Dad got his tractor out last Thursday evening and ran the bush hog through all the local gardens – his own, mine, Granny’s, Fred’s, and Jeff’s. Then he plowed mine up. The tractor struggled a bit, but we’ve since concluded that it is because there wasn’t enough fluid added to the tires to put that extra weight on the back on the tractor for extra traction. I wish it hadn’t rained the next day, or we would have been able to run the tiller through it as well so that it would be ready for planting. I’m probably jumping the gun a little bit – with my luck, it will freeze again before Spring/Summer is here to stay. That’s what happened last year, and I had to replant just about everything in the garden.
Becky and I have done yard work over the past couple of weekends. Mowing the yard, cleaning out flower beds and all that fun Spring stuff. It’s been hard work, and I’ve found that I’m not used to it in the least. But it is still satisfying.
I’ve upgraded my website again. WordPress 2.5 was released yesterday (Saturday, March 29, 2008), so me, being the technical geeky guy that I am, had to upgrade. Unfortunately, the K2 theme that we’ve all grown so fond of, isn’t working properly (They say that Release Candidate 5 is working – I’ll have to check that out this week). I’ve had to ditch that for now, and am in search of a new theme. So if any of you know of any awesome WordPress themes out there, let me know and I’ll give it a look! Who knows, if I get enough suggestions, I’ll put out a poll and let everyone vote on which one I should use.
As for the improvements, well, unfortunately you probably won’t really see any resulting from the upgrade itself. Most of the improvements are in the back-end, where I manage everything on the site. But, if you are the geeky type, I won’t leave you totally in the dark. You can get all the latest info on WordPress 2.5 here. Just scroll down to the “WordPress 2.5 Information” area.
Hopefully tomorrow I’ll have a more cool theme installed and running so that you won’t be bored with the default blue theme.
Updated 2008-03-31 – If you didn’t notice already, I got the K2 theme reinstalled. I had to download the latest release candidate (5) and it is working like a charm.
I spent the weekend mowing my own yard and the church yard. I helped Becky clean up some of the flower beds around the house. All in all it was a beautiful Spring weekend. We also had a beautiful, but a bit cooler, Easter Sunday yesterday.
And then I woke up to this:
It’s 29 degrees as I type this at 8:17am on March 24. Come back, Spring!
I’m a firm believer in Creation. It is a mostly faith-based belief. It is the first ’story’ in the Bible, beginning in Genesis chapter 1. It says specifically that God created the Earth (No big-bang – sorry!) and that He created the Sun, Moon and all the billions and trillions of stars. He created all of the animals, ones that live on land, and others that live in water. He created all of the birds. Then He created humans.
I did not evolve from a simple amoeba. A fish did not grow legs and walk out of the water. A frog did not grow wings and begin to fly. A monkey did not come out of the trees and decide to walk upright, put clothes on and develop a complex language.
Wait a second. Monkeys putting clothes on? Ok, I’ll admit that every once in a while, I see something that makes me consider the theory of evolution. You can go to the mall and see it. Becky and I were there last weekend. I saw this group of guys who I suppose thought they were ‘cool’. They had to hold their pants up because they were sagging down to their knees. I guess they never heard of a belt. So they decided it would be an intelligent thing to go out into public and show everyone their superman underwear.
I had the great misfortune of seeing something worse than that today. I was on my way to work this morning, driving next to Jackson Square in Oak Ridge, TN. See, I always like to be aware of my surroundings. You know, in case someone decides to commit suicide by jumping in front of my truck or something. I’d prefer to avoid something like that, so I try to watch my surroundings. The misfortune occurred when I noticed a ‘man’ (I put in quotes because it could have been animal – thus causing me to consider the evolution theory) walking down the side of the road. He had his pants pulled down also – just like those guys in the mall. After I passed, I looked in the mirror and noticed he had a chunk of his pants wadded up in his hand, to keep them from falling all the way down to his ankles and hinder his ability to walk. Same deal, right? Far from it. Where this becomes a truly great misfortune is in the fact that this particular ‘being’ (whatever it was) didn’t have any superman underwear. Nope. I shall forever be scarred.
I saw this just a little bit ago and thought it was funny. But, it takes half the fun out of playing fetch with your dog! I guess it’s the lazy man’s way of playing fetch?
