Where Did They Go?

How did it just happen overnight?  There one day, gone the next?  What did Google do?

Since I first started this blog, I have had a list of blogs that I follow on my home page.  Each morning I check to see the new posts.  I do not subscribe to emails from everyone, and some blogs do not even show that option.  So, imagine my surprise this morning when I went to read the new posts and my blog list had disappeared from the page.

Then when I checked my layout, the gadget was also missing.  I know I did not delete it.  I sent an email to the Google team, but as of now, I have received no response (they are probably reacting to The Donald's latest accusations).

So, I checked the blog list on my profile and stated adding back some of the blogs.  I think I will try to still keep it down to the bloggers who post regularly.  Unfortunately, some of them do not show up in my list and now I will have to wait for emails, since there is no way I can remember everyone.

Ugh!  Is it just me, or has someone else had this same issue?

Am I Seeing Things?

I have mono-vision.   Mono-vision means that you are near-sighted in one eye and far-sighted in the other. When I was 10, I started wearing glasses and I wore them until my 30's.

Then I started wearing contacts.  One day I was sitting at my desk at the old Town Hall where I worked and I thought I had my lenses in the wrong eyes.  Everything was blurry.  I switched the lenses but that only made it worse.

A trip to the eye Doctor was in order.  He told me that I needed to start wearing bifocals.  He said it was 'cause I was over 40.  Such bedside manner!  So, I went back to wearing glasses.  Or bifocals.

Then one day about ten years ago, I suddenly could not focus on my computer screen at work.  I had no mid-range vision.  Everything two to three feet away was a blur.  Now I had trifocals.

But I never wore my glasses at home.  I would come in and take them off.  There was no reason to use them in the house.  And when I retired from working, I left my glasses in the car and only wore them when driving or shopping (holding items to your nose to read labels is embarrassing).

And, since I had passed my eyesight test for my driver's license without my glasses, I didn't always wear them when driving.

Then last fall I went grocery shopping and somehow, when I arrived home, I couldn't find my glasses.  I had them on in the store and have no idea how they magically disappeared.  I waited a few weeks thinking that they may turn up.  They didn't.  Nor had they been turned into the lost and found at the store I had shopped at.

So, a new exam and glasses were in order.  The Doctor said that my vision had pretty much stayed the same and to wear the glasses when I felt I needed them.  Basically, for shopping.  I have been very careful to keep them in the case, in my purse, and not carelessly set them down.

I have my computer set up here at my desk so that I do not need my glasses.  But this morning, I could not focus on the letters.  Everything looked like it was written in shadowbox type.

Since the cable has been down completely three times in the last two weeks, I thought it was a reception problem.  I shut the machine down.

A little while ago I came in to check email.  At first the picture was fine, and then the shadowbox returned.  I checked the appearance and picture resolution settings, but couldn't find anything that would cause, or correct, the problem.  Was I suddenly having a new issue with my eyesight?

So, I decided to Google 'computer monitor has shadow on images'.  After a few hits that read like a lot of gobble-de-gook, I found someone who said to check the plug into the monitor from the computer.  Voila!  Problem solved.  What I don't understand is how it came loose in the first place.  Nothing was moved.  Do plugs just loosen up?  It is about as strange as having a computer problem that is solved by unplugging the cord from the back of the tower and plugging it in again.

And it makes me wonder again how I ever got along without 'Google'.  Or without a computer.  Of course, the problems with technology would not exist, but without all the online resources to answer our questions, we would have to actually 'pay' someone to help us.  And now I am sure that some bureaucrat someplace is thinking that we need to find a way to tax people who find answers online.

Well, at least I am not going blind.  Thanks to all the wonderful folks who post answers online.  You saved the day.

The Aftermath

I've conquered the jet lag.  Good thing, since in two weeks we have to move our clocks back and I'll be dealing with similar issues again.

I've downloaded my photos.  More than 1,000.  Thank goodness I was deleting photos as I went along on my trip or I would be cataloguing 2,000+.

