Deja Vu All Over Again

O! NO! It's Deja Vu All Over Again...

Last Fall was just a comedy of errors when it came to the cars. 

We started with a lightning bolt, went on to electrical issues, check engine lights, dead batteries, and low tires.

The beginning of the car fun...

I drove a rental for more weeks last Fall than I drove the cars that we own.

So of course, I was feeling really positive about this Fall and then Bunny had her altercation with the neighbor which left the baby Hummer in the shop for two weeks.

Possibly this car is jinxed.

But the Hummer is fixed and I was really hoping that would be IT.

A week after getting the Hummer back, the low air pressure light came on. It came and went and finally I took it to the wonderful Chaffee Tire Company and they added air and said "keep an eye on it." I think we both  figured it was just not filled correctly when it was replaced during the repairs. 

Then Bunny calls me on a Friday night on her way to work saying her low air pressure light is on in her car.   She dashes off to Chaffee Tire where they manage to diagnose a nail, repair the tire and have her ready to go in less than 30 minutes. That would be 30 minutes before their closing. Wow. 

Next week, the low air light is back on in the Hummer. Really? So last Friday I take the Hummer back to Chaffee Tire, my new best friends. They pop the tire off and discover the valve stem was installed poorly when the tire was replaced from the accident. Fixed for free and on my way. 

Except Bunny's car needs tires. We knew that was coming. Since the snow and ice are also coming, we figured we better get those tires sooner rather than later. 

So we scheduled a trip to the Springs to get new tires on Friday.  (Friday seems to be the magical day for tires!)

Because that was going to be a four hour round trip drive, I called the Colorado Springs Discount Tire store to make sure they actually had the tires and I could get them installed. I very clearly explained to the salesman that I was making a long drive, I could not get there early because I wanted the sun to dry up the snow and ice and there was a tiny possibility I wouldn't make it at all if the roads were bad- but I would call if that was the case. 

I was really clear about the fact that this was a long trip just to get tires and that I had limited time. 

Please. Just four of these and I'll be on my way.

Imagine my surprise when I got to the tire store and the line to check in was OUT THE DOOR. When I got to the counter, I was cheerily told that yes, indeed, my tires were in stock and they could get to them in about SIX hours. So my car would be ready about 9:00pm, maybe 9:30pm.  And then all I would have to do is drive an icy mountain road home in the dark. 

O wait? That doesn't work for you? Just come back tomorrow and we'll get you an appointment.

Well, why the Hell didn't someone suggest an appointment in the first place??

Long story long, I complained, wrote an email and got a nice phone call.  Tires will be replaced on Wednesday. Yes, I still have to make the 4 hour round trip but they are compensating me for gas. And I have been assured that they will have me "in and out" in no time. 

And let's cross our fingers this is IT. 

No more car problems.

No more tire problems. 

How about just no more problems, period?

Now there's something I could be thankful for.

In the meantime, I've been working on No. 24, Organize all those Photos.  Not very successfully. 

It's tedious. Two years of pics down, only 8 more to go.  And that's just the digital stuff.  On the bright side, the colder and snowier the weather gets, the more likely I will actually finish this project.

I was hoping I would have it done by Thanksgiving.   Now I'm feeling more realistic.  Let's shoot for Valentine's Day, shall we? 

Tuesday

TUESDAY (How's that for a title?!)


Organizing the photos for No. 24 is underway.

No thanks to anyone. 

I downloaded Picasa and then discovered it had imported EVERY image ever downloaded onto my computer. So, in addition to all of my photos, I have all the images for every CD ever purchased. Also images for computer games and a gazillion other things that I don't need or want. And Picasa does not support moving or deleting folders en masse.

So.....don't think Picasa will be the answer for organizing since it will take forever to get rid of the stuff I don't want. 

For now I am making folders. Going through iPhoto and making one folder for 2009, 2010,2011, etc. It's going to take until Thanksgiving...maybe longer. 

Then I am breaking it down by month in sub folders. When I have all the years done-they will go under one main PHOTOS folder. This is how I used to have it on my PC and it was easy.  Maybe I'll use Picasa for editing. Or not. 

No. 24 will get done.

The Twin Sisters at night. 

There will definitely be a Twin Sisters folder. 

Also, I am approaching the end of my second year of Project 60x60.
In just -gag- 13 more months I will actually turn 60 years old. So far I have completed 43 of my challenges. One more year to work on everything else. Wonder if I can really do this? 

For November I will be running repeats of the most popular posts on Thursdays. This will not necessarily include the posts made extremely popular by the Recreational Casting and Bracing Group. 

And then after I turn 60. What next? 90x90? Think how easy that would be. The first 30 challenges would be

1. Turn 61

2. Turn 62

3. Turn 63

And so on and so on until I hit 90. Thirty years of just birthdays. 