I’ve posted a couple of blog entries about how much I’m ready for Spring. Now that it’s only days away (This Thursday to be exact), signs of its arrival are beginning to appear.
There is so much I want to do once warm weather is here to stay. I’m really looking forward to mowing the yard for the first time. That will actually probably happen tomorrow evening as there are several grassy areas in the yard that are pretty high already. Becky and I are going to spend some time cleaning up around the yard this evening so that I’m not throwing wood chips & bark, and other miscellaneous items all over the yard with the mower.
I’m also really looking forward to getting a garden put out again this year. I didn’t realize how much it actually helped us out to grow our own vegetables through the summer until we started buying them again this winter. Not to mention, working the garden will actually get me out of the house again rather than me sitting around not doing much of anything productive. I’ve done a few things around the inside of the house this winter, but I’d much rather be outside. As long as it’s warm, that is.
Probably the biggest thing I’m looking forward to, though, is all of the birds singing when I wake up each morning. And how the days last so much longer. I can’t wait for the warm evenings when Becky and I can sit out on the deck and watch the sun go down, or go fishing until it gets dark.
I also can’t wait for the days that I am able to get outside and work on getting the deck finished, along with the front porch. That is, as long as we are financially able. I’ve blogged about this before as well, but I’m hoping to be able to start on a barn fairly soon – within the next couple of years anyway. That way we’ll have a place to store lots of stuff that is taking up room inside the house. We’ll be able to have the mower, our garden/outdoor tools and the motorcycle under a roof. We’ll have a dry place to keep firewood stacked. Wow..that will be so nice.
This winter has been fairly mild for the most part. I’ve even been able to ride the motorcycle to work for a lot of the winter. I’m able to ride pretty much any time it is dry and above freezing. I can handle rain, but not a really cold rain. It has to be at least in the 70’s for me to tolerate rain.
Anyway, I’m already digressing from the point of this post. You may be asking yourself, what is that picture?? If you remember, I posted a similar photo a little while back of some seeds sprouting. Here are a few more sprouting. There are actually a lot more than that now, but this is the most recent photo I have with me at the moment.
Although the winter has been mild, I’m ready for warm weather. I’m ready to work outside in a garden. I’m ready to mow the yard. (It actually needs it already in parts of it!) I’m ready to get out in the hot sun and start cutting firewood for next winter. Yes, I am that ready. I’m even ready for those annoying stinging flying bugs. If only it will mean warm weather is here.
There are a few signs that it is getting close, however. We have some daffodils and tulips that are growing. A lot of the daffodils will actually bloom just any time. Also, there are some bradford pear trees near the office building where I work. Those all have tons if tiny little buds on them. Spring is close!
I’m still using WordPress. I’m just using a theme-based enhancement on top of it. I guess it’s sort of a ’shell’ on top of WordPress. It is called "K2". If you keep reading this post, it will get a little geeky. You’ve been warned. K2 adds a few features to the WordPress blogging experience.
AJAX – it allows your browser to talk to my server in a bit of a different way. It allows you to see changes to a web page without having to reload the entire page. If you use Windows Live Hotmail, you’ve seen AJAX in use.
Live commenting – lets you leave a comment without having to reload the page.
Livesearch – allows you to type your search in the box and instantly have the results shown to you.
Rolling Archives – a navigation system designed specifically for K2 which lets you navigate through archives and search results without having to reload the entire page again.
These are probably the features that are most noticeable and beneficial to you, my loyal readers. There are others that work behind the scenes that make it easier for me to, say, add that cool image of the road I live on at the top of my blog.
Dad got his tractor out last Thursday evening and ran the bush hog through all the local gardens – his own, mine, Granny’s, Fred’s, and Jeff’s. Then he plowed mine up. The tractor struggled a bit, but we’ve since concluded that it is because there wasn’t enough fluid added to the tires to put that extra weight on the back on the tractor for extra traction. I wish it hadn’t rained the next day, or we would have been able to run the tiller through it as well so that it would be ready for planting. I’m probably jumping the gun a little bit – with my luck, it will freeze again before Spring/Summer is here to stay. That’s what happened last year, and I had to replant just about everything in the garden.