I have all the photos in separate folders, by city, and in chronological order.  Now I need to label all of them.  That will be the BIG challenge.  Can I remember what everything is?  If not, I will resort to Google.

Speaking of Google, I searched for all those 'self-important' folks on my trip.  Imagine not being able to find even one of them in a search.  Wait, I did find one, an attorney in Australia.  But the others?  Nothing.  Google my name and you will get lots of hits and find out some stuff about me that is not even correct, such as that I was the treasurer of West Bloomfield High School and a trustee there.  Proves that you can't believe everything you read on the Internet.

I managed to keep up with my regular schedule this week.  I even enjoyed a relaxing massage after one of my yoga classes. 

The only post I made while I was gone was after my drive through northern Italy into southern Switzerland.  Here is a photo of Lake Maggiore (I think).  Those are the Italian Alps in the background.

And this shot is somewhere between Como, Italy and Lugano, Switzerland (I'm thinking GPS on my camera might be a good idea):

Truth be told, I would happily throw some clothes in a bag and take off again.  Even with the jet lag and obnoxious travelers.

Where did they Go?

Followers in Google-world, where did you go? 

Has anyone else noticed that their followers in Blogger have disappeared?  I've checked some of the Google blogs that I follow and they have no followers either.

The widget is there, but then nothing shows up on the screen.  I tried emptying the cache, but that accomplished nothing.

Anyone one know the solution?  (I am thinking government conspiracy.  HAH!)

Catching up with the News

This morning my local newspaper printed the wrong puzzle grid for the New York Times crossword puzzle.  I put in the first across answer (well, one that fit), but then realized that there were way too many spaces for the down responses.  I thought it might be some kind of rebus. Moving to the next across clue I saw that the numbers of the entire puzzle did not match the numbers of the clues.  Ugh.  Email sent to paper.

So now I have an extra five or so minutes and thought I would sit here and catch up on the news.

First up:  Detroit.  I must say I was really surprised that the jury in the Kilpatrick trial came back with guilty verdicts.  After the mistrial earlier of Bobby Ferguson, I was sure they would be dead-locked again despite the piles of evidence.  But oh ye of little faith, this jury got it right.

Unfortunately, the City is so far down I am not sure how it can rise from the ashes.  And I doubt that the appointment of a 'dictator' is going to make much of a difference.

Speaking of which:  What a slap in the face to every finance person in the entire state that the Governor found it necessary to go Maryland to find an emergency manager to run the City.  Why did Michigan State University waste everyone's time and money training people in the duties of an EM, even if it was under the old public act?

And to compound this folly, the Detroit News discovers that this 'financial genius' who was appointed has tax liens on his home in Maryland for unpaid taxes that he claims he knew nothing about.  The Governor's office says they vetted the candidate and did not discover this.  As I recall they also said they vetted their appointee to the Detroit Financial Advisory Panel who just happened to have ties to the Kilpatrick Civic Fund, which was cited during the Kilpatrick trial as a sort of slush fund for the former Mayor.  You call that vetting?

My suggestion to the Governor's office:  GOOGLE.

In other news, today is the first day of Spring.  It is 21 degrees outside.  Some guy on the radio says this is due to global warming.  I thought that meant it would be warmer?

And closer to home a 75-year old grandmother was found guilty of murdering her 17-year old grandson.  She shot him six times, in self-defense, even while he was on the phone with 911 bleeding and asking for help.  All the excuses aside, including the drug use of the grandson, and blame being placed on the parents who were in Arizona caring for a daughter with cancer, murder is still Murder.  There doesn't seem to be any 'good' excuse for it.  Another jury seems to get it.

Now, I will get my act together and go off to yoga class.  Yesterday my instructor had me demonstrate Warrior III, telling my fellow students that I go to classes four times a week and it takes lots of practice to do it correctly.  I was so pleased with myself that I was doing it in my kitchen last night while waiting for my coffee to brew.

Hope you have a serene and peaceful first day of Spring.