Pardon my brainbunnies!

By Alex Carrier

I am particularly annoyed with the term user friendly. I am a user and I am feeling decidedly unfriendly at this moment.

Endless hours, countless calories and a plethora of patience have been applied to making changes in our web magazines. Trying to make it better has taken a turn into the nasty neighborhood of just plain trying to make it work.

Would seem a simple enough process (since I am using some of that “user friendly” software) but I am beginning to feel as if I were dealing with the most alien, obdurate, peevish, moody, obnoxious system in the universe. This is based on the perfectly reasonable fact that the problem could not possibly be me.

In the process, I have moved items, tripped over things, sorted thru countless information and come up with an immense herd of brainbunnies.

Not dustbunnies with their composition somewhere between long gone ancestors come to visit and bug debris (let’s not go there).

Brainbunnies are those ethereal, invisible, completely obvious bits of pieces of stuff that come out of your brain when you are doing synaptic reorganization in an attempt to find a particular piece of information that might help you in your current endeavor.

I found Cobol, Pascal, Fortran, discrete mathematics, and other remnants of my higher education. Not getting any help there.

Therefore, I will continue cursing, begging, screaming and praying for assistance in getting all my changes to work correctly.

In the meantime, please pardon the brainbunnies. My husband is building them a hutch. He wants a preparedness plan in case the situation gets dire and the desperate brainbunnies start morphing into wild hares.

If you like this blog read our web magazines Virginia Greene http://www.vgreene.com/ and Greene Lite www.vgreene.com/greenelite.
© 2006 Virginia Greene

Pollution problems

By Alex Carrier

Finally, the root of my problems. To be precise, the flower of my problems.

Nowhere in the travel/real estate brochures is there any caution provided to the unwary or unworldly visitor/soon-to-be-resident that the fresh air of the country has embedded in it a particularly heinous form of pollution – pollen pollution.

Not that I would move back to the city but a word of warning would have been greatly appreciated.

All my sniffling, sneezing, coughing, etc. is not just a mere virus, a dastardly germ but, in fact, a multitude of allergies. Back to the doctor for even more pharmaceuticals, potions, sprays, and suggestions.

No, I will not give up trees, shrubs or flowering bushes but I will not be rolling in the grass any time soon either. Or hanging my sheets outside to dry in sun-warmed, pollen-encrusted splendor. (No one ever explained what created that spring-fresh scent on line-dried linens.)

Luckily, modern medicine has made co-existing with pollen possible. With a bit of air conditioning, closed windows and some finely timed sprayed and ingested chemicals, getting my writing accomplished is much easier except for the inevitable drowsiness and difficulty seeing through the sneeze-guard in front of my monitor.

Fresh air, country quiet, meadows of wildflowers, rolling green fields and serene forested mountains have their own air quality dangers. Who knew?!

If you like this blog, read more by these authors at http://www.vgreene.com/ and www.vgreene.com/greenelite for Virginia Greene and Greene Lite on-line magaziens. Where you will find information on all authors and more content. © 2006 Virginia Greene

Feels like dead person walking

By Alex Carrier

Nothing like a circling vulture to make you feel really sick. And, I had just gotten to that point of certainty where I knew I would have to get better to die.

All friends and family were unanimous in their diagnosis of flu but since the official season ended 2 weeks before I got sick, the nurse informed me I had – a virus.

Weeks of pharmaceuticals and cartons of juice and tissues later, I was well enough to feel only vaguely ill. And then –

A trip down the driveway to our mailbox was shadowed by a vulture. Make that vultures. A flock of 20-30 buzzards slowly flying overhead in ever tightening circles.

Perhaps I wasn’t much better after all. But, not to worry. The buzzards were not harbingers of my imminent demise…obviously. Just more local characters.

Seems that Capistrano has its returning swallows and Greene County has its returning buzzards. I don’t know when they left or where they went but they are back now.

The turkey vultures have returned to their warm weather haunts which just happens to be near my home. Wonderful.

While I am not completely thrilled to have such dubious neighbors, there is some solace in knowing they are not here specifically for me…yet.

If you like this blog, read more by these authors at http://www.vgreene.com/ and www.vgreene.com/greenelite for Virginia Greene and Greene Lite on-line magaziens. Where you will find information on all authors and more content. © 2006 Virginia Greene