Challenges could range from #62: Get out of bed every day for a month

To

#71: Recall the names of the children and their birthdays. Bonus points for doing it after turning 85. 

To

#90: Don't die.

Might be easier than 60x60.

No. 24: Organize all those Photos

No. 24: Organize all those Photos.

Ok.
I have tried to start on this before.

I blog on my MAC which comes loaded with iPhoto and while I'm sure it is a lovely program, I hate it.
Every other thing about every other Apple product I find incredibly intuitive.
iPhoto is just confusing.

So I want to find a program to download my photos.

Any suggestions?

Once downloaded I'm going to folders.

Maybe this is a step back.  I used to use folders on my PC.

But guess what? They worked.

So, starting Monday I am dedicating a minimum of 30 minutes a day to organizing those photos.
I'm hoping to be done by Thanksgiving.

If anyone has any suggestions, please share.

I can make one whole folder with just pics of the Twin Sisters!

These three pics were taken within a 24 hour period!

No. 24 :Organize all those old photos

No. 24:Organize all those old photos  
a.k.a. Mission Impossible


Ugh.
I am the Queen of Procrastination some times.

(I always knew I would be Queen.)

Thousands of photos and they all need organizing. Sorting. 

From 1985 to 2001 all of my photos are in albums, labeled and organized.

There's an entire cabinet of these in Texas.

For the last 13 years, once we went digital, not so much.

I KNOW  I have lost photos when computers have died, programs have changed, and cameras have been replaced. One Christmas season is lost. Windows 7 wouldn't accept my new Nikon camera for a while. Photos were sorted at Kodak Gallery. Then KodakGallery became Shutterfly. They still have my photos but I don't like the website. A switch from Windows to a Mac presented other challenges.  Photos are backed up places but ...but....I need to know where to look to find them. 

AND, all those photo albums take up space. And with three kids, how do you divide up the albums down the road? Also, paper photos have a tendency to fade and deteriorate. 

So.
What to do? 

The majority of the digital photos are at least dated.
And in albums:

Screenshot of my computer.

There is a little organization there, but not a lot.
I am not in love with iPhoto but haven't figured out an alternative.

I do find that between my iPad, iPhone and Mac, there are photos that are on one that aren't on another. There's the Cloud, but apparently the photos don't launch themselves into the air. 

The ability to share photos digitally is just magical. But that means years of pics aren't available. Like everything before the year 2000. 

A few years ago I attended a digital camera workshop that lasted all day. I was hoping it would teach me how to use all the features on my fantastic Nikon DSLR camera. 

Nope. 

The only thing I took away from that class was how to easily transfer paper photos to digital. 

Previously I had taken photos out of the album, scanned them, replaced them back where they belonged in the album, and on and on.   It took forever and I quickly lost interest.

The workshop taught me to use my great camera, open up the album, take a pic and voilà! Digital pics. 

It's important to put the album near a window with good natural, albeit indirect, light. Peel back the plastic film covering the page.  Snap, snap, snap. 

Obviously you lose a tiny bit of clarity with each copy. Many of the older photos are not that high quality to start out with. 

Here is the difference between a scan and a photo.

This lovely photo was taken in 1997.

Here is the scanned  version.
(Love my Prince Valiant hair do and oversize glasses…and my brother Steve.
Also, please marvel at the fact that I look 12 not 41.)

And this is the digital photo of the original.

I took it with my iPad since my good camera is in Texas, ailing. 
Comparable if not indiscernible from the scanned version 
and I'm sure a 35mm photo would be better...

But the joy of digital is that you can adjust color and clarity. So those fuzzy faded high school pics are 

brought back to life. Or at least stalled in their aging process.

A quick pic taken from a  high school album in 

Texas while we were home for Bunny's birthday.

This is prom night 1974, me in my prom dress with a 

plaster cast from my thigh to my toes.

(Click here to see Belle in her prom dress.

Times and prom dresses have changed.)

The same photo, cropped and color boosted.

Not perfect but an improvement. 

So it's a start. Slowly converting the paper to digital. And dating them as I go. 

I still haven't figured out the perfect folder system. But I am hoping as I get more into this process, it will  come to me. 

Or maybe someone has a suggestion.
                                                                      ……..


Serendipity: the occurrence and development of events by chance in a happy or beneficial way.

Last night the internet was slow to nonexistent and I finally gave up on a timely Thursday posting.  
This morning in my inbox Hollywood Housewife had a wonderful post on organizing and backing up your  photos. Link to it here for inspiration/a kick in the pants.  
Sometimes the universe is trying to tell us stuff and we just have to slow down and listen.