't notice ... did you??]


Anyway, to make a long story (hopefully) just a little bit shorter, my son-in-law within the past few minutes exited the house going back out to Katy with my scanner and the original cartoon-like drawing in hand. Not a cable problem. Not a connection problem. Not a color problem. Not a black and white problem.

So what's the problem? Boy oh boy, if I knew the answer to that question I'd be the first to tell you! More later on this, of course. Meanwhile, I'm back to being on 'no scanner' status.


AC ... [It's now Monday morning. What happened to the rest of Sunday? Well, what happened was that I played bridge again. Didn't win this time, but had a lot of fun as usual ... that is, until the AC somehow got cranked way up going into the last round - we were playing six-board rounds - and I couldn't wait to get out of there! I hadn't brought a sweater or jacket with me. I'll have to remember to do so next time, won't I? That's a continuing problem in Houston during the warm months. It's hot and humid outside and you're sweating like a you-know-what. Then you go inside and freeze half to death. The next day you're sick, and people wonder why. Well, I don't feel sick today. Don't feel like I'm coming down with something, either, which is a good thing. However, I'll be paying attention all day long and will guzzle down bunches of orange juice and napping as I feel is warranted.]


Questions in Katy ... Scanner - supposedly - is fixed. My daughter took it apart and cleaned the inside mirrors. Wish that c/would have been done here, but c'est la vie, right? Just as soon as I hit the "Publish Post" button for this entry, I'll be headed out to Katy to pick up the scanner and go over some questions I have for my daughter to try and answer about Examiner submissions. Their criteria and the procedures that must be used to submit articles are much different from these kinds of posts. I'm having trouble getting used to them. In fact, it's a real pain in the neck sometimes. I keep accidentally erasing my entries. Examiner has one-hour phone seminars (conference-call-type dealiebops) that they hold several times each week. Think I've got one scheduled on my calendar for Wednesday.

I might even try to publish my next article while I'm out there. It's all ready to go. The Word text is all set to be copied and inserted and my cartoon frog looks great. (They scanned it using my now-cleaned-up-and-ready-to-go scanner.) The only problem I might run into is my daughter's little dinky keyboard. I've got one of these big old keyboards that sits on top of my computer and I love it! It's not that my fingers are actually 'fat', but it sure seems like it when I try and use her keyboard. I had a terrible time in September when I tried to do posts from out there after Ike ... don't remember if I told you about any of those problems.

Installing scanner ... I'll be doing the re-installing of the scanner myself. Can't you just see it all now? Wires wires everywhere and not a plug-in to be found! (Or, if there is a plug-in to be found, I'll make a wrong attachment and fry everything. Ye Gods!) Good luck to all that, right?

Wendy ... She posted a really long piece on the 24th talking about their last attempt to reach the summit. It gives a lot more of the background about that last day - which was, for them, the 18th. The final straw was her increasing inability to move her arms and legs as quickly as they should in order to cross the Khumbu Ice Falls successfully and safely. She felt that she was putting the other members of her party in danger (and, of course, she was!). It's a good post. Upbeat, for the most part, but realistic. Follow the link if you'd like to read more of the details.

Cartoon for examiner "defense series" ... Thought I'd close this by showing you the cartoon I'll be using for this series of articles on defense in the Examiner ... ...


Isn't it just wonderful? Love the glasses!