Commands

Call me a little slow at learning this, but I was elated when I learned that shift + tab is the opposite of hitting tab on a computer.  Control F also had me elated for awhile, especially when I'm editing 250 page manuscripts and want to change the name of a character, town, company etc. after I've written a rough draft.  

I'm easily amused it seems :)

Farming

In speaking with my brother-in-law who now lives in Idaho but who is originally from New York and has also lived in Wisconsin, we were talking about farming in Idaho.  He was telling me that when there is water to be had in this part of the country from the mountain snow melting, that the farmers here prefer that it not rain much between April and the end of harvest. 

I was stunned at this, because being from Iowa, rain is such a blessing.  He said that the farmers in Idaho would rather control the water that they receive for the crops through irrigation whereas rain is unpredictable and complicates their attempts to water the crops correctly.  What he told me makes a lot of sense, but I never would have guessed it.  Unfortunately, there are years in which the farmers don't have the water to be able to control.  I wouldn't like that much either.  

Deer and Elk

Whenever I had heard someone in Iowa talk about hunting deer or going out west to hunt elk, I have always heard people refer to how many points the animal had.  Hearing someone say that s/he shot a ten point or twelve point buck was familiar to me.

While in Idaho, I learned that in the west they are also referred to another way.  If the elk had 12 points but there were 6 on each side it can be called a six by six.  If it had 13 points with 6 on one side and 7 on the other, it can also be referred to as a six by seven elk/deer.

I thought that was really neat.  I might find a reason to put it into a story sometime.

Migration of Birds

Yesterday, while I was driving from Iowa to Tennessee, I saw the most amazing thing. In the sky were thousands of birds migrating. They looked almost like locusts in a swarm. The specks moved and turned in unison this way and that. As soon as one giant cloud of black passed, another one would, then another, then another. For miles I saw nothing in the sky but birds. They were too far away for me to tell what kind of birds they were, but I had never seen anything like it.

On an intellectual level I knew that birds flew south for the winter, but other than Canada Geese, I had never seen birds migrate like that. The whole thing made me wonder how they all communicate with one another to know how to fly in such giant formations. Unlike the V I'm accustomed to seeing, they were in a huge cloud shape.

Try, even if you don't think it will work

I am in Iowa this week, staying with my parents who don't have Internet access. Yesterday, I went to Panera, just to get the WiFi. My intuition had been telling me during the entire 10 hour drive north that I would go absolutely crazy without Internet access all week, especially if a snow storm were to hit and I wouldn't be able to hunt down a signal in a public place like Panera or Starbucks.

I've tried hunting for a signal at my parents' house before, with no luck.

Today, however, the Internet stars have lined up because I have a magical signal. I have no clue if it will continue, but I'm grateful for it. My lesson today is that even if I'm certain that I'll face obstacles, I'm going to face them anyway and just try to do my best. The outcome might be better than what I anticipated!

Ten Things That Make Me Smile

• Sourdough
• Visiting family
• Homemade Chili
• Chicken and wild rice soup
• Home grown herbs
• Ranch dressing
• Audio books
• Cheap gasoline
• Peanut butter cookies with chocolate kisses on top
• Free refills
• Chatting with my aunts
  

Jitters

I just realized how much coffee it takes to make me jittery. It's somewhere between nine and ten cups of coffee. I kept drinking it at work today because I was cold. My hands kept shaking and I kept wondering why. Then it dawned on me. Not the most brilliant of insights for the day, but one nonetheless. What am I doing now? Drinking decaf. I'm no longer jittery, but I'm sure I should start cutting back for when I don't have free coffee at my disposal all day. Yesterday I was having withdrawal headaches.

Birthdays

I went to Red Robin restaurant today for my birthday because a coworker told me they give out free sundaes on one's birthday and I was dying for a hamburger. The manager not only gave me a free sundae, but also gave me a free burger! Their birthday club does free burgers. Even though I wasn't a member of their birthday club, she put it on the house anyway as long as I filled out the little card today.

The whole meal was yummy!

Ice Cream and Thanksgiving

I received a coupon yesterday for some free ice cream from Cold Stone Creamery. I hadn't been to one since I left Iowa. I now know that there is one in Franlin, TN and one in Brentwood, TN.

I also went to Cracker Barrel yesterday for Thanksgiving. I was surprised that they even included the price of a Coke in with the meal as well as the pie. Overall, the meal was very good. We ended up taking about half of it home.

Tires

My husband and I just got our front tires replace on both of our vehicles. I'm hopefully going to be driving back to Iowa in a few weeks to visit with family and friends. I didn't want to change hitting a snow storm with bad tires!

The man at the tire store showed me how to tell when my tires need to be replaced. There is a raised notch inside the inside of the main tread of the tire. When the space between top of the notch and the edge of the tire is a around 4 mm it is getting close to need replacing.

I don't drive a Subaru, but the tire guy said that in all wheel drive Subarus if a person replaces two of the tires and doesn't get the same tread design on the front and back tires that it will void the warranty because the all wheel drive in a Subaru is sensitive enough to be thrown all out of whack by the lack of consistency in all four tires.

Interview

I recently had a face to face job interview in which I was asked one question before I was told that I wasn't qualified and the interview was over. The whole thing lasted less than three minutes. Before the interview I had gone back and forth with this company in 6 emails to discuss the time of the interview and location. The interviewer could have put the particular job requirement in the email or in the job description that he was looking for but did not do so.

With the economy being what it is, I assumed that companies are being picky. I wasn't sure they would be quite that picky, however.

The moral of the story: I'm not taking much for granted these days.